smoke on the porch
an infinite span of finite land.
bee devils buzz and huzz
beneath your quarters,
flaring out - yellow and black
the becoming blue sky -
"Water Tower." and birds and birds
sing sing span of wings differences
disappear at this hour.
huzz of the Queen buzz.
Her desolation and infinite grace?
Come out and hear see
before the blasted sun rises
Come out and hear see
before I can see you,
covered in animal, gunting
all the shovels and all the ditches
the "necessary"
hunches at every skyline balks
to put the bees away and be waking
Being, only. bark and
these eerie leaves huss the wind
will verb you. "Cabrini Green"
uh-oh. They sought to spread us
out where we could not hear her
but only see. Of a certain Order.
The Empire's stench tucked
into Fulton Market, pig and fish
guts splayed in hot art district.
Or tricked out on 95th and State.
span of wings differences
disappear at this hour.
gut check gouged by Time
come out before the disassembly
line tears into heart
this muted belief
that we could be
Tonight, I'm reading with akilah oliver and brandon shimoda
At u of arizona's poetry center. They've kindly put material and
Reviews on their site. I'm on a phone or I'd link it. Tonight at 8 pm.
Yes, I'm excited. Also a class this morning. A panel on ffriday at 4.
Hanging around, there are obvious patterns, differences,
It's strange. No smoking pole here. An automatic turning on
Of tv. I miss the hex. Am grateful
To be alive, and to be reading with such great people.
"Anyone here from out of town?"
Can one feel a jolt of serenity?
I couldn't get change for laundry at dominick's yesterday.
Then, a customer behind me gave me 3 bucks in quarters. Just
Kindness - didn't smell! Just...thoughtfulness - I seek to emulate.
Made the day. To be considerate. Uncommon in chicago.
it was sad, losing a friend. why did he die? we lived together for four years. but I couldn't be there ultimately. I couldn't. And I feared the worst but I couldn't be there. so many people loved him. He was so kind and funny. He saved my life, found me having my first seizure and yeah - saved my life.
He treasured and laughed and made others feel some sort of joy that comes from that part of us that's youthful or whatever and yes maybe that's sentimentality oh it is. but it's so sad. did he know how much we loved him? he's in a better place. he left his body. I wonder how his sister is, his mother. The last time the hex was in NYC some of us ended up hanging with her. she's in my first book, in my heart, in everything. and now. what is to be done or said dear reader?
we got sober together in the early 90s, he and I. it was as they say, the "pink cloud" and with him I don't know how to describe it but best put everything was alive with meaning. without force, or annoyance. I can be like that, but know i'm annoying. geno never was.
for a while after oscar dying and geno dying and close studies of slaughterhouses, there seemed nothing. NOTHING. this is entirely false.
what a lie. instead, what's been found is that reaching out produces one result and retracting produces another. after all, he had boundlessness of love. actual love. dear brother, he is missed. write or - don't write. love or do not. the company of others produces the web of human relationships that empowers even the darkest hours. he was a great man. and readers i'm sorry if you don't care but i miss him so. brother in sobriety. kindness in love. never, not once, in all those years did I ever, ever witness one wit of weird cruelty. He only treated others with kindnesses. This is final. And I apologize dear reader.
266 chickens die in america every time the human heart beats. they are piled on each other in shit. they can't move. they never see sun or grass or expanse or any of the things we attribute to being. approximately 10 billion animals die to slaughterhouse industry yearly in the US. Unlike the US, Europe has implemented controls. There are no legal controls for this here.
In Maine, in about 2001? 2002? they literally changed the bestiality law to not include the animal/slaughterhouse industry. I guess they were worried about potential turnons of continual slicing open beaks and smothering little chickens? Male chickens are offed/smothered or incinerated right after birth in the egg industry.
there is no easy answer to this stuff. I am sorry to these little animals. I remember being on tour and there would be these little swallows at the starbucks hell I think I took pix and posted them here, and we would be imagining that it was the same little bird at each stop (or I did) and playful jokes about it I would say hi hello! and it made me happy. a being. a little being.
i just can't participate in this sector of the economy. I know that this is not to say that in so doing I haven't opened up my own practices to a billion other inconsistencies. Also, I do not want to be all judgmental of others like some fascist evil and I love my prosciutto as much as the next or more but shit - I'm doing what I can. For now, until I learn otherwise, I cannot eat meat or consume dairy or participate at any further level in that economy.
For whatever it is worth, a compassionate view of beings necessitates...all compassion for all beings. and while that categorical imperative will never be met - I'm quicker to be compassionate at all levels of human interaction. I tend to hate humans more than other animals. And, with a new vision in place, it's all about reducing suffering, compassion, and support of others. to the best of all my abilities.
As such, it makes sense to move towards Law. Which is what I intend. I believe I will be able to litigate for labor, civil rights, anti-death penalty...the world explodes with possibility. thus, fuck. another degree????? yes. but this is the last one. and with that, perhaps, I will be able to implement changes for others' well-being.
Went to the BAUHAUS event on Saturday in Chicago. Not only did I have the fortune of hearing phenomenal poems by Jamie Kazay, Larry Sawyer, and many others, but also phenomenal music. I was taken with the sax player's sounds the most. Like Coltrane. Which is to say reaching toward the divine. He stunned. I could and will dwell another time on the great work, particularly of Miss Kazay, but for now - another focus.
That said, the centerpiece may have been the presentation on the destruction of the Michael Reese Hospital Complex in Chicago for the Olympics Chicago hopes for (NOTE: Chicago has not been awarded it yet, but the destruction and acquisition by city has begun for this function). This will permit parking and temporary retail areas. It also will result in the decimation (already has begun) of Walter Gropius' most sustained project (1944-1959) of his life.
As the Founder of the Bauhaus movement, a movement that was well ahead of its time and offered amazing advancements in architecture and well beyond, Gropius' work has educational, historic, cultural, political, functional value. Yes functional value. It's also surrounded by the stunning landscaping of Hideo Sasaki. Oh yeah, and a church and a park and a public school - all of these are being demolished. The realization that the Rees complex was Gropius' work came only recently, but is it too late? NO.
While the hospital arguably should not reopen, the buildings (over million feet of space being destroyed and reconfigured as blacktop and temp sales) retain value. While Chicago is celebrating 90 years of Gropius' contributions, it is also leveling some of his finest collaborative work. I wished there had been a petition. I'd imagine councils responding well to that. I could imagine a group of people gathering them at Wicker Park Fest, and at places like University of Chicago and the Art Institute. But then, it's also on me to do more than write about it. Unless something is done by October, these masterpieces are gone forever. Posted by Philip Jenks 0 comment
On Monday, I said so long to a being I've lived longer with than my family, longer than any relationship, and for the first time since he arrived in my life in 1996 - I was alone. Strange. After a 60 minute grand mal on thursday, overheating in chicago traffic en route to the vet, the damage was final. But it would have been soon anyway, I believe. I spent a couple days helping him get back on his feet after wounding a paw during the fit. actually, he insisted on it. after that, all energy was gone and a vacancy set in. he would not and could not stand or walk. that was sat night. By sun night, it was imminent and a matter of time. He passed peacefully. I thought it strange that the vet at Animal Medical Center (and they are great otherwise) sent me his
Please take my over the top rant with several grains of salt. I had hoped to edit, but as a regular contributor you beat me to it. As usual.
Rxconor, maybe I'm jealous. Quite literally and figuratively - how do you afford and manage to post so much writing?
balance was all I intended. I'm imbalanced in the other direction in terms of "posting habits" rxconor. As I'm positive you know. I took things out on you that didn't have any place. Matters not pertinent (see below). You are obviously brilliant and I do have my two cents, but that's just my opinion. I kept vexing at the mysterious Rxconor. I'm a terrible poster child for moderation. I'd genuinely be sad to see Nothing at all. While I've hardly been able to respond to everything you post, I do respond and felt that was less the case conversely. Why post if no one responds? You are prolific but didn't respond. So, I had suggested more dialogue. I like hhex65's thread on Victory Chimp. Lots of voices going in/with/to one another. Not writing at all would be the equivalent of flooding, just inverted.
THE MYOPIC POETRY SERIES - a weekly series of readings and occasional poets' talks
Myopic Books in Chicago - Sundays at 7:00 / 1564 N. Milwaukee Avenue, 2nd Floor
Sunday, June 21 - Simone Muench, Philip Jenks, & Patrick Culliton
Simone Muench was raised in Louisiana and Arkansas and now lives in Chicago, IL. She is the author of The Air Lost in Breathing (Marianne Moore Prize for Poetry; Helicon Nine, 2000), Lampblack & Ash (Kathryn A. Morton Prize for Poetry; Sarabande, 2005), and Orange Crush (Sarabande, 2010). Her latest chapbooks are Orange Girl (dancing girl press, 2007) and Sonoluminescence written with Bill Allegrezza (Dusie Press, 2007). She also published collaboratively with Philip Jenks, writing a book of epistolary poems titled Little Visceral Carnival on Cinematheque Press (2009). She is a recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry, the PSA's Fine Lines Contest, the Charles Goodnow Award, the AWP Intro Journals Project Award, the Poetry Center's 9th Annual Juried Reading Award, the Frederick Stern Award for Teaching, and the PSA's Bright Lights/Big Verse Contest. She received her Ph.D from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is director of the Writing Program at Lewis University where she teaches creative writing and film studies. Currently, she serves on the advisory board for Switchback Books and UniVerse: A United Nations of Poetry, and is an editor for Sharkforum.
Philip JENKS will be reading with Simone Muench from their new "Little Visceral Carnival" (Cinematheque Press, 2009). Additionally, he wrote two volumes of poetry, On the Cave You Live In (Flood Editions, 2002) and My First Painting will be "The Accuser" (Zephyr Press, 2005). He's published two chapbooks, The Elms Left Elm Street (Plane Bukt Press, 1993 and Cultural Society, 2008) and the ekphrastic How Many of You are You? (Dusie, 2006). He is completing his third manuscript, "Colony Collapse Disorder". He teaches at University of Illinois at Chicago. His poems have appeared in MoonLit, Chicago Review, Traverse, GutCult, h_ngm_n, The Canary, The Gig, Cultural Society, LVNG, Cultural Society and elsewhere. He collaborates with Simone Muench, publishing in The Canary, Zoland, Moonlit, barrelhouse, and Eleven Eleven and elsewhere. He is a vegan and plays percussion, sings, and howls with the Howling Hex on Drag City Records.
Patrick CULLITON was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. His poems have appeared, or will soon, in American Letters & Commentary, Coconut, Columbia Poetry Review, Conduit, Court Green, The Hat, Indiana Review, The Journal, jubilat, Rabbit Light Movies, Realpoetik, Tarpaulin Sky, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a 2009 Individual Artists Fellowship from Illinois Arts Council.
Contact curator Larry Sawyer for booking information and requests.
E-mail: larrysawyerpoet@yahoo.com
UPCOMING
Sunday, June 28 - Poet's Talk: Tim Yu (w/Judith Goldman) on Race and the Avant-Garde - Experimental and Asian American Poetry since 1965
Sunday, July 26 - Farrah Field & Jared White
Sunday, August 2 - Kerri Sonnenberg & Guest
Sunday, August 23 - Carrie Etter & Guest
Sunday, October 4 - Chicago Calling w/Dan Godston (additional readers to be announced)
"A person's integrity is inversely proportional to speed at which that person's weaknesses are observed.
He said as I met him and I instantly trusted him.
But he was in the middle of some criticism: The critique, if I recall correctly, was that it was "white hipster" to promote environmental policies. If critique is the word. It was hard to understand at this point of the drunk. His words blathered together. I wondered aloud if it promoted racial justice to let environmental issues rot in the rust belt. Wedge issue. I could see his anger for the first time ever. He couldn't stop raging.
Boy, was I wrong. How did it take so long to figure it out?
from afar. I wondered as Monday's trip approached whether it was the right thing not to go. Perhaps Andy was right. Not this time, I thought. Still, a wishing and sadness. What will it be like? Oscar's condition worsened late-Monday and actually I thought another trip to the ER was required. Oscar the cat. By morning, the 130 veterinarian appt was set and it was a good new one. The old vet was dingy and they were cruel to him and other pets. They didn't care. The new vet sprayed the room with a pheromone mother cats release when nursing. Skeptical. But, it totally worked and a lot of unnecessary sedation was averted. Still, "not out of the woods." Four hours of procedures. I was instructed to wait at the starbucks. I thought, appropriate.
Simone Muench's and Philip Jenks' new chapbook Little Visceral Carnival was recently published by Cinematheque Press and is available for order.
The chapbook features twenty-three epistolary poems Muench and Jenks wrote - Jenks and Muench trade lines and when the poems are complete, they are revised - sometimes to aerate the poem and other times for consistency or both. Usually, the line breaks in the finished poem are not where they were during the trading process. The cover art is by the inimitable Kim Ambriz . Nate Slawson of Cinematheque Press designed the 5" by 5" chapbook, which features not one, but two linocut collaged lithographs. A sample of not only the collaboration, but of Slawson's (and Nikkita Cohoon's) fine work can be found on the first issue of Dear Camera which published "Dear Player" and "An aptitude for bird." The Press' catalog currently includes work by Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Adam Clay, and Ada Limón.
I've been working on a project since February, of listening to the whole vinyl collection from A to Z. Along the way, I will post some of the findings that caught me off guard, one way or the other. First on the list is under Appalachian, "Come All You Coal Miners" - featuring Hazel Dickens, Nimrod Workman (links to video) and many others, working from the vibrant political and cultural mecca, the Highlander Center down in New Market, TN.
Hazel Dickens and Sarah Ogan Gunning tear up on "Come All You Coal Miners." Gunning and Dickens are just two of many activists and singers who have continued the folk tradition in the sense of Woody Guthrie and his predecessors.
Cass Sunstein's Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech and Stanley Fish's There's No Such Thing as Free Speech and it's a good thing too represent two well-articulated critiques of First Amendment jurisprudence. It is suggested that by comparing these legal scholars who come to similar conclusions regarding the issue of regulating speech, we will discern many nuances and flaws in their arguments that would largely be ignored if one were compared with someone who arrives at an antithetical conclusion, such as Justice Holmes. Although many may think of the two scholars' views as being highly similar insofar as they both support stricter interpretations of the First Amendment, this generalization is problematized after careful scrutiny.
Sunstein explains his principle of "regulation" of speech through his heavy reliance on the works of James Madison. He advocates a "Madisonian First Amendment," which is meant to foster what he calls "government by discussion." This type of government exists only when political speech is heavily protected and non-political speech is subject to regulation whenever it inhibits democratic growth. It seems that contemporary First Amendment jurisprudence has ignored the value of this "two-tiered" approach (political/non-political) and has protected "expression" that we may believe to be "fraught with death." In short, speech with direct political implications is completely protected in Sunstein's model. However, non-political speech is subject to regulation.
In contrast, one finds that Stanley Fish argues that any speech with political consequence should be subject to some regulatory considerations. Rather than searching for a way to determine a content-neutral, formal definition of the types of speech that could or should be regulated (as does Sunstein), Fish relies heavily on a substantive, particularistic approach to jurisprudence. This approach may find contrary to Sunstein that speech which should be regulated above and beyond all other speech is speech with public consequence or political speech. In the paper, I will attempt to find where Fish and Sunstein stand on key cases and issues (e.g. Dennis) in order to highlight potential differences and agreements.
Made Me
Finally! Though that too could be true...
as if paw and also the city.
Look, your no nameplace
like when the washes
sent a message.
Jammed up leaves
and flipped plastic unseemly
it's okay it's the cut mark
left behind. (like when
baths pool up to leave
chunks of it, starry rinds
collect or gutter no matter
mass held hands basement
upside down
and now the hair and everything
is too. might be talk.
contagious legions
coral. fan. toothing
for what rids the riddling.
splayed out
with pincers and
the remarkable precision
of gut inspection.
clear the end of fun
in under table steals
lox or maybe vines
it's a tangle in the
berg. splode head shots
and shops. spackle
the tubed interior
invest the ail
or some pallor
with something
France. Once I had to.
poempeople are are are upset about my Arsonism Anthology. Apparently, the tome I edited for everyone just hasn't gone over well at all in some corners. The Buffalo Poetics Listserv is full of chatter about the 3,700+ page volume.
I tried to include everyone. I just thought it best if for once I write all the poems - don't see the problem really - they can still take credit!
wonders who is rxconor.
new reproductive technology tests in developing nations, you know, where the good, sustainable, organic coffee comes from...
bills spying on each other. ocularcentrism is fungible, apparently.
wonders where is rxconor.
you are not one, but many. disagreements arise at the coffee pot, "nobody's home." This is not an Aerosmith reference.
As for the political trickery, that is a Richard Nixon reference. His decayed corpse infected the groundwater supply. No great man thought. He was bigger than 'is skin or anything he bought. And known for a certain, antisemitic rage, also not peculiar to him.
other songs I wanted to forget and did. cool late june greenhouse night air with Jacqueline and Sheen. Ebullient, both. What's the 'right' thing to do with a cigarette butt? Someone runs out of place during Like a Prayer (as sung by a trans Cat Stevens?) yelling 'this is my song! they're playing my song!' Everyone is wearing summer clothing but it's not really summer.
