Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sunday Blue Notes

Sadly, this is Sunday evening, and I'm enjoying the last luxurious hours of a very calmThanksgiving break. Who knew this was even possible? Even the weather has been choosing lighter jackets for us all. This autumn has been so unusual. I think we've watched every single leaf fall. Nothing was in a rush . . .only now evening comes earlier and earlier. So very dark outside and it's only 5:46 p.m. I've started dinner, which is another version of leftovers. Slowly, our turkey disappears. Soon, turkey pot pie, then soup, and after that we'll dream of spaghetti!


In Friday's morning paper I read that Ruth Stone has passed. What a remarkable poet and spirit. She was a such a vibrant light at SUNY Binghamton. So kind and witty and certain . . . She'd say "Dearie" that was two parts endearment and one part pulling your chin up to pay close attention. Now, like her poems, she's suddenly everywhere and I will think about her often.

I think to honor her, I will read a Ruth Stone poem every day this week.


Curtains
by Ruth Stone

Putting up new curtains, other windows intrude. As though it is that first winter in Cambridge when you and I had just moved in. Now cold borscht alone in a bare kitchen.  What does it mean if I say this years later?  Listen, last night I am on a crying jag with my landlord, Mr. Tempesta. I sneaked in two cats. He screams, "No pets! No pets!" I become my Aunt Virginia, proud but weak in the head. I remember Anna Magnani. I throw a few books. I shout. He wipes his eyes and opens his hands. OK OK keep the dirty animals but no nails in the walls. We cry together. I am so nervous, he says.  I want to dig you up and say, look, it's like the time, remember, when I ran into our living room naked to get rid of that fire inspector.  See what you miss by being dead?
from Poets.org

Friday, November 18, 2011

November Moon

Photo by K. Iuppa

This moon has been watching over me this week-- all the late night drives home. Last night, after an Arts evening: Eastman Chamber Music Performance followed by a poetry reading by B.K.Fischer, the moon was full of snow.
O how it swirled on the parkway. A fox dashed from the
woods, then stopped on the median and dashed back--
mercurial flight.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Things To Do Today-- Vote.

The video below is a segment of the Jimmy Kimmel Challenge, which is hilarious in its entirety
(the common reaction is the bust out wail), but this segment is really special and the children are so dear. I love the older brother reassuring his little brother, "You were so close" in 2 plus 2, and his reasoning with his parents-- the bellyache consequences. The ending just makes me laugh. We have been saying it here-- You sneaky _______ for eating the last bag of popcorn, or you sneaky _______ for ducking out on the dishes . . .

______

Today is Election Day. I'm up in the wee hour to prep for the whole day and get out of here early enough to go vote before heading out to the appointed rounds of residencies and meetings and advisement. It's going to be a merry-go-round day.

(Can you believe we're at that time of year, getting students set for next semester. The weeks are passing oh so quickly. I have so many daily deadlines. Soon, holidays. Thanksgiving around the corner. So much to do before that day! )

_______


Looking ahead, this Sunday at the Memorial Art Gallery, 2-5:30 p.m. there will be a poetry reading celebrating all of the poems that will be included in the Poets Walk project. This event is free and Open to the Public.

Here's the schedule:

Poets Walk Reading Schedule
Memorial Art Gallery Auditorium
Sunday, November 13, 2-5:30 pm (Reception to follow)
Emcees: John Roche, Arlette Miller Smith, and Joe Flaherty

2:00-2:30
Introductions by Jack Garner, Joe Flaherty, Grant Holcomb
Boo Poulin for Lucille Clifton
Tyler Stoffer for Al Poulin, Jr.
Fay Neuberg for Israel Emiot
Rachel Astarte Piccione for Anthony Piccione
John Roche for Robert Creeley
Sherry Tulloch (?) for Pat Janus
Arlette Miller Smith for Janine Pommy Vega
Steven Huff for Hayden Carruth (plus his own poem)

2:30-3:00
David Shakes as Frederick Douglass
Ruben Gomez for Octavio Paz
William Heyen for Karla Linn Merrifield (plus his own poem)
Leslie Lockert for Bobby Johnson
Monty Campbell for Susan Deer Cloud
Sam Abrams
David Michael Nixon
Donna Marbach
Dream Engine clip
Flying Words Project clip

3:00-3:15 Intermission (coffee and cookies in lobby)

3:15-4:00 Cornelius Eady
Linda Allardt
Beatrice O’Brien
Patrick Graybill
Ella Mae Lentz
Michael Czarnecki
Dale Davis for Jocelyn Macy and William Carlos Williams
Alexa Scott Flaherty for Finvolva Drury
Kitty Jospe for Marianne Moore (plus her own poem)
Claudia Stanek
Patricia Roth Schwartz
John Roche for David Meltzer and Dave Kelly

4:00-4:15 Intermission (coffee and cookies in lobby)

4:15-5:00
Reenah Golden
Slam High videos
Grace Flores
Eddie Swayze
Leah Zazulyer
Michael Ketchek
Dane Gordon
Thom Ward
Richard Peek for John A. Williams
Ed Sanders/Fugs clip

5:00-5:30
M.J. Iuppa
Vincent F.A. Golphin
Tony Leuzzi
Gary Lehmann
Frank Judge
Wanda Schubmehl
Anne Coon
Lori Nolasco
Tom Holmes
Ralph Black

Following the reading there will be a reception in the atrium of the Memorial Art Gallery













Friday, November 4, 2011

Upcoming Poetry Reading at St. John Fisher College, Poet B.K.Fischer

Poet B.K. Fischer reading from her poetry collection Mutiny Gallery (Truman State University Press, 2011). Book signing to follow reading.

Thursday November 17, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

St. John Fisher College, Campus Center Bldg., COP room, 2nd floor.

Free and Open to the Public.





St. John Fisher College: Fr. John Cavanaugh Reading Series,
B. K. Fischer Poetry Reading.

Rochester, NY~ B. K. Fischer is a poet, critic, and teacher. Her first book, Mutiny Gallery, won Truman State University’s T.S. Eliot Prize for 2011. Another poetry manuscript, The Anatomy Archives, was a finalist for the 2009 National Poetry Series, as well as the high finalist for the 2008 and 2009 FIELD Prizes, and she was nominated for Best New Poets 2009. Her poems have been published in The Hopkins Review, FIELD, Literary Mama, The Paris Review, Boston Review, Ekphrasis, Southwest Review, Western Humanities Review, and other journals. She is the author of a critical study as well, Museum Mediations:Reframing Ekphrasis in Contemporary American Poetry (Routledge, 2006), and a frequent contributor of review essays to Boston Review. She holds an M.F.A. in poetry from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in English and American Literature from New York University, and has taught writing and literature at Columbia, NYU, and Marymount College. She currently teaches at the Neuberger Museum of Art and the Hudson Valley Writers' Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York, where she lives with her husband and three children.



Thursday, November 3, 2011

Publishing News

Review of my second collection Within Reach (Cherry Grove Collection) is up at The Centrifugal Eye. you can read it online here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~tinyviolet/thecentrifugaleyepoetryjournal/id1.html

Many thanks to Karla Merrifield for this thoughtful, thought-provoking, in-depth review.