The Dream Poet Anthology 2013

Below are the names of poets who made appearances or were mentioned in my dreams during 2013. Some of these poets I know well, others are acquaintances and some are complete strangers. If you find your name is on this list and you do not know me, it means that I know of you via your work or reputation and my psyche has attached some type of meaning or symbolism on you to represent something. Maybe I follow you on Twitter? Maybe somebody I follow retweeted one of your tweets? Maybe you post really obnoxious Facebook updates that haunt me late at night?

Or maybe it means something else completely. Who can say with any certainty what a dream means? Maybe it means you've been selected for a psychic quest of great importance? Maybe it means I'm watching you through a pair of binoculars at this very moment? Who knows. 

Just don't ask me for details of the dream. Seriously, don't. Every year people disregard this note and ask me. It's usually people who appeared in my dreams as corpses. So for the sake of everyone's mental health, I'm not telling you. 

2013 Contributors:

Deborah Ager, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Aaron Belz, April Bernard, Anselm Berrigan, Lucy Biederman, Julie Bloemeke, Anne Boyer, Brandon Brown, Blake Butler, Laura Carter, Lucille Clifton, Kelly Cockerham, Shanna Compton, Eduardo Corral, Bruce Covey, Catherine Daly, Peter Davis, Teri Cross Davis, Oliver de la Paz, Alex Dimitrov, Michael Dumanis, Donald Dunbar, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Jenny Factor, James Franco, Elisa Gabbert, Neil Gaiman, Roxane Gay, Kim Gek Lin Short, Bernadette Geyer, Tod Goldberg, Nada Gordon, Lea Graham, Jorie Graham, Arielle Greenberg, Charles Jensen, Joe Harrington, Rebecca Hazelton, Patrick Herron, Ron Hogan, Major Jackson, Bhanu Kapil, Kirsten Kaschock, Collin Kelley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Kevin Killian, Amy King, Alan King, Rauan Klassnik, Becca Klaver, Jennifer L. Knox, David Lehman, Jon Leon, Patricia Lockwood, Natalie Lyalin, Tony Mancus, Cate Marvin, Joseph Massey, David McDonald, Erika Meitner, Chris Murray, Gina Myers, Micki Myers, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Daniel A. Nicholls, Mel Nichols, Seth Oelbaum, Ed Ochester, Maria Padhila, Danielle Pafunda, Richard Peabody, Jessica Piazza, Scott Pierce, Nate Pritts, PF Potvin, Michael Quattrone, Adam Robinson, Anthony Robinson, Steve Roggenbuck, Sean Rohwedder, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Kathleen Rooney, Ken Rumble, Allyson Salazar, Elizabeth Savage, Steven Schroeder, Zach Schomburg, Evie Shockley, Laurel Snyder, Ricco Siasoco, Martha Silano, Sandra Simonds, Laura Sheahen, Nicole Steinberg, Janaka Stucky, Gary Sullivan, Maureen Thorson, Rich Villar, Chris Vitiello, Allyssa Wolf, C. Dale Young, Dean Young, Mike Young

Frequently Asked Questions


Q: I'm a writer, but not a poet. Why am I included on a poet list?
A: Simmer down and accept the compliment.

Q: Can I submit my work for next year's anthology?
A: This anthology only accepts psychic submissions. Submit to my unconscious and perhaps you will be allowed in.

Q: Does my appearing on this list mean that you are obsessed with or stalking me? 
A: Possibly. 

Q: Will you tell me the details of the dream I appeared in? 
A: No, absolutely not. Assume the dream was totally demented and would disturb you a great deal. I will not tell you.

Q: I'm a poet and I'm psychically awesome, why aren't I included in this anthology?
A: There are three possible reasons you are not included:

1. You didn't appear in my dreams in 2013. Resolve in 2014 to be more ambitious psychically.
2. You did appear in my dreams, but I don't remember. I forget many dreams. Your omission is a simple case of editorial oversight. You were screwed, unintentionally.
3. You did appear in my dreams, but I am loathe to publicly admit such a thing. This applies to a small percentage of poets appearing in my dreams. Your omission is a simple case of editorial bias. You were screwed, intentionally.


Mad Poet Libs:

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 1 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 2 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 3 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 4 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 5 (2013)

Guess the Dream Poet - Part 6 (2013)


Past anthologies:

The Dream Poet Anthology 2012

The Dream Poet Anthology 2011

The Dream Poet Anthology 2010

The Dream Poet Anthology 2009

You'll chop your toe off!

41

PEEP/SHOW

(Collage by Lynn Behrendt)

Excerpts from my novel, Bombyonder, appear in Issue #6 of PEEP/SHOW (along with work by Amaranth Borsuk & Kate Durbin, Chris Piuma, Michael Ruby, Keiko Sono, Tom Beckett, j/j hastain, Nance Van Winckel, Anna Elena Ayre, Michael Peters, Cheyenne Nimes, Anselm Berrigan, Geof Huth and Dorothy Albertini).

Here's a sample:

On this meeting with this particular ancestor named Carry, I was surprised by her mask and its thickness. Hardly a way in or out. Not at all clownish but with brown scales, leather and bolts.



How strange to hear her speak through the clamp for a mouth and to be seen through her single tiny eyehole. How muffled her words sounded through the barriers. How uncomfortable to know she cried behind that foulness not because it was foul, but for the sake of her brother, an accused molester of the vulnerable.



Trouble with the law. There’s always so much trouble with laws for this family.



Who did this to you?



“The women and children, like they always do, their cruel, perverted imaginations that they just can’t keep to themselves. They have to share, and share for years, they whisper and then they group together and then they testify and allow it all to go down as record. They perverted it all, smote his perfect legacy.”



No, I mean who put that mask on you? Why are you still wearing it? What is behind it?



“My brother placed it on me, for my salvation. He’s my protector. There are so many terrible women and children spouting their wretched tales, repeating and publicizing. They let nothing go! What lies behind this mask hasn’t yet been penetrated. So little left that hasn’t been penetrated. My face is one of the last pure bastions.”



You can hardly see or speak through that mask and it smells like your skin is decaying under there.



“Yes, the decay keeps me safe. Frightens away the children and many of the women too. No one is going to scavenge me for their depraved narratives. Forever I remain unmolested.”



But her corpsed-face remained unmolested no longer.



Because now I was there, smelling it, imagining its appearance, inventing my memories.

Go here to read the rest

no school tomorrow

Graduation Day

Loki graduates from his beginner-level obedience course. We're all very proud.

fiction & minecraft

I have 9 flash fiction pieces from Bombyonder in the new Map Literary. 

No titties, but maybe you'll like them anyway? 

But seriously, "A Good Titty is Hard to Find" is getting a lot of attention.

I write and write and write years of torment and it's deafening crickets. I write "titty" "titty" "titty" and suddenly I'm universal.

The world wants what the world wants.

G is obsessed with Minecraft. This Halloween he was Minecraft Universe. None of the olds knew what he was, but the kids, they knew.