sit down by the fire
i'll tell you a story
& send you away to bed
of the things that are creeping
around when you're sleeping
& wish you were out here instead
it isn't the mice in the wall
it isn't the wind in the well

you remember the pogues, don't you?

you remember iraq, don't you?

as it's well past midnight, it was yesterday i received the last ten unsold copies of on stealing lips, the chapbook jonathan ball published nearly a year ago on his, now closed, martian press. he made some really fine chaps by among others rob mclennan, ryan fitzpatrick & a collaboration between chris rizzo & jess mynes in the relatively short time he ran the press.

some of the copies are spoken for, but if you want one of the (four) others just drop me a note

galatea's 8th resurrection is up. it includes my reviews of adam fieled's opera bufa & ana bozicevic-bowling's document

now, if i may tickle your foot with a poem from some hay


modus
operandi one
in the chest

one in the
forehead class
closed

i've reviewed two books for the forthcoming issue of galatea resurrects. my plans were to do three, but i couldn't get one together for amy king's lovely i'm the man who loves you. so a couple of days ago on the bus to work i wrote this little poem which i post here as a kind of alternative review

(i'm the woman who loves your pen)

oh what a fountain. this is not
necessarily sexual innuendo. do
please pimp the abyss. this is not
necessarily a joke. if you untune the
guitar cool sounds may emanate from
your ears. this is your old music
teacher speaking. if you look at the
bricks & listen to the faces in them. this
is not necessarily your revolution
talking. in tongues piled high up
on each other. in rooms opening out
onto a fourth wall of rain. your pen
will receive books anonymously sent. the
hand holding your pen will be well
provided for. in dromedaries. no less
than thirty-six. or so. of them. they
are easy to fold & fit into a drawer for
sleeping. we need to inform you though
that they need to have freshly
written poems read to them about three
times a week. it works wonders for
their metabolism. after that you
should let them out into the
street for a few hours. don't worry
if they come home drunk. they
rarely beat humans. they're just
noisy & in high spirits of their
own choice

being part of the tiny book series is something of a dissident's dream. taste it. fair trade, sustainable farming as a means of fighting poverty, a commercially impossible scale, the zen-lunatic prank that is "handwritten-on demand". i said it before & it bears repeating. we need more eileens & we need them now

on another note. the copies of riot are all gone. & it appears as if is beside the point is sold out

on yet another note we step out of my own weird little world. michael nicoloff. go see if taxt has any copies left of punks. they're free. & still every time i revisit my copy it feels like a slightly different poem. & a good one at that. yes. & coyotes journal has two sweet new pdf-chaps out in their new series. bill deemer's twenty poems & joanne kyger's loose renditions. & finally, some literally moving poems. from bill allegrezza & from karri kokko the first marquee hay(na)ku anthology

& in my ears, sepultura

i'm happy to say that some hay is out. this is poetry as practical politics. the amazing eileen says it best in the following

Meritage Press Announcement

TINY BOOKS RELEASES FIFTH TITLE FOR POETRY TO KEEP FEEDING THE WORLD

Meritage Press (MP) is pleased to announce the fifth title in its series of Tiny Books that aligns poetry with fair trade and economic development issues affecting Third World countries.

MP's Tiny Books utilize small books (1 3/4" x 1 3/4") made in Nepal by artisans paid fair wages, as sourced by Baksheesh, a fair trade retailer. Photos of a sample "Tiny Book" are available here as well as at Crag Hill's Poetry Scorecard

All profits from book sales will be donated to Heifer International, an organization devoted to reducing world hunger by promoting sustainable sources of food and income. This project reflects MP's belief that "Poetry feeds the world" in non-metaphorical ways. The Tiny Books create demand for fair trade workers' products while also sourcing donations for easing poverty in poorer areas of the world.

We are delighted to announce that MP's fifth Tiny Book is

some hay
By Lars Palm

Lars Palm lives in southern Sweden where he works in health care, writes (mostly smallish) silly poems, translates some Swedish poets, edits a blog zine called skicka (in english) & at times publishes the first broadside series in the country. He's the author of mindfulness (moria, 2006), on stealing lips (The Martian Press, 2006) & is beside the point (Big Game Books Tinyside 34, 2007). Another, death is, is forthcoming from by the skin of me teeth press sometime soon.

MP's other Tiny Books, which also are still available, are

all alone again
by Dan Waber

and

Steps: A Notebook
by Tom Beckett

and
"…And Then The Wind Did Blow..."
Jainakú Poems
by Ernesto Priego

and

Speak which
Hay(na)ku poems
by Jill Jones

Each Tiny Book will cost $10 plus $1.00 shipping/handling in the U.S. (email us first for non-U.S. orders). To purchase the Tiny Books and donate to Heifer International, send a check for $11.00 per book, made out to "Meritage Press" to

Eileen Tabios
Meritage Press
256 North Fork Crystal Springs Rd.
St. Helena, CA 94574
U.S.A.

Please specify which of the five Tiny Books you are ordering.

With Tiny Books, MP also offers a new DIY, or Do-It-Yourself Model of publishing. You've heard of POD or print-on-demand? Well, these books' print runs will be based on HOD or Handwritten-on-Demand. MP's publisher, Eileen Tabios, will handwrite all texts into the Tiny Books' pages and books will be released to meet demand for as long as MP is able to source tiny books -- or until the publisher gets arthritis.


FUNDAISING UPDATE:
In addition to providing livestock, Heifer International also provides trees. As of Nov. 5, 2007, Meritage Press' Tiny Books program has sold enough Tiny Books to finance the donation equivalent of seven sets of tree-gifts. Here's what Heifer has to say about trees:

One of Heifer International’s most important commitments is to care for the earth. We believe development must be sustainable — that projects should be long-term investments in the future of people and the planet.That’s why in addition to livestock, Heifer often provides families with trees. On a steep Tanzanian hillside, Heifer International helped a family learn to plant trees and elephant grass to keep the soil in place. Today, they have flourishing rows of leucaena trees and corn.Through training, families learn how to keep their small plots of land healthy and renew the soil for future generations by planting trees, using natural fertilizer, and limiting grazing.By helping families raise their animals in harmony with nature, you can fight poverty and hunger while ensuring a healthy, productive future for us all.

Then of course there are the chickens, goats, water buffalos, pigs, ducks, honeybees, llamas....all of which can help ease hunger around the world. Meritage Press thanks you in advance for your support and hopes you enjoy Tiny Books -- small enough to become jewelry, but with poems big enough to resonate worldwide.


*****
ABOUT THE TINY BOOK AUTHORS:
Dan Waber is a visual poet, concrete poet, sound poet, performance poet, publisher, editor, playwright and multimedia artist whose work has appeared in all sorts of delicious places, from digital to print, from stage to classroom, from mailboxes to puppet theaters. He is currently working on "and everywhere in between". He makes his online home at logolalia.com. Meritage Press tapped Mr. Waber to inaugurate the series partly for his work in minimalist poetry.

Tom Beckett is the author of Unprotected Texts: Selected Poems 1978~2006 (Meritage Press, 2006), and the curator of E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S: The First XI Interviews (Otoliths, 2007). From 1980-1990, he was the editor/publisher of the now legendary critical journal, The Difficulties. Steps: A Notebook is Tom Beckett's first hay(na)ku poetry collection.

Ernesto Priego was born in Mexico City. He lives in London. He blogs at Never Neutral and is the author of the first single-author hay(na)ku poetry collection, Not Even Dogs. The "jainakú" is Mexico's version of the hay(na)ku poetic form.

Jill Jones' latest book, Broken/Open (Salt, 2005), was short-listed for The Age Book of the Year 2005 and the 2006 Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize. In 1993 she won the Mary Gilmore Award for her first book of poetry, The Mask and the Jagged Star (Hazard Press, 1992). Her third book, The Book of Possibilities (Hale & Iremonger, 1997), was shortlisted for the 1997 National Book Council 'Banjo' Awards and the 1998 Adelaide Festival Awards. Screens, Jets, Heaven: New and Selected Poems (Salt, 2002) won the 2003 Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize (NSW Premier's Literary Awards). Her work has been translated into Chinese, Dutch, Polish, French, Italian and Spanish.

For more information: MeritagePress@aol.com

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.