Saturday, April 28, 2012

Suffolk Downs Open on Poiesis 5

This is Suffolk Downs




It's now closed to racing. A poem I wrote, Suffolk Downs, from observing people at that setting appears in Poiesis 5, a journal run by Propaganda Press , who published my book, These Poems are Not Pink Clouds.



Poiesis #5
by Various Authors
cover photo by Misti Rainwater-Lites
published by Propaganda Press
Available at http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#poiesis_issue_5 

Some appearing in this issue: Jack Kopp, Jeff Fleming, Kevin Hibshman, Jessica Harman, John Berbrich, Ray Sapienza, Harry Calhoun, Misti Velvet Rainwater-Lites, MP Powers, Ray Larsen, April Michelle Bratten, Donovan White, T. F. Rice, Terry Clarke, Robert Schuler, Michael Estabrook, Michael S. Begnal, CEE, sharon zeisel, normal, Hosho McCreesh, David Sermersheim, Paula Anne Yup, D. A. Pratt, Alvin Park, Leah Angstman, Tim Staley, the poet spiel, Timothy Beer, and Doug Draime.



Friday, April 20, 2012

What I'm doing at Massachusetts Poetry Fesitval



The 2012 Massachusetts Poetry Festival is happening April 20th - April 22rd in the beautiful and historic town of Salem!

Tonight I'll be getting erotic  with dancers and artists:

5:30 - 6:45pm on Friday, April 20 in Old Town Hall, Upstairs, 32 Derby Square, Salem, MA 01970

Spellbinding Kinetic Poetry, an interdisciplinary poetry-art-dance program, features thirteen Bay State and Gulf Coast poets reading erotic poems accompanied by the creation of a large-scale 4' x 25' visual-poetry broadside by a dancer and visual artist responding to poems in performance. This tapestry of spoken word activated dance and visual poetry will leave a passionate relic for audience appreciation before it is taken outside and burned for witchcraft.

Speakers
ALYSHIA LIEN
AMANDA AUCHTER
ANDI WERBLIN
JOSEPH NARDONI
KATE HANSON FOSTER
KEN JONES
LORI ZIMMERMANN
MICHAEL HOERMAN
PATRICK PIERCE
TIMOTHY GAGER


On Saturday I'll take over a trolley which circles the event area at 1:30 for a reading....hmm, a mic, a trolley and me might be dangerous.  

 

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Poem from my "reply series" published on Extract(s)

About a week ago, I posted about my "reply series".

Today, Jenn Monroe's new poetry blog, Extract(s) was kind enough to publish, "reply to someone who said, u owe me a poem, boy."

If you feel someone owes you a poem, look around, there are poems everywhere. I think Warren Beatty owed Natalie Wood a poem. What do you think? 



Monday, April 9, 2012

It's a small world (after all)--Paragraph Line publishes "Their Own Planet".




The idea behind "Their Own Planet" had to do with love, taking two people out of their heads and out of the day to day thoughts of the world. Love's launch being so powerful puts you it is an entirely different place--smaller, intimate, more focused---like being another planet completely. Unfortunately, the world being what it is, sends you back, to the place where you are just a spec and must exist with everyone else. Perhaps, it's better that way. I remember someone telling me how the "It's a Small World" ride once broke when they were on it and everyone was stuck inside for hours, forced to hear the music tape loop. They ended up trudging out, ankle deep in the ride's water.

 Paragraph Line was a good fit for "Their Own Planet" as Jon Konrath, the proprietor  notes on the journal's page: "Paragraph Line is a literary journal of absurdist and outsider fiction, regularly published by Paragraph Line Books. Great emphasis is placed on not publishing "the usual". We publish regularly online, and publish a "best of" print (and ebook) anthology regularly. We're privately funded, and not affiliated with any school or writing program, which means we're not following the same old stodgy formula as traditional journals." 


PL also has featured Rusty Barnes and John Sheppard, two of my favorite writes. Thanks  Jon for accepting my work. 

Saturday, April 7, 2012

2012 Boston National Poetry Month Festival at Boston Public Library


   
                                                                                      
                               

 I will be reading, Saturday 4/28....




 2012      PRESS RELEASE &  LISTING

 THE  BOSTON NATIONAL POETRY MONTH  FESTIVAL
                Now In Its Successful TWELFTH!!! Year
     CO-SPONSORS:  Tapestry of Voices & Kaji Aso Studio in partnership with the Boston Public Library, SAVE the DATES: Saturday, April 28th 10:00 A.M.- 4:40 P.M. OPEN MIKE: 1:30 to 3:00P.M.; & Sunday, April 29thth, 1:10 to 4:30P.M. The Festival will be held at the library’s main branch in Copley Square. FREE ADMISSION

56 Major  and Emerging poets will each do a ten minute reading; ALSO

Featuring 6 extraordinarily talented prize winning high school students: from Boston Latin High School, Justin Singletary; Boston Arts Academy, Yolani Cruz and Molly Pope; Boston University Academy: Alessandra Davy-Falconi. Winner of the Helen Creeley Poetry Prize; Acton-Boxborough Regional: Soubhik Barari, winner of the Helen Creeley National Poetry High School Prize. These student stars will open  the Festival at 10:00 A.M.  SAM CORNISH, Boston’s current and first Poet Laureate will open the formal part  of the Festival at 11:00 A.M. 55 additional major  and emerging poets will follow with a
                                                           POETRY MARATHON

Some of the many  luminaries include SAM CORNISH, , Rhina P. Espaillat,  , Richard Wollman ,Christine Casson, Dan Tobin, Jennifer Barber,  Alfred Nicol, Kathleen Spivack , Doug Holder, Elizabeth Doran, Richard Hoffman, Lucy Holstedt Charles Coe,  Kim Triedman,  Ryk McIntyre, January O’Neil ,  Regie O’Gibson, Kate Finnegan (Kaji Aso Studio), Victor Howes, Susan Donnelly, Jack Scully, Rene Schwiesow, Chad Parenteau, Linda Larson, Tomas O’Leary,  Marc Goldfinger, Gloria Mindock, Timothy Gager, Diana Saenz, Stuart Peterfreund, Valerie Lawson, Michael Brown, Mignon Ariel King, Tom Daley, Molly Lynn Watt, Ifeanyi Menkiti, Lainie Senechal, Harris Gardner, Joanna Nealon, Walter Howard,   Susan Donnelly, Zvi Sesling,  Irene Koronas, Fred Marchant, Sheila Twyman, Robert K. Johnson, Suzanne E. Berger, and a Plethora of other prize winning poets.

This Festival has it all: Professional published  poets, celebrities, numerous prize winners, student  participation, OPEN MIKE.
Even more, it is about community, neighborhoods, diversity, Boston, and Massachusetts. This popular tradition is the largest event in Boston’s Contribution to National Poetry Month.  FREE ADMISSION !!!
FOR INFORMATION: Tapestry of Voices: 617-306-9484
Library: 617-536-5400

Wheelchair accessible. Assistive listening devices available. To request a sign language interpreter, or for other special needs, call 617-536-7855(TTY) at least two weeks before the program date.       

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rabb Lecture Hall - Middle and High Schools, Saturday 4/28
10:00 Boston Latin High School - 
10:10 Boston Latin High School - Justin Singletary 
10:20 Boston Arts Academy - Yolandi Cruz 10:30 Boston Arts Academy - Molly Pope 
10:40 Boston Arts Academy - 
10:50 Boston Arts Academy -

OPEN MIKE 1:30-3:00 - Rooms 5-6

SATURDAY - APRIL 28, 2012SATURDAY - APRIL 28, 2012SUNDAY - APRIL 29, 2012
Rabb Lecture Hall 

11:00 Sam Cornish

11:10 Elizabeth McKim
11:20 Regie O. Gibson

11:30 Joanna Nealon
11:40 Sheila Twyman
11:50 Chad Parenteau
12:00 Carol Weston
12:10 Robert K. Johnson
12:20 Walter Howard
12:30 Ryk McIntyre
12:40 Kate Finnegan 
         for Kaji Aso Studios 
12:50 Kim Triedman

1:00 Linda Larson
1:10 Molly Bennett
1:20 Irene Koronas
1:30 Philip E. Burnham, Jr
Rabb Lecture Hall - continued
1:40 Frank Blessington

1:50 Valerie Lawson
2:00 Diana Saenz
2:10 Lucy Holstedt
2:20 Michael Brown
2:30 Ron Goba
2:40 Elizabeth Doran
2:50 Tomas O’Leary
3:00 Timothy Gager
3:10 Jack Scully
3:20 Rene Schwiesow
3:30 Carolyn Gregory
3:40 Suzanne E. Berger
3:50 Molly Watt4:00 Richard Hoffman
4:10 Jan Schreiber
4:20 Mignon Ariel King
4:30 Susan Donnelly
Rabb Lecture Hall1:10 Tom Daley
1:20 Ifeanyi Menkiti
1:30 Lo Galluccio
1:40 Dan Tobin
1:50 Kathleen Spivack
2:00 Gloria Mindock
2:10 Christine Casson
2:20 Lainie Senechal
2:30 Zvi Sesling
2:40 Rhina P. Espaillat
2:50 Harris Gardner
3:00 Stuart Peterfreund
3:10 Victor Howes
3:20 Alfred Nicol
3:30 Marc Goldfiinger
3:40 Charles Coe
3:50 Doug Holder
4:00 Fred Marchan
4:10 Richard Wollman
4:20 Jennifer Barber
4:30 Janury O’Neil
                                       

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Two new poems at Fried Chicken and Coffee

This journal of rural lit­er­a­ture, working-class lit­er­a­ture, Appalachian lit­er­a­ture, and off-on com­men­tary, reviews, rants was named after this.




The first,  "reply to the grumpy cashier at the fast food restaurant"  is part of my "reply" series.If you're following along at home, which you aren't, you'd have previously read "reply to the person who said, theres' not a whole lot of happy going around" and "reply to the person who said, all my poems are said".

Also published today was, "Exclamation for a Separation, which happened long ago".


 ---------------

Redneck Press, the publishing arm of Fried Chicken and Coffee will be publishing my chapbook "Anti-Social Network"


Second Review of "Anti-Social Network", Lavinia Ludlow at Plumb



As I write this, Anti-Social Network is on the fast track to be released, but in the meantime, reviews are coming in. Lavinia Ludlow's (of Alt-Punk fame) review was broadcast today on PLUMB.  Interesting to note that these poems were mostly pre-sobriety for me, so perhaps I was trying to tell myself something while I was writing them. Perhaps, I think too much.



"Alec Baldwin played AIRPLANE in Words With Friends "



Read the review HERE

Of course, this clip is really anti-social.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Chiller in "In Between Altered States 23"


In Between Altered States has been good to me as they've published me five times. Their Editor, Aleathia Drehmer gives us some stats and the following quote from their blog:

"My biggest and baddest repeat offenders (who rock that sh*t out!) are: Robert Vaughan-6 Len Kuntz-6 Luis Berriozabal-5 Tim Gager-5 Shawn Misener-4 Ed Go-4 Cheryl Gardner-4 Kevin Ridgeway-4 Kristin Fouquet-3 Tim Murry-3 Jeffrey Miller-3 Josh Olsen-3 Melanie Browne-3 David Haase-3 Michael D. Goscinski-3 Maude Larke-3 Thanks everyone for all the support and keep 'em coming."

The story behind Chiller? I used to watch Chiller Theater on WPIX, Channel 11 in New York on Saturday mornings.


When I wrote the micro- fiction, Chiller, which appears in today's In Between Altered States, I was looking to combine the feel of some of those cheesy films,  with the feel (dark one-liners included)  of today's horror movies.

It's great to appear once more within In Between Altered States along with the following: