38th Annual New Year’s Day Marathon Benefit Reading

Sunday, January 1, 2012
3:00 pm
The Poetry Project
at St. Marks Church
10th Street & 2nd Avenue, Manhattan
poetryproject.org


The 38th Annual New Year’s Day Marathon Benefit will feature over 140 Poets & Performers: 
Ace Mcnamara, Alan Licht with Angela Jaeger, Alex Dimitrov, Amy King, Ana Božičević, Anne Tardos, Anne Waldman with Ambrose Bye & Daniel Carter, Anselm Berrigan, Ariana Reines, Arthur’s Landing, Barry Denny, Basil King, Betsy Fagin, Bill Kushner, Billy Lamont, Bob Hershon, Bob Rosenthal, Brenda Coultas, Brendan Lorber, Brett Price, Bruce Andrews & Sally Silvers, Bryn Kelly, CAConrad, Charles Bernstein, Christine Elmo, Christopher Stackhouse, Church of Betty, Corina Copp, Corrine Fitzpatrick, Daniel Kent, David Freeman, David Henderson, David Shapiro, David St. Lascaux, Denize Lauture, Dgls. Rothschild, Don Yorty, Donna Brook, Dorothea Lasky, Douglas Dunn, Douglas Piccinnini, Drew Gardner, Dustin Williamson, Edgar Oliver, Ed Friedman, Edmund Berrigan, Eileen Myles, Elinor Nauen, Elizabeth Devlin, Elliott Sharp, Emily XYZ, Erica Kaufman, Erica Hunt & Marty Ehrlich, Erin Morrill, Evan Kennedy, Evelyn Reilly, Filip Marinovich, Foamola, Frank Sherlock, Franklin Bruno, Genya Turovskaya, Gillian McCain, Greg Fuchs, James Marshall, Janet Hamill, Jess Fiorni, Jim Behrle, Joe Elliot, Joe Ranono, John Coletti, John Giorno, John S. Hall, Jonas Mekas, Josef Kaplan, Judah Rubin, Judith Malina, Karen Weiser, Kathleen Miller, Katie Degentesh, Ken Chen, Ken Walker, Kenny Goldsmith, Kimberly Lyons, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Lee Ranaldo, Lenny Kaye, Leopoldine Core, Lonely Christopher, Macgregor Card, Maggie Dubris, Marcella Durand, Mariana Ruiz Firmat, Mark Nowak, Martha King, Matthew Abuelo, Miguel Gutierrez, Mitch Highfill, Mónica de la Torre, Nada Gordon, Nathaniel Siegel, Nick Hallett, Nicole Peyrafitte, Pamela Sneed, Patricia Spears Jones, Patti Smith, Paul Mills (Poez), Paul Legault, Penny Arcade, Peter Gizzi, Pierre Joris, Reuben Butchart, Rickey Laurentiis, Robert Ashley, Secret Orchestra with Joanna Penn Cooper & J. Hope Stein, Shafer Hall, Simone White, Sinan Antoon, Stephanie Gray, Steve Dalachinsky, Steve Earle, Steven Taylor, Susan Landers, Susie Timmons, Suzanne Vega, Taylor Mead, Ted Dodson, Thurston Moore, Todd Colby, Tom Carey, Tom Savage, Tony Towle, Tracey McTague, Tyler Burba, Valery Oisteanu, Wayne Koestenbaum, Will Edmiston, Will Yackulic, Yoshiko Chuma, Youmna Chlala, Yuko Otomo, Yvonne Meier with Aki Sasamoto, Nicole Wallace, Arlo Quint and Stacy Szymaszek.

Admission: $20, $15 for students and seniors, and $10 for Poetry Project members. 

Returning to the place of origin

 

My mom and I visited my grandmother in Salisbury, NC.  Above:  College Q; quilt by my great-grandmother Eva (Mamaw); Uncle Joe; Grandmother's yard Buddha; tree.

Something my grandmother said

[after knocking over a container of rubber bands]
Look what I've done!  I'm an infidel!  You can't trust me.  

Another picture of me in a hat

This one's pretty good.  (I think this was my second birthday?)

Things Mom has said so far

Oh, she's Swedish. That's why she looks bizarre.

I wish someone would just show a close up of Elizabeth Taylor's eyes. They're supposed to be violet, but you can never really tell.

I don't know if I like that cheese. The only cheese I like is cheddar.  I'm tired of pretending.

Yeah. I don't even see 'em because you have to, like, kind of be paying attention.

Are sports and politics the same thing to these people? It's not about winning at all costs. This is what makes me want to move to Sweden.

Elves and poets

Well, December has me feeling a little like my eyes are pointing in two different directions, but at least Clif let me take a picture of him wearing an elf hat.

In other news, check out my friend J. Hope Stein's stunning new chapbook, Corner Office, up at H-NGM-N.

Semi-Festive

I found some Snoopy lights at the Ace Hardware.  They are a new LED kind, but Liz will be happy to know that the box was still dusty, as it should be.

Also, Andre Dubus III and yours truly-- authors of House of Sand and Fog and the chapbook Mesmer, respectively-- get our chocolates from the same place, apparently.  Except I guess he pays for his, while I get mine from my sister-from-another-mother for free.  Well, I barter with friendship + poems, which is my way.  

December and Tolerance for Ambiguity

Last night I taught my last American Poetry class at Montclair State.  I brought some homemade chocolate chip cookies for my students, and we discussed Terrance Hayes's book Lighthead.  We should have perhaps discussed this book a bit earlier, before everyone was so end-of-semester tired.  But I think the class was a success, overall.  (One student said, "What degree do I need to get to be you?"  Oh, gosh.  Who knows.)  I still have to go pick up take-home finals next week. 

Here I am about to take New Jersey Transit, my nose looking like the full moon.  But that's just poetry. 

Currently, the radiators in our duplex are not working, except for the one in my office/spare room.  Luckily, this is the most artsy room in the house, and the one where I like to think about book manuscripts and collaborative projects.

There's a lot of art in this picture, if you know how to see it.  (For example, the throw on the bed was one of my birthday presents, and it was made on 100 year-old looms in Maine.  I'm not even kidding.)  But we are hoping the radiators get fixed today. 

In other news, I've been watching Dr. Who before bed, and I've also started watching Downton Abbey.  Clif and I watch Dr. Who together, but Downton Abbey makes him fall asleep, so I watch that alone.  But I enjoy that, too.

And now that my post-doc at Fordham is over, I'm on the job market for professorships.  If I don't get one for next year, I'll be a freelancer.  Like the Doctor.  My mother says I "get high marks for tolerance for ambiguity."  Yes, I've become good at that. 



Also, Merry Christmas!  I'm liking the idea of Christmas decorations this year, but still lacking the follow-through.  I want some of those old-fashioned lights with the big bulbs.  Do you think they sell them at the Ace Hardware down the street?

The Joy of Weird Friends

(for T.C.) 

You're in my hall of fame room holding a ginger seal pup with a fabulous mullet. You have the mullet, not the seal pup. I'm in your hall of fame room going all post-apocalyptic child star, killing and roasting my own venison and wearing glorious deerskin gaiters. If I had news about my plasma, you'd be the person I'd write to, to take my mind off the news about my plasma. If you needed someone to hold the sides of your head to keep your mind ok, I'd totally write you a poem that metaphorically held the sides of your head.  In our previous friendship back in time, we were some of those proto-human toddlers who took painting lessons in a cave ritual about painting lessons. As a middle-aged man of 15, you invented dung sculpture, blowing everyone's mind. I had my own project, blowing on fiery twigs to create shapes like those little brass angels that fly by the heat of candle flame at Christmas, but nothing like that at all.

December

I haven't posted in December yet (until now).

This week so far, I:

1.  Saw my mom and stepfather.  They got some special deal to stay at the Hilton in midtown, and as my mom and I rode the elevator, we talked about how she had a stain on her shirt and how maybe she was one of those super-wealthy people who dresses in an eccentric way.  Because you just never know.

2.  Rehearsed with J. Hope Stein, Clifton, and one of Clif's trio-mates, Yuko.  We're doing a collaborative piece for the New Year's Day Marathon at the Poetry Project.  

3.  Rode New Jersey Transit to teach in Montclair.  Class hasn't started yet.  Hi from Montclair! 

Some other things I might do this week:

1.  Work on one of my other collaborative projects.  (Poems with Todd, or poems and drawings with John, or poems and drawings with my brother.)

2.  Maybe I'll think some Christmas thoughts.  Mostly for me this involves listening to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and baking something and buying a ticket to visit Florida.  And every year I imagine buying a Charlie Brown Christmas tree of my own, but then I just skip it and skip off to Florida.

3. Oh, and who knows what else.  I might do some yoga and take some vitamins to fortify myself for the coming adventures.