“enveloped by hurricanes’ thinking elephant” in Bindweed’s Devil’s Guts anthology

The latest Bindweed anthology, Devil’s Guts, which includes my poem ““enveloped by hurricanes’ thinking elephant” is now available from lulu.com

four found poems at Angry Old Man

The following four found poems

appear in Issue 7 of Angry Old Man:

“My mother pinned a rose on me”

“Looking for trouble”

“Look at a flower”

“Let’s go” 

Caveat Lector features three excerpts from Autobiography of a Book

Three excerpts from Autobiography of a Book appear in the Spring 2019, v. 29 no. 2, issue of Caveat Lector.

They appear under the Essay heading, introduced by a note I wrote to give a reader a sense of what Book is up to. 

Here’s a direct link to the excerpts: link

"The man in the coffin" in Humble Pie #16, cover & poem

"Customer Service" in Blue Unicorn, Spring 2019

Reading with Babar-in-Exile at Octopus on 5/9/19

I will be reading with Babar-in-Exile this coming Thursday. Here’s the announcement from their website:

Babar in Exile celebrates its FOURTH BIRTHDAY (!!) with a romp through the minds of light-struck poets (and maybe some cake). For our 18th installment, we are excited to feature two former and very active participants of Café Babar and Poetry above Paradise series of the 1990’s who have been in the poetry trenches ever since. Blogger and poet Glenn Ingersoll currently runs the reading and interview series Clearly Meant at the Berkeley Public Library. And mental health advocate and multi-genre writer Deborah Fruchey is hard at work editing an anthology of tribute poetry to Julia Vinograd for Zeitgeist Press. As well we welcome “honorary Babarian” Yume Kim, a perspective-challenging SF poet who will feel right at home with these rad oldsters.

So come on down to check out a slice of Bay Area poetry history, now and in the making, and make your way home with a bindle full of inspiration and a thimbleful more hope for the species.

Babar in Exile #18

a revival of the Cafe Babar, Paradise Lounge, and Club Chameleon reading series
featuring

Glenn Ingersoll

Deborah Fruchey

and Yume Kim

and you, in our infamous open mic

Hosted by Richard Loranger and Paul Corman-Roberts

free of charge and oppression

Glenn Ingersoll hit the scene back in the 90s when Cafe Babar and Poetry Above Paradise were hot, and snagged features at both places. Where fame went after that is hard to say. Currently Ingersoll works for the Berkeley Public Library where he hosts Clearly Meant, a reading & interview series. He keeps two blogs, LoveSettlement and Dare I Read. He has two chapbooks, City Walks (broken boulder) and Fact (Avantacular). Recent work is in Sparkle + Blink, Mary, The Walrus, and Caveat Lector. The multi-volume prose beast, Thousand, is on its way from MCT Publishing.

Deborah Fruchey tried to write her first book at the age of 8. She went by the name Debralee Pagan for a while, but people still mispronounced it, so she gave up. Her first novel was chosen as a Best Book by the American Bookseller’s Association, and her manual on mental illness was once described as “The best book of its kind.” Her latest is a volume of flash fiction called Priestess of Secrets. All of her work is available on Amazon. Deborah has spent too much of her life in churches, psych wards, and poetry readings, and has appeared in 10 anthologies. She is the editor of the coming anthology in tribute to Julia Vinograd, from Zeitgeist Press - you are invited to contribute! Her ambition is to acquire a cult following and a flat stomach. If she can’t have that, she would settle for never receiving a robocall ever again!

Yume Kim lives in San Francisco but commutes to South Bay for tutoring/teaching. She is a grad  recipient of both an MA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. She is also a Kundiman fellow recipient from Fordham University. Her forthcoming chapbook (title TBA) will be published by Nomadic Press sometime this year.

Date: 

Thursday, May 9, 2019 - 7:00pm

Octopus Literary Salon

2101 Webster Street at 22nd St.

Uptown Oakland

19th Street BART

“The man in the coffin” in Humble Pie

The Spring 2019 issue of Humble Pie, a literary magazine of the California College of the Arts in Oakland, is including my poem, “The man in the coffin.” 

I am going to be at the publication reading tomorrow night, May 7, 8pm at the A2 Cafe on the CCA campus, 5212 Broadway (at the foot of College Ave). There will be free pie. See you there!

Two poems at Scarlet Leaf Review

"had enough of want some make” and “anything that ends”

appear in the March/April issue of Scarlet Leaf Review.

“Beautiful People, Beautiful Food” in Poetic Diversity

"Beautiful People, Beautiful Food” 

is in the April 2019 issue 

of Poetic Diversity. 

“Instead” in Cleaver Magazine

The poem ”Instead” appears in Cleaver Magazine, issue no. 25, Spring 2019. 

“Instead” is one of a series of poems I crafted from (or found in) the library database of the University of California at Berkeley when I was a student there. All the lines are titles, usually of books. 

14 months

The poems I posted about yesterday started doing the rounds in December, 2017. I sent them to a few different places right away. Then I turned my attention to sending out other poems and doing other things. 

Publishers responded over the course of the next several months. Poems that were part of this series but which had gone out in other batches began to place. Few responses to this particular batch of five. In fact, four of the publishers to which I sent this batch in December, 2017 had not responded as of yesterday when I wrote to withdraw the poems from consideration. Publishers stop publishing, submissions get overlooked. 

Middle of 2018 I made a new push to get this batch before editors, every couple months sending it to another place. Rejections came in. I like the poems. I like them as much as others in the series that were taken up quickly. So I kept them going out.

Finally, an acceptance! An ezine took one. Yay! Dutifully, I wrote fifteen places I’d sent the poems to over the course of 14 months, fifteen places that had not yet responded, in order to tell them one of the poems had been spoken for, and asking  them to continue to consider the other four. Shortly thereafter I got a rejection, prompted, perhaps, by the notification. Then I got an email from Reuben Woolley of The Curly Mind, an email including a link to a post on the ezine that featured the four poems. 

Mr Woolley had not just accepted the poems, he had right away posted them. I like it when that happens! 

So, just a week after I’d written to notify editors that one poem was no longer available, I wrote to them again to tell them that none were. 

Fourteen months from first submission until I could close the book on the batch. Nothing unusual in this. No records set or disturbing stories. It felt a little weird to have this batch circle and circle while other poems in the series settled. Is there anything to learn? I think it just confirms what I already know. The randomness. 

Sometimes the poem will find the editor who loves it on its first foray. Other times it will take many a trek past editors near and far. And, yes, there are still some poems I started sending out in 2017 that haven’t yet found anyone (besides me) who loves them. 

four poems at The Curly Mind

Four poems have posted at The Curly Mind: linguistically innovative poetry.

Click the link above to read 

“this clouded kiss I rain in you” 
“your immediate wisdom” 
“only unopened to be a drum” 
“wind made of random arrows”

“of defeat” at Columbia Journal

The poem "of defeat” at Columbia Journal.

"Inevitable Hopes" at Futures Trading

Futures Trading #6.2 is up now.

Click through the link above. 

Scroll down to page 24 to read my poem “Inevitable Hopes”.

"Enveloped by hurricanes' thinking elephant" at Bindweed

Bindweed has posted 

“Enveloped by hurricanes’ thinking elephant”

as part of their 

Devil's Guts 2018 anthology.

“two too neutral,” a poem at BLUEPEPPER

BLUEPEPPER has posted the poem

“two too neutral”

Three poems at Mojave Heart Review

The November issue of Mojave Heart Review includes three of my poems. Each gets its own link, plus the bio: 

”distracting accomplishments burn in palm trees” 
”feeling this occasion’s context” 
”the making of each thoughtful aim” 

my bio!

Previously Published: a rejection horror story at Submittable

Submittable is a software program that handles submissions for literary magazines and arts organizations. Mid-October Submittable put out a call for Rejection Horror Stories, promising to post their favorites on their blog.

I wrote up a story that's haunted me for at least 15 years. The folks at Submittable liked it (or it scared them). Here's a link (scroll down; it's the fourth piece on the page):

Submittable 2018 Halloween Rejection Horror feature includes "Previously Published"

“Yes” at Quiet Lightning

The video features me performing the poem “Yes” during Quiet Lightning’s May 7, 2018 event at StudioToBe in Oakland. If the video doesn't appear above you can click through and watch on youtube. 

At each reading Quiet Lightning gives away a magazine called Sparkle and Blink that includes all the work performed on that date. If you go, you get a copy free. Often there are back issues for sale, too. I have picked up several that way. 

“Yes” originally published in the magazine, Askew.

“Live Here” at Mary: a journal of new writing

The Spring 2018 issue of Mary: a journal of new writing features: 

Live Here