Eileen R. Tabios is a poet working in multiple genres and in-between. She also loves books by writing, reading, publishing, critiquing, romancing and advocating for them. This blog will feature her bibliophilic activities with posts on current book engagements and links to her books and projects related to books.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

"A MAP / AS SMALL AS / ASTRONAUTS"

Occasionally, I blurb.  My latest Relished W(h)ines update includes reading two manuscripts for which I provided blurbs.  (Other past blurbs are accessible at my prior blog.)  Here are the (unedited) blurbies for two wonderful poets’ forthcoming books:


On A’s Visuality by Anne Gorrick:
Some poems are written slant. They surfaced because their poets didn’t have an idea they imposed on the poem to develop.  They surfaced because the poets respected the raw material — words — enough to get out of the way to let the words speak for themselves.   When the approach works, language becomes poetry by, in part, transcending the limits of the poets’ conscious imaginations.  Such has resulted from Anne Gorrick’s A’s Visuality which presents a section of poems translated from prior positionings as visual art and a second section of poems taking off from the found language of a website’s description of paint colors. The first section, Folios, is rife with surfaced wisdom: “a  map / as small as / astronauts” where guidance (map) is not the astronaut’s limits (knowledge) but the astronauts’ task (and desire) to explore or expand the limits of what’s known.  In the second section Chromatic Sweep, never has color become so palpable (at times even edible or radioactive): “when black and white mix, there is a lower sound”  or “red play back our own choking.”  Gorrick trusted the words (“No editorial / preoccupied with”) and their reciprocation are lush poems that thoughtfully invite.


On MEANS by Lars Palm:
Lars Palm rolls with song titles and makes dissonance harmonize: “i / will not be food / for your cats” he stresses, before suggesting instead “that old school nazi / who took your / house keys / & forged them / into a statue / depicting surreal sex.”  These are brief poems with huge expanses — what a discerning mind sees and sings after he “reel[s in] lines” to “see what’s on / the hook.” All to the heavy beat of one subversive enough to proclaim: “i live in / towns or cities / not countries."


Entonces, here’s moi latest List below.  As ever, please note that in the Publications section, if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for GalateaResurrects!  More info on that HERE.


PUBLICATIONS
LOVE POEMS FROM GOD: TWELVE SACRED VOICES FROM THE EAST AND WEST featuring Rabia, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Hafiz, St. Catherine of Siena, Kabir, Mira, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and Tukaram, edited by Daniel Ladinsky. (My favorites are the contributions of Meister Eckhart, Hafiz, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.)

THE ECLECTIC WORLD, poems by Mark Young (stellar. LinkedIn Poetry Recommendation #120) 

*  END OF THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, poem by Sarah Vap (intelligent. LPR #121)

OTHERWISE, MY LIFE IS ORDINARY, poems and essay by Bobby Byrd (interesting enough to have become my first review for next issue of Galatea Resurrects)

A’S VISUALITY, poems by Anne Gorrick (in manuscript. See above blurb)

MEANS, poems by Lars Palm (in manuscript. See above blurb)

GOSSAMER LID, poems and visual poetry (in manuscript) by Andrew Brenza (pleasing effects here)

*  A PRINCESS MAGIC PRESTO SPELL, poems by Lisa Jarnot and images by Emilie Clark (wonderfully effective collaboration between poet and artist)

FISHING ON THE POLE STAR, poems by Paul Pines (deft and lovingly done)

*  GREEN IS FOR WORLD, poems by Juliana Leslie

A STRANGER’S TABLE, poems by Anne Brooke

NEVER, poems by Jorie Graham

*  ELISE COWEN: POEMS AND FRAGMENTS, Edited by Tony Trigilio

*  HER HUMAN COSTUME, poems by Cynthia Marie Hoffman

*  GEPHYROMANIA, poems by TC Tolbert

*  STICK-UP, poems by Paul David Adkins

*  ]EXCLOSURES[, poems by Emily Abendroth

POEMS FROM REDRESS by Hannah Zeavin

*  HOW TO BE ANOTHER, poems by Susan Lewis

*  STATE OF THE UNION, poems by Susan Lewis

SALU-SALO: IN CONVERSATION WITH FILIPINOS, AN ANTHOLOGY OF PHILIPPINE-AUSTRALIAN WRITINGS edited by Jose Wendell Capili and John Cheeseman

*  VERSE, literary journal edited by Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki

THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS / EL ESPIRITU DE LOS SANTOS (literary & art journal of St. Helena High School) edited by Peeka Zimmerman (my son’s got a poem innit!)

ILLEGAL: REFLECTIONS OF AN UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT by Jose Angel N.

THE SECRET RESCUE: AN UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN NURSES AND MEDICS BEHIND NAZI LINES, history by Cate Lineberry

GRANDMA GATEWOOD’S WALK: THE INSPIRING STORY OF THE WOMAN WHO SAVED THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL, journalism by Ben Montgomery

COMING CLEAN, memoir by Kimberly Rae Miller

CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET MASTER BAKER: ONE WOMAN’S SWEET JOURNEY FROM UNHAPPY HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE TO CONTENTED COUNTRY BAKER, memoir by Gesine Bullock-Prado

A MOVEABLE THIRST; TALES AND TASTES FROM A SEASON IN NAPA WINE COUNTRY WITH REVIEWS OF 141 NAPA TASTING ROOMS by Rick Kushman and Hank Beal

SECOND CHANCE DOG, memoir by Jon Katz

A STREET CAT NAMED BOB AND HOW HE SAVED MY LIFE, memoir by James Bowen

HUNGER, novel by Elise Blackwell

RUNNER, novel by Patrick Lee

CITY OF THE SUN, novel by David Levien


WINES
Sohomare Kimoto Junmai Daiginjo (best sake I’ve ever tasted)
2012 Frogs leap zinfandel
2011 Smokescreen pinot noir
2002 Hutton Vale Grenache Mataro Eden Valley
2011 Foley Johnson Sta Rita Hills chardonnay
2009 Merus ALTVS cabernet
2009 Merus cabernet
2010 Merus cabernet
2005 Joh. Jos. Prum Wehlener Sonnenhur Auslese
2011 Frederic Esmonin Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru
2002 Hundred Acres cabernet NV
2010 Altamura NV
2013 Altamura rose
2010 Rombauer merlot Carneros
2009 Puerto Salinas Alicante
2011 Cairdean Vineyard sauvignon blanc NV
2010 Cairdean Vineyards Farmers Cab



Wednesday, June 18, 2014

ON THE ROAD TO GALATEA'S 23RD RESURRECTION!

For the record, the first review written for Galatea Resurrects' next issue is on Aram Saroyan's COMPLETE MINIMAL POEMS (a popular title for GR as this won't be the first review on it).  And, for the record as well, the first review I've written for this same next issue is on Bobby Byrd's OTHERWISE, MY LIFE IS ORDINARY.

Okay, hope you all participate!  Deadline is November 1, 2014.  A list of review copies HERE!



Monday, June 16, 2014

THEN THE HANGMAN CAME ... AS DID THE JEWISH ANCIENT

Finished proofing 44 Resurrections this weekendlike I said, this project sure moves swiftly!  Meanwhile, some of the couplets and tercets got remixed in John Bloomberg-Rissmans fabulous global project, In the House of the Hangman.  Look for us (were the lines beginning with I forgot) in No. 1705 over HERE


From this weekend, too: Happy Father's Day to all.  For himself, this is what we gave Dad -- which he asked for and is a testament to why it's impossible to choose presents for this Dude (featured with his catty Father's Day card):






Himself says earnestly, "Philo was very important ..." then left for Washington.  Still stuck on the dough, I looked him up and and, yeah, he was very important.  Click on this for more:
Philo used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy. His method followed the practices of both Jewish exegesis and Stoic philosophy. His allegorical exegesis was important for several Christian Church Fathers, but he has barely any reception history within Judaism. He believed that literal interpretations of the Hebrew Bible would stifle humanity's view and perception of a God too complex and marvelous to be understood in literal human terms. Some scholars hold that his concept of the Logos as God's creative principle influenced early Christology. Other scholars, however, deny direct influence but say both Philo and Early Christianity borrow from a common source.







Friday, June 13, 2014

44 RESURRECTIONS

A chap of the first 44 poems pouring out of the MDR Poetry Generator was accepted for publication within an hour after the manuscript was submitted.  Huh.  I guess he was online when the chap was submitted but the quick response still made me check if the publisher owed me money or sex. But, no.  So, I guess it's gotta be the poems.  'Twill be titled 44 RESURRECTIONS.

(Everything about MURDER DEATH & RESURRECTION is so ... quick!)

I feel cigar ashes dropping on my beleaguered head.  I hear the poetry muse-angels cackling.  Off to find a broom to javelin up at their corner of the ceiling ...


Watch for it, Tom Beckett.  The dedication page reads:

for Tom Beckett
who I remember
once wrote


“Writing is an advanced form of forgetting”


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

STUNNING BOOK ... SCULPTURES!

These sculptures fashioned from books -- hopefully passĂ© telephone directories rather than literature -- are stunning.  Go HERE while ignoring the typical HuffPost headline that elides truth for drama (in this case about the sculptures being the death of literature-snort):








Monday, June 9, 2014

THE MDR POETRY GENERATOR

The MDR Poetry Generator is part of my manuscript MURDER, DEATH & RESURRECTION.  I've brought its creation this far after much discussion with three poets whose math expertise exceed mine, a husband of one of the poets who started the discussion strong before lapsing to his chauffeuring duty, my son who just finished Algebra 2, my husband who is excellent at math (he once thought he might be a mathematician until an elementary school classmate blew him away; said classmate later ended up heading the nuclear physics department of some hotshot institution whose name I won't drop) but whose memory of such is affected by an overfull mental disk drive, and then finally a local community tutor in math & science.  With their help, we have determined that the MDR Poetry Generator is capable of generating a gazillion maximum number of poems -- the number is so huge that the most capable of our group, the local tutor, could only use "an approximation formula" to quantify the number.  His approximation?  The MDR Poetry Generator's maximum number of poems is a number with 3,110 digits.

I'm sorry.  I go as far as million then billion then trillion ... what do you call a number with 3,110 digits?  Anyone?

That above number, by the way, encompasses poems with a minimum two lines and a maximum of 1,146 lines. 

The next step?  I've just knocked on the door of a fella who won the Nobel Prize equivalent in electrical engineering.  If anyone can specify -- rather than approximate -- the number of possible poems from the MDR Poetry Generator, it'd be this guy....I'll update when there's an update.

The MDR Poetry Generator actually reflects my interest in "abstract language" (and its applications) going back to my first poetry book BEYOND LIFE SENTENCES and then my first U.S.-published poetry book REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE -- which is to say, I've been inclined in this direction for almost as long as I've been a poet.  But it wasn't until I discovered Nick Montfort's and Stephanie Strickland's Sea and Spar Between poetry generator capable of presenting 225 trillion stanzas that I thought to explore the poetry-generator idea.

Stephanie even did a tercet-generator -- with a published book V Wave Tercets / Losing L'una with a FREE poetry app! -- with Ian Thatcher.  I cite these other projects because there are people who've created poetry generators out there (Brian Kim Stefans comes to mind too).  I believe some create programs for such ...

But I do it my way, which is manually (and with plenty of blood).  To quote/paraphrase/reference Tom Beckett, "I am not a robot."   The downside, though, is that I'm forced to consider calculations way above my pay grade (so to speak).  But it's all good and I've got practice -- in Poetry, I'm usually addressing what I do not know.




Sunday, June 8, 2014

HOUSEKEEPING aka HOW'S 'BOUT READING POETRY THIS SUMMER!

Please note that I'm traveling from June 21 to July 6.  I may not be available online at such time.  So if you have something urgent to say to me, or would like to request (I know you would!) a review copy to brighten your summer and review for Galatea Resurrects, best to let me know so I can drop off the books in the mail before I leave.  Info on available review copies HERE!  We've had some lovely recent additions....!

Friday, June 6, 2014

COUPLES and MENAGE A TROIS

Well, that's a more interesting headline than couplets and tercets, yah?  Thanks to poet-editor Halvard Johnson for publishing some poems in ON BARCELONA (the poems'  openings are partly inspired by Tom Beckett's fabulous poem "I Forgot" in his newest booDIPSTICK(DIPTYCH)).   These poems are from the manuscript MURDER, DEATH & RESURRECTION -- you can see the couplings and threesomes HERE.

ON BARCELONA's a lovely DIY online poetry journal.  I'm in GREAT COMPANY -- you are invited to check them out regardless of your espanol!


Thursday, June 5, 2014

I GOT A D!

Erin Virgil thanked me for my Galatea Resurrects review of her poems. She gave me a D. As in the letter "D" for Dorje Drolo, a Tibetan deity who purifies with wrath. 



The image is from ABCDharma, her work-in-progress of giant paintings of Buddhist concepts and deities. In Erin's words: "The man under the tiger represents ego, being overcome. The Dorje in his hand is indestructible, meteoric iron (dor=stone, je=king in Sanskrit).  Other hand holds a katvanga, and the five skulls on his head are the five skandas, which he has overcome (they're also known as the five hindrances, the blocks to enlightenment)."  

Anyway, I'm happy to share the image before I go off looking for someone to purify with wrath...



Tuesday, June 3, 2014

GALATEA RESURRECTS FOR THE 22nd TIME!!

The new issue of Galatea Resurrects (GR) is out!  To date, GR has released 1,383 new reviews, covering 506 publishers in 17 countries.  

You can go to http://galatearesurrection22.blogspot.com to see the new issue with its 40 NEW POETRY REVIEWS!  I'll also cutnpaste the Table of Contents below and you can click on the links to go directly to individual reviews.



GALATEA RESURRECTS NO. 22
Table of Contents

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION



NEW REVIEWS
Nicholas James Whittington reviews JOIE DE VIVRE: SELECTED POEMS 1992-2012 by Lisa Jarnot



Aileen Ibardaloza engages VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA: A STORM OF FILIPINO POETSEdited by Eileen R. Tabios

T.C. Marshall reviews READING THE UNSEEN (OFFSTAGE) HAMLET by Stephen Ratcliffe

Thomas Fink reviews It is Well Known,” a poem from NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Harriet Zinnes

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews ZEN by Jessica Smith

Wilfredo Pascua Sanchez reviews COMPANIONABLE VOICES: FIVE FILIPINO POETS

T.C. Marshall reviews STELE by Cole Swensen

Richard Lopez reviews AMERICAN HAIKU by Jonathan Hayes

Aileen Ibardaloza engages THE ACHARNIANS by Aristophanes. Translation by Douglass Parker


Eileen Tabios engages IMAGINED SONS by Carrie Etter

Greta Aart reviews MICROGRAMS by Jorge Carrera Andrade, Translated by Alejandro de Acosta and Joshua Beckman


Eileen Tabios engages FATE LINES / DESIRE LINES by Caleb Puckett

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews DISTURBANCE by Ivy Alvarez 

Marton Koppany engages the FOURTH INTERNATIONAL TEXT FESTIVAL, Curated by Tony Trehy, Philip Davenport, Susan Lord, Diana Hamilton and KFS Press

Neil Leadbeater reviews COLLECTED POEMS by Patricia Dobler

Tom Hibbard reviews APOLLO:  A BALLET BY IGOR STRAVINSKY by Geoffrey Gatza

Eileen Tabios engages THE ANTS and INSECT COUNTRY (B), both by Sawako Nakayasu

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews IN THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN by Benjamin Hollander

Eileen Tabios engages MEMORY HOLES by Erin Virgil

Tom Beckett reviews THE TV SUTRAS by Dodie Bellamy

Eileen Tabios engages HOARD by Jaime Robles

David Rudolph reviews SOUVENIR by Aimee Suzara

Eileen Tabios engages COMPLETE MINIMAL POEMS by Aram Saroyan (2nd Edition), Edited by Aram Saroyan and James Hoff

Neil Leadbeater reviews FIND THE GIRL and DANCE, both by Lightsey Darst

Eileen Tabios engages SIX PORTRAITS by Julie Danho

Tom Beckett engages NO, WAIT. YEP. DEFINITELY STILL HATE MYSELF by Robert Fitterman

Neil Leadbeater reviews DEAR GOOD NAKED MORNING by Ruth L Schwartz

Marton Koppany reviews I USED TO (2012) by Sarah Sanders
in THE DARK WOULD ANTHOLOGY OF LANGUAGE ART, edited by Philip Davenport

Cherise Wyneken reviews THE GLASS SHIP by Judy Wells


FEATURED POET



THE CRITIC WRITES POEMS


FEATURED ESSAY
  

FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE
Burt Kimmelman reviews NEW ORLEANS VARIATIONS AND PARIS OUROBOROS by Paul Pines



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VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA – a fundraising anthology for survivors of Typhoon Haiyan


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