17 September 2009
BLUES FOR DUFFY POWER came out a week or two ago. I have not had time to send out many copies other than those ordered so far, but customer response has been great.
MK Chavez and Mira Horvich’s PINNACLE, another of our combination poetry-photography chapbooks but one that is quite surprising in many ways, should be out by the end of September. MK’s poems fill the page in a manner not unlike open-field poetry, and as I format this book I must be very careful to replicate the author’s intention regarding poetic space. Mira Horvich’s doll photography is beautiful and off-putting, and the whole thing should be a high-octane reading/viewing experience.
In terms of my own work, I’m in the middle of the new volume in the revived “Cinema Poetry Series,” revived at the suggestion of A. J. Kaufmann. This one is called NOBODY KNOWS, NOBODY SEES and is inspired by the 1971 existential classic VANISHING POINT. I’ve changed Kowalski’s route from the original Denver-to-San Francisco to Denver-to-Los Angeles. Along the way, we’ll encounter fictionalized versions of poet friends Brad Kohler and Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal (instead of old prospector Dean Jagger, and then Delaney and Bonnie and Severn Darden as “J. Hovah,” as in the film) and stop in such romantic places as Grand Junction and Barstow! Hope you enjoy it. Expect it sometime in October, maybe around the same time as Misti Rainwater-Lites’ VEGAS THE HARD WAY.
25 July 2009
Haven’t updated this page for awhile…I’ve been working with A. J. Kaufmann for a number of months, off and on, on the collaboration BLUES FOR DUFFY POWER, a small book dedicated to the great British bluesman. AJK and I came up with this concept about a year ago, and after spending a lot of time listeningn to Powers’ music, we started thinking about strategies we could take. A. J. did his first work on the piece in Fall 2008, while he was still living in Berlin. I made some notes here and there, but it wasn’t until early 2009 that we decided on the format (which I’ll keep to myself until the book is published), which I think is quite original. The finished work should be 10-11 pages, though that could change. The last month of two, I have been reading and studying some of the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament, and some of that thought has worked its way into Duffy in that the bluesman functions in a way as the prophet, the shaman, the voice in the wilderness, the Jeremiah presenting an unvarnished message to a bored and jaded and superficial society that simply doesn’t care. It will be interesting to see what final form BLUES FOR DUFFY POWER takes. The form is already decided, but the magic—-if indeed there is any magic—- takes place at the level of the phrase and of the line.
Perhaps BLUES FOR DUFFY POWER will be ready by September…perhaps not. Whenever it’s ready, A. J. and I hope you find it interesting and worthwhile
AJK and I are also planning on an additional collaboration, one that we’ve scoped out and come up with preliminary guidelines for and that we’ll work fulltime on when Duffy is finished…..and that’s a chapbook inspired by the work of American painter CY TWOMBLY, one where we attempt to capture the qualities of Twombly’s unique work in poetry form (I did this previously with painters such as Kazimir Malevich in my chap OBJECTLESS and Francis Bacon in my chap LARKSPUR VARIATIONS and Antoni Tapies in my chap RED DIPTYCH). I won’t be really starting my work on that until Duffy is in the can, although A. J. has already been writing phrases and lines for possible use in the Twombly piece.
I’ve also been working with AJK on the editing and sequencing of some recent solo chaps he’s done for KSE, but you can read about those on the main page. Also, I have MK Chavez’s material for her upcoming PINNACLE chapbook, where the poems were written using photographs by Mira Horvich as prompts (photos of Barbie-like dolls in various environments), and I’ll be assembling that with Mira’s photography into a joint Chavez-Horvich chapbook that should be out in October. I worked in a similar way with Mira on the SUSPENSION chap, which has gotten great response so far. I hope to include more of Mira’s work in future chapbooks. As always, thanks to our regular readers/customers/supporters…we will continue to march into the future with roots but without blinders.
7 November 2008
Jim D. Deuchars’ ALLEGHENY RISING and my collab w/ Zachary C. Bush SHANTI are now released and I’m printing up a second batch as the first 20 copies of each are already in circulation. We had two European Paypal orders for SHANTI in the first 12 hours after it was listed as available on the blog!
Just beginning the formatting and sequencing of the 10 poets’ work for the KSE LAST POEMS collection. I hope it’s out by Thanksgiving, and also by the end of November NEXT EXIT: TEN from the mighty Misti Rainwater-Lites will be available.
Time to get back to work…
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23 September 2008
All the poets for KSE LAST POEMS have been contacted and given their OK. I’ll be working on sequencing and formatting those pieces on October, looking for a November release.
Pretty much done with the draft of BEYOND THE BLUE ROCKS: MEDITATIONS ON THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD. With AJ moving from Poznan, Poland to Berlin, Germany, I’ll get everything in perfect form for him while he’s in transit, and when he’s got internet access in Berlin in a week or so, I’ll send him the final text for inspection.
The poems have been selected for NEXT EXIT: NINE. I just have to sequence them. This combined MK Chavez/John Sweet volume is being awaited by a number of readers. It’s exciting to select and order this material—-I feel like a museum curator given the task of putting together a joint exhibition of two of his favorite artists and being given access to their vaults of previously unseen work.
Christopher Cunningham’s IN GAMBLER’S BLOOD has been generating excellent reader/customer response, with orders coming in every few days. This one will certainly be sold out before the Holidays!
Does running a small press get in the way of doing your own writing? Yes, of course. However, right now, I’m not worried about that. With Chris Cunningham, MK Chavez, John Sweet, Doug Draime, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, and A. J. Kaufmann (among many others) doing such essential work right now, it’s far more important to get that out there and into readers’ hands than to keep an endless flow of my own work coming right now. There’s a lot of my own work out there for anyone who cares to investigate it: two full books published by Word Mechanics and dozens of KSE chapbooks. My regular readers tell me they appreciate the new pieces I produce every few months, and I feel privileged to have such excellent readers who dialogue with me after reading the newly created pieces. My pieces may come out in editions of 45 copies, but every one of those 45 copies is read carefully and seriously and often by a few people per copy, and I’m in complete control of the content, presentation, and distribution…following in the footsteps of my mentor Jandek and his Corwood Industries. I can’t imagine an artist having a better or a more fruitful set-up than that. Do I regret that I don’t have 450 regular readers rather than 45? Of course not. Better to have five close friends than fifty acquaintances. I’m glad my poetry is not hip or chic or the flavor-of-the-month, because what people are fawning over now they will be yawning over in eight to ten years, yet I’ll still be plugging away, making connections with kindred spirits in far-flung places, getting small distribution deals here and there, and doing the work. My rock’n'roll heroes such as Fred Cole, Willie Loco Alexander, or Alex Chilton have done that with their music, and I humbly follow in their footsteps.
Don’t let anyone else define you or your work. Present it as YOU want it presented, get it out there, and move on to the next project. Keep on doing that and keep the flow going and keep the product coming. Eventually you’ll have a sizable body of work, a back catalogue as we’d say in the music business, and someday that back catalogue will support you…maybe not financially, but in many other ways…
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7 September 2008
Well, right now I’m reading the submissions to the KSE “Last Poems” project as they are coming in.
AND I’m working on a back cover for A. J. Kaufmann’s upcoming chapbook POZNAN CITY GOSPEL (KSE #111).
AND I’m about to start selecting/editing/sequencing the poems by MK Chavez and John Sweet for NEXT EXIT: NINE (KSE #112).
AND I continue on with the Tibetan Book of the Dead collaboration I’m doing with A. J . Kaufmann. We have the body sections of the chapbook done, but not in final form, and we’re working together now on a prologue/introductory section. When the entire chap is done and in perfect form, we’ll then work on a postscript/prologue together.
Those ought to keep me busy for a while!
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22 August 2008
Been keeping a low profile in terms of the blog and of poetry-promoting activities for the last two weeks. Most of my free time has been spent listening to stacks of psychedelic music I’ve acquired over the last few months and also reading and making notes on the TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD for the collab I’m doing with A. J. Kaufmann. I also wrote a brief blurb on the back of A. J.’s new book from Erbacce, INSANE IN ROME, a collection of his song lyrics that will not disappoint fans of his poetry.
Also, recently I’ve been working with Christopher Cunningham on getting his fantastic new chapbook IN GAMBLER’S BLOOD ready. More on that later, but expect it before the end of August. I can already tell you it’s one of KSE’s best for 2008.
Right now, let me get back into the 1966-67 recordings of the SF-based ORKUSTRA, featuring Bobby Beausoleil, David LaFlamme, Terry Wilson, and Emmett Grogran, more specifically the 25-minute St. John’s Cathedral Jam.
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7 August 2008 update
After some time spent in North Texas with my son Eric (where I finished my parts of the collab w/ Stuart Crutchfield called ELECTRONIC MYTH), I’m back home in San Antonio and I’ll be here until next Spring at least before I can afford to or I have the time to go anywhere else. But that’s fine. This is my home; this is where I do my work; this is the root of both my creative work and the output of KSE.
And speaking of output…DEBBIE KIRK’s great new BROKEN is now available, and I know that one will sell out fast. DOUG DRAIME’s amazing list-poem BONES is one of Doug’s best-ever pieces, and that’s saying a lot. Richard Wink’s ALL ALONG THE WENSUM is perhaps the sleeper of the recent lot—finely sketched “postcards from the front” of daily life, viewed with the insightful poet’s eye of a writer whose selection of detail and mastery of tone and stance toward his subject is worthy of the finest visual artists. And don’t forget my collaboration with legendary Beat poet Ronald Baatz, COMPANIONSHIP OF THE PLUM, 32 five-line stanzas of zen-beat-absurdist-Brautiganesque poetic joy. And many others. It’s been a prolific summer, as has each of our three summers so far at KSE. Check the “available KSE poetry chapbooks” page to see what’s available right now.
The output will slow down soon as I go back to work full-time, but during that period we’ll be having a new solo Sound Library volume from Christopher Cunningham in mid-August and Volume 9 of Next Exit from MK Chavez and John Sweet in mid-September. And I’m working hard with AJ Kaufmann on a collaborative suite of meditations upon THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD that should be out by the end of 2008.
So stay tuned to the blog for further details…
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mid-July 2008
Well, we are back from the hills and plains of central Texas. While up there, I managed to finish my parts of the collaboration with Ronald Baatz, THE COMPANIONSHIP OF THE PLUM, as well as editing the whole thing together, and now that it’s been approved by Mr. Baatz, it’s ready and available, KSE #105. Sitting in the 100-degree heat of San Saba, Texas each night on the back porch and writing poetic lines dealing with winter in upstate New York was certainly an experience!
I also proofed and formatted and worked with Doug Draime on editing his brand-new tour-de-force BONES, KSE #107, which is also now available. This is a list-poem with an incantatory power and should not be missed. It’s also Doug’s SIXTH chapbook for KSE!
Also, A.J. Kaufmann has a new one, an entry in the sound library series based on Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express, called EAST-WEST TRAIN, KSE #106, depicting a train trip beginning in Paris and ending at Chernobyl! This is another major work from Mr. Kaufmann. I commissioned him earlier to write a multi-poem suite about his home city of Poznan, Poland, and we should be putting that out in October. And in addition, A.J. and I are both admirers of THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, and this fall we will work on a collaboration which will essentially be psychedelic improvisations on TTBOTD. Maybe we can out-do Timothy Leary’s PSYCHEDELIC PRAYERS? We’ll see…
And August will being new solo works from both Debbie Kirk and Christopher Cunningham…AND Stuart Crutchfield and I are presently at work on volume 9 of the Creel Pone Sound Study Series, ELECTRONIC MYTH, which will probably also appear in August. So things have been busy, but…it’s better to burn out than it is to rust, right?
7/12 update:
Richard Wink’s collection of raw but tender verse from Norwich, England, ALL ALONG THE WENSUM (note: the Wensum is the major river in the area) is now ready. Just received my copy of Wink’s APPLE ROAD book, which I really look forward to spending some time with.
Debbie Kirk turned in her first poems for her new chapbook, which we have titled BROKEN, and it’s a high energy, expertly crafted collection. We still have work to do on this, so expect it in August.
I’ll be out of town much of next week, but Kendra (who is recovering from having her four wisdom teeth extracted yesterday!) will handle any orders that arrive during that time.
7/7 update:
Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal’s GARDEN OF ROCKS (KSE #103) is printed up and ready for you to order. It’s quite different from Luis’ earlier three chaps for KSE, but has all the qualities that are distinctly LCB.
My own FACE TO FACE (KSE #101) is also now available. A poetic biopsy of two characters—-a pizza cook with a bad knee and an Indian-American widow who works as a CPA in a real estate office—-stranded on the barren plains east of Denton, Texas, where life revolves around a depressing exit on the Interstate. I’ve worked on this for a few months, so it’s nice to find some closure, and dare I say that I think it’s well worth you time if you are looking for something challenging that will be satisfying in perhaps a new and unexpected way…unless you are a regular reader and you know what’s in store.
Also, working with UK poet Richard Wink on a new solo chap, and that could be out within a week or two. More details later…
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6/30 update: A. J. Kaufmann’s SIVA IN RAGS is not just ready, but I’ve already got some orders via paypal and presumably the US orders will be coming in soon.
Luis’s new GARDEN OF ROCKS is pretty much ready too. I’ll be announcing it next weekend.
Got a lot done on FACE TO FACE yesterday. It moves along. In the immortal words of Orson Welles, during his days as a Gallo spokesperson, “We will serve no wine before its time.”
Time-Warner Cable came out to service the sh*tty Road Runner “high-speed” internet today and wound up screwing up my wife’s computer.
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6/27 update: when I get a little free time, I’ve been working on Luis’s new one, GARDEN OF ROCKS. Hope to get it together over the weekend.
Working on FACE TO FACE when I get time. Had a breakthrough of a sort today. When I was a chef way back when, and I would be working on sauces and marinades, many times they would be fine and acceptable, but just not RIGHT until I found the one ingredient to use just a hint of, which would pull everything together and provide a focus for the whole plate. I’ve now found that element with FACE TO FACE.
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6/22 update: A. J. Kaufmann’s book IS ready for you to order. I’ll make an announcement about it within a week, at which time A. J. will also announce it via his myspace. I hope to have Luis’s new one ready within the next week, also.
Sent A.J. his copies today and also sent some out to critics/bloggers/fellow poets.
Nice to see our 100th chapbook achievement mentioned at Orange Alert…thanks also to Hosho McCreesh for the kind words at the GPP Forum and to those who have e-mailed congratulations.
Just received the newly restored Kino edition of one of my all-time favorite films, HARRY LANGDON’S THREE’S A CROWD (1927), directed by Langdon himself, after Frank Capra left Langdon’s employ. Regular readers will remember that I worked Langdon’s final silent feature, the lost film HEART TROUBLE (1928), into my book Point Loma Purple . THREE’S A CROWD is beyond what words can express and is convincing proof of the great visual poetry of the silent screen—-I do believe that the cinema LOST something when sound arrived. Few comedy film-makers or performers ever walked the line between comedy and tragedy as well as Langdon, taking this film deep into existential ennui. No wonder Samuel Beckett was a Langdon fan!
A new fish market opened in this neighborhood a month or two ago, and we’re trying to help keep this mom’n'pop business afloat, so I’m going down to pick up two pounds of jumbo scallops which will be broiled for the family this afternoon…
Adios for now (6/22/08)
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My job requires me to put in long hours in June and July, so honestly I’m not putting in much time either on my own writing or on KSE, BUT we do stumble onward when some free time appears.
The two new chapbooks—-from Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal and from A. J. Kaufmann—-are about 2/3 ready. The poems have been selected, the covers have been designed, but I still need to put the poems in the best possible running order and to do formatting. I’d expect these two will be available in early July.
John Sweet sent me last week over a dozen poems for his NEXT EXIT: NINE (where he’ll be paired with MK Chavez–that one will be out in September) and they were an urgent and violent lot that will stop readers in their tracks. Considering the haunting and mysterious qualities found in MK’s poetry (she’s still working on her poems for NE9), the Chavez-Sweet combination ought to be a stunning one. Don’t miss this one when it’s released as MK’s chapbook VISITATION sold out quickly.
I’m continuing work on my own FACE TO FACE (sound library series, volume 34), preparing each piece of the mosaic slowly and carefully. As usual for these five-or-six page suites in five or six sections, I plant all the seeds in the first section which I complete and fully edit first. I then complete the concluding section, leaving some space for some small insertions later. Only then do I take the notes I’ve made and the research I’ve done and begin constructing the assemblage that is the “middle”, the mosaic of details and perspectives and images. The middle section is where I’ve been working and where I’m surely going to be working for another few weeks, at least—right now I’m working with details of curry and knee surgery. How’s that for a tease! I hope you enjoy the ultimate product.
