Shadows of the Future An Otherstream Anthology Edited and with a Foreword by Marc Vincenz and an Introduction by Bob Grumman Volume I Argotist Ebooks 2 over image by David hirot opyright $ Argotist Ebooks 2013 All rights reserved Argotist Ebooks 3 Publisher’s Note It is important to stress that this anthology is not an attempt at any sort of *canon formation+. It is merely a showcase for poetry that is underrepresented in both mainstream and avant-garde publishing circles. 4 Shadows of the Future 5 F O . E / O . D I 0 1 . O D 2 1 I O 0 m I E 3 A 4 a 0 D Spill the /ine 1he Inspection of the 5 1he Pilot 4ight /ish 4ist I V A 0 A . G 7 E 4 4 E S Vedanta Vergilian And Empty Gods A M I 4 4 E B A O S Spare 1erroir Music Bo8 M I 9 A E 4 B A S I 0 S 3 I A Moon 1he Day Is the 9eart 1he /en .ocks 1he Only 1wo in Monsanto, Portugal J O 9 0 M. B E 0 0 E 1 1 Mu 1e X X X Enter J A 3 E B E . Y reation Myth 4ord of Shelters South of 9ell 4 A 2 . E 0 M A . I E A P E 4 4 O December 0ineteen, 20eleven Star .oute / .ural .oute M A . Y - M A . I A A S O 4 Y Surgical Persuasion Skeletons of arp D A V I D 9 I . O 1 Screaming /all 1orso A 4 E A 1 9 I A D . E 9 M E . 1he Queen’s .eich Stevedore’s 3not J A 3 F O 4 E Y 1ristesse Awritten Bointly with lara 9suC 0oir 5elimDs 1ribute to James Joyce Darkling 0ow the Day GoesE 6 V E . 0 O 0 F . A 5 E . Approaching Darkness .eplacement Music Process-ing P E 1 E . G A 0 I 3 Gigabyte Aforementioned onceptual Image 9 O / I E G O O D Muse /ho 3nows /hat 9appens 0ow Answered Prayer B O B G . 2 M M A 0 ursive Mathmatiku 0o. 2 Falling Asleep Mapling 3 E I 1 9 9 I G G I 0 B O 1 9 A M Amnesia Sheets ezanne’s Bikini M A 1 1 9 I 4 4 1ools, Food, Shelter, 4ight Shaniko 4ucky 1errains Journey to the Impossible Ars Symbolica Gestures 1hat 0ame the 4atent /aters J 2 3 3 A - P E 3 3 A Piece 3 E . V I 0 E 0 1hree Four S 2 S A 0 4 E / I S /hat I 0eed to Be Doing In the 9eat Of F to 1oll a 1idbit 1his Is 9ow 9 . I S M A 0 S E 4 F 4iars Precept 4 A . I S S A S 9 M A I 4 O Vagaries of Madness hewing the 4ight Fantastic S 9 E I 4 A E. M 2 . P 9 Y .ain Is Fluent /hen It’s Due 1erra Firma Eventually A . O 4 0 O V A 3 Same As Mother and Daughter Quantum Physics J 2 4 I A P E 4 4 O 1here Are People 9ere 9uman .oof 0ot Gods but Planets 7 A 0 0 E E 4 E 5 A B E 1 9 P 4 2 1 O Dismissal Peregrine .emembrance Day hristmas /eather D A 0 . A P 9 A E 4 Drunk on Bacon /hilst /hile I My Dog’s Invisible and So Am I Yurt Storm J P . E E S E Midlife Evanescence Play .elease S A . A 9 S A . A I 1he Quiet Softness 1oday 0o One Is Your Friend 1he Philadelphia Art Museum: The Place of Weeping H9afizI 4ook 0ow 4 A . I S S A S 9 M A I 4 O /illiamsburg Poem Oscillation Shore J E F F . E Y S I D E I /on’t hange Fawngirl for Anything 1here Are 1hose /ho .ebel against the 4ight 1he Other 9alf of 9er 1he 0ecessity to Always 4ive Immortally J 7 . G E 0 S M I D 1 Asemic 1ravel Journal 1854 Book of Dreams AfragmentC Book of Dreams AfragmentC . / S P . Y S 5 A 3 1he Pros and ons of 4iving in Your 9ead 1he 4ong Subte8t J E F F S / A 0 S O 0 Man of 4a Montage 9ey 9ey, .ubber 9erculesM D A V I D 1 O M A 4 O F F 1wo in the F X 0ova Still A 0 D . E / 1 O P E 4 Blueprint N O ProBection Blueprint 11 O 1haw Blueprint 12 O Sensing Blueprint 13 O Storm 1 I M V A 0 D Y 3 E Dead Se8 ObBect A Game for Our Skeletons 8 An 2nbridled Improvisation of Desire I ome from a Dizzy 4andE M A . V I 0 E 0 5 Imago 1he She 1he 2h-9uh Swimming Sheila in Psychopomp . B . A 0 0 O 0 / A 1 1 S /e /ill 1he Mouth of 4anguage, Blood /hat /e Don’t, /e Become B I O S A 3 0 O / 4 E D G E M E 0 1 S 9 Foreword /hen Jeffrey Side originally asked me to edit Argotist Ebooks’ Otherstream anthologyPnow aptly titled, Shadows of the Future Aat the suggestion of Bob GrummanCPI had little idea what I would be getting myself into. As Bob himself notes in his introduction to this book, *HotherstreamI is that poetry produced by poets inventing or perfecting techniques which the Establishment Aimplicitly and even, perhaps, subconsciouslyC declines to certifyE+. I received submissions of visual, language, conceptual, even narrative poetry, but most of these entries are decidedly *other.+ In the very least, this all-encompassing selection of poets is unlikely to be published by any mainstream publishing housePthat is unless the big presses suddenly have some transcendental moment of epiphany. 1hese are mostly works that our possibly diminishing poetry-reading public seldom gets a chance to cast an eye over, let alone truly absorb. Above all, Argotist Ebooks has done a great service to the international poetry community in bringing these seldom-seen poets under one roof. As one might e8pect, and in keeping with the *lack-of-tradition+ of Bob Grumman’s Otherstream Anote I spell it with a capital RO,’ Bob spells it with a small Ro’C, our publishing medium of choice is digitalPallowing for its dissemination far and wide, and, let it be known, at absolutely no cost. 1his, of course, is more than a labor of love. And it is a very small representation of the wide variety of poets and writers that Jeffrey Side has actively promoted over the years via his website 1he Argotist Online and it’s publishing arm Argotist Ebooks. Of course, the necessity to innovate is what drives these poets, and not all the works here are on the fringes of the known poetry universe, but all allow the poet’s prerogative to straddle the edge of various cosmic anomaliesPe8perimentation and that tightrope between being *other+ or being part of a *known quantity.+ I should hope that in the years to come, this anthology will become a testament to the wide and varied talents of those contained herein: the as-yet undiscovered, the marginal, perhaps even a few verging on the abyss, yet all these brave poetic souls have somehow dipped into an uninhabitable zone and still came out kicking. As some will know, it took a hefty chunk of time to bring all the work together in this anthologyPlargely due to the constraints that any labor of love faces. I am certain, however, that deep within Shadows of the Future you will find works that surprise and perhaps even astound. It has been a great privilege to be a part of its fruitful inception. Marc Vincenz 10 Introduction Since I coined the term, *otherstream poetry,+ back in the eighties, it’s understandable that I would be the main person looked to for a definition of it. Ergo, I’ve scattered quite a few here and there, some of them even consistent with others. As of this writing, I consider it simply *any poetry ignored by the ontemporary American Poetry Establishment+ Ato which I will hereafter refer as simply *the Establishment+C. A large and tangled body this latter is. Its principal constituents are A1C a great many college and university English departmentsS A2C the staffs of all trade, university or small presses publishing poetry collections in editions of a thousand or more, and the staffs of all periodicals with a circulation of a thousand or more that publish poetry and/or commentary on poetryS A3C the few visible commentators on poetry such as 9elen Vendler or 9arold BloomPi.e., those whose readership is several thousand or moreS A4C the members of formal institutions such as the American Academy of PoetsS and A5C whoever it is at significant grants- and awards-bestowing institutions such as the Pulitzer Prize ommittee, the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the 0ational Book Foundation, and so on, who pick the recipients of their prizes. As you would e8pect, many members of the Establishment, are members of more than one of these groups. 1hat few or none of these groups are formally affiliated with each other is irrelevant: they all tend to act in unison Aautomatically but unconsciously, in most casesPI’m not talking anything close to an e8plicit conspiracy hereC.