POG Benefit Potluck and Open Mic!

August 15, 2009 - Pot Luck and Open Mic - 7 PM at Sue Carnahan's house, 3425 E. 3rd Street, Tucson. Click the link for details Map and directions. $10 door, $5.00 Students.

Please join us for a casual evening of good company, food, and poetry. Bring a dish or beverage and your favorite poems (your own or a favorite poet's) and share in a special benefit evening for POG!

This is an opportunity to support POG's ongoing programs and share in some fun and food, some poetry and comradery. Click here for our Collectors Edition Flyer!

Larry Eigner at Light and Dust Poets

Air the Trees
by Larry Eigner

According to the blurb at the bottom of the web page, “Air the Trees” by Larry Eigner was “Originally published by Black Sparrow Press. Long out of print, the text presented here complete. The original edition contained a suite of drawings by Bobbie Creeley.” While we miss out on the drawings by Bobbie Creeley we do have the pleasure of reading this out of print work by a twentieth century savant.

Once again I am reminded of what matters to me in verse, what engaged me in Larry’s work to begin with, that pure observation, that naming of his world. In the glut of rococo-language passing off as poetry these days, Larry’s sharp focus on the facts at hand/eye are a refreshing return to what matters, the materials of a life sketched in verse.

I can understand why some people ignore or write Larry’s work off anymore. To be as plain in vision and simple in verse is hard, really hard work! Few are up to the challenge.

My thanks go out to Light and Dust Poets for reprinting Larry Eigner’s “Air the Trees”.

Zig-Zag Journeys

Just out. Produced just to my left on the old HP, hand sewn and folded. If you’d care for a copy email your address to me:

frank AT frankshome DOT org

8.5 X 5.5
12 pages
100% rag cover (honest!)

Fascinating stuff…

toot-toot-cha-boogie

Newly minted work over at my web site, Frank's Home. And, oh yeah, it's by me, Zig-Zag Journeys. Many thanks go out to Barbara Henning and Charles Alexander for their astute feedback which helped smooth the rough spots.

daylight
on the bed
spread

Sonoran Desert: Winter ‘09

A full moon in the birdbath, a perfect circle of ice blunting sparrow beaks. Cold stings the first knuckle of each finger breaking small pieces of bread from a slice now half its original size. I laugh out loud at the morning headlines, "St. Francis of Tucson, Bread Man to the birds, found wanting for nothing ever again, a freeze in the cactus garden of the Tucson basin."

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a plum, happy lungs, a radio in touch

Frank is . . .

a hungry ghost gripping the wheel
old man saguaro, the hum of blood, the sun, a glow
pajama sleeves, morning's radiance, unspeakable things
the compass in my pocket, whatever
the wheel, fallen leaves


-- Frank Parker

Books in the Mail

I love going to the mail box and being surprised by a package containing a new book by a friend. I've received two books over the past few days:

a
l
l

s
a
i
n
t
s

...by John Martone, self-published

"String Parade"...by Jordan Stempleman, BlazeVOX [books]

"all saints" is a small, 4.25 X 5.5, handmade chapbook of light green Cambric Linen 65 lb. cover with black tape neatly covering the stapled spine. The inside ends pieces are delicate lavender handmade Japanese paper. The inside pages 24 lb. Cambric Linen Natural. The tactile experience coincides with the delicate poetry of a writer who has disciplined mind and spirit to note only what is essential in a poem. John Martone's work is one of those secret finds I could only hope for prior to getting acquainted. Light falls from the pages of his book.

all these old couples
                           out for a walk
                                                & me

the elderly
couples walk

the young ones
lie down
under maples

- John Martone, from "all saints"

"String Parade" by Jordan Stempleman is a BlazeVOX [books] production, 6 X 9, four color process, acquias coated, C1S cover. I'm assuming the cover is a Geoffrey Gatza design, the books is, I don't see a credit otherwise. Anyway, all hail BlazeVOX [books] for kicking and screaming and surviving the economy (the best revenge is to do well and Geoffrey certainly is). I love the cover design. "String Parade" is maroon (you want the PMS number?) PenultimateLight typeface on a 1.25 inch black background above a half inch white bar bearing Jordan's name margin-right above the cover photo: a headless mannequin sitting on a crystal looking construction, in a hot pink, short gown clasping her hands together, her white 'skin' in contrast to the hot pink and Op-art design on the wall behind her (the colors on the wall match the book title).
Why do I bother with all that description? Well, it's the first hint of what's inside, a well crafted book of poems with a view of language as surprising as a well dressed, headless mannequin.

Copied Mist
for Charles

the weather
and the weather

as it comes
and goes

as it seems
able and nowhere

after holidays
taken from towns

beside towns
unlived in

for some time
unheard of

until picked up
and sent

where others live
and announce

where they go
by leaving

and moving in
above all

Each of the 38 poems is dedicated to a person. I'm left wondering if each dedication is Jordan's nod to the people he knows or a riff on dedicating poems in general. Could be both knowing Jordan. Anyway, I've only just begun to read his book which arrived today. I expect a rocking good time.