MEGA MOI

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

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

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

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

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

FINALLY ADDING UP!

I've been reading a lot of adoption-related memoirs. A good thing as, it looks like I'll be writing one on Michael's first two years with the hubby and Moi. My working title, a la Whitman, is

I CELEBRATE MICHAEL!

Depending on how the book turns out, it's likely that it'll be used for a big fundraising event planned next year for the orphan advocacy organization, Kidsave, as well as Michael's former orphanage. Kidsave (like many nonprofits) has seen donations plummet as a result of the recession. So the hubby and I are helping Michael plan a fundraiser to be held at la casa. It's also a way to teach Michael about being concerned about others and helping out those in need.

You'll likely see, therefore, a ramp-up of Michael-related blog posts in the future as I rush now to put together a book manuscript. And that's just fine. I love to talk about how wonderful my son is, and I just know you love to hear about it--the gravy on the side being my befuddlement with certain parenting duties (what, more cooking?!). So: Onward! To wit:

Things are finally adding up. Though I happily boast over any achievement by Michael -- like his SUPER DUPER MATH ACHIEVEMENT AWARD last year -- I have to say that I never really believed he warranted all those "A" math grades (yes, I can separate between moi preening and reality). This reflects one of my beefs with his previous school -- they subsidized students' grades with homework results. But, basically, this can mean that if a student had a committed parent available for homework (like Michael did with Moi), that student was likely to get a higher grade than another student whose parents may not have been helping out. It can be de facto a parenting grade versus a math grade! At one point, Michael was in a situation of getting Cs in his in-class tests but with those grades overshadowed by the As he got in homework because I kept making him do the problems over and over until he got them right!

How has the state of public education come to be so dysfunctional as to believe, what, form over content? (This ain't poetry so there is a difference here...) Once, we raised our concerns at his prior school and they looked at us with that look that meant: What are you complaining about? Isn't he getting A's? And you should hear all the other stories I hear about grade inflation -- sheesh, let's get real! This is why I love Michael's current school, Blue Oak, which is both tougher academically but also more capable of real teaching. I think he got a D in his very first math test in 8th grade (which was appropriate for someone who was behind and had been reliant mostly on Moi instead of a trained math teacher for his math training). But, for his second test, he got a solid B! With nice commentary by his teacher:



Great progress, hijo! That "B" means more to me than his 7th grade A's because I know Michael did it all on his own (not much homework aid from Mama Moi this year as we also teach him to become more independent). This means that, at least in math, Michael is now on par with his peers despite his late start in formal schooling ....and the peers in question are some of the academically-best 8th graders in the Napa Valley area. Woot!

For a moment there, I actually felt like I LOVE ALGEBRA! (Real algebra vs the metaphorical one-grin.)

Okay, I could go on. But let me stop with the Mama Moi boasting and share now my other recently relishes: my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List. Go tomatoes!

SPRING/SUMMER/FALL HARVEST:
1 stalk of "miner's weed"
110 stalks of green onion
99 strawberries
2 artichokes
2 cherries
19 zucchini
4 stalks of scallions
37 summer squash
14 cucumbers
793 tomatoes
67 figs
16 bell peppers
87 leaves of basil (Michael "harvests" them leaf by leaf)
15 cucumbers
3 squash blossoms
260 chives
27 jalapenos
19 bunches of house grapes
10 stalks of thyme
3 squash blossoms
2 peaches (a bit unripe; our first of the season!)


PUBLICATIONS
I-FORMATION, BOOK 1, poems by Anne Gorrick (gorgeous!)

1000 SONNETS by Tim Atkins (kewl & nifty!)

ITERATION NETS, poems by Karla Kelsey

PARABLE OF HIDE AND SEEK, poems by Chad Sweeney

RULES FOR DRINKING FORTIES, poems by Rodney Koeneke (nifty & kewl!)

ANGELS FOR THE BURNING, poems by David Mura

AMNESIAC, poems by Duriel E. Harris

BOUGH BREAKS, poems by Tamiko Beyer (in book "proof" form--fabulous and I can't wait to share it with the world as a Meritage Press release)

HOLDING PLACE, poems by Michael Slosek

CASTLES IN THE AIR: THE RESTORATION ADVENTURES OF TWO YOUNG OPTIMISTS AND A CRUMBLING OLD MANSION, memoir by Judy Corbett

ON MOVING: A WRITER'S MEDITATION ON NEW HOUSES, OLD HAUNTS, AND FINDING HOME AGAIN by Louise DeSalvo

LITTLE HEATHENS: HARD TIMES AND HIGH SPIRITS ON AN IOWA FARM DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION, memoir by Mildred Armstrong Kalish

JUAN, memoir by Karl Price

ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF NORMAL: FORGING A FAMILY AGAINST THE GRAIN, memoir by Debra Monroe

MEETING SOPHIE: A MEMOIR OF ADOPTION by Nancy McCabe

THE BROTHERHOOD OF JOSEPH; A FATHER'S MEMOIR OF INFERTILITY AND ADOPTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY, memoir by Brooks Hansen

NEGOTIATING EARL SPENCER: OR HOW AN ANGLOPHILE TEACHER FOUND A SON IN SIBERIA, memoir by Jean C. Michael (what a godawful book. Remember--to get on my Relished List is simply to be a book that I finished, regardless of what I thought of it. I abandon many books so to be a finished read by Moi is something, even if it's a ... godawful book)

SAVING LEVI: LEFT TO DIE...DESTINED TO LIVE, memoir by Lisa Misraje Bentley

MY THREE SONS: THE BIRTH OF A NEW FAMILY, memoir by John Sonego

MERCY, novel by Julie Garwood

LAND OF THE HEART, novel by Tracie Peterson

THE BARGAIN BRIDE, novel by Barbara Metzger

THE LOCK ARTIST, novel by Steve Hamilton

NEVER LOVE A LAWMAN, memoir by Jo Goodman


WINES
2005 Molly Dooker Shiraz "The Boxer"
2002 Jones Family cabernet NV
2007 Aubert Reuling
2007 Tra Vigne Chardonnay
2007 Tra Vigne Cabernet
2009 Dutch Henry Sauvignon Blanc
2007 Walter Hansel Russian River chardonnay
2005 Dancing Hares cabernet
2004 Dutch Henry cabernet
2007 Dutch Henry zinfandel
2007 Aubrey chardonnay Ritchie vineyard Sonoma Coast
Schramsberg sparkling wine
1988 Lafite (moi wedding anniversary wine! Thanks Tom: I know the cellar was loathe to let that bottle go!)

POETRY AS A WAY OF LIFE

I know the power of the internet. So when I toss around things like THIS or THIS, I do so with the hope that it'll make a difference somehow. Well, it did--click HERE. Jonathan, a ten-year-old boy from Medellin, Colombia will be hosted by a Kidsave family this summer -- hopefully, he will find a family through the process.

Speaking of Kidsave alumni and the marvels of older child adoption, here's Michael rewarding himself with a strawberry for his latest award certificate: a SUPER STUDENT AWARD in Math! (That should be enough to encourage you to check out my Footnotes to Algebra, right?)

Poetry--it's also an algebraic formula that the discerning might solve....

MOI LOVES TO VIOLATE YOU!

Okay, nothing so species-endangering. Specifically, Zimbabwean writer Emmanuel Sigauke says my "poetry sort of violates your readerly comfort zone." Naughty poems!

But after the naughtiness, I'm always grateful when people I don't know (this lovely dude thinks I'm a "Southern California poet") get to know--and like!--my puw-ems. I don't take that for granted! So, THANK YOU, Emmanuel!

*****

By the way, Emmanuel also says:

So here is the point. There is a niche I have "discovered" in American poetry, the Filipino-American poets. Like most other hyphenated poetry, this poetry seeks to reconcile, sometimes to make sense of, the America space in which it emerges. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a big deal, because such poetry adds a rich core to the total American experience. And I happen to appreciate, to fall into, it.

Love it of course. But I note it, too, for you over there but also in my heart as Anvil Publishing has now made THE THORN ROSARY available in the Philippines--click here for your copy, also available viz the peso!

"JUNK DRAWER POEM-BOOK OF THE YEAR"

Steven Fama's YEAR-END REVIEW is up at the Glade! I'm tickled to see that I've got the best "junk drawer" of poems, by his read. But do check out the results: Steven is one of those ideal poem-readers...!

Piensa: consider what I might have outside of that junk drawer...!

"A LIFE BEYOND STONE"

The Del Sol Review #16 is fresh! Happy to be part of this issue with a poem that also explains (partly) the underpinning to moi Chatelaine thing: "Pygmalion's Embrace". (Yes, my first name is misspelled; supposed to be corrected any time soon.) The poem was selected from Footnotes to Algebra.

And this week, the Big, Burly Men continued to work on the "[convergence of] poetry, nature, art and wine ... for a life beyond stone.” Galatea's mountain now contains an olive grove, as well as fresh cherry and orange trees. Go nature!

FRESH MARSH HAWK REVIEW!

Today, Michael wore his ALL-STAR t-shirt to school. Sigh...

Anyway, Marsh Hawk Review is fresh with lovely poems!. This issue is guest-edited by Daniel Morris (the Review features a revolving editorship of Marsh Hawk Press' collective members). Featured are:

Chris Alexander
Steve Fellner
Norman Finkelstein
Barry Goldensohn
Lorrie Goldensohn
Francisco Guevara
Jamey Hecht
Paolo Javier
Daniel Morris
Karin Randolph
Michael Rerick
Daniel R. Schwarz
Eileen R. Tabios
Rosalynde Vas Dias
Harriet Zinnes
An Interview with Jaap Van Der Bent

My contribution "Aurora" is a poem from Footnotes to Algebra...

AHADADA DOESN'T MIND "YET ANOTHER COLLECTION" FROM MOI!

"...yet another collection..." -- makes Moi chuckle. Anyhoo:

Thanks to Ahadada for a lovely review of Footnotes to Algebra: Uncollected poems 1995-2009. Perhaps my favorite excerpt (laugh) is:

...far from being a volume of tailings, or chips and spalls swept up from the workshop floor, there are some challenging, and at the very least, interesting poems in these pages that belie the usual connotations of an “uncollected” collection.

Reviewer Jesse Glass usually gets how my mind goes and melts and re-shifts. CLICK HERE for entire review.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHILIP LAMANTIA!

Steven Fama is one of the great gifts to poetry. Poets are lucky if he comes to read their poems. And for his birthday celebration for Philip Lamantia this year (birthday actually was yesterday), he offers something unique: a reading of poems written to, after and inspired by Philip Lamantia. Click on summary of poets below for the link:

Here follows what I’ll for shorthand call Lamantia poems by Robert Duncan (1956), Michael McClure (1961), Clark Coolidge (1963), Ransom Lomatewama (1987), Penelope Rosemont (1992), Garrett Caples (1999), Will Alexander (2000), Lisa Jarnot (2001), Donald Sidney-Fryer (2003), John Olson (2006), and Eileen Tabios (2009). The parenthetical dates are the years the poems were published, except in the case of Coolidge, where it reflects the date the poem was written.

Reading now the excerpts Steven chose from the poems I wrote for Philip, I am struck again by just how special Philip was/is -- the most utterly marvelous and divine poet I've ever met.

TRANSLATIONS BLOSSOM!

Purrrrrr-ed to be part of two Special Issues on Translation! One viz Print and one viz Online, and, synchronistically, both of my translations relate to a language that will forever be alien to me: Math!

First, Vanitas 4 : Translation is out, and I'm excited to be innit! I've admired the gorgeously-produced Vanitas (Editor Vincent Katz; Contributing Editors Elaine Equi and Raphael Rubinstein) since its first issue, and so am delighted they're including my translation thoughts on and translation of a kari edwards poem comprised of numbers and algebraic notations. (An expanded version of this essay and translation is in Footnotes to Algebra.)

Contributors to Vanitas 4 : Translation form a stellar cast which includes: Tim Atkins, Mary Jo Bang, Charles Bernstein, Lindsey Boldt, Augusto de Campos, Sean Casey, Mark Du Charme, Alan Davies, Brandon Downing, Joanna Fuhrman, Kenneth Goldsmith, Jack Hirschman, Jen Hofer, Ron Horning, Lisa Jarnot, Mary Maxwell, David Meltzer, Jess Morse, Ron Padgett & Bill Zavatsky, Ray DiPalma, Charles Perrone, Kit Robinson, Raphael Rubinstein, Ed Sanders, Barry Schwabsky, Cedar Sigo & Sara Bilandzija, Eileen R. Tabios, Mónica de la Torre, John Tranter, Paul Violi, Anne Waldman, Lewis Warsh, Dalt Wonk, Laura Wright, Elizabeth Young, and many more. In addition to poems, there are critical texts, examining the work of Borges and Bandeira, Lorca, Haiku, Pindar’s choral songs for young girls, and the poetry scene of the 1970s. The cover and a special insert were created by Francesco Clemente specifically for this issue.

Second, Guest Editor Anny Ballardini sends out an announcement on the just-released Ekleksographia Wave Two: The Translation Special or for the direct link HERE. I'm delighted to offer what Anny aptly calls "a translation of my son".

Eleksographia, a quite witty exercise in "assymetrical publishing" offers the following Table of Contents -- lovely reading!

· William Allegreeza and Galo Ghigliotto translate three Chilean Poets

· A poem by Dennis Barone and translation of Emanuel Carnevali

· Tom Beckett

· Pam Brown translated by Jane Zemiro and Marie Gaulis

· Peter Ciccariello

· Jon Corelis on Sappho and the Archpoet

· Alexander Dickow translates Max Jacob

· Linh Dinh translates Marco Giovenale

· Joseph Duemer on the Ching Phu Ngam

· James Finnegan

· Farideh Hassanzadeh (Mostafavi) and Christina Pacosz on Nima Yushij

· Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

· Amy King

· Bill Lavender translates Arthur Rimbaud

· Hank Lazer

· Charles Martin

· Zeljko Mitic translated by Zeljko Mitic, Jr.

· Richard Jeffrey Newman translates the Shahnameh

· Biljana D. Obradović translates Bratislav Milanović

· Obododimma Oha tranlates Ogonna Agu

· Michael Rothenberg translated by Vincent Dussol

· Larissa Shmailo translates Yuri Arabov

· Barry Schwabsky translates Paul Éluard

· Elizabeth Smither

· Alan Sondheim

· Yerra Sugarman translates Celia Dropkin

· Eileen Tabios translates her son

· Peter Thompson translates Nabil Farès

· Martin J. Walker translates Albert Ehrenstein

· Joel Weishaus translates Po Chu-I

· Mark Weiss translates Max Jacob

Reviews and Essays

Diether Haenicke reviews The Passionate Gardener by Rudolf Borchardt, translated by Henry Martin
Pierre Joris tries to translate Nabil Farès' Bikini
Henry Martin discusses translating All the Errors by Giorgio Manganelli
Ellen Moody reviews translations of Jane Austen in French
Karl Young presents "Some Functions of Translation in 'The Ideal Anthology'"
Daniel Zimmerman reviews La Vita Nuova by Dante, translated by Emanuel di Pasquale

· Anny Ballardini translates Arturo Onofri

*****

I don't try to write poems about my son just because I have a son. I don't mind writing poems about him, though, if I can address it in a different way than the usual family-type poems I come across. "English Lessons", which appears in Ekleksographia, is an example (thanks for the space, Anny!).

NEWBIE PARENTING

Okay, I guess it was just ALL TOO MUCH to discuss metaphorical algebraic connections in poetry and then have Michael be able to regurgitate, I mean, explain all that meta stuff to his 7th grade class -- particularly as he is just five months into learning English and mi muy malo espanol was not up to snuff. So, instead of doing a math poster on his poet-Mom viz FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA, he did a math poster instead on his lawyer-dad. I'm not bitter of course (even as the hubby grins): after all, the required math example of billing x number of hours and then multiplying it by a billable rate is merely multiplication (that is soooo second grade)...I was going off into algebraic horizons, y'all. Sigh. Anyway, here is Michael with his math poster absent my poetry:



And continuing on to newbie parenting, do you see how he looks like a marine? Yep, Mommy Moi screwed up. He was so handsome, but when I took my boy to the barbershop, I yelled out with my funky sense of humor: "Take it off! Take it all off!"

This is to the same barber who'd previously given Michael a stylish haircut, and which I assumed he would know to replicate. But the dude took me literally...and unfortunately, it wasn't until he had done half of Michael's head that I realized he really was taking it all off with a razor! Just picture me with my jaw dropped to the barbershop floor as I realized his/my mistake...but also knowing there was no way I could correct it as it was too late. So I had to sit there all wide-eyed as he continued to scalp my son who, by then, was mewling out, "Me no like. Me no like" about his inadvertent new hairstyle!

Afterwards, I lied like the shyster Moi am and informed Michael that this was a one-time scalping and which I did only to allow all of his new hair to grow out healthier in the future.

But, btw, the haircut occurred just in time for today's "Picture Day" (when the school takes official school pictures) so that my mistake will be memorialized in this year's school photos which also will be replicated in the future yearbook. As the hubby drily said when he saw Michael's haircut:

"Nice work, Eileen..."

Well, at least his new braces aren't my fault.

*****

P.S. But this morning, Michael asked for a poetry book of mine....so at least maybe the earlier discussions about FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA were not for naught if it got him more interested in Mom's poetry. That's something, right, she asks herself as her wingtip reaches towards the computer screen to caress the almost-bald scalp of her son....her still handsome son...

I WROTE A BOOK FOR MY SON'S HOMEWORK

So much about Michael's homework focuses on the person he most spends time with -- that would be Moi. As a result, his sixth grade was a bit farcical: I had to cook to help him do homework for two classes: art and Spanish. I had to cook! I made carrot cake and coq au vin, which is two of the five recipes I know. That leaves me with three recipes to last him through high school graduation. Yes, as I write this, I am trying to learn adobo (did you know brown sugar is the secret ingredient? Yes, visit my blog and learn even culinary secrets! Such is the expanse of the One Who Does Not Cook!).

Anyway, now, Michael is interviewing me again for a math project. He has to interview a person about said person's profession and the role of math in that person's profession. Then he has to make a poster with at least one image that relates to the topic. Well, there are no coincidences, right? A wonderful synchronicity is how this homework was assigned almost immediately after my newest book came out -- and how will that book cover look on his poster?



The interview will necessarily focus on the algebraic relationships formed through poetry. Another synchronicity, right in the book is my translation of a kari edwards poem which is mostly numbers and with an equation as an epigraph. Woot! If A + B = C, won't you come make C with me!

*****

Meanwhile, it's fun to teach Michael his manners by using visual art. His New York relatives sent him another book--a fabulous kids' book about Giotto as a boy; here's the terrific book cover:



And here is Michael's "Thank-You-Drawing"--thanks Eve, John & Cerise!

WAY BETTER THAN A THOUSAND VIEWS OF MOI

is this about-to-be-released 1,000 VIEWS OF GIRL SINGING!

...GIRL SINGING is global music produced, in many cases, among strangers from nearly 50 poets worldwide....based on a song, that is poem (inspired by a Jose Garcia Villa poem), I wrote when I was exploring poem-as-song back in the day. I certainly didn't know back then that the poem's desire for audience inherently means the poem-song is really a chorus (or, at a minimum, a duet).

There are poems who just talk the talk. Then there are poems who are lucky enough to find a reader who paused and paid attention for as long as that poem required to release its full blossoming, in this case, on the universal e-stage -- THANK YOU John Bloomberg-Rissman (if you click on John's blog-link, btw, you can see an encyclopediac -- gorgeously ambitious! -- hay(na)ku sequence in blossom-progress...)

Relatedly, much gratitude to Ernesto for his post about both 1,000 VIEWS OF GIRL SINGING and FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA. Ernesto's view is arguably the healthiest writing I've seen among the texts addressing the role of blogging in poetry. Do nota bene in particular his eloquence on the joy of sharing and collaboration!

I was also glad to see Ernesto's post because I was among that group of bloggers who began blogging before hordes of poets got into blogworld. Back then, it was a different zeitgeist...even as it's been fascinating to see what happens to the mix when more capitalist concerns (from selling books to selves) enter into the fray (tho, not to worry: Poetry not only survives everything, but it can blossom from anything).

THE TEST OF THE UNCOLLECTED

A side-effect of being so prolific and having had the blessing of interested book publishers (and thank you all) is that I can keep re-testing my assumptions on how to put together a poetry collection. Maybe it was at the tenth or eleventh (or third) or whatever poetry book that I got bored with the constant tinkering of HOW TO ORGANIZE that poetry book. Without at all challenging the wisdom of trying to be disciplined/intelligent with crafting a poetry collection, I've discovered myself less interested in constantly maneuvering a particular poem here, a particular poem there, deleting a poem here, deleting a poem there etcetera -- for me (and I'm just speaking for myself, not other poets), the process has become precious....and tedious.

The paradox (how I love the paradoxes in Poetry) is that once I got relaxed about the whole thing, the nature of poetry reveals itself -- specifically how, like Life, the all of it is interconnected. I recall this debate about how one creates a poetry collection thematically or just as a compilation of individual poems (I've done both). And then there's the approach I tried to take to moi newest book FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA -- the deliberate non-approach (though of course that's an approach of sorts, too). I just went through the files to the extent I have "poetry files", yanked out the poems not previously published in a book, and ... put them in book form, Fullstop. I also did this process as rapidly as I could, its hours of organization a deliberate challenge against the days or weeks or months that one could spend mulling over a particular book's formation (I've been there, too). Which leads me to think:

To collect a bunch of uncollected poems is, in a manner of speaking, another test of whether a poet has, as a saying might say, done it right. Does a collection hold together under the random manner in which it was formed? I always suspected that if Poetry is inherently a matter of interconnections (what we Pinoys also call pakikiramdam and what I lately have been calling algebraic as a result of three months of tutoring a 13-year-old boy in four years worth of math), such a book can hold together -- also recall Gertrude Stein's observation (I paraphrase) about how a word arbitrarily placed next to another word will rub together for some unexpected frisson if not generate some meaning. Many poets have written under such an inspiration -- it's not that ambitious, I thought, to create a book on that basis, too.

Well, whether or not I succeeded -- whether or not FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA coheres -- is not up for me to say. It's up to you, Dear Reader. So, hopefully, you will read my new book -- INFORMATION HERE. At the moment, it's mostly available through Amazon.com though it should appear in the future at other places like SPD.

(A Special Offer for this Blog's Readers: Email me, at GalateaTen@aol.com, proof that you ordered my new book and I'll send you a free copy of my prior 2009 book, NOTA BENE EISWEIN--slightly dinged copies, thus unsellable by the publisher, but still viable copies.)

*****

FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA includes a triptych of poems written during the summer I hung out with Philip Lamantia. These poems, like many of my poems, probably would have evaporated in the ether if Sam Rasnake, had not solicited me for poems in his wonderful Blue Fifth Review (thank you Sam -- many a poet knows that editors matter!). Stumbled across one, which led me to the other two....said Triptych has the only blurb I solicited for this book, from none other than the Ideal Poetry Reader himself, Steven Fama.

And speaking of editors who matter, thanks as well to John Bloomberg-Rissman which took one of the poems in the book to generate 151 multi-genre responses or translations from 47 poets worldwide to create the anthology 1000 Views of "Girl Singing", which is being released (possibly now as we speak) by Leafe Press (U.K.). The anthology should be out soon.

I cite these two examples of the continued algebraic connections Poetry makes possible. May you all experience those connections, too, in loving ways.

OTOLITHS #14 IS LIVE AND ... WONDROUSLY GENEROUS!

Otoliths #14 opens up beautifully with five poems by Kirsten Kaschock. She continues to weave so many silken lines interspersed with wisdom-gems (re the latter, I love this:

                  all things undone contain their enemies.

There is also an important exchange between Tom Fink and Tan Lin that transcends the issue of how to write critically. Tom reviews Tan Lin's Heath project (which I adore). Tan offers a useful addition to (the original as it's to be reprinted in a revised version) Heath with his response to Tom's review. I'm glad Mark Young had the wisdom to print this exchange!

I haven't read everything yet as I post, but two nota benes surfaced immediately from my initial read:

Ric Carfagna's fabulous "Trace Elements"

and Anny Ballardini's "About Ducks, or of the Importance of a Category"--I love this line:

                  I water my category.

You won't regret checking out the whole issue! (I have a poem "Maid of Honor" innit but I note that mostly to e-file said detail in moi blog's file cabinet). Here is publisher Mark Young's announcement--quite excellent company:

It's one minute into August on the Tropic of Capricorn, & that means it's time to let loose issue fourteen of Otoliths.

As always it's full of variety. There's work by Kirsten Kaschock, Pat Nolan, Márton Koppány, Jim Meirose , Anne Gorrick, Caleb Puckett, Peter Schwartz, Fredrick Zydek, Ed Baker, Ross Brighton, Derek Henderson, John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Sheila E. Murphy, Raymond Farr, Jill Chan, John Martone, Bob Heman, Philip Byron Oakes, Ric Carfagna, Eileen R. Tabios, Justin Mulrooney, Jeff Harrison, Eric Burke, K. R. Copeland & Jeff Crouch, Crane Giamo, Paula Kolek, Daniel f Bradley, Arthur Leung, Joseph Harrington, Iain Britton, Thomas Fink, Tan Lin, Kristine Marie Darling , Joel Chace, Paul Siegell, Mariana Isara, Jay Snodgrass, Bill Drennan, Jill Jones, Stu Hatton, Nicholas Michael Ravnikar, Mara Patricia Hernandez, Felino Soriano, Matt Hetherington, Marcia Arrieta, Charles Freeland, Vernon Frazer, Grzegorz Wróblewski, Julian Jason Haladyn, Martin Edmond, harry k stammer, Reed Altemus, Randall Brock, Anny Ballardini, sean burn, A. Scott Britton, David-Baptiste Chirot, Joan Harvey, Mary Ellen Derwis, Bobbi Lurie, John Moore Williams, Sarah Ahmad, Scott Metz, Theodoros Chiotis, & Sheila E. Murphy.

THE ALGEBRA COLLECTION

It seems fitting (though personally irritating) that I've been tutoring Michael in math for nearly two months now. Math was never my forte, but I guess I know more (barely) than someone who barely knew subtraction before Moi entered his life. His forthcoming 7th grade's math focus will be pre-algebra.

"Pre-algebra" -- now, that's yet another of those words that literally is unnecessary, ain't it. Poetry teaches that all of Life is inherently algebraic.

In any event...and relatedly, I've been working on finalizing the manuscript for my next book Footnotes to Algebra. As its subtitle will indicate, it collects together "uncollected poems" from 1995-2009 ("uncollected" meaning poems not previously published in earlier books). As I wrote before, this book swiftly jelled after its conceptualization. Which is to say, the book's organization lacks much of the mulling over and editing that often creates a poetry collection as one considers which poem "fits" or not.

But the fast approach (akin to my beloved first draft, last draft) was purposeful. I wanted to test my faith in algebraic affinity -- that these poems would cohere beyond any deliberate organization on my part...just because that's what poems do.

In Poetry, I've found that Faith is always rewarded. I like the book that's come out of this process and hope you will too as it will come out soon. Meanwhile, here's a look at my drafted front cover:



Thanks to book designer Geoffrey Gatza. As for the cover image, this is the acknowledgements for it--thanks John!:

"...a tattoo on the arm of John Bloomberg-Rissman entitled “Secret Life of Angelus Novus (Skinglyph/Twombly View) (Tatt #1)”. A photograph of the tattoo is part of the anthology 1000 Views of “Girl Singing” (Leafe Press, U.K., 2009) featuring responses to, or translations of, Eileen R. Tabios’ poem “The Secret Life of An Angel.” The tattooed text is from Walter Benjamin’s “Über den Begriff der Geschichte” (“On the Concept of History”), Thesis 9. The background is a detail from Cy Twombly’s painting Autunno (no. III of his Quattro Stagioni), taken from the cover of the catalogue to an exhibition at the Tate Modern.

ARCHAEOLOGY POETICS

One of the pleasures of doing a book of "uncollected poems" is (re-)discovering many old poems, old friends, whose existence long slipped through the sieve that is my memory. Among my excavations are:

-- a trio of poems from a summer spent hangin' out with Philip Lamantia, the poem "Pygmalion's Embrace" which is the architectural plan for a physical poetic space I'm creating viz Napa Valley terrain, my first (and so far only) translation of a poem into my birth tongue Ilokano, ekphrastic "baby poems", the poem "Justice" through which I'd achieved a goal of garnering for the wine cellar a jeroboam of the Judds Hill Winery cabernet by winning its annual poetry contest, and the series "Girl Singing" which includes "The Secret Life of an Angel" that generated 151 multi-genre responses or translations from 47 poets worldwide to create the anthology 1000 Views of "Girl Singing" edited by John Bloomberg-Rissman and released by Leafe Press (U.K., forthcoming later this year).

These sure aren't poems that deserve to be ignored....and I'm happy to bring them to the forefront of attention, hopefully yours when FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA is released later this year.

Gads--I'm especially delighted to recover the poems writ for/with Philip. Dude was special -- one of these poems involves Philip's attempts to educate me about agriculture. The following is the bibliography for the poem entitled "Once, Philip Lamantia Said Within One Breath":

“The origins of agriculture—a biological perspective and a hew hypothesis” by Greg Wadley & Angus Martin (Australian Biologist 6:96 – 105, June 1993), with specific references to:

Brantl, V., Teschemacher, H., Henschen, A. & Lottspeich, F., 1979, Novel opioid peptides derived from casein (beta-casomorphins), Hoppe-Seyler’s Zeitschrift fur Physiologische Chemie 360: 1211-6

Cohen, M.N., 1977, Population pressure and the origins of agriculture: an archaeological example from the coast of Peru, in Reed, C.A., ed., The origins of agriculture, Mouton, The Hauge.

Dawkins, R., 1989, Darwinism and human purpose, in Durant, J.R., ed., Human origins, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Lee, R.B. & DeVore, I., 1968, Problems in the study of hunters and gatherers, in Lee, R.B. & DeVore, I., eds, Man the hunter, Aldine, Chicago.

Zioudrou, C., Streaty, R. & Klee, W., 1979, Opioid peptides derived from food proteins: the exorphins Journal of Biological Chemistry 254: 244S9.

So I hope that makes some of youse curious about moi forthcoming Footnotes to Algebra (BlazeVOX Books, 2009).

Thank you for reading. I am glad you are reading here...

THEN THERE WAS THE SPIRITUALLY-DERIVED BOOK...

Since THE THORN ROSARY is my first "selected poems" project (though it was editor Thomas Fink who selected said poems), it started me off thinking last night about all the poems I've written which never got into any of my books, from which a Selected then could occur.

I felt bad for those poems, those "uncollected" ones so far.

So I dived into the files, apologized to those poems who didn't survive my haphazard, global e-desk, and collated together a manuscript. Then I queried a publisher and the publisher bit--thank you, BlazeVox! Forthcoming then before THE THORN ROSARY (Marsh Hawk Press, Spring 2010) will be a new poetry collection ... whose subtitle explains it all:

FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA:
Uncollected Poems 1995-2009

FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA (whose title was inspired by Marne Kilates who once published some of my poems in his lovely poets Picturebook and called them "algebraic") should come out later this year.

Well then, I feel better now...spiritually. For my love, I select all of you poems! All of you!