NAPA TEEN POETRY SLAM!

'Twas fun today judging the Teen Poetry Slam at Napa Public Library. I was going to post photos of the teen participants but they're minors. So here's a photo below of my fellow judges, Napa-based poets Jeremy Benson, Glynda Velasco and Kathleen Patterson. I highlight Jeremy because he did something really cool to kick off the proceedings. He read from three poets he said he was reading when he was the age of the Slam participants, with a brief but effective preface to each: Sylvia Plath's "Cut" for the physicality of its apt dashes and how it taught him about the sound and not just meaning of words; Robert Bly's "Two Ways to Write a Poem" for noting how "Toward the end / The poem is just beginning to be who it is"; and Mary Oliver's "Wild, Wild" whose passion would be echoed by many of the teen poets' words. I highlight Jeremy, too, because the pliers at his waist implies (though I don't know) that he went to the poetry reading from some day job that requires those tools -- and such reminded me of Indran Amirthanayagam's advice to me as a young poet (and any other receptive poet): "If you want to be a poet, build a road" and Indran wasn't talking metaphorically but literally a road, which is to say, do something beyond reading/writing the verse. Always glad to be reminded of Poetry as a way of life.

SPOTLIGHT ON FILIPINA LITERATURE!

Barbara Jane Reyes is teaching a Filipina Literature class at University of San Francisco, and she's done a slide presentation of such. Salamat for including me! You can see the entire presentation HERE. I'm in fine company with Ninotchka Rosca, Jessica Hagedorn. M. Evelina Galang, Marianne Villanueva, Lynda Barry, Erin Entrada Kelly, Melissa Chadburn and Trinidad Escobar.

And what I like, too, about how others highlight from my work is seeing what spoke to them.  The excerpt above is from a poem "I Do" from I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED. Glad to see it as this is from a 2005 book that I haven't cracked for a while. It's nice to see the poetry have legs...

ZAHA HADID!

I’ve been a fan of Zaha Hadid since I saw her decanter-like building at Spain’s Lopez De Heredia Winery.  So I’m very excited about my latest book purchase: HADID: COMPLETE WORKS 1979-TODAY.  And, R.I.P. to one of the great architects of our time. I present her author photo below as I think her architecturally-designed outfit is relevant:

 There are more photos taken from randomly opening the book at the end of this post. Meanwhile, here's 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 Galatea Resurrects!  More info on that HERE. 

PUBLICATIONS

THE ARGONAUTS by Maggie Nelson (profound, witty, moving. LinkedInPoetry Recommendation (LPR #235) 

NIGHTS READING :: BURTON’S THOUSAND AND ONE ::, poems by Marthe Reed (lush language creates a feast for all senses. LPR #228)

100 CHINESE SILENCES, poems by Timothy Yu (BRILLIANT.LPR #227)

THE ART OF EXPORTING by Cristina Querrer (lyrical and stylistic enchantment. LPR #229)

RESTLESS CONTINENT by Aja Couchois Duncan (BRILLIANT.LPR #232)

NATURAL HISTORY RAPE MUSEUM, poetry by Danielle Pafunda (so necessary. LPR #230)

COLLECTED POEMS 1957-1982 by Wendell Berry (a master of elegy. LPR #231)

THE POET, THE LION, TALKING PICTURES, EL FAROLITO, A WEDDING IN ST. ROCH, THE BIG BOX STORE, THE WARP IN THE MIRROR, SPRING, MIDNIGHTS, FIRE & ALL, poetry by C.D. Wright (LPR #233)

BENEDICTION, poetry by Alice Notley (capacious. LPRF #234)

THROWN by Marthe Reed and j/j hastain (high (e.g. sophisticated) collabs!)

SWAN FEAST, poems by Natalie Eilbert (much to admire; to highlight one, let me say I admire its ambition fully and creatively manifested)

THE CONVECTIONS, poems by Robert Kelly (much appreciate the poem “PURITY” innit)

LITHIC TYPOLOGY, poems by Mark Young (heartened to see the hay(na)ku in this collection)

MY 100 POEMS by lars palm (ditto re the hay(na)ku)

*  TAKE THIS STALLION, poems by Anais Duplan (wonderful poems but I also noticed the effective ordering of the poems—well done so that the poems enhanced each other in addition to presenting their own beauties)

LIFE-LIST, poems by Jessica Smith (poems writ on skies, not pages)

HUNTER MONIES, poems by Jen Tynes (admirably taut: every word a necessity)

DIARY OF A NON-DEFLECTOR: SELECTED POEMS by Jim Dine (the line “My trust in you, Beauty, is real” is enough to make the book worthwhile) 

SHADOW OF THE HERON, poems by Djelloul Marbrook (the line “books cannot ballast the dizzying world” is enough to make the book worthwhile)

MEMORY CARDS: THOMAS TRAHERNE SERIES, poems by Susan M. Schultz (excellent enough to blurb!)

*  ASPECTS OF STRANGERS, poems by Piotr Gwiazda (smart and accomplished)

*  VOICE’S DAUGHTER OF A HEART YET TO BE BORN by Anne Waldman

*  THE MARKET WONDERS, poems by Susan Briante

*  STEREO. ISLAND. MOSAIC., poems by Vincent Toro

*  MOON TALK, poems by Wade Stevenson

*  SPOOL, poems by Matthew Cooperman

*  THE THINKING EYE, poems by Jennifer Atkinson

*  HIPPODROME, poems by Miklavz Komelj, Trans. from the Slovene by Boris Gregoric and Dan Rosenberg

*  PROVINCE OF NUMB ERRS, poems by Jared Schickling

TO SPEAK WHILE DREAMING, poems by Eleni Sikelianos

*  MY FAULT, poems by Leora Fridman

*  THE BEES MAKE MONEY IN THE LION, poems by Lo Kwa Mei-en

*  RESIDUUM, poems by Martin Rock

*  REMISSION, poems by Christopher Sawyer-Laucanno

*  BORDER MUSIC, poems by Paul Vangelisti

*  THE BLACK MARIA, poems by Aracelis Girmay

*  WHERESO, poems by Karen Volkman

*  CELESTIAL JOYRIDE, poems by Michael Waters

*  BLUE NOCTURNE, poems by W. Nick Hill

* THE CRANE IS FLYING, poems by David Almaleck Wolinsky

*  EVERYTHING WE MET CHANGED FORM & FOLLOWED THE REST, poems by Jessica Comola

HEAVENLY TREE, NORTHERN EARTH, poems by Gerrit Lansing

THE GOLD CELL, poems by Sharon Olds

SEEDINGS, Issue One, Editor Jerrold Shiroma (always lovely to see a new poetry journal!) 

FUTURES TRADING: ANTHOLOGY THREE, Editor Caleb Puckett (best anthology I’ve read so far in 2016)

OF/WITH: JOURNAL OF IMMANENT RENDITIONS, Editor Felino A. Soriano

NOTES ON POST-CONCEPTUAL POETRY by Felix Bernstein (interestingly-strange experience of reading through this book. With each word read, the word becomes past—perhaps that’s always the case but it’s the first time, reading through a book, that the notion surfaced to be a discernible (self-conscious?) simmer)

PACIFIC RIM REVIEW OF BOOKS ISSUE 20, Editor Richard Olafson

THE POETRY PROJECT, APRIL/MAY 2016, Editor Betsy Fagin

FAUCHEUSE, ISSUE 3, Editor Jeff Clark

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD, memoir by Elizabeth Alexander (page-turner)

ORDINARY LIGHT, memoir by Tracy K. Smith

FACING THE WAVE: A JOURNEY IN THE WAKE OF THE TSUNAMI, memoir with poetry by Gretel Ehrlich

HADID: COMPLETE WORKS 1979-TODAY

ARCHIE RAND / EUGENIO MONTALE: “MEN WHO TURN BACK”, art monograph with poem

THE AGE OF BLIGHT, short stories by Kristine Ong Muslim

ILUSTRADO, novel by Miguel Syjuco

I MARRIED YOU FOR HAPPINESS, novel by Lily Tuck

BROKEN, novel by Karin Fossum (brilliant!)

I CAN SEE IN THE DARK, novel by Karin Fossum

MAKE ME, novel by Lee Child

FOOL ME ONCE, novel by Harlan Coben

THE FARM, novel by Tom Robb Smith

THE PROFESSIONALS, novel by Owen Laukkanen

CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE, novel by Owen Laukkanen

KILL FEE, novel by Owen Laukkanen

THE INQUISITOR, novel by Mark Allen Smith

THE BUTTERFLY CATCHER, novel-in-progress by Cristina Querrer (lovely and promising! In manuscript)

WINES

2010 Chacewater petite sirah Red Hills Lake County

2001 Faustino I Rioja Gran Reserva

2013 Chablis

2004 Ch. Latour

1974 Rivesaltes Domaine Casenobe

2001 La Rioja Alta Grand Reserva 904

2013 Waterfall pinot noir Sonoma

1999 Torbreck “RunRig” Barossa Valley

2013 Presqu'Ile pinot noir Santa Maria Valley

2009 Altamura Negroamaro

2008 Altamura Sangiovese

2011 Bastide Miraflors

2013 Geretto pinot grigio Delle Venezie

2012 Penfolds shiraz Bin2

2013 Excelsior cabernet

2013 Frog’s Leap cabernet

2009 Artadi Vinas De Gain Rioja

2014 Raymond chardonnay NV

2012 Insignia Tempranillo blend

And speaking of poetry and I usually am, here are more architecture-as-poetry iPhone shots from randomly opening HADID: COMPLETE WORKS 1979-TODAY beautifully produced by Taschen: