Pages

7/31/13

Matthew Fee

Love

I love you
I love you so much

Poem's Score: -9.746

Matthew Fee is currently a student at the University of Utah. His recent work is published or forthcoming in journals such as Salamander, The Atlas Review, Dear Sir, Spittoon, The Monarch Review, Likewise Folio, and Pebble Lake Review. His life dream is to start a yearly anthology called Worst American Poetry.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/30/13

Dan Brady

There Is an Enemy in Love

There is an enemy in Love.
You know what I mean?

The fear of it, it
comes on like a wave.

To be understood
could be a terrible thing.

There is death in Love
You know what I mean?

The shame of it all,
laid bare.

To see me break, like a wave,
and the welling undertow.

Better to be safe. Better to be
separate and alone

‘cause then I could sleep all night.
You know what I mean?

Without anyone ever
pressing against me.

Without breath, nearly inaudible,
reminding me that death is in room.

Yes, there is an enemy in Love
and I will not face it.

‘cause I am afraid of what I am.
You know what I mean?

Poem's Score: -4.52878688525, you know what I mean?

Dan Brady is the poetry editor of Barrelhouse. His poetry has appeared in Artifice, Big Lucks, BlazeVox, Gargoyle, H_NGM_N, Shampoo, and elsewhere. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/29/13

Danika Stegeman

White Rabbit

We hear the sound of a river’s branch breaking. We follow it
like a hallway down. We arrive at an ocean but decide not to

stand in it. You laugh, slightly crazily. You sit/sort of fall down.
We look again. There is no ocean. Just spit in a frame. A tox screen

shows its blood content, which unzips into a room. Wonderland.
The room has no latitude. If an image comes to you then

you’re hallucinating. Light, comma, sticks. Touch me
again. Something tells me you’re good and a body

must have documentation. I look into your eyes and what I see
is beautiful water. You want to try and save everyone. This is

ordinary magic. We’re still waiting. Waiting for someone
to come. We can’t just crucify the light.

Poem's Score: 0.190029411765

Danika Stegeman lives in Minneapolis, MN and works in a library. She has an M.F.A. in creative writing from George Mason University. Her work has appeared in Denver Quarterly, Lo-Ball, and Alice Blue Review, among other places.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/26/13

Ashley Bovan

You love like a flashflood

I hunger like I never tasted you
get hit by moments of you
love you like flower fog
like navigation
deep love you
love your hunger
hunger like love

Poem's Score: -11.5080689655

Ashley Bovan lives and writes in Cardiff, UK and has recently completed his MA studies. He has been widely published, in print and online. Website - http://www.ashley-bovan.co.uk.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/25/13

Kelli Russell Agodon

I Give My Soul Peanuts Because It's An Elephant

Peanuts of love and
chat megadeath loves soul
peanuts, your lovey dove
want and want
bore me with desire
for more
peanuts, Soul,
you ask for too much
megadeath soul train
emotional hunger hurts.

Poem's Score: -4.13717647059

Kelli Russell Agodon is the author of Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room (White Pine Press, 2010), Winner of the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Prize in Poetry and a Finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She is also the author of Small Knots and the chapbook, Geography. Recently she co-edited the first eBook anthology of contemporary women’s poetry, Fire On Her Tongue.

Kelli is the editor of Seattle’s literary journal, Crab Creek Review and the co-founder of Two Sylvias Press. She lives in the Northwest where she is a mountain biker, paddleboarder, and kayaker. She is recently completed her third book of poems, Hourglass Museum, which will be published in 2014, along with The Daily Poet, a book of poetry writing exercises she co-wrote with Martha Silano.
Visit her at www.agodon.com or on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/agodon.
She writes about living and writing creatively on her blog, Book of Kells at: www.ofkells.blogspot.com.
Kelli tries her best not to write bad poetry, but when she does, she always tries to include megadeath and the word "soul" in it.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/24/13

B.J. Best

Music Hater

I hate music with a heat;
It always makes me burn up.
Once I thought I found a beat
But it turned out to be a turnip


Poem's Score: 0.372518518519

B.J. Best is the author of several non-terrible books of poetry, most recently But Our Princess Is in Another Castle from Rose Metal Press. He lives in Wisconsin, but this poem was written in Iowa in 1994. Visit him at http://bj.desperadopress.com.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/23/13

Morgan Myers

THIS IS...cheney's homunculus...go!!!

THIS IS MIND MELTING
cheney’s homunculus bores us

for 8:40 with her absolute, limitless,
and ill-soundtracked brilliance

using more run-on, compound sentences
than this writer has ever heard before,

i barf!
PLEASE CLICK BELOW

Poem's Score: -2.38211111111

Morgan Myers lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. He occasionally adds line breaks to funny text he finds on the internet.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/22/13

Michele Battiste

Life on Pluto

Pluto has been demoted because it does not dominate its neighborhood.
    – Mason Inman, National Geographic News

There are those among us who refuse
to memorize the planets in their proper
order. Once a man attended the council
meeting and spoke of monetizing

our collateral. We knew him
for a stranger but coveted the fine
stitching on his boots. As if his roads
were all and always freshly paved but smelled

nothing of cooling asphalt. Some say
this town is awfully cold but none
of us know what weather is.
Though we think we do, like a born-blind

child knows the color silver is a sudden
squall across a tarn and shuddering
nearby aspens. The bread at the bakery
tastes like moss and the baker says nom

nom nom
as she hands out samples. We feel
only pity for her and for each other.
We know what pitiful is. A shadow
growing longer despite the orbit

of five moons. We know night.
A shadow raging to be released
from its shell. The watchman knows
our names and keeps us in check. Dissuades

us from thinking of others. When we cross
each other’s path we hiss because
we know love. Someone once came to us
and spoke gently of the Pleiades.

That is it, we whispered. A constellation
we can refer to. Like silver. Like the sun
that, when it finally comes, makes
the shadows small.

Poem's Score: -0.0989661016949

Michele Battiste is the author of Ink for an Odd Cartography and Uprising (coming in October), both from Black Lawrence Press. She's a member of Broken Nose Collective and lives in Boulder, CO.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/19/13

Donna Girouard

To My Darlin' Cavalier (with apologies to Robert Burns)

The first day I saw you, I knew you were the one.
I could feel your strength, your power.
(You were my first - the other one was just a glimpse.)
Even though I feared you, I loved you then.
You made me feel free and alive - like never before.

Together we rode the hills and valleys,
Experienced a oneness through the joys and sorrows.
We even carried the dear creature on her final day.
It was we against the uncertain world.
You were always r=there, safe and solid

Until the day the stranger appeared.
In a blinding flash, you were changed.
Your youth, your beauty, your energy,
All taken from me, snatched as tears spattered my cheeks.
You cringed, helpless, open and naked to the world.

Now you're back, but I know it's over.
My heart cries over your drunken frame,
Your transparency forever clouded.
Gone is the magic; I must move on.
I'll say goodbye, though I love you still.

Poem's Score: -1.4922962963

Donna Girouard is an Instructor of English at Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC, and faculty adviser of the college's literary-arts magazine, The Bear's Tale. Her essays can be found in Storm Cellar Quarterly, Writer's Bloc, Embodied Effigies and Apeiron Review and in the next issues of Okalahoma Review and Sugar Mule.

7/16/13

Erin Fitzgerald

Reminders

Call Dr. Way about appointment

Send cat clinic thank you note

Check GMS registration

Dance pics to CDB

Summer camp forms

USAA bill


Poem's Score: -0.0851304347826

Erin Fitzgerald lives and breathes at gnomeloaf.com. This is her first poetry publication.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/15/13

Phil Estes

The Lusty Men (1952)

Jo has been gone too long that I should not
Feel this way anymore. “But you can’t control

These sorts of things, ______,” my friends always say.
To mourn anything is tough when you don’t remember

Mourning’s subject. Jo will take Harv’s shit-stained cock
Into her mouth. I will watch an old movie

About a pretty good rodeo man in love
With a young woman from afar—she’s hitched also

To a young gun with talent: a bull rider.
The difference between the hero and me: the hero

Is played by Robert Mitchum and he’s talented;
The young bull rider respects him to a degree.

Thank God the lovers of bull riders don’t write much
Poetry. I don’t want to hear about him Jo,

How he’s like water or some shit: he freezes
In buckets and likes your hair cut short like

A boy’s. I grabbed a little bit of hair once
When mounting you from behind, like I’d tie you

Into a ball of legs. You screamed and that’s it,
I didn’t see your body until September.

You said I was passive; I don’t know I guess,
But Robert Mitchum as hero knows better—

He helps the kid and dies for it—gored, finally,
By a bull. He bleeds from the ass honestly,

Not because his lines about poor Idaho
People are far too tight to not act or feel

Cliché; just before our hero dies
He says: “Love each other” to the young woman, young gun,

And I know I will, but I don’t want to yet.
The stronger man died. He is a ghost on the wall.

Poem's Score: -2.10459649123


Phil Estes' poems have appeared recently in Diagram, Hobart (Web), Interrupture, and Lungfull! He lives in Tulsa, OK and curates Bumpkinitis, a reading series.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/12/13

Donald Illich

Open Tomb Day

Today is open tomb day.
We'll give you a tour
of the bones shattered
by car accidents, femurs
that were blasted by cancer,
rib-cages that split
when the suicide landed.
Only today can you see
the final result of what
you've been thinking about
in dreams and fantasies.

Place yourself with the skeleton,
embrace it, give it a kiss.
This is you when you'll grow up.
How proud your Mom and Dad.
To know you'll be nearby
if the End of Days come,
when you put back on skin,
add flesh and with new blood
pass through the world, again.

Poem's Score: -1.0


Donald Illich has published work in The Iowa Review, LIT, Passages North, Nimrod, and other journals. He lives in Rockville, MD.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/11/13

Jimmy Lo

The Box Turtle


taper my corners
to a square one

I go a
head forward

length of one
animal
a time
the source

always
in me
me in mind
and not me

the body with
our selves

the love of
else
what else
every full
filling body
never thinking

what if
the glass
well deepens

the march out
a closer kin
middles ends
needs

ant above all

hell
what is

a mind
in wakes

numbers
comfort
the everyday

every day
feels my feet

come emotion

others'

anothers'

come what may
do they do

Poem's Score: 0.0


Jimmy Lo lives and writes in Atlanta. His chapbook 'A Reduction' is available from Little Red Leaves Textile Series. He can be seen writing Free Poems On Demand (freepoemsatl.org) at different street corners. More of his writing can be found on his website jimmylorunning.com.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/10/13

Jessy Randall

A Jerk Like You

You wake me up to tell me you’re tired
And then you fall right back to sleep
You snore louder than my lousy heater
You drink, you smoke, and you’re cheap

You’re a pain in my ass
always asking for water
when I get you a glass
you want it hotter or colder

I’m a strong woman but I’m weak for a jerk like you

When I come home the dishes are dirty
You’ve rented a movie I don’t want to see
“Don’t watch it if you don’t like it”
But it’s my god damn TV!

You’re a pain in my ass
always asking for water
when I get you a glass
you want it hotter or colder

I’m a strong woman but I’m weak for a jerk like you

Poem's Score: -3.0


Jessy Randall wrote "A Jerk Like You," a fake country song, in response to her friend Suzie's fake country song. Jessy's website is http://personalwebs.coloradocollege.edu/~jrandall/.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/9/13

Jacob Perkins

A Girl Like That

I need a girl with a fatass ponytai
Like fatass you can’t wrap a hand around
Like fatass you can’t quite grasp
Until one time while climbing you realize
in a moment of honeymoon horror
just what that means

I need a girl whose proportions are entirely unrealistic
like her arms and legs are no longer attached to her body
and she just worms around now asking
Why Why Why
Why were you so careless?

I need a girl with a bangin twin brother
who commonly says things like “Bro
I’ve already been there, Bro”
without clarification

I need a girl with a sickass aunt
who lives more than three states away
Like an aunt that’s not really a relative
but hung around for a while
a while ago
who worked for an organization
I could never sympathize with
who will develop a series of complications
and will sometimes call with terrible news
strictly over collect
and demand various sums of cash

I need a girl who will cover me in blanket statements
like “He loves sports” and
“He hates people”
and provide those statements
with so many relevant examples
that everyone nods, believing

I need a girl with a monstrous pair of uncles
who are both technically her dad
depending on which relative you ask
And they both want to wrestle

Poem's Score: -0.22664516129


Jacob Perkins is a co-founder of Mellow Pages Library & Reading Room located in Bushwick, NYC, which is a user-sourced collection of small press books, chapbooks and zines. He is currently working on dismantling his BFA in Painting and Drawing by writing poems about his expectations on women. He is 26. He is not a woman.

JULY GENIUS


For July 2013, Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/8/13

Blake Butler

Ssseeeeeeeeiiieee

:: Two wide bright screens on a food field :: On each screen a face up so close it’s mostly only visible as flesh; the shot will continue in this way for our protection :: :: Enormous roaring sunlight :: :: One body speaking to the other though we can’t make out either mouth :: Ssseeeeeee? Ii do kare. Ii do do it N U. I do do do do EAT all of U Ii kan now. When therrrre issss 0 time left N the COMMON WINDOW 4 us 2 begin 2 learn 2 know a way thru 1 in2 the other of us. Yes Now Ii m ready like Holy Fukkk. Ii want u spreadd acrost the entire platform open glowing CHILD u r MY CHILD. The agate Eye can or will not B reconstrukted N this Era, which obliterates our ability 2 Touch. & yet. Ii. Kan. Not. STOPPPPPPPP this shriekkking feeling N my abdomen & saks. Kan’t count who wasn’t made of me today becuz of How I Beat My Head againsttt the keybboard in the throes awayting Deconstruktion. Yr Father wuz my LIFE. Overboard again beginning where Who waits to lay againsttt me in His place. Ii WEAR THE SKKKULL OF A HORSE in my LIBRARY so as Ii Kan memorizzzze the books of Lamar and Jackson, previousely konsidered deleted, like my-ability-to-Laugh. :: You realize you are covered in a custard; it is blood-colored :: You feel the camera pressed against your head :: It hurts :: :: It feels like someone you remember growing older over several hundred thousand years; your chest is flapping :: Ssseeeeeeieeeee? It IS a Wondrous Earth, N Ii do feel U. Ii M all up N yr hell. NOW Spread : Now Knock those Lights out : Yes O Now now now OPEN Up a HOLE. :: Snow erupts across the platform, the sun is shaking, some teeth can be seen :: :: Soundglitch of several thousand knives :: :: Very quickly white becomes the only kolor ::

Poem's Score: 0.4


Blake Butler is in Atlanta.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/5/13

Leif Haven

Ashley & Ashley

We are writing poems of radical accessibility in your sister’s bedroom before she gets home from marching band practice. The dust brown of drought settles over us through the window like God’s own impotence. I know we’ve achieved something in the Lisa Frank notebook we stole and defaced. I love you like warm soda. Like how it’s got more fizz than cold soda. That’s how. You tell me I’m being obscure because I want power over the reader. I try to explain that I’m trying to make you understand the physicality of my mind with words but it’s impossible. Then your sister Ashleigh walks in and says, “What are you doing in here.” And we can’t talk about radical accessibility anymore.

Poem's Score: -0.3

Leif Haven lives in Oakland. His poems score between 3.85 and -.66 but there might be outliers that haven't been assessed yet.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/4/13

Trey Jordan Harris

Single Car Collision

We can solve mysteries, all
we have to do is nothing. The part
where it gets colder—that's
like every part. On my list
of places to do something
unforgivable the corn maze
is up there. Putting black paper
over all the lights is a measure
against bleakness. You have
to realize when I talk about
sweeping motions I mean ripping
my fingers off. You can tell the world
to go to bed and the world might obey,
you can point in any direction and I'll go
but I hate where that line ends.

Poem's Score: -0.4


Trey Jordan Harris lives in Missouri. Other recent poems appear or are forthcoming in Sixth Finch and DIAGRAM, and as a broadside from Thrush Press.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/3/13

Quincy Rhoads

Orpheus before the VMAs

Of course I deserve the best
male video award. Just look at
the other nominees. Drake? I
make the gods cry. And that’s
without auto-tune. And
Eminem? I’ve been to hell and
back. Literally. He’s just from
Detroit. Does that even
compare? Losing my baby,
Eurydice, taught me a lot this
year— watch out for snake-in-
the-grass execs and learn to
never look back. No matter
what. 

Poem's Score: -0.1




Quincy Rhoads lives in Tennessee with his wife, where he teaches English composition. His writing has appeared on HTMLGIANT, THE2NDHAND, and Unicorn Knife Fight.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.


7/2/13

Angie Mazakis

To the Poems that Got Away

Dear Aloof Poems,

I apologize, first off,
for the mass poem.
I realize that this is an impersonal way
to address all of you.
It’s the easiest way, however,
to release you at once, and
I wanted to acknowledge you
in writing, before, like memory,
like a camera flash,
you soften, fall to pieces,
and disappear.

It’s been both our faults.

You’ve been hovering
in the ephemeral, on the verge
of becoming something more
but always retreating, before I could
really make out what you were
trying to say. I admit, however, that I
kept you isolated in transition.
I was entertained by new ideas,
taken with their novelty.
I moved to the suburbs.
I let sleep come as the truest remnants
of you slipped away,
all the while never truly willing
to surrender you completely,
keeping you uncomfortably scattered,
stray portions of you trailing
everywhere I go.

For example, Poem-Set-in-Palau-About-
the-Guy-On-The-Streets-Whom-Everyone-Called-
“Tuna”, you were always good to remind me
however incompletely,
of my naïve abandon, recalling “Tuna”,
his white ponytail and his incoherent speech, and how
I would sit next to him on the curb sometimes
on the streets of Palau, the trees all wearing
hibiscus and plumeria leis,
as though someone had just graduated,
or married, or returned home.
(And now I’ve used that line, which
I always wanted to use.)
You might have made a celebrated, understated
turn when you revealed that I took
new roads after I found out that “Tuna”
had stabbed someone in the stomach.

Had I the accurate recollection
of detail to find in you something more
than your shaggy, rare appearance―
think of where we might have gone.
Keep in touch.

And you, Poem-About-the-Hitchhiker-My-Dad-Invited-
into-His-Car-Who-Held-Him-at-Gunpoint-Behind-the-Steering-Wheel
-and-How-Eventually-My-Dad-Got-Him-to-Hand-the-Gun-Over,
my favorite line you would have said would have been,
“You think I’m scared of that little gun? I’m from Beirut.”
Who would have believed us?

I’ll miss your pulses of irresolution,
how you insisted that I rummage
and sift and the way you persisted,
stirring lightly behind my ordinary
thoughts with a playful shyness.
I felt a fluttering on my skin
and then looked in every direction
for what had just swept by me.

I extend a farewell to you,
Poem-About-the-Little-Girl-in-Istanbul-Whose-Name-
I-Never-Knew, Poem-About-the-Fires-in-Venezuela-
Which-Suggested-Political-Corruption,
and all you sensitive, frail love poems that made way
for failure poems.
I tried too hard.
I wanted everything.

Poem's Score: 0.2


Angie Mazakis's poems have appeared in The New Republic, Boston Review, Narrative Magazine, Best New Poets 2008, New Ohio Review, Smartish Pace, Drunken Boat, NOÖ Weekly, and Miracle Monocle.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.

7/1/13

Ryan Walker

from Long Term Raisin


the entire act is its punctuation

you too.

a fantasy in the mention.

obvious gold

do not delete

sorry I missed you

I know that there are kids

because I have been to an aquarium

our tractionless interactions

if you’ve never been endorsed

you are in poor taste

I didn’t complain I reported

beer, you know

stay for the practice

received


Poem's Score: 0.228603174603




Ryan Walker lives in DC. Most Thursdays he goes to the Black Squirrel, which is a bar in Adams Morgan. His favorite place to see a reading is DC Arts Center, which is also in Adams Morgan. Otherwise he's rarely in Adams Morgan. He has a fast metabolism and mixed feelings.

JULY GENIUS

For July 2013,
Everyday Genius is pleased to present poems that were rated below 0.4 on the "Poetry Assessor"—a tool that "is designed to determine whether a poem has the characteristics of a professional poem, or, alternatively, an amateur poem.
We publish the poems here, with their scores, not to confirm the Assessor's judgment, but to allow human readers to decide for themselves.