CORE POETICS

I’ve been doing some new exercises intended to strengthen my “core” or torso which has been weakened significantly by years of sitting in front of the computer. And so I was talking to moi new best friend, Julio, trying to divert him from doing his job of making me do 250 crunches (yeah right) and we got to talking about poetry. And so I was talking to him about experimenting with words to transcend definitions, and that the poem then would “make sense” only when an emotional reaction was elicited by the poem. Which made us (okay, me) go further into how, especially when trying to disrupt the dictionary, it’s important that the poem begin with some emotional impetus so that said impetus was an ever-present “core” to the poem. Which was when Julio, my new best friend, said, Just like your exercises! Because what many people miss out in physical training is how strengthening arms or aerobics et al wouldn’t be as effective if they didn't strengthen their core!

Exactly, so now I exercise the way I write poetry. And it’s all circular of course. I exercise not to minimize moi wine belly but to write non-flabby poems (jest came up with that so don’t hold back on the applause).

And because my new best friend Julio was interested, I handed him a NOTE BENE EISWEIN on the way out as examples of what I was blathering about when I should have been exercising. I said the first half of poems could be nonsense unless you felt an emotional connection. The second half, the flamenco poems, was about being flamenco versus writing about flamenco -- the core, there, being the it-ness, rather than the being-about-itness... Yes, I know: it's amazing his eyes didn't roll out of his head: that's why he's my new best friend--Julio!

Anyway, this is all a faux prelude to 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! More info on that HERE.


PUBLICATIONS
* CHINOISERIE, poems by Karen Rigby (lovely lovelies. Indeed, the language can get rhapsodically luscious and/or delicious)

THE REAL SUBJECT: QUERIES AND CONJECTURES OF JACOB DELAFON WITH SAMPLE POEMS by Keith Waldrop (fabulous & brilliant)

CATCH LIGHT by Sarah O’Brien (lucid, luminous, wise, gorgeous….)

* HANDIWORK, poems by Amaranth Borsuk (some wonderful lines, wonderful stitches…)

* THE GULAG ARKIPELAGO by Sean Labrador y Manzano (admirable energy!)

MR. MAGOO, poems by Steve Tills (more admirable energy!)

OLD WAYS TO FOLD NEW PAPER, poems by Leza Lowitz (fabulous, especially as a debut collection)

* OBEDIENCE, poems by Chris Vitiello

* SANCTA, book-length poem by Andrew Grace

* PHYLLA OF JOY, poems by Karen An-Hwei Lee

MY LOVE IS A DEAD ARCTIC EXPLORER, poems by Paige Ackerson-Kiely

* ENIGMA AND LIGHT, poems by David Mutschlecner

SLOT, poems by Jill Magi

* WHEN WE EXPECT TO SEE YOU SOON, poems by Michael Ford

IF NOTHING ELSE, poems by Harold Bowes

NDAKINNA: OUR LAND, poems by Joseph Bruchac

TRANSFER, poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

YELLOW FIELD (September 2011), Curated by Edric Mesmer (fabulous—especially the essay by Rachel Blau DuPlessis about Robert Creeley helping her off the stage during an H.D. conference versus Allen Ginsberg’s boorish “Get on with it…!”)

WHEN THE MEADOWLARK SINGS: THE STORY OF A MONTANA FAMILY, biography by Nedra Sterry

PRIVATE SECTOR, novel by Brian Haig

THE HIDDEN MAN, novel by David Ellis

BREACH OF TRUST, novel by David Ellis

KILL SHOT, novel by Vince Flynn (his latest. still a good read but not as good as his others)

RAIN FALL, novel by Barry Eisler (Kudos to this author for having created a fictional universe real enough to support a series of ongoing books. Plus, he knows his wines...!)

HARD RAIN, novel by Barry Eisler

RAIN STORM, novel by Barry Eisler

KILLING RAIN, novel by Barry Eisler

REQUIEM FOR AN ASSASSIN, novel by Barry Eisler

FAULT LINE, novel by Barry Eisler

INSIDE OUT, novel by Barry Eisler

THE IDEAL MAN, novel by Julie Garwood


WINES
Stone Cellars merlot
2007 Paradis
2006 Hunnicutt cabernet NV
2004 Peju zinfandel NV
2006 Dutch Henry merlot NV