The Economics of Poetry

Poets Versus Illness, Good News for Mary Agner, and the holidays continue…

Good news for fellow science-poetry-writer Mary A. Agner: her new book, The Scientific Method, is out. Here is a pic at her blog, lovely! Congrats Mary! Just in time for Christmas!
http://www.pantoum.org/entries/2011/12/06.shtml

I wrote a long blog post after reading Rae Armantrout’s essays on her cancer and my own long experience with health issues, and I put it up on my PAI-1 deficiency blog. It’s called Poets Versus Illness: How to Be Your Own Superheroine. It’s kind of long, and personal, and details some of the things I think are crucial to think about when you’re sick and tips I’ve gleaned on how to manage your own health care. I’m putting the link here in case you are interested in that kind of thing.

Yes, missing a reading at Seattle Arts & Lectures tonight I really wanted to go to – Terrence Hayes, who is a great reader. So blech to that. Still having some trouble breathing with the pleurisy, so, you know, rest, fluids, new inhalers, etc. The endless ice fog here in Seattle is not helping things. If only I could beam some Napa weather up here for the holidays. Also found out I’m still having trouble keeping up the b12 even with monthly shots. Guess we’re going to twice a month. Now, if only I could get shots of sunshine…

Interviews, reviews, the next manuscript, and holiday thankfulness

First, some poetry miscellany:

For a long time I have harbored an affection for the magazine Fourteen Hills. It has the best readings, and the editors are always lovely. Here, the poetry editor Sandra Wassilie interviews me about She Returns to the Floating World:
http://14hills.net/node/376

One of my final book reviews of the year is up at Rattle, this one of Brian Spears’ A Witness in Exile:
http://rattle.com/blog/2011/12/a-witness-in-exile-by-brian-spears/

Yesterday was spent at the doctor’s office, getting chest x-rays, blood tests, etc. They were checking for the dreaded pneumonia, what with all our “ice fog” and “Air advisories” and “ten degrees below normal” weather out here in the Northwest, well, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise. But, yay, no pneumonia! Just pleurisy, which is painful and requires more rest than I’d like, but nothing inconvenient like getting stuck in the hospital (as long as I don’t overdo it.)

The good news is that though I am forced to appreciate the holiday season from afar – no malls, no outdoor hikes to cut down a tree, etc – it has helped me get some work done, on Eye to the Telescope’s third issue, for example – oh, I hate sending rejections – and doing some serious revision and organization work on my fairy-tale themed third MS. You know how you have a book manuscript you think is finished and then you’re all, wait, am I sure that’s how it should be organized, and maybe it should have another section, and what about this poem that I’m pretty sure belongs in the book, etc…I’m also contemplating an essay on approaching illness and the medical system called “How to be your own superheroine.” I read Rae Armantrout’s recent essay series on her discovery that she had a rare cancer and I thought “I wish I could write like that.” She is a stone cold brave lady in the face of danger, that’s for sure.

Buying Guide – Poetry in 2011

List of 2011 Books that Make Great Holiday Gifts:

It’s always tough putting together a good shopping list for the year’s books – so many good books to remember, it seems, come out every year! And remember to ask Santa for a subscription to your favorite literary magazine – I recommend a smaller magazine, such as Crab Creek Review, 32 Poems, or another independently funded journal.

Lucky Fish by Aimee Nezhukumatathil – Likable, funny narrators and subtle wordplay make Aimee’s book a standout.

The Book of Men by Dorianne Laux – I think this exploration of Dorianne’s interest in the male of the species – and her new nods to pop culture, like “Superman” and “Cher” – make this Dorianne’s most interesting collection yet!

And Yet They Were Happy by Helen Philips – Though this isn’t technically poetry – more like little flash fictions collected into a sort of hip, experimental novel – the voice here is heartbreaking, moving, funny…everything I want my poetry books to be! You won’t be sorry you read it.

A New Red by Lana Ayers – New spin on an old tail/tale here – (ok, couldn’t resist the joke) – Lana’s passionate, sharp voices will haunt you.

Hide Behind Me – Jason Mott – Superheroes with a twist in this moving collection about the heroism of the every day.

I Stand Here Shredding Documents – Kristin Berkey Abbott – http://www.amazon.com/I-Stand-Here-Shredding-Documents/dp/1599247534/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322609589&sr=8-1-fkmr1 – I have to say, I love a good poem about work, especially by women. This manuscript delves into the spirit and the workaday world with intuition and heart.

Elizabeth Austen’s Every Dress a Decision – Humorous poems about relationships with men are balanced with some sharp reveries on family.

Joannie Stangeland’s Into the Rumoured Spring – Well, I haven’t read this one yet, but generally Joannie’s meditations of nature, the spirit, and life are gentle reminders to celebrate the moment.

Martha Silano’s The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception – Martha is a clever wordplay artist, and her poems on motherhood are immediately relatable and thoughtful. Not to mention science poems, my favorite!

Amanda Auchter’s The Glass Crib – Moving poems on the nature of family and the body.

Maya Zellar’s Rust Fish – Full of affectionate portraits of her Northwest home, Zellar portrays a working-class youth with warm realism.

The Poetry Gymnasium: 94 Poetry Exercises – Tom C. Hunley – Which poet – whether they teach or not – hasn’t needed more poetry exercises, with convenient examples right there?

Books I’ve reviewed and recommend:

Dana Levin’s Sky Burial – http://therumpus.net/2011/03/you-may-say-fist-you-may-say-teeth/

Brian Spears’ A Witness in Exile – (forthcoming)

Steve Fellner’s The Weary World Rejoices – (forthcoming)

Christine Deavel’s Woodnote – http://therumpus.net/2011/10/a-mark-of-the-naive/

Erika Meitner’s Makeshift Instructions for Beautiful Girls – http://www.barnowlreview.com/reviews/meitner%20deux.html

For your future self: Check out books coming out in 2012 by Kathleen Flenniken and Annette Spaulding-Convey. Terrific, clever, moving…I’ve read early versions of these manuscripts and loved them!! And of course, Eduardo Corral’s Yale Younger Poets winner. (I remember reading his MS…mmm…maybe eight years ago (?) and loving it. Eight years of work did not make the manuscript weaker.) Automatically going on my “to teach” list of books.

For my future self: I would love a publisher to swoop up manuscripts by a few excellent poets – namely, Natasha K. Moni, Jeff Walt, and Karen Weyant. Are you listening, publishers? Seriously, these are some great manuscripts!

And finally, my inevitable plea, because one of my favorite holiday activities is watching my Amazon ranks (just kidding): for the comic book loving teen or college student, Becoming the Villainess; for the woman in transition, J-pop lover or folk-tale fanatic, She Returns to the Floating World. A lovely holiday gift for me? A nice review on Amazon or Goodreads!

Reading Report – Rigoberto Gonzalez "Black Blossoms" at Open Books

We braved the cold (and air advisory — cough cough – dang asthma!) to see the gracious Rigoberto Gonzalez read from his new book, Black Blossoms, at Open Books tonight. Eduardo had told me I would love it, and I did. It’s full of passion, violence, and a kind of gorgeous, stark imagery.
Here is a sample of his work, the poem “Girl With No Hands.” (By coincidence, I have a poem by the same name in She Returns to the Floating World, based on the Japanese variant of the same fairy tale.)

The Girl With No Hands
by Rigoberto González

Your father asked for more than a polka–dot tie, a self–portrait in Crayola or cinnamon
snickerdoodles flat as candle stubs on baking sheets. He grabbed you by the wrists

and severed your hands to wear on his key chain like a pair of lucky rabbit’s feet.
What is so fortunate about a rabbit hopping about the prairie with a missing limb?

What if all four of its legs had been clipped? It eats only as far as it can stretch
it’s neck, and then rolls itself on its back to perforate its starved belly with the blades

of its ribs. When the hunter returns, the rabbit will have its revenge, looking like
the amputated foot of its diabetic mother wearing that familiar bunny slipper.

Your father seized your hands, not out of malice, but greed —his wish to match
Midas and pocket the small golds of his kingdom — Rolex, wedding bands, crucifix,

and the precious treasure of your rings, which, little princess, will never leave
your fingers because Papi breaks no promises. He never abandoned you either,

always here when you come across your hairbrush, perched on the bristles
like a nesting pecker. Resolute, you age with ingenuity, learning to eat

right off the branch, nibbling apple, apricot, and pear without separating fruit
from stem. This is how you heard about the clever rabbit, from the hunter’s son

who made love to you pressing his fists to the small of his back. He locked you
against the tree trunk and your shoulders splintered the bark. What a miracle

of an instrument, the piano that’s played with elbows and knees and four clumsy
heels that for all their random reaching make the sweetest rhythms. Your bodies

danced each afternoon in the grove while your mother sewed the mysterious
tears in your dresses. You forgave your mother’s inactivity that night when Papi

struck down your wrists with a cleaver, the mirror of the metal like a window
to a furnace, the shadow puppet butterfly emancipated finally. Who knew

chopped bone could sing? Maybe chicken doesn’t utter a note at its beheading
because its mother hen isn’t near to cluck a frenzied requiem, Your mother

squealed as fiercely as a sow and your stumps looked like the blooded snouts
of swine. But all that rage escapes you now as you unleash the power of the hand

your father left intact, and with it grip your lover tighter into you. So this
is delectable defiance, Miss Rabbit — it must have been female to claim

the last word. You, girl, with no hands, can produce another pair and more:
legs, torso, head, and a bear trap of a jaw to bite the hands that feed her.