Wednesday, May 15, 2013

GALATEA RESURRECTS #20 IS LIVE!


GALATEA RESURRECTS #20 (A POETRY ENGAGEMENT)
... is fresh!  You can see the entire issue at http://galatearesurrection20.blogspot.com/ .  I'll also cutnpaste the Table of Contents below for your convenience.
Happy Reading!
Eileen Tabios
Editor, Galatea Resurrects


GR #20 Table of Contents

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION


NEW REVIEWS

Neil de la Flor reviews CEMETERY CHESS: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS by Sandy McIntosh

Eileen Tabios engages MERIDIAN by Kathleen Jesme

Laura Madeline Wisemen reviews SALEM IN SÉANCE by Susana H. Case


Eileen Tabios engages CLARITY AND OTHER POEMS by Thomas Fink

j/j hastain engages AFTER SWANN with text by Marthe Reed, animation by Yeon Choi and music by joshua carro. Directed and produced by Keith Horwick

E.E. Nobbs reviews A MARZIPAN FACTORY—NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Grzegorz Wroblewski,translated by Adam Zdrodowski

Eileen Tabios engages THE ROMANCES AND OTHER POEMS by Micah Cavaleri

Tom Beckett reviews RECALCULATING by Charles Bernstein

Rhoda Rosenfeld and Edric Mesmer engage SEVEN CONTROLLED VOCABULARIES AND OBITUARY 2004. THE JOY OF COOKING by Tan Lin

Eileen Tabios engages ROUNDING THE HUMAN by Linda Hogan

Patrick James Dunagan reviews WESTERN PRACTICE by Stephen Motika

Carrie Hunter engages MERRY HELL by Sara Larsen

Thomas Fink reviews “ONLY TO PRY”, a poem in TINY GOLD DRESS by John Godfrey

Eileen Tabios engages THE GRAPEVINE by Richard Lopez

Neil Leadbeater reviews THE WHITE MUSEUM by George Bilgere

Genevieve Kaplan reviews THE IMPORTANT THING IS … CARD GAME by Marjorie Tesser

Eileen Tabios engages WAXWINGS by Daniel Nathan Terry

Neil Leadbeater reviews THE LOST COUNTRY OF SIGHT by Neil Aitken

Judy Roitman reviews three books by Kim Hyesoon, all translated by Don Mee Choi: ALL THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD UNITE, MOMMY MUST BE A FOUNTAIN OF FEATHERS, and PRINCESS ABANDONED

Eileen Tabios engages RENEGADE // HEART by Lisa M. Cole

Melissa Fry Beasley reviews ELVIS PRESLEY’S HIPS & MICK JAGGER’S LIPS by Susana H. Case

Eileen Tabios engages BRUSHSTROKES AND GLANCES by Djelloul Marbrook

John Bloomberg-Rissman reviews WARSAW BIKINI and MOTHER WAS A TRAGIC GIRL, both by Sandra Simonds

Eileen Tabios engages ALL THIS FALLING AWAY by Tim Armentrout

Neil Leadbeater reviews EDGE EFFECTS by Jan Conn

Eileen Tabios engages ARSENIC LOBSTER: POETRY JOURNAL 2013, Issues 26, 27 & 28, Editor Susan Yountz

Carrie Hunter engages THE PRECIPICE OF JUPITER by erica lewis and mark stephen finein

Carrie Hunter engages THE RECITATION OF FORGETTING by Franck André Jamme

Eileen Tabios engages MEMORY CARDS by Susan M. Schultz

rob mclennan reviews SCARED TEXT by Eric Baus

Eileen Tabios engages THE BODY DOUBLE: A LONG POEM by Jared Harel

G.E. Schwartz reviews LIFE SENTENCES: APHORISMS & REFLECTIONS by Michael Perkins

Eileen Tabios engages IN MIXED COMPANY by Caleb Puckett & Friends, edited by Walter Ruhlmann and co-edited by Caleb Puckett

Jeff Harrison engages THE MORPHINE POEMS by Bobbi Lurie

Sally Deskins reviews SPRUNG by Laura Madeline Wiseman

Eileen Tabios engages WORK IS LOVE MADE VISIBLE by Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Neil Leadbeater reviews LIFE’S A BEACH by Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan

Eileen Tabios engages AT THE TURNING OF THE LIGHT, VISIBLE BONES and ONE BIRD FALLING, all by CB Follett

jim mccrary reviews BLAME FAULT MOUNTAIN by Spencer Selby

Eileen Tabios engages MODULATIONS, ADDENDA and THE READER, all by Márton Koppány


Eileen Tabios engages PRIOR by James Berger

Eileen Tabios engages ITEMS by Tom Jenks


ESSAY


FEATURED POET … IN ILOCANO!


FEATURED POET ... IN TAGALOG!
Joi Barrios


REVIEW OF A REVIEW


THE CRITICS WRITE POEMS



FROM OFFLINE TO ONLINE
Kenneth Warren reviews BIBLIODEATH: MY ARCHIVES WITH LIFE IN FOOTNOTES by Andrei Codrescu

Lea Graham reviews VICTORY AND HER OPPOSITES by Amy England

Amaranth Borsuk reviews FRACTAL ECONOMIES by Derek Beaulieu

Lea Graham reviews HEAT LINES by Michael Anania

Amaranth Borsuk reviews DOG EAR by Erica Baum

Lea Graham reviews BELOVED IDEA by Ann Killough

Richard Lopez engages RIMBAUD by Graham Robb

Amaranth Borsuk reviews REVOLVER by Robyn Schiff



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BACK COVER
A Catty Review by Iris McCrary


Sunday, May 12, 2013

  After carefully, and very slowly, reading  through the Appearances manuscript I was able to get my fears in check and realize that I like what I've done so far.  After almost 17 months of working on this beast, it was good to have a reality check.  I'd been prepared to jettison large chunks, the whole project, for that matter, if it didn't seem like it worked.  But, strangely, I think it does.  Even though I don't know where it's going from moment to moment.

The past two weeks I've felt stymied, unable to proceed with the book.  Today I wrote three new sections which I think are quite good.

This is the most ambitious writing project I've ever undertaken.  I'm now about 2/3 of the way through a first draft.  This probably isn't very interesting to read about, but it feels like a personal milestone to me.
We're almost halfway through the month  and I've only just now learned that May is National Masturbation Month.

Think nationally, act locally!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

I'm trying
however erratically

to hear
music differently,

to break
it down

into this
and that

color and
timbre and

shape and
bent note.

Thomas Fink and his wife Molly Mason spent some time with me in Oberlin, Ohio yesterday. 

The three of us started out in the Allen Art Museum.  Tom ( in addition to being a poet, critic, guitarist and budding bel canto singer) is a painter.  Molly is a professional sculptor.

I loved wandering from painting to painting—to sculpture—to ceremonial mask—to performance document with these two.  The conversation was great, spiked with anecdote and passion.  I love this couple.

I particularly loved how Molly could look at a passage in a painting and break it down materially—that beautiful gold in the drapery of that renaissance dress is this and that color, but look how it has been transformed.  The appreciation and honoring of detail!

Only one discordant moment in the museum.  We spent a long time thinking out loud about an African fertility mask.  Our hands were waving close to the extraordinary object.  We were speculating about how it would be worn and about how it was made.  A security guard approached us, gently, and asked us what we were doing. 

We explained.  Molly thanked him for not beating us up!

Later Tom and I separated off from Molly (with her consent) to lunch and talk about divers things.

Our late lunch was at an Asian fusion place. I had a great pho and Tom had an Asian inspired salad.

Our conversation was about writing, poetry friends, and guitar techniques.  Tom has been playing guitar since 1968 and he drew some fret board diagrams for me that I’m hoping penetrate this noggin and playing fingers. 

I always feel better after an encounter with Thomas Fink.  He’s a positive force in the universe I inhabit. Bless his heart.

Alex Gildzen's BLOSSOMS





Blossoms is a selection of poems spanning the years 1955-2013.  A publication in celebration of Alex's 70th birthday (as one can read on the cover reproduced above).  It's only 50 pages long ,only 50 pages (it's really never been about size for me),  but worlds are contained in its words.

There's much good stuff in this collection, but I'm really fond of the 17 part sequence Life is Art.  I want to call attention to part 11:

"phallic hymn"

don't be redundant

You can buy the book direct from Night Ballet Press here.

Congrats, Alex!

PS: I love the way the ink of this book smells.