a review without horses

some poems are up here: Horse Less Review #8
by these people:

Graeme Bezanson, Jessica Bozek, Christophe Casamassima, Juliet Cook, Tyler Flynn Dorholt, Kate Durbin, Richard Froude, Nathan Hauke, Michael Hennessey, Brian Howe, Russell Jaffe, Kirsten Jorgenson, Megan Kaminski, Mary Kasimor, Kirk Keen, Becca Klaver, Krystal Languell, Dolly Lemke, Rebecca Loudon, Erin McNellis, Monica Mody, Danielle Pafunda, Andrea Rexilius, Susan Scarlata, Chad Scheel, Mike Sikkema, Dan Louis Singer, Jordan Stempleman, Maureen Thorson, Megan Volpert, Joshua Ware, Samuel Day Wharton, and Joseph Wood.

also thanks to scott abels, for this: country music
you should really think about submitting.

Raft Magazine Issue 1

Raft, a new spoken-word literary journal, is now online, at:

www.raftmagazineonline.com

Issue 1 features new work from:

Scott Abels
Niamh Bagnell
Susan Powers Bourne
Ric Carfagna
Jan Carson
Joel Chace
Arkava Das
Mark DuCharme
Iris Jamahl Dunkle
Bonnie Emerick
Michael Farrell
Adam Fieled
Thomas Fink
Vernon Frazer
R. Jess Lavolette
David Mohan
Debrah Morkun
Paul Nelson
Francis Raven
Chad Scheel
Sam Schild
Brian Seabolt
Adam Strauss
Mark Stricker
Samuel Day Wharton
Karena Youtz

Cento from Versal 8

As long as the court listens,
you still lack a function. Do not fear -- function
softens the suture
we called home. If I lived there for a year, it was
your permission to move away
that bangs inside the mouth. The scarlet ink packet
that the sun drops, wrapped in smoke, towards the east.
To begin the allergic game,
each draws out the sword carefully stored
until the 1980s.
Humming a German folk tune & smiling
despite not understanding enough of the what
that later followed,
I came upon an arrow or a spear poking skyward,
running right to the margins.
A sleazy siren, decked in white,
let me stay in the morning. & I'll read you the backs of cereal boxes
once. He was a pair of fins, a rogue. & tidal
changes, tiny & secret as a warning,
made me look like a whore.
This will stand as your apology,
without opening the body.


Versal 8 is out now.

SAWBUCK 4.1!

is up & in business.

SAWBUCK!! 3.4!! WINTER!! 2009/2010!!

winter is here (though it may not feel like it in CA) & a new sawbuck is so ready!

read poems from:

\\ Allan Peterson //
// Becca Klaver \\
\\ Daniel Borzutsky //
// George Kalamaras \\
\\ Ian Ganassi //
// Kathleen Rooney \\
\\ Lisa Ciccarello //
// Martha Silano \\
\\ Robert Lietz //

// Sandy Longhorn \\

before they read poems from you!

new journal -- LEVELER

friends, i am very happy to point you to:


We (Jennifer H. Fortin, P.J. Gallo, Evan Glasson, Yotam Hadass) are happy to announce that LEVELER is officially up and running. Please check out the site at levelerpoetry.com. Every Sunday we will post a new poem, accompanied by a brief entry called levelheaded that aims to shed light on the poem and our editorial process. If you have comments on any of the present or future content, please join in on the conversation by writing us at levelwithus@levelerpoetry.com.

in the mail

yesterday, some goodies:
Jill Alexander Essbaum's Necropolis (thanks jill!).

Dan Beachy-Quick's This Nest Swift Passerine
Mark Yakich's The Making of Collateral Beauty

Sawbuck 3.2

is ready to go: www.sawbuckpoetry.blogspot.com

Corey Mesler
David Sewell
Erik Anderson
Gina Abelkop
Jennifer Fortin
Joseph Wood
Kate Schapira
Kristina Marie Darling
Nick Demske
Paul Hostovsky

hope you like!

~samuel

Cento from Brandi Homan 3/9/09 & 3/16/09 (in hospital & out)

Like when a friend of a friend was drunk
for me. A man who smells like

blossoms bleached
purrs with the dyskinesia of atoms. Telepathy
of bleeding fingers. Feet firmly on the ground.

I'm looking for love
with exotic postmarks,

coated with afterglow until I glisten
scarlet. Your pink wig
above us. Someday,

they'll cut off your hands
in a bright red dress.

We all should be so tended
we all turn to pumpkins at midnight.
Sometimes I wear stockings

red as rising heat,
although I promised otherwise.

My grudges, tiny bludgeons
coated in dust -- life beating us
for giving until nothing remains.

Cento from Brandi Homan

Not once have I thought I could be saved
alone -- one who comes out
in the red dress dancing on her own
behind the bucking chute

and says hush-hush-hush.
Like ointment, you're slippery
on my tongue, magic to molecules.
Get your truck & a gun

& loving you is like living.
Load & thrust to reduce
mercury, beautiful poison. I want
& already the world --

whose name is quicksilver --
sinkholes. I became acolyte.
Roots, they evangelize for distortion, squeeze
your honeysuckle girl.

In my mouth, a man
on a sad night. Drink & let my hand
only lead. Always
your two bodies revolve

for the world to wonder at.
Waving cigarette circles in the air
for the late crowd, nothing
& tendon. Everything.

Sawbuck 3.1 (greetings from the west coast)

so it's that special time of year again -- a new sawbuck is out! check it out:

{changming yuan} {donald dunbar} {francis raven} {hugh behm-steinberg} {jason fraley}
{jehanne dubrow} {kazim ali} {kimberly ann southwick} {sally van doren} {susan elbe}

a hearty congratulations!

to sawbuck contributor Phillip Byron Oakes -- whose book Cactus Land is now available! buy it here.

also, for those of you paying attention, you may have picked up on the fact that i have recently embarked on a cross-country move...that's over now (though i'm still awaiting delivery of the rest of my stuff). what this means is that i'll now get back to reading sawbuck submissions! oh, & if anybody has any job leads in the sacramento area, i'd love to hear about them!

how rad is this???

http://www.youtube.com/user/poetryanimations

hmm...

denis leary reads bill knott???
(who, btw, has made ALL of his poetry available for free, here)

rediscovering charles dickens. pip's sister has just passed.

also, check out jonathan messinger's rave about kr in timeout chicago!! congrats kr!

got some new pobooks:

courtesy of reb livingston:
(i had to ride home with it in the back of my pants...sorry reb! nowhere else to put it!)
& then from the Switchback book release reading last weekend:

looking forward to getting into all three of these, as soon as i'm caught up on sawbuck subs...

apparently i wrote this

Hoping might

Like deaf effects
Hopes and despairs, and
there is no nature beyond this sailor
Vanity on a power and
still disappointment, unaware in nature and protest
Like a glorious
night
We begin the quickening
and look to the
hundred
Great as a pose and high as a ship
Unappetizing as a man, appetizing as a fellow
Deaf as might and hearing as a development
Indistinct as light, distinct as fellow
Hurried as hand, unhurried as anxiety
Still as affair, moving as arm
Sorry as way, unregretting as deity
Poor as weakness, rich as gift

what did you write???

best of the net

decided on & sent 6 poems from sawbuck to sundress' 2008 best of the net

last year they never received sawbuck's submission

let's see if we're luckier this year

here are the submitted poems:

Dan Boehl & Jonathan Marshall "Conference(Regatta)"
Emily Anderson "Hints"
Chad Reynolds "Bottom _____"
Daniel Bosch "from Rubble"
David Highsmith "October Fires"
Bobbi Lurie "codependent nation"

Loot

schwag from the Printer's Ball last night:

ACM 47
Court Green 5
Columbia Poetry Review 20
Poetry May 08
The Journal 16
Lumpen 107

**

& congrats to my little sister for the swell reviews of her show!

a very good yeare

oi

did you hear?

nate pritts' chapbook cycle THE WONDERFUL YEARE has now been compleated!

check out part II: Endless Summer

hint: selections from part III

congrats nate!

catching up on pictures

the newest addition to my family: silas
kathleen rooney & abby beckel of rose metal press
melissa severin reading at the dva gallery reading on july 4th
kr hides from poetry: