Issue 26 of Otolith is Live!

Issue twenty-six of Otoliths, the southern winter issue, has just gone live.

Contributions from: John Bloomberg-Rissman & Anne Gorrick, David Appelbaum, paul summers, SJ Fowler, Vaughan Rapatahana, Rico Moore, Kyle Hemmings, Philip Byron Oakes, Clark Lunberry, Arpine Konyalian Grenier, Kent MacCarter, Beni Ransom, Eileen R. Tabios, John M. Bennett, Jim Leftwich & John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Matthew Stolte, Douglas Barbour & Sheila E. Murphy, Richard Kostelanetz, Lakey Comess, James Mc Laughlin, John Thomas Allen, Donna Kuhn, Raymond Farr, Joshua Mostafa, Jo Langton, Elizabeth Welsh, Tony Beyer, Jordon Lofton, Mark Rutter, Eleanor Leonne Bennett, Howie Good, David Jalajel, bárbara mesquita, Jeff Harrison, Jill Jones, Bill Yarrow, Jeremy Freedman, Reed Altemus, Jim Meirose, Matt Margo, Andy Martrich, Tyson Bley, Deborah Poe & Gene Tanta, Andrew Topel, Roger Williams, Jason Joyce, Tom Beckett, Tim Keane, Charles Freeland & Rosaire Appel, Bill Drennan, John Pursch, Caleb Puckett, Matthew Stolte, Marty Hiatt, J.D. Nelson, Stephen Nelson, Marc Jones, Jack Galmitz, Márton Koppány, Francesco Levato, Cherie Hunter Day, Scott Metz, Sarah Edwards, bruno neiva, Keith Higginbotham, Dorothee Lang & Julia Davies, Felino A. Soriano, Emma Morgan, lindsay cahill, Bobbi Lurie, Marco Giovenale, Leah Muddle, Bob Heman, & sean burn.

After numerous interruptions and blockages I've found a way back into Appearances: A Novel in 365 Fragments, completing fragment #101 yesterday.  Fragment #100 was the breakthrough occasion in which a new character was created which should figure importantly in the rest of the book.

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Earlier this week I had lunch and a nice visit with my good friend Jessica Grim.  She's the only poet I know in Ohio who I can talk to about anything and everything.  We only see each other a couple of times a year but the conversation is always easy and seamless--as if there had never been an interruption.  Such friendships are rare for me--and priceless.

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Listening to Keith Jarrett's La Scala cd.

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Received in the mail yesterday:  Captain Poetry's Sucker Punch: A Guide to the Homeric Punkhole, 1980-2012 by Kenneth Warren (BlazeVox, 2012). I know Ken somewhat from the time I was involved in a poetry reading series in Cleveland.  He inscribed my copy of his book thusly:

-for Tom Beckett-
-IN Kent
-IN VISION
-IN IMAGE
-IN SOUL
-IN WATER
7/25/12

 It's an impressive volume of essays, reviews, etc.  The work of a lifetime which I'll be a long time absorbing. And hopefully writing about at some point.  I particularly want to spend some time with his many rich essays and talks on Charles Olson.


I've barely dipped into this book and already I want to recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary poetics.

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The Act of Love, #17

Please tell me,
What is
The act of love?

The Act of Love, #16

The act of love
Cannot be repeated.

The act of love
Cannot be repeated.

The act of love
Cannot be repeated.

The Act of Love,#15

Sometimes the act
Of love is
A blackboard.

Sometimes it is
An eraser.

The Act of Love, #14

The act of love
Qua act of love

Is bounded by
Hallucination and perception.

Just like poetry.

The Act of Love, #13

The act of love
Can almost certainly
Be incoherent.