Infinite Difference, sampler no. 1: Anna Reckin's "Lone Thorn"

With the authors' permission, I am going to publish a small selection of works from the anthology here to promote it. I have had to select from poems that can be easily reproduced in Blogger, which eliminates over half the anthology immediately.

Lone Thorn

Flicker of folklore, mazy as a March weather-vane. Barbed wire, tangles; how quickly sex smells like decay. It's that fining to a point I have a problem with--splitting the thread, draggling the tension. Sparks and crackles, dissipated power. Durst not gather, nor gather round, nor deck with rags

Poor shall, poor may, poor Martha Ray

Anna Reckin

The anthology can be pre-ordered from The Book Depository in the UK and from The Book Depository or Small Press Distribution in the US. And The Book Depository's offering a pre-order special of 25% off!

i.m. Lucille Clifton

I am sorry to record that American poet Lucille Clifton has died at the age of 73. If you are unfamiliar with her work, you can become acquainted with it at her Academy of American poets entry here.

The continued need for pay phones

When I see that a pay phone has been removed from a place I was used to seeing it, I feel uneasy. The assumption that we've all got mobile phones and so no longer need pay phones forgets those who can't afford one, those whose mobile has run out of credit or power, those who simply don't want to own one. This intelligent article in today's New York Times focuses on a pay phone outside a Queens courthouse and so appears only to argue that there is an underclass who needs such access, but the need is greater than that, extending to the many who have lost their jobs and homes over the last couple years as well as those who can't use their mobile for one reason or another. Something to keep in mind.

Swojskie Jadlo, Raciborz, Poland, 1 February 2010

On Monday the first of February, I travelled to Raciborz to spend an evening with my friend Kasia and her husband Bartek, and Agata joined us for dinner.

Bartek obtained his black eye a couple days before, essentially from playing in the snow. Agata's hardly convincing, anyway.

Kasia and I

Out and About in Krakow, 31 January 2010

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The Church of Saints Peter and Paul. The sculptures on the pillars are life-size.

Wawel Castle

St. Florian's Gate

The Basilica of St. Mary's, Krakow, 31 January 2010

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This life-size sculpture is part of the altarpiece.

The famous altar of The Basilica of St. Mary's

Krakow's Market Square (Rynek Glowny), 31 January 2010

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Krakow, Saturday January 30th

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Interior of the medieval Gothic Church of Corpus Christi

A night out with friends at Alchemia in the Kazimierz district.

Here's Grzegorz Rabczuk, sitting across the table from me.

And sitting next to me is his smart and beautiful girlfriend and my friend Agata Kozakiewicz, who organized the evening.

At the next table, some friends of Agata and Grzegorz.

The Tethers reviewed in today's TLS

"Figurative, metaphysical, rich in classical allusion, the poems in Carrie Etter's distinctive debut collection (many of which first appeared in the TLS) are highly lyrical, but unlike some of her contemporaries, she avoids the anecdotal in favour of the abstract, often adopting philosophical modes of inquiry. The 'tethers' of the title are those we forge between our minds and physical matter, particularly the body: from the heart in 'Biopsy' 'standing aside like a child in the zoo' to Fanny Brawne's engagement ring from Keats which she wore until her death: 'a promise/ unfulfilled' figured as 'the past's persisting bruise'. But the inventive image making that suffuses Etter's writing is nonetheless accompanied by a perceptive clarity of thought, threaded through a concise, fluid style capable of addressing a range of subjects while still sounding wholly individual."

That's the opening paragraph, written by poet-critic Ben Wilkinson. For the rest, see the journal; in two weeks it should be in TLS's online archives.

Infinite Difference's second and final blurb--from Rosmarie Waldrop!

Go to the Infinite Difference page to read her enthusiastic comment.