Friday, July 30, 2010

Arthur Brown's Poems To Be Read by Lew Prince on August 2 at Duff's

Arthur Brown by John McVicker.


The next Chance Operations reading will be Monday, August 2, at Duff's in the Central West End. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $3.00. Music by Raven Wolf.

Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl, will be reading poems by Arthur Brown, who died of a heart attack on August 5, 1982, just a month short of his 35th birthday.

Other featured readers will be Prison Performing Arts board member Danny Kohl reading poems by Patricia Prewitt; Chance Operations co-founder Tony Renner reading Stephen Crane; and Richard Newman, editor of River Styx and James Weber reading their own work.

sly mongoose as a woman

because i want you from wichita
because i want you beneath house-leaping trees
in columbia missouri
because i want you chesterfield riverside
and tramline
because i want you suspended
in fits and hesitations because i want you
in every high place because i want you
mountainous at one sixteenth inch per year
because i want you jostled upstream
in slippery fish futures
because i want you darkling on lightyears’ memory
because i want you improvised in ebony and ivory
because i want you melisma in micro tones
from out of and back into from-out-of-nowhere
polymetric glissando uptempo dexterity
in cycles of fifths because
i want you come-out-of-the-blues because
i want you between a rock and a hard place
because i want you in sheets of rain
because i want you tear-drenched in smiles
because i want you famous muslim bean pie
because i want you pork chop and pork pie hat
because i want you in multiples of zucchini
and potassium rich
whole kernel cracked raw and clabbered
because i want you perishable because i want you
indigestible mummified and shelf-life improved because
i want you color-added red dye no. 3
caffeine crackerjack and empty calories with
a surprise inside
because i want you soul-omnivore refreshing spring
redemption center because i want you eagle stamp
chocolate and acne's prayer house
because i want you in your twenty-first step to heaven
because i want you newfound love and top of the harp
celestial equator earth bound bending eastward
to wake gonave
because i want you sacred and yellow-backed
just one necromancer from now
animated and bridled by ambiguous spirits
and a lathered syntax
because i want you tell my horse
because i want you ask my horse
because i want you
because i want you
new day lady day
and can't explain

-- Arthur Ray Brown

Arthur Brown's close friend, Pamela Gilbert-Snyder, who provided Chance Operations with this poem, writes:
I met Arthur in January of 1974 in a class he taught at then Webster College (now Webster University) entitled "Black American Literature and Jazz," a subject that was brand new, and one he was eminently qualified to teach. I often thought it was a pity, and to the everlasting detriment of us all, that that semester was the only time he offered it. No matter; he taught it through his poetry.

Along with "Trumpet in the Morning," "Sly Mongoose" was a favorite at poetry readings in the late 70s, not only because of the energy it transmits through the kaleidoscope of images whirling into and back out of it from Arthur’s daily life, esoteric experiences, and the literature and, of course, music, that he loved, but also because of his driving, breathless delivery of it.

There is no need to explain even the most obscure of these images; the poem stands on its own as an expression of love, joy, life.... for Arthur was so good at living. And loving. People, places, sights, sounds, every kind of art –- "Sly Mongoose" reveals Arthur's deep "soul omnivore" nature perhaps better than any other poem. It is also a unique kind of love poem, presenting an all-encompassing experience that is both constituted by and infuses even the most pedestrian details of one’s life.

No, there is no need to explain and, anyway, as the end of the poem emphatically states, really you can’t. But, because to a limited degree I can, I will shed some light on the origins of a few of the images, for those who may have always wondered.

The title itself refers not only to the song by Charlie Parker, but to a West Indian folk character, Sly Mongoose, who is selfish, greedy, and vain, but also cunning and slippery. Those who wish to escape the traps set by the Sly Mongoose must be equal to his intelligence.

"Wichita" is where I was born.

"House-leaping trees" refers to a tree in the front yard of a friend's house in Columbia, Missouri, which was very tall and leaned way over the roof of the house.

"Chesterfield" is where I grew up.

"Riverside" is a university town in southern California where Arthur and I lived for some months in 1975-76.

"Tramline" refers to the aerial tramway near Palm Springs, California, which can be taken, as it was by Arthur, to the top of San Jacinto Peak, only a 10 minute ride from the valley floor, but a huge shift in geology and climate.

"Mountainous at one sixteenth inch per year" refers to the approximate rate at which young mountain ranges continue to grow each year. The image results from conversations about plate tectonics, which I was studying.

"Multiples of zucchini" refers to the vegetable farm my family ran in the summers to supplement our income. We planted 10 acres of vegetables, including 3,000 zucchini plants.

"Whole kernel cracked raw and clabbered" are terms borrowed from a period of intense dedication to "whole foods."
Note: "sly mongoose as a woman" reprinted by kind permission of Fleeta Brown, niece of Arthur Brown.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Patricia Prewitt's Poems To Be Read by Danny Kohl at Duff's on August 2


Patricia Prewitt and guest following a visiting room performance of Macbeth.


The next Chance Operations reading will be Monday, August 2, at Duff's in the Central West End. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $3.00. Music by Raven Wolf.

Featured readers will be Prison Performing Arts board member Danny Kohl reading poems by Patricia Prewitt; Chance Operations co-founder Tony Renner reading Stephen Crane; Richard Newman, editor of River Styx and James Weber reading their own work; and Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl, reading poems by the late Arthur Brown.

Albert Einstein Held Me In His Arms

(Based on the title of a poem by David Clewell)

high on heady heavy magnolia perfume
we step lightly among the moonbeams dancing
I twirl to the rail to catch my breath         his eyes catch mine
boldly I take his hand         flirt him to the veranda

we lean easily into our waltz embrace
lose ourselves in the orchestra’s hypnotics
cannot leave his touch until the last instrument
is safely bedded in its velvet-lined case

I never again met my serious young man
but his intense knowing gaze never leaves me
I was a grandma twice over before discovering
Albert Einstein held me in his arms that summer night

relativity is a theory to be shared
even then Albert’s genius was living life
the energetic mass and speed of light always squared
using the physics of two drawn rotating bodies

-- Patricia Prewitt

Danny Kohl writes
Patty Prewitt was convicted of the murder of her husband in 1984. She has been in prison for the last 24 years. She has insisted on her innocence from the first day. I met Patty through my work with Prison Performing Arts. PPA's mission is to bring performance and the opportunity to perform to incarcerated young people and adults in Missouri. Patty began systematically writing poetry in a PPA class.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Tony Renner To Read Poems by Stephen Crane at Duff's on August 2


The next Chance Operations reading will be Monday, August 2, at Duff's in the Central West End. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $3.00.

Featured readers will be Chance Operations co-founder Tony Renner reading poems by Stephen Crane; Richard Newman, editor of River Styx, James Weber; Prison Performing Arts board member Danny Kohl reading poems by Patricia Prewitt; and Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl, reading poems by the late Arthur Brown.

I Saw A Man Pursuing the Horizon

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man,
"It is futile," I said,
"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

-- Stephen Crane

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

River Styx Editor Richard Newman to Read at Duff's on Monday, August 2


Excerpt from Richard Newman's "Little Fugue of Love and Death" published as a broadside by the Firecracker Press.

The next Chance Operations reading will be Monday, August 2, at Duff's in the Central West End. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $3.00.

Featured readers will be Richard Newman, editor of River Styx, James Weber; Prison Performing Arts board member Danny Kohl reading poems by Patricia Prewitt; Chance Operations co-founder Tony Renner reading poems by Stephen Crane; and Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl, reading poems by the late Arthur Brown.

Richard Newman is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Domestic Fugues (Steel Toe Books, 2009) and Borrowed Towns (Word Press, 2005), as well as several poetry chapbooks, including 24 Tall Boys: Dark Verse for Light Times (Snark Publishing/Firecracker Press, 2007) and Monster Gallery: 19 Terrifying and Amazing Monster Sonnets! (Snark Publishing, 2005). His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Boulevard, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry Daily, The Sun, Tar River Poetry, Verse Daily, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He lives with his wife and daughter in Benton Park, edits River Styx, and co-directs the River Styx at Duff's Reading Series.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Richard Newman to Read at Duff's on Monday, August 2


The next Chance Operations reading will be Monday, August 2, at Duff's in the Central West End. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $3.00.

Featured readers will be Richard Newman, editor of River Styx, James Weber; Prison Performing Arts board member Danny Kohl reading poems by Patricia Prewitt; Chance Operations co-founder Tony Renner reading poems by Stephen Crane; and Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl, reading poems by the late Arthur Brown.

Richard Newman is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Domestic Fugues (Steel Toe Books, 2009) and Borrowed Towns (Word Press, 2005), as well as several poetry chapbooks, including 24 Tall Boys: Dark Verse for Light Times (Snark Publishing/Firecracker Press, 2007) and Monster Gallery: 19 Terrifying and Amazing Monster Sonnets! (Snark Publishing, 2005). His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Boulevard, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry Daily, The Sun, Tar River Poetry, Verse Daily, and many other periodicals and anthologies. He lives with his wife and daughter in Benton Park, edits River Styx, and co-directs the River Styx at Duff's Reading Series.

Little Fugue of Love and Death

We talked of the end of the world and then
We sang us a song, and then sang it again.


-- Woody Guthrie, "This Dusty Old Dust"

The sky is gray. My joints are old.
The terrorists will nuke us.
I cannot shake this summer cold.
My head’s a hive of mucous.

Our dog is old. He cannot shake.
He collapses in the iris.
Dead birds litter the alleyway,
a wave of West Nile virus.

We drink beneath the new flight path
the clouds can’t hope to deaden.
We can’t see T-birds, Raptors, Blackhawks,
but it sounds like Armageddon.

And you and I sit on our porch,
drenched head to toe in Deet.
We swill the High Life, holding hands
despite the record heat.

The dog has grayed. The sky has grayed.
The grass and shrubs have browned.
Our life is high. The sky is low.
Our love goes round and round.

-- Richard Newman

(from Domestic Fugues, Steel Toe Books, 2009, originally appeared in Boulevard)

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

James Weber to Read at •Chance Operations• on Monday, August 2, at Duff's


The next •Chance Operations• reading will be Monday, August 2, at Duff's in the Central West End. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Cover is $3.00.

Featured readers will be James Weber; Prison Performing Arts board member Danny Kohl reading poems by Patricia Prewitt; •Chance Operations• co-founder Tony Renner reading poems by Stephen Crane; Lew Prince, co-owner of Vintage Vinyl, reading poems by the late Arthur Brown; and Richard Newman, editor of River Styx.

James Weber says, "Now 34, belaying down the Mississippi Man to build something new for a time, I sometimes in the past/future played/will-play rock and roll music, a Salvation Army low-budge Right Angle of History, a Castor/Pollux speed trial between Funny and Sad and so Formula 1 fast F. and S. melt together like Einstein's space-butter or a constellation called Par-Kay. It's all awkward any way we turn, but we're all in this together, 600 miles away or just down Grand or Esplanade. Buildings are neat, pop music neater, and I am in love with a lovely jazz-singer who suicided in 1960 named Beverly Kenney. Also quite nervous about this whole thing."

Engines with Opposable Ancient Aims Give Gladly Whole Found Cents

In an only nineteen minutes
          Carrie Careens gives circular
and perfect-bound and child proofed
          dissertation. I suspect
Africa or in specificity, Gambia
          speed tested plus anti-bellum'd
and low with disease. See,
          when ashtrays become stack'd
and apostrophe'd for a joke, we develop
          games or a vibration to say
hey (and not the "Say Hey Kid",
          I'll figure that grammar tomorrow)
maybe someone in the Big City may
          be a'thinking of you.
This is another apostrophe. If you fold
          circles and two dimensional
into a third dimensioned coned, Deanna Dementia
          who resides in Colorado is pleased
with scissors and an Elmer's Glue-All
          glue. In an only nineteen years
a brakeman becomes card deck
          plus one. Jack of Hearts is annually
planted against flask pocket. A knife, a nude
          annuitied gives life. A broad
young or supposed goes for broke.
          We may give in to specifics or
-ity. We may invade Gambia. We may
          deserve whichever oil plume
descends against dispersants, which is not
          a word. We may say, "Hey, kid. I'll
figure the grammar tomorrow." And tomorrow
          will forever have to be O.K.