Schuyler, Beckman, & What to Expect When You're Expecting

Introduce Joshua Beckman with a Schuyler poem? Sure. Why not? Even more fortuitous since right before the reading I had been looking that Diary of James Schuyler (which looks quite interesting and I may go back for)...and his collected works. Oh James! How I love thee...

And Beckman read and we laughed at such wonderful lines as "Bad raccoon in a good world..." But I yawned a lot. And sat next to two books by authors "Staples," and "Starbuck" and felt like I might be watching a commercial for how to sell a poet.

And then I bought World Jelly and Whole Milk, and may go back for Plots...since it came so highly recommended. And the diary of James Schuyler. Hold off on his collected works (at the criminal price of 32 bucks) until I can afford to spend 32 bucks on one book...

Open Books was welcoming as always...but I find the audiences at these readings always a little disappointing. For some reason, 19 year old hipster kids with limp mohawks seems too easy.

Wish you were here.

sitting in phoenix airport

w/ many books in my bag, the stars of which are Mulligan Stew, Lunar Follies, & Who's Who Vivid (Matt Hart, the first poem of which appeared in alice blue one. nice to see the name in print as tho it were a real thing (& indeed it is a real thing). Lunar Follies, another Sorrentino book is pretty tight, very short fictional art reviews, calling to mind some of Millicent's art history stories tho more compact. Mulligan Stew continues to impress w/ lines such as this one: "The sky has a flawless blue, a faultless blue, that blue that has about it somewhere a touch yellow, or perhaps pristine white, a subtlety that seems mixed with the pale azure that makes it, perhaps, even paler." or this paragraph: "He fought against the tenderness that welled up in him. Can love exist here? Love? Ha! Ha! He spilled his drink, and thought, bitterly, I spill my life as I spill this drink. Fool! Yet he couldn't bring himself to walk over to her."

anyways, leaving soon. laters yo.

interesting stuff

write poems via the erasure method at wave books or visit bear parade & read matthew rohrer.

also, i found alice notley's disobedience at half price books in scottsdale. otherwise, their poetry was nothing to shake a stick at...

new poetry online!

a l i c e    b l u e   has trampled out into the middle of spring, & i'm sure this has distracted most readers of poetry & prose... but, if you have the wherewithall to keep reading, tarpaulin sky has dynamite new issue. & so does ACTION YES w/ new work from Catherine Wagner (some of those "everyone in the room is a representive of the world at large" poems she read at Open Books) & Zachary Schomburg (check out Scary, or No Scary) & for further reading, check out Typo 8 & the poem entitled Scary, No Scary.

nba playoffs

been watching the playoffs from a distance & w/o the sonics in, i've watched a little of the old footage on youtube, & in doing so, came across this funny shawn kemp dunk video. any guess as to what language the music is in...german? (this may only be funny to me).