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It's taken me all week until now to read this interview. It's been maximized and minimized a few dozen times, but now that I'm done, I think it's safe to share. If you have any interest in Keats, definitely click on over: "A Conversation with Stanley Plumly".
The galleys for Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow are now in. I have three poised for the mail on my desk. Be quick and e-mail CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com with your address and the subject heading "Sharp Teeth" to secure your copy.
An ancient race of lycanthropes has survived to the present day, and its numbers are growing as the initiated convince L.A.'s down-and-out to join their pack. Paying no heed to moons, full or otherwise, they change from human to canine at will, and vice versa--and they're bent on domination at any cost.
And, so you know why I mention it here, it's written in verse.
*The galleys go to Jen, Rudy, and John. Thanks for writing in!
This from the backlist (2004) -- Dylan Thomas: The Caedmon Collection. Introduced by Billy Collins from previously published LP liner notes. I've been dabbling with recorded poetry the last few months, both listening and attempting to gather new readings, and it seemed like the thing to have. According to Collins's introduction, here you'll find "a collection of top-drawer Dylan Thomas...the Caruso of the spoken word in peerless perfomance of his and other's works." Those others include W.H. Auden, W.B. Yeats, Shakespeare, and, to my personal delight, Djuna Barnes. He reads "Watchman, What of the Night?" a chapter from Barnes's exceptional work, Nightwood. Below you'll find two audio excerpts:
Billy Collins's Introduction to Disc 1:
Download 01_a_childs_christmas_in_wales.wma
"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night":
Download 03_do_not_go_gentle_into_that_goodnight.wma
As reported this morning by the Times, John Ashbery has been selected the first poet laureate for mtvU--a subsidiary of MTV Networks. The channel, mtvU, runs exclusively on college and university television networks. From "An 80-Year-Old Poet for the MTV Generation":
Excerpts of his poems will appear in 18 short promotional spots — like commercials for verse — on the channel and its Web site (mtvu.com, which will also feature the full text of the poems). In another first, mtvU will help sponsor a poetry contest for college students. The winner, chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, will have a book published next year by HarperCollins as part of the National Poetry Series.
“We hope that we’ll help discover the next great poet that we’ll be talking about for years to come,” said Stephen K. Friedman, the general manager of mtvU, which broadcasts at 750 campuses nationwide.
Johannes Vermeer (Dutch, 1632-1675). Study of a Young Woman, ca. 1665-67. Oil on canvas. Came to me in a mailer. Happy it did.
It's toward the end of my day. I just wanted to roll this one out there before I go. Hello!
44
It is time to explain myself--let us stand up.
What is known I strip away,
I launch all men and women forward with me into the Unknown.
The clock indicated the moment--but what does eternity indicate?
We have thus far exhausted trillions of winters and summers,
There are trillions ahead, and trillions ahead of them.
Births have brought us richness and variety,
And other births will bring us richness and variety.
I do not call one greater and one smaller,
That which fills its period and place is equal to any.
Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you, my brother, my sister?
I am sorry for you, they are not murderous or jealous upon me,
All has been gentle with me, I keep no account with lamentation,
(What have I to do with lamentation?)
I am an acme of things accomplish'd, and I an encloser of things to be.
My feet strike and apex of the apices of the stairs,
On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches between the steps,
All below duly travel'd, and still I mount and mount.
Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me,
Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, I know I was even there,
I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist,
And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon.
Long I was hugg'd close--long and long.
Immense have been the preparations for me,
Faithful and friendly the arms that have help'd me.
Cycles ferried my cradle, rowing and rowing like cheerful boatmen,
For room to me stars kept stars kept aside in their own rings,
They sent influences to look after what was to hold me.
Before I was born out of my mother generations guided me,
My embryo has never been torpid, nothing could overlay it.
For it the nebula cohered to an orb,
The long slow strata piled to rest it on,
Vast vegetables gave it sustenance,
Monstrous sauroids transported it in their mouths and deposited it with care.
All forces have been steadily employ'd to complete and delight me,
Now on this spot I stand with my robust soul.
--from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman, reprinted in The Best Poems of the English Language (2007)
Charles Simic's reading tonight has been moved to Barnes & Noble, 555 5th Avenue at 46th Street. The reading will be on the second floor at 6:30pm. Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets and the Bryant Park Restoration Project.
Shout out to Hirsh--HC's currently imbedded soccer-guru--had a great article in the Times this past weekend: "Top Gooner".
Here's the PW review of Novel Pictorial Noise by Noah Eli Gordon:
The prolific Gordon here takes his cues from Ashbery--who picked this collection for the National Poetry Series--but also from poets ranging from Rilke to Peter Gizzi. In alternating pages of prose and spare verse lines, he plays freely in the realm between theory and lyric: "Sculpture seeks articulation of the air around it. Thus, a heron thrusting overhead mutes modernism." Each of the 50 one-paragraph prose poems starts with a proposition and then attempts to both follow through on its initial lunge and also force the reader off the most obvious of trails of thought, usually by tossing in a few surprises: an Ajax bottle, Alice Neel, a "dab of wisteria" and a strip of duct tape make appearances in two lines of one poem. Gordon closes each poem with an artfully clumsy rhyming couplet--"One packs in what one can, as the real point of art is the subtle reiteration of the is, ain't it? The way I see it, we're all partially tainted"--alternately lending irony and vulnerability. While this is a difficult book steeped in canonical and postmodern poetic traditions--meaning it won't appeal to everyone--it's packed with thrills and discoveries that might engender some discussion. (Sept.)
And check out this insane widget:
It's hard not to get ahead of yourself when after the initial rush of signing a book (though, I have little to do w/this one--only peripheral marketing duties--but still) you have to wait a year for its public availability. Here's me getting ahead of myself. Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow, a debut in verse, is on sale in the UK. HarperCollins will publish the US hardcover edition in January. Some UK copies have filtered into our office, and I've been sneaking reading time all day. It's like Fight Club with werewolves...in verse. The New Statesman has a great review and you can read others here and here. There's an official website too.
*Continuing: that's the UK cover above. Here's ours. You may notice that it's bigger. Not sure how that happened. Anyway, thoughts?
Oh, and have you seen the Olive Reader lately? Tweaks are pending, but it's close to final.
Michael Signorelli
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