JOHN AMEN's debut poetry collection, Christening the Dancer, was released by Uccelli Press in March 2003. He has published poetry and fiction in various magazines and journals, including 2River View, The Melic Review, Samsara Quarterly, Poetrybay, Three Candles, and Drunken Boat. He was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. John has traveled extensively as a performing musician, both with a band and as a solo act, and has released three full-length recordings. His fourth recording will be released in 2003. He is also an artist, working primarily with acrylics on canvas. Further information is available on his website: www.johnamen.com.
Amen founded and continues to edit the online literary bimonthly, Pedestal Magazine.
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JOHN AMENtwilight bluesforty days of flood messianic rapture the christ-like renaissance a five a.m. brain-shriek makeover rattled to a razor-ballpoint femurs cracking like guitar necks in desert heat borders of anti-semitism protest movements as saccharine as genetic branding power meals america & glorious postcard arms "from sea to shining sea" i imagine baby we are not alone treading pornographic dialogues lusty & buxom blasted & purgatorial in the black bowl run-on sentence of galaxies spiraling corridor of novas darkness as ruthless as a serial killer enemies joined at the genitals evening flows like an opium high despair etched like graffiti or a living epitaph jingoism & inevitable conversion laundry of bibles the anthem of the mad unfinished séances a corporate dream-catcher the ancient vaginal gourd "nothing changes if nothing changes" when the narrator reappears after facts have settled like algae & the teeth of chimneys gnaw i want to be in a cheap motel swimming pool naked as a god bewildered to a fine edge like an anticlimax sky spread like lips open like a silver envelope vainglorious vision barbed language polemics & policy truncation of thirst finally baked in a cheap oven- rainbow selling like time-share heaven i can't remember now whether it was a dream or something plastered to the retina of my day data dying in the arms of my attachments like flies trapped in a puddle of glue a man spreading seed in the front lawn bulldozer plowing through door something inside skull tingling the image of a coat hanger was i strapped down was an experiment happening moon opens folded arms valleys buoy like heaving breasts mountains shrink three solemn wishes in solemn silence ennui of the ape angst of the lion sparrow roaring as twilight settles like a pioneer making camp for the evening voices are ubiquitous & easily ignored in corners of every continent cogs jam the machine groans mallets pounding pillars everywhere is pompeii there are no mantras remaining i must make a place for what will never be mine but is part of me i must continue to seek what i cannot find & such is the long journey of the salmon & such is our long journey from dawn to dusk & beyond
copyright 2003 JOHN AMEN
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