Charles Bernstein, Ian Probstein, Poetry in “Breaking Through”

Ok, listen up, people poets out there, here we’ve got two real contemporary pros going at it about – what’s poetry about and how you translate it, if at all! Charles Bernstein writer of All the Whisky in Heaven and Attack on the Difficult Poem & Ian Probstein, a Russian American poet/translator, who’se translated both Bernstein & Ezra Pound’s works into Russian literature. There’s a whole lot of yarning going on between these two together with their interviewer plus a bit of poetry reading by them both. Don’t mind the couple of small show break adds that interupt. Listen to these two guys 30 minute poetry video update as to where they think poetry is at, hosted for you at Artvilla.com. Editor Robin Ouzman Hislop.


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New Lyn Lifshin Poetry Book. Alive Like a Loaded Gun.

alivelikealoadedgun-email-size
 
ISBN-10: 069272995X
ISBN-13: 978-0692729953
www.amazon.com
 
Intense and charmingly erotic, this new volume from Lyn Lifshin explores female personas including Enheduanna and Leda’s daughter. In this collection, Lifshin’s ‘barbaric yawp’ asserts its independence once again. This series of poems claims unfamiliar territory for the” queen of the small presses”.
 
www.transcendentzeropress.org
 
 
THE CELTIC BIRD GODDESS
 
her curves, graceful
as the crane, a slim
beauty. Some believe
she arose from the
fantastic Other World
along with fairies
and elves. Her eyes,
emerald, skin pale as
any sea bird darting
thru foam, delicate as
foam. Crows and
ravens braid anklets
of darkness around her
thighs. Displease her
and her eyes glower,
eagle-fierce. Peacock-
like, a symbol of
purity, she is like a
heron, mating for life,
an ouzel, small but
tenacious. Her feathers
charm and disarm,
ribbons of
feathers linked
to ancient mysteries
 
 
ANOTHER BIRD GODDESS
 
her image in clay,
she is dancing
with other women
with egg shaped bodies.
In her house, pomegranates,
the fruit of the dead.
Where new fresh
life waits in
the womb of
the divine feminine,
blossoming stems
of vegetation
sprout from her hands

 
 
 
Lyn_at_horse_museum_close_small
Lyn Lifshin at the Horse Museum
 
Lyn Lifshin has published over 140 books and chapbooks and edited three anthologies of women’s writing including Tangled Vines that stayed in print 20 years. She has several books from Black Sparrow books. Her web site, www.lynlifshin.com shows the variety of her work from the equine books, The Licorice Daughter: My Year with Ruffian and Barbaro: Beyond Brokenness to recent books about dance: Ballroom, Knife Edge and Absinthe: The Tango Poems. Other new books include For the Roses, poems for Joni Mitchell, All The Poets Who Touched Me; A Girl goes Into The Woods; Malala, Tangled as the Alphabet: The Istanbul Poems. Also just out: Secretariat: The Red Freak, The Miracle Malala and Luminous Women: Enheducanna, Scheherazade and Nefertiti. web site:www.lynlifshin.com

 
 

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EXCESS HUNGER. A Poem by Steve DeFrance

 
 
Early in the morning
the day after Thanksgiving,
I bleakly regard my fellow patrons,
squeezed from surrounding tract homes.
 
They had nudged out & stumbled away
from frightened lives.
They stand at the restaurant wall
looking at grease splattered
“Especials.”
These accidental victims of excess,
butts bulging, thighs dropping,
ruminate on pancakes or burritos
chorizo or bacon, tacos or tuna salad
eggs with hot chili. or coffee, tea, or Cerveza,
 
They order—filling an emptiness,
jockey for a seat overlooking a sea of hybrid
station wagons plastered with “baby on board” signs.
These folks dying of cancer, or filled with divorce,
or worse yet, homes infected with lies that kill,
homes of infidelity, homes of indifference,
homes one plots to leave,
homes with children without parents,
or worse yet–with twisted parents
looking ordinary—but living on rape,
or blood or tears on the mattress,
as suns come up & moons go down.
 
You don’t know how to love them,
or pity them. They simply are—and they leave
no apologies for their pain, your eyes glaze over,
as you too stare at the parking lot.

 
 
steve-defrance

 
 

Steve DeFrance is a widely published poet, playwright and essayist both in America and in Great Britain. His work has appeared in literary publications in America, England, Canada, France, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, India, Australia, and New Zealand. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry in both 2002 and 2003. Recent publications include The Wallace Stevens Journal, The Mid-American Poetry Review, Ambit, Atlantic, Clean Sheets, Poetrybay, Yellow Mama and The Sun. In England he won a Reader’s Award in Orbis Magazine for his poem “Hawks.” In the United States he won the Josh Samuels’ Annual Poetry Competition (2003) for his poem: “The Man Who Loved Mermaids.” His play THE KILLER had it’s world premier at the GARAGE THEATRE in Long Beach, California (Sept-October 2006). He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Chapman University for his writing. Most recently his poem “Gregor’s Wings” has been nominated for The Best of The Net by Poetic Diversity. for further work by Steve De France see Poetry Life & Times & www.motherbird.com

 
 
 
 
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Early Rising | Poem by Alvin Knox

early-risiing-poem

 

 

Early Rising

(For Tom Watson)

 

An odd dream,

the kind from which you’re roused from REM

in the soft dark of predawn with the fleeting odor

of mint playing down a long unused synaptic corridor.

And you know it was somehow pertinent, has left you

stinging, like catching a fast ball with an oven mitt.

No.  You’ve just slept hard on your arm

and your hand has fallen asleep, the one you type with,

the one you write with, all pins and needles

in its own effort to rise.

What was it?  Something about ten long-haired midgets

squabbling over a tent in the low rent district of right field,

all shouting “Mine! Mine! Mine!”

But the sun is threatening the low hanging moon

and soon this horoscope of memory

will retreat into noon’s light.

Time now to return to reality,

to trim the trees, to pull the weeds,

to listen to a ball game and relax in the sun.

Time to contemplate the midgets

and capture, with your pen,

the giants in their shadows.

 

 

© Alvin Nash

Music by David Michael Jackson

A production of Artvilla Records

All rights reserved

Poems with Art | Poems by M. Earl Smith | Art by 3valynn

poems-with-art

M. Earl Smith, is an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania.

He brings poems that were paired with abstract paintings composed by a three year old artist who works under the pen name “3valynn”.  You can view her artwork and the book HERE.

Violet Frenzy

 

Violet Frenzy

The drums sound the song

Of battle, intense, inviolate

Caught in a storm of color

A frenzied storm of violet

An enemy thus unseen

Blind to the naked eye

What is this that should be?

Our destiny we cannot deny

So on the brave soldiers march

Into the shroud of darkness

Mindless to political demarche

The time is upon us

This war, however

Is not built upon hate

Only love, now and forever

Shall be humanity’s fate

Some battles are fought

Over space, resources and land

Some people are sold and bought

For whatever the world commands

But this is a tale of joy

A poem of unrequited love

There is nothing in the deep violet

That can force this undone

Diamond Candy

Diamond Candy

Every girl’s dream

A jewel that she can bandy

A woman’s best friend

A piece of diamond candy

The light refracts the jewel

Fracturing the light about

Show it to all her friends

Her diamond candy she will flout

Pink and blue the colors

That tell us who we are

Yet every girl knows

Diamond candy shines like a star

White line, twisting path

Of which we must explore

Every girl begs

Diamond candy, give me more!

So if you want to know

A way to a girls heart

You have to know her favorite

Diamond candy, thou art!

Primary Ambition

Primary Ambition

The dawning of a new day

A chance to start anew

The path of a middle way

Colors, fresh and true!

Paint touches canvas

Giving us something fresh

No need to have planned this

Art put to the test

Each color with a meaning

This art, pure emotion

Creativity through is seeping

A muse that demands devotion

This art, an unnamed feeling

Joy and serious, true

An artistic endeavors dealing

A talent held by few

There’s no way we can know

An artist’s true intention

One thing for which we must go

Is their primary ambition

Snow Queen

Snow Queen

Her title

Betrays the trust

That her subjects have

In her

To do her best

To care for them

To protect them

To do what’s right

To do what’s fair

To do what’s just

So, the snow bears down

Blanketing the land

In a sheet

Of the purest white

It does so

Only at her command

So that the children

Can play

In snowdrifts

As high as city walls

And spend their day

Lost

In a cloud of white

Summer Daze

Summer Daze

Summer daze

Bright color craze

Try to change

Trying to say sane

Colors love me

Orange and peach cry

So in love

With the summer sky

Summer daze

Covers the town

No chance to laze

The king needs his crown

Makes me happy

Makes me free

I can’t wait to see

What it’s gonna be!

Summer daze

Lights up my eyes

Makes me smile

As the evening dies

Come tomorrow

It’ll return again

Then we’ll be

Off to Neverland!

Streamers

Streamers

The ticker-tape parade

Rings in the new year

Time to celebrate a year from another day

The air full of streamers

A joyful celebration

Of a time a year ago

A time for utter elation

As we await the future to unfold

The colors fill the air

As the party carries on

Life is all but fair

As we sing that ole happy song

Hugs to go around

As we love our fellow man

A bright, joyous sound

As life, it seems, starts again

So let’s ring that old bell

And gather once again

Sing it over every hill and dale

The new year has began!

Janet Kuypers’ “Thoughts on Peace” 8/6/16 peace (and vegetarian) themed poetry feature/show

    Below are text links and video links from a August 6th 2016 (8/6/16, or 20160706) poetry performance (with background rain forest noises to accompany the readings) of Janet Kuypers’ Austin poetry feature through Expressions (of Peace)! at Austin’s the Bahá’í Center in Austin, Texas hat incorporated poetry about peace into a show. Kuypers opted to sit in the lotus position on stage for the performance (and sat o a raised platform so audience members could see her during the live show).

    Because this was a peace-themed performance, Kuypers started the show talking about the Egyptian Goddess ISIS in comparison to what we now know as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, but transitioned into talk about peace to all living creatures (like animals, and being a vegetarian) with portions of her editorial from cc&d’s v249 21 year anniversary book Invisible Ink, until she ended with two poems on being a vegetarian. Kuypers also thought a appropriate title for her show would be “Thoughts on Peace”, especially because she ended the show with a poem that ends cutting in mid-sentence with “and I thought:” — where she sat for a moment in the lotus position like she was going to continue, then she closed her eyes and bowed her head as the entire center remained in silence until the rain forest music started to fade and she opened her eyes and said “thank you”.

[tubepress mode=’playlist’ playlistValue=’PLYa-AZK78_hq8GB87VPQ7BU4G0AQF5qhS’ ]

    Before the show started she also released copies to most some of the audience there of a chapbook of the writings she was performing in her show (in the order they were performed). All of the pieces from this reading were also released electronically in a “Thoughts on Peace” chapbook, which you can download as a PDF file for free any time.

Here is a listing with links to all of the writings performed in this live show:

Queen ISIS (battling for peace)”
Choices We Make
Everything was Alive and Dying (2016 cruelty to animals edition)
On a High Horse Like This