JULY AT GALATEA RESURRECTS!

Delighted to announce the final July edition of Galatea Resurrects. You can see it HERE, though here's Contents below for convenience:

JULY
SANS by G.L. Ford
Reviewed by Katie Hibner (7/31)

What It Is Like: New and Selected Poems by Charles North
Reviewed by Neil Leadbeater (7/30)

THE CRITIC WRITES POEMS: Sheri Reda
(7/29)

Dear Almost by Matthew Thorburn
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (7/28)

Ekstasis with photographs by Peter Valente and poetry by Kevin Killian
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (7/27)

THE HEART'S TRAFFIC: A Novel in Poems by Ching-In Chen
Reviewed by Kyle Henrichs (7/26)

Days and Works by Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (7/25)

Dead Ringer by Charles Borkhuis and AMINA BARAKA & THE RED MICROPHONE by Amina Baraka & the Red Microphone
Reviewed by Steve Dalachinsky (7/24)

RAYFISH by Mary Hickman
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (7/23)

GARLIC HAY(NA)KU: "SHORT & STRONG"!

Contest Results from the Festival de l'Ail de Ste-Anne Garlic Festival

Engaged by Eileen Tabios (7/8)

FACE-POEMS by Aaron Flores
Engaged by Márton Koppány (7/7)

If We Were Birds by Janine Harrison

Reviewed by M. Earl Smith (7/6)

ALPHABET NOIR by Nico Vassilakis
Engaged by Jim Leftwich (7/5)

Small Ceremonies by Cynthia Snow
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (7/4)

FRAGMENTS: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters by Marilyn Monroe

Engaged by Jim McCrary (7/3)

the gag reel by Tom Bamford Blake

Reviewed by M. Earl Smith (7/2)

Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras by Leza Lowitz

Engaged by Eileen Tabios (7/1)

*****

One of my reviews noted above is of Dear Almost by Matthew Thorburn. If you scroll down the review, you'll see another poem from "The Ashbery Riff-Offs" which partly was inspired by Matthew's book: "Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: No(t) Words." Working with a John Ashbery poem is a perpetual birthday celebration, as it should be for this poet who just turned 90!  

SIX RIFFS OFF OF ASHBERY

SIX! (No, I did not first type SEX to my dismay.) SIX poems from "The Ashbery Riff-Offs" in the new, ever-dazzling issue of OTOLITHS!  You're invited to

"Witnessed in the Convex Mirror:
     The Impoverished Gaze
     History
     Lordy
     Ass-ette
     Top Secret Clearance
     The Grand Rider"

The poems' have a bit of jazz, a bit of Latin, a bit of that jerk-nitwit who killed an elephant and posed with its tail, a bit of Wall Street, some pineapples, even a bit of John Bloomberg-Rissman's dental history -- such be the resonance of John Ashbery's poetry!

Btw, I like Meghan O'Rourke's article on reading Ashbery at SLATE --

CALL FOR EKPHRASIS WRITINGS!

I’m pleased to announce that the next new poet to participate in the FilAm Artist Directory’s ekphrasis project will receive a copy of the Filipino American Artist Directory 1 (in addition of course to ekphrasis poetry books by Moi). I’m always looking for (both Filipino and non-Filipino) creative writers (not just poetry but also fiction and other prose) to participate in the Directory’s Ekphrasis Project – the Call for Participation (including examples) is HERE.

Poets who've previously participated also should feel free to send more poems.

MARAWI: AN ANTI-WAR FUNDRAISER

MARAWI, a recent poetry publication co-authored, with Albert Alejo, was put out as a fundraiser for relief efforts in Marawi where nearly 400,000 people have been displaced from the battle that started on May 23, 2017 between Philippine government security forces and affiliated militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, including the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Salafi jihadist groups.[Wiki] Proceeds from MARAWI--and you can participate/contribute for a mere $5.00--will be dedicated to Laoanen's efforts to help the evacuees. Click on links for more information.

Relatedly, here’s an update on moi Recently Bought Poetry List of books by poets or about poets/poetry.

MARAWI by Eileen Tabios & Albert E. Alejo 

CRUSHED by Trinidad Escobar

ON LOST SHEEP by Shiro Murano, Trans. by Goro Takano

FORGET IT by Anastacia Renee

GO WITH ME by Jared Hayes

ANYJAR by Jaimie Gusman

STEP BELOW: SELECTED POEMS 2000-2015 by William Allegrezza

UNPROTECTED TEXTS: SELECTED POEMS (1978-2006) by Tom Beckett

YOU THEN A DANG by Hoa Nguyen

NEAR: A LUMINESCENCE by Melissa Buzzeo

EPHEMERA & ATMOSPHERES by Cheena Marie Lo

THE LAST LYRIC by Yu Xinqiao, Trans. by Yunte Huang

LITTLE ANODYNES by Jon Pineda

FRAMEWORK by Andrew Topel

DEGRETS by Anselm Berrigan

DICTIONAR INTERCULTURAL AL REVISTEI / AN INTERCULTURAL DICTIONARY of Contemporary Literary Horizon, Edited by Daniel Dragomirescu

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

AMNESIA: SOMEBODY’S MEMOIR by Eileen R. Tabios

SILK EGGS: COLLECTED NOVELS by Eileen R. Tabios

#EileenWritesNovel (Otoliths Issue 44, Part 3) by Eileen R. Tabios, editor Mark Young

RAGE AGAINST THE DYING LIGHT

And another poem is published from "The Ashbery Riff-offs"--

"Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Raging Against the Dying Light"

over at Indolent Books' ROUGH BEAST series.

And I'll be looking forward to reading the new biography of Ashbery's early years, The Songs We Know Best by Karin Roffman.

FOR MARAWI RELIEF EFFORTS

Got copies today of my and Albert Alejo's and Paloma Press' fundraiser for relief efforts in Marawi where about 253,000 folks have been displaced by armed conflicts in the regions. MARAWI is also a bilingual (Filipino and English) chapbook, and some of you may have a use for that. My poem in it is also (cough) accessible and some of you may be relieved by that. All for $5.00. Here's link TO ORDER -- and notice a different cover from the first edition. All niftily done by Paloma's nonprofit arm, the charmingly titled Mi-Go Zine!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOHN ASHBERY AND HAPPY BOOK TO ME!

Woot! I just received my first offer for a chapbook or book for/from my series "The Ashbery Riff-Offs"! More details later, but, meanwhile ...

... a grouping I particularly like is up at the just-released June/July issue of DISPATCHES! They are:

Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Civilization and Inheritance 

Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Sun Rises Over Battle 

Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Though She Should Have Known Better Than to Play An Asian Superpower, This Poem is for Scarlet Johannsen 

Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Reflected Noise 

Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: The Absent Flowers

If you like these poems, you're bound to like an entire book of them!

Gratitude again to John Ashbery for his compelling work.  RAIN TAXI will be celebrating his 90th birthday HERE.  Happy Birthday, indeed!

HAIL, RENE NAVARRO

(Photo by Laura Billingham)

Poet, healer and martial artist Rene Navarro ( considered an expert in and therefore qualified to teach acupuncture, dragon-well qigong, Xing shen Zhuang rehabilitative therapy, tai chi chuan Dao Ren and related forms, internal alchemy and spiritual practice, Chi Nei Tsang internal organs massage, Taoist philosophy, Shaolin kung fu or wushu, and arnis de mano--got that?) sent over the above photo of the "Fairy Child" pose that had inspired a poem--a different type of ekphrasis. I share both--Happy Friday. It's always fun to share this poem in a reading because I always end with the Kung Fu movement I learned from Rene (my weak attempt to be a bad-ass):

The poem is from my first U.S.-published book, REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE

and later reprinted in the Selected Prose Poems collection, THE THORN ROSARY

VISIT JOHN ASHBERY!

Right. I've written 85 of the estimated-to-be-300 poems that will make up my in-progress series, "The Ashbery Riff-Offs." Here's one of them just published at Indolent Books' ROUGH BEAST project: "Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Eco Echo."

Speaking of John Ashbery, Yale University's The Digital Humanities Lab at Yale University has come out with an interesting -- and gorgeous -- presentation of the poet's home: "John Ashbery's NEST." I recommend a visit! And what a great idea!

JOHN OLSON: HIS GENEROSITY MAKES HIM A JOY

In my 2004 book Menage a Trois With the 21st Century, I "resuscitate" the Philippines' first woman general Gabriela Silang into a 21st century life. Thus, the poems all have subtitles like "As Gabriela Reconsiders Everything," "As Gabriela Stares Down An Empty Boulevard" and even "As Gabriela Masters the Washing Machine." Then there's the poem with the subtitle "As Gabriela Falls In Love With John Olson"--a poem that reflected how, just prior to writing that poem, I'd read the brilliant poetry collection that introduced me to its author: ECHO REGIME by John Olson (Black Square Editions, 2000).

Over the years, I'd come to read other works by John Olson and they always had tremendous resonance--I read his most recent, DADA BUDAPEST, and if you read my Galatea Resurrects review, you'll see how his prose poetry impacted me like dynamite et al. I think, frankly, that he's one of the best contemporary writers today (to understate the matter), and his contribution to the prose poem form is and will remain historically significant. Yes, he's one of my rare picks as to those writers whose words actually will live forever.

And he blogs--over at the Tillala Chronicles. So to get to another of my points -- I am HONORED (no other way to put it) that an excerpt from AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir was cited in his post today, "Foolish Fire." Here's the excerpt:

     Who, or what, weaves the narratives of our lives? Is it one big sweeping novel or a collection of short stories with no particular theme holding it together other than our own privately weeping selves?

     “I Forgot Ars Poetica,” writes Eileen Tabios in her memoir titled (with exquisite irony) Amnesia: Somebody’s Memoir. “I forgot my poetry is going to change the world. I forgot my words are healing. I forgot my words are apples infused with cheerful cinnamon. I forgot my words are holy. I forgot my words are going to lift you  -  all of you!  -  towards joy.” 

     And those, my friend, are words to live by.

I can't really describe the jolt I got to see my words end up in one of John Olson's posts...

But I certainly want to file this moment (and we all know, right, that I use this blog as a file cabinet too). I want to share that when you've followed an author for nearly 20 years now, to end up in one of his writings like the above is nothing less than ... a joy. Thank you, John Olson -- my heart is full. (And it's always interesting to feel a life-circle turning ...)

Anyway, read John Olson. If you haven't yet, start with any of Backscatter: New and Collected Poems, Larynx Galaxy, or DADA BUDAPEST. If with the latter, you'll gladly be a changed person after you close the book on its 401 pages.

BOOK-MATCH PROGRAM FOR NICK CARBO FUNDRAISER

If you haven't heard, poet and cultural activist Nick Carbo recently had to have his right foot amputated on an emergency basis--a month before his insurance coverage would have kicked in! There's a GoFundMe fundraiser to help with his daunting health costs. Recent donations helped him get a wheelchair and a shower chair. I'm grateful that Paloma Press is running a Book-Match program for donations. Basically, donations of at least $25 will garner 3 publications worth more than double that amount:

MANHATTAN: An Archipelago by Eileen Tabios
BLUE by Wesley St. Jo and Reme Grefalda
MARAWI by Eileen Tabios and Albert Alejo

Thank you, Paloma Press!

For the same $25 donation, you can receive a copy of Nick Carbo's edited anthology PINOY POETICS from Meritage Press (contact me if you wish to avail yourself of this offer). Let's help a poet who's helped many poets.

SELECTED REVIEWS & ENGAGEMENTS IN GALATEA RESURRECTS!

A major project in the offing is a Selected Reviews & Engagements in Galatea Resurrects (GR) that will be edited by master anthologist and poet John Bloomberg-Rissman (his last anthology was BARBARIC, VAST & WILD with coeditor Jerome Rothenberg, the Vol. 5 in the series POEMS FOR THE MILLENIUM). John, also a former master librarian!, is reviewing eleven years of GR reviews and choosing those with not just intellectual rigor but which befit the “spirit” of Galatea Resurrects, which is—to be obvious—quite different from most review journals (Hah). The Art here is not just the poems but the responses to them.

Anyway, I’m very excited by this project which looks to near 800 pages. John’s reviewed 10-15% of the reviews so far.  If you take a look at some of the choices (below) from GR’s early years, I think you’ll agree that we’ve some of the best poet-critics involved in reviewing or engaging with some of the finest, even when relatively obscure, poetry publications.  Where possible, we will be including more than one review of the same author because … that’s just one of the unique ways in which Galatea Resurrects rolls…. All of the choices are John’s and can I just say I’m relieved I and MOM(!) made his cut from the early years!

John observes, “Kudos on such a fine publication. I wonder if even you realize how good it is.”  Looking at the sampling below, I confess that, yes, I hadn’t realized “how good it is!”

But I can’t take credit for the reviewers’ generosity and work—they were/are all volunteers for the project! As ever, Thank you so much reviewers! And, but of course, Thank you to the poets!

John adds, “I really like that I am not only collecting together many outstanding reviews but I am also in a certain way telling the story of the ‘era’ in which they were written, as it is reflected in the reviewers' concerns, etc.” I’m glad John caught that—this notion of doing a review without incorporating the reviewer—as if the response to a poem is separate from the identity of the respondent—has always seemed iffy to me, notwithstanding traditional How-To’s of doing a review.

Anyway, the good news is you can still be part of this Selected! Also to be considered will be reviews published in 2017, and we have five more months to go!  I'm still taking reviews for the usual issues. You can review any poetry or poetry-related book on your shelf or at your local library, or go HERE if you’d like a review copy(ies)!

Here’s a sampling of what will appear from GR’s early years (assuming we get permissions etc.)—worth noting are the publishers, which reflects my belief that much art-expanding poetry are at smaller, indie poetry presses:

ERNESTO PRIEGO reviews

Holiday in Tikrit, by Keith Tuma & jUStin!katKO

(Critical Documents, Oxford, Ohio: 2005)

THOMAS FINK reviews:

Bird & Forest by Brent Cunningham

(Ugly Duckling Presse, 2005)

HEATHER NAGAMI reviews

Unnecessary Roughness by Shin Yu Pai

(xPress(ed), 2005)

LENY MENDOZA STROBEL reviews

ALCHEMIES OF DISTANCE by Caroline Sinavaiana-Gabbard

(Honolulu,Hawaii: Subpress/Tinfish / Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies, 2001)

JENNIFER BARTLETT reviews

like the wind loves a window by Andrea Baker

(Slope Editions, 2005)

ABIGAIL LICAD reviews

Pinoy Poetics, A Collection of Autobiographical and Critical Essays on Filipino and Filipino-American Poetics Edited by Nick Carbo

(Meritage Press, St. Helena & San Francisco, 2004)

BARRY SCHWABSKY reviews

Mercury by Simon Smith

(Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2006)

MARY JO MALO reviews

 “phenomena of interference” by Steve Dalachinsky & Matthew Shipp

(Mastered & produced by Assif Tsahar, recorded at Tonic 7/23/2005. Released 2005)

THOMAS FINK reviews:

City Eclogue by Ed Roberson

(Atelos, 2006)

WILLIAM ALLEGREZZA reviews

Drive: The First Quartet by Lorna Dee Cervantes

(Wings Press, San Antonio, Texas, 2006)

CRAG HILL Reviews

Eye Against Eye by Forrest Gander

(New Directions, New York, 2005)

DAVID BAPTISTE-CHIROT Reviews

Lyric Poetry After Auschwitz: Eleven Submissions to the War by Kent Johnson

(effing press, Austin, TX 2005)

WITH

An Afterword Engaging Charles Bernstein’s “Enough”

BILL MARSH reviews by offering a reading through

BABELLEBAB (Non-Poetry on the End of Translation) by Heriberto Yépez

(Duration Press, 2003)

NICHOLAS MANNING Reviews

Unprotected Texts: Selected Poems 1978-2006 by Tom Beckett

(Meritage Press, St. Helena and San Francisco, 2006)

FIONNA DONEY SIMMONDS Reviews

Unprotected Texts: Selected Poems 1978 – 2006 by Tom Beckett

(Meritage Press, San Francisco & St. Helena, 2006)

BEATRIZ TABIOS (& DOPPELGANGER) Review

Unprotected Texts: Poems 1978-2006 by Tom Beckett

(Meritage Press, St. Helena & San Francisco, 2006)

CRAIG SANTOS PEREZ Reviews

I Have Not Been Able to Get Through to Everyone by Anna Moschovakis

(Turtle Point Press, N.Y., 2006)

ERICA KAUFMAN Reviews

The Anger Scale by Katie Degentesh

(Combo Books, 2006)

EILEEN TABIOS Reviews

A Place to Stand, memoir by Jimmy Santiago Baca

(Grove Press, New York, 2001)

RON SILLIMAN Reviews

having been blue for charity by kari edwards

(BlazeVOX Books, forthcoming 2007)

MARK YOUNG Reviews

having been blue for charity by kari edwards

(BlazeVOX [books]; Buffalo, N.Y., 2007)

GUILLERMO PARRA Reviews

8 PUBLICATIONS by Micah Ballard

NICHOLAS MANNING Reviews

Night Season by Mark Lamoureux

(Dusie, 2006)

J.O. LECLERC Reviews

Bowery Women: Poems, An Anthology Edited by Marjorie Tesser & Bob Holman

(YBK Publishers, New York, NY C.E. 2006)

IVY ALVAREZ PRESENTS A CHAP ROUND-UP Reviewing Pam Brown, Mackenzie Carignan, Joel Chace, Scott Glassman, jim mccrary, Lynn Strongin and Jeffrey Cyphers Wright

BRENDA IIJIMA Reviews

CONCORDANCE with poems by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge and art by Kiki Smith

(Kelsey Street Press, Berkeley, 2006)

JAMES OWENS Reviews

Born in Utopia: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Romanian Poetry Edited by Carmen Firan and Paul Doru Mugur with Edward Foster

(Talisman House, 2006)

TYRONE WILLIAMS Reviews

Negativity by Jocelyn Saidenberg

(Atelos, 2006)

EILEEN TABIOS Engages

the steam sequence by Carly Sachs

(Washington Writers Publishing House, Washington D.C., 2006)

BRENDA IIJIMA Reviews

a half-red sea by Evie Shockley

(Carolina Wren Press, Durham, NC, 2006)

GALATEA RESURRECTS: Selected Reviews & Engagements—now that is a poetry publication to anticipate!!