Poets Wear Prada | PWP Books: March 2013

Sunday, March 24, 2013

MON 3/25 7PM AT YIPPIE: "DHARMA BUM" JACK COOPER "ON THE ROAD AGAIN"

JOHN JACK “JACKIE” (eDWARD) COOPER

O N T H E R O A D A G A I N

Yippie Museum Café

9 Bleecker Street (near the Bowery)

Monday, March 25th, 2013

7 – 9:30 pm

A celebration of

JACK KEROUAC

hosted by Gordon Gilbert

with fellow dharma bums:

Big Mike Roxanne Hoffman Patricia Carragon

Evie Ivy Puma Perl Vivian O’Shaughnessy

Jon L. Peacock Bob Quatrone

Linda Camiola Steve Dalachinsky Amy Barone

Mitch Corber Clare Ultimo

Stephen Bluestone April Jones

subway: B,D,F,M, downtown 6 to Broadway/Lafayette

$4 suggested donation

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Recalling Einstein: Headbanger by Jack Cooper


Detail of "Vanitas," Adriaan Coorte, 1688, Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg, Netherlands, photographed 30 June 2009, 14:19 by zullie [Source: Wiki Loves Art / NL project]

HEADBANGER
by John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper

Closer to a precipice, I shrink: indifferent to salvation, pray

for calm, control -- pity, less purpose; plead award of concentration,

allowed reserve -- allowed, of course, being false: deniable reward,

testing ice where firm decision

by itself must grant the go-ahead.

God does not play dice, Einstein says,
with this universe, nor any other --

neither ought I: its least

affiliate of empty space.

But act, instead, as I shall attend:
in fullness of self-contempt,

like a cistern; brim pride, shame,
excessive rage, yet exceed -- not enough;

hand raised, in arrest of hopeful despair,
mutter "too much," fallen far and far:

leave now only to crawl no farther on land, capable of pitching headlong.

John Jack Jackie (Edward) Cooper, poet, fiction writer and translator, is production editor and co-publisher at Poets Wear Prada. His micro-chap Ten, preview of his forthcoming Aphorithms, was released in 2012. His blog, These are Aphorithms, can be found at http://aphorithms.blogspot.com.

"The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret

of the 'old one.' I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice."

-- Albert Einstein

One hundred and thirty-four years ago, today, Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879.

Another Poem for Albert Einstein: Timely by Mary Orovan

In this 1931 photo, physicist Albert Einstein is shown writing out an equation for the density of the Milky Way. Einstein revolutionized physics, starting with a series of papers in 1905, and became a cultural icon as well.

TIMELY
by Mary Orovan

Let me buy some time, said

the rich man,

I now buy someone to smooth

every minute of what

I have. But time looms large,

inexorably forward.

I can crush it, said the witch

on her sonic broom.

Not fast enough—I'll take you

there, said light,

if you observe at my speed

I can make time

stand still—that's what you folks

call paradise.

But I want to zag to the past,

embellish memories, laser on the hill

of daisies where we first lay;

zig to tomorrow

a dimension changing everything.

Heaven is now; breathe &

be—shining with photons, transparent

as good air joy
the pure silence of not even ticking.

This poetry selection by Mary Orovan is from her chapbook, Green Rain, published by Poets Wear Prada in 2008.

March 14: Celebrating Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein
March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955

March 14, 2013 -- Theoretical physicist and Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein, best known for his mass-energy equivalence formula, E = mc² -- probably the world's most famous equation -- was born one hundred and thirty-four years ago today. Einstein is also recognized as the developer of the general theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics (alongside quantum mechanics). In 1921, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect," the latter pivotal in establishing quantum theory. In 1999, forty-four years after his death, leading physicists voted Einstein the "greatest physicist ever."

This popular photo of the physicist was taken on Einstein's 72nd birthday on March 14, 1951. UPI photographer Arthur Sasse was trying to persuade Einstein to smile for the camera, but having smiled for photographers many times that day, Einstein stuck out his tongue instead. Einstein requested nine copies for personal use, one of which he signed for a reporter. On June 19, 2009, the original signed photograph was sold at auction for whopping $74,324, a record for an Einstein picture.

[Source: Wikipedia]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PROFESSOR!

PUZZLE
by Austin Alexis

When Albert Einstein stuck his tongue out

for the camera

was it clean?

And if he didn’t care,

why not?

What equation was he mucking-up,

what Inca cord math was he unknotting,

or what graph was he scribbling upon

by defiantly not washing his mouth?

What proof

was he trying to prove?

Did he always have a pronouncement?

Was he saying

with his lips gaping

like a Rocky Mountain cave

that the mysteries of X,

the nagging questions of existence

are too profound

for seriousness?

This poetry selection is from Austin Alexis's book, For Lincoln & Other Poems, published by Poets Wear Prada in 2010.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

A Poem for National Sleep Awareness Week March 3-10, 2013

NATION SLEEP FOUNDATION
Waking America to the Importance of Sleep

INSOMNIAC

by Austin Alexis

I am the screech in silence.

Also the quiet

that is too insistent.

During still night, my long hours

long not to be so long.

Like the prematurely buried

I can’t stay put — nor rise.

All options seem impossible

though they tease.

Stray thoughts chaos my mind.

Held hostage, my mind rebels against

the hush that would free it.

I am a vase that has fractured.

When all three thousand pieces

are found and reassembled

I’ll sleep.

This poetry selection is from Austin Alexis's book, For Lincoln & Other Poems (Poets Wear Prada 2010), and was first published online at RogueScholars.com. To find out more about National Sleep Awareness Week, please visit www.sleepfoundation.org.