I shall drink rust

Luna's on Thursday night. The epicenter of the poetry scene in Sacramento. Tonight's feature, a sister-duo, wasn't what drew me out. Instead, it was business with an erotic poet (NOT eroticist) with contemplations on Phallus in Wonderland. But Gene Bloom was out; it being his birthday (Happy 23rd you old letch!) and I settled into a procession of Guiness pints and the pleasure of clucking with friends within the applaused segues between open-mic poets.

Open-Mic, Part I
Open-mic is a hit-or-miss animal: you never know what you're going to get on any given night. Joy and agony are often the intermingled result. Tonight was a hit. Arron Clive and Josh Hernandez made good use of their five minutes at the mic stand to get things started right. Michael R. Gorman's The Mountain Climb, an erotic poem crafted with the challenge of concealing its erotic qualities, was exquisitely set up and delivered. Up this tower / This minaret / This monument / Obelisk / Pillar / Column / Steeple / Spire / I worship / With eyes rolled upward / With tongue lapping silent prayers / I worship / I worship / Up / Up / And over / The crest / The ridge

frank andrick. frank andrick. frank andrick. The evening's host, King of phosphorus, he conspired successfully to field nine poets from the audience (they're everywhere apparently) to join him in a reading Pablo Picasso, a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire. The beauty of the poem, and andrick's inspired presentation, is that it can be read from at any point, beginning, middle, end; wherever the eyes find "a hook."

Catch hold of the pink spiders / on the swin / Regrets for invisible snares.

The original version, andrick explains, was written around cut outs from a photograph, which give the poem an archipelago-like appearance; disjointed clusters of text amid a sea of white.

This veined sapphire/ King of phosphorus / The dance of the ten / The blue frame

Jeffery, quiet and in the shadows, always unassuming until he takes the stage and unwinds. Before he begins to recite his poem, off the top of his skull -- I shall drink rust / and call it my blood -- we are informed that he will relieve Barbara Noble of her duties as a Luna's/poetryUnplugged/host come June.

Feature
Your maiden rays seek out ... another Guiness. Working in tandem, the sisters were disorganized and uninteresting. Only when the youngest was given the stage to herself did things improve. Open letter to the mouse carcass rotting in my wall was hilarious and introspective. I have a superstitious trust in you carcass. Written in letter form, it ends Happy Rotting / Bre Pruett. I thought the guitar work and singing overall were a mixed bag. But my friend, an impressive singer/songwriter in his own right, thought she did a bang up job. I'll conceed. But some of her work did suffer from the poetry-as-therapy solemnity. Even as I was writing in my notes "Another Broken Poet" and "cracked vessel," she delivered this line herself: "a wounded songbird." Her set ended surprisingly well with a well-received audience participation song that repeated the chorus / mantra where is my electric car?

Open-Mic, Part II
Again, more joy than agony, like before the feature. Pablo, a philipino poet from San Francisco, in town and visiting old haunts, delivers a string of memorized poems worthy of a feature. His last, an incredible homage to rice, as a staple, as a symbol. A perfect ending.

Douglas Blazek

"[DOUGLAS] Blazek's career as a publisher and editor of literary magazines may have begun with THE CRIB in 1961, but he went on to achieve attention and respect by his launch of OLE, a magazine "Dedicated to the cause of making poetry dangerous." OLE ran for eight issues, from 1964-1967, and made a tremendous impact, giving visibility (sometimes for the first time) to poets from CHARLES BUKOWSKI to WILLIAM WANTLING, from HAROLD NORSE to JACK GRAPES, from LOWENFELS to AL PURDY to D.R. WAGNER to d.a. levy to CHARLES PLYMELL ...

"Blazek also edited the first and only issue of OPEN SKULL (1967), a unique magazine in its conception, as it was then (and still remains) the 'only magazine dedicated exclusively to the correspondence between writers as a more natural outlet for the flow of their ideas and experience.'

"He published BUKOWSKI'S "Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live with Beasts" (1965), the first published prose book by Bukowski, and Bukowski's "All The Assholes in the World and Mine" (1966). From 1965 to 1970, he published chapbooks by WANTLING, LYN LIFSHIN (her first book appearance), CARL LARSEN, BROWN MILLER, d.a. levy, T.L. KRYSS, JOEL DUETSCH, and KAREN WARING..."

"But to Blazek's poetry itself: there is a great difference between the poems he wrote in the 60s and 70s and the work he has been doing in the last twenty years. If Blazek has been known to the literary world as an acolyte of BUKOWSKI, as the compatriot of d.a. levy, as the editor and publisher of what some had referred to as "Meat Poetry," for instance, these associations must be given up when considering his work today. ... "

"[Blazek] is not now associated with any particular group of poets; he lives a somewhat hermitic life dedicated to poetry and personal transformation ... He is now more serious than playful ... His poetry today is more intricate and complex, yet more clear and streamlined, than before."

-- From James DenBoer's introduction,
"A Bibliography of the Published Works of Douglas Blazek, 1961-2001"

National Poetry Sound Archive | UK

Eleanor Livingstone, Artistic Director for StAnza: Scotland's Poetry Festival, informs us of the Scottish launch of the National Poetry Sound Archive which will happen during the festival.

Worth a look (and listen.) A broad range of audio, including Allen Ginsberg performing America, A Supermarket in California, and Howl, Part Two.

OUTBOUND | PFAs to Scotland

Blake and his Nurse's Song in sparkling light green covers
d.a. levy in his neon greens
Kenneth Patchen in linocut solemnity; The Artists Duty
Brecht on Hell (as something quite like Los Angeles)
Judith Robinson's wrenching Yad Vashem

These along with a Whitman's Sampler of other titles (500 in all) were shipped to Scotland today to be dispensed during StAnza: Scotland's Poetry Festival "The only regular festival dedicated to poetry in Scotland, StAnza is international in outlook. Held annually each March in the ancient university town of St Andrews, it is an opportunity to engage with all forms of poetry and to hear world class poets reading in exciting and atmospheric venues."

My appreciation to Eleanor Livingstone, StAnza's Artistic Director, for making Poems-For-All part of this year's festival.

Exhibition | more installation

Kevin Porter (L) and J. Greenberg reply to the demand: "Work faster!"



J. Greenberg at work setting up booklet covers for the wall.



Richard Hansen installs /free falls / white walls

The exhibition begins

Rachel Hansen installed the display cases in preparation for the show. These are golf ball display cases which are put into better and more ideal service displaying miniature poem booklets.



Late evening, the exhibit begins to take shape, the first of over 500 covers from the series tacked to the uneven gallery walls.



Kevin Porter preps covers for the wall.



Rachel installs the signage: Poems-For-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!