Arthur Sze Reading in Santa Fe

Not any breaking news. Just wanted to let the Bigfans know about a reading I attended this weekend. Arthur Sze (pronounced “Z”) read from his eighth and newest collection of poems Quipu. Quipu were the knots used by pre-literate Incans to record information. Apparently these knots were tied to a main cord and related the info in their number and color. The image of quipu as well as their inherent metaphorical potency as tactile language struck me as very cool (how’s that for a sophisticated response?). What I found in Sze’s poems (he read only from this collection) was an insistence on extreme detail and repetition that made me think of a repeating number of knots on a cord. I recommend this collection and look forward to checking out his previous books. -Malka

hi

Hello, Blog!

This is Becky. I am back in MN after a brief visit to the central coast of Calif. As I was driving to visit my mom near San Luis Obispo, there were a bunch of migrating (I'm assuming) monarch butterflies flying directly at my windshild. In memoriam I'd like to post the lovely poem below, which comes from Douglas Florian's _Insectlopedia_ (I am rediscovering how fun children's poetry can be):

The Monarch Butterfly

He is a monarch.
He is a king.
He flies great migrations.
Past nations he wings.
He is a monarch.
He is a prince.
When blackbirds attack him,
From poison they wince.
He is a monarch.
He is a duke.
Swallows that swallow him
Frequently puke.

Spring Reading

Dearest Bigfan Blog Readers,
Please visit www.Leafpress.ca to read a new poem by yours truly. It's being featured as the "Monday Poem" for this week (4/25/05) and will be in their "Monday's Archive" after that.
I am currently reading School of Art by Mark Doty. Before that I enjoyed Wedding Day by Dana Levin, who is a local to Santa Fe. I am waiting with great anticipation for the release of the paperback of the new Czeslaw Milosz, Second Space, translated by Robert Haas and due out in Sept. I'm also waiting for James Tate's newest to come to paperback (so I can maybe afford it) Return to the City of White Donkeys--what a great title!
A week or so ago, I got to see Campbell McGrath read at the Lannan reading series. His newest book is called Pax Atomica. His stuff is quite witty and heavily laden with popular culture references. He's doing a self & society type thing that I think he believes will help bring the masses back to poetry.
Anyway, on a less evolved reading level, I am also currently enjoying the last in the Philip Pulman series, His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass. I really don't think these books were written for children.
Well, I'm off to frolic in a rainy Sunday afternoon!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Julia here. Ah, National Poetry Month. Suddenly poetry is inescapable, it seems to seep from everywhere. Last weekend caught the last day (practically the last hour, actually) of the POETRY and its ARTS: Bay Area interactions 1954-2004 exhibit at the California Historical Society, which featured art by poets, poems by artists, collaborations between poets and artists, etc. Features included Norma Cole's fabric-sketchbook installation and hand-drawn poems by Bob Grenier and other works too numerous to mention here as I trip toward sleep. I love that the quiet little gallery is tucked away on Mission Street not two doors down from my very first office building from my very first days in San Francisco, when I worked for a quiet little women's history research group. I loved working in the Financial District - my well-paid lawyer friend would treat me to bagels and smoothies for lunch and the SF MOMA is free once a month and the incomparable Alexander Books was just two blocks away. What have I been reading lately? "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time." Immediate and wonderful. The other big news, of course, is wholly self-interested: come fall, I will be a student again ("but was I ever not?") in Philadelphia, city of my grandmother's birth but a new city to me. I'll look for her there, I'll study poetics and critical theory and write smart things, and our little press will truly become TRI-COASTAL (east, west and Mississippi, kids). Alright, time for sleep. More to come.

Say "Santa Fe" with a Lisp

Hey anybody who's reading our blog! Malka here. I had my first reading in the snowy desert oasis of Santa Fe, NM last night. In all my weird head-cold glory, I made it to Backroad Pizza (where all the queer events take place) and got through my fifteen minutes. Lisp is a monthly queer and trans cabaret hosted by the incomparable Cooper Lee Bombardier (formerly of the Bay Area as well). There were some hysterical performances last night. And I'm so glad I could go first! (My poetry may have seemed a bit too awkward a segue between the two tranny guys performing a George Michael video and a tranny woman showing us all the possible uses for a post-op "dead dick.") I read some old and some never-before-read-in-public pieces. Most appreciated was the poem to a hated co-worker in the voice of an eighteenth century Romantic poet who happens to work in a low-paying retail job in 2004. There was a local reporter there asking questions about Lisp and taking some pictures. He took one of my poems, so I'll try to put up a link if any article comes of it. All in all, 'twas a fun night that I wish I had been a tad more coherent to enjoy. I'll write some more soon about Lorca, Ghost Girl, and the little book on writing just out by the new poet laureate. Bye!

City Lights Reading

Well, hello everyone. I didn't get it together in time to announce the reading on Monday night at City Lights, so herewith, a report on such.

I spent Valentine's Day reading with Dodie Bellamy, Colter Jacobsen, Donal Mosher, Aaron Nielsen & Zakary Szymanski. It was also Dodie's birthday, and so I hope we all celebrated her duly.

Dodie's The Letters of Mina Harker has just been re-released by University of Wisconsin, and I have a review of it in Bitch and an interview with Dodie in Lodestar Quarterly. (Patience...this is my first blog entry, and I haven't learned how to hyperlink.)

Anyhoo, it was the perfect blood-red Valentine's treat to hear Dodie read from Mina, hear Colter, Donal, Aaron and Zak, and offer some of my Letters to Kelly Clarkson as one of the opening acts. Afterward, I snuck away from the crowd to have the more traditional Val Day with my better half in the Inner Sunset. It was rainy and bright.

More news soon...xoxo julia

Here We Are!

Our first blog... more to come.