The Nacreous Oughts

2012-02-09T18:58:00.002-08:00

67.
if there had been a project
what would it have been
a statue to teach infidels
noncompliants taken out

thus whirlwinds disperse
& i contemplate · these other ruins
& i cannot find · the movie
ears ringing · wrapped up against the cold
in a cold house

i pick white specks from my black cape
& sip strong coffee
an ordering device · in this world
so otherwise devoid of order
i will be your guide

on the snuffed-out paths

2012-02-09T18:56:00.002-08:00

66.
kaj pri la poetoj,
kiujn sekvas la erarantoj
Urartu
Mare Ligeia
useless erudition
for a thegn of Dingir Illum
an ounce of patchouli
cold feet in wet shoes

2012-02-09T18:53:00.001-08:00

65.
of the goddesses
perhaps not Freyja

in brilliant sunlight
with the heat turned off

TODNAON
marionette lines

up above
the Russian River

2012-02-09T18:50:00.003-08:00

64.
Horse-ebooks lied
Cxiun novan admonon,
living for those red circles
kiu venas al
Elvis would have been 77 today
ili de ilia
the wet, glistening roadways
Sinjoro, ili
yellow light in the dash
awskultas mokante
blinking yellow schoolzone
crawling yellow into red morphs

carbon islands
in a chlorine sea
arcane lahars
cranial shawabty

"that life is temporal"

2012-02-09T18:45:00.002-08:00

63.
a tall woman, heavy-set,
tiny eyes, tattoos
wants to talk to the manager

memorized spiel, stranded, kids
(nowhere in evidence), trying to get home
to Ft Worth · can i help

"you can use the phone," i say but she holds up
her own, much newer than mine
& i sigh

a year or two ago she was here before
with some similar sad story
& i am sorry now i did help her

if she comes back again i will call the cops
a kind of textured darkness
what can this span support

silvery & the yesterday wind
Corinthian doubleplus undead
extreme journalism

up to the lip of the Maelstrom
& beyond
the moon a white smear

in a sea of violet

2012-02-09T18:29:00.002-08:00

62.
Hollerith cardsharper
a windowless aria flown
carpal pang Chaldean
in one of the lesser Oz books

emerging
to catch the last light
at the top of the steps of the library
most of the town in shadow already

mass graves yawn
the pause extends woefully
our agent from beyond the pale
working out sums on brown wrapping paper
a path in the sky

Tahoma inverted
old flowered calendar
still in December
hellish shift
vere ne estas la okuloj,
liuj estas blindaj,
some crumbs of dried milk fall
sed blindaj estas la koroj,
liuj sidas en la brustoj.
when i tip my coffee a splash

somehow i set it going
without closing the lid

how strange to hear it growling
with the lid still lifted

cheering crowds
wad of kleenex on the floor at the hospital
all the vampires
move west on Mulholland
my silences
as well as my speech

2012-02-09T18:11:00.002-08:00

61.
proxy war
between Lemurian zombies
& unicorns of Atlantis
Neniu populo
SE KERFA JE FENKI MANTI
kapablas akceli · sian destinon
nek prokrasi gxin
voice of an honor killing
in the shadowless cold light

Fats Waller & dusty leaves
Christmas presents in January
still wrapped · accusing
the need for a crown

with or without health insurance

2012-02-09T18:08:00.001-08:00

60.
gray, tired faces
ushabti tsunami shard
radiates
ebon at risk stark
aspect bungled end game ambergris wishness
osmotic shape rattle arthropod
adorn brood
trail your steel pikes
the myst'ry signal
broadcasting for decades from Russia

2012-02-09T18:04:00.002-08:00

59.
warmth in my hands of the white cup
inside me the change · inside me the dire rigor
a kleenex used, that the dog can snatch
from the backed-up lane three cars peel away
one after the other, like synchronized swimmers

contrail at dawn · Numan in the CD player
the horizon powdery graypink shading into lilac-aqua
with an air overall of mild bemusement
among the tense mechanicals

the illusion of action at a distance · this wind
that thrives at · the bright edges
of puddles

2012-02-09T18:00:00.002-08:00

58.
white spiral
where the street meets the sky

brake abruptly
Boswell Sisters continue singing

carrot-crunch
is not celery-crunch
there should be words for this

crossing over
in an old car · crossing
over in a newer

the skyline vague · a cop car
parked on the median
like a lizard in the sun

Lenin writing
in a Swiss cafe
the artists with their rude tricks

bare trees in bright sun
a pot of tea would be nice
this is the last climb

2012-02-09T17:57:00.001-08:00

57.
the Eloi are not kind
nor are they sane,
their own plans undermined

the Eloi are not kind
because they're blind
--which doesn't quite explain

the Eloi are not kind,
nor are they sane

2012-02-09T17:51:00.002-08:00

56.
sparse-regular fading to
sparse-irregular
more a texture than a pattern
yet on the face of a moon
can be read as the more-bombarded leading edge

wallpaper made of this word
ondo kovras gxin, super gxi
lapping the long shadows
estas ondo, super tiu estas
do i decelerate unwillingly
nubo; tavoloj de mallumego,
will i be late to work if my car breaks down
unu super la alia; kiam
can i get reimbursed
li etendas sian manon,
li preskaw ne povas vidi gxin.

tie a broken rubber
band back together

2012-02-09T17:44:00.001-08:00

55.
spirit procedure
lacewings newly hatched
red coat crossing
under a red stoplight
silverhair · newly hatched
this week not at my last dime
outside · in the cold distance
watch the inner lane
& the middle lane close

as regular as waves

2012-02-09T17:36:00.002-08:00

54.
the Wall of the Unknown Ones
nidor
Se Ni estus volinta,
coats for the homeless
Ni estus vekinta
admonanton
collected by a school
en cxiu urbo.

one letterstamp short
start the ball rolling
of various sizes · pale statuette
in wan sunlight
the drone of a small plane

we feel so strongly
the necessity of depicting violence
a hundred years from now

it'll be our spats & crinolines
everything in it · has happened before

to somebody else
Aw kiel mallumego
en profunda maro

2012-02-09T17:34:00.001-08:00

53.
Tengwar Dragnet
all harm in my eyes · i begin to recede
not this · not that
as heat percolates · up from the car floorboards
and this good news · we needed
it may be years yet

2012-02-09T17:29:00.004-08:00

52.
varathaned cheongsam
orange afterimage
pulsing
Sargasso Sea
or Saragossa
prize for opening with

signed by tentacles
ushabti psalm thrid
bane abstruser it sinks up as · faux
Plimsoll tmesis · staying sharp

argyle lids
adorn oboe walls · indigo fenestrate
sands · ibis tsunami stew
or luster ascot

dearth · NU PINDI
Cynothoglys
Por tiu, al kiu
Allah ne donas lumon,
tute
birdlime chronicle
ne estas lumo.

2012-02-09T17:27:00.001-08:00

51.
Osiris scattered
the searchers at knives with
each other

gangrene is winning
i know a lot of answers
secrets that will die with me
good secrets
holy secrets

Osiris scattered
the trail marked with strips of rags

2012-02-09T17:21:00.002-08:00

50.
yet another modernist longpoem
to ward away oncoming night

sweep · peripheral
blur · candycanes

glow · LE PURDI
POI SE CNITA LE RIRXE

the closed captions on court tv
write "realities" when the judge says "realize"
no doubt the auto-complete's first suggestion
souls twisted by malice
& intellectuals for hire
will perjure on demand
i turn from this whole bookshelf
fresh air fresh air
so much energy poured
into not sharing
into not seeing
into not saving

what could have still been saved

could have still
by the light of a burning constitution

2012-02-09T17:19:00.002-08:00

49.
a rare cancer
upside down on your mortgage
gorgonosaurs answer

a rare cancer
churns in the wheels of the dancer
not to lose this baggage

a rare cancer
upside down on your mortgage

2012-02-02T16:40:00.004-08:00

GJ 667Cc, with a minimum mass of 4.5 earth's & a revolution period of 28.15 days, is the latest "Earth-analogue" to be announced (2/2/12). A second planet in the system (#6 on this list, after Vinegaroon, i have not yet considered it for naming. (For now i am going with "Manât".) The system being metal-poor (log Fe/H= -0.59), i would expect it to be rather large.

HR 6426, HIP 84709 ABC has a Hipparchos parallax of ".14345 & stellar magnitudes of 5.91, 7.98, & 10.24 respectively. Its age is estimated at 2-10 billion years. Component C is now at an apparent distance of 30" (8-30.5") from the A-B system, which corresponds to 230 AU at 6.8 parsecs. The spectral type of C is given as M1.5 or M2.5 & its mass 0.310 times the Sun's.

2012-02-02T11:49:00.002-08:00

48.
numbers on a piece of paper
in someone else's writing
a photo of a blue dumpster
Se Li volus, Li
other worlds
forpreni vin
the earth-analogues
kaj estigi
carry in your hand
novan kreon.
a splash of dark brown coffee
in a violet saucer
above the Stag Moat
the north front of the Castle

now among them are some
with an air of brokenness
the boarded-up store fronts

have taken up residence
in my story

2012-02-02T11:46:00.002-08:00

47.
frogs riding squirrels
might make that sound
the unincorporated wastes recoil
Tiam ili diris: "Du magioj,
kiuj subtenas
frogs riding squirrels
unu la alian" kaj tiam
into a landscape of smoke
ili diris: "Ni
rifuzas ambaw."
sickness, decay & dying

2012-02-02T11:43:00.001-08:00

46.
follow me down to Fairview
runing with scissors
devouring land

bulldozing the corpses
in bright sun-light
into a landfill of smoke

play back the tapes
grainy, hard to decipher
sickness, decay & dying

in bright sun-light

2012-02-02T11:40:00.002-08:00

45.
we tarried but a day
or part of a day

follow me down to Fairview
runing with scissors
devouring land

we tarried but a day
or part of a day

2012-02-02T11:37:00.002-08:00

44.
kaj Manaton,
la trian, · RACYDRI
la alian idolon

MI BANZU · NELCI
of dark · of death
of ivory · of clothes

of desolation · to learn keeping
on the shore of a manmade lake

2012-02-02T11:33:00.002-08:00

43.
when the last trash of Christmas is carted off
a trick in whist Se Li volus, Li
povus forpreni vin · kaj estigi
we bled inside
novan kreon.
each childless womb
nothing easier
to imagine than the end of the world;
to imagine things otherwise,
nothing harder

the engulfed
cathedral

2012-02-02T11:31:00.001-08:00

42.
the longest night
& after · if
still in a year from now

the question hovers
in so many ways

going over the letters
nothing, where a drawer should be
subfusc welkin

take it to da house
2 kinds of meat

as if in lusters known

2012-02-02T11:28:00.002-08:00

41.
dark brew · in a crooked cup
Vi kreis min · el fajro
kaj lin el · argilo
running through the wet glass
"truth"
remove a letter & it is "death"
all the intellectuals
avid to extol
impossible economics
& blockhead wars
where do they all come from?

noise putty

2012-02-02T11:26:00.003-08:00

40.
astir
nomenclature
overturned · by all high aims
Wolverine goes to Hell
fangs of dregs dark hallow
against
the chrysoprase sky

as i sat on the timeworn curb
in a deserted square in Prague

cripple mildew · lately clouded
breakage · merrily along

Outside, the vampires waited.

2012-02-02T11:20:00.002-08:00

39.
"Chiron" ahead of me
in the left turn lane
forbidden compassion
on the argonaut circuit

neither to upraise
where sole balloon-spheres hover
violet eyes
in black & white
lozenge furrowed
ycelpt PALCI
trees that give no shelter
trees that give no shelter
violet implants

stint on candlelight

loose film in a paper bag
i wonder briefly what it is
tombstones higgledy-piggledy
keep the music flowing
and other nameless objects
Wolverine goes to Hell
XEKYBLA
KANDYBLA
qibla noir
Bwana Beowulf
how silvery the echoes run
silvery · & the yesterday wind

2012-02-02T11:18:00.003-08:00

38.
Luqman running squamous am
falter ingot brummagem running into

infirm sip
and egg tsunami

squalor Luqman salvages empty
motionless tug as
dawn emerges of random flotsam

start relishing frost fingers
interior agriculture hollowness

start abrupt
frequency Luqman
smart smog sales

again revoking ambergris crown
Luqman on angel wings inks

2012-02-02T11:13:00.002-08:00

37.
en la tempo de la nescio
proselytize
Guugu Yimithirr

these things prey upon my mind
like flying snakes

the hour of being desp'rate to solve this, fades;
the wind from the hour's predicament, remains.
FENGU DZUCPI

planet this close to the flames
again
the ground torn up
where we used to go

scraping the windowtint
inch by inch
in the cold before the dawn
many things can be understood

2012-02-02T11:10:00.003-08:00

36.
pennies from henbane
shardferry
to the banks of the Rhine

across the wide waste
no passage sets forth
dark blue & light blue
sighing of old wars

in another book numbers
dance · in another life
i learned certain things
which i have now forgotten

& this hour that won't wait
even to bid adieu
to the stones as its light fades

comes back many years hence

2012-02-02T08:50:00.003-08:00

35.
the fall of Rome, & all my secret griefs;
smoke melts into sky, from leaves once burned
a line at McDonald's slows · the frankford fiend
& the daylight curse
machine grinding its teeth · Phthiotan wine
six-leggèd soldiers quaff
callipygianize · the eschaton
into secret prisons
the mild winter sunshine
from pattern to texture
Guugu Yimithirr

2012-02-02T08:48:00.002-08:00

34.
there's half of it
if we had the other half it might be fixed

avert the voodoo
by pretending not to care

the police line closing in
listening to poetry

passing
among others who pass

the other hues
of autumn

2012-02-02T08:43:00.001-08:00

33.
returning to a trail now cold
without regard
for the palpitating mass of desirers
but to do what is needful
this machine barely here
these fluorescents so smiling
this soundtrack i did not choose
Kraken Mare, Ligeia Mare
sloth orphanage
the silent city of the dead
purple-gray sky Koreshist night
a heaviness in the gut

2012-02-02T08:39:00.002-08:00

32.
never fear, tiny people
& the missing knobs

will be restored
just this moment or a moment short

shamans slain by the overhead
There lies

The Blue-Glass World
Place the Blue Candle in

The Blue Lantern
avenue of elms

your face crooked
for the rest of your life

2012-02-02T08:28:00.002-08:00

31.
the toad talisman
we hereby do summon
hyacinth Lethe
KURKYGRUTE FASNU
By maggot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
the cold periastron
of 99 names

stone sphere · on a dead night

2012-02-02T08:25:00.002-08:00

30.
we're forced to crawl · but the soul wants wings
the ballroom's small · but the soul wants wings

seeking what · will sing us back
in a shopping mall · but the soul wants wings

tossed above · the churning crowd
a voodoo doll--but the soul wants wings

wine-redolent · cerulean days
for the alcohol · but the soul wants wings

& i Graywyvern · musingly troll
in a crystal ball · but the soul wants wings

2012-02-02T08:22:00.003-08:00

29.
snow so long · utterly fled
& the light of that day
hawteto · de daktilkerno
conjure iron
Se vi vokas ilin, · ili ne awdas vin,
conjure iron bonds
kaj, ecx se ili awdus, · ili ne povus
cerulean pellucid
respondi al vi

2012-02-02T08:21:00.001-08:00

28.
spagyric propylus
zakkûm

know you're enemy

2012-02-02T08:19:00.001-08:00

27.
shambles the word
propylus lift
a Russian postcard, 1933
shadows across the road
from the red & yellow trees
conjure
conjure iron
the tenderness you withhold
all the hours of the day
an old idol
crosses the moonlit burying ground

2012-02-02T08:18:00.002-08:00

26.
thrifty penguin
sufficient thereunto

government zombies
pinwheels for eyes

rows of birds on power lines
silhouetted in the afterglow

2012-02-02T08:16:00.001-08:00

25.
indefinite detention
of any American citizen
that's what we were demanding
in our makeshift tents
let the files be opened
with the flying saucer secrets
prolific & short-lived
hot rod Willys

2012-02-02T08:15:00.001-08:00

24.
my heart the only labyrinth
that loses ev'ryone
black wall feathery
like the edge of a fog-bank
warning lights that warn
not specifying what
winter sunshine
five minutes to midnight
man on a high crane
bobbing next to the broke stoplight

2012-02-02T08:13:00.003-08:00

23.
in this labyrinth of days
the safe rain
will break your navigation
you will go homeless
save for the labyrinth
of self
& of self's follies
Mare Acidalium

rise · before the sun

2012-02-02T08:11:00.001-08:00

22.
in the arms of the intel
Kepler-22b

they pay me to stand here
waving this damn sign

or some more frantic fate
Phthiotan wine
coranach
guzzling

Nascar Torcross

2012-02-02T08:08:00.002-08:00

21.
in this light
that suppresses all questions
this thought
that suppresses all light
shadow of gravel
maybe a Weltanschauung
Sumerian roots
punned in a shadowy mushroom cult

talk to the blackbirds
or the third that walks beside

fuchsia elephantiasis
fuchsia elephantiasis

i wait
till there is shooting in the streets

2012-02-02T08:07:00.001-08:00

20.
cold, & no more rain
frost-rimmed puddles on the way to the dumpster

more duct tape on leather glove

car that makes me stand in the cold
watching till the light goes out

2012-02-02T08:03:00.001-08:00

19.
water moving beneath my wheels
Zarmina fading
as though it had never been
there will be others
i say
as under gray the cars
lurch from their anxious sleep

while we enter ours

2012-02-02T07:57:00.002-08:00

18.
the woods decay
cxu ili ne vojagxis
the woods decay and fall
sur la tero
por vidi,
security
kiel estis
the red light always on
la fino de tiuj antaw ili?
water moving beneath my wheels
Tiuj estis pli
multenombraj ol
on to Aldermaston
ili kaj pli fortaj
on to Alderaan
je povo kaj je la
signoj, kiujn
I remember Aldebaran
ili postlasis
sur la tero.
rows
Tio tamen,
of dead squirrels
kion ili akiris,
in an empty house
neniom utilis al ili.

2012-02-02T07:53:00.002-08:00

17.
la saman sorton, kiu
trafis la popolon
de Noa,
kaj la Aadanojn
kaj la Tamudon, kiuj estis
post ili.
bezyatie fez
Uz cyanotic naught striped
fill fez of least Oz mulct Czar scoriac pyre
fathoms ink

hollow atoll with actively ingot
narwhal fulcrum agaric
whist itch ash
stillborn crush like spurious zephyr adorn

aftermath lithic
slowly all uffish mesmerized Oz
following sferics elude next fall
isthmus ptyx

2012-02-02T07:51:00.001-08:00

16.
incontrovertible
Aleppo

nakji bokum

collect dewdrops
to fill a blueglass bottle

BLACYCOLBLA
reposture
Sehpurpur King Ghidorah

2012-02-02T07:49:00.001-08:00

15.
VOPA KI'O REBI
DAPOI BRADI LE
MUSYCEI ZO'U
BA SFASA DA
FO TU'A LE FAGRI
.I RI BA CIMNI RANJI
ZDANI DA
.I SFASA FI LE ZU'O DA
LE NOTCI POI CENSA KU'O
BEFI MI'A

2012-02-02T07:47:00.001-08:00

14.
Maronian ore
organs harvested

drudge & broke too
between the stars

gold where the sun has fled
sweet smell of rotting meat

the reluctance to try
anything else by someone whose one thing you like

2012-02-02T07:46:00.001-08:00

13.
apocalypse beyond PhotoShop
shovelfuls
over sky

all the redundant sweets

ev'ry car
driving slow against me on purpose

dancing
on the ocean floor

2012-02-02T07:44:00.002-08:00

12.
honking labradoodle
inkoj
soft signs sort
would that my pocketbook
were like this drainous sinus
filled soon as emptied
& my hands that will now smell of coffee
reach safe harbor in the cool pale waters
of your flesh
& you smile at me
& our future's not touch & go

2012-02-02T07:43:00.000-08:00

11.
niding
i am truly one of those

the moment you forget me

2012-02-02T07:41:00.002-08:00

10.
Who
were these pictures
of

obelists

my lizard-head zither speaks
CAKCURNU
CAKCURNU glowcat
igloo all poutnik twaddle
scrip fathoms
stay riddle aggry glowwormy bot
northern fathoms glow
Tlaloc sprung fortunate augurous stopgap
snaggle wilt
ukase at twilight

2012-02-02T07:38:00.001-08:00

9.
Content Provider
in beta

t'ward sandstone pity
t'ward the snare
that is no snare
semi dried grease
on the fake wood countertop
these words

already outrun me

2012-02-02T07:35:00.001-08:00

8.
a pang here & there
& great gaps of unremembered time
this is the turf we contest
hebdomedal, sublunary & gray
grief & the permutations of desire
hypocrisy that we can control
even this traffic light
& to turn from the left or the far left lane
in the face of oncoming cars

2012-02-02T07:31:00.003-08:00

7.
vere, ili
estis la perdantoj
born of distant dark planet names
Quaoar argyle
vere ili
CMENE LE PLINI
CO DARNO MANKU
perdantoj
JBENA fildjan
Hunibaldus
estis la

2012-02-02T07:29:00.001-08:00

6.
now i ride in my armor-ego
my armor-ego
of dinosaur grease
now i ride in my armor-ego
my armor-ego
of dinosaur grease
now i ride in my armor-ego
my armor-ego
of dinosaur grease
now i ride in my armor-ego
my armor-ego
of dinosaur grease

2012-02-02T07:27:00.002-08:00

5.
ev'ryone wants this
& its gravitational pull
rattles the window latch
in Astrophage Town

2012-02-02T07:24:00.002-08:00

4.
to want what you never will be given
the wind-curved sandhills
gray dawn
GRUSI MURSE
Pražský Hrad
a picture
faded out at the edges
my veins run sluggish
at this hour
music
from no homeland
that's ever been

2012-02-02T07:19:00.003-08:00

3.
kevlar warbot
ex poet laureate
beaten with billy clubs
the pen
knocked from my hand
ghost mall
charges an extra dollar
there are those who dispute
ev'ry aspect of B----'s story
a place filled with food smells
and geometric motions
when I heard the learnèd astronomer
sopping with dew
in the pinkgold sodiums
even the photographs
of an archaic sort

talk all night
deliver
the heartsong
his fuse burning out
up there alone
touch finger to a crumb
to lift it up

2012-02-02T07:17:00.001-08:00

2.
exploits & sufferings of plasma
forms, flames
Dii involuti

bitter & begrudging
the pulsating walls
of the narcissist's domain

2012-02-02T07:11:00.003-08:00

"Spaceship to Pluto"

1.
the day itself & its graynesses hateful
marooned in all the worlds
and i have taken home a new blank book
the dog no longer strong to jump
the order of these pictures
left to conjecture
will you force the police to crack down
imagining they won't
that's the radically utopian game plan
chihuahua amok on the highway

what falls to the old utopian
who might be there today
if he hadn't had a job
chronicler bigtime dispossessed
aloof & unwary

LE KUMTE KUNTI CUKTA CADZU

across a burning plain

2011-12-27T18:43:00.002-08:00

Scheherazade--Kepler-22b a.k.a. KOI-87.01--is an 11.5 magnitude G5 star at a distance of 180 parsecs from Earth. The visual luminosity works out to be 0.609459723 times the Sun's. My best fit to the data given is a bolometric correction of -.12 (=G5.5) & a stellar temperature of 5550 K. Then the bolometric luminosity is 0.791671499 & the stellar radius works out as 0.971723097.

Even though the stellar mass is given as 0.97, i think 0.90 would be more normal. Nevertheless, using this mass & the planet's period of 289.8623 days, i come up with a semimajor axis of 0.848502651 AU. The derived planetary temperature would be 20.6 Celsius with the Earth's albedo (0.36) & greenhouse effect (38), but i prefer A= 0.4375 & Ge= 54 which makes it 29 Celsius on average (call Earth something like 15 C). Because the planet is certainly larger than the Earth--its radius is given as 2.38.

The mass & density are not yet known. It would not be unreasonable to place their bounds as 10.79 for 0.8 Earth's density & 16.18 for 1.2. The gravity becomes 1.9 to 2.9 (not so habitable!). Two important considerations at this point. If it is more than 2.31 times Earth's escape velocity (at this temperature) it would keep hydrogen gas & presumably not support an oxidizing atmosphere. This artificial limit occurs at any density greater than 0.9439. I would find the heavier density more likely to my mind, except that the star is metal poor (log Fe/H= -0.29) & thus its planets are potentially less dense than they would be otherwise.

Finally, i estimate its rotation period, due to tidal braking, at 3 or 4 days; making the ratio of revolution-to-rotation periods an integral 105 gives a "day" on Scheherazade as 66 hours long.

2011-08-18T16:52:00.007-08:00

HD 85512b, or Gliese 370, at 36 light years would fit on my previous list around #16 (54 Piscium). A K5 star in the constellation of Vela, with a mass of 0.69, its 3.6 Earth-mass planet orbits in 58.43 days (with an eccentricity of 0.11). The pdf (Kaltenegger et al) suggests it sits just on the inside edge of the habitable zone, & would be "potentially habitable" with a cloud cover of more than 50%.

Parallax ".08975 & visual apparent magnitude 7.66 give a luminosity of 0.093310622 (bolometric 0.154857087). If the semimajor axis of this super-earth (call it "Mordred") is 0.260400468, then the average temperature works out to be (with any reasonably terrestrial atmosphere) over 160 degrees Fahrenheit (e.g. 75 Celsius)*. With a "tidal effect factor" of 10 times Earth's, this world is just on the cusp between synchronous rotation & a very long day (perhaps hundreds or thousands of earth-days long)... Its diameter must be around 11,000 miles, & the gravity 1.8 Earth's. So, it could be either a "ribbon world" (like our conception of Zarmina--), or else habitable most at the poles.

We may imagine the dwarfish, Hulk-shaped humanoid denizens wresting their arduous existence under a huge red sun whose setting would be witnessed, at most, one dozen times in a long life.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
*If the planet rotates this slowly, the temperature extremes that one location experiences would be considerable (e.g. plus or minus 100 degrees Celsius). --For water not to boil at 175 C, the surface pressure must be at least 8.7 atmospheres--not unlikely for a terrestrial planet of this mass.

2011-03-24T13:23:00.010-08:00

...........................................................ν Octantis............................................................................................

Nu Octantis (HR 8254 GJ9744 HIP 107089 HD205478) is an orange subgiant with a close red companion; more. Hipparcos gives its (combined) magnitude as 3.73: at a distance of 69.1 LY this means a total visual luminosity of 12.60436278. The spectral types are given as KO III & K7-M1, while their masses are 1.4 & 0.5 solar. From the latter mass, i would put B closer to M1 than K7. If i set its visual luminosity at 0.01, then A's is 12.59436278; with bolometric corrections of -0.36 & -1.35 respectively, & temperatures of 4750 & 3350 Kelvin, that makes the total luminosities of A & B 17.41446004 & 0.034673685. Derived stellar radii 6.221910712 & 0.558169848. Thus A is a tiny bit over ten times the size of B.

The stars revolve in an orbit of 1020 days (2.792559156 y.--which i am using in preference to 2.9 years) & eccentricity 0.2358. This puts their periastron at 1.876980762 & apastron 3.035295507 AU. Not much room for a planet in there! Yet there seems to be: 2.5 times the mass of Jupiter, with a 2:5 resonant orbit of period 418 days--RETROGRADE. (Its eccentricity of 0.123 would bring it to within 1/2 AU of the secondary, as a matter of fact.) Semimajor axis 1.223944353 on the average from A.

What i want to know, of course, is the temperature range of the planet (& any hypothetical Earth-sized satellites it may have. The primary star gives it a blackbody temperature of 519.38±32.06 K. The secondary gives it 113.86±56.39 K. Adding these (which i know to be not quite right) gives 633.24±88.45. If the Albedo is set around 0.5 then the planet (call it Volnius--after the only Etruscan poet whose name is known to us) ranges from 185º to 334ºC (not counting the greenhouse effect). A lower albedo, & higher satellite temperature, seems likely.

This temperature range would suit a sulfuric (Io-like) satellite with a suitable "pseudo-hydrosphere" of anhydrous sulfuric acid. Let this moon be called Plornish. Given the mass ratio of the primary star to the subjovian is 178.0, a satellite orbit seems to be stable out to 0.035 AU (= period 26.95 days), while the "Callisto limit" (the closest it can be without receiving too much radiation from the subjovian) may be around 0.031 AU (22.5 days). I note that this orbit probably comes to an integral ratio to the period of its planet; 17 seems right. Its distance would then be 0.032921918, or 3.06 million miles.

That corresponds to a satellite orbital period of 24.6 days. That would be the solar "day". Adding (instead of subtracting, for retrograde) the synodic periods gives some 296.5 days, & the ratio of the two (a significant number for any calendar) of pretty close to an even 12.

The apparent size of star A is 5.07, star B varies from 0.13 to 1.1, & the disk of Volnius, if it is the same size as Jupiter, would be around 3. While Volnius would presumably not move in the sky whatever the observer's position on Plornish, both suns would probably disappear behind it at intervals. The eclipse of star A, however, would be only an annular eclipse.

The computer tables are inconclusive in regards to age. For only M= 1.40 solar, there are models from 0.9 b.y. to 4.8 b.y. that almost fit. Also models with masses from 1.25 to 2.20 solar. None of them fits perfectly. Thus a median age of 2.85 (plus or minus 1.95) b.y. is suggested. 7/5/11

2010-10-21T05:26:00.003-08:00

     A Calendar for Zarmina's World

Though the sun may not move for the hypothetical denizens of Zarmina's World, they will not be without time-givers. If the revolution period in days of each of the planets in the habitable zone is as follows:

    c = 12.895
    g = 36.562
    d = 66.80

--then the apparent (synodic) period of c ("Metaluna") will be 19.92085985 and the period of d ("Usk") will be 80.77060652. Notice that the major cycle is almost exactly four times the duration of the minor cycle. I will call the long one a "yare" & the short one a "mynth". These periods will be known from antiquity, as both planets give visible disks (the inner one with phases) & significant illumination at the terminator anyway. Indeed, there is nothing else to count by.

For now i am naming the mynths Jabarch, Aprimune, Jugember, and Ocvecember.

After some 18 yares, the length of 72 (18 x 4) mynths will be short by a little over one mynth. Then it will be time to add an intercalary mynth ("fliedermynth") to make the cycles match up again. (This would happen once, maybe twice in a human-sized lifespan. So i call this period a "spaen".) When 57 spaens have passed, the small excess of 4161 (57 x 73) mynths over 1026 (57 x 18) yares will again nearly equal one mynth, and the usual intercalary mynth will have to be left out. This latter cycle (a "seecle") will be rather longer than an individual life, i think; & will mark the passage of cultural epochs & the lifespan of nations perhaps.

Further modifications will follow these lines, at yet greater intervals.

For smaller units, as i have adopted a number base of 9 (three hands of three fingers each), 1/9 of a mynth is about 52 hrs (a "dey"); 1/9 of a dey is about 5.8 hours (a "filge"); 1/9 of a filge is about 38.8 minutes (a "haor"). I don't know whether these creatures will sleep at all, or only at irregular intervals, but it will probably be useful to keep track of the 81 filges in a mynth, at any rate.

These numbers (in whatever base), seemingly given from heaven, will impress themselves on the mystically minded: the silver proportion 18:73 and the golden proportion 1026:4160...

2010-07-01T17:50:00.015-08:00

~~Seven~~ Eight Earths

a moon of LIR blackbody temp 264 K No earth-sized moon possible.

TORMANCE aka Zarmina's World, Gliese 581 g. Blackbody temp 246 K. More. Trapped rotation. Probably sufficient atmosphere to create equable temperatures on the eastern face, if not at the pole. Some pics.

USK blackbody temp 171 to 256 K

ARTEMIS blackbody temp 337 to 487 K Too hot.

DANZIG blackbody 281 K Too big?

PALINURUS blackbody 320 K

ST BARNABAS, a moon of LARAN blackbody 213 to 293 K Too young.

ALBUNASAR, a moon of CHARCHEMISH 272 K
Max moon orbit 0.042 AU (via). Which means its solar day is at least four weeks (to be outside the "Callisto Zone")...

Aurelia, as pictured in the National Geographic Series Alien Worlds a.k.a. Extraterrestrial: note the darkside polar orientation

2010-06-24T11:03:00.073-08:00

Exoplanets in order of Distance [Cf]

1. ε (epsilon) Eridani b. Constellation: Eidanus (the [Po] River). 10.5 LY; Sp= K2 Mj= 1.55 P,d= 2502 (6.8y). My name: Sofonisba. (Cf Iarga.) Jupiter analogue. Not now thought to have such an eccentric orbit as previously. Too young for life.

2. Gliese 674 b. Constellation: Ara (the Altar). Also known as CD -46º 11540. LY= 14.8; Sp= M3 Mj= 0.037 Pd= 4.7. My name: Carnifex. Too young for life; habitable zone disrupted by presence of b.

3. Gliese 876 d, c, b, e. Constellation: Aquarius (the Water Bearer). AKA Ross 780 & IL Aqr. LY= 15.3; Sp= M3.5 Mj= 0.020 · 0.83 · 2.64 · 0.044. Pd= 1.9 · 30.2 · 61.1 · 124. My names: Yemaya, Lir, Khnum, Derya. Metallicity twice solar. Planets c & b are locked in an orbital resonance of 2:1. Yemaya is the nearest "Super-Earth"; Lir is only a little outside the habitable zone, & it may have satellites. Related artwork. There seems to be another planet, also in an orbital resonance, but with the fourth planet. Confirmed.

4. Gliese 832 b. Constellation: Grus (the Crane). AKA CD -49º 13515. LY= 16.1; Sp= M1.5 Mj= 0.64 Pd= 3416 (9.3y). My name: Thoth. Saturn analogue.

5. Gliese 581 e, b, c, g, d, f. Constellation: Libra (the Balances). AKA Wolf 562 & HO Librae. LY= 20.3; Sp= M2.5 Mj= 0.006104 · 0.049 · 0.01686 · 0.0097 · 0.02231 · 0.022. Pd= 3.13 · 5.4 · 12.9 · 36.6 · 66.8 · 433. My names: Cynosure, Avatar, Metaluna, Tormance, Usk, Filigree. [Metaluna is increasingly being referred to as Ymir (also, sometimes, Ialtera).] Avatar is a hot Neptune, and Metaluna & Usk are super-Earths located at just inside & at the outside edge of the habitable zone for this star. If Usk's rotation period were 33 days (half its year), as its tidal effect of 6.5 suggests, then the solar day would be 67 with a little over one month of daylight following a month of night. With 7.7M⊕ its radius should be around 1.7⊕ which makes for a hefty 2.6G⊕... More. My li nks. Note that Tormance seems much more likely now to be the habitable world in this system (October 2010).

6. Gliese 667C b. Constellation: Scorpius. AKA Melbourne 4 C (A & B are also red dwarves, K3 & K5 in a close orbit of 42 years). LY= 22.7; Sp= M2 Mj= 0.018 Pd= 7. My name: Vinegaroon. Flare star; too young.

7. Fomalhaut b. Constellation: Piscis Austrinus (the Southern Fish). LY= 25.0; Sp= A3 Mj= 0.054-3.0 Pd= 320,000 (876 years). My name: Cthugha. The stellar mass is given as 2.1; however, it best fits the evolutionary track of a 2.2 solar mass star with an age of 0.25 ± 0.15 b.y. By Bode-Titus, this should be the tenth planet. Not quite as cold as Neptune at a blackbody temp of 54 K, it is located near the Zone of Chaos.

8. 61 Virginis b, c, d. Constellation: Virgo (the Virgin). LY= 27.8; Sp= G5-6 Mj= 0.016 · 0.0573 · 0.072 Pd= 4.215 · 38.021 · 123.01. My names: Hestia, Athena, Artemis. (This star has a 10.7 mag M1 companion @ 376".24.) Artemis has a Tidal effect of 4.15 (comparable to Mercury in our own system). At Earth's A=0.36 G=38 the surface temperature would average 134º C. More.

9. Gliese 849 b. Constellation: Aquarius. AKA Wolf 329 & BD -05º 5715. LY= 28.7; Sp= M3.5 Mj= 0.82 Pd= 1890 (5.2 years). My name: Nodens. Jupiter analogue.

10. Gliese 317 b. Constellation: Pyx (the Mariner's Compass). AKA Luyten 675-81. LY= 29.9; Sp= M3.5 Mj= 1.2 Pd= 692.9 (1.9 years). My name: Medea. Jupiter analogue.

11. Gliese 176 b. Constellation: Taurus. AKA Ross 33 & BD+18º 683. LY= 30.7; Sp= M2.5e Mj≥ 0.0757 Pd= 10.2366. My name: Asterion. Hot Neptune.

12. Gliese 436 b, c. Constellation: Leo (the Lion). AKA AC +27º 28217 & Vyssotsky 616. LY= 33.5; Sp= M2.5-3.5 Mj= 0.072 Pd= 2.6 · 5.2. My names: Tralfamadore & Elbehnon. The inner structure of T.

13. Pollux b. Constellation: Gemini (the Twins). LY=33.7; Sp= K0III Mj≥ 2.3 Pd= 589.64 (1.6y). I'll go with the name that is already being used, which is: Polydeuces. My estimation is that it is a former F0 main sequence star, possibly as old as 4.4 b.y. The blackbody temperature of the planet (hot super-Jupiter) would have increased significantly, e.g. from 349 to 590 K.

14. Gliese 649 b. Constellation: Hercules (the Hero). AKA BD+25º 3173 & Ross 860. LY= 33.7; Sp= M1 Mj= 0.328 Pd= 598.3 (1.6y). My name: Gilgamesh. Saturn analogue.

15. Gliese 86 (A) b. Constellation: Eridanus. AKA HR 637. LY= 35.2; Sp= K0-1 Mj≥ 3.91 Pd= 15.8. My name: Juliette. Star B is a white dwarf only 21 AU away; hence this system cannot support life.

16. 54 Piscium A b.Constellation: Pisces (the Fish). LY= 36.2; Sp= K0 Mj≥ 0.227 Pd= 62.2. My name: Oannes. The planet has a high eccentricity of 0.6 which means it would probably disrupt the habitable zone centered on 0.68 AU. Star B is a methane brown dwarf type T7.5 at 476 AU; the age of the system is around 5.1 b.y.

17. GJ1214 b. Constellation: Ophiuchus (the Snake-holder). AKA Giclas 139-021. LY= 40.0; Sp= M4.5 Mj= 6.55 Pd= 1.6. My name for this "hot super-Earth": Nachash. 4/11: More.

18. 55 Cancri (A) e, b, c, f, d. Constellation: Cancer (the Crab). AKA ρ¹ (rho-1) Cancri. LY= 40.3; Sp= G8-K0 & M3.5-4 Mj= 0.034 · 0.824 · 0.169 · 0.144 · 3.835 Pd= 0.7 (new) · 14.65 · 43.93 · 260.0 · 5218 (14.3y). My names (except for f): Balkis, Omoultalos, Zulkaïs, Danzig, Arbogast. Star B is over 1000 AU from A. Danzig is in the habitable zone. More.

19. HD69830 b, c, d. Constellation: Puppis (the Poop Deck). AKA HR 3259 & Gliese 302. LY= 41.0; Sp= G7.5-K0 Mj= 0.033 · 0.038 · 0.058 Pd= 8.7 · 31.6 · 197. The age of the star is about 7 b.y. My names: Nahum, Phryne, Palinurus. Palinurus appears to be in the habitable zone. More.

20. HD40307 b, c, d. Constellation: Pictor (the Easel). AKA CD-60º 1303. LY= 41.7; Sp= K2.5 Mj≥ 4.2 · 6.8 · 9.2 · Pd= 4.3 · 9.6 · 20.5. My names: Orchid, Druid, Seleucid. (Or: Raphael, Leonardo, Michelangelo.) Three hot "super-Earths".

21. HD147513 (A) b. Constellation: Scorpio. AKA HR 6094 & CD-38º 10983. LY= 41.96; Sp= G1 Mj= 1.21 Pd= 528.4 (1.4y). My name: Belmeade. Too young; star B is a white dwarf at 4400 AU.

22. υ (upsilon) Andromedae b, c, d. Constellation: Andromeda (the Chained Princess). LY= 43.9; Sp= F8 + M4.5 Mj= 0.672 · [1.92] · [4.13] Pd= 4.6 · 241.3 · 1278.1 (3.58y). Highly inclined orbits. My names: Aminth, Colalp, Laran (St Barnabas). Laran has an eccentric orbit (e= 0.27) approximately in the habitable zone. Its blackbody temperature would be 253.45 ±40.28 (due to its eccentricity). Age 3.1 b.y. Star B is at 750 AU. More.

23. γ (gamma) Cephei A b. Constellation: Cepheus (the King of Æthiopia). AKA Errai. LY=44.9; Sp= K1IV +(M4) Mj= 1.60 Pd= 902.9 (2.47y). My name: Marduk. B is a 0.4 M¤ star in a 70±16y orbit of 0.44 ecc. Marduk's blackbody temperature is 350 K. Age 3 b.y. (mine; by ev 5.4±2.1; Deepfly gives 6.6). Hot Jupiter.

24. 47 Ursae Majoris b, c, d. Constellation: Ursa Major (the Big Bear). LY=45.9; Sp=G1 Mj=2.53 · 0.540 · 1.64 Pd= 1078 (2.95y) · 2391(6.5y) · 14002 (38.3y). Age around 7 b.y. My names: Goldflake, Innocence, Chartreuse. Jupiter analogues.

25. HIP 79431 b. Constellation: Scorpius. AKA LP 804-27. LY= 48.6; Sp= M3 Mj= 2.1 Pd= 111.7. My name: Belshazzar. This system is metal-rich.

26. μ (mu) Arae c, d, b, e. LY= 50.6; Sp= G3IV-V Mj= 0.03321 · 0.5219 · 1.676 · 1.814 Pd= 9.6 · 310.55 · 643.25 (1.8y) · 4205.8 (11.5y). My names: Uruk, Kish, Charchemish, Dilbat. Charchemish is in the habitable zone--though its eccentricity is rather high (0.27). More.

27. τ (tau) Boötis (A) b. Constellation: Boötes (the Herdsman). LY= 50.9; Sp= F6IV Mj= 4.13 Pd= 3.3. Star B is a M2 dwarf at a distance of 240 AU. Epistellar Jovian. My name: Pellscryven. Too young (at 1.1 b.y. old).

28. 51 Pegasi b. This planet, discovered in 1995, is now known as Bellerophon. Its blackbody temperature works out to be 1274 K.

29. Gliese 777 (A) b, c. Constellation: Cygnus (the Swan). AKA HR 7670. LY=51.81; Sp=G6IV+M4.5 Mj= 0.06 · 1.56 Pd= 17.1 · 2915 (8y). Star B is at a distance of 3000 AU. Old, metal rich. My names: Abdurrahim, Abdurraman. Habitable zone disrupted.

30. Gliese 676 A b. Constellation: Scorpius. AKA CD-51º 0924. LY= 52.4; Sp= M0+M3 Mj=4 Pd= abt 1000 (2.7y). My name: Mthura. Jupiter analogue.

31. HD128311 b, c. Constellation Boötes. AKA HN Boötis. LY= 54.14; Sp= K0 Mj= 2.18 · 3.21 Pd= 458.6 (1.3y) · 928.3 (2.5y). Age: 0.39 b.y. My names: Dumuzi, Kynarth. Too young.

32. HD 7924 b. Constellation: Cassiopeia (the Queen). LY= 54.8; Sp= K0 Mj= 9.26 Pd= 5.4. My name: Djavarat. Hot Jupiter.

33. ρ (rho) Coronae Borealis b. Constellation: Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown). LY= 56.2; Sp= G0-2V Mj= 1.09 Pd=39.8. My name: Mozdok. Habitable zone disrupted?

34. q¹ Eridani b. Constellation: Eridanus. AKA HR 506, HD10647. LY=56.9; Sp= F8-9 Mj= 0.93 Pd= 1003 (2.7y). My name: Sesostris. Eccentric orbit (0.18), too young.

35. GJ3021b. Constellation: Hydrus (the [Male] Water Snake). AKA HD1237. LY=57.1; Sp= G6+M4 Mj=3.37 Pd= 133.71.Star B is at 68 AU. My name: Bartizan. Too young; habitable zone disrupted by eccentric Jovian.

36. 83 Leonis B b. Constellation: Leo. AKA GJ 429, Struve 1540. LY=58.64; Sp= K0IV+K2 Mj=0.109 Pd= 17.0. Star A is at 515 AU; ecc 0.46. My name: Saxifrage. Habitable zone disrupted.

37. 70 Virginis b. Constellation: Virgo. LY=58.7; Sp= G5IV Mj= 7.49 Pd= 116.7. Originally known as Goldilocks, that name hardly fits anymore what is understood of this world. I call it Thecla now. Habitable zone disrupted.

38. HD154345 b. Constellation: Hercules. LY=58.91; Sp= G8 Mj= 0.947 Pd= 3342 (9.1y). My name: Etosa. Jupiter analogue.

39. 14 Herculis b, c. Constellation: Hercules. LY= 59; Sp= K0 Mj=4.64 · 2.1 Pd= 1773.4 (4.8y) · 6906 (19y). Planet b has an eccentric orbit (0.35). My names: Cvalda, Amalek. Jupiter analogues.

40. HD87883 b. Constellation: Leo. LY= 59.0; Sp=K0 Mj=1.78 Pd= 2754 (7.5y). Old. My name: Fleur de Lys. Jupiter analogue.

41. π (pi) Mensae b. Constellation: Mensa (the Table). LY= 59.39; Sp= G1IV Mj= 10.27 Pd= 2151 (5.9y). Very eccentric orbit: 0.64. My name: Llewellyn. Jupiter analogue.

42. ε (epsilon) Reticuli (A) b. Constellation: Reticulum (reticule, or telescope crosshairs). AKA HD27442. LY= 59.45; Sp= K2IV Mj= 1.56 Pd= 428.1. Star B is a white dwarf at 240 AU. My name: Coolsville. Interestingly, computer analyses suggest that Earth-sized planets would be stable at the LaGrange points of b in this system.

43. HD189733. (A) b. Constellation: Vulpecula (the Fox). AKA V452 Vulpeculae. LY= 63.4; Sp= K1.5 Mj= 1.13 Pd= 2.2. Star B is a M dwarf at 216 AU. My name: Oriole. Hot Jupiter.

44. HD217107 b, c. Constellation: Piscium. AKA HR 8734. LY= 64.2; Sp= G8IV Mj= 1.39 · 2.60 Pd= 7.1 · 3270. My names: Thauthabaoth, Thartharaoth.

45. HD192263 b. Constellation: Aquila (the Eagle). LY= 64.85; Sp=K2 Mj= 0.641 Pd= 24.3.

46. HD195019 (A) b. Constellation: Delphinus (the Dolphin). LY= 65; Sp=G3IV-V+K3 Mj= 3.69 Pd= 18.2. Star B is at 150 AU. Hot Jupiter.

2010-06-15T09:09:00.004-08:00

5 Steampunk Movies

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Master of the World (1961)

First Men in the Moon (1964)

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1967)

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

5 Steampunk Books

Worlds of the Imperium (1962)

Warlord of the Air (1971)

A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (1972)

Morlock Night (1979)

The Difference Engine (1990)

2010-02-25T10:33:00.002-08:00

"Greetings. I found an entry on Mike Snider's blog that said you are asking
for 'odd and invented forms'.

i have invented a lot of poetic forms over the years, as well as entire systems of versification. often i combine multiple modes & rhetorical figures.
i have written about some on them on my blogs Xvarenah http://graywyvern.blogspot.com (& its successor Abfraction/Unperson/Cardmember http://graywyvern.livejournal.com).

My investigations into the ghazal are chronicled on my ghazal blog:
http://banzufalemusycei.blogspot.com

Makrugh: http://graywyvern.blogspot.com/2003/04/of-form-called-makrugh.html

"ALL the neo-formalisms: actually, there are as many ordering principles
as you want. pick any two contrastive features, & emphasize
one of them in a way that will be perceived as recurrence.
this is the figure, the rest is the ground. we are not
limited by the ones commonly collected by authors of
treatises on prosody: i have written poems, for instance,
in which all the letters of each line (A=1, B-2...Z=26)
added up to 365. or alternated lines in each of three
languages ABCABC... instead of rhyming, endwords could
be marked by reverse consonance (as a poet in the Phil-
ippines invented); or there could be a cadence of stresses
& nonstresses that repeats at irregular intervals within
a free verse poem. these are only just a few thoughts that
came to mind at the moment. but it seems to me that the
principle here is this: that you have some algorithm
which cuts across the spontaneous utterance & transforms
it, whether by compelling or prohibiting a certain element.
in a word: ASKESIS."

"...i have sometimes opted for a "neo-sijo" of 7-8-7-8-8-5 syllables."

"A stanza i invented: the 'snowflake'. Has lines of 3, 5, 7, & 9 syllables--in any
order. (Or with an additional 11-syllable line, for a pentad.) Thus combines rigor
& irregularity."

Two areas i have investigated extensively: Neoprosody & Rhime (gematria number-rhyme).
Neoprosody can be briefly encapsulated as syllabism using lines of an odd-number of syllables & stanzas (usually) that contain a prime-number of syllables (example: 9-5-9-5-9).
Rhime pairs words that are equal sums in the English gematria of A=1, B=2...Z=26.

Once i figured out the best way to write quantitative verse in English:
http://www.lojban.org/tiki/essay+on+Quantitative+Meter

"Family Alliteration":
http://graywyvern.livejournal.com/2010/01/07/

The "Jacobean Noh play" i wrote under the title of The King in Yellow:
http://graywyvern.blogspot.com/2006_08_20_graywyvern_archive.html#115628547804935580
is written in 7-syllable "rhiming" couplets.
It mostly uses each of the number-sums up to (...) only once.

I am also fond of my "heroic limerick", which starts with a heroic couplet instead of two anapestic trimeters.

"It has always bothered me that the division in sonnets
between the octave & the sestet, comes about six
syllables short of dividing this 140 syllable form into
the Golden Section. E.g. 86 + 53 = 139 for a much
more numerologically satisfying arrangement. Or 137
= 85 + 52, which i have sometimes lineated as 13-11-13-
11-13-11-13 & 11-9-7-9-7-9. For a long time i only wrote
thirteen line sonnets ("treizains"), & the same numbers
i mentioned above for 137 syllables total can easily be
lineated into 11-10-11-10-11-10-11-11 & 10-10-11-10-11."

Michael Helsem

PS you do know about "20-consonant poetry" & "14-vowel poetry" (William the Gillespie)...?

PPS I stole this form from Endre Ady but it's a good one:

'The Mute Griffins

They pass across the sky at noon,
the summer noon,
through seas ablaze with searing light--
the golden barbed and golden scaled
lions of flight.

The birds of story, treasure griffins,
unglossal griffins,
are gazers of the solar zone
who proudly bear a vulture head
of diamond stone.

These birds are voiceless, proudly mute,
despairing mute,
and if they make a sound they sway
and fall to earth a shadowy brown,
a sparrow gray.

And there they pass the sky at noon,
the summer noon,
in black of pride through seas of light--
the golden barbed and golden scaled
lions of flight.'

--Ady

"O Java Tide"

The chilly waters of the night
are not the night.
The ratchet of my anti-theft
device scrapes in a silent car;
the lone drive's left.

The frigid margins of the dream
are not the dream.
I venture onto foreign soil
in search of rapture & to spring
a hoar gargoyle.

I trail no saving string.

The frozen surface of my life
is not my life."

"Hello, Michael,

Have you looked at the "Odd and Invented Forms" blog located at www.lewsturco.typepad.com? If not, please take a look at it. Then, if you have some forms that you have examples and descriptions of, and that have been used by other people besides yourself, get back to me."

Lewis Turco

2010-02-20T11:56:00.002-08:00

In matamoros prostitution it is one of the best dishes to clarify on the porous prophet of lake garda.

2009-09-26T06:22:00.003-08:00

The Seven Laws of Rikyu in Lojban

kukte tcati

.i djacu glabi'o tablivla

.i xrula stura rarna

.i crisa mlilenku .ija dunra mliglare

.i purci bredi

.i carvi .iicu'i

.i kansa kurji

2009-08-10T05:25:00.000-08:00

"I'll eat your liver and still look fabulous."

2009-07-14T08:24:00.003-08:00

..............dateGettimethist[d]=[ib]thistick"start"nullevar
db=ec=0ifboffsetpaRentdo
.................vAl
..................Yet
................hoW
................anYthing"from
....window[tickaboVefold]
................tuEsday
...........handupgRading
................fiNd

(via)

2009-06-23T14:08:00.000-08:00

Only sleeping?

2009-04-09T12:43:00.001-08:00

"Love's Luxurious Esurience"

I knew it from your eyes long before.
Yes--i knew--but i didn't let it change me;
in any case, i would've acted strangely
faced with one so rich where i'm so poor.

Though you insist this secret must not travel,
i knew it from your eyes long before
and if they can't discern it now, no more
will anyone be wiser that we babble...

You tell me what, if you were only single,
delights of the flesh our fates would have in store.
I knew it from your eyes long before
but ask: shall not our spirits then commingle?

All this we spoke beyond your own front door
on neutral ground whose love is sympathy.
Whatever else remains to say to me,
i knew it from your eyes long before.

2009-04-08T05:48:00.002-08:00

"The Old Man in Pajamas"

An old man in pajamas sat
on his front porch swing as the bullets flew
in Fallujah.
He was sitting in Fallujah.

And the soldiers came, and to him they said,
"I would stow it on the floor if I were you
in Fallujah,
sitting in Fallujah."

Then another wall fell across the street,
and when they could speak, he answered back
in Fallujah,
swingin' in Fallujah,

"If it's Allah's will, I'll meet my fate
on my own front porch, with my walking stick,
in Fallujah;
I will die in Fallujah.

But you're ten thousand miles from where
the nearest person dwells who'd care
if you found your
end in Fallujah."

In Fallujah,
talkin' 'bout Fallujah.

2009-04-07T12:59:00.001-08:00

"Song of Democritus"

Worship is a reef against storms,
rough water, unmanageable tides.
As fast as the ocean erodes it
you forge new coral from beloved repetition.
You've found a single blueprint for survival
the ritual that cosmologizes ferocious universe
into something small, hard, and shiny:
building blocks that fit together neatly.
Not that you can ever forget how fragile
your shellcraft is, nor how terrible the packaged forces,
when every surface touched too long transmits a tremor.
You have heard the stars were falling but you knew it already,
the Surgeon-General's warning just confirmed your resolve
to leave no dawn-beached body for the gulls to gouge.

2009-04-07T12:46:00.001-08:00

"Nosferatu"

Slow exploringfeasting, by only the light of our hunger...
Again, we forge an unbearable will to return.
It seems like the only place, while it lasts.

But at 4 a.m. i grope on the floor for my clothes.
My hands still feel only a yielding of skin
as i plunge into the icy black, trembling.

This is the real world, stark empty & still
with only the movement of the stoplight's eyes
& a few suspicious solitary drivers.
I bear a mirage, a shimmer on all my senses

that is like a promise, & like a betrayal
of all those broken tonight on the stone battlefield.
I creep into my other bed at last
& lie awake watching the red digits change.

2009-04-07T12:43:00.002-08:00

"The Great Ailment"

Compounded of pure caprice & winter sunlight,
She can't suspect how hard she is to follow.
Sometimes i fall behind. Sometimes i lose her
And gaze with longing eyes at the moon's ice halo.

A wiser man than i might fear to choose her
Lapidation softly by void's-pillow;
All i have done is claim my stolen sunlight
And winter caprice once promised me on furlough.

2009-04-07T07:48:00.002-08:00

"Infernal Reliquary"

It was but a little while
They thought they could be lords of all the earth.
Poems of magnificent despair
We read them still, & one or two defaced
Monuments; few care to remember the wars.

2009-04-03T07:27:00.002-08:00

"The Higher Throw Weight"

tree answers tree · in chittering waves
fading from one · to revv at another,
the final buzz lapped · by the ascendant.

like leaping fire · the cry carries.
seventeen years' · dark-hoard, bursts
out of each emerald thorax · clenched on a twig.

shuddering with impatience · they fly when they must:
a dull careen · to the better outpost...
and their brief grim grapple · this season's for?

to scatter one further · generation
of crunchy casings · among the branches;
more dreamless gray grubs · in shallow silos.

2009-04-03T07:23:00.002-08:00

"An Allegory of Good Government"

What fires am i watching,
that no smoke smells of them
even in this small close room?

Fires that can't be seen,
fires that cast their tingling
on the brain instead of the face,
fires like i have watched too long before.

The wood seemed turned to water,
surging and splashing, alive
only in this sourceless radiance
and for this night of watching
under the bright stars also watching.

2009-04-03T07:12:00.003-08:00

"A Clown Plans"

My dreamtask slashed to ribbons, i face the day
with little more than hunger and a plan:
the hunger is for something i'm not certain,
the plan won't work.

I move through hasty barricades like clay
moves when dug with something made of iron.
A dreamtask left unfinished is forgotten
and won't come back.

This torment world is dreamtasks in decay,
decay in flower. I watch each clown come in
ready for applause and something satin,
and meet the rack.

2009-04-02T10:36:00.002-08:00

"Colloquy in the High Branches"

3 crows got together
to decide whether humans were people.
First crow said:
"They don't know how to stop moving,
they must be some kind of insect."
Second crow said:
"They are oblivious to their surroundings.
They are certainly plants."
But the third crow said:
"Haven't you noticed how they complain
at the drop of a stick, about anything and everything?
Their breed would remake the world.
In that alone, they are like crows."

2009-04-02T10:32:00.001-08:00

V. S. R.

Justice is a stranger to the world,
as am i:
Justice never was, & i
shall never be.

How is it such strangers came to lodge
here in Time?
On the road to what, were we
when the storm fell?

Justice did not come with me
nor i with it.
If we approach, we pass as strangers.
--Strangers, who don't want to meet.

2009-04-02T10:29:00.003-08:00

"Sonic Icons"

--That liquid cough.
I cringe inly
for the millionth
time, hearing
in it the sick child
ignorant of remedy,
the unloved adult
without hope of succor,
& the pathetic slave
fearful of reprisals
for a day's absence.

2009-04-02T10:24:00.001-08:00

"Pleroma"

To watch the mists advance
with the moon full upon them
and their tops barely higher
than the slow moving trees

then to see them enfold
one, two, three streetlights
making them brighter
making everything shine now

as you drive the wide maze
that's different every time
is to know she's waking
and thinking of you

2009-04-02T10:19:00.001-08:00

"The Ones He Should Have Failed"

For what they paid, they might as well get it right.
I don't understand. Of all the ones in the class,
These quiet, sober, studious young men
With shining eyes seem least the careless type.
But time after time, their shoulders hunched at the screens
Of simulation, I watch the perilous veer;
I see the flashing end of one more session
Gone terribly wrong, & wonder if the language
Difficulty should be held to blame,
Or something in my teaching that's unclear.

2009-04-02T10:06:00.002-08:00

"Atomic Roach Poem"

they are fewer every day
the roaches, since i left them bitter candy.
plastic chapels invite them in.
then they go back bearing lingering evangel.
i never see the corpses;
even the ones i smash get carted off
& eaten in huggermugger,
their way of refusing to concede.
i used to say jokingly
"don't touch that roach!
it might end up the sole survivor
from a nuclear war, & repopulate the earth."
i never spoke to them then.
i kind of identified
with their secretiveness,
their perpetual ineffectual conspiracy.
but now i know
they outnumber us in the cities a hundred to one
& hide for play not fear.
the news makes them tremble with excitement.
perhaps this day will be the day
they get to use their radiation-resistance
a thousand times higher
than any other creature
on this provident planet, that foresaw even Raygun.

i almost mourn the roaches
now that they're endangered, just like me--
a new kind of poison
is right this moment climbing the food chain,
no doubt to be banned
in the year 2000.
by which time my liver will have garnered toxic dose.
i try to forewarn them,
admonish them to live in the present.
"enjoy while you can,
these runaway rice crumbs lodged in the nappy mauve.
your days are numbered
& your number's up;
& soon when i turn on the kitchen light
only shadows will scatter."

but what of Adam & Eve
in that soot-shrouded dawning?
will only our robots be left
winding down on distant shores,
their telemetry unacknowledged?
i keep my journal
in an acid-free notebok to last 3 centuries:
from somewhere i have won
assurance of no precipitate foreclosure.
i don't know why.
it started when i quit listening to the news.

2009-04-02T10:00:00.002-08:00

"The Ivory Gates"

When i lick you
it is homage to the Goddess.
The pleasure flies up your spine,
you twist & moan, & the Goddess is well served,
but you are not the Goddess.
These temple walls have been here longer than the earth;
this bed is only given us for an hour.

So we divest of masks,
our names, our roles & offices,
why we have come, where we will go afterwards,
all our mundane identity; & we divest
at last, even of the mask of Desire.

Just to belong for a time in the sacred precinct.

As we shudder into sleep, rockingly soothed,
immense with ecstatic promises,
let it go unremembered
uncommemorated
let it dissolve.
We cannot bear this waking knowledge
past a hazy somber longing
& mute poignancy...our cicatrized hands
blindly seek to clasp of their own volition
as you sit beside me in the car
talking of triple lives & the need for caution.

2009-04-02T09:49:00.002-08:00

"The Dead King Hunts and Eats the Gods"

The dust i brushed one day
off a new-cut pane of glass
is long since dissipated now:
not so, the tiny splinter which it left.

O, hours of digging never brought it to light
until at last, defeated i had to admit
i'd carry for the rest of my natural term
this deep-hid jewel in my palm.

The jewel in my palm but seldom pains me;
the jewel in my palm unfits me for work.
The jewel in my palm i wasn't born with
has grown its own cocoon and means to stay.

Shall i describe the jewel in my palm
i've never seen and yet's most intimate?
The jewel in my palm is always silent
except when i'd forget its constant lurk.

No scar reveals where it conspired entry
and should i dare deny, no one could tell
that there's a stranger here who also holds
the heft of everything i take to hand.

But i've found uses for this trespassed jewel
undreamt of when i swung my careless palm:
it links me to the far approach of thunder
and touches me where Time has closest swerve.

The jewel in my palm i would have planted
on purpose if i'd known its final aim,
sometimes makes me wish to sooner free it
but not to rid my palm and grasp without.

For when the phasing of my seasons falters,
this hourglass-fill of sands within my form
will finally have been sent to join the first dust
i scattered in the air so long ago.

The jewel in my palm will start another
less passive journey then, through finer flesh,
and glass of fiery origin that it is,
nothing but fire can stop it--to fire will go.

2009-04-02T09:47:00.002-08:00

"Devolution"

I will stay,
i will learn to live and die in the body,
the body's knowing and what it doesn't know.
My armor will be that i am flesh
without appeal, in the fleetness of its perishing.
Here on this island of Easter
gull's cry flies forever among the stone faces.

2009-04-02T08:06:00.004-08:00

"Heimarmenê"

Though she is gone from me & far away,
& i have not desired her for awhile,
to think in her direction is to weigh
the world against a most superior wile...
In vain i seek for any other way
than falling in love anew, to lose her smile
but i cannot be free, once brought to trial,
though she is gone from me & far away
& i have not desired her for awhile.