downiforgot

Response to "First lines to stories you've never read."

2011-04-27T13:37:00.000-07:00

Here are two stories written in response to two of my "first lines to stories you've never read" by my 12 year old niece, Kyran Berlin. After reading these, they will now be "first lines to stories you HAVE read." Enjoy!

Click on image and zoom in to view.

First lines to stories you've never read.

2011-04-23T11:12:00.000-07:00

click and zoom in to image to read.

All in a sunny afternoon

2011-04-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

I love my new typewriter. Read my ramblings, just click and zoom in on the image.

"I close the door"

2011-01-31T10:56:00.000-08:00

"this is it, she says, this will do"

2011-01-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

"I want you to buy me
some high-heeled shoes
with tall thin spikes,
black high-heeled shoes.
no, I want them
red."
from Eat Your Heart Out, Charles Bukowski

The Flying FIsh

2010-11-26T16:42:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time...
there was a little fish who wanted nothing more than to abandon his aquatic post and fly through the air.
The other fish laughed at him and his mother scolded him for having such silly dreams,
but he was determined.
He would swim far down to the floor of the riverbed then up up up as fast as he could
and he would just break the water's crust, an inch or two into the open air
then, PLOP!
back into the water.
He did this all day all night for weeks
and his determination fueled him.
One day a small old woman drifted by in her small old boat and saw the little fish hop out of the water.
She waited to see him in the air again and caught him in a jar
She spoke fish and asked him what he dreamed of.
She was the collector of fish dreams and as payment for taking his dream story she promised to make it come true.
"I only want to swim through the air as easily as I swim through water."
"Dear fish, your fins will now be full and feathered and you will fly through the air and in the water as you wish."
At that she tossed him into the air and he set sail!
And the small old woman steered her small old boat on down the river...
The End.

memory and marigolds

2010-11-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

you're gonna eat the apple and you're gonna like it.

2010-11-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

(un)veil

2010-10-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

"A woman is fond of her small things"

2010-10-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

House of Sticks

2010-09-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

she didn't say a word, not one word.

Birthday Bear and Me

2010-09-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

gloomy day triptych

2010-09-09T17:15:00.000-07:00

bundled in the beach house

2010-09-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

motel room ad nauseam

2010-08-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

the door at the top of the stairs

2010-08-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

she consumes she's consumed

2010-07-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

"And the mouth of him who last told this story is still warm."

2010-06-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

Day 12: The Bremen Town-Musicians, June 26, 2010, Silverlake, Los Angeles, CA

A Conversation.

2010-06-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

"Come, maiden, seat yourself on my little hare's tail, and come with me into my little hare's hut."

2010-06-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

Day 11: The Hare's Bride, June 17, 2010, Albuquerque, NM

A short break from grimm landscapes...

2010-06-17T17:16:00.000-07:00

"Oh! To the Griffin! They tell me he knows everything."

2010-06-03T22:31:00.000-07:00

Day 10: The Griffin, June 3, 2010, I-80, NV

"And in the water everything was drowned..."

2010-06-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Day 9: The Louse and the Flee, June 3, 2010, Salt Flats, UT

"that lamb has no heart; just consider it seriously, and then you'll see that it really has none."

2010-06-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

Day 8: Brother Lustig, June 2, 2010, Cafe Van Kleef, Oakland, CA

"Kywitt, kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!"

2010-06-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

Day 7: The Juniper Tree, May 31, 2010, PCH, Ventura County, CA

"My mother she killed me,
My father he ate me,
My sister, little Marlinchen,
Gathered together all my bones,
Tied them in a silken handkerchief,
Laid them beneath the juniper tree,
Kywitt, Kywitt, what a beautiful bird am I!"

"Go to her, she is King already."

2010-05-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Day 6: The Fisherman and His Wife, May 29, 2010, Silverlake, Los Angeles, CA

"Now go home, I can give you nothing, and you likewise ought to give me nothing."

2010-05-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Day 5: Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful, May 27, 2010, Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA

"Ha!-then there was a butchery and a chopping that might have been heard two miles off!"

2010-05-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Hans the Hedgehog, May 26, 2010, Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA

"someone is here who does not belong to us"

2010-05-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

Day 3: The King's Son Who Feared Nothing, May 24th, 2010,
Echo Park, Los Angeles, CA

"Hark you, I shall have to let the tree fall"

2010-05-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

Day 2: The Valiant Little Tailor, May 21st, 2010,
Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA

"the wild ones have more scent, and will please her better"

2010-05-20T16:47:00.000-07:00

Day 1: Iron Hans, May 19th, 2010, Prescott, AZ

the sheep and the giraffe

2010-05-06T00:08:00.000-07:00

bound by their feet to the base of two separate cups. still they loved one and the other. their feet stood fast, the cups stayed unbroken and pine away they did. the cups would fill with coffee and tea. and drown they would in this milked and sugared sea. were they a phoenix or lazarus they'd re-emerge. slowly as the drink was sipped still searching for one and the other. this sheep and this giraffe knowing they were one for the other. loving this one, loving that. always separated by coffee and cup.

hallways

2010-04-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

i always write about sleep

2010-04-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

always tired

on my back hot ceiling and cold arms

my neck wants to hang back

head down and low

i do write about sleep

so much to do in it with it of it

obese lesbians drink champagne

i swim

badly

death pulls me into his long wooden arms

and i know i am changed

huff and puff and blow your house down

2010-04-02T19:57:00.001-07:00

i amuse me

2010-03-30T20:52:00.001-07:00

muck

2010-03-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

Overwhelmed

Fucking

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Humming

Couch and cellulite

My mouth will not turn up

Just down down down

It seems I’v e lost something

I cudddraaaa cudduooo cttttrrvoo crrvvvv vrrrrr roooo

Listen

Opened up

Slit open

Spread eagle

Pendeja

Pause

Ctuo ctuot oquotcuoooooooooooooooooooo

Crrrrr trrrrrr vooooo

A split grapefruit

Dried dry dying air

Cracked and buried

Sand scurries into the slit

Like ants beetles fleas and ticks

Open up to the dry sun the dry sky the dry dried dying

Bag grey sky

By the heater its dry dried dying

Peeano

Filing down filing in a line filing

Nails brittle cracked dry dying dried

Son las doce y media pero no te preocupas

Fucking dried dying cunt

I am not will not won’t not can’t

And I will close my eyes and sleep in this cracked mud.

fits of spring

2010-03-23T16:13:00.000-07:00

Fits of Spring: Vernal Equinox ritualized through performance by First Bird.

We Are First Bird: With a pallet encompassing instrumental and vocal music, improvisation, storytelling, and visual art, first bird seeks to explore language, memory, and ritual through performance. Rooted in improvisation and group interaction, the trio combines their different artistic and cultural backgrounds into a highly communicative performance experience.

.first bird. is
Alanna Herrera (Painting, Mixed Media)
Brendan Carn (Contrabass)
Carmina Escobar (Voice, Electronics)

Photos by Hadjar Homaei

there's wine on my porch

2010-03-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

i couldn't contain them.

2010-01-31T23:09:00.000-08:00

hallway

2010-01-24T20:51:00.000-08:00

tales of the mundane

2010-01-23T12:17:00.000-08:00

gimme some wine

2010-01-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

word of the day

2010-01-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

c o

n e

i had a stomach ache last night

2010-01-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

Down

down

i went

sinking low below

my belly hurt

and then I laugh laugh laughed

until my stomach split in two

opening up

spreading apart

blood and muscle and laughter

I slept just fine that night.

2010-01-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

sneak peak into puke

2010-01-17T19:57:00.000-08:00

2010-01-17T19:56:00.000-08:00

"As I grew up, down I forgot" -e e cummings

2010-01-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

Band-aids

2010-01-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

This wound vomiting pus and blood

I cover it with my hand

I close my eyes and think of birds

But still this out pour continues

it redoubles its efforts

unexpected articles emerge from this pit

a typewriter

a shell

a pair of scissors

I grab at them, but they escape into the mud

yarn

blue paint

the kitchen sink

spill out and disappear

The loss sends me spinning

I can't even get a firm grasp on the words in my head

"caterpillar"

"silk"

"envelope"

all come tumbling out, never to return

I put both hands over the wound

I scream

I cry

No hands, no stitches, no band-aids

Keep this spring from springing.