Poetry

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  Poem of the Day

• To Help the Monkey Cross the River

  Poetry Foundation

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  By Thomas Lux

• Scrabble with Matthews

  Poetry Foundation

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

• Corpus Medicum

  Poetry Foundation

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

• Now and then

  Poetry Foundation

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  By James Schuyler

• Tree

  Poetry Foundation

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  By Jane Hirshfield

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  Poetry News

• This Saturday 13 Feb at Perth Poetry Club: Coral Carter

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:40 am

  Coral has had an interesting life in various odd corners of Australia and the world.

• Henning, former area pastor, publishes poetry book

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:17 am

  First, there's the name: boB Henning. That's not a typo. It's how the 53-year-old poet, songwriter and musician spells his name.

• Ghana Speaking: The "living wound" at Cape Coast Castle

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:06 pm

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here .

• Book Festival Poetry Countdown: Susan Finch Stevens

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:02 pm

  The South Carolina Book Festival will be held Feb. 27-28 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia.

• DPHS Student Wins Poetry Contest

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:38 am

  Devereux Slough, pronounced Dev-Er-Oh Slew, is not the name of a famous racehorse.

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  IndieFeed: Performance Poetry

• Maegan "La Mamita Mala" Ortiz - Slip

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  Maegan "La Mamita Mala" Ortiz on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show Number 662.

• The Mighty Third Rail (Poet: Darian Dauchan, Bassist: Ian Baggette, Violinist: Curtis Stewart) - The New America

  5 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  The Mighty Third Rail (Poet: Darian Dauchan, Bassist: Ian Baggette, Violinist: Curtis Stewart) on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show Number 661.

• Jack McCarthy - The Swan on Nutting Lake

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  Jack McCarthy on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show Number 660.

• Gabrielle Bouliane - Life Sentence

  1 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  Gabrielle Bouliane on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show Number 659.

• Kyane Howland - Mother Daughter Slut

  29 Jan 2010 | 12:00 am

  Kyane Howland on IndieFeed Performance Poetry.  Show Number 658.

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  fait accompli

• 5 Feb 2010 | 8:49 pm

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:49 pm

  A Middle Way: Mira Schor reads from Jack Tworkov's writings, The Extreme of The Middle at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery Mira Schor read from tonight and discussed The Extreme of the Middle, the book of journals, letters, essays and other writings by the artist Jack Tworkov she edited that was published in the summer of 2009, some of whose paintings are currently on display at The Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery through February 20, where Schor gave her talk and reading. I read this book this past summer in Provincetown, where I had the opportunity to talk about the book and Jack Tworkov with…

• 22 Jan 2010 | 5:37 pm

  22 Jan 2010 | 5:37 pm

  Rock Beginnings Now and Then: Keepaway and Patti Smith's Just KidsThey can't keep away from KeepawayPitchfork, the music blog, gives Keepaway a 9! Best new music....Check out our previous Keepaway report on December 20th* * * * *Today, I read Patti Smith's new memoir about Robert Mapplethorpe completely in one sitting, from page 1 to page 276, without moving from the table I was sitting at in Barnes and Noble. I learned in hearing an interview with Patti Smith that much of this book is drawn from her extensive and detailed journals. I found Just Kids to be poet's journal writing on a par with…

• 17 Jan 2010 | 10:56 am

  17 Jan 2010 | 10:56 am

  NY Times: Haiti in Ink and Tears, A Literary Sampler* * * * *Laraaji: The Dance* * * * *Freewill Applicator (Stan Apps)- top songs of 2009

• 13 Jan 2010 | 8:59 pm

  13 Jan 2010 | 8:59 pm

  Earthquake Day in Port au PrinceRollings in Haiti

• 7 Jan 2010 | 8:26 pm

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:26 pm

  ContradictaEven time stops for a moment, to bow, astonished, to real happiness.* * *Poetry abides in paradox: Too much is too little, too loud is too soft, too heavy is too light, totally deciphered by none, contemplated by all.* * * * *Don Share, editor of Poetry Magazine, reviews Ray DiPalma's The Ancient Use of Stone"...Of the poets I was fortunate to meet during close to a decade of hosting poetry readings, Ray was the most interesting and lively by far. Even the sound of his voice is unforgettable, but what really sticks with me is how he's an intellectual alchemist, taking the stuff of…

• 
  Nina Alvarez

• Poem of the Day: This Quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies

  phantomcity

  30 Jan 2010 | 5:32 pm

  This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies And lads and girls; Was laughter and ability and sighing, And frocks and curls; This passive place a summer’s nimble mansion, Where bloom and bees Fulfilled their oriental circuit, Then ceased like these. -Emily Dickinson Filed under: Nina Alvarez, poem, poem of the day, poet, poetry, words, Write, Writer, writing

• Poem of the Day: The Want Bone

  phantomcity

  24 Jan 2010 | 8:57 pm

  The tongue of the waves tolled in the earth’s bell. Blue rippled and soaked in the fire of blue. The dried mouthbones of a shark in the hot swale Gaped on nothing but sand on either side. The bone tasted of nothing and smelled of nothing, A scalded toothless harp, uncrushed, unstrung. The joined arcs made the shape of birth and [...]

• Poem of the Day: The White Fires of Venus

  phantomcity

  11 Jan 2010 | 10:19 pm

  The White Fires of Venus We mourn this senseless planet of regret, droughts, rust, rain, cadavers that can’t tell us, but I promise you one day the white fires of Venus shall rage: the dead, feeling that power, shall be lifted, and each of us will have his resurrected one to tell him, “Greetings. You will recover or die. The [...]

• Top 10 Poems of 2009

  phantomcity

  26 Dec 2009 | 9:43 am

  Just like last year–the 10 most popular poems of the year. Happy Holidays and Happy New YEAR! 1. Ithaca 2. I Walked a Mile with Pleasure 3. Love Me Like You Never Loved Me Before 4. After a While 5. The Lost Son 6. Dirty Poem 7. The Unicorn 8. Deathless Aphrodite… 9. Wish for a Young Wife 10. Sonnet Posted in words [...]

• Poem of the Day: What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet XLIII)

  phantomcity

  23 Dec 2009 | 6:47 pm

  What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning; but the rain Is full of ghosts to-night, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply; And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain, For unremembered lads that not again Will turn to me at [...]

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  Cosmopoetica

• Reading Log: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)

  chris

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:43 am

  I’ve had The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo on my shelf since it was first released (a spontaneous purchase courtesy of a significant sale price and a prominent floor display). I’d tried to get into it at least three times before, but always stalled early and moved onto different things. I only got around to finishing it because I listed “International Mystery” as a category in my 10*10*10 Reading project… proof the reading project works because it really is a pretty good read that I may never have otherwise experienced. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a kind of open-air,…

• Reading Log: Matter (Iain M. Banks)

  chris

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:17 am

  Matter, the latest novel in Iain M. Banks’s speculative fiction series (loosely defined) set in the far-future, inter-galactic world of the “Culture” is a glorious mess. On the glorious side are all the things I’ve liked—and sometimes loved—about the other two Culture novels I’ve read: amazing, grand ideas of technology and culture set in a far future in which civilizations—human and machine–at various levels of advancement, from the primitive to the “sublimed” who essentially exist in pure information space, interact (control, manipulate, monitor, ignore)……

• “Journeys are the midwives of thought” (Alain de Botton)

  chris

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:02 pm

  “Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships, or trains.” –Alain de Botton from The Art of Travel

• Thoreau on “a harvest of thought”

  chris

  6 Feb 2010 | 2:59 pm

  “How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seed-time of character?” –Henry David Thoreau

• Big News: Jacket2

  chris

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:10 pm

  This is big news for poetry readers… Jacket magazine is being retired, to be succeeded by Jacket2, in coordination with PennSound: Dear friends: We are writing with news of a transition we both deem very exciting. By the end of 2010, John Tranter and Pam Brown will have put out 40 issues of Jacket. It began in what John recalls as “a rash moment” in 1997 — an early all-online magazine, one of the earliest in the world of poetry and poetics, and quite rare for its consistency over the years. “The design is beautiful, the contents awesomely voluminous, the slant international…

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  Poetmeister ...on the road to Parnassus

• Yo, Bro!

  janetleigh

  29 Jan 2010 | 7:49 am

  [ This is 4 my Bro- welcome to Poetmeister! Pour out your mind here. You can do this, Greg, without fear of judgmental asshats butting in! ] heh heh Tagged: waiting for mybro - not godot

• From the crypt.. mwaaaaaaaaahaha!!!!!!!

  janetleigh

  31 Oct 2009 | 2:21 am

  Halloweaned There’s nothing hallowed about this day, unless druidism is your Way? more’s the wayward mind, wide-eyed drunk, shriveled and shrunken talking heads, spiked like an olive on a tooth pick, on wrought iron will. Cats gutted & strung up charred- for the fun of it, mores lost to treatful days long past- a loaded bag thrown up on granma’s porch- a trick too common to make a stink about. By today’s standards it’s no teen with a match sans malice- it’s your 7 year old stealing daddy’s torch with a bead on your head! What used to be good old-fashioned mischief has turned…

• Wazzup wit dat? (but no one waz kilt ;)

  janetleigh

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:30 am

  Hey! something came in kicked the tar out my sidebar. Bullets everywhere!! Tagged: blog sidebar rearranged, Jestku, long time for page to download, no one was kilt, Poetmeister

• Poetinalia of 10.20.09

  janetleigh

  20 Oct 2009 | 11:16 pm

  My Dear Friends, Thank you for stopping by and leaving me your words of support, comfort and concern.  I’m sure you’re all getting tired of my posts, poems & poetinalia having to do with Rascal and his health problems. To tell you the truth, as an empty-nester it’s really easy to transfer all the love and concern for our own kids onto our furkids.  Of this, I am guilty.   Truth be told, the bond between me and Rascal is very strong, starting when he was barely a year old when he was bite by a poisonous snake several times on the face, neck and possibly in the mouth. …

• Rascal, Will of Steel… \o/

  janetleigh

  28 Sep 2009 | 10:42 am

  Rascal gets his willpower ON! Dearly Beloved came through surgery just fine- tomorrow he’s home! “Thank you everyone for your prayers. They get me through iffy times. I feel your love! Your friend ’til the end.” Signed, Rascal Tagged: comes through surgery just fine, home tomorrow, Rascal-Will of Steel, sarcoma below dew claw

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  Wade on Birmingham

• who dat?

  Wade

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  haiku for 2/7/10

• made with real hummingbirds

  Wade

  7 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  haiku for 2/6/10

• the rehearsal

  Wade

  7 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  haiku for 2/5/10

• keep digging that grave

  Wade

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:00 am

  haiku for 2/4/10

• under the blue tarp

  Wade

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:00 am

  haiku for 2/3/10

• 
  Lorna Dee Cervantes

• Did A Black Haitian Ex-Slave Immigrant From New Orleans Rebuild San Francisco in 6 years after the 1906 Earthquake? The Edison of Bernal Heights

  2 Feb 2010 | 1:21 pm

  I am now officially 100% on Mission, in the The Mission and on a mission. Exciting news in the last week. Major breakthroughs in all areas. True serendipity. What treasures you find when you least expect it, when you aren't even looking: the power of intent. "God is alive; Magic is afoot" as Buffy St. Marie sang it. Ecopoetics is not a literary style. It's a way of knowing, a way of being, a way of "seeing." It's how the multiverse gets things done. We have an advantage most matter doesn't, we have hands and we can move.As for the tease? I can prove it. And there couldn't be a better time for…

• HAPPY NEW NOW! HAVE A VERY MERRY EVER!

  31 Dec 2009 | 3:50 pm

  ... and I resolve to be a better blogger in the future with a whole new look. (Heck, I may even reclam my domain name.) Meanwhile, join me on Facebook for work and play and edumacation. Peace on Earth. Good will to women and all the men in their lives. 2012 means: Time for change. Change for Time. Happy New Now! Have a very Merry Ever!

• Where In The World Is Lorna? TONIGHT w/ Francisco X. Alarcon

  5 Dec 2009 | 9:58 am

  Join me, Lorna Dee Cervantes & Francisco X. Alarcón who will be reading his poems from the new book featuring Precita Eyes Muralists & maestra muralists Susan Cervantes & JuanAlicia, San Francisco Street Art: Mission Muralismo TONIGHT, 8 pm. Come MAPP crawl, stop into The City's only neighborhood Visitors Center at Precita Eyes. Come spread the vision. Come get your book, especially artists & writers who are in it who will be signing. The De Young event was a smash success. I couldn't even get in the room where the artists were signing. People were turned away at the door for over-crowding…

• Where In The World Is Lorna? Revised Fall/Winter Schedule: Sonoma State University, TODAY, 1-3:30pm

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:10 am

  Nov. 20Sonoma State University, Friday, 11/20, 1:00 - 3:40 pm, Stevenson Hall, room 2001; Rohnert Park, CA.Nov. 28 Rosas en el Mar: Lorna Dee Cervantes, MamaCoatl, Avotcja, and others. 6-10 pm, Dance Mission Theater, 24th Street & Mission, San Francisco, in honor of INTERNATIONAL MONTH FOR THE ELIMINATION OF VIOLENCE TOWARD WOMEN AND GIRLS.Dec. 2Lorna Dee Cervantes w/ Francisco Alarcón & José Montoya at Stanford University. Dr. Yvonne Yarbro-Bejerano's class.Dec. 5Lorna Dee Cervantes w/ Francisco Alarcón, DJ, bar & more: book party for STREET ART SAN FRANCISCO: MISSION MURALISMO; artists…

• Where In the World is Lorna? Lorna Dee Cervantes Fall Poetry Readings Calendar

  6 Nov 2009 | 2:41 pm

  Lorna Dee Cervantes Readings:Nov. 6• Kickoff Extravaganza: “Mission Muralismo: The HEART of the Mission, A Celebration of Art and Community” celebrates Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo, edited by Annice Jacoby with a foreword by Carlos Santana, in partnership with Precita Eyes Muralists; this will be one of the most ambitious book signing events ever hosted by the de Young, featuring many of the artists, photographers, and writers showcased in the book, with live music by Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalepeño Band; poetry and performances by Lorna Dee Cervantes, Stephen Cervantes,…

• 
  Surroundings

• Suspending Activity

  Rob

  1 Feb 2010 | 2:48 am

  I’m suspending activity on Surroundings. For ‘suspending’, read ‘ceasing’ really, but the former gives me flexibility should I suddenly feel the urge to blog here again in a year or two’s time. Thanks to all who have read or contributed over the last four-and-a-half years. I’ve enjoyed doing it.I’ll still be writing (roughly weekly) for the Magma blog and you can expect a new post there in the next day or two, following an unofficial break for January. And the ‘Poetry at the...’ blog will still continue, although it’s found a new home on Wordpress, so please update your…

• Hidden Door

  Rob

  27 Jan 2010 | 1:24 am

  If you're anywhere near Edinburgh, don't miss Hidden Door at the Roxy Art House this weekend (full programme, details, cost etc. at the link). It's a huge event of genuine cultural significance. I'll be reading a few sets of poems, but I am only a tiny dot among 9 other poets, 10 film-makers, 30 bands, and 40 artists. Should be a fantastic event.

• The Voice of Geddy Lee

  Rob

  24 Jan 2010 | 6:23 am

  I was following an online conversation about book jacket photos when the subject of Rush singer Geddy Lee somehow came up. I was never a Rush fan. I lived through punk and you either liked Rush, Yes and Genesis or Buzzcocks, Clash and Wire - but no one at the time could admit to liking both sides of that 'or'. I am grateful to Rush neverthless. For one thing, my own band did a cover of 'Spirit of Radio', a parody of course (if truth be told, we weren't remotely good enough on our instruments to have played the real Rush version), which gave us no end of hysterical fun. For another, Rush…

• Angus Calder, Chapman Issue 110

  Rob

  21 Jan 2010 | 3:07 am

  Well, this is the first day in the past week in which I’ve actually felt positive about a new day. I haven’t been well and this will be my third day on anti-biotics, which do seem to have kicked in this morning. Not out the woods yet, but much better. I am now behind with everything – work, emails (sorry, everyone), blogging, reviewing, poetry (I had plans to write poems for one or two specific projects and haven’t written a word) and everything else.Firstly, I was delighted to get my copy of the new Chapman, issue 110 (the website is still well out of date). Chapman has been over…

• TS Eliot Prize 2010 Winner

  Rob

  19 Jan 2010 | 12:01 am

  Space Bar tagged me on Facebook, asking for my views on this year’s TS Eliot Prize, which was decided yesterday. The winner was Philip Gross for his book, The Water Table. Well, I can’t really say anything about the award itself, as I’ve only read two of the ten shortlisted books – The Burning of the Books and Other Poems by George Szirtes and Over by Jane Draycott – both strong collections. All I can really offer is congratulations to Philip Gross. Apologies for the lack of posts on this blog recently – a combination of things – but I have a few lined up.

• 
  qazse

• ídem

  qazse

  22 Jan 2010 | 11:31 am

  vete a la mierda no voy a hacer lo que me dices que me

• death class of 2066

  qazse

  21 Jan 2010 | 11:59 pm

  the senior lounge lizard croons “fuck you i won’t do what you tell me.” “fuck you i won’t do what you tell me.” “fuck you i won’t do what you tell me.” “fuck you i won’t do what you tell me.” while the nurse hands out medication. lyrics:Rage Against the Machine

• Perhaps…

  qazse

  15 Jan 2010 | 6:36 pm

  God needs us as much as we need God 2006

• Tangipahoa

  qazse

  12 Jan 2010 | 8:30 pm

  She greets us at the dock. We bring her ashes. From the boat we spread them upon her river. Bone grit explodes into a thousand circles welcoming home her borrowed physicality. 2007

• Dog Knows First

  qazse

  9 Jan 2010 | 10:38 pm

  He leaps from the couch and growls at the sky. Then looks up at me - to say goodbye. Soon come the winds straight from Hell all we can do is bark and yell. The Earth is an ember our spirits release, another failed planet another failed peace. 2006

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  GotPoetry.com News

• Confession Tuesday

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:24 am

  I confess that I rarely read for purely pleasure. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading poetry (much of it anyway) but when I read it, I always consider it a part of my broader writerly responsibility/education. ...Link!

• Roddy Doyle tells of his love for writing- and Didier Drogba

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:21 am

  The Manchester Review appears each spring and autumn offering a mix of new music, public debate, visual art and video as well as fiction and poetry. Two the of the contributors are former students Chris Smith and Kamila Rymajdo who were taught by CNW lecturers including Amis....Link!

• Stuart Kelly: The Browser

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:19 am

  The "Carry A Poem" idea is one that I love, especially as it moves poetry away from its slightly pious contexts. I look forward to the poems beamed on to walls, attached to flowers in St Andrew ...Link!

• Imagination in Place

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:07 am

  Poetry News: In 50 books of poetry, essays, and fiction, Wendell Berry has argued for the value of small-scale farming and against unbridled development.Link!

• Artist's Avenue

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:04 am

  So what did you do before poetry that led you into the craft? I think being a drummer for … 28 years had a big role in finding another place in poetry — being that it is so infused with music and rhythms. I think that played a role in it, and I think that it was a friend of mine, Ben Zeigler, who I play with now in a band....Link!

• 
  Blogsboro Poetry Club

• 9 Feb 2010 | 7:24 am

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:24 am

  After the roar of the party I step out into the cold silence breathe white steam before me a bull out of the barn Feel the solid crunch of leather boots on fresh flakes the crisp leaves breaking as each leg swings and sinks deep I survey my land and smile Something refreshing about being buried in snow

• Superbowl Sunday

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:27 am

  Super Sunday has arrived The Colts and the Saints will go head to head, shoulder to shoulder, one will win and one will lose. Which team to choose? That is the question. Will it be Payton or Brees? Which one will lead their team all the way to a victory. Time will tell as the clock ticks and as kickoff time nears, both teams will have to dispel their fears. Get out there and play some football and listen to the referee's call. In the end, there will be a winner, but there will also be a loser, and then it's all over until next year. And as the year turns into another season, for this there is…

• Groundhog Day

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:18 am

  In Punxatawney, on a hill Out of his hole comes Phil He's going to let us knowI f we'll have 6 more weeks of snow. His nose quivers and his beady eyes gleam The sun is shining down its beam His evil little smirk gives it away He's going to see his shadow on this day. It's the one day we wish for rain And the clouds to take away our pain We want the spring and warmth and flowers But Phil is shining in his brightest hour. He loves to watch us squirm in despair As he sees his shadow and runs back in there Back into his hole deep in the ground Where he can laugh at us without making a sound. I'm…

• Shiv Overdose

  7 Feb 2010 | 2:57 am

  As we speak, my fingers are writing checks.

• Thursday Haiku for Super Bowl 44

  4 Feb 2010 | 11:19 am

  Like hobbits true blue we seek one Super Bowl Ring must have our precious

• 
  the amandzing way

• i deny you death

  amandzing

  3 Feb 2010 | 7:30 pm

  a few years ago, i was retrenched and couldn’t find a job. nothing. with no money, hadn’t eaten in a week, couldn’t pay rent, feeling worthless and stupid, lost and alone, useless and hollow, i couldn’t turn to anyone because i was embarressed. i thought i had failed my friends. too proud to ask for help, i tried to off myself. damn near got it right too. blurry images of blood, fingers down my throat, lots of screaming and shouting remain from that night. lost my flat, and my flatmate who was dear friend to me, and damaged valuable relationships as well. to compound…

• Farewell Michelle Pitout

  amandzing

  22 Jan 2010 | 10:30 am

  We only had a fleeting meeting but you made an impression you taught me about strength, honour loyalty and the beauty to found within I think it took about 3.2 seconds and I loved you wanted to be as strong as you as direct as you as committed as you to just being south africa has gold south africa has diamonds neither sparkles as brightly we have love south africa is poorer with your loss and ever should someone so loved be so missed… Family weeps at Christmas Post script Inspector Trevor Moodley has to be one of the finest policemen it has been my pleasure to be acquainted with. He is…

• Who are you, really?

  amandzing

  12 Jan 2010 | 3:41 am

  Taken from Mandy de Waal What is your favorite virtue? Not judging people What is the principal aspect of your personality? Stubborn What are your favorite qualities in a man? Humbleness and understanding What are your favorite qualities in a woman? Strength and intelligence, plus she must know it. What is your chief characteristic? Stubbornness What you admire most in your friends? Their randomness What do you appreciate most about your friends? That they’re my friends What is your main fault? Fly off the handle too quickly What is your favourite occupation? Being a cop. What is your idea…

• those were the days

  amandzing

  13 Dec 2009 | 10:04 pm

  as a child of the sixties, the seekers featured a lot. this brings back fond memories of sitting in front of my dads record-player and singing along. when i met my love kim, i wooed her with this song: we were two damaged souls looking for love and safe harbour, and we found it in each other. and now nearly four years on, we are stronger, not in each other, but because of each other, and i give my heart utterly and freely to her. and if the seekers can still pull it together after all these years, you can bet your bottom dollar we can face anything life dishes up… Tagged: johannesburg,…

• i like

  amandzing

  11 Dec 2009 | 6:31 am

  the pattern of the carpet fortunately because if i look into your eyes im going to slap that self satisfied sanctimonious smirk on your face into last week bitch this animal inside me terrifies me i have an idea of what it would cost to release it to reflect how i really feel but i musnt shouldnt wont because then youll win even when youre broken instead ill sit at home light some incense sip on my jacks and wait for you to go away as insidiously as you came snake in the grass twisted evil screams for release need stronger chains Tagged: africa, african poet, anger, fear, insanity, life, love…

• 
  international exchangefor poetic invention

• Videos of RicercaBo 2009

  24 Jan 2010 | 5:28 am

  You can now find online the videos of (almost) all the RicercaBO 2009 readings, the two-days event of Mediateca di San Lazzaro, Bologna (20-21-22 November, 2009).Editorial board: Nanni Balestrini, Renato Barilli, Niva Lorenzini.Here's the brochure [pdf file 266 Kb]Here are the vids [all the readings are in Italian]

• 95 Cent Skool: Summer Seminar in Social Poetics

  20 Jan 2010 | 5:42 pm

  The 95 Cent Skool is a 6 day long experimental seminar that will be offered in Oakland, California, July 26-31, 2010. It is convened by Joshua Clover and Juliana Spahr. It will explore the possibilities of poetry writing as part of a larger social practice, at a distance from the economic and professional expectations of institutions. We believe a dozen people sitting around a table can’t ruin poetry, but that costs, professional context, mythologies of individual genius, and client/service-based models can — and in our own experiences teaching in pay-to-play writing programs, often do.

• Aase Berg

  16 Jan 2010 | 10:00 am

  For those of you interested in Swedish poetry or theories of "minor literature" or translation, I just posted a mini-essay on Aase Berg and "minor literature" on my blog: exoskeleton-johannes.blogspot.com.

• 4 poems by Iain Britton

  16 Jan 2010 | 8:57 am

  PDFIain Britton’s poetry has been published widely in New Zealand in such magazines as Ambit, Agenda, Stand, The Stride Magazine, The Warwick Review, Shadowtrain, Mimesis, Wolf Magazine, Succour, Mimesis, Nthposition, Blackbox Manifold, Great Works (UK), Harvard Review, Drunken Boat, Nimrod, Tinfish, Free Verse, Slope, Stirring, Rattapallax, Fulcrum, BlazeVOX, Zoland Poetry (US), Poetry NZ, The Listener, Turbine, Trout (NZ) Jacket, Cordite, Snorkel, Heat, Southerly, Meanjin, Island, foame, Harvest Magazine (Aust) PEN International Magazine 09. Oystercatcher Press (UK) has just published his…

• 12 Jan 2010 | 7:50 am

  12 Jan 2010 | 7:50 am

  Pierre Joris on Abdellatif Laâbi

• 
  Poetry of Life

• Painter

  jason.hickey

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  I am a painter, and I like to paint pictures, But my pictures are made from words rather than paint! I brush and stroke the keys to lay the words down in front of me, I keep on painting until I get a good end result! My words capture a past time, or a moment, My words draw a picture of my hopes and my fears! Some words are from my wild imagination, Others are snapshots of my life through the years! I paint to get the thoughts out of my head, When they are visible they are easier to understand! My words paint for me a little picture, Pictures of Love, passing strangers and friends! I paint…

• The Season

  jason.hickey

  7 Feb 2010 | 12:00 am

  Big blue sky, Cold crisp December air, Soul alive, Spirits reigning high, Jingle bells and all that! Many a hangover is on the way, The post man will deliver, Nights we will feel the shiver, Nights sitting beside the Christmas tree! The end of the year grows near, Drowned out with over-eating and beer, A new year is just around the corner, It will soon be Goodbye 2009, Hello and Welcome 2010, And before we know it we’ll be basking in summer! But for now we have blue skies, Cold crisp December air, Jingle bells and all that! Stuffed turkey, mash and Brussels sprouts, Smothered with thick…

• True Love

  angel_babe55

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:34 pm

  No matter how far the distance, No matter how tired and busy we are, No matter how much time will it take, Honey, I’ll wait for you for our love sake. I may not always be here for you, I may not always say, ” I love you ” But in my thoughts, my heart and soul, You will always be my knight in shining armor. There will always be trials and struggles in the road of life. There will always be songs sang out of tune. There will always be poems written and unread. Honey, your love will always find me waiting even in my deathbed.

• Whisper of Love

  frank.kostyra

  26 Jan 2010 | 10:09 pm

  “There is a part of us as must walks free, A part which you have named, To be yet unnamed, A part which carries a whisper, As a breath does life, A Whisper Of Love Too free to be tamed. It lies within us, as a shadow unseen, It flows before us, as a newborn stream, We stand in its wake, and follow its course, Wherever it leads, we, are its source. With force untold, it continues to flow, And in time, blankets the earth, An ocean knows no foe. Aye, this spirit, which you have named, No prison it knows, save love’s disdain. Foul play and folly, accelerate its course, Towards sins,…

• We Belong?

  angel_babe55

  24 Jan 2010 | 10:26 pm

  Some things, are not meant to last. Some, were robbed and some were lost. Some, were displayed and sold, and… Some remains intact like a ring of gold. Things change and so do people. Friends left, and some just stop being friends Some just stay and hold you ’till the end, but… Some, you can never hold on to something…forever. So learn to let go… except my FRIENDSHIP with you! I will forever be a friend to you, that’s true, but… Don’t ever leave me when things go wrong. Hold on my friend, let’s keep going and let’s stay strong For the…

• 
  Poems and Poetics

• John Bloomberg-Rissman: from No Sounds of My Own Making (opening strophes)

  Jerome Rothenberg

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:35 am

  HoldingA longRod, he wasBeatingThe groundAs he walked.ANumber ofUnconventional playing techniquesAreUtilised, perhapsMost notably inTheCase ofThe piano duringTheClosing bars,Which requires aPencilOr aSimilar object toBeDropped ontoThe strings whilstTheyAre simultaneouslyFanned with aWireBrush, struckWith a timpaniStickAnd pluckedWith the fingers.ItSaturated life.Accomplished itself. AllTheThings hadAccomplished the impossible …LikeThe firstTime I wasSwallowedWhole ... someJapanese gardens includeTheLandscape outsideTheir borders ... lowFlockOf cloudsBefore the downpour.ISmiled andThrew…

• Homero Aridjis: Poems of the Double

  Jerome Rothenberg

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:08 am

  Translation from Spanish by Jerome Rothenberg1I grabbed my faceand brought it to the mirrorSearched my eyesbut did not know themObserved my gesturesweak from terrorHe was frightenedof my self2You walk at night aloneyour own self's equalcounting out your hearbeatsin the windows' faded wingson turning around a cornera man tears off your facebeheaded you remainat the foot of your own shadowwhile someone in the distancelooks at you through your eyes3your hands a pair of crowsin the other’s pocketssufferings unseenin a deaf man's earbut don't believe that it was yousorrows rich dust…

• Christine Meilicke: Burrowing In, Digging Out: Digging Out Rose Drachler

  Jerome Rothenberg

  1 Feb 2010 | 6:33 am

  “Do you have any books by Rose Drachler,” I ask the book dealer in a New York second-hand bookshop that is known for its immense collection. “Rose what?” “Drachler.” “Never heard of her.” Nevertheless, I go to the bookshelf and scrutinize all poetry under the rubric “D.” Nothing there. Suddenly I notice a book behind the row. There is more! I move the first row only to find what I was looking for—The Collected Poems of Rose Drachler besides a number of other forgotten books.For most Jewish poets, the name Rose Drachler does not ring a bell. In literature circles, she was…

• Robert Kelly: Three poems from “Fire Exit,” with a note in celebration

  Jerome Rothenberg

  28 Jan 2010 | 7:21 am

  76.the nomad always has another planet up his sleevebewildering autumn warblersonly the yellow ones get spotted but all of them singthen rush to meet it in a bookwhere someone else’s name for this experienceis sold to you and the bird is gonehow long is a linefrom silence to silence the shortest word—that is a lineword, what is a wordacross a room the deepest touchnow you’re being faintly fraudulentromanticism is mechanicalwhen applied to people,it is not a reaction to the industrial revolutionit is the industrial revolution,privileging matter and methods of productionthe divine…

• Akira Tatehata: Seven Poems, with a note in praise of

  Jerome Rothenberg

  24 Jan 2010 | 6:57 am

  Translation from Japanese by Hiroaki Sato THE DELAYS OF TRAVEL I have no memory of traveling alone. I laughed at the endless hand-washing, its fierceness, but that, too, was merely someone else’s shame. Slow travel in which I pile up false quotations. The slowness of prose. Milk is white the way frosted glass is; a transparent liquid turns white when innumerable scars are made, I was told. Also, that individual is another name for a group and that it is a corrupt group, besides. (We were being laughed at.) Individualist, what do you think of the delays of travel? Are you ashamed of its…

• 
  Wild Horses Of Fire

• Those little pricks

  Thom Donovan

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:07 pm

  Those little pricksYou make in a surface Of resent and lonelinessCalled notes to the selfAll rhetoric no eyes To account for big Exclusion no where out of Nothing does one speak To themselves as though Among others I will not call This community shouting Over you all I hear is me.

• Commoning (Tomorrow 1-4PM at LMCC, NYC)

  Thom Donovan

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:14 pm

  Commoning: How Things Hold Together And How The Way In Which We're Currently Going About Things As A Society Is Not How Things Hold Together—part 2 of a practical discussion about common interest, the economy, and the social production of artworkIt started and it's alive. The meeting continues every two weeks, same place, starting at 1pm. You can join at any point - bring questions. WHEN:Sunday , February 7th 2010 - 1pm to 4pmWHERE: Lower Manhattan Cultural Council125 Maiden Lane, 9th FloorNew York, NY 10038RSVP* and bring a photo ID required for security desk protocol(*email:daria [at]…

• Usufruct

  Thom Donovan

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:48 pm

  For a commons Not a symptom Of this worldAnother worldCut downThere has never Been a commonsReallyExcept in our breathNow propertiedPriced-outThe right to leaveCross these borders In the air In the fleshNot here Anymore Or avant gardeWhat was missing From their ArtMight put A kind of Frame around itA hole in meMy neighbor Moving meTo not evaluateTo equate whatNot equatesBut doesn’t knowSculpture abstractedFrom harmWhat won’t be Missed whatWe haven’t been yetFree people In the breath Where the horns blowOr rap The right to dig What was our rightTo not be a peopleWholly conditionedBy…

• Everyone In This Room Is In This Fucking Dance (@ Brooklyn Rail)

  Thom Donovan

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:24 pm

  hereOften people discuss a new “sincerity” among an emergent generation of artists. In countless ways, Gutierrez’s choreography represents for me a new kind of sincerity in dance. But the term sincerity is tricky, because it doesn’t admit the many ironic strategies Gutierrez also employs. Perhaps a better term is in order. Affectively intense? Emotionally porous? Gutierrez’s texts present collective affects, if only through the guise of a singular speaker: “I am perfect and / you will love me and / everyone in this room is in this fucking dance.” Where does Gutierrez’s…

• Proceeding Translation: Brandon Brown & David Larsen (@ Harriet)

  Thom Donovan

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:21 pm

  hereBy bringing the body/person of the translator into play—the ad hominem translator if you will—Brown cites the translator as a vital relay in the process of bearing a literary work across into language’s many afterlives (to use another curious term from the Benjamin). What’s more, translation becomes an act of second reflection (Adorno); the translator attends to translation as a conceptual act both reflecting and permuting the original object/idea of the translated work. The translation does not describe the original work, so much as it reconceives it, injecting it with new ideas…

• 
  Poetry Blog of 32 Poems Magazine

• Ignore Everybody

  deborah

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:46 am

  I joined a group of poets to write 30 poems in 30 days. Some of us have gathered together before — in a virtual way — to cheer each other on (threaten? cajole? prod? encourage? shame?) to write poetry. In the old days, I used to think being a professor was the way to artistic happiness. I thought this because one had the summers off and, ideally, everyone would support the artistic work. This idea is also discussed in Ignore Everybody (that link will give you 25% of the book for free). However, I’ve grown, matured, and wised up. Being a teacher is like any other job in that…

• Creative Nonfiction

  deborah

  5 Feb 2010 | 2:59 pm

  I stumbled across the post below. The honesty or tongue-in-cheekness of the statement “I am in it to boose my fragile ego” charmed me. I wanted to share this with you. This writer went on to publish a piece in The New York Times. Go ahead and set yourself some goals (if you haven’t already). If I ain’t in it for the money, I am in it to boost my fragile ego (or at least earn some bragging rights). I am shooting for the best non-fiction publications, or at least the ones that will publish my work. This is where I could use the most help. When I asked my friend Gary Presley…

• DC-area Poetry Series Accepting Applications

  deborah

  4 Feb 2010 | 6:43 pm

  The Joaquin Miller Cabin Summer Poetry Series is taking applications now through March 31, 2010 (postmark) for the Summer Poetry reading series in June and July of 2010. The Series is located in a lovely outdoor park setting in the Washington, D.C., with two readers selected (one local and one from another part of the country) for each of eight Tuesday evenings. A very small honorarium is given. If you would like to apply, please send five poems, a paragraph bio, and a letter-size SASE for reply to: Rosemary Winslow Department of English Catholic Univesity of America Washington, DC 20064.

• Moira Egan: An Interview With Serena Agusto-Cox

  Serena

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  Poet Moira Egan, published in 32 Poems 1. How would you introduce yourself to a crowded room eager to hang on your every word? Are you just a poet, what else should people know about you? My father was a poet, so I guess I can say I was infused with the Muse through nature and nurture both. That didn’t make it any easier, and there have been years-long stretches when I didn’t even consider myself a poet, didn’t want to be a poet. But here I am. And here means Rome, where I live with my husband, Damiano Abeni, who, when he is not being an epidemiologist, is (if I may say so) a very well…

• Quit Everything. Write.

  deborah

  21 Jan 2010 | 4:27 am

  If you are like most poets and writers, you probably have to work a job — academic or otherwise — and you probably have friends, some sort of family, bills to pay and perhaps an unfair traffic ticket to handle. Whatever your issues, you have to find the time to write. Writers constantly wonder about this issue. We talk about it over coffee, over beer, over bourbon, over the swimming pool and under milky clouds. You’ve got fight for writing. When I graduated from graduate school, I thought time would come down out of the sky and present itself to me. I’d think I’d…

• 
  A window Within Myself

• My Favourite One

  31 Jan 2010 | 7:29 pm

  One you are...An offspring of beingThe only oneA gift of my existence The one that changed my lifeWith all the scatters, you remain my only one A daylight to all the glooms of my being And you will remain as always The number one in every thoughts I haveCopyright 2010 Nasra Al Adawi This the gains of attending a creative writing workshop, facilitated by Priyanka Sacheti who is a freelance writer and journalist based in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. An Author of three volumes of poetry during her school-years. What I have learned in the workshop, sometime even though you are believe you are poet…

• ~ Deserted Words ~

  30 Dec 2009 | 12:24 pm

  Black & White BookOriginally uploaded by vandangoShe stared so long Staring at an empty pageWaiting for words to appear Yet words refused to surfaceAnd the poem that she was longing forRemained unwrittenShe pleaded to words Hoping that she can be allowedAfter her long abandonment To be forgiven for her absenceSo once again she could shine within poetic wordsBut the page remained unwritten Words refused to appear Copyright 2009 Nasra Al Adawi “When you desert writing, its words may desert you”

• ~Desire for Light ~

  29 Nov 2009 | 12:16 pm

  A song to lightOriginally uploaded by Catch the dreamI want to write a poem about youThat you keep chaining meWith your thinking I long for sunlight You are afraid to get sunburned So I keep me in the dark But I cannot match you Yes I sneak to get glimpses of light Is this a sign of oppression? A heart that longs for daylight The longing increases in desire Desires are incontrollableIt needs to be fulfilledCopyright 2009 Nasra Al Adawi When a heart longs, there is not stop to this heart to reach its desire...

• ~Poetry Pathways~

  29 Nov 2009 | 11:20 am

  Pathway to the TombOriginally uploaded by donnacorlessA pathway to universe Then the dream to reach it So I hold a pen I contently write my heart out Poetry flames The path reveals itselfWithout me knowing it I am on the universe Copyright 2009 Nasra Al AdawiSometimes I don’t plan what to write, writing creates its own pathway. I respect it and I embrace this gift ...

• Grabbing

  22 Nov 2009 | 10:30 am

  Day Two Hundred Two: NeverOriginally uploaded by MargauxVI admit I’m all weak Weak over your words To flip the world for youJust to grip reaching your love Yet I’m nowhere to youI know the fault is mine But I face all in courageous faceLearning the hard lessons I’m on the level of these skiesUnchaining my own weaknessGrabbing strength by the might of my handsAnd with the will of my soul I stand being a proud Woman Defeating fear and weaknessCopyright 2009 Nasra Al Adawi

• 
  Sad Poems

• The Weather Underground

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:57 pm

  Stubborn atoms decide. To find us. Time relenting. As the explosion subsides. We are left with. Remnants. Broken chalk. With which to outline the dead. The beasts with full bellies. Our bones their toothpicks. Go back he screamed. As I wonder what back could be. Beginning. Middle. End. It was anyone's guess. Back to where I thought. As I contemplated all the lives we'd left. The quarter on her wrist. Playing heads or tails with if. The island in her head. Talking to the ocean in shouts. Just pretend she warns. That there's no one there. Ignore the pistons. As the motor peters out. The promise…

• Pavlov

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:35 pm

  The dead things in her gown. Repeating. Evident fairy tales. The dead things. Like heavy rings on her fingers. Making it hard to explain. The numbness. The liars on their high towers. Pissing down on what was almost real. The funeral. In ardent ripples. Pulls the clown from the ritual. Big feet won't save me now. I see her in her seldom dresses. Imagining the world as it should have been. No dead things. Just crayons. Filling in the thick outlines. No skin to peel away from this fractured skeleton. Just the meat we assume will feed us. No worries of broken bones. No bandages on open wounds.

• Stubborn Snowflakes

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:04 pm

  The wet door at her back. Heavy and undecided. The glue under her fingernails contemplating. Which ends to connect. It's only forever she sighs. Not very long at all. When you want something.Everyday is. The choice between sunburn and stitches. It hurts to move. It hurts just as much to sit still. The window she keeps open to the cold remarks at her obstinance. It's winter the window says. I should be closed. I prefer to feel the cold she tells it. It's always there. I hate pretending I don't feel it. Endless winters lost in the earth. Teach me to keep digging, but not for what I should…

• Axises Stubborn with Malaise

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:17 pm

  The code comes in numbers and letters and flesh. Divisible by necessity. Operable by trust. Letters and numbers jumble toward a vagrant end. But there is no translation. Other than how it began. Digging into the white. With tired arms and a heavy back. The ground a distant memory I'm struggling to regain. Just leave me in my blizzards. Let the white decide. How lost I am. How deep I must go to find my way out. The puddles on her window puzzle after the commotion of melting icicles. The shovel scrapes the ground in echoes of porcupines and skunks.The characters come together. In an array of…

• Apostles

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:35 pm

  Polite intrusions measure the profound. Bits of skin like yardsticks. Carry the soil in a concatenation of how far. The virus appeals to her soft spots. The weather descends without regard. And we are blind as we once were. As we have ever been. Looking out of these soiled windows. Praying to these absentee gods. Searching for demons in all the wrong places. Weighing gods against drugs. On broken scales. Perusing the flesh that chases us. In ruddy scabs. Thick with hard blood. And missing skin. Devout with a time I've not been to, and yet cannot forget. It's only now. Or it was. When last I…

• 
  anachronizms

• mcxxiii

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:13 am

  The eagle has landed.   At The Eagle,no less!   We keep searching for gloryholes, I thought there were glory holeshere.   Some secret doorway to a base-ment or an upstairs.   My igorance issometimes bliss.   But I often mis-take it for honesty, which blowsholes in the theory I’m work-ing so very hard on.

• mcxxii

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:49 am

  Bloopers from BewitchedIt doesn’t take a geniusto figure it out.   Big dragsoaked by queen of cham-pagne.   Smallest dais inouter space.   How’s yourrelationship to the inter-national time zone?   Orthe deathmarch to udon?Call it what you will,with your pent up saltedrim fetish.   Chain-jang-ling rumpus at the Arcde Sling or anecdotalFuji frolic.   Either way,so fa frickin’ la, you &your blah blankety blah.

• mcxxi

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:13 am

  FlashbackWe were looking at the lake through the eyesof a murder.   Was it simply platonic?   I feelokay about how we spent our impasse.   Yellowleaves, thin, small, scattered on the walk aroundthe plaza.   Spigots and shrubbery, some sort oflaughing bird, the plastic hunchbacks spinningin the noontime wind.   Didn’t she get her start on One Day at a Time?

• mcxx

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:02 am

  Say That Again With Your Tongue In My MouthHappy Hump Day!   I can see the Second Comingin faces of Frank on molded glasses.   This, a darkruse, with rhetorical concern of high homosexual fashion (think burning hundred dollar bills, tit-clamps, tattoos on foreheads, exploding bottles of Veuve Clicquot) and mushy faces of studentswho need help with creative writing.   Mondaymornings when all words are misrepresented.Two loads of laundry keep you from sleepingwith him, no joke, bigger than the yellow pages; but he let me borrow it anyway, all the waythru next week…

• mcxix

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:46 am

  Fantastic the feathers the Fed gathers just tothink of root beer.   I wrote a couple new ones on the economy’s pulse.   My heart came out messy.   Switch to digital pilfering.   Scour Sonoma for an egg cup.   Flexible enough to flaunt inconsistency skills and still controlthe tonsils.

• 
  As/Is

• 5 Feb 2010 | 8:59 pm

  Billy

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:59 pm

  MinorityWhen you are counted out be luminousI was never one to cream for patriotic drivelWho did you kill for herdsman?I fired my first volley into the heart of turbulence the panic was deafening.shine or burn mister world citizenThere was a day and a half cage onceI slipped out into Brooklynfor the piper's viewCharon followed sniffing the timelineHe rows when he rowsnone more penitent than

• 15 Jan 2010 | 5:18 am

  Billy

  15 Jan 2010 | 5:18 am

  The WoundI keep stabbingand there's no blood in the fridge.

• napoleon poem - Tolstoy, p 898

  Vincent Ponka

  5 Jan 2010 | 7:25 am

  Napoleon went to seek repose before the grave. Napoleon looked at him. Napoleon frowned, and sat for a long time in silence, his head in his hand. Napoleon asked severely. Napoleon shook his head. Napoleon was not sleepy, and morning was still far off. Napoleon ordered another glass. <!--EndFragment-->

• taught

  Sheila Murphy

  29 Dec 2009 | 11:29 pm

  y'ought to limityr apprenticeshipto a turnipottoI'm not kidding planetary tubestied to yourgrommetor is it the otherway aroundlandslide intohome beneathour oppositesattract trackingtankagejazz must beembedded likereportage -ersand then have some-thing lingeringto say through

• counter lies deceptions recover our own humanity

  TT

  28 Dec 2009 | 10:46 am

  Deceit is theCinderella ofhumannature; essential toour humanitybut ...Human society isa networkoflies and deceptionsthat wouldcollapseunderthe .... thatwe are swimmingin a seaof fables...startingwith our ownminds. .... Tocounterthis danger, theMachiavellian moduledevelopedthe ability to ...Kennedy orwiserinvestment in ourown futuresthantofix abroken .... So onceagain, conservatives takea position

• 
  The Blog of Lewd Enlightenment

• 8-word poem: THE I WISH I'D WRITTEN THIS STORY

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:02 am

  Look at yourselfLook at yourselfYeah yeah

• 8-word poem: THE CONQUISTADOR MONDEGREEN STORY

  1 Feb 2010 | 8:59 pm

  Like aC noteMakes you feelFine.

• 8-word poem

  25 Jan 2010 | 8:02 pm

  I pray Half a pillTimes twoWorks.

• 8-word poem

  24 Jan 2010 | 4:16 pm

  HowThe flameFollows youAroundThe room.

• 8-word poem

  21 Jan 2010 | 5:08 am

  Second yearOf the restOf my Life.* * *For SLY-C

• 
  Carol Peters

• Denise Levertov

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:36 am

  [from Denise Levertov's Tesserae: Memories & Suppositions, New Directions, 1995]The Sack Full of WingsWhen my father was a little boy in Russia an old pedlar used to come by from time to time, carrying a big sack over his shoulder. Sometimes he would be seen in the streets and outlying districts of the town of Orsha, my father's home; sometimes when my father was taken to the larger city of Vitepsk to visit his grandparents and uncles, there again he would glimpse the pedlar, trudging along, always carrying the bulky sack. My father did not wonder what was in the sack, for he believed he…

• nature poetry

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:44 am

  Blogging on Harriet, Sina Queyras considers Til Lilburn and nature poetry

• Your Elbow on a Car-Edge, Incognito As Summer

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:24 am

  Your Elbow on a Car-Edge, Incognito As SummerDraws me near to wonderhow griefalters your wolf’s grin."The world’s a stage." No one doubts the princess weeps for the king’s              death (divined by the chorus), falls for               the conquering lord.Grape, apple, citrus, teathese trinities ofnitrogen, phosphate, and…

• Provincetown Crossing

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:48 am

  My thanks to The Lyric's editor Jean Mellichamp Milliken and judge Erin Garstka for choosing my sonnet, "Provincetown Crossing," for a quarterly award.

• Catullus as translated by Louis & Celia Zukofsky

  29 Jan 2010 | 3:00 pm

  [from Louis & Celia Zukofsky's Complete Short Poems, Johns Hopkins, 1969][believe me, you want to read the Latin line by line with the English]from Catullus LXIVlaeva colum molli lana retinebat amictum,dextera tum leviter deducens fila supinisformabat digitis, tum prono in pollice torquenslibratum tereti versabat turbine fusum,atque ita decerpens aequabat semper opus dens,lanaeque aridulis haerebant morsa labellis,quae prius in levi fuerant extantia filo:ante pedes autem candentis mollia lanaevellera virgati custodibant calathisci.haec tum clarisona pellentes vellera vocetalia divino fuderunt…

• 
  catharcyst

• 5 Feb 2010 | 8:50 pm

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:50 pm

  MinorityWhen you are counted out be luminousI was never one to cream for patriotic drivelWho did you kill for herdsman?I fired my first volley into the heart of turbulence the panic was deafening.shine or burn mister world citizenThere was a day and a half cage onceI slipped out into Brooklynfor the piper's viewCharon followed sniffing the timelineHe rows when he rowsnone more penitent than fools in majority suitsCut to scene 2010take one in a majority worldYou have the right to be counted outof the divine pageFor the right to be human?For the right to be wrongScene ends with an animal search…

• 22 Jan 2010 | 4:09 pm

  22 Jan 2010 | 4:09 pm

  Haiti State of Mindone shoe will fit all in the endthe soul wind blows bitterfor the mortal parlancesubpoenaed apostatethe story red and brimstonefit the size of the wrath todayfractured Haiti as divine baitto spectral humanpay it forward to forgivenesspray it ego lessspark the omega tempestto ignite the alpha flameWe will be one and countedfor time to peel back the voidTime cuts the cordHaiti births againThird world beats againand nothing is left to worthin Babylonwhoever thought there'd be left overs?

• 20 Jan 2010 | 6:18 pm

  20 Jan 2010 | 6:18 pm

  Ten Year ChanceSeyer screams out to Jasmine, who is screaming across the sand towards them. The wormhole vehicle is hovering at the portal impatient for its next jump. Seyer jumps on board and then leaps back out. Jasmine runs up to him with tears lashing her face. They cling to each other and watch the vehicle blast into the worm portal. It won't open for another ten years. They catch the Tyrian subway home. The old Tyrian subway had failed again. It broke down midway between the town and the portal site. It's the only means they have of catching the intergalactic worm vehicle that hyper…

• 15 Jan 2010 | 5:14 am

  15 Jan 2010 | 5:14 am

  The WoundI keep stabbingand there's no blood in the fridge.

• 30 Dec 2009 | 6:59 pm

  30 Dec 2009 | 6:59 pm

  fleshthere's no paniclike my september outburstso when my blood crawleda vermin staincrushed garlic on the astral altarsatiated the death urgewhich end poet hiss to move the paradigm?which end to puke mortals?let's head wrathwaybeyond the pixellated beautyto see what is flesh.

• 
  Chicano Poet

• 7 Feb 2010 | 5:13 pm

  7 Feb 2010 | 5:13 pm

  Two Poems By Kiki DimoulaEASTER IN THE OVENThe goat kept on bleating hoarsely.I angrily opened the oven what’s all the noise I askedthe guests can hear you.Your oven’s not hot, it bleateddo something otherwise your crueltywill go hungry and at festive time too.I put my hand inside. It was true.The head the legs the neckthe grass the pasture the cragsthe slaughter all cold. THIEVES IN MINDCrying she describeshow burglars wrecked the housethe wretches took her jewellery and rapedold women values.Isn’t she happy?It’s been years since any thiefset foot in my houseeven for coffee.I…

• 5 Feb 2010 | 11:20 pm

  5 Feb 2010 | 11:20 pm

  Two Poems By The Colombian PoetEva Durán Aunque No Me AmesAunque no me amesy no desees en tu bocamis pequeños senosmuy suavemente... amanece Even If You Don’t Love MeEven if you don’t love meAnd don’t desire my small breastsIn your mouthVery softly... dawn comes.No Importa Cuantas Vecesno importa cuántas veceshayas perdido la inocenciasiempre vendrá a ti un hombreque invoque la magiay la recupere para tiluegopor la maravilla de la inerciate deshojara pétalo a pétalodejándote desnudalivianalista para la próxima vezpara el próximo milagroIt Doesn’t Matter How Many TimesIt…

• 5 Feb 2010 | 9:07 am

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:07 am

  A Poem By Rebecca GonzalesA Yellow DressI forget my own dreamsWhen I’m defined by your desireA woman, gentle as a willow,Dark skin made darker in a billowing yellow dress.You would have me seated beside you, Ankles crossed in a tender pose,Or swishing by in white high heel shoes,Glancing over my shoulder at you,The air misted with the scent of gardenias.In your fantasy I’ll stay, shutting out what beckons at our door.I’ll gather the folds of yellow dress around meAnd listen for a script to unfold.In your fantasy I’ll stay if you swear to meThat yellow is never the color of aging…

• 3 Feb 2010 | 10:31 pm

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:31 pm

  Like Two Ships In The Nightfirst time we metwe kissed on that college parking lotit was love at first sightand then we partedlost each otherfound each otherdenied each otherdreamt those separate but equal dreamswhere like two ships in the nightwe collide over and over againthe sea of love churning and foamingand gathering strengthagainst our hulls

• 3 Feb 2010 | 8:47 am

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:47 am

  A Poem By Rebecca GonzalesYou and IIn January only a sparrow has faith.Comfort is a meager memory; A warming love, a fantasy.For these days of waitingI’ve stored your love.Your whispered words are what I want, need.They clothe my nakedness,Draw me to your chest.We both know what we want.Destiny will provide what we need.

• 
  Earth & Pragmatism

• 8 Feb 2010 | 10:08 am

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:08 am

  the very dear paws of procyon lotor found under the goodfield bridge after kayaking ten miles on an icy mackinac in company w/ three bald eagles

• le pays des illinois

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:30 pm

  Liette, 1687: “The Illinois country is undeniably the most beautiful that is known anywhere between the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and that of the Mississippi, which are a thousand leagues apart. You begin to see its fertility at Chicago which is 140 leagues from Michillimackinac, at the end of Lake Michigan.” -- Pierre Liette, Memoir of De Gannes Concerning the Illinois Country, as found in

• 3 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am

  low water thaw after high water freeze january 2010<!--StartFragment-->"...and nearly three miles beyond came to the Mackinaw, a fine clear stream watering Tazewell County which we forded and about half a mile beyond came to a house where live a Quaker family of the name of Wilson. Here we got a nice breakfast which we enjoyed with great relish and some corn for our horses.” William Cullen Bryant

• old forgotten people from illinois

  1 Feb 2010 | 12:55 pm

  Owen Lovejoy, resident of Princeton Illinois, lover of the Illinois River, abolitionist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, trafficking many slaves up the Illinois to Canada, called by Abraham Lincoln "my most generous friend," whose abolitionist brother Elijah was murdered in Alton by a pro-slavery mob, writing a frightening twenty page open letter to the entire city of Alton, admonishing

• 29 Jan 2010 | 10:59 am

  29 Jan 2010 | 10:59 am

  told

• 
  the dust congress

• 8 Feb 2010 | 11:17 pm

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:17 pm

  I was not weak but the drink was strongFelrath Hines, Escape* The New Yorker recently published an excerpt from Roberto Bolano's 2666 as William Burns. excerpt:It was a dreary time in my life. I was going through a rough patch at work. I was supremely bored, though up till then I’d always been immune to boredom. I was going out with two women. That I do remember clearly. One of them was

• 7 Feb 2010 | 11:49 pm

  7 Feb 2010 | 11:49 pm

  you don't remember Paris honbut it remembers youGrace Weston, Winter Thaw, 2005* Congrats to Barb and Dave who were married Saturday during the dc blizzard!* Old, but new to me: Will Oldham on Bonnie Prince Billy and Vice-versa. excerpt:"When after the fourth release I had our record service place my own name on the new merchandise, he assailed me with threats of arbitration. He

• 4 Feb 2010 | 9:23 pm

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:23 pm

  snow scenes level lonely bastardskimberly tschida petters, SilosSad Advice -- by Robert CreeleyIf it isn't fun, don't do it. You'll have to do enough that isn't. Such is life, like they say, no one gets away without paying and since you don't get to keep it anyhow, who needs it. Ex-Boyfriends -- by Kim AddonizioThey hang around, hitting on your friendsor else you never hear from them

• 4 Feb 2010 | 4:47 am

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:47 am

  We've lived in barsAnd danced on tablesHotels trains and ships that sailWe swim with sharksAnd fly with aeroplanes in the airStacie Albano * Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson is interviewed for the first time in 15 years. excerpt:Q: Readers became friends with your characters, so understandably, they grieved -- and are still grieving -- when the strip ended. What would you like to tell

• 3 Feb 2010 | 4:59 am

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:59 am

  You may be sweet and niceBut that won't keep you warm at nightSaul Leiter, Lanesville (variant), 1958 When I Worked for Madonna -- Joanna RuoccoThe bodyguards wear white The bullets fly towards them The bodyguards are clouds The bullets do not penetrate Kaddafi. The bullets are precipitation After we drink coffee, we check the bird feeders. Kaddafi has purple martins on his shoulders. The

• 
  Elsewhere

• 5 Feb 2010 | 5:31 am

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:31 am

  DIANA HAMILTON & DIVYA VICTORSEGUE SERIES @ BOWERY POETRY CLUBSaturday, February 6, 4:00pm - 6:00pm308 Bowery 1 block above HoustonSix bucks, goes to the readersDiana Hamilton's poetry has appeared in mid)rib, Nap, Foursquare 3.1 and The Boog Reader 3 and is forthcoming in The Physical Poets Vol 3. She maintains a Web site at: sites.google.com/site/dianahamilton.Divya Victor has lived and learned in India, Singapore, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Seattle. Her work has appeared in ambit, XConnect, ixnay, generator, dusie, President’s Choice, P-QUEUE and Drunken Boat. Her chapbook SUTURES…

• 24 Dec 2009 | 2:56 pm

  24 Dec 2009 | 2:56 pm

  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

• 23 Dec 2009 | 5:20 am

  23 Dec 2009 | 5:20 am

  "... SAYS YES"The new running gag at our house is "... says yes," sung to the tune of "Jimmy Carter Says Yes":For instance, this morning, reading the Paul Sharits issue of Film Culture (No. 65-66, 1978), Nada blurted out "This is so fetishistic!" and started reading a passage aloud, wherein Sharits enthused wildly about hand-scratching frames of film, quoted Blake, oozed about how fingering the strips of film was like holding a live snake, on and on, until, at some point, we both broke out into song:"Can a structuralistBe an expressionist?Paul Sharits says yesPaul Sharits says yes ..."

• 16 Dec 2009 | 5:12 am

  16 Dec 2009 | 5:12 am

  MY FAVORITE FILMS OF THE DECADE (2000-09)inspired by Michael KelleherAction: Prachya Pinkaew’s “Ong Bak.” This movie not only restored my faith in contemporary action/martial arts flicks, but in motor vehicle chase scenes--a faith I never even had! See the tuk-tuk chase here, but turn the sound down: some yahoo overlayed it with the Benny Hill theme song. (Not that there's anything wrong with that ... but ...)Agit-prop: Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Love him or hate him, Michael Moore is doing more than most artists of any stripe in this country have or ever will do to change…

• 22 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  22 Nov 2009 | 5:58 am

  TONIGHTKIMBERLY LYONS & THE ZINC BAR PRESENTTHE WOMEN OF FLARF!Shanna ComptonKatie DegenteshNada GordonSharon MesmerMel NicholsElisabeth Workman6:30pm, Zinc Bar82 West 3rd Street (btwn Thompson & Sullivan), NYC$5 donation

• 
  The Endless Saga

• Darker Places

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:32 pm

  He opened up his soulto look inside but all he foundwere more places to hidedeeper, much darker placeswhere sorrow livedon the tearsof forgottenfacesin deepermuch deeperdarker places~Snow Devilsin the winter-timesunsnow devils swirlacross an open fieldrace each othertoward a split-railfence(c) James Eric Watkins 2009

• Bird of Prey

  15 Dec 2009 | 8:24 pm

  The glarefrom the blackbird’s feathersblinded me with a single stare.I looked away, looked back,watched him perchin an old oakoutside my window.I began to recreatehis story in my mind,just what it was that led him here to this tree.But then he turned and looked at me.Our eyes met for but a single momentjust beforehe flew awaystill clutchingmy imaginationin his claws.(c) 2009 James Eric Watkins

• Hello My Friend.

  29 Nov 2009 | 10:54 am

  This is from back in the summer,or perhaps spring.I think it was before I had my heart attack,or one of them.It turns outthat, most likely,I've had others.I wrote a new poem,which is posted below.I hope that you enjoy it.I used to deer hunt with my fatherbefore he died.I never killed a deer.And now, I'm gladthat I didn't.

• The Hunter's Fresh Kill

  29 Nov 2009 | 10:52 am

  The Hunter’s Fresh KillOnce a heaving beastrunning through the foresthe now lies in piecesin a large bowlbrought up and overthe side of a pick-uptruck by a feller withan accent and a col’ beerin his other hand. He offers to sharethe feast. I acceptthe meat, call uponthe creator to bless it.The meat is washedcooked and eatenthereby giving purposeto the hunter’s killand a final prayeris said for the spiritstill runningthrough the forest.

• Madness & Clarity

  28 Nov 2009 | 11:07 am

  Madness & Clarity Shades of Being, Perception, and Personality (some of the stuff I've published thus far)Get yours today.Copies are limited.Click Here to read more.Only $5.00 and shipped anywhere inside the U.S. for FREE!

• 
  fewer & further

• 27 Jan 2010 | 7:00 am

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:00 am

  HEY HEY HEY!!!! BOOK RELEASE PARTY....THIS SATURDAY January 30, 3:30 PM @ The Four Face Liar (165 West 4th Street, NYC)FOR JOHN COLETTI & JESS MYNES-------------------------Please come help celebrate the birth of two new books of poetry:MUM HALO by John Coletti (Rust Buckle Books)Mum HaloAvailable at http://rustbucklebooks.blogspot.com/&SKY BRIGHTLY PICKED by Jess Mynes (Skysill Press)Sky Brightly PickedAvailable at: http://skysillpress.blogspot.com/*Hear the poets, buy the books, drink the drinksSaturday January 303:30 PMThe Four Face Liar165 West 4th StreetParty to follow at an as-of-yet…

• 27 Jan 2010 | 6:58 am

  27 Jan 2010 | 6:58 am

  Thanks to Alan Baker for his attention to Sky Brightly Picked.

• Arlo Quint's Drawn In

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:32 pm

  Hello everyone, Fewer & Further Press is pleased to announce the publication of Arlo Quint's Drawn In. Drawn In is printed in an edition of 200 copies, 40 of which are signed special editions. Copies can be purchased for $7, postpaid. Please visit the Fewer & Further Press site for details. Payments can be made through the site with Paypal. Special editions are hand-sewn and signed by the author, for $9. If you would like to purchase a special edition, please contact the editor for availability. If you would like to pay by check, mail it to: Jess Mynes121 Lockes Village RdWendell, MA…

• Arlo Quint's Drawn In

  7 Jan 2010 | 1:32 pm

  Hello everyone, Fewer & Further Press is pleased to announce the publication of Arlo Quint's Drawn In. Drawn In is printed in an edition of 200 copies, 40 of which are signed special editions. Copies can be purchased for $7, postpaid. Please visit the Fewer & Further Press site for details. Payments can be made through the site with Paypal. Special editions are hand-sewn and signed by the author, for $9. If you would like to purchase a special edition, please contact the editor for availability. If you would like to pay by check, mail it to: Jess Mynes121 Lockes Village RdWendell, MA…

• Sky Brightly Picked

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:23 am

  Buy it here.

• 
  gravity and light

• How to Teach Grammar by Chella Courington

  19 Jan 2010 | 12:18 pm

  How to Teach Grammar for denis johnsoni don’t care about their commasrarely can’t follow an essay with a run-on sentenceor is it run-away words colliding in white space f r a g m e n t sas if anything comes out wholelike this morning i race to the committee on ethics leave in the middle of class gulp peach smoothieeight live active cultures stillborn sentences turned upside down slapped on the ass shoved into sound bitesnot breathing yetto hell with grammar david sleeps in the parking garage at perdido & salsipuedes sober most days last thursday he saw a boy shot fifteen his son’s age…

• Museum Pastel by Chella Courington

  4 Jan 2010 | 11:29 am

  Girl, just look at those painted orchids. Green and yellow swimming together, spilling over the edge like rainbow sherbet Mama made in July and spooned into glass cups. They slipped from sticky hands, crashing on black & white linoleum.Just look at those petals fringed in lavender. Feather boa she tossed over her shoulder, cascading down a satin back Saturday nights. Daddy dipped her to radio blues with us praying for long legs, praying to stay up past nine when Ella & Billie brought it on home.Never cared for real orchids. Hothouse types fussed over and still didn’t bloom, like those…

• Feliz Navidad

  18 Dec 2009 | 8:42 am

  Feliz Navidad Feliz NavidadFeliz NavidadProspero Ano y Felicidad.Feliz NavidadFeliz NavidadFeliz NavidadProspero Ano y Felicidad.I wanna wish you a Merry ChristmasI wanna wish you a Merry ChristmasI wanna wish you a Merry ChristmasFrom the bottom of my heart.

• She Gets What She Came For by Chella Courington

  14 Dec 2009 | 9:32 am

  No matter what you do, I sing “Stairway to Heaven” without end. Amen. Sugar on my tongue, chameleon-long, you raise your cotton shirt, spitting sticky rain. Over the Dutch Elm, Chagall’s wedding couple link hands and catch us in their drift, or is it their draft? Our stretchy limbs angel wings, our eyes spilling—Tibetan monkeys screech of Buddha in drag. Father Hennessey dispenses 50 Hail Marys for fucking mother’s best friend’s husband. Our fingers slip. But this I know for sure: Mother sees the sun set, calls me high and low. Above Home Depot, I’m mistaken for a clumsy crow.

• Happy Birthday, Emily Dickinson

  10 Dec 2009 | 10:19 am

  My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -In Corners - till a DayThe Owner passed - identified -And carried Me away -And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -And now We hunt the Doe -And every time I speak for Him -The Mountains straight reply -And do I smile, such cordial lightUpon the Valley glow -It is as a Vesuvian faceHad let its pleasure through -And when at Night - Our good Day done -I guard My Master's Head -'Tis better than the Eider-Duck'sDeep Pillow - to have shared -To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -None stir the second time -On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -Or an emphatic Thumb -Though I than He -…

• 
  Letras de Cactus ©2010 Poetry with a Mexican accent

• 6 Feb 2010 | 12:39 pm

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:39 pm

  elefantofiliaregreso lo más pronto posibleno creo que me demore muchopienso que esto será cuestiónde sólo unos momentossólo unos momentos¿sólo unos momentos?¡sólo unos momentos!espero que estas palabras sí lleguena su merecido destino¡su merecido destino!una pluma se puede usar para escribir poesíay la poesía se puede usar para muchísimas cosaspara muchísimos proyectosondulados como la mareacomo las caprichosas olas del pacíficouna pluma se puede usar para escribir poesíala caza es sólo un esfuerzo más¡una pluma se puede usar para escribir poesía!déjame escribirte poemas…

• 2 Feb 2010 | 8:44 am

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:44 am

  SUNRISEThe door is almost destroyedAnd the door handle is coldBetter frigidityThan the branding of your handThan smellingBurnt red meatAs the incenseOf prosperityAnd the horse’s melodiesConjure secrets wordsDreams of hay and dustHigh tuning at sunriseWith the anointingOf caffeine

• 1 Feb 2010 | 2:43 am

  1 Feb 2010 | 2:43 am

  ATTEMPTAlmost a wedge formationBut be carefulwith your fingersThey couldGet caughtAlmost a reflectionThe crystals convey20 different possibilitiesA modern wayTo read the futureTo tweak yourMotor skillsTo think of winterAs a national sport

• 29 Jan 2010 | 6:26 am

  29 Jan 2010 | 6:26 am

  THE ROOSTER CROWSEarly in the morningAs I urinatedI looked aboveat the moonAnd it wasRaining on the oceanWith its pearlyWhite flashing lightAdorning darknessMaking of the water a signal deviceI walked through the dawnAnd found my bedI sat downAnd played guitar

• 27 Jan 2010 | 9:13 pm

  27 Jan 2010 | 9:13 pm

  CANDLEThe candleIs under my handIt feels goodOn my skinIt soothesMy index fingerThat pointing instrumentThat extremity becomesA dogA pointerThat writes poemsWith its tongueA professional tasterA whimsical samplerFloating upFloating downWith the PacificThe winter’s sunIs as beautifulAs the bloodThat it smearsOn the cloudsEvidenceOf a day’s workProof of my lovePiercing the sky

• 
  Me~Tronome

• New Myopic Poetry Series Dates

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:33 pm

  Come spend some time in a cozy bookstore rubbing elbows with poets and ... books. The Myopic Books Poetry Series is free, which is best of all. This, however, is an interior shot of Filter, the venerable Wicker Park landmark, while it was still kicking.Myopic Books1564 N. Milwaukee Ave Chicago, IL 60622Contact: 773.862.4882 larrysawyerpoet@yahoo.comSaturday, January 23 : Roger Bonaire-Agard & Kevin CovalSunday, January 24 : Nick Demske & Michael Bernstein _________________IN CONJUNCTION WITH The Chicago ReviewSaturday, January 30 : Christian Hawkey, Uljana Wolf, & Monika…

• Metrophobia: Poetry as Last House on the Left

  11 Jan 2010 | 10:09 am

  Are you afraid of poetry?I’m afraid of it only to the extent that it has given me some sense of the awesome power of language to expand awareness. So, to some extent poetry is a conduit that has increased my awareness and an expanded awareness can seem to shift our perspective and unfamiliar ground can be frightening, but can’t that particular definition of frightening also be more aptly described as “exhilarating”? My two cents.There's an interesting post at Robert Archambeau's great blog, Samizdat, re: “poetry is being read by an ever-smaller slice of the American reading…

• In the forest of symbols

  23 Nov 2009 | 8:18 am

  Are poets synesthesiacs? I do know that “To taste the wine of speech” (as one poet put it) helps to describe our world in a way that illustrates the gray areas of experience—a memory is often collage. It’s a rinse cycle in the mind of every available sensory detail regarding a person, event, or period in time.Hey, you’re doing it, like I didn’t tell youto, my sinking laundry boat, point of departure,my white pomegranate, my swizzle stick.We’re leaving again of our own volitionfor bogus patterned plains streaked by canals,maybe. Amorous ghosts will pursue usfor a time, but…

• Arizona Fuzz

  29 Oct 2009 | 11:48 am

  The poemdoes not lie to us. We lie underits law, alive in the glamour of this hour—John WienersDo roses skipping in theGlass make great gifts, I micTheir contours, wipe innocenceFrom the window, these milkMansions. Arizona fuzz catchesGreen fish coming upFromBeing hunted, herDevouring dawns, withinGnawing hiatus shed. ThisGlamorous tongue noticed,Will arrest all secrets.We stash strangeButterflies arePuzzles of our former lives.But he is elephant. ThatException and theSurrounding meadowIts tender symmetry.On repeat, the choralStillness, yet the siren’s panacheMakes stew of our…

• Series A, mini-conference, "Poetry and Place"

  28 Oct 2009 | 1:03 pm

  I had an opportunity to discuss new Chicago poetry at a recent conference with Garin Cycholl and Ray Bianchi as part of Bill Allegrezza's Series A poetry reading series at the Hyde Park Art Center.Click here to access the sound file. Frank O'Hara's work loomed large in my mind as I considered how to respond to the idea of Poetry and Place.

• 
  negative wingspan

• 18 Jan 2010 | 3:08 pm

  18 Jan 2010 | 3:08 pm

  my eighth pass at them. they never ever. I can't even find them in the thickets so I mow and burn. the clean slope of scalp. the heads of hill. do you wish I had yours under my microscope to jettison your demons? looking kills. it kills like the sun. I love the sun, the way it rises without rancor and goes about the day. underneath the sun, anything I do is just a job, just a manifestation. underneath the sun, the vermin look like vermin, and do not sound as their remembered cries do once the sun is underground. as human.

• when I am in crux

  17 Jan 2010 | 11:55 am

  it looks a little like a dental dam. I have a split-hoof and a harpy. My name has been my name for as long as George, but no one can bear to notice. Yesterday, a soup and a soup and a soup and a librarian. I hope you are not too jealous of the architecture we discussed, and the farmland beside the penitentiary. My children were good eggs. Half of my children. Do not ask me if the tooth fairy is real. Until I have lost all of mine I can't be sure.

• 6 Jan 2010 | 6:26 am

  6 Jan 2010 | 6:26 am

  You can have it for free. An earlobe. It costs so little pain apparently. A tug and swish flick of the butterfly knife. The balisong. And I'll staunch it with cotton balls bunched and taped with duct tape. I'll be snowbeard on the left. My left so I can still hear right. I'll Van Gogh. Are you my whore?

• Boxing Day Poem

  28 Dec 2009 | 5:30 pm

  Christmas brought me pestilenceand in the delousing I found, Iconfess it, a primate pleasure.It is sweet time spentin childhood hair--its rows of finitude. All ends.Nitpick is not without its recompense. Comb-scoured scalpscan make of new years open fields. In one--petite beastswho lurk, cling, and feed are sure. Among them, I am animal again.

• 24 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm

  24 Nov 2009 | 3:21 pm

  Gorky is at the Philadelphia museum. I may or may not be going to China. I have a What is poetry? assignment. What is Nighttime? Are dreams made of clay? Poppies? Black porcelain?

• 
  'The Poets Lodge'

• Tribute to J. D. Salinger - WHY?

  30 Jan 2010 | 1:56 pm

  WHY ?`The Catcher In The Rye`caught Mark Chapmans eye.Pulled from death in ’77.Thought the plan was hatched in heaven.He read the book, and then could see,the shape of his own destiny.But he didn’t read through the childs eye,and he answered the callof the Black Bishops cry.He felt the guilt, and felt the shame.He was now a part of the Black Kings game.He had the perfect cover.He was every childs brother.But a wiser child than he,would read the book,and surely see.`The Catcher In The Rye`is in our own minds eye.The `catcher` is the White Kings man.Try to be him if you can.You catch a…

• The Game Of Life.

  25 Nov 2009 | 1:45 pm

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~What are we ? I hear you cry,as you see another die.Why do we fight ?Why do we hate ?Do we have the answer ?Is it all too late ?If you recognise these thoughts as yours.Do you run and hide behind closed doors ?The truth is there,as it should be.As plain as day,for all to see.When you’re hiding all alone,you’ve got the time to ponder.Play the noble game of chess,allow your mind to wonder.Black meets white, and white must win.Portray the black as every sin.The game of life is just beginning.The ultimate aim in life,is winning.You’re just a pawn, small and…

• The Song Of Life

  13 Jul 2009 | 1:31 am

  The Song of LifeThe Song of Life plays gentlyin the background of our mind.It has the chord, the message tooto make life great, for me and you.So soft that we don't hear a sound.The Song of Life is so profound.The 'lost chord' many call it,and they search both high and low.If only they were made awarethat it's in their own 'life glow'.Our DNA has rhythm,and our heart, a perfect beat.The Song of Life played gentlymakes our time on Earth complete.When the 'Chord of Life' is filtered,when it doesn't play so pure.The Song of Life skips a beatand now we're not so sure.Listen to your conscienceand…

• It's Just An Illusion Baby.

  17 Jun 2009 | 10:12 pm

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~It's Just An Illusion BabyIt's just an illusion baby,I thought you knew.It's just an illusion baby,This World so blue.The stars in the sky.The air we breath too.It's just an illusion baby.I thought you knew.Our brain is just the hard-drive,of a miniscule computer.So small and so invisible,I thought you knew.Every vision that we seeon our computer screen,is made up of just two digits.I thought you knew.Those images - magnificent,that flash infront of you.They're just an illusion baby,I thought you knew.Each word you type.Each mouse-click too.Instructions from the…

• The Fell.....

  10 Jun 2009 | 6:07 am

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Fell.Sometimes dark, sometimes blue,the purple haze envelopes you.Wraps you with it's swaddling skinnot letting other souls slip in.A pumping fluiditious sound,of a heart-beat that is so profound.Protects and feeds you love each day,until it's time to make your way.Out into this world so cruel,you enter more precious than any jewel.The purple haze is fading,it's done it's job so well.But now you're on your own,on your journey down the fell.More treacherous a journeyyou'll never undertake.Your journey down the Fell of lifedoes not allow for any mistake.One…

• 
  rooted

• cryptic messages

  6 Feb 2010 | 7:02 pm

  cryptic messagesI find in my inboxturn those aroundheightened sensationsdo me in, night soundspale in comparisonslowly my toes curl,thoughts unfurl, I give myself to imagination"all this from mere words, turning a phrase here and there"

• waking in to dreams

  6 Feb 2010 | 6:24 pm

  melting luscious lips,soft as rose petalsmoist, glowingsensually invitingthough asleep, shemade him fall in love.he swayed, ready towake her up with a kiss.with breath held upshe waited for his lipsto merge with hers,so as to she couldsimulate to be woken up.a prince who lovedher to eternity and backfor what she was.she wanted to leaveher past far behind-she was so fed up.witch had cursed hera new lover each nightsince she was sixteen.for a while, she had enjoyedpleasures of the flesh.while those thoughtschased in her mind-the prince bent downkissing her softly."voltage jolting through, she…

• odor of memories make me lurch towards you, my friend

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:04 am

  after almost three decadesyou have drifted awayyou didn't look backmy cards sent back unopenedemails discardedwhen I see you onlineand connect with youyou turn awayswitch off mentally from memy thoughts franticI still try to be in touchodor of memories make me lurch towards you, you, a friend I made in my first day of college-don't let the show get in the way of life"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This is about one of my closest friend of 27 years, who for no apparent reason refuses to acknowledge her old friends, me included. She might have her reasons. And we would understand those reasons if only…

• fantasizing about glass

  31 Jan 2010 | 9:46 am

  that glass of water-water swirls of it suddenlyuncannily I see you

• sensors work overtime

  30 Jan 2010 | 9:32 pm

  so difficult to fathom for mostyet so easy for methat instant rapportwithout reproachgoing on a straightlineI stop. bending over the curveI touch that milestone.my sensors worked towards itI turned towards youand intend to stay cosseted

• 
  something katy

• kisses like cake

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:43 pm

  in the heart of the jungleher kisses tasted like candypink and sweet and wrappedin a fine layer of resolvepeeled away like a curtainto a window overlooking the moonand from crater to crateri followed her for more

• Day 84

  7 Feb 2010 | 1:07 pm

  this picture was not taken today. it was taken in december, on our trip to visit dina (pictured) in new york city.even though it's not in keeping with the picture-a-day, she is beautiful.

• 77 thru 83 project dump

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:29 am

  yeah, so i've gotten into the habit (good or bad) of saving up all my pictures for the end of the week...

• Day 76

  30 Jan 2010 | 4:09 pm

  another picture of teh kittehsthis is one of Alli and Jack trying to help me decide what shaped pasta to have with my meatballs...Alli got very paws-on, as you can see

• Day 75

  29 Jan 2010 | 4:07 pm

  deformation pronounced with every syllabulcreeking from the crestof a dry tongue at 8amwakes the beating heartof a mountain beast

• 
  this is all your fault

• 5 Feb 2010 | 10:15 am

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:15 am

  Why Are You Constantlyit's hard to see the screen with all these ghosts\the sea anemones make a kissing sound when they let go of your fingersPigeon. Seagull. Pigeon. Robin.arms the color of pickled pigs in a jarthreatening to jump off a window ledge into a tidal poolyour smile constantly erases itselfhair wafts into my eyes, sticks to my lipstickthe wind as your green curtains skim the ceilingis

• 27 Jan 2010 | 9:14 pm

  27 Jan 2010 | 9:14 pm

  HTML giant has a great post on contemporary "moves" in poetry -- which could also be called tics, cliches, or styles. I'm going to try them all out! I'm doing the negative one (not and not and not) right now!Here's the draft:Not the Blue OneNot the horse entire, not the grippedwithers. Not the ring of shod hooves down the driveway. Not the girth loosening, not the bit hanging to one side.

• 25 Jan 2010 | 7:23 am

  25 Jan 2010 | 7:23 am

  Alex Prager is my new BFF.Also, I have a new domain and webpage, finally: christinehamm.com.

• 16 Jan 2010 | 8:28 pm

  16 Jan 2010 | 8:28 pm

  Got some new links, down at the bottom. Check 'em.

• 13 Jan 2010 | 5:27 pm

  13 Jan 2010 | 5:27 pm

  In the Endless Backyard, Part 5A goat race. Your brother hanging onto the pocket of your pink shorts. World's Largest Horse. Endless shrieking, coming near but never arriving. World's smallest dog. Smeared glass boxes, cracked, withbones inside. The hat worn by Jesse James. Shake the hand of the man made of rubber. Two liter cup of orange soda and all the popcorn you can eat. A midget who

• 
  Uncle David

• The case can be made

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:55 am

  The case can be madeThat because manIs an eater of foodA drinker of waterHe is not misplacedAs a beast among beastsA common animalDependent on the breath.The straightforwardAnswer to the thoughtIllegitimate questionAs if he is only austere bodyOf the common fleshOr God sentAs a lesser deityBorn to ruleThe opportunitiesOf a spiritual soulThat holds body and spiritIn equal tow.There is no illegitimate birthOf bark nor fleshAnd there-in must lie our respectFor life that is the fuelOf nature’s healthy fire.Poetry and thoughts on my life

• Consider milk

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:38 am

  Consider milkFluid of the bodyConsider semenThe primordial connectionConceder urineUrobins from the body’sWaste of the sun’s yellowConsider blood35 trillion corpusclesHemoglobin red dying in the spleenConsider tearsSalty as sweatThe fluid of our bodiesClaim us as animals.Poetry and thoughts on my life

• The cycle of the sun

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:34 am

  The cycle of the sunIts birth and its deathIs just one expressionOf the God that never rests.Death is a testimony on lifeIts argument is ever evidenceAnd emphasized by the breath of the universe.Death is immortal and immutableSelf supreme as the pleasure state of dreams.Pain is the concentrationOf what can go wrongAs pleasure pain is sun strong.Rain is the source of all foodAnd moods that tap the rootsOf childish senses’ intensitiesThe problem of human thoughtIs the invisibility of the nature GodShe who established us as one with our breathIs no longer the deity of our soul’s abode.The…

• Sex is an exalted position

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:13 pm

  Sex is an exalted positionOf perpetual desiresFulfilled.Sex is natural in its righteousnessSimial to women and men.Sex does not discriminateIn making you its willing andWorthy victum.Sex extract from men’s bodiesThe essence of his gratification,The semen of his sonsThe desires of the subal other.Black males are giftsAre references to knowingThe sexual secrets of GodFor sex is spiritual in the black man’s heartIt sustain the other organsBy birthing organs in the newly young.Sex among men support its offeringsAs gay men of the supreme selfAre sexed by the cosmic cycleOf their womanly…

• Perishable nature is the rule

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:18 am

  Perishable nature is the ruleOf the phenomenal universeAs shelter, food or tool.The purity progress of our useIs emphasized ritualisticSelf preservation toward theLongevity that worship theSeeker’s theoretical knowledgeObtained by the eating of foodAnd the sexual aspirationOf sexual enjoyment that purifiesThe ultimate body to continualIts worldly duties.Semen is a transformation of foodThe manner of male to male sexReaches the innermost selfBeyond the body and the vital breathTo the bliss of active proximityOf having a warm dick up your assThat throb its control of an endowedSkin to skin…

• 
  Watermark

• 2010 03 feb snapshot

  blogdiva@gmail.com (Sharon Brogan)

  3 Feb 2010 | 1:38 pm

  can i still write a snapshot poem? is it still in me? the sky is grey, but high earlier, there was a dull purple beneath  a glow  that made the sky seem higher  sparrows at the seed  and fighting in the vines  is it really the weaker sparrow  they gang up on?  maybe it's a bad sparrow  perhaps he molested a chick  or stole from a widow  they drive him from the garden  much loud peeping and violent  flutters  dead leaves crash to the ground  belle brings me her toy  attacks the scratching post  stops to stare at…

• Life Changes

  blogdiva@gmail.com (Sharon Brogan)

  1 Feb 2010 | 2:33 pm

  There are deep changes, and there are superficial changes. Sometimes, one is caused by the other, and sometimes it is difficult to tell which is which. Money can't buy happiness, true; but it can buy clothes and cosmetics and cars and convenience. I have new clothes. Clothes without holes, or unraveling, or stains. Clothes that fit and look good on me. So many clothes I had to order thinner hangers. Never before have I had too many clothes for my closet.  I have jeans and cords in many colors. I have 'slacks'. I have shirts and tanks and cowl-necks and turtlenecks and boatneck T's.

• Announcement

  blogdiva@gmail.com (Sharon Brogan)

  29 Jan 2010 | 10:43 am

  I woke this morning with the realization that I am not blogging because, after five months of silence, and the death of my mother, I am feeling required to be profound. So this is to say: there will be no profounditry (profundity?) (profoundness?) here for some time. Thank you, all, for your emails and comments. They have comforted me.

• My Mother

  blogdiva@gmail.com (Sharon Brogan)

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:47 am

  BETTY LOU JULIAN [BROGAN] SERR Betty Lou Julian Serr  died October 12, 2009  in Chandler, AZ.    She was born in Long Beach, California July 5, 1924, the daughter of Bob & Georgia (Kenney) Julian.  She went to Montana as a baby  with her parents and resided on a ranch near Clyde Park until the age of ten, when the family moved to a ranch near Wilsall,MT.   She attended schools in Clyde Park and Wilsall, graduating from Wilsall High School in 1942.  She attended computer school in Spokane, Washington, then worked for the Northern Pacific Railroad.  In 1945 Betty married Richard…

• Confession

  blogdiva@gmail.com (Sharon Brogan)

  30 Aug 2009 | 2:18 pm

  What do you bring to the confessional? Wasted hours; a kind thing undone, and another, and another; or some singular crime, a thought or deed that left a wound, some innocent bereft of confidence and cheer? Have you taken what was not yours to keep; kissed one not yours to claim? Or is it deeper, darker than these? Did you see your path was cold and steep, so turn an easier way? Have you scoured your heart of love, set it to harden in a kiln of rage? Drop it on the tiles, then. Let it break.   

• 
  mygorgeoussomewhere.org

• how it came to pass that i left poetry, continued

  Date Withheld po-lice [puh-lees] noun, verb, -liced, -licing :: who buries the dead with her bare hands; who clutches infested fruit; who counts to ten; who digs a hole; who does not turn her back; who draws boundaries with fluids; who drinks from a flask; who exhales vowels; who files words ...

• how it came to pass that i left poetry, continued

  Feb. 9, 2010 9:14 a.m. I ride the elevator down. I ride the elevator up. I buy one Coca-Cola from the vending machine in the break room. Someone wears a shirt with a graphic pattern, a wide strip down the front. One gold stripe. It reflects the dumb light as she ...

• how it came to pass that i left poetry, continued

  Feb. 9, 2010 6:07 a.m. I dream W.F. Roby and Emily Van Duyne hold oranges over my head so I can count them. I don't want to count them. I want to eat them. The oranges make me smile. I've always thought oranges were a happy food, though when I was ...

• how it came to pass that i left poetry, continued

  Feb. 8, 2010 4:53 p.m. From the KOMO News website: Car hits overpass killing one submitted by Morris Malakoff on Monday, February 8th, 10:04am A one-car traffic accident about 9:30 Monday morning took the life of a 66-year old man. Valley Regional Fire Authority was dispatched to the southbound lanes of SR-167 at 15th Street ...

• how it came to pass that i left poetry, continued

  Feb. 8, 2010 9:43 a.m. Highway 167 South. One police car. Two police cars. Three. Four. Five police cars, each coming into view one at a time as I move closer and as other cars to the left of me pass, opening up a window onto the scene. One ambulance, doors ...

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  Read Write Poem

• phoenicia publishing discusses the future of poetry in print

  Deb Scott

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:31 am

  Beth Adams asks “What price progress?” in the first of a series about the future of poetry and micro-publishing at the Phoenicia Publishing site (who published our Virtual Book Tour feature, A Walk Through the Memory Palace, by Pamela Johnson Parker as well as Dave Bonta’s Ode to Tools). Read and join in the discussion.

• poetry advice column: what should you learn from rejection letters?

  Read Write Poem

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  by Robert Peake In the time it took me to write, proofread and send this piece around to some trusted friends for feedback, I received three more rejections of my poetry, bringing my lifetime total up to 80. Fortunately, I am not the only one receiving these things. This month, multiple Read Write Poem members asked me if I would respond to the question, “What should you learn from rejection letters?” I believe asking questions like this indicates a mindset necessary to sustaining a life steeped in art — a mindset seeking constantly to learn. Practically speaking, there are…

• member spotlight: robert peake

  Read Write Poem

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  by Dana Guthrie Martin How long have you been writing poetry? I dictated my first poem — an epic — to my mother when I was 5. To survive adolescence, I wrote strange short narrative pieces. I also collected snippets of thought, often humorous or surreal, into a document I called “The Mind Dump.” A printed version made its way around my high school one day, prompting sudden and unwanted acclaim. In college, I mostly read poetry as part of my major subject, though I dabbled in sonnets. I returned to poetry again in earnest while in seminary, and after I left the seminary…

• yes, yes, here’s another virtual book tour stop for ‘a walk through the memory palace’

  Deb Scott

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:37 am

  Find the latest tour stop for Pamela Johnson Parker’s debut collection, A Walk Through the Memory Palace at Jillypoet, Jill Crammond Wickham’s blog, where you can find an interview with Pamela that discusses how she creates manuscripts. Previous stops include Daniel Romo at his blog, Peyote Soliloquies and James Brush at his blog, Coyote Mercury. You can find all our plans for the tour here.

• the best of the web is in our ranks

  Deb Scott

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:35 am

  Sarah J. Sloat’s poem,”Attending the Tasting” (published in The Literary Bohemian) has been selected for Best of the Web 2010. Congratulations, Sarah!

• 
  Silliman's Blog

• 8 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  Jim Carroll Memorial Reading Wednesday @ St. Marks 2nd Ave & 10th St NYC 8:00 PM (Free) withBill BerksonTodd Colby, Anselm Berrigan, Richard HellLenny KayeThurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Patti SmithAnne Waldman& more § Clayton Eshleman on the disaster at Lascaux § This is what a feminist [poet] looks like, forum no. 2 § Tribute to Leland Hickman § The death of Bo Not to mention “New Yawk” § Syllable Sestina challenge § The “godfather of rap” is back: Gil Scott-Heron on starting over § Conversations with Harryette Mullen § Talking with James Sherry § Rae Armantrout, on…

• 7 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  One of the most enjoyable books that I’ve read in the last year – last several years, really – is Marc Nasdor’s Sonnetailia, which Roof published all the way back in ought seven, a set of 64 intense, noisy, joyful (if deeply pessimistic) poems Nasdor calls Sonnetails because they’re essentially sonnets with a tail. Nasdor is somebody I would run into every once in awhile when I went to New York, but I didn’t have a sense of just how long he’d been a part of the scene until I ran across this image on the web of the 1984-85 staff of the St. Marks Poetry Project staff: That’s…

• 6 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  Keith Waldrop receives the 2009 National Book Award Rae Armantrout¹, reading at the National Book Award festivities: Ann Lauterbach: Carl Phillips: Keith Waldrop: Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon: ¹ Nope. The National Book Foundation appears not to know how to spell her name.

• 5 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  Gil Scott-Heron is at the Tin Angel in Philly this weekend “Me and the Devil” is from his new CD I’m New Here, due out later this month Scott-Heron interviewed by Sean Jones “Winter in America” Talking with Gil Scott-Heron

• 4 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  Roberto Bolaño often is characterized as a poet who wrote novels, no doubt because poets & poetry figure importantly in his books. The Romantic Dogs, however, suggests something different, that Bolaño is a novelist who began as a poet, not unlike Michael Ondaatje, or Paul Auster, or (to look not to the novel but to music) the way Patti Smith started as a poet, or Laurie Anderson as a short story writer. The Romantic Dogs is an important book because it’s a book by Bolaño, the book in fact on which the myth of Bolaño-the-poet must be mounted, not because it’s an important or…

• 
  Poetry Hut Blog

• Nashville Poetry Alert – Rebecca Seiferle Reading

  Jilly Dybka

  7 Feb 2010 | 12:21 pm

  Title: Rebecca Seiferle ReadingLocation: Vanderbilt, Buttrick 101Link out: Click hereDescription: Gertrude Vanderbilt and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series 2009-2010 Rebecca Seiferle, poetryStart Time: 7pmDate: 2010-02-25 Autoposted from the Nashville Poetry Calendar If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital…

• Nashville Poetry Alert – Poetry Radio Show: Difficult Listening

  Jilly Dybka

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:48 am

  Title: Poetry Radio Show: Difficult ListeningLocation: Radio Free Nashville 107.1 or streaming audioLink out: Click hereDescription: Poetry Radio Show Difficult Listening with David HarrisStart Time: 10:00amDate: February 7, 2010 Autoposted from the Nashville Poetry Calendar If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital…

• Nashville Poetry Alert – Gates of Silence, premiere

  Jilly Dybka

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:43 am

  Title: Gates of Silence, premiereLocation: Vanderbilt University, Blair School of Music, Ingram HallLink out: Click hereDescription: Composer, Susan Botti; lyrics, Linda Gregerson; performers, Susan Botti and the Blakemore Trio. Vanderbilt UniversityStart Time: 20:00Date: 2010-02-19 Autoposted from the Nashville Poetry Calendar If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are…

• Poetry News For February 4, 2010

  Jilly Dybka

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:00 pm

  One of my guinea fowl laid an egg. One. Egg. Right on the snow. First one. — Kearney’s The Black Automaton proves cryptic — it speaks a trickster’s hex, pushing us towards a sentiment that the tragedies of today might soon bleed into the mythologies of the past, if we’re not careful. — — Each poem in this sequence is packed to the brim with almost illicit words and inscapes — a mixture of the fantastical and the quasi-theoretical. — — It’s funny, I’ve never thought of food as a source of inspiration for my poems, but lately…

• Nashville Poetry Alert: Poetry Open Mike @ Springwater

  Jilly Dybka

  3 Feb 2010 | 11:28 am

  Title: Poetry Open Mike @ SpringwaterLocation: 115 27th Ave NLink out: Click hereDescription: Free Open Mic Poetry night @ Springwater Supper Club every Wednesday from 8pm to 10pm. Springwater is a “21 and Over” establishment.Start Time: 20:00Date: February 10, 2010End Time: 22:00 Autoposted from the Nashville Poetry Calendar If you've enjoyed this blog, how about buying me a cup of coffee?Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page…

• 
  Poet Hound

• It's Not You, It's Me by Jerry Williams

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:58 am

  Jerry Williams’ anthology, It’s Not You, It’s Me, is a collection of poems published by Overlook Press that covers it all: breaking up, cheating, loneliness, all things heart-wrenching. Mr. Williams’ introduction includes details of all of his failed relationships and clues to how he gathered up the particular poems used in this book. With Valentine’s Day approaching with all of its grandiose expectations I thought this would be a great time to feature an anti-valentine collection of poems. I had quite a list of poems to share and I’ve been approved for five so I hope I can cover…

• Poems Out Loud

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:27 pm

  An intelligent site where you can listen to a variety of poets and their poems with details on the poets’ backgrounds… thoroughly enjoyable, check it out at:http://www.poemsoutloud.net/Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for another featured poet…

• Poetry Tips: Just Do It

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:57 am

  Sometimes we fear rejection so much that we don’t want to try, but try we must. Maybe you haven’t sent out that first poem, uncertain whether your poem fits a journal’s or e-zine’s style. Maybe you have a chapbook collection that you’re not sure will win the contest. I encourage you to send your best efforts into the world and “just do it.” As I read in a magazine this past week: do it afraid, the courage will come later. If the rejection does come, at least you know you tried and can try elsewhere. There are countless opportunities to present yourself whether you’re a poet or…

• Open Submissions The Chattahoochee Review

  4 Feb 2010 | 3:59 am

  Send three to five unpublished poems along with a cover letter (it’s encouraged but you don’t absolutely have to) through snail mail with an SASE or via e-mail to:Mail or e-mail submissions to:The Chattahoochee Review 2101 Womack Road Dunwoody, Georgia 30338-4497 gpccr@gpc.eduFor more information, use the link below:http://www.gpc.edu/~gpccr/submissions.php Good luck to all who submit, please drop in tomorrow for more Poetry Tips…

• Poems Found by Poet Hound

  3 Feb 2010 | 3:59 am

  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=175758“Those Winter Sundays” by Robert E. Hayden http://www.juked.com/2010/01/bonnieprincebilly.asp“Letter to the Bonnie “Prince Billy” by Taylor McMahon Thanks for clicking in, please drop in tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

• 
  The Best American Poetry

• Letter from a Saint (NO Native) in Madrid [by Kathleen Heil]

  Best American Poetry

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:31 am

  They told me they spoke about the Saints on the Spanish News but I don’t have a TV, so I couldn’t tell you. I remember as a girl watching them lose while we prayed for intercession of a different kind....

• Are We Having Fun Yet? (by Laura Orem)

  Laura Orem

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:44 am

  I'm writing this from frozen Red Lion, waiting for the next round of ridiculously deep snow to fall. After days of being cooped up, I'm getting a little stir-crazy, although Monty (below) is having a good time. One thing that...

• OY (by Mitch Sisskind)

  Mitch Sisskind

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:30 pm

• Poetic Tip of the Day --->>>

  Mitch Sisskind

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:35 pm

• Happening this Week

  Best American Poetry

  7 Feb 2010 | 12:09 pm

  Valentines Day, February 14, 2:00 PM in Chicago. Have A Fine Romance with A Fine Romance - David Lehman at the Spertus Institute, 610 S. Michigan Avenue, directly across the street from Chicago's Grant Park. Details here. In other news...

• 
  Harriet

• How Poetry Came About -- Sotère Torregian

  Sotère Torregian

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:40 am

• A Rambling Post on Common Readers, Classes and the Noise of Poetry -- Sina Queyras

  Sina Queyras

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:03 am

  I haven’t read poetry in years, an old friend said recently. I was shocked. We came to poetry together, traded our first real attempts. Why, I wanted to know. What happened? I can no longer hear it, she said, all the arguing about poetry has killed it for me. It’s no longer alive in my mind. While in London recently I picked up a mug with the cover of Virginia Woolf’s Common Reader on it, from the 1938 version published by Pelican—an imprint of Penguin. As it happens I also have a paperback version and refer to it often. My partner has never understood my affinity for Woolf, a member…

• B 3.1 -- Fred Moten

  Fred Moten

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:52 pm

  What makes translation interesting and valuable and productive (of knowledge, of the the new thing, of pleasure) is its necessary failure. It succeeds insofar as it is deviant and deviance, in any case, is what the resistance of the “original” (which is always based on something) imposes upon it. There are a million different ways to celebrate this and none of them require being mean. This is a belated thanks to Thom, whose post on translation and the accompanying thread I just arrived at via Craig’s last post, but which, it turns out, I’ve been responding to,…

• Community, Awaiting Moderation, & Why I Heart Truong Tran -- Craig Santos Perez

  Craig Santos Perez

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:09 pm

  in some ways, many of the posts from the current cohort of Harriet bloggers is about community: reading series, the commons, literary magazines, criticism, ethnic and gender organizations, humans and nature, academia. even Harriet itself is a kind of community blog. as i mentioned in a previous comment field, there is always a dark side to community formation, always an exclusion, always the haunting of what a particular community will not embrace. this dark side is rearing its ugly head again… at the digital emunction group blog, folks are up in arms! kent johnson writes: One of the…

• BURN THIS -- Bhanu Kapil

  Bhanu Kapil

  6 Feb 2010 | 9:07 pm

  I threw the book into a dark garden and let it, all that winter, rot; retrieving it before the weather turned, to transcribe what was legible.  Though I considered burning it, I threw the notebook,instead, into the bin.  (Then, feeling guilty, plucked it out and put it in the recycling instead.)  Some notes on retrieval, on the circulatory and evolutionary intensity of “scraps“; of the notebook next to the book: the book that fails: “Writing is never wasted. I tell my students this, urging them to throw away a draft and start again…difficult to do, to trust. I have…

• 
  One Poet's Notes

• Cornelius Eady to Visit Valparaiso

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:21 pm

  I am pleased to note that Cornelius Eady will present his poetry at Valparaiso University this Thursday. A couple of Eady’s recent poems—“The Inaugural Poem, January, 1961” and “Aretha Franklin’s Inaugural Hat”—are included in the current issue (Fall/Winter 2009-2010: Volume XI, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. Video of Eady reading a sampling of his poetry also can be found online.Cornelius Eady is the author of eight books of poetry: Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems (2008), Brutal Imagination (2001), a National Book Award finalist; The Autobiography of a…

• BEST OF THE WEB 2010: Claudia Emerson in VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pm

  I am pleased to announce series-editor Matt Bell of Dzanc Books recently notified me that a poem from Valparaiso Poetry Review has been chosen for inclusion in their upcoming anthology publication, Best of the Web 2010 (guest-edited by Kathy Fish), scheduled for release in June. Claudia Emerson’s “Ground Truth,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2009-2010 issue (Volume XI, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review, was selected from among hundreds of nominated literary works across the entire spectrum of online magazines eligible for consideration.The Best of the Web annual anthology series…

• Poem of the Week: "Rain in Venice" by Suzanne Roberts

  1 Feb 2010 | 10:03 pm

  The VPR Poem of the Week is Suzanne Roberts’ “Rain in Venice,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue (Volume X, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.Suzanne Roberts is the author of three poetry collections, Shameless (Cherry Grove, 2007), Nothing to You (Pecan Grove Press, 2008), and Plotting Temporality (Red Hen Press, forthcoming). Her poems, stories, and essays have been published in many literary journals and anthologies, such as Atlanta Review, Eclipse, Gulf Stream, National Geographic Traveler, Smartish Pace, Spillway, Undercurrents, and elsewhere.Tuesday of each week…

• VALPARAISO POETRY REVIEW: Spring Preview

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:19 pm

  With the beginning of February, the seasons for a couple of my favorite sports start to take shape. In two weeks, major league baseball players will report to spring training camps in Arizona and Florida. Later this week, NASCAR’s preseason occurs in Florida with the Budweiser Shootout, which will be followed by the great race, the Daytona 500 (this year happening on Valentine’s Day, another indication spring is on its way). Each year, I welcome these early signs foreshadowing spring and eagerly anticipate the eventual end of wintry conditions, even though I realize it will take a while…

• Remembering Roy Eldridge

  29 Jan 2010 | 10:16 pm

  Roy Eldridge, born on this date (January 30) in 1911, established a reputation as one of the finest trumpeters in jazz during the 1930s and 1940s, when he played with some of the more notable swing bands of the World War II era, such as Gene Krupa’s Orchestra and the Artie Shaw Band, and he has often been noted as an influence on leading figures of the bebop period that followed, including Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.Nevertheless, Eldridge’s importance and impact sometimes have seemed to be overlooked among the chronicles of twentieth-century jazz. As Ted Gioia observes in his…

• 
  Poetic Asides

• Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 078

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:57 am

  Quick note: Four of my poems were recently posted in the most recent issue of Otoliths. One poem in particular from that bunch I had been trying to get published for more than a year. So, it just goes to show that persistence pays off in the end. Click here to read them. For today's prompt, I want you to write a backwards poem. I'll be interested to see what everyone writes (including myself here in a few minutes). Some ideas for writing backwards poems: Write your poem in reverse chronological order OR instead of writing from most important details to least, go least to most important OR…

• Nancy Posey Wins the 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:18 am

  Congratulations go out to the 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge winner, Nancy Posey, for her collection Let the Lady Speak. I enjoyed reading Nancy's entire collection, which includes poems referencing Gone With the Wind, Amelia Earhart, William Shakespeare, and more. As you may be able to guess from the title, this chapbook collects the voices of various women and shares them with the reader. It was a nice idea around which to build a collection. Here are a few of my favorites: Or Maybe the Day After That I'm tired of thinking about Tara, trying to save her for God knows what. I'm tired…

• Finalists for 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

  29 Jan 2010 | 12:00 pm

  On Groundhog Day, I will be announcing the winner of the 2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge. From more than 150 submissions, I have narrowed the field down to 21 finalists. Each person who completed the challenge put in more work than the typical poet. First, they wrote poems regularly throughout the month of November. Second, they revised and compiled 10-20 pages worth of poems during the month of December. Third, they followed the submission rules to make sure their manuscripts were in by the deadline. Accomplishing all these goals is a task within itself and should give you an idea of…

• Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 077

  27 Jan 2010 | 5:48 am

  Today (from 1-2 p.m. Cincinnati time) will be my last "live" session on the poets.org/forum. Be sure to visit, read the thread (which just happens to be the most active guest poet thread ever), and leave a question or two. Today, I'm going to be focusing on self-promotion/marketing tactics, but I'm up for talking about anything related to poetry. Click here to view my specific thread. Later this evening, President Obama will be making his first annual State of the Union address. I'm not going to get political one way or the other on this blog, but the event did inspire today's…

• Interview With Poet Helen Losse

  26 Jan 2010 | 10:41 am

  Okay, as anyone who's been reading this blog knows, it's been a while since I've posted anything other than prompts here. Most of that is just me trying to keep up with my (ab)normal workload. Part of that is just me trying to get my own poetry together. But I can't sit on this great interview any longer! Helen Losse is the Poetry Editor of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature. She has two chapbooks, Gathering the Broken Pieces (FootHills Publishing) and Paper Snowflakes (Southern Hum Press). In 2009, Rank Stranger Press published Losse's collection Better With Friends. Here's one of…

• 
  Poetry Freedom

• The heart of blood

  CresentRize

  17 Jan 2010 | 10:49 pm

  The heart of  blood bleeds out unstoppible all because of one reason my heart is split down the mddle not able to decide the girl it belongs to. The heart of blood it walks and stalks in creeps of the night what girl shall fill the love in my heart. The pain i live with every [...]

• A smoky mirror

  Eric Norton

  11 Jan 2010 | 6:43 pm

  A smoky mirror There’s a mirror, an antique, That’s hanging on my wall I’ve had it all of a week I don’t like it at all Light shines on its smoky glass, Showing secrets inside Its frame, made of tarnished brass, Gives ghosts a place to hide Once owned by a distant aunt, By her mother before, It hangs in front of a plant Opposite my back [...]

• Winter, do not forget among your loss of flowers, me

  orphani

  9 Jan 2010 | 11:01 am

  Winter… do not forget among the loss of flowers me Beneath your death of snow Do not forget That little bird of sun,  the trees gave down; Their bending branches, To light the grass Where love was new Do not forget my love; That nights most fragile gift, The sky; Bowed low to give a blushing praise To the joyful dance of stars and moon. Do not forget the nesting [...]

• I’ll fight until I’ve won

  Eric Norton

  9 Jan 2010 | 10:15 am

  I’ll fight until I’ve won (Lyrics) There was a time I just wanted to die Only I knew why I was wand’ring through the world so lost and dazed Only black and white, no greys The time had come when I just reached the end Crying souls don’t mend My so-called life, I felt, was finally through By my grave a cold wind blew (Chorus) Looking [...]

• Beyond hope

  Eric Norton

  9 Jan 2010 | 10:14 am

  Beyond hope No matter what the problem, every little stress I can’t even function, let alone think All that I try to do only adds to the mess I get overwhelmed, truly on the brink I have no inborn capability to cope “Panic” has become my daily password Always a sinking feeling that I’m beyond hope Life is a reflection of the absurd Drowning [...]

• 
  Dunstan Carter - Poetry

• Gorilla Daydream No.3

  dunstancarter

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:11 pm

  The rumbling pauses Silence is paranoia I shout to be heard Poetry.net

• Library Cabaret Brigade

  dunstancarter

  31 Jan 2010 | 4:03 pm

  They tap into the hope Of the biscuit dunking Library cabaret brigade, They make them think that they’re saved, All tombola tin rattles And welcome home parties For bodies in bags, And the prayers that they kneaded Into cakes are now bleeding Through the baking tin corners That have long since served purpose, Like broken toy soldiers Alone in a loft, Snapped up in boxes Estranged from their tears. Poetry.net

• Gorilla Daydream No.2

  dunstancarter

  30 Jan 2010 | 4:47 pm

  This town’s a graveyard Flicking chips at the pigeons Vermin are thriving Poetry.net

• Gorilla Daydream No.1

  dunstancarter

  25 Jan 2010 | 4:18 pm

  They came here smiling All flags and sunshine t-shirts We showed ‘em what for Poetry.net

• The Perfect Route

  dunstancarter

  21 Jan 2010 | 12:36 pm

  You’re the clouds disappearing As I stare through the skylight, Dizzy taxi rides and moonshine, Drunken snow walks and laughter, An attic of new memories gathering, The perfect route to dance through dreams. Poetry.net

• 
  left 2 write

• ABC’s of Alliteration

  admin

  21 Jan 2010 | 9:10 pm

  Assuming is for asinine analysts always angry and anguishing about augmented reality with aims to advance their alterior motives. Backwards bigots blaming Blacks for being bottom-dwellers is blasphemous at best. Bloody bumbaclot bastards, boo! Caniving cliche country chicks can cock-a-doodle-doo cash cows from countless (charitable) C-list celebrities. Dictators delve in dimly dark dens, doing dastardly deeds & directly dodging do-gooders daily, like draft dodgers. ..to be continued

• Understandably Untitled

  admin

  15 Jan 2010 | 10:46 pm

  Number one in my toolkit, #2 pencil Will.i.write out the box? They call me jump-fence Bill. I would’ve rhymed ’stencil’, but that’s too simple You reap what you sew, so I needle nouns nimble. Alliteration as absurd as abnormal AdSense words Aka the Mad Adder of adjectives and adverbs. Last name Smith, first name Wordsword I eat nouns now & later hors d’oeuvre verbs. Words lay down for me like lovers, we burn rugs. I pull out my piece, its like peace, olive branch, dove. I’m not squeaky clean, wash my mouth with Dove When I finish I squeak clean like…

• On to the Nexus One

  admin

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:48 am

  I put her in a figure @foursquare headlock. @formspring’ed her to Young Money’s ‘Bedrock’. P-poked her @facebook, made her @flickr hot. She said @gowalla, then gave me her @dropbox. Rode my @googlewave, gave me @googlevoice. On to the Nexus One, I rub her OLED till it’s moist.

• Shout Outs

  admin

  23 Dec 2009 | 5:04 pm

  Shout out to: Divorced parents who don’t talk, but call each other to go “halfsies” on the kids’ xmas gifts. Dudes (still) shopping at Tiffany’s. That $200 heart bracelet is so 2000-late! Parents buying “Easy Bake Ovens” for Christmas, and don’t have any real food for their real oven. Grand kids that asked for iPods, and end up getting a Sandisk .mp3 player. Parents buying Escalade Power-wheels for their kids when your car-note is past dude. Parents buying big-screen TVs when you know your cable is off. Gap employees. I know you’ve folded…

• 12th day of Xmas

  admin

  16 Dec 2009 | 8:02 pm

  On the 12th day of Xmas, my true love sent to me: Twelve Jumpman’s jumping, Eleven diapers wiping, Ten whores a-sleeping, Nine ladies re-financing, Eight moms a-milfing, Seven cons a-pimping, Six priests a-praying, Five Lord of the Rings, Four call girls, Three french twins, Two fertile loves, And a cartridge for my new Wii…

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  the amplified bard

• Meet Brooklyn’s New Poet Laureate

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:34 am

  The New York borough, Brooklyn has announced its poet laureate. Tina Chang, the author of Half-Lit Houses, will be the fourth poetic ambassador to fill the position. According to Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, “Ms. Chang has dedicated her life to poetry and is passionate about reaching and educating diverse communities.”Chang has been promoting poetry among the community for many years. "I see myself as an ambassador and activist on behalf of poetry," Chang said. "Over the past decade, I've given myself over to poetry completely, engaging students, teachers, writers,…

• Wonderful "Evolution of the Book" Chart

  2 Feb 2010 | 11:34 am

  If you need a refresher on the heritage of the ubiquitous ebook readers, then you will be interested in checking out this "Evolution of the Book" linear chart. According to Fastcompany, "the chart shows how primitive Clay Sumerian Tablets (3500 BC) and Egyptian Papyrus scrolls (2400 BC) evolved into wax tablet codex (200 BC), Gutenberg's printing press (1440), and more modern dalliances like the Japanese cell-phone text novel."

• Protraits of Poets Exhibition

  11 Jan 2010 | 8:27 am

  Nikki Giovanni photographed at her desk in her apartment on November 4, 1975 by Jill Krementz.A poem is a way of capturing a moment, I don't do a lot of revisions because I think if you have to do that then you've got problems with the poem. Rather than polish the words, I take the time to polish the poem. If that means I start at the top a dozen of times, that's what I do. A poem's got to be a single stroke, and I make it the best I can because it's going to live.An exhibition featuring drawings, photographs, collages and oil portraits of distinguished poets ranging from Dylan Thomas, Robert…

• Family Group Day: A Video Poem Featued on Moving Poems

  6 Jan 2010 | 8:03 pm

  A while ago, I posted some behind-the-scenes pictures of the filming of my video poem, "Family Group Day" here. After I posted the final version of the video poem on Youtube, I found out that it was featured on Moving Poems: The Best Video Poems on the Web. So, I thought I'd share it with everyone. Here is the premiere of my video poem "Family Group Day" written and performed by poet Radames Ortiz featuring music by Trills, graphic design artist Alberto Capetillo and videographer Gilbert Camargo. Let me know what you think.

• Poem Published in the Bicycle Review

  18 Dec 2009 | 11:42 am

  My poem "Lunchtime Sonnet" was recently published in the fourth issue of the Bicycle Review. The issue features poetry and short fiction by Eric J. Brinovec, Christopher Coleman, Ginetta Corelli, C.S. DeWildt, Dave Erlewine, Kimberly Freeman, Ricky Garni, Kirpal Gordon, Radomir Luza, Valery Oisteanu, and Radames Ortiz.It also features original artworks by M.K. Bullock, photography by Charles Hayes and cover art by Rhea Adri-de SalvoThis is a wonderful new journal based out in L.A. which publishes work that is " "unusual, original and downright creepy." For submission guidelines go here.

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  Frozen well

• of cakes and crackers – 55 fiction #3

  Narendra

  26 Jan 2010 | 5:02 pm

  I nudged my mom to buy it for me, an apple cake. . As the cute child I was, the shopkeeper instantly took out a piece for me seeing the need in my eyes. I demanded more…She looked into her purse and the emptiness within. . She asked me to run home … . Fidayeen… . The cake never returned Posted in short-story Tagged: 55 fiction, [...]

• The dear blog demise?

  Narendra

  26 Jan 2010 | 4:38 pm

  is this my dear blog’s demise? should We blame the price rise ? Posted in personal, random

• The ‘dear diary’ demise ? -(Blog-a-ton 6)

  Narendra

  8 Jan 2010 | 10:35 am

  Frozen well celebrates its first anniversary! ok I mean I am celebrating first anniversary of frozen well …here’s wishing all the friends,followers,well wishers,stalkers and enemies a very happy new year..and thanks to all of you (yeah yeah including even enemies) for making my blog a place worth visiting    This post has been [...]

• The divine dew…

  Narendra

  8 Jan 2010 | 10:34 am

  When words filled mute corners And rhythms played harps, Not the other way round… When chimes moved no muscle So that they didn’t miss what you say When giggles crossed books and shelves And heaviness of evenings felt so light ~ O give me lines to write O give me lives to live ~ While you fortified your tears And counted mine as they trickled down When laughter [...]

• Untitled

  Narendra

  16 Dec 2009 | 5:19 pm

  Worse than a tough past I got I run from agony of ever, forever. So deep, that I forget my name. So bright, obscures the lane. Again…in pain It never was fun It always was ‘just fine’ ~ Clenching in my fist the morning chirps Crushing in my hands the musical notes So loud, I forget my voice. So harsh, it’s no melody somehow Again…in mayhem It never [...]

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  Robert Peake

• “What Should You Learn From Rejection Letters?”

  Robert Peake

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:19 am

  The first article in my new series for Read Write Poem is now available, tackling the painful and often taboo topic of rejection letters head-on. It’s not something poets tend to admit to receiving, let alone talk about with their peers. Yet rejection is a natural and necessary (albeit sometimes painful) part of the writing business. Asking what you can get out of the experience is just plain smart. So, in that spirit, I have done my best to serve up fairly simple, practical advice with a dash of humor and a healthy side of encouragement. I hope you enjoy it!

• Interview Online at Read Write Poem

  Robert Peake

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:22 pm

  My responses to a few fun interview questions are now available on the Read Write Poem website as part of their “Member Spotlight” series. This anticipates the release of a new poetry advice column I will be writing for them. Think “Dear Abby” for poets. The first article is due out tomorrow, answering the question “What can you learn from rejection letters?” Check back tomorrow for more!

• Poem in Sugar Mule Online

  Robert Peake

  31 Jan 2010 | 6:12 pm

  One of my poems, “Matins with Slippers and House Cat,” is now available in Sugar Mule #34 online. I find the time to write poetry by getting up before dawn. I began writing poems with “matins” (morning prayer) in the title after reading Lousie Glück’s The Wild Iris. At first, these were quiet, grief-stricken prayers. Yet, over time, I have opened up to increasing experimentation, playing with forms more wildly, allowing myself to venture into political and ideological irreverence in search of greater truths. This poem represents one such adventure. The final…

• The Fourth Year

  Robert Peake

  24 Jan 2010 | 2:13 pm

  Our son, James, was born four years ago today. His brief life changed mine inexplicably. Since that time, I completed a Doctorate in Spiritual Science, and an MFA in writing poetry, since spiritual practice and poetic expression are two oars by which I navigate the underground waters of grief. And looking back on the first, second, and third anniversary, I see a clear trajectory toward healing, and toward integrating this profound experience into my life–not as a tragedy–but as a source of strength. I recently found the courage to hold a baby in my arms again, and felt, in that…

• Paul Fericano at Artists’ Union Gallery

  Robert Peake

  20 Jan 2010 | 6:59 am

  I had the pleasure of hearing Paul Fericano read poems new and old at the Artists’ Union Gallery last night. Paul’s is a distinct turn of mind–able to sweep up humor, irony, and deep feeling in a winning trifecta. Paul takes the materials of popular culture–from Elizabeth Taylor to The Three Stooges–and makes of them something transcendent. It is precisely in the moment I am laughing in a Paul Fericano poem that my guard is down. It is then when Paul slips in a modicum of pathos, reminding me of how complex it is to be human, how, as Virginia Woolf puts it in…

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  E D I B L E    D E T R I T U S

• Portrait of Dr. Felix Rey, January, 1889

  The intern who cared for Vincent van Gogh after he severed his ear. The painting was a tributary gift. While Dr. Rey was quite fond of Van Gogh, who mentioned the physician favorably and intimately in his letters, Rey did not appreciate the painting, at least not at first. His parents used [...]

• Haus LebensWert

  Haus LebensWert is a philanthropically developed and supported facility in Cologne, Germany where patients may receive oncology services free of charge.  An integral part of Haus LebensWert’s vision and mission is to vigorously help cancer patients cope with life both during treatment and afterwards.  Another key component is the use of alternative and complimentary therapies.  [...]

• A woman living with osteoarthritis: A case report

  Understanding how a patient makes sense of chronic or disabling illness can be critical to the effective treatment of that illness.  Repairing the body doesn’t necessarily repair the life. Patients must confront changes to their bodies and in how they live their lives, psychological dimensions of disease physicians and allied practitioners have appropriately tried to [...]

• Lab 16

  It is now a common practice for first year medical students to take part in a ceremony honoring the donors of cadavers used in dissection for the teaching of anatomy. The manner of the students’ participation is up to them; the reading of poetry, including original poems is not uncommon. Here is such a poem [...]

• Review of Primitive Mood in Philadelphia Stories

  Poet Valeria Tsygankova gave this review of Primitive Mood in the literature and arts magazine Philadelphia Stories: “In his newest book, Primitive Mood, David Moolten picks at humanity’s darkest tendencies and deepest capacities for suffering. Like a patchwork quilt of the twentieth century, the poems in this volume handle violence and loss, questioning and disillusionment, determination [...]

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  peony moon

• Kona Macphee’s Perfect Blue

  Michelle

  7 Feb 2010 | 7:33 am

        Born in London in 1969, Kona Macphee grew up in Australia. She flirted with a range of occupations including composer, violinist, waitress and motorcycle mechanic. She took up robotics and computer science, which brought her to Cambridge as a graduate student in 1995.       She now lives in beautiful Perthshire, where she works as a freelance writer and moonlights as the co-director of a software and consultancy company. She has been writing poems since 1997, and received an Eric Gregory Award in 1998. Her first collection, Tails, was published by Bloodaxe in 2004. Her second…

• Waterloo Press: A Brighton Launch

  Michelle

  6 Feb 2010 | 5:35 am

  Waterloo Press cordially invites you to the Brighton Launch of their European Programme    featuring    Maria Jastrzębska reading from her new poetry collection Everyday Angels   Emily Jeremiah reading from Bright, Dusky, Bright her translations of the work of Eeva-Liisa Manner    and music from the ‘passionate and gutsy’ Sarah Clarke    7:30 for 8pm / Tues, Feb 16th / £5/4 Iambic Arts Theatre above Bell Book & Candle on Gardner St ** Entrance is behind the shop, on Regent St and will be signposted with balloons ** Cash bar    * * * * * * * *       Maria…

• Midsummer Valentine’s Concert for Charity

  Michelle

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:31 pm

      Pack your picnic basket, uncork your bubbly and share a romantic evening of musical brilliance at the Midsummer Melodies concert, to be held on Valentine’s Day (Sunday, 14 February) in the gardens of the Main House at De Grendel Estate in Plattekloof.   The internationally acclaimed Cape Town Opera will be performing together with the talented young voices of the Hout Bay Music Project under the musical direction of celebrated local songstress, Aviva Pelham.   The Midsummer Melodies concert is being held to raise awareness for the Montrose Foundation and its two main…

• petite

  Michelle

  5 Feb 2010 | 9:26 am

            Maggie Butt’s petite (Hearing Eye, 2010) follows her first full collection, Lipstick (Greenwich Exchange, 2007). Maggie’s poems have appeared widely in magazines and on the internet. She is an ex-journalist and BBC television producer, and is currently head of the Media department of Middlesex University. She lives in London and is chair of the National Association of Writers in Education.         Ant Life Maggie Butt    Scurrying in and out of readings lugging our self-important words like leaf-clippings half our own size; busying ourselves with…

• Taste and Smell

  Michelle

  3 Feb 2010 | 10:29 am

          “But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.”     – Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past (Volume 1) Filed under: quotes Tagged: Marcel Proust quotes,…

• 
  The Purple Walk

• Hero

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:49 pm

  When I say hero, I know what I do not mean:A horse rider, a loud noise, gallant bastard, Public servant, honored and seen.Not the man who leans to snatchSmall child from crocodile’s mouth,And not the soldier stepping beforeA small Iraqi woman to blockThe off-throw of an improvised blast.The hero I call up rises each morning,To the talk in his head shouting him down,Crosses wood planks of worn floorTo face a small mirror for the first encounter.He is older by a day and full of his listsOf must-does and the-thousand-tasksMet by a chorus of silence,He contends with the invisible:Advance of the…

• About Being Afraid

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:32 pm

  1.I waited, holding the strap on the bus, Steady, smooth skinned, hair back -Then a sharpness rose to scratch me And I heard a single sentence - a message.“You are afraid of just about everythingAnd you are afraid almost all of the time.”For example, afraid that the house will be robbed, That the people who love me will leave,That the boss will call me in to shareThat it’s not working out. . .I could go on.“It could all be taken away,couldn’t it?”Said the voice just before I said shut up.2In present tense a dear friend asksHow these fears and taunts, self generated,Given that they…

• She Asks

  30 Jan 2010 | 12:56 pm

  1Last night I watched you undo what you had done a few hours before, wiping with a warm wet towel that face that you had applied to the surface of your own. You splashed water on your clean skin, dried yourself with a second towel, and looking to me said, “I’m back.”2The room is dark when I awaken. You are still sleeping. I move to your chair and take your seat. I ask my thoughts to give me a moment without closing in. What happens when you take this seat? Give me the name of the man who sits at this table, selects from these danglers, knows red from cinnabar, and who turns to me some…

• Karl's Ashes in May

  22 Jan 2010 | 9:23 pm

  You and I stood where waves ended,Fingers interlocked and mouths closed-A speechless reverie for him Spoken in a succession of questionsUnvoiced except for your squeeze of my hand.Then you handed me the box Where you had kept Karl’s ashesAnd asked me to walk into the waterTo let the evidence of his soot and grayMix and dissolve in the cold water.Water rose as I walked deeperDigging my hand into the box,Finding more of him as the water Took more of me.You had told me that he wanted to go.When I came back, you held meTo steady yourself and to cover me with your coat.A covenant passed in…

• Whitman

  22 Jan 2010 | 8:57 pm

  When Whitman pushed out to the then frontierHow could he not have felt the unionWith spring grass and sap rising And soil upturning beneath his bare toes.He saw a wet land glisteningAnd heard the choir of the young voiceBringing strings to match his songSinging now, now we have this moment together.Could he also see this second timeA mirror to the firstVile in exact proportion to the former sugars?Would he have fallen into slack jaw silence if so?That first kiss of blueNow the vinegar of these bleeding sores,Ranges of detonated mountain peaksBlood screams that pass in acid river songs?He…