TOGETHER AGAIN ~

Paul Celan  —  walking with Nani Maier and Jean-Dominique Rey        

~

"In 1947, a young man called Paul Celan showed up in Vienna.
He came literally from nothingness."

M I L O    D O R

Together Again


It will rain tonight on the green, calcareous dunes.

The wine preserved until now in a dead man's mouth

will awaken the realm with its bridges

rebuilt into a bell.

A man's tongue will resound audaciously inside a helmet.



And so the trees will also rush, wait for

a leaf with a voice, brought in an urn, to deliver

a message from the shores of sleep to the tides of flags.

Let it drown in your eye

to make me believe that together we'll die.



Your hair, dripping from mirrors, will diffuse the air

in which, with frosty hand, I'll ignite an autumn.

From water drunk by the blind, my little laurel

will climb a tardy ladder to bite your forehead.


____________________

P A U L     C E L A N
translated by Nina Cassian
ROMANIAN POEMS
Sheep Meadow Press

ANGELA CARTER ~

O X F O R D  2017

N Y     T I M E S      R E V I E W

RESIST MUCH OBEY LITTLE ~

http://www.spuytenduyvil.net/resist-much-obey-little.html

we can’t build a wall. we can only spout pure water again and again and drown his lies.

         Eileen Myles

Racism, xenophobia, misogyny and their related malaises are to the U.S. what whiskey is to an alcoholic. The current occupant of the White House won the election yipping, against possible recovery, “Drinks are on me!” The rich, multitudinous voices in this anthology variously call for—having embarked on—the hard work of sobriety, sanity.

         Nathaniel Mackey

Poets are summoned to a stronger imagination of language and humanity in a time of new and radical Weathers. White House Inc. is the last gasp of the dying Confederacy, but its spectacle is dangerous and addictive so hold onto your mind. Fascism loves distraction. Keep the world safe for poetry. Open the book of love and resistance. Don't tarry!

         Anne Waldman

OTATA (APRIL ISSUE) ~

"OTATA" APRIL ISSUE 2017

Contents ~

John Levy 5

Kim Dorman 8 

Charl JF Cilliers 12 

Sonam Chhoki 13 

Mark Young 17 

Antonio Mangiameli 21 

StephenToft 22 

Goran Gatalica 23 

Eufemia Griffo 24 

Alegria Imperial 26 

Dave Read 28 

Margherita Petriccione 30 

Ingrid Bruck 31 

Billy Antonio 32

ai li 33 

Christina Sng 35 

Angiola Inglese 36 

Elisa Allo 37

Mark Levy 39 

Angela Giordano 40 

Marco Giovenale 41 

Bob Arnold 47

John Perlman 56 

L’incinta 57

Jack Galmitz 58 

Sean Burn 60 

——————————

BURTON WATSON ~

B U R T O N      W A T S O N      I N T E R V I E W

1925-2017

Burton Watson at the Heirinji in Saitama, Japan, 2005

LISTENING ~

Listening

He was an older man

wearing older clothes

making his way through

the Salvation Army store with

what looked to be a used stethoscope

in his hand — who knows where

he found it in the place —

by the time he got to a quiet

corner of the used books

he put the two loose ends of the

stethoscope into his ears and

the other end under his old 

coat over his heart 

and listened with

his eyes closed

Old Guys

Lots of old guys still writing poetry. Poetry nobody really wants. Old guys that don’t go to the AWP. Guys that write lots about old girlfriends, or roads not taken. Guys hiding half their faces in photographs. Balding guys with hats, caps, scarves, I know. All white guys. They once ruled the roost. Filled anthologies. Not these old guys, they came after the model white guys ruled, and in came ethnic and many colored, and women storming and true. The old guys, the ones that haven’t died bad deaths, early deaths, drink and drug deaths, blow-my-head-off deaths, now write some of the softest and maybe even sweetest poems I know. Many being insomniacs, they write these poems when you sleep. If the poems are terrific, it means you are getting something done while you sleep. These old guys will give you their poems. They’ve about given up, but not quite. Like old birds you can’t help but feed them. Talk to one, you’ll get a song.

Friend

I saw him last

before the big

snow, then we

burrowed into

the woods for

months with a

few lamps, by

spring there

he was on his

tractor and the

mud road call-

ing my name

waving an arm

__________________________________

Bob Arnold

BEAUTIFUL DAYS

Longhouse, 2013 

ARCHIVE ~

Bob Dylan and James Baldwin almost touching heads at the

Emergency Civil Liberties Committee's

Bill of Rights (remember those?)

dinner to present Dylan

with the Tom Paine Award in 1963.

S O M E     D Y L A N     S P E E C H E S     ETC

GLENN GOULD / BRAHMS ~

KENNETH COX ~

J A C K E T      R E V I  E  W 

Flood Editions

edited and with an introduction

 by Jenny Penberthy

This volume gathers twenty-four essays by the English critic Kenneth Cox (1916-2005)
on various writers, including James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Basil Bunting,
Louis Zukofsky, and Lorine Niedecker. In each case, Cox's exposition proves rigorous idiosyncratic, drily passionate, and full of keen insights. Always, he proceeds with an "emphasis on literature as the art of language."

"A is one of the mid-century epics which, like Finnegans Wake,
Paterson and The Anathemata, stands comparison to The Cantos. It
is less adventurous but more reflective and at the centre more
certain: though amongst strangers its Odysseus does not wander."

—  K E N N E T H      C O X

NEIGHBOR NEIGHBOR ~

WILLIAM MCPHERSON ~

"F A L L I N G"

W I L L I A M      M C P H E R S O N

photo the Associated Press

ROBERT GRENIER ~

C R O S S I N G       O N T A R I O



joking and somber

and joking and sober




.




all the stores closed

afternoon Wednesdays



very dark

snow clouds in

July

in

the first days

of August



west southwest to

east northeast

it flows



cafe brightness

light blue walls

mirrors lake scenes as if

reflected off snow



hard to order

a vanilla sundae easy

one small cold ball

round in stainless steel



see the model station over the road

spur line here

to Hudson's Bay



where the railroad must stop

Esquimaux


they want you to work

they don't want you to sleep




.




what

I move so

thickly through into

very furry




.




not so much

the forest



with its

gleams of silver



meadow fucking

meadow meadow




.




blue birds

mountain rings



the tow

of the body






H O R S E S




grass

brush

fire




sky

oaks




smoke




wood houses

wood houses




warm greys zone




sun

in the ocean




sand

river bed




California

Almond

Growers




————————————
R O B E R T     G R E N I E R
Series
This
1978

DONALD KEENE

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1996

WOLF ~

KNOW IT ~

Know It

All

of

us

are

only

so

much

Job Today

I turned the bird-

bath around —

looks better

Chores

an

unbeatable

word

Memory

we

live

long-

er

than

we

will

live

——————————

Bob Arnold

BEAUTIFUL   DAYS

Longhouse

Buster Keaton & friend

JOHN ASHBERY ~

Hillbilly Airs and Dances




The same ideas or different ones condense,

and you don't have to sleep again.

Garbage is necessary. That's another issue

that hasn't been talked about.



I hear what you're saying.

Now all together: Everyone is standing

outside some movement: French spenders,

my business train, millions

of irregular plurals. Like we were all

gone together at some point,

something one could understand.



to confront you with our country,

smoking cloud,



vintage treat, village street.

The other is all mind.

In world aesthetics, a bundle in the straw.



_________________________

JOHN ASHBERY
Commotion of the Birds
Ecco 2016

BACK ROAD CHALKIES ~ (THINK SPRING)