It looks like new work of mine is forthcoming in Erbacce, in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and in the book World Wide Hippoetry 2010.  When they're published, I'll be sure to let you know, unless I drop dead first, which — though unlikely — is always a possibility.

This week, I'm saddened by two deaths.

I received a message from his ex-wife that my dear friend Debabrata Basu passed away during the past month in India.  I met Deb when I worked in the library at Marion Correctional Institution.  I was an inmate reference clerk and he was the newly hired librarian.  I'd like to write more about our friendship and those sometimes crazy times when I have a chance, but for now I'll just mention a few fond memories.  He's the one who talked me into leaving my comfort zone at the reference desk and becoming the administrative clerk, thus giving me my first-ever experience on a computer.  He turned me on to several books that have strongly influenced my intellectual and artistic evolution: including Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (by James Lovelock), Gitanjali (by Rabindranath Tagore), Why I Am Not a Muslim (by Ibn Warraq), and especially The Tao of Physics (by Fritjof Capra).  He also snuck in CDs by Ravi Shankar and several Bengali musical artists I'd never heard before and turned me on to the fabulous films of Satyajit Ray.  After his retirement, he returned to Kolkata and we stayed in touch — with Deb always encouraging me to visit and me putting it off until it's now too late to ever see him again. 

A few days ago, my wife's longtime best friend's daughter, Pamela Thompson, died after a long bout with cancer.  Geri's known her all her life, and I've known her for more than two decades (she lived down the street from me in the mid 80s).  Pam was 36 years old and leaves behind three children.  Her funeral is today.

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The Lix and Kix Poetry Extravaganza is pleased to present featured readings by Monica Igras, Lou Suarez and Phil Metres — followed by an open mic emceed by Dianne Borsenik and John "Jesus Crisis" Burroughs.

Monica Igras is a poet/performer from Erie, Pennsylvania, who Dianne and John had the pleasure of meeting and hearing for the first time during Snoetry: A Winter Wordfest at the Last Wordsmith Book Shoppe. Her work has appeared in numerous places including the Enhanced Poetry CD Live @ the Jive, available at http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZX7HHH.

Lou Suarez is the author of two books of poems, Traveler (Mid-List Press,2010) and Ask (Mid-List Press, 2004), as well as three poetry chapbooks: Losses of Moment (Kent State University Press, 1995), The Grape Painter (Frost Heaves Press, 2001), and On U.S. 6 to Providence (Red Mountain Review, 2006). Lou is currently Professor Emeritus at Lorain County Community College, and his book Traveler is a finalist for one of The Lit's Lantern Awards. Find him online at http://www.lousuarez.com.

Philip Metres, Professor of English at John Carroll University, was recently awarded the 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize for Emerging Artist. His books include To See the Earth (2008), Come Together: Imagine Peace (anthology of peace poems, 2008), Behind the Lines: War Resistance Poetry on the American Homefront since 1941 (2007), Instants (2006), Primer for Non-Native Speakers (2004), Catalogue of Comedic Novelties: Selected Poems of Lev Rubinstein (2004), and A Kindred Orphanhood: Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky (2003). His poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry and Inclined to Speak: Contemporary Arab American Poetry. Find him online at www.philipmetres.com and http://behindthelinespoetry.blogspot.com.

We hope to see you there!

        

On Facebook this morning, a friend posted a link to an article called "How to Kill Goyim and Influence People: Israeli Rabbis Defend Book's Shocking Religious Defense of Killing Non-Jews," which you can read here.  The article's contents inspired me to write this poem:

Thou Shalt?

Horror in the Torah
killing in the name
of life for G*d
despite a commandment
to the contrary

perhaps proving it
a holey book
like so many other
religions possess

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My poem "Out and Inaudible" was originally published in issue 24 of The City Poetry.  Later, I changed the word "ablation" in it to "oblation."  Dianne Borsenik recorded this clip of me reading it at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland on August 4th 2010:

        

Trenchcoat Manifesto, Dianne Borsenik and I performed at Visible Voice Books in the historic Tremont of Cleveland on August 4th 2010.  Here are clips, recorded by Dianne, of me sharing three poems with religious themes that evening.  I don't believe this is the order in which I read them.

        

I don't want to be
one of you self destructive
poets but I am.

So maybe I do
and maybe I want to be
but I don't see it.

Seems though that since I
no it and still mutter know
I must see something.

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Another clip from our 8/4/2010 event at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland, videoed by Dianne Borsenik:




Going Mobile
a title as redundant as I sometimes feel

Often I feel I
overthink
most everything I do or say -
other times I feel I don't
think enough
or am thoughtless - 
sometimes I feel I'm doing
or not doing
both simultaneously.

It's enough to render me immobile
like the main man in John
Barth's The End of the Road.

That's when by sheer force of will,
whether it's a waste
of energy
and time
or not,
I make myself remain mobile -
at least in
this three ring
gerbil wheel circus -
because I feel
if I'm not
doing something
I might as well
stop.

                              — by John Burroughs, April 2009

        

Another clip from our 8/4/2010 event at Visible Voice Books in Cleveland, featuring one poem by me and one by Geri, videoed by Dianne Borsenik:

        

I had the most disturbing dreams last night — dreams that I don't want to share with anyone, though I wish I knew what they meant — and if they meant nothing, I wish I knew why I dreamed them.  But enough of the unspeakable....

Tonight (21 August) at 7 p.m., I'm emceeing a reading at Visible Voice Books, 1023 Kenilworth, in the Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland, where the featured poets will be Lou Suarez, Jack Vanek and Eric Anderson. 

Lou Suarez is the author of two book-length collections of poetry, Ask and Traveler, and three poetry chapbooks, Losses of Moment , The Grape Painter, and On U.S. 6 to Providence. He is currently professor emeritus at Lorain County Community College.

Eric Anderson is the author of a novella, Isn't That Just Like You?, and a poetry chapbook, Confederate Season. He has work forthcoming in The Sun and North American Review.

John (Jack) Vanek is the author of a book of poems, Heart Murmurs. His novel manuscript won a Helen McCloy scholarship from the Mystery Writers of America and was awarded 1st Place at the Writers in Paradise Conference.

Meanwhile, here's a combination of dream and Visible Voice — a clip of me reading "Met a Mat, a Door I Didn't Like" (from my chapbook 6/9: Improvisations in Dependence), recorded by Dianne Borsenik on 4 August 2010 when she and I had the pleasure of sharing a bill with Trenchcoat Manifesto.  If you missed it, you can catch Richard Hearn and Tom Adams of Trenchcoat Manifesto doing a multimedia show at Mastroianni Arts (2648 W. 14th Street) in Tremont on 10 September.  I'll be there.

        

Last Call — 20 August 2010
for Jim's Coffeehouse in Elyria, best shop of its kind in Lorain County and one of the first places I read poetry publicly


At Jim's Coffeehouse,
downtown Elyria's last
drop evaporates.


chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2010/08/20/jims-coffeehouse-closing-in-elyria

        

[These were just meant as notes to remind me of what I wanted to write about.  But in case I don't have time to turn them into anything more, here's what little I wrote during the first week of August in the journal I use when I don't have access to (or feel like using) a computer.  I wrote much more in it during the second week, while we were in West Virginia, and maybe I'll post that part soon as well. —JB]


                    3 August 2010

Some apologies need no apostrophe
Some apostrophes need know apology

I seem to be a glutton for excrement
on a knead to nose basis

"No one gets to finish a sentence in this house except John Burroughs" — Geri

"The last sentence I recall finishing was from 1993 to 2004" — John

I'd rather be living than underground.

Rub holy water on your midsection for absolution.

For absolution, do lots of crunches.

You're a cunt tree, urine nation.

Then Jesus bows, resisting lazy blight,
in pretend prayer plans to display his "light."


                    4 August 2010

Barnes and Noble is for sale.
Barren and ignoble?


                    7 August 2010

Wonder why we need Republicans —
Weren't the original publicans enough?

After 11 years in prison
I decided I'd rather be an in-law
than an outlaw.

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Burroughs and Borsenik perform poetry in Richwood, WV — photo by Geri Burroughs

Maybe you've already seen them, but I recently posted two albums of photos from our recent West Virginia trip on Facebook.  I wanted to put them all in one, but Facebook only allows 200 photos per album.  I hope to post my journal account of our doings there on this blog in the very near future.

Album 1 — August 10th through 14th 2010 (including Elyria, Logan, Parkersburg, Richwood, Hinkle Mountain, Craigsville, New River Gorge, Hawk's Nest, Briery Knob, Cranberry and Hillsboro) — www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62033&id=1072416429

Album 2 — August 14th and 15th 2010 (including Hillsboro, Droop Mountain Battlefield, Buckeye, Marlinton, Richwood, US-19, Glenville and Elyria) — www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=62053&id=1072416429

Here's another sample:


view of the New River from Hawk's Nest State Park, WV — photo by John Burroughs

        

We're leaving at 9:30 a.m., heading to Dublin so I can pick up the journal I forgot there on the way home from Gary's memorial service, then through Athens so we can scope out the Italian restaurant where Dianne and I are scheduled to read in May, and finally down to my hometown Richwood, West Virginia. I'm packed, but can't start loading the car yet because everyone's asleep in the living room. I'll have to soon, before Dianne and James Borsenik (who are traveling with me and Geri) arrive.

The annual Cherry River Festival will be happening in Richwood through Saturday.  Dianne and I will be bursting out of the crowd and sharing poetry at noon on the last day, maybe with no warning to the unsuspecting crowd beyond the tee-shirts emblazoned "OHIO POET" that we'll be wearing.  We're also contemplating riding the Cass Scenic Railroad, taking in the West Virginia state fair, and exploring what's being billed as the world's largest garage sale (taking up two counties) around Buckhannon.  But who knows?  I'll be content to sit on the porch, read, and write poetry.

        

In recent blogs, I posted a clip of me reading three poems at the Beat Cafe near Detroit on 8/15/2009 and then a clip of the second part of my joint reading with Dianne Borsenik during Feed the Gays 2 on 3/27/2010 in Cleveland.  Those two clips might be the best of the batch.  But now you can see the rest of the story — as I've finally gotten the rest of the video of me at both places online.

When we thought the Beat Cafe reading was over, emcee William Burkholder asked if we wanted to keep going, and maybe a dozen of us said yes.  So I got to read an unexpected second set of three poems and chose "Karma Souptra," "Low Kay Shun" and "Tell a Vision."  But this was maybe 10 p.m. and we'd been on the road, in the sun, and whenever possible hearing and reading poetry since about 8 a.m. and I was exhausted.   Fortunately, I only stumbled a couple of times:



Next.... During Feed the Gays 2, Dianne and I were essentially told to read until they gave us a "hi sign."  We ended up going back and forth for nearly an hour before they did, though we hadn't planned to read so long.  It wasn't really a poetry crowd, since there were people eating supper and holding a massive art auction in the room where we read and there were assorted bands playing in the adjacent room.  Nevertheless, we had fun and got to try some things we normally don't do at readings.  Here are links to the six circa ten-minute clips that comprise our entire performance that night, and which I've posted in the Crisis Chronicles Online Library:

Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
Part five
Part six

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I've just confirmed that Dianne Borsenik and I will be reading Saturday 14 August at noon outdoors in the Sterling Spencer Memorial Sculpture Garden on Main Street in downtown Richwood, West Virginia. I'm very excited to be sharing poetry in the city where I was born way back in 1966.  If you're in the area, please come join us.  There will be an open mic for anyone interested in sharing his or her own work.


me in the Sterling Spencer Memorial Sculpture Garden c. 2006 — photo by Geri Burroughs



the west end of Richwood, West Virginia — photo courtesy of Wikipedia

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