For more and less specific information on Charles Ardinger, click here or here.

Contact Ardinger this way. The newest Ardinger site is here: caveat emptor.

To hear realaudio versions of poems from Ardinger's CD, make your choice:
The Entertainer
Covenant
Here is the Poem You Asked For

Scenes From
FarStarFire Press (2001)

Available through Amazon, by clicking here.

 

Formal Experiment #3

The skin's the best prison. You know it,
and God says you'll never outgrow it.
A bee in a jar
is like what you are.
When you bang on the glass you're a poet.

The Who
CDR
Temporary Vandalism (2000)
TVREC 031
$10.00 postage paid.

Now available, Ardinger reads 36 of his best poems and you listen. Some classics as well as a host of new poems. Get intimate with Ardinger; let him speak to you.

The Who
LIMITED EDITION CDR
Temporary Vandalism (2000)
TVREC 031LE
SOLD OUT.

This signed (limited to 13 numbered copies) edition contains 38 poems, two more than the regular release.
 
 
 
 

Internet-only live recordings of Charles Ardinger @ Que Sera, Long Beach, California on 5 November 2000:

The Pretenders  //  Poetry Is Where You Find It  //  Superficial

Dear Reader, Amuse has finally been released. You can read about the rare first edition at Thee Instagon Foundation.

But if you really want a copy, you'll want to buy it in its newest printed form here.

The Glory of Charles Ardinger
Temporary Vandalism (1996)
TVREC 019    36 pages.
$5.00 postage paid.

Your National Pastime

First, of course, is Who.  Who’s
A red bull, whittler of the club
That’s made for you and me, Who’s running
Things, running home.

Who is the captain of course.

Who commands this pasture, its grid, its afternoon
Shadows.  And Who is in the stands and stomping
For the team and screaming Kill the Umpire!

Who, of course, is Who.

Who knows what
Evil. . . no, not really.

Who plays, is on first.

Souvenirs from Nowhere
Inevitable Press (1996)
Laguna Poets Series #32
16 pages, very limited edition.  Out of Print.

The New Poem

Sex criminal destruction scientist hemophiliac:
Nouns: hammers.
               Verbs, knives, open wounds.  Articles
Kill time.  The metaphor counter ticks: another
Served.  Ordinated.  Murdered.
                              Adjectives restrict
The abstract scene, the bleeding, the letter dripping
Gibberish.  Iambic edges dice the corpse
Assumed female:
               description criminal hemophiliac
Thirsty assembles its pieces: word sounds, grammar exploits fragment
Sentences.

Unspoken Poems
Temporary Vandalism (1995)
TVREC 009  28 pages.
Limited edition of 150 copies.  Out of print.

I wish to resign from the entertainment industry.
I wish to disassemble my costume, put my clown hat back on the fire pile,
    and sit in the dark with my right hand covering my mouth.
I wish to escape the noise eyes make when they giggle at a dancing bear.

I wished for applause, and I should have been careful.  I found out
Its pressure is as great as the deepest part of the ocean, and it squeezes
Foolish divers to pulp.  I’m drowning, and I can’t get up.

I wish to secede from the union.
I wish to avoid myself completely, maybe duck around a corner and watch
    my back recede as I walk right by me, oblivious.
I wish it were that easy.

My Little Red Book (Quotations of the Punk Nerd)
Instagon (1994)
Limited edition of 100 numbered copies.  Out of print.

Desperate Plea for Attention #2

Ladies and gentlemen, what does it take?
Will I have to shout you awake
Or show you my cock to make you shut up?
Will shit piss cunt motherfucking cum sucking
Whore suffice?  If
I led you to a river of menstrual blood
In the desert would you do me the honor of throwing up?
Ladies and gentlemen, how can I escape
The shrieking grey room hidden between my ears?
How can I make you hear?