Tuesday, April 29, 2014

What happens when a poem migrates into another language, not just once but twice? Find out at the Translation Slam, a perennial Festival favorite, where poets, translators, and audience square off in a smart and spirited exchange over meaning, choice, and freedom. This year Danish poet Pejk Malinovski will engage with American translators and American poet Todd Colby with French. Your M.C. for the evening is Michael F. Moore, joined by translators Kerri Pierce, Baba Badji, K.E. Semmel, and Emmanuelle Ertel.

Presented in association with The Public Theater and co-sponsored by the Danish Arts Foundation and PEN Translation Committee.

Friday, May 2nd, 9:00pm ANSPACHER, The Public Theater 425 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10003 -

More Info here.

Me, behind Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, & William S. Burroughs, Boulder Colorado.

\
The Kerouac Conference, 1983. Photo from a local Boulder paper. Click photo to enlarge.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Monday Top 10

1) Is It My Body? Selected Texts by Kim Gordon.

2) Joseph Keckler at The New Museum.

3) The Itinerant Girl's Guide to Self-Hypnosis by Joanna Penn Cooper.

4) Crown by Joanna Penn Cooper.

5) Stanzas in Meditation (the corrected edition) by Gertrude Stein.

6) Paris Par Arrondissement.

7) Alfred Jarry: A Pataphysical Life by Alastair Brotchie. Rereading.

8) Astier de Villatte Encens "Aoyama." Une odeur divine vous aux narines.

9) SPECIAL EVENT: Eileen Myles & Friends (Hilton Als, Kim Gordon & Bill Nace, Mira Gonzalez, Shelia Heti). May 3rd at The Poetry Project. Information here.

10) George Schneeman at Poets House.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Establish Face

You gaze upon a harbor made of water.
A lemon floats next to a dingy, so you nab it
with a hook just to show off. Now that you're here, lounging
in first class, you stomp around on earth.
You felt lumpy, you said, so you removed the
jelly from your thigh with an instrument you referred
to as "the remover." I never had patience for
Thursdays until one Thursday I strove for excellence
and nearly made it home. Now back to you and your
yawning visage in a mirror hung from the side
of the dingy: it makes the water look like
it goes on and on and on.

Pine Beg

There are flowers that you can
comb through your hair and imply that you are not wearing these
shorts with chaffing between your legs. Okay, just move through
the clear principle of shorts and the event of the dear.
Let the little shorter play broadcaster to the events.
Let them shine in a way that predicts the outcomes,
designs the interior, and bowls them all over.
By that I mean "the critical care unit." Over on the
other side of the page a cross man develops a new
symptom while his illustrator writes his thoughts in a thought balloon.
He's a philosophy major with a camper van and some
dope shin guards because he plays soccer on a corporate
team. A sponsor realizes meals-on-wheels has a broken shell.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Hatchet Job XXI/April 24


Hatchet Job XXI is Eileen Myles, Brian Blanchfield, Todd Colby, and Farnoosh Fathi.

April 24th, 7PM
Suburbia
330 Melrose Street, Basement, Brooklyn, New York 11237

Friday, April 18, 2014

Come On

The oranges I bought last week are brown.
The blossoms on the trees are covered with frost.
The garbage truck is very loud.
Denim comes in many hues.
The fridge hums in tune with Satie.
A postcard can also be a gift.
The pleasant aroma of pancakes is soothing.
A green tea kettle arrived in the mail.
The carbon aero bars are dusty.
A Pantone color chart can be used as a map for a trip.
What is the word for appealingly disheveled?
The sun is behind a scrim of clouds.
The purpose of morning is coffee.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Hashtag Blessed

There was a persistent rumor
that you were in management (illegible). I came
from the same Connecticut circle. A lot
of other influences came about. Thin Lizzy,
Williamsburg & Greenpoint. There are a lot of issues
on the receiving end of a lot of phone calls.
Things happen on D.I.Y. rooftops. It's a judgement
call; they need to be reminded. If it's compelling to
the Death Metal band, then use acrylics to shield them.
Our other friend is Lucky Ferrari. Jersey City,
a real fun track.

Furry Lewis - Furry's Blues

Monday, April 14, 2014

Future Storms

Things get in the way
because I am no fan of memory.
The taste of Crest on a spoon is
all minty and metallic. A summer day
is yawning before me. Deep in the city
the strangle of humidity is a dirty pink
fist around my neck. I try to make myself
dizzy when I reach into the fridge for
something old. If I spin around too fast, I
stagger across the living room with white spots
advertised behind my eyes. I'm here for you.
You might not know that.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Drunken Boat: Flatland (June 3, 1996 - from a rehearsal tape)

Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Hugo Largo - Martha

I'm Giving a Reading in Paris, June 4, 2014

It's official:
HERE.

> 04.06.14 todd colby & fabienne raphoz

*****

double change et la Maison de la poésie de Paris

vous invitent à une lecture

de Todd COLBY et de Fabienne RAPHOZ

Mercredi 4 juin à 19h30

Maison de la poésie
Passage Molière 157 rue Saint-Martin 75003 Paris
Métro : Rambuteau RER : Châtelet-Les Halles Bus : 29, 38, 47, 75
Entrée : 5€

Biographies :

Todd Colby a publié quatre livres de poésie : Ripsnort, Cush, Riot in the Charm Factory: New and Selected Writings, et Tremble & Shine, tous chez Soft Skull Press. Ses derniers textes sont parus dans Flushing Meadows, livret publié par Scary Topiary Press en 2013. Son prochain livre, Splash State, est à paraître en 2014 aux éditions The Song Cave. Todd Colby a dirigé la publication de l’anthologie Heights of the Marvelous: A New York Anthology (St. Martin’s Press). Il est membre de la direction du Poetry Project à New York où il anime des ateliers d’écriture. Il publie régulièrement ses travaux en cours sur son blog gleefarm.blogspot.com.

Poète, essayiste & éditrice, Fabienne Raphoz (née en 1961 en Haute-Savoie) dirige depuis 1996, avec Bertrand Fillaudeau, les éditions Corti. Elle y a créé, en particulier, trois collections (la Collection « Merveilleux », 1998 ; la « Série américaine » & « Biophilia »). 

Elle a notamment publié trois livres de poésie, aux éditions Héros-Limite de Genève et des anthologies commentées sur le conte populaire, aux éditions Corti.

Bibliographie sélective :
Les Femmes de Barbe-Bleue, éditions Métropolis, Genève, 1995
Des Belles et des Bêtes, une anthologie de fiancés animaux, José Corti, 2003
Pendant, 1-62, Héros-Limite, 2005
L’Aile bleue des contes : l’oiseau, Corti, avec des dessins de Ianna Andréadis, 2009
Jeux d’oiseaux dans un ciel vide, augures, Héros-Limite, 2011
Terre sentinelle, Héros-Limite, 2014

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Spastic Saturday

Everything in the city looks wobbly
and aggressive today. The way the wind bullies
the bare trees is upsetting the kids in the park.
The squirrels look hesitant on patches of brown grass.
Skittish citizens don plaid and suspenders
as they stroll down 19th Century Court Street.
An Aeron chair is a good thing to sit on
and hyperventilate. The polyester webbing
leaves imprints on your rump. The sky is blue and dotted
with posh puffs. Liszt helps. Coffee, not so much.

Friday, April 04, 2014

Ornithology

The birds have come back to
Brooklyn. Even in the rain with the attendant rhythmic
swoosh and hiss of cars, I can hear the chirps
of tiny brown birds as they hop on trashcan lids
and peck in a frantic cluster around a bright yellow
hamburger wrapper for the remnants of a bun, I imagine.

There's so much in the news lately about
parallel universes that I'm intrigued
and slightly baffled that another me, writing
this, is sitting by a window watching birds in another
Brooklyn, while two of you
read this from similar chairs. Too bad we can't all hang out.

I'll address the other one of you while the one
writing this wonders: who thought to write this first?
Still, people outside walk to work while aligning themselves
perfectly with the earth's core, their heads pointing
into space at all sorts of angles in accordance
with the curve of the earth.

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

The Getting to Know Show (Episode 1) with Dorothea Lasky

The Getting to Know Show is here! Featuring our very first guest Dorothea Lasky. My co-host Maribeth Theroux and I had a lot of fun getting to know Dottie. Our show also features original theme music by Steve Espinola. Upcoming guests: Adam Fitzgerald, Sharon Mesmer, Joanna Penn Cooper, and many more.

Link: The Getting to Know Show.


Enjoy!