Archive by Author

Salach, Cin 1998, 2006

Tuesday, May 4, 2006

Wednesday, April 29, 1998
A Formal Feeling Comes: A program celebrating multi-formalism
with Debra Bruce, Annie Finch,  John Frederick Nims, and Paulette Roeske

cin salach

This is what I was afraid of:
This paper   this thought   lines
dividing white space     lines dividing
nothing.
This exhaustion     this futility
this game or promise.

– Cin Salach, “specifically”

Broadside of "specifically" by cin salach.

Broadside of “specifically” by Cin Salach.

Buy this broadside in a series with Debra Bruce, Annie Finch, John Frederick Nims, and Paulette Roeske⇒

Watch Cin Salach read some of her poetry:

 

Wind drunk
women may leave
most men to cry
over raw pink
skies and lazy gardens

– Cin Salach, “Wind Drunk Women”

Continue reading this poem ⇒

Read this interview with Cin Salach from the Windy City Times:

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=25503

More info on Cin Salach ⇒

Paley, Grace 1999

Wednesday, April 21, 1999

What is sometimes called a
tongue of flame
or an arm extended burning
is only the long
red and orange branch of
a green maple

– Grace Paley, “Autumn”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Listen to Grace Paley’s 1999 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Watch Grace Paley read some of her work:

Short story author Grace Paley reads and answers questions

Grace Paley (1922-2007), a short story writer, poet and activist, was New York’s first official state author and later poet laureate of Vermont. Paley’s “Collected Stories” (1994) was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. This rare edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life was videotaped at Howard Community College, October 1988.

Twenty years ago
it was believed that the roots of trees
would insert themselves into gas lines
then fall   poisoned   on houses and children

– Grace Paley, “On Mother’s Day”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Read an interview with Grace Paley from the Paris Review:

The Art of Fiction No. 131

When Grace Paley visits New York, she stays in her old apartment on West Eleventh Street. Her block has for the most part escaped the gentrification that has transformed the West Village since Paley moved there in the forties. The building where Paley lived for most of her adult life and w…

More info on Grace Paley⇒

Padgett, Ron 1979; 2002; 2004

Friday, June 1, 1979
with Ted Berrigan
Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
with Anselm Hollo

I don’t mind Walt Whitman’s saying”I contain multitudes,” in fact I like it,
but all I can imagine myself saying is
“I contain a sandwich and some coffee and a throb.”

– Ron Padgett, “Embraceable You”

Broadside of “Embraceable You” by Ron Padgett

Buy this broadside⇒

Buy a signed copy of this broadside⇒

Listen to Ron Padgett’s 2004 reading with Anselm Hollo at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Ron Padgett begins at 35:15 minutes.

I bang into the water pail,
blue in the morning light,
though to tell the truth
I am blue in any light,

– Ron Padgett, “Mir”

Continue reading this poem⇒

 

Vintage poster of Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett giving a poetry reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett giving a poetry reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

 

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Billy Collins, Andrei Codrescu, Ron Padgett, Lucille Clifton, Mark Perlberg, Li-Young Lee, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Waldman, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Ted Kooser, Paul Carroll, Jorie Graham, and Paul Hoover.

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Billy Collins, Andrei Codrescu, Ron Padgett, Lucille Clifton, Mark Perlberg, Li-Young Lee, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Waldman, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Ted Kooser, Paul Carroll, Jorie Graham, and Paul Hoover.

Buy this audio recording featuring Ron Padgett⇒

More info on Ron Padgett⇒

Osman, Ladan 2014

Thursday, September 11, 2014
with Amira Hanafi
Saturday, April 9, 2016
with Fatimah Asghar and Roger Reeves
Tea Project at Links Hall

bw+elbow

Tonight is a drunk man,
his dirty shirt.
There is no couple chatting by the recycling bins,
offering to help me unload my plastics.

– Ladan Osman, “Tonight”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Listen to Ladan Osman, with Amira Hanafi, read for the Chicago Poetry Center:

I can’t tell why I think the dried corncobs
in the gravel and the mattress under the tree
were not put here by children who bite so fast
they leave rows of kernels.

– Ladan Osman, “Gnats”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch an interview with Ladan Osman:

More info on Ladan Osman⇒

Odelius, Kristy 2005

Wednesday, February 9, 2005
with Joel Craig and Srikanth Reddy

know why they despise vibrato.
Hovering suddenly above the alley,
into the open dumpster they fly
sucking Slurpees singing “I lick
the wind’s behind”…

– Kristy Odelius, “The virgins of Chicago”

Broadside of “The virgins of Chicago” by Kristy Odelius

Buy this broadside⇒

Buy a signed copy of this broadside⇒

Buy this broadside in a series with Joel Craig and Srikanth Reddy⇒

And when the reds arrive moving as if toward a name
Or a distant cabana, zero in on a shelter
As a generation glides with ignorance and grace

– Kristy Odelius, “Cardio/sky”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch Kristy Odelius read some of her work:

Kristy Odelius

Rabbit Light Movies Episode #13 Summer 2011 Filmed March 1st 2011 in Wicker Park, Chicago

More info on Kristy Odelius⇒

Notley, Alice 1975; 1984

Friday, April 18, 1975
An Homage to Frank O’Hara
Friday, November 30, 1984
with Paul Carroll

What I lose you let me, accusation
always gets one in. But I want to talk like the dead
remember that town where we went or
how do I know when I’m just a soul – not
when I’m leading?

– Alice Notely, “My Sea”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch a Alice Notley read her work at the University of Chicago:

No Title

The Renaissance Society and Poem Present co-presented this reading by Alice Notley on November 17, 2011. Notley has published over 25 books of poetry, including Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005 (2006), awarded the Lenore Marhsall Poetry Prize; Disobedience (2001), awarded the Griffin International Poetry Prize; Mysteries of a Small House (1998); The Descent of Alette (1996); Close to me & Closer .

An old woman of indeterminate race, in white hat
and scarf, no teeth staring back at me.
He sounded brittle and superior last night, do the
dead do that; Grandma had a plethora of tones of voice
compared to anyone in this anthology…

– Alice Notley, “The Anthology”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Read an interview with Alice Notely from the Boston Review:

“At the Mercy of My Poetic Voice”: An Interview with Alice Notley – Boston Review

Collaged fan. Image provided by Alice Notley. Talking with Alice Notley, I was equally struck by her ferocious integrity-her insistence, for

More info on Alice Notely⇒

Nims, John Frederick 1997; 1998

Wednesday, February 19, 1997
Wednesday, April 29, 1998
A Formal Feeling Comes: A program celebrating multi-formalism
with Debra Bruce, Annie Finch,  Paulette Roeske, and Cin Salach

Glossies of Eden? The slim beached curled
Between rocks and the frill of foam–that’s when
There’s thunder of tunnels and the underworld.

– John Frederick Nims, “from the rapido: la spezia-genova”

Broadside of "from the rapido: la spezia-genova" by John Frederick Nims

Broadside of “from the rapido: la spezia-genova” by John Frederick Nims

Buy this broadside in a series with Debra Bruce, Annie Finch, Paulette Roeske, and Cin Salach⇒

My gun, the color of winter rain and thunder,
Is algebra, poetics, and love’s image.
All which a tired soul would and cannot, this is.

– John Frederick Nims, “Colt Automatic”

Continue reading this poem⇒

More info on John Frederick Nims⇒

McCray, Maria 1999

Wednesday, January 27, 1999
Mixed Bag Series – 5 Chicago Performance Poets
with Nina Corwin, Kent Foreman, Regie Gibson, and Marvin Tate

Billie sang!     the truth of blooming blood blossoms
the bottomless search-seek for love,
the pitless people, pillaging, plagiarizing,
picking apart

– Maria McCray, “Holliday & Well Worth a Celebration”

Broadside of "Holliday & Well Worth a Celebration" by Maria McCray

Broadside of “Holliday & Well Worth a Celebration” by Maria McCray

Buy this broadside in the Mixed Bags Series⇒

More info on Maria McCray⇒

Muldoon, Paul 1999

Wednesday, April 7, 1999

I’ve done some heavy lifting
And flexed my abs against the absolute
On the monastery farm
I’ve tried and tried the treadmill of the true
But it’s as nothing, schoolmarm,
To what I’ve tried with you

– Paul Muldoon, “Schoolmarm”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Listen to Paul Muldoon read and discuss his work for the Poetry Foundation’s Poetry Lectures:

I ran into Miss Adventure
At the Bluebird Cafe
I pressed myself upon her
She kinda gave way
I said I’m racked with guilt
For having made so free
She gave her head a tilt
She said don’t you see

– Paul Muldoon, “You Gotta Take Out Milt”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Read an interview with Paul Muldoon from the Paris Review:

The Art of Poetry No. 87

Paul Muldoon was born in County Armagh, in Northern Ireland, in 1951. He is the eldest of three children. His mother was a primary schoolteacher and his father held many jobs, including mushroom cultivator. Muldoon attended Queen’s University from 1969 to 1973, and remained in Belfas…

More info on Paul Muldoon⇒

Muench, Simone 2003; 2010; 2014; 2017

Monday, November 3, 2003
with Jennifer Grotz and Quraysh Ali Lansana
Thursday, May 27, 2010
with Jenny Boully
Friday, August 29, 2014
with Jason Koo and Roger Reeves
Chicago Cultural Center
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
with Tara Betts, Ruben Quesada, RJ Eldridge, and Kristy Bowen

bw+elbow

In this mouth I gather darkness, an aria,
rosewater tongue, tympanic bone,
a poem more quiet than quietness,
a bronze song, something undone, salvia,
a crushed butterfly.

– Simone Muench, “Elegy for the Unsaid”

Broadside of “Elegy for the Unsaid” by Simone Muench, “Try” by Jennifer Grotz, and “burdens” by Quraysh Ali Lansana

Buy this broadside⇒

Listen to Simone Muench’s 2014 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Six Points Reading Series:

we were movie stars
              who never entered the frame.
                     we were green and gone
lisping “o” words in the air:
ode, odalisque, obituary.

– Simone Muench, “Orange Girl Suite [excerpt]”

Continue reading this poem⇒

 

Roger Reeves, Simone Muench, and Jason Koo at the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Six Points Reading Series, August 29, 2014.

 

 More & more I see the human form,
a nothingness which longs to be the sea.
Lives infinitely repeated down to atomic thinness
like footfalls in a strange house. 

– Simone Muench, “Wolf Cento”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Listen to Simone Muench’s 2010 reading with Jenny Boully at the Chicago Poetry Center:

Muench begins at 28:25 minutes.

Read an interview with Simone Muench from Newcity Lit:

The Great and Royal Animal Within: An Interview with Simone Muench

Interview with Simone Muench about her new collection of poems, “Wolf Centos”.

More info on Simone Muench⇒

Poetry Center of Chicago | Literacenter | 641 W. Lake Street, Suite 200 | Chicago, Illinois 60661