Suburban wilds: a self-portrait, poem by Liz Worth (Self-Portrait Poetry Series)

Suburban wilds: a self-portrait
by Liz Worth

Ocean above the cheekbones and a savage lung, the breath of devastation to match the only scar I can still see from in here.

I dream in the robes of a witch, my mouth ravaged by an April birth and temper as deep as a wolf’s
but my hair speaks only of suburban wilds gone rough.
In my hand, the spider of insomnia as swollen as an under-slept eye.

Chipped tooth from spilling out onto the street a gasping reminder of my catch-all phrase: I’m fine / I’m fine / I’m fine.

At the wrist, ribbons of time – the dead honored in gold above flattened veins.

Skirt parted to reveal myself as the kind of girl who lets strange men’s legs rest against hers on a crowded subway.

(Lift. Just a little more.)

I don’t run with anyone because I don’t need to.

My mind isn’t as vulnerable as it used to be but
if you look me in the eye
you’ll find the photograph I will become:
a socket of poetry, its tunnel
as terrible as the Moon and
burning wild.

Downcast superstition behind the earlobe, pooling in the collarbone.
Paranoia’s an oil seeping from my pores,
blackheads behind bangs and drugstore concealer.
I scratch, shortened nails, a dictation of unease.

Lips, perilous. Wanting. My gaze, high.

Higher. Looking forward. Away, to something better.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: For me, creating usually involves coffee no matter what time of day it is. Occasionally it also happens with dark chocolate or banana bread, which I believe help improve concentration, or at least boost my overall levels of happiness. I always carry a notebook around and most of my writing starts with just one word or a fragment of an idea: an image, a phrase, a strange pairing of words. I take it from there and just let the writing tell me what it wants to do.

IMAGE: “Queen Elizabeth II” by Andy Warhol (1985).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Liz Worth is a Toronto-based author. Her debut book, Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, was the first to give an in-depth account of Toronto’s early punk scene. Liz’s first poetry collection, Amphetamine Heart, was released in 2011, and her first novel, PostApoc, was released in October 2013. She has also re-written Andy Warhol’s a: A Novel as poetry. You can reach her at www.lizworth.com.

L.A.-based photographer/poet Alexis Rhone Fancher

James B. Golden, author of Bull: The Journey of a Freedom Icon (Silver Birch Press, 2014), was recently featured in Cultural Weekly — and the article included a stunning portrait of the author by L.A.-based photographer (and poet) Alexis Rhone Fancher, who is also the poetry editor at Cultural Weekly. Alexis’s photographs have appeared in many publications, and she specializes in artists’ portraits at her studio in downtown Los Angeles. Alexis is also a prolific chronicler of her downtown neighborhood — photos that appear frequently on her Facebook page. I adore Alexis’s photographs and recently asked her to tell me more about her work. Here’s what she told me . . .

“My photographic passion is people. Photography is a means to connect with them in a unique and intimate way. I specialize in portraits of poets, writers, artists, painters — portraits where the goal is always to reveal the sitter’s inner self. I’ve been shooting professionally for decades, and have been told that I make being photographed a happy, fun experience, and that I have a knack for putting self-conscious, camera shy subjects at ease. All my clients come by referral, or by tracking me down once they’ve seen my work. But I’m interested in expanding my horizons, and am always on the lookout for faces that interest me. I have a studio in downtown L.A. and also like to shoot on location around my 6th and Spring neighborhood. A session usually runs 1-1/2 to 2 hours. I ask the client to bring a few changes — clothes s/he feels terrific in — hats, simple props. I shoot until I’m satisfied I have what the client wants. Prices available on request. Reasonable. With special rates for artists. References in great abundance.”

ALEXIS RHONE FANCHER

If you’re looking for a great portrait or series of photos, contact Alexis Rhone Fancher Photography: 

Phone: 310-850-0006

Web: alexisrhonefancher.com/photography

Email: alexis@lapoetrix.com

ABOUT ALEXIS RHONE FANCHER:  In addition to her portrait business, writer/photographer Alexis Rhone Fancher’s photographs have been published worldwide, including a spread in HEArt Online, numerous photos in This Is Poetry, three photo essays in Cultural Weekly, and the covers of Witness and The Mas Tequila Review. Alexis is a member of Jack Grapes’ L.A. Poets & Writers Collective. Her poems have been published in H_NGM_N, Fjords Review, Rattle, The MacGuffin, Slipstream, This Is Poetry: Women of the Small Presses, BoySlut, The Mas Tequila Review, Deep Water Literary Journal, Carnival Literary Journal, Cliterature, The Juice Bar, Cultural Weekly, Poeticdiversity, High Coupe, Bukowski On Wry, Gutter Eloquence Magazine, Tell Your True Tale, The Good Men Project, Bare Hands, 100-Word Stories, The Poetry Super Highway, Downer, Le Zaporogue, numerous anthologies, and elsewhere. In 2013 she was nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. She is poetry editor of Cultural Weekly. Visit her at alexisrhonefancher.com

PHOTOGRAPHS by Alexis Rhone Fancher, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Sleeping with the Dictionary, poem by Harryette Mullen

SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY

by Harryette Mullen

I beg to dicker with my silver-tongued companion, whose lips are ready to read my shining gloss. A versatile partner, conversant and well-versed in the verbal art, the dictionary is not averse to the solitary habits of the curiously wide-awake reader. In the dark night’s insomnia, the book is a stimulating sedative, awakening my tired imagination to the hypnagogic trance of language. Retiring to the canopy of the bedroom, turning on the bedside light, taking the big dictionary to bed, clutching the unabridged bulk, heavy with the weight of all the meanings between these covers, smoothing the thin sheets, thick with accented syllables—all are exercises in the conscious regimen of dreamers, who toss words on their tongues while turning illuminated pages. To go through all these motions and procedures, groping in the dark for an alluring word, is the poet’s nocturnal mission. Aroused by myriad possibilities, we try out the most perverse positions in the practice of our nightly act, the penetration of the denotative body of the work. Any exit from the logic of language might be an entry in a symptomatic dictionary. The alphabetical order of this ample block of knowledge might render a dense lexicon of lucid hallucinations. Beside the bed, a pad lies open to record the meandering of migratory words. In the rapid eye movement of the poet’s night vision, this dictum can be decoded, like the secret acrostic of a lover’s name.

SOURCE: “Sleeping with the Dictionary” appears in Harryette Mullen‘s collection Sleeping with the Dictionary (University of California Press, 2002), available at Amazon.com.

IMAGE: “Flaming June Dictionary Antique Art print by Reimaginationprints, available at etsy.com. (The print is composed of an antique dictionary page and “Flaming June,” a painting by Sir Frederic Leighton (1895).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Harryette Mullen is a poet and a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she teaches creative writing and African-American literature. Mullen was born in Alabama, but spent most of her childhood in Texas. After receiving her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, she attended the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she wrote her dissertation on slave narratives. Mullen’s poetry collections include Tree Tall Woman, Blues Baby: Early Poems. Trimmings, Muse and Drudge, and Sleeping with the Dictionary, which was nominated for a National Book Award.

fame, poem by Charles Bukowski

fame
by Charles Bukowski 

some want it, I don’t want it, I
want to do whatever it is I do
and just do it.
I don’t want to look into the
adulating eye,
shake the sweating
palm.
I think that whatever I do
is my business.
I do it because if I don’t
I’m finished.
I’m selfish:
I do it for myself
to save what is left of
myself.
and when I am
approached as
hero or
half-god or
guru
I refuse to accept
that.
I don’t want their
congratulations,
their worship
their companionship.
 
I may have half-a-
million readers,
a million,
two million.
I don’t care.
I write the word
how I have to write it.
 
and, in the
beginning,
when there were no
readers
I wrote the word
as I needed to write the
word
and if all
the half-million,
the million,
the two million,
disappear
I will continue to
write the
word
as I always have.
 
the reader is an
afterthought,
the placenta,
an accident,
and any writer who
believes otherwise
is a bigger fool than
his
following.

SOURCE: “fame” appears in Open All Night: New Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 2002), available at Amazon.com.

Portrait of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This image and other portraits of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan appear in the Silver Birch Press BUKOWSKI ANTHOLOGY, available at Amazon.com.

Enter to win Charles Bukowski poster by Joan Gannij

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Charles Bukowski’s passing, we are raffling off a limited-edition commemorative poster by Joan Gannij – donated by the photographer.

If you’d like your name entered into the drawing, just send an email with your contact info to silver@silverbirchpress.com with HANK POSTER in the subject line. We’ll pick a name from the hat on Sunday, March 9, 2014.

Stay tuned for a week of giveaways as we count down to the 20th Anniversary of Hank’s departure and pay tribute to the great writer!

NOTE: To purchase a signed copy of the limited-edition poster for just $20 (plus shipping and handling), send an email to Joan Gannij  — joangannij@gmail.com.

Signed, Limited-Edition Bukowski Poster by Joan Gannij

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of Charles Bukowski’s passing, famed Bukowski photographer Joan Gannij is offering her portrait of Hank in a limited-edition poster, signed by the photographer for the bargain price of just $20 (plus shipping and handling). Available starting March 9, 2014, this collector’s item honors the great author — and belongs in every Buk lover’s home! To place your order, send an email to Joan Gannij — joangannij@gmail.com.

What matters most, quote by Charles Bukowski

What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” CHARLES BUKOWSKI

This portrait of Charles Bukowski by Dana Laina (ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)  is featured in the Silver Birch Press Bukowski Anthology, a collection of poetry & prose about Charles Bukowski as well as portraits of the author from over 75 writers and artists around the world.

Style, poem by Charles Bukowski, photo by Hans Silvester

STYLE (excerpt)
by Charles Bukowski

Style is the answer to everything
A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous
thing
To do a dull thing with style is preferable
to doing a dangerous thing without it
To do a dangerous thing with style is what
I call art…

Photo: Hans Silvester, from his book Natural Fashion (see description from on the book’s Amazon page).

fame, poem by Charles Bukowski, portrait by Jeff Morgan

fame
by Charles Bukowski 

some want it, I don’t want it, I
want to do whatever it is I do
and just do it.
I don’t want to look into the
adulating eye,
shake the sweating
palm.
I think that whatever I do
is my business.
I do it because if I don’t
I’m finished.
I’m selfish:
I do it for myself
to save what is left of
myself.
and when I am
approached as
hero or
half-god or
guru
I refuse to accept
that.
I don’t want their
congratulations,
their worship
their companionship.
 
I may have half-a-
million readers,
a million,
two million.
I don’t care.
I write the word
how I havee to write it.
 
and, in the
beginning,
when there were no
readers
I wrote the word
as I needed to write the
word
and if all
the half-million,
the million,
the two million,
disappear
I will continue to
write the
word
as I always have.
 
the reader is an
afterthought,
the placenta,
an accident,
and any writer who
believes otherwise
is a bigger fool than
his
following.

***

“fame” appears in Open All Night: New Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 2002), available at Amazon.com.

Portrait of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This image and other portraits of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan appear in the Silver Birch Press BUKOWSKI ANTHOLOGY, available at Amazon.com.

fame, poem by Charles Bukowski

fame
by Charles Bukowski 

some want it, I don’t want it, I
want to do whatever it is I do
and just do it.
I don’t want to look into the
adulating eye,
shake the sweating
palm.
I think that whatever I do
is my business.
I do it because if I don’t
I’m finished.
I’m selfish:
I do it for myself
to save what is left of
myself.
and when I am
approached as
hero or
half-god or
guru
I refuse to accept
that.
I don’t want their
congratulations,
their worship
their companionship.
 
I may have half-a-
million readers,
a million,
two million.
I don’t care.
I write the word
how I havee to write it.
 
and, in the
beginning,
when there were no
readers
I wrote the word
as I needed to write the
word
and if all
the half-million,
the million,
the two million,
disappear
I will continue to
write the
word
as I always have.
 
the reader is an
afterthought,
the placenta,
an accident,
and any writer who
believes otherwise
is a bigger fool than
his
following.

“fame” appears in Open All Night: New Poems (Black Sparrow Press, 2002), available at Amazon.com.

Portrait of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This image and other portraits of Charles Bukowski by Jeff Morgan and other artists will appear in the Silver Birch Press BUKOWSKI ANTHOLOGY, available in August 2013.