Friday, December 31, 2010

I BUY POETRY!

Yes I do! Here's my latest list of recently bought poetry books or books by poets:

Belladonna 2011 Subscription: "A Year in the Commons" featuring THE WIDE ROAD by Lyn Hejinian & Carla Harryman; LOOKING UP HARRYETTE MULLEN: INTERVIEWS ON SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY AND OTHER WORKS by Barbara Henning; Belladonna limited edition chapbooks; SEASONS: QUARTETS (RECOMPOSED): WORDS MOVE / MUSIC MOVES: ONLY IN TIME -- THE FOUR SEASONS re-composed by Colette Alexander and Nancy Magarill, THE FOUR QUARTETS re-envisioned by Kristin Prevallet; and SUNDAY, THEORY: A TRANSLATION OF LA THEORIE, UN DIMANCHE (1988, Remue-Menage), a multi-authored, multi-genre (theory, fiction) volume of six Québécois Women: Louky Bersianik, Nicole Brossard, Louise Cotnoir, Louise Dupré, Gail Scott, and France Théoret, with short contemporary commentary by a diverse range of writers, and translated by Erica Weitzman, Pophana Brandes et al; edited by Rachel Levitsky and Gail Scott.

SILK EGG: COLLECTED NOVELS (2009-2009) by Eileen R. Tabios (IT'S unofficially OUT -- please buy it, too! Available at Amazon U.S. and U.K., SPD, The Book Depository (U.K.) B & N, Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc.--GO HERE for the ordering links through various venues)

DAYS POEM by Allen Bramhall

PIGAFETTA IS MY WIFE by Joe Hall

HERON/GIRLFRIEND by Jen Tynes

UNABLE TO FULLY CALIFORNIA by Larry Sawyer

THE SECOND PERSON: POEMS by C. Dale Young;

FLUX, CLOTH & FROTH, Vol. 1 (text) by John Bloomberg-Rissman (You should buy some, too! Special Release Offer Here)

FLUX, CLOTH & FROTH, Vol. 2 (notes to poems) by John Bloomberg-Rissman (You should buy some, too! Special Release Offer Here)

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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

BY POPULAR DEMAND

(that's quite a din when 9 billion Peeps clamor for something! and they did so for) this new photo of Achilles and Gabriela -- this was taken on Xmas morning.



Yes, always lovely to see clouds full-frontal instead of above you. And the dawgs are lovely indeed -- I should have inaugurate a new bumper-sticker....like,

MY DOG IS LOVELIER THAN YOUR HONOR STUDENT!

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Friday, December 24, 2010

MAY YOURS BE AS YUMMY

as this evening's Bouche de Noel:

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

LOOKING FOR ART'S HEALING PRESENCE

It's been a while since I've posted art by Michael. Well, what better excuse than to share a holiday card he made for another student as part of his school's "Secret Santa" gift sharing! To wit:



Michael has a natural talent at drawing (that may not be captured in the above simple image). But he's ignored art for the past several months. I've been saddened to see how he's not continuing with his artistic talent. But I can understand it. Setting children down with paper and crayolas is often a de facto babysitting tool in orphanages. I'm not sure if that's what happened in Michael's case, but it's likely that in Michael's mind, drawing is something that evokes (bad) memories of having lived in an institution. I can only hope that Art-making won't be yet another fall-out from his troubled past.

It's ridiculous what happens when children are not raised well. Something like Art, which is therapeutic for many, becomes perverted in his case to be a less-than-positive experience. Michael's healing would be the most fabulous gift I could ever receive....

Meanwhile, Happy Holidays to All, or what Michael drew here:

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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

SILK EGG ... IS IN THE HOUSE!

Aww...Santa Woof is bringing gifts!



So lookit what was brought!


Thanks Santa Shepherd! SILK EGG is divine on hand!

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Monday, December 20, 2010

OUR OWN VOICE!

Yes, dears. Happy to have grandmothered THESE AWARDS which most recently tapped Delaware's poet laureate JoAnn Balingit.

Speaking of OurOwnVoice, it's FRESH ... (including, for the blog file, four "identity" poems: "December 2004", "Paul Auster's Father", "The Autistic Boy" and "Filipino").

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Sunday, December 19, 2010

HEIFER INTERNATIONAL HELPS OUT WITH HAITI

Dear Peeps who've supported the Hay(na)ku for Haiti fundraising, I'm pleased to report that the proceeds raised through poems received a matching grant from Oenophiles for Poetry and we sent $1,000 to Heifer International for their Haiti program. It's also great to learn that as a result of all moi blather-blogging on this issue, some of you have chosen to make a tax-deductible donation to Heifer this year. As you may have read in the news, fundraising for Haiti can be problematic in terms of knowing that the recipient of funds is effective in using such aid for the direct benefit of the Haitian people. I chose Heifer International because I trust how they manage their charitable programs. THANK YOU to Dan Waber of chapbookpublisher.com for donating time and material for the H for H booklets, and to you poetry-lovers who've shared my faith that Poetry is not an abstract thing and can actually help someone out there in the world.

Last but not least, thank you to the H for H poets who freely gave their poems:
#1: PARTICLE AND WAVE and FROM THE CHAIR, two hay(na)ku sequences by Jean Vengua
#2: On A Pyre: An Ars Poetica by Eileen R. Tabios
#3: Hay(na)ku for Haiti by Tom Beckett
#4: when the earth moves by Lars Palm
#5: After René Depestre’s “My Definition of Poetry”, as translated by Edwidge Danticat, with lines at the end by Lafcadio Hearn by John Bloomberg-Rissman.
#6: Mrs. Quake by Nicole Mauro
#7: Through Having Been, Vol. 1 by William Allegrezza
#8: Through Having Been, Vol. 2 by William Allegrezza
#9: blonde topography: a terse set of tercets by steve dalachinsky
#10: Drop, Portion and Assignment by Peg Duthie
#11: As I Speed to Your Place by Amanda Laughtland
#12: REBIRTH by Cynthia M. Phillips
#13: in articulate concision of appendices by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
#14:from Delicacies in FRACTUS CORPUS by Ric Carfagna (Vol. 1), Hay(na)ku-ed Translations by Eileen Tabios
#15: Last word is the poet’s calling by Aileen Ibardaloza
#16: Times in Rhymes, Ruins by Jon Curley

You can continue to order H for H booklets; this is an open-ended project. Info HERE.

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Thursday, December 16, 2010

POETRY FOUNDATION PAGE

Moi is also HERE. Why, Thank you! And it's interesting to see where Moi travels by sitting on a mountain and blathering.

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Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A ROMANTIC THOUGHT

Whilst blog-jogging this morning, I read Dodie Bellamy's wonderful blog and was reminded yet again of a blog post that may be the post that I'd consider the MOST ROMANTIC I'd ever read. Am too lazy to actually research for the link to post here--Toi do it. But, basically, the post (if moi memory is correct and it often is not) was about how she'd once asked her partner (and fabulous person) Kevin Killian something about why he doesn't write (or write much?) about her. And Kevin had replied that to write about someone is to write it out of one's self ... and Kevin didn't want to write out Dodie.

I'm probably poorly paraphrasing but you 9 billion Peeps are intelligent enough to get the drift, I think. Entonces: isn't that notion by Kevin just absolutely, as Miss Pink En La Casa would proclaim, "SUPER!!!!!!!"

And there's also so much wisdom innit ... that particular space of not writing about someone in order to more dearly hold said someone dear is ... special.

Now, you may note that I frequently write about my son Michael and so isn't such contradictory? Well, No Dear. The exception would be when one wants to brag. I LOVE TO BRAG ABOUT MY SON MICHAEL and do so unashamedly! For example, I love his sense of humor! As in, here he is after having donned the dogs' Xmas antlers:



Doesn't that put you in a Holiday Mood...!

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OLIVES NO ES JOLIE

Yes indeed. City Slicker Farming continues to haunt the mountain. This year, we harvested 500 pounds of olives -- not bad, if barely reaching the minimum of local small-scale rentals for private pressings. Unfortunately, we didn't know to immediately (within 24 hours) bring the olives to the press. So we'll now have to compost said 500 pounds of olives. Well sigh. Now, on the bright side, yesterday, I "harvested" two more persimmons....and I did get a photo of Michael out of it!



While I continue to grapple with F.'s very pink presence about la casa, here is my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List:

WINTER HARVEST:
500 pounds of olives
35 pounds of honey (OH YEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!)
18 persimmons
5 Meyer lemons


PUBLICATIONS
AT TROTSKY'S FUNERAL, poem-ficciones by Mark Young (brilliant)

SOME GEOGRAPHIES, poems by Mark Young (there's such a wise presence of Now-ness in these poems ... dude's writing at the top of his game)

IF NOT METAMORPHIC, poems by Brenda Iijima (a manifestation of paradox)

NATIVE GUARD, poems by Natasha Trethewey

THE HOMELESSNESS OF SELF, poems by Susan Terris

TOUCH WOOD, poems by Albert Mobilio

GRACE IN A COW'S EYE: A MEMOIR, poems by Sonja Sekula

FEET FIRST, poems by Dion N. Farquhar

ECO LANGUAGE READER, edited by Brenda Iijima (collection of essays, interviews and photographs by 17 poets weighing in on environmental concerns: Karen Leona Anderson, Jack Collom, Tina Darragh, Marcella Durand, Laura Elrick, Brenda Iijima, Peter Larkin, Jill Magi, Tracie MOrris, Catriona Mortimer-Shandilands, Julie Patton, Jed Rasula, Evelyn Reilly, Leslie Scalapino, James Sherry, Jonathan Skinner and Tyrone Williams)

THE WIDOW DOWN BY THE BROOK, memoir by Mary MacNeill

ANGELINA, biography by Andrew Morton

TAKEOVER, novel by Lisa Black

DIE TWICE, novel by Andrew Grant

INNOCENT AS SIN, novel by Elizabeth Lowell

A MCKETTRICK CHRISTMAS, novel by Linda Lael Miller

LAST WORDS, novel by Mariah Stewart

DAMAGED, novel by Alex Kava


WINES
1996 Gevrey Chambertin Geantet-Pansiot
2000 The Mallea by Majella
2007 Dancing Hares
2001 Serpico
2007 Travigne house cabernet
2007 Hudson Carneros Chardonnay
2006 Bachelet-Monnot Puligny-Montrachet Les Folatieres
1989 Pignan
2003 Hare's Chase Shiraz Barossa Valley

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

WHEN A SILK EGG CRACKS OPEN, WHAT WOULD BE INNIT?

A box (or two+) is on its way to me -- copies of SILK EGG! So, would you like to review it? If so, drop Moi an email.

And newly-available is a downloadable excerpt HERE!

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Tuesday, December 07, 2010

GALATEA RESURRECTS ITSELF FOR THE 15TH TIME!

There is no better Holiday Wish from our family



to you than the sharing of poetry. We are delighted to announce that Galatea Resurrects is fresh with 72 NEW REVIEWS! You can access Issue No. 15 at http://galatearesurrection15.blogspot.com, but for convenience here is the Table of Contents:


EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
By Eileen Tabios


NEW REVIEWS
Camille Martin reviews SALINE by Kimberly Lyons

Patrick James Dunagan reviews DEAR SANDY, HELLO: LETTERS FROM TED TO SANDY BERRIGAN, Edited by Sandy Berrigan and Ron Padgett

Jon Curley reviews AUTOPSY TURVY by Thomas Fink and Maya Diablo Mason

Eileen Tabios engages HAD SLAVES by Catherine Sasanov

John Herbert Cunningham reviews SELECTED POEMS OF GARCILASO DE LA VEGA, Edited and translated by John Dent-Young

Kathryn Stevenson reviews MONEY FOR SUNSETS by Elizabeth J. Colen

T.C. Marshall reviews VANCOUVER: A POEM by George Stanley and IN THE MILLENIUM by Barry McKinnon

Eric Dickey reviews AS IT TURNED OUT by Dmitry Golynko, Edited by Eugene Ostashevsky. Translated by Eugene Ostashevsky and Rebecca Bella with Simona Schneider

Peg Duthie engages THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF GRAVITY AND GRACE by Ernesto Priego

Patrick James Dunagan reviews UNTAM’D WING: RIFFS ON ROMANTIC POETRY by Jeffrey C. Robinson

Harry Thorne reviews NEIGHBOR by Rachel Levitsky

Michael Pollock engages "El Dorado" by Edgar Allan Poe, Spanish translation by Mario Murgia in EL CURVO Y OTROS POEMAS by Edgar Allan Poe, Edicion bilingue with Traduccion del proyecto Helbardot and Ilustraciones de Gustavo Abascal

Barbara Roether reviews FIRE EXIT by Robert Kelly

Allen Bramhall reviews SITUATIONS by Laura Carter

Eileen Tabios engages 1000 SONNETS by Tim Atkins

Eric Hoffman reviews ESCHATON by Michael Heller

Jon Curley reviews 100 NOTES ON VIOLENCE by Julie Carr

Genevieve Kaplan reviews NETS by Jen Bervin and THE MS OF M Y KIN by Janet Holmes

Aileen Ibardaloza reviews THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU PROJECT, Curated by Ivy Alvarez, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Ernesto Priego & Eileen Tabios and THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II, Edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young

John Herbert Cunningham reviews COLLECTED POEMS by Dylan Thomas

Eileen Tabios engages 2ND NOTICE OF MODIFICATIONS TO TEXT OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS by John Bloomberg-Rissman

Allen Bramhall reviews NOT BLESSED by Harold Abramowitz

Moira Richards reviews A IS FOR ANNE by Penelope Scambly Schott

Peg Duthie engages "GOTHENBURG" FROM THREE GEOGAOPHIES: A MILKMAID'S GRIMOIRE by Arielle Guy

John Herbert Cunningham reviews DISJUNCTIVE POETICS: FROM GETRUDE STEIN AND LOUIS ZUKOFSKY TO SUSAN HOWE by Peter Quartermain

Rebecca Loudon reviews GOD DAMSEL by Reb Livingston

Eileen Tabios engages REQUIEM FOR THE ORCHARD by Oliver de la Paz

Kristi Castro reviews EDGE BY EDGE, collection of poetry chaps by Gladys Justin Carr, Heidi Hart, Emma Bolden, and Vivian Teter

Allen Bramhall reviews I-FORMATION BOOK 1 by Anne Gorrick

Lynn Behrendt reviews I-FORMATION BOOK 1 by Anne Gorrick

Eileen Tabios engages Lynn Behrendt's review of Anne Gorrick's I-FORMATION BOOK 1

Michael Caylo-Baradi reviews MISSPELL by Lars Palm

John Herbert Cunningham reviews PENURY by Myung Mi Kim

Albert B. Casuga reviews TRAJE DE BODA: POEMS by Aileen Ibardaloza

Richard Lopez reviews SOME SONNETS, Edited by Tim Wright

Eileen Tabios engages APPARITION POEMS by Adam Fieled

L.M. Freer reviews BEATS AT NAROPA: AN ANTHOLOGY, Edited by Anne Waldman and Laura Wright

Moira Richards reviews (MADE) by Cara Benson

Thomas Fink reviews DRUNKER/HOLDING EMBER by Raymond Farr

Edric Mesmer reviews ON SECRETS OF MY PRISON HOUSE by Geoffrey Gatza

Peg Duthie engages EATING HER WEDDING DRESS: A COLLECTION OF CLOTHING POEMS, Edited by Vasiliki Katsarou, Ruth O’Toole, and Ellen Foos

Eileen Tabios engages BEHAVE: CALIFORNIA RANT 66 by Steve Tills

Jim McCrary reviews MR. MAGOO by Steve Tills

Nicholas T. Spatafora reviews AUTOPSY TURVY by Thomas Fink and Maya Diablo Mason

Margaret H. Johnson reviews MANHATTAN MAN (AND OTHER POEMS) by Jack Lynch

Eileen Tabios engages AT TROTSKY'S FUNERAL by Mark Young

Marianne Villanueva reviews ERNESTA, IN THE STYLE OF FLAMENCO by Sandy McIntosh

Hadas Yatom-Schwartz engages “Nathan, in the Ancient Language”, a poem in ERNESTA, IN THE STYLE OF THE FLAMENCO by Sandy McIntosh

Patrick James Dunagan reviews COLLECTED POEMS / GUSTAF SOBIN, Edited by Esther Sobin, Andrew Joron, Andrew Zawacki, and Ed Foster

Jon Curley reviews CLEANING THE MIRROR: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS by Joel Chace

Tom Beckett reviews CLEANING THE MIRROR: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS by Joel Chace

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews AT THE FAIR by Tom Clark

Peg Duthie engages 32 SNAPSHOTS OF MARSEILLES by Guy Bennett

Jim McCrary reviews THE HAY(NA)KU FOR HAITI SERIES, Edited by Eileen Tabios

Kristina Marie Darling reviews THE FRENCH EXIT by Elisa Gabbert

Anny Ballardini reviews BRAINOGRAPHY by Evelyn Posamentier

Richard Lopez reviews 2ND NOTICE OF MODIFICATIONS TO TEXT OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS by John Bloomberg-Rissman

G.E. Schwartz reviews THE FUTURE IS HAPPY by Sarah Sarai

Kristina Marie Darling reviews TINDERBOX LAWN by Carol Guess

Eileen Tabios engages DIWATA by Barbara Jane Reyes

Peg Duthie engages DUTIES OF AN ENGLISH FOREIGN SECRETARY by Macgregor Card

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews ADAMANTINE by Shin Yu Pai

Jeff Harrison reviews GRIEF SUITE by Bobbi Lurie

Allen Bramhall reviews OPULENCE by Stephen Ellis

Peg Duthie engages SPRING HAS COME: SPANISH LYRICAL POETRY FROM THE SONGBOOKS OF THE RENAISSANCE by Alvaro Cardona-Hine

Jim McCrary reviews CARRY CATASTROPHE by Megan Kaminski

Moira Richards reviews THEN, SOMETHING by Patricia Fargnoli

Eileen Tabios engages KING OF THE JUNGLE by Zvi A. Sesling

Genevieve Kaplan reviews POETS ON TEACHING: A SOURCEBOOK, Edited by Joshua Marie Wilkinson


THE CRITIC WRITES POEMS
Kristina Marie Darling


FOCUS ON POETS
Tom Beckett interviews ANNE GORRICK

Thomas Fink interviews JOANNA FUHRMAN


FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE: REPRINTED REVIEW
Lisa Bower reviews SKIRT FULL OF BLACK by Sun Yung Shin

Eric Dickey reviews LIGHT FROM A BULLET HOLE: POEMS NEW AND SELECTED, 1950–2008 by Ralph Salisbury


ADVERTISEMENT
Hay(na)ku for Haiti--a Haiti Relief Fundraiser


BACK COVER
No Deer Were Shot For These Shots!

Monday, December 06, 2010

GETTIN' IN THE SPIRIT

Whilst Moi labors to put out the next issue of Galatea Resurrects, occasional GR reviewer Beatriz Tabios (whose critique of her daughter's poems is often summed up by the word "incomprehensible") relaxes between Gabriela and Achilles.

BEFORE:


AFTER:

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Sunday, December 05, 2010

POETRY CRITIC WITH CRITTER

Here is Jim McCrary with cat--matching hair!



Why am I posting this photo? Because it's part of my attempts to incentivize folks to review for Galatea Resurrects. To wit, if you review and you send me a photo of your pet with or without yourself, I will post said photo on this Chatty Blog viewed by over 9 billion Peeps. What are you waiting for? Plenty of available review copies HERE!

Meanwhile, I hope to publishthe next issue, GR #15, soon! It'll be a doozy!

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Saturday, December 04, 2010

FROM A PUBLIC LIBRARY TO HOME

Yay. Another post bespeaking how I buy poetry! Well, okay -- the challenge here is to figure out which books I got for paltry cents from the local public library sale from the desire to simply give poems a true HOME. Libraries! Sniff! Libraries should never give up on poetry!

Here then is my latest Bought Poetry List:

PASSAGE THROUGH INDIA, travelogue by Gary Snyder

THE COMPLETE STORIES AND POEMS OF LEWIS CARROLL

FLUX, CLOTH & FROTH, Vol. 1 (text) by John Bloomberg-Rissman (Like other Purchasers with Discerning Taste, you should buy some, too! Special Release Offer HERE)

FLUX, CLOTH & FROTH, Vol. 2 (notes to poems) by John Bloomberg-Rissman (Like other Purchasers with Discerning Taste, you should buy some, too! Special Release Offer HERE)

THE COCKTAIL PARTY by T.S. Eliot

BEAUTIFUL SIGNOR by Cyrus Cassells

A RADIANCE LIKE WIND OR WATER by Richard Ronan

THE POEMS OF DOCTOR ZHIVAGO by Boris Pasternak, Trans. by Eugene M. Kayden with drawings by Bill Greer

DAYS WE ARE GIVEN by Alice D'Alessio

THE WHOLE TRUTH by James Cummins

A WORKING GIRL CAN'T WIN AND OTHER POEMS by Deborah Garrison

BY PARKED CARS by J.D. Woolery

RESIN by Geri Doran

LEAVES OF GRASS by Walt Whitman

HEARTWOOD: MEDITATIONS ON SOUTHERN OAKS with poetry by Rumi and photographs by William Guion

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Friday, December 03, 2010

SANTA'S ELVES

No kitty is the boss of me! "I" didn't finish decorating Bora Bora, but a couple of Santa's elves did!



When the elves grumbled that I wasn't helping, I naturally reminded all that the whole thing was moi vision with decorating the palm trees. I'm a conceptual artist, too, why not! Which means I don't actually need to be the hand making manifest the concept (hay(na)ku anyone?)!



Michael was all pleased to sit in the result:



Next up! Christmas trees!

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Thursday, December 02, 2010

AND SO IT BEGINS ... aka ... STILL LIFE OF XMAS PALMS WITH CAT

Remember the palm trees being installed HERE less than three months ago? Well, as Missy Scarlet the Kitty caterwauled to remind Moi, I have to finish decorating them for the Holidays!



A couple of days ago we began stringing colored lights and some oversized tree ornaments ... but I'ma thinking that instead of conjuring up that Xmas feeling, the effect seems to be of some tourist trap in Bora Bora:



Having said that, I've been advised by the Caterwauling Slave Driver that she likes the lights so I'd better continue--all the furry ones in la casa love Xmas!



So, okay, okay, I caterwauled right back at her: I'll finish this week! Sheesh!

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Wednesday, December 01, 2010

FLUX, CLOT & FROTH!

You want NEW POETRY? I give you NEW POETRY! To wit:


MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

Meritage Press
is delighted to announce its latest poetry release with a SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER!

Flux, Clot & Froth, Vol. 1
Poems by John Bloomberg-Rissman
ISBN-13: 978-0-9794119-9-1
Price: $29.00
Pages: 714

Flux, Clot & Froth, Vol. 2
Apparatus to Poems in Vol. 1 by John Bloomberg-Rissman
ISBN-13: 978-0-9826493-0-5
Price: $21.00
Pages: 242

Meritage Press Book Page: http://meritagepress.com/flux-clot-froth.htm

Meritage Press is pleased to release Flux, Clot & Froth by John Bloomberg-Rissman, a two-volume project comprised of poems in Volume 1 and "Apparatus" or Notes to Poems in Volume 2. To celebrate this unique project, Meritage Press is offering a SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER with discounted pricing (see further below for details).

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: On 23 Nov 08, John Bloomberg-Rissman finished transforming his crazy stacks of later 20th- and early 21st-century Anglophone literature into organized shelves. Looking at those shelves, he decided to "unpack" them through a longish poem: "Find something from the 1st book on the 1st shelf. Follow that with something from the 1st book on the 2nd shelf. Etc etc. Intersperse whatever I like from whatever source appeals to me. Intersperse a number of Autopoetic recursions. Form: hay(na)ku. I expect this to go on for several months.” Several became many, and the result is an epic-length mixtape composed of thousands of algorithmically/intuitively-derived fully annotated oft-mangled bits of écriture/parole. Truman Capote once famously said of Jack Kerouac’s work, “This isn’t writing, it’s typing.” Had he lived he would have said of Flux, Clot & Froth, “This isn’t typing, it’s cutnpaste.” But, as Heinrich Heine (or Ferenc Molnár?) is reputed to have replied on his deathbed when asked if he wanted last rites, “Nah. Whether or not he exists, God will forgive me. It’s his job.” Volume 1 contains the poem. Volume 2 contains 2,700+ notes which source the approximately 4,000 texts Bloomberg-Rissman sampled.

ADVANCE WORDS Include:
“At the heart of infinity is the accumulative event. John Bloomberg-Rissman, poet of mixmastery, dis-complicates a vastness of textonality, meticulously cites each source, then honors the poundage of forebears by locating a fresh, consistently revealing work, flush with ripening seeds. Flux, Clot & Froth accomplishes with specificity a surprisingly large, clear, deeply felt ceremony of the new poem that gleams across patens that protect and honor poetic roots, both past and current. The poem earns traction by unearthing the connections among a dizzying array of source material to discover a transcendent work. Unhesitatingly brilliant, Flux, Clot & Froth speaks beyond itself as testament to a rigorous and unparalleled synthesis of attention and humility.”
—Sheila E. Murphy

“An extreme example of what I’ve elsewhere called “othering” or, borrowing the phrase from John Cage, “writing through,” Bloomberg-Rissman’s Flux, Clot & Froth is a 700+ page magnum opus constructed (almost) entirely from words or sounds appropriated from 1000 other writers. That this is done without any sacrifice of coherence or feeling or intelligence & in a voice that remains unified & “personal” throughout is a testament to the communal nature of language & thought of which our individualities are a crucial if sometimes questioned part. While Bloomberg-Rissman is not alone in the pursuit of such an outcome, his beautifully wrought & linked three-line stanzas & other groupings present what may well remain a milestone of a new communal poetics.”
—Jerome Rothenberg

SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER:

Both volumes of Flux, Clot & Froth are now available for a combined price of $40.00, a 20% discount from regular retail price of $50.00. As part of this offer, there will be free shipping & handling (a $7.50 value) within the United States. To order, send a check made out to "Meritage Press" to

E. Tabios / Meritage
256 North Fork Crystal Springs Rd.
St. Helena, CA 94574

This SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER will be good through Jan. 15, 2011.

For more information, including on international orders: MeritagePress@aol.com

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MERITAGE PRESS ANNUAL HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST!

Mom's still going strong. Yesterday, I asked her if she wanted to judge Meritage Press' annual Holiday Poetry Contest for Filipino poets worldwide. She said Yep, explaining, "I certainly should diversify my time beyond Lee Child." Chuckle. Anyway, go HERE for details!

Some strong winners over the past years:

PREVIOUS WINNERS:
2009: Michelle Peñaloza (Judge: Aileen Ibardaloza)
2008: Rodrigo V. Dela Pena Jr. (Judge: Bino A. Realuyo)
2007: Naya S. Valdellon & Marcel L. MiIliam (Judge: Eric Gamalinda)
2006: Joel M. Toledo (Judge: Michelle Bautista)
2005: Arkaye Velasquez Kierulf (Judge: Jean Vengua)
2004: Joel H. Vega (Judge: Sarah Gambito)
2003: Luisa A. Igloria (Judge: Patrick Rosal)
2002: Naya S. Valdellon & Michella Rivera-Gravage (Judge: Oliver de la Paz)
2001: Carlomar Arcangel Daoana (Judge: Nick Carbo)

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