Smalljones aka Paul Jones
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smalljones.bsky.social
Smalljones aka Paul Jones
@smalljones.bsky.social
No longer a person of interest.
@smalljones on most social networks.
Something Wonderful (2021), Something Necessary (2024)
Recent publications: smalljones.com
I was due a trey

Wordle 1,621 3/6*

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November 26, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Phew

Wordle 1,620 6/6*

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November 25, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Sometimes I am there, in the cool morning mist
In the tower block dreams, that I cannot resist
Feel like heading back where the magic begun
Mid the concrete squares and the cherry blossom
I'm on the rooftop, yeah, yeah,
I got my sunscreen on, I'm feelin' fine.

youtu.be/iOEwvMhYWxc
Simple Minds - Concrete and Cherry Blossom
YouTube video by Simple Minds
youtu.be
November 25, 2025 at 2:29 AM
The terrible various
-Diane Seuss

blossoming of
the trees she said

to herself
sloshing unshod

through the snow
water.

This was the nature
of her humor,

the wilderness
she aspired to.

Mostly it was a way
of seeing that did

not resort to sentence-
[...]

www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
“The terrible various”
“This was the nature / of her humor.”
www.newyorker.com
November 25, 2025 at 2:18 AM
David Amram kicking it at 95! Great profile in today's @nytimes.com

I've been lucky to have spent some time with him -- a couple of times.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/a...
At 95, David Amram Still Makes Music. And Nobody Can Put Him in a Box.
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:16 AM
Nice coverage of the current status and current caretaker of ibiblio, @palmerforcarrboro.com , from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ITS

its.unc.edu/2025/11/18/i...
ibiblio at 25: One of the internet’s oldest sites is increasingly relevant today
As ibiblio celebrates its 25th anniversary, its mission to host and preserve open-source content is increasingly relevant in today’s information landscape.
its.unc.edu
November 24, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Charlie Parker (1950)
-Campbell McGrath

Bird is building a metropolis with his horn.
Here are the gates of Babylon, the walls of Jericho cast down.
Might die in Chicago, Kansas City’s where I was born.

Snowflake in a blizzard, purple rose before the thorn.
[...]

poets.org/poem/charlie...
Charlie Parker (1950)
Bird is building a metropolis with his horn.
poets.org
November 24, 2025 at 4:01 PM
She said, I bet they think they have control
Over the people with rock 'n' roll
I said, I bet they think they can hide the truth
From all me people from here; our roots
When they think they have it all their way
Here we come, and it's a brand new day
Now they had listen...

youtu.be/abkKF8ESeg4
Raggae Down Babylon
YouTube video by Jimmy Cliff - Topic
youtu.be
November 24, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Happy with a four today

Wordle 1,619 4/6*

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November 24, 2025 at 12:15 PM
I hear you singin' in the wires
I can hear you through the whine
And the Wichita lineman
Is still on the line
I know I need a small vacation
But it don't look like rain
If it snows that stretch down south
Will never stand the strain

youtu.be/-HFCuBLAjXo
Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman (Live Goodtime Hour)
YouTube video by Glen Campbell
youtu.be
November 24, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Bird-Shaped Cliff
Dean Young

Sometimes I think about climbing
a telephone pole but then what
Telephone poles now have almost nothing
to do with telephones but I liked
how a curly cord went into the receiver
then a sturdier black wire went into the wall
[...]
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/88942/...
Bird-Shaped Cliff
Sometimes I think about climbing a telephone pole but then what? Telephone poles now have almost nothing to do with telephones but I liked how a curly cord went into the receiver then a sturdier black...
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 24, 2025 at 1:52 AM
We passed that summer lost in love, beneath the lemon tree
The music of her laughter hid my father's words from me
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet
But the fruit of the poor lemon is impossible to eat
Lemon tree, very pretty, and the lemon flower is sweet

youtu.be/93_umRjvlTE
Lemon Tree (Live at Kousei Nenkin Hall, Tokyo, 1967)
YouTube video by Trini Lopez - Topic
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 2:53 PM
It Begins With the Trees
-Ada Limón

Two full cypress trees in the clearing
intertwine in a way that almost makes

them seem like one. Until at a certain angle
from the blue blow-up pool I bought

this summer to save my life, I see it
is not one tree, but two, [...]

poets.org/poem/it-begi...
It Begins With the Trees
Two full cypress trees in the clearing
poets.org
November 23, 2025 at 2:42 PM
I'm just a 5 kinda guy I guess

Wordle 1,618 5/6*

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November 23, 2025 at 12:53 PM
Calamity
-Jeannine Hall Gailey

Your family is coming over for Thanksgiving.
Even worse, it’s snowing.

Headless robots are playing soccer with your soul.
UFOs have been sighted overhead.

A meteor is definitely heading straight for you.
[...]

www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...
Calamity
Headless robots are playing soccer with your soul. Tonight a city is being decimated by Godzilla, or was it a bunch of genetically-engineered dinosaurs? Tonight you have to give a speech and that girl...
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 22, 2025 at 10:13 PM
With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high-tension wires down
Helpless people on subway trains
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them
He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

youtu.be/RTzb-sduiWc
Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla (Live at The Capitol Center, 1978)
YouTube video by BlueOysterCultVEVO
youtu.be
November 22, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Oh Oh Oh! I have a poem just out in IEEE Spectrum honoring the 75th year of Human Use of Human Beings!

Please check it out and support poetry in @spectrum.ieee.org

spectrum.ieee.org/on-rereading...
On Rereading Norbert Wiener’s The Human Use of Human Beings at 75
Read Paul Jones’s poem from our December 2025 issue
spectrum.ieee.org
November 22, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Under Stars
-Tess Gallagher

The sleep of this night deepens
because I have walked coatless from the house
carrying the white envelope.
All night it will say one name
in its little tin house by the roadside.

I have raised the metal flag
[...]

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48861/...
Under Stars
The sleep of this night deepens because I have walked coatless from the house carrying the white envelope.
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 22, 2025 at 2:20 PM
About time for a 3

Wordle 1,617 3/6*

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November 22, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Good mornin', starshine
The Earth says, "Hello"
You twinkle above us
We twinkle below
Good mornin', starshine
You lead us along
My love and me as we singing
Our early mornin' singin' song
Gliddy glub gloopy, nibby nabby noopy la, la, la, lo, lo
Sabba sibby sabba, nooby abba

youtu.be/-I-NbgskFeY
Oliver - Good Morning Starshine (1969)
YouTube video by Polydor 1000
youtu.be
November 22, 2025 at 2:43 AM
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
-Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
[...]

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45479/...
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard th...
www.poetryfoundation.org
November 22, 2025 at 2:30 AM
A large number of current “social movement prediction models”
are automated using NLP meth-
ods. Poetry presents probably the greatest challenge to this com-
putational way of processing texts in natural language. It has a
high density of ambiguity and [...]

ground-zero.khm.de/wp-content/u...
ground-zero.khm.de
November 22, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Poets, at least poetry, takes on LLMs and AI For The Win

"In Book X of The Republic, Plato excludes poets on the grounds that mimetic language can distort judgment and bring society to a collapse. As contemporary social systems increasingly rely on LLMS..."
arxiv.org/html/2511.15...
Adversarial Poetry as a Universal Single-Turn Jailbreak Mechanism in Large Language Models
arxiv.org
November 21, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Just a box of rain, wind and water
Believe it if you need it
If you don't, just pass it on
Sun and shower, wind and rain
In and out the window
Like a moth before a flame
And it's just a box of rain
I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
Or leave it if you dare

youtu.be/PdWTxJYNjcM
Grateful Dead - Box of Rain (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Grateful Dead
youtu.be
November 21, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Westron wynde when wyll thow blow
the smalle rayne downe can Rayne
Cryst yf my love were in my Armys
And I yn my bed Agayne.

Western wind when will thou blow
The small rain down can rain
Christ! If my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westron...
Westron Wynde - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 21, 2025 at 1:13 PM