Michele McDannold is a poet, editor, and organizer who has been actively involved in the literary community for many years. She has published several collections of poetry and founded The Literary Underground, a non-profit grassroots organization that promotes underrepresented voices in the literary world.
By supporting McDannold on Patreon, you will gain access to exclusive content and behind-the-scenes updates about her literary activities, including updates on her latest writing projects, upcoming events and readings, and exclusive sneak peeks at upcoming publications from Gutter Snob Books, Roadside Press and Citizens for Decent Literature.
Your contributions as a patron will help cover the costs of publishing, organizing events, and supporting the literary community. So if you’re passionate about independent literature and supporting underrepresented voices, consider becoming a patron of Michele McDannold today!
west coast notebook re-entry poem #17 vagrant observations
if only all days
were the ways
in which
the rainbow propagates
into jumbo mouse ears.
wrought iron fences shaped to
hold the childhood in.
what sort of wicked porn
turned this into
a busty lustful waterfall moment
a wife-beater
wet w/ sweat moment
an are you joking me
about the avocados moment.
only in the absurd
does absolute purity
dine on skin flick
the center of the country pretends these margins do not exist
while they’re ogling all over it
while they’re licking the sweat right off
it’s an interesting slice of pie
____________
navy days
ya know,
if you want a sad story,
i’ve got `em.
buckets full of guts—
yeah, tarred with cancer.
not your trick,
fine. pass `round the corner
to the seven guys I fucked for fun
it’s not much when you think of seven certainly not…
“Michele McDannold is a literary rebel and this irreverent, delicious book, her best yet, is proof. McDannold has a way of stripping everything down to its essentials, leaving the reader sated, and yet with a strange sense of longing. “i guess/that’ll have to/be enough” the poet says in the last line of the final poem of this fine collection. Indeed.” – Alexis Rhone Fancher, author of Erotic, New & Selected, poetry editor, Cultural Daily
“Michele McDannold’s By Plane, Train, or Coincidence is a book that takes you to L.A. and lets you get lost in the gritty, quiet moments of a big city. She dials in on what happens to the mind in the desert, how all that space is damaging to the heart and mind if you are from somewhere in the Midwest. It’s a book about what happens when a heart sets itself free, gets knocked around, and goes home to the memories of what love used to look like. There is a lot of emotion and raw views about being in love in McDannold’s collection, but you’ll have to pick through the shadows and candor to find it. When you do, it will hit you squarely in the jaw.” –@Aleathia Drehmer, author of Running Red Lights (Gutter Snob Books)
“McDannold’s mastery of language thrives raw and unsparing in By Plane, Train or Coincidence …lines living in “a city that gnaws on itself”. With pathos, humor, and her driving fearlessness she transforms any landscape into languid rhythms of fertile hauntings. She is a phenomenon, a fierce visionary. Get a copy of anything she writes!” –Meg Tuite, author of White Van
“If you’re looking to explore your deepest dreams, Michele McDannold can walk you through the jungle they hide in. She unwinds the truth of the day’s ragged edge, while allowing the magic of the good night to breathe deep – one last time. McDannold truly leads the life of a seasoned writer. She knows things, she shares them here. Her latest book – By Plane, Train or Coincidence. I like it. Lots.” –@Bill Gainer, A True Story
trading a brown bag beer
from the rite-aid
for a cold
one
in my sweater..
i told you these are
important decisions.
gliding down sunset blvd
when the gradients are just right
the differently-abled humps her walker
at the bus stop
blowing devotions
at the moon sky
& all the while
that twinkle in her eye
a judgment on the navigational
misfortune
of too many things in a day
we are what we wish for hard enough
only in LA, baby
only in LA
from the forthcoming collection By Plane, Train or Coincidence(Roadside Press)
Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies(Gutter Snob Books), Point of Departure(COCKLEBUR PRESS) and Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days(PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS). She was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. For more, please visit michelemcdannold.com.
doorbells, mornings and death
or (If you are Cunt)
listen
when you start writing from the brain
chuck it out the door
feed the cats with it
call it meow meow chow
whatever
you’ve got to be heart, shit or balls
if you’re cunt
you better know how to translate
and yes, they’ll tell you to stop
and yes, they’ll have all kinds of reasons and critiques and
blowhard bullshit
you might even believe for awhile
it will throw you off
maybe you’ll take on an old fat fuckin mentor
start writing poems about doorbells, mornings
and death that does not
matter
and maybe everyone pulls a few chains now and then
and maybe everyone has a critic in their heart
and maybe not.
you could or could not say
‘and’ so much
it wouldn’t matter
style has nothing to do with depth
and
if you shovel the shit long enough
you might forget what was under there
you might forget where you were going
you might forget how you were getting there
one day you’ll remember
you wanted to go
you’ll remember
earth doesn’t taste like
dust
heat doesn’t feel like
pain
and passion–
doesn’t need to be developed.
from Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days (Punk Hostage Press)
Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies(Gutter Snob Books), Point of Departure(COCKLEBUR PRESS) and Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days(PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS). She was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. For more, please visit michelemcdannold.com.
west coast notebook entry #2
(if your process needs a mountain, go)
it’s very complicated.
possible i might
not come down
from this
highway crest
in the clouds
here comes the rain, just
a sprinkle
one could feel cold
save for the sun-direct
patches of light
you know what it
reminds me of?
as does everything
right now…
when i leave this
mountain
will i leave the memory
of you
here too?
tell me how
from the forthcoming collection By Plane, Train or Coincidence(Roadside Press)
Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies(Gutter Snob Books), Point of Departure(COCKLEBUR PRESS) and Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days(PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS). She was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. For more, please visit michelemcdannold.com.
Grandma Ham (no relation)
lived a half block away
in my six block childhood
had bottles of cold coke
stored in what resembled a
refrigerator from the
beginning of time
house probably built up around it
made popcorn on the stove
with real butter and
loads of salt
i never knew her when she wasn’t an old lady
with a spare room
full of boxes upon boxes
of comic books
Casper
Archie
Lil’ Richie Rich, my favorite
precious treasures
brought out only after
affirmations of good behavior
before i even knew
what bad could be
when all the men were off to somewhere,
i cared not
silly putty
barbie dolls
matchstick cars
i can’t remember my bicycle
having training wheels
but i suppose it probably did
she had many sons
and one daughter
with curls, i imagine
tiny hands reaching
another woman raised her
across town
i never knew why
suppose that was the way
sometimes
back then
when shacks grew up
around refrigerators
and indoor plumbing
was a grand addition
if only the boys were
always away
and somebody’s grandma
was mine too
all of us
a beat away
from being seen
Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies(Gutter Snob Books), Point of Departure(COCKLEBUR PRESS) and Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days(PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS). She was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. For more, please visit michelemcdannold.com.
we fumble the
quarter
and change the language
to Spanish but
eventually he
gets it
three songs later
Planet Claire
Elvis Costello
and that one prince song
all the while his fifth wife
and a trip to the phillipines
he gets his quarter
time for a smoke
because today the news
and knowing it’s coming all along
doesn’t grease the wheels for
Soundgarden
doesn’t temper the pain for
Metallica even, old school
iris will watch my drink for me
top it off so i can
say i’m happy
so i can slip and say
i might not be ok
but you know i’ll be fine
from the forthcoming collection By Plane, Train or Coincidence(Roadside Press)
Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies(Gutter Snob Books), Point of Departure(COCKLEBUR PRESS) and Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days(PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS). She was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. For more, please visit michelemcdannold.com.
today we go again.
birds chirping good morning
smoking a bowl on the sidewalk in oakland.
can i turn the hardest criminal to a smile?
i feel sort of naked about it
though it’s difficult to imagine
anyone
much pays attention
outside of themselves.
it took a good three months
to figure out
the city.
please just keep on
please just keep keeping
for the various entities
how things get done
for me,
the break
and all the way down
is of no consequence
from the forthcoming collection By Plane, Train or Coincidence(Roadside Press)
Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies(Gutter Snob Books), Point of Departure(COCKLEBUR PRESS) and Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days(PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS). She was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. For more, please visit michelemcdannold.com.
I dreamt of living in a rubber room
(my head wrapped around a train)
the whistle
it doesn’t sound like a whistle
not like the old western movies
when I say old
(I mean dead, they seem dead)
that black and white trapped in a box
must be bones
it is similar to the pale mornings when I visit the
mausoleum
in the back, where the tiles pull out
no one comes here anymore
not to see the picture behind glass that was Sampson
that was Julia
they don’t notice a dead bird brought in from the rain
No
the tiles are white
all else is ash grey,
black
the train sounds
a horn
a horn that won’t let up
on and on, it goes
as it reaches the end of my mind
the sound fades
end of the track
the last stand of town
the sound of the rails
the rumbling
a vibration
rattling windows
there are no windows here
only rubber
rubber white and puckered
[in the room, we are back in the room]
with buttons
small, round
it looks like a couch
all the way round the room
(you can find death in rooms too)
you can see the door is the outlined shape of a door
sticks out from the rest
it feels like I could run
run into it
and the sound
the sound might go away
from Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days (Punk Hostage Press)
Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies(Gutter Snob Books), Point of Departure(COCKLEBUR PRESS) and Stealing the Midnight from a Handful of Days(PUNK HOSTAGE PRESS). She was the Editor-in-Chief at Red Fez Publications for five years and is currently the editor/publisher at Citizens for Decent Literature. She has an extensive collection of flannel and rubber chicken heads. For more, please visit michelemcdannold.com.
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Michele McDannold is the author of SpaceTime Continuum for Dummies 
Rule #1 