How can it be that the gas chamber door opens inwards? by Steve Parker

How can it be that the gas chamber door opens inwards?

(to David Irving)

the occasion is Smoking Mirror, an exhibition–Flarf
to execrate the despicable English practice of riding to hound
–W.S. Burroughs
he’s asking in the wrong colour!
–Seance Recording (anon)

what it is	to outselect	the egregious shadow	assemblage
of flickers	the flickering voice	half-memory	a gestalt
of fireflies	& rattle	of redacted love	of the Ramp
of that confluence	of whispers	gargled up	in evoking
of the	noisy spirit	beyond	the machinery of
blue saturates	tested for at	Birkenau	Auschwitz
by weight of	its own inertia	so to assail	a weakness
prying alone	alone with the  conviction	with such fervour	thereby mining
with the fixation	of a boy	digging out	his first living spine
that such determination	sapping away	a bulwark	artfully
might	who might just bring	the walls coming down	with fumbling
with the flagship	at the blowing	thrice O thrice	of the trebuchet
trumpet trumpet	and canary	glossolalia there look listen	with jerks  & squawks of
trumpet	that thou art	in thy posture &	mild hooting hubris
thy resolve	to be other but	always in pursuit	and hot sneer
of what is truly	as the fall	of  clouds cry now	in deadly blue
& otherwise	spirited	from your holes	of deadness flushed
for the shoving	your redcoat tripes	in those faces	of deluded boys

Gamelan Music by Dennis Kelly

—for Phuoc-Tan & Diana

“I write for myself—

and strangers”

—Gertrude Stein

*

i write for myself—and strangers

but mostly—for myself

i wouldn’t be writing—this way tho

if it weren’t—for strangers

especially a stranger—who said

there’s somebody—i want you to meet

so i write now—for two strangers

and myself—i write for her

even tho—we don’t talk anymore

i write for him—we talk a lot

without her—there wouldn’t be him

i write for him now—not her

funny how strangers—come & go

i write for myself—and them

Indecent Assault by Thane Zander

Murder

Broken marriages – surviving – a lifetime

present problems  – and marked – considering

those years wishing – praying – the abuse would stop

Rape

The dogs at the gate – penalise – passing ladies

retaliating –  the prophet buried – in places austere

barking new orders – in the Town Centre – find gravitational pull.

Armed Robbery

Vandals splattered – paint and pens – tagging new neighbourhoods

where virgins – fearing to tread – found new ground

passed into Heaven – their end placated – where light shone from below.

What is the Cleave Matrix?

The Cleave Matrix

A cleave by any other name…Part 2: Greg Williamson & Octavio Paz

The cleave – a form waiting to be born?

It seems that a few years before the cleave form Greg Williamson invented a poetic form he called ‘Double exposure’:

• http://books.google.com/books?id=vERZtJC5AmkC&pg=PA146&lpg=PA146#PPA146,M1

Even earlier Octavio Paz experimented with similar forms.

Here are some thoughts on Greg Williamson’s Double Exposure:

• http://forums.escapefromelba.com/indexh.pp/topic,36.msg139374.html#msg139374
• http://poetry.seablogger.com/?page_id=10

And some thoughts on Octavio Paz’s ‘proto-cleaves’:

• http://forums.escapefromelba.com/index.php/topic,112.msg141353.html#msg141353
• http://forums.escapefromelba.com/index.php/topic,36.msg141356.html#msg141356

Premieres and Poetry at The Poetry Society Cafe

The Editor will be performing 2 poems (including a cleave poem), followed by music composed in response to these poems, at the Poetry Café in Covent Garden in April:

‘Premieres and Poetry’ arranged by EMFEB Orchestra

30th April 2009

Live musical responses to live readings from contemporary poets.
6 composers and 6 poets are ‘paired up’ and the resulting work is bound
into a dramatic, intense performance with orchestral instrumentalists.
The poetry and the readings are separate, the music responding to the text.

Premiere:
The Poetry Society Café:

The Poetry Society
22 Betterton Street
London WC2H 9BX

Time: 7:30
Tickets: TBC

Composers: Ben Oliver, Benjamin Ellin, Owen Bourne, Jacques Cohen, Ashley Kinnair, Oliver Leith.
Poets: Luke Wright, David Kessel, Charles Bourne, Rohan Kriwaczek, Phuoc-Tan Diep.

Speak ill of the Dead by Steve Parker

Speak ill of the Dead (Gaza 2009)

They are the exalted birds and their intercession is required indeed
—Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

Blitz By May 1941	43,000 civilians	many of them horribly	as cellars
filled with sewage	escaping from burst heads	heads that lay	with the corn dollies
of Dresden	whose skin grew vapid	as tubers of fire	and wind
whose horses were silhouettes	capering on sidewalks	of armour	and ashen ghosts
whose Pompeiis	cooked down	like stock	unstuck in Time
there in the rising	in the Thames	in the Elbe	the horses at night
they came to feed	of shadows	of the Dead	after night
a three year old	child	in Gaza City	dying
with a broken back	of rivers	running hard	into deltas
over two days	in the rising	through the Thames	of concrete
of heat	of her mouth	with petals	and song
filled with dust	on the green banks	folded aloft	in the arms
of mothers	of the history	of mothers	of the mothers of mothers
and of the baking	of bread	at dawn	and at the going down
of the sun	will we consume thee	thy flesh thy bread	of glory
as white phosphorus	as coins	they inserted	in the loaves
of an Intifada	like vast catfish	coins	for the raising
of the drowned	in dust	face down	now be still
do not fight	do not fight	as the horses fought	it will be over the sooner
into that glory	or thrust	upon shadow	and exalted aloft
upon high	in the upper air	and upon the heights	in cannonades
in loaves at dawn	they seek	the drowned	to ask
why one child	whose skins grew vapid	as tubers of fire	why one child
of another race	worth so many of hers	unable to move her arms	she who will never know
knows only of snow	and one catfish king	says Jim to Tom	of its taste
its cold soft iron	is much like another	much like one another	and all of it no damn good

Shab-e she’r returns for Persian New Year with open mic and poetry.

Join us for Norooz 2009, the Persian New Year celebration, at the Bowery Poetry Club on Wednesday, March 18^th from 6:00 – 9:00 pm at the Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, (Between Houston and Bleecker). For more info please call 212-614-0505 or bowerypoetry.com. $10

The celebratory evening will feature two incredible acts that bring the works of ancient poets including Rumi and Hafez to life through music. Opening the evening will be Rana Farhan, who is best known for setting classical Farsi (Persian) poetry to contemporary jazz and blues music that will surely captivate any audience. The second act will feature Iraj Anvar – singer, author and expert translator of Rumi. Performing in Persian song, Anvar will recite his renditions of Rumi ghazals and will be accompanied by Anne Twitty, who will translate the Persian performance into English.

Persian Arts Festival, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to showcasing the magnificence and diversity of Persian art and culture through its voices, artists and visionaries. PAF provides a truly unique opportunity for local and global communities to gather and explore one of the world’s most ancient and rich civilizations. Persian Arts Festival is a sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

Hosting between 20 and 30 shows a week the Bowery Poetry Club (BPC) is proud of our place in the lineage of populist art: the Yiddish theater, burlesque, vaudeville, beat poetry, jazz, and punk that gave the Bowery its name.

Gamelan Blue by Dennis Kelly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldPMifPbngc

“Separated by too. This

is neither a sentence nor

a paragraph. A simple

center and a continuous

design.”—Gertrude Stein,

“More Grammar Genia

Berman,” Portraits & Prayers

*

gertrude does—grammar portraits

turning dialog—and conversation

into paragraphs—and sentences

portraits are done—with words

alice toklas—is a season of seems

when she’s blue—may is blue

what is bluer—when she is blue

my baby loves blue—so do you

*

http://www.snarke.com/2009/01/cleaving-gamelan.html

Amateur Cleave Riff by Beppo

Amateur Cleave Riff – page 55, 2666 (Wimmer)

The words — hale bopp
Waved — like a magic wand
Whilst — uncovering
— a secret,
The secret — that supplied
— the stamp
Of ultra — concrete literature,
A non-speculative – ‘free of ideas’ secret
No ambiguity — zero assertion
Like anti-denial — doubt
Free of intent — free of serving as a guide,
To pro and con,
Eyes — just seeking out
Tangible elements — not judging
Simply displaying,
Coldly — like photocopy,
Facsimiles — and by similar tokens
Things — like archaeologies

Beppo