the URCHIN series

AUDRE LORDE

2010-11-11T02:36:00.004-05:00

AUDRE LORDE

11/21/10
2PM
GIOVANNI'S ROOM BOOKSTORE
(meet in Lesbian Poetry)
corner of 12th & Pine
PHILADELPHIA

bring your favorite
Audre Lorde poems to read!
It's inside so no one has
to bitch and moan about
the cold! AND BUY A POETRY
BOOK WHILE YOU'RE THERE!

MOVEMENT SONG

I have studied the tight curls on the back of your neck
moving away from me
beyond anger or failure
your face in the evening schools of longing
through mornings of wish and ripen
we were always saying goodbye
in the blood in the bone over coffee
before dashing for elevators going
in opposite directions
without goodbyes.

Do not remember me as a bridge nor a roof
as the maker of legends
nor as a trap
door to that world
where black and white clericals
hang on the edge of beauty in five oclock elevators
twitching their shoulders to avoid other flesh
and now
there is someone to speak for them
moving away from me into tomorrows
morning of wish and ripen
your goodbye is a promise of lightning
in the last angels hand
unwelcome and warning
the sands have run out against us
we were rewarded by journeys
away from each other
into desire
into mornings alone
where excuse and endurance mingle
conceiving decision.

Do not remember me
as disaster
nor as the keeper of secrets
I am a fellow rider in the cattle cars
watching
you move slowly out of my bed
saying we cannot waste time
only ourselves.

SOME ONLINE AUDRE LORDE LINKS

on Wikipedia

on Modern American Poetry

on Poetry Foundation

"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak."
--AUDRE LORDE

RICHARD BRAUTIGAN

2010-08-24T13:57:00.007-04:00

RICHARD BRAUTIGAN

9/9/10
10pm
CHINATOWN
corner of 10th & Arch
PHILADELPHIA

bring your favorite Brautigan to read
only rule is that everyone reads just
one piece until everyone who wants to
read has read SEE YOU THERE
rain or shine poetry has no
rain dates

I FEEL HORRIBLE, SHE DOESN'T

I feel horrible. She doesn't
love me and I wander around
like a sewing machine
that's just finished sewing
a turd to a garbage can lid.

SOME ONLINE BRAUTIGAN LINKS

WIKIPEDIA

BRAUTIGAN DOT COM

Jim Cory will also read a marvelous poem
he wrote titled
"everything & everyone vs. Richard Brautigan"

JONATHAN WILLIAMS

2010-08-07T10:58:00.005-04:00

JONATHAN WILLIAMS
An Ear in Bartram's Tree

Saturday, August 14th, 2pm
under the Franklinia Tree at
Bartram's Garden
the 36 trolley goes to the garden
or click HERE for garden website

BRING YOUR FAVORITE
JONATHAN WILLIAMS POEMS

CLICK HERE FOR
JACKET MAGAZINE'S A LIFE IN PICTURES TRIBUTE

CLICK HERE FOR
EPC TRIBUTE PAGE

CLICK HERE FOR
JONATHAN'S POEMS IN
EOAGH #3: QUEERING LANGUAGE

This reading is dedicated to Jonathan's partner,
the poet Thomas Meyer

DALLAS WIEBE

2010-06-20T17:10:00.003-04:00

DALLAS WIEBE
The Kansas Poems

Wednesday, July 7th, 7pm

DON'T WORRY IF YOU DON'T HAVE HIS
POEMS WE'LL PASS MY COPY OF
THE KANSAS POEMS AROUND

we'll meet at the abandonded

CALDER SCULPTURE GARDEN
22nd & Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Dallas Wiebe wrote over 60 tiny poems titled "TORNADO"
here are 4:

TORNADO
Some places
It's called
urban renewal.

TORNADO
You do the same thing
through a straw.

TORNADO
Do me a favor
And wipe out
the rich.

TORNADO
I hope it gets Old Bill.

SOME ONLINE LINKS:

on BURNING DECK

on GOODREADS

on DENISE LOW'S BLOG

POETS FOR LIVING WATERS

2010-06-09T01:09:00.006-04:00

AS PART OF POETS FOR LIVING WATERS WE CELEBRATED IN PHILADELPHIA WITH A SPECIAL LORINE NIEDECKER URCHIN READING ON THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BRIDGE. THIS BRIDGE CONNECTS PHILADELPHIA TO CAMDEN, CROSSING THE DELWARE RIVER. WE READ NIEDECKER'S POEMS AT THE CENTER OF THE BRIDGE WHERE THE CURRENT BELOW US WAS STRONGEST, PULLING EVERYTHING OUT TO THE OCEAN.

Poets reading in photo below:
(down front) Debrah Morkun
(behind Debrah with his shaman walking stick) Jacob Russell
(left to right) Ryan Eckes, Dorothea Lasky, Sarah Heady, Michelle Taransky, Jamie Townsend, and Gregory Bem
(back row, left to right) Sam Durso, Laura Spagnoli, and CAConrad

LORINE NIEDECKER

2010-05-27T18:12:00.008-04:00

LORINE NIEDECKER
over tidal water

Tuesday, 6/8/10, 7pm

We will be reading Niedecker's poems
on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge
over the Deleware River in
conjunction with
Poets for Living Waters

Go to the walking path of the bridge,
walk toward Camden. We will read her
poems at the midway point, where
the current is strongest, pulling
all vessels toward the ocean.

I rose from marsh mud
algae, equisetum, willows,
sweet green, noisy
birds and frogs

to see her wed in the rich
rich silence of the church,
the little white slave-girl
in her diamond fronds.

In aisle and arch
the satin secret collects
United for life to serve
silver. Possessed.

some online Niedecker links

Lorine Niedecker . org

EPC page

"Early in life I looked back of our buildings to the lake and said, 'I am what I am because of all this -- I am what is around me -- those woods have made me...' I used to feel I was goofing off unless I held only to the hard, clear image, the thing you could put your hand on but now I dare do this reflection."
--Lorine Niedecker, from a letter to Gail Roub

GEORGE OPPEN

2010-04-01T23:10:00.005-04:00

GEORGE OPPEN
above the image of the engine

Sunday, 4/11/10, 2pm

BRING YOUR FAVORITE OPPEN POEMS

go to the top floor of the parking garage on
15th Street between Locust and Spruce
garage entrance is in the middle of the block
(between Fox & Hound and Buca Di Beppo)

we'll be reading on the west end of the roof
(just walk straight ahead after getting off the elevator)
from up there we can best see the image of the engine

from "Image of the Engine"

But even in the beautiful bony children
Who arise in the morning have left behind
Them worn and squalid toys in the trash

Which is a grimy death of love. The lost
Glitter of the stores!
The streets of stores!
Crossed by the streets of stores
And every crevice of the city leaking
Rubble: concrete, conduit, pipe, a crumbling
Rubble of our roots . . .

some online Oppen links:

OPPEN ON PENNSOUND

OPPEN EPC Page

Rachel Blau DuPlessis on Oppen in Jacket Magazine

"I choose to believe in the natural consciousness, I see what the deer see, the desire NOT TO is the desire to be alone in fear of equality/ I see what the grass (blade) would see if it had eyes"
--George Oppen, from his notebooks

Lamantia's THE BLOOD OF THE AIR

2010-03-15T21:45:00.007-04:00

2010 marks the 40th anniversary
of the publication of

Philip Lamantia's
THE BLOOD OF THE AIR

come read and celebrate this amazing book
on the Vernal Equinox, March 20th
at 5pm
at the benches at
4th and Bainbridge (one block south of South Street)

(NOTE: AT 7PM ONE BLOCK AWAY AT BRICKBAT BOOKS
COME CELEBRATE STAN MIR'S BOOK PARTY)

from Lamantia's THE BLOOD OF THE AIR :

Altesia or the Lava Flow of Mount Rainier

You are come to me like fondling depths I'm at the Pont-Neuf
Say I shackle and unshackle the meat drippings of art
A threshold of owl eyes spanning Mount Olympus
Turning coat tails and hood menageries of certain Parisian streets

The grave look sizzling pages of Nicholas Flamel's lost book

I would free the prison snarling from your feet

Your smile is my hurricane
And the ache of traversing San Francisco with guillotines of history
At every intersection North Beach to Mission Dolores

A gilt-edged XIXth-century edition of Edward Young's Night Thoughts opens in your hair
What if it were
My turn at blindman's bluff and you were "it"
Running over a gigantic mirror
On a cow field in Normandy

GERTRUDE STEIN

2009-11-14T17:10:00.006-05:00

GERTRUDE STEIN
in the Picasso Room

Sunday, 1/3/10, 2pm
we'll meet in the lobby at
the back entrance of the
Philadelphia Museum of Art

at 2:15 after we get our tickets
(you only have to pay $1 this day)
we'll go to the modern wing to
the Picasso Room, in case you're late

BRING YOUR FAVORITE STEIN!
Let's taunt Picasso's ghost!
The ONE WOMAN he couldn't bully!

      History is this.
      Human nature is the same that is not history.
      A dog is dissatisfied and restless that is not a history.
      He is unpleasant in all his little ways and we do not care about him
although we forgive him that also is not history.
      The son of Mrs. Roux has failed in his examinations that is to say
he has been discouraged from attempting them that is not history.
      What is history they make history.
      In times of attention they are not certain that they will obtain what
they wish this might be history but it is not history.
      Intention is not history nor finality finality is not history. Think what
is history.
      Mildred made and knew history.
      Pierre does not make but fears history.
      Bernard leaves and leans on history.
      Once upon a time a couple had a dog who aroused universal ad-
miration.
      They were by nature interested in antithesis. They followed when
they came they were much in use and equally they were amused.
            --from HISTORY OR MESSAGES FROM HISTORY

SOME ONLINE STEIN LINKS

her MP3 files on PENNSOUND

her Wikipedia page

Tender Buttons site

SPICER'S VOCABULARY RISES AGAIN!

2009-04-27T18:02:00.007-04:00

(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

2008-11-01T00:05:00.001-04:00

(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

2008-09-23T10:28:00.006-04:00

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

2008-08-20T10:54:00.010-04:00

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

2008-07-22T14:50:00.011-04:00

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