Another South: Experimental Writing in the South

313 Pages·2003·2.181 MB·English

by  Bill Lavender (ed.)

Another South
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MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETICS
SERIES EDITORS
Charles Bernstein
Hank Lazer
SERIES ADVISORY BOARD
Maria Damon
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Alan Golding
Susan Howe
Nathaniel Mackey
Jerome McGann
Harryette Mullen
Aldon Nielsen
Marjorie Perloff
Joan Retallack
Ron Silliman
Lorenzo Thomas
Jerry Ward
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Another South
Experimental Writing in the South
Edited by Bill Lavender
Introduction by Hank Lazer
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS TUSCALOOSA AND LONDON
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Copyright © 2003
The University of Alabama Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover and interior design by Bill Lavender
Typefaces: Gill Sans, Universe
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Science–Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Another South: experimental writing in the South / edited by Bill
Lavender ; introduction by Hank Lazer.
p. cm.— (Modern and contemporary poetics)
ISBN 0-8173-1240-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8173-1241-2
(pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Experimental poetry, American—Southern States. 2. Ameri-
can poetry—Southern States. 3. Southern States—Poetry.
I. Lavender, Bill, 1951- . II. Series.
PS551.A56 2003
811’.608011’0975—dc21
2003009188
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Editor’s Introduction xi
Poetry Scouting Mission:At the Intersection of Southern and Experimental,by Hank Lazer xv
Ralph Adamo
New Orleans 1
Roches Moutonnees 1
from The Bicameralization 2
Sandy Baldwin
[basic system code] 7
Heralds of the hurricane.) 8
Artificial Terra-cotta Skin Mutagen Mask of Humbaba/Humwawa 9
Jake Berry
from Brambu Drezi,Book III 12
Holley Blackwell
New Poem 19
Message No.32 19
Law of Trichotomy 20
(August 2000) 20
Another 20
Message No.44 21
Message No.57 21
SEEing yu 21
Message No.69 22
Dave Brinks
The Secret Brain 23
The Halo Factory 24
Proscenium Moon 24
Please the Carrots 25
The Story Pillow 26
Any Blue Movie 26
The Tao Sequence 27
Joel Dailey
Poetry fro Dummies 28
Ride the High Country 28
Dear Bubble 29
Call Me ‘Shortchange’ 29
Thong 30
Rio 31
Right Away 32
S’what Up 33
Brett Evans
K-Doe Codas 35
Skip Fox
The Most Notoriously Absent North American Bird in Her Face 44
In Referring to What Does Not Exist 44
sic transit gloria mundi 45
sic transit 47
Sic Transit 48
Economics of Metonymy:sic transit 48
sic transit 50
Economics of Metonymy 51
I cannot observe myself unobserved. 52
another 52
sic transit 52
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vi contents
Jessica Freeman
Bayou Arabic Argot 54
Slate Roof Blues 54
Garden District Soubrette 55
Mourning dove ragpicks bargemen 56
November 1st 56
Part Evil 57
Customer #! 57
Houseboat Ferry 58
Ewe’s Candy Canes Red Sea Outerbank 59
Up Tchoupitoulas Nom de Guerre 59
Bob Grumman
Cryptographiku No.1 60
Cryptographiku for Wallace Stevens 60
Cryptographiku for Jim L5ftwich 60
Mathemaku No.16 61
Mathemaku No.17 61
Mathemaku for Beethoven 62
Reality 68
Summer Rain 69
Ken Harris
A in I as was Blackening Read (Mandala) 70
A Bough Well Bounds The Vowel Bounds Well 71
Vigil 71
The Fire After Fire 72
Poem In Progress 73
The Old Poetess Makes a Child 74
Directions to the Maze 75
Call and Response 75
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Eatonton Tableaux 76
You Don’t Know What Love Is 77
Five Note Range of Sorrow 78
Ezekiel Saw de Wheel 79
i am your courtier 80
Ellen Craft 80
Eyes of Soon Children 81
Marla Jernigan
A Palm at the Entrance to the Arm 82
Glorious 82
Kind of Ransom 83
Past Qualm of Hours 84
Put together how it will 85
This is Still Life 86
Who are you 86
Joy Lahey
White Soil 87
Cattails Along Red River 88
Cotton and Gladiolas 89
Habitat Photo 90
Buckles 91
U-turn 92
.22 93
Bill Lavender
A Note to Skip on Max and Maxine 94
frompentacl 97
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contents vii
Hank Lazer
fromDays 99
fromThe New Spirit 100
Jim Leftwich
Eleusis 111
)ohn Lowther
ASLEEPING 119
Dana Lisa Lustig
big guns go boom! (for Mark Prejsnar) 129
plane song 129
barefoot/extinguish at will 130
“and I am lonely and small in all this,goodnight” 131
Camille Martin
[untitled] 133
to abcs and from rimbaud 134
fromno truck 136
solfège parasite 138
Jerry McGuire
Not A Ton Notation 141
The Cages 142
Feeling Rosemary 143
Plate Pieces 144
Gongula 145
Thomas Meyer
The Merchant’s Daughter 149
Dancing There 154
Uranium Ore 155
A. di Michele
About the Extinction Of 156
Solstice / Surgery (12-21,22-99) 159
Unica Zurn’s Loam Bowl 160
Archipelago (Interra Diocesan) 162
Mark Prejsnar
Composition with Wire 166
Ode to Toge 168
assuage bane 171
Government and Binding 172
abusive! that’s the word! 173
Randy Prunty
Trigger D’evolution 174
Alex Rawls
“H.S.Mauberley (Life and Contacts)” Part I by Ezra Pound 183
“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman 184
“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” by William Blake 185
fromWhat’s Your Sign? 186
“Romance Somnambulo” by Garcia Lorca 189
David Thomas Roberts
Toward Mena 191
Tiff Belt Parley 191
Rodeo 192
Little Pilot Knob 193
I Mandate Ridges Raving 194
Kalamu ya Salaam
SOUND is ProFound Sense 195
THE MOMENT OF THE FIRST DAY 200
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viii contents
James Sanders
Poem with Referees 204
From the Mark Prejsnar Playbook 207
Christy Sheffield Sanford
Rachel’s Recovery (Fucking with the Angels). 214
Lorenzo Thomas
An Even-Tempered Girl Holds Her Breath 226
Dangerous Doubts 227
Blues Variations 228
Foolish Treasures 230
Back in the Day 230
Flash Point 232
Magnetic Charms 232
Stephanie Williams
Peerage 234
A Drunkard Promise 235
Of Riches 236
Duchess of Dogs 237
coarse rigors 238
Hope Chest 239
A Maid of Need 241
Andy Young
In Anguish,the Heart Finally Prays: 242
Foxfire 245
Ghost of Me 247
Vodou Headwashing Ceremony 248
Seth Young
fromriver we are caried by 250
Contributors | Poetics 261
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Acknowledgments
Some of the poets and poems collected in this anthology also appeared in New Orleans Review,The Other
South:Experimental Writing in the South 21,no.2 (Summer 1995),and New Orleans Review,An Other South:
Experimental Writing in the South,Part II 25,nos.1 and 2 (Spring 1999). Special thanks to New Orleans Review
editor Ralph Adamo,and Loyola University for their early support of this project.
Ralph Adamo: “Roches Moutonnees” appeared in The Quarterly,and “New Orleans” in Southern Review.
Sandy Baldwin:The Little Magazine published “[basic system code]” and “Heralds of the Hurricane,” in
versions different from those below.
Jake Berry: The exerpt fromBrambu Drezi,Book IIIappeared in Lost And Found Times.
Joel Dailey: Some of the poems included here have appeared in Fell Swoop,Prosodia,Exquisite Corpse,
Hangman,and Fuck!
Skip Fox:“sic transit gloria mundi” and “Economics of Metonymy:sic transit” appeared in Exquisite
Corpse 8.
Honoree Fanonne Jeffers:“Big Mama Thornton,” “Eyes of Soon Children,” “Ellen Craft,” “i am your
courtier,” “Ezekiel Saw de Wheel” from The Gospel of Barbecue (Wick Poetry Series/Kent State University
Press, 2000).“You Don’t Know What Love Is,” “Five Note Range of Sorrow,” Massachusetts Review
(Summer 2000).“Eatonton Tableaux,” Obsidian III(Summer 2000).
Joy Lahey: "White Soil," "Cattails Along Red River," and "Cotton and Gladiolas" were published in
Mesechabe and then in Abandoned Premises, a chapbook from Lavender Ink, 1999. "Habitat Photo,"
"Buckles," appeared in New Orleans Review.
Bill Lavender:pentaclwas published in chapbook form by Fell Swoop.“A Note to Skip” appeared in New
Delta Review.
Hank Lazer:“Days 28” appeared in Days(New Orleans:Lavender Ink,2002).
Dana Lisa Lustig:“plane song:” was published in 108:98.
Camille Martin:“fromno truck” appeared in perspektive,“solfége parasite” in poethia,“to abcs and from
rimbaud” in baddog.
Jerry McGuire:“The Cages” appeared in Prosodia 8and “Gongula” in Swift Kick 2.
Thomas Meyer:“Uranium Ore” appeared in Tight No One(December 2001),Whit Griffin and Andrew
Hughes,eds.,Bennington,VT.
Mark Prejsnar: “Assuage Bane” appeared in Mirage #4/ Period(ical).
Randy Prunty: “Trigger D’evolution” appeared in 108.
David Thomas Roberts: The piece beginning “Zinc-jangled pencil of groves” first appeared in
Experimental Press. A version of “Rodeo” in unillustrated verse form first appeared in The Experioddicist.
James Sanders: “Poem with Referees” appeared in 108.
Lorenzo Thomas:“Flash Point” and “Magnetic Charms” first appeared in Combo(Fall 1999);“Dangerous
Doubts” appeared in Gulf Coast:A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts (Summer 1994);“Foolish Treasures” and
“Back in the Day” appeared in Kente Cloth:African American Voices in Texas(1995);“An Even-Tempered Girl
Holds Her Breath” was originally published in Lungfull!Magazine(1998);and “Blues Variations” originally
appeared in New Orleans Review(Spring 1999)
Stephanie Williams: “A Drunkard Promise” was previously published in Mungo vs.Ranger 1 (Spring
1999).
Andy Young: “Vodou Headwashing Ceremony” appeared in Exquisite Corpse;“In Anguish,the Heart
Finally Prays” in New Orleans Review;and “Foxfire” and “Ghost of Me” in Mine(Lavender Ink,2000).
Seth Young: Some of the poems from river we are caried byappeared in 108and Facture.
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