chocolate bunny toothpaste

Although I recently curtailed my practice of posting newly completed poems on my blog, I made an exception with the last entry, because I wanted to submit to 'past simple' and for that magazine's seventh issue, instead of submitting poems directly, they're asking writers to submit a link to poems on their blog; indeed, for this issue, they are allegedly ONLY accepting material that was previously published via personal blog. Interesting.

So those two pieces are two of three new poems that I wrote last week; the third piece has already been accepted for publication in the summer issue of Melusine, which will also be running a review of my HORRIFIC CONFECTION. Also on the poetry front, a new issue of Turntable & Blue Light is scheduled to go live this coming Monday and will include a couple of my poems, as well as an Italian translation of one of my poems by the luscious Letizia Merello. These two poems are part of my chapbook manuscript, 'Tongue Like a Stinger', coming soon as a free ebook from Wheelhouse Press. A new print chapbook, 'PINK LEOTARD & SHOCK COLLAR' is also coming soon from Spooky Girlfriend Press. Stay tuned.

Speaking of chapbooks, I only have one copy left of 'Gingerbread Girl', my 2008 chapbook from Trainwreck Press, which is kind of like a slim little sampler of my HORRIFIC CONFECTION innards or maybe more like a perverse appetizer of sorts. I also only have one copy left of MONDO CRAMPO published via the dusie kollektiv 3. The sensational Susana Gardner is slowly starting to release the dusie 3 chaps in PDF format, so sooner or later, MONDO CRAMPO will be available to partake of for free online, but if you covet the last print copy, then quickly pay a visit to http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/. While there, peruse the latest multi-writer offering from the press, SPIDER VEIN IMPASTO, also avilable for sale (or trade or review copy; just ask me).

Speaking of Blood Pudding Press, I am in the early stages of working on Blood Pudding Press's next offering, the darkly delightful poetry chapbook, 'At Night,The Dead:' by Lisa Ciccarello. I hope to complete and make this project available next month.

I don't have time right now to indulge in a lengthy spiel about the matter, but have been thinking about how I need to get out there more in terms of poetry readings, seminars, panels, conferences and the like. In the last few years, I've become more hermit-like and due to that and my lack of association with a particular academic community, I am feeling as though I don't have enough direct interaction with other poets in real life and Blood Pudding Press visibility suffers for it. Blood Pudding Press feedback is largely positive, but my chapbook sales are pretty abysmal, to be be honest. I am an adoring fan of art trades and I do give away a number of chapbooks; I'm certainly not involved in pobiz to make a monetary profit, but I don't even come close to recouping my costs and I can't afford to continue publishing like that for too much longer. I feel that my literary stuff is going fine in the realms of reading poetry, writing poetry, getting my poetry published--but in the realm of me publishing other people's poetry, something has to change, because I feel that Blood Pudding Press visibility and popularity is low compared to what I seem to hear about other small presses. It seems like I'm often reading on other small press websites about the latest print run of 100 is almost sold out; meanwhile I'm sitting here thinking, 'Where is this audience coming from, because I'd be lucky to sell out a print of 10?'

I think I need to get out there more, consider grad school or some other sort of academic involvement, and think about attending AWP 2010, even though I don't know how I'm going to financially finagle it. I've not attended an AWP yet, primarily due to lack of financial flexibility and lack of mobility. I seem to hear a lot of poets conversing about spur of the moment buying a plane ticket to attend this or that poetry reading or conference or what have you; meanwhile I'm sitting here thinking, 'Aren't these people semi-obscure small press poets much like myself? How do so many of them seemingly have the financial flexibility to travel hither & thither in support of poetry?' Is it because they work in academe and can write off these kinds of events? I don't get it and sometimes it makes me feel like I must be doing something wrong and sometimes I feel guilty because I cannot participate; I feel as if I'm not doing enough in support of poetry (my own poetry and the poetry of those I publish through Blood Pudding Press), so perhaps I need to start thinking about some things differently, prioritizing differently, and viewing the academic establishment from a different vantage point. Perhaps more on this later; I'm overwhelming myself right now.

In one of my dreams last night, I was brushing my teeth with a chocolate bunny.

Thirteen Myna Birds is still accepting submissions on an ongoing, rolling basis. Have a gander at http://13myna.blogspot.com/ and consider submitting if you think you fit the bill--and by bill I mean beak--and by beak I mean a heaving mass of burnt chocolate...

co-optation

Last night's conversation involved 'found art', co-opted or reappropriated poetic materials that are not credited as such and whether or not this is acceptable (i.e. when does reappropriation become misappropriation or at least some kind of appropriation that I'm not comfortable with), especially if what's been reappropriated is something that's already been translated and the re-sale of used but laundered women's undergarments. Conversational catalysts inlcuded a poetry chapbook, a book of translated poetry, and a Craigslist advertisement. One comment I made is that I might take an interesting-to-me snippet from a Craigslist advertisement and incorporate it into a poem which would be a kind of recontextualization, which is a practice that does strike me as potentially poetic; however, I would not simply take an interesting snippet and place the snippet in & of itself on a blank sheet of paper and call it my art, because all I did in that case was notice the snippet and cull it, I did not recontextualize it or recast it or incorporate it into an original creation of my own. I don't think a blank sheet of paper counts as a new context and I don't think the act of personal perception in & of itself counts as art. If I place something pre-existing on a blank sheet of paper, that might be interesting to me and it might even be interesting to others, but it is not my art. Of course, this is a very simple example and how does conceptualization play into the definition or value of found art? I was reading a new-to-me book of translated poetry last night; it was published several years ago and I was aware that it existed, but I never read it before. I was suddenly weirdly disturbed to realize that I had inadvertently published two poems by another writer that were very obviously modeled after two poems in this book of translated poems, yet he had made no mention of his source material. I was taken aback by this and wasn't sure how to feel about it, but was certainly not entirely pleased. I felt weirdly culpabale as an editor/publisher in that unbeknownst to me, I had published two pieces that were not exactly original. Basically, the writer had used the structure and tone of the original translated poems and changed some of the words. Okay, it went beyond changing words in that he had made the addition of some of his own unique imagery, yet his poems were so blatantly so clearly modeled after somebody else's translations of somebody else's poems that I felt surprised and somewhat displeased that he had not credited the source material. Certainly, many writers sometimes use other writers' material as creative catalysts or jumping off points for their own material and with varying degrees of infiltration, insinuation, and maybe even sometimes inadvertency, but there was nothing inadvertent about this particular co-optation. Also, this wasn't an appropriation of older historical texts (I'm thinking of something like Genet in Acker), but of contemporary poetry by another contemporary poet...

pig troughs & cake frosting

I've recently written new Associated Content articles regarding Father's Day, P.J. Harvey, Rasputina, Twin Peaks and David Lynch as creative catalysts, and the Surly Girl Saloon in Columbus, Ohio--with more coming soon. Check them out if so inclined.

Juliet Cook's Source Page - Associated Content

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/363475/juliet_cook.html

I'm also working on some rather squalid new poetry, which I may or may not post here. The latest piece involves pig troughs and cake frosting--in one way or another...

pop

I am strangely amused that someone or something happened upon the latest flight formation of Thirteen Myna Birds via a seacrh for 'what type of birds pop out their chest'. I think I might even co-opt that line for a new poem.

Also, I currently only have two remaining unspoken for copies of MONDO CRAMPO, so anyone who still wants in in that gooey action should probably act fast.

academic v. non-academic poetry stance

Okay. I've been trying to think what I want to write about here and so far I'm still not very inspired except to say that usually when I say that I'm 'not very academic', I mainly mean that I am not functioning or speaking from within an academic context. Unlike most other poets I know, I do not have an MFA and do not necessarily aspire to one; I haven't been entrenched in academe since my undergraduate years which came to an end in the mid 90's--and although I had a largely enjoyable and positive undergraduate experience, somewhere in the intervening years, I've come to think of academic entrenchment as being somewhat insular and exclusionary.

Of course, a lot of things are insular and exclusionary in their own ways.

However, when it comes to the contemporary poetry scene, even though it's a pretty multifaceted and diverse scene, I have sometimes found myself feeling excluded from certain conversations (or maybe not so much excluded as just not as privy to them) due to my somewhat non-academic background. Certainly, I am well-read when it comes to poetry and even poetry criticism and theory and such, but sometimes it seems like if I want to take part in certain dialogues then I have to purposely assert myself or insert myself into those dialogues and occassionally I worry that this insertion may be unwelcome because I am not coming from a certain background or a certain community or a certain network or whatever. Then too, that could just be my own neurotic insecurity rearing its silly little hydra head or tentacles.

Also, perhaps semi-related, I sometimes find myself feeling strangely 'in-between' in that even though I don't identify as an academic poet, I also don't identify as an 'outsider' poet. Then again, I'm sure most poets feel in-between or misfit-like or misplaced in their own ways. Not many people love labels, after all, right?

One thing I really like about the online poetry community, which I have become increasingly involved with in the last five years or so, is that it serves as a sort of equalizer in such regards, in that any poet can attempt to make her voice heard throught the channels and forums of her choice and I think that persistence in such regards will eventually pay off, or at least it has for me. Of course, even the online poetry community is exclusionary, as it is excluded to those with an internet connection, a personal computer, and a certain luxury of time.

More on this later.

publication and review

The first issue of new online literary magazine MELUSINE is now available and amongst other goodies includes a review of my 2008 poetry chapbook 'Planchette' (published by Blood Pudding Press) and a poem from my full-length poetry collection, 'Horrific Confection'.

http://www.melusine21cent.com/mag/

The Editiorial for this issue is also quite interesting and well worth a read.

SPIDER VEIN IMPASTO

The first Blood Pudding Press multi-writer chapbook of 2009 is now available!

See the Bloody Ooze blog or the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop for more details.



http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=23219261

review

My review of Lara Glenum's MAXIMUM GAGA is now appearing in the April issue of Gently Read Literature. Happy Poetry Month!

http://gentlyread.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/the-revolting-body-of-lara-glenum%e2%80%99s-maximum-gaga-reviewed-by-juliet-cook/

And happening here is an interesting conversation related to the review:

http://exoskeleton-johannes.blogspot.com/