E. J. McAdams

E.J. McAdams is a poet and artist, exploring language and mark-making in the urban environment using procedures and improvisation with found and natural materials. He has published four chapbooks: '4x4' from unarmed journal press, 'TRANSECTs' from Sona Books, ‘Out of Paradise,’ an e-chapbook from Delete Press, ‘Close-range Divinities’ from Shirt Pocket Press, and most recently, 'Middle Voice’ from Dusie Kollectiv. UDP published his 4x4 – “BOOM/BOOM/BOOM/BOOM” – in its Poste series. He had a solo exhibition, an installation called Trees Are Alphabets, at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, and a mail-art piece in a group show at Phoenix Art Museum. His poems have been published in The Paris Review, EOAGH, eccolinguistics, About Place Journal, unarmed journal, and others. Recently, a selection of poems were collected in the anthology Poetics for the More-than-Human World at Dispatches from the Poetry Wars. He was chosen by Laura Mullen and Angela Hume for 'Heir Apparent' in The Volta's Trash Issue which featured a visual TRANSECT. Another visual poetry project, ‘Wayfaring,’ was covered by author Robert Sullivan on A Public Space's blog. He curated the Social-Environmental-Aesthetics reading at EXIT ART from 2009-2012 and was a founding board member of the interdisciplinary Laboratory of Art Nature and Dance (iLAND).

---

An Action to End Gun Violence

lips on loaded

AR muzzle

blow as if

kudu shofar:

peace

registers

its blow-

less blow!

---

THE REMAINDER

1.

garbled through bathroom vents

2.

if she wants to bounce she can bounce

3.

engine sounds remind me I’m not one

4.

somehow don’t let that fact get in the way

5.

downed telephone pole as good a roost as any/great blue heron

6. DARWIN:

the birds idly singing mostly live on insects & seeds & thus are constantly destroying life

7.

little material crosses self-contained diffuse Gaia border except (alleluia!!!) space dust

8. MINETTA LANE

cement meanders where stream once was

9.

son’s rainbow starship arcing toward a sun

10.

almost but not quite yet open

11.

sundog

12.

whatever we do/don’t do neutral sky there (always) out window

13.

yellow daffodils in ice

14.

with cold sleeping sparrows in the only

15.

sun//beams/gleam

16.

say what you want bad about pigeons but they can fly

17.

love has no nor never respects bounds

18.

faux corporate waterfalls

19.

sparrows so familiar in their crummy hunger, alien in all else

20.

potted evergreens as security bollards

21.

chasing each other’s other

22. HERO TIME

beginning middle end (repeat)

23.

keep us animal enough to survive

24. RIDDLE:

what’s this that is always thus and now no more than the least among all leastmost things

25.

bills pile up like snow

26.

crow missing one primary one tail feather limping into low cloud cover

27.

black lonely mountain or black misty island

28.

snow’s general Ireland over everything

29.

waiting for the poem to come I find it finally here

30. FIRST GET RID OF THE WORLD OF CERTAINTY

31.

desire lines

32. TAISHIN, THE MONK DAITEN:

In the spring of 1767, Jakuchu and I journeyed to Osaka in a boat. We did not care…

33.

infinite possibilities within the finite

34.

some days it is mystery alone gets me through

35. VALENTINE’S DAY

what have I done for love lately except use it in a sentence

36.

other days it’s mystery too

37. COLDEST DAY OF THE YEAR SAYS THE RADIO

feral cat crosses path lugs rabbit sack home

38.

empty/shell/echo

39. INTIMACY

can’t kiss my own mouth

40.

how many life points you got?

41.

deep inside my own heart I find the facts of daily life co-equal

42.

that last thought in the kingfisher’s bill

43. EJECT NO NAME

44.

ocean sand sky sand sky ocean sky ocean sand

45.

no word yet for this snow – but watch your step

46.

there’s one fuckingthing I want to know

47. BLACK CLOUD OR SILVER LINING

None smart enough to be pessimistic nor stupid enough to be optimistic..cloud..cloud..

48.

I can’t not look up

49.

raining rain rained

50.

endangered by estrangement

51.

crow wings crow bones crow cry with/against that’s how it was

52.

was day all day until it was night

53. PEOPLE

earthbound with a sweep toward the vertical

54.

wishing for the end of suffering is a kind of suffering…and yet

55.

Albany rain feels a whole lot colder

56.

always forgetting surprise

57.

buildings sundialing streetscape

58.

home/homeless/homelessness

59.

driving north through hardiness zones/spring in reverse/blossom furls to bud

60.

on the flowering dogwood a tag says “flowering dogwood”

61.

this & that this & that this & that I can’t wait for this & that this & that can wait

62.

yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow yellow

63. MIYAZAWA KENJI:

Unless the entire world/becomes/happy, there can be no happiness/for individuals.

64.

wind dies never ends

65.

no one seen. windows closed. out of nowhere kestrel dives out of sight.

66.

sparrows come to the old on benches

67.

never seen this yellow-blossomed tree before

68.

a longing gone awry long gone

69.

the dead don’t write poems/the undead do

70.

on Mt. Morris crevice in schist green with relentless weeds

71. PLEASE DO NOT THROW GARBAGE IN THE GARDEN THankYou!

72.

daughter draws red petals purple disks around family/rays sparking off

73.

who – why – would I ask for forgiveness – for what

74.

vanishing moon and ok with that

75.

earth knows me – you too

76.

saggy green grass stubble growing out sewer grate

77.

through fog/ferry over/words/still unextinct

78.

death is not the end/only the empirical fact/of the end

79.

eyes not enough anymore to see what’s real

80.

each birthday double birthday

81.

afterglow of bird song

82.

trees and stars and grass and sky and ah and ah and ah

---

From COVID is an atmosphere

Monday, June 1, 2020 NYC: 208,550; 21,607

hummingbird moth

in rhododendron

#blacklivesmatter

on and on and on

Tuesday, June 2, 2020 NYC: 209,195; 21,649 deaths

it’s a graveyard

luminously so

wasp in web silk

offer to with

Wednesday, June 3, 2020 NYC: 209,688; 21,688 deaths

history haunts

no real free for

until free from

police brutality

Thursday, June 4, 2020 NYC: 210,227; 21,779 deaths

at outer rings of

circle of violence

nessus sphinx

in pink blossom

Friday, June 5, 2020 NYC: 210,728; 21,782 deaths

urn of burn it

ever lit unknown

on line arm in arm

aflame in rage

Saturday, June 6, 2020 NYC: 211,274; 21,815

8 minutes

46 seconds

of silence

remembrance

Sunday, June 7, 2020 NYC: 211,728; 21,844 deaths

dung beetle pushing

upside down Sisyphus

ball of shit uphill

wobbling determination

Tuesday, June 9, 2020 NYC: 212,469; 21,918 deaths

when will it end

stupid dumb virus

systematic violence

not over yet

Thursday, June 11, 2020 NYC: 213,271; 21,993

bird evensong

dipthongs of wood

echoes across

won’t bring him back

Friday, June 12, 2020 NYC: 213,707; 22,043 deaths

moth of nothing

red thread in web

what’s nightmare

come back awake Saturday, June 13, 2020 NYC: 213,707; 22,043 deaths

noxious police station

mausoleum of death

complacency as hazard

gorgeous disobedience

Sunday, June 14, 2020 NYC: 214,857; 22,048

white recompense

to end paralysis

hyphae of light

brilliant making Monday, June 15, 2020 NYC: 215,011; 22,144 death

ossified USA

brought to ruin

heavenly boon

redress with care

Tuesday, June 16, 2020 NYC: 215,342; 22,145

moon

luna

moth

visitation Wednesday, June 17, 2020 NYC: 215,686; 22,171

syrinx of water

evening dusk

crescent mirror

wane anew

---