ANNE GORRICK ON MY GORILLA YOU COULD FINGERPRINT

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge -- and acknowledge my love for -- Anne Gorrick's fabulous response to one of my poems, "I Forgot A Gorilla Could Be Fingerprinted." Anne read the poem in AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir, and wrote a poem of the same title but remixed in her wonderfully wide-ranging way -- you can see the poem HERE at Quail Bell Magazine, but here's an excerpt, its opening:

A front-projected diety with laser-based fingers, the fifth episode of the sixth season, finished in silver foil = Space and Music and Films and Aliens and stuff.   I forget how smart you are.  The door is locked.   Render images that, even to the naked eye, seem to float in space.  Find tickets for Ivy Dye / Pool Holograph / The Local Void.  Tickets starting at $5.  The night in its performance thaws vaudevillians and holographic pop stars, appears in the dust of an automobile hood.  The next moment the client is screaming, "I forgot, I forgot, I totally forgot that I had a head-on collision at that age.”  Information about each small image is scattered throughout this text.  In the future there will be only holographic anime pop stars, teleporting entities with weird eyes that are well, weird.   The mass must be completely described as on the surface of the sphere.  The mass must be forgotten.  The most common reason clients report not using their coping skills is simply, “I forgot.”  You're able to enter a game, story, faraway locale or learning environment, recently proposed in these optical remote sensing applications.  Memories could be a residual element to what electricity suggests.  There was a weird "Ah…I forgot I was wearing holographic clothes." A repatterning for the next day.

Thank you so much, Anne! You're an ideal poem's reader!

The referenced Gorilla poem, btw, first appeared in that wonderful Belladonna chaplet series under the chap title The Estrus Gaze(s) in 2005. Which is to say, it's surely wonderful to see a poem receive such support! Thank you, Universe.

THE FORCE IS WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY

(click on images to enlarge)

"The Force..."--just a Pinoy Pun on the generous title of an exhibit on some of my books over at the San Francisco Public Library's International Center (3rd floor, 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco). The title is courtesy of the exhibit's generous curator who deserves to receive plaudits, not give them: Abraham "Abe" Ignacio. Since about four months ago, Abe has served as Librarian of the SFPL's Filipino American Center. I'm honored, I'm blessed, and I'm grateful. Maraming Salamat, Abe!  Abe is a historian and noted author as well, having released the important The Forbidden Book: The Philippine-American War (co-authored with Helen Toribio, Enrique de la Cruz and Jorge Emmanuel).

Here are photos of the exhibit which also reminds me to say Thank You to my book publishers whose faith I appreciate in publishing me. Featured in the exhibit are publications released through Editions du Cygne (France), Knives Forks and Spoons Press (U.K.), Black Radish Books, Theenk Books, Otoliths, and a few each by Paloma Press and Moria Books/Locofo. Thank you Patrice, Daniel, Irene, Alec, Marthe, Steve, Mark, Aileen and Bill.

Also below are photos of various Filipino- and Filipino-American titles displayed and also curated by Abe. It is great to be surrounded, to be contextualized among, these wonderful works by what is still one of the more overlooked groups within the literary world: Filipino English-language writings.

(Abe Ignacio)

In the marvelous company of:

REVIEWED: AMNESIA and THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA!

I'm grateful for Otoliths and editor Mark Young who've nourished me and many poets whose works I respect. And grateful for the new issue's review of two of my books AMNESIA and THE OPPOSITE OF CLAUSTROPHOBIA. Excerpts:

"the chapter numbers are not in sequence in the contents page... The lack of a linear sequence mirrors the way our mind seemingly moves from one random thought to another... Tabios points out in an Author’s Note that readers may reorder the chapters themselves ... in order to generate different stories since any combination or story is valid."

And

"The sequence was generated by applying prime numbers against the order of the lines from the MDR database... Every line is viewed as being as important as the previous one. If we think of memory as being a bit like a computer creating a database of images, mathematics is one of the recurring images throughout the text:
     'I forgot there are no guarantees, not even in math where “1+1” may not be “2” but, as a visual artist insisted, “1 1” or, as a philosopher insisted, “a turning towards the other".'

You can see the review by Neil Leadbeater HERE.

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.

SOMEONE REMEMBERS AMNESIA!

Delighted by this new review of AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir -- by Dina Paulson-McEwen at WALK THE LINE. The review is HERE, but here's an excerpt:

The content unites through anaphora, with nearly all lines beginning “I forgot…” (when Tabios deviates [i.e. “I. Forgot.”] it zaps the eye). There is interplay between personal, earthly, and political; between who is ‘you’ and who is ‘me’ as one remembers and forgets. She coyly states: “I forgot the logic of amnesia.” For the reader, presented with language repetition, learning moves rapidly into forgotten facticity. The book, at first reading, is already a second reading. 

AMNESIA: Somebody’s Memoir is equally about content and form and their possibilities of convergence: how language decries and rejuvenates what it observes, exposing an x-ray of has-beens and to-be’s. 

The book also comprises actual science. AMNESIA: Somebody’s Memoir is one of six books generated by her “The MDR [Murder, Death and Resurrection] Poetry Generator.” A database of her poetry, it has over three thousand possibilities of poems. The MDR Poetry Generator recalls indigenous Filipino practices, which Tabios refers to as “Babaylan Poetics.”  

Two forces occur here. A flow allows the individual to be present and reconcile on their own terms. A mechanization bases on recycled data, suppressing original thinking. An individual must parse through this stratum, push to investigate themselves and to piece together/pierce the world. As in: “I forgot the wave–how its singularity is easily fractured by sunlight’s blades.”

I GET POETRY! SO I BUY POETRY! IT'S JUSTICE!

But before I share my recent purchases, perhaps you'll consider purchasing one of mine for a good cause: a poetry fundraiser for Youth Justice Coalition, an L.A.-based nonprofit working against the criminalization of youth of color. Click HERE for the fundraiser and if you scroll down you'll see reference to my book AMNESIA: Somebody's Memoir. I believe there's only one copy left of the ones I donated--if you buy this through the fundraiser, I'm happy to toss in another book or two when the book is sent to you!

**

(Some of the books purchased during the New Orleans Poetry Festival)

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

SUCCUBUS IN MY POCKET by kari edwards

GHAZALS 1-59 AND OTHER POEMS by Sheila E. Murphy and Michelle Greenblatt

STATE OF EXILE, poems by Cristina Peri Rossi, trans. by Marilyn Buck

ELSA by Veronica Wong

ATOMS OF MUSES by Timothy Dyke

TENDER GIRL by Lisa Samuels

BY DIAMOND HEAD by Hank Lazer

VIRGINIA OR THE MUD-FLAP GIRL by Elizabeth Treadwell

PLAYING THE FORM by James Maughn

PROPOSED ADDITIONS by Donovan Kuhio Colleps

SISTA TONGUE by Lisa Linn Kanae

MANHATER by Danielle Pafunda

ENTANGLED BANK by James Sherry

THE EXPERIMENTS [A LEGEND IN PICTURES & WORDS] by Rachel May

LEAVES OF CLASS by Kit Robinson

WHERE’S MY RITSPIK by Lynn Young

LIVING PIDGIN: CONTEMPLATIONS ON PIDGIN CULTURE by Lee A. Tonouchi

OVER HEAR: SIX TYPES OF POETRY EXPERIMENT IN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND by Lisa Samuels

DISTANT ROAD: SELECTED POEMS OF NGUYEN Duy, Trans. by Kevin Bowen and Nguyen Ba Chung

SAND OPERA by Philip Metres

CLAIMING BREATH by Diance Glancy

PENCIL LETTER by Irina Ratushinskaya

THE HATRED OF POETRY by Ben Lerner

FIELD GUIDE TO AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Melissa Eleftherion

SELF-PORTRAIT IN A CONVEXT MIRROR / HOUSEBOAT DAYS by John Ashbery

RESIST MUCH OBEY LITTLE edited by Michael Boughn Et Al.

THE PROMETHEUS COLLAGE by Mary Kasimor

TWENTY MOMENTS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD by John Goodman

WINTER ON WALL STREET by Eileen R. Tabios

WHAT SHIVERING MONKS COMPREHEND by The MDR Poetry Generator

COMPREHENDING MORTALITY by John Bloomberg-Rissman and Eileen R. Tabios

IMMIGRANT: Hay(na)ku & Other Poems In A New Land by Eileen R. Tabios

MENOPAUSAL HAY(NA)KU FOR P-GRUBBERS edited by Eileen R. Tabios

(Books purchased from a recent discovery, Half-Price Books in Berkeley, CA)

BOOKS TO BENEFIT YOUTH JUSTICE!!

I am so pleased to have my book AMNESIA: SOMEBODY’S MEMOIR be part of the second round of the Brew and Forge Book Fair! 100 authors donated signed copies of their books to benefit the Youth Justice Coalition, an LA organization fighting against the criminalization of youth of color. The Book Fair is open between now and May 7th! Gratitude to organizers Franny Choi, Tamiko Beyer, Lo Kwa Mei-en and Kenji Liu! Click on  https://squareup.com/store/brewandforge to see all the wonderful offerings!

SUNDAY BLESSINGS

EVENT REPORT:

Today was the Methodist Book Launch (so to speak, and it amuses me to speak of it as such) of AMNESIA: Somebody’s Memoir at the Saint Helena Methodist Church. It was one of the best poetry reading experiences of my life and shows just how fruitful it can be for poets to go beyond the usual literary world contexts for presenting their poems. And thanks to Leny Strobel and Cal for attending. Leny, as my bookseller during the reception, sold out my books and folks put in several orders—never had the book bag been so light after a poetry reading. She and I just may launch a reading tour of the Methodists churches in wine country! 

But what I also want to say is how synchronistically the poems ended up addressing the events of the week. There was the line “I forgot it need not take more than one person to bring the world to ruin…” which I’d written *after* the Greek Myth of Helen and the Trojan War, and yet came to address refugee matters. And when I introduced a poem partly inspired by the Philippines, unplanned by me came the line, “I just wanted to say I’m an immigrant too…” As well, it was good to share the line, “I forgot Muhammad welcoming Jews and Christians for they, too, are 'People of the Book.'" The best poems transcend authorial intent to befit whatever times surface in life, out of the poet’s control. I’m grateful I discovered some of my poems work in this manner.

I learned, too, that the cello (and piano, except that the cello was a revelation) is a wonderful accompaniment to my poems courtesy of the Napa Valley Duo. As well, I was blessed by the company of Linda Lang’s artworks. Anyway, my heart is full. Thank you, Universe. 

 (Rev. Audrey and Leny Strobel)

 (artist Linda Lang)

While my reading focused on AMNESIA, I also read poems from FOOTNOTES TO ALGEBRA and THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES:

Of course, I was blessed, too, to be in the company of Micah, Matthew, and Chopin.

Matthew

Micah

Chopin

And afterwards, the stillness of peace:

I'LL NEVER FORGET THIS REVIEW

I'm grateful, deeply grateful. But, mostly, I am amazed by this review. Very very surprised (specifically at that first paragraph). But Kevin Killian, as many know, is a generous being. Thank you, Kevin: AMNESIA was blessed to be read by you.

Here's part of what Kevin says:

The “forgets” are often tender as well as candid, and it would take a hard heart not to be moved by Tabios’ vision of life as a pageant of feeling and vision, unrolling before us on crystalline rods oiled perfectly with WD40. Has anything happened to anyone anywhere that this book does not prophesy forgetting? I doubt it.

I also like reviews that teach me something. So now, I know what "WD40" is -- who'da thunk I'd learn it from a poetry review?!

Bless you, Kevin Killian.