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Thursday, 26 July 2007
One of the anomalies of this war that has now gone on longer than WW II is that, though the majority of opinion is against it, there has been very little by way of protest. In addition, the press has ignored this issue and the reason why and so the war drags on. The reason is simple: there is no draft. The people in the streets in the past were those whose skin was on the line or those related in someway to them. Now the people who are putting their life on the line volunteered to do so. Does that make it any less heinous or, in some perversity of logic, right? No. So, too, there are, it seems, very few war poems. At Lilliput, I see virtually none. Does it bother me? Yes. Does life go on? Sure. For us, the privileged, the protected. For lack of other fodder, here's a poem by Wilfred Owen, with an outcome no less biblical for its divergence:
And from the Lilliput archive, issue # 106, September 1999, before the war:
Sunday, 22 July 2007
You will be reading a lot of the work of Albert Huffstickler in coming postings - before he died in 2002, Huff had become my favorite "unknown" poet of the small press and remains so 5 years later. Huff simply cut to the heart of things and in the longer form especially was wrenchingly lyrical. Though I believe he was being overly generous, he once told me he learned to master the short poem working on things to send to Lilliput. He certainly mastered the resonance I look for in short works. A homepage of his work and tributes to him may be found by clicking the "Small Press Links" in the right hand column of this page. There are some fine poems to be found there. From LR #105, here's one from Huff and a poem by another premier poet who is gone, Cid Corman:
Saturday, 21 July 2007
This morning's Writer's Almanac features a poem by Percy Shelley well worth repeating:
Lilliput Review #104 was a broadside issue by the poet John Elsberg, entitled "Small Exchange." Here is a little gem from that ten poem collection:
Friday, 20 July 2007
Generally, I plan to be posting a new entry once a week, more frequently when time allows. Currently, I'm reading a recent translation of Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil, Verse by Adelaide Crapsey and a selection of the art and poetry of d.a.levy entitled The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle. I first ran across the work of Adelaide Crapsey in one of those inexpensive anthologies of poetry produced by Dover Publications entitled Imagist Poetry. I have since discovered that she was the inventor of the cinquain, a form I often see in poems sent to Lilliput. The Imagist movement was greatly influenced by one of the first waves of interest in all things Eastern in the West, and the cinquain as a form owes much to the East in its striking imagery and precise condensation. Though not a cinquain, the following is my favorite poem by Adelaide.
From Lilliput #103, April 1999, two poems:
Poetry is that conversation we could not otherwise have had.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
If you want to know what the ugly underbelly of the 60's was truly like during this 40th anniversary celebration of "the Summer of Love," check out d.a.levy and the mimeograph revolution, edited by Larry Smith and Ingrid Swanberg. The city of Cleveland's betrayal of its would-be poetic savior, d.a.levy, makes Peter's denials of Christ in the garden look like small potatoes, indeed. A compilation of biographical articles, interviews and analysis, along with a generous selections of the poetry, collages and concrete work of levy, this volume is one of the saddest, most gut-skewering stories ever to be told in the small press (that, god only knows, has had more than its fair share). For more info on saint levy, check out the "Small Press Links" in the right hand column of this page. I've always believed that wisdom can come in small packages as well as large. From Lilliput Review #102, January 1999, the following:
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Today's poems open up issue #101, originally published in January 1999. They speak to some larger issues ...
Alpha Centauri Light years separate us now, Once horse and human!
Posted by donw714 at 16:11 EDT
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Updated: Monday, 30 July 2007 13:02 EDT Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Welcome to the new Lilliput Review blog, Beneath Cherry Blossoms. I will regularly be posting poems from past issues to highlight what goes on in Lilliput and letting folks know what's new and what's forthcoming. Right now, issues #157 and #158 are in the final stages of preparation and will be mailed out to subscribers during the month of August. In addition, #17 in the Modest Proposal Chapbook series, Missed Appointment by Gary Hotham, will be published next month. More info will be forthcoming. From issue #100, a broadside featuring the work of the late poet Cid Corman, the following poem:
Beneath cherry blossoms, - Issa
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Beneath Cherry Blossoms - The Lilliput Review Blog
