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.

PPS  Get 2 free issues. Get 2 more free issues

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Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 127 songs

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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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Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 127 songs

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Pittsburgh Magazine Review of Past All Traps

Above is a copy of the new review in Pittsburgh Magazine of Past All Traps. You can go directly to a browsable copy of the magazine at this link. Many thanks to Kris Collins for his salient review.

Since I've been keeping busy working on a forthcoming chapbook by Ed Baker, a number of local readings, a couple of reviews, getting ready for the new issues of Lilliput, and a backlog half way back to the beginning of time, I'll leave you today with a few songs by Allen Ginsberg, whose joyful gnomishness, which variously chided, challenged, caressed, and cajoled collective human consciousness, I seem to be missing particularly these days.


William Blake's "The Nurse's Song"



Father Death Blues


Hare Krishna Sung to William Buckley



The looks on Buckley's and Ginsberg's faces tell the entire story - there is a kind of ecstatic, astonished bliss on Big Bill's and a ecstatic, challenging bliss on Allen's - truly beauty personified.


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

#41

   In the folded
   Red lips of the rose
   Please do not place
   Any poem which lacks
   The fragrance of spirit

   Yosano Akiko
   translated by Dennis Maloney

dangling in
the yellow roses
the bull's balls

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

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Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature. Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 116 songs

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Gerald Stern Reading

 Jack Gilbert & Gerald Stern 

For this Friday, here is a full-length reading by Gerald Stern at Fishouse. It takes a bit to get started with a long intro and Stern taking some time to get to the mike (with many a nearly off-mike comment on the way), but it's worth the wait.




I also found part 1 of the Drexel Interview with Stern (which has been viewed by 3 people and I think I was 2 of them), with part 2 seemingly lost in the ether or just never posted, either at YouTube or on the Drexel page.  Though it is only the first half, it is a solid, satisfying first half (about 15 minutes), which I highly recommend.







I've just begun reading the new Kabir translations by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra.  Here is one of the poems from that collection which originally appeared in the New York Review of Books, who is also the publisher. I hope to report back on this collection sometime soon.

Except That It Robs You of Who You Are

   Except that it robs you of who you are,
   What can you say about speech?
   Inconceivable to live without
   And impossible to live with,
   Speech diminishes you.
   Speak with a wise man, there’ll be
   Much to learn; speak with a fool,
   All you get is prattle.
   Strike a half-empty pot, and it’ll make
   A loud sound; strike one that is full,
   Says Kabir, and hear the silence.

Kabir, translated from the Hindi                               
by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

"moon" and "blossoms"
empty babble
of a floating world

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

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


Finally, some early returns from around the web on Past All Traps which I thought might be of interest:

the outlaw poetry network
Poems as Gifts: The Improvised Life
Pittsburgh City Paper
Razored Zen

best,

Don

PS  Get 2 free issues    Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature.  Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 106 songs

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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

PS  Get 2 free issues    Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature.  Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 105 songs

Subscribe to Lilliput Review

Past All Traps: Pittsburgh City Paper and The Improvised Life

Photograph by Heather Mull

In anticipation of Saturday's Book Launch at ModernFormations Gallery for my poetry collection, Past All Traps, Justin Hopper has done a very generous profile (with 4 poems), which you can find here, in which he very much "got it."

In addition, two poems from the collection are featured on The Improvised Life: A Guide to the Daily Possible (poems as gifts: don wentworth’s ‘past all traps’).  Thanks very much to Sally Schneider, proprietor of The Improvised Life, and Maureen Rolla for passing the book along to her.

I'm looking forward to Saturday's reading, with Renée Alberts, Nikki Allen, Kris Collins, Jerome Crooks, and Angele Ellis, which should be a gas.  More info on the reading may be found on Facebook. Past All Traps may be purchased at the blog (top of the right hand sidebar via Paypal, otherwise known as the top right side of this very page, or from amazon). 

sitting straight   —   Crow knows.

                                from Past All Traps

the ants rush
to make a road...
Buddha's birthday flowers

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,

Don

PS  Get 2 free issues    Get 2 more free issues     Lillie poem archive

Send a single haiku for the Wednesday Haiku feature.  Here's how.

Go to the LitRock web site for a list of all 105 songs

Subscribe to Lilliput Review