From Anchorage to Zebulon: In Search of Missed Connections
Savannah, GA by Heather Phillips
I spent
the summer
trying to
capture you
in words,
when all along
I should
have been
trying to set
you free.
-Bison Jack
This morning, I discovered a new Bison Jack poem posted to the Savannah Missed Connections that had not yet been flagged and removed. One small victory!
Z06 by Jon Mattheis
To the Flag man with insecurities
Just goes to show your immaturity
You took the time to flag my post
To your ego I must toast
It wasn’t you I was speaking of
Too bad you’ve never been in love
10 other men did reply
They did not try to justify
They all seemed to want to make amends
But none of them did offend
Most were confused
If it was I they abused
But you must be a real gentlemen
To want to delete your old skeletons
~~~~~~~~~~
Flag my post
once more a toast
how insecure
and yet so sure
you are pathetic
wonder if it’s genetic
you’re persistent
but I’m also consistent
I found this poem on the Flagstaff Missed Connections years ago and thought it was an amusing and appropriate way to respond to the flaggers and complainers who sought to impose their personal ideas of what should or should not be communicated on the forum. Even though a post like this one wouldn’t last more than a few hours under Craigslist’s new rules and regulations, the sentiment it expresses it more relevant than ever before.
Bison Jack 10 Year Anniversary
If we are ever
going to find the
answers, we must
first learn how to
sift through the
broken glass of
everything bottled
up inside us.
-Bison Jack
Despite all the new rules and regulations, Bison Jack is still publishing on the Savannah Missed Connections – and that is a wonderful thing. June marks the 10 year anniversary of the project and a large assortment of prints are now available for purchase. In the past, there were rumblings from Camp Bison that the project would be ending but now it’s not so certain. To quote from the website,
“Maybe, in time, the journal will gently fade away and perhaps that’s as it should be, but in the
meantime here is the latest selection from the matchbook series. I am also making the entire
journal available as small limited edition prints so if anything from the archive* interests you,
please let me know.”
Either way, an original print is certain to add a little something special to your home on the range.
Charged Particles by mindgallery
Sometimes we feel like unidentified objects flying thru space
the wind in our hair the stars
slipping through
until the only thing left from the depth
of our heart was just charged
particles
pushing
thru
mindgallery
from the space
of mindgallery
we charged particles
just thru pushing stars
feel the depth
slipping in
through our hair
until the only thing left was our heart
like unidentified objects
flying thru the wind
I started Lovelorn Poets in November of 2010 as a way to save and share the many forms of creative writing found on Craigslist’s Missed Connections forum. Over the years, the list of feeds I followed grew to encompass all MCs primarily written in English. Mind you, I didn’t actually read every single post, but thanks to InoReader, scanning through was reasonably quick and easy. Plus, I quickly came to identify which feeds had participants routinely interested in posting and reading poems, flash fiction, short stories and other forms of experimental art and writing projects. Brooklyn, Las Vegas, Seattle, Savannah, NYC, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham, London, and Flagstaff are just a few of the places I found intriguing, anonymous (or pseudonymous) work over the years. This blog not only satisfied my interest in saving these bits of writing but also provided me with an outlet to explore my own creative interests. For this, I am very fortunate and thankful.
With the recent changes by Craigslist removing the Personals section, it appears that any and all forms of “creative writing” (not just those designed as Personals) are being flagged and removed. In fact, this mindgallery poem was made to disappear shortly after I discovered and saved it. In all my years of following the Brooklyn MC, I’ve never seen this happen to mindgallery’s poems before. So, I feel it’s now appropriate to slowly wind down my efforts with Lovelorn Poets. I do have many MC poems I have saved over the years, and I will simply publish those without any additional commentary or input until depletion. Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoy the final few miles of this cross-country missed connections journey.
snail trail by Art Hesselink
It is truly a lost art…just writing.
Using actual script to pen ideas; giving a permanent form to ideas that currently reside only in my mind.
No editing.
I found a true letter writer on here once before, would be incredible to find him again.
