Rivals (Coolidge)

New arrivals are many, various, picayune & juggernauts. Some is accounted for & more must first be sorted through. In the meantime, a single book is worth drawing attention to, the new Clark Coolidge book, Counting on Planet Zero, which has just arrived in limited edition from Fewer & Further Press, helmed by Jess Mynes in western MA. The book has been out for a few weeks at least, if not more. I saw a preliminary copy of it when Jess read along with several Fewer & Further authors at David Kirschenbaum's ACA Galleries a while back. The book is all the more pleasant to hold in one's hands as a finished product; like all of Jess' work, it is both immediately attractive & designed well overall. There is an mp3 available on the F&F site, where one can hear Clark read several of the poems. Though I've had the file for months & listened to it continually, reading the work off the page for the first time is one of the more pleasant reading experiences I've recently had. Perhaps because of the mp3, Clark's voice is already imbued in the text. & though the book is only a chapbook, there are by my count 30 poems, to read it in one sitting is wholly fulfilling. Another winner from Fewer & Further, & another winner from Clark Coolidge, neither of which are surprises.



ON A PLATINUM FORCEP


This isn't the present this is a hospital
women will want to know you get well
the rest is all isinglass under christmas bulbs
mind if I sneak back to the animal barn?
the cheating ball? smart arms is
what you have to have to narrow in on
the to-do in Hovenweep its feelers
the tree's very bones outrageous nipples
but the picture in the pocket is of my office
the French became active after that
very well done thank you then the
smart ones cream the restroom squad
but I'll tell you what's in there the bird
conked someone on the head with it so
I describe this as the End As A Species
but just to hit on the idea of seriously
being crazy that's a hook and a half
sixteen sundays from sauerbraten
they say the sailors got over the snow
it grew all around their cabin like a brain
the aliens' bible is called Go Insane

Lost Nz 1

Sorry for the blurry. Above is Jess Mynes, the publisher of Fewer & Further Press, which is based in Western Mass & just released a new Clark Coolidge book Counting On Planet Zero. A while back now (May 3) I attended an exciting reading at ACA Galleries, which is somewhere, where several authors from Anchorite & Fewer & Further read. Some police disturbance event at the Canal St subway caused me massive lateness but it turned out I didn't miss very much. There was popcorn & white wine galore (yum), & it was nice to meet Jess, who I'd been emailing some for a while. He introduced me to others like Andrew Mr & Aaron Tieger (who gifted some Carve), who were very nice in talking to young unknown me, along with some other people like Brenda Iijima of Yo-Yo Labs, & I'd like to keep in touch with all of them. After the reading we all went out for a big fun drink mealy at some spanish joint, where I predictably ordered chicken & rice & predictably ate about 1/3 of what was put in front of me.

F&F books are never not beautiful & are never the same; I have things to glean & learn from the above man, who is also a librarian, which I need to get around to before too long if I ever plan on making money. But maybe there's no dough there either. With hope, that's the case. Jess was nice enough to gift me two past editions of asterisk, which is sortof like a magazine but more like a folded broadside & is designed very well, throwing a nice kink into the author-poem (dis)connection. With hope, more of these little zine treats are on the way, as I think only 2 have come out. Everyone who read that night was pretty entertaining, but Jess totally stole the show at the end, reading from In(ex)teriors, put out by Anchorite in an edition of only 75 (WTF?) that are long gone. I plan on lobbying with the Anchorite fellow (Rizzo) for a 2nd (bigger) edition, because more people need to get their mits on this one, including myself.