Sunday, February 19, 2006
BASIL KING TO READ ON MARCH 14
Boog City presents
d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press
Skanky Possum (Austin, Texas)
Tues. March 14, 6 p.m., free
ACA Galleries
529 W.20th St., 5th Flr., NYC
Event will be hosted by
Skanky Possum editors Hoa Nguyen and Dale Smith
Featuring readings from
Basil King
Kristen Prevallet
and more poets and musicians
Boog City presents
d.a. levy lives: celebrating the renegade press
Skanky Possum (Austin, Texas)
Tues. March 14, 6 p.m., free
ACA Galleries
529 W.20th St., 5th Flr., NYC
Event will be hosted by
Skanky Possum editors Hoa Nguyen and Dale Smith
Featuring readings from
Basil King
Kristen Prevallet
and more poets and musicians
REVIEW OF EILEEN TABIOS' I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED
first written on Sam Rasnake's blog is now published in Blue Fifth Review, Winter 2006 issue. HERE.
first written on Sam Rasnake's blog is now published in Blue Fifth Review, Winter 2006 issue. HERE.
Friday, February 10, 2006
EILEEN TABIOS' VERSION OF ENGLISH IS REVIEWED!
Sam Rasnake posts a review of Eileen Tabios' I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED at his "Sam of the Ten Thousand Things" blog. Here's Sam's overview of the book, before he gives a close reading of one poem, "Hair":
Ma-tsu, an 8th century, a.d., Ch’an master, once asked a student (Pai-chang) to explain the actions of a flock of wild geese in the sky. The student replied that the geese where flying away from him – a typical human response. Correcting the student with a whack to the head, Ma-tsu’s correction emphasized that the geese weren’t flying away from anything, but were flying into their own existence. This example is quite appropriate, when considering the poetry of Eileen Tabios, a Filipino who now resides in California, and winner of, among other awards, the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry and the Pen/Oakland Josephine Miles National Literary Award. Her mammoth work I Take Thee, English, for My Beloved (Marsh Hawk, 2005) is a strong gathering of many forms that express her serious theme: escape. Her version of escape, like Ma-tsu’s teaching on the flight of the geese, is more focused on escape into rather than escape from. Escape, as theme, is deftly illustrated by the trope of flight. This gives the work, despite its size of five hundred pages, a weightless quality – in terms of possibilities.
The book’s layout in five major sections and numerous subsections was both appealing and challenging to me. I should add that the main sections – and many of the subsections – are, in effect, collections unto themselves, more than able to stand on their own; yet, all function harmoniously as part of the whole. My initial response was that I was at the beginning of a great journey, and that expectation has been rewarded. Tabios’ writing style strikes me as varied and reader friendly; also, the recurrence of specific imagery and language, while adding resonance and depth to the beauty of this work, is haunting.
As a poet, Tabios is witty and provoking. This collection, while experimental, is universal in its detailed expression of a very personal and private world, to which Tabios gives the reader access. The book’s numerous forms include memoir, hay(na)ku, prose poem, play, couplet variation, story, footnote, draft-form showing corrections. The premise of the book is an unusual ceremony that has its full and unusual expression in the notion of “Poetry as a way of life”. Tabios’ approach to this “way of life” lends fiction-like qualities to the collection, creating a grouping of story-pieces that function as a novel.
****
You can see the entire review here.
Sam Rasnake posts a review of Eileen Tabios' I TAKE THEE, ENGLISH, FOR MY BELOVED at his "Sam of the Ten Thousand Things" blog. Here's Sam's overview of the book, before he gives a close reading of one poem, "Hair":
Ma-tsu, an 8th century, a.d., Ch’an master, once asked a student (Pai-chang) to explain the actions of a flock of wild geese in the sky. The student replied that the geese where flying away from him – a typical human response. Correcting the student with a whack to the head, Ma-tsu’s correction emphasized that the geese weren’t flying away from anything, but were flying into their own existence. This example is quite appropriate, when considering the poetry of Eileen Tabios, a Filipino who now resides in California, and winner of, among other awards, the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry and the Pen/Oakland Josephine Miles National Literary Award. Her mammoth work I Take Thee, English, for My Beloved (Marsh Hawk, 2005) is a strong gathering of many forms that express her serious theme: escape. Her version of escape, like Ma-tsu’s teaching on the flight of the geese, is more focused on escape into rather than escape from. Escape, as theme, is deftly illustrated by the trope of flight. This gives the work, despite its size of five hundred pages, a weightless quality – in terms of possibilities.
The book’s layout in five major sections and numerous subsections was both appealing and challenging to me. I should add that the main sections – and many of the subsections – are, in effect, collections unto themselves, more than able to stand on their own; yet, all function harmoniously as part of the whole. My initial response was that I was at the beginning of a great journey, and that expectation has been rewarded. Tabios’ writing style strikes me as varied and reader friendly; also, the recurrence of specific imagery and language, while adding resonance and depth to the beauty of this work, is haunting.
As a poet, Tabios is witty and provoking. This collection, while experimental, is universal in its detailed expression of a very personal and private world, to which Tabios gives the reader access. The book’s numerous forms include memoir, hay(na)ku, prose poem, play, couplet variation, story, footnote, draft-form showing corrections. The premise of the book is an unusual ceremony that has its full and unusual expression in the notion of “Poetry as a way of life”. Tabios’ approach to this “way of life” lends fiction-like qualities to the collection, creating a grouping of story-pieces that function as a novel.
****
You can see the entire review here.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
CONGRATULATIONS TO HARRIET ZINNES
who has been included in the 2006-7 Marquis Who's Who of American Women.
who has been included in the 2006-7 Marquis Who's Who of American Women.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
FEBRUARY 12: MARSH HAWK POETS READ ON BOTH COASTS!
East Coast:
The Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC 10014, 212-989-9319: 6:00 PM
Marsh Hawk Press presents
Jane Augustine
Patricia Carlin
Tom Fink
Ed Foster
Burt Kimmelman
Sandy McIntosh
Sharon Olinka
and Rochelle Ratner.
Cover $6 (includes one house drink).
West Coast:
POETRY FLASH AT CODY'S
Sunday, February 12, 7:30
Poetry Flash at Cody's presents
a poetry reading by
Catherine Daly &
Eileen R. Tabios
Cody's Books
2454 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley
www.poetryflash.org
$2 at the door
East Coast:
The Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, NYC 10014, 212-989-9319: 6:00 PM
Marsh Hawk Press presents
Jane Augustine
Patricia Carlin
Tom Fink
Ed Foster
Burt Kimmelman
Sandy McIntosh
Sharon Olinka
and Rochelle Ratner.
Cover $6 (includes one house drink).
West Coast:
POETRY FLASH AT CODY'S
Sunday, February 12, 7:30
Poetry Flash at Cody's presents
a poetry reading by
Catherine Daly &
Eileen R. Tabios
Cody's Books
2454 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley
www.poetryflash.org
$2 at the door
Monday, February 06, 2006
FEATURE ARTICLE ON EILEEN TABIOS
Munting Nayon, a publication in the Netherlands, presents an interview with Eileen Tabios which touches on her two Marsh Hawk Press titles, I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved and Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole. The interview, conducted by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, is reprinted on line at http://goodchatty.blogspot.com/2006/02/rochita-loenen-ruiz-writes-feature.html
Munting Nayon, a publication in the Netherlands, presents an interview with Eileen Tabios which touches on her two Marsh Hawk Press titles, I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved and Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole. The interview, conducted by Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, is reprinted on line at http://goodchatty.blogspot.com/2006/02/rochita-loenen-ruiz-writes-feature.html
Friday, February 03, 2006
ED FOSTER REVIEWED IN JACKET
In JACKET 29, John Olson reviews Ed Foster's new Marsh Hawk Press release What He Ought To Know, New and Selected Poems. Here's an excerpt:
"This is especially true of Foster’s poetry. It reads in its entirety like a hymn to intellectual beauty. Its mood is almost always one of deep contemplation, a search for harmony among tangled relations. Each poem is an attempt to bring an inner light to the surface of the paper. The desire for intimacy is reverential, yet restrained and warmed by a private friction. This results in a language that is measured in its tone and sensuality, that is somehow able to be personal and impersonal simultaneously. Each word has a feeling of critical distinction, as if distilled out of some more turbulent compound of longing and agitation."
In JACKET 29, John Olson reviews Ed Foster's new Marsh Hawk Press release What He Ought To Know, New and Selected Poems. Here's an excerpt:
"This is especially true of Foster’s poetry. It reads in its entirety like a hymn to intellectual beauty. Its mood is almost always one of deep contemplation, a search for harmony among tangled relations. Each poem is an attempt to bring an inner light to the surface of the paper. The desire for intimacy is reverential, yet restrained and warmed by a private friction. This results in a language that is measured in its tone and sensuality, that is somehow able to be personal and impersonal simultaneously. Each word has a feeling of critical distinction, as if distilled out of some more turbulent compound of longing and agitation."
