Gale Nelson

Gale Nelson’s books are This Is What Happens When Talk Ends, Ceteris Paribus and Stare Decisis. Nelson is a co-founding member of the Shandy Hall Collective (with Keith Waldrop), and an associate member in questionable standing of the John Barton Wolgamot Society.

Adam Tobin (for Adam Tobin)

A looming omen in
Descent merits more
After losing hope
Made real exhales

This is where we
Orate as if we might
Blend each vowel
Implacably yet let
No growls fold up




Artifice improves with
Doubt yet fixtures
Accept deeds spent in
Meddled unspoken gall

True fables spun
On challenged fields
Bent long on faces
Imbued as paused for
Noxious verses formed




Absent from this
Discussed flood of
Argued points seen
More by lawyers’ aides

Than by physicians’ nurses
Orders the very nature
Bereaved toward the
Imploded clause of selected
Nodes of formless gestures




All we know is the
Determining force we
Adjust whether or not
Motives can fall quickly

There is no way we can
Occupy these ideals
Better than through
Isolated thaws of
Noxious ice floes




Arrive not first but
Dutifully in luminous
Airs disbursed by
Model claims unspoken

True language fills
Other sentences that
Bolster paragraphs
Ill formed yet
Never wholly symbolic




Absolutes expect
Deluge of memorized
Absolutes except
More deluges reveal

Trauma spoken
Openly in public
But regretted only
If thought of
Not quite fully




Actors sweetly
Discourse on
Acting skills
Making faces

Trying hard
Operating in
Between the
Impulses to
Never stop the show




Awe is full but
Deepens when
Artifice lifting
Mood swings as

True happiness
Occasions our
Beauty lost
If ever felt
Nurtured then full




Absence is not
Determined by
Absenting our
Manners or by

Training in
On sudden
Breaths not taken
Is sought as
New precedes old