CLOUDYGENOUS ARS POETICA

...  and I continue to work on an installation project named "Cloudygenous", which also is a word I'd invented for Counter-Desecration: A Glossary for Writing Within the Anthropocene. You invent a word, and then you create physical embodiments -- that, too, is poetry.

I'm happy to see "Cloudygenous Ars Poetica" in the new issue of Otoliths, dedicated to compadre Felino A. Soriano as well as to Paul T. Lambert.

This wide-ranging issue also contains much stellar work by the following poets and artists:  Nico Vassilakis, Alyson Miller, David A. Welch, Brandstifter, Texas Fontanella, David Lohrey, Nick Nelson, Jake Berry, Jeff Bagato, Jim Leftwich, Steve Dalachinsky, Dylan Harris, Sven Heuchert, David Felix, Sanjeev Sethi, Seth Howard, Daniel de Culla, Richard Kostelanetz, Mark Cunningham, Cecelia Chapman, Maralena Howard, Peter Bakowski & Ken Bolton, Jürgen Schneider, dan raphael, JD Rage, John W. Sexton, Elaine Woo, Joseph Salvatore Aversano, John M. Bennett, Thomas M. Cassidy, osvaldo cibils, Gregory Kimbrell, Carol Stetser, Stephen C. Middleton, Volodymyr Bilyk, Brad Vogler, Howie Good, Olivier Schopfer, Lynn Strongin, Eileen R. Tabios, Olchar Lindsann, Sacha Archer, Andrew Topel, Billy Mavreas, Jami Macarty, Ficus strangulensis, Christopher Barnes, Brendan Slater, Joel Chace, J.J. Campbell, Francisco Aprile, Crank Sturgeon, Daniel f Bradley, Vernon Frazer, Bob Heman, Jake Marmer, Jim Meirose, Joe Balaz, John Levy, Mike Callaghan, Clara B. Jones, Rich Murphy, Jack Galmitz, hiromi suzuki, Kirk Marshall, Bill Wolak, Yoko Danno, Obododimma  Oha, Sean Singer, Isabel Gómez de Diego, Timothy Pilgrim, Kyle Hemmings, Johannes S. H. Bjerg, Tom Beckett, Joshua Medsker, Toby Fitch, Willie Smith, Michael Gottlieb, Jeff Harrison, Susan Gangel, gobscure, Joseph Beuhler, Jim McCrary, Tim Murphy, Xe M. Sánchez, Gareth Morgan, Keith Nunes, Andrew Brenza, Marilyn Stablein, Tom Montag, Tony Beyer, Dawn Nelson Wardrope, Michael O'Brien, Anna Cates, Pete Spence, Siham Karani, Stephen Nelson, AG Davis, Jesse Glass, Erik Fuhrer, Marcia Arrieta, Owen Bullock, Edward Kulemin, Miro Sandev, Gavin Yates, David Kjellin, Joyce Parkes, Michael Orr, Connor Stratman, Tim Youngs, Michael Brandonisio, Natsuko Hirata, Jake Goetz, Meryl Stuart Phair, Tess Ridgway, J. D. Nelson, Martin Edmond, Katrinka Moore, Penelope Weiss, John Pursch, Shloka Shankar, Olivia Macassey, nick-e melville, & Cherie Hunter Day.

As ever, much thanks to founding editor Mark Young!

GALATEA RESURRECTS NEWS

OPEN LETTER

Galatea Resurrects will be taking a sabbatical as of Jan. 1, 2019. Two deadlines remain before that sabbatical: Nov. 20 and Dec. 20, 2018.

ATTN. PUBLISHERS: Due to this forthcoming sabbatical, poetry publishers might wish to hold off on sending review copies (especially if you're the type of poetry publisher that has limited copies).

Should you choose to keep sending review copies, a few of those copies may end up being reviewed by me, to be published on this blog EILEEN VERBS BOOKS.  Since I will be the only one writing reviews, the likelihood of review will become even more slim under this option.

Please email me at galateaten@aol.com if you have questions or if you're interested in doing a review for 2018's remaining two issues!

Thanks for your interest!

Eileen Tabios
Editor

CLASS AND ... PROFANITIES

Hm. This must rank as the most interesting response from a reviewee to one of my reviews. I don't know why I've never thought about the class implications of the profanity before ... it seems so obvious once it was pointed out to me. But, here, let me share it (with his permission)--this note from Olchar E LIndsann regarding my review of his profanity poems. Read it and then perhaps go to link for the profanity-filled review.

Hi Eileen

Thanks for this – I must say that one of my favourite lines written yet about my work is "At this point, if this publication were longer than the slim chap that it is, I’d have shut it down and moved on to the next publication calling itself poetry." I laughed aloud. For what it's worth, the genesis of that series for me was two-fold: On one level, I'd just moved back to the States after two years in the UK and was reflecting on the subtle ways in which people treated language in everyday conversation there, which seemed encapsulated in how profanity's employed (more of it, more profanity and gradation, less association with the supposed-meaning of words which meant fewer words that are actually taboo, much more colourful figurative language interlaced with it, etc. – in a word, more playfully). The class implications of profanity (in English it's the anglo-saxon version of the word spoken by serfs that's profane, and the franco-norman version of the aristocracy that is acceptable, pretty much across the board) are much closer to the surface there. Secondly, profanity fascinates me because it tends to detach itself from so many of the rules of language – words are used as nouns, adjectives, verbs and exclamations interchangeably; they're combined in all kinds of conjunctions with other words to create phrases that are apparently nonsense, and in fact carry no semantic content, and yet definitely mean something (they just don't say it); in moments of lost control, they come out in long strings that had almost might as well be glossolalia; words are only rarely used in accordance with their literal meanings, yet those literal meanings are what make them taboo, yet breaking the taboo they impose is their only reason for being.

I'm enjoying the other engagements posted here too – thanks again,
Altar

RED WORLD

The world is ablaze. The world is red. Such was emphasized by recently receiving my copy of TRIPWIRE's Red Issue. TRIPWIRE had excerpted my poem "Red Joy" which you can see in full HERE through my engagement with Dona Mayoora's visual poetry collection, RED. But I post these images from TRIPWIRE as it discusses how the red poem was made ... The world is ablaze and I see red. I am determined not to let the idiots weaken my hold with poetry.

CHOCOLATES, THE CLOUDYGENOUS VERSION

... is it enough to look at them and be satiated when no eating occurred?

So I continue to work on an installation project named "Cloudygenous", which also is a word I'd invented for Counter-Desecration: A Glossary for Writing Within the Anthropocene. You invent a word, and then you create physical embodiments -- that, too, is poetry.

Thus, I'm grateful to RIGOROUS for publishing my "Cloudygenous Chocolates" series. You can see it HERE, but here's the first image which also sets up the definition for cloudygenous:

GALATEA RESURRECTS--OCTOBER EDITION!

I'm delighted to release the October issue of Galatea Resurrects! You can see it HERE. I'll also paste below the Contents for convenience:

OCTOBER

Lost Sonnets by Catherine Vidler
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (10/26)

Pidgin Levitations by Ricardo M. de Ungria
Reviewed by Aloysiusi Polintan (10/25)

Left Hand Dharma: New and Selected Poems by Belinda Subraman
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (10/24)

Virgin by Analicia Sotelo
Reviewed by Aloysiusi Polintan (10/23)

profanity poems by Olchar E. Lindsann

Engaged by Eileen Tabios (10/22)

A Handbook of Disappointed Fate by Anne Boyer, S/ 2004 N1 by James Yeary, and THE MONSTER’S TOPIC SENTENCE a chaotic murmur by Maryrose Larkin

Engaged by Jim McCrary (10/21)

THE CRITIC WRITES POEMS: Leny M. Strobel
(10/20)

Listening to Red by Dona Mayoora
Engaged by Eileen Tabios (10/19)

A BOOK REVIEW OF SORTS ... OF THAT EPIC STRUGGLE

I just returned from Japan where I attended a friend's wedding. The requisite lengthy plane ride allows me to present this review:

Book 3 of Karl Ove Knausgaard's MY STRUGGLE may have been his struggle but it was my torture. That's why I can only read his books during long plane rides when I'm literally a captive audience. If I were to read it, say, at home, it'd be too expensive as I'd undoubtedly fling the book at the walls too often, miss too often, and smash a window too often. Too often because after each flinging, I'd nevertheless be compelled to go outside and pick up the book, return into the house, and continue reading it until I flung it again to smash yet more glass.

I don't fling himself's STRUGGLE at the airplane windows as I want to live and, living, don't want to be arrested when the plane lands. Anyway, two take-aways from this Book 3:

1)  First, thanks to Knausgaard for explaining why the area around a toilet is usually damp after male usage. See, I'd always assumed it was because men miss as they aim their telescopes at the urinals. But no, Eileen. As Knausgaard reveals, it doesn't happen during the actual pissing. It's when men shake their telescopes afterwards that the pee goes spraying outside the urinal boundaries. I never thought about that before. Why would I think about that? Why would Knausgaard write about that? Because that is his strength, isn't it? The guy's vision doesn't miss anything. Such lucidity must be often painful--I hope it occasions him as much pain as it does the reader who must experience every teeeeeeny-tiiiiiny detail or banality that his sight uncovers.

2) The fact that each volume is so long -- Book 3 goes for 427 pages -- highlights the brilliance of his endings. I'm debating with myself as to whether Book 3 is his weakest or strongest ending among the first 3 volumes. It's probably equal to (though different from) the strong endings of the first two volumes. It's just that the strength of Book 3's endings lies in its last six words and so one can relish it only for as long as six words ... whereas, if memory serves me correctly, the radiant endings of the first two volumes were longer and thus could be relished for a longer time.

427 pages and I don't get even the t-shirt, just the above 2 take-aways. Seems paltry when I talk about it. But what's so brilliant about his STRUGGLE is not what others say -- you need to read every word to get the paradoxically intense yet light balance he achieves between. every. single. word. AND MAINTAINS over a lengthy span of pages.

Actually, there is a third take-away: I'd be remiss if I didn't note this third facet that stuck: the abusiveness of his Dad and how Knausgaard takes it as among if not his greatest achievements that his children will never live in fear of him. Yes, that's notable ...]

Okay, off to Book 4. It surely can't be as odious as Book 3's narrative that I find quite painful for being of so little interest to me. Jeffrey Eugenides' review also makes me look forward to Book 4 (UPDATE: I’ve since ordered it).

Ultimately, I adore how I both loathe and admire Knausgaard--the only contemporary writer for me that elicits, nay, wrings out this pleasurable dysfunction. So, with both a long-suffering sigh and yet no small amount of anticipation: Onward...