IN SOVIET RUSSIA BLOG IGNORES YOU

OMG OMG

2012-01-04T22:08:00.003+01:00

2011-12-08T01:15:00.000+01:00

totes forgot to mention that Matchbook published a tiny story of mine a couple weeks ago. read it here: http://www.matchbooklitmag.com/savoca.html

2011-12-07T07:30:00.002+01:00

just sittin here

2011-11-24T06:08:00.000+01:00

feels weird everything not too sure what is going on i'm here in bed though someone downstairs is coughing i just heard the cough tomorrow is thanksgiving why do i always get weird around holidays whatever man should i just go to sleep should probably just go to sleep i might just tweet this instead but in a much shorter version but yeah whatever

Best of the Net

2011-11-20T17:48:00.000+01:00

my poem i wrote a poem about our emails lately has been nominated for a Best of the Net award, thanks to indigest mag. click here to read the poem

i looked at all the past winners and runners-up and, well, just HA, but yeah, still cool

what else?

Morocco, the new poetry book, is out and shipping and doing really well. perhaps a huge review is coming, we'll see what happens

here is an article about a reading we did up in hudson new york (includes many pictures)

click here to buy the book

2011-09-08T16:55:00.000+02:00

what's next for anyone seems to always bother me. like, what's next for anyone. what is next for anyone. i don't know. but it seems to matter a lot somehow

it's like, hey look at what that lady is doing

what?

look, anyway, the thing is that i just have no idea what's even happening anywhere, except like there's a revolt in libya, right? and isn't there some 21 year old ucla student over there just running with the rebels?

what's next for that guy?

from Joan Didion's The Year Of Magical Thinking

2011-07-29T02:10:00.000+02:00

"One night that summer he asked me to drive home after dinner at Anthea Sylbert's house on Camino Palmero in Hollywood. I remember thinking how remarkable this was. Anthea lived less than a block from a house on Franklin Avenue in which we had lived from 1967 until 1971, so it was not a question of reconnoitering a new neighborhood. It had occurred to me as I started the ignition that I could count on my fingers the number of times I had driven when John was in the car; the single other time I could remember that night was once spelling him on a drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. He had been dozing in the passenger seat of the Corvette we then had. He had opened his eyes. After a moment he had said, very carefully, 'I might take it a little slower.' I had no sense of unusual speed and glanced at the speedometer: I was doing 120."

new poem

2011-05-14T19:43:00.004+02:00

a poem of mine at indigest magazine: click here to read it

also, kitty can't stay awake:

video review of book

2011-05-05T22:52:00.001+02:00

click here to watch a very nice video review of long love poem with descriptive title (it mentions shakespeare)

also, a super rad gif of mousetraps and ping pong balls explaining nuclear fission and basically the entire universe:

small doggies!

2011-04-28T01:50:00.001+02:00

small doggies magazine spotlighted me with a poetry feature containing 3 new poems i wrote. i am calling the poems new even though the time-line-span from the first one to the last one is about 2 years, newest at the top.

click here to read the poems!

also, in a week or so i am going to have a poem published in the newest issue of indigest magazine which is run by a person named dustin who i met a couple of weeks ago at a leigh stein reading in brooklyn. dustin and i stood near the stairs and daydreamed about if evander holyfield walked in and yelled 'listen up' to get everyone's attention and then just stared blankly for a few seconds before walking right down the stairs and leaving the premises.

BTW, no one is better than leigh stein at reading their own poems out loud.

poetry stuff on the internet

2011-03-19T21:13:00.001+01:00

a poem by me on michael inscoe's unsure beard: click here to read it

some people from australia and new zealand made a poetry podcast which includes parts of long love poem with descriptive title and a poem from Morocco. here is the link to it (mine are the first two readings)

also, at some point soonish i am going to be a featured poet at Small Doggies Magazine. there will be three new poems by me

100 words on life

2011-03-05T19:46:00.001+01:00

rowena keaveny asked me to be a part of her project in which people write 100 words about life, so i did it and now it is posted on the site: here is the link

next week i have a poem coming out on a website by michael inscoe called unsure if i will allow my beard to grow for much longer

here it is, click here

I am going to write this post with correct punctuation.

2011-02-28T19:17:00.001+01:00

Ever since I started trying to get somewhat-respectably-published as a novelist I have been nearly completely unable to enjoy reading any novels at all. I'm not sure what this says about me. Probably that, inside, I am just a big competitive jerk. I bet there are other people this has happened to. I have read interviews with musicians in which it was apparent that they didn't really listen to much music any more.

It is probably my opinion that no one like me should try to succeed at anything they get enjoyment out of. So, basically, the opposite of how your mom always told you to find a job doing what you love to do. Eff that. This is why I am a carpenter. Some people tell me, "Oh, but that's what you love to do." And I have to tell them, "No, it is not." It is what I don't mind doing, and it is something that I can do pretty well and without too much negative impact coming back to me. So, yeah, that is good. It's a good situation that I am happy with, but, no, I do not love going into your house and putting in a hardwood floor for you. I'm sorry.

Somehow, where this has led me is here: writing novels is a very lonely thing that I choose to do because I enjoy doing it and I really wish that I didn't want to succeed at it, but I do because what I wish I could find somewhere are novels to read like the ones that I write but they aren't anywhere so I'm trying to put them there because there has to be a lot of other people like me in the world, or if not then that makes me one of the most unique humans on earth and my stories very valuable.

I'm juss sayin'.

can't stop watching this

2011-02-02T01:03:00.000+01:00

new book

2011-01-26T22:18:00.004+01:00

Dark Sky Books will publish Morocco, a book of poems written by Kendra Grant Malone and myself, in September 2011, exactly one year after our poetry books were dual-released from Scrambler Books. Here it is announced on the Dark Sky blog.

In other news, I sure have been feeling a lot like this lady today:

also, I will be at AWP in DC this year on Friday and Saturday, hanging with my super friend and six-time pressmate Kendra. We are going to try to attend the Zoo Reading put on by Publishing Genius, which seems like yet another brilliant idea from Adam Robinson. Is there really any question about that guy? No. None at all. Unless the question is: "Is he brilliant?" And then the answer is yes.

face replace

2011-01-19T05:50:00.001+01:00

a few things happened

2011-01-03T21:00:00.000+01:00

last week 365poems.org named me poet of the week and posted a video of me reading back in september for the book release party kendra and i had: click here

this weekend on htmlgiant, long love poem with descriptive title was included in an end-of-year-book-reading-list-thing-in-which-a-person-talks-about-the-books-they-read-that-year thing. i'm not really sure if the description of my book is good or bad... oh well: click here (i'm number 126)

today kendra grant malone and i each have poems in the new issue of dark sky magazine. they are from something that we have been working on together:
click here to read kendra's poem
click here to read my poem

there's also this:

socially awkward penguin

2010-12-28T22:47:00.000+01:00

time for laughs

2010-12-08T03:39:00.000+01:00

i wanna have a good day today

2010-12-03T16:23:00.006+01:00

i'm a little embarrassed by how much i like this new david lynch song

poem by a first grader

2010-11-10T23:54:00.002+01:00

I
I have
I have a
I have a great
I have a great life
Great, I have a life

video reading

2010-11-09T23:49:00.003+01:00

i made a video of myself reading a poem for pop serial issue 2: click here to see it

oh, and this link is just so much yes: click

review of LLP + some new poems

2010-11-06T21:26:00.006+01:00

dan tarnowski at On Lives wrote a really nice and thoughtful review of long love poem with descriptive title. click here to read it

and i have four new poems in the third issue of Rooms Outlast Us. the poems are titled the hilton hotel, poem, we are very far away from each other, last night i didn't do anything. view the details here

new poems from adam robinson

2010-11-03T14:52:00.002+01:00

these five new poems from adam robinson, who doesn't have poems around the internet too often, are really good. oceanograffiti is my favorite. hearing adam read his poems live is a really nice event. i spent the weekend at adam's a few weeks ago and had a good time even though a leaf had flown into my eye during the drive down.

i made a new video

2010-10-31T03:19:00.002+01:00

more book hype

2010-10-29T23:15:00.003+02:00

steve roggenbuck wrote an impartial review of long love poem with descriptive poem. read it here

and joe brainard said some brief nice things about kendra and me upon receiving his copy of the limited edition hardback book that includes both mine and kendra's books together. read it here

mark leidner

2010-10-10T16:26:00.003+02:00

something i liked really a lot: mark leidner's apostrophe cast reading. it's so good that i am probably going to call off the wedding and move to india to spend what's left of my youth.

his twitter is really good, too.

zoran rosko vacuum player

2010-09-30T16:43:00.002+02:00

more book hype: zoran rosko profiled long love poem with descriptive title

malone & savoca week at htmlgiant

2010-09-27T17:42:00.003+02:00

all week last week was malone & savoca week at htmlgiant.com. they posted interviews and reviews of our poetry books (Everything is Quiet, long love poem with descriptive title) that were just released from scrambler books. here is a clickable list:

1) kicking off the week with a short sweet bit about kendra's book Everything is Quiet

2) a conversation with matthew savoca, conducted by adam robinson

3) kenda and matthew answer the same six questions posed by blake butler

4) mike young reviews kendra's Everything is Quiet

5) wrapping up: matthew and kendra interview each other

video from the book release party

2010-09-20T05:15:00.006+02:00

book release party in brooklyn

2010-09-15T13:29:00.003+02:00

tonight i am taking a bus to nyc. on friday night there is a book release party for kendra and me and our books. it is at pete's candy store in williamsburg at 7 pm. the reading series is called the multifarious array and it is curated by dorothea lasky who seems really great and, of course, wrote black life. here are the details about the reading, with nice little pictures and bios and everything: click for details

i am told that i will get two free drinks and a sandwich. like bonnie prince billy. that's what he gets when he goes there and plays. he's played there twice. i wish i knew what sandwiches he got.

i will have books for sale.

this has been a news update.

vincent gallo loves the color brown

2010-09-12T17:41:00.005+02:00

i watched the brown bunny by vincent gallo the other night after not watching it for a really long time because many people told me it was stupid and ultimately pointless, but i finally realized that stupid and ultimately pointless is exactly what i'm into so i watched it and it wasn't at all stupid or ultimately pointless except in the way that absolutely everything at all is.

the faces vincent gallo makes in the first hour of the film while he drives across the country from new england to los angeles are entirely worth watching it.

as far as the famous scene at the end, well it makes plenty of sense if you actually watch the movie, what an idea!

i am such a fan of vincent gallo. i think i probably act 70% like myself and 30% of how i don't act is a repressed version of how 70% of vincent gallo acts in public. i think 30% of how vincent gallo doesn't act is probably 100% of how i do act in real life.

i really like this quote by vincent, even though it is pretty much 100% the opposite of my own personal approach to 'art':

"I told you, I'm an extremist. Even in art, if my work wasn't 50 times more interesting than me and my petty life, it would be useless."

here's another one:

"...But I like the color brown. Oh, and I don't eat dairy. And I sure do like the color brown. And pink. Pink and brown. If I had to choose, pink would lose."

and this:

"I'm the happiest the saddest guy in the world can be."

here is the movie trailer

matthew in the south

2010-08-27T23:58:00.005+02:00

i have a poetry book

long love poem with descriptive title news

2010-08-20T14:48:00.007+02:00

long love poem with descriptive title has a cover, and pre-orders are now available.

the cover looks like this:

and was designed and drawn and colored and everything by my good friend olivier bhérer-vidal and his friend pascale bonenfant

i really think he got it perfect-looking-and-feeling, so that is nice.

something else about the book... it is being co-released with kendra grant malone's book because our books are lovers even though we hate each other. just kidding.

and! there's more!!!

there is a special, limited edition (75 copies only, ever) hardback edition from scrambler books that includes BOTH of our books in one edition. it's radical. maybe not, but it is rad. so if you want a cool little collectors's item that you might be able to sell on ebay in the future for lots of money (i promise it will happen. there are things in the works, behind the scenes regarding the name 'matthew savoca' that will be monumental... seriously, they are going to put a statue of me next to pushkin in moscow.)

the hardback edition will be cool, and kendra and i will be reading from it in a funny way at our special dual-book release party in brooklyn on SEPTEMBER 17th 2010 at Pete's Candy Store. more info about that coming soon.

for now:

click here for the Scrambler Books web page where you can preorder mine and kendra's books, together or separate

will oldham

2010-07-14T23:14:00.004+02:00

this is a little over a year old: a really good interview with will oldham

"Records, movies, books—they’re not supposed to be like math books. The purpose of them is to kind of take us out of ourselves and give us some sort of alternate experience or respite. To try to maximize the relationship of listening to a record through promotion is like experiencing driving a car by reading about stimulus programs. It kind of defeats the purpose. The idea is for escape and then re-entry into your life, and not to have it be just like People magazine. You want it to be more like Disney World than People."

i have been listening to ease down the road so much lately

news

2010-07-10T16:04:00.003+02:00

things are progressing on long love poem with descriptive title (which is due out in september, of course)... there will be news soon...

i am in south carolina right now, in a cabin in the woods. i'm here for an art residency, and will be here into the fall... october and maybe longer, i'm not sure

here is a picture of my back porch:

field mice

2010-06-22T00:00:00.007+02:00

today is june 21st, the longest day of the year. being tired of sunlight is something i can understand since i just returned from iceland where the sun never goes away this time of year. so when you get tired of the sunlight today, or when it gets tired of you (hah!) go to robot melon and read my new ebook. stephen daniel lewis worked really hard on this ebook all spring, and i think it looks really good. stephen is underrated and understated. he has consistently done a really good job with robot melon over the last few years and has quietly written some of my favorite poems, like this one: olive oil and other liquids, and this one: i am constantly worried. i'm really glad stephen daniel lewis exists

read field mice, the ebook by matthew savoca

daniel bailey said something really nice on his blog about field mice:
"this ebook is good. matthew's poetry in this ebook crosses a scientific analysis of the human experience with the mangled experience itself. it's lovely. it's direct. and i wish it were longer."

chasing pigeons

2010-06-18T19:17:00.005+02:00

kendra grant malone and i are siamese twins attached at the ass. we have poetry books coming out together in september from scrambler books. we have both had chapbooks from mondo bummer and ml press, we've had ebooks from happy cobra books, and been in countless other lit journals together.... and now it is happening again with kendra's new poetry ebook from bear creek feed called chasing pigeons makes me feel more powerful

i read it at the airport waiting for a flight that kept getting delayed and delayed. when i finally boarded the plane it seemed like a plane from the eighties. there were those really old televisions that came out of the ceilings like they have on bus tours that elderly people do. i stared out the window at the wing of the plane and saw a sign bolted to the metal which said "translating... something... conductor access panel". i forget now. i looked at it so many times and now i don't know what it said.
anyway, i was talking about kendra's poetry ebook. here is what i said in a personal email to kendra about it:

i read your ebook in the airport waiting for my flight
it was awesome reading it that way
i highly suggest everyone else to try it
it seemed like i wanted your sad little lonesome world so badly
because i was in a noisy crowded lonesome one
you and your puppy hairstyle modelling

on reading

2010-06-14T15:03:00.009+02:00

matthew savoca, on reading

shome dasgupta asked me to write a few words about reading for his series "writers on reading" that has been going on at his blog the laughing yeti

i wrote this blog post from a ferry in western iceland

greg lytle: winner

2010-05-21T17:52:00.007+02:00

my friend greg lytle won a little golden whale at the 2010 moby awards in the category of best low-budget/indie book trailer for his animation of kathryn regina's poem from her chapbook i am in the air right now.

click here to watch the video

links to things mentioned in this post: greg lytle's blog, kathryn regina's blog, i am in the air right now, 2010 moby awards

poem by amy berkowitz

2010-05-05T11:52:00.003+02:00

amy berkowitz has written a lot of poems that i really like. one of them was just published in the third issue of 751 magazine which published a story of mine (ANN) in issue two back in the fall of 2009.

click this link to read amy's poem called BEAUTIFUL CRYING

poem

2010-04-15T22:16:00.007+02:00

the newest edition of Anemone Sidecar is out and contains something written by me which is maybe like sort of a poem and sort of story but maybe more like a poem, i'm not sure...

click here to view the PDF and download if you wish
(i'm on listed page 26 which is page 30 of the actual PDF file)

the poem is called Europe, which happens to be where i am right now...

poems

2010-03-30T17:40:00.011+02:00

there are two new poems of mine online in the second issue of double shiny. i found this journal because jillian clark was in the first issue. i like jillian clark so much. double shiny is nice. i really like the layout / poems / stuff.

the titles of my poems are spanish explorer and this poem mentions what i'm not going to do

click here to read them

poem

2010-03-29T19:59:00.004+02:00

new poem in IsReads, posted in select cities around america

poem

2010-03-16T00:43:00.007+01:00

click here to read a new poem in the new issue of elimae. it will only take five seconds longer than it takes your internet browser to load the page, i promise.

joaquin phoenix is awesome

2010-03-13T17:17:00.005+01:00

NEWS

2010-03-05T14:37:00.019+01:00

03-05-2010

the first full-length matthew savoca book of poetry is set to be published by scrambler books in september 2010.

it is called long love poem with descriptive title and is composed entirely of one long poem (+ drawings)

parts of this book, which was written in the summer of 2008 and was the first manuscript of poetry i ever compiled, have appeared previously in:
1) ml press chapbook altruism
2) bear creek feed ebook i am being honest

much more to come about this...

in other news, i have some poems forthcoming on the internet in this month's elimae, and the second issue of double shiny

i also have poems forthcoming in the third print issue of rooms outlast us which will be coming early summer. i would have been in the second issue if not for a newly instated rule called The Savoca Rule which stipulates that any one contributor may not be published in consecutive issues of the journal (since i was in issue one, this precludes me).

something i didn't mention was that i have a poem in the recent issue of IsReads that is plastered around in cities across america... the poem is about success and zen, which i'm pretty sure do not go together at all. here are two photos:

NEWS

2010-03-02T21:07:00.006+01:00

03-02-2010

a new matthew savoca chapbook has been released from my favorite chapbook publisher MONDO BUMMER ("...publishes poetry and fiction in a disappointing way."):

Matthew Savoca's long poem, Thousands and Thousands of Years
(That's a long time!)
from the website: "Savoca's Thousands and Thousands of Years is an exploration of relationships over time, punctuated by cayenne pepper sneezes. It's time to get serious. ($2) [vol 9]"

If you are interested in purchasing a copy by mail, you can pay via PayPal, or send an email at mondobummer_at_gmail.com to arrange payment by mail (as always, barter welcome).

NEWS

2010-02-26T17:52:00.008+01:00

02-26-2010

i now have in my possession the long-awaited chapbook zines of french-canadian comic artist olivier bhérer-vidal that i translated into english from the french.

when i say translated, what i mean is that, in most instances, i simply used the drawings plus a broad understanding of the overall events that took place, and wrote an english version. i do not speak nor do i understand french very well. these are what olivier calls "free interpretation."

there are two main chapbooks. the yellow one is called 49 days of Finland and is about just that. it is a sort of travelogue. there are drawings and text on each page. the text is in both english and finnish. it is 28 pages and sewn stitched with red thread.

the gray chapbook is called the stem of it and is about some sort of event that took place upon returning home to quebec city from abroad. there are drawings and text on each of the 29 pages. it is sewn stitched with red thread.

both stories are funny and interesting. the drawings are great. my mom and dad really enjoyed them both. my mom laughed at the part involving someone fighting the need to urinate and the desire to sneak some blueberries from the basket while out picking them, and my dad stared at the drawings for a really long time asking, "how does he do that?"
a handful of copies of each chapbook are for sale. please contact me at matthewsavoca @ gmail.com if you would like to buy one

photo of the stem of it:

photo of 49 days of finland:

photographs

2010-02-11T01:54:00.011+01:00

02-10-10

i made a russian snowman and named him Mikhail Matveyev

photographs, poems

2010-02-01T23:47:00.010+01:00

02-01-10

i took some pictures. i call them "pictures of stuff taken when i didn't know what else to do"

also, some little poems:

poem

it's snowing a little bit

through the window

my computer screen

is whiter than that

whiter than a fleece

of snow

whiter than the white parts

of people's eyeballs

facing the snow that falls

like a stack of blank

computer paper

an entire foot all at once

poem

right now sitting on the carpet

i let the world do whatever it wants

my legs extended, the floor creaks

i don't mind if nothing happens,

and i have blankets

poem

if i sit here long enough

something is bound to happen

maybe i should figure out what i want

the japanese eat all that tuna

and someone combs their hair really straight

they have trouble growing beards

whether they want to or not

the sky is pretty low today

compared to yesterday

yesterday seemed different

one house on my street

was built to face the sun

and here i am

video clip

2010-01-16T03:55:00.006+01:00

01-15-10

NEWS

2010-01-02T17:32:00.009+01:00

01-02-10

i made another post on we will always live in these houses, the kendra grant malone project that i have been contributing to. this one is called Duck Pond House, it's interesting: click here for it

also, the MLP first year anthology FIRST YEAR - 298 pgs, forty-some authors, $13 - is the only way to get my much coveted, very sold out chapbook ALTRUISM, and is on sale now: click this link to review the details and make a purchase.

cover image:

NEWS

2009-12-19T18:05:00.009+01:00

12-19-09

this week i started contributing to an old web-project of my good friend kendra grant malone's called we will always live in these houses. my first post is up there and i will be making more, so following that might be of interest to someone.

something else maybe of interest is this video of me reading two poems this past thursday at an open mic night in mount airy which is in philadelphia. the video is five minutes long. okay. yes.

NEWS

2009-12-08T23:06:00.004+01:00

12-08-09

a new story of mine has been published by 751 magazine who asked me to send them poetry or fiction that they could present in their second issue. i sent them a story which they said they liked but didn't quite understand. then i sent another story which they liked and did understand and so they chose that story. it is called Ann and was written in October 2009 while i was still living in italy.
read new story Ann right now by clicking here

update 12-12-09:
what to wear during an orange alert? has added Ann to their watch list

video clip

2009-11-24T03:28:00.001+01:00

11-23-09

11-18-09

2009-11-18T23:52:00.007+01:00

i am in america now. the sun is lower in the sky here where i am, in america. i will be here for a while.

two days before i flew to america, i hung out with a 65 year old man who looked like burt young from rocky. he had the cigar and everything, but more hair and also wore good hats. i liked him. he kept saying, "you live in the era of shit."

so, i am in the philadelphia area. if there are literature readings happening around philadelphia and the general east coast area, people should write me and say, "hey, would you like to read a poem at my poetry event?" i'll probably say i would like to do that.

something else is that if anyone wants to read a pretty long poem about confusion which i wrote in a style that is sort of like a musical, meaning that there are some narrative parts and then the character 'breaks out into song' or in this case he just 'breaks out into written verse', then please email me stating this request and i will really enjoy fulfilling it

matthewsavoca @ gmail.com

11-16-09

2009-11-16T14:32:00.008+01:00

i wrote a haiku poem about the universe:

something exploded
thirteen billion years ago
today i ate cheese

11-08-09

2009-11-08T20:41:00.008+01:00

there are two new poems by me up on la fovea which is an e-journal that publishes poetry by having poets pick poets instead of a submission based system. i think what happened in the beginning is that they chose some poets to start off and then asked those poets to each choose others and then it went on and on. so there are like branches of poets who chose each other, i think they call them 'nerves', you can read about it on the website

anyway, my friend kendra grant malone picked me after she was picked by i forget who, so

click here to read my poems

after you read my poems, you can click on kendra's name in the upper right hand corner and read her poems which i really like a lot; one of them makes me feel like i am sitting on the train watching what she does with her hair and her hand, and the other makes me feel like i am floating just below the ceiling in her bedroom, or like the ceiling is halfway in the middle of my body, like i am a sort of ghost-ish thing but i'm floating face up so i can't see her in the room but i can hear everything that's happening

if kendra hadn't already been picked, i might have picked her but she was so i didn't, but who i did pick is jillian clark because i really really like jillian clark's poems. if i started a press (and called it something like Homeless Person's House Books), i would definitely publish a book of jillian clark's poems, if jillian clark would let me. anyway, jillian clark's poems will be coming soon at la fovea. i wonder who jillian will pick; thank you kendra (oh, i would totally publish a book of kendra's poems too with Homeless Person's House Books)

10-30-09

2009-10-30T15:19:00.005+01:00

a short video interview with ann beattie from early october 2009 at a reading in rome italy to promote the recent translation of her book chilly scenes of winter into italian:

10-28-09

2009-10-28T10:31:00.004+01:00

this is the second part of my story called pEOPLE, of which the first part was recently in keyhole digest (go back two posts to see post about it):

Sally sold a rhinoceros sculpture to Danielle Steel.

Paul is autistic.

Angel thought he was Hispanic for a long time but then found out his parents were German.

Nemi accidentally sees condom packets at WaWa. When she gets home, she masturbates in the bathroom with the door locked.

At the shop, Angel hides amongst the inventory crates while the foreman walks the concrete calling his name.

Roy has five children and two of them have children. One of Roy's children is younger than her nephew.

Elizabeth bikes to the grocery store and buys more stuff than she can carry home. Outside mounting her bike, Liz feels pessimistic about her future.

Franklin mentally envisions his name all the time. He has conversations in his head in which great mysteries of the universe get solved and forgets to buy milk. At home his Darjeeling black tea is too strong.

Johan washes his feet in the bathtub and thinks about the effect walking barefoot has on the health of his long slender body. He has arguments ready if anyone should call him a hippie or a pussy.

An older man invites Francesca over for dinner. She walks down the hallway and knocks on his door.

10-10-09

2009-10-10T21:36:00.019+02:00

i have a short story up on wunderkammer which is a poetry website that kathryn regina is doing a project on for the next two weeks. the project is something about pictures of writers when they were kids, doing something. so each writer has a picture from being a kid and someone else from the chosen group has been assigned to write a little story inspired by the picture, and all the corresponding things are posted together on a particular day.

so, today my story is up along with the corresponding picture of della watson painting a barn when she was a kid. i think later on there will be a picture of me up with text written by somebody, so keep checking back.

click here to read Everybody painted the barn that day

update:

i was a contestant on HTMLGIANT's 'Explain Yourself' segment for the barn story: click here to see it

keyhole digest

2009-10-07T10:07:00.008+02:00

i have a story in keyhole magazine's october digest. keyhole describes their digest project like this:

Keyhole Digest is a monthly printout, distributed for free in Nashville. Each month we'll fit as many stories and poems as possible onto a single sheet of paper, fold it into thirds, and hand it out. The PDFs will be available here indefinitely. Feel free to print, fold, and hand them out yourself, wherever you are.

click here for the website where you can download the PDFs

fiction / nonfiction

2009-10-03T11:11:00.006+02:00

in answering an interviewer's question 'So the second you write something down, it's fiction', Tom Waits said:

There is no such thing as nonfiction. There is no such thing as truth. People who really know what happened aren't talking. And the people who don't have a clue, you can't shut them up. It's the same with your own stories, the ones that circulate around with your family and your friends.

the next question was: Do you keep a notebook?

Oh yeah, everybody does! Life is too confusing. Monkey wrenches, pocket knives, dog food, instant coffee, lipstick. You gotta get it organized somehow.

altruism chapbook, mlpress first year anthology

2009-09-30T09:18:00.005+02:00

ml press is anthologizing their entire first year of chapbooks into one perfect-bound book volume. my chapbook altruism, which has been sold out since may, will be included in this anthology. there is going to be something like 54 authors representing a vast stylistic range of interesting contemporary independent literature.

the release date will be 1.1.10, but you can pre-order copies now which will help in the production of the book as well as get more copies into print. i believe the cost is $15

this is one of the nicest things i have been a part of, and i am very excited for it. there are rumors of marathon readings and other interesting promotion items, but for now just secure a copy of the book and more news will come when it is available.

here is a website with the official announcement including a pre-order link at the bottom

here is a brilliant line from altruism which will encourage you to want to read it and therefore need to buy the antholgogy:

"...& take us to the indian restaurant so we could eat cheese nan...”

j.a. tyler (head of ml press) is a really nice person. he is doing very helpful and good things for independent literature and also the world. i really like j.a. tyler. i fully support j.a. tyler's life and art.

The Pencil Story

2009-09-23T13:09:00.004+02:00

by Mike Topp (from Elimae 2009:09)

I had this old pencil on the dashboard of my car for a long
time. Every time I saw it, I felt uncomfortable since its point
was so dull and dirty. I always intended to sharpen it and
finally couldn't bear it any longer and did sharpen it.
I think you can guess the rest. . .

falling stars

2009-09-20T11:50:00.004+02:00

to smash motherfuckers in their face

by jillian clark

i want to talk about jillian clark right now. i really like jillian clark. i like reading jillian clark's poems. there is never anything that i want to skip over or a sentence that i feel sorry for having read. i do not read her poems very fast just to get it over with. i really like reading her poems. i recently received and read her chap/ebook from bear creek feed called falling stars to smash motherfuckers in their face.

falling stars to smash motherfuckers in their face exists. it is made up of words and sentences that exist in proximity to each other like rocks on a dusty road. jillian doesn't try to do anything or to not do anything with the words and sentences in her poems. she says things and doesn't care if they sound good or bad or stupid or smart. sometimes things she says sound like one or more of these things, but it doesn't matter. jillian's poetry is like a rock that lays in the dirt not caring if you look at it or not.

jillian seems to know that things happen, that people think things and feel things and that whatever they are, they're okay, and that it's okay to talk about them in a way that is regular and honest; that things don't need to be perfect, that it's okay if you go on a safari and don't see every kind of african animal.

click here to read jillian's ebook falling stars to smash motherfuckers in their face

long post about trying to get things published

2009-09-11T11:39:00.005+02:00

oh well
so, i have received three responses so far from small presses to whom i sent my poetry manuscript oh well, here are the responses as i remember them right now in my head:

1. i sent a query with sample poems
response: we liked this a lot but are full at the moment. if you haven't found a home for it by mid 2010, check back with us and we will re-consider

2. i sent full maniscript
response: we were taken by your manuscript and would like to offer you a situation with our upcoming schedule, but we are broke because we lost major funding, so we need you to donate $___ to this project, if you can't, don't worry, we will be up and running by spring and will pursue your manuscript with great interest then

3. i sent initial query with sample poems
response: we like your poetry. here is a note about how we work: (we are a cooperative collective and require authors to find funding for the publication of this project. sometimes we are able to help new authors who are just starting. if you able to work in this way, send the full manuscript).
i sent full manuscript unsure of what would happen or if i was 'able to work in this way'
response: we like your poetry and would be happy to publish this. should i send you a contract and budget?

i'm confused. it seems like these are positive responses. people seem to be interested. but one press says try again next year. and two others ask for funding. i am still waiting for responses from a lot of other places, i have not received any responses that said 'no'. i guess that is good.

arthur
okay, now i have had a few responses on a fiction manuscript called arthur. i will type them out as i remember them:

1. i sent query and sample
response: i like this. it has a really interesting effect as it accumulates. however, it is the perfect opposite of what we publish. sorry i can't help you with this one. (then he gave a few suggestions of places i should send to)

2-17. i sent queries and manuscripts
responses: none or no.

18. i sent query
response: please submit to our contest (which costs $25)

19. i sent query with sample
response: we enjoyed reading this and found its concept interesting, however at the present time we cannot accept it. we strongly urge you to submit it to another house.

so, yeah, i don't know

gustaf, a mag

2009-09-03T16:10:00.007+02:00

gustaf numero tre, il mio preferito

GUSTAF 3 has been printed. it is a print journal from oslo norway featuring a lot of really good writing, in my opinion. gustaf is probably my favorite literature venue ever so please buy a copy because audun spends his own money to print them and they look really nice and they have really nice literature and drawings inside them.

i have four poems in this issue which you will only get to read if you buy it or if someone gives it to you or if you ask someone who has it to type out the poems for you or if you ask me to, but, buy the issue! gustaf needs to have its appendages purchased if it is going to continue supporting literature and art.

here are the titles of my poems in this issue:

alone/not alone
dishwasher
i met an italian daytime drama actor
bad bad bad

that up top is an image of the cover, here in an image of what it looks like inside (click to enlarge):

click here to see the website for GUSTAF 3 and then buy a copy

right now

2009-08-27T19:07:00.006+02:00

i am in a town in italy where there is the largest international festival of street performers

i took the train here. it cost me ten euros and fifty-five euro cents

i slept on the ground in a park where there were people sleeping in tents. there were maybe six other people i could see sleeping on the ground in the general area i was in.

what this post is really about:

i have worked on a lot of projects with my friend olivier bherer-vidal. most of what i did is write english versions of his graphic stories which are in french.

there is a website here which is about one of the graphic stories that is going to be released tomorrow, friday august 28th, at an event in quebec. if you understand french, you will be able to read the website. if not, you will be able to recognize my name on the website and maybe also some words which are similar to english words.

one of the other projects is an english/finnish version of a french graphic story about when olivier spent 49 days in finland. there is going to be a comics festival in finland this autumn at which will be this english version that i made.

if anyone who speaks english and is not going to be in quebec or finland is interested in buying a copy of these graphic stories, you can email me and then i will talk to olivier and see about how to do that. it will be fun.

matthewsavoca @ gmail.com

bye

post about someone else

2009-08-15T19:23:00.004+02:00

i really like chris killen's choose-your-own adventure:

i am having a nice time

zen essay, moviestar

2009-08-05T23:33:00.008+02:00

i wrote A Zen Essay in Which Maybe Nothing Is Accomplished for the summer issue of the new yinzer which was guest edited by my friend claire donato

click this link to see the summer issue of the new yinzer

click this link to start reading my zen essay immediately

ron silliman linked to my zen essay on his blog. the link said this:
"If all the poets went in & bought Powerball tickets together"

another interesting scrap of news is that i am a famous actor now. jk lol. rofl.

a movie i was kind of accidentally in on purpose was recently 'released' or 're-released' i'm not sure. i even have an actor profile at imdb.com. click here to see it.

what happened is that there is this guy i used to know living in philadelphia whose name was dan. dan was a film student at temple university. now he lives in a big apartment on the upper west side in new york and makes a lot of money making movies from what i understand. anyway when dan was a lowly film student he asked me to drive him to atlantic city so that he could take some video footage of the ocean. so i drove him there and he shot his film and then there was some film left over so he shot random footage of me (and also greg lytle) and it ended up being in his movie. that's how i am a star. am i going to get paid for this? does anyone know an agent who wants to handle my acting career? i am also in a few much more underground films mostly made by film students at temple university. in one such film i am featured wearing a pig mask and blinking my eyelids a lot in slow motion. if you are an agent who represents up and coming actors especially in the indie movie sector, please contact me.

wildebeest art contest

2009-08-04T19:19:00.002+02:00

i won the first ever wildebeest art contest

i am out above myself

2009-08-03T19:58:00.013+02:00

reaching complete self detachment

feels like floating out above myself

i am typing this poem

with my fingers out above themselves

the present moment is 6:39:41 pm

i used to know an old black man

who played a handsaw like a violin

with the bow along the smooth edge

when bent, the frequency moved

out above itself into empty white space

that's where i am now

new plan?

2009-07-28T19:56:00.005+02:00

maybe i should go back to my parents' house, get a job as a carpenter (there is a guy i know who will hire me whenever), save money, self publish my poetry book in an edition of 600-1000 copies and then go around the states by greyhound and read poetry on the street or in libraries or wherever and sell my books for like 1-5 dollars each/free and then after a little while i will go to mexico with the money i made/have saved up still

i don't know what i'll do in mexico, but there will probably be chimichangas or something like them and i will eat those or some version of those that don't have meat in them

i made an empty blog post today

2009-07-19T19:26:00.002+02:00

violetta is a cat

2009-07-01T10:48:00.010+02:00

this is violetta:

she is seventeen years old.

she lives on a wall:

she hasn't come down from the wall in over five years.

she is happy on the wall.

b-day '09

2009-06-17T21:28:00.009+02:00

yesterday was my birthday

greg lytle sent me this:

could i ever become a counter culture icon?

kelly reichardt made some movies that i enjoyed watching more than a lot of other movies that i have watched in my life

i looked online and found some information said about kelly reichardt some of which was that she has very subtle homo-eroticism in her movies

i was thinking about this a lot in reference to some fiction manuscripts i have written (which have some sections that i would really enjoy seeing as kelly reichardt-directed movies) and i came up with that i think my fiction could be described as very subtle solo-eroticsm or auto-eroticism

kelly reichardt's movies are so good. does kelly reichardt ever blogsearch her own name? kelly, please read this story and if you like it, please consider making a movie out of it, thank you:

Arthur

When Arthur woke it was light outside. The light was soft and blueish and seemed to exist without a source. Arthur got out of bed and walked to the window. He looked out the window. Arthur could see only a small section of the street that wound around bends from both sides the window. On the street Arthur saw people out and counted them. Six. Most of them walking with their heads down trying to avoid stepping in various unidentifiable piles of matter or trash or dog shit. Arthur thought the people seemed calm. It must have been early in the morning. The head of one of the people on the street was facing Arthur. Arthur couldn't tell if the person was looking at him or not. Arthur didn't know if he was visible from outside or not. Arthur thought about how he had appeared quietly at the window. He looked at the rooftops across the street from him half expecting to see snipers, but the rooftops were empty. Arthur took a step back and continued looking out the window.

Arthur went into the bathroom. In the bathroom, Arthur heard voices talking about the weather. The voices were in the stairwell outside the bathroom window smoking cigarettes. They were talking about oceans rising. They were talking about voting. They were talking about the weekend. Arthur could smell the cigarette smoke. It rose up above them and drifted up and that’s when Arthur smelled it. Then it left him and went higher up and maybe somebody else smelled it or maybe not. Maybe everyone else smelled apple pie because Arthur smelled apple pie now and he wanted a piece.

Arthur thought about the people above him and Arthur thought about apple pie. Then about cherry pie. Arthur thought about other variations of fruit and the word pie and then he thought about chicken pot pie. Arthur thought about chickens in cages. Arthur thought about chickens on trucks. The trucks were on the highway. Arthur thought about the trucks and about the highway. He tried to listen for highway-like sounds but he could hear only the stairwell voices. Arthur left the bathroom with a vague desire to get back into bed. They were talking about electrical code.

When he came out of the bathroom, Arthur stood motionless in the hallway for a long time before going to the window. Arthur watched a car go by. In the narrow kitchen, he started coffee and waited looking at the stainless steel sink with his back against the wall. He put a cd on in the other room and then turned it off. Arthur stood on the carpet and looked out a different window. He gave water to a few plants on a bookshelf and then retrieved his Granite Gear Vapor Trail backpack from the top shelf. The backpack weighed twenty-nine ounces. It was the “lightest pack on the market” when Arthur had bought it, or that’s what he had told a few people. Some days later, he'd found out about a pack called the Gossamer Gear pack from a hiking enthusiast message board. Arthur did not think of himself as a hiking enthusiast, but he did like to walk and he did like lightweight backpacks and he liked survival gear. Sometimes, looking for technical information, Arthur read the message board, which told him that the Gossamer Gear pack weighed much less, maybe half, but that it didn’t come with any padding or support. It didn’t even have a backbone. The idea was to use the items you put in the backpack to build and solidify the structure and to put padding where you want padding by using your clothes or whatever. Arthur had read about this on the message board website. He'd read the words. He'd read other words about the same thing and about other things. Arthur had thought about buying the Gossamer Gear pack. He thought about returning the Granite Gear pack, but then thought about how he feels in stores, and also knew that he could not return it because he had bought it at a considerable discount from the store’s “Garage Sale” section. Eventually he'd thought “oh well.”

Arthur thought about the Gossamer Gear backpack even now, much later, as he was loading his Granite Gear backpack with a few clothing items, a pocket knife, a compass, and other little survival tools that he never actually used, or needed to use; strike anywhere matches for example.

Arthur went into the kitchen and took some fruit out of the refrigerator and put it in his backpack. He opened the cabinet and took out a bag of dry cat food. Arthur cut it open and set it down on the floor near a small water bowl. The water bowl was full of cat hair. Arthur emptied the bowl and filled it back up with water from the Brita filtered pitcher. He refilled the Brita tank and put the pitcher on the floor with the lid off. Arthur got dressed and looked at himself for a long time in the bathroom mirror, feeling satisfied that his hair made him appear as though he didn’t care. He put his shoes on and left the apartment.

He took the stairs down to the street. He walked through the lobby, past the mailboxes, and out the double doors. Arthur stopped when he reached the edge of the sidewalk. He looked to his left and right. He stayed there for some time, looking left and right. He looked at the sky. He wasn't sure why he was only just standing there. He thought about moving his legs but they didn't move. There were cars driving by and people walking by in both directions. Then Arthur began walking down the hill. When he reached the bottom, Arthur turned north, following the river. He had his compass out and he was looking at it, even though he knew that the river went north in this direction and that he was following it. Arthur walked for a while. Eventually he reached the on-ramp of a highway. Arthur put his pack on the ground, sat on top of it and put his thumb out. He felt uneasy and self conscious sitting there with his thumb out. He stopped holding his thumb out. He rested his hand on his knee. The hand was in the shape of a fist and the thumb was still out, but the arm was not extended. Arthur sat like that for some time. Some cars passed him. Some people looked at him. One man in a shirt and tie with his jacket hanging on the back of his car seat made eye contact with Arthur as he moved his car steadily up the ramp. After a little while, one of the cars turning from the street onto the on-ramp stopped and reached across the car to manually roll down the window. The person looked at Arthur for a long time. Arthur stood up and took hold of one of the arms of his backpack. He moved his head down a little and looked at the driver. She waved him over and he walked to the window. She was leaning across the seats. “Where're you headed?” She said.

Arthur looked up the ramp at the highway and then back down to the river. He looked at the woman and said, “Not sure yet.”

“What?” She said, “Can't hear you, hun.”

“I'm going to visit a friend,” Arthur said.

“Alright,” she said and told him to throw his pack in the backseat and hop in. Arthur didn’t want to leave his pack out of reach in case he had to make a quick exit or if he just wanted something from it while they were driving. He stared at the woman for a few seconds and then did what she said. The car went up the on-ramp and merged into empty space on the highway. There was silence for a few minutes. Arthur had his head turned to the right and was looking out the window. He kept it that way. The woman spoke again.

“So, where is it you're going?”

Arthur did not say anything. Then he said, “North.”

“But this here is even-numbered. They go East West. Odd-numbereds go North South.”

“Which way are we going exactly?”

“West.”

“West is fine.”

“Do you have a destination?”

“Not really.”

“What about that friend?”

Arthur looked at the woman and then out through the windshield at the dotted lines on the road. “Thank you for picking me up,” he said.

“How long were you waiting?”

“Not too long. Maybe half an hour.”

The woman nodded her head slightly.

“Do you pick up… people much?” Arthur said.

“Not really. I don’t see them too often though. Kinda thought nobody really did it anymore. Hitchhiking. Can’t remember when the last time I saw one was actually.”

Arthur looked at the woman and then back out through the windshield at the dotted lines. He didn’t say anything.

“I hitchhiked to California when I was your age.”

“Where from?”

“Maryland. Little place called Elkton.”

Arthur nodded his head slightly.

“Well, how old are you anyways? I’m bettin’ you’re about twenty-two.”

“I’m Twenty-five.”

“Oh, ya look younger.”

“Yeah, lot of people say that.”

“You look like you came hitchhiking through time. From the seventies or something. Anybody tell you you look like you come from the seventies?”

“Yeah, a guy in a bathroom said that to me once.”

“In a bathroom? Like, a public bathroom?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say?”

“He asked me if seventies hair was coming back into style.”

“What did you say?”

“I said I didn't know.”

The woman laughed and said, “In a public bathroom.”

“A gay man bought me a shot at a bar in Honolulu once. He gave it to a friend of mine and asked him if I was gay.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing. I said I wasn't gay and gave him back the shot. He said I could have it anyway and asked if I would drink it with him. I said sure and then we clinked glasses and drank.”

“Then what happened?”

“Nothing.”

“I don't think you look gay at all. You look more bear-y than fairy. ”

Arthur didn’t say anything. He smiled at the woman and then looked back out at the road. He was nodding again. He looked at tree tops.

“So, what’s your name?”

Arthur hesitated. He thought about giving a fake name. He thought of the name Bill. He thought of the name Frank. He couldn’t think of a good fake name quick enough. He realized he was taking too long to respond.

“You have a name, don't ya?” She said.

“Archibald,” Arthur said.

“Your name is not Archibald,” the woman said laughing.

Arthur didn't say anything. He smiled at her and then looked out the window to his right again.

“Okay, Archie,” she said, “can I call you Archie?”

“Only my grandfather was ever allowed to call me Archie.”

“Okay, then, Archibald.”

There was silence in the car for awhile.

“What's your name?” Arthur said.

“Alice,” she said.

“Alice,” Arthur said looking out the passenger side window.

“Arthur,” Arthur said.

“Arthur?” Alice said.

“My name is Arthur.”

“Hi Arthur.”

“Hi Alice.”

“So why'd you say Archibald when I asked you?” She said smiling.

“First I thought of Bill and then Frank,” Arthur said, “I don't know.”

Alice laughed. “Archibald is definitely more interesting,” she said.

“I don’t know. I Guess I thought I'd giving myself a new identity but I couldn't come up with anything.”

“You don’t need a new name to get a new identity.”

“Probably not.”

“Besides, Archibald isn’t too different from Arthur.”

“Maybe I only wanted a slightly different identity.”

Alice laughs.

“You’re kinda loopy, aren’t you?” She says.

Arthur doesn’t say anything. He smiles. He looks out the passenger window. He sees trees with limbs and sunlight on them. Arthur turns towards Alice and starts to say something but just smiles and then turns back. They drive some miles in silence. Even the radio is silent. There is only the sound of the engine. And the wheels.

“Thanks for picking me up,” he says.

“You already did,” she says.

Arthur looks to his right, out the window. He feels hungry. They pass a sign on the highway that says Speed Limit 65 MPH. Arthur looks at the sign. They pass another sign that says Next Exit 6 miles. Arthur looks at the sign. Then Alice speaks.

“This next one is my exit. Should I let you off down the ramp.”

“You can let me off here, actually, if you don’t mind.”

“On the side of the road?”

Arthur doesn't say anything. Then, “Yeah,” he says.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I think I’ll walk a little.”

“The exit is still a couple of miles.”

“That’s alright, I'd rather stay up here for now.”

“You want to walk?”

“Yeah.”

“On the highway?”

“In the grass there. Over the rail.”

“Alright. Whatever floats your boat.”

Arthur smiles at her and then looks at the trees. “Thanks.”

Alice pulls the car over on the shoulder and Arthur gets out. He gets his pack out of the backseat and says thanks. Alice smiles and says good luck and then drives away.

Arthur sits on the guardrail and watches the traffic pass. After a little while, he starts walking down the road. It is warm in the sun and Arthur feels the warmth on his skin. He sits down and takes an apple and the pocket knife out of his pack. He cuts the apple and eats it. He wipes the knife blade on his shirt and dries it. He puts it in his pocket and starts walking again.

Another car stops and asks Arthur if he needs a ride. Arthur gets in the car. The driver doesn’t speak much. Arthur watches the lines on the road pass underneath the car. He imagines himself floating in and out of the dashes like an angry snake, escaped from a basket or a pot or maybe he is some kind of low-hovering hover-bird instead. Arthur rolls down the window and the driver asks him to roll it back up. Wind gives me a headache, he says. Arthur rolls the window up and looks at the telephone poles and the wires. He follows the drooping wires with his eyes. They sag in the middle on the way from one pole to the next. He imagines sheep jumping over the low point. The sheep are jumping from the trees and are landing in the traffic. They are getting hit by cars. The driver of the car Arthur is in does not notice the sheep. None of the other drivers notice them. Many sheep are dying. There is dark red blood.

Arthur’s eyes follow the wire for miles. He counts over seventy poles, using an estimation technique. At least one dead sheep for each. Sometimes more.

As the driver exits the highway, he stops to let Arthur out at the next on-ramp. Arthur says thanks and sits down in the sunlight. He waits there for a while and then begins walking. Arthur walks up the ramp and onto the highway. He crosses the guardrail to his right and walks along it in the grass. Nothing happens for a while. Arthur gets tired. He sits Indian style in the grass and guesses that he has traveled one hundred miles. He looks at the sky. He looks at the highway. He looks at the cars passing on the highway. He looks past the highway. He looks back at the highway again. He looks at the asphalt. He lays down. His knees are in the air. He put his hands beneath his head. He does three sit-ups. He gets up. He stands up. He waits for a break in the traffic. He waits a long time. He crosses the highway to the other side and starts walking. Soon Arthur is in another car.

“Where ya headed?”

“East.”

“Right.”

“The odd-numbered roads go East West.”

“Yup, they do.”

“Where are you headed?”

“I’m goin’ up North after East.”

Arthur nods. There is silence.

“Where do you want me to let you off at?”

“I don’t know yet,” Arthur says.

“Okay. Just be sure to tell me.”

“Okay.”

Arthur looks mostly out the window to his right. His head is turned away from the driver and he watches the trees pass by him. He fixes his eyes on a single tree up ahead in the distance and holds them on it all the way until the tree flies past him and his head turns quickly and his eyes are looking backwards and then he loses the tree amongst the pack of trees.

The man asks Arthur where he’s from. Arthur says he was born in Philadelphia. The man asks Arthur where he lives now. Arthur says he hasn't decided.

“So you’re a rambler?”

“I don’t know. Not really.”

“A Pennsylvania Rambler. Ain’t much of those. Not anymore.”

“I haven’t lived there for a while.”

“You been on the move, yeah. Wish I could do that.”

Arthur smiles briefly at the man and then looks out his window.

“You don’t seem to have much in that pack.”

“Yeah, I don’t carry a lot.”

“Just like the pros.”

Some time passes. Neither the driver nor Arthur say anything. The driver drives and Arthur looks out the window. He thinks about the man’s last statement. “Just like the pros.” He thinks about how it sounds strange. How can someone wander around aimlessly like a professional? Only if someone was paying him money to do it. Right? Isn't that what professional means? Money for what? Arthur looks at his shoes. They have holes in the sides and are a little wet from the moisture in the grass. Money for new shoes maybe. Arthur glances at the man driving. Arthur looks at his face. It is concentrated on the road. Arthur looks back out his window to the right and then back at the man. He looks at the man's crotch and then leans forward and looks out the windshield at the sky. He thinks, This man is nice. This man is being nice to me.

“No moon,” Arthur says.

“What?” The man says.

“Can't see the moon.”

“It's daylight,” the man says.

“Yeah, sometimes you can see the moon in daylight. If its orbit brings it across the daylight side of the Earth.”

“Yeah, I have seen that before.”

“It is always visible during daylight from somewhere on Earth,” Arthur says.

The man doesn't say anything. He nods his head. Arthur looks out the window and watches the grass and trees go by. The driver turns the radio up. It had been very low, almost inaudible, the classic rock station. Arthur hears the song and recognizes it. A King Crimson song.

“I like this song,” Arthur says.

The driver turns the volume up more. They listen to the song for a few minutes, then another song comes on. The driver turns down the radio again to speak.

“So, what’s your story?”

“I don't have a story.”

“You don’t have a story or a home. What do ya have?”

“I have a home.”

“Thought you said you hadn’t decided where you live.”

“I decided.”

“When?”

“During that last song.”

The man laughs. “You’re a hoot,” he says.

“Okay, let’s have it,” he says.

“What?”

“Out with it then. What did you decide on?”

“Front Royal,” Arthur says.

“Shitty place to decide to live. Nobody decides to live in Front Royal.”

“Some people must.”

“Nobody in their right mind.”

“Well, where would you decide to live?”

“Right where I do live.”

“Which is where?”

“Farmland.”

“Farmland?”

“Yup.”

“Farmland, where?”

“P.A.”

“Where in P.A.?”

“Near Harrisburg. South of Harrisburg.”

“Right in the middle of nothing. Good place for a farm,” Arthur says.

“Yeah. They don’t call it Pennsyltucky for nothing.”

“Pennsyltucky? Who calls is that?”

“Truckers. Freighters.”

“Why Pennsyltucky?”

“They say the middle of Pennsylvania looks just like Kentucky.”

Arthur laughs. “I guess it does,” he says.

“You been to Kentucky, then?”

“Yeah I drove through it last Spring.”

“Great American cross country road trip?”

“That's the one.”

“With some buddies or with a girl?”

The driver looks at Arthur. His eye brows are moving up and down.

“Girl,” Arthur says.

“Yeah. That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Blonde or brunette? Or redhead?”

Arthur laughs and shakes his head. “She has brown hair,” he says.

“Did you go through the desert?” The man asks.

“Yeah. The Painted Desert,” Arthur says.

They sit silent for a little while and the driver turns the radio up again. Arthur thinks about Pennsyltucky. He thinks about Pennsylvania and about Kentucky. He imagines the words in his mind. He think about William Penn. He thinks about woodlands. He thinks about driving through Pennsylvania. He thinks about how open and flat and boring it is. He remembers how it always smells like manure on the highway. He thinks about how people always say memories are tied closest to smells. He thinks about a commercial for a men’s fragrance spray. They say the sharpest memories are triggered by smell. There is a woman in the scene holding a plastic cup with beer in it talking to a friend and a man walks past her and she smells him and gets a sexy look in her eyes. Then they say, Smell Memorably – Make Memories. Or something like that. Arthur couldn’t exactly remember. He couldn’t remember what product the commercial was promoting either. Maybe they’re right then. About smell being tied to memory. Arthur thinks about this and then he thinks about Pennsyltucky. He rolls down the window and smells the air outside. It doesn’t smell like anything. A highway. Rubber. Engines. Oil. Arthur thinks to himself, I will remember this moment anyway, just because I am giving it some kind of weight. I am thinking about remembering it based on some smell, but I will just remember it because I am thinking about trying to remember it. You can’t knowingly try to tie a smell to a memory. Then you will remember it just because. It has to just happen regularly and then you probably won’t even notice what’s happening, or what's happened. The man breaks Arthur’s thoughts by speaking.

“Well, we’re coming up on 81. I usually take that up North right into farmland, but Front Royal is only a little ways past me here. If you want, I’ll take you there.”

The man laughs. “Are you really going to Front Royal?”

Arthur doesn’t say anything. Then he smiles and says yes.

When they get to Front Royal, the man exits the highway and turns into a gas station. Arthur gets out of the car and thanks the man. The man drives off and gets on the highway going the other direction. Arthur watches him and then goes into the gas station to use the bathroom. He buys a bottle of water and drinks from it. Then he leaves the gas station and starts walking. He walks for a long time, choosing a way and then following signs and then choosing another way. He arrives at a bus station and gets on a bus to Washington D.C.

When he gets to Washington D.C., Arthur changes buses at a large bus station. Arthur rides the second bus for a little while and then exits the bus at a scheduled bus stop and follows the river back towards his apartment. On the way up the hill, Arthur stops at a food store and buys fresh vegetables and fruits. He buys broccoli, spinach, carrots, potatoes, white cabbage, red cabbage, butternut squash, clementines, yellow apples, gala apples, red delicious apples, fresh onions and kiwis. He puts the produce in his backpack and walks next door and buys milk.

Arthur walks the rest of the way up the hill and into his apartment building. He takes the elevator up to the third floor and stands in front of his door looking for the keys. He doesn’t have the keys. Arthur puts down his bag and walks upstairs. He rings the buzzer of one of the apartments and a man answers. Arthur tells the man that he locked himself out and needs the key. The man reaches behind him on the desk and gives Arthur the key. Arthur says thanks and walks downstairs. Arthur opens the apartment and goes inside.

haha

2009-06-11T21:39:00.003+02:00

i have contacted some literary agents

haha

(sigh)

i searched a website and choose which agents to query based on them accepting email queries, being interested in 'literary fiction,' and having a gmail email address

not sure why i did this exactly

haha

christopher columbus, 1492

2009-06-05T09:09:00.013+02:00

today is friday june 5th and there is a new ebook by me. an unnecessary ebook. it is called christopher columbus and is available in two or more forms. one is issuu style which you can read at the unnecessary press website.

click here for that

the second form is downloadable as a PDF. click here for that

(i recommend the PDF)

christopher columbus is a short fiction ebook of short fiction in e and downloadable book styles. it is published by unnecessary press and crispin best for the year 1492 of his for every year project. it will be officially released sometime this weekend:

1492149214921492149214921492149214921492149214921492149214921492149214921492

cover image for christopher columbus:

hiroshige owl, bats?

2009-06-02T15:46:00.008+02:00

here is an image of the hiroshige owl print that i saw at the exhibit:

i want to get this owl tattooed on the inside of my left forearm. just the owl and a small piece of the branch that it is on

i can't find an image of the hiroshige bats. does anyone know this image? i really liked the hiroshige bats. i want to get them tattoed on my left bicep/tricep/shoulder.

i don't have money for tattoos, but maybe someday i will and if i still like these ideas on that day, then i will probably get the tattoos

i feel like i will always love owls and bats

edit: found the image of "bats in moonlight":

chapbooks, manuscripts

2009-05-31T12:19:00.005+02:00

does anyone know what presses i can send 1-2 poetry chapbook manuscripts that are about 20 pages each to? i don't want to enter any competitions. and i only want to send electronically. does anyone know what press would like me and want to publish stuff by me?

also, does anyone know a press that would probably like my style so that i could send them 1-2 full length poetry manuscripts? and also maybe somewhere i could send 1-2 full length fiction manuscripts?

i am being serious, does anyone know?

i am going to see a hiroshige exhibition now, there are drawings of owls, when i come back will there be any comments to this post? will the werner herzog film that i am downloading be finished and ready for me to watch?

i wrote a song, so far there are lyrical parts and harmonica parts

2009-05-26T13:43:00.012+02:00

(this is a song, not a poem)

it's hard, i know
to get up, to go
it's hard, hard, hard, i know
it's hard, i know
to get up, to go
it's hard, hard, hard, i know
it's hard, it's hard
it's hard, i know
hard to get up, hard to go
it's hard hard hard to know
what to do, where to go
it's hard to know, hard to know
it's so hard to know, i know
i know, i know, i know it's hard
i know
i know
i know it's hard to know
what to do, where to go
i know
i know
i know

post

2009-05-21T20:07:00.005+02:00

the number of people i know, in real life, is < 10 including my brothers and parents whom i haven't seen in 1+ years

of these people, there are 1½ that i talk to in my native language. there are ~4 that i half talk to in a language i only speak well enough to have conversations about food, weather, or obama. because conversations about obama go like this:

obama?
obama!
but, obama?
well, definitely obama., and probably obama! eventually, just give it some time

the ½ person is a puppy that i talked to for ~1 hour at an outdoor adoption center in the park three weeks ago

altruism review

2009-05-20T21:05:00.007+02:00

altruism was reviewed at htmlgiant. click here to see the post or just read this:

"I read “Altruism” by Matthew Savoca, whose blog you can reach here, and whose blog I have also read on a few occasions. I will call Matthew a poet. He has interesting facial hair and very deep set eyes according to the pictures on his blog. While I am unclear on the title’s significance, I do believe this poem is narrated by a young man who is having some relationship problems with his significcant other. I would even call this a “love poem”. I like how Savoca refers to football fields repeatedly as a unit of measurement. I like football, period. I also really liked this part, because it was funny (sorry the line breaks are off, I blame Wordpress):

what we’re not saying is that we are bored of each other

which really kind of means we are bored of who we are

when we are with each other

it’s the result of never spending time with anyone else

we talk about this

and then go spend some time with other people

until we remember that we don’t like other people
I could really relate to those lines."

do i have deep set eyes? how does having deep set eyes affect my life? do i see things differently? is this why people think i'm weird/look at me like i might be a furry animal that looks interesting and might be nice to touch?

i believe my story has made it past the first round of cuts in the brandon scott gorrell story contest. my story has been labelled 'CONTEST: MAYBE'. here is the link.

am i going to fail miserably at trying to achieve a position in life that feels sustainable? should i have become some sort of animal-worker? should i have studied biology or zoology in school? would i be in a better position than i currently am? would it be less hard to decide what to do in life? will i ever be able to secure a 30,000 - 50,000 dollar fellowship or grant award for my writing? can i find a part time job that will supply enough income for one or two people to live simply? does it exist? should i move back to the states? will obama make my life any better? should i move to north carolina?

cowboy hat, saudi arabia

2009-05-16T20:29:00.011+02:00

someone from saudi arabia looked at my blog

what does this mean?

is there existentialism in saudi arabia?

is there minimalism?

is there a small independent press in saudi arabia that wants to publish something i wrote?

is it simply a westerner traveling through saudi arabia? i don't know

i am wearing a cowboy hat, i feel kind of like conor oberst by conor oberst right now

space

2009-05-15T18:19:00.006+02:00

have been watching a lot of documentaries about the universe

everything is expanding, everything is spinning

everything in the entire universe is just spinning

altruism the chapbook ships out today, dinner will be eaten later

international

2009-05-07T15:59:00.019+02:00

Le Philistin is a french-canadian litzine that is made and published in quebec city. in each issue they have a segment called '12 lists of 5 items' in which someone writes any 12 lists of any 5 items they want. olivier asked me to write it for the latest issue, and i did.

here is the blog post announcing the new issue, it's in french, if you look hard enough, you can see my name

olivier makes very nice textile stuff from recycled materials (a lot of old ship sails), and lots of other stuff which you can see on his blog here.

he is also an illustrator, i really like his illustrations. he drew two illustrations for TOUGH! and does graphic story telling that is very interesting and good and that i really like a lot ++

i stayed with olivier for 3 or 4 days in quebec city a long time ago. we took a really long walk one day and another day made a really good bean salad that i still think about sometimes.

OH WELL

2009-05-06T18:11:00.009+02:00

this is a possible cover for my poetry book oh well which does not currently have a publisher. you can read about it and other manuscripts by clicking the 'books' link at the top of the page

new poetry book

2009-05-01T16:34:00.006+02:00

today is friday may 1st

my poetry book "matthew savoca" was published as a PDF by Gene Morgan's Twitter Feed Press

click this link to download the PDF

sam pink is TOUGH!

2009-05-01T14:38:00.006+02:00

sam pink drew for TOUGH!, !

oh well

2009-04-28T11:18:00.005+02:00

how many self-published professional-looking poetry books could i sell using only this blog, which means maybe like, making one or two reasonably-sized blog posts about it and having maybe an image of the cover in the sidebar which linked to a blog page just for the book which people could click on and then purchase?

is there another way i could have full artistic control over my poetry book but still have people read it without 'too much trouble' on my part and could this also be a situation where there is no pressure to succeed or whatever?

is anyone else slightly concerned about the possible swine flu pandemic?

possible cover for future poetry book that may never exist

2009-04-21T19:16:00.003+02:00

GUSTAF interviewed me

2009-04-21T10:11:00.001+02:00

GUSTAF interviewed me

GUSTAF

2009-04-12T18:31:00.010+02:00

there is a new issue of GUSTAF which is a print magazine from oslo norway coming out at the end of april. some of the poems in this issue will be poems that i wrote. there is also going to be a litzine festival there in oslo and i made a video which is going to be shown on a big screen at that festival with i think a video made by brandon scott gorrell which is very nice. audun and the people at GUSTAF are really nice. this festival is going to be nice and the issues of GUSTAF are really nice.

you can see the video right now on GUSTAF's website. you can do that by clicking this link.

WARNING, WARNING - if you are expecting a copy of my chapbook altruism to come in the mail next month, you might want to wait and watch this video after you receive the chapbook, I'M SORRY!

kathryn regina

2009-04-11T10:01:00.009+02:00

kathryn regina has a new chapbook for preorder (will be out very very soon) from greying ghost press called i am in the air right now. this is one of my favorite chapbooks ever. that is why i have included it in my series of ebooks which are made up of my own versions of chapbooks that i really like.

so, i have made this ebook called there is air in me right now. click here to read it. i think you should buy kathryn's chapbook and read that too.

here is a link to where you can buy kathryn's chapbook

another thing that happened related to kathryn and i is something but actually i don't really understand what happened. someone asked her to give a list of her favorite novellas to be a part of a giant list of novellas and she included my short work of fiction called arthur. this list is gigantic. way too gigantic to read. things are listed alphabetically. here is the link for proof of what i just said.

arthur is unpublished. kathryn is the only one who likes my fiction. i will send the manuscript to anyone who wants to read it and then maybe tell me why people don't really like it. you can include comments about how there isn't a real 'voice' and also about how there isn't any clean sharp narrative, and how there's too much 'wandering' dialogue.

neat.

altruism has sold out, i'm sorry

2009-04-04T09:04:00.005+02:00

today is saturday april 4th, and the breaking news is that my ml press chapbook altruism has sold out. i know how most people feel when people or entities that they feel connected with sell out, and i just want to apologize right now for the actions of my chapbook. i hoped it would stick it out longer, be a starving chapbook, but i guess even a chapbook's got alimony to pay.

the good news is that there will be a few copies of altruism at powell's bookstore soon. keep checking the website for news if you wanted a copy and did not order it.

altruism the chapbook will be shipping out on the 15th of may.

other news coming soon is about my rising stardom in europe, particularly norway, which i am now officially calling the new minimalist america.

TOUGH! luv, tough kids

2009-03-21T07:50:00.004+01:00

'this ain't no disco'

- ryan manning

this is an official message from the never-stop-illustrating-it TOUGH! ebook thing

TOUGH!

altruism

2009-03-19T10:05:00.013+01:00

my ml press chapbook ALTRUISM is now available for pre-order purchasing. this chapbook costs 2 dollars including shipping and will be mailed out on the 15th of may.

this chapbook is about 11 pages, it is a section of a long poem called long love poem with descriptive title which does not currently have a publisher. if it gets a publisher sometime, it will be called long love poem with descriptive title. and then will probably just be referred to as long love poem or poem.

other sections of this long love poem have been published in this feels like normal and i am being honest, both published by bearcreekfeed.

about ALTRUISM j.a. tyler said: 'the tramping abroad minimalism of matthew savoca'

there is a limited number of copies available

click here to pre-order ALTRUISM

click here to see the ml press blog post about it

TOUGH! luv, tuff kid

2009-03-17T17:48:00.006+01:00

'here is a picture of a redheaded child'

- chris east

this is the second addition to the collection of the 'never-stop-illustrating-it' TOUGH! ebook series

i am matthew savoca and i approve this blog post

TOUGH!