Sunday, December 3, 2023
Saturday, December 2, 2023
RUSSELL ATKINS ~
TRAINYARD AT NIGHT
TH UN DER TH UN DER
the huge bold blasts black
hiss insists upon hissing insists
on insisting on hissing hiss
his s sss ss sss sss ssss s
ss sssss ssss
when whoosh!
the sharp scrap making its fourth lap
with a lot of rattletrap
and slap rap and crap —
I listen in time to hearing coming on
the great Limited
it rolls scrolls of fold of fold
like one traditionally old
coldly, meanwhile hiss hiss
hiss insists upon hissing insists
on insisting on hissing hiss
his s ss ss sss sss s
sss s s
s
___________________________
Russell Atkins
World'd Too Much
The Selected Poetry
CSU, 2019
Friday, December 1, 2023
MENG JIAO ~
Why Complain
Bad poetry gets you good posts.
Good poetry
Gets you to a mountain.
Hugging the mountain
You shiver
Daylong you hug it
For cold
With a dour face.
Some position, that.
Poetry,
Good for nothing, you think,
— It courts envy.
Daggers drawn soon point at your clenched teeth,
The good & the great are long dead.
You chew over their work. Best dead.
For what it's worth.
& shall I not, now nearing the end of life,
Have some peace of mind —
A person of few words
Who has withstood his time?
The pack descended,
Glowering
You are wanted.
______________________
In the Same Light
200 Poems for Our Century
translated by Wang May
The Song Cave, 2022
Thursday, November 30, 2023
GUARDIANS OF THE VALLEY ~
Yosemite’s “Three Brothers,” taken east of El Capitan, 1865Credit...
Carleton E.Watkins, via Library of Congress
Scribner, 2023
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
VISITING KENT JOHNSON REDUX ~
Dear Michael Boughn,
From: Michael Boughn
Subject: Kent
Date: March 13, 2023 at 2:09:36 PM EDT
To: longhousepoetry@gmail.com
Hi Bob and Susan--
We are putting together a collection of tributes to Kent called I Once Met Kent Johnson. I attached some below so you can get a sense of what people have written. We'd very much like it if you could contribute something, especially since you published Kent's book. I'm hoping to get something together in next couple of weeks. Let me know if you'd like to add to it.
Best,
Mike
--
Michael Boughn
From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Kent
Date: March 13, 2023 at 10:01:56 PM EDT
To: Michael Boughn
Mike,
What a cherry idea!
What’s you latest deadline?
We have too much snow and too much mud to deal with.
Plus Susan just got out of the ER.
Time, at the moment, is funny.
Let me know.
stay warm & well,
After the Nor’easter here (42 inches of snow in 24 hours) we had no power for a week and no phone or internet for almost two weeks, plus there is no wi fi reception in this valley, period, except by the phone line — finally some restoration at the end of March — getting this piece for Kent off to you. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Will this gathering be both on-line and book form?
all’s well, Bob
Bob Arnold
P.O. Box 2454
West Brattleboro
Vermont
05303
Begin forwarded message:
From: Michael Boughn
Subject: Re: Kent Johnson
Date: March 27, 2023 at 3:18:23 PM EDT
To: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
That’s terrific, Bob. Had me in tears. I really miss him, too.
I’d explain why you got drawn in later than some others, but it’s complicated. Suffice to say, the whole process was ad hoc and anarchic. And it was all on me, and I am grossly ignorant and isolated when it comes to the poetry world. Not mention usually stoned.
Thanks for this. If Susan is sending something, I will wait.
m
Michael Boughn
Begin forwarded message:
From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Kent Johnson
Date: March 27, 2023 at 4:41:30 PM EDT
To: Michael Boughn
You’re a good sport, Mike, appreciate it.
Susan is quite happy with what I wrote.
She likes Kent in there, voice man and all.
When is it all appearing?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Michael Boughn
Subject: Re: Kent Johnson
Date: March 27, 2023 at 6:09:16 PM EDT
To: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
It shouldn't be too long, at least in PublishingTime. Billie Chernicoff and I started collecting these when Kent told us he was terminal. There's a small group of us, most of whom were on the Dispatches editors list. It was half social and half Dispatches sounding board. We kept up a conversation after Dispatches closed up shop. When he broke the news to us, we all wrote something to give him cheer and let him know how much he was loved and respected. He sometimes had a hard time recognizing that, and according to Deb, his wife, while he was sick he was frequently despondent about the universal enmity he felt. So we decided to ask a few others to join in. No one was in charge. Everyone reached out, but mostly it was me. I knew the names of a lot of the people he had close relations with because I witnessed it during Dispatches. So I reached out to them. The manuscripts collected in Billie's computer because there was just too much else going on to make a book, too. I was out of the country for a while, then had a cardiac issue. Anyway, you know how it goes with time at our age. Poof. When we got back to it last week, I decided to reach out to people I had missed the first time around. And you and Susan came up. And now you have the whole sordid story I said I wasn't going to bother you with.
I think it will be available in a couple of months -- say June. Or July. I definitely want to make a book and I have some very reasonable ideas how to do that. As well as get it online.
All the best,
Begin forwarded message:
From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: IOMKJohnson
Date: August 7, 2023 at 10:37:53 PM EDT
To: Michael Boughn
RE: I Once Met Kent Johnson
Hello Mike,
Deb has sent the lovely memorial booklet of and for Kent which includes a brief passage or two from IOMKJ.
Has the book now been published?
Please let me know.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Michael Boughn
Subject: Re: IOMKJohnson
Date: August 7, 2023 at 11:16:19 PM EDT
To: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Hey Bob --
It's on hold. I am waiting for one last important contribution that's been held up because of health issues. I've been led to believe that I should get it soon.
Deb took that from the old pdf.
Glad to hear all's well. Here, too. I have been up on Georgian Bay a lot at our cabin. With my dog. It's good.
From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: IOMKJohnson
Date: August 7, 2023 at 11:18:12 PM EDT
To: Michael Boughn
Thank you, Mike — we’re all looking forward.
Between letters, a question — have you ever received the anthology Mike B and others were planning for Kent Johnson?
I thought I had heard from Mike they planned to have the book out this year.
Please let me know whatever you know.
all’s well, Bob
Begin forwarded message:
From: John Bradley
Subject: Re: Kent
Date: November 19, 2023 at 3:23:36 PM EST
To: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Dear Bob,
I just received a copy of the book this week.
I don't see your essay in the book, though, Bob.
From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: i once met
Date: November 25, 2023 at 9:33:04 PM EST
To: Michael Boughn
Thank you, Billie, and I would never post your email since none of this was business between you and me.
I posted Mike’s emails, and mine, and carefully removed Mike’s email address in each of his emails ( and not mine ) but apparently from an email from Mike today, he can’t live with his words.
History is tough.
Stay warm and well this winter.
all’s well, Bob
From: Michael Boughn
Subject: Re: i once met
Date: November 26, 2023 at 6:24:51 AM EST
To: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Dear Bob Arnold —
I can live with my words. That’s not the problem.
Your failure to talk to me before posting a private conversation on line is the problem.
You are rude.
But, hey, etiquette is tough.
From: Michael Boughn
Subject: Re: i once met, and it's been enough
Date: November 26, 2023 at 12:18:49 PM EST
To: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Dear Bob Arnold,
I’m certainly not going to compare publishing histories with you. You win, hands down. I have never been more than an occasional amateur. Nor have I ever made a cent from it. I paid for the printing and distribution costs out of pocket for the tribute to Kent and gave it to the contributor’s, and I am not really in a financial position to redo the entire process. I did have a possible remedy to propose. It would have been nice if you had written to me about the omission error before publishing my private correspondence to you. Then I would have suggested printing your contribution on a sheet the size of the book and mailing it to everyone with an errata slip and an apology. Which is still a possibility.
Most sincerely,
Michael Boughn
Ps: I did not call you an asshole. In fact if you read the note carefully, you will see I explicitly said that I don’t know you well enough to know if you’re an asshole or not, but what you did by publishing my private correspondence without consultation was an asshole act. Even the most pure among us occasionally acts like an asshole. I speak from personal experience.
From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: i once met, and it's been enough
Date: November 26, 2023 at 7:20:43 PM EST
To: Michael Boughn
Dear Mike,
Ed Ochester has a terrific poem about an “Asshole”, old poem of his, very old, I once had it tacked up inside my woodshed door. Very short. The weather eventually took it away. You might be able to find it in the world of the Internet.
Those separate sheets, like errata sheets, almost always go lost. Few keep them. Let sleeping dogs lie.
Kent knows the truth.
From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: i once met, and it's been enough
Date: November 27, 2023 at 10:17:21 AM EST
To: Michael Boughn
Dear Mike,
I simply object, because while all good intentions, it looks lame. The press looks lame, the editor, and me. Not my way.
I don’t want to go into what losses and pride I have gone through in 52 years of running a press correctly — if you wish to dig around, you could find the Longhouse story. But you made a mistake and a strong contribution was left out for Kent and there is only one way to correct it, since there will be only one book. One Kent. One Mike. One Bob. One future.
all’s well, Bob
_________Begin forwarded message:From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>Subject: Re: VISITING KENT JOHNSON REDUX ~Date: November 29, 2023 at 2:56:20 PM ESTTo: Michael BoughnHello Mike,If something was “deleted", perhaps be a supportive writer, and show me what is missing. Nothing was purposely “deleted.”all’s well, Bob__________Begin forwarded message:From: Michael BoughnSubject: Re: VISITING KENT JOHNSON REDUX ~Date: November 29, 2023 at 3:05:06 PM ESTTo: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>Sure Bob. Here. Maybe I missed something. We know how that goes.Thanks,Mike._______________Begin forwarded message:From: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>Subject: Re: VISITING KENT JOHNSON REDUX ~Date: November 29, 2023 at 3:08:17 PM ESTTo: Michael BoughnMike,I found your letter before your return email here, and it is important, and it has been put in its place.all’s well, Bob________________Begin forwarded message:From: Michael BoughnSubject: Re: VISITING KENT JOHNSON REDUX ~Date: November 29, 2023 at 3:09:37 PM ESTTo: Bob and Susan Arnold <longhousepoetry@gmail.com>Thanks.Mike
This is a fine tribute anthology to our memorable friend, Kent,
packed with many of his cohorts and friends —
The book is published by:
Shuffaloff
11 Conrad Avenue
Toronto, ON. M6G 3G4
contact: razzamatootie@gmail.com
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Monday, November 27, 2023
SUSAN SHERMAN ~
Because Words Do Not Suffice
Your hands like that The grass The sun
Your lips like that The grass The rain
It was only that it was so green The smell of it
The rain that coiled around the grass The sun
that touched its roots
Only to lie there My nose furrowed deep in it
As if a moment can be left The smell of it deep
in the muscles In the veins
And underneath As the nostril quivers lost in the
touch of it Because we feel the loss of it Because
we feel the death of it
That too much rain will drown the grass That too much sun
will dry the rain That only in moments is love possible
_____________________
Susan Sherman
With Anger / With Love
selections: Poems & Prose
Mulch Press, 1974