Henry Chettle’s Testimony Regarding William Shakespeare

I contend that Chettle speaks of the Crow of Greenes Groatsworth of Wit as a playwright in a preface he wrote for a pamphlet of his, Kind-Harts Dreame (1592). There, he mentions two playwrights who had taken offense at the Groatsworth, which Chettle edited or wrote.  Here’s the key passage: “With neither of them that take offence was I acquainted, and with one of them I care not if I neuer be: The other, whome at that time I did not so much spare, as since I wish I had, for that as I haue moderated the heate of liuing writers, and might have vsde my owne discretion (especially in such a case) the Narrator being dead, that I did not, I am as sory as if the originall fault had beene my fault, because my selfe haue seene his demeanor no lesse ciuill than he excellent in the qualitie he professes: Besides, diuers of worship haue reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting, that aprooues his Art.”

The first point I want to make may seem a trivial, even dopey point, but it will prove important, trust me. It has to do with the reactions of the two playwrights who complained about what the Groatsworth said. In the case of Playwright #1, Chettle says (immediately after the passage just quoted), “For the first, whose learning I reuerence, and at the perusing of Greenes Booke, stroke out what then in conscience I thought he in some displeasure writ: or had it beene true, yet to publish it, was intollerable: him I would wish to vse me no worse that I deserue.” Playwright #1 therefore had to be complaining of an injury done to him personally since Chettle would not likely have thought, prior to meeting this man, that he “stroke out” a passage for him, or in his behalf, if the line were about someone else. That is, while Playwright #1 could have been upset over something said about someone else, Chettle would hardly, when readying the Groatsworth for publication, notice a passage that maligns Mr. X—intollerably—and at that point decide to take it out for someone other than Mr. X., in this case, Playwright #1.

In the case of Playwright #2, Chettle says, “The other, whome at that time I did not so much spare, as since I wish I had . . .” Ergo, Playwright #2 had to have taken offense at an injury done to him personally (and specifically) because Chettle is speaking of now wishing he had spared him—as opposed to wishing he had spared someone else concerning whose treatment Playwright #2 was upset. Moreover, Chettle goes on to give as his reason for now wishing he had
spared him the fact he had “seene his demeanor no lesse ciuill than he excellent in the qualitie he professes: Besides, diuers of worship haue reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writting, that aprooues his Art.” Would it make sense for Chettle to wish he had toned down words insulting Mr. X—Playwright #2, who had taken offense on Mr. X.’s behalf—has turned out to be a very decent and worthy fellow?

Now, if one accepts that each of the two persons took offense at having been personally maligned by something in the Groatsworth letter (and I think one must accept that, if nothing else I argue), it follows that the two must have been among the persons the Groatsworth letter
specifically mentions (and this is why my point was important to me to make). There were six of these, but two who were briefly mentioned but identified in no way toward the end of the letter are too insignificantly referred to, to count, even for the anti-Stratfordians I’ve read.

So, we’re dealing with just four persons: the Crow, and the three playwrights to whom the letter was addressed. So far as the playwrights the Groatsworth addresses are concerned, I agree with the consensus among literary scholars, a strong one, that identifies them as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and George Peele. Their identity isn’t crucial to any of the arguments I’ll be making, but it’s important enough to say a little more about it.

The first of them to be mentioned is spoken of as a “famous gracer of Tragedians,” a description that would have best fit Marlowe among the playwrights writing at the time, according to D. Allen Carroll, whose 1994 edition of the Groatsworth is the main source for my comments
on the Groatsworth. The Groatsworth-author also describes this playwright as having prosecutably wild opinions on touchy matters like religion, just as Marlowe was reputed to have had. The Groatsworth-author wonders if the cause of this is that “pestilent Machivilian pollicy (or unscrupulous cunning) that thou hast studied,” and not only did rumors have it that Marlowe was a disciple of Machiavelli, but Marlowe had Machiavelli serve as the Prologue to his play, The Jew of Malta. It is thus “by near universal consent” (Carroll states) that the
Groatsworth-narrator’s “famous gracer of Tragedians” should be taken as Marlowe.

The second playwright the Groatsworth-narrator addresses is believed to have been Nashe, like Peele and Marlowe, a known associate of Greene—and whoever the Groatsworth-author was, he is in this letter playing the part of Greene, which means the associates he refers to ought to have been genuine associates of Greene’s. Chief among the reasons it makes sense to take the second playwright as Nashe is that the Groatsworth-narrator calls him “yong Juvenall, that byting Satyrist” and Nashe, just 25 then (nine years younger than Greene), was the preeminent satirist of the time. The Groatsworth-narrator advises him to leave his targets anonymous so as to avoid getting “many enemies by bitter wordes,” and Nashe had more than once been attacked by those he had previously directed “bitter wordes” at.

That the third playwright is Peele is based almost entirely on the Groatsworth-narrator’s roundaboutly bringing in St. George in what seems a rather transparent hint at Peele’s first name—and the lack of anyone else better for the role. But the third playwright is also said to have been “driven to extreme shifts,” like the Groatsworth-narrator; that is, as Carroll points out in a footnote, the third playwright was, like the popular conception of Peele then and now, in “constant, near-desperate want.”

It is true, too, that the reference to St. George would tie into Peele’s reputation as “an outrageous jingo in politics, a fire-eater and mouther of marvelous patriotic hyperboles” (C. F. T. Brooke, Literary History of England, edited by Baugh, et al. [1948], 455)—as particularly indicated by the publication of Peele’s poem on the Order of the Garter, which makes much of St. George, England’s patron, in 1593, the very year of Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit.

So, the four candidates for Playwright #2 are the Crow, and Marlowe, Nashe and Peele. To cut this number by one, we can in short order dispose of Marlowe—by showing that he was Playwright #1. This makes sense because Marlowe had by far the most reason of anyone
dealt with by the Groatsworth letter to have been upset by it, for it described him as a disciple of Machiavelli, and claimed he had said, “There is no God,” and gave “no glorie to the giver.” At the very least, then, the letter accuses Marlowe of atheism, about the most serious offense one could be charged with then, and of Machiavellism, which was close to satanism for the letter-writer, and many other Elizabethans. How could Marlowe not have protested?

Moreover, there’s Chettle’s saying that he “stroke out” something in the letter about Playwright #2 that “had it beene true, yet to publish it, was intollerable. Unlike Nashe and Peele—or the Crow (so far as we know)—Marlowe could well have been guilty of something it would have been “intollerable” to impute to him (homosexuality, the scholarly opinion is, though why Chettle would have viewed that worse than atheism, I’m not sure). Marlowe also seems to have been considered especially learned and more likely to have been “reverenced” for it by
Chettle than any of the other three. He was clearly irascible, as well—the kind of person one would not be surprised Chettle found hard to get along with, for he was twice involved in duels, and died in a tavern brawl (or the equivalent thereof—except for those who believe he
wrote the plays of Shakespeare). That Marlowe was Playwright #1 is therefore close to universally acknowledged.

Which leaves Nashe, Peele and the Crow as the only viable candidates for the position of Playwright #2. There is a definite problem with the Crow’s candidacy, one that I’ve avoided to this point for the sake of narrative flow. It is Chettle’s saying that the Groatsworth letter was
“offensively taken” by two of the playwrights it was addressed to, which would exclude the Crow, who was not addressed by it. I claim, however, that Chettle overlooked or forgot that the letter was not directly, only indirectly, written to the Crow. Chettle, in this interpretation, would have done this because he wrongly assumed the Crow had been one of the playwrights the Groatsworth letter addressed. Not a bizarre error on Chettle’s part, and quite plausible if he rushed his apology, as he and many authors of such bits of journalism in those days did (and still do in ours). That he did indeed rush his apology is strongly suggested by its slapdash nature. For
instance, Chettle says the Groatsworth was written to “diuers playmakers,” which suggests that he hasn’t a copy of the letter at hand as he is writing, or is not consulting it very closely if he does, since three is less than most people would take “divers” to mean. He then says that the letter was offensively taken by “one or two” of the play-makers it was written to—again, an inexactness that suggests hurried writing.

His reference to the offended pair, who “wilfully forge in their conceites a liuing Narrator,” is something short of respectful, yet just a few lines later he describes the second of the two in glowing terms and says he is as sorry that he let the bad parts of the letter through unedited as if he had written them himself—that is, his tone changes drastically, and he pretty much contradicts his earlier stance toward the second play-maker—evidence, again, of hurried, careless writing.

The only other point against the Crow I know of is similar. It is Chettle’s speaking of how well-known in book circles Chettle was for hindering “the bitter inveying against schollers,” which strongly suggests that he viewed them, as the OED has it, as men “who had studied at the university, and who, not having entered any of the learned professions or obtained any fixed employment, sought to gain a living by literary work.” The Groatsworth also uses that term to
describe the playwrights it was addressed to. Since the Crow can be presumed for several reasons not to have been a university man, he could not, the reasoning goes, have been Playwright #2. But, (1) that Chettle says he’s tried his best in the past to temper exhanges between scholars does not necessarily mean he must now be speaking of an exchange between scholars—he may be speaking of just an exchange; (2) he may have meant by schollers, simply “writers”; he does seem in this passage to use “scholler” and “writer” as synonyms (as do others of his time); or (3) he may have thought Playwright #2, whom he did not know, was a university man, or—not knowing whether he was or not—decided to be courteous and treat him as such,
or—again (shame on me)—have forgotten that he was speaking of university men.

Just to thoroughly confuse the issue, Thomas Beard in 1597 said of Marlowe that he was “by profession a scholler . . . but by practice a playmaker and a poet . . .” thus distinguishing between writers and schollers. Whether Chettle wrote his apology carelessly quickly or not,
though, there are good reasons for believing that the Crow was one of the two who took offense—reasons that, in my view, trump the two (weak) reasons against just given.

One is that Chettle makes a point (implicitly) of addressing the charges made in the letter against the Crow, point by point. To begin with, the Groatsworth charges the Crow with being riff-raff, a lowly actor, cruel and inconsiderate, ungenerous, a braggart; Chettle addresses this by asserting that the second playwright has a civil demeanor—is in fact, a decent fellow.

The Groatsworth is sarcastic about the Crow’s ability to create blank verse; Chettle speaks of Playwright #2’s facetious grace in writing, etc.

The Groatsworth couples the Crow with those who have, it would seem, unfairly denied Greene money in his time of need; Chettle speaks of the second playwright’s uprightness of dealing and honesty (or honor).

The Groatsworth scorns the Crow’s occupation, acting (the Crow is an ugly black creature without the dialogue supplied by his betters), but Chettle praises his “qualitie,” which he implicitly grants at least respectability as something professed.

Now, it might be protested that I’m claiming some care on the part of Chettle here, and full remembrance of the details of the wrongs done to the Crow—in direct contradiction to my previous picture of a sloppy, forgetful Chettle. True; however it seems plausible to me that Chettle could have checked that part of the letter that was complained of,it being the main reason for his apology, before writing the apology but not bothered with the rest. Chettle, to go on, speaks of wishing he’d spared Playwright #2 more than he did, not that he wishes he spared him entirely. This also favors the Crow as Playwright #2 because the Crow was manhandled not only personally, but as an actor, in insults of actors scattered throughout the Groatsworth letter. For Chettle to have removed all the bad that was said about actors would have disposed of just about the whole letter, so he could not have entirely spared the Crow. He could, however, have entirely spared any of the other two in the running by removing, in Nashe’s case, the only line that spoke ill of him in any significant way, one about his having been made to consider religion “lothsome” (and every other line that some anti-Stratfordian thinks could have offended him, like one saying he and his friends would be “base-minded” if they didn’t heed the Groatsworth-narrator’s words); in Peele’s case Chettle could have removed that same line, since it referred to him (and Marlowe) as well as to Nashe, plus a reference to him suggesting that he deserved to be poor since he’d cast his lot with actors. One additional point in the Crow’s favor is that only he among the playwrights mentioned in the Groastworth has some vocation other than his art, as Chettle’s text suggests Playwright #2 does, for it covers four of his characteristics: his demeanor, his vocation, his character and his art. It would be strangely unbalanced diction to speak of demeanor and vocation, and then character and vocation (as would be the case if the play-maker’s art was his vocation)—that is, to praise his writing twice in such a locution. This doubling of occupations strengthens the case for the second play-maker’s being the Crow since none of the other three playwrights of the Groatsworth letter had any vocation other than writing. It also tends to indicate that the second play-maker’s vocation was acting, the same as the Crow’s, Chettle using “qualitie” secondarily to imply that. What else would the man be professing whose excellance Chettle would have been in a position to judge? Aside from that, as several scholars have pointed out, “the qualitie” the Crow is said to profess was often used in Shakespeare’s time to mean specifically the acting trade.

My final argument for Playwright #2 as the Crow is the unlikelihood that the Crow, maltreated personally as a bad but very conceited would be playwright with a cruel heart who, it is implied, was party to ignoring the dying Greene’s needs—and was, on top of it, an actor, and thus about as degenerate as can be (see the line about “Epicures” again for just one piece of evidence of that)—would not complain. It seems to me that I have now established the Crow as a viable
candidate for Chettle’s second playwright. But what about the other two? Might they not be even more likely candidates? I believe not.

There are several reasons for eliminating Nashe, whom I will take first, from consideration. He may have been treated a little condescendingly in the letter, but it’s hard to imagine he could have taken offense at it, particularly inasmuch as he was also flattered. (The letter terms him a “byting Satyrist” who ought to “inveigh against vaine men, for (he) canst do it, no man better,” but he ought not to name those he’s satirizing. The Groatsworth never personally insults Nashe.) And the compliments Chettle directs at Playwright #2 would do nothing to address any complaint Nashe would have had about what the letter said about him personally.

Besides that, whereas Chettle states that he had not previously met either of the playwrights who took offense, he probably knew Nashe. Both he and Nashe specialized in pamphlets, were on the same side in the major disputes of the time, and were intimately connected with
Danter, who published the Groatsworth and pamphlets of Nashe’s (though it is unknown whether they both knew Danter when Danter put out the Groatsworth). Moreover, in Have With You To Saffron-walden, Nashe asserts he’s not some contentious maniac who attacks everyone
without reason: “…I neuer abused Marloe, Greene, Chettle in my life, nor anie of my frends that vsde me like a frend; which both Marloe and Greene (if they were aliue) vnder their hands would testifie, euen as Harry Chettle hath in a short note here,” which indicates that he and Chettle were friends at some point in their lives. As does Thomas Dekker’s A Knight’s Conjuring, in which Chettle is described as an “old acquaintance” of Nashe, Marlowe and Greene.

It should also be pointed out that Nashe publically denied gossip that made him the author of the Groatsworth. It would not seem likely that anyone would suspect him of that had the letter contained anything maligning him seriously enough to be complained about.

As for Peele, the Groatsworth letter says of him personally the following: “And thou no lesse deserving than the other two, in some things rarer, in nothing inferiour; driven (as my selfe) to extreme shifts, a litle have I to say to thee: and were it not an idolatrous oth, I would sweare by sweet S. George, thou art unworthy better hap, sith thou dependest on so meane a stay.” This seems to me a pretty weak denigration, though Jerry Downs feels that someone “of Peele’s
pretensions” could have been quite hurt by being described as poor. I doubt that but even so, what would all Chettle’s compliments of Playwright #2 do to assuage such a hurt? Why wouldn’t he have found “divers of worship” to say Playwright #2 was thriving?

In conclusion, while there is evidence both for and against each of the three candidates for the role of Playwright #2, the evidence for the Crow is much stronger than the evidence for the other two, and the evidence against the Crow much less reliable than the evidence against
the other two.  From this, it follows that Chettle testifies that the Crow was a playwright, thus corroborating my argument that the Groatsworth-author said that. This additional evidence that the Crow was a playwright, in turn, helps confirm the Groatsworth’s identifying him as the particular playwright, William Shakespeare.

That Chettle also speaks of Playwright #2’s civility, something Jonson, Heywood and others noted about Shakespeare, and of his “facetious grace in writting,” which is close to the way Shakespeare’s writing style is often thereafter described, is strong secondary evidence that laywright #2 was the Crow aka William Shakespeare. In conclusion, Greenes Groatsworth of Wit and Chettle’s preface, taken together, are sufficient to pretty much confirm that William Shakespeare was an actor/writer, by themselves. But we knew that already, right?

.

ANNOUNCEMENT

Clearance Sale

25 4″ by 3″ Runaway Spoon Books for $50, a savings of over $70, and no shipping charge.  Ten full sets available at present.  Send me $50 using the Paypal button below and I will ship you the following titles, many of which are or will be collectors’ items:

Fluxonyms
m. aND

Estrella
D. Baratier

Vanishing Whores & the Insomniac
G. Beining

Span
J. M.  Bennett

Conflatio
J. Byrum

25 Scores
A. Bull

Light
B. Cobbing, B. Keith, P. Grenier, A Lora-Totino, H. Tanabu

Capacity X
B. DiMichel

The God-Shed
A. Falleder

This Word
H. Fischer

Heavyn
L. Gorman

An April Poem
B. Grumman

Ghostlight
G. Huth

Khwatir
J. Leftwich

Fields/Pitches/Turfs/Arenas
R. Kostelanetz

Transentence
d. lopes

Until It Changes
S-P Martin

far human character
J. Martone

Artist as Autist
J. Moskovitz

Mockingbird/ Litmus
L. Tomoyasu

Artaud What
N. Vassilakis

Cheer
D. Waber

Photo Script
P. Weinman

Night Rain
T. Wiloch

Viscosity Induction
C. Winkler

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The information listed below is up-to-date as of Fall 2005–with titles published after Spring 2001 in red, and unaccompanied by full particulars. Prices and availability are subject to change (some titles are temporarily out-of-print, or close to it). Note: most Runaway Spoon Press Books are saddle-stitched with card-stock covers; the price of each includes postage, handling and taxes; it is, in short, the thing’s price–in US dollars, that is.

MIEKAL AND

The Quotes of Rotar Storch

Introduction by Crag Hill

A collection of avant garde collages, illustrations and poetry that playgrounds all of existence. 50 pages, 8.5″ by 11″. Publication Date: 6 November 1989. ISBN 0-926935-23-2. Price: $10

MIEKAL AND & LIZ WAS

Fluxonyms

A collection of alphaconceptual poetry or: exploratory breakdowns of polysyllabic neologies. 30 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 23 February 1989. ISBN 0-926935-09-7. Price: $5

IVAN ARGUELLES

Madonna

23 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.   Publication Date: 22 June 1998. ISBN 1-57141-043-0. Price: $8

TOM BAER

Roller Rink

One-act play about Hollywood high-rollers. 24 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 14 May 1994. ISBN 0-57141-001-5. Price: $5

DAVID BARATIER

Estrella

Linquexpressive Poetry. 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 2002. ISBN 1-57141-059-7. Price: $5

DENNIS BARONE

Tempura Fugit

22 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″. Publication Date: 28 June 1998. ISBN 1-57141-044-9. Price: $8

MICHAEL BASINSKI

Abzu

with visimagery by WENDY SORIN

Poems about Abzu that “previgilage mispeeling.” 8.5″ by 11″. Publication Date: 3 June 2003. ISBN 1-57141-060-0. Price: $10

The Flight to the Moon

Eight myth-based circular visual/infraverbal poems about the moon12 pages, 5.5″ by4.25″. Publication Date: 16 July 1993. ISBN 0-926935-81-X.
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Red Rain Too

A visual poetry sequence that recreates the archaeological investigation of ancient American Indian texts. 17 pages. ISBN 0-926935-64-X. Price: $5

[Un Nome]

Magnamythic visual infraverbal poems. 26 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 24 August 1997. ISBN 1-57141-039-2. Price: $5

GUY BEINING

Inner Insights

more of Beining’s ridiculously
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M-Factor

Wildly socio-techno-sexual adventures in
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Piecemeal

Introduction by Harry Polkinhorn

A both slick and coarse, x-rated dislocational collage sequence that alleys profoundly through just about the whole of modern life and art308 pages in 8 volumes, 4.25″ by 5.5″.

Publication Dates: 17 April 1988 (volumes 1 & 2), 16 April 1989
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for the set as a whole. Price per volume: $5; per set: $30

Vanishing Whores & the Insomniac

Haiku of bigCity
squalor stunningly illustrated with collages and pen&ink
drawings38 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.   Publication Date: 27 June
1991. ISBN 0-926935-57-7. Price: $5

BENNETT, ERNST, GRUMMAN, HELMES

12 Colorborations

four visual poets each collaborating oncewith each of the others in full color

8.5″ by11″. Publication Date: 17 June 2004.ISBN 1-57141-066-X. Price: $200

JOHN M. BENNETT

SH ONE

sample poems:

foNo act
ectic
sUre wAs

c rock an
bee p an

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Span

Introduction by Ivan Argüelles

Demented lyrics of the everyday

39 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″; Publication Date: 20 December 1990.

ISBN 0-926935-44-5. Price: $8

spinal speech

A collection of burning poodle
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Swelling

Visimagistic Introduction by Al Ackerman

The first Runaway Spoon Press collection of burning poodle
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JAKE BERRY

Brambu Drezi

A spectacular weave of disjunctional poetry, amuletic illumagery and ideas and images out of all known–and several other—worlds

61 pages, 8.5″by 11″.   Publication
Date: 17 March 1994, 5.5″ by 4.25″.   Publication Date: 23
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Equations

Introduction by Harry Polkinhorn

Wildly disjunctional poems about science, mythology,
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CARLA BERTOLA

Interferences Suite

print&handwritten collagical
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JONATHAN BRANNEN

Ethernity

Introduction by Dan Raphael

Shaped poems dealing somewhat dislocationally with the eternal verities of summer, the moon, language….

28 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.  
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Sunset Beach

A sexually-charged prose montage that
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Warp & Peace

Introduction by G. Huth

A visual poetry sequence exploring the eternal cycle of human destruction
and regeneration18 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.   Publication Date:
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JOHN BYRUM

Conflatio

Introduction by Bob Grumman

A visual poetry sequence about the branching of trees, blood vessels, axons,
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Text Blocks

Appropriated texts combined with notes to
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Text Blocks, Drawn

Abstract-expressionist
verbo-visual companion to Byrum’s Text Blocks24 pages, 5.5″ by
4.25″.   Publication Date: 24 April 1995. ISBN 0-57141-010-4.
Price: $8

ARTHUR BULL

25 Scores

Zen-like meditation pieces concerned with
listening25 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.   Publication Date: 21
December 1994. ISBN 0-57141-006-6. Price: $5

JOEL CHACE

O-D-E

Images, thoughts, sentences, phrases, words
broken up, repeated with new matter in ever-slightly-varying combinations
which are scatteredly dreamed into “a floating world” that is all music,
design and lyrical connotativeness63 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.  
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DORU CHIRODEA

Alethea Raped

Introduction by Neil S. Kvern,
Illustrations by Giulia OretttiJaunty, often satirical
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wethers.”31 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.   Publication Date: 8
December 1989. ISBN 0-926935-36-4. Price: $5

Of Metascrotum and Infradeaths

Introduction by John M. Bennett, Illustrations by Giulia
OretttiSquirming dark poems in a brilliant dark surdiction36
pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.   Publication Date: 20 December 1990. ISBN
0-926935-41-0. Price: $5

nonathambia

Rawly visceral idiolinguistic
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1995. ISBN 0-57141-014-7. Price: $5

DAVE CHIROT

Anar Key Ology

Alley-raw graffiti-influenced visual
poems blowtching sunward21 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.  
Publication Date: 24 October 1999. ISBN 1-57141-015-1. Price: $5

COBBING, GARNIER, and others

Light

One visual poem each by five poets from the US,
England, Italy, Japan and France14 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.  
Publication Date: 23 July 1994. ISBN 0-57141-002-3. Price: $5

PAUL COLLIER

Petril Wava

Microherent poems suggestive of
mistranslated troubadour songs26 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.  
Publication Date: 2 July 1993. ISBN 0-926935-79-8. Price: $8

EDMUND CONTI

Eddies

Visual, infra-verbal and conventional light
verse33 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.   Publication Date: 17 March
1994. ISBN 0-57141-000-7. Price: $5

The Ed C. Scrolls

Light verse on the Scriptures and
related matters43 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.   Publication Date:
28 June 1995. ISBN 0-57141-011-2. Price: $5

JEAN-JACQUES CORY

Exhaustive Combinations

A permutation poem using just
five words over and over to say, eventually, rich things about
POSSIBILITY26 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.   Publication Date: 12
June 1996. ISBN 1-57141-022-8. Price: $8

JWCURRY

Re:Views:Re:Sponses:

Technically wide-ranging visual
poems which review other technically wide-ranging visual poems42 pages
(including one in full color), 8.5″ by 11″.   Publication Date:
16 February 1991. ISBN 0-926935-49-6. Price: $15

JWCURRY and STEVEN SMITH

Between

Illustrated by jwcurry and Bob
GrummanA poem that dislocationally follows the moon jouncingly far
beyond the conventions of June30 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.  
Publication Date: 11 March 1989. ISBN 0-926935-12-7. Price: $5

BILL DIMICHELE

Capacity X

Introduction by Laurie SchneiderA
combination of non-representational line-drawings and dislocational poems
inspired by the multifarious meanings of X38 pages, 5.5″ by
4.25″.   Publication Date: 13 August 1988. ISBN 0-926935-08-9.
Price: $5

Heart on the RightAn almost incoherently
wide-ranging series of textual poems of the language-poetry school that
careen through cyanide darknesses but end “in loyalties only to the DNA of
imagination”33 pages, 8.5″ by 11″.   Publication Date: 11
September 1992. ISBN 0-926935-71-2. Price: $10

JOHN DOLIS

Bl( )nk SpaceHighly literate use of parenthesis-marks
and absences (e.g., ) to poetize personally and/or intellectually-charged
life-experiences58 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.   Publication Date:
6 December 1993. ISBN 0-926935-92-5. Price: $8

Time Flies: ButterfliesCerebral, often subtly funny
excursions through variously meaningful nullities35 pages, 5.5″ by
8.5″.   Publication Date: 15 October 1999 ISBN 1-57141-049-X.
Price $8

LLOYD DUNN

Inbetweening

Introduction by F. John Herbert

A multi-paged visual poem dealing with letters and the history of the animated cartoon

56 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.  

Publication Date: 29 July 1989. ISBN 0-926935-22-4. Price: $5

CLIFF DWELLER

This Candescent World

Introduction by John Grey

Purely textual collages composed of found headlines that become highly lyrical, and readable, verse

32 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.  

Publication Date: 21 August 1993. ISBN 0-926935-87-9.
Price: $8

JOHN ELSBERG

Broken Poems for Evita

Fissional poems

25 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.   Publication Date: 24 August 1997.

ISBN 1-57141-041-4. Price: $8

Family Values

Wry visual and infra-verbal poems, the former generally consisting of repeated lines that form a rectangular design, the latter of subtly fragmented words

36 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.  

Publication Date: 31 December 1996. ISBN 1-57141-029-5. Price: $8

ENDWAR

Out of Words

subtle infraverbal poetry4.5″ by 5.5″.

Publication Date: 21 December 2003.ISBN 1-57141-063-5. Price: $5

HARRY D. ESHLEMAN

The Colors in the Sky

Ortholexical verse whose subject-matter ranges from a side-show strongman to blackbirds to the art of poetry to Florida to the colors in the sky.

24 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.  

Publication Date: 21 August 1993. ISBN 0-926935-86-0. Price: $8

GREG EVASON

NothingA series of typed/ mistyped/ overtyped/
scrawltyped visual poems counter-conscoiusing the normal mind60 pages,
8.5″ by 11″.   Publication Date: 30 July 1991. ISBN
0-926935-53-4. Price: $10

3 WindowsIntroduction by Nicholas Power,
Cover by Daniel f. BradleyA collection of dislocational poems
darkening out of contemporary urban living48 pages, 5.5″ by
4.25″.   Publication Date: 5 June 1988. ISBN 0-926935-04-6.
Price: $5

ARNOLD FALLEDER

The God-Shed

Introduction by Gerald BurnsLyrical poems that are exclusively verbal but so distinctively both knownstream and otherstream as to seem almost to occur in two sensory modalities at once

39 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.  
Publication Date: 26 June 1991. ISBN 0-926935-50-X. Price: $5

Midrash for Macbeth

Introduction by David Castleman, Illustrated by Gerald Burns

More by the author of The God-Shed of whom Gerald Burns wrote, “Reading Falleder is like looking for the halo of oil–the ooze– given off by sentimentality, self-indulgence–that you know is there–and not finding it. The reader is tizzied. Arnold doesn’t know (you say) what he’s doing. How could he, and break so many rules? It’s like Kit Smart at a dinner party falling on his
knees and inviting everyone to pray, or a man really proud of his daughter at her Commencement.”

59 pages, 8.5″ by 5.5″.  
Publication Date: 5 July 2000. ISBN 1-57141-053-8. Price: $10

HENRY G. FISCHER

This Word

Perhaps the world’s only collection of visual
poems that rhyme54 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.   Publication Date:
18 November 1992. ISBN 0-926935-72-0. Price: $5

NANCY FRYE

Once Water

Quietly forceful free verse about relationships, crickets, womanhood, minnows, death . . . but above all about the divers forms of water

45 pages, 5.5″ by 8″.  
Publication Date: 20 August 1992. ISBN 0-926935-61-5. Price: $8

PETER GANICK

Logical Geometries Language poems about tendons and “the
consequence of dimensions”

26 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.  
Publication Date: 21 August 1993. ISBN 0-926935-83-6. Price: $8

SilenceMinimalist poetry contrasting numeric
sequence with chains of disconected words16 pages, 5.5″ by
8.5″.   Publication Date: 1 April 1996. ISBN 1-57141-019-8.
Price: $8

PETER GANICK & SHEILA E. MURPHY

-ocracyPart of an ongoing collaboration that begins
here with Section 5: “dust/ priestesses the/ floor of/ putty-mouthed
silencers…. densest comparisons…./ your face// treasured cages/
surgically remove/ from their inhabitants/ the credo/ “trust the
process”// one relates coned by color/ team-drift….wiser than…./
openers’ fitness roles”: language-jift at its most mubile.29 pages,
5.5″ by 8.5″. Publication Date: 13 September 1997. ISBN 1-57141-050-3.
Price: $8

PIERRE GARNIER

The Words Are The World

Simple line drawings with simple
captions whose “incorrectness” jars all kinds of poetry loose–as when
“three” captions a numeral one, a numeral two, and a straight line39
pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″. Publication Date: 31 December 1996. ISBN:
1-57141-028-7. Price: $8

DAVID GIANATASIO

Bend Backward for Better ReceptionShort textual poems
with quiet but compelling addle, as in the following, which is quoted in
full: “trees, like postage stamps”30 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication
Date: 21 August 1992. ISBN 0-926935-69-0. Price: $5

LEROY GORMAN

Heavyn

Miniature fissional haiku: e.g., “fencepo st air
to snow”34 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 19 August 1992.
ISBN 0-926935-74-7. Price: $5

BOB GRUMMAN

An April Poem

A multi-paged visual poem about rain and forsythia16 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 13 April 1989. ISBN 0-926935-16-X. Price: $5

Doing Long Division in Color

special limited edition, partly hand-made;collection of mathematical poems in color.

8.5″ by 11″. Publication Date: 17 November 2001.

ISBN 1-57141-056-2. Price: $500

From Haiku To Lyriku

A participant’s Impressions of a Portion of Post-2000 North American Kernular Poetry. Acknowledged by No Academics Whatever As Worth Reading. Over Four Copies Sold in 2008 Alone.

$20 ppd (with tax included in price) 255 pages, softbound

The Runaway Spoon Press Catalogue

Of Manywhere-at-Once: Ruminations from the Site of a Poem’s Construction

(3rd, revised edition)

Part memoir, part journal of a sonnet’s construction, part discussion of poetics that begins with
the practice of Shakespeare and Keats, moves to that Yeats, Pound, Stevens and Roethke, and ends with that of contemporary visual, alphconceptual and dislocational poets such as Karl Krempton, John M. Bennett and Bob Grenier

190 pages, plus glossary and bibliography; 5.5″ by 8.5″.
Publication Date: 20 December 1998. ISBN 1-57141-045-7. Price: $15

Poemns

a re-publication of the 1966 edition of the author’s first published visual poems: two or three dozen haiku strongly influenced by E. E. Cummings

34 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.  
Publication Date: 24 August 1997. ISBN 1-57141-036-8. Price: $5

SpringPoem No. 3,719,242

A 12-page-long 6-letter one-word poem18 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.

Publication Date: 20 December 1990. ISBN 0-926935-39-9. Price: $5

A StrayngeBook

A wacko, anti-censorship, illustrated bunny-bear book for Very Smart kids and 11 adults whose names cannot be revealed at this time. Over a hundred copies sold in less than 20 years!

38 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 6 September 1987.
ISBN 0-926935-00-3. Price: $5 ppd.

An anthology of works from the Runaway Spoon Press and a catalog at the same time, within a comic
narrative34 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 13 February 1989.
ISBN 0-926935-13-5. Price: $5

S. GUSTAV HAGGLUND

Jaguar Newsprint

Almost entirely non-representational
visual poetry sequence14 pages, 5.5″ by 8″. Publication Date: 12 June
1996. ISBN 1-57141-021-X. Price: $8

JEFFERSON HANSEN

Red Streams of George Through Pages

A visual language-poetry narrative about “george a suicide become god.”18
pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″. Publication Date: 16 July 1993. ISBN 0-926935-84-4.
Price: $8

SCOTT HELMES

Non-Additive PostulationsOne of the very few collections of mathematical poems by one author in the world24 pages,

5.5″ by 8.5″.   Publication Date: 29 December 2000.

ISBN 1-57141-054-6.  Price: $8

KEITH HIGGINBOTHAM

Carrying the Air on a Stick

Gnomic, usually
surrealistic, often funny “clipoems”31 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.
Publication Date: 28 June 1995. ISBN 0-57141-017-1. Price: $5

DICK HIGGINS

Scenes Forgotten & Otherwise Remembered49 pages,
5.5″ by 8.5″.   Publication Date: 28 June 1998. ISBN
1-57141–042-2. Price: $5

CRAG HILL

American Standard

Introduction by John Byrum

A collection of often-playful, always ingenious-hearted textual poems
concerned with the English language34 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.
Publication Date: 16 April 1989. ISBN 0-926935-15-1. Price: $5

The Week

A series of sometime epigrammatic, sometimes
poetic, always reflective sentences that playground the size of a
week55 pages, 8.5″ by 11″. Publication Date: 14 February 1992. ISBN
0-926935-59-3. Price: $10

CRAG HILL and BOB GRUMMAN, editors

Vispo auf Deutsch

Verbo-visual art from 17 Austrians
and Germans58 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 26 November
1995. ISBN 0-57141-018-X. Price: $10

VIRGINIA V. HLAVSA

Festillifes

Charming visual poems about Nancy Drew and
other aspects of growing up, but also about owls, kingfishers,
sycamores–and black holes21 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date:
19 August 1992. ISBN 0-926935-73-9. Price: $5

MIMI HOLMES

A Selection of SelvesTextual Accompaniment by Jake
BerryA multi-styled series of onter-related visual
self-portraits50 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 26 June 1991.
ISBN 0-926935-51-8. Price: $5

WHARTON HOOD

House of CardsIntroduction by Marshal Hryciuk,
Illustrations by Richard BelandA collection of dislocational
haiku concerned predominantly with the pre-dawn a.m. of modern life59
pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 17 April 1989. ISBN 0-926935-18-6.
Price: $5

MARSHALL HRYCIUK

The Galloping Syntaxi StrandsDown ‘n’ dirty sequence of
various mixtures of visual poetry, textual poetry, and collages that
ranges from recondite interactions with antiquity to the
super-ephemerality of stock-market reports and magazines ads69 pages,
8.5″ by 11″. Publication Date: 10 September 1992. ISBN 0-926935-77-1.
Price: $10

G. HUTH

Ampersand Squared

an anthology of pwoermds edited by G. HUTH who also provides an absorbing introduction to the genre.

5.5″ by 4.25″. perfect-bound. Publication Date: 20 April 2004.
ISBN 1-57141-065-1. Price: $10

Ghostlight

Introduction by Bob Grumman

Haiku-vivid lyrical visual poems

36 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 20 December 1990.
ISBN 0-926935-45-3. Price: $5

WreadingsIntroduction by Crag Hill
A collection of alphaconceptual poems, or: metaphorically illuminating
Joycean neologies60 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 27
November 1987. ISBN 0-926935-02-X. Price: $5

WreadingsIntroduction by Crag HillA
second edition with new poems of a collection of infra-verbal pwoermds
such as “throught”64 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 21 April
1995. ISBN 0-57141-007-2. Price: $5
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BILL KEITH

WingdomIntroductions by Pierre Garnier and
Bob GrummanVisual poems about both actual flight and art as a
form of flight–and about all that both kinds of flight allow us to
experience22 pages. ISBN 0-926935-91-7. Price: $8

KARL KEMPTON

Fission

Introduction by Bob GrummanA collection of
one-word alphaconceptual poems, or: one-word orthographic explorations of
the language.56 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 4
January 1988. ISBN 0-926935-01-1. Price: $5

Charged Particles

Voyages into the very letters of
words to get at the heart of nature, life, and the quest to free “ego” of
its “e”41 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 21 June
1991. ISBN 0-926935-52-6. Price: $8

A Pond of Stars

Introduction by Will Inman

A collection of lyricking textual poems dealing with nature, archaeology and
ecology (and, scorchingly at times, techno-industrial anti-ecology)52
pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 24 February 1989. ISBN
0-926935-11-9. Price: $5

Portrait of Texture

A series of visual illumages
investigating the alphabet and textuality20 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.
Publication Date: 15 October 1999. ISBN 1-57141-047-3. Price: $8

Rose WindowA visual illumagery sequence featuring
the alphabet as a series of rose windows30 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.
Publication Date: 15 October 1999. ISBN 1-57141-048-1. Price: $8

The Voices of Aden

Deeply ethical reflections
transmuted to lyrical verse20 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 2 July 1993. ISBN 0-926935-85-2. Price: $8

Rune 6: Figures of Speech

Typoglifs semi-representationally schematizing such archetypes as the priest, the
scribe and dancers at the highest visio-lyrical level

27 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 6 December 1993. ISBN 0-926935-89-5. Price: $8

Rune 7: Poem, a Mapping

A masterful collection of typoglific investigations of the poem as toy, as rapture, as magic, as cosmos

30 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 6 December 1993. ISBN 0-926935-90-9. Price: $8

3 Cubed: Mathematical Poems, 1976 – 2003

One of the world’s very few books devoted entirely to mathematical and math-related
poetry by one author.

5.5″ by 8.5″. Publication Date: 3 March 2003 (03/03/03).
ISBN 1-57141-061-9. Price: $8

Please Choose an Option Below Before Clicking “Buy Now”

U.S. Mailing Address $8.00Overseas $11.00You Like Me $6,000.00

M. KETTNER

Full Penny Jar

Introduction by Noemie Maxwell &amp; Nico Vassilakis

Haiku of ordinary objects wrenched into new resonances with each other

52 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; publication Date: 8 December 1989.

ISBN 0-926935-35-6. Price: $5

DAVID KOPASKA-MERKEL

Underfoot Introduction by G. Huth, Illustrations
by Sheila Kopaska-MerkelA collection of mostly ortholexical
verse whose subject matter is sometimes gothic, sometimes sci fi, but
which ranges everywhere44 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 15 February 1992. ISBN 0-926935-60-7. Price: $5

MARTON KOPPANY

To Be Or To Be

Subtle conceptual poems like the
title-poem, which investigates various ways of considering being and
nothingness45 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 31
December 1996. ISBN 1-57141-026-0. Price: $5

RICHARD KOSTELANETZ

Fields/Pitches/Turfs/Arenas

Introduction by Harry Polkinhorn

A collection of minimalistic but richly sense-turning visual poems

36 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 13 February 1991.

ISBN 0-926935-48-8. Price: $5

Fulcra

pwoermds each of which breaks into two
resonatinginner words such as “dozen.”2.75″ by 4.25″.
Publication Date: 18 July 2005.ISBN 1-57141-070-8. Price: $5

MoRepartitions

Minimalist word-play poems28
pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 17 March 1994.ISBN
0-926935-97-6. Price: $5

Poetry I Shall Not Make

a highly witty list of kinds
of poems the author wouldnot make such as ones “about sexism or
nuclear war orunpopular politicians”–a definite classic4.25″ by
5.5″. Publication Date: 22 December 2003.ISBN 1-57141-064-3. Price:
$5

Repartitions IV

Single words broken into
grag/ragm/gmen/ents of fascinatingly poetic resonance20 pages, 4.25″
by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 12 February 1992. ISBN
0-926935-67-4. Price: $5

JIM LEFTWICH

Khwatir

A long idiolinguistic multi-meaning prose
text43 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 28 June
1995. ISBN 0-57141-016-3. Price: $5

JONATHAN LEVANT

Five Days Shy of February

Levant, loose just shy of total linguistic irresponsibility in family matters, and breaking huge
chunks of poetry off them

30 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 24 August 1997. ISBN 1-57141-040-6. Price: $8

Oedipus the Anti-Aociopath (or Autumn
Angst)

Introductions by Pat Ronald, Carmen Wooster (who
is misrepresented as “Carmen Webster”), Martin Arbagi, Carol Gunther,
Judith Kitchen, Richard Rosen, Quentin R. Howard, John Horner and
James Brooks10 poems, 9 introductions24 pages, 5.5″ by
8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 15 February 1992. ISBN 0-926935-62-3.
Price: $8

NANCY LEVANT

Generations of Sara

A short story about a daughter with poems about a love affair20 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 23 May 1995. ISBN 0-57141-012-0. Price: $8

DAMIAN LOPES

Transentence

Acute observations of the everyday in
slightly gnomic but accessible verse28 pages, 5.5″ by
4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 21 December 1994. ISBN 0-57141-005-8.
Price: $5

Unclear Family

A visual poetry sequence about the
breakup of a family24 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication
Date: 15 February 1992. ISBN 0-926935-65-8. Price: $5
<A name=m></A>
CARLOS LUIS

Tell This Muchbrilliant pluraesthetic collagical
collaborations in full color with WENDY SORIN5.5″ by 8.5″. Publication
Date: 18 July 2005.ISBN 1-57141-071-6. Price: $30OUT OF
PRINT–BUT EVENTUALLY A SECOND PRINTING IS PLANNED

STEPHEN-PAUL MARTIN

ADVANCINGreceding

Introduction by Lloyd Dunn

a multi-paged visual poem dealing with the many varieties of two-dimensional
space44 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 21 July
1989. ISBN 0-926935-21-6. Price: $8

The Flood

Introductions by Harry Polkinhorn and Richard Royal

A hilarious conflux of Noah and Reagan in visual poetry of the highest ingenuity and originality

88 pages, 8.5″ by 11″.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Publication Date: 9 September 1992. ISBN 0-926935-70-4. Price: $10

Until It Changes

Introduction by Eve Ensler

An absurdist stream-of-consciousness visual poetry narrative
which eschews grammatical progression for a kind of stacking and
unstacking48 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 12
August 1988. ISBN 0-926935-07-0. Price: $5

JOHN MARTONE

far human character

Fingerprints coalescing with hurricanes and other inter-schematizations of textual and visual imagery
that subtly map into the vagaries of the human psychology16 pages,
4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 27 June 1991. ISBN
0-926935-56-9. Price: $5

primerA collection of short haiku-like poems mostly
about eay-to-day family life58 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 22 December 1994. ISBN 0-57141-008-2. Price: $8

Trousseau

Introduction by Larry Eigner

Delicate but fully-charged visual poems of childhood,
Judaism and medieval times40 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 17 February 1991. ISBN 0-926935-46-1. Price: $5

James McGinness
The Grass PoemsIllustrated by Wes
DisneyShort lyrical poems in equal partnership with Franz Kline
Grass jutting into all sorts of human shapes47 pages, 4.25″ by
5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 14 May 1997. ISBN 1-57141-035-X.
Price: $8

MICHAEL MELCHER

Parallel to the Shore

Meditative lyrical poems

19 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 15 February 1992.

ISBN 0-926935-68-2. Price: $8

DAVID MILLER

Commentaries (II)

Cutting-edge visual poetry sequence specializing in over-printing and the lyrical smear.

10 pages, 11″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 25 March 2000. ISBN 1-57141-052-X.
Price: $8

GUSTAVE MORIN

Rusted Childhood Memoirs

Visual poems accurately described by their title17 pages, 8.5″ by 11″.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Publication Date: 17 March 1994. ISBN 0-926935-96-8. Price: $10

JACK MOSKOVITZ

Artist as Autist

Introduction by Crag Hill

Arrestingly primitive black cut-outs and dislocational poems which combine in a powerful vision of psychological alienation

59 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 16 April 1989.

ISBN 0-926935-14-3. Price: $5

Isis SlicesDisjunctional poems about the darknesses
in affairs of the heart–with collages by the author31 pages, 5.5″ by
4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 15 February 1992. ISBN 0-926935-66-6.
Price: $5

SHEILA E. MURPHY &amp; PETER GANICK

-ocracy Part of an ongoing collaboration that begins
here with Section 5: “dust/ priestesses the/ floor of/ putty-mouthed
silencers…. densest comparisons…./ your face// treasured cages/
surgically remove/ from their inhabitants/ the credo/ “trust the
process”// one relates coned by color/ team-drift….wiser than…./
openers’ fitness roles”: language-jift at its most mubile.29 pages,
8.5″ by 5.5″. Publication Date: 13 September 1997. ISBN 1-57141-050-3.
Price: $8

JUDY MURRAY

The Soft Sighs of IfWarm-hearted but odd-eyed lyric
poems of “lemon flies,” “marshmallow moths,” and “playing if with no
cards”24 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 22 August
1992. ISBN 0-926935-75-5. Price: $5

OBERC

DemonsRaw plaintext poems of barroom/bathroom/bedroom
and parallel rooms of the mind by one of Bukowski’s most talented
followers12 pages, 8.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 31
December 1996. ISBN 1-57141-027-9. Price: $5

CLEMENTE PADIN

Poems To Eyevisual poems, many of them chargedly
political5.5″ by 4.25″. Publication Date: 12 May 2002.ISBN
1-57141-058-9. Price: $8

MARK PETERS

Falling DownLanguage poems nonetheless achieving
poignancy without sentimentality out of experiences with slow
learners27 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 24
August 1997. ISBN 1-57141-038-4. Price: $8

HARRY POLKINHORN

Summary Dissolution

Introduction by Dick HigginsA collage sequence combining a dislocational textual
narrative with visual imagery from music, anatomy, philately and similarly
wide-ranging and seemingly discompanionable subjects.

58 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 10 August 1988.

ISBN 0-926935-06-2. Price: $5

Teraphim

Visual poems by a leading burstnom poet/critic

60 pages, 8.5″ by 11″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 26 November 1995.

ISBN 0-926935-98-4. Price: $10

BERN PORTER

NeverendsIntroduction by Erika PfanderA
collage sequence whose subject is existence, from lightning through shoe
advertisements to flowers in bloom50 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 16 April 1988. ISBN 0-926935-03-8. Price: $5

NumbersIntroduction by Erika PfanderA
waggish collage sequence concerned with the varied ways numbers take part
in everyday life52 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date:
29 July 1989. ISBN 0-926935-20-8. Price: $5

Signs

Introduction by Erika PfanderThe final
volume of Porter’s four-volume investigation of human communication46
pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 31 December 1996. ISBN
1-57141-025-2. Price: $5

SymbolsSimple-seeming but eye-opening collages by
the master42 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 28
June 1995. ISBN 0-57141-015-5. Price: $5

BERN PORTER and MALOK

VocrascendsA satirical/lyrical high-art/crude collage
sequence by two legends of the mail art scene32 pages, 4.25″ by
5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 12 February 1991. ISBN 0-926935-42-9.
Price: $5

BETTY RADIN
Dreamdance
Visual poetry sequence graphically and textually making knowable
secrets of the ballet. . . .15 pages, 8.5″ by 11″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 13 September 1997. ISBN 1-57141-031-7. Price: $10

Hot Taters &amp; RazzmatazzVisual poetry sequence
sputtering with colloquialisms out of Victorian England10 pages, 8.5″
by 11″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 13 September 1997. ISBN
1-57141-032-5. Price: $10

ARNE RAUENBERG

dislimitationVisual poetry from Germany30 pages,
5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 24 April 1995. ISBN
0-57141-009-0. Price: $8

GLENN RUSSELL

The Plantings

Introduction by Greg BoydA
collection of short, montage-illustrated surrealistic fables concerned
mainly with metamorphoses47 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 5 December 1989. ISBN 0-926935-34-8. Price: $5

GREGORY VINCENT ST. THOMASINO

IgneMicroherent songs of literature, philosophy and
life20 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 24 August
1993. ISBN 0-926935-88-7. Price: $5

JACK SAUNDERS

The Husband of the Writer’s WifePlaintext poems in
tone and manner resembling Bukowski but with a plaintive belligerance
against all Literary Establishments unique to Jack–albeit with solidly
authentic and moving glimpses of his family32 pages, 5.5″ by
8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 13 May 1997. ISBN 1-57141-040-6.
Price: $8

STACEY SOLLFREY

Turning Sights in a Circular DrivewayIntroduction by
John M. Bennett, Illustrations by Louis Steven
AllamBreeze-fresh dislocational poems concerned with the everyday
world of ice-skating, tv, laundromats. . . .32 pages, 5.5″ by
4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 9 December 1989. ISBN 0-926935-24-0.
Price: $5

WENDY SORIN

Abzu

collages about Abzu with poems by MICHAEL
BASINSKI8.5″ by 11″. Publication Date: 3 June 2003.ISBN
1-57141-060-0. Price: $10

Tell This Much

brilliant pluraesthetic collagical
collaborations in full color with CARLOS LUIS5.5″ by 8.5″. Publication
Date: 18 July 2005.ISBN 1-57141-071-6. Price: $20

FICUS STRANGULENSIS

Transmorfations

A collection of poems each of which
consists of a word or phrase that is visually altered, step by step, until
it becomes a new word or phrase–with poetic ties to the original word or
phrase37 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 31
December 1996. ISBN 1-57141-024-4. Price: $8

DAVID STARKEY

A Year With Gayle, And Others

A disjointed narrative
about Gayle and others in sometimes aphoristic, sometimes lyric, sometimes
who-knows-what lines, one for each day of the year27 pages, 5.5″ by
8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 2 July 1993. ISBN 0-926935-78-X.
Price: $8

LARRY TOMOYASU

Mockingbird/Litmus

Weird but resonant (and frequently
funny) juxtapositionings of visual images and mundane but unexpected
texts32 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 20
December 1990. ISBN 0-926935-47-X. Price: $5

ANDREW TOPEL

Pain Tings

cutting edge visual poems

5.5″ by 8.5″.

Publication Date: 19 June 2004.ISBN 1-57141-067-8. Price: $8

NICO VASSILAKIS

Artaud What

An aburdist collage sequence17 pages,
5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 17 March 1994. ISBN
0-926935-93-3. Price: $5

DornobberIntroduction by M. Kettner,
Calligraphic Illustrations by John M. Bennett,&gt; Translations
into Greek by Helen and Mary BournasA wild short surrealistic
poem about dirt, pigeons, mothlight and . . . dornobbery33 pages, 5.5″
by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 9 December 1989. ISBN
0-926935-37-2. Price: $5

Stampologue

a sequence of blocks of truncated texts
that tell several intriguingly indistinct stories simulataneously5.5″
by 4.25″. Publication Date: 17 July 2005.ISBN 1-57141-069-4. Price: $5

JOHN VIEIRA

Points on a Hazard Map

Lyric poetry at times visual,
at times infra-verbal, about “ignorance whitened” and much else.32
pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 15 October 1999. ISBN
1-57141-046-5. Price: $8

Reality Slices

A collection of textual and visual
poetry34 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 1 April
1996. ISBN 1-57141-020-1. Price: $8

Self-Portrait with Demons

Mixture of visual and
textual poems50 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 14
May 1997. ISBN 1-57141-033-3. Price: $8

DAN WABER
cheer
$5 ppd from The Runaway Spoon Press,
Box 495597, Port Charlotte FL 33949.
ISBN 978-1-57141-073-3<br>

Sample Poems:

excla!m

1. l
2. i
3. s
4. t

DIANE WALD

Double MirrorJump-cut poems, their lines in
alphabetical order, their subject a human relationship37 pages, 5.5″
by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 9 April 1996. ISBN 1-57141-023-6.
Price: $8

PAUL WEINMAN

Photo Script

Introduction by Mike Gunderloy,
Illustrations by Walt PhillipsSatirical poems of social comment
starring the famed White Boy52 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 20 December 1990. ISBN 0-926935-43-7. Price: $5

IRVING WEISS

Number PoemsVisual poems and list poems about
numbers70 pages, 5.5″ by 8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 22 August
1997. ISBN 1-57141-037-6. Price: $10

Visual VoicesVisual poetry variations on poems
written before 1900, with commentary145 pages, 8.5″ by
11″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 24 October 1994. ISBN 0-926935-95-X.
Price: $20

For more information regarding this title, go to <A
href=”http://www.irvingweiss.com/visual.html”>Visual
Voices</A>.

SIMON WICKHAM-SMITH

FewVisual and language poetry31 pages, 5.5″ by
8.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 17 March 1994. ISBN 0-926935-99-2.
Price: $8

TOM WILOCH

Decoded Factories of the Heart

A collection of
surrealistic haiku with collages52 pages, 4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Publication Date: 23 March 1995. ISBN 0-57141-003-1. Price: $5

Neon Trance

Yet more often macabre, always
surrealistically-resonant haiku from the master of the genre30 pages,
4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 14 May 1997. ISBN
1-57141-034-1. Price: $5

Night Rain

Introduction by Robert
FrazierElegantly dislocational haiku interwoven with grandly
surrealizing collages53 pages, 5.5″ by 4.25″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication
Date: 26 June 1991. ISBN 0-926935-55-0. Price: $5

CHRIS WINKLER

Viscosity InductionIntroduction by Jake
BerryBawdy absurdist non-narrative collage sequence26 pages,
4.25″ by 5.5″.&nbsp;&nbsp; Publication Date: 22 February 1989. ISBN
0-926935-10-0. Price: $5

Copyright © Runaway Spoon Press 1997, 2009

.

Shakespeare & the Rigidniks
by
Bob Grumman

a study of cerebral dysfunction

8 March 2013.  On the spur of the moment, I’ve decided to put the entire text of my book, Shakespeare & the Rigidniks here, one chapter at a time (revising it as I go along).  I hope also to put comments here as I download the thing, and afterwards.  I hope those of you reading it will comment on it, especially those of you taking issue with anything in it.  You can, of course, copy parts or all of it.

You can also send me money! My address is 1708 Hayworth Road, Port Charlotte FL 33952. I’m currently on food stamps, never in my life earned more than my present income from social security or around six hundred dollars a month, and am barely making it.

As of the end of 2013 I had not gotten my chapters concerning the rigidnikry of the leading authorship skeptics in good enough shape to present them here–they only explain why seemingly intelligent people can refuse to accept Shakespeare as the author of the works attributed to him five times better than James Shapiro does in his book on the subject, so–obviously–they need work. What’s here is the first truly full-scale demolition of the case against Shakespeare, and still by far the best.

 

 

PREFACE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

.

EXPERIODDICA

September/October 2014

Richard Kostelanetz’s Latest Infra-Verbal Adventure

Ouroboros
Richard Kostelanetz
NYQ Books, Box 2015, Old Chelsea Station,
New York NY 10113. $16.95. 2014. Pa; 188 pp.

An ouroboros is a mythological serpent swallowing its tail, so an excellent title for Richard Kostelanetz’s collection of 188 words swallowing their tails, most of the time adding at least one interesting word to what they’re saying, as “ouroboros” itself does on the cover (when its s joins its “our”).  Those that do not use their first letter as their last to finish a word: “extrapolat,” for example, has only one e but spells “extrapolate” when made into a circle.  It’s fun to find smaller words inside them in Kostelanetz’s collection: “tea” and “eat,” for example, in “appetite,” which not knowing at first where the word begins forces one to discover rather than automatically read without thinking about it.  But can such objects be considered poems—rather than “curiosities?”  To use the term my Internet friend Chris Lott thought might be more appropriate for works like them than “poems”–and which turned out to be a term I’ve needed for my over-all taxonomy of verbal expression for a long time but never thought of!

The term seems right for some of Kostelanetz’s words, but only some of them–like “ouroboros.”  The addition to it of “sour” is amusing but, for me, not poetically enlarging enough to be a poem rather than a verbal curiosity—which I now define for use in my Official Taxonomy of Verbal Expression as “a text that states an amusing or interesting fact.”  That makes it (write this down!) “informrature” (i.e., texts primarily intended to inform) rather than one of the other two kinds of verbal expression in my taxonomy, “advocature” (i.e., texts whose primary intent is to persuade, or verbal propaganda) and “literature” (i.e., verbal art, or texts intended primarily to give aesthetic pleasure).  In effect, “ouroboros” as a circular word that “disconceals” the word “sour” states the fact that its letters can be used to spell “sour” following a certain rule, that being to connect the word’s end to its beginning by means of a circular spelling.

Not that such a word doesn’t veer near poetry (which can be succinctly if roughly defined as not-prose) due to its visual difference from conventional prose, its making a reader go slow (a major aim of poetry) and delivering more connotations than prose generally does.  But, for me, it is visually-enhanced the way calligraphy is, and infraverbally-enhanced the way “ouroboros” spelled “ouROBoros” to reveal one of its inner words, would be.  Yes, it looks good on the page, and makes us think about it more than it would conventionally printed, but it leaves us primarily with only the fact that “sour” can be produced by it (and “our” and “rob” are in it.

Take on the other hand, “appetite,” which swallows its tail to deliver not only “tea,” and “eat” but leads us into and around to “pet” and “petite” to go along with “appetite” itself, to present a little tea party, with a strong suggestion of little girls.  Then put “incandescent” swallowing its tail on the page opposite it to form “tin” while making us also aware of its “descent” and “scent”—due to its compelling us to read it letter by letter.  “Scent” is particularly significant because of the metaphoric jolt of the3 suggestion of something incandescent as a material scent, or of a scent as something immaterially incandescent.  The contrast of “tin” notwithstanding, the result is a fascinating scene occurring somewhere down Alice’s rabbit hole which, for me, makes the word a poem.

At this point I must contradict myself.  I now believe all of Richard’s circular words are poems.  I say this because I now feel that they do enlarge a reader’s experience of them significantly more than prose does, although some, like “ouroboros” do so to much less of an extent than others.  More importantly, this collection as a whole, I’ve come to perceive, is a single poem, whose ssspinning wheelsss free connotations whose interaction with each other disconceal sometimes fairly complex image complexes—as I’ve shown “appetite” and “incandescent” do.  The result is a loose collection of themes and counter-themes, occasionally next to each other, as with “appetite” and “incandescent,” but sometimes far apart—like “state, which amusingly becomes “estate,” where the tea party will take place, many pages from “incandescent.”

Kostelanetz’s sequence begins with “insurgent,” and as we go along, the presence of an insurgent, mainly, it comes to seem to me, a language insurgent miswriting words into circular revolts against monosemy establishes one of the sequence’s major themes (with the little girls’ tea party in feminine contrast to it).  For example, “Esperanto,” representing a language in revolt against the Tower of Babylon our world has become, supports this “linguicentric” reading.  Its disconcealment of “rant” backs up the tone of insurgence (in spite of “toes”—although that suggests “toe to toe,” for one really caught up with the sequence).  On the page facing “esperanto” we have “astonish,” which is indicative, I think, of what artistic insurgence’s aim in this story will turn out to be.  That the font Kostelanetz has chosen for his words, the highly dramatic “Wide Latin,” which is jabbingly pointed at all extremities, underscores this.

The book’s fourth word underscores this: “another,” or something other than.  But then the narrative runs into “hesitant,” which contains “Sita,” the name of the central female character, a sort of Virgin Mary, in the Hindu epic, Ramayana, and the narrative goes strange among “the,” “he” “sit”, “it,” “tan,” “an,” “ant.”  After the turn caused by “hesitant,” comes “entomb,” with its “bent” against something.  By the “men” of the later “enthusiasm?” The first peak of this insurgent flow is reached with “outlawing,” which causes “gout,” making the act of outlawing things unhealthy, and the insurgence begins to have the feel of anarchism.
I agree with you if you’re thinking one must have quite an accommodating mind to make the kind of connections I’ve so far made—but a main function of poetry is to relax one into doing just that.  I have to admit a lot of my interpretations are influenced by my knowledge of Kostelanetz as a long-time personal friend consumed (like me) with innovative insurgency in the arts and anarchistic distaste for political laws.

To get back to his sequence, it’s no surprise that “esoteric” forms the next spinning wheel with its esoteric lawless confusion of “ice,” “rice,” “sot.”  Some kind of drunken wedding?  Where are we going?  The point is that we are going somewhere, or more than one where.  And word-lovers who join us will be sure to enjoy the trip!

.

The overt code is a very simple one I often use in my cryptographiku.  The less direct one is identical to the one I used in “Cryptographiku for Basho” except that its colors, shown below, are the negatives of the colors used in the other poem:

The Dan Waber Explosion

 

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Small Press Review,
Volume 42, Numbers 7/8, July/August 2010

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      this is visual poetry
      by Marton Koppany
      chapbookpublisher.com
      443 Main Street, 2nd FL | Kingston, PA 18704 | USA
      1-570-762-6140 and [email protected]
      $10 plus postage. 2010. Pa; 16 pp.

 

---

 

You creeps who skip my column because it treats weird stuff will miss out badly if you skip this one, for it’s about a set of chapbooks opportunities Dan Waber is making available. Dan, in partnership with Jennifer Hill, runs Paper Kite Press (http://wordpainting.com), which has been publishing books of poetry for going on 8 years. “When we first started Paper Kite Press we published trade paperbacks and chapbooks,” he says. But the press gradually got away from chapbooks due to the comparatively high costs of publishing them, along with the generally low returns that resulted.

Just last fall, though, he happened to have three manuscripts by friends on hand that he thought ideal for chapbooks but not for longer books. In hunting via the Internet for chapbook publishers, he learned to his surprise that there was just about none around, anymore.

That led to his founding a completely separate little company that does three things: 1) publishes chapbooks under the Naissance imprint; 2) does file conversion for people who want to self-publish or publish their own imprint; 3) does the file conversion and the printing for people who just want finished books delivered to them.

Naissance generally publishes what I call linguexpressive poetry (poetry in words alone, as opposed to “plurexpressive poetry,” like visual poetry, which is words and graphics and/or some other mode of expression). A published author in this series is paid ten copies of his work. So: NON-EXPERIODDICAL WRITERS ARE WELCOME!!!

One feature of Naissance is that if you do your own layout and submit it to Dan by e.mail, with a $10 payment, you will get a guaranteed response in 24 hours. Either he will accept your submission or send back your files, converted to files that are ready for conventional double-sided signature printing–wich means re-ordering the pages, for example. This seems a good deal to me, but if you don’t like it, you can submit via regular mail at no charge. Dan will also print books for a reasonable fee. Visit his site for details.

Because I’m mainly a visual poet, Dan’s most recent venture, the this is visual poetry series, is more up my alley. About it, he says, “Having solved all of the other problems in the world, I set myself to the last remaining task of importance: affordable short run color printing so that visual poetry can achieve the audience it deserves.” It would appear he’s publishing a dozen new titles in this series daily. Go to http://thisisvisualpoetry.com to see whose work he’s done chapbooks of. Among them, as of this writing, are John Martone, Ruggero Maggi, Carol Stetser, K. S. Ernst, Marilyn Rosenberg, Marton Koppany, Kaz Maslanka, Scott Helmes–and, of course, ME! Otherwise, why would I be writing about it, right?

I found my experience with this line of titles close to amazing. After consulting the easy-to-follow guidelines one can click to from thisisvisualpoetry.com, I gathered 15 of my visual poems, all but one or two in color–which wasn’t easy, for I’m not prolific. I needed 17 pieces, 16 for the body of the book and one for the cover, so I added a couple of textual designs. I e.mailed jpg copies of these and a photograph and bio to Dan (yes, one drawback is that you have to have a computer and access to the Internet to get published). My submission was accepted within an hour. A week later, with only one day of back&forth to get my back-cover photograph right, five copies of my book arrived at my house as my payment. (I can also order more copies at half price.) If ten million copies of the thing are sold, it won’t put anything in my pocket, but that’s a little unlikely. And, of course, if that happened, I’d be able to sell my originals for fabulous prices, and get on tv.

The collections in the series vary widely. Most consist of works without words, or without meaningful words that I call textual designage–and not poetry. My impression, though, is that they are all first-rate. One that is, for sure (and is visual poetry, most of it), is Marton Koppany’s One of my favorites in it I like mainly because I saw it wrong. To me it was a floating hat in an empty blue sky above ocean. Title: “Vacation.” The idea of a person having a vacation that’s so relaxing he turns into air–but keeps his hat on–for some reason very much appeals to me, both as a wry joke and as a lyrical celebration of Pure Serenity. Leaving oneself.

But it seems there is a question mark under the hat. Once Marton pointed out its presence, I could see it, but it’s faint. It shows up much better in his recent Otoliths collection, which I expect to cover in a later column. So, a question mark is on vacation. That’s probably as pleasantly anti-stress an idea as my misreading–a question freed from all forms of questionability, jauntily afloat above tides lazily coming and going. . . .

There are many other serene explorations of various punctuation marks and related typographical symbols in Marton’s haiku-deep collection. Pretty pictures of clouds and ocean, too.

To date, Dan is pleased with his new ventures. They are, as a group, in the black, something that can’t be said for most such small press endeavors–and near-miraculous for any such endeavor involved with visual poetry. Also near-miraculous to me is that Dan only needs to spend a half hour or so a day, a couple of days a week tending to said ventures. Most of what he does, he says, “is either well automated or made very efficient by it.” Or he doesn’t do it.. His day job, incidentally, is Sales & Marketing manager for a company that makes diamond tools for a variety of hobby markets, which no doubt accounts more than a little for his high level of competence in his second occupation. (Or third, as he’s also an excellent poet.)

Next up for him as publisher, he hopes, is a series called “sixteen thousand words”. Like the this is my visual poetry series, this will also consist of 16 page full-color chapbooks but they’ll include pictures that string together to tell narratives. “Visfiction,” he dubs it. I eagerly await the day he decides a series of visual poetry criticism is in order–although he may already be open to that.

Charles Alexander

Poet, Book Artist, Critic, Publisher

Alexander was born in Honolulu, grew up mostly in Norman, Oklahoma, was educated at Stanford University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has lived in Tucson for most of the last 14 years, including at present, with his wife Cynthia Miller, one of the premier visual artists of the American Southwest.  His e.mail address is [email protected].

Charles Alexander’s  books of poetry include Hopeful Buildings (Chax Press, Tucson, 1990) and arc of light / dark matter (Segue Books, New York, 1992).

Two chapbooks are forthcoming in winter 1998: Four Ninety Eight to Seven from Meow Press (Buffalo, New York) and Pushing Water from Standing Stones Press (Morris, Minnesota).

Alexander has also published reviews and critical essays on contemporary literature and culture. He is the founder and director of Chax Press, which was begun in Tucson, Arizona in 1984; Chax moved to Minneapolis from 1993 through 1996, and returned to Tucson in the summer of 1996. Chax is a publisher of handmade letterpress books and trade literary editions, both of which explore innovative writing and its conjunction with book forms. Through Chax Press, from 1986 to the present Alexander has organized literary readings, talks, workshops and presentations by artists. From 1993 through 1995 Alexander was executive director of Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the nation’s most comprehensive center for the arts of the book, both in terms of programs and artists’ studio facilities. As its director, Alexander completed the production of the visual/literary artists’ book, Winter Book in 1995 with visual artist Tom Rose.

In addition he has directed educational programs and a variety of
artists’ residencies, creative productions, and other works. He was the
organizer and director of the 1994 symposium, Art and Language: Re-Reading the Boundless Book, one of the foundational symposiums in the recent history of the book arts. From this symposium, he edited the formative collection of essays, Talking The Boundless Book: Art, Language, and the Book Arts (Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, 1996).

Alexander has given poetry readings, lectures, and workshops throughout the country at colleges, universities, art centers, and other locations, including at the University of Alabama, the University of Arizona, theState University of New York at Buffalo, Painted Bride Arts Center in Philadelphia, Small Press Traffic in San Francisco,  Canessa Gallery in  San Francisco, the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Scottsdale Center for the Arts, and many more. Alexander has also performed poetry in galleries and art centers, has collaborated with musicians and dancers, and in general brings to poetry a broad sense of artistic and collaborative possibility.

Poet Robert Creeley writes that Alexander’s work “hears a complex literacy of literalizing words. By means of a fencing of statements, sense is found rather than determined. The real is as thought.” And, concerning his 1992book, arc of light/dark matter, the poet and critic Ron Silliman writes, “Now Charles Alexander pushes the envelope of what is possible in writing
ven further, to the ends of the universe. And beyond. . . This is the most
sensuous, intelligent, rewarding writing I’ve read in ages.”

Christopher W. Alexander

Poet/Critic/Publisher

Alexander’s regular address is PO Box 522402, Salt Lake City, UT 84102; e.mail will reach him at [email protected].
Born 25 March 1970, in Akron, OH, he is espoused (unofficially) to Linda V. Russo and is the father of one child.

He works as a computer tech teacher.  He has a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a master’s from Boston University.  Besides composing poetry, he writes cultural criticism and acts as a press collective co-ordinatoror editor.  He likes both classical and hardcore music (composers: Bach, Beethoven, Schoenberg,  Shostakovich, Ives, Cage; bands/musicians: The Minutemen, Sonny Rollins, Charles Mingus), film (Derek Jarman’s TheGarden; The Last of England), politics (Intifada, IRA, American domestic; foreign affairs), hiking, bicycling, painting; sculpture (Picasso, Diego Rivera, F. Kahlo, Duchamp).

Among the books closest to him are The Brothers Karamazov and Berger’s A Painter of OurTime; he is also high on the play, Woyzeck. He describes his religious outlook as buddhist/none, marxist.  He enjoys following pro basketball, but only Chicago games &#038; only occasionally. He practiced Tae Kwon Do for 10 yrs.,  now lifts weights, jogs, goes on extended hikes, bicycles, cross-country skis, and occasionally goes snowshoeing.
About his background in science and philosophy he says, spent 2 yrs. of my undergrad studying genetics, got bored; moved over to american lit. “I do read a good deal of philosophy,” he says, “particularly Nietzsche, Hegel, Marx, Wittgenstein, Derrida, the polit. philosophy of the Frankfurt School critics (esp. Adorno), Foucault, M. Bakhtin; V. Volosinov, Pierre Bourdieu, Raymond Williams, etc.— focus on political & language phi.

About his life-in-general, Alexander says, “complicated, but good overall. L.& I are relatively poor, but happy together, nominative press collective is taking off a bit, my poetic work is good if difficult.”

He had work in n/formation 1: spring 1997 and is currently viewable on the web at http://choengmon.lib.utah.edu/~calexand/nonce.  His book, Dusky Winders (nominative press collective, 1996) has been reviewed in Taproot Reviews.  The contemporary poets important to him are Robert Creeley, Donald Revell, Charles Bernstein, Barrett Watten, Tina Darraugh, Peter Inman, Ron Silliman, Alan Halsey, Susan Howe, Peter Gizzi, David Bromige, Bruce Andrews and Susan Gevirtz.  His favorites from the past are Zukofsky, Oppen, Williams, Stein, Spicer, Duncan and Apollinaire.

Critis he deems important are Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, M. Perloff,
David James, Walter Benjamin, Michael Davidson, Barrett Watten, Charles Bernstein, Ron Silliman, Bruce Andrews, Steve Evans. In describing his tastes in poetry, Alexander says, “I respond most favorably to innovative form, but not as pure utterance.” He is “interested in a poetics that reflects a commitment to leftist politics of some variety — not necessarily overtly (expository) but that raises questions of the epistemological variety.
not interested in a liberatory politics of the signifier; or pure music any more than in naively content-driven verse.”

As a critic, he aims for a reading of particular works in the context of their material conditions, poetry as a reflection /or criticism of its culture of origin.  He tends to think of poetry in terms of “a Bourdieulian field of poetic production, in which participants take positions that have meaning in relation to the field as a whole. we seem to suffer from a polarization @ this point — or rather not so much a polarization, which violates the spatial metaphor, but an antagonism —wherein some sectors of the field dominate in
terms of monetary capital, recognition (by mass-market media organs) by virtue of the accessibility of their work (in terms of a middle-class view of art — largely affirmative or comprehensible in terms of that class; pretensions to universality, e.g., conforming to common sense, etc.). This is light verse, even @ its most critical, because the criticism it lodges is always given in terms of the dominant, so partially serves a recuperative function; positioned elsewhere in the field, variably antagonistic but united by their lack of /or distain for monetary capital are various innovative poetries.”

He goes on to say that “if one is concerned with the politicization of poetry, it’s important to realize the value of other kinds of work, even if one still priviledges one mode. My chief interest is less in the antagonism between poetry communities than in possible critical-rhetorical strategies characterized by the whole of poetry as a genre, both innovative;
dominant — despite the fact that, clearly, my tastes run to the former. He recommends the following for entries in the Comprepoetica Dictionary: Electronic Poetry Center (http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc), n/formation
(http://choengmon.lib.utah.edu/~calexand/nonce/), UbuWeb, Fluxus Online, Poet’s House (NYC), Misc. Proj. (Atlanta zine), Talisman (N.J. journal), Situation (D.C. zine), Impercipient Lecture Series (Providence, R.I. journal), Mirage/Period(ical) (S.F. zine), Mass. Ave. (Boston zine), lyric (S.F. zine) and Antenym (S.F. zine).

Click <a href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem2.html”>here</a> to read naldecon series, a sample of his work.

Click <a ref=”http://www.reocities.com/comprepoetica/compoems/poem3.html”>here</a> to read Joel Kuszai’s Globigerina Ooze, Alexander’s choice of another contemporary poet’s work he likes.

Kit Austin

Poet

Austin’s street address is 814 N. Dodge Street, Iowa City IA   52245; her e.mail address is caroline-austin@uiowa; and her phone number (319) 337-6124.

She has had work published in 100 Words and River King Poetry
Supplement.

Among the contemporary poets important to Austin are James Merrill, Frank Bidart, Gary Soto and Cynthia Macdonald; among those of the past she considers important are Whitman, Dickinson, Keats, Stevens, Shakespeare, Eliot, Rilke, Cendrars, Yeats, Hardy.  Edmund Wilson is the one critic she names as important to her.

She welcomes any feedback about her poetry.  For a sample of it, click <a href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem36.html”>here</a>.

For Matthea F. Harvey&#8217;s Frederick Courteney Selous’s “Letters To His Love,” a favorite poem of Austin’s by someone else, click <a
href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe1493/poem37.html”>here</a>.

Maura Alia Bramkamp (BRAM camp)

Poet

(street address)  266 Elmwood Ave #307
(city&#038;state)  Buffalo, NY 14222
(e.mail address)  [email protected]</p>
(affiliations/organizations)

National Writers Union, member

Italian American Writers Union, member
The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Lifetime Subscriber

(publication credits)
<i>The Buffalo News</i> (essays)
Amazon.com Editorial Review: <i>Welcome To My Planet: Where English is Sometimes
Spoken</i>, by Shannon Olson
<i>ARTVOICE</i> (Buffalo, NY)

Buffalo Spree (Buffalo, NY)
<i>The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal</i> (San Francisco)
<i>Switched-On-Gutenberg</i> (Internet Seattle-based)
<i>Exhibition</i> (Bainbridge Island, WA)
<i>The Woodstock Times</i> (Woodstock,NY)

<i>synapse</i> (Seattle, WA)
<i>convolvulus</i>
<i>Half Tones to Jubilee</i> (Pensacola, FL)
Signals (Olympia, WA)
tight (Guerneville, CA)
Spillway (WA)

The Healing Woman (CA)
The Wise Woman (CA)
105 Magazine (New Paltz, NY)
POETALK (CA)
<i>cups: a cafe journal</i> (San Francisco, CA)
<i>Arts Journal</i>poems &#038; interview (Poulsbo, WA)

<i>Coffee House Quarterly</i> (CO)
<i>Higher Source</i> (Bainbridge Island, WA)
And others&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;

(list of works)

CHAPBOOK
<i>Resculpting</i> (Paper Boat Press,1995)

ANTHOLOGIES
<i>This Far Together</i> (Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, 1995)
<i>Go Gently</i> (The Healing Woman, 1995)
<i>Bay Area Poets Coalition 1995 Anthology</i>
<i>Husky Voices</i> (Univ of WA, MFA Anthology, 1998)

(where written up)</p>
<i>Women&#8217;s Work</i> (Seattle,WA, 1995)
<i>Arts Journal</i> (Poulsbo, WA, 1996)
<i>The Healing Woman</i> (1996)
<i>Small Press Review</i> (Pick of the Month &#038; Review, 1996)

<i>synapse</i> (review, 1996)
<i>The Kitsap Herald</i> (1995)

(contemporary poets important to Bramkamp)
Charles Simic, Jana Harris, Billy Collins, Lynda Hull (deceased),
Seamus Heaney, Lynn Emmanuel, Carolyn Kizer,
Mark Doty, Raymond Carver, Nikki Finney,
Jane Kenyon, Ai, Gillian Conoley, Patti Smith

Larry Levis (deceased), Adrienne Rich, Carolyn Forche,
Yusef Komunyakaa, Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Nancy Willard,
Richard Hugo, Theodore Roethke, Carol Ann Duffy,
Marlene Nourbese Philip &#038; many others

(poets of yesteryear important to respondent)
Colette, Muriel Rukeyser, Paul Celan,
Rilke, Rimbaud, Edward Lear, Sylvia Plath,
Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop,

Samuel Beckett, Eugene O&#8217;Neil, W.H. Auden, Frank O&#8217;Hara
And many more&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.

(critics important to respondent)

Eavan Boland, bell hooks, Adrienne Rich&#8230;
otherwise, not particularly interested in criticism. I think going through an MFA program
ruined it for me.

(tastes in poetry)  I&#8217;m most drawn to narrative, lyrical, and prose poetry. Yet, I
read widely and try to sample styles outside my usual references.

(impression of contemporary poetry)  Ever-changing. Expanding, shouting, fighting
amongst our many selves, loud, soft, chilling,consoling, alienating &#038; inviting.

(zines, etc., that ought to be listed in the dictionary)
<i>Switched-On-Gutenberg</i> (Internet)
<i>The Cortland Review</i> (Internet)
<i>SketchRadio.com</i> (Internet)

<i>Small Press Review &#038; Small Magazine Review</i> (Dust Books)
<i>The Directory of Poetry Publishers</i> (Dust Books)
<i>Directory of Literary Magazines</i> (CLMP)
.

<b>Michael Basinski, Poet</b>

Basinski lives at 30 Colonial Avenue, Lancaster NY 14086; his
e.mail address is [email protected]; his phone number 716 645-2917

He was born 19 November 1979 in Lisbon.  He is 6 feet tall and weighs 165 pounds.  His
eyes and hair are brown, his ethnic background Polish.  He got his Ph.D. at SUNY,
Buffalo.  His occupation, says he, is working, his vocations, etc.  His characterizes himself
a pagan in both religion and politics.  He claims not to enjoy anything in the arts besides
poetry, or have any interest in sports.  He enjoys nothing in science or philosophy, either.
In answer to the <i>Comprepoetica</i> survey question that asks a respondent to name
the first poem that comes to his mind right then, he said, None.

Basinski has published in many periodicals including <i>First Offense, First Intensity,
Angle, Torque(Toronto), Kiosk, Essex Street, Washington Review, Chain, Boxkite,
Leopold Bloom, Taproot, Generator, Arras, Explosive Magazine, RIF/T, Yellow Silk,
Benzine, Sure, Another Chicago Magazine, Lyric&#038;, Mirage no.4(Period)ical, Lower
Limit Speech, Juxta, Wooden Head Review, Synaesthetic, Small Press Review</i>, and
other WEB and Email magazines.

His books include: <i>[Un-Nome]</i>, The Runaway Spoon Press;  <i>Idyll</i>, Juxta
Press; <i>Heebee-jeebies</i>, Meow Press; and many others.  He has been written up in
<i>Texture, Small Press Review, Taproot Reviews, Exile, Poetic Briefs</i>, etc.

He says that the poets of yesteryear important to him are Those before the coming of
circles.  His tastes in poetry?  Glitches and witches.  His impression of contemporary
poetry? Angels and beasts.

<b>David Beaudouin, Poet</b>

Beaudouin resides with his wife, family and Dawgs at 2840 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD
21218.  His e.mail address is [email protected], his phone number is 410-467-0600.  He
was born 3 February 1951 in Baltimore.

Beaudouin got his degree in 1975 from Johns Hopkins.  His religion is Quakerism, his
main political belief, Keep right except to pass.

His credits include the following chapbooks:
<i>Catenae,
American Night,
Human Nature</i> and <i>
Gig</i>.  He was last published on the Net in <i>Enterzone</i>.

Contemporary poets of importance to him are
Bernard Welt,
Terry Winch,
Kendra Kopelke,
Kim Carlin,
Jenmny Keith,
Ron Padgett and
Anselm Hollo.  Earlier poets of importance to him are

Frank O&#8217;Hara,
Charles Olson,
Joe Cardarelli, and
Elliott Coleman.

About contemporary poetry, he says, Well, it&#8217;s a mess, but I&#8217;m not
cleaning it up this time.

He enjoys going to the movies<i>any</i> movies.  He sums up his background in
philosophy and science with the following single sentence: When I was 10, I invented the
Buddha in my bedroom.

About his life, he says, Well, it seems to be moving along.
.
.
.

<b>Thomas Bell, Poet</b>

Bell lives at 2518 Wellington Pl., Murfreesboro, TN 37128.  His telephone number is
(615)
904-2374; his e.mail addresses are [email protected] and [email protected].
Born 18 February 1943 in Milwaukee, he is married and has two children.  He is right-
handed; about this he says, I write right and draw left.  poetry depends on where
i&#8217;m coming from.  i right write and draw to an inside straight.

He describes his religious denomination as democrat.  His occupation is

psychologist, for which he got the necessary degrees from the University of Wisconsin –
Milwaukee, Marquette, and the Wisconsin School of Professional Psychology.  He is also
an
editor and librarian.  He&#8217;s had work published on
paper and on the Internet.

One contemporary poet who is especially important to him is Allen Davies, and he
considers William Carlos
Williams the most important poet of the past for him.  He names no critics he favors
but throws his support to those who are experimental experiential.

Click<a href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem24.html”> here</a> to
read The Flowers, one of Bell&#8217;s poems.

Visit <A HREF=”http://www.public.usit.net/trbell”>Bell&#8217;s HomeSite</a> for
more of his poems.

<b>Ken Brandon, Poet</b>

Ken Brandona painter as well as a poet (actually, both combined, much of the time)was
born 10 February 1934 in Seattle, Washington.  He now lives with his wife, Maru Bruno
Flores, in Mexico.  His mailing address is La Danza 6, San Miguel de Allende, GTO.
37700 Mexico; his phone number is (Mexico)(415)-2-7098. A graduate of the University
of Washington in Seattle, he has three children: Ansel, Mateo and Dylan.

According to the <i>Comprepoetica</i> survey form he filled out,
Brandon makes his living under dim eyes passes the trail market.  His religion is Zenjoko,
his political affiliation good.  As for the poets who have influenced him,</p>

<pre>

the other poets
I throw in the fire
to get hot
</pre>
His hobbies are confidential.  In answer to the survey question about what techniques and
subject matter are of value to him in poetry, he says, Technique is self without trying for
any subject matter.  Regarding contemporary poetry, he says, As I think of it, it defines
itself automatically.

Brandon is a publisher who has put out 19 issues of the zine, <i>Iz Knot</i>, as of 1997.
His work has not been much written up.  My own stuff grips my interest, he says in
response to the query on the survey about what books he reads, or movies he goes to, and
so forth.  He describes his background in philosophy and science as normal.  As for the
sports he watches or participates in, information about that, he says, is confidential.

On life-in-general, Brandon says:</p>
<pre>

finding his path less taken
misled the dead gardner
for a while
</pre>
To view an untitled sample poem by Brandon, click <a
href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem31.html”>here</a>.   </p>
<b>Janet Buck</b>

Buck teaches writing and literature at the college level. Her poetry, humor, and
essays have appeared in <i>The Pittsburgh Quarterly, The Melic Review, Sapphire
Magazine, The Recursive Angel, Southern Ocean Review, Lynx: Poetry from Bath,
Apples &#038; Oranges, Oranges &#038; Apples, The Rose &#038; Thorn, San
Francisco Salvo,
Poetry Super Highway, Poetik License, Mind Fire, Astrophysicist’s Tango

Partner
Speaks, Perihelion, Oracle, Poetry Motel, Feminista!, Calliope, The Beaded
Strand,
New Thought Journal, Medicinal Purposes, 2River View, Kimera, Free Cuisinart,
In
Motion, Athens City Times, Conspire, Idling, remark, BeeHive, Gravity,
AfterNoon, A
Writer’s Choice, Niederngasse, Shades of December, Maelstrom, The Oracular
Tree,

Red Booth Review, Poetry Heaven, Tintern Abbey, Arkham, hoursbecomedays, The
Artful Mind, Oatmeal &#038; Poetry, Black Rose Blooming, Apollo Online, Masquerade,
Pigs &#8216;n Poets, Savoy, The Poet&#8217;s Edge, Allegory, GreenCross, Online
Writer,
Poetry
Cafe, Oblique, Locust Magazine, The Poetry Kit, Pyrowords, Vortex, Ceteris
Paribus,
The Suisun Valley Review, Illya&#8217;s Honey, Fires of Autumn, Orbital Revolution,

A
Little Poetry, Dead Letters, King Log, Peshekee Review, The Green Tricycle,
Pogonip,
Chimeric, Poetry Repair Shop, 3:00 AM Magazine, Wired Art from Wired Hearts</i>,
and
hundreds of print journals and e-zines world-wide.  A print collection of
Janet’s poetry
entitled <i>Calamity’s Quilt</i> is soon to be published by Newton’s Baby Press.

For a sample of her poetry, A Writer&#8217;s Prayer, click <a
href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem49.html”>here</a>.
<b>Bill Burmeister (BER my stir), Poet</b>

Burmeister resides with his wife, Diana, at 8018 Lakepointe Drive, Plantation, Fla 33322.
His
e.mail address is [email protected].  A Florida native of Armenian
(mother) and German (dad) descent, he was born 22 March 1961, in St. Petersburg.  He
works as an Electronics Engineer, having gotten his bachelor&#8217;s and
master&#8217;s in that field at the University of Central Florida.  His hobbies include
reading folklore, following baseball, listening to jazz/blues music, raising plants, amateur
astronomy, good wine and cigars, and collecting stamps.

He has several works in progress (as of late October 1997): poem/play (1 yr); first
chapbook of poems; translations of a play by the (deceased) Ecuadorian poet Gonzalo
Escudero and poems from Jorge Guillen&#8217;s <i>Cantico</i>.

Among the contemporary poets important to Burmeister are
John Ashbery, Charles Bernstein, A. Child, Clark Coolidge, Henry Gould, Lyn Hejinian,
Simic, J. Tate, Revell, Paz, Yau, L.Scalapino, B.Hillman, S.Howe, D.Ignatow, M.Strand,
M.McClure, B.Guest, R.Bly . . .
Earlier poets important to him include  Homer, Dante A., Milton, Shakespeare, Blake,
Wordsworth, Dickinson, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Loy, Williams (WCW), Pound, Breton,
Char, Zukofsky, Oppenheim.Celan, Loy, Joyce, T.Roethke, Carroll, Jorge Guillen, Lorca,
Neruda, Gonzalo Escudero, Spicer, Duncan, Patchen, Antonio Machado, Dickinson,
Wallace Stevens, Unamuno, Gustavo Adolpho Bequer, Beckett, D.Thomas, Muriel
Rukuyser, Rilke, J.Taggart . . .

Among critics, he particularly values the work of Blanchot, Bernstein, Perloff, Sartre,
Bachelard and Paz.

About his tastes in poetry he says, I have a fairly open, generous approach to poetry,
especially in what comes to me from the past. For poetry in the present, I look for the
writing as thinking, metaphysical, meditative, stream of consciousness, chance, new
surrealism, playfulness with language, nonsense, energetic lively language, reinvented
language, and so on. I look for innovation, but not necessarily formal innovation. What I
like most, I get from the avante-garde, but contentment with the avante-garde is an
impossibility by definition.  The avante-garde is not the beginning and the end of a
particular kind of poetry, but rather only the beginning, and maybe not the best possible at
that since a new dialogue has been begun with all of literature and history, the past as well
as a future.

As for criticism, he says, I don&#8217;t consider myself a critic as such, although
naturally, I recognize the importance of maintaining a critical ability since this has been
and will continue to be an essential part of literature.  For me, taste, appeal, enjoyment,
and enthusiasm must be considered at the personal level as much as any aesthetic, but can
never be
forced upon another as aesthetic. I tend to believe that poetry
is a lot like religion in that a kind of faith is necessary to
hold the poem together.  It seems to me that the poem is a delicate, but patient entity that
outlives time-sensitive criticism (such as identity politics and other socio-political agendas
in the guise of criticism).  Good critical writing is that which goes before or after good
writing: it informs, enlightens, and expands readership rather than merely decodes and
justifies.

Outside his field, Burmeister enjoys reading novels by James (<i>The Wings of a
Dove</i>), Faulkner (<i>The Sound and the Fury</i>)  Kafka (<i>The Trial</i>)  Gunter
Grass (<i>Cat and Mouse, Tin Drum</i>), Thomas Mann (<i>The Magic Mountain</i>),
the science fiction of G.Bear, Simak, Asimov, and D.Brin (before he choked), and Plays
by Beckett (<i>Waiting for Godot, Krapp&#8217;s last tape</i>), Gonzalo Escudero
(<i>Parallelogram</i>), the short word plays of Gertrude Stein, and the plays of
Sheakespeare.  He collects books of black &#038; white photography (Weston, Man Ray,
Irina Ionesco) and films (Wells, The Marx Brothers, D.Lynch and more).  He is also
building a collection of original paintings by Latin American painters such as the
contemporary Ecuadorian Arauz.  He listens to John Cage, experimental jazz (A.Braxton
and others) and acid jazz, and classical music.

About his interests in science and philosophy, he says, i tend (right now anyway) to be
partial toward the Spanish philo. Jose Ortega y Gassett, J.P.Sartre, Kierkegaard, Derrida,
&#038; Kant.
For philosophy of science, I have tended toward Einstein, Newton, Asimov, and Faraday.
Burmeister was educated in hard sciences up through elementary modern physics (theory
of quantuum electrodynamics, statistical mechanics, etc.), in mathematics
up through essential calculus, linear operator theory, diffential equations and boundary
value problems (applied).

In answer to the <i>Comprepoetica</i> survey question about the present world situation,
he says, I&#8217;m wondering for how long we can survive this ludicrous zero-sum game
known as the &#8216;Global economy.&#8217;

For a sample of Bill Burmeister&#8217;s poetry (with a brief commentary on it by
Burmeister), click <a
href=”http://www.reocities.com/soho/cafe/1493/poem11.html”>here</a>.

<b>Harry Burrus, Poet/Publisher</b>

Burrus lives with his wife, Megan, at 1266 Fountain View, Houston, Texas 77057-2204.
His telephone number is (713) 784-2802; his e.mail address, [email protected]

He was born in Denver, reared in St. Louis.  Moved to Houston in June 1977.  He is six
feet one and weighs 175 pounds.  His parents

were university professors.  His father was the first Pro Football player with a PHD.  He
himself holds advanced degrees in Film, Dramatic Arts, and Poetryand is active as a
collagist, photographer, screenwriter and filmmaker as well as a poet and the publisher of
<i>O!!Zone</i>, which he describes as a
modest literary-art zine.

His poetry books include:  <i>I Do Not Sleep With Strangers, Confessions of a Tennis
Pro;
Bouquet; A Game of Rules; Without Feathers; For Deposit Only; the Jaguar
Porfolio</i>; and <i>Cartouche</i>.  He has also co-edited with Peter Gravis of Black Tie
Press,

<i>American Poetry Confronts the 1990&#8217;s</i>.

Burrus&#8217;s poetry, photographs, and collages have appeared in various publications
and
exhibitions in the US and abroad.

Says Burrus about making a living, I gain dinero via photography, scripts, workshops, and
various other artistic
pursuits (and years ago as a tennis pro).

About religion and politics/nationalism (and money), he finds that most people
cannot discuss without harboring ill-feeling and/or distrust for those who
possess views different from their own.  Hence, I tend not to engage in these
areas unless it is with those capable of out of body experiences.

He has difficulty specifically determining what poets and critics and other influences have
been important to him.  The aggregation is subtle and ongoing.  Travel, for sure, is a
primary player.  On the goat path and with the
aroma of donkey dung filling the surrounding air, I witness and pick up
juxtaposition, impact, resonance, and cultural unravelings.  On these

excursions I shoot a lot of film, make journal entries, and ambient sound
recordings and always use the material.  I never know how or when or in what
form the work will appear, but it eventually does pop up somewhere, either in
poems, art of some kind like a collage, or, perhaps, a story emerges.

I am drawn to openness, curiosity, and a willingness to take chances.  I like
strong personalities.  I favor high energy and experimentation.  The seduction
has been more from artists and filmmakers, rather than poets, although a few
poets have landed a stroke or two.  A few personalities that quickly come to

mind are: Ernst, Magritte, Man Ray, Buñuel, Resnais, Cartier-Bresson,
Schwitters, Godard, Bergman, Newton, Rausenberg, Matta, Isidore Ducasse,
Pessoa, Prevert, Bowles, Wenders, and Gysin.

I tend to appreciate those engaged in multiple activities and skilled in
different pursuits.  Peter Beard and Bruce Chatwin come to mind.  Journeymen.
I enjoy Henry Miller’s writing about watercolors more than his novels.  I
enjoy the independence of his watercolors.

I make extractions from movements (Dada, Surrealism, The Beats, etc.), pulling

on the dynamism or a particular tack  something I notice that I might employ
in my work.  I may utilize or value aspects of the thinking that goes into a
work more than the work itself.  Burroughs’ and Kerouac’s and Lawrence’s
ideas, for example.  I also value their dedication.

Previously I read a lot of poetry and poetry publications, but I became
disenchanted with the likes of APR and Poetry  too much sameness.  Even

newcomers and alternative journals, which broke away from the writing school
content and were, at first, exciting and fresh, even they slowly lost their
zest and started wearing that familiar uniform.  There is, however, still
energy in various zines and micro-presses, so, choice is out there.  One must
forage for the interesting  which is the same with people.

My engagement with international visual poets, mail artists, and photographers
provides visual stimulation, plus insights into other cultures.  Myriad

personalities have opened to me and my exchange with them I eagerly maintain.
I find correspondence or working on a collage or making a photograph more
intriguing than being a spectator of some sporting event.

Burrus cites three critics who write well about their topics:  Walter Pater, John Simon, and
Marvin Bell.

The last full collection of poetry Burrus has read (as of 15 November 1997 was
Bukowski&#8217;s <i>Betting on the Muse</i>; last

non-poetry book: <i>Breaking the Maya Code</i>, by Michael Coe.

Click <a href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem18.html”>here</a> to see
Blue Mirror, a poem from Burrus&#8217;s <i>A Game of Rules</i>

(name of respondent)  Brandon
(pronunciation of respondent&#8217;s name)  Carpenter
(street address)  4616 S. Rusk
(city&#038;state)  Amarillo, Tx 79110

(e.mail address)  [email protected]
(phone number)  N/A
(po-type)  Poet/Critic
(affiliations/organizations)

Denver Word Affiliate
Vocal Velocity Records

(publication credits)

Poetry Cafe
Anvil
Poetry Shelter
Pauper.com
Sharptongue

(list of works)

A flame of the heart in the hands of Dread
Discombobulate the Dissemated

Muddy&#8217;s Cafe: Out of the Mud
Sharptongue

(contemporary poets important to respondent)  Ben Ohmart
(poets of yesteryear important to respondent)
Baudlelaire
Rimbaud
Ginsberg

Kerouac

(tastes in poetry)

Avant-Garde
Beat

(description of criticism)  Pick out the truth of the piece, show the path to find these truths
and uplift the reader, author, editor and other critics.
(zines, etc., that ought to be listed in the dictionary)

Realpoetic

(sample of respondent&#8217;s poetry)  members.tripod.com/Carpenter_B</p>
<hr />
</body>
</html>
.

<b>Joel Chace, Poet</b>

(pronunciation of respondent&#8217;s name)  Chase
(street address)  300 E. Seminary St.

(city&#038;state)  Mercersburg, PA  17236
(e.mail address)  [email protected]
(phone number)  717-328-3824

(affiliations/organizations)

Poetry EditorAntietam Review and 5_Trope electronic
magazine.

(publication credits)

My poems have appeared or are forthcoming  in print journals and
magazines such as the following:  <i>The Seneca Review, The Connecticut
Poetry Review, Spinning Jenny, Poetry Motel,  No Exit,  Pembroke
Magazine, Crazy Horse, Kudos</i> (England), and <i>Porto-Franco</i> (Romania).  I

have also published work in Electronic Magazines such as the following:
<i>Ninth St. Labs, Recursive Angel, Highbeams, Switched-on-Gutenberg,
Kudzu, Pif, The Morpo Review, Snakeskin, Slumgullion, PotePoetZine,</i>
and <i>The Experioddicist</i>.

(list of works)

Northwoods Press, in 1984, published my collection of poems entitled
<i>The Harp Beyond the Wall</i>.  Persephone Press, in 1992, published my

second book, <i>Red Ghost</i>, which won the first Persephone Press Book Award
and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in that same year.  Big Easy
Press, in 1995, brought out a collection entitled <i>Court of Ass-Sizes</i>.
In June, 1997, came a full-length collection, <i>Twentieth Century
Deaths</i>, from Singular Speech Press.  <i>The Melancholy of Yorick</i>

(Birch Brook Press) and <i>maggnummappuss</i> (nominated for a 1998 Pushcart Prize)
appeared in 1998, and a  bi-lingual edition of my poems is being prepared in Romania.

(where written up)

<i>Slumgullion, Pif, Mind Fire, A Writer&#8217;s Choice, Next,
No Exit, Grab-a-Nickel, Small Press Review</i>.

(contemporary poets important to respondent)

Jake Berry, W.D. Snodgrass, Adrienne Rich,
Jack Foley, Robert Creeley.

(poets of yesteryear important to respondent)

Jack Spicer, Thomas McGrath, Muriel Rukeyser,
Wallace Stevens, Walt Whitman.

(critics important to respondent)

Jack Foley, Muriel Rukeyser,
Marjorie Perloff.

For two samples of Chace&#8217;s poetry, click <a
href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem48.html”>here</a>.  He&#8217;d
appreciate any feedback on it that you&#8217;d care to e.mail him.

<b>Blaise Cirelli, Poet</b>
Cirelli was born 1 January 1952 in Philadelphia.  He describes himself as having a
Buddhist leaning and being Leftist Apolitical.  His publication credits include
<i>Agniezewska&#8217;s Diary, VIA, Zaum, Blind Donkey </i>and<i> Talus and
Scree</i>, and his
etry&#8217;s been written up in the San Louis Obispo Local  newspaper.  Contemporary
poets he admires include Michael Palmer,

Lyn Hejinian, Mei Mei Bruseenbugge (spelling?), Robert Hass, Ron Padgett and Robert
Pinsky.  He also admires the work of Ezra Pound,
Homer,
William Carlos Williams,
Loraine Niedecker,
Frank O&#8217;Hara,
Shelley,
Browning and
Tennyson.
Critics important to him are

Charles Altieri,
Helen Vendler,
Marjorie Perloff and
Forest Gander.

As a reader of poetry, he enjoys Experimental, Meditative Lyric poetryand <i>not</i>
Nature (Because how can you not like nature? I&#8217;d rather be in nature than read
about it).  His impression of the current scene is that There seem to be a lot of

diocre poets getting published.

Among his favorite books are: <i>The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment
<i>and</i> The
Sorrows of Young Werther</i>.  He lists two favorite movies: <i>Black Robe</i> and
<i>Il Postino</i>.  The sculpture of Henry Moore is important to him.  About philosophy
he says, I wish I could understand Wittgenstein.  On life-in-general: Some peop

are born with failure, others have it thrust upon them.  His
Favorite name for a cat: Spot (if it has spots); Favorite food: organic turnips.

For a sample of Cirelli&#8217;s poetry click <a
href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem4.html”>here</a>.

<b>Dark Poet, Poet</b>

Dark Poet&#8217;s address is 555 this isn&#8217;t real, Punta Gorda FL 33982. His
e.mail address is [email protected], his phone
number,(941) 555-9992.

(affiliations/organizations)  NA
(publication credits)  NA
(list of works)  NA
(where written up)  Conspiracy boards all over
(contemporary poets important to respondent)  na
(poets of yesteryear important to respondent)  Poe
(critics important to respondent)  na
(tastes in poetry)  na</p>

You can find a sample of Dark Poet&#8217;s work by clicking <a
href=”http://www.reocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1493/poem45.html”>here</a>.  His attitude
toward getting feedback on it: Sure.  It&#8217;s a rough draft.

<b>Catherine Daly (DAY lee), Poet</b>

Daly lives at 533 South Alandele Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90036.
Her e.mail address is [email protected], and is affiliated with
UCLA Extension and various listservs.

So far (late 1998), Daly has gotten about 80 poems into print  but has not yet had a book
published.  She has the following
manuscripts sitting around her house, however: <i>Engine No. 9, Locket, Manners in the
Colony, Dark Night</i>, and <i>The Green Hotel</i>.

The work of Barbara Guest and some of that of Barbara Hillman
has been important to her, and she likes the work of Todd Baron, Spencer Selby, Karen
Volkman, Ann Lauterbach (her favorite poetry teacher), Janet Holmes, Jeanne Marie
Beaumontthe last three of
whom have been especially supportive of her efforts.

She considers the usual suspects among the poets of yesteryear
important to her, and she admires the criticism of Susan Howe.

About poetry she says, I expect a great deal of thought and feeling to be behind a poem,
and I tend to like poems which reflect ideas.  Because I studied religion and philosophy
and math, I am particularly sensitive to the misuse of many ideas commonly placed into
these categories.

She likes her poetic narration true, not fictional.

A critic as well as a poet, Daly prefers to express critically what (she feels) the poet
attempts vs. succeeds at doing.  For example, she says, Wallace Stevens mentioned that it
was really what he attempted that pleased him about his work, but that he never achieved
anything near that in his poetry.  For a sample
of her criticism, her first book review, an impression of contemporary poetry, can be
found in <i>American Letters &#038; Commentary</i>, 10th Anniversary issue.

She thinks the American Contemporary Poetry &#8217;scene&#8217; is very much like
the alternative music scene of the 80s, and perhaps what the truly alternative music scene
still is: an incredibly generous but fragmented variety of subgenres waiting for someone
like Kurt Cobain to come along and steal all of the riffs and jam them together on a
national stage.

See Daly&#8217;s web site for links to poems of hers that have been published online:

http://members.aol.com/cadaly.</p>

<b>Michel Delville (del VIL), Critic</b>

(pronunciation of respondent&#8217;s name)  [delvil]
Delville lives at Alllée du Beau Vivier 38, 4102 Seraing, Belgium.  His e.mail address is
[email protected]; his phone number is ++ 32 4 3374386.

He has two books coming out in 1998: <i>The American Prose Poem: Poetic Form and
the Law of Genre</i> (Gainesville FL: UP of Florida), and <i>J. G. Ballard</i>
(Plymouth: Northcote House).

He considers the following contemporary poets of importance:
Henri Michaux, Ron Silliman, Vasko Popa,
Miroslav Holub, Francis Ponge, Madeline Gins,
Paul Nougé, Pierre Reverdy, Max Jacob, Pierre Alferi,

John Cage, Peter Redgrove and Rosmarie Waldrop.

As for poets of the past, he lists Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Charles Baudelaire,
Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Sappho, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Milton and Dante as
the heavyweights for him.

He notes four critics as being important to him: Marjorie Perloff, Roland Barthes, Frank
Lentricchia and Gérard Genette.

<b>Debra Di Blasi, Poet</b>

(pronunciation of Di Blasi&#8217;s name)  dee BLAH-see
Di Blasi&#8217;s mailing address is 5932 Charlotte St., Kansas City, MO 64110, her
e.mail address is [email protected].

(affiliations/organizations)</p>
Missouri Arts Council  Literature Panelist

PEN Center USA West  Member
The Authors Guild, Inc.  Member
The Academy of American Poets  Associate Member
The Writers Place  Member
National League of American Pen Women, Westport, MO Branch

Member  Chair, Short Story Committee</p>
publication credits

BOOKS:
* <i>Drought &#038; Say What You Like</i>, novella, New Directions Books: New
York, NY.  March 1997   winner Thorpe Menn Book Award
* <i>Prayers of an Accidental Nature</i>, short story collection,  Coffee House Press:
Minneapolis, MN.  May 1999.

* Gass Pain, hypertext essay (Dalkey Archive Press/The Center for Book Culture,
www.centerforthebook.org)
*many published short fiction, articles, essays, reviews

list of works

FICTION
* <i>What the Body Requires</i> (formerly titled <i>Reprise: Reprisal</i>), novel (See
AWARDS)

* <i>The Fourth Book</i>, short story collection, in progress</p>
SHORT STORIES
*Czechoslovakian Rhapsody Sung To The Accompaniment Of Piano.  <i>The Iowa
Review</i>.  December 2000  (See  RADIO / AUDIO and PERFORMANCE /
INSTALLATION / THEATRE)
* Blue, Recollection, and Exiles.  <i>The Prague Review</i>.  Winter 2000

*Snapshots: A Geneology.  Show + Tell anthology of Kansas City writers and artists,
Potpourri Publications: Kansas City, MO.  June 2000
*The Buck.  Potpourri  literary journal.  Fall 1996
*Blind.  New Letters literary journal.  Spring 1996
*Drowning Hard. Cottonwood literary journal. 1995  anthologized in Moondance e-zine.
1997

*I Am Telling You Lies. Sou&#8217;wester literary journal.  1995
*Chairman of the Board.  TIWA (Themes Interpreted by Writers and Artists) literary and
visual arts magazine.  1993  (See RADIO / AUDIO)
*An Interview With My Husband.  New Delta Review. 1991  anthologized in Lovers:
Writings By Women, The Crossing Press. 1992. (See AWARDS)
*Delbert.  <i>AENE literary journal</i>.  1991

*The Season&#8217;s Condition.  Colorado-North Review literary journal.  1990  (See
FILM and RADIO / AUDIO)
*Where All Things Converge. Transfer literary journal.  1989</p>
NONFICTION
*<i>The Way Men Kiss</i>,  memoir, in progress

<i>Gass Pain</i>, hypertext,  The Center for Book Culture casebook on William H.
Gass&#8217;s The Tunnel, H.L. Hix, editor.  November 2000
(www.centerforbookculture.org)</p>
Essays
Millennium Garden: Paintings by Jim Sajovic.  Published in art catalog.  September 1999.
Out of the Garden, Into the Cave.  1997  (See AWARDS)
What Three Cheers Everywhere Provide.  Anthologized in Exposures: Essays By Missouri
Women,  Woods Colt Press: Kansas City, MO,  March 1997 (See AWARDS)</p>

Articles (for SOMA arts magazine: San Francisco, CA)
We&#8217;ve Got Joe Montana.  1994
I Am Writing To You From the Middle Of Nowhere. 1990
James Rosenquist:  Seeing/Not Seeing.  1990
Diamanda Galas:  Honesty Inside A Clenched Fist.  1989

Rising From the Ash Heap of Performance Art, Rinde Eckert Takes Off.  1988
Otto Hitzberger:  Cutting Away.  1987
Miró.  1987
Jonathan Barbieri:  Missiles Across the Border.  1987</p>
Art Reviews (for <i>The New Art Examiner</i>: Chicago, IL)

Jane Ashbury.  1985.
Marilyn Propp.  1984,</p>
SCREENPLAYS / FILM
Screenplays Produced</p>
<i>Drought</i>,  16mm, 28 min.  1998 (premiere)  1993 (written)
Based on the novella of the same title by Debra Di Blasi.

Produced by Breathing Furniture Films/Lisa Moncure &#038; Michael Leen,
Screenplay by Debra Di Blasi, Lisa Moncure, Michael Leen,  Directed by Lisa Moncure,
Photography by Michael Leen,  Sound Design by Jim McKee/Earwax Productions,
Starring Jessika Cardinahl &#038; Jack Conley,  Production esign by Megan Ricks
&#038; John Matheson,  Editing by Jennifer Jean Cacavas,  Radio Program Music by
Allen Davis.</p>
SCREENINGS:
o       National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC,  November 2000
o       Ragtag Cinema:  Columbia, MO.  June 2000
o       Universe Elle, as part of the 53rd Cannes International Film Festival:  Cannes,
France.  May 2000

* Broadcast rights purchased by Independent Film Channel.  Premiere broadcast
November 23, 1999
* Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee:  Kansas City, MO.  April 1999 (see AWARDS)
o       Göteborg Sweden Film Festival:  Göteborg, Sweden.  Feb.  1999
o       Festival Internacional de Cine de Bilbao Spain:  Bilbao, Spain.   November 1998
o       Sao Paulo Mostra Internacional de Cinama:  Sao Paulo, Brazil.  October 1998
o       Figueira da Foz International Festival of Cinema:  Lisbon Portugal.  September 1998
(See AWARDS)
o       Webster University Film Series:  St. Louis, MO.  September 1999.
o       Sarajevo International Film Festival:  Sarajevo, Bosnia.  August 1998
o       Recontres Cinemágraphiques Franco-American D&#8217;Avignon, France:
Avignon, France. June 1998 (See AWARDS)

o       Charlotte Film Festival:  Charlotte, NC.  June 1998
o       Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival:  Toronto, Canada.  June 1998 (See
AWARDS)
o       New York/Avignon Film Festival:  New York, NY.  April-May 1998
o       New York Women&#8217;s Film Festival:  New York, NY.  April 1998
o       Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival:  Taos, NM.  April 1998 (See AWARDS)
o       American Film Institute Film Festival:  Los Angeles, CA. World premiere: October
1997 </p>
<i>The Season&#8217;s Condition</i> —  Super 8, 10 min.

Based on the short story of the same title by Debra Di Blasi.
Produced and directed by Lisa Moncure,  photography by Michael Leen.  </p>
SCREENINGS:
o       Toronto Film Festival:  Toronto, Canada.  1998
o       American Film Institute Film Festival:  Los Angeles, CA.  1995
o       Bay Area Film &#038; Video Poetry Festival:  San Francisco, CA.  1994

o       Culture Under Fire Film Festival:  Kansas City, MO.  1994</p>
Screenplays in Pre-Production
<i>My Father’s Farm</i>,  original short documentary in pre-production, based on the
essay Out of the Garden, Into the Cave by Debra Di Blasi.  Produced/written/directed by
Debra Di Blasi.
<i>Intruder</i>,  short screenplay in pre-production  screenplay by Debra Di Blasi.
Producer/director Edward Stencel.</p>
Screenplays Unproduced
The Hunger Winter, original feature in progress  co-written with historian Hal Wert

The Shortest Route Home,  original short screenplay
The Walking Wounded,  original feature-length screenplay (See AWARDS)
The Significance of Dreams, original short screenplay
Taming Wild Geese —  unproduced  original feature-length screenplay
Staring Into The Sun —  unproduced  original feature-length screenplay </p>
RADIO / AUDIO</p>
<i>Czechoslovakian Rhapsody</i>,  radio adaptation from the short story of the same
title.  Produced by Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (YLE):  Helsinki, Finland.
Broadcast premiere October 1998

Kansas City Fiction Writers: Vol. 1 — short stories (The Season&#8217;s Condition and
Chairman of the Board) recorded for double CD set, limited edition  featuring Kansas City
fiction writers.  Art Radio:  Kansas City, MO.  Release date December 1998
Dreamless Dream,  radio adaptation from the short stories Blind, Stones, and  Our
Perversions.  Produced by Finnish Broadcasting Corporation:  Helsinki, Finland.
Broadcast premiere October 1998

An Interview With My Husband —  chamber theatre adaptation from the short story of
the same title by Debra Di Blasi.  Produced and adapted by Stephen Booser,  directed by
Art Suskin,  stage management by Nancy Madsen,  premiere at The Writers Place, Kansas
City, MO,  October 1997
Drought — radio adaptation of the novella of the same title by Debra Di Blasi,  produced
and adapted by YLE (Finnish Broadcasting Corporation), Helsinki, Finland o  broadcast
premiere May 1998</p>
PERFORMANCE / EXHIBITIONS / THEATRE</p>
Unbroken View,  multimedia installation  collaboration with visual artist Sharyn O’Mara
assisted by sound designer Chris Willits.  Premiere exhibition:  Edwin A. Ulrich Museum:
Wichita, KS.   November 2000-January 2001.  Traveling to Juniata Landscape Museum:
Juniata, Pennsylvania.  September 2001.
Czechoslovakian Rhapsody,  multimedia performance based on the short story of the same
title by Debra Di Blasi.  Written/directed/produced/performed by Debra Di Blasi.
Premiere Ragtag Cinema, June 2000
An Interview With My Husband —  chamber theatre adaptation from the short story of
the same title by Debra Di Blasi.  Produced and adapted by Stephen Booser,  directed by
Art Suskin,  stage management by Nancy Madsen,  premiere at The Writers Place, Kansas
City, MO,  October 1997</p>
(where written up)</p>
<i>The New York Times Book Review
*Publishers Weekly

*Book Forum
*ForeWord
*In Print
*The Kansas City Star</i>
many, many others</p>
contemporary poets important to Di Blasi</p>
Louise Gluck
Larry Levis (deceased)
Billy Collins

H.L. Hix
Galway Kinnell
Mark Strand
Marilyn Hacker
many, many others
poets of yesteryear important to Di Blasi
Sylvia Plath
T.S. Eliot
W.B. Yeats

many, many others
critics important to Di Blasi: Not particularly interested in criticism
tastes in poetry: As a fiction writer, I am most fond of narrative poetry, although I enjoy
anything brilliant that contains aural lyricism.  Content is important only in that it helps
illuminate a &#8216;truth&#8217; I already know or confronts me with one I have not yet
discovered.
impression of contemporary poetry: Wonderful.  The range of styles and voices is a
pleasure.
zines, etc., that ought to be listed in the dictionary:  Virtually every serious literary journal
that publishes poetry deserves to be on this list.

.
 

 

Marilyn R. Rosenberg’s “Drift”

Consider, first, how important the large-lettered words wobbling all over the place in it are, particularly “drifts,” “procrastination,” “puddling, babbling, whirling,” and, in just the right place, “lingers,” linging with the “ling” words headed toward it.  Equally important are its graphics, which include a small school of fish and gorgeously splishy brushstrokes in various ocean colors.  “DRIFTS,” as it is actually spelled, can easily and very appropriately be taken for “DREAMS.”  Changes of colors along sharp edges turn the work into a throng of rectangles working geometric precision against the swirl of all else, to suggest blocks of time in motion, being lost . . .  On the other hand, the procrastination is allowing for–well, the eventual dreams the whirl of the creative subconscious yields that I find to be one essential component of this composition.  Final result: words and graphics working together in the reading center and the seeing center of the brain to slow an engagent into a Manywhere-at-Once at the heart of ocean depths and mysteries only dreams can reach.

Note, incidentally, the difference between what I said about Marilyn’s work before reading what she said about it, and her slant.   Neither of us is wrong, nor will you be (necessarily) wrong to find things in the work neither she nor I found.  An artwork is of value to the degree that it can plausibly suggest a great many things, so long as  none of them significantly contradicts the best of them (and there is always a central best meaning to an artwork all sensible people agree on such as the fact that this one is about the ocean). 

  

                                                                                        Bob Grumman

 

Mad Poet Symposium, Part Three

 

---

Small Press Review,
Volume 35, Numbers 3/4, March/April 2003

---

Another South
Bill Lavender, Editor
277 pp; 2002; Pa and Cloth;
The University of Alabama Press,
Tuscaloosa and London.
www.uapress.ua.edu. $27 and $60.

An American Avant Garde: Second Wave, An Exhibit
John M. Bennett and Geoffrey D. Smith, Curators
80 pp; 2002; Pa; Rare Books & Manuscripts Library,
The Ohio State University Libraries, 1858 Neil Av Mall,
Columbus, OH 43210. $15.

An American Avant Garde: First Wave: An Exhibit
Featuring the William S. Burroughs Collection
and Work by Other Avant-Garde Artists
John M. Bennett and Geoffrey D. Smith, Curators
48 pp; 2001; Pa; Rare Books & Manuscripts Library,
The Ohio State University Libraries,1858 Neil Av Mall,
Columbus, OH 43210. $15.

 

---

 

I have to interrupt my memoir of the Ohio State University affair to announce the publication of an anthology called Another South. As any longtime reader of this column would have no trouble guessing, it includes work by me–including the mathemaku I wrote for Jim Leftwich, and mentioned in my last column, in fact. Leftwich has a nice chunk of work here, too, as do others in my crowd such as Jake Berry, David Thomas Roberts and A. di Michael. We four and James Sanders (whose “Poem with Referee,” labels illustrations of football referees’ signals with such texts as “internally/ pans/ Night./ hissing” with a text that begins “Donkey Kong may/ been kissing you// with a bulletproof vest”) are the only ones contributing visual poetry, or anything near it, to the collection. I have to boast that I am the only one contributing mathematical or cryptographic poetry to it!

The many textual poems (and prose pieces) here–by such as Skip Fox, Ken Harris, Joy Lahey, Mark Prejsnar and Stephanie Williams (34 writers are represented in all)–cover about as much of the textual poetry range as I’m familiar with. Here’s one by Joel Dailey that I quote not only because I like it and deem it representative of the best work here, but because it takes a whack at the Establishment I’m in close sympathy with:

Poetry fro Dummies

for Helen Vendler

Cheekbones goes business
Allegedly dangerous
Day breaks legs
Nostalgic Hindquarters open
Influential bleeps
An entire infrastructure teed off
By face averted
By Pyres buzz flight
New “upright” position
yoohoo
Discovered today on the river Bobs
Rooster continuation
by rooster gulp

(Note: the “fro” may be a typo, but I like it, so suspect it was intentional.) How “southern” Dailey’s poem is, I wouldn’t know, but Hank Lazer has much of interest to say in his excellent introduction about that aspect of the poetry in this anthology. There, he refers to what he calls “kudzu textuality.” About this, he says, “What I have in mind is the sort of complex, stuttered, overlapping sounds as in these passages from my ‘Suite Quintet for Nathaniel Mackey’ (Callaloo 23, no. 2 [2002]: 670-673):

exited out else
the only where
he’d be / stam
stamp stammer

…

his the integral
blips into song
remainder as reminder

…

shucked hush
lattice of gladiola
red bud steps
down into flower

…

day’s eye
to daisy &
dasein
thus has
designs upon
you

“Such knowing enters first by faith in sounds, a pathway first governed by a submission to the associations of kindred sounds and thus akin to syntactic or graphic kudzu textuality that I have already been describing.” But surely such concentration on sound over sense goes back to the origins of poetry, and flows through such writers as Hopkins, Stein, Joyce . . . Here, too, I would say there is a concentration of imagery over sense, as well. Which is all to the good. (Of course, what I like most in Lazer’s poem are the mathematical terms in the second stanza!) In any event, we can see from Lazer’s and Dailey’s work quoted above (and in the main portion of the collection) the way grammar is currently broken by many of our best poets to get us more effectively “down into flower.” There is much of this in Another South.

There. Now I can return to the catalogue for the Ohio State exhibit. this time to a section of it labeled, “Serials, Books and Manuscripts.” It lists small-press–in most cases actually micro-press–journals and publications from 1975 that were on display at the exhibit. As such it serves as a fascinating overview of the almost entirely unknown history of burstnorm poetry and related arts of that time to the present. Just the names of the publications are revealing, and entertaining: Unmuzzled Ox (whose publisher is SPR’s own Michael Andre), CLWN WR, Perspektive, Xerolage, Shattered Wig, Koja, Pavement Saw, Remixponse Categoriarray, Poethia: Writing-online, Crayon, Caliban, Juxta, Lost and Found Times, Loose Watch, Generator and many more.  Michael Andre was the publisher of the issue of Unmuzzled Ox from 1989 that is on display. CLWN WR (from 1980) was previously called Clown War, according to the text–which includes this charmingly lyrical/nutto quotation from Lyn Hejinian: “sharing the toy/ and all-some banana.”

I’ve discussed Shattered Wig (to jump around in this lazily here-and-there column) before. The issue of it on display dates from around 1993. One of the texts quoted from it is by Al Ackerman (whom I quote or re-quote as much as possible, so exactly and eloquently does he state the over-riding aesthetics of this column): “Look again, Lurcher,” grated Ling. “This thing you’ve been calling the White Bat–DOESN’T IT REALLY LOOK LIKE A GIANT BURRITO STANDING ON END?”

The exhibit is up-to-date enough to include quite a bit of Internet material–Poethia, for example, which contains this, from Mark Peters: “Police arrived./ Former glory./ Foam rubber./ Talented Chef./ Even potatoes.” Jump-cut poetry with a vengeance, but strangely compelling–for me, at any rate. Similar in technique is the following, from Loose Watch: “make one’s blood/ the blood// a law violation// sleep.” It is by jwcurry and Mark Laba.

There are several items here that Richard Kostelanetz was responsible for. Among them is his still horrendously under-rated Openings & Closings of 1975, which includes, in its entirety, the following fiction: “In the beginning, as I said,/ was the end.” John Perlman, Jeffrey Little, Ficus strangulensis, Clark Coolidge, Spencer Selby, Peter Ganick, Vincent Ferrini, Crag Hill, Dick Higgins, John Byrum, Jackson Mac Low and Ivan Arguelles are just a few of the other stand-out bustnorm poets with work listed in this section of the catalogue, accompanied by always provocative and instructive quotations from it. It features several vibrant color reproductions, as well. It alone makes the catalogue worth getting for anyone who thinks it important to jump ahead of Vendler with regard to where American poetry has most arrestingly been for the past quarter century, and where it may be headed. But there is much more of value in this catalogue. So, I’ll probably discuss it some more next issue.