29 Friday May 2009
Posted in Poetry by JC
My Eye Ku entitled Things appears in today’s a handful of stones.
Edited by Fiona Robyn, their motto is “celebrating the extraordinary in the ordinary” and they do it by publishing a very short but packed poetic blast each day. It’s one of my favorite sites to follow, and a place I’m happy to be. Check them out at http://www.ahandfulofstones.com.
Permalink to my poem: http://www.ahandfulofstones.com/2009/05/i-ku-2-things.html.
28 Thursday May 2009
Posted in Cleveland, Poetry by Others, Poetry Events
On May 8th, 9th and 10th, I had the opportunity to be attend and participate in Tres Versing the Panda, a three day poetry soiree sponsored by Green Panda Press in conjunction with The Temple, Inc. and a host of cool Cleveland-area spots like The Lit, Mac’s Backs, the Coventry Library, the Barking Spider Tavern, and Robert Banks‘ studio. I filmed a great deal of the weekend and took a lot of still photos. You can see my photos in several albums on my Facebook site. And I’ve begun posting video clips in the Crisis Chronicles Online Library. (Click here to see what’s been posted so far.)
Here’s one I’ll be adding to the Library soon – featuring Ray McNiece and his Tongue-in-Groove band performing Ray’s “Love Song for Cleveland” at The Lit on Saturday May 9th, 2009.
Love Song for Cleveland by Ray McNiece & Tongue-in-Groove
Two clips I’ve added to the Online Library already are Eighteen (by Cleveland poet, musician, and multimedia artist r.a. washington) and The Wild Dog Distinguished Service Cross (by literary legend Charles Potts of Walla Walla, Washington). Check ’em out. And look for much more soon at http://library.crisischronicles.com.
I read a few poems (John Cage Engaged and Uncaged, Allen Ginsberg Sucks, and Identity Crisis) on May 9th at The Lit as well. Because I was running out of space on my video camera’s built-in hard drive, I didn’t film my own performance. I figured you could hear me anytime, anyway. But a friend picked up my camera during my reading and captured a fragment of my Cage poem – which I didn’t discover until a couple of weeks later when I began to sift through my footage. For curiosity’s sake, here’s that clip as well:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpHJHOZ78hQ
27 Wednesday May 2009
Posted in Online Library
Yesterday evening I was quite surprised to learn my Facebook friend and fellow poet Don Coorough of Arizona had bestowed the Kreativ Blogger award on seven blogs and my Crisis Chronicles Online Library was one of them! I dig his Shoreline Driftwood blog, too, and encourage you to check it out here: http://shorelinedriftwood.blogspot.com.
The way the award works is I’m supposed to list seven things I love and then bestow my own Kreativ Blogger award on seven blogs. Then whoever receives the award can do the same (if he or she desires). I’m tempted to pick my best friends’ blogs – the usual suspects I’ve already mentioned either here or on the online library at some point (you know who you are). But I think instead I’ll mix it up a bit – pick seven blogs I like but don’t believe I’ve ever “pimped” online before today.
First, here are seven things you might not know I love:
Guinea pigs – before I went to the nether lands in 1993, they were the only pets I cared to have
Plymouths – even though Ford paid Dad’s bills while I grew up
Skechers shoes – for when I’m not wearing boots or sandals
West Virginia – where I was born (they call it almost heaven)
Alaskan king crab – could probably go without eating anything else forever
Juneau, Alaska – though I have yet to make it there, I’ve always yearned
Civil War battlefields – though I consider myself an extreme pacifist
And here are seven blogs you might not know I dig:
Cleveland Tapes – by r.a. washington (http://clevelandtapes.blogspot.com)
Zinta’s Reviews – by Zinta Aistars (http://zintareviews.blogspot.com)
Poems and Poetics – by Jerome Rothenberg (http://poemsandpoetics.blogspot.com)
Silliman’s Blog – by Ron Silliman (http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com)
Arroyo Chamisa – by Alex Gildzen (http://arroyochamisa.blogspot.com)
X Poetics – by the editors of Lipstick Eleven (http://xpoetics.blogspot.com)
Kuća od stakla – by Tatjana Debeljački (http://kucaodstakla.blogspot.com) – who recently published my Maiku
I could list a whole lot more I like as well, but I’ll stick to the rule of 7.
26 Tuesday May 2009
Posted in Pets and Animals, Poetry by JC, Writing and Poetry
This morning I stumbled across a list of one person’s Top 100 Poetry Blogs. It includes a few blogs I visit semi-regularly and might include on my own top 100 list; but it excludes a couple dozen of my favorite poetry blogs, and I’m totally unfamiliar with most of the blogs it lists. The site’s URL suggests that this might be an old list (from 2005). Still, it’s new and interesting to me and might be the same to some of you. Here’s the link: http://www.universityreviewsonline.com/2005/10/top-100-poetry-blogs.html.
The other day, when I posted my Cleveland Street Scenes blog, I also took a few photos of our dogs:
Lady
Leda
Lucky
Finally, I recently rediscovered a rather embarrassing poem of mine that was published in the Spring 1988 issue of Images, published by Lorain County Community College. Funny thing – the publication is actually very nicely done. I love the overall design, find the art and photography in it to be mostly excellent, and the poetry not bad at all – except the piece I wrote. Who knows why they published it? Anyway, feel free to throw what you like at your computer screen because here it is:
SLOWLY
The flakes descend upon my windowsill
I am refreshed
The night sky peaceful, yet at times ominous
This is one of those times
I hear a distant whistle through my dream
And wonder what the train of fate will deliver
I feel somewhat subdued
Loneliness and I have quite a tie together
I turn to the black and white portable on the mantle
The rabbit outwits the hunter
I begin to feel hunted
The snow has ceased to fall
Melancholy handcuffs me to the medicine cabinet
I need not to think of the past
I can’t help it
Oh good! Valium left over from my surgery!
Just enough
I have to forget
Now on my windowsill falls a dreary rain
Myself I drown
I feel kinda sleepy
Goodnight…
–John Brian Burroughs, spring 1988
25 Monday May 2009
Posted in Cleveland, Writing and Poetry
24 Sunday May 2009
Posted in Cleveland, Elyria photos
Seen while riding my bike down Cleveland Street between Olive and East Bridge in Elyria today:
Silent Security Signal (SS es?)
Jug Band Blue
Chronic Too
Chair the Wealth
Watch yer Behind
Fuck an Outlet
Gimme All Your Lovin’
Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
Please Don’t Leave Me
Don’t You Go
* * *
23 Saturday May 2009
Posted in Religion and Philosophy
It can cause folks to like or dislike you. It can make your career or make people weary – and sometimes both at the same time. Promote your work too little and folks might think you lack confidence or commitment. Promote it too much and folks might consider you an egomaniac.
Is all art self promotion of a sort?
Is self promotion inherently good or bad? And if it depends, where do you draw the line?
Do we sometimes use self-deprecation, consciously or subconsciously, to promote ourselves?
Can we at least say writing a poem or posting a blog is a form of self promotion (unless, perhaps, we do it anonymously)?
Might reading a book, eating a meal, and taking care of one’s health be forms of self promotion as well?
What if I promote my blog showing off other people’s talents? Does that qualify as self promotion or other people promotion?
And what if some of our self promotion is self destructive? Does it still count as promotion?
I have more questions than answers. But while I continue to ponder, I encourage you to leave your own thoughts on self promotion below.
self-portrait at the Coventry Library in Cleveland Heights on 10 May 2009
22 Friday May 2009
Posted in Poetry by JC
Dirty Laundry, a.k.a. ring around the collar
cream wall miasma
plaster orgasmanon
leaking resurgent
era detergent on
past slights and fights
that can’t be dissolved
only temporarily resolved
too incredibly involved
maybe one day
you’ll declare me
absolved
21 Thursday May 2009
Posted in Cleveland, Poetry Events
If you missed last night’s Lix and Kix featuring Steven B. Smith and Kathy Ireland Smith on the courtyard at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland, you missed one of the best events of this poetry packed month of May on Ohio’s north coast. Thanks to all who came out and made it a fanfuckingtastic night, especially the Smiths! Here are a few of my photos. More will be coming soon to a blog and/or Facebook album near you. Video highlights will appear as soon as humanly possible in my Crisis Chronicles Online Library and on Ken Kitt’s PoetryVidz YouTube channel.
Steven B. Smith
PoetryVidz in the making
Kathy Ireland Smith
Marc Mannheimer
Geri Lynne Burroughs
Steve Goldberg
Jim Lang
Christina Brooks
Lix & Kix disco ball
Jen Pezzo and Dianne Borsenik
Debbie Goings
John Burroughs
Christopher Franke
Smith table
Vertigo Xi’an Xavier
Kimberley Diamond Bones
Kathy Ireland Smith
Dianne Borsenik
Ken Kitt
Kathy, me, Dianne, and Smith [photo by Christina Brooks]
Highly recommended sites:
www.agentofchaos.com – largest art and poetry site on the internet
www.walkingthinice.com – one of my favorite blogs
www.thecitypoetry.com – hot zine straight outta Cleveland
Thank you!
18 Monday May 2009
Posted in Cleveland, Poetry Events
Lady and Smith outside the Brandt Gallery in Cleveland in July 2008
[photo by Jesus Crisis – with Visible Voice Books in the background]
We’ve had some awesome Lix and Kix events, as anyone who’s attended can attest – and tomorrow we’re about to have another. I always look forward to these events, but in some ways this is the month I’ve been most excited about for some time. Smith and Lady, our featured poets, are two people who’ve played an enormous role in my getting involved in the Cleveland poetry scene. They’re the first folks to ever invite me to a poetry reading (though at the time I declined). Their lives convinced me that poetry is meant to be lived as much as written – and they’ve lived it as much as anyone I know. Lady is the founder and editor of the cutting edge art/lit zine The City Poetry. Smith for many years published the legendary ArtCrimes journal and is the creative force behind www.agentofchaos.com, which according to at least one authority is the largest poetry and art website anywhere. Not only are they two of the best poets I’ve had the pleasure of meeting – they are two of the best photographers, editors and artists as well. Together Smith and Lady have chronicled their creative endeavors and myriad journeys across the world and through the inner depths of their souls at what has become one of my favorite blogs: www.walkingthinice.com. They’ve also written a compelling memoir of Smith’s life entitled Criminal – and are currently looking for a publisher. I’ve read a proof copy and think it’s as good as (I daresay even better than) anything Kerouac wrote (And I’m a fan of Kerouac).
When we started Lix and Kix, we dreamt of having Smith and Lady feature, but never imagined it would happen, since at the time they were living in Oaxaca, Mexico, and had no plans to return to the United States. But they’ve now returned home, and Lix and Kix are privileged to host their first featured reading back in Cleveland – at Visible Voice Books on Kenilworth (in the Tremont neighborhood) at 7 pm on Tuesday 19 May 2009. Please come check ’em out!
Weather permitting, we’ll hold the reading outside in Visible Voice’s courtyard. Don’t forget the bookstore has a wine bar – I hear their wines are every bit as good as those at our old venue down the street, but cost half as much. Here’s a poster my co-host Dianne Borsenik designed for this special event:
The Crisis Chronicles Online Library is proud to feature works by
Steven B. Smith and Kathy Ireland Smith, a.k.a. Smith and Lady:
Smith: http://library.crisischronicles.com/categories/Smith%20(Steven%20B.).aspx
Lady: http://library.crisischronicles.com/categories/Smith%20(Kathy%20Ireland).aspx
