Chimaeras, Dark Ladies and the GOP

An excerpt from one of Jennifer Reeser's 'Dark Lady' sonnets recently published in The Chimaera has been picked up by a website called 'GOP12'. It's an online blog which tracks American Presidential hopefuls for 2012 from the Republican party — and has been quoted in ABC Business News, and at salon.com, among other places:

From one of the best contemporary poets, Jennifer Reeser, an excerpt from the assumed perspective of the obscure woman of William Shakespeare's later poems.

If I were both thy mistress and thy muse,
From all conceivable reactions, chief
Among my choices — if I had to choose —
Would be the innocence of disbelief.

More here.

Jee Leong Koh on the Joe Milford Poetry Show

From Jee Leong Koh:

"I was interviewed recently on the Joe Milford Poetry Show: one-and-a-half hour unedited reading and conversation about my new book of poems Equal to the Earth. We talked about my Singaporean background, art and autobiography, the mythic sea, use of meter and form, sense of humor (!), the objective correlative, children's playfulness, Chinese homosexuals, and love. I hope you enjoy some of it."

Best, Jee


From the show website:

The Joe Milford Poetry Show archives readings and interviews from acclaimed and established poets as well as up-and-coming poets from America and Canada. The Joe Milford Poetry Show prides itself on its candid and organic nature infused with a lively discussion of poetics, genre, the writing process, and myriad theories and movements of poetry. Join us once a week for regularly scheduled shows on Saturdays at 5pm Eastern Time, and watch for special edition shows by announcement. Add The Joe Milford Poetry Show to your MySpace Friends by going to the links page.

Ann Drysdale and The Well-Wrought Chimaera

Ann Drysdale is the star of The Chimaera #6, now online. There is poetry by Ann, essays, reviews and reflections on her by various hands (including the inimitable John Whitworth), and an interview.

The Chimaera also boasts a feature on intricate Well-Wrought Form, edited by Peter Bloxsom, Stephen Edgar and myself. Here you will find work by Timothy Murphy, Rhina Espaillat, Clive James, Alan Gould, Claire Askew, and many more. The General section is well-stocked, too, with poetry by Australian poet Geoff Page, Maryann Corbett, and some more of Jennifer Reeser's delicious Sonnets from the Dark Lady. Reviews by Rose Kelleher, Nigel Holt and Maggie Butt. 

Submissions for Issue 7 will be accepted from September 1st to November 30th. The themed section will be on Voyages and Quests. We are also looking for poetry and prose outside that theme, as well as critical work on the Australian poet and fiction writer Alan Gould.

http://www.the-chimaera.com/

The Chimaera looms

Issue #6 of The Chimaera is gestating and should hatch by the end of July, possibly early August.

The Flea Byteth a Second Time

The Second Flea has hatch'd, and, pamper'd, swells — with verse by Peter Bloxsom, Catherine Chandler, David Davis, Ann Drysdale, Rhina P. Espaillat, Bill Greenwell, Clive James, Jalina Mhyana, Timothy Murphy, Alfred Nicol, Marly Youmans and Thomas Zimmerman. Go, read, be bytten!

http://www.the-flea.com/

Recent news from our published authors

A new interview with Joseph S. Salemi, along with some of his published work, appears at the following website address: http://alongstoryshort.net/ThePoetsCorner-June09.html

Salemi writes a monthly column for The Pennsylvania Review , and his comic poem ‘Rear-Meat Rhoda’ is up at The Formalist Portal.

Bench Press: Poetry that exerts pressure at every point, and so achieves a momentary rest.

Bench Press, an independent publisher of poetry, will be launched on July 4, 2009. On that day its website will go ‘live’ and unveil its logo. 

The press is pleased to announce its first title: Jee Leong Koh’s Equal to the Earth. Of Koh’s book, Vijay Seshadri writes: ‘Jee Leong Koh is a vigorous, physical poet very much captured by the expressive power of rhythm, rhetoric, and the lexicon. He is also, paradoxically, a poet in pursuit of the most elusive and delicate of human emotions. The contradiction is wonderful and compelling, and so are his poems.’

You can read a poem from the book on the press website, and purchase a copy of the book.

Margaret Menamin, Poet

We are all saddened to hear of Margaret Menamin's death. She was a poet's poet and beloved by many, not only for her fine work but her gracious and thoughtful critique. This poem of hers from The Chimaera III speaks beautifully about acceptance, remembrance and treasured relationships …how those who loved her will come to remember her season on season, summer after spring.

Baucis and Philemon

I believe I know how it will be
with you and me:
Coming silent one day through the wood
where last you stood,
I will stop, remembering, and see
a newsprung tree.

It will be as if it had been planned:
Where then you stand
I will stop, remembering, and see
a wild young tree
tall and straight among the others, and
put forth my hand.

As I touch your greenness, some strange thing
will leap and sing
within the hardening fibers of my hand.
So we will stand,
season on season, summer after spring,
remembering.