John Sullivan @johns@librem.one

Finished Zero Star Hotel by Anselm Berrigan. Starting the Collected Poems of Lorenzo Thomas, taking me back to a workshop with him over 20 years ago. #poetry

"Spinoza didn't have a fridge / Joan of Arc didn't have a fridge / and me and Greg don't have a fridge" --Anselm Berrigan, "The position of the planets on the human forehead" #poetry

Any good #poetry podcasts out there? Where people discuss poetry. Less interested in people reading poems in entirety.

Finished The Rupture Tense by Jenny Xie. Starting Zero Star Hotel by Anselm Berrigan, which I think I probably absorbed some of when it came out in 2002 given proximity to him then, but record keeping is sketchy. #poetry

Jenny Xie, "The Rupture Tense", p47, first time I've ever seen "VPN" used in #poetry.

Very much wishing I'd come up with this poem title, "Self-Portrait as Combination Taco Bell / Pizza Hut / KFC" https://poets.org/poem/self-portrait-combination-taco-bell-pizza-hut-kfc #poetry

Finished "Hello, the Roses" by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge. Starting "The Rupture Tense" by Jenny Xie. Have not read her before, except for one poem in the NYT magazine. #poetry

"We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings." Happy Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day! #poetry

Sad to learn this. Lyn Hejinian's book My Life was very influential for me -- I didn't know #poetry could be like that until reading it. I'm glad there are still books of hers I haven't read yet.

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/03/08/remembering-lyn-hejinian-1941-2024/

Starting "Hello, the Roses" by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge #poetry

"Four year old girl" was very influential on me during my MFA program, but inexplicably haven't read anything by her since, until now.

"and at last I think if I remember correctly I could find no / argument against your seriousness, it matched / my distance from you too exactly"

from "Second Aubade", Jana Prikryl

#poetry

Simply amazing:

https://www.theonion.com/sellout-poet-made-over-150-in-2023-alone-1851012377

#poetry

"A poem is a ouija board without the wood" --Robert Kelly, "Fire Exit" #60

#poetry

Finished Thread by Michael Palmer. Starting Midwood by Jana Prikryl.

Been reading Palmer for 20 years, feel only a little closer to understanding how he does it.

#poetry #books

"Act so that there is no use in a centre." --Gertrude Stein, *Tender Buttons*

#poetry #fediverse #quotes

Ashbery reading tonight, unexpectedly timely:

By the next day, Thursday,
bank examiners blew up the espaliered
orangery like at the charm school
massacre when milady partakes
of mildness, all smilax and curls,
and through the *tonnelle's* damp falls
as though this were a hirsute day
on the river.

#poetry

I've learned many new vocabulary words from reading Ashbery over the years. Not sure if that's a plus or not, just a fact. Tonight's is "pellucid" -- adj, transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity. As in, "Yet the froth of activity / before mealtimes crowded the pellucid element, frosting it slightly." #poetry

Ashbery vowel sounds:

"withers wrung, stalls swept, a stray colt consoled, mud / drained, dried, blown off into the sun."

("The History of Photography")

#poetry