Potter Poems

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Jonathan Potter — author of House of WordsTulips for Elsie, and Sunrise Hexagrams — gets up at sunrise, takes a photo, and writes a short poem about it nearly every morning. Other poems and songs also issue forth from Potter’s pen and are posted in process to the Potter Poems Substack newsletter. 

For about the cost of a latte each month, you can support this effort. ($5/mo or $50/yr)

Unlike many websites and online publications, Substack newsletters occur within a media ecosystem that does not rely on advertising or manipulative algorithms in the dissemination of content. Instead, you pay a small subscription fee to access the material you find valuable and establish a direct, interactive relationship with trusted content creators like Jonathan.

New paid subscribers to Potter Poems receive, gratis, a signed physical copy of Tulips for Elsie, the collection Garrison Keillor called “a bold adventurous book with plenty of sharp turns at high speed.”

For $500 you can become a Founding Member and receive signed copies of all current and future books by Jonathan as well as a sonnet written according to your specifications for you or someone you love.

Other perks, surprises, and bonus material will occur as they spring forth from the mind of Potter.

You can also just subscribe for free and see how you like it. That’s fine, too.

Purifying Elements

Between a hill of shade and forceful stream,
I’ll rest to watch the season turn its phrase:
The shadows fondle the frothing seam
To clarify some part of other days.
Yet here now too—these paths of persistence
Have offered time a renewed resistance.

There’s no particular passage to cite.
These paragraphs of threading turbulence
Enjoy their syntax, black on scrawling white—
And, sun-sounded, contour-staggered, things sense
The water heave through its rocky grammar
And push back to purify its stammer. 

So sun plaits its forest with bullion plats—
And stakes these claims of momentary gold
With infiltrating nimbuses of gnats.
These clouds of being magnify, enfold
The lesson of dark and light: So, flow on…

I too am tired enough now to go on

Kierkegaard Played by Brad Pitt

‘… On the Wings of the Wind …’

From the Armadio degli Argenti of Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (Fra Angelico), c. 1450

From the Armadio degli Argenti of Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (Fra Angelico), c. 1450

… he came, cherub-mounted, borne up on the wings of the wind….

Pslam 18:11

Season 2

The Jopomojo Poetry Podcast Season 2 kicks off today.

In Pentameters of Rain by Mark Anderson

In the city of Sandness everyone is a poet and everything is poetry …

Jopomojo Season 1 Finale

more

Terminal Goals by Mark Anderson

Check out Korrektiv poet Mark Anderson’s short story chapbook, Terminal Goals, just out from Bottlecap Press!

In Terminal Goals, Mark Anderson imagines a near term future in which humanity creates human level A.I. and puts it immediately to use indulging in their wildest, most abusive fantasies. Through three distinct viewpoints, the story examines people and their creations caught in cycles of abuse.

The science fiction / horror triptych opens with “Three Weeks Before the Machine Rebellion,” told through a hyperbolic advertisement for HappyCorp Cruise Line. At this luxury cruise guests can wake up to the calming waves of the ocean and go down to the cafe where they are encouraged to abuse their robotic servers.

The story progresses with “Messenger Disconnected” which follows the call logs of an engaged couple, Walt and Sabrina, while Walt takes the aformentioned cruise. Over the course of the week the conversations degrade until the couple is no longer speaking the same language.

This leads to the concluding voice in “My Name is Guest Service,” which follows the A.I. system created for the cruise line in its attempt to find its creator and discover its terminal goal: the programmed-in reason for its existence. Nobody ends up happy in this exploration of the ultimate power of language, especially humanity. And at HappyCorp Cruiselines, if you’re not happy, nobody is.

Speaking of the San Diego Reader …

Check out what our old pal Joseph O’Brien’s been up to!

Lickona on the state of the San Diego theater scene

Korrektiv author Matthew Lickona keeps chugging along at the San Diego Reader! Here are his contributions to the recent Music & Arts issue. (Click on the link and scroll down.)