Poetry of the Week: "J. Beer 1969-1969," "Sonnets to Morpheus [Listen I want to tell you about Trinity.]" and "Sonnets to Morpheus ["This line is tapped, so I must be brief."] by John Beer

August 12, 2010 1:59 PM

John Beer's first book, The Waste Land and Other Poems, was published by Canarium Books in April 2010. His work has appeared in Verse, The Brooklyn Rail, Denver Quarterly, Seven Corners, and elsewhere.

J. BEER 1969-1969

It was when they determined that I had been born dead
That my life became easier to understand. For a long time,
I wondered why rooms felt colder when I entered them,
Why nothing I said seemed to stick in anyone's ear,
Frankly, why I never had any money. I wondered
Why the cities I walked through drifted into cloud
Even as I admired their architecture, as I pointed out
The cornerstones marked "1820," "1950." The only songs
I ever loved were filled with scratch, dispatches from

Poetry of the Week: "Barn Burning, An Eclogue," "Barn Burned, Then" and "They Sold The Calf. That Fall" by Michelle Taransky

Posted by Simone Muench

August 1, 2010 12:32 PM

Michelle Taransky lives in Philadelphia, where she works at Kelly Writers House, is Reviews Editor for Jacket2, and teaches writing at The University of Pennsylvania and Temple University. With her father, architect Richard Taransky, she is the coauthor of The Plans Caution (QUEUE 2007), as well as the author of Barn Burned, Then, selected by Marjorie Welish for the 2008 Omnidawn Poetry Prize (Omnidawn, 2009). Her poems have appeared in publications including Denver Quarterly, VOLT, How2 and New American Writing.

BARN BURNING, AN ECLOGUE

For those who say it is enough
Of the farmstead, not falling

Rain come last to bed and tearing
White sheets into small armies of animals

Where this keeper's concern meets
Old thrasher in the shed

Its keyhole patterned
After a breast and the calling

Poetry of the Week: "If You See It What Is It You See," "On Love Poems," "A Perfect Emergency" by Suzanne Buffam

Posted by Simone Muench

July 27, 2010 10:45 PM

Suzanne Buffam's first book, Past Imperfect, was published in 2005 by House of Anansi Press. The Irrationalist, her second book, was published in the U.S. by Canarium Books and in Canada by House of Anansi Press in April 2010. She's the recipient of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the CBC Literary Award for Poetry, and her poems have appeared in Boston Review, A Public Space, Poetry, and many other journals. She lives in Chicago.

IF YOU SEE IT WHAT IS IT YOU SEE

I didn't look at the fire.
I looked into it.

I saw a shelf of books
Crash down and bury me

Centuries deep in red leather.
I saw a statue in a park

10 Places You Might Not Want To Visit

Posted by Simone Muench

July 27, 2010 8:58 PM

Visit the list here

Poetry of the Week: "Epithalamium," "Abusing Another for the Sake of" and "Materniliad" by Brian Henry

Posted by Simone Muench

July 13, 2010 12:10 PM

Brian Henry is the author of six books of poetry—Astronaut (published in the U.S. and England, where it was short-listed for the Forward Prize, and also published in Slovenia in translation), American Incident, Graft, Quarantine (winner of the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America), The Stripping Point, and Wings Without Birds (Salt Publishing, 2010). His seventh book Lessness is forthcoming from Ahsahta Press in 2011. His poetry has been collected in many anthologies and has been translated into Croatian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, and Slovenian. He has co-edited Verse since 1995, and he co-edited The Verse Book of Interviews. His translation of the Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun's Woods and Chalices appeared from Harcourt in 2008, and his translation of Aleš Šteger's The Book of Things is forthcoming from BOA Editions.

EPITHALALIUM

What was I
but a cell in motion

the occasional collision

river gutter culvert

window through which I see you

the end-
point

Poetry of the Week: "The Memory Skin," "Dressing the Way" and "From the Girl Becomes" by Amy King

Posted by Simone Muench

July 5, 2010 6:22 PM

Amy King's most recent book is Slaves to Do These Things (Blazevox), and forthcoming, I Want to Make You Safe (Litmus Press). She is currently preparing a book of interviews with the poet Ron Padgett. She also teaches English and Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College and co-edits the site, Poets for Living Waters. With Ana Bozicevic, King co-curates the Brooklyn-based reading series, The Stain of Poetry.

THE MEMORY SKIN

I am opposite marriage.
My dinner cake is made
guerrilla style. Getting in
their faces sly,
shotgun raw, we spoke.
You held me well until
you closed with
the intellectual integrity
of a fucked-up life. To give
in to the grace
of a sudden condition,
that is the primacy of thought.

Chicago Art Images: January - June 2010

Posted by Paul Germanos

July 5, 2010 2:44 AM

Noelle Mason @ Thomas Robertello:

Above: LAN Party, in the exhibition,
Bad Boys
April 9 - June 5, 2010
Thomas Robertello Gallery
939 West Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60607
www.thomasrobertello.com

Previously:
What makes a man start fires?
Noelle Mason @ Antena Gallery, 2008
www.antenapilsen.com/exhibit01.html
And:
X-ray image of ivory buddha in transit from Hong Kong to Chicago
Noelle Mason @ Alogon Gallery, 2008
alogongallery.com/artwork/313912_Noelle_Mason.html
www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/7537.html

Tony Fitzpatrick (candid) @ Studio 1020:

Roger Hiorns @ Art Institute of Chicago:

Above: Untitled (Alliance)
Two Pratt and Whitney TF33 P9 engines from Boeing EC135 Looking Glass long-range surveillance planes.
May 1-September 19, 2010
Monroe Street entrance of the Modern Wing; Third Floor; Bluhm Family Terrace. Major funding by Boeing. Curated by the Art Institute of Chicago's Frances and Thomas Dittmer Chair and Curator of Contemporary Art: James Rondeau.
http://art.newcity.com/2010/05/10/review-roger-hiornsart-institute-of-chicago
http://blog.artic.edu/blog/2010/06/16/roger-hiorns-in-conversation
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/artnow/rogerhiorns/default.shtm

Back of the Yards

Posted by Ursula Sokolowska

July 1, 2010 7:25 PM

John Gaetano at his Apartment in Back of the Yards, Chicago, 2010

Poetry of the Week: "Riding in Cars with Monsters," "What Happened in the Pool" and "Under the Evergreens" by Marisa Crawford

Posted by Simone Muench

June 28, 2010 5:17 PM

Marisa Crawford is the author of The Haunted House, winner of the Gatewood Prize for Poetry, and published by Switchback Books. She grew up in New York and in Connecticut, and graduated from the University of Massachusetts, where she studied Creative Writing and Women's Studies. She received her MFA from San Francisco State University and lives in San Francisco where she works as a retail copywriter and sometimes teaches high school students about poetry & feminism. Some of her poems have appeared in Action, Yes, Shampoo, and Invisible Ear.

RIDING IN CARS WITH MONSTERS

I got hit with the ugly stick, and stuff. Woke up in a pool of monster sweat. The monster finds love so easily. The monster finds real love everywhere. Under rocks and buried in sand, behind trees, tangled in seaweed, love, love, love.
The monster has
a) enormous hearts for eyes
b) a locket with my picture in it
c) a fever

Quicky Art History Video

Posted by Mark Staff Brandl

June 27, 2010 4:04 PM

A 37-second video of the entire history of art from Prehistoric through now (English and German captions, no speaking). From a speech/performance I give where I teach the entire history of art in an hour and a half.

Featured Media: Post-Hysterical: Timeline, Comics and a Plurogenic View of Art History

By The Editors

Featured Media: "Idle Tears," after "The Princess," Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Poetry of the Week: "J. Beer 1969-1969," "Sonnets to Morpheus [Listen I want to tell you about Trinity.]" and "Sonnets to Morpheus ["This line is tapped, so I must be brief."] by John Beer

August 12, 2010 1:59 PM

Poetry of the Week: "Barn Burning, An Eclogue," "Barn Burned, Then" and "They Sold The Calf. That Fall" by Michelle Taransky

August 1, 2010 12:32 PM

Poetry of the Week: "If You See It What Is It You See," "On Love Poems," "A Perfect Emergency" by Suzanne Buffam

July 27, 2010 10:45 PM

10 Places You Might Not Want To Visit

July 27, 2010 8:58 PM

Poetry of the Week: "Epithalamium," "Abusing Another for the Sake of" and "Materniliad" by Brian Henry

July 13, 2010 12:10 PM

Poetry of the Week: "The Memory Skin," "Dressing the Way" and "From the Girl Becomes" by Amy King

July 5, 2010 6:22 PM

Chicago Art Images: January - June 2010

July 5, 2010 2:44 AM

Back of the Yards

July 1, 2010 7:25 PM

Poetry of the Week: "Riding in Cars with Monsters," "What Happened in the Pool" and "Under the Evergreens" by Marisa Crawford

June 28, 2010 5:17 PM

Quicky Art History Video

June 27, 2010 4:04 PM

By The Editors

By Ray Pride