Howie Good

Heartsick

1
Arboretum presents white dogwood,
3 jars with roots and a heart,
monument to the people
we’ve conveniently forgotten.

2
I hate you
armored heart,
caged heart.

I peeped your demons
becoming robots,
meeting with remarkable men,
being the light.

3
Behold an aquarium of flowers
where the cricket sings
how to properly touch a girl
so you don’t creep her out.

4
Then again, no.
Why I am so worried.

Fucked-up flowers
ruin everything,
pretty much every word. . .

Howie Good, 2016

Remixed Works:
Titles of artworks by Alma Thomas, Nam June Paik, Heman Chong,
Geoffrey Rigden, Matthew McCaslin, Andrew Hem, Seth Alter,
Douglas Gordon, Zeyno Pekünlü, Bill Scott,
Erika Ranee and Paola Pivi

Lyric

Ladders cross the blue sky
in a wheel of fire. The red sun

gnaws at the spider. A person
is throwing a stone at a bird,

the beautiful bird revealing
the unknown to a pair of lovers.

Howie Good, 2016

Assembled from the titles of paintings by Joan Miro,
translated from the French

Techno 101

No. I don’t know what Pokémon Go is
and what all these things are…You’re talking
to somebody who made his first phone call
at age 17. You’re talking to someone who doesn’t

have a cell phone, for example, for cultural reasons.
Tell me about Pokémon Go. What is happening
on Pokémon Go? Does it tell you you’re here
at San Vicente, close to Sunset Boulevard?

But what does Pokémon do at this corner here?
When two persons in search of a Pokémon
clash at the corner of Sunset and San Vicente
is there violence? Is there murder? Physically,

do they fight? Do they bite each other’s hands?
Do they punch each other? I have no clue what’s
going on there. Yeah, you’d have to give me
a cell phone, which I’m not going to use anyway,

Howie Good, 2016

From an interview with Werner Herzog, on Hyperallergic

When Nothing is Cool

A time for nothing much,
one child teasing another,
twins committing suicide together,
a man drinking in the woods.

We dialed F-U- C-K- Y-O- U
and L-O- V-E- Y-O- U
to see what happened.

Someone called Vincent
rang at the door and gave his ear
in a folded piece of paper
to the person who came to open it,
saying, “Take it, it will be useful.”

Howie Good, 2016

Figurative Painting That’s Emphatically Human, from Hyperallergic
The Best Art Books to Read for Free in the NYPL’s New E-book App, from Hyperallergic
How Van Gogh’s Ear Incident Went Viral in 1888, from Hyperallergic

Credo

Sun on the horizon
letter from a yellow cherry blossom

I focus on that
which interests me

This world

the concretization
of these things
flying around me

a small largeness
like happiness

Howie Good, 2016

Remixed Works:
Translated titles of films by Naomi Kawase

Chirping Bird Soundtrack (Remastered)

Time is totally nuts, paper in the wind,
yet none of which soar, so it seems
like nothing is happening. But, of course,
I’m physically older. That’s the point!
What happened was that rather than wilting
over a period of time, the roses exploded
at a certain point, releasing birds and chirping
and slowly dissolving into frightened dust.

Howie Good, 2016

Remixed Works:
Hyperallergic 1
Hyperallergic 2

Why Working on Yourself Won’t Work

You want to find
that one thing
that defines you,
the ball floating
in the air, but it’s
not like that.

Sometimes
you only need
a couple things,
and other times
you need one hundred.

You might think
you are awful
when you finish,
an empty interior,
the Black Dragon.

There are tons
of philosophers
and thinkers
who have some
sophisticated answer
about why.

I don’t think
it should matter,
one way
or the other

I’m looking
at what they are
looking at.

It was a room
I spent time in
as a child.

Howie Good, 2016

Remixed Work:
Hyperallergic

Donald Trump Won’t Leave Us Alone

I like to walk around with a friend and a granola bar.
Today I was punched in the face by a man
who got out of his car and yelled, “Trump 2016!”
Four small pink alligators are still missing.
Theoretically, I love the fact that cities
from all over the world are under one roof.
Point your camera at the world around you.
I just want to sit and play guitar to my goldfish.

Howie Good, 2016

Remixed Works:
Hyperallergic 1
Hyperallergic 2