SIR!

The 2nd issue of Brian Foley's SIR! is on-line now

check it out here

Pink Klassnik (an interview on HTMLGIANT)

Sam Pink has just posted an interview with me on HTMLGIANT

This is a very serious interview in which I discuss, among other things,

--Fan Mail
--Drawing
--Attilah the Hun
--Adam Pitluk
--Ron Silliman
--Pink Eye (wink, wink.....blink, blink)
--Dolphins
--Weasels
--that wily southern-atheist Flannery O'Connor
--everyone's favorite centerfold, Blake Butler

A Review of My Chapbook "Ringing": Porn? Boring? Trying to Con the Reader?

The following review's on Goodreads:

"Well, I read it twice, trying to find what is good about this and I have to say, I can't. It sounds like porn that is slightly poetic. It is one step above porn because of word placement, syntax and phrasing, but all the c--ts, etc, and the rest of the sex -

I'm not against sex in life or poems, but I found it boring. Or like I was supposed to be shocked.

However, I do think it's trying to say something. I had a few impressions but I won't say. Still, I feel like I'm being conned with this book.

Not saying poetry has to be pretty - not at all."


okay, some comments from me now

--This is the 2nd time that Ringing (in its young public life so far) has been called "boring." Are these two readers on to something?

--Some people don't like the taste of, let's say, raw onions. That's the way it is and most of them are not going to change. But, again: boring?

--If I'm writing a kind of "porn" then it's a strange kind, made (in addition to sexual language and imagery) of violence and religion, surreal and jagged. I guess, though, that there is porn like that. (?) I am not, in any way, reinventing the wheel.

--Trying to con the reader? All writing is of course a kind of distortion. A kind of manipulation. But am I more than the ordinary poet-sheister?

--And, lastly, I appreciate the fact that Nanette read through the poems twice. It seems she gave them a chance. Fair enough.

Poetr! (at the airport)

Poetry! The ruined old figure of a woman in a wheel chair puts it all in perspective. And I think of the cats-and-dogs fighting. Smoke rising. Stars and dust. In the light of my body I think and I feel. In the shield of my love. Hear, O Israel! (God comes with all this thinking. And, all around him and inside him, like leaves burning, or leeches-- death.)

Blake Butler thumbs up "Ringing"

Blake Butler Thumbs up "Ringing" on his blog today


"Can I say I love Rauan Klassnik? He has a new ebook out, RINGING, from Kitchen Press, that does new things for ebooks, both in form and content. (a) the book has its own url rauanklassnikringing.com, which I love, and the book is offered as html text only, a printable version, and in flash with illustrations by Ron. Two innovations for ebooks there that make this project exciting before you even begin to read.

The content as well is classic Klassnik, with brash sex and convulsive imagery. I am going to walk around for the next few weeks repeating the line: "Birds like planets——all ripped up." like Rain Man.

He seems to make these little aggressive forts inside of words, half throw-uppy and often childish, half ornate and/or sublime. The closest artist I can think of to compare to Klassnik is Pasolini, for their carcrash sex powerlight and their clear care among the 'profane'.

Here is a page from the book that exhibits this to me:

Curled up against each other we licked and sucked till we came splashing in each other’s faces. A chimp’s running down through the streets in the rain. Suddenly he pulls into a doorway where a woman’s undressing. We must have looked so cool——arched back, waving. Columned. Spired. Domed.

I like how this works in shifting between high and low, gross and high, etc.

Another wonderful read from someone doing something new"

And this means a lot to me because I really respect Blake's energy, taste, ideas, writing, brain, etc, etc....

The Animal Planet

Here's what I jotted down while watching the Animal Planet this afternoon before I snoozed off:

"Some people are like bats waiting in the darkness with their ugly little faces and their ugly little teeth. Bats, hanging upside down in the darkness. Soon they will fly into a barn and suck a horse's blood. They may poison it. Kill it even.

They don't know how to be any different. They think they are good. Wise. And right. Huddled together, in the darkness, with thousands of others just like them.

The Hells in some old paintings are similar. But in those people know they are in Hell. And know too they are depraved."

I woke, later, to the wonderful chattering of my parrots and cockatiels.

New Review of Holy Land

Coinciding nicely and exactly with the release of my Kitchen Press Chapbook "Ringing," a new, and brief, review of Holy Land has just appeared on Goodreads:

"Someone let me borrow this terrible book. I wish I could wipe the stink off my hands."

It's great to see that the book's getting around!

My E-Chapbook "Ringing" (from Kitchen Press) is now LIVE!!

I am pleased to announce that my e-chap, "Ringing," is now LIVE

I want to thank Justin at Kitchen Pressfor all his help in getting this together, (revisions, ideas, etc,...)

It was a pleasure working with him.

There's a lot of debate on E-chapbooks. Personally, as you might guess, I think they're good. Or, at least, they can be.

and, I must say, I'm very excited about this release....
very excited !

If interested, please check it out:

Rauan Klassnik----Ringing

Any comments there, or here, are appreciated.
(well most of them, probably, anyways....)

Some Thoughts on Divas & Death: Madonna, Paulina Rubio, Gloria Trevi, etc

1) We have a big view of the mountain. An Ibis is flying across it now. Paulino Rubio has a voice like pure blue water crashing white against the rocks. Forcing itself white into rocks. So stupid and childish. Willful. Like three pigeons above me. Hawked soon. Ultimate beauty. Wildness. A child in the wilderness. Eve, in the garden, with a weed between her teeth.

2) Madonna, just look at yourself. Or look at the dragon-figure of Sophia Loren propped up at the Oscar's. Like the Statue of Liberty's skeleton. Like Frankenstein. Look also at Meryl Streep, beautiful woman. Guido, my German friend, says, Madonna, your voice is thin. But you are still, I am sure, too much for me. But look, please, at Sophia Loren. I saw a picture of young Sophia, posing for Emilio Greco. She's seated. Hands clasped. Eyes aglow. It's black and white, but colors are exploding in me. The portrait Greco's drawing looks nothing like her.

3) The building of a Diva-- Gloria Trevi. Everyone loves a comeback (especially from such sordid circumstances) and this one proves that you CAN dress up a pig, lipstick, etc. After the building builds up a bit of speed and momentum it goes crashing harmlessly through all the glass doors...All aboard!

(She reminds me a bit of Tina Turner.)

4) Peter Murphy's Crystal Wrists. I have felt in twilight grief my blood clanging out of me like ice. And I would walk up into clouds. This is the music playing.

5) O-Zone--- Let's paint our chests red and yellow and green and dance. Let's feel up the trees. Grow tails. And swing the sky. Happy and high as a bright red jelly bean.

6) La Quinta Estacion-- more top-40 Mexican music. Walking through a market and out on to a plaza and handing out white plastic flowers. My wife thinks this music sucks. I think she (La Quinta) is a pied piper, red hair and all. And I'd follow her to the ends of the earth, my long tail twitching, gnashing down, and gushing down into wet oblivion.

7) Let's go into the jungle, in a canoe, just you and me. Like sugarcane, death's so dark and so sweet. My fingers are swollen. Eyes throbbing. We are paddling, you and me. Colors, all day dark, now get darker. Stars like a skull in a graveyard. Perhaps its a greyhound's skull. O, those days under the trees watching them race (and the man on the loudspeaker asking if anyone had any "spare cats")! Your voice is a shawl. The back of your hand against my cheek. When I'm dying, play this music, please.

Holy Land in Philadelphia, D.C and Brooklyn (upcoming readings)

Here are my next readings:


1) Philadelphia
Chapter and Verse Reading Series
this saturday, February 28 08:00PM
620 S. 9th St (between South & Bainbridge)
reading with CA Conrad and Mickey Hess


2) Washington D.C.
Sova (Coffee House)
thursday, March 05 08:00PM
1359 H Street - NE
Reading with Reb Livingston and Contessa Riggs


3) Brooklyn, NY
Pete's Candy Store
friday, March 06 07:00PM
will be reading with John Ebersole, Dan Magers & Sara Michas-Martin


I'll be reading poems from Holy Land as well as my chapbooks Ringing, Dreaming and All the Messiahs.


Ringing is due out any day now, from Kitchen Press
Dreaming in the summer, from Scantily Clad Press
All the Messiahs ??, from ??