Eunuchs Blues

2011-06-08T13:42:00.005-05:00

Books I brought to California

Books I've bought while in California

Books I need

(Ray Dipalma - Numbers & Tempers)

And here is a poem by Graham Foust, to make me feel better.

POEM WITH SIDE EFFECT

Every recollection - from the smallest, most in-
significant jangle of trash to watching
someone care for machines to fan-blade
shadows of blood-begins
as a secret. (That's the truth, and of course
I can't prove it; I think I mean what I don't
want to say.) But why's the dull tangle of denial
half of life? Lying's lonely-to lie
alone is least as good. And I'm over here, keeping
split, requiring assembly. Forget weeping.
Get silent. My lack of desire says hi.

2011-06-07T12:32:00.002-05:00

Ben Mirov & Amy Lawless did a lil featurette on The Constitution over at Best American Poetry Blog. I got some Rage to go along with. Also featured were Luke Bloomfield, Chris Salerno, and Brave Men Press's Ben Kopel.

Did you hear about Ben Kopel?

H_NGM_N Books is going to be putting out his first collection, VICTORY!

That, is right.

You can still get a copy of Ben's chapbook BECAUSE WE MUST in the Brave Men Press Coin Library.

In other news, Greying Ghost is going to release a chapbook of mine before the end of the year. Its called GOING ATTRACTIONS.

GOING ATTRACTIONS is also the name of my manuscript, which I just finished. So now, I have a manuscript. Finally.

Salt Horse & Bed

2011-06-03T13:24:00.003-05:00

The new issue of Saltgrass is out. Poems by Cynthia Arrieu-King, Anselm Berrigan, Justin Carrol, Tina Brown Celona, J’Lyn Chapman, Cathy Linh Che, Sandra Doller, John Gallaher, Anne Cecelia Holmes, Lily Ladewig, Heather Monley, GC Waldrep.

I have two poems in the issue. See one of them, here.

Also, I'm pleased to let you know that I will be the new co-editor of Saltgrass with Julia Cohen.

We have an open reading month this June. Right now. We hope you submit your weirdest shit.

Also today, Horseless Review #9 is out. Horse Less Review #9 includes writing by Brian Foley, Chris Hosea, Catherine Meng, Rhiannon Dickerson, Anne Shaw, Carrie Olivia Adams, Kerry Webster, Tony Mancus, TaraShea Nesbit, Adam Reich, Kevin McLellan, Mark DeCarteret, Travis Cebula, Elizabeth Robinson, Megan Burns, Thomas Trudgeon, Erik Anderson, Jennifer H. Fortin and Nate Pritts, Brooklyn Copeland, Maria Getto, Linda Dove, Carrie Bennett, Michael Flatt, James Yeary, Nicole Wilson, and Shawn Huelle. Cover art by Michael Sikkema.

I have four poems up around in there. Thanks Jen & Jen! Check out the issue here.

When I said I live here I actually meant I live here -

I Live in Here Now

2011-06-01T14:16:00.018-05:00

Son Ark, Coyote, Broken Numbers Band
@ Pappy & Harriets,
Pioneertown, CA

2011-06-01T13:58:00.006-05:00

Matt Henriksen, Phil Cordelli, Brandon Shimoda, Dot Devota, Lucas Farrell
@ Flying Object, April 2011

A few weeks ago I posted this conversation between Matt Henriksen and Brandon Shimoda on HTMLGiant. Its spooky & brilliant. See it here.

MATTHEW: I don’t understand “through” as a process of knowing, only as a motion witnessed (“the duck passed through the rising smoke”). I think we know “in.” The women I admire in my personal life, as suggested by the poetry I most admire by women, seem to have a larger “in.” They live more intimately with the world than any men I know, and that intimacy brings a wealth of abstract connotations and connections, which must make their worlds larger and more real. I have a grandmother who can empathize straight to the bottom of anyone’s despair, and so she directs her action with kindness. I’m tightly bonded with my daughter, but by father-daughter actions, play and goofiness. Katy and Adele have a mother-daughter “in” while they sit on the couch nursing that I can’t sit “in” on. Maybe because our mothers pass us on into the world they remain in us partially and represent a larger intimate unknown that brings us comfort. But I don’t know that. I know marriage changed me and made me a feminist. In my marriage, at least half comprised by the pure feminine instinct, I feel more privy to the logical nature of tenderness—which I formerly attributed to values, as an act of rebellion against the will to power. Didn’t a woman give birth to Nietzsche? But after mother-love, we make a choice to love another. I don’t know if that love exists.

Also good news: Cannibal Books is not yet dead. New chapbooks by Dot Devota, Adam Roberts & Tom Andes are now available.

2011-05-04T12:42:00.002-05:00

I woke up this morning to budgeted time this put aside to read THIS ISA NICE NEIGHBORHOOD by Farid Martuk, a book I love a lot. This is my favorite poem.

(*I apologize. The line breaks wont appear as they should in blogger. But I think the content overcomes this. To see the real, go here)

Anamorphosis

Two shepherd collies lie in the grass
of the children’s outfield
A woman stands between them so tall

their mistress, mistress smokes
She keeps sunset

A slow cloud bank rises over the park
to refract the light through particulate
garbage air,

light honeyed
in the methane

Islanded in the long grass I am drinking a bottle of water
keeping sunset

Warm air trades places with cold air
knocking a plastic bag around
the new leaves of a park tree

I’m a shitty listener—
too many things sound like paper
or a phone ringing

Usually there is plane
traffic above me
but I am allowed to see it
intermittently
by steam trails

My mother has been allowed to grow old—
I visit
drive her
away from her TV
so she can say things before she dies

Today she talked about her rape
he took pictures of her at gunpoint

A long time ago painters
laid out
shadows such that if
you stand in the right place
they coalesce for your eyes
into a skull

So we
learn to look
at anything and recognize death

That’s alright I’ll
do that

but right now I want a bigger
compass to draw the register of planes above me

the woman and her dogs
gone home
the Marlboro in the grass
the plastic bottle in my hand

I want to hear the plastic bag
in the tree
I want to look up
and see that it’s death
and a plastic bag
and a city tree

2011-04-28T11:42:00.008-05:00

I have five poems in the new SPRINGGUN. They're the first (finished) versions of a long poem called TOTEM. View it here. Big thanks to Erin and Mark for working with me on these.

I had a banger of a time in Denver. Saw so many I care for and admire. Heres what some of that saw looked like.

2011-04-21T21:24:00.013-05:00

Im reading this Saturday in Denver at the Bad Shadow Affair with Amy Catanzano, Aaron McCollough & Richard Froude. Im excited.

Have I shown you this book? This is to celebrate the Brave Men Press reading with Chris Martin, Michelle Taransky, Ben Kopel and me that we had back in March. 2 poems by each writer. Each fingerprint a signature. 30 were made.

Greg Purcell and Ish Klein do a podcast. Its great. This week that has on Dara Wier. Dara had a poem this week in the the Boston Review

"She told me about someone who was specializing for a while in cute-gay-guy emo-porn‚
which seems to be a fad market for teenage girls in Japan."

Last week, here, we had the Juniper Festival. Had the good graces to see Sommer Browning explode. Here are some pictures from after party at Flying Object.

Also saw Abraham Smith come to. His new book HANK is my favorite this year by far. Just unhinged music. See what its like to be sung.

2011-04-08T11:07:00.002-05:00

Last night Brandon Downing read his new long poem last night. I think its called "At Me," but last night it was called "Jar Jar Dump."

I love Brandon. He breaks poetry.

Tonight is the opening of his art show at Flying Object, called BETA Pearls. Some videos will be shown. This is my favorite.

There is Yes

2011-04-05T10:59:00.003-05:00

Blake Butler is a crucial dude. One of the nicest dudes I've met. The type of guy that makes you happy to be a part of the writing community because you get to know, by email or face, good humans such as he. And there is no one who can write like him. No one. His new book THERE IS NO YEAR is out today from Harper Perrenial. Im glad "the man" is paying close attention. It feels like victory. For one and all. So glad things are happening for this guy. Couldnt happen to a better human/writer.

2011-04-04T21:10:00.002-05:00

Im trying to not think about my computer crashing (which it did) and losing all of my writing (which happened).

For the month of April you can get any three chapbooks from Horseless Press for only $12.

The last of three poems is up this week at REALPOETIK.
Those poems are -

Moon Above The Law

Creeleys Face

It Takes Longer To Gather Light

Thank you so much to Claire and Lily for letting me stick around for so long.

Speaking of Lily, she has two great poems in Transom, a new journal.

I’m on my shoulder.
Hope is a thing with
force between us.

When you come home,
wonder on your face,
I, underwater, will.

And Ben Kopel has 3 sick sutras in Everyday Genius

to get born / with or without a war / I love to you / when you say / waiting is so beautiful / you don’t believe you / but from my brightest eye / to my blackest heart / I do

from the Black Ocean Blog

BRONWEN TATE: I've been thinking, reading your book and just in general recently, about how words name things that exist in the world (bees, the moon, a table), but also are constantly in play with other uses of the same word in other writing. And poetry is sometimes trying to slough off those allusions and make the reader actually see a moon (not a symbol) and at other times relies on allusions to make meaning or create depth. Can you talk a bit about how this works inOrdinary Sun? Do you see your writing moving in one direction or another? Is a knife ever just a knife?

MATTHEW HENRIKSEN: A knife is never a knife as long as I cannot say for certain what a knife is. What does a knife do? I can say that it cuts, but I have not been cut by a knife. Therefore, I have no intimacy with knives. I know what a person is because I know what a person can do. A person loves, and I have been loved by a person. I am a person because I have inflicted my love intimately upon another. In poems, I am not comfortable with "knife" as symbol or as word. If I believe in the holiness of poems, I find holiness in the literal presence of the image, which is neither of the word "knife" itself or what "knife" suggests. The image is the event of a group of words flashing upon the brain and creating a "place" where shapes, colors, and sounds--conceivable sensations--occur. The act of impression, not merely the result, defines the image's presence. If a knife gets into my brain as an image I know what it is. The image is always intimate, inflicted by another and leaving a scar of memory. In "Copse," I do not talk about a knife but my friend's table, "where knife-gnaws never healed." I can't make the reader actually see that table, but I can try to impress the knife-inflicted damage on the brain of another. The image does not come from the actual table or the moment when I saw the table but from the scar of memory that coincided with writing that line. Images are more like ideas than facts, which is lucky for us, because we cannot posses a fact as intimately as we can an idea. The idea of my friend's table made me sad, and the image contains rather than symbolizes that sadness.

burds

2011-03-29T22:50:00.001-05:00

2011-03-29T13:45:00.002-05:00

"Stockhausen is a motherfucker" -Miles Davis.

Rhythm: The relationships between points in time defined by sonic events.

Harmony: The relationships between two or more sounds occurring simultaneously.

Melody: The relationships between two or more sounds occurring in succession.

Color: The relationships between frequencies perceived as a single sound.

These expanded definitions allow for aesthetic comparisons between the most varied kinds of music.

David Hanner:

"Listening Room, written in Northern Cyprus in October 2002, was premiered by the Ensemble Aventure in December of the same year in Bludenz, Austria.

"The main challenge for the players lies in the fact that each of the twelve musicians plays from the full score, that the score has no bar lines, and that even a conductor is not required to realize it ... The musicians are given extensive responsibility in recreating this 'imaginary landscape' through listening carefully to their sounding environment. They are also given back some freedom to control and shape their own sounding events, just like any soloist would do -- and in fact, every musician loves to do, but too often does not have the time, given the reality of living in impatient times."

Listening Room

from Invisible Cities (1972) by Italo Calvino (1923-1985)

"You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours."

"Or the question it asks you, forcing you to answer, like Thebes through the mouth of the Sphinx."

from Harriet via Kenneth Goldsmith:

Bök next showed an image of Steve McCaffery’s “William Tell: A Novel,” which is simply a lower case “i” with a colon atop of it instead of a dot. He recalled the story of William Tell and then conflated it with the William Tell episode of William S. Burroughs, where he shot his wife dead playing William Tell. Bök examined the linguistic implications of “the mark,” in terms of self-expression, in relation to a target, as well as a graphic manner of mark making. And then he further extended these metaphors to examine the tension between literatures “will” and how much a work of literature “tells.”
Bök divided writing into four categories:
A. Cognitive Writing: works that embody, as values, both intentionality and expressiveness. These works are both self-conscious and self-assertive. Their authors exert control over both what they “will” in the text and what they “tell” in the text.
B. Automatic Writing: Works that embody, as values, less intentionality and more expressiveness. These works are not self-conscious, but self-assertive. Their authors exert control, not over what they “will” in the text, but only over what they “tell” in the text.
C. Mannerist Writing: Works that embody, as values, more intentionality and less expressiveness. These works are self-conscious, but not self-assertive. Their authors exert control over what they “will” in the poem, but not over what they “tell” in the poem.
D. Aleatoric Writing: Works that embody, as values, no intentionality and no expressiveness. These works are neither self-conscious nor self-assertive. Their authors forfeit control, both over what they “will” in the text and over what they “tell” in the text, doing so in order to maximize the discrepancy between what the Self might intend and what the Text might convey.
Bök claimed that these four categories: Cognitive, automatic, mannerist, aleatoric—this “quadrivium” of literature exhausts every means of permuting the relationship between intentionality and expressiveness.
He concluded by stating: “If conceptual literature has already explored each concept of writing beyond the “cognitive,” perhaps, such literature must now imagine unthought varieties of writing beyond these four categories in order to imagine a new way of playing ‘William Tell.’”

One Eyed Dad

2011-03-27T13:00:00.004-05:00

I have a new poem up today at RealPoetik. Number two of three. I won a dare by by titling it as i did. Eat that Gizzi.

Happy birthdays today to some good Aries friends Dottie Lasky & Emily Pettit.

Im going to go to a coffee shop and read Abraham Smiths' HANK for the rest of the day. Happy Sunday.

2011-03-26T10:43:00.012-05:00

I have three poems from THE CONSTITUTION up at Action Yes

I have a poem, "Moon Above the Law" at RealPoetik.

Here is an early version of a TOTEM at I am a Natural Wonder.

Horse Less Press has a new website. Thats where you can learn how to read THE CONSTITUTION. BUT also can buy this fantastic book by Richard Froude.

Brave Men Press had a reading at Flying Object on March 12th, 2o11. Chris Martin, Ben Kopel, Michelle Taransky, and I all read.

Ben

Chris

Favorite Poems Heard in 2011

1. Spasmodic Tragedy by Macgregor Card
2. This is Also a Dolphin by Ish Klein
3. The poem ZS read about "a sack of potatoes"
4. Tick by Julie Carr
5. The poem/story JD read at AWP about "flings"

I went to LA for I had some theme music.

I had some love.

I am going back real soon. Promise.

2011-03-03T10:32:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow, Friday 3.4.2011, i am reading at The Multifarious Array in Brooklyn with Chris Carrier, Jared White & Chris Hosea.

Brave Men Press is also being a reading on March 13th in Hadley, MA. We are celebrating. Chris Martin, Michelle Tarakansky, Ben Kopel and me will be reading. There will be videos and bacon. Also a limited book celebrating the reading with 2 new poems by each poet, free if you come. If you come.

Did I say?

Brave Men Press has a whole lot of new things for sale. New chapbooks by Chris Martin, Joshua Marie Wilkinson & Lily Brown . Ben Kopel's sold out in a day. But you can get it in this box set.
This is why we're celebrating.

The 3rd issue of Evening Will Come is. A good interview with Hoa Nguyen, which I learned at AWP you pronounce as "Wong Wei". That was all I learned at AWP this year.

I remember having a conversation with an x girlfriend about when you were most happiest in your life. For her, it was listening to ska punk. I can remember one day living in Boston, almost spring, in my apartment on Westland Ave, behind Symphony Hall, listening to Cornelius while making skateboarding moves in my room. No one else was home. That was some happiness. He is happiness in inertia and non inertia. I remember leaving the apartment and trying to carry that feeling with me. I remember it wasnt warm our enough yet and it didnt work. I miss Cornelius. Download these awesome screensavers he scored to a multimedia art show. Very beautiful.

Zach Schomburg was in town. He made my favorite movie of the year. See?

The Constitution

2011-02-16T08:32:00.004-05:00

My chapbook THE CONSTITUTION is now available from Horseless Press. It is hot pink and only $6.00. These poems are very important to me. I hope you will choose to read them. You can purchase a copy here.

Poems from THE CONSTITUTION havent arrived yet in the places that I can show you. They'll be in Action Yes and The Columbia Poetry Journal. So for now I will show you one, and take it down when they come home.

Many thanks Jen Tynes. She is wonderful person.

You can get this book and another book from Horseless for only $10. I suggest Chris Salerno's ATM. That book is just great. At one point Chris says "The sale is inside me." I won't forget that.

I'll be doing some readings soon. On March 4th at Multifariuos Array w/Jared White. Chris Carrier, & Chris Hosea.

And on April 23rd in Denver at the Bad Shadow affair with Natalie Lyalin.

Huge Updates from BRAVE MEN PRESS

2011-02-01T14:05:00.001-05:00

Hark Brave All,

As we plan our descent into this years AWP conference in Washington DC, we hope that you will spend some thought on the Brave Men & Women who fight for you - Chris Martin, Lily Brown, Ben Kopel, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Jennifer Denrow, Mathias Svalina, Brian Foley & EB Goodale.

It is right to say we have been up to much - four new chapbooks, a box set, posters, finer art, a massive reading. So in one fell swoop, we share with you all their awesome and our devotion, that you may now see for yourselves with your internet eyes.

Chris Martin - How to Write a Mistake-ist Poem

Chris Martin's second book of poems, Becoming Weather, is just now precipitating into material form compliments of the wonderful people at Coffee House Press. His first book, American Music, won the Hayden Carruth Prize and last year he was named one of the Poetry Society of America's New American Poets. Currently he is an editor at Futurepoem books and curator of the response blog Futurepost.

Lily Brown - Being One

Lily Brown is from Massachusetts and currently lives in Athens, where she is a Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia. Her first book, Rust or Go Missing, is out from Cleveland State University Poetry Center, and recent poems have appeared in American Letters and Commentary and Colorado Review.

Ben Kopel - Because We Must

Ben Kopel, a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts where he edits Laminated Cats Press. A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop, he is currently continuing his education at UMass Amherst. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Conduit, Sir!, Forklift: Ohio, H_NG_M_N, Sixth Finch, Diagram, and elsewhere. Sorry ma, he forgot to take out the trash.

Joshua Marie Wilkinson - In The Trade of Alive Letters Mis-sent

Joshua Marie Wilkinson is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently Selenography, featuring Polaroids by Califone's Tim Rutili (Sidebrow Books, 2010). He has edited two anthologies for University of Iowa Press: Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook12x12: Conversations in 21st Century Poetry & Poetics. He lives in Chicago, where he is Assistant Professor in the English Department at Loyola University.

2011 Brave Men Press Coin Library

Made up three chapbooks by Lily Brown, Ben Kopel, & Joshua Marie Wilkinson, this custom designed box set comes with an exclusive etching by Brave Men designer and artist
E.B. Goodale. Supplies are limited.

Limited edition bad ass BMP posters designed by E.B. Goodale

We will also have books on hand limited quantities of BMP titles still available, by Jennifer Denrow, Brian Foley & Mathias Svalina

Jennifer Denrow - From California, On

Jennifer Denrow has two chapbooks: A Knee for a Life (Horse Less Press) and From California, On (Brave Men Press). Her first book, California, is forthcoming from Four Way Books.

Mathias Svalina - Whatever You Love of Weapons You Love For Weapons

Mathias Svalina was born in Chicago, where his parents were both chemists. He is the author of five chapbooks as well as five collaboratively written chapbooks. His work has been published widely in journals such as American Letters & Commentary, The Boston Review, Diagram, jubilat, and Typo. With Zachary Schomburg, he co-edits Octopus Magazine and Octopus Books. Destruction Myth is his first book out from CSU press.

Brian Foley - The Black Eye

Brian Foley is the author of the chapbooks The Constitution ( Horseless Press, 2011) & The Tornado is Not A Surrealist (Greying Ghost, 2008). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Action Yes, Columbia Poetry Journal, Poor Claudia,Typo, H_NGM_N & elsewhere. He edits SIR! Magazine, curates The Deep Moat Reading Series, and with EB Goodale, runs Brave Men Press.

WHERE?

You can find us and these books at AWP this Thursday- Saturday at the HTML Giant table. Supplies are limited, so please plan accordingly. New titles & ephemera will be on sale on our website soon after AWP, providing we don't sell out.

READING?

On Friday night please join BRAVE MEN in celebrating WIDE NIGHT, an evening of readings with the following presses!

*BATEAU*

*BIRDS, LLC*

*BRAVE MEN*

*FACTORY HOLLOW*

*FLYING GUILLOTINE*

*IMMACULATE DISCIPLES*

*MINUTES*

*PILOT*

Readers include:

Chris Martin, Lily Brown, Mark Horosky, Sasha Steensen, Emily Pettit, Dan Boehl, Sommer Browning, Jessica Young, Farrah Field, Guy Pettit, Kelin Loe, Alex Phillips, Luke Bloomfield, Megan M. Garr & Francesca Chabrier!

Brave Men will be represented by Lily Brown & Chris Martin, reading somewhere near the end of the line up, for those of you planning a full evening.

There will always be a lot going on, but we really hope you stop by the table and/or reading and introduce yourselves. We've come to meet you.

Other Brave Men Happenings

Poems by Jennifer Denrow in 751 Magazine & Sixth Finch

Joshua Marie Wilkinson's new journal of poetics, EVENING WILL COME

Poems by Chris Martin in Sink Review

Sounds Thoughts & a poem by Mathias Svalina at Coldfront

A poem by Brian Foley in H_NGM_N

A book cover by EB Goodale of Aaron Burch's How to Predict the Weather

Safe travels to all traveling

Best,

Brian & Emily
Brave Men Press

bravemenpress@gmail.com

2010-12-30T10:16:00.003-05:00

I talked about some books I enjoyed this year

A new Rabbit Light Movies is up. I like the look of this full length poem film by Zach. I dont know what it is exactly, but I see a lot of faces I know.

Im reading in New York next weekend with some friends from our MFA program at UMASS. That'll be good. We're on break now and I miss them.

Today is Dara Wier's birthday.

Happy Day Dara.

Here is one of my favorite poems of hers, taken from Fou (whatever happened to that magazine?)

Chinese Restaurant on Fire

There they were sitting in the shade of a twisty gingko only more it was he

and less it was she conversing, only is it conversing when one does all of the

listening and the other does all of the talking, it probably is in some and not

in all circumstances. These were the subjects and the subjects were many:

his recent move, his eating habits, his phone manners, his headaches, his

sleep apnea, his poor eating habits, his non-cooking ways, his laundry

phobia, his desire to have children, his house hunting activities, his failure to

receive results in this endeavor, his apartment complex, his mother’s

dependence, his inheritance, his brother’s mental ill-health, his wife’s long-

suffering, his several ambitions, his many good qualities, his friends in

important places, his past of dark and glamorous drug addiction, his bad

knees, his dental work, his plans for future projects, his preferences in

footwear, his reading habits, his fear of failing to succeed, his ambitions, his

history of past successes, his taste in music, his this that and the other which

went on uninterrupted as the smell of smoke accumulated and eventually

insisted on gaining her attention which did nothing to deter his continuing

his involvement with his it turned out to be nothing less than all he could

find in his mind at the time, each piece of it leading to another, while she

had by now looked in the direction from which the smell of smoke was

coming to see rising up out of the rooftop just over her shoulder Chinese

cooks frantically scrambling from out of what must have been some sort of

escape hatch, it looked as if they were ascending, smoke did this to them, it

created an aura of beauty around their danger and it looked as if they would

successfully free themselves in time to survive as he continued talking

though it had become difficult to hear him above noises of people running

and by now at least three different kinds of sirens so she said look the

restaurant is on fire and he ignored her and kept right on talking as if none of

this registered as he was so lost in his thoughts nothing could derail them or

stop their headlong streaking into the future where everything was in flames,

everything in ruins, uninhabitable.

2010-12-05T12:32:00.002-05:00

Lilys book is finally available. You can get it here.

Julias book is finally out. You can get it here.

I couldnt be more excited about these books. These are two of my favorite poets out there right now and these are their first books.

If you live around my neck, come see Julia and Lily read with Cynthia King on Dec 19th at Flying Object in Hadley, MA. details here.

This event is one of the last Im going to put on in the area for a while. As of next year I'll be co-running the JUBILAT reading series at the Jones Library in Amherst.

JACKIE!

2010-11-09T17:18:00.002-05:00

Buy Office Work by the beloved Jackie Clark, out now from Greying Ghost, and (maybe) receive a pamphlet of a poem by me called You Are On Fired.

JACKIE!

2010-11-07T19:08:00.005-05:00

This weekend was for hero worship. I saw the "classic line up" of Guided by Voices. Did they play "Kicker of Elves?"

No.

But they did play this.

Not all Guided by Voices songs are about elf kicking. Something that has always irked me in critical treatment of the band is the focus on Pollard lyrics as some sort of fantastical theatre. When you name songs "Postal Blowfish" or "Zoo Pie," you can see this trend forming. There is even a GBV Song Title Generator. This is where poet Tony Tost found the title for his long poem, World Jelly. But this fantasy treatment has always been reductive. Look at the song Tractor Rape Chain, which at first glance looks ridiculous by title alone. But then there are the words

why is it every time i think about you
something that you have said or implied makes
me doubt you
then i look into your cynical eyes and i know it
as if it never meant anything to me

parallel lines on a slow decline - tractor rape chain
better yet, let's all get wet on the tractor rape chain
speed up, slow down, go all around in the end

in the first place it's probably just paranoia
but there's a ghost in my room
and he says i better run
it's a thing i know - it's a thing i believe in
won't you tell it to go away?

An anthemic charge against the dissolution of relationship, of once tender eye looks now gone jaded, of workman-like routine pushing two people in separate paths. It is very human, very familiar and very sad.

That same voice sings confidence to another utilitarian object (utility & work being one of the most persevering themes in Pollard's music & common for a man who worked for years as a forth grade teacher while trying to get his band noticed, only experiencing success when closely pushing forty. That and the fact Pollard has the hardest work ethic in indie rock, release 3-5 albums a year since GBV's 2004 dissolution) in My Valuable Hunting Knife, my favorite GBV song.

I want to start a new life
With my valuable hunting knife
She will shine like a new girl
And I want to shout out our love to the world
Everything I think about I think about
Everything I talk about I talk about
With you
But you don't know what I go through
You don't know

Days, they will turn into nights
But my valuable hunting knife
It will not rust through the tears
And it will not lose its appeal over years

Pollard's music has always been about world making. GBV came from, and continue to live, in their own world. But here is a voice in post traumatic desperation, making real what's not to find a reliable commitment to his cause, which is loneliness. This feeling is echoed throughout his best ars poetica, I am a Scientist.

I am a lost soul I shoot myself with rock n roll The hole I dig is bottomless But nothing else could set me free

Sometimes it is just for the music. But GBV's best songs - Teenage FBI, Game of Pricks, Smothered in Hugs, The Official Ironman Rally Song, Don't Stop Now, Blimps Go 90, Exit Flagger, Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory - wear their self conscious loneliness for anyone to see. It is what I will always remember them for.

***

I need a camera. I went to this great restaurant with this great person. I would have liked to have shown you the fried Brussels sprouts. I would like to have shown you the copy of Macgregor Card's THE GERM #1 I found in a used record shop.

2010-11-03T13:02:00.003-05:00

Im reading tonight with Elaine Kahn at this place. Why don't you look at the menu? Its a pretty good menu. Details are not on the menu, they are here

New from Brave Men Press - Jennifer Denrow - FROM CALIFORNIA, ON

2010-11-02T15:42:00.002-05:00

FROM CALIFORNIA, ON
Jennifer Denrow

Shaped in inventive diction that reflects her disjunction, Jennifer Denrow knows what we encounter won't ever answer back. In this singular narrative of a trip through known bucolics, she charts the inadequacies of experience in a voice that stranges; aware of itself and its beautiful incapability. She tells us “everyone who sees us insists that we are here” but only through its lasting impression does From California, On think itself possible.

Jennifer Denrow is the author of California, out soon from Four Way Books. She is also the author of two chapbooks, A Knee for a Life (Horseless Press) & From California, On.

Cover letterpressed with black ink on blue paper.
Printed in a limited edition of 85.
22 pages.

read sample poems

$9

Buy it along with the Limited Edition Coinside

$11.50

Please pass the word around on your blogs, Facebook, or by email. We count on your generosity to help us keep going.

I completely love this book. When I first read it, I was very affected, and continue to be so. It is a pleasure to help put it out. And Emily made the just-right cover, package,etc. Very happy. I know you will enjoy it.

FORTHCOMING from BRAVE MEN PRESS - chapbooks by Chris Martin , Lily Brown, Ben Kopel, Michelle Taransky & Joshua Marie Wilkinson

H_NGM_N

2010-10-25T20:25:00.003-05:00

I've a new poem in H_NGM_N.

In fact, a lot of people do.

2010-10-19T10:37:00.001-05:00

I made this for your autumn.

#

The Groupies – primitive
Charlie Feathers – Can’t Hardly Stand It
Carl Perkins – Honey Don’t
The Rumblers – Boss
The Cramps – Fever
The Sonics – The Witch
Elvis – Blue Moon
Howlin Wolf – Smokestack Lightning
Link Wray – Fire and Brimstone
Scott Walker - Jackie

new absence

2010-10-18T08:41:00.007-05:00

A new issue of Absent.
Below is a great landscaper from Josh Harmon.

Also New Poems by Rauan Klassnik at last weeks' NO TELL MOTEL.

Saw High on Fire last night. In describing, I should say things like "I got my brain blasted through my face melt" but it was more like "hugged by a sweating teddy bear"

My last cat has gone. Willy. He disappeared a week ago into the woods. I hate the woods. It never gives back.

Bernadette Mayer was all eyes

2010-10-17T17:18:00.006-05:00

Studying Hunger

Sharon Van Etten came to town the other day. She carried us away with her. We brought her back to our place. She's touring a ton and you should meet her halfway.

Bought this album the other day. Les Ralliezes Denudes An extreme feedbacker, better than Fushitusha.

From another blog

There are no official recordings, they never recorded in a studio (?) Les Rallizes Dénudés are quite possibly the only rock group that can be genuinely described as revolutionary and not only because their bass player took part in a airplane hijack!
I’m not surprised to read their sound was originally inspired by the Velvets groundbreaking 1967 noisefest “White Light White Heat”.

Just look at that guy. And the title. Who could pass it up. Not me. Not you.

2010-10-14T18:01:00.003-05:00

A new Octomom is up.

Look at this Jennifer Denrow

The people come from themselves. They’re the operations they couldn’t afford. On the other side of the room, they are dressed like clouds. We give them the personal history of wind. When it gets too loud, we shut the door and never go back. The room sits empty for months, filling up with the sound of each drama. We stop imagining what’s happening in the room, and later forget there was ever a room to begin with. Our participation in each other still occurs, but slowly, forgetfully.

Now look at this Jennifer Denrow.

(More on that soon)

Congrats to SIR! contributors Chris DeWeese & Rebecca Farivar. Octopus Books will be putting out their first this year.

SIR! has its next issue all lined up. But I dont know HTML. I need an HTML Giant to help put this issue into one piece. Its not too much and I am pretty demandless. If you can help, please contact me.

Im Not A Witch

2010-10-10T21:31:00.011-05:00

Its been...a while.

I've lost a some things these past few months.
My partner & love.
My home.

My ability run without coughing.

Some people I like died.

Michael Gizzi ("May you keep this memory, the one you’ll never see.")
Tony Curtis
Arthur Penn

It was an endless summer

But I did gain some hair, pack-a-day habit, a new apartment, poems.

Horseless Press is going to put out a collection of my poems called THE CONSTITUTION.

I've never been able to commit to a sustained thought in words before. Not well anyhow. THE CONSTITUTION was meant to begin from a source poem and everything thereafter would be an amendment to that original idea, turning over and over. Its also an examination of a moral constitution, what it is to have one, what mine is. I'm excited about these poems.

Horseless recently put out a book by Jennifer Denrow. You should get that here. Murphy Brown makes an appearance. The next book by Brave Men comes in a few weeks from Jen and it is just astounding. She's got a big diction.

Excited too Greying Ghost will be pamphletting a poem of mine called YOU ARE ON FIRED. (I dont mean these announcements as a gloat but a repeat to convince myself I still have a shadow. Like shadowboxing.) Sam Starkweather has some new SELF HELP POEMS, some of which you can see here

and here

The perfect drug is one you only experience once, and the rest of your life is spent chasing that feeling. After McCain’s concession speech I didn’t think I could get any higher. But when he was standing in front of 100,000 people talking about the transitive properties of hope, it felt like I was at a once-in-a-lifetime rock concert. The movie we had all been waiting for was finally before us and impossibly, was better than we imagined, and with each newly delivered line, it kept getting better. There, sitting in my car in the dark, listening to that voice coming from the radio, I achieved absolute belief, and it had nothing to do with politics or humanity or any of that shit, it was simply the fact that language did this.

Sam also runs BIRDS LLC who're putting out some good books together.

	Either Way I'm Celebrating Poems and Comics by Sommer Browning
	The Kings of the F**king Sea Poems by Dan Boehl, Images by Jonathan Marshall
	Goat in the Snow Poems by Emily Pettit

I joined Twitter, to kill time, but mainly just to read Vag Talk ("Just discovered the woman-centric channel OXYGEN. It's all of the content of Ass Sluts 5, minus the sex." )

I was lucky to be part of some nice readings this summer with Janaka Stucky, Julie Doxsee, Josh Harmon, Emily Pettit, Dottie Lasky & Sarah Goldstein. That felt good. That was my vacation. I didnt take pictures, but thank you to them for letting me play.

I'm reading NOV 3rd in Northampton with Elaine Kahn. Its at the Green Steet Cafe, which is a nice place. They comp you food and drink if you read, for each reader, as well as plus one. If you'd like to be my plus one please wheeze at me.

A lot of things in the Northampton area. Song Cave has put out new chapbooks by Macgregor Card, CD Wright, and Geoffrey G Obrien. Also Sea Ranch.

Zach Savich has new collection of poems from Colorado University Press, which was much better than I anticipated. Plus the cover is pretty. Rachel Glaser & Mike Young both have books out from Publishing Genius. There' s a great new record store. And there's this place.

The next Deep Moat Reading Series will be on NOV 20th, featuring Jeremy Sigler, Damon Krukowski (!) and Alex Phillips.

This is a lot. I wish I could remember more about myself.

Pieces of a poem by CS Ward. I like its patience.

And I am bad at naming
But, every so often

I am given a green grace
Like rusty books burning

Smells coming over the mountains
And then I can just listen

To small wings
I normally wouldn't hear

2010-07-07T15:17:00.003-05:00

I've a poem in the Typo. Thank you Adam and Matt. You can also find this poem in The Black Eye.

Here is the funniest video from 1987

2010-07-01T14:17:00.004-05:00

It is time to tell you i have four blows in the new Softblow. They're from a manuscript called I WASH MY FACE IN THE SOUND OF WATER RUNNING.

Long month. My brother got married. I spent time in RI with this fine leafmouth. Some time at home with friends. My mom had an art show. Patrick played his first show in a long time. I read in NYC with John Murillo. And though I lived there for 7 years, I read in Boston for the first time with Emily & Josh, thanks to Jessica Bozek.Eat. Slept. Saw Danzig & the Celtics lose big.

Here is something i relate to. Its about returning to something you once knew. Young Brian was an underexplored metalhead. I learned to play guitar by memorizing Ride The Lightning.

Then I discovered indie rock & punk when things were just getting good and I seriously think it ruined me. Young Brian died for a while. But now he's back and this is what he's been June listening to.

Megadeth - Peace Sells...But Who's Buying
Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle 2
Leviathan - Massive Consparicy Against All Mankind
Von - Satanic Blood Angel
Trouble - Psalm 9
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengence
Danzig - Deth Red Sabaoth
Whiplash- Ticket to Mayhem
Cave in - Until Your Heart Stops
Suicidal Tendencies - s/t
Metallica - Kill Em All
Dismember -...Like An Evflowing Stream
Darkthrone - F.O.A.D

Have you checked out the Eclipse. A great collection of L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E po online. Clark Coolidge, Lyn Hejinian, Bernadette Mayer, Bruce Andrews. All great stuff from unaffordable paraphernalia.

There is even Rae Armantrout's first book, Extremities.

The bird that can sing and will not sing must be made to sing.

2010-05-26T11:43:00.003-05:00

My Two Dads (Ben E & I) are putting on a reading tomorrow night with Macgregor Card, Chris Martin, & Matthew Klane. All details here

***

On Friday Im making it in Brooklyn at the Earshot Reading Series. Please come, or EG will black eye everyone.

7:30 PM @ Rose Live Music w/ John Murillo. Mike Soto, Samantha K. Smith & Martin Rock. invite

***

Poets for Living Waters--------a good stop for thought.

2010-05-24T10:01:00.002-05:00

Larry Fagin* I'll Be Seeing You: Poems 1962-1976 (Full Court Press, 1978)

An Ideal Life

When the sun shines
I'm up witht he birds
orange blue red green

bath breakfast walk
across the city
visit and talk

with P, C M, & E
home again write
rest and read

A light lunch
letters to D
K, F, R & T

records and the radio
a substantial dinner
go to a show

Back home exercise
smoke some dope
close my eyes

Do You know Anna Swir?

2010-05-20T13:58:00.004-05:00

I Knocked My Head against the Wall

by Anna Swir

As a child

I put my finger in the fire

to become

a saint.

As a teenager

every day I would knock my head against the wall.

As a young girl

I went out through a window of a garret

to the roof

in order to jump.

As a woman

I had lice all over my body.

They cracked when I was ironing my sweater.

I waited sixty minutes

to be executed.

I was hungry for six years.

Then I bore a child,

they were carving me

without putting me to sleep.

Then a thunderbolt killed me

three times and I had to rise from the dead three times

without anyone’s help.

Now I am resting

after three resurrections.

***

All poets are matchstick men.

2010-05-19T19:36:00.000-05:00

The Best Spring into Summer Poetry Book

2010-05-19T11:01:00.004-05:00

Jon Woodward * Rain (Wave Books, 2006)

but the house sparrows
are mating again each on top
of the other or sideways
flapping and chirping they're so
immodest so indiscriminate with each

other although it doesn't look
like it actually feels good
it looks like some voltage
is making them do it
but they do it regardless

and you don't see them
screaming in pain unless that's
what all that chirping is
we meanwhile couldn't have asked
for all our free will

Jon,

I am thinking of opening a hot dog cart.

Please advise.

2010-05-17T16:51:00.005-05:00

Here is a book I've read four times, now available from Octopus

How by Emily Pettit
Staple-bound
Edition of 200

26 pages
$8 (includes shipping)

There is also a new issue of Saltgrass starring Lisa Jarnot, Paige Ackerson-Kiely, Natalie Lyalin, Sandra Simonds, Laura Eve Engel, Tristan Tzara, Gabe Durham, Maged Zaher, Jennifer
Denrow, Catherine Meng, and Mark Yakick.

Last Night You Showed Me Larry Fagin

2010-05-16T07:46:00.001-05:00

Twelve Poems

A balloon
is going up
filled with problems.

When I think
of the thought
machines

I whistle
softly
to myself.

*

Self

In my pale
face
is a grim

mask,
but I have
to laugh.

My arm
is a bone —
I

love
it
so.

*

a red
tin pan
of tan
doom

*

Gravity
pulls
me
down

so
hard
I
can

only
say
my
name.

*

"When my head
goes too fast
I get out
and walk."

*

The evil eye
is ridiculous,
but it exists.

*

Personal

I'd like
to keep
myself

out
of this. . .
this. . .

whatever
you
call it.

*

It's too easy
to say
yes,
now—

difficult
to think,
say,
now.

*

I get
the idea
I can die
anytime,
then
I forget
it.

*

When a tree falls
on your head,
it says yes
or no.

*

I walk
you walk
we walk

through
each
other

into
our
selves

2010-05-14T10:32:00.005-05:00

Have you read The Black Eye? If you have, would you mind sharing your thoughts on Good Reads?

***

I've got some books to read.

Nate Pritts * Unrequited Sonnets :Bird to Feather (self released chapbook, 2010) -
Written in one day November 2009

"It's Novemeber, it's Syracuse.
It's Dear Hearther: Hello. You'r in Chicago. Phillip Sydney
is dead & I'm lonley without you. Matt is lonely since
his foot broke loose. He is filled with phlox. He is howling
for his foot. Gabi is lonely. Gina is in Saginaw. Annie
is in Tucson & Matt's on narcotics in Cinncinat. I'll show you
I'm better. Dear Feather: I'm thinking about words.

Michael O'brien* Sleeping & Walking (Flood, 2007)

"work against correspondence, the
world is not a
book, everything is
not something else, you
could look it up"

2010-05-13T22:34:00.002-05:00

We had a BBQ then a reading in the Backyard

2010-05-11T12:04:00.010-05:00

by Forrest Gander

2010-05-10T00:07:00.000-05:00

From Conjunctions

Muse

What words go with crossing? Orange and security and ventriloquist. This is a special message. The movie is unbearable and there isn’t even a movie. The condensation of a fart poured into a plastic mold and set in the window like sushi or landscape. The way he laughed, I hated him more than his own mother. It wasn’t really a special message but the same message as always. As a tapeworm sucks nutrients from your experience. Which is the reason, duh, for your throbbing sadness. But to extract it, you’ll need to place the honey-word at the tip of your tongue and wait to lure the worm upward. Just when you feel it twitching at the back of your throat, making you cough and retch at once, you’ll have to stick out your tongue as far as it goes. There’ll be one chance, just one, as the worm stretches for the honey-word. That’s when you pinch its head between your fingers. Too gently, it snaps back like a rubber band. Too hard, you kill it and in its death spasm, it evacuates all its eggs inside you.

2010-05-09T11:14:00.002-05:00

I made this video for my mom using stolen Mark Leidner technology. It is of an EE Cummings poem. The best mother poem ever.

My mom makes rad pastels. Would you believe she's only been doing it a year?

Sometimes she makes these

Happy Mothers Day, Mom. I like where I come from.

2010-05-09T10:51:00.002-05:00

Ive Spring Fever. For books. Ive acquired all these new titles I only now have time for. Here are my two favorites. Mothers, lock up your manuscripts.

Julie Doxsee is one my favorite writers out there now. Her new Objects for a Fog Death.

Aaron Kunin's The Sore Throat is profound in its reserved wildness. His new chapbook Cold Genius is great too.

2010-05-06T08:42:00.002-05:00

James Tate loves final lines. He has good finality. Its one of his trademarks. Here are the final lines from each poem of James Tates’ THE GHOST SOLDIERS, the lines standing alone. Together they make something still.

- “Noon at Sadie’s,” I said

- I slunk out of his room with my head nearly banging against my knees, longing for my bed again, not knowing if I’d ever find it.

- “Everything,” he said

- “The Memory palace has no memory. See, it just doesn’t care,” he said

- I started licking my chocolate cone with a deep sense of mystery.

- They were a lost tribe, and I wasn’t lost, just confused.

- I started firing every which way, blind as a bat.

- “That’s their native ground,” he said.

- “I don’t want to talk about that now. It’s such a beautiful night.”

- Our sun’s going to go out in twenty-five billion years, what then?

- My shoes are on the wrong feet, or so it seems to me now.

- And so the afternoon passed into the evening, and in the evening I sewed a button on my shirt, and felt really good about that.

- She was looking pretty good by now.

- He was walking fast and didn’t even look back at me.

- “Never believe in miracles” he said. “I won’t” I said.

- I wanted to put my finger on her forehead, but there was nothing there.

- I howled in pain.

- And then I slept and was happy.

- They call them the ghost soldiers, much beloved even by their enemies, and I guess that’s why I went to the parade, just to feel them march past, that little rush of cold air.

- I am worried the cricket may have been struck by some lightning of its own.

- Birdseed was her middle name.

- The starry sky, the police hiding in the bushes, God, it’s good to be alive, I think, and pee behind my car in the darkness of my own private darkness.

- Otto Guttchen showed me a fossil.

- “You’re beautiful,” he said, laughing, while nearly suffocating me with his fraternal bear hug.

- It was a parallel night, much like the other, and that was some comfort, cold comfort, as they like to say.

- “Martinez, nullify the Buddha.”

- I like the old fire engine, and the beat up roads.

- I respect them too much to ever try and trap one of them, although my fondest dream is to spend an evening with one, alone, in my home and for him or her to like me, to look me in the eyes, and for both of us to speak our hearts, for life is a serious business, never quite what it seems, and, the, always more.

- “Still, nice horse,” I said

- Nobody wants to have fun.

- “Lester! Lester Cunningham! Your dinner is getting cold.”

- “Bad bunnies,” she says, “very bad bunnies.”

- “You look a little peaked. Maybe a spider bit you, “I said.

- And then I went to bed.

- Then he went and fixed my lock.

- “Good, we can share a taxi,” he said.

- It was coming, and I was ready.

- Then, it changed.

- Any fool could see that.

- I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face.

- “Beef stew,” he said.

- My poor mother never believes a word of it.

- She’d walk out onto the porch and stare at the stars, not sharing her thoughts with anyone, and that’s the way I want to be from now on.

- It already resembles one when I squint my eyes.

- I soon found myself in the midst of a lively crowd of shoppers, and I smiled at anyone who would accept my smile, and several who would not, and bought a hat from a lady whose hand I touched.

- Otters don’t lay eggs, but I was starving.

- “Just wildflowers and butterflies.”

- I was pulling a yak over a mountaintop, hauling water and rice to a dead wise man, who knows nothing, says nothing.

- I threw the newspaper into the trashcan and walked toward the fountain between two six-year-old hoodlums.

- He was just a crazy man, I told myself, one of those people who think they’re above the fray, when in fact they’ve already been crushed by it.

- “Well, now we’ve met. We’ve broken the ice.”

- “Those are the caringest people you’ll ever meet, “I said.

- “And, besides, if we had stolen that statue of Calvin Coolidge, this town would have nothing. It would blow away in the wind,” I said.

- “I’m sorry I ever told you about the swordfish. It was probably crazy anyway,” she said.

- The doe and two fauns were gone, but their ghosts remained.

- “Over my dead body,” he says.

- One soldier was startled by a shadow and fired at it.

- “But he’s missing,” I said.

- I dated that waitress for a while, but she left me for a drummer.

- “National security. It’s for your own good.”

- “You’re a very poor snake,” he said.

- “Well it’s time we did something,” she said.

- “Oh, cool,” he said.

- I looked stunned, then we both started laughing.

- “Let’s pretend you are my cowboy,” he said.

- “That was their calling. They went happily to the land of the vapors,” she said.

- I was surprisingly calm.

- “I know, I know,” and he held his arms out toward me.

- A Happy Think Tank just wasn’t my style.

- Tweetee’ relentless pursuit of knowledge had taken him into the darkest and most dangerous waters, and the whale waited patiently with one thing in mind.

- But Spinoza knows and I know, we were there.

- Instead, I loved the little man, almost to death.

- She was the only Patty I knew.

- I got up and started walking toward them, then stopped, turned around and left the park, a rich man, a stranger.

- But a pig that can count to ten is a thing of glory.

- I saw the monster with my own two eyes, and he was real, as much as anything’s real.

- I thought, I’m going to take this ship down to the bottom of the deep blue sea where we can rest at last, and maybe have some fun.

- Back home, I reflected on the mystery of life, then forgot it.

- It seemed to be fire resistant.

- I had until seven to find a human in me, to teach him to walk and talk, and maybe even to care, though maybe that was asking too much.

- I stood under the paulownia tree, its panicles of fragrant violet flowers almost smothering.

- He’s like a very flawed, lowly God, poor man.

- That would really be something.

- He looked really friendly and I was already starting to like him.

- “Meanwhile, try Candy Spots in the third,” he said.

- So I sat and waited, and no one ever came.

- “yes, mothers always do,” I said.

- “Impossible! There is nothing to know,” he said.

- I wondered how many prayers had been said with it, and if any of them had been answered, but I guess it is the faith that matters most, only to end up in Linda’s panties.

- Or I think we did.

- Something deep down was broken.

- I still didn’t know which side I was on

2010-05-04T23:18:00.002-05:00

Two poems in 751 Magazine.

2010-04-29T10:55:00.004-05:00

This weekend is the One Year Anniversary of The Deep Moat Reading Series. We'll have Lara Glenum, Sandy Florian, & Ben Kopel representing. See the invite here fore more info.

hannah:

Hannah features collaborations between poets from UMass Amherst, 10 poets from University of Iowa, and 17 paintings from artists from the University of Iowa. I responded to an artists named Michael Perrone. He creates awe. See the painting above. The collaborations are now collected in book you can buy. Below is more info.

hannah (han’na) n. 1. A book of collaborations between painters at the University of Iowa & poets from the University of Iowa & University of Massachusetts Amherst Artists and Authors Included: Jeff Downey, Crystal Roethlisberger, Alan Felsenthal, Philip Miller, Genevieve Lawrence, Youngsoon Chon, Ben Estes, Douglas Degges, Brian Foley, Patrick Haas, Micah Bloom, Charity Stebbins, Chris Reno, Rawaan Alkhatib, Megan Dirks, Zach Savich, Mariah Dekkenga, Jono Tosch, David Dunlap, Amanda Nadelberg, Travis Head, Kiki Petrosino, Pete Schulte, Daniel Poppick, Michael Perrone, Cole Swensen, Mary Laube, Sarah Boyer, Ellen Siebers, Elaine Kahn, Zach Stensen, Adam Roberts, Danielle Kimzey

See what Amanda Nadelberg did with Phillip Miller.

Then buy a copy here. Enter this code FREEMAIL305 by May 1st and get free shipping.

The Black Eye & Whatever You Love of Weapons You Love For Weapons

2010-04-22T10:19:00.004-05:00

Now Available for purchase from Brave Men Press

front

back

THE BLACK EYE
Brian Foley

Brian Foley has had poems appear or are forthcoming in Typo, Fou, Glitterpony, No Tell Motel, Sixth Finch, and others. He edits SIR! Magazine and was recently selected by Pam Rehm for the Academy of American Poets prize. He lives in Massachusetts where he attends the MFA for Poets and Writers at Umass Amherst.

Cover is letterpressed with black ink on red paper.
Printed in a limited edition of 150.
22 pages.

read sample poems

$9

WHATEVER YOU LOVE OF WEAPONS YOU LOVE FOR WEAPONS
Mathias Svalina

Author's Artist Statement:

"This poem comes from a manuscript of serial poems exploring what it means to be influenced by an artist. They are ekphrastic in the basic sense that they respond to artists or works of art. Beyond that they attempt to understand, via the lyric, how the art that matters to us continues to be present long after we’ve stopped thinking about the color, form & content of an individual work. This poem is a response to Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew, a painting that I have never been able to get out of my head."

Author's artist statement originally written for The Tusculum Review.

read excerpt

Cover is letterpressed with copper and black ink on blue paper.
Printed in a limited edition of 150.
27 pages.

$9

2010-04-17T09:25:00.002-05:00

Notnostrums issue 4 is out. Three poems by me. Awesome drawings by Ben Estes.

self

2010-04-16T08:55:00.004-05:00

Yesterday I won the Academy of American Poets Award. It was judged by Pam Rehm. I don't know much about it, but if theres money involved I buying one of these for us.

If your in the area, Im reading at Nat Ottings House on Sunday at 3pm.

Its to celebrate the release of this, which will be available in the next day or so.

AWP was a total wonder. It was good to make the world smaller for a few days.

Sarah

2010-04-04T10:51:00.003-05:00

Mike Young did an excellent job on the last issue of NOO. Now he's made it into a weekly and has others curate. Check out these poems by Sarah Boyer.

and 5 were solitary
getting their thumbs into onions

I want to yell go
be a gym teacher

take him easy on a pleated couch
we are drying out at Orange

with the bikers
the whole place smells

like macing yourself
it gets better when you do it

Doesn't she kinda look like Jessica Hynes from Spaced?

Concern

2010-04-02T09:35:00.002-05:00

I wrote a poem this morning. Because it NaPoMo, I immediately put it up on Ink Node. Was this a good idea? It doesnt matter. Its so nice outside today I cant worry about it, but you can see it here.

Thanks to all those who submitted chapbooks for Brave Men Press's open reading period. We got a lot more than expected. We'll have answers for you immediately following AWP and no later than MAY 31st.

2010-04-01T11:00:00.004-05:00

I posted this on htmlgiant, but Im reposting it here.

Do you fear style in poetry?

Do you skeptic it?

Once the style is figured out, does it become less impactful?

My favorite writers are styled.

Their words have good hair.

Lack of style seems to be what keeps good words from becoming distinguished words.

I still look for things that I think are "cool"

"Cool" I think appeals to the mind more than the heart.

It doesn't need to be overt.

"Cool" is the neon sign that comes to mind when reading Cows by Frederic Boyer just published in the new Puerto Del Sol

2010-03-30T10:22:00.003-05:00

Only two more days to submit to the Brave Men Press Open Reading Period. Details at the bottom here.

Im reading Lisa Jarnot's Ring of Fire, and cannot excise a comparison to Goddard. The way the cosmic and popular culture are told in a "breathless" manner. Sorry. Bad joke.

I was assured this morning of a teaching job for next year. Celebrate with me by being a Bunny Man.

2010-03-29T11:49:00.000-05:00

via BMP blog

Dan Wickett at the Emerging Writers Network wrote a wonderful profile of Brave Men Press. Check it out.

He also had a special feature on Julia Cohen's For the H in Ghost, saying

A great portion of my personal interest in chapbooks, while I'm obviously hoping to find writing that I enjoy, is the chapbook as object itself - this particular edition is stunning - Emily Goodale has created a lovely, sturdy, piece of art all her own here, infused with the art of Cohen's poetry.

Sadly, we are sold out of the book online. However, if you're going to AWP in Denver we will have a handful of copies available at our table. Look for us.

2010-03-29T11:18:00.005-05:00

Sixteen Candles
Barcelona
Greenberg
Masculin Feminin
Kicking and Screaming
The White Ribbon
She's Out of My League
The Complete Films of Robert Frank, disc 1
The Crazies
The Last Days of Disco
Shutter Island

There should be a Good Reads type website for movies.

My beautiful cat died so Ive been watching movies.

2010-03-18T11:40:00.003-05:00

Cultural Society always has good work, but last night I was pinned.

Here is Steven Manuel with a poem I could sit with on clear nights until never comes.
Ticks are underused.

Untitled

a star
w /
tick
legs

but all
white

stuck
on the wall
of heaven

And here is another

"Whether a night-owl screaming"

Whether a night-owl screaming out
in regular intervals
or a train at either 3 a.m.
or 1 a.m. or some other time
scolding the night’s dark quiet

I lift my head and ear
to the window’s screen
and feel tight cold air
strain in, too, for a glimpse

I love the ramble of the first stanza that gives way to the clarity in the second. Also am taken by the image of cold air, peering.

Here is one from Shannon Tharp. This poem made me buy her book which is older, but I dont care.

An Edge

Patience now’s
a more substantive

shadow, as in
waves changing

in the dark. There’s
an echo here, the ghost

of which is something
like a voice that grows

as it’s eroded. What
remains is listening’s

trace, a struggle
for another pattern;

a growing into
need, want;

a process to not
remember. One

learns this ground
through flashes of

doubt — thought’s
only matter.

2010-03-03T09:52:00.002-05:00

Friends,

Birds, LLC is a new independent poetry press specializing in close author relationships in order to make the most awesome books in the world.

The first two books published by Birds, LLC are The French Exit by Elisa Gabbert and The Trees Around by Chris Tonelli.

SPECIAL PRE-SALE OFFER: Buy the first two Birds, LLC releases for just $20. Pre-Sale offer lasts until March 31st. Books ship the first week in April.

About The French Exit:
It’s a pleasure to listen to the opinions of the narrator of The French Exit. Clear-eyed imagery and wit control the anxiety: “[A] boy at the counter disappears / or I can see through him.” Likewise, in a fine prose poem: “Do not be afraid of angering the birds. What angers the birds is fear.” The energy throughout Gabbert’s collection has the clip of the French exit itself – allons-y! – self-aware, self-sufficient, in control, in touch.
- Caroline Knox

About The Trees Around:
Full of the will and the weather, that great skeptic Wallace Stevens walked to work and wrote his poems, poems you may well already love and believe. (Good, as they say, for you.) And as for Chris Tonelli, he walks in that integrity: read him, and be merciful unto yourself. His foot standeth in an even place. This book’ll make you bloom.
- Graham Foust

Local News

2010-02-25T11:52:00.003-05:00

This Saturday notnostrums, NOO journal, and SIR! Magazine
will make a reading at the Montague Bookmill.

Readers include

Alex Phillips,
Lauren Ireland,
Leigh Stein,
& Caroyln Zaikowski

Michelle Taransky, & Joshua Harmon
will be reading for SIR!.

I'm really proud to have these two poets on board.
And I haven't been to the Bookmill since Emily got food poisoning from a vile Northampton falaffel and puked her guts out there and beyond.

***

I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the new High on Fire album.

***

If your in NYC, this Friday you should go to the STAIN reading series.

February 26, Friday ~ Jillian Brall, R. Erica Doyle, Adam Fieled, Steve Langan, Janaka Stucky & Mendi Obadike

Janaka Stucky will be reading from and selling his Brave Men Press chapbook, YOUR NAME IS THE ONLY FREEDOM, which is into its second printing. The other half of the second printing will be available soon. There is also the Handsome release party on Saturday.
And while you're at it, take a minute to write Janaka in as Boston's best poet. Pinksy doesn't need that shit. No one really needs that shit, but we like Janaka better, right?

***

Have you seen The Song Cave? These are limited single poem chapbooks of the highest order made available each month. So far they've had Ben Lerner, Amanda Nadelberg, Cyrus Console, and (proprietor) Ben Estes. Wait til you hear who they have coming up.

SIR! 3

2010-01-06T11:52:00.002-05:00

The new issue of SIR! Magazine is up and about and waiting for you. In it you'll find poems by

Andrew Michael Roberts
Peter Davis
Sampson Starkweather
Karyna McGlynn
Chris DeWeese
Garth Graeper
Chris Salerno
Kathleen Rooney
Kate Dougherty
Rebecca Farivar
Catullus (translated by John Cotter)
Luke Bloomfield

The wonderful Emily Goodale designed the issue as well as created the cover image "Breakfast"
Just click on your favorite suckling to find your favored poet.

Submission are now open for issue four.

Once again thanks for reading.

glitterpony

2009-12-28T11:56:00.003-05:00

I have three new poems in Glitterpony, a good looking, well endowed ramp manager.

Xmas was boss. Got a dutch oven.

25

2009-12-15T08:48:00.002-05:00

I made a list for HTMLGIANT of 25 notable poetry books of the decade. It was fun.

Ear

2009-12-11T12:47:00.003-05:00

I got this in the mail the other day. Its a reissue of translations Paul Auster put to paper in 1972. Poems by Char, Peret, Artaud, Breton, Souplalt, Desnos, Aragon, and Arp. A great little collection. A beautiful book. Black, red, white.

Rain Taxi has a bunch of other chapbooks available. Russell Edson, Dara Weir, Alice Notley, Stephen Dixon.

Now Available from Brave Men Press

2009-12-10T11:25:00.000-05:00

We're pleased to announce Julia Cohen's new chapbook FOR THE H IN GHOST in now for sale.

In For the H in Ghost, Julia Cohen names the blank space,
representing what is and what is not with ribbons of text that run
like veins in an invisible, immutable tongue.

Julia Cohen's first full length book, Triggermoon Triggermoon,
is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press. She lives in Denver
and is the poetry editor of the journal, Saltgrass.

Cover is letterpressed with grey ink on white paper.
Printed in a limited edition of 83.
17 pages.

read a sample poem

$9

Click Here to Purchase

***

ALSO AVAILABLE FROM BRAVE MEN PRESS

Series #7 Coinsides featuring Dan Boehl and Mike Young

Featuring Mike Young and Dan Boehl.
Actual size 2 3/8 x 4 1/8".
Each Coinside printed in a limited edition of 23.
Set of Two.

$3.50 for each, $6.50 for both

Click here to Purchase

****

Janaka Stucky's YOUR NAME IS THE ONLY FREEDOM has SOLD OUT.
We will be making a second edition in January. A pre-sale will appear on the website shortly.

A limited edition chapbook from Mathias Svalina is due this spring,
as well as a chapbook by Brian Foley.

Visit Brave Men Press.

Wrecking Crew

2009-12-09T14:22:00.004-05:00

A copy of Larry Levis' Wrecking Crew costs $50. Sometimes $92. Someone please reissue this. These early poems fit nicely somewhere between David Youngs' Sweating Out The Winter and Greogory Orrs' Gathering The Bones Together. It is a softer surrealism.

Age

On the post
of an abandoned wharf
a sea gull settles,
fixes me with a hard star,
and grows old.

The boards move gently under my feet,
we're floating.

-Larry Levis

Old Movies at Ink Node

2009-11-30T14:41:00.003-05:00

Hi.

I published a poem at Ink Node. Its called Old Movies.

You can go and look at it and then rate it, right here.

A Reminder

2009-11-24T09:14:00.002-05:00

Brave Men Press will be in the East Village tonight for a special showcase. Farrah Field, Sam Starkweather, Mark Leider, Luke Bloomfield, and myself will be reading. We will have copies of our new chapbook by Julia Cohen, THE H IN GHOST for sale for the first time. Come and shake.

2009-11-20T23:34:00.001-05:00

Jericho Brown has a book called Please.

Lion

I wish you tamed. I wish what you fear—
A night alone in the forest.

A father who leaves you there. I wish you
Were ten years old again. And in love

With Marvin Gaye. I wish you saw his daddy
Shoot him. I wish you asthma. An attack

In the field. A lump in your chest. A doctor
Who won’t touch it. I wish you’d live forever

Afraid of dying. See the circus and be content.
Animals crawling like infants for the men

Who made them. I wish you would
Sniff a man. I wish his whip

Sharper than fangs. I wish you could know
How bite-less I feel, the mouth
I don’t close, his head in my throat.

I have just found something...

2009-11-18T11:34:00.002-05:00

...and several more. Follow the lit words.

Gunpowder

I won’t stick my chest out before someone else’s firing squad
just so history might say I passed that test. That’s no way
to live. Gunpowder speaks for itself. To be alive at this party
you have to be conscious of your breath. I am party-conscious,
and you are not. Thank goodness we are both breathing,
my arm cast across the bed and over your body,
and I am waiting to be told what it is I feel under my arm,
a tap-tap not unlike the near-hopeless rhythm of someone
signaling from beneath infinite rubble. It may be my heart.
It may be your heart. There is infinite rubble on the news.
There are infinite contexts in which an open heart is not
nearly a good thing, contexts I do not nearly wish to name.

by Benajamin Paloff

Stolen from Jacket Magazine, October 2007

2009-11-17T21:00:00.002-05:00

Among the principles the Zapatistas enunciated were mandar obedeciendo (lead by obeying), para todos todo, nada para nosotros (everything for everyone, nothing for ourselves), and preguntando caminamos (walking we ask questions). These mottos articulate a flexible, modest, hopeful, quixotic grasp of how to step forward without stepping on anyone. “Walking we ask questions” is one of their ways of insisting that they do not have answers – “our specialty is proposing problems”, they say, not solutions – and that questions can carry you forward. The Zapatistas made it clear that the old Left – domineering, centrist, convinced that if it ran the state then the state would set us free, ready to pass judgment, fond of one-size-fits-all answers, full of its own globalizing tendencies – was dead. They were too polite to put it quite that way, but there it was, and a hazy yet often luminous new political-cultural era has arrived.

I see the insurrectionary diffidence of the privileged young around me as inspired by this, up to a point. It is as though they have vowed never to be bullies again, but in so doing find it hard to stand up for (and to) things. I like the humility, the gentleness, but I want those that come after me to dream big dreams and try to change the world – to feel powerful, with all the burden and opportunity that goes with that power. “Engaged withdrawal,” the term for the creation of alternatives and the refusal to participate in what is seen as corrupt, can be an effective mode of social and political change, but sometimes engagement is necessary.

-Rebecca Solnit

2009-11-12T21:55:00.002-05:00

Mathias, this is just wonderful

Trakl

2009-11-11T10:49:00.003-05:00

Anniversaries. The Berlin Wall, of which my uncle once brought my family a small chunk; and this time last year I first read Georg Trakl. A friend told me his name was pronounce "gay-org."

My Heart at Evening

by Georg Trakl

Toward evening you hear the cry of the bats.
Two black horses bound in the pasture,
The red maple rustles,
The walker along the road sees ahead the small
tavern.
Nuts and young wine taste delicious,
Delicious: to stagger drunk into the darkening woods.
Village bells, painful to hear, echo through the black
fir branches,
Dew forms on the face.

From 20 Trakl translations by Robert Bly and James Wright,

This version of The Heart... differs greatly from the Daniel Slimko version. The rhythm, the breaks. Over the editor of the Liliput Review talks about Trakl's influence on Wright.

I Was Afraid of Dying

Once,
I was afraid of dying
In a field of dry weeds.
But now,
All day long I have been walking among damp fields,
Trying to keep still, listening
To insects that move patiently.
Perhaps they are sampling the fresh dew that gathers slowly
In empty snail shells
And in the secret shelters of sparrow feathers fallen on the
------earth.
James Wright

I bought this book to be sure

If you're not like me, you can view all of James Wright's collected poems here.

Readings - Turner Falls & NYC

2009-11-08T18:37:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow night I read at the Slope Reading Series with Chris Tonelli and Janaka Stucky. It's at The Rendevous and starts at 7pm.

Brave Men Press has been invited by Boog City to take part in its D.A. LEVY LIVES: CELEBRATING THE RENEGADE PRESS series. On Nov 24th we will invade NYC

Farrah Field, Sampson Starkweather, Mark Leidner, Luke Bloomfield and myself will be representing. Music will be performed by French Ancestors.

More info below -

Tues., Nov. 24, 6:00 p.m. sharp, free

ACA Galleries

529 W. 20th St., 5th Flr.

NYC

There will be wine, cheese, and crackers, too.

Curated and with an introduction by Boog City editor David Kirschenbaum

*Performer Bios*

**Luke Bloomfield**

http://glitterponymag.com/poetry/Luke-Bloomfield/56-Booms/

Luke Bloomfield is a co-editor for notnostrums journal and a Juniper Fellow at UMass Amherst. He has poems recently published in Glitterpony and Invisible Ear and other places. He is an out of work translator. He has read for 55 seconds at the Minutes Reading Series. He is a member of the Western Massachusetts Robert Walser Society.

**Farrah Field**

http://www.adultish.blogspot.com/

Farrah Field's first collection of poems, Rising, won the 2007 Levis Prize and is out from Four Way Books. Her poems have appeared in many publications, including The Mississippi Review, Margie, The Massachusetts Review, Pool, Typo, Harp & Altar, 42Opus, La Petite Zine, and Sojourn, and are forthcoming in Pebble Lake Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Fulcrum, and The Pinch. She lives in Brooklyn and blogs at the above site.

**Brian Foley**

http://www.eunuchsblues.blogspot.com

Brian Foley has poems in Front Porch, Sixth Finch, LIT, Strange Machine, No Tell Motel, Keyhole, Sleeping Fish, and Avatar Review among others. His chapbook The Tornado is not a Surrealist is out from Greying Ghost Press. He edits the online schism, SIR!, is poetry editor of Brave Men Press, and runs The Deep Moat Reading Series in Cambridge, Mass. He attends grad school for poetry at UMass Amherst and lives in Northampton, Mass.

**French Ancestors**

http://www.myspace.com/itsfrenchancestors

French Ancestors is the moniker of Jesse Duquette, formerly of Boston pop mavens Emergency Music.

**Mark Leidner**

http://trembyle.livejournal.com

Mark Leidner grew up in Tifton, a small town in south Georgia. His two chapbooks are The Night of 1,000 Murders (Factory Hollow Press) and The Empire (Scantily Clad Press). He lives in Northampton, Mass. and his blog is located at the above site.

**Sampson Starkweather**

http://www.typomag.com/issue12/starkweather.html

Sampson Starkweather lives in the forest. His most recent chapbook is The Heart is Green from So Much Waiting from Immaculate Disciples Press. He is also the author of City of Moths from Rope-a-Dope Press and The Photograph from horse less press. Recent or forthcoming work can be found in Action Yes, Typo, Sink Review, SIR!, Open Letters Monthly, Pax Americana, RealPoetik, and Ekleksographia.

----

Directions:

C/E to 23rd St., 1/9 to 18th St.

Venue is bet. 10th and 11th avenues

NOW AVAILABLE from BRAVE MEN PRESS - YOUR NAME IS THE ONLY FREEDOM by JANAKA STUCKY

2009-11-07T13:48:00.000-05:00

Brave Men Press is pleased to announce the release of

YOUR NAME IS THE ONLY FREEDOM
by Janaka Stucky

Cover is letterpressed with gold ink on red paper.
Printed in a limited edition of 60.
23 pages.

$9

Janaka Stucky has had poems appear in Cannibal, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Free Verse, No Tell Motel, North American Review, Redivider and VOLT. He is the publisher of Black Ocean and its literary magazine, Handsome.

READ SAMPLE POEMS - http://bravemenpress.com/stuckysample.html

TO BUY - http://bravemenpress.com/yourname.html

NO THEATER REVIEW

2009-10-10T10:22:00.002-05:00

A seven gun salute review of Chris Tonelli's NO THEATER at Tarapaulin Sky. Pass it along.

Only 20 copies left, get yours now at Brave Men Press.

2009-08-24T11:44:00.003-05:00

NOO Journal has a nice review by Ryan Call of my chapbook, The Tornado is not a Surrealist. Cool.

IsReads

2009-08-14T10:33:00.002-05:00

IsReads hangs poems and things around Nashville, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh. I have two poems somewhere in the vicinity.

In other news, I'm enjoying the new Behemoth record.

2009-08-12T16:47:00.002-05:00

Hi. I have two poems in the new issue of Strange Machine.

Top 2345848317563486752341368

2009-08-10T12:02:00.004-05:00

There's a list going around Facebook to name 50 bands you've seen in concert. I started at fifty, then quickly recalled another fifty, then found the list shooting past 150....As an exercise in memory I just kept going. This list below is not fabricated. I kind of wish it was. I'd have a lot more money. I also didn't include many local bands or friends bands (too many to count), but ones that would be recognizable to others, worth remembering, etc.....Right Now, this is as many as I can remember. I feel slightly proud and lucky to have had these experiences, for better or worse.

Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw (you can remember that, can’t you)?

Weezer

Archers of Loaf (x2)

Slayer

Cannibal Corpse

God Forbid (x2)

Guided by Voices (x3)

Yo La Tengo (x4)

Sunn 0)))

Grief

Destroyer (x2)

Sonic Youth (x3)

Jesus Lizard

Hole

Polvo

Converge (x2)

Jonathan Richman (x2)

Man…or Astroman?

Hot Snakes (x2)

Melvins

Low

Radiohead

Wilco

Shellac

Shins

Beck

Unwound

The Chameleons

Wire

Oxes (x2)

Arab on Radar (x4)

Locust (x2)

Young Widows

Acid Mothers Temple

Magnetic Fields (x3)

Lambchop (x2)

New Pornographers (x2)

Neutral Milk Hotel

Crooked Fingers (x4)

Spoon (x2)

The New Year (x2)

Will Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billy (x4)

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Murder City Devils (x3)

Iggy Pop

Harvey Milk

High on Fire

Les Savy Fav

!!! (x2)

Clinic

Pig Destroyer

Devendra Banhart (x2)

Johanna Newsom

Playing Enemy

Smog/Bill Callahan (x3)

Godspeed You Black Emperor

Pavement

Six Organs of Admittance

Deerhoof (x2)

Slint

Superchunk (x3)

Isis (x2)

Thrones

Cave In

Animal Collective

Fugazi (x2)

Adult.

Interpol (x3)

Ida

Olivia Tremor Control

Pretty Girls Make Graves

At the Drive In (x2)

The Black Heart Procession

Neko Case

Silver Jews (x3)

Califone (x3)

Silkworm

Pleasure Forever

Sebadoh

Butterglory

Helium

The Damned

Versus (x2)

The Bats

Blonde Redhead

Angels of Light

Rye Coalition (x2)

Built to Spill

Modest Mouse

Belle and Sebastian

The Strokes (x2)

Interpol (x3)

Karate (x2)

Sleater Kinney (x2)

The Fucking Champs

Dead Low Tide (x2)

Papa M

Refrigerator

Enon

The Hives

White Stripes (x2)

The Joggers

Rocket from the Crypt

The Natural History

Ex Models

Numbers

The Rapture

Warlocks (x2)

Dead Meadow (x3)

French Kicks (x3)

The Walkmen (x3)

The Faint (x2)

Convocation of…

Steve Earle

Sunburned Hand of the Man (x3)

Prurient

Wolf Eyes (x2)

Growing (x2)

Brightblack Morninglight

Lamb of God

Darkest Hour

Howling Hex

The Sadies (x2)

Owls

American Steel

Get Up Kids

Rainer Maria

Jack Rose

Amazing Royal Crowns (x3)

Ben Folds Five

Mastadon

Burnt by the Sun

Drowning Man

Magnolia Electric Company

Liars

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Boris

Witch

Earthless

Quasi

The Ex

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (x2)

Black Eyes

Vetiver (x2)

The Gossip

Erase Errata

Stereo Total

Pilot to Gunner

Watchers

Victory at Sea

Bright

Paik

Oneida

Tunnel of Love

Helms

Wolf Colonel

Nautical Almanac

Can’t

David Thomas Broughton

Rubber-O-Cement

Les Georges Leningrad

Devil Musik

Xiu Xiu

David Kilgour

Portastatic (x3)

The Music Tapes

…And You’ll Know Us by the Trail of Dead

Seaweed

Richard Buckner

Rock*a*Teens

Cypress Hill

Elastica

Mighty Mighty Bosstones

The International Noise Conspiracy

Milemarker (x2)

Ashley Stove

Sahara Hotnights (x3)

Brian Jonestown Massacre (x2)

My Morning Jacket

Reverend Horton Heat

Kings of Leon

Rogue Wave

The Kills

Mates of State

Dr. Dog

The Ravonettes

Langhorne Slim

Mark Robinson (x3)

Q and not U

Vue

Hot Hot Heat (x2)

The Apes

Radio 4 (x2)

Mooney Suzuki

Von Bondies

Frightened Rabbit

Trans Am

Ten Yard Fight

Showcase Showdown (x3)

Major Stars (x3)

The Catheters

Cinerama

Mount Eerie

Julie Doiron

Neurosis

Neptune

Ladybug Transistor

Mr. Airplane Man

Mouthus

Bark Haze

Hella

Out Hud

Young People

Green Day

Saves the Day

Blink-182

Trial By Fire

Pedro the Lion

The Explosion

Calvin Johnson

Mirah (x2)

The Rondelles

Bad Religion

CIV

NOFX

Sir Richard Bishop (x2)

Daniel Johnston (x3)

Wesley Willis

Antibalas Orchestra

Chinese Stars (x4)

Extreme Elvis

Daughters

The Butchies

Bruce Springsteen

Bottomles Pit

Black Nasty

Big Bear

Gates of Slumber

Zoroaster

Gore for the Poor

2009-08-05T15:36:00.014-05:00

I have a poem in the (new) New Yinzer. Thanks to Claire for inviting me. Good stuff by Justin Taylor, Blake Butler, Shannon Tharp, and this essay by Katy Henricksen.

Did you get a copy of No Theater by Chris Tonelli yet? It's been about two weeks since its release and we're down to about 40 copies left! Moms are really into it. Some dads.
We've mailed all orders up to this date. If you've received it and read it, add it to your Good Reads, or maybe blog some thoughts about it. That'd be great.

Click Here to purchase a copy

Anyone who has seen me in the past few months knows I've become infected by metal. This usually happens every summer; I don't know why. But this year it seems a more permanent thing. Like, I bought a skateboard. Again.

Anyway, here is some of my preferred Summer Listening

Slayer: Christ Illusion, Season in the Abyss, Reign in Blood
Darkthrone: Blaze Over the Northern Sky
Absu: Absu
Elder: Elder
Wolves in the Throne Room: Two Hunters
Burning Witch: Crippled Lucifer
Harvey Milk: Life....The Best Game in Town
Grief: Torso
Zoroaster: Dog Magic
Nachtmystium: Assassins
Yob: The Great Cessation
Agoraphobic Nosebleed: Agorapocalypse
Repulsion: Horrified
Deep Purple: Machine Head
Sleep: Holy Mountain

And for the jam of the summer, Metallica-Ride the Lightning slowed down!!!! This is ripped from the 45rpm vinyl, played at 33rpm. I never thought I'd be able to hear this record in a different light, but whoa man, its heavier, more crushing, and so much better. Do yourself a favor and download this. (Note to Suetallica: I did not upload this, I'm merely pointing.)

Last weekend we saw Until The light Take Us. A documentary about the Norwegian Black Metal Scene. I was afraid it would rehash a lot of the same dirt (church burnings, Euronymous murder, etc..) and in some ways it did, but mostly it was interviews with those involved looking back upon their lives and the ways black metal has changed since then. It barely made mention of the music, which played in its favor since there are so many documents fully covering the phenomenon. What was most interesting was the differences in which key players viewed their musical efforts. Varg Vierkenes as a political rebellion, and Fenriz of Darkthrone as an artistic statement that has since been raped by co-option.

Yesterday we went to the Mayhem festival. The bands were mostly awful, but it was an awesome time. We were there for Slayer and people watching, neither disappointed.

Allright, Allright, Allright

Rad Liqs!

Rad Dads!

Rad wheels!

Rad meals!

Elderly Dad Gore

Sticky Family Time

NOW AVAILABLE - CHRIS TONELLI - NO THEATER

2009-07-24T10:19:00.005-05:00

BRAVE MEN PRESS is excited to announce the release of our first book, NO THEATER by Chris Tonelli.

Considering the responsibilities of the social world with a disconnected eye, NO THEATER is a collection of meticulously crafted poems that perform outside of time, but remain intuitively familiar and profound. Chris Tonelli reveals the artificialities of the everyday self with a language stalked by loss yet driven by possibility. Here, these poems come prepared in an armature of many masks and invested with an insight sure to move around the mental furniture of any reader.

Chris Tonelli co-curates The So and So Series and is the author of four chapbooks, most recently For People Who Like Gravity and Other People (Rope-A-Dope Press, forthcoming). He teaches at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he lives with his wife Allison.

Read a sample poem here.

Cover is letterpressed with black ink on black paper.
Printed in a limited edition of 123.
25 pages.

Buy it.

If you have a blog, please share this information with others. We want to make lots of books.

Rad Lines in the Sand

2009-07-23T10:08:00.002-05:00

An excerpt from Sampson Starkweathers' mega poem LA LA LA up at Real Poetik

every poem should begin
I’m kinda of in a dunebuggy
it’s a fact
feelings of powelessness
lead to killing and shopping
sprees weeeeeeee
oh there’s more
where that came from
a growing demand
for designer vaginas

The hardest working woman in small press biz destroys his new book to death growls, proving once again he controls.

Scorch Atlas (destroyed) by Blake Butler from featherproof books on Vimeo.
SCORCH ATLAS is now available for preorder for only $10. You can order your copy "destroyed" if you like. I can't wait to read this beast.

Moderate Fools

2009-07-21T15:48:00.004-05:00

This past weekends' DEEP MOAT was something to behold,and many people did. Who were all those people? I wish I knew. But the ones I did know I worship. I hope to see you all again soon. Brave Men sold enough copies of NO THEATER to buy some Slayer tickets. And if anyone saw the recent coinsides you'd know Emily's hard work deserves some sweet release. My one regret is not organizing the whiffle ball game I'd promised. NO THEATER will be for sale online in the next day or so. (Above photo by the crucial Paige T)

Today I have three poems up at The Raleigh Quarterly. These poems are from THE BLACK EYE. They're a bit wintery. A big thanks to Chris and Chris for letting me hang.

Mathias and Julia have some bitchin' poems at Dear Camera. I like the title Force, Proximity, Repulsion.

Emily and I were approved for this apartment in Northampton. 2 Bedroom, a private backyard w/ porch.

Watch this robot read Mark Leidner.

mmm

2009-07-16T09:19:00.003-05:00

Last night Nicholas Cage's son's black metal band played a show in a shitty little club down the street from my house. I forgot about it. Word is Dad was there in full form punching air and banging heads. I really really regret not being there to see that.

New Coinsides are available a Brave Men Press.

(NAPOLEON) by Chris Tonelli:

$3.50

PINK JELLYBEANS by Jon Woodward:

$3.50

and XXIX by Sampson Starkweather:

$3.50

and as always, the set of three is available for a slight discount:

$9.50
Also we are happy to announce the Brave Men Press Coinside Accordion Book is now available again with full set of 5 Coinsides:

When you buy this package you will recieve:

1 Accordion Book

& CoinSides by:
Justin Marks
Julia Cohen
Chris Tonelli
Jon Woodward
Sampson Starkweather

$34

or buy the book alone!

CLOSED

2009-07-10T15:52:00.003-05:00

I wanted to keep a year round open door, but I've had to close submissions at SIR! for a while. I received way more submissions than I ever expected to and I really need to catch up with things. My apologies to those who've been waiting for a response. You'll hopefully receive something soon. in the meantime, watch this incredible video taken from Mathias's blog -

The new issue is near complete and looking pretty rad. Wonder if we can get Pushead to do the "cover"

Deadinthewoods

2009-07-08T13:32:00.004-05:00

Only 20 more days (or so) left to pre-order a hardcover copy of Zach Schomburg's Scary, No Scary and receive a limited edition coinside (above) designed and printed from Brave Men Press. The design is above, but it is only a small taste of what you'll actually receive.

2009-07-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

Next Up at The Deep Moat Reading Series,
Saturday July 18th, 7:00 P.M.

located at the Pierre Menard Gallery, 10 Arrow st, Cambridge, MA 02138.

The Deep Moat Reading Series celebrates the release of Chris Tonelli's NO THEATER, the first chapbook available from new local publisher Brave Men Press. We are extremely excited about the release of this book, as it is some of the best poetry written this decade or any other, and hope you will join us for a night that will not soon be forgotten.

Chris Tonelli co-curates The So and So Series and is the author of four chapbooks, most recently For People Who Like Gravity and Other People (Rope-A-Dope Press, forthcoming). He teaches at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he lives with his wife Allison.

A poem from NO THEATER from Sixth Finch.
Another poem from NO THEATER in Sixth Finch.
Three poems from NO THEATER in SIR! Magazine.

Jon Woodward was born in Wichita, Kansas and grew up in Wichita and in Denver, Colorado. His two published books are Rain (Wave Books, 2006) and Mister Goodbye Easter Island (Alice James Books, 2003). He lives in Boston and works at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

A review of RAIN in The Believer.
Five Poems from La Petite Zine.
Two Poems in Octopus.

Sampson Starkweather is the author of three chapbooks, The Heart is Green from So Much Waiting forthcoming from Immaculate Disciples Press, City of Moths a Rope-a-Dope Press production, and The Photograph from horse less press. He dwells deep within da Qua.

A review of CITY OF MONTHS in Coldfront magazine
A poem from Typo Magazine
A poem from Sixth Finch

As always, limited edition coinsides (tiny broadsides) will be available at the reading and through the Brave Men Press website.

Porch Medal

2009-06-30T15:04:00.002-05:00

I have four new poems in Front Porch 11.

Scary No Scary

2009-06-24T10:19:00.002-05:00

Pre-order a hardcover copy of Zach Scomburg's new collection Scary, No Scary and receive a limited edition broadside by Brave Men Press!

Scary, No Scary (limited ed.)
by Zachary Schomburg
Hardcover / 80p. / Poetry / $30.00

Scary, No Scary, the follow-up to Zachary Schomburg’s acclaimed first collection of poems The Man Suit, is a book of skeleton gloves and skeleton keys—at once dark and playful. With loneliness and levity Schomburg takes the reader on a tour through a liminal world of dream-logic, informed by its own myth and folklore. Here there are new kinds of trees and new ways of naming the ages; jaguars and an abandoned hotel on the horizon. This book will crawl inside your chest and pump lava through your blood.

We are offering a very special foil-stamped hardcover publication of Scary, No Scary in a limited run of two hundred editions. The textless dust jacket will also feature different artwork from the softcover version. Each copy comes with a fine letter pressed miniature broadside as well, courtesy of Brave Men Press, containing the title poem from the book. These hardcover packages will only be available directly from Black Ocean, and are being offered for $30 with free shipping. All preorders will ship as soon as the books become available in August. These are sure to sell out, so order your copy soon! [Update 6/23 Copies Remaining: 170]

Sixth Finch

2009-06-22T10:11:00.002-05:00

The newest issue of Sixth Finch is up. I have two poems in it - Deep Moat & Unwritten Books. Thanks to Rob MacDonald for including me in what I think is one of the best poetry magazines. Rob doesn't take submissions. He expects each writer to recommend another. I really like the continuity of this approach. So far the results have been amazing. Read these poems by Dara Cerv, Julia Cohen, Adam Day( who has a poem in the new Memorius that really cut me up), & Emily Kendal Frey.

This poem by Matthew Yeager demands a response.

Someone videotaped the last Deep Moat. Here are some clips, and more if you're inclined.

Heather Green

Julia Cohen

Justin Marks

The next Deep Moat will be on July 18th with Chris Tonelli, Sampson Starkweather, and Jon Woodward. On August 26th its Zach Schomburg, Emily Kendal Frey, and Mark Leidner. Bitchin'.

Puppy Kicker

2009-06-15T10:04:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all who came to the Moat this weekend. It was easily the best one yet. Even my mom and dad were there, getting rowdy. Thanks to those who opened up their house to us, all who came from New York and afar, and those who took the night off. Heather, Julia, and Justin were superb and make it all worthwhile. We still have a few coinsides from the night, if you haven't yet picked them up.

Anti #4 is alive and spitting. 22 poems by Sara Tracey, Larissa Szporluk, Kevin Simmonds, Peter Schwartz, W. F. Roby, Joe Plicka, Laura McCullough, John Loughlin, Jason Koo, Rose Kelleher, Jason Fraley, Mark DeCarteret, Lisa Ciccarello, Travis Brown, Nicky Beer, and Brian Barker.I have a poem called "Changing Lightbulbs"

I've been listening to this, this, and this. You should too.

Carl has some sweet Corduroy Mtn pillows for sale.

My team won at trivia again last night. I got my first anagram (Gloria Estefan). We have a treasure chest of $300 in which to buy many buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks. If you would like to join in on our feast, it is happening soon.

Coinsides - Justin Marks & Julia Cohen

2009-06-10T09:35:00.003-05:00

Now available from Brave Men Press- the third installment of the Coinside series in conjunction with the Deep Moat Reading Series. Each Coinside contains a lithographed image with a poem in hand-set 6 point type.

Julia Cohen:

$3.50

and Justin Marks:

Also available as a pair for a slight discount:

$6.50

Don't forget to see the poets in person at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Harvard Square on Saturday June 13th. Coinsides and paraphernalia will be there in person also.

Each Coinside is printed in an edition of 21.

Also introducing our Brave Men Press accordion book specially made to store and display your collection of Coinsides. The accordion is double-sided with a total of 14 slots (enough for all the current Coinsides and room for future ones.)

It can fold up to be put on a book shelf or can spread out to be displayed.

Cover measures 3x4 1/4"

Buy the book alone for $18.95

Buy the book along with all the Coinsides to date (6) for $36

(shipping included)

Amherst

2009-06-09T11:14:00.001-05:00

by Fairfield Porter

The presence in a painting," he once wrote,

is like the presence a child feels and recognizes in things and the way they relate, like a doorknob, the slant of a roof or its flatness, or the personality of a tool. Art does not succeed by compelling you to like it, but by making you feel this presence in it. Is someone there? This someone can be impersonal.