Old Photo Of Germs, Viruses, and Catechisms author
(Please see interview below) with even older friend in Oaxaca.
This poem by Wanda Marie Clevenger
was recently published in Rattle, and it very nicely
ties in with our own title No Money In Poetry.
juice
no one doubts if
I've got
what poetry takes
more than
editors
when I don't
hardcore cuss
because
the syllables
bleed feeble
don’t go
Dita Von Teese
don't get
how I don't
squeeze juice
from
catfish tits
no one doubts
more
than
when I say
another poem
got picked up
today
did you make any money,
he says
no, I say
or yes when Every Day Poets
tosses a dollar
into the till
let me know
when we're rich,
he says
Published in Rattle Issue 42 – November 2013
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and, from Lynne Knight in that same strong
Rattle Issue 42 – November 2013
"Several years ago, I met the poet Anna Rabinowitz just before the opera made from her book Darkling was about to tour Europe. When I said how wonderful it must have been to get a phone call from someone who wanted to turn her poems into an opera, she smiled. "You never know what's going to happen' she said, 'So just sit at your desk and do your work.' That's the best advice any writer has ever given me. No operas on the horizon, but at least the poems keep showing up."
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Coletti Interview
Publisher James Tracy of Civil Defense Publications conducted an interview with Ed Coletti following the publication of his new book, Germs, Virsuses, and
Catechisms (historicowarpligious poems). Here are the questions to which
Coletti responds. Note: Folks are finding this interview quite enlightening!
- What inspired you to start writing poetry? What inspires you do keep doing it?
- How is Germs different than your other volumes? Do you think that your readers will be surprised by some of the ground you cover there?
- What are the best ways for poets who want to address political issues to avoid sounding didactic?
- Your work in Germs is some of your most skeptical of power and government. What led you to this point?
- One of your poems, Columbus, the Mafia and Denial as a poem from an Italian-American as it casts a critical eye on your heritage. Does your IA ancestry influence your outlook? Why or Why Not?
- If you could go back in time and have dinner with any seven dead poets, who would they be? (this is my favorite question)
Comment or Read Comments Here on any of the above or below. If you do not have a Google account, then log in by checking "Name/URL," (it's easy). Just the name (don't worry about the URL). Actual name is best, but use what you like. Or email me at edcoletti@sbcglobal.net, and I can post it.
Ed Coletti's Germs, Viruses, and Catechisms Published December 2013 by Civil Defense Publications (San Francisco)
As you well can imagine, it was difficult finding a press interested in publishing a political ( in this case "historicowarpoligious") poetry book. I'm very pleased and humbled by CDP's acceptance and all that publisher James Tracy has done!
http://www.amazon.com/Germs-Viruses-Catechisms-historicalwarpoligious-Pocketbooks/dp/0978691393/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1387481432&sr=8-1&keywords=ed+colettiGer
Here's what Jonah Raskin wrote,
“Ed Coletti is at the top of his form in Germs, Viruses, and Catechisms, a collection of irreverent, sacrilegious verse that might become infectious, and that could become a kind of contemporary catechism. Playful and punning, satirical and lyrical, political and whimsical, Coletti’s brave new book brings together Crazy Horse and Joe Gallo, Columbus and George Bush. The lists are funny; the imagery of war and torture is absolutely wild. There are surprises here, too, as in “Hypatia of Alexandria,” a wild and wonderful poem that offers a heretical heroine for our own crazy, brave times.”- Jonah Raskin, author of The Radical Jack London and Rock ‘n’ Roll Women, Portraits of a Generation.