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"A note to Pound in heaven: Only one mistake, Ezra! You should have talked to women"
--George Oppen, _Twenty Six Fragments_
Archives:
xoxo Hey, E-Mail Me! xoxo
ManY PoETiKaL HaTs LisT:
Holly's Pirate-girl Hat,
chrismurray in a straw hat,
Michael Helsem's Gray Wyvern NOLA Fedora.
Duchamp's Rrose Selavy's flirting hat.
Max Ernst's Hats of The Hat Makes the Man.
Jordan Davis' The Hat!
poetry. hks' smelly head baseball cap.
Samuel Beckett's Lucky's
Black bowler hat,
giving his oration
on what's questionable in mankind,
in *Waiting for 'God-ot'*.
my friend John Phillips's 1969
dove gray fedora w/ wild feather.
Bob Dylan's mystery lover's Panama Hat.
Bob Creeley's Black Mountain Felt Boater Hat.
Duke Ellington's Satin
Top Hat. Acorn Hats of Tree.
Freud's 1950 City Fedora.
Joseph Brodsky's Sailor Cap.
Harry K Stammer's Copper Hat
Hell. Lewis LaCook's bowler hat(s).
Tom Beckett's Bad Hair Day
Furry Pimp Hat. Daughter Holly's black beret.
harry k stammer's fez. Cat
in the Hat's Hat & best
hat, Googling Texfiles:
crocheted hat with flames.
Harry K Stammer's tinseled berets.
Tex's 10 gallon Gary Cooper felt Stetson cowboy hat.
Jordan Davis's fedora.
Dali's High-heel Shoe Hat. Harry K Stammer's en-blog LAPD Hat
& aluminum baseball cap. cap'n caps. NY-Yankees caps. the HKS-in-person-caps
are blue or green no logos nor captions.
Ma Skanky Possum 10's nighttime cap.
moose antler hat. propeller beenie hat.
doo rag. knit face mask hat. Bob Dylan's & photographer Laziz
Hamani's panama hats. Mark Weiss's Publisher's Hat.
Rebecca Loudon's Seattle-TX-Hats'n'boots.
Ever-Evolving Links:
Silliman's Links
Dominic Rivron
Unidentified
Br Tom @ One & Plainer
Dan Waber: ars poetica anthology
Dan Waber: altered books anthology
chris daniels: Notes to a Fellow Traveller
Chris Daniels: Toward an Anti-Capitalist Poetry
David Daniels: The Gates Of Paradise
subterranean poets: Beijing Poetry Group
Charles Alexander/Chax Press: Chaxblog
Headlines Poetry: the latest weblog entries
Henry Gould's AlephoeBooks
Julie Choffel's Understory
Tom Murphy's former one
Jean Vengua's New Okir
Roger Pao's Asian-American Poetry
Tom Lisk: Oilcloth and Linoleum
Kevin Doran
Reb Livingston's Cackling Jackal Blog
Janet Holmes: Humanophone
Lorna Dee Cervantes
Mark Young's gamma ways
Brian Campbell: Out of the Woodwork
Shanna's DIY Publishing Blog
Galatea Resurrects: a Poetry Review
Tom Beckett
John Sakkis: BOTH BOTH
New Francois Luong:Voices in Utter Dark, KaBlow!sm is...
Old Francois Luong: Voices in Utter Dark
Margin Walker: Andrew Lundwall
Free Space Comix: the latest BK Stefans blog
Adam Lockhart, Experimentalist Composer
Antic View: Alan Bramhall & Jeff Harrison
lookouchblog: Jessica Smith
MiPOradio
Web Log -- Charles Bernstein
Google Poem Generator: Leevi Lehto
Marie Mutsuki Mockett
Feral Scholar: Stan Goff
worderos: Tom Beckett
In Galatea's Purse
Japundit
Quiet Desperation: Jim Ryal
Luca Antara: Martin Edmond
Brief Epigrams: Ryan Alexander MacDonald
Radio My Vocabulary: 4 pm Sunday Poetry Streams
Mark Lamoreaux: [[[0{:}0]]]
Hot Whiskey Blog
louder
Nick Bruno: They Shoot Poets Don't They?
Joe Massey: Rooted Fool
Kate Greenstreet: every other day
heuriskein: Tom Orange
Chiaroscuro Metropoli: Tom Beckett
Behrle's latest spout!
Fluffy Dollars: Michelle Detorie
Jane Dark's Sugar High!
The Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center
(Charles) Olson Now: Michael Kellaher & Ammiel Alcalay
kari edwards' TranssubMUTATION
Notes on the Revival: Jeremy Hawkins
PurPur: Petrus Pokus
Snapper Missives: Scott Pierce
A Sad Day for Sad Birds II: Gina Meyers
Great Works: Peter Philpot
zafusy: experimental poetry journal
Writeboard: a collaborative writing tool
John Latta: Rue Hazard
KP Harris: Croissant Factory
Stephanie Young's New Site
Stephen Vincent's New Site
Portable Press@Yo~Yo Labs
Square America
Amy King's blog
Robert: Peyoetry Hut
Muisti Kirja: Karri Kokko
Karri Kokko's Blonde on Blonde
Yummeee Blog (recipes)
Nice Guy Syndrome: Tim Botta
Left Hook
Del Ray Cross: anachronizms
Juan Cole: Informed Comment
BuzzFlash - Daily Headlines, Breaking News, Links
Aaron McCollough
Chris Lott's Cosmopoetica
Chad Parenteau
Little Emerson
Fever, Light--by Sawako Nakayasu
Second Wish
Nomadics
Alison Croggon
Radical Druid
Ron is Ron: the Ron Silliman Cartoon by Jim Behrle
Dagzine: Positions, Poetics, Populations: Gary Norris
Shadows within Shadows: Tom Beckett
Self Similar Writing: Jukka Pekka Kervinen
The Little Workshop: Cassie Lewis
Sky Bright: Jay Rosevear
Poesy Galore: Emily Lloyd
Lisa Jarnot's Blog
Poetry Hut: Jilly Dybka (has moved here)
Pornfeld: Michael Hoerman
Seven Apples: Justin Ulmer
Hi Spirits: Andrew Burke
Bacon Bargain!: Joe Massey
Ivy is here: Ivy Alvarez
Whimsy Speaks: Jeff Bahr
Umbrella: Jeff Wietor
Chicanas! (Susana L. Gallardo)
Masters of Photography
Blog of Disquiet: Gary Norris' Teaching Blog
Suzanna Gig Jig
Bad with Titles: Jay Thomas
Spaceship Tumblers! Tony Tost
Desert City: Ken Rumble
E-Po
Zotz!
Optative Mood: Tim Morris
ecritures bleues: Laura Carter
The Ingredient: Alli Warren
Skanky Possum Pouch
Slight Publications
Jewishy-Irishy: Laurel Snyder
Sea-Camel: Alberto Romero Bermo
Growing Nations: Jordan Stempleman
Tom Raworth
Entropy and Me: Hal Johnson
Scott Pierce: Snapper's Junk
Chicano Poet: Reyes Cardenas
Semio-Karl M&M
Stephen Vincent
Hoa Nguyen/Teacher's & Writers
a New Word Placements
Narcissus Works: Anny Ballardini
Richard Lopez
Tributary: Allen Bramhall
The_Delay: Chris Vitiello
Jukka Pekka Kervinen: Nonlinear Poetry
Lanny Quarles: Phaneronoemikon
Clifford Duffy: Fictions of Deleuze & Guattari
DagZine
Carrboro Poetry Festival
Steve Evans: Third Factory
DEBORAH PATILLO
SKANKY POSSUM PRESS
Tim Peterson: Mappemunde
WOOD'S LOT
Geof Huth: DBQP
Ann Marie Eldon
Jim Behrle: The Jim Side
Ray Bianchi:Postmodern Collage Poetry
Never Mind the Beasts
Diaryo
New Broom
Flingdump Scattershot
Tony Tost: Unquiet Grave
Grapez
SB POET
Mark Young's Pelican Dreaming
|||AS/IS2|||
Li's A Private Studio
Anny Ballardini's Poet's Corner
Tom Beckett: Vanishing Points
Dumbfoundry
BadGurrrlNest
Jean Vengua's Okir
Hear-it dot org: info on hearing problems
Tim Yu's Tympan
James Yeager's Modern Lives
Tony Robinson: Geneva Convention
Daniel Nestor's Unpleasant Event
Ex-Lion Tamer
Carlos Arribas: Scriptorium
David Nemeth
Ela's Incertain Plume
Mairead Byrne's Heaven
Catherine Daly
Black Spring
Br.Tom's Finish Yr Phrase
Shin Yu Pai: makura-no-soshi
Harry K. Stammer: Downtown LA
Corina's Fledgling Wordsmith
Jilly Dybka's Poetry Hut
Ben Basan's Luminations
Katey: Chewing on Pencils
YaY!! Eileen Tabios: Chatelaine Poetics !
Jill Jones: Ruby Street
Geoffrey Gatza's BlazeVox
Bill Allegrezza's P-Ramblings
Gary Sullivan's Elsewhere
GoldenRuleJones
Poetry_Heat
Bookslut
Chickee's SuperDeluxeGoodPoems
As-Is !
John Latta's Hotel Point
Sawako Nakayasu's Ongoing Show
Shanna Compton's Brand New Insects
Crag Hill
kari edwards: transdada
Fluss
Michael Helsem's Gray Wyvern
Word Placement
Bogue's Blog
Jordan Davis: Equanimity
Robert Flach's Unadulterated Text
Michelle Bautista
Ironic Cinema
Mike Snider
Farewell Tonio!
In Through the Out Door
The Blonde Brunette
Awake at Dawn on Someone's Couch is Toast
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen:Non-Linear
Xpress(ed) !
Chris Lott's Ruminate
Venepoetics
Laura: Yellowslip
Stick Poet Super Hero
Mighty Jens!
Radio UTA: Toni's Thursday Poetry Show
Tim Morris: Lection
Gabe Gudding
Constant Critic
Sappho's Breathing
Waves of Reading
Jhananin's Insite
Fanaticus
AdvExpo
Stephen Vincent
Stephanie Young: New Well Nourished Moon
Kasey Silem Mohammad's Newest Limetree
Lanny Quarles: (solipsis)//:phaneronoemikon
States Writes
Rebecca's Pocket
Simulacro
Braincase Links
Sentence
Sor Juana
73 Urban Bus Journeys
Poeta Empirica
poetry for the people: canwehaveourballback?
Ernesto Priego's Never Neutral
Nick Piombino's Fait Accompli
Weekly Incite blogresearch
Jim Behrle's first monkey
Jim Behrle's Monkey's Gone to Heaven
David Kirschenbaum's Boog City
Not Nick Moudry
Laurable
David Hess Heathens in Heat
Jack Kimball's Pantaloons
Li Bloom's Abolone
Ron Silliman
Chris Sullivan's Bloggchaff
Chris Sullivan's Slight Publications
Chris Sullivan's Department of Culture
Kasey S. Mohammad's Old-New Limetree
Kasey's Old Limetree
James Meetze: Brutal Kittens
Cassie Lewis: The Jetty
Joseph Mosconi's Harlequin Knights
Nada Gordon's Ululate
ultimate: Stephanie Young's First Well Nourished Moon
Steve Evans: Third Factory
Noah Eli Gordon's Human Verb
Jean Vengua's Blue Kangaroo
Sawako Nakayasu: Texture Notes
Free Space Comix: BK Stefans
Crosfader
Malcolm Davidson's eeksy peeksy
Marsh Hawk Press group
Catherine Meng's Porthole Redux
Josh Corey's Cahiers de Corey
Very Nice! Shampoopoetry
UTA's Lit Mag: ZNine
Wild Honey Press
Jacket
JFK's Poetinresidence
Malcolm Davidson's Tram Spark poems
HYepez: RealiTi
HYpez: Mexperimental
Aimee Nez's Gila Monster
BestMaX: Jim Behrle's jismblog
Cori Copp's Littleshirleybean
Jordan Davis: Million Poems
Eileen Tabios: Corpsepoetics [see Chatelaine above]
YaY! Liz's Thirdwish
Ultra Linking
Henry Gould's HG Poetics
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Saturday, February 07, 2004
Poetry_Heat Tonight!
7 p.m.
Shin Yu Pai
Gabriel Lopez
Chris Murray
University of Texas at Arlington
Red River Room
University Center
chris at
3:11 PM
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Wow! Go Michael Helsem/Gray Wyvern! Michael answered
Kent's quiz, which is posted at Luminations.
Check this out...
chris at
4:36 AM
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from Wendy Taylor Carlisle, Texfiles Poet of the Week :
“If Love Was After All
Just a Mistake” *
an exit problem
a plowed surface, a gully
empty hands
his complexion,
a field tomato,
a burrow, a red mist,
the gypsy
the flames wavering.
a leap backwards
a Northern Italian forest
facing the sky
the scrap of shadow
rock mountains
seeds in a bucket.
a woman,
grave in a photo,
her long fingers
this instant
smoke
after all
* line from R. Jackson, “Rift”
chris at
3:29 AM
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Friday, February 06, 2004
Poetrexia Nervosa, Piano Mio! *
Starting to get that little bit of productive (very productive! yes, that's what it is, productive... ) nervousness one gets just before a big event, like poetry readings you've put together, or first days of class (whether teacher or student, kindergarten to retirement). It's about hoping so much that everything will go well--same thing for which other cultures/times have/had invocations to the dieties: safekeeping on the threshold of potentially transformative changes (thank you, Mr. Learned Eliade, I hope you weren't a Naziade like that Mr. Heidiggeriade)--and, it's about, well,
OH Mi-GOD--
drop yr veil of denial now cuz yr in it fer real
no turnin' back to that warm and fuzzy Airstream pull-out bed full of comforters and Mary Kay cosmetics in the bathroom mirror, no way,
baby--
Yikes, what will I do if for some reason it doesn't (just sayin' by way of being honest about feelings here and their sources, at least as far as I can make out [but oooo, "make out," now there's a nice little detour--overlooked in value!--ambiguous phrase, yes... downbeat, downbeat, pause and then a sigh of oh boombah, but as I was saying] ) ?
And just thinking like this has been known to jinx more than one hopeful, or in sports I guess ya could say 'hoopful' ? So, onto other more productive uses of denial:
YaY !! Poetry reading here at UTA, and it's gonna be a good'un, as they say about summer storms when ya really, really, need some more than just a few nickel sized spots of rain to visit your corn, your car, or your geraniums, round he-ah, yesssm (i love the music to be heard in that locution (and in Arizona--I miss Arizona!) on the ranches where the buffalo can't roam much because a wall, an oil well, or just a plain old bloke and his humvee is in the YaY!! I got lots of corn here, Lord, please help me out!
Here's wishing me luck (tho God of course remains stubborn about luck, prefering instead, authorisstairian predetermining modes!
But hey, here's many grateful thanks to the folks who have emailed me to wish me well--that means you Tim Morris! a virtual xoxo to ya! And no few good hearted others, too, and from several places around the globe. Dang, the online thing is so amazing that way. Thanks, Y'all! You rock!
* Definitely not a pathological condition of the piano: just the thing that keeps the wire flexi&taut so to give the piano just enough forte to make everything shivery good.
ZaZen, Y'All !
chris at
10:52 PM
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My email at UTA is down again.
Please try me at
cmurray88@yahoo.com
or
cmrry88@aol.com
if you are trying to reach me.
cm
chris at
10:45 PM
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More Kudos: Ken Roemer's new book!
Hey, this is kinda cool: UTA English faculty Ken Roemer has a new book out: Utopian Audiences: How Readers Locate Nowhere, and it has been nominated for the MLA's James Russell Lowell Prize for best critical biography (it's about Edward Bellamy and his utopian novel, Looking Backward).
That's the book I blogged about here when helping Ken with it last summer!--How we were proofreading it by reading aloud every single mark in it, and how that was feeling like ritualized chanting. So, yeah: I'm in the book credits/acknowledgements for all that chanting,* checking, reading.
I like that idea: Chris Murray, Official Chanting Checker...
*tho of course chanters don't get a prize from the MLA : )
It's a fine book, I can see why it's being considered for this great honor.
Congratulations, Ken !
chris at
8:29 PM
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Come to think of it, Kent, I suppose those appetizers in your recipe should have special designations of cheesiness made according to the importance of the diner, because you just know some are going to want theirs to be very extra special to compliment their status, and some will be middling, and some will just make do with regular cheesy, right? I'm also wondering if you want to petition for a patent on this recipe: you know how MacDonald's has been about poetry lately. They'd be likely to steal your hard earned recognition for the fine recipe and call it their own, eh?
chris at
8:15 PM
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Coming up this evening: more work from Wendy Taylor Carlisle, Texfiles Poet of the Week !
chris at
7:17 PM
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Special Guest Audblog:
Kent Johnson's Recipe for a Poetry Dinner Party !
 audio post powered by audblog
When preparing Squirrel Head Cheese Surprise as an appetizer, it is best to do so in the spring, for it is in this season that these fine creatures are most delectable inside, energized and plumped as they are by the nuts they have saved throughout the winter. For a party of four, sixteen heads will do. Sever the heads, wash them with soap to remove all parasites in the fur, and pull the skin down around the cavity at the base, sewing as you would a hen for roasting. Now drop them into a pot of boiling water for up to four hours and go about your chores, perhaps taking the time to prepare other things for the gathering, or to make, even, a centerpiece of wildflowers, should you be so lucky to have them handy. After this extended boiling time (don't forget to set the timer!) the skin and flesh should peel off easily down to the skull. Simply pull off, sutures and all, making sure the cavity is positioned upward, lest the cheeses spill out. Now take an empty egg carton and place the skulls (they should be white as fresh eggs!) cavity-side up. Stuff each cavity with a wad of fresh bacon. Now place the skulls in a baking dish (a tin-foil bottom is a good idea, as it saves quite a bit of clean-up time) and bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for two hours. Remove and put four skulls on each plate, garnishing with parsley or other herb. Instruct your guests (incidentally, this is a fine dish to serve when having post-avant poets with a graduate specialization in the 19th century over to dinner, especially those from New York or Philadelphia, unaccustomed as they are to Midwestern fare!) in how to use the nutcrackers. Simply say, in a casual voice, "You just crack it open like a walnut." Then, after doing this yourself, show them how to directly suck out the cheeses from the fissure created by the nutcracker. You may say, dreamily, before doing so: "Imagine, if you can, the scarlet phlegm of Keats,” or you may say, in French, “Think of Rimbaud, coughing up a lunch of fresh oysters and wine.” Then, having sucked, take a swallow from your drink (a dry chardonnay is best with this appetizer) and then watch your guests do the same, putting special attention on the poet whom you secretly desire. If he or she is awkward on the first try (this is likely), quickly say "Oh, dear!" and get up, take his or her napkin, and dab the cheeses and juice away from the chin. Then, taking a second skull, crack it for him or her, and raise the fissure to the mouth of the object of your desire (hopefully he or she will not just be sexy, but also have connections that will lead to a publication for you!) and beg him or her to suck. Whisper this word "suck," while closing your eyes and pressing your buttocks tightly together with all of your might. If the weather is agreeable, make sure the windows are open, for the sake of the breeze and for the songbirds. Pull out the wadded up bacon, which will still be soft, to mop up any cheeses spilled onto the plate.
You will be a hit with your guests!
chris at
6:27 PM
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Congratulations!
To Kent Johnson, who was just named ** Faculty Person of the Year, 2003 **
at Highland College, where, hey,
he must be teaching some damned fine courses
to garner this kind of very competitive award.
Very happy to see this, Kent!
What a great tribute to you from both faculty and students at Highland.
Rock on!
chris at
6:23 PM
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Announcing Poetry_Heat,
the UTA Spring Poetry Reading Series:
The first reading will feature Shin Yu Pai, Chris Murray, and Gabriel Lopez
Saturday, February 7 at 7:00 p.m. in the Red River Room
of the UTA University Center.
Shin Yu Pai, Taiwanese-American poet and photographer, will give a
presentation integrating her photography with her poetry. Her most recent
book is Equivalence (la alameda, 2003) and is her first major collection.
Drawing its name from photographer Alfred Stieglitz's series of cloud
images, the poems in this collection explore connections and
correspondences between poetry and the visual arts, Eastern and Western
cultures, tradition and modernity, perpetual migration and the sense of
home. In the course of this exploration, the poet is inspired by modern
and contemporary artists such as Wolfgang Laib, Piet Mondrian, Joseph
Cornell, Yoko Ono, and Felix-Gonzales-Torres.
Chris Murray will read from her latest series, _Found_, as well as recent work published in such journals as Sidereality, Shampoo Poetry, Eclectica, Znine, can we have our ball back?, Black Spring Online, xStream. She teaches creative writing and directs the Writing Center at UTA, as well as publishing a contemporary poetry blogsite, *chris murray's texfiles,* featuring the work of contemporary experimental poets.
Gabriel Lopez is a spoken word artist and a film studies student at UTA. He has performed in NYC and in the DFW area.
Refreshments are being provided courtesy of Filipinana Resturant in Bedford, TX.
A raffle (proceeds going to expenses for the event) will be held at the event: Three sets of Xian figurines, donated by Sunny Graham of Tarrant County Asian American Chamber of Commerce.
Poetry_Heat is sponsored by the UTA Writing Center and Tarrant County
Asian American Chamber of Commerce, and is organized by Chris Murray and Writing Center Assistant, UTA Senior English major, Kristina Graham.
chris at
1:17 PM
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(scroll down for "Restaurant," Clayton Couch's poem, and my comments)
Announcing a New Texfiles Poet of the Week :
A very warm welcome to
** Wendy Taylor Carlisle **
Wendy's book, * Reading Berryman To The Dog, * was published in 2000 by Jacaranda Press. She has just finished a chapbook, * Nine Parts Water. * She and her husband, David, and their literary dog live quietly in east Texas. Some fine pieces of Wendy's work can be read in the Spring, 2003, issue of Znine, the literary journal of the English Department at the University of Texas, Arlington.
Here is one my favorites from one of Wendy's recent poetic projects :
A Fish To Feed Them All
After Vic Brauer, “The Surrealist”
Behold the infinite hairdo, surprised
into greatness like any of us,
a Sergeant Major awash in its tidal lift
above the face, a parody of
certain other faces,
calm and bee stung, the knob of
the chin, the pink-standard
skin, the body of its ludicrous rompers,
the piping, the ruffles as well
as the cat’s head, its rigid ears, their
phosphorescent interiors, their shocking
pink portholes. What is there more
to say about transparent wings or
the curved shadow of legs in water? They run
under an infinity of cups and
swords? They come close to chocolate eyes above
a garden of skeletal stems? How
perfect a green the green is here
over the fetid reflecting pool, a topsy-turvy sky
that sucks up light
from the forest. How perfect the One,
a pierced, blush bloom,
its cartoon nature against
the better-situated fish. Say only that,
through this flesh circus,
the inevitable knitting needle
stabs us again and again.
************************ ! wendy's work ! *****
chris at
3:27 AM
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the-Insight.com - A Spirituality Web Directory. religion/buddhism
chris at
12:20 AM
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Thursday, February 05, 2004
from Clayton Couch, Texfiles Poet of the Week :
Restaurant
cut back on paranoia gunk setting up shop in thought, etc.
page torn out where we left each other’s mouths simply yours
what’s all the fuss wrinkle a shamed feast
fussy with too much sun the skin crackles off the sides
bone decay underneath walk a mile to find a host willing to argue
success reached in the unemployment line I fear
so journey it’s concrete after we cut its guts out her dress tries too hard
guitarist reduced to playing old radio hits no one claps at original songs
professionals gather after mass for a couple of drinks
why now I’ve no more thoughts that haven’t been reduced to imps
today my self is a golem lost without commands where’s the alchemist
old friend your voice still inspires a trembling rest it’s odd how
you tumbled into a game on muddied fields
fail ease of healthful illusion and comedy
I'm very taken with Clayton's poems. Many of them test a variety of emotional responses, filling poetry with life given the uncertainties of "gunk setting up shop" in the mind, the states of "illusion," and the momentary respite of glancing "comedy." It is this ability to locate and evoke such range, and yet never to slip into oversentimentality--even when circumstances seem most emotional, most "cut" from or "back on" "paranoia," one of the most emotionally driven states. In some ways the poem above is a king of a lottery cage full of numbered balls, as it were, tumbling in every sense of that term, and in every direction, yet with an ultimate purpose: to be yanked out and made to fit into some kind of gamble and prize: something easeful, the "ease of" the "healthful." A corner claimed for the gathering of some dignity in the face of the "unemployment" lines, the unsavory indignities circulating therein. "Restaurant" is a poem straight out of everyday gambles of life and work and play, not so much Clayton's life (even if these are sometimes drawing from autobiographical material) or not only Clayton's life, but everyone's bewilderment with the Krispy Kreme life in the everyday bizarre bazarr of consumerism. These poems cast wide gambles across many interrelated states of mind, time, and space; they are memorably full of the locations ("Recycling Center[s]" and many others), the images, sounds, and textures of humble, working, and thoughtful life, in every sense of that phrasing.
So, I want to say to Clayton, thank you very much for your wonderful poems. And please, rock on !
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Clayton's poems rock !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
chris at
11:21 PM
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Finally: getting things caught up enough to get back to my features here.
Coming up: a poem from Clayton Couch, current Texfiles Poet of the Week -- I like Clayton's poetry so much that I made salt water taffy of the term "week," stretching it out into the longest running week anywhere, and ever! --Hi, Clayton ! : ) --which will round out his feature.
And then: the announcement of another fine Texfiles Poet of the Week: All that and more, coming up in about an hour.
(takin' mah walk first: to see what will be * Found *... ZaZen, Y'All )
chris at
7:05 PM
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* smokin' paprikash ! * (tuesday 2/3/04 post)
chris at
4:41 AM
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iduna iduna :
nice work on iduna,
with kari coming in to clarify a few things: "iduna," for instance...
chris at
4:31 AM
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Lookin' Good: Quiz # 2
chris at
4:04 AM
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Wednesday, February 04, 2004
from Found :
Emotive Straws: Full of Air & Open Either End
Found, 2 shiny wide & royal blue
straws in the winter rain-grass--
maybe waiting for more
mouths or ice to chunk--
& two empty brand-name's
paper coffee cups
& trace of ground
dregs
then, counting as I go, 88
cigarette butts
strung along like Xmas
(many platinum plum
lip-struck) lights
where I’m walking, thinking
these are the smallish parts?--
the litter whose diligent sheepish
work it is to pile
up over time
no questions asked
in rolling god
awful doldrums
around the wary neighbors--
wary of one
another we are
necessarily
(to worry over litter
in this neighborhood: definitely
some ha ha
luxury),
wary not so much of these chemic
hills stove-in or blowing off
& swirling--
the amazing wares of science,
it's oil & carnival--
around, sommersaulting
up into the “wet black
[says our man
Ezra] bough” (s)
of human anonymous face
& flow. So here
at the curb:
ye old kith & kin,
the usual busted
open candy
striped, overstuffed
loveseat I
have a special
grimace for:
count them:
30 damned
cigarette
burns: who lived this
drunken uncle,
that one predictable
last straw, that special
freak of living
room furniture?
((((((((((((((((((.)(.) it jus be's that way (((((((((This "Found" is copyright.chris. murray.))))))))))
chris at
11:11 PM
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Tuesday, February 03, 2004
from Armand Schwerner * :
bachae sonnet number one
first you burn your hair, its spidery filaments
on a blind trip through your crown, branches short circuit
the grey pathways. if you burn it the hair won't cut
the neurone repetitions, root in the nerves and eat.
the hair is outside, you are the food; you will be the tent
around your life, you will guard, you will make a sheaf
like wheat and bind your hair with hair, you will pardon
the world, leave no clipping for the enemy,
who is outside. you are the food. this is a death
you inflict, not accident, and a tent for comfort.
within it you will practice judging your friends
and will pardon the hornets and the zooming groundwasps,
the diving whine after you around the garden shrine,
and you will offer up your children and their wild menacing hair
(136)
* Armand Schwerner, Selected Shorter Poems.
San Diego: Junction Press, 1999.
chris at
11:21 PM
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Poetry @ Fat Four
I'm going home
now to unfold
some poetry
from the pantry--
the eye level
white pressboard shelf
near the four bags
of fat carrots.
cm
chris at
6:56 PM
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Feeling very appreciated here, Thank You :
Steve Tills--you rock! Thanks so much for your considered, critical "theenk" over my @ poem. And yes to all: the Sappho to Plato relation. & Sor Juana. & non closure as well as play in space/time! It's so nice to see the poem giving reason for considered thought.
chris at
6:41 PM
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"Poets have gotten so carless, it's a disgrace. You can't pick up a page. All the words slide off."--William Gass
"Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast."--Logan Pearsall Smith
"Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules suit yourself."--Truman Capote
"It's not wise to violate the rules until you know how to observe them."--T.S. Eliot
"You write a hit play the same way you write a flop"--William Saroyan
"How can you write if you can't cry?"--Ring Lardner
"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation."--Saki
"For God's sake, keep your eyes open."--William Burroughs
"Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool;
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet."--Alexander Pope
chris at
6:27 PM
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Kriti wants me to come to India to attend her (very traditional) wedding. Wouldn't that be cool? I'm looking into this. Maybe I can find a way to go.
All my blog work (poems) are on my laptop at home. So am not able to post more until I get back home, which looks now like maybe two more hours. Lot's of paperwork this week--bureaucratic stuff--involved in opening the Writing Center for the semester.
chris at
5:17 PM
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Aiyeeeeee.
Things here going boing boing boing all over, so am delayed in the blog post I promised yesterday. I will try it again for Wednesday afternoon. Thanks for your patience!
p.s. I'm excited about this: I heard from Kriti! She's getting married in her hometown in India on May 2. Congratulations and lots of love to you Kriti, your mom, your dad, and your fiance! xoxoxo
chris at
1:36 AM
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Monday, February 02, 2004
Coming up later this evening, a poem to round out the feature of Clayton Couch, and then the announcement of another Texfiles Poet of the Week.
chris at
11:57 AM
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Sunday, February 01, 2004
from * Found *
Glory Be to Our Electric Gut on High
O deity of lightning/thunder rain slop,
one onethousandth, slop two onethousandths...
less than a mile away
in this accruing of more interest & time just past a holiday
observe the evictions: apartments gutted
a few more lives on notice,
gone inside-out all in one night
in our ghetto landlord & State of Texas
version of giving a hand to the poor:
late January hands full of
Intent to Evict overnight
& past the rumbling wheels at the trash bin:
a computer monitor busted for boy-noise
on parking lot time
its cord snaking across the wet black top
where under seige from unsupervised
youngsters with sticks
the panicked worms work the cord
umbilically silly
this one no doubt left in a hurry: electric
train-set, its homemade table top
complete with purple mountain majesty
and pine tree glut--a logger?s truck!--
& please to phone E. A. Poe
to ask, can we disinter this headless
bedroom lamp to save it from a biblical rain,
a punitive god has more of all sized boxes
(apartments, too!): full of wet
crayons and coloring
books to spread consumerist trace
across the walk
outside the unlit
window
with the storm a sweet niagara
has formed in the residential street below
the apartments: the sewers there run wildly
scented by a cloud of Downey
a final cryptic tryptic: the next door
neighborly blink of blue auto
alarm light adding a touch of ancient
& patriotic trianglular harmony
to the crowning path of red & white
commercial jetliner lights, so much interior
decoration for the national heavens
((((((((((((((((((((((((((.))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))this "found" copyright of chris.murray.((((((((((((((
chris at
10:26 PM
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i just walked out the door intending to go for a walk and the sky cracked itself open with something beyond sonic and let fall a million big fat babies, rain drops. it's not a sign. i'm going anyway. wet feet are not the same as cold feet, or even webbed feet... so i came back in for the um... brella!
chris at
8:15 PM
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Revised Update on Carta Abierta Via Venepoetics :
Cuba's minister of culture, Abel Prieto, responds by evading the political issues of Carta Abierto. He attempts to undercut the Letter's writers by name-calling, saying that the Venezuelan writers are "mediocre," and "resentful" for expressing their differences with the Cuban political agendas and history. Carta Abierta (an 'open letter') was signed by 90+ Venezuelan writers in Caracas. The writers of the letter assert that " Venezuela will not be another Cuba," which is to say they are questioning their country's relations with Castro's agendas.
Thank you, Guillermo Parra, for keeping us informed of where literary folks stand in this significant American political situation.
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