Poetry Society of America Desert Island Discs

If you ever wanted to know what I would like to listen to if stranded on a deserted island, you may now know:

My Deserted Island Disc Selections

Arts Ed Issue of Urban Ed Journal

Hello! Please check out the special Arts Ed issue of the Urban Education Journal:

http://www.urbanedjournal.org/

Lightful Press Book Release Party

Lightful Press is having a Book Release Party this week. If you are in the area, please attend. Here is their announcement:

Book Release Party

Announcing a book party and reading hosted by LATR Editions and Lightful Press at Melville House Books in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Nov. 4th, at 7pm. Poets Heather Green and Ernest Hilbert will read from their new poetry chapbooks from LATR Editions. Lightful Press will celebrating the publication of Play by poet Liz Waldner with a theatrical reading from the book. Books by all the authors will be available for sale. Free beer and wine will be served.

Melville House Books is located at 145 Plymouth Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn, near the York Street stop on the F train.

www.lightfulpress.com
http://latr.tumblr.com/

Find out more here.

Two Weeks - Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

Eric Baus feature

Check out this feature on Eric Baus.

Also, check out this interview in Jacket magazine between Eric Baus and Cynthia Arrieu-King.

Peace on A readings are now on PennSound

Check out Thom Donovan's Peace on A reading series recordings now on PennSound.

Here are some beautiful readings by Thom Donovan on PennSound.

Here is my PennSound page in case you'd like to go there.

CUE Journal

The spectacular journal CUE is now online. I think it looks divinely beautiful. Many cheers to Mark Horosky and Morgan Lucas Schuldt.

The main page is here.

The first issue is here, where you can find poems and stories by moi and others.

One of the poems on there is called "The Poetry that is going to matter after you are dead." I once read that poem on Weird Deer. This recording can be found here. The beautiful drawing you see featured with the recording is by Camilla Schofield.

Over and out.

"Little Cloud" by The Incredible String Band and I am reading tomorrow night

How sweet to be a cloud, floating in the blue.

Lying awake, late the other night
Heard above me a trembling,
I looked up, it was a little cloud,
From which a gold string was dangling;
You know, I gave the string a little pull,
Just to see what was on the other end.
Just then a voice came down to me, says,
"Hey, now, don't you want to be my friend,

And float with me to distant lands,
wondrous and fair;
Float with me to distant lands wondrous and fair?
You see I'm just a happy little cloud,
I laugh and float and sing my song,
But the other clouds don't like me none.
They say I am behaving very wrong.
You see a cloud's supposed to be sad,
To cry and weep and tear its hair and all,
And don't matter how hard I try,
I can't get the first little tear to fall."

And float with me to distant lands, wondrous and fair;
Float with me to distant lands, wondrous and fair;

I said, "Hey, I like you little cloud,
You are a nice little fellow, yes."
"You making some, kind of a joke?", said the cloud,
"Now can't you see I'm wearing such a pretty dress?
You see I am the prettiest little chick cloud
That you'd find anywhere up above.
I just dropped in on you awhile
To see if you could give me some kind of love."

And float with me to distant lands, wondrous and fair;
Float with me to distant lands wondrous and fair;

Just then the chief cloud come into view
And says, "Hey, girl, now what you think you're doing there?
I told you so many times before
You just don't seem at all to care.
You know you should be floating up above, now
Don't let me catch you down here again."

And as my cloud pulled out of view,
There come failing down a gentle shower of rain.
Happy rain come failing down,
Red, green, blue and golden.
And every drop, as it fell, it smiled
And, throwing back its head, began singing,

"Oh float with me to distant lands, wondrous and fair;
Float with me to distant lands, wondrous and fair."


Information about my reading tomorrow night:

THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO MAKE IT RIGHT

Reading tomorrow, 5/18

Hi! I'm reading tomorrow night in celebration of the magazine 12th Street.

Here is the information:

Celebrate the publication of 12th Street, a literary magazine edited and published by students in The New School Writing and Democracy Program Conversation Group

Luis Jaramillo hosts an evening with Mark Bibbins, Douglas A. Martin, Sigrid Nunez, Dorothea Lasky & students.

Monday May 18, 2009 7:00 PM

Union Square Barnes and Noble
33 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003, 212-253-0810

Eric Baus and Ish Klein read in Philly THIS SATURDAY NIGHT

Here is the Chapter and Verse announcement for Eric Baus and Ish Klein's reading on Saturday. Their books are two of my favorite books that have come out this year:

Hello Everybody,

This Saturday, May 9th at 8:00pm
at Chapterhouse Cafe
620 S. 9th St

Come listen to poetry by

Eric Baus & Ish Klein

For more info: http://chapterhousereadings.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/chapterhouse

See you soon,
Ryan

************************************************************
Bios:

Ish Klein is a self-taught film and puppet maker who also writes
poems. She is an alumna of Columbia University and the Iowa Writer's
Workshop for Poetry. In 2005, she was awarded the National Endowment
of the Arts Digital Filmmaker Residency. Her poems have been published
in Bridge,The Canary, Gare du Nord, and more recently in Hat magazine,
X-connect, Big Bridge, Spork and Gut Cult. Her new book, UNION!, is
just out from Canarium Press.

Eric Baus was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1975. His publications
include Tuned Droves (Octopus Books, 2009), The To Sound (Verse Press,
2004; Winner of the 2002 Verse Press, selected by Forrest Gander), and
the chapbooks The Space Between Magnets (Diaeresis), A Swarm In The
Aperture (Margin to Margin), and Something Else The Music Was
(Braincase Press). He edits Minus House chapbooks, and currently lives
in Denver.



****Also, if you'd like to take a sneak peak at Eric Baus and Ish Klein reading, check out this.

Reading at the Poetry Project next Monday, 5/4

I am reading at the Poetry Project this upcoming Monday, 5/4.

More information can be found here.

I am reading tonite

I am reading tonight in NYC. Here is the information:

Apr 30 POETRY AT A PUBLIC SPACE

Please join us on Dean Street to celebrate National Poetry Month with
readings by APS contributors and friends Mary Jo Bang, Dorothea Lasky, and
Matthew Rohrer.

A Public Space
323 Dean Street
Brooklyn, NY
7:00 pm

It's for the great journal A Public Space. Please come by if you can!

Don't miss this

SUPERMACHINE GARDEN BLOWOUT POETRY PARTY
Saturday, May 2, 6:00 PM
Outpost Lounge
1014 Fulton Street (Grand and Classon)
G to Clinton/Washington, C to Franklin

In honor of the one-year anniversary of SUPERMACHINE reading series, they are having a big party! It is at the Outpost Lounge, and hopefully if the weather is nice we will read outside, in the garden.

Featuring Readings by:

Edmund Berrigan
Corina Copp
Garth Graeper
Kristen Kosmas
Joey Calavenna
Lee Norton
Dustin Payseur
Ben Fama

Bands: Holy Spirits, Bogge Burnsa, Tajalli


CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE
www.supermachinepoetry.blogspot.com

but you'll never see the end of the road when you're traveling with me

Poetry is Not A Project

Here's my National Poetry Month piece up at The Millions: Poetry is Not a Project.

If you live in NYC, please come to my Supermachine Reading Series reading tonight @ 8 p.m. with Paul Killebrew and Laura Solomon. Details are below and on the link.

Packer Collegiate Day 1

Introductions

Name Acrostic Poems

Example 1
Example 2
Interactive


D aring
O riginal
T elepathic
T he Truth is my Goal
I like ice-cream
E lephants are my favorite animals

I know D ottie is my name but still
peOple always spell it Dotty
That is not my name
Truth be told
Igloos are very cold
But igloos are not my namE either

What is a poem?

Poems are things that pay attention to the way words look and sound.

"Stars" by Robert Frost
"January" by Alice Notley
"I'm nobody! Who are you?" by Emily Dickinson

"Bats"
"Rainbow Poem"


1. Romulus and Remus IM Plays/ Dialogue Poems

About Romulus and Remus

A Play

Sample Dialogue

Sample IM conversation

Write an IM conversation between Romulus and Remus 30 entries long

Romulus: Hi
Remus: Hey
Romulus: Funny about Rome.
Remus: Yeah.

[Read aloud]


2. The Silk Road and Flarf

About The Silk Road

Have you ever been somewhere where the weather is very bad?
Have you ever imagined being somewhere where the weather is very bad?

Robert Frost "Fire and Ice"

Flarf Poetry

POEM
(by Matt Cozart)

Soon, everything will make sense
Courtesy of miscreant noise
Drawing another kind of national attention
In the championships for two-men teams,
An exhibition of new works on paper,
Canvas, and mixed media
Tearing it up at the ramp.
These days are not derailed but in December.

The grand plan of developers encompassed the entire peninsula
And included the smell of burning rubber,
Another act I had been on the fence about whose works
Reverberate off each other in a low hum
As part of a significant hand in the early millennial union of
Experimental noise and the bookmaking process.

Flarf exercise

1. Pick one kind of extreme weather
2. Name the place where this weather is (this place can be real or imagined)
3. Write down a list of 20 adjectives you might use to describe this weather or place
4. Search 10 (or more, depending on the time it is now) of these terms in Google
5. For each search, copy a sentence, phrase, or word from the fifth thing that comes up in your search into your Word document
6. Spend some time rearranging your finds
7. Title your poem. Your title should have the name of your place in it, but it can be anything.

[Read aloud]

Paul Killebrew, Laura Solomon, and Me This Friday

I am reading this Friday with Paul Killebrew and Laura Solomon. The announcement is as follows (and the flyer is above):

Bros and Brills,

This friday SUPERMACHINE proudly brings Dorothea Lasky, Paul Killebrew, and Laura Solomon to the Outpost Lounge. Expect drink specials including amazing sangria coffee tea wine beer soda and of course beautiful beautiful poetry!

Outpost Lounge
1014 Fulton (between Grand and Classon)
C train to Franklin, G train to Clinton-Washington

The reading starts at 8 p.m.

The Laurel Review and Style is Joy

The Laurel Review recently published two of my poems in its Winter 2009 issue. The journal can be purchased as is specified below:

Subscriptions to The Laurel Review are $10 per year, $18 for two years.

Individual Copies: $7.00
Available Back Issues: $5.00
Chapbooks are $7.00

Make checks payable to:

GreenTower Press
Department of English
Northwest Missouri State University
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

Possibly there is an online purchase method on their website as well.

My two poems in the issue are: "Style is Joy" and "Word." I read the entire issue today, as I was locked out of my apartment for a while and had only my mailbox key (where the journals were) with me. The whole issue is very good.

One of my poems, "Style is Joy," I wrote in response to a Goodreads review of my book, AWE. I have found that most poets I know either hate or love the Goodreads site. I have no strong feeling about it whatsoever, but I do think that it must be good for something if it caused me to think about an issue regarding poetry. The issue I thought of in my poem "Style is Joy" is that some readers of poetry seem to have the idea that style is a bad thing in art, and in poetry especially. Or, more so, it seems that some readers of poetry think that some poetry can actually exist without style and thus, *get to* a more truthful or sincere emotion with so-called raw language. I think that's quite an impossible endeavor. To me, there is no such thing as raw art, especially not if it is real art. And I think the search for rawness or sincerity in art is a useless task, as art is always a combination of the real and the unreal. And the combination always makes something refined away from the truth, at least a little bit. (Dare I mention here the Dickinson line about telling the truth slant? No, I won't dare.) But I think this because I think style is joy. I hope you do, too, or that some point, you might entertain the idea.

I read with Gary Parrish, Told Colby, and Buck Downs a few weeks back at the Bowery Poetry Club and Gary Parrish was nice enough to tape record me reading "Style is Joy" for a project he is doing. Here's the link to the video of the poem:

Style is Joy

It's all over now Baby Blue (1965)

Earshot Reading on my birthday

If you free on 3/27 and in the NYC area, please come to this reading:

EARSHOT MEETS SMALL PRESS MONTH!

We join forces with SMALL PRESS MONTH at Rose Live Music in Williamsburg, Brooklyn!

Friday, March 27th at 8 PM
@ Rose Live Music
Admission: $5 + FREE DRINK!

Hosted by Nicole Steinberg

Featuring:
*An Official SMALL PRESS MONTH Event*
Amy Lemmon (Saint Nobody; Red Hen Press)
Dorothea Lasky (Awe; Wave Books)
Adam Fitzgerald (Columbia University)
Christine Kanownik (The New School)
Tanya Rey (One Story & New York University)

ROSE LIVE MUSIC is located at 345 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Havemeyer and Marcy. Visit their website for directions: http://liveatrose.com.

To view the Small Press Month Official Calendar, visit http://smallpressmonth.org.

EARSHOT is a bi-monthly reading series, dedicated to featuring new and emerging literary talent in the NYC area. Visit http://www.earshotnyc.com for more information or e-mail Nicole Steinberg at earshotnyc@gmail.com.

Ethnography in Education Research Forum tomorrow and Michelle Taransky on Twitter

I am presenting my paper, "Making Room for Creativity in the Engineering Design Classroom," in the Ethnography in Education Research Forum at the Graduate School of Education at UPenn. My presentation starts at 2:30 p.m. Please come if you can. More information regarding the conference can be found here.

In other news, my cousin Michelle Taransky just joined Twitter! Please follow her updates at beginningthe.

Reading and A Show

I am reading with Noelle Kocot this Wednesday, 2/25, at 7 p.m. in NYC.

Here is the address:

Home Sweet Home
131 Chrystie Street

More information can be found here.

It is an honor to read with Noelle Kocot. She is one of my favorite poets of all time. I remember a few years ago, teaching her poems in many poetry classes, screaming at the top of my lungs about their importance. For example, in The Raving Fortune, the color green is everywhere and it is very important. "Green!" I used to shout to all my students, while some looked on bewildered and others nodded in understanding. It is my great luck to share my work alongside such a great poet like Noelle.

Speaking of greatness, on the same night as my reading there is some great theater happening right down the street. Laboratory Theater is performing "GIT ALONG LIL DOGGIES" on 161 Chrystie Street at both 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. If you were asking for my advice, I might advise to you to catch my reading and then make their 9 p.m. show. Or, if you are pressed for time Wednesday night, catch their 7 p.m. show and see me read another time. Although this latter option is not the kind of advice I would give. Still, you should not miss one of their shows. Here is the address information:

161 Chrystie Street (btw Rivington and Delancey)

More information can be found here.

Hope to see you on Wednesday!

I am reading in Buffalo, NY this Thursday

I am reading with Anselm Berrigan this Thursday, 2/19, at 7 p.m. in Buffalo, NY.

This is the address:

Rust Belt Books
202 Allen St.

If you live nearby, please stop by.

I haven't been to Buffalo since I was 10. My question is this: is it really that cold there?

This is probably a dumb question.

Animal Lecture

Animal, of Muppets fame, was born to two purple aliens on April 4, 1746 in Outer Space.

He grew up on the right side of the sun in a small cottage with his sister, Matilda. The region of the sun where Animal is from is known for its plentiful vegetation. It is known that Animal grew up eating many different kinds of vegetables.

Neighbors in the region have said that Animal was a very quiet child.

Matilda and he were very musical and taught each other the drums. Animal’s drum talents were first discovered in 1883 when Jim Henson was passing over the right side of the sun.

Jim Henson brought Animal back to the US shortly after discovering him and set him to work as one of his Muppets.

In 1902, in a fit of Mania, Animal killed three small children in the US while they were sleeping. Some have said, he did so by lethal injection.

Shortly thereafter, Animal was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder and put on medications. He did not serve jail time, because there is no known jail for muppets.

In 1956, Animal served time in the Swedish army. It is said he fell in love while in the army with a man named Dan.

In 1985, Animal did some touring of his comedy act in the Midwest.

This is how I met Animal.

As a child, I had a viewfinder and on one of the slides was Animal.

When I first saw this slide, I wasn’t afraid of Animal, I laughed at his funny face. I didn’t know Animal was real.

Animal first came out of the viewfinder and into reality in 1986. I saw him first in the corner of the room. He was smiling. It was a strange smile.

On that first meeting, he came up to me and was very nice to me. He told me stories about his hometown. I trusted Animal.

The next few days after our first meeting were very pleasant. He came to my room every morning, sometimes entering from the ceiling, sometimes from the window. Sometimes he would just jump out of the viewfinder as I was looking at him. I always kept cookies on hand for him to eat cause Animal is always hungry.

Our relationship changed on one night.

I was dreaming of a beach and running along the beach with a dog. I was 8 years old and my dreams were innocent.

In my dream, Animal showed up and was running with me. We played in the sea foam for many hours of the dream.

In the distance there was a small silver object coming at us in the water. I tried not to pay attention. Animal caught sight of it and could not stop looking.

As it grew closer, I realized it was no more than a scrap piece of metal. It was sort of large, around six feet, but I would hardly say it was noteworthy.

All of a sudden, Animal jumped in the water after the scrap metal. Fearing for his life (for I did not know how well he could swim), I jumped in after him.

I felt a sharp pain in my right side and the ocean got very black. There were stars everywhere. I woke up.

I was in my bed and Animal was standing over me. He had a syringe and was smiling wildly.

No!, I said, but it was no use. Animal and I were already soaring through Outer Space.

They have things on the right side of the sun that you cannot imagine. I don’t think you can imagine how beautiful plants can get when they can always sit in the continuous glare of the sun.

I am here today to tell you that Animal is good, but evil. I am here to tell you Animal is very evil.

Frank Oz in 1994 said that Animal is the Id. He is the Id.

Mic Fleetwood is a man who was made in the image of Animal. When you hear his music be very scared of him.

In honor of my time with Animal, I made the following tribute movie for him.

Please enjoy the movie.



The Right Side of the Sun from Dorothea Lasky on Vimeo.

Remains (by Thom Donovan)

Preparing for not preparing
Impoverished theogony the poor
Are humming we are the world
Again in the ears of prosody

What would have been and the
Undead what do they want with
Us matter passes through min-
erals proteins gelatin like

Some kind of plan moved from
Site to site so we were what
Was left fucked-up by concepts
Refusing to develop in this

Interval what would have been
Bends our organs twists a sky
They can't see no place to
Put us in only time this is

The work left to do songs di-
vise back-up plans power some
System uncaptured in your eyes
Subject to a see-through dirt.

You are beautiful (Deadpan) movie

Another reason Scorpions (read: Scorpios) are cool

Check out this "freaky claw-headed fossil."

Books you should buy

There are so many great new books out in the last few months. I think you should buy Frank Sherlock's Over Here and Sueyeun Juliette Lee's That Gorgeous Feeling and CA Conrad's The Book of Frank. I have heard that Eric Baus's Tuned Droves is almost available for purchasing. Ish Klein's book Union! is out. Here is a new blog with links of information about it. You can buy the book here.

I wrote a blurb about the book (see below) and in it, I call Ish Klein a genius. I have also called Ish Klein a genius on this very blog. I mean it when I say Ish Klein is a genius. I am not a liar. You need to buy her book and all the books above. I am very serious about this.

Here is my blurb about Union!:

I have long been a fan of the theory of connectionism and its burgeoning use in our contemporary world. That after we have broken apart every piece of life we can in the deconstruction (destruction) of postmodernism, we might take flight and put it all back together again. To say that Ish Klein is one of the few geniuses alive today would an understatement. Her first collection of poems, Union!, does everything to prove this. In this book Klein takes the broken pieces of language we have among us, scattered all over the universe, and makes a new, universal singing of our forgotten ideals. She connects all the pieces that don’t quite make sense all blown apart and makes a beautiful language for us, one that is so achingly beautiful it is somewhat easy to swallow the whole universe with every poem. Ish Klein does this for us all. That we might have a connected language to go forth with. And it is not a new language she makes for us, it is an old language. Come now, listen to our old language. Read Union!. Be one of us.

Justice for Jason

I treasured my years at UMass (and Western Mass more generally) as being a rare place in our country that continuously promotes social justice and fairness, so I am sad to hear about the terrible injustice towards the young student, Jason Vassell, recently. Please visit this site Justice for Jason and spread the word.

Mrs. Maybe, Circus, and Ratatouille

Order Mrs. Maybe when you get a chance to here. Issue 2 is out.

Here is a list of contributors, of which I am one.

My poems in that issue are "“White song," “The truth shook,” and “Two assholes.”

This new song by Britney Spears is grand:

Circus

I like the dark way her music is maturing.

"There are only two types of people in the world. The ones that entertain and the ones that observe."

I had a lot of Ratatouille luck the last few days (The New!):



"Not anyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere."

Jungle Love

"I met you on somebody's island
You thought you had known me before
I brought you a crate of papaya
Then waited all night by your door
You probably wouldn't remember
I probably couldn't forget
Jungle love in the surf in the pouring rain
Everything's better when wet"

**

"But lately you live in the jungle
I never see you alone
But we need some definite answers
So I thought I would write you a poem
The question to everyone's answer
Is usually asked from within
But the patterns of the rain
And the truth they contain
Have written my life on your skin"

**

"You treat me like I was your ocean
You swim in my blood when it's warm
My cycles of circular motion
Protect you and keep you from harm
You live in a world of illusion
Where everything's peaches and cream
We all face a scarlet conclusion
But we spend our time in a dream"

Intervalles 4/5: Interdisciplinary Transcription Issue

I am truly honored to be among such great company in the Intervalles 4/5: Interdisciplinary Transcription Issue, edited by Jon Cotner and Andy Fitch. The editors seem to seek out many points of entry to uncover what the idea of transcription means to poets, critics, anthropologists, and visual artists.

Triangulate away, good editors!

And you, check out the issue here.

Recommendations

See Silent Light:



Read Michael Carr's Out Another:



Read Frank Sherlock's Over Here:



Read Mark Horosky's Let it Be Nearby:



Watch this: