y’all take stamps here?
man eats salt not pepper
from a tiny paper packet
you’d get more business if you did
-Eric Scott Sutherland,
Pendulum
(Accents Publishing)
“How to Keep from Going out of Business” by Eric Scott Sutherland
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Tag Archives: pendulum
“Sleepwalker” by Eric Scott Sutherland
Limping along in canvas
deck shoes, skinny beneath
an untucked Goodwill dress shirt
and a starched stiff pair
of three dollar stonewashed jeans,
he’s a doppelganger
of a Spinal Tap member;
the good time lines etched
deep around squinting slits,
gouged into sagging cheeks,
shoulder length rock ’n’ roll mullet
spiked every which way
like a rooster or a Rolling Stone.
Always coming and going,
a perpetual state
of sleepwalking,
. a purgatory
between opening and closing,
inhabits a lonely no man’s land
dividing a shit-faced heaven
and a cold-sober hell.
deck shoes, skinny beneath
an untucked Goodwill dress shirt
and a starched stiff pair
of three dollar stonewashed jeans,
he’s a doppelganger
of a Spinal Tap member;
the good time lines etched
deep around squinting slits,
gouged into sagging cheeks,
shoulder length rock ’n’ roll mullet
spiked every which way
like a rooster or a Rolling Stone.
Always coming and going,
a perpetual state
of sleepwalking,
. a purgatory
between opening and closing,
inhabits a lonely no man’s land
dividing a shit-faced heaven
and a cold-sober hell.
-Eric Scott Sutherland,
Pendulum
(Accents Publishing)
Free Poetry Events Week of October 20th
This week is busy as we have a reading this Saturday at Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville with our amazing poets Eric Scott Sutherland, Tom C. Hunley, and Lynnell Edwards.
This Thursday the Carnegie Center will host an International Eating and Reading Night where everyone is invited to share food and literature from their home country.
Plus, West Virginia poet and award-winning children’s author Marc Harshman will be touring the area, and Thomas More College is hosting an event this afternoon with Pauletta Hansel.
More details below.
“Milkshake Ricky” by Eric Scott Sutherland
loves oatmeal cookies
and peanut butter shakes,
dresses in cut-off sweats
over full-length
sweats, looks like he flew
out of the cuckoo’s nest,
lost four pair of glasses
and two umbrellas
last week.
Milkshake Ricky is losing
more than his mind. The way
he fumbles through
layers of worn cotton
searching for his billfold
he may have also
lost what little
money there is left
from his monthly check.
-Eric Scott Sutherland,
Pendulum (Accents Publishing)
Eric Sutherland in Shelbyville Tomorrow
Eric Scott Sutherland will be reading from pendulum tomorrow at Shelbyville’s Sixth and Main Coffeehouse. The reading will start at 4pm and end at 6pm, just in time for 6th Street Live, hosted by All Things Music.
For more information, check out the Facebook page.
Don’t forget to also check out the Facebook Event page for 6th Street Live.
More from pendulum and Eric Scott Sutherland:
- “microcosm” from Bigger than They Appear
- “the gate”
- Holler 72: Eric Scott Sutherland, Richard Taylor, Maurice Manning, & Don Rogers
- “Reader, a question”
- “And the Pendulum Swings”: An Interview with Eric Scott Sutherland
Eric Scott Sutherland is a hawk watcher, Kentucky creek walker, tree loving Lorax, community and event organizer, the author of two chapbooks and the full-length collection incommunicado (2007). pendulum is his fourth book of poems. He is the creator and host of Holler Poets Series, a monthly celebration of literature and music since 2008. Eric makes his nest in Lexington. Follow Eric and Holler at www.ericscottsutherland.com.
Holler 72: Eric Scott Sutherland, Richard Taylor, Maurice Manning, & Don Rogers
photo from the Facebook event page
The Holler Poets Series is a Lexington establishment. But tonight’s Holler holds a special place in our heart since it celebrates the sixth anniversary of the Holler Poets Series and features two Accents-published authors: Eric Scott Sutherland (pendulum) and Richard Taylor (Fading into Bolivia).
The event will feature guest host Maurice Manning (who was the feature during the first Holler) and music from Don Rogers. As always, you can find your seat at 8pm(ish) at Al’s Bar and sign up for the open mic an hour or so earlier.
Check out the Facebook page and sign-up, if you haven’t, or wish them good luck!
More from Holler, Eric Scott Sutherland, Richard Taylor, & Maurice Manning:
- “Read ten poems for every one you write”: Maurice Manning’s #MostImportantThing
- Holler 71: GA Smith, Sherry Chandler, Squeaky Feet
- “Reader, a question” by Eric Scott Sutherland
- Accents Radio 05/16/14: Richard Taylor
- pendulum by Eric Scott Sutherland
“Reader, a question” by Eric Scott Sutherland
Ever been so hungry
as to trade your
driver’s license,
your dignity
for a day-old muffin,
something worse?
–Eric Scott Sutherland,
Pendulum
Accents Publishing (2014)
More from Pendulum and Eric Scott Sutherland:
- “And the Pendulum Swings”: An Interview with Eric Scott Sutherland
- Pendulum release & “plague”
- Accents Radio 9/13/13: Eric Scott Sutherland
- Holler 71 w/ GA Smith, Sherry Chandler, and Squeaky Feet
- Pendulum at the Accents Store
Eric Scott Sutherland is a hawk watcher, Kentucky creek walker, tree loving Lorax, community and event organizer, the author of two chapbooks and the full-length collection incommunicado (2007). pendulum is his fourth book of poems. He is the creator and host of Holler Poets Series, a monthly celebration of literature and music since 2008. Eric makes his nest in Lexington. Follow Eric and Holler at www.ericscottsutherland.com.
Pendulum ships today!
Those of you lucky enough to have made it to this past weekend’s Book Fair at the Carnegie Center already had the chance to pick up our newest book, Pendulum by Eric Scott Sutherland.
In an interview by Christopher McCurry, Sutherland said that the book’s characters were inspired by those he saw as he worked at a small coffee shop at the Lexington Public Library’s Central branch. Those familiar with the library also know about the five-story high Foucault pendulum hanging since 2001.
plague
is always a dirty
paw away.
paw away.
a hand not washed
in who knows how long.
a hand stained by soil
and cigarette resin, the filth
permanent under fingernails.
a hand sprouting long claws
the color of skin, camouflaged,
each one a hook, a tool to dig.
a hand counting out
eighty pennies for a soda.
-Eric Scott Sutherland,
Pendulum (2014 Accents Publishing
Pendulum (2014 Accents Publishing
Eric Scott Sutherland is a hawk watcher, Kentucky creek walker, tree loving Lorax, community and event organizer, the author of two chapbooks and the full-length collection incommunicado (2007). pendulum is his fourth book of poems. He is the creator and host of Holler Poets Series, a monthly celebration of literature and music since 2008. Eric makes his nest in Lexington. Follow Eric and Holler at www.ericscottsutherland.com. “And the Pendulum Swings”: An Interview with Eric Scott Sutherland
Tell us about yourself and your full-length book Pendulum (Accents Publishing 2014).
My name is Eric Scott Sutherland. I am a lifelong Kentuckian and advocate for its beauty. My fourth collection of poems, pendulum, is a tale of light and dark set in Lexington’s Central Library where I spent eight years managing a small cafe. The scene is overlooked by the Gatekeeper, yours truly, who watches the daily carousel of humanity coalesce and collide before his eyes. There is despair everywhere but the light of hope remains lit amid the struggle.