Over at 9L

The big shots at Ninth Letter are talking about big shot Roy Kesey.  

Personally, I recommend "Interview" from Kesey's All Over.  I also recommend hearing him read. Hell, buy the book AND watch a video of him reading over at Dzanc.  

On Business & Stuff

First, the stuff:

Grist Journal is featuring Adam O. Davis.  His personal site is over here.  The poems are really great, and the interview is both smart and entertaining.  

Meanwhile....

I've been thinking about a few things have been in the news about the economy lately--car companies, fellowship positions, journals.  Things like that.  The job market--academic and otherwise--is pretty horrible and small presses that rely on grant money and other not-for-profit sources are hurting.  

You know all this.  

Thinking on these issues, I came across a place in Gandhi: An Autobiography.  The Story of My Experiments with Truth, where he directly addresses these issues in what I think is the context that is most relevant, and so I share it with you.  On page 198 of the Beacon Press Edition, he writes:

"A public institution means an institution conducted with the approval, and from the funds, of the public.  When such an institution ceases to have public support, it forfeits its right to exist.  Institutions maintained on permanent funds are often found to ignore public opinion, and are frequently responsible for acts contrary to it...The institution that fails to win public support has no right to exist as such.  The subscriptions that an institution annually receives are a test of its popularity and the honesty of its management; and I am of the opinion that every institution should submit to that test."

Translated from the original Gujarati by Mahadev Desai.

Support the companies, presses and journals you believe in.  If they are founded an operated with the intention to serve the community and provide for our world, they deserve the support.  

If they exist simply for the sake of taking your money and adding it to the pool of free money which is managed by people who have no personal stake in the integrity or quality of the product or service, perhaps they do not deserve your patronage.  

If You're in NYC This Weekend:

Saturday May 30th 6pm at The Cornelia Street Café

29 Cornelia Street (between Bleecker St and West 4th St), New York City
$7 includes one house drink

Emotional Rescue

Lust, anger, and confusion. Four poets and performers face their audience.

R. Nemo Hill, Precious Jones, Ada Limón, and Jason Schneiderman shake up the
downtown scene with this interactive reading. The audience names an emotion,
the performers react. Bliss, obsession or melancholia? You decide!


Hosted and Curated by Jane Ormerod

R. NEMO HILL lives in New York City, but travels extensively in Southeast
Asia each year, where his experiences have run the gamut from intestinal
bleeding to intellectual ecstasy.  He is the author of a novel, Pilgrim¹s
Feather (Quantuck Lane Press, 2002), a book-length narrative poem, The
Strange Music of Erich Zann (Hippocampus Press, 2004), and also a chapbook,
Prolegomena To An Essay On Satire (Modern Metrics, 2006). His poetry and
fiction have appeared in such publications as Poetry, Sulfur, Smartish Pace,
The Literary Bohemian, 14 by 14, Shit Creek Review, The Chimaera, and
BigCityLit.

PRECIOUS JONES  is a native Brooklynite whose work can be found in print and
online publications such as WordRiot, Gay Black Female Magazine, Coloring
Book, 1-42 Magazine, and The Brownstone Poets Anthology. She has featured at
numerous venues and events including Cornelia Street Cafe, the Fashion
Institute of Technology, and "Art Stroll", a celebration of Washington
Heights. Her writing tackles issues of race, sex, and sexuality, among other
things, with honesty and wit. She gives thanks to June Jordan, Chrystos, and
Neruda: three loving and passionate writers who fed her hunger for good
poetry.

ADA LIMÓN  won the Autumn House Poetry Prize with her first book, lucky
wreck, and her second, This Big Fake World, was the winner of the Pearl
Poetry Prize. She¹s also won the Chicago Literary Award and fellowships from
the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and the New York Foundation for the
Arts. She is the Creative Director for Travel + Leisure Magazine and teaches
a Master Class for Columbia University. Her third book of poems Sharks in
the Rivers, will be published by Milkweed Editions in 2010.

JASON SCHNEIDERMAN is the author of the poetry collection, Sublimation
Point, a Stahlecker Selection from Four Way Books.  His work has also
appeared in The Best American Poetry 2005, The American Poetry Review, Tin
House, Poetry London, and The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, among many other
journals and anthologies.  Jason has received fellowships from Yaddo, The
Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Bread Loaf Writers'
Conference. His website is www.jasonschneiderman.net

From No Tell

Over at the No Tell Blog you'll find recommendations for your summer reading.  

Over HERE at the No Tell Blog you'll find MY thoughts on the topic.  

See you in Ocean Beach tonight.

Back Home

Hello everyone.  I'm back in San Diego after damn near two weeks in the Midwest.  The Mississippi River is beautiful, even if small sections of it smell like dog food because of processing plants doing what they do on the banks.  But I got to see my homies in Urbana.  If I had to leave San Diego, I could live in Urbana for the rest of my life.  I think.  

Meanwhile, things that should be shared:

The Pilcrow Lit Fest just happened.  Catch up at their Blog.  

I have two poems in the latest Gander Press Review.  

Need a business card?  Like salted meat?  Who says you can't have both.  Dig Meat Cards!

And here's a happy little story about them: Right here.  

On the list of Top 100 Poetry Blogs, I come in at 34,567,002.  But Ada Limon's on there, and C. Dale Young is so nice they named him twice!  Lots of good people and good resources listed over there.  

Again, sorry for the absence.  

Peace.

Craig Arnold in Hearts

News has come in from those who have been searching for Craig Arnold. 

He'll be remembered, I'm told by those who knew him, for a rare brand of love and compassion.  The rest of us will remember his poetry.  If you haven't read Shells, I recommend it absolutely.

Keep those close to Craig in your hearts as they mourn.  His is a presence that resonates to us all.

Real Fast.

Yes, you May...

No Tell Motel is only open for reading two months of the year, and May happens to be one of them.  Get over to No Tell Motel  for their guidelines and get something over.

There's also some new stuff at The Scrambler.  

And at Hobart.  

Max is looking for work in NY.  Dig his design creds.  

And the Akron Poetry Prize is open.

Now that that's over...

...it doesn't have to be.

My apologies for not keeping up with the poem a day for April.  I have a hard time with "special" blocks of time like that: holidays, birthdays, 7th Inning Stretches, happy hours, and months dedicated to various things.  Don't get me wrong, I think National Poetry Month is wonderful for promoting poetry to those who aren't as aware of it as some of us (I assume most of the readers of this blog are writers or artsy in some capacity).  I also love the poster I get in the mail, and how it covers the burnt yellow paint of my radiator.  

But I didn't write more in April than any other month.  To do so would interrupt a process that seems to work just fine for me.  I didn't read more either.  In fact, it seems I read less poetry simply because I spent more time looking at poetry in emails, on blogs, and attending special events to celebrate the month.  

It seems to me some regard the month as a special time to really hit the poems hard.  Like the faithful who only remembers kindness to others one day a week or one week of the year.  Like the celebration of the day one was born--what is the significance of every 365th day that makes it more important than the previous 364 or next?  Can't one enjoy their life daily on more significant terms?  

If we read poetry for a process of exploration into our selves, let's explore often.

If we turn to poetry to discover something in the world that shows us Love, let's do this every day.

Ordered this morning: 

Lytton Smith's  The All-Purpose Magical Tent (Nightboat).  I've seen the first few pages, and it's awesome.

Patricia Smith's Blood Dazzler (Coffee House).  Teahouse of the Almighty kicked so much ass, and I would have picked it up at AWP had I been there.