I Like Making Lists

I don't really invest much in "best," but I like making lists so click this link here & see what (chap)books I picked for No Tells 2010 list.

Chapbook Round-up

I have been told that (Ir)Rational Animals is sold-out. Awesome. What a year! Thanks to all those who purchased a copy.

I have recently picked up (but not read) the following chapbooks:
The Archers by Macgregor Card
ATM by Chris Salerno
Office Work by Jackie Clark

Busy Buzz

The last few days have been quite busy for me. I attended the Chapbook festival at CUNY on both Monday & Tuesday (coming & going throughout the day) & then attended a panel/conversation on alternative education last night.

The chapbook festival was good. I heard someone refer to it as a "low-key" AWP. Rather accurate as there was a book-fair- but this one was much much smaller & more manageable & there were readings. I don't think there were any off-site readings or any drunkeness or "hooking-up" so that is prolly the biggest difference between the two. People didn't come to the chapbook looking crazed or with a desire to live some cheesy Vegas B-film life.

That being said, I think the festival being on Monday & Tuesday really limited or fractured the attendance, which isn't to imply that it was poorly attended- I was quite impressed on both days at the amount of the people, but if it had been on the weekend the room would have been packed which would make perusing chapbooks a pain, but reading attendance little better, as the audience for the readings tended to be small. But then again, who can attend a reading on a Tuesday afternoon at 2, which is when I read. Luckily there were about 10-15 people in the room & I thank everyone who came out, who said nice things about my chapbook, &/or the super-new poem I read. It's always a pleasure to read with label mate, Veronica, & to spend time with Tony (the other half of Flying Guillotine Press who recently moved to DC).

Here's what I left the festival with:

Bowling by Sommer Browning and Brandon Shimoda (Greying Ghost Press)
Poems by Dan Boehl (Greying Ghost Press)
Agriculture Reader
Unrequited Sonnets: bird to a feather by Nate Pritts
Descriptive Sketches by Nate Pritts (printed by J. Johnson in London)
Last Ride by Abraham Smith (Forklift, Ink.)
Is This January by Jai Arun Ravine (Corollary Press)
Lake M by Brandon Shimoda (Corollary Press)

Overall, the festival was a great time & you should look out for it next year! I'll write about the alternative education panel later.

Heat Seeker

Borrowed House: 15 poems by Brooklyn Copeland (Greying Ghost Press, 2009)
Buy it here


I have to admit I'm embarrassed I haven't written a review for this chapbook yet. I've had it since February and have read it a few times already.

In Brooklyn Copeland's Scantily Clad Press chapbook, Northernmost, her poems are cold and spacious like wandering the tundra and having your sight captivated by lichen hue. Her poems are sparse and can send a chill up your spine. Borrowed House finds Copeland operating in a different degree of weather. These poems, while still sparse in language, feel insulated like attic-trapped heat. Copeland's poem are not excessively chatty- every line is measured and necessary. Here's the first three lines of "Weeds," "Under a musty quilt,/ your eyes turn misty,/ your voice creams./"

Another thing to love about this chapbook is the way the poems go from interior to exterior. Here's a three lines from "They Remain Where Breath Left Them,"

These people were packrats. Really, we're the ones

haunting the house, traipsing half-naked, drink-handed,

every warped floorboard announcing our belligerence.

And here is one of my favorite poems, "Eleven O'clock,"

Meanwhile, a sense of needing
to rehabilitate:
the field is there, the trough full
of rainwater, puffed-up bees.
Eleven o'clock I send you
back up that old nag tree
for some more of those
tiny mottled apples. In the branches,
the ghost of tom waits for you
to fail me.

These poems are wrought with expectation, the simplicity of youth, the complexity of adulthood, and each place mentioned is a space for beauty and also a space for hurt. There are failures both large and small and then there are people isolated, a bit broken, but ultimately bandaged and breathing. This chapbook is blood before it boils and shortly after it cools. You should read it and love it like I do.