BlueHouse Journal
issue 2
LISTS
june 2020
Dear [Reader],
like a beetle
with wings bursting through crystalline shell
to carry it into the wind
I think a beetle is a very good fit
so many colours at once
Best wishes,
Meredith Grace Thompson, editor-in-chief :: Edmonton, Canada, June 2020
please note::
BlueHouse tries to be as accessible as possible. Any concrete poems or artworks which have been displayed as images are available as accessible versions which include full text as well as a brief description of any images or elaborate visual formatting. The links for these accessible version are located below the title of each piece, justified to the right. Any videos are closed captioned but also include a full transcript. Accessibility is incredibly important to us! If you have any issues accessing in any part of our journal please tell us!
The Shopping List
;
You put yourself together differently this morning
there was no I
only ;
; was a pause
a moment between
; was a caesura
was an opening
a kind of bliss
Here’s how you did it
1. Take off the outer layer of yourself
(for example your pyjamas)
2. Clean this/your teeth
3. Remove your pronouns from all your poems
(with scissors)
4. Take all those tiny letters and put them in a bowl
(who needs cereal?)
5. Follow with a grapefruit and your very own grapefruit spoon
6. There’s an I at the bottom of the bowl
7. Cut it in half with the sharp edge of the spoon and give it a little tail
8. ;
9. Voila
10. If ; had done things differently ; could have been . but that’s the opposite
of
rain
the open door
sweet-honey fragrant meat
cat on a basement windowsill
watching the rain,
i think
grey crown
fat-bottomed raindrops
listed on the top step:
frayed & soggy foolscap:
pack for w/e
change sheets
[playlist poems]
In the Year 2525/It’s Dark, It’s Cold, It’s Winter
Fading/Red Stars/Shine A Light/In Between/Clouds
Blurry/Black Water/Murmurs
High on a Mountain Top/Forest Families/Drift/In the Deep Shade
Down From the Rafters/Daphne Descends
Father & Son/Sing for Absolution
Girl, I Wanna Lay You Down
Wall Fuck/All Night/Go to Town
Wild As Fire/Getting it On
Dirty Talk/Sans/Conversation
Lost in My Bedroom/Say My Name
Virgins/Laid/Never Be the Same
Wake With/Your Body/Undressed
Sweet Sticky Thing/You’re the Best
Dots and After Shocks
Questions
indulgent / sober – what the opposite of restraint is – cheery / sorrowful – the madness of being either all the time – orderly/chaotic – whether your room is the same as you – wise / foolish – the right call too soon – intellectual / physical – to forget who you are – angelic / demonic – he occupies bodies – playful / serious – laughing in the first instance – luddite / technophile – you tell your phone what you want – tense / relaxed – a clear neck – spiritual / sceptical – calm on a train – ludicrous / sensible – where to next – fast / slow – the folding of clothes – normal / weird – the most obvious thing to say – charming / awkward – flushing in a bright room – loyal / traitorous – agree with it all – modest / flamboyant – shuts people up – refined / rugged – the noise of gestures – artistic / scientific – thinking highly – frugal / lavish – what’s next – brave / careful – running out of nowhere – arcane / mainstream – different shades of blue – trusting / suspicious – getting what you want – masculine / feminine – sharpness of angles – creative / conventional – the use of objects – ferocious / pacifist – chain reactions – strict / lenient – grip on the wrist –blue collar / ivory tower – special tasks – dominant / submissive – how power sits –
2 Hours
1; every way in which time has been stretched out and pulled from our grip; the day becomes possible at 7:45pm and necessarily shuts a few hours later; 2; the long and treacherous journey from one place to another at least twice a day; 3; how most things unfold on the other side of a gate; the various means by which the gate is locked; 4; how money is poured into pools underground that fire up in the wrong places; 5; when every ground floor building was given over to food that no one likes or wants or can pay for; 6; the amount of tiny white letters you send in case they will slip through a crack; 7; you never run into anyone; 8; not enough trees on the street to hide away the sky; 9; music blares quietly out of a billion little sources; 10; there is newspaper ink on too many faces; 11; no longer hard to remember to be angry in the morning; 12; the sea is a £30 train ride away; ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
more dog poems (post-its)
he follows me like a dog
in a story. like the boy in
the story, my shadow
has paws. it stoops
like a father and drinks.
wrung into so many
fables, the ends of him
quiver. he caterpillars
his mat til he touches
my foot. he pulls my clot
hes to my shower and
digs. he looks out from
the nest of his breathing
+ his still is the hope of
a faultline. don’t move me
don’t mm i cannot be
moved any more
Attention Spans
Park
A magpie with a mouse
In its beak
(I want to say, 'In its mouth')
Mouth
The mouth ran up
The mouth ran down
A hardened world
Up
Every morning I dance
My hips like cream churns
It wasn't my idea
Cute
Scoop it out!
A strawberry plant
Blame the sweet novel
Impossible Or Not Possible
Chapped lips and
Everyone becoming
My old friend
Old Friend
Or ex-lover
My breath smells of
Thin sucked polo mints
Polo Mints
That have always been there
Green tubes
I want to touch everything
Touch
Will I kiss someone?
Questions of intimacy
Haddock, being poached
Questions
For the government
Did you keep the promises?
Why do you look sideways?
Promises
We will punish you
Sorry, you will say
Which won't be enough
Sorry
I want to wink or genuflect
I don't know
Which book to read either
Why
We knew this would happen
Sign there and there
It does not inspire me, no.
Improvements
For Improvements In Tin-Openers.
For Improvements In Appliances For Making Cigarettes.
For Improvements In The Process And Apparatus Employed
In Making The Beverage Termed 'Coffee.'
For Improvements In Portable Periscopes.
For A System Or Method Of Aerial Railways.
For Improvements In Ladies’ Hat-Protectors.
For Improvements In Or Relating to Toy Balloons.
For Improvements In or Relating To Books.
For Improvements In Or Relating To Leggings.
For An Improvement In Planispheres.
For Improvements In Or Related To Talking Machines And The Like.
For Improvements in Magic Lantern Slides.
For An Improved Support For the Occupants of Beds.
Note
Patent Applications 1919
SIOBHAN MULLIGAN
Selected Blessings from the Roman Ritual
Blessing of Bees
Blessing of Silkworms
Deprecatory Blessing Against Pests
Blessing of a Printing-Office and Printing-Press
Blessing of a Radio-Station
Blessing of the Sea
Blessing of Oil
Blessing of a Marble-Factory
Blessing of Bread and Pastries
Blessing of a Railway and its Cars
Exorcism of Oil
Blessing of Lard
A More Solemn Blessing of a Railway and its Cars
Blessing of a Seismograph
Blessing of an Electric Dynamo
Blessing of Molten Metal for a Bell
Blessing for Anything
(anything but hell)
Thesaurus Entries
Lemon Zest, Bumblebee, Harvest Moon.
This sweater. Running onto a bus, the whoosh
of air, the stumble for balance. Seeing a dog.
Meringue pie. Obviously. The trendy
satisfaction of eating hummus. The delirious happiness
of 1 A.M. at a small party where you know
and love all the guests, when you know
you should go home and your friends are all
drunk, and afterwards, how your lungs ache as you press
your eyes open to watch raindrops on
the taxi window, tongue thick with silence.
Seeing a tiny dog on the walk to work. The first
cotton dress after months of sweaters.
The first firefly. Surely it cannot be like
it is in the movies. So bright. Fried onions smelled
from the street. The impromptu dance at
the kitchen counter. The way we move
strangely at others, a grin and wiggle, and they
move strangely back.
KIRSTEN MACQUARRIE
Things I've Been Told To Be (In No Particular Order)
Quiet
Reasonable
A teacher
A lawyer
Patient
Polite
More toned
More relaxed
Brighter
Fitter
Faster
Myself
My best self
Confident
Mindful
Content
In bed
OUT OF BED!
On Tv
On a mental ward
A strong woman
A good girl
Grateful for what I’ve got.
Tasting Notes
Cloudy
sunrise. City at dawn. Alone in the car, the silence embraces me like the cold violent hands of my old lover.
Clear
images. Naked bodies and discarded clothes. Ones tossed aside, landing on the floor. Would it kill you to put them in the laundry basket? he asked.
Bitter
sighs. The closet is too full of skeletons to make room for my dirty clothes.
Sour
aroma. One day last week he found me on the floor. His Old Spice danced with my whisky and blood as he picked me up.
Acetic
dependence. A lift to rehab. Again. I would suffer. I deserved it. In fact, I yearned for it.
Character
flaws. Mine. Addiction. His. Enabler. Bookends to distorted love.
Common
anecdote. Our lives, someone’s dinner conversation. Friends, family, shake their heads.
Harsh
words. Last night, the final ultimatum. I said, my choice might surprise you. He replied, don’t kid yourself.
Dull
morning. City post-dawn. Him opening the car door shatters my tranquility like the windshield of our old car. If this doesn’t work, I too will be replaced.
MIRIAM METHUEN-JONES
I Miss LIST
going to brunch
clinking glasses together in pubs
using my big teapot
David eating snacks way too loud in the cinema
lifting weights in the gym
being leered at in the gym
talking to strangers and their dogs at the park
sand
Dad picking me up from the train station
sleeping with a furry little spoon
hysterical, painful, pant-wetting laughter
the smell of other people
the feel of other people
sitting in a restaurant with my legs pressed against yours
stumbling home, a belly full of cocktails
supermarkets being banal
compliments on my overzealous outfits
laughing with Nat ‘til we get angry looks from the rest of the office
house viewings
rolling my dice
surprise sugary tea drunk on the floor
the backseat of that little red car
whispered mutiny
piles of used mugs by the kitchen sink
BBQs
drinking with your sister
laughing with my sisters
the hat game
cheese, crackers, and grapes
playing hide and seek with the biggest two
reading to all three
sitting on that chair, watching the birds through the glass
porridge for three
your arms around me
APR LIST
send flowers to Mama
sort out big cupboard
donate frames from exhibition
finish Kezi’s letter
reply to Bill!!
email mortgage adviser again
get new mortgage adviser?
make handles for bottle weights
practice handstands
order workout shorts
research best trainers for burpees
bird table!
sort out pyjama drawer
donate excess bedding (David’s set)
5 min plank
call Gran
wedding present for Mama & Mick
decide on Airbnb for birthday (check if still possible)
deep clean bathroom
DIY seating for patio (e.g. pallet bench but you don’t have pallets)
PATRICK WILLIAMSON
Things To Do
car batt
trap paint
floor strip
skirts plinth
door hump
drill board
bag dump
cut pipe
stick pump
gum lip
lick stump
ash crunch
stone crush
lode varve
iode perm
ian starve
ash win
ter Ra
ice snap
cal meg
an no
mass ex
tinct will
we do
the same
Memory, Sycamore
In winter, helicopter epics sang inflorescence and the twig-
lets inked the miser — X...ing along/e the finger and ate their
secrets and chiasmic memory and it’s just; in their pallor, the
browns then greys, slight mauve laments and indents. They-
sucked the truncheon roots.— ish
Enters.—
boxes, apposite,
thoughts decussated • leaves, no
sightlines, in sequence, gave shape to
the trunk, texture damask
Leaves.—
the paler your face, they say
the more deciduous, I_[quietly]_
an insertion
of having
come
gone to turn to
Bark.—
weeping lines ento-rose. Corrugation, peeled of
coherence, glistens [futureless things] under brava
do storm to congregation of saplings, sliding
wrinkles once young, younger browns.
Seedlings.—
went in spring, a time when things are
unearthed: a serrated picture brought to you
by memory themselves. Their beginnings
distant, modest; their ends present, ensured.
A moving house told by the wind. A Fall,
A Land, Immutable Stuff, this epigeal wit.
Touching.—
this maple tended to displace the populace.
Best left alone to their spread; do not overstay
without threat of fissures. Children left.
Flowers.—
the past grew into the pendant that held the
photograph. The past grew into the pendant that
held the photograph. The past grew into the
pendant that held the photograph.
Samara.—
doubled over a helix spun from the top down a
rotary new air and lands on shoulder. The future
root, wind-firm and decided, it builds them, while
they build too the future root with wind quiver and
stalks. Stalks from the future root show growth to
the patience of watching wind: alive, green,
motion fools eyes to thought.
Codex.—
there was wasn’t there spotted leaves in august
from the mites red spots called galls, femmes,
scribes i n wooden platforms
t e e t e r t r e e t e e t e r t r e e
Particulate.—
lung — bound one gain one loss one loss one gain one again one loss one gain one loss one gain one loss one gain one loss one gain one loss one gain one loss one gale one loss one grain one lost one gate one frost one gain one loss one gait one bought one gain one loss
contributors
TESSA BERRING is an Edinburgh based writer. Her work can be found via a variety of journals and online magazines. These include The Interpreter's House, The Rialto, Adjacent Pineapple, and A) Glimpse) Of) Net). She has a short collection, Bitten Hair, published in 2019 by Blue Diode Press. tessaberring.tumblr.com
HANNAH DAVENPORT: recent English Literature graduate from Scotland enjoying experimenting with words and Microsoft paint.
EMILIE KNEIFEL is a sick fish, goo fish, they fish, blue fish (critic, poet, editor, and co-creator of playd8s, a show for you if you need it). find 'em at emiliekneifel.com, @emiliekneifel, and in Tiohtiáke, hopping and hoping.
KIRSTEN MACQUARRIE is a writer and artist in Glasgow. Her work has previously been published by The Association for Scottish Literary Studies, The Scottish Poetry Library, YWCA Scotland, Glasgow Women’s Library, South Lanarkshire Libraries, Scottish PEN and New Voices Press for the Federation of Writers Scotland. She has been shortlisted for a Vogue Magazine Young Talent Award, selected as an Editor’s Choice for the John Byrne Award and twice winner of the Glasgow Women's Library Poetry Prize. Her debut novel is 'Ellen and Arbor'. glasgowgallerina.com
MIRIAM METHUEN-JONES is a writer living in Glasgow. She loves dark humour, free tea samples, and the smell just before rain.
SIOBHAN MULLIGAN is a writer and artist, currently on the DFA Creative Writing programme at the University of Glasgow. Her research interests focus on urban fantasy and the history of the southern United States. She has poetry published or forthcoming in The New Southern Fugitives, BlueHouse, Kaleid, and CALYX Journal. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, she now lives in Glasgow.
JOSIE ROGERS studied English Literature twice at the University of Glasgow. She wrote her Masters dissertation on contemporary lyric poetry and its refraction of environmental and energetic issues. She has worked as a copywriter and editor of educational materials. Josie writes both poetry and prose, and currently lives in Glasgow.
PATRICK WILLIAMSON lives in France. He has notably published three poetry collections in English-Italian with Samuele Editore: Traversi(2018), Beneficato (2015), and Nel Santuario (2013); the latter won the special jury prize in the XV Concorso Guido Gozzano, 2014. Editor and translator of The Parley Tree, Poets from French-speaking Africa and the Arab World, Arc Publications, 2012. He has also worked on filmpoems (Afterwords, music by Mauro Coceano, and FIFE 2014, images and music by PW). Founding member of transnational literary agency Linguafranca.
JULIETA CALDAS lives in London. Her poems have appeared in Tentacular and SPAM, and she has written recently for The Interpreter’s House, Riot, The Line of Best Fit and Entropy. Her Twitter is @julietacaldas.
CAROLYN HASHIMOTO is a student of the University of Glasgow where she is currently studying for an MLitt in Creative Writing. Born and raised in SW Scotland, she spent twenty years in Tokyo, where amongst other things she taught English at the National Police Academy. She has also been a local newspaper reporter, a distillery tour guide, and currently works in hospitality.
Originally from Toronto, JANET KOOPS now calls Bend, Oregon home. Her writing can be found on her web sitejanetkoops.com, on Instagram @janet_koops and online at 50 Word Stories and (mac)ro(mic). When she is not sitting at her computer, she is exploring the high desert with her husky.
SASKIA McCRACKEN has been published in Datableed, Front Horse, Zarf, SPAM, Epizootics!, The New Writer, and Adjacent Pineapple amongst others. @SaskiadeRM
MEREDITH MILLER is a writer, artist, music connoisseur and horror movie enthusiast. A recent graduate of the University of Glasgow’s creative writing MLitt, she currently resides in Seattle, Washington. Meredith primarily writes fiction and, if pressed, will also admit to writing poetry.
T.PERSON’S pamphlet Cymbalism & Lemonade is out now through Spam Press. They edit -algia magazine and co-edit OrangeApple press while currently attempting to champion a Serie A title with AC Milan in FIFA 20.
MARK VALENTINE’S work has appeared in PN Review, Agenda, Reliquiae, Marble, The Poetry Bus (Ireland), Wild Court, at the National Poetry Library (UK) and in the Times Literary Supplement gossip column in Esperanto. He also writes ghost stories and essays on obscure
BlueHouse is edited by Meredith Grace Thompson
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