dbqp: visualizing poetics: March 2010

The Sounds of the Disquiet of Poetry

Lynn Behrendt and Vanessa Place Reading Their Work, Segue Reading Series, Bowery Poetry Club, New York, New York (27 March 2010)

Above is essentially all of the sounds from the Segue Reading Series reading last Saturday featuring Lynn Behrendt and Vanessa Place. There are four separate audio files therein:

1. Gary Sullivan introducing Lynn Behrendt (5:30)

2. Lynn Behrendt reading her poetry ("I Am an Asshole" and "Luminous Flux") (20:03)

3. Nada Gordon introducing Vanessa Place (5:34)

4. Vanessa Place performing her various pieces (33:12)

One caution: the opening of Vanessa's performance was physical, so in terms of an audio recording most of what you'll hear up front is two minutes of silence.

There's plenty here to enjoy.

ecr. l'inf.

Mar

The Disquiet of Poetry

Stage at the Bowery Poetry Club, New York, New York (27 March 2010)

I'll begin with a blurry photo of the stage of the Bowery Poetry Club, a venue that has transformed itself a bit since the last time I was there over a year ago.

Mar

Two Days in One

Astoria, New York

Today was spent in poetry expeditions in New York City, which did not include any book buying. And Nancy and I did not make these expeditions on our own. We were followed by our children Erin and Tim and Erin's fiancé Jimmy.

A Spectrum of Jewels

Geof Huth and Kaz Maslanka at the LAB Gallery, New York, New York (27 March 2010)

Our first stop was a ninety-minute (or so) visit with Kaz Maslanka to the installation of his great mathematical poem.

Mar

Today is for Tomorrow

Astoria, New York

Nancy and I drove to Purchase (an actual place) today and picked up Tim, then we drove to Astoria to stay with Erin and Jimmy. We had a wonderful meal of Spanish clam chowder followed by an evening of tapas.

Mar

A Poetics (Continued through 29)

26. Pun

The pun is the highest form of literature.

This is not a joke. Literature is the art of words, of making something with words that can lie on the page and make a person turn a page. Being an artifact of literature, a poem must play the games of the word, which are the games of sense, shape (usually narrowly used), and sound.

Mar

Letter from Beijing

David Harrison Horton, "U≠Y" (6 March 2010)

A little codework, without code excepting footwork (or handwork, fingerwork, then my own eyework), an amulet of words on folded fiddled paper, arrived the other day from David Harrison Horton, now of Beijing, a missive (his word) written in whorls of concatenated words, yet the code is breakable, and broken (by me), at least primarily, more than partially, as I spent an hour (not your) tracing a pencil tip over each of the words and drawing arrows to

Mar

Proofing Allowed

Geof and NF Huth Proofread Geof's Book of Poetry atwhich Together and Aloud (22 March 2010)

The widget above allows you to listen to Nancy and I proofread my book atwhich aloud for two hours, twelve minutes, and forty-two seconds.

Mar

Happy Spring from Sacto

Bob Dahlquist, "Gshear" (23 March 2010)

The second gift I received today, on a day gifts were much in need, was a photograph from the typographical designer and occasional visual poet, Bob Dahlquist, one of the few people I'll always want to visit whenever I'm in Sacramento.

The gift is a simple one. Just a photograph from his life, a still life without life, a pair of scissors stored in a jug in such a way that only the fingerholes of the handles protrude.

Mar

Not Holding It Back

Craig Conley, "The Sky That Holds Back" (23 March 2010)

As he sometimes does, Craig Conley, the genius behind the book, One-Letter Words: A Dictionary,* created a little collage today using as the text one of my poems from atwhich, which I'd posted last night. It's always good to receive a gift, and some days are better than others for that, so my thanks to Craig.

Mar

At the End of Which, It Becomes

Sometimes, I just want to finish. So tonight I asked Nancy to help me proofread my manuscript of atwhich, a manuscript of 1500 minimalist poems, against the Twitter feed that it originally was. This was an essential step in my editing process, because the manuscript was just shy of 1500 poems, and I had to ensure that I wrote just as many new poems as I needed, which turned out to be 31.

dbqp: visualizing poetics

visual poetry, the textual imagination, and personal experience