Punchlines

by Aaron Tucker

punchlines is a lyric long poem that probes the poetic tensions in the everyday languages of computer-user collaboration. Within the narrative structure of a Canadian couple’s drive down the West Coast of the United States, the poems set this exploration between the call (poem title) and response (the poem itself) of jokes and punchlines, echoing the input-output (call/response) of modern computer-user cooperation, with the ultimate goal of infusing code with poetry and poetry with code. The first section is the initial trip down the coast while the second section houses poems in response to the return trip. There is little stopping in this long poem.

98 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Aaron Tucker is the author of the forthcoming novel Soldiers, Hunters, Not Cowboys with Coach House Books on June 6th, 2023. His essay “A Cowboy’s Work” was longlisted for the 2022 CBC Non-Fiction Prize and is part of a work-in-progress collection of essays.

Tucker’s latest poetry collection is Catalogue d’oiseaux (Book*hug Press, Spring 2021). His novel Y: Oppenheimer, Horseman of Los Alamos (Coach House Books) was translated by Rachel Martinez into French as Oppenheimer (La Peuplade) in the summer of 2020. In addition, he is the author of two books of poetry, Irresponsible Mediums: The Chess Games of Marcel Duchamp (Bookthug Press) and punchlines (Mansfield Press), and two scholarly cinema studies monographs, Virtual Weaponry: The Militarized Internet in Hollywood War Films and Interfacing with the Internet in Popular Cinema (both published by Palgrave Macmillan).

He is currently a PhD candidate in the Cinema and Media Studies Department at York University where he is an Elia Scholar, a VISTA doctoral Scholar and a 2020 Joseph-Armand Bombardier doctoral fellow. He is currently studying the cinema of facial recognition software and its impacts on citizenship, mobility and crisis.

He was born in Vernon B.C. and grew up in Lavington B.C., on the lands of the Syilx Okanagan Nation. Currently, he is a guest on the Dish with One Spoon Territory.

Reviews

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaron Tucker has a penchant for asking the reader odd questions: "Where do fish sleep?", "Does fuzzy logic tickle?", "Do avatars dream of electric sheep?"... These are the titles of Tucker's curious poems. Do his poems answer these questions?... Yes and no.

you ask me as my foot hovers
gas then brak + I answer

/*
only in the same instance
when my breakfast eggs green
run red yolk + spill over my plate
like ocean over a flat earth's edge
*/

nope

- Do You Still Think About Her?, pg. 18

* * *

amberlight sun canopy
across watery westward view
trading punchlines:

Coffin drops!
They prefer to stay at home!
William Shakespeare's wife's wine rack!
Carpet on every single finger!
A potato that can do long division!
A dyslexic walks into a rab!
San Frandisco!
Doggone!
Edible bachelors!
A front perch!
Herring aids!
A millionhare!

- Is It Solipsistic In Here || Is It Just Me?, pg. 31

* * *

at the beginning we chose a vague destination
("San Frandisco" + we giggle remembering) but now
all we do is drive + stop + so we drive then stop for lunch
walking distance cafe windows open to the street
each patron writing a novel || a manual +
each typing each person typing in chorus
fingervoices sing clone sloppy nonhomerow
sing across laptop screens sing mp3s sing loops sing clones
|| reading subscripts || a novel || a cookbook
flip pages synced with each array
each flip a flap of thunderous wings a gale the wind
shoves stirred coffees + apple slice salads loop
punctuation in large strings picking bursts pause gusts pause
flip pause stir pause peck pause blase pause slice pause

- Excuse Me, Sir, Do You Know Mrs. Pennyblossom?, pg. 45

* * *

the return trip is made up entirely of
other trips, the curves of other oceans highways north

the bridge toward Oakland is crowded
interloping, a tall + obvious construction
morning sky edges burn through mist, the very tips

we return, two Canadian passengers
carrying dirty clothes + souvenirs
heavy oceansalt

- Why Is Long Division Such Hard Work?, pg. 61

* * *

that second Pateros morning, hungover, open window + a
footnoted email: a freudian slip is when you say one thing but
mean your father

(133 characters)

- Know Any Good Internet Explorer Jokes?, pg. 80

* * *

+there: a certain sadness
I answer the door now + there's no one
with magpie hair stabbing the wind in looping keystrokes

- Knock Knock Knock?, pg. 90

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Code + Geography + Affect = a great read

[THE TORONTO QUARTERLY]

Hey, Everyone! Please check out my interview with Toronto poet Aaron Tucker as we discuss his latest chapbook, punchlines (above/ground press, 2013). Read the interview now on my TTQ Blog. http://thetorontoquarterly.blogspot.c...