Like a little old lady, I write poems about my cat. Unlike a little old lady, they are sometimes surreal, dark, and political. Other times, I write from the perspective of a cat. Such is the case with the poem “Yehuda Amichai’s Cat Speaks“–which is now available in text and as an audio recording on the PoetSpeak website. Enjoy!
Photo: Valerie Kampmeier
The Raleigh Review is a promising new online literary journal based out of Raleigh, North Carolina. My poem, “Las Vegas, Age Fifteen“, is currently featured as the poem of the week on their website, where you can hear me read it aloud. In addition to falling in love for the first time, at fifteen I also followed in my father’s footsteps by taking up tournament chess. With the help of an ambitious coach, I played most of the cash-prize tournaments in Las Vegas, winning a small amount of money, and coming dangerously close to a jackpot. I gave up after a year, and to this day I have a visceral aversion both to Las Vegas and to any form of competitive gaming. Still, the masculine angst, psychological warfare, and neon-light-induced migraines eventually made good fodder for a poem.
I received my contributor’s copy of Poetry International (SDSU Press, 2010) yesterday afternoon. It is an excellent annual anthology of poetry, essays, and reviews from the U.S. and abroad. I am honored to have my short poem, “At the Zoo” appear alongside poems by living poet-heroes of mine such as Yehuda Amichai, Stephen Dunn, and David St. John. I plan to read this poem tomorrow night at the Carnegie Art Museum as part of my set.
At the request of reviews editor Sarah Maclay, I also reviewed two books for this double-issue edition. Julia B. Levine’s Ditch Tender is voraciously associative in its exploration of the human condition. Robert Gibb’s World Over Water burns with the quiet intensity of the past. I am equally excited to discover new authors, books, and ideas about poetry through this 445-page literary tome. Like firewood stacked in the shed, there is fuel here to last all year, and I am grateful to have contributed my own small share of kindling to the mix.
I spent a rich and meaningful afternoon reading poems with fellow Pacific University Alumni: Kathryn Belsey, Michelle Bitting, Jonathan Harris, and George Wallace–as well as eminent faculty member David St. John. The Ruskin Art Club played host, thanks to the ever-gracious Elena Karina Byrne, to this reunion of sorts. Afterward I heard audience members remark that they felt the variety and quality of the readings gave testament to the strength of Pacific’s writing program. David St. John kindly remarked that, to him, the real secret of teaching is that one actually gets back, through the students, so much more than one gives. It was an afternoon full of generosity and goodwill–not to mention outstanding poetry.
I also took this occasion to debut my new limited-edition broadside of the poem “Recipe for the Broken.” The poem was first published in “Walt’s Corner” of The Long Islander, the newspaper founded by Walt Whitman in 1838. Fittingly, the column is now curated by George Wallace. The poem and background image are printed on sturdy 8.5″ x 11″ paper as part of The Broadsider Volume 2, Series 12 (Poor Souls Press 2010), conceived and created by Paul Fericano. A limited quantity of hand-numbered and signed prints are now available for sale on this website.
I was pleased to receive contributors’ copies today of a promising new local publication, The Ojai Bubble. My poem , “All the Westerners in the Japanese Restaurant,” is artfully laid out on the inside back cover. The magazine overall–conceived, created, and printed in Ojai–contains a mix of thoughtful editorials, photos, and poems as eclectic and delightful as the by-turns-quaint-and-sassy small town I am proud to call home. Kudos to poet and journalist Nancy Gross for expanding in this direction, bringing new and familiar voices together under one shimmering cover.
This inaugural issue is available now at select locations throughout Ojai.
One of my poems made its debut today on “A Change in the Wind,” Kit Stolz’s excellent blog about climate change. Kit frames the issues at the heart of this poem beautifully. I am pleased to have it put out in this way to his thoughtful readership.
It is also an incredibly timely, and circuitous, reminder (from The Muse, to me, to Kit, back to me today) of the importance of relating to nature on its own terms. In light of the recent wildlife tragedy in my own front yard, I find an odd comfort in rereading this piece that came through me, one day, quietly, into this strange world of ours.
Thanks, Kit, for giving quarter to this poem.
Listen now:
Robert Peake's poems have appeared in Iota, North American Review, Poetry International, Rattle, and others.
Weird Words
Sat., Sept. 18th
at 7pm
at the
Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts.
§
Mission Poetry Series
Sat., Sept. 25th
at 1pm
at Claire's Place,
Old Mission Santa Barbara.
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