WHERE MY POEMS APPEAR!

Delighted to see the latest issue of Otoliths which includes six stellar poets responding to one of my poems.  Thank you for "[6 x 1] + [1 x 6]" (aptly titled by editor Mark Young) to Sheila Murphy, John Bloomberg-Rissman, lars palm, Marthe Reed, Leny Strobel and Anne Gorrick.  The six poets respond to one of my poems, "No. 6. I Forgot the Plasticity of Recognition," and they respond lovingly and brilliantly.

Carrying on the theme of where my poems are appearing, I'm pleased to see some of my books appear in a "work space" of lars palm somewhere in Sweden, I think.  Glad to see my poems travel far ... to end up with some great company:

THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS

is the title of latest manuscript-in-progress.  I'm thinking, It's a keeper.

An excerpt from one poem:

I forgot clutching the wet mane of a panicked horse…. I forgot the night was unanimous…. I forgot how an erasure captures the threshold of consciousness…. I forgot how one begins marking time from a lover’s utterance of Farewell…. I forgot Mom beginning to age when she started looking at the world through heartbreaking resignation…. I forgot dancing furious flamenco with vultures under a menopausal sun…. I forgot learning to appreciate rust, and how it taught me bats operate through radar…. I forgot the plainest of bread can clear an oenophile’s palate…. I forgot dust motes trapped in a tango after the sun lashed out a ray…. I forgot the bliss deep within an ascetic’s eyes as he wandered with a beggar’s bowl…. I forgot how detachment includes. I forgot how detachment enabled a white rattlesnake to penetrate my dreams.

A TWIN PEAKS SLICE OF CHERRY PIE

This anthology, edited by Ivy Alvarez, is a rather unique collection of poems inspired by "Twin Peaks" and then offered as a slice of cherry pie.  I have no idea what that means -- but if you are inspired to read it viz Amazon Kindle, the collection originally published in print in 2006 has just been reissued as an e-book.  Check it out HERE!

Poets featured are  Emilie Zoey Baker, Jilly Dybka, Collin Kelley, Elena Knox, Jared Leising, Daniel Lloyd, Siobhan Logan, Eileen Tabios, Maureen Thorson, Andrew J Wilson and Maike Zock.  (My featured poem is part of my book THE SECRET LIVES OF PUNCTUATIONS, VOL. I.)

SUN SHINES!

Okay. Here are the obligatory photos from the category, MY NEW BOOK JUST ARRIVED!!!

THE BOOK about which these two master poets say:

"Eileen Tabios's poems twist like silk scarves caught in the wind, offering ardent calligraphies and sly subversions of the passions, so many ways of naming lucidity." —Andrew Joron "In her new collection, SUN STIGMATA, Eileen Tabios has sculpted poems of light and shadow by using the blade of time to cut through stone. What is revealed as “through a ripped hole in space,” is rendered “as unforgiving as a sniper’s eye…” With lapidary precision, Tabios links the personal to the eternal while deepening what is essentially human: “…did the Greeks attain/ Purity? / Did I earn the moments/I made my mother cry…’ Whether she is probing Rimbaud in the act of assigning colors to vowels, or recalling a lost generation of women in Manila “hugging ashed corners of hopeless streets,” the voice is urgent and oracular, riding the radar between orders, implicit and explicit, in time and space. “The most implacable border/ can be the invisible/so that nothing is hidden from sight.” SUN STIGMATA reminds us of what art can do when it rises to the level of Mystery in which the initiates are transformed: the stigmata incarnated on these pages bleed spirit and awaken soul."  —Paul Pines

CHICAGO BOOK LAUNCH FOR VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA

A Chicago launch for VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA was part of a typhoon memorial event--"Typhoon Haiyan, One Year Later: Remembrance and Reconstruction"-- this weekend at International House at University of Chicago.

The event began with a reception and included an art display, readings from the book, a musical performance, a dance, and a panel discussing reconstruction efforts. The panel consisted of UNICEF, a Tacloban medical mission, and a university professor.

The event is sponsored by the Filipino American National Historical Society--Midwest Chapter, the Chicago Arts Coalition, and U Chicago departments (Center for International Studies, Program for the Global Environment, and International House).

Fun information about the event is available on its Facebook page.

During the event, this video was played; VTY is noted at about 2:40:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxqriDnEsGpiUkdhN0prOGxKaE0/edit

Thanks to VTY contributor Almira Gilles for coordinating!

"IS YELLOW BLACK OF WHITE?"

Poet-scholar Sheila Bare has curated an exhibition and reading series ongoing through the end of the year at The Sitting Room (Santa Rosa, CA), entitled "IS YELLOW BLACK OR WHITE? AN ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY * CULTURAL EXHIBIT." I  appreciate that much of my books and projects is part of the exhibit.  Here are pics!

Close-up of where some of my books are displayed

Go HERE for more information about the Treasure Trove called "The Sitting Room," founded by Virginia Woolf scholar (among other things) J.J. Wilson.

SESTETS?

Here's Achilles beginning to read Garrett Caples' essay collection, RETRIEVALS (Wave Books):

Meanwhile, I recently bought Charles Wright's SESTETS recently as I'm thinking to explore that form.  Which reminds me to post an update on moi Recently Bought Poetry List of books by poets or about poets/poetry.  I buy poetry.

RETRIEVALS, essays by Garrett Caples

THE POETRY DEAL by Diane di Prima

FOR by Carol Snow

GOOD HOPE ROAD by Stuart Dischell

BINDWEED by Christianne Balk

EURYDICE’S SONG, poems by William Borden and monotypes by Douglas Kinsey

STRANDS, poems by Keri Hulme

ASTONISHMENTS: SELECTED POEMS OF ANNA KAMIENSKA, Edited and Translated by Grazyna Drabik and David Curzon

SMALL WORKS by Pam Rehm

PRESENTATION PIECE by Marilyn Hacker

NOTEBOOKS OF A CHILE VERDE SMUGGLER by Juan Felipe Herrerra

THE LOST LUNAR BAEDEKER: POEMS OF MINA LOY

AGAINST THE EVIDENCE: SELECTED POEMS 1934-1994 by David Ignatow

A FORM OF OPTIMISM by Roy Jacobstein

CONSTANCE: POEMS by Jane Kenyon

THE COUNTRY I REMEMBER by David Mason

SOMETHING PERMANENT, photographs by Walker Evans and poetry by Cynthia Rylant

NOTHING MORE TO LOSE by Najwan Darwish, Translated from the Arabic by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES by Alfred Corn

SESTETS by Charles Wright

NEAR CHANGES: POEMS by Mona Van Duyn

DOUBLESPACE: POEMS 1971-1989 by Hank Lazer

MIDNIGHT PEACHES, TWO O’CLOCK PATIENCE, essays, poems and short stories by Janet Stickmon

CRUSHING SOFT RUBIES, memoir by Janet Stickmon

WHAT IS ARDUOUS ABOUT MY POETRY

I’m interviewed by John Bloomberg-Rissman for ARDUITY. Grateful to him and editor John Armstrong for the extremely generous space and introduction to the interview.  It’s the first time an interview has asked me the EXACT right question about my poetry, to wit, “What is hard—arduous—about your poetry?”

And because, for me, that was the right question, my answer reveals certain things I’ve never shared before in public.  Like, apologies (but not really) for the misanthropy… Anyway, here’s an excerpt:

I love humanity for how it's created its libraries. But if one reads all the books available and extrapolate knowledge from what's not written, surely the conclusion is that nearly all of human history after our hunter-gatherer stage has been consistent in manifesting a suicide pact. 

Interview ends with a poem-excerpt from my forthcoming AMNESIA: SOMEBODY'S MEMOIR.  

Full interview HERE.  And the interview also includes my latest "author photo" which is, but of course, the one of me mothering Athena:

LINK IN TO POETRY!

I do a nota bene every 50 books. So my LinkedInPoetry Recommendation list just hit #150 with a poet's memoir, CRUSHING SOFT RUBIES by Janet Stickmon. If you must know, #100 was REVELATOR by Ron Silliman, #50 was BIG BAD ASTERISK by Carlos Matos, and the inaugural #1 was HE LOOKED BEYOND MY FAULTS AND SAW MY NEED by Leonard Gontarek. Of these four, only one was anticipated -- the benefits of reading randomly and widely. For more recommended poetry books (since mid-2013), you're invited to LinkedInPoetry Recommendations! 

Nota Bene Eiswein and Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole were part of a fundraising gift basket put together by The Fox Chase Review for Cara's Sweethearts, an organization that helps children and their families during their stay at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. That be "Babaylan Poetics"...

EILEEN WITH GREEK GODS

From Athena's first day: encounters with the family, Achilles, the dog godmother Mollie, the vet David who wanted to take her home, and the son who's too busy to do puppy training but insists Athena is his dog.  Next?  The cats....!!!

ATHENA'S BABY PHOTOS

I'm lagging on developing my poetry career (wink) because of recent dog developments.   But I will be getting back to you on certain projects (e.g. Poets on Mortification).  I can't say I feel bad -- I've got BABY PHOTOS!!!!  And Athena arrives tomorrow!

Click to enlarge photos for unbearable cuteness!

Athena on right

Mom and pups

Fourth from Left, Front Row

A

Athena on right

Refresher courses...

WELCOME, ATHENA!

With a full heart, may I introduce Baby Athena. Her full name, as chosen by Michael, is "Flora Athena" -- as Michael explains, after the Roman goddess of flowers and spring because she's gorgeous and the Greek goddess of wisdom and heroic endeavor because she's all that. Gabriela, named after the Philippines' anti-colonial first woman general, would have approved. With no further ado, here is Athena, 4 mos. old -- welcome home, Baby:

RE. THE CIVIL WAR

The U.S. Civil War is just such an immense and immensely-resonating part of U.S. History.  Have started blogging about related books over HERE.

DEAD LINE'S STRUGGLING FOR RESURRECTION?

I don’t know Chris Ewan, the author of the novel DEAD LINE which is part of my list of recently-read books below.  But there’s an evocative passage in the book about the protagonist searching through a person’s family library and discovering that the rows of green-spined books on the shelves are fake.  But they’re not just fake books; they open up to reveal another book inside – precious editions, antique books, erudite tomes and, as the book says, “and poetry.”  The incidence of the discovery is described but it’s not otherwise linked to the plot development.  Had this matter not been mentioned by the book, it wouldn’t have hurt the book’s plot.  And such is why, though I don’t know anything about Chris Ewan except that he wrote DEAD LINE, I suspect that Chris Ewan is actually a poet needing to break out.  P.S. DEAD LINE’s ending?  It’s open-ended…

And here's the rest of my latest Relished W(h)ines update of recently imbibed books and wines.  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

POEM OF DIMINISHING POETICITY by Angelo Suarez (scalawag daytoy.  Ngem right on met.  LinkedIn PoetryRecommendation (LPR) #144) 

THE BODY ACHES [POEMS AND HAY(NA)KU by Ernesto Priego (originally published in 2005, it’s now available online.  A chap, but magnificent in its effect. LPR #139)

FROM UNINCORPORATED TERRITORY [ GUMA ], poetry by Craig Santos Perez (I don’t know how to type accents so forgive the lack after the “a” in “guma”.  Anyway, late coming to this but worthwhile.  A moving and well-wrought journey.  LPR #145)

TO KEEP TIME, poems by Joseph Massey (lovely, nuanced, atmospheric, palpable.  LPR #146)

MANUAL, poems by Richard Berengarten (fabulous. LPR #147)

IMAGEMS 1, poetics by Richard Berengarten (wise. LPR #148)

DO VIDJENJA DANITSE, poems by Richard Berengarten with Serbian translation by Vera V. Radojevic (quite accomplished)

DOUBLESPACE: POEMS 1971-1989 by Hank Lazer (interestingly innovative. LPR #143)

EURYDICE’S SONG, poems by William Borden and monotypes by Douglas Kinsey (wonderful retelling of the Eurydice and Orpheus tale, from the point of view – unlike with most variations – of Eurydice.  The monotypes are powerful and lovely.  LPR #142)

*  ROLY POLY / BICHO BOLA by Victoria Estol, Trans. from Spanish by Seth Michelson (so glad to be introduced to this young Uruguayan poet.  Wonderful work.  LPR #141)

WRITTEN 1987-2013, poems by P. Inman (LPR #149)

*  BURN PIT, poems by Mary Armstrong (powerful)

*  IN THE ICE HOUSE, poems by Genevieve Kaplan (fabulous. LPR #140)

SETTINGS FOR THESE SCENES, poems by Genevieve Kaplan (fabulous)

ASTONISHMENTS: SELECTED POEMS OF ANNA KAMIENSKA, Edited and Translated by Grazyna Drabik and David Curzon (a welcome discovery for me)

*  PENURY, poems by Myung Mi Kim

*  THE BARONS, poems by Joshua Corey

BINDWEED, poems by Christianne Balk

*  SHE, A BLUEPRINT, poems by Michelle Naka Pierce with images by Sue Hammond West

*  SPECTACLE & PIGSTY, poems by Kiwao Nomura, Translated by Kyoko Yoshida and Forrest Gander

*  THE AMERICANS, poems by David Roderick

*  HARROW, poems by Elizabeth Robinson

*  THREE NOVELS, poems by Elizabeth Robinson

*  WE USED TO BE GENERALS, poems by Sarah Campbell

*  GREEN OIL, poems by Jean Donnelly

*  LAND (CRUX 1), poetry by C.J. Martin

*  DON’T GO BACK TO SLEEP, poems by Timothy Liu

*  THAT OUR EYES BE RIGGED, poems by Kristi Maxwell

CONTRABAND OF HOOPOE, poems by Ewa Chrusciel

NEAR CHANGES, poems by Mona Van Duyn

STRANDS, poems by Keri Hulme

MISSING THE MOON, poems by Bin Ramke

THE ALBERTINE WORK-OUT, poems by Anne Carson

THE RAVEN, poem by Edgar Allan Poe

*  PASSENGER-ULTRASOUND, poems by Justyna Bargielska,Trans. from Polish by Katarzyna Szuster

*  SO I BEGAN, poems by Lisa Lubasch

*  KERN, visual poetry by Derek Beaulieu

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, poems by Alfred Corn

THE POETRY PROJECT NEWSLETTER No. 240, Editor Ted Dodson

*  ONE FOOT OUT THE DOOR, short stories by Lewis Warsh

MADE FROM SCRATCH: DISCOVERING THE PLEASURES OF A HANDMADE LIFE, memoir by Jenna Woginrich

THIS ORGANIC LIFE: CONFESSIONS OF A SUBURBAN HOMESTEADER, memoir by Joan Dye Gussow

THE SON, novel by Jo Nesbo

DEAD LINE, novel by Chris Ewan

WINES

Launois Champagne Grand Cru Le Mesnil Sur Oger Reserve Brut

2007 Peter Michael Belle Cote

1991 Vega Sicilia Unico and 1999 Gaja Sori Tilden Barbaresco

1982 Cos D'Estournel and 2004 Colgin Herb Lamb Vineyard

1983 Chateau d'Yquem

1853 Whitwhams Millenium Port Reserve King Pedro V (bottled 2011)

1998 Bighorn Cellars cabernet Soda Canton Vineyards NV

2012 Rombauer zinfandel NV

2012 The Combo cabernet NV

2011 Breggo pinot noir Savoy Vineyard  Anderson Valley

2004 Harlan

1995  Magpie Estate The Malcolm Barossa Valley Shiraz

2010 Dana Estates Onda

2003 Peter Jakob Kuhn Oestrich Lenchen Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese
2007 Paitin Serra Barbaresco