Ongoing notes: mid-July, 2024 : Sandra Simonds + Biswamit Dwibedy,

I haven’t done one of these in a while, despite the chapbooks piling up [my last non-ottawa small press fair one was back in February, after all]. So here are some further chapbook reviews! I mean, everybody loves the chapbooks.

Toronto ON/Tallahassee FL/Bennington VT: I was amused to see an exchange a few months back on social media that directly led to American poet Sandra Simonds’ debut Canadian chapbook, Combustible Mood (Toronto ON: Anstruther Press, 2024), an assemblage of eighteen short, sharp lyrics. The author of eight full-length poetry collections and a handful of chapbooks—including steal it back (Ardmore PA: Saturnalia Books, 2015) [see my review of such here] and Atopia (Middletown CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2019) [see my review of such here]—the poems gathered in Combustible Mood give a sense of a far-wider canvas, which speak to not only her experience, but the possibility of these pieces being part of a larger, full-length manuscript. Her narratives provide the curious ability to extend and return, extend further and return, utilizing a core through which the language and purpose of each poem moves out from, and beyond. As the poem “I Took My Place” ends: “I want to collapse in you or find some shared / furrow that translates roughly into a train // of thought and take it so far past the cedars / that we could recognize our own ghosts.”

Book of Hours

November, my God, November: a paranoia
of kernels and tombs, a panorama watered-

down, the rouge returning to a slapped
cheek then draining away once again as if

nothing happened. That’s the body, isn’t it?
Ready to refill, ready to harvest, ready to paint
the walls of its own catacombs vertigo-blue.

Boston MA/Paris: I’m finally getting into the recent trio of chapbooks by Sputnik & Fizzle, including Biswamit Dwibedy’s latest, FILM OF DUST (2023). The author of five full-length collections published in the United States and India, I’ve only seen a small handful of Dwibedy’s work prior to this, such as the chapbook EIRIK’S OCEAN (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs, 2016) [see my review of such here] and full-length Hubble Gardener (New York NY: Spuyten Duyvil, 2018) [see my review of such here]. There is such an intriguing way that Dwibedy extends his lyric from one poem to the next, as though each cluster of poems as a kind of extended line of thinking across distances. Dwibedy utilizes film as his subject for this two-sectioned cluster of poems, but in a way that allows for other threads, other conversations, to float in and around as well. “We were one / with everything that worked in rhythm / hence the stones that dance,” he writes, as part of the poem “14^th April, 1911,” their faces half-gone, centuries later / still striking a pose.” The poems weave through histories domestic and familial, and the patternings of the intimate against the universal. As the small collection opens:

The Hindi film industry is a family business. I write
about the movies because
my mother loved the adaptation of a book into a film.
She studied it, for an exam, an education she gave herself
years into her marriage.
            Or her other favorite films she let us watch. Or so
many films in which an actress plays a double role,
            Without the face changing, so it was the same
woman who gave birth to her. Repeatedly.
                  One plus one equals a million. They say a
child can hear what the mother sings or listens to even
from inside the womb.
This love for songs starts when within.
                  In fact, babies react to music with an
invisible smile.
            How else do you teach something? You hum a
tune into his ears and it becomes a new time.
                  Anything sung is always in the present tense.

Biswamit Dwibedy, Hubble Gardener

OPERETTA

Here buried an operetta

as our being together

brought out by chance

On a complicated dawn

chromatic values that enter

a room that is like a dream

The first recognizable patterns

were fingerprints

Difficulty of a foreign language

misplaced in a love for

Impossibility, construe a film

and so we began to chart

the body rowed away in haste

a science of resisting sleep.

Assigning each star

to a new constellation

The author of Ozalid (1913 Press, 2010), Eirik’s Ocean (Yo-Yo Labs/Portable Press, 2016), Ancient Guest (HarperCollins, 2017) and MC3 (Essay Press, 2018), the latest from poet, editor and publisher Biswamit Dwibedy is the poetry title Hubble Gardener (New York NY: Spuyten Duyvil, 2018), a collection of clipped lyric sketches awash in sensation. His poems are dream-like, abstract enough to let the music of the lyric carry a reader through. “As now you will / say: Can I? / Repeating / Let Me. Be Mine. / And the Many / in the forest turn concrete.” he writes, in the poem “After Noon.” Dwibedy’s poems are lyric, but one akin to jazz, allowing images and lines to bounce and jolt off of each other, jumping down and across. His poems as much invoke a sense of movement as they are constructed from that same movement, set as a restless, engaged curiosity that sweeps across each page. As he writes to open the poem “A.M.”: “walking in / —is / the noon today / a delay between / arrivals / & will not look / you in the eye / will not touch / the skin [.]”

Touch the Donkey supplement: new interviews with Dwibedy, Izsak, Duncan, Alvergue, Clayton, Bennett + Drescher,

Anticipating the release next week of the twenty-third issue of Touch the Donkey [a small poetry journal], why not check out the interviews that have appeared over the past few weeks with contributors to the twenty-second issue: Biswamit Dwibedy, Emily Izsak, Aja Couchois Duncan, José Felipe Alvergue, Conyer Clayton, Roxanna Bennett and Julia Drescher.

Interviews with contributors to the first twenty-one issues (over one hundred interviews to date) remain online, including: Michael Cavuto, Michael Sikkema, Bronwen Tate, Emilia Nielsen, Hailey Higdon, Trish Salah, Adam Strauss, Katy Lederer, Taryn Hubbard, Michael Boughn, David Dowker, Marie Larson, Lauren Haldeman, Kate Siklosi, robert majzels, Michael Robins, Rae Armantrout, Stephanie Strickland, Ken Hunt, Rob Manery, Ryan Eckes, Stephen Cain, Dani Spinosa, Samuel Ace, Howie Good, Rusty Morrison, Allison Cardon, Jon Boisvert, Laura Theobald, Suzanne Wise, Sean Braune, Dale Smith, Valerie Coulton, Phil Hall, Sarah MacDonell, Janet Kaplan, Kyle Flemmer, Julia Polyck-O’Neill, A.M. O’Malley, Catriona Strang, Anthony Etherin, Claire Lacey ,Sacha Archer, Michael e. Casteels, Harold Abramowitz, Cindy Savett, Tessy Ward, Christine Stewart, David James Miller, Jonathan Ball, Cody-Rose Clevidence, mwpm, Andrew McEwan, Brynne Rebele-Henry, Joseph Mosconi, Douglas Barbour and Sheila Murphy, Oliver Cusimano, Sue Landers, Marthe Reed, Colin Smith, Nathaniel G. Moore, David Buuck, Kate Greenstreet, Kate Hargreaves, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Erín Moure, Sarah Swan, Buck Downs, Kemeny Babineau, Ryan Murphy, Norma Cole, Lea Graham, kevin mcpherson eckhoff, Oana Avasilichioaei, Meredith Quartermain, Amanda Earl, Luke Kennard, Shane Rhodes, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Sarah Cook, François Turcot, Gregory Betts, Eric Schmaltz, Paul Zits, Laura Sims, Stephen Collis, Mary Kasimor, Billy Mavreas, damian lopes, Pete Smith, Sonnet L’Abbé, Katie L. Price, a rawlings, Suzanne Zelazo, Helen Hajnoczky, Kathryn MacLeod, Shannon Maguire, Sarah Mangold, Amish Trivedi, Lola Lemire Tostevin, Aaron Tucker, Kayla Czaga, Jason Christie, Jennifer Kronovet, Jordan Abel, Deborah Poe, Edward Smallfield, ryan fitzpatrick, Elizabeth Robinson, nathan dueck, Paige Taggart, Christine McNair, Stan Rogal, Jessica Smith, Nikki Sheppy, Kirsten Kaschock, Lise Downe, Lisa Jarnot, Chris Turnbull, Gary Barwin, Susan Briante, derek beaulieu, Megan Kaminski, Roland Prevost, Emily Ursuliak, j/j hastain, Catherine Wagner, Susanne Dyckman, Susan Holbrook, Julie Carr, David Peter Clark, Pearl Pirie, Eric Baus, Pattie McCarthy, Camille Martin and Gil McElroy.

The forthcoming twenty-third issue features new writing by: Robert R. Thurman, Alyse Knorr, Michael Cavuto, Denise Newman, Shelly Harder, Franco Cortese and Dale Tracy.

And of course, copies of the first twenty-two issues are still very much available. Why not subscribe?

We even have our own Facebook group. It’s remarkably easy.

P-QUEUE #15 : BLOOD

Hello Some

We all know that some cook & some clean some cut leaves gather stones some pick them up some others open & close & unravel

Some eat quickly some take breaks some list grievances & others say them out loud

Some dream of violence & murder & some dream nicely some take triggers & wait by the road some clean their afterthoughts

Some protest & some watch walking on the other side by the hour some hold hands & some travel tell stories some are the stories some count for much longer and whose some, hello some, whose some. Hello. (Eunsong Kim)

I’ve long been an admirer of SUNY-Buffalo’s annual P-QUEUE (I’m still seeking copies of the first few volumes, if anyone has copies or suggestions of how to procure), and the latest, their “BLOOD” issue, Allison Cardon’s second volume as editor, includes new work by Biswamit Dwibedy, Joan Retallack, Eunsong Kim, Petra Kuppers, Travis Sharp, Renee Angle, erica kaufman and Soham Patel. Throughout its history, P-QUEUE has held to an idea of a loose “theme” for each volume—“Anomolies” (2), “Space” (6), “Polemic” (7), “Document” (8), “Mourning” (13) etcetera—an idea that has, throughout the journal’s five editors-to-date, has existed as a thread to connect sometimes disparate works, as opposed to any thematic bludgeon. Fundamentally, the strength of the writing has always propelled each volume, and has done so quite brilliantly. As Cardon writes to close her introduction:

In this, P-Queue’s fifteenth issue, blood conveys a wealth of information that is less in need of discovery than of care. As blood covers the intersection of history with finitude and relation, these poetic, polyvalent explorations of this viscious and revelatory bodily substance help us imagine a form of vitality disarticulated from blood’s labor time, net work, or progression.

[photo lifted from Allison Cardon's facebook page] 

I’ve always been fond, also, of journals that provide enough space for a writer’s work to stretch out, and reveal itself, as opposed to including only a couple of pieces, or even a single poem (for the sake of getting in as many writers as possible). Even beyond the variety P-QUEUE is traditionally known for, I’ve appreciated the journal’s interest in including multiple pieces, even longer singular, extended works, by fewer authors. Highlights in this volume abound: erica kaufman’s work is stellar—sharp, rich and smart—writing: “when i say i’m driving through / mountains i mean not just words / or filth, skepticism, & pronouns. / staccato is ordinary reception / like rabies or powerpoint or generic / welcoming verbs who need punctuation.” (“Post Classic”). Eunsong Kim’s work is powerful, and makes me want more, as she opens the poem “Tithing”: “This city’s symbol a woman who killed her colonizer // Woman is euphemism for recorded state property.” The authors collected here write blood and discomfort, trauma and progress, and Cardon’s introduction outlines the issue both generally and specifically quite beautifully. Basically, there is plenty here worth paying attention to, continuing a strong presence for an annual I have long learned to pay attention to.

Alabama Is a State on Mars #3

In the hospital twice in two years, first a heart attack and now a mugging. Sitting in his van outside his daughter’s pharmacy, he is dragged out of it, pistol whipped, punched repeatedly, possibly kicked. Daughter and coworkers inside lock the door and call the police. In the hospital face already swollen beginning to bruise. He smiles when he sees me.

Now staying up late and with a machete under his chair. Now circling the yard with the machete. Now asking everyone in the house if they, too, saw that light across the lawn. A flashlight? Do you think it was a flashlight? (Travis Sharp)

Ongoing notes: mid-February, 2017

[Lady Aoife's split-second mood shifts, during lunch]

Hey, everyone. What’s up?

I asked for chapbooks, and some of you even responded! Much thanks! Would obviously love to see more. What else do you have, world? Items can be sent to me c/o 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9

You might have noticed a flurry of activity over at above/ground press lately: there have already been new titles in 2017 by Jake Syersak, Helen Hajnoczky, Derek Beaulieu, Kyle Flemmer, philip miletic, Geoffrey Young, Jason Christie, Carrie Hunter and Sarah Swan (as well as Touch the Donkey #12), with forthcoming titles by Sarah Cook, Jessica Smith, Nathan Dueck, Stephen Collis, Jordan Abel, Marilyn Irwin, Ian Whistle, Sandra Moussempès (trans. Eléna Rivera), Brenda Iijima, and Sarah Fox, a new issue of Touch the Donkey, and even a new issue (#25!) of The Peter F. Yacht Club, just in time for our seventh annual VERSeFest!

There’s even (still) time to subscribe for 2017 if you wish; I’m totally willing to backdate such to the beginning of the year…

Brooklyn NY: Thanks to editor/publisher Brenda Iijima, I’ve been going through a mound of chapbooks and full-length books from her Brooklyn-based Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs. While these publications, even the chapbooks, are rather hefty, I find it curious that none appear to include author biographies (obviously a deliberate choice), leaving the works to live on their own merits (well, one can always Google). One of the most recent titles in the stack is Biswamit Dwibedy’s chapbook of short lyrics, EIRIK’S OCEAN (2016). The author of a handful of books and chapbooks, Dwibedy’s [see his 2015 ’12 or 20 questions’ interview here] lyrics are composed across an incredibly large canvas, writing out to an endless horizon. Writing on water, islands, discovery and some of the founding myths of “America,” Dwibedy’s lyrics are endlessly searching, reaching out for what might still be possible, and what never was.

Eirik the Red

Father of the first Finder of America

nurtured a vague little sense of religion

He pleasured in when you cannot see

wanderings and intermissions

of violence and kindness

incoherent after finding grapes

Prophetic North Star

Norse rose shape

glass hides honey, “milk”

weed I touch               floats”

linger luckless, but act like a voyage

uncertainty & importance of

drift of sand or snow

impossible to dress an unity

Master’s down in bed &

Wearing Icelandic

Victoria BC/London ON: I’m always curious about collaborations, so was eager to see a copy of London, Ontario poets Andy Verboom and David Huebert’s chapbook FULL MONDEGREENS (Victoria BC: Frog Hollow Press, 2016). I must say, I’m not often attracted to poems displaying such formal considerations, but I’m rather fond of the rhythms these two have composed together:

EVANDER’S WHEELS

Evander peals through Mexico,

a dreamy rose-kissed Romeo.

A scarred embrace, an infant’s cry,

a nark, Bill, lamely zings on by.

Fierce lure: I need a fish taco.

Where is that bread? What brays that goat?

She weaved along the undertow.

Shove after shove rent sour her cry:

“Evander feels!”

Break up that coral, fish for toes.

Say! Brew some baby hands for show.

Ha! Scorch neighbours who scold the shy.

Iffy? Grey rape will rust through lies.

He falls asleep, jalopies blow,

Evander reels.

The rhythms are compelling, and the poems might appear straight, but are anything but. So far, Verboom is the author of the chapbook Tower (Toronto ON: Anstruther Press, 2016), and Huebert is the author of the full-length collection We Are No Longer The Smart Kids In Class (Toronto ON: Guernica Editions, 2015), but I am hoping that they might continue working together, even as they work on their own individual writing.