CruelestMonth.com

Dan at the New School

At any moment, Carrie at Olive Reader will provide a full report of Dan Halpern (he's the publisher of Ecco Press, the author of seven books of poetry, and the founder of the literary journal Antaeus)'s reading last night.  Until she does, I wanted to convey this one little anecdote.  Dan was discussing the many amazing documents he came across while editing Antaeus.  One such document happened to be the first two chapters of The Sun Also Rises (which Dan recalled as being pretty awful, and which F. Scott insisted that Hemingway cut from his novel).  When asked how he procured said document, he put it simply: "Someone told me they were there.  I went, and there they were.  I got them." 

Overlook TV

Here's the first installment of Overlook TV at The Overlook Press's blog: The Winged Elephant.  The New and Selected by David Shapiro is forthcoming in March.  Jim Behrle speaks with David, and David reads a few poems.

Mark Thwaite

Mark Thwaite is guest blogging this week over at poetryfoundation.org

Busy, busy

Lots doing this week:

Today, Tuesday:  I have class all night, so nothing is happening...anywhere.

Wed, Nov. 29, 6:30pm $5, 66 West 12th Street, room 510: Daniel Halpern, author of seven collections of poems, editorial director of The Ecco Press, an imprint of HarperCollins; moderated by David Lehman.  Sponsored by the New School Writing Program.

Wed, Nov. 29, 6pm-8pm, jen bekman 6 Spring Street, b/w Elizabeth and Bowery: An artists talk with James Deavin and Eva + Franco Mattes, moderated by Marisa Olson of Rhizome.  The discussion will be about their respective projects documenting Second Life.  Drinks served from 6pm-7pm.  rsvp at jenbekman.com.

Wed, Nov. 29 @ 7:30pm, Under the Volcano, 12 East 36th Street, b/w 5th and Madison: Emerging Leader Night Out, Winter 2006 / Small Press Book Fair Edition.

Thurs, Nov. 30, Lambert, 564 West 25th Street: Last day of the "Tribute to Cezanne" at the Yvon Lambert Gallery.

Fri, Nov. 31: visit here for Nick Nolte.

Weekend: Small Press Book Fair, Legion of Lit Mags.

Add other events in the comments.  I want to go.

Poetry Bestsellers

Here's a good idea, and packaged just right for its readership: PoetryFoundation.org compiles a "contemporary poetry best seller list [that] is meant to reflect the current market for new poetry."  It provides a welcome heads-up to what's buzzing among readers, and the "Behind the List" commentary makes the statistics come alive!  Anyway, it's a pleasant list to look at.  The competition isn't palpably fierce, unlike the NYTimes, where the siege laid against Marley & Me is slowly turning hardcovers into paperbacks.  I recommend, niiice.

Hope you all had a pleasant holiday!

Mottled Tuesday

Didn't want to leave on a sour note.  I'm taking off for the rest of the week, so who knows if there will be posts (does it matter?).  Also, please note that the CM has received it's first comment written in French.  I did my best to answer, but all I can say is that I don't speak French well.  Here's a new Ashbery poem that I like:

"Mottled Tuesday"

Something was about to go laughably wrong,

whether directly at home or here,

on this random shoal pleading with its eyes

till it too breaks loose, caught in a hail of references.

I’ll add one more scoop

to the pile of retail.

Hey, you’re doing it, like I didn’t tell you

to, my sinking laundry boat, point of departure,

my white pomegranate, my swizzle stick.

We’re leaving again of our own volition

for bogus patterned plains streaked by canals,

maybe. Amorous ghosts will pursue us

for a time, but sometimes they get, you know, confused and

forget to stop when we do, as they continue to populate this

fertile land with their own bizarre self-imaginings.

Here’s hoping the referral goes tidily, O brother.

Chime authoritatively with the pop-ups and extras.

Keep your units pliable and folded,

the recourse a mere specter, like you have it coming to you,

awash with the new day and its abominable antithesis,

OK? Don’t be able to make that distinction.

How about that new page banner?  It blows, huh. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Herbert - Mr. Cogito

It's been a fine day at work.  Thanksgiving has made the place very quiet, and I've had time to choose a selection of poems for our National Poetry Month promotion with the Academy of American Poets.  That meant sifting through new collections from John Ashbery, Nikki Giovanni, and Charles Bukowski.  But the best part, and consequently the most difficult, was choosing three, only three, poems from the Collected Poems: 1956-1998 of Herbert Zbingiew.  Those that know his work typically love his work.  He is an indispensable witness to the 20th century.  Here's one I hope you'll like:

“Mr. Cogito and a Poet of a Certain Age”

1

A poet past his prime

an odd phenomenon

2

he looks in the mirror

he smashes the mirror

3

on a moonless night

he drowns his birth certificate in a black pond

4

he spies on the young

imitates the way they rock their hips

5

he chairs a meeting

of independent Trotskyites

incites them to arson

6

he writes letters

to the President of the Solar System

full of intimate confessions

7

a poet of a certain age

in the middle of an uncertain age

8

instead of cultivating

pansies and onomatopoeias

he sows spiky exclamations

invectives and treatises

9

he reads Isaiah and Das Kapital by turns

then in the frenzy of discussion

gets his quotes mixed up

10

a poet in the nebulous season

between the departure of Eros

and a Thanatos not yet risen from stone

11

he smokes hash

but doesn’t see

either infinity

or flowers

or waterfalls

he sees a procession

of hooded monks

climbing a rocky mountain

carrying burned-out torches

12

the poet of a certain age

recalls warm childhood

a wild youth

a disreputable manhood

13

he plays

at Freud

he plays

at hope

he plays

at red and black

he plays

at flesh

and blood

he plays and loses

is seized with false mirth

14

only now does he understand his father

he cannot forgive his sister

who eloped with an actor

he envies his younger brother

and bent over a picture of his mother

he tries once more

to persuade her to conceive

15

dreams

trivial pubertal

the catechism priest

protruding objects

and the unattainable Jadzia

16

at dawn he examines

his hand

astonished by skin

that looks like bark

17

against the fresh blue sky

the white tree of his veins

Action Books

Action Books: phenomenal, cool, awesome small press out of Notre Dame, IN.  I'm reading Tao Lin's you are a little bit happier than i am.  I'll expound my reaction at a later time (very positive), but for now you should read it too.  They focus mainly on works in translation and their manifesto will give you a clearer (perhaps not) idea of what they look for.  Pay them a visit.  Happy now.

- MS

Great review of Jean Paul Sartre's Nausea found here.