Friday, May 02, 2008

BOUNTIES

I "harvested" another strawberry yesterday....

Elsewhere, Garrett Caples' COMPLICATIONS continues to harvest reviews, to wit:

by Brian Strang at Verse

and

by Alan Gilbert at Village Voice

Elsewhere on Galatea, some BIG BURLY MEN are laying down cement and tile ....whilst singing along AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS to the tunes on the SOUL MUSIC Radio they got blaring over the mountain. There they go off with the "Temptations"....fortunately, no nearby neighbors....sigh: and there go the dawgs howling along....

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Thursday, May 01, 2008

THANKS FOR APPRECIATING (MOI) COMPLICATIONS

Kevin Carolo reviews Garrett Caples' COMPLICATIONS along with Joe Wenderoth's NO REAL LIGHT in the just-released issue of RAIN TAXI. Here's an excerpt:
Many things cannot continue in this world, and Complications and No Real Light make one painfully aware of this brute fact. Wenderoth concludes “Sitcom” with the assertion that “The sun is an explosion. / We survive via proximity to an explosion / that is getting hotter.” In turn, Caples’s “Liquid Diary” ends with “god mopes in his sober robes / he still owes my company money // for snow we made last year,” suggesting the fake powder annually sprayed on the streets of Disney’s fake city Celebration, as depicted in the film The Corporation. Fake snow chills more than real snow, and when people enjoy such fake flake across the snow board, they beckon a real “that’s when I reach for my revolver” moment in contemporary American poetics.

So that's another reason to read Garrett's COMPLICATIONS!

And people love me too -- Yay! Thanks to Otoliths for printing a couple of moi poems....and to Moria Poetry for publishing a review by Aileen Ibardaloza of moi ENGLISH BRICK. Here's an excerpt from Aileen's review....that's like moi ars poetica of sorts:
she writes “to see/hear what the poem is saying,” but that she makes it participative by creating a large enough space for the reader to see/hear for herself.

I hear ya, Peep. For Moi is all about Toi.

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Friday, October 26, 2007

SOUND POETICS

One of many reasons I adored this week's reading at City Lights was the focus on sound poetry (matter of fact, can I say that I experienced there my first experience as a "rock star poet" when I went up to the podium for my part of the reading to the calls of "Sound Poem! Sound Poem!" from peeps who'd heard or heard about my "Fado for my Father" reading at Berkeley Museum of Arts).

And a very exciting development is the forthcoming volume TAU by Philip Lamantia that Garrett Caples is editing and which will be released next year by City Lights Books. This apparently will include a previously unpublished sheaf of sound poems found among Philip's voluminous papers. Ach: that Philip -- so pure!

Significantly, the manuscript comes with a poetics intro of sorts wherein Philip described his approach to sound poems....which is significant partly because, as Garrett aptly noted, Philip's process statement reveal him ever to be interested in experimentation (without the baggage associated with that word, please) and debunks the oft-made erroneous observation about his poems as primarily *spontaneous combustions* (phrase within asterisks mine, as I paraphrase or misparaphrase Garrett's point from his introduction of his reading).

Anyway, it's just as well I didn't have a chance to explicate how Philip explicated to me his observation of society's turn from hunting to gathering as not making sense from purely the Alan Greenspan perspective. That'd be too content-ridden....Wink.

Sip. Oh don't mind Moi: I am just relishing this lovely lovely 1993 Ravenswood Wood Road zinfandel from beauteous Russian River Valley. Just Bliss.

Also bliss was having to see and fondle the issue of VIEW (courtesy of -- and thank you -- Steve F.) that published Philip when he was 15 years old. Amazing, really. At 15, Philip Lamantia was writing fully-formed poems. Gads I miss him.

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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

ANTHROPOLOGY POETICS

I'll be excavating Atlantis and Philip Lamantia tonight viz:

CITY LIGHTS POETRY READING:
Garrett Caples, Andrew Joron, and Eileen Tabios
Tuesday, October 23, 2007, 7 pm
City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus Avenue at Broadway
San Francisco, CA 94133

Poets will read from their works on the occasion of what would have been Philip Lamantia's 80th birthday.

READER BIOS:
Oakland poet Garrett Caples is the author of four books including The Garrett Caples Reader (Angle Press/Black Square Editions, 1999) and Complications (Meritage Press). Of his work, the poet Jeff Clark said: “Caples is a polymath. He is, in no particular order, an essayist; with his partner Anna Naruta he’s the maker of films, documentaries, music videos; he's a connoisseur of hip-hop; he's a love poet, photographer, and collage-maker. His erotica has been anthologized. He's been and likely will remain, as long as he’s here—or there—a student of radical Oakland politics and culture.”  He’s the editor of the forthcoming volume in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series, Tau by Philip Lamantia & Journey to the End by John Hoffman. He also writes on hip hop for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Andrew Joron was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1955 and grew up in Stuttgart, Germany; Lowell, Massachusetts; and Missoula, Montana. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in history and philosophy of science. After a decade and a half spent writing science-fiction poetry, culminating in his volume Science Fiction (Pantagraph Press, 1992), he turned to a more philosophical mode of speculative lyric. This work has been collected in The Removes (Hard Press, 1999) and in Fathom (Black Square, 2003). A book of selected prose, The Cry at Zero, has just been published by Counterpath.  He is also the translator, from the German, of the Marxist-Utopian philosopher Ernst Bloch’s Literary Essays (Stanford University Press, 1998), and the surrealist Richard Anders’s aphorisms and prose poems. Andrew lives in Berkeley, where he works as a freelance bibliographer and indexer. A new book of poems, The Sound Mirror, is forthcoming from Flood Editions.

Eileen R. Tabios recently released her 14th print poetry collection, The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2007).  Poet Laureate for Dutch Henry Winery in Napa Valley where she is arduously and long-sufferingly researching the poetry of wine, she has crafted a poetic body of work that is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Portuguese, Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Modern Dance and Sculpture.  She edits GALATEA RESURRECTS: A POETRY ENGAGEMENT. She also spent her first summer in San Francisco, after moving from New York City eight years ago, discussing agriculture and other matters with Philip Lamantia.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

CITY LIGHTS WITH ANDREW AND GARRETT

I have the honor of being Will Alexander's replacement in an upcoming Poetry Reading at City Lights. This will be a unique poetry event as, while we'll be reading from our works, the reading will bear the flavor of Philip Lamantia's 80th birthday. So there'll also be a presentation of Philip's "sound poems" as read by Garrett. And I'll read for the first time some memoir-poems from my first summer in the Bay Area, right after moving here from New York City, which I had spent hangin' out with Philip --

Okay: here are deets:

CITY LIGHTS POETRY READING:
Garrett Caples, Andrew Joron, and Eileen Tabios
Tuesday, October 23, 2007, 7 pm
City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco

The reading, held on what would have been Philip Lamantia's 80th birthday, also will include a presentation of Garrett Caples reading Philip Lamantia's sound poems.

READER BIOS:
Oakland poet Garrett Caples is the author of four books including The Garrett Caples Reader (Angle Press/Black Square Editions, 1999) and Complications (Meritage Press). Of his work, the poet Jeff Clark said: “Caples is a polymath. He is, in no particular order, an essayist; with his partner Anna Naruta he’s the maker of films, documentaries, music videos; he's a connoisseur of hip-hop; he's a love poet, photographer, and collage-maker. His erotica has been anthologized. He's been and likely will remain, as long as he’s here—or there—a student of radical Oakland politics and culture.”  He’s the editor of the forthcoming volume in the City Lights Pocket Poets Series, Tau by Philip Lamantia & Journey to the End by John Hoffman. He also writes on hip hop for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Andrew Joron was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1955 and grew up in Stuttgart, Germany; Lowell, Massachusetts; and Missoula, Montana. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in history and philosophy of science. After a decade and a half spent writing science-fiction poetry, culminating in his volume Science Fiction (Pantagraph Press, 1992), he turned to a more philosophical mode of speculative lyric. This work has been collected in The Removes (Hard Press, 1999) and in Fathom (Black Square, 2003). A book of selected prose, The Cry at Zero, has just been published by Counterpath.  He is also the translator, from the German, of the Marxist-Utopian philosopher Ernst Bloch’s Literary Essays (Stanford University Press, 1998), and the surrealist Richard Anders’s aphorisms and prose poems. Andrew lives in Berkeley, where he works as a freelance bibliographer and indexer. A new book of poems, The Sound Mirror, is forthcoming from Flood Editions.

Eileen R. Tabios recently released her 14th print poetry collection, The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2007). Recipient of the Philippines' National Book Award for Poetry, she has crafted a poetic body of work that is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism. She is the Poet Laureate for Dutch Henry Winery in St. Helena, CA where she is arduously and long-sufferingly researching the poetry of wine. Her poems have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Portuguese, Paintings, Video, Drawings, Visual Poetry, Mixed Media Collages, Kali Martial Arts, Modern Dance and Sculpture.  She recently finished her first novel, CHATELAINE (grin).

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Thursday, October 04, 2007

GARRETT CAPLES COMES HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

by deep reader Richard Lopez. Dude obviously has good taste, and I second his recommendation you get COMPLICATED, too! Available at SPD...

...or you can check out Garrett when he -- along with Andrew Joron and Will Alexander -- will do a reading at City Lights at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 23, 2007...to celebrate the birthday of dear Philip Lamantia! Yadda!

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Friday, August 31, 2007

CATCH ME CATCHING UP WITH MOISELF!

Yay. I fulfilled four more Tiny Books orders yesterday. Not to worry -- I'm catching up!

And speaking of catching up on other matters, please don't forget two things that I hope weren't lost in the recent flurry:

THE SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER for Garrett Caples' new poetry collection COMPLICATIONS...

..as well as consider participating in the very welcoming CHAINED HAY(NA)KU PROJECT! Nearly 20 poets have sent in their hay(na)ku chain collaborations so far! Join the PARTY, why dontcha!!!!

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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

LET GARRETT CAPLES COMPLICATE YOUR LIFE!

MERITAGE PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

COMPLICATIONS
Poems by Garrett Caples
ISBN-13: 978-0-9794119-1-5
ISBN-10: 0-9794119-1-2
Price: $16.00
Release date: Fall 2007
Distributors: Small Press Distribution, Amazon.com & www.MeritagePress.com
For more info: MeritagePress@aol.com

Meritage Press is delighted to announce the release of -- and a SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER for -- Complications, the second full-length poetry collection by Oakland-based poet Garrett Caples.  Reflecting the moral disintegration of the post-9/11 world, Complications is an even wilder, darker, funnier exploration of poetic consciousness than its predecessor, The Garrett Caples Reader.  From semiotic reportage to automatic writing, oulipian constraint to straightforward elegy, Complications is an eclectic tour de force in the service of a fundamental proposition: "surreality is real."

Praise for The Garrett Caples Reader
"a wonderful book of prose and poetry."
--Philip Lamantia

"a lovely piece of work all the way through."
--Robert Creeley

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Born in Lawrence, MA in 1972, Garrett Caples is a poet living in Oakland, CA. He is the author of The Garrett Caples Reader (Angle Press/Black Square Editions, 1999), er um (Meritage Press, 2002), and The Philistine's Guide to Hip Hop (Ninevolt, 2004). He has published numerous essays, articles, and reviews. He currently writes on hip hop for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

*************************

SPECIAL RELEASE OFFER:
Meritage Press is pleased to offer a Release Special through September 30, 2007. For $13.00, you can obtain a copy of COMPLICATIONS—a reduced rate from the book's retail price of $16.00—plus free shipping/handling (an approximate $4.00 value) to U.S. addresses. Just send a $13.00 check made out to "Meritage Press" to:

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

For international orders, please contact us through MeritagePress@aol.com

*************************

ALSO FORTHCOMING OR NEW FROM MERITAGE PRESS:

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS by William Allegrezza

PRAU by Jean Vengua (Filamore Tabios, Sr. Poetry Memorial Prize)

And a series of "Tiny Books" measuring 1 3/4 x 1 3/4" inaugurated by ALL ALONE AGAIN by Dan Waber, followed by STEPS: A NOTEBOOK by Tom Beckett and "…AND THEN THE WIND DID BLOW: JAINAKU POEMS by Ernesto Priego.

Meritage Press is a multidisciplinary literary and arts published based in St. Helena and San Francisco, CA. Our website is at http://www.meritagepress.com

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Thursday, August 02, 2007

"SURREALITY IS REAL"

is how I am living nowadays...and speaking of which, here's the best cover to a poetry collection ever achieved by Jeff Clark's Quemadura. An unbiased view, of course.

And, Crag Hill snaps some shots of Tom Beckett's Tiny Book! It's worth noting that all of the books are different, but the pics are nifty, I sez again with unbiased eyes.

Speaking of poetry books, here's my latest list of relished w(h)ines:

BOOKS:
POEMS by Joan Murray (Thanks Shanna for the .pdf)

OTOLITHS, Issue 5, Part 1, Edited by Mark Young

PARLOR, poems by Sarah Mangold

A PURE BOWL OF NOTHING, poems by Mary Kasimor

SIDEWALK PORTRAIT: FIFTY FOURTH FLOOR AND FALLING, poems by Rick Henry

COR-RE-SPON-DENCE, poems by Jessica Bozek and Eli Queen

IMAGINING A BABY, poem by Bob Marcacci

A GUNLESS TEA, poems by Marco Giovenale

RECOLLECTED (for Ted Berrigan), poems by Jared Hayes

CAGED (for John Cage), poems by Jared Hayes

I WEAR A FIGLEAF OVER MY PENIS, poems by Geoffrey Gatza

EPIGRAMITITIS, epigrams by Kent Johnson

STEP ON A CRACK, novel by James Patterson and Michael Ledgewidge

ROSES ARE RED, novel by James Patterson

THE HUSBAND, novel by Dean Koontz

ALONE, novel by Lilsa Gardner

FREE FIRE, novel by C.J. Box

THE BAILEY CHRONICLES, novel by Catherine Cookson

3 historical romances whose titles I can't recall as they passed for popcorn plane reading while doing the red-eye to three cities in 2 days


WINES:
2003 Dutch Henry chardonnay
1999 Behrens & Hitchcock "Cuvee Lola" NV
[just two? What can I say? Beer encroached this period....]

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Thursday, July 12, 2007

WOOOOT, QUEMADURA!!!

Okay, so Jeff Clark's Quemadura is frequently cited as the HOTTEST book designer for poet collections right now. If so, let Moi proclaim: I just got the cover Quemadura designed for Garrett Caples' COMPLICATIONS, forthcoming from moi beloved Meritage Press, and I am proclaiming

COMPLICATIONS HAS THE BEST COVER EVER DESIGNED BY QUEMADURA!

Drool, people. Better yet, get COMPLICAT-ED when it's out this Fall for equally drooly poems.

Best cover, un hunh.

Ahem, not, of course, that poetry is a competition....

....jest, very excited over this project...!

Oh, and I'll share the front cover image later. After all, I gotta tease y'all, don't I?!

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Thursday, June 21, 2007

COMPLICATED GARRETT CAPLES

And I'm also proofing COMPLICATIONS, Garrett Caples' forthcoming poetry collection from Meritage Press. Am tickled pink over these two lines from his "To The Reader":

if you drink from my skull please polish the bowl
so you can't taste my memories


First proof -- gorgeously designed by Jeff Clark's QUEMADURA -- has the book at 144 pages. Yep....I like 'em thick!!!

I'm very excited over Moi's Meritage Press 2007 line-up. Can't you tell?!

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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

COMPLICATIONS AND TAU!!!!!

It's definitely worth nota bene-ing that I -- rather, Meritage Press -- just signed up Garrett Caples for a new poetry release this Fall entitled, COMPLICATIONS. That'd be Garrett's second poetry book since his celebrated celebration The Garrett Caples Reader.

Garrett, of course, is no stranger to Meritage Press as we'd released his swiftly-out-of-print-but-what-do-you-expect-for-a-limited-edition-from-someone-in-demand er, um.

COMPLICATIONS will be designed by the raved-for-poetry-book-designer-of-the-now Jeff Clark. Oh, and that Jeff be a purty good poet, too. Sip. Tonight, the 2005 Mollydooker shiraz...

Puts glass down.
But THERE'S MORE!

Garrett is currently editing an unpublished volume of Philip Lamantia's poetry, to be titled TAU! It'll be published by City Lights, and include the poems of John Hoffman, whose poems Philip read at the infamous Six Gallery reading. TAU is due out in Spring 2008.  Now, THAT is ... Fantabulous News!

And she raises the goblet back up to toast ... the memory of Portuguese wine and olives with Philip...

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