ululation.com: an online source of literature, art and opinion

4 n e w p o e m s
from F r a n c i s R a v e n .

Building Fulfilling

Manipulations of happiness
Simulacrum…verify effects;
Difficulty of educing naturally.

Pointing at the glasses,
Feel the manifold of experience
Burn the rough magnet of self.

Conditioned matter of course constrained,
Personal choices contrived
By mishap structured city.

Trendy

Other things like crackers
Will not go out of fashion.
Our hair might change.
Cups alter liquids.
And everything matters:
A comb matters, sifting.

But the bread better last

Or I'm leaving this political
Stomping ground.
Let alone be fat.
This cup pours out
In the short distance
For a camera of campus length.

Nature Services

In the back of a long tradition
Because of the civil rights movement
A moral dimension entered the political door,

But I enjoy you
Through the aspectual change caused by
The shift from viewing life as good
To seeing it as a service,
Pumping the emphasis
Through several mechanisms
Provided generously by the environment.

Hard Spray

Bent towels and
Other vagaries.
It's not quite in stereo
Because the speakers
Are pointed in different directions.
But just wait, a small man
Will pierce your ear
Before you have time
To wait for your car to be cleaned
(Super Deluxe - Free with 13 Regular Washes).
I know you're not staring at the moon
But planning your next con.
You're probably not even doing that much.
You're most likely just thinking
About what movies are playing at the mall
Around now, or how you're going to hook up with Jimmy,
Or what's for dinner at the Waterston's house;
You're certainly not thinking about me,
But you should be,
Because I am.

Francis Raven is an editorial assistant at the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Two of his chapbooks, "Notestalk" and "Notationing" have been published by Broken Boulder Press, and his poems have been published in Pindeldyboz, Monkey Bicycle, Mudlark, Pavement Saw, Poethia, Beehive, Gestalten, Untitled, The In Posse Review, The East Village, The New Colonist, and Taint, among others. His essays and articles have been published in Clamor, In These Times, Fulcrum, Rain Taxi, The New Colonist, Taint, and Pavement Saw.

A R C H I V E S .

CHRISTOPHER BARNES
Topsy-Turvy

PETER BARR
the wanderers party on and converse...
wishing for sculpture

MELISSA BENHAM
Decoy
Diffuse

J WARD BOYTE
      Fresno
      Guitar and Voice.
      Love Means No Holes
      Remedy Chaos

JANET I. BUCK
      A Fuzzy Watch
      Live on CNN
      The Giant Moth
      Upon the Threads of Slivered Glass

SUSAN H. CASE
      Fray
      The Bavarian Pine Vole Returns
      Can't do this Insular
      Difference of Opinion
      Intertwined
      Grimalkin

HEATHER LEE COOPER
Pig Roast

VICTORIA CURTIS
Love Is No Surprise To Biologists

SASHA EAKLE
      Like Silt
      Like Tin
      Stuck Again

BARBARA FLETCHER
      Shrinking
      Gold
      Lunchtime Cab Ride
      Exhale
      Herd Heading Home
      Geomancer

TOPAZ FRANTZ
Taos