Dead-Enders on the Potomac

Here are the opening paragraphs of a just published editorial on MERIP (The Middle East Report). You can read the rest of the excellent analysis here. From the Editors January 29, 2011 Every US administration has its mouthpiece in Washington’s think tank world, its courtier that will slavishly praise its every utterance. For the blessedly bygone Bush administration, that echo chamber was the American Enterprise Institute and the neo-conservative … Read more Dead-Enders on the Potomac

Eric Hobsbawm, Vindicated

Excellent interview with the last of our great Marxist historians — Eric Hobsbawm — in the Guardian a couple days ago. Below the opening shots — you can read the whole thing here. Tristram Hunt: At the heart of this book, is there a sense of vindication? That even if the solutions once offered by Karl Marx might no longer be relevant, he was asking the right questions about … Read more Eric Hobsbawm, Vindicated

Oops!

Nomadics was hacked by some Kanadadaian Viagra/Cialis pharmacies on Monday — as I was in Albany teaching that day & Wednesday & not getting back ’cause of snow storm until yesterday afternoon, I only got to the problem today. Didn’t manage to solve it myself — but Nicole did! & so now I’ll be trying to catch up. Meanwhile, here are the cacti of the Narrows Botanical Garden under … Read more Oops!

Pygmy Holocaust

Old Canadian buddy Carson sent me this piece from the National Post. One has known of the human disasters in the Congo, though this is one of the most detailed pieces on the extermination of a major tribal culture. Geoffrey Clarfield, Special to the National Post · Thursday, Jan. 20, 2011 The Congo River basin is home to 18% of the earth’s remaining tropical rainforest. In and around it … Read more Pygmy Holocaust

SAKRA BOCCATA(2)

José Antonio Mazzotti from: Sakra Boccata Translation by Clayton Eshleman 5 Because blessed You are among all women And blessed this fleshy bulk like a dog rose It saves my soul with the Transubstantiation of the Flesh In Wine and Bread of the Glory on this altar I sacrifice myself I feed my goddess as if she were a sea monster I kiss the two cheeks of her Face … Read more SAKRA BOCCATA(2)

SAKRA BOCCATA (1)

José Antonio Mazzotti from: Sakra Boccata Translation by Clayton Eshleman 3 Your Konch is that exquisite place most deeply inside the war * One must arrive there with the dexterity of the wounded pilot Navigating labyrinths like the palm of his hand Following each curve like a treasure map With its walls and its gates Shouting Red Rum Red Rum / Destruction Never * Only the rending of bodies … Read more SAKRA BOCCATA (1)

5 a.m. Lucubrations…

… as the snowploughs drive me out of sleep & bed to the desk where I open the window against the offensive heat of a mid-winter Brooklyn apartment building, and relax in the light swoosh of cars cruising along the Belt Parkway in 3 or 4 inches of new snow. I haven’t read the book yet, but love the circuitous way the news of its publication came to me: … Read more 5 a.m. Lucubrations…

Upcoming Poets House Events

North of Invention: A Festival of Canadian Poetry Leading Canadian poets at the cutting edge of contemporary practice address the history of sound poetry and performance, multilingualism, activism and other topics. Co-presented with the Kelly Writers House & funded in part by the Canada Council for the Arts. Saturday, January 22 • 2:00pm Welcome with Charles Bernstein & Sarah Dowling • 2:30pm A Conversation with M. NourbeSe Philip & … Read more Upcoming Poets House Events

Hédi Jaouad on Events in Tunisia

Here is an interview Tunisian writer Hédi Jaouad gave to the Times Union newspaper a few days back. Indeed, what is happening in Tunisia is one of the most positive developments in the Arab world in a long, long time. As Hédi says: “Something good could come out of this” — even if this morning, the majority of the few opposition politicians who were drafted into the interim government … Read more Hédi Jaouad on Events in Tunisia

Poems, a Dialogue & some Translations

* * * Douglas Glover’s Numéro Cinq blog/site has just published two texts — “5 Movements of the Soul” and “Hodgepotch” — by Habib Tengour in my translation. You can read them here. * * * Further Habib Tengour work in my translation will be coming out later this month in the new journal Asymptote (Brandon Holmquest, poetry editor). You can get a preview here. Looks like an … Read more Poems, a Dialogue & some Translations

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