I wrote this for the victims and survivors of the Tsunami, but it seems relevant also to the people of New Orleans on the day after the end of the world:

ANKAA

The gloaming's blue seeps
into the white of the snow
& renders it blue too.

Jellied thoughts in
these skunky hours of
winter. A lance of ice
besets the verdant mind
& the verdant mind's grace.
Folly of the world maybe
calls forth an ocean blade
that swoops over warmer
lands while this chilly one
sleeps.

Why, lightbringer,
should such horrors
amass? You in your blue
sky who flaunts cold
order, the ordered dolor
of the metal mind? I listen
to winter's chimes & foam
& glower at the gloaming
as it blues the snow.

The snow's blues cloister
& the ocean's blues
cleave foreign soil. We
are not your people. We
were never your people.
The sun knows nothing,
the boat dreams of the sea
& the sea's dream screams
over the naked land. The sea's
not your papa, either. We
orphans in the blue gloaming
& the foaming seas.

What temple? The void
& the bobbing boat
& the salty deep wells
of tears are our only charge:
shepherds whose sheep are bare.

Say to me 10 things
to be done & pass to night's
province. Your boat is small,
little Phoebe, no phoenix little
sunbird, your concern's
not at all.

Sun wolf, ocean blade
a million tarry hearts
beat over these waters now
stilled but no recompense
from that water's whims,
the sun's folly or fury
& who will tend the ghosts
of those that water's killed?

The queen of ghosts
is a rumor, us pigeons all
concerned, conceived

immaculate.

I am hoping to get back to the blog soon. I have landed safely in NYC and am still sorting myself out. Once I get sorted, I am hoping to be able to offer up some more substantial content than I have in the past given that I am presently unemployed and will have the time to do so!

While I am libating this evening, I will have to raise a glass to the debut of Tony Tost's herculean editorial masterpice, Fascicle. As a contributor, I have gotten a sneak-preivew of it and I'm sure it's going to knock your socks off. I'm sorry that I won't be sitting at my machine when it goes live tonight! But if you do happen to find yourself in front of a screen this evening, check it out!

Be sure to check out Christina Strong's new chapbook from Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs:

I'll be holding court at the Sheraton Commander Lounge in Harvard Square starting from around 8 or so this Friday August 26th. This is my last night in Boston, so anybody who wants to show up and say so long, good riddance, etc. etc. should feel free to do so. After the 26th, well, you'll have to visit me in Queens!

Jess Mynes interviews Aaron Tieger, editor of Carve Poems, here.

I have a lot to say about authorial intent, a poem's ability and/or responsibility to convey the same and it's realtion to "truth" e.g. the possibilities of expressing things mimetically in poems and the manner in which these possibilities are realized (relevant to the ongoing discussion in regard to the discourse between sincerity and the postmodernist project of exploring subjectivity). I'll have a piece in Fulcrum 4 on these very subjects, which should be coming out in a couple months, if not sooner. I'm sort of loathe to discuss the issue in any more detail at present, lest I render the essay redundant. But folks please look for it when Fulcrum comes out, and my position on these matters should be made clear.

You know, I just *assumed* you all knew that Carve 6 was available, but in case you don't, well, Carve 6 is available featuring work by:

Emma Barnes
Clark Coolidge
Yuri Hospodar
Dorothea Lasky
Bill Marsh
and some other guy who writes poems about stars...

Can anyone recommend a good phono cartridge for use with a Technics SL-5 turntable?

I'm not really interested in becoming a New Sincerist, however I would join the "Straight Guys for Kate Bush" fanclub with Tony.

The first I ever heard of Wilhelm Reich (on whom my mansucript Astrometry Organon is partially based) was in the Kate Bush song "Cloudbusting," which I have known since I was about 12.

Geek props to Nester for using S.I.D. as the background of his poems page. I am a big Gerry Anderson enthusiast (as evinced by the large toy Thunderbird 2 that lives on my bookshelf.) U.F.O. was probably the pinnacle of Anderson's coolness: who can argue with purple bobs and a hero who drives a lavender sprotscar? (Don't let that fool you, though, the main characters were all revoltingly sexist... (Even when they are wearing white turtlenecks under peach-colored leisure suits.) This was the 70's, after all.)

I had a great time at both the chapbook release party and the Gloucester New Arts festival.

The performance/reading on Sunday with Dear Old Stockholm Syndrome was a lot of fun, and to boot I became aware of two musical acts that I had been unaware of but who were completely amazing. The first being UV Protection who I can only describe as operatic post-industrial maenads, their set incorporates video and dance segments as well. Sort of Devo by way of Bohemian Rhapsody. I thorougly recommend checking out their CD, "Consumer Material," which I picked up at the festival and have been listening to. It is not as sublime as their live performance, but good nevertheless. The second act was Willy Loco Alexander and the Boom Boom Band who brought the clock back to 1979. Which is something a lot of bands do. The exception here being that they were actually performing in 1979. Alexander must be in his 50's or 60's, but succeeded in making me feel like an uncool old man at 33 (this is a good thing.) These guys are news to nobody in these parts, but it was the first time I had seen them, and now I understand. It's too bad I'm discovering these acts on my way out of Boston, as I would definitely go see either of them again! Of course, there's no shortage of music in New York, however it can take a lot of time and effort to discover music one would actually go spend money to see. Since most of my heroes can't even charge money to do readings, I am famously reticent about spending $10 to go watch frat boys imitate the MC5, which is what usually seems to happen when I go to shows unawares...

For some reason, the fact that Art Spiegelman was behind the first series of Wacky Packages gives me an intense sense of elation and well-being. Ah, the 70's, back before the days of IP lawsuits. I wish I still had some of those stickers, they strike me as a kind of pop-culture marxist self-critique.

IT'S ALLIIIIIIVE!...

Here is the cover of my beautiful new chapbook from Katalanche Press! Copies may be had at the release party this weekend, or by way of the Katalanche Press website.

Why always the self-deprecating assertion that there are too many poets producing too much work and not enough audience? Why not demand the populace live up to the poetic fertility of the nation. Not too many of us but too many of the earless/eyeless. Is it the plant's fault if the fruit is left to rot on the vine? Especially when so many are starving.

Dear Old Stockholm Syndrome will be performing this Sunday (August 14th) afternoon
at the Gloucester Arts Festival.

Mark Lamoureux, Christina Stong and Richard Aliberti will be reading
some of their poems with us.

The festival will be happening all over Gloucester. We will be at the
Maritime Heritage Center, 23 Harbor Loop.

For more info check out the website (and our bio!) www.newartsfestival.com
You can also check out some of our recorded stuff at:
www.myspace.com/DearOldStockholmSyndrome

Presently obsessed with this verse from Slint's "Nosferatu Man":

"Like a bat I flushed the girl
And I flew out my back door
And I came to no one no more
She ran without glances
And railed like a red coal train"

I hate it when these barroom brawls break out. Some of us just want to quaff spirits in peace.

Just call me Cassandra.

WILL WRITE FOR WINE

Eileen Tabios will send wine to the winner of this contest. Why don't all poetry contests offer wine to the winner?

Down with Apollo, up with Dionysos!

Keeping it surreal since 2007. I write for the Efreet in my dishwasher.

Change the Date

In order not to conflict with the reading at the Gloucester New Arts Festival, we've changed the date for my reading/farewell fete to Saturday August 13. More info as the date approaches.

Mes amis, y'all are making me feel like a hippy. (Well, *that* doesn't take much, I suppose). There may be a lot of us these days, but I still think there's room for all of the poets. We all act like jerks sometimes. We all write stuff some of us may or may not like at certain times. Aesthetic debate is all well and good. But there seems to be a lot of...like, heavy energy these days, man. Maybe I'm just an intellectual pacifist. Maybe I'm a fence-rider. Maybe I'm just lazy.

But my emotions don't (always) speak in sentences.