Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Marcel Toussaint, "Beware"


Marcel Toussaint was one of two featured •chance operations• readers on October 29 at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid.

The next •chance operations• at Duff's reading will be Monday, November 26. Featured readers will be Chris Parr, celebrating the release of his new book of poems, Going to find it...; Julia Gordon Bramer; and Steve Schroeder.

Doors at 7:30 p.m.; admission $3.00.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.
Beware

Beware of the mind
where thoughts grow in the night
once the lights are out,
the Moon shines through
windows without a blind.

Beware of the mind
where thoughts grow in the night
after the cat lets out a meow
a chill comes through your spine.

Beware of the mind
where thoughts grow in the night,
when the hands of the clock
cover the strike of midnight.

Beware of the mind
where thoughts grow in the night
when your day was stressed,
your driving erratic,
sleeping, you toss around.

Beware of the mind
where thoughts grow in the night
when the floor squeaks, the door grinds,
a lit candle comes into the room
held only by an arm.

Beware
It is Halloween Night.

-- Marcel Toussaint

Monday, October 29, 2012

Will Kyle Musical Guest at October 29 Reading at Duff's


Will Kyle will be the musical guest at the October 29 •chance operations• reading at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, in the Central West End.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; $3.00 admission

Featured readers will be Drucilla Wall and Marcel Toussaint.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Drucilla Wall Featured Reader on Monday, October 29, at Duff's


Drucilla Wall will be one of two featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading on Monday, October 29, at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid. The other featured reader will be Marcel Toussaint.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Musical guest will be Will Kyle.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Drucilla Wall’s book of poetry, The Geese at the Gates, is available from Salmon Poetry. Her second collection is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry in the coming year. She serves on the boards of the St. Louis Poetry Center and the Warriors Arts Alliance. Wall has offered poetry workshops at the Veterans Administration Health Offices in St. Louis.

Her recent readings include such venues as the Over the Edge Series in Galway; River Styx series in St. Louis, Dances with Words series in Montana; and others.

She is the curator for the Poetry at the Point Reading Series for the St. Louis Poetry Center in St. Louis.

Individual poems and essays have appeared in various literary journals and anthologies, including The People Who Stayed: Southeastern Indian Writing After Removal; and True West: Authenticity and the American West.

She received her B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin, her M.A. from the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and her Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She teaches poetry, essay writing, and Native American literature, at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She has earned awards and fellowships for her work.

Her work are diverse ties to home places ranging from County Wexford and Galway, Ireland, to the American settings of Missouri, Nebraska, Alabama, and Pennsylvania. Her writing engages her mixed heritage of Creek/Muscogee American Indian, Irish, and Jewish identity. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, and has spent summers with family and friends in Wexford and Galway, Ireland, since 1985.
Lifeguard

They trod her into the blue concrete.
I saw that.
She tried to push upward,
her arms like streaks of pale fish
at the shallow bottom of the water slide.
Maybe I saw that,
in the chop of children.

Thirteenth summer, first job,
the world an unforgiving mirror,
new bikini hiking up in the back,
I had refused to wear my glasses.
Hold this safety pole and stand there.
Just watch. Just do that, okay?
And I did. But she was still under,

doing a doggie paddle all wrong.
I felt that. So I jumped in,
pulled her to the surface,
wondered at the weight of her head
rolling on my shoulder.
I did not call for help.
Only ran like some big gawk of a bird,

bouncing the child out the gates
of the supervised area.
I may have shouted at her
above all the fun, above the din
of their horrible little minds,
so easy with their feet and their throats
and their team sports and their sing-a-longs.

She coughed and started crying.
Stupidly, I lay her on her side,
slapped her back. Good. That’s good.
Coughing is good. I am sure
I carried her to the Nurse’s Station.
Someone said, get a towel.
Or maybe we were both wrapped
in one big blanket, side by side
on the edge of the medical bed,
shivering less and less.

Then, nothing happened,
plowed in through the door,
the open windows,
unmeasurable nothing,
even into September.

-- Drucilla Wall

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Marcel Toussaint Featured Reader at Duff's on Monday, October 29


Marcel Toussaint will be one of two featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading on Monday, October 29, at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid. The other featured reader will be Drucilla Wall.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.

Musical guest will be Will Kyle.

Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.

Marcel Toussaint was first published at the age of twelve when he drew and wrote Holiday cards to be sold to US personnel stationed in North Africa. He never stopped writing.

His poems have been featured in fourteen anthologies, including America at the Millennium. He has read on various radio and TV stations including National Public Radio and the Education channel and the 100,000 Poets for Change.

In early 2009, Toussaint’s poetry entered in the National Veterans Poetry Awards competition won gold medals in the categories of Patriotic, Personal Humorous. His poems are featured in the National Veterans Poetry Anthology.

A selection of his poems has been published in Korean, in Wilderness January 2011. Toussaint writes in English, French and Spanish and has been translated to Dutch, German, Catalan, Korean. He has read his poetry in Paris at the Club des Poetes and in Valencia, Spain 2008. The poet reads his poetry at various open mikes in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.

Marcel Toussaint represented The Saint Louis VA at The National Veterans Creative Arts Nationals in Fayetteville, Arkansas October 2011 and brought back a National Gold Medal in Poetry. He performed his entry on stage and the show was videotaped by PBS to be run in November 2012.

His new novel Terms of Interment, came out October 2011.
The Promised Rose

Inside the greenhouse, warmth, mist, and light
soothing in the early hours, curled dainty petal lips
preside over a completion of a rosy glow.
I searched for you, the promised rose,
on a slender stem with a collar of leaves,
diamond water beads sparkling this morn.
You were holding court among the courtesans
who gravitate in the shade of your persona
wanting to be players in the garden of love.
I paused and gasped, recovered my breath,
moved closer to admire your elegance,
your presence taking over my heart.
With shyness I extended my hand
to hold you for an embrace.
I moved closer and touched your side.
You stung me with a thorn. I jumped back,
letting the blood run down to the ground.
This blood will empty my heart
and create a circle with me trapped inside, wounded,
with no hope for the promised love.

-- Marcel Toussaint