effing blog

from the poem exploder

it was hugely round
             about my head

                       my hands did some work
                         or was it my eyes
                                 in it then
                   
                      i mean that thing you need
                         that thing that needs a name
                              you think
                                 
          i tell you i was in it

              as it was in me

        abandon the p word
     and be there, not there
                                       
                                                   i cannot say it
                                                but touch it or no
            stick your face into it
                          i mean your mind so what
                     or call it heart

                 it doesn’t care
               the sex of it
                
just go there
             if it were a place
          the metaphor you must have
explode you
                         go

futbol familia

A pleasant weekend indeed.  Went to Dallas to see my brother's soccer team Real Salt Lake play FC Dallas at the Cotton Bowl stadium.  They lost but I thought my bro had a stellar game.   Here's a pic of Rusty and I that Karly took with her new digi cam.

Friday night

After the Renee Gladman reading at UT, maybe slip over to the Church of the Friendly Ghost for some tunes.  Our friends Lucas Anderson and Josh Block of Parque Touch are making their public debut.  Come see Lucas make the face when he plays the bass.

From Susan Briante at U of Texas

Join us for the last Zero-to-Sixty reading of the season:

Renee Gladman will read from her work at 7:00 pm on Friday, April 22, in the South Atrium (First Floor) of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center on the UT campus.

Renee Gladman is the author of Juice (Kelsey St. Press 2000), The Activist (Krupskaya 2003), and most recently A Picture-Feeling (Roof Books). She founded and edited Leroy Press, a beautifully bound chapbook series that published innovative poetry and prose by mostly emerging writers. Having spent most of the past three decades in Atlanta and San Francisco, she now resides in Brooklyn, NY, where she produces the L Projects: presses for new literature.

The reading is free and open to the public.

The Zero-to-Sixty reading series showcases young writers reading from recently published first or second books of fiction and poetry. Past readers have included Nick Flynn, Joshua Clover, Susan Steinberg, and Matthea Harvey. The series is curated by Susan Briante and sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin English Department.

For more information about this and other upcoming events, please contact:

Susan Briante
Assistant Director
Graduate Creative Writing Program
English Department, Parlin 108
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX 78712
[email protected]

Books I came home with

list of some of the books and chapbooks I got in San Francisco (some bought, some given to me, some I traded for):

Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals: 1960-1964) by Joanne Kyger (North Atlantic Books, 2000)
Notes No Answers by Dale Smith (Habenicht Press, 2005)
Foot #8 (1980, edited by Richard Duerden & Leslie Scalapino)
Drunken Boxing by Linh Dinh (Singing Horse Press, 1998)
A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (New Directions, 1958)
Apprehend by Elizabeth Robinson (Apogee, Fence, Saturnalia, 2003)
Acts by Mytili Jagannathan (Habenicht Press, 2003)
Portraits & Repetition by Stephen Ratcliffe (Post-Apollo Press, 2002)
Sculpture by Stephen Ratcliffe (Littoral Books, 1996)
By the Sound by Edward Dorn (Frontier Press, 1971)
Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence: Selected Poems 1965-2000 by Anselm Hollo (Coffee House Press, 2001)
Hello, La Jolla by Edward Dorn (Wingbow Press, 1978)
High West Rendezvous: A Sampler by Edward Dorn (etruscan books, 1997)
The Downwinders by David Hadbawnik (modest proposal, 2004)
Blue Chips by Donald Guravich (Blue Press, 2003)
The Morning by Roger Snell (Given Press, 2001)
Myths & Texts by Gary Snyder (New Directions, 1978)
She-Devil by Betsy Andrews (Sardines Press, 2003)
Gunslinger Book III: The Winterbook (Frontier Press, 1972)
Odes by Nicole Burrows (Sardines Press, 2003)
The Cycle by Edward Dorn (Frontier Press, 1971)
el pobre Mouse #2 (edited by sara and kyle, ?)

general call for work in the Austin area

From the organizers of Austin Sun Fest:

Greetings Artists, Art fans, and Austinites:


Austin Sun Fest was founded to promote Austin artists, to provide a   
venue for the diverse types of arts produced here, and to represent the   
growing number of artists influenced by the great city of Austin.

We are accepting submissions of short films, music, short plays, spoken   
word, animation, music videos, and just about anything else you can put   
in front of an audience. All works must be made in Austin, or by an   
Austin resident.  The deadline is 04-20-05.

If you or someone you know might be interested in submitting, check out   
the website: www.austinsunfest.com or email us @   
[email protected].

In the effort to keep Austin weird,

Austin Sun Fest

still alive

Still in San Francisco, currently sitting in the writers lab at CCA. I was nearly hit by a car this morning, that's something. Back to Austin Wednesday night. Maybe there's more to all the b.s. that has gone down since I've been here, though probably not. Alcohol makes people ugly sometimes. And poets are shits. The reading part of the night at Habenicht Press was great and thanks to all that came and to all that picked up some effing books. I'll post when I am back safely in the lonestar state. Yar!

to the end of the land

off to san francisco. 

will lag in the emails. 

but will fill effing orders from the road.

love.

Announcing EUREKA SLOUGH by Joseph Massey

Eureka Slough,  5x7, 28 pages, w/ jet black end papers, covers art and design by Wendy Heldmann, $5.00

*    *    *

Very happy to announce the publication of this poignant, well-balanced verse by my new friend Joe Massey.  If you are in the Bay Area Saturday night, stop by the Habenicht Press reading series to hear him read from Eureka Slough.

What a few others have said of this suite of poems:

Joseph Massey's poems are some of my favorite places to go, "given to green / and clear-cut patches." His silent engine is always sure to bring me through "What's left of the dream" and the "Page / as white / as the sun." I must remember to thank him for his constant reminder of these and other pleasures. 

--CA Conrad

In the lyric carpentry of _Eureka Slough_, a startling vision of nature and rain gets hammered into being. Massey uses words to hone down the world til we can see it with fresh eyes, and for fresh eyes—with concision and precision both. His poetry’s more complex than he lets on, just like the California it celebrates.

-- Kevin Killian

Joseph Massey's essentialized, intelligent poems take us into the present, vibrant moment. His spare language is memorable as it fashions an immediacy out of a life with a quiet and consistent musical line. As does the world, "You awake / within the poem."

--Burt Kimmelman

_______________________________

To order, simply click the Buy Now button in the right hand column, or send cash or check to:

Scott Pierce @ 703 W. 11th Street #2 Austin, TX

Thanks to all who came to 12th Street Books Friday evening to read and talk about Robert Creeley and his life and work.  I think we had roughly 30 or so people in an attendance, some who came from as far as Bryan/College Station and Houston. 

Those who read and/or spoke are as follows:

S.P.
Norman Ballinger
Mathew Dickman
Michael Dickman
Foster Foreman
Paul Christiansen
Philip Trussell
Sharon Roos
Xan Grant
John Herndon
Susan Briante
Farid Matuk
Doug Warriner
Kim Dorman

Dale and Hoa were not able to be there but you can read Dale's note on Creeley here.