Dearly beloved Columbusite Ryan Starinsky’s first chapbook of poems / prose poems, thinking of everything, is forthcoming from Monster House Press later this month! ______________________________________
* TWO POEMS FROM THE CHAPBOOK *
bike lock
walked outside [of Bat Chapters while the last band was still playing] and her bike was locked to his bike [which was locked next to my bike that didn’t have any bike locked to it] so i left, biked home.
KRANG
during that second, i could feel my head weighing heavier; the tide, strong and slow like a locomotive approaching another stop. my eyelids open and close, soft like doors, undocumented to all but myself, as if we were meant to remember each moment when we actually realize something we hadn’t known before.
what i see now are things at ease, things that rest and never bleed. these things keep me here staring, a small voice reminding me to do something, like change the clocks, sound of an older man yearning for his untroubled body back, his sharp mind; the way he remembers himself—even still defending wars and friends, telling me he believed in them.
we’re walking on a tangent in a field of flowers wearing the sun’s skin, where everything just looks beautiful. (sure, once a vision of the long haired mailman now crossing the yard, pretending to blend in.) what will just be when we know where we’re going, when we walk with purpose.
i remember when you stood in another room describing us as tumbleweeds. the last words i can remember feeling. you were blunt, you were true and i bought it. after that though, things felt different, the silence was enough to know who you’d been talking about.
having the time to focus on the darkness, hiding that reverence you let brush against your arm, never trying to hold it in your hands. like finding a cartoon birthday card of a kid holding his father’s axe, reminding me of when i was young and untouched, buried in a shoebox. we belong to our minds.
Who knows what creaks and crackles beneath the bed when night comes. Maybe it’s just a mouse, munching on some chip crumbs. Maybe the heater went on and it’s rustling an old candy wrapper. When a young boy is tucked in for bed, he never expects a big orange monster to be growling under there. It’s no ordinary monster though, it’s the Hugmonster! With claws on his paws, shark-sharp-teeth and a gnarly green tongue, who would talk to a Hugmonster? Could friendship be found between a monster and a boy? Do monsters really hug? Enjoy this rhyming tale that’s sure to excite young readers and teach an important lesson in diversity. This handmade book is fun for all ages. Brought to you with love and the independent spirit of Monster House Press, Winter 2013. ___
A full color, beautiful little children’s zine written and illustrated by Ryan J. Eilbeck.
Our 5th release and first children’s text—25 pages, 8.5” x 5.5”, screen printed covers by Shout Out Loud Prints, and a limited first pressing of 35.
Nine essays, creative non-fiction, and fiction pieces by Ryan J Eilbeck, Paul Baribeau, Kari Jorgensen, Andy Gardner, Spoonboy, Bella Bravo, Ginger Alford, Steve Ciolek, and Richard Wehrenberg, Jr.
FORTHCOMING FROM RAIN WOLF ZINES / MONSTER HOUSE PRESS:
THE STUFF OF SONG - A collaborative zine of essays, fiction, and creative non-fiction about songs featuring writing from Ryan J. Eilbeck, Paul Baribeau, Kari Jorgensen, Bella Bravo, Andy Gardner, Spoonboy, Steve Ciolek, Matt Scheuermann, Ginger Alford, & Richard Wehrenberg, Jr.
Musicians written about: Nev Eilbeck (Ryan’s Dad), Prince, Nico, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Everclear, Jawbreaker, Bruce Springsteen, Elliot Smith, surf music, & The Weakerthans.
HI HI HI. From October 5th through October 18th I will be traveling w/ my poet-kin and dear colleague Ryan J. Eilbeck throughout the Midwest and East Coast.
We would like to read poems in any room of your house, at your library or bookstore or university, or in any dope reading / performing spot you might know of or think of or discover. Will you have us? The dates are below.
Message me on here or email me at richardwehrenbergjr AT gmail DOT com if you want to host a reading for us or know someone who might or just if you want to chat about anything. Really. ____________________________________________
OCT 5 - COLUMBUS, OH
OCT 6 - ANN ARBOR, MI OR ELSEWHERE, MI
OCT 7 - CHICAGO, IL
OCT 8 - MILWAUKEE / MADISON, WI
OCT 9 - MINNEAPOLIS, MN OR MADISON, WI
OCT 10 - INDIANAPOLIS, IN
OCT 11 - PITTSBURGH, PA
OCT 12 - WASHINGTON, DC
OCT 13 - PHILADELPHIA, PA OR NYC OR NEW JERSEY
OCT 14 - BOSTON, MA
OCT 15 - PORTLAND, ME OR SOMEWHERE, NH
OCT 16 - MONTREAL, CA OR SOMEWHERE, NH OR UPSTATE NEW YORK
OCT 17 - TORONTO, ON
OCT 18 - CLEVELAND, OH ____________________________________________
EXAMPLES OF US
Me reading a poem on Septemeber 11th, 2010 in Kent, Ohio called “(Subjective) Truth Spittin’ in Punk House Kitchens” -
Ryan reading a poem on January 21st, 2011 in Columbus, Ohio called “I Don’t Smoke (I Lied)” -
Ryan reading a bunch of poems on October, 6th 2011 in Columbus, Ohio -
Ryan has two chapbooks here, here and a blog. I have some internet-writing here. We did a four-way split chapbook here. I will email you any of my poems if you want them. ____________________________________________
EXPLICATIONS OF ‘GOALS’
I tried to explicate some tour ‘goals’ (goals…yeah, you know, you get things from doing things, there is a empirical input-output ratio, a clear cause and effect that you affect with intention, dawg /// no, no, no, you never know what you will get out of something so what is this ‘goal’ you speak of, what do you mean, it will never be predictable, life, besides knowing you may glow w/ new people, new words, new new new, always, ever-again) below:
First Attempt at Positing Tour ‘Goals’ / Predictions
We will read poems and tell stories and hang out and fall asleep and drink things and listen to other stories and words and be open and earnest. We will meet you and something unprecedented will happen. The days will pass without stopping to say hello. We will drive a car to a new city each day, passing innumerable other cities with uncountable amounts of other lives, just passing them by, like, how many others. I will walk into a grocery store. We will try to do some things. We will not try to do anything in particular.
Second Attempt at Positing Tour ‘Goals’ / Predictions
We will read poems and people will listen to them earnestly or maybe they will be blase or maybe it will be their first time actually enjoying poetry or maybe they will be on a different, like, aestethic level and totally just get it but not really care for it per se. We will fall in love. We will encounter exceedingly encouraging examples of people. We will encounter things not for us. I will see you and you will respond to me (or not respond, but email me later and tell me something you thought.) We will harness an unrestrained sense of wonder and imbue it into our every action and word. There will be happening.
Third Attempt at Positing Tour ‘Goals’ / Predictions
We will grow in unbeknownst ways. We will take new routes to the same old places and then they will be new. I will miss home and certain people intensely. I will be silent. We will have conversations we never have imagined. There will be sadness. There will be being. I will walk into a forest and an ocean. Time will pass without regard for continuity or understanding. I’ll try and remember. We’ll go home and assume former shapes and roles. We’ll have a refreshed reverence for the natural world. For language and humans. I will be standing before a river and think of you.
____________________________________________
THAT’S IT, MMBYEBYE
richardwehrenbergjr@gmail.com
ryanj@monsterhousepress.com
Two Monster House Press homies doing a reading tour together! Wanna host a reading? Get in touch!
Come say hullo! and pick up a copy of Austerity Pleasures, or a limited “Last-Last” edition of our ostensibly out-of-print first release, Assuming Size. Gift-giving season harks upon us….
![* FORTHCOMING FROM MONSTER HOUSE PRESS *
Dearly beloved Columbusite Ryan Starinsky’s first chapbook of poems / prose poems, thinking of everything, is forthcoming from Monster House Press later this month!______________________________________
* TWO POEMS FROM THE CHAPBOOK *bike lockwalked outside [of Bat Chapters while the last band was still playing] and her bike was locked to his bike [which was locked next to my bike that didn’t have any bike locked to it] so i left, biked home.KRANGduring that second, i could feel my head weighing heavier; the tide, strong and slow like a locomotive approaching another stop. my eyelids open and close, soft like doors, undocumented to all but myself, as if we were meant to remember each moment when we actually realize something we hadn’t known before.what i see now are things at ease, things that rest and never bleed. these things keep me here staring, a small voice reminding me to do something, like change the clocks, sound of an older man yearning for his untroubled body back, his sharp mind; the way he remembers himself—even still defending wars and friends, telling me he believed in them.we’re walking on a tangent in a field of flowers wearing the sun’s skin, where everything just looks beautiful. (sure, once a vision of the long haired mailman now crossing the yard, pretending to blend in.) what will just be when we know where we’re going, when we walk with purpose. i remember when you stood in another room describing us as tumbleweeds. the last words i can remember feeling. you were blunt, you were true and i bought it. after that though, things felt different, the silence was enough to know who you’d been talking about.having the time to focus on the darkness, hiding that reverence you let brush against your arm, never trying to hold it in your hands. like finding a cartoon birthday card of a kid holding his father’s axe, reminding me of when i was young and untouched, buried in a shoebox. we belong to our minds.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/be7d6410735d1511da1ba2edd7dce2a0/tumblr_mmrmpkyItu1qeh5gyo1_500.jpg)
