Rare cirrostratus galactic molecular clouds known
as Altocumulus Castellanus with trailing Virga
have caused a sensation after being spotted

for the first time in a decade.
The sea and the sky are now complete.
I’m seeing the bottom part of a low cloud

interacting with a very different air layer just
below it. The sky has been ugly all day, plagued
with abnormal shaped jellyfish clouds floating around.

This place has been here for years, I remember
some time ago…

[photographed on Wednesday evening 20 May 2009]

Apparently these are not unique.
Stunned weather-watchers flash, nude.
We are in the middle of the strait separating

the islands of Flores and Knox County, Ohio.
It finally moved towards the bank of clouds
above Onezskoe Lake, burned a red hole

in the shining jellyfish west of Petrosavodsk.
There is land above the wing now.
And though we chased the sun at 516 mph,

It got to the horizon first.

-Michael J. Alfaro is publisher and editor of Silenced Press.  (search phrase “jellyfish clouds”)

With White House Poetry Jam, a new era

“We’re here to celebrate the power of words,” President Obama said. Words “help us appreciate beauty and also understand pain. They inspire us to action.” He introduced the first lady as his poet.

Preorders up for Ryan Adams’ new book of poems (we’re not fans of his poetry, but love his music)

Kepler probe begins search for Earth-like worlds

Results: One to ten of about three thousand, six hundred and forty.
A Christian reflection, review provided by Thomas More.
When crime shatters a family, sooner or later the survivors go.
Hell. Used out of forever, I decipher the monolith of the condemned past.
After forever, there’s no blame in my life. I’m willing to forgive and forget
The feelings of rage. Will systematic prayer and counseling tell me good news?
Results: 21 to 26, of 26. Imperfection my guide, my strength, my life? No.
Ever aching foes of Adolf Hitler, the price varies for this fire.
Damn when you couldn’t help yourself, ridiculous. Forgiveness and resentment due.

Andy from Chicago (Search phrase: “Why can’t I forgive you”)

Found Magazine, created by Davy Rothbart and Jason Bitner and based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and New York City, collects and catalogs found notes, photos, and other interesting items, publishing them in an irregularly-issued magazine, in books, and on its website. Items found and published have ranged from love letters to homework assignments, and they are contributed by people who find them in a variety of public places. 

Venue: Bell House

Found Magazine

Women May Be Sniffing Out Biologically-relevant Information From Underarm Sweat

Schmidt Tells Newspaper Execs: I’m From Google, and I’m Here to Help

The End of Philosophy

Me and the masked stranger comment on things;
These wild funkateers are spoofing the scandal, spoofing the Legends
With a tight, multi-part construction from a huge selection of typescript
Incredible storytelling, Used and New (bop bop)

Go on and take it!
The semi-weekly ravings… I love you madly (I’m jolly mad)
Salted peanuts manipulating the elements of a girl and a boy
The journey caught us blowing mad bop in crazy uptown clubs
Prestige and Sensation; listen to the dictionary
Come try it, too!

But dawn always caught the alchemist.
Crazed, ‘cause I didn’t laugh
Art farmer, hey
All that we ask is that you stop moving up and out of the swing era;
It is about the fast pace of modern life.

(bop bop) Take care, dictionary
I have no idea what happened since yesterday.

-Ashley in Henrico (search phrase “mad bop”)

Smoother than Tony Bennet’s voice
Smoother than a shaft drive
Smoother than a limousine -
I’m totally awesome like that.
Smoother than Clinton
Smoother than your left hand
Smoother than expected -
I think you’ll find people here

Smoother than a well-oiled badger
Smoother than whiskey
Smoother than butter,
but there is war in his heart.

Smoother than strange lyrics
Smoother than you
Smoother than a soft bristled brush
Old faults are smoother than young ones.

- Jessica from Washington, USA (Search phrase “smoother than”)

Want to get in on the action?  Each month award $100 to a poegler for the best crafted poegle.  We accept poegles of any length and in any form, provided that they are in English.  In order to be entered to win, poeglers must register for the Poegles.com newsletter, and provide us with copy by noon EST on the date of the contest deadline.  Poeglers must also supply the search phrase they used to generate the poegle, as well as a mailing address to which the cash award can be sent.  Participants grant to Poegles.com rights to publish their poegles, per our terms.

Send us your poegles!  The April 2009 Poegles Challenge is open until noon EST on April 30th, 2009.  Please email your poegles to editor@poegles.com. 

The best poegles will be placed on the website and shared in our newsletter.  Please include your name and the search phrase that you used to generate your poegle.

March winner: Judith in the North for Don’t Flash That Light Anymore, Honey

February winner: Jamie in Brooklyn for At the Edge of the Park.  

January winner: Julie in DC for You Are Entering.  

Here’s this months’ winning poegle:

Don’t Flash That Light Anymore, Honey

To Peter Scowen

Let’s break out the world’s tiniest violin, play the world’s saddest song,
and find you have known of freedom’s glory; shake me again and wake me
from this frozen slumber with technique to burn. Look at you, Fleeting Star!

The world ain’t a ghetto. The Lady’s Burning Man-issued name is “Sublimity,”
after the tiny mountain unto the flash-frozen cool of wiseass byplay
and the catgut ecstasies burning against her through her . . .

A burning building, people trapped inside. She saw the clean. Sun flash
the open clasp for flash revolution as cities burn, from first to last, Saintly Stone …
Hellions throwing fuel on the fire, laughing, “They are just some pieces

of flash fiction that I scrap most of the times and forget it rained burning
needles in the dark.” Have you heard the frozen seas on the dark unpainted night?
Burning so restless within me. Within you. Making us one, frozen tears

and dead promises. Without your light . . . An ear-splitting roar issues, meets
with an accidental death, while string pearls and light cuts through your head.
You search for clarity, cannot find frozen winter shift laughing at weakness.

Be like a cottage on a moor, a covert from the wind, burning fire and open door;
they laugh and flash, and leap and spire; and, toss ten thousand suns.
The earth is dark, with frozen eyes, a flash of teeth, white-folded in her shroud.

Judith from Canada (search phrase: “flash frozen” + “burning violin”, ignorning results related to “Dance Me To The End Of Love”)

the legs on my kitchen chairs are beginning
to crack under the pressure of too many burdens
plopped down by a dysfunctional family,
troubled minds and angry voices

(venting) in the heart of the house
where we all gather on mother’s birthday,
christmas eve, or in times of a crisis
but never for dinner anymore…anyway

i wonder if that’s how you felt at the end,
like the legs on my kitchen chairs
unstable, breaking, coming unhinged.
i never would have guessed that you

were losing ground, giving up the battle
afraid you’d never win the war, yet the
last time i saw you sitting on one of my
kitchen chairs, you joked about your past

mistakes, your fucked-up marriage, and
your drunk-and-stoned years after high school,
after our best-friend days but before you found
jesus (or HE found you) desperate for salvation.

where was HE (i’d like to know) that sullen april
night when you decided you had enough
of what life didn’t offer and alcohol couldn’t dull?
did HE guide your hand as you signed your

bed-time notes (instructions for the living)
on how to handle your dying
(a week later in a coma).
did HE whisper in your hair

“come with me, i will make you whole”
as you swallowed life’s regrets
with a swig of warm beer (that left you cold)
or did you leave HIM a note too?

Judi in Ohio (search phrase: “kitchen chairs”)

Last Call For The March 2009 Poegles Challenge
Each month we award $100 to a poegler for the best crafted poegle, as chosen by the Editors of Poegles.com. We will accept poegles of any length and in any form, provided that they are in English. In order to be entered to win, poeglers must register for the Poegles.com newsletter, and provide us with copy by noon EST on the date of the contest deadline. Poeglers must also supply the search phrase they used to generate the poegle, as well as a mailing address to which the cash award can be sent. Participants grant to Poegles.com rights to publish their poegles, per our terms.

Send us your poegles! The March 2009 Poegles Challenge is open until noon EST on March 31st, 2009. Please email your poegles to editor@poegles.com. Please include your name and the search phrase that you used to generate your poegle. Last month’s winner:  Jamie in Brooklyn for At the Edge of the Park.  Check it out!