Wrong Heaven Again

Wrong Heaven Again, a book of poems written from 2017-2023, will be out soon from Birds, LLC. You can order the book here.

form

This poem appeared in The New York Times Magazine in March, thanks to Anne Boyer.

Prolit #7

The latest issue of Prolit, one of the best things going, just came out. It includes three poems from my new chapbook, Old Light. Thanks to Patrick Blagrave.

Old Light

I made a chapbook called Old Light. 15 new poems, 17 pages. Cover art by Quyen H. Nghiem. 

You can order it through Radiator Press right here.

Wax Nine Journal

A few new poems can be read in Wax Nine!

some poems

In the haze of the last year, a few poems appeared in these places:

Elderly Mag

Bedfellows

CWHOBB

Thanks to the editors for doing what you do. 

PDFs of General Motors and Fine Nothing

General Motors and Fine Nothing have recently gone out of print, but you can download and read PDFs of these books from the Internet Archive. Feel free to share.

General Motors is here.

Fine Nothing is here.

Because I am unemployed right now, donations are appreciated. Venmo: @Ryan-Eckes

wet money

Wet Money is free, thanks to Radical Paper Press. To get a copy, email radicalpaperweight@gmail.com. You can also make donations to the press via paypal to the same email address to help cover postage costs. You can download PDF here.

General Motors

This book will be going out of print at the end of 2019. Until then, you can order it from Split Lip Press for $10 or get it directly from me (email me at ryaneckes@gmail.com).

Reading at Civitella Ranieri

Here is a reading I gave in a castle in Italy in May:

Prolit and Recenter

Two new online journals, Prolit and Recenter, both based in Philly, have published some of my poems, which you can read here and here. Thanks to Patrick Blagrave and thanks to Terra Olvr.

Day Jobs

Writer and professor Mike Ingram has a great podcast called Day Jobs in which he talks to artists about making art and making a living. He interviewed me recently about adjuncting, labor organizing, higher education, various jobs and the ways people think about work. You can listen to our conversation here.

fine nothing

A chapbook of new poems, fine nothing, was just published by Albion Books. Thank you to Brian Teare.

interview

As a supplement to Touch the Donkey #18, rob mclennan interviewed me about mixing poetry and essay, influences over time, and how one "becomes" a poet. You can read it here.

spliff

every time you mourn a republican
a kitten chokes to death
and it’s back to school
in the smoke of productivity
there’s a pillow in a trash can
in front of my building
houses are for sale up & down
the make-believe
what do you want
a new career
a box fan in the window
a box of old how-to
books on proof
in the pudding
a televised-ass life
gas mileage alone
in the dark
a last laugh that lets you
sleep
and beyond what dollar
do you stop meaning
what you say
and wake up on a cruise
where the ocean says leave me alone
from the gutted prayer
in your throat
proving your puppethood
enough to renounce
the profit motive
forever
so we can be friends
and i can stop trying
to solve
my own murder
which is a real drag
since i’m still alive
waiting in line
for my certificate of salvage
from the department of motor vehicles
on a tuesday
if i have to scrape out
someone else's dream
to bury it properly
i will scrape out
someone else's dream
to bury it properly

fantasy

ask me about the labor of liking
a narcissist
and maybe we’ll get to the present
which was whose idea
or my old foolish hope
that one moment of trust would
overcome the relentless branding
of every single person
that is the constant erasure
of difference
and therefore of commonality
that wherever you go in public
you’re a customer feeding
another customer their status
and that you’re expected to smile
for the camera
that that’s normal
that celebrities are gods
who aren’t worried about nazis
or the democrats who serve nazis
while chiding the working class
for not voting
for someone else’s money
what would happen if we stopped
petting the newsfeed
what if there’s a respect that’s only
attainable through solidarity
and what if that solidarity is only
attainable in a street
where you cannot own or control
or manipulate another person
where there’s no such thing
as a president
and presence means mutual aid
and what if this street made us
talk in new ways
and our words led to new kinds
of pleasure that we can barely
imagine right now
and someone said i’m searching
for a home that’s not just a drug
at sunset
and what if we got addicted
to this street
like one can get addicted
to someone who fucks them right
and what if this addiction
started pouring from one street
to another to another
and the streets were full for days
and days that never end
and what if in these days all the pain
and betrayal and abandonment
in every single person’s past
fed one strange collective ego
and in one breath
we stopped taking shit and got each other’s backs
and we rose up like an ocean
and what if in this fantasy
that makes me breathless
at the thought of the end of being used
and the great release of pain
that would be so just
we’d have to make up a new word
for justice—what if even then
the zombie still wanted a cut—

the zombie still wants a cut
so i return my body to my body
to say what it needs to say—

you can use what i love
against me
you can kick my head
into the curb

you can use what i love
against me
you can kick my head
into the curb

you can use what i love
against me
you can kick my head
into the curb

you can lie into the mirror forever
you can you use what i love
against me

you can gaslight the ocean forever
you can kick my head into the curb

you can gaslight the ocean forever
you can kick my head into the curb

you can have yourself
for dinner
you can have yourself
for dinner

the street will still be there
the ocean will be here
the language will be made
the people will be free

nightmare

because of the pain of your grievances
said the administrator
i will hide behind this brand
as if it were a shield
from the nightmare
that sustains my ego

reviews

"Did the dream of speed begin with the birth of the car? Or was that the dream of escape–of hopping in the car and going, leaving your life and responsibilities behind? And is this desire for speed and escape a particularly American thing?" Gina Myers wrote about General Motors for Fanzine--read it here.

And Noel Black wrote about General Motors and Stephanie Young's new book at Hyperallergic: "Taken together, It’s No Good Everything’s Bad and General Motors feel like a reawakening of old, important truths about labor in new, urgent, and direct poetic forms." Read the whole thing here.

in the kitchen

Here's one of three chase scenes recorded by Alina Pleskova for the sitting room series--listen/watch more here: https://twitter.com/sittingrmseries

SITTING ROOM SERIES 006: Ryan Eckes (@ryaneckes) - Philly, PA. Poem 1 of 3, excerpt from “Chase Scenes” pic.twitter.com/HU3VGIkjz9

— sitting room series 🛋 (@sittingrmseries) March 30, 2018

General Motors

This new book is now in the world, thanks to Split Lip Press. 

To celebrate, I'll be reading with Laura Jaramillo on Saturday, April 14th, 7:30pm at Morning Glory Diner, 10th & Fitzwater, in the FOH'LL reading series. 

Booksellers, you can order copies at a discount directly from the press right here.