I will be reading and performing part of my new multi-media piece from American Dissident with Henry Miller Memorial Library director, Magnus Toren at the Page Poetry Parlor at the historic home of Geraldine Page and Rip Torn, now an artist’s space for actors, directors and well, unknown poets such as myself. It also happens to fall on my birthday, so cake may be involved–all I’m saying. I do so love being the girl with the most cake.
I will be reading with the wondrous Lisa Samuels who will be flying in from New Zealand to share her poetry.
I am apoplectic with joy to be reading with Lisa Samuels on April 17th for the folks at Torn Page Poetry Parlor
from Wild Dialectics (Shearsman Books 2012)
Peephole metaphysics
Listening for you listening notes for right to seek up
futures as a buffer against permanence can you make
actuality not a matter of argument I’m sirry I’m political
ready to drag down changeable as the crew people
jumping in to small boats showing their interest
without necessary attributes to be hot, so hot
sirrah listening to the heart boats bombing are you
new to the names amidst your hectares get along
new to your improves on several hats beside the year’s
tasted aperture months ready to open pour in
astonished to discover mouths underneath the boats
craggy as fashionable creamy broody belts in range
out of range the edges of the heart mouths totally
unsteady drama groovy coming along worth trying
to sell our inherited personalities for settlement when
people came here they planted themselves in utterly familiar
and hills coming along at the edges of the heart
mouths planting the recognizable in water at the moment
falling through the atlas trope sway comprehensive
for another album of highlights everybody getting a little
somefin a tiny mouthful louche over the skin of the teeth
a point especially clear when terms of value broken
across the example becomes clear a like simple
economy of scale transient as the top blend came on
a simple feat hot off the head as hundreds rippled
like scales real as existence marbles tottling on
the edges of the site kept at it fully every rim
consistent turning square to diamante pusher
folly coming along saying flask as catskin blueberry
rich or cast is it what you expectation frag there
slightly animistic with an absolute forearm
or what it means to compromise with cultural life
as you make room make room stead skulldigger
in a roaring mind the trophy on your head your own
juggy code out at the stuck late skin in show
I often kilter or a separately repeated to see how
it changes a man with a fixed expression in plastics
a cast as what you expectation frag there yes
Lisa Samuels is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, with recent experiments in memoir (Anti M, Chax 2013) and the novel (Tender Girl, Dusie 2015). Her poetry is in anthologies such as Out of Everywhere 2 (Reality Street 2015) and has inspired scholarly work and musical scores internationally. Her literary essays include Over Hear: six types of poetry experiment in Aotearoa/New Zealand (TinFish 2015), and in 2016 she is a visiting scholar at the University of Washington Simpson Humanities Center, writing The Civic Unconscious (poetry) and The Long White Cloud of Unknowing (prose) and continuing experiments in soundwork. Some of her writing and recordings can be found via the Electronic Poetry Center, academia.edu, and pennsound.
Doren Robbins’s poetry has appeared in a wide variety of journals, including The American Poetry Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Indiana Review, The Iowa Review, New Letters, Sulphur, and several other periodicals. His books include Driving Face Down (awarded the 2001 Blue Lynx Prize from Eastern Washington UP); My Piece of the Puzzle from Eastern Washington UP (awarded the 2008 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Poetry Award). His current collection, Twin Extra, has been nominated for the 2015 The National Jewish Book Award in Poetry. Since 2001 he has been Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at Foothill College, where he is a three-time recipient of the Foothill College Honors Society Appreciation Award for his teaching. He will read from his new collection, Twin Extra, and a variety of poems from his published works.
If my husband’s head were a suitcase I’d put it on the front porch and phone Good Will, storehouse of all second-hand goods and include my blue dancing shoes with heels in want of repair. I don’t need them to dance alone in my living room with the curtains drawn to Hitsville U.K., to Fisherman’s Blues, to Ode to Joy like a trash-can ballerina all thump of toes on hardwood floor and limbs akimbo. Read More >
