David S. Pointer

KNEECAPS OR US

Instead of GPS, we need
old jump hour, jive-master,
watches to navigate through
history and hidden economics
as the Victorian era Capitalist
print cartoons showed knee to
worker neck, long before the
Vietnam Conflict film footage
showed infantry soldiers atop
proned out indigenous people
as the unauthorized technique
low crawled under militarized
police policy-procedure manuals
to show up on the highly watched
streets like top grade China White.


David reads "Kneecaps or US":



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David confesses nothing.

DAVID S. POINTER has been an underground poet for many years. David once served in the United States Marine Corps military police. New work will appear in Footnotes #4 from Alt Current Press. David lives in Murfreesboro, TN with his daughters and kitty cats.

David S. Pointer

POST-ENLISTMENT TRAIL

Disinvited
from adequate eschelons
inside speech code economy,
amidst parking lot suicides,
where land based invertebrates
lead the country into long
term low intensity conflict
at home, and ever abroad,

where unkept promises
keep pulling at the trigger
guards, inside, survival
level, brain wirings
egged off by 3-D color
avatars in video games
birthed to forcep more of
the forgotten to eternal war.


David reads "Post-Enlistment Trail":



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David confesses: " This poem was inspired by a lifetime of watching how some enlisted veterans are excluded from the economy and do not always end up with the things they have previously been promised. Once the modern brain research started rolling in-it was then scientifically known how American hiring discriminates between frontal lobe (happy-faced) people, and mid-region survival level brain chemistry."

DAVID S.POINTER served as a United States Marine Corps military policeman. He has a recent poem published in Spitball magazine on the Chicago Black Sox scandal issue.

David S. Pointer

SOULMATE MOUNTAIN

In this Cupidian utopia
AKA "selfie-land" cops
send things off to a lab
to find out if they have
serum repository sewage
or chocolate-covered
cherries bleeding out,
splotching the bear paw
coasters, black as eye
patches dispensed freely
for unvast worldviews
making decisions built
on predatory charm
brain chemistry glowing
wired with online love.


David reads "Soulmate Mountain":



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David confesses: "This poem was inspired by the modern cyber-dater world, and various news stories and online articles that I have read over the years."


DAVID S. POINTER had recent work published in Trajectory and a Vincent Van Gogh-themed anthology Resurrection of a Sunflower published by Pski's Porch.

David S. Pointer

POST-FRAME-UP FRICTION

The choke-hold specialist
finished off a few more
calendars inside Missouri
State Penitentiary then
returned to Indiana
soon escorting a high
ranking crime boss
outside by way of goose-
neck come-along repeatedly
slamming the man’s head
into a parked car as if it were
a dent puller or bathroom
plunger as the bodyguard
was slumped atop the
steering wheel soon to
sun bloat fast as a
driver’s side airbag


David reads "Post-Frame-Up Friction":



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David confesses: "When I started writing this poem, I just floated into my past life, and childhood thinking about organized crime figures, criminals, martial arts, the military police and before long the poem was completed."

DAVID S. POINTER is a longtime Five-Two contributor. Recent acceptances elsewhere include Detectives of the Fantastic anthology, and Fugitives anthology, forthcoming from Thirteen O'clock Press and Sinister Saints Press.

David S. Pointer

SCHOLASTIC MUSICAL CHAIRS

If you grabbed a tactical
entry tool or common
burglar's pry bar and
opened the file cabinet
of Linda's life you'd find
out she'd been a meth
cooking concubine later
abducted by social services
and offered a cut-to the-front
admittance to a local LPN
nursing program even though
she’d used and sold drugs
while the last potential
student having already
waited three years to
start classes finally gave
up and got corralled into
the sex trade before making
an early appointment with
a morgue pathologist, but
this wasn't included in
Linda's pre-life file or
school graduation pamphlet


David reads "Scholastic Musical Chairs":



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David confesses: "This poem started out as an idea to showcase a microcosm of society. Bits and pieces from real life stories swirled into eventual fiction contained in the poem."

DAVID S. POINTER is a longtime Five-Two contributor. Recent acceptances elsewhere include Detectives of the Fantastic anthology, and Fugitives anthology, forthcoming from Thirteen O'clock Press and Sinister Saints Press.

David S. Pointer

PASSING ON A POSSIBLE CAREER-ENHANCING INTERVIEW FAÇADE

If only old time snatch-
rackets didn’t include the
Lindbergh baby kidnapping
case, and Dr. Foley hadn't
asked me to interview Anne
Morrow Lindbergh I wouldn't
have to keep thinking about
how I wasn't a college theater
major or even a minor bit actor
pretending that I didn't know
about "Lucky Lindy's" extra
families in certain foreign
countries, how I couldn't
bear the thought of bringing
that famous widow and
mother of a murdered child
anymore grief by not being
able to cast and car off to
The Spirit of St. Louis forever
crashing with a post-Victorian
teething ring still aboard


David reads "Passing on a Possible Career-Enhancing Interview Façade":



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David confesses: "This poem was based on true crime and history. It finally dripped out onto the page. It's just one of those poems that haunted me on and off for years and years."

DAVID S. POINTER, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps military police (1980–84), is a frequent Five-Two contributor. In 2014, his work was featured in seven horror-themed anthologies available from Amazon.com. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

David S. Pointer

MARINE BARRACKS FIRST AID

Just as I noticed the brothel token
vending machine following me
around like a private detective
had been declared unfit for military
service, I noticed Frank choking.
I told him I'd perform the Heinrich
Himmler maneuver, but he started
laughing so hard dislodging
that hot dog-kernel concoction,
yelling 'no', that I didn't have to.


David reads "Marine Barracks First Aid":



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David confesses: "Sometime after my mom passed away from a heart attack, I realized that I had helped a few people with the Heimlich Maneuver, but hadn't fared as well with CPR. Out of this grief came the joke. The joke helped an educational worker in Nashville, but I never laid a healing hand on the guy."

DAVID S. POINTER has recent work included in Volumes V & VI of the Southern Poetry Anthology Series for the states of Georgia and Tennessee. He also has work included in Indiana Crime 2013, at James Ward Kirk Fiction and Noir Erasure Poetry Anthology at Silver Birch Press. David previously served in the United States Marine Corps military police from 1980 to 1984. His latest book of poetry is entitled Oncoming Crime Facts sold at www.lulu.com.

30 Days of The 5-2 (2014)

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets established National Poetry Month, April. In that spirit, I invite you to spread the word about The 5-2 on our third annual April blog tour.

30 Days of The 5-2 is driven not by guest posts to your blogs, but by your own posts about poetry. Most participants pick a favorite 5-2 poem and blog about it on their scheduled dates, but you can be as creative with your post as you like. For example:

• Interview a 5-2 contributor
• Discuss a favorite poem not from The 5-2
• Post your own poetry or fiction in response to a 5-2 poem
• 5-2 contributors, discuss your poems in greater detail

If you don't have your own blog but would like to participate, email your entry to G_SO at YAHOO dot COM, and I'll post it at The 5-2 itself. I'm fine scheduling multiple tour stops on the same day or about the same poem.

I'm glad to add entries even after April 1. To book a date, email G_SO at YAHOO dot COM or tweet @PoemsOnCrime, and I'll add it below.

Participants are welcome to download the tour badge image above and add it to their posts or follow these instructions to copy-and-paste the image HTML code.

Not up to a blog post? Mention the tour on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

All April revenue from 5-2 and Lineup books and merchandise is donated to the nonprofit Academy of American Poets, supporting poets at all stages of their careers and fostering the appreciation of contemporary poetry.


04-01-14 - Tuesday - B.V. Lawson at In Reference to Murder
04-01-14 - Tuesday - Wilda Morris's Poetry Challenge
04-02-14 - Wednesday - Kristopher Zgorski at BOLO Books
04-03-14 - Thursday - Bill Cameron at Thinking With My Skin
04-04-14 - Friday - Deborah Lacy at Mystery Playground
04-05-14 - Saturday - Toby Speed
04-06-14 - Sunday - Steven Torres at The Crime Time Cafe
04-07-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "The Stainless Steel Wallet" by Amy Holman
04-08-14 - Tuesday - Thomas Pluck
04-09-14 - Wednesday - Criminal Element
04-10-14 - Thursday - Kristen Chapman Gibbons at Big Blue Dot, Y'all
04-11-14 - Friday - S.A. Solomon
04-12-14 - Saturday - Ray Daniel
04-13-14 - Sunday - Aja Beech at Process Press
04-14-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Fear As Loud As a Mugging" by Linda Lerner
04-14-14 - Monday - Charles Rammelkamp reviews "Stealing Poetry" by Elisa Albo
04-15-14 - Tuesday - John DuMond at Nobody Move!
04-16-14 - Wednesday - Kathleen A. Ryan at Women of Mystery
04-17-14 - Thursday - The 5-2's Best Contributed Videos
04-18-14 - Friday - Michael A. Arnzen at gorelets.com
04-19-14 - Saturday - Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine
04-20-14 - Sunday - Jane Hammons
04-21-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Marine Barracks First Aid" by David S. Pointer
04-22-14 - Tuesday - Sarah Stockton
04-23-14 - Wednesday - Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
04-24-14 - Thursday - Clare Toohey at Women of Mystery
04-25-14 - Friday - "Brick City" by Ian Khadan
04-26-14 - Saturday - Announcing Guest Editor Annabelle Edwards
04-27-14 - Sunday - Patti Abbott
04-28-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Trickster Time" by Linda Rodriguez
04-29-14 - Tuesday - Kathleen A. Ryan at From Cop to Mom...
04-30-14 - Wednesday - Kevin Thornton at The Old Fort

On Erasure Poetry

As I blogged Sunday, Silver Birch Press's NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology is now available. In this post, I'll describe the feel of erasure poetry, and of many poems in this particular anthology.

One reason I'm drawn to poetry is its independence from narrative. Yes, narrative helps clarity, and erasure poetry can feel disjointed—"experimental"—diverging from an existing narrative. However, poetry's purpose is often to get at sensations that don't fit neatly into stories. Several poets in this anthology used Hammett and Chandler as source material, but each poem feels new and uniquely the poet's.

I don't consider Robert B. Parker a noir author, but I used the first page of his first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript, for the phrase "Victorian whorehouse". Parker used it figuratively, to describe a university president's office; I used literally, as the setting of my noir poem.

The NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology also features 5-2 contributors Rosemarie Keenan, Catfish McDaris, and David S. Pointer. If you'd like to see it your local independent mystery bookshop, contact me, and I'll pass the details on to publisher Melanie Villines.

And let me mention another Silver Birch Press erasure poetry anthology, accepting submissions until December 31. Poets are asked to create Valentine's Day-themed poems from page 214 of the book of their choice. I chose Active Server Pages Bible by Eric Smith.

Silver Birch Press's NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology Available Now

• 
  Back in July, 5-2 alum Catfish McDaris alerted me to a submissions call for poems made by redacting passages from existing noir and hardboiled novels. The first sentence of Robert B. Parker's The Godwulf Manuscript sprung to mind. Lovable literate thug Spenser makes his debut likening a university president's office to "the front parlor of a successful Victorian whorehouse." My poem pays homage to that stinging simile, and to the late Parker, whose eloquence hooked me on hardboiled fiction.
  
  For our help bringing contributors to the anthology, publisher Melanie Villines listed Catfish and me as contributing editors. The 122-page, digest-sized book is on sale now at Amazon.com.


• Also of interest to noir aficionados, Melanie tipped me to L.A. historian Kim Cooper's upcoming first noir novel, The Kept Girl:
  
  

  

  Kim Cooper's The Kept Girl is inspired by a sensational real-life Los Angeles cult murder spree which exploded into the public consciousness when fraud charges were filed against the cult's leaders in 1929.
  
  The victim was the nephew of oil company president Joseph Dabney, Raymond Chandler's boss. In the novel, Chandler, still several years away from publishing his first short story, is one of three amateur detectives who uncover the ghastly truth about the Great Eleven cult over one frenetic week.
  
  Informed by the author's extensive research into the literary, spiritual, criminal and architectural history of Southern California, The Kept Girl is a terrifying noir love story, set against the backdrop of a glittering pre-crash metropolis.

  
  Through December 25, you can help publish The Kept Girl by subscribing to a special edition for $65 (which includes additional perks).


• Looking ahead to Valentine's Day, Silver Birch Press is calling for Valentine's Day erasure poems made by redacting page 214 of the book of your choice. If enough submissions are accepted by December 31, they will be published in an anthology.

David S. Pointer

WET WIND DISTRIBUTION

Grace traded her brewing
spoon for a mash paddle
complete with worm gear,
silver egg timer, and copper
wort wire converted to still
and ATF thought it was all
going to explode like a big
turkey fryer, but Grace had
paid the boes in product to
scatter in all directions when
law dog shoe leather hit the
land further scattering quail,
pheasant and other wildlife
letting home base know it
was time to vaporize fast as
propane mermaids fermenting
fine quality lunatic soup on
a mobile basis since 1922.


David reads "Wet Wind Distribution":



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David confesses: "I got to thinking about a woman long ago that sold my grandfather a jar of moonshine in Arkansas. Eventually, I got an itch to write a female-based poem, and 'Wet Wind Distribution' was the result."

DAVID S. POINTER, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a military policeman, has work included in The Southern Poetry Anthology Series, Volume: VI Tennessee. His latest poetry book is entitled Oncoming Crime Facts.

David S. Pointer

MEMORIES OF HOLDEN, MO

At the PCB Superfund
Cleanup Site not much
went on, but silence
percolated fear like
fresh coffee, and if
an unauthorized guard
went exploring through
the chemicals-he got fired
and when the Mayor
wanted to consult with
onsite FBI he got a
special white suit that
he modeled like a mini-
Martian from my child-
hood wrapped in a honey
combed coil cape running
around the toxic black
barrels issuing muffled
orders to the big boys
nobody bothered to
decipher or understand


David reads "Memories of Holden, MO":



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David confesses: "I was a security officer at Rose Chemical Plant years ago while going to college. Recently, I started working on a poem about that time, and 'Memories of Holden, MO' came bubbling to the surface."

DAVID S. POINTER has recent poetry in The Southern Poetry Anthology Series, Volume 5: Georgia. Recent anthology appearances in "Noir", "Poe-It!", "Grave Robbers", and Proud to Be: Writings From American Warriors.

New collection by David S. Pointer: ONCOMING CRIME FACTS

Frequent 5-2 contributor David S. Pointer has a 68-page poetry collection out from Destiny To Write Publications through Lulu.com: Oncoming Crime Facts.

David S. Pointer

SHERIFF ANDY TAYLOR

had no clue about wave-
particle duality or DNA-
tracking spray, but knew enough
about the continuum of force
to treat everyone like
an old acquaintance,
keeping the peace and ratings
high as the hands of any
assailant arrested in TV Land.


David reads "Sheriff Andy Taylor":



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David confesses: "I started penning this poem a few minutes after I heard about Andy Griffith's July 3 passing. I always enjoyed The Andy Griffith Show as a kid."

DAVID S. POINTER has a poem in the anthology Indiana Crime 2012. His two most recent chapbooks are MP, Snipers, and Crime and Sinister Splashplay. He also has poems forthcoming in the anthology Serial Killers 2.

David S. Pointer

SHATTERVILLE

All throughout the solar flash
sunflower fields in white beyond,
lovers collect their severance
silence with grace and grief as
I feel a downdraft sweeter than
morgue fumigation, disinfecting,
the rush of lipstick stains past.


David reads "Shatterville":



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David confesses: "'Shatterville' was the result of thinking about intimate human relationships coming to an end. Some breakups are cordial while others are criminal."

DAVID S. POINTER has recent acceptances for the anthology Indiana Crime, The War and Peace Poetry Anthology, and a chapbook entitled MPs, Snipers and Crime at Writing Knights Press.

David S. Pointer

VIP SECURITY

No red rim hot tub
still dripping crime
facts in these lines,
only a Marine MP
presidential security
detail sent to protect
President Reagan’s
travel route. The
sergeant doesn’t care
if we’re overrun by
Mexican revolutionaries,
or more modern
ambulatory urban
beasts, or even
international terrorists.
He just hands Cpl. Welsh
and me scoped M-14s and
says Not on my watch—
a head shot’s fine, but
center mass will make
most up the chain happy.


Graham Powell reads "VIP Security":



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David confesses: "VIP Security" is based on real events at Camp Pendleton and around Southern California in 1983. The poem eluded me for years, and then recently worked its way onto the page.

DAVID S. POINTER currently resides in Murfreesboro, TN. From age 18-22 he served in the USMC Military Police. His latest chapbooks are Warhammer Piano Bar (Thunderclap Press, 2010) and MPs, Snipers and Crime (Writing Knights Press, 2012).

Bleed Me a River: A Domestic Violence Anthology

Edited by Lineup contributor David S. Pointer, Bleed Me a River is a 128-page trade paperback featuring work by Antler, Gary Beck, Kimberly L. Becker, John D. Berry, Jolee Blackbear, Jennifer Hollie Bowles, Shirley Brazzo, Patricia Carragon, Alan Catlin, Dave Church, Cassandra Dallet, Sarah Daugherty, Doug Draime, Charles Firmage, Molly Gaudry, Cynthia M. Gregg, S.A. Griffin, Kenneth P. Gurney, Jessica Harman, Pamela Hirst, Stephanie Hiteshew, Karla Huston, Evie Ivy, Justin Jackley, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Elleraine Lockie, Linda Parsons Marion, Catfish McDaris, Mike Meraz, Todd Moore, Wilda Morris, David Pointer, Rhonda C. Poynter, Charles Ries, Kimberly Roppollo, Cindy Rosmus, Kristen Rueden, Jennifer Rybolt, Georgia Santa-Maria, Rebecca Schumeda, Gerald So, Joe Speer, Lela Norcross Wakely, Klyd Watkins, Kelly Jean White, J.T. Whitehead, Elaine Whitman, and Neal Whitman.

The book sells for $10 + s & h with all proceeds benefiting domestic violence shelters.

David S. Pointer

David S. Pointer, a former Marine military policeman/son of a bank robber, is a widely published poet in the small press. He currently has new work in Criminal Class Review. Pointer is accepting poetry and photography for a domestic violence fundraising anthology to benefit shelters in Middle Tennessee.

Sarah Cortez Interview on La Bloga

Manuel Ramos interviewed Sarah Cortez about The Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, but they also got to talking about crime poetry and The Lineup:

Manuel Ramos: Your poetry was featured in the first issue of The Lineup, a magazine devoted to crime poetry. What is crime poetry and how is it different from other kinds of poetry?

Sarah Cortez: I’m glad you asked about The Lineup, the chapbook series so wonderfully edited by Gerald So, with Patrick Shawn Bagley, R. Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone. The poetry featured deals with some aspect of criminal behavior whether from the victim’s, criminal’s, or another’s perspective. In trying to define what is different about crime poetry from other poetry, I would say that the subject matter focuses the poet’s eye very particularly. So that in trying to accomplish that “great” poetic task we talked about above – putting the inexplicable into words – the poet must unflinchingly hone in on physicality, whether the physicality of the crime scene, the victim, the suspect, and so on. What I see when I read poems from Lineup is the unremitting eye of each poet beginning in the sensory world of the crime’s occurrence. And, of course, the higher the emotional content of an event, the harder it becomes to write about it with elegance. Writers, especially fiction writers, joke about how hard it is to write love/sex scenes and have them turn out well. That’s because of the high emotional content and the enormous number of hackneyed clichés surrounding love/sex scenes. Well, crime scenes carry a lot of those same burdens for the writer/poet. The poets chosen for Lineup do a fantastic job.

Manuel Ramos: I think The Lineup is an innovation with much potential power to dramatically change the poetry/crime fiction scene. I hope more readers find it. I'm delighted to note that I have a poem in the upcoming second issue, due later this summer.