P O E T R Y   N E W S
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WINTER 05 / 06

Brooklyn, NY, USA

 

As always, a lot has been happening in Brooklyn. We survived the MTA strike, bundled in scarves and coats walking over the bridges to Manhattan, and the new year has come with unseasonably warm weather. Winter will bear down upon us again soon, but it won't slow things down. Here is a round-up of a few things on my radar:

Lungfull!, which comes “from the snowy peaks of unplowed Brooklyn,” just released issue #14, the tenth anniversary edition. Editor Brendan Lorber hosted the release party in December at the Zinc Bar in Manhattan's West Village. The reading featured ten poets from the current issue, including a number of Brooklyn residents—Chris Martin, Dustin Williamson, Tracey McTague, Paul Foster Johnson, and Todd Colby. In addition to the readers, there was a packed house, samurai cookies, cultural attaché stickers, expensive bourbon, a cat, and quite a show. For information on Lungfull! Magazine and future Lunfull! events, readings at the Zinc Bar, and the Battle Hill reading series, check out Lungfull's website at lungfull.org.

There are a number of new journals coming out of Brooklyn that might one day hold tenth anniversary parties in 2016. Soft Targets, (softtargetsjournal.com), whose home is only half in Brooklyn, is set to launch sometime in February. Edited by Daniel Feinberg and Dan Hoy, the magazine will publish poetry, critical theory, artwork, and short fiction. The first issue is host to more familiar names in the poetry business like Joan Retallack, Carla Harryman, Joshua Beckman, Wayne Koestenbaum, Matthew Rohrer, Lara Glenum, Eugene Ostashevsky, David Berman, and Ben Lerner. Though the first issue is forthcoming, this journal seems to have a similar feel to Lerner's own journal No.

Matthew Henriksen, who keeps quite busy hosting the Burning Chair reading series, (www.typomag.com/burningchair), and co-editing Typo, (www.typomag.com), is launching a new print journal in March. Cannibal, with the tagline “An aesthetic definition cannot define the hunger,” is planning on publishing work from poets known, little known, and unknown, “all exhibiting the kind of work that makes us hungry for more.” With design work done by his wife Katy, this magazine will certainly be one to look for. On the Typo front: issue seven, the Swedish issue, will be coming soon. And this summer look for the first ever Typo chapbooks by G.C. Waldrep, Alex Lemon, and one more secret poet.

Another Brooklyn poet who has made a name for himself (partly through his notorious parties) since arriving here late this past summer, Dustin Williamson is also launching a new journal. Born out of the freedom of an office job, Hodag will feature one chimera poem per issue. Each contributor will supply one line that will form this collaborative poem. Williamson will also be publishing chapbooks, and perhaps full length books, on his press Rust Buckle Books.

Possibly the last issue completed with both editors still living in Brooklyn, issue two of The Tiny, (thetinyjournal.com), will be arriving sometime in March. Look for a launch party in Brooklyn—site, readers and musical guest yet to be named.

A number of chapbooks and books have either been recently released or are forthcoming in 2006 from Brooklyn residents. Boku Books, whose home is in Manahattan's Lower East Side, has published chapbooks recently by Brooklyn residents John Coletti, (in collaboration with Brenda Ijima's Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs), and Chris Martin. Boku also released a broadside by recent Brooklyn transplant (and my neighbor) Stacy Szymaszek. Forthcoming is a collaboration by Andrew Mister and Anthony Robinson called Here's to You. In April 2006, Four Way Books will be releasing Sarah Manguso's second collection of poetry, Siste Viator. 2005 saw the release of Andrea Baker's Like Wind Loves a Window from Slope Editions. Brooklyn's Soft Skull press recently released New Yorker Jen Benka's first book of poems, A Box of Longing with Fifty Drawers .

Collectives Ugly Duckling Presse and Booklyn are keeping busy with numerous events and releases. Recent UDP titles include Edwin Frank's Stack, Noah Eli Gordon's and Sara Veglahn's That We Come to a Consensus, Marisol Limon Martinez's After You, Dearest Language, and Aaron Kiely's The Best of My Love. Also of note is Jen Bervin's unbound free web-only book a non-breaking space which can be found on UDP's website www.uglyducklingpresse.org.

Gina Myers

 

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Paris, France

 

Lucent absinthe, plane trees, lights down the Seine, Hemingway enlacing Sylvia Beach under a shower of Liberation confetti . . . It is perhaps time to update the technicolour version of a poetical Paris, for the moveable feast has definitely moved on.

Nowadays, the French capital is a centre of diverse and exciting poetic activity, not only of the Gallic kind. Starting with publications: there are a healthy number of well-produced English language journals, notably Pharos (originating from the Alice Notley/Douglas Oliver workshop at the British Institute), 3am, Frank, Upstairs at Duroc, and the handsome Van Gogh's Ear.

The reading circuit is strong: a recent event in a monochrome Left Bank gallery, for example, featured the powerful presence of Alice Notley. Of special note are the Double Change events, founded by Olivier Brossard and Vincent Broqua, with the intention of bringing together one anglophone and one francophone poet in what generally proves to be an innovative experience. Also of note is the series IVY Writers, as well as Paris' oldest anglo event, Live Poets, organized by John Kliphan.

On a larger scale, the Fondation Cartier has featured readings with the likes of Susan Howe, and the Centre Pompidou helped bring back to us that most familiar Parisian expat, John Ashbery. Such events, though in the main enormously popular, are of course less common than smaller gatherings. Jacques Rancourt's review La Traductière is a meeting place for French and anglo writers, culminating every summer in the Franco-Anglo Festival of Poetry. The Val de Marne festival is a similar event. There are also residency programs like la Napoule, The Camargo and Marseilles.

A few central meeting-points: Shakespeare and Co., that bookshop-bastion of expat literary and cultural heritage, is still very much a benevolent commune for broken books and broke(n) backpackers. Other important bookshops include the Village Voice, The Red Wheelbarrow and The Abbey.

Of the very active English-language poets currently residing in the city, Jennifer K Dick, one-time editor of the anglo review Upstairs at Duroc and author of Fluorescence (University of Georgia Press, Contemporary Poetry Series Winner for 2004) , runs an invaluable mailing list of anglo poetic dos in the Paris region. English-language events are also often listed in Voice and the Paris Times. For French-only events, one need look no further than Florence Trocmé's excellent and comprehensive blog Poezibao (http://poezibao.typepad.com/poezibao/ ).

As for the relationship between French and American authors, Dick describes it as “an extremely lively exchange, one that is overwhelming and exciting. Many of my favourite authors in the states, such as Cole Swensen, Laura Mullen, Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, Michael Palmer, Jerome Rothenberg, Pierre Joris, to name some of the most well-known, are translating French writers, maintaining a constant dialogue with them, and getting those works out in print in the States, and the same has begun here, too.”

There are, however, some key differences with the American, English or Australian poetry scenes, the most noticeable undoubtedly being the lack of integration of poetry here with the Academy. “Lack of integration” is perhaps unfair: poetry professors are indeed sometimes poets, but their status as “poet” often seems somewhat like the status of “communist” or “homosexual” was at different periods for the Academy: present and conspicuous, but private, and perhaps best left undiscussed. Thus, frequenting the Sorbonne, the Sorbonne Nouvelle or other major Parisian Universities, one could sometimes be forgiven for thinking that the production of poetry ceased in Europe some time during the immediate post-war. When contemporary poetry is discussed in an academic context, the accent is often firmly placed on French, Germanic and Italian littératures: Bonnefoy, Celan and Montale much more frequently than Carlos Williams, Pound or Auden, let alone the Language Poets or the New Yorkers. (This produces some curious effects: for example, I was surprised to hear that several apparently well-read students in a recent Comparative Literature class were of the opinion that T.S. Eliot was principally an English dramatist, whose most well known work was entitled Murder in the Cathedral).

Professors are often actively engaged as critics, translators, organisers of readings and literary salons: but their involvement in contemporary poetic practice often stops at the classroom door. This has a lot to do with the different way in which the French conceive of the role of the University: as a centre of fundamentally scholarly, historical activity, which plays a reflective rather than primarily directive role. One wonders however whether the increasing presence of American (or in my case, Australian) comparatistes working in French Comp. Lit. departments isn't beginning to work against this tendency. (There is, for example, a course in contemporary French poetry this year at Paris IV, and the Charles V group at Paris VII recently featured a reading involving Jerome Rothenberg and the poetry directeur of Flammarion, Yves Di Manno).

The exchange between French and anglophone poetries has been undeniably important to the modern development of both these traditions. May the exchange continue.

Nicholas Manning

 

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Muncie, Indiana, USA

 

The biggest thing around here is that at the beginning of November Tom Koontz moved to Seattle, leaving Muncie behind forever and taking his Barnwood Press and good vibes with him. Tom taught creative writing and American lit at Ball State for over 35 years. He was the center of all things poetry here for a long time and is already missed.

In October, Shanna Compton and Jennifer Knox read at the MT Cup coffee shop and sold a bunch of their books and generally made a great deal of people happy. It was a terrific reading, to a packed house. I was happy to be there. Afterward, we drank some drinks and chit-chatted. Muncie felt a little hipper by the time they'd left. This ain't New York City or Somewhere Ultra Cool--we don't see many cool poets around here. Last spring we had terrific readings from Gabriel Gudding and Martha Kinney (who read from her remarkable Fall of Heartless Horse book), but, since then, it had been pretty boring. Shanna and Jennifer lifted our spirits.

Surrounded by all this corn I sometimes feel corn-fed, yet still hungry. We've got some great students here and a dismal enough local economy to feel authentic. We've got the title of “Middletown” and a sense of history legitimate enough to make you feel like Walt Whitman could be buried here. We've got train tracks and enough trains to fuel a career as a country songwriter. What are the trains carrying? My wife is expecting our second child. And the weather is either getting colder, or warmer.

 

Peter Davis

 

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Denver, Colorado, USA

 

Today is January 6th; it's sunny and 65 degrees in Denver! Now that I've dispelled what I can only assume is a rampant misconception about Denver and its weather, bear with me as I load the catapult to knock down another theoretical castle: the Tattered Cover bookstore—long held in the world of independent booksellers as the bastion of triumphant success, as a fortress impenetrable by even the sprawl of Borders or Barnes & Nobel—turns out to be the largest disappointment I've found here. Dear Allen, Denver is still lonesome for her heroes. As I live about four blocks from the store, it has, for better or worse, entered into my daily routine, only now I've begun a quiet campaign to single-handedly improve their poetry selection: once a week or so I'll special order several new books of poetry; when those arrive—usually in about six weeks! ugh!—I simply walk from the second floor reception desk, where one picks up such orders, to the poetry section on the third floor, then place the books lovingly on the shelf. Sure, it's a tiny act, but one I envision as somehow important.

Okay, so, what's up with Denver? You've been there five months already! I suppose I should mention the altitude, as one must continually water one's self. No, I mean poetry man! Oh, that. Well, because of the difference in oxygen levels, walking up a flight of stairs easily leaves one winded. Poetry? The city itself is overly spread out, pockets of interest nestled between short drives—everything's done by car. Poetry? The mountains act as an interesting and constant backdrop, allowing one the continual company of an external compass. And the poetry? There's a great vegan restaurant here called Watercourse. The poetry scene? The public library system is wonderful. I suppose if I were one to make a point, the proper action would be to end this report with the previous sentence. Today, though, I'll keep things rounded.

If a list of recent visiting poets would constitute what one might call a scene, then such a list for Denver might lead one to the conclusion that things are vibrant, blooming, etc. Although such a list would be limited to a single weekend, as the highlight thus far for me here has been the recent Attention/Inattention conference at the University of Denver. Outside of the conference… (cue sound of crickets). Of course, I'm being somewhat melodramatic. Hey, it's not my fault, Sara (Veglahn—my partner) was recently on a Fassbinder kick. And to be totally honest, I still feel somewhat distanced from my current environs. And I miss my friend Eric Baus! But to return to the task at hand… There is a graduate student reading series at the University of Denver, which is also home to the Denver Quarterly. I recommend checking out the wonderful interview with Michael Palmer in the latest issue. Both Bim Ramke and Eleni Sikelianos teach here. The University of Colorado at Denver (where I'll begin teaching in a few weeks) also brings in visiting poets. Additionally, with Jake Adam York at the helm, one can find the relatively new journal Copper Nickel (http://www.copper-nickel.org/). The Lighthouse Writers Workshop sponsors events as well, although I've yet to attend any. This website appears to be the nexus of community happenings: http://www.denverpoetry.org/calendar/

For the sake of this report, I'm sticking to Denver proper. But allow me a digressive gloss of the surrounding area's activity. Boulder, a little over a half hour away, has more going on for poetry: Naropa; The Left Hand Reading Series; Red Letter Books; the Beat Bookshop. Unfortunately, I missed several readings by local poets I was hoping to attend: Mark DuCharme; Elizabeth Robinsion, etc. But I did catch wonderful readings by both Laura Wright and Maureen Owen. And I finally got to see Brenda Coultas read! John Sakkis continues to graciously mail me copies of his Both Both chapbook series, each issue of which features two always-intriguing writers. Fort Collins, over an hour from here, has got a great, albeit small, community. Along with Joshua Marie Wilkinson and Paul Fattaruso, I read there a few months ago & was really knocked out by the warmth, intelligence, and commitment of everyone I'd met. Matthew Cooperman, Sasha Steensen and Gordon Hatfield are good peoples.

As far as poetry-related news outside of that which is somehow entangled with one of the local colleges… (crickets again). Seriously though, Michael Friedman lives about a mile away from me. You know him, the fella that publishes Shiny, the magazine of the future! His book, of some of the most interesting and strange and smart prose poems, Species is one I continually return to, and highly recommend. And hey, it's something of a rare accomplishment these days to be an active writer with a full-time, demanding job (outside of academia) and a couple of little ones nipping at the heals. If you've never read Shiny, then you're missing out. Request it at your local bookstore today! Or try this address: Shiny Magazine, PO Box 13125, Denver, CO 80201. The cover price is $15, although I suppose something to cover the postage might help; either way, it's a journal of the sort that one reads and re-reads.

Sara and I moved here because she was beginning her PhD at the University of Denver, so the camaraderie of the local to me is tethered to the other folks attending DU. These are some wonderful writers, active cultural-workers, and intelligent and compelling thinkers. But, to be completely candid—it's mostly me and the coffee here in Denver. Now, I've got a date with the poetry section at the above-mentioned bookstore…

more soon…

Noah Eli Gordon

 

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Bangkok, Thailand

 

Bangkok is a sprawling urban area that is populated by between 9 to 12 million people, depending on who you ask or what census you read. One certainty is that Bangkok is not known as a city that has a flourishing literary scene, although many writers live and work here. Besides the plethora of native writers and artisans (too many good ones to name, 99% of who have never been translated into English) there exists a tiny non-community of expatriate poets, novelists, and playwrights. Bangkok's most famous expat authors (Christopher G. Moore, Jake Needham, etc.) are ones whose hack detective novels are based on the usual stereotypical subjects Westerners think of when the word “Bangkok” is mentioned: prostitution, crime, police corruption, and the farang's (Caucasian) helplessly innocent fly-caught-in-the-web perspective. Needless to say this dross gets tiresome very quickly. On the other side of this non-spectrum we have what is known as Bangkok Poetry, probably the first reading series Bangkok has ever had. The BPS, moderated by Wesley Hsu, is an open reading/film projecting/music playing event held every couple of months at the Goethe Institute. It's at this time that the freaky folks do their creepy crawly from out of their dank studios and shophouses in order to read or show their work. Most of it is, by and large, of the rant/spoken word variety that is usually memorized and rapidly chanted by men who favor Zen, facial piercings, and the impeachment of GWB. Occasionally a gem shines through like the poems of an American named Chris Putnam (I think), or Steve Hands, an Englishman who read wonderful translations from a non-existent Korean poet. Even Ronald Tavel, the scriptwriter for Warhol's early films and soundman for Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures, pokes his head out of his hive and can be seen, Beer Chang in hand, enjoying the proceedings.

 

Brian Lucas

 

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Washington, D.C., USA

 

The fall season in DC started off in September with Cole Swenson and Sandra Miller reading at chez Maggie and Kaplan in Silver Spring, Maryland. We all got cozy in big chairs and sofas in the living room and Cole and Sandra read by alternating back and forth between each other one poem or a few by Sandra from her new book Oriflame followed by Cole reading from her new The Book of a Hundred Hands and then back to Sandra and so on. We liked them.

Long-time DC poet and curator of the ten-year-old Ruthless Grip series, Mark Wallace, moved to California this fall, and Kaplan Harris, Lorraine Graham, and M. Magnus took the lead in continuing the series for the fall. Contributors to the new journal The Tiny kicked off the Grip season, including Maureen Thorson who had just moved to DC and arrived at Washington Printmakers wearing a cowboy hat to entertain us with poems from EVOL . Baltimore poet Jamie Gaughran-Perez read from his hilarious ongoing series of Bot poems in October and in November Thalia Field enchanted us with her poly-vocal multimedia work. LewisWarsh read in December with DC poet Ryan Walker who told us "if you ever want to see truly happy children/tell them it's time to visit the puppy orchard."

The Grip season ended with the news that the series would no longer be held at Washington Printmakers in Dupont Circle, Lorraine leaving DC to join Mark in San Marcos, and M. leaving the series to focus his efforts on a Poetry Theater Festival to take place in Spring 2007. I (Mel Nichols) will work with Kaplan this spring to reorganize the series and in the quest for a new venue.

Rod Smith and Amiri Baraka rocked us hard at Georgetown University in the Lannan Series in October. Rod had the audience of probably 300+ rolling in the aisles with Snips and other work, and Baraka gave Rod a deep nod of appreciation as he then took the podium--which somehow now seemed just a little more pulpit-like--to blow us away with a forceful jazzy reading of low-kus and other poems. Other notable Lannan readings at Georgetown this fall included Kenneth Goldsmith and Darren Wershler-Henry and Juliana Spahr. Rosmarie Waldrop also came out to the Folger Shakespeare library for the annual Emily Dickinson tribute.

Lorraine Graham read her poems and journals in a beautifully loose and outrageous reading in the In Your Ear series at the DC Arts Center (Co-curators Tom Orange and Cathy Eisenhower and Adam Good) in October. The series closed for the fall with the wonderful DC/Berkeley poet Chris Nealon, followed by Hassan of Philadelphia, who made us lean close in to hear her quiet intensity. In December the DC Arts Center also featured an exhibit of Buck Downs' visual work, In Memory of D. Thompson, a series of poems created from rubbings of words and names found on headstones in the Congressional Cemetery.

We were fortunate this fall to have a visit from the extraordinary Tom Raworth on one of his two autumn visits to the US. Tom along with Doug Lang gave an outstanding performance at Bridge Street Books. Tina Darragh and Peter Inman also wowed us in December. The year ended with MLA in DC with two big nights of readings, extravagnzas like they say, first the Bridge Street Books sponsored reading of out-of-towners at the Four Seasons and a second night of DC poets at the DC Arts Center.

 

Mel Nichols

 

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Providence, Rhode Island, USA

 

My last report ended with the illusion of hope that only summer can produce. From August's vantage point one could see the prospects lining up. Tazza Caffe had a great reading schedule for the autumn, touring bands would grace Providence, things would come together the way we had all hoped, and we would survive the brutalities of autumn and early winter.

The past several years have seen Providence experience a “Renaissance.” The mob activity has quieted down, the city is cleaner, safer, and more presentable. The arts were supposed to take something like a front seat, if not a proper front seat. Things like tax breaks and certain parts of town were supposed to become more welcoming to artists. Unfortunately, the so-called Providence Renaissance is more geared to upscale corporate presentation than an actual firm commitment to the arts. Initially we are all told the commitment was in place, but not so. Part of the debacle is the onslaught of over-priced artist lofts in the downtown area that very few artists could actually afford. These places mainly attract people who maybe strum a guitar once a month or crochet a blanket in the off hours while dulling the mind with some TV. These people also, for the most part, work in Boston. There are painters and musicians in Providence who need space desperately, so what gives? Providence is a city corrupted by the illusion that it has the ability to become Boston, its closest big city neighbor.

Since August several of the better music and socializing venues have closed down because they cannot afford to keep up with the new expenses brought about by new, overly strict regulations. These regulations appear to be pointed in such a way so that the more run down, less money oriented facilities will go away to make room for the slickster version of Providence that is coming faster than any of us can breathe. Venues like Safari Lounge and Custom House were places one was always likely to find friends or some decent music. In a small city people depend on good places to go. When they vanish the community runs the risk of decay. Thankfully, Tazza Caffe provides space for us to have the Downcity Poetry Reading Series once a month and AS220, an art and performance space, continues to operate its schedule of exhibits and bands.

Carl Martin and Lisa Jarnot gave a full house reading at Tazza in September. In October Kent Johnson and K. Silem Mohammad gave a provocative reading on all fronts.

Later in October Tom Raworth chanced through town, so an impromptu reading was set up for him. He shared the bill with Brian Kim Stefans who has been on loan to Providence from NYC since August 2004. In total the reading lasted 27 minutes. Stefans, proud to be on the bill with Raworth, read excerpts from a new chapbook, What Does It Matter, before quickly turning it over to Raworth who is known for his speed-readings. Sadly, Raworth's health has declined in recent years so his speed isn't what it used to be. If he was in top form I'm sure some time would've been shaved off the reading's length. For the few who were present it was a great opportunity to see a master at work. Bill Berkson and Wendy Walters impressed a full house with their wit and good humor for the November reading. Finally, December brought us our last reading for the year with John Yau and Brian Evenson reading new work.

Upcoming readings in the series include Anne Waldman and Katie Degentesh on March 21, Mary Burger and Robert Coover on April 4, Emmanuel Hocquard and Rosmarie Waldrop on April 25, and Jennifer Moxley and Jennifer Martenson on May 8. Of course, things are subject to change, so check www.tazzacaffe.com for details.

In terms of local press news Combo Books is due to release a new book from Katie Degentesh this spring. Qua Books is set to publish Clark Coolidge's Act of Providence. Horseless Review just released its third issue online (www.horselesspress.com/horselessreview.html ) and the press offshoot has a chapbook forthcoming from Nate Pritts, Winter Constellations. I was unable to track down information about Burning Deck's upcoming releases, but they are always up to something, so definitely check in on them. As I mentioned in the previous report there is a new journal, Encyclopedia, due out in the spring, check www.encyclopediaproject.org for details.

Finally, while it's a shame the direction Providence is taking it is good to know that the community continues. It is worth asking will the community stay? Providence has a complicated history with its artists sticking around. Most times Providence is viewed as a stepping-stone to New York, the Bay area, or just plain old elsewhere. Perhaps that is Providence's fate and for the best, but isn't there something that can be done to encourage people to stay?

 

Stan Mir

 

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OlsonNow at the Poetry Project, NYC, USA

OlsonNow at the Poetry Project was one of the most gratifying and exciting events I've helped put together in quite some time. Kudos to my compadres, Ammiel Alcalay and Fred Dewey. We would love to post any highlights or memories people have of the event, as well as suggestions for future events. (The place was abuzz yesterday with talk of potential happenings in Philly, Gloucester, Asheville, NC, and Buffalo). Please email them to us at olsonnow (at sign here) gmail address (dot com).

Here are the facts as I recall them:

We got going at about 1:30 and finished at 6 p.m.. Throughout the day about 150 people came. According to headcounter Douglas Rothschild – who announced this to the entire room about midway through the conversation – 33.33 percent were women, 66.666 percent men.

After I introduced Olson and the OlsonNow project, Ammiel called for those working on projects, papers, etc. on Olson to announce them to the crowd. Jonathan Skinner, Fred Dewey, Kristin Prevallet, Lee Ann Brown, Michael Hoerman, Peter Anastas and Schuyler Hoffman of the Charles Olson Society in Gloucester, Henry Ferrini and others (please forgive any omissions as I didn't take any notes and am writing this all down from memory after the fact) all spoke up about projects they were working on. This was interspersed with messages and greetings that Ammiel read from people who could not attend, including Albert Glover, Diane di Prima, Joanne Kyger, Robert Kelly, Basil and Martha King, and John Sinclair.

We watched a clip from the Charles Olson “Outtakes” video from March 12, 1966 of Olson sitting in his Gloucester kitchen giving a growling shamanistic reading of “Maximus from Dogtown 1.” Ed Sanders followed with a musical rendition of the same poem played on a two-string dulcimer.

At that point we opened up the forum to the question: Where is Olson Now?
Apparently, that was all we needed to do, because the conversation lasted until about 3:45 and could have gone on for hours. We heard spontaneous comments from Jonathan Skinner, Susan Howe, Pierre Joris, Don Byrd, Laura Elrick, Charles Stein, a Melville Scholar whose name I can't recall, and others. Jack Hirschman read an “Arcane” about Olson as well as a reminiscence of the man. Anne Waldman gave a fiery reading of “Feminafesto,” addressing the feminine in Olson, as well as of a cento written of lines from Olson. Conversation ranged widely: Olson in the classroom, Olson and the feminine, Olson and Melville, Olson and walking, Olson and Place, et al.

Following a quick break, we were treated to the premier of Polis is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place, a nearly completed film by Henry Ferrini. Henry received a standing ovation afterward and answered a few questions. David Amram closed the show with a stunning jazz recorder improvisation of “Amazing Grace.”

***

Many highlights -- Ed Sanders' beautiful voice, Anne Waldman's dynamic thought-presence, Susan Howe's precise and heartfelt articulations, Jack Hirschman's moving recollections – but for me the most poignant moment of the day came during a scene in Henry's film.

A waitress at a Gloucester diner recalls that Olson often had to sign for his lunch and then pay later when he had some money. He always apologized for not tipping, she says, always paid up when he had the money, and always over-tipped in the process. She describes Olson as a man that never put on any airs or made her feel inferior. Then she goes on to say their interactions reminded her of the poem by Emily Dickinson that begins, “I'm Nobody! Who Are you?” After a brief pause, in which she seems to be trying to recall the next line, she slowly, haltingly, but with growing confidence, recites the entire poem from memory:

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you—Nobody—Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise—you know!

How dreary—to be—Somebody!
How public—like a Frog—
To tell one's name—the livelong June—
To an admiring Bog.

It just gave me chills. It is so rare in American life to witness poetry (actual poetry, not poetic analogues, but the actual words of an actual poem) affecting an everyday life in an atmosphere that has not been produced for the occasion. In other words, outside the academy, outside the classroom, outside the literary organizations, outside the poetry scene – just a person receiving the poem, its energy intact, and passing it on to the next person listening.

 

Michael Kelleher

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Chapel Hill/Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

 

The poetry world here in the Triangle seems to be in a transition phase -- it seems if Lucipoets aren't making babies, they're splitting up -- and now that the bewildered glee over the fact that so many innovative-minded poets are living in the same area has dissipated somewhat, the question begs itself: what are we to do with our good fortune? One recurring thing that keeps going on are Lucipo poetry road trips. I think the most recent one was when a carload or two (Ken Rumble, Brian Howe, Marcus Slease, David Need, etc) went down to Georgia. Lucifer went down to Georgia, looking for a couch to steal! Brian came back with what looked like a broken nose.

Ken Rumble keeps wheeling in amazing poets to read in his Desert City Poetry Series: the last few months, we've had the pleasure of hearing John Taggart, Brenda Coultas, Ed Roberson, Sarah Manguso and others. Claudia Rankine is reading tonight! And, as always, Todd & Laura Sandvik have been hosting excellent after-reading parties and readings at their Blue Door, with lots of art and snacks. They also hosted a night to check out new films from Randall Williams and a taped performance of Chris Vitiello's A Vinculum. Additionally, it is great to see Todd in his new role as Carrboro Poet Laureate, alternately sending out poems and letters from his new heightened position within the hierarchy as well as giving him an excuse to drunkenly dash off poems in magic markers in local bathrooms.

We've been lucky to be introduced to Rodrigo Garcia Lopes, the renowned poet, translator, and editor of Coyote, who is in town for a teaching gig at UNC.

I guess the big news locally for us poets isn't really even local -- the rapid expansion of the Lucipo listserv. Now featuring a cast of thousands, the listserv has now gotten to be popular enough for the usual types to take swipes at it on their blogs (which is, of course, the true sign that someone or something 'has made it'). If nothing else, it's now a good conversation starter during our offical Lucipo road trips to various strip clubs and gun shows.

 

Tony Tost

 

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Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

 

There are a couple new stops on the Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago corridor. Roberto Harrison has turned the occasional poetry readings at Jody Monroe Gallery into a regular series. The new series, called Enemy Rumour, was inaugurated with an event that paired Nicholas Frank (aka Nick Flowers, for any Singing Flowers fans out there) and your much less tuneful correspondent. Next up, back in October, were Matvei Yankelevich and Anna Moschovakis of Ugly Duckling Presse. More recently, Enemy Rumour celebrated the all too brief stateside return of Jesse Seldess with a reading by Jesse and David Pavelich. Roberto and the two readers capped off the evening with a Black Tarantula Gatha written by Jackson Mac Low for Kathy Acker. The other new home for poetry is the fabulous Broad Vocabulary, a great local independent feminist bookstore in the Bay View neck of the woods. Broad Vocabulary also provides a meeting place for the Beerleaders, the brave men and women who cheerlead for Milwaukee's rollerderby team, the Brewcity Bruisers. Another great space in town, the Urban Ecology Center hosted our dearest bardic enthusiasts Jeff Poniewaz and Antler. Jeff and Antler held a sesquicentennial celebration of Leaves of Grass, for which the poets read selections of their favorite Whitman and shared some Whitman lore, including testimonials about his stopover here on the way back east from New Orleans. Antler's mom was there! She's too sweet, an amazing lady. In the gallery at Woodland Pattern, a stunning show of Jonathan Williams' portraits was succeeded by The Bright Glade, an exhibit highlighting Thomas A. Clark and Laurie Clark's Moschatel Press. The Clark show included a retrospective of their books and book objects and an installation of text drawings by Laurie Clark. Now showing in the gallery, a collection of Tom Raworth's collages and Caller prints in advance of his reading and performance here with Steve Nelson-Raney. In the meantime, Woodland Pattern turned 25! A host of old friends came to help celebrate, including Wanda Coleman, Keith & Rosmarie Waldrop, Lisa Jarnot, Terri Kapsalis, Kiki Anderson, Roberto Harrison, Martha Bergland, and the City of Milwaukee's new Poet Laureate, Peggy Hong. The new year brought big changes to the physical space that Woodland Pattern has occupied for a quarter century. We closed for most of January and gutted the front room, painted and carpeted it, had new bookcases built to fit, expanded the doorway leading to the poetry stacks, acquired new signage for the storefront, and hung a new mural by Nicholas Lampert, his machine animal collage Locust Tank. We reopened on January 27th, just in time for our annual poetry Marathon on the 28th. Glad and sorry that there are some comings and goings to report. A couple of Chicago poets have made the move north. Glad to say that Brenda Cardenas moved back to Milwaukee, her hometown; and that Dawn Tefft moved up from Chicago to attend UWM. Sorry to report that Lisa Samuels is packing her bags for her family's move to New Zealand. Glad for Lisa and her family, though. Also, we had a bittersweet going away party for Stacy Szymaszek, now with the Poetry Project at St. Mark's, at which a young bookseller breakdanced in only his sailor cap and prompted the party to decamp into two groups, the nudes and the prudes. I was among the prudes. If you know Stacy, you might guess which camp she was in.

-- Chuck Stebelton