The Thing in the Spring Festival Returns with Nina Nastasia, Jem Cohen & More

May 28, 2012 in Events, Images, News, Sounds with 1 Comment

 

Filmmaker Jem Cohen produced the late Vic Chesnutt's album "North Star Deserter." Cohen's films, including "Anecdotal Evidence," a film about Chesnutt, will be on view from 12-5, Saturday, June 9th. (Photo by Jem Cohen)

If you’re in the New England area on June 8th, 9th, or 10th, you’ll want to check out the Thing in the Spring art and music festival in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

Gwarlingo is proud to be the media sponsor for this event. The festival is organized by musician Eric Gagne (Death to Tyrants and Red-Winged Blackbird) and artist Mary Goldthwaite.

Here’s a rundown of some of the art, film, and music you can see at the festival along with some of my personal favorites. And if you can’t make the event, I encourage you to check out the work of some of these artists online.

 

The Films of Jem Cohen

From 12-5 p.m. on Saturday, June 9th festival-goers will have a rare chance to view a selection of films by MacDowell Colony fellow Jem Cohen.

 

 

Jem is one of the finest  filmmakers working today–a truly original artist using film as a solo medium to create cinematic collages and haunting meditations on memory and place. Along with Peter Hutton and Bill Morrison, Cohen is one of only a handful of contemporary filmmakers pushing the boundaries of lo-fi film in an era that’s increasingly obsessed with digital. Forget your preconceived notions about traditional movie making. Cohen is a rarity even in the independent film world. Cohen’s films, like those of Hutton and Morrison, are works of art–soulful, provocative, anti-commercial, mysterious, unconventional, and beautifully imperfect.

When I look at Jem’s work, I’m reminded of wabi-sabi, a Japanese aesthetic that finds beauty in things imperfect, impermanent, unconventional, and incomplete. In the wabi-sabi system, beauty can be cajoled from ugliness and quality lies in the inconspicuous, overlooked details. In contrast to modernism, wabi-sabi values the one-of-a-kind over the mass produced, darkness over brightness, the “crude” over the slick, and nature over technology. If this isn’t a perfect description of Jem Cohen’s work, then I don’t know what is.

 

Jem Cohen, "Kings Theater." (Photo courtesy thislongcentury.com)

 

 

Cohen's films remind me that we have a choice about how we spend our time. We can seek out those things that are mysterious, unknown, and provocative, or we can allow ourselves to be consumed by the commercialism that repeatedly barrages us in our culture. (A still from Cohen's film "Little Flags")

Cohen, like his high-school friend and collaborator Ian MacKaye (from Fugazi and The Evens), favors a more direct exchange between artist and audience, one that values connection and authenticity more than a vapid commercial transaction. It is this DIY, punk ethos you’ll see at work in Cohen’s highly acclaimed film Instrument, a film about the band Fugazi that took 10 years to complete.

“Punk is what we made it, and what we make it,” Cohen writes in the liner notes to Instrument. “This sense of punk is something that does not go in or out of style: it has to do with making your own way, in whatever field you find yourself in, outside of what the mainstream dictates, and for reasons other than the sell. That is a meaning that Fugazi and I learned from some of the same sources and it is, I hope, the engine that drives my own work as a filmmaker.”

For Cohen, this DIY philosophy means working with cheaper formats like Super 8, video, and 16mm, even as the rest of the film world embraces digital. “It was constantly carrying a Super 8 camera that enabled me to become a filmmaker,” Jem says. “Super 8 was like the 7-inch single or the home 4-track of the film world…The small format freed me up. Shooting everything around me became a way of life.”

The filmmaker has worked with an array of original musical artists through the years–Patti Smith, R.E.M., The Ex, Gil Shaham, Elliott Smith, Cat Power, Sparklehorse, and the late Vic Chesnutt, who committed suicide on Christmas day in 2009. Jem produced Chesnutt’s remarkable 2007 album North Star Deserter.

Jem says his “production” was mostly about picking songs and musicians and bringing them together in the studio.” It was a way of getting at some things; a discussion about death and life, really,” Cohen writes in the book Signal Fires. “It’s not something most people are willing to to attend to. Vic does. He’s a brave, beautiful fellow, and I knew the musicians I brought him together with would enter that discussion and carry it forwards with grace and abandon. As I said in the liner notes, ‘I thought it might get heavy. It did.’”

 

Jem Cohen, "Tree at Drive-Thru." Brooklyn, 2009 (Photo courtesy of the NY Times Lens Blog)

 

 

Jem Cohen, "Fruit Stands." Brooklyn, 2012 (Photo courtesy of the NY Times Lens Blog)

Having grown up in a town not far from Athens, Georgia, the music of both R.E.M. and Chesnutt holds a special power for me, not unlike the work of another great Georgia artist, Flannery O’Connor. (I’ve always thought of Chesnutt as O’Connor’s musical equivalent.) I remember those early days when R.E.M. was touring the South in their blue van, reportedly living on a $2-a-day food allowance. The band was a refreshing, raw musical alternative in the throes of the synthesizer-soaked 80s. If you’re the right age, you may remember the original short films Cohen created to accompany R.E.M. tracks like “Nightswimming” and “Talk about the Passion,” both of which will be on view at The Thing in the Spring.

It’s important to note that these films were artistic collaborations in every sense of the word–short films intended to stand alone, and not commercial music videos created as advertisements for MTV. “The union of music and moving images is terribly important to me,” Jem explains, “and somewhere along the line, it got hijacked.” Fugazi and I “had our disagreements, but I never had to re-do anything because someone didn’t like someone’s haircut or the label wanted to see some scantily clad back-up singers or some poor musician couldn’t lip-sync ‘properly.’”

Both Cohen and MacKaye have found a way to pursue their artwork outside the commercial machine. Here is Cohen describing the relationship between art and politics:

“I just shoot things that I see: places that are changing, scenes from car windows or motels, portraits of friends, of people on the street, of musicians making music. By the same token, I believe that when Fugazi plays, that is what it is all about: playing music. Politics and big thoughts and their relationship with the ‘music world’ are entwined but secondary, and thankfully so. There is still a lot of confusion about this. It came as something of a revelation to me that Fugazi’s standard $5 ticket price didn’t just represent a reaction against the $20 or $30 or $40 Rock Show. It had as much or more to do with the band’s insistence on playing whatever they wanted to play how and whenever they wanted to play it, with no obligation to provide spectacle entertainment or even bow to audience demand. This freedom to go where they want with their music is at the heart of every logistical decision they make. In other words, and this is where most of the critics get it wrong, the music isn’t just about politics, and to a certain degree, the politics are about the music.”

 

"It came as something of a revelation to me that Fugazi's standard $5 ticket price didn't just represent a reaction against the $20 or $30 or $40 Rock Show. It had as much or more to do with the band's insistence on playing whatever they wanted to play, how and whenever they wanted to play it, with no obligation to provide spectacle entertainment or even bow to audience demand. This freedom to go where they want with their music is at the heart of every logistical decision they make." (Fugazi by Jem Cohen)

 

 

For the Thing in the Spring, we've assembled a first-rate collection of Jem's music-related films, as well as his portrait of the acclaimed sculptor Anne Truitt. The short film, titled "Working," was shown at Truitt's retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum and is a thought-provoking look at both color and the creative process.

Cohen’s work is finally attracting the widespread critical acclaim it deserves. The filmmaker has received the prestigious Independent Spirit Award, as well as grants from the Guggenheim, Creative Capital, Rockefeller and Alpert Foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other organizations. His films have been broadcast in Europe by the BBC and ZDF/ARTE, and in the U.S. by the Sundance Channel and PBS. They’re also in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney, and Melbourne’s Screen Gallery. In 2009 a bilingual publication titled Signal Fires: The Cinema of Jem Cohen was published by Gobierno de Navarra.

For the Thing in the Spring, we’ve assembled a first-rate collection of Jem’s music-related films, as well as his portrait of the acclaimed sculptor Anne Truitt. The short film, titled Working, was shown at Truitt’s retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum and is a thought-provoking look at both color and the creative process.

Such an extensive screening of Cohen’s work is an exceptional event, not only because these films are too rarely seen, but also because the spirit in which they were created is so seldom in evidence in the film world.

Cohen’s films remind me that we have a choice about how we spend our time. We can seek out those things that are mysterious, unknown, and provocative, or we can allow ourselves to be consumed by the commercialism that repeatedly barrages us in our culture. To choose to spend time with Jem’s work is to choose an alternative. Once you’ve seen the original, haunting films of Jem Cohen, you’re unlikely to forget them.

 

Jem Cohen beside a marquis for his film "Benjamin Smoke" (Photo courtesy lightindustry.org)

 

The Films of Jem Cohen: Schedule

Saturday, June 9th, 12-5 p.m.

This free, special screening at the Peterborough Historical Society is part of The MacDowell Colony’s community outreach program and was made possible with the support of both Jem Cohen and MacDowell.

 

(Note: Start times are approximate)

12:00 p.m. Instrument featuring Fugazi (115 minutes)

2:00 p.m. Cat Power Live (5 minutes)

2:05 p.m. Long for the City featuring Patti Smith (10 minutes)

2:15 p.m. Building a Broken Mousetrap featuring The Ex (62 minutes)

3:20 p.m. Nice Evening, Transmission Down featuring Sparklehorse (11 min)

3:30 p.m. Anecdotal Evidence featuring Vic Chesnutt (12 minutes)

3:45 p.m. Anne Truitt, Working (13 minutes)

4:00 p.m. Jem Cohen: Music Works (60 minutes total)

R.E.M.-”Nightswimming,” “Country Feedback,” and “E-Bow the Letter” (with Patti Smith)

Gil Shaham and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra-Vivaldi’s “Winter” from The Four Seasons

Direct Effect-”Away”-PSA Announcement

Lucky Three featuring Elliott Smith

Jonathan Richman (from the Modern Lovers)-I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar

Miracle Legion-”You’re the One”

R.E.M.-”Talk about the Passion” and “Belong” (live)

Mystic-Messiaen’s “Vocalise” from Concert for Four featuring Myung-Whun Chung and the Bastille Orchestra

 

 

The Thing in the Spring Music Line-up

This year’s festival includes a wonderfully diverse range of music. I highly recommend purchasing a $35 weekend pass, which is good for all music concerts (except for the late-night Saturday show at Harlow’s, which is $5 at the door). Town Hall concerts are $18 in advance and $22 at the door, so $35 is a bargain. There are only 100 weekend passes available though, and they’re going fast. You can purchase weekend passes and advance tickets here. Get one before they’re gone!

 

While the Seacoast band Mmoss veers toward the psychedelic end of the spectrum, Brooklyn-based Woods is lo-fi, reverb-laden folk rock. (Mmoss cover photo courtesy daykampmusic.com)

 

Friday, June 8

Woods . Mmoss . Daniel Higgs

On Friday, June 8th the jangly, upbeat sounds of Woods and Mmoss will kick off the festival at the Peterborough Town Hall. Also performing is Daniel Higgs, an off-beat, hillbilly mystic partial to Eastern drones, stream-of-consciousness lyrics, and unconventional instruments like the Jews harp. The former lead singer of the band Lungfish, Higgs is known for his hypnotic style and onstage shenanigans. The fact that Higgs had the audacity to record an album of 17 instrumental, Jews harp improvisations tells you everything you need to know about the artist’s musical approach.

While the band Mmoss veers toward the psychedelic end of the spectrum, Brooklyn-based Woods is lo-fi, reverb-laden folk rock. Woods sounds more like sun-soaked California than Brooklyn to me (think The Byrds meets the Velvet Underground with a dash of Neil Young thrown in). Jeremy Earl’s quivering falsetto makes this band stand out. Woods’ latest release, Sun and Shade, may be their strongest work to date. You can preview the album right here (or if you’re reading this in an email, click to here to listen to samples and view all videos)

 


 

After the show, cross the street to Harlow’s Pub for a free after-party djed by musician Austin Wright.

Doors open at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall. You can purchase tickets for the Friday night show here or save money with a weekend pass.

 

Steve Albini, producer of both Nirvana and the Pixies, is a Nina Nastasia fan and engineered her first two records. Famed BBC DJ John Peel described Nastasia's debut album "Dogs" as "astonishing." It's immediacy and rawness are striking, and the tone of Nastasia's voice pitch-perfect.

 

Saturday, June 9

Nina Nastasia . Brown Bird . P.G. Six

I’m eagerly anticipating Saturday night’s concert at the Town Hall, which features Brown Bird, P.G. Six, and New York City based singer-songwriter Nina Nastasia.

I’ve enjoyed Nastasia’s delicate voice and intimate songwriting for over a decade and look forward to seeing her on stage for the first time. While her style might be considered country or folk, her off-kilter songwriting and band, which includes instruments like cello, viola, and bowed saw, add an urbane twist to her music. Her haunting sound relies on an understated simplicity. Steve Albini, producer of both Nirvana and the Pixies, is a Nastasia fan and engineered her first two records, and famed BBC DJ John Peel described Nastasia’s debut album Dogs as “astonishing.”  It’s immediacy and rawness are striking, and the tone of Nastasia’s voice pitch-perfect. Her follow-up, The Blackened Air, with its visceral, elegant tales of rural life, has been in heavy rotation on my iPod for years now, but her newest records also hold their own against these two early gems.

 


 

 


(If you’re reading this in an email, click here to watch the video and listen to samples)

 

P.G. Six is one of the monikers used by Patrick Gubler, a New York singer and guitar player whose debut solo album, Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, was released in 2001 by the Amish label to much critical acclaim. As a multi-instrumentalist, he worked in the group Tower Recordings, which released albums on the Siltbreeze and Audible Hiss labels. They were cult icons of the downtown New York scene during the ’90s, with performances that included British folk revival styles meeting Sun Ra-inspired jamming, to all-out noise and improvisation. In August of 2011, Drag City released P.G. Six’s sophomore effort for the label, the very electric, full band effort Starry Mind. Their style might be described as Grateful Dead meets Fairpoint Convention.

The Americana band will pair nicely with Nastasia and P.G. Six. “A cantankerous and drafty two-man ship stationed in Providence, RI, Brown Bird plays original, traditional American music in the best sense possible,” says Professor Charles Booth. “It is music that comes from a context but is not afraid of the context: a living root with a view towards the leaves.” The band warmly layers guitar, banjo, cello, violin, double bass, and more in their their latest full-length effort, Salt for Salt.

 


 

The band’s latest release was recorded live to tape in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Booth says the record is the first “to capture the intense energy of the duo’s live show, surging in waves that often swell into high-spirited, foot-stomping madness…[Dave] Lamb and his partner Morgan Eve Swain write simply, and the record is eerily sparse at times – a tambourine, a bass drum and the cello often the sole accompaniment to Lamb’s…cracked, wood-smoke voice…But Brown Bird also know too much to be pure romantics; Lamb’s continual reference to ships clearly come from his years spent working at the shipyard in Warren, RI, just as their arrangements well only from a deep knowledge of the American folk tradition.”

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. at the Peterborough Town Hall. You can purchase tickets for the Saturday night show here or save money with a weekend pass. After the concert, you can cross the street to Harlow’s Pub, where Mail the Horse and Coke Weed will be performing. The Harlow’s concert starts at 10 p.m. and tickets are $5 at the door.

 

Dave Lamb and his partner Morgan Eve Swain, known as the band Brown Bird, write simply, and their latest record is "eerily sparse at times - a tambourine, a bass drum and the cello often the sole accompaniment to Lamb's...cracked, wood-smoke voice."

 

Sunday, June 10

Death to Tyrants . Klessa

The music wraps up on Sunday with an afternoon concert at The Peterborough Historical Society’s Bass Hall.

Many years ago, friends and I crammed into Eric Gagne’s small apartment to listen to New Paltz band L’Hiver jam on their toy instruments. Their light, upbeat sound was enchanting and made the perfect living room concert, so I was excited when Eric informed me that the members of L’Hiver have reformed as the group Klessa. Xylophone, clarinet, and accordion are just a few of the instruments you’ll hear on Sunday afternoon. Klessa’s sound is sprawling, loose, and somewhat unkempt, but what the band may lack in taughtness, they more than make up for with their authenticity and exuberance. These musicians are having fun, and the pleasure is infectious. This is music both you and your kids can enjoy.

Fans of progressive punk band Death to Tyrants will want to be sure to catch Sunday’s concert. Eric Gagne, Randy Patrick, Ben Rogers, Paul Gagne, and Ian Logan haven’t played together since 2006, so this reunion concert will be a treat for fans.

Death to Tyrants and Klessa can be seen at The Peterborough Historical Society at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 10th. Tickets are $7. You can purchase advance tickets for the show here or purchase a weekend pass.

There will also be free outdoor performances throughout the weekend by Tongue Oven, David Kontak, Rock Flint Contemporary Ensemble, Ouroboros, and more!

 

 

These ceramic creations by artist Megan Bogonovich are one of the many highlights at the *broke arts fair.

 

*Broke the Affordable Arts Fair

From 10-4 on Saturday be sure to stop by *broke at the Town Hall in Peterborough, where more than 50 artists will be selling work for under $50. *Broke is a welcome relief from the traditional, tired craft fairs held in basements and church halls all over New England. The work here is more cutting edge than you’re used to seeing at regional fairs, and you’ll find established artists, as well as younger, emerging artists, who have been selected from a wide-range of applicants.

I’ve been attending *broke for several years now and always leave with something unique in my bag. You’ll find everything from letterpress books, terrariums, handmade jewelery, ceramics, photography, collage, handmade retro-aprons (from Sarah Taylor), and much, much more. Artist Mary Goldthwaite-Gagne is the organizing force behind *broke. The quality of the work only seems to improve each year, and the event has become a much-anticipated, regional favorite.

One of the *broke artists I’ve been following with interest is Megan Bogonovich, who turns the familiar cliches of ceramics into unique, whimsical sculptures. I’m particularly fond of her all-white, clay pieces of animals. It’s the perfect blending of medium, humor, and charm. Her work pokes fun at kitsch, while somehow managing to transcend it.

 

Megan Bogonovich's ceramics are the perfect blending of medium, humor, and charm. Her work pokes fun at kitsch, while somehow managing to transcend it.

 

 

Megan Bogonovich's humorous cake toppers have become so popular that she has created her own Etsy shop.

 

Some of the other work that caught my eye while perusing the line-up include Miss Olivia Kennett‘s striking collages, the handmade work of textile artist and garden designer Emily Drury, Mary Remington’s handmade china cups, and Lillian Helen Graham‘s vintage tin jewelry. Also, for the first time, the Western New York Book Arts Center will be selling letterpress posters and small press poetry books at *broke.

 

Garden designer and textile artist Emily Drury will have one-of-a-kind terrariums for sale at *broke.

 

 

Drury's plant-dyed yarn will also be available.

 

 

For the first time, the Western New York Book Arts Center will be selling letterpress cards, posters, and small press poetry books at *broke.

 

 

Cards by the Western New York Book Arts Center. The press is based in Buffalo.

 

 

A 3-color print of the Buffalo Central Terminal, an art deco masterpiece that was built in 1929. This print is #7 in WNYBAC's series of architecture prints.

 

 

*Broke also features these unique collages by Miss Olivia Kennett.

 

 

A collage by Miss Olivia Kennett

 

Continue Reading…


The Sunday Poem : Gregory Orr

May 26, 2012 in Sunday Poem, Words with 1 Comment

 

Poet Gregory Orr (Photo courtesy the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation)

 

 

 

Memorial Day

 

1
After our march from the Hudson to the top
of Cemetery Hill, we Boy Scouts proudly endured
the sermons and hot sun while Girl Scouts
lolled among graves in the maple shade.
When members of the veterans’ honor guard
aimed their bone-white rifles skyward and fired,
I glimpsed beneath one metal helmet
the salmon-pink flesh of Mr. Webber’s nose,
restored after shrapnel tore it.

 

2
Friends who sat near me in school died in Asia,
now lie here under new stones that small flags flap
beside.
            It’s fifth-grade recess: war stories.
Mr. Webber stands before us and plucks
his glass eye from its socket, holds it high
between finger and thumb. The girls giggle
and scream; the awed boys gape. The fancy pocket watch
he looted from a shop in Germany
ticks on its chain.

 

 

 

 

About Gregory Orr

The author of more than ten collections of poetry and several volumes of essays, criticism, and memoir, Gregory Orr is a master of the short, personal lyric. His poetry has been widely anthologized and translated into at least ten languages. Observes critic Hank Lazer, “From Burning the Empty Nests (1973) to the present, Orr gradually developed the ability to fuse his incredible skill at visual precision—the signature of his image-based work in his very first book—with an insistent musical quality, joining visual precision with a beauty of sound.”

When Orr was 12, he killed his brother in a hunting accident, an event his family was never able to talk about. His mother died soon thereafter, and Orr found in poetry the transformative power of language. His near-death experience as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil rights movement, in which he was jailed and severely beaten, contributes to the urgency with which his poems seek transformation. In an NPR story on his craft, Orr states, “I believe in poetry as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions, and traumatic events that come with being alive.”

Orr has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. He has also been a Fulbright Scholar and a Rockefeller Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Culture and Violence, and he received the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. City of Salt (1995) was a finalist for the LA Times Book Award for Poetry.

He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002), which was chosen by Publisher’s Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books the year, and three books of essays, including Poetry As Survival (2002).

Orr received his B.A. from Antioch College and his MFA from Columbia University. He founded the MFA program at the University of Virginia in 1975, and was the poetry editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review from 1978 to 2003.

 

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“Memorial Day” © Gregory Orr. This poem originally appeared in The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2002) and was reprinted with permission from Copper Canyon Press. Author biography courtesy of The Poetry Foundation.

 



Not Your Average Flash Mob: The Copenhagen Phil Plays the Metro

May 25, 2012 in Sounds with 4 Comments

 

(Photo courtesy whatthecool.com)

The best link in this morning’s Twitter feed came from Christopher Jobson over at Colossal.

Last month the Copenhagen Philharmonic pulled off an audacious stunt—performing Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt on a crowded, moving metro train for unsuspecting passengers. The flash mob was created in collaboration with Radio Klassisk. All music was performed and recorded in the metro.

Peer Gynt is the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 play of the same name, written by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg in 1875. It premiered along with the play on February 24th, 1876 in Norway. Grieg later extracted eight movements to make two four-movement suites. As Erica Jeal explains in the Guardian, Grieg always wanted to write a truly Norwegian opera; he never did, but the incidental music he wrote for Ibsen’s play is the nearest he came. Grieg’s dream of seeing this piece performed out the theater and in the concert hall was never fulfilled in his lifetime.

The below video features the movement “Morning Mood,” which depicts the rising of the sun during Act IV, Scene 4 of Ibsen’s play. In this scene the play’s hero finds himself stranded in the Moroccan desert after his companions have taken his yacht and abandoned him there while he slept.

I love the juxtaposition of this quiet, peaceful piece with the moving metro train and bustling, preoccupied commuters. It’s also poignant to watch the expressions on the passengers faces as they transform from suspicion and discomfort into delight.

It just goes to prove that classical music doesn’t have to contained in concert halls or only enjoyed by an elite few.

Thanks to Christopher Jobson for passing on this link.

 

 

Further Listening

While Grieg lovers will undoubtedly have their own favorite Peer Gynt album, this 1998 EMI recording by Sir Thomas Beecham and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra remains a favorite amongst classical music aficionados. The album is part of EMI’s Masters Series and was recorded, mastered, or re-mastered at the internationally renowned Abbey Road Studios in London.

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz lovers might also be interested in Duke Ellington’s interpretation of Peer Gynt, which was recorded in 1960 on his Swinging Suites by Edward E. and Edward G. album. In 1990 the album was rereleased on CD as Three Suites along with Ellington’s reworking of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Earlier this year a remastered version of Ellington’s Peer Gynt was released along with Strayhorn’s Suite Thursday.

 


 

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A Sunday Poem Exclusive : The Debut of Mary Ruefle’s Erasure “Melody”

May 20, 2012 in Images, Sunday Poem, Words with 9 Comments

 

 

When Mary Ruefle’s book Melody: The Story of a Child arrived in the mail several weeks ago, I could smell the musty, antique pages and the faint whiff of stale cigarette smoke before I even opened the package. The beige envelope arrived by U.S. Postal Service, without insurance and without tracking–a method that is not only cheaper, but also less conspicuous, as Ruefle explained to me on the phone one afternoon.

Ruefle is anti-FedEx (a description that fits this writer in so many ways); she finds both the cost and the hyped-up urgency of express shipping unnecessary. She also hates preciousness. When I expressed concern about damaging the spine of the book during the scanning process, Mary was lackadaisical: “Don’t worry. It’s meant to be handled. That whole archival, white-glove thing is ridiculous anyway.”

A new erasure by Mary Ruefle is a rare event, and the publication of one online or in print even rarer. Her one-of-a-kind creations occasionally appear in journals or are purchased by museums or collectors. In 2006 Wave Books published the acclaimed volume A Little White Shadow, a book of ”haiku-like minifables, sideways aphorisms, and hauntingly perplexing koans,” as described by Publisher’s Weekly. Although Ruefle doesn’t own a computer or do email, she has a website where fans can enjoy perusing a small sampling of her one-of-a-kind erasures.

Still, these unique works are difficult to come by, so when Mary offered to share an erasure that had never been seen before, I jumped at the chance to publish it on Gwarlingo.

 

"I have resisted formal poetry my whole life," says Mary Ruefle, "but at last found a form I can't resist. It is like writing with my eyes instead of my hands."

 

Ruefle is one of today’s most admired practitioners of erasure poetry–the creation of a new text by disappearing the old text that surrounds it. Gwarlingo readers who enjoyed the erasure poetry of Jen Bervin last December will find much to appreciate in Ruefle’s work. Her writing is playful, poignant, humorous, and eccentric, and like no other voice I know.

It is fitting that Ruefle’s Sunday Poem should follow my article on Lewis Hyde and appropriation, for Melody is an excellent example of a creative work made from existing text, in this case, a 19th century novel called Melody: The Story of a Child.

In Ruefle’s skillful hands, we enter an alternative world that is far removed from the original saccharine plot of Laura E. Richards’ 1894 melodrama: “Miraculously saved from charred rubble, blind twelve-year-old Melody changes the lives of an entire community as well as her greedy captors.” Ruefle has transformed Richards’ religious melodrama into a compelling, concise, subversive work of art.

Why erase the words of other writers? As Jeannie Vanasco explains in The Believer, the “philosophical answer is that poets, as Wordsworth defines them, are ‘affected more than other men by absent things as if they were present.’ The more practical answer: compared to writing, erasing feels easy…To erase is to write, style is the consequence of a writer’s omissions, and the writer is always plural. To erase is to leave something else behind.”
 

"Friends in Fur and Feathers" by Mary Ruefle (Image courtesy Mary Ruefle and Gulf Coast magazine)

 

 

"Friends in Fur and Feathers" by Mary Ruefle (Image courtesy Mary Ruefle and Gulf Coast magazine)

 

 

"Friends in Fur and Feathers" by Mary Ruefle (Image courtesy Mary Ruefle and Gulf Coast magazine)

William Burroughs and Brion Gysin are both considered pioneers of the “cut up” technique, a method that involves cutting words from newspapers and magazines and rearranging them into new stories and poems. (Burroughs said he learned the technique from Gysin).

But text collage predates Burroughs and Gysin. At a Dadaist rally in the 1920s, Tristan Tzara offered to create a poem on the spot by pulling words at random from a hat. And in 1922 T.S. Eliot published The Waste Land, a touchstone of 20th century literature comprised partially of quotes from the Bible, Bram Stoker, Ovid, the Hindy Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Shakespeare, Whitman, and other sources.

But the technique can be traced back even further. In 1819 Thomas Jefferson cut and pasted numerous sections from various Bibles as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Using a razor, he arranged selected verses from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in chronological order, mingling excerpts from one text with those of another in order to create a single narrative. Jefferson’s new Bible, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, excluded the supernatural elements of the New Testament, as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.

English artist Tom Phillips is another pivotal erasure artist. His best known work is A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel, an erasure Phillips began creating in 1966 and continues to publish in new editions today. ”It is a forgotten Victorian novel I found by chance,” Phillips explained, “plundered, mined, and undermined its text to make it yield the ghosts of other possible stories, scenes, poems.” A more recent addition to the erasure canon is Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes, a sculptural piece of art and book created from Bruno Schulz’s book, The Street of Crocodiles.

 

Thomas Jefferson cut and pasted numerous sections from various Bibles as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Using a razor, he arranged selected verses from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in chronological order, mingling excerpts from one text with those of another in order to create a single narrative. (Photo by Hugh Talman courtesy the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History)

 

 

Jefferson's new Bible, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," excluded the supernatural elements of the New Testament, as well as perceived misinterpretations he believed had been added by the Four Evangelists.

 

 

English artist Tom Phillips is another pivotal erasure artist. His best known work is "A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel," an erasure Phillips began creating in 1966 and continues to publish in new editions today.

 

 

"It is a forgotten Victorian novel I found by chance," Phillips explained, "plundered, mined, and undermined its text to make it yield the ghosts of other possible stories, scenes, poems."

 

 

A more recent addition to the erasure canon is Jonathan Safran Foer's "Tree of Codes," a sculptural piece of art and book created from Bruno Schulz's book, "The Street of Crocodiles."

It is in this tradition that Mary Ruefle’s captivating erasures belong. Not only is Ruefle following in the footsteps of Jefferson, Gysin, and Phillips, but she is one of the finest erasure artists working today–a brilliant artist who deserves more attention than she’s received. Although she has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The MacDowell Colony, and the Guggenheim Foundation, as well as a Whiting Writers’ Award, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she remains on the fringes of the contemporary canon.

I suspect that Ruefle’s name would be better known were it not for the fact that she shuns technology and (to her credit) completely disregards the trends of the New York literary scene. Reufle isn’t interested in mass production, mass audiences, or mass anything for that matter. You aren’t going to find her on Facebook or Twitter or on a smart phone. Instead, you can find her in Bennington, Vermont, doing what she does best–writing, reading, and teaching. As her website says, “The only way to contact me is by contacting my press, Wave Books, or by running into someone I know personally on the street.”

While this unplugged lifestyle may not help Ruefle promote her writing, I suspect it does help her create these unique, thoughtful works of art. This is “slow art” at it’s best. Reading Melody, I was struck by the amount of time (and patience) it takes create a one-of-a-kind work like this, and also by the passage of time itself–by the threads of human connection that allowed this slender volume to make its way to Ruefle, then to me, and now onto you.

To flip through the pages of Melody is an intimate experience. The hand of the artist is in evidence on every page–in the smears of white-out, the fingerprint smudges, the playful, colorful swirls, the vexed, heavy black marks that transform text into a gaping void.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Several years ago, Mary gave me a copy of the Summer/Fall 2008 edition of Gulf Coast magazine, which includes pages from her ogle-worthy erasure Friends in Fur and Feathers. The excerpt also includes Ruefle’s “Remarks on the Erasures,” which is worth quoting here, since it reveals Ruefle’s own views on process:
Continue Reading…


The Sunday Poem : Carol Muske-Dukes

May 13, 2012 in Sunday Poem, Words with 0 Comments

 

Carol Muske-Dukes (Photo by Carlos Puma)

 

 

 

Home-Boys: Baby & Me (a Sapphic)

Ex-gang members. Driveby days over. Zero

Tattoos, tagging. Sippy cups, hoodies. Baby

Daddies gather, stubble-cheeked, holding infants.

Rock-a-bye Central.

 

Awkward former enemies, rubbing elbows,

Slow-bounce babies: parachute cradle. X-nay

Gangsta language – A is for Apple, only.

Alphabet shakedown.

 

Toddler nap-time. Whispering pretty teen-age

Mothers. Foxy counterparts, purple lipstick,

Dreamy I-Pod lullaby, off-key. Next up:

Diapering for two.

 

Outside: L.A. traffic jam, backfires, smog-red

Sunset. Inside: recipes, meal plans, flowered

Hand-wipes, homemade. Tabletop mirror mirrors

Pick-up sticks, Windex.

 

 

 

About Carol Muske-Dukes

Carol Muske-Dukes is a professor at the University of Southern California and a former Poet Laureate of California. She is also a co-editor of two anthologies and an author of eight books of poetry, four novels, and two essay collections.

Her latest book of poetry is Twin Cities (Penguin Poets Series, 2011). Her other recently released books are two anthologies: Crossing State Lines: An American Renga (co-edited with Bob Holman, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011) and The Magical Poetry Blimp Pilot’s Guide (co-edited with Diana Arterian, Figueroa Press, 2011).

Known for her sharp portraiture and strong imagery, Muske-Dukes drew on her own experiences teaching in a women’s prison for the bestselling Channeling Mark Twain (Random House, 2008); in 1972, she created Free Space, a creative writing program at the Women’s House of Detention on Riker’s Island. Her other novels are Life After Death (Random House, 2001), Saving St. Germ (Penguin, 1993) and Dear Digby (Viking, 1989).

Carol’s poetry publications include An Octave Above Thunder, New & Selected Poems (Penguin, 1997) and Sparrow, a National Book Award finalist published by Random House, 2003.

Carol’s 2002 collection of essays entitled Married to the Icepick Killer, A Poet in Hollywood, which humorously and insightfully describes her encounters with Hollywood following her marriage to the actor David Coleman Dukes, is comprised of essays and reviews from the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, and essays from the Los Angeles Times Book Review, where she was poetry columnist for years. Her collection of reviews and critical essays, Women and Poetry: Truth, Autobiography and the Shape of the Self was published in the “Poets on Poetry” series of the University of Michigan Press, 1997.

Many of her collections have been “New York Times Most Notable Books” or listed in the current year’s “Best Books.”

She has been a critic for the New York Times Book Review and the LA Times Book Review, and now writes a regular column for the Huffington Post. Her work appears everywhere from the The New Yorker and Slate, to The Paris Review and L.A. Magazine, and she is anthologized widely, including in Best American Poems, 100 Great Poems by Women, two anniversary issues of Best American Poetry, 2012, and many others.

A careful writer who balances rhetorical precision with a unique manner of relating personal experience, Muske-Dukes has discovered, in the words of one critic, how to “reach past anecdote.” Essayist Duane Ackerson noted of Muske-Dukes’ verse that, “while well-anchored in daily life, [it] moves far beyond to become a meditation on philosophical concerns like the nature of time and the value of life. This carefully achieved scope contributes much of what is powerful and persuasive in her work.”

Muske-Dukes published her first story at age eleven and began writing poetry at an even earlier age. “But I was fairly unconscious about the power of words and what it meant to have the power to use them until I came to New York in 1971,” she explained to Contemporary Authors. After becoming involved in several writing workshops, including Free Space, she “began to hear the dialogue between craft and sentiment, form and feeling.” Still she considers herself to be primarily a visual poet: “images come…easily to me, imagistic phrases litter my poems. I feel very close to painters, our processes are similar.”

The difference between “seeing” and “hearing” her writing is one of the distinctions Muske-Dukes finds between her poetry and her prose. “The problem for me is ‘hearing’ what I write—that’s why it was so refreshing for me to write [my first novel]. I found a voice, I trusted it, I let it speak. Beyond time and how time happens in a poem or a story, the relationship between eye and ear forms the difference for me between poetry and prose. In prose, the reader listens, the reader is being told a story, she hears, then sees—in poems, the reader sees aurally, the eye and ear become one.”

With the same precision that she composes her poetry, Muske-Dukes extracts real meaning from the images created by the words in each of her novels, and her wide variety of subjects demonstrate her broad learning and interests. “As many writers have said before me,” she told Contemporary Authors, “I didn’t choose my subjects, they chose me. I was ‘given’ a set of themes early in life and they’ve obsessed me and continue to do so.”

Muske-Dukes is professor of English and Creative Writing and founding Director of the PhD Program in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. She has also taught in the MFA programs at Columbia, UVA, UC Irvine, and the Iowa Writers Workshop. She also works with the teen literacy project  GET LIT: Words Ignite. She has received many awards and honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a 2012 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers award, an Ingram-Merrill, the Witter Bynner award from the Library of Congress, the Castagnola award from the Poetry Society of America and several Pushcart Prizes.

Her daughter Annie holds an advanced degree in molecular biology and works as a research scientist. On November 13, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Carol as California’s Poet Laureate.

To learn more about Carol Muske-Dukes and her work, please visit her website. You can also connect with her on Facebook.

 

 

This poem originally appeared in Plume, an online poetry journal. Edited by Daniel Lawless, Plume is publishing work by some of the finest contemporary poets writing today. You can sign up for the Plume newsletter here or follow Plume on Facebook. Thanks to Carol Muske-Dukes and Daniel Lawless for permission to reprint this poem.

Would you like the Sunday Poem delivered to your email box each week? Subscribe to Gwarlingo by email. You can also connect on Twitter or Facebook. You can read Gwarlingo’s entire Sunday Poem series here.

 

“Home-Boys: Baby & Me (a Sapphic)” appears in Twin Cities published by Penguin. Copyright © 2011 Carol Muske-Dukes. Used by permission of the author. All rights reserved. Biography courtesy Carol Muske-Dukes and The Poetry Foundation.

 


What’s the Future of Dance? Ivy Baldwin’s “Ambient Cowboy” Provides a Clue

May 10, 2012 in Events, Images, Performance with 2 Comments

 

Ivy Baldwin's new dance piece "Ambient Cowboy" included a live set design by MacArthur Fellow Anna Schuleit (Photo by Nafis Azad)

If you want to catch a glimpse of where dance and performance are headed, look no further than Ivy Baldwin’s Ambient Cowboy, on view last week at New York Live Arts.

It is fitting that a dance piece inspired by Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House should have a set design made of light. And not just any light—but a ribbon of light that glides over wall, floor, and dancers, then suddenly vanishes.

If this set design technique has been used extensively in a dance performance before now, I’d be surprised. I’m flummoxed why the reviews I’ve read haven’t made more of it. This is cutting edge technology—a live drawing combined with live movement—a technique that has the potential to forever alter the future of the performing arts. Think of Nam June Paik or Wolf Vostell’s pioneering use of television sets in their work in the late 50s and early 60s, and you’ll have a better sense of the landscape-altering possibilities new technologies are creating at this critical moment in contemporary art.

In this case the artist behind the iPad is MacArthur Fellow Anna Schuleit, who also designed the set for Ivy Baldwin’s Here Rests Peggy. Schuleit is never visible during the performance, but the immediacy of her mark is both intoxicating and suspenseful, like watching a tightrope walker balance on a wire. There are no erasers or ESCAPE buttons available to Schuleit. We are accustomed to watching performers on the stage, and performers do what they do in part because they find the immediacy of a live experience exhilarating to some degree. But not every painter has the stomach for live theater. Luckily, Schuleit is up to the task.

 

Choreographer and dancer Ivy Baldwin in "Here Rests Peggy," with set designs by Anna Schueit. The piece is a tribute to art collector Peggy Guggenheim (Photo by Nafis Azad courtesy Ivy Baldwin Dance)

 

Ivy Baldwin's Ambient Cowboy is both elegant and spare, which is not surprising for a dance piece inspired by a house made of glass (Photo by Nafis Azad)

 

Philip Johnson's Glass House was the inspiration for Ivy Baldwin's new dance piece "Ambient Cowboy." This photo by Robin Hill shows the Glass House at dawn (Photo courtesy the Philip Johnson Glass House Blog)

It is a daring concept on Ivy Baldwin’s part—a live performance inspired by a seminal work of architecture combined with the excitement of a live set design. Johnson’s work alone offers many ideas ripe for exploration: transparency, the manmade versus the natural, boundaries, wild versus the civilized, open space versus the contained. There were moments in Baldwin’s Ambient Cowboy when I sensed some connection between the performance and Johnson’s Glass House. When the stage was bathed in green light, for instance, I thought of the large, grassy lawn surrounding the house in New Canaan, Connecticut.

But early in the performance I decided to stop struggling to make such connections and to simply go with the experience. There were powerful moments in Ambient Cowboy that transcended any lingering confusion. While I may not have understood how Lawrence Cassella’s Lamaze-style panting or the dancers’ arched backs and rhythmic chest scratching connected with the larger whole, I found these movements compelling. Baldwin’s choreography also has it’s humorous side, and at times the dance becomes infused with animalic gestures that resemble tail wagging or deer darting and leaping through the forest.

 

Baldwin's choreography also has it's humorous side, and at times the dance becomes infused with animalic gestures that resemble tail wagging or deer darting and leaping through the forest. (Molly Poerstel-Taylor and Ivy Baldwin in "Ambient Cowboy." Photo by Yi-Chun Wu courtesy artsjournal.com)

 

 

The moment when Smith collapses onto the floor on her stomach and Schuleit’s lines begin to furiously scratch out her body was the most mesmerizing point in Ambient Cowboy, and also the best expression of this new technology’s potential. (Photo by Yi-Chun Wu courtesy artsjournal.com)

Lawrence Philip Cassella was particularly riveting to watch on stage, though Ivy Baldwin, Eleanor Smith, and Molly Poerstel-Taylor all had their luminous moments. Eleanor’s Smith’s solo a quarter of the way through Ambient Cowboy was a stand-out. Her ability to convey suffering and sadness through shaking, rocking, and facial expressions was haunting, The moment when Smith collapses onto the floor on her stomach and Schuleit’s lines begin to furiously scratch out her body was the most mesmerizing point in Ambient Cowboy, and also the best expression of this new technology’s potential. I would have liked to have seen more live drawing in Ambient Cowboy.

Justin Jones’ music and sound design was a strong addition, especially during the last half of the performance, and Chloe Z. Brown’s lighting design, with its wash of contrasting yellows and greens, blues and yellows, was a beguiling stage for both the dancers and Schuleit’s light drawings.

 

Pictured (Left to Right) Lawrence Cassella, Eleanor Smith, and Molly Poerstel-Taylor (Photo by Aram Jibilian courtesy New York Live Arts)

 

 

Risk-taking is directly related to the future of dance as it embraces new technologies like the live drawing seen in "Ambient Cowboy." Soon, some incredibly brave team of artists will come along and dare to walk the tightrope, this time without a safety net. ("Ambient Cowboy" photo by Nafis Azad)

Continue Reading…


The Art of Taking Risks : 13 Years, 3500 Artists, 7 Memorable Lessons

May 6, 2012 in Found, Images, News, Process with 16 Comments

 

Image from the vernacular photography collection of Mark Glovsky

When I was a girl, I was fearless. I was always falling out of trees, off of speeding bicycles, into muddy creeks. Once, I was bitten by an angry goose. I was knocked on the head accidentally with a baseball. A rock. And a basketball. On one hot summer evening, the rope of the tire swing broke and sent me and my best friend, Michael, hurling through the yard like a hockey puck. And then there was the morning I tumbled into my neighbor’s cactus garden. (Who knew that cacti spines came in so many size and color variations? Ouch.)

But somewhere on the way to adulthood, the youthful spirit of risk took its leave. Like so many other “responsible” adults, I succumbed to the tyranny of the regular paycheck. Although I never lived extravagantly, I traded my time for money, and money for things. Once on that spinning wheel, it’s hard to get off. Often we forget that it’s even possible to stop, reevaluate, and make radical changes to our lives. It feels too scary. Too hard and overwhelming.

This past year has forced me to stop and reconsider my options. Ten months ago, when I launched Gwarlingo, I never could have anticipated how quickly the site would grow and how enthusiastically it would be received. Some incredible opportunities have come my way as a result–I’ve made new friends, had fabulous conversations with readers (in person and online), traveled, flexed my writing, tech, and photography skills, been on the radio, been hired for new, challenging projects, and more. And every minute has been pure pleasure for me. For the first time in ages, I have no idea what surprises the day will bring when I get out of bed, and that excites me.
 

Image from the vernacular photography collection of Mark Glovsky

After thirteen remarkable years working at The MacDowell Colony, I’ve decided it’s time to take the leap into full-time self employment. The decision wasn’t easy, but I know it’s the right thing to do. Letting go of my 9-5 job (with a regular paycheck and benefits) will allow me to expand Gwarlingo and tackle some new creative projects. Is it a risk? Of course. But it’s a risk that takes me back to those free-wheeling, tree-climbing days.

While I’ll miss all of my friends at the Colony terribly, I can still be part of a creative community through Gwarlingo and through some new collaborative projects that are on the horizon.

Over 3500 artists have passed through the doors of MacDowell during my tenure there. That’s a lot of creative energy in one place. In the past few days a number of people have asked me about the experience of working at the Colony for over a decade. Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned in my thirteen years at the nation’s oldest artist retreat…

  • If you are open, receptive, and generous with others, the majority of people will be open, receptive, and generous in return.

    •  

  • Reserve judgment. Forget rumors. Listen and be patient. Most people will surprise you.

    •  

  • The most successful artists don’t have some mysterious gift that allows them to excel in their field. They simply work hard, work consistently, take creative risks, and don’t worry about what other people think. This is the real formula for creative success.

    •  

  • It is artists who have the best bird’s eye view of our culture today–they can tell us where we’ve been and where we’re going. They have the special ability to imagine alternatives to the present.

    •  

  • Artists can also view the world from a micro level. They can help us appreciate the unseen.

    •  

  • Solitude is an art. Unplugging and learning to be alone with yourself is essential if you want to do your best creative work. Technology is a tool. We should control it, not the other way around. Turn off your phone, Twitter, email, etc. Do it. The withdrawal symptoms will subside, eventually.

    •  

  • Being an artist is challenging in our society. It’s hard mentally, physically, and financially. It takes a village–a community of friends, fellow artists, and supporters who understand why you do the work you do and believe that it’s valuable. If you have the means, support artists and organizations, like MacDowell, who are helping artists realize their full potential. And if you’re an artist, don’t forget to leave your apartment or studio every now and then. Find a residency program, go to a reading, concert, or opening, or have fun with friends. Play and connection are just as important as hard work.

These are just a few of the lessons I’ll take with me when I go.

 

Image from the vernacular photography collection of Mark Glovsky

I have a lot of exciting ideas for growing Gwarlingo. I’m looking forward to organizing live events, providing more resources for artists on the site, and digging into much-discussed topics like money, fear, and technology and how these dovetail with the creative life.
 
And then there is my own creative work that’s been languishing–I have a novel to sell, stories to finish, and photographs to print.

Of course, I will also need to piece together the funding to make all of this happen. Traffic on the site continues to grow. Last month I had over 25,000 unique visitors to Gwarlingo. I expect this number to climb as I have more time to devote to the project. This opens up some new opportunities for sponsorships, which I’ll be exploring.

I’ll also be available for freelance and consulting projects. I have a large project with a nonprofit that will take part of the year, but I also look forward to working with artists who need help with grant writing, project proposals, social media, and artist statements. I have a few artists penciled into my calendar already.

 

Image from the vernacular photography collection of Mark Glovsky

My last day at The MacDowell Colony will be April 27th. Life is going to be very full until then, so please forgive me if I’m not able to post as regularly in the coming weeks. You will have more of my time and attention very soon.
 
Thanks to all of the staff, friends, and artists who have made my job at the Colony so memorable through the years. I also want to thank the friends, old and new, who have participated in the evolution of Gwarlingo.

We’re just getting started.
 

Image from the vernacular photography collection of Mark Glovsky


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A special thank you to Mark Glovsky for sharing these beautiful images from his found photography collection. Thanks Mark!

 
 


The Sunday Poem : Alicia Suskin Ostriker

May 5, 2012 in Sunday Poem, Words with 3 Comments

 

 

(Note: Today’s Sunday Poem is part of Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” series and is made possible by The Poetry Foundation)

Alicia Suskin Ostriker is one of our country’s finest poets. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey. I thought that today you might like to have us offer you a poem full of blessings.

–TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

 

 

 

The Blessing of the Old Woman,
the Tulip, and the Dog

 

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God’s love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow

To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended skirt

To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other dogs
can smell it

 

 

 

About Alicia Ostriker

Poet, critic, and activist Alicia Ostriker was born in 1937 in New York City. She earned degrees from Brandeis and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Twice a finalist for the National Book Award, Ostriker has published numerous volumes of poetry, including The Book of Seventy (2009), which received the Jewish National Book Award. Other books of poetry include No Heaven (2005); The Volcano Sequence (2002); Little Space (1998), a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize;The Crack in Everything (1996), which won the Paterson Award and the San Francisco State Poetry Center Award; The Imaginary Lover (1986), winner of the William Carlos Williams Award; A Woman Under the Surface (1983), Once More Out of Darkness (1974), and Songs (1969). Known for her intelligence and passionate appraisal of women’s place in literature, Ostriker’s poetry and criticism investigates themes of family, social justice, Jewish identity, and personal growth.

Ostriker’s books of criticism include For the Love of God: The Bible as an Open Book (2009),Dancing at the Devil’s Party: Essays on Poetry, Politics, and the Erotic (2000), and Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women’s Poetry in America (1983). Of her place in American letters, the writer Joyce Carol Oates noted: “Alicia Ostriker has become one of those brilliantly provocative and imaginatively gifted contemporaries whose iconoclastic expression, whether in prose or poetry, is essential to our understanding of our American selves.”

Ostriker told Contemporary Authors: “People who do not know my work ask me what I write about. I answer: love, sex, death, violence, family, politics, religion, friendship, painters and painting, the body in sickness and health. Joy and pain. I try not to write the same poem over and over. I try to stretch my own envelope, to write what I am afraid to write. Composing an essay, a review or a piece of literary criticism, I know more or less what I am doing and what I want to say. When I write a poem, I am crawling into the dark. Or else I am an aperture. Something needs to be put into language, and it chooses me. I invite such things. ‘Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me,’ as D.H. Lawrence says. I write as an American, a woman, a Jew, a mother, a wife, a lover of beauty and art, a teacher, an idealist, a skeptic. Critics seem often to remark that I am ‘intelligent’—but I see myself also as passionate. Actually, I am a combination of mind, body, and feelings, like everyone else, and I try to get them all into play.

“When I give poetry readings, my hope is to make people in my audience laugh and cry. They often do. The gamble is that my words will reach others, touch their inner lives. When I write literary criticism, I try to see and say clearly what is actually there in the work of other poets. Teaching is extremely important to me, my students are important, I try my best to awaken them to the delight of using their minds. Although clarity is unfashionable, I encourage it. When I teach midrash writing workshops—midrash is an ancient genre which involves elaborating on Biblical stories and characters—I want people to discover how powerfully the Bible speaks to the issues of our own time: gender roles, family dynamics, social class, freedom and slavery, war and peace, fear of the stranger, and the need to overcome that fear. These are my issues, too… All poets have their chosen ancestors and affinities. As an American poet I see myself in the line of Whitman, Williams, and Ginsberg, those great enablers of the inclusive democratic impulse, the corollary of which is formal openness. As a student I wrote in traditional closed forms, as did they—before they discovered the joy and meaning of open forms. To write in open forms is to improvise. Improvisatory verse is like doing a jazz solo: we know what we’ve just done, and the next line has to be connected to it, has to grow out of it somehow, but there is an essential unpredictability. This is an American invention because we act, in America, as if the future is partly shaped by the past, but is not determined by it. We are (a little bit) free.”

Ostriker has received awards and fellowships from the NEA, the Guggenheim and Rockefeller foundations, The MacDowell Colony, the Poetry Society of America, and the San Francisco State Poetry Center, among others. Ostriker has taught in the low-residency Poetry MFA program of Drew University and New England College. She lives in Princeton, NJ, is professor emerita of English at Rutgers University.

 

 

Would you like the Sunday Poem delivered to your email box each week? Subscribe to Gwarlingo by email. You can also connect on Twitter or Facebook. You can read Gwarlingo’s entire Sunday Poem series here.

 

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. “The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog” from The Book of Seventy by Alicia Suskin Ostriker, © 2009. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press. Introduction copyright ©2010 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Author biography courtesy of The Poetry Foundation website. American Life in Poetry ©2006 The Poetry Foundation

 


The Sunday Poem: Maureen McLane

May 1, 2012 in Sunday Poem, Words with 1 Comment

 

Maureen McLane (Photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey)

 

 

 

Adventure in the Clover or Today’s Destruction, Averted

 

Adventure in the clover

cleaving the hours

& the bees on a lawn

thus far immune

to a fungus elsewhere

killing them.

Why write music

anymore why

have a family

the composer

unmade the world

in advance

of its predicted end.

We cannot bear

his suspension

which only the careless

robins resolve and a low

drone of bees

whose venturing patterns

the lawn into

a sociable hum.

Tomorrow’s disaster

is always here.

You refuse

to see it stop

it.  J’accuse.

Meanwhile

there were these

bees’ dumb glory

a cunning weave

and clover’d

dance to a hive

that persists

unmolested

by bears in a neighbor’s

unseen field.

 

 

 

About Maureen N. McLane

Maureen N. McLane is the author of World Enough: poems (FSG, 2010) and Same Life: poems (FSG, 2008), and two books on British romantic poetry and culture, Balladeering, Minstrelsy, and the Making of British Romantic Poetry (2008) and Romanticism and the Human Sciences (2000), both from Cambridge University Press. An Associate Professor of English at NYU, she has published essays on poetry, fiction, teaching, and sexuality in The New York Times, Boston Review, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and many other venues. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle’s Nona Balakian Award for Excellence in Book Reviewing, she is currently a contributing editor at Boston Review. She has been a MacDowell Fellow in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Her book, My Poets, is forthcoming from FSG in 2012. You can read Robyn Creswell’s interview with Maureen McLane at The Paris Review website.

Click here to explore the entire Sunday Poem series, which includes work by Meghan O’Rourke, Eduardo Corral, Andrea Cohen, D. Nurkse, and Anzhelina Polonskaya. You can also add a comment or share this poem on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

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“Adventure in the Clover or Today’s Destruction, Averted” © Maureen McLane. Printed with permission by the author. This poem was originally published on Gwarlingo on August 21, 2011.

 


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