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

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.

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

You Sneaky Mom! - Halloween Youtube Challenge - [HD]

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.

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.