Infrequently Asked Questions
What is a “sudopoet”?
This is the kind of joke which isn’t even funny to the people who get it. “sudo” is a computer command which prefixes a command which is intended to be run with maximum privilege. “open vault” might generate an error like “You do not have permission to open the vault”, but “sudo open vault” always opens the vault. When used this way, it is pronounced so that the first two syllables rhyme: “Sue Due.”
Also it looks like “pseudo”, and my poetry isn’t like real poetry. It is more like non-poetic words which sort of sneak up on you in a poetic way.
What is it with you and the “The” in “The Michael Toy”?
“The” belongs to whoever claims it first, so I want to stake my claim. There are many Michael Toys in the world, there is only one “The Michael Toy”, and I am it.
Also, once I met one of the most famous computer programmers in history, Dennis Ritchie, and I said something like, “Wow, I can’t believe I am meeting THE Dennis Ritchie”, and he smiled and replied, “I can’t believe I am meeting THE Michael Toy”. I sort of felt knighted.
Why no captilization? Why no punctuation?
I do most of my writing without using the shift key because that is how I get past my self censor. It is more than that, however. I love the way text looks when it is not littered with tiny dots and commas. Whatever structure there is, it can only be guessed at.
In the genre of writing known as computer programming, the normal punctuation characters on the keyboard all have special meanings, sometimes quite different than the meaning that they would have when encountered in the wider world. Every computer language has different rules about punctuation.
In the genre of writing known as my poetry, my rule is to leave a poem as bare as possible and only add more structured information about the content when it feels like that sort of structure would make the poem better.
Can I use your poem/video in a thing I am doing?
Absolutely. You just owe me a story about how it went. You also might consider contacting me to arrange for me to perform the work live.
I love your poetry and want to buy the book.
There is a collection of poetry written as I tried to wrestle with my spiritual history …
… it is more of an artifact than an excellent example the poetry that comes out of me these days. It exists on Amazon and you can click on it and own it. I also have an author stack of copies, I’d love to hand you a copy if you would like, just let me know.
More books are intended, but fear and doubt are currently winning, I am hoping sneak past them someday, but it hasn’t happened yet.