Juliet Cook's Blog, page 142

ART MODE VERSUS MODEL MODE

When I get into one of my modes of too much focus on my looks and discomfort with the physical aging process, I should focus more on unique ART being hotter than bodies. Not that body types aren't appealing in their own way, but why should I care about some standard model flow? I should care much more about warped ART flow, like the creations of Louise Bourgeois, whose art based visual creations are oddly powerful in their own unique way - and who was still creating new strong, powerful art when she was in her 80s. Based on that, I'm only halfway there and need to stop focusing on my middle-aged, looks-based bullshit. Instead of wishing I looked younger, I should be wishing I looked weirder, more misshapen, more multicolored, more wired into poetry land and visual ART. Screw the mainstream success sort of model hotness and its semi-clichéd standardized parameters.

New Red, Blue, & Ghostly Myna Birds

"love is a wayward thread - a tethered balloon - blurred with lust - the feather disaster - blinded by primary color - we wait for the blue to begin, for the sky to open up - my ignited bones - your shiny scalpel blade - holes into the velvet - a banner against the cadaverous sky"
Thirteen Myna Birds is newly updated for May! Offering ghostly red frothings of poetry by Alex Stolis, Natalie Fisher, Daniel D. Mutch, Jessica Lindsley, Ivars Balkits, Cheryl A. Townsend and Daniel G. Snethen at http://13myna.blogspot.com/

Painting Collage Art Hybrids

Some recent painting collage art hybrids by me - some of which are still available here - https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress?section_id=12458169

Top to bottom:

moppet hair brassiere

tiny broken rainbow

padded hurl

doll crematorium

drink me love

Your choice of TWO 2013 Blood Pudding Press Poetry Chapbooks

Choose two of the three Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks published this 2013 for a substantially reduced price.

The NEWEST offering as of May 2013 – Sister, Blood and Bone by Paula Cary

And the two contest winning Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks - Renegade//Heart by Lisa M. Cole (January 2013) AND Poking through the Fabric of the Light that Formed Us by Lora Bloom (February 2013).

All of these three poetry chapbooks cost $7.00 individually; with this listing, you will pay $10.00 for TWO of them, saving $4.00

https://www.etsy.com/listing/151139145/set-of-two-your-choice-of-two-2013?

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NEW – Sister, Blood and Bone by Paula Cary

"body silver shimmering"

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RENEGADE//HEART by Lisa M. Cole

“sleep with all the dolls/ /unhook your rotary phone and watch/ /the broken chandelier as it swings like a marionette” 

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Poking through the Fabric of the Light that Formed Us: Songs and Stories to Read in the Mirror by Lora Bloom

“from the towering window, crashing rain sang a fall midnight call, thunder
echoed against the walls of the sky I closed my eyes writhing under cold lens
like a microscope creature death pangs under eye of cold light”

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Find out more about each of these chapbooks by perusing their individual item listings.

They are indeed available separately, but buy two and acquire double the succulent poetry for a special rate.

MUTANT NEURON CODEX SWARM

I'm making a small excited announcement that my collaborative creepy young yumhead poet creature Robert Cole and my collaborative poetry chapbook - MUTANT NEURON CODEX SWARM - was accepted for publication by Hyacinth Girl Press, to be published next year! 

Talk about awesomely exciting poetry news! I sure love Hyacinth Girl Press, which published my Thirteen Designer Vaginas in 2011 - and I sure love the ooozylicious hideous poetry stuff that's been spewing out of Robert and me.

Hyacinth Girl Press will make a more official announcement after they choose all the new chapbooks they're going to publish next - but as of right now, they are still accepting and reading chapbook manuscript submissions, throughout the month of May. 

Sister, Blood and Bone by Paula Cary - NEW from Blood Pudding Press

The NEW Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, Sister, Blood and Bone by Paula Cary is now available –
https://www.etsy.com/listing/150775648/sister-blood-and-bone-by-paula-cary-new?ref=shop_home_active*
Blood Pudding Press is very pleased to announce its third new poetry chapbook of 2013, “Sister, Blood and Bone” by Paula Cary, with cover art created from the doll photo, “Steampunk Dia De Los Muertos Doll 353” by Michael Brown/ UC Studios.
Paula Cary’s ten poems within this swimming diving and skull collecting offering were inspired by her sister Lisa Cary, her muse. The poems offer small bursts of life and death and blood based connections.  Blood and bones collected from under water and saved for memories and keep sake and art sake.

Each chapbook is hand-bound with colorful threads pricked in.  If you would like a specific color cover, feel free to specify when you purchase – either light gray with circles OR medium gray OR variations of tan (or Blood Pudding Press will choose for you and surprise you.)  Also if you would like a certain color of binding thread, feel free to specify that – either soft/light/dark blue water OR multicolored bright blue/green OR multicolored bright RAINBOW flying mermaid legs.
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“You are bloodless whiteFrom the frigid depthsYour lips a literal blueThey match your eyesAnd I think of sugar skullsDressed in colored frosting”
(from Paula Cary’s poem “After the Dive in Troy Springs”)

the chapbook interview: Juliet Cook on the chapbook as ephemera, accolades, and, the flock and fold of popularity

A new poetry reading/writing/chapbook publishing related interview with me, conducted by Laura Madeline Wiseman and published today (May 2):

http://www.lauramadelinewiseman.com/blog/2013/05/02/the-chapbook-interview-juliet-cook-on-the-chapbook-as-ephemera-accolades-and-the-flock-and-fold-of-popularity/

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Also, in case you happen to subscribe to Gently Read Lit, you can read a new review of my latest poetry chapbook, POISONOUS BEAUTYSKULL LOLLIPOP (Grey Book Press, 2013), written by Lisa M. Cole, here:

http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/gently-read-literature-2013-spring-issue/

Poetry Month/New Myna Birds Flock

Poems by AM Ringwalt, Suzanne Savickas, Robert Cole, Ben Rasnic, Rachel Mallino, Hugo Esteban Rodriguez Castañeda, Bonnie MacAllister, and Paul David Adkins are now up and writhing around in the latest Myna Birds flock, in the midst of poetry month! 
toe tips before the floor boards – don’t believe in circles – zigzag from comfort to discomfort – cave in or release - the insects feast – cryptic markings – mascara flakes detach – dead amid the shards – into the scissors holes - a pink house with palm growing
Here is the link - http://13myna.blogspot.com/
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Also my small indie print press, Blood Pudding Press, is offering 25% off everything in the shop for poetry month - so there's one more week to take advantage of that, here - https://www.etsy.com/shop/BloodPuddingPress

Convoluted Streamer

I don't define myself by who I'm with. I define myself through my own personal expression, (especially poetry and other thinking/feeling/creative writing) and my own thoughts and feelings and style.

Although it sometimes bums me out a bit if my thoughts/feelings/style don't seem to appeal to many people, that doesn't mean I'm going to change them.

I have no intention of or desire to act fake or tone the real me down to fit into some main stream.

I'm not sure where MY stream is going though.

In recent years my own thoughts and feeling and REMEMBERING is often a convoluted, mixed up mess.

One of my issues in recent years is I don't seem to know what I WANT so how should I know what best to focus on? Either everything matters too much or nothing matters all that much at all. I'm in between, but I don't know exactly what I'm in between. Maybe nothing.

Maybe I'm just going to be in between my own something/nothing realm for the rest of my life.

I tend to be a pretty productive, focused person - so not knowing what I should focus on/ what I WANT to focus on, who I even ultimately AM or desire to be is...less than stellar.

Even as I'm writing this, I wonder why am I writing this? What's the point? What's the point of anything? Does this even make any sense? What are points and sense? Maybe I should dive into painting a nonsensical pretty mess.

I know I am and want to be truly expressive. So if my expression is sometimes pretty, sometimes ugly, sometimes sexy, sometimes horrific, sometimes a messy fusion mix with discolored grit flung in the midst, then maybe that's my stream.

Condom Dream (should I open the jar and pull some out?)

Me and a woman I went to high school with walked to the door of a store to buy condoms.  Two men were with us too, but they weren’t our significant others or sex partners, just casual male friends standing behind us and despite their presence, we were in charge of our own condom choosing and buying.
The other woman knew what she was doing, had obviously interacted with the costumer service man before and even had a semi-secret code word related to her condom purchase.  As for me, this was my first time buying condoms – and since I wasn’t buying them with a particular partner in mind (because I didn’t have a partner), I had no idea what brand or variety to choose.  I was asked what size I wanted and how should I know?  I was asked if I wanted any special features and I didn’t know that either.
Since I wasn’t buying condoms with a particular cock in mind, I said standard size.  The other woman had spoken softly, and when she told him what she wanted, he was standing right in front of her; but when I was asked what I wanted, he was standing across the room next to the various condom accoutrements and so I had to loudly announce (almost yell) my uncertain answer in front of the whole store.
Then I got brought a huge jar-sized contraption (about triple the size of a mayo jar), with hundreds of condoms inside, all of them unpackaged and tiny. Less than half the size of an un-blown up balloon.  I wasn’t sure if I was handed this large jar with tiny condoms because he thought I wanted to buy the whole jar or if I was supposed to take off the lid and pull out the amount I actually wanted.
The woman next to me knew what she wanted and quickly got what she always got.
The two men behind us just stood there saying nothing and waiting for me to be done.
I’m not an easily embarrassed person; sex talk doesn’t bother me.  But I am a very uncertain person and I felt uncomfortable and slightly embarrassed about myself for not having a helpful partner (or any partner for that matter), not knowing what to do or choose when handed a huge container full of tiny condoms, and feeling like a clueless condom gimp.
A clueless sex, love, relationship gimp.
An odd little dream based on my current uncertainty about all those things.