Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Miscellany: Jackley, Gilbert, Gregg, Merwin & the Lilliput Archive


Cover by Harland Ristau


Mark Jackley, who has contributed some great work to Lilliput Review, has a new collection of poems out, entitled Cracks and Slats, from Amsterdam Press, part of the pertly named Gob Pile Chapbook Series. Here's a neat little poem from that collection, one of the endless variations in poetry on immortalizing a loved one:



Poet and Daughter
I am my words,
ink and pixels,

you my link
to eternity,

the bright and vast
intensity

of the
empty page.
Mark Jackley

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I can't remember where I ran across this enjoyable reading from the 90's by a Lilliput favorite, Jack Gilbert, along with Linda Gregg:





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Just now, while reading over some of W. S. Merwin's latest from The Shadow of Sirius, have learned that he has won the Pulitzer Prize, much deserved I think. The following is from that collection, from which I've featured two other poems previously:



Lake Shore in Half Light
There is a question I want to ask
and I can't remember it
I keep trying to
I know it is the same question
it has always been
in fact I seem to know
almost everything about it
leading me to the lake shore
at daybreak or twilight
and to whatever is standing
next to the question
as a body stands next to its shadow
but the question is not a shadow
if I knew who discovered
zero I might ask
what there was before
W. S. Merwin



If you bought one book of poetry this year, you probably couldn't do much better than this fine collection continuing a remarkable poetic journey.


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2009 is the 20th anniversary of Lilliput Review and the archive countdown to issue #1 will, if it continues on its current one-posting-per-week pace, finish up sometime in early 2010. This week's feature issue is #38 from October 1992, with a cover by the late great Harland Ristau. Themed as duos and trios, each page contained poems related in groups of two or threes. Here's a couple of poems that grab me today, 17 years later:




chimney smoke
mingling with mist and snow
evening
Jonas Winet




Postcard
A light wet snow
waters the back yard.
I watch from the sofa.
I miss your small hands.
Bart Solarczyk





learn to love/ then learn to
lose what you love/ learn to
lose love/ learn to love/ to
lose/ learn/ love
Coral Hull





she comes home
still pissed
lets in a fly
William Hart







swatting a fly
looking at
a mountain
Issa
translated by David Lanoue



best,
Don

5 comments:

Ed Baker said...

I'm gonna buy this book with my last SS check if I can remember where I put it...where DID I put it?

W.S.' poem 4orth line up from bottom,,, Should "in" be "is"

Merwin yet has "it" I am almost in same place that he is but he admits it!
and

is that Linda Gegg?

what happened to her long-blond hair?

when'd she start with the glasses and red lipstick?

glad you are keeping things on track... such as they are.

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Ed, yes, indeed, he does admit it and it is his grace, saving or otherwise ...

Didn't we all have long blonde hair once ...

Thanks VERY much for picking up the typo - indeed it should be "is" not "in" and so duly corrected -

I appreciate the correction -

Don

Greg said...

i'm gonna check out "cracks and slats"... thanks for the link.

love that chimney smoke poem!

Anonymous said...

Jack has a new book just out,,,, the name slips me memory,,,

feel certain that Ronnie S will "pick up" on it and link to't.

now two bookd to buy and

I guess it is time for me to revisit Linda Gregg's "stuff"

maybe post her TOO BRIGHT TO SEE / ALMA

which is bringing me back to Lindos and Kos 1969-70

Willard and Mavis Manis ... names I recall


Jack's new book:

The Dance Most of All



on the cover: full moon!

so in tone of what concerns we Older Poets I say:

full
moon

sing

dance

leave


Ed

Issa's Untidy Hut said...

Greg, hope you enjoy the Jackley ...

Ed, just got the Jack out of the library and will be reading it over the weekend so more on that front ...

speaking of more, great moon poem, email coming your way ...

Don