poems that i love

Salmon

I watched them once, at dusk, on television, run,
in our motel room half-way through
Nebraska, quick, glittering, past beauty, past
the importance of beauty,
archaic,
not even hungry, not even endangered, driving deeper and deeper
into less. They leapt up falls, ladders,
and rock, tearing and leaping, a gold river
and a blue river traveling
in opposite directions.
They would not stop, resolution of will
and helplessness, as the eye
is helpless
when the image forms itself, upside-down, backward,
driving up into
the mind, and the world
unfastens itself
from the deep oceans of the given. . . . Justice, aspen
leaves, mother attempting
suicide, the white night-flying moth
the ants dismantled bit by bit and carried in
right through the crack
in my wall. . . . How helpless
the still pool is,
upstream,
awaiting the gold blade
of their hurry. Once, indoors, a child,
I watched, at noon, through slatted wooden blinds,
a man and woman, naked, eyes closed,
climb onto each other,
on the terrace floor,
and ride—two gold currents
wrapping round and round each other, fastening,
unfastening. I hardly knew
what I saw. Whatever shadow there was in that world
it was the one each cast
onto the other,
the thin black seam
they seemed to be trying to work away
between them. I held my breath.
As far as I could tell, the work they did
with sweat and light
was good. I'd say
they traveled far in opposite
directions. What is the light
at the end of the day, deep, reddish-gold, bathing the walls,
the corridors, light that is no longer light, no longer clarifies,
illuminates, antique, freed from the body of
the air that carries it. What is it
for the space of time
where it is useless, merely
beautiful? When they were done, they made a distance
one from the other
and slept, outstretched,
on the warm tile
of the terrace floor,
smiling, faces pressed against the stone.

Jorie Graham

Attention Latina/o Poets: Apply, Apply, Apply

Applications are now being accepted for the 2nd Annual CantoMundo Master Poetry Workshop, the only national, poetry-centered workshop/retreat specifically for Latina/o poets.

All applications must be received by December 17, 2010.

Complete guidelines here.

call for submissions: Arroyo

Arroyo began with an investigation. Several ambitious students sought to find a magazine that truly captured the spirit and unique voice that was prevalent in Bay Area writers. What they discovered, however, was a void. Bigger presses seemed to ignore the dynamics of California culture, while smaller presses had predicated themselves on niches. With the opportunity presenting itself, those same students built the school’s first literary magazine from the ground up, eventually releasing the premiere issue in Spring of 2009.

bits

hi, phyllis!
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i bought my plane ticket to nyc. will be spending four days in the ciy in late janurary. then i head off to dc for awp, then off to new hampshire to spend 8 weeks at the macdowell colony. eight weeks. goodness. that's a lot of time. i'm so grateful.
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"...memory believes before knowing remembers. believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders."
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who said that?
*
faulkner
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you must forgive me: this blog has lately become macdowell colony central. i'm not bragging about my upcoming residency. i'm just beyond happy to be going back. i've spent the last year working as a cashier. yeah, that iowa mfa is really paying off! ha. anyways: i'm not complaining about my job. really. i could get a gig teaching 4 sections of composition a semester, but i decided long ago to put my writing first. i've spent years (repeat: YEARS) working on my first collection. granted: i've been lucky enough to get some amazing residencies and fellowships, but often i've had to get a so-so job in order to fully concentrate on my poems. once again: i'm not complaining. i know i made the right choice.
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border songs.
border songs.
border singing.
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This was my desk a year ago, when I spent a month at the MacDowell Colony...
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small press spotlight: Shin Yu Pai

The role of the poet, for me, remains speaking the beautiful and rendering the impermanent permanent through language. The poet’s role is to document, witness, and remember as technology outstrips us. I’m increasingly drawn to the work of poets like Ian Hamilton Finlay and his Little Sparta, or Ofelia Zepeda’s work which is engraved on boulders on a one-mile stretch of highway in urban Tucson.

quick bits

i need to buy a plane ticket to nyc tonight. i'm going to spend a few days in the city before heading off to dc for awp.
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oh central park! oh bookstores! oh walking through the village! oh handsome dark-haired men!
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(insert your own bit here)
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sentences are not my friends.
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comma this!

Good advice from Tayari Jones

Do not go into a lot of debt for your MFA. If you get a full ride and it's out on the prairie somewhere, pack your bonnet and go.

bits

Coming back is brutal. I’ve done six residencies now and you’d think re-entry would get easier, but I’m here to tell you it doesn’t. Re-entry from MacDowell was the most difficult yet
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confession: i didn't send to the whitman. even though ALL my friends told me to send, i decided not to send at the last minute. i was just not feeling it. i have my reasons. ask me at awp dc. ha.
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violin
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matthew thorburn has a new swanky website!
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but i did send to another contest on monday. and i will be sending to two more contests later this month.
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so I am walking back to my studio last night, Little Blue Riding Hood (I have a blue coat) shining my sad little flashlight every which way I hear a branch snap...
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hottie of the week: thomas roberts (msnbc)

starbucks bits

Barbara Jane Reyes: A LITTLE BIT ABOUT LOLA ILANG.
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Sending off my manuscript to two more contests tomorrow. Guess which ones? Ha.
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Crystal Williams: First, let it be said that there is absolutely no danger of starving to death at the MacDowell Colony.
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This iced coffee is giving me a headache.
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A weight
A stick of space. A beam. Of zilch.
A swivelhead. Reverse trend
in cellular conglomeration. A cult.
An inner target. An origin disorder.
Send the word
send the word.
Telegram. Missile command.
*
I need to reach out to local poets. I want to have coffee with an Arizona poet and talk about this crazy art/ business.
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Crystal Williams: My heart and head switched on in ways they were not when I came. Well, on and on and then off. And I'm leaving it at that. Y'all don't need to know all my business.
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Will you hold my hand?

The Kundiman Poetry Prize

Kundiman and Alice James Books are accepting submissions of poetry manuscripts for The Kundiman Poetry Prize electronically and by regular mail through February 11, 2011. The Kundiman Poetry Prize welcomes submissions from emerging as well as established Asian American poets. Entrants must reside in the United States.

The winner receives $1000, book publication and a New York City feature reading.

bits for bits

Our poems are effigies.
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MacDowell Colony vblog: Elena Passarello shows us what's inside her picnic basket. Goodness, that sounds dirty. Sorry, Elena!
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Another American trait is our compulsion to separate ourselves as different (more avant garde, for example) from one another, this, and the need to name and label other poets.
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MacDowell Colony vblog: Elena Passarello shows us her tombstone. Those first few seconds crack me up!
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Mormonism. Homosexuality. Resolution.

Attention: Latin@ Poets: Apply! Apply! Apply!

Deadline: December 17, 2010.

Inspired by the culturally-rooted visions of Cave Canem and Kundiman, CantoMundo seeks to create a space where Latina/o poets can:

1. nurture and enhance their poetics;
2. lecture and learn about aspects of Latina/o poetics currently not being discussed by the mainstream poetry publishers and critics; and
3. network with peer poets to enrich and further disseminate Latina/o poetry.

Guidelines here.

bit

here's some good news that's old news to my facebook friends: i'm going back to the macdowell colony this winter/ spring.

*insert wild happiness here*

i can't tell you how much i need this. i need to leave arizona. like now. ha. it's my home, but i don't belong here.

goodbye, saguaros. hello, snow.

i've been spending a lot of time online looking up macdowell blog posts and pics. yeah, yeah: i've been there before. in fact, it was my first colony. but i still get a rush reading about the experiences of others.

i love these pics. i don't remember chickens at macdowell. i'm going to name one after a certain blogger. then demand to eat that chicken all by myself!

*insert wild happiness here*

but this will be the best part of my upcoming residency: i will sit down at my desk and work on new poems. i will not revise old poems. i will not tweak my first manuscript.

i'm ready to move on.

i have to move on.

my second project, a book-length sequence, is crying out for attention. lines and images are coming to me fast and furious. i already have a new notebook full of stuff.

at macdowell, i will enlarge the music in my poems, i will write a leaner, more muscular line.

i will break my old writing habits.

i will explore new (to me) poetic tools.

i will surprise myself.

i will become a better poet.

Steve Fellner on Jason Schneiderman

It’s always annoyed me that the term "creative non-fiction" was most likely invented as a way of marginalizing scholarly writing. You can still hear the underlying arguments from the artistic camp: we academic and create writers may be both engaged in non-fiction but artists don’t rely on that theoretical gibberish-- what those hacks study who can’t get their own art published. We. Are. Creative.

Rigoberto González on Ada Limón

In Limón's poetics, boundaries are fluid, including the walls dividing dream and consciousness, image and idea, the living and the dead, memory and reality.

bits

november already? goodness.
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molotov: cynthia cruz
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i need a haircut so bad. how bad? i no longer use a pillow. my poofy hair has become my pillow.
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a review of rj gibson's scavenge.
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working on a new poem.
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pagliacci: tomás q. morín
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Dagoberto Gilb on Ai

Gossip was that she was nothing but trouble. That she did not cooperate with anyone or any group.

hottie of the week: marco rubio (hate the politics, love the face)

first book interview: Mari L’Esperance

It's been an enormous relief to have my book published—I'd been living with some of the poems for so long—and it's also been a source of tremendous anxiety. I sunk into a post-book trough for a while, feeling anxious and directionless and unsure of next steps. In recent months, I've been mulling, reading, gathering material, and writing what I've called “transitional” poems, which may at some point become part of a second manuscript. I'm also a very slow writer. My core themes continue to inhabit new poems—how can they not?—but I sense an internal loosening that's reflected in these newer poems, which seem more lyrically associative and intuitively shaped than my previous work.

you got two books out? you want a job?

The Department of English and the Rutgers Newark MFA Program at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in Newark, invite applications from distinguished Poets and from distinguished Fiction writers for an (MFA) Assistant, Associate, or Professor position (dependent upon qualifications) to begin July 1, 2011. MFA or Ph.D required. Candidates should have a strong national reputation as a novelist and/or short story writer, at least two well–received books and substantial publication record, and extensive teaching experience. Additional expertise in areas such as nonfiction or memoir preferred. We seek an excellent, committed teacher who has made and will continue to make important contributions to contemporary literature, and who shows interest in our diverse, uniquely structured program & extensive community outreach (see www.mfa.newark.rutgers.edu.) Duties include teaching fiction or poetry workshops & graduate or undergraduate lit courses, directing graduate theses, & advising graduate students in fiction, poetry and related topics. Candidates should send letter of application, writing sample (published books with SASE acceptable), C.V., and three letters of recommendation to: Jayne Anne Phillips, Co-Chair, Search Committee, Rutgers Newark MFA Program, c/o English Dept. 501 Hill Hall, Rutgers Newark University, 360 Dr. MLK. Jr. Blvd, Newark, NJ, 07102. Review of applications will begin Nov. 15, 2010. Women & minorities are encouraged to apply. EOE/AA