Eileen R. Tabios is a poet working in multiple genres and in-between. She also loves books by writing, reading, publishing, critiquing, romancing and advocating for them. This blog will feature her bibliophilic activities with posts on current book engagements and links to her books and projects related to books.

Monday, February 29, 2016

THANK YOU POET-PUBLISHERS!



What I love about the above photo -- of Robert and Elizabeth Murphy who run Dos Madres Press -- is that it allows me a glimpse into the facility (so to speak) of one of my indie publishers. Dos Madres Press published INVENT(ST)ORY and you  can see its blue cover on a box behind Elizabeth. I look at that photo and I'm so moved over the idea of all these poets working selflessly to put out more poetry into the world; often, these poet-publishers work out of their homes and I love the implicit intimacy. Thank you to all poet-publishers: among those who've aided my work, in addition to the Murphys, I think of and thank Jukka-Pekka Kervinen,  Mark Young, William Allegrezza, Catherine Daly, Sandy McIntosh and all the poets of the Marsh Hawk Press collective, Marthe Reed and Nicole Mauro and other poet-editors at Black Radish Books, lars palm, Jesse Glass, Peter Ganick, Kristy Bowen, Tony Frazer, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Steve Tills, Amanda Laughtland, Alec Newman, among others.

I stumbled onto the photo of the Murphys at their new Facebook page set up for AWP.  I won't be at AWP but they will have my book so hope you check out all the lovely Dos Madres books. Speaking of poet-publishers and AWP, you can go HERE for a photo of the founders of Marsh Hawk Press which was recently highlighted by AWP-Facebook. (Marsh Hawk also will bring my latest book, THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS, to AWP).

Lovely poets, lovely publishers, lovely poetry.  Thank you all!



Friday, February 26, 2016

STAR IN ST. HELENA

Between the Farmers' Market and the police log -- exactly where I belong!





Thursday, February 25, 2016

STEP UP FOR STEP BELOW!

Well -- it's easy to multitask when one is watching political debate.  So I'm buying poetry books! Such as stocking up on my newest-published book by Meritage Press -- contact Moi if you would like a review copy of



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



MY 100 POEMS by lars palm

LITHIC TYPOLOGY by Mark Young

KALI’S BLADE by Michelle Bautista

POETRY IS: JOSE GARCIA VILLA’S PHILOSOPHY OF POETRY Edited by Robert King

THE ART OF EXPORTING by Christina Querrer

HUNTER MONIES by Jen Tynes

WHERE THEY WOULD NEVER BE INVITED by Jesse Nissim

IT’LL NEVER BE OVER FOR ME by Mark Lamoreux

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 by C.D. Wright

ONE WITH OTHERS: [A LITTLE BOOK OF HER DAYS] by C.D. Wright

ONE BIG SELF by C.D. Wright

SIGHTINGS: SELECTED WORKS (2000-2001) by Shin Yu Pai

I FORGOT LIGHT BURNS by Eileen R. Tabios


THE FIRST HAY(NA)KU BOOK IN FINLAND!

Heikki Lahnaoja, a poet, librarian and animator, has come out with the first hay(na)ku book in Finland!  Puitten uni, which can be translated to Sleep of Trees -- you can see more information HERE.  And here's its lovely cover:



I'll be interviewing Heikki soon. Watch for details on that!

Meanwhile,
Thank You
Heikki for yours...

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

STEP BELOW: SELECTED POEMS by WILLIAM ALLEGREZZA!!!

Meritage Press and copublisher i.e. press are delighted to announce the release of:



ISBN No.: 978-1-934299-10-4
Release Date: Spring 2016
Co-published with i.e. press (New York)
Price: $16.00 (currently with a 25% discount at Lulu)

Available from Meritage Press' Lulu.com

Also available direct from the publisher (MeritagePress@aol.com) 


ABOUT THE BOOK
Step Below: Selected Poems 2000-2015 contains a selection of poetry chosen by the poet.  To give the reader a sense of the poet’s development, the book is arranged in chronological order.  It contains work from his major books and several texts that have now gone out of publication.  In it, we can see a sample of Allegrezza’s formal poetic innovations and can hear the pervasive lyric undertone of his work. 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
William Allegrezza is the author of many books of poetry, including Port Light (2014), Densities. Apparitions. (2011), and Fragile Replacements (2007).  He has edited several books, such as La AlteraciĂłn del Silencio: PoesĂ­a Norteamericana Reciente (Co-ed. Galo Ghigliotto, 2010) and The Salt Companion to Charles Bernstein (2012); in addition, he has curated a reading series, edited presses, and edited journals.  He currently teaches at Indiana University Northwest.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

READING DU JOUR

George Oppen Collected, with excerpt from Eliot Weinberger's Preface:




Friday, February 19, 2016

THE PYRAMID ARCHITECT'S BOOK


I'm always gratified when my "older" books get reviewed. Books deserve better than being categorized in "recent" vs. non-recent.  Thanks to Aileen Ibardaloza-Casinetto who apparently inaugurated her Goodreads Reviews with a review of my collected novels, SILK EGG!  She calls me an architect of pyramids -- why not?  Here's an excerpt of the review:
Muted as they are, these images rouse the tenderest of sentiments over the impermanence of structures.  That is to say, the perception of impermanence as directed by experience (or is it the other way around?). Architectural paradoxes aside, the significance of these novels is to present a new way of texturizing orthographical symbols and their meanings using as few combinations as possible. As Tabios puts it, "Look where the window view finally stops…" and/or see the world with words. That is again to say, dare to perceive, represent, truthfully.

You can see entire review HERE.



Thursday, February 18, 2016

FOUND POEM BY MY SON

I've been in the middle of some tortuous moving and storage-ing of various stuff from the house. And in going through various items, I stumbled across an old school notebook of Michael, probably when he was a year or so in the U.S. I consider it a found List Poem entitled "Mom: Eileen Tabios." That 4th item kills me ("she try her best")-- relatedly, I am a person who once baked a cake that was left untouched by middle schoolers (I thought those peeps were supposed to be perpetually ravenous with cast-iron bellies... )





Monday, February 15, 2016

POEMS WRITTEN IN RESPONSE TO THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS!


Someone writing a poem in response to your work is just about one of the best types of reactions one can give.  I'm grateful to Joyce Gullickson for writing this poem inspired by her reading of my latest book, THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS.  Thank you Joyce!


In Due Time
                        after The Way It Is by William Stafford

I forgot the difficulty of loving.
I forgot the field, overgrown with weeds—
until I dreamed of childhood.

Often I’ve forgotten to follow the thread
through the eye of the needle,
I’ve forgotten the way it is

 The joy of love struck stars
that travel millions of miles
their lightshine reflecting in your eyes
I forgot to follow that gleaming.

I forgot love’s combustion.
I forgot the author of chemical reactions
the white hot, soul burning
soul searing, all searching
manner of love—abiding.

I forgot how love covers hovering anger.
How the threadbare blanket extinguishes
those fires of discontent.
Remember how anger hurts?
Sure you do, sure you do.

I forgot the magic of time’s passing—
how memories’ needle loses its sting,
how a thimble of love protects us.

Today, I forgot the way it is until—
I found a dandelion in the forgotten field—

waiting—wanting—to be fulfilled.


Joyce is  co-founder, along with husband Mike Gullickson, of the Georgetown Poetry Festival.  Mike also wrote a poem-response to THE CONNOISSEUR ...  I am grateful to both of you!


[Btw, THE CONNOISSEUR is now available on Amazon and SPD, among others.]






Friday, February 12, 2016

THE POET DU JOUR SEZ

Thanks to Shanna Compton for The Quotidian Bee which features Moi as poet du jour with  the poem "Dredging for Atlantis" from THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS. But, really, thanks to Shanna, more importantly, for EVERYTHING she does for poetry. Here's The Quotidian Bee link below ... and, as well, here's a different link to another poem , "I Forgot the Religion That Proclaims We Began as Orphaned" over at Futures Trading -- thanks to editor, and another poetry advocate, Caleb Pucket (this poem is from forthcoming AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir). I look at poetry publication as also a way to engage with communities I admire and I'm glad to be welcomed.




Wednesday, February 10, 2016

THE BLESSINGS OF READER-RESPONSE


I'm moved that THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS moved a reader to write his own poem.  Thank you for this:

RE:LIFE RE: LIVING
By Michael Gullickson


I forgot memory
contains an underbrush
that snags words
and photographs
pictures that were
never taken
leaving St. Thomas
leaving Sequoia
leaving places
I'd never been
I forgot until just then
the ache of how that feels.

I forgot the ruins
of the bomb scarred city-
my own Hiroshima
complete with the shadows
burnt into the sidewalks
until I walked through
broken brick & scattered glass.
I forgot how that felt
a certain kindness-
sometimes forgetting is best.

I forgot why I told you that.

Thanks Mike!! Here's a little about him:

Mike Gullickson is the co-editor and publisher of The Enigmatist and Blue Hole. Mike has a poem on display with San Antonio’s VIA Metropolitan Transit. He and his wife Joyce Gullickson are founders of the Georgetown Poetry Festival.


***


And I'm moved that my selected list poem project, INVENT(ST)ORY, moved Neal Leadbeater to review it. You can see the entire review HERE but here's an excerpt:
This substantial volume of work brings together selections from several previous publications written over the last twenty years together with some new and uncollected work. A fine introduction by Thomas Fink, who made the selection, places the work in context and provides a useful and informative guide to readers who may be encountering the work of this poet for the first time. 

For a while now, Tabios has been interested in the concept of the list poem – that is to say, poems composed of lists. Nowhere is this more apparent than in her sequence of poems about the content of the Balikbayan Box (taken from her book Post Bling Bling, 2005) and the poem sequence called Garbage: A True Story. The former reveals her very real engagement with problems and perspectives relating to cultural identity and expatriatism and the latter with environmental issues and the problems of living in a throw-away society. In other words, these are not just lists recorded for the sake of it, but revealing commentaries on subjects that go far deeper than the surface text. Tabios‘ engagement with the public is of particular interest in these two sequences. E-mails received from individuals responding to her texts and calls for information form an integral part of her work and lend a degree of objectivity and authenticity to the overall content.

***


And I'm also moved that my 14-year-old book, and first U.S.-published book, REPRODUCTIONS OF THE EMPTY FLAGPOLE, moved Romanian-based critic Monica Manolachi to review it in part by calling me a new name (so to speak): "vexillologist"!  Woot.  You can see the entire review HERE but here's an excerpt:

The study of flags, vexillology is a fusion of the Latin word vexillum (flag) and the Greek suffix –logia (study). Vexillologists deal with all sorts of flags and they often meet to discuss their meanings. When the flags happen to be unidentified and fictional, they may be found in short stories, novels or comic strips. If the flagpole is empty and the vexillologist says “I am addicted to what I do not know” or “I symbolize nothing” or “I am unsure with metaphors—I allow them to bleed from my pen,” then we are talking about a poet disguised as vexillologist. In Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole (2002), Eileen R. Tabios dwells on the possibilities offered by the combination of poetry and prose, reflects on belonging to various forms of in-betweenness and imagines unusually liberating flags for the states she explores. 

The motif of “the empty flagpole” can be read in different ways throughout the book. As a vertical line, it is a sign that simultaneously divides and unites, and it stands for the attempt to find laws in what is apparently turbulent and disconcerting: “To escape chaos, the Greeks created art with abstractions. It is a familiar approach, having long used geometry to deny myself caresses.” Tabios’s collection is also political. As a Filipino-American poet, born in Ilocos Sur, she explores the intersection of double belonging, by grafting cultural, ethnic and personal memory onto her American and transnational experience: “What does it say about me when I ask for asylum in places where people wish to leave? I try to find meaning in flags. But they repel me when buffeted by an incidental breeze.” The motif also implies the difficulty of separating poetry from prose and the desire to employ the aesthetic complexity of both, in order to express the struggle of finding meaning. For Tabios, the middle ground can be where the rhythmic cadences of free verse, with their lyrical repetitions, images and sounds, meet what seems to resemble a narrative, but which expresses a mood, emotion or feeling rather than strictly the thread of a story. The facts are only pretexts for further subjective visions, both sensual and intellectual.

THANK YOU, Universe.

P.S.  The book covers weren't planned together and the books span over 14 years -- but it's interesting to see how, really, blue is my favorite color...






Tuesday, February 9, 2016

THE CONNOISSEUR'S MANY BLESSINGS



It's just lovely to see one of the poems in THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS,get into John Bloomberg-Rissman's opus, THE HANGMAN--you can see it at Zeitgeist Spam. He conflated my poem "Menage a Trois with the 21st Century" with an artist statement by Jigger Cruz whose works he introduced me to and which I much appreciate! Anyway, I love so many things about John's THE HANGMAN, including this:
"... thus we find Ralph Cudworth arguing in 1678 that hylozoism (the view that all matter is alive) entails the ‘clubbing together’ of infinite minds everywhere (Cudworth saw this as a reductio ad absurdum of hylozoism, just as more recently John Searle has argued against pananimism on the grounds that there must be an individual mental subject wherever there is mental activity). A few years after Cudworth, we find Leibniz working out the elements of his own theory of monads, which holds precisely that the world is entirely constituted from the activity of infinitely many nodes of perception. This is what Heraclitus has in mind when he says that gods dwell in his stove; it is what preoccupies the Inuit when they suppose that in eating walrus meat they are eating the souls of ancestors; and it is the way of thinking that informs Virgil’s poetic account of the Zephyr’s power to impregnate mares."

THANKS JOHN!

**

Also, even as the book is still in process of being stocked at Amazon.com, apparently it already received a review by one of its Hall of Fame reviewers. Thanks to Grady Harp for this:
Anyone familiar with the rather enormous output of poetry and experimentation written communication and style will have an idea of what to expect in this newest publication THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALLEYS (the title alone invites creativity). But then again, not necessarily, because every time Tabios sets her mind to a new project, something unique happens. This collection of works is a collection of interconnected poems, each time a poem begins a reference shines, a moment of recognition and yet that moment so embellished with fresh perspective that the result is as mesmerizing as it is exquisite poetry. Each poem begins with ‘I forgot…’ and then meanders through the maze of memory and reconstruction of the past and references to the art of word craftsmanship in a manner that immediately becomes awe-inspiring.

And you can order it now, despite the site saying it's temporarily out of stock (that's not true; it's in process of being stocked).

**

Also, Here's the dedication page to THE CONNOISSEUR..., a book I dedicate to poet-editors. This means if you see your name on it and would like a copy, just send me your snail mail addy. It's not a comprehensive list so if you have acted as a poet-editor for me in the past, send me your addy anyway even if you don't see your name.







Monday, February 8, 2016

THE HALO-HALO REVIEW IS FRESH!



You can go directly to The Halo-Halo Review's Mangozine #2, but here also is the Table of Contents for convenience below.

THE HALO-HALO REVIEW'S MANGOZINE, Issue 2

In addition to aggregating reviews from the internet, THE HALO-HALO REVIEW presents The Mangozine which features new reviews and serves as the online publisher for reviews and other engagements (e.g. book introductions) published in print but not yet available within the internet.  Other features, including author interviews and reader testimonials, also will be presented. The following presents a Table of Contents for Issue 2 -- CLICK on links to go to the reviews.

Editor's Note:  Welcome to the second issue of THE HALO-HALO REVIEW where we provide engagements with Filipin@ literature and authors through reviews and engagements, interviews and other prose. We hope readers, writers and publishers will continue to participate and share information about numerous Filipino authors and the wide variety of their writings. 

The Mangozine's Review Copy information is HERE; you are encouraged to fatten up the list as well as pick some to review! Submission deadline for the third issue has been set at July 15, 2016 (though I will take reviews sooner than the deadline if that is more convenient for the reviewers).
Eileen Tabios' Editor's Note continues over HERE. 



I.  NEW REVIEWS AND ENGAGEMENTS

Four books by R. Zamora Linmark: Rolling the R's (Kaya Press, New York, 1997); Prime Time Apparitions (Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, 2005); The Evolution of a Sigh (Hanging Loose Press, Brooklyn, 2008); and LECHE (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2011). Engaged by Sheila Bare

"The Boatman's Spine Poetry," a poem and sculpture by Aileen Ibardaloza (2015). Engaged by Eileen R. Tabios

After projects the resound by Kimberly Alidio (Black Radish Books, 2016). Engaged by Marthe Reed

Angel De La Luna and the 5th Glorious Mystery by M. Evelina Galang (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2013). Reviewed by Amadio Arboleda


COURT OF THE DRAGON by Paolo Javier (Nightboat Books, New York, 2015). Reviewed by Chris Mansel


INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New 1996-2015 by Eileen R. Tabios (Dos Madres Press, Loveland, OH, 2015). Reviewed by Neal Leadbeater


Hollywood Starlet by Ivy Alvarez (Dancing Girl Press, 2015). Reviewed by Rebecca Loudon

Three books by Albert E. Alejo: Tao Po! Tuloy! Isang Landas ng Pagunawa sa Loob ng Tao (Ateneo de Manila University Office of Research and Publications, 1990); Generating Energies In Mount Apo: Cultural Politics In A Contested Environment  (Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2001); and Nabighani: Mga Saling Tula ng Kapwa Nilikha (University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2015). Engaged by Leny M. Strobel

Bridgeable Shores: Selected Poems (1969-2001) by Luis Cabalquinto (Kaya Press / Galatea Speaks, New York, 2001). Reviewed by Neal Leadbeater

THE BEAUTY OF GHOSTS: Five Voices: A Theater of Poetry by Luis H. Francia (Ateneo de Manila University Press, Quezon City, 2010). Engaged by Eileen R. Tabios


Her Wild American Self by M. Evelina Galang (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 1996). Reviewed by Amadio Arboleda

Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole by Eileen R. Tabios (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2002). Reviewed by Monica Manolachi

Names Above Houses by Oliver de la Paz (Southern Illinois University Press / Crab Orchard Series in Poetry, 2001). Reviewed by Cristina Querrer

Bistro Filipino Book edited by Yolanda Perez Johnson, with Contributor Chef Rolando Laudico (Soumak Collections, Inc., Manila, 2014). Engaged by Jeannie Yniguez

Disturbance by Ivy Alvarez (Seren Books, Wales, 2013). Reviewed by Nicholas Whitehead

Tattered Boat by Luis H. Francia (University of the Philippines Press, Quezon City, Philippines, 2014). Reviewed by Rhett Pascual


Two books by R. Zamora Linmark: Rolling the R's (Kaya, New York, 1997) and LECHE (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, 2011). Reviewed by Justine Villanueva


FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA: Uncollected Poems 1995-2009 by Eileen R. Tabios (BlazeVOX [books], New York, 2009). Reviewed by Chris Mansel




II. AUTHOR INTERVIEWS, POST-BOOK

Paolo Javier, Post-Court of the Dragon  (Nightboat Books, New York, 2015) 


Kristine Ong Muslim, Post-Age of Blight (Unnamed Press, Los Angeles, 2016)



III. READERS SHOW SOME LOVE TO FILIPINO AUTHORS

Go HERE to see the Love expressed by the following:

Eileen Tabios on Jessica Hagedorn

Tony Robles on Marianne Villanueva

Eileen Tabios on Nick Carbo 

Jason Koo on Patrick Rosal

Metta Sáma on Barbara Jane Reyes

Dave Bonta on Luisa A. Igloria


Cristina Querrer on Bino A. Realuyo

Paul Pines and John Bloomberg-Rissman on Eileen Tabios


IV. FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE

Reviews
Magdalena by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard (Plain View Press, Austin, TX , 2002). Reviewed by Eileen R. Tabios for Babaylan Speaks (now offline)



From Books: Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, Afterwords and Author's Notes

Nick Carbo introduces RETURNING A BORROWED TONGUE (Coffee House Press, Minneapolis, Minn., 1996)

Oliver de la Paz introduces Little Anodynes by Jon Pineda (The University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC, 2015)

Luis H. Francia presents an introductory excerpt to his EYE OF THE FISH: A Personal Archipelago (Kaya Press, New York, 2001)

Cecilia M. Brainard introduces A LA CARTE FOOD & FICTION, Collected and Edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard and Marily Ysip Orosa  (Anvil, Philippines, 2007 and an Ebook published by PALH, CA)

Lolan Buhain Sevilla and Roseli Ilano introduce WALANG HIYA: literature taking risks toward liberatory practice (Carayan Press, San Francisco, 2010)

Thomas Fink introduces INVENT(ST)ORY: Selected Catalog Poems & New 1996-2015 by Eileen R. Tabios (Dos Madres Press, Loveland, OH, 2015)