Touched By A Monkey

Poet stamps!

2011-12-10T08:40:00.002-05:00

Coming to a U.S. Post Office near you in March. Assuming we still have the post office then. Now go mail some shit.

“Beat Poets, not beat poets.”

2011-11-21T20:05:00.001-05:00

What? Motherfuckers shoved Brenda Hillman and hit Robert Hass? What the fuck is wrong with this country where the current priority seems to be beating up poets and pepper spraying students engaged in non-violent protest?

Poodle kisses monkey

2011-10-20T06:51:00.000-04:00

They're Frenching. But in a totally platonic, non-icky way.

Via Cute Overload.

Laurie Saurborn Young is brilliant, but you don't have to take my word for it

2011-10-07T14:37:00.001-04:00

The lovely and talented Laurie Saurborn Young gave a really great interview to The American Literary Review. It was one of the best poetry-related things I've read in a long time. Sure it doesn't hurt that I think Laurie is awesome or that we once hung out in North Carolina. Or that the string of airstream trailer lights she gave to me hang on my porch all year.

In the interview she says that she writes "to figure out the world and to discover a way to exist in the world. A way to explore science and the animal world. As I’ve continued to write, I’ve accrued more confidence. With confidence I’ve allowed more space to enter the poems, in terms of structure and form and also in terms of saying the strange things I am thinking and being able to marry them to the human condition. Places of commonality, if you will."

This is pretty much exactly the reason I love poetry, though expressed in an articulate fashion I am likely incapable of.

Her first book, Carnavoria, will be published by H_NGM_N BKS in 2012. I, personally, expect the wait to be excrutiating.

Taha Muhammad Ali has died

2011-10-02T19:10:00.001-04:00

Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali has died. He was 80 years old. I saw him read a couple of years ago at UofM and it was one of the best and most moving readings I have ever been to. I can't help but think that if more people read his poetry then the Palestinians would have a much better chance at getting a state, at living in peace, at being seen as human, even. May he rest in a peace that did not exist during his life.

"Pledge of Allegiance" by Married to the Sea

2011-09-16T08:52:00.000-04:00

Such a tough choice. Then again, to a lot of kids reading any poem would probably be considered punishment. Alas.

Why yes, that is a pretty good monkey

2011-09-15T17:02:00.001-04:00

Toothpaste for Dinner: "haiku format"

2011-09-14T07:17:00.000-04:00

"Epistle I" by Sheera Talpaz

2011-09-13T23:22:00.000-04:00

A new poem from my friend Sheera at ink node. I especially love the last stanza.

Danielle Steele is "hungry / for your face"

2011-09-12T23:31:00.001-04:00

In "The Poetry of Danielle Steel", Lamar Clarkson does a close reading of Danielle Steel's 1984 poetry classic Love.

"Subtract the daring enjambment and add a blinking laptop cursor with a voiceover and you basically have Carrie Bradshaw, 15 years ahead of schedule, but without those annoying egg-white omelets. Our narrator eats real eggs. (We know this because she is always making breakfast for men who may not return.)"

Via The Hairpin.

14 years later

2011-09-02T07:43:00.000-04:00

Poetry posted "To You" by Kenneth Koch to their Facebook page this morning. It feels aimed right at me, or, really, from me to my wife, in light of our 14 year anniversary yesterday. Happy Anniversary, Babe! I love you.

This monkey is being kind of a dick to this dog

2011-08-25T14:35:00.000-04:00

I know I don't update this much, but this is some quality content right here.

Gibbon vs. Dog from B. Leon (Singhto) Ponsart on Vimeo.

Via Videogum.

Anis Shivani's poetry dump

2011-08-16T14:31:00.001-04:00

Anis Shivani shits all over Sharon Olds, Jorie Graham, Louise Glück, and Philip Levine in the Huffington Post. It's like the 2 Girls 1 Cup of poetry essays.

"Curiosity Kills" by Joel Watson

2011-08-14T10:52:00.000-04:00

Um, yeah. I can definitely see how curiosity could be a bad thing. Kids should really re-think the whole "monkey as pets" ideal portrayed in the Curious George books.

Philip Levine, please save us

2011-08-09T22:52:00.000-04:00

With the current state of the U.S. economy, I can't help but find it sadly ironic that Philip Levine, "the voice of the working man," is now our Poet Laureate. Much deserved, mind you. I'm just feeling pretty pessimistic.

Here's an old interview with Levine that is worth reading.

Blair is gone

2011-07-25T15:42:00.000-04:00

Detroit poet David Blair has passed away. I don't have any details as of yet, but I do know that there's a big hole in the world now. He was a friend to many people and a vibrant part of Detroit's poetry community. He will be dearly missed.

Maybe alpha male baboons need to do some yoga

2011-07-24T00:12:00.000-04:00

"Fighting off underlings, pursuing females and maintaining one's social status appear to be more stressful for alpha male baboons than researchers had anticipated."

What? Really? That sound like a cake walk to anybody?

"Tea Party, meet your T. S. Eliot."

2011-07-18T14:31:00.001-04:00

Wingnut Camper Art Project Shares How-To Secrets For Sexing Obama

Free Neko Case show at the Poetry Foundation Open House

2011-06-20T11:31:00.003-04:00

If I was going to be in Chicago June 25 this is definitely where I'd be.

I wish jungle exploration was really like this

2011-06-19T23:15:00.001-04:00

Buttersafe – "Exploring the Jungle."

Megan Levad is not a drunken slut

2011-06-16T22:46:00.000-04:00

But she is my friend and an awesome poet. Her poem "I’m more the drunken slut kind of feminist, or A Treatise on Political Philosophy at the Apex of American Empire" is online at Granta.com along with an awesome picture of Ms. Levad herself. Hooray, Megan!

Charles Wright on PBS

2011-05-15T13:34:00.000-04:00

"I used to imagine...that language could lead us inexplicably to grace as though it were geographical." - Charles Wright

Be submissive

2011-05-14T07:40:00.001-04:00

Poet Karyna McGlynn offers some really good tips for submitting your stuff. Read and follow. I was lucky enough to be in the same MFA program with her and she's a really awesome poet. She's also been published pretty much everywhere, so this lady knows what she's talking about.

Jane Goodall books for kids

2011-05-13T22:41:00.020-04:00

I love Jane Goodall. I really can't think of a better hero for a kids' book, which makes me very happy about Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell and The Watcher by Jeanette Winter.

The video below, in which McDonnell says about Goodall, "She has the mind of a scientist but the heart of a poet," is a good intro to both books. You should buy them for me.

The Onion understands Jim Morrison

2011-04-28T08:43:00.000-04:00

The Onion article "Jim Morrison Foundation Awards $50,000 Grant To Little Shit Who Thinks He's A Poet" pretty much sums up how I feel about Jim Morrison the "poet."

Poet leads protests over drug cartel violence

2011-04-28T00:17:00.000-04:00

After his son was killed, poet Javier Sicilia became a leader in the protest movement against drug cartel violence in Mexico. From the BBC:

For Mr Sicilia, the conflict has reached a level that requires a more comprehensive approach to the issue - one which includes the commitment of all Mexicans.

"We need a national pact because this is an emergency, and we have to rebuild the tissue of this nation - if we do not, we are going to enter hell."

As for his poetry, Mr Sicilia has decided to silence his voice.

His last poem was dedicated to his son, and was written just hours after the violent murder.

"Poetry does not exist in me anymore," it ends.

Chimps on film

2011-04-27T14:06:00.001-04:00

Wait, what? I have to wait a year to see this? The countdown begins...

Via Videogum.

Kay Ryan, Pulitzer poet

2011-04-26T09:19:00.000-04:00

She's a winner. Someday I will read this book.

Rick Santorum breaks up with Langston Hughes

2011-04-23T23:58:00.002-04:00

To be fair, Santorum didn't even know they were together. From the Union Leader:

Santorum by and large stayed on message but was tripped up a bit when a student asked him if he knew that the choice of his slogan, "Fighting to make America America again," was borrowed from the "pro-union poem by the gay poet Langston Hughes."

"No I had nothing to do with that," Santorum said. "I didn't know that. And the folks who worked on that slogan for me didn't inform me that it came from that, if it in fact came from that."

The student, whose name was not immediately available, was referring to the poem "Let America Be America Again." When asked a short time later what the campaign slogan meant to him, Santorum said, "well, I'm not too sure that's my campaign slogan, I think it's on a web site."

It was also printed on the campaign literature handed out before the speech.

Ha. "I think it's on a web site." Moron.

One web site you can find it on is The Academy of American Poets. No doubt lines like these really speak to Santorum: "I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. / I am the red man driven from the land, / I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- / And finding only the same old stupid plan / Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak."

"Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes stands against everything Santorum stands for. A commenter on the Union Leader web site said the inclusion of the "gotcha" Hughes question and Santorum's stammering answer was evidence of biased journalism. I disagree. I think it's pretty relevant when an anti-gay, anti-union politician from a party that has no qualms against using racism to their political advantage is using a slogan lifted from a liberal gay poet. I know that Santorum has a Google problem and all, but seriously? No one on his campaign thought to Google the campaign slogan they chose? Dumb.

Via Salon.

Voices in their heads

2011-04-22T23:35:00.000-04:00

David Orr in the New York Times on younger poets "finding their voices" with Matthew Zapruder and Rachel Wetzsteon as examples.

"[I]t’s not really a matter of 'divine prompting'; rather, a poet arrives at a style through the same combination of staggering labor and jolts of luck that most complex activities depend on."

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a Stately PowerPoint Decree" by Mike Lacher

2011-04-18T17:44:00.001-04:00

PowerPoint and Coleridge together at last.

Via McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

Dean Young gets a heart

2011-04-15T23:29:00.000-04:00

Well this is definitely the best poetry-related news you'll hear ~~all day~~ ~~all week~~ ~~all year~~ in your life.

"I didn't evolve from you..."

2011-03-21T23:11:00.003-04:00

I stumbled upon this clip while searching for old Victoria Jackson skits. Jan Hooks+monkey=awesome.

It's true.

2011-03-20T11:55:00.002-04:00

Monkeys are gross. But so are humans.

"Y'all took the wrong evolutionary branch for real."

2011-03-11T23:05:00.000-05:00

Tell 'em, little monkey. Tell 'em.

Mo' grapes, Mo cuteness

2011-03-10T23:06:00.001-05:00

Mo the Sloth is going to be 10 years old on April 1. Stop on over at the Organization For Bat Conservation (The Bat Zone) to say hi. And bring some grapes.

Sleeping Lisa, will you ever wake up?

2011-03-03T10:41:00.000-05:00

Sleeping Lisa, the world's soundest sleeper, has new adventures daily. She's all the rage in photos of sleeping people with their own Tumblr sites.

Monkey money and Ferlinghetti apologies

2011-03-01T20:59:00.003-05:00

I just discovered Damn You Auto Correct and have been laughing so hard I am in pain.

"Aunt Madelyn At The White Sale" by Alice Fulton

2011-02-23T22:19:00.000-05:00

Again on the hunt for poems for my class and I re-read Alice Fulton's "Aunt Madelyn At The White Sale." Feels like a very fitting poem today since it was the funeral for my grandmother. I've never attended a funeral in the winter before. I've always wondered how they manage. How do they dig out the ground? With machines, I know. Still. Winter resists burial. But then, in the spring it's too wet. In the summer, too hot. There's no good time to die, I guess.

Elizabeth Bishop liked ladies, man

2011-02-20T19:30:00.001-05:00

For the record, Elizabeth Bishop was a lesbian. Not sure why William Logan got all cagey about it in a review of a book of Bishop's letters in the New York Times. Also, didn't they just publish a book of Bishop letters? Is every napkin she ever scrawled on eventually going to be published? I'm just saying, people are kind of obsessed with her. She was a fine poet, yes, but I have a hard enough time keeping up with my email let alone sitting down to pour over Bishop's missives.

Oh, and about the lesbian omission thing in the Times. John Aravosis tells us why it matters:

"We're not even able to marry in most of this country, and the few marriages we do have aren't recognized by the federal government, and thus are not granted any of the 1,100 or so federal rights that accrue to married couples. The fact that one of the most famous American poets was lesbian is a big deal."

I guess Logan didn't have a little voice in his head imploring him to "Write it."

Via America Blog Gay.

"Heaven for Helen" by Mark Doty

2011-02-20T17:30:00.000-05:00

My Grandma Helen passed away yesterday. Today I was combing through poetry looking for poems for my class to read and came across Mary Doty's "Heaven for Helen." I'd read this before but -- I don't want to say I'd forgotten it, because that's not accurate, exactly. But it seems like a serendipitous reunion to read it today.

Heaven for Helen

Helen says heaven, for her,
would be complete immersion
in physical process,
without self-consciousness—

to be the respiration of the grass,
or ionized agitation
just above the break of a wave,
traffic in a sunflower's thousand golden rooms.

Images of exchange,
and of untrammeled nature.
But if we're to become part of it all,
won't our paradise also involve

participation in being, say,
diesel fuel, the impatience of trucks
on August pavement,
weird glow of service areas

along the interstate at night?
We'll be shiny pink egg cartons,
and the thick treads of burst tires
along the highways in Pennsylvania:

a hell we've made to accompany
the given: we will join
our tiresome productions,
things that want to be useless forever.

But that's me talking. Helen
would take the greatest pleasure
in being a scrap of paper,
if that's what there were to experience.

Perhaps that's why she's a painter,
finally: to practice disappearing
into her scrupulous attention,
an exacting rehearsal for the larger

world of things it won't be easy to love.
Helen I think will master it, though I may not.
She has practiced a long time learning to see
I have devoted myself to affirmation,

when I should have kept my eyes on the ground.

(Mark Doty, from School of the Arts, 2005 HarperCollins.)

"Dream of Ink Brush Calligraphy" by Karen An-hwei Lee

2011-02-19T13:25:00.001-05:00

I'm thinking this might be a good poem to get my students talking about form and its relationship to meaning.

"Dream of Ink Brush Calligraphy" by Karen An-hwei Lee from the Nov. 2010 issue of Poetry Magazine.

The Sloffice

2011-02-16T10:46:00.000-05:00

Best reader comment ever: "Just another episode of The Sloffice."

Poetry doth not protest too much

2011-02-07T00:04:00.001-05:00

From the New York Times:

"Egypt’s revolution is a contest of ultimatums — chaos and revolution, freedom and submission — but its arena of Tahrir Square becomes quieter at night, the cacophony of rebellion giving way to a stage of poetry, performance and politics."

A good argument, I think, for poetry's continuing relevance.

Walking upright is the first step in the gorilla world domination plan

2011-01-28T19:58:00.000-05:00

They're going to take over now. You know that, right?

Best TV news host commentary ever, by the way. Way to go, guys. Keep it real.

Loughner poetry connection

2011-01-10T12:13:00.001-05:00

So Jared Loughner, the guy who attempted to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, took a community college "advanced poetry writing class." Will the media soon be dissecting his poems like they did the writings of the Virginia Tech killer? After all, we're already "reading into" Loughner's favorite books. Mention of his poetry, though not flattering ones, are being reported as news.

"Several people who knew Loughner at community college said he did not seem especially political, but was socially awkward. He laughed at the wrong things, made inappropriate comments. Most students sat away from him in class.

'He made a lot of the people really uncomfortable, especially the girls in the class,' said Steven Cates, who attended an advanced poetry writing class with Loughner at Pima Community College last spring. Though he struck up a superficial friendship with Loughner, he said a group of other students went to the teacher to complain about Loughner at one point.

Another poetry student, Don Coorough, said Loughner read a 'kind of a bland' poem about going to the gym in wild "poetry slam" style — 'grabbing his crotch and jumping around the room.'

When other students read their poems, meanwhile, Coorough said Loughner 'would laugh at things that you wouldn't laugh at.' After one woman read a poem about abortion, 'he was turning all shades of red and laughing,' and said, 'Wow, she's just like a terrorist, she killed a baby,' Coorough said.

'He appeared to be to me an emotional cripple or an emotional child,' Coorough said. 'He lacked compassion, he lacked understanding and he lacked an ability to connect."

Outshined by a dark cloud

2011-01-07T18:25:00.001-05:00

Yeah. I think having Anne Sexton as a mom would mess anyone up. Her daughter Linda already chronicled her childhood in Searching for Mercy Street. Now she's published Half in Love: Surviving the Legacy of Suicide, about her grown-up life. And it's a sad one. From the New York Times review we learn that she gets super depressed. She tries to kill herself at least twice. Her husband leaves her. Nobody will publish her novel.

I don't plan to read the book. The Times review was enough for me. It ends by comparing Linda to her mom. The verdict: Linda's not as sad and she's not as good. Ouch. Read it for yourself:

"Even when she was sickest, Anne Sexton managed to create a vibrant world around herself, never losing her status as a figure to be reckoned with. But Linda Sexton seems utterly marooned when her modest dream of 'normal' family life evaporates and her writing career stalls. When she recovers, the scene expands only to include the men she meets through an online dating Web site. There is a surprising blandness to her sensibility, and her cause isn’t helped by overwrought language ('I was once again left shivering in the draft of everyone’s disapproval, dancing like a marionette in rhythm to the old black tune that had haunted my life ever since my mother first kicked me out of the house when I was 2') and hackneyed therapy-speak ('My continuing therapy with Barbara Ballinger had developed into the strong support I needed as I worked to examine the feelings I had about my mother’s suicide and to tear them apart').

But this book looks into the workings of the suicidal mind in a way that isn’t easily forgotten, raising provocative questions about how we approach and treat the severely mentally ill. Sexton paints suicide as a deadly disease mechanism: only the care of other people can save its victims, but those victims become experts at driving other people away."

"Near-misses" by Laura Kasischke

2011-01-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

I just happened upon Laura Kasischke's poem "Near-misses" from the Spring 2010 issue of Willow Springs and it's quite a fitting poem to kick off the year.

Laura talks a little about the poem on the Willow Springs site. Read it. But read the poem first. And then remember that you're lucky to be alive. "Fork + Toaster + One Second Longer = None of This" forever.

Breathe in the books

2011-01-01T07:04:00.000-05:00

May 2011 be filled with the smell of books.

By the way, I am an avid book-smeller myself. Granted, I prefer the smell of new books, but still.

Via Book Fox, a blog I stumbled upon last night. Book nerds, rejoice.

Give Dean Young your heart

2010-12-31T23:19:00.001-05:00

Give Dean Young your heart. Or at least give some money to his heart transplant fund. And then make sure you register as an organ donor in your state. If it's the last thing you do this year or the first thing you do next year, it'll be a damn fine way to end/begin.

And monkey makes three

2010-12-13T22:26:00.005-05:00

Even the monkey's hair looks feathered.

Best comment: "Can he REALLY convince himself this is HIS child????" Also, another reader pointed out that the guy looks like Jason Mraz. True.

Via Awkward Family Pet Photos.

Two piece bathing suits and wicker furniture sets of confusion

2010-12-09T21:53:00.007-05:00

There are so many questions to ask about this photo. The only thing I am certain about is the presence of a flying monkey.

Via Awkward Family Pet Photos.

"Tie Shopping" by Married to the Sea

2010-12-03T23:17:00.000-05:00

Who says a monkey tie isn't appropriate attire?

Stop believin' -- or don't

2010-12-02T23:03:00.002-05:00

Poetic vinyl wall decor courtesy Regretsy.

Anderson Cooper in a bunny suit meets bonobos with swollen genitals

2010-11-26T19:22:00.001-05:00

Anderson Cooper in a bunny suit and a woman with a rat tail teach a pair of bonobos with swollen genitals the English language.

Via Videogum.

Baby lemur at the Banham Zoo

2010-11-21T23:20:00.006-05:00

I could look at the Zoo Borns site all day. And maybe I will once I get laid off at the end of the year. But for now: Hamish, the baby bamboo lemur!

"Great Moments In Product-Placement Poetry" by Rebecca Coffey

2010-11-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

What if Ogden Nash, Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and Dante all sold out?

Thomas Lynch has a new book of poems

2010-11-19T07:50:00.001-05:00

Thomas Lynch has a new book of poems. Walking Papers is out now via W. W. Norton. Please buy it for me for Christmas. Or any other holiday. Or just because you love and appreciate me. Oh, forget it. I'll buy it myself.

"Calling," which is from the new book, was Poetry Daily's pick for Nov. 2. You can also read and listen to "Euclid" at Poetry Out Loud.

Poetry is moving

2010-11-18T22:27:00.002-05:00

We should all be so lucky to look this good and be this self-confident when we're 100 years old. But self-confidence doesn't automatically translate into self-awareness. Or good poetry. Or clothes, for that matter.

I wish there was a "behind the scenes" video to accompany this. Because, seriously, what is she swinging on? There's very little camera shake and the camera seems to be moving with her. I don't know. A tire swing? A stripper pole? Or is she just floating on a cloud held up by fairies and wood sprites?

Via ~~your mom~~ Videogum.

Also via ~~your step-mom~~ Slog.

Adam Roberts reads my mind

2010-11-17T15:11:00.004-05:00

In The Atlantic, Adam Roberts writes "a five-part series about the value of verse in the 21st century." And at the end of Part Five he somehow reads my mind. Or not "reads" so much as "translates."

Part One: "The Righteous Skeptic's Guide to Reading Poetry."
Money quote: "Yeah, poetry sucks! It's confusing, it's pretentious, it's precious, it's frivolous and disconnected and has nothing to do with my life. Right on."

Part Two: "What Makes a Poem Worth Reading?"
Money quote: " If you don't have your graduate degree in comparative literature, wtf is irreducible alterity????"
(A good question. The simplest translation is "hard and weird.")

Part Three: "Flarf: Poetry Meme-Surfs With Kanye West and the LOLCats"
Money quote: "This game of WTF one-upsmanship ... is quickly becoming a recognizable phenomena in everywhere from YouTube to advertising to mainstream news coverage. Sometimes we call it lowest common denominator--but other times, it's something different. Poems, and poets, can learn from it."

Part Four: "Good Poetry Is Like Good Food: How to Find It ... and Savor It"
Money quote: "In the world of literary culture, the small press is probably the closest equivalent to your local farmer's market. (The carrots might look funnier, but, after you're used to it, they taste about five times better.)"

Part Five: "7 Poets I Love"
Money quote: "Delusionally or not, I always feel, when reading, as if quite a bit is at stake. At their core, poems remind me of at least one thing: that I have only one life, and that it's a life with others: other people, other creatures, complicated and interrelated systems of life. Urgency—right—that's what calls me back to read."

And this, the "high stakes" of poetry, is exactly how I feel about poetry. Exactly. Except it's never been something I've been able to articulate. It's as if Roberts reached into the mud of my brain and said, "Here. This is what you've been wanting to say all along."

"Wave" by Alan Shapiro. So good.

2010-11-17T11:18:00.001-05:00

"Wave," a really beautiful poem by Alan Shapiro, is in the latest issue of The Atlantic. Me like.

Please buy Christian Wiman's newest book for me. Thanks.

2010-11-16T11:14:00.000-05:00

Clive James reviews Christian Wiman's Every Riven Thing (published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux) in the UK's Financial Times. Perhaps James just writes an especially good review, but I am very much looking forward to reading Wiman's new book.

Via Slate.

Book to buy: Between Old Trees by francine j. harris

2010-11-12T22:58:00.002-05:00

francine j. harris has a chapbook and you should buy it. Between Old Trees via Organic Weapons Arts can be yours for only ten cash dollars (or Paypal dollars, as it were). That is cheaper than so many things. And probably better than whatever else you were going to spend it on anyway.

I can read

2010-11-09T23:45:00.000-05:00

This evening I had the awesome pleasure of reading with Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Jamaal May, and Adrian Matejka at the Virgil Carr Center in Detroit as part of the Robert Hayden Poetry Series. They're all incredible poets and it was great to get up and read again, especially with such fine company. It was a really good crowd, too. Imagine, people actually showing up for a poetry reading. It happens in Detroit, folks. :)

All of them have books you should buy if you know what's good for you. As for me, to borrow from Whitney Houston, "I have nothing, nothing, nothing..." But, to borrow from her yet again, "It's not right, but it's okay."

So thanks to the wonderful and talented poetry duo Vievee Francis and Matthew Olzmann for asking me to read. I am very lucky to know such wonderful people who do so much for poetry in Detroit.

Thursday, Dec. 9 is the final reading in the series. I plan to be there. If you're also there then we'll be there together. At last.

Fight monkeys with monkeys

2010-11-08T22:24:00.000-05:00

India unleashes langur patrol in New Deli to protect Obama from "maurading" rhesus monkeys.

Hey, if it's good enough for Stephen Colbert, it's good enough for Obama.

Oh, and speaking of langur monkeys... I know. That is just so much aww. So much it hurts.

Via The Awl.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T16:03:00.001-04:00

Hamburg Zoo gives orangutans a pumpkin for a Halloween treat. (Via Jezebel.)

And some Halloween poems.

Smoking will kill you.

2010-10-12T19:02:00.000-04:00

Eventually.

R.I.P. Charlie, the cigarette smoking chimp (1958-2010).

Sloth, sloth baby

2010-10-10T08:24:00.002-04:00

Rosamond Gifford Zoo in New York welcomes a new addition to its family: Ruth, a six-week-old two-toed sloth. Proceed at your own risk because the intense cuteness will burn your eyes.

Also, Zooborns has so many adorable baby monkeys and other primates.

"Sparrow’s, Poet’s Deaths" by Christine Rhein

2010-10-02T20:20:00.000-04:00

"Sparrow’s, Poet’s Deaths" is a truly beautiful poem by Christine Rhein about the death of poet Nadia Anjuman and a sparrow killed to save some dominoes. Guess which one got more news coverage?

A Rose by any other name is an asshole

2010-09-28T21:13:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading a book about Guns N' Roses in which it was revealed that the lyrics for "Sweet Child O' Mine" were originally a poem written by Axl Rose. The book also revealed that Axl Rose is one of the biggest assholes ever in the history of popular music. But no matter. I'm excited about the poem part because I can link to John Moe's "Notes on 'Sweet Child O' Mine,' as Delivered to Axl Rose by His Editor" on McSweeney's Internet Tendency. You're welcome (to the jungle). Get it?

Facebook of yore

2010-09-23T08:48:00.000-04:00

Facebook of yore. God doesn't like this.

Don't be a jackass

2010-09-19T09:41:00.000-04:00

Lane Smith, my favorite childrens book illustrator, has a new book out. It's a Book is about a curious jackass friend who can't wrap his tech-geek brain around this strange thing in his monkey friend's hands. Moral of the story: read to your kid or he'll end up a jackass.

The unspeakable acts of Chimp and Frog

2010-09-16T23:25:00.000-04:00

So apparently there exists a video on YouTube of a chimp and a frog engaged in unspeakable acts. You can Google it if you want. I'll pass. The artwork said video has inspired is enough for me.

Poetry and monkey convergence: Harry Harlow edition

2010-09-15T13:42:00.000-04:00

I just finished Wire Mothers: Harry Harlow and the Science of Love, a comic book about that scientist who did the wire mother experiments on monkeys. The book is okay, though if you're already familar with the experiments and their results there's not much new here. Harlow's experiments helped put "love" into science, though ultimately were bad for the monkeys he used. Still, his results were in stark contrast to the prevailing belief at the time that children who were given too much affection would be messed up and that mothers who kissed their babies on the lips were perverts.

Harlow also wrote poems, some of which appear in his 1958 paper "The Nature of Love." Like this one:

The Elephant
Though mother may be short on arms,
Her skin is full of warmth and charms.
And mother's touch on baby's skin
Endears the heart that beats within.

For an interesting account of Harlow and his research, go here.

I'd like to buy a vow

2010-09-10T22:12:00.000-04:00

"You'd like personal, unique words to say but you are pressed for time and unsure of your skill with language."

Hey pig, there's a monkey on your back

2010-09-10T21:45:00.000-04:00

I do not pretend to understand this video. I do know that the monkey gets awfully pissed when he's knocked off the pig's back. And that those fences are a tight squeeze.

Via Videogum.

"King Kong 2" by Natalie Dee

2010-09-09T19:52:00.000-04:00

That'll do, Natalie Dee. That'll do. You're hired.

Monkey immorality

2010-09-03T23:29:00.000-04:00

Evolutionary biologist Marc Hauser busted for monkeying around with research.

Wild crochet kingdom. And by "wild" I mean insane

2010-09-03T22:39:00.001-04:00

Patricia Waller is officially my favorite crochet artist ever. Granted, I don't know any others to compare her to, but there is really no need. She has a couple of monkey sculptures, and they're cute, but they're nothing compared to Miss Piggy in a meat grinder or intricately detailed prosthetic limbs or her conjoined twin bears.

http://www.regretsy.com/2010/09/01/here-comes-the-snide-2/

It's like that old poem...

2010-08-28T21:31:00.000-04:00

John Stewart makes a poetry joke at Ken Mehlman's expense.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Gay Old Party

www.thedailyshow.com

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Dorianne Laux poems in APR

2010-08-27T16:28:00.000-04:00

There are a handful of new poems by Dorianne Laux in the latest issue of the American Poetry Review, including the very good "Timing" and one about Dolly Parton's breasts that I really love but sadly APR does not have online. Seek out the issue and read it. Totally worth it.

Ape the halls

2010-08-25T23:51:00.000-04:00

"And what do you want for Christmas, little girl? Electrolysis?"

This is so not okay.

Via Awkward Family Pet Photos.

"The Swing" by Don Paterson

2010-08-22T23:58:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading a review of Rain, the new book by poet Don Paterson, in the May 2010 issue of Poetry and I immediately sought out Paterson's "The Swing." A.E. Stallings ends the review with the last few stanzas. I'm very thankful that it's online at via Granta, where it was originally published in 2007, so that I could read the whole thing immediately.

Cutest poem ever

2010-08-21T21:35:00.000-04:00

Adorable three-year-old recites "Litany" by Billy Collins.

Via The Daily What.

Katrina and the waves

2010-08-19T23:59:00.000-04:00

A couple of years ago my friend and colleague Ray McDaniel published his second collection of poems, Saltwater Empire. In it there is a poem called "Convention Centers of the New World" which is about Hurricane Katrina. Currently he is under fire for how this poem was compiled. It is a conglomeration of various first-person narratives from the website Alive in Truth, a collection of oral histories of Katrina survivors and he acknowledges such in his book.

Yesterday the Poetry Foundation published on its website On The Voices of Hurricane Katrina, Part I: "What are the ethics of poetic appropriation?" by Abe Louise Young, in which she more or less accuses Ray of being a racist plagiarist. Then there is Ray's measured response, The Voices of Hurricane Katrina, Part II: "Reflections on found poetry and the creative process." Both Young and McDaniel are good people, but I can't help but feel that McDaniel is being unfairly maligned for the world's wrongs here.

Here is my take on the issue, which I submitted to the Poetry Foundation's comments section under Young's essay:

It seems to me that McDaniel's error is in not getting permission to use stories from the Alive in Truth website. Young is, understandably, unhappy about this. However, McDaniel does acknowledge AIT in his book as the source material for his poem. He's not trying to hide anything. Whether or not one thinks McDaniel's poetic aims were realized -- or even very good in the first place -- is another matter. But even if McDaniel did egregiously thumb his nose at copyright (and I don't think he did. His poem falls under "fair use" as I understand it, whether or not Young likes how he did it), that in itself does not make him a "Neo-colonialistic prick" as someone commented on Young's Facebook page. There Young trumpets her "essay exposing the white man who plagiarized the oral histories of african-american katrina survivors--publishing them as his own poems." This is an awfully reductive way of looking at McDaniel and his work and does not do even her own argument justice. It is understandable that Young feels protective of the stories on AIT and the people who told them. There are many, many injustices surrounding Katrina and so many reasons to be angry. McDaniel, however, is not one of them. Not really. The issues about appropriation in Young's essay are important and there is no doubt a larger discussion to be had. But it seems that perhaps Young is too close to the source material. It's too raw, perhaps, too sacred in her estimation. While there is no doubt that these stories -- indeed, the people who have shared them -- are important, Young's criticisms of McDaniel's (fair)use of these stories contain a barely contained charge of blasphemy. It's an awfully difficult charge to prove. After all, what is considered sacred is hardly universal. And even when, say, two people find the sacred within, say, personal histories about Katrina, one man's attempt at honoring the sacred is another woman's perceived decimation of it. I do think intentions matter. And it's rather clear when you read the McDaniel poem in question that he is, however flawed it may seem to some, striving for reverence not insolence. Young's anger is, I think, misdirected in this case. Clearly her passion for social activism has led her to do urgent, brave, and important work and she will no doubt continue to do so. I do hope that she is one day able to see that the poem "Convention Centers of the New World" does not reduce McDaniel to a racist plagiarist.

Monchichi mongrel

2010-08-19T22:12:00.000-04:00

Lance Bass and a Monchichi walk into a bar...

Monkey and Poetry Convergence: Dennis Cooper and James Tate edition

2010-08-12T09:46:00.001-04:00

Dennis Cooper has good taste in poetry. Which is how I came across James Tate's "Teaching the Ape to Write Poems."

Teaching the Ape to Write Poems

They didn't have much trouble
teaching the ape to write poems:
first they strapped him into the chair,
then tied the pencil around his hand
(the paper had already been nailed down).
Then Dr. Bluespire leaned over his shoulder
and whispered into his ear:
"You look like a god sitting there.
Why don't you try writing something?"

(James Tate, from Absences, 1972 Little Brown & Co.)

Palin's poetry picks

2010-08-12T09:28:00.000-04:00

If you ever wondered about Sarah Palin's literary tastes then you'll totally want to run to the bookstore in November and get her latest book. From Harper Collins: "Written in her own refreshingly candid voice, America By Heart will include selections from classic and contemporary readings that have moved her - from the nation's founding documents to great speeches, sermons, letters, literature and poetry, biography, and even some of her favorite songs and movies."

Can't wait to hear what her favorite poems are.

Thanks, Laura, for the tip.

More monkey crap

2010-08-11T19:55:00.001-04:00

Don't you just want to wuv it and wuv it an wuv it?

Monkey crap

2010-08-09T10:53:00.001-04:00

From Crap At My Parents House, one of my new favorite websites:

"Ah Yes! The coconut with the monkey face of death..."

Sloth!

2010-07-31T15:34:00.000-04:00

I saw a sloth today! A real sloth! Also bats. I took my son to the Cranbrook Institute of Science for the Great Lakes Bat Festival, which means he also saw a sloth and also bats. His Aunt Laura accompanied us. Since my son is one year old, this would be the first ever sloth he's ever seen and the first bats. The sloth was very active when we were there, crawling along the ceiling of his cage with his huge gnarly toenails. Then he got a strip of yellow squash out of a basket and hung there looking at us and eating it. A woman who worked there told me that since his digestion is so slow they carefully monitor his diet and weigh what he eats so he doesn't eat too much (I think). She also told me he's litter box trained and pointed to a litter box in the corner of his cage. He only goes every three days, she said, and she's been told it's very stinky but she's never witnessed it herself. I am not sad that I, too, did not get to witness this. I am not sure why there is a sloth housed in Cranbrook's Bat Zone, but it certainly was an amazing thing to see. The Bat Zone as a whole smells very strongly of pee. Just a heads-up.

If you're into bats, definitely check out the Organization for Bat Conservation.

Emily Kendal Frey is totally a winner

2010-07-30T23:18:00.001-04:00

And now her book of poetry, The Grief Performance, will be published thanks to the 2010 Cleveland State University First Book Prize and judge Rae Armantrout. And I will pay real live money for this book once it's published in Spring 2011. And you should, too.

The truth about John Stewart

2010-07-27T23:46:00.000-04:00

New episodes of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart are finally back on and during last night's episode Jon Stewart revealed some surprising news about his primate ancestry.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

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www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

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Look at this fucking Poets & Writers cover

2010-07-25T08:39:00.001-04:00

I can't even really tell you how much I like that the cover of the latest issue of Poets & Writers is featured on Look at this fucking hipster. Although to be fair, James Kaelan is a fiction writer, not a poet as LATFH suggests.

Monkeys are #1

2010-07-21T22:19:00.000-04:00

Monkeys top the list of Time's July 19 Top 10 Militant Animals list. For whatever reason humans are not on the included.

Hey, we didn't kill the slender loris after all!

2010-07-19T14:07:00.000-04:00

Scientists thought the slender loris was extinct. But apparently it isn't. So hooray for humans for not killing something for a change. Granted, it's probably only a matter of time. :(

Win a gorilla, my ninjas

2010-07-19T13:50:00.001-04:00

You know, I totally wasn't even going to go to the annual Gathering of the Juggalos this year. Until, 20 seconds into this video I saw that you can win giant stuffed gorillas there. And they show them again at about 10 minutes and 57 seconds in. Also there will be seminars? Because it's like college? I don't know. All I know is I've got to get me a Juggalo gorilla.

Via Videogum.

If "Howl" were written today

2010-07-16T22:50:00.000-04:00

A really awesome "Howl" parody over at McSweeney's. Though calling it a "parody" really doesn't seem right. You'll see.

Via Buzzfeed.

Monkey guns for hire

2010-07-16T22:41:00.001-04:00

Taliban fighter monkeys? Is this real life?

Don't they know that by giving monkeys guns they're only hastening the monkey world take over?

Via Buzzfeed.

Fluffy specimens

2010-07-16T15:18:00.000-04:00

There is, no doubt, a monkey to be found somewhere on this shelf.

Touched By A Monkey

Poet stamps!

“Beat Poets, not beat poets.”

Poodle kisses monkey

Laurie Saurborn Young is brilliant, but you don't have to take my word for it

Taha Muhammad Ali has died

"Pledge of Allegiance" by Married to the Sea

Why yes, that is a pretty good monkey

Toothpaste for Dinner: "haiku format"

"Epistle I" by Sheera Talpaz

Danielle Steele is "hungry / for your face"

14 years later

This monkey is being kind of a dick to this dog

Anis Shivani's poetry dump

"Curiosity Kills" by Joel Watson

Philip Levine, please save us

Blair is gone

Maybe alpha male baboons need to do some yoga

"Tea Party, meet your T. S. Eliot."

Free Neko Case show at the Poetry Foundation Open House﻿

I wish jungle exploration was really like this

Megan Levad is not a drunken slut

Charles Wright on PBS

Be submissive

Jane Goodall books for kids

The Onion understands Jim Morrison

Poet leads protests over drug cartel violence

Chimps on film

Kay Ryan, Pulitzer poet

Rick Santorum breaks up with Langston Hughes

Voices in their heads

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a Stately PowerPoint Decree" by Mike Lacher

Dean Young gets a heart

"I didn't evolve from you..."

It's true.

"Y'all took the wrong evolutionary branch for real."

Mo' grapes, Mo cuteness

Sleeping Lisa, will you ever wake up?

Monkey money and Ferlinghetti apologies

"Aunt Madelyn At The White Sale" by Alice Fulton

Elizabeth Bishop liked ladies, man

"Heaven for Helen" by Mark Doty

"Dream of Ink Brush Calligraphy" by Karen An-hwei Lee

The Sloffice

Poetry doth not protest too much

Walking upright is the first step in the gorilla world domination plan

Loughner poetry connection

Outshined by a dark cloud

"Near-misses" by Laura Kasischke

Breathe in the books

Give Dean Young your heart

And monkey makes three

Two piece bathing suits and wicker furniture sets of confusion

"Tie Shopping" by Married to the Sea

Stop believin' -- or don't

Anderson Cooper in a bunny suit meets bonobos with swollen genitals

Baby lemur at the Banham Zoo

"Great Moments In Product-Placement Poetry" by Rebecca Coffey

Thomas Lynch has a new book of poems

Poetry is moving

Adam Roberts reads my mind

"Wave" by Alan Shapiro. So good.

Please buy Christian Wiman's newest book for me. Thanks.

Book to buy: Between Old Trees by francine j. harris

I can read

Fight monkeys with monkeys

Happy Halloween

Smoking will kill you.

Sloth, sloth baby

"Sparrow’s, Poet’s Deaths" by Christine Rhein

A Rose by any other name is an asshole

Facebook of yore

Don't be a jackass

The unspeakable acts of Chimp and Frog

Poetry and monkey convergence: Harry Harlow edition

I'd like to buy a vow

Hey pig, there's a monkey on your back

"King Kong 2" by Natalie Dee

Monkey immorality

Wild crochet kingdom. And by "wild" I mean insane

Free Neko Case show at the Poetry Foundation Open House