I BUY POETRY (2014)

I'm blessed to receive many complimentary copies and so my annual lists of "Bought Poetry" never reflect my total or typical reading habits. But I do want my role as a poet to include supporting others' books by purchasing them, to the extent one has the funds. I believe in putting my money where my eyes see, for instance this huge COLLECTED by Larry Eigner edited by Curtis Faville and Robert Grenier--haven't unwrapped that saran wrap yet but I love the commitment manifested through scale (I knew it was four volumes but hadn't realized the books were significantly larger than the usual 6 x 9):

Still, I usually disappoint myself when I realize, at year's end, how many poetry books I bought (or did not buy). The list below features the 84 books of poetry, other genres but written by poets, or books on poets/poetry I purchased in 2014. It's an improvement from the prior year’s buying record of merely 58 books.  But I can still do better.  Here were 2014's purchases:

POETRY COLLECTIONS

HOURGLASS MUSEUM by Kelli Russell Agodon

PORT LIGHT: A HAY(NA)KU COLLECTION by William Allegrezza

THE REEF by Elizabeth Arnold

BINDWEED by Christianne Balk

AMULET by Jason Bayani

WATCHING THE WINDOWS SLEEP by Tantra Bensko

BOUGH BREAKS by Tamiko Beyer

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

ECODEVIANCE: (SOMA)TICS FOR THE FUTURE WILDERNESS by CAConrad

A BEAUTIFUL MARSUPIAL AFTERNOON: NEW (SOMA)TICS by CAConrad

COLLECTED POEMS by Joseph Ceravoloa 

NOTEBOOK OF A RETURN TO THE NATIVE LAND by Aime Cesaire, Translated and Edited by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith

CONTRABAND OF HOOPOE by Ewa Chrusciel

HOROSCOPES FOR THE DEAD by Billy Collins

THE BARONS by Joshua Corey

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES by Alfred Corn

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

POST SUBJECT: A FABLE by Oliver de la Paz

THE POETRY DEAL by Diane di Prima

GOOD HOPE ROAD by Stuart Dischell

WEAR WHITE AND GRIEVE by Jennifer Diskin

BLOWOUT by Denise Duhamel

THE COLLECTED POEMS OF LARRY EIGNER, VOLUMES 1-4, Edited by Curtis Faville and Robert Grenier

GREAT GUNS by Farnoosh Fathi

PRESENTATION PIECE by Marilyn Hacker

THE OLD LIFE by Donald Hall

NOTEBOOKS OF A CHILE VERDE SMUGGLER by Juan Felipe Herrerra

SPONTANEOUS PARTICULARS: THE TELEPATHY OF ARCHIVES by Susan Howe

STRANDS by Keri Hulme

ODE TO THE HEART SMALLER THAN A PENCIL by Luisa A. Igloria

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

A FORM OF OPTIMISM by Roy Jacobstein

THE COMPLETE POEMS by Randall Jarrell

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

CONSTANCE: POEMS by Jane Kenyon

DOUBLESPACE: POEMS 1971-1989 by Hank Lazer

THE HOAX OF CONTAGION by Michael Leong

THE BLACK UNICORN by Audrey Lorde

THE LOST LUNAR BAEDEKER: POEMS OF MINA LOY

THE COUNTRY I REMEMBER by David Mason

TO KEEP TIME by Joseph Massey

MIDWINTER DAY by Bernadette Mayer

THE FEEL TRIO by Fred Moten

THE OPEN SECRET by Jennifer Moxley

CIVIL WAR POETRY: AN ANTHOLOGY, Edited by Paul Negri

BLUETS by Maggie Nelson

DISOBEDIENCE by Alice Notley

GREEN AND GRAY by Geoffrey G. O’Brien

MISSING THE MOON by Bin Ramke

CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by Claudia Rankine

DON’T LET ME BE LONELY: AN AMERICAN LYRIC by Claudia Rankine

NOTHING IN NATURE IS PRIVATE by Claudia Rankine

THE END OF THE ALPHABET: POEMS by Claudia Rankine

SMALL WORKS by Pam Rehm

THE DAY OF SHELLY’S DEATH by Renato Rosaldo

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

INTERVAL by Kaia Sand

THE CASTING OF BELLS by Jaroslav Seifert, Trans. From the Czech by Paul Jagasich & Tom O’Grady

FOR by Carol Snow

OF COLLOCATED RHYTHMS by Felino A. Soriano

V: WAVESON.NETS / LOSING L’UNA by Stephanie Strickland

147 MILLION ORPHANS (MMXI-MML) by Eileen R. Tabios

SUN STIGMATA (SCULPTURE POEMS) by Eileen R. Tabios

VERSES TYPHOON YOLANDA: A STORM OF FILIPINO POETS, Edited by Eileen R. Tabios

NEAR CHANGES: POEMS by Mona Van Duyn

RELIQUARIA by R.A. Villanueva (University of Nebraska Press, 2014)

MEMORY HOLES by Erin Virgil  

BLINDSIGHT by Rosmarie Waldrop 

DRIVEN TO ABSTRACTION by Rosmarie Waldrop 

SESTETS by Charles Wright

ARACHNID NEBULA by Mark Young

BOOKS IN OTHER GENRES BY, OR ON, POETS

AN ARMY OF LOVERS, novel by David Buuck and Juliana Spahr

RETRIEVALS, essays by Garrett Caples

E.E. CUMMINGS: A LIFE, biography by Susan Cheever

DICKINSON UNBOUND: PAPER, PROCESS, POETICS, literary study by Alexandra Socarides

THE DESCARTES HIGHLANDS, novel by Eric Gamalinda

APOPHALLATION SKETCHES: A THEATER OF AFFECTIVE EXTREMES / STRENUOUS ESSAYS FOR THE SENSES by j/j hastain

KULCHUR GIRL: NOTES FROM BERKELEY 1965, diary notes by Rachel Loden

THERE ARE THINGS WE LIVE AMONG: ESSAYS ON THE OBJECT WORLD by Jennifer Moxley

THE NOTHING THAT IS, autobiography by John Olson

HOW PHENOMENA APPEARS TO UNFOLD, essays and poetric pieces by Leslie Scalapino

WHAT POETS ARE LIKE: UP AND DOWN WITH THE WRITING LIFE, memoir by Gary Soto

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

CRUSHING SOFT RUBIES, memoir by Janet Stickmon

THANK YOU, SHEILA MURPHY

Towards the end of a calendar year, I always hope Sheila Murphy continues her tradition of sending out holiday/new year mini-poetry broadsides.  And she came through, and I got one, and this one made me pause from the seasonal freneticism to ... b r e a t h e ...   Thank you, Sheila, for this poem that makes me look forward to the New Year:

You can Click to Enlarge and you'd be getting a blessing if you do!

'TWAS A BOOKISH CHRISTMAS

Gave books, got books.  HERE.

Now I'm excited to plow through all that poetry!

CLICK TO ENLARGE JOY

THREE POETS SAYETH ABOUT THE SUN....

Clearing my overblown email stash to come across three readers' emails.  About SUN STIGMATA, they sayeth:

...then I receive your Stigmata and look, in-the-holding of it, for the light to pass through my hands -- I expect to be nailed in its reading -- though what comes forth, I am sure, will be more in the order of that Blakean Energy is Eternal Delight nailed to the Tree of Life.  Where  "Sometimes one simply must flee / from what one loves the most" /.  As does every Laurel her Apollo. 

...the wonderful Sun Stigmata--it is challenging, breaks new ground at times, I think, and does so with intelligence and grace, and I find real beauty in it for all its edginess.  

...wonderful. A long time ago my brother said to me, the weirder your work gets (meaning the less driven by me and the more by processes and "algorithms") the more it sounds like you. He meant it as a compliment. Not as in "ego-driven lyric" but as in C Olson's "we only stand more revealed". Since this seem to apply to your work as well, it's a compliment / observation which I will pass on to you. It doesn't matter whether you are making poems from your generator or hacking them out of previous work or ... they sound so "Eileen" -- which means crazy great and fascinating. No comma between crazy and great.

I always have email overload.  And I often forget what I have.  I should spring clean more often.  Meanwhile, Thank You Universe.

"I FORGOT THE ENGINEERS OF LEXUS"

is the latest poem from AMNESIA to find a publisher.  And it's fitting that said publisher MOSS TRILL is edited by William Allegrezza.  Because "I Forgot the Engineers of Lexus" was a poem written in part by reading through my book POST BLING BLING which Bill published through Moria Books.

Heart My Family.  It's a blessing when a writer can find a literary family, especially when it's based on the work ....

ON THE POET-EDITOR HALVARD JOHNSON

I've long admired Halvard Johnson.  He's "pure" as regards his love for poetry.  I still remember an old project of his where he just sent favored poems to a personal email list.  That's just love, just like other editing projects like ON BARCELONA.  I also remember first meeting him and his partner Lynda Schor in person.  I think it was the ridiculous AWP -- he asked me for some poems and, youth and ridiculous youth that I was, I blurted out that my poems were "difficult" for most.  They replied such wasn't a problem for them ... and it hasn't been indeed given their receptivity.

I note ON BARCELONA as this December is its last month, even though its archives will remain online.  This journal, simply but elegantly framed on Blogger, has had a great run since its inception in January 2012.  So, THANK YOU, Hal!

And I'm proud that my poem "DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS" is part of their last month.  I can't think of a better home for it.

And you -- have you thanked a poet-editor today?

GALATEA RESURRECTS: ALWAYS OPEN FOR REVIEWS!

There: I just wrote my first review for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects, and it's on the witty and brilliant Selected Amazon Reviews by Kevin Killian!  But that's not the first review written for the upcoming 24th issue!  I've already received one other review and it's on THE COAL LIFE by Adam Vines.

Which is all to say, we're always open for business in terms of receiving your reviews.  Please go HERE to check available review copies, or you can review a book you like from your own bookshelf.  Deadline for next review submission is April 19, 2015.  We'd welcome your participation!!

NEW POEM RELEASES

From Postmodernism to Country, I go with the flow:

Thanks to editor Scott Abels for welcoming my work to COUNTRY MUSIC: An Online Journal of Poetry.  This country took three of my poems from my manuscript AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir:

"I Forgot the Language of Scars” 

"I Forgot My Mother's Blood in the Sangria"

"I Forgot Eyes Widening To Pull in More of the World" 

And I am also proud to be part of DELIRIOUS HEM’s Anti-Rape Culture Advent Presentation: my poem "IT'S CURTAINS" is its Advent Day 12 offering.  The poem is from my manuscript THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS.  Thanks to curators Jessica Smith and Susana Gardner.

All these poems are cranked out by the MDR Poetry Generator, arguably the most easy-going author live today....

ON REPRODUCING EMPTY FLAGPOLES

I'm honored/happy to have a poem in ENTROPY, a relatively new(-to-me) journal with very  interesting takes on the world.  I thank poetry editor Michelle Detorie and executive editor Janice Lee for featuring "REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE" from my manuscript, THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS.

Yes, the poem's title is the same as the book I read--my first U.S.-published book--to generate new lines.  The poem then was written by applying a program inspired by my read of Nick Montfort's fabulous book #! from Counterpath Press (I describe the process in my recent review of Montfort's book).

Again, I'm writing these "I forgot..." poems by applying lines from The MDR Poetry Generator.  What's interesting about this project is that John Bloomberg-Rissman said that the more that I get away from authorial intention, the more the poems become very "Tabiosian" (an adjective once coined by another reader, Allen Bramhall).  I appreciate reads like this--first, the comments show the poems are being read ... and then the comments show the poems are being "understood."  Thank you to every one I mentioned in this post.

ECOPOETHOS AT DUSIE!

Marthe Reed has edited an Ecopoethos issue of writing an art over at the ever-stellar Dusie.  The above "cover" image is from a lovely and powerful installation, "Rice is Life" by Mary Giehl.  Marthe also writes a wonderful (and useful) Introduction; here's an excerpt:

The generative impulse for this issue of Dusie was in part informed by Timothy Morton’s Ecology Without Nature, his challenge to the notion of “nature” as it has historically been constituted, a notion fundamentally invested in isolating human from the so-called “natural” world, and that realm from the human one. Constructed through the lenses of political/sociological/economic/ environmental (and other) tensions, “nature,” “place,” and “environment” are othered and objectified. At the interstices of ecological zones, species, cities, nations, bodies, those permeable borders separating “us” from “them”, human from other-than-human, insider from outsider, the vulnerable from the powerful, how might we reconfigure our understanding, encounter the unbounded condition having neither center nor margin? 

I thank Marthe for including me among several wonderful poet-artist-thinkers.  Here are the multi-layered, intriguing contents:

WRITING AND ART                                                   

EDITED BY MARTHE REED

ANDERSON MOSEMAN      BRYANT     BURNS     CARRIER     CELLUCCI

CHEN CHEN     DUNGY     DURAND     GIEHL      GOLOBOROTKO

GOUGH      HAYES    HOANG     HOFER     HUME     IIJIMA     KAMINSKI

KAPIL     LEE      MENDELSOHN     NISSIM     SANTOS PEREZ     NAKA

PIERCE     POE  PLUECKER     PREVOST     RATCLIFFE     REED     SAKER

SAKLIKAR     SAND     SCAPPETTONE     RIED     RIVERAGARZA     RUBY

SCHAPIRA     SCHMID     SIKELIANOS     SIKKEMA     SIMPSON

TABIOS     URIBE     WALLSCHLAEGER     WORKMAN     ZOLF

BOOK REVIEW:

MARTHE REED on CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ'S [ guma’ ]

SOUND:

BHANU KAPIL, (Birds, Dehli)

*****

I thank Susana Gardner of Dusie as well for her work as poet-editor.  This time, allowing the inclusion of "I Forgot Ars Poetica," one of the poems from AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir.

GALATEA RESURRECTS (#23) IS FRESH!

Sorry for my puppy Athena's photo-bomb of this announcement but ... this is to announce that the new issue of Galatea Resurrects is out!  No. 23 presents 69 NEW REVIEWS as well as fabulous other features.  With this issue, GR has provided 1,452 new reviews and 122 reprinted reviews (the latter brings online reviews previously not available online).  With this issue we also increase our coverage of poetry publishers by 14 to 520 publishers in 17 countries -- something we consider important as much of the groundbreaking poetry work is occurring in the small press arena!  You can access the issue at http://galatearesurrection23.blogspot.com.  For convenience, I also reprint the Table of Contents below and you can click on individual links to go directly to the review.

Enjoy!
Eileen Tabios
Editor


*****

GALATEA RESURRECTS NO. 23 (A POETRY ENGAGEMENT)
Table of Contents

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

By Eileen Tabios

NEW REVIEWS

Bill Scalia reviews A MESSENGER COMES by Rachel Tzvia Back

T.C. Marshall reviews THE FEEL TRIO by Fred Moten and THE UNDERCOMMONS: FUGITIVE PLANNING AND BLACK STUDY byFred Moten and Stefano Harney

Steve Dickison reviews WRITTEN 1976–2013 by P. Inman


Tom Beckett reviews WRITTEN 1976-2013 by P. Inman

Eileen Tabios engages IN THE ICE HOUSE and SETTINGS FOR THESE SCENES, both by Genevieve Kaplan

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews SONNETS by Anonymous

Mark Young engages BEYOND THE OHLALA MOUNTAINS: POEMS 1968-2002 by Alan Brunton, Edited by Michele Leggott & Martin Edmond

Patrick James Dunagan reviews LIFE by Elizabeth Arnold; A SEVERAL WORLD by Brian Blanchfield; THEOPEN SECRET by Jennifer Moxley; and RED JUICE: POEMS 1998-2008 byHoa Nguyen

Djelloul Marbrook reviews MALANGA CHASING VALLEJO: SELECTED POEMS BY CESAR VALLEJO, New Translations and Notes by Gerard Malanga

Eileen Tabios engages MANUAL and IMAGEMS 1, both by Richard Berengarten

Pam Brown reviews INDIRECT OBJECTS by Louis Armand

Allen Bramhall reviews HOME AMONG THE SWINGING STARS: COLLECTED POEMS OF JAIME DE ANGULO, Editor Stefan Hyner, with an essay by Andrew Schelling

Eileen Tabios engages  “The Way In,” a poem in DARK. SWEET. NEW & SELECTED POEMS by Linda Hogan

Jennifer Campbell reviews GOING WITH THE FLOW by Peter Siedlecki

Eileen Tabios engages TO KEEP TIME by Joseph Massey

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews #! by Nick Montfort

Eileen Tabios engages #! by Nick Montfort

Bill Scalia reviews GEMOLOGY by Megan Kaminski

Eileen Tabios engages BOMBYONDER by Reb Livingston

Allen Bramhall reviews I-FORMATION BOOK 2 by Anne Gorrick

                        

Neil Leadbeater reviews SLATE VOICES: ISLANDS OF NETHERLORN by Mavis Gulliver and SLATE VOICES: CWMORTHIN by Jan Fortune

Eileen Tabios engages IATE THE COSMOS FOR BREAKFAST by Melissa Studdard

Tom Jenks reviews THE ROTTWEILER’S GUIDE TO THE DOG OWNER by SJ Fowler

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews AFTER-CAVE by Michelle Detorie

Eileen Tabios engages AFTER-CAVE by Michelle DeTorie

Adam Strauss reviews NOMINA by Karen Volkman and WARSAW BIKINI by Sandra Simonds

Eileen Tabios engages A STRANGER’S TABLE by Anne Brooke

Rebecca Loudon reviews THE FINNISH ORCHESTRA by Kathryn Rantala

Zach Choi, Andrzej Richardson & Jeffrey Simonetti review STRAIGHT RAZOR by Randall Mann

Eileen Tabios engages POEMS FOR THE TIME CAPSULE, collected by David Watts

Heather Sweeney reviews THE MEATGIRL WHATEVER by Kristin Hatch

Eileen Tabios engages THROW    N by James Wagner, Poems to paintings by Bracha L. Ettinger

Bill Scalia reviews A DISTURBANCE IN THE AIR by Michelle Poulos

Eileen Tabios engages OTHERWISE, MY LIFE IS ORDINARY by Bobby Byrd

SS Prasad engages COMPLETE MINIMAL POEMS by Aram Saroyan, 1st edition and 2nd Edition (Edited by Aram Saroyan and James Hoff)
 and its review in GR #22 by Eileen Tabios

Eileen Tabios engages BY THE HOURS: SELECTED POEMS EARLY & UNCOLLECTED and THE AMERICANEYE, both by Eric Hoffman

Bill Scalia reviews STAINED GLASS WINDOWS OF CALIFORNIA by Julien Poirier

Neil Leadbeater reviews SELECTED POEMS by Mark Ford




Eileen Tabios engages SALSA by Hsia Yu, Trans. from the Chinese by Steve Bradbury

Bill Scalia reviews COMES UP TO FACE THE SKIES by Steve Gilmartin

Eileen Tabios engages I DIDN’T KNOW MANI WAS A CONCEPTUALIST by Desmond Kon Zhicheng-Mingde

Bill Scalia reviews MAO’S PEARS by Kenny Tanemura

Eileen Tabios engages ON LIBERTY, REPRESSED by Tom Jenks

Allen Bramhall reviews SKY LANTERNS: NEW POETRY FROM CHINA, FORMOSA AND BEYOND, Edited by Fiona Sze-Lorrain and Frank Stewart

Eileen Tabios engages LIFE IN THE ORDOVICIAN: SELECTED POEMS by Robert Murphy

Grace C. Ocasio Reviews ROUTES HOME by Crystal Simone Smith

Eileen Tabios engages THE WAY WE LIVE by Burt Kimmelman

Marthe Reed reviews STATE OF THE UNION by Susan Lewis

Neil Leadbeater reviews SARAH – OF FRAGMENTS by Julie Carr

Eileen Tabios engages THEY TALK ABOUT DEATH by Alessandra Bava

Bill Scalia reviews MINIATURES by Meredith Cole

Neil Leadbeater reviews A TOAST IN THE HOUSE OF FRIENDS by Akilah Oliver

Eileen Tabios engages THE SPEED OF OUR LIVES by Grace C. Ocasio

Bill Scalia reviews WOMAN IN THE PAINTING by Andrea Hollander Budy

Amanda [Ngoho] Reavey reviews HANDIWORK by Amaranth Borsuk

Nicholas T. Spatafora engages LAST CALL AT THE TIN PALACE by Paul Pines and AT THE END OF THE DAY: SELECTED POEMS AND AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY by Phillip Lopate

Eileen Tabios engages THE SHAPE OF A BOX by Grace Curtis

Tom Beckett engages A PRINCESS MAGIC PRESTO SPELL by Lisa Jarnot

Jim McCrary lists recommended books by Juliet Cook, Bruce Covey, Megan Kaminski, Kiki Anderson, Raymand Hall, Melissa Sewell, Mike Young, and Larry Bierman as well as two journals: TOUCH THE DONKEY and NOO 15.

FEATURED POETS

Nico Vassilakis

Xenia-Chloe H. Villanueva

THE CRITICS WRITE POEMS

Pam Brown

Steve Dickison

Amanda [Ngoho] Reavey

INTERVIEW

Neil Leadbeater interviews Jane Seabourne

FEATURED ESSAY

“Robert Bly vs. the FirstTen Issues of kayak” by Sandy McIntosh

FEATURED (WORD) ARTIST)
Darrell Nettles

FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE

Brandon Som reviews FROM UNINCORPORATED TERRITORY: [GUMA] by Craig Santos Perez

Jeff Von Ward Reviews WE, MONSTERS by Zarina Zabrisky

Takeema Hoffman Reviews NOCHITA by Dia Felix

Takeema Hoffman Reviews A HISTORY OF BROKEN LOVE THINGS by SB Stokes

Maia Kobabe Reviews MULTIPLE WARHEADS: ALPHABET TO INFINITY by Brandon Graham

Alexandra Gilliam Reviews BESIDE MYSELF by Ashley Farmer

BACK COVER

Review Copies Find Homes!