Four Essential Books for the Jobless Poet

It is obvious to those of us currently unemployed and suffering through the rot of our current decline that we are entering a new world.

The world that produced the American hubris of the past 40 years has ended Also much of the triumphalism of American poetry and letters of the past years has become passe or anachronistic and it seems we need something new.

I wrote a few months ago that it is impossible now to be ironic in the age of Obama. The spate of 'ironic' movements from Language Poetry to Flarf that have been energized by irony and a sort of intellectual snarkiness have become dated .

Being both a poet and an unemployed business professional has given me time to think about what that world might look like. I find that the ironic does not work in the bones anymore. I find myself looking for new and old ways. I want insights that feed the current situation.

Four books that I have recently read have given me some insight into what might be possible in a new world-view. America as a nation has become more serious and frankly more scared --we need to ask more questions.

I am not interested anymore in the commentary from the sidelines. I am however interested in commentary on where we are going and what we need to understand. I have found these books helpful.

MARCOM-The Mirror in the Well

Micheline Aharonian

Dalkey Archive Press

isbn: 978-1-56478-511-4

Micheline Aharonian begins her novella Marcom with quotes from the likes of Ovid, Buber, Anne Carson, Clarisse Lispector, Octavio Paz. It is this global literature sense that informs this book. I think that Marcom in many ways is the first book of our new literary world and I hope that poets and writers read it with interest because this book bears the future.

This book which is based on a love triangle and a zombie marriage and is the best estimation of our current American situation I have read. Marcom could be called a 'sex book' or a 'dirty book' but I think in many ways it has its antecedents in Tropic of Cancer. It uses great prose, almost poetic language, to define an era. I think that when the history of this period is written Aharonian's book will be listed as seminal- forgive the pun.

The lack of moorings for the characters in this book give us a sense of the world in which we live. It just loosens everything and we understand that the old world has passed away and we are now naked in the sun with no modesty and no covering.

The Winter Sun: Notes on a Vocation

Fanny Howe

Greywolf Press

isbn: 978-1555-975203

In contrast to the future that is displayed by Aharonian, Fanny Howe's Winter Sun tells us where we have been. Howe's collection of essays is a description of writing and poetry as a vocation which is something that is not really a truism for most poets and writers today.

In the past many writers lived the kind of lives that allowed them to live in a vocation the way that St Augustine was able to live a lifestyle rather than a job.

Howe creates for us meditations that are almost religious in scope and show to the poet or writer what makes the vocation we share different. The poet (and she is a poet) also in the process defines a generation. She defines what motivated a group of writers from the end of the great World War 2 until today and for this I think her book will stand up as a Dénouement for generation of poets and writers that we all have loved.

The Winter Sun needs to be read along with other great books of essays or diaries. It has echoes of Shklovsky, Camus and Stein. It defines and age for us that is remote and yet near.

the five seasons of love

Joao Almino

Host Publications

isbn:978-0-924047-51-0

One of the goals of Modernism was in Pound's phrase to "Make it New." No place in the world is more an embodiment of this mentality than Brasilia the faux city that was made to give Brazil a new capital. The city was built out of Oscar Niemeyer's vision of what a Modernist capital would look like and almost immediately the realities of the world smudged the clean rough edges.

Brazilian writer Joao Almino has been one of the most important chroniclers of this smudging. He has in his book the five season of love created a 'Romance' which is a the Brazilian word for novel. But in many ways this book is an Anti-Romance and a distopia. The love is cold and hard, the edges are rough and broken and this book deconstructs the Modernist's ideals to show us how empty we are. Ana/Diana from the five season of love embodies emptiness and questing of our time.

my vocabulary did this to me

The Collected Poetry if Jack Spicer

Edited by Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian

Wesleyan U Press

Isbn: 978-0-8195-6887-8

Contemporary poets have created a Pantheon of poetic God's. In this Pantheon are many poets whose work is so important that it dwarfs much of what is written today. In that pantheon one poet whose entire output is small has continued to be included, Jack Spicer. The volume of his Collected poetry masterfully assembled by Peter Gizzi and Kevin Killian is less than 500 pages. It shows to contemporary poets and readers what a poet could be in mid 1950's America.

Ron Silliman, who has never preferred brevity to verbosity, said that this book is one of the most important books of poetry written in the past 50 years and I think he is correct. Here is a book that even an unemployed poet like myself can read and feel filled with the creativity and the sense of vocation. While Howe in her book gives us the Dénouement of this epoch here is the epoch is full flower as if we are seeing Solomon in all his splendor.

Out of destruction comes new life. When the old Roman Empire rotted away we got Hagia Sophia, Gregorian Chants, Gothic Architecture, Averroes, the Alhambra, and Rumi. These products of the rot lead to a new world. It appears that is what is happening here in our current Roman Empire. I have found meaning in these books and they have helped me to understand what is happening to our world both poetically and spiritually.

I do not think that when Augustine, Boethius or Cassiodorus were writing they realized that they were setting the stage for what was to come next. But I think that these books do something of what these late Antique/early Medieval authors did. They realize that we are entering something new and perhaps more simple. I think that this simplicity and coldness is going to be part of our future and I will return to these four books often for guidance on the way forward.

My Great Recession at Three Months

It has been three months since the Great Recession began for me.

No one seems to want to say the truth that those who were running the economy failed their corporations. In many cases those who failed are still employed while millions of hard working people are jobless.

There is a divide in America between those who are incompetent (See Wall Street and Detroit) but who are taken care of with buyouts and employment contracts and the rest of us who get to see all we have worked for washed away because of their incompetence. Anyone reading this who has worked in a corporation knows what I am talking about.

I have some questions that I would like answered.

• Why is it that we are hurt and they are not?
• Why is it that the Union worker in Michigan or the middle manager on Wall Street is punished but the big wigs continue to have plenty of money?
• Why is it that we are all not a lot angrier?
• Why do we all continue to believe in a system that has failed most people?

In some ways the last three months have become monastic for me. I have tried to become as frugal as possible. I don't go out much so peripheral friends that I might see at a reading or a gallery opening are no more. Only a few good friends are left and I guess that is ok? I write alot more but it is darker and less interesting stuff I think?

I now have persistent worries. In my own family my brother in law lost his job recently. I worry about my niece and nephew and their family allot. Our situation is not good but we do not have children so survival is less complex than for my sister and her family.

I continue the daily ritual of applying for jobs- over 1200 of them since January. I have had four interviews so my batting average is obviously not that great. Employment reality is the plight of my social class- the manager class- we are falling and we don't know where the end is if ever. I returned to the USA in 1998 in the past four months all the growth in my retirement account has been eliminated. That means I essentially worked for 11 years for free even though I saved and invested.

The reality for me is that in a monastic way things are being stripped away. Things that I never needed are now gone and understanding what really matters has become central to survival. A focus on truth rather than facts is essential to survive all of this stress. I think about the Gospels allot especially the quote "look at the ravens neither do they sow or reap but the Lord God provides for them" but then I read Job and think perhaps that is what God has in mind for all of us?

What I have come to believe is that Generation X, my generation, bought into a fantasy. Our generation which has survived the .Com bubble, Housing Bubble and now we are surviving the Great Recession, were told that if we worked hard we too could be millionaires and have security. In reality our hard work gave security to our bosses while our generation is sinking. We all worked hard for nothing and our children will live more meagre lives because of our bosses gluttony. Gluttony is the problem and that is the reason all this pain has become reality.

The big lie is now obvious.

Our society chose to believe that we were all rugged individuals who owed nothing to our fellow citizens. We would take care of ourselves not depending on others, this is the biggest lie of them all.

Now the waste of the past twenty years has become obvious. The rich and powerful used the big lie to become even more rich and powerful and those of us in the middle gave away our youths for nothing.

It is time for a metanoia and that metanoia does not include Lexuses, granite counter tops, I pods or gourmet dinners.

A Metanoia is what we need.

The Lord's Supper 2009

As a Catholic Holy Week and the Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil) are the central holidays of our tradition. I for one love the drama of the Triduum.

I have written about this before but the most moving Holy Thursday I ever experienced was when I lived in Bolivia in 1995.
I worked in a men's prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The worker priest who I worked with Fr Benoit was doing the Holy Thursday Mass in the open courtyard of the jail. He decided that the congregants should wash the feet of the other inmates, especially focusing on those inmates that they most disliked.

I often think about Fr Benoit and that evening. Under a pouring rain thousands of desperate men washing the feet of others. Somehow it was the closest I have seen to the spirit of Jesus.
I have been to St Peter's in Rome and I have met saints and Popes but the simple act of washing feet in a prison in Cochabamba that was the true Metanoia moment.

During these tough times when many of us are watching our world melt it is important I think to remember what truly matters. I often think about sacrifice about St Francis, leaving his clothes in the Plaza and retreating to the mountains to rebuild God's temple. What quote did Francis use "look at the ravens neither do they sew or reap but the Lord God provides for them..."

So sacrifice puts our suffering in perspective. The three days of the Triduum show us that sacrifice and betrayal are part of our lives. This is not the plasticine life that we see on television but the life of service and sacrifice that was demonstrated by Fr Benoit to me in Bolivia years ago and by Francis 800 years ago.

Yet Easter is still to come and we need to remember that there is rebirth.

A Reading that Mattered: Raul Zurita in Chicago

Friday night at the Instituto Cervantes the Guild Complex presented a reading by Chilean poet Raul Zurita. This important poet's work has been masterfully translated by Chicago's own Daniel Borzutzky and the books are eagerly awaited.

Raul Zurita comes out of a poetic tradition of protest that includes among others, Nicanor Parra, Regis Bonvicino, Affonso Avila, Pablo Neruda, & Ernesto Cardenal.

His masterpiece 'Anteparaiso” ranks with Neruda's Canto General and Eduardo Galleano's work as the definitive postmodern epics of the Americas. If Walt Whitman has an heir it is Zurita and his work fills the room.

The fact that Daniel Borzutsky, a prominent member of our poetry community here is Chicago chose to translate Zurita's work bodes well for more of his work reaching a thoughtful audience in English in the US. Daniel is to be commended for his good work.

The reading on Friday was a tour de force. Zurita's words flowed out like honey on metal tiles. He brought before us the sheer depth and altitude of the Andes. I imagine this is what listening to Vallejo must have been like. I could not help but give Maestro Zurita a standing ovation. I was a bit dismayed that the entire room did not stand and cheer. I imagine that is because they do not understand Spanish (even though the translations were masterpieces in their own right). I for one was moved to my core.

Having spent allot of time translating Brazilian poets in my career I find that working in the Andean-Castillian idiom (rather than the Spanish Language) as it is expressed in Chile to be a challenge. Chile is kind of the New York Yankees of poetry scenes. With less than 14 million people Chile has produced Mistral (Nobel winner) Neruda (Nobel Winner) Parra and Zurita. Chile is a place where poetry has mattered for a long time and for Zurita to be so important in that sea of excellence expresses how important he is as a poet.

I am not sure if the attendees at the reading realized how important this reading was. I for one will not easily forget Raul Zurita's evening in Chicago.

2009 Poet's Baseball Preview

The country is in depression,

I am unemployed and scrambling for work and yet there is hope on this second day of April because we are close to opening day.

This will be my 41th opening day being born in May I missed my first in 1967. It is a appropriate that I was born in that year because in 1967 the White Sox were in first place all summer only to lose at the end of the year setting a tone for my beloved Sox that would continue until 2005.

In Chicago where I live- we have two baseball teams. The Cubs whose fans are beautiful and whose most famous fan is Rod Blagojevich.

The Sox whose fans are a little mutilated but whose most famous fan is our dear president Barack Obama. As President Obama said last year on the south side there is real baseball.

Who am I to argue with the President?

I always get angry at the various baseball previews so I thought why not I will write my own so here we go. I will add the poetic to each;

National League East

The teams of the NL East are varied. They include the New York Mets, who are now rather poetically playing in a replica of Ebbets Field and just for the gesture of the Jackie Robinson Rotunda should be lauded, the Philadelphia Phillies whose new ball park is great, the Washington Nationals who are so bad they are channeling the 1962 Mets, the Atlanta Braves who play in a great ballpark in a city where no one cares and the Florida Marlins who have won two world series and whose fan base would rather not sit outside in the summer pea soup to see them win.

Here are my Picks

New York
Philadelphia
Florida
Atlanta
Washington

National League Central

The NL Central is what I like to call the pathetic division because it contains the Cubs and the Pirates. It is made up with the Chicago Cubs whose fanbase and go Cubs go song is so annoying that I want to rip the skin off my face every time I hear it, to the magisterial St Louis Cardinals whose whole franchise oozes Stan Musial and class, to the Milwaukee Brewers whose stadium is a delight and everyone in America should see the Klement’s Sausage race once. The Houston Astros who we (White Sox) crushed in the World Series but hell you have access to great barbecue and strip clubs in Houston to finally poor pathetic Pittsburgh which makes one want to clone Roberto Clemente so that Pittsburghers can remember what greatness is. H

Here are my Picks

St Louis
Chicago
Milwaukee
Houston
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati

National League West

In contrast to the NL Central the NL West is the Happy Division. Who would not be happy to play your games in Baseball’s prettiest stadium, (Dodger Stadium), Baseballs best positioned park (ATT Park in SF), its best Dome, Chase Field in Houston, its highest park, Coors Field or its nicest city San Diego with its enormous Petco Park? Where the NL Central is filled with Angst the NL West is just happy and why not?

Here are my Picks

San Francisco
Los Angeles
Colorado
San Diego
Arizona

American League East

Now we move to the Major Leagues. The American League East is made up of the two teams that ESPN spends all its airtime on, the Yankees and Red Sox and three other teams that they ignore. The fact is however that this is a great division but that the Yankees recent spending spree will end up for nothing and in the end Joe Girardi will spend the off season in Evanston with his sick father looking for a job. By the way they built a new Yankee Stadium where the priciest seat is $3400 dollars I bet allot of those have been sold.

Here are my Picks

Boston
Tampa Bay
New York
Toronto
Baltimore


American League Central

Our division could best be called the recession division. With Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland all bearing the brunt of the Great Recession I wonder how many tickets get sold? I am unemployed but I am going next Saturday (Cannot keep me away from a Sox/Twins game. But for those of us in the division it is a comfortable place. No need for the drama or $200 a plate steakhouses of the AL East and no pathos of the NL Central we just grind it out and oh how I HATE the Twins and the Indians….

Here are my Picks

Chicago (Of course)
Minnesota
Cleveland
Kansas City
Detroit

American League West

I like to call this my nobody cares division. The fact is that no one cares. This division is made up of teams that are second in each of their markets with little history. The LA Angels play in Orange County with the plasticine people, the Oakland A’s play in an empty stadium, Seattle Mariners have Ichiro and a great park and the Texas Rangers used to be owned by George Bush I think that says enough.

Here are My Picks

Oakland
Los Angeles
Seattle
Texas

Playoffs

NL Round 1

Chicago v. New York
San Francisco v. St Louis

NLCS

Chicago v. St Louis

NL Champion
St Louis

Playoffs

AL Round 1

Boston v. Chicago
Tampa v. Oakland

ALCS

Boston v. Tampa

AL Champion
Boston

So now go out there and enjoy the season even if you are unemployed the Radio is still free and hot dogs are cheap and the thrill of the grass makes it all feel a little better.

Or as Luke Appling said even when we were 20 games out and the nation had 20% unemployment you could enjoy a line drive just the same.

I say amen to that….

Barack Obama and Notre Dame

As a practicing Catholic, Poet and Obama supporter I am vexed by the recent 'outrage' by some right wing Catholics about the invitation of President Obama to speak at Notre Dame.

As a matter of public policy I disagree with Catholic theology being imposed on a nation that is less than 25% Catholic. I think however that the Social Teaching of the Church has real value but it seems that this is not the agenda of right wing Catholics who are outraged by Obama appearing at Notre Dame.

The argument that has been made right wing by right wing Catholics like Michael Novak, Pat Buchanan and George Weigel is that allowing President Obama to speak at the University and giving the sitting president of the United States a honorary degree is akin to approval of his position on Abortion.

It has in fact become such a cause celebre that the Bishop of Fort Wayne in which Notre Dame resides will not be attending the speech.

It has bothered me for a long time how Right Wing Catholics have chosen to augment the outrage about some issues and ignore others. It appears that Abortion is the only social issue that needs to be highlighted but other issues that Catholics also hold important or even central are ignored. I

t appears that in fact only Sexual issues are important while other issues can be easily ignored by these Right Wing Catholics. There are however strongly held positions on many issues for Catholics except that these are ignored because they are politically uncomfortable for these right wingers.

Economics and Justice

On a recent episode of "The World Over" a Right Wing Catholic news program on EWTN TV Raymond Arroyo the host, chose to interview Grover Nordquist- the anti-tax zealot about President Obama's economic plan. Nordquist's positions are in direct opposition to Church teaching on economics and no one who agrees with the Church's social teachings on the economy were interviewed.

Why?

Because Catholic social teaching on the economy does not concur with Republican orthodoxy . In fact Catholic Social Teaching starting with Rerum Novarum in the late 19th century is the origin for European Social Democracy including a large welfare state and rights for Labor Unions. Economic justice is central to Catholic Social thought but this is ignored by these Catholic thinkers. But this is ignored by the right wing amid their outrage about Abortion.

George Bush and Richard Nixon were not prohibited from speaking at Notre Dame. Yet the Church condemned their views on many issues. The Church was not endorsing their views for inviting them.

Pope John Paul II has in fact condemned neo-liberal (conservative) economics in the strongest terms but this is glossed over in a rush to the pelvic. These Right Wing Catholics do not care about the Church's social teaching they care about Right Wing Republican power and making points.

Just War and the Death Penalty

http://www.cjd.org/paper/jp2war.html

For the entire period of the 'war on terror' the Roman Catholic Church has condemned the war in Iraq as unjust and sinful. In fact Michael Novak, who was US Ambassador to the Holy See was dressed down by the Pope himself about this issue.

The Pope condemned as unjust and evil war in Iraq and yet GW Bush was allowed to speak at any number of Catholic Universities.

Why was there no outrage as Bush speaking?

Because they do not care about the Church's social teaching they care about making right wing points.

Also, the Catechism of the Catholic church says that the Death Penalty is almost never just- yet George W Bush acted on the executions of over 200 people and yet he was able to speak at Notre Dame and other Catholic universities.

The Church condemns the Death Penalty and George W Bush's direct actions resulted in, according to the Church, unjust deaths, but he was still allowed to speak.

The fact is that what Right Wing Catholics want is for the Roman Catholic Church to have the same 'moral 'positions as American Evangelicals. This means supporting American 'conservatism' and its formulation on what is moral but that is not what the Church believes or teaches. Catholic social teaching is contrary to BOTH the right and the left in the United States and that is not something that right wing Catholics want to admit. This shows an intellectual inconsistency among Catholics on the right. Many right wing Catholics (EWTN, Michael Novak, Michael Gerson & now Newt Gingrich-he is converting) want the teachings of the Church to be the same as the teachings of Rush Limbaugh but they are not.

So why does Obama's position on Abortion merit more outrage than GW Bush's position on war or economic justice?

With my Church, sexual issues have of late, become very important. It seems that we have forgotten the entirety of the Church's social teachings and it seems that Right wingers want us to forget the entirety of our Church's positions.

I am not arguing here for a change in the Church's position on morality. What I am arguing for is consistency on the part of Catholic pundits and outrage mongers.

This is lacking in Catholic media and in Catholic publications. If one reads left leaning Catholic publications like The National Catholic Reporter there are a host of thinkers like Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Al Smith, Robert Kennedy, Dom Helder Camara, Arch. Oscar Romero, Cesar Chavez and others whose faith and witness are highlighted. There is an integrated struggle with moral issues and what it means to be a Catholic. Catholic social teaching is more than the labels of current American political discourse. In the NCR for example the Church's social teaching in total are taken seriously this is not true in Right Wing Publications.

http://buchanan.org/blog/

The Catholic thinkers and issues mentioned above are completely avoided in Right wing publications like the Wanderer, EWTN, Crisis and First Things. The reason for this is because they want to be part of the vast right wing world of evangelical preachers and right wing think tanks.

The true Catholic world-view that was 'conservative' but also Pro Labor, Pro Worker, and Just War Supporting is ignored because it is not convenient and it does not fit into established political labels.

By inviting President Obama to Notre Dame the University is saying that it is a Catholic institution.

Catholic Social Teaching is more than one issue, admittedly an important one. Hypocrisy has it seems become a leading Catholic value among the right wing.

Where was the outrage when Cardinals were protecting pedophiles?

Where was the outrage when unjust war was being waged in Iraq?

This is Fox News Politics not Catholic Social Teaching

Scoundrels I have Worked For

During this AIG outrage week I kept thinking

"what are people so surprised about?"

I have worked in international business for the past 11 years and I have had my share of bosses some have been exceptional and some have been dreadful.

1. I worked for one manager who worked her way up from Secretary to Director and she never forgot where she came from and always treated all with respect and I was motivated to come in everyday and give my all I remember that time with longing.
2. I also worked for someone whose only goal was to have affairs with the newest and youngest member of the staff. One of his goals was also to do a little work as possible in that quest.
3. I have worked for a VP who hired me to develop and event business and then insisted that he knew more about events and when he screwed up the marketing he blamed me for his incompetence and lied to our customers.... that is the kind of VP who gets to be a CEO.
4. I also worked for an EVP who was a model of moral recititude giving money back to customers to keep the business going long term building a bond with them forever- and who always took time out of his day to listen to his staff. That CEO is the kind that are profiled in 'where are the best places to work' and by the way if you have one of these stay at that company they are few and far between.

On the whole most senior level executives do not live in the same world that the rest of us live in. The gap between a Director level manager and a VP is quite large. Most senior executives can fail and know that they will recieve generious severance and payouts.

Most middle managers will be lucky to get a month severance.

The average CEO in America get 400 times the salary of his normal worker. This means that when the outrage about AIG bonuses comes out they are not equiped to understand the outrage. It has been my experience that the best departments are run by managers 1, and 4, above for that more often than not managers 2, and 3 are the norm.

Our society rewards managers 2, and 3. Those are the people who matter in our society and who never pay for their errors. The only difference between them and Bernie Madoff is that they are less agregious. They are the kind of people who are concerned about themselves only they are not visionaries like a Bill Gates or a Henry Ford- they are small people with power.

During my lifetime the CEO class in America has destroyed every governor on their abuse. Regulations, Unions, Pensions, Severance Laws and corporate loyalty have been destroyed in the name of profits and 'competitiveness'.

What this really means is let me make my huge money and bonuses and don't question me. I am better than you and I am getting mine- now.

So now we have hit the rocks. In Europe there are protests and riots but at least the European workers get generous social benefits and healthcare. In America once the unemployment and savings runs out what will people do?

I do not think that the CEO class in America understand what has happened. They need to understand that their world is over but they won't give up what they have gained without a fight.

Corporations have rewarded the scoundrels and they have abandoned the broad bulk of Americans in the name of 'capitalism'. Those who have played by the rules are now left with nothing. In the 1930's theresulted in Franklin Roosevelt in America, but with Hitler in Germany. Which will we get?

Where will we end up?

If people think that populist anger is strong now just wait until the whole recession plays out. The tens of millions of 'information workers' and 'creative class' members are not going to be the ones working on infrastructure projects and they are the class that is being destroyed.

just wait....

Going John Galt to Oppose Pres. Obama

Flipping around the TV the other day I heard Right Wingnut Michelle Malkin advocating that the 'productive' in our society should 'go John Galt' and not contribute to punish President Obama for his 'socialist' ideas.

As many of you know I began my life as a Conservative. I read all the great 'thinkers' of the movement, Edmund Burke, Michael Oakeshott, Fredrick Von Hayek, and the rest as an undergraduate. I believed in all their ideas for the most part until I read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Rand is a favorite of many on the right in the US. She has devoted fans in such luminaries as Alan Greenspan, Ronald Reagan and it appears Michelle Malkin (The Asian American woman who argued that interning Asian Americans during World War 2 was justified.) Rand's book Atlas Shrugged argues that if we as the 'productive' would just stop doing and producing society would stop and the collectivists would be defeated. According to Malkin and her friends this is what will stop the evil Obama from turning America into France (Do we get the Cheese, Style Sense and Bullet trains too?).

My reading of Rand began my migration away from Right wing ideals. It took a long time but it was the seemingly strange pairing of a love for Ayn Rand and the Right's love of Christianity that made their positions so ridiculous to me.

Below are two quotes that bear reflection;

The first by Ayn Rand

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.

The Second is From Mark's Gospel

Mark 9:33-50

Who is Greatest?

33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the road?" 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."

36He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

So my question is would Jesus "Go John Galt"? It does not appear that he would. The problem with post-modern Neo-Liberalism (American Conservatism) is that it is based in the kind of Selfishness embodied by Ayn Rand. What they have done is dress it up with a robe of "Christianity" to make it palatable to the masses who are not in the 'productive' group and whose votes they have needed.

This big lie has resulted in the Christian masses getting a steady diet of fear mongering- while the real agenda of the Right wing was put in place- to make Selfishness the center of everything government does.

This is why when President Obama says things like "i want to spread the wealth around" the Right howls that he is a Socialist. Or they howl and accuse him of trying to turn America into Europe.

I even heard one Right Wing Talker asserting that the reason we have unemployment is because our Unemployment Insurance System is too generous and that companies owe nothing to their workers or the society in which they operate.

The fact is that President Obama is trying to change a mentality that was imposed on America by the Right. For most of our history we progressed towards a society where people could live without fear. It was however the Right that decided to gain and keep power they would make fear central. Fear of Blacks, Gays, Women, the Poor, anyone not like them. What they fear now is that President Obama will end fear and by giving Americans more security and thus end their cash machine.

People on the Right like Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh talk about "Capitalism" and how great it is because they already have money and they benefit from selling fear. What Barack Obama is talking about is a society in which everyone has a chance and that threatens those who deal in fear and believe with Ayn Rand that Sacrifice is Slavery.

I for one will go with Jesus who sounds more like Barack Obama don't you think?

Malefactors of Great Wealth: Is it Not Time that Wall Streeters Spend some Time in Jail?

(PHOTO CREDIT FROM BUSINESS WEEK)

" Almost a century ago, Teddy Roosevelt railed at ''the malefactors of great wealth'' who controlled the trusts; in 1933, F.D.R. lashed out at the ''unscrupulous money-changers'' who had manipulated the market. "



http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06EFDF113BF930A25753C1A9649C8B63

I HAVE THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS FOR THE USA?

• Today the Stock Market dropped 300 points because they do not like the direction that our elected president has chosen for our nation. Why are we allowing them to do this?
• Why is it that the people who caused this meltdown are not being called to account?
• When there have been in the past government actions that resulted in disaster like Pearl Harbor there have been investigations and indictments. Why is this not happening now?
• Why isn't Phil Gramm being asked to account for being a major cause of this meltdown?
• Why is Bernie Madoff still living in his penthouse?
• Why are we bailing out AIG again but no one from AIG is in Jail?
• Why are we allowing the 'freemarketeers' whose philosophy lead us to try to drive the debate?
• Why aren't we re inacting Glass Seagall and separating Banking and Investment Companies?
• Finally why isn't someone who wants our President to Fail called a Traitor?
• Someone Tell Me Why?

My Cousin Gregory and Me....

Like most self-styled White Ethnics (Urban, Catholic, Southern and Eastern European immigrants Descendants) my family abandoned the Democratic Party in the late 1960's. It was a combination of factors that lead to this change; for my family it was white flight, changing neighborhoods, defeat in Vietnam and taxes. The result was for for most of the 1970's and 80's we all bought into the Reagan Revolution.

(FROM POLITICO)

For people of my age, I am 41, Reagan will in many ways always be the image of "The President" I was 13 when he was elected and 21 when he left office. The tomes and tropes of the Reagan Revolution resonated with my age bracket and my social group. To this day people my age are more Republican than any other group.

Something happened however over the past 20 years since the end of Reagan and this is embodied by the development of me and my cousin Gregory. Greg and I are the same age and almost everyday I get from him Facebook Posts about how stupid President Obama is and how he is destroying our nation. Greg still thinks that Reaganism is the way things should be.

The difference between Greg and I is that he went to work at the beginning of his career on Wall Street and I went to work in Business Publishing. On Wall Street the mentality is focused on making as much money as possible and not really caring about anything else. Greg is a good guy but he believes fully that government is the problem . Unions, Regulation, Poor People, and others are basically tax eaters who are lazy and shiftless and that if you fail or even if you are having a rough time your medicine is your medicine.

Because I went to work in Events and Business Publishing, where the money is not so plentiful I saw what this mentality meant to companies. My first company was Miller Freeman Inc. A great place to work which still had some of the old school ethos of the 1950's. It was a place that really rewarded hard work and valued its employees. In 2000 however MFI was purchased by Nielsen and that Ethos was ended forever.

I then worked at a series of companies and dot.coms that were owned by various private equity companies. What I learned is that unbridled capitalism means that if you are not in a position of power you are powerless.

While Greg was paid handsomely for creating paper and faux products on Wall Street I created Trade Shows and Media Publications but what I created that was real and did not measure up to the paper traded on Wall Street.

In the world created by Ronald Reagan and his Disciples created things are bad and assets are virtual. Flint, Michigan or Kanapolis, NC, are examples of waste and fat unions, not the destruction of good jobs and families and industries.

For my cousin Greg what President Obama is trying to do is Socialism. The free market like natural selection needs to be allowed to work and the strong need to be left alone to prosper.

After my 11 years in business I have come to a different conclusion. The only way that the American middle class person will be able to survive in the future is if our government advocates for us. In a global economy no company or employer will really sacrifice for his or her employees and will give as little as possible for those employees unless our government says what they need to do.

This fact has consequences. When and American loses her job or has a health care crisis the odds of them losing everything they own is very high. For most middle class Americans paying for college is a pipe dream.

The only advocate that we have in these things is the government.

President Obama has said that Gordon Gekko is not our ideal. He has challenged the mentality that making as much money for yourself regardless of the cost is the right judgement. He has said that Education and Healthcare need to be affordable. These are not what Wall Street and people conditioned like my Cousin Greg are used to hearing.

For 20 years morality has meant personal morality. President Obama has said to this mentality

enough and has said no we as a people will make choices and they will be decided on what benefits the most people.

For President Obama Morality is Public and not Pelvic- this is alien to Wall Street.

People on Wall Street are not happy but you know it is about time that people who live in Peoria, Flint, Kanapolis and other places had a president.

Ronald Reagan R.I.P.

AWP: An Empty Feeling

So AWP 2009 is over and the event graced our Chicago with all its good and bad things. Some of the positives;

1) Off Site Readings: It makes one wonder why the AWP organizers don't just use the off sites as their main readings because they blow away anything they organize on site. I read in two that were fabulous one from Mandorla Magazine and one from The Poetry Center of Chicago both on Friday night that were excellent. There was also the Norton reading organized by our Kim Lojek and Cole Swenson that was great an well attended.


2) A few sessions. I went to one curated by Kass Fleischer with Kristen Prevallet and others that was great.

Apart from the normal AWP goodness of seeing friends et cetera there was much to criticize about this event and I think that the community of writers needs to tell AWP that these things are really not acceptable;

1) Panels: Most of the other panels I attended were intellectually weak and not well prepared. The rooms were too small and in the end they were not worth the money we paid.
2) Lack of Local Focus: The event was in Chicago but there was no Tribute to Studs Terkel? The Poetry Center of Chicago had to do their reading off site? There were no Chicago area poets or writers on the planning board? Why?
3) The over emphasis on Writing Programs. I know that that is what AWP is but the fact is no one cares about Pedagogy conferences on how to teach young narcissists how to write poems.
4) Costs: It is outrageous that it costs and exhibitor $175 dollars to add another person to their tables- this should be free- it is also outrageous that it costs $175 for an exhibitor to have an author at their table. Most of the presses at AWP are non- profit small presses why fuck them?

In the end AWP needs to re-evaluate what they are doing. They need to realize that they have a good thing but they cannot continue to do the things above if they want the show to thrive. Also, if I had purchased a booth I would have been very angry- there was no traffic. In the end it was great to see everyone but again AWP needs to rethink its mission. If they want to be a writing teacher event fine but if they want to be a literary event they need to think differently especially in this economy.

What you Should Do at AWP In Chicago

Ok my Poetic friends we are just a week away
from that great poetic love fest called AWP.
I realize that most of our time will be spent
attending the literally thousands of readings that
are scheduled but if you can get a free moment let
me give you some advice about what to do in the city.

Most of the poetic tourists will be downtown. But whatever you do dont eat downtown- here are some suggestions with L Stops

FOOD IN CHICAGO

Chinese- Lao Szu Chuan, China Town Mall (which is in Chinatown) take the Red Line L South (It is a subway under State Street), leave the train at the Chinatown Stop and look for the restaurant or eat at one of the others but dont eat Downtown.

Mexican-Cafe Perez, Perez is in Fulton Market only a few blocks from downtown it is right next to Oprah's studio and it is cheap and the Mexican food is great. Take a cab.

BEEF- Mr BEEF which is on Orleans they are only open for Lunch if you want to see a MR Beef come by the Cracked Slab Books table and I will be eating one around noon.

HOT DOG- Hot Dougs is the best encased Meat store in Chicago. The fries are fried in Duck fat from ducks used for duck liver google them and GO.

Anyone who comes by my Table at the Bookfair can get advice on restaurants for free from Me

RB

AWP is Coming to Chicago

In February AWP is coming to Chicago and I
have been deluged with readings invitations
and calls for books.

Cracked Slab Books the press that I run with
William Allegrezza will have a table so if you want
to say anything to me I will be there and if you are
especially mean I will give you free book if not you
have to pay for them. I am only kidding of course. I enjoy AWP but this year's edition has some problems. First off most of the sessions look tired and filled with Poets talking to poets or Billy Collinesque poets talking about how they feel.

These events usually make me want to vomit.

But my biggest crit is more of the attendees not the organizers. There must me 30 reading scheduled off site during the conference. I am reading in two of them but I live here in Chicago. I am always amazed at poets who travel to another city filled with fine poets and then they organize a reading for their poetry community. The truth is you can listen to yourself at home perhaps you should seek out new poets that you don't know in a new city?

Or must we bring New York and San Francisco to Chicago?

When I was at AWP in Austin, a town filled with good poets (Joe Ahearn, Hoa Nguyen, Dale Smith just to name a few) I read with a group of poets from Chicago. I enjoyed it but I think the organizers of AWP should do more to highlight local poets and writers when they come to a city.I know that the Poetry Center of Chicago proposed a session on Chicago poetry and reading and they were rejected. So on Friday February 13th at 630 PM they are organizing a reading for Chicago poets in which I am reading. Why wouldn't AWP want to have that kind of reading affiliated with their event?

A quick look at the featured presenters at AWP includes only three writers who have anything to do with Chicago, Luis Alberto Urrea, a fine fiction writer, Stuart Dybek, a fiction writer and Tyehimba Jess who is a poet. In a city with as many poets as we have writing at this time this is pretty thin on the ground? What about all the other fine poets here in Chicago and fine fiction writers? You could have bumped Carolyn Forche for a local poet or writer who would bring more?

Who did the organizers call?

I can name at least ten poets writing in Chicago today whose work is seminally important, Garin Cycholl, Chris Glomski, Peter O'Leary, Simone Muench, Phillip Jenks, John Tipton, Lina Ramona Vitkauskas, Robert Archembeau, Kim Lojek, William Allegrezza, and Kristy Odelius are just a few of the names. In the region we have poets/writers as diverse at Gabriel Gudding, Kass Fleischer, Joe Amato, Cole Swenson, Meikal An, Chuck Stebelton and Clayton Eshelman .

None of these poets or writers merited being featured?

Our press Cracked Slab Books published two years ago an Anthology of Chicago poetry that has sold over 1000 copies and I am sure someone at AWP has seen our book? If not, I could have sent them a copy. We had over 30 poets in our anthology all of whom have published books, why not feature the city that is hosting AWP? This is an oversite. They are doing a Gwendolyn Brooks tribute reading- ok- she is a great poet but there are many living poets or writers who should be highlighted as well.

It appears to me that AWP needs to decide what it is? Is it Book Expo America? Is it MLA? Is it
Poets and Writers Live?

The fact is that there are too many writing programs, churning out MFAers, taking money from young writers who then go into debt to pay for a degree that will not get them anywhere in the job market.

There are many great writing programs but there are also writing programs that exist for the same reason that many other programs exist- to collect money.

How many more unemployed MFA's do we need?

As Rexroth once said get your nose in the armpits of the world and then go write- this is the great anti-MFA Sentiment. You do not need an MFA to to be a poet or a writer- but you do need direction and community.

What Poets and Writers need is an organization that leads the artist to grow in his/her art and craft.

The following questions would be good ones to answer....

How do you start a website? Blog or online Magazine?
How do you start a press? Is it worth it?
How do you build a life as a poet or writer?
What does it mean to work outside academia and write?
What should I be reading?
What is the best way to educate yourself?
Do you really need an MFA? Or are you throwing away money?
What is the place of the poet or writer in our society?

If AWP wants to organize an educational conference for administrators or professors of creative writing that would be good but that is not what AWP is.

Anyway come by our table and let me know that you disagree with me I love a good argument!

If you come by we can go out for a Beef Sandwich- on me.

Special kisses for New York and San Francisco poets who are out of sorts in the middle of the country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I would love to show you around our little town....

The Death of the Creative Class 2009 RIP

MEDIA MAYHEM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/media/

This is the headline on the Huffington Post today and as a person who is an unemployed media exec I sit amid all of this mess and hope that I will not all be washed out to sea. Literally tens of my friends are now unemployed and we are all fighting for the few jobs left. Magazine, Book, Event and media people all cut loose at once.

Some clever author called us the "creative class" many of us migrated to Media, Internet, Events and Magazine publishing because we wanted to do something creative and also be able to make a living. These creative people moved into the internet, events, media and the web and we created the new economy.

Now the creative class is being destroyed. In the places where those people live, New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Austin and Los Angeles we are being let go wholesale and our jobs and our properties are being liquidated.

The death of the creative class is here and all those highly educated world citizens are being let go the world Tom Friedman is not Flat it is a crater and we are sitting at the bottom of it...

Wall Streeters in Jail? Why Not?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/opinion/28dowd.html?ref=opinion

In today's New York Times Maureen Dowd asks why aren't people like former Merril Lynch CEO John Thain is not in jail? He used government bailout money to pay bonuses to failures and he also used our money to spend millions on a new office.

While I support President Obama and want him to succeed I would like a little more anger and a little more indignation. Literally millions of Americans are losing everything because of what these Wall Street hucksters did to our economy. University endowments and charities are closing because of their lies and deceptions. Companies are not spending money out of fear of what is to come.

Yet no one has demanded that the cheats who caused this on Wall Street come before the American people and make it right. Why is it that the Auto execs can be chastised but the presidents of these Banks are not sought to account for their miss use of the market? When Franklin Roosevelt railed in is first inauguration against the malifactors or great weath these were the folks he was talking about.

As a person who has worked in business since college I have watched what has happened close up. CEO's and senior executives consume all the revenue and leave only crumbs for their employees. Money people destroy good businesses because they want more return. In the end we are all poorer and weaker.

It is time to say enough.

People like Mr Thain need to be put in jail. Bernard Madoff should be awaiting trial in the New York County Jail not his penthouse- and the government should looking for money to make this right where it is in the Hamptons mansions of the Wall Street thieves. Their money was not earned- it was stolen and it is time for Americans to get justice.

Something Changed in Chicago- President Obama

Tomorrow Barack Obama of Hawaii and the SouthSide of Chicago
becomes president of the United States. The day after Martin Luther King Day.

For those of us who are now reaping the joys of the Great Recession it is a moment of hope amid dreary days where we worry about surviving.
Our lives and our worlds are on a knife edge and when BAM says that he will be thinking about us when he becomes president we have to hope
that he is really doing so.

In my lifetime- since 1967 allot has happened. Barack and Michelle Obama are roughly my contemporaries and since Michelle experienced growing up in Chicago at the same time I grew up in Chicago it is something to reflect on where we have been.

During Michelle's Childhood whole areas of Chicago were depopulated of White Ethnic residents many of them moving because of racism, fear or blockbusting. Amid a very sad and rough time in Chicago between the death of Richard J Daley and the death of Harold Washington Chicago changed and that difference made Barack Obama possible.

The neighborhood that my parents fled to was completely White in fact in my high school only 22 miles from the largest concentration of African Americans in the United States there were two black students. During my 13 years living away from Chicago something changed. Today for all of our problems in Chicago, Northsiders are Northsiders and Southsiders and Southsiders and skin color really does not have that much to do with it anymore.

Sure there are bigots and racists but a black family can shop at my local Italian store and there are no problems and I can go to Mac Arthurs in Austin and no one doubletakes and no one really cares. Sure there is bigotry but somewhere during my life and Michelle Obama's something changed and we stopped thinking about each other as enemies.

Now as a nation we wait for President Obama. I for one have put the President's picture in my living room. Like Franklin Roosevelt whose picture hung in my Grandparent's business I will hang President Obama's picture. The reason is simple we need and icon of possibility and Mr Obama is that person. President Barack Obama means something. It is not just an election it is much more it is the vindication of a dream but it is also the vindication of what happened here in Chicago from 1964 to the present.

I recently submitted a poem to a chapbook for the inauguration edited by a poet from De Paul University. The poem I submitted was about an Obama for senate rally I attended in Cicero, IL in 2004. It was held on the corner of Ridgeland and Cermak in the same exact spot where in 1967 the year of my birth Martin Luther King was hit with bricks and bottles for asking for open housing. Our rally had 4000 people and no one threw bottles or yelled racial slurs.

In 1968 74% of the people in Cicero voted for either George Wallace or Richard Nixon. Those were my people, Italians, Poles and Bohemians and they chose Wallace or Nixon. In 2008 Cicero, IL, now a multi racial and ethnic town went 69% for Barack Obama for president. Something changed in Chicago and America a small dream has been realized and it is with that hope on this Martin Luther King day that my despair is calmed.

Reading Camus and Looking for a Job

STANFORD PODCAST

There is a great pod cast from Stanford that I am addicted to
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/fren-ital/opinions/

This Professor Robt Harrison does a radio show and everyone is fascinating and stimulating and I recently listened (While on the treadmill) to a wonderful show on Albert Camus.

I have always been a Camus fan. He is by the far the greatest French essayist of the 20th Century and I don't want any guff about Sartre who is in my mind despicable and is one step away from a Fascist (Heidegger and Sartre are morally equivalent).

So as part of my descent into unemployment I am immersed in Camus. I am going to read the entire corpus and see what new wisdom I can ascertain. I am in love with Camus' idea of the north versus the south so lets see what he does to me.... ?

AWP-Readings

I am starting to get email invitations to readings at AWP. One of my pet peeves is the reading situation at events like AWP. Poets (and it is always poets) from cities outside of the host town (the Italian word Stranieri comes to mind) organize their own readings so they can replicate their poetry scene in the city they are visiting. When I read in Austin, TX during AWP a few years ago that was the case.

So on Feb 13th which is a Friday I am reading at the Chicago Poetry Center reading (630 Art Institute Ballroom on Michigan avenue with Chicago poets Simone Muench, Chris Glomski, Kevin Coval et al) and the Mandorla Translation reading at the Chicago Cultural Center at 830 PM. But there are another 5 or 6 readings going on at the same time.

New Yorkers are To Blame for Everything

I tend to blame the New Yorkers for this- they are so provincial and they get out of sorts so far from the garbage dumps of the Meadowlands and the stench of the East River. They have to bring their own scene with them so that they can remain hermetically sealed in irony. The Californians are much more palatable- as always with sun people versus darkness people.

Cracked Slab at AWP

Cracked Slab Books the press I run with Bill Allegrezza is going to have a table at the bookfair. Any of my blog readers come by and I will sell you an autographed copy of Immediate Empire my book for $10.00 (A savings of $5.00). And if you say nice things about it I will buy you a beer and if you write a good review dinner is on me....

Happy Great Recession Everybody it is 38 degrees below Zero windchill today in Chicago the kind of weather that makes me want to tear my eyes out one at a time....

Not in A Poetry Mood

It is hard to be Irascible when things are as they are.

Poetry does not suffice as of yet

and questions are the central part of what you ask?

Poetry and the New Reality

Poetry and the New Reality.

Many professional poets are academics and thus they are less than effected by the current Great Recession. Unlike the past when many poets were tramps or worse most poets today can continue in comfort.

But if you are a poet and a working person who is now living in the
Great Recession. If you are in the process of losing what little you have it is time to write poetry for the facts of the new America. We are a nation that is spinning out of control and it is up to poets to say something.

The Abyss and Me

Well yesterday was my day to become part

of the Great Recession. The division of my

former employer eliminated many positions

including mine.

As we look at the world today we see so many

people who have played by the rules losing their

footing. It has been a long time since so many people have gone from

secure and middle class to marginal and poor.

But that is the world we are entering.

I hope will all my heart that President Obama's goals are achieved and that the economy is turned around. But having said that I fear for those people like myself who until recently were in the middle class who now are looking at the abyss with trepidation. The reality is that there are millions of us who are in this position and many are some of the most productive and the most educated but this does not matter.

I am more fortunate than others in my company since many of the others have children at least I do not have that burden. In the end however there is a whole generation in the prime of life who are seeing the world they have functioned in for their professional lives destroyed. We are entering a new phase and it is a mean season as the world decomposes before our eyes.

Anxiety and the Great Recession

For most of the past six months the economy has been in a free fall. For those of us who work in business we have watched as colleagues disappeared. Like Soviet Russia in the 1930's they just disappear and we don't speak of them again.

Each day there is anxiety and fear "will today be the day?"

People say that this Recession is nothing like the Great Depression.

Paul Krugman disagrees and I am beginning to think he is right.

The fact is that everyone I know is leveraged to the hilt and they dont really own anything outright. That type of lifestyle does not fare well when you do not have a job.

I am lucky that I seem to be making it through today. But, tomorrow that is up in the air.

Noah Eli Gordon As Reviewed by Chris Glomski

http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2008/11/01/pnosce-te-ipsum-the-gospel-of-noah-eli-gordon-by-chris-glomski/

I just read a review of star poet Noah Eli Gordon by Chris Glomski the link is above.

There are many points in Glomski's article that bear reflection and Glomski being a finely honed mind has brought those to the fore. I have been unfairly critical on this blog of poets who I think are elitists.

I have been unfair to poets like Peter O'Leary who while there is no doubt of the elitism are creating something new. While I might not like the 'style' or the 'intent' there is no doubt that something new is the Poundian sense is being created.

Poets like O'Leary are also coming out of the pleroma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleroma of the poetic gods like Duncan and of course Olson and his antecedents using tools to create new poetry and this comes from great depth. As a result the work while elitist or obscurist is original and has merit.

The same cannot be said for other poets.

Glomski notes in his review (please link above to read the whole review)

"If nothing else, Noah Eli Gordon’s work seems worthy of attention precisely to the degree that it causes one to reflect on how all poets may be at the mercy of an assiduous, if not obsessed, mimicry. It would seem that the best poets (to the extent that they become capable of forging something unusually novel) are those whose attempts at mimicry inevitably falter—just enough—that they stumble upon something unmistakable, appropriate, and yet new. Therein lies the master-mimic’s problem: he gets it all too right only when he is most unlike himself"

Mimicry goes back at least to the Psalms which mimicked the Canaanite and Egyptian prayers. But I think that the key to a good mimic is that there is variation and growth and that the mimicry allows the poet to give to his/her art a voice while using a form as his own.

A voice is something unique and urgent. Glomski encapsulates in his review something that I think is one of the most important questions for poets writing today- what is behind their mimicry? What is behind the craft?

I have always loved poets whose work allowed us to see into their innards. Pound, Williams, Stevens, Spicer (whose new Collected is Fabulous), Rexroth, Vallejo mimic and imitate but the sheer richness of their lives and their reading comes shining through and so the mimic is a tool for the ever richer work and it fills with interest. You feel like you getting an inside look at these people's poetic souls.

What Glomski is saying about Gordon- and he does it in a very elegant way- is that the mimic is a replacement for that kind of depth. It appears in Glomski's review that Gordon is skimming the surface and that the mimicry while masterful reveals something else about the poet.

Marathon Reading at MLA San Francisco

http://www.spdbooks.org/root/pages/sfspectacular.asp

Poetry readings are like attending Sunday Mass. You attend out of obligation and hope for grace. The grace received from a poetry reading helps you move up in the purgatory that is poetry and hopefully up to a place of respect. If you are not invited to read then your ego takes a hit and you feel that you are wasting your time with poetry and you are not part of the 'in' crowd. But like a good Catholic your continue to go to the waters and hope for Grace.

Last year the MLA (modern language association) was in Chicago and Patrick Durgin and Robert Archembeau organized a marathon reading of40 poets two minutes each. The reading was kind of like speed dating. The lineup was wonderful- Barrett Watten (Homo Tweedius Poeticus), Kevin Killian (Homo Radicalus), Harryette Mullen (Homo Marvelousus) and big fat me with this company of bards;(over 40) on and on. But after about 20 minutes all the poetry kind of ran together as one big noise.





Marathon readings are not for the attendees. Marathon readings are communal exercises like going to Mass. Those who are in communion are invited to read and the communal song, like the daily office or the liturgy is conducted and grace is spread around. I have been in many marathon readings. One in Texas during AWP a few years ago went on for hours as we read outside with a nightstand as our only light in a back yard of a bar- I am sure that this year at AWP here in Chicago there will be a cacophony of readings. I am not demeaning the reading but for what purpose does a reading with 30 or 40 poets serve. When I lived in Dallas we did marathon readings for fund raising- these I understand- but who except for our loved ones really sits through a marathon of 30 poets?





During AWP 2004 in Chicago Kerri Sonnenberg did it right at her late Discrete Series. She had two nights 8 poets each night with breaks. The readers were stellar, Jen Hofer, Charles Bernstein, Pierre Joris, Cole Swenson and many more. The readings were a real celebration of the artform without the rush of 30 poets in two hours.





Having written my critique I hope you all go to the SPD Marathon in San Francisco. The reality is that SPD is sponsoring it and they need all the help they can get in this economy. But, I wonder what is the future of the reading? A few years ago the reading started to revive poetry but now in the age of the ipod and internet does the reading have a future as more than a vanity exercise?

Theotokos and Me

The Council of Ephesus held in 431 proclaimed that Mary is the Mother of God (Theotokos). The council proclaimed this canon at the urging of a virgin empress, Pulcharia. Ephesus is a city of Goddess worship. For thousands of years the city held the largest shrine to Artemis (Diana) in the Mediterranean and Asia Minor was the birthplace of Goddess Worship.

So the Bishops replaced the name Artemis with Mary and converted the Temple into Mary's shrine. It is also believed that Mary died and ascended into Heaven from Ephesus and until 1923 when the Christians of Ephes the current city were expelled they celebrated this fact. That is five thousand years of Goddess worship in one place. I think that Mary is happy about this worship.

This week Playboy magazine 'apologized' for publishing and issue in Mexico which garbed a nude model as the Virgin and then 'apologized' after selling thousands of Magazines. Amid all the puritan outrage I have to say what is it about the Virgin, the Mother of God, (and another 200 names that were once used for the Goddess) that so motivates protection?

I do not think that Mary really cares and Playboy is read by old men who should know better anyway. I am sure that all the other sexism is Mexico is still there and maybe they should get outraged about that?? Mary was a young pregnant refugee and she became the object of Cathedrals there is something miraculous about that- something that a few girly pictures cannot hurt.

I have always loved the fact that in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity paganism is right below the surface. I have lived in many Catholic places where Mary and the local goddess (Pachamama, Yemanja or others) are melded into an wonderful organic mix of pagan and Christian and I am sure that Mary the Mother of God does not care about this melding. This melding is what makes us human and I think it connects us to thousands of years; back to those cave painting in France and the small art pieces made by the first Americans and it makes us human.

I have never understood the need to strip away these paganism and look for some pure religion. Even the Jews had to steal monotheism from Pharoah Akhenaten in the end. It is one big river and we are all flowing in it. Also, what could possibly be uglier than a modern mega church?

These austere stadiums with no mystery and no sensuality- this is vulgar and disgusting.

Compare those places to the great pagan Cathedrals like Chartres and then tell me where God dwells. I think he dwells in great beauty and does not care if you are born again out loud all frothing at the mouth- God just desires that you have a true Metanoia in your soul a real change of heart a real transformation that you are changed by the fact that God is with us and is one of us.

Good old fashioned paganism is ok with me and knowing that the Goddess whatever she is called has been praised for 5000 years gives me solace. So when you see an Icon of Mary, you know the one with the globe and the snake and the blue and white just remember that Artemis and Cybele were portrayed the same way and that it is in fact natural.

My people from northern Italy have been praying to the Goddess and various Gods forever. They carved their rock carvings in Val Camonica before Abraham, before Moses and Before Jesus and it is their blood and history that flows in my veins. I am a Catholic but I am also part of all of that and it is all valid and it is all organic to who we are a humans.

I celebrate the Incarnation, the bearing of God a live human being this week I continue a story that is older than I know and I keep a tradition alive- the one where God inseminates a woman- and creates something new yet also eternal.

That is what Christmas is about-- God with us-- God entering us and making us whole and new again.

God with Us

Immanuel.

Christmas is a Week Away

Christmas is a week away and the economy continues

to decline.

Detroit's newspapers no longer deliver daily

Hundreds of formerly rich people have lost everything because of the Madoff scandal.

President Obama is still in Chicago.

There are presently no southerners in Pres Obama's cabinet- it is nice to have a president who does not have to pretend to like NASCAR and sweet tea- Fuck the South.

It has been said that there are too many Chicagoans in the cabinet- again I say Fuck em. It is about time.

They are rioting in Greece but for what reason i do not know.

There is a hot rock band from Saudi Arabia of four young women but no one can see their faces because of fear- when are we going to tell Islamic Fundamentalists to Fuck Themselves?

Job anxiety is everywhere but I hope the Republic Windows and Doors occupation results in something better- Job action not Job Anxiety.

Las Vegas is falling apart from the recession....

2008 is over and we have a new president

The Rio Pact countries met in Brazil this week and excluded the United States but included Cuba.

Gas is 1.66 a gallon in chicago

It snowed again

I am tired of wearing boots