Our new fall 2011 issue features poetry by Amiri Baraka, Bill Berkson, Mei – Mei Berssenbrugge, Robert Branaman, Diane di Prima, Jonathan Greene, Jen Hofer, Hettie Jones, Ilya Kaminsky, Robert Kelly, Lewis MacAdams, Gerard Malanga, Joanna McClure, David Meltzer, Charles Plymell, George Quasha, Margaret Randall, Joe Richey, Julie Rogers, Edward Sanders, Will Staple, Charles Stein, Anne Waldman and Lewis Warsh with artwork by Robert Branaman, Harvey Bialy and Larry Keenan, Jr.
Poems
Book for David Meltzer
by Julie Rogers In your chair, your cave head bent to book your prayer, your cradle quiet lights your eyes, fingertips, bowing spine wooing mind
Stuntman
by David Meltzer I wanted to be a stunt man, crashing through glass doors, pound out cowboy hero face in B – movie saloon, fly out
“Imagination Is the Only Lucid Way to Meet Life” — Alan, Pessin
by Will Staple The flying penis prepares a community of antlers a tranquil reunion of great singers a fraternity of the
Sanguis Spiritualis for Constance
by Will Staple The goddess had a veil and no one could look upon her face and lie but one man had to see her face and so he lifted her veil
Strangers When We Meet
by Bill Berkson Homage /Obit I like to have a little secret at the end of my poems, The way nothing is ever finished Nor do I abandon a thing
Holy Shit !
by Amiri Baraka The most Dangerous Religion in the world Is Christianity ! Check the bodies ! Islam & Judaism Are not even Close
Chasin The Ambulance
by Amiri Baraka Where you goin to go If you don’t go Nowhere ? In a circle, a circle of circles Surround the nowhere of your scream. If you not
Political Visionary of Note
by Amiri Baraka In The Sixties George Romero warned us About the Tea Parties to come With his Night of the Living Dead
Year One: Or Why We Need Health Care Reform
by Amiri Baraka We in some hot water Fulla crocodiles. Boy Come along In a boat say “Get in, get in” “I can save yr ass from these crocks And
Ghost Riders in the Sky
by Lewis Warsh It was like a scene from a movie starring Fred MacMurray and Vincent Price: “But I bought you everything you own,” the character
Tent Shaker Voice
by Charles Plymell It was the voice of the Game Lord only heard when you know it at the intersection where ancient people walked the four
Lust
by Joanna McClure I long to give this body — Not to science, not to the fire. I long to be given, whole For the fish in the sea to nibble away. I
Engraving for Lawrence
by Joanna McClure Like your engraving — I stand Behind, to one side of, The long open door. Outside, night light Makes a Palmer sky From black
A Memory
by Joanna McClure Flies buzz Dry dust Hot bright sun The taste of canned milk The smell of pines Mothers move around a wood stove.
Metaphor
by Joanna McClure The tsunami Seen from a hillside video camera Advances slowly, serenely Carrying trucks, houses, trees, trash. While in frame
Soneto Cubano
by Joe Richey Cuba, I tried to explain, is not just a place where six square walls reside. Eleven million people raised on revolution live there
Book 4 of The River: The Mainstream
by Lewis MacAdams I. At first she displayed all […]
from Stress
by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge I fear one stray word is more powerful than my child’s vitality. But not speaking can send out huge, mutated thought
By Robert Branaman
I painted over one hundred thousand paintings I painted over one hundred thousand paintings Just this morning When I ate breakfast at two PM They
Woodshedding
by Hettie Jones . . . my wolf . . . at the foot of the bed / in the dark all night
Fingers Pull Triggers
by Hettie Jones Think about it: someone shoots your buddy dead — so you grab your gun and the blast you send strikes the heart of the matter —
Wearing the Sweater for Marilyn Colvin
by Hettie Jones As you advised, I am wearing the sweater I won’t be wearing after I’m dead I’m wearing it while I still have choices to leave
May the Force Be with You: A Poem about Meditation
by Diane di Prima Maybe they are never done with us the speechless full Moon or the Force, and how many other hearts ? Be like a mirror of
The Nature of Inspiration for Philip Whalen
Diane di Prima Read It said. I read. Then Write It said. I found the back of an envelope & wrote It down now Type It told me Fuck off I
Before Solstice
by Diane di Prima the mystery in the Brocade the jewels upon the Tree wild snatches of Song on the wind from a mouth Inhuman how could I turn
Dreams of Wartimes
by Anne Waldman There was a time when we were a flat earth why not consider our one dimension as total, then no one believed. Not to see
End of Track
by Gerard Malanga You’ll not find me in historic Hudson among the periwinkles and clematis. You’ll not find the footstep traces soon followed by
Don Snyder, Photographer
by Gerard Malanga What then of the pictures he left behind in his sleep the mounds of tabloids bundled and yellowed the looseleaf binders falling
Harry Fainlight, 1935 -1982
by Gerard Malanga He would’ve been the last one you’d expect to find out at Blackpool on a sea breeze winter’s day or at East Parade long past.
Janine Pommy Vega, 1942 – 2010
by Gerard Malanga She came from a place of no particular consequence with a vision as wide as the bright blue skies and lived by her wits, making
Elegy
by Ilya Kaminsky They say so much sky in her chest addicted her. They claim, with inappropriate laughter, she requested to be locked in a bird
To Live
by Ilya Kaminsky To live, as the great book commands, is to love. Such love is not enough ! — the heart needs a little foolishness ! So I fold
four threes are trees heading home from Exchanging Intentions (preverbs )
by George Quasha The space between me and what I touch breathes freer today. It’s possible now to say what keeps saying itself. Ask
mouth surfing from Witnessing the Place Awake (preverbs )
by George Quasha 1 on the pale trail of the pores on fire Speaking with chilies in your mouth produces
Appropriation
by Edward Sanders Dylan heard Dave Van Ronk’s version of “House of the Rising Sun” & recorded it for his first album then asked for Dave’s
You Are a Hologram
by Edward Sanders “You Are A Hologram . . . . projected from the edge of the universe” shrieked the cover of New Scientist (for 1-17- 09 ) &
Saying Goodbye
by Edward Sanders Bus to NYC to see Tuli in ICU at Downtown Beekman Hospital He’s peaceful with now – & – then irregular heart
Eurydice
by Robert Kelly [Eurydice, naked, in leaf shadow, half – hidden in bushes, lilac, springtime, sunset, warm. She speaks.] 1. I have been
Together
by Jonathan Greene In an avenue of trees dead ones hugging live ones, holding on, their tops crying together in high wind. Old loves or old
Lost in the Air
by Jonathan Greene After the stroke the words break up like wind spreading out sky – writing cloud snippets floating away never again
Lunar Moth
by Jonathan Greene Washing the dishes, looking up — a lunar moth against the window. Often I forget how close — this other world.
Fish Hawk at Work
by Jonathan Greene Stayed busy trying to track the osprey’s footprints on the fast – moving river.
Message Received
by Jonathan Greene The full moon swimming the whole ocean to tickle my toes.
Jen Hofer
by Jen Hofer If you want Jen Hofer’s graphics I will send them to you separately as they did not “cut and paste” into word pad file.
Already Ghosts
by Margaret Randall Because I want to help my momma, because my step dad hates me, because there’s nothing for me at home, because I want a new
At the Edges of the Pueblo
by Margaret Randall A great tree falls on a downed power line and this time the fire is dubbed accidental: Cerro Grande, Las Conchas, no
Downwind from Pecos
by Margaret Randall Downwind from Pecos, cedar scent invades our nostrils, transparent as sky’s unreachable blue until this cloud that is not
Reviews
One With Others
by C.D. Wright, Copper Canyon, 2010, 168 pages, paper, $18.00, ISBN: 978–1–55659–388–8 Buy the Book C.D. Wright’s One
A City of Angels and How to Carve an Angel
A City of Angels, by Ben Mazer, Cy Gist Press, 2011, 36 pages, chapbook, $9 How to Carve an Angel, by Peter Fulton, The Seventh Quarry Poetry
Impenitent Notes
by Baron Wormser, CavanKerry Press, 2010, 87 pages, $16.00, ISBN: 978–933880–23–5 Buy the Book I first encountered Baron
Poet Biographies
Robert Ronnie Branaman
Lewis Warsh
was born in the Bronx, New York, and has lived in New York City for most of his life. He graduated from City College of New York with a B.A. in
Anne Waldman
an internationally recognized and acclaimed poet, she has been an active member of the “Outrider” experimental poetry community. She is the
Charles Stein
a poet and independent scholar, he is the author of eleven books of poetry including, The Hat Rack Tree (Station Hill Press) and From Mimir’s
Will Staple
born in 1945 in Colusa, California, he attended Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement. He worked as a carpenter on both the Gary Snyder and
Edward Sanders
achieved fame in the countercultural world of the 1960s as poet, magazine founder, bookstore owner, publisher, journalist, anti – war
Julie Rogers
began writing at age twelve and reading her poetry in San Francisco cafes in the late 1970’s. She has self – published five chapbooks, and
Joe Richey
is a poet, journalist, and researcher. He has produced reports for alternative media from Maine to Argentina. With support from The Nation
Margaret Randall
is a poet, essayist, photographer, feminist, and social activist, born in New York City (1936). She lived for many years in Mexico, Cuba, and
George Quasha
is an artist, a poet, and a musician working across mediums to explore principles in common within language, sculpture, drawing, video, sound,
Charles Plymell
was born in 1935 in Kansas, involved in the Beat scene in New York in the 1950s, and was a notable figure in the San Francisco literary scene in
David Meltzer
a poet at age eleven and child performer on radio and television, he began his literary career during the Beat heyday in San Francisco and
Joanna McClure
was born in the desert foothills of the Catalina Mountain Ridge near Oracle, Arizona, in 1930. She attended the University of Arizona, majoring
Gerard Malanga
is a poet and photographer born in 1943. He was the chief assistant for artist Andy Warhol in the mid –1960s, with whom he founded the
Lewis MacAdams
is a poet, activist, journalist, and author of a dozen books and tapes of poetry. His poems have appeared in many anthologies over the last
Robert Kelly
after receiving an undergraduate degree in 1955 from the City College of the City University of New York, he studied for three years at Columbia
Ilya Kaminsky
was born in Odessa, former Soviet Union in 1977, and came to the United States in 1993, when his family was granted asylum by the American
Hettie Jones
her twenty – four books include her Beat memoir, How I Became Hettie Jones; Drive, which won the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber
Jen Hofer
is a Los Angeles based poet, translator, interpreter, teacher, knitter, bookmaker, public letter – writer, and urban cyclist. Her most
Jonathan Greene
born in New York City in 1943 he earned his B.A. in literature from Bard College and went on to study poetry with Robert Lowell and folklore with
Diane di Prima
born in Brooklyn, New York, she is, undeniably, the most well – known female Beat poet. She attended Swarthmore College, then moved to
Mei – Mei Berssenbrugge
was born in Beijing, China in 1947 and grew up in Massachusetts. Among her books are The Heat Bird (Burning Deck 1983) and Random Possession,
Bill Berkson
his most recent books include Portrait and Dream: New & Selected Poems; a collection of art writings, For the Ordinary Artist; Not an Exit,
Amiri Baraka
born in 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, a poet icon and
Artist Biographies
Reviewer Biographies
Mark Schorr
currently serves as Executive Director of the Robert Frost Foundation in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His new manuscript is Sonnets and Songs of (I)
Megan Grumbling
is collaborating this fall with sound artist Dan Beckman on a reenactment – in – verse of the first live transatlantic radio
Leigh Donaldson
lives in Portland, Maine. His writing has appeared in publications such as the This I Believe website, International Poetry Review, Art Times,