Just a reminder that Vrzhu Bullets of Love Blog -- the blog that picks you up as it calms you down -- is a support mechanism for our Vrzhu Press.
We currently have two books and two more coming this summer.
Vrzhu Press -- because Vrzhu is pronounced "Ver-zhoo."
VRZHU is happy to note a nice bit of press. After a great interview with Michael Gushue (or as he's known in our more Ramones-apeing moments, "Michael Vrzhu") The Washington City Paper Arts Editor Amanda Hess featured our efforts in a nice piece titled
"Pertinent Press: How does an upstart poetry publisher pass the bullshit test?"
I can only assume that our inclusion in the piece means we passed the test. We were delighted to be included with two other great publishing stalwarts whose work we respect and admire, Reb Livington of No Tell Books and Maureen Thorson of Big Game Books.
And yes, that would be our two mugs on the front page of the City Paper's website. Nice photo props go to City Paper photographer Darrow Montgomery who managed to make us look earnest and bookish all at once. I was so getting a crick in my neck from that photo-shoot. Sadly he didn't take any of my "pouty lips" poses.
Now if you came to the site to see more of VRZHU, check out our fine books!
Kim Roberts' The Kimnama and Hiram Larew's More Than Anything are still available and the best way to begin the new year! To read a sample from the books and to read the raves from reviewers visit the links above our our books page [here].
And if you're an Edgar Guest disciple here to express your thunderous outrage at Michael Vrzhu's slams on the venerable home-loving poet, leave a comment too.
Please take a moment and read these fair and balanced reviews of The Kimnama by Kim Roberts and More Than Anything by Hiram Larew in the Montserrat Review, the two inaugural books of Vrzhu Press. Congratulations, Kim and Hiram!
TODAY'S TOP STORY: ROBERTS' KIMNAMA REVIEWED BY STEVEN ALLEN MAY!
And below the fold . . .
1. From a review of A Life of Picasso, Volume III, The Triumphant Years:
[Picasso] turned objects into people and vice versa, but never, in the manner of the surrealists, reduced women to machines.
COMMENT: ...unlike the automobile industry.
1.1
Question: Do you think the poetry written by Americans during the last ten years shows any line of development (progressions)?
Wallace Stevens: The older poets have to be considered as individuals; the younger poets, whom it is easier to see as a group, lack a leader. After all, the fury of poetry always comes from a the presence of a madman or two and, at the moment, all the madmen are politicians.
-Wallace Stevens, 20th Century Verse, September - October 19382.
2. A while back, we put out an all points for the Latin word (or equivalent) for 'blog." Recently, an informal member of the Vrzhu Research Bureau Irregulars (little did she suspect), Latin scholar Jane Brinley, was able to assist us.
Ms. Brinley writes:
. . . about the Latin for blog. I came across an article that suggested blogis which would decline like this:
blogis bloges
blogis blogium
blogi blogibus
blogem bloges
bloge blogibusThe second conjugation verb proposed would have principle parts as follows: blogeo, blogere, blogevi, blogetus.
. . .and Ms. B also researches the back translation of "Love me, love my blog."
If that's a command/imperative it would be ama me, ama blogem meum. You can fool with the word order eg: me ama, ama blogem meum or ama me blogem meum ama. If the command is addressed to multiple people it would be amata me, amata blogem meum. Same word order variants work.
Thank you, Jane Brinley. Excellent work.
COMMENT: in the accompanying figure note the use of the stylus to keystroke this Roman laptop circa 29 BCE. We have come so far.
3. A poetry doping scandal reported on at the blog of Charles Berstein:
Doping Scandal Rocks Poetry
by Mike Freakman
July 30, New York (AHP2 News Service) – The poetry world has been rocked by recent revelations that several of the most prestigious national poetry contest winners in 2005 and 2006 were written with the aid of performance-enhancing drugs.
“Over the past decade, poetry contests have emphasized our openness to all participants, with the promise that each manuscript is judged on its merits along,” said Guadalupe Maximino Glumstein, the Chancellor of the International Poetry Contests Federation (IPCF). “Doping is a huge step backward in our efforts, since it gives an unfair competitive advantage to those who are willing to do anything, including risk long-term damage to their bodies and minds, in order to write the best poem.”
The IPCF advocates testing for performance-enhancing drugs as a prerequisite for national book publications, slam competitions, as well a poetry contests. Poets that violate IPCF rules would be ineligible for prizes or anthologies for penalty periods of one year for first offenders to eternity for repeat offenders. Poets that comply with IPCF guidelines get a sticker to affix to all their publications certifying their poems as doping-free.
“Unless we want poetry to sink back into the margins of society, we must assure readers that poets produce their work with their own sweat and imagination. When we teach a poem to a young person in a school setting, to inspire and instruct, we need to be able to say that anyone can aspire to write a poem as good as this. We can’t afford to send a message that doping is necessary to write the best poems. We have to have an even playing field.”
Several leading poets were asked to comment on the scandal but refused to talk on the record, for fear of provoking IPCF investigations of their conduct. Unlike the use of doping in baseball, track, and cycling, poets often use poetry-performance-enhancing drugs to cause temporary physical and mental impairment or paralysis, in order to hyperactivate their imaginative capacities. The practice has been shown to cause a number of long-term physical and mental maladies.
But 11-year old Daisy Threadwhistle of Incontrobrogliaria, New Jersey, was eager to speak on the record. Ms. Threadwhistle said she was very disappointed when a poem from her school reader was removed when its author tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. “ ‘The Moon Is My Revenge, Venus My Soldier of Midnight’ ” was my favorite poem this year. I feel cheated. I don’t think I want to read any more poems.”
In early 2006, IPCF introduced a battery of blood and psychological tests to detect poetic doping. An IPCF study group is now investigating whether the use of certain computer programs and search engines also should be banned from poetry.
3. The illustrious Ms. Jill Dybka has put up a worthy and nifty donation request at her blog (to which you should be a regular visitor or visitrix), the Poetry Hut. It says:
Public service announcement:
Seeking poets who might have an extra copy of their chapbook or book they'd be willing to donate to a lucky student. Each week, during my 8-week undergraduate poetry class, there will be a drawing to see who wins the book a poet has been generous enough to donate. The winner will be responsible for reading your book, reviewing it, and selecting a favorite poem to read to the class the following week. If you like, contact information and book price should be included so that others in the class can buy your book. Students will be STRONGLY encouraged to buy the books of poets who, after all, were kind enough to contribute a book to their education. If you're willing, please send your book (autographed would be nice) and contact and price details to:
Jeff Winke
Upper Iowa University - Milwaukee Center
620 S 76th St.
Milwaukee, WI 53214
4. M. Mark Wallace, a valued member of the DC innovative poetry community, and since decamped to Carlsbad, CA, has some v. interesting questions on his blog that I urge you to take a look at and respond to as appropriate, to wit, and I quote:
While you’re actually writing a poem, how conscious are you of the history of poetry? Are you constantly thinking about how your poem will relate to the poems that have come before, or do you not think about that at all? Are you somewhere in between?
5. At FreeRice.com, you can donate 10 grains of rice by choosing the right answer to a vocabulary question. The rice is distributed by United Nations’ World Food Programme. It was created by John Breen, a computer programmer who also created The Hunger Site.
The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose name you see on the bottom of the screen. As of November Seventeenth, 2,457,120,420 grains of rice were given away. By the way, one cup of rice contains about 1,000 grains.
6. Finally, please tune in Thursday for a VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT from the Vrzhu Research Bureau.
The extremely well-designed and upscale-looking Virginia Quarterly Review has put some of its Fall 2006 Writers on Writers issue on the web. The issue sold out so VQR has onlined its special feature of original stories by a bunch of contributors, stories in which a famous writer appears by name. Six of the eleven stories feature poets, giving poets a bare majority over novelists: Emily Dickinson, Richard Eberhart, E. A. Poe, Aeschylus, G. M. Hopkins, Stephen Crane (a crossover I suppose). There's also a cool cover by Chris Ware.
But before you go to the stories, see if you can match the authors with the poets they're writing about:
Jim Shepard Emily Dickinson
Christopher Tilghman Edgar Allen Poe
Edmund White Gerard Manley Hopkins
Ron Hansen Richard Eberhart
Joyce Carol Oates Aeschylus
Elizabeth Gaffney Stephen Crane
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Catching up on news.
Rod Smith, DC poet, was the recipient of a nice article in the City Paper a couple back. The article compares him to the Baroque original instrument ensemble, the Talking Heads, though I believe the more apt comparison is to a small jelly tricycle. While I'm crushing on Rod, I must also mention that "In Memory of My Theories" is a damn good title.
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Vrzhu Inaugural Authors Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts continue their barnstorming world tour with readings coming (through the next year) in:
Milton, DE
Arlington VA
Washington DC
Amherst, NY
Charlottesville, VA
And tentative (pending funding) readings planned for
Ulaan Baator
Yakutskh
Pangnirtung
Ushuaia
Suva
Grytviken
Godthul
and
the isles of Langerhans.
The world tour T-shirt will be available sometime next year ("Vrzhu Is World" on the front, "World is Vrzhu" on the back).
For more info, please visit our website, who is feeling a bit lonely and under the weather.
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For extra credit match the pictures with the authors mentioned above. Answers to this week's puzzlers will appear in next week's Tuesday Melange. See you then!!
Question: Dear Vrzhu: Where can I get even more Vrzhu?
Answer: Vrzhu now has its own myspace page! You can go there or here to hear Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts, poets extraordinaire, reading a poem a piece from an event on their current grand tour!
And while you're at it why not flirt and leave us a wink? Or is that facebook? Which is the one you have to spend 4 minutes with everyone in the room? Or is that a slam?
Coming attraction: commentary and in depth analysis about breaking news--a LEGAL definition of poetry you can take to the bank! Or not!
Stay tuned...........
Damas y caballeros—though I have promised myself to be more regular in my postings here, it remains a promise broken, a dream reverse-mortgaged.
On the QT, for faithful viewers of Vrzhu Bullets of Pure Love, I will try to update at least once a week, probably of a Tuesday. Regardless of whether I can think of anything. Or not. As for the others—you never know who is listening.
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DC rules!
-or-
A few weeks ago not one but two poets from the DC area made a splash on the super-popular site Poetry Daily. On consecutive days!
I like both Terence Winch's and Rod Smith’s work very much, and both have new books out. Smith's and Winch's poetic differs from each other, but there are also some commonalities. They have works online also, if you’d like a taste of their smart, funny, penetrating, distinct work.
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Happy Birthday, John Keats
Last week’s All Hallow’s Eve was also the 212th birthday of John Keats. He certainly was capable of provoking the uncanny (unheimlich -Heidegger) in his works as befits a hallowe’en baby. His has become my essential poet of the period, perhaps not edging out the contemporaneous John Clare, but nosing ahead of Coleridge and, at the moment, clearly preferred over Shelley and Wordsworth. It took a while for me to get to this current lineup, as much by way of his letters and prose as by his poetry.
He also provides evidence for a hypothesis of mine, that your favorite season of the year is the season in which you were born.
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Footnote
And, hey, is all y'all are interested in poetry in Washington DC check out these fine sites.
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A Note On Poetry
"My intention in poetry is to write poetry: to reach and express that which, without any particular definition, everyone recognizes to be poetry, and to do this because I feel the need of doing it.
"There is such a complete freedom now-a-days in respect to technique that I am rather inclined to disregard form so long as I am free and can express myself freely. I don't know of anything, respecting form, that makes much difference. The essential thing in form is to be free in whatever form is used. A free form does not assure freedom. As a form, it is just one more form. So that it comes to this, I suppose, that I believe in freedom regardless of form."
--Wallace Stevens in The Oxford Anthology of Literature, 1938
This is from my continuing reading this year of Stevens, which started with some great discussions of The Idea of Order at Key West this past summer, and the question, what is the purpose of poetry. What indeed?
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Coming Attractions
Beneath the glassy smooth surface of Vrzhu’s waters, things are . . . . evolving.
-We are working on the first of what might be regular, perhaps even monthly, or more. Vrzhu podcasts. A podcast unlike any other in the vast world of poetry.
-Two new books from Vrzhu Press are coming to fruition. Check here regularly for immanent news.
-The militant wing of Vrzhu, the Vrzhu Research Bureau, is working on several hush-hush projects in its “black ops” division. We hope to reveal some of these projects in the near future. (hint: how does one waterboard a poem?)
And, as always, damas y caballeros, we here at Vrzhu cannot begin to express our appreciation for your continued interest, faith and support in what we try to do.
VRZHU – THE WAVE OF THE FUSCHIA
Friday, September 28, 6:30 pm
The Poet Experience: Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts
Zu Coffee, 923 Bay Ridge Ave., Giant Shopping Center, Annapolis, MD. (410) 990-0731. Hosted by Rocky Jones. Free admission.
http://www.zucoffee.com Come be part of a poetry reading and open mic night at Zü Coffee every fourth Friday of the month! Sit back and listen to poems and stories from some amazing poets and (if you would like) bring some of your own poems to share. This September 28, join hosts Cliff Lynn and Rocky Jones in greeting our featured poets: Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts.
Larew is a published poet whose collection "Part Of" was recognized by the City of Baltimore in their Artscape Poetry Awards. He is published in over 80 journals and his second collection, "More than Anything" is available now.
Roberts is the editor of the Beltway Poetry Quarterly (http://washingtonart.com/beltway/contents.html) , and is published in countless anthologies and has two books in print: The Kimnama and The Wishbone Galaxy.
Both authors' new books are available from the publisher at http://www.vrzhu.com/books.html
Saturday September 29 at 3:00 pm
Attic: Maryland State Poetry and Literary Society publication reading
Saturday September 29 at 6:00 pm
Barbara Simon tribute reading
Baltimore Book Festival
Outdoors around Mount Vernon Place
600 block of N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD
(410) 752-8632
Sunday, September 30 at 1:30 pm
Vrzhu Press Reading
Baltimore Book Festival
Outdoors around Mount Vernon Place
600 block of N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD
(410) 752-8632
Free Admission
Both of Vrzhu's inaugural books, The Kimnama and More Than Anything make the Best Books for Fall Reading list at the Montserrat Review here This is another well deserved accolade for poets Kim Roberts (The Kimnama) and Hiram Larew (More Than Anything). Congrats!
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We here in the research arm of Vrzhu Press are working [tirelessly] to improve the lot of poets, and consumers of poetry alike.
However. Bethatasitmay. We also recognize that sometimes poetic efforts, effluvia and extravasations are not wanted or desired.
As such, one of the R&D efforts here in the warrens and catacombs of the VRB is to assist those for whom poetry is not an occasion, but a nuisance. Here is a short summary of our initial research and a peek at one of our many products in continuous development.
Poem Infestation
Poems are among the most difficult household pests to control. Except for submission periods when they may migrate from place to place, poems spend their entire life inside buildings. Usually they are found in libraries, bathrooms and bedrooms. They can be carried into homes in shopping bags, backpacks, furniture and pet foods.
Poems are one of the most disagreeable literary genres that may invade homes. While it is not true that an unkept home will cause a poem infestation, there is indeed a strong correlation between sanitation and poems once an infestation gets started. The presence of poems often causes serious mental anguish for some homeowners. Poems often associate themselves with teenagers and are known to be involved in the spread of negative emotions which cause mild depression, self-absorption, herbal tea drinking, and more serious melodramatic behavior. Some people appear to be allergic to poems.
The exact origin of our domestic poems is disputed, but many are European, South American and Eastern in origin and now are widely distributed throughout the country. In most areas, homeowners are commonly bothered by five different categories of poems: confessional, experimental, accessible, surreal (which has a subcategory, deepimage), and nature poems, which are more at home outdoors but can also get into the house.
Species
The American poem may grow from one to several hundred pages. It can be identified by its normal markings: ragged, sloppy right margins and, frequently, a body segmented into “stanzas.” There is not much reliable information about any one poem’s lifespan, which nonetheless seems to be highly variable: from a few minutes to many years or stretching cycles of years.
Oriental poems, or haiku, are uniform and small in appearance, no more than seventeen syllables long when full-grown and are easily recognized by their short lines, though mutations are possible. The haiku seems to be equally at home inside human habitation and outdoors, where they can be found near ponds or blossoms or other similar areas.
The European poem is larger, usually darker, but vary greatly in appearance and pronunciation. The European poem is quite active and can easily migrate throughout communities thus becoming a major pest, however, it seems to only truly thrive in the presence of American poems, a symbiotic relationship our poentomologists have termed “translation.” Even so, a troublesome infestation can develop rapidly after the chance introduction of just a few individual poems. It is an unsettled question whether the South American poem, whose habits and behavior are almost identical to the European, is a subspecies, or is an entirely different species.
Another poem sometimes found invading the home is the Woodsy poem. This species lives outdoors and is not as fast nor as wary as its house-dwelling relatives. They may wander into buildings in wooded areas, or may be brought into the house under false pretenses. The males of this species (garysnyderus) are long-lived and have a rough appearance. The females (maryoliveria) are much more reclusive but probably more widespread.
Integrated Poem Management
It is easier (and less costly) to prevent poems from entering a structure than it is to get rid of them. They can be discouraged from invading buildings by sealing cracks and crevices in foundations and outside walls. Careful inspection of all anthologies and omnibus selections is essential, as poems have been known to hide within large tracts of prose.
Carefully inspect all incoming books, magazines, and junk mail for the presence of poems or references to them.
Control
Unfortunately no method for controlling poems has proven universally successful. We here in the Vrzhu Research Bureau are working on a safe, convenient method of eliminating poem infestations when they occur.
A number of great blogs have recently run features on our very own Kim Roberts.
C.M. Mayo has a nice post about Kim, where she calls the author of The Kimnama, "DC's Poetry Goddess. Check it out at Madam Mayo.
Over at Shiva's Arms, Cheryl Snell asked Kim to guest blog about her use of travel journals in constructing first drafts of The Kimnama. Check it out at Shiva's Arms.
Sarah Browning reviews The Kimnama on her site. The Poets Against War board member writes:
"Emotional issues live at the heart of the work -- faith, compassion, our human differences and similarities -- always treated with nuance and understatement. And yet the poet is unafraid to let love stand as the final and central touchstone..."
Read the full review on Sarah Browning's Blog.
Lastly, Didi Menendez, editor of Mi Poesias has started a fascinating new blog highlighting women publishers. Her interview with Kim can be found at Women On The Web.
