Online literary journal Unlikely Stories Mark V has hit its 20th anniversary this year, and it’s celebrating with a massive issue. Tons of content, from visuals to videos, stories, poems and hybrid works, by a huge range of authors from the contemporary scene. I’m pleased to be a part of this one, with three poems: “Goosepimples of Death,” “The Shooting Never Stops,” and “One Shot for the Record.” You can read them here.
Yesterday, my poem “Beneath Collapse” appeared in online literary journal Soft Cartel. Subtitled “earthquake scenes 1999,” this ten-part piece came out of preparatory work for the Doom Pussy stories, where earthquakes are used as a weapon. I was reading newspaper reports of earthquakes and began cutting and slicing them, drawing out the most vivid and intense images to highlight the violent destruction and human drama. You can read the full poem here.
An online journal of experimental poetics, Futures Trading released its new issue today. Volume 6.1, this is a larger issue than usual because the journal has gone from a quarterly to biannual publishing schedule. Lots of writers from the international “scene” represented, as you can see in the masthead image above.
I’m pleased that three of my poems appear in this issue as well: “A Binary Run,” “Some Other Aztalan,” and “Ancient Americas.” All three come from my “Civilization’s Lost” series using lost cities and civilizations to examine the fragility of languages, cultures and nations in the wake of the current US regime. You can read those pieces and the whole issue here.
An online journal for experimental word stuffs, Brave New Word released Issue 10, part 2 today. This one consists of previous contributors to the magazine, including John M. Bennet, Hiromi Suzuki, Jeff Hansen, Peter Ganick, Neal Retke and Ferderico Federici. Lots of vispo and truly out poetry. It also includes one of my Gonch poems: “Gonallach Nang Chaal.” You can read it here.
Submitting poems to the Word of Poetry contests in the late 80s amused me, so I did it several times. Here’s the Award of Merit Certificate I received on Nov 21, 1987–when my poem “The Spoon Room” won Honorable Mention in the New American Poetry Contest. This rank was shared with hundreds of other poets. But I did receive a nice certificate, suitable for framing.
The company also asked to publish the poem in their New American Poetry Anthology. Judging by the photocopy of the form I kept, I returned the signed form authorizing them to use it. Years ago, I found one of those anthologies in a thrift store. It contained thousands of poems crammed onto hundreds of 8.5 x 11 pages, in no particular order. I could never locate any of my poems in the book.
Here’s “The Spoon Room” text on the authorization form:
World of Poetry’s business model seemed to be rewarding every single poet who submitted work with a personalized certificate or honorable mention, and then selling them encyclopedic anthologies. As a contributor, I was entitled to a discount on the $69.95 price–reducing the cost to $39.95. Poets could pay extra for including a dedication, photograph, or illustration. I didn’t have that kind of money at the time, so I never bought the book. But somewhere, World of Poetry anthologies must be floating around with my work in them.
The June 2018 issue of Ygdrasil was released yesterday on the 14th, including poems by Robin Wyatt Dunn, Mark Young, Darren Demarree, and many others. Three of my poems are included: “Ouija Makes a Mark,” “The Flight Plan’s On Fire!” and “Perfect Weather.” You can read them and the whole issue here.
The Ouija piece is one of a growing series featuring the Ouija board as a character in various metalinguistic situations. “Flight Plan” is yet another attempt to process the current US regime in some creative way. The last piece is more abstract.
Issue 5 of online experimental journal Avant Appal[achia] went live today, featuring text and visuals. Among those are two of my Gonch poems, “Chaana Chaana” and “Hacan Laachnaggo.” You can check out the pieces here for a short time; eventually, the issue will be archived with only one representative piece from each genre. Not sure if Gonch will make that cut.
This is more work featuring words improvised from the letters in the phrase “All Gonch” in an effort to explore a potential future language that might arise after the decline of American English. No need to look too far for a meaning to “Gonch;” it’s just a nonsense word I made up when I was a kid.
Night Garden Journal (formerly Black Poppy Review) features dark and atmospheric poems. Today, my poem “Neon Dust Falling Out of Time” was published. You can read the full piece here.
Just discovered that one Gonch poem appeared in Ex-Ex-Lit journal on June 11. This one is “Nag Nag Nallanach Gonhal,” and you can read the full thing here.
That time I did a group reading at Populous Pudding in Willimantic, CT. I don’t remember this event very well. Judging by a letter I got back then from Charlie Krich (who organized poetry events at the space), he invited me to do an earlier reading on November 4, 1988. I only recall one reading I did there when people laughed at a line in one of my poems about “frying bologna.” But I don’t know which show that was.
Populous Pudding was a short lived DIY space that hosted art shows, poetry readings, and punk concerts. The music took place in the back of the space, said to be an old fur vault. It had a serious metal door on it with a wheel crank, like something you’d see in a bank. I saw some of the best shows there: Laughing Hyenas, Crystalized Movements, Fire Party, Fidelity Jones, Woodchipper and Bimbo Shrineheads. Since I was actually in grad school at UConn in neighboring Storrs, I didn’t get over there as much as I would have liked to.
jeff bagato 