THE MAKING OF NEW / S!

A brand NEW OTOLITHS has just gone live!

From Editor / Publisher Mark Young:

Like the previous two issues, there is a diverse mix of people &styles. Issue three contains work by Ray Craig, Jordan Stempleman, Jeff Harrison, Andrew Topel, Corey Mesler, John M. Bennett, Reed Altemus, Lars Palm, Jesse Crockett, rob mclennan, Pat Nolan, Jenna Cardinale, Rochelle Ratner, Ian Finch, Paul Siegell, Thomas Fink &Tom Beckett, Ayþegül Tözeren, Glenn Bach, T. Walden, Tom Hibbard, Raymond Farr, Aki Salmela, Jill Jones, Nico Vassilakis, Kirsten Kaschock, Martin Edmond, Eileen Tabios, Sheila Murphy, Rebeka Lembo, Jonathan Hayes, Jenny Allan, Geof Huth, Kevin Opstedal, Adam Fieled, Derek Motion, Caleb Puckett, Scott Hartwich, harry k stammer &Serkan Iþýn, &has a cover by Michael Rothenberg.

Enjoy!

***

This issue also presents a sampling from my next book -- not chapbook but book -- DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS.

That differentiation there -- book vs chapbook -- came up because I intially submitted a chap to Otoliths. It became a book after two more sections were added to the initial submission, in part to make it easer for perfect-binding.

Serendipity, that making of my 11th print poetry collection.

But not, apparently, unique! I learned from this weekend's Board meeting at Kelsey that Mei-mei Berssenbrugge and Kiki Smith's brand new CONCORDANCE also had its second section added partly per the constraints of perfect binding. And what's great -- as I was happy to have a chance to tell Mei-mei in person -- is that the sum of the two sections is larger than two, in terms of visual impact as well as that its two long poems "Concordance" and "Red Quiet" are beautifully related.

One of the marvels of Poetry -- how it defies coincidence and make the results, when effective, just Fate.

DANCING ON THE EDGE

Isn't this gorgeous!?



It's one of the illustrations in Michelle Bautista's forthcoming and inaugural poetry collection, Kali's Blade (Meritage Press loves to inaugurate poets' first books!). I can't wait until it comes out...and we're working hard on it, Dearies!

Naturally, I need to make this about Moi. To wit, the images above are spliced from fabulous photographer, poet, critic and man about town Rhett Pascual's video of my play "When I was Jaspar John's Filipino lover" which featured Michelle doing a kali performance, was performed during one of Small Press Traffic's Poets' Theater series, and reprinted in ENGLISH. Yadda!

TRICK OR TREAT: A $1.59 MID-LIST SPECIAL!

Had a Board meeting yesterday at Kelsey Street Press -- you most def should check out Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's latest collection CONCORDANCE with Kiki Smith. It is definitely one of the most lushly gorgeous poetry publications ever put out there! So there!

Anyway, while at Kelsey, I was asked by R., new press member, as to how I got involved with Kelsey. I explained that when I moved from New York to the Bay Area about 7 years ago (and didn't really know anyone here yet), Mei-mei suggested I get together with the Kelsey co-founders, and fabulous poets, Rena Rosenwasser and Patricia Dienstfrey. I ended up helping out by volunteering once a week at Kelsey for a few years before then being asked to join the Board.

And why was I volunteering? I work at home and, while living primarily in San Francisco where I can walk or cab most places, I could have done what I did successfully in New York City for 20 years: avoid driving a car. But I knew, being a Californian anew, that I had to pick up my driving skills again (not totally successful; even today, I can't back parallel park, which is a problem with San Francisco's dearth of street parking). So I volunteered at Kelsey just to give me a reason to drive once a week from SF to Berkeley.

Such, are the serendipitous stuff of which stuff are made: the above could be titled, "How to Become A Board Member of A Poetry Press."

Anyway: TRICK OR TREAT! While at Kelsey, I used a phrase I never use in normal everyday conversation: "midlist title."

So, here's a TRICK OR TREAT special. For $1.59, the first 10 people to reply can have any of these mid-list books from moi Meritage Press, for which my stint at Kelsey was helpful as I set up a new poetry press...and I toss in a couple of my books, too. Just send a check for $1.59 (or two dollar bills camouflaged) to me at Eileen Tabios/ 256 North Fork Crystal Springs Road / St. Helena, CA 94574...and you can have any one of these faboo mid-list titles:

100 More Jokes From The Book of the Dead (John Yau & Archie Rand)

OPERA: POEMS 1981-2002 (Barry Schwabsky)

The Obedient Door (Sean Finney)

Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole (Eileen Tabios)

Menage A Trois With the 21st Century (Eileen Tabios)

Why $1.59? My dearies -- that is the current "Media Mail" postage cost for mailing out such books! To reserve yr copy ahead of time, email Moi at GalateaTen@aol.com

FROM THE INTERIOR LIFE OF A POETRY REVIEW EDITOR

I am sitting here tickled pink -- while, admittedly laughing at moiself for feeling said pink -- at having received a review copy of Max Winter's The Pictures from Tarpaulin Sky for Galatea Resurrects (Galatea)!

So what's special about this review copy? Well, it's the first time that Galatea has received an "advance" review copy in that this publication's release date is February 2007. Whoooo-hoooo! See what a simple gal I am to be so easily pleased, I mean, tickled pink? On such elements does a review journal editor thrive.

Pink Whooo-hoooo!

It seems just like yesterday when, as I thought of and began plans for doing a review journal, I was worrying Moi's purty little head on how to get review copies (why would anyone send to Moi since I had no experience doing such a project? You should have seen me scrounge my bookshelves for extra copies of poetry books just so that initial review copy list didn't seem like it was all books from my press!) And now, I've received my first "advance" review copy! As I said,

Pink Whooo-hoooo!

And, now, this is also to say that, due to travel plans, I am extending the deadline for Galatea's next issue from Nov. 5 to Nov. 12 (though, the sooner the better always for sending them in).

So keep on sending them in...the next issue looks to be fabooo.

And by the way, a check on my commitments for reviews shows that it's now at about 60 new reviews (hope this all comes through!), of which 68% were generated from reviewers looking over the received review copy list and asking to see them!!!!!

So authors and publishers -- there is quite a decent chance someone will engage with your publication if you send Galatea a review copy. Information on submissions and review copies here.

PLEASE. ASK ME A QUESTION!?!

Dear Ones,
I am requesting that you ask Moi a question. Please email your question to GalateaTen@aol.com

This is for a new poem project. Your question can be of any topic, concern, length, language (tho pls include an English translation). It need not even "make sense". Any question.

Thank you in advance for your involvement.

Sincerely yours,
A Chatelaine Ever Looking for a Door

YOU TELL 'EM THAT I TELL 'EM

Reb Livingston! And then, because it's quite sadly not about Moi but about the doing, here's an excerpt which you should click on to read the whole thing:

"in the poetry world, a little cheddar goes a long way if you're creative and thoughtful about it. Our ability to make, promote and support poetry is not reliant on how much others are getting. I agree, it's annoying or laughable, possibly offensive, how some choose to spend towards poetry -- I can agree there's a lot of waste and misappropriation among the few who have sizeable fortunes earmarked for poetry -- but, well, whatever. I don't want anyone telling me how to spend my poetry nickels, so I won't bother telling someone how to spend their poetry Benjamins."

Relatedly, heeeeeee...e....ere's Shanna!

ANTI BLATHER POETICS

Steve Evans discusses poetry and money here.

I welcomed his analysis though, as an MBA-er moiself, I gotta say that it doesn't take much smarts to look upon the poetry scene and address it (or take advantage of it) as a nonregulated industry. That is, Barr and Gioia may well be smart people but the poetry world is pretty easy stuff for any businessman (sic) to address if -- and that's a big IF -- one is to rely on the capitalist model. Poetry world is a soft challenge relative to, say, the double-dealing world of Enron-plus. Which is not to rationalize, of course, the conservatizing infrastructure such gentlemen attempt to enforce upon Poetry as an art. But on the other hand, it's not Barr and Gioia but other poets who are deciding to accept false gold, ya know.

Now, I'm not necessarily disputing anything Steve Evans is saying. I'm just saying that his point of view and the Barr/Gioia point of views are so evident in the stances they take. It'd be interesting to see what an analyst -- who's not necessarily wedded to the capitalist or socialist (rightist or leftist ...bah on these categories) POV would say.

The Bushies aren't attacking poetry per se -- there's no significant money in it, notwithstanding the $200 million left by the Lilly heir. In the world of Bush, $200 million is nothing. These Bushies don't give a shit about Poetry. They are, instead, rewarding peeps they see as like-minded, e.g. Barr and Gioia. And while Evans should be applauded for addressing this issue it's still a generally predictable response. Don't take this as a diss against Evans -- at least he's saying something and saying it well.

But in addition to saying something (which, if that's all that happens means that the conservatives have created the basis for discourse including dissenting discourse), poet-peeps also can do something. (Not that I'm saying Evans isn't doing as well).

Doing something. For a very small example related to something that occurred recently in moi backyard, poet peeps might actually try to understand what it means to forge and foster a "community" (elliptical to those of you not in my backyard but you hangin' out by moi barbecue grill might understand...'nuff said on that topic). These (metaphorically) NGO or grassroot type of communities have the power to have more influence on various sectors -- more influence than those whose financial resources allow them to tout their prizes and grants in advertising-needy mags like Poets & Writers.

Evans says this paragraph:

"With hundreds of millions of private and federal dollars now at their disposal, the businessmen poets are positioned to administer serious damage to one of the liveliest, most democratized, and brilliantly articulate art forms in America."

Sure. If your poetry world is the world of "captured audiences" like classroom students, or of grants and other teat-offering services. But if your poetry world is beyond that, there's nothing to worry about. Take blogs -- poetry blogland, like it or not, is a source of power -- even if not just due to a po blogger's insight but as being held to the tail of the internet. Communication is power.

And I am here to staunch any wound, dear Peeps, dealt by businessmen poets. Not because I have an MBA (double major in economics and international business, thank you very much). But because my fallen angels can beat yours in poker...ANY time. (Not that I choose to "win" all the time, dear ones, since Moi is also brimming with compassion.)

To create Poetry is to play poker with those who laugh at your money -- if you're just waving your bills around, you're not even at the true table.

BLOOD POETICS

WHO'DA THUNK?!!!!

I just discovered while chit-chatting with Mom that I am one-quarter ITNEG.

Significance? The Itneg were the "babaylan" -- healers -- in the area where I was birthed in the Philippines. It wasn't until I learned this that my writer's block disappeared for my essay to be part of a forthcoming project whose current working title is:

Deeper Than Modernity: Babaylanism as a Deep Structure of Filipino Subjectivity

Here is more information below -- and I do post this, too, because I need to remind myself to work that Babaylan essay for meeting the volume's deadline. I wouldn't go so far as to posit myself as an indigenist -- if only because I don't know enough about this movement (is "movement" right word?). But I do know that as regards Moi's mythic recall on Babaylans, it's not something that fits the Western narratives in which much of my poetry unfold. Anyway, here's more info about this book which should provoke y'all to take a look when it gets published:

Volume Editors: Leny Mendoza-Strobel, Sonoma State University; S. Lily Mendoza, University of Denver; & Jean Vengua, Poet and Independent Scholar/Writer

Context:
Modernity is a master narrative that is marked by a particular ethos--an age of colonization and empire beginning after 1492 with voyages of discovery, the advent of the scientific revolution, the valorization of enlightenment values, etc). The values of modernity (e.g. individual autonomy, aggressive pursuit of wealth, rationalism, liberalism, etc.) have exercised a growing hegemony despite more recent postmodern challenges to their constructed historicity. To posit postcolonial and indigenous narratives as alternative frames of reference for understanding contemporary history is to question the presumption of modernity to define exclusively what it means to be human. In this volume, we want to deepen our understanding of modernity by revealing it as a narrow and limited framework in the longer narrative of life on earth. Indigenism, for example, would point to the remarkable diversity of ways of being on the planet that have been cataclysmically obliterated in colonial and (later) industrial enterprises, themselves carrying out the 10,000 year-old logic of settled agricultural conquests of the hunter-gatherer social organization that characterized pre-modern humans. Taken in this long view of time, indigenization scholars assert that there is a need to deploy memory and mythic recall in order to learn what we still can about those other sustainable ways of being on the planet and perhaps avert what ecologists see as the human species' headlong fall into utter destruction and eventual extinction.

from the beloved series "Achilles and Gabriela"
THE DAWGS ARE TURNING ME INTO AN ACADEMIC

Have I mentioned I'm part of a panel at the 2007 AWP? Here's my panel info:

"Found in Translation: Poetry that Stems from Multilingual Homes"
Friday, March 2, 2007
12:00-1:15PM

I skipped AWP last year, despite having been accepted for 2 (actually 3) panels. And I skipped it the year before that, too, though I also had been skedded for a panel. Keep this secret, okay; I secretly LOATHE said AWP.

But anyway, the risk of me canceling AWP in 2007 has decreased significantly in the past couple of weeks.

In the past couple of weeks, I've had to deal with Gabriela, one of moi German shepherds, coming down with -- of all the *)(*&)^% things -- vaginitis. You heard that right. And because the dawg don't speak English, she didn't tell me she had vaginitis so that it led to her having bladder stones. And so we had to put her on special diets, give her 13 pills a day...yadda. An x-ray is due in a few weeks to see if we'd have blasted those stones to bits.

And moi other dog Achilles? Well, I had to bring him to the vet today to have skin samples taken off one leg and sent over to some lab who'll do a biopsy. For the next 2 weeks, though, the dawg has to wear an Elizabethan Collar to prevent him from chewing at his stitches.

Because of moi dawgs, I'm actually planning to go to AWP. I need a break from this soccer-mom horse patootie regarding these furry critters.

Meanwhile, here is Gabriela monitored by the Pussipos Artemis and Missy Scarlet. Obviously, she's oblivious to the havoc she wreaks on the Chatelaine's life.

DEAR PHILIP LAMANTIA,

Happy Bithday, you hostest-with-the-mostest.

Love,
Eileen

p.s. I'm good. I'm not behaving, but I'm good.

from the series "Poetry Economics: A Moronic Oxymoron"
LIBRARY SALES POETICS

For the past 3 days, Mom and I have gone to our local St. Helena Library to attend to their booksales:

First day pricing: 50 cents per paperback and $1 per hardback

Second day pricing: 3 paperbacks for a dollar and $1 per hardback

Though I purchased books on the first day of the library sale, I didn't see until the second day a compelling reason to purchase a poetry book: Vikram Seth's THE GOLDEN GATE. So, that's 34 cents (rounded up) for Seth's poem-novel that's been on my To-Read-List ever since it was published in 1986 (20 years ago!). Go Library Book Sale! Then:

Third Day pricing: buy a large paper grocery bag for $3.00 and fill it up with as many books as you can fit into it.

Mom and I sprung for one bag and we filled it with 23 books, to wit:

1 self-help book (Mom's)
7 novels
9 children's books
3 cookbooks
1 biography
2 poetry collections (and I confess I did this partly from the charge of providing a haven for any poetry book)

The poetry collections were Charles Tomlinson's SKYWRITING AND OTHER POEMS and Joan Murray's LOOKING FOR THE PARADE. Both are award-winning collections -- Tomlinson of The New Criterion Poetry Prize and Murray of a National Poetry Series prize (that they end up at an outlet for drastically reduced sales is one more reason to laugh at the valorization of prize competitions for purpose of achieving poetic cultural capital...but that's another story, of course).

The poetry collections also were brand new hardbacks -- they came with press releases AND author photos which implies that they may have been used initially as review copies that subsequently were recyled, in this case into library donations (another reason why I was telling one of moi publishers recently that I think it's silly to do unfocused mass mailings of poetry review copies).

And by dividing $3 into 23 books, that means that I bought Tomlinson and Murray for 13 cents per book -- not that we sneer, do we, considering how many poets have to trade or comp away their books just to get some semblance of distribution going (wink.).

And that, dear Peeps, is this weekend's poetry financial report du jour. God bless and Good night.

IN EXACTLY THIS ORDER: READ, WINE, WHINE

And my latest list of recently relished books and bottles:

PUBLICATIONS:
KALI'S BLADE (poetry manuscript) by Michelle Bautista

Otoliths, Issue 2, No.2, Ed. by Mark Young

OTAGES, poems by John Bloomberg-Rissman

CARACAS NOTEBOOK, poems by Guillermo Parra

ON THE FLY, poems by Amy King

APPREHEND, poems by Elizabeth Robinson

PURE DESCENT, poems by Elizabeth Robinson

LITTLE EASE, poems by Aaron McCollough

THE ANATOMY OF OIL, poems by Marcella Durand

OH MISS MARY, poems by Jim McCrary

ALL THE PAINTINGS OF GIORGIONE, poems by Elizabeth Willis

from A BANNER YEAR, poems by Kate Colby

CIVILIZATION, poems by Elizabeth Arnold

CESAR'S WAY: THE NATURAL, EVERYDAY GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING & CORRECTING COMMON DOG PROBLEMS by Cesar Millan with Melissa Jo Peltier

MY FIRST CRUSH: MISADVENTURES IN WINE COUNTRY, memoir by Linda Kaplan

THE JUMP-OFF CREEK, novel by Molly Gloss
==========

BOOKS DURING ITALY/FRANCE TRAVELS:
WELFARE BRAT, memoir by Mary Childers

A VALLEY IN ITALY: THE MANY SEASONS OF A HOUSE IN UMBRIA, memoir by Lisa St. Aubine de Teran

THE POLISH OFFICER, novel by Alan Furst

BLOWING MY COVER: MY LIFE AS A CIA SPY, memoir by Lindsay Brown

THE ACCIDENTAL CONNOISSEUR: AN IRREVERENT JOURNEY THROUGH THE WINE WORLD, memoir by Lawrence Osborne

I SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME: THE WORST TRIPS OF GREAT WRITERS, Eds. Roger Rapaport and Marguerite Castanara

THE LADY AND THE MONK: FOUR SEASONS IN KYOTO, memoir by Pico Iyer

BONES WOULD RAIN FROM THE SKY: DEEPENING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH DOGS, how-to by Suzanne Clothier

ORDINARY LOVE & GOOD WILL, novellas by Jane Smiley

ABUSE OF POWER, novel by Nancy Rosenberg


WINES:
1999 Schrambsberg Blanc de Noir
2003 Peter Michael Monpleisier
1996 Ch. Lynch Bages
1995 Orion Old Vines syrah
1996 Etienne Sauzet Batard-Montrachet
2002 Y
1992 Bonneau du Martray Corton Charlemagne
==========

WINES DURING ITALY/FRANCE TRAVELS
(Yes, ye oenophile-peeps: wine tasting notes are available):
Jacquart Brut de Nominee
2004 Chablis Champs Royaux William Fevre
2003 Corbieres Domaine de Villemajou Gerard Bertraud
2004 Moscato di Asti
2001 Roberto Voerzio Rouche dell 'Annunciata Torriglione La Morra Barolo
2001 Aldo Conterno Cicala Barolo
1999 G. Bologna Bricco dell 'Uccellone
(dessert wine) Barolo Chinato
2004 Domaine Weimbach Cuvee St. Catherine PInot Gris
2003 Blanc Fume de Puilly Daguencau
2001 Clos Fourtet St. Emilion
1999 Gevrey Chambertin Les Cazetiers Lucien Le Moiac
1997 Ch. Coutet Varsac

@ Parusso
2005 Langhe Bianco
2005 Dolatto d'Alba Prani Noce
2004 Barbera d'Alba Ornati
2004 Barbera d'Alba Superiore (barrel sample)
2004 Nebbiolo Langhe
2001 Barolo Bussia(just opened)
2001 Barolo Bussia (opened 5 hours ago)
1999 Barolo Riserva Mariondiono Vineyard
2003 Barolo

@ Moccagatta
2004 Dolcetto d'Alba
2004 Barbera d'Alba
2003 Basarin
2003 Bric Balin
2001 Basarin
2001 Bric Balin
1996 Bric Balin

@ Gaya
2004 Altenidi Brassica
2004 Maguri
2003 Barbaresco
2004 Paitin Serra Bulla Barbera d'Alba

@ Sandrone
2005 Dolcetto
2004 Barbera
2004 Nebbiolo d'Alba Valmoggione
2002 Le Vigne
2004 Conterno
2003 Cascia Frncia
2004 Cascia Francia
2005 Cascia Francia
1999 Monfortino

IN FRANCE:
2001 Margaux
1999 Lynch Bages Les Ormes de Paz
2001 Lynch Bages
2002 Les Pontet Canet
2004 Latour
2004 Les Fortes de Latour
1999 Latour
2005 Mouton (barrel sample)
2005 d'Armailhac
2005 Clerc Milan
2005 Mouton
1996 Figeac
2001 Domaine de Monteils
2003 Ch. d'Arche
2003 Ch. Pouyenne (Graves)
1998 Ch. Suduiraut
1999 Haut Brion
1999 Ponmery Cuvee Louis champagne
2004 Dauvissat Le Forest
1996 Les Forts de Latour
2002 d'Yquem
2000 Ch. Monbousquet (half bottle)
Louis Roderer Brut Cyrstal
2001 Comte Lafor Merrsault Desire
1999 Trupet Chambertin
1998 Fleur Cardinale
2001 Corbin

REVIEWS, SO TO SPEAK

Reb Livingston discusses cultural capital, I mean, the reviewing process in a well-considered post that ends with the following paragraph that I believe to be significant (click on paragraph for whole must-read thing):

At least not until book reviewing catches up -- and it's starting -- over half the review copies I've sent are to individuals who write about books on their blogs.

Need I say: Galatea Resurrects!

As to other reviewing matters,

NICE NIPPLES, TOM!

I keep giggling over Geof's idea that Tom put a self-portrait on his book cover....heee!

IN MOI MOTHERTONGUE, NO LESS!

Wow. Patrick Rosal posts an Ilokano poem! As I was moved to comment (though it may not show up if Patrick's already left for the Philippines...):

ni. susmaryosep. apay -- diak nga ammo nga ag-il-ilokano ka!!! ay ket nagpintas met daytoy nga daniw mo!! And what a gorgeous beginning:

There is a city within my heart
with many people living there...

MAKE MOI PURRRRR!!!!

So, at the moment, I've got commitments for about 50 new reviews for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects. Normally, that'd be making me purrrrrrr.

But no.

Some commitments don't come through and I'm concerned that the final actual tally won't top the 48 new reviews logged by GR's third issue. For the third issue, I'd received 63 new review commitments and it ended up being 48. If I only have commitments now of about 50, I may come up with a final tally less than 48.

So if you're reading this and have committed to do a review, please come through. I have a bet with someone that the 4th issue can top the third issue's number of new reviews and if you understand blind poker poetics, ahem, the stakes are as high as they are in poetry...wink!

Relatedly, the next issue deadline of Nov. 5, 2006 can probably shift an extra few days (due to some early November travel plans when I wouldn't be able to work on the issue anyway). So, won't you consider doing a review? Oh please do. (I'm beginning to feel like a country tune...)

Remember that you can send reviews of other poetry projects not on the review copy list...and that books can be reviewed more than once. Wanna recommend something on your poetry bookshelf? Send in your thoughts! Shout out! (Cough.)

Anyhoot, the 4th issue looks to be faboo. It will be the first time that certain books will get reviewed a third time in Galatea Resurrects. Yep -- I like presenting multiple reviews of the same book. That's called deepening the engagement! Wouldn't we all rather be engaged with rather than reviewed?

And authors and publishers -- please continue to send review copies; people do pay attention to the review copy list and request to engage with them! Review and submission information available HERE.

THAT NOWHERE IS SOMEWHERE!

"EROTIC VOID" POETICS was actually how I was going to title this post. I thought of that title while perusing through the images of Barry Schwabsky's latest curated art exhibit -- mayhaps it's that 2001 oil by Gillian Carnegie entitled "Window" (wink). It's actually titled "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and includes work by Gillian Carnegie, Annika von Hausswolff, Myriam Home, Sean Paul, Adam Ross, Aida Ruilova, John Stezaker, and Toby Ziegler. But this project is obviously as much about poetry as much as the visual art; check out Barry's Curator's Note:

A poet was once asked whether he was more interested in the form of its work, or in its content. "Neither one," he replied. "The only thing that's really interesting is the void that lies between the two, which conceivably resembles the void at the heart of all things."

Likewise, with regard to images, one might ask the artist whether she is more interested in the surface of her work or its structure, and she might equally elect, instead, the void between them.

This is an exhibition of works that point elsewhere—neither to themselves as self-contained, autonomous artifacts, nor to the things they might picture or evoke. Instead, they indicate the empty space in between, the gap that is the artwork's true engine of seduction, its true source power. The place in art where something opens up, and we have to look in: Everybody knows this is nowhere.

Now, someone who can put together such a faboo, wise exhibit surely can write faboo, wise poems? Check it out with an OPERA and the [ways].

Heck, for the heck of it, email me at GalateaTen@aol.com and say you saw this blog post and you can get both of Barry's poetry books for $18.00 -- a sizeable savings off of the books' retail prices, plus free shipping/handling within the U.S.! I am here to serve!

MOI AM PREPARING A FEAST FOR YOUR EYES!

Just got my hard copy of Otoliths Issue 2, No. 2 which reveals a less known part of Moi: her visual art side viz a folio of collage/drawings. This is a wonderful issue and I'm truly honored to be in the company of people who really know what they're doing -- as regards the visual arts, I often feel I'm just a cheerful pretender.

Which is also to say, I've actually got two big text projects in progress but have been setting them aside to focus on a renewed compulsion to do more drawings stemming from my 2002 "Six Directions" projects. Collage-drawings.

One of you curators out there really should invite me to participate in an exhibit. Really. One of you need to.

DEADHEAD POETICS...aka, IT'S REALLY NOT ABOUT MOI

I got a letter from my oldest-known pal, a girlfriend I met in 6th grade. I haven't seen her in decades though we have maintained a correspondence across the years. Anyway, Girlfriend says she has a video of me -- a PBS video showing me reading at a bookstore.

A PBS video that includes Moi? (And, apparently, my girlfriend sez, I look "perpetually 30 -- must be all that wine." Actually, it's whine...but moving on...)

So, why do I know nothing about this PBS video? I only want to be public domain, People, at the same time that I want to be a "famous poet." And that's when I'm dead. Kapisch?!

So, on the flow of, *But really it's not about me...!*, do check out Geof Huth's lovely engagement with Tom Beckett's Unprotected Texts. A fabulously deep and loving engagement -- here's an excerpt (but geez -- the whole thing entitled "An Erotics of Thought" shouldn't be excerpted but most def read in its entirety!):

These conglomerations of thoughts—a technique Beckett replays a number of times in this book—intrigue me, but more important to me is the definitional stance he takes. Definitions, in various forms, appear throughout the book because Beckett is a philosopher and the philosopher must show us the truth. Thus, we learn that “Metaphor is a form of alienation”—an interesting point when poetry is so much about wrangling with metaphor, so much interested in the process of extending meaning.

Thanks Geof--your read & write is definitely worth an X-size condom!

I CAN'T HELP THINKING

about the brilliant design of that poster for "Moving Archipelago" (see prior post). An archipelago of lights: each island bringing its own contribution to light. And all atop a conference type of table, as what can be seen at conferences and panels. Ergo, per backward Platonic argumentating, each panelist hopefully shedding light on their topics.

So: Nice design, Mr/s Designer.

WHEN MOI ARCHIPELAGO MOVES, IT DANCES!

Pls Forward -- Nov. 7 deadline for RSVP!



For immediate release:

Moving Archipelago: A Century Of Writing Filipino America
at the historic Woolworth Building
Date: Friday and Saturday, November 10-11, 2006
Location: Reception and conference at New York University, SCPS Conference Center, 2nd Floor, Woolworth Building, 15 Barclay Street, New York, NY 10038

Readings and discussion by Luis H. Francia, Sabina Murray, Eugene Gloria, Bino A. Realuyo, Eileen Tabios, Brian Ascalon Roley, Nerissa S. Balce, Nick Carbo, Luisa A. Igloria, Lara Stapleton, Sarah Gambito, Rick Barot and others!

Join A/P/A Institute at New York University in collaboration with Kundiman and the Centennial Planning Committee, on Friday night for an evening of readings and celebration of 100 years of Filipino immigration to the U.S.

Kick-off Reception Friday, Nov. 10th, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Panel Discussions Saturday, Nov. 11th, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, reception follows with readings

The kick-off reception on Friday and series of panels on Saturday will feature readings from some of the major Filipino writers across the U.S. and from New York City to exchange stories, discuss ideas, and explore the varied meanings of literary texts. Just as importantly, the distinguished gathering will celebrate what has preceded us and the rich but ambivalent promise of what lies ahead.

RSVP by Tuesday, November 7 for the reception and conference separately to apa.rsvp@nyu.edu or by phone 212-992-9653. For more information, visit www.apa.nyu.edu

Schedule of panels:

November 10th Readings & Reception: 7-9pm
Brian Ascalon Roley, Peter Bacho, Rick Barot, Nick Carbo, Fidelito Cortes, Luisa A. Igloria, Lara Stapleton & Luis H. Francia

November 11th Panels: 10:00am-5pm
Panel 1: Where Have We Been?
Luis H. Francia, moderator; Nerissa S. Balce, Peter Bacho, Luisa A. Igloria, Lara Stapleton

Panel 2: From Manong to Hip-Hop: Immigrant Stories
Bino A. Realuyo, moderator; Sarah Gambito, Leslieann Hobayan, Brian Ascalon Roley, and Oscar Penaranda

Panel 3: Rendering the Invisible Visible
Joseph O. Legaspi, moderator; Rick Barot, Eugene Gloria, Elda Rotor, and Eileen R. Tabios

Panel 4: Where Are We Going?
Allan Isaac, moderator; Nick Carbo, Andrew Hsiao, Sabina Murray, R.A.Villanueva

Reception and Closing Reading to follow panels until 7:30pm
Readings by: Eugene Gloria, Sabina Murray, Oscar Penaranda, Bino A. Realuyo, Ninotcha Rosca & Eileen Tabios

Co-sponsored by The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, and NYU History Department.

Supported by the Asian American Writers' Workshop, Asia Society and NYU International Filipino Association.

Media Sponsorship by Asiance Magazine. Beer provided by Carlsberg. Food sponsors Cendrillon and Elvie's.

THE CONDOM MADE ME DO IT

--that is, create a new VizPo-Word. I was sending Tom Beckett's condom to a Galatea Resurrects reviewer (yep, that's a bonus you can get for reviewing) and wrote "Here's something for your

A M (USE) M E N T

Speaking of Galatea Resurrects, do check out new review copies here. It's not too late to join the party -- remember that I'm open to taking reviews of any poetry project, not just recently-released books or those for whichI have review copies. Email me at GalateaTen@aol.com if you have questions!

TITULAR POETICS

or "Kyo Poetics", Part II!

Guillermo writes in as regards the title of my 2007 Marsh Hawk Press book, and I repost since I don't have a Comments section (thanks Guillermo!):

Reading about your upcoming book, THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES, at your blog, the title has stayed with me for several days now. It's a fantastic title. It resonates very much with me, it's a poem in itself. For some reason (I think phonetic) it reminds me of the title of a song by The Smiths called "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" (from their LP THE QUEEN IS DEAD). Maybe they end up being metrically the same? Anyways, that song is perhaps my favorite by The Smiths. For some reason, your title connects me to that song. The subjective mysteries of reading, I suppose.

Believing as much as I do in the power of titles, I can't wait to read your book.

Guillermo later adds that he first heard the Smiths LP in 1986 when he was in high school and, quoting John Wieners, "I ain't been able to forget..."

Catchy title...catchy song...catches upon memory.

"POET" IS A VERB

I believe in poets influencing/creating modes of poetic production, not just passively sending out poems for third-party judgments. So I applaud Michael Wells for inaugurating a new poetry journal: ROGUE POETRY REVIEW

which, btw (wink), contains some of my poems.

Thanks, Michael!

"THROUGH HER, ALL LIFE COMES AND YET DEATH IS HER DOMAIN"

Such is Moi power that...that....the martial arts even come to engage with Moi loving poetics! To wit, Meritage Press's last book to be released in 2006 will be the groundbreaking KALI'S BLADE by poet and black-belt kali master (not to mention Jedi in Star Wars) Michelle Bautista. With that, what do you do for a blurb? You get Grandmaster himself:

"She is deep, she is dark, she is unseen. She is the Goddess of both death and destruction, and birth and creativity. Through her all life comes and yet, death is her domain.

Kali is a duality...a beautiful woman that hides a secret. Hidden from all to see, she keeps her weapon near her belly. It is the power that is her fury. A two-edged knife... whose glint of light is best kept in the dark, before it pierces."
--Grandmaster Joseph T. Oliva Arriola, Kamatuuran School of Kali on KALI BLADE by Michelle Bautista

Which is all to say -- this explains the logic of this cutting-edge Author Photo:



This lady can take down three -- was it four? -- men in open-hand combat. I won't say her pen is mightier than her sword; I will say the sum of her pen and sword is greater than two -- a menage, oh Reader, with YOU.

*****

Meanwhile, Jerrold Shiroma just put up my latest book link at the Meritage Press web site for Bruna Mori and Matthew Kinney's Dérive. One down, one to go and Meritage Press ends the year with the power of the martial arts! Yeah.

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY, PART DEUX

Well, speaking of 5th anniversaries, I didn't realize Meritage Press and Marsh Hawk Press were birthed in the same year! Which means, this one-person Meritage Press must now direct left hand to high-five the right hand for the following list, in chronological order, which shows that I bested my original goal of one book a year! With sore palms, I'm pleased to note:

MERITAGE PRESS PROJECTS
(since 2001)

“Cold Water Flat” (2001). Signed and numbered etching by Archie Rand and John Yau. Limited edition of 37.

100 More Jokes From The Book of the Dead (2001). A monograph documenting a collaboration between Archie Rand and John Yau.

er, um (2002). A collection of ten poems by Garrett Caples and six drawings by Hu Xin. Limited edition of 75 copies. Signed and numbered by the poet.

Museum of Absences (2003). Poetry collection by Luis H. Francia. (Copublished with the University of the Philippines Press.)

Opera: Poems 1981-2001 (2003) by Barry Schwabsky.

[ways] (2004). A poetry-art collaboration between Barry Schwabsky and Hong Seung-Hye. (Copublished with Artsonje Center, Seoul.)

The Oracular Sonnets (2004). An e-publication of a visual poetry collaboration between Mark Young and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen.

PINOY POETICS: A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino-American Poetics (2004). Edited by Nick Carbo.

The Obedient Door (2005). Poems by Sean Tumoana Finney and drawings by Ward Schumaker.

THE FIRST HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY (2005). Edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young.

NOT EVEN DOGS (2006). Hay(na)ku Poems by Ernesto Priego.

Unprotected Texts: Selected Poems (1978-2006) (2006). Poems by Tom Beckett.

Dérive (2006). A poetry-art collaboration by Bruna Mori and Matthew Kinney.

Kali Blade (2006). Poems, prose and collaborations by Michelle Bautista.

HAPPY 5TH ANNIVERSARY

to Marsh Hawk Press -- a sophisticated group of poets who took poetic mode of production into their own hands and, Voila!, an impressive list of books for a very indie press in just 5 years! (And I ain't sayin' that just coz I'm biased!)

MOI CONSTANTLY WELCOMES TOI

A poetics of welcome. That's Moi. Hence, THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES will feature my byline as its author. But incorporated into its pages will be the poetry of other artists such as

Ernesto Priego (see prior post)
Rebeka Lembo
Nick Carbo
Cody McCafferty
Jean Vengua
Paolo Manalo

as well as collaborations with Nick Carbo, David Baptiste-Chirot, Karri Kokko -- among others.

I am among Others. When I say my poetic "I" transcends me, it also means a single-author poetry collection that bears my name as Author might as well overtly involve others.

My book features other authors but it is not an anthology. My book features other authors because it is, indeed, my book.

"PERPETUALLY UNDER TRANSLATION"

is my working title for the section in my 2007 book, THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES, which will feature Ernesto Priego's Spanish translations of some of my poems. As said title implies, I am talking about a larger world of perception of Moi -- among other things, as a poet, as a woman, as a Filipino, as a sexpot (heh), and as an "Ascemic Chatelaine".

I am grateful for Ernesto's translation of my words because I always thought that if the meaning of (my) abstract poems cannot be pinned down, how then can they be translated? The welcoming is significant -- and that Ernesto picked up on that addresses the opening of that door.

(Relatedly, much of the "translations" of my work has been into non-literary forms and I often thought for a decidedly logical reason related to abstraction.)

So thanks for Ernesto's notions on translations, specifically of my poems, such as this excerpt:

Eileen's poetic project(s), her poetics that is, lends itself perfectly to address the question of the need and impossibility of translation. Translating Eileen's poetry into Spanish is a hard task: nothing seems to fully translate (does anything ever?), while at the same time offering itself in a linguistic hospitality that invites the reader to translate.

JACK STOMPS...!

Yay! Jack Kimball engages with Tom Beckett's burnt-orange UNPROTECTED TEXTS and sez, among other things,

"Tom Beckett lost and found it. "Are you my body?" he asks. How long has he been up there? Yeah. There isn't a two-page spread in Unprotected Texts that doesn't satisfy my frenzy to stomp on iconography for future benefit."

Heee...!

REGARDING AUTHOR PHOTOS

I personally find the use of Author Photos in poetry collections to be a distinct failure of the imagination.

I don't like using them.

Having said that, I acknowledge some publishers' -- and authors' -- wish to use them as part of the marketing of any book project. Giraffe, one of my publishers back in the Philippines, requested back cover author photos for my books. I wanted to accommodate them (after all, I am grateful for being published). So for my first book with them, I used a photo of me in 5th grade -- thus negating some of the factors I detest about author photos (how a photogenic image helps sell; I was photogenic at the time that book came out, unlike today when I'm cheerfully dissipated by wine). Then on my second book with them, the back cover photo is an artist's Liechtenstein-type riff of me.)

Which is to say -- since my Giraffe days, I only use Author photos when there's a reason (in my view) to use them in a way that they become a legitimate part of the work. So in my upcoming DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS (see prior post), I use a baby photo as it relates to the book's underlying concept (for which you'll have to read the book to understand the correlation).

This topic of back cover Author photos came to mind today when I read Veronica's blog and saw a wedding photo celebrating her 15th wedding anniversary (Congrats Ver!!!!) That wedding photo reminded me of my back cover photo for ENGLISH because I also used a wedding photo. That photo choice correlated to ENGLISH's concept of the poet marrying "Mr/s Poetry."

This is all a long way, though, to explaining that I -- inspired by Ver's example -- now also post one of my wedding photos, which happened to be ENGLISH's author photo. Because I and the hubby also just celebrated a wedding anniversary: our 20th. So, dear Hubby -- thank you for a life that is a lovely Dance:

KOOTCHIE-COO, READER, AND BE MOI BABY!

So. Why will my next book's Author photo be captioned

"The Author During The Golden Age of Atlantis"

and show Moi when she was teensy as per:



Well, you'll have to find out why through moi forthcoming DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS (Otoliths) -- thank you Mark Young for the lovely opportunity.

And I'm gurgling like a bebe in excitement as I just saw the golden cover with a brilliant vizpo interpretation by harry k. stammer. Thank you, harry, for all your fabulous design work!

More details later on my recovery of Atlantis, but for now, here's an appetizer -- an excerpt from the back cover text for Dear-you-know-who-scholar who needs to be alerted to the phrase I'm boldfacing:

EILEEN TABIOS' publications include 14 poetry collections, an art essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, and a short story book. DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS, her 11th print poetry collection, extends a body of work unique for melding ekphrasis with a transcolonial perspective.

Kootchie-kootchie-koo!

ILLEGIBLE POETICS

Nick Carbo and I are currently working on a collaborative poem...which is how I learned the dude is currently in Sevilla (lucky you!). And now he's posted on his carbonated blog a photo of FILIPINOS. That's the chocolate-covered cookie, mind you.

I remember when I first learned of the "Filipino" as a pastry, as something to be eaten, as a snack. As objectified into a sweet. 'Twas at Fundacion Valparaiso, the artist colony in Almeria, Spain, from my colony-hopping days. Spain, of course, was a 3-century colonizer of the Philippines...

I mentioned my discomfort with naming a cookie a "Filipino". The listening peeps looked at me with varying degrees of stupefaction and unanimously dismissed my concern.

That's okay. It's really a Trojan Horse strategy. Make everyone think a Filipino is (a) sweet. Then the sweet turns on your objectifying gaze with its calories and bad fat.

You won't ever see this topic in any of my poems viz their narratives. But it's there viz their sensibility. An example of Moi's Asemic writing.

AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, WHAT I REALIZE

Tim Gaze introduced me yesterday to the notion of Asemic writing (thank you, Tim; timely pun re your name: Tim Gaze-s!). And this is what I realized:

The world is full of words, none of them mine. Even the words I (think I) made up are not mine.

What I realize is that, in my Poetry *writing*, readable Asemic writing is what I'm interested in. *Readable Asemic* may be oxymoronic, but still, that's what I'm interested in.

I've always been interested in abstraction for authorial control to be one of a lack of control.

Because YOU matter to me. "I Love You."

Love scares many people. When I see poetry communities refuse to include my poems, it is purrrrrr-fectly logical--Love, while freely given, can rarely be pinned down. (Hence, it is Moi not I who I pin down for you...)

Oh, it took yeeeeeeaaaaarrrrrssss to get to What I Realize.

But my poems remain, non-erased, because Reader -- My Love for you is True.

THE GOOSE THAT LAID THE GOLDEN EGGS

is Galatea Resurrects (A Poetry Engagement).

The royal We are working on the fourth issue of Galatea Resurrects -- but I've already gotten a review commitment for the sixth issue!

Nonetheless, the royal We are working on the fourth issue; deadline for reviews/engagements is Nov. 5, 2006. Do check out the Review Copy list which I've just updated with review copies that piled up in my snailmail while I was out of town for 10 days. Lots of good stuff there -- golden eggs!

SPEAKING OF DERIVE

with accent on first E that I'm inept to type,

WildType BacterioPoetics is the name -- and ain't it a great name! -- of a site by Holland-based Wilfried Hou Je Bek who experiments with various techniques for urban exploration, in the tradition of the dérive. It's a really interesting read -- thanks to Tim Gaze for the link!

BRUNA MORI'S FIRST POETRY COLLECTION: DERIVE!!!

In Bordeaux, while discussing wine with one of the locals, and specifically the possibility that some winemakers are tailoring their wines to a perceived globalized taste, the Frenchman said, "For some, wine is a lifestyle.  For others, wine is a way of life." 

That's a poetics. Replace the word "wine" with "poetry" in that statement and you got Winepoetics. While discussing this with Bruna Mori, Meritage Press' newest author, I came to share, "Poetry is a dream, and I choose to live that dream rather than dream of it."

Make that dream real, rather than imagined. And part of living Poetry, for me, is a commitment to publishing poetry by others -- I am delighted to announce a SPECIAL PRE-RELEASE OFFER for Bruna Mori's first poetry book! It's a well- and deeply-conceived (and deeply-felt) project, and I hope you'll agree!

MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

Dérive
poems by Bruna Mori
paintings by Matthew Kinney
ISBN-10: 0-9709179-6-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-9709179-5-9
Release date: November 2006
Distributors: Small Press Distribution, Amazon.com & www.MeritagePress.com
For more info: MeritagePress@aol.com

Relevant categories: Poetry. Creative Nonfiction. Urban Studies. Cultural Studies. Women's Studies.

Meritage Press is delighted to announce the release of Bruna Mori's long-awaited first poetry collection, Dérive, which also presents reproductions of paintings by New York-based artist Matthew Kinney. Drawn by the New York cityscape and encounters found there, physical trajectories are mapped in words and sumi-ink. Poems that depict an ever-shifting subjectivity within the urban sphere are interspersed with paintings of architectures dis/assembling.

From Second Avenue to 242nd Street, spanning mahjongg parlors and halfway houses, "Bruna Mori creates a lyrical alchemy of the debris and mythology of New Amsterdam (Brenda Coultas)." "Mori rides the New York City subway to its terminus, and in so doing reminds us that those oft forgotten souls who inhabit urban outreaches are adamant bridges between their old world and new (Martine Bellen)."

The book honors (and strays from) the Situationist theory of the dérive, or "drift"--where one or more persons during a certain period let themselves be attracted to the terrain, détourning one's steps on noncapitalized time. Through drift, Mori "found" collaborator Matthew Kinney painting the skyline in sumi-ink on a torn-edged canvas--a carryover from his skate-punk days when he regularly made impromptu washes on cardboard kept in his backpack. Not long after, they decided to combine their work.

*************************

To celebrate Dérive's release, Meritage Press is pleased to offer a Release Special through November 30, 2006. For $11.00, you can obtain a copy of Dérive—a savings off the book's retail price of $14.95—plus free shipping/handling to U.S. addresses. Just send a check made out to "Meritage Press" to:

Eileen Tabios
Meritage Press
256 North Fork Crystal Springs Road
St. Helena, CA 94574

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MORE ADVANCE WORDS:
"Mori is not only a cogent observer of life and its environs but a magnanimous participant who shines a light on the profound beauty of no-name pizza parlors and sweaty flesh that bears green tattoos of the heart."
—Martine Bellen

"Dérive is an animated guidebook to the boroughs of my city and should be required reading for travelers and residents alike."
—Brenda Coultas

"Much to admire. In the range of experiences detailed and the ever-shifting vantage point, the city and its inhabitants emerge as vastly various and yet inextricably bound to one another."
—lê thi diem thúy

"A deft poetic journey through the fissures and ironies of city life."
—Norman M. Klein

Bruna Mori was born in Japan and has lived primarily in the United States--mostly in New York, and Louisiana and California. Tergiversation (Ahadada Books, 2006) and The Approximations (2nd Avenue Poetry, 2006) are her first chapbooks, and Dérive is her first book. A writer and editor, she teaches at Art Center College of Design and the Southern California Institute of Architecture. Her BA and MFA degrees were completed at the University of California, San Diego and Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.

Matthew Kinney was born in Georgetown, Massachusetts. A visual artist with an emphasis on painting and sculpture, he presently has a studio space at Spire Studios in Beacon, New York; also an advocate of sustainable agriculture, he works at Windfall Farms in Montgomery. He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.



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You can catch Bruna, by the way, at the upcoming IMPUNITIES, a two-day experiment in writing and community in Los Angeles at REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater.

It looks like an interesting conference; here's a description:

What role does writing and narrative play in the invention of alternative communities, identities and politics? Can imaginary communities or fictitious authors solve real problems? What are the methodologies of the oppressed, the voices of the silenced and the technologies of otherness? Such work might include collaborative projects, self-organizing or anarchic groups, poetic terrorists, writer-pirates, and textual gleaners, revolutionaries or exiles. Impunities gathers disparate cultural vagabonds who set into motion our collective fantasies of escape, oblivion, arrival, and transformation.

And here's a description of the panel being moderated by Bruna on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006:

Imagined Identities: Technologies of the Self
How can alternative identities be imagined and articulated in language? Do such literary technologies of the self help us negotiate with real powers, or do they always remain in the realms of 'fiction'? Speakers: Shelley Jackson, Bhanu Kapil, Edwin Torres
Moderator: Bruna Mori