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Author: Marcus Silcock
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If you live anywhere near North Carolina you gotta check out Ken Rumble’s Desert City Reading Series The upcoming season (keep checking Ken’s blog for details) is going to be nothing short of spectacular. I mean he’s bringing in the big ones (guns). If I lived hundred miles away, I would make the drive for…
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John Taggart’s _When the Saints_ is blowing me away. Stunning. Really. I am rolling. Flying. My head’s on fire. Don’t need a pond. I read a few pages and feel compelled to write. I am really really digging this shit. This man knows how to use repeition unlike anyone I’ve read. Listening to “Brilliant Corners”…
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I can’t believe summer is almost over. Time to read the books I am gonna teach. Which is gonna be hard since I just picked up a few cool books from Chapel Hill: 1) David Bromige _Birds of the West_ 2) Peter Gizzi _Some Values of Landscape and Weather_ 3) Lewis Warsh -Methods of Birth…
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Night one: characters: a girl named Cami (ex-gilfriend of main character. Lived with main character after he left the Mormon church.) Cami visits the main character and gives him chocolates. They both attend a Mormon service and the main character walks out with his fist in the air and she follows. They run away from…
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There seems to be a difference between death and ceasing to be. I sometimes imagine death, but I cannot imagine ceasing to be. More and more it feels like ceasing to be (rather than dying) is what will happen. Should I fear ceasing to be? It seems silly to fear ceasing to be since death…
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Finished the ms (Mouth Harp) yesterday. Feels really good to let it go. The title changed a few times from Never Mind the Beasts to Stigmata:Burger to Mouth Harp. Mouth Harp seems to really get at the heart of the ms. Harp as meditative heaven instrument of the mouth and harp as To dwell on…
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Loading a lot of music into itunes today. Three days of music so far. Close to a hundred cds left to import. Just finished loading all Sunny Day Real Estate, The Fire Theft, Death Cab for Cutie. Now I think I am going to bring those cds to Gate City Noise and trade them in.…
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The headlong mad energy rush of beats and ny school poets really got me head spinning in new directions. Now I am reading Trevor Joyce in a small even pace. Both states are good (enjoyable). I do miss the mad spin though.
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My whole system crashed a few days ago. Spent two days trying to save it (purchased the computer on ebay so who knows about previous owner?). The good thing though is I erased the hard drive and did a fresh installation of jaguar (I had panther before). My poems were on a keychain so I…
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if you haven’t already, check out Shearsman Books. Especially MTC Cronin: Talking to Neruda’s Questions (it’s a free ebook). Shearsman Books
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I’ve been cutting reworking resequencing to make an interesting first book manuscript. I had 70 pages now it’s down to 59 pages. (all in all I’ve cut about 78 poems over the years). The poems I cut needed to be cut (too many flippant “NY school” poems for one manuscript), but I am wondering if…
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I just finished cleaning out the cat litter (it’s a mega cat litter box). Cleaning out the cat litter box is much different than doing the litter. Doing the litter is all about scooping. Cleaning out is all about getting your hands poopy (I guess you could wear gloves, but I don’t like rubber gloves).…
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darn what is going on. Camino will not allow me to type text in blogger and Mozilla is underlining my text. I hate IE so I hope this doesn’t mean I have to dowload and use IE for blogging. On another note: I can’t stop revising my first book manuscript. I keep taking out old…
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I feel like I am always catching up. The Yasusada affair is now way past infancy. The twenty letters to The Believer in Typo 3 explore the issues quite well. The issues of authorship cut deep, so maybe everything hasn’t been said. So despite the possibility of repeating what others have said much better about…
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currently on the eastern shore of maryland reading Doubled Flowering on a hammock. Ah, this feels great. A shower, some sea air, new underwear, good book, and some tea. Yesterday I traded in 35 books (Tate, Plath, biographies). In exchange I Purchased 1)Trevor Joyce’s With the First Dream of Fire They Hunt the Cold, a…
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Finally get to visit home. Got two roundtrip tickets in December to Dublin for $674. Dec 16th – Dec 27th. Never flown on Aer Lingus. Hope they have some decent pillows. This was a great deal considering the last time I went home around Christmas it was $1100 on British Airways (for 1 ticket). Tiffany…
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I just watched Cold Mountain (not a very good movie) and Fahrenheit 911. Both movies, combined with some of my experiences growing up in Portadown, caused a little mortality crisis and cognitive discomfort (hence this writing/grunting). How do I want to die? Not by biological weapon, not by slow starvation, not by bullet, noose, or…
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I think it’s about half way through summer break so I better start reading or re-reading the books I am gonna teach. Just decided to use Lisa Jarnot’s Ring of Fire for my two sections of intro to lit. Should be interesting in combo with The New American Poetry Revised ( I will recontextualize and…
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Is it really true that it is good and right to wash your hands for 2 minutes to kill maximum germs/bacteria etc. I consider myself clean, but 2 minutes feels like a long time for the washing of hands. Mr. Germ said 2 minutes but the following advice about public restrooms seems more reasonable: Proper…
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Does anyone dream of old flings? When I feel anxious about my mortality I have a dream about an old fling. It takes place in 1990. I am 16 yrs. old and Mormon living in a small town named Hurricane. My old fling shows up and has turned away from the Mormon church (I am…
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Check out Fred Chappell’s review of Tony Tost’s _Invisible Bride_ in News & Observer: <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/lifestyles/story/1375244p-7498182c.html" >Invisble Bride Review
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I didn’t realize the greatness of OS X and Mozilla. They are both so fast and clean and bright and precise. One happy camper. I wonder how and why the happy camper started? Does it imply at one time happy campers were rare? I am teaching The New American poetry anthology in the fall (revised…
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New computer arrived yesterday. Waiting on the monitor today. A nice older G4 tower with 600MB RAM and a 40 Gig hard drive. Apple studio crt monitor coming soon. Almost settled into the new apartment. it’s very quiet here. I love it. Nice view. Window AC in the study room (YES!). On the Lucipo listserve…
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This has been a week of moving prep. Tomorrow is the big moving day. My normal reading/writing schedule is way off track. So, hopefully monday I will have a new used powermac with new used studio crt monitor mac OS X and a new writing spot. I am eagar to get down and dirty again.…
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(Dedicated to the dead horse I kicked a few entries back. R.I.P.) You see, my experience of life conflicts with my experiences in life. I want experience as in not of. I want to feel and experience the complications of my experiences in language. In other words, I don’t want another romantic comedy. Loving means…
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The latest issue looks heavenly. Check out the blog: Verse Mag
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Chris Murray (the trek and meme of American poetry) has featured me as texfiles poet of the week. (thank you Chris). Texfiles
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Watched a really good movie last night called The Barbarian Invasions. I am still processing it. Some of the “Barbarian Invasions” in the movie= disease, capitalism, love, lust, terrorism, death . . . At one point the dying father( who is a history professor and a socialist) responds to the young junkie’s comment about the…
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Here’s a poem that perhaps illustrates “the school of quietude.” Abalone (by Tony Leuzzi. BOA editions) Lift the mollusk to your ear and you will hear a cello weap the neck of somber sea. Press it closer to your ear and you will hear an ardent bell ring rills of water through your feet. Pull…
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Lisa Jarnot
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wish you were here?: Bloomsday Rejoyce
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Tony is instigating a great conversation on the breakthrough or freedom narrative. In the 20th century it was the narrative of freedom from meter. Now it might be the narrative of breaking out of the “official verse culture” or “school of quietude.” It might be useful to know where “you” are coming from. But a…
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When I read poetry that knocks off my socks I have two contradictory reactions: 1) stop writing poetry. Just read it. Die happy 2) Steal as much as possible and write like a madman In all honesty I think I enjoy reading poetry more than writing it. I mean I am more enraptured by other…
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lucipo chap Based in North Carolina, The Lucifer Poetics Group is an affiliation of people interested in contemporary poetry with an emphasis on experimental, post-avant, and avant-garde poetics. For more information, to read the Lucipo archives, or to join the listserve, please visit:http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/Lucipo Email me if you are interested in a copy of The Displayer…
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Where to begin? An amazing word dizzy weekend. So many amazing performances. First, the regrets: 1) Our cat Iris was rushed to the emergency room Sunday morning right before the second day of the festival due to convulsions and muscle spasms from Hartz flea medication. After some muscle relaxers, some more tubes down the throat,…
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Tried hartz flea tick stuff for our cats last night (instead of the usual frontline). Now Iris has the shakes. Gotta take her into the vet in 30min. I guess frontline, advantage etc are worth the extra $. The big Carborro poetry festival is about to kick off in a few hours. I going to…
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Tony’s blog makes me want to read Pound in the near future. I like to immerse myself. I am obsessive. But I have to feel a kind of intuition in terms of timing. I know full well what doesn’t grab me today may grab me in a year. Illusions of canon (you must read Pound)?…
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Nice discussions going on in the blog world. The whole Jeff Clark review is interesting. The idea of a negative review having a postive impact? A bad review or censorship can fuel the interest of a given poet/writer/artist etc. Certainly this isn’t always the case. I am wondering if blurbs should be negative. Like ______…
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What a weekend. The whirl keeps on going. Thursday bachelor party. Friday rehersal dinner. Saturday wedding, reception (with open bar and amazing food then a stretched limo ride back to Greensboro). I’ve never worn a tux before (never went to prom etc.) It was a lot of fun. Adam and Melissa are two graduates of…
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My good friend Hardy gave me his bookstore credit before he left town. Picked up: Armenian Papers: poems 1954-1984 by Harry Matthews The Random House Book of Twentieth Century French Poetry edited by Paul Auster Zizek: a critical introduction by Ian Parker So far, no poop behind the t.v. My fingers are crossed for the…
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It was great to meet Tim Botta and hear some of his poetry. He read a poem about the box Joseph Cornell never made. He also read a Pantoum and Villanelle. He is workin the language all right. Some great obsessions/ repititions throughout the performance. And performance it was. No nice quiet poetry voice. All…
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Just returned from the eastern shore. Wow. What a time. We canoed to an island and hung out for the day. Lots of toads. A few water moccasins. A wide open sky full of stars. Mushrooms. I am excited about the next few weeks. The Tony Tost/Open Eye Reading Series returns this evening with “the…
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Telling it Slant (edited by Mark Wallace and Steven Marks) is amazing. I am thrilled by the essay Avant-Garde without Agonism by Daniel Barbiero: The emerging avant-garde as refusing to particpate in us vs.them. Everything is useful. A nonagonistic openess to the past. Verwindung: to distort and to use to advantage. The past as an…
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A new journal put together by some great folks here in Greensboro. Check it out at: Backwards City I am enjoying Burger’s Theory of the Avant-Garde. Only read the foreword yesterday by Jochen Schulte-Sasse: The historical avant-garde as an assault on the autonomy of art. True and false vs. right and wrong. Adorno’s critique of…
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Some new music from friends: Wilco A Ghost is Born Velvet Underground Fully Loaded Pixies Come On Pilgrim Mates of State My Solo Project Built to Spill The Normal Years The Fire Theft Some Arab Strap (I need to stick it in the computer and find the tracks/album) Helping my friend Hardy Gieske move back…
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Just returned from the woods. All night party for graduating artists in visual arts. Huge bonfire. Hundreds of people. Sculptures hanging from the trees in the woods. The guy hired a live DJ and built a log cabin in the woods. Works part time as a tree doctor. The visual artists dress better than the…
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Interesting trunk! Overall ranking: a good supplemental trunk for the study of Westward Expansion. In the surfing room a message appears on the screen: a fatal error has occurred please relaunch internet explorer version 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 meanwhile the breasts feel like burnt biscuits and the neon blinks BURNY BISCUIT and the…
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The poems never publish the way I type them (line breaks etc.) Ah well. Only rough ones anyway.
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He is, in all modesty and honesty, “just doing his job”—insuring that what we really think, and what we actually say, is a tight fit. Attention to details. Honesty. Integrity. Timeliness. Complete satisfaction. In all honesty, there’s too much “fluff’ here – and I don’t care purp is straight honesty. She will really admire your…
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We were reading toward Bethlehem suffice it to say we were tired elephants so we were reading toward Bethlehem looking for new streaks across the sky. We were reading toward Bethlehem with wet blankets and a mop looking for new insurrections suffice it to say religion stinks. But really we were reading toward Bethlehem because…
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Had a great Lucipo meeting yesterday with Evie Shockley, Tony Tost, and Ken Rumble. The discussions helped me replay with my poem that plays with the Second Coming. I want many second comings. I am not satisfied with one Apocalypse. Here’s the rough work/rough beast: Of Our Cranial Love for the Lion Suffice it to…
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The Dallas Hockaday position did not work out. They wanted someone to teach two classes and I need full time work. I am excited to stay here in NC for a while though. We got a great group of poets in the area and things are rockin. Took another kind of trip last night. My…
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What a whirl after my return from NY. Busy grading. Check out some pics from NY: NY Trip
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long drive, stiff legs. Very enjoyable trip. Tired as. Ate in the meat packing district last night hung out in Chelsea. Great exhibits. Liked the little jumping men on stone tablets and chocolate hip hop. Then we went to McSorleys again and had many rounds then a few bars in the east village and at…
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wow. i am exhausted. But what a time yesterday. Drank a lot of rounds at McSorleys and got the t-shirt. I am was disappointed in the poetry selection at The Strand. Found two great bookstores. One was connected to a housing project with homeless people with HIV/Aids victims. One of the highlights yesterday was St.marks…
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took 11 hours to drive from Greensboro, NC to Lambertville, NJ. Long day yesterday. Drank a few pints to sleep. It’s 6:24AM and we are about to hit the road. Catching a train into NY (YEAH). Our friend/host has to work today so we are just going to tackle the city on our own. I…
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Tony Tost started a reading series at the open eye cafe where he works. Great crowd last night. Tony and Brian really spread the word. A really really refreshing change to the university reading venue. A lot more energy, more informal. Yes. Ah. Feels soooooo gooooooooood Things are happening. WOW. Things are really heating up…
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Rainy day and a Monday. However, while giving a test on Irish drama I read some Haze by Mark Wallace. I feel much better knowing the issues a little more clearly without simple solutions or binaries and it implicates and situates. The idea of the pure has been driving me up the wall. It is…
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Ken Rumble rocks. He’s really working it here in NC. What an amazing reading last night. All three poets distinct in delivery. Mark Wallace was very generous, warm, gorgeous in his reading. from “Reasons to Write”: “If I / keep writing poetry, it’s only because, in a world of reasons, poetry has long / since…
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Woke up at 4am today. Choices choices choices. Got a letter requesting a phone interview for a position teaching English at an all-girls school in Dallas, TX called Hockaday. I know nothing about Texas except the stereotypes. I know nothing about girls prep schools. The website mentions the faculty are writers, composers, visual artists etc.…
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So the 5 AM writing time continues. I’ve often heard advice to wake up with not fully formed critical apparatus or coffee stimulant and write without censoring. Doesn’t this assume the critical/creative split? For me, the early morning writing requires a bit of coffee. It’s more about not worrying about day to day concerns at…
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I am very excited about the reading this Saturday in Carborro, NC. Listening to Mark Wallace via Real Audio right now. Excited to hear him live. Just got Complications from Standing in A Circle by Mark Wallace and Music or Honesty by Rod Smith Wanna read them before the reading. But I got comp essays…
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<a href="http://fotola.com/berylium/postpran/" >Fotola
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Wish I could have made it to Raleigh on Saturday to hear Aaron and hit the used bookstores. Sounded like a great time. I am wondering about the idea of artists getting better. To my ears R.E.M’s first and second (Murmur and Reckoning) are their best albums. Seems like this may be true of some…
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Deep sea diving with Frank Stanford. At first my ears kept popping and I had to surface a lot for air (not used to holding my breath for so long). But now I can stay down much longer. The ocean wow what an ocean.
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What’s going to happen after I finish?
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I’m 116 pages in.
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1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 23. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. My nearest book was an anthology of Irish drama (since I am grading). The sentence: “Now thrust the swords into the flame, and pray.”
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You know sometimes I get swept up in reactionary rhetoric. Sometimes I don’t do my research and assume way too much. This is the case with my entry on Foetry on Monday. First, the heresay of unfair judging. As many bloggers have pointed out we have to be careful not to let resentment and rumor…
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Had a great time hanging out with Tony Tost and his girlfriend Leigh. We ate on a balcony overlooking the big city of Greensboro and speculated about whether or not the passing clouds would break into storm. The talk of clouds seemed appropriate before Tony’s reading at the Green Bean. Tony started by reading some…
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Received an interesting email from a guy named Aaron Lundstrom about creature comforts and beautiful narcotics. I’ve been mulling. I am not sure an outright dismisal of popular culture is effective. I think self-righteousness can be just as scary as television. I think television can be a creature comfort and narcotic and perhaps prevent political…
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Just ordered the books I am gonna use for my classes in the fall. For my two sections of English 101: 1) Confronting Capitalism edited by Eddie Yuen, George Katsiaficas, Daniel Burton-Rose (Soft Skull Press) 2) Snark, Inc,: A Corporate Fable by Brian Cage (Soft Skull Press) Think we’ll also watch Fight Club, American Beauty,…
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All this talk of ethics and contests. I see how a judge could pick someone they knew (given MFA programs and reading circuits and the like) but with money involved I feel more frustrated. The entrance fees supporting the first book of a friend of the judge or press. I like that Foetry is out…
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I am going to attempt a theme based English 101 class next fall on counter culture. Include movies that deal with the idea of counter culture and revolution such as Fight Club, The Matrix (part two). Longman has an anthology of counter culture essays (mostly from the sixties). Just ordered Daphne Gottlieb’s Final Girl and…
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Just finished Albert Mobilio’s The Geographics. Rocked my socks. One of the best books I’ve read. Not sure what it is. I can’t put my finger on it yet. I wouldn’t rule out music based on the label. However, I am cautious when I see the ever present Warner Brothers label on indie music, but…
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The Kills are rocking me this morning. I’ve been contemplating the idea of information overload (esp. image overload) and poetry either resisting or accelerating the overload. I’ve heard on many occassions that poetry helps a person slow down. But I am not sure I want to slow down if slow down means: 1) pastoral freeze…
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Turned 30 yesterday. Got a Nikon coolpix camera. Spent all morning playing with it instead of preparing a lesson plan on Kierkegaard. Got some music. The new Modest Mouse, Dr. Eugene Chadbourne, and The Kills. Went to a show at Gate City Noise and heard a band called Robotnicka. Most of the members were from…
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Interesting contrast this weekend. My friend’s parent’s came down this weekend and they love Billy Collins. They are both doctors and extremely nice. So first, I went to the beat conference and watched Pull My Daisy and heard David Amram and Michael McClure. I was a little skeptical about the popular appeal of the beats…
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Found a really cool site called Titanic Operas: poetry and new materialities. check it out at Titanic operas
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Just decided to teach as a full time lecturer for another year. I enjoy teaching. There are plenty of great poets who do not/did not compromise their poetry for “professional” reasons. I am writing more than I ever have while teaching full time. So it works. Really looking forward to the beat conference on Saturday…
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Josh Corey’s notes from the AWP conference are fascinating. The MFA as a gated community. As post-MFA I can see this. However, the “avant guarde” feels like a gated community as well. When will we get a new noun? I teach full time as a lecturer and I feel more and more drawn to work…
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My friend Dan returned with goodies from AWP: Poker by Tomaz Salamun (ugly ducking press. really well made) Fa(r)ther Down: Songs from the Allegy Trials by Arielle Greenberg (New Michigan press) Post-Avant by Daniel Zimmerman (Pavement Saw Press) I just started Post-Avant. Very impressed so far. I hadn’t even heard of Daniel Zimmerman until today.…
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Obessions. Yeah obessions. I am redoing my library like I used to redo my hair. I would grow it for a few months then shave it bald. All go then start from scratch. Here a beard gone tomorrow. So I took more books into the Bookshop. Ate some Greek stuff at the Med. cafe. Traded…
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Met a few poets and scholars at the bookshop in Chapel Hill yesterday. In particular a real nice guy named Joe Donahue who teaches at Duke. He told me about a reading series in carborro at the Sizl art gallery. In April Rod Smith is coming to read. Maybe Carborro is my saviour. Greensboro is…
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Excited to get the new Modest Mouse CD and bootleg. The cd is being released spot dead on my b-day. April 6th 2004. Only heard “float on.” Liked it. Hope it’s as good as the Moon. Their albums declined after the moon. Couldn’t finish watching Incubus last night. felt like the 7th seal. good the…
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In the process of writing maybe brand is in the background somewhere but after a while it seems to me the author is branded. What are blurbs but a brand? I often glance at the blurbs for names/brands (shameful I know). Not to rule out the book completely. But if Dana Gioia blurbs a book…
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I am floored. Moved. Excited. Yes Yes Yes. There goes my head. I am alive. Check out K. Silem Mohammad’s electronic chapbook: <a href="http://www.durationpress.com/bookstore “>Duration Press The only way out is in since the out has already been appropriated by the in. In other words, I agree with <a href="http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/" >Silliman’s defense of branding. At…
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From the intro to the Portable Beat Reader: “Earlier in the history of American literature, the novelist Henry James acknowledged in his biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne that “the best things come, as a general thing, from the talents that are members of a group; every works better when he has companions working in the same…
Never Mind the Beasts 