http://www.failbetter.com/ failbetter.com publishes original fiction, poetry, visual art, and interviews with leading writers. en Copyright 2008-2009 failbetter.com - All rights reserved Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:53:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/32/LutznerCambodia.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/32/LutznerCambodia.php?src=rss Sold for five dollars; given drugs to make them jump like monkeys in a cage... Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/32/LutznerLittle.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/32/LutznerLittle.php?src=rss Maxine says I have the disease of cut and paste / which I find astounding for an eighty-three year old... Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/32/LutznerBlackness.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/32/LutznerBlackness.php?src=rss A mirror cannot speak truth / Just as a woman’s face masks / a madness... Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/RossParable.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/RossParable.php?src=rss From the beginning I have been borne aloft by a series of supports or pillars upon which my weight, which is great and has only grown over the years, has been sustained. Early on, in my youth, I was actually quite unaware of my predicament as, being very small, these two pillars—which at the time I really took to be one because they were pressed so tightly together for my benefit—were so much larger than my little body that they appeared really as if they were a solid floor upon which I was lying... Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/RigbyBlack.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/RigbyBlack.php?src=rss None. Only burgundy or violet / scene you never imagine / fields burning with larvicide... Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://failbetter.com/31/BodeauSection35.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/31/BodeauSection35.php?src=rss Two trains, beginning in the same city / leave the station at seven in the evening / One train travels at 25 miles per hour / the other train races under shadow of / billions of songbirds / as they separate... Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedAdrift.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedAdrift.php?src=rss Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedRevelations.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedRevelations.php?src=rss Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedWatch.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedWatch.php?src=rss Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedMonkeyboat.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedMonkeyboat.php?src=rss Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedOnePinkCake.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedOnePinkCake.php?src=rss Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Visuals http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedThree.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/SpeedThree.php?src=rss Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomanMoore.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomanMoore.php?src=rss The impetus for why Moore sought to reinvent the common cold is still heavily debated. Milak Tysunami, a prominent Moore biographer, suggests that research began as a direct result of Moore’s own history of childhood sickness (rumored to have rendered him sterile and reportedly the cause of his divorce in 2010, though never confirmed by Moore himself or his ex-wife, Elizabeth Robinson)... Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneyAshbery.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneyAshbery.php?src=rss I met up with him outside Lamont Library / where he had just given a splendid reading / in The Forum Room... Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneyWright.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneyWright.php?src=rss A Saturday afternoon in Charlottesville, Virginia. / "The best place to live in the United States." / It's September and the Galileo space probe has indicated / there may be water on one of Jupiter's moons... Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneySimic.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneySimic.php?src=rss When we saw each other / in the New Hampshire night / outside after the reading / we smiled in strange / recognition... Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneyBishop.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/KeeneyBishop.php?src=rss We met at night not far / from Boston Harbor / We had just stepped out / of the same restaurant... Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/FlemingHow.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/FlemingHow.php?src=rss Her heart stops while she's watching television. Her daughter comes to his home and tells him that she's dead. He says "who's dead?"... Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/NeelyLorenzo.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/NeelyLorenzo.php?src=rss When Lorenzo blew his second DUI / he called me up to bail him out. Jesus, he looked / sheepish coming down the jailhouse steps... Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/NeelyPrologue.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/NeelyPrologue.php?src=rss I was famous among my peers / prominent in Lorenzo's drunken prophesies... Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaHooky.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaHooky.php?src=rss Where did you get that stain / on your knee? You stole all / the kitty litter from the box / in the basement and used / it to fuel a rocket ship... Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaSometimes.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaSometimes.php?src=rss arrives at night sometimes earlier / but this song arrives alone balanced / at the peak of its jump... Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaVertigo.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaVertigo.php?src=rss My latest therapy / has been to watch Vertigo over and over and try to fall in love / with Midge instead of Madeleine... Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaRubato.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/HomolkaRubato.php?src=rss Now when I weep, chimes / come out instead of tears... Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Fiction http://www.failbetter.com/31/FittenValeria1.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/31/FittenValeria1.php?src=rss Valeria never whistled. Nor did she approve of people who did. In sixty-eight years, what Valeria had learned to be a truth about character was that people who whistled were crass... Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Interview http://failbetter.com/31/AlexieInterview.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/31/AlexieInterview.php?src=rss I suppose in some sense I used to be afraid my career was temporary... Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Fiction http://www.failbetter.com/30/RowWhiteRoom1.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/30/RowWhiteRoom1.php?src=rss He wakes with bright sunlight chiseling up under his eyelids, like a flashlight, like a detective's interrogation lamp... Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Fiction http://www.failbetter.com/30/ScanlonCurrent.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/30/ScanlonCurrent.php?src=rss "Is not general incivility the very essence of love?" Jane Austen said, and she agrees... Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/30/RiceFriends.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/30/RiceFriends.php?src=rss He'd called Rebecca that morning and left a message. It was a beautiful sunny day, he felt his skin dry as he walked to work, he'd taken a shower at her place... Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/PatersonMicroscope.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/PatersonMicroscope.php?src=rss Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/PatersonConstructor.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/PatersonConstructor.php?src=rss Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/30/PatersonHoles.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/30/PatersonHoles.php?src=rss Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/PomerantzParting.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/PomerantzParting.php?src=rss I have bitten a little too closely / into a Bartlett Pear / and there are the seeds, three, four / on the other side / of a window now of nothing... Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/DeCarteretLastEver.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/DeCarteretLastEver.php?src=rss He hated those openings so much / he usually sat slumped in his dressing room / throwing his voice at the black sock called Beast... Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Interview http://failbetter.com/30/BallInterview.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/BallInterview.php?src=rss My time in general is divided into periods of work and periods of fruitful inactivity. During that time, if I have an idea that I would like to later use, I will, of course, write it down. However, I save the real work of writing for periods when I can dedicate an unbroken length of time.... Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/30/JacksonLeaveIt.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/30/JacksonLeaveIt.php?src=rss All we want is to succumb to a single kiss / that will contain us like a marathon / with no finish line... Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/JacksonLorca.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/JacksonLorca.php?src=rss Squat by a roadside near Eden, prairie flowers / barnyard decay, spray of stars bulleting above / I summon the great poet... Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/LamotheMaze.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/LamotheMaze.php?src=rss I wouldn't want to live there / All the unknown invisible spaces / so tangled up you couldn't ever / unwind them.... Tue, 3 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/RainesSatelite.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/RainesSatelite.php?src=rss Every evening, the Mexican girls come out to fight. They meet after closing time, in the parking lot in front of their stores... Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/GluskinLeftHand.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/GluskinLeftHand.php?src=rss As a child, my mother was ambidextrous. No traumatic stories or anything: she'd draw with one hand, color with the other... Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://failbetter.com/30/GluskinOnceUpon.php?src=rss http://failbetter.com/30/GluskinOnceUpon.php?src=rss there was a girl who started reading / and couldn't stop. Holed up / with a stack of books, she laid them out / where the other girls had dolls... Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800 feedback@failbetter.com Poetry http://www.failbetter.com/30/PourciauSelfService.php?src=rss http://www.failbetter.com/30/PourciauSelfService.php?src=rss Out of the hotel room, early evening, headed to a movie, wife too tired to come, didn't want to thrash around a strange city looking for a movie theater, all day in the rent car, trouble getting the windshield wipers to work, trouble getting the fan to work, wrong turn here, wrong turn there... Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800