Christopher Matthew Hennessy's Blog, page 5
January 11, 2012
Reading announcement: BLACKSMITH!
I've been holding on to this information for a while now, but no longer. I'm bursting! I am privileged to be reading at historic Blacksmith House Poetry Series this spring! MARCH 19! I'll be reading with the wonderful Rebecca Morgan Frank. If you're local, or even if you're not ( ;-0) I hope you can make it! I've been dreaming of this for a long time! Of course, I'll be reading work from…
Love-In-Idleness, by Christopher Hennessy
"Christopher Hennessy gets the rhythm right, the timbre right, and the heart-sense right. Every detail is in place, and the whole ensemble sings. There's hard labor behind these poems—in Oscar Wilde's sense, and in Emily Dickinson's. (Did Emily talk about hard labor? Indirectly, yes.) Wise about words and about the world, Hennessy's poems cut no corners, though they are full of the melancholy wisdom that hides in coverts, closets, hope-chests, crevices, and other concealed places. I praise Hennessy's talent, his ardor-packed process, and the shapeliness of the results."
—WAYNE KOESTENBAUM
Recovering
I'm finally in a place to start recovering and thinking through my qualifying exams (orals) that took place in Dec. (I passed!) I wrote my 'exams' and then talked to my committee about the gay historical imagination and identity formation, the role of the public/private space in the process, and the nature of gay historicizing as a backwards glance. The original readings I did were on O'Hara, James Schuyler and Harold Norse.
So I've been looking at some of the quotes/info. I ended up NOT using. Here's a nice nugget.
"The homosexual had to discover that one's native language was not one's own. It could not be trusted as an instrument of desire or assertion or self-definition. What an interesting discovery. What terror and what richness. One had to understand instinctively the often treacherous meaning behind the culture's simplest norms and pervasive rituals. One had to rely on interpretation and tone; for gay people, inflection was required. The translation of the felt language of love and custom was something homosexuals understood by doing without. The possibility that it was all lies, as it felt to him, enters early into the gay soul."
Robert Dawidoff, "In My Father's House there Are Man Closets," Making History Matter (86)
January 9, 2012
Poetry on the Kindle
Did you know Love-In-Idleness is available on the Kindle? I got a Kindle for Christmas and am loving it, surprisingly so. (Of course you can always get buy a copy here too.) Am I being too subtle? 
What do you think about poetry on the Kindle/ebooks? Here's what Billy Collins had to say a year ago. I think it's changed for the better! I've had a few folks tell me they've bought the book as a Kindle version and have enjoyed it!
Assaracus
I'm a proud subscriber of Assaracus: A Journal of Gay Poetry. Got my issue 5 yesterday. Can't wait to dig in. You should subscribe! I opened up at random to find Erik Schuckers sumptuous "Aubade for a Closet Case" and the really beautiful and accomplished "Requiem for a Jock." So happy Bryan Borland has created this space for us! Cheers!
January 6, 2012
Some Love-In-Idleness Love
It's been a little more than three months since the publication of my debut book, Love-In-Idleness. It's been a truly wonderful three months, with many friends and family and strangers reaching out to me. I feel incredibly lucky. So to all of you who I'm talking to, THANK YOU. (And special thanks to Wayne Koestenbaum, D.A. Powell, Martha Rhodes, and David Trinidad for their blurbs and to all the folks at Brooklyn Arts Press.)
But I also know this space might be new to some folks who are finding their way here. So, I want to say welcome to you, and to let you know more about my book, in the hopes that it interests you:
"Shifting intuitively between youthful belligerence, the individualization of collective myths, and portraits of erotic maturity and angst, Christopher Hennessy's debut collection of poetry, Love-In-Idleness, commits itself to lyrical explorations underpinned by a sharp and honest introspection. These poems forget themselves, undulate, embrace the actual, dissolve and regroup in their efforts to detail moments of sustained interruption and desire. Here you will find a study of the vivisection of a Midwestern family, a soliloquy from the lover of a Han Dynasty emperor, the re-imagined death of Saint Sebastian, a steamy appropriation of Satie's humorous score notes, an admirer's courting of Carl Linnaeus, and the impending finality of a deathbed vigil. Together they announce the arrival of a gifted new voice in American poetry. "
Please visit BAP's website to learn more—and to see videos of me reading some poems close to my heart!
January 5, 2012
American Poetry
As long as I live I'll never forget encountering the Poulin anthology as a sophomore in college. Changed my life. Seriously. I don't know what it's current standing is among the arbiters of poetry anthologies (and I dare not make enter such a fray with the recent hubbub), but it will always have a place in my heart and an influence on me as a poet. So I give you the first poem you encounter when opening the book…
AMERICAN POETRY
Whatever it is, it must have
A stomach that can digest
Rubber, coal, uranium, moons, poems.
Like the shark, it contains a shoe.
It must swim for miles through the desert
Uttering cries that are almost human.
– Louis Simpson
January 4, 2012
Have a favorite poet? Poem?
I'm in the midst of putting together a packet of poems for a course I'm teaching, and I thought I'd survey my friends and readers! What's your favorite poem or poet from the last 10 years?
Thanks!
January 3, 2012
Happy New Year! First new poem / 2011notable book lists
Well, the New Year has brought with it my first new poem since I finished Love-In-Idleness. It's wildly different from much of what I've written before, and it's attempting to follow a plan I have for a book-length project instead of individual poems. We'll see.
It was actually prompted by a new poet-friend's sharing of a new poem he wrote. So perhaps this should be a New Year's resolution: more sharing, more writing, more sharing, more corresponding, more blogging. Cheers to that!
And for those who want to wish me a happy new year, the best way to do that is to "Like" my book page and let others know about it too Here it is on Facebook. You can learn more about the book and get news updates. For example, I am so happy to report that my book was noted on five online 2011 book lists, including the Lambda Literary Foundation's best books of 2011, and similar lists by Band of Thebes and glbtq.com. Honored to be included by these folks, like my friend Matthew Hittinger on his list, too. Details on the Facebook page. Thanks to all who have nominated me for these lists and who have read the book. I hope it's being enjoyed. I've gotten many encouraging notes from folks via FB and email, and I just want those folks to hear it again —THANK YOU.
As always, if you know anyone who might like the book, please share the FB or Brooklyn Arts Press links with them.
December 19, 2011
The Sound of One Fork
My good friend Julie Enszer is celebrating the release of a project she worked on, electronic edition of Minnie Bruce Pratt's first chapbook, The Sound of One Fork. Learn more about it over at the Poetry Foundation! There you can read Julie's forward.
CONGRATS Julie and Minnie!
