Whirl

You Should Go...

2011-08-13T11:13:00.004-04:00

Here are two upcoming readings that I would go to if I could:

1) Mathias Svalina's book release party coupled with a Bad Shadow Affair reading THIS Saturday, featuring Maureen Owen, Steven Karl, and J. Mae Barizo, and Mathias Svalina. We'd love love love to see you there. Love.

Here is the info:
Saturday August 13th
730pm
Lost Lake Lounge | 3602 East Colfax | Denver, Colorado

2) Stain of Poetry Series reading with Paul Siegell + Kiely Sweatt + Bronwen Tate + Jared White

Here is the info:
7 PM on August 26′th
@ Goodbye Blue Monday –
Bushwick, Brooklyn

Tourist Trap, NY (Episode 4)

2011-05-02T07:25:00.000-04:00

Linebreak

2011-02-15T21:15:00.002-05:00

Mine is this week's featured poem over at Linebreak. Audio recording by Rose Hunter. What a great site they've got over there. I've only recently discovered it and have been digging the archive ever since.

Filed

2011-02-07T19:09:00.004-05:00

I'm a February interview over at Bookslut. I talk with the wonderfully adept Elizabeth Hildreth about such issues as "the colostomy bag of sorrows," the sadness of sour car alarms, Robert Bly, animal instinct, etc., all while trying to get to the bottom of my second book, "Minimum Heroic." You can check it out here.

ATM

2010-11-10T16:46:00.004-05:00

I just received copies of ATM, my new chapbook of poems just out from Horse Less Press. I had more fun while writing these poems than I've had writing anything else. Thanks to Jen Tynes and Horse Less Press for putting it out, and thanks to Shawn Huelle for a very nice cover design. I love it! If you want a copy, you can buy one here

The Equalizer

2010-10-10T11:01:00.007-04:00

Here's a great new e-compendium of contemporary poets culled and arranged meticulously by Michael Schiavo. You can either subscribe to The Equalizer by sending an email to the address below, or you can read the installments by downloading at one of the links. Readers are encouraged to forward it to other readers and upload the files on their own websites.

My poems appear in 1.1 and some will appear in a later installment. These poems are from "Minimum Heroic," my new full length book.

The Equalizer 1.1:
Summer Block, Jim Behrle, Macgregor Card, Mark Bibbins, Emily Anderson, Aaron Belz, Don Share, Cody Walker, Christopher Salerno, Amick Boone, Adam Clay, Buck Downs, Stephanie Anderson, Owen Barker, and CAConrad.

If you’d like to sign up for The Equalizer mailing list to receive sections as they’re released throughout October 2010, please email theunrulyservant (at) gmail (dot) com.

The Equalizer 1.1 available via HTMLGiant and Maureen Thorson.
The Equalizer 1.2 available via HTMLGiant and Maureen Thorson.

look for 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5 soon!

Where I'll Be (updated)

2010-05-07T08:11:00.000-04:00

Reading
Sunday, May 9th, 8-11pm
*Waxroth Reading Series* (715 Washington, Durham, NC)
Jon Leon, Joe Fletcher, Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli

Reading
Friday, May 14th,
*Yardmeter Editions* (Brooklyn, NY),
Elisa Gabbert, Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli

Reading
Saturday, May 15th,
*TBA* (Philadelphia, PA),
Elisa Gabbert Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli

Reading
Sunday, May 16th,
*Cheryl's Gone* (Washington, DC),
Elisa Gabbert, Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli

Reading
Sunday, May 23rd, 7 pm
*Flanders Gallery* (302 S West St. Raleigh NC)
Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli, Matvei Yankelevich

So and So Magazine To Publish Poetry Reviews

2010-04-30T13:22:00.001-04:00

NEW FEATURE: So and So Magazine!

So and So Magazine is seeking review copies of new books and chapbooks of poems for macro/micro reviews on the site. While we can't guarantee all books will be reviewed, we hope to get to the ones that strike us and promote the new and noteworthy.

Send all review copies to:

So and So Magazine
Eds. Chris Salerno and Chris Tonelli
Box 8105 Tompkins Hall
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695

Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival (This Weekend!)

2010-04-13T07:52:00.004-04:00

This Sunday, April 18th, I'll be hosting a Poetry Workshop at the 2nd Annual Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival. I'm really looking forward to it. The festival and workshop are both free and will take place at the Page-Walker Arts & History Center, Cary NC. Poetry Workshop: 1-3 PM. Talks and Readings: 3-6 PM.

From the Nazim Hikmet Poetry Festival website:

During the Festival, you are invited to participate in an afternoon Poetry Workshop (free) hosted by Christopher Salerno. Festival Workshop members will work with a general prompt to sketch out a draft of a single poem using a basic set of poetic techniques that we will discuss and develop during the session. Participants will be encouraged to read and share aloud their efforts.

The meeting will be an opportunity for participants to discuss their work in a casual atmosphere. Following the workshop, a follow-up meeting will be held for those interested in polishing their work further in a more concentrated workshop setting. Selected poems from the workshop will be published on the festival website.

All festival attendees (16 and up) are encouraged to attend the workshop, as there is no requirement or expectation of “skill” level whatsoever. We’ll meet in the spirit of Nazim, who celebrated life at all turns with a lyric grace and an utterly human poetic voice.

AWP Post Mortem

2010-04-11T15:56:00.009-04:00

Left Denver less than inspired by the panels and more than inspired by the people (one exception: The Networked Poetry Classroom (Chris Hosea, Eric Baus, Dorothea Lasky, Mathias Svalina, Michelle Taransky). Much useful and applicable tips on using computers and digital media in the creative writing classroom.

PEOPLE AND PRESSES:

My generation of poets and small press innovators continue to wow me with their generosity, independence, brilliance. What an amazing "class." If you happen upon this blog and haven't heard of the following small presses, I definitely recommend: the new Birds, LLC, Brave Men Press, Forklift Ohio, Flying Guillotine, Slash Pine, Black Ocean, Octopus, Letter Machine Editions, Immaculate Disciples, Coconut, Cannibal, No Tell Motel, DoubleCrossed Press, Harp & Altar, Factory Hollow, Horse Less Press, Sixth Finch, Sir, Ahsahta, Rope-a-Dope press, and the list goes on. Solid citizens, these people. I was glad to meet those I hadn't yet. And to see their books, many of which are handmade, hand-bound--some even sewing books right there at their tables. Awesomeness of the highest degree.

And, of course, on a personal note, my Mississippi Review Poetry Series editors and advisory board folks were the sweetest people and best promotors I could ask for. So nice to finally meet them.

PANELS:

Admittedly, I only attended 5 or 6 panels. But, why do so many panels promise in their descriptions to assert some NEW way or approach to a stagnancy only to spend the entire time just pointing to that stagnancy? Enough punting already.

I'm as career-conscious as the next guy, but let's actually break new ground.

If we're lucky enough to get our Art of the Blurb panel accepted for next year's DC AWP, you better believe that we will move the discussion forward.

Anyway, the theme from the half-dozen panels I attended, coupled with several of those whose descriptions I glossed in the catalogue, seemed to add up to one overarching message:

We're now in a time of fragmentation, hyperactivity, and, well, suck. A dearth of good work (both primary and critical) coupled with a wealth of new. That there has been (another) "wrong turning," or general degradation of something worth preserving seemed to be the backdrop of many a panel. And, as usual, folks are suspect of the new modes and sensibilities. I understand some of this...

However, one look at the poems, titles, editions of many of the entities I've named above and I think it's fair to say the opposite is probably true of new poetry. I brought home a dozen new titles from many of the above presses, and I'll be digging in directly.

Heading to Denver for the AWP Conference.

2010-04-06T20:03:00.003-04:00

Excited about the Denver AWP trip. Going to do a reading (Historic Falcon--see previous post for my upcoming readings) with some buds and solid poets, and then a book signing Friday at the Mississippi Review table (from 1:30-2:45). That should be an interesting experience.

Anyway, I just finished submitting a panel proposal for next year's AWP conference in D.C.

The title? "The Art of the Blurb."

That's right. It's time The Blurb got some rhetorical attention. It's a full fledged genre. The panel, should it "make," will consist of myself, John Gallaher, Chris Tonelli, Mary Biddinger, and Janet Holmes. Our goal is to cover all bases and perspectives (publisher, reader, author, blurber, etc).

Where I'll Be

2010-03-18T18:49:00.002-04:00

Reading
Friday, March 26th
*Indy Week Poetry Prize Reading*
Flanders Art Gallery, (Raleigh NC)
7pm

Reading
Thursday, April 8th, 2010
*Historic Falcon*
Mercury Cafe, 2199 California Street, (Denver, CO)
Poets include: Julia Cohen, Brian Foley, Elisa Gabbert, Kate Greenstreet, Dan Magers, Justin Marks, Linnea Ogden, Christopher Salerno, Kim Gek Lin Short, Sam Starkweather, Janaka Stucky, and Chris Tonelli.
6:30-9:00 p.m.

Book Signing
Friday, April 9th
*AWP Conference Book Fair, (Denver, CO)*
Signing will be held at the Mississippi Review table.
1:30-2:45.

Reading
Friday, May 14th,
*Yardmeter Editions* (Brooklyn, NY),
Elisa Gabbert, Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli

Reading
Saturday, May 15th,
*Wooden Shoe Books* (Philadelphia, PA),
Elisa Gabbert Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli

Reading
Sunday, May 16th,
*Cheryl's Gone* (Washington, DC),
Elisa Gabbert, Christopher Salerno, Chris Tonelli

Some Pics from the 2/20 So and So Reading

2010-02-22T17:11:00.004-05:00

Amy King
Brian Howe
Ana Bozicevic

The So and So Series #36

2010-02-09T10:09:00.001-05:00

Poetry from Ana Božičević * Brian Howe * Amy King

Designs by Brent Francese

Saturday * February 20th * 8pm * Morning Times * 10 E. Hargett Street * Raleigh, NC

Ana Božičević emigrated to NYC in 1997. Stars of the Night Commute (Tarpaulin Sky Press, November 2009) is her first book of poems. Her fifth chapbook, Depth Hoar, will be published by Cinematheque Press in 2010. With Amy King, Ana co-curates The Stain of Poetry reading series in Brooklyn. She works at the Center for the Humanities of The Graduate Center, CUNY. For more, visit nightcommute.org.

Brian Howe is a freelance writer, poet, and multimedia artist living in Durham, NC. His poems and sound art have appeared in many print and online journals, including Drunken Boat, Fascicle, Effing Magazine, McSweeneys.net, Octopus, Soft Targets, and Cannibal. He's the author of three chapbooks: Guitar Smash (3rdness Press), This is the Motherfucking Remix (with Marcus Slease, Scantily Clad), and Foreign Letter (Beard of Bees). His videos (with Ashley Howe) have screened at various NC festivals and showcases. He does a lot of his multimedia jams here: http://glossolalia-blacksail.blogspot.com/.

Amy King's most recent book is Slaves to Do These Things (Blazevox), and forthcoming, I Want to Make You Safe (Litmus Press). She teaches English and Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. For information on the reading series Amy co-curates in Brooklyn, NY, please visit The Stain of Poetry: A Reading Series (http://stainofpoetry.com) and http://amyking.org for more.

Brent Francese graduated with Bachelor's in Architecture in 2005 from NC State before the turning economy allowed him to explore a variety of creative of avenues. Using a strong graphic background, Brent currently designs logos, blogs and other stand alone graphic art pieces. When he's not working on graphic design or architecture he's playing drums with several local bands in the Raleigh, NC area. He lives with his wife Jessie and two dogs Tahoe and Denali.

So and So #35 This Saturday 1/16 at 8pm

2010-01-12T12:14:00.001-05:00

Poetry from Lily Brown * Michael Ford * Joshua Marie Wilkinson

Designs by Shane Smith

Saturday * January 16th * 8pm * Morning Times * 10 E. Hargett Street * Raleigh, NC

Lily Brown's first book, Rust or Go Missing, is forthcoming from Cleveland State University Poetry Center in fall of 2010. She lives in Chicago and in Athens, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in English at the University of Georgia.

Michael Ford often writes poetry with the help of a calculator. He wishes he could add without one but can’t. He hopes that all of the counting and addition that goes into his poems is doing some good in the world. He thinks that 89 is a better number than most, and his current project is a series of 89-line poems. He is the author of two books of poems, Carbon (Ugly Duckling 2006) and Olympia Street (Trembling Pillow 2008). He no longer lives in New Orleans.

Joshua Marie Wilkinson's new collections are The Book of Whispering in the Projection Booth (Tupelo 2009) and Selenography (Sidebrow 2010) featuring Polaroids by Califone's Tim Rutili. He lives in Chicago and Athens, GA.

Shane Smith is a graphic designer living in Raleigh, NC. He graduated with a BFA in Illustration from East Carolina University. He was recently featured in Print Magazines Regional Design Annual, representing Raleigh with 2 logos. When not designing for the man, he plays with kittens, reads books at 25 words a minute, and gets serious about making people laugh at Dirty South Improv in Carrboro.

Cover for "Minmum Heroic" coming in January 2010

2009-11-11T07:16:00.000-05:00

Triangulations...a local Reading Series Calendar

2009-03-16T14:31:00.003-04:00

Here's a valuable new site for Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill readings and reading series info. Thanks to Chris Vitiello. Presenting: Triangulations.

Purchase A Limited Run Broadside from the First Raleigh So and So Series Reading (see Paypal link below).

2009-02-22T20:51:00.007-05:00

Rachel Blau DuPlessis Broadside:

Elisa Gabbert Broadside:
Tony Tost Broadside:
All designs by Robin Vuchnich
Buy a limited edition Broadside here.

The So and So Reading Series!!!

2009-02-18T12:25:00.000-05:00

Rachel Blau DuPlessis * Elisa Gabbert * Tony Tost

Saturday * February 21st * 8pm * Morning Times * 8 E. Hargett Street * Raleigh, NC

The on-going long poem project of Rachel Blau DuPlessis begun in 1986, is collected in Torques: Drafts 58-76 (Salt Publishing, 2007) as well as in Drafts 1-38, Toll (Wesleyan U.P., 2001) and Drafts 39-57, Pledge, with Draft unnnumbered: Précis (Salt Publishing, 2004). Pitch: Drafts 77-95 is forthcoming. In 2006, two books of her innovative essays were published: Blue Studios: Poetry and Its Cultural Work on gender and poetics, along with reprinting of the ground-breaking The Pink Guitar: Writing as Feminist Practice, both from University of Alabama Press. In 2002 she was also awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, in 2007, a residency for poetry at Bellagio, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 2008-09, an appointment to the National Humanities Center in North Carolina.. Her website is http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/duplessis

Elisa Gabbert is the poetry editor of Absent. Her recent poems have appeared in Colorado Review, Diagram, Eleven Eleven, Meridian, Pleiades, Typo and Washington Square. A chapbook, Thanks for Sending the Engine, is available from Kitchen Press. She is also the author, with Kathleen Rooney, of Something Really Wonderful (dancing girl press, 2007) and That Tiny Insane Voluptuousness (Otoliths Books, 2008). Their collaborations can be found in Boston Review, Caketrain, jubilat, No Tell Motel and other journals.

Tony Tost is the author of Complex Sleep (Iowa 2007), World Jelly (Effing 2005) and Invisible Bride (LSU 2004). He lives in Durham, NC with Leigh and Simon.

Broadsides of the poets' work, designed by Robin Vuchnich, will be available.

The So and So Series booked for 2009!

2009-01-16T13:17:00.003-05:00

We'd like to re-introduce The So and So Reading Series, a quarterly reading and design endeavor soon to be launched in downtown Raleigh (having been transplanted from its Boston origins). So and So seeks to fill Raleigh's poetry void by bringing in both national and regional poets. See the blog at http://thesoandsoseries.blogspot.com/.

Christopher Salerno and Chris Tonelli will run the series and edit the poetry element of Raleigh Quarterly.

The So and So series will coordinate with the new print journal, The Raleigh Quarterly (coinciding quarterly readings with RQ's issue launches). Raleigh Quarterly will print work from the visiting poets alongside visual pieces. Additional poems will be published online at http://www.raleighquarterly.com/. Additionally, So and So will collaborate with local artists and printers to create limited run broadsides of each poet's work.

*Readings will be held on Saturdays, 8pm, at The Morning Times Café on Hargett Street in Raleigh.

2009 Schedule thus far:

February 21

Tony Tost

Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Elisa Gabbert

May 16

Chris Vitiello

Justin Marks

Kate Pringle

August 15

Emily Frey

Jim Goar

Zach Schomburg

November 21

Kate Greenstreet

Farrah Field

John Gallaher

The Raleigh Quarterly

2008-12-21T15:09:00.002-05:00

I've become co-editor of poetry for The Raleigh Quarterly.

The So and So Reading Series!!!

2008-12-11T14:02:00.002-05:00

Introducing The So and So Reading Series, a poetry reading series transplanted from its Boston roots soon to take place at the Morning Times Cafe in downtown Raleigh, NC. Curated by Chris Salerno and Chris Tonelli, the series will hold quarterly readings in conjunction with The Raleigh Quarterly. The 2009 schedule is still being hatched, but thus far it includes:

Sat Feb 21st 8pm @ Morning Times Cafe:

-Tony Tost

-Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Sat May 16th 8pm @ Morning Times Cafe:

-Chris Vitiello

-Justin Marks

Small Press Distribution

2008-07-15T20:17:00.002-04:00

After nearly a year off the shelves, Whirligig is for sale once again. Spuyten Duyvil Press was having some difficulty finding a new and reasonable distributor for its books. To make an extremely long story short, Small Press Distribution, a venerable and legendary book distributor, will now carry certain Spuyten Duyvil titles. Whirligig should also be back on Amazon soon as well, courtesy of Greenfield Distribution (more on this to come).

Purchase Whirligig and other Small Press titles here

Passing

2008-04-28T18:33:00.004-04:00

Rest In Peace, Jason Shinder (1955-2008). I owe you a great deal for your holy and concentrated efforts. You were always kind, and full of solid advice.

Uncle Buk's Bungalow

2007-11-29T11:22:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/books/11/29/bukowski.house.ap/index.html

Reading Thursday 11/1 at NC State University

2007-10-30T21:01:00.000-04:00

Free Verse and Free Verse Editions

Presents

A Poetry Reading:

Tom Lisk
Christopher Salerno
Michael Begnal

Thursday, November 1
7.00 pm
Tompkins G118

North Carolina State University

Hillsborough Street, Raleigh NC

Slightly Used--Some Scribbles Inside Cover

2007-09-07T11:34:00.000-04:00

Interesting. I'm doing an Independent Study with a Poetry Student this semester and suggested a Heather McHugh book. The student got the thing through Amazon and it showed up--a signed first edition, inscribed to another poet of note. This has also happened to me in the past. I've gotten two other signed first edition books sold as "slightly used."

Business is business, for now.

The Laurel Review

2007-08-31T09:04:00.000-04:00

The Laurel Review has accepted two of my newest poems, "Consequence" and "See Also All of Us" (the second of which may become the title poem to my current manuscript when it's all said and done). My point in this post is not, however, simply a matter of my poems, but largely to praise the Laurel Review for what seems to me like a fine "makeover" undergone in the last 7 or so years (since I was an intern at one of their "sister" journals, Tar River Poetry. At that time, the lead editors of the two journals published each other's work and reviews consistently, and I believe, were good friends). Bottom line: at that time I was slightly bored with the journal. Now, after checking it out again last year, it excites me. It seems John Gallaher and the folks there have done some great things bringing that journal into the 21st Century. I'm happy to be a part of one issue.

__________________________________________________________

Here's the info on the latest issue. Buy it!

__________________________________________________________

New fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews by: Rae Armantrout, Wendy Barker, Juda Bennett, Molly Brodak, J.D. Chapman, Melissa Dickey, Michelle Disler, Jehanne Dubrow, Albert Goldbarth, Mark Halliday, Jerry Harp, Gretchen E. Henderson, Noelle Kocot, Susanne Kort, Jay Ladin, David Dodd Lee, Rachel Loden, Erin Malone, Holaday Mason, Clay Matthews, Jennifer Militello, Kathleen Ossip, Anne Panning, Chad Parmenter, Emily Perez, Kathleen Peirce, Stephany Prodromides, Stan Sanvel Rubin, Reginald Shepherd, Kevin Stein, Mathias Svalina, Bradford Gray Telford, Amanda Traxler, Dara Wier, Ryan Wells, Jon Woodward, Dean Young, among others . . .

Liam Rector, Our First Day At Bennington

2007-08-24T09:44:00.000-04:00

Memorial for Liam Rector

1949–2007

Saturday, September 22, 2007

2 p.m.

St. Marks Church In-the-Bowery

131 East 10th St.

New York, New York 10003

Liam Rector's Suicide

2007-08-17T21:12:00.000-04:00

Rest in Peace, Liam. I realize now that so much of what you wrote and said in your several capacities had a touch of your leaving (this way) in it. Now I'm thinking of your poem, "We colored your leaving," etc etc. I also think of your Ronald Beaver ("beavering"). It took your suicide obituary for the world to know your given name was Ronald.

____

I shared a number of cigarettes with Liam after a number of one-on-one meetings regarding my poems and later manuscript (he was the first teacher to tell me that my work held a "there" there, so to speak, and the last one to advise me on the final manuscript). Sometimes he would describe the sensation of smoking a cigarette while hooked up to the chemo machine, and that it was actually incredibly satisfying. All in all, I'll remember the many mix Cd's he sent me (which were always surprising), and how he would send tapes of HIM reading MY poems aloud--something that struck me as a useful pedagogical tool. He once said the he'd never heard a poet read too slowly. I agree. We had an intermittent email correspondence going in the few years since my MFA, but I recall the last thing he said to me in person: "That's a sharp haircut. If I've taught you anything at all, Chris, it's the importance of a good haircut."

My favorite Liam workshop lines: "Discipline is the religion of the uninterested" (he always saw the systematic, and often spiritualized the secular. He did love Emerson). The other favorite point was this: "Every poem says, essentially, the same thing: My heart aches."

Who Asked You?

2007-07-30T07:47:00.000-04:00

I answer Matt Mullins' Five Questions here.

Eng 289 Mix

2007-07-04T09:11:00.000-04:00

Here's the Playlist from the Mix CD I made for my newest batch of Intro to Poetry Writing Students:
_________________________

1. Pajo: Flashlight Tornado
2. White Stripes: Little Room
3. John Lee Hooker: Boogie Chillin'
4. Modest Mouse: Bukowski
5. Bob Dylan: Visions of Johanna
6. Memphis Slim: Nervous
7. Cat Power: Free
8. Magnetic Fields: How Fucking Romantic
9. Mountain Goats: International Small Arms Traffic Blues
10. Tom Waits: Cold Water
11. Otis Redding: Pain in my Heart
12. Fugazi: Long Division
13. The Danielson Famile: Did I Step On Your Trumpet?
14. Violent Femmes: Lies
15. Beastie Boys: Sure Shot
16. Wu Tang Clan: A Better Tomorrow
17. Lou Reed: I Love You
18. Tom Waits: The Piano Has Been Drinking
19. Magnetic Fields: Come Back From San Francisco
20. Rogue Wave: Publish My Love
21. Bruce Springsteen: Mary Queen Of Arkansas (Columbia Pop Audition, Take One)
_________________________

(surrealism, extended metaphor, form following content, concrete vs abstract image, objective correlative (ugh), sentiment vs sentimentality, cliche, lies,lies,lies, tone, rhythm, the business of poetry, art for art's sake, famous poets, and more!)

I use this CD to supplement the syllabus (which already includes a giant, 6-page, cut and pasted anthology I crudely photocopied to supplement the text).

I suggest one or two tracks to go along with the discussion of the day. We get to it if we have time at the end of class.

Family Resemblances

2007-05-06T10:02:00.000-04:00

Poet Mark Salerno and I have been corresponding. We recently did an exchange of books (my first-and-only for his first and latest books). I had already purchased his "METHOD" on my last reading trip to NYC, before ever having met or been in contact with him. I love the book, it being so closely allied with an experimental project I had been germinating ("The Downburst Summaries"--now officially defunct--though four "summaries" were actually published in the second issue of The Tiny, a nifty new(ish) Brooklyn based journal). Anyway, I was flattered to hear from him that folks had asked him (he lives in L.A. and I live in N.C) whether he and I were related. This was a question I too had been getting here in N.C., at Lucipo and other readings). So he and I have begun hashing out a kind of Reading exchange program whereby he comes to NC and we read on the same bill (the Flying Salerno bros or some such foolery) and then I travel to L.A. for the same deal. Anyway, the recognition of Mark Salerno's poetry via people's questions of our possible relation is great. His work is so worthy of attention and revisitation especially to anyone interested in new or post-avant poetics. It's brave and acrobatic and challenging and formally adept work. To date, he is the author of "Hate" (96 Tears, 1995), "Method" (Figures, 2002), and "So One Could Have" (Red Hen, 2004). His new work, a book-length poem entitled "Odalisque," is forthcoming from Salt Pubishing in 2007.

____________

I'm travelling to the tiny island of St. John tomorrow, and I will be bringing Mark Salerno's books with me.

READING TONIGHT

2007-04-03T08:54:00.000-04:00

I'll be reading this evening at the Cameron Village Libary in Raleigh @ 6:30 pm with poets Tom Lisk, Bob Rogers and Alice Osborne. I hear there will be refreshments.

A Collection of Last Words

2007-03-15T10:10:00.000-04:00

"Thomas Jefferson--still survives..."~~ John Adams, US President, d. July 4, 1826
(Actually, Jefferson had died earlier that same day.)

"I see black light."~~ Victor Hugo, writer, d. May 22, 1885

"Is it the Fourth?"~~ Thomas Jefferson, US President, d. July 4, 1826

"I've had eighteen straight whiskies, I think that's the record . . ."~~ Dylan Thomas, poet, d. 1953

see the big list here.

I'm Interested...

2007-02-19T08:45:00.000-05:00

I had occasion to read (ok, browse heavily) Kevin Young’s book, “To Repel Ghosts” which is a fairly capacious tour of Black art, music, and popular culture. The book is a kind of cycle whose through-line centers on the life and work of painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat. But to read this book is to also be consciously aware of its acrobatics, its variants, and its rhythms, to the point where one may begin to seize upon the formal aspects of its poetics as a character or even a narrative unto itself. It occurred to me that there are a few rare occasions when a certain poem in "To Repel Ghosts (most of the book's poems are composed of terse, unrhymed triplets) turns on what I would call a classic Rap rhyme, which is to say an almost immediately-satisfied perfect rhyme (you know what i'm talking about), and in TRG's case, we're not talking about this kind of rhyme as full scheme or as being sustained for poem-in-full—but only in that one moment. These moments seem precious (in a good way), as they occur only a dozen or so times (I don’t own the book, so I should really go back to it to confirm). Anyway, I got to thinking about Emily Dickinson who, while her poems were not like traditional hymns, did use traditional hymn meter (often as a dreaming-off point) and occasionally had something akin to the traditional turn or classic moment, almost as homage to that convention...much like Young. I’d like to study those moments in both authors’. Something about the comparison of these two has started a bit of traffic in me…and I realize, too, that less is so much more, and more than more.
___________________________________________________________________

In completely other news: I’ve become mildly obsessed with the idea of the Rookie Card as deep metaphor, or as a kind of deep image even.

***

Oh, yeah. fill in the blank:

"You have built it, and indeed they do come, though they might not return unless you continue to ___________________."

Various Sundries

2007-01-25T11:58:00.000-05:00

Justin Marks has written and published a thoughtful review of Whirligig in H_NGM_N.

The two title poems from Whirligig, titled "Whirligig" and "Girligig" are published in the new print edition of Verse Magazine. It's a giant issue. The magnificent Chris Tonelli also appears courtesy of the state of Massachusetts.

This (novel written via text message) interests me, mostly for any idiosyncrasies it may contain...that and I want to study its syntax and grammar.

I've done several passes now of my new book manuscript (tentatively titled There Are Airs). It's tightening up a bit, thanks to the help of some sharp-eared pals of mine, and many exciting hours. I'm trying to have it ready for February send-out to presses.

Former Poet Laureate Billy Collins is reading on the North Carolina State University campus where I teach. I wonder the amount of his stipend.

As a counter to the Collins' shout, here's a wonderful bit of Ginsberg video that gets me out of my seat.

Speakeasy

2007-01-16T17:57:00.000-05:00

Russell Dillon has published a very gracious review of my own Whirligig here, at Speakeasynyc.

MEME TAG

2007-01-07T19:08:00.000-05:00

Dan Coffey has tagged me for my first meme--yeah the one that's going around like influenza. I'm game, though this breaks my usual silence regarding the personal here. What the hell, it's '07. Gentle reader, five things you may not know about me:

Here goes:

1) From the Al Bundy files: In high school, I played football for Immaculata High in NJ. My senior year, I was the starting noseguard. I was a bit bigger then, and was mostly used for my speed anyway, in what was a kind of unorthdox, hybrid 4-4 defense; I was free to line up almost anywhere on the line of scrimmage. That team, that season, and to this day, holds the New Jersey record for a defense/team going a whole season unscored upon. My favorite game was against Newark Central, which took place at night in downtown Newark's old, dilapidated stadium. Several of the upper deck sections were condemned. Their school band was small but amazing. On one set of downs, I recorded all 3 tackles, after which Newark punted.

2) My first job, when I was 16, was in a liquor store. My second job was as a gas station attendant, where I once pumped gas for John Amos (father from "Good Times") as well as Joe Piscopo. I also worked as a pool-hole-digger, a guy on a road paving crew, and was a forman on a house painting crew. I also painted playgrounds.

3) I played in a gigging band for 3 years--our drummer had previously drummed for Lisa Lisa and The Cult Jam as well as Clarence Carter.

4) I have received 4 of the 7 Catholic sacraments, before I gave up. For my Confirmation, I had to do community service. My seventh grade class went to an old folks home to visit with the elderly. My friend Brian and I rode the elevator for two hours, slinging our yo-yos, until I finally realized the error of my ways. I wandered into an old woman's room where she described to me, in detail, the lush countryside of Salerno, Italy.

5) My very first memory (that lasts more than a flash) is of my father throwing a pie across the dining room table, hitting my uncle in the face.

DRAFTING SWALLOWING DRAMAMINE

2007-01-02T13:12:00.000-05:00

What I enjoy most about my own book-length writing process is the discovery of each individual piece as well as the colors of larger book-length thing itself. If you haven't already guessed, I don't force content narrative or form. I also like the fact that I relinquish nearly all control in first draft mode, and exert (a kind of) total control in subsequent/final draft mode. Regardless, I'm nearly done drafting this next manuscript (tentatively titled "THERE ARE AIRS," but w.t.f.k. at this point). I'm stopping to look back at what i've been putting down. Three immediate thoughts: 1) My process has been at times so governed by sound that i'm going to have to rethink my discussions of invention and my own drafting process in my Introduction to Poetry course. 2) I've written several poems with the title "American Funeral," though they aren't nearly as grandiose or bulging as they might seem from such a title. Oh size and scale! 3) I seem to be taken, as I finish up, with Ekman and Friesan's Facial Action Coding System. That's me in the bottom row, second from the left, next to you.

I'm Reading Poems On e-Radio/iTunes--MiPOradio!!!

2006-12-21T10:10:00.000-05:00

I've recorded audio of 15 poems from my book "Whirligig" and they are now spinning FO FREE! via Itunes and MiPOradio:

http://miporadio.blogspot.com/2006/12/whirligig-by-christopher-salerno.html

VIDEO

2006-11-06T10:37:00.000-05:00

Video of last months Lucifer Poets event in Chapel Hill...the other readings are by fab fab fab Lucipo friends of mine...each with their own genius and engine and hair and attire. http://www.deeperintomusic.net/nightlight.html I read third...at the 3:20 mark (3 mins 20 seconds) into the thing...I read a new sonnet...

Self-Promotion Is A Book of Animals.

2006-11-02T11:05:00.000-05:00

So, Barnes and Noble has picked up "Whirligig" for promotion in these* cities through January. Basically, if it goes well, they may keep stocking it. So, if you were thinking of getting it, and you live in one of these places, and you happen stroll into a B&N, pick it up and I'll literally send you something...reimbursment, interesting trades, a handmade collage, a sock puppet, a bullet casing, something. The underlying point is that this hasn't happened to Spuyten Duyvil before, and we really want Barnes to look their way more often, and in the future.

*
BOSTON MA, HOUSTON TX, BERKELEY CA , OAKLAND CA, NEW YORK NY, NEW YORK NY, ASHEVILLE NC, WASHINGTON DC, ALBUQUERQUE NM, HADLEY MA, LOS ANGELES CA, DULUTH MN, BOSTON MA, ITHACA NY, KINGSTON NY, EDINA MN, NEW YORK NY, AUSTIN TX, NEW YORK NY, CHARLOTTESVILLE VA, SEATTLE WA, KANSAS CITY MO, SANTA MONICA CA, PITTSBURGH PA, ROSEVILLE MN, NEW YORK NY, ST PAUL MN, NEW YORK CITY NY, DURHAM NC, VIRGINIA BEACH VA, PRINCETON NJ, LONG BEACH CA, WASHINGTON DC, NEW YORK NY, BETHESDA MD, SOUTH BURLINGTON VT, ROCHESTER NY, CHATTANOOGA TN, PHILADELPHIA PA, BROOKLYN NY, BOULDER CO, POUGHKEEPSIE NY, MOHEGAN LAKE NY, DEWITT NY, TOWSON MD , SALT LAKE CITY UT, SEATTLE WA, BROOKLYN NY, RICHMOND VA.

Lucipo Reading Tomorrow in Chapel Hill

2006-10-18T22:37:00.000-04:00

Many Lucipoets and other folk will be reading at the Nightlight in Chapel Hill on Thursday 10/19

Starting at 9pm>>$5 cover

Where is the place? Check it: http://nightlight.dyss.net/index_LINKS.php

Who will be reading?
>>Brian Howe >>Ken Rumble >>Christopher Salerno >>Laura Jent >>Dianne Timblin>>Lori Reese >>David Need >>Tony Tost >>Patrick Herron >>Brad Land >>Rodrigo Garcia Lopes

Pics from Friday's Reading @ The Fall Cafe, Brooklyn

2006-10-02T22:17:00.000-04:00

-justin marks in a red shirt of confidence...

-me looking up just this once...

-dan hoy in a dazzle...

-chris tonelli eying up justin's teeth.

Back from NYC

2006-10-02T14:36:00.000-04:00

John Ashbery, Jack Black, Wave Poetry Bus, The Burning Chair, The B.Q.E., H&M shopping with Brian Howe, BOOKS-BOOKS-BOOKS, on stage at CBGB'S (soon defunct), My great-grandfather's place in Williamsburg Brooklyn, The Bowery Poetry Club, The Ear Inn, and so much more.

Details and pics soon.

I'm Reading In NYC This Weekend:

2006-09-26T08:40:00.001-04:00

Heading up to NYC this weekend to give a few readings. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you!
______________________________

Sept 29th, Fri, @ The Fall Café 307 Smith Street Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn 7:30pm.
(Christopher Salerno, Dan Hoy & Justin Marks)

Sept 30th, Sat, @ The Ear Inn 326 Spring Street (west of Greenwich Street) NYC 3pm.
(Christopher Salerno, Mike Reilly, Alison Stine)

Oct 1st, Sun @ The Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery, across from CBGB's 2pm.
(Sputyen Duyvil w/ Tod Thilleman, Christopher Salerno, and Julian Semilian)

RECEIVED and READING

2006-09-19T12:15:00.000-04:00

Lyn Hejinian's Cold Of Poetry
Michael Earl Craig's Can You Relax in My House
Brenda Hillman's Loose Sugar
Laura Simms' Practice, Restraint

Every Other Day

2006-08-23T19:08:00.000-04:00

I've been interviewed by Kate Greenstreet for her ongoing series on Poets after their first books. I've been addicted to all the other offerings there.

From Pittsburgh

2006-08-06T18:10:00.000-04:00

Made it to the Andy Warhol Museum...one of the spaces on the museum's many floors and rooms was currently exhibiting, "The Downtown Show: The New York Art Scene, 1974-1984." This exhibit presented a range of artists with that 70's-80's distinctive “downtown attitude” toward life and art taking hold in lower Manhattan at the time--Artists, writers, musicians and filmmakers (many of whom blurred and ignored distinctions of genre and medium). A super extensive retrospective, all told. Here are some photos I took before I was asked to stop taking photos (who knew? I was only allowed to photograph the Warhol stuff, apparently).

From The District

2006-08-01T19:21:00.000-04:00

Well, I've just returned from my Burlesque Poetry Hour reading at the Bar Rouge in D.C., and it couldn't have been more fun. Before the reading, I managed to buzz over to the National Gallery, where unfortunately I had missed the DADA exhibit (off to NY by now) but did manage to see some interesting work nonetheless. It was nice to see some of the Hudson Valley paintings I've long admired (Cole, Durand et al--I love their embellishments!) and of course some A-side Picasso and Matisse work, which one rarely sees in the provincial galleries. So little time. All that was left of the DADA exhibit were a few remaining books in the gift shop, one of which (Duchamp's Letters) I picked up for only 7 bucks!

The reading was intimate and warm. Thanks so much to Reb, Carly, Sandra, and Karl who were such super people it made it hard to leave. Sandra and Karl read such wonderful work, and I left feeling bouyed and inspired to get back to my new manuscript. And I managed to sell a few books, and meet some sweet people.

In other news, I most definitely lamed out on the big strip tease, but my shirt did fetch 30 bucks in the post-reading strip-auction. It was so hot, I was glad to see it go. Funny pictures forthcoming!!

Suggestive suggestions?

2006-07-26T17:20:00.000-04:00

This weekend I'm heading up to D.C. to read at the Burlesque Poetry Hour reading series. The protocol at these readings dictates that the reader remove some article or accessory from his/her body following their reading (article is then auctioned to the highest bidder). And so, it's time to consider. Generally, I have little experience stripping for money. Thus far, BPH "stripped" articles have consisted of: earings, a thong, various t-shirts and other shirts Hawiian or otherwise, red silk pants (Ken, you devil), sock puppet, a belt, and an invisible cloak of poetry potential. So...?

Podcasts of two new poems to be featured at MiPOsias

2006-07-23T11:39:00.000-04:00

"What If Marvelous Marvin Hagler" and "Foot" will be featured in the forthcoming MiPOesias...and so I've been asked to make Mp3's.

_____________________________________________________________________

Here are the podcasts I just made. It was not easy, as my mic is effing budget and my P's were overpronounced, but it's probably a better recording than when I did the over-the-phone recording for the New Hampshire Review. I think I got a call waiting beep in the middle of recording.

http://www.mipoesias.com/Poetry/salerno_christopher.html

Enjoy. They are from the new manuscript (in prog).

EXTRA, EXTRA

2006-07-06T17:30:00.000-04:00

Chris Tonelli of REDIVIDER reviews "Whirligig" in the new issue. Redivider poems by Bob Hicock and Molly Bendall appear in today's Verse Daily! Check it.

This Seems Worthwile...

2006-06-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

HATE is totally the new LOVE

2006-06-18T20:47:00.000-04:00

Paul
~W.S. Merwin

Up the sea-dark avenue
at two in the morning a shadow
comes shouting oh
you mother-fucker I hate you Paul
echoes of feet and then
I hate you I hate you Paul

the old moon is sinking through
clouds beyond high wires and cornices
the buildings creak
drifting on the tunnelled hour the call
bounces ahead along
the street like a fleeing ball

there after each of the few
cars has passed over its words Paul you
can't get away
I hate you with my feet in the Paul
street like a bell I know
you are there you nowhere Paul

I am coming after you
whatever you do whatever you
think I hate you
across the street into the doors all
the way through the frozen
windows up against the wall

listen to me I hate who
you are nobody else will ever
hate you the way
I do I always hated you Paul
the whole time thinking you
could hold out on me that small

invisible you but to
me listen there was nothing to you
I was onto
you fooling with me your slick tricks all
the while and I hate you
where you are everywhere Paul

I go on hating you through
the roar of the Paul subway the red
lights at the Paul
cross streets out of sight into the Paul
night that cannot be touched
nor brought back by hate at all.
________________________________________________________________

Timing. A friend sent me this Merwin poem she found. And just this morning I was thinking about Hate. I know, it sounds strange...but I was thinking of a lesson, or of creating an exercise for my Intro Poetry class surrounding the idea of Love and Hate and the mining out of the emotional complexities in between. It occured to me, probably via some poem or someone smart giving a talk, about the opposite of Love, and what Love's opposite might be. Most people would say that the opposite of Love is Hate. However, it seems that the opposite of love is actually Indifference. Hate, really, is only for effect. When we say that we Hate, we are exposing a kind of connection to the object of that hatred, right? We are, in some sense, putting that connection on display, much like in this poem. Our hate has a history, usually a personal history...and it often can show us our own Shadow, especially in the Jungian sense. “At two in the morning a shadow / comes screaming oh / you mother-fucker I hate you Paul…” And we also read the lines, "The old moon is sinking through / clouds behind high wires..." There's a specific, almost literal sense of history in the situation of the speaker and his/her relationship to Paul, a past exposed there (in the Paul subway...into the Paul cross streets...into the Paul night...") but so too in the simple act of characterizing the moon as "old." Even that simple image conjures the personal history. And of course there is the ultimate example of the Love/Hate connection, "nobody else will ever hate you / the way I do."

I like it.

I also love the way the word Hate is deployed as an unconventional verb (I hate you / across the street / into the doors..." And I like the way Paul becomes an adjective, mostly through the blurred syntax and absent punctuation and fused phrases—together with all of this a strong voice tumbles out down the page...and a great sense of the organic nature of rage speak emerges.

Indifference, then, implies no connection at all, I guess. It's so much colder than Hate. Hate is always connected to Love. This poem could never be written out of Indifference. Probably no Lyric poems could be.

Mail

2006-06-14T14:53:00.000-04:00

PERSONAL

2006-06-13T15:07:00.000-04:00

It's my birthday today. I keep forgetting. And not too many folks want a piece of me, so that's good. I looked at some postcards of the Whirligig cover, read a few 70's comic books I found recently, and bought myself a few CD's: the newest Wolfparade, Sufjan Stevens' "Michigan," Bonnie Prince Billy's "Master and Everyone" (wore out a burned copy), and Tom Waits' "Real Gone.

Anyway, I want to say that while I was serious about being a C-section baby, I was not serious about the Anthology. Sorry for any confusion.

Projective Verse

2006-06-09T17:02:00.000-04:00

Who was it defined poetry as "Deep Gossip"?

English 289

2006-06-04T10:24:00.000-04:00

So I’ve been tweaking my syllabus for the upcoming Poetry Workshop I teach at NC STATE University. Since I haven’t yet found a comprehensive enough text (outside of the Introductory handbook we use--which contains several poems) I supplement quite extensively by creating a kind of 20-poet mini-anthology of photocopied poems. These poems I often use as examples of one sort of turn, tool, convention, mode, etc. The poets included are: Charles Bernstein, T.S. Eliot, Adam Zagajewski, Dean Young, Gertrude Stein, W. C. Williams, Charles Bukowski, Yusef Kamanyakaa, Franz Wright, John Berryman, Billy Collins, Theodore Roethke, Lisa Jarnot, Sharon Olds, Wallace Stevens, Robert Bly, Rosemarie Waldrop, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Wright, Jeffrey McDaniel, and A. R. Ammons.

Village Voice Gives Props

2006-05-28T11:14:00.000-04:00

To Brooklyn's top Indie Publishers, including Spuyten Duyvil, with whom my first book will appear in June. Also featured are Akashic, Archipelago, Ugly Duckling Presse, and Soft Skull Press. Read the Village Voice article here.

School O' Quietude Def from Wikepedia

2006-05-14T09:57:00.001-04:00

The School of Quietude is a rhetorical label first used by the Language poet Ron Silliman on his blog [1] which has been adopted by many other writers of the poetry blogosphere to describe a certain thread or tradition they perceive in the poetry of The United States. It is used as a pejorative term, as generally the critics who employ it do so in order to describe poets whose poetics they consider overly conservative. Silliman has stated repeatedly that he has adopted the term from a phrase once used by Edgar Allan Poe to describe some of his contemporaries whose ideas about poetry were a throwback to the literature of Great Britain or who were overly British in their writing style. Silliman's contention is that the present day School of Quietude in American poetry are the spiritual heirs of those Anglophiliac 19th Century poets.

This poetry-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_of_Quietude"

Anthology: Call for Submissions: Poets Born Via Cesarean Section

2006-05-10T15:30:00.000-04:00

Were you a C-section baby? If so, do ever feel like you weren't born? Ever feel like you are constantly taking shortcuts, never having developed the drive to face adversity? Ever get the sense that you are too large? Too slow of wit or feet? Bad with directions? Submit to this new and important collection: New Voices: An Anthology of Poets Born Via Cesarean Section.

WAVE BOOKS...Farm Poets...

2006-05-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

This offer via Wave Books' website: "A 12-acre (uncertified) organic fruit & vegetable farm is open to poets willing to work for four good hours a day in exchange for room, board, and a new environment in which to write. There are no workshops, there is no formal or official feedback on poems, no academic credit, and no money exchanged. Our young orchards and fields are beautiful, not visible from the road. The setting for farmwork is ideal, since the land is not along the highway and the views from the back are pastoral and bucolic. (Horses next door, cows behind, with gently rolling hills and farms surrounding.) Our house, however, is on the state highway, so the setting does not appear immediately enticing. All of the beauty is out back. We live in a small old farmhouse, built in the 1890’s by Swedish immigrants, cozy but plain." More...

Your name here?

2006-04-30T12:25:00.000-04:00

Hey, why not submit a poem and I'll post it?

The Lost "Worlds" of William Bronk--(a call for comments)

2006-04-25T11:03:00.000-04:00

Some friends and I are putting together an AWP proposal which will be, in a sense, a tribute to the often neglected work of the late William Bronk. My leg of the thing is "pleasure," essentially. I'm in the early stages. Why read Bronk? And also, why don't we read him? As I reread and read for the first time many selections from his nine or so volumes, i'm struck by how, on the surface, he (and this is no slight) seems to have written the same poem time and again. “It is always hard like this, not having a world, / to imagine one…And oh, it is always a world and not a world” (“At Tikal"). With his unique brand of dialectics, and his often intellectual and rhetorical investigations (which can sometimes soar with their resulting abstractions) Bronk’s poems are often propositions to be tested--both asserting and yanking from under us what we may have thought was essential, was fixed to/in our lives, what was the very scaffolding of our existence. Bronk’s poems themselves are seemingly devoid of the common triggers of contemporary poetic pleasure, especially those flowing from the spring of William Carlos Williams’ famous dictum: “No ideas but in things.” And of course, Bronk’s poetry resists metaphor, largely. Yet, as readers we notice the philosophy in/of his poems riding the great wave of the lyric tradition. Bronk's investigative discourse always remains fresh, but perhaps most noticeably distinct, is that it is never afraid of size or scale. This is most honest. And for the willing reader, the wonder in Bronk’s "worlds," which are never the same "worlds" twice, is in his absolute desire for truth in them.

What do you think of William Bronk?

Back from the Carolina Wren Press Reading...

2006-04-21T23:40:00.000-04:00

Thanks to David Need who, after my reading, tried to get me to articulate the underpinnings and process of my current project. A brilliant listener (and no doubt reader) David's post-reading questions about my process in the Downburst Summaries has started much traffic in me. Some species of collage is no doubt at work, but i realize more and more that these "summaries" are striving for what i am failing at currently in my paintings...to Realize, as in the (m)any more physical mediums, a Composition, by asserting a family of gestures, images, voices, etc...and toward an abstract Composition, yes, but with the desire to retain Sentiment...to preserve some through-line of heart (sorry)... (and these are my own observations, by the way--not Davids). I intentionally have been reading a few of these "Summaries" at my last few readings as a kind of challenge to my self...to realize them or ditch them. Regardless, David pointed particularly to this poem, with his initial question of process:

RIBBON, LADDER

Hello, a ladder is wrapped in a ribbon. Ribbon creates the site of desire. A basket in the space of two rungs—paused. One of us ties our hair back with a ribbon. Cloth of wolf. Hair parting. Two levels of belongingness and saying and English. Ladder of discussion. Basket hog. A ribbon is tied to a brick like a gift. A wheel spins inside a dug spring. Emphatic, the bum loop. Closed house history. A nest of silver wires—everything does not have that soul.

You Must Love This

2006-04-21T14:22:00.000-04:00

Reading Last Night

2006-04-21T14:17:00.000-04:00

Last night, at Exploris Middle School, several of the 7th graders with whom i worked on Object Poems, gave a reading of their work. Needless to say, my favorite line of the reading was, "The veins are the veins." Perhaps i was hearing, "Viviane is Viviane." I'll post my favorite of the students' poems (i demanded a copy of my favorite) after the reading. Honestly, they were all working with an incredible brand of imagistic simplicity...and clarity. Prose poems of a unique order. Robert Bly would have been proud. He also would have worn a mask of a buffalo skull or something.

Durham Arts Council

2006-04-21T14:01:00.000-04:00

I'll be reading from Whirligig as well as from a new manuscript, The Downburst Summaries, tonight at the Durham Arts Council in Durham, NC, (directions at http://www.durhamarts.org/) as part of the Culture Crawl. I'm lucky to be reading with Chris Vitiello, thedelay.blogspot.com. The festivities begin at 7:00, and will wrap at 9:30, when the Carolina Wren Press folks will gather at the Baldwin Lofts for an open mike and various feats of poetic debauchery.