Coyotes of the sea

An antiwar paint chip poem

In a parallel universe,
steel warships suffer 
     spontaneous combustion 
     in the golden hour —
while lunar light still shines.
Orion hunts these iron hulls 
     in the foggy harbor,
when the patient coyote claims the sea.

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This poem is dedicated to

Abby Schleifer

who inspired this idea.

Rewrite without the paint chips:

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Steel warships sink
     in the golden hour —
while lunar light still shines.
Orion hunts these iron hulls 
     in the foggy harbor,
when the patient coyote claims the sea.

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What is Paint Chip Poetry?

According to Abby here are the rules:

The Rules

1. There is a chosen prompt and four-to-eight paint chips at random.

2. The poem must use all the words. They must be bolded and italicized.

3. The poem must be posted to Substack & include a photo of the paint chips in every post.

Abby had two of her own Paint Chip Poems below. It was honestly very fun and I enjoyed this idea. When Abby sent me these cards it was like Tasseography (the divination of reading tea leaves). I really instantly saw this image and the words leaped at me.

I took a shot at re-writing it as well, removing the phrases I wouldn’t use. And I quite like the result actually.

I think this speaks to this process. I have had for a while now a set of Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies. It is basically a fancy Brain Eno method of Abby’s method, which are both methods of divinination I believe. In all case, you are observing a random pattern and drawing meaning from it. If you use tea leaves, or birds, paint chips, or Brian Eno, I recommend you try this. Thank you Abby for the inspiration.

"What the world needs" / "Endangered Species"