Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Sez Hard Heads Sez



Thanks to Tight for accepting two poems for the first forthcoming issue in years. I hear I'm in good company, sharing space with David Berman and Charles Wright, among others.

CA Conrad Somatic Poetry Exercise No. 6: "If you can be naked for this exercise it is best. Plan to be outside for 9 different sunsets. Get yourself comfortable and seated an hour before the sunset. For 50 minutes focus on your feet. Look at them. Where have you walked in this world? Are they tired? How do they smell? Can you suck your toes? Give them a good taste. But mostly give them some serious concentration, they're your feet, no one else's. This is a meditation for your feet. Imagine they had their own thoughts and told you some things about themselves you did not know. Think of nothing but your feet. Think about one, or both of them gone. Or damaged. Think of them in every way you can imagine thinking about them. Then for the remaining 10 minutes before sunset, just before twilight, write at a fever's pitch about some of those thoughts you have had about your feet. For the other 8 sunsets focus on each of these 8 different body sections, one per sunset: Legs, Genitals, Navel, Breasts, Arms, Hands, Neck, Head (exterior), Head (interior). If when you meditate on your genitals you feel the urge to masturbate that is fine, but try to not orgasm because we want to keep the energy challenged and in flux, not depleted. Of course if you do orgasm don't worry, no big deal. But try to keep yourself from doing so. And if you do masturbate try to not do it for the full 50 minutes, there are many things your genitals would like to tell you if you would only imagine that they could. After the 9 sunsets are completed, take your 9 feverish streams of writings and on a fresh piece of paper put the first word from word from the second meditation, then the second word on the fresh piece of paper is the first word from the second meditation, and so on, keep going until all the words from all the writings are now fully mixed and on one document. From here you must become the natural editor you are, looking closely, moving words, removing words, working it into the poem that's waiting to be found. Take your time with this, it's nobody's business how long you take.

Christian Wiman's essay on reading Milton in Guatemala.

New Reading Series over at Casa Libre--Edge: A reading Series of Emerging and Younger Writers.

Shannon Cain & TC Tolbert
Thursday, February 28
730 pm
Suggested Donation: $3

And this:

Jon Anderson Memorial Tribute
Friday, February 29 at 8 p.m. at the Modern Languages Auditorium Join us to celebrate the life and work of Jon Anderson. Poets and friends of Jon Anderson will gather on February 29 at 8 p.m. at the Modern Languages Auditorium to reflect on Jon's poetry and his teaching.

Disarming Poetry: The Work and Influence of Jon Anderson
Saturday, March 1 at 11 a.m. at the Poetry Center A roundtable to discuss Jon Anderson's contributions to contemporary poetry and his continuing influence on contemporary writers.

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