<

PONG (continued)

. . .

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SUMMER

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6
From: Edwin Torres
Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2000 3:17 PM
To: Tom Devaney
Subject: Re: commitment to the gradual

commitment to the suicidal

the hit PONGing off the noggin, lest we wait too long between hits

necessary spoilybrats have kept my swing from reaching its jism...i just now, having reached my id

does a conversation continue unspoken...as time awaits a patient rejoinder

while all manner of creatures, verbs adnouns and such...look for scattered dispersal amidst rainstorm of null'ing

Tom…seems our conversation has brewed inquietude, while surface shine shimmers in viscous heat that is New York City madness

city so beauty plants herself inside…gives us reason for connections…having now just reached ego

stanzas awaken dormant scatter-hole, looking for thread of incoherence to slay unbridled confusion

slay or lay
sleigh olé

merry christmas, that way I don't forget to wish you happy birthday!

hope this finds you well…Edwin

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7
From: Tom Devaney
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 3:14 PM
To: Edwin Torres
Subject: Final Answer!?

Edwin,

I like that it's Time who waits-Even tho' they say,
that Time's the one thing who won't wait.

But that's our job, repliers.
Not (only) the when, where, how guys.

So, our game's held up, suspended. Held
in abeyance-So what! I'll waited it out.

Like all conversations that are conversations
there're the lulls: sometimes weeks, months,

long times-and more.
Carried on, or like us carrying on…

going before we got here, going
when we're gone-

That ever-resilient drive without a table,
tennis, or an Olympic Pong to swim in.

My NYC is always happy to see yours'
walking down the street.

Sense-a-million thank you's your way.
I'm okay tho' just heard some sad news
(from Sharon Mesmer) that Corso is very ill
and doing pretty badly. I'll leave you with
his fighting great, though mad, yak:

"The Mad Yak"

I am watching them churn the last milk
they'll ever get from me.
They are waiting for me to die;
They want to make buttons out of my bones.
Where are my sisters and brothers?
That tall monk there, loading my uncle,
he has a new cap.
And that idiot student of his-

I never saw that muffler before.
Poor uncle, he lets them load him.
How sad he is, how tired!
I wonder what they'll do with his bones?
And that beautiful tail!

How many shoelaces will they make of that!

yours,
Devaney

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8 From: Edwin Torres
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 3:44 PM
To: Tom Devaney
Subject: Re: Final Answer!?

we are repliers-ear to world's wait-hopping on plane's inconsistent ride-our passing down street waves...layers beneath our teeny feets

sad to hear of Corso-poem "BomB" inspired many an early meandering-thanks for "The Mad Yak" beautiful determined spirit to it

you going to Boston Poetry Conference this weekend?

Olympic time trials begin for PONG soon-amma smoke yo ass! (sorry, thought I was a track & field contestant) will I see you at the practice field, perfecting your strokes? I aim to break the record...

Edwin

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9
From: Tom Devaney
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 4:25 PM
To: Edwin Torres
Subject: A rattle not a riddle

The old ______Q's the old ___ __A's, there's nothing like them on your on-screen verite.

The pong-a thong won't be long, Does wrestling on TV lead to email full-nelsons?

How is it that Boston is closer to NY than Philly? Went there last summer. It was fun Talked to a lot folks from NY who I usually don't talk to.

On the Summer Tip:

Are you "the piecemaker" or do you "envy the piecemaker" as you write in "Roaming as the Roamers Do."

Broke in Brooklyn,
TD

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10
From: Edwin Torres
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2000 4:25 PM
To: Tom Devaney
Subject: Re: A rattle not a riddle

i am both and i envy myself

catch you soon
ET

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11
Tom Devaney wrote:

>Edwin,

Hello. I am doing a reading/performance tomorrow night, a band called the hong kong will be backing me up.

I want to highlight some musical tints.

sun out yo,
TD

For some reason I was told that CNN is going to be taping it? A story more about Brooklyn than poetry. A boom out-of-its-brooklyn boxes, (FT. Green esp.)

piece out yo,
T

Tom Devaney, Kristin Prevallet & Ritchie Williams
Tillie's Café, Fort Greene
Thursday, August 3, 8 pm

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12
From: Edwin Torres
To: Tom Devaney
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 7:34 AM
Subject: e.g. Re: A.K.A. FYI-re-direct the pong table

when I read your tomorrow it was today so I thought today you were doing something tomorrow where in reality tomorrow never happened this would have been fixed if I had seen the date of your today before I ventured into what tomorrow means to me what it means to not be where I am comfortable with tomorrows appearing where they shouldn't what this all has to say is coming out of my say-hole sputtering about its timeless incoherence allowing instability in a time of progress pretending tomorrow implies progress I look towards the future when I can one day read of possible todays in a time of boundless tomorrow

i.e. this is why I thought your reading with the band was Friday...today...having opened your email yesterday and not realizing what day you'd actually sent it...you see...I am digging the convolution I have become of myself...this message...a beginning against form...against clarity...this message is why I will miss your non-reading tonight (I also had a previous doohickey to dew last night)(you with me?) so I will bid off...perhaps a talk would be good next week

glad it went well last night, sorry I missed it
peace,
Edwin