THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, or KINDLE MOI (#2)

Moi adventures in/with Kindle! So, the hubby got a Kindle, too, and has been fast and furiously loading free books into his account. Cheapskate.

Anyway, taking on his frugal lead, I also started surfing through Kindle's free books. This is after I finished my first read on Kindle (see notes below on A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE GREAT RECESSION) so that I got a feel of what that reading experience is like. Well, I can be as cheap as the hubby but I found myself being quite parsimonious with loading on books. For instances, I passed on the poems of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Now, kids, load on those poets -- do as I say, not as I do! Anyway, my initial selectivity (which has naught to do with quality), moithinks, may have to do with having to get used to this reading-screen format that makes me lean towards reading a certain type of fare (when I can articulate said fare, I will do so -- stay tuned ye 9.5 billion Peeps all abated breath over my manufactured e-life).

Anyway, here's my initial books on Kindle; most are free though it's perhaps ironic that the books I've paid money for so far have to do with the Great Recession. Also, looking at this initial list now, I see the tendency toward stories of the old West (I don't know why I have that predilection but, there it is...). So make of such what you will:

On Moi Kindle:
POEMS OF WILLIAM BLAKE

THE ODYSSEY by Homer

ILIAD by Homer

LETTERS OF A WOMAN HOMESTEADER by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

THE BIOGRAPHY OF A PRAIRIE GIRL by Eleanor Gates

THE QUEST OF THE SIMPLE LIFE, memoir by William J. Dawson

THE GREATEST GENERATION CREATED BY THE GREAT DEPRESSION by Cap'n Dee

JOURNEY IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION, memoir by John Lifflander

NO PLACE ELSE, memoir by Floyd Wesley Brosman

PERSONAL LEGACIES: SURVIVING THE GREAT DEPRESSIONS by Robin A. Edgar with illustrator Jessi Godoy and photographer Jennifer Crickenberger

A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE GREAT RECESSION by Arthur Delaney with Foreword by Arianna Huffington -- first book read on Kindle. And it shows the dark side of e-publishing. This book was generated from Delaney's prior columns on The Huffington Post, and it shows. There was little attempt to make the collection more weighty for purpose of book publishing. A purely commercial venture with no incremental value-added by being a book. I found it insulting, actually, as a writer moiself....to see how e-posts (e.g. blog posts) should be converted to what should be a higher content threshold of a book, do feel free, ahem, to check out my own effort HERE.

THE ENGLISH ORPHANS, novel by Mary Jane Holmes

HOMESTEAD ON THE HILLSIDE, novel by Mary Jane Holmes

BLOG IT OUT, BITCH, humor by Nina Perez (it's domestic humor -- how could I resist?)

PATCHWORK A STORY OF THE PLAIN PEOPLE, fiction by Anna Balmer Myers

O PIONEERS, novel by Willa Cather

MY ANTONIA, novel by Willa Cather

LITTLE MEN, novel by Louisa May Alcott

JO'S BOY, novel by Louisa May Alcott

So, after going through about 4,000 offers of freebie books, I only come up with 19 books? Granted, I don't feel the need to re-read many of these "classics," Plato, or Christian romances. But, dear Readers, 'twas still quite a slog to go through so many book covers with big boobs or butt cheeks, vampire memoirs, bodice-rippers, etc. Which is to say, I think perusing Kindle's Free Book content is just a way to gauge the ongoing decline of Western Civilization....

Last but not least, I need to blog-file the last three poetry-related titles I've read this year (in preparation for my next big post on all the poetry titles I read in 2011!). To wit:

PRESENTS FOR CHRISTMAS, poemized holiday greeting card (Cy Gist Press Holiday Card 2012, limited edition 100) by Mark Lamoreaux (a fabulous way to relish the Holidays! Thanks Mark!)

AN ATLAS OF LOST CAUSES, poetry by Marjorie Stein

* ERRANCITIES, poems by Quincy Troupe

That asterisk by ERRANCITIES, of course, means that a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects)! More info on that HERE.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

KINDLE MOI!

Got a Kindle for the holidays. Whenever the hubby gets me an electronic gizmo, I toss 'em right back at him. I'm a cave wall and charcoal type of gal. But this gizmo, I chose to keep.

First e-books purchased? Homer's The Odyssey and Iliad.

First book read? A People's History of the Great Depression by Arthur Delaney.

What I will not order or read? The "recommended" books on my page ever since my teen son -- who uses my email addy for his Kindle account -- inadvertently bought one of the books he was scrolling across to surf. Said books all have in common front covers of big-boobed women. As my revenge for his disruption of my e-avatar, I wrote a poem about him and his book-cover porn surfing (it'll be published soon; details to come. hah!)

But, speaking of which, when one scrolls over the books available on Kindle, why are there so many X-rated books on its list of free books? That's right. Much of this porn are self-published and free! The narcissism not only undoubtedly mauls the prose but ... for free? Oh, wait. Maybe it'd be the pitch-ures that count, silly naive Moi!

Ah, ye Kindle-world. A new one for behind-the-times Moi to investigate. Now, if I can only stop confusing the "Back" button with "Delete"... And ye Big-Boobed Women? Get the (_(*&)(* outta moi way!

CHOCOLATE-FLAVORED POEMS!

My favorite holiday left-overs are coming from THIS:



And others on my Recently Relished W(h)ine List are cheerfully posted below between forkfuls of chocolate. In the Publications section, note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects)! More info on that HERE.

PUBLICATIONS
* STUPID BIRDS by Logan Ryan Smith (poems have, among many other wondrous things, huge charisma!)

* SEVEN CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES AND OBITUARY 2004 THE JOY OF COOKING, poetry by Tan Lin (unexpectedly light on its feet. Which, for this type of project, is also to say, brilliant.)

* KILLING KANOKO: SELECTED POEMS by Hiromi Ito, trans Jeffrey Angles (a lot to admire; makes me wish I know Japanese so I can enjoy it in the original)

THE VAST PRACTICAL ENGINE, poem by Eric Hoffman (a wonderful achievement!)

PINKO, poems by Jen Benka

* EITHER WAY I'M CELEBRATING, poems & comics by Sommer Browning

THIRTEEN DESIGNER VAGINAS, poems by Juliet Cook

BLACK SEEDS ON A WHITE DISH, poems by Shira Dentz

KINGDOM ANIMALIA, poems by Aracelis Girmay

SHOT, poems by Christine Hume

YOUR OWN OX-HEAD MASK AS PROOF, poems by George Kalamaras

AAAALICE, poems by Jennifer Karmin

LIGATURE STRAIN, poems by Kim Koga

THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN DRIVEWAY, poems by Jennifer L. Knox

AND IF YOU DON'T GO CRAZY I'LL MEET YOU HERE TOMORROW, poems by Filip Marinovich

* ENTREPOT, poems by Mark McMorris

HOLD TIGHT: THE TRUCK DARLING POEMS by Jeni Olin

THE NETWORK, poems by Jena Osman

* IATROGENIC: THEIR TESTIMONIES, poems by Danielle Pafunda

RUINS, poems and photographs by Margaret Randall

THE BOUNTY: FOUR ADDRESSES, poems by Kate Schapira

AND I WOULD OPEN, poems by Jill Stengel

INTO THE SNOW: SELECTED POEMS OF GENNADI AYGI, trans. Sarah Valentine

HALF LIVES: PETRARCHAN POEMS BY RICHARD JACKSON

THE COLOSSUS AND OTHER POEMS by Sylvia Plath

THE WILL TO CHANGE: POEMS 1968-1970 by Adrienne Rich

TIME’S POWER: POEMS 1985-1988 by Adrienne Rich

* BLUE COLLAR POET, poems by G. Emil Reutter (wonderful, often humorous)

TRANSFER, poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

MICROGRAMS, poems by Jorge Carrera Andrade

GEOMETRIES by Guillevic and “Englished” by Richard Sieburth

THE DARKENED TEMPLE, poems by Mari L’Esperance

THE AUTUMN HOUSE ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY, edited by Michael Simms

AUFGABE journal edited by E. Tracy Grinnell, Paul Foster Johnson and Julian T. Brolaski

THE WORKING POET: 75 WRITING EXERCISES AND A POETRY ANTHOLOGY, edited by Scott Minar (useful, which is what an anthology of this type should be)

EXILES IN EDEN: LIFE AMONG THE RUINS OF FLORIDA’S GREAT RECESSION, memoir/journalism by Paul Reyes


WINES
2007 Perlato del Bosco Rosso Toscana
2007 Valpolicella Superiore Ripasso 'Ca' del Laito Bussola Veneto
1997 Dunn Vineyards cabernet Howell Mountain NV (Christmas Eve wine!)
2008 Long Meadow Ranch pinot noir
2008 Long Meadow Ranch house red

"NOTHING OR NO ONE IS ALIEN TO ME"

Merry Christmas! Or, is that a "Hannukah Bush"? By which I mean, I posted on my Christmas Tree Poetics -- I mean, the notes for my recent panel presentation on "Bay Area APIA Poets and the Avant Garde" over at my Babaylan Poetics Blog. Go HERE for what Leny calls "favorite holiday gift" this season, ergo, I wanted to share the regalo with y'all. Because, as Leny aptly puts it,

"I loob you"!

Cheers!

YOU GO, ISAIAH!!

In my poetry I do not try to find the words to express what I want to say. In my poetry I try to find ways to express what the words have to say.
--Carl Andre

Later today, our family will attend church for Christmas Eve. I will be one of those doing a reading from the scriptures about Jesus Christ's birth.

The reason I am a reader is that the pastor yanked me into the role after a reading I did several weeks ago when I read Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11. The reason she yanked me into that reading was because the local paper did an article about my reading at the Library of Congress in October.

Actually, the pastor first asked if I could read one of my poems during a church service. I hemmed and hawwed because, ahem, I couldn't think of a single poem from my very prolific output that I would not be, ahem, embarrassed to read in a church setting. (Let me put it this way, my mother is VERY MAD at one of my generous blurbers for one of my books because he so, ahem, relished the eros in my poems...Anyhoo:)

So the pastor asked me to read from Isaiah instead and it would have been, at that point, extremely ungracious of me to pass. Not to mention that I hadn't attended church for something like eight months prior to her request. So, I sucked it in, went to church, and read Isaiah.

And here's what happened: that day, a few minutes before church was due to begin, I looked at the the Isaiah passages; I just read them on paper, which is to say, I didn't rehearse my reading. So, that morning, it came my turn to read the scriptures and I stepped up to the podium, opened the very Holy Bible to Isaiah and started reading.

O MOI GOD!
(no pun intended)

It was an unbelievable experience -- hot damn (forgive my blasphemy) if the words didn't just take over! I didn't mean to read the passage in any particular way, but the words themselves just took over my blathering mouth and there I was declaiming. I don't quite know how to describe it, but it's arguably the BEST poetry reading I've ever ever done -- not because I'm a great reader but because the words are so great! Isaiah, or whoever translated him for the New Century Version I read from, did an incredible writerly job! The words, the structure -- they had such an incredible music, rhythm, et al that by doing my job which was simply to be open to the poem, the words came out ... divinely.

I think I've had that occur in poetry readings (whether of my poems or others) less than ten times. The last time in memory that such occurred was when I was asked at the last minute to step in for Will Alexander at a City Lights reading. I read a Will Alexander poem and it was so musical that I felt I just sang-roared!

Isaiah (like Will Alexander) achieved something most poets never achieve: the poem takes over the poet because the poem creates a new life successfully through words, structure, music ... But don't take my word for it! Here are the verses from Isaiah I'm referencing. It doesn't matter if you're a Christian or not. Read them. Read these words for these words themselves, OUT LOUD. Perhaps you too will feel the inherent poetic structure, the crystalline logic of music here.

Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11

The Lord God has put his Spirit in me,
because the Lord has appointed me
to tell the good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort those
whose hearts are broken,
to tell the captives they are free,
and to tell the prisoners they are released.

He has sent me to announce the time
when the Lord will show his kindness
and the time when our God will
punish evil people.
He has sent me to comfort all those who
    are sad

and to help the sorrowing people of Jerusalem.
I will give them a crown to replace their ashes,
and the oil of gladness to replace their sorrow,
and clothes of praise to replace their
    spirit of sadness.
Then they will be called Trees of Goodness,
trees planted by the Lord to show his greatness.

They will rebuild the old ruins
and restore the places destroyed long ago.
They will repair the ruined cities
that were destroyed for so long.

I, the LORD, love justice.
I hate stealing and everything that is wrong.
I will be fair and give my people
what they should have,
and I will make an agreement with
them that will continue forever.

Everyone in all nations will know the
children of my people,
and their children will be known
among the nations.
Anyone who sees them will know
that they are people the LORD has blessed.

The LORD makes me very happy;
all that I am rejoices in my God.
He has covered me with clothes of salvation
and wrapped me with a coat of goodness,
like a bridegroom dressed for his wedding,
like a bride dressed in jewels.

The earth causes plants to grow
and a garden causes the seeds planted
in it to grow.
In the same way the Lord GOD will
make goodness and praise
come from all the nations.

After this experience, I'm reading the Bible again. How apt for me that, if this sinner finds religion after all (so to speak), Poetry too will have been my way back to its fold.

***

By the way, the pastor left a message in our phone machine following my Isaiah reading. She goes on and on about what a great job I did, and that she'd never heard the scriptures read that way before. I mention this because I refuse to delete that from the phone message machine. Nowadays, when someone in the household -- usually the hubby -- is making some wisecrack at my expense, I play the message out loud in the kitchen to prove to him how I am worthy of MUCH RESPECT.

I've been trying to figure out how to take that message and create a loop for it for a CD that he can put into the car stereo to listen to as he commutes back and forth to San Francisco. I haven't figured it out yet, which is unfortunate -- it'd be the best Xmas present that guy could ever get.

***

Speaking of Christmas, last night we went to San Francisco to see the delightful Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Here's Michael and Mom:



Afterwards, we hung up some Grinch ornaments on the tree. A Christmas Tree, you see, is how I also like to think of my poems -- where what's ornamenting themselves there have real life avatars. You're welcome for my Christmas present to you: that is your poetics lesson for the day!

A RECORD-BREAKING GALATEA RESURRECTION #17!!

Well, yeeaaahhhhhh! Happy Holidays to you, too!

And there's no lovelier gift than Poetry! I'm so pleased to announce that the new issue of Galatea Resurrects No. 17 will feature, not a mere hundred but, a munificent 108 NEW POETRY REVIEWS! Thanks as ever to GR's numerous, generous volunteer staff of reviewers from around the world!

And I'm also purrrrrred to report that as of Issue No. 17, GR has provided 1,029 publications with new reviews (covering 412 publishers in 17 countries so far) and 70 reprinted reviews (to bring online reviews previously available only viz print or first published in now-defunct online sites). With this issue, we increased our coverage of poetry publishers by 26 to 412 publishers. This is important as I feel that much of the ground-breaking poetry work is being published by independent and/or relatively small presses who (by the nature of their work) are not always as well-known as they deserve to be.

Anyway, I can go on but just please do check out the issue for yourself! Go HERE. For convenience I also reprint the Table of Contents below. ENJOY!


GALATEA RESURRECTS NO. 17 (A POETRY ENGAGEMENT)

[N.B. You can scroll down on blog or click on highlighted names or titles to go directly to the referenced article.]

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
Eileen Tabios


NEW REVIEWS
Nicholas Manning Reviews IRRESPONSIBILITY by Chris Vitiello

Patrick James Dunagan Reviews HOW PHENOMENA APPEAR TO UNFOLD by Leslie Scalapino

Allen Bramhall Reviews AT THAT by Skip Fox

T.C. Marshall Reviews ETHICS OF SLEEP by Bernadette Mayer

Fiona Sze-Lorrain Reviews SELF-PORTRAIT WITH CRAYON by Allison Benis White

Laura Trantham Smith Reviews UTOPIA MINUS by Susan Briante

Moira Richards Reviews IN PARAN by Larissa Shmailo

Philip Troy Reviews THE FEELING IS ACTUAL by Paolo Javier

Eileen Tabios Engages THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT PAINTERS SHOULDN’T TALK: A GUSTONBOOK by Patrick James Dunagan

Logan Fry Reviews IN THE COMMON DREAM OF GEORGE OPPEN by Joseph Bradshaw

Eileen Tabios Engages TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE A CONVERSATION by Andrea Rexilius

Thomas Fink Reviews PARTS AND OTHER PIECES by Tom Beckett

T.C. Marshall Reviews TO LIGHT OUT by Karen Weiser and DUTIES OF AN ENGLISH FOREIGN SECRETARY by MacGregor Card

Allen Bramhall Reviews CITIZEN CAIN by Ben Friedlander

William Allegrezza Reviews FORTY-NINE GUARANTEED WAYS TO ESCAPE DEATH by Sandy McIntosh

Fiona Sze-Lorrain Reviews THERE’S THE HAND AND THERE’S THE ARID CHAIR by Tomaz Salamun

Eileen Tabios Engages MY LIFE AS A DOLL by Elizabeth Kirschner

Gabriel Lovatt Reviews THE USE OF SPEECH by Nathalie Sarraute, translated from the French by Barbara Wright

Logan Fry Reviews PORTRAIT OF COLON DASH PARENTHESIS by Jeffrey Jullich

Eileen Tabios Engages STILL: OF THE EARTH AS THE ARK WHICH DOES NOT MOVE by Matthew Cooperman

Bill Scalia Reviews THE URGE TO BELIEVE IS STRONGER THAN BELIEF ITSELF by Erin M. Bertram

Kristin Berkey-Abbot Reviews FAULKNER’S ROSARY by Sarah Vap

Micah Cavaleri Reviews KYOTOLOGIC by Anne Gorrick

Tom Beckett Engages AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY GENDER, PRURIENT OMNIBUS ANARCHIC, RESTITUTIONS FOR A NEWER BOUNTIFUL VERB, COCK-BURN, OUR BODIES . . . ARE BEAUTY INDUCERS, THE ULTERIOR EDEN, ASYMPTOTIC LOVER//THERMODYNAMIC VENTS, all by j/j hastain

j/j hastain Reviews A GOOD CUNTBOY IS HARD TO FIND by Doug Rice

Eileen Tabios Engages 60 TEXTOS by Sarah Riggs

Bill Scalia Reviews BEAT THING by David Meltzer

Logan Fry Reviews HANK by Abraham Smith

T.C. Marshall Reviews EXPLORATIONS IN NAVAJO POETRY AND POETICS by Anthony K. Webster and THE PRINCIPLE OF MEASURE IN COMPOSITION BY FIELD: PROJECTIVE VERSE II by Charles Olson, Ed. Joshue Hoeynck

Eileen Tabios Engages TEENY TINY #13, Edited by Amanda Laughtland

Allen Bramhall Reviews ANTIPHONIES: ESSAYS ON WOMEN'S EXPERIMENTAL POETRIES IN CANADA, Ed. Nate Dorward

Gabriel Lovatt Reviews VACANT LOT by Oliver Rohe, translated from the French by Laird Hunt

Eric Wayne Dickey Reviews PUNISH HONEY by Karen Leona Anderson

Eileen Tabios Engages INSIDE THE MONEY MACHINE by Minnie Bruce Pratt

Pam Brown Reviews SLY MONGOOSE by Ken Bolton

T.C. Marshall Reviews HOW LONG by Ron Padgett

Neil Leadbeater Reviews A HERON IN BUENOS AIRES by Luis Benítez

Jean Vengua Reviews THE WISDOM ANTHOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICAN BUDDHIST POETRY, Editor Andrew Schelling

Eileen Tabios Engages WAIFS AND STRAYS by Micah Ballard

T.C. Marshall Reviews THE NEW TOURISM by Harry Mathews

Guillermo Parra Reviews HOW’S THE COWS by Jess Mynes

T.C. Marshall Reviews THE WIDE ROAD by Carla Harryman and Lyn Hejinian

John Bloomberg-Rissman Reviews THE COMMONS by Sean Bonney

Pam Brown Reviews PERRIER FEVER by Pete Spence

Jim McCrary Engages MARROWING and THE NAME OF THIS INTERSECTION IS FROST, both by Maryrose Larkin

Tom Beckett Reviews THE NAME OF THIS INTERSECTION IS FROST by Maryrose Larkin

Patrick James Dunagan Reviews “NEITHER WIT NOR GOLD” by Ammiel Alcalay and STREET METE: VERTICAL ELEGIES 6 by Sam Truitt

Eileen Tabios Engages RADIATOR by NF Huth

Genevieve Kaplan Reviews SPEAKING OFF CENTRE by James Cummins, CORPORATE GEES (VOLUME V) by Christopher William Purdom, KITCHEN TIDBITS by Amanda Laughtland, FROM HERE by Zoë Skoulding with images by Simonetta Moro, and TWO HATS APPEAR WHEN APPLAUDED: AN IMPROVISATION by Raymond Farr

L.S. Bassen Reviews IT MIGHT TURN OUT WE ARE REAL by Susan Scarlata

Rob McLennan Reviews THREE NOVELS by Elizabeth Robinson

Patrick James Dunagan & Ava Koohbor Review THE TELLER OF TALES: STORIES FROM FERODWSI’S SHAHNAHMEN, Translated by Richard Jeffrey Newman

Tom Hibbard Reviews SELECTED POEMS by Nick Demske, A MYSTICAL THEOLOGY OF THE LIMBIC FISSURE by Peter O’Leary, HOSTILE WITNESS by Garin Cycholl, UNABLE TO FULLY CALIFORNIA by Larry Sawyer, AIN’T GOT ALL NIGHT by Buck Downs, and ANSWER by Mark DuCharme

Jeff Harrison Engages THE DANGEROUS ISLANDS (A NOVEL) by Séamas Cain

Eileen Tabios Engages ALIENS: AN ISLAND by Uljana Wolf, Trans. from the German by Monika Zobel

Kristin Berkey-Abbot Reviews LOOKING UP HARRYETTE MULLEN: INTERVIEWS ON SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY AND OTHER WORKS by Barbara Henning

G. Justin Hulog Reviews ARCHIPELAGO DUST by Karen Llagas

Allen Bramhall Reviews FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS by William Allegrezza

Eileen Tabios Engages RED WALLS by James Tolan

Juliet Cook Reviews COMPENDIUM by Kristina Marie Darling

Bill Scalia Reviews WHAT THE RAVEN SAID by Robert Alexander

Fiona Sze-Lorrain Reviews SEE HOW WE ALMOST FLY by Alison Luterman

Sunnylynn Thibodeaux Reviews THE INCOMPOSSIBLE by Carrie Hunter

John Bloomberg-Rissman Reviews 908-1078 and THE PERSIANS BY AESCHYLUS, both by Brandon Brown

Benjamin Winkler Reviews WE IN MY TRANS by j/j hastain

Mary Kasimor Reviews T&U&/LASH YOUR NIPPLES TO A POST/HISTORY IS GORGEOUS by Jared Schickling

Jeff Harrison Engages T&U& LASH YOUR NIPPLES TO A POST HISTORY IS GORGEOUS by Jared Schickling

Rob McLennan Reviews APOLLINAIRE’S SPEECH TO THE WAR MEDIC by Jake Kennedy

Megan Burns Reviews LUCKY by Mairéad Byrne and A REDUCTION by Jimmy Lo

Paul Lai Engages KĒROTAKIS : by Janice Lee

Patrick James Dunagan Reviews CLEARVIEW by Ted Greenwald and THE PUBLIC GARDENS: POEMS AND HISTORY by Linda Norton

John Bloomberg-Rissman Reviews KAZOO DREAMBOATS OR, ON WHAT THERE IS by J.H. Prynne

Gregory W. Randall Reviews THE HOMELESSNESS OF SELF by Susan Terris

Jim McCrary Reviews MY COMMON HEART by Anne Boyer and ISSUE 8, Newsletter from James Yeary

Megan Burns Reviews A TOAST IN THE HOUSE OF FRIENDS by Akilah Oliver

Eileen Tabios Engages INFO RATION by Stan Apps

Bill Scalia Reviews THE MORNING NEWS IS EXCITING by Don Mee Choi

Micah Cavaleri Reviews ACOUSTIC EXPERIENCE by Noah Eli Gordon

Jim McCrary Reviews COLLECTION by Megan Kaminski, MANTIC SEMANTIC by A.L. Nielsen, LVNGinTONGUES by G. E. Schwartz, and PO DOOM by jim mccrary

Eileen Tabios Engages BLUE COLLAR POET by G. Emil Reutter

Fiona Sze-Lorrain Reviews IF NOT METAMORPHIC by Brenda Iljima

Eileen Tabios Engages THE ULTERIOR EDEN: A SERIES OF GENUFLECTIONS, RUMINATIONS AND GYROSCOPES by j/j hastain


INTERVIEW
Tom Beckett Interviews NF Huth


FEATURE ARTICLE
“Make a Wish…and Blow out the Candles: An Explication of Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie” by Nicholas T. Spatafora


THE CRITIC WRITES POEMS
Sunnylyn Thibodeaux


FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE
Paul Lai Reviews AUTOMATON BIOGRAPHIES by Larissa Lai


ADVERTISEMENTS
Poets on the Great Recession: Poets reflect on the Great Recession, and its impact on their Poetry. Because

"To bring the poem into the world / is to bring the world into the poem."

Poets On Adoption:
Poetry: it inevitably relates to -- among others -- identity, history, culture, class, race, community, economics, politics, power, loss, health, desire, regret, language, form and genre disruption, love ... as well as the absences thereofs. The same may be said about Adoption."


BACK COVER
A Thousand Words Plus...!

SUPPORT YOUR LIBRARIES!

Our local library has a holiday fundraiser where one can purchase an ornament to hang on their tree and with that purchase is the ability to write a message on a "leaf". Here's what Moi did on the fly:



Yeah: "Reading is healthy!"

Library fundraisers, of course, are worth supporting. My updated BOUGHT POETRY list below includes some that I recently purchased through the library fundraiser -- it's an indication of poetry's state of affairs that those books essentially were purchased for cents on the dollar (sigh: while I like the dollar-savings, I don't like the implications of "value" ascribed to the poetry books). Anyhoo, here they are:

SELECTED POEMS by Harvey Shapiro

RADIUS OF LIGHT by Joshua Auerbach

A POINT IS THAT WHICH HAS NO PART by Liz Waldner

THE BEAUTIFUL LESSON OF THE I by Frances Brent

THE GREAT ENIGMA: NEW COLLECTED POEMS by Tomas Transtrumer, Trans. by Robin Fulton

HOMECOMING: NEW AND COLLECTED POEMS by Julia Alvarez


From Library Sale
TIME AND MATERIALS: POEMS 1997-2005 by Robert Hass

FULL HORIZON by Bruce McEver

THE SACRED GEOMETRY OF PEDESTRIANS by Ken Weisner

THE SWORDFISH TOOTH by Cynthia Zarin

FIRST INDIAN ON THE MOON by Sherman Alexie

OBSERVE THE LARK by Katie Louchheim

TRAVELING IN REFLECTED LIGHT by Andrena Zawinski

ATLANTIS by Louis Dudek

A FURTHER RANGE by Robert Frost

THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2007, Guest Editor Heather McHugh

It wouldn't surprise me if I'm the only library patron that buys poetry books. Basically, when I see poetry in these fundraisers, I buy them all if they're poetry. At least they'll get a HOME better than the deaccessioned shelf.

"THE SHAME...WHAT IT DOES TO BILLIONS..."

which is to say, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh with Mary Krane Derr's contribution.

As ever, I welcome more poets' thoughts on the Great Recession...


'

NEW DEADLINE SET FOR GALATEA RESURRECTS

I’m still in “fine mettle” (haha), and so Moi wants to blog-file another update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. In the Publications section, note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects. And while I’m putting the next issue to bed, it’s time to announce the next deadline for the next issue: April 15, 2012. Yeah! More info on that HERE.


PUBLICATIONS
TOWARD THE YEAR TWENTY-TWELVE, poetry broadside by Sheila E. Murphy (wonderful!)

PRACTICAL WATER, poems by Brenda Hillman (magnificent, ravishing, smart, utterly fabulous—to understate the matter)

* O BON, poems by Brandon Shimoda

* THOU SAND, poems by Michael Farrell

HOMECOMING: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Julia Alvarez (a reprint of her first book; what makes it effective, too, is the Afterword where the mature writer casts her eye at the young writer who first wrote the book—moving)

THIRST, poems by Mary Oliver (Book could have used some slight editing to enhance what is a lovely lyrical archetypal gentle power within these poems. By “editing”, I mean that some poems should have been deleted as they weren’t as powerful as others.)

STOP PRETENDING: WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MY BIG SISTER WENT CRAZY, poems by Sonya Sones

* TEENY TINY #13 poetry zine, Editor Amanda Laughtland (has a huge heart way bigger than the zine's less-than-palm-sized physical expanse)

ECCOLINGUISTICS, literary/arts zine (admirable)

HOUSE ORGAN No. 77, Winter 2012, Editor Kenneth Warren (as usual, STELLAR!)

THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2007, Guest Editor Heather McHugh

THE GREAT DEPRESSION: A DIARY by Benjamin Roth, edited by James Ledbetter and Daniel B. Roth (highly-recommended especially to history lovers who love primary sources)

THE FORGOTTEN MAN: A NEW HISTORY OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION by Amity Shlaes

DESPERATE DAYS: MEMORIES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION, memoir by Adeline D. Rafferty

PIONEER DOCTOR: THE STORY OF A WOMAN’S WORK, bibiliography of Dr. Mary Babcock (Moore) Atwater by Mari Grana

AND I SHALL HAVE SOME PEACE THERE: TRADING IN THE FAST LANE FOR MY OWN DIRT ROAD, memoir by Margaret Roach

MEMORIES OF PHILIPPINE KITCHENS: STORIES AND RECIPES FROM FAR AND NEAR by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, with photographs by Neal Oshima

GOING HOME: FINDING PEACE WHEN PETS DIE, spirituality by Jon Katz

THE PURCHASE PRICE, a “Teeny” novel by Gilad Elbom

THE 7TH VICTIM, novel by Alan Jacobson

FEAR THE WORST, novel by Linwood Barclay

NO TIME FOR GOODBYE, novel by Linwood Barclay

KEEP A LITTLE SECRET, novel by Dorothy Garlock

STAY A LITTLE LONGER, novel by Dorothy Garlock

CHRISTMAS AT TIMBERWOODS, novel by Fern Michaels


WINES
2007 Harris Estate cabernet
2008 Beaulieu Vineyard cabernet
2002 Hutton Vale Grenache Mataro Eden Valley
2005 Trevor Jones shiraz
Zuzu House Tempranilla
Turley at Zuzu restaurant
2004 Stag’s Leap merlot NV
1997 The Napa Valley Reserve
2005 Hobbs Grenache
2006 Charter Oak Zinfandel

APIA AVANT GARDE

YOU ARE INVITED TO

Bay Area APIA poets and the Avant Garde
Sunday, December 18, 2011, 5:00 pm, $6-$10

Panel discussion on Bay Area Asian-Pacific-Islander-American poets and the avant-garde. In this panel, authors, editors, and educators will discuss APIA poetry, and their relationships with avant-garde poetries, the historical contexts for today’s poetries, and challenges or obstacles to writing with consideration to aesthetics and ethnic identity. Participants include Jai Arun Ravine, Margaret Rhee, Eileen Tabios, Truong Tran, and Jean Vengua, and others TBA , and moderated by Barbara Jane Reyes. Venue at

Artists' Television Access
992 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 824-3890
ata@atasite.org

FESTIVELY YOURS!

SMOOCH SMOOCH to ye 9.5 billion Peeps. Hello: this is your Chatelaine who holds the key to your happiness! Which is to say, as I write this, I have in my lovely greedy hands for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects:

103 NEW POETRY REVIEWS!

Sigh. Just think of what Moi could achieve if she actually took reviews seriously ...

Anyhoo. Yes dears. I do hold the key to happiness. As I've said before, it can be encapsulated in one word that begins with "S" (No, Karri, it is not "Soave"!). Here's the key:



How funny. I just realized "Santa" begins with "S." Well, no, the word ain't "Santa" either ... though it could be a metaphor for the real thing. Sigh: I wish I could share that word but I can't. Until you figure it out, please do continue to visit Moi blog. Haranguing at lovely, generous, curious people like you is how Moi manages to pull off such things as ... 103 NEW POETRY REVIEWS!

And do check here for when that festive issue is released!

'

DOS MAS, POR FAVOR!!!

I am exactly two reviews away from

100 NEW POETRY REVIEWS!

for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects. It'll take me at least through next Tuesday to format the issue, which means one or more of youse can still slip me those reviews by Tuesday. I am not going to beg. I know moi 9.5 billion Peeps can send me at least two more reviews!

Two reviews? Eh. Normally, I'd spend the next twenty minutes dashing 'em out. But I am muy swamped. Okay: you've been alerted. I await your munificence.

"THE GREAT DEPRESSION -- A SEQUEL"

...which is to say, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh with Lawren Bale's contribution!

As ever, I welcome more poets' thoughts on the Great Recession...


'

SIX MORE PLEASE!

That's right! If I get six more poetry reviews, the next issue of Galatea Resurrects will have bucked all odds to present

100 NEW POETRY REVIEWS!

What are the chances? Well, should be good since I have just again extended the deadline to Dec. 15, 2011. I'm having to meet a Dec. 15 deadline moiself for two essays for other publications so I can't truly focus on GR until after that, hence the deadline extension. So -- whatchoo waiting for? Details HERE!

There are waaaaaay more than six review copies floating about out there ... and you can always choose to write on a book you already have! Have at it!

A THOUSAND WORDS PLUS

Last but not least, one of The Blind Chatelaine's Keys

A MERE 89 POETRY REVIEWS?!

That's all? 89 poetry reviews -- that's all I've got so far for the upcoming 17th issue of Galatea Resurrects.

People: I wanted a hundred poetry reviews. We're eleven reviews short.

Now, by sheer synchronicity, the deadline for sending me reviews has been extended one final time by a week to December 11! That's right! You all have another week to send in reviews!

There are waaaay more than eleven review copies floating around out there so become engaging, ye poetry reviewers!

Or, if any of moi 9.5 billion peeps want to look at some treasured volume currently in your house and write about it, you can do that too!

Waiting with bated breath!

EMMA GOLDMAN, DURRUTI, REVOLUTIONARY BARCELONA, BAKUNIN, GHANDI, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., THOMAS JEFFERSON...

...which is to say, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh with Marie Marshall's contribution!

As ever, I welcome more poets' thoughts on the Great Recession...


'

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION -- NOVEMBER UPDATE

I'm currently racing through a real page-turner, THE GREAT DEPRESSION: A DIARY by Benjamin Roth, edited by James Ledbetter and Daniel B. Roth. It's a rare first-hand account of experiencing the Great Depression, rare for it being the experience of a middle-class person just trying to understand his times. It's fascinating to see how there's so many similarities with what's going on in this recession....

...speaking of which, here's announcement for you -- please spread the word:

[Please Forward]

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION

We are pleased to share that since the launch earlier this month of POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION, seven more poets have joined to share their experiences with the GREAT RECESSION and how such affects (or not) their poetry:

Ed Baker November 2011
("which recession goes with which poem? I just don't know. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell Language Poetry is!")

Liam Duffy November 2011
("...my recession experience is that of the Irish narrative returning to emigration. The youth of whole villages has disappeared.")

Adam Fieled November 2011
("...two things that have always disturbed me about the American psyche: the juvenile competitiveness which is never far from the surface, and the sense that intellectuality is not valued on any level.")

Faith Pascua November 2011
("Mommy, you are not an ATM...")

g emil reutter November 2011
("Young mothers watch the old folks / purchase one meal at a time, learning / how it is done.")

Jared Schickling (with Alec Maslowski) November 2011
("My art becomes life, stains; 'consequences' aside, they’ve proven extremely adept. Hell, successful. Thus my slurp has been unaffected by this 'recession'")

Chris Stroffolino November 2011
("Congress Should Enact Legislation for Publicly Financed Elections And Reverse the Effects of the Unconstitutional Citizens United SCOTUS decision by passing an amendment to prohibit any private financing of elections and ELIMINATE "PERSONHOOD" LEGAL STATUS FOR CORPORATIONS, and restore the 14th Amendment to its original purpose.")


We continue to look for more poet-participants; more information at http://poetsonrecession.blogspot.com/2011/10/call-for-participation.html.

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is the second of a POETS ON ____ [insert BIG TOPIC] SERIES. The first was POETS ON ADOPTION, for which we continue to look for more poet-participants as well. More information at http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com/2011/03/call-for-participation.html.


Thanks for engaging,

Eileen Tabios
Poet, Curator-POETS ON ____