Sunday, October 30, 2011

Which to believe?


or

Threescore & ten I can
remember well: with-
in the volume of which
time I have seen hours
dreadful & things strange....

Macbeth, Act II, Scene IV

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The snot-eel — how could I resist?

A deep sea fish that uses gill-clogging slime to repel attackers has been caught on camera for the first time by Kiwi researchers.

Video footage from a study by Te Papa and Massey University researchers of New Zealand's deep sea animal diversity shows the hagfish — also know as the snot-eel — repelling sharks and other fish when bitten.

The attacking fish appear to gag on the mucus-like substance before releasing the hagfish and swimming away.



N. Z. Herald

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Once upon a time

I could multitask.

Could even manage to write the odd poem or two.

Now . . .

Sunday, October 23, 2011

diptych




What lips my
lips have kissed, &
where, & why, I
have forgotten, &
what arms have lain
under my head
till morning; but the
rain is full of
ghosts tonight, that
tap & sigh upon
the glass & listen
for reply; & in my
heart there stirs a
quiet pain for un-
remembered lads
that not again will
turn to me at mid-
night with a cry.

Thus in the winter
stands a lonely tree,
nor knows what
birds have vanished
one by one, yet
know its boughs
more silent than
before: I cannot
say what loves have
come & gone; I only
know that summer
sang in me a little
while, that in me
sings no more.
is no parenthesis
& death i think

paragraph
for life's not a
back in my arms
laugh, leaning
each other: then
we are for

which says
eyelids' flutter
is less than your
ure of my brain
cry—the best gest-
all flowers. Don't
lady i swear by
than wisdom
are a better fate
approves, & kisses
my blood

world
Spring is in the
to be a fool while
kiss you; wholly
will never wholly
syntax of things
any attention to the
first who pays
since feeling is

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Out from Otoliths — Eucalyptus by Charles Freeland

Now out from Otoliths


Eucalyptus
Charles Freeland
108 pages
Cover image by Spencer Selby
Otoliths, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9808785-9-2
$14.95 + p&h
URL: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/eucalyptus/17792959
In which we are invited to witness the protean prose of Charles Freeland as it enters and bends around our improbably porous bodies like smoke from a library fire. Until one can no longer tell where one’s limbs or eyelashes begin and the author’s sentences end. If either can, in fact, be said to begin or end at all. Pick any one of Freeland’s expertly carved sonic doorknobs and turn to open. The room waiting there contains the very universe, if not the socks, you’re standing in right now. Beyond which: “The doors to the research labs fly open and when you peer inside there are still more doors and probably more doors inside those…” —Travis Macdonald

Eucalyptus is an unforgettable narrative about desolation. There are stories that we can do without, and this is NOT one of them. —Kristine Ong Muslim

Eucalyptus reads like a collaboration between Henry Fielding and Mina Loy. And here's Charles Freeland planning the caper, raising the stakes, and getting it down. —John Hennessy

Sunday, October 09, 2011

Out from Otoliths — Densities, Apparitions by William Allegrezza

Now out from Otoliths.


Densities, Apparitions
William Allegrezza
80 pages
Cover image by Deborah Meadows
Otoliths, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9808785-8-5
$13.45 + p&h
URL: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/densities-apparitions/17278481

This book explores influence by crossing out or responding to poets who have influenced me. The Whitman and Andrade pieces are cross-outs, and anyone familiar with the first version of Calamus will notice that I did not respond to the entire collection. I left out pieces that I did not think would cut well for my project or pieces that have too much personal meaning for me. The response pieces to Leopardi and Neruda are probably even more telling, for in these pieces, it is sometimes difficult to see how the pieces directly relate to the original. Still, the influence is there reworked through my experience. —William Allegrezza

William Allegrezza edits the e-zine Moria and teaches at Indiana University Northwest. He has previously published five books, In the Weaver's Valley, Ladders in July, Fragile Replacements, Collective Instant, and Covering Over; two anthologies, The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century and La Alteración del Silencio: Poesía Norteamericana Reciente; seven chapbooks, including Sonoluminescence (co-written with Simone Muench) and Filament Sense (Ypolita Press); and many poetry reviews, articles, and poems. He founded and curated series A, a reading series in Chicago, from 2006-2010. In addition, he occasionally posts his thoughts at http://allegrezza.blogspot.com.

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Today the
postman brought
me a letter
for Abraham
Lincoln. He's here
only during the
winter months
so I sent it on,
c/o his Gettys-
burg address.

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Today the
postman brought
me a blow-
up sex doll
which, it is
claimed, can be
      programmed
to become moist
whenever a
music of the
user’s choosing
is played. I tried
it out with the
pipes & drums
of the Southern
Highlanders. It
      worked. Un-
fortunately
the music didn’t
work for me.

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Out from Otoliths — John Martone's Storage Case


Now out from Otoliths.

Storage Case
John Martone
72 pages, full color
Otoliths, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-9808785-7-8
$24.95 + p&h
URL: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/storage-case/17278460

john martone’s collages splice images and text drawn from Buddhism, radio schematics, cell biology, and natural history to open the Storage Case of the Unconscious. All of martone's visual poems stand alone as individual works, but he assembles them into book-length sequences, where their effect is enhanced. This volume offers a triptych of these visual books, in full, for the first time.

john martone’s many collections of poetry include st. john’s wort, shooting star and ksana. He currently produces his handmade books and ebooks under the samuddo / ocean imprint.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

The Literal Meaning II

salon hair

gods false

trap death

bell door

rail guard

balance trial

idea bright

time prime

spectrum broad

room drawing

avant post

black token

drama high

fire forest