Compassion and Contempt…
https://artillerymag.com/compassion-and-contempt/
August 18, 2022
PUBLICATION IN THE AGE OF NEGATION pt.3
February 28, 2021
CITADEL
Am I empty at the core or just around the edges?
Are there riches therein? I wouldn’t know.
I’m weighed down in a warm white glow,
crushing the stark yellow dullness of the day
into dust, statically and statelessly drifting
throughout this haze of rust. Riding the waves
of lostness across the landscape of a desk,
into the bulwark of a threadbare curtain.
February 20, 2019
Dangerous Minds Valentine’s Day
January 13, 2019
Moments of Rare Delight
Delivering a profound spiritual message for humanity at…
Echoplex, 1154 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
Saturday Jan 19th 8pm
w/ Flesh Eaters & Mud Honey
Furstworld, 8528 Desert Shadows Rd, Joshua Tree, CA 92252
Friday Jan 25th 7.30pm
Space Cowboy Books, 61871 29 Palms Hwy, Joshua Tree, CA 92252
Saturday Jan 26th 3-4.30pm
w/ Gabriel Hart
Chevalier’s Books, 126 N.Larchmont, Los Angeles CA 90004
Sunday Feb 3rd 5pm
w/ Janet Fitch
December 9, 2018
An Act of Great Treachery and Narcissism
Where egotism and self-loathing meet, where urgency merges with futility. Let me grace you with my absence…
November 15, 2018
Share the Selfishness
Available elsewhere, and from Amazon:
“In elegantly-wrought laments of self-loathing and mean-spirited love poems, the author finds that he has more to say on already exhausted subjects, and gives voice to the kind of thoughts most people prefer not to express but will nevertheless automatically relate to and be entertained by. Tottenham has staked out a singular terrain where egotism and self-loathing meet, where futility merges with urgency, and beauty is created out of bitterness. If nothing else, he furnishes proof that a poet maudit can still, if not thrive, at least survive, alive and unwell, in this benighted age.”
– from the introduction, by Louis Pipe
November 6, 2018
Roasting Sparks
I will be throwing barbs at the Mael boys at this fun-filled event.
September 1, 2018
Say You Love Me
“I love you,” she says,
and my heart sinks.
Knowing what is required of me,
I attempt to reciprocate.
But it’s a struggle,
the words won’t take shape.
No other phrase is so hard to articulate;
no other sentiment is voiced so apprehensively.
I could be honest and say: I love you
but almost everything about you annoys me…
But somehow
those three precious, perilous syllables
are squeezed out, squeamishly:
“Isle… of you.”
It never sounds right when I say it,
but I say it
to put her at ease,
because what you get out of it,
temporarily,
is peace.
May 28, 2016
The Solution
I recognize the ideal,
of what I’m ideally working towards,
but I’m incapable of realizing it.
So why not satisfy myself
with what I imagine
I’m capable of doing
rather than actually doing it?
That seems like a reasonable solution.
But isn’t that what I’ve been doing all along:
basking instead of striving;
recognizing what I’m capable of
and settling for less?
Which is actually a long process
of resigning oneself to failure:
basking in the glory of potential
and potential glory,
until potential is dead.
John Tottenham 