BOOKISH, WITH W(H)INE!

Andrew Brenza created a lovely poetry book, GOSSAMER LID, soon to be released!  Here's my (first draft) blurb for it!

Fragments, deliberate incompletions, abstract spaces, sound-based meanings, vizpo—such are not uncommon in contemporary poetry.  But Andrew Brenza brings something fresh to the terrain, and it is up in the air and even outer space.  “Scutum” sums up the strengths of this collection with radiance—“the light here / is a fine dizziness / to semblance a self on / to a towards of / another(’s) knowing” —and an attached visual element of literally connecting dots. With all of its poetic strengths, these poems also wax philosophically to show the richness of light and the various lifescapes desirous of illumination.

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Meanwhile, I love indie bookstores for many reasons, but here's a favorite reason: for carrying my books!

Here's a photo taken by Leny Strobel when she visited Main Street Books in St. Helena:

(You can just see the spines of SUN STIGMATA and AGAINST MISANTHROPY)

And here's a photo I took when I visited Napa Bookmine in Napa!

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Speaking of books, 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

GOSSAMER LID, poems by Andrew Brenza (FABULOUS! in manuscript form; see above blurb)

URSULA OR UNIVERSITY, poetic memoir/meditation by Stephanie Young (coming late to this but glad I made it.  Outstanding. LinkedIn Poetry Recommentation #190) 

LEAVING LEAVING BEHIND BEHIND, poems/fictions by Inger Wold Lund (admirably deft)

*  NECROPOLI, poem by Nicholas Manning in VERSE, Edited by Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki (stunning. moving. evocative)

*  BOUNTIFUL INSTRUCTIONS FOR ENLIGHTENMENT, poems and plays by Minal Hajratwala (a lush riot of language)

COOL DON’T LIVE HERE NO MORE: A LETTER TO SAN FRANCISCO, poems and vignettes by Tony Robles (evocative, moving, powerful)

SEVEN FOR BOETTICHER & OTHER POEMS by Rodney Koeneke

MANDARIN PRIMER, poems by Rosmarie Waldrop

BAN EN BANLIEUE, hybrid poetry by Bhanu Kapil

SCHIZOPHRENE, poetry by Bhanu Kapil

*  SENTENCES AND RAIN, poems by Elaine Equi

*  ALKALI, poems by Craig Dworkin

*  SHADOW SHARP MARSH GRASS, poems by Helen Tartar

*  EARLY LINOLEUM, poems by Brenda Iijima

*   EUNUCHS, poems by Michael Thomas Taren

*  HISTORIES OF THE FUTURE IMPERFECT, poems by Ellen Kombiyil

*  GEOGRAPHY OF TONGUES, poems by Shikha Malaviya

*  QUIET CITY, poems by Susa Alzenberg

*  GARMENTS AGAINST WOMEN, poems by Anne Boyer

*  THIS IS THE HOMELAND, poems by Mary Hickman

*  TRAFFICKE, poems by Susan Tichy

*  ACCORDING TO DISCRETION, collaborative poems by Allen Jih and Adam Vines

*  PIGEONS AND PEACE DOVES, poems by Matthew J. Hall

LOVE AFTER THE RIOTS, poems by Juan Felipe Herrera

TWO POEMS by Hugo Garcia Manriquez

BRIGHT AS MIRRORS LEFT IN THE GRASS, poems by Luisa A. Igloria

*  BONE BOUQUET, Spring 2015, literary journal edited by Krystal Languell, Trina Burke, Amy MacLennan and Allison Layfield

*  CITY LIGHTS POCKET POETS ANTHOLOGY 60^TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, Editor Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I GREET YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT CAREER: THE SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE OF LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI and ALLEN GINSBERG 1955-1997, Editor Bill Morgan

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

LIT: A MEMOIR by Mary Karr

WHEN WOMEN WERE BIRDS: FIFTY-FOUR VARIATIONS ON VOICE by Terry Tempest Williams

WALKING TO VERMONT: FROM TIMES SQUARE INTO THE GREEN MOUNTAINS—A HOMEWARD ADVENTURE, memoir by Christopher S. Wren

FOR YOU MOM, FINALLY, memoir by Ruth Reichl

GOOD DOG. STAY, memoir by Anna Quindlen

MONSTRESS, short stories by Lysley Tenorio

CITY OF WOMEN, novel by David R. Gilham

SEA GLASS WINTER, novel by Joann Ross

A MOST INCONVENIENT MARRIAGE, novel by Rebecca Jennings

WINES

2013 Olema pinot noir Sonoma Coast

Pellet Estate Pinot Grigio

2007 Ebenezer shiraz

2013 Quail’s Gate “Optima” Okanagan, BC

2014 Inniskillin Ice Wine Okanagan, BC

2010 Tres Picos Borsao Garnacha

THE GILDED AGE OF KICKSTARTERS

is a dozen poems I wrote yesterday and today.  It's the first poems I've written since concocting that Generator who can generously spit out poems forever, and the first I've deliberately written for creating a chapbook.  So now I have another dozen new poems (anybody want some?) cluttering up the already-cluttered desk: the Muse does love it all messy.  Here's the manuscript and the most edited page (most of the poems came out first draft, last draft):

A POETRY PRESS THAT EXTENDS THE FORM

I admire INSERT BLANC PRESS, one of the freshests manifestation of the indie literary/arts press. Go HERE to see lovely L.A. pastel colors and video and other information about their very worthwhile projects which I also admire for expanding the possibilities and forms of art and poetry. Poetry presses are (logically) like poets: they mostly affirm what they inherited. INSERT BLANC PRESS is among those who extend inheritance in smart and lovely ways. In this Age of Kickstarters, this is one to support.

"THE OUTSIDER'S DILEMMA"

Thanks to curator Ian Whistle for including my asemic series, "The Outsider's Dilemma," in h&, a journal of visual/concrete poetry.  Go HERE to see how my white hairs are mischievous; here's an example:

SHELVED IN SWEDEN!

What I look like in Sweden

in a bookstore managed in Malmö by lars palm!

MY ROMANCE: A BRICK!

Aileen Ibardaloza, a charming poet with a charming book, moved into a house in San Mateo, CA.  And she recently decorated her porch with books painted to feature some of her favorite books!  Am delighted to see that she included (apparently her first book by Moi) MY ROMANCE, a collection of art essays/reviews with poems.  Here's an image from her porch of those brick books!

I love the company in which MY ROMANCE finds itself!  Thank you, Aileen!  MY ROMANCE is a fairly unique book, and I hope Aileen's treatment encourages you to check it out!

AS REGARDS THE POET-PUBLISHER...

Spent part of my recent vacation reading (and annotating for a possible review) the 1955-1997 correspondence between Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg: I GREET YOU AT THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT CAREER, effectively edited by Bill Morgan. There are many gems innit, but perhaps because I include "poet-publisher" among my own roles, I'm focusing (at least this afternoon) on Ginsberg's opinions of Ferlinghetti's poems -- a section that made me wince.

I didn't wince because Ginsberg thought poorly of Ferlinghetti's poems (though he shared his constructive criticism) but because, as a topic, it was obviously not at the top of Ginsberg's list of concerns (this topic wasn't raised until page 153 of the book) and Ginsberg is a poet who pays attention to other poets. And Ferlinghetti was, at least, conscious of Ginsberg's lack of attention ... a few pages past p 153, Ginsberg offered some more notes on Ferlinghetti's poems but I got the sense (I could be misreading but I don't think I am) that Ginsberg was nicely (if belatedly) realizing that he should be more attuned to the fact that his publisher also writes poems.  Well, really, you should read this book to sense the nuances for yourself (and see if I'm being over-imaginative)...

since this is a topic that resonates to me as a poet-publisher.  As a publisher, I don't expect reciprocal attention to my work from poets I publish.  The focus in this publishing arrangement is the publishee.  But what does it mean when the publishee is indifferent to how his publisher is also a peer, also a poet?

So often, I've received surprise and/or a distinct, as if rare, pleasure as the reactions to a question I pose to my publishers or editors, "How's your work coming along?" and/or "I appreciated your work ___" followed by some question about it. This surprise is also why I don't expect my publishees ever to pay attention to my own work (though the majority, to my distinct pleasure, do).

Not sure, really, where I'm going with this.  Nowhere, I guess.

One poet-publisher once shared that it can be a tad aggravating when a publishee talks to the publisher as if the publishee was the master and the publisher a mere listener when the publisher is also a poet.  (Got that?)

I guess I'll stop talking now about this topic which is just grimace-generating, sadly because it partly bespeaks the limited attention given to any poet's works.