Sunday, October 05, 2008

Shnozzes &Knowing/Poetry Bailout/ Foreleg Eardrums/

Fewer & Further Press is pleased to announce the publication of Ed's son John Coletti's Same Enemy Rainbow. Same Enemy Rainbow is 30 pages, hand-sewn, and printed on laid paper in an edition of 200 copies, 40 of which are special editions.

Copies can be purchased for $8, postpaid. Please visit the Fewer & Further Press site for an excerpt and cover image. Payments can be made through the site with Paypal.

The special editions are signed by the author and include a small double-sided broadside, for $10. If you would like to purchase a special edition, please contact the editor for availability.

If you would like to pay by check, make check payable to Jess Mynes, and mail it to:

Jess Mynes
121 Lockes Village Rd
Wendell, MA 01379

Thank you very much.

Jess Mynes, editor
Schnozzes and When We Know by Ed Coletti














Comment Here on any of the above or below and read the comments of others too. Log in under "Name" or "Anonymous" if you like, but please be sure to sign some facsimile of your name. Actual name is best, but use what you like. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net if you have difficulty.

Poetry Bailout Will Restore Confidence of Readers


By Charles Bernstein in Harper's September 26, 2008


From a statement read at an event marking the release of Best American Poetry 2008, held last night at The New School, in New York City. David Lehman is the series editor of Best American Poetry, and Robert Polito is the director of the writing program at The New School.

Chairman Lehman, Secretary Polito, distinguished poets and readers—I regret having to interrupt the celebrations tonight with an important announcement. As you know, the glut of illiquid, insolvent, and troubled poems is clogging the literary arteries of the West. These debt-ridden poems threaten to infect other areas of the literary sector and ultimately to topple our culture industry.

Charles Bernstein’s most recent collection of poetry is Girly Man. His poem “Pompeii” appeared in the August issue of Harper’s Magazine; his essay “Wet verse at The New Yorker” appeared in the November 1989 issue.

Cultural leaders have come together to announce a massive poetry buyout: leveraged and unsecured poems, poetry derivatives, delinquent poems, and subprime poems will be removed from circulation in the biggest poetry bailout since the Victorian era. We believe the plan is a comprehensive approach to relieving the stresses on our literary institutions and markets.

Let there be no mistake: the fundamentals of our poetry are sound. The problem is not poetry but poems. The crisis has been precipitated by the escalation of poetry debt—poems that circulate in the market at an economic loss due to their difficulty, incompetence, or irrelevance.

Illiquid poetry assets are choking off the flow of imagination that is so vital to our literature. When the literary system works as it should, poetry and poetry assets flow to and from readers and writers to create a productive part of the cultural field. As toxic poetry assets block the system, the poisoning of literary markets has the potential to damage our cultural institutions irreparably.

As we know, lax composition practices since the advent of modernism led to irresponsible poets and irresponsible readers. Simply put, too many poets composed works they could not justify. We are seeing the impact on poetry, with a massive loss of confidence on the part of readers. What began as a subprime poetry problem on essentially unregulated poetry websites has spread to other, more stable, literary magazines and presses and contributed to excess poetry inventories that have pushed down the value of responsible poems.

The risks poets have taken have been too great; the aesthetic negligence has been profound. The age of decadence must come to an end with the imposition of oversight and regulation on poetry composition and publishing practices.

We are convinced that once we have removed these troubled and distressed poems from circulation, our cultural sector will stabilize and readers will regain confidence in American literature. We estimate that for the buyout to be successful, we will need to remove from circulation all poems written after 1904.

This will be a fresh start, a new dawn of a new day. Without these illiquid poems threatening to overwhelm readers, we will be able to create a literary culture with a solid aesthetic foundation.

I’m Charles Bernstein, and I approved this message.

Comment Here on any of the above or below and read the comments of others too. Log in under "Name" or "Anonymous" if you like, but please be sure to sign some facsimile of your name. Actual name is best, but use what you like. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net if you have difficulty.

Foreleg Eardrums
by Amy Trussell


Stop and put your shirt on the fence and look heavenward.
They say there is a hexagon at the top of Saturn’s pole,
though your naked eye doesn’t register it. Trust it anyway,
like your affection for another person, embedded
with a type of gem not found inside the earth’s dark muscles.
You cannot bear it away to keep forever.
It will not melt away on the tongue like mousse from Maison du Chocolate,
But softens the blow of any tumble and pops the rib back into place
when the heart is large and broken.
It sets sail with a full mast,
and it’s anchor does not break coral.
Listen, the grasshoppers hear your tale of survival
with the delicate eardrums on their forelegs.
They invite you to come through the wormwood,
the sprouting hemlock, and the wreckage of Fall still
lying in the yard.
Release strife and be glad of the bees’ return,
their hives oozing with royal jelly, oblivious to cell phones.
Dig the afternoon when the gods of light come on like honey,
nodding at your delicate capture and release fishing.
When you get home, throw the black drape off of the piano
and pound the keys as if it were your last song, or your first.

Comment Here on any of the above or below and read the comments of others too. Log in under "Name" or "Anonymous" if you like, but please be sure to sign some facsimile of your name. Actual name is best, but use what you like. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net if you have difficulty.

11 comments:

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed, nice poem by Amy Trussell - the Bernstein door seems to swing both ways, with a smile painted on one side and a smirk on the other.

You know what they say about your ass and the way out ...

Don (w/a smile and no smirk)

Unknown said...

i like......

Anonymous said...

oh my goodness, i love your artwork!
you a fan of Klee? you like Patchen?
I like all you 3
as far as I can see...
check out my art someday-
rayswaney.etsy.com
Also, I wanted to share with you a poem I wrote:

"untitled" by Ray Swaney

satiated artists
are starving art, it's
unsettling

the wrapping of words around and around
like barbwire in pink bows
in the airs of girls

someone buy that poem a steak sandwich
and a chocolatte shake
you can see the poor thing's ribs
it's all ribs
skin thin
poking
through

words are cold sake
words are warm sake
words are half full &
words are half empty

the drunk halflings are combatting colds
with wombats on strike from big oil
on grounds that legalese poetries
will make a game that's never paid
never pay more oft than before

wrap a ribbon around the may pole
kiss yours body bag today
to avoid a toe tag
cut off all your piggies

do-rag time dolls
two drag and quit calls
spit balls of blue
fall's fit for me
and I spring for you
summer singing soft shoe
through, flew a lingering winter boot

starve the feeding artist!
fatten up the art!

----------

CHEERS!
-Ray (tedateamerica@gmail.com)

Anonymous said...

Bailout 2008, a poem by David Jeffrey:

Like a bloodied warrior,
laying broken and torn.

Like a dying soldier, hopeless and forlorn.

But the blood, it be green,
the color of money.

And the soldier is an economy,
and it is anything but funny.

Broken are it’s people and shattered are their dreams.

Thanks to the ultra rich and their full proof schemes.

It is a tragedy with more pain to come.

Finance will be Hell, and their wills will be done.

Anonymous said...

Awakened with a Kiss by david jeffrey

A love unknown to me, but growing day by day.

Residing within my heart, where it chose to quietly lay.

Days and years went by and ever stronger it did grow.

Real love lay right before me and little did I know.

I played in false romances, growing more bitter with each pain.

But always, confiding in my dear friend, time and time again.

Till a warm summer night, and with reckless might, she took me in her arms.

And with a kiss, the love emerged and I was awakened to it's charms.

Anonymous said...

Our Dogs by david jeffrey



A love uncontested, without compromise,

is what we see when we look into our lovely pets
eyes.

The way they adore us, with love to no end,

is the reason we call them Man's bestfriend.

With tails a wagging and affection to spare,

makes them so easy to cuddle despite all their hair.

We treat them like children and adorn them with toys

trust that they will play and protect,

our own girls and boys.

God gave us dogs so that we may know,

the unconditional love,

that only a pet can show.

Anonymous said...

David Jeffrey poems are awesome

I like his style of writing

Anonymous said...

A love uncontested without compromise
I love David Jeffrey poems. They are perfect. Love the dogs poem, best dog's poem ever.

Anonymous said...

I love David Jeffrey poems. Our dog's is such an amazing poem. A love uncontested without compromise

Anonymous said...

A love uncontested without compromise

Love the poem our dogs

Anonymous said...

Our dogs poem by David Jeffrey of Canada is the best poem about dogs ever

Rare Footage of Jack Micheline Reading/A.D. Winans/Photos from Festival of The Long Poem/ Coletti Works/ Etc.

Jack Micheline and Al Winans (right to left in this cool painting by Jason Hardung) click for  Jack Micheline Reading A. D. Winans Remembers...