With a Deepening Presence Book Launch Party, Saturday, July 16th, & The Trouble with Poets, a Film by Tom Weber, Friday, July 15th

This Saturday, July 16th, at the Irma Freeman Center for Imagination, from 7:30 to 9:30, is the launch of With a Deepening Presence. Books will be available for purchase and signing. Presence will be sold at the special reading price of $8.

Reading will be Kristofer Collins, Christine Starkey, Che Elias, Scott Pyle, Rosaly Roffman, Bart Solarczyk, Bob Ziller and myself. Food and drinks (water, beer) will be provided. 

If you can't make it (or even if can), I'll be reading the night before at the screening of Tom Weber's film, The Trouble with Poets, at Pittsburgh Filmakers (477 Melwood Avenue, Pittsburgh), from 6:30 to 9:30 pm.

The Filmmakers reading will be a general overview of my work. The launch reading will focus on the new book and a raft of all new poems never performed before. So, two nights, two very different readings.

Hope to see you at one or the other, or both.

yanking a radish
taking a tumble ...
little boy

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

Roberta Beary: Pittsburgh Reading, April 24th

http://lilliputreview.tumblr.com/post/116477064195/for-those-in-the-pittsburgh-area-one-week-from

Yield to The Willow Book Release Party: Friday Sept. 26th at ModernFormations Gallery

On Friday, September 26th, at 7:30 pm, we'll be having a party for the official release of Yield to the Willow, my second book for Six Gallery Press at ModernFormations Gallery. Reading for the event will be Jason Baldinger, Kris Collins, Angele Ellis, Kevin Finn, Gwen, Karen Lillis, Bob Ziller, and Scott Silsbe. 

It's $5 at the door OR a covered dish (cookies and snacks welcome).

For those at long distances who can't make it Yield is available directly through me at the Paypal button at the top of the right hand sidebar (over there ⇢) or by check directly to me or via Caliban Bookshop in Pittsburgh (info@calibanbooks.com), or from amazon here, if you will.


                 sparrow's little singing lesson: be, leave

                                                        ~ DW

hey sparrows
no pissing on my old
winter quilt!

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS  Click to learn how to contribute to Wednesday Haiku. 

Poet's Hall - Erie, PA: One Night Only!

Reading up in Erie this Friday, July 11th, at Poets' Hall, for those in the area. I'll be bringing my brand new book, Yield to the Willow (Six Gallery Press, 2014), and will be the featured poet of the evening.

hidden in everything plain sight 

And now back to your regularly scheduled internet. 

 

here and there
a plain and to-the-point
willow

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS  Click to learn how to contribute to Wednesday Haiku.
 

Kabir: The Inner Lover (Sunday Serenade)

18

I talk to my inner lover, and I say, why such rush?
We sense that there is some sort of spirit that loves
   birds and animals and the ants--
perhaps the same one who gave a radiance to you in
   your mother’s womb.
Is it logical you would be walking around entirely
   orphaned now?
The truth is you turned away yourself,
and decided to go into the dark alone.
Now you are tangled up in others, and have forgotten
   what you once knew,
and that’s why everything you do has some weird
   failure in it. 

    Kabir
    Version by Robert Bly

I've spent the last couple of months reading mystic poets - Hafiz, Kabir, Mirabai, and Rumi, among others - and have been overtaken by the form known as the ghazal, specifically a variant of Robert Bly's conjuring, 6 stanzas of 3 lines each.

Yes, I know that a lot that is being translated or written in English isn't the ghazal of Middle Eastern origin, but a modern English variant whose roots, one hopes, are sunk deep in the tradition of another culture.

Many would disagree.

But, there you are. This is some of what I've been up to. In fact, there will most probably be a collection forthcoming, after Yield to the Willow finally sees the light of day later this month. Never knew I had it in me.

It would seem, however, that Kabir knew.

Photo by Ted Kropiewnicki

just coming out
the earthworm dragged off
by ants

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don

PS  Click to learn how to contribute to Wednesday Haiku.

Spring Equinox Reading: 3/28/13 @ ModernFormations

For those of you within hailing distance, come on out tomorrow (Thursday) night to ModernFormations Gallery when The Friends of Lilliput Review will present a Spring Equinox Reading. 

Featured readers are Robert Isenberg, Renée Alberts, Kris Collins, Angele Ellis, and yours truly.  Admission is $5 or FREE w/ a covered dish (BYOB)

Aside from the dazzling lyrical entertainment, there will be, as a friend noted, FREE SWAP, in this case the just released new issues of Lilliput Review:

  

So, if you can, come on out and help an awesome bunch of rag-tag poets usher in one hell of a reluctant spring. 

Photo by Patrick Doheny

the little crow
slips so cleverly...
spring rain

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don   

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Robert Bly: Old Man Rubbing His Eyes - Small Press Friday

Artwork by Allbert Richter

I feel as if, over the years, over the decades, my mind and spirit have grown with the words of Robert Bly. Sometimes, I didn't understand them, sometimes they infuriated me, sometimes there was transference.

What an odd, beautiful way reading is to find a friend.

Dating all the way back to 1974 (Unicorn Press), though my copy is a 1987 reprint (Ally Press), the words of Old Man Rubbing His Eyes speak to me as powerfully as any other Bly collection, perhaps most powerfully of all.

There is an obliqueness, a slight off-centered quality to Bly's magic, an almost constant worrying over details, juxtaposed, not always related, striving for something beyond reach, something not even, or perhaps ever, known.

Which explains his late in life attraction to the ghazel form.

But this work has something of an Old World flavor, distinctly Western, yet mysterious as Eastern European poetry, and as forcefully real. Let's listen, let's see:


Writing Again

Oval
faces crowding to the window!
I turn away,
disturbed—

When I write of moral things,
the clouds boil
blackly!
By day's end
a room of restless people,
lifting and putting down small things.

Well that is how I have spent this day.
And what good will it do me in the grave?


What good, indeed, in the grave; but it does do some good now, no?


A Cricket In The Wainscoting

The song of his is like a boat with black sails
Or a widow under a redwood tree, warning
passersby that the tree is about to fall.
Or a bell made of black tin in a Mexican village.
Or the hair in the ear of a hundred-year-old man.


We've all heard that cricket in the wainscoting with its many songs and their singular message; cricket in the wainscoting, cricket in the wainscoting. 

Old Man Rubbing His Eyes is one of those poetry books that it is as impossible to describe as it is to excerpt. What is the point really? It is a book, and that book has a message. If forced to put it into words I might say -

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. 

Pick it up and read it. Get it at the library (it's in 364, there must be one nearby you), buy it in an independent shop. It has something of the tincture of winter, the flavor of rich soil, the taste of ever-present death.

It is poetry.

Listen: there's an old man in the wainscoting.


-------------- 

 Photo by Matias Romero

in the stove,
a cricket singing,
singing

Issa
rendered by dw

best,
Don

   

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Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library Reading: Veteran's Reclaim Armistice Day

Have some great news: this Saturday, November 10th, I'll be participating in a poetry reading at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library celebrating the release of the 1st number of the to-be annual journal, So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial, in which I'll have four brief poems under the collective title "Sutra Blues." The event will be at the library at 4 pm as a prelimary to the book release party for the new Kurt Vonnegut Letters, with editor Dan Wakefield.

This year's issue of the journal is an Armistice Day Anthology, which is being released to coincide with a special program entitled Veteran's Reclaim Armistice Day: Healing Through the Humanities.
Here's a summary the program for the Armistice/Veteran's Day event on November 11th at the Indiana War Memorial in Indianapolis:

To spotlight the importance of the arts and humanities to help veterans both heal from and understand better their experience of war, members of the board of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library decided to hold a public event. The program will explore how the arts and humanities can help veterans cope with the trauma of war. All sessions are free and open to the public.

Veterans, notable writers, performers, philanthropists, family members, and those who are simply grateful to take part in a day of artistic expression will gather for one day of healing for hundreds of veterans and their families this November. In addition, your support will be a fitting tribute to the legacy of Kurt Vonnegut and his love for humanity. The 90th anniversary of his birth is the same day as the symposium. Kurt’s son Mark said his father, a veteran who experienced trauma from war and used art to understand his experience, would be proud to have his name attached to this event.

It will truly be an honor to share sometime with everyone coming together in this event to promote healing and peace. More info on the library and some of the great things they are doing there can be found at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library site.

Stop counting syllables,
start counting the dead.

                                                         DW

 

 Library display of KV material from WWII

 -------------------------

in the footprints
of the warrior...
poppies

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don 

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An Interview & Hemingway's Reading: 7-31-12

Asuka Buddha: Photo by PHG

   

(alternate link for reading, if above is not working)

(a second alternative for those having trouble)

I've been meaning to find the time to post this recent reading I participated in for this year's grand finale of the Hemingway's Summer Reading Series here in Pittsburgh. The 8-minute reading above includes 95% new material, so there is that. I had a bit of the willies since it was mostly untried material, but the audience was gracious (or napping) so all went well. Posting it here gives me a similar feeling (willies, not napping) but, well, there you go.  (alternate link for reading, if above is not working)
                                                                                                                                       
Hope something grabs you here.

                                                                                                           

What finally prompted this posting is an interview I did for Josh Medsker over at twenty-four hours that just went up yesterday. Some different questions, so check it out. And check out what else he is doing on the blog. He seems to get to poetry through the zine and small press scene; like life, the blog seems to be about so much more than poetry.

As it should be.

on the tip
of Buddha's nose...
a fart bug

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don 

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Don Wentworth: an Interview, by Christien Gholson

If you'd like to know what it was (& continues to be) like to edit a small press poetry magazine (Lilliput Review) for 22 years and then publish your first book at age, well, old ... this is the place:

Christien Gholson's noise & silence

Christien, a long time favorite poet and, now, novelist, managed to ask all the right questions that elicited responses which informed me about my own work.  Usually it is the interviewer that is grateful; in this case it is the interviewee. 

To complement the interview, here's a review of William Hart's Home to Ballygunge: Kolkota Tanka I did recently for simply haiku.

all of a sudden
he shuts up...
crow

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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2011 Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards: The Shortlist

Photo by H. Zell

The shortlist for the 2011 Touchstone Distinguished Book Awards, presented by the Haiku Foundation, has been announced and here it is (with the original post):

---------------------------------------------------

Beyond the Reach of My Chopsticks: New and Selected Haiku; written by Fay Aoyagi, published by Blue Willow Press

Haiku Roadsign: Axle Contemporary; edited and designed by Matthew Chase-Daniel and Jerry Wellman, published by Axle Contemporary

Penguins/ Pingviner; written by Johannes Bjerg, published by Cyberwit

A Narrow Road/ Uska Staza; written by Ljubomir Dragovic, published by Liber Press

The River Knows the Way; edited by Cynthia Cechota, et al, published by Haiku Dubuque

Dreams Wander On: Contemporary Poems of Death Awareness; edited by Robert Epstein, published by Modern English Tanka Press

A New Resonance 7; edited by Dee Evetts and Jim Kacian, published by Red Moon Press

My Favorite Thing, written by Michael Ketchek, Bob Lucky and Lucas Stensland , edited by Stanford M. Forrester, published by Bottle Rockets Press

Few Days North Days Few; written by Paul M., published by Red Moon Press

St. John’s Wort; written by John Martone, published by Samuddo / Ocean

The Neighbours Are Talking: Haibun; written by Mike Montreuil, published by Bondi Studios/Baby Buddha Press

An Unmown Sky/ Nepokoseno Nebo; edited by Boris Nazansky, et al., published by Haiku Association Three Rivers

Things Being What They Are, written by John S. O’Connor, published by Deep North Press

The Future of Haiku: An Interview with Kaneko Tohta; trans. from the Japanese by the Kon Nichi Translation Group, published by Red Moon Press

Past All Traps; written by Don Wentworth, published by Six Gallery Press

---------------------------------------------------

I couldn't find relevant links for three of the books.  If anyone knows of any, please send them along this way and I'll update the list.

Best of luck to all ...

stone still
he lets the snow fall
colt in the pasture

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

 Photo by Thduke

best,

Don

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Some News

I received news this week that Past All Traps has been shortlisted by the Haiku Foundation for the "2011 Touchstone Distinguished Books Award."  Info on the awards may be found here, with links to past winners in all categories.

In addition, Past has made some end of the year reading lists, including one from Joe Hutchison and one from Kris Collins.  I am very grateful, indeed, for all the recognition.

Taking the heart
from Buddha's hand, arranging
it in this vase.

    

a little tiresome
these blooming flowers...
the Buddha sleeps

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

PS A signed copy of Past All Traps may be purchased via Paypal along the right side bar or direct from me for $8 postpaid, or an unsigned copy may be had from amazon.com for $10, plus $3.99 shipping.

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Another Sunday Interlude: A Trane Trio

Photo by Don Hunstein

   

Heading into the new year, "Spritual" is as fine a composition, at once detailed and melodic, complex and basic, as one can imagine, rendered live by one of the best improvisatory ensembles as there ever was.  This was the first album with the classic John Coltrane Quartet: Elvin Jones, Paul Chambers, and McCoy Tyner.  For this selection the incomparable Eric Dolphy on bass clarinet makes this piece levitate.

And below is "an outake" from the original album, with Coltrane and Dolphy ascending to amazing heights of musical transcendence:

   

The mind is, of course, the most complex instrument of all, certainly proven by these stellar tunes. For those who prefer their transcendence a tad more melodic, here are two of my favorite recordings from Coltrane's Atlantic years, "Equinox" and "Central Park West":

Finally, to get the new year started with a little look back, a recent poem of mine featured on tinywords:

Slime trail—
glancing back at
the glinting

little snail
facing this way
where to now?

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Small Press Review Nov/Dec Pick: Past All Traps

Click to enlarge

I'm happy to report that the Small Press Review has selected Past All Traps as one of its "November/December Picks."  It is the 4th item listed in the left hand column.

Mistake after mistake
after mistake, adding up
to just the right thing.

                                                                                  dw

-------------------------------

foolish frog
don't talk nonsense!
evening cool

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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A Reading

Photo by Karen Lillis

Hemingway's Reading 

Since I began reading again, after a 20 plus year layoff, a number of folks not local to Pittsburgh - old friends, poetry folks, casual acquaintances - have expressed an interest in hearing me read my work live. The only previous  recordings are an anonymous round robin reading on the radio last fall on WRCT, via Speed & Briscoe Press, and a reading from Hemingway's way back in 1987, before I found my medium and voice, if you will.

Until now.

The above Hemingway's reading link is an mp3 of a brief reading - about 7 minutes total - I did at Hemingway's Bar here in Pittsburgh back on July 26th. So, for those uninterested, please pardon the indulgence. For all others, hope you enjoy.

Thanks again to Joan and Jimmy for the invite, and Joan's friend Don for the fine recording.

even while pooping
reading his almanac...
plum blossoms

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Six Gallery Reading Tonight at Pittsburgh Summer Zine Fest

For folks in and around Pittsburgh, I'll be reading at 7 pm for Six Gallery Press at the Pittsburgh Summer Zine Fair at AIR on the North Side (518 Foreland Avenue).   Stop on over - it should be a blast.

Not one pigeon on the wrong side of the roof. 

And one from the master:

the pigeon coos
"Old man, how much longer
a migrating servant?"

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Low Ghost / Six Gallery Joint Reading, Modern Formations, 7-8-11

Photos by small press poet, novelist, essayist, photographer, librarian and impresario Karen Lillis, from the combined Low Ghost / Six Gallery reading on Friday July 3rd. For the curious and those unable to attend ...

Don Wentworth

Kris Collins - Low Ghost Press

Lucy Goubert

Jason Baldringer

Margaret Bashaar

Bob Pajich

Mark Spitzer

Thanks to all, especially featured reader Mark Spitzer (with guest appearance by Bigfoot), Low Ghost Press, Nathan of Six Gallery Press, Jen of ModernFormations (celebrating their 10th anniversary with a fab retrospective), and a enthusiastic attentive crowd.

Morning glory opens
to anything,
even you

                                                                     ~ dw








old pond--
please, you go first
frog jumping

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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An Evening with Mark Spitzer featuring Six Gallery Press & Low Ghost Poets

An Evening with Mark Spitzer featuring 

Six Gallery Press & Low Ghost Poets

Time: Friday, July 8 · 8:00pm - 11:00pm

---

Location:

ModernFormations

4919 Penn Ave.

Pittsburgh, PA

---

A Six Gallery Press & Low Ghost Press Presentation!

When: Friday, July 8th
Time: 8pm
Where: ModernFormations Gallery 4919 Penn Ave.
...Cover: $5

Join us for an exclusive local engagement with novelist, poet, and translator Mark Spitzer. Mark Spitzer, novelist, poet, essayist and literary translator, grew up in Minneapolis where he earned his Bachelor's degree at the University of Minnesota in 1990. He then moved to the Rockies, where he earned his Master's in Creative Writing from the University of Colorado. After living on the road for some time, he found himself in Paris, as Writer in Residence for three years at the bohemian bookstore Shakespeare and Company, where he translated French criminals and misanthropes. In 1997 he moved to Louisiana, became Assistant Editor of Andrei Codrescu's legendary lit journal Exquisite Corpse, and earned an MFA from Louisiana State University. After teaching Creative Writing and Lit for five years at Truman State University, he’s now a professor of Writing at the University of Central Arkansas, where he is the Editor of Toad Suck Review (toadsuckreview.org). Mark's novel "Chode" and collection of essays "Riding the Unit: Selected Nonfiction, 1994-2004" were published by Six Gallery Press. More info at http://www.sptzr.net/

Also featuring readings from local luminaries:

Don Wentworth - publisher of Lilliput Review; author of the poetry collection Past All Traps.

Jason Baldinger - co-author of the poetry collection The Whiskey Rebellion.

Margaret Bashaar - author of the poetry collection Barefoot and Listening, published by Tilt Press in 2009. Her second chapbook, Letters from Room 27 of the Grand Midway Hotel, is forthcoming from Blood Pudding Press. She does performance art and acting with the cabaret troupe The TypewriterGirls.

Bob Pajich - has a chapbook of poems called Everyone, Exquisite published and is currently the managing editor and lead news writer for the world's largest magazine dedicated to the game of poker: Card Player. A new collection of poems is forthcoming from Low Ghost Press.

Chris Ammons - Burgh Bon Vivant.

Kristofer Collins - editor and publisher of Low Ghost Press. His most recent collection of poems, Last Call was published by Speed & Briscoe.

The sweet magnolia

bows to all creation —

& you were saying?

to the old woman
doing laundry, the evening
willow bows

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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A Pause and a Poem

The run up to last night's Book Launch and Reading for the publication of Past All Traps has sucked all the time and energy out of the room, so I'm going to take a week off from the "Sunday Service," which will  resume a week from today.

In the meantime, in the spirit of a new book and good times, a poem from Past All Traps:

plenty of room
left in the thimble
full of knowing

thrashing fish
knowing they're in a bucket
and not knowing

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

Past All Traps is now available through the Paypal button at the top right of this page ($8, postpaid) or via amazon for $10, plus $3.99 postage. 

And, now, I'm officially done with the shilling.

best,

Don

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