Rodney Koeneke's Blog, page 18

"My Beloved Momentum"

Saturday's group reading of The Crystal Text brought a shifting but steady 15 to the Waypost over the time I was there, many of them on-deck or just finished readers, but some not, distinctions like that disappearing fast anyway in the afternoon gloom. The only sign of sun was in the orange-and-yellow latch hook Western landscape hung up above the piano behind the readers, which kept drawing my attention, like the crystal does Clark's in the text, for its kitschy appeal but also for its conne...

More Poetics from the Oracle at Delphi

"Those rockets are sky-writing a message in English!"

The Crystal Text in Portland

Spare Room thinks big. On the heels of their marathon "100 poems from the last 100 years" event in January, and 2008's start-to-finish group reading of H.D.'s Helen in Egypt, comes this Saturday's public reading of Clark Coolidge's The Crystal Text. Teams of two readers will tackle 20 pages each from Clark's mid-80's opus from noon to five-ish at The Waypost, which is Portland concentrated and shrunk down, Bottle City of Kandor-style, to convenient coffeehouse size.

Hearing longer modern works...

Double Narrative

Could someone explain to me "the New Narrative branch of the New Formalism"? Me and Wikipedia must keep in different hemispheres.

Dept. of Wow

"What interests me, however, is not the poison, but the culture of poison that made a song like this seem like medicine, at least to someone."

Mirror World

"Such considerations have meant that while it is usually not difficult for Arab authors to be published—quite a few publish their books themselves—it is much more difficult to gain a public profile or readership, and it is almost impossible to make a living from writing books. As a result, Arab authors almost always have full-time jobs, often in the large bureaucracies that are a feature of Arab countries, reserving their writing for their spare time. It is well known, for example, that span

Laugh In

Are you one of those "loud laughers" at readings? Check this out (plus the exchange in the comments).

Current Mood:

Safavid.

Rejiggering the Bard

"A fan of Shakespeare, he is working on rejiggering the Bard's 154 sonnets…"

Jen Coleman & David Wolach in Portland, 11/24/09

This spring, poets Jamalieh Haley and Donald Dunbar launched a new reading series, If Not For Kidnap Poetry, in their home near Reed College. November's installment brought David Wolach down from Evergreen State to read with local hero of a year now, Jen Coleman. I love house readings of any stripe, and Jamalieh and Donald's was pretty much the quintessence of the genre, with PBR boxes and serve-yourself wine; pictures on the wall by Ashley d'Avignon Goodwin, who's involved with The...