FORTITUDE FORGES WINGS

So these past few days have been so jam-packed, in part for introducing three major projects. I'm going to recap them as I'm off to Arizona for the next few days:

MP Tiny Book #1: all alone again by Dan Waber

The Chained Hay(na)ku Invitation

RELEASE OFFER for William Allegrezza's FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS
Deadline: Aug. 31, 2007

Moi hopes there's something in the above for all of you. And now, off I go to joust with the Phoenix sun. Silly Arizonian orb thinks it can generate more heat than the heart of moi blather. Silly sun. Moi wings are not forged with wax....

ATTN. BOOK COLLECTORS!

You should consider ordering all of the teensy books in Meritage Press' Tiny Book series (see prior post). Not only are they a charming collectible but you might end up with a very valuable item, particularly in this e-age.

I'ma jes sayin'. The Chatelaine is nothing but solicitous as regards your retirement plans...

And another relevant linkie HERE.

WITH EACH TINY BOOK, POETRY FEEDS THE WORLD

Meritage Press Announcement
For more information: MeritagePress@aol.com

POETRY FEEDS THE WORLD

Meritage Press (MP) is pleased to inaugurate a new series of Tiny Books that aligns poetry with fair trade and economic development issues affecting Third World countries.

MP's Tiny Books initially will utilize small books (1 3/4" x 1 3/4") made in Guatemala by artisans paid fair wages, as sourced by Baksheesh, a fair trade retailer. All profits from book sales then will be donated to Heifer International, an organization devoted to reducing world hunger by promoting sustainable sources of food and income.

We are delighted to announce that MP's first Tiny Book is

               all alone again
               by Dan Waber

Dan Waber is a visual poet, concrete poet, sound poet, performance poet, publisher, editor, playwright and multimedia artist whose work has appeared in all sorts of delicious places, from digital to print, from stage to classroom, from mailboxes to puppet theaters. He is currently working on "and everywhere in between". He makes his online home at logolalia.com.

Meritage Press tapped Mr. Waber to inaugurate the series partly for his work in minimalist poetry. Tiny Book #2 will feature Tom Beckett's first hay(na)ku poetry collection, Steps: A Notebook. The hay(na)ku also is a form that lends itself to minimalism.

With Tiny Books, MP also offers a new DIY, or Do-It-Yourself Model of publishing. You've heard of POD or print-on-demand? Well, these books' print runs will be based on HOD or Handwritten-on-Demand. MP's publisher, Eileen Tabios, will handwrite all texts into the Tiny Books' pages and books will be released to meet demand for as long as MP is able to source tiny books -- or until the publisher gets arthritis.

This project reflects Meritage Press' belief that "Poetry feeds the world" in non-metaphorical ways. The Tiny Books create demand for fair trade workers' products while also sourcing donations for easing poverty in poorer areas of the world.

Each Tiny Book will cost $10 plus $1.00 shipping/handling. To purchase Dan Waber's all alone again and donate to Heifer International, send a check for $11.00 made out to "Meritage Press" to

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

ADOR(N)ING LIGHT

So The Light Sang...gives me the first opportunity to release a hardcover book -- I now learn that they also call hardcovers "cloth".

Anyway, moi brilliant book designer Claudia revealed what's really kewl about "cloth" -- first, look at this image



See that alternating red and gold inner band just inside the cover? They could have been white, and I wouldn't have known to notice. But Claudia suggested the above, which alternates "'Flare' red with gold metallic foil."

Gold which, among other things, is the color of enlightenment.

Red -- but not just red but "Flare" red -- symbolizing passion; reminds me of when Jean once said in something I later turned into an epigraph for a poem in ENGLISH: "Poetry must burn."

So I enthusiastically replied to Claudia, "Absolutely!"

To which she so fittingly replied, "Yeah cloth books are cool, like dolls, you can dress them up and add bling."

Bling!

Bling on the book!

Or, if this be my last book for a while, it's sure great to go out with a ... bling!

Badda-bling, Badda-book!

I'll stop now.

RE REVIEWING

There's a tendency among some critics -- and I've done this myself -- to review books in part by paying attention to what the authors say about their works (whether through footnotes, interviews, and other sources not always directly included in the text under review).

As I've said, I've done this myself (e.g. in some articles in my first book, Black Lightning) and so know first-hand what can be the limitations of this approach, even as it can be a viable approach. Part of the limitation occurs when the reviewer seeks to deconstruct the path between the poem (if a poem is being reviewed) and then the texts "about" the poem, It's rarely possible for a third-party to reconstruct fully what happened between authorial intention and the result of the work. Where the critic fails is when s/he automatically concludes that the work, consequently, fails because the dots can't be connected in some adequate fashion.

This would seem particularly important in something like poetry, which often transcends autobiography and/or authorial intention.

The process becomes even more complicated when the author says that there is a multiplicity of inspirations and sources to any one work. Because what the de facto deconstructionist then attempts to do is not just trace any particular source to the poem but also the (inter)relationships among those multiple sources.

And maybe this is a strong argument for looking at the work on its own. Not from seeking to erase the author (which is what has come mostly to mind whenever I've been faced with the issue of how to consider the author when looking at a particular work)....but because the deconstruction of how sources and result rub against each other is not always a source for critical credibility.

The exercise, of course, can be its own art form (and one of my favorite exercises -- hence my predilection for "engagements" vs "reviews"). But that, of course, is a separate -- and equally controversial -- story. Controversial because the fine line separates criticism and appropriation.

AND IT'S ALSO A PRIZE-WINNER! NAKU!

I missed when they changed "science fiction" to "speculative fiction". But then, this is a genre I don't really follow. Speaking of which, one of the winners in a Dragons, Knights & Angels poetry contest is a hay(na)ku sequence: "Black Hole Relationships" by R.L. Copple.

Woot! Or, in Ilocano:

Hay(na)ku!
Ket wen
a! Prize-winner, met!

HEY TEACHERS: HAY(NA)KU!

Just pointing out that The Chained Hay(na)ku is a useful teaching tool. The site features Conversations about the collaborative process, and the hay(na)ku's form -- simple, albeit deceptively so -- is an inviting doorway.

Just remembered when Chris Murray, while still at UTA, had students do the hay(na)ku. One of those students, Cody McCafferty will see his hay(na)ku end up in moi forthcoming book re the Song of Light ...

Anyway, just nota bene-ing.

HAY(NA)KU = INVITATION

[Please Forward]

HAY(NA)KU = INVITATION

You are cordially invited

by Ivy Alvarez, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Ernesto Priego, and Eileen Tabios

to participate in

THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU PROJECT!

As authors of single-author poetry hay(na)ku collections, we invite you to collaborate with others to create "chained hay(na)ku" -- a poem based on the hay(na)ku poetic form and created by multiple authors (at least three individual authors).

Information on the hay(na)ku are available at:
http://www.meritagepress.com/haynaku.htm
http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/haynaku.htm
http://haynakupoetry.blogspot.com/

For an example of the Chained Hay(na)ku, please visit the blog,

THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU PROJECT: AN INVITATION

which features our collaborative poem, "Four Skin Confessions."  The poem was written in May 2007 by email, spanning the time zones of London, Cardiff, and California.

We now invite other poets to collaborate with others in creating other chained hay(na)ku. Authors can then contribute their collaborations (including excerpts from such collaborations) for possible publication, which Meritage Press will release as either a journal, anthology, or hand-made limited edition (the final format will depend on the nature of and number of contributions).

Collaborations need not be only in verse form.  Visual poetry is welcome, as long as the collaborators number at least three and realize that reproduction is likely to be in black-and-white.

Email Contributions (and queries) to MeritagePress@aol.com

Deadline for Contributions: January 31, 2008

Why not get together with others and chain together a hay(na)ku?  It's a poetic form that has always been intended to be an Invitation!

All Best,

Ivy Alvarez, author of 1 DOZ. POISON HAY(NA)KU (Big Game Books, 2007)

John Bloomberg-Rissman, author of OTAGES (Bamboo Books, 2006) and NO SOUNDS OF MY OWN MAKING (Leafe Press, 2007)

Ernesto Priego, author of NOT EVEN DOGS (Meritage Press, 2006)

Eileen Tabios, author of THE SINGER AND OTHERS (Dusie, 2007)

MARSH HAWK PRESS POETRY PRIZE

If you were among those who entered the annual contest sponsored by Marsh Hawk Press (wise publisher of moi Singing Light), the results are available HERE and HERE.

Not yet mentioned on Marsh Hawk Press' website is the judge for this coming year's contest (you get the news right here!):

THYLIAS MOSS

Yadda.

PAGE 228 POETICS

Just finished proofing the final proof of The Light Sang....there was one last typo in the manuscript, but I decided to leave the error in. It's something that's interested me since POST BLING BLING to incorporate in books: the poetics of wabi sabi.

Or how Native American blankets offer patterns include a deliberate discrepancy and Anasazi pots have slightly shattered bases to leave room for the "spirits". Or, in poems, facilitating the readers' engagements.

So Nota Bene, Moi Peeps: when The Light Sang... is released, if you catch the error, email Moi and you'll get a prize!

THIS IS A SPECIAL RELEASE!!

[Pls Feel Free to Forward]

MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

A Special Release Offer For:

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS
Poems by William Allegrezza
ISBN-10: 0-9794119-0-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-9794119-0-8
Release date: Summer 2007
Distributors: Small Press Distribution, Amazon.com & www.MeritagePress.com
For more info: MeritagePress@aol.com

Meritage Press is delighted to announce the release of FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS, William Allegrezza's long-awaited poetry collection. FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS explores the way we live through language, experiencing births, deaths, and rebirths through it, but the book also examines how our language is filled, controlled, and crafted by our societies. Two long poems surround and provide context for reading shorter lyrics in the middle section.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
William Allegrezza teaches and writes from his base in Chicago. His poems, articles and reviews have been published in several countries including the U.S., Holland, the Czech Republic and Australia, as well as in several online journals. His chapbooks, e-books and books include Lingo, The Vicious Bunny Translations, Covering Over, Temporal Nomads, Ladders in July, Ishmael Among the Bushes, and In The Weaver's Valley. He is the editor of Moria Poetry , a journal dedicated to experimental poetry and poetics, and the editor-in-chief of Cracked Slab Books.

ADVANCE WORDS on FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS:
Allegrezza's poetic canvas-of-choice is the lyric, and his lyrical investigations frequently appear to evolve or grow. . . from an imagination fueled by found language fragments and theory-singed excesses. This particular poet's capacity to create resonant, "deep" images is extraordinary.
--Clayton Couch

There is something about the flow in Allegrezza's poems that I quite like, the way they simply move one step at a time down the page almost intuitively. Really, it's the leaps between lines that impress; almost ghazal-like down the page, jumping from line to line to line in seeming disconnect.
--rob mclennan

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

SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER:
Meritage Press is pleased to offer a Release Special through August 31, 2007. For $13.00, you can obtain a copy of FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS—a reduced rate from the book's retail price of $16.00—plus free shipping/handling (an approximate $4.00 value) to U.S. addresses. Just send a $13.00 check made out to "Meritage Press" to:

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

For international orders, please contact us through MeritagePress@aol.com


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

ALSO FORTHCOMING IN 2007 FROM MERITAGE PRESS:

COMPLICATIONS by Garrett Caples

PRAU by Jean Vengua (Filamore Tabios, Sr. Poetry Memorial Prize)

And a new series of "Tiny Books" measuring 1 3/4 x 1 3/4" inaugurated by ALL ALONE AGAIN by Dan Waber, followed by STEPS: A NOTEBOOK by Tom Beckett.

Meritage Press is a multidisciplinary literary and arts published based in St. Helena and San Francisco, CA. Our website is at http://www.meritagepress.com

FLY OFF THE PAGE WITH MOI & CO.!

I guess AWP likes wine-tippling farmers. I think I've got a near-thousand batting average with getting approvals for panels that includes Moi. For next year's AWP Conference, I was pushed (grin) by Catherine Daly to organize and moderate a panel. So a wingtip scratched a lovely head, brewed up something, and sent it over to AWP. Well, it was approved! Over 900 panel applications were received and mine got in -- causing Nick Carbo over in France to celebrate this morning by drinking "dark red brulhois wine" (huh?).

Here's some panel information I sent to AWP and I hope it also interests you enough to attend next year!

"OFF THE PAGE: MULTIDIMENSIONAL WRITINGS"
presenting

Nick Carbo (sculptures and video)
Catherine Daly (paper craft, innovative book art)
Thomas Fink (painting)
Thylias Moss (film / video / sonic performances)
Eileen Tabios (conceptual/performance/community-based/visual art)

This panel presents poets and writers who work in a variety of disciplines encompassing video, sculptures, paper craft, innovative book art, painting, performance events, conceptual art, drawings, film, multimedia events, among others. Panelists discuss how other disciplines affect their texts and presentation of such texts. In some cases, the poetry book was transformed to not just present written poems. In other situations, community-based performances inspired new poetic forms and theories.

from STATEMENT OF MERIT
This panel explores a multidisciplinary approach to making poems. Eileen Tabios and Thylias Moss have created two new poetic forms (respectively, "hay(na)ku" and "poams"). Thomas Fink, by being a New York resident, will be able to bring actual small paintings to illustrate his paper. All panelists are at the forefront of poets exploring the making of poems beyond the writing of verse on page -- not just to create fetishized objects but to integrate communities / the world.

I was going to drop by next year's AWP anyway because I'd be in New York then, so now it'll be great to meet Thylias Moss in person! I'm particularly intrigued to meet her non-stinky "poams" -- "products of acts of making in which form embraces the possibilities of the assisted and unassisted senses in any combination in any location at any scale simultaneously, with a majority of her poams, most of which are available for free in the Limited Fork and the Limited Fork Music podcasts at iTunes, currently taking on visual and sonic iterations, with text existing as part of larger visual systems."

Here are some bios skewed by the poets to address their leap off the page:

Nick Carbo is the author of three books of poetry, the latest being Andalusian Dawn (2004). He is the winner of fellowships in poetry from the N.E.A. and N.Y.F.A. and residencies to Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), Le Chateau de Lavigny (Switzerland), Moulin a Nef (France), and Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, and VCCA (USA). His visual poems have been exhibited at Harvard University's "Infinity" show, and at galleries like Blueten Weis (Berlin), and The Studio Alternative (Armonk, NY). He recently taught visual poetry courses at the New College of Florida.

Catherine Daly is author of six books and eBooks, most recently Secret Kitty, a flarfy critique of flarf, To Delite and Instruct, a meditation on the poetry exercise, Paper Craft, including sound and visual poems in a foldable format, and Chanteuse / Cantatrice, a book of verse about collaboration and complicity that can be read in reverse.  She is also the publisher of i.e. Press, that is to say, a press publishing books appealing to the eye and ear.

Thomas Fink, a Professor of English at City University of New York—LaGuardia, is the author of four books of poetry, including No Appointment Necessary (Moria Poetry, 2006) and After Taxes (Marsh Hawk Press, 2004,)and two books of criticism.  In 2007, Fairleigh Dickinson UP will publish a collection of essays on David Shapiro that he and Joseph Lease edited. Heather McHugh and David Lehman chose his poem “Yinglish Strophes IX” for The Best American Poetry 2007 (Scribner’s).  His abstract paintings hang in various collections.  Recently, he has developed series of poems in abstract shapes that had also been used in series of paintings. 

Thylias Moss, the author of ten books, most recently TOKYO BUTTER, her first collection of poetry written entirely according to principles of Limited Fork Poetics: the study of interacting language systems, a literary theory she developed in October 2004 while at the Quality 16 cinema watching a film she can't recall.  The revelation led this MacArthur Fellowship and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient to the making of poams (products of acts of making) in which form embraces the possibilities of the assisted and unassisted senses in any combination in any location at any scale simultaneously, with a majority of her poams, most of which are available for free in the Limited Fork and the Limited Fork Music podcasts at iTunes, currently taking on visual and sonic iterations, with text existing as part of larger visual systems.  So far, her poams are not odor-emitting, so are consistent with neglect of olfactory systems, neglect which, in understanding the principles and interactions of Limited Fork, should be overcome eventually.  She teaches Limited Fork Poetics at the University of Michigan where she is a professor of English and of Art & Design.  Her other awards and honors include: a Whiting Writer's Award, the Witter Bynner Prize from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Dewards profiles performance Artist Award, an NEA grant, and inclusion in the Best of the Best American Poetry series.

Eileen R. Tabios has released 15 poetry collections, an art essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, and a short story book. Recipient of the Philippines' Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for Poetry, she released two multi-genre collections in 2007: SILENCES: The Autobiography of Loss (Blue Lion Books) and The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes (Marsh Hawk Press, 2007). Her conceptual/visual art and poetry performances have been exhibited or presented in art galleries in California and Manila. Her poems have been translated by other artists into Spanish, Tagalog, Japanese and Italian, as well as Paintings, Video, Drawings, Mixed Media Collages and Sculpture. She is the publisher of Meritage Press (San Francisco & St. Helena), a multidisciplinary arts press.

LIGHT'S FINAL COVER!

Here's the final cover to The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes (Marsh Hawk Press, Fall 2007) designed by Claudia Carlson:



Oh, ye power of the Gaze...

THANK YOU, Claudia!

I'MA TICKLED PINK

because POEMELEON: A JOURNAL OF POETRY just released a new issue revolving around the theme of poetic forms. I'm naturally pleased to see my poems, with Spanish and Italians translations by Rebeka Lembo (thanks Rebeka!!!). But I'm even more tickled to see the hay(na)ku listed along with such forms as the

-sound ghazal
-glosa
-nonce 
-blank verse
-villanelle
-sonnet
-trimeter
-palindrome
-pantoum
-dimeter
-triolet
-syllabics
-sapphics
-terza rima
-sevenlings
-linked diminishing line tercet nonce form
-concrete poem
-borrowed free verse form
-nesting poem
-sestina
-sermon
-ballad 
-ethere
-double sonnet
-haiku
-iambics
-accentual verse
-anglo-saxon verse
-tanka/tanrenga
-ballade
-iambic pentameter quatrain
-epithalamion villanelle
-ghazal
-rengay
-rondeau
-long hymnal stanzas
-nonce tetrameter/pentameter quintet

So if some of the above forms are not known to you, Poemeleon offers a chance for your discovery!

COMPLICATED GARRETT CAPLES

And I'm also proofing COMPLICATIONS, Garrett Caples' forthcoming poetry collection from Meritage Press. Am tickled pink over these two lines from his "To The Reader":

if you drink from my skull please polish the bowl
so you can't taste my memories

First proof -- gorgeously designed by Jeff Clark's QUEMADURA -- has the book at 144 pages. Yep....I like 'em thick!!!

I'm very excited over Moi's Meritage Press 2007 line-up. Can't you tell?!

REMINDER TO POETS: HAVE SOME PRIDE!

So I, in my capacity as publisher of Meritage Press, was processing paperwork from a BIG publisher requesting permission for reprinting a poem in one of the books I publish. It would be for an anthology that would receive wide, global distribution in not just book but electronic format as a teaching aide, which is to say, it no doubt will be a money-maker for this publisher. They sent me a permission form.

I read the permission form.

I follow up briefly and politely, "Any permission fee?"

After all, this wasn't some 1 1/2-person small press on some mountain (ahem) but a BIG New York house.

I get this reply: "For a permission fee, you'd have to fill out a different form, which is attached."

Transparently lame, isn't it. It's not like I'm the one choosing which permission form to receive.

The permission fee? $1,000.00. That's right: a thousand bucks for this one poem.

See, I've sort of heard about this situation before -- where, when permission is requested, most poets just say Go Ahead without asking about fees because they're just pleased to see their poem get more play out there.

Which is all to say: you small poetry indie publishers out there -- AND YOU POETS -- ask. We need not be the ones to perpetuate a cultural belief that our poems are not worth anything. No, Sirreee, we don't.

I got a small percentage of the money for administrative purposes, but the bulk of the permission fee goes to the poet. Because the poet created the poem. When there's money to be made by a poem, it should mostly go to its creator -- something easily forgotten in a world where poems generally aren't given their due.

This publisher got off cheap at a paltry thousand bucks. A poem is priceless. Even the shitty ones.

That's right -- even the shitty ones. They're the bricks for that one Keeper-of-a-Poem shining brilliantly at the end of, not the road but, where the fork paths onto a new road.

SABALI MET NGA BENDICIÓNES

Have also been working on Prau, the manuscript for Jean Vengua's first poetry book due out this Fall from Meritage Press. And, this morning, got her second blurb from no less than Catalina "Catie" Cariaga (Catie says she's my ading by 2 months kano; so Agyamanac from your Manang, Catie!):

At last, this pioneer of the literary blog scene who I have followed through cyberspace since the nineties has a book of poetry that I can take home with me! Vengua’s poetry delves into the very nature of culture and custom. An ordinary postage stamp triggers a multi-racial dilemma. A personal memento unlocks a sequence of historic ramifications witnessing the first ever explosion of a hydrogen bomb. This is poetry tempered by the movements of New Historicism, Post Modern irony and the culture clash of living in California . Languages abound. A typo or a footnote can become central to the themes she navigates in her agile prau, sorting through truth, folklore, dream, memory, and pure desire.
--Catalina Cariaga, author of Cultural Evidence

I'ma tellin' ya: Jean's book will be a ... special moment! Hope you will pick it up to be part of this specialness!

Meanwhile, speaking of Catie and I love speaking of my ading, here's a timely LINK as regards how Catie's "interrogation of language and form shares with many Filipino American poets an investigation of colonized subjectivity in relation to cultural imperialism, particularly the imposition of Spanish and English on the Filipinos. Part of this investigation entails the poets' exploration of the possibilities of using the colonizers' language to tell 'another tale'." Yadda.

MUG MOI'S MUG

I lost the battle with the book designer. The Light... will feature Moi's author photograph on inside back cover flap. I think author photos are generally lame. But the overall cover design lent itself to this spot bearing an author photo versus the text that I was pushing the book designer to use instead. And it made sense for it to be a current photo (wrinkles beneath eyes and all that) because the Warholian image she'd unexpectedly done from one of my family photos utilized a 20-year-old shot of my face.

But at least I nixed her idea of getting a "professional shot." That would really be overweening.

Ah ha! Finally! I get to use the word "overweening" for something!

(And, no, this isn't about you who use professional shots. I ain't dissing you (after all, it's tough to top my wine habit in terms of overweening-ness). I'm just trying to reconcile with mugging future readers with my mug.)

I know -- this is all so interesting. Sip. Well, it's interesting when you're imbibing a glass of shiraz at midnight, okay. Chalk it up to ... overwhining ...

BENDICIÓNES (aka PAGING MICHAEL CHMIELECKI)!

I should note my pleasure over the activity going on in Mexico City as regards translating poems from The First Hay(na)ku Anthology. The translators belong to the National Autonomous University of Mexico/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), specifically the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy/Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. The translations belong [sic] to the Modern Literature Department. All the translators study English Literature, including U.S., British and Canadian Literature. They hope to post the translations soon at a website associated with the "Periodico de Poesía" of UNAM.

Which is also to say, I am looking for Michael Chmielecki. I might have an outdated email for him. So if anyone knows him or if you, Michael, are reading this, please email me at GalateaTen@aol.com. Have a question re your hay(na)ku!

MOITHINKS

If HE IS READING IT, you should be reading IT too!

I'm truly enjoying this most imaginative book tour I've ever seen...!

I WENT FISHING AND WHAT DID I CATCH?

I am grateful to Ariadne for a review HERE of my Dusie chap, THE SINGER And Others (which will be available online this summer).
 
I encourage you to read the review since it compliments me (wink). But in this blog post, I will skip over the compliments to address something I find as interesting as praise -- what Ariadne notes about my use of "fishing" and "scumbling" as poetic techniques. If you read the lower half of Ariadne's review, you'll note that Ariadne references Craig Perez's take (in a Galatea Resurrects review) on how Paolo Javier did the "fishing" technique for his book '60 lv bo(e)mbs', as in this excerpt:

[Paolo Javier] then quotes Vicente Rafael’s Contracting Colonialism:

‘for whom the priest's words rouse in [them] other thoughts that have only the most tenuous connections to what he is actually saying. It is as if they saw other possibilities in those words, possibilities that served to mitigate the interminable verbal assaults being hurled from the pulpit. To the extent that such random possibilities occur, the native listeners manage to find another place from which to confront colonial authority.’

Javier suggests an analogy: the way in which he “fishes” Neruda’s Spanish to find and construct variable possibilities parallels the native congregations’ “fishing” the Spanish sermons. To me, this is a barely tenable analogy considering that Neruda’s Spanish is not being hurled at Javier from any pulpit; nor is he assaulted, linguistically, in as desperately strange a situation as the “native listeners.” We should also question Rafael’s “as if” in “as if they saw other possibilities,” which overly romanticizes native resistance (it seems less romantic that the native listeners just didn’t listen).

Perhaps I would be more convinced of this analogy if Javier chose an actual Spanish sermon to translate, or some other Spanish document relating to the colonization of the Philippines....

***

In her review of my chap, Ariadne seems to agree with Craig's take above as she notes that something similar can be assessed in my case. Now, I'm one of those who are reluctant to address my reviews (except to praise those who got it right by simply lauding me -- wink again; boy, are my eyelids busy today!). But I guess I feel compelled now to respond publicly because I would hesitate for Craig's take to become some sort of *official* touchstone on what exactly is the significance of a contemporary English-language Filipino poet "fishing" to write poems -- and this seems to be a possibility in that another critic is referring to Craig's post, giving Craig's interpretation a semblance of authority with which I guess I am not comfortable.

That is, I consider Craig to be a wonderful reader and able critic of poetry -- he has written many wonderful reviews. But this time, I think his perspective as regards Paolo's use of "fishing" is, um, a tad short-sighted...in terms of thinking that Paolo's fishing technique isn't really tenable because Paolo wasn't in the same position as Filipino "native listeners" being hectored by Spanish friars back when the Philippines was Spain's colony centuries ago. If the obvious subtext to Paolo's use of fishing is dissing colonialism, there's no reason why Paolo (or anyone else) can't do so by working in the aftermath of the colonial act, and centuries later, update the context of response (so that, for example, what's moved forward in time is the impetus behind vs the specific narratives of the original situation.

When I did the fishing technique partly to write THE SINGER And Others, I was probably even more at a remove since I wasn't concerned with homophonic translations. But I was operating -- as I sense Paolo was on one level -- in addressing colonialism's legacy. Neither Paolo or I or any 21st century Filipino poet need to have been the ones directly feeling the whip of the Spanish invaders 3 centuries ago to have that part of ancestral history affect the work we do today. I mean, think of what can affect poetic sensibility -- surely that can't be bound by temporal terms...? (And I speak, of course, as someone who's channeled Enheduanna, born 2300 BCE...)

So, I thought I'd share that...and the matter is interesting to me, too, as regards its implications as regards authenticity in poetry, isn't it?

And again, such sharing has nothing to do with disputing Ariadne's review (which after all is positive). It's really to note that colonialism's influence is not something that disappears automatically with the inevitable passage of time (witness what Filipinos call "colonial mentality" for example, which seems to me to be strongly existent still even if we're at least two generations away from U.S. colonialism in the Philiippines).

Anyway, for now, nuff said here because in order to say more about this topic without pissing of a heck of a lot of people, I'd have to have more time to revisit this matter and shape a coherent argument to blog and, at the moment, I don't. C'est la vie.

LET MOI W(H)INE AT YA!

The Feminist Review has a lovely engagement with Bruna Mori's Derive; click HERE for the review. Bruna's book looks to be among Meritage Press' top sellers -- why not join the poetry cognoscenti and order it from SPD or Amazon or your favorite bookstore (who, if it doesn't stock it, you should ask to stock!)

And since this is all a Preface to my intermittent list of Relished Wines and Whines, here's a comment on wine: 2005 is one of the great years (some say, greatest ever yet) for German wines. So stock up on it if you can! And now, what I've recently relished among books and bottles:

BOOKS:
1 DOZ. POISON HAY(NA)KU, poems by Ivy Alvarez

LAMPBLACK & ASH, poems by Simone Muench

BROKEN/OPEN, poems by Jill Jones

FOLD UNFOLD, poems by Jill Jones

DUMMY FIRE, poems by Sarah Vap

THE LIGHT'S AGITATION, poems by Robert Van Vliet

INVENTIONS, poems by Robert Van Vliet

THE CITY VISIBLE: CHICAGO POETRY FOR THE NEW CENTURY, Edited by William Allegrezza and Raymond Bianchi

HORSE SENSE, poems by Jordan Stempleman

ANIMATE, INANIMATE AIMS, poems by Brenda Iijima

SELECTED DREAMS WITH A NOTE ON PHRENOLOGY by Anne Boyer

LUCID SUITCASE, poems by Diane Wald

INSECT COUNTRY (B), poems by Sawako Nakayasu

NORTH OF THERE, poems by Chris Pusateri

MEMORY/INCISION, poems by Joseph Cooper

DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION, poems by Cathy Park Hong

CONCEALED IN, poems by Beau Beausoleil

WORLD ZERO, poems by John Bloomberg-Rissman

POSIT, poems by Adam Fieled

PASSAGE: POEMS 1983-2006 by Ed Maranan

THE DEVIL'S CLOTH: A HISTORY OF STRIPES by Michel Pastoureau, Trans. from the French by Jody Gladding

HARD COVER, novel by Wayne Warga

BREAK OF DAY, novel by Collette

MISSING, novel by Sharon Sala

THE GOOD WOMAN, novel by B.J. Chute

GOING TO BEND, novel by Diane Hammond

BEFORE I WAKE, novel by Dee Henderson

THE NEGOTIATOR, novel by Dee Henderson

THE PROTECTOR, novel by Dee Henderson

THE WITNESS, novel by Dee Henderson

DANGER IN THE SHADOWS, novel by Dee Henderson

THE HOUSE ON BOSHWICK SQUARE, novel by Velda Johnston

THE INN AT HALF-MOON BAY, novel by Diane Tyrrel


WINES:
1988 Lafite
1989 Joseph Phelps "Insignia"
2004 Peter Michael "Mon Plaisir" chardonnay
1998 Rudd Jericho Canyon
1996 Clarendon Hills Old Vine Grenache Kangarilla Vineyards
1993 Cyril Henschke cabernet
1992 Von Strasser cabernet
2003 Dutch Henry pinot noir
2004 Dutch Henry cabernet Chafen Vineyard
2001 Turley petite syrah NV Rattlesnake Acres
2005 Dr. Loosen Bern Kastle Lay Kabinett

And had a pleasant wine tasting recently at Spring Mountain (the first and last wines on this list were particularly pleasant):
2005 sauvignon blanc
2004 syrah
2003 cabernet
2002 Elivette Reserve
2004 syrah Conferment
2002 cabernet
1987 cabernet

Spring Mountain is owned by one of the world's wealthiest families, a Swiss banking family type. The irony? Were it not for the banker's "safety net," I daresay Spring Mountain probably might even make greater wine...that's right Peeps: let a poet tell ya: money don't buy everything.

IDENTITY'S COMPLICATIONS...AND WHY IT SUCKS

Jennifer Bartlett is writing on identity in poetry, such as HERE. A thoughtful post -- she goes into the conflicted state of *nonetheless* agreeing for her first poetry book to identity her as a disabled poet: "UNM Press has decided (and I have too) to make it clear that I am disabled in the hopes of making the book stand out. But, again, I'm not entirely comfortable with this, ..."

Identity has often worked for me in a different way -- perhaps an opposite way from Jennifer's and her publisher's hope that it will help promote her book. When I overtly identify my book as from a Filipino poet, that tends to make that book less attractive. I once sent a book description over to a wholesaler for its catalogue, presenting that book as relating to Filipino decolonialism. That reference was edited out.

So what does it mean that when I promote myself as a Filipino poet, my book becomes less palatable (at least to the U.S. market which is my books' primary market)?

It's a rhetorical question. I know what it means.

It'll be interesting to see if THE LIGHT will blind people, or open their eyes...

BLOOK MOI, DANNO! aka NOT THE POULTRY PRIZE BUT...

The one prize I would love for my LIGHT to receive is

The Lulu Blooker Prize

which describes itself as "the world's first literary prize devoted to "blooks"--books based on blogs or other websites, including webcomics."

The 2007 winner is My War: Killing Time In Iraq by Colby Buzzell, and the 2006 winner (first year the contest was ran) is Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (I actually enjoyed Powell's efforts to cook every single recipe by Julia Child).

I didn't see any poetry entrants (though I only gave the site a quick look-see so I might have missed such). But this actually makes me more interested in competing here. It seems to me that a poetry winner, whether it's my blook or another poet's, would help draw attention to poetry. So then, Como no?

Well, let's see if senile Moi remembers this when it's time to submit entrants...

IMPOSSIBILE LIGHT: A POETICS

Impossible. We've had to create a *very brief* description of moi's The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes (forthcoming this Fall from Marsh Hawk Press) for various ads and distributor catalogues. Impossible, but here's what got concocted:

Winner of the Philippines' National Book Award for Poetry, Eileen R. Tabios has a reputation for uniquely melding ekphrasis and transcolonialism. The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes is her most overtly political work yet, referencing her roots as a "Marcos Baby," a member of the generation that grew up under Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship.

You see what I mean? No mention of my father, and yet it was his death that spurred the book. Surreal (for me) take on how poetry transcends autobiography.

*****

Recently got an email requesting a review copy of The Light...how sweet! Thanks for thinking of me. And if anyone else wants a review copy, just email me at GalateaTen@aol.com and I'll put you on the list to receive! Same thing goes, btw, for exam copies.

*****

Meanwhile, if you wanna pre-order the book, check out The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes at

Amazon.com

or

Barnes & Noble
B&N is offering a deal where if you join its club (or whatever that is), you can get the book for $16.15, versus the book's retail price of $19.95 (that may be as good a price as you can get for a new copy of my book).

Of course, you can wait to get the book through SPD as well and support a worthwhile organization that way!

I HAVE STAFF!!

And I ain't talkin' walking stick, yo!

To wit: I am purrrred to announce that Meritage Press now has a new Associate Editor! None other than Gura Michelle Bautista (author of Kali's Blade)! I have staff! That generates more frisson than when I got myself Meritage Press business cards at Staples, even though I gave moiself the title, "Chair of the Universe"!

I got staff! I can just feeeeel the penthouse office coming my way soon!

And here is Michelle's photo again -- one of the most popular images ever to grace my blogs, by the way. I got staff and SHE can kick your ass -- or slice it up! -- if you don't buy the books I publish!



(Michelle--I'm so slow. All this time and it wasn't until I linked to your Pusod editorial that I realized your Princess Josephine is blind...just like Moi the Chatelaine! Synchronicity! Blessings! Now, go do what Associate Editors do! Whatever such is.)

UGH UGH BABY

Just got my latest statement from Meritage Press' distributor, SPD. It's a chilling effect. In some cases, what I -- as publisher -- receive can be as low as 29% of a book's retail price. So in some cases, I sell books at a loss through SPD.

I'm not blaming SPD, mind you. Due to poetry books' relatively low print runs (relative, say, to fiction) or the higher-per-unit cost of POD printers (due to lack of economies of scale when only one to a handful of books at a time are printed), the unit cost of a book is always higher than desired. But combine that with a wholesaler's take and said combo is enough to drive me to drink...and I do.

Nor is the solution to raise the price of the poetry book (though I am doing that now with one of Meritage Press' titles). Generally, there is most def a threshold in poetry book pricing against which purchasing power drops significantly (as someone who tends to write long poetry books, I learned that moiself the hard way...)

Poor Moi ... and she goes off to begin cocktail hour ... which seems to begin earlier and earlier whenever she ponders the bidness side of da poetry bidness...

This evening, in the overheated Napa Valley summer, to begin with a glass of the 2005 Spring Mountain sauvignon blanc (I first wrote blanch)...

LAUNCHING MOISELF AT YA!

Okay, my Tiny Books are feeding the world (see prior post). Now let's further get real and let Moi feed you! Specifically, with wines, whines, and goodies as I invite you to my Fall book launch of The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes: Our Autobiography from Marsh Hawk Press!

It's official -- here are venue details; pencil it in your calendar and I hope to see you there!

Marsh Hawk Press Fall Book Launch
Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007
Poets House
7-9 p.m.
New York City

Joining me in the Launch will be Sandy McIntosh and Norman Finklestein who also are launching new books.

C'mon, Peeps. Let Moi launch at ya! It'll be pleasurable!

POETRY FEEDS THE WORLD: ALLEVIATING HUNGER WHILE OFFERING A NEW DIY MODEL

I've always had a more ambitious goal for Meritage Press (MP) than to be simply a book publisher. If you go to the "About" section at our website, you'll see a statement that begins with:

Meritage Press seeks to expand fresh ways of featuring literary and other art forms. Meritage expects to publish a wide range of artists – poets, writers, visual artists, dancers, and performance artists. By acknowledging the multiplicity of aesthetic concerns, Meritage’s interests necessarily encompass a variety of disciplines – politics, culture, identity, science, humor, religion, history, technology, philosophy and wine.

And so I'm purrred to announce that I've finally concocted another concept that goes beyond just book publishing, to wit -- here's the first draft of an announcement that I hope to formalize later this summer with the announcement of the first project to come out of it:

TINY BOOKS FROM MERITAGE PRESS
Meritage Press (MP) is pleased to inaugurate a new series of Tiny Books that aligns poetry with fair trade and economic development issues affecting Third World countries.

MP's Tiny Books initially will utilize small books ( 1 3/4 x 1 3/4") made in Guatemala by artisans paid fair wages, as sourced by Baksheesh, a fair trade retailer. All profits from book sales then will be donated to Heifer International, a group devoted to reducing world hunger by promoting sustainable sources of food and income. Tiny Books manifest MP's belief that "Poetry feeds the world" in non-metaphorical ways. The series creates demand for fair trade workers' products while also sourcing donations for easing poverty in poorer areas of the world.

MP's Tiny Books will be inaugurated aptly by ____[POETS TO COME]____

With Tiny Books, MP also offers a new DIY, or Do-It-Yourself Model of publishing. You've heard of POD or print-on-demand? Well, these books' print runs will be based on HOD or Handwritten-on-Demand. MP's publisher, Eileen Tabios, will handwrite all texts into the Tiny Books' pages and books will be released to meet demand for as long as MP is able to source appropriate tiny books -- or until the publisher gets arthritis. In a universe increasingly dependent on e-relationships, MP wishes to honor the gesture -- the intimacy of the non-virtual hand. Embodied Poetry.

After all, Moi is blind and so your Chatelaine must rely significantly on touching you...

***

HOUSEKEEPING: This series is supported by Oenophiles For Poetry -- well aren't you all special?! And of course you are!!

YOU GOTTA ANTICIPATE WILLIAM ALLEGREZZA!

Blogging in coffee break from proofing nearly 600 pages of manuscripts, of which only about one-third of the page count is mine (no doubt to your relief). Thankfully, the rest relate to the next two books to be published by Meritage Press. I've talked about Jean Vengua's forthcoming PRAU before. But I don't think I've yet mentioned that also forthcoming from moi press will be

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS by William Allegrezza

Wooooooot!

Or, as Moi would put it: YADDA!

Here's one of the blurbs for Bill's book:

Allegrezza's poetic canvas-of-choice is the lyric, and his lyrical investigations frequently appear to evolve or grow. . . from an imagination fueled by found language fragments and theory-singed excesses. This particular poet's capacity to create resonant, "deep" images is extraordinary. -- Clayton Couch

This book will be available in late summer/Fall and be distributed by SPD and Amazon, among others. You teachers -- this is the Allegrezza book to assign for your poety/creative writing students (so what if I'm biased since I published it?) Anyway, await it with anticipation, Peeps. It's an Event.

ACH, YE PURPLE PATCHES OF LIT CRIT!

I was pleased by this review in The Feminist Review by Vita Foster of moi's Dredging For Atlantis. Pleased, not because it's a ravingly positive review (it's not) but because of this paragraph (click on it for whole review):

Most of the poems are short and in many cases did not grab my attention right away. Yet, many contained a startling turn of phrase that invited deeper contemplation, an effect I crave and the reason why I read poetry. Others just made me wonder what Tabios was smoking.

Someone once paid me the highest compliment possible (though I don't know if he knew he was paying a compliment) when he said about some of my poems (in ENGLISH): "I don't understand your poems but I like them."

Love it.

As for what I smoke? If you must know: ye olde Cuban cigar, the tip dipped first in the Chatelaine's Chalice which, in this instance, would probably bear the 1945 Taylor's Fladgate!

PETER GANICK EXTENDS...

Now this is a spiritually meaty conversation -- this interview of Peter Ganick by Sheila Murphy. I'm so glad this was done as, while I'd encountered Peter over the years (he published some of my poems in his now-defunct but I always thought fabulously idealistic venture of a literary journal, poethia), I don't know much about Peter. There's much meat in the conversation, like this excerpt which, as Peter discusses his methodology, is one of the finest articulations of architecture and song in poetry that I've seen:

i must confess the process is not analyzed much by me while writing. sort of start, maintain, continue, then, peter-out. it's rather an organic process. even though i might use abstract terms in writing, the course of the poem is like the life of a creature. the poem starts: there's a springtime/honeymoon time where i imagine the energy of the poem to be light and airy. whether or not this is true i don’t know, i observe it as such from my own view. whether or not, it makes for a poem-interpretation with which i can live.

from there is a developing complication. the text's springtime is over, though traces remain. negative concepts enter and though they are received by the poet, with the same engagement as the spring terms, the energy becomes gradually more clouded.

there is a book i wrote which is an example of this, TWO TEXTS. the first text, about 2/3rds of the book is called, 'apparitional corsairs'; the second, 'with-ness'. 'apparitional corsairs' was started to be a text that would be very long. in this text, the energy be-came more and more dark, even troubled. to pull a sufficient ending from it, i had to start another text with a regular lineation, in one form a sestina. after that, i changed the margins and the font size and let the poem run-on, so there is little evidence of the sestina-beginning. that text, 'withness' maintains a spiritual sense; this, because there is a sufficient period of difficulty overcome, overcome by 'going through it' to support the spiritual part.

in this work i am using the model of the symphony in the late romantic period european classical music. an energetic part, the 1st movement; a deep, engaging part, the 2nd movement; the third movement, a scherzo leading with life to the last part, the tour de force. [this is the model of beethoven's 9th symphony. each musical work of that period was somewhat different, though the 9th's model was primary.]

Not only is the above illuminating as regards the energy of a poem as it unfolds, but as a deeply-thought consideration of extended texts, it reveals why Peter (along with Jukka-Pekka Kervinen) would have conceived of Blue Lion Books which specializes in texts that are "250pp or more" as such scale facilitates developing "an idea in total. a long book for a complete idea, that's the point. and an experimental, or previously-unseen idea, even an innovation, is preferred. so far we've kept to this pretty well."

Of course, this makes me ever more grateful that Blue Lion Books published one of my books, SILENCES: The Autobiography of Loss. Blessings.

ATTENTION ESPANOL SPEAKERS/READERS!

Since Galatea Resurrects (GR) is located in the internet, there's no reason why it should only publish English-language reviews or engagements, right? Poetry is inherently transnational, after all!

Well, GR has just received its first non-English poetry collection: SUCURSAL DE ESTRELLA: POEMARIOS INICIALES Y FINALES by Alvaro Cardona Hine (assume an accent por favor over the first A, but which I don't know how to do in Blogger). Cardona was born in Costa Rica and now lives in New Mexico. The book is copublished by University of New Mexico Press and Spain's Editorial Catriel. So if you are Spanish-fluent/knowledgeable and would like to do a review, just email Moi at GalateaTen@aol.com!

And, of course, whilst you're checking it out HERE, do please check out the other review copies hoping for your engagement!

MOI CAN EVEN TOPPLE CORPORATE GOLIATHS!

Well, the would-be Babaylan thinks as she pats pats some lavender lotion over her battle scars, That was exhausting.

But another day, another Goliath toppled...

She turns to look at her avid Peeps. I just know, Moi says, you're wondering what I'm talking about.

Well, I'ma talking about having just received payment for a 7-month old order from BARNES AND IGNOBLE. In case you don't know, this is a corporate that's particularly inhospitable to indie publishers. It's not uncommon for invoice payments to be delayed, especially if you're a small company with no volume clout; I know of at least one publisher out there who only sells to B&N if they prepay their orders.

Anyway, I was wrestling them on this ridiculous invoice all year. 'Twas an unnecessarily contentious invoice, but I handled it with steel, grit and the grace for which I am deservedly well-renowned. Indeed, I only had to flare out the muscular wing span just once. People don't generally know, you see, just how muscular angels are.

Preeeen!!!!!

Still, since the matter at hand was poetry book sales, I will net from this 7-month turmoil exactly ... $0.00. My author will get all the cash while I...while I [insert the scratching of the Moi head to figure out what Moi gets out of this] while I get to lower the pile from my In Box by one more piece of paper.

Awww Yeaaaaahh!!

And such goes yet another tale from the life of a poetry publisher.

TONGUE BLATHER

Thing is, je ne parle pas Italian so I didn't learn until today that my poems have been translated into Italian. I found out while getting a Translation Commentary from Rebeka Lembo who did the translation. It's a good thing I found out so that I didn't present the translations in moi forthcoming book as just Spanish, which I'm not fluent in either (though with Spanish, unlike with other non-English languages, I don't mind bastardizing it to comply with the fabulous tradition of Pinoys "fish"-ing in Espanol).

I just thought I'd note that since I was sure YOU would want zu wissen.

I WAS GOING TO DELETE

the prior post because I thought maybe it had too much negative energy in case peeps didn't get my weirdo sense of humor. But Guillermo wrote -- apparently, he was laughing so hard over my post that he nearly sprinkled Theo the kitty with his coffee.

Well, I love Guillermo, so I'll keep the post up. Besides, he has a good point on blurbism: Shakespeare, with those charming speeches pointing out someone's ignorance...hmmmm....

That, or it's Moi as usual much ado-ing over something that's ultimately nothing.

"PAY IT FORWARD" -- A *)(*&)&%^& POETICS

A poet sent me a manuscript. He is requesting a blurb. He didn't ask ahead of sending the manuscript whether I would be inclined to give a blurb (you peeps who know me know my, um, attitude to blurbs, yah?), whether I would have time to read his manuscript, whether a blurb is subject to my actually liking the poems....he just landed his ejaculation on moi in-box. Nearly 200 pages.

And. He requested the blurb "next week."

Astonishing.

Whenever I've requested blurbs (not for myself in recent years but for others), I give months for blurbers to do them because I want to be respectful of their schedules.

None of that here.

But I'm going to do it. I'm going to give him a blurb.

Why? Because in that request lies a lifetime of insecurities and neediness and ego with which we all are afflicted but seems to get heightened among artists -- an occupational hazard, perhaps? And I don't want to respond with my knee-jerk reaction of thinking this poet to be an insecure, needy, egotistical jerk.

In my newbie poet phase, I was once an insecure, needy, egotistical jerk (well, I'm still a jerk but hopefully not as much as I used to be). But back then, I had a rare mentor who took my shit and didn't reject. So now I PAY IT FORWARD. I am compelled to pay it forward. (Actually, I'm fine with paying it forward -- but why paying forward has to be a *)*^%^&^& pain in the butt...!? !? !?)

And, after all, there are the poems. "The poem is the poet's best self" (or something like that)--Ted Berrigan

In a way, I consider this blurb request a test. I've had a horrific two-to-three weeks with various encounters with poets -- I don't know why they all occurred simultaneously in the same period; but on top of my usual multi-tasking schedule, the experience is enough to make me return to hermit-dom.

Then this blurb request. I'm going to do it. I'm going to be generous and compassionate...and get beyond you other poets who so often take advantage of others -- who so often take advantage of my stupidly stupidly stupidly generous self.

FAIR TRADE & MINI BOOKS!

Baksheesh is a "fair trade" retailer which just opened up a store on St. Helena's Main Street. By fair trade, I point you to Baksheesh's position:

We are committed to trading fairly with artisans in the developing world.
We are affiliated with fair trade organizations that guarantee fair wages to artisans for their work.
Fair pay for Third World artisans, good value for you, great gifts for your friends.

And so I was purrrred to discover a line of perfect-bound, blank mini-books, sized about 1 3/4 X 1 3/4". Each book contains nearly 100 pages. I bought out their stock and asked to re-order more. It just seems like it's an inexpensive way to produce a limited edition publication because each book costs $1.50 each, versus, say, the $6.00 per chap cost required by THE SINGER And Others. The books are made in Guatemala and, indeed, the front and back covers are wrapped in Guatemalan textile.

I recall buying blank mini-books of about the same size (not made in Guatemala) from the museum store of the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art last year. Each was prized at $3.95, making Baksheesh's version a bargain (and with having a woven cloth versus thickened paper cover).

U.S.1.50 is about 11.69463 Guatemalan Quetzal (GTQ), I'm not really sure what 11.7 GTQ is worth within Guatemala, but I'm trusting that such reflects a fair wage, even as it offers a bargain to a U.S. dollar buyer due to currency conversion. (And if you think this doesn't reflect a fair wage for some reason, email me).

Conceptually, though, it pleases me to find a way to support fair trade by publishing poetry publications. That I, as a poetry publisher, can increase demand for the products of artisans in developing countries. A non-metaphorical way of manifesting how Poetry feeds the world.

So now I'm figuring out what to "publish" through these mini books. Given the less than 2-inch size of the pages, a hay(na)ku option comes to mind. But I'm open to other alternatives...if only to challenge moi head to come up with something beyond the obvious short poem approach...

WON'T YOU SHARE YOUR SUMMER?

Yay! Just got my first review for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects (GR). Review deadline submission for No. 7 is Aug. 5, 2007, but I'll take 'em whenever you send 'em!

Won't you share your summer by getting engaged with a poetry pub on GR's Review Copy List?

Get engaged more than once, why dontcha? In poetry, I don't believe in monogamy...

YOU WANNA HOLD MOI HAND

Now this

is just one of several images in the hand-made limited edition chap that will not make it into the Online version of my Dusie Summer 2007 chap, THE SINGER And Others.

In that sense, the difference surfaces in realities between virtual and non-virtual, even as the age deepens and blurs the boundaries.

How can the e-ether replace the hand? How can you, reading a poem on a computer screen, feel the viscerality of the cover page ripped from passion -- Pasyon, I tell ya!. How can you appreciate the above black-and-white image transposed against xeroxed newspaper meant to evoke poverty and desire (i.e., faded want ads).

How can you think to know a person by reading hir blog?

TWO POEMS WRIT

today. But I feel I'm really just hemming and hawwing -- like I'm just doing warm-up. It's slightly disconcerting, writing poems that aren't intended to be parts of a whole except insofar as each poem is part of all other poems...

The wild animals are more visible of late. Makes me wonder what's happening over the mountaintop, on the other side. Why are the animals coming more and more Galatea's way?

This morning, three coyotes and...

THE HAY(NA)KU JOGS?!

It always amazes me: the places where that hay(na)ku goes. Most recently, apparently, the hay(na)ku goes running. Yadda, but if that''s a hint for me to wear those jogging shoes, I'ma running away from the suggestion.

Speaking of hay(na)ku, we -- that is, with coeditors Mark Young and Jean Vengua -- have moved back the targeted release date of THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, NO. 2 to 2008, not this year. So thanks to you submitters for your patience in hearing back from us.

MOI HAVE WOKEN UP THE DEAD!

Click HERE to see how the Dead are reading my latest published Meritage Press title, DAYS POEM, Vol. I and Vol. II, by Allen Bramhall.

Which is all to say, you really should avail yourself of DAYS POEM's SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER. After all, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Alcotts and Emerson have.

SPEAKING OF LIGHT...

Well, we're still tinkering with the book cover, but it's not a chore when you have such a fabulous start (see prior post). Meanwhile, if you haven't gleaned from reading the prior post (and other posts I've done) regarding The Light Sang..., moi Fall book, I had to address the matter of writing about myself in a way that said "I" becomes relevant to other readers not at all interested in me.

I hope this article in the just-released issue of OurOwnVoice exemplifies one way in which The Light Sang, even as it stems from my father's death, is about the world beyond my particular family. Moi is not about me but about you. In the OurOwnVoice example, it touches on the Marcos dictatorship -- if you scroll all the way down in the article, you'll see a list poem where each line is a title of a book written by Marcos. The list is in chronological order...and I think attests to "the tragedy of how much potential the Philippines has lost as a result of corrupt politics". (Even for me, there's a sort of poignancy now -- a lot of regret anyway -- in reading the titles of Marcos' books...)

Elsewhere in OurOwnVoice's new issue, I am purred to share the article wrapping up the results of The Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize which my family sponsored in Dad's honor. Jean Vengua, of course, won for her manuscript Prau, which is espected to be released this Fall by Meritage Press.

So Yay and Yadda to all that!