Signing Off

I don't post much here anymore. It's time to take the wasted energy from vague disappointment in my blogging self and use it elsewhere.

If you like, you could visit my website: http://www.paulacisewski.com/. It contains publication and reading updates and a few other things.

Thanks for stopping by!

TWO AWP SPOTS I'LL BE...

FRIDAY, MARCH 2nd, from 3-4pm I'll be helping hold down the fort at the
Black Ocean table.

SATURDAY, MARCH 3rd, from 11am-1pm I'll be at Nightboat's table.

Stop by! I would love to say hello to some friendly faces!

Happy Birthday, Michael

100,000 Poets for Change, September 24th, 2011

Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion of Big Bridge have spearheaded a global event that will take place on September 24th. Here's a link to events taking place in over 450 countries and 600 cities.

Here are ways to get involved in the Twin Cities:

1. The Guerilla Haiku Movement is on a mission to cover Minneapolis in poetry, as part of 100000 Poets for Change, and you're invited. If you've got the verse, we'll have the chalk. Once equipped, you can scribble sidewalk rhymes at your leisure or set off on an optional scavenger hunt to help find new canvases and bring passers-by in on the fun. Organizer Caley Vickerman started by asking people to write haikus to one another, first in theater exercises, then on the streets of New York City. The movement has since blossomed into a seven-city fall tour, with hundreds of on-the-street poets ready to pounce — and Minneapolis is the sixth stop. Haiku of all themes and lettering of all forms are welcome, so seek out your spot and let those syllables fly. (Philadelphia City Paper)

When: September 24th: 2pm-6pm

Where: Spitting Turtle Fountain @ Lake Harriet Rose Gardens (Meeting Place- then we head out in teams all over the city- contact the Haiku Mistress if you miss the meeting point: 917.715.5976)

Why: For the pure joy of it. Because we are all full of poetry.

Pictures will be shared here and at http://www.guerillahaikumovement.com/

2. 350.0rg is planning a rally on the capitol steps. The organizers are seeking out poets to participate!

          Moving Planet Rally: “A Day to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels”

Saturday 24 September, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. (estimated)

Be part of a world-wide rally calling for dramatic reduction in the use of fossil fuels. We’ll perform simple roles in a procession, carrying images and messages that will stream back from one of our large puppets. No experience needed; instructions provided on site. For more information about this event: www.moving-planet.org/events/us/minnesota-state-capitol/1277

Location: State Capitol front steps, Saint Paul

3. Recordings for Change: I willl be recording short films of local poets reading a poem and discussing change to be collected on a blog. If you are interested in more information about this, please message me directly. My email is on the sidebar.

Coldfront Video Review

DJ Dolack put together a really lovely, rainy video review on Coldfront of the reading Ronaldo V. Wilson and I did this past May at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church. Thanks, DJ! Thanks, Coldfront!

Two June Events!

In the wee hours of June 4/5th, I'm proud to be a part of Bedtime Stories during Nuit Blanche at the Walker Art Center's Open Field.

Also, You Must Not Name Everything: An Art Party takes place on June 18th. It will showcase new work by Jack Walsh and Pete Degan, along with many other wonderful fine art and craft vendors. Beginning at 7pm, there will be readings by me, John Colburn, Sarah Fox, Matt Mauch, Laura Pendell, and Dale Pendell!

Happy Spring!

Feeling Contemplative but Inarticulate, I Repost...

These are the four requested songs played by the Current this morning after the announcement of bid Laden's death:









And here is Ken Chen's reflective and well-spoken Montevidayo post.

Catching Up

First, I am reading tonight at the Banfill Locke Arts Center with the novelist Kevin Fenton. We'll start at 7:30. There'll be wine and snacks and I hope you will come.

Second, I made a website. It's here: http://www.paulacisewski.com/. It'll have readings and news and classes and one day in the near future, crafty little creations and vintage whatnots from my very own Etsy account. I am new at website organizing, so I am happy for feedback.

Third, I just picked up Matt Hart's WOLF FACE last night at the Pocket Lab Reading Series, where he and all the other poets were phenomenal. So psyched to dig into that book!!

Happy New Year!

Sloth

I asked Meg Harris of Blue Moon Northeast for a poem that I could post, and she has kindly agreed. I am so glad to share her work, and this poem in particular, as it so nicely mirrors something about the undertone of the season...the scaffolding of slowness and observance during these long, dark months. Please enjoy.

Sloth

On day four the prompt was, "write a poem about an animal." I had the idea to write a double sestina about a sloth. I always felt bad for the sloth; a sin named after it. Or did they name the animal for the offense?

I thought I'd personalize the poem by tying in my reclusive tendencies, the clinical depression, my dormant ways. The sloth keeps an inconstant body temperature – almost reptilian. My normal body temp is 97.3 degrees.

The sloth’s known to maintain a grasp for some fifteen to twenty hours after death. I grind my teeth, even during afternoon naps – when shoved by a resolute drowse into a cavernous sleep.

The sloth is sedentary enough that a symbiotic alga grows in its fur. It is not a disinclination to work, I don't think. But that’s how Webster’s would couch sloth.

In the treetops – that’s where it all takes place – the sloth eats, sleeps, and gives birth while hanging from tree branches.

I'd even planned the end words for the sestina: sleep, bough, suspend, hermit, nocturnal and sloth. All month it’s made me feel out on a limb, this poem, sluggish, idle, like I wasn't getting things done.

There are days when stillness, like a death, is the place where I'm suspended, there, sometimes for hours, I hang.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Blue Moon Northeast

Amazing Meg Harris has posted a review of Ghost Fargo and a little interview with me on her gorgeous blog. I am honored.

Shebeen Reading Series, Zandbroz Variety Store, Fargo

Happy Monday

Here is the first installment of Tourist Trap, NYC featuring lovely Julie Doxsee.

Bemidji!

Here is a link to the full week's schedule for the Bemidji Book Festival, August 9th through the 14th. I am participating in a side event, a reading with fellow poets Erin Lynn Marsh and Jules Nyquist, on Friday, August 13th, at 5:00 PM, at the Wild Rose Theater. I am excited to revisit the town of my birth. If you are nearby, please come!

Some Photos From Upon Arrival's Book Launch, May 7th, 2010

Judy O did amazing menhdi!

John Colburn prepared an incredibly warm and kind introduction.











The crowd was amazing and supportive.Jerry Belich, my very new theremin teacher,            accompanied me for The Poor Choruses.

My favorite kid worked the book table!

Dobby Gibson's raffle ticket number won him the box of metaphors.

My henna tattoo (the next day).

GF Receives its First Review: Fun with Links

Jordan Davis wrote a very generous review of Ghost Fargo for The Constant Critic.

(Also, it has been a month since the GF book launch, and I still plan to post photos. My camera's batteries died early, and I am amassing a better photo collection from friends.)

A Little Update & A Question About Who's Commenting

The Little Update:
I love failbetter.com, and they kindly published two of my poems a few days back. It makes me so glad.

The Question About Who's Commenting:
Why am I getting so many bad comments and links to who knows what in my comments? Will you please stop? Will some real person tell me how to make that stop?

a KFAI visit and a book launch

This Thursday, May 6th, I'll be a guest on KFAI's Write On! Radio, which airs btw 11am-12pm central time. I'll be reading from my new book and hoping to persuade all of you kind people to attend this launch party on Friday the 7th:

If you'll be at AWP...

So many simultaneous things going on, and so many people I hope to see... Here are some places I will definitely be camping out if you'd like to stop by and say hello!

Thursday, April 8th
Catch me at the bookfair:
8:30-10:30 AM: the Black Ocean table with Allison Titus
12:00-1:30: the Nightboat Books table (official Ghost Fargo book signing from 12-1)


and come to a fantastic reading!

7:30 PM: Action Books, Litmus Press, and Nightboat Books poetry reading

Location: The Thin Man Tavern, 2015 E 17th Ave Denver (just a quick cab ride or take the 20 bus at 17th Street & Welton Street, get off at 17th Street & Race Street)
Featuring Paula Cisewski, Brenda Ijima, Sandy Florian, Lara Glenum, Johannes Göransson, Dawn Lundy Martin, Laura Moriarty, Abe Smith, Stacy Szymaszek, and Edwin Torres. 

Saturday, April 10
2-3 PM the Nightboat Table