Friday 13 February, 2009 in Steve Willey Two new poems from Venus & Other Noises can be found in the British and Irish Poetry issue of Past Simple magazine. The first poem is called Accretion Panel 3, the second poem is called Venus & Other Noises.
Friday 13 February, 2009 in Steve Willey Friday 13 February, 2009 Over 50 different remixes of Elizabeth Alexander's inaugral poem. Order now and receive a free 38-piece ratchet set. via The Book Bench
Friday 13 February, 2009 So, when he jokes that he’s “forgotten how to be a surrealist” the poet is reminding us that all great poetry must forget its ancestors, must start over with each page, no matter how loyal one might feel towards certain aspects of the past. As John Wieners wrote in the opening pages of his journal in the spring of 1958: “I must forget how to write. I must unlearn what has been taught me.” I mention Wieners because he’s one of the “ancestors” (comrades, really) one finds hovering throughout Marinovich’s poetry. Not necessarily in a direct manner, but in the poet’s awareness that there is no true separation between life and poem, that they bleed into each other constantly.Guillermo Parra on Filip Marinovich.
Thursday 12 February, 2009 I recommend you turn your speakers off: savethewords via poet and facebook friend, Harry Goodwin.
Thursday 12 February, 2009 in Wanda Phipps [wpvideo XhNzpF4c] The first poem Wanda reads is Morning Poem 10 from her book Wake-Up Calls: 66 Morning Poems. On this occasion Wanda was the first poet to read at the night. The poet Andrea Brady had put us in touch with Wanda and let us know that she was coming into the country. We are grateful both to Wanda and Andrea for the reading, and we are glad we have finally got round to making this recording publicly available.
Thursday 12 February, 2009 Dale Smith has been posting about Flarf recently. K. Silem Mohammad responds:
Most of you reading this have probably seen the continuing discussion initiated by Dale Smith about Flarf that is going on at Possum Ego as well as my own and several other bloggers' comment boxes. Dale, with the help of several of his friends, has leveled a series of challenges and indictments at Flarf which I have hitherto not answered. It is my painful duty to report that the reason for this silence is exactly what Dale and other anti-Flarfists have probably suspected: the incriminating weight of their arguments is simply too heavy to ignore or resist, and thus any attempts at self-defense must necessarily appear bloodless and ill-considered. In plain terms, Dale is right and we are wrong. Flarf is an untenable poetic adventure whose minor successes have only thrown into bolder relief the abortive misgottenness at its center.It's drippin'.
Thursday 12 February, 2009 I chuckled when I first heard about Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes into the crowd at TED, but to investigate the meaning of the act deeper than that requires considering the context and consequences. What I mean is this: Bill Gates letting mosquitoes free at TED is seen as a harmless prank-with-a-purpose, but imagine if it had been performed by someone quite different.Elizabeth Kate Switaj on Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes into a room full of comfortable clever people.
Thursday 12 February, 2009 Poetry Magazine Seems to have a very overt agenda: continue to support very well-wrough-urn-ish, well-behaved poetry while making symbolic overtures to poetries that might challenge its poetics.Johannes Göransson wields the peoples' elbow.