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.

Sunday, September 30

F1B3RGL4SS D0N'T RVST, WH1CH S0M3...

fiberglass don't rust, which some
see as progress, but junkyards
show to be false improvement

Saturday, September 29

Friday, September 28

SCR1PTVR3S 0F FVTVR3 C4V3M4N...

scriptures of future cavemen -
marks for cyborg-sapiens
to deduce what we're about

SONG OF THE DAY: Down Low (Chopped Not Slopped)


The process of down-lowing is either discretion or dishonesty. Sometimes discretion crosses over into dishonesty. Sometimes you’re being a dishonest asshole but think you’re just keeping it discreet. People know though. It’s not hard to be good to people, and feel good with people without traumatizing anybody. It’s really not that difficult. And yeah, you gotta be discreet, sure, because people always looking to apply their external judgments or emotional lashings on you. Fuck it though. It’s Friday, fall, feel good weather, y’all get that serotonin firing.

N4TVR4L CYCL3S 0F R1S3...

natural cycles of rise
and droop, decay but then
rebirth; you know... that real shit

Thursday, September 27

SONG OF THE DAY: Mary Jane


Trying to be a little more Rick James in my life – unapologetic hedonism. The dopamine and serotonin and endorphins and all them good chemical shits just not flowing as hard as I’d want. Of course, got an addictive personality (aka genetic structure) so it might not ever be flowing as hard as I’d want. Can’t wait ‘til I’m successful and wealthy so I can destroy my life with the most expensive of poor choices, and get regrettable face tattoos.

R04DS1D3 R3CR34T10N4L...

roadside recreational
vehicles, promising quick
escape, and blown transmissions

Wednesday, September 26

T3N D0LL4R P3R PL4T3 F00D TRVCKS...

ten dollar per plate food trucks
lined up in a row is not
really a farmer's market

SONG OF THE DAY: Chasing Love


Love is not a permanent vacation home along the shore; instead it is the ocean’s tide. That shit rolls up quite lovely, and you can lay around on the beach, and maybe the tide is high and you get yourself a vacation home to bask in the loveliness of it, but it’s an ebb and flow, and the moon gonna pull that shit back out at some point, and that home ain’t gonna be home no more. Non-traditional relationships make more sense because nothing is permanent, and no one person can really fulfill another one person’s every emotional need from now until the end. I think the old way (which is not really traditional in “way way back” sense but traditional in the common shit since western hegemony of culture) is to just grin and bear it, or work at it, or just plain suffer, as most women did in patriarchal arrangements, and to be honest, a lot of men probably did too. It’s a one-size-fits-all that don’t fit nobody.
And yet, chasing love is so much fun, whether you’re 14 or 45… getting googly eyes and tingle belly over somebody, feeling that tide roll in, warm cleansing waters of love. It might recede twenty years from now, it might recede next Tuesday… just gotta enjoy the moment.

4T TH3 C0RN3R 0F PR0GR3SS...

at the corner of progress
and forgotten, life goes on
for all them with nowhere else

Tuesday, September 25

Monday, September 24

Sunday, September 23

W3NT T0 SCH00L 4T L34ST THR33 D4YS...

went to school at least three days
most weeks, kept my grades up, and
got high as fuck a whole lot

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Fourteen: TAKANOSHO (8-6)


[MOMENT OF SUCCESS] 

Takanosho got 
kachikoshi in his first 
top level basho 

this means more wins than losses, 
if you’re a sumo novice 

the opposite is 
makekoshi, and either 
means rankings movements 

up or down the overall 
rankings, released each basho 

there’s a banzuke 
scroll, where every rikishi 
is written in ink 

at the top, largest letters, 
are current yokozuna 

the names get smaller 
the further down banzuke 
scroll, to the bottom 

at the very bottom are 
those young men new to sumo 

thus, Takanosho, 
in first basho at sumo’s 
top level, did well 

promising young rikishi, 
increasing their scroll ink size 

personally, I 
find this so fascinating - 
worth displayed by size 

if there was an all-time scroll, 
Hakuho’s name’d be biggest 

day fourteen, he locked 
down another yusho win - 
his forty-first one 

no rikishi - or even 
yokozuna - matches that 

the young and the old, 
and how their trajectories 
intersect - sumo 

daily bouts for fifteen days, 
six bashos a year - sumo 

a sporting culture 
thick with ceremony, and 
corruption - sumo 

stories unfolding slowly 
like nature itself - sumo 

S1GNS W3 C4N'T 4FF0RD T0 K33P...

signs we can't afford to keep
up no more, in places we
still live since nowhere to go

Saturday, September 22

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Thirteen: HOKUTOFUJI (8-5)


[ee see dubyoo! ee see dubyoo!] 

after seven days, 
Hokutofuji was tied 
with the unbeatens 

since that day, he’s struggled to 
maintain that unblemished pace 

after couple days 
of losses, he finally 
got kachikoshi 

he’s struggled to get further 
into the winning column 

Nishikigi and 
he had a stubborn battle, 
with a trick ending 

Hokutofuji tried to 
twist at dohyo’s edge for win 

gyoji pointed 
his way at first - monoii 
called by ringside crew 

Nishikigi pretty slow 
to get up, arm dangling limp 

four feet clinging to 
permitted area, two 
bodies crush sideways 

original decision 
reversed with further review 

Hokutofuji’s 
first seven bouts fought perfect; 
momentum shifts quick 

and yet Hokutofuji 
fights with every last step 

sumo continues 
to be an unforgiving sport 
for these rikishi 

trajectories dissipate 
before one has chance to think 

(later day thirteen, 
battle of yokozunas 
got the crowd hyped up) 

(Hakuho easily beat 
Kisenosato, with flair) 

(Hakuho’s lock on 
winning this basho appears 
unavoidable) 

(two ozeki two losses 
back with only two days left) 

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Twelve: GOIEDO (10-2)


[rookie mistake charge] 

ozeki master 
busting out psychology 
to psyche out Abi 

young Abi never even 
got his hands down it felt like 

multiple matta, 
couple stand-back-up stare downs, 
got Abi back heeled 

when they finally started, 
Goiedo got him on jump 

Abi's energy 
burst pushed back, but Goiedo 
stepped aside to left 

helpful swat, and Abi's down; 
Goiedo remains top-notch 

W0RK1NG CL4SS M4SS3S CH4S1NG...

working class masses chasing
weekend trophy achievements
where no permission's needed

Thursday, September 20

S1MPL3 BRVSH STR0K3S 0N V3LV3T...

simple brush strokes on velvet
make immaculate aura
accessible by all us

SONG OF THE DAY: It's All Bad


Never really listened to a bunch of E-40, because he’s always come across as one of those “slang for slang’s sake” people, where you pretend everybody on Earth is saying some crazy shit you just thought up while walking to the bus stop. While I respect such ambition in destroying conventional linguistics, it gets annoying when you overdo it. That sort of became E-40’s thing. But DJ Screw subconsciously poisoned me into E-40 tolerance, so lately I revisited some of that classic ‘90s era Charlie Hustle, and it’s hard as fuck not to relate to this song, given current personal life conditions. It is all bad. People will be like “it’s going to get better” or “keep going” but honestly, sometimes shit doesn’t get better. Doesn’t mean you give up, because it only gets worse if you do, but instead of lying to people and continually saying “oh, it’s gonna get better, keep trying,” you should just go “yeah everything is fucked, but it’ll be even more fucked if you stop.” It’s like riptide, and culturally we live in a shit storm of a riptide as American empire crumbles while simultaneously everybody comfortable keeps telling you “hey, it’s not falling apart, it’s just a little blip in the exceptional ride.” Like with riptides, you’re doomed perhaps, but have to keep fighting sideways, to keep the shore in sight. Stop fighting, you’re definitely fucked; keep fighting, you’re only about 50% fucked. I guess I’ll accept those odds. (But y’all fuckers on the shore who keep saying everything’s alright better hope we the rest of us don’t have much energy left by the time we got to the shore, if we do, because we gonna stomp y’all one day.)

Wednesday, September 19

C0VNTRY ST0R3 D1SPL4Y C4S3S...

country store display cases
left to fade into past times
for future kids to picture

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Eleven: TOCHINOSHIN (7-4)


[sometimes Tochinoshin's technique is "fuck you"] 

this basho's third act 
begins with two unbeaten 
yokozuna left 

below that, many stories 
still unfold with fine texture 

one such story has 
been our man Tochinoshin, 
the Bulgarian 

the past year has seen no one 
else be quite as dominant 

our Bulgarian 
hero was makekoshi 
last basho, injured 

with Mitakeumi breathing 
down his neck, he needs eight wins 

bull Tochinoshin's 
(he who lifts ev'rything and 
throws it) been missing 

and facing undefeated 
yokozuna's always tough 

Kakuryu's wiley 
grace as yokozuna has 
been underrated 

I say this as casual 
dude who has overlooked him 

he seemed to be the 
third Mongolian before 
sumo scandals broke 

with Harumafuji gone, 
Kakuryu stood out stronger 

he and Hakuho 
were the lone unbeaten men 
left when day started 

Tochinoshin was fighting 
to keep ozeki status 

he hadn't been straight 
up lifting fools this basho, 
until yesterday 

against yokozuna though? 
surely, he'd become humbled 

nah, fam… the brutal 
beast from Bulgaria was 
full of spirit war 

Kakuryu's master tactics 
meant nothing lifted off ground 

he literally 
got carried the fuck away 
by Tochinoshin 

our Bulgarian hero 
one win away from safety 

"Tochi" shikona 
remains most honorable - 
three yokozunas 

Tochinoshin continues 
their tradition, with brute strength 

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Ten: KISENOSATO (8-2)


[ya boy dirtgod needs a fat stack of them envelopes like that] 

Kisenosato's 
return as yokozuna 
has been eventful 

he's hardly looked dominant, 
but he made kachikoshi 

it's been a year since 
he's accomplished such a feat - 
bad look for sumo 

gyoji called multple 
mattas (false starts) on Endo 

poor sad Endo - he's 
having an ugly basho, 
struggling entirely 

still a threat though, except when 
matta policing happens 

few bouts have true two 
hands down - it's performative 
motion in action 

but Kisenosato shall 
get all the help he can get 

official sumo 
federation wants their star 
to shine (for money) 

sumo federation wants 
Japanese yokozuna 

Kisenosato 
brings about a fat stack of 
sponsor envelopes 

thus after three false starts, we 
finally have some sumo 

Endo easily 
pushed backwards out the ring, 
a potential "work" 

"was Endo working hard, or 
hardly working?" as they say 

Kisenosato 
got his kachikoshi, and 
still only two back 

but let's be real - this is not 
the same Kisenosato 

B4L4NC3 B3TW33N L1GHT 4ND D4RK...

balance between light and dark
in times which feel too much like
twilight of humanity

Monday, September 17

Aki Basho 2018 Honour Tanka Day Nine: HAKUHO (9-0)


[Hakuho manhandling last basho champion] 

had a nice tanka 
about Hakuho's return, 
but lost that shit 

fuck it though, suffice to to 
say Hakuho's the greatest 

Mitakeumi may 
win basho when the bigger 
stars are laying out 

but Hakuho proved he's still 
the fucking man when healthy 

stood patiently as 
Mitakeumi thought about 
how to finish this 

but ultimately for naught, 
since Hakuho's the greatest