What are are holding right now in your hands is a book. Not a telephone reciever, which is how most of the poems in this collection were first transmitted....There are plenty of examples of this spreading of one art form or another through popular mediums. There are all those wonderful Russian Constructivist posters, Dr. Alphabet's public poetry gatherings on football fields, Dada caberet antics, and various forms of street theatr....Essentially what all of these movements were trying to do was expand the playing field called "art". By making the field bigger they gave us all more room to frolic. They pushed art right out of the dusty museums and smack dab into your lives.... Poetry should be everywhere, and slowly but surely it's infiltrating our lives. We are gla dto be the instruments of this infiltration." --from the Introduction Featuring Penny Arcade, Tish Benson, Nicole Blackman, David Cameron, Xavier Cavazos, Todd Colby, Matthew Courtney, M. Doughty, Kathy Ebel, Annie Elliot, Janice Erlbaum, Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno, John S. Hall, Bob Holman, Christian X. Hunter, Shannon Ketch, Bobby Miller, Wanda Phipps, Lee Ranaldo, Shut-Up Shelly, Hal Sirowitz, Sparrow, Spiro, Edwin Torres, Emily XYZ With unabashed fervor the Poemfone poets are redefining poetry as we know it. Archaic literary rules that have never been bent have suddenly been broken., and Versus That Hurt chronicles this poetic phenomenon. This is a revolutionary gathering of disparate and brash talent that is not to be missed.

Jordan Trachtenberg and Amy Trachtenberg live and work in New York City. Jordan is the label manager and A&R Director for Tomato Records. Amy is an Internet developer and producer. Jordan is the founder of the Poemfone.

Foreward: From Polyester to Poetry

xv

(6)

Introduction

xxi

Penny Arcade

1

(8)

Manifesto

3

(2)

Noi Mona Lisa

5

(2)

Haiku

7

(1)

Consider the Discourse

7

(2)

Tish Benson

9

(8)

Sweet Obsession

11

(1)

in tha a.m.

12

(1)

It is What It Is ...& then some

13

(1)

trippin

14

(1)

U BE DOIN IT

15

(2)

Nicole Blackman

17

(8)

You Will

19

(1)

Rockaway

19

(2)

Iris

21

(2)

Break

23

(1)

Us

24

(1)

David Cameron

25

(8)

"Hello all you dialectical..."

27

(1)

Ode: My Barber's Breath

28

(1)

Verbatim: Myrna Tinoco

29

(1)

"Oh how sad I'll be..."

30

(1)

XXV

31

(2)

Xavier Cavazos

33

(6)

Today

35

(1)

Manteca

35

(1)

Chinatown

36

(1)

Sucking

36

(1)

Note to Miss Gonzalez from Mrs. Goodrich

37

(1)

Letter to Gil from White Center

38

(1)

Todd Colby

39

(8)

Twenty Songs for My Unborn Fifth Child

41

(1)

The Secret

42

(1)

Remembering

42

(1)

The Flue

42

(1)

Seize the Pants

43

(1)

Zoom

43

(1)

Cake

44

(2)

Get Down!

46

(1)

Matthew Courtney

47

(8)

A Dream Never Dreamed of Sonny Bono & Don Knotts

49

(1)

I'm in it for the Money and the Sex

50

(1)

I Wanna Compose Music Damn It !

51

(1)

that hat (a true story) (my only materialistic poem to date)

52

(1)

Big Stupid Fucker

52

(2)

Butt.

54

(1)

M. Doughty

55

(6)

The Bug Wrangler

57

(1)

Nerve Injections

57

(1)

Other Fish

58

(1)

Cookie Monster as Houdini in a Special Segment

58

(1)

Whose Music

59

(1)

From a Gas Station outside Providence

60

(1)

Kathy Ebel

61

(8)

Hardcore

63

(2)

Sleepover

65

(1)

Crossing

66

(1)

Heatwave

67

(1)

Cyberslut

68

(1)

Anne Elliott

69

(8)

something turned over

71

(2)

Trojan Love Poems

73

(1)

surf the spittle

74

(1)

Worm Christ

75

(2)

Janice Erlbaum

77

(8)

Sonnet 25

79

(1)

fellas sestina

79

(2)

Your Psychic Friend (excerpt)

81

(1)

Love Letter to His Dick

82

(1)

Old Me

83

(2)

Allen Ginsberg

85

(8)

I Am a Victim of Telephone

87

(1)

Please Master

88

(1)

Punk Rock Your My Big Crybaby

89

(1)

Old Pond

90

(3)

John Giorno

93

(8)

Pornographic Poem (1965)

95

(1)

Just Say No to Family Values

96

(5)

John S. Hall

101

(8)

To Walk Among the Pigs

103

(1)

Let's Have Sex

103

(1)

It's Saturday

104

(1)

The Evil Children

105

(1)

How Much Longer?

106

(1)

I'm Sorry

107

(2)

Bob Holman

109

(8)

The Has-Been Poet

111

(1)

No Dream

112

(1)

Poem for My Daughters in the New Year

112

(1)

A Jew in New York

113

(1)

Later for Now

114

(1)

Principal Reason

114

(1)

Because of you

115

(1)

Good Morning

115

(1)

Prison

115

(1)

Parking Meter

115

(2)

Christian X. Hunter

117

(6)

Poemfone Fever

119

(1)

For Buddy

120

(1)

Off the Air

121

(1)

Deuce Poem

122

(1)

Shannon Ketch

123

(6)

Cantaloupe

125

(1)

Laughter of Gold

125

(1)

The Sister's Shade

126

(1)

Beneath Incinerated Beams

127

(1)

Uh-Hu

127

(1)

Joy of Green

128

(1)

Bobby Miller

129

(8)

Thirteen

131

(1)

Memories of 1969

132

(2)

Back Fence

134

(3)

Wanda Phipps

137

(8)

This is an angry poem

139

(1)

Zither Mood

140

(1)

Shapeshifter

140

(2)

Gray Fox Woman

142

(1)

Mail Poems (excerpt)

143

(2)

Lee Ranaldo

145

(8)

Toronto

147

(1)

Enough

148

(1)

Jasper's Death

149

(1)

A Bit of Memory

149

(3)

Sunlight Cup

152

(1)

Shut-Up Shelley

153

(8)

M-16

155

(1)

mantra

156

(2)

Almost Making It

158

(1)

Hate Me

159

(1)

fuck art

160

(1)

Hal Sirowitz

161

(6)

No More Birthdays

163

(1)

Magnified

163

(1)

Eyes Are Everywhere

164

(1)

For Your Education

164

(1)

Passing Her on the Street

164

(1)

Peeping

165

(1)

Always Giving Commands

165

(1)

A Question

165

(2)

Sparrow

167

(8)

My Sexuality

169

(1)

Cargo

170

(1)

Turtle

171

(1)

Spelling

172

(1)

Possible Middle Names of Bill Gates

173

(1)

My Father Was a Snowman, but He Melted

173

(1)

A True Story

173

(1)

I Am a Great Poet

173

(2)

Spiro

175

(8)

Yet Another Drug Poem

177

(2)

NV

179

(3)

Report Card

182

(1)

Edwin Torres

183

(8)

Power Round

185

(1)

Athenade Booster

185

(1)

In Terpsichords of Mother Earth

186

(2)

Third Eye in the Forehead

188

(1)

The Modern Phallus

189

(2)

Emily XYZ

191

(8)

Weatherman

193

(2)

Poem for My Brother

195

(1)

Black Hole

196

(1)

brother sister self

197

(1)

4 Girls on 9 Train

198

(1)

"God don't tell us what to do..."

198

(1)

Bios

199

(12)

Acknowledgments

211

(1)

Permissions

212

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