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Category Archives: My Poetry
mnemotechnics
A selection of poems from my manuscript mnemotechnics is available as a chapbook from above/ground press. Cover illustration by Alixandra Bamford. mnemotechnics is about birds and memory– specifically, it’s an homage to the life-list, the list that a birdwatcher keeps of all … Continue reading
NaPoWriMo Day 27: Shorts
We’re packing and cleaning this weekend to get ready to move for May 1. As you can probably tell, I ran out of NaPoWriMo steam mid-month when we finalized the house purchase. This poem is for the spiders we’ve uprooted: … Continue reading
Posted in NaPoWriMo
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NaPoWriMo Day 26: Child-Poem
My 2.5 year old son dictated this poem to me, including the placement and sizes of the words. I like his use of space. One thing that’s really interesting to me about his perception of the world is the way … Continue reading
Posted in NaPoWriMo
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NaPoWriMo Day 24: Pure Narrative
Yeah, so I missed a few days. We bought a house. People buy houses all the time, and it seems like it must be an easy process because people do it all the time, but it’s not easy. It wasn’t … Continue reading
Posted in NaPoWriMo, personal
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NaPoWriMo Days 10, 13-15: Layers
This weekend, we went to Atlanta for Nick’s 30th birthday; his gift was tickets to both They Might Be Giants shows at Variety Playhouse. Before we left, we went to the Birmingham Museum of Art to see the hippos. In … Continue reading
Posted in architecture, art, My Poetry, NaPoWriMo
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Pigeon interlude
Ash Smith, Sarah Campbell, Pattie McCarthy and I have been responding on Facebook to a post from Ash about pigeons. I wanted to share two recent (non-NaPoWriMo) poems on the subject.
NaPoWriMo Day 12: Politics
This poems follows the “x is a y” extended metaphor model that I grew up with in k-12 creative writing lessons. Here I want to think about violence and choice. I took a phrase from this Salon article about North … Continue reading
NaPoWriMo Day 11: Magic
This poem isn’t what I expected it to be when I started a pleasant little pastoral poem about hens. Turns out, chickens are both magical and anarchical. Breeder beware. I’m a day behind– didn’t write anything yesterday. I’ll catch up.
NaPoWriMo Day 9: Nature
Been reading Christina Rossetti, feeling “listy” (in contrast to “listless”?) Read NaPoWriMO poems by other poets here.
NaPoWriMo Day 8: Myth
This is not the poem I want to write about this. It’s too fragmentary– I’m not sure it’s ultimately clear enough what it’s about (when writing fragmentary, multi-linear poetry, there must be a perfect balance between ambiguity and clarity– just … Continue reading
NaPoWriMo Day 7: Collaboration
Yesterday a magical thing happened: I learned that my old friends K. Lorraine Graham and Mark Wallace were reading poetry at the Fusebox series in Chattanooga, about 2 hours northeast of my home in Birmingham. I went into my son’s … Continue reading
NaPoWriMo Day 6: Storytelling
Sometimes you just want to tell a story, y’know? Here are two: one is a brief retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Wild Swans” (as a child I was enchanted by this magical, dream-like fairy tale) and one is … Continue reading
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NaPoWriMo Day 5: Collage
This poem is “about” mourning/doves and comprises personal memories; descriptions of mourning doves both created and stolen; some Deleuze and some other stuff. Since I was a teenager, I’ve enjoyed hanging out in art museums. I think Frank Stella‘s 3-D collages … Continue reading
NaPoWriMo Day 4: Chance
I didn’t “write any poems” yesterday, so I used chance to generate one. Some people write entire poems with chance operations, but I use them to generate material for collage/sculptural poems. So I was trying to remember a quote that … Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Poetry, NaPoWriMo
NaPoWriMo Day 1: Drafting
I’m still revising/adding to a manuscript that, long story short, I wrote half of in 2001, and half in the past year. It was a finalist for the Nightboat Book Prize a few months ago; before that, back in 2001-03 … Continue reading
2003-2013: Ten years of nostalgia
I’m in Boston for AWP– I’m moderating a panel tomorrow at 1:30 on Poetry and Librarianship. In the Spring of 2003, another early March if I remember correctly, I was in Cambridge for the NEMLA conference, giving a paper on … Continue reading
Posted in Organic Furniture Cellar, Travel
Terry Cuddy’s Transient Views of Western New York (2002)
Terry Cuddy made this amazing video featuring Buffalo “transient” poets (mostly Poetics Program graduate students) writing about their favorite local WNY places. Featuring poetry by Mona Niculescu, Sandra Guerreiro, Kyle Schlesinger, Linda Russo, Christopher Alexander, Alejandro Rutty, Amela Kazazovic, Kristen … Continue reading
Traumatic romantic
I have a poem in the new Word For/ Word. Thanks Adam and Jon!
Posted in My Poetry
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12 or 20 Questions
In which I participate in rob mclennan’s long-running interview series. Although rob has been prodding me to do this for awhile, I didn’t feel inspired to until Dottie did it. What can I say, peer pressure works.
Happy Bloomsday!
In the spirit of the Twitter trends #booksthatchangedmylife and #happybloomsday, 217 words that changed my life: INELUCTABLE MODALITY OF THE VISIBLE: AT LEAST THAT IF NO MORE, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Modernism, Organic Furniture Cellar
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Protected: A Radical Life
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Posted in architecture, family, gender, health, plasticity, politics
30 Poems in 30 Days: Thoughts on Process
April, once uncomfortably known as National Poetry Month, has been re-branded, much more comfortably, as National Poetry Writing Month. This makes us feel less passive in our minority. The challenge is to write 30 poems in 30 days. For the … Continue reading
Posted in Contemporary Poetry, My Poetry, poetics
7 Comments
Update
I drove to Lowell, MA last weekend, where I met the Bootstrap boys, Derek Fenner and Ryan Gallagher, for the first time. Bootstrap is the mother-press of which Outside Voices is an imprint, but we had never met in real … Continue reading
Posted in My Poetry, poetry readings
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Upcoming Readings
I’ll be giving two readings soon: one in Buffalo and one in MA. Check out the Readings page for details.
Posted in My Poetry, poetry readings
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Organic Furniture Cellar Sale
In the spirit of sales, Organic Furniture Cellar for $10 over here. (Etsy.com)
Posted in Organic Furniture Cellar
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Dear Reader
- I’ve decided to write single poems for single readers such that writing is publication and the reader I appeal to is the one precise reader who receives the poem. This is partly practical: I don’t have the time or … Continue reading
Posted in My Poetry, poetics, visual poetry
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Veil
Helen took some great pictures of Veil at the infusoria exhibit. I also found the text for Veil, which has been lost since I originally created the piece for Bridge St. Books in 2002– there are six passages embroidered in … Continue reading
Posted in My Poetry, visual poetry
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Hand/Homemade + infusoria
Beautiful pictures from the Handmade/Homemade exhibit are up! (Thank you Deborah!) The infusoria exhibit also has a blog! (And what is more enchanting about it, the sensitive portrayal of Michelle’s work or the pictures of setting up the exhibit, with … Continue reading
New Womb
With new poetry by me and other awesome female poets.
Posted in My Poetry, New Poetry
2 Comments
Speaking of miniature…
Pictures of my tiny (.5″) paper cubes with intractable/unretractable love-letter scrolls, included in Helen White’s zaoem 2008 festival in Belgium, are now online (the main page has a little commentary, or read my original blog post about them here). Yay!
Posted in love, My Poetry, publishing in miniature
4 Comments
Catch-up post
Sometimes people read my blog once a month or once a season or once a year instead of every day. Sigh.* So just to catch up…
Posted in Anthology, Birmingham, Buffalo, Charlottesville, Foursquare, health, job, love, moving, My Poetry, New York, Organic Furniture Cellar, Outside Voices, personal, Place
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Civilization and Savagery: Plasticity and the work of Cai Guo-Qiang
Sunday I went to brunch with my brother and his girlfriend, who are approaching their one-year anniversary but, as they will tell you, still like each other enough to make out at any available moment (hooray). We had a delicious … Continue reading
Posted in art, plasticity
Tagged art, Cai Guo-Qiang, China, Guggenheim, plasticity, politics
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Protected: Reincarnating Riding
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Posted in money, My Poetry, Organic Furniture Cellar
Chapbooks
- – Yesterday I made a whole buncha copies of Problemattica and bird-book. They’re for sale at Etsy and will also be available at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair.
Protected: I wrote a poem.
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Posted in My Poetry, poetics
Tagged current projects, Frankfurt School, Jim, New Poetry, Sandra
tiny wonderrooms of love
Inspired by the tiny box in Eraserhead and what it contained (what was that little root-like thing? The solution? A mystery? If the solution, dead or latent? Life or death?), I’ve been making tiny (.5″) boxes out of iridescent, glossy … Continue reading
Posted in love, My Poetry, plasticity, publishing in miniature
Tagged current projects, look+touch, love
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Protected: the brightly colors
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Posted in My Poetry, New Poetry, publishing in miniature
Tagged current projects, Dos Press, John, music, New Poetry
Geez, guys! Over at Galatea Ressurects, Susana reviews OFC and Steve reviews bird-book. Thank you. Steve’s thorough (and wouldn’t you expect as much from him?) reading of bird-book is the first review ever of this work, which you can read … Continue reading
Posted in Organic Furniture Cellar
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Torontorian Aaron Tucker reviews OFC at InkNoire. In the mail: Bill Corbett chapbook De Kooning Kline– beautiful design by Mr. Michael Carr and pressed by Boostrap (but seemingly unavailable from their website). Good job guys, or as my word verification … Continue reading
Posted in Organic Furniture Cellar
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Little girls are always losing their plastic barrettes. Today a pink one shaped like a butterfly.
a pair of black work-gloves
- a pair of black work-gloves – an unopened pack of Orbit peppermint gum – a green leather hobo-style purse– stolen?– under a bush, emptied of its contents, which included tampons and a small fushia hairbrush
yellow bouncy pellet, red plastic fireman
- a red plastic toy soldier. actualy, he’s a fireman. – “Corner Market” ultra-green matchbook – slightly pummeled white 2×4 Lego – brown hair comb – yellow bouncy rubber pellet (it’s a ball, but i think it’s some kind of … Continue reading
purple plastic slinky, red lei, large glass
- red plastic lei – purple and pink plastic slinky (broken but still slinky) – a large etched window – a neon “OPEN” sign the final two things I could not carry.
rubbish redux
So now this becomes the source text. it is 41 lines so one line will move to the title position. the omen of a stunned tiger swallowtail blue guitar pick, modest mouse, handtowel leather shoe, chewing tobacco, red pen somebody’s … Continue reading
the omen of a stunned tiger swallowtail
a short list which will be the last list before these lists become poetry ghosts. because i am tired of looking for interesting trash and because i buried a tiger swallowtail. i am not sure he was dead. perhaps he … Continue reading
blue guitar pick, modest mouse, handtowel
Tuesday is always a good day for trash-spotting. – a collection of someone’s cds, seemingly thrown out of a moving car, all somewhat shattered. this collection included: – Bigusa – Pole – Elliott Smith – The Shins – Green Day … Continue reading
leather shoe, chewing tobacco, red pen
Originally uploaded by maulopes. Spring colors! this picture links to the “que lindo lixo” pool of urban trash pics on Flikr Today it was hot and people were taking their clothes off. I found: – 2 hair elastics, one black … Continue reading
Jessica Smith
