THE POETICS OF EDUCATING "SHIH"

This photo of Filipinas and an American Soldier (from Univ. of Wisconsin Archives)

is a provocative illustration to a fabulous presentation of "Pinay Poets" at The Bakery, curated by Barbara Jane Reyes.  I'm honored to be part of the group: Joi Barrios, Arlene Biala, Sasha Pimentel Chacon, Rachelle Cruz, Luisa A. Igloria, Karen Llagas, Melissa Roxas, Melissa Sipin, Eileen Tabios, and Jean Vengua.

"Pinay Poets" is The Bakery's monthly feature and as part of such, poetics essays by the participants also will be featured throughout the month.  So far, two have appeared: Jean Vengua's "Notes on a Poetics of Individuality and Community" is over HERE, and my "Educating the Shih: A Filipina Poetics" also just appeared HERE. 

My two sample poems (on boxing, haha) are from a manuscript-in-progress that could be my first long-poem book, 147 Million Orphans: A Haybun.

And as my poetics essay moves from Sun Tzu's The Art of War to Michael Gerard Tyson (of the recent menage a troi Brad Pitt and Robin Givens fame, sigh), it seems appropriate to me that the poetics statements are featured on The Bakery's "Dirty Pans" Blog ... coz if your poetics don't get dirty, it ain't particularly ... tasty.  

GAZE INTO MOI BEAUTIFUL EYES!

[As a publisher, I'm so tickled to have the chance to publish this book. Please spread the word -- I promise it will enchant adults as much as the kiddos!]


[Please Forward]

MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

 BEAUTIFUL EYES

A bilingual children’s book by Gayle Romasanta, Ramon Abad and translators Carmen and Pat Romasanta, in both printed chapbook and e-book formats

Release Date: 2012

Print chapbook: $12.00 from Meritage Press (email MeritagePress@aol.com)

E-book: $9.99 from Meritage Press’ Lulu account



Meritage Press is delighted to announce its latest release, the bilingual children's book Beautiful Eyes with text by Gayle Romasanta, Tagalog translations by Carmen and Pat Romasanta, and illustrations by Ramon Abad. More information is at its book link: http://meritagepress.com/beautiful.htm

Beautiful Eyes is based on the timeless motor skills and memory game taught to Filipino babies. An adult says to the baby, “Beautiful Eyes!” Based on memory, a baby will open and close her eyes, batting them for all to see! Beautiful Eyes also emphasizes the beauty that is the Filipino self. It aims to nurture this sense of self early on in the baby years for little ones to take into adulthood—and for adults to remember this sense of self as they read to their children.

This enchanting project can be ordered as a chapbook directly from the publisher for $12 + $2 shipping (email: MeritagePress@aol.com). It is also available from http://www.lulu.com/shop/gayle-romasanta-and-ramon-abad/beautiful-eyes/ebook/product-20064455.html as an e-book which can be read on iPhone, iPad, Kindle and other tablets that can read the PDF format. Kindle users may need to download the ebook to their computer then email the file to their Kindle. See Kindle instructions on transferring files to Kindle. For a full list of available devices, go to http://connect.lulu.com/t5/Digital-Media-eBook-Downloading/What-devices-can-I-view-my-eBook-on/ta-p/31639 (see 3rd column-PDF).

Meritage Press is proud to support this project, a needed addition to bilingual children’s literature involving Filipino culture.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR:
Gayle Romasanta was born in Manila, Philippines and moved to the United States when she was 1 ½ years old. When she was five she wrote a short story about the little people who lived underground. After this story, she knew she wanted to be a writer. Along the way she learned to play the violin, joined a funny theater group, went to art school, and had two babies. She continues to write and publish her creative writing.

Ramon Abad was born in Iligan City, Mindanao, Philippines and moved to the United States when he was almost 2 years old. When he was four he would draw on everything: on walls, in books, and on recycled paper from his dad’s work. Now as a grown-up he draws on a computer, but he still also draws on recycled paper.

Chapbook ISBN: 978-0-9826493-3-6
E-book ISBN: 978-0-9826493-4-3

For more information, please email the publisher at MeritagePress@aol.com

"NOTHING OR NO ONE IS ALIEN TO ME"

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

"I loob you"!

Cheers!

DREAMING UP AN AVANT-GARDE

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!

BEFORE ECO-POETICS,

there was Babaylan Poetics.

A BEAUTY PERFECTED BY THORNS

I'm deeply appreciative of Leny Strobel's review of THE THORN ROSARY in the new issue of Moria Poetry. Thank you, Leny, and Moria editor Bill Allegrezza.

And I note that Leny's review begins

I am not Catholic and do not pray The Rosary and so do not remember how I came to memorize Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. Perhaps from the catechism class in elementary school or from hearing the rosary recited at funerals, masses, and other Catholic rituals that seeped their way into my consciousness.

I’ve always felt envious of my Roman Catholic friends. Growing up non-Catholic, I was forbidden to set foot inside the cathedrals and so the glimpses that I got of the ornate altars, saint statues, stained glass windows, frescoes, and places of rituals made me wish that my own church wasn’t so austere and bereft of such symbols. To this day The Rosary, as a symbol that carries History, fascinates me.

Synchronicity--I believe Leny was raised as a Methodist, as I was. I wonder what a Catholic reviewer would actually do with The Thorn Rosary....well, besides consign Moi to Hell, of course (grin).

Anyway, one of my favorite parts of Leny's review is:

See Thomas Fink’s and Joi Barrios’ essays in this book—they too have tried to ride this Beauty, tried to frame it within certain boxes (the former as an extension on work done on the prose poem form by Gertrude Stein, John Ashbery and Language poets; the latter as following up on early female Philippine poets and storytellers)—still these poems always escape their boxes.

I love it -- there's a deeply considered Introduction, and a deeply considered Afterword...and a reader thinks the poems slip through these deep thoughts. Slippery eels, and glorious in their mermaid dresses, these poems that no one can ever really capture....

And, particularly for this book which is a "Selected Poems" project, I can't fathom how the majority of these poems came to be written through a pen I once wielded. I look at this poem now, that Leny also highlighted, and can share that I don't remember writing it and can only read it now with some bemusement.

Restive
—after “on God (en Garde)” by Archie Rand

The farmers are monitoring the sky. Rain dilutes sweetness in the grapes. Knuckles knot into themselves, mimic the knees of hundred-year-old grapevines. The cabernet hang like purple testicles. I am always fingering a bunch. Sometimes I pinch off a globe, split its skin before my lips and suck at its membrane. The farmers measure brix mathematically. I want my body to determine truth like Cezanne painted rocks instead of images. When I see the winged shadow glide over the fruit-laden fields of September’s wine country, I know better than to question how my body doubles over. How my mouth gasps. I feel blood flowing out of a creature, somewhere, felled on its path. Its last vision will be a vulture’s open beak. Sweetness, let the harvest begin under the most livid sun. “Sweetness” —perhaps I mean You, dear “God.” Lord, I am praying for life and living—I am making poems.

Years ago, I did a poetry reading and a winemaker in the audience said about my "purple testicles" reference that he'll never harvest in the same way again (heh)...

...And I wonder about you, oh most livid sun... Well, hopefully dear Peeps, you'll also check out The Thorn Rosary: for about two decades, I'd been writing it for You...

BABAYLANISM

OurOwnVoice's newest issue is rather historic by focusing on the Babaylan.

I've got three poems innit, which isn't the most important detail but which I note for moi Blog-File ("Hay(na)ku with Ducktail for Leny", The Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon," and "Sacred Time"). Again for the Blog-File, I also have the novel "Dear Cloud" innit.

Having gotten Housekeeping out of the way, I found this essay by Cynthia Arias, "An American Babaylan: Living in One's Own Truth" quite useful. It's useful because modern-day Babaylanism is controversial in some circles as people grapple with the effect of the diaspora (and the resultant separation from "land"). Anyway, here's some excerpts from Arias' essay:

The concept that the Babaylan is defined by factors that override an individual’s direct experience of the originating land, the Philippine Islands, is vital to understanding the presence of the Babaylan in the Diaspora and the ways that sacred practices of the Babaylan have, as well, bridged the seas of consciousness that Pilipinos have traversed in their journeys around the world.

...

If we accept that Culture is a human construct, by which a group of individuals agree basic concepts of values, morals, mores to form a worldview, then it follows that Culture evolves as humans evolve.

...

While many may provide their perspectives, and assist in our discoveries, through critical analysis founded in scientific methodology, it is up to us to decide who we are and where we are headed.

Modern-day Babaylanism is empowering.

The Babaylan Conference, which seeded this issue, also empowered Mom to write her first book (which I'm reviewing now). But here is also one of her narratives, a memoir from 1939 entitled "Dawac". Good for Mom!

Also useful is the essay "Ways of the Babaylan" by Katrin de Guia. It's clear from her essay that empathizing/understanding (in my opinion, if you understand Babaylanism, understanding cannot occur without empathizing) cannot occur without that thing that many folks are scared to discuss: love. I do think Ben Okri's quote relevant: "Only those who truly love and who are truly strong can sustain their lives as a dream. You dwell in your own enchantment. Life throws stones at you, but your love and your dream change those stones into the flowers of discovery."

It takes courage to love as a Babaylan would/does. For, as de Guia puts it, "The first priority of the babaylan is the community."

I appreciate Babaylanism because it requires intelligent innocence.

"LITERATURE...TOWARDS LIBERATORY PRACTICE"

Here's latest anthology in which Moi appears: WALANG HIYA: Literature Taking Risks Towards Liberatory Practice (translated as "without shame").

And am pleased to be part of the Poets for Living Waters project curated by Amy King and Heidi Lynn Staples in response to the BP oil spill disaster. Innit with a poem, statement of conscience and explication of Michael and his anti-colony collapse disorder beekeeping. I was very happy, too, to be able to meld some Babaylan Poetics/indigenized POV into that conscience-statement...

SMALL PRESS TRAFFICS WITH BIG HEARTS

Because I believe in gratitude, I want to post that last Friday's SPT reading was special for so many reasons besides being able to share Michael's first English-language poem. Like my co-reader Susan Gevirtz who read in part from her new book which I am now enjoying: Aerodrome Orion & Starry Messenger (Kelsey).

--Rebeka who I thought was in Mexico but is in the Bay Area for now and stopped by with, among other things, Spanish and bilingual Spanish-English books for me and Michael to enjoy! Fabulous y gracias. (Rebeka is helping on that bilingual edition of The First Hay(na)ku Anthology which would be lovely as the English first run is out of print.)

--meeting such lovely SPT staff and volunteers, including the gracious Robin Tremblay-McGaw

--the indefatigable Sean Labrador y Manzano who, arriving late but in time for my reading, had to be escorted by security back to the auditorium where the reading was taking place (the security was confused as most of the attention at CCAC that night was on the end-of-year art exhibits by the students). So did the cops stay for poetry...?

--and last but not least, hearing CA Conrad's introduction of Moi, to wit I replicate below:

In her poem "Purity" Eileen Tabios writes, "After the fall of Miletus, the poet Phrynichos staged a drama about it. But the play's performance was forbidden by Athenians who fined him 'for reminding them of afflictions which affected them intimately.' I consider my search for unrelenting intimacy—a search I conduct despite my heart's cocoon of encaustic. I consider how a grid is supposed to eliminate gesture from paint. Although paint, finally, must return to its nature and flow like a menstruation—ooze with a viscous intensity unmitigated by geometry." In the current democratic empire of the United States of America, it is forbidden to be a foreigner of color, without papers, in Arizona, especially if you LOOK Mexican. OF COURSE, if you LOOK British you can destroy one of the most fragile animal wildlife refuges in the world with tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil and no one's going to arrest you. You'll be scolded. You'll be chastised, you may even be called names, but you can still fly to Phoenix if you're British and have lunch, take a stroll, enjoy the lovely day, completely unmolested by police. No holding cell for YOU. No, it's joyous.

I like this intro--there's nothing random at all about it. It gleaned my Babaylan Poetics.

IT'S REALLY MICHAEL'S DAY!

One of the many pleasures from last night's SPT poetry reading was inflicting--ahem, I mean, sharing--Michael's first English language poem, "Tornados". But then, after the reading when Michael and the hubby came by to pick me up, guess what happened!

I was able to introduce Michael to Norma Cole who then proceeded to compliment Michael on his first poem. Talk about memory-making! How many 14-year-olds can say they they wrote a poem at 14, and then had it praised by Norma Cole! Woot!

And Michael deserves all the accolades. Because we are celebrating Mother's Day early by combining it with the hubby's birthday celebration tonight, given that said hubby has to leave tomorrow on a business trip. So, this morning, Michael came down with his gloriously-designed outfit:



And of course he didn't forget his Dad's birthday. When you turn him around, you'll see what the back of his t-shirt proclaims, and a happy father with Achilles inserting his mug into the happy action:



Then, he took a second photo with my father's photo because my husband and my father share the same birthday. Do you see Abuelita smiling in the background?



Michael is such a pleasure.

Yes folks Google Moi--OLDER CHILD ADOPTION WORKS!

GALATEA RESURRECTS FOR THE 14TH TIME

because Kapwa is Shared Life. Just like kitty Artemis and dawgie Achilles sharing their life together



Please go check out the new issue of Galatea Resurrects which was beget in the root of Kapwa. For convenience, the Table of Contents is copied below. You certainly should check it out for Michael's FIRST English-language poem! It's on tornados!!

Galatea Resurrects #14: Table of Contents

May 5, 2010

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

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
By Eileen Tabios


NEW REVIEWS
Crag Hill reviews SHOULDER SEASON by Ange Mlinko

Steven Fama reviews MUCH LIKE YOU SHARK by Logan Ryan Smith

Patrick James Dunagan reviews FROM THE CANYON OUTWARD by Neeli Cherkovski; THE PLEROMA by Vincent Ferrini; THIRSTING FOR PEACE IN A RAGING CENTURY: SELECTED POEMS 1961-1985 (NEW & REVISED EDITION) by Edward Sanders; LET’S NOT KEEP FIGHTING THE TROJAN WAR: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1986-2009 by Edward Sanders; BODY CLOCK by Eleni Sikelianos; and LEAVES OF GRASS, 1860: THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY FACSIMILE EDITION by Walt Whitman, edited by Jason Stacy

Kristen Orser reviews THE LAST 4 THINGS by Kate Greenstreet

Richard Kostelanetz reviews POESIE DER ENTSCHLEUNIGUNG: EIN LESEBUCH by Robert Lax, Ed. Sigrid Hauff

Jim McCrary reviews MONDO CRAMPO by Juliet Cook; SILVERONDA by Lucy Harvest Clarke; THE CONTORTIONS by Nicole Mauro; GOODNIGHT VOICE by Dana Ward; GUTTER CATHOLIC LOVE SONG by Joseph Wood; and MY DAY AIMLESSLY WALKING VANCOUVER, WASH by James Yeary, illustrated by Nate Orton

John Herbert Cunningham reviews SELECTIONS by André Breton, edited and with an introduction by Mark Polizzotti; MARTINIQUE: SNAKE CHARMER by André Breton, translated by David W. Seaman with introduction by Franklin Rosemont; HYPODERMIC LIGHT: THE POETRY OF PHILIP LAMANTIA AND THE QUESTION OF SURREALISM by Steven Frattali; and TAU by Philip Lamantia / JOURNEY TO THE END by John Hoffman, ed. Garrett Caples

Tom Beckett reviews BHARAT JIVA by kari edwards and NO GENDER (REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF kari edwards), Edited by Julian Brolaski, erica kaufman & E. Tracy Grinnell

Eileen Tabios engages BHARAT JIVA by kari edwards and NO GENDER (REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF kari edwards), Edited by Julian Brolaski, erica kaufman & E. Tracy Grinnell

Fiona Sze-Lorrain reviews NEW EXERCISES by Franck André Jamme, Translated from the French by Charles Borkhuis

Joey Madia reviews GRIEF SUITE by Bobbi Lurie

Thomas Fink reviews GENJI MONOGATARI by Mark Young

Eileen Tabios engages GENJI MONOGATARI by Mark Young

Peg Duthie engages THE FAT SHEEP EVERYONE WANTS by Bern Mulvey

Petra Backonja reviews CATALOGUE OF BURNT TEXT by Timothy David Orme

Delia Tramontina reviews MANHATTEN by Sarah Rosenthal

Eileen Tabios engages NTST: THE COLLECTED PWOERMDS OF GEOF HUTH

John Herbert Cunningham reviews CHARLES BAUDELAIRE by Rosemary Lloyd; THE FLOWERS OF EVIL by Charles Baudelaire, translated by Keith Waldrop; ARTHUR RIMBAUD: COMPLETE WORKS, translated by Paul Schmidt; and THE ILLUMINATIONS by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Donald Revell

Harry Thorne reviews BOOK MADE OF FOREST by Jared Stanley

Jai Arun Ravine reviews POEMS OF THE BLACK OBJECT by Ronaldo V. Wilson

William Allegrezza reviews AS IF FREE by Burt Kimmelman

Crag Hill engages TAKE IT by Joshua Beckman

Eileen Tabios engages DESTRUCTION MYTH and CREATION MYTHS, both by Mathias Svalina

Peg Duthie engages REFUSING DESPAIR: SELECTED POEMS AND JOURNAL WRITINGS by Teresa Anderson

Meredith Caliman reviews POETRY OF THE LAW: FROM CHAUCER TO THE PRESENT, co-edited by David Kader and Michael Stanford

Fiona Sze-Lorrain reviews AURA: LAST ESSAYS by Gustaf Sobin

Eileen Tabios engages EASY EDEN by Micah Ballard and Patrick James Dunagan

Emmanuel Sigauke reviews INTWASA POETRY [anthology of 15 Zimbabwean poets] edited by Jane Morris

Derek Coyle reviews NEW SHADOWS by Jon Curley

Eileen Tabios engages INSIDES SHE SWALLOWED by Sasha Pimentel Chacon; EASTER SUNDAY by Barbara Jane Reyes; and SIMON J. ORTIZ; A POETIC LEGACY OF INDIGENOUS CONTINUANCE, co-edited by Susan Berry Brill de Ramirez and Evelina Zuni Lucero

Jeff Harrison engages PRAU by Jean Vengua

Marianne Villanueva reviews THE TRANSLATOR’S DIARY by Jon Pineda

Eileen Tabios engages TIME OF SKY / CASTLES IN THE AIR by Ayane Kawata, Translated by Sawako Nakayasu

Julie T. Ewald reviews TONGUE LIKE A STINGER by Juliet Cook

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews GURLESQUE: THE NEW GRRLY, GROTESQUE, BURLESQUE POETICS co-edited by Lara Glenum and Arielle Greenberg

Eileen Tabios engages NINETEEN HOURS (RADIO EDIT) by Jim Wagner

Crag Hill reviews GREEN CAMMIE by Crysta Casey

Tom Hibbard reviews BLUE MOUNT TO 161 and NIGHTBIRDS, both by Garin Cycholl

Kristina Marie Darling reviews FABULOUS ESSENTIAL by Niina Pollari

Eileen Tabios engages A MUSICS by Carrie Hunter

Julie T. Ewald reviews MAKE BELIEVE by Thom Donovan

Eileen Tabios engages THE OTHER BLUEBOOK: ON THE HIGH SEAS OF DISCOVERY by Reme Grefalda


THE CRITIC WRITES POEMS
William Allegrezza


FOCUS ON POETS
Conversation with THOMAS FINK

LYNN BEHRENDT: An Interview

Featured Poet: ANITA MOHAN


FEATURE ARTICLE
Herman Hesse's Siddhartha: A Fictional Account of the Life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha by Nicholas T. Spatafora


FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE: REPRINTED REVIEW
Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez reviews POEMS SINGKWENTA’Y CINCO by Alfred A. Yuson

Erika Moya reviews SLAVES TO DO THESE THINGS by Amy King


2 ADVERTISEMENTS
Hay(na)ku for Haiti--a Haiti Relief Fundraiser

Tiny Poetry Books Feeding the World...Literally!


BACK COVER
Loud Buzzing...and Snores...

NEW SCHOOL OF POETRY: "POOT-RY"!

You know, I keep trying to expository out some of the gems from Moi brilliance -- but all you Peeps want to do is talk about My Fart. Tsk. But check out the link for the latest school of poetry (an old one, really, but naming/theorizing is important, right Leny?): "Poot-ry"!

Speaking of brilliance, Joi Barrios and Santiago Bose. Joi wrote the afterword to THE THORN ROSARY, and said essay has just been reprinted in the new issue of OurOwnVoice. My Mom has frequently said in the past she doesn't understand many of my poems -- Joi Barrios explains it to her HERE (teachers of Filipino studies, Asian American literature, diasporic and multicultural studies, et al might also be interested). As for Santi, I wrote a poem inspired by one of his drawings for an exhibition in Manila -- drawing and poem are now featured HERE.

The lesson here is that if I want to shine, it's best if I let others do the Windex-ing. Fine -- I'll just go off and do some weeding now....and as we note in our family, if one's going to pass gas, best to do it outdoors...

WHY I LOVINGLY ... TEAR UP POETRY BOOKS

Some of you have shuddered at the thought of ... tearing up a poetry book! I, on the other hand, often do so with much enthusiasm!!! Why? Go HERE where the air is perfumed...

And if you go there, you might see a remembrance of the brilliant poet kari edwards...

as well as the conceptual underpinning to a poem-as-bracelet, as in these two featured on my kitchen island where they repose next to a grocery shopping list, photos of beloved kitties Artemis and Scarlet, and flowers from the spring garden...



I'll see you THERE...!

LOVE ME SOME POET-EDITORS!

My newest Kapwa-based project, a special themed issue on Poet-Editors has just been released by Otoliths. I talk more about this issue's rationale in my Editor's Introduction from which I think one can glean several indigenous values: community-making, holistic-ness, volunteerism, cultural advocacy (and I'm not just talking about myself but about many of the 43 poet-editors who discuss why they volunteer their efforts as editors). So I hope you enjoy this issue.

AND! Concurrent with the issue's release, a special Shout Out about it is posted at the Poetry Foundation Blog by Barbara Jane Reyes--click HERE for her lovely SHOUT through the hallways of Harriet's house.

Now that's a way to announce a new issue! For convenience, here's the Table of Contents to the Poet-Editor Issue:

Eileen R. Tabios: Introduction

Burt Kimmelman: Three Essays
Editing the Words of Poets beyond Their Poems
The William Bronk-Charles Olson Correspondence
“Art As a Way”: Absence and Presence, Aesthetics and Friendship in the William Bronk – Robert Meyer Correspondence

William Allegrezza | Ivy Alvarez | Anny Ballardini | Joi Barrios | John Bloomberg-Rissman | Ana Božičević | Garrett Caples | Brian Clements | Bruce Covey | Del Ray Cross | Patrick James Dunagan | Elaine Equi | Adam Fieled | Thomas Fink | Luis H. Francia | Geoffrey Gatza | Tim Gaze | Crg Hill | Aileen Ibardaloza | Vincent Katz | Jukka-Pekka Kervinen | Mark Lamoureux | Amanda Laughtland | Timothy Liu | Dana Teen Lomax | Joey Madia | Sandy McIntosh | Didi Menendez | Lars Palm Guillermo Parra | Ernesto Priego | Sam Rasnake | Barbara Jane Reyes | Christopher Rizzo | Patrick Rosal | Sarah Rosenthal | Susan M. Schultz | Logan Ryan Smith | Jill Stengel | Fiona Sze-Lorrain | Jean Vengua | Mark Young

And here's Otoliths' announcement below--delighted to have the Poet-Editor issue contextualized within Otoliths' FOURTH BIRTHDAY! To wit--

Issue #17 of Otoliths, the southern autumn, 2010 issue, has just gone live. Four years old today!

&, since it's also May Day, I was going to have Billy Bragg singing "The Internationale" as background—you can, if you've got a server that opens links in a new window, still have it: just click on the link—but there's enough in this issue to allow an unaccompanied announcement. As befits a 4th birthday issue, it's a bit more packed than normal. In addition to the usual broad selection of paintings, prose, photographs, sermons, assemblages, poetry of all shapes, sizes, & styles, &, as always, a large offering of vizpo, the issue also includes two special features; one of which, since it was to have been a complete issue of another journal which has, unfortunately, gone into hiatus, is actually magazine-sized.

In the standard part of the issue you'll find work by Michael Farrell, Marilyn R. Rosenberg , Eric Arnold, Jim McCrary, Reed Altemus, Adam Fieled, Bob Heman, Tim Wright, Samit Roy, Caleb Puckett, Charles Freeland, gustave morin, dan raphael, Philip Byron Oakes, Dorothee Lang & Karyn Eisler & Susan Gibb, Sam Langer, Geof Huth, Esa Mäkijärvi, Scott Metz, Andrew McEwan, Felino Soriano, Travis Macdonald, Paul Siegell, Alan Davies, Kirsten Kaschock, Raymond Farr, John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Sheila E. Murphy, Jeff Harrison, Letitia Trent, Michelle Cahill, Valery Oisteanu, Irving Weiss, Martin Edmond, Carlos Soto Román, Jim Meirose, SJ Fowler, Felipe Cussen, Grzegorz Wróblewski, James Mc Laughlin, Michael Steven, Arkava Das, Michael Caylo-Baradi, J. D. Nelson, Jal Nicholl, Jenny Enochsson, Joe Balaz, Glenn R. Frantz, Michael Brandonisio, Jon Curley & Gg Re, sean burn, Bobbi Lurie, Jeff Klooger, Richard Kostelanetz, Silvio De Gracia, David-Baptiste Chirot, Alexander Jorgensen, Anne Gorrick, John Moore Williams, Marcia Arrieta, Mara Patricia Hernandez, Bill Drennan, nick-e melville, Corey Wakeling, John Martone, Jessie Janeshek, Thomas Fink (reviewing David Lehman's Yeshiva Boys), & Emma Smith.

The first special feature is ROCKPILE on the road, with poems by Michael Rothenberg & David Meltzer, photos by Terri Carrión, & an introduction by Larry Sawyer.

The second special feature is POET-EDITORS, curated & introduced by Eileen R. Tabios. 43 poet-editors respond to the question: "What is (or has been) your favorite editing project and why?" The respondees, who also provide—sometimes quite extensive—samples of their work, are: William Allegrezza, Ivy Alvarez, Anny Ballardini, Joi Barrios, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Ana Božičević, Garrett Caples, Brian Clements, Bruce Covey, Del Ray Cross, Patrick James Dunagan, Elaine Equi, Adam Fieled, Thomas Fink, Luis H. Francia, Geoffrey Gatza, Tim Gaze, Crg Hill, Aileen Ibardaloza, Vincent Katz, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Burt Kimmelman, Mark Lamoureux, Amanda Laughtland, Timothy Liu, Dana Teen Lomax, Joey Madia, Sandy McIntosh, Didi Menendez, Lars Palm, Guillermo Parra, Ernesto Priego, Sam Rasnake, Barbara Jane Reyes, Christopher Rizzo, Patrick Rosal, Sarah Rosenthal, Susan M. Schultz, Logan Ryan Smith, Jill Stengel, Fiona Sze-Lorrain, Jean Vengua, & Mark Young.

& if that isn't enough, the print parts of the previous issue of Otoliths, the southern summer 2010 issue, are now available from The Otoliths Storefront.

I MARRY SEVEN WOMEN

then, with Dog as my Witness(es), post about "Blood Memory versus Persona Poems" in my latest for the true Eileen Tabios Blog. Jes sayin'...

MAY IT BE AS GOOD FOR YOU AS IT WAS FOR MOI

I just finished my latest addition to deep intellectual thought in the 21st century -- an essay called

THEORIZING A FART

I hope it will be as good for you ....

And if you click on link, you also get CAKE!

***

Speaking of cake, now THAT is a BOOK LAUNCH! Scroll down to see me frowning. Why frowning? Because while I was holding that cake-cutting knife, I thought I should be holding on to the headhunter's axe wielded earlier in the Conference by Virgil Apostol...

UPDATE: HAY(NA)KU FOR HAITI!

So far, we've raised $233 for Haiti relief through the Hay(na)ku for Haiti Fundraiser. Thank you! It's a great result given how each H for H booklet costs a mere $3.00!

And, yes, the deal to get a free copy of THE THORN ROSARY for every $15 minimum order is ... a deal!

And now I'm pleased to announce three more additions to the list of H for H booklets -- these are hay(na)ku penned by Cynthia Marie Phillips, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, and a hay(na)ku-ed translation I did from Ric Carfagna's magnificent FRACTUS CORPUS. The permanent link to the H for H project is HERE, but I cutnpaste the latest announcement below for convenience.

We appreciate your support -- as we know, the problems in Haiti are not going to be resolved any time soon and every little bit helps. Here are the deets!



MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

A Haiti Fundraiser with Complimentary New Book by Eileen R. Tabios

Marsh Hawk Press has teamed up with Meritage Press to provide a poetry fundraiser for Haiti Relief.

Those who order five or more "Hay(na)ku for Haiti" booklets from Meritage Press' Open Palm Press will also receive a complimentary copy of Eileen R. Tabios' latest Marsh Hawk Press book, THE THORN ROSARY: Selected Prose Poems & New, edited by Thomas Fink.

As five booklets are available for $15 and Ms. Tabios' book retails for $19.95, we hope poetry lovers will find this offer an attractive way to contribute to Haiti relief. The following provides details on this Haiti fundraiser:


Open Palm Press
(an imprint of Meritage Press)
is pleased to announce the series:

Hay(na)ku for Haiti

-- a fundraiser for Haiti, edited by Eileen R. Tabios and blessed by support from chapbookpublisher.com.

Poets who write in the hay(na)ku form (about which more information is available at http://haynakupoetry.blogspot.com) have consented to create hay(na)ku for helping Haiti's recovery efforts. The results are to be released as "pocket poem booklets" by Open Palm Press. Each will be sold for $3.00, reflecting the hay(na)ku's three lines, with all proceeds to be donated for Haiti relief.

The series begins with:

#1: PARTICLE AND WAVE and FROM THE CHAIR, two hay(na)ku sequences by Jean Vengua
#2: On A Pyre: An Ars Poetica by Eileen R. Tabios
#3: Hay(na)ku for Haiti by Tom Beckett
#4: when the earth moves by Lars Palm
#5: After René Depestre’s “My Definition of Poetry”, as translated by Edwidge Danticat, with lines at the end by Lafcadio Hearn by John Bloomberg-Rissman.
#6: Mrs. Quake by Nicole Mauro
#7: Through Having Been, Vol. 1 by William Allegrezza
#8: Through Having Been, Vol. 2 by William Allegrezza
#9: blonde topography: a terse set of tercets by steve dalachinsky
#10: Drop, Portion and Assignment by Peg Duthie
#11: As I Speed to Your Place by Amanda Laughtland
#12: REBIRTH by Cynthia M. Phillips
#13: in articulate concision of appendices by David C. Kopaska-Merkel
#14:from Delicacies in FRACTUS CORPUS by Ric Carfagna (Vol. 1), Hay(na)ku-ed Translations by Eileen Tabios


Over time, more releases will occur as it is anticipated that Haiti's relief requirements will be prolonged and deep. Poets interested in exploring the hay(na)ku through this fundraising effort may contact the series editor at MeritagePress@aol.com



"H for H" booklets are lovingly produced by http://chapbookpublisher.com on lilac-colored paper to fit, at 2.75" x 4.5 X 2", on an open palm -- ideal for giving engagements.

To order some or all of the series, please send checks made out to "Meritage Press" for $3 per booklet and send to

Eileen Tabios
Meritage Press
256 North Fork Crystal Springs Rd.
St. Helena, CA 94574

This offer is also available to non-U.S. residents, but with extra arrangements required for international shipping.

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

*****

REVIEWS:
Mischievoice, March 10, 2010: Review of Hay(na)ku for Haiti by Lars Palm
AT: http://larspalm.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/reading-haiti/

BALIKBAYAN BOOK!

THE THORN ROSARY is now available in the Philippines, and is being distributed by Anvil Publishing.

The price is 850 pesos--reflecting my deeep Love for Bayan, that is nearly U.S.$3.00 less than the Western retail price of $19.95.

So love me back, please, and tell the archipelago's libraries to stock this balikbayan book!

Not that there ain't movement here in the U.S....as SPD just ran out of its initial inventory. But not to worry Peeps, another batch is on its way.

Thank you for your interest!

COMING OUT

Remember my cigar-smoking poetry angels and muses? The ones always playing poker--betting with my (moi!) tears--and whose games frequently decide my poems? Let me share a close-up photo of one of them:



What? You were expecting Angelina Jolie? Anyway, these bakéts used to play poker on a table just beneath the ceiling of any room I happen to be gracing with my presence. Well, this weekend, the table dropped and they're now puffing their stinky smoke right next to whereever I sit. Why, Toi asks? Moi is happy to explain!

I have a lot of fun on this blog...rather, WE have a lot of fun on this blog. Right?

But one reason I have such fun is because I've always felt that "Moi" vs "I" was blogging -- a tool that allows me to mostly (cough) hide.

Well, due to popular demand (right), I'm COMING OUT! To wit, THE MUSE HAS BECOME VISIBLE! Moi will continue to blog here -- it's way too fun to give up. But, now, if you want to see the real "Eileen Tabios", perhaps you'll visit me at the just prau-launched

BABAYLAN POETICS

Relatedly, Jean Vengua created this "TABIOS HAPTIC" in response to my presentation at this weekend's Babaylan Conference (more on Jean's haptics HERE and HERE):



Gorgeous, right? Thank you, Jean...and its significance, too, will be further explored at my (not moi) new Babaylan Poetics Blog.

Naturally that Blog (unlike this one) allows Comments as such will mean your presence! There is a new Dance beginning....

GALATEA RESURRECTS: A BABAYLAN-IC ACT

Really nice. As I was driving Michael to school this morning, playing through the car was a CD by Grace Nono that I’d picked up at this weekend's conference. And, somehow, the music led us to talk about her performance which Michael saw Saturday evening (his first introduction to his Mama’s indigenous culture). Michael observed, Grace Nono has an “old voice”, which belies her physically youthful appearance; I thought that seems apt somehow.

But what I said instead was how Michael should consider is how he, as a Colombian, also has a pre-Spanish culture full of marvels that I hope he explores in the future. I could see deep thoughts flicker across his “guapo” face (as so many Pinays—including favorite surprise guest Angel Velasco Shaw -- called him as they met him). Then he reverted back to being a tween as we arrived at his school—moi boy stumbling out of the car in a flurry of boyish awkward but endearing action….

It’ll take a while to go through the results of the Babaylan conference (rumors about Moi “passing gas” as she engaged the body in poetic discourse are just rumors….mebbe)—so I stop here for now. Except that it did lead me to pick out SIMON J. ORTIZ: A POETIC LEGACY OF INDIGENOUS CONTINUANCE among the piles of review copies for Galatea Resurrects. I’m now curious to read this anthology….

…and this leads me, too, to share: I’m extending the review submission deadline one more (and last) time for Galatea Resurrects. The new deadline is May 1. C’mon peeps—and did you know:

when you review a book voluntarily, that’s a Babaylanic act...!

And now, I go offline to see where in la casa I should hang the latest painting to grace said casa: "Ka" by Christian Cabuay.