THE BLIND CHATELAINE'S KEYS

SEEDING ENCOURAGEMENT

2012-01-20T22:18:00.000-08:00

A few months ago Dan Waber asked me to participate in a project revolving around Encouragement. The manifestations were these bits of paper that one can hand out to others; said teeny papers contained encouraging messages -- here's one I wrote for the project:

That you will receive lies
does not mean you are not loved.

And here's a photo for these Bits of Encouragement.

I like the form conceived by Dan, an aficionado of minimalist poetry -- the tiny paper slips are like seeds. And seeds can grow to be quite ... BIG, pointing natch to the potential of encouragement!

I LOVE MARSH HAWK PRESS

2012-01-19T13:32:00.001-08:00

for many reasons but one reason is that it actually gives Author Advances (!) for poetry books! Crazy, yah? This is, after all, poetry and an indie press ... and not cash from, say, contest fees!

Anyway, thanks to New York State Literary Publishers Capacity Fund for a grant that will help finance said Author Advance for moi Spring 2012 book. I promise it is WELL SPENT!

THE SALTED HEART

2012-01-15T19:35:00.001-08:00

Happy to be working on the production of my next book, a collaboration with j/j hastain entitled

the relational elations of ORPHANED ALGEBRA

forthcoming this Spring from Marsh Hawk Press. It's got, among other things, an interesting cover image per below -- this is j/j hastain's photograph taken of some of j/j's shrine objects. As j/j puts it, "The organ was a real turkey heart that I kept with me in a hand made 'coffin' in my jeans pocket for a year while it deteriorated. I kept it in salt to keep it from smelling." I don't know about you but, to act like a teen as I'm parenting one, That is soooooo coooool!

j/j adds, "The reason I chose to work with a turkey heart was because in researching it I knew it was an animal heart that when deteriorated would approximate what a human heart looks like in deterioration. The heart came from a ritual removal of it in my own home." Again, such a cooool poetics underpinning! Em-bodied poetics!

And here are some advanced words for this deteriorating heart...:

Eileen R. Tabios’s ORPHANED ALGEBRA performs numerations of loss, want, abandonment, the conditions of the invisible. Riffing on middle school math story problems, Tabios works a mathematics of disorder, the unordering of poverty, these “stories” a corrective to the “ascetic’s illusion of ecstasy, a measurement made possible by its condition precedent: a suffering so unmitigated it hollows the non-survivors from children to earthworms.” j/j hastain’s “visceral echoes” of Tabios, “gestures” both textual and visual, sound “an activism of hollowing out,” whose hollows form a new space of assiduity. In “stance”—instance—hastain “grapple[s] with ethics of place and space. Was a country the host body of a child found homeless in it?” Who and where are we, and what role has language in any of this? Against abuse, against hunger, against erasure, Tabios and hastain challenge silence’s dissonant ignorance. The poets sharpen language and intention, “Creating a permanent, rather than temporary implantable. An anti-obviate hutch or hearth.” A challenge, a new “home,” a pleasure, this collection puts us in the midst.
— Marthe Reed

Categories are not abstractions, they are bodies. Family is one such embodied category, gender another. What happens to bodies when they don't fit the categories assigned them, when they lack families, when they criss-cross gender or genre lines? How can one calculate such changes, compose equations to explain these trans-categorical shifts? Our very pronouns are at stake, as are nations, blood-ties, definitions to words like “dad” and “belonging.” As j/j hastain writes, “There is a new lineage that we are trying to make more apparent.” Eileen R. Tabios and hastain are trans-parents to a fresh embodiment of words and bodies, and to what they mean when they come together as books and persons. Their writing counts the change(s) in unexpected vocabularies.
—Susan M. Schultz

My 19th print poetry book--have come a long way from those toddler days of folding a page in four, slashing crayola on the pages, and calling the result a "book"! A long way, but 'twas all ... ordained.

MORE POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION

2012-01-11T09:56:00.000-08:00

Here's Ed Go at Occupy Wall Street:

Which is to say, some interesting stuff being posted on at POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION. Check 'em out!

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

'

BLOOD DAZZLED!

2012-01-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

Blogging 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
* BLOOD DAZZLER, poems by Patricia Smith (Magnificent. With this book, I am made a fan of Patricia Smith—finally, I get all the accolades I keep hearing about her…and I am happy to get it!)

REBIRTH OF WONDER: POEMS OF THE COMMON LIFE by David M. Johnson (first book of poetry read in 2012)

HYPERGLOSSIA, poems by Stacy Szymaszek

SELECTED POEMS by Harvey Shapiro

A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE GREAT RECESSION, journalism by Arthur Delaney (the first book I read on my new Kindle. And it shows the dark side of e-publishing. This book 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. In my non-humble opinion, there should be some additional value-added to the project being converted into a book. For example, ahem, to see how e-posts (e.g. blog posts) could be converted to what should be a higher content threshold of a book, do feel free to check out my own effort HERE.)

THE ORCHARD, memoir by Adele Crockett Robertson

ANNEVILLE: A MEMOIR OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION by Thomas G. Robinson

LETTERS OF A WOMAN HOMESTEADER by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

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

ADOPTING AN ABANDONED FARM, memoir by Kate Sanborn (a book I read cause it was a Kindle freebie. And, there ya go with Kindle freebies – many are free because they’re usually useless pap. I deleted this one from my Kindle after reading it hoping to no avail it’d get better)

GROWING A FARMER: HOW I LEARNED TO LIVE OFF THE LAND, memoir by Kurt Timmermeister

THE NOT SO BIG HOUSE, lifestyle by Sarah Susanka with Kira Obolensky

HOPE FOR HEALING: A PARENT’S GUIDE TO TRAUMA AND ATTACHMENT, “by” the Association for Treatment and Training in the Attachment of Children

JOURNEY IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION, novel by John Lifflander

NO PLACE ELSE, novel by Floyd Wesley Brosman

SWEET IMPRESSIONS, novel by Nora Roberts

A LAWMAN’S CHRISTMAS, novel by Linda Lael Miller

WINES
2006 Saxum James Berry Vineyards
2009 Robert Foley charbono NV
2002 Integrity shiraz
1997 Philip Togni

New Year’s Eve wines:
2003 Bert Simon Serrig Herrenburg Riesling Auslese
1970 Ch. Palmer
1991 Graham’s port

CRANKIN'!

2012-01-07T18:05:00.000-08:00

You know: I like how my poetry career is going. By which I mean, I just sit on a mountain and blather at the e-world and continue my turbulent (but perfumed, please!) descent to poetic obscurity by eventually being known as that cheerful crank who writes poems no one can, uh, pin down let alone remember ... I like that, really, because I believe in poetry's evaporation, I mean, evanescence.

Well, that's also to say I'ma kinda sitting here bedazzled by something that just happened ... this unexpected offer, this true honor really ... can't share details yet ... but I think it'll also result in something like a 600-book order for one of my books (a book of my own choosing, but which I haven't chosen yet). I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around it (heck: for some of my books, it takes years to sell 6 books! Then there's this 600 - plus?!). So I'ma just gonna head over to the wine cellar because, whether towards obscurity or not, as a friend's gifted refrigerator magnet proclaims, while

Jest sayin'...

!

BY THE WAY

2012-01-05T20:45:00.000-08:00

Remember all that hoo-haa I caused about getting a record 108 new poetry reviews for the current issue of Galatea Resurrects? Well, cleaning up moi messy e-desk, I realized I forgot to include two reviews. So I actually had received

110 NEW POETRY REVIEWS!!!!

Ooops. Well, I'll be sure to include those two reviews in the next issue. But jest so you know, Moi is even better than she blathers she is....!

Yadda ...

KINDLE MOI (#3)

2012-01-03T18:37:00.000-08:00

Getting great stuff for both of the POETS ON ____ Series: On the Great Recession as well as On Adoption! Whilst I format them -- and do keep them coming! -- I also trawl through for freebie books for moi Kindle, and here's my latest Kindle additions:

ARMY LETTERS FROM AN OFFICER'S WIFE, 1871-1888 by Frances Marie Antoinette Mack Roe

STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND by Lady (Mary Anne) Barker

THE BONTOC IGOROT by Albert Ernest Jenks

TRUE VERSION OF THE PHILIPPINE REVOLUTION by Emilio Aguinaldo

HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS by Antonio de Morga, Emma Helen Blair, James Alexander Robertson

FOUND IN THE PHILIPPINES: THE STORY OF A WOMAN'S LETTERS by Charles King

THE COUNTRY DOCTOR by Honorè De Balzac

ADOPTING AN ABANDONED FARM by Kate Sanborn

OUR FARM OF FOUR ACRES AND THE MONEY WE MADE BY IT by Miss Coulton

A LADY'S LIFE ON A FARM IN MANITOBA by M. G. C. (Mary Georgina Caroline) Hall

TEN THOUSAND MILES WITH A DOG SLED: A NARRATIVE OF WINTER TRAVEL IN INTERIOR ALASKA
by Hudson Stuck

THE TRAIL OF A SOURDOUGH LIFE IN ALASKA by May Kellogg Sullivan

A WOMAN WHO WENT TO ALASKA by May Kellogg Sullivan

LINCOLN LETTERS by Abraham Lincoln

Yep, there be trend lines. Use this as well to judge Moi. For Moi is what I read.

THE POETS ARE ON....!

2012-01-02T09:26:00.000-08:00

[Please Forward]

POETS ON ____ Announcement:

Happy New Year! We're pleased to provide the following updates to the POETS ON ____ Series below:

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION

Lawren Bale December 2011
("How have we come to a juncture in history where a few bond traders can systematically bankrupt whole nations?")

Mary Krane Derr December 2011
("I morbidly wonder how I will lug around my laptop and journals and protect them from the snow and rain if I ever become homeless.")

Michael Helsem December 2011
("...something i had not been used to seeing: ... an air of brokenness.")

Marie Marshall December 2011
("The recession has driven me (back) into the arms of Emma Goldman and Durruti, back to Revolutionary Barcelona in 1936, back to the political works of Bakunin, but also to the words of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and even those of Thomas Jefferson,...")

POETS ON ADOPTION

Jeffrey Thomas Leong November 2011
(father was adopted; adopted a baby girl from China)

Duduzile Mabaso December 2011
(in South Africa, was adopted as a baby)

We are still open to participations from other poets who wish to share about their experiences and effect on their poetry. The Participation Call for POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is at http://poetsonrecession.blogspot.com/2011/10/call-for-participation.html, and for POETS ON ADOPTION at http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com/2011/03/call-for-participation.html. Please spread the word.

Thanks for engaging,

Eileen Tabios
Curator, POETS ON ____ Series
Contact Info: GalateaTen@aol.com

NON-COTERIE POETRY READING (2011)

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-08:00

In 2011, I read at least 268 poetry books/collections, nine poetry or poetry-related anthologies, 17 poetry/literary journals and 26 other books/publications created by poets. The Blog's capacity as Filing Cabinet allows Moi to list them all below. For just the poetry books/collections statistic, my 2011 reading reflects a 27% reduction from 2010 when I read 365 such books. But it’s a deceptive reduction as my 2010 reading included reading books for a national poetry contest that I judged. In 2009, I read 184 books/collections so the 2011 number shows that I continue to up my poetry readings!

I’ll raise again some concepts I noted when I blogged my first annual poetry reading list, which was for 2009, to wit:

The list is not a portrayal of the type of poetry I favor. In reading poems partly as a practitioner, I just want to know what's out there. I've found that POV to be more elucidating than trying to read through some defined aesthetic gate. The process is not just more educational but also makes for the fabulous moments of welcome discoveries—in 2011, these would include Uruguayan poet Marosa Di Giorgio (as translated by Jeannine Marie Pitas), Elizabeth Kirschner, Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laabi (as translated by Nancy Hadfield and Gordon Hadfield), Sarah Riggs, Ariana Reines (though I prefer COEUR DE LION to her more recent MERCURY), Kathrin Schaeppi, and German poet Uljana Wolf (as translated by Monika Zobel).

Interestingly as I’m not a big fan of anthologies, one of my favorite reads of the year was VISITING DR. WILLIAMS: POEMS INSPIRED BY THE LIFE AND WORK OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Co-Edited by Sheila Coghill & Thom Tammaro. This anthology is part of a series of homage-anthologies put out by University of Iowa and, when done well, really provokes deep, engaged and appreciative readings.

My list does reveal certain personal tendencies—I prefer to read a body of work rather than a single poem or two by a poet. This means I don't really go out of my way to read many anthologies or journals. I prefer to read poetry collections.

My ethical desire is to read every poem, which means a lot of times, I randomly grab from a huge TO-READ pile (which includes but is not limited to THIS and THIS). I also end up reading a few books for unique reasons--like if my local library stocks a new poetry book, I check it out in order to prove there's demand for poetry...and then inevitably read it before I return it.

Did I like every book I read on this list? Nope, but that's irrelevant. Even the most banal poem has a place in this wonderland-landscape of Poetry. All poems are welcome to Moi. And contrary to would-be pundits' proclamations, THERE ARE NEVER ENOUGH POEMS.

Here then is the poetic Relished W(h)ine List for 2011, complete with some brief notes on them to the extent I was moved to comment at the time I read them—Moi is also what she reads:

POETRY BOOKS/COLLECTIONS (268):
THREE COLUMN TABLE, poems by Harold Abramowitz (nicely imaginative. like the lengthily sinuous lines and use of M-dashes)

UNCENSORED SONGS A SAM ABRAMS TRIBUTE, poems, recollections and homages edited by John Roche

CHINESE NOTEBOOK, poems by Demosthenes Agrafiotis, Trans. by John Sakkis and Angelos Sakkis

A THIRST THAT'S PARTLY MINE, poems by Liz Ahl

"NEITHER WIT NOR GOLD" (FROM THEN), poems by Ammiel Alcalay

WHAT THE RAVEN SAID, poems by Robert Alexander

DENSITIES, APPARITIONS, poems by William Allegrezza (Fabulously ravaged poems ravage the reader right back. I feel like I left behind pieces of a broken heart in its pages once I closed the book—so powerful it was!)

ISHMAEL AMONG THE BUSHES, poems by William Allegrezza

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)

OPEN CLOSED OPEN, poems by Yehuda Amichai

YES WE ARE STILL DANCING, collaboration between a poet and two painters by Susan Amstater, Connie Dillman and Jacquelyn Stroud Spier

PUNISH HONEY, poems by Karen Leona Anderson

MICROGRAMS, poems by Jorge Carrera Andrade

INFO RATION, poems by Stan Apps (powerful and timely)

A WORLDLY COUNTRY, poems by John Ashbery (ah, so many things one can say about John Ashbery. For now, let me just note that scale matters and the prolonged tonal consistency in his poems signify something important, though not sure exactly what ... except that it's also impressive)

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

STONE GIRL E-PIC, poems, visual poetry and art by Ed Baker (interesting introduction by Conrad Didiodato, fabulous production by Leafe Press, and admirable work by the old man hisself)

THE TRIALS OF EDGAR POE AND OTHER POEMS by Ned Balbo

WAIFS AND STRAYS, poems by Micah Ballard (fabulous!)

DOG EAR, poetry/visual art by Erica Baum (fabulous)

PETALS, EMBLEMS, poems by Lynn Behrendt (contains those pleasantly unexpected ooomphs. Like, this beginning to the poem "Afterword": "wheel of / unconstruable / beginning. // spoke // ..." Love that purrfect first stanza's imagery, even as I relish the pun of wheel-spoke vs past-tense-speak)

LOVELY, RASPBERRY, poems by Aaron Belz (a lotta fun, e.g. that friends-with-benefits poem "my chiquita"—at least, how I read it)

PINKO, poems by Jen Benka

MADE IN LIVERPOOL, poems by Jim Bennett (wonderfully resonant!)

THE URGE TO BELIEVE IS STRONGER THAN BELIEF ITSELF, poems by Erin M. Bertram

IMMEDIATE EMPIRE, poems by Raymond L. Bianchi and visual art by Waltraud Haas (moving)

LITTLE RICHARD THE SECOND, poems by Gregg Biglieri

THE DIVINE SALT, poems by Peter Blair

BLOOD HONEY, poems by Chana Bloch (wonderful!)

WAR ON A LUNCHBREAK, poems by Ana Bozicevic

IN THE COMMON DREAM OF GEORGE OPPEN, poems by Joseph Bradshaw

JUNE, poems by Daniel Brenner

UTOPIA MINUS, poems by Susan Briante (powerful yet finely-wrought. impressive and, more importantly, moving)

GOWANUS ATROPOLIS, poems by Julian T. Brolaski

908-1078, poems by Brandon Brown

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

THE COLOR OF DUSK, poems by Robin Caton

THE MORNING NEWS IS EXCITING, poems by Don Mee Choi

BEAUPORT, poems by Kate Colby

THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, poems by Kate Colby

FROM : EAR SAY, poems by Barbara Cole

MARS, poems by Norma Cole

OSTINATO VAMPS, poems by Wanda Coleman

A HISTORY OF SMALL LIFE ON A WINDY PLANET, poems by Martha Collins

THIRTEEN DESIGNER VAGINAS, poems by Juliet Cook

STILL, poems by Matthew Cooperman

THE WHALEN POEM by William Corbett

ENGLISH FRAGMENTS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SOUL, poems by Martin Corless-Smith

INFERRED FROM. TWO IDENTICAL DISTANCES., poems by Ray Craig

UPON NOSTALGIA, poems by Caroline Crumpacker

SPEAKING OFF CENTRE by James Cummin

TO DELITE AND INSTRUCT, poems by Catherine Daly (at times romantic but always fun and intelligent—I wish the peep who took Galatea Resurrects' review copy –you know who you are! –would return the review copy if he's not going to review it: it deserves to be reviewed!)

VAUXHALL, poems by Catherine Daly

"from SALT", poetry bookmark by Alison Hawthorne Deming

NICK DEMSKE, poems by Nick Demske

BLACK SEEDS ON A WHITE DISH, poems by Shira Dentz

RETROSPECTIVE FORECASTS, poems by K.M. Dersley

THE HISTORY OF VIOLETS, poems by Marosa Di Giorgio (I am ECSTATIC to have found the poems by this Uruguayan poet—thanks to Ugly Duckling Presse for publishing and Jeannine Marie Pitas for translating—it's a wonderful collection!)

SELVAGE: FOR COUNTRY, poems by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (consistently a welcome read)

PAPER PAVILION, poems by Jennifer Kwon Dobb

THE FIELD IS LETHAL, poems by Suzanne Doppelt, Translated by Cole Swensen

RESIN, poems by Geri Doran

SONATA MULATTICA, poems and a play by Rita Dove

ENJOY HOT OR ICED: POEMS IN CONVERSATION AND A CONVERSATION by Denise Duhamel & Amy Lemmon

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT PAINTERS SHOULDN'T TALK: A GUSTON BOOK, poems by Patrick James Dunagan (fabulously weightless)

DRAFT 43: GAP, poems by Rachel Blau DuPlessis

GO THIS WAY QUICKLY, poetry card by kari edwards (robust, nifty and just plain kewl)

THE FOUR QUARTETS, poems by T.S. Eliot

OPULENCE, poems by Stephen Ellis

excerpts from the scores of PERMEABLE STRUCTURES: A PERFORMANCE ESSAY IN STEREO by Laura Elrick

CLICK AND CLONE, poems by Elaine Equi (witty as ever)

TWO HATS APPEAR WHEN APPLAUDED: AN IMPROVISATION by Raymond Farr

THOU SAND, poems by Michael Farrell

WHAT IS POETRY, poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and images by Frederico Amat (the collaboration with painter Amat as well as wonderful book design elevates this project)

FLOWER CART, poems by Lisa Fishman

STYLING SANPAKU, visual poetry by Vernon Frazer (much fun!)

THE GRIEF PERFORMANCE, poems by Emily Kendal Frey

FROM IDYLLS & RUSHES, poems by Susana Gardner

KINGDOM ANIMALIA, poems by Aracelis Girmay

RAIN, O'ER ME, short short by Rachael Goetzke

LOVE IN A TIME OF PARANOIA by Howie Good (Tis so lovely it's the latest recipient of blather, I mean, blurbie from Moi. To wit:
As with positing—that is, poem-ing—that "a crumpled napkin / was all Degas needed / to do a sky," Howie Good only needed to be attentive to his world to create the many, varied universes possible through poems. That is, from the smallest of details he creates the deepest implications, and does so with a pleasing finesse.

ACOUSTIC EXPERIENCE, poems by Noah Eli Gordon

THE SOURCE, book-length poem by Noah Eli Gordon (interesting. results from poet's process of reading page 26 of nearly 10,000 books in the Denver Public Library)

THE ERRANCY, poems by Jorie Graham (hm...)

MY KAFKA CENTURY, poems by Arielle Greenberg

THE LAST 4 THINGS, poems by Kate Greenstreet (inexplicably brilliant)

GEOMETRIES by Guillevic and “Englished” by Richard Sieburth

ONE PETAL ROW, poems by Jaimie Gusman

FIELD WORK: NOTES, SONGS, POEMS 1997-2010 by David Hadbawnik (great premise, great job!)

PIGAFETTA IS MY WIFE, poems by Joe Hall

HOW WE BECAME HUMAN: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1975-2001 by Joy Harjo (very satisfying, primarily for that narrative arc as well as how individual poems, despite being personal, don't get narcisstic)

THE HANDS OF STRANGERS: POEMS FROM THE NURSING HOME by Janice N. Harrington

THE MIDDLE by Carla Harryman

SENTENCES, poems by Charles O. Hartman and Hugh Kenner

HALF LIVES: PETRARCHAN POEMS BY RICHARD JACKSON

A WOMB-SHAPED WORMHOLE, poems by j/j hastain
Spent some time recently with several publications by j/j hastain (see below) -- intriguing stuff: j/j unzips the zipper that would be a seam between life and words, and revolutionizes the lyric by doing so. Relatedly, here's moi blurb (unedited) for one of j/j/'s books, a womb-shaped wormhole:
This is one beginning for a world attempting to make itself in advance of its articulation. But it can be articulated by scents, which is to say, traces ... like musk, patchouli, mustard, "split truffles," or even attar of long-dead altars and imagined memories. In this beginning lie the orgasms of fractals, revealing how fractions require flesh as condition precedent to existence--for who we may not at first recognize is nonetheless not that different from you and me.

WE IN MY TRANS, poems by j/j/ hastain

ASYMPTOTIC LOVER//THERMODYNAMIC VENTS, poems by j/j/ hastain

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY GENDER, poems by j/j hastain

COCKBURN, poems by j/j hastain

OUR BODIES, poems by j/j hastain

PRURIENT ANARCHIC OMNIBUS, poems by j/j hastain

RESTITUTIONS FOR A NEWER BOUNTIFUL VERB, poems by j/j hastain

THE ULTERIOR EDEN, poems by j/j hastain

IT IS WORTH CONSIDERING, poem mini-book by j/j hastain

COCKBURN, poems by j/j hastain

THUS &, poems by Derek Henderson (deft with pleasing surprises)

AMERICAN INCIDENT, poems by Brian Henry

THE SACRED RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS by Tom Hibbard (warranted moi blurb:

Empire so often come to this: "potholes imitating frozen potholes." The poems in Tom Hibbard's The Sacred River of Consciousness reflect on various crimes by humanity by simply reporting them. That Hibbard's language is poetic rather than journalistic does not mask the realities being referenced -- how "At times life does unfold / as though civilization were garbage." The suffering disenfranchised, the suffering environment, the corrupted governments, the dysfunctional relationships -- how did compassion evaporate? That question is but one of many begot by these poems. For the poems also ask "at what time does the candle make crimes unredeemable." The answer could be: upon the lighting of the candle or consciousness of those events, hence the import of Hibbard's poems. If these poems facilitate the consciousness where the New York Times et al has failed, the river may yet turn sacred again. For the sake of the world, open yourself up to these poems.

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

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

NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL, poems by Harmony Holiday

ARCTIC POEMS by Vicente Huidobro, Trans. by Nathan Hoks (some gorgeous lines. a real beauty, this one)

HEALING HEART, poems by Gloria T. Hull

SHOT, poems by Christine Hume

RADIATOR, poems by NF Huth (not sure why but I responded to this with affection)

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 FEELING IS ACTUAL, poems, plays and visuals/collages by Paolo Javier

NOTATIONAL, poems by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa

PORTRAIT OF COLON DASH PARENTHESIS, poems by Jeffrey Jullich

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

AAAALICE, poems by Jennifer Karmin

A BEAUTIFUL NAME FOR A GIRL, poems by Kirsten Kaschock

CLAIMS OF HOME: POEMS 1984-2010 by David M. Katz

FABULAE, poems by Joy Katz

from INSTANT CLASSIC, poems by erica kaufman

THE ADOPTION PAPERS, poems by Jackie Kay

ITERATION NETS, poems by Karla Kelsey

A NIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR, poems by Jewel Kilcher (Too bad the publisher HarperCollins didn't provide a good poetry editor -- not necessarily talking about individual poems so much as the structure of the collection)

NOTES FROM THE DIVIDED COUNTRY, poems by Suji Kwock Kim

THE WAY WE LIVE, poems by Burt Kimmelman (warm, moving, pleasing, authentic—poetry from a mature, deservedly self-confident poet)

I WANT TO MAKE YOU SAFE, poems by Amy King

MY LIFE AS A DOLL, poems by Elizabeth Kirschner (the most searing poetic read I've experienced in recent memory)

LIGATURE STRAIN, poems by Kim Koga

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

SPENT: SELECTED POEMS by Jose Kozer, translated by Mark Weiss

THE SWEETNESS OF HERBERT, poems by Stuart Krimko

FRAGMENTS OF A FORGOTTEN GENESIS, poems by Abdellatif Laabi, Trans. by Nancy Hadfield and Gordon Hadfield (magnificent)

THE BOOK OF OCEAN, poems by Maryrose Larkin

THE NAME OF THIS INTERSECTION IS FROST, poems by Maryrose Larkin

KITCHEN TIDBITS, poems by Amanda Laughtland (charming)

from NOTHING TO SAY, poetry by Ann Lauterbach

X (ANGEL CITY), chap-length poem by Joseph Lease

TESTIFY, poems by Joseph Lease

KEROTAKIS, poems by Janice Lee

CONTENT, photography/visual poetry by Jon Leon

THE DARKENED TEMPLE, poems by Mari L’Esperance

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.)

YOU ARE A LITTLE BIT HAPPIER THAN I AM, poems by Tao Lin

ALWAYS MESSING WITH THEM BOYS, poems by Jessica Helen Lopez

WAITING FOR SWEET BETTY, poems by Clarence Major (I was a tad disappointed in this because I couldn't help comparing it to Kathrin Schaeppi's SONJA SEKKULA... (see below), a book I happened to read at about the same time, which took ekphrasis so much further)

NOVALESS (ELEMENTS TOWARDS A METAPHYSICS), poems by Nicholas Manning (a rare, unique pleasure that seduces both heart and mind, entonces, as well an admirable balance. Check out its, pun intended, harmonies!)

HOMO SENTIMENTALIS: A GUIDE IN VERSE TO MODERN EMOTIONAL INTIMACY by Nicholas Manning (see above. read in manuscript)

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

GORGEOUS CHAOS: NEW + SELECTED POEMS 1965-2001 by Jack Marshall

AREAS OF FOG, poems by Joseph Massey (ravishing)

THE NEW TOURISM, poems by Harry Mathews

THE ARAKAKI PERMUTATIONS, poems by James Maughn

RE-, poems by Kristi Maxwell

ETHICS OF SLEEP, poems by Bernadette Mayer

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE: STORIES by rob mclennan (fabulous!)

HAZMAT, poems by J.D. McClatchy

ES VERDAD, poems with photos by jim mccrary (GAW-GEOUS GAW-GEOUS!)

PO DOOM, poems by jim mccrary (like that "hay(na)ku interlude"! you crank and crankster!)

NO GRAVE CAN HOLD MY BODY DOWN, poems by Aaron McCollough

WHATEVER SHINES, poems by Kathleen McGookey

EYESHOT, poems by Heather McHugh

ENTREPOT, poems by Mark McMorris

THE GOD OF INDETERMINACY, poems by Sandra McPherson

BEAT THING, poems by David Meltzer

BRILLIANT WATER, poems by Christopher Merrill

THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THOMAS MERTON

VERTIGO SEEKS AFFINITIES, poems by Sharon Mesmer

THERE'S ONLY ONE GOD AND YOU'RE NOT IT, poems by Stephen Paul Miller (is that a great title or what!)

THE NEIGHBORHOODS OF MY PAST SORROW, poems by Jesse Millner

SO LATE, SO SOON: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Carol Moldaw (lush, gorgeous, fabulous)

IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SUN: STORIES AND POEMS, 1961-1991 by N. Scott Momaday

YOU AND THREE OTHERS ARE APPROACHING A LAKE, poems by Anna Moschovakis

DEAR LIA, "prose event" by Eileen Myles

THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF REPLICANTS, poems by Murat Nemet-Nejat (so wise)

PARROT ON A MOTORCYCLE: ON POETIC CRAFT, poems by Vitezslav Nezval, trans. by Jennifer Rogers

TRANSFER, poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

SARD, poems by Philip Byron Oakes

HOLD TIGHT: THE TRUCK DARLING POEMS by Jeni Olin

EXPEDITIONS by Pamela Jean de Oliveira-Smith (don't know (of) this poet; can't remember how I got this book. but really like it)

A TOAST IN THE HOUSE OF FRIENDS, poems by Akilah Oliver (couldn’t help but notice the energy that reared up with the first page and just boomed on each succeeding page until the end – it wrote itself and the poet is to be admired for ego not getting in the way)

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.)

IN THE LAND, poems by Bea Opengart (so well-wrought and deeply-felt. a lovely resonant result)

PIER, poems by Janine Oshiro

THE NETWORK, poems by Jena Osman

HOW LONG, poems by Ron Padgett

HOW TO BE PERFECT, poems by Ron Padgett

IATROGENIC: THEIR TESTIMONIES, poems by Danielle Pafunda

THE PEOPLE THEY BROUGHT ME: POEMS IN THE ADOPTION COMMUNITY by Penny Callan Partridge (what a lovely premise -- presenting poems as well as people the the poet met as a result of those poems. Separate from the adoption issue, gads I wish I'd thought of that concept first!)

SHE, A BLUEPRINT, "text" by Michelle Naka Pierce and images by Sue Hammond West (interesting concept--and fresh take on ye olde body as basis for POV --summarized by a quote from Bhanu Kapil: "In the process of carving out a territory,...we also carve out something like a body for ourselves. So this dual operation of territory and body is produced simultaneously.")

THE COLOSSUS AND OTHER POEMS by Sylvia Plath

ABSURD GOOD NEWS, poems by Julien Poirier

EL GOLPE CHILENO, poems and art by Julien Poirier

IN THE MONEY MACHINE, poems by Minnie Bruce Pratt (admirable political lyricism)

CORPORATE GEESE by Christopher William Purdom

SAILCLOTH CHILD, poems by Christopher William Purdom

PRESENT TENSE, poems by Anna Rabinowitz

RUINS, poems and photographs by Margaret Randall

FAULTY MOTHERING, poems by Elaine Randell

THE HOT GARMENT OF LOVE IS INSECURE, poems by Elizabeth Reddin

COEUR DE LION, poems by Ariana Reines (very engaging)

MERCURY, poems by Ariana Reines

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

TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE A CONVERSATION, poems by Andrea Rexilius (lovely)

YELLOW / YELLOW, poems by Margaret Rhee

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

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

HELSINKI, poems by Peter Richards

60 TEXTOS, poems by Sarah Riggs (enchanting)

RUMOR, poems by Elizabeth Robinson

A, poems, photographs, visual poetry and more by Sophie Robinson (movingly evocative)

LIKE THE RAINS COME: SELECTED POEMS (1987-2006) by Mercedes Roffe, trans. by Janet Greenberg

NO FACE: SELECTED & NEW POEMS by Judith Roitman

THE STRESS OF MEANING, poem by Judith Roitman

WHITE BOOTS: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS OF THE WEST by William Pitt Root

ELEVATORS, poems by Rena Rosenwasser (elevates connoisseurship wonderfully!)

DEAR FAILURES, poems by Trey Sager (amusing)

SMALL SKY: A COLLECTION OF WRITINGS, poems and prose by Janice Sapigao

THE FLESH IS LIKE A KIND OF MUPPET CAPER, poems by Alex Savage

UNABLE TO FULLY CALIFORNIA, poems by Larry Sawyer (hm)

HOW PHENOMENA APPEAR TO UNFOLD, poems and essays by Leslie Scalapino

SONJA SEKULA GRACE IN A COW'S EYE: A MEMOIR: , poems by Kathrin Schaeppi (outstanding: it's often interesting how poetry, presumably (or presumed by many to be) a minimalist art can be so bombastic. Which is to say, gentleness is something I rarely see in poetry collections. Well, that difficult-to-pull-off-quality-in-poetry exists in my latest discovery and recommendation: Sonja Sekula: Grace in a cow's EYE : a memoir:, the debut full-length poetry collection by Kathrin Schaeppi. Such gentleness elevates this project, too, beyond the usual ekphrastic endeavor as ekphasis is often a balancing act between the nature of the art work and the subjectivity of the author. I'm not surprised, either, to see that its publisher is Black Radish Books -- relatively new but already clearly important space! Anyway, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book. In fact, I'm off now to re-read Kathrin Schaeppi's earlier work viz a chap from the beloved Dusie -- any work that makes you further explore the artist's other endeavors is something to recomment.

THE BOUNTY: FOUR ADDRESSES, poems by Kate Schapira

TELEMACHIAD, poems by Michael Scharf

MEMORY CARDS: ASHBERY SERIES by Susan M. Schultz (read in manuscript. Fabulous! Await the whole series coming out from Dusie--it'll be a great read!)

STARTLING, poems by Andrea Selch (nicely done!)

ACROSS STONES OF BAD DREAMS, poems by Zvi A. Sesling

UNION, poems by Don Share

O BON, poems by Brandon Shimoda

PHOTOGRAPH OF A NUDE, poems by Gary Silva (I’d seen Gary Silva around while he was doing Poet Laureate duty for Napa Valley, e,g. hosting a poetry reading at the local library. I finally got a chance to read his poems through 2 chapbooks including the one listed below, and was pleasantly rewarded!)

CERAMICS: LAUREATE POEMS by Gary Silva (wonderful “occasional poems”)

HANK, poems by Abraham Smith

CAN WE TALK HERE, poems by Carmen Gimenes Smith

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

PASSAGE THROUGH INDIA: AN EXPANDED AND ILLUSTRATED EDITION by Gary Snyder

FROM HERE, poems by Zoe Skoulding with images by Simonetta Moro

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

YINGELISHI: SINOPHONIC ENGLISH POIETRY AND POETICS by Jonathan Stalling (found it quite enchanting!)

AN ATLAS OF LOST CAUSES by Marjorie Stein

AND I WOULD OPEN, poems by Jill Stengel

WAIT, poems by Alison Stine (gothic in an admirably yellow vs black way--which is to say, admirably unexpected)

DARK ADAPT, poems by Brian Strang (just gorgeous: its darkness fails flawlessly to overwhelm its beauty)

MAO’S PEARS, poems by Kenny Tanemura

UXUDO, poems by Anne Tardos

CONTENT by Marina Temkina and Michel Gerard (vizpo, I suppose, as it relies on a narrative based on a succession of photographs)

THE CORYBANTES, book-length poem by Tod Thilleman

PRIVADO, poems by Daniel Tiffany

THE NEW POETICS, concept-poetry by Matthew Timmons (well done!)

RED WALLS, poems by James Tolan (gorgeously hard-fought and honed into gold)

ERRANCITIES, poems by Quincy Troupe

THE LONG BIRTH, poems by Jan Vanstavern

FAULKNER'S ROSARY, poems by Sarah Vap

BEFOREHAND, visual poetry by Cecilia Vicuna

IRRESPONSIBILITY, poems by Chris Vitiello

VICTORY, poetry/film text/conceptual et by Clarice Waldman

ETYM(BI)OLOGY, poems by Liz Waldner

A MAP PREDETERMINED AND CHANCE, poems by Laura Wetherington (hm)

ADVENTURES OF PI, poems by Tyrone Williams

ALIENS: AN ISLAND, poems by Uljana Wolf, trans. by Monika Zobel (resonant concept and poems)

THE ECLIPSES, poems by David Woo

GUTTER CATHOLIC LOVE SONG, poem by Joseph Wood

MORE FROM SERIES MAGRITTE, poems by Mark Young (always a delight to read his poems)

GEOGRAPHIES, poems by Mark Young (Enjoyable and GEOGRAPHIES shows him, too, to be a master of the deadpan. Though, interestingly, my favorite or one of my favorites is the rare exception to his deadpanness, this hay(na)ku:
Le Pont Mirabeau

His
translations of
Apollinaire reek of

formaldehyde when it's
absinthe we're
after.

PETALS OF ZERO PETALS OF ONE, poems by Andrew Zawacki

POEMS FROM REDRESS, poems by Hannah Zeavin

ANTHOLOGIES (9):

THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2007, Guest Editor Heather McHugh

THE GRAPE CRIES OUT! AN ANTHOLOGY OF WINE POEMS edited by David Alvarez (read it in manuscript. it's brilliant and fabulous -- and not just coz Moi is in it (really); it's a very fresh take on a somewhat traveled subject)

CHAPTER & VERSE: POEMS OF JEWISH IDENTITY by Dan Bellm, Rose Black, Chana Bloch, Rafaella Del Bourgo, Margaret Kaufman, Jacqueline Kudler, Melanie Maier, Murray Silverstein, Susan Terris and Sim Warkov (the most effective project of "identity poems and poetics" that I've recently read—well done!)

PP/FF: AN ANTHOLOGY (of prose poetry &/or flash fiction), Ed. Peter Conners

19 NEW AMERICAN POETS OF THE GOLDEN GATE, Edited by Philip Dow (disappointed that Jack Gilbert had to result to bashing another poet to make his points in his intro to his own poems. took more than a bottle to get that sour taste out)

THE GIFT OF TONGUES: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF POETRY FROM COPPER CANYON PRESS, poetry anthology edited by Sam Hamill

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)

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

VISITING DR. WILLIAMS: POEMS INSPIRED BY THE LIFE AND WORK OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Co-Edited by Sheila Coghill & Thom Tammaro (unexpectedly enjoyable)

POETRY-RELATED JOURNALS (17):

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

THE ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW, Winter/Spring 2011, eds.Gerald Maa and Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis (I always enjoy Eric Gamalinda's writings and he's got a short story in this issue that's just hilarious!)

BLUE&YELLOWDOG, FALL 2011 ISSUE 6, literary journal edited by Raymond Farr (adored those poems by Mark DuCharme!)

ECCOLINGUISTICS, literary zine edited by Jared Schickling (valuable and admirable reading; read three issues this year)

ESQUE, literary journal co-edited by Amy King and Anna Bozicevich

HOUSE ORGAN No. 77, Winter 2012, Editor Kenneth Warren (as usual, STELLAR!)
HOUSE ORGAN, No. 74, Spring 2011, literary zine edited by Kenneth Warren (I so admire the commitment in this project)
HOUSE ORGAN, No. 75 Summer 2011, Edited by Kenneth Warren (just chockful of PERFECT POEMS!)

MUNYORI Literary Journal, Ed. Emmanuel Sigauke (enjoyed this read!)

SENTENCE: A JOURNAL OF PROSE POETICS No. 8, edited by Brian Clements

THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS / EL ESPIRITU DE LOS SANTOS, St. Helena High School Literary Arts Journal 2010, co-eds Susan Swan and Sophia Cahua

TALISMAN: A JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY POETRY AND POETICS, FALL 1988 / THE ALICE NOTLEY ISSUE, edited by Ed Foster

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

VERSE. Vol. 27, No. 1, literary journal co-edited by Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki

YELLOWFIELD, literary/arts journal cum provocation "collated" by Edric Mesmer

OTHER FORMS CREATED BY OR INVOLVING POETS/POETRY (26):

WORDS IN REVERSE, a "piece for a string ensemble" by Laurie Anderson (works as prose poetry to me -- and fabulous! Thanks McCrary!)

BODY OF WORDS: PERFORMANCE TEXTS, "prose event" by Alexamdra Beller, Lauren Nicole Nixon, Rosamond S. King, Sally Silvers

FOR THE ORDINARY ARTIST: SHORT REVIEWS, OCCASIONAL PIECES & MORE by Bill Berkson (art criticism enlighted by the highest rigor: a loving feeling)

OUTSIDE VOICES: AN EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE by Jake Berry and Jeffrey Side

THE DANGEROUS ISLANDS, novel by Seamas Cain (Moi blurbed, to wit:

Words tell the story, yes. But the words, one senses in Seamas Cain's The Dangerous Islands, were not just authored but also precipitated by immediately preceding words or phrases. This is to say, the energy flowing through this novel is so powerful it sometimes dances away from a narrative thread(s). The result is an author going beyond the limits of self, and a story that is not just "pleasure [but] is a violent pleasure."

GODDESS OF TURNIPS, handmade art/poetry mini-book by Daniel de Culla (muchas gracias, senor en Espana. es muy bonita!)

THE THIRDEST WORLD, fiction and essays by Gina Apostol, Eric Gamalinda, and Lara Stapleton

100 SCENES, a novel as asemic poetry by Tim Gaze (brilliant!)

THE LATE GREAT ALLEN GINSBERG: A PHOTO BIOGRAPHY by Christopher Felver with Euology by Lawrence Ferlinghetti & "In Memory of Allen" by David Shapiro

MEMOIR AND ESSAY by Michael Gottlieb (enthralling page-turner that also made me happy that I'm not reliant on coterie for my poetry)

[A CROONED COCOON...], poetry collage by j/j hastain

(A POEM-ESSAY, OR PRECURSON: NOTES: FOR A NOVEL: BAN EN BANLIEUES), "prose event" by Bhanu Kapil

I LOVE A BROAD MARGIN TO MY LIFE, autobiography in verse by Maxine Hong Kingston

JOAN MIRO--"MAY 1968", poetry broadside by Mark Lamoreaux

PRESENTS FOR CHRISTMAS, poemized holiday greeting card (Cy Gist Press Holiday Card 2012, limited edition 100) by Mark Lamoreaux

THE LUNG OF THE POET, poetry broadside by Michael Leong (brilliantly fresh!)

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE: STORIES by rob mclennan (I know rob mostly through his very excellent blog but, wow, this dude writes glorious, magnificent stuff! At least he does so in his The Uncertainty Principle: stories)

LOOKING UP HARRYETTE MULLEN: INTERVIEWS ON SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY AND OTHER WORKS by Barbara Henning (every poet should have their "Barbara Henning"!)

MAGNIFICAT FOR THE NEW YEAR, poetry broadside by Sheila E. Murphy (magnificent!)

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

A MEGAPHONE: INDEX OF NAMES, PRIZES, JOURNALS, PRESSES, CONFERENCES, ANTHOLOGIES, BLOGS, AND DISCUSSION LISTS co-edited by Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young (exhausting!)

LONG LIFE: ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS by Mary Oliver

UNTITLED #5, "prose event" by Vanessa Place

THE ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY: ESSAYS FROM THE OTHER WORLD by Kenneth Rexroth

UNDER ALBANY, memoir by Ron Silliman (as pleasurable at 2nd read as it was in the 1st read!)

CARLOS VILLA AND THE INTEGRITY OF SPACES, Edited by Theodore S. Gonzalves (long-overdue art monograph with essays and other contributions by Margo Machida, Mark Johnson, Moira Roth, and David Goldberg w/ poems by Bill Berkson)

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

2011-12-29T20:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-28T10:15:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

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"

2011-12-25T14:09:00.000-08:00

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!!

2011-12-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

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!!

2011-12-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

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..."

2011-12-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2011-12-14T18:24:00.001-08:00

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"

2011-12-11T21:23:00.000-08:00

...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!

2011-12-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-06T21:51:00.000-08:00

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

A MERE 89 POETRY REVIEWS?!

2011-12-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

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...

2011-12-03T10:05:00.000-08:00

...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

2011-12-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

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 ____

DREAMING UP AN AVANT-GARDE

2011-11-30T18:01:00.000-08:00

A first for Moi while I was sleeping last night. In a dream, I wrote up a panel presentation I'm due to give on December 18. During the light of day, I typed up the outline I remembered from the dream -- and dang if it don't work! So, you're invited to come see me dream in person at Bay Area Asian-Pacific-Islander-Amercan poets and the Avant Garde moderated by Barbara Jane Reyes, to wit

Panel discussion on Bay Area APIA 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.

More information HERE.

Should be interesting. If I can pull it off, I'll be able to throw into moi mix the brilliant artist Jenifer K Wofford's transformation of General MacArthur into a Pinay nurse!

"...DUCKS ARE LOOKING / THINNER..."

2011-11-28T10:20:00.000-08:00

which is to say, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh with g emil reutter's contribution!

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

'

BRINGING IN THE SEASON

2011-11-27T10:20:00.000-08:00

That's not Moi Xmas tree ... but it was still nice to munch on cupcakes and enjoy Meadowwood's putting up theirs ...

What does parenthood mean for Moi? Among other things, trying to preserve brightness for the kids ... which, come to think of it, is something for which Poetry prepared me well ...!

BRIGHT FRIDAY ... FOR POETRY REVIEWS!

2011-11-25T09:38:00.000-08:00

A reminder that I’m still taking reviews for Galatea Resurrects)! Deadline is Dec. 5 but if you need a couple of extra days that’d probably work by Moi.

Meanwhile, here's moi latest 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. Yeah! More info on that HERE.

PUBLICATIONS
* THE WAY WE LIVE, poems by Burt Kimmelman (warm, moving, pleasing, authentic—poetry from a mature, deservedly self-confident poet)

TO BE HUMAN IS TO BE A CONVERSATION, poems by Andrea Rexilius (lovely)

THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT PAINTERS SHOULDN’T TALK: A GUSTON BOOK, poems by Patrick James Dunagan (rewards repeated readings of it)

* COEUR DE LION, poems by Ariana Reines (very engaging)

* MERCURY, poems by Ariana Reines

* I WANT TO MAKE YOU SAFE, poems by Amy King

* PIER, poems by Janine Oshiro

* NOTATIONAL, poems by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa

* ADVENTURES OF PI, poems by Tyrone Williams

* MAO’S PEARS, poems by Kenny Tanemura

* ONE PETAL ROW, poems by Jaimie Gusman

* A MAP PREDETERMINED AND CHANCE, poems by Laura Wetherington (hm)

UNABLE TO FULLY CALIFORNIA, poems by Larry Sawyer (hm)

* CONTENT by Marina Temkina and Michel Gerard (vizpo, I suppose, as it relies on a narrative based on a succession of photographs)

PINCHED: HOW THE GREAT RECESSION HAS NARROWED OUR FUTURES & WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT, socio-economic analysis by Don Peck

THE HARVEST GYPSIES: ON THE ROAD TO THE GRAPES OF WRATH, study by John Steinbeck

COWANS + CLARK + DELVECCHIO MODERN CERAMIC ART AND CRAFT AUCTIONS CATALOGUE

ART AND MADNESS: A MEMOIR OF LUST WITHOUT REASON by Anne Roiphe

THE AFFAIR, novel by Lee Child

ZERO DAY, novel by David Baldacci

JUSTICE, novel by Karen Robards

INNOCENCE, novel by David Hosp

THE FIFTH WITNESS, novel by Michael Connelly

CHASING FIRE, novel by Nora Roberts

HOT TARGET, novel by Suzanne Brockman

WINES
2007 Peter Michael chardonnay “La Carriere”
2005 Dutch Henry “Argos” cabernet NV
2009 NoveRoma zinfandel
2007 Black Pearl shiraz
2003 Rauzan Despagne
Cartlidge & Brown Chardonnay
Stone Cellars merlot
2004 Torbreck “Descendant” Barossa Valley (a simply gorgeous Thanksgiving dinner wine!)

A TURKEY OF A DAY

2011-11-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

A "LABORER WORTH HIS SALT"!

2011-11-24T12:25:00.001-08:00

And, yep, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh! with Jared Schickling. His contribution is illustrated by some kewl photographs by New York visual artist/musician Alec Maslowski, such as

“butterflies”—photograph by Alec Maslowski

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

'

RE. THE IRISH IMMIGRATION NARRATIVE...

2011-11-22T07:53:00.000-08:00

which is to say, POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is fresh with Liam Duffy's contribution! As ever, I welcome more poets' participations....

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is FRESH!

2011-11-20T20:03:00.000-08:00

with 17-year-old poet Faith Pascua, also the Youth Speaks Hawaii 2010 Grand Slam Champion! Also sharing their thoughts are Adam Fieled and Chris Stroffolino. As Faith's piece is illustrated by one of the more adorable images, I want to repost it here (here, where poets' pets are always welcome to be featured on Moi's Blog)!

Faith and her Mommy, with their two dogs (left) Bruno and (right) Pacman!

And, as always, I welcome more poets' thoughts on the Great Recession...

RESURRECTING THOSE POETRY BOOKS!

2011-11-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

I don't know why public libraries deaccession poetry books. It's not like said libraries are for-profit institutions so why treat poetry the same way as out-of-date computer books or unpopular light fiction? Librarians--ye inherently cultural activists!--just make those books available! Anyway, here's another poetry book I plucked from a library's "freebie" section -- they didn't even bother to put it on shelves where they stock books for modest fundraising sales (I guess they, too, know it's difficult to sell poetry ... which is not a reason to deaccession them!)

Yep, Billy Collins didn't fare well at this library. But that's okay, I've placed it on my Community Book Shelf where it can have a second life by being yours for trade! So much for Mr. Poetry Bestseller...!

***

Great Recession poetry economics is even worse than the usual moronic oxymoron of poetry economics. For example, for the last fiscal year, I (as a poetry publisher) apparently generated net sales through SPD of $193.37. After covering my annual SPD distributor fee of $160, I net, yep, $33.37. Well, at least I ain’t in the red…

Nor do I want poetry publishers to be in the red! So I did my modest bit with this latest update to my BOUGHT POETRY List:

THE CURVED PLANKS: POEMS, A BILINGUAL EDITION by Yves Bonnefoy, Trans. by Hoyt Rogers

THE ERRANCY by Jorie Graham

THE BOOK OF MIRRORS by Frieda Hughes

STONEPICKER AND THE BOOK OF MIRRORS: POEMS by Frieda Hughes

PRACTICAL WATER by Brenda Hillman

Nevuh mind Black Friday. Give a poetry book or a book by a poet for the Holidays! For instance... As for Moi, I'm personally eye-ing THIS ONE as a Xmas present to moiself...! Because I know My Man! will not disappoint....! Do consider that a recommendation, too!

'

"MOMMY, YOU ARE NOT AN ATM..."

2011-11-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

I just got my first post-launch submission to POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION. From a poet I don't know. 'Tis from a high school student in Hawai'i who sent a poem about watching her mother laid off from her job cleaning hotel rooms and she responding, "Mommy, you are not an ATM..."

Speechless (though blogging) over it, even as I was moved at picturing this 17-year-old teen writing her poems as she bears witness to what she cannot control as life unfolds. Probably good training for her future career: she wants to be a teacher. And no clearer evidence for me that this project is a good idea.

More later on this young poet ... and, as ever, I welcome your engagements with the topic.

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION

2011-11-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

[Feel Free To Forward]

Announcement from POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION

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

We are pleased to share the inauguration of POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION at http://poetsonrecession.blogspot.com. The project features poets presenting the many varied face(t)s of their Great Recession experience, and how such has affected (or not) their poetry. We are looking for more poets to participate (see Call below), but poets launching the project are:

Anonymous November 2011
("Neither of my books accepted for publication in 2008 will be issued....I have more than ten unpublished manuscripts.")

Alan Baker November 2011
("England's lamentable slaverie // the kettle’s boiled")

Michelle Bautista November 2011
("...it's important for me to be present, forgiving, truthful, and loving.")

John Bloomberg-Rissman November 2011
("The lower the level of education, the more likely a voter is to take seriously racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-science, religiously fanatical, etc etc candidates.")

Susan Briante November 2011
("... a new confessional—an economic confessional. What’s in your bank account, Poet? Who paid for your down payment? What do you owe? ...we have to locate our place in an economic continuum before we can honestly define our needs, understand the needs of others, activate our sympathies, act for change.")

Anne Gorrick November 2011
("The Great Recession set up a situation where I can say 'yes' to many, many things that make my own work bigger.")

j/j hastain November 2011
("This is a pledge to ever couple with and to never cripple.")

Karen Llagas November 2011
(""Let no one say / it’s just about the money, / that slender, / grief-stricken thing, / so thirsty for company")

Barbara Jane Reyes November 2011
("...surviving this recession as an artist requires that artists do away with a sense of entitlement...")

Leny M. Strobel November 2011
("Decolonization is not just for the post-colonial subject anymore.")

Eileen R. Tabios November 2011
("Gold for Poetry....I consider Poetry to be priceless.")

Dee Thompson November 2011
("Who is not comforted by eggs and cheese?")

Elizabeth Treadwell November 2011
("male dominance obscures / the true contributions of men.")

Erin Virgil November 2011
("Babies never made me sad before.")

Harriet Zinnes November 2011
("There are no outcasts in history. / We are all in its throes.")

***

We are always looking for more poets to participate. Call for Participation is at http://poetsonrecession.blogspot.com/2011/10/call-for-participation.html. Participating poets are asked simply to answer three questions:

1) What is (part of) your Great Recession experience?

2) How has the Great Recession affected your poetry?

3) Please share a poem(s) addressing your Great Recession experience.

***

POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION is the second of a planned curated series of POETS ON ____ [insert BIG TOPIC on blank]. The first project was POETS ON ADOPTION, for which we continue to look for participants, at http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com. We invite you to read, participate and please spread the word.

Eileen Tabios,
Poet & Curator of POETS ON ____ series

DEADLINE EXTENDED FOR GALATEA RESURRECTS!

2011-11-11T19:26:00.001-08:00

Galatea Resurrects' deadline for reviews has been EXTENDED to Dec. 4, 2011!

That's right -- more time, entonces I look forward to more reviews!

DON'T BUY MY BOOK!

2011-11-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

A particular book, anyway, that just came to my attention: EILEEN TABIOS.

After being weirded out by the book's existence, which was mostly "written" by compiling free material about me on the internet, I then took stock of how technology is such that -- but of course! -- aggregators can now deliver results in print book form rather than as websites. Vanity Fair and The New Yorker (among others) come to mind, too, for creating books by simply reprinting in anthology form articles they've already published and gathered under a certain theme.

By the way, I used to seed the internet with false information about moiself. Doesn't that mean this book is not EILEEN TABIOS but AVATAR EILEEN TABIOS? Heh: it wouldn't surprise me if the editor's name is also faux.

Anyway, I looked up the website of the publisher Culp Press and I'm thinking that they need to get together with interior decorators who at times are asked to put books on empty bookshelves for house residents who don't actually read enough to pick out books for themselves. What kind of editorial standard -- besides money -- exists if your "List" is over a million books, comprised mostly of aggregated material?

Blech.

Now, being human, I almost ordered a copy to see how the book formatted/organized its material. But it's $41 and while its existence wouldn't exist without Moi, said Moi ain't getting a single royalty penny. Is that fair?

But, actually, if everyone was a narcissist and ordered one copy of a book entitled by their name, that's hugely profitable, isn't it? A million times $41 is $41 million!

Or if even just half the authors purchased one copy, it'd be $20.5 million!

Wow. The implications continue to boggle the mind!

Yawn. The book ain't dead if it still makes money based on one sale per book. You just gotta figure out the market. Sadly, it ain't Poetry!

THE PACQUIAO POEMS!

2011-11-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

Yo, this is the Chatty Blog -- particularly important to discerning sports fans! Welcome Boxing! To wit:

A while back, Manny Pacquiao's singing of that tune came to my attention, and I was struck by the following lyrics of the song he likes to sing (title doesn't come to mind at the moment):

Sometimes
when we touch
the honesty
is too much

Now, the original tune obviously was a love song. But if you think about boxing, isn't that another way of interpretation? I can imagine how a boxed "touch" can be quite honest (Pow! Ow!).

Anyway, I've long thought about a new manuscript of poems related to one of the World's Greatest Boxers, which is a way to raise your attention to this latest must-read article: "Mayweather versus that ‘little fella’ Pacquiao" by Benjamin Pimentel.

Now, if only I can get more freed-up time to devote attention to go commercial in poetry: Emmanuel 'Manny' Dapidran Pacquiao. I just know there are legions of boxing fans just awaiting this particular book:

THE PACQUIAO POEMS

Pow!! Ow!!

'

POETS ON ADOPTION IS FRESH!

2011-11-03T07:36:00.001-07:00

with Jeffrey Thomas Leong's participation and moving poems HERE.

MOI LIBRARY OF CONGRESS INDEX

2011-11-01T10:00:00.000-07:00

I really should be a librarian: I find index-ing more sexy than texting ...

Anyhoo, as a major multi-tasker, I have six desks. ALL of my six desks are messy. If I could just simplify down to one desk, a neat desk, perhaps my life would be easier. But I also would not accomplish as much and life would be boring. So I have six messy desks and continue to multi-task ... and what I have learned is that Blogger -- yay dear Blogger -- is also a space for expanding my office. Hence, I use this and other blogs sometimes as de facto file cabinets. To wit, I need to file here what looks to be the Outline to my archives at the Library of Congress (generated with the help of an LOC curator). These would be the archives otherwise known as my "excuse for clearing out my basement":

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS INDEX
TO EILEEN R. TABIOS’ ARCHIVES
1960 - PRESENT

A. HARD COPIES and/or DISK FILES
The following subject files contain manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, background research, promotional material, flyers, programs, photos, bios:
I. Poetry
II. Fiction
III. Art
IV. Other Prose Collections
V. Publishing
VI. Editing
VII. Multi-Media
VIII. Adoption
IX. Family

The following series contain CVs, resumes, bios, correspondence, writing samples, year books, news clippings:
X. Finance Career
XI. Journalism Career
XII. College (Barnard College)
XIII. M.B.A. (New York University)
XIV. Juvenilia (High School or Younger)

B. ELECTRONIC ARCHIVES / URLS
I. E-Publications of Poetry Collections
II. Individual Blogs
III. Online Poetry (Poems or videos or audios)
IV. Online Fiction
V. Online Essays & Other Prose
VI. Interviews and Reviews
VII. Authors or Projects Reviewed or Interviewed by Eileen Tabios
VIII. Projects with Internet Links
VIX. Literary Blogs

Now, let's not make this all about Moi! Ahoy, Poets -- under the category of "Poetry" shall be a section of my correspondences with other poets. Wanna be in my Archives? Write me, email me, et al and I can include.

This reminds me of when art dealer Pearl Albino told the story of how, when Ginsberg got Archives accepted, he and Corso started deliberately writing more to each other -- "like printing money," Corso said! Well, in these days of federal budget deficits et al, there's no printing money with being in my Archives. But my point of course would be more profitable: FUN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

2011-10-31T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Masked Michael loses his guapo-ness under his Watchman fedora!

AID THE RESURRECTION!

2011-10-30T12:10:00.000-07:00

So far, I've received 37 new reviews for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects. Whilst that would be more than sufficient for most literary journals or poetry-review journals, that's too pequeno for Maximalist Moi. Entonces, please hie on over to Galatea's Review Copy List, pick up a book or two, and provide a review or engagement! There have been a bounty of additions to the review copy list in the past couple of weeks! REVIEW DEADLINE: Nov. 15, 2011, but am likely to extend such...

I look forward to hearing from you at GalateaTen@aol.com!

A POET EDITS WASHINGTON

2011-10-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

History is subjective. History is written by victors. History can be a lie. All these are old topics. But none of these imply (recorded) History cannot be redressed.

And it is redressable (is that a word? Nevuh mind, Moi is a Poet...) by education. And it is important that what is learned are not falsehoods. As John Bloomberg-Rissman observes in his participation in the forthcoming POETS ON THE GREAT RECESSION blog,

"The lower the level of education, the more likely a voter is to take seriously racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-science, religiously fanatical, etc etc candidates."

All this is to say, one of the tourist attractions we visited recently was the Memorial to the U.S. Marines. Here's one aspect, the famous coverage of Iwo Jima:

Now, notice the inscriptions beneath the statue. The words refer to all the wars in which Marines have participated. See the reference to the U.S.-Philippine War. They call it the "Philippine Insurrection."

No. Americans: please learn your history. The U.S.-Philippine War was not an "insurrection", which would imply that the Filipinos rebelled against the Americans. The more acccurate term would be "Invasion"--that is, invasion by the United States over the Philippines. That's right, the Philippines already had declared its independence against its prior colonial master Spain. Not only did the Philippines declare its independence, after 300-plus years of colonialism the Filipinos actually had defeated -- that's DEFEATED -- Spain. So it earned its Declaration of Independence. The Philippines was already an independent country.

Then the United States invaded (a lot of money in sugar and coconut in those islands, yah?). And that's how the ex-colony became a colonizer, too.

So. Go ahead. Read this post. And if there were justice in this world (not to mention monies left in the federal budget), that text of "Philippine Insurrection" would be edited to what it actually was and is historically true: "Invasion of the Philippines."

Listen to this Poet who, by the way, donates to the Disabled American Veterans Association (so please don't consider this an unpatriotic rant but an attempt for more Truth).

Hay(na)ku!
Different shit--
Same ol' dawg!

MIDDLE SCHOOL HAY(NA)KU IN OAKLAND!

2011-10-28T06:11:00.000-07:00

I've always thought the hay(na)ku to be a great teaching tool for poetry. So I was delighted to learn that poet-teacher Oscar Bermeo used the hay(na)ku for Middle Schoolers from East Oakland's St. Anthony School. As samples, the students were introduced to Monica Fauble's wonderful hay(na)ku from THE FIRST HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY co-edited by Mark Young and Jean Vengua! The students have already written some wonderful verse, including:

Oakland
trees shaking
leaves to ground

Shaking
shaking life
is breaking down.
—Ruben

Dead

What
are people
with no soul?
—Luis

Not
the best
place but home.
—Iliana

Wasabi

I
hate wasabi
teriyaki is better

much
better than
wasabi because it’s

like
barbecue sauce
and banana leaf.
—Hiue

Oscar continues to work with the students to help them expand their writings. Their hay(na)ku will be published in a volume produced by the Center for the Art of Translation. Fabulous news! And fabulous job to Oscar!

DANGEROUS ISLANDS!

2011-10-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

Blurbed Seamas Cain’s forthcoming lush novel, THE DANGEROUS ISLANDS, to wit:

Words tell the story, yes. But the words, one senses in Seamas Cain's The Dangerous Islands, were not just authored but also precipitated by immediately preceding words or phrases. This is to say, the energy flowing through this novel is so powerful it sometimes dances away from a narrative thread(s). The result is an author going beyond the limits of self, and a story that is not just "pleasure [but] is a violent pleasure."
--Eileen R. Tabios

And speaking of relishes, here's moi latest update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. I think this is it for the tally of this City Slicker’s attempt to be a farmer. Yeah, there’s a few stray figs to go but, bemused to see that I continue my ineptness at engaging with Napa’s fertile earth. Hah. Anyway, meanwhile…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 I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.

CITY SLICKER SUMMER/FALL HARVEST
(the last pathetic tally)
112 cherry tomatoes
159 regular tomatoes
28 red onions
2 strawberries
18 zucchini
74 summer squash
51 squash flowers
44 green beans
1 lemon cucumber
9 pumpkins
27 sprigs of basil
5 clumps of sage
1 green cucumber
4 lemon cucumbers
8 sprigs of mint
50 Concord grapes
30 figs
3 bunches of chives

PUBLICATIONS
* DENSITIES, APPARITIONS, poems by William Allegrezza (Fabulously ravaged poems ravage the reader right back. I feel like I left behind pieces of a broken heart in its pages once I closed the book -- so powerful it was!)

ALIENS: AN ISLAND, poems by Uljana Wolf, trans. by Monika Zobel (resonant concept and poems)

* RADIATOR, poems by NF Huth (not sure why but I responded to this with affection)

* RE-, poems by Kristi Maxwell

* NO GRAVE CAN HOLD MY BODY DOWN, poems by Aaron McCollough

UPON NOSTALGIA, poems by Caroline Crumpacker

POEMS FROM REDRESS, poems by Hannah Zeavin

WAR ON A LUNCHBREAK, poems by Ana Bozicevic

from INSTANT CLASSIC, poems by erica kaufman

908-1078, poems by Brandon Brown

THE ERRANCY, poems by Jorie Graham (hm...)

PAPER PAVILION, poems by Jennifer Kwon Dobb

WHAT IS POETRY, poems by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and images by Frederico Amat (the collaboration with painter Amat as well as wonderful book design elevates this project)

THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE: STORIES by rob mclennan (fabulous!)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ASIAN COLLECTIONS: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE, curated by Mya Thanda Poe

I SOLD ANDY WARHOL (TOO SOON), memoir by Richard Polsky (highly entertaining)

MADE FOR YOU AND ME: GOING WEST, GOING BROKE, FINDING HOME, memoir by Caitlin Shetterly (I’m just starting to read books effected by the Great Recession. This is a good one with much heart and charm)

ON A DOLLAR A DAY: ONE COUPLE’S UNLIKELY ADVENTURES IN EATING IN AMERICA, memoir by Christopher Greenslate and Kerri Leonard

PIONEERING IN OREGON’S COAST RANGE: SURVIVING THE DEPRESSION YEARS, memoir by Ione Reed

BAD DOGS HAVE MORE FUN: SELECTED WRITINGS ON FAMILY, ANIMALS AND LIFE FROM THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, journalism by John Grogan

THE DANGEROUS ISLANDS, novel by Seamas Cain (in manuscript; see above blurb)

THE PRICE OF POWER, novel by James W. Huston

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES, novel by Sheldon Siegel

INCRIMINATING EVIDENCE, novel by Sheldon Siegel

FINAL VERDICT, novel by Sheldon Siegel

DERAILED, novel by Sheldon Siegel

THE KILL CLAUSE, novel by Gregg Hurwitz

TROUBLE SHOOTER, novel by Gregg Hurwitz

GIDEON’S WAR, novel by Howard Gordon

LETHAL, novel by Sandra Brown

THE BRASS DOLPHIN, novel by Caroline Harvey

ONE LAST LOOK, novel by Linda Lael Miller

OKLAHOMA BRIDE, novel by Carol Finch

WINES
2006 Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve cabernet Sonoma
2010 Lynmar Estate Pinot Noir Reserve
2009 Lynmar Estate Russian River Valley chardonnay
2007 Lynmar Estate Russian River Valley pinot noir
1990 Gaja Spress
2008 Nickel & Nickel syrah
2006 Pirathon Barossa Valley shiraz
Montalcino (house wine at Famous Luigi in Washington)
Shoofly Shiraz
2007 Felsina Chianti Classico Reserva Rancia (moi ultimate Washington wine)

MOI OCCUPIED WASHINGTON

2011-10-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

and amidst that, inaugurated the Asian American Poetry Reading series at the Library of Congress -- thank you curator Reme Grefalda, Poetry Center folks Rob Casper and Bryan Koen, as well as Asian Division chief Dr. Franklin Odo. Thanks to all who showed up, including Owen Wedum who'd recently written on Rizal and provided the above photo.

Was also nice to read with Philip Lamantia's spirit in the room -- HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Here's the LOC seal for ya!

The family and I played tourist for the weekend before the reading. Interesting to visit all the historical sites. Among other things, I was reminded of how truly GREAT some of the earliest presidents were -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson (even though he didn't free his slaves in his Will which at least Washington did), and perhaps the greatest: Abraham Lincoln. To remember these gentlemen is to see just how ... uh, small ... some recent leaders have been/are (must be all that poll-taking...).

Anyway, am back to a crowded In-Box. Onward...!

MOI INAUGURATION IN WASHINGTON D.C., OCTOBER 24, 2011

2011-10-13T08:45:00.001-07:00

Please consider this your very own personal invitation to:

EILEEN R. TABIOS POETRY READING AT U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

To celebrate October as Filipino-U.S. American Heritage Month, Eileen R. Tabios will present a poetry reading at 12 noon on Monday, October 24, 2011 at the Mary Pickford Theater, James Madison Building (3rd Floor) at the Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington, DC. The reading will inaugurate the seasonal series, “Asian-American Poetry Today.” Ms. Tabios also will be interviewed by Rob Casper, Director of the Poetry & Literature Center. Both the reading and interview will be videotaped to become part of the Library's WebCast, available to viewers worldwide. The webcast is available at http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=3908.

The event is free and open to the public, and coincides with the Library of Congress’ acquisition of Archives by Eileen R. Tabios, a poet, fiction writer, editor, conceptual and performance artist, cultural activist, and literary and arts publisher. Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at http://myloc.gov.

The Library of Congress will house Ms. Tabios’ papers in its Asian American Pacific Islander Collection. The Library of Congress is a central repository for all types of Asian publications that are not broadly available at other locations in the United States. Initiated in 1869 with a gift of 10 works in 934 volumes offered to the United States by the Emperor of China, the Library’s Asian collection of more than 2 million items is the largest and most comprehensive outside of Asia. For more information about the division and its holdings, go to www.loc.gov/rr/asian/. Ms. Tabios’ “9-1-1” poem was recently featured in the Asian Reading Room's Post 9 1 1 collections display.

Eileen R. Tabios has created 19 print, 4 electronic and 1 CD poetry collections, an art-essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, a short story book and a collection of novels. She also has exhibited visual poetry and visual art in the United States and Asia as well as edited, co-edited or conceptualized nine anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays. Her body of work is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Greek, computer-generated hybrid languages, Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Music, Modern Dance and Sculpture. She is the editor of Galatea Resurrects (A Poetry Engagement), a popular poetry review journal; curator of the inter(net)national blogged series “POETS ON _____”; and the founder of Meritage Press, a multi-disciplinary literary and arts press based in San Francisco & St. Helena.

For more information: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/events.html
Contact: regr@loc.gov
This event is free and open to the public. Book sales and a signing will follow.
Co-sponsored by the Asian Division of the Library of Congress.

ASSIGNMENT!

2011-10-10T08:57:00.000-07:00

Always interesting to be a subject of a college student's paper (grin). To wit, Drew Butler at University of Colorado chose to cover Moi and Galatea Resurrects for one of his assignments. His excerpted paper with interview is HERE, but here's an excerpt:

I noticed that sections of the blog have a lot of references to your children and your personal life. Do you view GR as a primarily personal blog with some poetry reviewing aspects or a more professional review journal with personal sections?

My poetics reflect that I don't believe in the separation of "life" from "poetry-writing", and so I reference my personal life. This approach should be contextualized, though, in that it reflects generally my approach to blogs. I was, I believe, among the initial group of poet-bloggers who began blogging before it really took off. I appreciate the blog for its informality due in part to how its (internet) medium allows for almost-immediate publication of something one has written. That informality, of course, does not necessarily mean lack of rigor...but I think the blog-space is obviously very different from other contexts, for example, a peer-reviewed journal. Anyway, I do view GR as primarily what I reference it in its subtitle: An Engagement with Poetry (with such "engagements" often manifesting themselves as reviews).

My views on the form of the poetry review probably has bearing on this question. You may notice that when I write "reviews" for GR, I don't say I "review" but say I "engage." That's because I think there's value to the non-traditional way of reviewing poetry, including the very emotional, the very personal, the fragmented outlooks which may not be the norm in more traditional criticism. I mean, as a poet, when I receive a fumbling, at times inarticulate response to some of my own poems, I often glean some value to that type of response -- as much as the more well-written, well-wrought critical review. So I allow a space for all styles of poetry reviewing.

Which is also to say, we continue to look for engagements and reviews for Galatea Resurrects. A list of review copies -- recently updated -- is HERE!

SOME FAB SUNDAY MORNING READING!

2011-10-09T12:23:00.001-07:00

I just spent Sunday morning with a manuscript by rob mclennan. I know him mostly through his very excellent blog but, wow, this dude writes glorious, magnificent stuff! At least he does so in his The Uncertainty Principle: stories,. Here are some excerpts:

&

He sits in the lawn chair, half-awake. The borrowed cottage, and the near-lake, just down the footpath. His second wife calls from the landing, something about their little boy, his second child. His first with this woman, this dream. Turning, he notices the boy has removed all of his clothing, diaper and all, again, and is tearing around the yard, screaming laughter, chasing at birds and the kittens. His mother encourages it, something he tries to temper, but quietly. He already knows that he worries too much, over so little. This is the future. This is a good dream.

&

For the whole of his life, there had been rumours. Some said he had been adopted, from foster care, and others suggested he belonged to but one of his parents. It was first through his twelve year old sister, bursting out, to his eight year old silence, stunned. They had been fighting about something, and she took it too far. Her outburst caused their mother to give her such a slap it rendered all six children mute, for three days. It was hard being the youngest. There were things that had happened before he arrived that were impossible to know for sure. And when, in his fifties, his long-widowed mother slid headlong into dementia and mistook him for his late father, he recoiled. It shook him, deep, to his core, but he began to suspect. He wasn't entirely sure of what. He suspected, too, that this mistake of her mind might be the closest he'd come to a kind of pure truth, or an answer.

&

Absence a weight that can easily overwhelm. Perseus knew this, but went ahead anyway, and we all know how that worked. It's the difference between knowing that most of the world is covered with igneous rock, as opposed to classic. There are the signs that divide us. I am talking about the shifting ground. There are rules, she told me. There are rules and you must follow them. I am interested in the way blame affects thought, or speech. The body staggers outside. Do you remember what it was like when you still believed? In a television interview, Salman Rushdie talks about his new novel, and about how the ancient world is so much more brutal than anything we could imagine. For all this talk of twentieth century carnage, I see no heads on pikes in the courtyard. All of this time, people have been working to revel in what makes us all different, instead of being somewhat afraid of what makes us the same.

Thank you, rob! This is great stuff!

BIG AND UG-LEEEEE!

2011-10-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm working on a new project involving Poetry and the Great Recession. Very excited about it. Can't wait to announce it. But no details yet, so instead I'll blog about this City Slicker's latest horrific result in that Hell known as Garden: a pumpkin Moi grew, to the dogs' horror:

I feel Halloween approach ...

RE. THAT HUMAN SPIRIT!

2011-09-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

In the just-released issue of OurOwnVoice, Nicholas Spatafora offers a review of that which I once laid: SILK EGG. It's always interesting to see responses to one's writings -- thank you, Sir! I'm appreciative of any response that ends with "the enduring, resilient and determined nature of the human spirit"!

***

And if above makes you curious about SILK EGG, do feel free to read what others have to say about it!

Nicholas T. Spatafora, OurOwnVoice, September 2011

rob mclennan, rob mclennan's blog, Aug. 22, 2011

Alan Baker, Litterbug, July 11, 2011

Stephen Hong Sohn, Asian American Lit Fans, June 19, 2011

Michael Leong, BIG OTHER, June 10, 2011

Zvi A. Sesling, Boston Area Poetry Scene, March 2, 2011

Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews, Feb. 21, 2011

Jean Vengua, JEAN VENGUA, Jan. 30, 2011 and Feb. 6, 2011

Leny M. Strobel, Kathang Pinay, Feb. 1, 2011

Allen Bramhall, Tributary, Jan. 14, 2011

Check it out, please. I worked so hard on that book. Why, it took an entire month to write those Baker's Dozen's worth of novels...!

PUMP KEEN!

2011-09-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yo! Got Moi the first true pumpkin of the season!

And speaking of harvests, here's moi latest update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects ). And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.

CITY SLICKER SUMMER HARVEST
112 cherry tomatoes
144 regular tomatoes
28 red onions
2 strawberries
18 zucchini
74 summer squash
51 squash flowers
44 green beans
1 lemon cucumber
2 pumpkins (the first doesn't count as it was harvested prematurely when I thought it was a melon...)
27 sprigs of basil
5 clumps of sage
1 green cucumber
4 lemon cucumbers
8 sprigs of mint
50 Concord grapes
24 figs
3 bunches of chives

PUBLICATIONS
THE ULTERIOR EDEN, poems by j/j hastain (worth re-reading; highlights the power of eros)

* A TOAST IN THE HOUSE OF FRIENDS, poems by Akilah Oliver (couldn’t help but notice the energy that reared up with the first page and just boomed on each succeeding page until the end – it wrote itself and the poet is to be admired for ego not getting in the way)

"NEITHER WIT NOR GOLD" (FROM THEN), poems by Ammiel Alcalay

HOW PHENOMENA APPEAR TO UNFOLD, poems and essays by Leslie Scalapino

PHOTOGRAPH OF A NUDE, poems by Gary Silva (I’d seen Gary Silva around while he was doing Poet Laureate duty for Napa Valley, e,g. hosting a poetry reading at the local library. I finally got a chance to read his poems through 2 chapbooks including the one listed below, and was pleasantly rewarded!)

CERAMICS: LAUREATE POEMS by Gary Silva (wonderful “occasional poems”)

IN THE COMMON DREAM OF GEORGE OPPEN, poems by Joseph Bradshaw

PORTRAIT OF COLON DASH PARENTHESIS, poems by Jeffrey Jullich

HANK, poems by Abraham Smith

* THE DIVINE SALT, poems by Peter Blair

* FLOWER CART, poems by Lisa Fishman

FROM HERE, poems by Zoe Skoulding with images by Simonetta Moro

CORPORATE GEESE by Christopher William Purdom

* TWO HATS APPEAR WHEN APPLAUDED: AN IMPROVISATION by Raymond Farr

* SPEAKING OFF CENTRE by James Cummin

KITCHEN TIDBITS, poems by Amanda Laughtland (charming)

THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS / EL ESPIRITU DE LOS SANTOS, St. Helena High School Literary Arts Journal 2010, co-eds Susan Swan and Sophia Cahua

OFF THE GRID: INSIDE THE MOVEMENT FOR MORE SPACE, LESS GOVERNMENT AND TRUE INDEPENDENCE ON MODERN AMERICA, study by Nick Rosen

NO BIKING IN THE HOUSE WITHOUT A HELMET, memoir by Melissa Fay Greene

THE SIEGE, novel by Stephen White

THE SHADOW CATCHERS, novel by Thomas Lakeman

IN PURSUIT OF HONOR, novel by Vince Flynn

SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT, novel by Lydia Joyce

WINES
2001 Brunello di Montalcino Valdicava
2005 Trevor Jones Dry Grown Barosso shiraz
2010 Dutch Henry sauvignon blanc Chafen Family Vineyards
1990 Ch. Margaux (Moi Birthday Wine this year!)
2004 Samuel's Gorge shiraz McLaren's Vale
2001 Monprivato In Castiglione Falletto Barolo Mascarello Guiseppe E. Figlio
2002 Puligny-Montrachet Clos de la Mouchere Jean Boillot & File Monopole
2002 Nuits-Saint-Georges Les Pruliers Philippe et Vincent Lecheneaut
2008 Conundrum
2002 Bonneau du Martrey Corton Charlemagne
Vega Sicilia Reserva Especial
1988 Ch. d’Yquem

'EDNA IS GOOD"

2011-09-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, usually the word “bankers” elicits an Ugh nowadays. But yesterday my local banker made MOI DAY! I was talking about a banking problem (what else) with her and her computer was slow (of course). During said slow period, she chit-chatted with me as she’s personable … and Moi is personable, too. ‘Twas during that chit-chat that I mentioned my "business" Meritage Press and the Great Recession in poetry publishing and she replied by saying she’s bought a poetry book!

Yep. She’s bought a poetry book! Just to be sure my elation was not over-the-top, I asked whether she’s a poet when not doing her day job. Nope, she’s not a poet. AND SHE BOUGHT A POETRY BOOK!!!!!!

So, WOOOOOT!

I asked, which poet? She replied, “Edna … something.”

I enthusiastically riposted, “Ah. Edna St. Vincent Millay.”

“Yes,” she replied. “I read a poem and it spoke to me so I bought the book.”

Wisely, I offered my expert opinion: “Edna is good.”

Then we beamed brightly at each other.

Then her computer caught up with reality, and we returned to my banking problem.

But isn’t that great? I was so happy to meet a non-poet who voluntarily buys poetry books. Okay, maybe I should say “poetry book” as in singular. For all I know, that may be the only poetry book she’s ever bought. But, if so, she’s still ahead of general culture, yah?! So definitely worth a Nota Bene.

And speaking of which, here’s my latest list of recently-purchased poetry books or books by poets:

bough breaks by Tamiko Beyer

ROAD SONG FOR by Lars Palm

THE DESECRATION OF DOVES by Arlene Ang

ADOPTION PAPERS by Jackie Kay

KALI'S BLADE by Michelle Bautista

PARTS AND OTHER PIECES by Tom Beckett

SILK EGG: COLLECTED NOVELS (2009-2009) by Eileen R. Tabios (As this blog is about Moi, I non-apologetically suggest you buy it, too! GO HERE for the ordering links through various venues.)

Sure, the list could be more voluminous. But how are you doing with your poetry purchases?

INNOVATION (CAN BE BUT) IS NOT NATIONALISTIC

2011-09-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

I found it interesting to stumble onto this article for several reasons. Since this blog is about Moi, let's scroll down to where you see my name...

...in reference to a 2001 symposium in New York in which I participated regarding "Filipino Literature and the Arts in the Diaspora". The article references an idea I've launched more than once at these Filipino Literature-related forums about the "community" supporting its literature, to wit, about de facto enforced purchases of books as door prizes at the numerous conferences that sprout up within the community. The article mentions one "fundraising ball" where the prize was a Coach bag. Well, where's the imagination? One couldn't stick a less-than-$20-book into that bag that undoubtedly cost in the hundreds...?

Books can be less than $20. Why not purchase these books in bulk, add the resulting (discounted price of, say) $8 to the entrance fee which probably would not be noticed, and force the books into the attendees' hands? Even if they don't read it, said attendees would take it -- it is a freebie -- and bring it home and it may end up in a daughter's or son's hand....

Filipino social clubs, professional associations or activist groups frequently sponsor these big parties, conferences, etc. There is room within such infrastructure for mass promotion of a relatively inexpensive object like a book!

Okay, so I toss out this idea again -- hoping after a decade of it being ignored that this idea may yet get traction elsewhere. What else is internet for?

Meanwhile, do read Tricia J. Capistrano's well-wrought article which raises larger issues about what is "Filipino" in literature. Perhaps such might make you curious about reading moi SILK EGG which has received, so far, fabulous critical praise among a cognoscenti more rigorous than what typically populates mainstream publishing. Jest sayin'...

9.1.1

2011-09-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all those sending birthday wishes...

Meritage Press author Luis H. Francia writes a column about "9-1-1" HERE for the Philippine Star, which movingly ends with one of the poems from his collection Museum of Absences.

Meanwhile, thanks to Lia Chang for sharing photos of the 9-1-1 Exhibit at the Library of Congress, curated by Reme Grefalda. Here's one shot of how my cut-up poem was cut-up-n-pasted, as well as a close-up thereof...

GALATEA WANTS YOU

2011-09-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

TO READ POETRY!

Well, okay! So the review copy list for Galatea Resurrects has been frequently updated this past week, reflecting some additional fabulous titles just aching for your attention and review! Now, I've publicly announced a goal to publish 100 reviews in the next issue. I am currently at 19 reviews. World, do you really want to see the Chatelaine fall down in ignominious embarrassment?

It's a good thing that, in poetry, I'm not embarrassed to become ... embarrassed.

But, actually, there are way more than enough review copies circulating out there amidst ye beloved GR reviewers so that if you all actually sent me those reviews we'd have an issue of 200-plus reviews! What's stopping ye? Deadline is Nov. 15 but I'll take reviews sooner!

You will relish reading many of the available poetry titles ... [insert drum roll for segue] ... and speaking of relishes, here's moi latest update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects ). And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.

CITY SLICKER SUMMER HARVEST
112 cherry tomatoes
76 regular tomatoes
28 red onions
2 strawberries
18 zucchini
67 summer squash
51 squash flowers
44 green beans
1 lemon squash
1 pumpkin
27 sprigs of basil
5 clumps of sage
1 green cucumber
4 lemon cucumbers
2 sprigs of mint
50 Concord grapes

PUBLICATIONS
* THE SPIRITUAL LIFE OF REPLICANTS, poems by Murat Nemet-Nejat (so wise)

WAIFS AND STRAYS, poems by Micah Ballard (fabulous!)

* THERE'S ONLY ONE GOD AND YOU'RE NOT IT, poems by Stephen Paul Miller (is that a great title or what!)

ES VERDAD, poems with photos by jim mccrary (GAW-GEOUS GAW-GEOUS!)

* SHE, A BLUEPRINT, "text" by Michelle Naka Pierce and images by Sue Hammond West (interesting concept--and fresh take on ye olde body as basis for POV --summarized by a quote from Bhanu Kapil: "In the process of carving out a territory,...we also carve out something like a body for ourselves. So this dual operation of territory and body is produced simultaneously.")

* THE FEELING IS ACTUAL, poems, plays and visuals/collages by Paolo Javier

* YELLOW / YELLOW, poems by Margaret Rhee

* LIGATURE STRAIN, poems by Kim Koga

RED WALLS, poems by James Tolan (gorgeously hard-fought and honed into gold)

BLUE&YELLOWDOG, FALL 2011 ISSUE 6, literary journal edited by Raymond Farr (adored those poems by Mark DuCharme!)

UNDER ALBANY, memoir by Ron Silliman (as pleasurable at 2nd read as it was in the 1st read!)

PATHS TO HOMELESSNESS: EXTREME POVERTY AND THE URBAN HOUSING CRISIS, study by Doug A. Timmer, D. Stanley Eitzenand Kathryn D. Talley

NEW COUNTRY COLLECTING by Carol Sama Sheehan with photographs by Joshua Greene

THE NOMINATION, novel by William G. Tapply

WINTER MOON, novel by Dean Koontz

THE INFORMANT, novel by Thomas Perry

STRIP, novel by Thomas Perry

DEAD AIM, novel by Thomas Perry

SILENCE, novel by Thomas Perry

NIGHTLIFE, novel by Thomas Perry

HEART OF ICE, novel by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

HARVARD'S EDUCATION, novel by Suzanne Brockman

HAWKEN'S HEART, novel by Suzanne Brockman

WINES
2002 Hutton Vale Grenache Mataro Eden Valley
2005 The James Brazill "Good Catholic Girl" shiraz
2007 Serra "Paitin" Barbaresco
1994 Pesquera Reserva Especial Ribera Del Duero

(WHAT) DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "POEM" AND "SONG LYRIC"?

2011-09-04T13:23:00.000-07:00

I mentioned previously that Cecilia Langlois aka Geejay Arriola, an award-winning songwriter and singer, has decided to put one of my poems to music! What an honor! Well, I don't think she anticipated having to slog through all my books, though, before she chose a poem (heh). Anyway, she chose an old poem of mine (it classifies as a "baby poem" since I believe it's among the first 20 poems I ever wrote) from my first poetry book Beyond Life Sentences, a poem entitled "Immigrant."

What's interesting is that she asked permission, for purpose of making the text work more for her song-writing, to edit the poem. I'm going to show the poem below with the indicated edits. But what's intriguing to me is that, the way I see the poem now, her edits improve the poem as poem anyway. Certainly, if I were writing the poem today I might edit it her way whether or not one calls it a poem or song lyric ... (even as I recall how certain poets in the past call for the poem to sing!)

... and, in turn, this all leads me to wonder about the difference between poem and song lyric. Does there really need to be a difference...?

Immigrant

The faces of the elders
Bestow a haunting
On others reciprocating
With their own weariness,
Dropping gazes like debris.

Teeth are missing
Gums full of potholes.
Long ago, shoulders sagged
To crumbling ruins.

They sit by roadsides
Under trees whose shade
They treasure for costing
Nothing.

Splayed around their feet
Are the young whose faces,
Like babies anywhere,
Eagerly turn here,
Eagerly turn there,

Searching surroundings
For treasures invisible
~~But~~ I ~~also~~ believed existed
When I still shared their innocence.

There is a country somewhere
On the opposite of where I stand
~~On this earth, a country~~
From where I departed
For a people I thought to save
Someday with my return.

But the old and the young
Are as different from me
As the wealthy of this universe:
They do not need much,
They need too much
They do not ask,
They must often plead
—While I know what it takes
To survive

And that survival meant
To move on from where a man
And a woman joined
Before the onset of weakness
To create me

Finally I know
~~At this peak of my wisdom~~
That to return bears
No relationship to survival

Which, instead has to do
With you whose path
Crossed mine
In a new land.

There is a country somewhere
Dying without a protest
From me defensively,
Selfishly seeking
Rebirth in your arms

Hm. I couldn't ... wouldn't ... write this poem today ...

HE'S BA...A...A...ACK!!!!

2011-09-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

I'd been so sad that Michael stopped showing interest in visual art for the past several months since I feel he's got great natural talent in it!!!! But he's baaaaaa....aaaaack!! He's taking visual art in high school and look at what he did for the cover of his artbook!

Isn't that just a fabulous combination of the figurative and the abstract?! But of course it is! It's Mama Moi being rhetorical to ye 9.5 billion Peeps!

And can you tell that he did the "abstraction" by first putting a palm on the surface to paint around the fingers....? Well, I'm blind -- so, actually, I didn't get that until he said so. Sigh: he is such an artiste....!

A HISTORIC NEW BOOK ON ARTIST CARLOS VILLA!

2011-09-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT
September 3, 2011

CARLOS VILLA AND THE INTEGRITY OF SPACES
Editor: Theodore S. Gonzalves
Release Date: Fall 2011
ISBN No.: 978-0-615-52120-6
Price: $40.00
For More Information: MeritagePress@aol.com, http://www.meritagepress.com, http://integrityofspaces.info (http://www.missionculturalcenter.org/MCCLA_New/gallery.html)

Meritage Press (San Francisco & St. Helena) is delighted to announce the release of CARLOS VILLA AND THE INTEGRITY OF SPACES, edited by Theodore S. Gonzalves. This long-overdue book takes a critical look at the life and work of one of the most celebrated Filipino American artists of our time and a leading light in the San Francisco Bay Area’s rich history of creative arts. The book includes essays and poetry by Bill Berkson, Theodore S. Gonzalves, David A.M. Goldberg, Mark Dean Johnson, Margo Machida, Moira Roth, and Carlos Villa; and features a gallery of 77 color and b&w images from Villa's career.

ADVANCE WORDS on this project include:

“For this beautiful book, cultural studies scholar Theo Gonzalves brings together the most relevant and important voices on the work of Carlos Villa, which spans more than half a century. Together with Gonzalves’ own detailed and nuanced essay, which provides a rich context for our understanding and appreciation of Villa’s art and life, they variously illuminate how the artist’s vision emerges from Filipino American history, how his work engages the work of other American visual artists, and how he thinks about and makes art. The book ends as powerfully as it begins, with Villa’s own words, both as a teacher and artist. Carlos Villa and the Integrity of Spaces is the definitive work on one of the most important American artists of our time.”
—Elaine H. Kim, author of Fresh Talk/Daring Gazes: Conversations on Asian American Art

“Here, finally, is the book that Carlos Villa so richly deserves. His fascinating art-and-life trajectory is explored by an equally stellar group of writers who weave the links (and ruptures) between Filipino/U.S. histories, art worlds, jazz, Asian American arts, San Francisco, and Villa’s gifts for friendship, teaching, and cultural activism. His art is memorable, powerful, and moving. So is this book.”
—Lucy R. Lippard, author of Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America

“When I first moved to the Bay Area in 1990, I remember seeing a pair of feathered shoes in a glass box. The implication—that by lifting the glass the shoes might fly away—did not feel like mainstream art or party line culture. It felt like a leap both personal and tribal. Looking back, I can now see the leap that Carlos Villa took as something close to my own immigration, one having always stood for a non-ideological American multiculturalism firmly grounded in the steps of his—and our—own journey.”
—Hung Liu, Professor of Studio Art, Mills College

“Carlos Villa is a legendary figure in the arts and in the struggles of a multicultural generation. For over four decades he has created work from the soul of his ancestry, language, and ceremonial vision. His generous leadership in the movement for cultural rights has brought together the luminaries of our time. His contribution to global artistic expressions is immense and incalculable and his iconic work marks an era critical to the arts in America.”
—Amalia Mesa-Bains, artist and author of Ceremony of Spirit: Nature and Memory in Contemporary Latino Art

“A wonderfully rich and important anthology that generously offers several instances of Carlos Villa’s own words with writings by distinguished contributors. Editor Gonzalves critically coheres a lively collection of essays and a brilliant piece of pantoum poetry, from discussions of the manong legacy to an assertion of hybridity and the primacy of art. Carlos Villa and the Integrity of Spaces will ensure the artist his rightful place in art and cultural history.”
—Yong Soon Min, Professor of Studio Art, University of California at Irvine

“This remarkable book on Carlos Villa—artist, educator, curator, and author—reveals the breadth of his work worldwide. His World’s in Collision has been one of the most important texts for the education of students and artists for over two decades; and his own art extends the cultural range of visual perception.”
—Keith A. Morrison, art educator, curator, art critic, and administrator

*****

Meritage Press seeks to expand fresh ways of featuring literary and other art forms. Meritage Press publishes a wide range of artists – poets, writers, visual artists, dancers, and performance artists, among others. By acknowledging the multiplicity of aesthetic concerns, Meritage’s interests necessarily encompass a variety of disciplines – politics, culture, identity, science, humor, religion, history, technology, philosophy and wine. Based in St. Helena and San Francisco, Ca., Meritage Press is published and edited by Eileen R. Tabios. More information at http://www.meritagepress.com and http://meritagepress.blogspot.com.

9-1-1 EXHIBIT AT LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

2011-08-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

I'm honored to be part of a “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display now on view in the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room, located in Room L J 150 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The exhibition runs from August 30 through September 15, 2011, with the hours of the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room being 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Actor and photographer Lia Chang posts a write-up on the exhibit at BACKSTAGE PASS. (Thanks much for highlighting my 9-1-1 poem...)

Anyway, here are some photos of my the exhibit and my contribution -- thanks to Curator Reme Grefalda:

It's always a challenge, IMHO, to exhibit a poem. Not a visual poem but a text-poem. I think it's great how Reme spliced up individual sections of the poem and then pasted them on a backdrop, evoking the collage technique that went into the writing of the poem...

A PAINTING FOR FRANCY

2011-08-30T10:58:00.000-07:00

Though Moi hermits on a mountain, I am lucky enough to be welcomed by various smaller communities within po-world. From the publisher of Greetings Magazine, Jeffrey Joe Nelson, comes their latest issue and a small painting! It's got a huge impact far transcending its scale that fits within a mailing envelope:

Muchas Gracias por the aptly-titled "Quick Painting #30 'Narrows of Varrenzano: Bt/w the sea & sky'"!

R.I.P., EDITH TIEMPO

2011-08-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

You lived a great life.

MOI NEXT RESURRECTION

2011-08-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a year-and-a-half since I last did a poetry reading (funny: it's felt longer) as moi attention wandered elsewhere. Looks like my next one will be a bit of a biggie: October 24 at the Library of Congress...more details soon. But pencil in the date, why dontcha, you East Coasters or Those-in-Washington D.C.-on-Oct. 24!

SILK EGG MISCHIEF

2011-08-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Well, chuckle. I didn't think of that! To wit, the book description is longer than the novel! That's a nota bene rob mclennan raises in his review of moi SILK EGG!

That SILK EGG is mischievous. And, huh, wonder what it says about moi blather that peeps respond well when said blather goes minimal...?! Maybe you should read SILK EGG, too (hah) and see what all these smart people are talking about in their revoos--they present a rather pleasing, mega-diverse landscape of how one reads differently the same words!

rob mclennan, rob mclennan's blog, Aug. 22, 2011

Alan Baker, Litterbug, July 11, 2011

Stephen Hong Sohn, Asian American Lit Fans, June 19, 2011

Michael Leong, BIG OTHER, June 10, 2011

Zvi A. Sesling, Boston Area Poetry Scene, March 2, 2011

Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews, Feb. 21, 2011

Jean Vengua, JEAN VENGUA, Jan. 30, 2011 and Feb. 6, 2011

Leny M. Strobel, Kathang Pinay, Feb. 1, 2011

Allen Bramhall, Tributary, Jan. 14, 2011

The hubby wants chickens. Not enthused about creating more coyote fodder. But I'm thinking about it more ... those eggs ...

ON ALTERING THAT SILENCE...!

2011-08-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'm so grateful to be part of a new anthology which offers my first appearance in Chile: La Alteración del Silencio: Poesía Norteamericana Reciente, co-edited by William Allegrezza and Galo Ghigliotto (Editorial Cuneta, 2011). English translation of that title is The Alteration of Silence: Recent North American Poetry, and I'm delighted to be with so many poets I admire -- I understand Chile's main newspaper has already reviewed it favorably!

But I'm really mostly grateful because appearing in Chile allowed me to mention to Michael how another Spanish-speaking country has welcomed his mom as a poet. This intrigued him enough to drop the teenagish grunts to have a real conversation. It began when he quirked his brows at me and said, "I'm not sure how poetry and publishing works ....?" (Heh: join the crowd, son.) Anyway, 'twas a great conversation as I've long thought the kids were confused as to what exactly I do with moi time ... laugh...

Poets in the anthology are

Paul Hoover, Rae Armantrout, Charles Bernstein, Maxine Chernoff, Deborah Meadows, Tyrone Williams, Geof Huth, Camille Martin, Sheila E. Murphy, Peter Gizzi, Jennifer Moxley, Garin Cycholl, Roberto Harrison, Eileen Tabios, William Allegrezza, Catherine Daly, Noah Eli Gordon, Jennifer Scappettone, Linh Dinh, Gabriel Gudding, Anselm Berrigan, Simone Muench, Sawako Nakayasu, Tao Lin, Katie Degentesh

My poems were taken from my books Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole, I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved and THE THORN ROSARY. Muchas gracias!

HOLD THE TOMATOES!

2011-08-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well now. Delighted to announce another jump in my Blog Peep Count: it's now up to 9.5 billion peeps (thanks, Mike, for the nudge over that latest "top"). No doubt, it's because of my Martha Stewart nature, for instance:

Yep, everything in above bowl was grown by Moi. Well, I suppose except the mozzarella cheese coz the buffalo got away. And except the olive oil because my initial harvest from last year rotted away. And except for the vinegar because I couldn't figure out how they grow on trees. And except for the salt because the ocean ain't local. And except for the pepper because the pepper bush erupted in flames. That is, Moi grew the tomatoes and basil. Which leads this City Slicker Farmer to post a new update to her Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects (and we have just added some new faboo books to the review copy list). And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.

CITY SLICKER SUMMER HARVEST
77 cherry tomatoes
11 regular tomatoes
28 red onions
2 strawberries
15 zucchini
43 summer squash
51 squash flowers
44 green beans
1 lemon squash
1 pumpkin (mistakenly and prematurely harvested upon being mistaken for an oversized yellow squash)
20 clumps of basil
5 clumps of sage
1 green cucumber
4 lemon cucumbers

PUBLICATIONS
THE GRAPE CRIES OUT! AN ANTHOLOGY OF WINE POEMS edited by David Alvarez (read it in manuscript. it's brilliant and fabulous -- and not just coz Moi is in it (really); it's a very fresh take on a somewhat traveled subject)

* FROM IDYLLS & RUSHES, poems by Susana Gardner

* LITTLE RICHARD THE SECOND, poems by Gregg Biglieri

* DEAR FAILURES, poems by Trey Sager (amusing)

* TRANSFER, poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

* THE HANDS OF STRANGERS: POEMS FROM THE NURSING HOME by Janice N. Harrington

* KINGDOM ANIMALIA, poems by Aracelis Girmay

THE ADOPTION PAPERS, poems by Jackie Kay

GORGEOUS CHAOS: NEW + SELECTED POEMS 1965-2001 by Jack Marshall

THE ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY: ESSAYS FROM THE OTHER WORLD by Kenneth Rexroth

CARLOS VILLA AND THE INTEGRITY OF SPACES, Edited by Theodore S. Gonzalves (this long-overdue art monograph with essays and other contributions by Margo Machida, Mark Johnson, Moira Roth, Bill Berkson, and David Goldberg will be Meritage Press' next release)

THE EYES OF GRAY WOLF, children's book by Jonathan London, illustrated by Jon Van Zyle

LITTLE PRINCES: ONE MAN'S PROMISE TO BRING HOME THE LOST CHILDREN OF NEPAL, memoir by Conor Grennan

I BEAT THE ODDS: FROM HOMELESSNESS TO THE BLIND SIDE AND BEYOND, memoir by Michael Oher with Don Yaeger

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION, novel by Marcia Clark (yep -- it's that O.J. Simpson Prosecutor-turned-Novelist. Ain't bad for the genre!)

FEAR NOTHING, novel by Dean Koontz

PRETTY LITTLE THINGS, novel by Jilliane Hoffman

A HEARTBEAT AWAY, novel by Michael Palmer

THE BEST REVENGE, novel by Stephen White

ONE GOOD DOG, novel by Susan Wilson

TO SAVE THIS CHILD, novel by Darlene Graham

SATORI, novel by Don Winslow

WINES
2008 Fog Dog pinot noir Sonoma Coast
2010 Sylvaner, Domaine Ostertag, Vieilles Vignes Alsace
2006 Muscat Lunel, Groff Degenfeld, Tokaji
2009 Muller Thurgau, Erste + Neue, Alto Adige
1997 Torbreck "The Steading"
2007 Peter Michael chardonnay "La Carriere"
2007 Ch. Paradis Terra des Anges
2010 Honig vineyards Sauvignon blanc
2008 MacMurray Ranch pinot noir Sonoma Coast
2004 Schweiger Family Cabernet Spring Mountain District
2009 Emmolo sauvignon blanc

YOU'RE INVITED TO PEEP AT THE SECOND PUBLICATION FROM 147 MILLION ORPHANS!

2011-08-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

I'm grateful to Lynn Behrendt and Anne Gorrick for asking me to participate in their latest "Peep Show" issue #4 with the theme "ABOUT WOMEN 2"! Said theme is timely given the VIDA reminder of how counting occurs to note who counts, note the curators.

Anyway, I'm delighted to have in such a venue some excerpts from my ongoing project, "147 MILLION ORPHANS: A HAYBUN". Do go HERE to peep at what I'm currently exploring through poetry. Other excerpts from the same project are available at The Brooklyn Rail. I am loving this project because it's very close-to-heart, per the project's "Notes":

"147 million" is a common estimate for the number of orphans worldwide. A “haybun” is a combination of hay(na)ku and other text. The hay(na)ku is a 21st century diasporic poetic form whose core is a tercet-based stanza with the first line being one word, the second line being two words, and the third line being three words. Each word forming a hay(na)ku in “147 MILLION ORPHANS” is listed chronologically from an 8th grade project by the poet’s adopted son, Michael, to learn English by studying 25 new words a week.

LANTERN ILLUMINATES

2011-08-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

Monica Mody offers a lovely review of Tamiko Beyer's bough breaks over at Lantern Review. Check it out--it's an interesting read, e.g.

These language-pastures seem to have once in the past(oral) contained the narrator until this instinct, to be a mother, escapes—pretty much like a protuberance—and causes a being-body to leak through. Queer desire is already a transgression, “chaotic.” By challenging the narrative that queer sexualities are non-reproductive, the maternal instinct turns the queer body excessive over and above its already-excess.

bough breaks seeks to interrogate this protuberance, this leaking, and its limits. It is fuelled by yearning: “will there be / between us a darling?” Yearning pushes through the body of the poem in the form of white space. Forms are invented to strike off authorized definitions of conception (biological as well as artistic), to prefigure the politics of a queer couple raising a child so as to question gender (“we would …. open mother to repetitions”), to consider how options for child-getting are often embedded in contexts of violence and capitalistic greed (and is there really a choice), to destabilize both the “natural” and the “not natural” in “queer” and “motherhood” (and sneaky iterations of everything in between), to circulate even more questions around adoption and embryo adoption (check out that play with “play” and “pay” on page 24!).

BACK IN THE RED

2011-08-06T18:45:00.001-07:00

So, my prior car was aging and I had to get a new car today as befits moi new status as Future Carpooler and Chairman/ CEO of Two Big Dogs, Two Human Teens, One Hubby and One Abuelita y the occasional dos gatos. As it turns out, my new car is of (almost) the same color as from moi bachelor days. So here is a BEFORE-AND-AFTER comparison for ye 9 billion Peeps who track the telenovela of The Chatty Life:

BEFORE MOI BECAME MOM

AFTER MOI BECAME MOM

One could say Moi is boxed in, judging by above ... but the Poetry came through: it is colored RED, after all...!

POETS ON ADOPTION--JULY UPDATE

2011-07-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

POETS ON ADOPTION ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear All,
While I've spent much of the last two months in Colombia finishing the adoption process for my 12-year-old daughter, I've also managed to update POETS ON ADOPTION four times to present the thoughts and poetry of

Carrie Etter June 2011
(was adopted at two weeks old; at age 17, gave up son for adoption)

Martha King June 2011
(grandmother to two children adopted domestically in the U.S.)

Elaine Randell July 2011
(as a psychotherapist and social worker, has worked with families and/or placed children in adoption)

kim thompson June 2011
(was adopted as a baby from Korea by U.S.-American parents)

You are invited to visit the site which, to date, presents nearly 50 poets representing a variety of adoption experiences. I'm also pleased to share that the site is being used in a poetry workshop this summer.

As well, please spread the word: we are always looking for new poets who wish to share their experiences; the call for participation is at http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com/2011/03/call-for-participation.html

Best,
Eileen Tabios
Curator, Poets on Adoption

THE TOMATOES HAVE ARRIVED!

2011-07-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

but a tomato need not be thrown at the wonderful LOVE IN A TIME OF PARANOIA by Howie Good, forthcoming from Diamond Point Press. Tis so lovely it's the latest recipient of blather, I mean, blurbie from Moi. To wit:

As with positing--that is, poem-ing--that "a crumpled napkin / was all Degas needed / to do a sky," Howie Good only needed to be attentive to his world to create the many, varied universes possible through poems. That is, from the smallest of details he creates the deepest implications, and does so with a pleasing finesse.
--Eileen R. Tabios

Now, as regards tomatoey moves, City Slicker here harvested that big oompa below on the left (next to a medicine bottle for scale) because she thought it was a yellow squash way past its delivery date. Instead, it's a premature pumpkin that she picked, uh, prematurely. So goes the day of the City Slicker Farmer:

Not all was lost. Here are the hubby and Francy harvesting appropriately from the garden -- they're pictured with squash but we also just got the first tomatoes of the season!

So here's one more update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects. And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.

CITY SLICKER SUMMER HARVEST
4 yellow cherry tomatoes
1 regular tomato
28 red onions
2 strawberries
12 zucchini
27 yellow squash
51 squash flowers
44 green beans
1 lemon squash
1 pumpkin (mistakenly and prematurely harvested upon being mistaken for an oversized yellow squash)
10 clumps of basil
5 clumps of sage
1 green cucumber
4 lemon cucumbers

PUBLICATIONS
* LOVE IN A TIME OF PARANOIA, poems by Howie Good (see above blurbie)

* IN THE LAND, poems by Bea Opengart (so well-wrought and deeply-felt. a lovely resonant result)

* YINGELISHI: SINOPHONIC ENGLISH POIETRY AND POETICS by Jonathan Stalling (found it quite enchanting!)

STONE GIRL E-PIC, poems, visual poetry and art by Ed Baker (interesting introduction by Conrad Didiodato, fabulous production by Leafe Press, and admirable work by the old man hisself)

* CLAIMS OF HOME: POEMS 1984-2010 by David M. Katz

* STILL, poems by Matthew Cooperman

* THE FIELD IS LETHAL, poems by Suzanne Doppelt, Translated by Cole Swensen

* JUNE, poems by Daniel Brenner

* NEGRO LEAGUE BASEBALL, poems by Harmony Holiday

* ALWAYS MESSING WITH THEM BOYS, poems by Jessica Helen Lopez

FAULTY MOTHERING, poems by Elaine Randell

OPENING UP: THE SEARCH FOR INTIMATE LOVE, photography by Victor Gagliardi

A TURNING POINT: IMAGES TO WORDS, photography by Victor Gagliardi

THE BETRAYAL OF THE BODY, psychology by Alexander Lowen

NARCISSISM: DENIAL OF THE TRUE SELF, psychology by Alexander Lowen

THE WAY TO VIBRANT HEALTH: A MANUAL OF BIOENERGETIC EXERCISES by Alexander Lowen and Leslie Lowen

THE CAT IN THE HAT, classic by Dr. Seuss (yep: finally read this! It may be a classic but wasn't a typical read from my Philippines-based childhood. Hm: parenting seems to redress many childhood, uh, lapses...!)

AMAZONIA, novel by James Rollins

THE DOOMSDAY KEY, novel by James Rollins

THE INNER CIRCLE, novel by Brad Meltzer

THE GODS OF GREENWICH, novel by Norb Vonnegut

WINES
Krug Grand Cuvee
2002 Bouchard Chevalier-Montrachet La Cabotte
2009 Rafanelli zinfandel
Travigne house Pinot grigio (an excellent 2012)
Osterreia house Barbera

Fundraising wines
DAY ONE
1990 DRC Richebourg
1993 Rousseau Chambertin Clos de Beze
1975 Vega Sicilia Unico
2004 Colgin Cariad
1964 Cheval Blanc
1967 d'Yquem
2005 Saxum James Berry vineyard

DAY TWO
Launois champagne Clos De Mesinil
2007 Peter Michael La Carriere
2005 Trevor Jones Dry Grown Barossa Shiraz
2002 Abreu Madrona Ranch
1996 Ch. Mouton Rothschild
1853 Whitwham King Pedro Reserve

KINDLE MOI, WHY DONTCHA!

2011-07-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

As publisher of Meritage Press, I'm delighted to share that Geoffrey Gatza's HOUSECAT KUNG FU is now available as a Kindle edition. It's the second Meritage Press title to get onto Kindle, the first being Michelle Bautista's KALI'S BLADE. Both are less than a buck, too! How can ye Kindle-owners possibly not e-quire?!

STIMULATING POETRY

2011-07-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

Aaaaaawwwwww. Ain't Moi sweet. To wit, in these days of economic flatness, Moi with my and Meritage Press' poetry sales continue to do our part to stimulate the economy of the Great State of California. Yes, Dear California, a check for sales taxes due is on its way to you for $136.00! Woot!

Granted, it's a slight reduction from my stimulus last year of $141.00, but nonetheless still a great improvement from my first year's sales taxes to you of $2.00.

Stick with me and my poetry sales, ye public. Moi poetry is more than paying its share of firemen, policemen and asphalt pavings. You're very welcome, indeed.

And the poems ain't bad either ...

THAT SILK EGG JEST KEEPS ON LAYIN'...!

2011-07-12T04:42:00.000-07:00

So gratified not to be trashed by Litterbug which offers a review of moi SILK EGG and TRUE CRIME by Julie Lumsden. Thanks to Alan Baker who writes --

I was won over on encountering these lines:

He moved into her gift, woke each morning to soft warm
lucidity, and agreed as regards the irrelevance of ribbons.

The understated sensuouness of that last line is superb. Each novel is an unfinished narrative, a set of fragments, for which the reader can supply completion, or, alternatively, they could just enjoy the phrasing, imagery and the sense of mystery each piece invokes. At one level, this book is a satire on contemporary novels, with each of the ten novels being a precis of a certain type. Thus, "Opium-Centred Lace", is - parody is too strong, and not the right word - is the ghost or shadow of a novel that might be a travelogue with some sort of love interest. But the language has a light touch and is too lyrical to be a straightforward satire

Click HERE for entire revoooo....

NO TEARS

2011-07-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, indeedy. Got my first (and last) harvest of red onions in, which is to say, this post's Recently Relished W(h)ine List will mark the opening of my summer 2011 harvest list. Let's see if this City Slicker does better this year! Here's a shot that makes me weep from happiness -- the red onions drying under the hot Napa sun:

And what they looked like later inside la casa:

Here's the update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects. And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.

CITY SLICKER SUMMER HARVEST
28 red onions
6 strawberries
8 zucchini
17 yellow squash
44 green beans
1 lemon squash

PUBLICATIONS
THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THOMAS MERTON

KEROTAKIS, poems by Janice Lee

ETHICS OF SLEEP, poems by Bernadette Mayer

BEAUPORT, poems by Kate Colby

HEALING HEART, poems by Gloria T. Hull

* CONTENT, photography/visual poetry by Jon Leon

* HOUSE ORGAN, No. 75 Summer 2011, Edited by Kenneth Warren (just chockful of PERFECT POEMS!)

ECCOLINGUISTICS, literary journal

ALTAR OF EDEN, novel by James Rollins

DAMAGE, novel by John Lescroart

THE UNION QUILTERS, novel by Jennifer Chiaverini

STILLWATER SEASONS, novel by Linda Lael Miller

WINES
2010 Dutch Henry rose
2010 Dutch Henry sauvignon blanc
2003 Donnhoff Oberhauser Brucke Riesling Spatlese
2008 Auberge du Soleil cabernet NV Reserve
2004 Trevor Jomes Dry Grown Barossa Shiraz
2001 Jones Family Cabernet

Yet another shot of a promising summer bounty!

REVERSE, OR RE-VERSE, HAY(NA)KU

2011-07-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

It's so nice to keep seeing the hay(na)ku reach new pockets of the universe. This time, don cunningham and Chris Vola share reverse hay(na)ku in the new issue of twenty20 Journal on poetic forms, edited by Benjamin C. Krause.

A nifty traveler
that ku(na)hay*
hay(na)ku

*after Charles Bernstein

HOW TO GET COVERAGE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

2011-07-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

So how does one get the NY Times to pay attention to the book one publishes? Reviews? Criticism? Essays? YAWN...

Meritage Press, ground-breaking as ever, gets it for Sean Finney's THE OBEDIENT DOOR by going (chuckle) THIS WAY.

Congratulations, Sean!

WHAT WAS RECENTLY RELISHED

2011-06-30T15:05:00.000-07:00

I rarely take poetry books for travel reading. I don't exactly know why, but suspect it has to do with wanting to relax (to the extent I can) while traveling. I'm not relaxed while reading poetry -- it's interesting to consider if there are poems out there which would relax Moi. I don't think I've come across any yet. If you have suggestions as regards relaxing poems, feel free to email me at GalateTen@aol.com. As I blog this, I begin to be curious about what poems relax readers, if they do...

Meanwhile, here's my latest Recently Relished W(h)ines list which reflects my travels to Bogota and Cartagena:

BOOKS:
LEAVING MICROSOFT TO CHANGE THE WORLD: AN ENTREPRENEUR'S ODYSSEY TO EDUCATE THE WORLD'S CHILDREN, memoir by John Wood

MIDSTREAM: THE STORY OF A MOTHER'S DEATH AND A DAUGHTER'S RENEWAL, memoir by Le Anne Schreiber

ADOPTION NATION: HOW THE ADOPTION REVOLUTION IS TRANSFORMING AMERICA, journalism/study by Adam Pertman

THE PACT, novel by Jodi Picoult

BLOOD WORK, novel by Michael Connelly

WHITEOUT, novel by Ken Follett

THE WINNER, novel by David Baldacci

THE WHOLE TRUTH, novel by David Baldacci

HIDE, novel by Lisa Gardner

NEVER LOOK BACK, novel by Linda Lael Miller

EXACT REVENGE, novel by Tim Green

THE YEAR OF THE FOG, novel by Michelle Richmond

BLESSINGS, novel by Anna Quindlen

BLACK AND BLUE, novel by Anna Quindlen

THE TWO MINUTE RULE, novel by Robert Crais

WINTER PREY, novel by John Sanford

MORTAL PREY, novel by John Sanford

WINES
2008 Contenata Zapata malbec
2007 Trivento Golden Reserve malbec
2008 Los Vascos Cabernet Colchagua
2008 Montes Alpha Cabernet
Trivento (vino de casa de Quebado restaurant)
2008 Sol de chile reserve cab
Valdivieso malbec
2010 Lazo Cabernet

POETS ON ADOPTION IS, AGAIN, FRESH!

2011-06-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

with Carrie Etter providing a powerful contribution from her vantage point as both adoptee and someone who gave up a child for adoption. Here's an excerpt:

At 17, I gave up my own son for adoption. At first I wrote about it confessionally; at readings in L.A., where I moved at 19, I often read a poem about childbirth in the knowledge I was giving him up and came to consider it my “signature poem.” Once, following a reading, a woman approached to express her sympathy for the pain I’d experienced in surrendering him—and said the poem made her glad she’d gone through with an abortion. I’m pro-choice, but I was aghast at such a response and think it was the last time I read the poem publicly.

Go HERE for her total contribution, including her poem "A Birthmother's Catechism" that concludes

How did you let him go?

Who hangs a birdhouse from a sapling?

POETS ON ADOPTION IS FRESH

2011-06-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

with Martha King sharing her adoption experience as a grandmother to two U.S.-domestically adopted children. Here's an excerpt:

The cost of modern American semi-open domestic adoption is not all that high in money terms. There’s lots of false information circulating on this. Also stories, totally outdated most of them, about the insecurity of domestic adoptions. That a court may demand return of a child to the biological family, for example. As a life-long conspiracy theorist, unconscious conspiracy, that foulest of all, being paramount, I speculate reasons may have to do with deep distrust of many white Americans for people with African heritage—plus class issues, of course, plus fear of exposure, all of which are ameliorated when a baby comes from a culture far away. Not even the prospect of being present at the baby’s birth, of bringing that baby home within a very few days, is enough to overcome a widespread preference for adoptions from Asia or the Caucuses by those with the resources to effect them.

POETS ON ADOPTION -- as befits poetry, not shirking away from what is complicated, subjective, risky, hard...

MEGA MOI

2011-06-21T00:03:00.000-07:00

Very grateful indeed to Stephen Hong Sohn for his "Megapost" on three of my books over at Asian American Literature Fans (June 19, 2011). Typos will be corrected once Stephen's had a chance to rest his eyes from reading my writings and writing about it (laugh: rest his eyes...).

Anyway, this keen critic reviews Nota Bene Eiswein (Ahadada Books, 2009), Silk Egg: Collected Novels (Shearsman Books, 2011), and Footnotes to Algebra: Uncollected Poems 1995-2009 (BlazeVox Books, 2009).

I'm grateful Stephen chose to engage with my work, especially since he observed that my

work with all of its formal inventiveness always is undergirded by an attention to social contexts, however elliptically they may be represented.

Thank you, Stephen. It takes extra incisiveness to get the social in elliptic or absract spaces. I'm blessed you got it!

FROM OVAL TO EGG!

2011-06-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Moi DEEP THANKS to Michael Leong for his review of SILK EGG! It's one of the most interesting takes yet! Especially if you like Wunderkammers, go HERE to see how Moi, according to Michael, evolves the oval to an egg using language!

It's also mystically mathematical, which is to say, it's a blessing when, in poetry, I read something I wrote and know there's no way I can ever replicate it or even something similar to it. I want zones to which it'd later be impossible to return...because the universe contains so many mysteries to explore!

POETS ON ADOPTION ... IS FRESH!

2011-06-10T04:54:00.000-07:00

kim thompson is the latest contributor to Poets on Adoption. Above is a gorgeous image from kim's 2006 solo work at Intermedia Arts, Mpls, MN where she was a recipient of their "Naked Stages" grant. The title of the piece was: "timeline autobigraphia: everything that is..." (Photo by Usry Alleyne)

Click on poem-excerpt below for kim's contribution:

and our past is the world's largest ball of seemingly unworkable yarn
but the train keeps speeding forward
and the solitary street lamps
are shining down on this
slowly knitted path

VISUALIZING 147 MILLION ORPHANS (PART 2)

2011-06-09T00:03:00.000-07:00

Some more shots for the 147 Million Orphans project. Part 1 is HERE.

So, this was another emotional day. We visited Michael's former orphanage. It was so emotional to see how the staff reacted to Michael's visit; as the hubby later told Michael, the orphanage staff lives for moments like what Michael gave them: to have a former orphan visit and show that he is now in a happy, stable, supportive family. Almost all exclaimed at how tall Michael had grown in the past two years ... yes, of course, I saw children looking as much as half their biological ages -- institutionalization, even when food is available, stunts development on so many levels. Here are some photos from our visit; the first is Michael with the orphanage director by where Michael slept for years...in a large room that contained perhaps a hundred boys:

Here's a shot of the babies' bedroom -- so many cribs, too many cribs!

Here's a shot of the orphanage director with a 13-year-old orphan. The director says she just turned 13, which means she's running out of time to be adopted. And "she's such a sweet, lovely girl who so longs for a family! Any family who adopts her will never regret their decision!" The director added, "I have so many in her position of wanting a family..."

The next shots are focused on orphaned toddlers. I am only showing four shots, but I actually took a lot with my Iphone as I was besieged with young uns clamoring to be seen. So I'd take their photograph, then show them their image on the Iphone -- for all, it seemed to make their day. Well, yes: most of us want to be ... seen, to have our selves acknowledged...

Michael hasn't discussed his feelings at having visited his former orphanage. No doubt, it's a lot to process ...

VISUALIZING 147 MILLION ORPHANS

2011-06-07T04:31:00.000-07:00

Yay. Got internet access. In a few hours, adoption proceedings will commence. But, meanwhile, chatted with the hotelier who runs a small hotel catering to adoptive families. 'Twas interesting to discuss what she's seen in the over 20 years she's been running the place, including the effects on adoption of the Great Recession, the control transition from drug lord Pablo Escobar (which made people, including potential adopters, leary of visiting Colombia) to former Pres. Uribe's administrations, and the increase of adoption interest from Europe which is experiencing negative population growth unlike the U.S. These, and other matters, ran through moi mind as a, for now, abstract soup ... but I suspect will all relate to my ongoing 147 Million Orphans project. Here's some related visuals of adopted children over the last two decades from our hotel stay which I did not expect but which obviously ... resonate:

This manuscript could be my most powerful project yet, if I'm willing to say ... certain things which I might not be able to say (1) for childrens' privacy reasons, and/or (2) for fear of jeopardizing possible improvements to the (or an) adoption system and/or orphan care. As I've said before, Adoption is like Poetry: complicated.

PRE-AIRPORT PAPERBACK READINGS

2011-06-04T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well, before I leave the mountain, here's one more update to my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects. And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE. Except that I won't be able to mail out requested review copies until after I return to the U.S. (estimated to be in early July). So, onward!

PUBLICATIONS
DARK ADAPT, poems by Brian Strang (just gorgeous: its darkness fails flawlessly to overwhelm its beauty)

UXUDO, poems by Anne Tardos

THE LAST 4 THINGS, poems by Kate Greenstreet (inexplicably brilliant)

MADE IN LIVERPOOL, poems by Jim Bennett (wonderfully resonant!)

FAULKNER'S ROSARY, poems by Sarah Vap

* THE GRIEF PERFORMANCE, poems by Emily Kendal Frey

FLOWER CART, poems by Lisa Fishman

ITERATION NETS, poems by Karla Kelsey

OPULENCE, poems by Stephen Ellis

OSTINATO VAMPS, poems by Wanda Coleman

THE TRIALS OF EDGAR POE AND OTHER POEMS by Ned Balbo

SMALL SKY: A COLLECTION OF WRITINGS, poems and prose by Janice Sapigao

THE LATE GREAT ALLEN GINSBERG: A PHOTO BIOGRAPHY by Christopher Felver with Euology by Lawrence Ferlinghetti & "In Memory of Allen" by David Shapiro

NOT ALL OF US ARE SAINTS: A DOCTOR'S JOURNEY WITH THE POOR, memoir by David Hilfiker

SADDLED: HOW A SPIRITED HORSE REINED ME IN AND SET ME FREE, memoir by Susan Richards

SHATTERED DREAMS, BROKEN PROMISES, THE COST OF COMING TO AMERICA, journalism by Michael Viner

HEADWIND, novel by John J. Nance

DON'T LOOK TWICE, novel by Andrew Cross

WINES
2009 Andrea Oberto Barbera D'Alba La Morea Piemonte
2004 Samuel's Gorge McLaren Vale Shiraz
2010 Dutch Henry sauvignon blanc
2009 Dutch Henry pinot noir
2005 Carver Sutro petite sirah
1989 Lynton Eisele Vineyards
2007 Birken Spur Zinfandel
2007 Black Pearl "Oro"
2000 Dutch Henry cabernet Chafen Family Reserve NV
2008 Abiouness Pinot noir
2008 Landmark chardonnay
2008 Lasseter Paysage
2008 Lasseter Amoureux
2008 Lasseter Malbec

REPRISE FOR MICHAEL, SHEEP BRAIN AND ALL!

2011-06-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

The Parents Association really did a great job putting together the wonderful graduation festivities for Michael's class. As one parent and I agreed, it felt like there was a Bollywood wedding as well as a Greek funeral somewhere in the mix that lasted three days! Anyway, here's a recap of the last day of celebrations, which took place at one of the families' homes that rivals Michael Jackson's former abode. We start with this fabulous swimming pool designed in a way to incorporate Disney-like features and made Michael, who loves to swim, proclaim, "I AM NEVER GOING TO LEAVE!" He's on the right frowning as he doesn't seem to understand that to be a parent is to take photos!

Much activity, but the bulk of the photos now will focus on the host taking the visiting families for a train ride (yeah, he's got a train in his backyard--why not?):

Finally, here's one last photo of Michael's class when they went hiking one last time together, led by their science teacher (Michael's on far right hanging over a branch):

Oh, let's not forget about the yearbook! Each graduate did a drawing which incorporated their class photo. Michael's, of course, features ... Achilles!

Last but not least, and I know many of you have been waiting for a photo of this, here is a photo of the sheep brain that Michael dissected because it looks very much like a human brain ('twas lovely finally tossing that in the garbage this morning!):

What lovely BOY FUN!

FIRST PUBLICATION FROM 147 MILLION ORPHANS

2011-06-03T19:45:00.000-07:00

Deep gratitude to Anselm Berrigan for asking me for poems for Brooklyn Rail, whose poetry section he edits. Anselm's solicitation had an exponentially huge impact in that, by soliciting, he encouraged me to finally start writing poems from 147 Million Orphans, a poetry manuscript which I'd conceptualized but not yet began manifesting through poems. The first poems then from 147 Million Orphans (title is after one of the estimates of the number of orphans worldwide) are published HERE in the June issue of Brooklyn Rail, one of my favorite online journals.

I notice I'm in good company with poems this issue by Jennifer Moxley and Brenda Coultas. THANK YOU, Anselm.

147 Million Orphans is in the form of a haybun, with each section's impetus a hay(na)ku formed from one of Michael's 8th grade projects: a vocabulary notebook from having to learn 25 new English words each week during the schoolyear. Here's a photo of the first page from Michael's now quite dog-eared 900-new-word vocabulary journal:

Yes, I'm a poet and thus know words are not mine...and that poems surround us and my job is simply to discern them into existence.

WE BUY BOOKS!

2011-06-03T05:46:00.000-07:00

I'm finding it so moving to watch Michael "play" with his Kindle. I said before that his first purchase was Jon Krakauer's INTO THE WILD, a book that's a summer reading requirement by his future high school. He's uploaded some free educational games since, but he's also purchased now (for a mere $1.79!) THE COMPLETE MARK TWAIN COLLECTION (over 300 works). And I believe his next book purchase will be John Steinbeck's GRAPES OF WRATH (another recommended summer reading by his high school). That's moi boy! Studies show that the two biggest factors to contribute to a student's high school experience are (1) parental involvement, and (2) reading! Check and check!

As for Mama Moi, here's my latest BOUGHT POETRY List!

ELEVATORS by Rena Rosenwasser

PERIL AS ARCHITECTURAL ENRICHMENT by Hazel White

AREAS OF FOG by Joseph Massey

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS by William Allegrezza

SMALL SKY by Janice Sapigao

Poetry, Dear Peeps, is something to--in more ways than once!--buy!

MORE THAN A THOUSAND WORDS...!

2011-06-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

Images from Michael's Graduation Celebrations!

Michael (third from left) was part of a class of 22 which was quite boy-heavy!

'Twas a good idea to have student self-portraits scattered about the reception area--here's the hubby and Michael with his mosaic-collage art work!

Blue Oak School Class of 2011!

Michael at restaurant following graduation ceremonies, with his gift--a Kindle book reader! (The first book he purchased later that evening, courtesy of a gift card from his very proud Abuelita, was a required summer reading by his forthcoming high school, Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild.)

It's important to give kids wonderful early memories; here's one with Michael and a framed photo of his class, all jumping for joy!

...And Moi fluffs the wings and waves the wand and gleefully cackles and poetically conjures (as all her conjurations become true since she never squanders it on revealing winning Lotto numbers): And he shall live happily ever after ...

ONE MORE LESSON FOR THE GRADUATE

2011-06-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

And as I go cheerfully about the day preparing for my son's graduation this evening (GRIN!), I get an email from the hubby with this photo from when Michael was boasting to the indifferent Gabriela about his graduation suit:

"You know," the hubby aptly notes about the suit that El Hijo is clearly relishing, "we should educate Michael about how, before wearing new apparel, one takes off the manufacturer's tags (on his left arm)."

Well put! BIG GRIN! I don't think El Fashioniste would appreciate it if we allowed him to inadvertently become the Minnie Pearl of Men in Suits!

THE GRADUATE

2011-06-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

This evening, Blue Oak School will hold its graduation ceremonies at the Napa Valley Opera House. I'm ... so moved to share Michael's graduation speech below (any grammatical or typo tics are his idiosyncracies of just knowing English for about 2 years). I truly did not influence his speech -- but it's obvious how HE IS SO MUCH MY SON! I mean, geez: how could he ever have thought to write his speech as mostly a poem!

Which actually leads me to mull about one of the advantages of adopting older children -- they are old enough to listen to you counsel them on their "new normal" as they join a new family as well as, in his case, a new country/culture. And so, coming out of an orphanage, he hadn't (yet) been exposed to how culture marginalizes poetry. When I discuss poetry with him, he receives the information without knowing that it's ... not typical by many folks' lifestyles to be discussing poetry. I think that's why he, on his own, thought about writing a poem to convey most of his graduation speech. Poetry -- it's not something he puts on a pedestal, or shirks from; it's not something he either disses or privileges. It's just part of life, everyday life.

He also didn't display self-consciousness as he voluntarily rehearsed last night the delivery of the poem, taking my earlier suggestion seriously about mentally counting 2 beats after each line-break and four beats after each stanza break (I wanted to slow down his reading to improve his pronounciation). I so appreciated his earnestness! Anyway, nuff said on that -- here is THE GRADUATE!

Michael Alexander Pollock Graduation Speech

Hello, my name is Michael Alexander Pollock. First I would like to thank everybody who has joined us today for this celebration where we 8th graders take the next step for going to high school. From my school experience I learned that you can’t just accomplish a goal by asking for it, but you can accomplish a goal by working hard for it. I reached the goal of graduating from 8th grade thanks to my parents who gave me the opportunity to learn and supported me along the way. I also want to thank the teachers who helped me this year. Now, I would like to share a poem called “song of my self.”

Song of Myself

I was born in Colombia
Speaking Spanish.
Knowing only one culture
With not much education.
I did not know how to help others.
I played soccer
But did not read books.

Today I live in the United States
Speaking English.
I’ve learned about different cultures
           like China, Italy, and Greece.
I am receiving a good education
           Especially from Blue Oak
I learned about community service.
I enjoy tennis, skiing, fencing, and swimming
And I read books every day.

In the future, I might live in Europe
I might be bilingual or more.
I will experience other cultures, especially Italy
           Where I want to visit as part of college.
I will work to help other people
           Like poor children.
I will expand my sports to include
           Baseball, water polo, and surfing
I hope to write about my life in a book.

Gracias a mis profesores que me ayudaron a lograr muchas cosas.
Thank you to my teachers who helped me accomplish many things.

Gracias a Mis padres por haberme dado la oportunidad y amor, tanto como todos los libros que me ayudaron a aprender a inglés.
Thank you to my parents for giving me the opportunity and love as well as all those books which helped me learned English.

***

By the way, the students were given a macro theme of "I Was, I Am, I Will Be..." for writing their speeches. Michael's poem contained three stanzas, each representing one of those three phases in the assigned theme. Isn't it a cool approach...?

But Michael did shoot down a suggestion I had for the poem title. I thought it could have been "Yo Era, Yo Am, I Will Be..." Get it? Begin in Spanish, transitioning from Spanish to English, and then being in all English! Yeah, okay: the concept was better than the manifestation...

...but it was a teachable moment as regards Whitman's Song of Myself! It's all ... good. It's all so good!

POETS ON ADOPTION--May Update

2011-05-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

POETS ON ADOPTION Announcement:

We are pleased to share that ten more poets contributed in May to POETS ON ADOPTION. Representing a wide variety of experiences, they are

Jim Bennett May 2011
(in England, was adopted as a baby. as a parent, adopted two children)

Peter Boskey May 2011
(was adopted as a baby from Korea by U.S.-American parents. brother to two siblings who were both also adopted as babies from Korea)

Sunu P. Chandy May 2011
(awaiting final government and court approvals in India in order to complete adoption of an 18 month old baby girl from South India)

Mary Krane Derr May 2011
(had four near misses, from different angles, with adoption. was a maternity services & adoption social worker)

Karen G. Johnston May 2011
(in the U.S., fostered, then adopted a son and daughter)

Leza Lowitz May 2011
(in Japan, adopted a two-year-old son)

Leslie McGrath May 2011
(adopted a baby girl from Korea)

Penny Callan Partridge May 2011
(was adopted domestically in the U.S. adopted a daughter and son. co-founded Adoption Forum in Philadelphia and is former President of the American Adoption Congress)

Karen Pickell May 2011
(was adopted as a baby domestically in the U.S. sister to an adopted brother. has two adopted stepchildren, one of whom was adopted from Korea)

Michele Wolf May 2011
(adopted a baby girl from China)

More information on the Call of Participation is at http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com/2011/03/call-for-participation.html -- please do spread the word!

Eileen Tabios
PoA Curator
http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com
GalateaTen@aol.com

BOY / MAN IN SUIT!

2011-05-28T20:19:00.001-07:00

Sniffle. What a day! Today, Michael insisted on modeling his very first suit for us after Mom hemmed his pants (thanks Mom!)! Here's a prevoo of his graduation outfit (well, yes, I gotta switch his daily white athletic socks to darker, more formal socks)!

"Twas surreal -- looking at him in a suit, I just had so many flashbacks of the past two years of his blossoming. O moi gawd: he's a young man! Here's a close-up of him, this time wearing his future high school baseball cap!

And here's the Handsome One with another furrier but equally Handsome Achilles!

No need to explain why Mama Moi is all teary-eyed ... ! Wasn't it just yesterday he was doing THIS?!

SUPER CEREBELLUM AND OTHER ... CRINGES!

2011-05-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Poof. There go more of moi feathers...! I'm so proud I'm fit to bust! To wit:

Last night Michael's class presented their "Capstone" projects to an audience of parents and friends. These were the final leg of a multi-genre approach to understanding a topic well enough to create several projects around it. For Michael, he chose the topic of what comprises the brain, some positive and negative effects that affects its development, and how alcohol damages the brain. He created a research paper complete with MLA notes (I don't even do MLA notes). Then he taught the brain to a class and made it fun by, after teaching them the brain parts and what it controls, asking the students to create superheroes from brain parts, e.g. Super Cerebellum or stuff like that. He projected drawings of the superheroes on the screen that enlivened what could otherwise have been a hum-drum slide show on what the brain looks like. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

Then he presented a short film of himself dissecting a sheep brain! Because a sheep brain is very much like a human brain! We're all sheep! It was ... gross! And all super and lovely at the same time! Here is my Super Son (and now I know why he so wanted to get that t-shirt from the Gap):

Those knees, btw, belong to the head creative honcho of Pixar, a very nice man. Jest sayin'...

Okay, now, proud Mama is left with just one more question: how to dispose of the sheep brain in her refrigerator without El Hijo causing a stink. It's hidden behind the butter dish at the moment so that Mom doesn't cook it by mistake. I've read about this, you know -- having kids' science experiments in the fridge. I feel I've passed yet another major parenting threshold, courtesy of ye olde sheep brain which I did not did not did not want to feel ... until I remembered that I'm a poet and thus supposed to be open to all experiences and so, to my son's delight, I felt said sheep brain ... and it was spongy and cringe-inducing. Just what I needed: more raw material for a spongy and cringe-inducing poem. World, await!

WITHIN THE WORMHOLE

2011-05-23T22:11:00.000-07:00

Spent some time recently with several publications by j/j hastain -- intriguing stuff: j/j unzips the zipper that would be a seam between life and words, and revolutionizes the lyric by doing so. Relatedly, here's moi blurb (unedited) for j/j/'s next book, a womb-shaped wormhole:
This is one beginning for a world attempting to make itself in advance of its articulation. But it can be articulated by scents, which is to say, traces ... like musk, patchouli, mustard, "split truffles," or even attar of long-dead altars and imagined memories. In this beginning lie the orgasms of fractals, revealing how fractions require flesh as condition precedent to existence--for who we may not at first recognize is nonetheless not that different from you and me.
--Eileen R. Tabios
And here's the rest of my updated Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects. And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.

PUBLICATIONS
A WOMB-SHAPED WORMHOLE, poems by j/j hastain (see above blurb)

ELEVATORS, poems by Rena Rosenwasser (elevates connoisseurship wonderfully!)

AREAS OF FOG, poems by Joseph Massey (ravishing)

* FRAGMENTS OF A FORGOTTEN GENESIS, poems by Abdellatif Laabi, Trans. by Nancy Hadfield and Gordon Hadfield (magnificent)

SELVAGE: FOR COUNTRY, poems by Tsering Wangmo Dhompa (consistently a welcome read)

BEFOREHAND, visual poetry by Cecilia Vicuna

CAN WE TALK HERE, poems by Carmen Gimenes Smith

GO THIS WAY QUICKLY, poetry card by kari edwards (robust, nifty and just plain kewl)

FIELD WORK: NOTES, SONGS, POEMS 1997-2010 by David Hadbawnik (great premise, great job!)

THE PEOPLE THEY BROUGHT ME: POEMS IN THE ADOPTION COMMUNITY by Penny Callan Partridge (what a lovely premise -- presenting poems as well as people the the poet met as a result of those poems. Separate from the adoption issue, gads I wish I'd thought of that concept first!)

FABULAE, poems by Joy Katz

AMERICAN INCIDENT, poems by Brian Henry

WE IN MY TRANS, poems by j/j/ hastain

ASYMPTOTIC LOVER//THERMODYNAMIC VENTS, poems by j/j/ hastain

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY GENDER, poems by j/j hastain

COCKBURN, poems by j/j hastain

OUR BODIES, poems by j/j hastain

PRURIENT ANARCHIC OMNIBUS, poems by j/j hastain

RESTITUTIONS FOR A NEWER BOUNTIFUL VERB, poems by j/j hastain

THE ULTERIOR EDEN, poems by j/j hastain

IT IS WORTH CONSIDERING, poem mini-book by j/j hastain

[A CROONED COCOON...], poetry collage by j/j hastain

COCKBURN, poems by j/j hastain

VISITING DR. WILLIAMS: POEMS INSPIRED BY THE LIFE AND WORK OF WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS Co-Edited by Sheila Coghill & Thom Tammaro (my initial response HERE)

ON THEIR OWN: WHAT HAPPENS TO KIDS WHEN THEY AGE OUT OF THE FOSTER CARE SYSTEM, study by Martha Shirk & Gary Stangler

THE GIRL'S GUIDE TO HOMELESSNESS, memoir by Brianna Karp

IT'S NOT OKAY WITH ME, memoir by Janine Maxwell

SMALL FURRY PRAYER: DOG RESCUE AND THE MEANING OF LIFE, autobiography by Steven Kotler (a gem)

SUE'S MEMORIES OF HOME, memoir by Sue Sword (a fundraiser pretending it's a book; read it from curiosity)

COLD WIND, novel by C.J. Box

THE LAST DETECTIVE, novel by Robert Crais

NO GOOD DEEDS, novel by Laura Lippman

BAD BLOOD, novel by John Sanford

WINES
2005 Stonewell Wines "Red Nectar" cabernet Barossa Valley
2002 Hutton Vale Grenache Mataro Eden Valley
2006 Pirathon shiraz Barossa Valley
200[8?] Monterosso zinfandel Dry Creek Valley
2007 Pahlmeyer
2008 Astrale & Terra reserve merlot