Epiphantile

Epiphantile


I. A tribute to e. e. cummings and Nikki Giovanni

outrage is just a stone,
 it does not melt away,
  but it is ground away in the machine,
   and becomes a thousand useless little irritations.

yet  ... o (no),
 u left your ! and made even the most . a ?
and those () dear friend.  They belong to JONES
  softer more uncertain than the [],

buried

and our bodies for what they are worth,
 were never meant to be accounted,
   and when multiplied, squared, or exponentialed,
    these conceits form no transcendentals.

I yes I yes I

II. Reflection and an important allusion if you want to understand this poem.

why do the heathen rage?
it is because I know a boy can fly.
that's why the heathens rage.

C. Gulliver on the shore.

Once he lay asleep,
"Them" up to him softly creep,
Lest he turn and "them" there  bury.
A thousand million eyes are wary,
Of any gesture he should make,
To give portent that he awakes.
And with their little ropes like thread,
Try to fix his arms and legs,
But foolish, nameless, hapless elves,
Their magic works but on themselves,
and When his shoulder starts to rise,
The terror fills their bright wide eyes.

4. I reflect on what I am doing

but why talk so bitterly,
and in couplets give any accidental praise,
to consider their vane thoughts,
in terms like human innocence?
no, they gave up their humanity,
the moment they ate again of the tree,
and no third coming's coming,
to replace the second fall.

All miracles are virtues in an evil age;
and what can be more natural,
then to deny the supernatural,
and see nothing outside the ego cage?

None. The real problem is the answer came before the question

Mirthless laughter heals no wound,
And mockery mocks down friend and foe,
"But this lies all within the will of God,"
Yet, I swear this is not the only language I know.

To see, to hear, to taste, to feel,
We turn towards the cooler air,
Perhaps we shall find him there,
And his shadow passing over, heal.

For to Job was given a riddle, and to Jonah a great sign,
To Elijah a widow and her child, and to Peter two coins.

I myself am rooted down by a thousand cares,
but may heaven forgive my pride,
not, of myself; No, I would not compare,
or dare think myself in that way justified,

The poet is infinitely greater than his poem.
No machine exceeds its inventor,
But there can be no art without an artist,
and praising a creation I praise the creator.

Kick-rear, drank a beer, hoo-la-la country song title number 101

"You are some body, yo just ain't my somebody"

Nikki Giovanni on Current Events

Oh you rotten Musharraf!
You nasty, no good wanna-be white man!
You can blame the brothers
But we know you offed Bhutto
you nasty SNAKE
with your olive-drab army pants

You gonna get it when my bitch-goddess is callin' the shots

My bitch-goddess is gonna tear you up
you rotten Musharraf

Signs of Scientific Armageddon No. Thwee

"The lesson for today is the cause of Earthquakes. Eathquakes, lads and lasses, are caused by the body human and its excrement. So, in a word, let's cut the shit, put a cork in it and wait until our head's explode thus atomizing all the liberal loads of crap forced down our gullets by education liberalis and thus contained there-in; then we save the planet from this scat-induced shattering of Mother Earth and make it free for all the Earth Faeries, and of course for Charles Manson who everyone knows is the nuclear genius behind our Global Village ! Down with Crap. Down with Crap! Brown with Crap! Helter-Skelter 4-evuh!".

Motion to Submit

I hereby make a motion that all Nikki Giovanni poems be submitted to the following "alliance".

TENNESSEE WRITERS ALLIANCE
Literary Awards
Poets Sheryl Hill and Rose Becallo Raney, both of Knoxville, shared the $500 Tennessee Writers Alliance Literary Award, which was given this year for individual poems. Nikki Giovanni was the judge.
The awards are open to all Tennessee writers as well as members of the Tennessee Writers Alliance, a three-year-old nonprofit organization for writers, teachers, and librarians; there is a $20 annual membership fee to join. As of this writing, it has not been determined if the 1995 award will be given for poetry or fiction; further information will be available in February. The deadline is July 15.
Literary Awards, Tennessee Writers Alliance, P.O. Box 120396, Nashville, Tennessee 37212. Amy Lynch, Interim Executive Director. (615) 383-0227.

Nikki Giovanni Control Now!

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST IS LIKELY OFFENSIVE, BUT CERTAINLY NO LESS OFFENSIVE THAN NIKKI GIOVANNI'S USE OF THE VIRGINIA TECH MEMORIAL SERVICE AS A PLATFORM TO PITCH HER TIRED LEFTIST RHETORIC

Almost unnoticed in the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech was the presence of Nikki Giovanni, the decrepit leftist radical poet. She might have remained entirely unnoticed, were it not for two details. First was her reading of a poem at a memorial service for the victims of the tragedy. Her poem was a meandering screed, seeking to lessen the pain of the Hokies by making little jabs at the war in Iraq and US immigration policy.

The second detail was that the mass murderer, Cho Seung-hui, was a student of Giovanni's. In fact, Giovanni praised his poetry, saying "It was not bad poetry. It was intimidating." This, in Giovanni-speak, is high praise indeed.

Before we are subjected to the inevitible infusion of anti-gun mania in the debate surrounding "how could this have been stopped," it is worth looking at some statistics:

Number of Firearms in the US: 235,000,000
Number of Firearm homicides in the US (2004): 10,650.42
Firearm Homicides per Firearm Population: 0.0045%

Number of Nikki Giovanni Students: 100
Number of homicides commited by Nikki Giovanni Students: 32
Homicides per Nikki Giovanni Student Population: 32%

The Number of Nikki Giovanni Students cited above refers to an estimate of her students in one academic year. Since Seung-hui was not a current student of Giovanni's, a more generous estimate would be to allow Mizz Giovanni a total of 100 students per year for her 20 years at Virginia Tech. In such an analysis:

Number of Nikki Giovanni Students: 2000
Number of homicides commited by Nikki Giovanni Students: 32
Homicides per Nikki Giovanni Student Population: 1.6%

Note that this second analysis, while more generous to Mizz Giovanni, does not take into account other homicides by Giovanni students, and thus is a likely underestimate.

The results are clear. Even with the more generous student count afforded to Mizz Giovanni, you are 355 times more likely to be killed by a Giovanni student than you are by a firearm wielded by a non-Giovanni student. It's time to stop the madness and practice Nikki Giovanni control. This would consist of the following measures:

1. Immediate ban on having Nikki Giovanni on any campus, except in the physical control of law enforcement personnel.
2. Registration with a government agency of anyone who expresses interest in Giovanni as a teacher, poet, or activist
3. Background checks must be performed before any sale of a Giovanni product
4. "Giovanni Locks" - devices that can be affixed to Nikki Giovanni to keep her from accidental instruction
5. "Giovanni-free zones", set up in each city, preventing the entry of Nikki Giovanni into public places
6. Limited Capacity Giovanni: Nikki Giovanni would only be allowed to hold five words at a time.
7. Strict Regulation of poetry exhibitions or swap-meets in which Giovanni's works might be traded without being reported
8. Put an immediate stop to Giovanni traffiking on the internet

If the above measures are taken quickly, we can all rest easier.

This Poem Would Make No Sense, Unless You Knew That I Was Nikki Giovanni

If you thought that I was an emaciated, syphalitic preteen Vietnamese prostitute
This poem would make no sense to you.

Or if you thought that I was a balding, polo-shirted white man
You wouldn't get it.

And if you thought I was an obese chain-smoking lesbian ex-nun
You would be closer, but it would pass you by.

But if you thought that I was a shrivelled old black woman with too much money and a pocket-full of hate

Then, honey, you'd be right on.

Another tribute to N. G.

In the spirit of Nikki Giovanni I offer another poem.

Ken Blackwell's Dog

Kenneth Blackwell,
I bet it was your dog,
Your dog you S.O.B,
Your dog who did what dogs do
Right outside my door.

Mark Mallory's dog doesn't do that.
Mark Mallory's dog hugs people.
Mark Mallory's dog walks with people.
Mark Mallory's dog talks to people.

Kenneth Blackwell,
Your dog thinks you're white.
So your dog did what dogs do
Right outside my door.

Until I came home today I didn't know,
I didn't know you lived next door,
I didn't know you had a dog.
Kenneth Blackwell you S.O.B.

A poem to Nikki Giovanni

Inspired by the great poet Nikki Giovanni, I have composed this lyrical ballad

All I know of Global warming is as follows:

If its hot, its because of global warming
If its cold, its because of global warming
If it rains, its because of global warming
If its dry, its because of global warming
Glaciers melt, global warming
Snow, global warming
Hurricane, global warming
Tsunami, global warming
Earthquake, global warming
Housing market crash, global warming

Global warming does not make birds sing, flowers grow, or the water run any faster off a duck's back.
Global warming does not make grapes juicier, or skunks less smelly.
Global warming does not make beer taste better, encourage people to exercise, or lower winter heating bills.

Cause of global warming:
Global warming, Too much carbon Dioxide
Too much carbon dioxide, too many SUVs
Too many SUVs, neocon policies
Neocon policies, Kenneth Blackwell (SOB)
Kenneth Blackwell (SOB), George W. Bush
George W. Bush, Religious Fundamentalists
Religious Fundamentalists, Jesus
Jesus, God

Therefore God caused global warming

--------------------------------------------

This is the second edition of this poem

I am a Leech Field

I am a Leech Field

A poem by Inkki Garibaldi delivered at the opening of the brand new Tater Holler Township Squash and Turnip Monument in front of a crowd of mainly four to five year olds. Inkki was later asked to apologize which she refused to do, saying that her art speaks for itself.

I am a Leech Field

I am a Leech Field
Rising up through me is all sorts of (expletive)
Across my soggy mud
The dogs chase cats and cats chase mice
I am a compost heap where the possums root
And worms and rolly pollys dig out
citizens together in the warm smelly earth
Showing the dry grassy wheat
what it means to be moist
I kept the ground warm through the winter.

I am an old rusty bucket
With holes so big
You can see right through
And tetanus growing on each metal tooth
Rutted turf
Discarded melon rinds
Cinder blocks
And a broken shovel

I am a dead bird
An old baseball
Dog vomit grass
A worm infested tomato

I am a roughly rectangular area of approximately 1/6 of an acre
I am a couple of broken plastic spoons
I am a half-buried tire
Half-filled with water
Birthplace to ten thousand mosquitos
Bringing rhthym to the garden each time it rains

I have watched the birds fly South in the winter
And fly north again in the summer
Crapping all over me both ways.

I am not a son of a (expletive) like the front yard
Mowed and aerated like a (expletive) prissy (expletive)
I will not use the color of my grass to cover the (expletive) underneath
I am not a (expletive) garden whore letting little garden gnomes (expletive) me in the (expletive)

I am a Mulch pile
Mouldering in peace