WEATHER UPDATE on Monday morning, June 13, 2022:
“Wunderground” predicted “Cloudy early, becoming mostly sunny this afternoon. Expect mist and reduced visibilities at times. High 74F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.” No mention of a brief shower, let alone rain.
It’s 5:55 a.m., and raining in Long Beach, California, at least in the 90814 zip code.
It’s also the birthday of my next oldest brother, and I hope it’s raining in San Diego, too. Happy birthday, Jim, as well as to my sister, Joni, who was also born in June.
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It’s inexplicable to me how some of the best contemporary poets somehow get relegated to the margins. My only supposition is that the presence of their poems as deserving to be at the center of the canonical conversation creates too many problems for institutional hierarchies of cultural power. Gail Wronsky, for instance, who is one of the finest poets writing in this nation, should have received at least a half-dozen major reviews when her compilation of new and selected poems was published by White Pine Press in 2021. You can find out more about UNDER THE CAPSIZED BOAT WE FLY at:
https://www.whitepine.org/under-the-capsized-boat
The back cover commentary on Wronsky’s book by David St. John, Gillian Conoley, and Lynne Thompson is spot on and hereby heartedly seconded by me. Lately, I’ve begun to say that blurbs are no longer just sales pitches. They are, in fact, the only reviews that many books will ever get.
Before you buy and read her book, though, give yourself a chance to become more familiar with her work through an interview just published in POETRY FLASH:
Feminist Carnivalesque and Something Other: An Interview with Gail Wronsky
by Ramón García
https://poetryflash.org/features/?p=GARCIA-Feminist_Carnivalesque_and_Something_Other
Another outstanding poet whose interview in POETRY FLASH deserves your attention is Cecilia Woloch, whose interview by Amy Pence can also be found in POETRY FLASH:
Restless Spirits: An Interview with Cecilia Woloch
https://poetryflash.org/features/?p=PENCE-Restless_Spirits
Finally, POETRY FLASH has published three interviews conducted by Lee Rossi with Carolyn Forche, D. Nurske, and Margaret Randall.
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COLUMN OF REMEMBRANCE IN POETRY FLASH:
Wanda Coleman (1946-2016) (age 67)
https://poetryflash.org/features/?p=KESSLER-Hahaha_Wanda_Colemans_Last_Laugh
https://poetryflash.org/features/?p=KESSLER-Hahaha_Wanda_Colemans_Last_Laugh
An Everything Man: The Passing of Michael McClure. by Bruce Isaacson
https://poetryflash.org/features/?p=ISAACSON-An_Everything_Man
A Few Notes On David Meltzer (1937-2016): Visionary With Red-Hot Coins
by Jack Foley
An Everything Man: The Passing of Michael McClure. by Bruce Isaacson
https://poetryflash.org/features/?p=ISAACSON-An_Everything_Man
Francisco X. Alarcón. (1954-2016)
Tony Hoagland (1953-2018)
Julia Vinograd (1943-2018)
C.D. Wright (1949-2016)
Bill Berkson (1939-2016)
Ann Menebroker. (1936-2016)
Chana Bloch (1940-2017)
Larry Colker (1947-2018)
John Oliver Simon (1942-2018)
Bill Berkson (1939-2016)
Philip Lamantia (1927-2005)
Bert Meyers (1928-1979
Robert Sward – June 23, 1933 – February 21, 2022 (Santa Cruz poet laureate, 2016-2018)
https://poetryflash.org/features/?p=FOLEY-Uncle_Dog_Becomes_a_Bodhisattva
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Philip Lamantia (1927-2005): an essay by Jack Foley
The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia, edited by Garrett Caples, Andrew Joron, Nancy Joyce Peters, Foreword by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, University of California Press, 2013, 512 pages, eight black and white photographs, $49.95 hardcover.
Bert Meyers (1928-1979): On February 20, 1975, the poet Bert Meyers gave a reading at San Francisco State University. diva.sfsu.edu/collections/poetrycenter.
About Bill Mohr