CruelestMonth.com

There's a helluva lot going on here.

Let Us Compare Mythologies

"Jingle"

To show the fat brain
rotting like stumps of brown teeth
in an old bright throat
is the final clever thrill
of summer lads all dead with love.

So here is mine,
torn and stretched for the sun,
to be used for a drum or a tambourine,
to be scratched with poetry
by Kafka's machine.

From Let Us Compare Mythologies by Leonard Cohen, originally published in 1956 when he was twenty-two years old.  Ecco will reissue a 50th Anniversary facsimile edition at the end of May.  It's not the most pleasant of poems but I adore "In the Penal Colony", so here it is.

Shoop...

For some fun, one poem from a random HarperCollins employee (it's me).  Tell it to your children:

Chicken noodle and tomato
soup I scooped out with a ladle.

Steaming, piping hot and yummy,
filling empty aching tummies.

Next in line, he looked real crummy.
limping slowly, maybe humming,

Some old tune or made up hymn,
shuffled forward, hungry grin.

Tie and jacket, mothball cheese,
made the workers cough and sneeze.

Held his cup out for tomato
soup I scooped out with a ladle.

Stepped a distance, stopped abrupt,
and on his head he turned his cup,

Spilling out the soup I scooped,
dripping red all down his suit.

No more soup for you I said,
then he left with cup on head.

I wrote that three years back.  I'm totally over rhymes now.  Maybe.

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

...for lifetime achievement has gone to Lucille Clifton.  Congrats, Lucille.  The $100,000 award was established in 1986 and is presented by the Poetry Foundation.

Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry magazine and chair of the selection committee, commented: "Lucille Clifton is a powerful presence and voice in American poetry. Her poems are at once outraged and tender, small and explosive, sassy and devout. She sounds like no one else, and her achievement looks larger with each passing year."

So reports Shelf Awareness this morning.

Work Related Paris Photos

HarperCollins has sanctioned the reproduction of these photos from my trip to Paris:

The famous Shakespeare & Company Bookstore.  The right storefront leads to the normal part of the store.  The left, which was unfortunately closed when I was there, is reserved for first editions and other expensive goodies.  The staff is composed entirely of young, attractive writers who dress decently well. I never wanted to leave.  I purchased the Vita Nuova, The Confidential Clerk, Zazie in the Metro, and one of the Penguin Great Idea books.  I highly recommend the first two; the third I gave away as a gift; the last was written in 1776 and is all about early Christians.  Haven't gotten to it yet.

Wow.  Look at those Ecco books.  A whole chunk of them no less.  Located in the Beat Literature section of the Shakespeare & Co bookstore in the Latin Quarter of Paris, France, one will find a cubic foot of space dedicated solely to being Bukowski and Fante books from Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.  Paris is beautiful.

No, it is.  From the Pantheon looking south toward the Jardin du Luxembourg (which translates "DJ Lucky's Techno Hut").  The weather was great.  The French were French.  And I managed to bungle my way about with a smile and a handful of useless phrases.

And one from the northern wing of the Louvre looking southwest:

Poetry in the Park Returns

The Bryant Park Reading Room starts another season of poetry in the park tomorrow, May 8th at 6:30pm.  This reading will feature poets Christian Hawkey, Cathy Park Hong, and Rachel Zucker.

"All Hands on Deck"

In the May 7th edition of Publishers Weekly, Michael Wiegers and Angela Garbe, executive editor and publicist, respectively, of Copper Canyon Press preach the good word of poetry and consider its place in the book business:

Poetry is an indicator species for the survivability of literary reading, and while some argue that poetry needs to be more "entertaining" and accessible if it is to survive, we at Copper Canyon believe that sustainable expectations--and risky books--are what can invigorate publishing.

They go on to cite the example of Taha Muhammad Ali, a poet who I was lucky enough to see read at the Dodge Poetry Festival, and whose collection So What brought him, a formerly unknown Palestinian poet, to the United States.  His book has sold more than 7,500 copies to date (I reproduce this figure only because it appeared plainlyin the PW article and because it's rather remarkable). 

Brand Upon the Brain

May 13th, John Ashbery will guest narrate for Brand Upon the Brain! , a film by Guy Maddin, at Village East Cinemas @ 7pm.  It promises to be "a one-of-a-kind cinematic spectacle...with an 11-piece LIVE orchestra, a 5-piece LIVE Foley (sound effects) team a LIVE celebrity narrator, and Castrato supplementing the filmic image."  I refer you to this description of the event.

NY Times: "Marks Mysterious and Foundlings Sad: O, Tangled Web!"

The Branch Will Not Break

In celebration of 50 years in publishing, Wesleyan University Press has released a "special miniature edition" of The Branch Will Not Break by James Wright.  Reproduced proportionally, you're meant to turn the pages with your nose, making each paper cut a small communion.  Coincidentally, the night before I came to possess this book, I had listened to the audio of Wright reading "A Blessing", one of my favorite poems from this collection, and one of many great recordings on the audio anthology Poetry On Record.  It's only slightly larger than a lock, as shown, and fits lightly in almost any pocket.  Congrats to the WUP.

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 [email protected] 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.