nostamj: More Than Cartoons

[Plaid Adder]

The news about Jeff is taking its time to sink in. I still can't believe it.

The first time I really got to know Jeff (nostamj) was during the DU poetry slam organized lo these many years ago to coincide with the first Poets Against the War demonstration. I don't really know that much about poetry but I was very impressed by Jeff's stuff, especially the fact that he had created his own verse form for the occasion. Here's a link to his contribution:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=746&forum=DCForumID62&omm=10

and here are the poems:
=============================
On the death of the Enola Gay’s radioman (2/6/03)
(by Jeff Matson)

Did he ever know?
The annihilation was
Unnecessary.

The war was over.
Incinerate innocents?
Message, not tactic.

There were cries for peace
Preceding the howl of pain.
He did not hear them.

He did not see it.
Transmit: Mission Accomplished.
Bring the world raw fear.

====================================

Overheard Exchanges (in progress)
(by Jeff Matson)

1. Mirrored Sights

interrogatory: the bewilderness

Alice, enormous, is serving tea and fungii.
And wondering: Why is Wonderland in chaos?

response: not in Kansas
Dorothy, disheveled, accepting demitasse:
They open new rabbit holes wherever I fly.

2. Comforted Sighs

interrogatory: fair and balanced

If you take a beer, you replace a beer, okay?
And, why do twisters always find the trailer park?

response: breaking news
The ticker reads: HOPE FADES FOR TRAPPED MINER TODAY.
Baby Jessica recalls: There were colors in the dark.

3. Dissent and Lies

interrogatory: why Iraq?

Madness: Demanding the proof of a negative?
Everything you say is a lie–this is no lie.

response: attack!
I looked into his soul and saw a real evil guy.
Hear me! I’m reading someone else’s narrative.

4. Bound Volumes

interrogatory: ligature

Will caution or fear tighten the throat of dissent?
Or, will the many become the most, and willing?

response: literature
The furious sounds before we all lay dying–
They care what we think if the thoughts are not silent.

5. Tunes Exhumed

interrogatory: music

Is there singing? And does it seek a harnomy?
Caligula hears the fiddle though dumb and blind.

response: mythic
There are no gods of war that men did not design.
Our perversions hope to be the next poetry.

6. Whose Home

interrogatory: in madness

Haunting, Mary Todd Lincoln, madly pathetic,
Pacing a shade of her bedroom asks:Who are you?

response: in darkness
Only what I am told to be or told to do.
Born to privilege, greed is my only ethic.
========================================

A lot of talent went with him.

Very sad now,

The Plaid Adder

[Fridays Child]

1. Talent and kindness. He will be sorely missed around here.

:cry:

[Elidor]

2. I understand the sadness

But increasingly, I feel a sense of joy for those who have gone on. The separation is only temporary. The pain is a devastating but necessary illusion. I celebrate the fullness of his life and the many lives he touched. There is only a bittersweet happiness, and the knowledge that good friends will always find eachother again.

We are indestructible.

[trof]

3. I wondered why I hadn't seen the cartoons in a while.

Damn.
I'll miss him and his excellent work too.
So long, buddy.
:hi:

[Ladyhawk]

4. "The news about Jeff is taking its time to sink in.

"I still can't believe it."

I'm with you on this. :( My brain doesn't want to accept it.

[David K.]

5. See Jeff's picture here...

We loved him and his cartoons, and his mind... Who knew what he looked like?

Here he is: http://www.cafepress.com/nostamj.19292082

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. *sigh* Such a talented man.

[asthmaticeog]

7. Is anyone filling the orders on his cafepress site?

He used a slogan suggestion of mine, which was very flattering, but I never did get around to actually ordering the shirt. I kind of feel like a dick about such unexcusable dallying now, and maybe it's too little too late, yadda yadda, but I feel like I should buy some of his stuff.

[Plaid Adder]

8. Unless someone's closed the account, CafePress will probably still

fill the orders. CafePress is a print-on-demand system, where they create the items as they're ordered, and until someone notifies them they'll go on cranking them out.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[asthmaticeog]

9. Thanks, Plaid Adder, I'm on my way over there now. n/t

[brainshrub]

10. No more 'ttoons.

Damn I'll miss him. Those toons are what hooked me onto DU in the first place.

[Lex]

11. Thank you for that, Plaid Adder.

It is so sad that he's gone.