new poems

so it looks like i survived the usual end-of-semester madness fairly well. :) all my grading is done, all assignments and papers are handed in, and summer is upon me.

there are two new poems of mine you can now read online:

(click to go to product homepage)

http://www.usm.edu/product/page29/page36/page36.html

product is a journal put out by the center for writers at usm, and while i was one of the poetry editors for this issue, let me assure you that all entries were democratically selected by independent readers. :D

working on product was fun, especially reading all the submissions from usm's students, graduate and undergrad. i hope you enjoy what we selected!

chapbook! yay!

friends and frenemies,

the time has come, my chapbook - the five parts of love: confabulating sappho - is now available from dancing girl press! so head right over to their site and take a look, and check out some of the other chaps they have in stock.

http://dulcetshop.ecrater.com/p/14676929/the-five-parts-of-love-confabulating#

here is one sample poem from the collection, just to whet your appetite. the words in italics are surviving fragments of sappho's poetry, namely fragment number 7, taken from the translation by anne carson (if not, winter).

i'm excited this has finally taken physical shape, and what better time for it than poetry month! i hope you'll enjoy my adventures with sappho, - please comment / let me know either way!

p.s. - in case you couldn't tell: http://youtu.be/zrCuZd9hed0  *wink

for more ekphrasis / all the pretty pictures

the bridesmaid, by millais

when i got an email at the end of march inviting me to join our center for writers' poetry marathon, i decided to give it a go. the idea was (is) to write one poem every day in april (poetry month) and share it with the rest of the marathon writers before midnight that day. miss a day and you're out. i didn't think i'd last long, but today is the 16th and i have not missed a day yet! which means, yes, i have 16 new poems and will have a couple more before the end of the month. granted, some of them are not very good, but practice makes perfect better. :)

a few weeks ago, my poetry professor mentioned there ought to be more ekphrastic poetry, and when i was stuck for a topic / trigger for a poem about a week ago, i remembered and went to googleartproject and took a good, long, close look at my favorite painting, millais' bridesmaid. and wrote a poem about it.

my poem for today is also ekphrastic, - i explored some of the many collections google art project contains and found another painting that tickled me. it's this:

the girl i left behind me, by eastman johnson

i didn't read up on the painting, the historical context or the artist, because as i was looking at this scene, i had an immediate response. click on the picture for a larger view.

in any case, the point of this post is that maybe there really SHOULD be more ekphrastic poetry, so why not give it a shot! any poem that describes or enters into a painting can be considered ekphrastic. if a picture captures you or draws you in, that's all you need. well, that and the willingness to sit down and write it out.

google art project is a nice starting point - you can browse through so many works of art, modern and ancient, things you know and things you didn't know existed, from museums all over the world. what i particularly like is that you can zoom in on the images. with some of the paintings that means you get as close a look as you would if you almost touched your nose to the canvas (which does not exactly elicit a lot of enthusiasm from the people who work at the museum, take my word for it.) so, my suggestion is, look and write.

sneak peek :)

here is a sneak peek at our cover design for "the five parts of love" - the chapbook will be available shortly from dancing girl press. watch this space. or their website. or your email inbox if you've given me your email address. :)

more soon!

librophile animation

i just really wanted to share this. it made my day.

the fantastic flying books of mr.morris lessmore.

i knew that i needed you (watching j.edgar)

for the first time in a while i watched a movie, at the movie theatre - i do enjoy this, but it tends to be so expensive (compared to reading books etc) that i hardly do it. also, there are rarely any "offerings" that seem worth the approximately 10 bucks or more a visit to the cinema usually costs.

t and i went to see "j. edgar" and i can only recommend it. not only was it worth the money, but leonardo di caprio has finally redeemed himself (imho) as an actor. where, in romeo and juliet, he was constantly either shirtless or wet (think wet-tshirt-contest for boys), he now keeps his clothes on and actually plays his character.

i remember reading that the real-life fbi were not too thrilled with clint eastwood's looking to get more information on hoover's sexual orientation and relationships, but the movie eastwood delivers here is tastefully done and, because it is a MOVIE, not a bio-pic or a documentary, i think it's fully acceptable in the ways it develops the characters.

finally, i have to admit that i was moved to tears - the asexual relationship between these two men is so delicately, respectfully and convincingly portrayed that i honestly don't care if it (or anything like it) ever really happened. this is good movie-making. go see it.

in my list it ranks high, right up there with "frost/nixon" and "good night and good luck" - and this is coming from someone who hated history in school. :)

if you still want to get your facts right... read about j. edgar hoover here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover

analyse von m.d. zellmers "ebendar"

Ebendar

Blasphemie und peripher

schizophren und nekrophil

postneutral und Profanie

elegiös und etabliert

dergestalt und ebendar

Rizinus und Ratiopharm

Sakrileg und pedophil

homogen und Integral

Polynom und Division

Argument und Diskussion

erogen und trivial

paranorm und Diphterie

Ergonom und Anatom

indiskret und raffiniert

intravenös ☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹☹

☹☹☹☹☹☹☹ und ☹☹☹☹☹☹al

das ist mir doch

☹☹☹☹☹☹egal

max d. zellmer's "ebendar" (http://maxdzellmer.wordpress.com/2011/10/02/ebendar/ ) ist ein frühwerk, ohne jeden zweifel. zwar spricht die intertextualität diese lyrischen werkes für ein populärliterarisches bewusstsein, - der rhytmische sprechgesang der 1990er hat hier offensichtlich pate gestanden, - doch eine genauere betrachtung des textes verdeutlicht, daß dies das machwerk eines adoleszenten geistes ist.

zellmer nutzt hier eine einfache chiffrierung, bei der jede zeile für (x, y) steht, und die initiallettern der wortpaare jeweils den zahlenwert des jeweiligen buchstaben haben. so ergibt sich folgende grafische darstellung:

das gedicht, im reinen betrachtet, ist nichts weiter als ein primitiv gezeichneter lyrischer phallus. der subversive jungkünstler hat also hier das bewusstsein des lesers zur schultoilettenwand gemacht. wahrlich, ein erguss infantilen genies.