Distribution Automatique

Saturday, June 23

On My Desk

*the tiny*, issue 3, edited by Gina Myers and Gabriella Torres. Contact thetiny@gmail.com
[Additional info on ordering *the tiny* from paypal at the end of today's post-plus list of contributors, upcoming reading &&
the tiny]


The third issue of this popular and admired poetry journal features a cover by Andrew Mister (issues 1 and 2 featured covers by James Meetz and David Shapiro). This one isn't tiny, in fact it is the largest issue yet, 159 pages with about 50 contributors. Interspersed among the poems by poets who are decidedly not the "usual suspects", at least in the lineups I am used to looking at, are a few quite witty and lively essays and interviews about writing and the poetry scene, made all the more appealing by coming from voices not so often heard before. Given all this, *fait acccompli* is extremely honored to announce that a selection of our *contradicta* is here handsomely included in a poetry magazine for the first time.

from *P(r)etty Sonnets* by Anthony Hawley:

"XVL

they came swaggering, not knowing just how fast
i wish I could write what was said
caterpillar, junebug towards the graveled surface
of every article in the closet
are there any coats like a dalmatian's
bandonian in the desert we are lost each other in
oh cabelleros
when will it be done
when the laundry
seedpods whirled to give the impression of having whorls"

from Mike Hauser and Dustin Williamson *Talking Shop*

"MH: I do think that to write poetry (assuming one has spent time reading and processing the poetry of others) is to create a piece of culture. Speaking anthropo-something- ly the instinct to share would have come with the act of creating then, right? Not that I want to show you everything I write. That's not necessarily what creating an audience means. To me it's sort of like giving something to another person as a gift, so it exists as an entity apart from your own peception of it. But still part of your "receipts for existence."....And maybe then, paradoxically there has to be some level of isolation. I remember a Phillip Whalen poem (I think one to Bill Berkson) where he is basically saying how there are so many people around that one can't get anything done. But that's funcitionalty, or the lack thereof when one is surrounded by distractions. I mean a sort of maybe self-imposed isolation. Maybe an isolation that the poem imposes on itself."

from Jill Magi *My Penelope/Uraveling as Writing (notes on recent writings and visual works)*

"Even poetry drafts become too stable as I open up the computer document, noticing that it already resembles a printed page. Again, I thnk of H.D."....I know, I feel/the meaning that words hide...." When language is too much, I want something to actually touch and reshape. So I push old, nearly discarded book pages and maps away from their bindings and frames, arranging the markers of the written word into something illegible, visual. Noticeably incomplete, with signs of wear and tear, personal use, and distress."

from Kristy Bowen, *In the night theatre*

"there are far too many entrances
and exits. The girls who love
black shoes and vodka come and go
in the blue light, hiking up their skirts
and running their fingers along the edge
of the butter dish.They are easily subdued,
seduced by surgical pins and bottle glass.
Now we'd call them *nervy, a piece*"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Gary Sullivan, *elsewhere* no. 3, $3.95 contact garypsullivan@gmail.com

Whap! Blam! Smash! This is the greatest issue yet in this terrific series of comics by the man who is bringing contemporary poetry and poetry culture the kind of humor it has long been desperately in need of. This issue features a selection from Gary's ongoing comic *The New Life* which has been appearing for ten years in *Rain Taxi Review of Books*. The mag opens with a useful and able introduction by Eric Lorberer, the editor of Rain Taxi. Included are comic potraits of such greats as Keats, Bernadette Mayer, Diane Di Prima, Paul Blackburn, WCW, Jackson Mac Low, and Robert Creeley. Less known geniuses are also featured in cameos, such as Jerome Sala, Rodney Koeneke, Sheila Murphy, Drew Gardner and Ernst Herbeck, I luciously enjoyed and laughed at loud reading the histories and spoofs of flarf, the language school and possibly most of all the saga of *Swoon*, Gary's legendary courtship of contemporary poetry'superstar Nada Gordon, who on Gary's pages emerges as a glamorous and zany composite of, let us say, Gracie Allen and Marlene Dietrich. There are serious strips too, including those on 9/11 and the bombing of Iraq. In these timely comics, which transcend into the timeless zone that Mallarme termied "pure poetry", Gary combines a razor edged observational wit with huge humanity and affectionate humor, a rare combination in an era where comedy swings wildly between, let us say, the ham and the hamster. And finally, frankly, I advise you to quickly buy this issue. It is incredibly collectible.

more...Gary Sullivan's play *Mozart and Salieri*, and a play by Simon Pettet are being performed this weekend at Medicine Show. Check Elsewhere; also paypal info for *Elsewhere #3*


<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Yesterday evening John Coletti (who, by the way opens the issue of *the tiny* discussed above ("i miss you with tomatoes/over your eyes tatooed valentines/on your trachea zippering/each of my ungainly comments"), (and who, I am told, is the new editor of the PP Newsletter-something tells me he will be great at this- as were, say, Jerome Sala and Nada and Gary- I already want to get some stuff in there) read with Simon Pettet. Coletti, of course, is not the first poet to appear to be inhabited by the spirit of Ted Berrigan (Anselm, the former and now retired head of the Project for many years, was present)-did we also feel the presence of the ghost of Jim Brody, I heard it whispered? Who cares, he immediately won me over by talking affectionately about his three times a week therapy, and seemed to admire his therapist, who apparently insisted that JC talk about his reading, much to the poet's chagrin. Anyway, I like the guy fine, as apparently do many others, to wit the packed house at the BPC. But let's face it, the star of the show was Simon Pettet whose reading mesmerized me. And although I am a long standing denizen and citizen of the L=A school of poetry, I cut my poetic teeth in two workshops given by Ted Berrigan and one by Bernadette Mayer. I will not say I escaped unscathed, but I will admit I beamed throughout this reading lit up inside with tons of nostalgia. This was boosted by the presence in the room of the likes of Michael Lally, Marshall Reese and Nora Ligorano, and Basil and Martha King. Simon read from his lovely *Selected Poetry* and his latest contribution, *More Winnowed Fragments*. Simon gets away marvelously with reading his poems twice, and, as I said to him afterwards, you listen to 'em the first time but you feel 'em the second. Simon claims his poems are eternal and no doubt his instinct is correct. He's loveable and generous and as addictive and sweet as Haagen Daz in the summertime.

"EVERGREEN

I come to you
as an eternal person

and tho' I am loathe to go

Here is the calling card of my
immense proximity

and here is *your* calling card

and here is a pine cone

so redolent

You left it
over at my place"

(Selected Poems, Talisman House)


**

"There is a cruel, messianic, dim, tribal instransigence

That gains you nothing.

There is a bull-headed childish baby-tantrum

That can unleash untold consequences

I am appalled by the darkening of the sky"

*More Winnowed Fragments*, Talsman House

**


more...Michael Lally reviews the reading on lally's alley

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Fuhgetaboud a Condo, Buy some Property on The Moon!

Lunar Luxury

*If you lived here, you'd be home by now"
A lunar development from Eldritch Brothers, a Palmer Subsidiary
by Ligorano/Reese 2007

The New Moon
"the odyssey is just beginning
for the discerning few,
who yearn to leave the Earth Behind...."


"If you lived here, you'd be home by now," DVD, 2007

Keep the Change

curated by Meridith McNeal
Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation

Nathan Cummings Foundation
475 Tenth Avenue, 14th Floor
New York, New York 10018

June 21, 2007 - September 14, 2007

Opening Thursday, June 28, 2007, 6- 8 PM

RSVP for this event by Monday, June 25

tel 646 485-1284

AND

New Prints 2007/Summer-SILKSCREEN

International Print Center New York
526 West 26th Street, Room 824
New York, NY 10001

June 29, 2007 - August 3, 2007

Opening Thursday, June 28, 2007, 6- 8 PM

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Addional info on The Tiny

the tiny #3 features work by Andrea Baker, Ellen Baxt, Edmund
Berrigan, Mark Bibbins, Daniel Borzutzky, Kristy Bowen, Joseph
Bradshaw, John Coletti, Rachel Conrad, Crystal Curry, Michelle
Detorie, Julia Drescher, Will Edmiston, Bonnie Emerick, Betsy Fagin,
Paul Fattaruso, Peter Gizzi, Scott Glassman, Sarah Goldstein, Garth
Graeper & Jason Sheridan, Eryn Green, Kristen Hanlon, Mike Hauser,
Anthony Hawley, Anne Heide, Brenda Iijima, Greg Koehler, Rodney
Koeneke, Michael Koshkin, Tim Lantz & Mark Yakich, Lauren Levin, Jill
Magi, C.J. Martin, Joseph Massey, Kristi Maxwell, Ange Mlinko, Michael
Montlack, Marci Nelligan, Nick Piombino, Billy Ramsell, F. Daniel
Rzicznek, Brandon Shimoda, Logan Ryan Smith, Maggie Smith, Chad
Sweeney, Derek White, Dustin Williamson, and Devon Wootten, with cover
art by Andrew Mister.

the tiny is available for purchase for $12.00 by clicking on the
PayPal link below, or by sending a check made out to Gina Myers or
Gabriella Torres to the tiny, 95 Verona St. #4, Brooklyn, NY 11231.

Paypal: the tiny-paypal


Also, please look for a number of upcoming tiny events, including
October 19th at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church.