A new poem by Robert Thomas, now at Guernica
Read it HERE.
Teaser:
Fold back your sleeve, cara, so I can see
the lining and the wrist bone’s alp. A girl
in Castello grew white fur on her tongue
when I was fifteen. All but the pink tip,
like a tiny monk’s head, a tonsured pate.
Then the fur blackened, and the monk
grew horribly young.
I review State of the Union: 50 Political Poems for ForeWord Magazine, HERE.
State of the Union is newly released by Wave Books and edited by Matthew Zapruder and Joshua Beckman.
Poets on Poets, edited by Tilar Mazzeo, is a website featuring poets reading their favorite Romantic poems. I am delighted to be included in the latest batch alongside Molly Peacock, Ken Cormier, Douglas Kearny, and Joshua Kryah. I read William Wordsworth's "Elegiac Stanzas."
You can reach the website HERE.
You can read two poems by Brazilian poet Manoel de Barros, translated by Idra Novey, at Guernica HERE.
Teaser:
To enter the state of being a tree it’s necessary
to begin with a gecko’s amphibian torpor
at three in the afternoon in the month of August.
It was lovely to see you all at last week's Guernica salon! Don't forget about Friday's Guernica/Unterberg Poetry Center event at the 92nd Street Y!
Hamutal Bar-Yosef Reading
Friday, September 19th, 8pm
The 92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington)
$10 (for the under 35 or Guernica subscribers)
For more information or to buy tickets, go HERE
Drinks to follow around 9:30 at Auction House (300 East 89th)
Yesterday I received events calendars from both Poets House and the Poetry Society of America. As I glance through them, circling the ones that look great--the PSA's new Poems & Pints reading series at Fraunces Tavern or the Poets House day on "The Intersection of Poetry & Architecture--I am pleased that Guernica has two upcoming events to add to the mix. One of them of comparable literary importance and both promising just as much fun.
Next Thursday, September 11th, Guernica will have an informal gathering for editors, contributors, and supporters at Le Poisson Rouge, a new bar/venue you must check out even if you don't like any of us.
Guernica Cocktails/Happy Hour/Salon
Thursday, September 11th, 6:00pm
Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleeker)
Free
And the following week, Guernica is co-sponsoring with the 92nd Street Y an intimate reading with Israeli poet Hamutal Bar-Yosef. She has published nine collections of poetry. Her first collection translated into English, Night, Morning: Selected Poems, will be published this fall by Sheep Meadow Press. You can read two poems from this collection, translated by Rachel Tzvia Back, at Guernica, HERE.
Hamutal Bar-Yosef Reading
Friday, September 19th, 8pm
The 92nd Street Y (1395 Lexington)
$10 (for the under 35 or Guernica subscribers)
For more information or to buy tickets, go HERE
Drinks to follow around 9:30 at Auction House (300 East 89th)
from Bar-Yosef's "The Well":
I am a poisoned well,
I told the ram
as he flared his nostrils.
Everything in me is poisoned.
Venom flows in my stones.
Guernica is pleased to publish a charming, new poem by Richard Howard. "Only Different" is an epistolary poem about a failed meeting between Henry James and L. Frank Baum in 1904.
Check it out HERE.
This poem will also be included in Howard's latest collection, Without Saying (Turtle Point Press), due out next month.
Teaser: "Bruce claims it would be madness to suppose / these two poles of American Romance / —does What Maisie Knew fit at the North Pole? / The Land of Oz at the South?—could even / hypothesize each other’s existence…"
Guernica is delighted to publish a new poem from Adam Day. Check it out HERE.
Teaser: "We pour the eyes in with a ladle / like post-holes half-filled / with mud-water, tap them in /
with it if we have to."
In July of last year, Guernica published a poem by Rebecca Morgan Frank that has been selected by Mark Strand for Best New Poets 2008.
To read my comments on the poem and (of course) the poem itself, check out Guernica's blog, HERE.
In May, I bought my first political t-shirt. It says, "VOTE" in bold, black letters. I wear it like I wear any other t-shirt; that is, I throw it on and forget about it. However, each time I wander the city, someone approaches me, eager to share their views on the election. The conversation always starts the same:
"Who are you voting for?"
"Obama."
And then things get interesting.
In my first encounter, one of the men who loiters on my corner told me not to vote, that it didn't matter. I spared him the "one man can make a difference" maxim and instead mentioned how close the previous two presidential elections were. But that's not what he meant. What he meant was that the nation is controlled by a secret society of the wealthy elite. This was not an argument I was prepared for. Flip-flopping, yes. Inexperience, yes. But a fraternity of old, white men giving the thumbs down left me rather blank-faced.
"Look it up," he said. "The Templars."
It just so happened I knew more about the Templars that day than most days because I was reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum, but I didn't say anything. For starters, I was having trouble getting into the novel, so my knowledge was limited to the first eighty pages. But more importantly, I see these corner men everyday, and I like our tepid friendliness. I was a little disheartened, though. If people in West Harlem weren't voting, who was? A block later, I ambled by the dollar store and saw Obama t-shirts in a bin out front.
*
My most recent t-shirt encounter took place in the Strand downtown that is going out of business. (FYI, everything is 50% off.) I was making a beeline for the poetry section when a man stopped me to ask,
"Who are you for?"
I almost said the Yankees because I had been thinking about the game that night, how I couldn't get tickets, more specifically, but I paused long enough to remember my t-shirt.
"Me, too," he said. "But I don't think he'll win."
This defied the general perception, I thought, and I said so.
"Well, a lot of people from my generation, a lot of baby boomers, are resentful of affirmative action."
He went on to give a break-down of how he thought the country would vote, then sent me on my way.
*
I'm starting to look forward to these glimpses into the voting mind. My t-shirt's looking a little ratty, though, and I hope it makes it to November.
Bringing Down the Great Firewall of China: Silenced Writers Speak on the Eve of the Olympics
with Edward Albee, Francine Prose, Jessica Hagedorn and others
7pm @ The New School's Tishman Auditorium: 66 W. 12th St., NYC
co-sponsored by The New School Graduate Writing Program
Go HERE for complete information. You can also sign the "Freedom of Expression" petition to the Chinese government.
