Reviews of OCHO 15 published by Didi Menendez

The Montserrat Review

Why Do We Hate This President? Let Us Count The Ways

Lally's Alley

This Just In from Drew Gardner

--FRIDAY, 1/18--

I'll be performing at the book release party for the release of
Jackson Mac Low's Thing of Beauty:
From 6:30 - 8:00pm, CUE Art Foundation, 511 West 25th Street, NYC

Readers/performers include Charles Bernstein, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge,
Katie Degentesh, Mitch Highfill, Chris Mason, Joan Retallack, Anne
Tardos

www.cueartfoundation.org


--TUESDAY 1/22--

Drew Gardner's Poetics Orchestra @ The Living Theater

I'll be conducting The Poetics Orchestra, 8:00pm, The Living Theater,
21 Clinton St., NYC

featuring: Gene Cawley, Ty Cumbie, Steve Dalachinsky, Katie
Degentesh, Francois Grillot, James Ilgenfritz, Daniel Nester, Sharon
Mesmer

with: Ty Cumbie's Musetry Project!

http://www.livingtheatre.org/livingmusic.html

Didi Menendez has a blog

Sardines and Orange

Contradicta






Those who always know where they are going are not very interesting when they get there.




***********************



Only that which is freely given can be freely taken.

Toni Simon- the Mipoesias Art Gallery

Free Fall- the Mipoesias Art Gallery

************

Contradicta



Ask your feet to take you where your mind won't go.




******************



Understanding the world and its needs may tell me why I should give; but it is understanding myself and my own needs that tells me why I am able to give.

***********************

Tom Beckett discusses Jean Vengua's new book of poetry Prau

Ron Silliman Reviews OCHO 14

Silliman's Blog

Troy Worman's Outstanding Bloggers List

Troy Worman's Outstanding Bloggers List (Rothacker Reviews)

fait accompli at the university

Portland State University, Department of English, List of Internet Sites

From The Ontological Museum


The Spam Poetry Game

In one of my nocturnal wandering of Yahoo, I came across the following group of spam poems, created from a game I participated in in May of this year, the link for the complete selection above.


Department of Linguistic Records



THE SPAM POETRY GAME
Round Two - 27 Entries!
You'll want to have plenty of time to study this wonderful selection of spam poetry most of which used the same cluster of random words and phrases. Each poet brought their own style and sensibility to the words. Some people offered a number of works and some offered works that seem to have nothing whatsoever to do with the directions for this game. But that's poets for you (or possibly people who cannot read instructions).

BELOW THE RESULTS FROM OUR POETS


Mon 5/7/2007 9:57 PM

First half and last line complete the mirrored stochasticative...

storms ~ emote
reputation ~ radarman
wrong ~ toward
only on the ~ alt no Zerbo
hand grasp ~ spurge avow
love more ~ Ham rag
tempests ~ nonprint
end enemies ~ lament lazy
remember ~ adrenal
there no england ~ brogan an craft
lessen days ~ guff vassal
freedom ~ malevo
however ~ several
customer death ~ Wtoeh rewatow
wrong paradise ~ laborat zonalt

but part of the common ~ runner alt or boy tod

Remainder
[Skillful pilots gain their much my political life, but no who mixes the pleasant with the useful. I have had a lot of there is much error. I never forgive, dignity of any but I always forget. He gains shortcut to life. Law everyone's there is glory approval of, life is a learned. Honesty is a question of right or not a matter of policy. Everyone complains of the badness of his memory, but nobody of his judgment. Malt does more than Milton can to justify to man.]

0!Z!^!P P!^VP
Mon 5/7/2007 10:06 PM

Skillful pilots
enemies that I can remember

part of the Common
is
the hand that does not grasp


God's ways of freedom

the pleasant with the useful.
An apology mixes
shortcut to life

of his memory
love the more


Remainder
reputation from storms and your wrong.? Bah! adversaries in alights only on . The greater the difficulty If you tempests. To the end . There is no of England. lesson imperfectly The bird our days Disgusting! wrong, Cowardly! Beneath the gentleman, however be. Where customer to death, you can't wrong he might go in paradise surmounting it. gain their much my political life, but no who I have had a lot of there is much error. I never forgive, dignity of any but I always forget. He gains shortcut to life. Law everyone's there is glory approval of, life is a learned. Honesty is a question of right or not a matter of policy. Everyone complains of the badness , but nobody of his judgment. Malt does more than Milton can to justify to man.

Jim Piat
Mon 5/7/2007 11:29 PM

apology


I have had
a lot of
skillful
political
pilots
grasp
reputation
from
difficulty

and
there is
England
God's
Law
Honesty
reputation
judgment
glory
life

cowardly
enemies
disgusting
storms
badness
death
freedom
memory
love

I
never
justify
error
but
I always
forget
dignity

life is a
wrong
shortcut
where
the
tempests
end
paradise
imperfectly

beneath
the
gentleman
customer


Bah!
bird

[remainder words]
is part of the Common wrong. An in alights only on the hand that does not grasp. The greater If forgive you t more. end that I can remember. There is no of lesson our days ways however be. to, you can't he might go in surmounting it. gain their much my, but no who mixes pleasant with useful there is much. I never of any but always forget. He to everyone's there is approval of, is a learned. is a question of right or not a matter of. Everyone complains of of his, but nobody of his judgment. Malt does more than Milton can to justify to man

Nick Piombino
Tue 5/8/2007 8:40 AM


Malt does more to Milton
than the policy of England.

God’s reputation mixes
skillful approval of
the cowardly customer with
the law of death.

Everyone alights honesty.
The tempest’s political badness
is surmounting dignity.

A gentleman always
gains adversaries.
To the enemies I can
remember, I hand no apology.
I never forgive you and
your wrong judgment.

A common bird complains
of the error of his memory.

If you love nobody, life
is a disgusting matter.

A lesson of my life:
There is no shortcut
to paradise.

Pilots in storms grasp
the difficulty in life.

Beneath glory, there is only
that question of right or wrong.

He can’t imperfectly forget
that much useful freedom.

Everyone’s end is pleasant,
However wrong he might be.
Bah!

But I go to where man
is to justify his ways.

But who have our days
learned from? There is
the greater part of their gain,
but not much more.

Remainder
An, on, it, the had, lot, any can, not, of, that, of, the, does

Kathy Burkett
Tue 5/8/2007 8:41 AM

[reputation]

reputation from
storms and your wrong. An apo
logy? Bah! adver


[only on the hand]

saries in alights
only on the hand that does
not grasp. The greater


[to the end]

the difficulty
If you love the more tempests.
To the end enem


[ies, there is no england]

ies that I can rem
ember. There is no
of England. lesson imper


[the bird]

fectly The bird our
days God's ways of freedom
Disgusting! wrong, Cow


[beneath the gentleman]

ardly! Beneath the
gentleman, however be.
Where customer to


[death, you can't wrong]

death, you can't wrong he
might go in paradise sur
mounting it. Skillful


[pilots gain their life]

pilots gain their much
my political life, but
no who mixes the


[i have had a lot]

pleasant with the use
ful. I have had a lot of
there is much error.


[i never forgive]

I never forgive,
dignity of any but
I always forget.


[law]

He gains shortcut to
life. Law everyone's there is
glory approval


[honesty is a question]

of, life is a learned.
Honesty is a question
of right or not a


[everyone complains]

matter of polic
y. Everyone complains of
the badness of his


[malt does more]

memory, but no
body of his judgment. Malt
does more than


[the common man]

Milton can to just
ify to man. is part of
the Common



(titles have been [added] but are all taken directly from the text of each haiku from which they are sampled)

Allan Revich http://www.digitalsalon.com

OCHO 14 Now Available on
Kindle
****************
Rod Smith's "Deed" Reviewed in The Nation
A Kind of Waiting Always by Joshua Clover

So Young

Mark Young, who is included in OCHO 14 with four beautiful poems (Genji Monogatatari I-IV), now has a video of his poetry up on The Continental Review

Get the whole story on Mark Young's Gamma Ways

********************

We are proud to announce the publication of OCHO 14, available to order now at

LuLu/OCHO 14

guest edited by Nick Piombino, cover art by Toni Simon. With poetry by

Charles Bernstein
Ray DiPalma
Alan Davies
Elaine Equi
Nada Gordon
Mitch Highfill
Brenda Iijima
Kimberly Lyons
Sharon Mesmer
Tim Peterson
Corinne Robins
Jerome Sala
Gary Sullivan
Mark Young
Nico Vassilakis

Publisher: Menendez Publishing
Copyright: © 2007 OCHO Contributors Standard Copyright License

Paperback book $16.94
Printed: 181 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, black and white interior ink
Description:
OCHO # 14 guest edited by Nick Piombino. Featuring Charles Bernstein, Alan Davies, Ray DiPalma, Elaine Equi, Nada Gordon, Kimberly Lyons, , Mitch Highfill, Brenda Iijima, Sharon Mesmer, Tim Peterson, Corinne Robins, Jerome Sala, Gary Sullivan, Mark Young and Nico Vassilakis. Cover art by Toni Simon.

Go to the LuLu link above to see the cover art, and a preview that includes an introduction to the issue.

The Master's Voice

"Why the work succeeds is because both its discrete as well as its combinatory elements are expressive and not merely 'illustrative'."

Ray DiPalma

*************************************************
Mira Schor

terrific painter and writer, coeditor with Susan Bee of M/E/A/N/I/N/G, author of an excellent book of essays about art titled *Wet* (on painting, feminism and art culture from Duke U), has work in a group show in Williamsburg titled

Air Kissing: An Exhibition Of Contemporary Art About The Art World, curated by Sasha Archibald.

The exhibition is at Momenta Art 359 Bedford Street, between S. 4th and S. 5th, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, through December 17.

Check out Mira Schor's website at:

Mira Schor.com

*

A view of a previous show of MIra Schor's here:

Smack Mellon Studiios
*******************************************************

In January, 2007 someone invited me so I wrote a poem and sent it to Dan Waber a couple of weeks later for his ars poetica website because I liked the idea behind the site. Some time after that I was curious as to why it had not appeared. Dan politely wrote back that he was getting so many submissions that my poem would come out in approximately nine months!

Here is the link for the site (which no doubt most of you have seen, but even if you have, it is certainly worth visiting again): Ars Poetica

and here is the archived link for my poem posted on November 21:
Ars Poetica Archive

Contradicta




Know one thing, say one thing, do one thing well, all goes well, boring as hell.






*************************




A little knowledge is a risky thing, a little chaos is a creative thing, a little chuzpah is everything.

dpqp visualizing poetics- A Little Something About Crag Hill

dbqp-More on Geof and Crag's reading

Although I had met Geof Huth once before, I had never met Crag Hill until hearing him and Geof do this wonderful reading this past Friday evening at the Stain Bar in Williamsburg, Brookyn. Then yesterday I found these terrfic posts by Geof.

****************

The following Sunday, 16 poets read at the EOAGH reading, organized and presented by Tim Peterson at Unnameable Books. Here are some photos Tim Peterson posted on Mappemunde::

Mappemunde- EOAGH reading

Mappemunde-EOAGH reading

Mappemunde

****************

Gregory Vincent St Thomasino did a fine reading for EOAGH at Unnameable Books

Contradicta



It is intelligent to despise stupidity yet even more intelligent to comprehend it.



********


The weak respect cunning more than kindness but the cunning know they are more feared than loved. So in time the cunning get weak from loneliness while the kind grow strong with trust.

***************************

On My Desk


Benjamin Friedlander, "The Missing Occasion of Saying Yes", Subpress
"Many a wounded category drawn
from portraits of a gotten life
has disabused me of the contact high
I dreamt across on ruined nights"

Renee Daumal, "You've Always Been Wrong", University of Nebraska
"Thorughout their histories, India and Tibet have experienced more than any other land a tremendous abundance of attempts to think. And more than any other land their priesthood has always found a way to appropriate all those manifestations of thought and turn them into vehicles for theocratic power."

Crag Hill and Geof Huth, *sightings and hearings*, pdqp (for their Stain Bar reading, 11/16/07)
"Driving above Palouse river on River road, I rode into another time, Around a bend, I ran nto the low-flying path of a blue heron. It flew high enough for us both to miss, then veered into time before human time, This bird, this flight, this river." (Crag Hill)

"Whenever he wrote something on a pad of paper, he saved only the blank sheets filled with vague indentations." (Geof Huth)

Geof Huth, "Out of Character", Paper Kite
(visual poems: letters that walk, dance, move, writhe, write and thrive)

Brenda IIjima, "Animate, Inanimate Aims", Litmus
"Reminiscent search parties
Their shoulders rustle festive streets
Nocturne slow merges in spurs
Suspicion branches around rose bushes
Collective cries mobilize a movement
Kick over inert signs
Mad rough lineage tied to swords"

Jonathan Lethem, "The Disapointment Artist", Doubleday
"I don't think I was autistic, but like an autistic child I wanted the volume turned down. Though consciously thrilled by the adult lives around me, and the odd but definite privilages my commuinion with their variety had bestowed, I was unconciously seeking hiding places."

Nico Vassilakis, "Text Loses Time", ManyPenny
"Writing a history for
each thing you own.
A framed photo of two
friends. Perhaps
Pennsylvania. On the cycling
team. Date unknown. The
objects that follow
you from one living
situation to another.
And what house do you
recall having no door."

Dana Ward, "The Wrong Tree", Dusie
"You should tell everyone swimmingly!
So much it hurts!
Every year a new holiday day!
& that party!
sleepy eyed Rilke in spiritous bangles!
Thinking elliptically rote thoughts about a concession stand!"

EOAGH already!

EOAGH #4


SUNDAY NOVEMBER 18
5 PM at Unnameable Books

A Poetry Reading Celebrating the Launch of
EOAGH: A Journal of the Arts
Issue 4

456 Bergen Street
Brooklyn, NY
FREE

Featuring:
Gilbert Adair
Cara Benson
Joel Chace
James Cook
Alan Davies
Thom Donovan
Joanna Fuhrman
Rebecca Gopoian
Dan Hoy
Sara Marcus
Stephen Paul Miller
Nick Piombino
Tim Peterson
Evelyn Reilly
Edwin Rodriguez
Gregory Vincent St Thomasino
Shelly Taylor
Adam Tobin
Lynn Xu

*****************************************************************

Contradicta





It is intelligent to despise stupidity yet even more intelligent to comprehend it.





********




The weak respect cunning more than kindness but the cunning know they are more feared than loved. So in time the cunning get weak from loneliness while the kind grow strong with trust.

See You This Friday, In Person or in Spirit: Huth & Hill, Stain Bar Brooklyn, 11-16-07

Poets Crag Hill and Geof Huth will give a reading entitled "Sightings & Hearings" at the Stain Bar in Brooklyn, New York, on November 16th. Combining their interest in visual, sound, and even textual poetry, they will read and perform, together and apart, a wide range of works. This will be the first time Hill and Huth have performed together since their performance in March of this year, so don't miss this east coast appearance. If a reading isn't enough encouragement, Stain Bar has a great selection of New-York-only beer and other drinks.

Crag Hill and Geof Huth
Friday, 16 November 2007
6:30 pm
Stain Bar
766 Grand Street
Brooklyn, New York
718/387-7840
To get to Stain Bar, take the L train to Grand and go one block west to 766 Grand Street by the way of Graham Avenue and Humboldt Street.

Bios of the Performers:

Crag Hill has been exploring the world through the prisms of verbal and visual language since his re-birth in the 1970s. Writer of numerous chapbooks and/or other print interventions, including Dict (Xexoxial Endarchy), Another Switch (Norton Coker Press), and Yes James, Yes Joyce (Loose Gravel Press), he has also once edited two magazines, Score and its successor Spore. His latest book, co-edited with Bob Grumman, is Writing to be Seen, the first major anthology of visual poetry in 30 years. He writes frequently about poetry at his blog, Crg Hill's poetry scorecard .

Geof Huth is a writer of textual and visual poetry who has lived on most of the continents on earth. He writes frequently about visual poetry, especially on his weblog, dbqp: visualizing poetics. His chapbooks include "Analphabet," "The Dreams of the Fishwife," "ghostlight," "Peristyle," "To a Small Stream of Water (or Ditch)," and "wreadings." Huth edited &2: an/thology of Pwoermds, the first-ever anthology of one-word poems. His most recent books are a box of pages entitled water vapour and the chapbook, "Out of Character."

Contradicta




To acknowledge your feelings is to sometimes feel unsure. To not know your feelings is to always feel unsure.




*************




To those who can listen, even the melody of sadness lingers.

A Flurry of Furries

Marianne Shaneen's Film-in-Progress on the Furries Featured on

Boing Boing

*******************

Unnameable Secrets/EOAGH Said

Unnameable Books featured in Time Out
Tim Peterson's literary website featured at Adam's Bookshop on November 18

this just in from Adam Tobin

Dear friends of Unnameable Books:

Don't tell anyone, but the editors of Time Out New York have appointed YOUR FAVORITE BOOKSTORE as one of NYC's 50 Essential Secrets. Unnameable Books also made the list. Page 40 of last week's issue features a large and excellent photograph of our secret back wall, in which you can see, too, if your eyes are keen, our secret collection of old issues of Botteghe Oscure (an important international literary journal of the 1940s and 50s). The caption reads, in part, "With a cluttered, top-shelf inventory that could keep you reading great tomes for the next decade, [Unnameable] is a definite
boon to Brooklyn's literati."

The text of the article can be found online at http://www.timeout.com/newyork/article/features/23933/44.html, but the
photograph looks much better on paper. Please find a copy of the magazine, cut out page 40, and wheatpaste it prominently on your front door, or on the side of any major architectural landmark.

There do exist, however, more and larger, more important secrets in the world.

The most immediate of these, concerning our ongoing Sunday afternoon readingseries, regards one SARAH LANG, who has written a book of poetry. The book is called THE WORK OF DAYS, is published by Coach House, and is just out new
now. Here's what Carole Maso says about the book: "With ferocity and tenderness, with and without hope these staggering poems astonish at every turn. One gets up from them changed." But don't trust Carole Maso: come see the poems for yourself, and hear them read aloud, by their very author, THIS SUNDAY at 5 PM, here at Unnameable Books. That's, like, tomorrow. November 11.

THE VERY NEXT SUNDAY -- to wit, the 18th of November -- Unnameable will host a release party for Issue 4 of the internet's premiere unpronouncable literary journal: EOAGH: A JOURNAL OF THE ARTS, edited by the inestimable Tim Peterson, whom we esteem greatly. Various writers will read from their work. This, too, will occur at 5 PM. Previous issues of EOAGH can be found at http://chax.org/eoagh/ , whereat Issue 4 will appear sometime before the release party...

More authors will appear on Sunday afternoons in December at 5 pm: notably, Shelley Jackson on Dec. 9 and the Harp & Altar special on Dec. 2: Lynn Crawford, Johannah Rodgers, and Corey Frost

Yrs.,
Adam


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***

Please do consider ordering your Christmas gifts through Unnameable Books: we can order any book in print, and ship anywhere in the world. And we give a 20% discount for most special orders. Amazon, schmamazon! Send us an
email ( unnameablebooks@earthlink.net ), or call us on the telephone (718 789 1534).

***
***

THE UNNAMEABLE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

Please mark your calendars with a very special symbol. All events are free of charge, but not wheelchair accessible:

***
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 11
5 PM at Unnameable Books
Sarah Lang (THE WORK OF DAYS, Coach House Books)

Sarah Lang was born on a Saturday in the winter of 1980, in Northwestern Canada. In the spring of 2004, she completed her MFA at Brown University. She began work on her PhD in Chicago in the fall of 2005. Her work, which incudes poetry, prose, personal, critical and medical essays, ahs been published in Canada, Great Britain and the United States. She has translated work from Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Ukrainian, Japanese and Mandarin. THE WORK OF DAYS is her first book. She now lives in, and writes about, airports. She intends to orbit the earth before her projected death in 2056. www.arimneste.com / www.theworkofdays.com

***

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 18
5 PM at Unnameable Books

A Poetry Reading Celebrating the Launch of EOAGH: A Journal of the Arts Issue 4

456 Bergen Street
Brooklyn, NY
FREE

Featuring:
Gilbert Adair
Cara Benson
Joel Chace
James Cook
Thom Donovan
Joanna Fuhrman
Dan Hoy
Sara Marcus
Stephen Paul Miller
Nick Piombino
Tim Peterson
Evelyn Reilly
Edwin Rodriguez
Shelly Taylor
Adam Tobin (yes, that's me!)
Lynn Xu

EOAGH Issue 4
Edited by Tim Peterson

will be available at
http://chax.org/eoagh
any day now

***

SUNDAY DECEMBER 2
5 PM at Unnameable Books
Harp & Altar Presents:

Johannah Rodgers
&
Corey Frost
&
Lynn Crawford

LYNN CRAWFORD's books include Simply Separate People and Fortification Resort--from Black Square editions--and Solow and Blow--put out by Hard Press. Her work appears in the anthologies, Fetish (Four Walls Eight Windows), and The Oulipo Compendium (Atlas Press, London). She edits the cultural arts journal, published by Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit,
DETROIT:.

JOHANNAH RODGERS is a writer who lives in Brooklyn. Her chapbook Necessary Fictions was published by Sona Books in 2003, and her short stories and essays have appeared in Fiction, CHAIN Arts , The Brooklyn Rail, Pierogi Press, and Fence. Her book sentences, a collection of stories, essays, and artwork, was published this year by Red Dust Press.

COREY FROST's stories have appeared in Matrix , Geist, The Walrus , and other magazines. He was named the Best Spoken Word Artist in 2001 by the Montreal Mirror . He is currently writing a book about spoken word scenes around the world as part of a doctoral dissertation. A CD of his performances, Bits World: Exciting Version, is forthcoming. His books
include The Worthwhile Flux (2004) and My Own Devices: Airport Version (2006), both published by Conundrum Press.

***

SUNDAY DECEMBER 9
5 PM at Unnameable Books
SHELLEY JACKSON (author of Half Life, The Melancholy of Anatomy, Skin, Patchwork Girl, etc.)

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Unnameable Books
456 Bergen St.
Brooklyn, NY 11217
unnameablebooks@earthlink.net
(718) 789-1534
www.unnameablebooks.net

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