Kenilworth Castle, 21 June 2009

A new cartoon from Art Spiegelman

in today's Washington Post, commenting on America's treatment of refugees, past and present. 

Peter Gizzi's Periplum and Other Poems 1987-1992 (Salt, 2004; originally Avec, 1992)

-

The arc of my nerve alive with your salt.

"Conceit"

If you
want me, you will find me in
the garden of vestiges, next to

the sweet water cistern.

"Blue Peter"

The day is down and I dismount.

"Nocturne"

...outside my hamlet. This
little sandbox for a clumsy
heart.

"Song: I Lost My Pail"

This is my poem. The one I tuck under my eyelids when looking inhibits the distinctions of what can be seen.

*

Sad nothing can be held so thoroughly we might assimilate it.

*

Having left me to dinners, movies, books and with this incredible sickness you call enthusiasm.

"Despite Your Notices"

The morning you woke up and for a moment forgot
to call them "dead," it was the morning
of the poem.

*

...streets with cadences of wind.

*

Time is our only subject
and the mutability of forms. Time compact
and out of sight. I want the whole essay.

*

...so much emotion
goes into learning to make these letters.
A spell against time.

*

...wanting to walk
blankly off into a grove where all punctuation
lists, like you, brilliant in its particularity
and distinction.

*

It's getting hard to say now, this
exploded present, doubling back moebius
style on your gaze and the air thick
with tongues. You'll say it's too discursive.
But I have learned more from chicken soup
than all the bright contests.

"Hard as Ash"

empty of speech
empty of wind
husk
in the dimming
or time after time
my own
possibility
of form

*

how else the inexorable
breath
small and alive

*

an overturned word
ungathers
silence in the emblem
of rain

*

all day some trees
some trees
and slow water

as the grey was mistaken
for a sparrow

*

the resolve
of unmoving duration

or an open field

*

small talk issued from a wind splint

"Music for Films"

Here elaborations come
to play a surface into rapture.

"Facades for Theron Ware"

Forty-three years ago today

my parents married. That is, this would be their anniversary if not for my father's unexpected death 13 March. I wish I could be in Illinois with her, to make her laugh with stories and put my arm around her shoulders when she cries. 

Bath Launch of The Tethers, 11 June 2009

I'm unsure whether this picture really conveys how packed it was, perhaps because some people had left for a cigarette, etc. In the foreground, Lee Harwood, Kelvin Corcoran, and I.

At the book table, dutiful MA poet James Evans.

Facing away from him is former MA poet Dikra Ridha.

Lee Harwood

London launch of The Tethers, 9 June 2009

the view from the podium

Anne-Marie Fyfe, Siobhan Campbell, and Rosemary Campbell

Moniza Alvi introduced me.

Simon Reynolds as barman, I his happy customer. 

In front of the bar, from left to right, Rachel Karn, Lynn Corr, and Frenchi Francoli. 

the crowd

the Australian contingent, Laurie Duggan and Jaya Savige

In spite of the tube strike, the launch was attended by over 50 people and over 40 books were sold. Special thanks go to Simon Avery, senior lecturer at the University of Westminster, for securing the venue (at much hassle to himself, unfortunately).

The first review of The Tethers on Delirium's Library blog

A wonderfully appreciative review on Sophie Mayer's blog, Delirium's Library.

My London launch

is tomorrow. I'm so excited and hopeful. Yet there's also been some bad news: it looks like the tube strike's going ahead, so while people can reach the venue, they will have to find a way home that doesn't use the Underground. I hope it doesn't keep people away....

Blog tour stop 2: Ben Wilkinson's Deconstructive Wasteland

For a kind introduction to The Tethers and the poem, "The Review," see the latest post on Ben Wilkinson's website, Deconstructive Wasteland.

Two-poem reading from The Tethers now on YouTube

Seren had me do a recording of my reading of two poems from The Tethers, "Magnum Opus" and "The Honeymoon of Our Attraction" (I thought they were pretty representative), and as the book arrives at their offices tomorrow, they've now posted the video to YouTube. I'd be glad to know what you think!