What are you working on now??? (updated 6/30)

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 (6/22/0

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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.