Issue nine of Otoliths

From Mark Young:

It is with both pleasure & sorrow that I announce the going live of issue nine of Otoliths. The pleasure is because this issue marks the beginning of Otoliths' third year, & once again contains a great variety of text & visual work. The sorrow is because Rochelle Ratner, a frequent contributor to this journal, passed away on March 31st. I'd like to dedicate this issue, in which she has new poems, to her.

In this issue are Rochelle Ratner, harry k stammer, Adam Fieled, Bill Drennan, David-Baptiste Chirot, Joel Chace, Michael Farrell, Reed Altemus, Andrew Lundwall, Douglas Barbour & Sheila E. Murphy, William Doreski, Duane Locke, Stu Hatton, Joe Balaz, Jeff Harrison, Raymond Farr, Esa Mäkijärvi, Bobbi Lurie, Julian Jason Haladyn, Simon Perchik, Suzanne Grazyna, Eileen R. Tabios, Diana Magallón & Jeff Crouch, Jeff Crouch & Matina L. Stamatakis, Thomas Lowe Taylor, Glenn R. Frantz, Angela Genusa, Randy Thurman, Philip Byron Oakes, Mark Cunningham, Geof Huth, Andrew Topel & Jim Leftwich & John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett & Luigino Solamito & Sheila E. Murphy, John M. Bennett & Scott MacLeod, Scott MacLeod, Robert Gauldie, Adam Strauss, Marcia Arrieta, Elizabeth Kate Switaj, William Allegrezza, Ernesto Priego, Ed Schenk, Irving Weiss, Mary Kasimor, Christopher Major, Derek Owens, Paul Siegell, Daniel f Bradley, Daniel Morris, Steve Timm, Mary Ellen Derwis, Thomas Fink, Louise Landes Levi, Toni Simon, Martin Edmond & Kirsten Kaschock.

As always, there's something there for everyone.

An Online Archive for bpNichol

www.bpnichol.ca

fresh & new

www.nokturno.org

for your ears only

Miia Toivio & Luther Blissett at the Suvela library, Espoo, March 11, 2008, recording to be found here.

issue eight of Otoliths is live

Issue eight of Otoliths, the southern summer 2008 issue, has just gone live.

It’s a few days early, but it’s been straining at the leash & seams so it seemed a good idea to let it loose before it ate the house up.

The issue contains, in order of appearance, work by Michele Leggott, Geof Huth, Nicholas Manning, Laurie Price, Sandy McIntosh, Reed Altemus, Alicia Dangereyes, Bill Drennan, gustave morin, Paul Hardacre, Felino Soriano, Pradip Datta, Spencer Selby, Spencer Selby & Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, David-Baptiste Chirot, Kristine Ong Muslim, Joshua A Ware, Patrick Gulke, James Sanders, Jill Chan, J. D. Nelson, Eric Burke, Philip Byron Oakes, Louie Crew, Márton Koppány, Thomas Fink & Maya Fink, Richard Kostelanetz, Paul Siegell, Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Sheila E. Murphy & John M. Bennett, Luigino Solamito & John M. Bennett, John M. Bennett, Jeff Harrison, John Lowther, Alexander Jorgensen, Martin Edmond, Christopher Major, Elisa Gabbert & Kathleen Rooney, Caleb Puckett, Cecelia Chapman, Guy Beining, Vernon Frazer, Bobbi Lurie, harry k stammer, Andrew Topel, Thomas Fink & Andrew Riley Clark.

As usual, it’s a marvellous mix of all sorts of things. Hie thee hither & enjoy.

Mark Young

in blues ended choir

Jukka-Pekka Kervinen has published a new book of poetry in Finnish, bluesissa loppunut kuoro, through his Ankkuri press.

Cia Rinne: archives zaroum på Afsnit P

Afsnit P proudly presents archives zaroum – a new digital work by the Finland-Swedish poet and artist Cia Rinne. archives zaroum is an archive consisting of 29 animated and interactive visual poems. The project is a reworking of Rinne’s collection of visual and concrete poetry zaroum, published in 2001.

Cia Rinne, born in Gothenburg in Sweden 1973, grew up in West Germany, and lived in her parents' native Finland for 13 years before moving to Denmark in 2007. She holds a MA degree in philosophy. Cia Rinne writes visual poetry and conceptual pieces, using simple drawings and different languages, and at times incorporating the pieces into installation works with found objects, as in the installation Indices – first shown in an old synagogue in Romania in 2003.

Besides her poetic work, Cia Rinne has been working on documentary projects together with the Danish photographer Joakim Eskildsen. Rinne and Eskildsen's latest collaboration documents the life and situation of Roma in seven different countries, between India and Finland. The project has included longer stays with the Roma, and has been presented in the books The Roma Journeys and Die Romareisen (Steidl Publishers 2007). Until February 10, Nikolaj – Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, presents an exhibition of Joakim Eskildsen's photographs from the project.

archives zaroum is the third part of a Nordic trilogy of contemporary visual poetry, Ord i øjet (Words in the Eye) on the Afsnit P website. The series is curated by Christian Yde Frostholm and Karen Wagner and is supported by The Nordic Culture Fund, Fondet for Dansk-Svensk Samarbejde, and Kulturfonden for Danmark og Finland.

the dirty old teddy bear takes whomever it wants

The one and only Maailman Paskin Nalle (or Dirty Old Teddy Bear, as they a bit euphemistically have translated the name), a notorious Helsinki-based rock band of which first drummer I had a great honour to be, back when the world was still innocent, has now a MySpace profile page. Go check it out. Especially the newest piece, "Why don't we do it on the boat", is an echt dirty song, that's for sure.

me me me

<i>i</i>

New at The Continental Review

From Nicholas Manning's The Newer Metaphysicals:

What is situated between reflection and reproduction? It is something like the space between sonority, visuality, textuality: a place of movement and transition, and specifically, that point of transition where difference stops being visible, and we move almost imperceptibly into the plane(s) of resemblance. Two heads cross, becoming one, or two birds' beaks cross, becoming leaves: language participates too in this continual, Ovidian metamorphosis, and thus gives the lie to Horace's taxonomy of stable parts.

This is by far, for me, one of the most coherent and also beautiful projects we've had the chance to feature at The Continental Review to date, a piece which achieves a stunning coherency between visuality, sonority and textuality, interweaving them into an integrated, if not thankfully seamless, fabric.

Not surprising either that this effort should come from Mark Young. The video features poems from Mark's Series Magrittes, read by Miia Toivio, with animation by Marko Niemi. As you'll see from that link just above, Mark's Series Magrittes, in its current state, is available from Moria as a fully downloadable e-book, which is a pretty excellent gratos Christmas gift.

So, do check out this extraordinary piece which announces the possibilities of a poetic medium for the new century.

From Mark Young's gamma ways :

When I posted some time back an announcement by Nicholas Manning that he had started an online journal, The Continental Review, devoted to poetry videos, I noted that I hoped it wouldn’t become a repository just for talking heads (“don’t forget the shoulders,” added Nicholas in the comments boxes).

Since then, amongst the poets who have appeared are a number associated with Otoliths; verbal — Tom Beckett, Jordan Stempleman, Eileen Tabios, Jill Jones — & visual — Spencer Selby, Nico Vassilakis. But I felt I should do something about my original statement & practice what I preach, as it were.

So finally, thanks to the informal Networks sans Frontières that create community in our (electronic) world, & especially thanks to the creative genius of Marko Niemi, substance has replaced pontifical stance. A video, working title "Three from Series Magritte", has just gone up at The Continental Review.

The poems included are:
The Flavour of Tears
Not to be Reproduced
The Art of Conversation
all from from Series Magritte, published by Moria Books.

The readings by Miia Toivio first appeared on Toisen äänellä – In Another´s Voice on the Nokturno.org website.

The design concept & the animated flash file are by Marko Niemi without whom this project would never have been realized.

Check it out at The Continental Review.

Think about contributing.

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.