SPICER'S VOCABULARY RISES AGAIN!

(portrait from JARED WHITE'S review)

JACK SPICER
THE FOUR OF CUPS READING!
(The four of cups was used on the
cover of his Black Sparrow collection,
and the four of cups BODLY means
"WELCOME INTO THE FAMILY!")

TUESDAY, 5/12/09, 7PM

AGAINST THE WALL OF DIRTY FRANK'S

13th & Pine Streets, PHILADELPHIA

BRING YOUR FAVORITE SPICER POEMS

(if it rains bring an umbrella NO RAIN DATES FOR POETRY)

exerpt from A POEM TO THE READER OF THE POEM

When I said this was a poem to the reader
I wanted to dig a pitfall
Only you could fall into.
You
Know who you are
Know how terribly far
From last night you are.
If I am old when you read this,
If I am dead when you read this,
Darling, darling, darling,
It was last night
When I wrestled with you.
I am wrestling with you.

SOME ONLINE SPICER LINKS

from EOAGH: QUEERING LANGUAGE
"PILLAR OF SALT" by Jack Spicer, with an AFTERWORD by Kevin Killian

on PENNSOUND

feature in JACKET MAGAZINE

his EPC PAGE

review in THE NATION by BARRY SCHWABSKY

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A COPY OF HIS NEW COLLECTION MY VOCABULARY DID THIS TO ME, THEN PLEASE CONSIDER BUYING IT FROM CITY LIGHTS OR MODERN TIMES IN SAN FRANCISCO IN HONOR OF SPICER'S LOVE FOR THE BAY AREA, OR BUY IT FROM A LOCAL INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE SOMEWHERE BUT NOT FROM AMAZON, NOT FROM BARNES & NOBLE AND NOT FROM BORDERS FOR CRIPES SAKE! KEEP IT LOCAL AND KEEP IT INDEPENDENT IN HONOR OF SPICER!

Frank O'Hara

(portrait by Alice Neel)

FULL MOON
FRANK O'HARA
READING

Thursday, 11/13/08, 7:30pm
front entrance of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art

BRING YOUR FAVORITE O'HARA POEMS TO READ!

ALL ARE WELCOME!

from "HOW TO GET THERE"

                              from the index finger
to the vast empty houses filled with people, their echoes
of lies and the tendrils of fog trailing softly around their throats
now the phone can be answered, nobody calling, only an echo
all can confess to be home and waiting, all is the same
and we drift into the clear sky enthralled by our disappointment
          never to be alone again
                                   never to be loved
sailing through space: didn't I have you once for my self?
                                        West Side?
      for a couple of hours, but I am not that person

ABOUT O'HARA:

on YOU TUBE reading "HAVING A COKE WITH YOU"

Frank O'Hara.org

Poetry Society Tribute

his Wikipedia page

ALEXANDRA GRILIKHES

CELEBRATING A LEGENDARY

PHILADELPHIA POET DURING

HER FAVORITE MONTH

ALEXANDRA GRILIKHES

THURSDAY, 10/16/08, 7:30pm

corner of 10th & Pine

look for the sign:

ALEXANDRA GRILIKHES LIVED HERE!

BRING YOUR FAVORITE GRILIKHES POEMS TO READ!
AND BRING A FLASHLIGHT AND UMBRELLA IF IT RAINS!
POETRY HAS NO RAIN DATES!

from EMBLEMS

Turn and die. The
engine again. That was a day
I let go quickly and slowly the
turn of the pages together by
water and flame, fused words.
What did it mean? What does feel
mean? How does it fit? Three of us
eating a last meal at the seashore, the
van burning with my poems packed in a
box. I like the idea of a big
dumb enemy out there, he said.
That's how it fits.

ABOUT GRILIKHES:

her years at the University of Pennsylvania

EOAGH Issue #3

EOAGH reading (see #5 and #6)

her novel YIN FIRE

mention at top of this interview with Rachel Blau Duplessis

"And if they are not perfect we criticize them for not being good enough. We consume performances like food. Yet we are never satisfied because we always want the next performance. And then we are still not satisfied. I wonder if our lack of satisfaction is that we can't be satisfied by watching and consuming a performance because we need to feel our participation in the piece; to feel the wave of the universe in our bodies, to feel what anthropologists call participation mystique. And the real reason we attend performance is to maybe try and catch the wave that we see in the performer's body."

--Alexandra Grilikhes, from a conversation with Masaki Iwana (American Writing, 1998)

(thanks to Michele Belluomini, literary executor to the Grilikhes estate)

TED BERRIGAN

INVADING THE PHILADELPHIA FRINGE FESTIVAL WITH THE POET WHO LOVED AND WELCOMED ALL POETS

TED BERRIGAN

FRIDAY, 9/12/08, 7:30pm

corner of Elfreth's Alley & 2nd St.

(on 2nd btw Race and Arch)

look for the sign TED BERRIGAN IS HERE!

BRING YOUR FAVORITE TED BERRIGAN POEMS TO READ!

(if it rains we'll read inside the Philly Fringe Office)

              Minuet

              the bear eats honey

              between the harbored sighs
              inside my heart

              where you were
              no longer exists

              blank bitch

ABOUT BERRIGAN:

THE COLLECTED POEMS PAGE

EPC PAGE

PENNSOUND PAGE

POETS.ORG PAGE

WIKIPEDIA PAGE

"One of the more pronounced themes of Ted Berrigan's poetry career was his encouragement of younger poets: he spoke & practiced an ethic of encouragement. Partly he was obsessed by the fact that he had managed to become a poet in spite of obstacles of class background & everyone's & his general obtuseness about poetry. One thing he used to say was to the effect, 'All I've ever wanted is to be a poet, & I've gotten my wish... And I didn't say 'great poet'--I don't want that--I said 'poet.'' The implication was that to want to be a 'great poet' was a slightly inferior aspiration; to be a poet was magical & complete."
--Alice Notley, from preface of the Susan Timmons book LOCKED FROM THE OUTSIDE, winner of the inaugural Ted Berrigan Award in 1990

the experiment begins

OUR POET OF MERGING
CELESTIAL BODIES
MINA LOY

Thursday, AUGUST 14TH, 7:30pm
corner of 2nd & Market
Philadelphia
(look for the sign MINA LOY IS HERE!)

BRING YOUR FAVORITE MINA LOY POEMS TO READ!
(if it rains we'll read down in the subway at the same corner)

               "Out of the severing
               Of hill from hill
               The interim
               Of star from star
               The nascent
               Static
               Of night"
                  --Mina Loy

ABOUT LOY:

LEFT BANK REVIEW

WOLKOWSKI'S LOY PAGE

MODERN POETRY PAGE

WIKIPEDIA PAGE

"If you are very frank with yourself and don't mind how ridiculous anything that comes to you may seem, you will have a chance of capturing the symbol of your direct reaction. The antique way to live and express life was to say it according to the rules. But the modern flings herself at life and lets herself feel what she does feel, then upon the very tick of the second she snatches the images of life that fly through the brain."

     --Mina Loy, from a 1917 interview