topics: |  poetry | postmodern | fusion | anthology

"Included with this collection is a free ebook with additional poems not
available in the book and a full-length CD featuring recordings by the
poets"--P. 4 of cover.

Gabrielle Everalle: She is dreaming that her father

she is dreaming that her father
is exposin' himself at her
bedside
she runs away from the father
thru vacant lots
where dead grass grows high
she is searchin' for a
share house
a place of safety
as she runs arabic music
plays
the music is a heartbeat
in a world of fear

my family makes a garden
of dis-ease
daddy does his big daddy voice
he tells me that where
he is the weather is like pradadise
and that where i am the weather
is freezin' 'n stormy
mi only love is the rain

survival digs into me like
a trench of death

Lucy English: The company of poets, p. 120

Stuff the job!
I don't want to be discussing funding proposals
and where to put the coffee machine
I want to be in the company of poets
because poets only work when they want to
and they never work when they're tired,
and they never work when they're hungry.
And they forget to eat when they're working,
They say "pour me a whiskey, I'm depressed!"
They say "pour me a tequila, I'm happy!"
When they run out of paper they write on bus tickets
or on the back of envelopes which you throw away,
and they scream, "How could you! How could you!"
But they always remember it again, and better.

Stuff the shopping!
I don't want to stare at cheap half cucumbers
and twenty three sorts of cheeses.
Darlings your Mummy's gone AWOL,
because she want to be in the company of poets,
because poets dance on their beds when they're happy
and they shout at cats when they're depressed
and they're upset because they want babies
when they haven't got boyfriends.
And they're upset because their girlfriends
are having babies and they don't want them;
And they're upset because they've got babies,
sweet cuddly babies and they want to write about them all the time,
but they know that is boring.
They're upset because they are babies
and who's going to look after them?

So they will turn to the company of poets,
because poets say, at four in the morning, "life's a banana!"
and you know what they mean.
Because poets say, "I had this weird dream I was a cactus!"
and you had it too.

Because poets wear clothes that don't fit them.
Because poets wear shoes that are scuffed down
But they look like a million dollars
and spend $60 on a tee-shirt.  [symbol for "pound"]

Because poets spoil themselves rotten
and they can't sing, but they try to,
And they can't play the guitar but they always do,
and they can't paint but they'll give you their paintings
and they can't cook, but you'd better eat it.
Because poets contradict themselves frequently,
because life, friends, is contradictory
and confusing, don't we know all know it,
and what's love got to do with it, it's just an emotion said the
    joker to the queen,
all along the watch tower, I'm a sex machine, get down and do it, you known,
doing it like a sex machine, baby, yeah, after all, you're my wonderwall,
all, all, when two becomes one, rose thou art sick and the invisible worm that
fliers through the night has found out thy bed of crimson joy and his dark secret
sandwich does thy life destroy.  Where Alph the sacred river ran in caverns
measureless to man down to a sunless seaside holiday,
with the ape man, the walrus, bo go, da go,
helter skelter, bus shelter,
it's a far, far better life I go to than I have ever known,
it's a far, far better poem I have written than any other poet has ever
done.
I shall stay in the company of poets
because poets are never original.
They know everything's been said before
but they're going to say it again
in case you didn't hear it the first time.

Poetry performances CD: Contents

The book comes with a CD of poetry being read out

1  EDWIN TORRES Peesacho (2.02)
2  TUG DUMBLY Ideal Hollywood Career-Path (2.45)  
3  EMILY XYZ Atta Poem (3.13)
4  ULLI K. RYDER The Venus Hottentot (2.32)       
5  GLYN MAXWELL The Stones in Their Array (1.35)
6  MAT FRASER Control Freak (3.07)
7  SANDRA THIBODEUX On the Analyst’s Couch (1.13) [iraq, iran, korea]
8  ROB GEE Viagra (2.15)			
9  BOB HOLMAN She Never Called Me Back (2.05)
10 BILLY COLLINS Love (1.25)
11 HEATHER HERMANT Shoes Were Invented When History ... (2.51)
12 CHARLES BERNSTEIN Johnny Cake Hollow (1.04)
13 RICHARD PEABODY Baby Snot on My Shirt at Fresh Fields (0.21)
14 REGIE CABICO Sitcom For A Ghost Writer (0.31)
15 MICHELE MORGAN Don’t Build Your House on the Beat (4.52)
16 WILLIE PERDOMO Be-Bop (0.25)
17 TODD COLBY Flight (1.11)				
18 COREY FROST Everything I Know About Aphids (2.50)
19 BARBARA DECESARE What are you going to do with your life? (1.34) 
20 TODD SWIFT (SWIFTY LAZARUS) In the Future (1.51)
21 KIM HOUGHTON Century’s End (0.53)
22 ROBIN DAVIDSON Osama bin Laden (2.20)		
23 IRENE SUICO SORIANO MAR (4.10)
24 PETER FINCH Old Elvis Clips (0.51)
25 DWAYNE MORGAN She (1.47)
26 ALICIA SOMETIMES Matt Plays a Girl (2.23)
27 FORTNER ANDERSON Vegas (4.12)
28 GUILLERMO CASTRO A Deli on First Avenue (2.15) 76  
29 DAWNA RAE HICKS Asleep at Your Life (3.04)
30 PATRICK CHAPMAN Skydiving Narcissus (0.49)
31 IAN FERRIER Where is This Place? (5.12)
32 LUCY ENGLISH The Company of Poets (3.11)	
33 RYK MCINTYRE Almost That Fable (1.15)
34 IAN MCBRYDE (THE STILL COMPANY) Crow