RAVEN MACK is a mystic poet-philosopher-artist of the Greater Appalachian unorthodox tradition. He does have an amazing PATREON, but also *normal* ARTIST WEBSITE too.

Wednesday, November 30

self-medicated visions
led by plasticized shaman
not necessarily real

freestyle sonnet #061: MY NATURE IS DENTED...

My nature is dented - a hundred thousand miles
and at best ten years removed from bright showroom shine.
Known to graze guardrails - daddy preached through wasted smiles,
"keep it between the ditches; and despite incline

to stall out, I stay idling, rough. I never rot,
just rust. At times abandoned 'til roadside repairs
can get me running again once right parts were got.
My nature's deeply dented, inside vinyl tears

duct-taped together - grey Frankensteins without real
re-sale value, too blemished to be classic, bound
close to home by leaking fluids. Rumbles reveal
unmuffled existence; cooled down on oil-stained ground.

My nature remains dented, rust gets worse with age,
'til abandoned at edge of still-developed stage.
psychic burial grounds, where
years get forgotten beneath
sediment of emotion

Tuesday, November 29

amass illegitimate
arts as it's all I got some
days, sum daze of memories

freestyle sonnet #060: ODE TO RUST

Nothing more pure than manmade industrial shine
re-baptized by Earth dominion back into rust.
Elements extracted after "found", claimed by mine,
and refined through man(yo)uf(r)actured process we trust,

complicating environment's complex blessing,
manifesting poison culture destiny since
such behavior makes sense to braintrusts depressing
more common views that men are part of Earth, not prince

to stake immense eminent domain claim in name
of beliefs spoken in language not known to oaks
or birches or even lowly scrub pines. No shame
felt invoking self-superiority's yokes

to all of creation. And yet nothing so bright
as stainless steel shine reclaimed by brown Earthen blight.
hard to maintain light presence
when surrounded by darkness,
defeat, and self-destruction
consumer paradise of
fossil fuel mechanisms -
bright parade of financing

Monday, November 28

same river where brave new world
was erected from demon
visions of Earth dominion
developing confidence
walking through minefield full of
technological mirrors

Sunday, November 27

bipartisan overlords
live inside shine shelter while
we argue amongst the rust

TOP TEN SELF-HELP SEMINARS MONETIZED BY UNWITTING YAKUBS


#1: ev’rybody’s self/taught now actual training/no longer required
#2: master of fine arts/in new writing new scribbling/new criticism
#3: best teacher remains/practice & best practice is/simply doing shit
#4: googling “how to fix/broken poetry youtube”/don’t have the right parts
#5: self-help seminars/run by 24-year-old/mostly white shineface
#6: “unlock your true self”/locked up behind stone paywalls/- fuck that - go outside
#7: explore your fucking/heart - that’s where the greatest shit/will always reside
#8: they’ll build no pipelines/from heart into existence/they prefer stifles
#9: monetizing self’s/demeaning as fuck for self/- let self create birth
#10: no one teaches sex/it is innate - so is art/- know-it-alls fuck off

TOP TEN DIGITAL OPIOID MILLIGRAMS


#1: in real life too hard/so sink deeper into buzz/of endless timelines
#2: no future no past/just constantly refreshed now/constant refreshed now
#3: language allowed what/had passed to not pass again/“fire burns” said warning
#4: we blister ourselves/with trivial bullshit scrolls/this celeb codex
#5: millennial late/capitalism lena/dunham black lives matte
#6: googling “google bad”/results were unsurprising/still I did nothing
#7: hyped as fuck about/fire emoji {click refresh}/straight trash emoji
#8: all thought rendered as/useless as unthunk, rainbow/wheels inside turn dark
#9: foggy distractions/accumulate in idle/thoughts like brackish sludge
#10: third eye hollow point/drills down social neurosis/my tribe is unreal

TOP TEN GREATER APPALACHIAN UNORTHODOX WILLS OF THE BEARD WISP


#1: Scots-Irish mountain/goat mentality - freebird/heart fatality
#2: Americana/drone sounds like Honda Civic/with unprimed fender
#3: best friend dead uncle/rear window vinyl sticker/"gone... not forgotten"
#4: earned income credit/tax return tattoos fade with/fresh oblivion
#5: no symmetry to/these lives - unbalanced yet proud/of life drunk stumble
#6: tend to inherit/negative balances, life/insurance cash out
#7: these dirty whiteboys/born to lose refuse to care/with sandpaper hearts
#8: one-twenty grit my/one-twenty lessons - true &/living dirtgod facts
#9: FARM USE tags on birth/certificate, carrying/world’s weight without thought
#10: Venn diagram where/“the south” & “the mountains” cross/- Paradise Country
resistance and rebirth chips
away established structure,
one rotten day at a time

Saturday, November 26

cultural binaries help
manifest rust destiny,
poison Earth only for self
circulating energies
trapped underneath power grid
designed to divide divine

TOP TEN CORVID ADVANCES IN POETIC METER


#1: in defense of crows/write poetry in my heart/say it once then gone
#2: break of perfect dawn/I hear them cawwing early/goading lazy sun
#3: together we mock/the mechanized people beasts/buzzing in distance
#4: too-long-didn't-read/days get blurred into paychecks/lacking blackbird wealth
#5: I was born raven/government dox middle name/humane thoughts my shame
#6: idolize idle/eyes idealizing lies I/suggest to my self
#7: still though, when I sit/in plastic adirondack/crows make distant noise
#8: still though, when turnkey/ignites early morning truck/crows make distant noise
#9: still though, prose of crows/uncommitted to paper/feels like my bible
#10: I scatter peanuts/offerings for more blackbird/medicine poems

TOP TEN BIG DATA FALSE COMMON DENOMINATORS


#1: mAssAgE thE nVmbErs/mAkE nOthIng mVch AppEAr tO/bE EndlEss ExpAnse
#2: "OVr nVmbErs ArE Vp!"/grAphs & grIdlOck & prAIsE tO/VnsVstAInAblE
#3: stVdYIng dAtA/dErIvEd frOm dEmEntIA tO/dEdVcE nO dEclInE
#4: nEws sItE ArtIclE/stAtIstIcs mAllEAblE/sOft frEE fOrm dAtA
#5: hEll's trEndIng dOwnwArd/pArAdIsE trEndIng VpwArd/clOsEr tOO pErfEct
#6: mY rEAl lIfE dAtA/fEEls rAthEr fVckEd fEEls hOpElEss/fEEls lIkE sOVl cAncEr
#7: nO nVmbEr fOr strEss/fIstIng hEArt mVsclE IntO/AnxIOVs dOOm pIstOn
#8: hEArt pVmps hOpElEss fEAr/lIkE fOssIlIzEd fVEl frActVrEd/frOm lIfE's sEdImEnts
#9: sVm AblE tO wrAp/Vp tIght In sEcVrItY/blAnkEt Of nVmbErs
#10: tOO dEEplY ExpOsEd/tO thE ElEmEnts I cAn't/I clVtch At nOthIng

TOP TEN DIGITAL COLONIZERS OFFERING SALVATION OF TECHLORD


#1: t3chn0-sc4p1sm/sl33p3r c3ll 4ct1v4t10n/sm4rtph0n3 g4z3 Vhh-w4r3
#2: n0n-b1n4rY c0d3z/sp0k3 t0 r3m41n w0k3 d3sp1t3/g4z3 bVzz 4w4yz d4(yz/z3)
#3: "1nn0v4t3 f4st3r"/3y3 s33n3d 0n s0m3 dVd3'z t-sh1rt/th1nk1ng "wtf?"
#4: f1v3-b4r d1sc0nn3ct/s4nct1m0n10Vs n4tVr3/"s0?"c14l m3nd1c4nt
#5: 0n3 0h 0n3 0n3 0h/0h 0n3 3ndl3ss p4r4d3 str34m/z3r0 c0nsc10Vsn3ss
#6: d0n't m34n t0 s0Vnd l1k3/"g3t 0ff mY l4wn" glYph0s4t3/4rt1f1c3 gr33n gr4ss
#7: n0th1ng 1s r34l n0/m0r3 d3-r4ng3d cVltVr3d z3r0/0n3 r34l1t13z
#8: wh4t3v3r th0Vgh brVh/mVlt1pl3 v3rs10nz l00s3 str1ng/r34l w0rldz v4rY pVll
#9: st1ll th0Vgh sc4nn1ng *fr33*/dYst0p14n t3chn0-sc4p3/l3ft w1th 3mpt1n3ss
#10: "l0st 1n 3mpt1n3ss"/h34rt sVtr4 sVpr3m3 m4th h3lps/c4l1br4t3 d1rtg0d
intersectionality
of identities still don't
address off-the-grid fringes

Friday, November 25

Thursday, November 24

neurology of chicken
triggering headless moonsaults
through ankle-deep red clover
rainbow wheels of doom refresh
dilapidated outlooks
with upgrades of perspective
old bench full of nobodies,
discussing the various
newsy tidbits of not much

Wednesday, November 23

still life of constant motion;
real life of non-devotion
to man’s manufactured myths
commercial metal buildings
where retail doesn't require
that high gloss infrastructure

Tuesday, November 22

keeping underneath bridges,
working to blow them up (not
burn) for permanent damage

freestyle sonnet #059: WORKING WHITE WHISPERER PUNDITS WILL BE SHOT

Working white whisperers coming out the woodwork
attempting from privilege to explain pain...
I sit here ingrained with shame, failure demons lurk,
my last name a shitstain which suits can't white trash-splain

quite like I know it. Working white underclass men
rarely graduate beyond that segregated
"other" America - rural wasteland pigpen
left behind ten times over; waste duplicated

through psychology into medicated haze
of sense of self. Trust me... I know. (Who gives a fuck?
Who truly gives a fuck beyond finding fresh ways
to sell false sense of shit existence to those stuck

too far up ladder to even try reaching back down?)
White working class identities remain shitstained brown.
making sense of the chaos
that is experience and
inherited existence

Monday, November 21

the illegitimate arts
litter my entire landscape;
all I know is this I live
east/west decisions - hindsight
always filtered through perfect
outcomes gone the other way
local Cap One's blasphemous
scribble doodles on mural's
eminent public domain

Sunday, November 20

them old dudes driving corvette
go-karts ain't as numerous
as they was in my childhood
true clouds born elemental
supreme, calculating the
natural math of balance

Saturday, November 19

jukejoint bacchanalia lost
to fruity looped enabletons;
wails through medicated fog