Yearning to Combine in Columbus

Saturday 11 March, I had the privilege of participating in an event called Call and Response: Intersections of Art and Poetry, hosted by the Ohio Poetry Association at Pennington Custom Art in Columbus, Ohio. I believe sixty poets wrote ekphrastic work for the gallery's current exhibition (which will be up through April for your viewing pleasure) and more than three dozen of us were able to be there and read our poems for the event.

The piece that inspired my poem is Call and Answer, a stoneware sculpture by Jim Bowling (seen above with my poem displayed near it). I wish I'd taken more photos of it from different angles, because each different perspective you view it from reveals something new and wondrous. If I had time, I would have liked to have written a whole series of poems about my experience of this piece.

Thanks to Ohio Beat Poet Laureate Sandra Feen for taking this photo of me reading.

And finally, here is my poem:

Yearning to Combine
after Call and Answer by Jim Bowling

So much felt
clear in my bones,
though I lacked eyes
to see and appeared
to be little more
than a detached
appendage
with a gaping mouth.

I wanted to take
your mouth and all
into mine and keep you
safe from heartache,
horror and more,
but the larger mouth
of Time loomed heavily,
waiting to swallow us both.

 

March 11th: Call and Response in Columbus

Next up: I'm privileged to be one of the many Ohio poets sharing new ekphrastic work at this special event hosted by the Ohio Poetry Association on March 11th at Pennington Arts in Columbus. More info: facebook.com/events/149648047581441.

 

Poems forthcoming in Gasconade Review and Common Threads

I am honored that three of my 2020 poems appear in this new issue of the Gasconade Review, edited by John Dorsey and Jason Ryberg. The poems are "Flagging," "Dissecting Me" and "Random Rules." I wrote all three for an Ekphrastacy program that Heights Arts hosted in February. During that exhibition, the poems were displayed next to the art works that inspired them. But The Gasconade Review Presents: Strange Days, Stranger Nights will mark the first time they've appeared in a publication. Buy it here.

I am also thrilled that my poem "I Am Not Ready to Die" (written this summer) will soon appear in the 2020 issue of Common Threads, edited by Steve Abbott and published by the Ohio Poetry Association. A copy of this annual journal is included in your O.P.A. membership (which is a very affordable $20 and comes with other perks as well). So please consider joining if you haven't yet.

Ekphrastacy: Artists Speak + Poets Respond (2/13 at Heights Arts)

Me reading at a previous Ekphrastacy in 2018
(photo courtesy of Heights Arts)

This Thursday, 13 February at 7 p.m. I will be one of four poets sharing new work in response to Heights Arts' new Point-Line-Pattern-Plane exhibition. The others will be Ray McNiece, Carson Evans and Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate Damien McClendon.

From the Heights Arts website:

"An exhibition of textile art curated by Janice Lessman-Moss, [Point-Line-Pattern-Plane] highlights a range of work being done by artists in NE Ohio using the distinctive materiality and processes associated with the medium of Fibers.  Although building on a foundation of traditional techniques, all the artists use the language of textiles to create objects of beauty and meaning, reflecting the sensibilities of our time.  Processes such as weaving, stitching and dyeing are used to develop form and surface, while repetition, accumulation, color and pattern are mined for content and character."

Artists featured in the exhibition are Laurie Addis, Elena Brebenel, Si-Yun Chang, Rebecca Cross, Hildur Asgeirsdottir Jonsson, Andrea Myers, Jessica Pinsky, and Katlin Shae.

Ekphrastacy: Artists Speak + Poets Respond

Heights Arts
2175 Lee Road
Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118
https://www.heightsarts.org/

"No Other" live in Kansas City with River Cow Orchestra - 10/13/2018

https://youtu.be/hGKlK-u_vdQ

Here I perform my poem "No Other" accompanied by the River Cow Orchestra during Fountainverse: KC Small Press Poetry Festival on 13 October 2018 at La Esquina in Kansas City, Missouri. Video recorded by Jason Preu (thank you!).

I wrote "No Other" on 30 March 2018 - inspired by Tony Ingrisano's "Far Enemy" - for an Ekphrastacy program at Heights Arts in Cleveland Heights. The poem first appeared in print in The Gasconade Review Presents: Missouri Is a Ghost Shaped Thing, edited by John Dorsey and Jason Ryberg for Spartan Press.

No Other
after Far Enemy by Tony Ingrisano

A wide web of geometry and pixelation
looms over my brick suburban bungalow.

The colors warm and entice me
with creeping florescent sophistication.

I feel them drawing me up and in
while equally I am drawing them inside.

It’s a network of jasmine attraction
bringing untoward craving and resentment,

hate and cruelty from America the beautiful,
Russian bots, unacknowledged racists,

television networks, Amazon.com, nihilism
proponents, penile enhancement specialists,

trolls, moles, sexist pols and ad-mongers,
while the colors of it all bleed into pools

of need and reaction, stupefaction,
failure to listen disguised as debate,

hasty action, dystopian dissatisfaction,
snark disguised as lark and warring factions.

This poem began as an expression of appreciation
for a wide web of precious colors and pixelation

before I met the so-called far enemies
in my bathroom mirror and hardly

recognized them as something other
than other.

Noise Update

Jessie Herzfeld, John Burroughs & Shelley Chernin
perform "Speaking in Lungs" 4/8/2018 at Mahall's
[photo by Rob Galo]

After my last few readings (Nervous Dog, Ekphrastacy and the NightBallet book release) were so serious (the subject matter of my new book lends itself to that) I decided to just have fun yesterday at Noise Lunch and be a bit of a goof. Fortunately I had amazing collaborators in Jessie Herzfeld and Shelley Chernin. Thanks to Lisa Miralia and Margo Emm for pulling together such an unforgettable happening. After three great poetic events in the past four days and spending every spare moment this week trying to get Smith's book to the printer on deadline (a mission accomplished early this morning), I'm glad to have a down half-day to start catching up on a bunch of neglected miscellany that I'd like to get done before I go out of town Thursday. Maybe I'll even find an hour to read the news and take Leda for a walk. Stay tuned for a blog post about Smith's magnum opus, Where Never Was Already Is, the biggest book Crisis Chronicles Press has ever published. It's not only massive, but masterful. Lucky me!

Reading new work at Heights Arts in Cleveland Heights tonight!

art by John Carlson, Dana Oldfather,
Suzanne Head & Tony Ingrisano

Tonight, Thursday 5 April, at Heights Arts! Poets Mwatabu S. Okantah, Mary E. Weems, Christine Howey and I will read new work inspired by the exhibition Drawn Together: Emotional Intelligence and the Vernacular of the Heart. We'll also hear a talk from curator Josh Werling, as well as exhibition artists Suzanne Head, Tony Ingrisano, and Dana Oldfather. More info.

Heights Arts
2175 Lee Road
Cleveland, OH 44118

My "In Due Season" Nominated for Pushcart

NightBallet Press has just nominated my poem "In Due Season" (from the chapbook Beat Attitude) for a Pushcart Prize. What a thrill, especially to be included in such fine company (they also nominated great poems by Margie Shaheed, Kathleen Cerveny, Geoffrey A. Landis, Connie Everett and Lyn Lifshin). "In Due Season" was written for an Ekphrastacy program at Heights Arts and inspired by a Melissa Jay Craig sculpture. Thank you!

Click here to read the NightBallet press release.
Click here to buy a copy of my Beat Attitude.