"POP POEMS"- POETRY BY ARIEL KOTKER



ARIEL KOTKER IS A MULTIMEDIA ARTIST/WRITER CURRENTLY RESIDING IN WESTERN MASS, US. YOU CAN FIND INFORMATION ON HER ONGOING 3-D NOVEL "HIS ROOM AS HE LEFT IT" HERE


Pop Poems

"Pop into my head, line after line. When a good last line arrives, that’s where a poem ends. Most lines kept, many thrown away. That is, no editing except jettisons or the occasional suffix or simple preposition. They’re in the exact order in which they arrived. I do not write these, they just happen.

They’re nonsense or they’re not, either way. Some revealed their meaning to me after they wrote themselves. My under-mind using funny words to work through grief. Some remain mysterious to me, others have taken on deep and crystal clear significance in my heart. They’re like diaries written in code I can only begin to comprehend after they’re compiled." -AK


Soft scales are shining

Soft scales are shining

the high falutin’ solution


Haberdasher halftime

another nut annulled


If your drink was bluesy

just imbibe the rust babies

and build a better life


Fatter than the land 

fatter than the lamb


Spin the magic arm tarts

render the roses reddened


In the pan meander 

tarnishing the teeth tub


Spot the sock sauce

and sit down beside it


Gardeneath the greenery

turn around, it’s tiger time



Feathering weight


Feathering weight

a guard in your eyes

a fine time for finesse

holding spots for Saturn

a willingness to ride


The desolation rowed

a quote from wherenever

let’s let go of complaints


Diatomaceous earth

rounding out the running boards


I’ll give up in a minute 

I’ll give you a milestone


Undo the o’clocks

storm the second time

a rain race for the ages

capturing the cosmos

in your little bucket hand



Will you wet your whiskers?


Will you wet your whiskers?

The huntress is alive


Let your winglets linger

you’re working on the soft side

you’re working out the worms


It takes a tree to treaty

all the garden greengrass

the ginger and the juice


Pardon me with peace, please

sink the tiny township

burrowing a crown

start the subtle starship


A pig and a piglet 

an arrogance of antlers

rising in the steam



It’s a tongue’s worth


It’s a tongue’s worth


Saturn in the shadows

pants or a piece of paper


Throw some water on it

the towering edge

it’s really brown water and lakes


Stoke the berm

make a wider circle

from the captain to the cap


A picnic and a pie

the loaming of the coat


Did you direct the dance?



Wick forth the watershed


Wick forth the watershed

the stars aren’t broken


There won't be any tractors in this one

just wait one horrible minute


Everything is an anniversary, Twiglet

you and me in Malmö


The soup and the tureen

the missile and the mark


Did you break the breathing?


Parse your own passage


Luckily, the landlubber

rises eye and shoots



Wait for the wedding


Wait for the wedding

the antelope awareness

don’t waste your face


Follow me, Ptolemy

do your best with the space race


The cathedrals are sitting


Oh, the angels of ants

give your glance a chance



The volume is voluntary


The volume is voluntary

it’s a diaphragm of daises

it’s full of joy


Where am I supposed to keep you?

We are a weary wonder


I keep my socks with my pants

underneath the albumen



It's a picture of a frame


It's a picture of a frame

a holy hound in heather

an aspiration game


A horehound’s worth a hundred

a laughing grass of rabbits

a gallivant of goats


The miner’s time is hiding

every itch is iridescent 

in the closing of the cloak



An escarole in axes


An escarole in axes

a sickening surge of sometimes

the battle’s green and gray


Civilization ceases

we cull along the creases

it glows in black and white


The last visitor traded

a muscle for a cay


Ten times the treble


Ten times the treble

holding horns together


Glean the baleen, seething

clasp the sound of keening


Five or six doses of snow

a ladybug and an ant


The cathedral collapses


A man handles a ram


A man handles a ram

singing a song of sorry


These three free trees:

I want my pitch black bark back


The doyenne demeanor diminishes

color me a coronary

there's a whole string of sorrows


Put the "not" in knotty pine

organize the Argonauts

let's get this “No” on the road



A venemous stranger


A venemous stranger


The poem wrote

the battleground is sound

the mountain peaks


The rabbit rolls 

and the sound slows down



Electric eyeballs


Electric eyeballs

hitting the hollow

flashing in the foundry

flashing for a foundling


In the tiny hamlet of hurt

every bell brings you back



Please don your gorilla skin


Please don your gorilla skin

only think with your fingers

do not touch the rolling ball

your gorilla bones are finger-thin




Finding lost lambs


Finding lost lambs

the lighthouse aligned


The lighthouse lends its losses

your trough and your trowel

your wall of blocks


The paint dried a little surprised

the paint dried, and smiled inside




Can you ride the King Horse?


Can you ride the King Horse?


I'm the opposite tide

the breastbone receipt


Move slowly into silence


A plate or a piece of plastic

the place negates the space


Where do you go with a ghost?


Your hands have appeared:

Scripta scriptoris

deep vega

self-eaten snow


All the strings are broken




The dusk bunny husk


The dusk bunny husk

the gift language

the mint tailor


A ghost developed


Let me live the language

let me leave the language


The elephant fell


Your assailants were able

to crap on your table


The atoms acquiesced



It’s heartbreak for a horse


It’s heartbreak for a horse

the rudimentary rustics


Isn’t there a better sweater?


The mollusk, the module


The mollusk is a must

the mollusk’s made of rust



I’ve been told to unfold


I’ve been told to unfold

a whisper is a warning


The elephant’s aware

the elephant arises


Hurry the half-horse

one supple strait jacket

the telepathy toupée


I’m holding on to my heel



A scarab of succulence


A scarab of succulence

deliver me the duck

she has dark hair and whinnies


I once gave birth to a lion

it starts its ache by turning

and the rest of the soul goes sideways



This whole song in my mouth


This whole song in my mouth


Release the marble trinity

fifteen shades of sorry

you are the human sceptre


These are the soup cups to sup

three free arms to fill

the middle point of miraculous


The boat that carried my pictures

a boat with a stone

let me catch you in it

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