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.
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.
My poem “The Grapefruit Hits the Grinder” was published in Mad Swirl’s Poetry Forum on October 14. You can read the full piece here.
My poem “Singing through the Flats” was published last week in the online journal Rat’s Ass Review Fall/Winter 2025 issue. It’s been a while, so I’m pleased to appear on the pages of this fine journal for outlaw poetry. You can read the full poem here.
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.
My poem “Tortilla Mockingbird” appeared in Mad Swirl‘s online Poetry Form on May 27. You can read the full poem here.
While reviewing my YouTube channel yesterday, I discovered that one of my earliest videos had been removed for “violating YouTube’s Terms of Service.” I never received prior notification of this removal, so I’m not sure when this actually happened. Checking out the video, I noticed it does include swastikas among the imagery, before they are mirrored and distorted into abstract, “asemic” shapes. I assume the appearance of swastikas alone was enough to justify the removal, because there’s nothing about the video that engages or discusses Nazis or fascism. Or “flat earth theory” for that matter.
The source for “Earth Remains Flat” is newsreel footage from WWII which represents Nazi war efforts, taken from a video series about the history of the war. Neither the original newsreel nor the video program were promoting fascism or Nazism. Likewise, my video was not promoting or glorifying any ideology or theory–neither Nazism or “flat earth theory.” Instead, “Earth Remains Flat” deconstructs–or detournes–the original newsreel footage using various video effects (including glitching and mirroring) to demonstrate the warping of truth and fact that accompanies the downfall of nations and cultures. Overlaying the imagery is an excerpt from a longer poem, also titled “Earth Remains Flat”: “earth remains flat/at the edge–as if/land ends/here.”
Here’s the complete poem:
“Earth Remains Flat” is part of a series of poems called “Civilization’s Lost,” which explores the fragility of nations, cultures and languages by examining lost cities and civilizations around the world. The poems in the series were published in a variety of literary journals, including Empty Mirror, BlazeVox, Futures Trading, Word 4/Word, Streetcake and Yggdrasil. Both the poem and the video for “Earth Remains Flat” were published in Otoliths #45, from 2017, along with several still images taken from the film. Neither the editor or anyone else has ever alerted me to an issue with the appearance of swastikas in the video.
YouTube cites their “Hate speech policy” as the reason for the removal of the “Earth Remains Flat” video: “Content that incites hatred against individuals or groups based on their protected group status isn’t allowed on YouTube. This may include inferiority claims and/or conspiracy theories. We review educational, documentary, artistic, and scientific content on a case-by-case basis. Limited exceptions are made for content with sufficient and appropriate context.” The video includes no “inferiority claims” or racism, and no “conspiracy theories” and has no content to “incite hatred” against anyone.
I initiated a “review” with YouTube, so we’ll see what comes from that. I suspect that there may not have been a complaint about the video, but that some AI may have detected the swastika and flagged the whole video.
The latest Chiron Review for Winter 2024m Issue #135 arrived recently. I’m very pleased to be represented with one poem “Are You There Cosmos?”
Chiron Review is a great read especially for those into “outlaw poetry.”
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!
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.
jeff bagato 