Close your eyes. I'm changing.

Two weeks since last post. That long?

Three strong readings last week: thank you George Stanley, Jack Kimball, and Tim Peterson.

Heartbreak cliche last Thursday night.

These fall days in which I am tired and continually forgetting things I often imagine poetry as an escape. What draws me to certain poetry is the freedom of thought I find therein. Play of the imagination too. & invention. All that is denied a bureaucrat (which is what a public school teacher often is). To claim freedom, imagination, invention is a political act. & *is* different from other escapes. Passive ones, especially. Not that I don't indulge in these but I want to make special claims for poetry.

We've heard this all before. But today these comments are a way of thanking George, Jack, and Tim. None of whom may read this.

Now I will try to remember all that I am currently forgetting.

slan,
j.c.

Amanda returns tonight. Touches down in East Boston at 8:56.
*
Read & discussed Jordan Davis' poem "W" in a Brit Lit class today. "Brit Lit?," you ask. "Yes," I answer. "W" deals (humorously & seriously, I think) w/ many theories about monsters. & in the Brit Lit curriculum here at GHS we teach _Beowulf_, _Grendel_, _Lord of the Flies_, _Frankenstein_ as well "Tyger" & "The Second Coming" (though most teachers only dabble in the poetry).

(Ach! the poem is back in my classroom; I'm typing in the copier room during my prep block. {Since this is the last block of the day there's no more prep to be done, though plenty of grading.}) In any case the poem is polyvocal (no single narrator it seems or no single occasion for narration perhaps) & so offers the students a bit of a challenge, but no one they were unwilling to take up. The discussion was heartening. They were willing to talk about the different tones of the different narrators. (Or perhaps one narrator w/ many tones. As a romantic, I'm tempted to read J.D.'s poems this way.) This possibility was in fact enormously helpful to them in understanding/experiencing the poem. (Understanding implies a kind of *answer* that I'm not sure the poem gives.) Maybe I'll have a chance to talk more specifically about the poem later but I thought I'd jot down a few things about a specific poem I like (& teach) so maybe others could do the same.

Also if non-bloggers want to write a little informal response to a particular poem, I could post said responses here.

Off to a school newspaper meeting, my next teacherly task.

slan,
j.c.

At GHS late grading papers.
Would like to hear more about the Friday & Saturday readings at Waterstones from those who were there. New poems from Mr. Bouchard? Was tired & disturbed by the world Saturday. A good day to stay in Gloucester. Sad to miss the poems. In better spirits on Sunday & am glad not to have stayed home. Many thanks to all who made the day. Many thanks to the weather too. Thanks to my students for not lynching me when I came in without all their essays graded. When I return home I'll finish rereading Midwinter Day lent to me by Tim Peterson. Many thanks to Tim. Many thanks to yesterdays Wordsworth readers.
***
$.02
Finally got around to checking out the Boston Comment stuff. (Yup I know I'm behind. Look at the date of my last post.) The Post-Post Dementia essay gets downright silly when discussing Christina Mengert's poem in Slope.
Here's the poem

Is an axle's excavation
an axiom's inversion
that muzzles
the ventriloquist breath

of a nipple. The revolving door
of its throat.

Though Houlihan says words don't matter in Mengert to my eye & ear they seem chosen quite purposefully. Houlihan says "revolving" might just as well be "sliding," etc. But what then about the "axel"? (& its suggestion also of "axle")? She says "throat" might just as well be "scalp"; what then of the "breath"? I'm not going to argue that it's a great poem but to say that the word choices are random & meaningless is just plain silly.

So I propose, bloggers of the ghost city, that we--I guess me too--take a bit of time to talk about some poems we like, love, find pleasure in, find x in, etc. What is it that we see there? Dementia?
***
I've only recently been able to listen to The Smiths again. For many years the music too painfully reminded me of adolescence & young adulthood--all my shortcomings, cowardice, failures, awkwardness, loneliness, misunderstandings, delusions, etc. But now I can hear the music again & I hear it half remembering but half uncomprehending what it was I once heard, since now the pleasures in the music are quite different than they were then.
To Shin Yu & Aaron: I would like to nominate as anthems of a sort, "Ask" & "Stretch Out & Wait". I should also say that due to my age my first Smiths tape was Strangeways, Here We Come. Because I had it w/ me in England & Scotland at age 16 the music has a particularly lurid sonic glow.

slan,
j.c.

I realize no one will read this. I realize many have stopped checking this site because of the infrequency of posts. I realize I have bored you one time too many.
~
Don't go to the Independent Christian Church (Unitarian-Universalist) on Saturday September 13 to hear me read poems. Do not walk through the doors at seven for the soundcheck or at seven thirty for the opening act or at eight for the poetry or at eight thirty for the featured performer. Don't.
~
Please email me ideas for potentially objectionable passages from well known works (the Nausikaa chapter of Ulysses for example). I may read the passages you suggest to the UU crowd on Saturday.
~
I am tired & sad. How are you?
~
I will have a shot of whiskey for Johnny Cash. I hope to get drunk soon. I'm tired & sad. How are you?
~
My principal informed us that the people killed in the World Trade Center towers two years ago were killed "just because they were [U.S.] American." What about the ones who weren't citizens of the United States of America? What were they killed for? I was also informed that we are attacked because of our democracy & freedoms. Curious that the terrorists neglected Canada. I wonder if they know about Canada. Where I am right now I can't have a shot, though I thought of bringing a flask today. A bad sign? More than a bit indulgent & melodramatic? Guilty as charged.
~
Thanks to Mark & Christina & all who have written recently.
~
My Marine brother arrived back in the U.S. Wednesday. I will be happy to see him.
~
Back to school.
~

slainte & paz,
j.c.

La Fiesta

Mars obscured. Lucy swinging. Pool playing for Columbine. Seamus drumming. Mars is the Milky Way. Jim toca la guitara. Consuming red globes. Didn't greet Mark w/ "Huya" sign. The Milky Way is Mars. Zac sleepy. Salvation Army filled with striped shirts. Freces y chocolate de Ariane. Seven Nation Army is the White Stripes. Is trash dip. 2:30.

slan,
j.c.

After visiting Aaron's Fishblog I decided to check out Emerson College's rankings. Here's what I found:

Emerson College's
Best 351 Colleges Rankings

Click on the list name to see all the schools on that list or
click the category name to see all the lists in the category.
Rank List Category
#19 Gay Community Accepted
#7 Students Ignore God on a Regular Basis
#1 Great College Radio Station
#1 Great College Theater
#5 Intercollegiate Sports Unpopular or Nonexistent Extracurriculars
#1 Nobody Plays Intramural Sports
#1 Dodge Ball Targets

Hmm. As an 'ERS d.j., Lions soccer player, & former Catholic, what should I think?
~
Haircut. Met knew teacher. No beer. School bike. Fish taco. Car at Linsky's. Pool: Amanda in, Zac & I play. Brother's birthday. Flava ice. Flava Flav. Cold lampin'. Hot & humid. Griff news Ball Square. Nearly four o'clock. SLEEPING on the Wing. The DELUXE TRANSITIVE VAMPIRE. Dred of ride home. Reactions to haircut. New keyboard. New hard drive. At school. Past four. Time to go. Miss you.

slan,
j.c.

Pack. Drive. Stop. Percolator. Portsmouth. Drive. Chinese buffet. Augusta. Drive. Answer. St. Croix, New Brunswick. Drive. Break. Young moose. Drive. Stop. Fredricton. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Drive. Sackville. Talk. Drive. Buy. Essays & Poems. Sackville history. Maps. Paper. Walk. Vegetables. Cheese. Wrap. Coffee. Walk. Library closed. Walk. Book. Drive. Buy. Sackville history. Drive. Amherst Shores, Nova Scotia. Camp. Walk. Swim. Walk. Percolate. Coffee. Sardines. Salad. Wash. Read. Write. Fire. Water. Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Wake. Percolate. Coffee. Cook. Eggs. Bacon. Drive. Moncton, N.B. Walk. Coffee. Boston Cream. Walk. Buy. Canadian folkways. Bowering. Koch. Intimate History of New Brunswick. Notes. Walk. No albums. Walk. Consume. Stout. Poutine Rapees. Mussels. Walk. Coffee. Drive. Stop. Maritime folksongs. Fundy National Park. Tent. Walk out. Red squirrel. Red spruce. Mine residue. Red spruce. Red squirrels. Walk back. Cook. Garlic. Olive Oil. Onions. Black beans. Salad. Wash. Fire. Water. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Percolate. Coffee. Eggs. Bacon. Wash. Walk. Wash. Drive. Lake. Walk. Black spruce. Stream. Wade. Talk. Walk. Drive. Stop. Onion rings. Chowder. Burger. Shake. Past Sussex. Drive. Saint John. Check in. Drive. Carleton Martello Tower. Drive. Walk. Buy. The the. Sugar. Walk. Saint John Market. Acadia flag. New Brunswick flag. Nova Scotia flag. Strawberry shake. Sparkling water. Smell. Fish. Meat. Fruit. Vegetables. See. Trinkets. Drive. Read. Walk. Consume. Haddock w/ Mexican spices & mint. Margaritas. Walk. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Read. Eat. Pancakes. Fruit. Coffee. Drive. Walk. Talk. Maritime history. Loyalists. Book business. Buy. Irish in Canada. Walk. Drive. Stop. Machias, ME. Eat. Tuna melt. Fried clams. Drive. Stop. Belfast, ME. Walk. Drink. Iced Mocha. Eat. Lavender vanilla ice cream. Walk. Co-op. Pickled fiddleheads. Walk. Drive. Stop. Portsmouth. Friendly toast. Eat. Matt #2. Drink. PBR. Moxie. Drive. A. Piatt Andrew Bridge. Grant Circle. Washington Street. Stop. Annisquam, Gloucester, MA. Smell. Cooler. Clean. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Unpack. Drive. GHS. Talk. Principal. Email. Blogs. Type.

slan,
j.c.

Pack. Drive. Stop. Percolator. Portsmouth. Drive. Chinese buffet. Augusta. Drive. Answer. St. Croix, New Brunswick. Drive. Break. Young moose. Drive. Stop. Fredricton. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Drive. Sackville. Talk. Drive. Buy. Essays & Poems. Sackville history. Maps. Paper. Walk. Vegetables. Cheese. Wrap. Coffee. Walk. Library closed. Walk. Book. Drive. Buy. Sackville history. Drive. Amherst Shores, Nova Scotia. Camp. Walk. Swim. Walk. Percolate. Coffee. Sardines. Salad. Wash. Read. Write. Fire. Water. Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Wake. Sleep. Wake. Percolate. Coffee. Cook. Eggs. Bacon. Drive. Moncton, N.B. Walk. Coffee. Boston Cream. Walk. Buy. Canadian folkways. Bowering. Koch. Intimate History of New Brunswick. Notes. Walk. No albums. Walk. Consume. Stout. Poutine Rapees. Mussels. Walk. Coffee. Drive. Stop. Maritime folksongs. Fundy National Park. Tent. Walk out. Red squirrel. Red spruce. Mine residue. Red spruce. Red squirrels. Walk back. Cook. Garlic. Olive Oil. Onions. Black beans. Salad. Wash. Fire. Water. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Percolate. Coffee. Eggs. Bacon. Wash. Walk. Wash. Drive. Lake. Walk. Stream. Wade. Talk. Walk. Drive. Stop. Onion rings. Chowder. Burger. Shake. Past Sussex. Drive. Saint John. Check in. Drive. Carleton Martello Tower. Drive. Walk. Buy. The the. Sugar. Walk. Saint John Market. Acadian flag. New Brunswick flag. Nova Scotia flag. Strawberry shake. Sparkling water. Smell. Fish. Meat. Fruit. Vegetables. See. Trinkets. Drive. Read. Walk. Consume. Haddock w/ Mexican spices & mint. Margaritas. Walk. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Read. Eat. Pancakes. Fruit. Coffee. Drive. Walk. Talk. Maritime history. Loyalists. Book business. Buy. Irish in Canada. Walk. Drive. Stop. Machias, ME. Eat. Tuna melt. Fried clams. Drive. Stop. Belfast, ME. Walk. Drink. Iced Mocha. Eat. Lavender vanilla ice cream. Walk. Co-op. Pickled fiddleheads. Walk. Drive. Stop. Portsmouth. Friendly toast. Eat. Matt #2. Drink. PBR. Moxie. Drive. Stop. Annisquam, Gloucester, MA. Smell. Cooler. Clean. Sleep. Dream. Wake. Unpack. Drive. GHS. Talk. Principal. Email. Blogs. Type.

slan,
j.c.

This from Christina Strong:
Due to a major screw up on the east coast, I can't
check my email on my regular account. Please send all
love letters, controversies, real and imagined to
xtinastrong@yahoo.com.
~
Dreams. Coffee. Granola. Scan Globe. Search for tent. The Who Sell Out. Look at map. Pack for four day Maine & Canadian Maratime trip. Windshield wiper fluid. Imagine {side two}. John Wesley Harding. Email. Blog.

slan,
j.c.

No Blogging:

Some Lists {since last Wednesday}:

Gloucester {Annisquam, West Gloucester, Lanesville, East Gloucester, Downtown, Magnolia, points between}, Boston {Allston}, Danvers, Topsfield, Somerville, Salem, Peabody, Mansfield, points between; Amanda, Zac, Gerrit, Simon, Kari, Greg, Mike, Xtina, Mark, Chris, Joel, Dan, Tim, Ariane, Patrick, Tad, Tom, Susan, Susan's mother, Dana, Dino, John, Alec, Alex, others; The Jicks, Radiohead; Lost in La Mancha; The Hidden Injuries of Class, The Death & Life of Great American Cities, The Corrections, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone; Budweiser, Pabst, Guinness, Heineken; Famous Grouse Scotch; misc. red wine; The Kinvara, The Blackburn Tavern, The Rigger, McT’s, The Rhumbline, Pratty’s, The Crow’s Nest; 140, 95, 93, 1, 128/95, 128, 133, 114, others; Angels, Orioles, Athletics; Galaxie 500 {Today, misc.}, Leadbelly {misc}, Wilco/Tweedy {selection by Mike County}, Kinks {Kronicles}, Radiohead {Hail to the Thief, Kid A, Amnesiac, misc. Thom Yorke live}, R.E.M. {Fables of the Reconstruction/Reconstruction of the Fables}, Sonic Youth {Evol, Sister}, Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians {Respect}, Billy Bragg {Back to Basics, Don’t Try This at Home}, Belle & Sebastian {3.. 6.. 9.. Seconds of Light, Dog on Wheels}, Elvis Costello {My Aim is True}, The Sundays {Reading, Writing & Arithmetic}, Tchaikovsky {Symphony No. 6 [Pathetique]}, My Bloody Valentine {Loveless}, others; breast stroke, crawl, doggy paddle, side stroke, back stroke, treading water; mussels, scallops, cod, shrimp, tuna; yes, no, others.

I have a few moments before taking the commuter rail to Boston (to see Celtic play Kaunas of Lithuanian in a preliminary European Cup match). As Mike County noted at the Blackburn Tavern(?) on Sunday, riding the rails (& spending the afternoon in a bar) is also a good way to get some reading done. I'm taking...
* The Death and Life of Great American Cities (picked up in a book sale that Gerrit Lansing took me to at the Beverly Farms Episcopal Church {Thanks Gerrit.})
* & The Hidden Injuries of Class (a gift from Gerrit {Thanks again.})
* & (in case I feel too *closed in upon* by all that prose) Fanny Howe: Selected Poems.

I hope to finish those first two today & reread a section or two in the last. I'd love to hear what other's think about any of the books.

After reading the excerpts of my comments about Denis Johnson onAaron's blog, I feel compelled to note that Gerrit & a local writer Peter Anastas put me on to Johnson's work. (Some of you will know Peter's work from the book of Olson's letters to the Gloucester Daily Times that he edited.) Why mention this?
When I first moved to Gloucester & before I knew any of young(er) Boston area poets (except for fellow Emerson College alum Chris Rizzo!) whom I now see/read/hear/talk w/ regularly, Peter & Gerrit were lights in a dark forest.
Gerrit & I recently had a conversation about the evolution--even over the last eight years--of the *scene* that has been much discussed this week. I reminded Gerrit that our involvement w/ Boston-area poets began when he invited Amanda & I to one of the last Word of Mouth readings. (It was held in late '95 in the World Wide Building in Waltham.) Bill Corbett read an Isaac Babel short story. (Later, Peter Anastas put me on to more of Babel's work & a memoir about him & his disappearance written by a longtime companion.) In four years of attending readings at Emerson & in the Adams Room at Harvard, I'd never heard anyone read someone else's work. Gerrit read. Ange Mlinko read. Many others. Later or at about the same time, Gerrit put me on to Jim Behrle's reading series at Waterstones. It was there I heard & saw John Wieners for the first time. Also heard & met Diane DiPrima! & Eileen Myles! That lead us to Aaron Kiely's series at the Bookcellar. At about this time Patrick & Ariane (soon-to-be Doud) moved to Gloucester. Met them through Gerrit--as I've also met Ken Irby, Simon Pettet, & many, many, many others... There has also been the generosity of all who have opened their homes for readings & post-reading gatherings: Dan & Kate, Michael & Isabel, Joe & Molly, Bill & Beverly, etc.

Why go on about this? Chris reminds us that it is often not easy to find a community of like-minded but sufficiently diverse people w/ whom to read/discuss/eat/drink/etc. Sure many people cultivate isolation but many others want connections they can't find. In discussions such about community I want to avoid taking for granted the one I have now (but which continues to change). I also like to credit those who have made these connections possible. W/o them I'd be much more isolated & wld almost certainly find it much more difficult to continue w/ an active engagement w/ poetry amid the other pulls of life. Not that I wldn't. I can't imagine not reading & writing. But because of this community of friends who write & think, talk & drink, eat & listen, poetry is not (always) a separate life.

Bill Corbett's LeSueur review reminded me of this from Ginsberg's "City Midnight Junk Strains//for Frank O'Hara"...

"appreciated more and more/a common ear/for our deep gossip."

& this from Bill's review in the Phoenix...

"{O'Hara's} poems hold you attention the way gossip--meaty, juicy vitamin G--does."

& then

"Deep gossip is what Joe LeSueur, O'Hara's friend, roommate, and sometime sex partner gives uis in this memoir."

slan,
j.c.

Hmm...
My posts are cloning themselves.
~
Congratulations to Amanda for winning the Dante's Ass prize for this week. As always the selection came down to a coin flip.
~
Aaron asked Mark about the lack of women in our small MetroBoPo scene.
Except for linking to Amanda, Christina, and Shin Yu, I'll leave further speculation to others.
~
Poetry discussed on Sunday at the Grand (Union Square Somerville), Descent of Alette (Notley), "The Quietist" & "Introduction to the World" (F. Howe), and Loba (DiPrima). Also discussed: surf poetry, wiffle ball, kale recipes, Bill Corbett's Boston Phoenix review of LeSueur's O'Hara book, chapbook design, & many other things.
Optional homework assignment: read Alice Notley's talk about "voice" in poetry. (I'll bring copies Sunday too.)

slan,
j.c.

I reread "The Quietist" & "Introduction to the World" before sleep last night.
Had painful dreams. Then had lovely dreams.
~
I'm know leaving the panopticon of the ghost city for the couch at the Grand in Somerville...a soft part of the hard city.

slan leat,
j.c.

From the Boston Globe, Tuesday August 29, 2003

Poetry red in tooth and claw
AGNIESZKA BISKUP

Poems are duking it out in a Darwinian sense on David Rea's website. He's designed a computer program that allows poems to evolve. Starting with 1,000 random words culled fro "Hamlet," "Beowulf," and the "Iliad," among others, his program randomly assembles them to create a short verse. If you visit his website (www.codeasart.com/poetry/darwin.html), you are given two of these verses and you choose the one you like best. The unpopular ones are killed off, but the poems with the most votes get to "breed" with each other, exchanging words like genes. Rea has also programmed in a mutation, where every new poem has a one-in-a-thousand chance of having a dropped or added word, or a word shifting its place. The resulting off-spring poems are once again put up and voted on, and so on and so forth. After enough generations, Rea says on his site, "we should eventually start to see interesting poems emerge." One recent survivor of this (un)natural selection was "Hellhound the beds though to/Puppeteer shout ho recesses now/For in the sphere it is cricket curfews/With therein of stolen." Charmingly incoherent as it is, it looks like poetry requires a creator.

Also, visit the message board which in some ways is as interesting as the poems.
Back to work.
slan,
j.c.

hmm...
I'm having trouble w/ spaces.

Poem for Friends
has been revised.
It may reappear
under a new title.

Gata has come home!
She told me--in Spanish--that she had spent two days and one night expanding her "ciudad muelle."

Gata f she-cat; low-hanging cloud; Madrid woman; (Mex) maid, servant girl; a gatas on all fours, on hands and knees

Thought you might like to know. Also...

soft:
blando adj bland, soft; indulgent; flabby; sensual; cowardly; (ojos {eyes}) tender

muelle adj soft, voluptuous

There is also "mullido adj soft, fluffy".
~
In honor of Mark's post about translation, and in honor of the la luna in Lorca's Bodas de Sangre, and in honor of the tides {see Saturday's post} here's a translation from Lorca's La suite de los espejos:

Reflection

Lady Moon.
(Has someone broken the quicksilver?)
No.
What child has lit
the lantern?
A mere butterfly’s enough
to put you out.
Quiet … but is it possible!
That firefly is the moon!
That glowworm!
~
Back to work.
slan,
j.c.

Amanda has arrived in port.
~
I've gotten rid of only one of the Red Devil adverts above.
~
Solace for a poet after reading Plato's Republic X

Plotinus:
"We must bear in mind that the arts do not simply imitate the visible but go back to the reasons from which nature comes..."
~
"There's something unwholesome about flying a kite at night."
Marge Simpson
~
Visit the kids to read new poems.
~
I've been reading Hidden Injuries of Class which has inspired new thoughts about those questions I posed some weeks back.
~
For anyone interested in swimming in the Annisquam River this week. High tide can be found here. A time table for trains to Gloucester can be found here. I can be found by clicking above.
Swimming has also been known to occur at Half Moon Beach (see also: the cover of Butterick's Guide the Maximus Poems), Pavillion Beach, pools, & quarries.
"When it comes to quarries I'm known to swim."
~
Good luck to Jim & others playing Wiffleball{TM} in NYC tomorrow.
~
Good night!
Amanda is home!

slan,
j.c.
~