Somalia: Militant Strongholds Captured

* * *

Thousands displaced as fighting flares in Mogadishu

Government forces take control of new bases in Mogadishu

Somalia: pro-government forces and militants engaged in heavy fighting

Newsweek: Famine Devastates Somalia

Thousands protest Al-Shabaab attack

TFG and ANISOM capture key ground in Mogadishu

Suna Times: Somalia report weekly newsletter

* * * *

Jolie-Pitt foundation donates 340k to expand famine victim health services

UNHCR despair at Southern Somalia feuding

Can Somalia's Islamist militants retake Mogadishu?"

* * * *

ICRC begins food distribution in Islamist-controlled areas"

Somali PM says suicide attack shows Al-Shabab 'weakness'

ICRC announces new food distribution in Somalia

* * *

Clooney supports anti-poverty campaign

Somalia bombings point to militants' grim goals

Rescue workers scramble to help victims of truck bombing

Better US response to Somalia famine could fix misperceptions

* * * *

September 28, 2011: The US is setting up two more bases for its Predator and Reaper UAVS, in order to keep an eye on Islamic terror groups in Somalia, ..."

* * * *

Burt Kimmelman interviews Michael Lally

Toni Simon and Nick Piombino read from Stacy Doris' The Cake Part (final version of the video)

* * * *

Video of Alan Davies' inaugural reading at the University of Windsor -he will have a year long residence there

First official statement from the 'Occupy Wall Street' Movement"

Somali famine: taxes contributed to food shortages

* * * *

Can computers replace scientists?

Shirin Neshat: The Fall, a video on the famine in Somalia

75 die of hunger, cholera in Somalia

* * * *


AU forces in Somalia get 3000 troop boost

* * * *

Al shabaab launches offensive in the South

* * * *

From playground to battleground: children on the front in Somalia

* * * *

Time.com: Will we really let 750,000 starve to death?"

* * * *

Done hits in Yemen and Somalia

World must act fast on Somalia
"Lt. Colonel Paddy Ankunda: ON return to Somalia for my second tour of duty in April this year, I did notice one basic truth; much had changed. I had been to Somalia in 2007 as part of the first Ugandan Battle Group of 1,600 soldiers. At that time, we had a vague idea on how we would go about supporting the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) largely based in Nairobi and Jowhar"...

Somalia: Statement to the human rights council

* * *

President Sharif calls for Somaliland to to be united with country

UN reports gains in fight against Somalia's famine

* * * *

Knaan returns to Somalia after 20 years

Famine claims 66 lives in Somalia

* * * *

NGOs to world: put lives before politics in Somalia

* * * *

Kal Penn: It's time to ignore the paralyzing cynicism and get engaged

Prime Minister of Somalia's statement: General Debate of the 66th Session of the United Nations General Assembly

* * * *

China pledges more support to relieve African food crisis

* * * *

The long arms of al Qaeda

World Bank bolsters aid to famine struck horn of africa

* * * *

Fighter planes are to target Al-shabaab leaders

* * * *

Recent gains provide hope to advance Somali peace process

Somalia's future debated at the UN

Expanding network of drone bases to hit Somalia, Yemen"

Q & A with the prime minister of Somalia: A troubled country seeks help

* * * *

Somali rebels send thousands back into famine zone

* * * *

'We will suppress Al-Shabaab soon', says Somali army

Join the American Federation of Teachers in alleviating children's famine in Somalia

US expanding network of drone bases to hit Somalia and Yemen

* * *

Somalia deaths to spiral, agencies warn

* * *

Somalia, lives before politics

USAID: 'Somalia must stop standing in the way of aid'

* * * *

Lindhout wants to help Somalia

* * * *

Somalia's Al-Shebab gives weapons prize to children

Somalia PM speaks at University at Buffalo

Turkish aid reaches Somalia despite obstacles

Somalia: Growing Number of Lives at Risk

Somalia PM meets top officials in Washington

* * * *

Galkayo mayor warns about "targeted' killings of intellectuals and community leaders

White House Weights LImits of Terror Fight

Somalia: Tenuous Peace Brings Hope

General warns of terror collaboration in Africa

* * *

Two Degrees Food™ Partners With Relief International to Launch National Famine Relief Campaign"

* * *

Somalia through a mother's eyes

* * *

Stigmatized, misunderstood and shackled in Somalia

* * *

Somalia: A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis: ABC News video

Studying Hunger Journals by Bernadette Mayer- Station Hill Press, 2011

Jonathan Skinner- Mayer's Walden

Two or three strange convergences: one, that I obtained my copy of Bernadette Mayer's masterful Studying Hunger Journals on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and after I've been focussing for several weeks here on the frightening famine in Somalia, and also on the same day that I obtained Pierre Joris' astounding translation of Paul Celan's "The Meridian: Speech on the Occasion of receiving the George Buchner prize, October 22, 1960".

It is well worth reading Skinner's enthusiastic paper. For me, Bernadette Mayer's book Studying Hunger published in 1975 is a landmark in my appreciation and understanding of what is possible in the realm of the poetic study of consciousness, as was her previous book Moving, published by Angel Hair in 1971. Even though the books were 30 pages and 71 pages long respectively, I thought of them as epic in scope. However, I had no idea that the Studying Hunger Journals was literally an epic at 456 pages long. I am baffled, and in a sense, sorrowful that such an important book took so long to be published, but at least now it is available as is the author to be around to see it in the world, and to be asked about it and see it discussed. I am excitedly looking forward to reading it closely, and hopefully reporting back here as to my thoughts about this amazing, this crucial and most important literary contribution.

* * * *

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
— Edward R. Murrow

Blowback and US Government Policy in Somalia

* * * *

Somalia's worsening famine - NY Times editorial 9/12/11


* * * *

Turkish delegation visits Mogadishu, Somalia

George Lakoff:The use of 9/11 to consolidate conservative power: Intimidation via framing

Jordan sends relief aid to Somalia

* * *

AU peacekeepers foil bomb plot in Mogadishu camp

Somali PM urges more military support

A London teacher takes up his job as Somalia's deputy prime minister

* * * *

Somalia famine relief held at gunpoint

Oman plans 'air relief corridor' to Somalia

* * * *

Somali pirates free Danish crew

Hundreds are dying daily in Somalia as famine spreads

* * *

Getting aid to conflict affected Somalia is difficult but not impossible

* * *

Key regional state refuses Mogadishu talks

* * *

A reality check on Somalia

On Somalia Street Instanbul African Migrants Seek a New Life

Gulf News: Easing access of aid to Somalia

UN Sponsored Reconciliation Talks to Open In Somalia

Charity aid groups are misleading the public on Somalia

Fighting in Somalia'a Puntland kills at least 27

Famine in Somalia- a man-made crisis

UN to airlift aid into Somalia

Somalia: Stop Unfair Trials, Executions

Journalist killed in shooting attack in Somali capital

War and corruption are responsible for famines, not droughts

For refugees the price of dignity

UN Renews Somalia Famine Warning

* * * *

Only a quarter of drought money goes to Somalia

* * * *

East Africa Refugees Get Cash Handouts

KENYA-SOMALIA: Border town feels the refugee pressure

World Food Program works to save lives in East Africa

Ending Famine in East Africa [Japan Times]

Coontradicta




There is little you haven't experienced often, at least indirectly, less as you grow older. Still, it's better to be surprised than cynical.


* * *


You are all a list generation

US Set to announce 100 million in aid to Somalia

Aid for Somalia must not become pawn in US game

* * * *

Over SR 200m raised in Somalia Telethon

CNN World: How to end Somalia's famine and weaken the insurgents

* * * *

Iranian Foreign Minister Visits Famine Hit Areas in Somalia

* * * *

Children of Somalia's Famine Flood Hospital

* * * *

East Africa, Eritrea and the Relief Effort in Somalia

Somalia: The Wealthy Group Thrives On Starving Population

China donates 16 million dollars to famine stricken Somalia

Famine in Somalia Could Spread to Entire Region

* * * *

JTA: Jews Must REspond to the Crisis in Somalia

* * * *
K'naan opens his heart to Somali famine victiims

* * * *

"Somalia must become a priority"- Red Cross

* * * *

NGO's face delivery nightmare in Somalia

Famine in Somalia: Was it always like this?"

Argotist Online Free Ebooks

* * * * *

The new ebook from Argotist online is Apertures by Rob McLennan

U.N.: 300, 000 children "at risk of dying" in Somalia

* * * *

Action Against Hunger

UK Delegation arrives in Mogadishu to assess famine situation in Somalia

"Kids are definitely starving" says NW worker in Somalia

* * * *

Somalia/Somaliland on the internet

Organization of Islamic Cooperation Pledges $350 million to Somalia at Turkey Summit

* * * *

Wikipedia: Organization of Islamic Cooperation

* * * *

Communities Try To Aid Africa Relief Efforts
* * * *

Somalia

"There are no railways in Somalia; internal transportation is limited to truck and bus. The national road system nominally comprises 22,100 kilometers (13,702 mi.) of roads that include about 2,600 kilometers (1,612 mi.) of all-weather roads, although most roads have received little maintenance for years and have seriously deteriorated.

Air transportation is provided by small air charter firms. A number of airlines operate from Hargeisa. Some private airlines, including Daallo Airlines, serve several domestic locations as well as Djibouti and the United Arab Emirates. The UN and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operate air service for their missions.

The European Community and the World Bank jointly financed construction of a deepwater port at Mogadishu. The Soviet Union improved Somalia's deepwater port at Berbera in 1969. Facilities at Berbera were further improved by a U.S. military construction program completed in 1985, but they have since become dilapidated. During the 1990s the United States renovated a deepwater port at Kismayo that serves the fertile Juba River basin and is vital to Somalia's banana export industry. Smaller ports are located at Merca, Brava, and Bossaso. Absence of security and lack of maintenance and improvement are major issues at most Somali ports".

LIngering al-Shebab Influence Obstructs Somali Famine Relief

* * * *


Open Letter from Somali Ambassador Mohamed Ali Nur

* * * *

From Abukar Arman- Somlia's Envoy to the United States (Huffington Post)

Starving in Somalia

NY Times, Friday August 12

* * *

Action Against Hunger

* * *

Action Against Hunger received top charity navigator rating- for the fifth straight year

Three On Translation- Serge Gavronsky (includes new translations of Francis Ponge)

(via wood s lot)

* * * *

Wikipedia: Horn of Africa Famine

"The famine was declared in response to new data from the UN's food security and nutrition analysis unit.[43][14] This is the first time the UN has declared a famine since the 1984–1985 famine in Ethiopia, when over a million people died.[5] Under international law, there is no mandated response which must follow from an official declaration of famine. However, it is hoped that the use of the term will serve as a "wake-up call" to the rest of the world, who have so far failed to respond.[5]"

* * * *

Action against Hunger (in East Africa)

"(Action Against Hunger is a registered 501(c)(3) organization and receives top ratings from key charity rating agencies Charity Navigator (receiving a 4-star rating), Independent Charities of America, Guidestar, and receives an "A" rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy. Donations to Action Against Hunger are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law.)"

Contradicta




Tea party poetics: "read my lips- no new parataxis."


* * *


Poetry: it's a question of mind over mutter

TONI SIMON will be reading at 4 PM at the Boog City Festival (Unnameable Books) from her forthcoming illustrated book Earth after Earth from Lunar Chandelier Press

SATURDAY AUGUST 6,
11:30 A.M.-9:00 P.M.

Unnameable Books
600 Vanderbilt Ave.
Brooklyn

Free

8th Annual Small, Small Press Fair

Beginning with readings from authors of the exhibiting presses

12:00 p.m. Evie Shockley, Belladonna
12:10 p.m. Leigh Stein, Bone Bouquet
12:20 p.m. Cariah Lily Rosberg, Don’s Saddles and East Egg Press
12:30 p.m. Magus Magnus, Furniture Press
12:40 p.m. Helen Vitoria, Gigantic Sequins
12:50 p.m. Brenda Iijima, Least Weasel Chapbooks @ Propolis Press
1:00 p.m. Stephanie Gray, Litmus Press/Aufgabe
1:10 p.m. Joe Elliot, Lunar Chandelier
1:20 p.m. Ronna Lebo, Off the Park Press
1:30 p.m. Damian Weber (music)
1:50 p.m. Break

2:00 p.m. J. Hope Stein, Ping Pong
2:10 p.m. Tantra-zawadi, Poets Wear Prada
2:20 p.m. Lydia Cortes, Straw Gate Books
2:25 p.m. Dorothy Friedman August, White Rabbit zine
2:30 p.m. Emily Skillings, Stonecutter Journal
2:40 p.m. Lawrence Giffin, Tea Party Republicans Press
2:50 p.m. Ron Horning, Vanitas magazine and Libellum Books

3:00 p.m. Break

-----------------

3:10 p.m. Rebecca Satellite (music)
3:40 p.m. Paul Foster Johnson
3:50 p.m. Austin LaGrone
4:00 p.m. Toni Simon
4:10 p.m. Will Edmiston
4:20 p.m. Kimberly Lyons
4:30 p.m. Christine Hamm
4:40 p.m. Vyt Bakaitis
4:50 p.m. Martha King
5:00 p.m. Debrah Morkun
5:15 p.m. John Mulrooney
5:30 p.m. Justin Remer (music)

6:00 p.m. Break

6:10 p.m. Joanna Penn Cooper
6:20 p.m. Franklin Bruno
6:30 p.m. Tanya Larkin
6:45 p.m. Emily Einhorn (music)
7:15 p.m. Mary Austin Speaker
7:25 p.m. Jean-Paul Pecqueur
7:35 p.m. Jesse Seldess
7:45 p.m. Douglas Piccininni


Directions: 2, 3 to Grand Army Plaza,
C to Clinton-Washington avenues, Q to 7th Ave.
Venue is bet. Prospect Pl./St. Marks Ave.

* * * * * *

CHARLES BORKHUIS’ new one-act play “FLIPPER” will be presented

as part of the 2011 BOOG POETS’ THEATER FESTIVAL



Sunday, August 7 at 5:45 P.M.

at the ZINC BAR

82 W. 3rd St., NYC (btwn. Sullivan & Thompson Sts.)



FLIPPER

by Charles Borkhuis

directed by Chris Mirto

featuring Chandler Wild and Jason Martin

* * * * *

The new book from Argotist Online is

Fib Sequence by Larissa Shmailo

* * * * *

New and Selected Poems by Charles North

* * * * *

The Enormous Chorus by Frank Kuenstler

* * * *

Lens by Frank Kuenstler (Complete Book Online)_
Lens-sample page

The new book from Argotist online is A House in Summer- poetry by Maxine Chernoff

* * * * *


TONI SIMON will be reading at 4 PM at the Boog City Festival (Unnameable Books) from her forthcoming illustrated book Earth after Earth from Lunar Chandelier Press

SATURDAY AUGUST 6,
11:30 A.M.-9:00 P.M.

Unnameable Books
600 Vanderbilt Ave.
Brooklyn

Free

8th Annual Small, Small Press Fair

Beginning with readings from authors of the exhibiting presses

12:00 p.m. Evie Shockley, Belladonna
12:10 p.m. Leigh Stein, Bone Bouquet
12:20 p.m. Cariah Lily Rosberg, Don’s Saddles and East Egg Press
12:30 p.m. Magus Magnus, Furniture Press
12:40 p.m. Helen Vitoria, Gigantic Sequins
12:50 p.m. Brenda Iijima, Least Weasel Chapbooks @ Propolis Press
1:00 p.m. Stephanie Gray, Litmus Press/Aufgabe
1:10 p.m. Joe Elliot, Lunar Chandelier
1:20 p.m. Ronna Lebo, Off the Park Press
1:30 p.m. Damian Weber (music)
1:50 p.m. Break

2:00 p.m. J. Hope Stein, Ping Pong
2:10 p.m. Tantra-zawadi, Poets Wear Prada
2:20 p.m. Lydia Cortes, Straw Gate Books
2:25 p.m. Dorothy Friedman August, White Rabbit zine
2:30 p.m. Emily Skillings, Stonecutter Journal
2:40 p.m. Lawrence Giffin, Tea Party Republicans Press
2:50 p.m. Ron Horning, Vanitas magazine and Libellum Books

3:00 p.m. Break

-----------------

3:10 p.m. Rebecca Satellite (music)
3:40 p.m. Paul Foster Johnson
3:50 p.m. Austin LaGrone
4:00 p.m. Toni Simon
4:10 p.m. Will Edmiston
4:20 p.m. Kimberly Lyons
4:30 p.m. Christine Hamm
4:40 p.m. Vyt Bakaitis
4:50 p.m. Martha King
5:00 p.m. Debrah Morkun
5:15 p.m. John Mulrooney
5:30 p.m. Justin Remer (music)

6:00 p.m. Break

6:10 p.m. Joanna Penn Cooper
6:20 p.m. Franklin Bruno
6:30 p.m. Tanya Larkin
6:45 p.m. Emily Einhorn (music)
7:15 p.m. Mary Austin Speaker
7:25 p.m. Jean-Paul Pecqueur
7:35 p.m. Jesse Seldess
7:45 p.m. Douglas Piccininni


Directions: 2, 3 to Grand Army Plaza,
C to Clinton-Washington avenues, Q to 7th Ave.
Venue is bet. Prospect Pl./St. Marks Ave.

* * * * * *

CHARLES BORKHUIS’ new one-act play “FLIPPER” will be presented

as part of the 2011 BOOG POETS’ THEATER FESTIVAL



Sunday, August 7 at 5:45 P.M.

at the ZINC BAR

82 W. 3rd St., NYC (btwn. Sullivan & Thompson Sts.)



FLIPPER

by Charles Borkhuis

directed by Chris Mirto

featuring Chandler Wild and Jason Martin

* * * * *

An Interview with Heriberto Ypez

Remembering Peter Seaton

Charles Bernstein is hard at work assembling all the known ms of Peter Seaton and all of his published works. Today he posted a bio of Peter Seaton and, kindly, a brief biographical sketch that I provided when he asked me some details concerning Peter.

Jacket 2

* * * *

The new ebook from Argotist Online is Mother Earth by Adam Fieled

The new ebook from Argotist online is Country Without A Name by Ann Bogle

Of “Country Without a Name”, Morgan Harlow writes: ‘Ann Bogle’s latest collection of memoir fiction, is a sequence of thoughts, dreams and conversations. Here white petunias are cut with scissors to make a name, values are placed as if they were tarot cards, and approximations of the sublime are revealed in mathematical detail. “Country Without a Name” recalls the work of Dada poet Tristan Tzara (whose name means “country” in Romanian) and the semi-autobiographical pharmaceutical quests and cut-up text collages of William S. Burroughs. Bogle rebels, defines and ultimately defies hierarchies. Her writing, manifesto-like, hints at what might have been learned from Andre Breton’s Nadja if we had been given her diary to read, along with the idea that non-being dwells in language the same as being does, or in Bogle’s words: ‘Not to be she is embodied’.

The new ebook from Argotist online is Harmonium by Don Share

Don Share is the senior editor of Poetry magazine, His blog isSquandermania

* * * * *

Complete Catalogue: Argotist Online Ebooks

* * * * *

Alain Badiou on You Tube: Beyond Positivism and Nihilism 2010

Getting to know Drew Gardner

* * * *

Drew Gardner on Rod Smith's New Poem, Conceptual Poetry and Flarfl

The new ebook from Argotist online is Respondings

“Respondings” is the second collection of poet Martin Stannard's reviews and writings about writing, this time selected from pieces published between 2004 and 2007. Often controversial and brutally honest, and never courting popularity, Stannard continues to question poets, poetry and himself in an effort to find out whatever there may be to find out. Stannard's writing has often been called "witty and outspoken". Others have just said it's really clever and funny. It's always interesting.

* * * * *

Gently Read Literature: July issue

The Poet’s Theater of Fiona Templeton: An Environmental View:
James Sherry

* * * * *

Esque

Contradicta

We've forgotten the endless, arid stretches of boredom in childhood that were replaced by an insatiable hunger for regard in later life.


* * *


When the strong feel deterred by kindness they become cruel; when the kind encounter cruelty they become compassionate. You know the rest.


* * * * *

An Interview with Christian Bok

* * * * *

Rae Armantrout interviewed by Amy King on the Argotist Online

* * * * *

Lyn Behrendt collages


* * * * *

Century of the Self [thanks to Nico Vassilakis for the link]

Poem in the Manner of John Edwards (Louise Mathias)

* * * *

Charles Bernstein interview with Adam Fitzgerald in The Brooklyn Rail

Charles Bernstein's Attack of the Difficult Poems Book Party AIR Gallery June 11

The New Ebook from Argotist Online is

Periods by Joel Chace. [Download free from LuLu]

The Incovenient Truth Behind Waiting For Superman (Huffpost Education)

* * * *

Birthday Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan at 70

Squandermania and other foibles: Gary Sullivan's Ten Years in a Quandary and How Fl...

Squandermania and other foibles: Gary Sullivan's Ten Years in a Quandary and How Fl...: "To this day, wherever I meet Poetry readers they want to talk to me about flarf and what I think about it. Amazing. Well, Gary Sullivan..."

Books Received

Easter Halloween (Steve McLauglin), Infinite Unexplored Domain of Poetic Values, Principal Hand Editions, Philadelphia, 2011

"My life is like a/ little language, the only/thing listening,/ I have thought my audience./
Come on my little life-giver,/give your life, If this/should hot suffice, I ask/ what is the criteria?"....

"As the sad cliche goes,/broke writers/sell books to get by/And me? So broken, and not even a writer-/When I sell my books/I hope it is an act of pure/unrewarding/mortification"

[Steve McLaughlin explained to me after his reading at The Bowery Poetry Club this past Saturday that the poems in this, his first book, are parodies based on a character in a recent play he appeared in, thus the nom de plume "Easter Holloween",]

* *

A/small/magazine/in the form/of an/unbound sheaf,/assembled in the/spring of 2010/and reprinted in May 2011/for the occasion of/Steve McLaughlin's/Segue reading in New York City/(with the addition of an excerpt from his forthcoming book)

Includes work by Kareem Estefan, Cecelia Corrigan, Alejandro Crawford, Artie Verkrant,Astrid Lorange, Steven Zultanski, Diana Sue Hamilton,Eddie Hopely,Matthew Abess, Easter Halloween, J Gordon Faylor,Jarrod Fowler,Lawrence Giffin, Phillip Dmochowski, Sara Wintz,Joseph Kaplan, Vladimir Zykov,Patrick Lovelace, Stephen McLoughlin

"The appropriation of pre-textual material in conceptual writing- most often Google searches, text messages and so-called "status updates" or "tweets"- has always included two contradictory dimensions: a dimension of exploitation and a dimension of participation. These two dimensions are perversely confused in conceptualisms like Flarf, which explains most audiences' indifference, at the end of a reading, to both pure appropriation- which denies the hope of individual and collective agency- and the managerial lyric- which shrugs off the exploitation of the market economy"
Kareem Estefan

"Then a plant which tells me to do things, people/What people? you aren't, though./The smelly exotic plant is a tongue with tongue firmly planted in cheek./Even if you think you're superior. Even if you think I'm superior./Sometimes, it (the plant)makes funny sounds./Even if you think I'm superior/Threatening but it's just part of all the other plants in the store./A small cast, band, and unit set, all the other plants./That's why I love you (feed me)/Like it will help my neurosis/Selfish, selfish Seymour. It can't actually touch me./They don't even know who I am seriously./....I'm not sure. Back to little feed me. It will help my neurosis./The singular neurosis is a symptom itself, but the only way it can/actually be threatening is by forcing you to feed people to it/And it's not even actually forcing you./...."
Cecelia Corrigan: from Shop o' (for Gregory Laynor)

Two New Books Employing Hypnogogic Processes of Writing

* * * *

Bernadette Mayer explained at her reading at the Bowery Poetry Project yesterday that she has been employing hypnogogic processes of writing, using lines halfway between waking and sleeping. One of her new books was available at the reading. (The other one, also very exciting to hear about is the complete Studying Hunger journals


Bernadette Mayer: Ethics of Sleep

Trembling Pillow Press, New Orleans, LA 2011

"if you want to write/be polite as an angel/& move the table/gently toward the pen/then ask/an implied question/of the subject/the relation/the figure/for instance/you could say/'You expect so little'"
* * * *

Laynie Browne also read from two new books, (one of which was based on Bernadette Mayer's classic The Desire of Mothers to Please Others in Letters) titled The Desire of Letters (Counterpath 2010). The other books she read from was Roseate Points of Gold (Dusie, 2011)

"A basket of thought is internal/tempting the inner dawn/Neither this thought nor the movement entailed by mirror's/gravity contain solidity/Both dissolve by approach"

* * * *

Michael Ruby: Voices Heard Before Sleep (Argotist Online Free E-Book)

* * * *

Susan Bee Show Opening Soon at the Air Gallery

Susan Bee (and others) at the Air Gallery Susan Bee--Stephanie Bernheim--Senzen Marasela

Contradicta readings on Penn Sound

The two most recent Contradicta readings, at the Bowery Poetry Club and the Poetry Project, are available now on Penn Sound (Jan 19 and April 30)

* * * *

Scarlatti Sonata in F Mnor k 466

Contradicta


Our suffering could teach us everything we might want or need to know but our minds withdraw from it as quickly as fingers from a flame.



* * *


We often believe that for knowledge to exist it must be asserted; yet there is a world of unarticulated experience that thrives nonetheless.

Katie Couric kicking back with Charles Bernstein's Attack of the Difficult Poems

Otoliths Issue #21

* * * * *

Boston Review: An Interview with John Ashbery

The Anatomy of Influence: An Interview with Harold Bloom (Boston Review)

The Grand Piano: A Collective Autobiography

"Among the thousand or more simultaneous voices of the chorus, only two are heard."

Cesar Vallejo
Against Professional Secrets


Saturday's reading at Poet's House included 8 of the ten poets who have been working on the ten volume experiment in "collective autobiography" since 2006 realizes perfectly the kind of literary experience this blog was dedicated to exploring when it was opened in 2003, which was, as I somewhat lightly called it, time travel (my idea of time travel intended to synchronistically reconnect the present and the past). The two poets who were unable to come were Rae Armantrout and Lyn Hejinian. Towards the end of the presentation Ron Silliiman talked about the fact that this group has kept in touch, and that these books represent one expression of the relationships that have continued among the West Coast language group poets over a period of 35 years. Tom Mandel mentioned the importance of digital technology in making this collaboration possible, and then Ron mentioned another Language Poetry collaboration of many years ago titled Legend that was composed entirely through the mail. Although I am not a literary historian I tend to think that this 35 year span as historically unprecedented. As I listened to the beautifully orchestrated reading (at one point Ted Pearson showed the musical chart he had constructed to lay out the parts) my mind kept criss-crossing over the years that I have known and have been reading the work of each of these poets. As Ron Silliman once put it, language poetry was a moment, not a movement. But when you consider the significance of Sarah Palin announcing today in Wisconsin as a victory the recent decision in Wisconsin to deny the right of union collective bargaining and what that decision means for the Tea Party, and the horrific reality this represents for our country, you realize just how important the solidarity of this group of poets (and their Eastern friends and cohorts, including Charles Bernstein, Bruce Andrews, MIchael Gottlieb, Erica Hunt, Andrew Levy, Lee Ann Brown, Pierre Joris, Susan Bee, Francie Shaw, Joel Lewis, Burt Kimmelman, Lynn Behrendt, Marc Nasdor, Nada Gordon, Star Black, Kimberly Lyons,Toni Simon and Larry Price, who were in the audience) is to our culture. It was in this spirit that I listened to the voices of Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Tom Mandel, Ted Pearson, Bob Perelman, Kit Robinson, Ron Silliman and Barrett Watten sing out their experiences and ideas in the hall at Poets House. Also, as I listened, I realized how much I have taken for granted over the years having to do with the group of poets I chose to identify my work with since beginning to write for L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E in 1978, and even before that as I excitedly and eagerly read the issues of This that Barrett Watten edited in the 70's as they were published, and the Tuumba series of chapbooks edited by Lyn Hejinian, among them one of my favorite works of Charles Bernstein, Senses of Responsibility. During the panel discussion there was some conversation about the "differences" that emerged in the group about the structuring of the collective autobiography and it brought to my mind the whole issue of differences that take place between friends and poets in the course of the years. But these differences should challenge us to not lose sight of the more significant total picture. And that makes it all the more moving and admirable that this group, brought together by Barrett Watten, could compose a ten volume work together some 30 years after the first connections among them as illustrated by the original talks at the Grand Piano. After the presentation I talked briefly with Barrett who- perhaps jokingly- asked me if I had any thoughts about the "psychodynamics" of the presentation. But I answered him seriously to say that one of the things that most excited me was to be brought back to remember how important the idea of transcending the self was for me in the mid to late 70's, especially following my experience of the 60's, and how the poetics of the language group at that time was consciously set in firm opposition to what I would now identify as literary and artistic narcissism. I didn't get a chance to tell him that I have just completed an article that is partly on the topic of artistic narcissism to be published in a psychoanalytic journal. This five year experiment in literary collaboration illustrates exactly how writers as part of a literary movement can work together to try to avoid the worst pitfalls of artistic grandiosity. And, ok, I understand artists and writers have to have some of that in the tank to add some pizzazz, but lets face it, too much will doubtlessly clog the engine and blind the driver to the other cars on the road.

I for one am eagerly looking foward to delving much more deeply into these volumes (I have read many of the pieces in them, but in, as I see now, an unfocussed way), and as I read them all the more carefully, I know I am going to enjoy the process of using this time to renew my appreciation for the roots and branches of a movement that has enriched my personal and literary life so much. The link for the Grand Piano volumes above includes recordings of some of the earlier readings of the collective autobiography.

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Lawrence Schwartzwald Photos at Poets House 4/16/11

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Star Black Photos at Poets House 4/16/11

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