Kimberly Alidio, Lisa Fishman, J.R. Carpenter, Gary Barwin + Rose Maloukis : virtual reading series #19

a series of video recordings of contemporary poets reading from their work, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent cancellations, shut-downs and isolations; a reading series you can enjoy in the safety of your own protected space,

Kimberly Alidio : “continent reverence,” “from Dear Archon”

Kimberly Alidio is the author of the poetry books why letter ellipses (selva oscura, 2020), : once teeth bones coral : (Belladonna*, 2020), and after projects the resound (Black Radish, 2016). Her most recent chapbook is a cell of falls (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2019). She lives in Tucson, Arizona, on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham and the Pascua Yaqui peoples, with her partner, the poet Stacy Szymaszek. Her website is: kimberlyalidio.com

Lisa Fishman : “Truth-telling is possible, thought Laura Riding,” “not ‘using words’,” “the Five Ways to jump,” “Michael says the poem will speak,” “i’ve been looking for you,” “There were broken birds,” [from] “Summer 2015,” from Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition

Lisa Fishman is the author of seven poetry collections, including the newly released Mad World, Mad Kings, Mad Composition (Wave Books, 2020). Some of her earlier books are 24 pages and other poems (Wave, 2015), The Happiness Experiment (Ahsahta Press), and Dear, Read (Ahsahta). Hybrid work from a new manuscript in progress appears in 6x6, Denver Quarterly, and is forthcoming in touch the donkey and elsewhere. A dual US/Canadian, she lives in Wisconsin and is soon to be dividing her time between her farm there and the Sault Ste. Marie area. She directs the MFA Program at Columbia College Chicago.

J.R. Carpenter : an excerpt from This is a Picture of Wind (2020)

J.R. Carpenter is an artist, writer, and researcher working across performance, print, and digital media. Her web-based work The Gathering Cloud won the New Media Writing Prize 2016. Her poetry collection An Ocean of Static was highly commended by the Forward Prizes 2018. Her new collection, This is a Picture of Wind (Longbarrow Press 2020) is based on a web-app of the same name. A fellow of the Eccles Centre at the British Library and the Moore Institute at NUI Galway, she will be Writer in Residence at University of Alberta September 2020 — May 2021. http://luckysoap.com

Gary Barwin : “THE BOOK (for derek beaulieu),” “PERMUTATION MACHINE (after Brion Gysin & William Burroughs),” “WHALE (a fable)” and “PSALM”

Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist. His books include For It is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe: New and Selected Poems, ed. Alessandro Porco and Ampersandthropocene, a collection of his visuals based on the ampersand which will appear from Penteract Press in August. He lives in Hamiltonacorn, Ontario where he holds the David W. McFadden Chair in Diffuse but Earnest Luminosity at the National Rhyme Institute of Canada.

Rose Maloukis : Three poems from Cloud Game with Plums

Rose Maloukis is a poet and visual artist, with a BFA from Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. She was born and grew up in the United States but has dual citizenship and resides in Montreal. Her poetry appears in a limited-edition bilingual artist’s book, From the Middle ~ Sonoritiés du Coeur, which is held in the collection of both the national and provincial libraries. She was short-listed for the 2015 Montreal International Poetry Prize and two poems were published in Matrix Magazine, Issue #105. A winning Second Place poem has been published in Geist’s 2018 Spring Issue #108. Her chapbook debut, Cloud Game with Plums, appeared recently with above/ground press.

Stan Rogal : A General History of the Air, by J.R. Carpenter

A General History of the Air, J.R. Carpenter

above/ground press, 2020

The poetry chapbook, A General History of the Air, by J. R. Carpenter (published by above/ground press, 2020) contains a single poem divided into several chunks (‘stanzas’ being, perhaps, a tad too formal a designation, here, but) with one sentence acting as a more-or-less ‘heading’ followed by a short list of descriptors, facts, or examples of behaviour. The vocabulary of the poem is non-scientific, even plain-speaking, somewhat lyric, somewhat romantic (considering the studious title, which might suggest a text that is otherwise inclined), the authorial voice even admitting early on in the poem: “I desire to be understood in a familiar sense.” In fact, this is what I enjoyed most about the poem, that the author allowed the language (the ideas, the images, the descriptors) to stand on its/their own, to tell its/their own story, without the author forcing meaning or sentiment upon either the text or the reader.

And yet, there are clues within the vocabulary to indicate that something else is going on. Suddenly the reader is met by the phrase “ointments verminous” which sounds a bit out of place, even archaic, given the earlier admitted ‘desire’ by the author to keep things ‘familiar.’ Near the poem’s end are the lines: “promiscuous experiments and observations of the air // desiderata in the history of the air.” Webster’s dictionary provides us with its foremost definition of promiscuous: “having or characterized by many transient sexual relationships.” Yet, this hardly seems to suit the context of the sentence. However, if we entertain a less popular (by today’s standards, I mean) and more historical definition, we find: “indiscriminate or casual; consisting of a wide range of different things.” Desiderata means ‘needs’ or ‘requirements.’ Why didn’t the author merely alter/simplify the terms to better suit the previously described intent?: “casual experiments and observations of the air // requirements in the history of air.”

Why, indeed?

As it turns out, the ‘author’ of the poem is not exactly the ‘author’ of the vocabulary contained in the poem. J. R. Carpenter tells us in her acknowledgments: “The cover image and all of the text in this poem are borrowed from The General History of the Air, Designed and Begun by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq., printed in 1692.” I love the fact that Carpenter says the text is ‘borrowed’ (altered, somewhat [as with the title?], or…?) suggesting somehow the poem’s temporal or temporary state, and that the text will at some point return to the original author (or to another author?) under… what? the correct or necessary circumstances? Hmmm… Something to consider.

And so, is this a found poem, an erasure, a cento, a mixed bag including the bastardization of an obscure or forgotten publication or what? Unless one has an itch to return to the original volume, it’s not certain, and what does it matter? It’s an original text created from an original (it’s assumed original, even actual, though…) text. What is certain is that Carpenter chose to leave, un-edited, particular words (perhaps to suit the self-imposed conditions or rules of her exercise, it’s not explained), which then act as disruptors in the text, offering an insight into her process, as well as sounding a slight grating of sensibilities to occur between the past and the present, between the ‘author’ and the ‘author.’

In short, she lets the poem do the talking, and allows the reader to make of the experience what they will. Check it out.         

  

IN/AIR/OR

          after J. R. Carpenter

what we understand by the air

the constant & permanent ingredients of the air

the destruction, generation & absorption of the air

of the moisture & dryness of the air

of mists

of terrestrial steams

of lightning

of the air as medium of sounds

of the motion of the air & the winds

of the heat & the coldness of the air

of the air in reference to light

of the air in reference to fire & flame

of the operation of the air on the odours of animal substances

of the operation of the air on the colours of animal substances

of the operation of the air on the colours of mineral substances

of the operation of the air on the colours of vegetable substances

of the air introducing other less obvious qualities into vegetable substances

of the air in reference to the propagation of plants

of the air in reference to the life & health of animals

of heavy bodies sustained or taken up into the air

…

of dew

…

of rain

…

of hail

…

of snow

…

of other things falling out of the air

…

promiscuous experiments & observation of the air

…

desiderata in the history of the air

…

& proposals for supplying them

…

          (nota bene: the remaining pages have been left [intentionally] blank)

* The text is borrowed from A General History of the Air, by J. R. Carpenter, published in 2020, whose text in turn is borrowed from The General History of the Air, designed and begun by the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq., published in 1692.  

Stan Rogal's natural habitat is the wilds of Toronto where he exists mainly on a diet of roots, berries and red wine. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies throughout the known (and lesser known) world. He is the author of 26 books, the most recent being a novel, titled The Comic (Guernica Editions), not so funny given its arrival coincides with the "Age of Isolation and Physical Distancing," a Kafka-esque sort of humour.