Here’s a translation of a song by Charle Cros, from Black Scat Review 18. SONG OF THE SCULPTORS (Charles Cros, 1879) Proclaim the principles of art! And shout with all your might! That marble is a stone apart, Because it is so white. Proclaim the principles of art! And fix them in your head! Like […]

[Read more →]

Black Scat Review #18 is now available! This jam-packed issue contains four pages of my comic strip “Shorten the Classics,” an excerpt from my translation of Alfred Jarry’s play The Pope’s Mustard-Maker, and my translations of poems by Charles Cros, Jules Jouy, and Laurent Tailhade. You will also find contributions by Mark Axelrod, Angela Buck, […]

[Read more →]

This retelling of the classic tale can be found in my book The Doug Skinner Dossier. Both Hansel and Gretel are based closely on my sister. Here’s how it begins. HANSEL AND GRETEL AND I Hansel and Gretel and I lived with our father and evil stepmother in a little bungalow out near the forest. […]

[Read more →]

This unusually brief story appears in my collection Sleepytime Cemetery. It’s short, but long enough for a happy ending. THE FUNERAL DINNER Little Tommy sat under a tree, pulling the wings off flies. When he pulled the wings off one, he tossed it onto the grass, where it died. He then plucked the next one […]

[Read more →]

Brent Raynes has written a book about my old friend John Keel, called John A. Keel: The Man, The Myths, and The Ongoing Mysteries. It’s not really a biography, but a catalogue of forteana, with John’s theories and opinions about them, as well as interviews with people who knew him, including me. It’s now available on […]

[Read more →]

This alphabet appears in The Doug Skinner Dossier. Buy a copy! Buy another copy! COMPLEMENTS Acid — Base Clean — Dirty Empty — Full Glum — Happy Iffy — Just Keen — Listless Messy — Neat Old — Puerile Quiet — Raucous Slim — Tubby Unvoiced — Voiced Wet — Xeric Yawning — Zipped

[Read more →]

Acrostics are usually used in longer verses. Here, they’re put to probably unsuitable use. ACROSTIC COUPLETS I mention that it might be fun To eat a picnic in the sun. It would at that, you answer back, So we select some food to pack: A jug of wine, some garlic knots, Some nectarines and apricots. […]

[Read more →]

I add yet another formal constraint to the roster. Rhymed haiku observe the strict 5-7-5 syllable count of traditional haiku, but add rhymes. Here are seven examples: Look at all the salt Sprinkled on my frosted malt It’s the waiter’s fault You thought it great sport To commit a grievous tort I’ll see you in […]

[Read more →]

All of Robert Herrick’s rhymes are replaced. This is what he’d be like if he were different. HERRICK RERHYMED Gather ye Rose-buds while ye might, Old Time is still a tilting: And this same flower that smiles so bright, To morrow will be wilting. The glorious Lamp of Heaven, his place The higher he’s a […]

[Read more →]

“The Isle of Dogs” is a story in my collection The Snowman Three Doors Down. In it, a group of scholars investigate the play of that name, by Ben Jonson and Thomas Nashe, which was suppressed and is now lost. The French play mentioned here, Caquire, is also real, but its use in the story […]

[Read more →]