New Philadelphia Poets

Thank You

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:55:00 -0400

A big thank you to everyone who came out to the NPP reading at Germ Books. A special thank you to David for having us and to everyone who read at the open reading!

We were totally poem-faced by the end.

Attn.

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:37:35 -0400

If you are looking for information about the Philadelphia Poets journal, please visit their site for more information about the journal and editor/poet/painter Rosemary Cappello. We are not affiliated with the journal, but pay it respect.

NPP Reading Tonight

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:40:04 -0400

Join The New Philadelphia Poets for a night of poetry on Fishtown’s most esoteric retail block!

We will be performing at Germ Bookstore at 7 pm.

Featuring:

Debrah Morkun

Abby Lang

Patrick Lucy

Brian Cuzzolina

Sarah Heady

Keith Vosseller

+ Open mic to follow

Google Maps Link

THE BATHROOM: #2

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:35:07 -0400

Be sure to check out the issue #2 of The Bathroom. It’s available as a handy PDF.

Issue #2 includes poems by Luis Galvez, Jay Dougherty and New Philadelphia Poet Adam Meora.

MMM Press Book Contest

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:45:00 -0400

The deadline for submissions to the 2008 Many Mountains Moving Press Poetry Book Contest has been extended to August 16.

The winner receives $1,000.00 and publication by MMM Press in 2009.

Past winners include Anne-Marie Cusac, Susan Settlemyre Williams and (NPP) Jeffrey Ethan Lee.

Head over to the MMM Press site for more details.

Silkie by Anne-Marie Cusac

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:14:00 -0400

A few updates on the wonderful Silkie by Anne-Marie Cusac published by Many Mountains Moving Press:

There is a very enthused and thoughtful review from New Madrid Journal of Silkie. You can read the review online here.

This is the same book that recently won a 2008 Outstanding Achievement in Poetry award for 2007 titles from the Wisconsin Library Association.

The book is available from MMM Press (direct mail orders) and spdbooks.org.

NPP Adam Meora Tonight

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:13:00 -0400

Friday, July 25, 7: 15pm

New Philadelphia Poet Adam Meora will be a featured reader in Mt. Airy at Big Blue Marble bookstore.

Google Maps Link

Poem

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:43:00 -0400

MENTAL DISTURBANCES

Track Loss.

Human, twist the atom

dancers so errant young

waves, those vagrant grams of loose,

cleave to the crux.

Impede. That's your part.

I tend to forget now I picked her

out of the lot, carrying food

like a gypsy.

Barefoot with the vegetables.

Balancing full wine glasses,

round bowls of soup,

rolling

eggs for the journey

to the one in the teepee

by the grove.

(Walking like a whisper,

burnt hair curling to the sun).

I plucked her and she knew less

and less of either world in my keep

choking out leave

into damp cloaks.

In roses, summer squash

peeled and split seed-raw.

Track loss.

Impede.

by Abby Lang

Poem

Fri, 30 May 2008 11:15:55 -0400

from

VERDADERAMENTE

Verdaderamente soy todo oídos para ti

cuando tu pecho en blanco torna lluvia mis manos,

te duelen los hombros hasta el grito

y te corren gladiolas enfermizas por las piernas.

Verdaderamente.

Con la certeza de lo que sentirán en el invierno

una nube con festones de azúcar,

en el otono dos mujeres sin párpados

o en el alba las rodillas desesperadas de una virgen.

Ennoblecida verdad la del olvido,

purísima verdad aquella de la ternura muerta.

Verdaderament muertos, encerrados en mármol,

cristalizados en miserables corolas sin angustia

y con asomos de fastidio,

crucificados míos,

petrificados en el filo de las espadas,

en esa hora agradable de los barqueros blasfemando en los ríos

y el duelo espejeante de los remos.

En esta hora y en otras,

tan bien soy todo oídos para ti,

que tu sombra amanece en pleno día del mundo

y mi amor impaciente se atreve sin error por tu vida.

by Efraín Huerta, 1944

TRULY

After Efraín Huerta

Baby, I’m truly all ears for you—

when I see your chest gone white and my hands

turn to water, when you can’t take the pain

in your shoulders any longer,

when the blood on your legs crusts up

like a shriveled daisy chain.

Truly.

You can trust it, like how a storm cloud knows

its snow will be sweet to someone.

How women unable to shut their eyes

allow the autumn to bless them with rest.

How a virgin, desperate at dawn, wakes

and embraces the next night’s possibility.

I know you think oblivion is some sort of lofty truth,

and tenderness that’s died is somehow pure.

But darling, they’re too dead—sealed up in marble,

ringed by frozen blooms

staked in their vases, doomed, stock-still

at the edge of a sword in that happy hour

when boaters blaspheme, grief

shimmering off their oars.

In that hour—in every hour, love—

you should know I’m really listening.

So closely I can see your shadow

awaken in plain day.

So closely my impatient heart

fits itself to yours, just so.

by Sarah Heady

Take-Away Poem

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 16:09:00 -0400

Take this poem outside for a walk- it fits easily into any short-term memory:

WHY LIGHT

The man

at the pulpit

insists His light

because he knows

light doesn’t

escape. It

reflects or shakes.

by Patrick Lucy

Octopus Magazine

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:25:00 -0400

I know it’s been out for awhile now but I just wanted to say how much I’ve been enjoying issue #10 of Octopus Magazine. Issue 10 has poems from Dorothea Lasky, Linh Dinh, CD Wright, Will Oldham… many, many more.

It’s online, free and excellent. Almost too generous.

- Patrick

Debrah Morkun reads in NYC

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:05:00 -0400

If you’re in New York today, be sure to catch the Naropa Poets NYC Alumni Reading tonight at 8pm at the the Poetry Project.

NPP member Debrah Morkun will be reading and the first copies of the New Philadelphia Poets journal will be available! Best Monday ever? Maybe.

Poem

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:56:00 -0400

AFTER THE DIVORCE

He took a knife to his ring finger

cut it like a carrot prepared for dinner, and

mailed it to his ex-wife

with the ring firmly in place,

like a bow on a present for Christmas morning.

And this begs us to ask:

are we like Magritte’s Lovers

touching without knowing while

hooded and blind to the truth,

that we aren’t who we say we are?

When we remove the mask,

we can either learn to love for the first time or

severe all attachments to

start anew.

Blind.

by Brian Cuzzolina

Journals

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:36:00 -0400

New Philadelphia Poets Journal, Vol. 0: Showing Flume used for Plastering Invert on Curves

Details: 26 page, black and white, hand-bound, hand-numbered edition of 300

Cost: Free

Events

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:48:00 -0400

Thursday, August 28 @ 6 PM

Adam Meora Presents

Blam: Starring Arsenic Pizza/Fringe Festival performers and members of The New Philadelphia Poets at Robin’s Books.

Google Maps Link

Thursday, September 4 @ 7 PM

Arsenic Pizza: What’s Wrong With America

Featuring Adam Meora, Tamara Oakman, Dan Schall, Quincy Scott Jones, Yolanda Wisher, and Daniel Abda-Hayy Moore

More information available here.

Google Maps Link

Friday, September 5 @ 9 PM and 10:30 PM

Projection Machine (A project by NPP Debrah Morkun)

At the Playground at the Adrienne Theater

Google Maps Link

Sunday, September 7 @ 6 PM and 7 PM

Projection Machine (A project by NPP Debrah Morkun)

At the Playground at the Adrienne Theater

Google Maps Link

Monday, September 8 @ 7 PM

NPP Jeffrey Ethan Lee will be giving a reading hosted by Poets & Prophets at the Plays & Players Theater in Philadelphia

Google Maps Link

Members

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:37:00 -0400

Debrah Morkun

Abby Lang

Nic Darling

Patrick Lucy

Brian Cuzzolina

Sarah Heady

Keith Vosseller

Jeffrey Ethan Lee

Adam Meora

Tamara Oakman

About New Philadelphia Poets

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:22:00 -0400

The New Philadelphia Poets are just that- new poets from Philadelphia.

We got together to help each other:

Become better poets, whatever that might mean.
Support and promote the growing poetry community in Philadelphia.
Expand the “space” for poetry by bringing it to new venues, audiences, and mediums.
Come up with a (somewhat) valid excuse to drink and argue late into the night.

We certainly don’t represent all the new poets in Philadelphia- we’re only a tiny island in a growing archipelago. Explore our links. And our links’ links. You’ll see.