Larissa Shmailo

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Alfred Corn

2012-01-30T18:41:00.001-05:00

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION turns full circle, ending on the work of Alfred Corn. Caveat lector: Behind the measured verse grins the face of war.

ARBEIT MACHT FREI*

Is what the Dachau Jews would see,
Where Hitler chose to lodge them.
Now, bombs have set Iraqis free—
At least, those who could dodge them.

*”Work Will Set You Free””

EXCHANGE OF FIRE

Missiles, tanks, smart-bombs, and, when things got hot,
Cries of offended dignity:
“I’m entitled to this technology,
But you barbarians are not.”

“INTERVENTION IS NOT WAR”

Well, no, and “ethnic cleansing” isn’t murder.
Nor was the Führer’s rabid New World Order
State terror. Nor are pre-emptive strikes on weaker
Peoples a crime—or not to the power-seeker.

CASCADE OF FACES

Five seconds of fame drag them down
the screen, ranks, names, faces, ages:
Staff Sergeant Hannah Nagel, 24.
Private Tom Abeel, 19.
Major Luís Moreno, 33.
Lance Corporal Rafiq Ibrahim, 20.
Captain Roger Kean, 31.
Candid American faces, unblinking,
unafraid, unvenal, snapped
a year, two years ago, not yet reviled
or revered, the newscast’s evening crop.

Images swallowed up, transfigured,
launched into an unlived future.

*

On the Oval Office desk,
dead center, one hot white spot
lights the briefing’s final page.
A chief executive is working late,
behind him, tall windows onto
a sky petroleum black,
strewn with trembling sparks.

*

In another hemisphere noon towers over
a desert city where his signature ignited
hair, skin, and eyes of the unknown civilian.
One by one, for how many terrorized
hundred-thousands the precedent was set,
roofs, walls, thundering down on their screams.

*

He reaches to snap out the lamp, ambles
to a door that closes on his steps.
Official darkness. Clockwise stellar bodies,
in their long-term impartiality, continue
rinsing the blackboard,
rinsing the blackboard—
which in a decade, or a century,
will free itself from any obligation
to save a chalked-up tally of the cost.

WHAT THE THUNDER SAYS

A crack a second and a third splinter as the dam fractures
Soundbolts spiking down through granite a dynamite
That means concussive rage detonations battering
Skull ribcage spine an earthquake high in the ramparts
Stone ramparts blocking a sun no longer strong enough to rise

The houses collapse roof skews off to one side a broken
Beam crushes doors windows in its crazed veer a drill
Screams into rooms to shiver walls timbers floor ratcheting
Through the garden spewing hoses of dirt spinning flagstones
Into the air while a tank that dives from a cloud flattens on impact

Whole quarries of rock shear off tumble smash shock their way
Off the mountain megatons of shattered booms packed stacked
On the air collapsing around your ears and what the din sounds
Out is the last thought which already owns you you and yours
Nothing holds off the thunderstone it says I am your death.

NEW ENGLAND/CHINA

Wakefield: Did some romantic alderman
Settle that name on our recycled mill-town?
I know Rhode Island is Red Island, or
Island of Roses... And, look, buds on Mother’s
Haviland china, fifty years of attic
Storage ended, are pink, flushed with excitement
At being propped in ranks along the plate-rail
Of cabinets a shipwright made for this
Centenarian house I signed the deed on
Nine days ago. No way would I have served
Dinner on old porcelain in designer
Manhattan, my home turf for more than half
A prodigal life-span once I’d waved goodbye
To the South. But here it fits, a tasteful, gold-rimmed
Victorian replacement for the showy
Chinese export bowls and plates how many
Prosperous New England tables boasted
Back in the bullish age of clipper ships.
Those clashing pinks and reds epitomized
Spice roses of the Indies gunboats opened
To enrich our Union, sea to shining sea.

Following the Vicar of Wakefield’s homely
Advice, I’ve put a “Rose Medallion” teacup
(Bought for two dollars at a thrift shop) here
In this eastern window so its damasked pattern
Can go translucent as light rejuvenates
A naïvely rendered pride of mandarins
Hard at their silken round of tea and gossip
And calligraphy. The Vicar’s older daughter
Olivia, with her sensibility,
Might have been drawn into their circle, even
If her graver sister, Sophia, wouldn’t follow.

Goldsmith, Mother most likely never read,
But Gone with the Wind she surely did and like
White Southern women of her day (except
The ambitious few who idolized Miss Scarlett)
Modeled herself on Melanie—for instance,
She never told black friends and workers they
Should “know their place” and stay in it. Her son,
If he works up his nerve, can copy her
(And risk a snub) by taking lemon pie
To the family next door, whose ancestry
Is African; and probably Narragansett,
Too, or else Pequot. Out beyond the teacup
I see their children, the older climbing up
On the garbage bin while holding an umbrella,
A taut silk octagon of alternating
Ebony and ivory pie-wedge panels
That read as either a black Maltese cross
Against a cream-white background, or a white
Against a black. She’s poised to make her skydive
But seems to doubt the parachute; and none
Of her younger sister’s high-pitched razzing works.
A pause, a balance; but she doesn’t leap—
The Sophia of this family circle, just
As her wilder sibling’s the Olivia.
Now their mother’s called them to lunch, their game
Shelved with no decisions made, no plunge
Into the aerial realm of weightless pleasure.

I’ll have my self-prepared baked codfish on
These resurrected roses—a chance to ponder
The leap I leapt in settling here and calling
The Ocean State, at last, the Golden Decades’
Ultimate Cathay. So, veteran frigate,
You, unlike the Pequod, may now dock
And prove that not all sexagenarians
Are skippers hot to tap-dance round the deck
Like Ahab, thirst for blood a scorching trade wind
That gives them forward thrust. The middle ground!
Vicarious pastimes, watching children’s games
Or tending post-colonial and post-
Postmodern gardens, should amount to a sound
Retirement plan, Sophia, calm, deific
Wisdom, serving as hand-hewn figurehead
When our vessel comes to port. If goods we heft
Down the gangplank are only earthenware,
So be it, Yankees also favor those,
Judging from bits of broken plates and cups
I dug up planting the hybrid tea a friend
Gave me, the spot selected not haphazard,
Instead, exactly where a rose should go.
He laughed when told I’d named the house Knew Place—
A tribute to comedy’s most tragic playwright.

But try to name or know a place you never
Lived in: Beijing. Nablus. Kabul. Baghdad...
Imagination’s olive branch stops short,
Absorbing the news that soldier and civilian
Sprawl face down in crimson pools enlarged
With all they owned, one clotting upshot of
Capitalism’s abstract cannibalism.
Prosperity. Ours, but insubstantial,
Like all dream-castles based on greed, up there
Above the outcome. Who’d listen if I called
Our captains by their real names? They won’t,
Conceded, but it doesn’t seem to matter.
Out of the deeps, a voice: Permission denied.
No port for the tempest-tossed, you haven’t yet
Begun to fight. While you breathe, you won’t retire.

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION : Marc Vincenz

2012-01-27T21:30:00.001-05:00

Marc Vincenz is Swiss-British and was born in Hong Kong. His recent books include Upholding Half the Sky (MiPOesias, 2010), The Propaganda Factory, or Speaking of Trees (Argotist, 2011) and Pull of the Gravitons (forthcoming Right Hand Pointing, 2012). His translation of Swiss poet Erika Burkart’s Secret Letter is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. Last year, his poetry was nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize.

The Mystical Art of Accounting

“When you have to deal with a beast you have to treat him as a beast…”— Harry S. Truman

It’s all about volume,
capacity per square metre / foot
(whether metric or imperial floats your proverbial boat);
although, there are others
(a whole slew of choices, in fact):
the Tokyo Tsubo for instance; sounds like soy-infused Wasabi sauce;
the Seoul Pyeong: true measure of an average ninth century Korean male—
arms and legs fully splayed, face down prostrating, flailed by the brunt
of a Mongolian warlord’s cat ‘o nine tails, an ideal size for a room,
I am told; or perhaps face up, making perfect circles
under cherry blossoms in the snow, stargazing,
defining the rules of space and numbers.

Imperial Peking had,
and Social Democratic Communist Beijing
still has the Mu, which possibly derives it’s name
from the exhausted groan of the water buffalo—
a measure for judging the extent of rice paddies before harvest.
Everything is weighted, ruled, cubed, boxed, angled, triangled—
lucky we came up with these handy things, numbers.
Now we can finally count the stars in the sky—
6000 with the naked eye—and we know useful things
like the distance from the equator to the moon
represents sixty-nine times the girth of a full grown earth.

Funny that, the number 69—
normally I think of being twenty one again,
in the back of my Unbeatable Bonk Bug with Maria-Rosa,
Hispanic-American goddess, gently calculating
trigonometric angles, postulating X/Y positions.
Without numbers we wouldn’t know our up from down,
we wouldn’t even know there are more than two of anything at all—
just be walking on straight lines in flat spaces, like Pacman,
we wouldn’t know an arse from an elbow, really.
Yet, these are mostly distances—things men have conquered,
numbers have far reaching consequences:

Analysts know how much Namibia is worth on paper,
in Dollars, Euros, Rupees; its equivalent in derivatives;
and in conjunction with funded institutions of science,
how much bacteria and moss can contribute
to the global economic balance sheet—
it has all been tallied out, audited down
to the last decimal point, then stamped,
duly notarised and sealed in hot wax for posterity.
There is surely a secret book,
hidden in the darkest catacombs of the Vatican
where all calculations are indexed for future evidence;
or perhaps it is hermetically locked
in the sprawling prairies of Middle-America,
guarded by the Federal Agency in charge of numbers.
I mean, why else would they call it Area 51,
giving it not one, but two prime numbers?
And, by the way: 69 and 51 add up to 120,
which is a recurring number in the Mayan calendar,
and shall someday well fulfil an ancient prophesy
unlocking the last secrets of the Universe.

Yes, we have developed all sorts of uses for numbers;
we know how many atoms are required in an atom bomb,
but more importantly how much it costs,
(2 billion dollars for Harry Truman in 1945, 20 billion dollars today);
there must be reasons, of course, why God gave us five fingers on each hand—
he wanted us, it seems, to count on them. One by one by one.

Previously published in FRiGG

Monkeys & Flowers

Nobody stands for old Auntie
on the 6.45 to Purple Pagoda Park.

Most of us are gripping the overhead rails
like whooping monkeys.

In the streets of a city
flowers need a man’s attention.

There are no birds, no bees.
Dirt & dung are horse-carted

& the Buddha & the Chairman skip hand
in hand, all the way down to the waterfront.

[Earth-Shaving]

“I know you’re thinking
these are trees from the days
of wilderness and chaos,” he says
wielding his electric chain saw,
a crusader assessing his holy war,
“when butterflies were golden eagles
and spiders the size of cartwheels.”
“We,” says his companion
Manolo who looks like a gunslinger,
“are trimming our way to enlightenment.
There’d have been no Renaissance
without the heat and the paper-makers.
It’s stubble from a chin, and we’re
just giving her a close shave,” he says.
And Manolo points at my Canon
dangling from my neck like a marsupial.
“Take your shots of the extinct volcano,”
he says, “but these are coming down.
And I know you’re thinking about
the wild flowers, about the bees,
but listen—don’t you want to know
what the time is?”

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Sarah Sarai

2012-01-24T00:09:00.001-05:00

Sarah Sarai lives on a bridge under a cave in the eastern quadrant of the portion marked “Odds 'n Ends.” Time draws nigh for her to publish a new collection to comfort her first collection (The Future Is Happy, BlazeVOX[books]). She is a member of the Occupy Language assemblage rising from ashes of Zucotti Park. Both of the poems included here consider the word resolve, with its impossibilities and its maybe more.

I Resolve To

Buy cheap, sell now.
Buy sheep, sell ewe.
Buy ewe, shear me.
Talk the talk
walk the keep
keep you.

I resolve to
shear my nethers,
then Esau, a woolly fellow.
Ewe want to buy a bridge?
I resolve to sell you one.
Ewe cannot walk this bridge.
This is a bridge you cannot walk.

I resolve to walk the bridge
and shear ewe within
an inch of my wife.
She is sheared fun.

There's a bridge on my teeth.
It spans incisors.
My teeth resolve to represent.
Pearly as Heaven's gate
(or gates, we're not sure),
they resolve to take ewe in,
my little wayfarer.
My teeth know things.
So would you if you lived in a cave.

I resolve to live in a cave
with a bridge, walk the line,
brace myself for the next trick
or for ewe. I resolve to buy braces,
for ewe.

Two Dreams Hovering Insect Wings Above Me

First I lie across your lap
for everyone to see for comfort.
Second we kiss I pause you touch my hair
and wave good-bye in one graceful sweep.

I wonder who I am in either dream and
talk myself through the threshold of the new day
archived by winged beasts who know life
as a slow volar flash of something close to pleasure.

Berfrois, “The Avoirdupois Chic”
http://www.berfrois.com/2011/11/avoirdupois-chic-sarah-sarai/
Boston Review, “So Tender Beauty” and “From Love, Imagination”
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.4/sarah_sarai.php and
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR36.4/sarah_sarai2.php

POOL, “Commerce for the Good of the Peoples” and more
http://www.poolpoetry.com/poeteight.html

Scythe, “No Need for a Door” and more
http://scytheliteraryjournal.com/issue-vi.php

Redheaded Stepchild, “Blame It on Family”
http://redheadedmag.com/poetry/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=268:blame-it-on-family-&catid=36:poetry&Itemid=59

Fogged Clarity, "Experiential Philosophy"
http://foggedclarity.com/2009/03/experiential-philosophy/

Minnesota Review, “Further Arguments”
http://www.theminnesotareview.org/journal/ns68/sarai.shtml
Posted by Larissa Shmailo at 5:27 PM

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Annie Pluto

2012-01-19T13:07:00.000-05:00

Anne Elezabeth Pluto is Professor of Literature and Theatre at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, where she is the artistic director of the Oxford Street Players. She was a member of the Boston small press scene in the late 1980s and started Commonthought Magazine at Lesley 18 years ago. She has been a participant at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 2005 and 2006. Her most recent publications are in The Lyre and in W_O_M_B, The Buffalo Evening News Poetry Page, Earth's Daughters, Blackbox Gallery, and Helix.

Wake

I’ll wake this world for you
each sunrise to the moon
stretched taut and drawn
back waiting for the arrow
You are the mark, darkened
by time and terrible space
this is what remains of
love, a grove of flowering
trees, the songs of birds
the emptiness of no promise
or prediction – the knowledge
that time does move – never
backwards, but ahead – in front
of itself, and it takes us along.

Jung in the hands of the Mujahideen

Father
born on the eve of World War I
I live your conscience
daily reminders that
the world is a frightening place
you never dreamed as you spent
the Second World War traveling west
landscapes away from your home
that New York would be the site
of terrorist activities
on the day of your 50th
wedding anniversary
in the third millennium,
in your second century.

As a soldier,
you lived Central Asia,
traveled the Middle East
Byelorussian, in a British
uniform, having escaped death
in a soviet prison
the names of cities
roll off your tongue like Turkish
delight, now ruined
Beirut, beleaguered Damascus
starving Baghdad
mysterious Alexandria
and bleeding Jerusalem

I played store with your war
souvenir coins
turning over the bas relief of pyramids
and camels
my kingdom for a beggarly denier
I see the world is round
and hold it in my child's hands
well traveled in your stories
I pray now that we can realign
against the evil
religion brings to the oppressed
that magi lift their hearts to god
and climb the mountains of Babel
holding words instead of weapons,
and as their voices reach
heaven
God hears the faithful ask forgiveness
for themselves and all of history.
amen and amen

Documentation

Sigh lanced
like Jesus pierced
I will cry alone instead
of bleed – and plead
what innocence
I ascertain – so tired
of being
my own
advocate. and you
blameless in your
corner – drawing
the line and redrawing
the times I stepped
over it. you need me
to agree – I want to
get out and over,
the rain
as a cover
to wash me clean

My translation of Victory over the Sun on the Brooklyn Rail InTranslation site

2012-01-18T00:34:00.006-05:00

My translation of the Futurist opera Victory over the Sun by the father of zaum, Alexei Kruchenych, is now up on the InTranslation section of the Brooklyn Rail. This opera was first mounted in 1913 with sets and costumes by Kasimir Malevich. Victory! We can become awesome and powerful!

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION : Larissa Shmailo

2012-01-11T16:05:00.005-05:00

Larissa Shmailo is a poet and a translator of Russian. The following poems are reprised from the 100,0000 Poets for Change anthology edited by Anny Ballardini and Obododimma Oha in collaboration with Michael Rothenberg.

Winedark Sea

In the east, in the eastern rising lands, a tide, westering, earthdrawn, rising, the morning sun bloodied in its wake. She drags, pulls, shifts, hauls, trascines her hydraulic load. Tides born of tides, moondrawn, myriadheaded, within her, within her blood, oinopa ponton: the winedark sea. A wet sign calls her hour, bids the earth-shaken fallen rise, bids the wet-dirt wounded rise, bids the blooddimmed peoples rise, as she radiates out, out, out, forever from her bed. The wet sign calls her hour, bids all to rise from childbed, bridebed, deathbed, rise. He comes, the pale salt vampire, in clouds and tears, and claws, battle-led, draws, battle-red, mouth-to-mouth, limb-to-limb, skin-to-skin. There.
Here.

Scarcity

Listen:
If you wait but don’t want
If you want but don’t take
If you take but don’t use
If you use but don’t care
If you care but not much
The petty demon comes.

The petty demon says:
Not all of you are wanted
Not everyone is needed
A few may be accepted

There’s scarcity, you see
There are no loaves and fishes─
Not for the likes of you─
A few baguettes for baby
Some caviar for me
There’s just enough to shit and sleep
But not enough for thee.

The petty demon shrieks:
Time is money
Sell short
Eat to win
Assume the position.

In the world
In the angry material world
There are men who are not men
Men
Whose imaginations never rise
Above the box and plane
Whose imaginations squat
Upon the positions of power.

If the petty demon bothers you
Here’s what you say
Tell him:
I don’t know about
Your lawyer’s fees
Your MDs
Your CEOs
Your deep freeze

I do know that
The blind man is perfect
That there’s more to life than irony
And squealing like a stuck pig

That the truth is hard but you can stand on it
That time isn’t money or a threat but a gift.

As you assume your position
In the world
Do not love
Men who are not men
Whose imaginations never rise
Walk tall; walk with God
Assume nothing; take a position.

560 Brooke Avenue

The walls, barbed wire, barbed, next to a
drive-by window of Burger King: Dios, is
this your way? Electric doors, opened one
at a time, they make a sound, it maddens.
All the time the boys do time, all the time
they say, “Lunacy, this is crazy, crazy mad.”
It is. “Nigga, nigga,” one boy prays, farts as
the JC twists his hand: He tries to laugh, he
cries instead, porque? Scared, so scared, his
scarred voice cracks, 15. “Nigga, ay, I here
4 murder,” he lies. O child, perhaps so. My
Jesus of the got-nailed, my Angel of the why,
& what could you have done yet, why are you
here, porque, my God, & donde vamos, u & I?

Vive L’Égypte

A man, beaten — face the color of a burkha
dragged through the mud — is lifted by Isis
with her rose and her tiet.

Isis, who loves mothers, the downtrodden, slaves —
who is friend to the Nile and the dead —
who listens

even to the prayers of the rich — lifts his frame —
trampled and broken — from her mud.
Allahu ahkbar! he cries.

She cries. Cairo — Sharm El-Sheikh — Alexandria —
Hurghada — Luxor — Aswan — the blood of Isis
calls from Philae.

Speak Now

Speak now.
Darkened, once neutral air,
Skyscrapers turn,
Dream fire, and burn.

Dream fire, and burn.
Skyscrapers turn,
Darkened, once neutral air,
Speak now.

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION : Michael T. Young

2012-01-07T19:50:00.001-05:00

We enter the realm of personal resolutions and revolutions with the poetry of Michael T. Young. Michael has published two collections of poetry, most recently, Transcriptions of Daylight. His chapbook, Living in the Counterpoint, is available from Finishing Line Press and his next full-length collection, The Beautiful Moment of Being Lost, will be published in 2013 by Black Coffee Press. — Larissa

Fishing Dark

As night took shape, the trees in the dark
uprooted themselves. Through the window
I saw the last light fold up and tuck itself
onto a clouded shelf, and a few late birds
swatted the stillness in their flight toward home.
It seemed there was a swarming in places, a pulsing
just at the edge, where anything clearly seen
sank into the varieties of shade, where the dark
smoldered in potential and at that moment,
I felt privileged, like someone admitted
into a secret society, because I knew then
that the sun is ignorant of the shadows it creates,
especially this one, and all that depends upon it,
all the minds that fish its deep waters,
all the maps that still show an end to the world.

On How the World Might Seem to My One-Year-Old Son

The whole world is the given, free
everywhere and dangerously possible
like a bruise, a bump on the forehead,
the ever-out-of-reach — a computer, a bathroom —
mysteries that tall people inhabit briefly,
then return, pleased with themselves
having known the fruit of the undeniable.
They offer it to me only as fructified
in these shaky steps I take, these legs
nearly paralytic, this mouth inarticulate
as one chewing gristle, lurking near
the sinister, which surprises, puzzles
and even astonishes when it grows
into the Gauls invading Italy for a glass of wine
or Napoleon unshackling the last
of Medieval Europe with an imperial hand,
after having lain prone, subject, sometimes
even naked, simply waiting for a chance.

Screw-up

Someone told me there are no coincidences
as if a tedious architect plotted the track
of each raindrop down a windshield,
and that something must have been intended
when my mother met a man who had her picture
in his wallet. He picked it up, he said,
from the street. He thought she was cute.
But that man is not my father, and this makes
every difference to my personal double-helix
and the pleasure I take in Bach and long walks
since I wasn’t part of the architect’s original plan
and now he has to take me into account
as if his pen left a smudge on the blueprint
and instead of erasing it, he makes it into
an additional room on the house, which means
when I look back on that time someone called
asking for a woman I happened to know,
her phone number only one digit different from mine,
I’m supposed to be concerned because she didn’t
become my wife, as if these connections mean
there is somewhere else I should be today,
and that’s why, sometimes for no reason, I’m sad
or frustrated, nagged by a feeling that something
is missing, like the freedom to screw everything up,
the way I liked to when I was young, just to prove
I was old enough to make my own decisions.

Rewriting My To-Do List

In a Brahmsian exaltation I drove down Newark Avenue,
realizing, as with all such transports, it’s a question
of how far you can go, especially with gloved hands,
in winter, tapping out rhythms on the cold steering wheel,
on an errand to buy a showerhead and cereal bars,
milk and clean wipes, distracting necessities, although
some have argued it’s the other way around, since
as I turned at Dickenson High School, there were those
descending winds, dropping with the hill past the cemetery
and I think an oboe counterpointing the rising strings,
the turn signals of other cars and changing traffic lights,
all the aesthetic risk of listening and thinking of all that time
Brahms took to compose his first symphony,
twenty-one years scribbling, scratching out, straining
like this first burning movement, consuming itself
in the struggle, so even passing under the bridge
and the starless city sky, I leaned into the windshield,
tilting into the night, renewed in the effort to listen closely.

Yardstick

In my dreams of flight I could never rise
more than forty feet above the earth,
sinking or soaring with the contours, puzzling
over what architect set the ceiling so low,
and still carry its mystery with me, like wondering
what kind of person I would become
if I worked in a factory where yardsticks are made.
Would I grow a penchant for measuring,
for fixing limits or would I feel a need
to snatch one or two from the line each day,
take them home and snap them in half? —
or preferably into an odd number —
something to prove that the world won’t end
simply because things are out of balance.

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Alfred Corn

2012-01-02T15:05:00.003-05:00

[Author’s note: The numbered sections reprinted below are taken from a 3000-line poem titled Notes from a Child of Paradise (1984), recounting my life from 1965 to 1969, a time when the younger generation began demonstrating against the American invasion of Vietnam and for Black civil rights. These excerpts describe the 1968 upheavals at Columbia University, where I was a graduate student, though spending at that time a Fulbright year in Paris. Earlier in the spring a student uprising in Paris led to a full-scale national strike against De Gaulle’s government, which may have been one of the stimuli for the Columbia demonstrations. Workers’ strikes began at the automotive plants in Nanterre, an industrial town near Paris.]

XXVI.

The plague had spread past hope of remedy.
Discourse volleyed back and forth between
Nanterre and Place Maubert, Défense d’afficher [“post no bills”]
The first restraint to crumble as the walls
Papered over with grievances and slogans,
The wise and ardent icons, Chairman Mao
And Che Guevara. For the first time in decades
The International assumption rang
True. And here was electric news from home:
Columbia had been taken over, shut
Down by the S.D.S. till further notice.
The gray sandstorm of a wire photo
Coalesced around a teenaged striker,
Feet propped on President Kirk’s desk,
Puffing a cigar beneath a Rembrandt portrait.

Not since Berkeley, we thought…. But what about
Our friends—teachers, students, who might be caught
Up in the drama? Telephone parleys,
Expensive, curtailed, picked their way over
A minefield of conflicting sympathies.
Which tipped in favor of the protest once
Guards swept down and cleared the buildings, clubbing
Anyone to slow to dodge. For blood
Is still blood, however urgent the theory
That sheds it….

XXVIII.

News from Nanterre: a crackdown no less brutal
Than Columbia’s. And then an echoic
Roar of support from the Quartier Latin.
Students ten thousand vocal marched against
The incarceration of their leaders, state
Repression. The Sorbonne closed its doors.
Shouting matches, harassment, and at last
A pitched battle, which deployed in slow
Motion, a liquid nightmare staged around
Collaged barricades thrown together
From lumber, capsized cars and paving stones.
The C.R.S., black-helmeted, with shields,
Goggles and nightsticks, swarmed from armored trucks,
Advancing through a fusillade of stones.
Protesters, in street clothes, fell down and bled.

Cries. Distant sirens. The faint burn
Of teargas drifted down to the 13th.
When quiet returned, I stealthily threaded
My way up toward the brooding Panthéon
And rue St. Jacques, wondering whether some new
Éducation sentimentale would be hatched
From this unrest. The tower of St. Étienne
Said, “Paris repeats herself, true, but the terms
Differ….” A liberated Odéon
Now featured a round-the-clock debate
Open to whoever could make themselves heard.
Groups or solos seized the platform, held it
Till hounded down by boo’s or Merde!’s: total
Dissent voiced in a total democracy.
(I still can’t get that noise out of my ears.)

Carol Novack 1948-2011

2011-12-31T12:03:00.006-05:00

Carol Novack died of lung cancer Thursday at 8:55 pm. She was a genre-defying writer of lyrical and inventive work, imaginative and beautiful. She was a lightning rod who brought together thousands of artists from around the globe in collaboration and exploration as publisher of the groundbreaking Mad Hatters' Review. She was also my good friend, quite irreplaceable.

Here is her lovely piece, "Destination."

DESTINATION
(for Jean Detheux)

I
On the hill, there is an easel holding a painting of a town. You
are always traveling to the town, but whenever you think you’ve arrived,
there is nothing but stones, statutes and indigestible
bread. You return to the painting. You wonder if there’s a detail
you’ve missed, a clue that will help you find the town. You let
your eyes be deceived. They are connected to your heart with its
longing to nest; you are possessed with owning. You lose your
perspective again and again, wanting perspective, you are cursed.

II
You have come to rest. You think perhaps this is my town or
close enough to the one I was walking towards, at least when the
moon guided me like a mother it seemed to be. I can’t be too
fussy; I will die with dust mites and sand crabs and there will be
no home in death. But now, always now this town is different
from then, at least my memory of soft greens and blues with
gentle angles, or so it seemed, seems. This town is all glare with
acute turns and sonic booms. It won’t hold me, rock me, is neither
mother nor lover. It has so few dimensions for me though it has
dimensions for the neighbors, I suspect. They talk about rules,
have so many they can’t keep track of what’s forbidden. Too many
of them stay indoors for fear of breaking a rule. The chandelier
drops are cameras. They don’t understand. They make more rules.
This town’s windows need insulation in the frigid seasons when
the voices grow colder and louder. Nothing grows and the
kitchen shelves are vacant. One can hear the real estate agents
screaming in their white rooms. One can see their angry shadows
through white curtains. Always white – that is what the
denizens want: a neutered town in which you may disappear
into your shadows. They say that colors invite arrest. They
think they are invisible, the fools. Perhaps they are invisible
and I am the fool.

Here again I have to walk on stones for bread; the bakers don’t
know me. So I will move on. This is not a town, well not mine.
That is my perspective, not this.

III
He frightened me when he clasped me to him in the night,
when he lowered the volume of his voice to speak of the mirage
of walls and roofs. Not so long ago, he seemed to be my destination.
He was mine and I was his or so it seemed. After an
orgy of mirrors, we sucked and picked at one another’s bones.
Then he strayed into that other woman’s residence and stayed
too long, I took the turn back to where I’d been going, but
couldn’t find it. Pain was my map; I could hardly see clearly.

So I found you hiding in a hedge with thorns, not crying but
chanting, no, singing, singing a lament to your mother; you
crooned, wanting to crawl back into her, so I came and stroked
your head. I remember your hair as soft as dandelion puffs and
you trembled but kept still for a spell entranced you let me
be your home. And then like flotsam, you floated away, you
with your eyes dense with storms. I carried on, tore off my red
dress, taunted you. Who can stay still? Who can remain in homes
with so many rules? you pleaded. I left that town a long time ago,
I answered. At least I thought I did. You looked like a rabbit in a
wolf’s yellow eye. All homes have rules, you said. You said I am
a nomad. I have no choice. You do, I replied, drawing you into
me for the last time, feeling like the rabbit in your jaws. But
was I the wolf? Now I have forgotten your name.

IV
In those towns they lock up the homeless when they remain in
one spot and throw stones at Gypsies. Like snails, the Gypsies
carry their homes on their backs. The denizens say it’s not
right! Everyone must pay taxes and mortgages like us – despite
interest rates. They rape the land we have purchased and pillage
the daughters we have sown and own. Lock them up!

The Gypsies say it is a curse to want to own, a curse to be
possessed. It is a curse to want to possess and be possessed,
a curse to own. You can seek to become the color of any of these
towns with their home teams, but the shade will be unbecoming
and oppressive. You will see!

I try hard not to want but keep gazing at the painting, as if I
had perspective or could learn it. My eyes are connected to my
heart with its longing to nest; I can’t help but let it flutter its
wings and woo my eyes. How foolish. I keep traveling to the
towns, all the same the cursed towns with their statutes and
stones. None is the town I seek.

Hydrogen Jukebox This Thursday 12/22 -- come read with the band!

2011-12-16T18:40:00.003-05:00

Dear Friends;

Please come to this special Christmas edition of Hydrogen Jukebox, hosted by the inimitable Brant Lyon. I am featuring, backed by the Ne'erdowells poemusic band. THERE IS AN OPEN MIKE, so bring your work.

Deets:
Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street (off Bleecker Street)
6:00 - 8:00 pm (sign-up for open 5:45 p.m.)
$7 cover includes house drink

Occupy Poetry on the December 12 Day of Action

2011-12-03T14:09:00.003-05:00

Please join me at Su Polo's iconic open mike at the Nightingale Lounge, where I will be featuring with George Spencer on December 12 to support the Occupy Day of Action.
Political poetry is welcome, as is anything you choose to read or sing.

$10 cover and 1 drink minimum. 3-5 minute open mike; sign-up at 6:30 p.m.

Nightingale Lounge
213 Second Avenue
(NW Corner of 13th St. & 2nd Ave.)
NYC 10003

Poets Respond to Jung's Red Book

2011-10-14T18:36:00.006-04:00

Cornelia Street Cafe, October 15, 2011. 6 p.m. Writers Respond to Carl Jung’s The Red Book (Liber Novus) Introduction by Michael Marsman. Joel Allegretti, Charlie Guzman, Dean Kostos, Patty Oliver-Smith, Kristin Prevallet, Lynn Shapiro, Larissa Shmailo, Tod Thilleman & Michael T. Young

Compass Award entry--I am shortlisted!

2011-09-18T23:19:00.003-04:00

I am very pleased to have been shortlisted for the Compass Award, an international competition of translators, for my translation of Nikolai Gumilev's acrostic on the name of his wife, Anna Akhmatova. Here is the Russian and my translation.

Acrostic

Addis Ababa, city of roses.
Near the bank of transparent streams,
No earthly devas brought you here,
A diamond, amidst gloomy gorges.

Armidin garden … There a pilgrim
Keeps his oath of obscure love
(Mind, we all bow before him),
And the roses cloy, the roses red.

There, full of deceit and venom,
Ogles some gaze into the soul,
Via forests of tall sycamores,
And alleyways of dusky planes.

Акростих

Аддис-Абеба, город роз.
На берегуручьёв прозрачных,
Небесныйдив тебя принес,
Алмазной,средь ущелий мрачных.

Армидинсад… Там пилигрим
Хранитобет любви неясной
(Мы всесклоняемся пред ним),
А розыдушны, розы красны.

Тамсмотрит в душу чей-то взор,
Отравыполный и обманов,
В садахвысоких сикомор,
Аллеяхсумрачных платанов.

Persian Version of Dancing with the Devil

2011-08-30T16:18:00.006-04:00

My poem, "Dancing with the Devil," has been translated into Farsi by Mohammad Mostaghimi (Rahi). This is now the fourth of my poems to be translated into the Persian, and to appear in Iran. Poetry does not require preconditions, even if diplomacy does. Thank you, Rahi! Mamnoon!!!!

Dancing with the Devil

They say that if you flirt with death
You’re going to get a date;
But I don’t mind---the music’s fine,
And I love dancing with someone who can really lead.

Persian version of the poem: dance with the devil

Translator: Mohammad Mostaghimi (rahi)

لاریسا شمایلو

رقص با شیطان

شنیده‌ام اگر با مرگ برقصی

تو را به جاودانگی می‌برد

نه

به گمان من

عاشقانه رقصیدن

همراه با یک موسیقی شگرف

با او

مرا به آن سو

پرتاب می‌کند

گزاشتار: محمد مستقیمی-راهی

My new e-chap, FIB SEQUENCE, FREE!

2011-07-27T16:46:00.003-04:00

I am not your insect

2011-07-15T18:28:00.001-04:00

Your underfoot, your exterminated, your bug. My unabashedly hairy legs, whose gymnopèdes twitch like a chorus for a fatal Sharon Stone, delight in ces mouvements qui déplace les lignes, in the motion, the quiver, the catch, le mort. Mother Kali, you have made me what I am: brilliant, feminine, entirely without fear. Like my mother, I watch and pray for prey—that it be there, that it give gore, that I feel it die, that there be more.

Winedark Sea

2011-07-10T00:07:00.002-04:00

In the east, in the eastern rising lands, a tide, westering, earthdrawn, rising, the morning sun bloodied in its wake. She drags, pulls, shifts, hauls, trascines her hydraulic load. Tides born of tides, moondrawn, myriadheaded, within her, within her blood, oinopa ponton: the winedark sea. A wet sign calls her hour, bids the earth-shaken fallen rise, bids the wet-dirt wounded rise, bids the blooddimmed peoples rise, as she radiates out, out, out, forever from her bed. The wet sign calls her hour, bids all to rise from childbed, bridebed, deathbed, rise. He comes, the pale salt vampire, in clouds and tears, and claws, battle-led, draws, battle-red, mouth-to-mouth, limb-to-limb, skin-to-skin. There. Here.

Persian version of "Oscillation"

2011-06-28T10:17:00.002-04:00

I am very pleased to have another poem translated by Iranian poet Rahi (Mohamad Mostaghimi). The English text is below, and you can view the Persian at Rahi's blog at http://dish-sepid.blogfa.com/post-106.aspx. I wish I knew how to say "thank you" in Farsi.

Oscillation

Cellular grandfather, pity me: once it was understood

how things were done, how the boiling ferns invited the

glaciers to come, how the dinosaurs asked to die. Os-

cillation: The world was born in swing and sway, and I,

fasting slowly, am not random nor mad, but large, and

more precise than you. My blood makes air and cells; my

moon subtends the sky; my tides squeeze life out of rock.

All my night journeys find a sun; I leave orchards and o-

lives behind

Aging (Fibonacci Sequence: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89)

2011-06-26T01:45:00.001-04:00

Dear Reader: If Fn is the term of the sequence, then F=0 if n=O, F=1 if n=1, and F=Fn-1 + Fn-2 if N is greater than 0. Now age.

none

1(one)

1(ego)

two (I)

I 2 threeeeeeeeee

5 school, ruled 2 three

hate math 8/5 parents split divisor 3 & me

bad teen luck black eight-in-hole no triskaidekaphobe call five ringtones call.

now lucky legal drink I’m old-gold-rolled ready-to-hold I stick on 13 so play vingt-et-un tonight with me.

still 13 in the soul getting old with a balding working luck. 34 is dirty floor & still behind, & the legal drink now a double, hit me hit me & no! not prime.

Fivefive, now fivefive, finally loving the mother/other/the 21-still-angry child & forgiving the serious careerist, so knowing, so sure, so 34. Take our bald inner luck as it comes, let’s leave the dirty floor alone (why are these aches okay ,why are these losses, these losses, so possible to endure?) Five years plus ½ century, decoding while eroding, ofivefive.

89 am I 8 or 9? The young ones are 34, my children 55. There are 13 pills in the morning, 13 pills at night. But what, exactly what might happen next? A working soul and another season’s turn, what else did I ever have? This word is greater than my numbers, the poésie of my self. I take the garbage out and set it on the street with joy. Tell me your secrets: I am the one who truly wants to know. Lemniscate, I move toward ∞ today.

Madwoman Exercises a Civil Right

2009-06-27T11:28:00.000-04:00

Madwoman Exercises a Civil Right 1996

(Still true today? Up to you.)

It isn’t like other illnesses, people say. True. People who are blind can write off their readers and dressers, the people and things they need to get to work are tax-deductible. Can you imagine a similar right for mentally ill people, someone to help them - probably on a temporary basis - to get to work? I can. My question is: can you?

The friends and loved ones of deaf people have installed TTD lines on every major phone system in the nation, have founded a college, have sat in courtrooms for years to get their significant deaf others jobs. Can you imagine a college for us?

It might be cheaper to send ambulettes to the homes of the orthopedically disabled than to design and operate special chair lift buses. But that would be too socially isolating, would make them feel different. So there are chair-lifts on every New York City bus and passengers don’t mind giving up a seat or waiting as the driver helps them aboard.

How many blind and deaf people are there? It doesn’t matter - we put Braille in the elevators and the ATMS, and volume control on pay phones because they are worth it. How many people use chairs? Again, it doesn’t matter - every new building in the nation must have wheelchair access and a big bathroom stall. How much does that cost? It doesn’t matter. It’s important.

The mentally ill are making progress. Pete Domenici, who has a mentally ill daughter, discovered his insurance isn’t paying her bills. Insurance for mental illness caps at about $10,000 a year in most states; cardiac illness, by contrast, caps at about $1,000,0000. Insurance parity has carried in a few states but is far from commom.

Seeing a loved one suffering from a “physical illness” is stressful, but not a moral failing on the part of the sufferer. It is distressing to see someone seize or throw-up, but usually not reason to avoid them afterwards. It is wrong to abandon a friend with AIDS dementia, a wife with cancer (it is done, but frowned upon). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Illness stills warns practitioners to carefully distinguish between Axis I diagnoses and organic brain disease. “Oh, she was angry and irritable because she had a brain tumor.” We understand, it’s all right. After all, anyone could get a brain tumor, and as the AIDS educators have worked so hard to point out, anybody could get AIDS. Anybody - even Superman - could wind up in a chair

But mental illness is different. It’s not like other illnesses: the basic norms of social conduct and communication are violated. It is unpredictable, hard to take. And there is always the suspicion, even among the most enlightened, that “they” bring it on themselves. 80 percent of Americans, according to a recent survey, don’t believe mental illness exists. Thomas Szasz (M.D) calls it bad interpersonal game playing, an issue of morals, bad habits, cowardice, not the realm of a scientist but of a priest. We are possessed by the devil, undisciplined, over-react to stress, practicing learned helplessness. It’s considered a triumph that today, probably, the majority of direct-care mental health workers, who undergo little or no training for their work, don’t think their mentally ill clients are David Berkowitz.

We are difficult patients, the mental health field keeps telling us, frustrating and difficult. Recovery is slow, rare. On top of our neurobiological disorders, the reality of which some professionals have come to accept, there are the behaviors, probably common to most people under stress and in pain, but most frequently diagnosed as part of treatment for the mentally ill, and with which we are often permanently labeled: arrested development, self-destructive, manipulative-exploitative, masochistic, and just plain selfish. With this baggage, until recently, only a few religious orders wanted anything to do with us at all. It takes very special people to work with the mentally ill, we are told. The average person is comforted by that thought as he stops seeing and calling a mentally ill friend, feeling far less guilt than he would avoiding a friend with a “physical illness."

Even the recovering mentally ill are somehow too disturbing to be around, and tolerated only if they never mention their illness and treatment. Our leadership, our strongest potential spokespeople, the functioning mentally ill, the recovering mentally ill who work and have families and look “normal,” who could be a bridge for us to the public at large, are counseled by doctors and friends not to mention the fact of their illness. It’s often good advice. Like gay people of past decades, the risks of coming out are too high - shunning, lost promotions (remember Thomas Eagleton?), the social burden on children. So these hidden mentally ill, who, under severe handicap, have fought serious, often devastating illness to raise families, hold jobs, and contribute to society, are silent. What is the cost of this silence?

When a person who is blind or in a wheelchair eschews disability payments and comes to work every day, we admire them. One of the finest things about Americans is our admiration of people who overcome obstacles. Why is this admiration denied mentally ill people?

A few years ago, a group of visually impaired people and their loved ones picketed a TV station because one of their sitcoms showed a blind man in a store gleefully breaking property as he unsuccessfully navigated the aisles with his cane. That kind of depiction isolates us, said the protesters, makes people think we can’t live and work in society. The salient point here is not the first amendment issues. It is the firm conviction that visually impaired people deserve the right to live and work in society. For the mentally ill, the jury is still out.

Mentally ill people are often difficult, there is no doubt on that score. Sick people tend to be difficult. Being ridiculed and shamed for having an illness makes it worse. And of course the medical bills, only fully covered if you enter the disability system, don’t help. Accomodations for the mentally ill, say the ADA experts, are difficult. Let’s face it, recent court rulings have said, if you are sick enough to need accommodations, you are probably too sick too work. Yet the thousands, possibly millions of mentally ill employees who have learned to accommodate themselves, who have successfully hidden their illnesses behind more accepted reasons for occasional sick leave, prove this wrong (but try asking about psychiatric coverage on a job interview).

There are millions of us, everywhere. We sit next to you at the office and listen to you joke about crazy people; if we were to make such jokes about your diabetes, you would be appalled.

We may see insurance parity in our lifetime. The time may come when a mentally ill person might get tax write-offs for services he or she needs to successfully work, but I doubt it ( Special transportation? A dresser? Are you crazy? Well, yes...). Will we ever see an America that says - maybe, just maybe, this could happen to me? As long as our illness is a matter of bad habits, I don’t think so. As long as our symptoms, expressed behaviorally, are viewed as iconic and communicative - probably not.

Perhaps it is the knowledge that people under stress can and do “break down” that makes us so frightening. Perhaps it is the very ubiquity of our illness, our common human susceptibility to emotional pain makes people shun the mentally ill - after all, unlike cancer, it truly may be catching.

As I am writing, hundreds of cyclists are returning to New York from a Boston AIDS cyclathon. Princess Diana is being mourned - the television shows her embracing AIDS babies, urging others to be unafraid of them, teaching the public that these children and all people with HIV need and deserve human contact and love. Perhaps the mentally ill, including those denied jobs and apartments and left homeless, will one day merit a royal hug too. In the interim, equal medical coverage and the right not to hide our disability in the work place and society at large will help.

We, the mentally ill, may not be that different from you , with our mutant genes and imbalanced neurochemistries and our illnesses that mimic the temporary disorders of thought and emotion that other people experience. We - some twenty to forty million Americans - drink grape soda, buy television sets, select HMOs, and corporate America might wake up to that fact and profit by it. If we are not different, then like any of you, we need human contact - the formal and informal social networks that keep all people sane, and without which any human being regresses. We simply are looking for the Braille in the elevator or a door handle we can reach to show we are welcome.

In Paran, poems, on Amazon now

2009-05-10T12:15:00.001-04:00

"From under the El in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to her window seat on the Harlem Line, Shmailo is right on track with poetry that dances with love, death and desire. The proverbial urban poet, Shmailo masterfully mixes the beauty and the gritty, in New York City."─Doug Holder, Ibbetson Street Press

“Reader beware: these are poems that lurk. Larissa evokes a stark, incisive view of the mad world where “graffiti burns my thighs / and I run through the clotheslines that flap on the roof” and you will not escape it by closing her extraordinary book. “I will slash my wrists,” she tells us, “and from my wrists will come ants and tired shopkeepers,” and we believe her. Writing doesn’t get much better than this.”─Jackie Sheeler, Talk Engine

“In these visceral wanderings into Larissa Shmailo's narratives, we venture through the teeming back alleys of Brooklyn on through the poet's labyrinthine youth until we reach the trepidatious poetic psyche of a woman who has lost in love but keeps on gambling with a strength to envy and behold. In Paran is not here to soothe─this is a book willing to discomfit and excite anyone who has grown too comfortable, inciting them to ‘forget the right answers/consult necromancers/allow the forbidden/ignore the guilt ridden/unlearn all the learning/embrace this new burning’”.─Amy King, I’m the Man Who Loves You

'Larissa Shmailo invites the reader to “imagine a use with me for all that doesn’t fit.” Her poems, alive with discomfort and broken pieces, teach an art of compassion without illusion. ─Robert Viscusi, winner, American Book Award,,Astoria

Christmas Star

2008-12-25T02:17:00.001-05:00

Christmas Star
by Joseph Brodsky

In a cold time, in a place more accustomed
To scorching heat, to flat plains than to hills,
A child was born in a cave to save the world.
And it stormed, as only winter’s desert can.

Everything seemed huge to him: his mother’s breast
The yellow steam of the camels’ breath, the Magi,
Balthazar, Caspar, Melchior, their gifts, carried here.
He was all of him just a dot. And the dot was a star.

Attentively and fixedly, through the sparse white clouds
Upon the recumbent child, on the manger, from afar,
From the depths of the universe, from its very end,
A star watched over the cave. And that was the father’s gaze.

From Paysage s navodneniem (Landscape with Flood)
Tr. L. Shmailo

Phase Change (Poem for Barack Obama)

2008-11-29T23:24:00.001-05:00

The frightened ships will cling to the shore,
Unwilling to leave what they know.
I will give them passage, learn to row,
Teach them: There is another shore -
The second appears when the first is gone.

I carry this water for luck, to walk on,
To follow you home over rock.
I give you my compass, this gathered-up fog:
It will soften the air for you, give birth to stars,
As ice floats to light, we sail.

Got Poetry review of CD Exorcism

2008-10-24T21:58:00.000-04:00

Larissa Shmailo, a New York based poet, has recently released her second CD, "Exorcism" (SongCrew Records, 2008). On "Exorcism," Shmailo runs the gamut from straightforward political work ("Warsaw Ghetto") to more lyrical and evocative work ("Bhakti" and "Mapping"), with much of the work being backed by well chosen music that always enhances and never overwhelms.

Shmailo has a supple, adpatable voice; her ability to match pace and dynamics to the subject matter of these wildly different poems is a testament to her ability to make each piece come alive in the most effective fashion. From the opener, "Warsaw Ghetto," a series of personal, powerful statements of identity by people involved in the struggle for individual freedom and human dignity from several episodes in history, to the devilishly inventive pair of poems that follow it ("Dancing With The Devil," in which the speaker declares that "I love dancing with someone who can really lead"; and "How To Meet And Dance With Your Death," a matter of fact how-to recipe for finding your destiny through excess), to the more lyrical work of "Mapping" and "He follows her...," there is something for everyone here, and Shmailo reveals herself here as a poet of great scope and skill.

The recording itself only adds to this. In "Skin," a doubled vocal adds an eerie touch to the seductive text. The samples that back up "The Gospel According to Magadelene" include Thin Lizzy, the Supremes, and Led Zeppelin, which lend a modern twist to this retelling of the tale of Mary Magdelene from her point of view.

Standout tracks include a cover of Anna Ahkmatova ("Dante"), the aforementioned "Mapping," and the poems "Bhakti" and "Bloom." "Bloom," in particular, is a revelation -- a surreal and sonically shattering tumble of words and images inspired by Colette, James Joyce, and George Sand.

The album's closing track, "Exorcism (found poem)" is interesting, though a real departure from the rest of the album. A faux-Gregorian chant using the words of author M. Scott Peck on the 1968 My Lai massacre, a notorious incident from the Vietnam war, "Exorcism" uses repetition and asecending pitch to build a picture of horror that reminds one of Hannah Arendt's chilling description of the "banality of evil." The ending of the piece is truly unsettling.

Throughout this album, Larissa Shmailo consistently delivers on the promise of poetry as an oral art form. Although I can imagine that the pieces included herein would work well on page (and would love to see more than a few of these, so I could read them as well), this is a testament to how well a poetry CD can work with careful attention to the details of the production. That the poetry itself is as strong as it is is the most obvious reason that "Exorcism" is as good as it is.

Larissa Shmailo on Myspace: www.myspace.com/larissashmailoexorcism

Also available through ITunes, CD Baby, and Rhapsody

Smoking Poet review of Exorcism

2008-10-12T16:57:00.001-04:00

Friday, October 10, 2008
Exorcism by Larissa Shmailo

Poetry CD Review by Zinta Aistars

Audio CD (June 24, 2008)
ASIN: B001CISG4G

Price: $12.99

"Skin is just sausage we call home."

It is lines such as this that make me a brand new Larissa Shmailo fan. And I am not usually a listen-to-poetry rather than read-poetry fan. Recordings of readings seem to be "the poetic thing" these days, and that is a trend that makes sense to me. People have less time and impetus to read a book in their busy lives, but popping a CD into your car stereo during a commute, well, that's another thing. (I still prefer a book in hand, but my daily commute is long ...)

So pop in this. Shmailo's voice immediately fills your space. Not every poet or writer can read their work to others. In fact, I think I am safe in saying ... most cannot. I have been frequenting readings all my life, and I can't say how often I have been disappointed to find that what I love on the written page bores me to tears spoken aloud. Not so with Shmailo. After listening to Exorcism several times, I can still say I am wishing for the written page, but unwilling to give up the sound. Shmailo reads with so much intensity, intonation, energy, in velvety and sensual voice, that to not hear this would be a missed experience.

Another point in Exorcism's favor: this is the first such spoken poetry CD in which I can say that music, where it is present, is seamlessly joined to spoken word. It does not distract. It does not overwhelm. It does not jar. It blends, accompanies, enriches. The mood is like that of entering a dark, smoky room, falling into pillows, and riding the silky, heady wave. Shmailo is intense. She can shock, she can tickle, she can entrance.

My favorite is "Dancing with the Devil." Because it is. A mini poem leading into "How to Meet and Dance with Your Death." You can only do it once, the poet warns you. Any more than once, and you become a cheap woman sleeping with common men. The recipe is bizarre and wonderful. You very nearly want to write it down and give it a blend. Die if you must.

Shmailo poetizes devils with the same skill as she weaves words around God and Magdalene. Her poetry is as lushly sensual as it is cutting to the bone. This is about love and pain, birth and rebirth, fields of magnolias, and surviving the Warsaw ghetto. She uses words I save for special occasion without wincing, and I forgive it, because it works. The slap of shock is appropriate. This is not merely strong performance, it is also strong in substance ... which is why I long to see the written word as well. I would suggest a written copy inserted into the CD cover as a booklet to complete the treasure.

If I list a favorite, then I will also list my least favorite: the title poem, "Exorcism." Found poem, apparently, although I don't think that is what holds this one back for me. It is a rather droning, chanting monotone (about the lie and crime of war) that can't be listened to for long without grating on a nerve or two, edging on annoying. But this is not reason enough, this one, for me not to recommend Exorcism in its totality to anyone who enjoys poetry, or just an enthralling listening experience.

Erika, who are you? The fake anthology and our 15 minutes

2008-10-07T20:05:00.005-04:00

The blog For Godot published a hilarious experiment in computer-generated poetry. Arsonism issue one, written by the Erika program and edited by Stephen McLaughlin, went viral this week through brilliant search engine optimization and a canny insight into poet group dynamics. It is a funny, throught-provoking send up of ideas surrounding authorship and Internet publication.

From the announcement.
This issue features new poems by Nada Gordon, Evelyn Reilly, Julianna Mundim, Emmy Catedral, Enid Bagnold, Richard Siken, Stephen Ratcliffe, Michael Gottlieb, Jodie Childers, Norman J. Olson, Brent Hendricks, Sean Kilpatrick, Tom McCarthy, Stacy Doris, Michael Rerick, Corrinne Clegg Hales, Mark Decarteret, Hadewijch of Antwerp, Darren Wershler-Henry, Letitia Trent, Debra Di Blasi, Laura Elrick, Bruna Mori, Popahna Brandes, Robert Sheppard, Diana Magallan, Kristine Danielson, Ed Higgins, Drew Gardner, Kyle Kaufman, Matthew Thorburn, Tiel Aisha Ansari, Christopher Wells, Vanessa Place, Simon Pettet, Grace Vajda, John Bennett, Ian Patterson, Joseph Hutchison, John Cotter, Cheryl Lawson Walker, Scott Esposito, Jason Nelson, Daniel Kane, Kimo Armitage, Alan May, J.D. Nelson, Bob Hershon, Jennifer Karmin, Kim Rosenfield, Nathan Austin, Pearl Pirie, Rosmarie Waldrop, Tara Betts, Donald Revell, Jim Ryals, Danuta Kean, Jeff VanderMeer, Alfredo Bonanno, Irene Latham, Michael Hennesy, Dick Higgins, John Hanson, Billy Merrell, Sam Ladkin, Jeff Ward, Debra Jenks, K. Lorraine Graham, Kenji Okuhira, Sean MacInnes, Adam Seelig, Steve Halle, David Mus, Monique Wittig, Joyelle McSweeney, Daniel E. Levenson, Luke Daly, Henry Thoreau, John Palattella, Abby Trenaman, Kristen Taylor, Vassily Kamensky, David Jhave Johnston, Gene Tanta, Cate Marvin, Alison Roth, Shad Marsh, Asher Ghaffar, Henry Gould, Justin Theroux, Susan Grimm, Bernard Wilson, Ateet Tuli, Laura Moriarty, Mark McMorris, Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle, Jeffrey Cyphers Wright, William Shakespeare, Nick Trinen, Daphne Gottlieb, Magdalena Zurawski, A.K. Arkadin, Matthue Roth, Douglas J. Belcher, After Bitahatini, Neil Schmitz, Liz Henry, Tom Hansen, Craig Saper, Pris Campbell, Afua-Kafi Akua, Amish Trivedi, Chris Hutchinson, Cath Vidler, Sarah Weinman, A.E. Stallings, Robin Blaser, Roland Prevost, Mac Wellman, Steven Schroeder, Joy Garnett, Mark Lamoureux, Julie Clark, Bob Garlitz, Jeff Hamilton, Kara Dorris, Maureen Thorson, Irv Muchnick, Frank O'Hara, Robin Magowan, C. Allen Rearick, A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz, Tony Leuzzi, Bhanu Kapil, Sage U..ilani Takehiro, Shellie Zacharia, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Camille Martin, Eliot Weinberger, David Nemeth, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Iris Smyles, Bertolt Brecht, David Forbes, Colin Herd, Sergio Bessa, Zach Wollard, Adam Ford, Claudia Keelan, Hank Sotto, Jamba Dunn, Ken Mikolowski, Jean-Jacques Poucel, Santiago B. Villafania, David Valentinovia, Robert Kaufman, Dominique Meens, Joe Elliot, August Stramm, Justin Katko! Sandra Korchenko, Carol Peters, Lilah Hegnauer, Brian Evenson, Wallace Stevens, Timothy Murphy, Joseph Bradshaw, Nick Courtright, Adam Chiles, James, Kane X. Faucher, David Abel, Ray Succre, Gabriel Gudding, Antonin Artaud, Mark Cunningham, Paul Fattaruso, William Saroyan, Aaron McCollough, Confucius/Ezra Pound, David Antin, Rob Mackenzie, Ryan Eckes, Christian Peet, Peter Riley, Litsa Spathi, Anna Ahkmatova, Mark Tursi, J.D. Schraffenberger, Greg Fuchs, Sean Casey, Orpingalik, Hassan Melehy, Rosemarie Waldrop, Phillip Lund, Adam Aitken, Michael Davidson, Andrea Rexilius, William Allegrezza, Raymond Queneau, Fred Wah, Marcia Arrieta, Elizabeth Cross, Jonathan Greene, Gregory Laynor, Preston Spurlock, Jane Sprague, Kevin Thurston, Stephen Berry, William Bronk, Claudia Rankine, Steve Dalachinsky, Ed Sanders, Sam Rasnake, Wes Smiderle, James Belflower, Simmons B. Buntin, Dolores Dorantes, Emilie Clark, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sarah O'Brien, Jack Tricarico, Gerard Van der Luen, Frances Richard, Charlie Bertsch, Bob Cobbing, Sabrina Calle, Steven Burt, Stephane Mallarme, Bob Marcacci, Edwin Torres, Lois Marie Harrod, Evgeny Maizel, Luc Simonic, Lawrence Durrell, Amanda Davidson, Pendergast, Gregory Orr, Lepson, Joseph Duemer, Eric Alterman, Erin M. Bertram, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Suzanne Buffam, Andy Nicholson, Edward Champion, Katy Acheson, Okey Ndibe, Jennifer Mulligan, Renee Zepeda, Alfred Kubin, Sawako Nakayasu, David Prater, Forrest Gander, Mike Gubser, Virginia Heatter, Leslie Winer, Ed Schenk, Doug Holder, Russell Ragsdale, Jose Manuel Velazquez, Dick Jones, Gerry Loose, Daniel J. Vaccaro, Rafael Alberti, Jeff Newberry, Igor Terentiev, Micah Robbins, Friedrich Holderlin, Arif Khan, Laurel Dodge, Ann White, Nicolas Guillen, John Lowther, Cathleen Miller, Josef Vachal, Chris Moran, Miyazawa Kenji, Robert Fitterman, Norman Mailer, Doris Shapiro, Talan Menmott, Alan Licht, John Godfrey, James Maughn, Anne Heide, Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Lina ramona Vitkauskas, Judith Goldman, Rich Murphy, Halvard Johnson, Ariel Dorfman, Ed Baker, Maryrose Larkin, Sheila E. Murphy, Rosanna Warren, Jean Cocteau, Clarence Major, Eleanor Stanford, Teresa Carmody, Kenward Elmslie, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ryan Walker, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Nava Fader, Rob Budde, Allison Cobb, Robert Roley, Alison Collins, Melissa Fondakowski, Nathan Whiting, Jess Rowan, Cid Corman, Bob Heman, Libby Rosof, Cassie Lewis, Scott Saner, Roberta Allen, Raymond Farr, Anne Pierson Wiese, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Troy Lloyd, Lindsay Boldt, Andrea Baker, Meredith Quartermain, Richard Meier, Louise Mathias, Joseph Cooper, Lynn Strongin, Outlines, Suzanne Stein, Richard de Nooy, Sherry, Robert Chrysler, Ton van't Hof, Peter Cole, Michael Slosek, June Jordan, Andrew Zitka, Eve Babitz, G.C. Waldrep, Craig Santos Perez, James Sherry, Hugh, David R. Slavitt, Dino Campana, Stephen Berer, Alastair Johnston, Angela Jaeger, Javier Huerta, Jed Birmingham, David Harrison Horton, Alan Baker, Steve Clay, Kevin Coval, Tony Brown, Debesh Goswami, Michael Farrell, Abigail Child, Tanya Larkin, Ron Slate, Emmanuel Hocquard, Lauren Dixon, Jan Zwicky, Andrew Joron, Jessica Wickens, Arthur Sze, David Baptiste Chirot, Steven May, Rob Cook, Ankur Saha, Eric Unger, Chris Heilman, James Purdy, Derek Henderson, James Collins, L.J. Moore, Michael McClure, D.S. Marriott, Michael Heller, Robert Mittenthal, Eileen Tabios, Aki Salmela, Lou Rowan, Jerome Seaton, Lori Lubeski, Paul Hardacre, Rus Bowden, John Wieners, Lauren Levin, Johanna Drucker, Velimir Khlebnikov, Terry Bisson, Martha Plimpton, Miklos Radnoti, Ken Kesey, Matvei Yankelevich, Seth Forrest, Maria Damon, David MacDuff, Kevin Doran, Rob Read, Kristen Gallagher, Rick Visser, Andrei Bely, Sara Crangle, Karl Klingbiel, Jackson Mac Low, Fox, Derik Badman, Paul Griffiths, Oliver Rohe, Mark L. Lilleleht, Michelle Bautista, Monica Schley, Aaron Levy, andrew nightingale, Douglas Messerli, Pattie McCarthy, David West, Jon McKenzie, James Weber, Carlos Rojas, Donatella Izzo, Francois Luong, Daniel Borzutzky, Umm Zaid, Tony D'Arpino, James Tierney, Tao Lin, Rochelle Owens, Amy Friedman, Natalie Zina Walschots, Kayin Wong, Emily Sher, Deborah R. Geis, Kristen Iskandrian, Brother Tom Murphy, Jeremy Gardner, Alcoholic Poet, Chris Mansel, Keith Tuma, Chris Mansell, Rob MacDonald, Yuan Mei, Stanislaw Witkiewicz, Joshua Schuster, Glenn Bach, Maureen Owen, Richard Wink, Guy Bennett, Eric Elshtain, Reza Shirazi, Tonya Foster, Karl Kempton, Allan Gurganus, Alizon Brunning, Christopher Davis, Richard Foreman, Francois Luong, Yvonne Werkman, rob mclennan, Mark McCarthy, Bill Marsh, Tom Devaney, John Most, Nick Moudry, Jennifer Reimer, Charles Baudelaire, Gabriel Pomerand, Crane Giamo, Vernon Frazer, Mike Basinski, Oliver de la Paz, Leon Damas, Mark Ducharme, Jim Leftwich, Eliot Katz, Pat Lawrence, Jeff Daily, Jefferson Navicky, Tom Savage, Legs McNeil, mIEKAL aND, Leevi Lehto, Allyson Clay, Cy Mathews, Dereck Clemons, Clayton Eshleman, Benjamin Parzybok, Kevin Isu, Laura Mullen, Angelo Suarez, Kate Greenstreet, Andrew Burke, Natalie Simpson, Susan Smith Nash, Peter Gizzi, Dana Goodyear, Terence Winch, Sandy McIntosh, Cris Mazza, James Thurber, Sarah O‚ÄôBrien, Firoze Shakir, Elizabeth Castagna, D.J. Huppatz, David Koehn, Kyra Saari, Philip Jenks, Martin Corless-Smith, Jacques Leslie, Will Gallien, Mathew Timmons, Eric Lochridge, Buck Downs, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Leonard Michaels, Francis Raven, seflo, Nina Shope, Carson Cistulli, Jennifer Banks, Deborah Burnham, Steve Langan, Rosalva Garcia Coral, Betty Stork, Erica Van Horn, Anna Evans, Lizzie Skurnick, Skip Fox, Olde Quietude, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jonathan Williams, Sarah Maclay, Pablo Neruda, Richard Tuttle, Fran Herndon, Cheryl Clark, Allen Itz, Derek White, Barry MacSweeney, Eben Eldridge, Sandra Ridley, Normie Salvador, Priscilla Long, Alan Gilbert, Dennis Tedlock, Steve Benson, Brian Whitener, Rene Char, Lawrence Ytzhak Braithwaite, Teresa Ballard, Barbara Henning, Mario Melendez, Jacques Demarcq, Harvey Bialy, Gary Norris, Kerry Shawn Keys, Dawn Pendergast, Aimee Parkison, Michael Cooper, Chris Killen, Les Webb, Roberta Fallon, John Fillwalk, Stephen McLaughlin, Elizabeth Robinson, Bob Heffernan, Zak Smith, Nicholas Lea, Tsering Wangmo Dhompa, Dan Beachy-Quick, Ross White, Stan Mir, Tim Atkins, Poppy Z. Brite, Dylan Hock, Kurt Vonnegut, Mez Breeze, Stephanie Heit, J. Mason, Colleen Lookingbill, John Hall, Michelle Morgan, Alexi Parshchikov, Clemente Padin, Lisa Jarnot, Lance & Andrea Olsen, Mark Wallace, Nancy Kuhl, Xu Smith, Jorge de Lima, Hillary Lyon, Clayton Couch, Gunnar Ekelof, Alex Caldiero, Clifford Burke, Karri Kokko, Brent Goodman, Daniel Clowes, Todd Suomela, Arlene Ang, David McDuff, Bill Sherman, Ezra Mark, Kathryn Pringle, Jem Cohen, Adam Tobin, Thomas Meyer, Clifford Duffy, Anne Waldman, Nancy Shaw, Pilar Olabarria, Chris Maher, Ezra Pound, David Hilmer Rex, Levari, Jerome Sala, Ryan Collins, Alexander Jorgensen, Shouva Chattopadhyay, Linda Susan Jackson, Jonathan Mayhew, Pejk Malinovski, Michael Parker, Claude Simon, Ian Keenan, Peter O'Brien, Jeannie Hoag, Marcel Janko, Beverly Jackson, Loren Webster, Daniel Knudsen, Michael P. Steven, Rose Kelleher, Mare Mikolum, Marcel Broodthaers, Reb Livingston, Steven Lohse, Faye Smailes, Thomas Kinsella, Peter Middleton, Kurt Schwitters, Lou Suarez, Jay Millar, Paul Holman, Michael Palmer, Larry Eigner, Jean-Michel Espitallier, Charles Bernstein, Bill Allegrezza, Tenney Nathanson, Jeff Crouch, Brian Spears, Peter Makin, Lynn Crosbie, Michael Carr, Robinson Jeffers, Fanny Howe, David Vincenti, Erica Wessmann, Lydia Davis, Craig Teicher, Jorge Luiz Antonio, Matt Christie, Jean-Patrice Courtois, Gregory Pardlo, Nathaniel Tarn, Simone Fattal, Orhan Pamuk, Ofelia Hunt, Louise Gluck, David Pavelich, Lanny Quarles, George Seferis, Louise Bogan, Susan Minot, Star Black, Ted Stimpfle, Michael Lally, Sean Whelan, Arlo Quint, Grace Molisa, Jasmine Dream Wagner, Armand Schwerner, Anselm Parlatore, Tom Orange, Frank Kuenstler, Robin Coste Lewis, MacLaren Ross, Nick, Katey Nicosia, Geraldine Connolly, Sharanya Manivannan, Maud Newton, Kerri French, Charles Shere, Stephen Burt, Tony Fitzpatrick, Mark Peters, A. R. Ammons, Jenny Davidson, Tom Hopkins, Laurie Price, Woody Haut, Jim Toweill, Anne Tardos, Ronald Johnson, Will Skinker, Linda Marie Walker, Dave Schiralli, Rachel Talentino, Christopher McVey, Jordan Davis, Chris Tonelli, Patrick Culliton, Michael Basinski, Christina Brown, Kathleen Rooney & Elisa Gabbert, Maria Benet, Regis Bonvicino, Richard Huelsenbeck, Julia Cohen, Jim Behrle, Stephanie Bolster, Timothy Liu, Donna Brook, Kristin Abraham, Marcus Bales, Patricia Wellingham Jones, Susie Timmons, Clayton A. Couch, Myung Mi Kim, John Litzenberg, Zoe Strauss, Jonathan Meakin, Janine Pommy Vega, John Matthew, Robert Sund, Janne Nummela, Robert Archambeau, Dodie Bellamy, Meghan Scott, Stephen Johnson, Brenda Schmidt, Lisa Flaherty, Martine Bellen, Ron Loewinsohn, Darryl Keola Cabacungan, Chris Ransick, Sean T. Hanratty, Tim Gaze, Kathleen Rooney, Tom Mandel, AnnMarie Eldon, Tom Peters, Billy Jones, Gilbert Adair, Jim ¬†Behrle, Peter Jay Shippy, Amanda Laughtland, Juliet Cook, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Brian Smith, Aldo Palazzeschi, Richard Denner, Anthony Robinson, Chris Tysh, Christopher Stackhouse, Paul Muldoon, Stefania Iryne Marthakis, Ellen Orleans, Robin Reagler, Susan Maxwell, Delia Mellis, John Baker, Jack Boettcher, Lex Camena, Jeffery Bahr, Veronica Montes, Miriam Nichols, Phil Hall, Tyler Carter, Jessica Treat, Mairead Byrne, C.S. Carrier, C.L. Bledsoe, Barbara Maloutas, Peter Schjeldahl, Marc Andre Robinson, Morgan Lucas Schultdt, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Rebecca Hazelton, Ryan Bird, Ernst Meister, Edith Sodergran, Bronwen Tate, Joritz-Nakagawa, Sharon Mollerus, Talan Memmott, Robert Burns, Jim Dunn, Matthew Cheney, Edward Nudelman, Subhro Bandopadhyay, Tiff Dressen, Sandy Florian, Jesse Glass, Jennie Skerl, Phil Fried, Eric Gurney, Christof Scheele, Nicholas Rombes, Billy Collins, Eugenio Montale, Gautam Verma, Tyler Cobb, Kendra Malone, Tom Beckett, Vivian Vavassis, Jude MacDonald, Joanna Sondheim, Paul Naylor, Kazim Ali, Josh Corey, Patrick Donnelly and Stephen Miller, Ari Bania, Geoffrey G. O'Brien, Leonard Kress, Philippe Soupault, Steve Caratzas, Joseph Mains, William Yazbec, Standard Schaefer, Betsy Andrews, Carlo Carra, Marie Hopkins, Anna Maria Hong, Burt Kimmelman, Karen J. Weyant, Max Middle, Joan Retallack, Gil Ott, Dennis Cooper, David Matlin, Tino Gomez, B.J. Love, Helen White, John Crowley, Weldon Kees, Louis Zukofsky, David Trinidad, Andrew Peterson, Bill Seaman and Penny Florence, Heather O'Neill, Reginald Shepherd, Annie Guthrie, Ammiel Alcalay, Carton Tragedy, Alfred Corn, Barbara Smith, Jozef Imrich, Yagi Mikajo, Stephen Thomson, Mark Rudman, Jena Osman, Ernesto Priego, Ken Springtail, Sam Beckbessinger, Cecilia Vicuna, Behm-Steinberg, Kate Schapira, Deidre Elizabeth, Jean Lehrman, Seth Landman, Ana Bozicevic-Bowling, Jess Mynes, Will Yackulic, Caroline Wilkinson, Maria Sabina, eldon, Richard Lighthouse, Michael Smoler, Henry Hills, Mark Marino, Poton, Thomas O'Connell, David Henderson, Michael Cross, Maralyn Lois Polak, Joe Brennan, Alice Cary, Erica Kaufman, Lewis Warsh, Steve Evans, David Byrne, Frank Parker, Kaz Maslanka, Jenna Cardinale, Peter Straub, EK Smith, Megan Martin, Meghan Punschke, Sherry Chandler, E. Tracy Grinnell, Tom Muir, Jeff Davis, F. Daniel Rzicznek, Diana Magallon and Jeff Crouch, Kyle Schlesinger, Stuart Dybek, Marco Giovenale, Zach Savich, Tom Wegrzynowski, Arnie Hoffman, Rikki Ducornet, Dawn, Thomas Fink,, Christian Jensen, Andrew Philip, Dave Pollard, Miriam Burstein, Jessica Bozek, Patrick So, Joe Massey, Carmine Starnino, Evan Kennedy, Chris Vitiello, Nick Bruno, Amy Newman, Sharon Gilbert, Aaron Tieger, William Wordsworth, Eugenio Tisselli, julia doughty, Marko Niemi, Pierre Reverdy, Lytton Smith, Lee Gurga, Jed Shahar, Tim Hunt, Lee Upton, Mark Scroggins, Rachel Smith, Robert Wodzinski, Matthew Blake, Matina Stamatakis, Robert Waxman, Jack McGuane, Bethany Ides, Alfred Arteaga, Kat Meads, Sandra Gilbert, Carlo Parcelli, Jeff Calhoun, John Bryant, Jasper Bernes, Jeffrey Joe Nelson, Joan Houlihan, Lynn Behrendt, Jack Kerouac, Brenda Iijima, James Koller, Sun Yung Shin, Ixta Menchaca, John Barton, Piero Heliczer, Todd Colby, Awotunde Aworinde, Emma Barnes, Allison Whittenberg, Jenni Russell, Rowan Wilken, Daniela Olszewska, Layne Russell, George Oppen, Ben Yarmolinsky, Phil Cordelli, Andrew Kozma, Harry Wilkens, Jonathan Lethem, Richard Gorecki, Jilly Dybka, Kirthi Nath, Jennifer Bredl, Paolo Buzzi, Aime Cesaire & Rene Depestre, Ruben Dario, Rachel Loden, William Bryant, hassen, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Jessamyn West, Salvador Dali, Greg Djanikian, George M Wallace, Sharon Brogan, Roger Farr, Lesley Yalen, Jessica Tillyer, Cathy Eisenhower, Noah Falck, Beka Goedde, Patrick Lovelace, Erik Anderson, Shahar Gold, Olivier Cadiot, Peter O'Leary, Mel Nichols, Juan Felipe Herrera, Mirabai, Rob Mackenzie, Bethany Wright, Joseph Mosconi, MTC Cronin, Terrance Hayes, Bryson Newhart, Yoko Ono, Gherardo Bortolotti, Olli Sinivaara, Jim Crace, Brendan Lorber, Tracie Morris, Jeffrey Side, Brent Cunningham, Henry Miller, Christina McPhee, Mike Nicoloff, Ray Federman, Valerie Coulton, HL Hazuka, Ari Banias, Thomas Hummel, Nicolette Bond, J.F. Quackenbush, Julia Stein, Bill Borneman, Jon Link, Steve Dickison, Scott Helmes, Brion Gysin, Sean Burke, Laynie Brown, Hermit-Sage Tradition, Jane Dark, Scott Withiam, Lance Phillips, Michael Ford, John Olson, John Bailey, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Derek Motion, Ashby Tyler, Sarah Campbell, Andrea Strudensky, Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, Mathias Svalina, Ishle Yi Park, Dubravka Djuriƒá, John McHale, Grant-Lee Phillips, Jeremy Czerw, Richard Newman, Diana Slampyak, David McFadden, Jim McGrath, Gregory Crosby, tyler funk, Kristi Maxwell, Vladimir Zykov, Daniel Brenner, Don Mee Choi, Ted Greenwald, Meena Alexander, Sarah Mangold, Steve McCaffery, Jill Magi, Glen Bach, Hank Lazer, Stephen Brockwell, Helen Adam, Sasha Steensen, Ryan Alexander MacDonald, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Jack Morgan, Jr., Radu Dima, Larissa Szporluk, Teresia Teaiwa, Amiri Baraka, Monica Mody, Vincent Katz, Jen Benka, Roberto Harrison, Edward Byrne, Patrick Rosal, Cheryl Townsend, Carol Novack, Clive Thompson, Mary Biddinger, Erica Lewis, Michael Robins, Mira Schor, Severo Sarduy, John Taggart, Lauren Krueger, Wanda O‚ÄôConnor, Peter Van Toorn, Kevin Varrone, Mark Axelrod, Erica Svec, Erik Donald France, Daniel Green, Marilyn Hacker, Ben Wilkinson, Stephanie Young, David Hall, Joe Moffet, Ric Royer, Basil Bunting, Peter Everwine, Terryanne Chebet, Philip Messenger, Maurice Sendak, Barrett Gordon, Shonni Enelow, Hannah Weiner, Dan Vera, Kristin Berkey-Abbott, Douglas James Martin, Randall Williams, Phil Crippen, Roy Kiyooka, Anita Dolman, Chris Martin, Max Ernst, Michael Rothenberg, Adeena Karasick, D.H. Lawrence, Sean O Riordain, Anne Kaier, Simone dos Anjos, Brian McMahon, Josef Capek, Gloria Oden, Georges Hugnet, Sekuo Sendiata, Timothy Yu, Craig Dworkin, Mary Ann Sullivan, Guillermo Juan Parra, Paul Klinger, Catherine Wagner, Angela Veronica Wong, Terence Gower, Chris Toll, Francis Picabia, David Bromige, John Estes, Kenneth Koch, John Moore Williams, harry k. stammer, Kyle Gann, Paul Guest, Carl Rakosi, Cole Porter, Ray Craig, Bob Holman, Jordan Stempleman, Gilbert Sorrentino, Larissa Shmailo, Kris Hemensley, Jennifer Manzano, Peter Culley, Dan Silliman, Lyn Hejinian, Lloyd Schwartz, Peter Larkin, MaryLou Sanelli, Clare Latremouille, Karla Kelsey, Peter Magliocco, Bruce Stewart, Kyle Simonsen, Glenn Ingersoll, Teri Hoskin, Henry Louis Gates, John Mcmahon, Dan Raphael, Tanya Allen, Annie Finch, Mitch, Bill Kushner, Rochita Ruiz, Tom Gilroy, Yashodhara Raychaudhuri, Elaine Terranova, Tom Hibbard, Joel Nichols, Don Cheney, Ashraf Osman, Melanie Little, Barbara Cole, Chris Higgs, Paul van Ostaijen, Kate Hill Cantrill, George Kalamaras, Ren Powell, Steve Smith, Lloyd Mintern, Denise Duhamel, Veselovsky Pitts, G.L. Ford, Stanton, Kyle Minor, Bradford Haas, Kristy Bowen, Mingus Tourette, Anna Joy Springer, Laetitia Sonami, Sam Silva, Candace Kaucher, James Dickey, Kit Kennedy, Jill Jones, Susan Scarlata, Jack Kimball, Mary-Anne Breeze, Frederico Garcia Lorca, George Kalamaris, Raymond Hsu, Joshua Arnold, Bernadette Mayer, Calvin Bedient, Rachel Tompa, Nathan Curnow, Noel Sloboda, Doug Macpherson, Vivien Bittencourt, Steve Roggenbuck, Jules Boykoff, Jessica Lawless, Raymond Federman, Sandra Miller, Amos Bronson Alcott, Marina Garcia-Vasquez, Mathew Timmons, Paul Killebrew, Mike Young, John Tipton, Chad Parenteau, Michelle Cross, Eric Abbott, Hayden Carruth, Dream Bitches, William James Austin, St. Teresa of Lisieux, Donald Hall, Karen Weiser, Marty Hebrank, Liberty Heise, Kyle Stich, Charles Reznikoff, Chris Felver, Dorothy Trujillo Lusk, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Henry David Thoreau, Frances Driscoll, Leonard Gontarek, Edward Smallfield, Chris McCreary, Steven Zultanski, Peter Pereira, Marthe Reed, Mackenzie Carignan, Victor Hugo, Rebecca Gopoian, Ivy Alvarez, Highfill, Harry Gilonis, Sotere Torregian, Judy Kamilhor, Justin Sirois, Suzanna Gig, Peter Seaton, Julie Carr, Mazie Louise Montgomery, Sean Reagan, Tennesee Williams, Anne Kellas, Christopher Nealon, Joan McCracken, Malcolm Phillips, Christopher Casamassima, Andrew Steinmetz, Tom Sheehan, L.Y. Marlow, Martin Larsen, Susana Gardner, David Weinberger, Bill Cohen, Sasha Sommeil, Jill Chan, Josh Robinson, Crag Hill, William Burroughs, Ruthven Todd, Annie Proulx, Monty Reid, Simon Perchik, A.K. Scipioni, Ron Hogan, Marcel Duchamp, Thomas Day, Bob Arnold, Rabia al Basri, Michael Andre, Raymond Foss, Ruby Mohan, Kate Schatz, Elizabeth Smith, Tom Matrullo, Carmen Racovitza, Blake Butler, Maggie O'Sullivan, Eugene Ostashevsky, Therese Halscheid, Lauren Levato, Hermann Hesse, Christian Prigent, Michael Reid Busk, Caroline Sinavaiana, Marcia Roberts, Muriel Rukeyser, Jessica Watson, sara seinberg, Garth Whelan, Peter Ramos, Harry K Stammer, Tom Jones, Arjun Chandramohan Bali, Lawrence Joseph, Lee Posna, Tim Mcnulty, Patrick James Dunagan, Laurie Clark, Sabbir Azam, George Green, David Maney, Jill Alexander Essbaum, Jenny Allan, Gary L. McDowell, Samuel Wharton, Leonard Cohen, Kyle Conner, Maxine Hong Kingston, Stephanie Strickland, Michael Schiavo, Lynne Tillman, Jesus Manuel Mena Garza, David-Baptiste Chirot, Augustine Porras, Juan J. Morales, Tim Z. Hernandez, Diane Ward, Donald Marshall, Jack Collom, Paul Lyons, Megan Kaminski, Chris Fritton, Paul Vermeersch, Aaron Lowinger, Bob Perelman, Steve Yarbrough, J.H. Prynne, Amy King, Geoffrey Chaucer, Joel Dailey, Christopher Hennessy, Meghan O'Rourke and Cathy Park Hong, Jennifer Scappettone, David Hecker, Carl Brush, Joy Hendrickson-Turner, Leny Strobel, John Timpane, Amanda Watson, Cate Peebles, Danny Snelson, Christopher Mulrooney, Jaime Anne Earnest, Trina Gaynon, Caleb Puckett, Weyman Chan, Patricia Dienstfrey, Evelio Rojas, Susan Tichy, Shawn McKinney, Gerald Bosacker, Joel Kuszai, Norman Lock, Eric Gelsinger, Suzanne Frischkorn, Gabor Szilasi, Shannon Smith, Peter J. Grieco, Nasra al Adawi, Anna Moschovakis, Charles Henri Ford, Nicholas Downing, Sharron Proulx-Turner, Richard Long, Majena Mafe, Timothy Kreiner, Jorge Luis Borges, Lucebert, Chuck Stebelton, John Sparrow, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Jee Leong Koh, Sophie Robinson, Carol Mirakove, Susan Stewart, Adalaide Morris, Camille Bacos, Diane Williams, Robert J. Baumann, Kristi Castro, Don Illich, Holly Anderson, C.D. Wright, Jerome McGann, Alex Gildzen, Joseph Lease, Allen, Meagan Wilson, David H. Thomas, Jane Thompson, Andrew Zawacki, Gottfried Benn, John Hyland, Jim Morrison, Lyle Daggett, Robert Duncan, Diane Lockward, Kate Daniels, Angela Woodward, Paul Vazquez, Jesse Minkert, E. Ethelbert Miller, Scott Withaim, Arthur Rimbaud, Luc Fierens, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, Rackstraw Downes, Elizabeth James, Paolo Javier, Robyn Sarah, Rosemarie Crisafi, Wendy Collin Sorin, Jack Hirschman, Flynne Bracker, Rick Wiggins, Baron Wolman, Frederic Tuten, Su Carlson, Raina Leon, C.E. Chaffin, Katrinka Moore, Lucy Anderton, Reyes Cardenas, Mei Mei Chang, Scott Malby, Alice Becker-Ho, Wassily Kandinsky, Bob Hazelton, Leonard Schwartz, Larry Smith, Dave Winer, Ivan Carswell, Genevieve Kaplan, John Findura, Shrikanth Reddy, David Horowitz, Jocelyn Grosse, C. Dale Young, Kiki Smith, Scott K. Odom, Brandon Brown, Tim Lockridge, Lauren Goodwin Slaughter, Steve Luxton, Melissa Buzzeo, Aaron Kunin, Anne Haines, William Carlos Williams, Catherine Daly, Jack Martin, Ocean, Angela Rawlings, Richard Hell, Monica de la Torre, Ruth Lepson, Trevor Calvert, Donato Mancini, Diana Adams, Miranda Mellis, Dust Congress Hackmuth, Philip Whalen, Dan Thomas-Glass, Abigail Licad, Caroline Rothstein, Matt Briggs, Hans Arp, Patrick F. Durgin, Ashley VanDoorn, George Murray, Gerald Bruns, Richard Greenfield, Ken Rumble, John Perrault, Soleida Rios, Andrew Schelling, Robert Marshall, Russell Jaffe, Albert Wendt, Emily Brink, Jennifer Bartlett, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Mecca Sullivan, Ron Silliman, David Caddy, Marcel O'Gorman, Lucy Ives, Sarah Browning, Rob Johnson, Michael Magee, Doug Ireland, Tim Martin, Seth Parker, Yi Sang, Andros Montoya, Allama Prabhu, Jacob Glatshteyn, Dan Waber, Jim Goar, Michael Kelleher, Michael Peverett, Patricia Storms, Howard Junker, N. Scott Momaday, Tsuyoshi Yumoto, Peter Manson, Adam Clay, Sharon Mesmer, Sasha Frere Jones, Ronna Johnson, Murphy, Edward Williams, Bernard Hoepffner, Kareem Estefan, Lindsay Colahan, John Stiles, Ed Barrett, Steven Shaviro, Hart Crane, Thad Rutkowski, Paul Pearson, Jan Pollet, Jon Woodward, Frederick Seidel, Laurie Fuhr, Ku-ualhoa Meyer Ho'omanawanui, Peter Dale Scott, Pablo Picasso, Jeremy Halinen, Damien Hirst, Camille PB, Glenna Luschei, Jimmy Chen, Fairfield Porter, Douglas Coupland, Kismet Al-Hussaini, Kim Hyesoon, Sarah Vap, Carla Harryman, Louise Landes Levi, Kiran Desai, jUStin!katKO, Carol McCarthy, Michael Estabrook, Christian Nicholas, Lauren Russell, Biskit Roth, Ron Koertge, Benjamin Friedlander, Geoff rey Hill, Harold Abramowitz,¬†Allison Carter, Larry Sawyer, Joanne Underwood, James Sanders, James Wagner, Gyula Illyes, Deborah Ager, John M. Bennett, Elizabeth Dorbad, Matthew Langley, Amira Baraka, Adrian Khactu, Aaron Smith, David Christopher LaTerre, Ann Margaret Bogle, George Evans, F.T. Marinetti, Steve Mueske, Barrett Watten, Chris Hamilton-Emery, Travis Jay Morgan, Brian Kim Stefans, Julie Doxsee, Jane Monson, Terrance Diggory, Jeremy McLeod, Len Joy, Carrie Etter, Suzan Frecon, Malia Jackson, Akilah Oliver, Carrie Katz, Michael Gizzi, Benjamin Kroh, Michael Koshkin, David McGimpsey, Paul Hegedus, Heather Christle, Anselm Berrigan, Art Durkee, Marianne Moore, Aleksei Kruchenykh, Tom Wolfe, Phil Primeau, Nona Caspers, Dominic Fox, Nate Ethier, Michelle Greenblatt, Julianna McCarthy, Davide Trame, Aaron Vidaver, Alli Warren, Kathleen Fraser, Paula Bernat Bennett, Jon Rolston, Basil King, Henry Darger, Ray Hsu, P. Inman, Ben Lyle Bedard, Dallas Wiebe, Michael Bernstein, Margaret Stawowy, Nicole Steinberg, Maged Zaher, Andrew Levy, Edwin Rodriguez, Harold Abramowitz, Red Pine, Kenneth Rexroth, Hong Ou, Julian Beck, Piers Hugill, Daniel Nester, Ryan Clifford Daley, Kurt Brown, Mark Halliday, Emily Abendroth, David McLean, Cara Benson, James Joyce, Lara Odell, Katia Kapovich, Arielle Greenberg, Tony Lopez, Charles Bukowski, Laura Moore, Brian Howe, Juana de Ibarbourou, Barry Schwabsky, Susan Briante, Clayton Eschelman, David Hadbawnik, Brett Evans, Susie Bright, Ted Berrigan, Tony Green, Gary Barwin, Alice Notley, Amy Unsworth, Bryan Coffelt, Else von Freytag-Loringhoven, Samantha Barrow, Henry Longfellow, Max Jacob, Renee Gladman, Susan Denning, Matt Reiter, Lee Friedlander, Lars Palm, Nick Carbo, Peter Fox, Robert Wexelblatt, Christina Strong, Sophie Read, Jami Macarty, Breyten Breytenbach, Lisa Forrest, Regina Derieva, Sarah Dowling, Phong Bui, Christopher Sorrentino, Lee Ann Brown, Laura Goldstein, David Jones, Fritz Ward, Alexandra Tolstoy, Chris Abani, Jennifer Gravely, Alicia Rabins, Chris Funkhouser, shishir gupta, Clark Coolidge, Ann E. Michael, John Amen, Joanna Fuhrman, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Chris Stackhouse, Nico Vassilakis, Trevor Maddock, Lucian Blaga, Kirsten Kaschock, Allen Taylor, Robert Hass, Meghan O'Rourke, Marcus McCann, Emmett Williams, Del Ray Cross, Mimi Gross, Jean Valentine, Rachel Dacus, Piu Roy, T. F. Rice, Sarah Fran Wisby, Dana Ward, Chinua Achebe, Jonkil Dies, Michael Fix, Bill Dunlap, Steven Waling, Alan Davies, Jill Stengel, Weldon Hunter, David Hickman, Wilson Lobko, Duane Locke, Surya Parekh, James Franklin, Mark Hoover, Peter Quartermain, Gary McDowell, Michael Fried, Carl Sandburg, C.P. Cavafy, David Alexander Davies, Tama Janowitz, Billy Gomberg, Stephen Potter, Jan Beatty, Anna Fulford, Hagiwara Sakutaro, Nicole Brossard, Garth Graeper, K.S. Ernst, Abbey Baker, Alena Hairston, Mary Kasimor, Esa Makijarvi, Sam Heldman, Brian Strang, Donald McGrath, Kevin Davies, Rochelle Ratner, Blaise Cendrars, Elizabeth Swados, Carolyn Guinzio, Janet Mason, Bernadette Geyer, Tom Raworth, Jay Hopler, Allen Ginsberg, Christine Hamm, Davis Schneiderman, DJ Spooky, E. B. Bortz, Michael Wells, Virginie Poitrasson, Nancy M. Grace, Bob Perlman, Rob Fitterman, John Zuern, Catherine Theis, Patti Smith, Pat Nolan, Martin Marriott, Matina L. Stamatakis, Alixandra Bamford, Loretta Clodfelter, Emma Bolden, Laura Wetherington, Ralph Steadman, Osip Mandelstam, Derek Beaulieu, Corrine Fitzpatrick, W.S. Merwin, Joseph Ross, John Latta, Brandi Homan, Jackie Sheeler, Oscar Bermeo, Todd Swift, Gabe Gudding, Robert Creeley, Beth Lifson, Jerry Gordon, Kristen Yawitz, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Yuri Hospodar, Jake Adam York, Edwin Denby, Andrei Codrescu, Ralph-Michael Chiaia, Lee Herrick, Skip, Annie Dillard, Amber Reed, Eleni Sikelianos, Bramhall, Gina Myers, Kate Simon, Matthew Muldar, A.D. Thomas, Countee Cullen, Brenda Connor-Bey, Shanxing Wang, Sara Jaffe, Michael Nicholoff, Simon Ortiz, Laura Heidy, Valerie Loveland, Lori Emerson, Edward Field, Richard Barrett, Patricia Tomaszek, Brian Salchert, F. James Hartnell, Lorine Niedecker, Cherilyn Ferroggiaro, Farid Matuk, Robert Frost, James Hoch, Nadia Nurhussein, Ahmed Thomas, Grant Miller, Anna L. Conti, Yuko Otomo, Aharon Shabtai, Albert Goldbarth, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dan Richert, Rachel Tzvia Back, Jerrold Shiroma, Ross Priddle, Dan Coffey, Scott Glassman, Jessica Crispin, Oren Slor, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Juliet Wilson, Charles Jensen, Eckhard Gerdes, Sarah Menefee, Dan Visel, Katie Degentesh, Brian Foley, Ravi Shankar, St. Johnnie Walker, Seth Abramson, Language Hat, Jean Vengua, Mytili Jagannathan, Andrew Phillip Tipton, Jennifer Firestone, Keiji Minato, William Fuller, David Giannini, Cherryl Floyd-Miller, Nick-e Melville, Adam Fieled, Rod McKuen, Niels Hav, Eli Goldblatt, Michelle Bitting, Here Comes Everybody, Owen Smith, Bill Wunder, Paul Hunter, Gregory Vincent St Thomasino, Marjorie Perloff, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Christy Church, Basho, Ryan Downey, R.J. Anderson, Vic Monchego, Paul Gacioch, Robert Bly, David Berridge, Sam Pink, Joshua Edwards, Terry Teachout, Andre Breton & Philippe Soupault, Norman Finkelstein, Else Lasker-Schuler, Louis Aragon, Rachel Phillips, Christine Surka, Joe Fletcher, John Eberhart, Michele Belluomini, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sean Bonney, William Neil Scott, Cecilia Corrigan, Saleh Badrah, Noah Eli Gordon, Rita Dove, Carol Stetser, Marjorie Welish, Zachary C. Bush, r. a. washington, Christian Bok, Eireene Nealand, Benjamin Peret, Niall Lucy, Brandon Downing, Geoff Bouvier, Natalie Lyalin, Joshua Clover, Irving Weiss, Marco Alexandre Oliveira, Georges Perec, Patrick Dillon, Nathan Ladd, Marina Tsvetayeva, Chris Kerr, Daneen Wardrop, Ron Suskind, Philip Messinger, Denise Siegel, Justin Katko, Taylor Graham, Alexis Rotella, Scoplaw, Samuel Amadon, Michelle Detorie, Dr. Niama L. Williams, Jim Cory, Sarah Sarai, Theodore Worozbyt, David Graham, Judith Skillman, Ben Doyle, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Jim Andrews, Rita Degli Esposti, Cecco Angiolieri, G.M. Palmer, Heidi Lynn Staples, Jay Robinson, Mendi Obadike, Felicia Shenker, Mary di Michele, Logan Esdale, Evelyn Hampton, Mary Kasimor, Ben Friedlander, Chris Stroffolino, Ellen Cardona, Christa Forster, Sean Serrell, Paul Dutton, Bernard Henrie, Sven Laasko, Stephen Morrissey, Bruce Covey, Harvey Goldner, Janwillem Vandewetering, John Ashbery, Faye Driscoll, Michael Sikkema, Davide Baptiste Chirot, Erik Ehn, Octavio Paz, Ben Hamper, Sumaila Isah Umaisha, Dan Machlin, Gary Parrish, Kevin Killian, Chinwe Azubuike, Liz Murray, Malcolm Davidson, Aryanil Mukhopadhyay, Natalie Bennett, Nick Bacon, Soledad De Costa, Harvey Shapiro, Jon-Patrick Fadely, Cooper, Philip Trussell, Rona Fernandez, Jennifer Hill-Kaucher, Richard O'Russa, Paul Eluard, Asa Boxer, J.R. Foley, Guillaume Apollinaire, Maxine Chernoff, Angela Papala, Chris Mann, Robert Grenier, Stephen Baraban, William Garvin,, John Aragon-Chavez, Langston Hughes, Chella Courington, Amanda Auchter, David Micah Greenberg, Jane, David Shapiro, Jay Cola, Maria Fama, Laurie Duggan, John Shields, Joanne Kyger, Tristan Tzaras, Patricia Peterson, Roger Snell, Elisa Gabbert, Travis Nichols, Bruce Andrews, Christopher¬†Marlowe, Melanie Miller, Amy Gerstler, Bill Griffiths, Al Filreis, Josh Hanson, Edward Pettit, Avery Burns,Megan Breiseth, Kevin Opstedal, Amber Nelson, Mike O'Connor, Wayne Koestenbaum, Allan Revich, Will Esposito, Thomas McEvilley, Steve Bradbury, Bernadine Mellis, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, Charles Alexander, Sharon (Wren) Rogers, Ida Acton, George Bowering, Rachel DuPlessis, Patrick Durgin, Cathi Murphy, Stephen Crane, Hildegard of Bingen, Rene Daumal, Roberta Beary, Lina Vitkauskas, Nick Bredie, Honor Moore, Clay Banes, Catriona Strang, Lars Haugen, Catherine Walsh, Lauren Ireland, James Schuyler, Elias Lonnrot, T.S. Eliot, Uda Kiyoko, David Lawton, Vitezslav Nezval, Leslie Scalapino, Sparrow, Laura Sims, Christine Stewart, Marci Nelligan, Richard Owens, Steve Dolph, Joel Chace, Drew Milne, Jules Feiffer, Susan M. Schultz, Fernando Pessoa, Roger Mitchell, Carrie Hunter, Tom Clark, Don Share, Terese Svoboda, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Lynn Xu, Mike Snider, Shafer Hall, Paul Auster, Hermann Ungar, Raymond Wachter, Arielle Guy, Joe Brainard, Steve Klepetar, Scott David Herman, Shann Palmer, Marton Koppany, Todd Carlstrom and The Clamour, William Corbett, Christopher Harter, Nick Montfort, Paul Foster Johnson, William Freind, Gary Sauer-Thompson, Scott Keeney, Barbara Claire Freeman, Steven Berlin Johnson, Cecilia Borromeo, Sally Greenhouse, Michael Crake, G. Ribemont-Dessaignes, Jessi Lee, John Peck, Beatrix Potter, Matthew Burkett, Michael Leong, H.D., Lisanne Thompson, Jane Nakagawa, Sandra Simonds, Gillian McCain, Stephen Kirbach, Stephen Vincent, J.P. Donleavy, Anna Kavan, Birdie Jaworski, Chall Gray, Robyn Art, Thomas Fink, David Meltzer, Adolf Wolfli, Helen Bridwell, Elizabeth Switaj, Geoffrey Gatza, Jim Warner, John Keats, Logan Ryan Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, William Michaelian, Jay Snodgrass, George Held, Brooks Johnson, Julie Dill, St. Teresa of Avila, Alan Sondheim, Robert Kelly, Ted Burke, Brandon Barr, Donna Strickland, Diane di Prima, Alan Michael Parker, Jefferson Toal, Geoff Hlibchuk, Kit Robinson, Christian Nagler, William Blake, J.P. Craig, Berenice Dunford, Michael Harris, JF Quackenbush, Helen Losse, Matt Mullins, Caterina Fake, Matthew Siegel, Julie Patton, Siel, Kristine Leja, Aryanil Mukherjee, Nathaniel Siegel, Kevin Connolly, Philip Levine, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), Michael Peters, Roger Singer, Carol Jenkins, Gabriela ¬†Erandi Rico, Craig Perez, AE Reiff, Gelett Burgess, Thurston Moore, Sam Byfield, Angela Vogel, Bruce Weber, Steve Tills, Mary Askin-Jencsik, Endre Farkas, Tony Trigilio, Angela Carr, Slater Brown, Toby Olson, K.Silem Mohammad, Elizabeth Bishop, Andrea Zemel, Sean Hill, Ilya Bernstein, Neil Gaiman, Paul Valery, Jaap Blonk, Kim Addonizio, David Thornbrugh, Bern Porter, Megan Milks, Cedar Sigo, Ted Kooser, Miia Toivio, Alena Hairston/elen gebreab, Unica Zuern, Peter Cook, Mike Hauser, Julia Bloch, Charles Stross, Shin Yu Pai, Mikey Golightly, Zhang Er, Paula Grenside, Richard Deming, Linda Russo, Nadia Halim, Geoffrey Hendricks, Kathy Lou Schultz, Stephen Cope, David Hernandez, Cole Swensen, Bill Walsh, Pirooz M. Kalayeh, Mara Vahratian, Ange Mlinko, Afroza Soma, Rupert Mallin, The Leader, Etel Adnan, Jennifer Cooke, Mark Granier, Lamont Steptoe, Amina Cain, Geof Huth, Patrick Frank, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Megan Volpert, Charlotte Runcie, Susan Howe, Gene Justice, Matthew Lafferty, Patrick Kurp, Barbara Jane Reyes, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Amy L. Sargent, Nathalie Stephens, Andrew Johnston, Prabhakar Vasan, Nathaniel Mackey, Abhijit Mitra, Ben Mazer, Thomas Fucaloro, Dr. Jacob Edmond, Yu Jian, Ted Pearson, Linh Dinh, Stephen Nelson, Kenneth Patchen, Robert von Hallberg, Andrew Hughes, Chris Gullo, Shanna Compton, May Pang, Cristiana Baik, Allen Mozek, Fielding Dawson, Stephen Rosenthal, Stefan Brecht, Donald Justice, Stan Apps, Shelley Powers, Stephen Vincent Benet, Maya Angelou, Wade Fletcher, Juliana Leslie, Anny Ballardini, John Yau, Bob Kerr, Michael Helsem, Charles Belbin, Jane Jortiz-Nakagawa, John Tyson/Kelly Conway, Teresa K. Miller, Emily XYZ, Jeff Harrison, John P. McNamee, Michelle Taransky, Gertrude Stein, Jen Welch, Doug Hofstadter, Edgar Lee Masters, Andrey Bely, sTEVEN p. rOGGENBUCK, Ed Dorn, Gary Sullivan, Greg Perry, Susan Allspaw Pomeroy, Jim Kober, Bobby Byrd, John Sullivan, Charles Johnson, John Byrum, Charles Simic, Baron Wormser, Scott Pierce, Ada Limon, Kris Waldherr, Tom O‚ÄôConnor, Christina Mengert, Danielle Pafunda, Gary Lutz, David Christensen, Anyssa Kim, Joshua Trott, Zachary Schomburg, Christopher Salerno, Christophe Casamassima, Emily Critchley, Dorothea Lasky, Chris Glomski, Matt Shears, Damian Weber, Justin Marks, Brooke Kaye, Frank Etienne, Judith Jordan, Sam Dillon, Bill Knott, Mara Leigh, Anselem Berrigan, Jeff Bacon, Clifford Odets, JeffreyJoe Nelson, Della Watson, Christiana Langenberg, Robert Peake, cris cheek, Morris Cox, Richard Kostelanetz, Wanda Phipps, Hugo Ball, Kristin Prevallet, Norman Weinstein, Lacey Hunter, Gerald Hausman, Rachel Oliver, Ray McNiece, Bill Dorn, Catullus, Monique Trottier, Joshua Ware, e.e. cummings, Garrett Hongo, Bill Lavender, John Cleary, Sharon Harris, Divya Victor, Jack Spicer, Kate Armstrong, Karl Young, Chad Sweeney, David Solway, Wanda O'Connor, Mahmoud Darwish, Joanne Tracy, Sheila, Amanda Cook, Hugh Nissensen, Sean M. Dalpiaz, Edna St. Vincent, Caroline Bergvall, Lawrence Giffin, Rob Halpern, Dana Gioia, Daniel Bradley, David Kaufmann, Robert Lowell, kari edwards, Rosanna Lee, Allen Fisher, Stacy Szymaszek, Matt Theado, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Billy Mills, Andy Gricevich, The Philly Sound, Ruel S. De Vera, Trudi West, Daniel C. Remein, Hillary Gravendyk, Mary Burger, Insani Kamil, Guillermo Parra, Ryan Daley, Jessica Schneider, Carol Novack : Playpoem MP3, Jesse Ferguson, Mark Bernstein, KB Jones, Laura Marks, Kent Freeman, Sara Blakeman, Rodrigo Toscano, Sabyasachi Nag, Budd Parr, Peggy Willis Lyles, Keston Sutherland, Simon DeDeo, Marcus Slease, Emily Crocker, Donald Illich, John Sakkis, Andrew Sage, Joseph Harrington, Adrienne Rich, Tad Richards, Mick Rock, Sabina Murray, Michael Friedman, J.V. Foix, Michael McClintock, Dennis Nurkse, Andrew Shields, Susan Bee, Jacques Gaffarel, Paul Rigolle, William Keckler, Evan J. Peterson, Geoffrey Demarquet, Ariana Reines, Richard Wilbur, Kim Chinquee, Jerome Rothenberg, Laura Carter, Mark Strand, Nicholas Manning, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Donna Stonecipher, Girish Shambu, Gerald Schwartz, Catherine Taylor, Rachel Levitsky, Michelle Tupko, Chris Corrigan, Jim McKay, Joel Craig, Jacqueline Risset, Marcus Civin, Melvin Tolson, Lance Anderson, Sampson Starkweather, Peter Carey, Chris Murray, Dorianne Laux, Fiona Templeton, Kimberly Lyons, Claudia Carlson, Aaron Belz, Bill Zavatsky, Adam Strauss, Curtis Gale Weeks, Jeremiah Bowen, Bill Piety, Jane Hirshfield, mark s kuhar, Brendan Kreitler, Kim Bernstein, Frances Kruk, Margaret Ronda, Chris Piuma, Gina Franco, Anne Boyer, Claire McMahon, Jason Zuzga, Sharon Lynn Osmond, Pirooz Kalayeh, Robert Calero, Laura Jaramillo, Bryan Newbury, Steve Schroeder, St. Catherine of Siena, Anna Akhmatova, Edith Sitwell, Eduardo C. Corral, Megan Burns, Dan Hoy, Walt Whitman, Nic Sebastian, Elizabeth Treadwell, John Phillips, Michael Haeflinger, Karen, C Mehrl Bennett, Michael Hays Sanchez, Henry Edwards, Jeremy James Thompson, Jeffrey Ethan, Lisa Lorenz, Sukhdev Sandhu, Norma Cole, Courtney Rydel, Nina Svenne, Robert Zaller, Kirby Olson, Frank Wilson, Changming Yuan, Justin Audia, Janet Holmes, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jon Christensen, C.J. Martin, Matt Rasmussen, Norman Fischer, Bill Day, Mervyn Peake, Yvonne Jacquette, Nathan Logan, Urdu Poetry, Tony Towle, Leslie Kaplan, Philip Nikolayev, Sarah Gridley, Naomi Shihab Nye, Stephen Paul Miller, Mark Van Doren, Bonnie Jean Michalski, T.R. Wang, Eric Rosenfield, Mark Woods, R. Nemo Hill, Cynthia Lawson, Harry Rutherford, Deborah Patillo, Mark Bibbins, Novica Tadic, Hank O'Neal, Denise Low, Caroline Whitbeck, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Serena Jost, Elizabeth Marie Young, Reg E. Gaines, Cole Swenson, Kevin Kilroy, Kaia Sand, Harryette Mullen, Charles Deemer, Alan Tucker, Eileen Myles, Meg Foulkes, Martha Ronk, Gil Fagian, Nick Piombino, Betsy Fagin, Anne Germanacos, Alex Cumberbatch, Kenneth Goldsmith, Debby Florence, Bin Ramke, Kariann Burleson, Amy Berkowitz, Liz Waldner, T.A. Noonan, Steven Karl, Francis Ponge, Angela Genusa, F.A. Nettelbeck, Becca Klaver, Andrew Koszewski, Chelsea Hotel, J.P. Rangaswami, Guile Canencia, Carol Snow, Alysha Wood, Jen Hofer, Greg Mulcahy, Lynne Dreyer, Andrew Feindt, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Susanna Kittredge, Jason Fraley, Nicholas Messenger, Raymond Filip, Mitch Highfill, Ian Tyson, Lisa Fishman, Gloria Frym, St. John Perse, Robin Purves, Peter Davis, Alison Knowles, Russell Edson, Collin Kelley, Nashi, Jim Dine, Marie Ponsot, Joseph Ceravolo, Jorie Graham, Barbara Guest, Onishi Yasuyo, Matthew Henriksen, Kent Johnson, Eric Bogosian, Craig Shaffer, Hoa Nguyen, Zolt√°n Hom√°lyos, Marcella Durand, Afaa Michael Weaver, CAConrad, Eddie Watkins, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Beth Joselow, David A. Kirschenbaum, Brandon Shimoda, Richard Taylor, H.T. Harrison, Wolfi Landstreicher, Robert Wilson, Andrew Topel, Juliana Spahr, John Levy, Stuart Ross, William Jay Smith, Jane Holland, Martin Edmond, Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Nikolai Gumilov, Billy Jno Hope, David Patton, Brian VanRemmen, Didi Menendez, Nico Alvarado-Greenwood, Danielle Pafunda, Pam Brown, Alexander Pope, Loss Pequeno Glazier, Jordan Scott, Will Edmiston, Robert Allen, Carly Sachs, Rick Burkhardt, Tisa Bryant, Alison Shaffer, Peter Norman, Roger Dean, Justin Evans, Jan Manzwotz, Don Wentworth, Tim Carmody, Guenter Grass, Ricardo Bracho, Erica Hunt, Robert Service, Katherine Hastings, James Finnegan, Elaine Equi, Clancy Ratliff, Mark Tardi, ee miller, Kara Hearn, Dax Bayard-Murray, Chris Kraus, Marita Dachsel, Redell Olsen, MaryAnn McCarra-Fitzpatrick, Tom Leonard, Wendy Wisner, Jean Roelke, Laura Sells, Donna Kuhn, Wen Yiduo, Erika Mikkalo, Tristan Tzara, Evie Shockley, Sarah Louise Parry, John Dos Passos, Doc Reese, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Montgomery, Lisa Samuels, Nin Andrews, Susan Gevirtz, Karen Mac Cormack, Roger Pao, Wang Ping, Samuel R. Delany, Andy Clausen, Barry Schawbsky, Mary Oliver, Deborah Meadows, Eve Rifkah, Reed Altemus, Alexei Remizov, Christopher Warrington, Bennett/Baron, Bill White, Franco Beltrametti, Joseph Massey, Stephen Mitchelmore, Jason Gray, Rod Smith, Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Richard Bank, Lorenzo Thomas, Matt¬†Hart, Eric Weiskott, Benito Vergara, J.D. Mitchell-Lumsden, Gerard Sarnat, January O'Neill, Miles Budimir, Christopher Kelen, Julie Carter, Tim Peterson, Rusty Morrison, Jay Rosevear, Jeremy Bushnell, Tomas S. Butkus, Katoh Ikuya, Lin Kelsey, Joan Larkin, Wystan Curnow, Alessandro Porco, Brian Seabolt, Summi Kaipa, Elizabeth Zechel, Thomas Lowe Taylor, Derek Walcott, Carla Milo, Nelly Sachs, Pattie Cowell, Mark Young, Sam Witt, Jed Rasula, Elizabeth Willis, Pamela Lawton, Sandra Seekins, Dave Lovely, Christopher Sindt, Jennifer Rogers, Ben Lerner, Richard Johnny John, Denton Welch, Andre Breton, Peli Grietzer, Erik Sapin, Jonathan Doherty, Michaela Cooper, Cathy Park Hong, Jake Berry, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Julie Choffel, Alan de Niro, Katie Cappello, F.J. Bergmann, Robert Doto, Zackary Sholem Berger, Nina Alvarez, Katie Haegele, Elizabeth Block, Theo van Doesburg, Jon Frankel, Andrew Lundwall, Lily Brown, Ken Belford, Lisa Robertson, Chris Pusateri, Patrick Chapman, David Daniels, Maurice Blanchot, Georg Trakl, Frank Simone, Tony Barnstone, Thomas A. Clark, John Tranter, Dale Smith, James Tate, Joel Lewis, James Schiller, Dylan Kinnett, Richard Gilbert, George Economou, Tony Trehy, Tammy Ho Lai-Ming, Ophelia Mourne, Harlan Erskine, Melissa Benham, Kahlil Gibran, Jen Tynes, Hannah Craig, A.M. Correa, Katie Acheson, Nazim Hikmet, Brian Lucas, Louis Cabri, Maggie Dubris, Richard Bank, Alan Loney, Stephanie Countiss Emens, Erin Pringle, Anthony Metivier, Marie Buck, Zachary Chartkoff, Jan Oskar Hansen, Michael Jarrett, James Cook, Philip Metres, Jon Paul Fiorentino, Vachel Lindsay, Michael Scharf, o. hunt, Ann M. Fine, Alfred Jarry, John Wood, Robert Desnos, Michael Gause, Danielle Dutton, Jonathan Jones, Eric Mottram, Mary Jo Bang, John Deming, D. Antwan Stewart, Hugh MacDiarmid, Rob, Eleanor Wilner, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Scott Hartwich, Four Horsemen, Gregory Betts, Bill Berkson, Laurel Ransom, George Schneeman, Kristy Odelius, Lisa Cohen, Sina Queyras, Eric Baus, Angela Vasquez-Giroux, David Miller, MaryAnn McCarra Fitzpatrick, D.A. Powell, Julia Story, Andrea Lawlor, Jane Falk, Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Ellen Baxt, Gisele Prassinos, Ruth Taylor, Laura Harper, artie gold, Jeni Olin, Sergei Gandlevsky, Lila Zemborain, Tony Tost, Juan Jose Flores, Brian Mihok, Tan Lin, Sarojini Sahoo, Paul Siegell, Nicole Mauro, Caroline Conway, Merrill Gillfillan, Geoffrey, Philip Rowland, Jonathan Evison, Ira Joel Haber, Melissa Pakalinsky, Susan Kaiser Greenland, Daniel Bailey, Jenny Boully, Djuna Barnes, David Wolach, Nick Twemlow, Rodney Koeneke, Cheryl Snell, Jennifer K. Dick, Reggie Harris, Peter Ganickz, Sheila Murphy, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Greg Rappleye, Alasdair Gray, Len Shneyder, Zack Linmark, John Seed, Paul Ford, Rachel Mallino, Jan Bindas-Tenney, Tim Botta, The Pines, Ecce Mulier, Kenneth Goldsmith, Daniel Pritchard, R. Zamora Linmark, Karen Wagner, Camille Roy, Steven Gould Axelrod, Vassilis Zambaras, James Bow, Steve Roberts, Ron Padgett, Jason Labbe, Donora Hillard, Larry Kearney, Kristen Orser, Ed Ruscha, Louise Waller, Sherri Wood, Miriam Jones, Steven Moore, Robert Hershon, Patry Francis, Dave Cook, Sara Veglahn, Alfred Leslie, Henri Michaux, C.K. Williams, Doc Searls, Lars Amund Vaage, Rae Armantrout, Rodrigo Flores, Allen Bramhall, Rigoberto Gonzales and Katha Pollitt, Anatol Stern, Sina Fazelpour, Sarith Peou, Harold Jaffe, L.L. De Mars, Peggy Kelley, Sara Marcus, David Applegate, Lisa Janssen, Jim Moore, Edmond Jabes, Ruth, Wei Ying-Wu, India Radfar, Matthew Cooperman, David Dowker, Laird Hunt, Mina Loy, Erin Bertram, Will Alexander, J. F. Quackenbush, John Gallaher, Robert Ashley, Benjamin Paloff, Andrew Neuendorf, Kusano Shimpei, Dion Farquhar, Lisa, Emily Gordon, Karen Plata, Dinah Roma, Doug Lang, Claire Becker, Caryl Pagel, Walter Mosley, Stephanie Stickland, Frank Sherlock, Justin Dodd, Katina Papson, Daniel Zimmerman, Keith Waldrop, Douglas Manson, Charles Olson, Bill Peschel, Franklin Bruno, Nathan Hauke, Paul Hoover, William Moor, C. Harris Stevens, Walter Abish, Amy Lemmon, Claude Royet-Journoud, John Keene, Aaron Armstrong Skomra, Jordan Sanderson, Reg Johanson, Peter Yovu, Daniel Pendergrass, John Beer, Justin Lacour, Jennifer Moxley, Nathan Lang, Hazel Smith, Iamnasra Oman, pr primeau, Sheryl Luna, Jonathan Ball, Terry Southern, Christian Peet, Pierre Joris, Oana Avasilichioaei, Arunta, Deanna Ferguson, Tom Phillips, Susan Schultz, Jason Camlot, David Kirschenbaum, Gail Mazur, Jack Hughes, Zack Finch, J.H.Prynne, Rebecca Loudon, Scott Inguito, Esmail Yazdanpour, Naftali Bacharach, Jennifer Osborne, Sylvia Plath, Richard Lopez, Sandy Baldwin, Kirsten Lavers, Andrew Christ, Ann Lauterbach, Shelly Taylor, Nicole Peyrafitte, Jessica Savitz, Sam Golden Rule Jones, K. Silem Mohammad, Lionel Kearns, Lili Bita, Aime Cesaire, R W Sturgess, James Moran, Mike Topp, Dan Featherston, Chris Daniels, Gregory Botts, Nicole Oquendo, Thomas Devaney, Randall, Keith Shein, William Harris, Rik Roots, Patricia Carragon and Andy Comess, Alejandro Tarrab, Matthew Shindell, Eric Gamalinda, Amy Bernier, Spencer Selby, Simone Muench, Piombino, Michelle Buchanan, David Lehman, Jonathan Skinner, Sandra Beasley, Patricia Spears Jones, Hal Saulson, Laura Riding, Taylor Mali, Nam June Paik, W.B. Yeats, Peter Reading, Graham Foust, Brenda Coultas, Emily Lloyd, Ed Skoog, D.G. Jones, Vicente Huidobro, Jared Schickling, Peter Sacks, Kate Pringle, Rita Wong, Laila Lalami, Nancy Friedman, Franz Kafka, Robert Hellam, Brian Campbell, Danny Fields, Mario Cafiero, Peter Ciccariello, Cat Tyc, Nate Pritts, Andrea Brady, Andy Frazee, Felino Soriano, Clair Becker, Soumana Dasgupta, Jill Riga, David Raphael Israel, Stacey Levine, Mike Magee, Tim Yu, Cesar Vallejo, Isidore Ducasse, Amanda Earl, Romina Freschi, Alan Halsey, Daniel f. Bradley, Charles Rossiter, Noelle Kocot, Jayne Pupek, Aldous Huxley, Deborah Fries, Alani Apio, Jessica Smith, Christopher Barnes, Rick Snyder, Sarah Lang, Emily Dickinson, Cecilia Ann, bpNichol, Susanna Fry, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Charles Borkhuis, Herman Beavers, Stephanie Skura, Jessica Bennett, Steve Carey, Madeline Gins, Thom Donovan, Chuck Perrin, Luci Tapahonso, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Ira Cohen, Marko J. Niemi, Ray Davis, Nancy Gandhi, Dee Rimbaud, Mary O'Malley, Evie Ivie, Pamela Mack, Lawrence Lessig, Allyssa Wolf, and Snezana Zabic.

Poetry without preconditions: Rahi translation

2008-10-04T00:14:00.002-04:00

Below is a translation by Mohammad Mostaghim (Rahi) of my poem "Vow" into Farsi. As poets, we can communicate "without preconditions," whatever Sarah Palin might say.

Vow

We will love like dogwood
Kiss like cranes
Die like moths
I promise

©2007, Larissa Shmailo

لاريسا شمايلو 2007

پيمان بهار

ما عشق خواهيم ورزيد

مثل زغال اخته

بوسه خواهيم زد

مثل درناها

خواهيم مرد

مثل پروانگان

من نويد مي‌دهم

گزاشتار: محمّد مستقيمي(راهي)

Out now: Masthead 11: Poetryetc: Poems and Poets An anthology edited by Andrew Burke and Candice Ward

2008-09-28T17:08:00.001-04:00

The Pedestal Magazine review of A Cure for Suicide

2008-08-30T13:42:00.000-04:00

A Cure for Suicide
Larissa Shmailo
Cervená Barva Press

Reviewed for The Pedestal Magazine by Joselle Vanderhooft

Larissa Shmailo plumbed the depths of human emotion and the heights of such extreme human states as homelessness, madness and grief in her dramatic 2006 spoken word CD The No-Net World. Although the majority of the poems in her latest chapbook, A Cure for Suicide, read less like conventional monologues, the turbulence, sensuality and unabashed wildness that engirds her earlier work is very much alive in these twenty-four poems. Indeed, the book's leading poem "Vow" (here reproduced in full) provides an uncannily accurate epigraph for the chapbook's mood and feel.

We will love like dogwood.
Kiss like cranes.
Die like moths.
I promise.

"Vow" is a provoking promise for a passion that is as expansive as it is unconventional (after all, while "we will love like dogwood" is not a typical image to describe passion, the dogwood is a species of tree that blooms riotously). Shmailo delivers on this promise in poems such as "My First Hurricane," a heavy and wet description of a dizzying love affair, the wry "Dancing with the Devil" and "At the Top of My Lungs," a sharp, dark look at the narrow gap between love and violence. True to her interest in poetry as spoken word and her numerous poetry and music CDs, these riotous dogwood blossoms of poems often demand that they be read aloud, even sung. At times, the reader may even catch him or herself slapping a hand against a thigh or tapping a toe in time with the poet's effortless rhymes and tight, but never restrictive, meter. Shmailo writes in "Personal":

I want to know
what makes you
tick.

I want to know
what makes you
fickle; I want to know
what makes you
stick.

Tell me

which ion propels you
which soothsayer spells you
which folksinger trills you
which hardwood distills you
which downward dog twists you
which protest resists you
which neural net fires you
which siren desires you

Shmailo even uses her sense of musicality to play with her readers, to force them to engage with the text kinetically in ways beyond just squirming to her poetry's pulse. In "Sea (Sic)," she presents the reader with this intriguing puzzle as a type of stage direction: "Please read the stanzas in any order you like." The speaker, meanwhile, presents his or her lover with a similar challenge:

Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know,
the order of my words.

Indeed, read in every possible way, "Sea (Sic)" flows like the tides of an ocean and mirrors the often obtuse language of desire between lovers. It also makes perfect sense.

For readers who may long for some of the more straightforward "dramatic monologues" Shmailo presented in efforts such as The No-Net World, there is no need to despair. Although many of the poems in A Cure for Suicide are shorter and more abstract than those on the spoken word CDs, the title poem "How to Meet and Dance with Your Death (Como encuentrar y bailar con su muerte): A Cure for Suicide" is a fantastic story (in the truest sense of the word) about the human lust to know death, to see the way in which one will die, to flirt with one's own mortality and hold it close. In this prose poem (which reads like the very best of magic realist fiction) a woman is able to meet and dance with her personal Death by way of a strange and deadly recipe that consists of mostly alcohol, cigarettes, peyote and "coffee as needed" and a number of excesses that recipe brings on: wild dancing, frantic singing and flirtation with two psychopomps who lead the speaker to her Death. However, the ritual can only be performed once. To do it more is "common."

...If you do this more than once, you will do it
often, and then you will become an old borracha who sleeps with
common men. Punto.

Arguably the book’s most engrossing poem (perhaps because of its strong narrative engine), "How to Meet and Dance with Your Death" is a taut piece of fantastic literature that discusses, with no lack of sexiness and slyness, the ways in which humanity's all-too-common todeslust can be tamed, mocked, teased and ultimately turned into a virtue.

Larissa Shmailo is a poet who sings, and fans of her spoken word CDs—as well as readers who enjoy their poetry flush with life, lust and the more awkward aspects of both—will find a lot to love in her latest offering.

Aerial View of the Rockies

2008-08-25T02:50:00.001-04:00

The gods like to trace their fingers in the world;
like leaves from a primordial tree, landforms
bare their veins. Clever of her to suicide this way
leaving no one but me to know. Impassive as
the dead face she wanted no one to see, clouds
hide rigor in the lines, purposeful or not, below.
In winter, sunrise looks like sunset in this distant
land, soon to be nearer, nearer, soon.

List of Words Never To Be Used in Poems

2008-08-09T00:37:00.002-04:00

List of Words Never To Be Used in Poems

Soul, being, essence, fire, dream, auburn, scent, inhumanity, starry, ripe, free, heaven, transcend, memory, butterfly, chrysalis, please, mad, ecology, teach, tear, lachrymose, cry, frown, smile, love, thought, potential, season, poetry, verse. Transubstantiate, transform, ascend, breathe, breath, usurp, sing, shudder, genius, antihero, thrush, lark birdsong, exaltation, maid, woman, man, men, attempt, right, am, word, tresses, thrill. Form, character, said, desire, longing, elm, oak, tree, flame, yearn, burn, consume, new, human, bow, warrior, want, page, blank. And so far, you agree. Well, then…

Understanding, unique, déluge,manqué, mensch , wheelbarrow, manifest, palimpsest, avatar, sight, seer, samovar, light, ingredient, save, Oprah, Jerry, nothing, but, yet. The, a, loneliness, mélange , sea, lighthouse, tower, healing, light, use, underscore, trial, Kafka, yes, shop, radiant, garden, fore, yore, music, recollection, last, addiction, evolution. First, over, in, DNA, Darwinian, medicate, pharmacology, software, star, hardwired, stellar, bang. Relate, relationship, query, queer, think, survivor, mine, pain, sorrow, tragedy, woe, enter, laughing, mope. Still with me? How about…?

Life, live, living, hope, horror, help, one, singularity, Buddha, art, bomb, arms, lines, marital, Broadway, show, tell, ask, mission, missive, missile, realm, wonder, wander, know, knowledge, reify, epistemological, portent, magic, magical, many, omnipotent, avuncular, very, theme, adjective, parse, nun, father, mother, brother, we, our, us, I. Eye, omnibus, rarity, time, past, future, date, number, year, one, abstract, narrative, native, experiment, fusion, phrase, quote, café. Random ( or mad), insight, learned, spirit, well, good, thanks, fine, good. You?

Reviews of my chapbook, A Cure for Suicide

2008-07-18T16:00:00.002-04:00

Reviews of my collection, "A Cure for Suicide"

Doug Holder, Ibbetson Street Press
In a “Cure for Suicide” by Larissa Shmailo, Shmailo writes (as the founder of Fulcrum Magazine Philip Nikolayev points out in his introduction) as if she is …” constitutionally predestined to sing out her lines…her eyes filled with life and love, pain and death, freedom and coercion, the real of the mind and the imagined of the heart.” In the poem “Dancing with the Devil,” the poet sings about the need to throw caution to the wind and trip the light fantastic with the Devil:

“They say if you flirt with death,

You’re going to get a date;

But I don’t mind—the music’s fine,

And I love dancing with someone who can really lead.”

Shmailo puts herself in the deceptive calmness of the eye of a hurricane, asks us to tell her what makes us tic, and takes us on the Harlem River Line, like the “Duke” took us on the “A” train. In a sea of mimics this poet is an original voice.

--Doug Holder, Ibbetson Street Press

A Cure For Suicide (Cervena Barva Press) by Larissa Shmailo
reviewed by Richard Barrett

The key to unlocking Larissa Shmailo’s A Cure For Suicide is found in the collection’s penultimate poem: ‘Exorcism (Found Poem)’. The primary subject matter of that piece is the My Lai massacre in Vietnam; the secondary subject is the showing of the linkage between the domestic and the international. In this specific case how lawbreakers in America, at the time, were given the option of joining the army as an alternative to imprisonment. The piece is making the point that with an army so constituted – i.e. made up to a large degree of soldiers who had no particular desire to be there and who were, furthermore ‘poorly trained’ – it’s surprising there weren’t repetitions of My Lai. It’s an understanding of how seemingly disparate subject matters are linked that Shmailo wants us to take from that poem; and it’s by applying that understanding to her whole, wonderful collection that we begin to get a handle on Shmailo’s worldview.

Reading A Cure For Suicide Shmailo’s themes and preoccupations make themselves known to us. There’s “movement”: the identifying of personal turmoil with the turmoil of nature, as explored in ‘My First Hurricane’. Then the whirling, spinning inebriated dancing of the title poem follows, which, in turn, is followed by the nihilistic ‘Dancing with the Devil’. She returns to contemplating the movement of nature in ‘Oscillation’, informing us how ‘The world was born in swing and sway’, going on, then, to consider movement of a poetically technical kind in ‘Sea (Sic)’, where she addresses us in the italicized parenthesis under the title: (Readers: Please read the stanzas in any order you like.)* So for Shmailo, even the words of her poems cannot be assumed to be stationery; even they are just as subject to the possibilities of movement as everything else in the world.

As already stated, “nature” is also a feature of this collection. Besides the two poems mentioned above, there is ‘Vow’ which opens the collection, wherein the protagonist reassuringly describes to her lover how their affair will have all the characteristics of nature. Then there is the remarkable ‘Aerial View of the Rockies’: containing the wonderful image of ‘gods [who] like to trace their fingers in the world; / Like leaves from a primordial tree’ as an explanation for how the dips between mountains occur. The world is anthropomorphised as we are told ‘landforms / Bare their veins’. The poem displays a deep Eco-consciousness as we become aware that the person with the ‘Aerial View of the Rockies’ is realising the earth is slowly dying: ‘Clever of her to suicide this way / Leaving no one but me to know’.

The adoption of the standard feminine in the addressing of the earth in ‘Aerial View of the Rockies’ points towards another of Shmailo’s concerns: that of being a woman. In the appropriately hallucinatory ‘Abortion Hallucination’ the image of a snake recurs. In the poem the snake has multiple meanings: it has biblical connotations, is meant to symbolise fear and is also meant to represent the penis. Shmailo captures the occasional embarrassment of sex: ‘remember that I like / handling snakes and smile / and as always he softens grows smaller’. Present in ‘Abortion Hallucination’ as a disturbing undercurrent, as well, is a suggestion of child abuse.

In ‘Ayah’ and ‘Bhakti’ we find spirituality and gods. ‘Ayah’ expresses bafflement at how and why Christianity developed given its origins. ‘Bhakti’ appears a challenge to Hinduism – offering redemption to an outcaste woman.

Returning to the collections title poem – ‘How to Meet and Dance with Your Death (Como encuentrar y bailar con su muerte): A Cure for Suicide’ - we see the emergence of another of Shmailo’s concerns: the blurring of the boundaries of the self resultant from alcohol and drug consumption. In this piece, seemingly heavily indebted to Malcolm Lowry’s Under The Volcano, the reader is provided with a recipe for intoxication:

‘2 gallons of pulque (fermented Mayan beverage), or if unavailable, gin
1 case tequila
several cases of beer
1 bottle Mescal
2 ounces good marijuana
carton cigarettes
three large peyotes
coffee as needed’

The drug experience is alluded to, again, in ‘Abortion Hallucination’.

Somewhat unexpectedly Shmailo also has a fondness for painting urban scenes with her poetry. She does it with great skill though; in ‘Untitled (Night, avenue…)’ we find: ‘Night, avenue, street lamps, the drug store, / irrational and dusky light. / Live another decade, two more - / It stays the same; there’s no way out’; and, in ‘Harlem Line’: ‘Auction: Sin City cabaret, Signs and awnings, / …Skate keys. Real estate. / Where open houses become closed. (All hope / like a lottery…’

What the reader needs to ask themselves – returning to the lesson of ‘Exorcism (Found Poem)’ - is: what linkage does Shmailo want us to make between these apparently unconnected themes? And because it isn’t mathematics we’re dealing with here, but poetry, every reader will answer that question differently.

I don’t think it’s a dodging of the question for me to say I’d prefer not to impose my own interpretation of A Cure For Suicide on any reader of this review, as I think the order that I’ve addressed the collections themes has gone some way towards suggesting how they may be linked (or at least how they seem linked to me); it’s just that I’d rather the collection's ambiguity be allowed to remain intact, in order for every reader to make of it what they will.

One final note: the most linguistically innovative poem of the collection is ‘Bloom’ – perhaps not surprisingly as it’s to a large extent inspired by the Molly Bloom stream-of-consciousness at the end of Joyce’s Ulysses. Herein we find Shmailo free-associating (‘Ill-bred, no bread / Dirty whore’s puking / Just giving me head…’) and punning wildly (‘A weak bird’ referring to herself, using the English colloquialism of “bird” to mean “woman”, whilst at the same time extending the use of the bird images, meaning actual creatures of the air, which populate the poem; and ‘I’m a mammal, / I have mammaries,’). As ‘Bloom’ comes just before the end of A Cure For Suicide, it can be called a great note on which to close a great collection.

To order go to http://cervenabarvapress.com

Or send $7 to Gloria Mindock Cervena Barva Press POBOX 440357 W. Somerville, Ma. 02144

View all my reviews.

First review of my new poetry CD, Exorcism

2008-07-15T23:03:00.003-04:00

"I've been enjoying Larissa Shmailo's new spoken word CD, EXORCISM, particularly the track, "How to Meet and Dance with Your Death (Como Encuentrar y Bailar con Su Muerte): A Cure for Suicide." If you like it on the page, you'll love it out loud. You can sample it on her MySpace page too. This poem digs at you.

The whole CD digs, though, bringing forth fiery, unorthodox, visceral imagery of the Devil and Magdalena, lovers and torturers and survivors. She crafts breath, rhythm, and rhyme, with a relaxed and dancerly demeanor and natural authority. Subtle music accompaniment and vocal multitracking. Highly recommended. "---Anne Elliott, Ass Backwords

Exorcism is available from CDBABY.COM and at the St Marks Bookshop.

Kalinivka

2008-06-19T19:25:00.001-04:00

Kalinivka
Kalinivka, Kalinivka: The ground over the mass graves is hard, the soft grass grows. The Ukrainian Guard, boy and girl, make love, happy to be alive. In the Ukraine, collectivized, they walked on corpses. And the Germans alone protest, the father tells the girl. Siberia, purges. Like the Irish, their parents collaborated eagerly; Hitler fought their masters. Now here, Kalinivka. The mass graves crack with green life. 1941 is forgotten by the summer of ’43. She is 19, pregnant soon.

Prymsl
By 1943, the ghetto holds the few not deported, living in tunnels, basements, caves, the hiding ones, the ones who know. All the rest to camps in Poland, Germany, or dead. The boy no longer likes the girl, but through her, he got his Kapo job. Even his mother says, marry. Have a child. The female Kapo bears a boy through the camps, Prymsl, through the unknown tombs of Poland, the unmarked graves, the walls marked with Jewish blood, the bloody broken nooses, the dark rain. She wants the boy to marry her, he makes excuses, says, the Germans won’t permit. That the child will die soon after the war, that she will beat her head upon the grave until it bleeds, that sorrow is unknown. The death of the Jewish children is unseen. Poland is always green.

Dora
Germany, Harz Mountains. The Germans turn now, now SS. The war is failing. Fewer the slaves to command, the girl, heavy with child, translates, working, starving, carried in rail carts for miles to build the V-2s. A rachitic Jewess cleans the barracks, the boy’s eye turns, with pity, with lust; he gives her bread. From Erfurt to the extension camp, Buchenwald’s new Dora, Northausen. Here they spare the rope to hang. All are hungry, the Germans too. The Allies bomb the industrial camp. Liberation. Rows of corpses, the eternal rows, line Northausen. The Germans are forced to respect the dead. Kalinivka, Pryml, the unseen dead, now here in respectful symmetry, no longer piled in heaps, rectangular, marked. The flowers grow, the burgers sing, “After every December, there comes a new Spring.

First review of my new chapbook, A Cure for Suicide

2008-05-19T19:00:00.003-04:00

Saturday, May 17, 2008

NEW POETRY COLLECTION RELEASED FROM SOMERVILLE’S CERVENA BARVA PRESS

In a “Cure for Suicide” by Larissa Shmailo, Shmailo writes (as the founder of Fulcrum Magazine Philip Nikolayev points out in his introduction) as if she is …” constitutionally predestined to sing out her lines…her eyes filled with life and love, pain and death, freedom and coercion, the real of the mind and the imagined of the heart.” In the poem “Dancing with the Devil,” the poet sings about the need to throw caution to the wind and trip the light fantastic with the Devil:

“They say if you flirt with death,
You’re going to get a date;
But I don’t mind—the music’s fine,
And I love dancing with someone who can really lead.”

Shmailo put herself in the deceptive calmness of the eye of a hurricane, asks us to tell her what makes us tic, and takes us on the Harlem River Line, like the “Duke” took us on the “A” train. In a sea of mimics this poet is an original voice.

To order go to http://cervenabarvapress.com

Or send $7 to Gloria Mindock Cervena Barva Press POBOX 440357 W. Somerville, Ma. 02144

Doug Holder/ Ibbetson Update/ May 2008

Warsaw Ghetto

2008-05-09T08:45:00.002-04:00

From the new CD Exorcism.

I am the Warsaw Ghetto
I am the underground railroad
I am a hero
I am the people who sang songs
Who said the Lord's prayer and the Sh'ma Yisrael
As the Nazis led them to the gas chamber.

I am a five year old girl in Jim Crow Mississippi going to school
I am Rosa Parks: I stand before the policeman
Before his club and his gun
And I say: no.
You can't have mine
No.

They tortured me and I confessed, I couldn't help it
They put electrodes on my ---
And I screamed
I told them everything they wanted to hear
But I I I never believed them
I never believed their lies
I always believed in love
Could see, in the distance, the light
And wait---I know it will come
For help.

I am a survivor
Of Mama's torture
And Daddy's rape
At age one
Age two
Age three
And now

I survived the selfish fondlings
The inspection of my genitals
The picking, groping hands
The gangbang
The lies

I survived the prostitution
The mutilation and sedation
The betrayal and attempted murder of my soul.

Don't tell me there is no God.
Who else helped me?
It wasn't you.
I called on God to help me.
There was no one else:
No mother
No father
No teacher
No preacher
No Rabbi
No doctor
No friend.

My enemies were powerful
Like Hitler and the Ghetto
But I held out
And when I tried to collaborate, wanting to die,
When I tried to surrender
I couldn't do it.
I had to stand up
Had to fight
No matter how many times they
Knocked me down
Called me crazy
Made me cry.

In the Ghetto
In the sewers
There is a record
A diary like mine
Of people who loved
Of people who fought
Of people who fought and won
No matter what anybody says.

The Manifesto of the TWiN Poetry Collective

2007-09-15T00:36:00.000-04:00

TWiN is an informal collective of poets & spoken word artists, open to all who enjoy spoken word poetry with music.

History

TWiN was an acronym, which stood for Third Wednesday in Northfields.
TWiN Poetry's MySpace page (www.myspace.com./TWiNpoetry) went online March 17, 2007 as an announcement for monthly poetry events in a place called Northfields. We began using the site to promote the work of other spoken-word artists, and, straightaway, our membership starting growing. By the end of the first week, people regarded us as an informal collective.
Since then, we have grown to nearly 7,000 members. Our membership continues to grow by hundreds each month. We now have a new page, TWiN London. More pages will probably follow. We do not advertise or market our pages. All we have done is to listen to people, and follow their suggestions.
There is no category for poetry on MySpace, so poets and audiences must click or stumble their way to TWiN via other members, through word-of-mouth, or just good luck. The timeliness and necessity of the TWiN collective has led to an audience that discovered itself without a single billboard, banner, or pop-up to point the way.

Goals

* We want our membership to receive the mainstream airplay that it deserves. We want broadcasters, telecasters, webmasters, producers, and mainstream media seducers to recognize the abundance of high-quality material currently being ignored. We intend to show them that there is a huge, flourishing audience for this work, a vast untapped demographic craving more than the trivial or pornographic.

* We want the big button-pushers to realize that most of this work shares its heart and intelligence with its audience. The spoken word loves its audience and inspires its audience to love. It shows a way out, a view beyond routine and strife, a love of life.
Spoken-word art does more than merely counteract the anti-social, self-destructive anaesthesia dispensed by commercial music or mainstream media. It encourages people to live fuller lives, become more thoughtful people, better parents, better friends, and better citizens. There are studies to prove this. We want to move this.

* We want to affirm art that takes on significant issues. We want content that looks at pain, loss, and injustice with honesty and integrity. We want work that cries, laughs, curses, contemplates, blows the whistle, whistles in the dark, schemes, dreams, breathes fire, makes its own rules, plays the fool, sparks the dark -- and most of all, gives its audience something to take with them, a gift to light their way home.

* We take pride that, unlike most of the earlier developments on the edges of the music and arts industry, this is truly a global, grass-roots phenomenon -- not a manufactured product. It markets itself. It markets itself because it is what people truly need.

* We want to encourage a global spoken-word dialogue between poets and artists who seek to bypass factions, concentrate on what unites people, and who refuse all the prefab party uniforms that cause so much injustice, apathy, destruction, and self-imprisonment.

* We acknowledge that spoken-word poetry has inherited the responsibility of the protest songs which inspired campaigns for social reform and human rights. At the same time, we assert that it is an art form in process. It's only rule is to become itself. It's the future, and we are all finding a way toward it.

The TWiN Collective, September, 2007

Rules of Reflection (for John Ashbery)

2007-09-03T22:32:00.000-04:00

When light is reflected by convex mirrors,

a virtual image is formed

.

Some of you will have difficulty

understanding how

the image of an

object can be found from a single point.

IN PARAN

2007-06-30T22:19:00.000-04:00

Call me Ishmael: my mother was a slave in the house of a patriarch
Hand against her thigh, he swore to her to raise her firstborn
But he lied. He threw my mother out; she made it to Paran
She found a well and didn’t die. She saw God and lived;
I saw demons and thrived.

I grew up wild and reckless in the land of desert nomads,
In the arid lands that lie near the promised land and Egypt,
That land of milk and honey they were saving for my brother
And the land of Pharaoh’s bondage where my mother’s kin were born.
I lived my youth near Canaan and the slaving lands of Egypt,
I lived my life an outcast in the desert of Paran.

I grew up wild and stubborn: my hand against my father
At war with all my kinfolk; my kin at war with me.
I grew up wild and skittish, like a scared colt in a sandstorm
I laughed at mules and camels that never could break free.

But I learned to run in sandstorms, and how to eat my water,
And how to find oases, and how to take the heat.
I learned to talk to demons, to tempters and to genies.
I learned to talk to devils, to outcasts just like me.

I learned to love and pity my younger brother Isaac
When they took him to the slaughter, not even asking why.
God bade me make the manna for Isaac and his children.
My demons said they’d be here, twelve tribes of them someday.
In this land of desert nomads near the promised land and Egypt
Near the land of milk and honey in the desert of Paran.

PERSONAL

2007-05-14T00:03:00.000-04:00

I want to know
what makes you
tick.

I want to know
what makes you
fickle; I want to know
what makes you stick.

Tell me

which ion propels you
which soothsayer spells you
which folksinger trills you
which hardwood distills you
which downward dog twists you
which protest resists you
which neural net fires you
which siren desires you

which villennelle sings you
which jailbreaker springs you
which Uncle Sam wants you
which calculus daunts you
which lullaby lulls you
which confidence gulls you
which apple you’ll bite from
which hither you’ll welcome

what
makes
me

take cover when you come
cut loose the sails and run
forget the right answers
consult necromancers
allow the forbidden
ignore the guilt ridden
unlearn all the learning
embrace this new burning

to know
what
makes you
tick

Spring Vow

2007-04-11T16:02:00.000-04:00

We will love like dogwood.
Kiss like cranes.
Die like moths.
I promise.

About Poetry 2007 Spring Anthology

Aleksandr Blok --tr. L Shmailo

2007-03-16T23:34:00.000-04:00

Night, avenue, street lamp, the drug store,
Irrational and dusky light.
Live another two, three decades
It stays the same; there's no way out.
You'll die, then start again, beginning
And everything unfolds as old:
Night, the canal's icy ripple,
The drug store, avenue, and lamp.

Reviews for THE NO-NET WORLD

2006-12-22T08:34:00.000-05:00

RAVE REVIEWS FOR THE NO-NET WORLD

Poet Larissa Shmailo doesn't really need a CD of her poetry to prove she's the real deal -- Shmailo is an accomplished poet who's been published in many magazines, journals and reviews. ... Thankfully though, Larissa Shmailo has compiled some of her best work in her new poetry CD, The No-Net World. The No-Net World is a solid collection of Shmailo's intensity, heart and wit. Her poetry is careful, considered, yet powerful. You may be fooled at first by her voice, which lilts like a bird. You may mistake her sweet tone as fragile -- she is far from it, yet still retains a vulnerability that allows her to tap directly into the listener with piercing emotion. Her observations of life and love offer no formality -- she tells it like it is, and sometimes it's gritty.

The album opens with four strong poems, including "In Paran", a dramatic tribal piece that feels ancient and familiar. Shmailo's humor is as sharp as her intensity, this is quickly evident in "For Six Months with You":"For Six Months with You / I would live in Kansas / join a carpool / shave my legs" Though the entire collection is, the best moments come near the end of the CD, first when Shmailo treats us to her own translations of pieces by Russian poets Pushkin and Mayakovsky; then in the most riveting and sobering poem of the collection, "How My Family Survived the Camps" in which the poet deftly recounts her family's history and survival during the Holocaust. The No-Net World takes you on one woman's tour of the globe, combining stark reality with lush hope. I recommend that you go along for the ride.

---LITKICKS.COM

Listening to poet and translator Larissa Shmailo’s latest spoken word CD is almost like attending eighteen short plays in the span of forty minutes. Like the best plays, each poem tells a compelling story of human struggle... Like the best plays, her poems also crackle with breathtaking language, which in the true tradition of the tragedies of which she speaks almost sound as if they could be sung (indeed, in some cases they almost are). Shmailo’s expert understanding of the close relationship between poetry and drama, music and language, and the primal human need to just hear a really, really good story make The No-Net World a truly unique contribution to twenty-first century American poetry, and a CD worth listening to frequently and carefully.

---THEPEDESTALMAGAZINE.com

Larissa Shmailo ...really knows how to write, how to read, how to present her poetry. She is masterful in the wonderfully rhythmic "Johnny I Love You Don't Die"...Shmailo's album is thoughtful, entertaining, and bears repeated listens.

---BOOG CITY

“How My Family Survived the Camps,” [IS] the strongest, the most important poem here, and one which clearly is based on personal (or at least familial) experience, and one which carries great emotional power. In it she describes the combination of luck and ingenuity that enabled her family to survive the Holocaust. The key poem on the CD, it gives by far the best realization of her running theme, that how we react to what happens to us is as important as the events themselves."

---POETIX.COM

How My Family Survived the Camps

2006-12-21T20:50:00.000-05:00

Was micht nicht umbringt, macht mich starker:
What does not kill me makes me stronger.
Nietzsche said this about other things
Not this.

How did my family survive the camps?
Were they smarter, stronger than the rest?
Were they lucky?
Did luck exist in Dora-Nordhausen,
Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen?

How did my family survive?
They were young, my mother and father, in 1943
Twenty years old when taken as slaves.
No one knew my father was a soldier, a communist
So he was not shot
Or taken to be gassed.
My grandmother said quickly to the Germans
He is a mechanic; they needed mechanics
My grandmother, Soviet businesswoman
Begged and bribed the Ukrainian kapos
Begged and bribed the Germans, not SS
They took my father, son of a commissar
And shot the other men.

How did my family survive?
They offered no resistance
Did they collaborate?
Is complicity possible without choice?

They marched to Germany, working
Following the German army
Following the front
Digging trenches, carrying metal
These were the good camps, Kalinovka, Peremeshl
There was still food:
My mother recalls eating an entire vat of potatoes
Fouled by kerosene, discarded by the Germans, not SS
The treatment was not cruel, comparatively, not cruel:
In 1944, the Germans
Were as afraid of the Russian front
As the prisoners were of Germany
And of the other camps.
Where they went nonetheless
Where they were sent nonetheless.

How did they survive Erfurt, the selection?
My mother spoke good German
I see her now at the staging camp
Her keen wit dancing around the SS
Like her young Slavic feet
She was young and good-looking
Thin but good-looking
And the SS liked the Ukrainian Frauen.
On the cattle car to Dora
To the chimneys of that camp
My mother rode with her family intact
Thinner but intact
And ready for work.

How did my family survive?
Was it luck?
In Dora-Nordhausen
Where the air smelled of shit and gas
Where the sun rose but never shone
Was there luck?

The boxcar stopped
At the Nordhausen factory
The way out through the crematorium chimney in Dora
Here, my grandmother learned languages
Wstavach, Stoi, Ren, Schwein, Halt.
In Dora, where not to understand an order meant death
My grandmother learned six languages; after six months
My family could work, hide and ask for bread
In all the languages of Europe.
They learned English the same way.

How did my family survive?
When the Americans came, with chocolate and blankets
My father, six foot one
Was one hundred and twenty pounds
And still we were rich, my mother interjects,
Rich compared to the Jews.
A few months longer, though, a few months longer
We would not have been alive.

How did my family survive?
My grandfather, a teacher
Told this story:
When the Americans came and saw the camp
They invited the people to loot the nearby towns
Take anything, the well-fed soldiers said
My grandfather stood and spoke: We are not animals, he said
But we were, my father interrupts, we were.

How did my family survive?
Survive is not the right word.
I'm alive, my father would say, alive
Alive because I did not die; others died.

Keep breathing, he encouraged me in difficult times
Keep breathing.

BLOOM

2006-10-19T16:28:00.000-04:00

I. Je suis une femme de lettres et je gagne ma vie.
─Colette

All ways a feather: bed your bugs as they bud
Welling roses these sweltering days
Rose roaches blooming by books, near pillows
Blooming by Bloomsday, busting out by June
Busting on Broadway, busting the busts…
Hey, this is…my bra!
(Like swallowing feathers, you know,
dirty feathers.)
And this is December and over there, Christmas
We call April Easter cause she makes them march.

Welling roses in Wellington Rolls
Rose roaches blooming by books, near pillows
Rolls with butter, rolls with jam
Roll her over, let’s go hot damn
Sweltering days as rose roaches bloom
Swilling slaves in rose roaches’ room

Bloom, concrete blossoms!
Bloom, Broadway bottoms!
Bloom! Picks his nose
Bloom! As he grows. . . .

Bed your bugs as they bud, as they breed─what a breed!
Ill-bred, no bread
Dirty cunt’s puking
Just giving me head. . . .

All ways are fettered
Fellated and fucked
For ever and all
But mostly for us

II. Foret sans oiseaux

All ways are feathered.
For rest a bed,
For the rest, a bed . . . .
Hey, this is. . . .I know; I’ve had them for years.
I’ve had it. Have you? Been had?
Have you a forest? Have you a bed?
Have you a haven?
(Forests of feathers: naked birds shrieking
Bony birds swooping
Burning birds screaming
Descending like hell)
Blooming rose roaches all buds destroyed
Bony birds bleeding, beating, breaking, bled. . .
For rest, a bed, for rest. . .
Fine-feathered slaughter by books, near pillows
Rose roaches breed,
Bleed swiftly and die.

III. On commence par ệtre dupe, on finit par ệtre fripon.
─George Sand

Always the feathers: hi, I’m Molly Bloom;
Blow by my bathroom . . . .
By the window a frozen bird, frozen for weeks,
A weak bird, a dead duck, a gone goose,
A pigeon petered out. . . .

But I’m Molly Bloom, you’ve had me, you know:
Birds are just chirping snakes.
But I’m Molly Bloom, I’m a mammal,
I have mammaries, see: This is a bust!
I don’t touch dead birds.

This is December, and over there’s Christmas
And Easter will rise to any occasion
For ever and all
For Peter and Paul. . . .
But I’m Molly Bloom, I’m a pagan, you fuck!
Amen
(A man? Where?)

A feather bed for me, a haven for rest,
Pillows for the head, and books for the rest
I need the rest: this is short, where’s the rest?

All ways are fetid
Fellated and fucked
No bird’s no damn good
Until it’s been plucked.
A man? Amen. This is Christmas:
Rest that piece.

How to Meet and Dance with Your Death (Como Encuentrar y Bailar con Su Muerte): A Cure for Suicide

2006-09-24T19:18:00.000-04:00

How to Meet and Dance with Your Death
(Como encuentrar y bailar con su muerte): A Cure for Suicide

This was told to me by an old Curandera, an India from Brazil whom I met in the Yucatan. She gave me this recipe and cautioned me that it could be done once, and only once.

To meet and dance with your Death, take:

2 gallons of pulque (fermented Mayan beverage), or if unavailable, gin
1 case tequila
Several cases beer
1 bottle Mescal
2 ounces good marijuana
carton cigarettes
three large peyotes
coffee as needed

For three weeks, do not eat meat, starch, sweets, or cabbage of any kind. You may have citrus fruits, papaya, watery vegetables, yucca and bacalǻo, salted nuts, cream, and a little halvah.

Drink and smoke everyday, reserving the Mescal and peyote. Smoke the marijuana in silence; drink only when there is music playing and people are dancing; at other times, walk, preferably uphill.

Bailar con fuerza cada dia: dance vigorously every day, either alone or in a group, but never in a couple. Be friendly with the other dancers but dance with no one partner longer than a few moments, and do not stay in one spot as it causes blood clots. Dance until your hair and clothing are entirely wet and your chin tilts upwards naturally.

When you are not dancing, be silent or listen to music, but do not chatter and certainly do not converse. By all means, sing and chant, but do not ululate, because this brings forth unnecessary demons.

When you have finished the pulque and most of the tequila, go to the city. Find two men, one dark and one light; they will be your guides. It is good if you like them, but they must not be your lover—your lover always blocks your view of Death (su amante oscura su vista de la muerte).Go together to an old room and take the peyotes; chop them well and mix them with strawberries and yogurt; the sour will help you not to vomit as much.

An hour after you have taken the peyote, the light-haired man will appear to be asleep. Do not disturb him: He is calling your Death.

Take the hand of the dark man. Ask him where he wants to go, and go with him: He will lead you to your Death.

Follow the dark man until he brings you to a crowd of people. You will see familiar faces in the crowd, family and old friends, but each time you turn to greet them, it will be a stranger. This is where you will meet your Death.

Your Death will be a man who looks like you, a little taller, but with the same color hair and possibly the same nose. He will be wearing a hat. He will appear preoccupied, perhaps agitated. He will be sweating.

You will wonder where he has come from, and whether he is sick. Do not ask. And do not ask him to dance. Wait.

When he sees you, you will feel something just below your hair, or in your nostrils, as if the room suddenly had become very cold, or very quiet. You will hear a song—an unusual but very familiar song—and then both of you will leap to the floor at the exact same moment and begin to dance.

You will dance for a long time and you will never dance better. Death will continue to sweat. As his face begins to shine, you will see beneath his skin and know that you are not dancing with a man, but with Death. After that, you will never fear him again, nor seek him.

When the dancing is over, go somewhere and drink the bottle of Mescal; leave the worm in the bottle for Death.

Do this correctly the first time, because it can not be done more than once. To do this once is sagrado, sacred; to do this more than once is common, so no lo jode. If you do this more than once, you will do it often, and then you will become an old borracha who sleeps with common men. Punto.

Howl! Fest

2006-09-01T18:43:00.000-04:00

SPIRIT OF HOWL! FEST

3 EVENTS! 2 POETRY EVENTS AND 1 MUSICAL EVENT

CONTACT:EKAYANI CHAMBERLIN ekayani2002@yahoo.com (212) 475-6547
BACK UP: Mike McHugh newcenturybooking@yahoo.com (212) 561-9789

WHEN: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 FROM 5-10 PM
WHERE: SUTRA LOUNGE http://www.sutranyc.com
16 1ST AVE
(BET. HOUSTON & FIRST ST)
PH: (212) 677 9477
$8 ADMISSION GOOD FOR ALL THREE EVENTS
ALSO: THERESA SAREO AT CRASH MANSION 7-10PM 199 BOWERY $10 ADDITIONAL COVER
1. SAT 9/16 7:30 – 10:00: SLIDING SCALE POETRY PRESENTS:

REGIE CABICO-Regie has appeared on MTV’s Def Poetry Jam, PBS’s In the Life, and in over 30 anthologies. http://www.globaltalentassoc.com/site/clients/cabico.htm

ANNE ELLIOTT:-Anne is a fiction writer/poet/ ukulelist/ feral cat tamer, and author of the reknowned http://Assbackwords.blogsite.com.

BOB HOLMAN- Recently dubbed a member of the "Poetry Pantheon" by N.Y Times Magazine. Holman has been crowned "Poetry Czar" (Village Voice), "Dean of the Scene" (Seventeen), and this generation's Ezra Pound(San Francisco Poetry Flash). http://www.bowerypoetry.com

SAPPHIRE- Sapphire's books include American Dreams, Black Wings & Blind Angels, and Push; NEA chairman John Frohnmayer was fired when he defended her work. http://Amazon.com.

JACKIE SHEELER- Recently featured in the New York Times, poet laureate of Riker’s Island, Jackie has two books and one CD out, is the talk in Talk Engine, and has hosted a weekly reading for the last seven years at Pink PonyWest. http://www.poetz.com

LARISSA SHMAILO-Larissa has a CD, “The No-Net World”, and teaches the class Publish, Perform, or Perish! http://larissashmailo.blogspot.com

HAL SIROWITZ- Hal is former Poet Laureate of Queens, reads Brooklyn work. halsirowitz@yahoo.com

ANGELO VERGA- Angelo is a poet, teacher, editor, curator of literary events, five collections of poetry, currently engaged in "deep research" for a book of love poems.

MC CHOCOLATE WATERS- Chocolate is a pioneer performance artist, director of Eggplant Publications and bon vivant. http://www.chocolatewaters.com

2. MIKE AMERICA AND THE FREE WORLD Acoustic music TIME 5-10 PM with:
5 PM- ADRIENNE NIGHTINGALE- "folk singer songwriter based in Brooklyn, NY. She holds tight reign on the raw emotional material in her songwriting... http://www.myspace.com/AdrienneMusic
5:30-LITTLE EMBERS (feat. Theresa Hoffman) "Little Embers music is a dark swirling revelation ... her new songs like "Radio" and the surreal "Curious Little Clowns" have the mystical poetic feel of sixties Dylan. Her voice is dark and sweet and it draws you in.Her dark, caustic perspective on reality has a world weariness and innate wisdom that is quite compelling" – McQ http://www.myspace.com/littleembers
6-TALK ENGINE feat. JACKIE SHEELER
Talk Engine is rock & roll's answer to hip-hop. "if you’re not dancing at the end of their set it's cause you're flying."-BOB HOLMAN When we do quieter sets, mostly based on spoken word, the material is "tough, savvy and true," -Thomas Lux. http://www.myspace.com/talkengine
6:30-TAMARA HEY-Referred to as "One of NYC's little treasures”, native New Yorker Tamara Hey aligns heart & soul with a natural, unaffected quirkiness & originality in every song.
http://www.tamarahey.com
7-NED MASSEY-The late, great, talent scout John Hammond Sr. called Ned: "The best thing I've seen since Bruce (Springsteen) " – McQ . http://www.nedmassey.com/
7:30-KAREN Maria Schleifer & WALTER Finley's NEW DUO –
'This feisty songstress was a child star in the title role of 'Annie' on Broadway. She still has that natural curly hair and a set of powerful pipes. The new songs slated for her upcoming second CD are strong.' -McQ -
http://www.curlykaren.com & http://www.walterfinley.com
8 PM-CASEY CYR - "Casey Cyr is a seer. A visionary poet and singer songwriter in the beat tradition. Beat as in beatific. Her Buddist faith infuses her work and her music and art has a quality of timeless illumination. Her song "Phantom Moon" is a classic. No wonder the legendary David Amram has called her "the female Dylan." –McQ http://www.caseycyr.com
8:30 PM -ALICE BIERHORST – (of RockDove) "Her chameleon vocals change character with each distinctly crafted song bringing to mind the photography of Cindy Sherman...beautifully weird pop that reminds us that less is more." - Performing Songwriter http://www.alicebierhorst.com.
9 PM-McQ as MIKE AMERICA -"A great knack for song stylization and writing"
Anne Leighton, 'The Music Paper' http://www.myspace.com/newcentury 9:30 PM-NOM de PLUME feat. SARA GENN "a chamber butter bandaid for your broken heart"Sara Genn: voice & rhodes guitar & Keith Witty on double bass
http://www.myspace.com/songsforlonging

3. “FREE WORLD MICROPHONE” POETRY EVENT TIME: 5-7 PM presented by ART HOUSE PRODUCTIONS http://www.arthouseproductions.org DOWNSTAIRS at SUTRA LOUNGE 16 First Avenue NYC 10009

MC CHRISTINE GOODMAN is Founder/Director of Art House Productions, a multimedia arts organization presenting THE ART HOUSE (Jersey City’s longest running poetry series), original theater pieces, a television show for JC and NYC, live music events, JC Fridays (a seasonal, citywide celebration of the arts), and publications featuring local writers works. She also serves as an Arts Commissioner for the City of Jersey City.
http://www.christine-goodman.com & http://www.myspace.com/christinegoodman

GARLAND L. THOMPSON, JR. - Poet, Writer, Actor, Producer, Director, and Playwright, Garland established the Annual West Coast Championship Poetry Slam now in it’s 9th season after moving to Monterey, Ca in 1998. http://www.westcoastslam.com This yearly rite of passage takes place at the breathtakingly beautiful Henry Miller Library in Big Sur & has become one of the largest events of it’s kind, hosting slam teams from around the country for a chance to win $2000.00 in cash prizes.

PATRICIA SMITH - Award-winning poet, playwright, journalist and performer, Patricia Smith is a renaissance artist of undeniable and unmistakable signature. She is four-time national individual slam champion.
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/p_smith/about.htm.www.louderarts.com/poets/smith/

SURVIVOR- is a four-time semi-finalist in the Nuyorican slams. John Blake (aka Survivor) was born addicted to heroin and raised on the lower east side of Manhattan, the youngest of 9 children. After losing his entire family to addiction and AIDS, he was able to give up a 20 year addiction for poetry after seeing a segment of Russell Simmons' Def Poetry on HBO. http://www.myspace.com/survivor

DUJUANA SHARESE- is an eight-time slam champion, & member of the Orlando Slam team 2002. D. Sharese has performed across the nation, in the 2006 Heritage Pride Rally, NYC, and serves as Artistic Director for the Cypher Movement open art and poetry slam. http://www.cyphermovement.com

CASEY CYR’s lyrical poetry & haunting melodies from her debut CD "Phantom Moon" reflect the unconscious realm of magic. Casey co-founded & produced the NY Underground Music & Poetry Festival in 2000, performed in CMJ 2000- 02, and curated Old Angel Midnight Tribute to Jack Kerouac & David Amram for HOWL! Fest 2004. Cyr’s work has been published by Hozomeen Press, Pop Rocket Records, Mystic Discs & Calque Cinema. She is featured on "Hozomeen JAM", a spoken word & music CD with David Amram, Ron Whitehead & Lee Ranaldo. http://www.caseycyr.com

MIKE MCHUGH - aka MIKE AMERICA is a poet, singer/songwriter and community leader who has been booking emerging musical acts and performing on the downtown New York music scene for more than two decades. Tonight he performs songs and poems from his rock opera 'Son Of A Nation' a poetic prophesy as conceived by Walt Whitman. http://www.myspace.com/newcentury

EKAYANI - singer, songwriter, music journalist & front woman for the jazzy/world/ spoken word musical group “Ekayani and the Healing Band”, she is an ISC & Billboard World Song Contest Honoree' 05, New Century People's Choice Awards Winner in '06 for her # 1 single “La Raihna” in the R&B and smooth jazz categories from her award winning album FULL LENGTH. http://www.ekayani.net

ALSO-THERESA SAREO AT CRASH MANSION 199 BOWERY 7- $10 COVER AND AFTERPARTY

In Memorium_Juli the Bestest Dog

2006-07-26T23:13:00.000-04:00

I met Juli at the Bread & Life Soup Kitchen in 1996. We made friends and she greeted me everyday on my way to work. One day I found her sick and decided to take her home. She had a full recovery, but the transition from street dog to apartment life was slow--often Juli would simply take the elevator out to walk herself. No "come here" with doggie treats. She'd just look as if to say, "That's all right, I'll just eat this here squirrel here." Eventually she domesticated and was greatly loved by all the neighbors. And what wasn't to love? Intelligent, alert, kind and affectionate, and a mean ball player--she loved ball more than any other thing. Was good at it too. Got to the point you coldn't fake her out--she looked up down and sideways and ran, ran with the love of it, for her ball. Of all the dogs--and there are some fine ones out there- she was the best. Simply the best.

Review of The No-Net World--THE PEDESTAL MAGAZINE

2006-06-23T22:33:00.000-04:00

Larissa Shmailo's The No-Net World...reviewed by JoSelle Vanderhooft

The No-Net World
Larissa Shmailo
CD (Spoken Word, Music by Bobby Perfect)
Eggplant Press/Produced by SongCrew Records
ISBN Number: 0935060014

Reviewer: JoSelle Vanderhooft

Listening to poet and translator Larissa Shmailo’s latest spoken word CD is almost like attending eighteen short plays in the span of forty minutes. Like the best plays, each poem tells a compelling story of human struggle, in which characters fight (and routinely fail) to obtain such basic necessities as food, shelter, liberty, even love. Like the best plays, her poems also crackle with breathtaking language, which in the true tradition of the tragedies of which she speaks almost sound as if they could be sung (indeed, in some cases they almost are). Shmailo’s expert understanding of the close relationship between poetry and drama, music and language, and the primal human need to just hear a really, really good story make The No-Net World a truly unique contribution to twenty-first century American poetry, and a CD worth listening to frequently and carefully.

Also in the tradition of the world’s best dramas, Shmailo’s poems are filled with fascinating and all-too-human characters whose stories of loss, frustration, and displacement resonate with the listener long after the CD’s end. One of the collection’s most striking poems is “Madwoman," a poem about a mentally ill homeless woman, which would find good company in a book of contemporary monologues for actresses. Delivered in Shmailo’s warm, full Broadway voice and accompanied by Bobby Perfect’s restless guitar chords, it might just as well be one.

Here I am again walking among these vague and tepid people. They evoke a slight feeling of distaste in me. They smell my pain. They have no idea. I just hold my phone, the cellular phone I use for a disguise and I talk. Talk to the ultimate answering service. I walk and I talk to God. When you died I ripped the electrodes out of my skull and ran away from the land of cables and TV sets, great battles of television were fought here, great battles were lost. SoHo is no different from uptown or downtown, it’s all money and talking and bars, sex in cars, job-job-job, so I went to see the trees. The trees were beautiful, their leaves forming patterns of light on the ground and as the light played on my hair and my cheeks I realized no one ever dies. They just become trees. Even Marilyn Monroe was alive in a leaf.

The poem follows the speaker’s trip to the West Side Highway where she meets homeless people, speaks to God and Jesus, and eventually is “cured" of her illness. She takes pills, has a job and worries about her boyfriend’s health. But as she informs us, “you can’t really ever take the gift of madness away."

Once you have been stripped by god of everything—clothing, family, freedom, senses—you are his for life. And I was stripped, oh yes dear Lord of everything—every last thing. God took everything leaving only my soul, but I found that was enough.

Not only the stuff of great drama, this is also the stuff of truly compassionate and socially aware poetry. Instead of sentimentalizing and infantilizing the mentally ill and the homeless as the television shows Shmailo rails against tend to do, Shmailo looks at her subject as an individual, with her own past, present, and future, as well as her own set of demons to haunt her. By treating the nameless Madwoman with such care and respect, Shmailo turns her into a modern day Fool, even into King Lear himself when he wails at the storm in Act III, scene iv:

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O! I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

Indeed, the echoes of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy can be found in many of The No-Net World’s poems, including “Lager NYC," “Death at Sea," “For Six Months with You," “Hunts Point Counterpoint," and the title poem itself. Like Shakespeare, Shmailo does not attempt to explain or justify poverty, madness, or the horror of the Holocaust or diseases such as AIDS (a subject to which Shmailo frequently returns). Instead, suffering is merely something to be endured, railed against, even eventually accepted.

Shmailo gives acceptance of suffering and death, which is, perhaps, suffering in one of its most brutal forms, beautiful treatment in the short poem “Johnny I Love You Don’t Die," one of the many on this CD which could well be a song, despite the lack of musical accompaniment.

Johnny I love you don’t die
Johnny I love you don’t die
Johnny, do you remember
Sitting on the stoop
The smell of green lilacs
The moon in your hair
My battered face
Your purple heart
You said they had no right
No right
And that no one would ever do that to us
again

Oh Johnny I love you don’t die
Johnny I love you don’t die
—AZT—
Johnny I love you don’t die
—just need work—
Johnny I love you don’t die
—T-cells go—
Johnny I love you don’t die
—Up and down—
Johnny I love you don’t die
—You’ll be strong—
Johnny I love you don’t die
—Soon I swear—
Johnny I love you don’t die

But eventually the speaker realizes that death is inevitable and encourages her husband to “let go, it’s okay." Shmailo’s willingness to portray death as an inevitable part of life, and indeed an inevitable part of love, is a mature, even profound statement to make in a culture which has become pathological in its fear of death.
But love does not exist merely as a corollary to death in Shmailo’s work. Several of her poems celebrate love for its own sake, including “Quantum Love" and “New Life." To further emphasize the importance love has on her work, Shmailo also includes her own elegant translations of Alexander Pushkin’s “I Loved You Once" and Vladimir Mayakovsky’s “Already One," two Russian poems which celebrate the passion, scope, and gravitas of love without discoursing into the despair that often accompanies it.

If the poems on The No-Net World are beautiful, the CD’s sound quality and production only add to their beauty. The recording is mercifully free from static, interference, and white noise that often plague spoken word CDs. The sound board used to make the recording also appears to have been operated by a proficient engineer; Shmailo’s rich, expressive contralto never sounds tinny or cavernous. Overall it is a nearly flawless CD that will especially appeal to patrons and practitioners of the performing arts, and to anyone who simply loves to hear a good story told well.

Like Mayakovsky's Pro Eto Poster-I always wanted to be Lily Brik (ad created by Robert Dunn)

2006-04-10T14:18:00.000-04:00

Who's Working without a Net?

2006-04-03T18:33:00.000-04:00

Larissa Shmailo’s The No-Net World

2006-04-01T15:45:00.000-05:00

SongCrew Recording Productions Presents a Poetry CD Release Party!

Larissa Shmailo’s

The No-Net World

Saturday, April 29th, 2 to 4 PM

The Bowery Poetry Club

308 Bowery

(between Houston and Bleecker at the foot of 1st Street)

F to Delancey; 6 to Bleecker

$6 admission

Information: (212) 712-9865

Larissa Shmailo will read from her new poetry CD, The No-Net World, on Saturday, April 29, at 2 PM at the renowned Bowery Poetry Club. Reading with Larissa will be famed Nuyorican Poets Café host and force behind spoken word radio’s new Eadon Place, Keith Roach. Also joining Larissa are Peter Spagnuolo, author of TEN by FOURTEEN, The Squatter’s Midden, and poet resident of the Booklyn Collective; poet, singer, and novelist Iris N. Schwartz, who has been anthologized in An Eye For an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11 and That’s Amore; and poet John Amen, editor ofThe Pedestal Magazine and author of More of Me Disappears. Larissa will be accompanied by guitarist/producer Bobby Perfect (Shackles, The No-Net World). The emcee will be Roxanne Hoffmann (Love and the Vampire.) Music will be provided by BlueBird (Leigh Harrison of Eclectic Chanteuse fame and Bobby Perfect).

“The No-Net World," the title poem of Larissa’s new CD, has become internationally known as a rallying cry for social justice and help for the homeless. Published and distributed by political groups, performed and recorded by other poets, “The No-Net World” was just reprinted appeared in the Christmas 2005 issue of Street News.

On her new CD, Larissa reads a selection of her most widely published poems—a journey from the Mexican coast to Nazi labor camps, from rush hour subways to midnight rooftops in Brooklyn, from upscale SoHo neighborhoods to the future of your own worst nightmares, and back to a changed world.

The No-Net World CD will be sold at the event, and is also available at the St. Mark’s Bookshop, CD Baby, and Tower Records.

Larissa Shmailo

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Alfred Corn

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION : Marc Vincenz

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Sarah Sarai

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Annie Pluto

My translation of Victory over the Sun on the Brooklyn Rail InTranslation site

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION : Larissa Shmailo

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION : Michael T. Young

RESOLUTION / REVOLUTION: Alfred Corn

Carol Novack 1948-2011

Hydrogen Jukebox This Thursday 12/22 -- come read with the band!

Occupy Poetry on the December 12 Day of Action

Poets Respond to Jung's Red Book

Compass Award entry--I am shortlisted!

Persian Version of Dancing with the Devil

My new e-chap, FIB SEQUENCE, FREE!

I am not your insect

Winedark Sea

Persian version of "Oscillation"

Aging (Fibonacci Sequence: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89)

Madwoman Exercises a Civil Right

In Paran, poems, on Amazon now

Christmas Star

Phase Change (Poem for Barack Obama)

Got Poetry review of CD Exorcism

Smoking Poet review of Exorcism

Erika, who are you? The fake anthology and our 15 minutes

Poetry without preconditions: Rahi translation

Out now: Masthead 11: Poetryetc: Poems and Poets An anthology edited by Andrew Burke and Candice Ward

The Pedestal Magazine review of A Cure for Suicide

Aerial View of the Rockies

List of Words Never To Be Used in Poems

Reviews of my chapbook, A Cure for Suicide

First review of my new poetry CD, Exorcism

Kalinivka

First review of my new chapbook, A Cure for Suicide

Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Warsaw Ghetto

The Manifesto of the TWiN Poetry Collective

Rules of Reflection (for John Ashbery)

IN PARAN

PERSONAL

Spring Vow

Aleksandr Blok --tr. L Shmailo

Reviews for THE NO-NET WORLD

How My Family Survived the Camps

BLOOM

How to Meet and Dance with Your Death (Como Encuentrar y Bailar con Su Muerte): A Cure for Suicide

Howl! Fest

In Memorium_Juli the Bestest Dog

Review of The No-Net World--THE PEDESTAL MAGAZINE

Like Mayakovsky's Pro Eto Poster-I always wanted to be Lily Brik (ad created by Robert Dunn)

Who's Working without a Net?

Larissa Shmailo’s The No-Net World