E-Verse Radio

Kitty Halftime Show from Puppy Bowl VI, 2010

“The Saint and the Crab” by William Logan

Along the campo, Manin’s bronze winged lion prowled
among the tanned intruders, licking their hands.
Pools of iridescent shellfish
lay open in the restaurant window,
a shop of otherworldly opals, the mussels’ sheen
the skies of a closed heaven, crabs flat on their backs,
their armor intricate trapped plates and escapements.
The squid slumped in its own ink, the octopus appalled
in its [...]

Really, Would it Kill You to Read a %*$(@&*# Book? . . . . the Rap! (Not Safe for Children or Those of Senstive Dispositions!)

Thanks to E-Verser Bill, famous lawman, for sending this in.

“Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga

Remember Live Aid? Maybe Hearing Aid, the metal one in the US? Well, how about Swedish Metal Aid . . . .

Have you ever seen so many mullets?

Scariest and Coolest “Puppets” Ever: Enter Royal de Luxe

I’m not typically amused by puppets, but these are no mere “puppets” in the traditional sense. Les Machines de l’île involves colossal puppets. Wait till you see these.

Ernest Hilbert’s Top Two Hundred Best Songs of the Decade, Number 13

“Despicable Heroes” by Arch Enemy: Who would imagine such a slender woman could produce such pit-of-hell horrific growls. She’s a Valkyrie! Angela Gossow sounds like a five hundred pound Grizzly Bear, and she puts on a high-energy show with her Swedish melodic death metal outfit. This is not for guys with square glasses and ironic [...]

Verse Theater Lives at the Bowery Poetry Club

Verse Theater Manhattan
presents
Dirty Dan & Other Travesties
New Verse Monologues by David Yezzi
Music by Chris Lee
With Priscilla Becker, Bruce Faulk & Max Woertendyke
Wednesday, March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day), 8 PM
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, NYC

“First date” by Callie Siskel

How could I forget
that hour in the corner,
behind the pool table,
under the cues?
The chairs were just there,
brown leather, waiting
against a wood wall
where pairs of names
were firmly etched.
The players kept reaching
over our heads—
I don’t remember what you said,
or I said, just the scene,
the way we were tucked in
and when a player leaned,
another layer. Does this seem
like [...]

“Speculation and Conjecture” by Katy Evans-Bush

Katy Evans-Bush’s new chapbook, Oscar & Henry, is available from Rack Press, limited to 150 copies, the first fifty numbered and signed by the author. Oscar is the inimitable Oscar Wilde, and Henry is, of course, Mr. James. Below is “Speculation and Conjecture”, the first poem from this splendid little book, which you may purchase [...]

“Enemies and Co.” by Ernest Hilbert, in The Oxonian Review

After Cyril Connolly

So many, the enemies of promise.
They’re everywhere. Larkin imagined a toad,
Squatting on the back, weighing us down, called work.
You’re smothered half to death by false kindness.
The temp job stinks. They increased your workload.
Lunch talk is dry and spiteful. You grip your fork
While they jaw about the next vacation.
They couldn’t care less about your [...]

Domo Vs. Tabby

Sixty Sonnets Stickers all over the Place

Here’s one spotted at the Joyce Kilmer rest stop (yeah, I put it there), one of many rest stops around the US named after poets: “I think that I shall never see  / A poem lovely as a tree.” Or as lovely as this rest stop. Mike Chasar over at Poetry and Popular Culture and [...]

“Wild Turkeys” by John Foy

They hump like grunts in a long line
down out of the woods, all black
against the snow, and go behind
the house to a rally point out back
to eat from piles of corn feed
we put out there to ease their lot,
hoping that tonight at least
they won’t starve. Some get shot
as a matter of course, others freeze
before the [...]

Spinal Tap Before There Was Spinal Tap: Enter Black Death, 1977

For more information on this heavy metal band, which is still active, click here.

Top Five Things that Happened During the Year Without a Summer

Backstory: large volcanic eruptions in 1815 essentially cancelled summer in the northern hemisphere in 1816, and frost destroyed a large percentage of crops. The subsequent fall and winter were even more brutal. This caused the last non-politically-related famine in Europe. A number of other important things happened during that summer and fall, which may or [...]

“Ex-Boyfriends” by Kim Addonizio

They hang around, hitting on your friends
or else you never hear from them again.
They call when they’re drunk, or finally get sober,
they’re passing through town and want dinner,
they take your hand across the table, kiss you
when you come back from the bathroom.
They were your loves, your victims,
your good dogs or bad boys, and they’re over
you [...]

“Ah, Children of the Night”: Watch out for Scary Jennifer . . .

You all know Jennifer, as in “Jen Awesome,” the E-Verse designer. She looks innocent enough. Well . . . there are at least two things you may not know about her.

She is a fabulous skater. Yes, she belongs to “Team Delaware Adult” (don’t get me started). She’s so good she actually outgrew the Philadelphia teams [...]

Whither the Sugar-Bomb Breakfast Cereals of Yesteryear?

My brother can always be counted on to know about the most obscure conspiracy theories out there and the grossest foods (though I liked a lot of these!). Have a look over an archive of long departed breakfast cereals and the commercial for Batman cereal. Just click on the box of Red Baron Redberry to [...]