UNEXPECTED META

It's such a joy--a relaxation--for my mind to shift from words to visual art. I'm really enjoying the work for North Fork Arts Projects. This morning in the gallery my eyes snagged on two works by Ulysses Duterte, the works that compelled me to ask him about exhibiting. They first intrigued me because the imagery is of sunsets and yet are presented on thin fields when I usually think of sunsets as bearing a seemingly infinite expanse. I appreciate their conceptual underpinning of what may be seen through prison bars, something we'll be exploring through his exhibit's online discourse in February (other works will be presented too). Meanwhile, here they are currently in the gallery--I'd just set them against the wall and later realized I'd de facto displayed them a la John McCracken's plank works. It's making me think I might display them in a similar fashion (rather than hanging them up) for purpose of the exhibit as I like (and usually don't like) the meta element of turning nature into one of interiority...

MY FIRST (AND ONLY) GHAZAL

Sometimes I try poetic forms new to me. Sometimes, they click for me and sometimes they don't. One that didn't click was the ghazal (which is not to say it's not a lovely form). But recent unpacking of items from long-term storage elicited the one ghazal I've ever written ... and I thank Central Coast Poetry Shows for publishing it by making me their featured poet today on their Facebook page--"Day 584 Poetry." The ghazal (to date) is not the \ form for me but, as I say in the poem's last line:

"O Beloved! I was the wrong dame!"

Since the poem is on Facebook, I replicate poem here for those of you not traversing FB (the long lines just continue on to next line):

RICHARD WOULD WRITE MY FIRST GHAZAL

while floating on the Seine, noon light lingering, south side of Notre Dame

feet up on starboard, tide gentle, memory searching for a red-haired dame

where grey rocks polka-dot Pacific Grove, breathing space at the Seven Collars Inn

overlooking an aqua sea, flecks of white tissuing chin, nibbles piled on a giggling dame

at the Monterey Fish Grotto overlooking “The Point” where the Allegheny and Monongahela

join like thighs in Pittsburgh (the sommelier bleary-eyed), biding his breath with a wide-hipped dame

on a smelly dock creaking in Beach Bay Harbor, Maine, savoring streetside lobster rolls

$7-$8 per sandwich—“heaven cheap at that price”—colliding tongues with a succulent dame

over Calistoga or Arcadia National Park—“don’t matter where”—to ride a hang glider

and hear from the open cockpit a high-pitched susurrus like bliss cried out by a childhood dame

with Susan on her porch—“I smell her perfume to this very day”—wheat napping beyond the horizon

“How did I come to be denied the scent of jasmine permeating the hair on that low-lidded dame?”

Or on a slatted bench in Stag’s Leap courtyard with a glass of chardonnay, then cabernet

where Richard outlined this poem, no hiccups in his stride though I, Eileen, was the wrong dame—

Oh, Beloved! I was the wrong dame!

THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL ... ACKNOWLEDGES:

I'm pleased to share my next book will be THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL: Selected Visual Poetry 2001-2019 (Paloma Press, 2019). I hope it will come out next month. A strong believer, in "Thank  you," I'd like to acknowledge those in its acknowledgements page:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Deep gratitude to the editors, curators, and publishers of the following publications and spaces that first featured individual works from this collection:

Facebook hashtag #thebigboxstorepoetryproject curated by Pamela Hart: “Arrival: An Impossibility” (2016)

1000 VIEWS OF “GIRL SINGING”, Editor John Bloomberg-Rissman (Leafe Press, Nottingham, U.K., 2009): “GIRL SINGING” (2009), as well as the Afterword and referenced poem, “ANTI-WINTER: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF AN ANGEL”

2006 INTERNATIONAL HAND MADE POSTCARD EXHIBITION curated by Suzlee Ibrahim and Nalur Seni at the Garden of Art, in collaboration with ARTPROJECT2006, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: “The Secret Lives of Punctuations” (2006)

Berfrois, Editor Russell Bennetts: “Witnessed in the Convex Mirror: Tense Past Tense / Tanka #160”

“CHROMATEXT REBOOTED” curated by Jean Marie Syjuco and Alfred A. Yuson, Cultural Center of the Philippines (Manila), 2015-2016: “DON’T CALL ME FILIPINO” (2015)

“CHROMATEXT RELOADED,” an exhibition curated by Sid Hildawa, Jean Marie Syjuco and Alfred A. Yuson; sponsored by the Philippine Literary Arts Council; and held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (Manila), 2007: “LISTING POEM: TOWARDS THE NEW FILIPINO SOCIETY” (2007)

Datableed, Editors Eleanor Perry and Juha Virtanen: “Witnessed in the Convex Mirror (#23) / Tanka #159”

E-Ratio, Editor Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino: “Witnessed in the Convex Mirror #27): Beyond the Stars / Tanka #148”; “Witnessed in the Convex Mirror (#16): Blind Physicists / Tanka #149”; and “Witnessed in the Convex Mirror (#59) / Tanka #150”

Evening Will Come: A Monthly Journal of Poetics (Issue 33)—Women of Visual Poetry Issue, Editor Jessica Smith: “Entry” (2013)

EVIDENCE OF FETUS DIVERSITY, Editor Eileen R. Tabios (Moria Books’ Locofo Chaps, Chicago, 2018): “Colonial Mentality”

EXCAVATING THE FILIPINO IN ME by Eileen R. Tabios (Tinfish, Hawai’I, 2016): “DON’T CALL ME FILIPINO” (2015)

“FACING FEMINISM” curated by Annette Marie Hyder (The McKnight Foundation and Walker Art Center): “A Feminist Can Make Achilles Heel” (2006)

Fieralingue, Editor Anny Ballardini: “ANTI-WINTER: THE DOUBLE LIFE OF AN ANGEL”

h&, a journal of visual/concrete poetry curated by Ian Whistle: From “The Limits of CLOUDYGENOUS” (2018); “MY ADOPTION” (2018); “I Recall Forgetting A Secret From My Youth” (2018); “Erasing Amnesia” (2018); “KOMMAS: A Speculative Fiction” (2016); “Excerpt from the Novelist’s Diary (2016); “Mooring After Loss” (2016); “The Great American Novel” (2016); “For Christmas, the Hay(na)ku Visits Serbia” (2015); “The Outsider’s Dilemma” (2015); and “I Forget Forgetting My Skin Was Ruin” (2015)

I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED by Eileen R. Tabios (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2005): “POEMS FORM/FROM THE SIX DIRECTIONS” (2002)

Nota Bene Eiswein by Eileen R. Tabios (Ahadada Books, Tokyo & Toronto, 2009): “Global Warming” (2009)

Otoliths, Editor Mark H. Young: “CLOUDYGENOUS ARS POETICA (2018); “Community of Vowels” (2018); “The Mortality Asemics” (Series #3) (2015); “The Corporate Cat” (2007); and “GRIDS” (2007)

Our Own Voice, Editor Reme Grefalda: “POEMS FORM/FROM THE SIX DIRECTIONS” (2002)

and “LISTING POEM: TOWARDS THE NEW FILIPINO SOCIETY” (2007)

qarrtsiluni, Jan. 23, 2009, Editor Dave Bonta: “Poem-Sculpture Collaborations with Nick Carbo” (2005)

Queen Mob’s Teahouse, Editor Reb Livingston: “The Mortality Asemics” (Series #2) (2015)

Rigorous, Vol. Two, Issue 1, Editors Rosalyn Spencer, Kenyatta JP Garcia, Carla Williams, and Jonathan Penton: “Translation: Colonialism” (2018)

SitWithMoi Blog: “THE SECRET (An Unreadable Book)” (2013)

TANKA, VOL. I by Eileen R. Tabios (Simulacrum Press, Ontario, Canada, 2018): From “The MDR Poetry Generator: RE-MEMBER-ING TANKA (#10)”

The Big Box Poetry Project curated by Pamela Hart: “Arrival: An Impossibility” (2016)

THE LIGHT SANG AS IT LEFT YOUR EYES: Our Autobiography by Eileen R. Tabios (Marsh Hawk Press, New York, 2007): “LISTING POEM: TOWARDS THE NEW FILIPINO SOCIETY” (2007); and “The Corporate Cat” (2007)

The New Post-Literate: A Gallery of Asemic Writing curated by Michael Jacobson: “The Mortality Asemics” (Series #1) (2015)

THE SECRET LIVES OF PUNCTUATIONS, VOL. I by Eileen R. Tabios (xPress(ed), Espoo, Finland, 2006): “The Secret Lives of Punctuations” (2006)

Verity La, Managing Editor Michele Seminara: “From ‘PILIPINZ CLOUDYGENOUS’ (2018-2019)”

“World Association of Visual and Experimental Artists,” an international mail art exhibit, Curator Dejan Bogojevic, 19 Club National Musseum Valjevo, Serbia: “The Hay(na)ku Visits Serbia” (2015)

SALAMAT, AGYAMANAC UNAY, THANK YOU!

A POET READS--NOVEMBER

As of Jan. 1, I began tracking the following stats on a daily basis:

--how many poems I wrote and/or edited

--how many poems I read

--how many poetry chapbooks and/or books I read

--other media that relates to poetry, e.g. audios and videos

On Facebook, where I post my daily list, my favorite comment was from witty Melinda de Jesus who said, “They’re like a FitBit for poetry…” My daily posts can look like this entry:

1/7/18: Today

I wrote zero poems.

I read 6 poems and 1 poetry book.

That’s it. No names, which is why I’m posting below the names of poets whose works I read. I name them, whether I read a single poem or an entire book by them. January's reading is HERE, February's reading is HERE, March's reading is HERE, April's reading is HERE, May's reading is HERE, June's reading is HERE, July's reading is HERE, August's reading is HERE, September's reading is HERE, and October's reading is HERE.

These poets make up November's reading (translators are also included):

NOVEMBER POETS & TRANSLATORS

Julia Carter Aldrich

Gemino H. Abad

Meena Alexander

Billy T. Antonio

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Sheila Bare

Christopher Henry Muwanga Barlow

Elmer Bear

Tom Beckett

John M. Bennett

Boyd W. Benson

James Berger

Anselm Berrigan

Wendell Berry

Richard James Biddle

Brian Bilston

Johannes S.H. Bjerg

David Bromige

Carlos Bulosan

Luis Cabalquinto

Jeremy Cantor

Chiwan Choi

Andrea Cohen

Norma Cole

CA Conrad

Adam Cornford

Ray Craig

Artista Daily

Melinda Luisa de Jesus

Linh Dinh

Donmay Donamayoora

Carol Dorf

Carol Ann Duffy

Amanda Earl

Laura Cesarce Eglin

Larry Eigner

Elaine Equi

Molly Fisk

Chaya-Malkah Frank

John Freeman

Ellie Ga

Danny Gallardo

Peter Ganick

Anne Gorrick

Erica Goss

Diana Hamilton

Hilda Hilst

MC Hyland

Luisa Igloria

Megan Kaminski

Birhan Keskin

Arkaye Kierulf

Marton Koppany

Dean Kostos

Ashish Xiangyi Kumar

Sade LaNay

Tammy Ho Lai-Ming

Dorothea Lasky

Philip Levine

Tan Lin

Perie Longo

Federico Garcia Lorca

Audrey Lorde

Mary Mackey

Colin Lee Marshall

Bernadette Mayer

Jeffrey McDaniel

Jose-Luis Moctezuma

Lani Montreal

Valerie Morton

Sara Mumolo

Robert Murphy

Murat Nemet-Nejat

Amy Newman

Philip Nikolayev

Elly Nobbs

Mary Oliver

Kirby Olson

Artis Ostups

Jose Padua

Chad Parenteau

Enzo Patti

Pat Phaggs

Paul Pines

Aloysiusi Polintan

Liliana Ponce

Ernesto Priego

Randy Prunty

Sina Queyras

Bino Realuyo

Bill Rector

Justin Phillip Reed

Barbara Jane Reyes

Raquel Salas Rivera

Chloe Garcia Roberts

Elizabeth Robinson

Rod Roland

Tatiana Roumelioti

Rumi

Faith Santilla

Petra Schulze-Wollgast

Collin Schuster

Li Shangyin

Svein H. Skavern

Dale Smith

Lina Stern

Wallace Stevens

Aralee Strange

Hiromi Suzuki

George Szirtes

Eileen Tabios

Treva Tabios

Clarissa Upchurch

Aldrin Valdez

Joanna C Valente

Eliana Vanessa

Jean Vengua

Xenia-Chloe Henson Villanueva

Dan Waber

Rosmarie Waldrop

Kai Carlson-Wee

Jayde Will

William Carlos Williams

HAY(NA)KU POETRY EXHIBIT, SAINT HELENA, CA

I'm so happy to have installed the hay(na)ku exhibit today at the Saint Helena Public Library. The exhibit will be up through to the end of the year!

HAY(NA)KU POETRY EXHIBIT

Curator: Eileen R. Tabios

Saint Helena Public Library

December 2018

EXHIBITED POEMS by

William Allegrezza

Gabriela Pascual Bautista

Charles Bernstein

Aileen Ibardaloza Cassinetto

Melinda Luisa de Jesus

Carol Dorf

Peg Duthie

Vince Gotera

Crag Hill

Kathleen Lawrence

Iris Lee (featured with ekphrastic inspiration, the quilt “Resist” by Alice Brody)

Abigail Licad

Lani T. Montreal

Cesar Polvorosa, Jr.

Zvi A. Sesling

Eileen R. Tabios

Glynda “GT” Velasco

Jean Vengua

Mark Young

HAY(NA)KU BOOKS by

William Allegrezza

Aileen Ibardaloza Cassinetto

Alex Gildzen

Sheila H. Murphy

Ernesto Priego

Eileen R. Tabios

HAY(NA)KU BOOKS edited by

Ivy Alvarez 

John Bloomberg-Rissman 

Ernesto Priego 

Eileen R. Tabios 

Jean Vengua 

Mark Young

Presented with an Invitation to the Public to write hay(na)ku poems.

PHOTOS OF EXHIBIT:

(click on images to enlarge)

EXHIBITED BOOKS:

CLOSE-UP SHOTS OF EXHIBIT: