I'm Conducting Research

Thanks to Brett for mentioning ToxicPoetry.com. I'm actually, currently attempting to conduct some research on the site (for the purpose of bringing in a bit of funding for my endeavor). If you are a fan of the site or if you have thoughts about it, I'd love to do some informal chat interviews to gather some info. I've also created a one-page e-mail survey. If you are interested, give me an e-mail at editors@toxicpoetry.com

Wednesday Night Poetics Discussion

For those of you whose email address I don't have:

This is just a reminder that we're planning on meeting at Mark's apartment Wednesday night, around 7:30.

Come, bring something to drink if you like, and remember that last time we discussed bringing an example of what you DO NOT want to be doing with your verse--

I believe we're still planning on discussing the poems that Meghan sent around, so bring your copies of those along as well.

And: I'm not sure if Jade ever posted a link to his new online poetry magazine Toxic Poetry, so if you haven't checked it out, follow the link. (Hope that's alright, Jade)

Gertrude Stein

1945, post-war, from The GI's

That evening I went over to talk to the soldiers, and to hear what they had to say, we all got very excited, Sergeant Santiani who had asked me to come complained that I confused the minds of his men but why shouldn't their minds be confused, gracious goodness, are we going to be like the Germans, only believe in the Aryans that is our own race, a mixed race if you like but all having the same point of view. I got very angry with them, they admitted they liked the Germans better than the other Europeans. Of course you do, I said, they flatter you and they obey you, when the other countries don't like you and say so, and personally you have not been awfully ready to meet them halfway, well naturally if they don't like you they show it, the Germans don't like you but they flatter you, doggone it, I said I bet you Fourth of July they will all be putting up our flag, and all you big babies will just be flattered to death, literally to death, I said bitterly because you will have to fight again. Well said one of them after all we are on top. Yes I said and is there any spot on earth more dangerous than on top. You don't like the Latins, or the Arabs or the Wops, or the British, well don't you forget a country can't live without friends, I want you all to get to know other countries so that you can be friends, make a little effort, try to find out what it is all about. We all got very excited, they passed me cognac, but I don't drink so they found me some grapefruit juice, and they patted me and sat me down, and there it all was.

The Circle Makers

A newish poem, with slight revisions since some saw it in workshop. Cuts, a few new line breaks.

Inspired somewhat by Wallace Stevens and his "priest of the invisible" quote. Still playing with a title-- originally it was "The Circle Game" until I realized I ripped it off from Margaret Atwood.


The Circle Makers

I am drawing circles around
what cannot be drawn—tighter
& tighter, until only a thin line
defines the unknown.

& I have been squatting at the edge
of each, attempting to sound
gray—never to strike firm earth but
plumbing depth all the same.

Once, I saw someone drawing circles
wider than I imagined possible—so wide
they encompassed themselves. In the shallows,
they were on their bellies, drowning in what
they refused to know.

cheek in toronto

Aug.29 in Toronto:

A poetry/sound/multimedia performance--

*cris cheek *(London/US)
+ *Barnyard Drama *[Christine Duncan/Jean Martin] (Toronto)

8pm, at
Somewhere There
Live Creative Music in Toronto
340 Dufferin Street - one block South of Queen Street
** entrance from Melbourne Ave. **
www.somewherethere.org

$8 cover, or free admission if you purchase cris's new book *part: short
life housing *(specially priced for this event at $16!)

*ABOUT CRIS CHEEK: *cris cheek is a sound artist, poet, photographer,
mixed-media practitioner and interdisciplinary performer, whose works have
been commissioned and shown locally and trans-locally, in multiple versions
using diverse media for their production and circulation. Born in London in
1955, he lived and worked there until the early 1990s, a performance writer
very much a part of what was going on with poetry in that capital city. His
musical collaborations include Slant (a trio with Phillip Jeck and Sianed
Jones) and Garam Masala; he also collaborated in 1999-2007 with Kirsten
Lavers on the cross-disciplinary project Things Not Worth Keeping (
www.thingsnotworthkeeping.com) . He currently lives in the southwest Ohio
River Valley.

cris's most recent book is *part: short life housing *(Toronto: The Gig,
2009), a collection of six texts from the 1980s and 1990s, including
canning town chronicles, a scathing set of verbal accretions that emerged
from the wreckage of the Thatcher era; and f o g s a series of
typestracts quarried from verbal improvisations recorded during outdoor
walks in densely foggy weather.

For more info contact:

Nate Dorward
109 Hounslow Ave., North York, ON, M2N 2B1, Canada
nate.dorward@gmail.com - 416 221 6865

translanations one

Great news: Bill Howe's book is out: http://www.blazevox.org/bk-bh2.htm

The site links to Amazon, which lists the book as ready to ship. Get on the boat, and take your lifejacket.

Ride to Cinci on Thursday

Hey All,

If anyone is interested in a ride down to Cincinnati on Thursday for the reading at CCAC, I'm driving and will probably leave Oxford around 5:40ish. (I have't looked to see where in Cincinnati it is, but I'm guessing that's enough time.)

I have room for four others, so email or call if you'd like a ride.

strickland.brett@gmail.com

419-270-7467