FREEDOM AMIDST THE FOOTNOTES

When I wrote what I call my "Footnote Poems" first published as an e-chap by Xpress(ed) and then later reprinted in that ENGLISH brick, I hadn't known of others' versions of footnote poems, of which I recently read two: Xq281 by Jennifer Martenson and THE BODY: AN ESSAY by Jennifer Boully.

I have also heard, though I haven't yet had a chance to read it (simply because I can't seem to find it/order it in the U.S. Help, anyone?) that Philippines-based poet Conchitina Cruz has written footnote poems in her collection DARK HOURS (though the only link I could find to it is a REVIEW in which her footnote poems didn't seem to garner a fan).

Footnote poems could be an interesting topic to teach -- or at least the syllabus could be interesting, anyway. Because though the form is similar -- pages mostly blank and with footnotes edging each bottom edge of the page -- the underlying poetics are different. Mine, for example, would have something to do with invisibility as a Filipino phenomenon and writing in the margins. THE BODY: AN ESSAY is presented as a challenge to "coinventional notions of plot and narrative, genre and form, theory and practice, unremittingly questioning the presumptive boundaries between reflection, imagination and experience," according to Wayne Koestenbaum who wrote the Intro. Xq281 relates to gender.

UPDATE: Ivy reminds that the fabulous Geof Huth keeps a 'One Million Footnotes' blog with these relevant notes: "Prospectus: Footnotes to a nonexistent book, a series of observations, a novel without the plot, the autobiography of an imagination, linked poetry of the everyday world, an impossible goal." And that comes with this interesting "Footnotation: There are books in which the footnotes or comments scrawled by some reader's hand in the margin are more interesting than the text. The world is one of these books." by George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952).

If anyone has other suggestions for a Footnote Poem Syllabus, do feel free to Email Moi at GalateaTen@aol.com

Meanwhile, here are my other recent Relished W(h)ines:

PUBLICATIONS:
MANNAHATTA MAHAL: COLLECTED EXPATRIATE POEMS by Luis Cabalquinto

HUMAN SCALE, poems by Michael Kelleher

CREATION MYTHS, poems by Mathias Svalina (this chap -- pun intended -- is brilliant)

THE BOOK OF THE ROTTEN DAUGHTER, poems by Alice Friman

CHILD IN THE ROAD, poems by Cindy Savett

A FROG JUMPS IN HAIBUN JOURNAL, poems by Kathrin U. Schaeppi

EBB PORT, poems by Susana Gardner

XQ281, poem by Jennifer Martenson

THE BODY: AN ESSAY, poetry by Jenny Boully

POETRY AS INSURGENT ART by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

SKIN TAX, poems by Tim Z. Hernandez

HAPAX, poems by A.E. Stalling

TIME AND MATERIALS, poems by Robert Hass

FOR GIRLS & OTHERS, poems by Shanna Compton

DRUNK BY NOON, poems by Jennifer L. Knox

KISS ME WITH THE MOUTH OF YOUR COUNTRY, poems by Amy King

WORDS IN YOUR FACE: A GUIDED TOUR THROUGH TWENTY YEARS OF THE NEW YORK CITY POETRY SLAM by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

CURRENTLY WEST (featuring Andrew John Cecil, Bill Gilbert, Dean Ramos, Lisa Solomon, Roberto Salas and Yoshimi Hayashi, exhibition catalogue, Koumi Machi Kougen Museum of Art, 2007

DICTATOR STYLE: LIFESTYLES OF THE WORLD'S MOST COLORFUL DESPOTS, study of interior design (such as it is) by Peter York

CRIMINAL OF POVERTY: GROWING UP HOMELESS IN AMERICA, memoir by TINY, aka Lisa Gray-Garcia

THE JEW STORE, family memoir by Stella Suberman

SINGLE WOMAN HOMESTEADER, memoir by Leona Dixon Cox

NO TIME ON MY HANDS, memoir by Grace Snyder as told to Nellie Snyder Yost

THE WAITING CHILD: HOW THE FAITH AND LOVE OF ONE ORPHAN SAVED THE LIFE OF ANOTHER, memoir by Cindy Champnella

GAP CREEK, novel by Robert Morgan (Algonquin Hill, New York, 1999)

THE AGE OF GRIEF, novella and short stories by Jane Smiley

A WANTED MAN, novel by Lina Lael Miller


WINES:
1970 BVPR
1995 Behrens & Hitchcock cabernet NV
1996 Williams Selyem pinot noir Rochioli Vineyards
1996 Gevrey-Chambertin Vieilles Vignes Geantet-Pansiot
1990 Dom Perignon
2004 Peter Michael Mon Plasir chardonnay
1996 Jones Family cabernet
1994 Araujo Eisele Vineyard cabernet
1998 Dovinhoff Oberhauser Bruche Reisling Eiswein
2004 Red Edge shiraz Heathcote
1993 Peachy Canyon Paso Robles zinfandel Dusi Ranch
1998 Clarendon Hills shiraz Brookman Vineyard