|
"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
|
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
from Iraq-In-Pictures-Blog,
(formerly titled Falluja In Pictures) :
--US Army National Guard Sgt. David Roustrum, Lackawana, NY: funeral,
6 Dec 04.
*
from the Comments Box for the above photo, at Iraq in Pictures (you'll need a hi-speed connection to do this website if you're in a hurry, but if you have time, it's well worth the wait even if you don't have hi-speed--
This response from Candi2059 in Altoona, PA,
whose partner, Army CPL Bryan Hathaway,
is a soldier in Iran/Iraq :
Omg I could only bear to scroll down to about the 8th picture on here. It made me sick, My Boyfriend is in Iraq. He drives HET's in convoys, today he hit 2 ieds and got shot at of course, blew out his windsheild and put a hole in his fuel tank... It is all bullshit, this is Bush's bullshit!
*
from me to Candi & Bryan & family: I am with you completely, Candi2059 & Y'all--keep on sayin' fuck off and whatever else it takes to bring this bullshit to an end--great website you've set up for Bryan, and those kids, too! Best to Y'all--stay safe!--cm
*
from poet Reyes Cardenas :
Falluja In Pictures
This man was a
freedom fighter,
this man
was a freedom fighter.
These men
were freedom fighters.
This boy was
a freedom fighter.
These piles of men
were freedom fighters.
These dead men
piled on the curb
were freedom fighters.
They’re all dressed
in civilian clothes,
civilian clothes
covered in blood---these men
and boys were freedom fighters.
They are free now,
and their country
is free of them.
And we, too,
we used to be
freedom fighters…long ago…
--Reyes Cardenas, 7 Dec 04--
*
from me: Reyes!-- I think it must be very hard to write well about such experiences--once again you captured the moment completely in poetry--bless you!
--cm--
~~~~~~~~~~all work here's *always* copyright-a-da-artistes~~~~ o~o/
--cm
chris at
11:47 PM
|
Also: a new issue of Constant Critic, see McSweeney on Nowak--fascinating poetry, interesting takes by McSweeney.
chris at
1:51 PM
|
New Bookslut's O.U.T. & H.O.T.
Have a look into this latest issue of Bookslut, #31, heavy on matters of fiction, a welcome change for my reading habits at the moment (poetry's my first love, but happens best when fed by lots of other reading or otherwise receptive interests).
I had a good look into this interview of Geoffrey H. Goodwin's, with Will Christopher Baer (this link is to his blog--a great read in itself--and whose latest book, third in the series based on ex-junkie main character, Phineas Poe, a nihilist ex-police-IA-detective (this hoo-man * character's got lots of XS!), is _Hell's Half Acre_ [MacAdam/Cage, 2004]), whose work is elsewhere characterized by fiction writer Craig Clevenger (_The Contortionist’s Handbook_) this way: “People like Chris don’t write the kinds of things that make for good holiday dinner conversation.” Drew me right in, being one who never got much of anything out of "holiday dinner," or its small talk. There's also some interesting discussion of proliferation and decline of MFA programs and their uses/non-usefulness to writers, which is another reason to read this.
But heavens, don't stop there--Bookslut's going full bore, looks like to me. Keep on, Jessa!
* the term "hooman" is an interesting piece of phoneme-rhetorical-remnant that sticks in my mind now after reading it in Malcolm Davidson's Zotz writings, which I find great fun, highly innovative--they are dialogues between zoo animals about the BAP 2004 poets/poetry.
chris at
1:18 PM
|
from Texfiles Poet of the Week, Amy King, Three Poems :
Most Viable Landscape
A heaven’s choir of earthenware
from the patina chair calls
a tiny pigment
from my green stop sign.
We can finally toe out
sideways spelling
and I’m talking to the room
in specific if you think
masculinity isn’t something
defended, consider the bent
signature four minutes ago:
crew cut, hardwired jeans,
the playing muscles’ swelling
match. Sweatshop shifts fresh
from the boat, money in
a slot for massage. You stand
skyward, roof-high for flight.
Look for the saving promise
of indifferent god’s angelic status
over cups of ale with light bulbs
spelling the here is the now,
mindspent sinners, picking out lint.
*
I’m the Man Who Loves You
I’m thinking a correction,
a blemish on the lip of fresh wind
and bright sky, an erasure
of tomorrow never more
than the face of human hands
crossing over twisted panther
boxed in. Fate fails waistlines
and feet deny passage for
beseechers of official things:
loading laundry, light on tour,
lick up floors and glimpse
through towels exposing
the hairs of our bodies
holding personage down,
saving the signboard
that reads the spine down a back,
the book within the book
of prehistoric paintings that
bind my percentage,
folded into snapshots
*
The Thawing Heart
Like hello to the stranger
in elevator, like finer static
encircles thirsty bare legs
replaying a statue’s smile,
a winking remnant of marriage
come back, the merciful holding
of nickled light’s hand with
blue ribbon skyline, officially time.
To burn free from egg-crepe
walls called house culled around,
an eyelash army batted us
down, melting the locks
of the gestures omitting
speech with those never known
on the way to the sixtieth floor,
lung water sighing the cusp of roof side.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~copyright of Amy King~~~~~~~~~ o~o/ ~~~~~
--cm
chris at
3:09 AM
|
Carrboro! Check in on this one: Patrick Herron's Carrboro Blog: How the much celebrated Carrboro visionary is shaping up new ideas for the next festival. Go Patrick!
Plum Island !And some wonderful writing about Plum Island and winter life, here at Grapez--thanks for this one, Greg, it's very fine.
chris at
1:40 AM
|
Monday, December 06, 2004
And if you've got hi-speed connection, you might want to follow up my previous post with this one:
There's Something About W --film clips revealing the deception in Bushbag rhetoric. Amazingly well done. Bush is such a sorry-ass fraud.
chris at
7:48 PM
|
Hey, Y'all, Let's Dance and Sing Along to This One!
Idiot Son of an A**hole: Pump Up the Volume on this mp3, folks--it's one of the best things on the web right now.
I found it via Tim Morris' Optative Mood. Good one, Tim!
chris at
6:02 PM
|
"The food one eats should be 'happy'. It should be cooked with love and eaten joyfully... " --Peter Russell, 1957 *
Had a great conversation by phone the other night with good friends
Hoa Nguyen and Dale Smith who are the publishers of Skanky Possum Press, as well as the provocative and thoughtful Possum Pouch blog written by Dale.
  (& hey: check out this cool interview of Dale in conversation with Kent Johnson, over at Jacket Magazine # 15, when Dale's book, American Rambler (Thorpe Springs, 2001) had come out--it's a favorite of students in my courses, and in my Spring course I'll be having students read Dale's innovative prose-work, The Flood and Garden: a Daybook
( from Lee Chapman's excellent First Intensity Press, 2002)--& I'll also add here, even if most who read texfiles have heard me say this before: Jacket is one of my all time favorite online journals, an all time fave in any medium, print or online--I suggest that Y'all go have a look at some of the other work and interviews Kent's done in Jacket, including an exceptionally fine one--in my opinion, a classic--with poet C.D. Wright, another of my favorites.) And Hoa, among many other things poetic and full of good-home-sense, is the inspiration for the endearing Ma Possum rocking and knitting on the well known cover sketches for Skanky Possum journal, an image, along with its partner, Pa Possum, celebrated in that they made the cover of a recent SPD catalogue.
 (here's Hoa's bio page at Write Net, so, also check out Hoa's teaching site at Write Net/Teacher's and Writers--it has been an invaluable resource for me and students in my poetry courses.) Many Thanks, Hoa!--from me & the students.
Dale, Hoa, with their children, Keaton and Waylon (these two are simply amazing growing beings full of the spirit of wonder--as in both the noun and verbal uses), had a fun day in Austin on Saturday, kickin' it with Joshua Edwards (poet and co-editor, with Tony Robinson, of The Canary).
All'd gone out to eat at a place in Austin that I love--Hoa said she thought of me, the fun we've all shared together, when they were there!--so cool to be thought of so well in such a treasured place (thanks, again, Hoa!): Casa De Luz, at 1701 Toomey Road (zip 78704), a wonderful organic/all natural, whole foods/macrobiotic restaurant. When we ate there one day last summer I purchased one of their cookbooks, and mentioned the other night to Hoa that it's about time for me to post another of their great recipes.
The book is Casa De Luz Community Cookbook (Austin: Morgan Publ., 2003) (ISBN 0-9710732-0-1). 
It contains recipes for sauces, dressings, condiments, and spreads. I chose it because Hoa had made some wonderful dressing with miso, based on one of their recipes, and when I asked about it, she explained a few things about differing kinds of miso. At the Casa De Luz store I then bought some organic sweet white miso (since it is basic to so many cooking uses)--it's very good. Hoa is one of the best cooks I've ever known (and over the years I have known a few) of organic/natural foods, seasonings, and whole-food ingredients. Last time I was in Austin she made some superb tahini, along with greens and lima beans. Yum! Keaton and I helped with the tahini, peeling and chopping the garlic, squeezing the lemons for juice. Keaton's becoming a fine cook on his own, helping in the kitchen often, and well, even though he is only three years old. If I recall the evening right, Dale, Keaton, baby Waylon and I also went out to the front yard to pick some of that lovely, abundant rosemary they grow, to use it for seasoning one of the dishes. Making me hungry thinking/writing on all this!
So below (after the St. Lucia drawing), then, are two recipes from the Casa De Luz cookbook--Hi Hoa, Dale, Keaton, and Waylon!--See you soon. (I'm heading to Austin this Sunday to visit them for their annual holiday celebration of light, St. Lucia's day, YaY!!). 
(& here's a site with some history and recent photos of the celebration in Sweden.)
One of Hoa's favorite condiments at Casa De Luz is called Sun Cheese. We had some there last time I visited. Very Yummy!
Sun Cheese (copyright of Casa De Luz)
Serve this cool and creamy condiment over grains, enchiladas, pasta, or greens.
1 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 clove garlic
2 Tbs. lemon juice
2 Tbs. ume vinegar
1 1/2 cups filtered water
Place seeds in bowl and cover with water. Allow seeds to soak 4-6 hours or overnight.
Rub seeds between hands to loosen skins. Skins will float to top of soaking water. Pour out skins and soaking water. Rinse seeds, cover with water and repeat rubbing process 3-4 times until most skins have been removed and poured out. The more skins you remove, the whiter the sauce will be.
Mix seeds with garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, and one cup of water in a blender. For thinner consistency, add up to 1/2 cup more water.
(43)
*
Greta's Orange-Miso Dressing
Serve this citrus-infused dressing over fresh spring greens.
1 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup sweet white miso
1/2 cup olive oil
3/4 tsp. orange zest
Blend ingredients together in a suribachi (a Japanese mortar; the bowl has a grooved interior which helps shred food as it is being ground. Especially useful for making sauces) or a blender and serve.
All of this, from the invocation to happiness to the ingredients of the recipes and the imagined/anticipated partaking of the fine food, seems to me highly poetic, entirely fitting for any place of/in/with/for/about poetry.
Here's a piece from Skanky Possum issue 10 (winter of 2003/2004),
from Dale's Notebook, in a section of the issue based on The Possum Pouch:
Two Possums
one walked up
behind a Ford
Explorer and
along a sage
hedge
another later
crossed the street
under cars and
into somebody's
lawn, dank
underbelly round
with fuzz not
really fur--
lost it
in the shadows
(66)
--Notes--
* Qtd. from the epigraph in the Casa De Luz Cookbook.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~recipes copyright of Casa De Luz~~~~~~~~~ o~o/ ~~~
ZaZen, Y'all!
--cm
chris at
1:55 PM
|
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Big Love Here for the Duke & His Black Satin Top Hat!
 This photo of the Duke is one of my all time favorite hat-people-pics--I keep a copy of it on the wall above my desk. Has to be one of the best photos ever taken. Talk about emanating, ya kno?--it fairly vibrates right off the effing wall. Love it!
chris at
5:49 PM
|
backlogged on emails again here, & in sorting through them (damn-it-all, I get scads of spam everyday in my university email box--I had to delete over a thousand of them when I came back from Thanksgiving, after being offline for only 5 days. Sheesh!), I was very happy to find this: announcement of the latest issue of Poetic Inhalation, which, of course ROCKs!
chris at
5:35 PM
|
from Alberto Romero Bermo: an exposition on the concept of Querencia and poetry :
Querencia
Dear Chris, *
You ask, “What is the place of sentiment?” And you ask as though the question shouldn’t be too loud, as though it should be whispered. Are poets ashamed of sentiment?
As a Spaniard I despise bullfighting, though that may surprise some Hemingways out there. Many of us demonstrate that stereotypes do nothing but prove exceptions to rules. (Why you’re American, Chris, and don’t like War!) Sentiment in poetry suffers from the unfairness of stereotype.
In bullfighting ** something occurs that is quite interesting. When the bull has been wounded, deeply, when it knows it has lost the battle for survival, he recedes instinctively to a place in the bullring called querencia. I know no way to translate this though some call it “a place of security and serenity”. No one word translates its beautiful meaning and its beautiful sound. There is, in the ring, a place mythical, somehow physical but not, to where the bull retreats. There, in its security, in that home ground, if you will, the bull is most dangerous. The matador must know where the querencia is for all the obvious reasons: the bull is safe in its querencia and within it, it will kill.
Contemporary poets need to find their querencia. They must, as Marianne Moore might say, find the courage of their peculiarities. Poets need to re-establish their home ground, their security. That is where their instincts lie, where words are best sharpened, where poets are most “dangerous”. That is the only place, a place of the heart—and not of the mind alone—where poets unconsciously know what needs to be song. It may be the seed garden of the word, I don’t know. Surely, it is not what they teach in school. It cannot be taught. No books can tell it. It is the only place from which poetry can kill. It is poetic sentiment: where the heart thinks. It is what poetry does best. And no more.
Alberto
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~copyright of Alberto Romero Bermo~~~~~~
* From an email exchange over questions of the place of sentiment in poetry today, which began in part as a response to a post here the other day about Lee Ann Brown's fabulous poems in The Sleep That Changed Everything (Wesleyan, 2003). Here I also want to thank Alberto for taking time to respond so eloquently and meaningfully, and for allowing me to post this provocative piece.--cm
* * On the history and representations of bullfighting, from Metamedia @ Stanford Univ.
 Knossos: Minoan (pre Classical fresco)--acrobats with bull--
-- o~o/
chris at
3:57 PM
|
Check out this site: Sorry Everybody!--found via this interesting site full of poetry and film commentary Sem Titulo
Kind of an interesting take on personal responsibility there in the photo and at that collective apology site. Not sure yet how I think of this phenomenon, however. Definitely raises some issues for critical thinking about post-post-modern-self-in-world, Cartesian-self-in-world, and generally of relations regarding U.S. in world.
A large part of me is not into apologizing for that other dumb-ass half of the US populace who voted for that Bushbag jerk, I am clear enough right now on this phenomenon to say that much. & Sheesh.
But I also appreciate this gesture: emphasis on directing some U.S. humility toward the rest of the world--which is healthy, productive, and just plain right, I think, given that there is a strong norm in U.S. attitudes that contain and promote extreme arrogance about and toward 'the other' in a particularly noxious way, based in identifying one's critical consciousness via nationalizing agendas. Ugh. So on that count I really like this guy's pose and sign, I have to say.
But do check out the others and the exposition about it all at the Sorry Everybody site--see what Y'all think.
chris at
2:55 PM
|
from Amy King, Texfiles Poet of the Week :
In the Beginning
Godmatter, godmanner, godbreath, half-asleep—we’re all in
godstasis up or down here, depending on perspective. Holy
language waxes into shape within the image. The scalpel cuts but
handwritten? A machine for precision. It is a dream of baby. Not
a dream but it is a baby, patent pending. When does memory
shift from what has happened to an imprint of its own objective
correlation? What body, after all, can fly this thing? In fact, key,
three letters, starts ignition.
*
All in All is Asking Again
He said Film Noir
I said No
He said Film Noirs
I said Perchance
He scalped long noir
of a not present exit—-
Then existed a What’s a girl like
you doing with her burnt bag
of blackened tricks?
What’s a bag of images
if bagless?
Thus escaped our prize goat,
her baby crow,
his compass a sheet
of broken down
flames and wires on fire
for days back and forth
through gravity’s door
*
Witch to the Dream's Ghost *
I am that woman of the crux;
I photograph an image
of my inhibitions,
caught in the cuts of life.
The hiss and spine of recipes
half-written plot
a functional razor,
then grant a new permission,
a cancer of clothing
where unarmed people approach
the hovering spacecraft:
El Nino speaks Spanish
words for "the child." It kills
and burns trees. This child
is more than child. This child
pushes water on land
to flatter our bodies, over under,
inside through. Lightning drowns
our homes for spirits in homage
to the blood forthcoming
like sulfur yet more hypnotic.
I'm bearing out results
bright for blue method
veined wooden frames
within my doubting
cauldron, a stir for every hue.
(4)
* Amy King, Antidotes for an Alibi, (Buffalo: BlazeVox, 2004)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~poems copyright Amy King~~~~~~~ o~o/ ~~
chris at
1:47 PM
|
from Jukka-Pekka Kervinen (Hi Jukka!--wonderful work in this one, * as always, thanks so much!) announcing:
the latest Issue (# 26) of xStream, in 4 distinct venues, is now online !
Check it out: xStream 26
1. Regular online issue (Works from 5 poets: Umberto Allegrezza,
Chris Murray, Steve Dalachinsky, Ross Priddle and Andrew Topel)
2. Online issue is also available in PDF (see xStream's sidebar links)
3. Autoissue online: Poems generated by computer from Issue #26 texts, the whole autoissue is generated in "real-time", new version in every refresh (see xStream's sidebar links).
4. xStream is also available now in hardcopy version (POD) from Lulu:
lulu: xStream 26 POD
Sincerely,
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen
Editor
xStream
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Note: I want to add here that I am fascinated with xStream. I think xStream is most interesting and a significant contribution to publishing for several reasons:
First, because of the continued innovations made by Jukka: the online venue makes possible all kinds of versions, not least of all the innovations achieved simply because of using the web page forms. Then, the transformative venue of autogenerated versions of the magazine make a fascinating and fluid (since changing at every opening of the page) comment on the fluidity of textuality and the reading dynamic. Then to add a PDF and the POD versions, well, these are material realizations that bring full circle the multiple possibilities of textuality and publishing today. I'm very pleased that my work is a part of all this. Again, many thanks to Jukka, for all this innovative good work.
Next, with equal import and significance, is the quality and the variety of the poetry offered here (with which I am all at once both humble and happy to be a part in the current issue, as well as to have been a part in issue 15, October 2003). If you take a few moments to browse through the archives of xStream I think you will be amazed at the work collected in this magazine as well as the trajectory of innovation in this excellent publication.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ cm ~~~~~ o~o/ ~~~~
chris at
1:22 PM
|
Friday, December 03, 2004
Listening:
(at suggestion of Dottir Holly!)
the German group, Ramstein :
refrain:
We're ALL living in Amerika, AmeriKA, America.
We're ALL living in ... [repeat x 3]
and then say
Wunderbar!!
I like this group.
o~o/
chris at
4:03 PM
|
Lynx: New and/or Updated
Sea Camel: "because the Seahorse was taken..." : Alberto Romero Bermo Welcome, Alberto!
YaY!! Chris Lott's Back and Keeping the Questions On-Going--great to see you back, Chris!
Growing Nation: Jordan Stempleman Welcome, Jordan!
Tom Raworth Hello and Welcome!
chris at
1:47 PM
|
: )
chris at
1:41 AM
|
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Announcing a new Texfiles Poet of the Week!
Sending out a warm Texfiles welcome to Amy King, Y'all!
Amy grew up in Georgia and now spends much of her time in Brooklyn and Baltimore. She currently teaches English at Nassau Community College on Long Island. Amy's first full-length collection, Antidotes for an Alibi, is available through BlazeVOX Books Online at BlazeVOX Books Online. Recent work is forthcoming in Explosive Magazine, Milk Magazine, Near South and Unpleasant Event Schedule. Amy also has work in our online journal here at University of Texas at Arlington, Znine. Please visit Amy's website to learn more about her work and publications.
For the last several days I've been reading and rereading Amy's fine new book, Antidotes for an Alibi, a beautifully appointed book, published by Geoffrey Gatza's BlazeVOX enterprises. As you can see from the image above, the cover artwork is arrestingly beautiful: the effect is of a textured collage, centered on depicting a ghostly looking woman in a black spaghetti strap dress as she appears to be suspended or coursing along footless in the open hallway of an hacienda, with lettering, handwritten text (from love letters?) superimposed to form layers of enclosing frames, all in fiery reds, golds, oranges. Lovely, intriguing art (I should ask Geoffrey more about this piece--it's credited to Ramiro Clemente).
The poems in Amy's book are passionately crowded, charmed by clashing images, music, and overflowing contradictions between persons and placings, very much textured as is the cover art. Because I find the book so charmed I read from it yesterday, on the last day of my class here, (University of Texas at Arlington, Engl. 4330, Electronic Poetry: a seminar in creative writing), or E-Po for short, as the course blog is called. The students each read two poems written this semester (choosing criterion was 'your favorite' so, some were reading from what they'd written in the early part of the course where we did a fun round-robin of e-tag poems, the idea for which came from some of Shanna Compton's postings at her blog, Brand New Insects, tagging texfiles, and where, in turn, she had gotten the idea from being tagged by Laurel Snyder at Jewishy-Irishy blog, who began the tag poem idea). The students finished reading theirs and asked me if I had anything I wanted to read, so I chose to read this one of Amy King's, from her BlazeVox book:
Love in the Afternoon
I try to keep up with my sugar
& it's escalating; the windows of Thanksgiving
teach us how to see. More than headlights rotating
on neighbor's trashcans, the rats
untuck the soft fluff of fear
for nest making. Rosebud,
you were as a horse
to the gate, tail tucked and selling
Sunday papers on Monday.
There goes my dramatic exit.
The fruit cart provides a wide berth
where kitchen counters fail our providence.
I'm down to my last backyard,
said the hummingbird from her tiny-knit sky.
I took the southern route across the water
and back inside.
I ate the apples and grapes of the woman
who heroically overcame her hero status.
Crisp flies sprinkle across our damp sheets
hanging down the line.
Alternately, she names every bee
on her yellow jacket tree and gives me
pollinated reasons for staying.
(15)
That was met with resounding applause, entirely due to the poem's charmed effects, surprising turns--tropes and music. I want to point out here, too, how ambitious and worthwhile are Geoffrey Gatza's new visions for BlazeVOX, since this book is part of the new agenda there (as is Patrick Herron's excellent American Godwar Complex. Bravo, to all at BlazeVOX! Thus, it also seems to me especially appropriate here to point out the amazing poetic work Geoffrey is himself writing--especially his Thanksgiving Menu poem Series, a yearly tradition now--in 2002 Geoffrey wrote a menu to honor Charles Bernstein, and in 2003, Forrest Gander. This year Geoffrey's Menu poem is honoring the excellence of Kent Johnson (also a former Texfiles Poet of the Week: check tex's archives in October 2003) for his poetry and his vision of poetics. (I was out of town and totally offline for Thanksgiving week, so had missed the email notes from Kent and Geoffrey about it, but I do want to point out here how artfully and pleasurably done this work is--right down to the musical intro-accompaniment (from, I think, Neil Young, or maybe it's Buffalo Springfield?--maybe someone can let me know for sure?). And of course, I want to wish Geoffrey and Kent a belated though nonethe less heartfelt, Happy Thanksgiving, Y'all!)
So, Amy King's work could not be better placed, I am thinking. And she's already writing for a new manuscript, some of which she's made available for this feature--so, texfiles readers: you got it first right here on Tex, eh? For the next several days I'll be posting from Amy's new work, then, also sprinkled with some of the work in her BlazeVOX book, Antidotes for an Alibi.
From Amy's new work, then, here's one:
Saving the Futures
Every cluck of the clock
and cooing yellow leaves
is an army-torn series binding
us by accidents. We impart spirit
for the hospitals of wind
and lean toward aching
escapement. You shuttle
indelibly into the tremor phase
of a bluing day, a mother
escaping starry thresholds
in flight—
Except the by-lines
of your man found dead
revolver in hand with
woman floating face down
toward a steel-bottomed sink.
Poised velvet hands nestle
darkly into drain, fishing patience
in and the retirement budget
proclaims ornamental soap
a private investment for swirling
recurrence of feminine
news when said results spark
along her linoleum floor
*
Love this phrasal sequencing: "... ornamental soap/ a private investment for swirling... ." Texture, texture, voila! Amy, do rock on!
~~~~~~~~poems copyright of Amy King~~~~~~ o~o/ ~~
Hey, ZaZen, Y'all & Enjoy...
--cm--
chris at
4:57 PM
|
Getting ready here to do the new Texfiles Poet of the Week feature... as they used to say at midnight on black and white tv: stand by..., Y'all (it didn't say Y'all, tho)
chris at
3:53 PM
|
--Theatre Off Stage. com
I really like the concept of this poster a lot, but I also find I have to qualify my posting of it by saying that, representationally, it is too generous to this jerk-off.
Its strong political impact is undermined somewhat, is (unintentionally, I think) softened somehow by that assinine frontal grin in the left panel, a grin that, in terms of media, Bushbag has more than capitalized upon, and to the detriment of all.
Consider the recent rhetorical analyses of this manneristic grin, comparisons of it to (as an allusion to) Alfred E. Newman: as if Bushbag were as innocuous as a well loved comic book figure like A. E. Newman, whose rep is, moreover, understood by most to be apolitical or politically neutral, thus supposedly harmless. That is, A. E. Newman is a figure seemingly immune to ideology, or ideological type casting--as if that were possible, and of course in the case of Bushbag, nothing could be further from that in reality.
If a grin for this cartoon must be shown, and is supposed to be Bushbag's, then I think the poster's impact could be more effective if it were drawn in grotesquerie: a bloody skeletal grin, a smirking mask of a grim reaper--for that is more like what this incredibly, apparently ignorant (though I often wonder if that is only a pose for Republican conniving) political presence/figure, Bushbag, has wrought, and apparently with glee, as it/he continues to promote destruction of life and the planet, even in the face of tremendous protest around the world. Digusting and terribly dismaying.
Though, here, on the following pic, hey: Go Canada!
--Theatre Off Stage. com,
via Element 115 blog
Check out this report on protest in Canada--Keep On, Y'all!
And while you're at it, do check out this fab Canadian theatre site: Theatre Off Stage.
chris at
11:32 AM
|
from Emily Dickinson * :
Your thoughts don't have words every day
They come a single time
Like signal esoteric sips
Of the communion Wine
Which while you taste so native seems
So easy so to be
You cannot comprehend its price
Nor its infrequency
(1452/616)
A Route of Evanescence
With a Revolving Wheel--
A Resonance of Emerald--
A Rush of Cochineal--
And every Blossum on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head--
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning's Ride--
(1463/619)
* Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems. Thomas Johnson, ed. Little Brown: Boston, 1960.
chris at
10:15 AM
|
Just so you know: there are not many word combinations that Google Image cannot tolerate or find some fascinating--by that I mean resonant--yield for, but of all things?--well, apparently there are not any images that can match up with my phrasing in the post below:
Democratic Slut *
(of course I haven't tried alternative-party-Slut just yet, because I am sure the un-subtlety would not wreckon forth a figure. No problem--but I am about to try it... )
Okay. But now I've gone and looked: I now feel completely initiated in the binarism of sluthood, since, in terms of political parties (not to be confused with the term parities!), especially since going on to Google to cull for this phrase :
Republican Slut * *
for which the result turned out to be one woman's (apparent) boyfriend sitting relaxed and unaware that he would become the poet-poster child for 'Republican Slut', at least for blogs. He is not fighting off King Kong in any way, shape or form, Y'all. He is just a guy.
It's definitely a Google misterioso. Something to be pondered on the guru level. Or the have-fun level. Or the Hey, do you have a dawg? level, ya kno?
Jus sayin'...
* Jus' sayin':
chris at
2:05 AM
|
Announcing (I just love announcing, ya kno?!) in the morning or the midday (why's that lazy-time word got extra-double d's?--it reminds me of World War II citations about islands and killing off beloved others somehow [prolly cuz I'm weird--no sweat, Y'all--truly-- Everything's gonna be jus fine... ) a new Texfiles Poet of the Week!
chris at
1:57 AM
|
Poetry! You Democratic Slut, You : a Laureate Lariat
"If the laureate is considered blah, what point is there in having such a poet as laureate? To show another generation of kids that poetry is blah?"--Gabe Gudding.
Y'all, to my mind, Gabe's got a unique way of pulling ideas together in any given complex, and here, it's about laureate as guide and influence on what would be termed poetry as genre if we dug into the taxonomies some more, evein if that history of rhetoric all seems to amount to something like a knot called lariat... :)
About poetry and influencial poets there's a lot of unsettledness (and there should always be) out there right now in differing guises (questions I'll just roughly paraphrase as 'what is the place of sentiment?'--'what is the place of inclusiveness and exclusiveness?'--what 'school' does my work have affinity with?') but to my mind all seem given to wonder what claim to authority, what definitive, distinctive spark, might poetry retain in the post-postmodern get-go?--in general, and then of course, as things get broken down into further categories, where we sometimes find a lot of comfortable or then again a lot of antagonistic bullshit about who supposedly knows more than someone else or who is over there & etc blah-b l a h. I guess you get my drift (if not please email me about it or comment here. Things can always use an airing out).
Anyway, landing on Gabe's commentary made me think and I like that--though on all of it I don't agree, of course. Agreement is different from acknowledging that something has value and due influence. Gabe's post is a refreshing perspective on the ('Usual Suspects') scene of controversy.
In the end, the beginning: here is the what drew me to keep reading at Gabe's this evening, his opening statement:
It strikes me that the best laureate would be someone about whom people could argue and disagree vigorously.
Damned if I'm wrong, but I think that's the dialogic essence and foundational claim for democracy. Poetry!--you democratic slut, you!
I like that: the "vigorously" part, the people part, the inference that we'd all care to do so.
Hey, Go on & see & think on this one, eh?
|
|
