Happy National Poetry Month! Read the first poet interview we published, with T. S. Eliot in 1959.
I think a poem, when it works, is an action of the mind captured on a page, and the reader, when he engages it, has to enter into that action. And so his mind repeats that action and travels again through the action, but it is a movement of yourself through a thought, through an activity of thinking, so by the time you get to the end you’re different than you were at the beginning and you feel that difference.
Anne Carson (via theparisreview)
Tonight – The Poetry Show
Quick note of correction about the Mountain X ad: members of the Rooftop Poets will be reading poems. Rooftop Poets is a creative collective or poetic triumvirate of Barbara Gravelle, Brian Sneeden and myself.
A quick story about the ethos of the Rooftop Poets. Barbara invited Brian and I to read at the historic Battery Park Hotel roof garden ballroom one evening. As the sun set in the west the shadows from the west window frames mirrored the frames of the east windows of the ballroom. It’s an amazing alignment of architecture and environment. As we read in round-robin fashion, one poem building upon previous poems read, the sky grew dark with night. Many poems were read in that space first before they were read publicly. While Barbara read a new poem, Brian exclaimed, ‘Barabara, look…’ We all looked out the east windows of the roof garden ballroom to see a full moon rise over the mountains. It seemed as if Barbara had called up the moon. One of the poems I hope to read tonight at the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show I hope will honor that moment and the poetic triumvirate of the Rooftop Poets.
Who will be the winner of the 2011 Mountain Xpress Poetry Prize?
And the finalists are:
- Randal Pride, “Coal Palace”
- Jessie Shires, “Corpus unum”
- Jesse S. Rice-Evans, “Taking A Bath In Frida Kahlo’s Tub”
- James Cox, “By the Lake in Northern Michigan”
- James Davis, “Sourwood”
- Jessica Claire Newton, “Two Weeks Deep Into the Dirty Laundry”
- Tamsen Turner, “Sestina”
- Brian Sneeden, “The Temple”
- John Eells, “Sleep And Dreams”
- Andrew Procyk, “Life and Death”
Some good poets represented on this list. Should be great evening of poetry and music.
I am honored and humbled to be on the list of featured poets for event. There’s a nice write-up in the Mountain Xpress (Rhyme and reason) that mentions my involvement with the Rooftop Poets. Last time I was mentioned in the Xpress was when I was contributing to The Traveling Bonfires.
If you can make it to the big show tomorrow night, here’s some more details from the Mountain Xpress’s Facebook event page:
Featured poets include:
• Laura Hope-Gill, Director of Asheville Wordfest and Blue Ridge Parkway poet laureate.
• Matt Owens and Mesha Maren of the Juniper Bends reading series.
• Matthew Mulder and Brian Sneeden of the Rooftop Poets series.
• The top 10 finalists of the 2011 Mountain Xpress poetry prize will read their poems, and the overall winner of the contest will be announced. (The 10 finalists will also read their winning poems at the Saturday night YMI party during Wordfest in May.)The evening concludes with a live performance by Keith Flynn & the Holy Men in celebration of the release of their album, “LIVE at the Diana Wortham Theatre.”
The even begins at 7 p.m. with a reception. Poetry readings begin at 8 p.m., and music begins at 9 p.m.
Tickets are $5 and can be purchased in advance at http://www.mountainx.com/mxcore/poem/tickets or at the door.
Hope to see you there!
The Mountain Xpress Poetry Show Ashevill – coming up in 1 day
Friday, April 8th, 7PM, The Mountain Xpress Poetry Show featuring Laura Hope-Gill, Director of Asheville Wordfest, Matt Owens, Mesha Maren, Matthew Mulder, Brian Sneeden and the top 10 finalists of the 2011 Mountain Xpress poetry prize. Plus a performance by Keith Flynn & the Holy Men.
Poem: Never Look A Doughnut Dealer in the Eyes
Note: These poems are rough drafts and include typos, erroneous grammar and other literary warts. In this case, perfume is intentionally misspelled to represent a unique American accent.
Dorothy Parker, 1937. (via americanchickens)
Poem: Some days all you need
Poetry Prize finalists announced
Mountain Xpress announced their poetry prize finalists today. Among the finalists are a couple of friends. Hope all my friends win first place! The winning poet will be announced next Friday, April 8th, at the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show.
As part of the Mountain Xpress Poetry Show, I have been invited as a guest poet to read alongside some of Asheville’s talented and notable poets. I’ll be the poet wearing the t-shirt that reads: “Haikus are easy/but sometimes they don’t make sense/refrigerator.”
Hope to see you next Friday night!
Poem: What makes people so bulletproof?
The daffodil blooms shudder in the breeze. The phlox shows signs of pregnant blooms. It’s a prefect day for a Spring walk. I guess that’s what makes the moment captured in the poem so poignant.
But alas, I think I broke a rule regarding poetry: never explain your poem.
Translating Concrete
Brinkmann’s book Künstliches Licht begins with a poem titled after the French architectural style of roughly-finished concrete. Nothing more interesting than translating a German poem with French words and deeper contextual elements.
We do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy [an] Android phone…
Lost in translation
Look what arrived from across the pond. Forgive me for being rather spare with my online presence these last few weeks. I’ve got two good reasons and a surprise.
- A vintage manual typewriter arrived and I’ve been spending more time using that machine than I’ve been online.
- A copy of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann’s Künstliches Licht arrived in time for the rainy season and I’ve been reading in German and translating to English. Hopefully I’ll have some of the translations done in time for the upcoming Poetry at the Pulp event on April 8th.
Okay so the big surprise is still in the works. Sorry for the tease. I’ve been working on something new and plan to launch it here in the near future. That’s all I can say at this point. By the end of the week I should have more details that I will share.
What isn’t tragic belongs to the comic spirit. The novel is nourished by both and swallows both up greedily.
Before The Aircraft Carrier: The Union Army Balloon Corp
Beginning in 1861, the Union Army had an active balloon corp. The Union Army Balloon Corp, led by presidential appointee Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, consisted of seven vessels, the largest at 32,000 cubic feet, used primarily for reconnaissance and surveilling Confederate troops. Most of these units were launched from ground bases; seaborne balloons had only been utilized once before, in 1849, when an Austrian vessel, Vulcano, launched a failed attempt to bomb Venice with manned hot air balloons.
The Union did not utilize a maritime vessel as a staging area until August of 1961. Lowe, with the assistance of fellow aeronaut John LaMountain, directed the construction of the first real aircraft carrier. The two rebuilt a coal barge, the George Washington Parke Custis, gutting the deck of its rigging to accommodate gas generators and a flight deck superstructure. TheCustis was part of its own battle group, towed by the Stepping Stone and accompanying sloop Wachusett, the gunboats Tioga and Port Royal, and the armed transport Delaware during the course of its operational lifespan.
Read the full article here.
I am the surprise in your cereal box
Cheaply made.
Not as cool as you thought.
Looks better in the picture.
Only six copies remain – A Body Turning
A Body Turning was published as the culmination of a creative writing workshop I directed more than a year ago. Poems by Samara Scheckler and Susan Ryonen Keene are featured in this book as well as an introductory essay written by myself.
When I studied art at the university the goal of each student was the senior art exhibit. From a student’s body of work the best art objects were selected for the show. That’s how the poetry writing workshops I direct are planned. Students work on poems for several weeks and then we select, edit and publish their best work in a collection of poems.
If you’re interested in an upcoming poetry writing workshop, please leave a comment or email me at coffeehousejunkie [at] gmail [dot] com.
Order A Body Turning (paperback, 48 pgs, 8.5″x5.5″ $10 + s/h) today!
The act of writing a poem is a bodily act as well as a mental and imaginative act, and the act of reading a poem—even silently—must be bodily before it’s intellectual.
Donald Hall (via theparisreview)
Poetry contest winners announced!
How did I overlook this? The Rapid River Magazine’s 14th annual poetry contest winners were announced earlier this month. Congrats Tracy Darling on receiving first place for the winning poem: ‘Offering Up the Main Course.’ All finalists are published in this month’s issue of the Rapid River Magazine as well as a review of Thomas Rain Crowe’s new book Crack Light.
Sold out: Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry
Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry (paperback, 20 pgs, 8″x5″ $8 + s/h) is officially out of print.
Tomorrow We Sweat Poetry is the result of the workshop I directed called “Write and do not waste time” and features poems by Susan Ryonen Keene. A digital sample is available here. Each poetry writing workshop I direct invites students to contribute their best poems for publication in a poetry book. If you’re interested in an upcoming poetry writing workshop, please leave a comment or email me at coffeehousejunkie [at] gmail [dot] com.
Thank you all for your support!
ben:
MoMA purchased some fonts recently (23 to be exact), most of which having some sort of historical significance.
One of these typefaces was OCR-A by American Type Founders, which is probably best known as the font used for routing numbers on checks. It’s used in other business contexts as well because it was designed to be perfectly readable by computers. The characters are distinct enough that individual characters won’t get mistaken for other ones.
theeconomist: Tomorrow’s cover today Some natural disasters change history. Japan’s tsunami could be one.
Coffeehouse Junkie 