Ken Cormier is the author of two collections of stories and poems: Balance Act (Insomniac Press) and The Tragedy in My Neighborhood (Dead Academics Press). Ken’s live, multi-media performances have been described as “a William Burroughs exorcism through a Karaoke machine.” He also makes radio fiction and documentary pieces, many of which have aired on public radio affiliates around […]
We stay inside. Inside our everything we talk about memory. We lapse into questions. We look on the bright side. If wisdom comes with age and anthropologists study the way we increase, we must then measure our everything. We stay inside and becoming westerly. We feel there’s no purpose for old people […]
I cleanse my palette, uvula and glottis delightfully refreshed, tongue rippling muscular and wet, segmented. Cornucopia of razor blades, each cactus swallow scream, lip split to chin, secret teeth revealed! I chew my palette, grind it into paste and swish. This drink of deception, this sensory milkshake. At table I spit into […]
‘Did you hear about the woman who was in here earlier saying, “My psychologist was exactly correct when she said, ‘Don’t listen to people who say, “You’ve got to follow these instructions, which say, ‘Always listen when your mother says, “You’ve got that look on your face that means you’re thinking, ‘Why do I have […]
We quiet down to silence. The room quiets, except for a muffled snicker from the back. It’s quiet in here now, deathly quiet in this room. The quietness of the room. Dead quiet. We can’t imagine another room filled with a comparable number of people achieving this level of silence. We try to imagine in […]
for Charles Mingus We’re sitting on buildings Here! We’ve got a big problem Now! Afraid of our nation Oh! But wanting to squeeze it Through! Went on an adventure Then! We found a new leader Who! Became like the others Why! Does that always happen When! We pray to Apollo But! We […]
Poetry doesn’t need you to dress all in black, to shave your head bald, or to polish your boots Poetry doesn’t need you to track all the times you’ve had dinner with Ginsberg or channeled Rimbaud Poetry doesn’t need you to lift it up out of some half-perceived stupor or to rage at […]
Ken Cormier, author of Balance Act, talks about how he became interested in poetry.