Off to a Writer's Workshop at WVU

Starts tomorrow- workshopping with Denise Duhamel!

She's well known for book Kinky from Orchises Press in Alexandria.

I am VERY excited! As usual I have barely enough money, but I have peanut butter, a loaf of bread, and granola bars. I'll be fine- and they have a 'breakfast' thing each morning and snacks during the afternoon sessions.

Oh yeah, I have my poem packets and some notebooks.

See ya next week.

(I love being off and leaving the guys behind to fend for themselves!)

Four Famous Women Poets on the way to Richmond

Are you ready for AMAZING poetry???

Put the Poetic Principle Series at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on your agenda for the 2008-2009 season!

Betty Adcock
Claudia Emerson
Beth Ann Fennelly
Peter Orner (fiction writer rescheduled from last year)
Mary Jo Salter

The four women poets who will be reading are at the top of their poetic game and we are more than fortunate to have them coming to Richmond this year! These events are co-sponsored by the New Virginia Review.

Bookmark the page or join the VMFA email list so you will get notice when the exact dates are posted. The series runs on Wednesdays at 6 PM, the cost is nominal (usually $3- $7)

It's ridiculous more people don't take advantage of these readings! The setting is intimate, the price is right, and in spite of construction parking is plentiful and close.

Do it now!- Bookmark the VMFA page, check FlashPaperPoetry (my calendar page), or my blog for updates and details as they become available.

You'll be glad you did!

The new issue of Terrain.org and the earth

here it is.....

read the whole zine, but if you read only a few things, read the columns and guest editorials.

then go back and read the poetry and the essays and the fiction- this is one of the best webzines around, literary and environmental.

You won't be disappointed.

poetry jokes

oh yeah...

try these

thanks, Nick.

Art and music and poetry and art

Look who's making art!

Who do you think of as sexy when you think of poets??

From the guy who asked "Does Poetry Matter? some not terribly interesting poetry...

It's all subjective

I suppose.

Poet Laureate Position Open

Gov. Kaine was given a slate last month of candidates for poet laureate for Virginia 2008-2010.

We're ten days in and no fearless leader to get us through!

Poets, rise up and lift your voices! Write the governor!

(news from the news: war is over, all the celebrities are dead, nobody hurts children or animals, and george bush resigned, in case you feel guilty about writing about a trivial thing like a poet laureate)

Carolyn Foronda has done such a wonderful job for the state- she's traveled all over the state bringing poetry to adults and children from the mountains to the sea- I can't say enough kind words about her!

From the choices he has, I hope Claudia Emerson is appointed. Though Nikki Giovanni would be delightful, her health and age would likely make it an honorary appointment, she probably wouldn't be able to do nearly what needs to be done. It is, you know, an unpaid post- at least in England they can get a butt of sack. Seriously. Look it up.

Dim the lights for Liz Marks

from the RTD

I'm so glad I attended her Cabaret at ComedySportz in May- she was fun and all full of herself, walking through the audience with her customary charm.

It was a great show, at the end she whipped off her wig to reveal her bald head (from the chemo, I presume).

Goodbye Liz-

She'll be missed.

a work is in progress...

I will not make any more boring art.

I will not make any more boring art.

Compiled by Frances Sjoberg on the occasion of the Conceptual Poetry and Its Others Conference, University of Arizona

CHARLES BERNSTEIN
1. In poetry, they talk about finding your voice, which is too often a way of evading the voices to be found in the writing.

2. Not only do I consider works of official verse culture to be poetry (which is not, for me, an honorific category), but also one of the key features of official verse culture [is] that it could necessarily include some poetry that I like quite a lot.

3. I prefer minerals to insects but I have been working on this with my ontologist.

4. As an alternative to National Poetry Month, I propose that we have an International Anti-Poetry Month. As part of the activities, all verse in public places will be covered over--from the Statue of Liberty to the friezes on many of our government buildings...Parents will be asked not to read Mother Goose...Religious institutions will have to forego reading verse passages from the liturgy...with hymns strictly banned...No vocal music will be played on the radio or sung in concert halls. Children will have to stop playing all slapping and counting and singing games and stick to board games and football.

5. Oddly, it is a form of dissent these days to hold out that art that doesn't get the market share can actually be as valuable as the art that does....I'm for the ketchup that loses the race.

6. Attention: Write down everything you hear for one hour.

7. There is still a great deal of conceptualizing that leads up to any intuition.

from The Poetry Foundation's blog Harriet

June Poetry Calendar up at FlashPaperPoetry

I have posted a new calendar from Tom Prunier (actually a revival of the old calendar) for Richmond Poetry Events over at FlashPaperPoetry. This supplements the Day by Day page on the site and highlights spoken word events. These events are all current and happening!

(doesn't mention my reading 11 am Saturday at the Norge library in Williamsburg)

On my regular calendar, I usually highlight academic/bookstore/gallery poetry events and readings, with a few open mikes thrown in rather than much of the 'spoken word' and 'slam' events.

Some of these events tend to run or start late at night, often in bars, and being neither a smoker nor drinker I don't get to many of them (I actually saw a blog that said 'come get drunk at so-and-so poetry slam- I'm guessing the poetry isn't the major attraction). Also, the events seem to come and go at random and I don't like to send people to events that may not happen.

While there is some crossover (not as much as I'd like to see) the truth is there is a divided community of poets in Richmond, the university set, the slam/spoken word set, and the rest of us [shmocks]. I don't know how to bring the groups together, though I'd like to think I've been trying for about fifteen years.

George Garrett has died

I had no idea until I read it just now over at Ron Silliman's blog- guess that's what I get fot not reading the RTD anymore (also being incredibly busy last week).

He was poet laureate of Virginia from 2002-2006 (actually I thought it was only two years but I could be wrong.

George Garrett was a wonderful, kind man. I am grateful to have met him.

from the Washington Post
from the NY TImes
from the RTD

his funeral is Saturday at 11am in Charlottesville.

I'll be in Williamsburg reading poetry then.

Some ideas about poetry

After the great program by James River Writers last Thursday- here are some additional thoughts:

ways to read a book of poems

a book to read (Girly Man by Charles Bernstein)

and another (Rain Through High Windows by Edward Haworth Hoeppner)

Shakespeare was a WHA-WHA-WHAAAAATTT??

Have a great weekend! Go to the RIF (I'm playing at 10pm Friday and Midnight Saturday), go to art 6 and see some great dancing at 7pm ($10)

Read a poem, write a poem!

James Center- noonish- be there!

I can't tell you why, but if you're downtown anyway, or have always wanted to eat lunch downtown outside- the James Center on Cary Street will be a great place to be tomorrow around 12:15.

Seriously- BE THERE!

AND check out STYLE and Mash-up on May 23rd and WTVR 6 Morning News last Friday!!

The Richmond Improv Festival is a great way to spend the weekend!!

Going to the 'burg for some poetry

Going to Williamsburg for the annual poetry festival
presented by the Poetry Society of Virginia.

be back late Saturday night after the Slam-

should be fun!!

Poetry Month Poems/drafts

They're gone.

You missed them.

Gone to be reworked, reformatted, retooled for submission to hoity-toity lit mags and webzines all over the place (except for the two already accepted by Skipping Stones 2008)

Some will no doubt appear in a very limited-run chapbook at art6, others will be featured in a book of art and words from myself and artists at the gallery (David Bromley, others yet to be chosen).

You snooze, you looze.....LOL

Poetry events for the rest of May (you won't see these in the RTD)

Go to my calendar at FlashPaperPoetry to check on events-

DaybyDay Some new events were just added from James River Writers and Chop Suey.

I have to grouse a little, though- a billion poets in Richmond and the rest of Virginia and the same old boring poets (with a few exceptions) are going to be trotted out again.

Sigh.

If you're in Williamsburg next weekend, the Poetry Society of Virginia is putting on it's annual festival- it may be too late to get the meals, but the events should be fun- I'll be there- presenters include: Joseph Awad, Henry Hart, Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Edward Lull, Jay Paul, Thomas Sanchez Prunier, Dan and Suzanne Stryk, and Vivian Teter.

I can't wait to get to the West Virginia Writers Workshop in July to hear some new voices- oh wait! Brian Henry from UR and Sheri Reynolds will be on the faculty (but I absolutely adore Sheri). Reading, writing, and the road to Richmond, indeed.

I'm grumpy because I ate something bad and got a little sick- now I have to go to the mountains for 3 days for a church retreat- the food is incredibly good, but I was there Mon-Wed and ate waaaaaay too much- then came home and got sick and I'm still a little shaky.


Live long and publish, uh, prosper!

Fine reading etc

Cate Marvin

Jeffrey McDaniel

ah, so much poetry, so little time!

and news ...

and books to give to young poets

It's May- and always a good month for poetry!

Oh the fun we'll have!!

Go write some bad verse- (no comments about poem-a-day participants for April!)

You might just end up famous

Some thoughts to continue writing prompts, (workshops) and a newsletter

poetry stuff...

Poetry disappoints me once again...

Once again, I am disappointed by what I love the most- poetry.

This time it took the form of slam poetry, specifically the semi-finals. Five poets bled all over four rounds of dismal and frequently abysmal poetry, with a few drops of perfume tossed in, mere petunias in a much larger onion patch.

The person who should have won did, and the person who should have come in last did. The three in the middle should have been reversed as far as I’m concerned.

To me, a great slam poet is one who weds a good poem with a good performance. What is good, you ask? 1) A common theme made universal, 2) use of language, 3) correct facts and historical perspective, 4) practiced delivery appropriate to the subject, 5) varied tempo, temper, and timbre.

Tired subjects: you (your friends, family, strangers, bums on the street) and your (heroin, sex, food) addiction, you (your sister, daughter, mother, brother, stranger, skank on the streets) and your (rape, incest molestation), you (etc) and how the (government, white man, pimp, parent, etc) mistreated you and how that fucked you up, and last but not least, how God saved you.

Of course, there is always the possibility of the perfect poem emerging from any of these subjects.

Did I mention poems about poems and how your poems mean everything to you and you bleed for them?? I am serious, stop that now. Please.

The top poet started strong but never got better or varied the approach. One poet talked so fast and breathed with great gasps, all the poetry was reduced to sounds, even though the poet enunciated clearly, I can remember NONE of them. One poet tore at heartstrings with wrenching guilt and sad stories meant to rip your heart right out- without ever once involving anyone except by proxy- it was a lifetime movie, not a poem. One poet had studied, mannered delivery but the stories were not always cohesive or interesting. One poet wrote excellent poems, too smart for the audience, too hip, the poet didn’t blame anyone else for bad things, and made sense- and the delivery was pretty damn good-

And you know who you are- and are probably the only participant who will read this.

So, like the slick academic lizard poems heard recently (they can sound like the surface on which they are printed) I was disappointed again by the very thing I love the most.

A list of poets I have heard read recently and would like to hear again: Claudia Emerson, Sandra Beasley, Tom Prunier, Derek Kannemeyer, Wes Childress, and Jean Valentine.

RTD farts an article about poetry, Style panders again

better poetry news from the internet... (Ron Silliman's wonderful blog)

Why poets sound that way

and from Ellen Steinbaum, who came to Richmond a few years ago at Artspace and then returned to do a presentation for the Poetry Society of Virginia.

Words and music

and from Reb Livingston men explain things to me

and oh yeah, STYLE WEEKLY managed to finally give us some ink something in the middle of the month about poetry (I haven't been out yet to get a copy but my comments were apparently edited out to make room for the MFA certified crowd- sigh, some poet just can't get no respect!)

The Richmond Times Dispatch got poetry in on Sunday (if Nikki Giovanni hadn't written a poem about the VT tragedy, would this have appeared?) with a nice bit from Virginia poet laureate Carolyn Foronda, but the sidebar had errors that could have been caught if the writer had googled poetry events in Richmond and checked the LOCAL news (I emailed the reporter- no reply)

1 2 3 4 (this is where she got the wrong time)

I hate to complain again, but geez people- there's so much out there.

Something to red while you're waiting

...for my poems for April 13th and 14th.

A wonderful poem by Billy Collins

Workshop

poetry readings and such...why go?

here's some thoughts on poetry readings from poet Mark Wallace and from the James Branch Cabell annual lecture.

Which I attended last night at VCU- A Party of Poets - Keynote speaker: Ellen Bryant Voigt with panelists: Buffy Morgan, Deborah Nystrom, Lucinda Roy, Ron Smith and David Wojahn and moderator: Mary Flinn, senior editor for the online literary journal Blackbird.

Voight delivered an long lecture on Dave Smith and Charles Wright (both of whom I find just tedious and stuck firmly in place- as in, no heart, just observations of their lives- yawn) after which she read one of her poems, a poem so much better than any of theirs it was almost painful. Though her scholarship is indisputable, I wish she'd read poems- HER poems.

The discussion afterwards was a mutual masturbatory celebration of how wonderfully Virginia nurtures poets, apparently because it is swamped with MFA programs that turn out scads of poets to flood the country with their same-same poetry (even when it's not the same, it's the same). I have significant disagreement about how poets are nurtured here- if you aren't in the MFA clan, you don't count (sometimes even after you graduate, as I heard someone behind me whisper).

None of the panel were born in Virginia, and Voight has lived in Vermont forever.

Buffy Morgan and Lucinda Roy stood out as panelists- I do get a little peeved at Morgan's Southern graciousness sometimes- though her remarks are always dead on- she brought up women poets and how the deep south embarrasses her. Roy, now at Virginia Tech from London, reminded us of race, class, and economic disconnects from poetry- a good point, true, but she came off a little one-issue IMO, though she is obviously brilliant- everything she said was well-considered and you could see her listening carefully to the other panelists.

Smith and Wojahn were affable as always but I don't think added much content to the event- I do like them both, they just seemed out of place. Nystrom, in the grand tradition of UVA participants, said little. I don't think they travel well (or play with others).

I believe the whole thing was recorded for Blackbird if you want to hear for yourself. It may be a few days/weeks before they put it up and we'll all have forgotten by then.

The room was full of poets and IMPORTANT people. I wouldn't call it fun, exactly. The buffet was very nice, seemed like mostly townies took advantage and I didn't see an undergrad in site so there was plenty.

No one seemed really happy (except Buffy). Maybe they should all read Wallace's blog.

Job needed: poet, teacher, musician

Anyone have any ideas?

I need a part-time (say 3 days, half days- whatever) job doing something- I've taught all levels if music, piano teaching, piano playing, directed recreation programs, been an administrative assistant, store manager, house cleaner, work with large and small groups, I could be a church secretary, something like that (I do work as an organist/choir director on Sundays, though).

shannp at gmail dot com

just a thought

why do we choose what we choose?

C. Dale Young asks "What makes us choose what we choose when we write?"

I have little photographs, videos of incidents that flash through my head all the time- as if there is a constant random generator pulling file titles from the past 58 years. They pop up and I usually let them fly by with a nod, but other times they take me into a fugue of anger or regret, nostalgia or grief, then replay replay replay- the same way I listen to one favorite song on a CD thirty or forty times in a row driving to work.

Then a poem comes- or goes, depending on where I am and how soon I can get the gist written down.

At last! Talent is rewarded!

My favorite poet (and I hope someday poet laureate) Tony Hoagland has received a major prize. It is well deserved, I am thrilled for him.

Check out his poems online and buy his books- the Fountain Book Store is your best local choice, please buy from small booksellers, do not patronize Amazon, they are trying to shut out small DIY publishers such as Lulu.com (go here for discussions concerning this).

My favorite lines are from Tony Hoagland's poem

Self-Improvement

So the avenues we walk down,
full of bodies wearing faces,
are full of hidden talent:
enough to make pianos moan,
sidewalks split,
streetlights deliriously flicker.


There is so much to be afraid of in this world, so much tragedy is at every turn. These lines by Hoagland remind me of the possibilities new faces can hold, how they might open up something entirely new within me. It's the kind of magic that might make a piano moan, a sidewalk split, or something even more incredible that waits, not in fear or anger, but with beauty and hope

Video Poetry Everywhere

Happy First Day of National Poetry Month!

Here are 15 short poems as animated films-

skip the ad, click on the poems.

Happy First Day of National Poetry Month!

other poetry news

and more

and yet more

Support Your Local Poets!

Richmond Poetry events for April- National Poetry Month!

Poet and Poetry events.... 17 events! *as of 3-31-08

4/3/2008 7 PM: VCU Visiting Writers Series. Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes (Wind in a Box) reads selected works. Sponsored by VCU’s English Department and the MFA Program in Creative Writing. At VCU, Student Commons, Richmond Salons I & II, 907 Floyd Ave. For more details contact 828-1329 or visit www.has.vcu.edu/eng,

4/4/2008 7 PM "Richmond Writers Series" kicks off with the 30th Annual Brodie Herndon Memorial Poetry Reading featuring Ron Smith. Sponsored by Friends of the Richmond Public Library. Held in conjunction with First Friday Cultural events. Free and open to the public. Reception follows reading and book signing. At Richmond Public Library, Main Branch, 101 E. Franklin St, 646-4514.

4/5/2008 8 PM: SlamRichmond’s "Open Minds Open Mic". All readers welcome. $5 admission. At ArtSpace Gallery, Zero E 4th St, 232-6464, www.artspacegallery.org/aboutus.htm. For more details visit www.myspace.com/slamrichmond or email slamrichmond@gmail.com.

4/6/2008 3-5 pm National Poetry Month Reading featuring Derek Kannemeyer and others, open mike, art6, 6 East Broad Street

4/9/2008 7:30 PM: 22nd Annual James Branch Cabell Lecture. "A Party of Poets" Keynote speaker: Ellen Bryant Voigt. With Buffy Morgan, Deborah Nystrom, Lucinda Roy, Ron Smith and David Wojahn. Moderated by Mary Flinn, Blackbird's senior editor. Sponsored by VCU Libraries, Friends of the Library and the James Branch Cabell Library Associates. Free and open to the public. Book signing and reception follows. Parking (fee applies) in the W Main St and W Cary St parking decks. For special accommodations, please call 827-1165 or 827-1163 before April 4, 2008. At VCU Student Commons, Richmond Salons, 2nd Floor, 907 Floyd Ave, www.library.vcu.edu.

4/10/2008 6:30 PM: Award winning poets Susan Settlemeyer Williams and Sandra Beasley read. At Fountain Bookstore, 1312 E. Cary, 788-1594.

4/12/2008 8 PM: SlamRichmond’s Qualifier 7: "We are Family!" $5 admission. At ArtSpace Gallery, Zero E 4th St, 232-6464, www.artspacegallery.org/aboutus.htm. For more details visit www.myspace.com/slamrichmond or email slamrichmond@gmail.com.

4/13/2008 2 – 4 PM: Shockoe Poets Open Mike Readings (2nd and 4th Sundays) at Shockoe Espresso & Roastery, 104 Shockoe Slip. Contact Shann Palmer for information (335-9403 or shannp@gmail.com).

4/17/2008 6-8pm National Poem in Your Pocket Day, come by art6 for a poem to take home. 6 East Broad St.

4/17/08 6:30 p.m. Cheryl Pallant Reads for Poetry Month Location: Fountain Bookstore, Inc.Description: Join us as we welcome back one of Virginia's most passionate poets.Cheryl Pallant is a writer, poet,... More info on this event

4/17/2008 8 PM: VCU Visiting Writers Series. Pulitzer Prize recipient Claudia Emerson (Late Wife) and distinguished writer Clint McCown (Dead Languages) read selected poems. Sponsored by VCU’s English Department and the MFA Program in Creative Writing. At VCU, Student Commons, Richmond Salons I & II, 907 Floyd Ave. For more details contact 828-1329 or visit www.has.vcu.edu/eng, events link.

4/19/2008 8 PM: SlamRichmond’s "Open Minds Open Mic". All readers welcome.$5 admission. At ArtSpace Gallery, Zero E 4th St, 232-6464, www.artspacegallery.org/aboutus.htm. For more details visit www.myspace.com/slamrichmond or email slamrichmond@gmail.com.

4/20/2008 3 – 5 PM: "Bend Your Ear". Open mike poetry, every 3rd Sunday. At art6, 6 E. Broad Street, 343-1406, www.art6.org.

4/21/2008 7 PM: "Prompted!" A reading of short fiction, non fiction and poetry inspired by prompts. Featuring Ann Archer, Lisa Jones Crowley, Kathryn DiPasqua, Foust, Gayla Mills and Liz Sheehan. At the Ashland Starbucks, 704 England St. For more information call 550-1481.

4/25/08 6pm, movable feast VCU graduate student readings 1708 Gallery

4/26/2008 8 PM: SlamRichmond’s Championship Invitational 2008: "We are Family!" $5 admission. At ArtSpace Gallery, Zero E 4th St, 232-6464, www.artspacegallery.org/aboutus.htm. For more details visit www.myspace.com/slamrichmond or email slamrichmond@gmail.com.

4/27/2008 2 – 4 PM: Shockoe Poets Open Mike Readings (2nd and 4th Sundays) at Shockoe Espresso & Roastery, 104 Shockoe Slip. Contact Shann Palmer for information (335-9403 or shannp@gmail.com).


other readings- call before going, may have moved
Open Mic @ Precious Memories, 8pm, 3229 Idlewood Ave 23221 check the webpage for special events
Tuesday Verses THE OPEN MIC at Tropical Soul Restaurant, 314 North 2nd Street, Richmond, VA 23219 - Damage: $5 all night. Doors open at 8pm. For info call (804) 304-6857
THURSDAY One Mic Thursdays 8pm @Skyy Lounge, 4 W. Broad 23220
THURSDAY Bring Your Own Beats 8pm @ Ramakins, 818 W. Broad, 23220
MONDAY Open Mic @ Nomega Studios, 7pm 913 W. Grace St. 23224 $2
WEDNESDAY Open Mic @ Black Moon Cafe, 9pm 1303 Hull St., 23224 free

Other calendars:
check the James River Writers calendar for other literary events
and the Richmond.com arts calendar
the Fountain Bookstore events calendar

ComedySportz and the ART CHEERLEADERS

Tonight at the 10pm show-

see I Prov work their musical magic, aided and abetted by the lovely and delicious Art Cheerleaders.

A good time will be had by ALL!

seriously funny business...

Are you common?? Gotta love stats

From the Virginia Quarterly Review:
The ten most common titles of submissions that we’ve received in the past year:
Remember
Smoke
Revelation
Work
Grace
Waiting
Insomnia
Voyeur
Butterfly
Reunion

and (from their blog)

Those Vital Clichés
By Waldo Jaquith
March 14th, 2008
This was supposed to be a blog entry about how authors submit poetry to us covering clichéd topics that there’s just no way we’re going to print. But then I did the math, calculating the percentage of our submissions and published work that contain any of a dozen mainstays of poetic terminology, and found that precisely the opposite is true.
submitted/published
water 19.9%/24.8%
death 14.1%/15.2%
blood 11.7%/13.8%
stone 11.1%/16.0%
bone 9.1%/ 7.8%
poetry 7.6%/10.3%
heart 7.5%/6.7%
fish 7.0%/5.3%
birth 5.5%/7.4%
darkness 3.9%/17.0%
rust 3.3%/2.5%
cat 2.3%/2.8%

An Easter Poem

Easter

Rises with the sun
in a cacophony of Alleluias
wearing white before Memorial Day,
mouth full of daffodils and lilies,
saying "Shake off the darkness,
put out your candles, and see."

Happy Birthday, Billy Collins!

From The Writers Almanac 3-22-08

Today is the birthday of poet Billy Collins, (books by this author) born in New York in 1941. Collins is both a critically acclaimed and popular poet, a unique combination in the world of modern poetry. Collins began writing poems at age 12. He devoured all the poetry he read, especially the contemporary poems in Poetry magazine. In an interview, Collins explained, "I remember reading a poem by Thom Gunn about Elvis Presley, and that was a real mindblower because I didn't know you could write poems about Elvis Presley. I thought there was poetry (what you read in class) and then when you left class there was Elvis. I didn't see them together until I read that poem."

Collins began selling his poems to Rolling Stone for $35 a pop in the 1970s. He married Diane Olbright in 1977 and published his first book of poems, Pokerface, that year, but it wasn't until the publication of Questions About Angels in 1991 that he began drawing critical attention. His other major poetry collections are The Apple that Astonished Paris (1988), The Art of Drowning (1995), Picnic, Lightning (1998), Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001), Nine Horses: Poems (2002), and The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems (2005). Collins' style is light, humorous, and fond of extended metaphor. He uses mundane situations as diving boards into the larger philosophical questions of life.

His poem "Forgetfulness" starts this way:

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one,
the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Collins said, "Usually I try to create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like stepping into a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong."

It's also the 40th anniversary of the death of A1C Kenneth E. Baker, Jr of Detachment 13, 30th Weather Squadron, Binh Thuy AB, meteorologist. he was the older brother of a high school friend and we had been corresponding. I never met him in person. He was scheduled to come home March 25th. My poem "Warrior" was published in the Memorial Day 1998 issue of Echoes Magazine. It was my first published poem, it appeared first in the magazine, right after the table of contents.

martial arts the right way

Here

After pouring out money to 'belt factories' when my son was young- he has finally found a local school where the real thing is taught.

My highest recommendations

Sometimes it's more than ceremonies and demonstrations, it's real.

I wish poets had such a place for working on their poetry.

Wearing of the Green

"I'd like to kiss you, but I just washed my hair."

Playwright Paul Green, written for Bette Davis

A poem for the ides of march

Ply

A holy man once told me
there were many steps
to the kingdom of heaven.

A different prophet claimed
to be holy was to be cheesy,
and there were no steps at all.

Though intrigued by covenants,
celestial pie leaves me impossibly
hungry now, pale and earthbound.

Like the golden starred certificates
given at the end of the school year
to the pretty girls, athletic boys,

I have no delusions to dispel,
this ant carries only its own weight,
hardly enough, yet still a burden.

It is the only set of stairs I know.
In the end, between floors,
I will leave nothing, take nothing

In the beginning, there was hope
leaking from all I gathered about me,
gone before I was fully awake.

Know this then: your voice
binds me to this place. Hold me
hostage, accept no ransom.

Tonight! Girls in cheerleader outfits! Comedy! Music!

If you are an iProv fan, mark your calendar for March 28th at 10 P.M. The Art Cheerleaders, based in Richmond, Virginia, are a group of artists that use cheerleading as a medium for satirical, political and social commentary on the arts and their place in our society. The Art Cheerleaders join iProv's eclectic mix of improvised song and dance. Don't miss this show! Tickets are just $10!

Girls in cheerleader outfits! Comedy! Music!

I mean, seriously- come on over!

Style bumped the story- for what??

Who knows? There must have been something much more important to fawn over or make fun of so the wonderful all musical show I-Prov at ComedySportz every 2nd and 4th Friday at 10pm could be bypassed.

Maybe Doug Wilder farted or something, that could've been it. Or some suck-up, oops, I mean stuck-up Fan fluke who'd rather have a Hummer and a Glen Allen McMansion but pretends to give a rat's ass about 'performance art' barfed out another painting.

Would've been nice to get a little ink- it's the only all-music-improv troupe in the country- together for over a year, with amazing results. These folks do a full half-hour musical parody of BROADWAY musicals. They've birthed babies- there on stage!- they've saved the Muffin Tops and even make up choreography RIGHT ON THE SPOT!

Audiences needed- word of mouth- it costs so much to put ads all over, a kind word from a newspaper, even a weekly, would help so much- BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO- it was more important to diss the costumes for "Little Women" out at Swift Creek Mill (which are actually just fine, apparently the reviewer thinks local theaters have movie-style budgets, and besides, maybe she didn't get the underlying story of the genteel poor, but hey!)

Oh great- now they'll probably send HER to review it- and I'll just bet she "doesn't get" improv.

It's really fun and funny- call 266-YESS for reservations for the 10pm show Friday night. If you reserve, it's cheaper.

Oh yeah- in the interest of disclosure I know the piano player. And one of the waitresses.

Yeah

poems at your fingertips

This is definitely cool- almost as cool as if I had a mobile device to read these on

Check THIS out

National Poetry Month will be here soon! I already have my decorations up!

and just for the record- what IS a mobile device?

A new poem

a new poem-
and I won the caption contest over at Avoiding the Muse scroll down to Wed March 5

Accountable

She takes her groceries from the car
to the kitchen, where space can be made
for all her burdens, there is a place for each
can of dark red kidney beans,
stewed tomatoes, she has a plan:
maybe chili or soup, ingredients
got cheap because the weather warms,
to be put by until the price of gas drives
her to the pantry for stashed supplies.

With every trip in and out, she ponders
who it is that doesn't have to plan by price,
scout for bargains, anticipate trouble before
it comes, as sure as she measures each day
a paycheck meted out before it's earned.

Tomorrow she'll tally minutes into dollars,
how long to mop, to dust, ashamed to covet
the snap of sweet-smelling sheets, fresh
clean towels, the work she does for strangers.
She knows all about them, what food they eat;
takes small comfort in thinking them sad-
and for that slice of time, all they have
is hers, no matter what she left at home.

Upcoming poetry events 3-3 through 3-16

3/4/2008 – 3/6/2008 13th Annual Literary Festival. Readings by poet Ron Smith, Student Writing Workshops and Readings. Free and open to the public. At John Tyler Community College, both the Midlothian and Chester Campuses. For more information, please contact Sandra Via at svia@jtcc.edu.

3/8/2008 8 PM: SlamRichmond’s “Open Minds Open Mic”. All readers welcome.$5 admission. At ArtSpace Gallery, Zero E 4th St, 232-6464, http://www.artspacegallery.org/aboutus.htm. For more details visit http://www.myspace.com/slamrichmond or email slamrichmond@gmail.com.

3/9/2008 2 – 4 PM: Shockoe Poets Open Mike Readings (2nd and 4th Sundays) at Shockoe Espresso & Roastery, 104 Shockoe Slip. Contact Shann Palmer for information (335-9403 or shannp@gmail.com).

3/15/2008 8 PM: SlamRichmond’s Qualifier 5: “We are Family!” $5 admission. At ArtSpace Gallery, Zero E 4th St, 232-6464, http://www.artspacegallery.org/aboutus.htm. For more details visit http://www.myspace.com/slamrichmond or email slamrichmond@gmail.com.

3/16/2008 3 – 5 PM: “Bend Your Ear”. Open mike poetry, every 3rd Sunday. At art6, 6 E. Broad Street, 343-1406, http://www.art6.org/.

more later...

Poetry- the real cure

Check this out- Using verse as a kind of verbal massage for your emotions cheapens it terribly. And it won't do you much good

I'm so sick of people telling me how to fix my life- I have decided to write about THEM instead- so beware, advice-givers!!

here's an old one:

Poetry and Money- BIG money

Check out this story on Tom Sleigh and his book Space Walk.

Another interview and link to a previous book.

I just got my copy today, so far, it's pretty good (though not as good as Tony Hoagland's Sweet Ruin, which also arrived- but you know how much I loves mah Tony)

A Poem in Your Pocket April 17th

It's exactly two monthw to the day until National Poem in Your Pocket Day!!

We'll be celebrating at art6 that day, so keep watching this page and the art6 blog for more info!

You can check out my Poems in a Bag at the shop6 in the gallery to get started or go to the Academy of America Poets for more info and some ideas.

Tomorrow, check out the Shockoe Poets Open Mike at 2-4pm, downtown! Come read, come listen, come have some great coffee and eats (parking in the garage next door is cheap and easy).

I can't wait to hear the whiners talk about how dumb the poem in a pocket thing is- well, screw that- I think it's fun so shutdafokkup!

An open invitation to read your poems

Come to art6 tonight at 8pm and read up to 10 minutes of poetry- your own or someone else's.

The event is called 2x2x2 (Feb 22nd) and will feature members and other writersreading poems about couples, relationships, all manner of two's (no threesomes, please).

Come read or come listen!

art6 Gallery, 6 east broad st, downtown. 8-9:30.

(before. at 6pm- The moveable feast graduate reading at 1708 Gallery, 6pm- just walk down the street to art6 and read! Everybody else can go to Gallery5 and the new national theater- but it;s FREE at art6 and you get to be part of the scene, if you want to)

if it weren't for blogs

I would never have heard about this atrocity-

Lawrence King (more here)

A friend had to go to a 'sensitivity' workshop today because some guy in his department made the remark to another (white) worker "You don't have to do n*gg*r work."

What the hell is wrong with some people?

I don't know how to even respond anymore, other than with outrage. You can't be too fat, too thin, too black, too brown, too gay- anything is reason for ridicule, harrassment, and possibly death, and God knows, don't fail a student, fire a worker, or dump your boyfriend/girlfriend.

I don't want to become a humorless bitch, but don't talk to me about gun control, talk to me about what people do to each other, with their mouths, with their fists, and sometimes their weapons.

Where's the poetry in that?

Criticizing my betters

This poem is in the current Atlantic Monthly-

Executive Shoe Shine by Mary Jo Salter

It may go on snowing forever,
but meanwhile, how he’s basking
in the sun of his own multi-tasking!
He’s perched erect on his throne,
looking down on the airport food court,
as the silver snail of a cell-phone
earpiece hooked to his ear
hangs on his every word.
No way to cut him short
until the runways are cleared
and they’ve finished out there de-icing
the right wing, then the left wing
of all those planes before his.
Could he strike us a deal with the weather?
The man hunched below him polishes
one wingtip, then the other.

I am incredibly unimpressed. This poem says nothing to me I haven't heard before. Crafted, well yes, it doesn't suck, but it's BORING- a little snippet about something, someone I have seen. If the wings, wingtips, shoeshine speaks volumes, my speakers must be on mute.

Typical.

How many good poems were rejected to take this one by a familiar name?

A belated Valentine poem

To whom it may concern:

All my Valentines are lost in the mail
or returned unopened, unexamined,
like poems sent to the New Yorker,
not substantive enough to provoke.

What billet doux would you embrace,
consider? Not certain I want anyone
to know my tenuous intent, as it is
encoded in derisory, obfuscated goo.

Write this down, it will be on the test:
to yearn is to contrive, connive.
Concupiscence a natural state,
confess your heart’s desire and live

or fall in sin, untested. Grace is
prevenient. I wear the stripes
of awkward hope, yet call you
out with these imprudent lines.

yeah, I live where??

Not Henrico, Virginia- that's for sure-

The excuse is 'revenues are lost'- by who? Does the City of Richmond keep the money it gets from these mistakes?

I can't imagine the amount of money business owners (and I'm not one, I'm a poet with a few addrss labels) will spend getting all their records changed.

Do I have to get all the places that have my bios attached to my poetry to change my place of residence? (like they care and like I would)

ridiculous

lame, lame, lame

but typical

Why Tony Hoagland is my favorite poet

Here's his poem WINDCHIME, on the Writer's Almanac today-

It's the kind of poem that makes you understand why you settled instead of walked...

Tony Hoagland is my favorite poet. Scroll down on the Poets.org page- I adopted him. You could too.

Poets, more poets, and 2 Valentines

Wednesday - Poetic Principles Reading by Tomaz Salamun
February 13, 2008 VMFA, Pauley Center Parlor, 6 pm, $7-$9

Thursday - Art After Hours- 6:30 & 7 pm ART OF POETRY: Michael Keller (music, food, more) $8-$10

Thursday - VCU Visiting Writers Series, featuring Jean Valentine 8pm at 1708 Gallery, free

and this, from Ted Kooser, previous poet laureate- Valentines

So much love!!!

Even poets sometimes vote

I have never voted in a primary in my life, but today I am going to do so.

Originally I was going to vote for Ron Paul as a show of support but then I thought I should help stop Huckabee and his Christian agenda and vote for McCain.

Now the Clinton and Obama puzzle looms-

I won't know what I will do until I'm standing there and forced to ask for the democrat or republican ballot.

It's hard out here for an independent!

A GREAT poem by James Hall

Someone had told me about this poem and I really wanted to hear it- and look! It showed up on C. Dale Young's blog-

(order this book NOW from the Fountain Bookstore -info below)

PORTRAIT OF MY MOTHER AS THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS

After my mother won independence in 1836,
she dysfunctioned as her own nation, passed laws,
erected monuments to men who would never again
be slaves to order and pain.

Remember the Alamo? That was my mother.

Then in 1845 that always-pleasing church-mouse voted
for annexation. My mother had too many selves and the desire
to enslave them all. Pregnant, she was forced
to become the twenty-eighth child of the American family.
Lone star no longer.

She joined a lineage of jacked-to-jesus hair, developed insatiable
cravings for honey barbecue. Her uncles sauntered up, stroked
the thin lace of her, declared she looked mighty good.
She let them say mighty good while grinning at one another.

Nothing grew then on the prairies of my mother.

Then she learned dissent, demanded men recognize her
sovereignty. She organized an embassy in a silver trailer
shaped like a virgin bullet. My mother renamed herself
The Republic of Texas, unfurled her flag all the way

into the 1980's, when the Republic kidnapped her neighbors,
Joe and Margaret Rowe, to highlight abuses she'd suffered.
My mother was an American terrorist.

Don't mess with Texas.

She died in the standoff. My new mother was elected
by a landslide and moved to Cuero, a city whose largesse
depends on retirement pensions. My peaceful mother
holds weekly rallies: 'What do we want? When do we want it?'

Her lipstick stains the bullhorn mauve.

In her spare time, my mother receives foreign dignitaries
and does dry-wall. The Global Conglomerate of my Mother
opened her first staffed consulate in Barcelona.
She insists visitors speak American.

Currently, the Republic is facing lean times.
The former treasurer neglected May's utilities,
refuses to return the funds. Pledge your support today.
My motherland is standing by
the rotary phone, waiting for your call.

Love her or leave her.

--James Allen Hall
from Now You're the Enemy (Arkansas 2008)

The Politics of Erotica (poetry)

Check out this blog entry over at The Best American Poetry. Today's guest writer is Denise Duchamel on the politics of erotica. There are other entries listed- I will be watching for February 10th: Jill Alexander Essbaum.

There is a huge difference in erotic and sexual writing- one of the things I always hated about certain slam events is how there is always a poem or two about "how much you will enjoy my.... (whatever) " and how "I will ......(whatever)", and those poems get wild audience reactions and big scores, though they are barely poems (more like commercials). Better to make me hot with subtlety and veiled suggestions and show me later.

Thoughts on Poems and Titles

When I hear someone say "This poem is untitled" I shudder- visibly- titles are important! As far as I'm concerned, it's as least as important as what you name your kids (Paul and Alia).

I know someone who has a small book where the poems are numbered- I gotta tell ya, thumbing through the damned thing looking for one I liked particularly is annoying- I don't think I've read it since the first two or three times, it's so frustrating.

Here's some thoughts on titles from Ross White (the numbers are mine)

1. Your poem's title is like the first jab in a boxing match-- you don't have to knock the reader out, but you had better establish yourself as a formidable presence in the ring. A poem which is sharp, precise, and economical deserves a title to match. Sloppy, awkward, and abstract titles always raise the hairs on the back of my neck. Tight, concrete titles that locate me immediately in what is happening in the poem make me happy.

2. If there's a clunky detail in your first stanza, it might be information that could be better conveyed to the reader in the title. Excess narrative information in the body of a poem, particularly early, irritates me-- because they suck the poetry out of the poem. Titles that convey that information in a plain style remove the burden of exposition. Specific dates, locations, or people show up in titles for this reason.

3. Nobody wants to be told what to feel. People want the emotional stakes of the poem to be earned. So, if the poem is titled "Happiness" and goes on to describe happiness, that's pretty lame. If the poem is titled "Happiness" and goes on to challenge the reader's perception of happiness, carry on.

4. Don't make every title the same. Pearl Jam's first album has eleven songs, right? But take a look at the track list, and it's mind-numbingly similar. When titling a poem, look at your related work, and see if you have any nasty habits when titling. If you find that every title is one word, or includes the setting of the poem, or is a borrowed line from Plath, vary it up. (It's worth noting that, if you are looking at manuscript shapes, and you find a conscious and strongly patterned repetitive urge, that's worth exploring. You may not want to ditch it too soon.)

5. A simple title can plug your poem into a much larger tradition very quickly. "Aubade" or "Alba" says a lot. (A funny aside-- Wikipedia lists Eagle Eye Cherry's crappy song "Save Tonight" as a modern example of aubade. Apparently, aside from one Philip Larkin poem, there are no other possible examples. This is what I get for being so fascinated with Wikipedia.)

6. Don't telegraph the end of the poem in the title. I hate to be the guy who gives examples from his own work, but here's one: if you're going to have the speaker disappear at the end of the poem, a title like "Disappearing Act" or "The Vanishing" might announce your intention a little too much.

Poetry Books to read this year-

Here's a list from the national book critics circle board of directors-

It would have been nice to have this BEFORE AWP where I could have gotten some of these titles for half price! I'm not sure I agree with all of them (Sir Gawain? Don't care) (Charles Wright? Another nature laden word splurge, no thanks- and BTW, get some new pictures out there on the web where you look distinguished instead of silly).

Poetry Books to read (from Critical Mass): (* marks are ones I have or would like to read)

Simon Armitage, "Sir Gawain and the Green Night: A New Verse Translation,"
*John Ashbery, "Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems,"
Geoffrey Hill, "A Treatise of Civil Power,"
Michael O'Brien, "Sleeping and Waking,"
Philip Schulz, "Failure,"
Charles Simic, "Sixty Poems,"
Philip Whalen, "The Collected Poems of Philp Whalen,"
*Rae Armantrout, "Next Life,"
Rick Barot, "Want: Poems,"
Marvin Bell, "Mars Being Red,"
*Eavan Boland, "Domestic Violence: Poems,"
Charles Bukowski, "The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1953-1991,"
Stuart Dischell, "Backwards Days,"
Allen Grossman, "Descartes' Loneliness,"
Matthea Harvey, "Modern Life: Poems,"
*Julia Hartwig, "In Praise of the Unfinished: Selected Poems,"
*Ted Kooser, "Valentines,"
Kevin Prufer, "National Anthem,"
Tadeusz Rozewicz, "New Poems,"
David Shapiro, "New and Selected Poems: 1965-2006,"
*Ellen Bryant Voigt, "Messenger: New and Selected Poems, 1976-2006,"
Charles Wright, "Littlefoot: A Poem,"
*Dean Young, "Embryoyo."

The responsibility of poets

To each other, if nothing else-

Check out this blog post by Oscar Bermeo re: Charles Simic and the state of poetry.

I commented : (edited)

I agree with you completely! I facilitate and participate in readings in the Richmond, VA area and while we have an active poetry communiy, if twenty people attend a reading, it's a raving success.

Simic could easily use his position to promote, rather than assume since he gets a crowd poetry is healthy. His last visit here was packed because tickets were given away and poetry students at two local colleges were required to attend.

The responsibility is ours, too. There is nothing more annoying than the poet who reads and leaves with his or her entourage. Or the poet who refuses to go to open mikes because they might hear "bad" poetry. A well-run open mike gives everyone a chance but doesn't let anyone dominate, bad or good.

More from my perspective:

One of my pets peeves involves the various poets who do readings when they have books to promote but never attend any local events or support local poetry. I will excuse older folks, who do have trouble with night driving, but an occasional visit to open mikes would increase their local status and maybe sell a book or two. (Hint- those are the people who will follow your career and buy your next book).

Another peeve is the university community and their apparent disdain of non-academic poetry. If I hear one more time "well, they're so busy." I might go postal! We're all busy, some of us REALLY busy and our poetry is written in the tiny spaces we carve out of our quite busy lives.
(Hint- those are the busy people who will follow your career and buy your books).

Poetry is dead when it cannot connect with the world in which it is created (there may be rare exceptions, but we don't know those poets- yet). A reading or open mike may be painful occasionally, but it may also be painfully sublime.

Support Your Local Poets!

NYC was amazing!

Saw friends Dave Anchel, Claudia Emerson, Carolyn Foronda, Sheri Reynolds, Ron Smith, David Wojahn, Thom Ward, Mary Flinn, Tim Suermondt, and a whole passle of VCU faculty and students.

Met in person (some for the first time though I know them on the internet, some at the terrain.org reading) C. Dale Young, Paul Guest, Dennis Loy Johnson, Denise Duchamel, Wyn Cooper, Simmons Buntin, Scott Calhoun, Susan Frickshorn, David Rothenberg, Deborah Fries, and many more that I'll have to dig out of my memory banks!!

I'll do a longer report later, but I saw and heard so very much! I don't think I'll go to Chicago, unless I hit the lottery, but DC in 2010 looks pretty likely.

In the meantime, I'm going to start saving money for the West Virginia Writer's Workshop in July and the Dodge Poetry Festival in the fall (we're trying to get a group from Richmond to go).

Poetry Lives!

If I can make it there...

Off to NYC for the AWP!!

Back Saturday night-

Suzanne Pleshette Dies in Los Angeles

wow- my life flashing before me

She was married to the late Tom Poston- I saw him in a small theater production back in the 70's- he was excellent.

Sad, sad, sad.

why poetry? why not something useful?

yeah, that.

If you're lucky your friends like your stuff, or say they do (when they bother to pay attention), maybe you feel a little better spilling your brain squeezin's onto a nice clean sheet of paper, maybe it's even more active than playing the nine-thousandth of freecell, but what is it really all for??

Go to that reading, slam, workshop, take your golf claps, shout-outs, and thinly veiled you-sucks and keep drooling those word strings all over your bib, baby-

for all the good it'll do

Poetry and Poop

Composed by john updike, just before Valentine's Day 1989 (published in the Oxford American)

“The Beautiful Bowel Movement”
by John Updike

Though most of them aren’t much to write about—
mere squibs and nubs, like half-smoked pale cigars,
the tint and stink recalling Tuesday’s meal,
the texture loose and soon dissolved—this one,
struck off in solitude one afternoon
(that prairie stretch before the late light fails)
with no distinct sensation, sweet or pained,
of special inspiration or release,
was yet a masterpiece: a flawless coil,
unbroken, in the bowl, as if a potter
who worked in this most frail, least grateful clay
had set himself to shape a topaz vase.

O spiral perfection, not seashell nor
stardust, how can I keep you? With this poem.

(and i thought the South Park boys did it first)

Poets and calendar conflicts

As usual, no one thinks to check what's going on where before they set up readings, so-
tonight: (I have to be at the museum, but would love to hear Ron and Buffy read)

Poets BUFFY MORGAN & RON SMITH
will read from their new books Moon Road and Without a Philosophy,
both published recently by LSU Press at the
PAGE BOND GALLERY
1625 W. MAIN
Richmond, VA(middle of the block west of Lombardy)
THURSDAY, JAN 17 at 7pm
No charge for admission

AND

at the VMFA Art After Hours program
ART OF POETRY: Steven Kovach, VCU MFA candidate at 6:30 and 7:30
MUSIC: Adrian Duke Projek- New Orleans Style Blues
WINE, BEER AND SPECIALTY COCKTAILS: Grüner Veltliners are featured, plus specialty cocktails from our expert mixologists6:30 & 7 pm
TOPIC TOUR: Art a la carte 8 pm
ART MOMENT: Jeffrey Allison- Paul Mellon Collection Educator
FRIENDS OF ART SILENT AUCTION: View & bid on works of art by local & regional artists

poetry contests and creativity

The Poetry Society of Virginia's annual contest deadline is January 19th (Edgar Allan Poe's birthday). Once again I will be throwing together a batch of entries to see what kind of luck I have with the PSV.

I was a member for years but recently let my membership expire, more because of lack of funds than anything, though I do have a few beefs and annoyance at some certain folks who hold the group back.

It's a very gray, very white organization- is that not being very politic? At (now 58) I had been one of the younger members. Until this year, most of the judges for contests have been members (thus guaranteeing the 'quality' of the winners- or you could argue that 'blandness' would be a better word). The poems were good- but BORING.

(That being said, except for last year I have consistently won and placed in the categories, though I got big nothing last year- I seriously question whether or not my entries got there- some were prize winners for other national contests)

A big effort was made to have 'outside' (non-member) judges this year, though some of those picked are still the School of Quietude folks that will make no appreciable difference in the results, I have great reservations about what will really happen.

I want to be a member- and will be when I enter the contest and pay the fee- I want to support the PSV and see it as a viable voice for poetry in Virginia, but I don't really know if that's possible.

Three years ago, I helped get money to start the Slam Richmond effort- PSV sponsor prizes through the various writing programs for universities in Virginia (sometimes a continuation of the SQ poets), they carry on the tradition of poets and poetry, but I can't say there's much else going on that gives me hope for the future

and before you tell me to put my time and effort where my complaints are- I was a member, vice-president, poetry in the schools chair, and exec comm member for years-

This really is the last chance to

see "The Fat Lady Sings"!

art 6, 6 east broad, 8pm, Saturday January 12th- $10

I'll sing Sondheim and more, Doris Day hits, Judy Garland, and a little bit of Wilco and Todd Rundgren- and tell barely believable tales about my wild Texas childhood-

Friday Night I'll be playing piano at ComedySportz for the ten pm I-Prov show- it's actually a three-part showcase of all the late night treats you'll encounter there, so c'mon call266-YESS and reserve a seat.

Sunday we have poetry at Shockoe Espresso in the slip 2-4pm

and the Henley Street Theater Company opens "The Spanish Tragedy" this weekend (preview Jan 10th) I'm not in that, though I helped with costumes- my daughter is the costumer.

So much to do this weekend!!

Birthday poem 1-4-50

Everything is easier in water

I can almost remember when
to bend meant nothing, its arc
jubilant, when a kiss was easy,

limbs in fluid motion, tended
to precise geometries, noses,
mouths put right immediately.

Fitting the bow of another's body
takes no thought, born aware, we
sense how to maneuver skin to skin.

The warm shower encourages
recollection, we are never closer
to birth than when we are wet,

some part engaged in gentle dance,
enough to create the longing ache,
then fill it, the earth's curve a bed.

New Year's Poem

Before the ball falls, I will

finish the last poem, clear clutter,
fold pigs into blankets, roll cheese logs,
find the sheet music to Auld Lang Syne
bite my lip, chop almonds, hang clothes,
empty hampers, trash cans, superstitions
clamoring to be met with everything new,
though all I can think of is you, and then,
not this bleak year to come, my birthday.

I’ll never get the house clean by five pm
much less midnight, I should have started
after Christmas, should’ve said yes, left
that night when plowed snow blocked
all the parking spaces, black sky
quilted with lights, you against the angled car
to apologize, we'd wait for some sort of magic
on nights like that, tonight, here’s another

year gone and to come making do, holding
memories like a chalice to my bloody lip,
I am dizzy with awareness, with regret,
a child who doesn’t gets what she wants
because she never asks, chopping onions,
for help, chopping, chopping, rolling, humming,
I will close my eye to better remember, wish
away the kiss at midnight, that sad song.

Plans for next year

Write more, talk less, get a book manuscript together!

I'm pretty impressed with Lulu.com, the books from Reb Livingstom uses it for her books (Here's the The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel - Second Floor- in which I have a poem. thank you)

And go to New York City January 31st to read poetry at the Cornelia Street Cafe!

And remember, The Fat Lady Sings one more time at art6, 6 east broad, January 12th at 8pm. $10 a person.

poems from other places

here's some interesting poems by John Ashbery.

Here's mine:


Proof

Finger tip to mosquito bite, rub
the itch away, now there, rub,
now there, now there, a flash
of something else not right, not
bound by strange secrets that hide
behind chairs, sit very very still,
mouse-like, sibilance skitters
up the door jam while shadows mark
the wall between photographs of us
as we once were. Would you lie
to make the story more believable?

Of course you would, you always have.

2008- coming soon with poetry

I have this weird and sudden feeling of well-being- as if I am somehow assured all will be taken care of, as if next year will prosperous and wonderful.

As if all my poems will be simply BRILLIANT!!!

Yours, too!

The I Prov Holiday Special and The Fat Lady Sings (again)

Friday night at 10pm- An old-fashioned Holiday Special in the style of Perry Como, Andy Williams, and all those other guys in sweaters-

All- Music, All Parody, All Improv!

Richmond's (heck, Virginia's, no-the East Coast's, yeah, that's it!) only all music- all the time Comedy Improv group I Prov is performing for your pleasure!

Call ComedySportz for reservations- 266-YESS- do it NOW!

and on Sunday December 16th at Grace Church Episcopal in Goochland-

The Fat Lady Sings (again)

2955 River Road West (Goochland)

Potluck at 5:15, program begins at 6:00

followed by a festive sing-along!

All are welcome!

Wait til you hear the song!!

You'll love it!!

A true Richmond Christmas Carol! (with a nod to Meredith Willson)

jack and jen in the morning 8am 103.7

Everybody will be talking about it!

Then come to ComedySportz at 10pm Friday December 14th and see the I Prov Christmas Special- I've heard Al Gore is coming to sing a green song for us! Reservations HERE

Seats are going fast- this is a hot show for a cold night!!

I-Prov on the Radio!!

Be the first on your block to hear "The Richmond Christmas Song" tomorrow morning on the radio!!

It starts at 8:10 on The Mix 103.7 with Jack and Jen in the morning, the main song will play about 8:30- we'll be interviewed and make up songs on the spot!

Some of the members of I-Prov, the musical improv players from ComedySportz, went over today to make a recording. All the suggestions came from regular listeners from email and phonecalls- we didn't use them all- but we got a lot into a short parody.

It's poetry and music!

The perfect gift- tickets to art after hours at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

VMFA Ticket Desk or by phone at 340.1405
Tickets to all seven events are $60 (members $54) Single tickets are $10.
poetry readings at 6:30 and 7:00pm

January 10th Patrick Vickers
January 17th Stephen Kovach
January 24 Tarifa Faizullah
January 31 Angela Vogel
February 7 Catherine MacDonald
February 14 Michael Keller
February 21 Darren Morris

Bend Your Ear poetry reading at art6 3-5 pm Sunday November 16th

Come read, come listen, come see the THINKSMALL 4 show on the walls.

It's not me

who's the crazy one
I'm only talking silence
solitude and silence
for a few hours, not forever
no clacking nuisance
at my ear, no whispered
requests, dinner, wine,
then disregard, needs met
earlier this afternoon when
you went out for brake fluid
I sat on the couch flipping
channels I wasn't watching
claiming the space that long
solitaire is not solitude is not
silence is not crazy
is not forever is not
me I'm not
the crazy one.

or you can go hear Ron Smith read from his new book, Moon Road, just out
Book People, 536 Granite Ave, 2-4 pm

Famous poet in town THIS WEEK!!!

NEWS-
November 8th- CK Williams reading from Collected poems,Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007, 8 p.m. It will be held at the VCU Business Auditorium.

DO NOT MISS THIS!!

Read the poem "Tar" here

I have been remiss- actually, I've been crazy-busy with the THINKSMALL show at art6 coming up in two days.

Poetry has definately taken a back seat.

BUT JUST YOU WAIT!!!

I'll be back...

The best way to prepare for a big show is to alienate and annoy your family.

Works for me anyway- I'm very self-centered right now getting ready for my "FAT LADY SINGS" Sunday night at ComedySportz at 7pm. I'm trying to get the words memorized, work on chords for "Dust in the Wind" - NO NOT THE KANSAS SONG! The one by Todd Rundgren!

It would be so nice to have peace and quiet, maybe meditation time, a hot bath, a cup of tea- instead I have to negotiate (fight) with my son about not having a friend over tomorrow night.

I can only hope it gives me that edge I need to really sing my heart out.

What was that old David Letterman tag line? Something like "I give and I give and I give, and this it thanks I get??"

yeah, that's it.

Come to the show- it'll be great, you'll have a good time- I promise.

Repent

I have ruffled petticoats older
than you, my otiose offspring,
with no one to left inculpate
but your maternal grandparents.
My, they were a pair of japes,
short-lived and filled with fluff.

There is a balm, of course
there is, a way to rise above
this square dance do-si-do
out of a turn about's fair-play
excursion into indulging you:
too much love, too long time.

It was not for me, a spindle
turned smooth by the chase
for the safer road, a grind
toward some vanishing point,
wrought wonky at their hands,
I was young and disinclined

to hear Timewise, it was jangle-
as all the addled ducks scattered,
their late parliamentary laws askew,
consistent order devalued
as this year's model driven off
the lot, new car scent gone too soon.

Please come!

THE FAT LADY SINGS!

Shann Palmer sings Broadway hits and more,
the great old songs, the ones you seldom hear!
She may throw in a poem or two!
Oct 21st at
ComedySportz Improv Theatre

7115-a Staples Mill Road

for reservations call: 266-9377
7pm (doors open at 6:15)
tickets $10
light supper menu available

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll sing along!

(All ticket proceeds will go to sending Shann to NYC in January to read poetry at the Cornelia Street Cafe during the AWP conference- well, that and the piano player, the waitresses, maybe a fancy dress for the show and a nice pair of shoes)

The man who wrote the screenplay to the original "Little Shop of Horrors" has died. If you've never see the original Roger Corman film (it contains a very brief appearance by a then-unknown Jack Nicholson) go rent it NOW!

It's excellent Halloween fare.

It seems to me there are more Halloween displays this year- at least here in the Lakeside area.

I wonder if I've ever written an October poem?

The endless immensity of the sea

removed for submission-

That Kind of Girl

Yes, I am,
in my mother’s silk slip
rubbing all the right places
before I was sure
which places were
right
and which places were
very right
who
was allowed
and when
it was wrong
and when
it was very wrong
becoming
that kind of girl
behind closed doors
while
on the other side
I become something
very different.

My poem "Bread n' Butter Pickles" is up over at Moondance!

Published ten years ago in the now defunct Conspire, it has always been one of my favorite poems. I particularly like the painting they have up to accompany it!

A Tuesday poem-

One Last Chance

In ten years, loyal glue
will have stuck me here
in spite of your wall,
indifferent convenience,
more than half my life.

I smell like bad cheese,
the furious stink of bitter
held in, every pedagogy
says, no- the writer is not
the story, somewhere else

the truth curls smoke
around implications,
summer porches where
nice people sit, drinking
up their creative alibis.

Is everyone half-blind?
Or is it just me, only
the lonely can make it
real, time catches flies,
waves traffic around

a stalled heart, shouts
"clear" then leaves
the room backwards
as if eye to eye combat
takes prisoners. Can I

go now? mouth set
for adventure, new
possibilities popping
in my ears, nothings
whispered at my neck.

Here it is!! The official poster for "The Fat Lady Sings!"

Designed by the wonderful local artists Phillip Bowles, it's all about me and raising funds to get to New York City in February to read poetry for the Tenth Anniversary of Terrain.org zine and attend the AWP.

I'm going to sing songs you don't hear much any more- and a poem here and there, a story or two- like when Joy E. and I took off for NYC to 'make it in the big time' and woke up in Alamogordo, NM - well, maybe 'sobered up' is closer to the truth-

among other crazy tales......

Call for reservations 266-YESS

Late September

removed for submission

You know you're curious...

so call 266-YESS right now and reserve to see the I-Prov all music musical improv show tonight at 10pm at ComedySportz at Staples Mill and Hilliard (behind the Shoney's in the Ukrops strip mall, close to the Amtrak station).

The beer is cold, the players are hot and the piano lady is incredible!!!

Well, she's pretty good, anyway.

COMEDYSPORTZ I-Prov

All music, all improv! Friday night at 10pm
Call 266-YESS for reservations-

Seriously, you will love this show- come see it this Friday!

and be sure and say Hey! to the piano player...

P O E T I C P R I N C I P L E S- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Series Tickets: $36 (VMFA members, students $28); single tickets $9 (VMFA members, students $7); Ticket Desk, 804.340.1405

• 
  DAVID BAKER Wed, Nov 28, Pauley Center, 6 pm Author of eight collections of poetry, Baker is a professor of English at Denison University and poetry editor of the Kenyon Review.

COMING POETIC PRINCIPLES EVENTS

BRIAN HENRY, Dec 5

TOMAZ SALAMUN, Feb 13, 2008

MEGHAN O’ROURKE, Feb 27, 2008

PETER ORNER, April 9, 2008

This continuing series is co-sponsored by the New Virginia Review, a leading literary and artistic organization of the Commonwealth.

This is an excellent grouping this year- I am particularly excited about them rescheduling David Baker, who led my poetry workshop at West Virginia University in 2005.

Tonight!!!

at ArtSpace Gallery, Zero E. 4th St., Richmond, the Hypothetically Speaking Tour makes a stop, featuring spoken word artist Corey Houlihan and singer-songwriter Julia Carroll. Stop through and check out some art in motion (as in, up and down the East coast).
Georgia-based performers Julia Carroll and Corey Houlihan have teamed up for tour through the southeast. Beginning in Savannah, Georgia and concluding in south Florida, the two will travel the region making nine stops in eight different cities. Carroll is an acoustic singer-songwriter and Atlanta native who describes her music as "hardfolk," while Houlihan is a spoken word artist who hails from Long Island now residing in Georgia.

The two openly queer performers consider themselves activist artists and, through their work, frequently touch on political and social issues. Poet and author Michelle Tea on Houlihan: "I think we just found the missing link between Eminem and Gloria Steinem." Carroll, who recently released her sophomore recording, Migrating South is described by The Beltane Papers as "one of the tough and passionate young singer-songwriter musicians that will make you stop, think, and wonder what in the hell you are doing floating along in the mainstream music scene."

The Hypothetically Speaking Tour is a force to be reckoned with, literally.

See what browsing the web looking for the date of the Levis Prize reading can get you? Oh yeah, it's September 27th and the winner is Joshua Weiner- more info to follow.

anyway, I found this on Steve Scafidi- a previous Levis winner.

Lots of poets and writers in West Virginia.

Wet and Wild- yeah!