Go to www.poetryvlog.com. The bulk of this video is given over to a long poem about the late, great Leo Connellan c. 1976 and the impact this man had on the dons and their darlings at a handful of small Maryland colleges–particularly Loyola in Baltimore. I’d personally never seen a man pack the liquor away like the pre-detox Leo did during his time with us and still manage to hold forth. What I didn’t know was that this was Leo’s last battle with the bottle and that his return to normal life would result in the trilogy The Clear Blue Lobster Country published by Harcourt-Brace and nominated for the Pulitzer.

As you can probably tell, I am of 27 minds about Leo. I still admire the power of his poetry, and think “Crossing America” is a great poem. I pull out a few of his letters on occasion and read his advice about writing poetry. Leo proved himself to be a loyal friend right up to the time of his death and still shows up in my dreams. Rest in peace, buddy.

Check out Poetryvlog.com!

Let it go down in the record books of eternity that Amanda Laughland, of Teeny Tiny Press, has cracked the sound barrier with the aplomb of Sam Shepard in the Right Stuff, by bringing out Eileen “Bean” Tabios’ first novel in a teeny Tiny edition with a hand-colored bunch of grapes on the cover! As we circumnavigate the pages we also come across a hand-colored sun, a hand-colored (colored pencil?) watering can, seven hand-colored roses and a blue moon ready for a cow to jump over it. Sounds simple? Here’s the text located below the moon:

Chapter VI

“Nihilism is lazy,” she announced cheerfully between mouthfuls of what once was boar. (Nearby, needless to say, breathed the 1950 Petrus.)

Hmmmmmm. I don’t need to wear my Sherlock cap to know that Eileen R. Tabios is brilliantly subverting something here….

For more on the audacious Teeny Tiny Press go to www.teenytiny.org

Keep your eyes peeled for our edition of Eileen’s Nota Bene Eiswein–a beautiful book with a great cover by the ever-sprouting Bean.

Counting the hits from our old site, the Witness, available on this website, has been downloaded 7,207 times. I’m happy to say that copies have been bound and are available at The Enoch Pratt Free Library, the University of Maryland, College Park, and other libraries and museums. If you are at all interested in the subject of slavery in antebellum Maryland,–and more specifically Carroll County, Maryland,– then download this book for free.

America continues its march towards a more just union. We can only applaud the progress and cheer along with everyone.

David F. Hoenigman uncovers the truth behind the name at Word Riot! Get the skimmy at: http://www.wordriot.org/template_2.php?ID=1791 And a good time was had by all!

Raves coming in waves. We like it! Jess

In his January 13th, 2009 show, during a conversation with a survivor of the so-called “Philadelphia Experiment,” the radio talk show host George Noory came up with this gem of an observation concerning Obama:

“He’s been handed a gauntlet that I’m afraid is half-full.”

Almost a Bushism in its concision.

A beautiful cover and blurbs from Anne Lauterbach, John Koethe and the late Sir Stephen Spender! Zoinks! Can’t wait to have one in my mitts, which should be within the next several weeks. Jess P.S. City of Water is N.Y.C., of course!

Japanische Visuelle Poesie II
Josef Linschinger, editor
Ritter Verlag.
Hard back, 146 pages.
No price listed.

This is a beautifully produced book which includes an over-view of Japanese visual Poetry as presented in several shows in Germany and in Japan. The book includes an introduction by Eugen Gomringer and a variety of essays on the history and importance of Japanese visual poetry. The best part of the book is the quality of printing. The examples of visual poetry are, sometimes, not so interesting, but the context of scholarship, fine print, and equisite color has a heightening effect on even the most cursory effort. Josef Linschinger is a nice person, a careful editor, and an interesting visual poet in his own right. We hung out together several years ago in Tokyo. Contact him at: UFERSTR. 93 07617 2977/
A-4801 TRAUNKIRCHEN Europe.

Eileen Tabios, Jonathan Monroe, and Alan Halsey’s books will arrive fresh from the presses this coming week. Skip Fox’s Delta Blues is in process with a cover design by Rikki Ducornet. Robert Lax’s How To Read Finnegans Wake is almost finished, with the wonderful cover shot by Dan Rice. Jane Nakagawa will soon interview Yoko Danno to make her “even more well-known” than she already is. Judith Katz-Levine’s ahadada emergency edition is in process. Ekleksographia I remains half-way between coming and going. Mike Heller’s book is crawling to completion, but will be done as soon as Dan gets his computer fixed. It’s a mad mad world, my masters (and mistresses), but while the laws of physics continue to operate we’ll do our best imitation of Alberto Santos-Dumont heading for the finish line after thrice rounding the Eiffel Tower! Every hand will be accounted for, everyone will be happy and the cheering Parisians will shout “Ahadada! Ahadada! Ahadada!”