The Dark Unmarked Waters

Just read on Josh's blog that Deborah Tall has died. The journal she led, Seneca Review, was the first publication I remember reading and thinking: "Wow. I wish I wrote like that." Of course, this was before I'd learned to experiment with my own style but still, fifteen years later, I've never produced anything I thought fit or merited inclusion in that journal. It's a home for the lyric essay, which is a fascinating form for me, having been trained repeatedly in the classical and technical essay. This post takes its title from one of Deborah's poems.

Had another of those moments recently where I mined an unpleasant memory for a poem idea. I'm actually pleased with the final product, but my internal editor is all over me to burn the thing before [subject person who would not appreciate the publicity] finds out what I've written. As is usual, the "real" portion of the memory is the rough diamond at the center of a highly fictionalized setting, but I don't think [subject person] would consider that appropriate mitigation. It's the old question: how to reach the larger audience and not chase away the local one. Or is this a question that only I ask?

Food For Thought

Just got word that Diane Lockward's second full-length book is out. You may have heard her read at this year's Dodge Festival. She's quite a generous spirit, good for poetry on a number of levels, and an old friend of the Spoken Word Series. And I'm not just saying that in case I run into her at our local Shop-Rite...

Visit Diane's website or the Wind Publications site for more about What Feeds Us. Here's a sample, but you'll have to visit the book's page for more...

An Average Day for an Average Liar
The average person tells thirteen lies each day.
—Dr. Georgia Witkin

One, on a day much like any other, I awake with alarm
clock blaring, turn to you, and say, "Your face
is no longer imprinted on my heart."

Two, I aim a dart to the groin, say I’ve taken a paramour.

Why?

A poet and blogger I respect a great deal has joined the blogosphere in a completely anonymous way and requested that the new blog reference in a recent email not be linked to the poet's name. The email included references to why the blog is important to have, and not important to link to a specific name. Interesting stuff. Can't share it with you, though.

But it makes me think out what this little space is for. Here are some reasons I keep Cosmic Liverwurst alive:

• It forces me to consider my own writing from time to time, as I strive for weekly update at minimum.
• It provides an artistic reference to the artists I recruit to read in the Spoken Word Series in Hoboken - gives them a chance to know my aesthetics as another input into their decision to participate or not. This is the primary reason I'm not anonymous here.
• Since I carry the title of Artist in Residence at The Center for the Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium, I feel it appropriate to have a live, albeit slow-moving, contribution to the art I practice.
• My mom likes it.

This blog also allows me (in my own mind, anyway) to participate at some level in a world of artists far superior to myself, from whom I learn every time I log into Blogger. You'll find those artists listed to your right. They generally have actual writing projects and service to advertise, but they're on my list because they're insightful and interesting, and their writings contain qualities I aspire to have in my own.

If you're here to learn my personal politics, you'll be disappointed - they don't inform my writing much. Since my kids, my theater and music background, my technical education, and my 35-year roller-coaster relationship with Los Mets actually influence my writing a great deal, those will show up from time to time.

So that's why I'm here. In case you were wondering.

{cricket!}

{cricket!}

Getting Dodge-y

Yes, they eventually posted the Dodge schedule. Yes, I did get there. No, I haven't anywhere near enough time to properly do it justice. That will come in pieces as I find time to rediscover my notes.

• Anne Waldman: "Larger than Life" is an understatement. Truly thoughtful of questions during her "On Poetry" talk. Seemed genuinely pleased to hear that poetry continues at Stevens, where she once taught.
• Sekou Sundiata: This man has some pipes. Specifically and emphatically said: I'm not a spoken word artist, I'm a poet." and made clear the difference. Didn't get to hear him with his band, which is a great loss for me. The CD is terrific, though.
• Andrew Motion: Exudes humility like perspiration. Amplified by his London countryside accent, reads his formal verse in a way that creates the structure in your ear - a little stilted at the line breaks, but not enough to distract you from listening. If he wasn't genuinely grateful that I knew a little about his internet project before his reading, I'm the worst judge of people ever. Almost popped with excitement when talking about Bob Dylan.
• Coleman Barks: You can tell the grandfather poems from the Rumi, but you cannot distinguish the levels of joy in his presentation. Just when you think The Paul Winter Consort has become a little predictable, Barks turns to them and says "How about a little circus music?"
• Linda Pastan: Kept saying she'd "rather read poems than talk about making them", but spoke eloquently about the details of their construction. Two very interesting exercises: one she read a poem in third person, then in first person, and led a 6 minute discussion about which was better - the other, she read a Justice poem with a small stanza at the start, in the middle, and at the end to see where "it wanted to be". Great stuff.
• Jorie Graham: I could not physically write fast enough to keep up with everything she was saying that was noteworthy. Talked for a long time (it was a panel discussion), but not much of it was wasted.

Other notes:

• Too many terrific poets scheduled opposite each other at the ONE festival poets slot. I have generally loved the way the last several schedules have been laid out, but this didn't work for me. Mr. Haba, if you happen to be reading this, give us more opportunity to hear these "other" poets - some of them are more interesting than your features.
• It was brutally cold in the morning inside the big top and uncomfortably warm in the afternoon (in spots in the path of the stage lights aimed at the audience). This may be why no one enforced the "no coffee in the tent" rule in the mornings.
• Return to Waterloo Village seemed appreciated by most, and I have to say I did think things were laid out pretty well this year.
• You could get a near-raw hamburger and a vegan chili at the same stand. Three cheers for that!
• I took an hour off during the Saturday afternoon features. As much as I enjoy Lucille Clifton, I may have gotten more from that walk along the canal. You have to leave time for the words sink in, too.

It'll take me a month to sort through everything I want to process from my notebook. As the flotsam strikes me, so shall it appear here.

Stuff and Fluff

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Ireland and Scotland. I was chagrined to find myself on a completely different hotel floor from the rest of my party until I got off the elevator (Sorry - the LIFT)and was greeted by a bust of Yeats. Purpose for everything and all that. Turns out there was a najor figure from Irish history on ever floor - who better to greet an aspiring writer?

Missed a great week here, though - Two things I'd like to have been more on top of:

• George Witte presented from his The Apparationers in Rutherford. I was on a plane.
• BJ Ward's poem "Cuckoldom" from Poetry was featured on Poetry Daily. I didn't have internet access.

Less great was receiving the formal written let-down from Steel Toe's open reading period (though the news of the winners was long since out). Not that I was expecting it, but a thin SASE in your mailbox is always a little dispriting, no?

Dodge Festival schedule STILL isn't up, and I've heard that at least one of the featured readers doesn't know what day she's reding on yet. But I've also heard that The Poets of NJ will be reading on Saturday evening - Plan to be there if you haven't caught any of this group's road show yet.

Another Curmudgeon

My alumni magazine directed me to a recent entry to the online community. John Hargen is posting as The Scientific Curmudgeon on the Stevens website. A small but interesting body of work so far.

It's part of an encouraging effort called The Center for Science Writings. From the site: "The Center has two major missions: improving the communication skills of Stevens students and examining how books, essays, articles, and other forms of expression shape public perceptions of science. The Center is particularly interested in writings that explore the limits of science; the social implications of science; the relationship of science to the humanities, arts and religion; and the role of creativity and innovation in scientific progress."

The Scientific Curmudgeon is now on the list to your right. Check it out.

Waiting and Contemplating

The schedule for this year's Dodge festival is still not posted. Not that I should need more than 28 days to figure out how to spend 48 hours of my life, but the list of poets - especially the PFKAPAA (Poets Formerly Known as Poets Among Us) is just tremendous this year, and I know I need to run a nice optimization algorithm to get the right mix of fine poets whose work I know and fine poets whose work I've yet to meet.

Lord, I'm really geeky this week.

I'm actually looking forward to Dodge more than usual this year because I've written almost nothing since April, and I could use the time, inspiration, and bad cel phone reception to squeeze out some words.

Maybe even save a few to start repopulating this litte desert corner of the internet, too....

Miscellany for a Wednesday

It's Charles Bukowski's birthday. Maybe we should all do today's writing drunk, naked and sweaty in commemoration. I've been meandering my way through Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way: New Poems for months and to be honest, I find parts of it brutal - where the subject overwhelms what craft there is to the point where I have to put it down. It's like spotting micrograms of diamond in a pail of rotting meat.

***

On the other end of the spectrum, I've been spending lots of time with my contributor's copy of Silk Road. I'm just thrilled at being included in this inaugural volume alongside some of the writers whose works I've been studying and learning from. Among the poets you'll find there are Deborah Ager, Kelli Agodon, Steve Schroeder and Suzanne Frischkorn. From the Editors' note:

A series of collected writings on place is like a string of caravansaries along the ancient Silk Road. Each one offers a similar refuge from the immediacy of a dusty, perilous highway, yet no two are the same because of the mix of travelers who gather there.

What a great way to approach creating a magazine.

***

The 06-07 season of the Spoken Word Series has been posted at DeBaun.org. If artistic diversity is my primary objective in scheduling artists, I may have hit my peak in this, our 5th full year. And we're not done - I'm finalizing plans for a day of workshops in May and stewing up some longer term plans. I hope you NJ locals will keep an eye out. Or better, get on our mailing list.

***

The list of poets presenting at this year's Dodge Festival has been posted. It takes artistic diversity to a whole other level (and look for some lesser known but terrific talents in the bottom section of that list). It's interesting to think of this list and my own much smaller effort in the context of Deborah's recent comments on "KINDS" of poets, and to imagine the conscious and unconscious checklists in my head (and the heads of other event planners). "Diversity" requires criteria against which to check off "differences". Have to think about that some more.

Here, gone, here

From the comings and goings files...

• Lost and Found Investigations has posted new comics this week, bringing its Gamefly-imposed hiatus to an apparent end. (Yay!)
• Kelli Agodon's blog has been subtracted the universe. A comment over at Jeannine's place leads me to think this was purposeful. Too bad - Kelli's was one of the truer-to-format "writer's blogs", with (I thought) the right mix of personal, projects, and poetry/prose.
• I just noticed that Kim Addonizio is blogging again, however.
• The Yankees did me the substantial favor of aquiring the two Phillies on my fantasy baseball team. Thanks, Brian Cashman! The Mets reacquired Roberto Hernandez, because Julio Franco wasn't doing enough to increase the average age of the team.

The next thing to go needs to be the HEAT!

James Weil (1929 – 2006)

By various electronic means, Ed Foster and Ron Sillman both bring us news today of the death of James Weil. For me to provide links here would imply a false familiarity with his work, but you can do a Google search on him and find a large number of references.

Among the accomplishments Ed included in his email obituary for Mr. Weil were these lines from "A Coney Island Life", which is on the Academy of American Poets' list of Great Poems to Teach:

Having lived a Coney Island life
on roller coaster ups and downs
and seen my helium hopes
break skyward without me,
now arms filled with dolls
I threw so much for
I take perhaps my last ride
on this planet-carousel
and ask
how many more times round
I have
to catch that brass-ring-sun
before the game is up.

Feeding the Geek

Taking a small break from versification this week, and have been completely absorbed by The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios. It's a physics text of sorts, in that the science is solid and thoroughly explained, but it's also documentation of a love affair with comics. It asks and answers the question "Could this happen?" about many comics from the Golden and Silver eras, with examples of plausible and, well, miraculous physical happenings depicted in those glorious 4-color pages.

I'm not a huge comics fan (though I do enjoy a good Iron Man from time to time), but the enthusiasm Professor Kakalios shows for both his heroes and his equations is enough to carry me - and you - through his 400 pages quickly. He's an eloquent and talented writer.

And yes, I am a geek.

Reading and Sleeping

Has much been going on in the past month? Life continues to interfere with more regular posting; if you're looking for more regular (and more literarily astute) posting, check out the Frequented Blogs list. Here are a few miscellany from this corner of the world:

• Criticize his anthologies if you like, but Garrison Keillor continues to show good taste in selecting poems for The Writer's Almanac, this time rediscovering a gem from Meg Kearney's first book, An Unkindness of Ravens: "Creed".
• That, of course, follows the selection over the past month of two from Jeannine Gailey's Becoming the Villainess (click her blog below for details and current news).
• The DeBaun Series is coming together for next year, including what is shaping up to be a dynamite writing workshop day in May. Hope to be announcing detials by end-August.
• I did it again. I got some emergency expert guidance (and will be back to you for more, oh benevolent coach!) and submitted "To The Ones Who Must Be Loved" in an open reading period.
• What I'm reading currently: Only Here, Joe Salerno; Diary of a Cell, Jennifer Gresham; Never Before - Poems about first experience, edited by Laure-Anne Bosselaar. And all the writing mags - which I get more and more convinced just have nothing to say anymore.
• I did not make it into the New Jersey Writers Project, but am revamping my grammar school class concepts anyway - just in case any of you English teachers friends are checking in....

OK. That's all I'm awake enough to tell you about. I'm hoping for more awake time (for me and my dialup connection) soon!

Contrary to Popular Opinion...

...I have not, in fact, fallen from the face of the earth. However, I have had precious little time to focus on producing any new creative writings, and I'm just to darned private to tell you why. So speculate away; you get three guesses and the first two don't count.

But I have had some time to do some reading and listening. What reading I've been able to do has focused on a few places:

• What Will Suffice, has a bunch of interesting commentaries by poets whose "ars poetica" poems were selected for inclusion in this pretty good anthology. Some of it loses me - I think the tendency to inflate good poems to find universality is a bit unchecked in this book, but it still is a nice collection.
• The latest 32 Poems is quite a strong issue. I've read it three times cover to cover and still find myself discovering things in it. Sandra Beasley's work is up at the website now - work a look and certainly enough for me to renew my subscription.
• I've rediscovered Discover. It's been a usual practice to grab a copy whenever I have time in an airport, but now, as a subsriber, I'm reinfusing myself with the sense of wonder this magazine has about just about everything. Even if you're not a science geek, you can benefit from at wonder, I promise.

As for listening, my ears have been focused mostly on the soundtrack from Barnum because my kids have fallen in love with the show. It's reminded me of all those great parts I had on my list of "Roles I'd Love to Play" back when I trod the boards frequently: John Adams in 1776, PT Barnum in Barnum, and other assorted blowhards.

Ah, for time for it all....

How Far I've Come, I Think

The Celebration of NJ Literary Journals was a great event. I've not been to any of the major literary conferences, so my only comparisons are the Dodge, the Warren County Poetry Festival, and local reading series. But how much fun is it to be in a room where the audience varies between 20 and 50 for three hours, as opposed to between -1 (one person, there just to rest their feet, not listening) and 5 for 40 minutes - an even better, where the readers go straight from the podium to their cars. Ugh.

Anyway, it was terrific. And I had one of those moments where you suddenly feel like you're accomplishing something. A poet whose work I've followed and who has known me at least casually for ten years stopped me after my little 4 minute bit to say "Hey, it's terrific to hear how far you've come since I first heard your work." That's the kind of comment that is more meaningful than a casual "Loved your stuff" from someone exiting the men's room. It shows awareness of change in my work and the presence of something different, some growth and accomplishment. Even if he didn't mean it, but I'm pretty sure that he did.

So I went and looked over my stuff from 1996 and earlier to see what's different. At the risk of oversimplifying, there are two biggies:

• The "Murphy Rules" (though I know he wouldn't call them that) - Peter Murphy uses a set of questions to judge your level of accomplishment as a poet, to help decide between basic and advanced classes in his writing seminars. In a nutshell, they boil down to concreteness (the ratio of abstract words to concrete ones) and the absence of clichés. I don't know when it happened, but I can see in the more recent work how I do more showing, use more scenes and examples, and most importantly, am more specific in my descriptions, making my mood-setting more effective.
• The "Two Lines Too Many" rules. Harder to simplify, this is the tendency to let the poem end when it wants to, rather than force it into a neat package, or worse, to clarify what it "means" with a wrap-up clause. I'm enormously guilty of this in my earlier writings, and on more than one occasion, editors have accepted my work after suggesting (and me accepting) taking 1-2 lines off the end, and leaving the rest as it is.

In noticing these differences, I realize that I've changed my audience expectations a little. But interestingly, I think it's the audience of myself - my own expectations for my poems have changed. I attribute this to tons of reading, as well as learning to teach a little poetry myself. Both have exposed me to wide attitudes about poetry, and both have forced me to consciously decide what I like about a poem, what I find the essence of that poem to be.

Navel-gazing? Maybe. But fascinating to me nonetheless.

Shorts

• Got word this week my poem "You Are Here" was accepted for the inaugural Silk Road. Thanks to Jeannine for spreading the invitation to submit.
• I've been so out of touch, I didn't hear about Stanley Kunitz until Tuesday, when this quote from him was coincidentally on the Poetry Speaks Page-a-Day: "Every new poem is like finding a new bride. Words are so erotic, they never tire of their coupling"
• I'm one of 5,567 readers (OK, just 26) this Sunday in West Caldwell. You should come.
• I'm reading Caroll Spinney's autobiography and the Bosselaar-edited anthology "Never Before, Poems About First Experiences". The whiplash is worth it. The anthology contains a terribly funny poem from Meg Kearney that she read at the Dodge in 2004, whose title I can't bring myself to provide here, lest my mother stop by.
• One quick word for everyone taking this weekend's movies much too seriously: FICTION.
• The Mets beat the Yankees tonight. Not that these things matter in May, but WOO HOO!

Looking forward to more insightful posting again soon. Hope you are, too.

Celebrating NJ Journals

"And while West Caldwell may not be quite as hip as Hoboken or Montclair, it's mayor, Joseph Tempesta, said visitors shouldn't be surprised that the township would host such a cultural event. "We always try to offer a variety of programs that appeal to a lot of age groups," he said. "We are thriving in the arts, and in the performing arts." from "W. Caldwell brings out the poet in everyone" by Star-Ledger staffer Elizabeth Moore.

This Sunday is Mother's Day. I am not promoting myself on that day.

However, the following Sunday is the (now) annual Celebration of NJ Literary Journals, organized by the estimable Diane Lockward, and I'll have a couple small pieces in that event, taking photographs for the artists' future use (and hopefully a few placements in the hometown paper), and representing Edison Literary Review as a reader late in the afternoon.

If you are local to north Jersey, I expect to see you there. I'll be the guy in the back with the camera in my hand, hopefully not wearing the same green shirt I wore the last two years.

I've promised myself I will read the newest, rawest poem I have that day. It will be an audience of 75% accomplished poets and 25% highly well-read (well-listened?) poetry fans. Feedback from that room is worth its weight in baseball cards.

The Visible Word II

The Center for the Performing Arts at DeBaun Auditorium is pleased to present its 2nd Annual

VISIBLE WORD
ekphrastic art for the senses Exhibit

Saturday, May 6, 2006
Exhibit from 5-9pm with Reading and Artists' Talk at 7pm
FREE TO ALL! Refreshments will be served.

Exhibit Location & Directions: DeBaun Auditorium, Edwin A. Stevens Hall 5th & Hudson Sts., Hoboken, NJ For directions: http://www.debaun.org/cgi-bin/directions3.php Easily accessible by PATH, LightRail, NJ Transit & NY Waterways

Visual & Written Word Artists Featured:

Jennifer Benn & Lise Bargardo
Michael Filan & John J. Trause
Nancy Tobin & Jerome Rothenberg

For artist biographies and more information, please visit http://www.debaun.org/cgi-bin/onstage/visibleword.php

http://www.debaun.org

From Today's Poetry Speaks Calendar

A poem is a way of meaning more than one thing at a time - John Ciardi

Draft: Gypsy Moths

{sorry, this poem has been deleted}

Reading Format Question

Planning for another year of The Spoken Word Series, and I'm contemplating format changes. We have what I consider the "typical" format: a feature of 30-40 minutes, a short break, an open mic.

I'm starting to see more open mic of fixed duration opening followed by the feature followed by more open if there are enough signups. Alternatively, open til complete followed by feature.

The argument for open mic first usually goes: this way people aren't ruffling through their own poems, they're concentrating on the feature. I don't necessarily buy this, but I'm open to new arguments.

Which do you prefer? Why?