poems

10 poems, video stills and video published in Var 2(x)

January 6, 2026–Today, a portfolio of my video and text work was published in Var 2(x), an online literary journal for extreme experimentation. Included are 5 video stills with asemic language elements pulled from the raw footage for my music video “New Brain Imprint,” as well as a link to the source video on YouTube. The main feature is a selection of 10 text pieces: “dole plot,” “badge of dolor,” “Arriba malfunction,” “regular quill,” “scrap grind hotel,” “taps patent fait enter,” “wailing watcher weight,” “game life atoll,” “change delinquent,” and “anti-rule characterized.”

The editors put all this under the headline “The Glitch Poetics of Jeff Bagato,” which seems a pretty good descriptor of this period of my written work. I’ll have to start using that tag myself!

Six poems published in Ranger #12

Online literary magazine Ranger recently released its 12th issue, another smorgasbord of experimental artifacts in textual, video, musical and visual forms. I’m pleased to be represented by six poems: “wiggy sip,” “pilled blame,” “prattle burn misc,” “About Calls,” “bastion fire crag,” and “mog turner.” You can read them here.

Five poems published in Utriculi

Utriculi is an online literary journal for experimental writing, and something of a “sequel” to Otoliths, both journals being published by Sandy Press in Australia. The second issue of Utriculi was released recently in print and digital formats, and it seems similarly encyclopedic in scope to the earlier journal, comprising another who’s who of the international literary avant garde. I’m pleased to be represented by five poems (starting on page 150 of Issue 2, Part 1): “guidelines,” “If those aren’t the reasons, what,” “jade slick,” “bezel delight,” and “blade lout parse.”

You can view the complete online issue, both Parts 1 and 2, here. The print issues are available via Amazon here.

New book And the Trillions, Part 2 released

There wasn’t enough “and the trillions” in the first volume (originally released in 2012) so I wrote a sequel, naturally entitled And the Trillions, Part 2. This book length accumulative poem examines multiples as a metaphor for the complex social and natural world humans inhabit. At 280 pages, Part 2 is over 4.5 times longer than Part 1, and all new material.

And the Trillions, Part 2 is now available on Lulu, here.

Poem in Best of Mad Swirl Anthology #8

Recently received a nice email from Mad Swirl literary magazine announcing that my poem “Free Trip” will be included in their annual Best of Mad Swirl anthology for 2024. This anthology will present the best of 2024’s works posted on MadSwirl.com: art (4 artists, the best of each quarter), short stories (12 stories, the best of each month), and poetry (52 poems, the best of each week). The anthology is issued in print and digital versions; these have yet to be released, so stay tuned!

Long poem excerpt published in Ranger magazine

I’ve been working on a long poem for a while now, a “sequel” to my earlier book And the Trillions. For those eagerly anticipating the release of And the Trillions Part 2, an excerpt has been published in Ranger magazine #8. The poem has certain distinct sections, and this one is called the “rag doll” section. You can check it out here. Here’s an excerpt of the excerpt:

Ranger literary magazine is the follow up to Angry Old Man (then Son of Angry Old Man), and is picking up where Otoliths left off as a kind of encyclopedic treatment of the international literary avant garde. Highly recommended.