draconian measures

Here is an edited video of my appearance at the Revolving Door reading series earlier this month. The three excerpted poems are "The Carillon," "Circling Train Set" (originally commissioned for the Dollar Store series), and "My Penis." Thanks to Jamie Kazay and Jennifer Steele for having me read!

The Internet Archive now has my entire Price Charming album available. These versions have been tweaked ever-so-slightly by yours truly, so do not constitute a full-fledged remastered reissue; nonetheless, it's nice to hear these songs again after twenty (!) years. Hope you enjoy!

On May 19th I'll be one of the featured readers for the Revolving Door series. Hope to see you there!

I just blogged about today's Shields school-wide reading. Check it out!

In the 1980s and 1990s, I recorded a slew of albums that were only released on cassette. One of my ongoing to do projects involves digitizing and making available the 'best of', if not all of the music from this rather fertile period. Once that happens I will definitely make a more official announcement here, as well as through the Zenith Beast site. In the meanwhile, I just learned that Homemade Music has some of those songs posted online. Bryan Baker, Gojoob scribe, wrote about many of those releases and was quite helpful in obtaining for me some publicity for what was basically a one man operation. Check out what has been uploaded so far. Hope you enjoy!

Here's blogs about the student readers from both Shields and Solomon who participated in the Hands on Stanzas end of the year reading a few weeks ago. Everyone did a terrific job!

Here's Chicago Amplified's recording of the reading I gave back in February for Series A at the Hyde Park Art Center. Translator, Kristin Dykstra also reads.

Check out this interview which appeared in the spring Wordeater newsletter. Thanks, Kat!

I would be remiss if I didn't point out some of my upcoming musical performances as well. Tomorrow night is my Folk You! songwriters showcase, held the third Friday every month. We begin semi-promptly at 8 PM and run until 10, which makes it an early night if you'd like, and/or opens up possibilities to catch a later show if you're so inclined.

On April 29th, my band, The Injured Parties once again plays the fabled International Pop Overthrow (IPO) festival, here in Chicago. This is also an early show; we kick things off promptly at 8 PM.

Hope you can make it to either of these events. The Injured Parties has another date in June coming up, and Folk You! continues its monthly residency at The Horseshoe. In the meanwhile, I'll keep you apprised of solo and band performances in the Chicago area and beyond.

In addition to the other National Poetry Month readings I previously hyped, I'll be reading this Monday at Northeastern Illinois University's shindig:

The Department of English Presents SPRING 2010 LITERARY BASH Monday, April 19th Golden Eagles Room 6:00-10:00 p.m. Please join us for FOOD, FRIENDS and FINESSE The First English Department Literary Spring Bash The evening will feature readings from your beloved NEIU English Department professors, alumni and graduate students Poetry, Prose, Musical Intermezzo, Anecdotes, Philosophical Musings Readers include: Debra Bruce Michelle Steil Olivia Cronk Jen Besemer Elizabeth Marino J.J. Tindall Larry O. Dean Harry White Ryan Poll Bring your poems. OPEN MIC follows the slated readers. For more information contact Chi: c-eze@neiu.edu Northeastern Illinois University 5500 North St. Louis Chicago FREE PARKING IN LOT F & ON THE 5TH FLOOR OF THE PARKING GARAGE Hope to see you there!

Take a gander at the end of the year process poems from my students at Solomon Elementary. Rather boffo, if I do say so myself!

Check out my review of Edip Cansever's Dirty August in the April edition of New Pages.

Two recent blog posts from my Hands on Stanzas schools reflect work done in my final classes at Shields, where students created group process poems; and Solomon's annual European Heritage Assembly, for which I research work by contemporary and well-established poets to be recited by students. Please have a look at each blog.

After a month off from one of my Hands on Stanzas schools, I returned to Solomon last week. Our prior class dealt with erasures, so this time we worked on elegies. Student work, as per usual, was quite stunning. Please check it out. Tomorrow will be the annual European-American assembly at Solomon, for which I traditionally compile selected work by European poets the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers choose from for their students to recite. I pick new (and mostly little-known) poems every year for this event, and never know which will make the cut, so I'll post the featured poems after tomorrow's reading.

One of my residencies, at Shields Elementary is winding down, with the other school's last classes spread out over the next few weeks. As usual, it is with sadness but also a sense of accomplishment that I contemplate another twenty weeks (almost) done. We still have this week to go, as well as reports yet to come from Solomon, so I'm not recapping the year just yet. Instead, have a look at these poems by Shields 5th graders inspired by Robert Desnos' poem, "Identity of Images."

My review of Tony Hoagland's new book, Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty, is up at New Pages. Check it out!

I'm a little behind in my Hands on Stanzas posts. Here's the two most recent from Shields: on Mary Ruefle and erasure, and César Vallejo and elegy. Enjoy!

I'd like to thank my colleague at McHenry County College, Laura Power, for asking me to give a reading with Q&A on February 24th to students at that venerable institution. Preparing for the occasion gave me an opportunity to pour over some older work that I had not performed in a while, which I read along with recent material culled from my Brief Nudity manuscript, as well as a few new poems. The students were unerringly polite and unsurprisingly bright -- if only they could say the same about me!

During National Poetry Month, I have three readings scheduled: on April 15th, I'll be visiting Adam Heidenreich's creative writing class at Joliet Junior College for another reading with Q&A; on April 22nd, I'll be back at JJC for a featured reading that evening, at 7 PM; and on April 24th, I'll once again be participating at the "poetry cram" at Harold Washington Library Center, during the annual Chicago Poetry Fest. The fest starts at 10 AM; cramming begins at 2 PM.

Hope to see you at one (or more) of these events!

Check out these poems from both Shields and Solomon Elementary written during the second week of a two part lesson involving eco-critical poetry.

This week, a complete turnabout. Stay tuned...

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Monday, May 10, 2010

Monday, April 26, 2010

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Friday, April 02, 2010

Friday, March 26, 2010

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Monday, February 15, 2010

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