"WITH OUR BACKS TO THE WORLD, ... HERMENEUTICS..."

After a teensy hiatus, things are back to rockin' and rollin' over at SitWithMoi!  Most recently, fabulous multi-media artist James Westwater contacted Moi to share some images of a new work, "With Our Backs to the World, We Bow: The Hermeneutics of Solitude", mixed-media, 2013.  Go HERE for the SitWithMoi post about this fabulously-titled mini installation, of which here is a relevant detail:

The image of a reader is relevant to us 9 billion Peeps, but I do encourage you to check out James' SitWithMoi Link to rediscover the importance -- and distinct pleasure -- of context!

Moi hearts artists!  Thanks for the input, James!

GALATEA'S LATEST RESURRECTION!

I, Missy Scarlet and Achilles are delighted to announce the release of Galatea Resurrects #20!  With 64 new reviews!

You can access the new issue RIGHT HERE, but I copynpaste the Table of Contents below for your convenience as Moi am here to convenience you!

GALATEA RESURRECTS #20 (A Poetry Engagement)

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
By Eileen Tabios


NEW REVIEWS
T.C. Marshall reviews CHINESE SUN by Arkadii Dragomoschenko; DISTANCE WITHOUT DISTANCE by Barbara Einzig; THE BOOK OF A THOUSAND EYES by Lyn Hejinian; ON THE TRACKS OF WILD GAME by Tomaž Šalamun; THE RELATIONAL ELATIONS OF ORPHANED ALGEBRA by Eileen Tabios and j/j hastain; and ON THE PLANET WITHOUT VISA: SELECTED POETRY AND OTHER WRITINGS, AD 1960-2012 by Sotère Torregian

Neil de la Flor reviews CEMETERY CHESS: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS by Sandy McIntosh

Eileen Tabios engages MERIDIAN by Kathleen Jesme

Laura Madeline Wisemen reviews SALEM IN SÉANCE by Susana H. Case

Djelloul Marbrook reviews Ahsahta Press and seven of its books: GALLOWGLASS by Susan Tichy; WORK FROM MEMORY by Dan Beachy-Quick; THE LAST 4 THINGS by Kate Greenstreet; ZONE: ZERO by Stephanie Strickland; PLEASURE by Brian Teare; SANCTA by Andrew Grace; and COUNTERPART by Elizabeth Robinson

Eileen Tabios engages CLARITY AND OTHER POEMS by Thomas Fink

j/j hastain engages AFTER SWANN with text by Marthe Reed, animation by Yeon Choi and music by joshua carro. Directed and produced by Keith Horwick

E.E. Nobbs reviews A MARZIPAN FACTORY—NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Grzegorz Wroblewski, translated by Adam Zdrodowski

Eileen Tabios engages THE ROMANCES AND OTHER POEMS by Micah Cavaleri

Tom Beckett reviews RECALCULATING by Charles Bernstein

Rhoda Rosenfeld and Edric Mesmer engage SEVEN CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES AND OBITUARY 2004. THE JOY OF COOKING by Tan Lin

Eileen Tabios engages ROUNDING THE HUMAN by Linda Hogan

Patrick James Dunagan reviews WESTERN PRACTICE by Stephen Motika

Carrie Hunter engages MERRY HELL by Sara Larsen

Thomas Fink reviews “ONLY TO PRY”, a poem in TINY GOLD DRESS by John Godfrey

Eileen Tabios engages THE GRAPEVINE by Richard Lopez

Neil Leadbeater reviews THE WHITE MUSEUM by George Bilgere

Genevieve Kaplan reviews THE IMPORTANT THING IS … CARD GAME by Marjorie Tesser

Eileen Tabios engages WAXWINGS by Daniel Nathan Terry

Neil Leadbeater reviews THE LOST COUNTRY OF SIGHT by Neil Aitken

Judy Roitman reviews three books by Kim Hyesoon, all translated by Don Mee Choi: ALL THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD UNITE, MOMMY MUST BE A FOUNTAIN OF FEATHERS, and PRINCESS ABANDONED

Eileen Tabios engages RENEGADE // HEART by Lisa M. Cole

Melissa Fry Beasley reviews ELVIS PRESLEY’S HIPS & MICK JAGGER’S LIPS by Susana H. Case

Eileen Tabios engages BRUSHSTROKES AND GLANCES by Djelloul Marbrook

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews WARSAW BIKINI and MOTHER WAS A TRAGIC GIRL, both by Sandra Simonds

Eileen Tabios engages ALL THIS FALLING AWAY by Tim Armentrout

Neil Leadbeater reviews EDGE EFFECTS by Jan Conn

Eileen Tabios engages ARSENIC LOBSTER: POETRY JOURNAL 2013, Issues 26, 27 & 28, Editor Susan Yountz

Carrie Hunter engages THE PRECIPICE OF JUPITER by erica lewis and mark stephen finein

Carrie Hunter engages THE RECITATION OF FORGETTING by Franck André Jamme

Eileen Tabios engages MEMORY CARDS by Susan M. Schultz

rob mclennan reviews SCARED TEXT by Eric Baus

Eileen Tabios engages THE BODY DOUBLE: A LONG POEM by Jared Harel

G.E. Schwartz reviews LIFE SENTENCES: APHORISMS & REFLECTIONS by Michael Perkins

Eileen Tabios engages IN MIXED COMPANY by Caleb Puckett & Friends, edited by Walter Ruhlmann and co-edited by Caleb Puckett

Jeff Harrison engages THE MORPHINE POEMS by Bobbi Lurie

Sally Deskins reviews SPRUNG by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Eileen Tabios engages WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Neil Leadbeater reviews LIFE’S A BEACH by Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

Eileen Tabios engages AT THE TURNING OF THE LIGHT, VISIBLE BONES and ONE BIRD FALLING, all by CB Follett

jim mccrary reviews BLAME FAULT MOUNTAIN by Spencer Selby

Eileen Tabios engages MODULATIONS, ADDENDA and THE READER, all by Márton Koppány

Nicholas T. Spatafora engages LAST CALL AT THE TIN PALACE by Paul Pines and PRESENT TENSE by Anna Rabinowitz

Eileen Tabios engages PRIOR by James Berger

Eileen Tabios engages ITEMS by Tom Jenks


ESSAY
“Getting Past the ‘Lyric Block’ & the Individual as Ego: Poetic Method in John Clarke’s In the Analogy” by Bruce Holsapple


FEATURED POET … IN ILOCANO!
Luisa A. Igloria


FEATURED POET ... IN TAGALOG!
Joi Barrios


REVIEW OF A REVIEW
Richard Kostelanetz engages Thomas Fink’s review of Fict/ions and This Sentence


THE CRITICS WRITE POEMS
Djelloul Marbrook

Melissa Fry Beasley


FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE
Kenneth Warren reviews BIBLIODEATH: MY ARCHIVES WITH LIFE IN FOOTNOTES by Andrei Codrescu

Lea Graham reviews VICTORY AND HER OPPOSITES by Amy England

Amaranth Borsuk reviews FRACTAL ECONOMIES by Derek Beaulieu

Lea Graham reviews HEAT LINES by Michael Anania

Amaranth Borsuk reviews DOG EAR by Erica Baum

Lea Graham reviews BELOVED IDEA by Ann Killough

Richard Lopez engages RIMBAUD by Graham Robb

Amaranth Borsuk reviews REVOLVER by Robyn Schiff


ADVERTISEMENT
You are Invited to SitWithMoi’s “Books on Chairs” Project!


BACK COVER
A Catty Review by Iris McCrary

CATTINESS AND RELISHES

The tiniest creature in the house (if you exclude the country bugs) is moi kitty kat Missy Scarlet.  And she is pissed off because I focused on another cat (Iris in prior post).  So, sighing, I am following her orders to post her photo because she's a meanie -- she's tinier than Achilles' head but Big German Shepherd Achilles is very intimidated by her.  To wit:

Which is also to say in a non-seguing kind of way, here’s one more update of my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below before my trip. As ever, please note that in the Publications section, if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects! More info on that HERE.


PUBLICATIONS
*  CLARITY AND OTHER POEMS by Thomas Fink (this is one of the most important books of poetry I've read in at least the past five years.  Y'all should check it out!)

MERIDIAN, poems by Kathleen Jesme (Outstanding. Moving. Authentic.)

FOUR BUTTONS TWO HOLES FOUR BROOMS, by Jean Arp (wonderful! Just check out the link!)

* IN MIXED COMPANY, poems by Caleb Puckett and Friends (fabulous music that even encompasses the hymn)

PRINCESS ABANDONED, essays by Kim Hyesoon, trans. Don Mee Choi (AWESOME!)

(EM)BODIED BLISS, poems by Marthe Reed (such powerful – and often ravishing and ravished! – work)

* THE ROMANCES AND OTHER POEMS by Micah Cavaleri (wonderfully unique poems. Great read!)

WAXWINGS, poems by Daniel Nathan Terry (intelligent, compassionate poems)

* UNEXPLAINED FEVERS, poems by Jeannine Hall Gailey (enjoyed these reconstituted fairy tales since “life is not a fairy tale”! Laughed at he who saved some princess and now lives with her but thinks, she’s not what I thought she’d be…haha)

* VIDEO TAPE, poems by Andrew Zawacki (ingenious!)

RECALCULATING, poems by Charles Bernstein (super!)

* GRADUALLY THE WORLD: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, 1982-2013 by Burt Kimmelman (lovely and luminous worlds/words)

* NOISE EVENT, poems by Heidi Lynn Staples (wonderfully multi-faceted; so many striking lines!)

MY FAVORITE WARLORD, poems by Eugene Gloria (as ever, the compassion in this poet’s eye is a welcome constant)

WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE: Poetry and Family Photographs by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (well done)

REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE, poems by Eileen R. Tabios (I know—it’s my book. Rereading this book for a new project, but rereading this book which was released in 1998 pleases me as, based on its poems, I can’t fathom who the “I” was that wrote such poems…)

RENDER: AN APOCALYPSE, poems by Rebecca Gayle Howell (outstanding energy, befitting “apocalypse”)

WHEN SHE NAMED FIRE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY POETRY BY AMERICAN WOMEN, edited by Andrea Hollander Budy

OTOLITHS, Issue #29, edited by Mark Young (outstanding international literary and arts feast!)

VERSE, Vol. 28, No. 3 / Vol. 29, No. 1, literary journal edited by Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki (really like its structure of showing a meaty representation of an author, in this case an interview of Eileen Myles, and writings by Allison Titus, Joshua Edwards, Francis Luong, Alissa Nutting and Travis McDonald)

STUDIO SPACES, design by Better Homes and Garden

WHAT COMES NEXT, novel by John Katzenbach

THE FORGOTTEN, novel by David Baldacci

SUSPECT, novel by Robert Crais

HIT ME, novel by Lawrence Block

RESURRECTION EXPRESS, novel by Stephen Romano

I, MICHAEL BENNETT, novel by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

PRIVATE BERLIN, novel by James Patterson & Mark Sullivan

BETRAYAL, novel by Robin Lee Hatcher

GRAVITY, novel by Tess Gerritsen

SWEPT AWAY, novel by Mary Connealy


WINES
Nada.  To moi everlasting disgust.

I CAN MAKE YOU PURRRRRRR!

....Purrrr, based on the experience of jim mccrary's cat Iris who apparently loves my new book, THE AWAKENING!  jim, by the way, has graced Moi and Toi with a revoooo written in his inimitable style -- do check it out HERE for a belly-laugh!  Now, heeeeee...eeeee...eeere's Iris lovin' on moi new book!

GALATEA RESURRECTS CONTINUES RESURRECTING...

Busy. As for creative writing -- one of the major focuses of my life and yet just a part of daily life activities -- I'm working on three manuscripts-in-progress.  So the blogging has slipped of late.  Except that I'm also preparing to release the next issue of Galatea Resurrects.

I haven't closed the issue yet for ye last-minute straggler reviewers, but so far have 52 new reviews.  While that's a huge amount of new reviews by most standards, it's only (cough) 52 when I've seen Galatea's count go into three figures in the past.  So this occasions the stray thought of whether I should continue the publication.  But then, in reviewing the issue-in-progress, I realized that this upcoming issue will review fourteen (14!) poetry publishers new to Galatea (bringing the count of publishers reviewed to date to 474 publishers in 17 countries).

I guess that means it's still too early to pull the plug.  So many books, so few venues for exposure!

Entonces, even as I finish putting together the next issue, please do note the new Submissions Deadline for the subsequent 21st issue of Galatea Resurrects: Nov. 27, 2013.  Do go HERE for more information!

THE INTERNATIONAL FEAST THAT IS OTOLITHS!

OTOLITHS, edited by Mark Young, is fresh. And FRESH reading it is! It's certainly enervating my still pre-java morning!

As Mark says in his Announcement:

When I started Otoliths seven years ago, I wondered if it would grow, if it would survive. That wondering is now far behind me, & even a cursory glance at the lineup ... indicates how wide-ranging the journal has become in literary & artistic endeavor & scope, how truly international it now is.

Given this issue's company, I'm honored and humbled that it also includes a haybun folio I curated -- which is also part of "my" manuscript-in-progress that is exploring the expanse of the self (authorial and otherwise): 147 MILLION ORPHANS: A HAYBUN. This unique (if I say so moiself) folio can be accessed HERE, and features the contributions of Eileen R. Tabios, Tom Beckett, j/j hastain, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Aileen Ibardaloza, Thomas Fink, Sheila E. Murphy, Michael Caylo-Baradi, Jean Vengua, William Allegrezza, & Patrick James Dunagan & Ava Koohbor. My deep gratitude to the participating poets who allowed their wonderfully complicated minds to expand the expanse of Moi who would attempt to address such a HUGE complicated topic as all of the orphans in the universe.

But do GO HERE for the entire issue, which features the lovely texts and art of the following: Mark Cunningham, Susan Lewis, Aditya Bahl, Jal Nicholl, Andrew Topel, Pete Spence & Andrew Topel, Julian Jason Haladyn, Ed Baker, John Ryan, Francesco Aprile, Unconventional Press, Kyle Hemmings, Philip Byron Oakes, Marco Giovenale, Sheila E. Murphy & John M. Bennett, Jim Leftwich & John M. Bennett, Thomas M. Cassidy & John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett, John W. Sexton, Louie Crew, Sy Roth, Jack Galmitz, Anthony J. Langford, Mark Melnicove, Yoko Danno, Pam Brown, Eleanor Leonne Bennett, A. J. Huffman, John Veira, Maria Zajkowski, Camille Martin, Wayne Mason, Bobbi Lurie, Darren C. Demaree, Michael Stutz, James Mc Laughlin, Howie Good, Reed Altemus, Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Vernon Frazer, Jeremy Freedman, John Pursch, dan raphael, Sheila e. Black & Caleb Puckett, Ricky Garni, Jack Collum & Mark DuCharme, Kathryn Yuen, Tim Wright, Mark Reep, Gary Barwin, Taylor Reid, harry k stammer, Marcia Arrieta, Anna Ryan-Punch, Katrinka Moore, Neil Ellman, Sally Ann McIntyre, Jeff Harrison, Joe Balaz, Boyd Spahr, Tony Beyer, Jim Davis, Chris Brown, Sam Moginie, Lakey Comess, Alberto Vitacchio, Jorge Lucio de Campos translated by Diana Magallón & Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Rebecca Rom-Frank, Craig Cotter, Javant Biarujia, Carla Bertola, Iain Britton, Anne Elvey, Bob Heman, Donna Fleischer, J. D. Nelson, sean burn, Spencer Selby, Charles Freeland & Rosaire Appel, Paul Dickey, Michael D Goscinski, Kathup Tsering, Miro Bilbrough, Chris Holdaway, Samuel Carey, Paul Pfleuger, Jr., Michael Brandonisio, Willie Smith, Mercedes Webb-Pullman, Bogdan Puslenghea, Andrew Pascoe, Scott Metz, Marty Hiatt, Eric Schmaltz, Sam Langer, & bruno neiva.

As Mark encourages, "Enjoy. Be amazed. Be delighted. Be entertained."

And THANK YOU, Mark!

THE GLORIOUS VARIETIES OF MOI MIDDLE NAME

Now, unlike with that country song, moi hubby did promise me a rose garden!  So, we mostly leave the mountain to rest in its natural glory.  But the hubby did carve out a rose garden whose blooms I can bring into the house.  And, with spring sprung the roses have bloomed!  Here's what I brung to the kitchen:

Here's where they came from:

You most definitely should click on the images to enlarge.  As for Moi?  I'm delving deep into the closet for more vases!