Juliet Cook's Blog, page 78
July 3, 2018
July 2, 2018
NEW! "Whether the escalator is moving up or down, it can still tear us apart", a new poem by me, inside the HOT MESS issue of Stirring
"One month you Instagram me;
the next month I'm deleted and replaced
with instant coffee.
Maybe we have different taste buds
and different ideas
about amusement park rides.
I used to enjoy the quick release
of a roller coaster plunging down fast
and the escalating screams.
My shut eyes were filled with haunted house
strobe lights of terrified delight.
Now it feels more like a downward spiral
leading closer to death,"
from my poem "Whether the escalator is moving up or down, it can still tear us apart", which appears in the new July HOT MESS issue of Stirring.
read more HERE - https://www.stirringlit.com/new-page-2
A copy of "From One Ruined Human to Another" has found a new home!
Thursday Simpson's copy of my new poetry chapbook "From One Ruined Human to Another"!
Thank you to Thursday Simpson for sharing this photo!
You can acquire your own copy of "From One Ruined Human..." from CWP Collective Press, HERE - https://www.cwpcollectivepress.com/bookstore-1/from-one-ruined-human-to-another
or directly from me, while supplies last...
Thank you to Thursday Simpson for sharing this photo!
You can acquire your own copy of "From One Ruined Human..." from CWP Collective Press, HERE - https://www.cwpcollectivepress.com/bookstore-1/from-one-ruined-human-to-another
or directly from me, while supplies last...
June 30, 2018
NEW! "Flying Knives and Entrails" by Juliet Cook and j/j hastain inside Ghost City!
The July issue of Ghost City has arrived one day early and starts with a poem by j/j hastain & I!
"deceased and then desiccatedand then burnt into flame
or flambé to be eaten at the local high-endrestaurant by everyone all at once."
(from "Flying Knives and Entrails" by Juliet Cook and j/j hastain)read more HERE - https://ghostcitypress.com/july-2018-1/
"deceased and then desiccatedand then burnt into flame
or flambé to be eaten at the local high-endrestaurant by everyone all at once."
(from "Flying Knives and Entrails" by Juliet Cook and j/j hastain)read more HERE - https://ghostcitypress.com/july-2018-1/
June 29, 2018
Cover Artist Craig Firsdon received his copies of "From One Ruined Human to Another"!
Poet and artist Craig Firsdon received the copies I mailed him of my new poetry chapbook, "From One Ruined Human to Another", for which he created the cover art for the outside front cover (shown here; photo taken by Firsdon) and inside front cover.
The chapbook was published this month by Cringe-Worthy Poets Collective and can be acquired here - https://www.cwpcollectivepress.com/bookstore-1/from-one-ruined-human-to-anotherOR directly from me.
Craig Firsdon also created the cover art for the poetry chapbook, "Fuck Cancer Poems" by Michael Grover, which was published by my Blood Pudding Press last year and which can be acquired here - https://www.etsy.com/listing/546767836/new-fuck-cancer-poems-by-michael-grover?ref=shop_home_feat_2
The cover art of "From One Ruined Human to Another"
The cover art of "Fuck Cancer Poems"Furthermore, Craig Firsdon ALSO recently finished creating cover art for another new poetry chapbook of mine, "Another Set of Ripped Out Bloody Pig Tails", forthcoming from The Poet's Haven!If anyone who receives a copy of my new chapbook OR any Blood Pudding Press chapbook feels inclined to take a photo of the chapbook (or of you with the chapbook), please feel free to send the photo to me or post the photo and tag me, because I like those kind of photos.
June 28, 2018
The 26th Annual Poet's House Showcase is starting TODAY
Last month, I sent copies of the four 2017 Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbooks to the 26th Annual Poet's House Showcase, which starts TODAY June 28 and lasts through August 18, 2018!
The following Blood Pudding Press chapbooks will be on display at this special free exhibit featuring new poetry books.
~Cutting Eyes From Ghosts by Ariana D. Den Bleyker- https://www.etsy.com/listing/512469489/new-cutting-eyes-from-ghosts-by-ariana-d?ref=shop_home_active_3
~Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius -https://www.etsy.com/listing/522718674/new-thirsty-bones-by-sarah-lilius-2017?ref=shop_home_active_4
~Fuck Cancer Poems by Michael Grover -https://www.etsy.com/listing/546767836/new-fuck-cancer-poems-by-michael-grover?ref=shop_home_active_2
~Paloma by Jennifer E. Hudgens -https://www.etsy.com/listing/562664430/new-paloma-by-jennifer-e-hudgens?ref=shop_home_active_1
Poet's House Showcase - https://www.poetshouse.org/programs-and-events/ph-showcase
If you live near Poet's House, why not check it out at10 River Terrace, New York, NY 10282
If you don't live near Poet's House, why not acquire one of these chapbooks from the Blood Pudding Press shop (via the links above) and check it out in your own space.
The following Blood Pudding Press chapbooks will be on display at this special free exhibit featuring new poetry books.
~Cutting Eyes From Ghosts by Ariana D. Den Bleyker- https://www.etsy.com/listing/512469489/new-cutting-eyes-from-ghosts-by-ariana-d?ref=shop_home_active_3
~Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius -https://www.etsy.com/listing/522718674/new-thirsty-bones-by-sarah-lilius-2017?ref=shop_home_active_4
~Fuck Cancer Poems by Michael Grover -https://www.etsy.com/listing/546767836/new-fuck-cancer-poems-by-michael-grover?ref=shop_home_active_2
~Paloma by Jennifer E. Hudgens -https://www.etsy.com/listing/562664430/new-paloma-by-jennifer-e-hudgens?ref=shop_home_active_1
Poet's House Showcase - https://www.poetshouse.org/programs-and-events/ph-showcase
If you live near Poet's House, why not check it out at10 River Terrace, New York, NY 10282
If you don't live near Poet's House, why not acquire one of these chapbooks from the Blood Pudding Press shop (via the links above) and check it out in your own space.
June 27, 2018
NEW! Two of my poems in The Octopus Review #5!
The Octopus Review #5 has arrived and I'm delighted to have two poems inside! The issue begins with my little "Pisscake" poem - and then my longer poem, "To Serve and Protect (Out of Order)" appears further down among the different shaped Octopus arms and hearts and other parts.Thank you very much to editor Vin Whitman for placing me inside this Octopus!
***
"Apply some trendy cupcake frosting over my bleeding lips
and spew it out. Batter up,
splatter down, (be)ratesomeone else's cupcake color, size and shape and thenpiss all over another face."
inside my poem "Pisscake"
read more HERE - https://theoctopusdiary.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-octopus-review-5-summer-18.html
***
"Apply some trendy cupcake frosting over my bleeding lips
and spew it out. Batter up,
splatter down, (be)ratesomeone else's cupcake color, size and shape and thenpiss all over another face."
inside my poem "Pisscake"
read more HERE - https://theoctopusdiary.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-octopus-review-5-summer-18.html
bad dream induced by memory issue/doctor appointment stress
I woke from an annoying bad dream, in which I was participating in some sort of poetry reading contest. I was the first participant and went up to the front to read my two poems. The woman who was MC-ing the event was a woman I knew, so she and I talked for a few minutes, then she introduced me to the crowd. Before we'd started talking, the poems I was going to read were bookmarked in a journal, but suddenly the bookmark was gone and I had to start flipping through the book to find my poems.I couldn't find them and the dream consisted of me repeatedly flipping though journal after journal and notebook after notebook, while standing in front of a crowd and looking like an unorganized mess and feeling increasingly embarrassed and confused.I told the woman she could just introduce the next reader, but she said she wanted to keep the reading order the same as it had been listed and so if I couldn't read first, then I couldn't read at all. I couldn't find my own poems, so I couldn't read first, so I couldn't read at all - but it wasn't the not being able to read part that bothered me as much as losing my own poems and having no idea what had happened to them.
***
I know what inspired this dream. In real life, I make tons of lists all the time, largely because of my mental quirks AND my aphasia-induced memory issues. I'm a very organized person or at least I think I am or at least I attempt to keep my brain organized so that I don't go mentally bonkers. But despite all the time and energy I spend organizing things onto lists, I also lose lists a lot, or I have so many lists that I don't know which is which and which is where.I try my best, but I can't do anything fast. The more time limitations I have, the more stressed out I get.I hate doctor appointments (way too many bad experiences) and I have one coming up this Friday. Because of my stressed out brain issues, I purposely set the appointment up months in advance. This is my first appointment with this particular doctor, and they said they would send me the paperwork to fill out in advance. Several months went by and I hadn't gotten the paperwork yet. I thought maybe they planned to send it closer to the time of my actual appointment, but just in case they had forgotten to send it, I called the office again on Friday the 15th of this month. The woman on the phone said the paperwork would be mailed the Monday after that. Well it's ten days later now and I STILL haven't received the damned paperwork and my appointment is this Friday and I'm pissed off and I feel like they just don't care.I hate doctor appointments to begin with, I get extremely overly stressed out about them, and even if I WASN'T stressed out, my brain can't dash off medical paperwork in ten minutes (or 20 minutes or 30 minutes), because I read slow, I think slow, and I have word issues. If I'm writing something like THIS at home, I can take as long as I want and nobody needs to know how slow I am and about my annoying word issues.But if I'm writing something somewhere else, I can't automatically process what I'm reading, I can't automatically understand what they're asking, I can't dash things out fast, I can't remember stuff like the names of my various doctors (and I sure as hell can't spell them), the name/dosage of my pill, the time frames of other health issues, or doctor appointments, etc.. Anything to do with numbers and time is hard for me to remember. The only numbers that come naturally to this brain or my birth date and my age.So what this means is that since the doctor's office didn't bother to send me any advance paperwork, I have to spend a few hours GUESSING what their paperwork will ask me and writing notes to take with me - and hoping I don't forget something important and hoping I don't lose my own notes. The thing is, I'm sure I've written these kinds of notes before, but I don't remember where I put them, even though I probably put them somewhere that I thought was a well organized place to put them. Heck, maybe I even scanned and stored them on my computer, but I don't know, because I CAN'T REMEMBER.I'm stressed out, part of me would rather cancel the appointment then try to handle this stress, and when I get all stressed out and somebody tells me to relax, I feel like punching them.The other issue about being stressed out at a doctor's appointment and having to spend a lot of my time and mental energy transferring paperwork I wrote at home onto paperwork they hand me in the office, shortly before the appointment, is that my brain will get so stress-focused on that stuff, I won't even be able to focus on the details of the actual appointment.
***
I know what inspired this dream. In real life, I make tons of lists all the time, largely because of my mental quirks AND my aphasia-induced memory issues. I'm a very organized person or at least I think I am or at least I attempt to keep my brain organized so that I don't go mentally bonkers. But despite all the time and energy I spend organizing things onto lists, I also lose lists a lot, or I have so many lists that I don't know which is which and which is where.I try my best, but I can't do anything fast. The more time limitations I have, the more stressed out I get.I hate doctor appointments (way too many bad experiences) and I have one coming up this Friday. Because of my stressed out brain issues, I purposely set the appointment up months in advance. This is my first appointment with this particular doctor, and they said they would send me the paperwork to fill out in advance. Several months went by and I hadn't gotten the paperwork yet. I thought maybe they planned to send it closer to the time of my actual appointment, but just in case they had forgotten to send it, I called the office again on Friday the 15th of this month. The woman on the phone said the paperwork would be mailed the Monday after that. Well it's ten days later now and I STILL haven't received the damned paperwork and my appointment is this Friday and I'm pissed off and I feel like they just don't care.I hate doctor appointments to begin with, I get extremely overly stressed out about them, and even if I WASN'T stressed out, my brain can't dash off medical paperwork in ten minutes (or 20 minutes or 30 minutes), because I read slow, I think slow, and I have word issues. If I'm writing something like THIS at home, I can take as long as I want and nobody needs to know how slow I am and about my annoying word issues.But if I'm writing something somewhere else, I can't automatically process what I'm reading, I can't automatically understand what they're asking, I can't dash things out fast, I can't remember stuff like the names of my various doctors (and I sure as hell can't spell them), the name/dosage of my pill, the time frames of other health issues, or doctor appointments, etc.. Anything to do with numbers and time is hard for me to remember. The only numbers that come naturally to this brain or my birth date and my age.So what this means is that since the doctor's office didn't bother to send me any advance paperwork, I have to spend a few hours GUESSING what their paperwork will ask me and writing notes to take with me - and hoping I don't forget something important and hoping I don't lose my own notes. The thing is, I'm sure I've written these kinds of notes before, but I don't remember where I put them, even though I probably put them somewhere that I thought was a well organized place to put them. Heck, maybe I even scanned and stored them on my computer, but I don't know, because I CAN'T REMEMBER.I'm stressed out, part of me would rather cancel the appointment then try to handle this stress, and when I get all stressed out and somebody tells me to relax, I feel like punching them.The other issue about being stressed out at a doctor's appointment and having to spend a lot of my time and mental energy transferring paperwork I wrote at home onto paperwork they hand me in the office, shortly before the appointment, is that my brain will get so stress-focused on that stuff, I won't even be able to focus on the details of the actual appointment.
