Thursday, January 21, 2010
Sid Miller reading at Powells Tonight!
If you're looking for entertainment tonight, head over to Powell's on Hawthorne @7:30pm to hear Sid Miller read from Dot-to-Dot, Oregon. Sid's a great reader, you won't be disappointed! I coordinated this event myself via Ooligan Press and wish I could be there but for classes...
Everyone is Cold, Sometimes
Unearthed from the white sand
gray feathers and shards of wood
splintered from schooners and boardwalk,
both in this weather abandoned,
cigarette butts dancing red
and blue plastic cups,
leaves and more leaves
leave the wind thick and sharp-edged.
The few passersby grumble
about a nameless hunger that, once sated,
will yield a new thirst.
Oversized watercolors of the North Atlantic
stare defeated from their windows
out at what they depict.
But five p.m. and the moon is too high
to still call it day.
And most seabirds have vanished, naturally,
and the few perched upon the balustrade
listen to our grumbling,
deep in our down feathers and wool.
We the only ones who cannot feel
so must seek god
and the woven strands of energy
behind his name
and a warmth without hand-rubbing.
We who seek absence
to prove its contradiction:
that somewhere
there is enough.
Enough even now to stand huddled
in the closed shops’ doorways,
warm in each other,
looking out at what we depict,
content as the gulls that stubbornly remain
while following those flown
with our eyes.
-previously published by Wilderness House Literary Review
gray feathers and shards of wood
splintered from schooners and boardwalk,
both in this weather abandoned,
cigarette butts dancing red
and blue plastic cups,
leaves and more leaves
leave the wind thick and sharp-edged.
The few passersby grumble
about a nameless hunger that, once sated,
will yield a new thirst.
Oversized watercolors of the North Atlantic
stare defeated from their windows
out at what they depict.
But five p.m. and the moon is too high
to still call it day.
And most seabirds have vanished, naturally,
and the few perched upon the balustrade
listen to our grumbling,
deep in our down feathers and wool.
We the only ones who cannot feel
so must seek god
and the woven strands of energy
behind his name
and a warmth without hand-rubbing.
We who seek absence
to prove its contradiction:
that somewhere
there is enough.
Enough even now to stand huddled
in the closed shops’ doorways,
warm in each other,
looking out at what we depict,
content as the gulls that stubbornly remain
while following those flown
with our eyes.
-previously published by Wilderness House Literary Review
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
new Southwestern American Literature out!
Fall 2009 Southwestern American Literature is now out (http://swrhc.txstate.edu/cssw/publications/sal/2009-fall.php). My older poem titled Escalante Bat Hymn, based on adventures in southern Utah's region Escalante, is graced in this issue, which also boasts an essay from the great James Wright. SAL is a biannual print journal, whose copies just arrived in my box today...
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
"An Aftermath"- recently published by Wilderness House Review
There is a car
exactly like mine
where I parked.
The key will not open.
There is a word she once said
I knew would change
everything.
I am afraid to remember.
There is a child
whose unseeing brown eyes
like me would perceive only silhouettes
and whose vanity would tremble
while releasing all he thought
he held.
He is the door I cannot enter.
exactly like mine
where I parked.
The key will not open.
There is a word she once said
I knew would change
everything.
I am afraid to remember.
There is a child
whose unseeing brown eyes
like me would perceive only silhouettes
and whose vanity would tremble
while releasing all he thought
he held.
He is the door I cannot enter.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Power Outage in Pure Francis!
My poem Power Outage headlines this issue of Pure Francis. Please check it out and leave some comments, if desired. Comments are always appreciated ;) http://www.purefrancis.org/
Power Outage
Tonight a piano
counters the chill
and silence
of a house still standing.
Limbs
and lifeless power lines
snaking paths
through the frost.
Candles upon which
we love tenderest
lining like a runway
the edges of things.
And the somber keys,
black upon white,
warning us
of an icy landing.
Power Outage
Tonight a piano
counters the chill
and silence
of a house still standing.
Limbs
and lifeless power lines
snaking paths
through the frost.
Candles upon which
we love tenderest
lining like a runway
the edges of things.
And the somber keys,
black upon white,
warning us
of an icy landing.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Keep Driving
Fluent in the dialects of skyline
two empty silos raise like Braille
above the babbling wheat earth
and pause for a moment upon an early frost
spread evenly across its mother’s lap,
a winter in tow,
furious wingbeats of sun
grown desperate in the long-plowed furrows,
all elements reading each other knowingly,
as an experience feels itself shift to dream,
all silently mouthing in a united cloud of breath:
keep driving, dead man,
farther west the chill has yet descended.
-just published by Concho River Review
two empty silos raise like Braille
above the babbling wheat earth
and pause for a moment upon an early frost
spread evenly across its mother’s lap,
a winter in tow,
furious wingbeats of sun
grown desperate in the long-plowed furrows,
all elements reading each other knowingly,
as an experience feels itself shift to dream,
all silently mouthing in a united cloud of breath:
keep driving, dead man,
farther west the chill has yet descended.
-just published by Concho River Review
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Zachary Schomburg at Three Friends!
Monday, January 25, 2010
3 Friends Mondays: Caffeinated Art #79
Zachary Schomburg
Three Friends Coffee House,
SE 12th and Ash, Portland, Oregon
This great Portland poet, whose new book I reviewed last year on this site and on Facebook, will be reading at Three Friends Coffee House in two weeks! I hope all interested are able to join, though I regret my classes will get in the way of my attendance...
3 Friends Mondays: Caffeinated Art #79
Zachary Schomburg
Three Friends Coffee House,
SE 12th and Ash, Portland, Oregon
This great Portland poet, whose new book I reviewed last year on this site and on Facebook, will be reading at Three Friends Coffee House in two weeks! I hope all interested are able to join, though I regret my classes will get in the way of my attendance...
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Concho River Review Fall 2009 Out!
Concho River Review, the literary journal of Angelo State University in Texas, previously accepted my poem Keep Driving for Volume XXIII. The issue is now out! It's not available online, just in print (cover above), but if interested in submitting or ordering, their website is http://www.angelo.edu/dept/english/concho_river_review.html.
Keep Driving is a short poem composed during my cross-country trip two years ago...
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Artificial Light- recently published by Wilderness House Literary Review
In darkness still
clouds are uniting, disbanding,
supporting the steeples
from above
and men are acclimating
their sight to artificial lights
and clothing the world
with songs of their flesh
that ages no faster
if starlight alone
be their measure.
And alone in starlight I
am wondering if a pause
is conversation’s evolution,
a more discernable place and time
to commence movement.
If the single anti-sound
of dying
and the din
of waking again
balances each word
upon its many meanings.
If darkness
is its own light,
supporting the steeple
from below.
clouds are uniting, disbanding,
supporting the steeples
from above
and men are acclimating
their sight to artificial lights
and clothing the world
with songs of their flesh
that ages no faster
if starlight alone
be their measure.
And alone in starlight I
am wondering if a pause
is conversation’s evolution,
a more discernable place and time
to commence movement.
If the single anti-sound
of dying
and the din
of waking again
balances each word
upon its many meanings.
If darkness
is its own light,
supporting the steeple
from below.
New Wilderness House Literary Review out!
The new issue of Wilderness House Literary Review is out, with three of my poems in it. Please check out: http://www.whlreview.com/no-4.4/poetry/JohnSibleyWilliams.pdf!!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Sophia de Mello Breyner's "I Feel the Dead"
Just critiqued the Portugese poet Sophia de Mello Breyner's "I Feel the Dead" for a poetry workshop at PSU. Is anyone familiar? Beautiful concepts on death and human nature. "But I have lost my being in so many beings/Died my life so many times/Kissed my ghosts so many times/Known nothing of my acts so many times/Th...at death will be simply like going/From inside the house into the street."
new chapbook completion...and now?
I'm recently completed a chapbook titled From Colder Climates, which can be taken both literally and figuratively, as many of the poems were written in Iceland and across the North Atlantic ,and those not retain a bit of that weather in the heart. Now what publisher to approach....any suggestions for one interested in such subject matter?
Thursday, January 7, 2010
new Facebook page
I'm starting a new Facebook page dedicated solely to my literary endeavors and creative communication. It's under John Sibley Williams or jswilliams1307@gmail.com. Feel free to befriend me and we can talk all things poetry and all this not!
Three Poems accepted by The Write Room
The Write Room, http://thewriteroom.wordpress.com, has just accepted three of my poems for upcoming publication in their online journal: Judgment!Judgment!, Graffiti, and Somewhere Over the Vltava, the last having recently been workshopped with the Moonlit Poetry Caravan. I'll post portions of the poems once they have been officially published. So a good week so far!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
9 Poems Published by Boston Poet Journal
Boston Poet Journal has just accepted 9 of my poems for publication in their third issue. They range on topics, but a few are Boston or Mass focused. Their titles are:
From the Sumner Tunnel
Judgment!Judgment!
Infidelities
In the Wilderness Between
In Peacetime
A Bridge of Sorts
Farmer’s Almanac
Driving Nebraska
Three Carpenters
They will be available soon at www.bostonpoet.com. Please check them out!
Interestingly, the journal is linked with local poetry events and readings, which I can no longer be a part of given my relocation...alas...
From the Sumner Tunnel
Judgment!Judgment!
Infidelities
In the Wilderness Between
In Peacetime
A Bridge of Sorts
Farmer’s Almanac
Driving Nebraska
Three Carpenters
They will be available soon at www.bostonpoet.com. Please check them out!
Interestingly, the journal is linked with local poetry events and readings, which I can no longer be a part of given my relocation...alas...
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Please check out the Autumn 2009 edition of River Poet's Journal (http://www.riverpoetsjournal.com/River_Poets_Quarterly_-_Autumn_-_2009.pdf), which contains my poetry. The print edition is due out in a few weeks, but the entire journal is available online...
Monday, November 30, 2009
3 poems to start the new year!
And an already happy new year! Wildnerness House Literary Review has just accepted three poems for publication in early January, 2010. Everyone is Cold, Sometimes- the partial disintegration of a relationship upon the cold Massachusetts shore, Artificial Light, and An Aftermath can all be found then at www.whlreview.com. I'll likely post a few of them here for easier access once they're officially published.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
5 poems in December!
Happy Almost-Holidays! The day after most feasted upon turkey, I just received an acceptance for 5 poems by Tertulia Magazine (www.tertuliamagazine.com). Their titles are: Accents, Foreigner, Hymn Similar to Yesterday's, Elegy of Rope, and Mother Tongue, all older poems based in my travels in Vienna, Greece, and Iceland in 2006-7. Please check it out in a few weeks, the December 2009 issue!!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
new CircleShow vol 2 out!
CicleShow vol 2 is now out in stores! Received my complimentary copy today and the design and cover art is beautiful. Four of my poems were lucky enough for inclusion. Please check it out!!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Open Letters out now!
The November edition of Open Letters is now out! My poem, Surely I'm Convinced, headlines the new poems for the issue. Please check it out at www.openlettersmonthly.com.
Surely I’m Convinced
a word understood must have been uttered aloud.
a word uttered must travel vast distances
to define itself.
one word will some day imbue
the rest with meaning.
Surely I’m Convinced
the winter wind speaks
to one person at a time,
and just now I possess its conversation.
the snow owl communicates with god
through its wake of rodent bones and fur.
utter silence has no counterpart.
Surely I’m Convinced
a word understood must have been uttered aloud.
a word uttered must travel vast distances
to define itself.
one word will some day imbue
the rest with meaning.
Surely I’m Convinced
the winter wind speaks
to one person at a time,
and just now I possess its conversation.
the snow owl communicates with god
through its wake of rodent bones and fur.
utter silence has no counterpart.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Hoboeye internship!
Having met today with its literary editor, Mitchell McInnis, I have just been offered an internship at the literary and arts magazine Hoboeye! (www.hoboeye.com). The position exactly matches my interest in and passion for both the editorial and community-building aspects of poetry and art, the formal mechanics and fostering relationships, the written and conversational communications. The organic sense of community Hoboeye fosters and I will be a part of nurturing is very much what I sought in moving west: to retain substance while linking poetry to other artistics forms, of taking the page and allowing it to be heard, witnessed, and experienced as a form of shared communication. It feels like one of potentially many doors that are opening in Portland, each allowing access to larger parts of the "the house we live in" (to quote Hafiz), each somehow connected to each other. I've finally been redeeming my own literary passions from the solitude of actual writing and submitting, which should only be a part of the life of a fully-functioning, socially-aware artist...
Friday, October 30, 2009
A Sign on the Road
I'm pleased to announce Amarillo Bay has accepted my poem A Sign on the Road for publication in an upcoming issue. This will be the third poem I have published with them over the last year, making me feel a bit like a regular contributor. Please check them out at www.amarillobay.org!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
A Molotkov's reading at Three Friends
Here is a video of Tola's reading from the same mic on Mon. 10/19/09. His readings, like his poetry, are a great inspiration to me, and I am thrilled to be working with him on birthing our own literarly movement....
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Video of Reading from this Monday
Here is a video of my reading of a few new poems at Three Friends Coffeehouse in Portland on 10/19/09. Please enjoy, comment, and/or critique!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg
Yesterday I picked up a copy of this new book of poetry, the author's second, from Powell's. This sophmore journey from the founder of Octopus magazine (www.octopusmagazine.com), resonated with me immediately in a way few contemporary American poetry books are able. Within nearly every poem Schomburg speaks beauty, both natural and human, with a devilish tongue. In fact, he draws no distinction between the natural and human worlds, nor the holy and unholy, as they intertwine in every line. A woman loses her arms, from which grow tree limbs. A grotesque image straight from Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, to be sure, but this is not the masochistic work of man. It is nature within man. Eventually she transforms into a tree and it is beatiful. Elsewhere two people give themselves to the bones of a coyote, another mysterious concept described in such natural, holistic terms, which thenceforth transform the dead coyote in a god of the forest. There is something of Nick Cave's lyrical genius in this. Something of Native American recognition that there are not two, or more, worlds but one, without dividing lines, without a black or a white element.
I would very much suggest it to any reader, even those without a firm grasp nor love of poetry.
Scary, No Scary by Zachary Schomburg
Black Ocean Press- www.blackocean.org
2009
Word Temple
Upon researching Copper Canyon Press for a paper, I realized something quite beautiful about their chosen symbol, which all have seen countless times, as Copper Cayon is a bastion for poetry in America, a symbol itself of how we cannot give up on poetry audiences, that such a venture can succeed both critically and popularly.
The Chinese character for poetry includes two parts. 'Word' and 'Temple'. The accuracy and, in its own way, poetry of this Chinese conception of poetry is something I feel often lacks in our contemporary Western culture. Is this not what each of us seeks in our own writing? To take human words and allow them by our own hands to transcend, not unlike a pagoda, to encompass a basic human experience, to speak directly to both the nature of us and the nature of something greater? Yet have I found a more fitting description for what poetry should have always been and must still be considered today, despite our mass media culture. Words can still ascend, transcend, transform. To say something all can understand intuitively, across our many divides, something all can feel, may be the closest thing we have to Godliness, even for we agnostics....
The Chinese character for poetry includes two parts. 'Word' and 'Temple'. The accuracy and, in its own way, poetry of this Chinese conception of poetry is something I feel often lacks in our contemporary Western culture. Is this not what each of us seeks in our own writing? To take human words and allow them by our own hands to transcend, not unlike a pagoda, to encompass a basic human experience, to speak directly to both the nature of us and the nature of something greater? Yet have I found a more fitting description for what poetry should have always been and must still be considered today, despite our mass media culture. Words can still ascend, transcend, transform. To say something all can understand intuitively, across our many divides, something all can feel, may be the closest thing we have to Godliness, even for we agnostics....
Friday, October 16, 2009
Upcoming Reading- Mon. 10/19
This Monday, 10/19, at Three Friends Coffeehouse (201 SE 12th Ave, Portland, OR), Tola, Shawn, and I will triple-header their open mic. I think I'll attempt poems written earlier today, which I'm excited about and believe are rather strong...but we'll see. I look forward to the three of us reading together and hope others are able to come for the mic or support!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
New Poet's Ink out now!!
The Sept. 2009 issue of Poet's Ink is now available online at www.poetsink.com/poetsinkreview/poetsinkreviewsep09.htm. Please check it out. My poem Hypotheticals headlines this issue....
Here's a glimpse...
Hypotheticals
The sturdy iron pipes supporting our city
will rust. The immutable blast of lilacs
now pummeling our senses
will evaporate into Autumn.
The blood on Achilles’ sword
has long since crusted brown,
cracked, flaked into nonexistence.
Even the sword itself
has regressed to written word.
We are left to imagine its luster.
Day’s sonorous whine, already night.
At night, we mortar the bricks
of impermanence. What if history
gorged more on truth than myth
and our glass-framed bodies
would never crush beneath pestle
to a gentle whiff of bone?
What if our eyes and hearts
spoke the language of shared morning
and for one morning we agreed on an answer?
I’m left to savor him here, amongst inane hypotheticals-
my child left unborn.
Here's a glimpse...
Hypotheticals
The sturdy iron pipes supporting our city
will rust. The immutable blast of lilacs
now pummeling our senses
will evaporate into Autumn.
The blood on Achilles’ sword
has long since crusted brown,
cracked, flaked into nonexistence.
Even the sword itself
has regressed to written word.
We are left to imagine its luster.
Day’s sonorous whine, already night.
At night, we mortar the bricks
of impermanence. What if history
gorged more on truth than myth
and our glass-framed bodies
would never crush beneath pestle
to a gentle whiff of bone?
What if our eyes and hearts
spoke the language of shared morning
and for one morning we agreed on an answer?
I’m left to savor him here, amongst inane hypotheticals-
my child left unborn.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Fall 2009 Other Rooms issue out!
As of today, the Fall 2009 issue of Other Rooms is available online at http://otherroomspress.blogspot.com. Please check it out. I'm pleased to see my poem Gregor Samsa upon its pages...
Friday, October 2, 2009
A. Molotkov Reading!
Please check out my friend Tola's wonderful reading from Three Friends Coffeehouse this Monday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIVXkXuzm1E&feature=autofb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIVXkXuzm1E&feature=autofb
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