That time my poem “Reclaim the Streets” was published in the Washington Review, Volume 26, Number 1, from June/July 2000.
poems
Flashback: Five poems in Articulate
That time Articulate published a big two page spread with all five of my “circus poems” in Vol. 2, Issue 1, March 1996: “The Last Scarecrow,” “Fall of the House of Usher,” “Under the Big Top,” “Neomi Said ‘Love, Who Are You” (the correct title), and “Operation Clean Sweep.” The journal must have retyped my original manuscript, introducing the errors in the title and body of the fourth poem. I’d have to check my originals to see who misspelled “you’re” in the last poem.
All the poems were based on my experiences as an usher for the Cirque de Soleil’s run of Saltimbanco at the mall parking lot in Tyson’s Corner, VA. This was their Washington, DC, performance, running from Oct 14, 1993 to Nov 7, 1993. David Craig and I signed up together; I’m not sure I would have stuck it out if it wasn’t for him. As I recall, the best part was the free meals, which were actually very good.
Flashback: Two poems in Exquisite Corpse, 1994
That time two of my poems were published in Andrei Codrescu’s Exquisite Corpse literary magazine. Issue 49, from 1994.
Three poems accepted by Otoliths
Lately I’ve been involved in revising some poems, focusing on some line spacing and line break issues. There are also problems with transitions between sections that make the meaning more cryptic than it should be. Revision is usually a tough slog, but these revisions have been particularly problematic. Usually, the solution involves stripping out all the indents and starting over with arranging the lines. The poems getting this treatment have been rejected a few times by various literary journals, like Deluge, Rattle, Arsenic Lobster, Blackheart, Up the Staircase, and Gobbet; that seemed an indication they needed more work.
On Saturday, July 9, I heard back from Mark Young, editor of Otoliths, that he would use three poems for issue 42: “The Eggshell Skull Rule,” “The Dark Night,” and “Code within the Code.” The happy news came at a good moment, because I had spent many hours that day wrestling with revisions, and I needed the encouragement to stay in the game. You can find the poems on this page in the online journal. It’s especially nice because Otoliths is one journal I’ve enjoyed reading and find inspiring. There’s a big selection of visual poetry and other experiments to create a dynamic mix of styles.
Browsing the Otoliths site while preparing this post, I discovered they also have print versions available, including a copy of Issue 41 which also contains some of my work.
Cthulhu Limericks web ad launch
Today an advertisement for Cthulhu Limericks went live on Azimov’s Magazine website. Look for it at the bottom of the page. The image links to the book’s Amazon page (just like the one above), where print and ebook versions can be purchased. As part of an experiment to see if I can generate some book sales, the ad will have a one month trial run. I created an initial version, but the magazine’s advertising department souped it up to the more dynamic ad that appears on the site.
Below is an image of the ad in context on the Azimov’s website, right next to L. Ron Hubbard!
Savage Magic Live on Amazon
I’m happy to announce that my poetry collection Savage Magic is now live on Amazon. You can check it out here. They moved much faster than I expected in getting the book listed.
Because of the odd size, 7.5 inch square, the book apparently won’t list to any other retailers. So it’s just Amazon and Lulu for this one.
Savage Magic live on Lulu
Today I approved the proof copy of Savage Magic, a collection of poems featuring my character Jean Savage. This was the second proof, as I found an error in the first one: a space was omitted between the title and text of one poem. In a month or so, this book should be live on Amazon. At the moment, it’s available on Lulu.
Here’s the back cover blurb I wrote for the book: “[Savage Magic] collects all seventeen poems featuring the philosophy, life hacks, and adventures of Jean Savage, the heroine of the author’s avant garde science fiction novel Savage Night, as well as several short stories which also explore the potential of this rhetorical anima. Violent, erotic, polemical, and mystical by turns, these texts define a poetics of self-actualization and anticapitalist defiance in a mass media ecosphere using images of magic, sexuality, nature, paganism, graffiti, and crime. Something of a cross between a song of self and a rant against the machine, these works offer an obsessive, personal, and rhythmic cleansing and revenge, constructing a hermitage and then defending it from society’s commercial, hierarchical, and fraudulent tendencies.”
I had published four of these poems in my earlier collection Spells of Coming Day. When I recently located a box of old manuscripts, I was surprised to find so many other poems also featuring Jean Savage. I also found three stories I’d forgotten I’d written using the same character. A collection of those stories is planned for release this year under the title, Savage Space.
I’m especially happy with the covers for these companion volumes. The image is the result of experiments with analog video run through a video effects box called the Opti-Glitch, made by a Jacksonville, FL, duo working as Tachyons +. I haven’t had much time to work with my growing collection of video synths and effects, but the images are amazing. Mostly I’ve used the movies as backdrops for live performances. The still photographs make such great cover images I’m planning to use this much more often, especially since a photograph is very easy to work with in creating a cover design in Photoshop.
Rejections are pouring in
I recently dug out this book-length collection of poems for revision, and decided I needed to send some of them out to poetry journals. It would be great to just put out another book, but it seems like it would be more prestigious if at least some of the work had found favor with an outside editor.
Finding a journal that looks like it would be sympathetic with my work is hard. Ultimately, I just have to take the plunge and see what happens. There are a bunch of batches out there now. Recently, I started to receive the all-too-familiar form rejection letters. First I got one from Mudlark, then Rappahannock Review. In-Flight Literary Magazine and Slipstream soon followed. Now I have 15 poems come home to roost that need to go out again. Back to the grindstone!
Manuscripts found in a box
I had the happy surprise last week of finding a bunch of my old manuscripts stored in a box. How old? Well, most of them are dot matrix prints, some even on that tractor feed paper. Among the files of old poems were several things I’d totally forgotten I’d written: a long poem, two incomplete novel manuscripts, and three short stories. Some of this material could work as new books: a poetry collection and a short story collection.
The long poem centers on my character Jean Savage, who features in my novel, Savage Night, and several stories published in that same collection. Jean is sort of an anti-establishment figure who uses magic, sex, and violence in her mission of self discovery and rebellion. I also wrote a few poems with her in them, four of which made it into my collection Spells of Coming Day. Looking through the sheaf of old poems in the box, I realized there were more Jean Savage poems than I remembered. Ideally, there are enough for a short book. The long poem, Jean Savage Magic, seems pretty good on first read, so I’m hopeful the others will hold up as well.
The discoveries set me off in search of more complete poetry print outs, and I eventually located the notebooks where I had put everything. Then I searched for the backup discs, so I wouldn’t have to retype all this stuff. I couldn’t find any CDR backups that included these items, so I started looking at old floppy discs. I still have a pile of 3.5″ and 5″ floppies, and an auxiliary reader for the smaller ones.
One of the 3.5″ discs had a bunch of old poetry files, so I’ve been able to copy the short Jean Savage poems. But the long one continues to elude me. Maybe it’s on one of the other discs. The search continues.
The stories are from a series I did around the theme of “sex in space,” which Ducky Doolittle was supposed to publish in the 1990’s. One of the stories made it into my collection, Savage Night and Other Stories, but the remaining ones didn’t make it because they were hidden away.
I’ve been trying to keep my manuscripts organized as I write and publish them, particularly as I’ve been going back and revising stuff for publication. Looks like I still have a ways to go before everything is in order.
jeff bagato 