"New Year"

New Year

Hey, New Year,
how can you be so new?
You can't just pretend to be new by cheering and lecturing,
and don't be new carelessly,
new on some days
then returning to what you are---old,
old and wrinkled,
as you've always been.
You're paler than the useless things
that cats bring back,
that dogs bring forth.

Come on, New Year!
Let's be new honestly, as before.- Tran Dan

Twenty-four minute video of Charlie Rose interviewing Adonis

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9297

Jacques Maritian's negative theology

...Rhythm, rhyme, line, stanza, all the clothing of words, of music, of human intelligibility, from which the poem seems to derive its consistency, none of that is what is sought for, all of that constitutes an obstacle to the research being pursued. Are we going to reduce poetry to the impossible in order to test its resistance, and allow only an ultimate sparkling gem at the point of death to survive? Shall we not rather enter into a kind of negative theology in which the hidden essence of poetry will be attained in an incommunicable experience, from which later we shall return among men, all the means of expression now being changed and purified, I mean to say as if burned from within, by a fire which will seem to annihilate them but which will liberate unknown energies in them?

The Situation of Poetry-Jacques and Raissa Maritain

X-mas loot

-Two new coffee cups
-Two bags of coffee
-Argyle pattern scarf
-Cologne
-Blue pajama pants
-Three shirts from zazzle featuring pictures of Gu Cheng, Cesar Vallejo & Vasko Popa
-Eugene Ostashevsky "Life and Opinions of DJ Spinoza"
-Eugeniusz Tkaczyszyn-Dycki "Peregrinary"
-"Lightning from the Depths: An Anthology of Albanian Poetry"
- "Poets on the Edge: An Anthology of Contemporary Hebrew Poetry"
-Srecko Kosovel "The Golden Boat"
-Maya Bejerano "The Hymns of Job and Other Poems"
-David Hinton's anthology "Classical Chinese Poetry"
-Assorted chocolates and delicious cookies

I had four drinks tonight, something unusual for me. I very rarely drink. Ate dinner at a fantastic Brazilian grill where I started with an amaretto sour, followed by a mojito and then a white russian. A little over an hour later I had a bottle of smirnoff ice. Right now I am savoring the first cup of the bag of brazilian coffee I bought Friday. Decided to take the day shift off tomorrow and work the overnight instead. After that only two more days before I begin my extended break (last day of work Dec. 23rd & I return on Jan. 4th). I plan on reading a lot, watching movies, drinking wonderful coffee and abolish time...at least for awhile.

Circumference

Issue seven of Circumference is now available! I picked up my copy Friday.

Two quotes by Rosmarie Waldrop

When the linearity of reading is broken, when we are startled awake, when the smooth horizontal travel of eye/mind is interrupted, when the connection is broken, there is a kind of orchestral meaning that comes about in the leap. A vertical dimension vibrating with the energy field between the two lines (phrases, sentences), and perhaps the energy of what would have followed/preceded, but is lacking. A meaning that both illuminates the separation and connects across it. A meaning that goes beyond the two elements that border it, as metaphor goes beyond the sum of tenor and vehicle.
Maybe the power of the leap is simply that it cuts out explanation, an essential act of poetry…



Impossible topography of writing. The infinite is both the center we try to encircle with a multitude of words, things, experiences, and is also outside, surrounding us. It is both condition and aim. But where is the infinite unless in our consciousness of possibility?

Tasseography: divination by Turkish coffee

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/middleeasternfood101/a/taseography.htm

Turkish coffee

"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love." - Turkish Proverb

Just made my first ibrik in several months now. I seem to be rusty, I even had to look up instructions again. There are so many subtleties to preparing Turkish coffee, the closest to alchemy of the bean I know of. The first pot didn't have enough coffee in it, so I started over. The second one had too much and I had the heat on too low. Nevertheless I finished it and am now sipping it. I plan on preparing a pot daily for a few weeks, I will probable have it perfected once more in three or four days. I also haven't made Vietnamese coffee in awhile, another distinct coffee experience.

Two new links

1) Kavitayan: An Anthology of Indian poetry in English Translation.
http://www.geocities.com/kavitayan/portal.html

2) Ravi Kopra's blog if Indian poetry in translation.
http://indianpoetrytranslations.blogspot.com/2006/03/jayadeva-sanskrit-poet.html

Propsero's Books

After dropping my wife off at work I decided to stop by Prospero's (they made international news last year for burning excess stock that no institution was willing to accept, even for free). The reason I went there today, my book buying is temporarily on hold, was to see if they had the current issue of Rain Taxi. Much to my delight they did (truly amazing considering that Rain Taxi's site posted the contents of this issue only this week) and I decided to browse. I found Coleridge's "Biographia Lieraria" and couldn't resist purchasing it, all the while justifying this purchase to myself (if I go one day next week without an iced mocha it won't matter, etc.). On my way out the door I noticed another book, picked it up and flipped through it and found myself right back at the counter. I plan on giving it to my brother for X-mas but it is so amusing I might keep it.

Speaking of Rain Taxi, they are holding their annual auction on ebay this Sunday. I hope they post what they are putting up for sale soon on their site, esp. since I will be at work and will have to let my wife bid for me.

Turkish cinema

In one of Silliman's latest entries he writes about Turkish cinema. Although "Head-on" is a wonderful film worth watching I'd have to say that my favorite director from that fascinating country is Nuri Bilge Ceylan. There are currently two films available on dvd by Ceylan. "Distant" & "Climates". The first distributed by New Yorker Video & the second by Zeitgeist, both among the greatest film distribution companies around in this country.

"Distant" was very reminiscent of Tarkovsky, in several points during the film he is cited and in one scene one of the main characters is watching "Stalker". The second film, although retaining elements of the first, seems more influenced by Antonioni. Of the two "Climates" might be my favorite, but I was so amazed by the first that when "Climates" opened I immediately went to see it.

Fulcrum, Adonis

Despite working from 8-5 today I have managed to read quite a bit. I just finished the astonishing book by Adonis "Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs." Earlier today I read various poems in Fulcrum # 6. The works that stood out the most: George Seferis' "Thrush," the section of Boris Vian's poetry esp. "I'll Die of a Cancer of the Spine" which strangely echoes Vallejo's famous poem (I say strangely because I'm uncertain if Vian was familiar with the Vallejo poem, it's doubtful that he was) & contains the prophetic lines:


...I'll die like a daisy plucked
A little a lot passionately madly
Not at all without enthusiasm...


& ten poems by Quevedo, one of which "Love Constant Beyond Death" is easily one of the greatest love poems ever written in any language.

Two new links

Silliman's latest links entry contained many treasures, two of which I am adding to my Links List.

First, Scantily Clad Press ebooks page, featuring a Salamun book among others:
http://issuu.com/andrewlundwall/docs/curtisharnack?mode=embed&documentId=081123040824-2f47dfb4cd5b40b0ab94b16b4c92e851&layout=grey

& "Original Ideas in Magic" by Tim Davis:
http://canopycanopycanopy.com/4/original_ideas_in_magic

Francisco Aragon

Attended a reading by Francisco Aragon this evening. Awake early this morning for work, it will be even earlier tomorrow. Finished Mandelstam's "The Noise of Time" a few minutes ago.

St. Louis Borders

On my way home yesterday from Illinois I stopped at my favorite corporate bookstore- Borders on Brentwood in St. Louis. (I think perhaps the whole area is referred to as Brentwood. It seems to be their version of the Plaza). The store is two storeys & although the space allotted for poetry is rather small, no surprise, it is well stocked with titles from independent presses. The vast majority of books are displayed with the spine facing out, as opposed to other stores where they simply face covers, taking up more space, in categories that they think no one will ever buy. Interesting enough the worst corporate owned bookstore in Kansas City is a Borders location. Their stock of poetry is so small that it's comparable to what one would find in an airport. I have more volumes of poetry laying around my livingroom than their entire poetry stock. The Brentwood branch already had a copy of the new Eshleman anthology "Grindstone of Rapport" pub. by the wonderful Black Widow. I also came across several books I wasn't even aware of- a hardback volume of poetry by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, an anthology of contemporary Hebrew poetry edited by Tsipi Keller, Rosemary Lloyd's biography/study of Baudelaire. I noticed that they'd even restocked the books I'd bought the last time I was there- Nathaniel Tarn's "Embattled Lyric" & Castior's biography of Paz. I am fortunate enough that my second favorite corporate owned bookstore is actually within walking distance of where I live-a three storey Barnes & Noble. Neither of these two stores is on par with a store such as St. Mark's in NY, but they are both nice exceptions to the treatment one usually sees poetry books given in most corporate owned bookstores. Visiting Borders last night actually added an extra forty-five minutes on to an already long drive but it was well worth it. I left with Jose Garcia Villa's "Doveglion" & "The Tenth Rasa: An Anthology of Indian Nonsense" (another book I was unaware of).

Fernando Pessoa

Stencil on a building in Lisbon.

Two new links

Cover of Alexei Kruchenykh & Roman Jakobson's "Transrational Boog"

Covver art by Olga Rozanova

While reading Silliman's blog this afternoon I was quite ecstatic over the links to Getty's digitized Russian poetry books/artworks available as downloadable PDF files http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/digitized_collections/russian_avant-garde/pdfs.html

as well as archives (mp3s) of Joe Milford's show featuring poets:

http://www.janecrown.com/show_download_page.htm

The only complaint I have about the Milford page is that I wish they had fragmented the mp3s (even if it was in two parts) so that they could be burned onto cd, as most of them are longer than the standard 80 minutes avilable on blank cds. Just a small complaint.

I do this I do that

Yesterday:

- Wake up at 2 in the afternoon.

-Smoke

-Drink coffee

- Watch a David Shapiro reading (thank you U of Chicago Poem Present)

-Smoke

- Eat spaghetti for late lunch/early dinner

- Watch a lecture by Robert Kehew on his anthology of Troubador poetry "Lark in the Morning" (thank you Library of Congress)

- Drink coffee

-Read more of the anthology "Iraqi Poetry Today"

- Stop to rent "Batman Begins" & "Transsiberian" on the way to my awake overnight shift

-Watch "Batman Begins"

-Drink coffee

-Smoke

Midnight/ Today:

- Eat "dinner" about 1 a.m.

- Watch "Transsiberian" (fantastic)

- Read more of "Iraqi Poetry Today"

- Smoke

-Once my shift is over I consider staying up until I finish the anthology

-Fall asleep around 7:30

- Wake up at 3:30 this afternoon

- Make a list of things that need to be returned to the library

- Get an iced mocha (english toffee)

- Check out quite a few things at the library...Yau's "Borrowed Love Poems" (thank you ILL), the Jodorowsky dvd set, season 1 of Henry Rollins talk show (highlights will be interviews with Werner Herzog, Eddie Izzard...performance highlights will be Thom Yorke, Sleater-Kinney, Daniel Johnston), the 2 disc special edition of Joy Division's "Closer" (second disc is a live performance), "Epic of Gilgamesh", critical study on Jarry, Sam Truitt's "Vertical Elegies" (Ugly Duckling) & more

- Now I am going to watch an eighty minute reading of Linh Dinh! (thank you Holloway Series)

SFSU Poetry Center

Tonight I watched two poetry videos. The first a reading by Nathaniel Mackey, courtesy of the superb University of Chicago Poem Present site & second a symposium on Octavio Paz courtesy of the Library of Congress. Naropa Univesity has generously archived many of their lectures & readings and allowed free access to them. Now it is SFSU Poetry Center's turn. I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now. In the past I have ordered four videos from the Center: two Berrigan readings, a Lamantia reading & a Paz reading costing over one hundred dollars total. My suggestion is for the Center to archive all of their video recordings online & if free access is out of the question due to costs, then allow subscriptions! I would happily pay forty dollars per month for access to their treasures, even if it meant the only affordable format was streaming video (Real Player, etc.) I'm fairly confident that most people interested would not only be willing to pay twenty-forty dollars per month but also in the end the Center would actually make more money from it.

Poetry t-shirts

Eleven years ago I walked into a custom made t-shirt store, like most of these stores the sample shirts on the walls was the strange mix of the proudly religious (a picture of Jesus crucified looking like an extra in a horror film...premonitions of the Mel Gibson snuff film), the proudly masculine (Harley Davidson references, etc.) & sometimes a mixture of the two ("Real Men Pray"). I brought with me a postcard of the young Rimbaud & ecstatically left several minutes later with my first poetry t-shirt. Approximately three years ago while browsing e-bay (now that indoor shopping malls are for the most part declining, it seems that most of the former owners of the t-shirt stores have retreated online to do their business) I came across a Mayakovsky t-shirt & immediately bought it. A few months later I discovered Zazzle. Since then I have ordered t-shirts featuring the following poets: Shelley, Lamantia, Alejandra Pizarnik, Odysseus Elytis & Forrugh Farrokhzad. I once attempted to order a Jose Lezama Lima shirt only to receive a vague order cancellation e-mail, no doubt due to our trade embargo.


I am beginning to compile a gift list for X-mas, consisting mostly of books, (who dares claim I don't know the true meaning of the holidays?) as well as a new poetry t-shirt. The last one I bought was the Farrokhzad & that was around seven or eight months ago. It will be a really difficult decision. I currently have eight t-shirts saved on zazzle as in progress designs. After thinking about it I have narrowed it down to the following four choices: Henri Michaux, Cesar Vallejo, Jaime Saenz & Vasko Popa. It will probably be at least another week before I make my final decision (I am currently leaning most towards a Vallejo shirt).

PoetryPolitic favorites

I stumbled upon the PoetryPolitic: A Blog in 50 Days site around eleven or twelve days through the project. Thereafter I visited the site daily, anticipating the latest addition. After day 50 I did not return to the site until Friday (I was trying to free space on my computer by organiziing and burning all of the mp3 spoken word files onto blank discs) and was pleased with their election special treat: Noelle Kocot's "Poem for the End of Time" available in its entirety both as a downloadable PDF file and as a mp3 reading. Quite a perfect ending to an outstanding project.


Here are just a few of the highlights for me of the site:

-Valzhyna Mort (Day 50)

-Elizabeth Willis (Day 46)

- Chen Li (Day 44)

- Imagining Language supplement from Fascicle. I was already acquainted with not only Fascicle, but also said supplement. It was striking to see it in this context though. (Day 40)

- Kim Hyesoon (Day 35)

- Mariana Marin (Day 30)

- Eugen Jebeleanu (Day 29)

- Garrett Caples (Day 23)

- Lara Glenum (Day 13)

- Andrew Joron's "Emergency of Poetry" essay available as downloadable PDF file. I have the book the piece is taken from but it is fantastic to see this important essay available (Day 4)

I noticed PennSound has removed the link for PoetryPolitic. Here is the link:
http://poetrypolitic.com/


I have also added a link to my Links List.


Thank you Wave Books for the outstanding job with PoetryPolitic:
http://www.wavepoetry.com/

Tomaz Salamun, Berkeley, San Francisco

See you in February Tomaz!

According to UC Berkeley's "Lunch Poems" site Tomaz Salamun will be reading February 9th. For several years now, at least once a year if not more, I have planned on visiting San Francisco. The most recent aborted plan was for a honeymoon in August. I have also always wanted to visit Berkeley. I will have to work quite a bit of overtime, not only for the standard travel expenses but also for books! There are at least four or five bookstores between the two cities that I absolutely plan on visiting. I know that if I don't make this work I will always regret it.

Mario Azzopardi, Maltese Poetry and a Few Notes on Albanian Poetry

I just added a link to a wonderful site on Maltese poet Mario Azzopardi. Contains a generous number of poems, interviews, critical articles, etc.

Grazio Galzon, translator of the only volume of Azzopardi's work available "Naked As Water" (Xenos Books 1996) says of this work in the introduction, "His poetry is a verbal pyrotechnics sprawling in a phantasmagoria of sounds, images and rhythms."

excerpt from "Persona":

...I am Kafka's insect

and the piece of bread mildewing

in the orphan's basket.

I am the image of an eclipse

a colony of snakes

and lepers.

The stillness of the departed

or

the formless aura

of crazed whiteness...

Number 1100

Coffee grounds scraped my guts

my soul weighed by heavy bells

resounding a pat Ave Maria

on the roof hanging by wooden pins

scorched by a violet sun

dried genitals withered impotent

a tired sun agonizes and in the evening

I taste again infected coffee

and start again threading beads of empty wishes.

Unfortunately Malta is in the company of countries whose poetries have received almost no attention from translators. There is a possibility that this will change one day in the future. Albania was one such country until just a little over one year ago. Since then we have seen the release of Moikom Zeqo's "I Don't Believe in Ghosts" (BOA Editions, translated by Wayne Miller), Azem Shkreli's "Blood of the Quill" (Green Integer, translated by Robert Elsie), & "Lightning from the Depths: An Anthology of Albanian Poetry" (Northwestern University Press translated & edited by Robert Elsie & Janice Mathie-Heck). Speaking of Albanian poetry I must also mention Visar Zhiti, whose book "The Condemned Apple" is also published by Green Integer and is also translated by Robert Elsie. Luljeta Lleshanaku's "Fresco" (New Directions) the first among these to be published and featuring an introduction by Eliot Weinberger is also quite stunning. I can safely predict that despite the difficulties American publishers & translators face due to the trade embargo, Cuba will be another such country.

Back to Malta...here is a link to the special feature The Drunken Boat ran: http://www.thedrunkenboat.com/maltapge.html

& here is a link to poets reading their work:

http://hbulastirati.blogspot.com/2007/07/test.html#mario

Three documentaries

Late last night/ early this morning I was quite elated to stumble upon THREE dvds on netflix of enormous interest.

First- "Ahmad Shamlou: Master Poet of Liberty"
About a year ago, after watching the documentary on Forrugh Farrokhzad "The Mirror of the Soul" (by far one of the greatest documentaries on a poet I've ever seen), and searching sites relating to Iranian poetry I came across some info. on the Shamlou documentary. At that time it had yet to be released with subtitles and the necessary regional code. This is quite major.

Second- "Juan, I Forgot I Don't Remember"
Mexican director Juan Carlos Rulfo's documentary on his father Juan Rulfo, poet & novelist. Juan Jose Arreola and Jaime Sabines are listed as among those interviewed.

Third- "Grandes Pensadores"
Netflix description:
"Originally broadcast on Mexican television, these absorbing profiles explore the lives and work of two celebrated writers -- author, journalist and activist Carlos Monsiváis Aceves and poet Jaime Sabines Gutierrez. Involved in the quest for Puerto Rican independence, Aceves influenced the progressive movement in his homeland. Gutierrez earned the moniker "The Sniper of Literature" with his dynamic writings exploring the landscapes of Spain."

I am currently registered for the three-at-a-time plan. One of the films I have at home I watched yesterday, the other two (actually two parts of one film) Hans Jurgen-Syberberg's "Our Hitler: A Film from Germany" (one of Susan Sontag's favorite films) I have yet to watch. I'm going to return them today though as I am dying to see the above three films.

Sources for Flarf

Below are titles of some horror films that would make great sources for Flarf:

-Puppetmaster vs. Demonic Toys.

-Brain of Blood.

-Blood Gnome.

-Rabid Grannies.

-Satanic Yuppies.

-Microwave Massacre.

-Decampitated.

-The Feral Man.

-Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker! & Filthy McNasty.

-Old Hag.

-Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires.

-The Kung Fu Mummy.

-Dumpster Baby.

-Buttcrack.

-The Incredible Melting Man.

-Invisible Bikini.

-Wiseguys Vs. Zombies.

I do this I do that

Yesterday:

-Wake up around 2:30 in the afternoon.

-Smoke.

-Fix a pot of coffee.

-Smoke more.

-Consider quitting smoking.

-Watch "Roe's Room" By Lech Malchjewski.

-Start reading Keats "Endymion"

-Order a pizza.

-Eat pizza.

-Read more of "Endymion".

-Smoke.

-Wash dishes.

-Drink an iced mocha.

-Wash more dishes.

-Watch a video of Clayton Eshleman reading Cesar Vallejo.

-Do more dishes.

-Fix another pot of coffee.

-Need a cigarette with coffee.

-Watch a video of Pierre Joris reading.

-Browse netflix.

-Read more of "Endymion".

-Smoke.

-Goodnight.

Two poetry genres that need to disappear

Biker poetry & Cowboy poetry.

Diogenes

1 I have come to debase the coinage.

15 I learned from the mice how to get along: no rent, no taxes, no grocery bill.

18 When I die, throw me to the wolves. I'm used to it.

24 Before begging it is useful to practice on statues.

54 Bury me prone: I have always faced the other way.

73 I pissed on the man who called me a dog. Why was he so surprised?

101 It is a convenience not to fear the dark.

118 The only real commonwealth is the whole world.

Source "7 Greeks" translated and edited by Guy Davenport

Herakleitos

42 No matter how many ways you try, you cannot find a boundary to consciousness, so deep in every direction does it extend.

44 The psyche rises as a mist from things that are wet.

58 If everything were smoke, all perception would be by smell.

59 In Hades psyches perceive each other by smell alone.

62 The mind of man exists in a logical universe but is not itself logical.

65 At night we extinguish the lamp and go to sleep; at death our lamp is extinguished and we go to sleep.

source "7 Greeks" translated by Guy Davenport

The shoddy treatment of Frank Stanford by The Alsop Review

Fall 2008 issue of Rain Taxi

The only issue in the decade of it's history featuring a portrait as the cover

Portrait by Ginny Stanford

Anyone who may have picked up the latest issue of Rain Taxi may have experienced shivers of excitement upon reading "...Crib Death, as well as the five chapbooks published by Irv Broughton's Mill Mountain Press between 1974 and 1976, are available online at The Alsop Review..." When the reader goes to Alsop Review's site : http://www.journal.alsopreview.com/ one will more than likely be confused and will grab the Rain Taxi issue checking they typed the correct name into their search engine. Are you certain it's Alsop and not Aesop? Can one expect to find a link to the current issue of Rain Taxi? No. Even a note, even a single line mentioning the honor given to them? Negative. What about any information on the Frank Stanford festival last month in Fayetteville? Don't count on it. By all accounts, anyone who might not know better The Alsop Review has nothing whatsoever to do with Frank Stanford. On the side of the page that says "Poets S-Z" one would check in vain for Stanford's name. You have to use the search button within the site to pull up the Frank Stanford page, which is: http://www.alsopreview.com/thecollections/stanford/stanford.html

This brings me to another indignation over The Alsop Review. After the picture of Stanford, a brief biographical description, one comes to the links. They read in order: Poetry, An Arkansas Album. Photographs by Ginny Stanford & Essays & Letters. When you have the honor of carring five chapbooks and a full volume (I counted 119 poems, taking into consideration the few redundancies between the chapbooks and Crib Death the number is around 115) by one of the most scandalously neglected American poets and the link simply states "poetry"...well that has to be one of the biggest understatements I have ever chanced upon in relation to poetry online. One must keep in mind the fact that there are currently only four Stanford books in print: "The Battlefield Where the Moon Says I Love You," "The Singing Knives," ""You" & "The Light the Dead See." The 1975 short film on Stanford It Wasn't a Dream: It Was a Flood has never been made available, why isn't this online? Obviously one waits and prays for it to eventually find its way onto DVD. Why not release it on DVD and sell it along with his books? There is now more interest gathering in Stanford's work that it could very well be sold as a stand alone product. One can also well imagine it on PENNSound, youtube, any number of places..

Here is a breakdown of what exactly Alsop's Stanford site contains:

1) As noted above there are five chapbooks and one posthumously published volume. Approximately 115 poems.

2) Ginny Stanford's wonderful photographs of her husband and their friends-33.

3) The Essays and Letters section: 29.

Why was The Alsop Review entrusted with these works? One cannot help but be pessimistic in the stability of a site that so poorly treats its treasures. I know that I won't be too surprised if when clicking the link in the future I come up with only an error message.

Here are a few more sites carrying Stanford materials:

1) Three articles from Rain Taxi 1998: http://www.raintaxi.com/online/1998fall/stanford.shtml

2) Profile of Lost Roads Press: http://www.raintaxi.com/online/1998fall/lostroads.shtml

3) Ben Ehrenreich's article: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/feature.html?id=181083

4) Poetry Foundation (31 poems): http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=98306

5) Lorenzo Thomas article: http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/authors/thomas/thomas_stanford.html

6) Bill Willett, close friend of Stanford, reads "Singing Knives":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sgm-tju0ad8

Eight poems, three recordings & one video by Abraham Smith

"Whim Man Mammon" by Abraham Smith

1) Three poems and streaming audio of each poem here:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20365

2) Three poems here:

http://www.webdelsol.com/DIAGRAM/6_3/smith.html

3) One here:

http://www.storysouth.com/spring2003/smith.html

4) One here:

http://www.typomag.com/issue09/smith.html

5) Rabbit Light Movies # 8. An eight minute reading.

http://www.rabbitlightmovies.com/smith.html

Elizabeth Jennings & Pierre Joris

Considerations

Some say they find it in the mind,
A reason why they should go on.
Others declare that they can find
The same in travel, art well done.

Still others seek in sex or love
A reciprocity, relief.
And few, far fewer daily, give
Themselves to God, a holy life.

But poetry must change and make
The world seem new in each design.
It asks much labour, much heartbreak,
Yet it can conquer in a line.-Elizabeth Jennings

excerpt from "Revving Charon's Outboard Engine"

...The change is upon us. Do not
resist. Insist. Ride the letters
into newer never and. Prepare
to land, touch ground.

No sponge can follow us here
with false equations from word to
thing. Walk, do not run,
the ninja metaphor is just another
hired killer, cold in winter
& hungry throughout the day...-Pierre Joris

Neo-Benshi event poster & three links on poets of the dark

The greatest articles avilable online about Neo-Benshi are by Linh Dinh:

http://poeticinvention.blogspot.com/search/label/neo-benshi

I have been able to find only two sites featuring Neo-Benshi performances:

Da Benshi Code: http://benshi.org/ (Quite a number of performances)

Nada Gordon's "Uzumaki" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qcOVNOQ3Ag

The Twenty Named Days

-Alligator

Cipactli

-Wind

Ehecatl

-House

Calli

-Lizard

Cuetzapallin

-Serpent

Coatl

-Death

Miquiztl

-Deer

Mazatl

-Rabbit

Tochtli

-Water

Atl

-Dog

Itzcuintli

-Monkey

Ozomatli

-Grass

Malinalli

-Reed

Acatl

-Ocelot

Ocelotl

-Eagle

Cuauhtil

-Vulture

Cozcacuauhtli

-Earthquake

Ollin

-Knife

Tecpatl

-Rain

Quiahuitl

-Flower

Xochitl

source: "The Aztec Circle of Destiny" by Bruce Scofield and Angela Cordova

Kazim Ali/Katy Lederer reading...book buying in Lawrence

A great reading tonight in Lawrence at the 6 Gallery (an art gallery). It was wonderful seeing Ali read. Before the reading I stopped by The Dusty Bookshelf, one of my favorite used bookstores. I walked away with copies of "POASIS: Selected Poems 1986-1999" by Pierre Joris, Elizabeth Jennings "Collected Poems", Michel Butor "Frontiers", Vicente Aleixandre "A Bird of Paper" & Nguyen Duy "Distant Road." Ate dinner at a decent italian restaurant that took over the superior Mass. Street Deli & then went to Borders (which apparently now closes at ten every single night, even on the weekend!) where I bought "Skid" by Dean Young. A fantastic night, it would be a perfect end to an already wonderful week, except tomorrow looks promising as well.

"Our potentials are asleep

in hearts that suffer from halfheartedness.

Our potentials are asleep

in brains filled with arrogance.

Our potentials are asleep

in eyes dulled and hard as crystal glass.

Our potentials are asleep

in ears hot with inflammation.

Our potentials are asleep

in noses too stuffy to smell the sweet fragrance.

Our potentials are asleep

in skins too lazy to feel.

Wake up, wake up

every cell, every organ of sense.

Especially, please pay special attention,

wake up to the voluble nature of the tongue..." excerpt from "Wake, Wake Our Sleeping Potentials" by Nguyen Duy

Movies

With rare exceptions I almost never buy movies. The reasons are numerous, the biggest ones being that once I have paid all of my usual living expenses (car payment, insurance, rent, etc.) purchasing books is top priority for any money I might have leftover, I also very rarely feel the desire to watch a movie more than once. However during the past week I have watched three movies I have seen before: David Fincher's "The Game", Christopher Nolan's "Memento" and Mike Newell's "Donnie Brasco." I probably watch more films than most people, but I also never watch t.v. Breaking with the statistic of most American homes having a higher number of television sets than people in them, my wife & I have two. We also don't have any form of cable, not even basic service. There are a few programs that I enjoy but I usually wait for them to be released on dvd, the number of current said programs is very limited. ("Flight of the Conchords," "The Office" even though I really only enjoyed seasons 2 & 3. The first one being only a remake of the original BBC series and the most recent one didn't contain anything too memorable.)

A few more reasons for my aversion to viewing a movie repeatedly:

-Time. I find it hard to dedicate too much time to watching movies when I start recalling all of the books I have around my apartment that are waiting for me. Longer films are especially challenging for me, not because I become restless or bored but I must be completely dedicated to a film before watching it. Which is why it was two years before I was able to tackle Edgar Reitz's wonderful twenty-five hour epic "Heimat II."

-The vast number of poetry videos (readings, neo-benshi performances, etc.) available online, usually ONLY online.

Cover of two books by Johanna Drucker

"OTHERSPACE: Martian Ty(o)pography" Drucker in collaboration with Brad Freeman 1992

http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/mrtn.xml

"Dark, The Bat Elf Banquets the Pupae" 1972

http://www.artistsbooksonline.org/works/dark.xml

More artists' books:
www.artistsbooksonline.org

Poetry Now image

This is the feast in which we remember death the most-Jorge Gaitan Duran

late 2008 & 2009 will be a great year for poetry (here's yet more reasons why)

late 2008 & 2009 will be a great year for poetry (here's a few more reasons why)

late 2008 & 2009 will be a great year for poetry (here's a few reasons why)

Center for Studies in Oral Tradition site

An anonymous single-sheet actor print produced in the eleventh month of 1815. Ichikawa Ebijūrō I in the role of the fisherman Fukashichi. The poem is by the actor who is listed only by his haiku pen name Shinshō. The frontal portrait is rare and reflects his recent taking of a new name as a disciple of the famous Edo actor Ichikawa Danjūrō VII. Ebijūrō had returned to Osaka after many years away.

Susindahati and Mas Pongti perform the love dance

The Center for Studies in Oral Tradition located at the University of Missouri has made one of my first entries. As can be seen below, the excellent lecture I attended this evening is still very much on my mind. It also strikes me though that this site will be of interest to most people interested in poetry regardless of their location. Following is the first paragraph of the Center's history:

"Founded in 1986 with the approval of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition stands on the verge of its twentieth anniversary as a national and international focus for interdisciplinary research and scholarship on the world’s oral traditions. Our long-term mission is to facilitate communication across disciplinary boundaries by creating linkages among specialists in different fields. Through our various activities we try to foster conversations and exchanges about oral tradition that would not otherwise take place."

Every issue of their journal, beginning in January 1986, is avilable online as a free downloadable PDF file. Here are the titles of some of the articles throughout the history of this fantastic journal:

"Collecting Portuguese Ballads" by Manuel da Costa Fontes (vol. 2 #2-3)

" 'Tonight My Gun is Loaded': Poetic Dueling in Arabia" by Saad A. Sowayan (vol. 4 #1-2)

"The Folk Ballad in Slovenia" by Zmaga Kumer (vol. 6 #2-3)

"Early Voice Recordings of Japanese Storytelling" by J. Scott Miller (vol. 11 #2)

"The Inscription of Charms in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts" by Lea Olsan (vol. 14 #2)

"Performance and Norse Poetry: The Hydromel of Praise and the Effluvia of Scorn" by Stephen Mitchell (vol. 16 #1)

"Performance, Visuality, and Textuality: The Case of Japanese Poetry" by Haruo Shirane (vol. 20 #2)

Along with the endless hours reading the archives of their journals will provide, the site also has some great images, recordings and videos accompanying the articles.

http://journal.oraltradition.org/

Five reasons that the past six months have left me breathless in five separate posts (still tinkering with this...)

St. Louis May 14th. This is where I became engaged.

Five reasons that the past six months have left me breathless in five separate posts (still tinkering with this...)

Fox Theatre St. Louis June 26th

Five reasons that the past six months have left me breathless in five separate posts (still tinkering with this...)

Rockhurst University in October

Five reasons that the past six months have left me breathless in five separate posts (still tinkering with this...)

Five reasons that the past six months have left me breathless in five separate posts (still tinkering with this...)

I just returned from this fascinating lecture less than two hours ago:

Dr. Paolo Flavio Zedda, Oral Poet and Professor of Ethnomusicology, will deliver the 2008-2009 Albert Lord and Milman Parry Lecture at the University of Missouri. Please join us on Wednesday evening, November 5th, 2008 at 7:30 pm in Fisher Auditorium in Gannett Hall. The lecture, “Sardinian Oral Traditions,” will be illustrated by recordings and a live performance. Widely recognized as one of the leading oral poets in Sardinia, Dr. Zedda is also a professor of ethnomusicology at the Università di Cagliari and a dentist specializing in orthodontics. Among his recent publications are The Art of the Motet (2007) and The Song in Itself (2007). He has performed and delivered lectures in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, the Basque Country, the United States, and elsewhere. He will be spending two weeks at the University of Missouri, visiting classes and participating in extended interviews that will lead to a book and a web publication featuring his unique perspective on oral poetry—as both a performer and a scholar.