Issue seven of Otoliths

Issue seven of Otoliths has just gone live. It's as eclectic as ever, but that means there's something there for everybody. Lined up in this issue are Sheila E. Murphy, Nico Vassilakis, Anny Ballardini, Vernon Frazer, Matina L. Stamatakis, Geof Huth, Matt Hetherington, derek beaulieu, Andrew Taylor, Nigel Long, Marko Niemi, Michael Steven, Anne Heide, Mark Prejsnar, Márton Koppány, Jim Leftwich, Catherine Daly, Bill Drennan, Julian Jason Haladyn, Alexander Jorgensen, Jeff Harrison, Paul Siegell, Robert Gauldie, Martin Edmond, Raymond Farr, John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Friends, Andrew Topel & John M. Bennett, Andrew Topel, Mark Cunningham, Jeff Crouch, Randall Brock, Eileen R. Tabios, Jordan Stempleman, Daniel f. Bradley, Lars Palm, harry k stammer, Karri Kokko, Katrinka Moore, Tom Hibbard, dan raphael & David-Baptiste Chirot. It's what Hieronymous Bosch dreamt about, a Garden of Earthly Delights.

The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader

From Lori Emerson:

Dear friends, I'm so happy to announce the publication of The
Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader, edited by Darren Wershler-Henry and Lori Emerson (Coach House Press 2007). Please forward this announcement far and wide!

yours, Lori Emerson
----------------------------
The Alphabet Game: a bpNichol Reader
Coach House Press
CAD $21.95
ISBN: 1552451879
http://www.chbooks.com/catalogue/index.php?ISBN=1552451879

bpNichol was one of Canada's most innovative, eclectic, entertaining, and, yes, enigmatic poets, making startling interventions in the development of poetry and profoundly influencing both his own and subsequent generations of writers.

The Alphabet Game: A bpNichol Reader amasses key texts from the very broad spectrum of Nichol's work, including both classic favourites and more obscure treasures. From the early typewriter poetry of Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer and the life-long poem The Martyrology to the heartbreaking prose of Journal and the whimsical autobiography of Selected Organs, The Alphabet Game traces the trajector of this wildly imaginative and prolific poet.

This Nichol anthology is an ideal introduction for readers encountering Nichol for the first time, and a much-needed compendium for Nichol fans seeking access to works not readily available.

'His wit, along with the seriousness, was there to keep the language free and untethered, to keep the poem aware of its roots, like a tuxedo worn with bare feet in a muddy river … No other writer of our time and place was so diverse, attempted so much, and never lost sight of his intent.' – Michael Ondaatje

The Alphabet Game: Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
The Complete Works (1969) 11

CONCRETE AND VISUAL POETRY
Konfessions of an Elizabethan Fan Dancer (1967/1973)
NOT WHAT THE SIREN SANG BUT WHAT THE FRAG MEANT 14
Poem for Kenneth Patchen 15
Blues 16
Easter Pome 17
Early Morning: June 23 18
Dada Lama: to the memory of Hugo Ball (1968) 19
The Cosmic Chef: An Evening of Concrete (1970)
untitled [nnnnnn] 25
Still Water (1970)
excerpts 26
ABC: the aleph beth book (1971)
manifesto 34
excerpts 35
Aleph Unit (1973)
Aleph Unit Closed 42
Aleph Unit Opened 43
Aleph Unit Surface 44
Aleph Unit Observed 45
Aleph Unit Not 46
Afterword 47
Alphhabet Ilphabet (1978)
H (an alphhabet) 48

FROM THE MARTYROLOGY (1972–1987)
Book 1 50
Book 2 55
Book 3 58
Book 4 78
Book 5 91
Book 6 Books 111

SHORTER POEMS AND SEQUENCES
Journeying & the Returns (1967)
Part 1: Blues on Green 130
Part 3: Ancient Maps of the Real World 133
Statement 142
The Other Side of the Room (1971)
circus days 143
stasis 145
Translating Translating Apollinaire: a preliminary report from a book
of research (1979)
TTA 4: original version 146
TTA 7: re-arranging letters alphabetically 147
TTA 13: sound translation 148
TTA 17: acrostic translation 149
from TTA 18: 10 views: view 1 (walking east … ) 153
TTA 30: poem as a machine for generating line drawings 154
TTA 53: typewriter translation after the style of Earle Birney 155
Extreme Positions (1981)
Extreme Positions 4 158

PROSE AND PROSE POETRY
Two Novels (1971)
Andy 170
For Jesus Lunatick 180
Craft Dinner: stories & texts, 1966–1976 (1978)
Gorg: a detective story 186
The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid 187
The Long Weekend of Louis Riel 191
Two Heroes 195
Journal (1978)
1 200
3 217
Two Words: A Wedding (1978) 219
Still (1982) 220
Selected Organs: Parts of an Autobiography (1988)
The Vagina 226
The Mouth 228
The Tonsils 230
The Lungs: A Draft 231
Sum of the Parts 234

LOVE ZYGAL ART FACTS
love: a book of remembrances (1974)
Frames 238
Trans-Continental 243
Allegories 272
zygal: a book of mysteries and translations (1985)
song for saint ein 280
Self-contradiction 281
probable systems 8 282
Pastoral 284
love song 285
love song 3 286
three small songs for gladys hindmarch 287
probable systems 289
probable systems 15: division of the signified 290
art facts: a book of contexts (1990)
The Frog Variations 291
Three Months in New York City: The Actual Life of Language 1 293
Sixteen Lilypads 307
untitled [asea/ease] 308
Catching Frogs 309
untitled [fr/pond/glop] 310
Water Poem 5 311
probable systems 24: physical contexts of human words 312

EPIPROLOGUE
Before Closure 313

afterword
Editorial Statement 316
Notes on the Poems 318
Select Bibliography 322
Permissions 326
Index of Poem and Book Titles 328
Acknowledgements 331
Biography 332

three new sound poems

by Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl @ nokturno.

updates

Visual poems by derek beaulieu, and Kaksi plus kaksi, a new marquee poem by Karri Kokko @ nokturno.

!!

digital poetry saturday

Digital Poetry Saturday, 8th September, 2 to 4 pm, Vuosaari House (near the Vuosaari metro station), Helsinki, with Teemu Ikonen, Eino Santanen, Tytti Heikkinen, J.P. Sipilä, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen & Jim Leftwich, Marko Niemi, Karri Kokko, Outi-Illuusia Parviainen, and Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl. Event is organized by Helsinki Cultural Office & Nokturno.

katalog for ny poesi

The forthcoming Audiatur - Katalog for ny poesi 2007, edited by Paal Bjelke Andersen & Audun Lindholm, with its 832 pages, seems quite a massive collection of Scandinavian and international contemporary poetry. Audiatur is also a festival and a bookstore.

sound poetry reading

Audio recordings from the sound poetry reading that took place on 22nd August 2007, in Kirjasto 10 library, Helsinki, as a part of the exhibition of experimental poetry, with Cia Rinne, Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, Outi-Illuusia Parviainen, Martin Glaz Serup, me as Martin's assistant, and Miia Toivio as the presenter.

five vispo pieces

by Marco Giovenale @ nokturno.

mean

My namesake from Italy, Marco Giovenale, sent this little vispo piece, which he made through a run of my "Written in the stars" piece @ minimalist concrete poetry.

bokstavtepper - visuell poesi

From Galleri Briskeby, Oslo, Norway:



www.galleribriskeby.no

Otoliths issue six is now online

From Mark Young:

Issue six of Otoliths has just gone live. It contains work by Adam Fieled, David-Baptiste Chirot, Bill Drennan, Joel Chace, Julian Jason Haladyn, Spencer Selby, Kristine Ong Muslim, Juliet Cook, Reed Altemus, Michael Steven, Jeff Harrison, J. D. Nelson, Alex Carnevale, Mary Ellen Derwis, Alexander Jorgensen, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa, dan raphael, Raymond Farr, Márton Koppány, Javant Biarujia, Philip Byron Oakes, John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Rochelle Ratner, Sheila E. Murphy, Arpine Konyalian Grenier, Jordan Stempleman, Ray Craig, Iain Britton, Paul Siegell, Andrew Topel, Ernesto Priego, Mark DeCarteret, Matthew Medina, Joe Balaz, Brian Foley, Luke Daly, Martin Edmond, Tom Beckett, Karri Kokko & ek rzepka & has a cover by Geof Huth.

A reminder that print editions of the previous issues are available at The Otoliths Shopfront along with an ever-growing number of books.

Cheers
Mark Young

aphorism generator

Pöllö (Owl), by Paavo Toivanen @ nokturno.

writings from the ground

Kirjoituksia maasta (Writings From The Ground) exhibition by Heikki Saure
July 10 through July 18, 2007
Galleria Happihuone, Töölönlahti, Helsinki

Kirjoituksia maasta is based on writings Saure found lying on the ground. For over ten years, he collected pieces of paper that contained some hand-written text or drawing.

Excerpts from the work has appeared in Tuli&Savu magazine, and the entire collection is available online, at Tuli&Savu Net and Nokturno.

Galleria Happihuone

how to fax in the mailroom honey

not much of anything

From Dan Waber:

The minimalist concrete poetry site at:

http://www.logolalia.com/minimalistconcretepoetry/

has been updated with 13 pieces by Marko Niemi.

Though we might quibble over semantics, I think we can all agree that it is desirable to live in a world where more poems have the ability to move.

Come, see, enjoy, live, love, learn.

Regards,
Dan

conceptual poems

by Márton Koppány @ nokturno.

slam pearls

Jouko Saksio, the Finnish champion of Poetry Slam 2006, reads his poems @ nokturno.

20 poems of love

and a song of despair, by Pablo Neruda (1924), translated into Finnish by Jusu Annala @ nokturno.

audio recording

Sirpa Kyyrönen & Mikael Brygger read their poems @ Nynny-klubi, Helsinki, June 13.