Poetry Spotlight: Dane Cobain

I am excited to share with you something I've never done before: a poetry spotlight. I'm very pleased to welcome Dane Cobain, author of No Rest For the Wicked, Eyes Like Lighthouses When The Boats Come Home, Former.ly, and Social Paranoia: How Consumers and Brands Can Stay Safe in a Connected World. Dane also runs a book reviewing blog (woot fellow reviewers!) which can be found here: http://www.socialbookshelves.com You can also find him at his website, here: http://www.danecobain.com/

So, without further adieu, I'd like to present Dane and his poetry piece, Redundant Formats, which he wrote from prompts I gave him.

Redundant Formats 

Sometimes I’m not fun to be around,

like when I’m reading a book

or I’m cutting through crowds

100 feet down on the Northern Line,

talk about Notes from the Underground.

Sometimes I’m fun

although I’m usually drunk,

when I’m living my life

at open mic nights

or trying to find

some excitement.

Sometimes I even

get the drinks in.

Sometimes I take my metaphorical quill

and feel metaphorically ill,

so I metaphorically spill my words

in a funeral hearse,

and so I fear the worst

and hope for something better,

you’d better believe it.

But this isn’t about me,

not really –

we all need something to believe in,

whether it’s reality TV

or whether it’s buy-one-get-one-free

on books and CDs,

even though we stream mp3s

as a society.

I like my books in redundant formats,

hypertext stories on floppy disks,

audio books on cassette tapes

or lines of foolscap

from a typewriter.