Commentaries - December 2013

Ivan Alechine: Muxa Uxi, a Poem from the Huichol Sierra, with Notes by the Author

Translation from French by Wendy Parramore

Ivan Alechine: Shadow of the Shaman Dionisio in Muxa Uxi.
Ivan Alechine: Shadow of the Shaman Dionisio in Muxa Uxi.

I am the man and the dog Nahuatl

the pine needles fall

without thunder

like fine lightning

 

blow the cinders

the great raw theatre

of the oak’s bark

re-appear the black and the white

 

David Wilk interviews Charles Bernstein, Al Filreis, & Michael Hennessey of PennSound

On December 5, 2013, David Wilk released his interview with me, Charles Bernstein and Michael Hennessey about PennSound. At his WritersCast site, Wilk explains: 

In this series of interviews, called Publishing Talks, I have been talking to book industry professionals and other smart people about the future of publishing, books, and culture.  This is a period of disruption and change for all media businesses.  We must wonder now, how will publishing evolve as our culture is affected by technology, climate change, population density, and the ebb and flow of civilization and  economics? It’s my hope that these conversations can help us understand the outlines of what is happening in publishing and writing, and how we might ourselves interact with and influence the future of publishing as it unfolds.

Pierre Joris on Paul Celan and the Shoah

On December 3, 2013, Pierre Joris discussed Paul Celan’s poetry, with special focus on his response to the genocide of Europe’s Jews and others during World War II. The session, which I moderated, featured close readings of passages of “Death Fugue” and “Stretto.” Joris played an audio recording of Celan reading the first section of “Death Fugue,” and a newly discovered video recording made from Celan’s appearance on German television.

The Selected Letters of Louis Zukofsky, edited by Barry Ahearn (2013)

on z-site

free in-screen digital book

Here is the first letter, from when Zukofsky was only 15 -- a submission to Poetry magazine: