Jay Besemer

@divinetailor

poet•author•artist•fool. aging, tr^ns, qu♾️r, sick/disabled, autistic. he/they. 🛑DO NOT ADD TO STARTER PACKS WITHOUT CONSENT!🛑

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Jay Besemer@divinetailor· 25d

have you seen this, @finger-post.blog ? just got this first volume.

a copy of a hardcover graphic narrative based on THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD. this first volume is drawn and adapted by sarah airriess from apsley cherry-garrard’s book of that title.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· 25d

two copies left at @pilsencommbooks.bsky.social if you are in chi & want to support a worker-owned cooperative along with your fave autistic zen truncle💚💚

a shelf display atop a bookcase in a book shop, featuring my book ON BEING HALF-IMAGINARY with a handmade sign reading “signed copies”.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· 28d

at around 488 AQI. angry badger is angry.

on the roof for evening watering—very brief. the beige haze is clear in the air around me, and even through my respirator mask i smell the smoke and chemical scent.

looking to the west around the edge of my building (from the garage roof where my garden is) it’s even more obvious that a pall of smoke sits from ground to who-knows-how high. the building with the corner store across the intersection is visible, but somewhat blurry.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· 28d

348. HAZARDOUS.

screenshot of my weather app indicating an air quality index figure of 348. it’s clearly labeled as hazardous conditions.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· 29d

had to wait for it to be back in stock, but it’s so worth it! FRIEND OF GARAK t-shirt by @reforest-kelley.bsky.social who managed to convey the exact twinkle in andy robinson’s eye 😻

a dutched view of me in the black t-shirt mentioned in the post, so as to fit my own understated but twinkly smile in frame. the design of the shirt features a photorealistic drawing of the ST:DS9 character elim garak, first seen in the episode “past prologue.” here he is holding his hands up expansively as in the scene where he urges, “let’s haggle!”—an ambiguous smile on his face.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 14

everybody’s reading it, @lizbethmyles.bsky.social! popping it toward the top of my TBR.

an attractive, smooth-hardback book with an alien planet cover illustration in blue tones, against a leopard-print papasan chair in a wood-floored room. the book is WHERE WE STAND, WHERE WE FALL: THE POLITICS OF DOCTOR WHO by lizbeth myles.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 12

ready for some photos? here’s a few b&w film shots from earlier this season. further specifics in the alt text.

an early spring surprise: this empty grass nest in a scraggly scrub sapling near the lake shore. it was startling to find it even though it was just out in plain sight. i thought immediately of the high freezing winds off the lake in any chicago winter, and hoped the eggs survived. this is also on ferrania P30 80 ISO cine stock.

this was one of a group of magnificent urban thistles i encountered in spring, on a little-used access road near some disused rail tracks. their icy emerald color doesn’t come through on the rollei RPX 400 film, but the prickly, frosty shapes do.

in forest home cemetery next to franklin rosemont’s grave, i walked around a fallen tree limb and met this doe. she seemed interested in what i was doing, so i told her. i also suggested she take care around humans; we can’t be trusted. rollei RPX 400.

i thought this would make a hilarious image and hoped to catch it when i saw it: a male mallard duck hustling along the top of a stepped breakwall, with trees and tall grasses behind him. he’s visible only from the shoulders up, because i was on a lower terrace of the breakwall. this is shot on ferrania P30 80 ISO cinematic stock and i love the high contrast as well as the way it handles textures.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 11

nah, it’s not just you, pretty umbrella. it IS too much right now, & has been for a long time. we’re all torn apart by circumstances, in one way or another.

a clear plastic umbrella torn apart by wind, lying discarded on a sidewalk. its handle and the tips of its struts are in vivid fuchsia-colored plastic.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 11

i knew what i was getting into, but i had no idea what i was getting into…

top view of the slightly knocked-around hardcover edition of ROBERT DUNCAN:THE COLLECTED LATER POEMS AND PLAYS. there’s a rather fetching black and white portrait of duncan in a jacket and tie, in front of a breeze-block wall looking off to his right, hands in pockets, maybe about to say something.

edge-on view of the book’s bottom, showing the thickness of the volume and a red-inked stamp warning “review copy not for resale”. reader, i bought it resold.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 11

railway berm sunnies

bunch of scrappy sunflowers cut from the “disturbed ground” of the railway berm near where it passes over ashland ave.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 11

sonny vs. diary: round 28,375

my diary notebook, open flat on the table, is a literal platform for sonny’s self-assertion as he vies for my attention by lying on the notebook in a way that prohibits writing in it.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 9

i try to honor the folks whose work gives me courage, & for a while now that has included @jamiebgall.co.uk , whose pin badges are prominent in my (huge! ungovernable!) collection. these below aren’t the whole story; i buy them partly to give away. thank you, jamie!🌈🔭🧪

more of jamie’s pin badges on a dark blue scarf: QUEER in rainbow stacked block caps, a rack of test tubes in trans flag colors, a rainbow flag with GEEK in silvery letters, and a lovely little tardis with trans flag colors in the door panels.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 4

planted this wild yam about 5 years ago. just saw that it’s traveling up the hose to the roof garden, perhaps egged on by the boston ivy up the sides of the building & garage.

in a gap between a brick building and its brick garage, a green garden hose extends vertically to the garage roof. heart-shaped leaves on wild yam vines climb the hose. most of the brick surfaces of the surrounding walls are covered with thick boston ivy.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 2

home & showered, so the new ink isn’t all AAAAAAA IT’S 950 DEGREES OUT HERE WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!? it’s a variant cernunnos with leaf/fins & a little ivy language on the tendrilly hair (& horn tips for a bit of cheeky fun), loosely based on a stone carving. leaf/fin detail on right.

tattoo of a nonbinary horned figure on my forearm. the figure clutches in each hand an ivy-leafed tendril-vine of hair(?) and the tips of their horns bear ivy leaves. the smooth face and torso finish in a two-level knotting of leg-vine-merperson tails. they end in fins that also resemble leaves.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jul 2

when sonny was still a kid, r. made a windowsill ledge for him. it’s somewhat too small now, especially in this heat when he spreads out like a puddle in his sleep.

chaotic jumble of legs and paws—sonny asleep on his ledge, or somewhat on it. three of four legs hang over the edge as if he were a hastily discarded bagpipe. his pink nose is very vivid in the light from the window.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 30

i have a bunch of these left over from my adventures in oral surgery the past couple years. they are great for slipping into a pocket to help mitigate dangerous heat. i also do the farmer trick i learned from my dad, rolling up a line of ice cubes in a bandanna & tying it around my neck.

a round “ravioli” icepack of blue gel about 10cm in diameter, frosty from the freezer.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 30

just a reminder that humor, like politics, is a collaborative effort

we have a lot going on: r. is wearing a french horn on his head like a hat, while sonny inspects the edge of the bell very thoroughly with his nose and whiskers. both have expressions of deep concentration.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 27

while we’re bestowing honors…i think this title should go to you, @4sylvestermccoy.bsky.social

red-oxide painted gas meter outside a building has a large black and white sticker that reads HAT LORD.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 24

finished late yesterday: UNLIMBER THE HARDWARE.

another cut paper collage, showing two (identical?) plumbers crouching in a steel utility sink set against a wall, with draining grills out to the side like extended wings. the plumbers are busy with hammers and chisels, while on the floor in the foreground, a gigantic rhinocerous beetle with handsome spots urges them on. its speech bubble says, "unlimber the hardware, chums! open the hatches!"

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 23

in funnerer news: WEDNESDAY. made on a tuesday (today in fact).

a cut-paper collage i had a hoot making today. a large, ubuesque cactus serves as the backdrop for a pair of chatting porcelain industrial sinks, whose speech-balloon conversation runs as follows:

left sink: blimey! that scientist chap's been out on the lake too long!
right sink: poor bloke--said he came here to calm his nerves, 'e did!

beneath the sinks and cactus, a red-inked WEDNESDAY sits at bottom center.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 23

i don’t use or take “clown” as an insult, largely because for me clowning is a kind of spiritual practice. i’m slowly trying to articulate how & why that is…it’s not easy, often because of the weight of pejorative meanings against which my experience/practice must push. anyway—

gorgeously lit screenshot from the film OUR MAN IN HAVANA, showing alec guinness with a basket on his head and an unfurled umbrella held high over his shoulder. he’s in mid-dance, addressing someone off-camera, a comical look on his face. he says, “we should all be clowns, milly.”

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 23

sonny bids us all a gargoyly good morning from the top of the grow-tent.

sonny is caught mid-yawn, eyes closed, as he makes a gargoyle pose at the top corner of the black rectangular grow-tent in my living room. backlit by soft dawn light through the windows, he seems to convey a lot of feelings at once. sheer red drapes bring some color into the image.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 22

all i can say to that is

screenshot from ST:VOY showing neelix, b’ellana & tuvok regarding a lump of cottage cheese in an isolation flask, with the caption “get the cheese to sick bay.”

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 22

3/3:

inked collage/erasure poem in transparent aqua and more opaque black ink. an engraved illustration of a twig bearing cup fungus is bottom center, with the poem text outlined in black ink against the mostly aquamarine ground. everything is on a page from the introduction to an early 20c english encyclopedia of gardening. poem:

NON REFERENCE
i have many letters
in my name;
the antiquated or absolutely incorrect name
has been placed in
a body of another kind
in gardens and nurseries
great changes have occurred
time lost in former information
too late this country,
and its real affinities
proved to be unchanged

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 22

2/3:

a collage of an aerial photo of grassy hill, a golden crescent-shaped neck adornment, and a strangely costumed elder white man holding a burning torch. the torch seems to point to a small collaged scribble-poem with words delineated in black ink. the poem:

you always look
at night
mother
a heap of notice
o mother too moneyish
full of bodies and time
ask mother to leave
insist

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 22

i don't usually share individual artworks or poems on social, for various reasons. for text-only poems, it's just not the way i work--my focus is not on individual poems. but for visual/collage/erasures, i'm trying to do so more often just to get people used to this sort of thing from me. so--1/3:

scribble poem on a late 19c natural history text, with the poem delineated on the page by scribbles in blue-green ink around an engraving illustrating a snarling european badger. there's a main section and a sort of footnote delineated in black ink. poem reads:

o stings of enraged bees
the badger is terrific
its hair so thick
full hair and fur
o consider its hams
o badger
--
older naturalists ascend trees
and drop unfortunate deer
on prey
be that as it may

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 21

found in the garden while sowing collards before the rain. must be part of that “mysterious sequins of events” we keep hearing about.

in the lined, slightly callused palm of my hand, a large gold sequin picks up the room’s muted light.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 20

contact? contact.

asleep, sonny presses three paws out of four against the sole of my right foot

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 19

the alarm i felt at the damage (& the sadness of the tree’s death too) was comforted slightly by discovering that someone left a little anarchist pebble on franklin (rosemont)’s grave. thank you, whoever you are!💚🏴

very close up view of franklin rosemon’t gravestone with the last few letters of “rosemont” only partly legible. a smooth black pebble with a circle-A painted in white is emphasized in this image.

Jay Besemer@divinetailor· Jun 19

we went to forest home this morning to see the haymarket martyrs memorial (& friends) & discovered that this ailing maple had come down in the storms! it narrowly missed many graves including emma’s, but damaged, moved or crushed other headstones.