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.
An online poetry journal focusing on dark and atmospheric work, Night Garden Journal has started compiling its offerings into quarterly anthologies. The Autumn 2017 Issue has just been released on Lulu. The cost is $5.99; you can probably get a coupon from Lulu to knock a percentage off that. You can buy the book here.
Two of my poems are included, “Future Dragons” and “Shattered Maps.”
Angry Old Man is an online journal of experimental writing and art. Editor Drew B. David recently announced the release of the print version of Issue #3 in two volumes available through Lulu. Both the online and print versions are chock full of cutting edge writing and visuals in a dense mix reminiscent of Otoliths journal. Well worth checking out. The contents for each volume is listed below. Three of my Gonch poems and a selection of Gonchlog visuals is included in Volume 2.
The price of these volumes is rather high, but I believe they have full color images. You can also catch good sales via Lulu that knock of a decent percentage of the price. The online archive of the issue also remains available.
Fabio Sassi|, Frank Roger, Roberto Scala, Nichola Orlick, Dai Coelacanth, Fátima Queiroz, D.S. West, Mark Young, Michelangelo Mayo, Daniel Virgilio, Mauro Ceesari, Daniel De Culla, James Fowler, Blaize Dicus, John M. Bennett, Michael Tussler, Heath Brougher, Bob Katrin, Josh T. Jordan, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Robert Beveridge, Joel Chace, Joe Balaz,Douglas Jones,L. Friedman, Dale Jensen,Logan K. Young, Mark Young and Lance Mason.
Rik.Vile Plumage, Meena Sediqi, Thomas M. Cassidy, John M. Bennett, RCBz, David Baptiste Chirot, Jack Williams, R. Keith, Laura Ortiz, Bill DiMichele,Jeff Bagato, Michael Basinski, Mike Ferguson, Mike Maggio, Michael Mallen, John Jeffire, Dan Sicoli, Michael Estabrook, Steve Dalachinsky, Jim Leftwich, Howie Good, Jeff Crouch, David Koehn and Sacha Archer.
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.
Online poetry blog Thirteen Myna Birds has an unusual format, presenting a flock of thirteen poems or visuals at a time, etherizing them from the site when the next flock lands. The June flock was published today, including two of my poems: “Ass Splatter at the Beach” and “Debugging the Popular Wisdom.” You can read them here–but do it soon, as they may be gone in a month or so.
The new issue of Sheila-Na-Gig online poetry journal (Vol 2.4, Summer 2018) was released today. This one contains a special section of poets who are also editors of literary journals–which seems a pretty nice way to scope out future submissions. LOL
Anyway, this issue includes two of my poems, “Watermelon Void” and “A Little Vanity in Everyone.” The first meditates on the joys of summer that mask the pains, and the second, uh, seems to be about the queen of the squirrels. You can read them here.
Utsanga is an online journal for experimental writing based in Italy. Randomly checking in on it today, I was pleased to discover that a selection of my Gonch work had been published in Issue 15 on March 27. As you can see from the contents page above, this includes three text poems, six images from the Gonchlog, and my statement about the work. The texts are “Ancollachan Nog Nallanach,” “Chocnahal Clacano,” and Gnaachnalahal gon Lagan.” You can read the text works here, view the Gonchlog images here, and read the statement here.
Here’s part of the statement I contributed to explain the Gonch project:
The text pieces are new work using a vocabulary limited to words invented from the nonsense phrase “All Gonch.” It’s an attempt to create a new language, imagining also the culture behind it through the shape and structure of the words, that might arise after the death of the current (American) culture and language.
The images are part of another phase of the Gonch project I call the Gonchlog. In this process, I search through consumer magazines and cut out the five letters of “gonch,” then glue them onto accounting paper. The source, its date of publication, and volume number are noted. The intention is to draw out that key nonsense word from these commercial propaganda vehicles in order to find a way forward.
jeff bagato 