The Tattooed Poets Project: Will Roby

Today's tattooed poet is Will Roby.<br /><br />It is also the birth date of the philosopher, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein">Ludwig Wittgenstein</a>.<br /><br />You might think these two items are unrelated, but you'd be wrong.<br /><br />Here is the tattoo Will selected for us: <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9reQs8q9tae1lR3tGcDJRn6pWvs2XuKKloOZDCaLyCF-Ie5HAeRRlZFGwIaMZ0UtzZSndux-ui7XhNfzwZiBGzLN0bomjeE6aedpXi3D79PyuJqaaoAe7MfuW_NmLYMQPnGePQkIn5M/s1600/roby+wit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9reQs8q9tae1lR3tGcDJRn6pWvs2XuKKloOZDCaLyCF-Ie5HAeRRlZFGwIaMZ0UtzZSndux-ui7XhNfzwZiBGzLN0bomjeE6aedpXi3D79PyuJqaaoAe7MfuW_NmLYMQPnGePQkIn5M/s400/roby+wit.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Will elaborates: <br /><blockquote>"I am a huge fan of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and I'm interested in covering my entire back with words. You'll notice the edge of an image of Texas, but other than that, all of my tattoos are text-based. The artist is a friend of mine, who requested to be called simply 'Heath.' The inspiration is simple: to remind me that my thoughts are capable of becoming reality if I allow them."</blockquote>Will selected this poem to share here on the Tattooed Poets Project: <br /><br /><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9887553860899061"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stupefactive</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Half a glass full, optimistic warbling grackles; they pester me.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To the dogs with them! It's abrasive, this new sweater, get it off me.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So restrictive, I'm in shackles, knuckles tickled. Stupefactive</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">glance along a mirror, that old meme, "coexistence or bust." Alternator</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of my heart, spark plug liver: must they rust so fast? A last jitterbug</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">then no more jumpstarts, I'll have to quit her.  Shrug twice </span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">if you understand, here's a sidesplitter: never once changed the oil, bugs</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">all jammed up in the works, tin foil holding up the engine mount. And count</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the parts you couldn't sell, the fans and belts, good for nothing, hell,</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the junkman sniffs the air. There you have it, glass half full, a queasy</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">spare tire of a feeling. Easy, Tiger, someone says, a glass half full</span><br /><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">might be the only thing to crack through that thick skull.</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">~ ~ ~</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>Will Roby is a poet living in Texas. His poems have appeared at <a href="http://www.32poems.com/">32 Poems</a>, <a href="http://triquarterly.org/">Tri-Quarterly</a>, <a href="http://www.umbrellajournal.com/">Umbrella</a>,<a href="http://www.melicreview.com/">The  Melic Review</a>, <a href="http://karawane.homestead.com/">Karawane</a>, <a href="http://www.yareah.com/">Yareah Magazine</a> and others. He's madly in love with Emily Van Duyne and their child Hank.<br /><br />Thanks kindly to Will for contributing his tattoo and poem to this year's poetic adventure on Tattoosday!<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. </span>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Will Roby

Today's tattooed poet is Will Roby. It is also the birth date of the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein . You might think these two items ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Alex Dryden

Today's tattooed poet, Alex Dryden, shared his body art with us, displaying what to many poets, and fans of poetry, is a universal image:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhirxpD5AaYjZi4KdCkSjQzGJPeBxR_8q8_8TSli7aQSu-Pm-M7CX3XPus6QCVsNYb36_wXOHiU9I22a1g-yW2lxLhh8DLaJEwDHI8UAEKz7BBUiemOSE8TdekN-HmelmFak20zftgEFd4/s1600/red+wheelbarrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhirxpD5AaYjZi4KdCkSjQzGJPeBxR_8q8_8TSli7aQSu-Pm-M7CX3XPus6QCVsNYb36_wXOHiU9I22a1g-yW2lxLhh8DLaJEwDHI8UAEKz7BBUiemOSE8TdekN-HmelmFak20zftgEFd4/s640/red+wheelbarrow.jpg" width="494" /></a></div><br />That is, of course, a red wheelbarrow, a common item made famous by <a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/119">William Carlos Williams</a>' iconic poem:<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Wheelbarrow">The Red Wheelbarrow</a><br /><br /><i>so much depends </i><br /><i>upon </i><br /><i><br /></i><br /><i>a red wheel </i><br /><i>barrow </i><br /><i><br /></i><br /><i>glazed with rain </i><br /><i>water </i><br /><i><br /></i><br /><i>beside the white </i><br /><i>chickens. </i><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~</div>Alex elaborates:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"When we were kids, my mother made my brother and me memorize and recite poems. Though we didn't talk about it until we were adults, we were both stricken by the authority and presence of 'The Red Wheelbarrow.' </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">For years we had thought about getting tattoos that worked together as a set but had never found a suitable subject. In 2010, he went back to school as English major while I was entering the first year of my MFA in creative writing. While visiting over the winter break and planning our mother's 60th birthday party, talk came around to the poems we memorized a kids and renewed our efforts to find a good set of tattoos. 'The Red Wheelbarrow,' with two perfect, ready made images, solved our dilemma. That night we drew up a pair of white chickens for him and a red wheelbarrow for me and the next day had them done. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Because Williams made use of the rhythm and diction of the American vernacular, we choose a local tattoo parlor that seemed analogous. The website for <a href="http://hellbombtattoo.blogspot.com/">Hell Bomb Tattoo</a>, in Wichita, KS, displayed an index of, what we imagined to be, classic Mid-Western tattoo art." </blockquote>I asked Alex if he could send along his brother’s tattoo, as well, and he happily obliged:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaOH0g_r8Jo6nZ70qvWZsd156_3w2IGdNZIdv1lVSe5rfzNo11zeNTgKpPffWz3GNemxvBVpDDad4nhhEvOQA1PxtbAMK9ZOgKaAQBCV32A4RDHYT7ZCy_BWvxpjkEJY5FPsfDI4Vyaxw/s1600/white+chickens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaOH0g_r8Jo6nZ70qvWZsd156_3w2IGdNZIdv1lVSe5rfzNo11zeNTgKpPffWz3GNemxvBVpDDad4nhhEvOQA1PxtbAMK9ZOgKaAQBCV32A4RDHYT7ZCy_BWvxpjkEJY5FPsfDI4Vyaxw/s400/white+chickens.jpg" width="340" /></a></div><br />And a shot of them together: <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeMZ3Q_NUZzNJO5B7_urU02CK26BK7i9PU8BFFchV4r3iJcO__JAucONT1BrgSyzZHD4Ul2imkSewCT-EZv5gCJW6RkCa99Maoz5IST92GL0CcwnLDKI7GueBd7i7H90H3TPrUhcKgrwk/s1600/dryden+both.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeMZ3Q_NUZzNJO5B7_urU02CK26BK7i9PU8BFFchV4r3iJcO__JAucONT1BrgSyzZHD4Ul2imkSewCT-EZv5gCJW6RkCa99Maoz5IST92GL0CcwnLDKI7GueBd7i7H90H3TPrUhcKgrwk/s400/dryden+both.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />As for verse, Alex shared this poem:<br /><br /><i>Corpus </i><br /><br />—she was the kind of girl<br />you suspected<br /><br />had something really sweet<br />written in<br /><br />the braille of her<br />bikini line.<br /><br />Something about flowers or<br />the uselessness<br /><br />of melancholy and how good<br />things happen<br /><br />to those who wait politely and say please. So,<br />I checked.<br /><br />“Thanks,” it said. It was damp and difficult<br />to read.<br /><br /> “I haven’t been fucked like that since I was an<br />alter boy.<br /><br />Thanks.”  It was the second “thanks” that really<br />threw me.<br /><br />When she woke, she smiled politely<br />I made<br /><br />coffee politely and made my face look<br />sensible and clean.<br /><br />I haven’t checked since. I don’t even read her e-<br />mail anymore.<br /><br />Once, I held the door open for her mother, she said<br />thank you<br /><br />and I stammered “sorry” pretty loud. It was really the second “thanks”<br />that threw me.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~</div><br />Alex Dryden is a MFA candidate in Poetry at <a href="http://www.newschool.edu/">The New School</a>. His work was most recently published on <a href="http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2012/02/dear-by-alex-dryden.html">The Best American Poetry blog</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Alex for this contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Alex Dryden

Today's tattooed poet, Alex Dryden, shared his body art with us, displaying what to many poets, and fans of poetry, is a universal image...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Torres

Our second tattooed poet of the day is Michael Torres.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ej9A_ld5Bf3AswYgt8tWOakcgJBC4xGlbEkyqVPxfntNY1OeZc_8trE0ZX9Ur5JxUa6nMgnkNRL4f-4e8cdBetZegl_BYJ1mJq-Q0CosBBrSgq65FyYWz6wEoasN-b2NgSUEYehcCv4/s1600/Torres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8ej9A_ld5Bf3AswYgt8tWOakcgJBC4xGlbEkyqVPxfntNY1OeZc_8trE0ZX9Ur5JxUa6nMgnkNRL4f-4e8cdBetZegl_BYJ1mJq-Q0CosBBrSgq65FyYWz6wEoasN-b2NgSUEYehcCv4/s400/Torres.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Michael sent in photos of two tattoos, including this one:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGF69lN8xKh2x8bVzCek-8kRUWWYpbwU-lK4P98Z16HaYISFWchFevWnouY6rJp2poBuPzlLiJl0bCA7quoegU_RaCzUl1Xu89rCOudBHMYyjgbwE37ASlXA40J5BrgW6R-yWBhu3Ms5Y/s1600/bukowski+torres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGF69lN8xKh2x8bVzCek-8kRUWWYpbwU-lK4P98Z16HaYISFWchFevWnouY6rJp2poBuPzlLiJl0bCA7quoegU_RaCzUl1Xu89rCOudBHMYyjgbwE37ASlXA40J5BrgW6R-yWBhu3Ms5Y/s640/bukowski+torres.jpg" width="314" /></a></div><br />Michael informs us that the set of words inscribed on his flesh<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"> "...is a poem called <a href="http://des.emory.edu/mfp/bukowski2.html">Oh Yes</a> by <a href="http://bukowski.net/">Charles Bukowski</a>. I got it done at <a href="http://www.myspace.com/porvidatattoo">Por Vida Tattoo</a> in Upland, California. I got it done because at that time in my life poetry was becoming more of a hobby to me and I was beginning to see my world changing in front of me. Friends that got married and had kids right after high school were finding out that things weren't going exactly as they had planned. The poem represents the realization that there is much I have to do in life before I worry about settling down simply because I think I have to."</blockquote> He also sent us this piece:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkB-X7oMcYcVaysy177kPKO9whEcR3THwJcGfCbUSWM9Lzj1ohTPGbQUkiFnLUry53_cNVeCVgkc8FAsisNsk8iS6ky-gUNfcXfBqloMsHgnXmWQVdIhk5XGKzVLkYmacHP-DrIrEyUMs/s1600/torres+woman+better.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkB-X7oMcYcVaysy177kPKO9whEcR3THwJcGfCbUSWM9Lzj1ohTPGbQUkiFnLUry53_cNVeCVgkc8FAsisNsk8iS6ky-gUNfcXfBqloMsHgnXmWQVdIhk5XGKzVLkYmacHP-DrIrEyUMs/s640/torres+woman+better.jpg" width="340" /></a></div><br />Michael explains:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgv8oUEHkw5N2Nv6mdsZg6bQF1Ak6MOQExwPbJgBc4EEA_in-fSIeXky1bp8BAv1Sojg_zQJsYUehnFKTaUPkr7DjnO_34-cT35n_Z4k0pQ1COJSu-8eQZiX8EgbrR9ndqUI3eh_v3ikI/s1600/MusePoetry_Poynter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgv8oUEHkw5N2Nv6mdsZg6bQF1Ak6MOQExwPbJgBc4EEA_in-fSIeXky1bp8BAv1Sojg_zQJsYUehnFKTaUPkr7DjnO_34-cT35n_Z4k0pQ1COJSu-8eQZiX8EgbrR9ndqUI3eh_v3ikI/s400/MusePoetry_Poynter.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">"The second tattoo in the same arm is of the poetry muse, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erato">Erato</a>. I basically liked the image I googled. The original artist is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Poynter">Sir Edward John Poynter</a> and it was done in 1870.<br /><br />I had the tattoo done in Montclair, Ca at Skills for Thrills tattoo shop. Me being a poet wanted to have the muse with me all the time. Even though we believe we should be lucky to have her whisper those golden lines into our ears I thought, why not have her around all the time. I am not going to stop writing any time soon and I don't take for granted all I have been given because of writing so this was for her, the muse. Both tattoos were done on my lower left arm."</blockquote>Michael sent us this poem, as well:<br /><br /><b>The Coltrane </b><br /><br />I am a<br />top-hat-black-tie-poetry-party ditcher<br />off wandering the<br />downtown streets of my mind with a<br />kool-aid pitcher in my hand, rice crispy treats in my backpack and a beach ball<br />somewhere<br />over everyone<br />like the dot to the letter i. I<br /><br />am looking<br />for myself. And<br /><br />rumor has it I was last seen standing at the edge of a woman’s heart facing tomorrow, screaming<br />I’LL DO IT. I’LL JUMP      before turning around<br />to see that she<br />was already long gone, leaving only a note that read  <br />“please, just clean up the mess." I guess I would then<br /> head in the direction of the park because<br />poetry is nature<br />and sheets of paper<br />walk the same way leaves do when the wind calls<br />and pens click December raindrops.<br />Aha,<br /><br />my imagination has left me trails of sheet music<br />so I walk to the jazz notes waiting<br />for the next Coltrane to take me<br />home.<br /><br />There! In the park I see<br />me, running towards the lake.<br /><br />Piano keys ripple across the water like a tossed pebble<br />fucking up the order of time cuz now when I look at my reflection,       I see me<br />but he<br />is<br />a little boy<br />trying to dance<br />to the <i>ranchera</i> music moving across the back porch<br />at a neighbor's party he, I mean I, snuck into, all<br />the adults there speaking      Spanish,<br />cigarette tongues laughing ash onto my, I mean his,<br />head.<br /><br />He is we, only 7, and I at 25<br />have forgotten what I was suppose to find<br />in the first place. He is happy and<br /><br />I wanna be<br />me again.<br /><br />I jump in-to<br /><br />sky<br />           blue,<br /><br /> break      water      skin,<br /><br /> breathe out,<br />           breathe in.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.finishinglinepress.com/images/158torres%20cov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.finishinglinepress.com/images/158torres%20cov.jpg" width="208" /></a></div><br />Michael Torres was born and raised in Pomona, California. He was exposed to poetry at an early age, learning the works of William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson to name a few. He has been published in <a href="http://www.beatlick.com/">Beatlick News</a>, <a href="http://chironreview.com/">The Chiron Review</a>, <u>Left Coast Review</u>, and <a href="http://www.solopress.org/Solo_Press_2011/Welcome.html">Solo Press</a>. His first chapbook of poetry, <a href="http://www.finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?cPath=2&products_id=173">The Beautiful Distraction</a> was published by <a href="http://www.finishinglinepress.com/">Finishing Line Press</a>. Michael is currently in school pursuing a degree in creative writing at the <a href="http://www.ucr.edu/">University of California, Riverside</a>. He lives in Pomona, Ca.<br /><br />Thanks to Michael for sharing his poetry and tattoos with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project!<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission. If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Torres

Our second tattooed poet of the day is Michael Torres. Michael sent in photos of two tattoos, including this one: Michael informs us that th...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Natasha Dennerstein

As we enter into the last week of this, our fourth annual Tattooed Poets Project, things are picking up speed and readers should check back later in the day, after 3:00 PM EDT, as we have days of "double postings," to accommodate demand and greater interest among the participating poets.<br /><br />Although, I'm not sure how that works with the first of today's contributors,<a href="http://www.facebook.com/NatashaDennersteinPoetry"> Natasha Dennerstein</a>. Natasha hails from New Zealand (a Tattoosday first!), where it is a different day, already, I believe, but so it goes.<br /><br />Natasha sent us this snapshot of a portion of her tattoo sleeve:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwrLuaESUypRUyxwagKHBrNCitTTNRYHWJonvzsCxnNeSjv2-iM4bnf7AFaxe9DZg7Us68yyW2TA24NWtkMM9YssxSBYwJXvqGJmg0GAUmw-dk9pDmrahvWLoXjyUdTFBLrfVG1KPHHwg/s1600/Natasha+fragment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwrLuaESUypRUyxwagKHBrNCitTTNRYHWJonvzsCxnNeSjv2-iM4bnf7AFaxe9DZg7Us68yyW2TA24NWtkMM9YssxSBYwJXvqGJmg0GAUmw-dk9pDmrahvWLoXjyUdTFBLrfVG1KPHHwg/s640/Natasha+fragment.jpg" width="392" /></a></div><br />Here is what Natasha has to say about this colorful body art:<br /><blockquote>My sleeve started as a bracelet of flowers and birds done by a girl called Megs in Sydney, Australia. It just kept growing to encompass a giant snake wrapped around the whole arm and then grew to encompass a Garden of Eden theme. I included birds, underwater creatures, clouds and things marvellous in the natural world. Eventually it covered the entire arm from wrist to shoulder and took three years to complete in fortnightly settings. I have left my other arm completely bare for the contrast. The artist is called Kyle and he works from his own studio in Wellington, New Zealand.</blockquote>Natasha's poem, is called Emergency! and, she says, "is a good example of my style of poetry and some of the themes that interest me." It was originally published in November 2009 in the literary journal <a href="http://www.otago.ac.nz/press/landfall/"><i>Landfall</i></a> # 218 in New Zealand:<br /><br />EMERGENCY!<br /><br />She goes to work every afternoon in the Emergency Department<br />and she boards a superceded vessel on a treacherous sea<br />and the captain is a colossal squid<br />and the crew are diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis.<br />The patients are squawking fledglings abandoned in the nest<br />and their wounds are gaping mouths. She feeds<br />them Diazepam, Oxazepam, Lorazepam and other pams<br />but they're still hungry for blood and intravenous fluids<br />and they still want changing. She is<br />the Indian Godess Kali with many arms and a blue face<br />and she smokes secretly, privately, in the fire escape<br />and the smoke is saffron. The accident<br />victims have pizza faces and butcher-shop limbs<br />and their cries are winter waves smashing on graphite rocks<br />and their car-wrecks are a pasta of metal and flesh.<br />She is a hungry dog and she wolfs down her tea<br />and her tea is a piece of putrid meat. The patients<br />can harm themselves and can not heal themselves<br />and they run in screaming : “it's an emergency – I'm in love!”,<br />and the intercourse is an addiction and the pregnancy is a trauma<br />and the child-birth is a piece of litigation waiting to happen.<br />And they all say “ help me, help me” and she can not help them<br />and their cries are stones in a bottomless well. She<br />gives them a drink of love – 125 mls in a styrofoam<br />cup - and they are healed. Their wounds are pink<br />zippers and their skin is a leather garment and<br />they are all done up and they are going home. She is<br />going home and she abandons the vessel on a paper life-raft and the<br />life-raft is made of medical journals and last years Womens<br />Weeklys and newspapers and the forecast is for rain.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~ </div><br />Natasha Dennerstein was born in Melbourne into a Russian/Polish Australian family and now lives in Wellington. She has spent many years working as a psychiatric nurse. She completed writing poetry for her MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University in 2011. HYou can check out her Facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/NatashaDennersteinPoetry">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Natasha for sharing her wonderful work with us here on Tattoosday!<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission. </span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Natasha Dennerstein

As we enter into the last week of this, our fourth annual Tattooed Poets Project, things are picking up speed and readers should check back ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Izzy Oneiric

<div class="tr_bq">Today's tattooed poet is Izzy Oneiric, who sends us this amazing shot of her sleeve:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_sHRleAJ856U87IyFQ4DcUdnPGB-vtski0qrnP9IXPvMhqRgRazgFp6C5Ny6tv3jWvvZCJlc3Bv4_1GJL0MS3yADYDtQGlBtfeQ30blRQQhLkv2Kt517MC3JGVoKk9xwq6F8Czg_U_Vg/s1600/Oneiric_Sleeve.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_sHRleAJ856U87IyFQ4DcUdnPGB-vtski0qrnP9IXPvMhqRgRazgFp6C5Ny6tv3jWvvZCJlc3Bv4_1GJL0MS3yADYDtQGlBtfeQ30blRQQhLkv2Kt517MC3JGVoKk9xwq6F8Czg_U_Vg/s640/Oneiric_Sleeve.jpg" width="244" /></a></div><br />I'll let Izzy take it from here:<br /><blockquote>"My sleeve took 11 years to complete. The figure in the center is Dream from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman_%28Vertigo%29">Sandman</a> graphic novel. I first saw it when I was 14, and knew instantly I wanted it tattooed. I got it a few months after I turned 18 by Steve at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lions-Den-Tattoo-Body-Piercing/310940315832">Lion's Den</a> in Salem, New Hampshire. Eight years later I was living in San Francisco, and wanted to add to it. I knew it needed some sort of dream imagery, but it was difficult to narrow that down. I began interrogating the basic elements of dreams, and thought one day: 'If DNA is the basis for all human life, could it also be the basis of dream life? What would a strand of dream DNA look like?' Using the work of <a href="http://www.patriciagarfield.com/">Patrica Garfield</a>, a clinical psychologist who's identified <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Universal-Dream-Key-Common/dp/0060953640">12 universal dream themes</a> that transcend age, location, gender, etc. I started designing the double helix; quickly realizing not all 12 would fit on my arm. On my shoulder is a blue moon; in a double-helix pattern around my arm are Royal typewriter keys with hobo symbols (representing communication/ miscommunication), weaving into a peacock from the Russian Tarot of St Petersburg (representing mythical creatures/animal friends). This was done by <a href="http://skinfiend.blogspot.com/2008/11/tattoos-by-natalie.html">Natalie Chandler</a>, at the time working at <a href="http://www.blackandbluetattoo.com/home/">Black and Blue Tattoo</a>. </blockquote><blockquote>I wanted to fill in the background, but didn't want to disrupt the double-helix shape. I couldn't figure out how to do that, so I left it alone. A few years later, I was working at <a href="http://coldsteelpiercing.com/home.html">Cold Steel Tattoo & Piercing</a>. On a whim one evening I googled 'double helix,' and one of the results was the image of a nebula in the shape of a DNA strand!</blockquote><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/images/060317_dna_nebula_big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="571" src="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/images/060317_dna_nebula_big.jpg" width="461" /></a></div></blockquote><blockquote>The colors and the shape were perfect. I brought it to my friend <a href="http://www.zhibit.org/profile/vimps69">Vincent Weiner</a> who was tattooing there, and we worked on it in bits and pieces. I tried to pay him, but he refused my money. I asked how I could compensate him for several thousand dollars worth of work. He was waiting for his wife to get her green card, so he said 'Nobody's baking for me right now. I'd really love some chocolate-chip cookies.' For every session I brought cookies, banana bread, cranberry muffins, some weird chocolate-coconut drops... </blockquote><blockquote>I'd always dreamed of having stars on the piece, and in Morpheus' eyes. I'd tried surface piercings with PTFE bars, but they all rejected, so I was greatly excited when people began experimenting with dermal anchors and reporting success. About a year later I was living in New Orleans and learned that <a href="http://www.slavetotheneedle.com/piercing/adam-bio.asp">Adam</a> at <a href="http://www.electricladyland.net/">Electric Ladyland</a> (now at <a href="http://www.slavetotheneedle.com/">Slave to the Needle</a> in Seattle) was doing them. </blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3Qtaf5vtA6viHJ_6iUWJhMf6xjRHYCKBakW-OjiXFgajleFJAqXjpb50OxlR7w5OxB9Ag1FkFlkSUxZ3V2kLytpyYm_9NphFCslhoyBI1wm9Zmf2RtfWQhlQOAsoW3l4485SujR5Q1U/s1600/Oneiric_Sleeve+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3Qtaf5vtA6viHJ_6iUWJhMf6xjRHYCKBakW-OjiXFgajleFJAqXjpb50OxlR7w5OxB9Ag1FkFlkSUxZ3V2kLytpyYm_9NphFCslhoyBI1wm9Zmf2RtfWQhlQOAsoW3l4485SujR5Q1U/s640/Oneiric_Sleeve+detail.jpg" width="252" /></a></div><blockquote>We 'bedazzled' my arm with six Swarovski crystals. They healed nicely until I moved to Chicago, when they suddenly all rejected. Now that I'm back in New Orleans, I'd like to get them reinstalled."</blockquote>This is definitely the first time we've highlighted body art which included dermal anchors. Very cool!<br /><br />Izzy sent along this prose poem to accompany her contribution:<br /><br /><b>Blue Roses are Blooming in Safeway</b><br /><br />Oracle asses were tickled by gas plumes. We know now—what of it? Ethylene case closed diminished returned to sender . . . send her Erato Echo Glossalalia babble bury shovel stop. I. I. I. Decline. To state. To play. So there. Repeat. Blue roses are blooming in Safeway. Champagne ruby is slang for magnum. Artaud’s black crucifix pupils ablaze in golden eyes I plagiarized because I want to see so badly but I gotta walk past flooded lottos, plainclothes Cutlasses, Dinner, Linner, 4th meal, Dunch—neologisms like I am a woman, half eaten mosquitoes and Teardrop Mike wanting guilty date, a guilty beer, because all American women drink and don’t have any Mexican friends.<br /><br />Animist, manimal, my keys do not break. There are escalators in my head watering flowerbeds with ropes of crystal spit, burping readymade Rubbermaid green baby coffins, smoking Christmas in a jaundiced sky.  <br /><br />Over beef tea and sheepish mirrors, defective alexandrines tell me it gets easier with practice, hurts a little less each time. Like so much decapitated obsidian, we know not now how high the ledge is very high, this crisis not of poetry but concrete and well, since Pythia choked on the geyser she’s gone now, my hair caught on fire, please tune my viola, I know a few songs from when I was a child. <i>Stardust Memories</i>—yes, I can play that piece quite well.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Izzy Oneiric's writing has appeared in publications such as <a href="http://www.wheelhousemagazine.com/">Wheelhouse Magazine</a>, <a href="http://www.housepress.org/books/books.html">Source Material</a>, and <a href="http://www.phantomlimbpress.com/Phantom_Limb/Home.html">Phantom Limb</a>.  A series of visual collages were published in <a href="http://www.iun.edu/~nwadmin/plath/">Plath Profiles</a>. She is the author of the chapbooks <u>Dabbling in Babylon</u>, and <a href="http://www.mainstreetrag.com/IOneiric.html">From the Bombshell Shelter</a>.  For several years she was the poetry editor of <i>other</i> magazine. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the <a href="http://www.ciis.edu/">California Institute of Integral Studies</a> and an MFA in Poetry from <a href="http://www.colum.edu/">Columbia College Chicago</a>. She currently lives in New Orleans with her loving partner and their spazzy black cat.<br /><br />Thanks to Izzy for her contribution to the Tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!<br /><br /><b id="internal-source-marker_0.22052670875564218"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit</span><a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">http://tattoosday.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span></span></b>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Izzy Oneiric

Today's tattooed poet is Izzy Oneiric, who sends us this amazing shot of her sleeve: I'll let Izzy take it from here: "My sleev...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Bianca Stone

Today's poet is <a href="http://whoisthatsupposedtobe.blogspot.com/">Bianca Stone</a>, who I met last year at the<a href="http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2011/09/bap-2011-launch-at-the-new-school-september-22-2011.html"> Best American Poetry 2011 launch reading</a>. I spoke to her about contributing then and, true to her word, she was the first poet to confirm her participation this year.<br /><br />Bianca sent me this photo:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkyI7F5Yg5dkoKrKNgvMkl1Be0MkdhORoWB_1t-uYBR3PEf8372u61dEehXmGHgvqXC3CaOazS3ket3aCMDP26zdc5nm7kLGAm7eVWp4dn6KwXmLt_vCzdxipqAUT-XHsyu3pUzejjzg/s1600/Bianca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQkyI7F5Yg5dkoKrKNgvMkl1Be0MkdhORoWB_1t-uYBR3PEf8372u61dEehXmGHgvqXC3CaOazS3ket3aCMDP26zdc5nm7kLGAm7eVWp4dn6KwXmLt_vCzdxipqAUT-XHsyu3pUzejjzg/s400/Bianca.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />She explains:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"At first this was just a tattoo of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinocchio">Pinocchio</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiminy_Cricket">Jiminy Cricket</a>. The drawings was based on the original drawings from the book by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Collodi">Carlo Collodi</a>. I was 20 years old and at <a href="http://antiochcollege.org/">Antioch College</a> at the time. There was an aspiring tattoo artist who studied there and had a tattoo gun and a make-shift studio and he did it for me as practice...(NOT one of my brightest ideas, since it's poorly done. People always ask me 'what is that supposed to be?') The idea had been in homage to my twin brother, Walter, whose nickname is Jiminy/Jimmy, and my mother used to read us the book when we were young. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">The 'Ex Libris' was added three years ago when I was studying poetry at <a href="http://www.nyu.edu/">NYU's</a> MFA program, to honor my love of books and antique book-plates. It means 'In the Library Of' and in theory should have my name under it. It was done at <a href="http://finelinetattoo.com/">Fineline Tattoo</a> in the East Village, by a very nice guy who I guess doesn't work there anymore...I can't remember his name. I do remember he went by one word."</blockquote>By way of a poem, Bianca shared this poem, which originally appeared in <a href="http://www.postroadmag.com/">Post Road Magazine</a>:<br /><br /><b id="internal-source-marker_0.999648958677426"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Someone Will Have to Tell You</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Someday soon you will let your hair grow<br class="kix-line-break" />and look like everyone else. And let there be a kingdom<br class="kix-line-break" />alongside the kingdom and a forsythia alongside you.<br class="kix-line-break" />Your mother has walked out of all her pictures</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">into the ether. There is hair in envelopes and the hair<br class="kix-line-break" />in lockets and the hair growing<br class="kix-line-break" />in graves. Saints are kneeling over your portrait.<br class="kix-line-break" />The stratocumulus clouds are forming<br class="kix-line-break" />in your chest. Fog around your feet.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You’ll have to listen to the bananas peeling.<br class="kix-line-break" />Listen to your books on tape. Little by little<br class="kix-line-break" />your face will float away<br class="kix-line-break" />from your other face.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Someday you won’t know what to eat. Someone<br class="kix-line-break" />will have to tell you. Someone will have to carry you<br class="kix-line-break" />into the back yard so you can hear the Canadian geese<br class="kix-line-break" />rise hysterically from the river.</span></b><br /><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">~ ~ ~</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></div>Bianca Stone is the author of several chapbooks, most recently <a href="http://argosbooks.org/?p=213">Someone Else's Wedding Vows</a> (<a href="http://argosbooks.org/">Argos Books</a>), and <a href="http://www.factoryhollowpress.com/book.php?id=42">I Want To Open The Mouth God Gave You, Beautiful Mutant</a> (<a href="http://www.factoryhollowpress.com/">Factory Hollow Press</a>). Her poems have appeared in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439181497/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bill03-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1439181497">The Best American Poetry 2011</a>, <a href="http://www.conduit.org/">Conduit</a>, and <a href="http://www.crazyhorsejournal.org/">Crazyhorse</a>. Her collaboration with <a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/317">Anne Carson</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0811219577/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=bill03-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0811219577">Antigonick</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=bill03-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0811219577" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, a new kind of comic book and translation, will be published in spring of 2012 by <a href="http://ndbooks.com/book/antigonick">New Directions</a>. She lives in Brooklyn. <br /><br />Thanks so much to Bianca for sharing her tattoo and poem with us here on the Tattooed Poets Project!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span></div>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Bianca Stone

Today's poet is Bianca Stone , who I met last year at the Best American Poetry 2011 launch reading . I spoke to her about contributing ...

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The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Henry Lee

Beginning in the second year of the Tattooed Poets Project, we experienced the thrill of having poets from previous years return to share more ink.<br /><br />This year is no exception, and the first of two repeat contributors is Michael Henry Lee.<br /><br />Last year, he contributed "work inspired by his spiritual convictions, with work spanning three decades by three artists in three very distinct parts of the country."<br /><br />"This year" he informs us, "reveals a more earthy side; with work again spanning three decades by two artists from the heart of America and the sunshine state."<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bKf-yQkxyo0Mj-5BpaN9dMvu6QG3c0j8_dGylYlrzufvYTyIwmLrN4gW-x_b16KQoY5_YKXEcGFDums7ET8uNE8dDYkknwdN4G3slyGzyAXx2yxpD293LZuunX4p8Te-5ZkyD5iwq54/s1600/mhl+tattoo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7bKf-yQkxyo0Mj-5BpaN9dMvu6QG3c0j8_dGylYlrzufvYTyIwmLrN4gW-x_b16KQoY5_YKXEcGFDums7ET8uNE8dDYkknwdN4G3slyGzyAXx2yxpD293LZuunX4p8Te-5ZkyD5iwq54/s640/mhl+tattoo.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Photo by Chris Bodor </span></td></tr></tbody></table>Michael Henry Lee explains:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">"The piece began with the oh so typical heart and initials by [his] then girlfriend and now wife of over thirty years. Gradually several butterflies, stars, comets, clouds, and lightning were all added by a Kansas City Missouri artist named John. Fast forward to Saint Augustine, Florida, and a great shop called <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tattoo-Garden/123643334358516">Tattoo Garden</a>, owned and operated by a super artist Tattoo Mike. He re-colored and revitalized the original piece on [my] last birthday and soon after the kanji for <i>poet </i>and the cherry blossoms were added."</blockquote>Mr. Lee got the kanji to remind him "of the gift he has been given to pursue and ... the cherry blossoms celebrate the beauty and brevity of the life in which he has to pursue it."<br /><br />Mr. Lee provided us with the following poems, which originally appeared in <i><a href="http://www.wayfarergallery.net/haikunews/">Haiku News</a></i> in response to various news stories. They are the sole property of Mr. Lee and may not be used without his explicit permission.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>sobriety checkpoint<br />the nation’s oldest city<br />comes of age<br /><br />buyer’s market-<br />the realtor kept insisting<br />till the bitter end<br /><br />in less time than it took<br />to say we’re sorry<br />you were gone<br /><br />consulting the stars<br />all the laws of probability<br />contained on a pinhead<br /><br />parent teacher day-<br />the class turtle<br />fends for itself<br /><br />mother’s day<br />something inside us<br />can’t let go<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">~ ~ ~</div><br />Michael lives in the nation's oldest city with his wife,  two cats ,and numerous bonsai trees. His work has appeared in <i>The Heron's Nest</i>, <i>Icebox</i>. <i>Berry Blue Haiku</i>, <i>The Mainichi Daily News</i>, and <i>Haiku News</i>. His most recent award was a first place in the traditional category and runner up in the contemporary category for the 2012 Haiku Now National Haiku Foundation contest. <br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Thanks to Michael Henry Lee for contributing again to the Tattooed Poets Project! Be sure to check out his <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2011/04/tattooed-poets-project-michael-henry.html">contribution from last year</a>, as well, in case you missed it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday. The poems and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's explicit permission. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.</span></div>

The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Henry Lee

Beginning in the second year of the Tattooed Poets Project, we experienced the thrill of having poets from previous years return to share mo...

Read more »