tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31626188928081157612024-02-19T01:34:25.189-05:00BELLEMEADE BOOKSWRITING ABOUT READINGM Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.comBlogger1375125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-64840367019786071082017-05-16T14:06:00.002-04:002017-05-16T14:08:15.973-04:00from "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz and Other Poems," Pablo Picasso<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5iC1q6s5Ln9erTEC6ETa1BoZzywy7cavD756MAkjUXuQhyrXjAzzYCD_MXMpRvFZLmXNPvgafliUJxCGZkeRxZddI63LN7YkB9_sMrqtHQ_oSA5P1QKSEwfx2UrUVFMWOI6E2EtAM_L6/s1600/1picasso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5iC1q6s5Ln9erTEC6ETa1BoZzywy7cavD756MAkjUXuQhyrXjAzzYCD_MXMpRvFZLmXNPvgafliUJxCGZkeRxZddI63LN7YkB9_sMrqtHQ_oSA5P1QKSEwfx2UrUVFMWOI6E2EtAM_L6/s320/1picasso.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
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26 April 43<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>TO THE SALMON-PINK CARESSES OF THE LEAF a thousand times half-opened and fixed detached offered as music to the fires and long trains of spangles<br />waved and crazy so said and splashed in glory and rockets screamed and<br />painted to the pearly distinct braids to the solitudes seen all mixed up<br />with the caressing burned distillations to the branches and to the raised<br />hangings to the sordid little secrets and to the unfortunate discoveries in<br />digestions and prayers vomited from a point into far enamored sumptuous<br />arabesques and ritornellos of the decompositions and tears to the spattered<br />and festooned arcs labors torn in perfumes and in crowns and diabolic sated<br />processions to the tendernesses prepared disappeared and undone so late of<br />each long trajectory revolted enveloped stretched in the woods to hooked and<br />shredded trances in meat and bone unfolded into veils and vellums oars smack<br />raised in flames and good-byes rigorously projected as bait to the crowd of<br />mirrors aping the drained apparition at the bottom of the raised lakes of<br />the sun with large brush strokes painting three quarters of the sideboard<br />buried in the mess of hairs of the fur caulking with cotton waste the belly<br />open to the light with large strokes of the icy roof of the stretched sheet<br />of the water armor screamed at the window with all the strength of the gay<br />bouquet in plucked apparel to all chance and risk imagined.</i></div>
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(Translated from the French by Pierre Joris) </div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1935, at age 54, an emotional crisis caused Picasso to stop painting and devote himself entirely to poetry. Even after resuming his visual work, Picasso continued to write, in a characteristic torrent, until 1959, leaving a body of prose poems that Andre Breton praised as "an intimate journal, both of the feelings and the senses, such as has never been kept before." Near the end of his life, Picasso himself was quoted as having "told a friend that long after his death his writing would gain recognition and encyclopedias would say: 'Picasso, Pablo Ruiz--Spanish poet who dabbled in painting, drawing and sculpture.'" </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1878972367/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=ajoromysk-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1878972367" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>Burial of the Count of Orgaz and Other Poems</i></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> (Exact Change, 2004) is a collaboration of translators coordinated by poets Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris, a project to translate the majority of this writing into English for the first time. Working from Picasso's original Spanish and French (he wrote in both languages), they enlisted the help of over a dozen contemporary poets in order to mark, as they note in their introduction, "Picasso's entry into our own time." Pierre Joris' blog, <a href="http://www.pierrejoris.com/blog/">Nomadics</a>, is worth a browse in its own right.</span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-41001555857698357972017-05-07T14:04:00.000-04:002017-05-15T14:05:47.475-04:00What do writers listen to when they write?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqxOijgFLUa2BI11cK6EBokXfyprTTMZWR8YznGhAiSlzMM1H9SrA0Rb8PwDOHbbkjossNhyphenhyphengfIQNEAai0WLmdOXbfVeqGvv84TnIF4moMzUX6Fm2c6cuOSx4K3Py5W_s7z4XX0HUsEDF/s1600/1heidegger.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568102584462468402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjqxOijgFLUa2BI11cK6EBokXfyprTTMZWR8YznGhAiSlzMM1H9SrA0Rb8PwDOHbbkjossNhyphenhyphengfIQNEAai0WLmdOXbfVeqGvv84TnIF4moMzUX6Fm2c6cuOSx4K3Py5W_s7z4XX0HUsEDF/s320/1heidegger.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 214px;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What
do writers listen to when they write? In these media-saturated days
that doesn't seem like such a far-fetched question for an interview any
longer, but it remains unasked most of the time. Even more rare is the
chance for an author to write about the music that inspired an idea or
enhanced the form of a story. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Perhaps
it seems more appropriate to ask a writer simply if he turns the music
off or on when he sits down to write. To many, music is only a
distraction. But it turns out that many contemporary authors find music
forms a soundtrack to their writing. And for some authors, music can
help find a way into a story. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The </span></span><a href="http://blog.largeheartedboy.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Largehearted boy</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">
site has a regular feature, Book Notes, which asks writers to comment
on music they listened to while they worked on their books. Thaisa Frank
writes about her first novel </span></span><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heideggers-Glasses-Novel-Thaisa-Frank/dp/158243719X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296424080&sr=1-1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Heidegger's Glasses</span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">,
a story of World War II, that the music of Beethoven was her first
choice while conceiving the story. But there were other inspirations as
well: California rain on skylights, and an iPod shuffle that included
Cat Power, Bob Marley, and The Cranberries. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Frank
decided early in framing her characters that the camp Commandant would
be listening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, the "Pastoral." But she
changed her mind: "after listening to the Pastoral, I decided the
dissonance was heavy-handed and remembered Mozart's Piano Concerto in C,
which my boyfriend gave me in college. It joined my iPod shuffle. The
Commandant played it, too."</span></span><br />
<blockquote style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">...Since
I studied piano perhaps it's not surprising that I chose the Concerto
or made the one of the characters a pianist, although at the time I
didn't give it much thought. Nor did I give it much thought at first
when she played Scarlatti sonatas. Then I listened to Scarlatti and
remembered how much I loved playing his sonatas and the sense of a
clean, well-ordered world. I found as many Scarlatti piano sonatas as I
could and they also joined the iPod shuffle.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">At
some point -- perhaps toward the middle of the novel -- I began to
watch documentaries about WWII, documentaries in which Germany's
national anthem at the time was played again and again. I heard this
anthem in a curious way -- distancing myself, trying not to hear it.
Perhaps I listened the way people who were threatened by, or
unsympathetic to the Nazi Party listened.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In
one documentary, however, I found a song that became emblematic -- a
song I then listened to again and again. This was from Lotte Leyna's
German recording of </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Three Penny Opera</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">.
It is called "Solomon" in English, "Saloman" in German. I first heard
it on a documentary about Leni Riefenstahl. While Riefenstahl insisted
that she didn't know about the concentration camps it was played over
and over, like a dirge. The song sounded less ironic in German than it
does in English. It sounded mournful. The rhythm is insistent and
relentless. It washes over Riefenstahl's denials like waves.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5568102272992193602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOi4XgdUfdfkUhlvbEqPXcBAyjXTKYPQb4yLwBKu_wE_4y1rLxhQy743zFQ-O8kmQ1XJfT72o868_5LhyphenhyphenyNCiRmULCEw9DhV1ZIDcyGaWGgUjQNjj7osMVJaiI5x4zkly5XEUyLLaMfuye/s400/1ThaisaFrank1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 336px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 250px;" /><br />
<blockquote style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; text-align: center;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Thaisa Frank</span></span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I
also listened to Cat Power, blues piano by Jimmy Yancey, and The
Cranberries. Each piece of music felt close to the novel or the act of
writing it. The Cranberries and Cat Power are close to the feelings of
love and betrayal that persisted in Germany during WWII. And Jimmy
Yancey's piano seemed closest to the way I seemed to disappear when the
writing went well. His blues are deceptively simple--as though the piano
is a guitar and he is picking out tunes. I always see him at an old
upright late at night in a smoky Chicago bar. There's a cigarette
dangling from his mouth, and he's playing as if no one is listening. ...</span></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">
<span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">
The music of the blues and the reality of German concentration camps
in World War II make an unlikely pairing, but that was Frank's way of
"disappearing" into the story and letting the story tell itself. Most
writers, if pressed, would have a difficult time explaining where their
inspiration comes from. It seems that an author's music playlist is one
small facet that can make the mystery of creativity a little clearer,
even as the connection between source and inspiration remains as
inexplicable as ever.</span></span> </div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-36465373744941624152017-05-06T13:47:00.000-04:002017-05-15T14:00:32.753-04:00Writing it all down: for the Beats, too much was never enough<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeqKviiMNla3-I6w3NcA7gVCTeXun85lHZIX8eTPOH_xvrx6vMTTjR3y2bNRsP_eUwETYMjlMXp7JTEew3MKRgQqYvzKO7G6XC33xmtMFD_-MPPfeHt_MY1Bgq1ooFy_hJsOPSjnUWLVxx/s1600/1chartersbio.jpg" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559568880877824242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeqKviiMNla3-I6w3NcA7gVCTeXun85lHZIX8eTPOH_xvrx6vMTTjR3y2bNRsP_eUwETYMjlMXp7JTEew3MKRgQqYvzKO7G6XC33xmtMFD_-MPPfeHt_MY1Bgq1ooFy_hJsOPSjnUWLVxx/s320/1chartersbio.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center; width: 214px;" /></a></span><br />
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<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 17px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Bill Morris at </span></span><a href="http://www.themillions.com/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Millions</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> has had enough. His post </span></span><i><a href="http://www.themillions.com/2010/12/will-you-beat-hagiographers-please-be-quiet-please.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themillionsblog%2Ffedw+%28The+Millions%29" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Will you Beat Hagiographers Please Be Quiet Please</span></span></a><a href="http://www.themillions.com/2010/12/will-you-beat-hagiographers-please-be-quiet-please.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+themillionsblog%2Ffedw+%28The" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></a></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(with its intentional double</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> please</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">),
about the ongoing parade of films and books lionizing the beat
generation, contains some valid points about the myth-making and the
saint-making machinery of American popular culture.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> He notes, as well,
the increasing trend toward what Joyce Carol Oates has called
"pathography" -- that the facts of a creative individual's life are as
important as his art, with an emphasi</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">s on dysfunctional detail -- in literary biography.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It's
ironic that Morris would find this abundance of lurid, personal
psychology unwarranted in the biographies of beat figures like Kerouac
and Burroughs -- writers who seemingly suffered from logorrhea so much
more than most in letters and journals and scribbled diaries and,
finally, in books. Many of them wrote everything down and some, it
seems, were impatient waiting for the ink to dry before turning their
lives into literature. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Their
personal lives, and the stories they fashioned from them, form a
carnival ground of (in Oates's phrase) “dysfunction and disaster,
illnesses and pratfalls, failed marriages and failed careers, alcoholism
and breakdowns and outrageous conduct.” With the beats, it's all there
on the blotted page, with the "artifice" of fiction very nearly removed
from the "art" of the story. But learning more about a writer's life,
Morris writes, doesn't count for nearly as much as the books themselves:</span></span></span></div>
<blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">...
Since we live in an age that’s obsessed with personalities and
celebrities, it’s not surprising that so few readers are satisfied with
loving a book and so many insist on knowing as much as possible about
the person who wrote it. While this appetite has inspired literary
biographers to produce a long shelf of pathographies and other
monstrosities – does the world really need Norman Sherry’s three-volume
biography of Graham Greene? – it has also resulted in some well
researched and finely written literary biographies that did what such
exercises do at their </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">best: they led readers back to the subject’s books.</span></span></i></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Among
these I would include Blake Bailey’s recent biographies of Richard
Yates and John Cheever and, strangely enough, Ann Charters’s thorough
and balanced 1973 </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kerouac-Biography-Ann-Charters/dp/0312113471" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">bio of Kerouac.</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">
In her introduction, Charters wrote insightfully, if a bit clunkily:
“The value of Kerouac’s life is what he did, how he acted. And what he
did, was that he wrote. I tried to arrange the incidents of his life to
show that he was a writer first, and a mythologized figure afterward.
Kerouac’s writing counts as much as his life.”</span></span></i></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559565398327805202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSaYuuLbvF_Tz5-b1pVOCLSB89gyJM8b4F3hMg2gWnPvsHiOoEu5TeVwsac4-Vq01Qf-oZn1sz5s-AyOkvtAM2nmg_ZggUVrJkzbBCOZhMWndkX4fMw0kHwYRoMLVG98dt8-4nbkVhrFP0/s320/1Portable_Jack_Kerouac.jpg" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center; width: 209px;" /></i></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I
would argue that his writing counts more than his life, much more.
Eventually Charters seemed to come around to my way of thinking. In
1995, after she’d edited two fat volumes, </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kerouac-Selected-Letters-1-1940-1956/dp/0140234446/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_10" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, 1940-1956</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Jack-Kerouac-Penguin-Classics/dp/014310506X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_6" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The Portable Jack Kerouac,</span></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">
I interviewed her for a newspaper article. “I wanted (the book of
letters) to be a biography in Jack’s own words,” she told me. “His life
is in his books, but on the other hand the most essential thing is
missing from those novels. What he tells you in the letters is that the
most important thing in his life is writing.”</span></span></i></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 17px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">At
the time The Gap was using Kerouac’s image – and images of James Dean
and Marilyn Monroe and other ’50s icons – to sell its khaki pants. In
the face of such shameless hucksterism, Charters’s insistence on the
importance of Kerouac’s writing seemed both quaint and heroic to me. It
still does today, as the hagiographers keep bombarding us with
abominations </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">like </span></span></i><a href="http://www.onefastmove.com/about_the_film/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One Fast Move</span></span></a><i><a href="http://www.onefastmove.com/about_the_film/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></a></i><a href="http://www.onefastmove.com/about_the_film/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">or I’m Gone</span></span></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span></span></i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1049402/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Howl</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span></span><a href="http://bellemeadebooks.blogspot.com/2010/11/burroughs-and-bowles-two-new-films.html" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A Man Within</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. ...</span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 17px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559564914951680738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5R-XAJCrk-rK79F_ZosLHG8xAHB8si44GEIJmqWask5p6WbIvzEYHoaUYY7lCtXfrR6xM4weJETNcGsNlkqic6R8Oqa0ykUbLj423TEmoH1GFW3ZgGWNBOT41PpsnMuel-LOjVnwTBdpu/s320/1onefastmove_poster.png" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 4px; text-align: center; width: 248px;" /></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 17px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Morris
is half right. Today's hot-house atmosphere of celebrity and promotion
is a blurry mix of authenticity and the artificial. Some would argue
rightly everything in ad-land is all packaging. But so what? Morris's
own griping about the commercialization of Kerouac seems quaint itself
this late in the advertising game -- the appropriation of Kerouac's
image doesn't make what he wrote less "authentic," it only questions the
decisions of his estate. If fans find this kind of legend-buffing
intriguing, it may be that the link between beat writers and beat
writing comes close to solving the mysterious alchemy between
personality and page. And that leads readers back to the words
themselves -- which is Morris's basic starting point.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For
many readers the movement's legacy of writing-it-all-down is a key to
finding the raw material of fiction in real life. For fans, too, beat
literature can seem a kind of romantic ideal, opening the gates to
self-expression and revelation. Then the trick, of course, is to find a
public outlet, and the internet seems to be obliterating that hurdle
more rapidly every day. We can all make messes of our lives, and we now
have the means to tell everyone -- friends and complete strangers --
about it.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 17px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font: normal normal normal 14px/normal Helvetica; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Making
real and discernible art out of a messy and careening life takes
perception and some amount of craft, however, and there a writer is on
his own without a net. There is a simple way past the image-crafting and
the cults of personality, the flood of films and the biographer's
"pathography." Writers like Morris suggest it, if a bit over-wrought, in
his essay: it used to be called "letting the words speak for
themselves."</span></span></span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-51585490077096082882017-05-05T13:37:00.000-04:002017-05-15T13:55:22.799-04:00"The Complete Zap Comix: "is it possible for something to be too good?"<br />
<div style="color: #333333; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /><a href="http://www.atomicbooks.com/index.php/complete-zap-comix.html" style="color: #006666; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Complete ZAP Comix" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51v%2BH-xUaTL._SY344_.jpg" style="border-style: none;" /></a></span></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Got $500? Here's a he</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">fty 2014 </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">collection </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">f</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">rom the Atomic Books site. You may have </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> to wait in line for a second edition, though -- the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">first run is already sold out. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.tcj.com/reviews/the-complete-zap-comix/">The Complete Zap Comix</a></i> is designed by Victor Moscoso and edited by Eric Reynolds, and there are still copies available at the original price.</span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Is it possible for something to be too good? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If
so, this deluxe set of complete Zap Comix might just be it. This is the
most important comics collection to be released in years - bringing
together the complete run of the Robert Crumb-created underground comix
version of MAD Magazine. It features comics by Crumb as well as S. Clay
Wilson, Robert Williams, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, Rick Griffin
and so many others. This set is worth every penny of its price tag." </span></i></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-66878654914881044612017-05-04T13:11:00.000-04:002017-05-15T13:15:29.168-04:00Charles Olson, Paris Review 1970: "Until I'm beaten, I'm still boss"<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><img alt="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMtTfCfDWiG9xcx1NAuM5F5iXh4HSNNJWcQTMesvCufQ8yedbv3Ng9e6HIZMlaGt2JqFriToM1KGg1571qmQG9PHMxFDp_PyCE9v2TkjX6NvekwAZ4I5-0q4xsecdFM03MGyMcDNtnnM/s400/CharlesOlson.jpg" class="decoded" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCMtTfCfDWiG9xcx1NAuM5F5iXh4HSNNJWcQTMesvCufQ8yedbv3Ng9e6HIZMlaGt2JqFriToM1KGg1571qmQG9PHMxFDp_PyCE9v2TkjX6NvekwAZ4I5-0q4xsecdFM03MGyMcDNtnnM/s400/CharlesOlson.jpg" /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Charles Olson, (1910-1970)</span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Charles
Olson, the six-foot-eight poetic volcano of the Black Mountain school in North
Carolina, was not an interviewer's easy subject. He didn't sit still
explaining an academic, historical, or linear approach to his creative
work, and suffered any interviewer who tried to match fact with idea or
theory with practice. Olson died in January, 1970; his<a href="http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4134/the-art-of-poetry-no-12-charles-olson"> summer, 1970<i> Paris Review</i> bout</a> is a classic example of Olson's combative ring style with interviewers. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The poet's avoidance of
the interview itself was a clue: for three days in April 1969 Olson
posted notes on his back door in Annisquam, Massachusetts, offering
assurances that the interview would definitely be arranged "if you could
afford to see me again." Only a chance meeting on the fourth day ended
the game of tag and found the interviewer unprepared. The conversation
was an all-nighter, and in the morning the kitchen table was filled with
beer cans, ashtrays, and correspondence.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By
the end of nine rounds with the poet in top form, Gerard Malaga walks
away as dazed as the reader attempting to understand Olson's poetic
rope-a-dope replies. Malaga [Warhol associate, painter, and a poet
himself] tries to keep punching with a line of academic questions but
Olson circles him relentlessly ["God's with this boy" ... "yeah I heard
you. Continue without repeating it." ... "that's a dumb sort of block
historical question" ... ]. It's a glorious reminder that whatever else
poetry may be, Olson made it more than a spectator sport --by the end of
the bout there was always the possibility that some blood might be
spilled. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It's also a comic masterpiece of creative misdirection. Here's an excerpt :</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER What constitutes a school of poetry? </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON Total change, like the man said; one doesn’t look like
boopeedeboop—of course. Carry on, destroy film, take another giant step
backwards. Málaga. Take one step backwards. Now, ask me some decent
questions. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER Is the function of a literary—</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON That sounds dirty as hell. Maybe we can take that to the Supreme Court. Yeah, I heard you. Continue without repeating it. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER Is the function of a— </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON He’s already conditioned. It’s like a reflex. Atlantis will arise again. Go ahead. God’s with this boy. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER Is the function of a literary movement primarily to secure
publication of the poets connected with that movement or doesn’t a
literary movement or school present a different function or advantage? </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON
That’s a dumb sort of block historical question, if I may say so, and
typical sort of a Columbia twentieth-century question. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER A school is a place where one can learn something. Can a school lose by giving away its knowledge? </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON Oh boy, that’s beautiful. That’s a lovely question. It’s really such a
lovely question. Jesus God. I see it. Right through the solar plexus as
the pantheon of Black Mountain pharaoh of the exile . . . We all went
on to the other fields, other Bull Runs. It’s a marvelous question,
though. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER
Would you say Black Mountain College’s sole existence depended on the
part of those artists who took part in the building of it? </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON Oh no. I think, in fact, the man who built it wonderfully enough was
not an artist at all, but a man from Charleston—a rare bird.</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER Is a school of poetry necessary in order to gain attention for a group of poets’ work or is it a handicap? </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON I don’t think it’s relevant. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER I’m talking about schools of poetry in terms of such as the so-called
New York school of poetry, if you’ll pardon the expression. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON All right, so name them. Poets have no reason to be in the marvelous ITT thing or Inter-World Aviation. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">INTERVIEWER
Do you see the prospect of a definitive practical guide in the form of
an anthology of the Black Mountain school of poets? </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">OLSON Well, I certainly don’t. If the fuckers don’t get along down the
trail I’ll kick their fucking asses for them. I’m an old trail man from
the woods and if the goddamn stuff doesn’t come down the trail to</span> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">my
satisfaction, until I’m beaten, I’m still boss. ....</span></i></div>
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M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-18397405438308259192017-05-03T13:39:00.000-04:002017-05-12T13:43:09.176-04:00Michael Korda: "technology leaps ahead and people simply adapt to it"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">The dire predictions that doom the future of the printed word seem to mount daily. Not to worry: book publishing will adapt in ways undreamed of, and with a quickness that will be astonishing.</span></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">That's the hopeful forecast in this interview with Michael Korda, author and former editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster, who's well aware that the book business will respond to the commercial expectations of readers as it always has, even as the idea of "the book" itself changes. He thinks that the role of small-press publishers, always precarious, will benefit from technology in the next five years with "a media that's open to everybody ... how they'll make money, I don't know. But then, how do they make money now?'</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Korda offers a future business model based on the recent history of the music industry: "Nobody would have guessed that people would be downloading individual songs onto their computers and that record stores would disappear. So, you know, a very similar thing is going to happen to reading."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">The complete online interview by Rob Couteau, excerpted here, is in </span><a href="http://www.raintaxi.com/" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Raintaxi</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></strong></div>
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<strong>RC:</strong> You were saying the form itself is not so important; it’s the <em>book</em> that’s important, and we can’t compare the book in its present form to an electronic book, like the Kindle, but we have to apply our imagination to it much further, in that it might become something that’s just <em>beyond</em> anything we can imagine today.</div>
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<strong>MK:</strong> Well, I think that that’s true. You know, you’re looking at the Model T Ford and trying to predict what road transportation will be like in 2010 . . . ultimately, it’ll still have four wheels, and some form of propulsion, and a steering wheel, but beyond that, you’re trying to imagine something which is <em>beyond</em> imagination, if you see what I mean.</div>
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Now, there are two important differences. One is that the speed of progress is now so rapid, and transition is so quick, that the next step in reading-technology will come very rapidly, rather than very slowly. So that there’s not going to be a long lag between its inception and its development, and any changes that take place. Already, the iPad is a huge step ahead of the Kindle. Although whether it’s a useful step ahead for readers remains to be seen. ... it’s a rather large and cumbersome device, which needs to be replaced with something altogether different. But that is going to happen with such incredible rapidity that we really can’t forecast what it will look like. ...my guess is that, in ten years time, it will be in place and that nobody will have a problem with it. It’s just amazing the degree to which things are changing rapidly.</div>
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<strong>RC:</strong> There are a lot of people who say, “Well, I would miss the feel of the book.” But if you really unleash your imagination, it’s actually quite easy to imagine how digital book producers could appeal to the tactile sense; it doesn’t have to be just a visual innovation.</div>
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<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5519095055608262946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmdUM3eKanJQfwTck_Nhj9C2V0FhYI-xCWR85KAHoz_iG_t_zfacwPNJTIqmNx6y-uiAru6W6iST2m9IbGp9IID8mtU9REujgZFyhZ0NUeXaR8DkLDa8_N35naAy8P8MatZsZJBIzROxUC/s320/1korda.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); color: #333333; cursor: pointer; float: right; font-family: "georgia" , serif; height: 320px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; padding: 4px; width: 252px;" /><br />
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<strong>MK:</strong> Yeah, no doubt. But you know, I don’t have a clue. The person to talk to about that is Steve Jobs. [Laughs] Because unless he dies first, he’ll probably be the one who will invent it. But it’ll be something quite different. But I don’t think that that’s in any case something that one should be afraid of. People react the same way about a whole variety of things, ranging from smoking cigarettes to using typewriters or fountain pens. But nevertheless, the technology leaps ahead and people simply adapt to it. ...</div>
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<strong>RC:</strong> But other things, other businesses, will be created.</div>
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<strong>MK:</strong> Right. ... The book will continue to be a major factor for as, certainly as long as I live, and maybe as long as you live. But eventually it’s going, in the form of something else.</div>
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<strong>RC:</strong> What about the future of publishing?</div>
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<strong>MK:</strong> It will have to be reinvented with that in mind. Already, I think it’s evident that the major publishers are looking to find a partner in Apple, (and it) will become, in effect, a kind of publishing house. How that will work remains to be seen. There isn’t anyone in the book publishing business who can tell you, because nobody knows at this point in time. But that’s what everybody is clearly attempting to move towards. ...</div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-12843452924036596382017-05-02T13:36:00.000-04:002017-05-12T13:38:01.841-04:00"Kitsch: The World of Bad Taste" (1968): Moses, the Mona Lisa, and Nirvana covers David Bowie <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">For whatever reason, some books just stay with you. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kitsch-World-Taste-Gillo-Dorfles/dp/0876639112/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214970620&sr=1-1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Kitsch: The World of Bad Taste</span></span></a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> by Gillo Dorfles is one of those books.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It's long out of print, but ten years ago I found a second copy, "profusely illustrated with more appalling pictures than you can shake a stick at," as the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">New York Times</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> reviews with typical understatement. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Newsweek</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> puts it more succinctly: <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>"This compendium of corn is guaranteed to contain something to offend everyone." The familiar figure playing the violin on its cover demanded I pay her one-dollar price at a book sale.<br /><br />It replaces a copy I left behind in college thirty-five years ago. This was the book I would turn to on rainy days to pass the time between classes, and in upstate New York there was a </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">lot</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> of bad weather. Mr. Dorfles and a wide-ranging group of art critics rack their brains (and twist ours) trying to describe what makes <i>kitsch</i> so appallingly bad. Some, like Herman Broch, are afraid they may pose more questions about bad art than they answer. But a ten-minute look inside at the kaleidoscope of images in </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Kitsch </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">will open eyes to the avalanche of junk that makes up popular culture.<br /><br />The titles in this collection of essays, photos, and illustrations, published in 1968, indicates, really, that bad taste knows no bounds. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">"Death," "Christian kitsch," "Tourism and nature," "Politics," </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">and </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">"Pornokitsch and morals</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> are just a few of the topics surveyed. The reader will also see more creative uses for the swastika of the Third Reich than one could imagine possible after 1945.<br /><br />Also included is Clement Greenberg's essay "The Avant-Garde and <i>Kitsch</i>," published originally in 1939, tracing the rise of art in the service of totalitarian regimes. In this case, one photograph of Mussolini and Hitler at the Borghese gallery speaks volumes. The palpable disdain on their faces as they survey the half-nude reclining figure of Napoleon's sister on her couch makes it clear: </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Il Duce</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Der Fuhrer</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> will soon put an end to the decadence of the Little General's age of neo-classicism. Tomorrow the world.</span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVc09qWzN52xQ4cT764dyxw2lTAnYI6l3cdf1BOc9KvMHQTzpj9G-bjrLliqcGw3ym-ylWbRWjpCyG6211LcqoYlViSKV9rbBt16nZ-6AxY9JdeLnzjBv3HBZWrRSgaMwPdARPToST5ql/s1600-h/kitschduce.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5218255675851494370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjVc09qWzN52xQ4cT764dyxw2lTAnYI6l3cdf1BOc9KvMHQTzpj9G-bjrLliqcGw3ym-ylWbRWjpCyG6211LcqoYlViSKV9rbBt16nZ-6AxY9JdeLnzjBv3HBZWrRSgaMwPdARPToST5ql/s320/kitschduce.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Kitsch</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> -- "trash" or "cheap finery" in German -- has become a universal term for much of the things consumers see, admire, or desire. Mass production has made <i>kitsch</i> an unavoidable part of contemporary culture; it's so pervasive that most of us see elements of <i>kitsch</i> everywhere, yet would have a difficult time separating the art from the artificial.<br /><br />Let's face it, no one goes to Disney World expecting an adventure in high art, but now that Times Square in New York has been "imagineered" by Disney, who can say where the<i> kitsch</i> fantasy ends? Dorfles states that <i>kitsch</i> "threatens to become the most pervasive style of our times." Considering the book was written forty years ago, the relentless, artificial tide has only increased.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The book was first published in Italy and many of the photographs and illustrations are from European sources. Yet the sentimental and commercial pull of <i>kitsch</i>, with its tug at the heartstrings and purse-strings of millions, is universal. Anyone who thinks of</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> The Lone Ranger </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">or Kubrick's </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">A Clockwork Orange</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> when listening to "The William Tell Overture" by Rossini has been influenced by <i>kitsch</i>. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">While the line separating art from <i>kitsch</i> is exceedingly fine, one man's trash is still saved from being another man's treasure by context, or more rightly <i>kitsch</i>'s complete lack of it. Da Vinci's Mona Lisa appears much less inscrutable on a plastic shower curtain. Mass production has made the irony of "authentic reproduction" available on a grand scale.</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />Some of the academic essays have not aged well, even if the gently tortured Italian-into-English translation has its own charm:</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> "And obviously before long (and even now in fact) we will witness the anti-family kitsch, the kitsch of hippies and long-haired youths, the kitsch of addicts and beatniks,"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> writes Dorfles -- foretelling Nirvana's cover version of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" by a good 20 years. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Fascinating, funny, and full of hideously bad art, this book is a wonderland of the high-brow, the low-brow, and the no-brow of taste. In a pop-culture blender that makes no such distinctions, how else can you explain the success of </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">?</span></span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-78431107177158344482017-05-01T13:18:00.000-04:002017-05-12T13:20:04.493-04:00Thelonious Monk: "Always know! All ways know!"<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD3MAIDnWl5cMUzG-nNX5nBprxwgBBgsWQ4e0HhmYQaDPnkWI-svzeODqr0Wn0CsvaxRQ9SltVZLRFRg5bXQEisjVYX2M8mKI21P3BrYLpb5a-f0WEaS0TlNF0ivbTGJ_hMJ8khUTskTq/s1600/1monkcover.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571341516969351554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD3MAIDnWl5cMUzG-nNX5nBprxwgBBgsWQ4e0HhmYQaDPnkWI-svzeODqr0Wn0CsvaxRQ9SltVZLRFRg5bXQEisjVYX2M8mKI21P3BrYLpb5a-f0WEaS0TlNF0ivbTGJ_hMJ8khUTskTq/s400/1monkcover.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 276px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 190px;" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Thelonious Monk is one of the enigmatic figures of jazz: the more one admires his playing, his composition, and his recorded work, the more puzzling and elusive the man himself becomes. At a time when the popularity of jazz was at its height in mid-century America, he made its success a springboard into a form of personal expression few had ever imagined possible. Then, just as his music was being discovered by a new generation of fans in the 1970s, he gave up recording and composing altogether. Monk died of a stroke on February 17, 1982 at the age of 64.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">The mysterious nature of Monk's genius, it turns out, has its roots in a North Carolina boyhood and a family life that surprisingly seems very normal in many ways. Robin D.G. Kelley's </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thelonious-Monk-Times-American-Original/dp/0684831902/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264466516&sr=8-1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">T</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thelonious-Monk-Times-American-Original/dp/0684831902/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264466516&sr=8-1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">helonious Monk: The Life and Times of An American Original</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">(Free Press, 2009)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">removes layers of myth-making and tale-spinning that seem to surround the monumental figure of the musician, whose life and aloof personality became a signpost for the difficult and cerebral form of jazz called bebop.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">This was not a term the musicians themselves favored, but which became a convenient tag by which the public could identify the players. It was as though they were members on a team, rather than being seen as individuals; for this musical style of ensemble playing and stellar, one-of-a-kind solos, the idea must have seemed a supreme irony and one that Monk might have appreciated:</span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">"He got a kick out of fooling people, particularly those whom he thought were too lazy or afraid to think for themselves. One of his favorite pranks was to stare intensely at a spot on the ceiling or in the sky, either in a crowded room or on a street corner. Invariably, several people would look up with him, searching for whatever elusive object apparently fascinated him. It was an experiment in mass psychology that brought him great amusement."</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgndE5s76_zTXEpARTd6t0dcOJZiD391A4GKqF3XWUem_IJKnYD2YtHvuigd6jTce0uXZuMRRlNC5NkxqD0pfzhpSiEiYmDX4RFFS32Cay5ExDVG6Sc2LpNh5x3vhzjNe_0bxceX4aqhG/s1600-h/albumcoverMonksMusic.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430837750060183410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJgndE5s76_zTXEpARTd6t0dcOJZiD391A4GKqF3XWUem_IJKnYD2YtHvuigd6jTce0uXZuMRRlNC5NkxqD0pfzhpSiEiYmDX4RFFS32Cay5ExDVG6Sc2LpNh5x3vhzjNe_0bxceX4aqhG/s320/albumcoverMonksMusic.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">As Monk's life takes on the familiar contours of a young student, husband to Nellie, and a father to their two children "Toot" (Thelonious Jr.) and "BooBoo" (Barbara), there are the intriguing glimpses into life with Monk that seem in no way typical. Kelley delights in family stories that reveal the "almost carnivalesque" aspects of this very unique life with father. Monk's niece, Benetta, nicknamed Teeny, got told not to bang on the piano and later gets her sly revenge on Monk, the one-time Julliard student, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">as he tries to show off:</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">"Monk's piano was notorious for its clutter. It occupied a significant portion of the kitchen and extended into the front room. The lid remained closed, since it doubled as a temporary storage space for music, miscellaneous papers, magazines, folded laundry, dishes, and any number </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">of stray kitchen items.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Teeny thumbed through the pages of the Chopin book, then turned to her uncle and asked, 'What are you doing with that on the piano? I thought you couldn't read music? You can read that?' The challenge was on. In response, Monk sat down at the piano, turned to a very difficult piece, and started playing it at breakneck speed.</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">'His hands were a blur,' she recalled decades later. 'Then after he was through, he jumped up from the piano and just started grinning. So then I said, 'You didn't play that right.'</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">'Whaaaa? What are you talking about? I played it ten times faster than anyone could!'</span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Teeny sassed back, 'It is supposed to be played </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">adagio</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> and you played it </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">allegro</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">.'"</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">In the hot-house environment of New York's jazz scene Monk was a stand-out, not only for his music but for his uninhibited performance. The music seemed cerebral, difficult and almost mathematical, yet Monk was sincerely interested in reaching an audience, even if it</span> <span style="font-size: 100%;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">turned out to be an audience of one. He performed popular tunes with the same force of personality as his original compositions. As his music gained exposure and his compositions deepened into their angular and singular forms, Monk's personal life becomes a retreat from the public and its very perception of him.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMF78tmFRY3fqdR2VCSD87PhxJ0EcmRI8FFztI_so2ZknZFxJkIHtKrWcZZcyMZ5F-dSgrWaJ8NAQkPuclajOX7TlxXNzS1XogHLrcT3zDLt6nBRXg3VaFdqelLa9Busf5vAdB9iZvCmR/s1600/1monktime.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571340945087861906" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSMF78tmFRY3fqdR2VCSD87PhxJ0EcmRI8FFztI_so2ZknZFxJkIHtKrWcZZcyMZ5F-dSgrWaJ8NAQkPuclajOX7TlxXNzS1XogHLrcT3zDLt6nBRXg3VaFdqelLa9Busf5vAdB9iZvCmR/s400/1monktime.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 320px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 242px;" /></a></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br />He himself seemed to create the myth, just as he professed to be disinterested in living up to an image -- and then, on February 28, 1964, he was featured in a </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Time</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> cover story, and suddenly his was the face of jazz for a majority of Americans, who found the "new" jazz music mysterious and almost beyond comprehension; the Beatles had appeared on</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> The Ed Sullivan Show</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"> on February 9, three weeks earlier.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Kelley's book is not a critical biography of Monk's music, but it is an intensely personal look at how life and art intersect. Monk's wife Nellie becomes a central character to her increasingly insular husband, lovingly keeping Thelonious away from distraction or being taken advantage of by managers and booking agents. In his later life, as Monk inexplicably gives up performance and composing altogether, Nellie seems a force of nature herself for having been a lifelong companion to the puzzling nature of Monk's genius.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">"One of his favorite mantras was 'Always Know,' adding that the word 'Know' was Monk spelled backward with the 'W' inverted. He often illustrated the point with a huge custom-made ring that had 'MONK' emblazoned across the top in diamonds, turning it upside down in case you didn't get it. 'Always Know!" All Ways Know!'"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Monk's seventy compositions have titles describing the familiar ("BooBoo's Birthday," "'Round Midnight") and the oblique ("Epistrophy," "Rhythm-a-ning") and are among the most recorded in jazz. His music is always there for those with an ear to discover for themselves. Like his music, Monk's life is still a mystery that may not need explaining -- one of his albums took as its title one of his compositions, "Misterioso" -- and so he remains. In Monk's biography, Kelley does a great service by demonstrating that the force of creativity itself may, ultimately, be beyond knowing.</span></div>
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M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-86584274228097070292017-04-30T11:15:00.000-04:002017-05-02T11:19:41.749-04:00National Poetry Month: Philip Levine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3chxVTU4BIUGcKvixLjDuxdaz5JUXVwGkMa62ru1ls-3lWanBdSFNps2mfTbigcnFa784O8E_jdKs5rPbAFUXbxnTdyLwFMFK1TM3UtkY7thmR2Ud0rWNzd3ljgsqkMqDDF5oz2x3S2iS/s1600/PhilipLevine2010-1024x590.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3chxVTU4BIUGcKvixLjDuxdaz5JUXVwGkMa62ru1ls-3lWanBdSFNps2mfTbigcnFa784O8E_jdKs5rPbAFUXbxnTdyLwFMFK1TM3UtkY7thmR2Ud0rWNzd3ljgsqkMqDDF5oz2x3S2iS/s320/PhilipLevine2010-1024x590.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Baby Villon" - Philip Levine</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He tells me in Bangkok he’s robbed </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Because he’s white; in London because he’s black; </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In Barcelona, Jew; in Paris, Arab: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Everywhere and at all times, and he fights back. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He holds up seven thick little fingers </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To show me he’s rated seventh in the world, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And there’s no passion in his voice, no anger </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the flat brown eyes flecked with blood. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He asks me to tell all I can remember </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Of my father, his uncle; he talks of the war </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In North Africa and what came after.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The loss of his father, the loss of his brother, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The windows of the bakery smashed and the fresh bread </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Dusted with glass, the warm smell of rye </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So strong he ate till his mouth filled with blood. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">“Here they live, here they live and not die,” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And he points down at his black head ridged </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">With black kinks of hair. He touches my hair, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Tells me I should never disparage</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The stiff bristles that guard the head of the fighter. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sadly his fingers wander over my face</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And he says how fair I am, how smooth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We stand to end this first and last visit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Stiff, 116 pounds, five feet two, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">No bigger than a girl, he holds my shoulders, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Kisses my lips, his eyes still open, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My imaginary brother, my cousin,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Myself made otherwise by all his pain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><em>Philip Levine started to work in car manufacturing plants at the age of 14. He went to college at Wayne University in Detroit, where he began to write poetry, encouraged by his mother, to whom he dedicated the book of poems, The Mercy. In his 1988 Paris Review interview Levine commented on his early work: "Rhythm is deep and it touches us in ways that we don’t understand. We know that language used rhythmically has some kind of power to delight, to upset, to exalt, and it was that kind of rhythmic language that first excited me. But I didn’t encounter it first in poetry . . . perhaps simply in speech, in prayer, preaching. That made me want to create it. My earliest poems were a way of talking to somebody. I suppose to myself. I spoke them and I memorized them. I constantly changed them. I would go out and work on my rain poem and improve it. ... Rain was my first, and I guess, a constant theme. But things like wind in the winter, the trees, and my sense of relationship with them. You could actually see the stars, we were on the outskirts of Detroit, there were no factories around. So you could see the stars and, oh the world is, you know, a cosmos, is immense."</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Philip Levine died in 2015 at the age of 87. His final collection, published in 2016, was <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Last-Shift-Poems-Philip-Levine/dp/0451493265">The Last Shift</a></em>.</span><br />
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M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-51168544573389387742017-04-29T11:29:00.000-04:002017-05-02T11:32:17.757-04:00National Poetry Month: Charley Seagraves<div align="center">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Somebody With a Gun" - Charley Seagraves</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Somebody with a gun<br /> walked into a convenience store <br /> just outside of Charlotte,</span><span class="text_exposed_show"><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> pulled on a stocking mask,<br /> pointed a .44 Magnum<br /> in the clerk's face,<br /> and that began his fall from grace,<br /> and now he's on the run,<br /> somebody with a gun.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Somebody with a gun,<br /> in a drive-by with an A-K<br /> just outside of Atlanta,<br /> accidentally hit a 7-year-old<br /> who died in the emergency room--<br /> he didn't mean to kill that kid,<br /> but he did,<br /> and now he's on the run,<br /> somebody with a gun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Somebody with a gun<br /> got into an argument with her spouse<br /> just outside of Topeka,<br /> reached into her purse<br /> and pulled out a 9mm Glock--<br /> he ended up dead,<br /> a single shot through his head,<br /> and now she's on the run,<br /> somebody with a gun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Somebody with a gun<br /> is knocking on the door of despair<br /> just outside of your hometown,<br /> oh lord, it's a jungle out there,<br /> and their life is slowly coming undone<br /> and it's somebody's daughter <br /> and it's somebody's son<br /> and soon they too will be on the run,<br /> somebody with a gun.</span><br />
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<em><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Photo of Charley Seagraves at The Globe, Athens, Georgia, by David Noah [2014].</span></em></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-8788693779518780432017-04-28T11:54:00.000-04:002017-05-02T11:56:03.628-04:00National Poetry Month: Warren Zevon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<!-- Usage of azlyrics.com content by any third-party lyrics provider is prohibited by our licensing agreement. Sorry about that. --><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"My Shit's Fucked Up" - Warren Zevon</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Well, I went to the doctor<br /> I said, "I'm feeling kind of rough"<br /> He said "I'll break it to you, son,<br /> Your shit's fucked up."<br /> I said <em>"</em>my shit's fucked up?<br /> Well, I don't see how."<br /> He said, "The shit that used to work<br />It won't work now."<br /><br /> I had a dream<br /> Ah, shucks, oh, well<br /> Now it's all fucked up<br /> It's shot to hell<br /><br /> Yeah, yeah, my shit's fucked up<br /> It has to happen to the best of us<br /> The rich folks suffer like the rest of us<br /> It'll happen to you<br /><br /> That amazing grace<br /> Sort of passed you by<br /> You wake up every day<br /> And you start to cry<br /> Yeah, you want to die<br /> But you just can't quit<br /> Let me break it on down:<br /> It's the fucked up shit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Warren Zevon was an occasional visitor to the home of Ivor Stravinsky, where he briefly studied modern classical music. When he was 16 years old he quit high school and moved from Los Angeles to New York City to become a folk singer.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> <span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In 1992 he told an Australian <a href="https://www.elsewhere.co.nz/absoluteelsewhere/1897/warren-zevon-interviewed-1992-tales-from-the-dark-side/">interviewer</a>:</span> </span>“My advice to starting-out songwriters – not that I ever get the opportunity to say this to them – is that all those songs you’ve written have probably got a couple good lines in ‘em. Throw out everything but those and start over. Then build those up on a couple songs – then combine the two. That’s it. Be ruthless.” He died of cancer in 2003.</span></div>
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M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-57492501331399315842017-04-27T12:57:00.000-04:002017-04-27T12:57:00.909-04:00National Poetry Month: W.S. Merwin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Before the Flood" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">(W.S. Merwin)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Why did he promise me<br /> that we would build ourselves<br /> an ark all by ourselves<br /> out in back of the house<br /> on New York Avenue<br /> in Union City New Jersey<br /> to the singing of the streetcars<br /> after the story<br /> of Noah whom nobody<br /> believed about the waters<br /> that would rise over everything<br /> when I told my father<br /> I wanted us to build<br /> an ark of our own there<br /> in the back yard under<br /> the kitchen could we do that<br /> he told me that we could<br /> I want to I said and will we<br /> he promised me that we would<br /> why did he promise that<br /> I wanted us to start then<br /> nobody will believe us<br /> I said that we are building<br /> an ark because the rains<br /> are coming and that was true<br /> nobody ever believed<br /> we would build an ark there<br /> nobody would believe<br /> that the waters were coming</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;">W.S. Merwin, 90 later this year, began his writing career at the age of five by writing hymns for his father, who was a Presbyterian minister. ("<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I was very disappointed that they weren’t used in church").</span> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">His first book, <em>A Mask for Janus, </em>was chosen by W.H. Auden in 1952 for the Yale Younger Poets series</span>.</span> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">He has lived in Majorca, London, France, Mexico, as well as the United States; in 1976, Merwin moved to Hawaii to study with Robert Aitken, the Zen Buddhist teacher, and he now lives on Maui with his wife Paula. In his 1987 Paris Review <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2692/w-s-merwin-the-art-of-poetry-no-38-w-s-merwin">interview</a> he tells Ed Hirsch:<em> </em></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>"Writing poetry is never a wholly deliberate act over which you have complete control. It’s important to recognize that writing is at the disposition of all sorts of forces, some of which you don’t know anything at all about. You can describe them as parts of your own psyche, if you like, they probably are, but there are lots of other ways of describing them that are as good, or better—the muses, or the collective unconscious. More suggestive and so, in a way, more accurate. Any means of invoking these forces is good, as far as I’m concerned."</em></span>M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-59911247998783132512017-04-26T12:50:00.000-04:002017-04-26T12:50:05.175-04:00National Poetry Month: Joy Harjo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Ah Ah"</span><div style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">for Lurline McGregor</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ah, ah cries the crow arching toward the heavy sky over the marina. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Lands on the crown of the palm tree. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ah, ah slaps the urgent cove of ocean swimming through the slips. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We carry canoes to the edge of the salt. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ah, ah groans the crew with the weight, the winds cutting skin. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We claim our seats. Pelicans perch in the draft for fish. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ah, ah beats our lungs and we are racing into the waves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Though there are worlds below us and above us, we are straight ahead. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ah, ah tattoos the engines of your plane against the sky—away from these waters. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Each paddle stroke follows the curve from reach to loss. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ah, ah calls the sun from a fishing boat with a pale, yellow sail. We fly by </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">on our return, over the net of eternity thrown out for stars. </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ah, ah scrapes the hull of my soul. Ah, ah.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Ah, Ah" originally appeared in <em>How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems:1975-2001.</em> Joy Harjo 's most recent collection is<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Resolution-Holy-Beings-Poems/dp/039324850X"> <em>Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings</em></a> (2015</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">). <em>Harjo is the first Native {Creek] to win the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, which bestows the honor annually “to recognize outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.” In a 2015 </em><a href="https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/arts-entertainment/exclusive-joy-harjo-speaks-on-winning-poetrys-most-prestigious-award/"><em>interview,</em></a><em> she comments that <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"</span></em></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><em>I came to realize that as poets we just write songs. So, we have to take it all on, these stages of life, every seven years, create community, be creative, and make art. You have to open up, accept frailty, failure, there’s really no failure, you’re learning, it’s like sketches. You are giving back, like breathing, like life, like death, you take that place in the circle, part of the gift is to give back. And you are really giving forward."</em></span></div>
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M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-29256283669629452502017-04-25T11:30:00.000-04:002017-04-25T11:30:07.378-04:00National Poetry Month: Deacon Lunchbox<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Deacon Lunchbox was the stage name of Atlanta performance artist and poet Timothy Tyson Ruttenber. A construction worker by day, he was popular in the Atlanta area for his flamboyant spoken-word performances. He often punctuated each line of his poems by banging an old torpedo casing or metal bucket with a hammer. His onstage props included a chainsaw, and often a bra was part of his costume. Deacon is credited with giving the Atlanta alternative country music scene its name - the Redneck Underground. He died in an auto accident, along with two members of the Atlanta group The Jody Grind, in April 1992.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">More about Deacon Lunchbox, the Jody Grind, and the Cabbagetown music scene <a href="http://www.creativeloafing.com/music/article/13052669/the-triumph-and-tragedy-of-the-cabbagetown-sound">here</a>.</span>M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-58015484254024762202017-04-24T12:37:00.000-04:002017-04-24T12:48:25.880-04:00National Poetry Month: Jo Podvin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="topnewstext"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> "My cells with giddy recall reel and spin"<br /> (Jo Podvin) </span><span class="topnewstext"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> My cells with giddy recall reel and spin<br /> Ancestral trick of photosynthesis<br /> Dendrites have turned to fuzzy buds within<br /> My interstitial spaces sing of this<br /> What is not green of shoots is blue of sky<br /> The scent of bee seduction fills the air<br /> There is no where, no what, no who, no why<br /> There is no past, and certainly no care<br /> This drunken blossoming expands and grows<br /> This blooming fills up all possible space<br /> Here there is only yes, no room for nos<br /> Intoxicating sweetness, hazy grace<br /> Expanding yes, as birdsong from above<br /> Love, then, is yes, and yes, oh yes, is love</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="topnewstext"><span class="topnewstext"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Jo Podvin <span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">lives in Oakland, CA, and is the program manager for a small non-profit, Youth Enrichment Strategies (YES). </span></span></span></span></span>M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-12916239606812155772017-04-23T12:15:00.000-04:002017-04-24T12:43:25.565-04:00National Poetry Month: Terry Kattleman<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;">"The I Bing: The Book of Exchanges #1"</span> (Terry Kattleman)</div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;">Hexagram 1: Ch’ien—The Creative</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>Dry dollars the ninth<br />day of every month. Hidden<br />dragon: do not use.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>Tin dragon: do see<br />adults. A gentleman’s dry<br />all day, a watchful</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>tiger, no blame in<br />a guilt-free sky, flying deep<br />in time. Concubine</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>logistics work the<br />engine; a good long hang will<br />also benefit.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>Vigorous thing to<br />do: announcing sufficient<br />justice is solid</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>enough, without the<br />stuffy, boring music, so<br />one cannot worry</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>the contrary; it<br />cannot be drawn. Evil is<br />good governance and</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>easy, great virtue.<br />The faithful German course is<br />inferior and</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>without pride. Be dry,<br />dry and watchful, and despite<br />adversity, be</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>without blame of cloud.<br />Disaster preparedness<br />is world governance.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>The United States<br />is energy potential,<br />civilization</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>accompanying<br />the poles of temperament,<br />leather together.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>The Ephesians! Pure<br />essence of imperial<br />days, benevolent</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>evidence, latent,<br />but implicit, the seasons<br />of order. Play the</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>bypass and breach the<br />ghost of Robert Frost for good<br />or ill luck. Knowledge</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>in its turn, but do<br />not know the dead, and do not<br />know death. Only saints</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>advance and retreat<br />in life and death. Only saints<br />advance and retreat.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 100%;"><i>[Original Chinese (auto-detected as Chinese Simplified) via Bing translator]</i><br /><br /><br />If the word is a virus, according to Burroughs, it is always subject to a series of recombinant permutations: the artist is free to manipulate the word as any substance and from any source. <a href="http://haikurevelation.com/">THE BOOK OF HAIKU REVELATION </a>is the home of Terry S. Kattleman's Bingian Translational Reanalysis. In his own incantory words: <i>Gysinian Haikuistics® (aka The Process™) is a constrained volitional cut-up methodology formulated by Terry S. Kattleman, Moriarty dean of the Department of Poetic Assemblage, College of Etheric Arts, Interzone University, and Chief Executive Offertory of the Society for Bingian Translational Reanalysis. Bingian Translational Reanalysis™ is a modality of language permutation contingent upon erratic Internet translation procedures. <b>Deus Ex Logos Machina. </b>Note on quote formation: Quasi-quotations, registered with the Patagonian Patent Office as Squotations™ (an e-adaptation of “misquotation”), are constructed entirely from the selected Internet quote site content of the quotee (see Incitements).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Kattleman is currently publicity director/production editor at the literary magazine Confrontation. In addition to the Death Palette Trilogy, he is the author of <em>It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Ka-ching): A History of Federal Jazz Policy.</em></span> M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-76970631177376283022017-04-22T12:06:00.000-04:002017-04-24T12:07:21.183-04:00National Poetry Month: Tiel Aisha Ansari<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYcvChbD3wwl8KAqrCKisk8Edjyc_r-_RupvZmimkMWRn2PsjooYfzwmKt4vOnv4_ctjQmBzJ62-zM534ZjImFTsAA-qaoJibHdvqn-II3To_7YZ1VUudNbqf1DlOQNzR-bSd3Lvjz67Lz/s1600/ansari.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYcvChbD3wwl8KAqrCKisk8Edjyc_r-_RupvZmimkMWRn2PsjooYfzwmKt4vOnv4_ctjQmBzJ62-zM534ZjImFTsAA-qaoJibHdvqn-II3To_7YZ1VUudNbqf1DlOQNzR-bSd3Lvjz67Lz/s1600/ansari.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Before there was color photography"<br />(Tiel Aisha Ansari) </span><span class="topnewstext"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Before there was color photography<br /> it was sepia sorrow and black-and-white laughs<br /> that filled up our grayscale memory<br /> with old-fashioned love caught in old photographs.<br /> We kissed under rainbows in monochrome,<br /> the girls in white dresses, the boys in black ties,<br /> recorded both travel and coming home<br /> in silver emulsions unsullied by dyes.<br /> We flatter ourselves on development<br /> of accurate, full-color vision that sets<br /> our lives down in vivid emotion palettes.<br /> We claim that it's truer to represent<br /> the brilliance of love with a gaudy bouquet-<br /> but love was as strong back when roses were gray.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><span class="topnewstext"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Tiel Aisha Ansari's work has appeared or is forthcoming in several print and online venues including <em>Islamica Magazine</em>, <em>Mezzo Cammin</em>, and <em>The Lyric</em>, and she is the author of the poetry collection <em>Knocking from Inside</em>, published by Ecstatic Exchange. Her blog is </span><a href="http://knockingfrominside.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">knockingfrominside.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">.</span> </span> M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-52610285253093617022017-04-21T13:24:00.000-04:002017-04-21T13:24:18.766-04:00National Poetry Month: David Rattray<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">"A red-framed print of the Summer Palace"</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">(David Rattray)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>My mother died in her bed</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>one balmy night in May, 1974;</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>my hair wasn't yet gray.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>At the head of the bed</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>was a red-framed print</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>of the Summer Palace near Peking</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>in salmon pink and tea green</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>over a lake with a little stream launch</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and a bridge</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>to an island in the foreground.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>She'd been there as a girl</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and for 50 years later</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>dreamt of it</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>only to awake</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>in tears at not returning</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>to the summer palace of youth.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>In her will she left me the picture --</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>it's on my study wall.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Last year a Sinologist came by, and I learned </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>the bridge </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>is incorrectly rendered.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>There are in fact</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>17 arches, not 14 as shown.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Also, there are errors in perspective</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and the Chinese writing in the clouds</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>over the lake</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>is cut and dried description, </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>not the poetry I'd hoped.</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">"A red-framed print of the Summer Palace" by David Rattray (1958-1993) appeared in <i>Sulfur</i> #3, 1982. His translations included work by the 20th-century French writers Antonin Artaud and Rene Crevel; he published a book of collected stories and essays, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-Became-Invisible-Native-Agents/dp/0936756985/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396976872&sr=1-1&keywords=david+rattray">How I Became One of the Invisible</a></i> and a poetry collection<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Opening-Eyelid-David-Rattray/dp/0962743003/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396976807&sr=1-5&keywords=david+rattray">, Opening the Eyelid</a></i> (1990). He died unexpectedly of a brain tumor at the age of 57. (<i>Photo of David Rattray by <a href="http://myemail.constantcontact.com/David-Rattray--A-Recognition---Friday--April-5--6-8PM.html?soid=1102590620799&aid=JG7iW4kSIQ8">Ira Cohen</a>.)</i></span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-61060857367909584822017-04-20T13:27:00.000-04:002017-04-21T13:28:28.414-04:00National Poetry Month: W.D. Snodgrass<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>W.D. Snodgrass</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">"Who Steals My Good Name"</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">(W.D. Snodgrass)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>For the person who obtained my debit card number and spent $11,000 in five days</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My pale stepdaughter, just off the school bus,</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Scowled, "Well, that's the last time I say my name's</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Snodgrass!" Just so, may that anonymous</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Mexican male who prodigally claims</span></div>
<br />
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My clan lines, identity and the sixteen</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Digits that unlock my bank account,</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Think twice. That less than proper name's been</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Taken by three ex-wives, each for an amount</span></div>
<br />
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Past all you've squandered, each more than pleased</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To change it back. That surname you affect</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">May have more consequence than getting teased</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By dumb kids or tracked down by bank detectives.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Don't underrate its history: one of ours played</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Piano on his prison's weekly broadcast;</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One got rich on a scammed quiz show; one made</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A bungle costing the World Series. My own past</span></div>
<br />
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Could subject you to guilt by association:</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If you write anything more than false checks,</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Abandon all hope of large press publication</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Or prizes—critics shun the name like sex</span></div>
<br />
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Without a condom. Whoever steals my purse</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Helps chain me to my writing desk again</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For fun and profit. So take thanks with my curse:</span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">May your pen name help send you to your pen.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="font-style: italic; padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodycopy" style="padding-left: 1em; text-align: left; text-indent: -1em;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> "Who Steals My Good Name" by W.D. Snodgrass was originally published in </span><i>Poetry </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">magazine, April 2003, and collected in </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Not-Specialists-Selected-American-Continuum/dp/1929918771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232301144&sr=1-1" style="color: #5588aa; font-style: italic; text-decoration: none;">Not For Specialists</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> (2006). He gained early fame with his first book of poems </span><i>Heart's Needle</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> in 1959, which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1960. He taught at Syracuse University for many years and died at his home in upstate New York in 2009.</span></span></span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-78694138423731553332017-04-19T13:31:00.000-04:002017-04-21T13:32:28.951-04:00National Poetry Month: Delia Gist Gardner<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGLjbjqDCsXJjap0MjckQG-17rQ_ZwjoaB0peKTHOddMyfzqUzuLohzKwxEJVcGaGIIZcG-TLjC32eAX09vfZTrJh6enT5klS9xHI5fAkxr2U0K3Itt9IeKu7piQVcoZ7aQpBHOoO5lB-/s1600/1cowgirlpoetry1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5591387806640273618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBGLjbjqDCsXJjap0MjckQG-17rQ_ZwjoaB0peKTHOddMyfzqUzuLohzKwxEJVcGaGIIZcG-TLjC32eAX09vfZTrJh6enT5klS9xHI5fAkxr2U0K3Itt9IeKu7piQVcoZ7aQpBHOoO5lB-/s400/1cowgirlpoetry1.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 264px;" /></a><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><b>"Hail and Farewell"</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Delia Gist Gardner</span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">(Reflection from a cabin in Skull Valley, Arizona, over an old Indian camping ground, 1945)</span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></span></i> </div>
<blockquote>
<div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Think not on my brittle bones mingling with dust, for </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">These </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Are but a handful added </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">To those gone before. </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Think, rather, that on this borrowed hilltop </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">One lived joyously, and died content.</span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></span></i> </div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">In this dark soil </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">I found reminders, saying: </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">"You, too, will pass; savor for us </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">The wind and the sun." </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></span></i> </div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">From the smoke-blackened earth </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">I dug </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">A frail shell bracelet, shaped lovingly, skillfully, </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">For a brown skinned wrist, now dust. </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">The broken piece of clay </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Was a doll's foot and leg, artfully curved ,</span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Made for brown-eyed child. </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></span></i> </div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Pottery shards saying: </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">"Yours for a little time only </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Take delight in this, as we did." </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></span></i> </div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">The tree will die; the vine wither and rattle in the wind. </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">For I broke a law of Nature. </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">I carried the water to the hilltop. Nevertheless, </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">For those after me there will be </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">These things I have loved: </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"></span></span></i> </div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Morning sun rays, slanting across the hilltop, </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Lighting the great trees in the green meadow. </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Wind, the great blue sky, </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Peace of the encircling hills </span></span></i></div>
<div>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">And flaming glow of sunset. </span></span></i></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">"Hail and Farewell" appears in </span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cowgirl-Poetry-Hundred-Years-Rhymin/dp/1586850164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301846974&sr=8-1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">Cowgirl Poetry: One Hundred Years of Ropin' and Ridin'</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">, edited by Virginia Bennett, published by Gibbs-Smith, 2001. From the introduction: "Vintage writings were a rich discovery. 'Hail and Farewell,' found recited as a dramatic ending to Gail Steiger's CD of truthful cowboy music, was penned by Delia Gist Gardner, whose husband, Gail Gardner, wrote many classic cowboy poems, including 'The Sierry Petes' (better known as 'Tying Knots in the Devil's Tail'). Steiger related that no one knew that his grandmother had been a writer, yet after her death, this single poem as found among her things." </span></span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-78389827627052248132017-04-18T13:36:00.000-04:002017-04-21T13:38:03.685-04:00National Poetry Month: Martha Collins<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOVIZkSLmVfF-iu95C0K5m_TYEuJ0vNfRCp5Smizv21hZpS48swcA9VOrL0-nOwNw26NQ6O-iHe_D2PArykqEEvQiYeJl9e9mYG_Vs6CMTs9B16RNNQP6GhfxuFzEQhMxyAP3kPYlLnwi0/s1600/1bluefront.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5596190252878185522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOVIZkSLmVfF-iu95C0K5m_TYEuJ0vNfRCp5Smizv21hZpS48swcA9VOrL0-nOwNw26NQ6O-iHe_D2PArykqEEvQiYeJl9e9mYG_Vs6CMTs9B16RNNQP6GhfxuFzEQhMxyAP3kPYlLnwi0/s400/1bluefront.jpg" style="cursor: hand; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 263px;" /></a> <br />
<div>
<br />
<blockquote>
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 15px/normal "helvetica neue"; margin: 0px 0px 22px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">from </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Blue Front</span></span></i> </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 15px/normal "helvetica neue"; margin: 0px 0px 22px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">(Martha Collins)</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "helvetica neue"; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There were trees on those streets that were named</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">for trees: Sycamore, Cedar, Poplar, Pine,</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Elm, where the woman's body was found,</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">where the man's body was taken and burned—</span></span></i></div>
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "helvetica neue"; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">There must have been trees, there were trees</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">on Seventh Street, in front of the house that stands</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">in the picture behind the carriage that holds</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the boy's mother, the boy's cousin, the boy—</span></span></i></div>
<div style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "helvetica neue"; margin: 0px 0px 14px;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">And of course there were trees on Washington</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Avenue, wide boulevard lined with </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">exotic </span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">ginkgoes, stately magnolias,</span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> there were trees</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">on that street that are still on that street,</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">trees that shaded the fenced-in yards of the large</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Victorian houses, the mansion built by the man</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">who sold flour to Grant for the Union troops,</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">trees that were known to the crowd that saw</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">the victim hanged, though not on a tree, this</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">was not the country, they used a steel arch</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">with electric lights, and later a lamppost, this</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">was a modern event, the trees were not involved.</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">......</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">"hang"</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">as a mirror on a wall, or the fall</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">of a dress. a dress, a shirt on a line</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">to fasten to dry. on the rack, or back</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">in the closet again, a sweet curse</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">on it all, sliver of nail, delayed</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">attack. shamed creature, a curse</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">on itself, so the act of doing it</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">changes the verb, tense with not</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">quite right. with rope, like a swing</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">from a tree. from a pole, like a flag,</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">or holidays, from an arch lit bright</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">with lights. in the night, in the air</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">like a shirt. without, or with only</span></span></i><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 14px/normal "lucida grande";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">a shirt. without, like an empty sleeve.</span></span></i></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155597449X/sr=8-1/qid=1149714588/ref=sr_1_1/002-6082557-5325635?%5Fencoding=UTF8M"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Blue Front</span></span></i></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (Graywolf Press, 2006) is Martha Collins' booklength poem about a lynching in her father's home town of Cairo, Illinois in the year 1909, when he was five years old. From a review by Janet St. John in </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Booklist</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><em>"One November day, he was hoisted on a relative's shoulders to watch a bloodthirsty mob kill a black man and then, in an escalation of its 'hunger,' hang an accused white murderer. Collins carefully examines the event and its aftermath, especially the effect on her father. ... She then extends her thoughtful scrutiny to incorporate newspaper accounts, photographs, personal accounts, and history to expose the way racism permeates all layers of society. Collins employs a staccato, matter-of-fact tone that strikes like a sledgehammer at persistent, if hidden, hate. More than worthy as poetry,</em> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Blue Front</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> <em>is also a powerful statement about America and a potent reminder of humankind's terrible potential."</em></span></span></div>
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M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-25369134809309324882017-04-17T13:54:00.000-04:002017-04-17T13:55:09.531-04:00National Poetry Month: John Giorno<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>"Thanx 4 Nothing" - John Giorno</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>I want to give my thanks to everyone for everything,<br /> and as a token of my appreciation,<br /> I want to offer back to you all my good and bad habits<br /> as magnificent priceless jewels,<br /> wish-fulfilling gems satisfying everything you need and want,<br /> thank you, thank you, thank you,<br /> thanks.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>May every drug I ever took <br /> come back and get you high,<br /> may every glass of vodka and wine I’ve drunk<br /> come back and make you feel really good,<br /> numbing your nerve ends <br /> allowing the natural clarity of your mind to flow free,<br /> may all the suicides be songs of aspiration,<br /> thanks that bad news is always true,<br /> may all the chocolate I ever eaten<br /> come back rushing through your bloodstream <br /> and make you feel happy,<br /> thanks for allowing me to be a poet<br /> a noble effort, doomed, but the only choice.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>I want to thank you for your kindness and praise,<br /> thanks for celebrating me,<br /> thanks for the resounding applause,<br /> I want to thank you for taking everything for yourself<br /> and giving nothing back,<br /> you were always only self-serving,<br /> thanks for exploiting my big ego<br /> and making me a star for your own benefit,<br /> thanks that you never paid me,<br /> thanks for all the sleaze,<br /> thanks for being mean and rude<br /> and smiling at my face,<br /> I am happy that you robbed me,<br /> I am happy that you lied<br /> I am happy that you helped me,<br /> thanks,<em> grazie</em>, <em>merci beaucoup</em>.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>May you smoke a joint with William,<br /> and spend intimate time with his mind,<br /> more profound than any book he wrote,<br /> I give enormous thanks to all my lovers,<br /> beautiful men with brilliant minds,<br /> great artists,<br /> Bob, Jasper, Ugo, <br /> may they come here now <br /> and make love to you,<br /> and may my many other lovers<br /> of totally great sex,<br /> countless lovers <br /> of boundless fabulous sex<br /> countless lovers of boundless fabulous sex<br /> countless lovers of boundless <br /> fabulous sex<br /> in the golden age <br /> of promiscuity<br /> may they all come here now,<br /> and make love to you,<br /> if you want,<br /> may each of them <br /> hold each of you in their arms <br /> balling <br /> to your hearts<br /> delight.<br /> balling to your hearts <br /> delight<br /> balling to <br /> your hearts delight<br /> balling to your hearts delight.<br /> <br /> May all the people who are dead<br /> Allen, Brion, Lita, Jack,<br /> and I do not miss any of you<br /> I don’t miss any of them,<br /> no nostalgia,<br /> it was wonderful we loved each other<br /> but I don’t want any of them back,<br /> now, if any of you <br /> are attracted to any of them,<br /> may they come back from the dead,<br /> and do whatever is your pleasure,<br /> may they multiply, <br /> and be the slaves <br /> of whomever wants them,<br /> fulfilling your every wish and desire,<br /> (but you won’t want them as masters,<br /> as they’re demons),<br /> may Andy come here<br /> fall in love with you<br /> and make each of you a superstar,<br /> everyone can have <br /> Andy.<br /> everyone can <br /> have Andy.<br /> everyone can have Andy,<br /> everyone can have an Andy.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Huge hugs to the friends who betrayed me,<br /> every friend became an enemy,<br /> sooner or later,<br /> I am delighted you are vacuum cleaners<br /> sucking everything into your dirt bags,<br /> you are none other than a reflection of my mind.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>Thanks for the depression problem<br /> and feeling like suicide <br /> everyday of my life,<br /> and now that I’m seventy,<br /> I am happily almost there. <br /> <br /> Twenty billion years ago,<br /> in the primordial wisdom soup <br /> beyond comprehension and indescribable,<br /> something without substance moved slightly,<br /> and became something imperceptible,<br /> moved again and became something invisible,<br /> moved again and produced a particle and particles, <br /> moved again and became a quark,<br /> again and became quarks,<br /> moved again and again and became protons and neutrons,<br /> and the twelve dimensions of space,<br /> tiny fire balls of primordial energy<br /> bits tossed back and forth<br /> in a game of catch between particles,<br /> transmitting electromagnetic light<br /> and going fast, 40 million times a second,<br /> where the pebble hits the water,<br /> that is where the trouble began,<br /> something without substance became something with substance,<br /> why did it happen?<br /> because something substance less <br /> had a feeling of missing out on something,<br /> not<br /> getting it<br /> was not getting it<br /> not getting it,<br /> not getting it,<br /> imperceptibly not having something<br /> when there was nothing to have,<br /> clinging to a notion of reality;<br /> from the primordially endless potential,<br /> to modern day reality,<br /> twenty billion years later,<br /> has produced me, <br /> gave birth to me and my stupid grasping mind,<br /> made me and you and my grasping mind.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>May Rinpoche and all the great Tibetan teachers who loved me,<br /> come back and love you more,<br /> hold you in their wisdom hearts, <br /> bathe you in all-pervasive compassion,<br /> give you pith instructions,<br /> and may you with the diligence of Olympic athletes<br /> do meditation practice,<br /> and may you with direct confidence<br /> realize the true nature of mind.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>America, thanks for the neglect,<br /> I did it without you,<br /> let us celebrate poetic justice,<br /> you and I never were,<br /> never tried to do anything,<br /> and never succeeded,<br /> I want to thank you for introducing me to<br /> the face of the naked mind,<br /> thanx 4 nothing.</strong></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;"></span></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><em><strong>John Giorno wrote "Thanks 4 Nothing" for his 70th birthday in 2006. A poet and visual artist born in 1936 in New York City, Giorno attended Columbia University and worked as a stockbroker for a short time before meeting Andy Warhol in 1962. A romantic relationship ensued, and Giorno was featured in Warhol’s first film, Sleep (1963). The influence of pop art and Warhol’s Factory are evident in Giorno’s work, which developed out of verbal collages of appropriated texts drawn from advertising and signage. In 1971, following a trip to India, Giorno converted to Tibetan Buddhism. In his later years, he has become well known for his confrontational readings and his contributions as a gay rights activist; he founded the AIDS Treatment Project in 1984. In 2010, he had his first solo gallery show, Black Paintings and Drawings, which focused on the development of poem painting. He currently lives in New York City.</strong> </em></span>M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-30974498660179138312017-04-16T14:03:00.000-04:002017-04-17T14:04:11.927-04:00National Poetry Month: Dustin Brookshire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7Q2ekbK-36Vbeo1dWHkD74XB8jW0fbPu2lztudJlKEa2Bm61JFO8rOdA-J7w-G4-rykpxyZmXAIkxz5_cmUYlijeDNXMQLZH2DCGE7UxQYFJv1m7lUJWPxxyJdmddkIzys4sLvDp7-5q/s1600/1brookshire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7Q2ekbK-36Vbeo1dWHkD74XB8jW0fbPu2lztudJlKEa2Bm61JFO8rOdA-J7w-G4-rykpxyZmXAIkxz5_cmUYlijeDNXMQLZH2DCGE7UxQYFJv1m7lUJWPxxyJdmddkIzys4sLvDp7-5q/s1600/1brookshire.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"First AIDS Test"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">(Dustin Brookshire)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was 19 when I had my first</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">AIDS test; no longer a virgin or</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">why else would we have</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">made that 15 minute drive</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">that seemed like 15 hours</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">to the testing center.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I had to go because of you,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">but I can't blame you alone--</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">no, I was stupid, I let you</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">slide into me uncovered.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I let you enter me,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and the foolish part of</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">my brain gagged the sensible</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">part before it could say,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">'This shouldn't happened.'</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The foolish part of my brain</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">gagged and tied the sensible</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">part and quietly tucked her</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">away out of sight so he</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">could be heard and say,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">'Let's get this started.'</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Every time you entered me</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I felt loved.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Every time you entered me</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I trusted you more.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I craved you; you were my first.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And it was after six months</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">of our love making,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">well, my love making</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">your lust indulging,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">that I found out you shared</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">your bed with others---</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">so many others.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I shuddered.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I cried.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I screamed at God,</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">but it wasn't His fault.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It was yours;</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">it was mine.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And that's when I made</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">you take me to get the test.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I made you pay for it.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I refused to let you touch me after;</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I refused to listen to your I'm sorries.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was trying to find a safe world</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">where every billboard read NEGATIVE.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was having a dream with a beautiful song</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and everyone singing sang NEGATIVE.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For two weeks I waited.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Two weeks of prayers, promises, and</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">thoughts of what I'd do to you</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">if my life took a viral change.</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But in the end, it came out negative---</span></i><br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was born to live again.</span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Dustin Brookshire's poem "First AIDS Test" was published online at <a href="http://www.subtletea.com/dustinbrookshirepoetry2.htm"><span style="color: #5588aa;">SubtleTea</span></a>. His 2012 book of poems, <i><a href="http://siblingrivalrypress.com/to-the-one-who-raped-me-by-dustin-brookshire/"><span style="color: #5588aa;">To the One Who Raped Me,</span></a></i> is published by Sibling Rivalry Press.</span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-10201828999878168382017-04-15T13:06:00.000-04:002017-04-15T13:06:08.714-04:00National Poetry Month: Bryan Borland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQotrvzrvobdalBxhArCoYOOXCcpvTyvZXaDiImDDwevC9CI45KXZ4t1M6buH0vo6ryzVRfCivNVN3Cd7se2DDyyZPFDWTmd6a-BZpKlbI_h0cN9vDL30SgLiUBTZBJBq6_-bN0XAxvZKM/s1600/bb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQotrvzrvobdalBxhArCoYOOXCcpvTyvZXaDiImDDwevC9CI45KXZ4t1M6buH0vo6ryzVRfCivNVN3Cd7se2DDyyZPFDWTmd6a-BZpKlbI_h0cN9vDL30SgLiUBTZBJBq6_-bN0XAxvZKM/s320/bb.jpg" width="231" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">"Introducing a Grandson to His Grandfather"<br />(Bryan Borland)<br /><br /><i>You will know him through your own<br />sense of humor, the practical jokes<br />of heredity that make your eyes water<br />to the detriment of friends.</i></span><i> </i></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You will know him through acts<br />of kindness, the anchor of heart<br />that compels you to share your treasure<br />with less fortunate pirates.</span> </i></blockquote>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You will know him, little Noah,<br />when a cat stakes her purring claim<br />against your leg, when you walk<br />the first of many dogs on winter nights.</span> </i></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>You will know him in your name,<br />in your knees, in your near<br />tone-deaf ears that hear melodies<br />beautiful in the absence of pitch.</i></span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">B</span>RYAN BORLAND is a poet and the publisher of <a href="http://siblingrivalrypress.com/">Sibling Rivalry Press</a> in Little Rock, Arkansas. "I’m here to say I’ll not only wear the label of gay poet, but I’ll wear it like it’s designer fashion." he said in a recent <a href="http://welcometoallthat.com/2010/02/23/bryanborland/">interview</a>. "I’ll wear it like it’s a tiara. Even if it means slapping the tag of ‘gay poetry’ on any poem that could be considered even a small bit queer." His own collections include <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/My-Life-Adam-Bryan-Borland/dp/0983293147/ref=tmm_pap_title_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1305127205&sr=8-1">My Life As Adam</a></i> (second printing, 2011) and <i>Less Fortunate Pirates: Poems from the First Year Without My Father</i>. <em><a href="http://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/a-qanda-with-bryan-borland/Content?oid=4577113">Dig</a> </em>(2016) is his latest collection</span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3162618892808115761.post-29451258012586978132017-04-14T13:01:00.000-04:002017-04-14T13:01:08.410-04:00National Poetry Month: Lorine Niedecker<div style="text-align: left;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgukQNa7abBsHFPnXYVTSeBIP4oLhpgRQWAXIjjzxW8Mrg3DJapLMZ2QPpJPy1sVv1eBHwHrxlZQFyaD1Doo-ZNtPznN66INsGaHFJ0FL6DzERXzqwXrAy27tz1mCDBXywb4AKvCKpVTmoY/s1600/1lorine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgukQNa7abBsHFPnXYVTSeBIP4oLhpgRQWAXIjjzxW8Mrg3DJapLMZ2QPpJPy1sVv1eBHwHrxlZQFyaD1Doo-ZNtPznN66INsGaHFJ0FL6DzERXzqwXrAy27tz1mCDBXywb4AKvCKpVTmoY/s1600/1lorine.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span> </div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"Untitled</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> "</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Lorine Niedecker)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: "times"; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the great snowfall before the bomb</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">colored yule tree lights</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">windows, the only glow for contemplation</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">along this road</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I worked the print shop</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">right down among em</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the folk from whom all poetry flows</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and dreadfully much else.</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I was Blondie</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I carried my bundles of hog feeder price lists</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">down by Larry the Lug,</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I'd never get anywhere</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">because I'd never had suction,</span></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">pull, you know, favor, drag,</span></i></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; line-height: 18px;"><i>well-oiled protection.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">LORINE NIEDECKER (1903-1970) worked in Madison, Wisconsin in the Federal Writers Project, researching state biographies and writing for radio station WHA. In 1931 she read the February issue of <i>Poetry</i>, guest-edited by the New York poet Louis Zukofsky, who argued for Objectivism in poetry -- focusing on an object rather than one's feelings and conveying its essence along a musical line. <a href="http://www.lorineniedecker.org/biog.cfm" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;">Lorine wrote Zukofsky</a>; after corresponding two years, she went to New York to meet him. They became lovers, and they remained intellectual friends for decades, stimulating and critiquing each other's poetry, sharing inside jokes, and venting against the establishment. She was published frequently in literary magazines and had four books of poetry published in her lifetime:<a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Goose-Lorine-Niedecker/dp/0963932160" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;"> </a><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-Goose-Lorine-Niedecker/dp/0963932160" style="color: #5588aa; text-decoration: none;">New Goose</a>, My Friend Tree, North Central</i>, and <i>T & G: Collected Poems</i>, which was published by Jonathan Williams's Jargon Press in 1969.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>(Photo of Lorine Niedecker by Jonathan Williams)</i></span></span></div>
M Bromberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12765520463415074032noreply@blogger.com0