Author: Franklyn Monk

Poet. Geek. Science fiction aficionado. General freak. Get social with me: Facebook| Twitter | Other

Twine Tree for my great niece or nephew

I’ve just completed this twine tree for the nursery of my yet to be born great niece or nephew! Love ya, kiddo!

tree made from jute twine
A tree of twine I made for my great niece or nephew’s nursery

It’s taken two weeks of laying down strand after painful strand of twine, and blood, and contemplation. It was exhausting and bloody, but I learned a lot of myself and the creative process. I’m sure the experience be bleeding into my poetry pretty soon.

Speaking of which, I have to go, I have to prepare for a reading tonight. I threw together something new, rewrote something old, and might throw in something else. But I don’t know how long I’ll have the stage for. Makes it difficult to plan. I’m nervous, but I’ll survive.

How to Blend

I make a show
of looking for a stick
and removing the mud from my feet
because that’s what normal people do

and don’t forget to stretch
people do that too
they stretch at the park
and remove mud from their feet

and you have to breathe all the time
that’s what else real human people do is breathe

fuck it I want to die

fuck it I want to die
fuck it I want to die
fuck it I want to die

that’s the loop
there’s no drop
no build up
no climax

fuck it I want to die

it pans wide
and hides in the notch
almost forgotten

fuck it I want to die

until it’s nudged back into the soundscape
by the rumble of a single seater
or the clipped gong of a wind chime

fuck it I want to die

growing and shrinking
under every crunching step
and every screaming bird

behind every shadowy door
is an angry father
with an axe or dagger
waiting to murder you

PZ Meyers on capitalism and religion

The religion of capitalism poisons everything, and when you combine it with the religion of religion, you’ve got a hopeless case.

Rush Holt

I am not saying that scientists are smarter or wiser than other folks. But there are habits of mind: you know, a deep appreciation of evidence; an ability to deal with probability and statistics, to be alert to cognitive biases and tricks that our minds play on ourselves; … a willingness to accept tentative conclusions and accept … the uncertainty of these scientific conclusions — not as reason for inaction, but a way of finding the best path forward …