The Nepotist

The Nepotist is a friend whose identity remains a mystery. The Nepotist publishes poems by "his" friends Monday through Friday. Today, I am friends with the Nepotist & three of my poems are up. Check them out here.

Work Makes A Head Tired

Aiya... this week has been nothing but writing and administering tests. Then. Days off. But. Plenty. Of. Papers. To. Grade.

Also, been working on new poems which are thus far, uncooperative. Little fuckers have a mind of their own I suppose. Aiya.

"looks like a sick bird"

The first ish of SIR! is up and it includes poems by Julia Cohen, Ruan Klassnik, Brooklyn Copeland, and lots of other fine writers. Check it out here

Poem

I just finished reading this anthology yesterday. The book is published by Film Forum Press.
Here's a poem from the book:

Manganese (Mn)
by Deborah Poe

this is not the chemistry of hibiscus blossoms
or the color of lithium steam coming off spring
it is not the Hangzhou rain shower
as tea leaves settle for the day,
or the steady stream of canoe paddling

these shivery nodules, like ancestors,
are immortalized-- i mean in ways
loneliness is related to time

abyssal plain still as bodies
bulbous sediment in seabed
unaware this is blackberries' season
with tang off september vine

a moray eel slithers by and by
like rattlesnake looking for sun--
finds only the taste of saltwater
gulps like the taste of skin

the manganese nodules keep growing
centimeters over millions of years--
microbes precipitate hydroxides
seawater breaks down basaltic debris
manganese remobilizes in columns
volcanoes, metals, and springs.

Over There Yes I See A Waterfall

Olafur Eliasson has installed these waterfalls in New York. My friend, Ai, was nice enough to invite me along on a bike ride to view them. I think there wound up being 15 or so people. We met at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge then went to DUMBO, then off to Brooklyn Heights, back over the Manhattan Bridge and finally to Battery Park City. After that some went for beers while others went elsewhere. I was one of the elsewhere goers. The website has up a pretty decent bike map. Click "how to visit" then click "by bike." Below is a picture of one of the five waterfalls. We only saw four since the fifth is located near Governers lsland.

In other news, I'm pleased to say that Vanitas has accepted a poem of mine. I haven't had a chance to look at Issue 3 which just came out, but Issue 2 was really solid.

3's Up

This week's reading jump-offs look like this:

Tuesday, June 24th 6pm


Boog City presents d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press
ixnay press (Philadelphia)
Tues. June 24, 6:00 p.m. sharp, free
ACA Galleries
529 W. 20th St., 5th Flr. NYC

Event will be hosted by ixnay press editors
Chris and Jenn McCreary

Featuring readings from
Jen Coleman, Brenda Iijima and Jenn McCreary

with music from Brian Speaker

Wine, cheese, and crackers, too, curated and with an introduction by Boog City editor David Kirschenbaum
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One of my favorite journals, The Agricultural Reading, is having another amazing line-up:

The Agriculture Reader is pleased to present one of our favorite poets: Anthony McCann. He is joined by Ag.Re. editors Jeremy Schmall and Justin Taylor, and fiction contributor Mark Edmund Doten. Pleasure will be manifold, but seating is limited. It will please us to see you there and you to have come.
AT THE KGB BAR AT 7 PM ON THURSDAY JUNE 26TH
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Who's Hot? Earshot!!!

Summer has arrived, and that means the end of another smashing season of EARSHOT! Our final Spring reading will take place on Friday, June 27th at 8 PM and will feature nonfiction writer Christen Clifford, author of the solo play BabyLove, and poet Richard Scheiwe, author of the chapbook A Dry Moon Dialogue! Three MFA students join in on the fun and it's all for five dollars, which scores you a free drink (as always)!

Come join us one last time -- then, see you in September!

Your pal,
Nicole


EARSHOT!

Join us for the next installment of EARSHOT at The Lucky Cat, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn! EARSHOT is a bi-monthly reading series, dedicated to featuring new and emerging literary talent in the NYC area.

*Friday, June 27, 2008 at 8 PM*
Hosted by Nicole Steinberg

Featuring:
Christen Clifford
Richard Scheiwe
Niina Pollari (Sarah Lawrence College)
Catherine Lacey (Columbia University)
Amber West (New York University)

Admission is a mere $5 plus one free drink (beer, wine or well drinks only)!
The Lucky Cat is located at 245 Grand Street in Brooklyn, between Driggs and Roebling. Visit their website for directions: http://www.theluckycat.com.

Sat in the park reading some poems

It's said cranes need lots of room. How
do they exist so far apart and stay together?

I couldn't stand it, to not be able to see
your body, to not be part of you out of

some genetic modesty. I have trouble
staying asleep without you. I belong to

another world.

_______________________

Approached the loitered some around.
Botanied the self and all its horticultures.

Weedily, strewn lands, folds and more.
A body belonging to another body who

uses it carefully to break all kinds of codes.
And to stroll with, about outside on walks.

Snails, small birds, raccoons, argentine ants.

_____________________________

Formal, a sprawlingness, tonal
as in using your tongue, you

could rattle saints, you
could invent new forms of sex, you

could peel me like an orange,
my sticky white pith, my strings,

my sweet wants.

____________________________

I love the looking, to see over, see giraffes,
to pet the giraffe from a platform, the sexuality

of feeding them, their long black tongues.
How enviable! The old one, the oldest one,

these luscious attachments, you are the way
the sweat of your hands taste. Full of salt,

knowing. You are the sugar you carry inside you.

______________________________

Shy Green Fields by Hugh Behm-Steinberg reprinted for his book, Shy Green Fields (No Tell Books, 2007)

Other Than Emailing Everyone I Know About Possible Job Opportunities

spent the morning looking for work

rode my bike

sat in the park

lots of cute girls in pretty dresses

laughter/ some guys talking in german/ more laughter

felt precarious about now/ about tomorrow/ about the days after/

sun broke through branches

biker dude chain-smoking on bench beside

clouds came gunning/ sun obscured

read these words:

This, thus is a portion of the subject of this poem
Which is in the form of falling snow:
That is, the individual flakes are not essential to the
importance of the whole's becoming so much of a truism
That their importance is again called in question, to be
denied further out, and again and again like this.
Hence, neither the importance of the individual flake,
Nor the importance of the whole impression of the storm,
if it has any, is what it is,
But the rhythm of the series of repeated jumps, from
abstracts into positve and back to a slightly less
diluted abstract.

Mild effects are the results.

.................................................................

Who, actually, is going to be fooled one instant by these
phony explanations,
Think them important? So back we go to the old,
imprecise feelings the,
Common knowledge, the importance of duly suffering and
the occasional glimpses
Of some balmy felicity. The world of Schubert's lieder.

..................................................................

As balloons are to the poet, so to the ground
Its varied assortment of trees.

John Ashbery, " The Skaters"

New online journal fa ya ears & eyes

fou magazine

Snow/Falling/Touched/Am/Me/Melancholy/

TONIGHT I CAN WRITE

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, `The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night, whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Pablo Neruda
(translated by W. S. Merwin)

A Little W.S. Merwin for you

http://www.metroactive.com/metro/11.21.07/arts-0747.html

Da Chumps

So after riding two empty MTA trains, one empty Metro-North train, and a company- not-named-Eos' shuttle (also empty) I've deduced that only the chumpiest of chumps are working today! So these dedicated unfortunates have brought their dogs, puppies, babies, and kids, while the chump known as myself has only brought tired lids and a penchant for clock-watching

tickety tock tickety tock

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

After I get off of work I'm hoping to drop off my laundry, walk to the produce place on Court Street and buy asparagus, green beans, lemon, and maybe a mango. I've been craving them a little spicy like the way the serve them in Redhook at the infamous Latin stands, but I could salt and pepper them too, or just eat one as is. Also Persimmons. I don't really like them but two guys (not at work today therefore more evidence of their lack of chumpness) have been eating persimmons as if they were everyday apples and I'm am envious of their collected eating pleasure, therefore, I will give this lovely colored object another taste and see. Worst case scenario I'm going to write a poem about it b/c as much as I like food it's generally absent in my poems.

Because of This/Becasue of That

because it's almost Joseph's birthday, b/c he's making broadsides (pepticrobotpress) of the two poems i had published in Sink Review, b/c i need constant reminder to look for my hat- my head was cold today!

Aesop Rock Afraid of Poetry?

Well not exactly, but in an interview with Guernica Magazine he echoed a conversation I had and have been hearing for ages now. Poeple feel afraid of poetry as if they are not qualified or gifted with the intelligence to get it. While Ron Silliman may seem to be endlessly talking off your ear or Mei-Mei and Ashbery may seem too atmosperic or out there I can't imagine someone reading Neruda, Ferlinghetti, Schuyler, or Claudia Rankine's Don't Leave Me Lonely and walk away feeling as if they aren't qualified to love this.

Here's the interveiw with Aesop Rock:

http://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/397/graffiti_or_vermeer/

Me + poesia + m.i.c.= The Enclave June 23rd-Free

So I didn't make it to the opera tonight but I did see Panda Bear last night (amazing!!!!) and now I'm updating my blog. Come out for this reading- it'll be fun (do I always say that?)


THE ENCLAVE READING SERIES: FESTIVAL of the GLOW WORM*
featuring
C.A. Conrad
Iris Smyles
Christen Clifford
Steven Karl
Molly McCloy
Chris Louvet

hosted by
Jason Napoli Brooks and Scott Geiger

Saturday
June 23, 2007
3:30 - 6:30 pm
Kenny's Castaways
157 Bleecker St.
New York

Free!

The Enclave is proud to present its most impressive program yet (and considering the high quality of its past programs, this is a serious claim to make). Please join us for an afternoon with six of the East Coast's most innovative fiction writers, poets, and performers.

Bios...

C. A. Conrad' s childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift. He escaped to Philadelphia the first chance he got where he lives and writes today with the PhillySound poets. Soft Skull Press published his book Deviant Propulsion in 2006. His book The Frank Poems is forthcoming from CHAX Press in 2008. A small selection of The Frank Poems was translated into German by the Berlin poet Holger, and is now available from YPOLITA Press. He is the author of several other chapbooks, including (end-begin w/chants) , a collaboration with Frank Sherlock. You can see his work online at http://CAConrad.blogspot.com

Iris Smyles is a writer and cartoonist whose fiction may currently be seen in BOMB magazine's Spring issue. She was awarded the Doris Lippman Prize for her recently completed novel in 2007, and her acclaimed comic book, The Naked Woman, is availableonline and in select New York City bookstores. She teaches creative writing and literature at The City College of New York and Marymount Manhattan College. She is the editor of Smyles & Fish magazine (www.SmylesAndFish.com)

Christen Clifford is a writer and performer who has performed her solo work at The Culture Project, The Uno Festival in Victoria, Canada. and at the National Theatre of Slovenia in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She won "Best of Fringe" at the 2006 San Francisco Fringe Festival and The Audience Choice Award at the 2007 Frigid Festival. She's been an actor in plays Off Broadway, independent films, and has probably had about twenty lines total on soap operas. She's been a mainstage storyteller at The Moth and various other storytelling shows in New York. Her writing has been published in Salon.com, Nerve.com , Blue, and in the anthology Everything You Know About Sex Is Wrong (Disinfo) and she has a piece upcoming on Smith Magazine's Memoirville. She has received fellowships and residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Ragdale Foundation, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has received support from Time Warner and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as part of the Hourglass Group Solo Lab. She just got her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School and won the 2006 New School Chapbook Award for Nonfiction. Clifford just found out she is a 2007 fellow in Nonfiction Literature from the New York State Foundation for the Arts. She is married to writer McKenzie Wark adn has a 3 year old son, Felix and they lived in Williamsburg, Brooklyn for over 15 years until they got priced out and had to move to Queens.

Molly McCloy, a non-fiction writer from Arizona, has been published in Nerve.com, Slate.com , and MrBellersNeighborhood.com. She recently won the Storytelling Slam sponsored by the NYC-based storytelling organization, The Moth.

Steven Karl received his MFA from The New School. His poems and reviews have appeared in Real Poetik and Lit online. He has an article forthcoming in Teachers & Writers Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn.

Christopher Louvet writes code in Miami, FL for computers in Washington, DC. His poetry has appeared in The Bitter Oleander, Tigertail: A South Florida Poetry Annual , and online at McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

*
I heard a glow-worm, big as a house, say to me: `I will give you the light you need. Read the inscription. It is not from me that this supreme order comes.' A vast blood-coloured light, at the sight of which my jaws clacked and my nads fell inert, suffused the air as far as the horizon. I learned against a ruined wall, for I was about to fall, and read: `Here lies a youth who died of consumption: you know why. Do not pray for him.'
Wanna know this comes from? Come to The Enclave: Festival of the Glow Worm...June 23

LIT launch party wrap- up and poem accepted

The LIT launch party was a good time. The funny thing about NS events is that the alcohol seems to either last forever or vanish in a blink- this party was one of them vanishing acts. First all the Brooklyn Lagers disappeared then all the cups and at one point I noticed a few people pouring white wine into empty soda cans. Wow! That's dedication or boredom at its best. Nonetheless it was good to catch Sampson Starkweather read and see so many people I don't know with copies of LIT in their hands. Have I told you how good ish 13 is going to be?

I saw Matthew Yeager (who I hadn't seen in ages) Malachi Black, Mark Bibbins, and met Peter Bogart Johnson's (current editor of LIT along with Nicole Steinberg, a good poet, and a very funny guy) wife, and then left the party with poets Daniel Meagers and Steve Roberts for a few more drinks. Both Steve and myself had work early the next morning so it ended up being a pleasant, yet early evening... sorry Dan!

Friday I got an acceptance email from Knock Journal (out of Seattle) that they will be publishing my "Birthday Poem" in their November issue- yeah for that! At sometime today I have to figure out where else I've submitted that poem so I can retract it- definitely my least favorite task- let's just say my submission spread sheet is a half-assed infrequently updated thing of a disaster!

Two Poets I Recommend Reading On The Same Bill

I've read at this location maybe back in the winter and had a good time. Brooke is nice and the gallery so small it feels like everyone is there for just you! I'm a big fan of Liesel (who also just graduated from New School's MFA program) and Kate Hall- who lines always make me jealous! Come and see them + the others.


JOIN US FOR A READING AT PARK SLOPE’S 440 GALLERY!



WHEN: Sunday, June 10th from 4:30-6:00 pm

WHERE: 440 Gallery, 440 Sixth Avenue (at 9th St., F to 7th Ave.)

CONTACT: Brooke Shaffner at brshaffner@hotmail.com

Admission Free



WHO:

LIESEL TARQUINI

Liesel Tarquini recently graduated from the New School with an MFA in poetry. She will be leaving Manhattan in August for a Fulbright residency in Berlin focused on translating contemporary German poetry, and is in need of a poetry patron (no sugar daddies, please!). For more information, see www.lieseltarquini.com.



DOUGLAS LIGHT

Douglas Light is the author of the novel East Fifth Bliss, which received the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award for Fiction. His short fiction won an O. Henry Award, and has appeared or is forthcoming in the Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003 anthology, StoryQuarterly, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. To contact the author, please visit www.douglaslight.com.



KATE HALL

Kate Hall received the Robert Frost Poetry Prize while a senior at Kenyon College. Her poetry, stories, and nonfiction have appeared in such publications as The Antioch Review, Rattle, Perihelion, Mr. Beller's Neightborhood, The Brooklyn Rail, The Mississippi Review, 3:AM Magazine, 5_Trope, and Stirring, where she served as a poetry editor. She was recently nominated for storySouth’s Million Writers award for fiction and won a Time Out New York short story contest. She holds a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She lives in Greenpoint.



CHERYL BURKE

Cheryl Burke’s work appears in dozens of print and online publications. She is also the creator and producer of PVC: The Poetry vs. Comedy Variety Show, a monthly event at the Bowery Poetry Club featuring comedians and performance poets. Cheryl has given readings and performances of her work throughout the US and Great Britain. In 2003, Cheryl received an artists’ fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Cheryl lives in Brooklyn. Her website is www.cherylb.com, and she blogs at http://theblist.blogspot.com.



SHANEE EPSTEIN

Shanee Epstein, June’s featured artist and a co-founder of the 440 Gallery, will give a talk on her work. Epstein is a painter and educator living in Park Slope. She received her undergraduate degree at The University of Massachusetts and her MFA at Pratt Institute. Her latest show, Polyphony, a collection of abstract paintings, continues an exploration of color that the artist began three years ago. The paintings are hung in a melodic line around the gallery, allowing a dialogue between the pieces similar to the discourse which shapes the artist’s creation process. For more information, go to www.440gallery.com/artist_sepstein.htm.



About 440 Gallery: Park Slope’s only artist-run gallery, a jewel box space offering an alternative venue for nine Brooklyn artists. 440 Gallery seeks to present surprising, unexpected art to the community through exhibitions, talks, readings and events centered around direct contact with the artist. Open Thursdays and Fridays, 4-7 pm and Saturdays and Sundays, 12-6 pm, or by appointment.

Cornelia and GWN meets T&W wrap-up

I got a few emails this morning in regards to last night- Anjulie, a girl I met at the Bald Ego magazine party seemed pretty excited about the reading and said she was "definitely coming" naturally she didn't come and emailed me this, "Dude! I totally forget." I think this is a perfect example where honesty is the least interesting option- HA! A few other friends got stuck working late- as is the casuality of working in NYC. Nonetheless there was an excellent turn-out for both readings! The Girls Write Now meets Teachers & Writers Collaborative was standing room only for the first half and there weren't many empty seats at Cornelia Street Cafe either.

I got really good feedback from both readings and surprisingly had a blast at both of them. I like to end on a high note and not do any more readings for the whole of Summer, but last night Jason Napoli Brooks invited me to read at his series, The Enclave. Two things- he's a fellow Philadelphian and their readings are always packed with primarily fiction heads so it'd give me an opportunity to woo some non-poets for a change.

Anyways, thanks to all who showed up to my readings and those who may not have been able to make it for various reasons but showed their support ala their interest/desire to attend!

If you were ever curious about New School Poets

a lot of them (myself NOT included) are reading this Saturday at The Bowery:


New School Poet Grads
Saturday May 19
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Bowery Poetry Club
FREE!
Featuring readings by: Adam Smith, Amy Lawless, Amy McDaniel, Angela Veronica Wong, Cate Peebles, Graeme Bezanson, Hayley Heaton, Kiely Sweatt, Liesel Tarquini, Maggie Wells, Meghan Punschke, Michael McDonough, Nick Adamski, Sarah Ruth Jacobs Hosted by Amy Lawless

I'm reading at Cornelia Street Cafe on May 22nd

Sylvia and Alissa have kindly invited me to read for their graduate reading series!


Graduate Reading Night

at Cornelia Street Café

Please join us on Tuesday, May 22nd to hear:


James Best—New York University
Siobhan Ciminera—The New School
Steven Karl—The New School
Sylvia Lee—Sarah Lawrence College
Matt Reeck—Brooklyn College

6:00 pm, $6 gets you one free drink

Located in Greenwich Village, the Cornelia Street Café, opened its doors in July 1977 and has become known for its diverse range of artistic performances. Nightly scheduled events include poetry and fiction readings, musical performances, and visual art receptions.

The Graduate Poetry Series, one of New York's longest-running, is held on the fourth Tuesday of every month. It was established to give students from NYC's graduate writing programs an opportunity to read their poetry in a safe, intimate and supportive environment.

If you are interested in participating, please submit a cover letter with contact information, name of your school/current semester and 5-7 pages of poetry electronically to corneliastseries@gmail.com .

Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia Street
New York NY 10014 (212) 989-9319 www.corneliastreetcafe.com