MOI INVITES YOU TO A HOLIDAY!

One of the more amusing e-anthologies out there is THE HOLIDAY ALBUM: Greeting Card Poems For All Occasions, Edited by Elaine Equi, currently up at the stellar Jacket Magazine.

Well, Elaine is expanding the project and I'm excited that she just accepted my poem "Eggs: Pulp Fiction For Easter." It should be uploaded up by...Easter!

For now, do check out this e-anthology; here's the beginning of Elaine's Intro -- doesn't it tickle your curiosity:

Like many people, my first exposure to poetry was through the medium of greeting cards. Before I knew Lorca, Desnos, Stein, or Celan, I knew Hallmark.

Featured poets now include David Lehman, Rae Armantrout, Nick Piombino, David Shapiro, Tom Clark, Vincent Katz, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Martine Bellen, Cathy McArthur, Jerome Sala, Chris Martin, Stacy Szymaszek, Erica Kaufman, Fanny Howe, Jerome Sala, Gregory Crosby, Connie Deanovich, Amy Gerstler, Joe Brainard, David Trinidad, David Shapiro.

It's the first time in my life I don't have a lot of new unpublished poems -- I'm just happy I was able to participate in a project with such company, though the poem I writ was from several years ago and, frankly, I'd forgotten I ever wrote it until I was doing some file clean-up. Heh. Wonder what else lurks in dem dere files...

BTW, AWP

My replacement at this Friday morning's AWP panel on "Off The Page: Multidimensional Writings" will be Brice Brown. Brice is an artist and writer who paints sestinas. He is also co-editor of the Art/Lit mag called Sienese Shredder which recently published visual/text poems from John Ashberry. I'ma jes sayin'...

HEADS UP (#3)

I'm sort of in a one-week standby mode to leave for South America. But it doesn't look like I'd leave earlier than Feb. 9. Still here. And blathering. But WAITING. Impatient about it.

This is all part of making this CONJURATION come true. In any event, catch Moi here whilst I am still e-here...

TRANSLATING WITHOUT CAPTURING

I found translation as revelatory as writing an English poem, with the process offering the type of insight possible only through the actual act of creation.

So I finished today my very first essay on translating a poem, and forthwith sent it out! It's a moment. Permit me to file said moment in the blog-as-file-cabinet...

And the result is classic Moi. That is, to translate is to make meaning in another language -- to make meaning, right? Classic Moi, however, translates something defined into an abstract space in the new language, a result whose terms remain perpetually unstable and in flux. I guess that's why it'd be called poetry.

THERE'S GOLD IN MOI GARBAGE!

Or so says a new Otoliths review (thanks Tom!) of one of my more obscure works -- though actually one of my own favorites among my books: SILENCES: The Autobiography of Loss. Click on excerpt below for whole review:

The Oedipal pull of the poet’s tropes is in some sense “ridiculous,” too, and the strain it evinces dramatizes the difficulties of displacing social hierarchies with a new, better configuration. But perhaps the most important assertion, not far from the end of the series, involves precise political resonances: ”I am Babaylan. I have never been mastered by three centuries of invading colonizers or their religion” (70). The spirit of Filipina women has survived colonizations, and the spell-maker invites others to experience the restorative energy of its voice and scent: “Breathe in the sampaguita breeze known by warrior cultures as jasmine. Inhale my breath// into your veins to linger there, healing your ears now to hear me sing. . . .” The “autobiography of loss” moves from “silences” to articulation, and it also includes the autobiography of future gain.

The review is part of this brand new issue of Otoliths (for which I also thank Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino for the hay(na)ku!); here's Otoliths editor/publisher Mark Young's announcement:

Issue eight of Otoliths, the southern summer 2008 issue, has just gone live.

It's a few days early, but it's straining at the leash &seams so it seemed a good idea to let it loose before it ate the house up.

The issue contains, in order of appearance, work by Michele Leggott, Geof Huth, Nicholas Manning, Laurie Price, Sandy McIntosh, Reed Altemus, Alicia Dangereyes, Bill Drennan, gustave morin, Paul Hardacre, Felino Soriano, Pradip Datta, Spencer Selby, Spencer Selby &Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, David-Baptiste Chirot, Kristine Ong Muslim, Joshua A Ware, Patrick Gulke, James Sanders, Jill Chan, J. D. Nelson, Eric Burke, Philip Byron Oakes, Louie Crew, Márton Koppány, Thomas Fink &Maya Fink, Richard Kostelanetz, Paul Siegell, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Sheila E. Murphy &John M. Bennett, Luigino Solamito &John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett, Jeff Harrison, John Lowther, Alexander Jorgensen, Martin Edmond, Christopher Major, Elisa Gabbert &Kathleen Rooney, Caleb Puckett, Cecelia Chapman, Guy Beining, Vernon Frazer, Bobbi Lurie, harry k stammer, Andrew Topel, Thomas Fink &Andrew Riley Clark.

As usual, it's a marvellous mix of all sorts of things. Hie thee hither &enjoy.

Mark Young

THE HAY(NA)KU IS EVEN GOOD FOR YOUR COMPLEXION!

It's such a kick to start reading books, including single-author poetry books, that incorporate the hay(na)ku form organically into the collections. My most recent experience in this -- and it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, as they say -- is Thomas Fink's new book, CLARITY AND OTHER POEMS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2008). Tom's book features a number of forms, not just the hay(na)ku -- or rather two variations of the hay(na)ku, as explained by this in the book's NOTES section:

The "Mayan Hay(na)ku" is a variation devised by Maya Mason Fink, and I devised the 'Hay(na)ku Exfoliation" variation.

Maya is Tom's teen daughter; I'm always delighted when young uns access poetry through the hay(na)ku! And Maya's variation is actually not easy: it's the hay(na)ku where the lines are not just one word, two words, then three words....but the first line is a one-letter word, the second line are two-letter words, and the third line are three-letter words, such as in this

X
is an
and. Sly. Bus?

And here's a sample of Tom's well-complexioned hay(na)ku, an excerpt from "HAY(NA)KU EXFOLIATION 8":

Mirror
shoes cut.
Sublime outfits all
over have
cooperated to give
waste a good, slim

face. It's midnight,
bitch: whenever major boots
erupt, let earth apologize...

*****

Speaking of hay(na)ku, my "The Hay(na)ku of Numbers" is part of the new INERTIA Magazine. Thanks to editor Rich Murphy for including my poem, which is actually the first hay(na)ku I wrote in which I felt (rightly or wrongly) that, finally, I get this form...

*****

Last but not least, this Thursday, Jan. 31, is the deadline for participating in THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU Project! Details HERE.

FIELD OF MIRRORS!

Isn't that a great title! And it's always good to see new anthologies of Filipino poets and artists. Click HERE for information about Field of Mirrors, Ed. Edwin Lozada, and a Feb. 16 dinner/fundraiser. It's nice to see new names in the list of 71 Philippine American writers in the book; in fact, I'll list them here since they all deserve to be more well known:

Alabado, Ceres S.C.
Amoroto, Patricia Isabel
Almiron, Jennifer
Barot, Rick
Bautista, James M. Constantino
Buell, Evangeline Canonizado
Cabalquinto, Luis
Carbó, Nick
Catenza, JP
Crescini, Maria Teresa Mendiola
De Jesus, Janice
de la Cruz, Rey E.
Dimapilis, Shirley B.
Dizon, Helen
Epistola, Ernesto V.
Escobar, Rey
Flor, Robert Francis
Flores, Penélope V.
Francia, Luis H.
Gaborro, Allen
Gamalinda, Eric
Gambito, Sarah
Gendrano, Victor P.
Gilles, Almira Astudillo
Gonzalez, Bienvenido C.
Grefalda, Remé A.
Gutierrez, Michele
Igloria, Luisa A.
Jacinto, Jaime
Javier, Paolo
Joaquin, Antonio K.
Jocson, Korina M.
Kenyon, Vanessa Verdadero
Layug, Susan T.
Lim, Lewanda
Llagas, Karen
Lozada, Edwin A.
Macagba, Jennifer Mangantulao
Mayuga, Enriqueta Cartagena
Medalle, Melanie
Mendoza, Lora
Monce, Cora
Muñoz, J. Mark
Paman, Alex G.
Peñaranda, Oscar
Peñaranda, Rhodora V.
Peñones, H. Francisco V.
Pimentel, Benjamin
Pineda, Jon
Pizo, Elmer Omar
Edgar, Poma
Querrer, Cristina
Ramilo, Charity
Reyes, Barbara Jane
Roble, Maureen
Robles, Al
Robles, Tony
Romasanta, Gayle
Romero, Marie I.
Rosal, Patrick
Salgado, Anthem
Seneriches, Juliana
Stickmon, Janet C. Mendoza
Syquia, Luis Malay
Strobel, Leny Mendoza
Tabios, Eileen R.
Udo, Annabelle A.
Vajrabukka, Alberto
Valmidiano, Elsa
Vengua, Jean
Villanueva, Marianne

AWP, MARSH HAWK, BELLADONNA ETCETERA

Marsh Hawk Press' web site features useful information as regards AWP, including that in a recently-decided move (so it's not well known out there yet), the book fair will be open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 2. There ya go -- no need to cadge your pals' badges to go to the book fair. And while there, certainly do visit Marsh Hawk at Table $270 (Marsh Hawk's site also has a useful map of the exhibition hall).

Another reason to go: first, the panel I planned but will not be able to present at (though I think Nick Carbo will present some images from my off-the-page poetry work), but hey still worth checking out:

Nassau Suite
Hilton, 2nd Floor

F108. Off The Page: Multidimensional Writings. (Eileen Tabios, Thylias Moss, Nick Carbo, Thomas Fink, Catherine Daly) 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, and 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.

Another reason to go: Belladonna Books will have a table at the bookfair. Go to their new website, belladonnaseries.org for information about this significant forum for women writers. You also can check out their CATALOG to see straight-up proof for their vision, as delineated to wit:

Founded as a reading series at a women¹s radical bookstore in 1999, Belladonna* is a feminist avant-garde event and publication series that promotes the work of women writers who are adventurous, politically involved, multi-form, multicultural, multi-gendered, unpredictable, dangerous with language (to the death machinery).

Woot...!

GROW THAT CULTURE BY CRITIQUING IT!

Kritika Kultura, an on-line journal published by Ateneo de Manila University, is worth noting for several reasons.

On a personal note, the first two articles which revolve around Jose Garcia Villa, reference the book I edited on him, The Anchored Angel (Kaya, 1999). There's a sense of passage here for me. I've never considered myself a critic -- but as a cultural activist on behalf of Filipino poetry, I'd felt the need in the past to take on tasks usually taken on by *professional* critics because no one else was doing so (for instance, there's really no reason why I had to be the one to edit a recovery project like The Anchored Angel, when so many poets and critics among my peers knew him better....well, there's something to be said about the more objective voice, I suppose, but I digress). As I've discussed a number of times with various Filipino scholars, creating poetry is one thing but drawing global attention to Filipino poetry on a sustained basis would be aided significantly by the involvement of more scholars. I should note here that Timothy Yu's articles on Villa also are referenced by Kritika Kultura. (I'm also enjoying Tim's recent takes on the presidential campaigns.)

Anyway, all to the good to see these criticisms come up involving Filipino poetry. I just hope that critical expansion will get beyond the Modernist constraint (that, too, is limited). Still and all, a lot of meat here (check out the forum on Vicente Rafael's latest book), so do check it out!
 

GOT NO BEEF WITH TOI!

One of the most amusing phrases I've ever encountered is

               ALL HAT, NO CATTLE

I assume it stems from Texas, and of course refers to lack of substance behind some important-looking facade. I actually first came across the phrase when someone used it to describe a grandiose gate fronting a tiny old house -- a situation that came up around here when a shopping mall developer had to give a new gate to some old-timer in order to develop the neighboring property.

Anyway, the phrase came to mind when I recently received a poetry publication. Nothing unusual there, but the book was accompanied not only by the usual press release but by a cover letter from a publicist. The author had hired a literary publicist for this poetry publication! And it occurs to me -- this isn't the first time I've seen poets hiring publicists -- does anyone else find this practice, this reaching, ridiculous (if not rather ... pathos-ridden sad?). Now, I do think poetry is priceless...so I mayhap am mangling a metaphor here, but....

In any event, far be it for me to advise anyone how to spend money in the poetry world. As far as I'm concerned, the size of your hat is my concern only if it blocks my view....

Meanwhile, my latest list of Relished W(h)ines about which I didn't feel the need to ask: Where's the Beef?

PUBLICATIONS:
THE SPLINTERED FACE: TSUNAMI POEMS by Indran Amirthanayagam

THE EDGE OF EUROPE / A KINETIC IMAGE, a poet's novel by Pentti Saarikoski, Trans. by Anselm Hollo

DEMENTIA BLOG (really moving prose poem collection, in manuscript form but forthcoming (yay!)) by Susan Schultz

WINTER JOURNEY, poems by Tony Towle

FLUSH CONTOUR, visual poetry by Spencer Selby with an Introduction by Martin Edmonds

ONE AND TWENTY by Paavo Haavikko, Trans. by Anselm Hollo

IMAGO, poems by Joseph O. Legaspi

FILAMENT SENSE, poems by William Allegrezza

THE WRONG TREE, poems by Dana Ward

AN ARCHITECTURE, poems by Chad Sweeney

HARPOON, poems by Michael Cavendish

POETRY AND COMMITMENT, essay by Adrienne Rich with afterword by Mark Doty

MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING, psychology and memoir by Viktor E. Frankl (which I read based on quoted excerpts on Anny Ballardini's Blog -- and a worthwhile read it is!)

A LONG WAY GONE: MEMOIRS OF A BOY SOLDIER by Ishmael Beah

THE CIRCUIT: STORIES FROM THE LIFE OF A MIGRANT CHILD by Francisco Jimenez

BAD DOG: TRUE TALES OF TROUBLE ONLY A BEST FRIEND CAN GET AWAY WITH, Ed. by Doug Brown and Kaori Brown

PREFABULOUS: THE HOUSE OF YOUR DREAMS DELIVERED FRESH FROM THE FACTORY, study of prefab houses by Shari Koones

CHINA RUN, novel by David Ball

BEYOND THE BLUE, novel by Leslie Gould

FIRE, novel by George R. Stewart

BLUE HEAVEN, novel by C.J. Box

FLASHPOINT, novel by Suzanne Brockmann

T IS FOR TRESSPASS, novel by Sue Grafton

HISS, WHINE & START OVER, novel by Jane Caryl Mahlow, DVM


WINES:
1993 Ravenswood Wood Road Belloni Zinfandel Russian River Valley
2005 William Fevre chablis
2005 Irony Russian River pinot noir
2002 White Cottage cabernet Howell Mountain NV
1994 Ravenswood Old Hill Vineyard Sonoma Valley
1990 Terrabianca Campaccio Riserva

HEADS' UP #2

My impending trip to South America is wreaking havoc with my To-Do List, but my departure has been delayed by at least a week. I now doubt I'll leave the U.S. before Feb. 2. More time to address that To-Do List but if you (and youse know who youse are) don't hear back from me on any one of our projects, please know that I have the best of excuses (which I hope to be able to share in public someday soon).

"A FEMININE CONDITION"

is a much-maligned phrase over here since Gabriela came down with a major case of ... of ... "yeast infection." Under both front armpits. Apparently, it gets as, um, yeasty there as, you know where. Well, earlier this week, we began spraying the affected areas. But the topical proved ineffective and we had to bring her to vet emergency this afternoon for increased meds. She's recovering right now, thank you, monitored by two other females in da house.



What does all this have to do with poetry, you ask? Well, it has everything to do with my poetry. Dog Poetics. For, as the cognoscenti knows, a "dog" is defined as pure love. P.S. Kant sez, We can judge the heart of a man (sic) by his treatment of animals -- as good a poetics statement, too, to Moi!

THE GIFT ECONOMY NEED NEVER SUCK

The headline proclaims "Stocks End Rough Week..."

What's great about Poetry is that its economy need never tank. Click on this excerpt below for a lovely conversation between Lee Herrick and Ivy Alvarez at BOXCAR Poetry Review:

This morning, I saw that your small collection, 1 Doz. Poison Hay(na)ku, which costs $1, is up to $75 on the auction that Eileen Tabios is holding to raise funds for mosquito nets in a developing country. This is both amazing and not amazing to me, that poems that cost $1 could go for that much. It’s not surprising because they are your poems and people want them, and Eileen’s ethos stock is so high and people want to help (I myself bid when it was around $30). It says something, though, about how with the right time and the right idea, people’s better side(s) will appear and such a great idea will flourish. I admire it. I wish there were more of it.

There's plenty of meat in this article which is most def worthwhile reading, but of course I quote the above because it says I'm good stock (grin). And, btw, Ivy's one buck chap did end up raising $300. See? Poetry is a great investment!

May you let Poetry employ you!

MORE ON THAT MORONIC OXYMORON: "POETRY ECONOMICS"

Meritage Press (MP), as indicated by its Mission Statement (though it's outdated), is open to publishing not just poetry publications. Well, it did so for just the second time in late 2007 with STAGE PRESENCE (I founded MP in 2001).

At its book launch, in that one afternoon, STAGE PRESENCE sold more than the entire 2007 sales that MP's poetry books got through Amazon.com.

Just pausing amidst doing taxes to share that with you....

If I wanted to look on the bright side, I could report that 2007's Amazon sales grew by 59% from the prior year's. But since I know what those dollars are in real terms, to make happy hay from this percentage increase would be to suspend disbelief in the real meaning of those numbers.

Oh, wait. That's what a poet does, right? Suspend disbelief. No wonder I'm a poetry publisher!

And I love me the poetry books I publish and feel you should buy them, too, for your own soul-making good! HERE and HERE, Peeps! the barker directs....(even as I am glad some of you are listening as I sit here drooling over an inventory restocking order from SPD for about 200 copies of Garrett Caples' COMPLICATIONS and PINOY POETICS for textbook porpoises....)

Gads...sometimes it is just exhausting HUSTLING for Poetry.

DO YOU LIKE STRIPPERS?

Then The Strip Hay(na)ku Project, by poets Ernesto Priego and John Bloomberg-Rissman and photographer Amy Berner, should interest you.

Okay, it might interest you for other reasons, e.g. poetic and vizpo collaborations, hay(na)ku, booty, I mean, beauty, et al et al.

And it's also an example of a CHAINED HAY(NA)KU project! (Nota bene that Jan. 31 deadline, Peeps.)

POSITIVELY PREGNANT...WITH HAY(NA)KU!!!!!

I understand February will bring Moi -- y Toi -- some Massive Love! No, not coz of Valentine's Day, but because that's when I see the first draft of the Spanish translation of The First Hay(na)ku Anthology!

I continue to be amazed at the love shown, and shown so swiftly from around the world, to hay(na)ku. Matter of fact, as we prepare the book design for The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. 2, here's its draft BACK COVER TEXT:

Since The First Hay(na)ku Anthology's release in 2005, the hay(na)ku has appeared in many literary journals, anthologies, and single-author poetry collections worldwide. Artists have created visual hay(na)ku. The form has been written in Spanish, English, French, Finnish, Dutch, Tagalog, and Norwegian. It has been taught in classrooms, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico/Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) features an hay(na)ku webpage in their online journal, Periódico de Poesía. Members of UNAM'S Faculty of Literature and Philosophy/Facultad de Filosofia y Letras are also preparing a full Spanish translation of The First Hay(na)ku Anthology for future release. Reflecting the hay(na)ku's continued popularity, The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. 2 is released just three years after the first hay(na)ku anthology. A third anthology is also in the works: THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU which would present hay(na)ku collaborations among three or more writers. We hope readers enjoy this volume, and are encouraged to try writing their own hay(na)ku! For this poetic form was also created as an Invitation to Poetry.

And a reminder -- join the party, Peeps. Only fourteen (14!) more days to finish then send your hay(na)ku collaboration to what will be yet another anthology featuring the hay(na)ku: THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU project; details HERE!

A HEADS' UP

Various bureaucracies are preventing me from firming up the schedule, but I am most definitely preparing for a five-week (possibly more, possibly less) trip to South America (can't be more specific re locale) and possibly be offline for that period. Several of youse need to talk to me, so do it now. Please. I may leave as early as Jan. 26.

BIG LOVE WITH TINY BOOKS!

Check out John's nifty photo of the Tiny Books, how the sum total of five books so far in the series still is sized at less than a page! Not too late to order Tiny Books, though I still have an open order or two which is slower to handwrite nowadays due to moi carpal tunnel stuff. Tiny Books info, including ordering details HERE! Poetry Feeds World!

BIBLICAL POETICS

"I take details from photos, books, magazines and transform them…"
--Spencer Selby

Reading through Martin Edmond's introductory essay to Spencer Selby's visual poetry in FLUSH CONTOUR (Otoliths, 2008), I was reminded that one of the greatest collage-works ever, regardless of how you feel about Christianity, is the Bible. For the Bible wasn't written so much as it was gathered together from different -- and even disagreeing -- sources.

A train of thought that further leads me to nota bene that Jesus Christ didn't write a single Gospel. He embodied Gospel. That's a tough poetics to beat.

Jes file this under the "I'ma jes sayin' category", if you will.

*****

And, btw, a review copy of FLUSH CONTOUR, along with many other recent releases are available for review for Galatea Resurrects. Review details HERE.

2007 MERITAGE PRESS HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST RESULTS

Congratulations to the winners of Meritage Press' 7th annual global poetry contest for Filipino poets, judged this year by Eric Gamalinda:

First Place, Co-Winner: “First Winter Passing” by Naya S. Valdellon

First Place, Co-Winner: “O.N.S.” by Marcel L. Milliam

Honorable Mention: “AN EXPLANATION” by R. Torres Pandan

More information and the winning poems are posted HERE.

FRAGMENT: A VERB AS POETICS

Clearing out some old files, this (diary?) fragment revealed itself:

You open up to where Poetry seeks to take you...

And I just sit here on a mountain spinning air...

And the spun air begins building a bridge of blue silk...

And the bridge shoots out towards the inflamed horizon...

And the Poetry leads me to walk towards radiation...

And I pass through the fire to see my skin become gold...

And I keep walking to see my golden skin become a dove (make that Eagle)...

And I feel the wind caress as I soar towards more blue...

And I pierce a color called "sky" to find myself floating...

And I am floating in the ocean that ends in black sand...

And I am woman again walking away from sapphire sea froth...

And I am walking towards a beach house full of spherical music...

And my feet are pounding with the ancient gong music of the kulintang...

And my torso is whipping back and forth with the Black Swan Oracle...

And my lips are kissing "A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse"...

And, yes, more than 7,000 islands send breezes through my uncut hair...

What I recall now, looking at this fragment, is that I was struggling to articulate something...and failed. So why this post -- this nostalgia for Loss?

When, after all, I am so happy today and nowadays...

DRUM ROLL: MOI AM A PRODUCER!

Set the bar high, Dark Angel. So, as I write this, Meritage Press is also exploring the release of a live CD recording of a dead poet....because just coz a poet died doesn't mean he doesn't live on...

More details to come. This is just a bookmark post. Because I am so VERY EXCITED about this project, and not just cause I get to have a new title: Producer. It so sounds more Hollywood than, uh, poetry publisher. Don't hate me for being shallow -- as a poetry publisher, I take my compensations where I can ...

N.B. I gotta get off this thread of Poetry Economics. It's just hard to do when I keep staring at this envelope by my computer from the CITY AND COUNTY TAX COLLECTOR OF SAN FRANCISCO. They want me to fill out these humongous forms so that I can send them tax revenues from my 2007 poetry book sales. Geeezus, California -- it's pathetic that you can't get your budget act together such that you have to squeeze the economic prunes labeled "poets". I gotta do work for which a third-party accountant would charge hundreds, just so I can send you a tax check for, what, $37 bucks?!

POETS REVIEWING WINES!

Hey, I mean, Hay Naku! Allen Bramhall, former wine salesman, is also willing to review wines!

ALSO, in his BRILLIANT discourse HERE, Allen explains why something like WinePoetics is so critical.

You didn't really think I was just drinking to derange moi senses, did you?

Well, probably, I was. But from hereon, Moi story is I was just attempting to manifest Heideggerian whatness.

My definition of "friend" is someone who makes me look more brilliant than I am. Thanks Allen, good buddy, for your presence.

Sip. Martinelli sparkling apple cider. (I know, I know...but this is a great drink to serve the non-alcoholics at your table....another tip for Toi from Moi who lives to serve).

RECOMMENDED/ING CONTEMPORARY WOMEN POETS

Most of what seems vital about poetry to me happens at this samizdaty sort of level. The small indies and micropresses are bringing out the most exciting work. And as long as I keep running across poets I like who aren’t being published, I’ll be publishing poetry.
--Shanna Compton

I highly recommend this interview of Shanna Compton over at LEMON HOUND. I think Shanna's points are a convenient way to address the implications of poets allowing others to control their works' production, and the alternatives to such.

Seriously, that's why I recommend you read her interview, not because of this paragraph (grin):

Some (contemporary) women poets I've read recently or frequently revisit: Obviously I'd recommend the other women published by Bloof, Jennifer L. Knox and Danielle Pafunda, but also Nada Gordon, Anne Boyer, Sharon Mesmer, Eileen Tabios, Dorothea Lasky, Angela Rawlings, Susan Wheeler, Heidi Lynn Staples, Reb Livingston, Evie Shockley, Susan Briante, Mel Nichols, Juliana Spahr, Sandra Simonds, Jennifer Moxley, Barbara Jane Reyes, Cathy Park Hong, Ange Mlinko, Mairead Byrne, Joyelle McSweeney, Lara Glenum, Ana Bozicevic-Bowling, Stephanie Young, Jennifer Bartlett, Ada Limon, Catherine Meng, yourself...there are so many it's hard to make a list that won't embarrass me later through omission. Isn't that wonderful?

Always cheered by seeing my name in company like the above. It is wonderful! And, as Tom Beckett and Wood's Lot recently recommend, Jean Vengua should be on that list, too! Yes, Jean Vengua's poetry deserves a wider audience -- I, the publisher with great taste, make it easy for you with PRAU HERE.

A WINEPOETICS EXPERIMENT

Okay, let me try this experiment (she says while she polishes off some left-over 1992 Ravenswood Pickberry). To wit:

Some of you Peeps arrive at this blog by searching for wines or wine-related topics. To you Peeps, I note that, obviously, this is mostly a poetry blog. And among my poetry activities is editing a poetry review/engagement journal called GALATEA RESURRECTS, or GR.

But what is not much known is that I also formerly edited, during Moi New Yawker days, a newsletter called TABIOS WINE TASTING REVIEW. So I tell you what, if you want me to consider blogging a review of your wine, feel free to send it to me. Send it to the same address available HERE for sending review copies for GR.

But be forewarned. I am much harsher on wine than I am on poetry (once a threshold involves the inner linings to my mouth, throat and belly, said threshold's gotta be higher). So if your wine isn't luscious, save your stamps.

But if your wine is GOOOOD, Baby, I just might write a poem to it!

Sip.

And for the rest of your poetry scalawags: I surely can use more reviewers of the lovely poetry publications coming into Galatea for GR's consideration! Please do check the frequently-updated list of Available Review Copies HERE!

STAGE PRESENCE HAS ... PRESENCE!

Bluntly, I have as great a taste as a publisher as I do with wines....and it's not my fault that Poetry's payments rarely include cash. But because I do have great taste (preen), when I publish a non-poetry book -- STAGE PRESENCE, Ed. by Theo Gonsalvez -- it starts making a profit in a matter of weeks from its release. Enviable, eh poets? And now, here's the first of what looks to be many reviews or press about it coming our way, viz GLOBAL NATION -- click on excerpt below for the whole thing:

...the artists featured in the book all drew from their Filipinoness to do their work as artists, but not just that. “They also have been at the cutting edges of giving us new ways to think about what it could mean to be Filipino in the world today,” Theo said. “They experiment with while extending traditions.”

“They insist on looking and turning to Filipino histories not because it's a comfortable place to go back to but rather because they want to remind us that lessons from the past still have to learned -- about the Philippine American war, migration from the country, and so much more,” Theo added. “But their work is not just about playing histories out on stages. I've been enjoying their work because they produce outstanding, fun, heartbreaking and vital work. It's truly alive.”

Y'all really should check it out HERE and HERE.

And let's see. Due to STAGE PRESENCE's financial success, at least one poetry book I release in 2008 will owe its print-life to it. Well isn't that speeee...cial!

SOMEONE FELL IN LOVE WITH MOI

last night. May the rest of her Book Club join the descent. Grin.

Remember that saying, "Thanks for last night...?" I used to say that a lot when I was a bachelor. Grin again.

With The Hubby, I'ma jest like, "Aw you lucky dawg...!"

THE BIG POND OF NATURE POETICS

How did Anselm Hollo know I adore Radiant Finns? Because a most pleasant surprise awaited me at my country road mailbox yesterday: a package from Anselm Hollo containing his translations of two Finnish writers:

The Edge of Europe / A Kinetic Image by Pentti Saarikoski

and

One And Twenty by Paavo Haavikko

A generous gift, and from a poet I've never met -- but highly respect! I can't wait to dig in fully, and of course I've already started. And this passage from the Translator's Note to Saarikoski's book really resonated:

Saarikoski had withdrawn from the limelight of two decades of being an only-too-enthusiastic big fish in a small pond. With his partner, Norwegian-Swedish writer Mia Berner, he established himself in an old house on an island just off the west coast of Sweden and cultivated his own backyard in a typically troll-like way, superimposing the rich and various, wild and wooly landscape of his mind on the surrounding countryside with its mountain ridges, petroglyphs, caves, and harbors....

Said passage resonates, not because I consider myself a "big fish" (or because what passes as "poetry world" so often strikes one as a small pond) but, given what I'm trying to do here on the mountain with Galatea. Today, I checked my brand-spanking new culvers beneath a new gravel road/parking lot on the property and was very pleased to see them working and being effective against this week's raging storms. From the four culvers (which you Peeps might recall I'd financed by bartering some poetry books - grin), fountain-ous streams of water cascaded over wet rocks and leaves to continue down the fountain into a seasonal waterfall visible from the road. There, too, does Poetry lie and lays.

And speaking of lies and lays, here's my latest list of Relished W(h)ines:

PUBLICATIONS:
SOME HAY, poems by Lars Palm

SELECTED POEMS OF GABRIELA MISTRAL, Translated by Ursula K. Le Guin (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2003)

PART, PART EUPHRATES, poems by Arpine Konyalian Grenier

CLEANING THE MIRROR: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS by Joel Chace

THE BIRD CATCHER, poems by Marie Ponsot

HAPPY NEW YEAR PROSE POEMS CARD by Mark Lamoreaux

MARY OLIVER POEM HOLIDAY BROADSIDE published/distributed (grin) by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

MAY/BE, poems by Jill Stengel

SCHOOLCHILDREN, investigative journalism by Tracy Kidder

THE LONG WALK: THE TRUE STORY OF A TREK TO FREEDOM, memoir by Slavomir Rawicz

IN A FAR COUNTRY: THE TRUE STORY OF A MISSION, A MARRIAGE, A MURDER, AND THE REMARKABLE REINDEER RESCUE OF 1898 by John Taliaferro

WOODSWOMAN: LIVING ALONE IN THE ADIRONDACK WILDERNESS, memoir by Anne Labastille

DAKOTA HOME, novel by Debbie Macomber

ALWAYS DAKOTA, novel by Debbie Macomber

REMEMBERED, novel by Tamara Alexander

CARRIE'S STORY and SAFE WORD by Molly Weatherfield (I checked out these two self-described "erotic S/M novels" at Ron Silliman's recommendation, viz a footnote to one of his posts -- I was curious as to how theory and sex intersect, having explored this once through my own homage to Dominique Aury; CARRIE'S STORY is more effective for being less didactic, always an occupational hazard when theory is so overtly involved. I guess the porn uptake to "Show, don't tell" is "Embody, don't theorize". This parenthetical is shared for Moi amusement, but also hopefully for yours.)


WINES:
1998 Jacquesson Fils L'Independance Des Philippines
2006 Oberon cabernet NV
1999 Fox Creek McLaren Vale Reserve Shiraz
2004 Blanc Fume de Pouilly Didier Dageneau
2000 Dom Francois Raveneau Montee de Tonnerre Chablis Premier Cru
2001 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-de-Pape
1989 Rocche Dei Menzoni Barolo Riserva
2005 Pavi pinot noir NV
1992 Ridge Montebello
2005 Davenport Pinot Noir
2005 Puligny Montrachet
1990 Dom Perignon
1989 Paolo Scavino Bric del Fiasc
2005 Donn Hoff Hermin Holle Brucke Riesling Auslese
2000 Behrens & Hitchcock Chien Lunatique
1989 Ch. Cantemerle
1992 Ravenswood Pickberry

THAT LOVING CHAIN

Have gotten some wonderful responses to THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU Project. Which is to say, the end of this month is deadline for participating. Do go HERE for a hug and details!

ANTI-DARK POETICS

Heavy wind and rain all night. This morning, black-out on mountain and I assume surrounding environs. Black-out ... except on Galatea's part of the mountain because Galatea, Golden Galatea always glows...

Oh okay, relatedly: from my file of Big, Burly Men Projects, we'd installed a back-up generator. And aren't we happy for Big, Burly Men cause you otherwise would not be reading/seeing Galatea glow...

UPDATE: While Moi was glowing, the wet wind raged and black-out hit everything East of our local Main Street for approximately four hours. Power is back on and now everyone can glow together...for now. More storms expected through the weekend.

HAY(NA)KU HISTORY

HIS DEFINITION OF “HOPE”

“I
am a
black man named

‘Barack Obama’ and
running for
President.”

--written after Barack Obama won the Caucuses in Iowa, a state where the population is at least 93% white.

This is from my Hay(na)ku Journal which I created because I received so many complimentary calendars for 2008 -- none of which I can use for calendar purposes since my calendar this year is the Dutch Henry WineryDog Calendar wherein Achilles and Gabriela are the January dogs. So I am using one of the spare calendars for either writing or quoting a hay(na)ku per day for the rest of the year that somehow marks something that happened that day.

IN 2008 "MAY YOU..."

It's a delight to be included again in Sheila Murphy's annual snailmailings of lovely poems inaugurating the new year. This year she sent a letter-pressed broadside featuring the poem below, which I/she/we are delighted to share with Moi Peeps:

In the Year 2008

May you:

Forget to have been beautiful
             amid an earthen innocence.
Lodge discovery
             between repeat signs.
Afford some window light
             upon the acrobatic integers.
Remove soft hesitation
             from your breath.
Claim rapture
             within captive lineage.
Subtract type casting
             from the psyche.
Appreciate new winter
             as so many staves of rest.
Translate linear geology
             to nest depth.
Bow before iced branches
             leaving shadows on unbroken snow.
Extrapolate from future saplings
             particles of present tense.
Pluck from estrangement
             justice and satiety.
Commit to being young
             beyond your eyesight and your skin.
Initiate soul's semaphore
             inviting reciprocity.
Project a single flower
             upon a blood-scarred field.
Capitulate to the impending free-for-all
             of infinite compassion.

[Posted by permission of the author.]