The Art of Waking Up

"Brenda Taulbee's poems give my spine reverb, like poetry is meant to, like only poetry that matters, can."

— Lidia Yuknavitch, author of Chronology of Water, Dora: A Head Case, and The Small Backs of Children

"Her poems are told like a secret, filled with yearning: both ephemeral and visceral at the same time."

— Amy Temple Harper, author of Cramped Uptown

Deathcats / El Gato Eficaz

Luisa Valenzuela (1938-) is an Argentine novelist and short-story writer, one of the earliest magical realists, avant-garde, feminist, anti-authoritarian, & recipient of many awards, whose parents Borges visited often when she was a child, and who began publishing herself at the age of 17.

Deathcats was first published in Mexico in 1972. This en face edition is the first full-length English translation of this howl of anger in the extended rhythms of a Missa Cantata.

A White Concrete Day

This collection of Douglas Spangle's poems was first published in September, 2013. This image is the cover of the second edition, published in March, 2015.

"There is a quietness about Doug Spangle's voice that allows you not to realize how much he has to say (so quietly), what superb art his craft conceals (to the point of invisibility), how large is the experience he offers the reader. This collection accumulates the power, skill, passion and intelligence of his poetry to the point where I wonder, is anybody writing better than this?"

— Ursula K. Le Guin, author of Hard Words, The Earthsea Trilogy, and Lavinia

Reading at the Hollywood Library

I'll be reading Fighting Monsters at the Hollywood Library at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 24th.

I've never read the full thing before: there are things in it I've never read in Portland at all.... So. Come! Enjoy! It's free.

My entry in Prairie Schooner

The current issue of Prairie Schooner is a collaboration with Cordite Poetry Review, and the theme of the issue is "work".

Cordite has reprinted some work of mine. A great honour, as I'm sharing a page with Marilyn Hacker. The early issues of Gobshite featured many of Marilyn Hacker's translations.

I must away and go to work. The day, the dollar, and the med-insurance are calling.

When I was a kid, in the mornings, it used to be doves that called me into the great wide light. Early spring in Portland is alive with birdsong in the early mornings - the hopeful, reassuring sounds of life in common with complex and changing beauty.

Golems Waiting Redux (redux)

And, of course, Golems Waiting Redux, e-book or print, can be bought here. It is a lovely object, even if I do say so myself.

Kudos to Daniel Duford, Doug Spangle, Heather Watkins - and to Publication Studio, who did the printing and binding.

Golems is also held by 3 libraries: Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR), Multnomah County Library (Portland, OR), and by MOMA (NY).

Golems Waiting Redux

Golems Waiting Redux was published on Sept. 23, 2011, printed and bound by Publication Studio, in Portland.

From the Introduction:

During the last week of September 2002, the first of the public art projects commissioned by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art was installed on a vacant lot in the city, at the corner of SW Taylor & 3rd. On the lot itself Daniel Duford kiln-fired 3 huge crouching figures, golems; on one of the adjacent buildings, on the wall facing 3rd Ave., he painted 2 more figures, large male nudes with the same physique. They stood looking outward, with open hands.

The installation was intended to last a month.

Vandals immediately began smashing the sculptures. By the fourth night they had all been smashed. RV (Branham, founder & editor of Gobshite Quarterly) and I went to photograph them at our first opportunity — caught the MAX into town, scuttled along shopfronts, hurrying because of the very light rain, step, step, shopfront, shopfront –

An empty lot – grass, mud, a liver-red wall – with something flesh-coloured in the corner. In that first split second I felt a great misery; it prickled and numbed at the same time. I heard the sound of a huge and silent lamentation. It seemed like the sound of the Holocaust.

I looked towards the corner because of the colour.

This is GobQ's 3rd hardcopy title. Like El Gato Eficaz / Deathcats, it is also available as an e-book.