Disagree Lit at the HiFi Bar, Wed. 6/7, NYC #fiction #poetry #fun #funfunfun

Join us! I'm gonna read fiction! 
At the HiFi Bar!

169 Avenue A, New York, NY 10009-4567

On June 7th, the Disagreement Presents: "If you have really good vision..." 

Starting a little later than normal (9pm) but blazing you with three fantastic writers: 

MATT DOJNY 
SARAH SARAI 
EMILY TEMPLE 

Emily Temple has an MFA from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoynes fellow and the recipient of a Henfield Prize. Her work has recently appeared in Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, Colorado Review, Indiana Review, Fairy Tale Review, No Tokens, Territory and elsewhere. She is an associate editor at Literary Hub and lives in Brooklyn. 

Sarah Sarai writes poetry and short fiction. Poetry collections are: Geographies of Soul and Taffeta and The Future Is Happy; poems in: Barrow Street, Boston Review, Prelude, etc. Short stories in: Cleaver, Fairy Tale Review, Callisto, etc. and a chapbook, The Young Orator. She has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Matt Dojny’s debut novel, The Festival of Earthly Delights, was published by Dzanc Books in June 2012 and is now available in paperback. Dojny’s work has appeared in Electric Literature, A Public Space, The Collagist, Better Magazine, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Visit him at mattdojny.com, or at hiphopisthefuture.com, where he (sometimes) posts a drawing a day.

www.thedisagreement.com

"the need to kill various elves" :Spencer Dew reviews my collection: #poetry

Spencer Dew is impressive. His review in decomP magazinE of my collection, Geographies of Soul and Taffeta, is no doubt the least of his accomplishments but in my life, the most important. His summations are the very “wry” he assigns me, and brilliantly so. I will let you read the review for yourself, and hope you will buy and read the book, as well. See below for links. 

Here is a taste of both book and review. “Rolling on the Floor Killing Elves,” begins with an apparition of discord: 

The elves, the freaking elves.    
They laugh at huge clumsy humans.
Big hands, big feet, and have you seen
our big bent stinky shoes! . . .

Spencer Dew sees the poem's link to the other poems in the book -  so gratifying to the poet - when he sums up by use of a few of my lines thusly: 

“It doesn't take brains, this thing called happiness,” but that doesn't make it any less elusive in a world of distractions, represented here by forks in mattresses, the underserved fame of snake, and the need to kill various elves. “When Trouble farts, you can smell it,” Sarai writes.

“...the need to kill various elves.” Who among us has not known that?   

Read the review, in decomP magazineE.
Buy Geographies, published by Indolent Books.
Check out Spencer Dew, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Centenary College of Louisiana, currently researching the Moorish Science Temple of American, and author of Songs of Insurgency; Here Is How It Happens; Learning for Revolution: The Work of Kathy Acker; and other books.

"The Short Lapse of It" - a poem - #poem #poetry in #BarrowStreet

One of my two poems included in the
Fall 2016/Winter 2017 issue of Barrow Street,a thrilling, joyful, brilliant journal.

"Low" from Mervyn Taylor's new collection #poem #poetry

Mervyn Taxor

Last night I was at a happy, rambunctious launch for Mervyn Taylor's latest collection, Voices Carry (Shearsman Press). We were at the Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village. The great David "Happy" Williams on bass charmed with a few Trinidadian-ish tunes. I'd been asked to read one of Merv's poems. Here it is. "Low"

Voices Carry is available from Shearsman, Amazon, B&N.

Flattened by Manchester: "A Bullish Run into Chambers" #poem

from the Express: www.express.co/uk*

Wrote this when Princess Diana was killed in the wreck and a friend subsequently criticized people who set out flowers in honor of strangers. Am flattened by the Manchester bombing. Setting out flowers. 

A Bullish Run into Chambers

When a stranger killed is laid to rest
at an altar for Public Mass of Remembrance,
African violets torn from a window’s sun
buttery as a tea cookie or rose petal,
prim Queen Anne’s lace for Diana,
buttery herself and silky, a fallen sulky,
for a child we will never meet,
a teenager who standing is caught
in crosshairs of our blood extravaganza,
we are allowed impersonal grief.
We pay to be hollowed by cinematic gore,
are immunized against capitalism’s rule:
a business must grow. The word was gore,
a bullish run into chambers born bursting
and broke. Along chain-link fences,
at street corners and Buckingham Palace,
wobbly petals mark our bid to be human.
__
Sarah Sarai, first pub. in Fringe, issue 26, now archived by Sundress Publications.
Photo: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/808202/Manchester-bombing-when-is-vigil-time-place-terror-attack-arena-explosion-Ariana-Grande

Poem: "There is no quantification of smallest powers which propel."

A Territory of the Miracle

Cool the crude map
fired in your dark palm. 

Slip around 1 corner,
then 2, 3, next
4. 4 corners squaring off
with Fate: It’s a start.
(Times x, a lifetime.) 

Now a dusty path to
green sorrow growing shoots.
Stop short of the bog.
A shape will approach,
reach for, comfort,
your weeping hand.

That outshining ray of
sun with tumbled motes,
spinning cities—
take the keys—
incorporeal shrines glinting,
imbuing strength
to leave the haze.

A territory of the miracle. 
There is no quantification
of smallest powers
which propel. 

Sarah Sarai. First published in Fringe, issue 26. All issues archived courtesy of Sundress Publications.

The Heliocentric World, 1965, Sun Ra

A wee bit into "Outer Nothingness" I felt I was in a Buddhist Temple, that the gutturals were leading me to that promised higher plane. Then the sound changed and I was freely and happily allowing myself to be invaded by sound rays.

This is from the album The Heliocentric Worlds of Sun Ra. It may have been the best thing happening in 1965, other than the Voting Rights Act, which is currently imperiled by our spineless Congress. So if another Sun Ra wants to open America's heart, throat, insight, and crown chakras, do it.

Disney goes Samba

How to make the happy music of Disney even happier? Samba! The album is Disney Adventures in Samba. The artist is Diogo Nogueira. That person dancing is you.

Village Voice Sees Me, or, a Moment of Satisfaction in My Life

By Alana Mohamed 

No, Dear magazine is a poetry journal dedicated to publishing fresh voices from the New York literary scene. This week, they celebrate their spring issue, "REPUBLIC," with readings by many of the dozen-plus contributors. Over the course of the evening, attendees will get to listen to the seductive lyricism of Renata Ament, the haunting investigations of Adjua Gargi Nzinga Greaves, and the wry declarations of Sarah Sarai. The writers No, Dear features are diverse in age, gender, race, visibility, form, and voice — a beautiful reflection of the city itself. In their work, poetics and politics converge, attempting a vision of unity and resistance in a deeply fractured America. Swing by to support a hopeful vision of our faulty Republic, and your local poet. Issues will be sold for $8 at the launch.

***

It's a nice feeling is all I will say, to be appreciated with an encouraging accuracy. "Wry" isn't all I am, but for sure my poetry stylings, to draw on the jazz world, can be wry. And warm congratulations to the other two poets named, Renata Ament and Adjua Gargi Nzinga Greaves. No, Dear is edited by Emily Brandt, Alex Cuff, T'ai Freedom Ford. 

Thanks to my friend, Pete Dolack, who did what Google Alerts chose not to, alert me to this clip.

With Y as an Absence of Pain #fiction

A story I wrote is in print or virtual print. Check out the latest issue (#17) of Cleaver Magazine to read "With 'Y' as an Absence of Pain." 

Thank you. It takes so long to write one story and then, poof, it's up and out, a dandelion shred blowing.

With 'Y' as an Absence of Pain