SHAKESPEARE IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS

Off to Oregon this week for Oregon Shakespeare! Will see "Cymbeline," "King Lear," "The Taming of the Shrew," among others. Before said road trip, here's one more update on lit activity -- i.e., moi latest blurb which is for Ric Carfagna's brilliant forthcoming book-length poem, SYMPHONY NO. 9 (nocturnes and thresholds):
   

Speech is not just a means of communication. Speech may also be an attempt to engage with an other or, in Ric Carfagna’s Symphony No. 9, many Others. Speech however, often falters in the face of its desires. And perhaps for certain matters there simply are no words. That Carfagna nevertheless brings forth a poem—a long poem—signifies how Poetry is more than speech. This moving poem aspires to address the entirety of the universe even if it often lapses to dream-speech: “by eyes / in a windowless prison / at an ocean’s edge / or it is a vase / of withered orchids / turning to ash.” Wisely, the poem also knows to question its ambition: “why / the forgotten heart / aspires in silence / to fill the chasms of emptiness / which lie at the core / of its reticent being.” Since the quest produces so many luminous lines—so many thresholds into emotional interactions—the poem not only rationalizes its existence but makes itself a welcome addition to postmodern and deconstructed romantic poetry.
--Eileen R. Tabios

Relatedly, here’s one more update of my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below before my trip. As ever, please note that in the Publications section, if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects! More info on that HERE!


PUBLICATIONS
SYMPHONY NO. 9, a long poem by Ric Carfagna (one of the best poets writing today—this poem is lovingly immense; see above blurbie)

SHE, poetry and book art by Susanah Gardner (fabulous! see link!)

KUNDIMAN, poem by Emmanuel Lacaba, Trans. by Paolo Javier (fabulous! see link!)

AND SO FOR YOU THERE IS NO HEARTBREAK, poetry novella by K. Lorraine Graham (wonderful, witty and welcomed reading!)

* PIECES OF WATER, poems by Michael Smoler (made Moi purr from the pleasure-ridden reading)

HOUSES, poems by CB Follett (her grace is consistent and ever fabulous!)

88 SONNETS by Clark Coolidge

* AIRLINE MUSIC, poetry/meditations by Amarnath Ravva

MANY WINTERS: PROSE AND POETRY OF THE PUEBLOS by Nancy Wood with drawings and paintings by Frank Howell

THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS / EL ESPIRITU DE LOS SANTOS 2013, poetry and art annual journal of St. Helena High School (fabulous poem in there by Moi son, says the unbiased Moi=Mom)

CENTURY OF THE SELF, essay by Alexandra Grant (this essay was published in a leaflet-type series by Rabble, an imprint of Insert Blanc Press co-edited by Holly Myers and Mathew Timmons.  It's a modest and yet elegant publication -- I adore its existence as yet another attempt to dilute the dilution of culture.)

PEOPLE ARE STRANGE, short stories by Eric Gamalinda (fabulous! the author is a poet, too, and it shows marvelously)

UNDISCOVERED, memoir with poetry by Debra Winger

FILIPINO IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN THE NETHERLANDS, feminism / study by Mary Alice P. Gonzalez

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT: PASSION AND PROPERTY IN MANHATTAN, journalism by Steven Gaines

GUN DEALERS’ DAUGHTER, novel by Gina Apostol

INDISCRETION, novel by Charles Dubow

THE ACCIDENT MAN, novel by Tom Cain

NO SURVIVORS, novel by Tom Cain

THE RACKETEER, novel by John Grisham

THE SECOND CHAIR, novel by John Lescroart

HOME SAFE, novel by Elizabeth Berg

SPLIT SECOND, novel by Catherine Coultier

A PROMISE TO BELIEVE IN, novel by Tracie Peterson


WINES
2010 Clos de L’Oratoire Des Papes CNP (I had to cheat from the austerity diet with a slight sip and oh man was it ever worth it!)





 

LET’S ALTER SILENCE!

Busssy Beeee. Off and offline as of tomorrow until Oct. 13: Have a good week! Busy Moi was rushing around trying to minimize her In-Box pile before taking off. Which is to say, I managed to squeeze in a blurb for a fabulous forthcoming book: ON THE ALTERACTION OF SILENCE: RECENT CHILEAN POETRY (La alteración del silencio: Poesía chilena reciente) edited by Galo Ghigliotto and William Allegrezza. Moi said:

Once, the historian Arnold Toynbee apparently named Chile as a "country of the future," which Adan Mendez calls "inexplicable" in one of his poems. The explanation, though, might be the moving bounty of poetry continuing to come out of Chile since she birthed "the first Spanish poetic expression known in the Americas,...La Araucana by Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga," as well as Latin America's first two Nobel Prize winners Gabriela Mistral (1945) and Pablo Neruda (1970). For Chile's contemporary poets are writing energetic poems with fresh forms, musics and perspectives which deserve wider exposure on the global stage. Chile's poets are pushing forward the known limits of poetry with compelling poems--if these poems' invitations to be inhabited are eagerly accepted, they also will share something about the hunger, astonishment, radiance, grief and desire that stews together to form Chile: "The blazing light of the sun /...Pouring heat on my body / Letting it live burning it gradually // Come see this burning."
--Eileen R. Tabios

Besides altering silence, there’s more relishes on my latest update of my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that in the Publications section, if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects! More info on that HERE.


SUMMER/FALL CITY SLICKER HARVEST
23 bunches of house grapes
35 black figs
151 green figs
30 heirloom tomatoes
35 plum tomatoes
17 jalapenos
36 cucumbers
3 lemon cucumbers (we didn’t plant these this season; they’re last season’s which seeded themselves)
8 strawberries
13 sprigs of mint
14 sprigs of basil
41 yellow squash
21 eggplant
28 zucchini
5 bell peppers
50 lines of chives
1 peach (doesn’t really count because while it’s the first fully formed peach we’ve mustered, it wasn’t edible. But it’s our first!)
1 pear (our first!)
3 canteloupes (our first!)
8 honeydews (our firsts! City slickers that we are, we initially thought this was ripening watermelon. Harvested it (ooh: I love claiming I “harvest” anything!) Didn’t know what they are until we cut into one and tasted. They’re tiny, though: the size of my fist. But still good miniatures!)
0 plums for the season (because the birds et ‘em all!)


PUBLICATIONS
THE ALTERATION OF SILENCE: RECENT CHILEAN POETRY (La alteración del silencio: Poesía chilena reciente), bilingual poetry of poems translated from Spanish to English, edited by Galo Ghigliotto and William Allegrezza (a total FEAST! See above blurb)

SYMPHONY NO. 7, poems by Ric Carfagna (simply: magnificent. A feat … I wish I’d written it, I so loved it!)

DIVINE MADNESS, poems by Paul Pines (my favorite so far of his books. Wonderful poems and poetics!)

THE ORACULAR SONNETS, poems by Mark Young and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen (re-read this since I first published it years ago, and it is still WONDERFUL!)

EATING IN THE UNDERWORLD, poems by Rachel Zucker (I don’t know why it took me so long to find this 2003 book, which is to say it deserves more attention. Nor do I know why it took so long for someone to reimagine the myth of Demeter, Persephone and Hades into a more fulsome reality. Stellar.)

* PLAINT, poems by Richard Darabaner, Edited by Daniel Gabriel (a moving, posthumous collection from a tortured soul)

USELYSSES, poems by Noel Black (a lot of fun!)

NOT NOT, poems by jim mcrary (as ever, quite raucous!)

* ARDOR: POEMS OF LIFE by Janine Canan (an ecstatic read!)

* EVERYONE HAS A MOUTH, poems by Ernst Herbeck

* ON POEMS ON, poems by Sandra Liu

HAIKU AND TANKA HARVEST by Victor P. Gendrano

* HOUSE ORGAN, No. 80 Fall 2012, Edited by Kenneth Warren (so much great stuff!)

* THE GREAT AMERICAN POETRY SHOW, Vol. 1, anthology edited by Larry Ziman. Madeline Sharples, Nicky Schlitz

* THE GREAT AMERICAN POETRY SHOW, Vol. 2, anthology edited by Larry Ziman. Madeline Sharples, Nicky Schlitz

ABC TO ENLIGHTENMENT: GUIDEPOSTS IN OUR LIFE’S JOURNEY, advice by Victor P. Gendrano

NOT WORKING: PEOPLE TALK ABOUT LOSING A JOB AND FINDING THEIR WAY IN TODAY’S CHANGING ECONOMY, economics/journalism by DW Gibson

WIFE OF THE CHEF, memoir by Courtney Febbroriello

ADMISSION, novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz

SIMPLE, novel by Kathleen George

THE BOY WHO FOLLOWED RIPLEY, novel by Patricia Highsmith

TURBULENCE, novel by John J. Nance

STAY CLOSE, novel by Harlan Coben

LETHAL LEGACY, novel by Irene Hannon

A MAN’S HEART, novel by Lori Copeland


WINES
2004 Philippe Colim Chassagne-Montrachet La Maltroie
1997 Greenock Creek Corner Stone Grenache Barossa Valley
1992 Von Strasser cabernet
2002 Louis Jadot Corton Charlemagne
200_ Robert Foley
2001 La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva Especial
1992 Von Strasser cabernet NV

PLURAL-IZATIONS

‘Twas a recent pleasure to read Christopher Stackhouse’s manuscript, PLURAL, forthcoming soon from Counterpath Press. He asked Moi for a blurb, and here’s the unedited one I came up with:

These poems break down because they seek to extend poetic expanse. And they want to expand the poem because they want to mirror a very "multiple" world, much of which the poet did not create but wants to acknowledge. They acknowledge by eliciting a new "trace" of activities which exist outside of authorial determination. The activities referenced encompass paintings, literature, conversations -- but they're all just part of what's being acknowledged through exploration: humanity. That's how a short poem entitled "Short" can come to move seamlessly from being short 75 cents to gazing at computer porn, from standing in a Korean deli to seeing the image of a white ass imprinted on one's inner eyelids. In other poems relying more on fragments, the fragments cease being parts to become parts-of. Despite fragments, breaks, and ruptures, the achievement of these poems is that their totality mirrors humanity as inherently unified. We are all parts of.
--Eileen R. Tabios

And here’s another update of my Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Forgive some of the crap in there—during my recent travel, I ran out of books and had to read through a particular bookshelf where Harlequin romances were ever present; my problem is I'd rather read anything than not be reading. Anyway, 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.


SUMMER CITY SLICKER HARVEST
5 strawberries
3 sprigs of mint
24 yellow squash
11 eggplant
8 zucchini
3 bell peppers
0 plums for the season—zero, because the birds et ‘em all!


PUBLICATIONS
PLURAL, poems by Christopher Stackhouse (see above blurb)

RE VEILED (A TAPADAS TALE), poems by Jim McCrary (luminous)

* ROUGH, AND SAVAGE, poems by Sun Yung Shin

* CHELTENHAM, poems by Adam Fieled (music dynamited)

* FOR THE CITY THAT NEARLY BROKE ME, poems by Barbara Jane Reyes (ya know: I think someone should review—compare—this book with Maged Zaher’s below)

* THE REVOLUTION HAPPENED AND YOU DIDN'T CALL ME by Maged Zaher (ya know: I think someone should review—compare—this book with Barbara Jane Reyes’ chap above)

TURTLE ISLAND, poems with prose by Gary Snyder

YELLOW FIELD 6, poetry and arts journal curated by Edric Mesmer (stand-out in indie publishing)

HOUSE ORGAN No. 79, literary journal edited by Kenneth Warren (ditto: another stand-out in indie publishing)

QUARRTSILUNI: MUTATING THE SIGNATURE, edited by Dave Bonta and Beth Adams (ditto twice: another stand-out in indie publishing)

THE WRITER ON HER WORK, VOLUME 1, (essays by Anne Tyler, Joan Didion, Mary Gordon, Nancy Milford, Honor Moore, Michele Murray, Margaret Walker, Susan Griffin, Alice Walker, Ingrid Bengis, Toni Cade Bambara, Erica Jong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Janet Burroway, Muriel Rukeyser and Gail Godwin) Edited by Janet Sternburg

CRAZY BRAVE, memoir by Joy Harjo (a poet’s memoir indeed)

JOURNAL OF A SOLITUDE by May Sarton (another re-read as it never fails to satisfy)

INVISIBLE WRITER: A BIOGRAPHY OF JOYCE CAROL OATES by Greg Johnson

THE THIRD CHAPTER: PASSION, RISK AND ADVENTURE IN THE 25 YEARS AFTER 50, psychology/journalism by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot

JESSICA Z, novel by Shawn Klomparens

JURY OF ONE, novel by David Elllis

SLASH AND BURN, novel by Matt Hilton

SOFT FOCUS, novel by Jayne Ann Krentz

LONGING UNVEILED, novel by Meredith Kingston

HEIRLOOM, novel by Candace Camp

HRH, novel by Danielle Steel

PURSUIT, novel by Thomas Perry

WINES
La Terre Chardonnay
2011 Maysie Rose of Sangiovese, Mendocino

DANGEROUS ISLANDS!

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)

WITHIN THE WORMHOLE

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

TURNING THE RIVER SACRED AGAIN

Happy to provide an advance look at a worthy project, viz a blurb (unedited) I wrote for Tom Hibbard's forthcoming THE SACRED RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS:

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.

Here's the rest of my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Starting with this list, I'm going to add something different -- to wit, if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects:

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

THE SACRED RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS, poems by Tom Hibbard (see above blurb)

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

* TESTIFY, poems by Joseph Lease (admirable political poetry in a way where the words surface lightly--even ineffably at times--even as the words sear, in turn, emphasizing message)

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)

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

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

EYESHOT, poems by Heather McHugh

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

UNION, poems by Don Share

RESIN, poems by Geri Doran

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

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

ECCOLINGUISTICS, literary zine edited by Jared Schickling (valuable reading)

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

LONG LIFE: ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS by Mary Oliver

PORTA POTTIES OF THE WESTERN WORLD, VOLUME 1, photographs by Jenifer K Wofford (never have I been so enchanted by toilets)

DREAM SYMBOLS, illustrated explanation of archetypal dream symbols by Sara Phillips

FROM THE GROUND UP: SHAFER VINEYARDS' FIRST 25 YEARS, memoir by John Shafer

FOREVER PARENTS: ADOPTING OLDER CHILDREN, memoir by JamesE. Kloeppel and Darlene A. Kloeppel

A FOREVER FAMILY, memoir by John Houghton

JUST GIVE ME BORSCHT, memoir by Matthew Bingham

PARENTING FROM THE INSIDE OUT, psychology by Daniel J. Siegel and Mary Hartzell

HUSBAND AND WIFE, novel by Leah Stewart

I'D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE, novel by Laura Lippman

HELL'S CORNER, novel by David Baldacci

THE COBRA, novel by Frederick Forsyth

THE EXILE, novel by Andrew Britton

A WOMAN CALLED SAGE, novel by DiAnn Mills


WINES
1994 Judd's Hill Cabernet NV
2002 Gumpara Victor's Old Vine Barossa Valley shiraz
1994 Dow
Travigne house chardonnay
2004 Trevor Jones Dry Grown Barosa Shiraz
1993 Peachy Canyon zinfandel Paso Robles Dusi Ranch

AS REGARDS "MODERN EMOTIONAL INTIMACY"

This is definitely a synchronicity vs. a coincidence. Shortly after finishing a review of Nicholas Manning's first full-length poetry collection, NOVALESS (ELEMENTS TOWARDS A METAPHYSICS), I was asked to do a blurb for his forthcoming and second full-length poetry collection: HOMO SENTIMENTALIS: A GUIDE IN VERSE TO MODERN EMOTIONAL INTIMACY. What timing -- Nicholas hadn't known, btw, that I was reviewing his first book (and said review will be in next issue of Galatea Resurrects). Anyhoo, here's the first-draft blurbie of his second book:

In Homo Sentimentalis' epigraph, Milan Kundera notes, "As soon as we want to feel (decide to feel...), feeling is no longer feeling but an imitation of feeling, a show of feeling." How might that be reconciled with the actual poems wherein may be found such effectively moving text as "the moment your hair / ’s height falls * down covering / my lit body in threads / of unthinking / light"? Perhaps that it is as difficult to be artificial as it is to be sincere? Perhaps that intention (e.g. a privileging as Kundera describes the raising of "feelings to a category of value") may not manifest itself when the raw material, words let alone poems, is so subjective (or, to paraphrase one poem, are doppelgangers to their referenced realities)? The genius of Nicholas Manning's Homo Sentimentalis is that one is moved to deliberate on these questions and care about such answer(s) as they surface or not. It is pure poetry -- ungraspable but nonetheless meaningful, just like those asterisked stars interspersed throughout the poems for glimmers of, though they may not actually be, light.

And in addition to having perused Nicholas' manuscript, here's the rest of my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List:

WINTER HARVEST:
(Listing this harvest has a fizzling-out feeling; hence, this shall be my last post about this Winter Garden 2010-2011)
500 pounds of olives (but sadly went all to compost due to City Slicker's ignorance of pressing olives for oil within 24 hours of being picked)
35 pounds of honey
18 persimmons
101 Meyer lemons
11 oranges
1 head of red lettuce
4 heads of green lettuce
2 bunches of kale


PUBLICATIONS
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!)

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)

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!)

PHANTASMAL REPEATS, poems by Guillermo Parra (Loved it loved it loved it! I felt the Milky Way shift, to paraphrase an Arthur Sze poem, when I read these...)

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

ETYM(BI)OLOGY, poems by Liz Waldner

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

THE ECLIPSES, poems by David Woo

PRIVADO, poems by Daniel Tiffany

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

MY KAFKA CENTURY, poems by Arielle Greenberg

WHATEVER SHINES, poems by Kathleen McGookey

THE CORYBANTES, book-length poem by Tod Thilleman

BRILLIANT WATER, poems by Christopher Merrill

RETROSPECTIVE FORECASTS, poems by K.M. Dersley

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

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

SAILCLOTH CHILD, poems by Christopher William Purdom

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

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

EL GOLPE CHILENO, poems and art by Julien Poirier

THE NEW TOURISM, poems by Harry Mathews

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

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

GIVING IT ALL AWAY: THE DORIS BUFFETT STORY, biography by Michael Zitz

THE BUCOLIC PLAGUE: HOW TWO MANHATTANITES BECAME GENTLEMEN FARMERS, memoir by Josh Kilmer-Purcell

PUKKA, THE PUP AFTER MERLE, memoir by Ted Kerasote

DELIVER US FROM EVIL, novel by David Baldacci


WINES
2002 Hutton Vale Grenache Mataro Eden Valley
2007 Domaine Serene "Yamhill Cuvee" Willamette Valley pinot noir
2003 Bert Simon Serrig Herrenberg Riesling Auslese

BLURB & REVIEW

I am supplying the following "found blurb" for Dana Teen Lomax's upcoming full-length version of her Disclosure, to wit:

Dana Teen Lomax shows her ass and makes you want to kiss it.
–Eileen Tabios, Galatea Resurrects #12

That may be the best blurb I've ever provided anyone. I had reviewed a chap version of Disclosures in GR #12. I live, of course, to make you poets happy...

...because, in turn, karma makes Moi happy! To wit: Amazon Top Ten Reviewer Grady Harp just reviewed SILK EGG. Click below to see the whole thing -- I do suggest you see the whole thing since it calls Moi a "kaleidoscope":

Eileen R. Tabios continues to startle us with every publication she creates. Her mind must work like a finely turned kaleidoscope, every movement she makes results in something new, something we hadn't expected, something that starts our brains working in different ways. CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE.

By the way, for the record, I love how this review says that Jorge Luis Borges is the "source of the ideas for all of these novels." That's not true: I actually wrote the novels, then later superimposed Borges over them--indeed, to keep this all "pure", I've been careful to avoid reading Borges' short story "The Libary of Babel." Having said that, I don't mind that O'Harp reversed the Borges application to the project as it affirms my thought that it would be relevant to reference Borges after the project was writ. Poetry, too, can engender inspiration as or viz illusion. Anyway, that's a nota bene for your process-obsessed Peeps; I live, too, to make y'all happy.

And what are you waiting for? You can still cheaply order SILK EGG through its E-Book Launch!

BOUNTIES!

I actually hosted a mini high school reunion this past weekend; here's Meredith, one of the participants (and that rare thing: a non-poet reviewer for Galatea Resurrects!) waxing enthusiasm over some weekend harvesting:



Michael of course got in the act with, literally, a baby zucchini!



I'm feeling more optimistic this year over this City Slicker's gardening attempts. Here's the rest of my latest “Relished W(h)ine List)”:

SPRING/SUMMER HARVEST:
1 stalk of "miner's weed"
103 stalks of green onion
97 strawberries
2 artichokes
2 cherries
9 zucchini
4 stalks of scallions
8 summer squash
6 cucumbers
115 tomatoes
1 fig
6 bell peppers
10 clumps of basil
3 cucumbers


PUBLICATIONS
GUSTAF SOBIN COLLECTED POEMS, Co-Eds. Andrew Joron & Andrew Zawacki (now that's what I call a COLLECTED! This is a breathtakingly wonderful testament to a poet's rich legacy)

THE INCOMPOSSIBLES, poems by Carrie Hunter (read in manuscript form as I'm providing a blurb for its forthcoming book form. Here's the unedited blurb:

Every poem in THE INCOMPOSSIBLES is "an utterly unique void." What seems consistent is a rhythm of certainty, even as the poems posit uncertainties; these are musics impossible to categorize. Read a line like "The indecipherable spoken aloud"* and you can't help but read again, then again. As you continue reading, you realize you're searching for something you might discover but will defy memory-zation if only because the context of a reading changes each time. I guess that's the (or, one, ) point of these poems--it encourages the search itself and the discovered beauties in the process make the uncertainties welcome. That's what fabulous poems can achieve: the suspension of belief into language for its own sake. Thus, do "obscurities hold hands..."


[* I first cited "The decapitated head of Lack" but apparently another blurber cited this wonderful line]

WHERE SHADOWS WILL: SELECTED POEMS 1988-2008 by Norma Cole

YINGLISH STROPHES, 1-19, poems by Thomas Fink (stellar and often spectacular!)

THE FRENCH EXIT, poems by Elisa Gabbert (such fragile-nesses are difficult to textually manifest-- a lovely achievement)

THE BEAUTY OF THE HUSBAND: A FICTIONAL ESSAY IN 29 TANGOS, poems by Anne Carson

THE PHILOSOPHER'S CLUB, poems by Kim Addonizio

NEW & SELECTED POEMS by Jennifer Clement

IATROGENIC: THEIR TESTIMONIES, poems by Danielle Pafunda

IN THIS ALONE IMPULSE, poems by Shya Scanlon

STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON, a meditation by Mark Doty (astonishingly and stunningly dazzling--a book I wish I wrote)

FROM ASHES TO AFRICA, memoir by Josh and Amy Bottomly

WHAT THE WORLD EATS, photos by Peter Menzel and text by Fairh D'Aluisio

ALL ABOUT CATS AS PETS by Marjorie Zaum

THE APPRENTICE, novel by Tess Gerritsen

THE PERSUADER, novel by Lee Child


WINES
2004 Dutch Henry cabernet
2006 Dutch Henry merlot Yountville
2007 Dutch Henry merlot Yountville (from barrel)
2009 Dutch Henry pinot noir Mt. Veeder (from barrel)
2009 Dutch Henry pinot noir Penngrove (from barrel)
2009 Dutch Henry sauvignon blanc Chafen Family Vineyards
2004 3Rings Shiraz Barossa Valley
2005 Saxum Broken Stones Paso Robles
2009 Zahtila chardonnay NV
2006 Zahtila Dry Creek zinfandel
2006 Zahtila Oat Hill Estate zinfandel
2006 Zahtila cabernet NV
2005 Zahtila Rutherford cabernet
2005 Zahtila "Laura's Theme" petite syrah
1997 Behrens & Hitchcock Petite Syrah Old Vine NV

I'M ONLINE! WELL, NOT REALLY...

It'll take at least a week to fix my Sonic Wall. Until then, a Big, Burly Man put me on Dial-Up, which on the mountain means I can't do much hefty work online (e.g. Galatea Resurrects). So I can only do quickies for now -- you know, like cutnpaste. So, here's my latest blurb done for another writer:

Gaha (babes) Noas (of the abyss) Zorge (become friendly) by Jesse Glass

Rollicking jesterous spawn of ... who knows? Here, the Q might as well be A and the A might as well be Q for Jesse Glass' “Gaha (babes)…” upends language...and if the receptive reader loses linguistic preconceptions such as cause-and-effect, what then results is music’s seduction into senselessness because the punchline can be: "IN THE LAND OF MY FORMER ENEMIES / a shaft resets time." Such wondrous things occur when a skull gives up its identity to a crystal ball.

Well, doesn't that make you want to read Jesse's forthcoming pub?

Anyhoo, and here's my latest Relished W(h)ine List :

WINTER GARDEN (to date)
7 Meyer lemons
88 persimmons
46 green figs & 4 purple figs (they should be out of season now but Mom's managing to eke 'em out)
18 red, yellow and green peppers
136 tomatoes (mom keeps eking them out...)


PUBLICATIONS
TRAJE DE BODA, poems (in manuscript form) by Aileen Ibardaloza (this was a finalist for The Filamore Tabios, Sr. Memorial Poetry Prize, which I've also decided to publish next year with Meritage Press)

BHARAT JIVA, poems by kari edwards

NO GENDER: REFLECTIONS ON THE LIFE & WORK OF kari edwards, Edited by Julian Brolaski, erica kaufman & E. Tracy Grinnell. Includes Cara Benson, Frances Blau, Mark Brasuell, Julian T. Brolaski, Reed Bye, Marcus Civin, CAConrad, Donna de la Perrière, E. Tracy Grinnell, Rob Halpern, Jen Hofer, Brenda Iijima, Lisa Jarnot, erica kaufman, Kevin Killian, Wendy Kramer, Joseph Lease, Rachel Levitsky, Joan MacDonald, Bill Marsh, Chris Martin, Yedda Morrison, Eileen Myles, Akilah Oliver, Tim Peterson, Ellen Redbird, Leslie Scalapino, Michael Smoler, Sherman Souther, Eleni Stecopoulos, and Anne Waldman

THE GINKGO LIGHT, poems by Arthur Sze (as ever, masterful. What would be interesting is if Arthur ever did a single, million-page poem with his signature interconnections managing to seem effortless/weightless)

WATER THE MOON, poems (in manuscript form) by Fiona Sze-Lorrain (more than a cut above many Asian diasporic poems)

WALLS (ANAMNESES), poems by Marcel Cohen, Trans. by Brian Evenson & Joanna Howard

WORLD BALL NOTEBOOK, poems by Sesshu Foster

KA-CHING, poems by Denise Duhamel

PERSONATIONSKIN, poems by Karl Parker

ITINERARY, poems by Reginald Shepherd

BOOMERANG, poems by Brenda Cardenas

NOW SHOWING, poems by Jim Daniels

POEM, HOME: AN ANTHOLOGY OF ARS POETICA, Eds. Jennifer Hill and Dan Waber (a unique and lovely project!)

ABOUT ALICE, memoir by Calvin Trillin

FARM CITY: THE EDUCATION OF AN URBAN FARMER, memoir by Novella Carpenter

ABOUT AIBEK! A JOURNEY OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION, memoir by Kevin Quirk

DAUGHTER FROM AFAR, memoir by Sarah Lynn Woodard

ABANDONED, novel by Cody McFadyen

PRAYERS FOR SALE, novel by Sandra Dallas

RAINWATER, novel by Sandra Brown


WINES
2006 Dutch Henry chardonnay Los Carneros
1998 Clarendon Hills Grenache Kangaroola Vineyard
2000 Sloan cabernet[-blend]
2001 St. Clement
1997 Napa Valley Reserve
1995 Artadi Vina El Pison Reserva
2002 Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay
2007 Luna Sangiovese
2000 Behrens & Hitchcock Las Amigas merlot Beckstoffer Vineyard NV
____ Arietta merlot
____ Chaffen Family Vineyards cabernet
2006 Dancing hares
____ Larkmead cabernet
2005 Buccella cabernet
2002 Jean Brullot Pugliny Montrachet
1989 Sandrone Cannubi Boschiis
2002 Hundred acres
2004 Saxum James Berry Vineyard
2005 Mollydooker "The Boxer" Shiraz
2002 Behrens & Hitchcock merlot NV

IT'S PRE-PHYLLOXERA!

It's sweet, isn't it? How my teensy novel got me the chops to do a blurb for THIS?! Well, do check out indeed Michelle Cruz Skinner's IN THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS!

Meanwhile, here's another newly-concocted blurb, this one for Lars Palm's forthcoming chap good behavior:

These are wonderful parenthetical novellas. Within "a snap of ... fingers," these inquisitions -- ranging over Pinocchio to addressing cats to white colonialism in Zimbabwe -- provide a welcome "kick in the head".
--Eileen Tabios

And speaking of recent relishes, here's my latest Relished W(h)ine List:

PUBLICATIONS
FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR, poems (in manuscript) by Lars Palm

1000 VIEWS OF "GIRL SINGING", multi-genre anthology of translations/collaborations edited by John Bloomberg-Rissman

BOSQUEJOS / SKETCHES, poemas by Edwin Agustin Lozada (am re-reading these poems by a former member of Rosa Montoya Bailes Flamenco as we'd chatted flamenco during Litquake when I read from my flamenco book Nota Bene Eiswein)

SUENOS ANONIMOS / ANONYMOUS DREAMS, poemas by Edwin Agustin Lozada

ERNESTA, IN THE STYLE OF THE FLAMENCO, poems by Sandy McIntosh

CATCH LIGHT, poems by Sarah O'Brien (what a lovely luminescent debut of a collection!)

THIRD BODY, poems by Michel Delville, Trans. by Gian Lombardo

LEAFLETS: POEMS 1965-1968 by Adrienne Rich

NAVIGATE, AMELIA EARHART'S LETTERS HOME, poems by Rebecca Loudon (every word in this collection is necessary -- which is amazing because, as a project-oriented collection and given its nature, it stood the risk of containing poems-as-placeholders. The vibrant energy here does not cancel discipline.)

THE METHOD, poems by Sasha Steensen

THERE'S THE HAND AND THERE'S THE ARID CHAIR, poems by Tomaz Salamun

PLAY, poems by Liz Waldner

EVEN BEFORE MY OWN NAME, poems by Tracy Koretsky

BY WAY OF, four-chap collection of poems by Matthew Nienow, Emily Carr, Diana Woodcock and Diana Alvarez (I really like Toadlily Press' publisher's concept of four chaps in one book)

MAID OF HEAVEN: THE STORY OF SAINT JOAN OF ARC in verse by Ben D. Kennedy

BEATS OF NAROPA edited by Anne Waldman and Laura Wright

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, artist's book by Ben Luzzato

FOOD AND WHINE: CONFESSIONS OF AN END OF THE MILLENIUM MOM, comedy/memoir by Jennifer Moses

THE DUGGARS: 20 AND COUNTING! RAISING ONE OF AMERICA'S LARGEST FAMILIES--HOW THEY DO IT, tell-all by Michelle & Jim Bob Duggar

BUILDING A HOME WITH MY HUSBAND: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE RENOVATION OF LOVE, memoir by Rachel Simon

THE RETURNS, fiction shorts by Dennis Barone

REACHING OUT, novel by Francisco Jimenez

SHADOW MAN, novel by Cody McFadyen

THE DARKER SIDE, novel by Cody McFadyen

A PLAGUE OF SECRETS, novel by John Lescroart

THE SCARECROW, novel by Michael Connelly

PACIFIC BEAT, novel by T. Jefferson Parker

STORM RUNNERS, novel by T. Jefferson Parker

MOST WANTED, novel by Michele Martinez

THE FINISHING SCHOOL, novel by Michele Martinez


WINES
1994 Serafini & Vidotto
1997 Behrens & Hitchcock syrah Napa Valley
1991 Chateau Reynella "Basket Pressed" Cabernet McLaren Vale
2003 Rausan Despagne
2007 Acacia Pinot hour NV/Carneros
1994 Dow
2005 The Grail of Liss Shiraz
2004 Peter Michael "La Carriere" chardonnay
2005 Fritz Haag Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr Riesling-Spatlese
2002 Chevalier Montrachet "La Cabotte" Domaine Brouchard Pere & Fils
2004 Dancing Hares
1989 Gaja Sori San Lorenzo
1982 Ch. Ducru Beaucaillou
1997 Jones Family Vineyard cabernet
2001 Thierry Allemand Cornas
1853 Whitwhams Millenium Port Royal Reserve (a pre-phylloxera wine!)

WORTH AFFIRMING

Bill Allegrezza, himself a savvy poet-critic, affirms, my read of the allegrezza ficcione by Mark Young. It's worth nota bene-ing: the allegrezza ficcione is historic and will come to be considered a 21st century classic (check it out!).

And speaking of Mark Young (and as the allegrezza ficcione also attests), he's one of those erudite poets whose repute is actually based on his poems, rather than his erudition. I mean, I do notice how many poets out there get up-status due to their scholarship -- I respect scholarship but that doesn't necessarily translate to poetic prowess. It's another sign of the times that certain poets get more recognition because of what they're doing as scholars -- Mark's work (do check out his poems!) doesn't need such scaffolding. But I (of course) digress...

GO CUCUMBER THIS!

Yesterday as I was turning off into moi country road, a neighbor stopped me to ask if I liked cucumbers. When I said Yes, she gave me a bag of lemon cucumbers because, she said, "I have too much in the garden."

I thanked her even as I mentally heaved and sighed. Here Moi am, a self-proclaimed (thus self-aggrandizing) "Keeper of Keys", living in one of the world's most fertile areas and I have difficulty eking out a harvest that would not bring shame to my name. I mean, even when I think I've achieved something creditable in the vegetable category -- to wit, two zucchinis the size of human infants because of course I'm also crappy at knowing when to harvest (isn't it pathetic how I call it "harvest" when I pinch a basil plant for four leaves), it's only to come up with "unacceptable vegetables" because who knew that zucchinis shouldn't grow that big because I never judged whether big is better.... It's just fortunate I'm not ashamed of being ashamed.

The New Poetry may have been counting tomatoes, but I tell ya: the New Pathetic is being able to count strawberries...

Anyway, here's my latest Relished W(h)ine List:

CITY SLICKER'S SPRING/SUMMER GARDEN HARVEST (to date)
23 red cherry tomatoes
144 golden cherry tomatoes
14 red heirloom tomatoes
3 yellow heirloom tomatoes
4 peaches
5 artichokes
120 green onion stalks
14 onions/scallions
81 strawberries
31 yellow squash
19 zucchini (of which two have been the size of a human baby)
145 basil leaves
33 lemon cucumbers
23 cucumbers
25 pepper leaves
10 green bell peppers
4 green chili peppers
30 mint leaves
60 basil leaves
30 yellow squash leaves


PUBLICATIONS
POSTCARDS TO BOX 464, poems by Amanda Laughtland (in manuscript). Here's Moi unedited blurb:

Created from postcards sent to long-time family friends over a span of 50 years, Amanda Laughtland's Postcards to Box 464 offers manifestations of affection which so enchant that we are pulled into their intimate space. We feel as if we were "the Coopers", recipients of the original postcards -- reading these poems makes one feel liked as much as obviously loved! Distilled into a chap with fittingly spare but evocative drawings by Jen May, the poems read like a travel diary as well, and as such a journal is a page-turner. The "found text" even transcend their original context through inadvertent humor: "Through some / misunderstanding, the hotel / didn't hold my room. At present // calling around for a bed tonight. / Way it looks, I'll end up in Berkeley." Laughtland's craftsmanship and emotional commitment makes this project luminous -- in her "labor of love," her generous love achieves what poetry can: a seemingly effortless making of attraction.

INCLINED TO SPEAK: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ARAB AMERICAN POETRY, Ed. Hayan Charam

SING, MONGREL, poems by Claire Hero

ROCK CANDY, poems by Jenifer Rae Vernon

NOTES ON A LIFE, memoir by Eleanor Coppola

CABIN FEVER: SHACKS AND SHELTERS, HUTS AND HIDEAWAYS, photographic study by Marie-France Boyer

BUTTERFLIES IN THE WIND: THE TRUTH ABOUT LATIN AMERICAN ADOPTIONS, memoir by Jean Nelson-Erichsen and Heino R. Erichsen

THE PUMPKIN PATCH: A SINGLE WOMAN'S INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION JOURNEY, memoir by Margaret L. Schwartz

ADOPTING ALESIA: MY CRUSADE FOR MY RUSSIAN DAUGHTER, memoir by Dee Thompson

A BABY FROM BOGOTA, memoir by Lois A. Herman

THE LIMITS OF HOPE: AN ADOPTIVE MOTHER'S STORY by Ann Kimble Loux

CONTAGIOUS, novel by Scott Sigler

TURBULENCE, novel by John. J. Nance

FINAL APPROACH, novel by John J. Nance

LEFT TO DIE, novel by Lisa Jackson


WINES
1985 Clerico Ciabot Mentin Ginestra
2006 Dutch Henry chardonnay
2004 Dutch Henry "Argos"
1994 Tinto Pesquera Ribera Del Duero
2006 Termed "Toro" Tempranillo
2007 Dashe zinfandel
1990 Frederic Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin Estournelles Saint-Jacques
1996 Jones Family Cabernet
2003 Muller Catoir Riesling Spatlese
2004 Saxum Bone Rock syrah
1995 Pesquera Alenza Ribera Del Duero
1985 Clerico Ginestra
1991 Laurel Glen Cabernet Sonoma Mountain
1975 Ch. Leoville Las Cases
2001 Blankiet cabernet Paradise Hills Vineyard
2006 Mondavi cabernet NV
2006 Mondavi merlot NV
2006 Mondavi chardonnay
2007 Pride Viognier Sonoma Valley
2005 JJ Prum Graacher Himmelreich Auslese

HE HACKED UP THE RHUBARB!...?...!

First, here's my (unedited) blurb for Michelle Cruz Skinner's next and forthcoming short story collection, DISPLACEMENTS:

Evocatively written. Deftly offers how life can unfold as a series of uncertain transitions. But redemption can surface when one realizes through these stories how much we share with each other -- an effect made possible through full-blown characterizations that allow for nuanced portraits, thus reader empathy.
--Eileen R. Tabios

Also just finished reading Tom Beckett's and Geof Huth's 680-page conversation, INTERPENETRATIONS. There is this absolutely fabulous joke about a woman and pork. Hard to beat that joke -- but most meaningful to me in this deep engagement is the notion of *kindness as part of poetic praxis*. Now THAT is what Moi am talking about!

Elsewhere, the garden sprouts forth randomly...or maybe not so randomly. First, I got a report from my garden helper Debra that some "strange animal has made a bed among your rhubarbs, entirely destroying your rhubarb output for the season."

All concerned (well, not really, as I don't really know why rhubarb exists), I reported said tragedy to the hubby. The hubby snorted and clarified, "It's not an animal. I did it. I'd told Deb I detest rhubarb and for her to get them out of the garden. She didn't. So I went down there last weekend and hacked them all up myself."

I'm looking at the hubby and thinking, "Is my life an effin' telenovela or what? What do you mean, Oh Busy Abogado, that you have time to go down to the garden to hack up the rhubarb?!!!!"

But Moi bits moi tongue. If the hubby has Reagan's cauliflower problem but with rhubarb, I don't have the psychiatric training to address such. Entonces, let us move on with -- drum roll! -- my latest Relished W(h)ine List:

CITY SLICKER'S SPRING/SUMMER GARDEN HARVEST (to date)
1 red cherry tomato (yes, Mark: counting tomatoes is still the "New Poetry"! Woot: and the tomato season is starting!)
21 golden cherry tomatoes
5 artichokes
70 green onion stalks
14 onions/scallions
70 strawberries
22 yellow squash
14 zucchini
120 basil leaves
5 Japanese cucumbers
17 cucumbers
25 pepper leaves
1 green pepper
30 mint leaves


PUBLICATIONS
THE PARIS HILTON, poems by Keith Tuma (wow. that's one of the most powerful cover images I've seen...)

THE SHUNT, poems by David Buuck

HUMANIMAL, poetry by Bhanu Kapil

THE METHOD, poems by Sasha Steensen

TUNE DROVES, poems by Eric Baus

ZERO READERSHIP; AN EPIC by Filip Marinovich

AIM STRAIGHT AT THE FOUNTAIN AND PRESS VAPORIZE, poems by Elizabeth Marie Young

HYPERGLOSSIA, poems by Stacy Szymaszek

LAST CALL AT THE TIN PALACE, poems by Paul Pines

HOUSE ORGAN, No. 67, Summer 2009, literary zine Edited by Kenneth Warren

INTERPENETRATIONS, poetry conversation by Tom Beckett and Geof Huth (in manuscript)

DISPLACEMENTS, short stories by Michelle Cruz Skinner (in manuscript)

GONE TOMORROW, novel by Lee Child

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, novel by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

THE SPY WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS, novel by David Morrell

A CURE FOR NIGHT, novel by Justin Peacock

MEDUSA'S CHILD, novel by John J. Jance

THE TOURIST, novel by Olen Steinhauer

NAKED IN DEATH, novel by J.D. Robb

SOUVENIR, novel by Therese Fowler

KNOCK OUT, novel by Catherine Coulter


WINES
2006 Peter Michael Ma-Belle Fille chardonnay
2005 Fritz Haag Brundeberger Juffer Sonnenuhr riesling spatlese
2005 Saxum James Berry Vineyard
2001 Torbreck "The Factor"
2006 Dutch Henry chardonnay
1993 Ravenswood "Monte Rosso" Zinfandel Sonoma Valley
2005 Chianti Classico
2006 B&G cabernet
2005 Dutch Henry chardonnay
2007 Dutch Henry rose
2004 Dutch Henry "Argos"
2003 Chase Family Hayne Vineyard zinfandel
1970 Lynch Bages
2003 Larkmead cab/merlot blend
_____ Barnett cabernet
_____ Cliff Leder cabernet
_____ Orin Swift zinfandel syrah blend

[Last 3 wines imbibed during St. Helena's Cheers but couldn't confirm years as I was too busy focusing on that taco truck...]

THE INCONSEQUENTIALITY OF BLURBS

I know I've got direct credentials as well as having edited fiction, not to mention just having released a novel (grin), but it still feels weird to be working on a blurb for a fiction book.

I sort of think asking a poet to blurb fiction is to give up on the idea of its commercial possibilities, possibilities that have always rarely existed for poetry. Perhaps this is a sign of the times?

Maybe fiction is just following in poetry's footsteps. To wit, have you noticed more and more that -- no doubt with the proliferation of printing technologies that ramp up the number of published poetry collections -- more blurbers are not necessarily "established" poets (however one defines "established") but simply other poets who've mustered respect in their own quarters of the poetry world? Nor does it matter anyway in terms of sales as the impact of blurbs on sales is insignificant when poetry sales in general is insignificant (?).

Now, we get to a situation like I'm in where Moi is giving a blurb to a fiction work. Hey, I like the writer's work and don't mind doing so. But ...

... Or maybe just another possibility exists. Perhaps the fiction world is just dying to hear from Moi! Maybe I'm HOT! and didn't know it! (Ah the stuff I say before that proverbial first cup of java....)

Or, I need to focus on novelizing THIS!

!

THE SPACE BETWEEN...

I just consented to offering another blurb, this a re-work of an email I'd sent to the author. So, here's the blurb notes (unedited):

The poems in Aimee Suzara's THE SPACE BETWEEN should make their author proud. They together offer a voice that's captivating and with something worthwhile to say. "If home were a song" is a nice way to complete the circle of the path unfolded by each individual poem.

And here's the most recent Relished W(h)ine List (I will add that my Winter Garden harvest technically was boosted upon the discovery of two clumps of rabe, four cauliflowers and three red lettuces as we turned over the soil):

PUBLICATIONS
THE SPACE BETWEEN, poems by Aimee Suzara (lovely cover by Jenifer Wofford; lovely and evocative poems that altogether add up to a voice that both enchants and possesses wisdom to share)

WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE: POETRY AND FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (an effective, often poignant, autobiography-in-verse)

THE STARS ON THE 7:18 TO PENN, poems by Ana Bozicevic (fabulously conceptualized project with an integrally organic chap design using images of seats by Lorie Trancho-Robie-- released by ellectriquepress.com as part of the latest dusi/e-chap kollektiv)

SALT LICK: A RETROSPECTIVE OF POETRY by Glenna Luschei

THE CURVATURE OF BLUE, poems by Lucille Lang Day

SUNNY WEDNESDAY, poems by Noelle Kocot

OHIO VIOLENCE, poems by Allison Stine

THE INNER LIVES OF WOMEN: NOT A MUSE: A WORLD POETRY ANTHOLOGY, Eds. Kate Rogers & Viki Holmes

A WORLD OF LOVE: THE INSPIRINJG TRUE STORY OF ONE COUPLE'S ODYSSEY INTO THE WORLD OF INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION, memoir by Maggie Francis Conroy

MASTER CLASS, novel by Morris West

A MAIDEN'S GRAVE, novel by Jeffery Deaver

SPEAKING IN TONGUES, novel by Jeffery Deaver

JESSIE, novel by Lori Wick


WINES
2004 Peter Michael Ma Belle Fille
2005 Peter Michael Ma Belle Fille
2005 Aubert Riesling chardonnay
2005 Dancing Hares Vineyard
1999 Williams Selyem Hirsch Vineyards pinot noir
1986 Chateau d'Yqem (surprised to be disappointed at this one)
1996 Fox Creek Reserve shiraz
2007 Dutch Henry rose
2005 Dutch Henry chardonnay
Schramsberg sparkling wine
1996 Draycott Reserve Shiraz
2005 Vincent Arroyo NV Petite Shiraz
1991 Dominus
1983 Chateau d'Yquem
1995 Mouton Rorhschild
2001 Hundred Acres
Domaine Chandon sparkling wine
2001 Haefner cabernet
200_ Haefner chardonnay

TO RELISH POETRY: A POETICS

I not only Relish...but, folks, I give you things to Relish, to wit these reminders:

NOTA BENE EISWEIN by Moi--Special Release Offer

NOVEL CHATELAINE by Moi -- My First Novel (grin)

HOUSECAT KUNG FU: STRAIGHT POEMS FOR WILD CHILDREN by Geoffrey Gatza--Special Release Offer

FOR FILIPINO POETS WORLDWIDE: EIGHTH ANNUAL (BELATED) HOLIDAY POETRY CONTEST

And now, here's my update to my ongoing Relished W(h)ine List -- do check out the two books I blurb and which I exhort you to anticipate! And apologies, sigh, for my Gardening List...

CITY SLICKER'S "WINTER GARDEN" HARVEST (to date)
six clumps of bok choy

two (skinny) clumps of purple kale

one clump of Red Velvet lettuce

two clumps of either lettuce or kale (Mom sautees these "winter greens" in oyster sauce so it doesn't seem to matter that I can't identify them)

54 Meyer lemons


PUBLICATIONS
GUARDIANES DEL SECRETO / GUARDIANS OF THE SECRET, poems by Lila Zemborain, trans. by Rosa Alcala. In manuscript form and forthcoming from Noemi Press; here's moi (unedited) blurb:

Lila Zemborain's power subverts paper: her words turn pages into films of blurred or incomplete images. The references are specific (geezus: even "Danielle Steele"!), but what is happening remains stubbornly a question, defying the definitive answer except for what a reader is moved to speculate. The technique of reader involvement is not unique, but what's special about these poems is how they seduce you into wanting to connect with them, in part by opening up to allow the entry of some sort of fever. For it's within such a heightened space where focus begins and the relationship between reader and words can unfold. If lucidity is not possible without the inner gaze (e.g. "an ancestral space"), what Zemborain reminds is that intimacy is a prerequisite, in the way -- to paraphrase her -- a partly blind person can glean what is being seen by way of touch. There indeed are secrets within this book -- but their discovery requires more than reading. The reader must allow the secrets to "enter[...] another way" than "through the eyes." If you are lucky, you will read these poems and discover something about how you were made, as well as possibilities of what you may become. These poems' secrets are within you.

QUATERNITY, poetry-collaboration by Scott Glassman and Sheila Murphy. In manuscript form and forthcoming from Otoliths; here's moi (unedited) blurb:

In Quaternity, Scott E. Glassman and Sheila Murphy ask, "...and what divination will rhetorize the oppositorum / attract the needed nightshade / counter pull assume high produce / to be revered osteo"? Do you understand the question? Whether you reply Yes or No, the point is that the excerpt can be understood to be a question. How? Through the push and pull of its music. Quaternity asks the reader to trust in words -- the word itself and not what it supposedly signifies. For the word itself can be a musical note and it can suffice (more than suffice!) that certain combinations sing. The dictionary bows to Glassman and Murphy's seductive diction: "No curve to infinity can mimic bells."

PLAGIARISM / OUTSOURCE, poetry by Tan Lin

OBSOLETE--AN ALPHABET OF POEMS INSPIRED BY DEAD WORDS by Katie Haegele

THAT TINY INSANE VOLUPTUOUSNESS, poems by Elisa Gabbert and Kathleen Rooney

THE AMPUTEE'S GUIDE TO SEX, poems by Jillian Weise

SMUDGING, poems by Diane Wakoski

THE BUTCHER'S APRON, poems by Diane Wakoski

CORPORATE GEESE, poems by Christopher William Purdom

TO AFTER THAT (TOAF), explorations by Renee Gladman

NEWCOMER CAN'T SWIM, "textual world" by Renee Gladman

FAT CHILDREN RUINED MY LIFE, art monograph by Stella Lai

THE BACHELOR'S CAT: A LOVE STORY by L.F. Hoffman

DAY OF THE DEAD, novel by J.A. Jance

LONG TIME GONE, novel by J.A. Jance

BREACH OF DUTY, novel by J.A. Jance

THE DEBT COLLECTOR, novel by Lynn Hightower

DEAD AIM, novel by Iris Johansen

THE BABY GAME, novel by Randall Hicks


WINES
2001 Behrens & Hitchcock petite sirah Spring Mountain Road NV
2004 Dutch Henry chardonnay
200_ Dutch Henry pinot noir
1989 Val Sotillo Ribera del Duero Gran Reserva
2005 Aubert Sonoma chardonnay
Bollinger NV Champagne
1990 Chateauneuf des Papes Bousquet de Papes
1978 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill
1990 Dominus
1990 Raymond Lafon

THREE OF THE MANY SHAPES OF POETRY'S SEEDS

Susan Schultz is blogging! And this is interesting (click on excerpt for whole post):

"I would argue that poetry needs to be read in quantity, ..."

Scale takes no short-cuts when it comes to expanse...Go, volume!

Well, that's poetry. The real big news at Galatea is that -- whew!!!! -- I finally can add something to my Winter Garden list besides the 54 Meyer lemons I snatched before winter frost blew onto Napa Valley. But, yes, you can tell by my list that my Winter Garden threatens to be as, if not more, embarassing than my Summer/Spring Garden results. Gardening -- it's as difficult as Poetry.

Here's me whining forth the latest Relished W(h)ine List:

CITY SLICKER'S "WINTER GARDEN" HARVEST (to date)
three clumps of bok choy

two (skinny) clumps of purple kale

one clump of Red Velvet lettuce (or, I think that's the vegetable's name. Most veggies are aliens to Moi if they don't come frozen or packaged...)

54 Meyer lemons


PUBLICATIONS
HOUSECAT KUNG FU: STRANGE POEMS FOR WILD CHILDREN (in manuscript form) by Geoffrey Gatza and forthcoming this Spring 2009 from Meritage Press!

CHIMES (in manuscript form) by Adam Fieled and forthcoming in April 2009 from BlazeVox Books -- here's Moi (unedited) blurb:

At times so painful and lovely and fragile that Chimes made my mind's eyes weep. My body's eyes, however, refused to cry as they did not want to stop reading--Chimes paradoxically is a page-turner even as the words compel you to linger on each page. Chimes is one of the most moving autobiographies I've read--actually, language's beauty makes it irrelevant whether this is fiction or non-fiction; its authenticity is felt to be true. It is language dreaming of song and so it sings until the most tone-deaf reader can, through dream and a most gentle delirium, inhabit its world. For the reader, too, Chimes thus is "not an is but [a] being." Adam Fieled accomplishes what The Catcher in the Rye did for him and that he wished to replicate: that by "words demonstrat[ing]...potential for continuity," he "give[s] people back themselves." Quite logically, the book's ending is a beginning: the being as forever a continuance. That is, "continuance...an excitement and a way of still existing.")

DESTROYED WORKS, poems by Philip Lamantia (burnt moi into holy territory!)

SWARM OF EDGES, poems by John Olson

HOLIDAY CARD POEM -- "Vierzehnten Dezember" -- by Mark Lamoreaux (thank you!)

HOLIDAY CARD POEM --"Upon the Year 2009" -- by Sheila Murphy (thank you!)

GRAVITY & GRACE, poems by Ernesto Priego (deceptively (i.e. seemingly effortlessly) ambitious -- and a truly lovely long-poem)

NARROW ROAD TO THE INTERIOR, haibun by Matsuo Basho & Translated by Sam Hamill

FROM CHANSONNIERS, poems by Patrick Dunagan

GOD'S SILENCE, poems by Franz Wright

CADAVER DOGS, poems by Rebeca Loudon (a most welcome tumult)

SONNETS FROM A GARDENER AND OTHER POEMS by Abelardo Subido (I read this book as well as that of Tarrosa Subido's below; this couple supposedly is the "Filipino Brownings". So.....dare I say this? Of course I dare: To wit -- I prefer Abelardo's poems to Tarrosa's. I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm saying, I prefer Abelardo's poems to Tarrosa's....moithinks Abelardo, poetically, took more risks)

PRIVATE EDITION: SONNETS AND OTHER POEMS by Tarrosa Subido

SORRY TREE, poems by Eileen Myles

THE ALPS, poems by Brandon Shimoda

THE WINE OF ENDLESS LIFE: TAOIST DRINKING SONGS FROM THE YUAN DYNASTY, poems translated by Jerome P. Seaton

CLASSIFICATION OF A SPIT STAIN, artist book by Ellie Ga

AROUND THE HOUSE AND IN THE GARDEN: A MEMOIR OF HEARTBREAK, HEALING AND HOME IMPROVEMENT by Dominique Browning

A WOMAN NAMED SOLITUDE, novel by Andre Schwartz-Bart

EXTREME MEASURES, novel by Vince Flynn

PARTNER IN CRIME, novel by J.A. Jance

UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY, novel by J.A. Jance

INJUSTICE FOR ALL, novel by J.A. Jance

TRIAL BY FURY, novel by J.A. Jance

DYING TO PLEASE, novel by Linda Howard

ALL THE KING'S MEN, novel by Linda Howard

KISS ME WHILE I SLEEP, novel by Linda Howard

CRY NO MORE, novel by Linda Howard

OPEN SEASON, novel by Linda Howard

CROSS COUNTRY, novel by James Patterson (well, I still finished it but I gotta say, this guy's deteriorated: this latest from him is the most facile novel I've seen from him ... it seems like an outline for a novel vs a novel)

A CEDAR COVE CHRISTMAS, novel by Debbie Macomber (popcorn)


WINES
2001 Blankiet Estate Paradise Hills Vineyard Merlot NV
1975 Lafite (Xmas wine)
1999 Torbreck "Descendant" Barossa Valley
1996 Greenock Creek cabernet Barossa Valley
1991 Ravenswood Zinfandel "Old Hill Vineyard Sonoma Valley
2005 JJ Prum Wehlenuhr Sonnnenuhr Riesling Spatlese
1996 Colgin Herb Lamb
1993 Abreu Madrona Ranch
1994 Nackenheimer Rothnberg Riesling Beerenauslese
 1990 Prunotto Barolo
2005 Fess Parker Syrah Santa Barbara
1998 Ornellaia
1988 Sassetti Brunello
1988 Coutet