CruelestMonth.com

The Buk

It may seem like I am inflicting a rather slow, painful death upon my own website, and though I can't actually deny that, I ask that you imagine that the Cruelest Month is sleeping peacefully, storing energy for a balls-out comeback.  As way of explanation for the lack of activity over the past few months, you guessed it, I've been good and busy.  So has Ecco for that matter, and Fall 2007 has been a strong season.  Rounding out 2007 is The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 by Charles Bukowski, edited by John Martin, which was reviewed by Jim Harrison in the NY Times this past week.

I am not inclined to make elaborate claims for Bukowski, because there is no one to compare him to, plus or minus. He wrote in the language of his class as surely as Wallace Stevens wrote in the language of his own. This book offers you a fair chance to make up your own mind on this quarrelsome monster. It is ironical that those who man the gates of the canon will rarely if ever make it inside themselves. Bukowski came in a secret back door.

We're happy to play our part.  Oh, and the first three readers to write CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com with "Pleasures of the Damned" as their subject line and with their mailing address in the body will receive a free copy.  A little later in the week, I'll post the broadside and send a few of those out.

The NY Times Notable list has been posted, as well.  Ecco makes a fair showing on a strong list.  It's worth a look.

*Three readers wrote in.  Three books will be sent out.  Thanks for reading and writing--in and in general!

Je reviens - Two Giveaways, if you look

This post has been some time coming.  I've been lazy (maybe even disgruntled).  Once I have things organized from my trip, I'll try to share some of the better finds and moments.  Still, being back is not entirely devoid of goodness.  Novel Pictorial Noise is now on-sale!  The first five readers to write CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com will receive a copy.  Be sure to have "NPN by NEG" as your subject heading and to include your mailing address in the body of the e-mail.  I'm being very explicit today.

Also, news to me upon returning, Alice Quinn will step down as poetry editor at The New Yorker with  Paul Muldoon rising in succession.  For the sake of variety and renewal, I think this is a positive move.  The NY Times reports.

And final copies of Time & Materials by Robert Hass are printed and cut.  They're like vibrant little cherries.  Hats off to the designer, Gretchen Achilles.  I have three to spare at the moment.  E-mail the address above with "TAM" as your subject and with your address in the body. 

You must choose between the books--no doubles.

*A squadron of readers have descended upon the available copies. Thanks for writing in!

Galley Giveaway - Sharp Teeth

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! 

Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems

Some very handsome galleys have arrived for John Ashbery's Notes from the Air: Selected Later Poems, which selects from April Galleons (1987) to Where Shall I Wander (2005).  I wish I had an image to share with you, but none are yet available (to me, anyway).  As I have the tendency to do when a quantity of proofs come in, I'm giving some away.  The first three readers to e-mail CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com will receive a galley.  If you've received a book from me recently, your response time shall be staggered by an as-of-now undisclosed amount of time.  This poem happens to fit today:

"Still Life With Stranger"

Come on, Ulrich, the great octagon
of the sky is passing over us.
Soon the world will have moved on.
Your love affair, what is it
but a tempest in a teapot?

But such storms exude strange
resonance: the power of the Almighty
reduced to its infinitesimal root
hangs like the chant of bees,
the milky drooping leaves of the birch
on a windless autumn day--

Call these phenomena or pinpoints,
remote as the glittering trash of heaven,
yet the monstrous frame remains,
filling up with regret, with straw,
or on another level with the quick grace
of the singing, falling snow.

You are good at persuading
them to sing with you.
Above you, horses graze forgetting
daylight inside the barn.

Creeper dangles against rock-face.
Pointed roofs bear witness.
The whole cast of characters is imaginary
now, but up ahead, in shadow, the past waits.

--from Hotel Lautrémont (1992)

*The galleys go to Damion, Steve, and Mary.  Thanks for writing in!

Two Galley Giveaway

I meant to do this Friday.  I have some galley copies of Day In Day Out by Terézia Mora and Time and Materials by Robert Hass.

Day In Day Out is the latest installment in the Ecco7 line of paperbacks dedicated to international literature.  Terézia was born 1971 in Sopron, Hungary.  Since 1998 she has worked in Berlin as a freelance writer and translator of contemporary Hungarian novelists, notably Péter Esterházy.  She published a story collection, Strange Material, in 1999.  Day In Day Out, published in German as Alle Tage, was chosen as the best novel of the year at the Leipzig Book Fair.  There are plenty of reasons to get to know Ms. Mora.

Time and Materials I have already told you about.  The first five readers to e-mail CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com with "Two Galleys" as their subject will receive copies of both.  Don't forget to include your address!

*The galleys go to Akilah, B.B., Milo, Noah, and Ann!

Shroom

Not that any of use were expecting this, but Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom by Andy Letcher was named an Editor's Pick in this past Sunday's New York Times Book Review: "Letcher's revisionist history is a delightful journalistic addition to the 'trip lit' genre."  A sparse quote but there nonetheless.  This study of funky fungi is no half-baked ramble over the author's transcendental drug rushes and, according to the Seattle Times, "mystical, frightening or mind-mushing drug experiences are not necessary for relishing Andy Lethcer's engrossing story of hallucinogenic mushrooms and the cultural history that has build up around them."  Nor did your parents have to find a long-forgotten baggy of ambiguous spongy things and accuse you of trafficking "peyote" through their home.  It's for everyone!  In celebration, I'll be adding this to the featured books column and will send a copy to the first three readers to e-mail me at CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com.  Please have "Booming" as your subject line and include your address.

Jilly, Caroline, and Clay get the books.  And Jilly recommends a "shroom sonnet."

Not Buk Giveaway

The galleys for The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993 by Charles Bukowski came in this week.  If you know or don't know Bukowski, you should visit Bukowski.net.  It is the online epicenter for discussion of the poet.  Very friendly, very knowledgable people frequent the forum and are always good for a suggestion.  I'm in the habit of liking the first thing I see, so here are the first two stanzas from the first poem I flipped to:

"girl on the escalator"

as I go to the escalator
a young fellow and a lovely girl
are ahead of me.
her pants, her blouse are skin-
tight.
as we ascend
she rest one foot on the
step above and her behind
assumes a fascinating shape.
the young man looks all
around.
he appears worried.
he looks at me.
I look
away.

no, young man, I am not looking,
I am not looking at your girl's behind.
don't worry, I respect her and I respect you.
in fact, I respect everthing: the flowers that grow, young women,
children, all the animals, our precious complicated
universe, everyone and everything.

I don't have any spare galleys of Buk.  But since it's Friday, I want to give books away for free. 

The first three people to e-mail me at CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com with the subject heading "Mythical Proportions" and their mailing address will receive a copy of the newly reissued Let Us Compare Mythologies by Leonard Cohen (pictured above to the left).

*Ben, Mike, and Evan win the copies!

Hotel de Dream - Galley Giveaway

As I mentioned some posts ago, I wanted to send out a few galleys of Hotel de Dream by Edmund White.  I've since read the book, ripped right through the thing.  It goes on sale in September, but two of you will have it much sooner than that.  To rile you up, here's some advance praise:

"Astonishing.  As honest, daring and deeply felt as a work of the imagination can be.  Hotel de Dream is not so much read as actively inhabited by the reader.  It is a world one is saddened to leave." -- Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan

"When Edmund White write about Stephen Crane, it is the case of one American master turning his attention to another.  The book is a marvel of the subtle layers of story-telling, and at every layer it is fascinating, tragic, and utterly beautiful." -- Ann Patchett, award-winning author of Bel Canto

"Crane, a masterful stylist and ironist, would have loved this book." -- Paul Sorrentino, Professor of English, Virginia Tech, "the preeminent scholar on the life and works of American novelist Stephen Crane."

The first two readers to e-mail me at CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com with the subject heading "White Crane" (ooohh) will receive a copy of the galley.  Don't be shy.  *Thanks to everyone who wrote in.  I may try and muster a few more copies to accommodate the enthusiastic reply.

Never by Jorie Graham

Oh, it's Friday.  That means I have books on offer.  This time it's Never by Jorie Graham.  Be one of the first three to e-mail me with the subject like "Maharg Eiroj" (very creative, I know) "Free Book" and I'll send you a copy. **The books are out. Thanks to those who wrote in.

A Contest - The People Look Like Flowers At Last

As I alluded to in yesterday's post, I'm giving away three copies of Charles Bukowski's final collection of new poems, The People Look Like Flowers At Last.  I realize that saying that this is it from Bukowski may be hard to accept as true.  This will be the fifth collection of new poems released since his death in 1994, but we swear, we know John Martin, we know Linda Bukowski, as far as we all can tell, this is it.  (Except for the Selected Buk that we'll be publishing next year, edited by John Martin, but that's irrelevant.)  In order to procure your copy, please write me at CruelestMonthPoetry@yahoo.com.  Include your name, address, and...here's the catch: to win a copy you must write, what you think, would be Bukowski's final poem. 

Will he muse on the fickle and violent love of women, the fellowship of whisky, the anarchy of Los Angeles, the slow, ineluctable approach of death?  Will he be lewd, comic, sorely profound?  It is up to you.

I'll choose 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners--each will receive The People Look Like Flowers At Last and other goodies commensurate with their place.  Each winning poem will be posted for a day on the CM.  The deadline is Wednesday, March 21st and please include the poem in the body of your e-mail.  That should be plenty of time considering Buk's methods of composition. 

In the meantime, to help get you started, here's a long one from his final collection:

"sadness in the air"

here I am alone sitting
like some wimp

listening to Chopin

the night wind blowing in
through the
torn curtains.

won $546 at the track today but
now I'm thinking that
dying is such a strange and
ordinary thing.

I just hope that I'll never need
false teeth before I
go.