tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61862052024-02-07T21:23:24.638-06:00Postmodern Collage Poetry A blog about writing collage poetry, post modern poetry, multi lingual poetryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger138125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-18363878763473226372007-05-17T11:14:00.000-05:002007-05-17T11:15:36.558-05:00Pentecost Like finding an old friend this blog has mysteriously returned to by account so I will add something but please keep reading the Irasciblepoet.blogspot.comUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-9393369713734690392007-05-11T14:18:00.001-05:002007-05-11T14:18:58.569-05:00I thought this blog was lost foreverhey this blog is back what happenedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1169655335318103142007-01-24T10:06:00.000-06:002007-01-24T10:15:35.333-06:00War-Poets-Tragedy-ListeningThe State of the Union was last night. I am so tired of listening to the presidents faux southern voice. How do we continue to deepen ourselves in this morass?It seems to me that we need to be honest, terrorism is a threat but Terrorism flourishes where there is despiration. There are no terrorists in Canada or Sweden and there are lots of terrorists in Pakistan and Sudan because in those Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1167227964207806642006-12-27T07:51:00.000-06:002006-12-27T07:59:24.226-06:00Holidays Always at the end of the year it is a time to reflect. In Roman times New Years was in September- that seems to make more sense especially if you are a student.I have had some great conversations in 2006. Poets seem to like to discuss lifestyle allot. Unlike other professions one's personal life and personal choices are often under scritiny in Poetry. 2006 was a mixed year- the war continues Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1165854926002870202006-12-11T09:59:00.000-06:002006-12-11T10:48:15.510-06:00Political Poetry and Bad PoetrySaturday I choose not to attend the Red Rover series and I choose unwisely. Instead of Jen Karmin's well curated experimental poetic sense. I endured a Political Poetry marathon evening curated by the Ginsburgesque Francesco Levato.I really wanted this political night to be something moving. I normally do not attend mainstream poetry gatherings because they are usually full of bad therapy poetry,Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1165003502146636362006-12-01T14:01:00.000-06:002006-12-01T14:05:02.173-06:00Ambassadors of ClownsI was in New York this week. Alot of people I love-love New York. I understand the good stuff but why does it have be so filthy?And filled with mean people?Saw a cool movie about a woman who found a Jackson Pollock in a thrift store and how she was treated by the artistic cognoscenti- kind of like the way poets are treated by some academics like idiots who are not part of the in crowd....Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1162041835514358162006-10-28T08:09:00.000-05:002006-10-28T08:23:55.530-05:00Uncomfortable Bedfellows I have been in an Italian mood of late. After 10 days there and I have been readin the new FSG book of Marinetti's work in translation. I have always been fascinated with Fascist Bohemia, Pound, Eliot, Dos Passos, Marinetti, Celine, Cocteau, Bocconi, d'Annunzio all men who were Intellectuals, innovators and men of the Right. One of the questions that vexes me is why do Marxists get off without Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1159560954776511072006-09-29T15:09:00.000-05:002006-09-29T15:15:54.790-05:00A Week In ItalyThis is a photo of the piazza in my mother's home town of Vestone in northern italy. If you see the words in the back, Albergo Italia, that is my family's Albergo which we owned from 1516 until 1994. Whenever I go back to Vestone, the town where my family is from I always have a sense of deep rest. You see I was introduced to a sense when I lived in Bolivia that allowed me to find peace in my Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1158662877836329782006-09-19T05:26:00.000-05:002006-09-19T05:47:57.853-05:00What the Pope Saidhttp://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg_en.htmlThe conflict between Islam and Christianity is over 1400 years old. The list of injustices is in my opinion equal. While it is normal among Western Seculars to lament the intolerance of Christians the reality is that Islam and Christianity have both committed Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1157338928768232482006-09-03T21:52:00.000-05:002006-09-03T22:02:08.786-05:00Loss, Friends, Weddings and Pork Chops September is strange month. I was married in September on the 20th- I was in Italia on September 11th, yes the September 11th, I met Waltraud in September and the White Sox clinched the Pennant in September and my book was picked up by an editor in September it is a mixed month. Friday night we went to Bill Allegrezza's wedding, our table was poetic tour de force, Chris Glomski, Jennifer Rupert,Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1155391253157508012006-08-12T08:42:00.000-05:002006-08-12T09:00:53.170-05:00Terrorism and SeriousnessThis week it was announced that we can't take water bottles on Flights.The issues of terrorism are serious ones and more often than not poets tend to either view these issues through either an conspiratorial or an ironic sense and I think that the reason we have terrorism can be brought back to this mentality. Many poets are terminally hip and they are also cynical they believe in small things Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1155050266088404212006-08-08T09:49:00.000-05:002006-08-08T10:17:46.146-05:00Uniqueness of Place against Global CapitalismI chose the Marshall Field Clock on State Street here in Chicago to illustrate Sameness and Global Capitalism. On September 6th Marshall Fields will be no more and Macy's of New York will do only what RH Macy dreamed of doing his name will sit upon Marshall Field's grand store. This story of the end of a great Department Store may seem silly to illustrate what is happening around the world but I Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1153745919602264522006-07-24T07:49:00.000-05:002006-07-24T07:58:39.603-05:00Anatomy of an AnthologyCracked Slab Books- the press that I run with William Allegrezza is in the final throes of completing a new Anthology of Chicago poetry. What is remarkable about this book is the sheer breadth of the writing and the variety of poets who are in dialogue with each other. Chicago tends to get short shrift in the world of poetry. New York and to a lesser degree San Francisco tend to consume Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1153486959822012912006-07-21T08:02:00.000-05:002006-07-21T08:02:39.823-05:0022Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1153375889513686462006-07-20T01:09:00.000-05:002006-07-20T01:11:29.516-05:00Opus Dei and Banned BooksAs a poet who also happens to be a practicing Catholic I often find myself a minority in both the land of Catholics and the land of poets. Poets are normally not religious unless you include 'spiritualities' which are mostly creations of the artist sense of the world. Most poets apart from a few oddities find religion at best quaint. The same can be said of my Church. Since the 1980's or 90's theUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1153152547123390992006-07-17T10:51:00.000-05:002006-07-17T11:09:07.143-05:00Printers Ball and Capitalism"Please stress that there is no fee to show, but nothing may be sold""magazines please have 500 copies to give out for free"parameters for the Printers Ball in ChicagoWhy is it that unlike every other artform literary pursuits of merit feel that it is unseemly to charge for their products?Jen Hofer said once at an event before her reading that people should go and buy the poet's work to support Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1152156761648322582006-07-05T22:04:00.000-05:002006-07-05T22:32:41.663-05:00Life as Frustrating ProseMany of the poets whom I admire are part of the poetical academic complex it takes extra time to establish your bona fides as a poet when you are not living in an academic world and its dialogues are sometimes closed off to those of us who do not have the luxury of being paid for our life of the mind. Having said that I would not trade my life experience and my salary for the life in academia Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1151976266467023942006-07-03T19:54:00.000-05:002006-07-03T20:27:31.556-05:00The 4th of Julythe Fourth of July. Usually a chance for Americans to gorge themselves and look at fireworks. I have had the privilege in my life to have spent 10 of my 39 4ths outside the USA and this has made me appreciate and also reflect on a holiday that has its ironies. When I was a child my family was often in Italy for the summer. Before I hear the "elitist" names my Mom and my whole family are from a Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1151586896330041042006-06-29T07:34:00.000-05:002006-06-29T08:14:56.346-05:00What is the Problem with ImmigrantsRecently there has been allot of ink spilled and screaming done about immigrants and the law and America. I have found some of the ironies of this debate so delicious that it has taken time to dissect them and then write about them. Immigration into the United States was never a problem until the immigrants changed from Northern European Protestants to brown Catholics and Jews. No one Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1151184483102300392006-06-24T16:11:00.000-05:002006-06-24T16:28:03.116-05:00Listen to me I am ImportantListen to me I am Important. Amid the din and noise we are called upon to listen to the musings of the poetic class and we wonder what we are to learnOver the past few weeks I have had the honor of seeing new and old poetic friends. In a world filled with syncophants and screamers and Fox News I have had conversations of excellence- the kind of conversations that cannot be made up, or faked Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1150860861240201572006-06-20T22:20:00.000-05:002006-06-20T22:34:21.253-05:00Iraq as Metaphor for LifeToday on TV news they had pictures of the two American soldiers killed execution style in Iraq. The war in Iraq is a metaphor for the world that is being created. The new world is where any pretense to justice and kindness has become passe and silly. The fact is that our nation and the world is careening towards the world that Iraq represents- Iraq is the metaphor. The world has always been Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1150291437008932362006-06-14T08:04:00.000-05:002006-06-20T22:20:46.443-05:00Delicious Conversation without WineWorld Cup This weekI used to root for Italia- but since I am now Brazilian by marriage it is BRASIL ALL THE TIMEJen Hofer is in town. I was able to spend last friday with Jen and her lit partner Patrick Durgin. the evening was interesting and without the requisate "hipster scene" conversation. What I love about Jen is that she is no holds bared, she believes in what she is doing and does not careUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1148910430198219752006-05-29T08:21:00.000-05:002006-05-29T08:47:10.213-05:00Memorial DayMemorial Day begins the summer and I often think about the soldiers I have known or know by proxy.My great grandfatherEmanuele Guerra who fought in World War One whose hand froze off and who spent the next 30 years recovering from icy trenches and a year in a prison camp in Galicia. Or my Uncle Phil who entered Europe on D Day in a tank with Patton, and was with Patton when they liberated Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1148666499540551042006-05-26T12:12:00.000-05:002006-05-26T13:01:39.650-05:00Gilbert Sorrentino-Deo Gratia Gilbert Sorrentino died this week. Sorrentino is a newer influence for my writing, I was introduced to him by a friend, Mark Tardi and it was immediate simpatico. In a world of syncophants and literati who are more concerned with appearances Sorrentino was the real deal. His book Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things is a prophetic indictment of the kind of literary scene that is so prevelant Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6186205.post-1147785869537741512006-05-16T08:01:00.000-05:002006-05-16T08:24:29.653-05:00Sensitivity TrainingCRITIQUE AND ARGUMENTFew if any poets are really interested is having real discussions about Poetry as an artform and fewer are willing to express their ideas clearly for fear of I don’t know what? There was a time when poets who differed argued but that is not the case any more. I have never been able to understand American poets hypersensitivity to critiqueThe crux of the issue however is that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com