VRZHU bullets of pure love

Ai

Ai

(October 27, 1947 - March 20, 2010)

 

 

Other information here, here and here (her poem Passage, for Allen Ginsberg).

Tributes here, here, here, and here.

 

 

A NEW BEGINNING.....

COMING SOON......

 

Highly Recommended

Not specific to poetry, but still way pertinent:

The key to literary success? Be a man...Or write like one.

Julianna Baggott is, of course, an excellent poet, as well as a novelist in both the adult and young reader categories, essayist, person of letters.

Up next: Vrzhu Bullets of Love End of the Year/Beginning of the Year What's In And What's Out List in the small provincial town of Poetry.  Stay Tuned.

What poetry makes happen

I suspect the misappropriation of "Poetry makes nothing happen" (the mis- part well argued to be so here) is in part because the stakes are perceived to be so low. We can't define with any specificity what "something happening" would mean.  This, taken seriously, might sober us up a bit:

As I've often told Ginsberg, you can't blame the President for the state of the country, it's always the poets' fault. You can't expect politicians to come up with a vision, they don't have it in them. Poets have to come up with the vision and they have to turn it on so it sparks and catches hold.

Ken Kesey

From February 2001

Tibetan monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery were here the last two weeks of January. They were here on a tour when the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon happened. The Dalai Lama asked them to make a prayer mandala for us, for the "healing and protection of America. So down in the bottom floor of Sackler Gallery of Asian Art they set up an 8'x8' foot platform where 20 monks worked for two weeks making a seven foot square manadala, with music and the prayers that go along with the construction.

I took my gang of five down into the Sackler Gallery to take a look at the nearly completed work on Saturday. The next day, Sunday, the mandala would be completed then swept up away in the concluding ceremony. The sand was sprinkled in the Tidal Basin and the Potomac out near the Jefferson Memorial. The idea is to have the prayers that inhere in the sand go out into the world through the river. Life changes and flows on; impermanence.

The monks were using powdered, colored marble, although powdered sand, flowers, herbs, grains, colored stones, and semiprecious and precious stones are also used. They filled a cone-shaped metal funnel, or chak-pur, with the sand and used the chak-pur to pour the sand onto the traced out manadala. Running a metal rod on the chak-pur's grated surface created vibrations that makes the sand flow like liquid. The monks bent very close to the mandala, arms close to their sides. The sound the chakpur made was rhythmic and intense and the monks are themselves concentrating so intensely, even the very large crowd in the packed room was utterly quiet.

I took a few notes. Nora, our 4-year old, up on my shoulders. So I didn't take a lot of notes. One of the monks gave a lecture about the mandala, how and why they came to construct it here, and some points of Tibetan Buddhism. When the monks asked what mandala should they make, the Dalai Lama told them the mandala of the Akshobhya Buddha. This is the "unshakable" Buddha. The monk speaking said that this Buddha could be called the Buddha of Conflict Resolution. Five colors used in the mandala represented the five emotions, and the mandala itself represents "emotions being turned into wisdom."

AKSHOBHYA BUDDHA

Akshobhya is one of the five transcendent (tathagata) buddhas, the primary lords of the five buddha-clans and is lord of the vajra clan. As a monk, Akshobhya took a vow before the buddha never to feel disgust or anger towards any being. His color is white or blue.

The name Akshobhya means "Immovable" or "Unshakable." Akshobhya represents the transmutation of delusion or hate into mirror-like wisdom (or reality wisdom), and the purity of the form or consciousness system. In Akhsobhya, emotion is transformed into wisdom. This Mirrorlike Wisdom reflects all things calmly and uncritically and--reveals their true nature. One text says,"Just as one sees one's own reflection in a mirror, so the Dharmakaya is seen in the Mirror of Wisdom." Mirrorlike Wisdom is an antidote to the poison of hatred and anger.

Akshobhya's symbol is the vajra, also called the thunderbolt or diamond scepter. The vajra denotes enlightenment, the indestructible, adamantine nature of pure consciousness- the essence of Reality. In some traditions the vajra signifies the union of man and the Buddha; one end of the vajra symbolizes the macrocosmic realm of the Buddha and the other end the microcosmic realm of man.

In portraits (thangka) of Akshobhya, the right hand is extended across the knee in the mudra of earth witness (the bhumisparsha or earth-touching mudra) with the fingers pressing against the ground. It denotes unshakability. This is the mudra Gautama Buddha used to summon the earth to witness to his right to attain enlightenment when he was challenged by the Evil One, Mara. The left hand placed palm upward in the lap performs the mudra of meditation.

AKSHOBHYA MANDALA

At the center of the mandala, dark blue in colour, is buddha Akshobhya. He is represented by the vajra - the sign of the family. The Goddesses of the 8 Auspicious Emblems occupy the surrounding circle, represented by a parasol, vase, conch shell, fish, endless knot, wheel, lotus and victory banner. The floor of the palace mandala is white below (east), red at the top (west), yellow at the left (south), and green to the right (north). The square shape of the enclosure marks the extent of the palace walls and the 'T' shaped structures are the four doors topped with four lintels, red, blue, green and yellow, each crowned with a Dharma wheel. Surrounding those can be seen the tips of the large double vajra on which the entire palace stands. Outside of that is a ring of variously coloured lotus petals, a ring of gold vajras on a black background and the ring of the five-coloured flames of pristine awareness.

AKSHOBHYA PRACTICE

Akshobhya practice purifies any negative action tainted by such emotions as hatred, ignorance, or greed, and is especially beneficial for women who have undergone an abortion or for anyone who has either performed or encouraged someone to undergo an abortion. It is also effective for the removal of obstacles that arise in one's daily life or spiritual practice.

In addition, Akshobhya practice can be sponsored on behalf of the deceased - particularly aborted fetuses, those who have committed suicide, or those who have undergone an abrupt or violent death.

Playing For Change

FREE FOR (NOT QUITE SO MANY) ALL

Readers in the DC area probably already know that the Shakespeare Theater Company is moving its Free For All—Washington’s free summer Shakespeare play—indoors starting this year.

It was news to me, though I had noticed that the Free For All hadn’t taken place this year at its usual time in late May and Early June or at its usual place—the Carter Barron Amphitheater in Rock Creek Park

The press release on the STC’s website says that “The move will increase the metro-accessibility of the event, prevent weather-related cancellations, and allow the Shakespeare Theatre Company to maintain the artistic integrity of Free For All productions thanks to the state-of-the-art capabilities of Sidney Harman Hall. By changing venues, the Company also will be able to host a variety of additional family-friendly events to coincide with Free For All performances.”

I’ve been at one of the Carter Barron productions that was called on account of rain. Late May/early June seems to be WAshigton’s rainy season. And missing the whole play was disappointing. I don’t know how many actual performances were cancelled over the life of the Free For All, which started in 1991, but I’m sure it’s frustrating for actors, directors and audience.

As for the other reasons given for the move, they’re not especially convincing. Carter Barron is completely Metro accessible by several bus routes. You can get there from pretty much anywhere. We often car pooled to get there.

I wouldn’t know, but I’ll take it on faith that staying at the Carter Barron would not “maintain the artistic integrity and would fall short of the state of the art capabilities of the Sidney Harmon Hall.” But, as an audience member who enjoyed every one of the STC’s productions at the Carter Barron, I’d say what was lost in integrity and state of the art was made up for by the specialness of the occasion: Shakespeare outdoors, just as when the plays were first staged in Elizabethan London. Also the relaxed atmosphere, the picnics beforehand, and the feel of Washington coming together for the play were all integral to how much fun and how entertaining and entrancing the event was. I certainly didn’t feel any lack of artistic integrity or miss any state of the art stagecraft. But the holiday aura of the outside event—everybody friendly and excited and happy—was different and better than any stagecraft I’ve seen indoors. Will this feeling when the Free For All moves downtown and inside still be there?

Also, fewer people will be able to attend the actual play. “A variety of additional family-friendly events to coincide with Free For All performances,” as the press release states, does not substitute for actually seeing and hearing a Shakespeare play. In fact it sent a chill down my spine. The best family friendly event possible won’t replace going with the whole family and a slew of friends to see a Shakespeare play outside. Games, demonstrations, and whatever are no substitute.

So how many people will actually get to see this year’s Free For All play, the Taming of the Shrew? According to the press release, “more than 17,000 patrons will have a chance to see this free production of Shakespeare.” If this number is right, they either must be doing a matinee here and there or squeezing in another 225 seats per show (the Sidney Harmon has 775 seats, and the Free For All runs for 17 days (7 longer than at Carter Barron), so that adds up to only 13,175 seats). Still, 17,000 sounds like a lot, right? And the FFA is running for seven days longer.

Unfortunately this is only slightly more than a third to slightly less than a half of the number of people who were able to get to the Free For All at the Carter Barron. The Carter Barron seats 3,750. So that’s 37,500 who get see a Shakespeare play as opposed to between 13,175 and 17,000. And that’s too bad. The Carter Barron always looked packed to me.

Maybe this is an unfair comparison, but New York City’s Shakespeare in the Park plays to 100,000 each year. Yes, yes, New York City is huge, and has resources that Washington doesn’t (I guess). Shakespeare in the Park, at a 100,000 per year, reaches 1.2% of its population. Doesn’t sound like much? The new indoor Free for All will reach only .25% (that’s POINT two five per cent) of the Washington area. That sounds like a lot less.

I don’t want to dis the STC. It’s great to have it and other Shakespeare Theater groups, such as the excellent productions at the Folger Theater, here in the DC. So chalk this up to DC tradition of doing things that don’t seem to serve the community (mutilating trees unnecessarily) particularly well. Usually these things take place in spite of community opposition (not burying the lines along 12 Street in Brookland, or neglecting and then—surprise!—closing schools). But I’m sure there is some group that benefits (PEPCO, Penn Quarter businesses, all powerful developers, and so on.

J. G. Ballard

Most blogs have noted by now the death of J. G. Ballard, the British writer best known for his novel, The Empire of the Sun. Coming across Ballard's writing in the early 70's was a revelation.  His power to make visual images that were intensely real, his obsessed and enervated protagonists, and his vivisectionist's touch with our modern culture and relationships was and is unlike any other writer. Would that I had some excerpts from The Crystal World, Crash, Concrete Island, High Rise, or Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan handy. I owe him an unpayable debt.

I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.

I believe in the next five minutes.

I believe in maps, diagrams, codes, chess-games, puzzles, airline timetables, airport indicator signs. I believe all excuses.

I believe all reasons.

I believe all hallucinations.

I believe all anger.

I believe all mythologies, memories, lies, fantasies, evasions.

I believe in the mystery and melancholy of a hand, in the kindness of trees, in the wisdom of light.

--Ballard, J.G. “What I Believe.” J.G. Ballard. Eds. V. Vale and Andrea Juno. San Francisco: RE/Search, 1984.

A complete discontinuity existed between Reagan's manner and body language, on the one hand, and his scarily simplistic far-right message on the other. Above all, it struck me that Reagan was the first politician to exploit the fact that his TV audience would not be listening too closely, if at all, to what he was saying, and indeed might well assume from his manner and presentation that he was saying the exact opposite of the words actually emerging from his mouth.

Annotation & Commentary by the author, J.G. Ballard, to "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan", published in The Atrocity Exhibition, 1990

The poet with the initials JS

In praise of JS

It seems the bookwelt and blogwelt are full these days of Mr. Jack Spicer, what with his Collected Poems out and all.

Which makes me think about James Schuyler.

There are similarities.

• Neither poet was exactly a primo promoter of his poetry, though perhaps Spicer avoided the larger attention more vigorously, was more “outside,” and on principle, too.
• Both we’re rigorous, almost over-scrupulous, in their depiction of what poetry is or does.
• Both wrote to find out what was there, proposing a praxis of dictation, or transcription.
• And there are the usual biographical affinities (they were born less than two years apart (though Schuyler was around for 26 more years after Spicer), a circle of friends, falling outs, radical loneliness, mental and physical travails).

Quoting portions of Spicer, while coherent, misrepresents how disturbing and disjunctive his poetry read whole is.  But with Schuyler, anything less than the whole poem conveys almost nothing of what that poem does. It’s a very odd effect, as if there were no parts to the whole, but just the whole itself, which dissolves when taken apart.  His poems are monads, though monads with one window to look out of.

All the basal New York poets (O’Hara, Koch, Ashbery, Schuyler) share an aesthetic of casualness, even when writing sestinas, or poems as long as your arm. But they were not casual about their casualness, it isn’t there by accident.  It’s a deliberate counter to the prevailing kind of poem being written in America at the time. Schuyler even anticipates the designation du jour—School of Quietude—by pointing out where these non-casual poems’ loyalties are:

“The campus dry-heads who wishfully descend tum-ti-tumming from Yeats out of Graves with a big kiss for Mother England…The big thing happening at home is a nuisance, a publicity plot, a cabal; and please don’t track the carpet.” [emphasis added]

I don’t want to take anything away from Spicer. I’m a big fan, and he more than deserves the accolades and attention he’s getting. And it's about time. But I want to make some room for Schuyler.  Let’s have a big Schuyler boost this year, what say? 

It won't be easy. He's not going to be subject to [re]discovery. There won’t be any substantial lectures of his being collected and issued.  All of his poems seem to be available (unlike, for years, Spicer). Most of his non-poem writing is already out (with the exception, I believe, of his letters to O’Hara) and able to be had. 

Here are some tags that might be helpful for the Schuyler push:

He’s the Elizabeth Bishop of the New York School.

He’s the Jack Spicer of the New York School (on lithium instead of brandy).

I think that covers the two main encampments of poetry we find ourselves in these days.

***

Addendum

It’s too easy to divide poetry in half, with one side having attributes like irony (of which camp is a subspecies) and the other sincerity (mispronounced “confessional”).  It’s like dividing the animal world  into domesticated and feral. It’s based on a classification system that is less than robust. Don’t look too closely.   I doubt that kinds of poetry can be designated by a mononomial classification. A real taxonomy of poems, poetry and poetics still awaits its Carl Linnaeus.

***

Working my ticket

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent

1

Let us go, through cetacean half-designed strepthroats,
The mystifying retrogressions
Of resupinate nightdresses in one-nightdress cheesy hotbeds
And sawmill retainers with ozone-shelters:
Strepthroats that follow like a teenage argyle
Of insipid intercom

2

Late as gal, thrash caftan half-desalted straits,
That maturing retracts
Alf rustles knights an anal naught champ hatless
And sawdust restaurants wash daystar shawls:
Striates that fallow lava a toadies armament
Alf insidious ant ant

3

Let see ghee, thresh cretin shelf-deserted streets,
The metering retreats
Elf restless knights in gene knight cheep heels
End seediest restatements wet yester shells:
Streets theft fallow leeks or teepees enragement
Elf unsteadies extent

4

Life is gin, thigh citrine hilt dispirited striates,
Thai metering ritziest
If rustle nights in any night chimp hotlist
Find sadist restaurants with astir shills:
Striates twit filly lice in tidiest orpiment
If insidious in tint

5

Lox is go, through cartoon hoof doorstop struts,
Thom motoring redroots
Of frostless knights on noon naught chomp hoots
Nod sawdust octoroons wroth oyster shoals:
Struts toot follow loco of hoodoos rodomont
Of insidious onion

6

Lutz us gum, through curium huff desuetude struts,
The maturing rotguts
Ulf rustles knights an ulna naught chump hatfuls
Und sawdust restaurants with oyster skulls:
Struts thud flow luau u studious argument
Ulf insidious unguent.

What is this all about?  Stay tuned as blogreport on a possible future project.....

THE LIST!

THE LIST for 2009

Out                          In

Conceptual Poetry                  Promotional Poetry

Flarf!                    Flare!

         

Post-modern Professionals                         Modern Confessionals

Poetic Allodoxaphobia                     Poetic Atelophobia

Jack Spicer Vancouver Lectures               Jack Poet Volkswagen Commercials

           

Lowell/Bishop Correspondence                   Unindicted Poetry Co-Conspirators

Barbaric Yawps                       Attending AWP

Bukowski                        Zukofsky

         

DIY Poetry                      WTF? Poetry

Poetics                       Noetics

Typomaniacal Poems                 Squandermaniacal Poems

Poets as fashion risks                Poets as fashion risk takers

            

      The right word in the right place                             Product Placement in poems

Conceptional Poetry Vs. Flarf                      Vrzhu Poetry loves Beothuk Poetry

Elizabeth Bishop         Elizabeth Alexander

How to be a Beat Poet              How to beat up anything

JB bringing poets down a notch              BZA bringing cute animals down a notch

Poets Against the War                        The War Against Poets

“Because I would                    “…I stopped at MallWart
 not stop for Death …”                 for immortal savings!”

William Logan             John Logan

Zukofsky                       Bukowski

          

Poetry critics with an axe to grind            Poetry critics with an open mind

50 Emerging Poets                      50 Submerging Poets

          



Lifetime Poetry Projects                Lunchtime Poetry Projects

Browsing the poetry section                   "lèche-vitrine" the poetry section

Poets with a BSD                     Poets with a DDS

Contests             Open reading periods

MySpace                           Facebook

Poets wearing business attire                     Poets wearing regular Joe attire

          

Self-publishing stigma                         Shameless self-promotion

Poems about apeirophobia                       Poems about zemmiphobia

Poetry on buses                            Poetry on pottery

I hope everyone had a lovely New Year's Eve (as much if not more than I)...



...and a very happy, successful, and prospero New Year's to you all!