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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Editors, “For Elsewhere: Shaping Disappearance”
RECONFIGURATIONS:
A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture
ISSN: 1938-3592
VOLUME FIVE (2011):
L’autre appelle à venir et cela n’arrive qu’à plusieurs voix.
—Jacques Derrida
More and more I find that life is a series of disappearances followed usually but not always by reappearances; you disappear from your morning self and reappear as your afternoon self; you disappear from feeling good and reappear feeling bad. And people, even face to face and clasped in each other's arms, disappear from each other.
—Russell Hoban
steps between / some passages / O make me / of joy / for a different message
—Susan Howe
Reconfigurations 5 is packed with dialogue & figuration, craft & critique, difference & innovation, song & vision. Forty-five poems (eight of which are image/texts), two fictions, one portfolio of thirty-three drawings, five articles/essays, and one wiki-conversation (with contributions from twenty-five writers/scholars). All submissions and works accepted for publication were reviewed by the editorial board and/or by other external reviewers.
Reconfigurations is an open-access, annual, independently managed, peer-reviewed journal for poetics and poetry & literature and culture that aims to build bridges among different communities.
Our work here turns upon generative contradictions. We are both outside of established institutional hierarchies of process and production (we are online in the form of a blog) and we are the epitome of such systems (we are peer-reviewed). We seek to gather and present both creative and scholarly texts—a judiciously selected diversity of genres/modes and forms of discourse. We exist as a dynamic space for readers and writers invested in tradition and innovation. Such dedication to both/and, such inclusion of opposition, is required by our project of reconfiguration.
Works are accepted for editorial review, April through August. Reconfigurations launches/publishes during the months of November & December.
Reconfigurations is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. For permissions beyond the scope of that license, please contact the Editor and Publisher, showard@du.edu.
We welcome your participation. Comments may be submitted via the post-a-comment link at the bottom of each document page.
—The Editors, November, 2011 - January, 2012
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Reprints:
Mark Young, “A Line from Weldon Kees,” http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/2011/12/mark-young-two-poems.html, RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, v. 5: Disappearance, ed. W. Scott Howard (December, 2011). Rpt. The Best Australian Poems 2012, ed. John Tranter.
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Mark Young, “A Line from Weldon Kees,” http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/2011/12/mark-young-two-poems.html, RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, v. 5: Disappearance, ed. W. Scott Howard (December, 2011). Rpt. The Best Australian Poems 2012, ed. John Tranter.
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John Bennett, Two Poems
John Bennett
FasT or H
PopocA
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John M. Bennett’s most recent books include SUMO MI TOSIS (White Sky Books), THE GNAT'S WINDOW (Luna Bisonte Prods), CORRESPONDENCE 1979-1983 (with Davi Det Hompson; Luna Bisonte Prods), EL HUMO LETRADO (White Sky Books), RESPIROPATIAS (with Juan Angel Italiano; Edicionesdelcementerio), FIVE PERFORMANCE SCORES (Fluxpress), TORPEZA CON TORPEZA (Sechisland), NITLATOA (Luna Bisonte Prods), LAS CABEZAS MAYAS (Luna Bisonte Prods), and TEXTIS GLOBBOLALICUS, vols 1, 2, 3 (mOnocle-Lash Anti-Press).
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RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume 5 (2011): Disappearance
Mark DuCharme, "The Unfinished"
Mark DuCharme
The Unfinished
The ghost-buildings are still here
We don’t know a way to address them
They stare at us yes really stare
They will never go away
To go away, at the onset of speech
To stare with ghost-window-eyes
To be truly naked in the telling
Or speak, at the onset of being dreamed
If you dream. If you speak. If you
Enter ghost-space (language is a ghost)
The space of the story that you weave
To enter or depart
Depart in hunger of words apparitionally
In economies of having been seen
Depart in violent day-rhythm lurking
While mislaying the proportions of the shadows of the bees
The Unfinished
The scar is what we imagine it
To be. The light goes scarcely
Through wind. When you sear
Or scare, you can disappear
Into wind in a parallel
Motion to its
Trace. The plan is to seed
In bloom of thought
Embedded. That’s not true; you are
Embodied, &
The thought is you. Appear then
In necessities of sight, &
Move as love, into darkening light.
Mark DuCharme’s newest book of poetry is Answer (BlazeVOX, 2011). His previous print books include The Sensory Cabinet (BlazeVOX, 2007), Infinity Subsections (Meeting Eyes Bindery, 2004) and Cosmopolitan Tremble (Pavement Saw, 2002). The Found Titles Project was published electronically in 2009 by Ahadada (www.ahadadabooks.com). The latest of his many chapbooks is The Crowd Poems (Potato Clock Editions, 2007). In 2008 he began a writing project called The Unfinished, parts of which have appeared in Blue & Yellow Dog, Colorado Review, Eleven Eleven, Eratio, New American Writing, Poets for Living Waters, Or, Otoliths, Pinstripe Fedora, Raft and Word for/Word. He lives, works in and teaches near Boulder, Colorado, and has recently launched a Web site: http://mark-ducharme.com/
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RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume 5 (2011): Disappearance
Vernon Frazer, Three Poems
Vernon Frazer
Bearing the Barely Spoken at Length
Happy Campers at Work on Play
Meaning Baskets in Heat
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Vernon Frazer: “Listening to and playing Jazz has influenced my work as much as studying literature. A musical as well as linguistic sensibility guides me when I place words and shapes on the page. Improvisation employs a different method of exposition from conventional writing, so ‘meanings’ emerge through methods [quite] different from those used in writing an essay. When in doubt, follow the music.”
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RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume 5 (2011): Disappearance
Dan Thomas-Glass, “Dunkalectics”
Dan Thomas-Glass
Dunkalectics
crunch-time hurts samples
going head 4 ball
playoff games mysteriously disappear from Chinese television
Paul worked
clock leaped
field dished
Jack
paint nailed exploded
Superman disappear
haul jumper
crunch years shots
superstar doubles superstars
better
ol’ broken ditched man
marks crunch
Score guy
depth disappears
crunch
pass Imagine passive
Manhood kicked
line idea
seldom slightly-above-average
yeah
guy ball blatantly
shoot hard
mildly better
slow win
break system
owners line muscle mirrors
terrible illusions
looking destroying working feeling recurring
Magic disappears
Dunkalectics
penned suit
quote Profit
score money delusion money
buy
buy
money crunch
choke Russell
crying
accept accept accept
darn
inspire video zone radio TV
drunk
wrist Bonner
competition performed
peek constant hands gasping
Sometimes quoted Love
scoring fears ineptitude
hard pressure shove
Lewis disappear
come constitutional instinct
stat maddening deal
flowery rhymes
story Dominate swore tape
written stacks MVP
clincher
crying beat girth
flexed giant forever
mighty ignored
stretching Spectator green game machine
liar age
Whopper Stories promise antsy
first silent tape
intentions attitude contract
writes trouble
fouls disguise
superior stint attack
doubled poor-scoring
overcome flow
Meltdown Disappear
bigger outside-in bench
wings sacrificing shooting compared minutes stuff assists
singled detriment super-scorer touches Bulls
tempo pass/shoot kick-outs gym penetrate
muscled positioned improvisation
cameras loss heated verbal jawing
stop stop stopping
funny guys express doing team scream
doing laugh action
endless intrigue made-for-Hollywood
Paul soft marginal rest
stunning imprint
minded injured
to not disappear
now swollen injured suckered glistening
knocking minutes literally
leading built beauty air
winning time
injure hiding seriously
blowing liability
hurting damage
feels line
deal greatness pain
things played
cry letters
slow anybody
younger critics
three victory shot heads
How to Disappear Completely
performance victory size
control Center must best-of-seven
best-of-seven backs forward
push breathtaking flirted run
stretch victory
taut blowout
dished thuggery
happy staff
Bad-footed stubborn sweaty followers
investigate disappearance
perplexed going sag
come
looked guided
first happier watches growth
might disappear
passion phenomenal
Bob blowing player
pulled crazy night
cool
franchise desperately Brawl
Company map
love restrained handshakes
dirty cheap expletives
ejected dirty caught ejected throat Bulls
struggling ropes
jaw have must have stupid
lose hummingbirds
blown suffered record fail back
guys body capable
capable bipolar pretty
final cruise scored positive
loss wrap show blueprint
teams Heat way silly times
home creaky jacked
hard
do tricky
bring walk return
confronted
flash seed run snuffed frustrated seed eliminated seeds
sides rallied
staged marketing
aired lambaste
shots side shots Nothing
staff nowhere nowhere chip
Boy grips Thunder
night Heat Potential
then
Heat
Heat
Heat
victory idle
Disappear?
New open Arena News flared
shelved condition
shelved shut
insisted burnish grit-and-spit limitations
leap recriminations
faithful witness
class tattoo irony
Morning debacle
alpha-male closed buts
road home
Center heartbreak heart pounding paying splinter
situations images
hard Patty choice
forget play hit pick
talking clock personnel
the disappearance of
team Phil Tyrone challenge
assistant average trips
occasions toughest shooters
system hand contract
guys guy
turnaround huddle
behind facing hands drained Parker
banks bigger not feel
pull illusions
came felt gave Commercial
hurts
vanquishing franchise
stunned celebrating movie
Gary Europe beyond clear
Curly ball
play chance
frothing Heaven Herald ‘breakfast’
dessert
unduly presumptuous sumptuously good breakfast
energy bit
tough lunch
defeat following survivor
Beating define doubt
worth loss
meaningless
identical
honestly growth hope Band-Aid
compete cynicism
grow positions
fabulous Rod doing guys
guys waste floor Heat
aging pin key
well ball tied
load ball
ball nice
ultimate gun ball wealth
Grew beanstalk crunchtime
uh-oh
beat moves ladder
opened squeezably
one-handers two back exhilaration
pulled down
blessed young early grow
flickered nice
fewer greatness
better best charge face
might beat inspiration
spark bloated beat annihilated column
immensely firmly fold
flip-flopper
flip-flopper
keen long material
old makeup
heading doesn’t-get-it-ness paid glory
[blame]
much Johnson stunk humiliation
anybody inconveniences change
respond career stature rules
principles model thing
ads Godzilla tired
worse beloved enigmatic heroic okey-doke
swore limp Paul
Closing drive anew
crutch killer
trail flat unfiltered
oft-complacent
leap grown pivotal physical hard
in ground our off glorious wish
court snowflakes sock-‘em
able intangibles battle end
franchise-record fast-break stops
run back critical
insists tonight
lines resemble staircase
point hinges view defining sorry
myself legs asserted done
guards silky sexy youth
‘chubby’
pitted schooling pile
death elders beauty peek
bull-rush not himself
fight push uncertain move
close owns members businesses
finances built plan appears
owners permission Honda
question Anaheim
disappear today.
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Dan Thomas-Glass is, unfortunately, a Warriors fan. His work has recently appeared in Little Red Leaves, Volt, Armed Cell, Try, and as part of the Poetic Labor Project. His third chapbook Kate & Sonia (in the months before our second daughter's birth) is forthcoming in early 2012 from the Little Red Leaves Textile Series. He edits With + Stand in the East San Francisco Bay Area.
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RECONFIGURATIONS: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, http://reconfigurations.blogspot.com/, ISSN: 1938-3592, Volume 5 (2011): Disappearance