Spring Sunday

Today feels like the first good Sunday of spring, not because we haven't had nice Sundays before but because this feels like the one that is the one that marks the good Sundays to come. Which is a nice feeling.

In the past days, so much has been there to think and wonder about and blogging has been down because the thinking and the wondering has been up. Have been working hard on revising poems, on working on new poems. Have finished, I think the final translations for the Hinojosa selected and now really all that is left is to write the intro, to do some research for notes, etc. Fortunately the college has given me the funds to hire an assistant who has already started and is doing some terrific work. My sense is the whole thing will be done by the end of May at the latest. An amazing thing given how long it's been. But then it occurs to me that in the two years since Poet in New York was published, I've also published a new book of poems, Tourist at a Miracle , and the selected Hinojosa will be ready. That seems like an enormous amount of work, especially since I also feel like I'm a good third of the way towards another book of poems. Of course, I have a tendency to be optimistic about these kinds of things, but when it's a beautiful day and you've spent it walking in the park and sitting on the stoop, spent it thinking and reading and writing, well, optimism will prevail.

I think where I've slowed down a bit has been in my reading. Have been looking at work for school, of course, but the spare time reading not what I'd like. Some more time lately with Joseph Stroud, who continues to make me happy to read, with Delmore Schwartz, who never fails to surprise me, and going back through early Lorca because I realize I want to. It all makes me long for the summer reading when more and more will be possible.

And with Tourist a lot is going on as well. Small Press Distributors named it as a recommended book in March, Rigoberto Gonzalez in the blog for the National Book Critic Circle named it as one of the small press books of note. A mediocre review (this shall go nameless because the reviewer made too many mistakes when she talked about the book, suggesting she hadn't really read it so it kind of negated the whole review even when she said some very nice things).

Will be doing the Moe Greene Discussion Show with Pablo on April 30.

The Hanging Loose Party is May 7.

Will be reading at Watching Booksellers (NJ) May 28, Perch has been changed to June 22, Watchung (again) for a panel on translation July 30. In the Bay area end of September. Miami Book Fair in November. More to come.

Leaving for AWP in Denver this Thursday and reading the day before (Wednesday) with Jan Clausen at Lang at 4. Very much looking forward to that.

All good things.

Saludos.

Another week closer to something

One of those days in which I noticed how quickly the teaching week had gone by--Lorca, Langston Hughes, Jayne Cortez, Ezra Pound, James Weldon Johnson. In one of my poetry workshops today, a student did a workshop of his own translation of Baudelaire which went well though I think it was a bit of a surprise for most of the students. It's a poetry writing workshop and it was a good thing for them to think about the ways translating poetry could test them as poets.

And today in the mail arrived the new Borges Poems of the Night and The Sonnets. They are part of a general series on Penguin edited by Suzanne Jill Levine and the editors for these were Efraían Kristal for Poems of the Night and Stephen Kessler for the Sonnets. They are both beautiful bilingual editions, good crew of translators for both. Worth having in the library.

Check out tomorrow:
Werd Hosted By Beth Cheng
Type: Music/Arts - Listening Party
Where: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onword/page/3
When: Friday, March 26 from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm PST (2-3 EST).

Tourist at a Miracle will be one of the three books reviewed. Don't know how it will go but I'm hoping well. The others are The Intricated Soul New and Selected Poems Sherod Santois (Norton) and All American Poem Matthew Dickman (Copper Canyon Press).

Saludos,

Mark

News update for Thursday, February 23

A few things happening with Tourist at a Miracle.

Moe Green Poetry Hour, Friday February 26th, from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM EST. The call in number is 718.508.9717.

On Saturday, February 27, "Tourist" and Tourist at a Miracle will be featured on Poetry Daily. Poetry Daily is a great site and the poets they feature are quite good.

Later events happening: the big Hanging Loose book party for this year's poets will be the first week in May, more later. I'll also be reading at Perch in June. Other readings coming so watch this page. The September California tour is rounding into shape and I'll have more news on that later. Florida later (November).

Last night, a good reading at the Poetry Project with Joanna Fuhrman and John Koethe. Joanna read from Moraine and Pageant, as well as some new poems, and John Koethe mainly read from 95th Street. He closed with the long title poem, which has as a central trope a dinner with John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and Kenneth Koch that took place in 1966. It was a weave from the past into the present that was quite elegant and elegaic.

abarzos,

Mark

lots of snow and then I got sick and it is Valentine's Day

It was wonderful to see all the snow come down in Brooklyn on Tuesday and into Wednesday. The back got its workout with shoveling and the legs with walking in the snow (Jesse took video and photos, go to band of the land.com to see some of these). Then the week wore on and I wore out and collapsed Thursday night. No fun as I'd hoped to have a nice long weekend for relaxing, reading, and writing. There is a difference between sleeping when sick and sleeping when healthy. The biggest one is that you can read but in the former the words never stay on the page or in your head.

But it meant lots of radio on as well, and going back and forth between NPR news, discussion and music and sports talk on baseball. Pitchers and catchers report this week. Always that pleasure, harbinger of spring.

I think I have managed to do a little reading that counts: some Ezra Pound (for teaching and for pleasure), Huidobro, Stroud, Vargas Llosa and E.B. White. Read Nick Thran's book of poems, Every Inadequate Noise which came out a few years ago, very good. He has a new one coming out next year. Stephen Kessler's The Mental Traveler arrived in the mail and I look forward to reading that. Also now reading Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin which is good if not a little too happy with itself (can one really observe all that much in a single instant?)

Tourist at a Miracle news: A west coast/Bay Area reading trip for the end of September seems to be coming together (more later on this). At least two confirmed and two very likely dates/places.

I'm being interviewed on the Moe Greene Poetry Hour out in California on February 26, 6:30 EST and 3:30 PST. More info later on this for life listening and podcast downloads.

It is Valentine's Day. Save your money and just remind your loved ones just how much you love them. Words mean most.

abrazos,

Mark

Some good nights

Last night met up with Dennis Tobenski--next Wednesday, January 27 is the first performance this year for the Tobenski-Algera new composer series (see info in an earlier blog post or go to tobenskialgera.com ). They'll be performing echoes which has four poems from Tourist at a Miracle. Dennis will spend the month of March at the VCCA. Lucky guy.

After that, Jesse and I headed over to the Poetry Project for the William Corbett and Jonas Mekas reading. Bill read some wonderful poems, not only his own, but some by Jimmy Schuyler (a kind of memorial for Darragh Park) and ended with a poem by Rolfe Humphries. Jonas Mekas, the godfather of avant-garde film-making read some wonderful and amusing anecdotes about from his life. The last one was a serious and moving one about Allen Ginsberg's last days.

Jesse shot some video, converted it into a short film, Nearing the Edge, which you can see by going to bandoftheland.com.

Pam Laskin's book party at Perch on Tuesday was a good deal of fun. She read from her new short story collection, a collection of poems that came out last year, and the new (though the poems span 30 years) Van Gogh's Ear (Cervena Barva Press). Saw Sarah Porter there who was very excited about her three book young adult deal. Look for more when it comes out.

School starts next week and syllabus writing has been the order of the past few days. Hope to finish that up today and have a few more days to work on some new poems, some Hinojosa (which is almost done in this draft, lacks an into). But more on him later. Still having Tourist at a Miracle
feelings.

abrazos,

Mark

News and news

Some updates:

The Tourist at a Miracle reading last Saturday, January 9 at Bowery Poetry Club was a lot of fun. Many thanks to all who attended (too many to mention by name, a very good sign, I think). But much appreciation to Bill Zavatsky and Jane LeCroy, my fellow readers, and Bob Hershon who moderated. A deep note of thanks to Donna Brook for her special surprise introduction.

After years in the making, my website is up! Go to markstatman.com and let me know what you think. Since the website is linked to the blog, it gives me one more reason (compelling, no doubt) to blog more often. Thanks to Jesse Statman for all his work.

Another link: for images-music-words look at http://www.youtube.com/user/bandoftheland. In particular Gowanus and Fireworks (Fireworks go to uploads on that page to see).

Upcoming of interest:

Tonight, Sunday at Zinc Bar (82 West 3rd Street) a reading for The Portable Boog Reader 4, 7 PM.

Tuesday, 1/19 at Perch (5th Ave at 5th Street, Brooklyn)--book party for Pamela Laskin's Van Gogh's Ear 7:30

Wednesday 1/20 at St Mark's Poetry Project, William Corbett and Jonas Mekas, 8PM

also The Tobenski-Algera Concert Series: New American Art Song
Wed., Jan. 27, 2010
9:30pm

Dennis Tobenski: echoes, six songs on poetry by Mark Statman (NY premiere)
Jeff Algera: “Twenty” and “Former Soldier”, on poems by Oscar Wilde (world premiere)

Ricky Ian Gordon: “As Planned”, “Adolescent’s Song”, “Proof of Gold”, and “A Contemporary”

Aaron Alon: “All Rights Reserved” (NY premiere)
Tim Kiah: “La Nuit”
George Lam: Fog Argument, two songs on poetry by Mark Doty (NY premiere)
Justin Merritt: “Dissonance” & “May Evening in Central Park”
Keane H. Southard: selections from Three Songs of Dylan Thomas (NY premiere)
Zachary Wadsworth: Three Lullabies (NYC premiere)


The Duplex
(Cabaret Theatre upstairs)
61 Christopher St @ 7th Ave, NYC

$10 with a reservation, $12 at the door
2 drink minimum

Reservations: http://www.theduplex.com/webcalendar/view_entry.php?id=4787&date=20100127

also see tobenskialgera.com

abrazos,

Mark

1/1/10

Interesting to write those numbers...

Tourist arrived in Brooklyn on Tuesday and Katherine sent it to me overnight here at the VCCA so it arrived yesterday. It looks beautiful, her beautiful painting on the cover. The poems feel right to me. I don't usually have that feeling when I see my writing in print, have more the desire to start revising, to not allow myself the sense of accomplishment that all that hard work could bring.

But I don't feel that way right now. Feel more like the book is what I want. Thank you, Donna Brook. What a marvelous editor you are. Thank you, Hanging Loose, for Tourist at a Miracle.

Happy New Year to all.

Abrazos.

Mark

Post-Christmas meander

It was a good and sweet, simple Christmas. We woke up, and had the usual Christmas morning snacks--smoked salmon, oysters, a duck pate, cheeses of sorts, bread, crackers, a nice Italian blood orange sparkling something or other. Stocking presents, gifts. Jesse was quite happy with his chosen harmonica and new ukulele, surprised by Slipknot and Coheed and Cambria tablature books (interesting to think of those two bands on a ukulele, but he mainly was playing his own songs). With the uke, Jesse is becoming a young man of many stringed instruments, from the above, to guitars to mandolin. He gave Katherine and me each a personalized cd (this the answer to why he'd spent the day before Christmas quizzing us about our favorites of the songs he has written).

Afterwards, Jesse decided to stay at home and Katherine and I went to the movies, Sherlock Holmes, Not a great movie, but a whole lot of fun. Then we took a long walk in Prospect Park. The snow disappeared yesterday in the rain but Christmas day it was all still there, shimmering under the lights.

Yesterday as the snow disappeared in the rain, we walked around a little and then I went over to the bookstore and did some post-Christmas shopping (my gift was to be able to do this). Bought some Chekhov short stories, the correspondence of Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salome, Andamios, a novel and El amor, las mujeres y la vida, a poetry collection by Mario Benedetti, Lituma en los Andes, a novel by Vargas Llosa, short stories by John Fante, Of This World, a poetry collection by John Stroud whose work I don't know very well, and Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky, which Katherine is reading in the original French these days. Very happy to have these books. Along with Conrad's Nostromo, and a few other things here and there, these are the books I expect to be reading for the rest of the winter break (school starts again on January 25th).

Most of these are coming with me to the VCCA which I leave for tomorrow morning. Very excited by this. Should arrive in the evening, with luck in time for dinner. If I do make dinner, the plan will be to set up my studio afterwards and be ready to think and work as soon as I can Tuesday morning. My hope is to work on poems I started last summer, return to Hinojosa (a big push on Flor de California). Without setting it all in stone, I'm hoping to get started on work that will continue after I come back on the 4th, take me through the rest of the break and give me some clear vision for the writing I can do this semester. It's always hard to do that, write during the semester, but I want to make that push this spring, a nice lead in to the summer (can I really be thinking that far ahead?). In the middle of all this will be readings from Tourist at a Miracle (keep eyes peeled for those on this blog and elsewhere).

Of note: received word from Dennis Tobenski that there will be a performance of Echoes on Wednesday, January 27 at 9:30 pm in the West Village. He says that he'll be singing the poems himself, which makes it a real treat indeed.

More later.

Abrazos,

Mark

Christmas Eve 2009

The tree is trimmed, the stockings not yet stuffed (soon, soon) and presents no doubt will appear. In recycling happiness, we'll wrap all gifts in rolls of paper brought out of storage from many years' past.

The house is filled with smells of pine and freesia (a winter bouquet from a local market) and we look forward to the Harry and David pears that Anne Porter sent (they're beginning to smell and feel just right).

Word from Hanging Loose is that Tourist at a Miracle shipped yesterday and should be in New York early next week. With Katherine's blessing and a nod from Jesse, on Monday I'll head down to the VCCA for a week of country air, for poetry and rest, a chance to reflect a little bit on the past year, to recharge the batteries that seem a little run down.

peace and joy to all, saludos, abrazos, amor,

Mark

proofs have arrived and sadness re: Jim Carroll

Two (or three?) quick notes:

The proofs for Tourist at a Miracle arrived today via e-mail from Hanging Loose. I have to say, the book looks good. Donna Brook was such a marvelous editor and Dick Lourie such an astute copy-editor that as I go through it I wonder--did I write this? Of course I did but seeing it in this form there is a freshness, even for me, who has lived with these poems for many years now. The cover art (Katherine Koch) is beautiful and though the book is scheduled for 2010, I should have walking around copies by late this year. Excited? Oh yes.

And another piece of sadness to see that Jim Carroll is dead at 60 of a heart attack. He was one of those figures that, like Ted Berrigan somehow became larger than life in our lives. The Basketball Diaries have a voice and kind of sophisticated innocence that in memory still draws me and haunts in a way that is poignant? impossible? original? So another blog entry that has to confront death. "Time's beating wings" as Katherine reminded me.

Some have wondered about the Hinajosa work: it goes but goes slowly. Saw a major error in the first four books. In my absorption of getting his voice, I put poems in the preterite into the present. So have to go back and correct, correct, correct. When Pablo Medina, my collaborator on Poet in New York called to note this (I had sent him a large part of the manuscript) he didn't even say a word before I just said "I know I know I know." Good friend that he is, he didn't make me feel like an idiot but simply praised the essence of what I was doing.

un abrazo a todos,

Mark

Moleskin Finished

In the past several days I've been feeling like I haven't been getting any work done--in part this is because the days have seemed slightly stressful and out of order. Early in the week we dropped Katherine off to do wash and went hunting for this state park which is supposed to have some wonderful views and by the time Jesse and I got there (getting lost, it seemed, several times, our map made no sense given the way the roads really went) we realized we had to leave to get Katherine. On the drive back (a switchback road that was kind of fun) there were some beautiful views and we stopped three times so Jesse could take photos and the day wouldn't seem a complete loss.

And Wednesday I had to drive back down to Brooklyn, run some errands, come back Thursday. City traffic and construction made the trip less than fun to drive. Getting back to the cottage I felt so out of sorts, out of myself, all the little things to do having piled up to make me feel like my time had been wasted (except I have to admit for Wednesday night, when some friends came over and one, Peter Wallace, who runs the Brooklyn Artists Gym--a very cool place- stayed until 1:30 or so in the morning and we talked about some good stuff, his upcoming trip with his son to Alaska to kayak, which led to parenting in general, then art, teaching, the spiritual life that no one really wants to talk about and so on).

But today, with Katherine and Jesse going off to a state park much closer by, I wrote for a long time and finished my most recent moleskin, which suggests to me that I have been doing things--it has 41 first draft poems in it, with 18 of them having been written since the beginning of July. So with that, and the translating and the typing of translations, it seems to me I've done a lot more than I thought.

There's always something about finishing a moleskin, the sense that you've accomplished something. It's full of notes, poems, lists, phone numbers. Some of the notes are for classes I teach (Spanish Surrealism has three moleskins of notes). Part of me wonders if I should go through them and collect the notes in a central location except that I like going back for the notes not only for the notes but for seeing what I was writing about/thinking about at the time. I like how it makes me remember.

An e-mail from Dick Lourie with suggestions for three poems that will appear in the fall Hanging Loose most of which seemed pretty dead-on. I've incorporated those into the Tourist at a Miracle manuscript which he now has and which he begins copy-editing. He's good at this, very good, in fact, and I'm interested in what happens next.

Tonight, dinner at a friend's in Willow (who just this second called to give directions to her house--mystical moments). Sunday a barbecue with some other friends. I have a better social life in Woodstock than I do in Brooklyn. Amazing.

Saludos,

Mark