PoemAlley

One War's One-Month Twilight: WWII Veteran Hoby Rosen To Speak At Curley's This Tuesday

2012-01-23T21:15:00.001-05:00

This week's featured poet and artist, Hoby Rosen, will be sharing his recollections of his military service during the grueling closing winter months of World War II in Western Europe. Launched on December 16, 1944 in a rash attempt to break up the American/British/French alliance by crippling Allied supply channels, Hitler's surprise Ardennes Offensive became more widely known as the Battle of the Bulge for the bulge it created in the Allies' front line.

Me-262 "Swallow" jet fighter-bomber

From the misery of trench foot and the historic, if ineffectual, introduction of the first jet-propelled fighter, to the melancholy of wartime holidays and the atrocity of the Malmédy Massacre, the conflict, involving the biggest engagement of the war by U.S. forces, (600,000 soldiers) and costing more than 190,000 lives all around, encapsulated the pyrrhic confusion of horror, hope, suffering, ingenuity and cruelty that characterizes all wars.


POW massacre, Malmedy, Belgium, 1945

Hoby went on to study at Johns Hopkins and the University of Southern California, where he concentrated on writing, drama and film production.

Soldiers exchanging Christmas gifts, 1944

PoemAlley member and sculptor--with studio space at Stamford's Loft Artists Association (one of numerous art organizations with which he is affiliated), Hoby enjoys working in wax for bronze casting, though he also dabbles in treated paper, glass casting and wood. Click here to see some of his work. He can be reached at hobyart@aol.com.

PoemAlley Reads @ Edgehill Retirement Community

2012-01-18T17:54:00.001-05:00

PoemAlley founding member Eva-Maria Palevich invites everyone to attend a special reading this Friday at the Edgehill Senior Community on Palmer's Hill, located on the Stamford border with Greenwich. A free-form presentation, it is hoped this event, given the strong youth-orientation of our culture, will serve as a reminder of what we owe one another as a society, across generations and across ranges of experience.

In addition to Eva-Maria, attending readers will include Ralph Nazareth, Robin Kurtz, Eddie Wright, Bill Buschel, Caroline Holme and many others. Besides her regular output of gentle, insightful pieces, bespeaking an engaging combination of wisdom and wonder, Eva-Maria is also active with the PoemAlley Advisory Committee, of which this Friday's program is her latest Committee project. Raised in West Berlin, Eva-Maria has a degree in Graphics and Design from the Lette-Verein photographic school. Check out her poetry on this blog's very first posting from 2009 here and some literary feedback regarding a discussion on T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets here.

When:
Friday, January 20, 2011
4 PM--4:55 PM

Where:
Edgehill Retirement Community
122 Palmer's Hill Road
Stamford, CT 06905

Phone/e-mail:

203-595-2403/www.edgehillcommunity.com

Sharing Privacy

2012-01-10T19:08:00.038-05:00

Death, sex, love, and guilty deeds and thought: these four are private, death because it is the rarest event, occurring only once to each of us, and normally in seclusion; sex because we seek privacy to avoid embarrassment and foster intimacy; love because it exists in internal feeling, sensation, and imagination the individual desires to share with only one other; and guilty deeds and thoughts because they spontaneously seek secrecy in order to avoid humiliation, degradation, exclusion, and loss of opportunity.

Religion traditionally seeks control of these four experiences. Religion encourages us to regard our own retention of these four in privacy as intrinsically injurious because we cut ourselves off from the commonality of experience-ignoring the implications of the fact that others cut us off from sharing their own tightly held experience. It would have us believe that we cannot prosper as individuals because our consciousness is too meager to support us cut off from intimacy with others in their own private experiences of death, sex, love, and guilt. The goal of both religion and literature is to help us acquire or regain unimpeded access to the totality of experience freed of the restrictions and blindness created by concealment of our own and others’ death, sex, love, and guilt, but religion and literature face different obstacles in this effort.

Getty images

Literature, as the art form that shares an individual’s private experience across space and time with other individuals, is uniquely appropriate to supplement the deficiencies of individual experience that religion addresses without the controls religion places on individuals.

Literature improves on religion in a second way: it offers readers access to the privacy of others while religion shunts others’ experience away from us into the social dead end of confession. The primary defect of literature in this task of replacing religion is its lack of reciprocity: the author normally does not read the reader’s response nor the reader’s own expression of private experience. But reciprocal and mutual sharing, the ideal of religion, has rarely existed in religion anyway in recent times: a Catholic may share private experience with a priest, but the priest, rather than reciprocating, just symbolically readmits one to the realm of common experience (communion) on the premise that relieving oneself of one’s isolation from the priest, and thus supposedly from the deity, can supplant the need to share experience with the rest of the congregation, or humanity. The cleric is an interloper in the process of reconciliation: instead of having the community bond directly, he offers some relief from the pain of isolation as a pretext for creating dependency on the church.

Literature seeks to eliminate the mediation of the cleric and church by letting the reader know at least one person shares something of his or her private experience without demanding the price of conformity and obedience.

One cannot immediately fill the void of literature’s lack of reciprocity and mutuality. But the sustained habit of writing and exchanging writing and responses with friends can begin to remedy this deficiency. For writers who know and share with other writers, some communion develops within the group that can, to some extent, will itself to remain open to others. If that reciprocity and mutuality could remain open, for the members the desired functions of religion could be served.

Richard Duffee
December 28, 2011

Cultural Gulfs, Environmental Strain, War... And An Abiding Hope

2012-01-10T03:38:00.003-05:00

Charminar Hiderabad

Vandana Shiva, Munich (2005)

Irrepressibly dynamic peace and anti-nuclear activist, Greenwich resident Ayumi Temlock returns to PoemAlley after a two-month visit to India to talk about who she met, what she saw and the programs she participated in, conducted by such luminaries as ecology and food sovereignty activist, physicist Vandana Shiva (1993 Alternative Novel Peace Prize Winner), among others.

ISRO Manned Return Vehicle

temple ceiling

Over the last few years, Ayumi has been instrumental, independently and/or in conjunction with Greenwich/Stamford Peace Action and WESPAC Foundation, in protesting the proliferation of armed drone aircraft used against people of Yemen, Afghanistan and other nations, raising public awareness regarding the paucity of the official account of the 9/11 bombings and--a subject especially close to her--advocating for the abolition of nuclear weaponry.

For the latter cause, Ayumi personally arranged the financing and travel arrangements to bring two Hibakusha, Takashi Morita and Junko Watanabe, from Brazil to relate their first-person accounts as survivors of the 1945 atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima to UConn students, New York residents and members of PoemAlley at Curley's in 2010. Listen to their historical contributions as translated by Ayumi at 3:35 (right after Dev Crasta and Rebeka Radna's ethereal duet) in the video below of the Green Fuse PA event, held at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford (UUSIS) on April 24 of that year.

Navigating Dual Skies: PA's Nick Miele To Lead Barnes & Noble's Open Mic

2012-01-09T16:46:00.001-05:00

Nick Miele went to college in Long Island and joined the United States Air Force as an avionics specialist servicing F-15 fighter craft, during which time he received an MA in Aeronautical Science. Currently he is with AirCastle, LLC, a Stamford-based firm specializing in supplying aircraft to commercial fleets worldwide.

Complementing these technical pursuits, Nick will take many of his selections, shared tonight at the cafe in the Stamford Barnes & Noble, from a series of progressively more challenging PoemAlley offerings spanning the last couple of years, building to a mosaical critique of stateside life during a time of dramatic economic and political upheaval.

Currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at Fairfield University, Nick will be one of the participants in the upcoming PA reading at the Edgehill Retirement Community in Stamford, scheduled for 20th at 4 PM. In the meantime, click on his own blog, Wordsmiths: A Gaggle of Poets, under "Associated Links" on the left for his latest observations, sources of inspiration and activities.

Barnes & Noble's Open Mic night, hosted by Frank Chambers, begins the second Monday of each month at 7:15 pm in the Cooking section of the Stamford Town Center location.

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009
Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248

PoemAlley Member Jim Janke Featured Speaker At Barnes & Noble on Monday, December 12

2011-12-10T02:38:00.002-05:00

An enthusiastic conversationalist, Jim Janke is often the first to draw newcomers into PoemAlley's Tuesday night proceedings. A font of voluminous, often anecdotal knowledge encompassing pop culture, 20th century history and, in particular, his beloved hometown of Stamford, CT, Jim's writing infuses major events with a richly-observed personal touch.

1938 Hurricane

Ladybird Johnson comes to town, 1968

Hosted by Frank Chambers, the Barnes & Noble's Open Mic Poetry program meets the second Monday of each month in the cooking section on the main floor of the bookstore (located in the Stamford Down Center), beginning at 7:15 p.m. To get a sense of Open Mic's flavor, see the video below of October's guest reader, Richard Duffee:

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009, Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248

Nick Miele To Participate In Writers' Opening Of New Fairfield University Bookstore

2011-12-06T18:27:00.001-05:00

Join Nick Miele and other Fairfield University students tomorrow night as they celebrate the October opening of the university's new bookstore. Located on the site of the old Borders in downtown Fairfield, the new off-campus location is operated by Barnes & Noble and will be hosting "Stories, Stories, Stories", presenting selected essays, poetry and short fiction read by Nick and others newly-enrolled in the school's MFA in Creative Writing program.

Using his contributions to PoemAlley to dissect the subtlety with which the day-to-day and large-scale political worlds trade off one another's dysfunctionality, Nick works in Stamford, where he uses his Air Force background to provide technical analysis services at Aircastle, LLC, a company that leases and sells commercial jets to air carriers worldwide.
For a sampling of his poetry and literary commentary, go here, here and here. And don't forget to check out his blog, Wordsmiths: A Gaggle of Poets under "Associated Links" on the left.

Among the highlights of the evening will be excerpts from Where the Tall Grass Grows, a novel-in-progress set in Mali by award winning writer and editor, Adele Annesi. Nick's Ridgefield-based classmate also runs a monthly online workshop on editing from her blog, Adele M. Annesi and Word for Words, LLC at http://www.adeleannesi.com/Online-Writing-Workshop.html.

When:
Wednesday, December 7, 7 pm

Where:
Fairfield University Bookstore
1499 Post Road
Fairfield, CT 06824

Phone: 203-255-7756

Back-To-Back Greco- and Celtic-Themed Readings In Stamford

2011-11-14T03:55:00.004-05:00

PoemAlley Advisory Committee head Bill Buschel is the featured speaker this Monday, November 14, 2011, at Barnes & Noble's Open Mic night, hosted by Frank Chambers, beginning at 7:15 pm in the Cooking section of the Stamford Town Center location.

A regular host on Hellenic Public Radio (Cosmos FM on WNYE 91.5 FM), Bill will share his special combination of scholarship and "you-are-there" humanity through a mix of contemporary subjects and pieces drawn from Greek mytho/historical themes. Here you can listen to audio of one of his past programs from Cosmos' 2004 archives.

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009
Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248
Prior to his August appointment, Bill was known not just for his poetry and a measured, authoritative presentation style, but for his dedicated video chronicling of PoemAlley gatherings and special readings, such as this latest YouTube offering of PA member Carly Pierre "Long Time Lovers".

An equally devoted online presence, Bill manages several blogs (see the full list here), most notably "Just My Eyes" (http://billbuschel.wordpress.com/), whose frequent focus is on all things Hellenic in academic and popular culture, like this interview with the Parlapanedes brothers, writing team behind The Immortals, the latest Hollywood interpretation of Gods, humans and Titans, centering on the exploits of Theseus.

Bill's companion blog, "Things We Need [to make it thru the day]" (http://thingsweneed.tumblr.com/) lists events and incidental imagery distilled from the media, other bloggers and Bill's own camera, scoping out everything from the controversy over a former porn star visiting public schools to promote literacy and assorted portrait tributes to the late Steve Jobs, to the six-month anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe.

As a survivor of Russia's own Chernobyl nuclear disaster from 1986, Tuesday's November 15 guest speaker at Curley's has explored a resultant fascination with crisis and dramatic social change via a series of historical novels, beginning with 2009's Wynfield's Kingdom and its sequel, Wynfield's War (2010), meting out gritty treatment to class struggle in Victorian England and the subsequent trials of key historical and composite characters during the Crimean War. As with such figures as Florence Nightingale, Marina Julia Neary's new sequence sets the record straight on the Irish struggle for autonomy, the secret Republican Brotherhood and the maligned Bulmer Hobson and his role in the 1916 Easter Rising.

Coined by critics as examples of "Irish noir", Marina's Brendan Malone: the Last Fenian and Martyrs & Traitors: a Tale of 1916 (both published this year) are the latest projects from an author who is also an actress, former PA poet, journalist and playwright. Marina's past activities include appearances in several independent art and horror films shot in the Connecticut/New York area, the writing of "Hugo in London", a tragicomedy about the French literary genius in England during the Crimean War and its sequel, "Lady with a Lamp: An Untold Story of Florence Nightingale", produced in Greenwich and New York, 2008-2009, respectively.

In 2007, Marina was commissioned to collect and publish the memoirs of over 40 senior residents from a Stamford-based retirement community. Click here, here and here for additional details on Marina's work from this blog; her homepages are http://mjneary.webs.com and www.marinajulianeary.com.

Marina Julia Neary Discusses Her Latest Novel At The Ferguson Library

2011-11-04T23:57:00.002-04:00

Following the publication in January of Brendan Malone: The Last Fenian, former PoemAlley member, actress/playwright, poet and novelist Marina Julia Neary further taps into her East European/Irish heritage with her latest historical work, Martyrs and Traitors: A Tale of 1916, setting the record straight on Bulmer Hobson, the unfairly maligned patriot, and how he and his actions were really understood by his contemporaries during the Easter Rising. Marina will elaborate on the origins of her book, her passion for history and her creative process at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, CT this Saturday.

As with her past projects assaying the class disparities and exploitation of Victorian London and the battlefields and intrigue of the Crimean War (Wynfield's Kingdom, 2009; Wynfield's War, 2010), Neary continues to weave fictional characters with pivotal events and figures to craft period pastiches infused with an uncompromisingly visceral texture and holistic characterization free of the hageographic depictions of standard historical accounts.

Similarly, her stage production "Lady With a Lamp: An Untold Story of Florence Nightingale" (2009), performed live regionally by herself and her husband, Walt, was highly-praised for its unique portrayal of Nightingale as a complex, real human being, rather than as a two-dimensional "angel of mercy", and was performed as a benefit for The Wyatt Foundation.

Her poetry has appeared in Alimentum, The Recorder and First Edition in the United Kingdom. She is currently an ongoing contributor covering entertainment for the Norwalk Beat, a Connecticut-based leisure publication.

Find out more about Marina and her various projects at http://mjneary.webs.com/; readers and fellow writers can contact her at M_J_Neary@hotmail.com.

When:
Saturday, November 5, 2-3:30 pm

Where:
Third Floor Auditorium
The Ferguson Library
One Public Library Plaza
Stamford, CT 06904

Phone/Website: 203-323-4153/www.fergusonlibrary.org

PA Poet & Sculptor Hoby Rosen Shares His Work With Public At LAA Fall Event

2011-11-04T01:00:00.001-04:00

Bronze Stoneworks II (1986)

PoemAlley participant Hoby Rosen is one of 40+ photographers, ceramicists, line artists and other creative professionals of the Loft Artists Association, opening their studios to the public this weekend. Since its inception over 30 years ago, the LAA is a non-profit cooperative, presently located in a former printing plant in the South End, committed to supporting the visual arts in Fairfield County and to educational outreach to the general public.

A graduate of Johns Hopkins and the University of Southern California, Hoby studied writing, drama and film production. He works primarily in wax for bronze casting and has work represented in galleries and shows in the CT/Westchester area, as well as in private collections.

Rebound (1993)

Tipping It In (1988)

Among his current projects are a new series of nudes in treated paper and wood, glass castings, sculptures made from electronic components, as well as dynamic figurative pieces drawing from his former background in puppet animation which replicate the elan found in today's athletes.

In addition to the LAA, Hoby is a member of the Stamford Art Association, the Greenwich Art Society, the New Canaan Society for the Arts and is also on the UCONN Stamford Arts Committee. Contact Hoby at hobyart@aol.com.

Open Studio Hours:
Friday, November 4, 6-9pm
Saturday, November 5, Noon-6pm
Sunday, November 6, Noon-6pm

Location:
Loft Artists Association
845 Canal Street, Stamford, CT 06902

Phone/E-mail:
203-323-4153/http://www.loftartists.com/

The Open Studio is sponsored in part by: The City Arts Partnership Program Grant; Michael A. Pavia, Mayor; Harbor Point; Kim Harris; The Louis J. Kuriansky Fund; Alex & Ricki Miller; Wagner Instruments; WSTC 1400 & WNLK 1350.

Across America With Rebecca Forsythe--PoemAlley's Guest Speaker For October 25, 2011

2011-10-25T01:32:00.000-04:00

Animating observations amassed from 49 states' worth of motorcycling with her husband, Rebecca Forsythe also peppers her poetry and musical contributions with musings on biblical and historical themes, not to mention an abundance of figures drawn from her own family.

Of her recent collection, from which she will be reading, Prairie Morning (2010, Turn of River Press), PA member Karen Waigland Davis notes how the writing resonates with the intensity by which "Forsythe observes and lives her life." Adds Barbara Holton, "Rebecca's poetry has a clarity and a grace that's sometimes missing in the poetry written in these post-modern days... Her throwaway lines can take my breath away."

Listen here to samplings of her daughter, Amanda, performing as soprano on New Dawn, an album of song and piano music by contemporary classical composer Carson Cooman, which features poetry by Rebecca.

Two Back-To-Back Readings On Monday and Tuesday!

2011-10-08T23:25:00.000-04:00

Spanning poetry, satire and essays, PoemAlley regular Richard Duffee's ouvre explicates the human-scale effects of systemic injustice, geopolitical machinations and social/class relations. As October 10's featured speaker of Barnes & Nobles' Open Mic Poetry program, Richard has lived in Chicago, Philadelphia, as well as South Asia, where he married into an Indian family. A legal advocate for the homeless, his work experience ranges from painter, bookseller and psychiatric aide, to plumber, editor and law professor. A two-time candidate for Congress with the CT Green Party, Richard is the author of The Slow News of Need (Yuganta Press, 2001), a 35-year compilation of impassioned observations on the universal (but under-acknowledged) struggle between the pathology of "making a killing" versus the need to eke out a living.

Open Mic Poetry gathers the second Monday of each month at 7p.m. in the cooking section adjacent to the cafe on the main floor of the Stamford Barnes & Noble (located in the Stamford Town Center).

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009
Stamford, CT 06901

203-323-1248

For the "B" side, come by the following night just a couple of blocks over to hear Kaaren Whitney read as featured guest for the October 11 Tuesday at Curley's PoemAlley session. A former Connecticut resident, Kaaren has lived in England since 1971, where she works as a homeopath and serves as guardian of a labyrinth and Tree Circle. Among various credits, Kaaren has placed work in the UK's 2006 National Poetry Anthology and the Moonwise Diary (2007 through 2009), and was also a commended winner of the Fakenham Poetry Competition in 2008. Karen has contributed her nature-inspired writing to Painting to Poem (2006), Spring (2009), Shades of Light and Dark (2009), among other titles, as well as to 2009's Voicing Visions, a DVD/booklet collaboration between assorted artists and poets. She has read at Cotton's Yard Gallery, the Halesworth Fringe Festival and numerous open mic venues in England, the United States and Australia.

Find out what she's up to at her Ink, Sweat and Tears Webzine here; for a seasonal sampling of her Neo-Pagan poetry, see her frequent input across the pond on Living the Wheel of the Year, a UK-based online celebration of Celtic festivals and nature culture.

Framing A Life: Former PoemAlley Poet/Artist Premieres Autobiographical Play At John Jay College

2011-09-22T17:17:00.003-04:00

The nation misread him,

The prison enraged him,

His art expressed him,

His woman believed him,

His poetry saved him.

unFRAMED: A Man in Progress

At the age of eleven, Iyaba Ibo Mandingo was plucked from the tropical comfort of his childhood and taken to a new life in a strange country. unFRAMED is his poetic tale of life as an immigrant--from boyhood in Antigua to manhood in America. Using canvas, paint, poetry, prose and song, Iyaba tells a story of his transformation, from “Mommy Me No Wanna Go Merrica”--a prophetic piece that hints at the many trials he will face in a new land, to his powerful political poetry which leads to his arrest and attempted deportation in post- 9/11 America, Iyaba shares his rage, his determination, and his hope while he paints his self-portrait and successfully struggles to redefine his humanity, rediscover his smile, and truly accept himself for the first time. Presented in conjunction with an exhibit of his original artwork, audiences are invited into the studio of the artist where painting and poetry create unframed art.

When:

Thursday, September 22—Saturday, September 24, 2011

1:30pm--11:30pm

Where:

John Jay College, Gerald W Lynch Theater

899 10th Ave

New York, New York 10019

Admission:

$20 ($10 for students)

www.ticketcentral.com

212-279-4200

Presented by the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, in collaboration with Double Play Connections and Doing Life Productions; Jane Dubin, Executive Producer, Brent Buell, Director.

Other examples of Iyaba's art and performances
can be found at iyabart.blogspot.com. At right
is his cover for a PoemAlley collection, to
which he also contributed three poems (please
see the publications box at the bottom of the blog for ordering).

For more information, go to www.unframedtheplay.com, meanwhile, preview Iyaba's passionate multi-tasking combination of art, poetry and testimony in the video excerpts from unFRAMED below.

Barnes & Noble's September Monday Night Open Mic Poetry With PoemAlley Regular Rona Schenkerman

2011-09-11T20:01:00.000-04:00

An avid member at Tuesdays at Curley's, Rona Schenkerman will read several pieces (many of which are the refined end-product of the group's supportive critique process), reflecting her unique blend of quietly atmospheric observation, romance and challenge.

Barnes & Noble's Open Mic Poetry program meets monthly in the Cooking section next to the in-store cafe on the main floor (located in the Stamford Town Center), beginning at 7 p.m., September 12. Rona is a social worker specializing in the needs of adolescents. She aspires to combine her love of animals with poetry, to establish a youth refuge center, where teens can benefit from a program using animal and self-expressive therapies.

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009, Stamford, CT 06901
Phone: 203-323-1248

At The Mercy Of A Higher Hand

2011-09-06T15:39:00.001-04:00

third and debarbra and fourth and imperato

The man shuffles the deck, kicks his boots.
He'd excuse himself from the place and take to the road
wondering off he wanders on
reminiscing when the day will come
and thinking bout' them days of old,
he would petition the lord in heaven for good measure
and a bit of betterment,
the peacock, pelican, and phoenix for stregnth, a hedge of protection,
and sense of discernment.
There would be no starting over but
rather making the best of what's left,
damn it, it was a day like none other yet one
like all the rest.
it was a midsummer night in May
where whistler winds sharp as fangs
tried to kill a man,
not to stab him in the back but to shoot him in the vein,
and then look the other way.
He'd write a song about it-
The dispassion and the wickedness, the catheter
and tourniquet, and for a minute there he fell,
fallen over like a broken leaf
and was scattered all across the street
from the hospital, on a hill under construction.
They were all in on it-
a three ring circus ranging from
the EMS, doctors and nurses to
the department of fire and the city's finest,
but the poison nurse with Middle Eastern accent was like sushi-a fish out of water
with Middle Eastern accent that couldn't hit the vein.
The bitch couldn't hit the mark, couldn't hit the fucking mark,
so something would save the man,
pardoning him from the throe and annal, whips and arrows,
of death and dying, dying and death,- hallelujah.
"It's not very good as it is," says the man, So
may as well just get on with it instead.
The man would complain and they'd
arrest him for harassment for all that he underwent.
So it goes, and what would be would be,
yet in the good book the lord says
'vengeance is mine. So there you go,"
the man's reassured.
These courts here on this rock of earth all too often fall all too short,
all but a pig circus and kangaroo court.
These courts don't hold the heart in judgment
but in contempt,
for the higher palm of a higher hand is the one who does
advise and give consent.

------------

"The cop" the man recalls, hoovering over him like a ghost with folded arms,

just wanting to have the satisfaction of being

the last chiming ghastly glimpse and final nocturnal image

before the man would eclipse and gasp his last and final breath.

The room was different, as he'd lay there on his mattress

like it were his whipping post he'd think,

and sat against the wall was the RN,

straight ahead like sushi, like a fish out of water

and staring dead center ahead at the man's cross,

"you're done," the man told her.

So they and them would pour dirt on the truth,

and bury it with lies on First and McGovern

and Second and Ferguson 'neath distorted

light. They pound down on their chest,

and raise up there fist, but the day of reckoning is not up to us,

for judgement is hanging in the balance as

the hour of day will come

when Jesus will catch up to you like a mosquito bite.

Like a bad omen the puckish moon stalks the man

and the chain link fence the dogs would crash

breaking up all the magnolia in a thrash,

bud, bloom, and blossom, our justice of the peace,

stamping her out and voting her down, just like that.

The car across the street hit the gas instead of breaks

making a costly mistake

gridlock traffic at full swing.

It's a mean rain and heavy as a mountain peak,

it's been such a bad streak every single day of the weak.

Enzo Malagisi

August, 2011

original to the blog

"The Curse of Timeless Existence" and "Black Widow 1"

by Christopher Conte

http://microbotic.org

Our Species' Treasure: A Dialogue On The Utility Of Poetry In Academia And Society

2011-09-05T13:54:00.004-04:00

Ralph,

It wasn’t too long ago you suggested I read Eliot’s Four Quartets. I managed to make it through the first part of the first quartet. I will only say that I have no clue what the hell he is talking about except for the bit about time being unredeemable, that part makes sense but the rest is just plain nonsense to me. It takes a learned person to read and understand such things and I am far from that. My own writing comes straight from my heart and has very little to do with my head except that it is in my head where I war with words to make the emotion of the poem fit. All these classic writers are great and all but truly, I understand very little of what they are saying unless it strikes me as something emotional for that is the element of a poem, which to me, is the most facilitating, and which has the greatest effect upon me. Academics scare me because even if they are lying thru their teeth, who am I to challenge it when I have no clue what is taking place beyond the surface. I would go so far as to say that it is for this reason that poetry is kept barely alive…it seems a good old boys club that will not suffer any grandeur other than the prescribed methods that are known only to its members. Perhaps when I am educated a bit more I will at least be able to regurgitate what I have learned, listen to the arguments and then form an opinion of my own.

Best,
Nick

8/19/11

Nick,

Famous poets-not necessarily all great--often figure in my dreams, mostly wish-fulfillment dreams. Once I saw myself as Milosz’ butler whom his old wife came to like so much that the couple would actually insist on having me sit down with them for dinner. I’ve found myself with Eliot numerous times--in my dreams, of course. He and I knelt in the quiet of a 17th century chapel once and said the rosary together--all fifteen mysteries. In another he appeared to me in the form of a Serbian maid (she had an unusually elongated face) who was trying to make a pass at me in a crowded market place and hard as I tried I couldn’t seem to shake her off until her mother found her and reamed her out for not helping cart the full basket of potatoes back into storage.

This is to merely say that although I’m an academic, I’m not merely cerebral and I certainly hope I don’t lie through my teeth as often as you seem to think academics do. I obviously have a dream life, intimately connected with the body, naturally. And I do often write from the heart, as you say you do, although I wonder if it can ever be done without at the same time the mind being engaged in the effort in some mysterious way. Indeed, one can break into a sob in the presence of something sad and sorrowful. But that’s not exactly a poem.

You just read the first movement of the five-part "Burnt Norton" (all of the quartets are symmetrical in this regard.) And it’s not an easy movement to get into because it IS so intellectual, at least the very beginning, and requires one to really ponder some of the metaphysical “assertions” the poet makes in the process of getting his long intellectual/spiritual/mystical reflection underway. I suggest you take it slowly. And try not to leave your heart behind.

Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality. (ll 40 44)

Is the heart engaged? Mine is!

I also suggest you read some good commentary on this long poem which is laced with place names and historical allusions that you must know in order to grasp the hidden geography and landscape of the poem. Helen Gardner’s book would be a good place to start.

Nick, I’m confident that your patience will pay off. You don’t have to like Eliot’s politics or personality (many don’t!) to recognize and appreciate his magnificent achievement in Four Quartets, a poem that comes very late in his life after he’d moved through near insanity, his wife’s and his own and, famously, of the early part of the 20th century, entre le guerre, between the wars.

While you’re at it, I’d also recommend you read Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. This would be great preparation for you not only for the Creative Writing program you hope to enter but also for life. There are perceptions and insights in the Letters that will, I’m sure, help form an indispensable foundation for your writing life.

Ralph

8/19/11

Ralph,
I did not mean to suggest that academics are heartless liars, it is just that to me it seems they armor those hearts with intellectual scale. Scale that moves and shimmers and offers glimpses of people, places, and ideas,, that most definitely engage us as readers; as for the lying bit, I meant that I am ill prepared to comment on something as deep as Elliot and so if a teacher’s analysis of a poem was something other than it should be, even as a test to his or her students, that I might not catch it. I think poetry should be our treasure as a species and not something that only the learned can cultivate. Young minds are thirsty these days and I think it would be spectacular to give them the tools to make poetry thrive all across the globe and watch them run with it.

I agree that raw emotion does not a poem make. Rather, I feel that a poem should carefully sculpt an emotion…or at least that is how I try to write. For me the whole process is cathartic, it really is my therapy.

Best,
Nicholas

8/21/11

Nick, before I comment on your latest letter, let me share with you my friend Mahriah Blackwolf’s reaction to your first letter in which you express your frustration with Eliot’s Four Quartets.

Mahriah, a dear friend of mine who lives in California, a poet and song writer, is the author of the lyric “Touch the Hand of Love.” Please click (the video clip below) for the great Blossom Dearie’s version, and (below right) for the rendition of the same lyric by one of the much-loved sopranos of our time, Renee Fleming, accompanied by possibly the greatest cellist of the last few decades, Yo-Yo Ma.

I shared our brief exchange about Four Quartets with Mahriah. She just called to say that she resonated completely with what you said about your difficulties with Eliot’s poem. “I couldn’t agree with Nick more,” she said. She said that she’d felt stupid reading Eliot’s great poem and not grasping most of it, and she was consoled to know that it was not solely her problem but that there were others who also felt the poem was too obscure, cerebral and, possibly, ultimately not very helpful. Your honesty and courage in saying what you felt moved her deeply. I wanted you to know this, that our brief exchange has touched someone far away, and conversations like ours have the ability to bring people together, deepen culture and our understanding of ourselves.

In your response to me, you say, “I think poetry should be our treasure as a species and not something that only the learned can cultivate. Young minds are thirsty these days and I think it would be spectacular to give them the tools to make poetry thrive all across the globe and watch them run with it.” You’re absolutely right, Nick. Poetry should be a precious shared experience, and not the private possession of a few ancient and isolated geeks!

You go on to say, “I agree that raw emotion does not a poem make. Rather, I feel that a poem should carefully sculpt an emotion…or at least that is how I try to write. For me the whole process is cathartic, it really is my therapy.”

I can think of so many of my friends who would agree with you wholeheartedly about what you identify as the healing effect of the poetic process. I know Mahriah would. (I hope you listened to her utterly heart-centered song and felt the healing that so many report when they hear it.) As you know, in our group at Curley’s, I’ve been known, while affirming our need and responsibility to be completely expressive of our sentiments and feelings, to come down a bit hard on sentimentality. I guess my belief is that in order to achieve the catharsis that you mention and which you achieve through the attentiveness you bring to the shaping of your emotions, one must be open to the complexity of experience, make sure that one is not merely and gratuitously wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve but find the words that truly delve into the heart of the matter. This is not easy to achieve. It takes “careful sculpting,” as you say.

Thanks for sharing your perceptions with me. Maybe our exchange will widen into a conversation other poets join in and together we’ll move towards claiming poetry, honest and complex, as our common legacy that offers a promise of freedom.

Ralph

What are your views on the issues raised by Nick and Ralph? Post your comments below and join the discussion!

___
About the participants:
Recently accepted into Fairfield University's MFA in Creative Writing program, Nick Miele is a technical analyst for Aircastle, LLC, a Stamford, CT-based firm that leases and sells commercial jets to air carriers worldwide.

Facilitator of PoemAlley's weekly gatherings at Curley's, Ralph Nazareth teaches English at Nassau Community College on Long Island, where he also leads PeaceWork, a peace/social justice group. In addition, Ralph instructs inmates in creative writing at Green Haven Correctional Facility.

Resources:
The critique Ralph mentioned, "The Composition of "Four Quartets" by Helen Gardner, can be ordered from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Composition-Four-Quartets-Helen-Gardner/dp/B001P0GXXC

"Time, Eternity and Immortality" are considered in Four Quartets from an Eastern philosophical perspective in this piece from the journal Modern Science and Vedic Science: http://www.mum.edu/msvs/9199terry.html http://www.mum.edu/msvs/9199terry.html

Writer/artist Austin Kleon's offers further commentary on Letters to a Young Poet on his engagingly-illustrated blog: http://www.austinkleon.com/2008/07/21/rilkes-letters-to-a-young-poet/http://www.austinkleon.com/2008/07/21/rilkes-letters-to-a-young-poet/

Details on Harvard University Press' new translation of Rilke's collection can be found here:
http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2011/04/dusting-off-rilkes-letters-to-a-young-poet.html

Some Reserv(ations) On The Fed

2011-08-28T17:56:00.006-04:00

Audit of the Federal Reserve Bank 2011

The dissolution of sixteen trillion secrets

that assisted financial institutions inimical

to humanity, were exposed by another

society, our Federal Government,

equally corruptible.

The mouths of both demons suppurate

and we the squawking children are fed

the worm of an apple to quell our ephemeral hunger

for legitimacy. Who will bail the working man

from out this sinking ship? Resolution of our

degradation is the emergency but our vote

is of no interest to them, for by rote

we waive our humanity to appease

that fickle beast, Individuality,

whose only reserve is for greed,

setting aside only a pittance, paid

in lip service, for the common community

of mankind.

Why aren’t we motivated by our misfortune?

Why do we just sit watching the idiot tube,

stuffing our faces with revolting, microwaveable food,

and awake each day to stretch our necks

for worthless checks again and again so they

may have us as they like: fattened on ignorance,

indolent, and carrying the weight

of sixteen trillion secrets?

Nicholas V. Miele
Aug 2011
originally read at PoemAlley August 23, 2011

___
The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows...

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and many many more including banks in Belgium of all places

Source: http://www.unelected.org/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-reveals-16-trillion-in-secret-bailouts

View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal Reserve(July 21st, 2011):
http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation

Gene Glickman & Nancy Hoch Featured Poets At Curley's This Tuesday

2011-08-28T16:44:00.002-04:00

Gene Glickman and Nancy Hoch will be sharing their work and the experiences informing it at Curley's Diner in downtown Stamford on Tuesday, August 30, 2011, beginning at 7:30 pm.

Gene Glickman is a retired professor of music. He taught at Nassau Community College from 1963 to 1999. During the academic year 1969-70 he spent a sabbatical year in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, teaching at its Music Academy. He returned to Sarajevo for visits several times thereafter. His last trip there was for three weeks in 1997, after Yugoslavia had split into fragments and Sarajevo had undergone a prolonged siege conducted by Bosnian Serbs. During that three-week period he kept a journal; he will read from that journal.

Nancy Hoch teaches writing and literature at the City University of New York. Many of her students are teachers’ aids in the New York City public schools. She is completing a dissertation on the figure of the father in recent U.S. literature who positions himself on the periphery of the family. In particular, she is interested in the way economics shapes the father into an absent presence. She will read from her poetry, including some poems based on historical incidents and some of a more personal nature.

Life, Liberty, OR The Pursuit Of Happiness

2011-08-17T22:33:00.003-04:00

III.

Crafted bliss in a mason jar

bubbles to the surface where its essence

dissolves into the sanguinity of the scene

before me at the pizza place:

The patrons are pole-axed

by Budweiser and trivia, by the amber menace

of the oven yawning as the timer ticks to zero

because nobody knows where lies Laos.

One girl shouts:

“Is that even a real place?”

Cheeriness fled me, replaced by the bitter of burnt garlic.

We fire our teachers and praise the wisdom of pizza

called “kicker”, and the Dream dies slowly.

Nicholas V. Miele, June 2011
originally read at PoemAlley August 2, 2011

The Beachead Wails

near a body of water where the beachhead wails

a casket empty save for the scales

an empty casket lies in state

where lady liberty is no longer magistrate

Ever since a miscarriage of justice stalks the soul

and a stillborn blows in the winds

the magnolia, incarcerated in sidewalk pavement raised from a stitch

strains perplexed, and in the dire wake of fall rails against

the wires woven of the wrought iron fence.

The government doesn't speak for us,

separate yourself from the state,

their defaults are a heavy weight,

we're getting nowhere at this rate.

That's what the magnolia says.

Enzo Malagisi, August 13, 2011
original to the blog

Schedule and Tour Addendums to Festival! Stratford

2011-08-08T17:57:00.003-04:00

(See end of post for new information as of 8/16)
Festival! Stratford begins its sixth year at, and on the grounds of, Stratford, Connecticut's American Shakespeare Festival Theatre, beginning this Thursday, August 11 and running through August 21.

Among some of the participating performing companies, workshops and activities contributing to the program are Shakespearience Productions (presenting “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), Dr. Joe Utterback and the Sister Cities Choir, the SquareWrights ("Quickies in the Park"), Hudson Shakespeare Company ("Tymon of Athens"), morning yoga instruction, as well as a week-long theatre camp.

Picturesquely situated along the Housatonic River, the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre is located at 1850 Elm Street. Website: http://festivalstratford.org/.

Theatre Tour Opportunities:
Tours of the restored American Shakespeare Festival Theatre (loosely inspired by the design of the original Globe Theatre) begin 6:30 through 7:45 on August 18 through 21. Each tour closes 15 minutes before performances.

2011 Festival! Stratford Schedule (check here for the complete program for the summer):

August 16th, Tuesday
9:00 AM     Theatre Camp with Shakesperience (9 am – 3 pm)

August 17th, Wednesday
9:00 AM     Theatre Camp with Shakesperience (9 am – 3 pm)

August 18th, Thursday
9:00 AM     Theatre Camp with Shakesperience (9 am – 3 pm)
6:30 PM     Stratford Arts Guild – Arts Exhibit (6:30 pm – 11:00 pm, inside theater)
8:00 PM     Hosted by Mark Goldstein; Featuring: Broadway’s Jerold Goldstein, Annie Edgerton & more! -                   Broadway Meets The Bard, A Night of Music, Magic, and More!

August 19th, Friday
8:30 AM     AM Yoga
9:00 AM     Theatre Camp with Shakesperience (9 am – 3 pm)
6:30 PM     Stratford Arts Guild – Arts Exhibit (6:30 pm – 11:00 pm, inside theater)
8:00 PM     Jazz for the Spirit – Music
                Temple Players – Learning Experience at Elderhostel & Soldiers of the Lord
                Eastbound Theatre – Maybe in Another Universe
                Bridgeport Theatre Company – Highlights from 2011 & 2012 Seasons
                The Players at Putney Gardens – Shakespeare in the Garden

August 20th, Saturday
8:30 AM     AM Yoga
12:30 PM     Stratford Arts Guild – Arts Exhibit (12:30 pm – 1:45 pm, inside theater)
2:00 PM     SquareWrights – Quickies in the Park
8:00 PM     Shakesperience – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

August 21st, Sunday
8:30 AM     AM Yoga
12:30 PM Stratford Arts Guild – Arts Exhibit (12:30 pm – 1:45 pm, inside theater)
2:00 PM     Festival! Theatre Camp performance, etc. – Shakesperience
2:30 PM     Jeff Butler & Sean Morrissey – Uno Duo
4:00 PM     Shakesperience – The Jungle book

Barnes & Noble Hosts Monday Night Open Mic Poetry Featuring PA's Ralph Nazareth

2011-08-04T00:08:00.003-04:00

A long-standing facilitator at Tuesdays at Curley's, Ralph Nazareth will present a selection of his work as guest reader of the Open Mic Poetry program, which meets monthly adjacent to the cafe on the main floor of the Barnes & Noble bookstore (located in the Stamford Town Center), beginning at 7 p.m., August 8. Ralph is a professor of English at Nassau Community College, where he leads PeaceWork, a group committed to peace/social justice issues; for the past five years he has also instructed inmates in creative writing at Green Haven Correctional Facility.

For more information, contact:
Barnes & Noble
Stamford Town Center
100 Greyrock Place Suite H009, Stamford, CT 06901
Phone: 203-323-1248

A Bow To Bukowski

2011-08-02T13:00:00.011-04:00

Sitting by the Fire
after Bukowski

Beer in hand I sit by the fire.

Blinding shades of green
Lightning bugs fill the yard.

My flashlight’s beam catches shadows moving, hiding from the day.

There, secrets make me weep.

Breeze.
More wood.
Fire fed.
Red flame and heat.

Rejoice.

Grace is called for,
hoped for,
proffered
and rejected.

The price too high.

Lightning bug violence guide deer across my yard
their dead eyes inspect the stains on my shirt.
Laughing they continue their journey.
Through my yard.
Through my life.
Through the yard next door.

Their contempt makes me smile--
laughter soothes the savage,
the breast
and the beast*.

Six times 6 times 6** hides in those shadows
John of Patmos*** lurks there too

So does The Christ.

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The wretched are blessed as they reach for another beer.

Bill Buschel
8/2/11

*A play on: Music has charms to soothe the savage breast.
**666, the number of the beast; The Antichrist
***John of Patmos, the reputed author of The Book of Revelation

____

Against the day-to-day experiences of the poor and blue collar workforce of Los Angeles, Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), described by Time magazine as the "laureate of American lowlife", wrote with sparse, but intimate grit about romance, drinking and his own creative process during his many years as a postal clerk.

If you want to check out his L.A. stomping rounds, search among his many poems, fiction, art (or read his FBI record), look no further for all your Bukowskification needs than http://bukowski.net http://bukowski.net. Details about a 2005 film version of his semi-autobiographical novel, Factotum, starring Matt Dillon, can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417658/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417658/.

A Changing Of the Guard: Minutes of Bill Buschel's Introduction As New Head of PoemAlley Advisory Committee, Delivered July 26 At Curly's Diner

2011-08-01T19:44:00.003-04:00

"Ralph Nazareth introduced me as the new head of the PoemAlley Advisory Committee.

As I handed out business cards and circulated pads for names and addresses I thanked Ralph Nazareth for allowing me the time to talk to those gathered at Curley’s that night and for his many years as head of the PoemAlley Advisory Committee. He’s been extremely generous with his time and more importantly his spirit.The business cards had my e-mail address on it and how to contact Rolf Maurer about the PoemAlley blog.

I opened with a brief description of the origins of PoemAlley. How it was formed by Ann Yarmal, Catherine Ednie and a few others under the guidance of the Stamford Unitarian Church. Their idea was to reach out to the community with hands, hearts and heads filled with poetry. They shared those gifts while offering the people of the community a chance, and a place, to respond in kind. They were pioneering souls and deserve to be recognized and thanked for their initiative.

Then I went on to explain how I thought long and hard about accepting the challenge of being head of the Advisory Committee. I’d taken my time. TIME. That’s the real challenge. Already there’s not enough time for me to do all that I have, want or need to do; so would it be wise to accept? I realized that if I did I’d need to have resources to accomplish anything and the BEST resource I could ever want or ask for can be found every Tuesday night at Curley’s Diner: The poets of PoemAlley.

During the next year, or however long I am head of the committee, I will be leaning heavily on them for ideas, resources, time and energy.

First, we’re revitalizing the blog. Rolf Maurer is going to make it a showplace for our poets and all those interested in poetry and the arts. I ask all the poets to have at least one poem a month posted there. I know that’s asking a lot of you but let’s try. We’ll also be asking our British connection if it would okay to post their offerings. I would like to see the blog become a clearing house for all information taking place in the arts community of Fairfield and Westchester counties. Workshops, readings, events should all be posted there. At present we get much of this information through Ralph Nazareth’s multiple e-mails each week. I want the people of our community and the wider community to KNOW what’s happening. That’s first on the agenda and though time consuming it’s a relatively “easy fix”.

I went on to say that for at least the first six months I don’t want to reach too high but there are some other things I have in mind to do during that initial period of time.

In the past PoemAlley sponsored the publication of a number of collections of poetry written by the Poets of PoemAlley including: Eating Our Hearts Out (Yuganta Press, 2004), Wednesdays at Curley’s. The books are wonderful. I cherish the fact that my earliest poems were published in them but, alas, books are very expensive to produce hence they must be priced rather high to generate any positive income for PoemAlley. When I did my talk on how to read a poem last May I brought a number of CDs with some of my poems and one or two of my radio shows on them. They sold for $3.00 each and the dozen or so copies I brought sold out immediately with all proceeds going to PoemAlley. The success of that night planted the seed for an idea of what I later called: The CD Initiative. On July 10th I was able to put the plan into action when the Poets of PoemAlley were invited to read their work at the Stamford Unitarian Church. The theme was The Labyrinthine Ways. After recording the poets’s offerings and with some editing I was able to produce a CD of approximately 55 minutes. PoemAlley will be selling them for $3.50 each. I see us doing this for all our future events. This isn’t to say we are abandoning the printed word altogether, but it may be some time before we mount another anthology and until then we’ll have the CDs of our readings. An added bonus is that the poets will have a chance to hear themselves. In some cases this may prove to be a helpful learning tool.

By the way, the ten or so CDs that I brought Tuesday night sold out immediately. Remember they make great gifts and if you buy five or more the price drops to $3.00 each.

Next week, through the heroic efforts of Eva-Maria Palevich, another member of the Advisory Committee, we will be meeting with the Bonnie Krois, the administrator at Edgehill Community for Seniors. We’ll be discussing the possibility of doing some outreach programs there. We might start with a reading or two then we might see about doing some workshops there also. I imagine these might be similar to the one Richard Duffee did at Westhill High School this year. It was an extremely successful venture and it brought Carley Pierre into our midst. For that alone it is a great success.

Finally I’m working on trying to get a special event planned for the Fall. I won’t go into any detail until I have some more of the pieces in place but I hope it will be on the scale of last year’s highly successful “Green Fuse” event."

"Thank You, Stamford!" Art Show To Feature The Work of PoemAlley Member

2011-07-29T18:00:00.000-04:00

The Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery on Bedford Street opens its doors tonight from 6:00-9:00 pm in a special tribute to the city of Stamford and its artistic community. In addition to the vibrant abstract oil pastels of Enzo Malagisi, a long-standing participant of PoemAlley, pieces by Margaret Ryan, John Rudolph, Renee Kahn (of Stamford's Loft Artists Association) and 12 others will be on view through September 4.

Drop in to mingle, nibble, admire the art and meet Enzo and the other creators!

The Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery is located on 96 Bedford Street, Stamford, CT 06901.
Phone: 888-861-6791
Website/Email: http://flalvarezgallery.com/flag/about-2/; info@flalvarezgallery.com

Poem Alley Alumnus Returns For A December 7, 2010 Reading From Her Latest Novel

2010-12-09T00:59:00.000-05:00

Marina Julia Neary has published the sequel to 2009's historical novel of Victorian intrigue and politics, Wynfield's Kingdom (see February 1, 2010 entry):

Wynfield's War (Book Two of the Wynfield series)

"From the chaos of an extensive slum known as Bermondsey, Wynfield finds himself in the Crimea where he experiences a military campaign that makes Bermondsey look orderly. The spring of 1854 was filled with violence, deceit, and bereavement, and marked the end of Wynfield's reign as the king of the Bermondsey slums. His memory shattered and his perception of reality distorted, he falls under the influence of an unlikely patron-the ruthless Lord Lucan. Known to his Irish tenants as 'the exterminator,' Lucan plans to mold his ward into a brainwashed ally for his upcoming Crimean campaign. While in the company of some frightfully incompetent and arrogant generals, Wynfield travels to the Crimea as a junior officer in the British cavalry. There he catches a glimpse of the personal war between Lords Lucan and Cardigan, which results in the blunder known as the Charge of the Light Brigade, and discovers the darker side of the saintly Florence Nightingale."

Available now from Fireship Press at: www.fireshippress.com

Latest Events and Resources

2010-11-09T15:32:00.000-05:00

Curley's Poets To Read At Greenwich Library
Come usher in Autumn with members of PoemAlley as they read pieces in an open forum for the first time at Greenwich Library. The program runs on Saturday afternoon, November 13, from 3:00 to 4:30, in the Meeting Room on the second floor. The Library is located on 101 W. Putnam Road. Refreshments and videography will be provided by the Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford through a grant from the Stamford Cultural Development Corporation. For more information, call 203-622-7900; http://www.greenwichlibrary.org/

Duotrope's Digest
Duotrope's Digest is an award-winning online writers' resource listing over 3,125 current poetry and fiction publications. Among its various free services is an online submissions tracker for registered users. Updated by its editors several times daily, DD's listings comprise the most up-to-date database humanly possible for wordsmiths of all stripes. Contact Duotrope's Digest at http://www.duotrope.com/.

Curley's Confab: Highfalutin' Or Curiosity's Looting?

2010-08-31T17:12:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday (817/10), I commented in passing about the danger inherent in the laissez-faire poetics of Curley’s—warm, feel-good feedback, always accepting poets’ offerings with universal tolerance and generous praise (a good thing?), seldom dragging over the critical coals the dross that needs to be burnt off (not such a good thing?).

(While) I was mainly talking about my own work that seems to have for some time crawled on relatively low ground... I spoke about our anti-intellectual culture, so dumbed down that dumbing down is not even recognized as such. So we manage to communicate less and less nuance, subtlety and complexity with fewer and fewer words in our active vocabulary... in a way, becoming trivial, increasingly gullible and easily taken in by the machinations of the media and our politicians.

Here’s a statement by Geoffrey Hill, the present Oxford Professor of Poetry, (a position second in status only to the Poet Laureateship in England) which seems to address and echo my anxiety:

“Accessible is a perfectly good word if applied to supermarket aisles, art galleries, polling stations and public lavatories, but it has no place in the discussion of poetry and poetics. Human beings are difficult. We’re difficult to ourselves; we’re difficult to each other and we’re mysteries to ourselves; we’re mysteries to each other. One encounters in any ordinary day far more real difficulty than one confronts in the most “intellectual” piece of work. Why is it believed that poetry, prose, painting, music should be less than we are? Why does music, why does poetry have to address us in simplified terms, when, if such simplifications were applied to our own inner selves, we would find it demeaning?”

Many of you have had an immediate reaction to my last e-mail re. Hill. Some of the responses have been so substantial that I feel it would be good to share them with the whole list in the interest of generating a more extended and meaningful conversation on a subject of relevance to us all. --Ralph Nazareth, PoemAlley Facilitator

Yeah, yeah, but I betcha he puts mustard on his hot dogs.

Last week's discussion on all this was bothersome to me on many levels. I've often felt the same way about Curley's Tuesday nights but have never been able to reconcile my feelings about the place. So many different thoughts and memories swirl through my head when I think of Curley's and what it is and isn't. What it has always been is a place where anyone, and I do mean ANYONE, can come and read their material no matter how meager or great. A place where they won't be feel threatened (well that's nearly always true) and can offer up without fear that their inferior material will be ridiculed. It has always been more about community than artistry. If it wasn't why would we continue week after week? But that isn't to say there aren't moments of artistry...moments of genius even. I'll never forget those nights when the guys from LibHouse came and read for us. Those moments of raw energy. The hate, the hurt, the love and the reaching out to be understood--or just heard--sometimes for the first time in their lives. There are also the nights when someone will bring in something that isn't quite right. A word here, a line break there. That's all that's needed and the end result? Is it art? Maybe. Is it poetry? I don't know. Is it worth our time? You bet. It's community. It's communication.

You carry much on your shoulders. The argument of whether or not our Tuesday evenings are too trivial or not complex enough is another 50 pound sack of doubt you've hoisted up there. Whatever you do--do NOT doubt the worth of Tuesday nights. It might not be art but it is of great value. For some it might be the rarest of chances to be heard for the first, and possibly only time, in their lives. That ain't art Brother...it's a gift.

You are too hard on yourself by half. This comes from someone who knows something about being hard on oneself. If I may be so bold, but give yourself a gift take a Tuesday night off every now and then. We won't sink. Go to a movie. Go seek out lovers making nasty in a park somewhere, better yet, go make nasty with someone. You know you are loved by many, many, many people--but it matters little if you don't take a little time to love yourself.

Love,
Bill Buschel

Bravissimo, Ralph,

George Orwell examines this decerebration of the English language in his 1948 novel which I've re-read every decade or so since 1974. And I find myself constantly at odds with the insidious mind-warping influence of our politically correct non-culture which sez that I may offer my opinions on, say, social issues only so long as they are couched in the most inoffensively generic, simplistic, non-specific, non-accusatory terms imaginable.

And my own best remedy for a limited vocabulary has been reading about a book a week for nigh unto 500 fortnights now.

RM

You are exactly correct about the trivialization of our lives...

And sorry to say, I doubt you will effect any change at Curleys...though if carefully discussed, you just might.

It is especially interesting to me because last night I deliberately read the Pisan Cantos in full, and as I was reading, ignoring the Chinese, enjoying the Spanish, not recalling any of the Greek and other ancient references, not the 1920s "our gang" references, except for Wyndham Lewis and Eliot... I nevertheless enjoyed the representation of insanity and mood and caginess and weather under my belly and all the hazards of Pound's life at the time he was recollecting in poetry, and I especially liked the way he used profanity with only first initials and dots and how he would suddenly burst in with some comment a prisoner or guard might have interrupted his thought with, though my curiosity was primarily concerned with "how"... How did even our best poets recognize poetry in Pound's rantings? How did they have the courage to demand he not be kept in Italy and later that he not be kept at St. Elizabeth's? How did they defend themselves, and could they in anyone have that kind of influence in today's liar society?…

Oh, also, since Pound was the first Bolingen Award person, we can check that off at the same time. Especially, since the Yale poets were accused of giving the award to a fascist traitor. Times really haven't changed that much.

Ann Yarmal, PoemAlley Co-Founder

No one's stopping anyone from grabbing a dictionary...

Some people read poetry with unfamiliar or specialized references to history, medicine or culture, but to be able to understand it right off the bat takes the fun out of figuring out what it is about (not to mention the sometimes serendipitous differences in interpretation two people can have in the process!). And what makes poetry so powerful has as much to do with what words are used as how they're arranged. As with figuring out crossword puzzles, a lot can be inferred by how unfamiliar words are applied. And if something is too obscure, why should that be a threat? Why should we feel the need to apologize for being intellectual (as opposed to elitist). I like coming to Curley's because, despite the occasionally heated debates, I enjoy seeing where people's contributions take the conversation.

Rolf Maurer

Poetry and Sculpture by Aziza Gowon

2010-07-16T15:17:00.000-04:00

passing

sometimes in the oddest places
a poem is born

looking out an office window
staring down at the men in black
jackets and trousers
marching home

sitting in a walled cubicle
without sun or air
florescence beaming down
daring me to write
anything that denies, shakes or breaks
this mold

beyond the men
a nimble tree shakes lime tresses
in the late April sun

pearl colored petals
fallen in the melee
dervish dance at my feet

my cubicle a walled
hothouse of ideas
waiting to be born

and gulls
harbingers of everything
soar and caw
mocking, mockingly say:

who are these creatures
and why are they in my space?

even as I write these thoughts
the wind has changed
the dragon clouds have passed
the sun is going down

yet hearkening
invisible
beauty lasts, beauty lasts.

office innuendo

“she broke up with her boyfriend
no
really
i heard he’s into hedge funds
hip hop
or ihop
who told you
the mail guy
the cleaning lady
oh yeah the shish kebab man
saw them
yelling over coffee
and croissants
or was it wi fi
he was smoking outside B&N
listening to CNN
and she hit him
they called the police
and ran into pottery barn
found a florist
and feasted on mall hot dogs
no
yes
they’re getting married
and left town
to settle down
by the marsh
off the shore
in that shack
by the bay
that girl saw them in Stop and Shop
buying diapers and chicken
at the take out
WITH CASH !
i knew that wasn’t a baby doll
ouch !
its 4:45
let’s bounce”

poetry and art by Aziza Gowon
©2010

Selections by Agnes Roberts

2010-07-05T20:16:00.000-04:00

The Tales Of Women

Women, for centuries, have been known as house wives.
We were always told, a woman's place is in the home.
But today, we have broken down the barriers
and created a place in history for ourselves.
No more are we only tools.

Some women still choose to run the household.
While others have chosen to be in the corporate world.
Some are Carpenters, Masons, Electricians, Teachers,
Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians and Preachers.
Still, some men try to belittle us, saying
women have no place in a man's world.

Oh yes, they are afraid of a strong woman.
Given the task of a man, we do it without fear or scorn.
And that's fact, but the pay they cut back.
We'll keep fighting until we are recognized
as a great force in all societies.
And are given the wages we rightfully deserve.

Sisters, fight on, for this battle is not just for the strong.
If we remain true, focused and faithful,
then, victory will be our song.

Copyright 2002 Agnes Roberts

Our Creator

God is the being who created us all.
He is not a plaything or a toy,
Even though his name is taken in vain
He still forgives us all the same.

God is the being who created us all,
Color of skin means nothing at all,
If man continues to divide us,
There is no maybe God will chastise us.

God becomes more angry every day
As he listens to what we day and do
To each other day after day.
When they shoot us and we die,
Peace; Peace, is the constant cry.

One creator made us all: flesh,
Blood and bones we are,
A fact no one can deny.
Vast destruction will be this country's end
If man don't try to make amends.

Copyright 1996 Agnes Roberts
photography by Anita Patterson

Writers Express Reading--New Date: March 13, 2010

2010-02-23T18:36:00.000-05:00

Organized by St. Luke's LifeWorks and LibHouse, the Writers Express Reading will be held Saturday, from 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM, at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford, located at 20 Forest Street (across from the Avon Theatre on Bedford Street). In addition to readings by St. Luke's and LibHouse participants, poems will also be recited by members of the Tuesdays At Curley's/PoemAlley group.

Recent PoemAlley Activities

2010-02-16T17:40:00.000-05:00

(all photos courtesy Bill Buschel)

February 13, 2010: Inter-Organizational Chinese New Year's Feast
A celebration honoring the year of the Strong Tiger, with the participation of PoemAlley, Peace Action and CT Green Party members. Held at Hunan Gardens in Springdale, with thanks to PoemAlley's own Richard Duffee for all the detailed organizing!

February 9, 2010: Honoring a Muse
Curley's Diner co-owner & PoemAlley hostess Eleni Begetis Anastos receives presents from PA facilitator Ralph Nazareth (recently returned from a trip to Jerusalem) for her generous and long-standing support of the group.

Poem Alley Alumnus Marina Neary Reads From "Wynfield's Kingdom", Her First Published Novel

2010-02-01T19:20:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 1830s Bermondsey, London’s most notorious slum, a land of gang wars, freak shows and boxing matches. Dr. Grant, a disgraced physician, adopts Wynfield, a ten-year old thief savagely battered by the gang leader for insubordination. The boy grows up to be a slender, idealistic opium addict who worships Victor Hugo. By day he steals and resells guns from a weapons factory. By night he amuses filthy crowds with his adolescent girlfriend, a fragile witch with wolfish eyes. Their tragicomic idyll ends when Wynfield falls under the spell of an elusive benefactress and leaves his bohemian, semi-criminal circle to follow her to Westminster. There, in the company of blue-blooded outcasts, he learns the secret of his origin and the role he is destined to play in the history of England. Invoking the ghosts of English anarchists, Guy Fawkes and Oliver Cromwell, Wynfield enters the world’s biggest tavern – the Parliament, where he meets the most ruthless boy gang in the world – the British aristocracy. Using the mixture of chemicals, satire and horror, Wynfield stages an unforgettable performance and subdues the ruling class – if only for one day.

In this scene Wynfield addresses the English aristocracy:
"Let me tell you what is unnecessary - This leather-padded jewelry box! If it goes up in flames with everyone inside, it won’t be the end of England. If anything, it will be a new beginning. We’ll have a miniature America right here. There is much more to England than the vermin that congregates in the Westminster Palace. You won’t be missed one bit, I assure you. Shivering already? I haven’t reached the best part yet. You careless gluttons!” he shouted suddenly. Your own cellars are bursting with wine barrels, yet you still grasp at a chance to get drunk at another man’s expense. You didn’t even think to question what’s inside these cases. You just assumed it was wine, all for you, just like everything else in this world. I don’t expect you pity the children who lose fingers inside factory machines producing your guns. Nor do I expect you to pity the soldiers who are forced to fight with defective weapons. No, you shouldn’t be disturbed by any of this. Your duty is to suffer from migraines, melancholy and insomnia. And my duty is to end your sufferings. Now do not mistake me for a defender of the misfortunate, gentlemen. I myself am just another calloused, unapologetic exploiter. Like the rest of you, I deserve to die. But before I die, I reserve a right to have one last smoke. Start praying, my lords. One spark fallen from the tip of my cigar, and there will be nothing left of the English aristocracy except for a crushed pocket watch. Start praying. Louder! I don’t think God can hear you. . Well, I suppose I’ll have to lead you in prayer. Almighty, have mercy on these selfish cowards, for they don’t know the extent of their vice. Also, we also pray for the people of England, the dirty axel of the golden carriage. Raise them from their gutter and make them all republicans. In the spirit of Guy Fawkes, Oliver Cromwell and my own late father, I pray. Amen."

About Marina Julia Neary:
M.J. Neary is an award-winning historical essayist, multilingual arts & entertainment journalist, poet, playwright and actor. Her poetry has appeared in various literary journals such as Alimentum and The Recorder. She serves on the editorial staff of the Bewildering Stories Magazine. Her historical tragicomedy Hugo in London, featuring the adventures of the French literary genius in England during the Crimean War, was produced in Greenwich, followed by a sequel, Lady with a Lamp: An Untold Story of Florence Nightingale.

In 2007 she was commissioned to collect and publish the memoirs of residents from a retirement community in Stamford, CT. The project involved interviewing over forty senior citizens over the age of ninety. A new Connecticut-based leisure publication Norwalk Beat has recently brought her on board as a steady contributor.

In addition to her writing, Neary has had a career in the performing arts. She has starred in several independent films shot in CT and NY; and, in the 1990s, she competed in various talent pageants in New England.

Find out more at:
www.fireshippress.com

Influences:
http://musicandmeaning.com/forster/works.html
http://charlesdickenspage.com/

Related fiction:
Soulless (The Parasol Protectorate) by Gail Carriger
http://www.gailcarriger.com/

Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter
http://www.kwjeter.com/

Selections by Eva-Maria Palevich

2009-12-14T12:46:00.000-05:00

I Wonder

My doubts are bubbling – yet He watches over me -

He has given me free will

so complex

& awesome

I reach for the Master through the stars -

immense amplitude -

drink His words

touch His ground -

EMP

We were sitting across from each other

For Catherine Ednie

We were sitting across from each other

Chatting, laughing, having a good time;

Her hands resting on her flowered skirt.

Silent as silent a meadow can be

She threw some flowers – pretending,

I stretched out my arms and caught the bouquet,

And oh, how she was smiling!

Time to go about business again;

She was gliding away, left foot barely touching the ground

The toes of the right gave the balance.

Her shoulder blade, the rudder under the blouse

Helped to pilot the way.

Be silent and hear flowing waters weep;

In silence floating petals dry their tears.

EMP

We can not Change the Cards we are Dealt

She keeps a message

on her computer screen

to be able to get through the day.

It reads:

We can not change the cards we are dealt,

Just how we play the hand.*

Poor thing, she feels so weary.

I emailed back:

“You know what I would do?

I’d quickly do some texting

to Him who did the dealing.

It would read:- ‘May I please

be Thy apprentice since I am learning,

and Thou are all knowing!’

Then I’d press send….”

EMP

* Randy Pausch, ‘The Last Lecture’