My Newfound Love of Larry Levis

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A few years ago at the AWP Conference in Chicago, I picked up The Selected Levis, a collection of poems from all 6 of Larry Levis’ books. I waited until the last day to purchase the book from the University of Pittsburgh Press’ table, when all of the books were $5 or less. For a few years, I had heard about Larry Levis, and listened to my friends gush over his work. At the time, I rushed through the book, finishing the 200-plus pages in a few days, but his work didn’t click with me. I simply wasn’t into his expansive, meditative poetry. I really wanted to like the book, especially since Levis studied under one of my favorite poets, Philip Levine.

This summer, however, I returned to the same book.   When I visited Levis’ work the first time, I rushed through it, taking little away. This time was different. On almost every page, I found nuggets of outstanding images and deep contemplations. Levis did an excellent job at what Pound called “poetic leaps of imagination,” striking rich, interesting metaphors and similes. For instance, in the poem “Fish,” dedicated to Levine, Levis compares being stopped by a cop to being held up like a fish. He writes, “He feels the huge bones/surrounding my eyes/and he runs a thumb under them/lifting my eyelids/as if they were/envelops filled with the night.”

Levis’ work also impresses me because it is an extension of working-class poetry, similar to Levine’s work. While Levine wrote about the Detroit factory worker, Levis focused on Latino grape pickers in California.”Picking Grapes in an Abandoned Vineyard” is an especially beautiful poem.

If you want to check out any of Levis’ full-length collections, I recommend Wrecking Crew, which has some gritty poems about California, or The DollMaker’s Ghost, or Winter Stars, which features longer, meditative poems about Levis’ relationship with his father.

If you want a nice overview of his work, check out The Selected Levis.

You can also find a few of his poems here.

The Enthusiasm Gap

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After working for the Obama campaign a few months over the spring, before and after the April primary, I took a little break from politics to undertake other things going on in my life. However, once I finished teaching for the spring semester, I was eager to get involved with the campaign again, so last night, Jenna and I took part in a voter registration drive around Wilkes-Barre’s Public Square. I’ve worked on different presidential campaigns since 2004, and I’ve always liked the voter registration drives the best, certainly a lot more than making phone calls and knocking on doors. Voter registration draws less combative people.

As we circled the square several times yesterday with clipboards in hand, I noticed a major attitude shift compared to the 2008 campaign. Several people we encountered simply did not want to register to vote for either party or either candidate. A few people just threw their hands in the air and walked away. I assume that some of them are fed up with the gridlock between the White House and GOP-controlled House that they don’t want any part of the system. Maybe others feel like their voice doesn’t count. In 2008, though, we always had people eager to sign up to vote.

It’s quite probable that a lot of people are disappointed in the president, though none of them said so to our faces. In 2008 a lot folks, especially young people, were eager to register and vote for him. But three years later, the economy is still shaky and the president’s agenda is stalled, due to the gridlock. Maybe the enthusasm gap is partially the president’s fault for running on the lofty taglines of hope and change in 2008, but it is also naive to think that any single politician can fix anything in one term, considering how close this country came in 2008 to a total financial meltdown, before the president took the oath of office. When I watched people walk away or listened to them say they aren’t at all interested in politics, I had to keep my thoughts to myself. I wanted to shake some of these people and ask them, how can you not pay attention to anything? I’ve always had friends deeply interested in current events, and I come from a family where everyone votes in elections. Our politicians and community organizers need to do a far better job making people believe that they still do have a say, even in the age of Citizens United where corporations can donate unlimited money to candidates. I’m also a firm believer that if you are fed up, get up and do something. Run for office or get involved in your community in other ways.

Regardless of which party people vote for, I hope they get out and vote. The difference between both parties and their vision for this country hasn’t been so stark in a few decades, and this is probably going to be a razor-thin election, so yes, every vote does count, especially in swing states, which includes PA.

10 Books Every American Should Read?

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The Huffington Post has  a short, interesting article/list dubbed “10 Books Every American Should Read,” which includes The Federalist Papers, Common Sense, The Grapes of Wrath, Invisible Man, and other works. Of the list, there are only two books I haven’t read- Gone with the Wind and Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee. You can see the full list here. I agree with much of it, but I wondered why The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, and a few other novels didn’t make the cut. I suppose it’s hard to pick just 10, and maybe the list should have been expanded to 20, or even 50. No matter what kind of list is composed, it’s likely people would disagree with it.

If you made a list of the top 10 books every American should read, what would be on it? Does poetry have a place on the list? What about Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, or Frost’s early books that address New England farm life? I can also see a place for Ginsberg’s “Howl,” Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” and much of Langston Hughes’ work that did such a fine job capturing racial tension in America and also the speech and language of inner-city life. Maybe poetry should have its own list.

Scranton ZineFest

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If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, you should stop at New Visions Studio and Gallery in Scranton Saturday for the second Scranton ZineFest. From noon-6, there will be tables filled with zines, journals, books, arts and crafts. This year, the vendors are coming from all along the East Coast, and there is even one coming from Canada. Following the tabling, there will be a poetry reading at 7 p.m. featuring Jason Lucarelli, Steve Keating, Rachael Goetzke, Alexis Czencz Belluzzi, Rich Howells, William James, and I. This poetry reading is unique because most of the work we share will be music-oriented.

For more info about ZineFest, click here. For more info about the readers, click here.

You can also check out the Weekender’s cover story on ZineFest here, and the article from Go Lackawanna here.

I have a feeling that this year’s festival will top last year’s, when we had to deal with gloomy weather and on and off rain that limited the number of participants that came, since we had the festival outside, on Center Street. We’re grateful that New Visions has opened its doors to us and has allowed us to host the festival indoors this year.

Why Wisconsin Matters

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Today could be the most important day in politics until the Nov. 6 presidential election. Today, voters in Wisconsin will decide whether or not to allow Republican Gov. Scott Walker to keep his job, or allow Democrat Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee, to replace him. This recall election is a repeat of the 2010 mid-term election when Walker beat Barrett by about 5 percentage points, and Republicans swept several state houses across the country, including in WI. However, this election should have a far, far higher voter turnout on both sides than the 2010 election, as officials predict voter turnout to be around 60-65 percent, similar to a presidential election.

There are a few reasons why the Wisconsin election matters so much. It will determine the future of unions and how much power they still have. It is also a test of how well Democrats will do in the post-Citizens United world, as corporations and billionaires can now dump unlimited funds into a campaign. The election  also matters  because it will probably determine whether or not WI goes for Romney or Obama in 2012. The state has not elected a Republican president since 1984, and the GOP now believes the state is in play, and for good reason.

The political civil war that has exploded in WI began 16 months ago, shortly after Gov. Walker was sworn in. He did inherit a state with a budget crisis, and his solution to that crisis was to strip public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights. As soon as the bill was introduced, the streets of Madison and the capital building swelled with protesters. Eventually, the bill passed, and since then, membership to public sector unions in WI has plummeted. Last summer, there was a recall to replace some of the state senators that voted for the bill. Of the 6 GOP state senators that faced recall, two were replaced by Democrats, and now the state senate has an even split. More Republican state senators will be on the ballot today for recall, and it’s very possible the Dems will win control of the state senate. After the summer recall, activists succeeded in forcing a recall election of Gov. Scott Walker. They turned in petitions with over 1 million signatures.

Unions realize that today’s election matters a hell of a lot. They have spent a lot of time and energy protesting and forcing the recall. They have also poured money in to help Tom Barrett defeat Walker. If Walker does indeed win today’s election (current polls show him ahead by just a few percentage points), then Walker’s agenda will most likely go national. For decades, the GOP has wanted to dismantle unions, which traditionally help Democrats win elections through their organization and get-out-the-vote efforts. If Walker wins, he has succeeded in crushing unions in a state that used to be considered very progressive. It is likely that his tactic of stripping unions of collective bargaining rights will be done by other GOP governors, especially in Florida, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. That will lead to decreased union membership and the very real possibility that unions may not be around any longer in a few years, and if they are, they will have little to no political muscle.

This election also matters because it’s a test of how Democrats will adapt to the post-Citizens United world, the Supreme Court ruling that made it possible for corporations and billionaires to donate unlimited funds to a campaign. So far, Walker has raised over $30 million, while Barrett has only raised about $4 million, according to this article by CNN. The article also points out that about 70 percent of Walker’s donations in the last month have come from out-of-state, including Texan Bob Perry, who created the swift boat attacks on former presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004. Perry cut a check to Walker for $500,000. It’s easy to see why the race is so close. A few months ago, the passion and the energy was on the left and against Walker, but a hell of a lot of money has kept the recall election close. To win elections, Democrats need to find a way to raise Super PAC money and compete with the GOP fundraising abilities. If not, they will lose elections, just as they did in 2010 and just as they may in WI today.

Finally, the election also matters because it will have an impact on the presidential election. The recall is a test of each sides get-out-the-vote efforts. Democrats believe that if they have a lot of boots on the ground, they can defeat Walker and have more success in the November election. However, if Walker wins today, the activists in WI are going to feel demoralized. Will they want to knock on doors for Obama in November? Will they have any energy left? If Walker wins today, it is very possible, maybe even likely, WI will vote for a Republican president for the first time since 1984.

Elections matter, and state elections do have an impact on national elections and the agenda of both major political parties. I do believe Democrats could have done a lot more to help Tom Barrett. President Obama didn’t even stop to stump for Barrett. Last night, he tweeted his support for Barrett, but it could be too late. The only big gun that has assisted the Democratic candidate is Bill Clinton, who campaigned in the state on Friday, but it may be too little, too late. Meanwhile, if Walker wins today, billionaires that want to see unions totally dismantled will encourage other Republican governors to follow Walker’s path and crush unions to the dustbin of history. They will realize that they can indeed buy elections. Pay attention to the results from today’s election for an indication of where this country is headed in terms of workers’ rights and the future of unions, as well as who has the upper hand come November, Romney or Obama.

Word Fountain Flood Issue

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The Osterhaut Library in Wilkes-Barre puts out a literary magazine every few months called Word Fountain. It features poetry, prose, and fiction. For the next issue, the editors plan to do a glossy edition, thanks for a grant, focused on the flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 and Hurricane Irene last year. If you have any writing that is flood-related, or any pictures, consider sending it in to the staff at Word Fountain. Here is some more info, taken from the journal’s website:

Hurricane Agnes has an anniversary on June 22nd 2012.  It’s been 40 years since Agnes tore through our towns.  When Hurricane Irene followed her lead, we here at Word Fountain decided to do something about it.  We are creating a special issue of our literary magazine.  Once printed, this publication will generate donations that will go to a fund at the Luzerne Foundation to help recovering flood victims.

You can help.  Send us your 2-D art, photos, writings of 1,000 words or less (any age, any genre).  We chose the 40th anniversary as an extended deadline.

Submission Guidelines:

1,000 words or less, any genre, from any age group

Original photos and 2-D art will also be considered

Topic:  Hurricane Irene and/or Hurricane Agnes

flooding inNortheastern Pennsylvania

Extended Deadline!  June 22nd 2012

Osterhout Free Library

Attn:  Word Fountain Editors

71 S. Franklin Street

     Wilkes-Barre,PA18701

570-823-0156 phone

570-823-2475 fax

wordfountain@osterhout.lib.pa.us

http://thelibrarywordfountain.wordpress.com

www.facebook.com/thelibrarywordfountain

Vintage Theater Closes Its Doors for Now

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By now, I’m sure a lot of people who read this blog know that the Vintage Theater in downtown Scranton is closing, at least temporarily.  The owners are trying to find a new location to continue providing the variety of music, art, and literary events that the venue offered. Tonight will mark the final event at the Vintage Theater’s Penn Avenue location, an art show featuring portraits of local writers, artists, and musicians. The event begins at 6 p.m. and is part of Scranton’s First Friday Art Walk. If you are out and about, I encourage you to stop at the Vintage Theater and say goodbye to its current location.

For me, the Vintage was special because its owners allowed me to host various poetry workshops and readings. I even had the book release party for Front Man there in the fall of 2010, and I’m grateful to have celebrated that accomplishment with family and friends in that venue. Vintage also had a writing group that met every Saturday, and some of its key participants hosted a poetry open mic night the third Thursday of every month. I attended it a few times and was the featured reader a few months ago. That open mic provided writers of varying levels the chance to hone their skills and share their work in public, which is especially useful for beginning writers.

Last night, I read at the KGB Bar in the Lower East Side of New York City. It was my second time reading there, and at both readings, the bar was packed with an attentive audience. After I finished the reading, I thought about how lucky artists and writers in the city are to have spaces like the KGB Bar, the Bowery Poetry Club, and the Cornelius Street Cafe, venues that always have a packed house and events going on every day of the week.  These venues thrive because they have people willing to support them. When the Vintage re-opens and perhaps reshapes its mission, I hope even more people come to events to support it and keep its doors open.

For now, I’m sure that the folks who frequented Vintage will find other places to go. I have heard that the writing group that met there every Saturday will now meet at Northern Lights Cafe in downtown Scranton every Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, people can also check out New Visions Studio and Gallery on Vine Street, which also offers a lot of concerts and some literary events, including the Writers Showcase. There is also the Library Express in the Steamtown Mall, which has an open mic poetry night the last Thursday of every month at 6:30, as well as various workshops and author events. In an ideal world, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre would have a variety of venues with a slew of events.

Here’s an old picture of me reading at the Vintage during the release party for Front Man.

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KGB Bar Reading

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If you’re looking for something to do this week and you’re anywhere near New York City, then you should come by the KGB Bar, located at 85 East 4th Street, and see me read with some other writer friends, including Taylor Polities, Sandee Gertz Umbach, Rich Uhlig, and Pat Florio. The reading is going to be a mix of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, and the event is free. I read at the KGB Bar last July, and it’s a unique venue that hosts several readings and literary events throughout the week. They also have a fairly large bar and a lot of drink and food specials.

Here is some info about the other readers:

Taylor M. Polites is a novelist living in Providence, Rhode Island with his small Chihuahua, Clovis. Polites’ first novel, The Rebel Wife, was published in February 2012 by Simon & Schuster. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University and BA in History and French from Washington University in St. Louis. In 2009, he was awarded the Norris Church Mailer Fellowship from Wilkes University. He has lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts, New York City, St. Louis and the Deep South. He has covered arts and news for a variety of local newspapers and magazines, including the Cape Codder, InNewsWeekly, Bird’s Eye View (the in-flight magazine of CapeAir), artscope Magazine and Provincetown Arts Magazine.

Richard Uhlig is the author of the Knopf-published novels, Last Dance At The Frosty Queen and Boy Minus Girl.  He is also the screenwriter of the award-winning film Dead Simple, starring James Caan and Patricia Richardson, as well as Kept, starring Ice-T.  He recently wrote, produced and directed the short film comedy Can’t Dance, starring Karen Lynn Gorny.  The film won Founder’s Choice Award at the Queens World Film Festival. Richard lives in New York with his wife and two small children.

Sandee Gertz Umbach is a poet and writer from Western Pennsylvania, currently residing near Pittsburgh.  Her poems have been published in numerous literary journals, including Poet Lore, The Ledge, Gargoyle, and The Green Mountains Review. She has been the recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowship grant and is a Sandburg-Livesay Award Winner. Her recently released poetry collection, The Pattern Maker’s Daughter, (published by Bottom Dog Press) is set in the industrial steel city of Johnstown,Pennsylvania and reflects coming of age themes with a strong narrative sense of place and landscape.  Geology, geography, weather, and even neuroscience collide as this “Girl Interrupted” speaker tells her stories from the heart of one of America’s colorful working class cities.

Patricia Florio spent 17 years as a certified professional court reporter in Brooklyn’s federal court system when she decided to change careers.  She’s had this constant buzzing muse prompting her to write since she was a teenager.   Her first book “My Two Mothers” was published in August 2011.  She has gotten excellent reviews.(see it on Amazon.com)  She’s married to her husband Ralph for 40 years and they live in the Historic Victorian town of Ocean Grove on the Jersey Shore.  She received her undergrad from Rutgers in Liberal Studies and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University.

 

Some General Updates

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I’ve been having a decent streak of luck over the last few weeks in terms of publishing credits. I recently had a poem published over at Solstice Literary Magazine. I recommend checking out the publication. It has a great editor and an impressive advisory board, which includes Stephen Dunn. You can check out my poem, “Before He Enlisted,” here. The poem will also appear in my full-length collection, All That Remains, next year. I seem to keep writing about soldiers every now and then and the consequences of Iraq and Afghanistan (which is now the longest war in U.S. history). “Before He Enlisted” belongs with that set of poems. One of them is also included in my chapbook Front Man, “Political Soundtrack,” which addresses the wars from a protestor’s point of view.

I also had a poem published over at vox poetica, an e-journal run by the wonderful Annmarie Lockhart, who will also be publishing my full-length. You can check out the poem “The Plot” here. This poem will also be included in the new book.

I was also interviewed by fiction writer Gale Martin regarding my poetry and writing process. The interview is available here. Thanks again to Gale for that interview, and if you like her work, then you can see her read in Scranton when she takes part in the next New Visions Writers Showcase! More details will be available about that event closer to the July 21 date.

This month was also productive and lucky in the sense that I’ve been invited to be the featured poet in the late summer issue of the journal Third Wednesday! The main editor has asked for 8 of my poems and an intro to my work/poems.

I hope the good news will continue throughout the rest of the summer months!

James Franco as Hart Crane

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James Franco has inhabited another role of a poet for a biopic movie. In the semi-new film The Broken Tower, he takes on the role of early American Modernist poet Hart Crane. The film was written, produced, and directed by Franco. I have not seen it yet, though I do plan to rent it from Amazon, one of the only places I’ve found it to be available. It also opened recently in some larger cities, including New York. I liked Franco quite a bit as Allen Ginsberg in the film Howl. However, that film was different in the sense Franco did not direct it or write it, and the film mostly centered around the obscenity trial the poem caused in the 1950s, shortly after it was published by City Lights Books. It only covered very few parts of Ginsberg’s life.

The Broken Tower centers mostly around Crane’s life, including some of his homosexual relationships, poverty, and suicide. In the short trailer, which you can watch below, there are scenes of Franco reading Crane’s poetry, and I’m not sure how well that will translate to the  screen, as Crane’s work is incredibly dense, whereas “Howl” and much of Ginsberg’s work is not as high-flown.

The New York Times’ review of the film mentions that most of the film is shot in black and white, with a handheld camera.  It also criticizes the film in stating, “But despite earnest attempts, Mr. Franco can’t bring the fervency of Crane’s poetry to life in the extensive recitations.” When I see the movie soon, perhaps I’ll follow-up with a blog post and write about how The Broken Tower compares to the film Howl.