The May Day Poetry Project: if you are almond I am almond too

rob mclennan

thirteen ways of describing anything has become the archetype
for the worst kind of poem

the airplane flies east & pulls just at the hook between
my third and fourth ventricle

all carved up with rust

I have been without you so long I can no longer distinguish
the colours red, blue

would rather be happy than right

you talked of this once, when the lights went quick down
& you asked if I noticed

in my dream, the streets fill with little epiphanies, and pockets
are already full

three men in the same suit
checkmark boxes on bright yellow foolscap

an advertisement for car audio
obscures a young girl reading scripture

I know this is more than a series
of mere moments

are you receiving me?

Labels: 08-rob mclennan

2 Responses

kerry Says:

5/05/2008 9:31 PM

Can't say I have a handle on everything happening here (the title, for example), but there are some wonderful images. I like the "third and fourth ventricle//all carved up with rust" and "three men in the same suit".

Marjolaine Hébert Says:

5/06/2008 12:06 AM

i Am receiving you/r words with much appreciation, and a complex gut-like ease.

Origins

2009 is the fifth year of the May Day Poetry Project.

The first year five of us committed to writing and posting daily.

After that, participating poets took a slightly more ... relaxed ... approach, with each poet setting an individual writing and posting schedule.

Some years we had more people, some years we had less. Every year, it has constituted a fleeting but satisfying community.

This year? Well, so far eleven poets have agreed to take on the challenge of writing through the days of May.

* * *

The name of the May Day Poetry Project comes from the internationally recognized distress signal that in its turn came from the French "m'aider" (or "help me").

It's also "a modern working class celebration and commemoration that came from the 1886 events in Chicago where workers were demonstrating for an eight hour day."

And since I think good art comes out of both the individual and the community, both being helped and making sure you get what you need, I thought it was an appropriate moniker for this effort.

Also, it happened to be a project we were doing during the month of May.

And it sounded sort of snappy.

- Ariel

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