So what’s next?

> OE nēhst, superlative of nēah – nigh, near

Superlative of near. Very close. About to touch you. Almost intimate. Next.

And how close does one need to be to almost touch? Touché!

past participle of Fr., toucher – to hit or wound in fencing

Now we’re getting somewhere, because fencing:

gerund and present participle of fence – a barrier or boundary, seller of stolen goods (over a fence?), the art of swordplay, to avoid giving direct answers > ME fens, shortening of defens, defence

So is touching a fence or a de-fence? And what’s next after that?

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NEW CHAPBOOK OUT THIS MONTH!

If it’s possible to be even more excited than usual about a new publication, that’s very much what I am with the debut of Breaking Crown, my crown of resistance sonnets coming out in chapbook form from Collapse Press, with an online release on Saturday, September 12. And I think I know why. Most of the time when you get a piece published in a zine or journal, and especially a whole book, you’ve had lots and lots of time to sit with the work before anyone else sees it. But in this case the work is still fresh to me as well, having just poured out of me unexpectedly in June. I know it’s unusual to have a book of any kind come out so quickly, but just as the writing of it felt urgent, the crown itself seemed to need to be seen just as urgently. We live in urgent times, and what comes next really pivots on acting in the moment.

So I approached Collapse Press, who published my 2021 book of poetry and flash prose Unit of Agency (with a second edition in 2024), who I was pretty sure had full plates of new pubs and development — which they did.  So I suggested doing an old-style DIY chapbook which I could print and put together myself, with their approval of the content and cover art, of course. I pointed out that it seems a very good time to return to grassroots on-the-spot pubs to get as many charged words out there as possible. They agreed, and further decided to start a line of OG stapled chaps, this being the first. So voila!, an imprint is born.

You can read more about the writing of the book on the Books page, as well as on the current Fresh Words page, where there are also four of the fifteen sonnets to sample. They were all written (okay, drafted) in a fifteen hour stretch starting at 6am on June 13, as part of an online poetry writing marathon, and there was no foreplanning whatsoever. At that hour I really didn’t know if I’d write anything or fall back to sleep, but I did out of nowhere write a sonnet about waking/being born/coming freshly into the world. I was like, WTF! In the second hour I took off from that one and wrote another sonnet about trying to see the world clearly. The third was about seeing the broken and devastated culture and era that we’re living through, and I was off into resistance mode. Because a crown of sonnets consists of fourteen sonnets (of fourteen lines each, natch), followed by a fifteenth using the last lines from each, I approached each sonnets as if it had the function of its corresponding line in a single sonnet, building a rhetorical narrative through the first twelve sonnets, then cinching that in the following two as one does in the couplet at the end of a traditional sonnet. Didn’t mean to go formalist on your ass, but that’s in fact how it was constructed in the moment. Those who do enjoy formalism will notice the loose structure of the pieces, which are mostly in tetrameter with every last line in trimeter; constructed mostly of four tercets and a couplet; and with a lot of internal rhyme and some end rhyme, though not inserted purposefully, rather occurring naturally within the overall euphony. And for those who may nose-wrinkle at the loose form, please note that part of the theme is breaking down structures that impede movement forward.

If that last bit hasn’t turned you off, please consider coming to the zoom reading — you’ll find details and a link on the Events page — and/or checking out the samples on the Fresh Words page, and/or ordering the book via the info on the Books page.

I really do hope you enjoy the work, and that it provides a little extra fuel for your year.

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There are currently 5,121 U.S. trademarks containing the word “Next”. What does that mean? For one thing, you probably shouldn’t use that word for any reason, or somebody gonna sue your ass. They gonna cease and desist you all over the board. That’s right. There are 5,121 people own that word and they gonna fuck you up.  Truth be told, there’s probably more than that by now, since about 2,500 new trademark applications are submitted every day and over 800,000 every year, and “Next” is a damn good word. Real good. So good, in fact, that I’m not gonna write it again in this paragraph.

So why are all these people so ready to fight me, or you, or each other for that matter over a simple goddamned word? Because money, money, MONEY, that’s why, and they wanna get it outta you any way they can, as fast as they can, cause that’s the Merican Way, motherfucker. You don’t like it you can shut the fuck up. Next!

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ANOTHER VERY COOL BOOK  ::  ALSO there’s a very interesting book coming out September 11, on which I worked as developmental editor for fifteen months. It’s a fascinating exploration of social and cultural structures, new and old, that impede attempts at sustainability and creating a better world in general. The book is Overton’s Garden, authored by Tom Greenwood, a sustainability expert in the U.K. who became frustrated a few years ago after decades of work in that field with how impossible it seemed to make actual progress. So he started asking himself why that might be the case, and ended up writing this elegant series of arguments not about how to move forward but about what some of those impediments are and how they work. That said, the book actually creates momentum in the reader to break old thought patterns and move forward in new ways. That’s all for now and more on it soon. Full disclosure: I have a poem and a chapter on generative writing in the text, but believe me that is not why I’m waving this flag — though it is why I have it listed on the Anthologies & Journals page. Click on the book title above to check out Tom’s gorgeous website, where you can also reserve or purchase the book, and be sure to pick a mushroom at the bottom.

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Next indicates the ability to think forward, to pose constructs against probability, to imagine. It’s a frontal lobe thing, a neo-cortical function honed on making a better world for you, and with a little luck (or ethic) a better world for others as well, charged and maintained by our Lord and Savior Dopamine. But this ain’t no run-of-the-mill-that-feels-so-fucking-good-I-want-more-right-now cravy thank-you-master pleasure-center dopamine — no, this is the future maker, the alternate timeline baker, the inventor, the schemer, the artist, the designer, the deviator, the realizer, the deviser, the cantilever, the next-big-thinger, the out-of-thin-air-for-better-or-worse-ready-or-not-like-it-or-not creator dopamine. That’s what this is. And that’s what next flies on, and it’s mostly a matter of intention, skilled foresight, and good old human empathy whether it turns the future inside-out, upside-down, ass-backwards or dancing in the street with fearless joy.

Sincerely,
Richard

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