Contemporary American Voices

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Many thanks to Lisa  Zaran, the editor of Contemporary  American Voices, for making me the featured poet for the June issue and publishing five of my poems. Even more exciting is the fact I got to pick the poets for this month’s issue, which include my fellow Ph.D. colleague at SUNY Binghamton, Jason Allen, and PA-based poet David J. Bauman, whose blog, The Dad Poet, you should check out now. To read all of our poems, click here.

I also want to note that I’ll be reading with David this Saturday at the Scranton ZineFest. The reading is at two, and the event will be held at the Tripps Park Community Center, 2000 Dorothy St. in Scranton. Here’s a list of the other readers, and I’ll post more about ZineFest mid-week.

In Honor of Dr. Angelou

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In honor of Dr. Maya Angelou and her recent passing, I wanted to post one of my favorite videos of her. This is an interview/conversation she had with Dave Chappelle from the show Iconoclasts. The conversation focuses on a number of issues, including language, race, the Black Arts Movement, hip-hop, and her family history. Enjoy.

The Space for Poetry

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Lately, I’ve been re-reading a lot of Adrienne Rich’s poetry and essays, in part because I’m working on a field exam about the intersection between personal narrative poetry and social and political issues. Beyond my research, I’ve always enjoyed Rich’s theories and poetry and teach her work when I can. There are two essays/notebook entries of Rich’s I’ve been thinking about lately, “The Space for Poetry” and “What Could We Create?,” both available in What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics.

In both pieces, Rich addresses poetry’s dilemma in the U.S., namely that is not leashed to profit and consumerism, so it is pushed to the margins, given little space in public discourse. In “What Would We Create?” she states that poetry has been placed under house arrest and is irrelevant to mass entertainment culture and wealth, thus out of sight and out of mind in a hyper-capitalistic society.

In another essay/journal entry from the same collection, “Those Two Shelves, Down There,” Rich explores this idea a bit more while addressing chain bookstores and the fact poetry occupies very little space in such stores. She concludes the essay with the statement, “I’m on a search for poetry at the mall. This is not sociology, but the pursuit of an intuition about mass marketing, the so-called free market, and how suppression can take many forms-from outright banning and burning of books, to questions of who owns the presses, to patterns of distribution and availability.”

I keep thinking about Rich’s essays and journals on poetry and politics and this idea of accessibility and poetry under house arrest. I keep thinking of these essays as yet another report has surfaced that Barnes & Noble plans even more stores closures by year’s end. With the loss of the indie bookstores, thanks to Borders and Barnes & Noble, and now the loss of the chain stores, thanks to Amazon, what does that mean for the state of poetry and its accessibility? Sure, Amazon and other online stores offer countless poetry books, but don’t most people visit those sites with specific purchases already in mind? I find it quite unlikely a consumer is going to discover a poet by browsing Amazon.

There are certainly numerous poetry events happening in communities and countless reading series, but young poets only get better from reading, reading, and re-reading different poets and different traditions. As much as I’ve griped about Barnes & Nobles’ poetry selection, the closure of more stores means greater inaccessibility to poetry. What does that mean for the future of poetry? Will we continue to see the journals and magazines filled with names of recent M.F.A. and Ph.D. grads because they’re the ones most reading poetry? I don’t know, but I’m optimistic that maybe, just maybe, the loss of the chain stores will lead to the rise of more indie bookstores in communities again, run by people that stock not only the heavyweights, but also indie authors and small presses. We’ll have to wait and see how this all shakes out, and meanwhile, I’ll continue to ponder Adrienne Rich’s warnings.

 

New Reviews

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I wanted to share two new reviews of my poetry collection, All That Remains. The first review was published in the Maine-based journal Off the Cost. Initially, the review was published in print only, but the editors recently uploaded content online. The reviewer, Richard Aston, says of the collection: “All That Remains works as a maturing of Fanelli’s previously published chapbook Front Man. Now he is in a position to branch out to the larger community beyond his personal experience, both in terms of personal story and time line; that which follows from the kind of study and scholarly research that will make him an excellent teacher and writer. The future may bring modifications in form, both of the line and the work itself. Whether the future form he uses is formalist or experimentimental, a doff to poetic traditions of rhyme and meter is in order.”

The other review was published by [PANK] today and written by Tricia Fidler, who had a lot of kind words to say about the book. She writes: “Like a Dylan or Springsteen record deserves more than one spin, Brian Fanelli’s All That Remains is a book that deserves more than one read. Rich in small town culture, this collection is filled with characters that have overcome the losses in life, but it doesn’t forget those who have not. It is down-to-earth and true to those often overlooked groups, the young idealists and the rural working class. Fanelli’s lyrical rhythms whisper and howl, croon and screech, reminding us there will be repercussions for every loss. At the same time, the collection leaves us with the extraordinary hope that it seems only music can bring. For whenever the music stops and all that remains are the ghostly echoes of silence, there will always be the remnants of a song.”

Many thanks to the writers for these reviews, and if you haven’t had a chance to pick up a copy of the book, please do. I’d appreciate the support. Let me know what you think of it!

Two More Poems for National Poetry Month

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In a previous blog post, I mentioned that I had a chance to pick the poems of the week for TheThePoetry blog. I meant to repost links to the poems on here each week, but due to my schedule of readings and work load, I didn’t have a chance yet to post the last two poems for the month.

Here is a link to Jeff Rath’s poem “On This Side,” and here is a link to Amanda J. Bradley’s poem, “Swallowed Whole.”

I hope that National Poetry Month was productive for the writers and led to the creation of new drafts or revisions of old poems. Keep reading and keep writing!

National Poetry Month at the Hoyt Library

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In his essay, “Can Poetry Matter,” Dana Gioia talks about ways to make poetry readings more accessible. He has a lot of suggestions, including adding music to a reading, combining the literary arts with the visual arts, among other ideas. I’ve tried a lot of these in the past, and they do indeed work as a way to broaden the audience for poetry. He also stresses the importance of sharing poetry other than your own and reading a poem or two by someone else as a way to keep tradition alive.

While thinking about ways to do something different for National Poetry Month, some of my friends and I were approached by The Hoyt Library in Kingston, PA about doing an event for them. So, we decided that we’re going to do a panel/reading. As part of the panel, we’ll read/discuss two or so poems by some of our favorite poets and then share a few of our poems inspired by those poets. This is a way for us to give away and share poets that we love.

So, if you’re in the area and want to celebrate National Poetry Month, then come to the Hoyt! The event will be this Thursday, beginning at 6 p.m. and held in the reading room. The other poets involved are Dawn Leas and Scott Thomas. We’re looking forward to the event and would appreciate a strong turnout to ensure the Hoyt continues having events like this in the future.

The One Comic Book Movie Franchise I Care About

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As a break from blogging about poetry, I wanted to write about something different, and share my enthuasiasm for the upcoming X-men: Days of Future Past movie, directed by Bryan Singer, who directed the first two X-men films. There are a number of reasons to be excited about this film if you have any interest in the X-men or comic book movies in general. For one, Bryan Singer directed it. As a long-time fan of the X-men comic franchise, I’ve always felt that Singer got it right with the first two X-men movies, especially the feel of the comics and the theme of the X-men being outsiders. The comic started in the early 1960s, during the civil rights movement, and the mutant/outsider trope worked well as a metaphor for civil rights and later on gay rights. Singer did a great job capturing that aspect in the first two films and showing the divide between mutants and some of the more small-minded humans.

Furthermore, perhaps no story better sums up the mutant as outsiders trope better than the two-part story line of Days of Future Past, issues 141 and 142 of Uncanny X-men, which you can read for free here. The war between humans and the mutant outcasts escalates to the point that humans create a line of robots, the sentinels, to hunt down and kill all mutants, which, in the dystopian future, they succeed at doing. There was something so horrifying and menacing about the sentinels in the comic, especially since they eventually turn on humans and not even the X-men can stop them. As a little kid, I had nightmares about these robots stalking my neighborhood. This arc too represents the line between militancy and peaceful activism, mutants that do not want to co-exist with humans and mutants that believe peace is possible, essentially.

X-Men_v1_141

Finally, some clips in the trailer have me excited as an X-men fanboy, including Iceman’s ice slide, Magneto ripping apart a sports stadium, Colossus going toe-to-toe with the sentinels, and seeing the origional cast from the first two films reunited. It’s evident some of the material from the comics is changed. For instance, Wolverine is the one going back in time in the film instead of Kitty Pyrde to try to prevent the dystopian future, but it should be a good summer blockbuster anyways. Other than The Walking Dead, the X-men franchise has been the only comic book/comic movie series I’ve cared about. It’s always been about more than action, and Days of Future Past is comic book writing as its best, a combinition of action, strong story, and a great political and social undertone. This movie should show too how the X-men comics have always interwoven U.S. history with the comic story.

From the Ragged Edge

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About a month ago, I read at the Ragged Edge Cafe in Gettysburg, and if you live anywhere near central of southeastern, PA, I suggest checking out their poetry series, which runs every First Friday of the month. The event is half open mic and half feature, and the open mic only includes poetry, so writers don’t have to worry about competiting with musicians. The event organizers work hard at promoting the event, and when I read, my audience consisted of a few dozen people. Not bad for a cold night in early March! Futhermore, the open mic was a great mix of local college students and poets that have done several readings throughout Pennsylvania. The writing community there is encouraging and supportive, and I hope their events continue to grow well into the future.

Ian Falcone, a son of one of the regular poets/open micers, recorded a video of me reading. I’ve done a lot of readings, but few videos have surfaced, so, I thought I’d share.

Poems of the Week

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During the month of April, I’ve been asked to select poems of the week for TheThePoetry blog, and doing so has been an honor and treat so far. As a way to celebrate National Poetry Month, I’ll post my selections here. All of the selections I’ve made so far are by poets whose work I deeply admire and poets who have been supportive of me in my career as a poet.

The first selection, which ran last week, is the poem “Bliss” by Christine Gelineau, which you can read here. The most recent poem of the week is “Watching the Pelican Die” by Maria Mazziotti Gillan, which you can read here. I am lucky and fortunate enough to know both poets. Christine was one of my mentors during my time spent completing my M.F.A. at Wilkes University, and Maria is currently one of my professors in my Ph.D. program at SUNY Binghamton. Both poets are strong supporters of their students and wonderful writers. I hope you enjoy ther work.

The website also just published an interview with Maria, some of which I want to quote here as a way to think about poetry, especially the narrative form that she and I use most often.

In regards to the narrative form, she says, “My vision of poetry is that it should be based on some essential truth about what it means to be human and I think narrative poetry gets at those truths more directly and effectively than many other types of poetry. I want to give people permission to tell their own stories and to look at the world unflinchingly through the their own eyes rather than worrying about what critics or literary theorists say about writing. Like Faulkner, I believe literature is about the truths of the human heart and not about intellectual analysis.”

Later in the interview, she says of the writing process, “I think it is unfortunate that so much of our education trains us to subdue all that is wild and primitive and honest inside ourselves and in our writing. I think that we have to be willing to let go, to ignore our intellect and allow instinct to take over. In revision, we can use our intellects, but in writing the poem we need to believe that this instinctive voice knows what we need to write and as soon as we look that very middle-class,suburban inside voice, we lose the energy and vitality in our work. Even in revision, we have to be careful, to prune the work with delicate hands.”

 

Enjoy the poems and enjoy the interview!