I started to think about Cure songs that correspond with zodiac signs, and came up with a list below
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Rob Gonsalves
A Trip To The Deli, Fiction by Anne Foster
Kate neared the back corner of the house now. She was reaching for that sturdy feel of her hand wrapped around molded wood, when the gutter shook and her heart slipped and she lunged for that crisp edge where her hand could grip and she got it and she held on tight. But dear god how her heart pounded. One misstep and she would certainly die. She would fall into the black cavern where at the bottom her body would run through a sharp rock. What would they tell her parents? The girl who went to get a sandwich; never came back. Body never found. Or body found, unsuitable for visual identification.
Read MoreLuna Luna at the New York City Poetry Festival – Saturday, July 30 @ Noon
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
This weekend, you beauties – it's just a few short days away. Are you ready to drink wine in the sun and write poems under trees with hundreds of sweaty bodies? Yes, we are too.
Come out and meet Luna Luna this Saturday, July 30, at Noon on Governor's Island. Our readers are splendid and we hand-picked each and every one of them for their power, humor, mystery and musicality.
- Stephanie Valente
- Yesenia Montilla
- Deirdre Coyle
- Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein
We're also doing something special this year – anyone who comes to meet & greet us will have their photo taken and used on our social channels to promote *your* projects and *your* books. Why? Because you have loved us for four years (our anniversary falls on July 30) and we want to shout you out. We'll be there Saturday at noon, and throughout the whole festival.
Here are our magic readers:
Here are some pics from last year's festival:
It Was Romance Releases New Song + Shot By Shot Remake of Fiona Apple's Criminal
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
If you're reading this website, there is an 99.9% chance you were obsessed with Fiona Apple's Tidal. Because you're an angsty dreamer just like me. You probably also think "This world is bullshit." If so, read on!
Lane Moore – writer, comedian, musician and all-around amazing lady – is in a pretty amazing band, It Was Romance (Lane Moore, Alejandro Triana, Angel Lozada and Jeff Connors). They're celebrating Tidal's 20th anniversary – by releasing a shot-for-shot remake of the Criminal video to their own song, Hooking Up With Girls. Yay! Watch it below.
Also, I talked to Lane and she told me all about her music and love for Fiona:
You have so much going on. Tell me a little bit about why you guys started It Was Romance.
I've been singing and writing and recording my own music since I was little. It Was Romance actually started as my solo project where I played all the instruments and sang and layered everything on my computer. It's kind of a name like "Cat Power" is. Everyone told me I should just go play shows by myself and try to do it all, but even if I was writing all these songs and could technically do it by myself, I'd always wanted to find the right musicians to play with. It took me years and years to find the people who play with me now and the second it all fell into place I was like, "YES! Good. Great. OK, let's make this record." I wrote a lot of these songs before I even knew these guys existed in the world, so to finally see everything taking off with the right people is so satisfying.
It's the 20th anniversary (I am so old) of Tidal. It was the second cassette I owned and hearing Never Is A Promise as a wayward little goth made me who I am today. How did this album impact you growing up? What about today? Why is Fiona Apple just so goddamned amazing?
Fiona Apple has always been a huge influence on me, personally and professionally. I just think she's incredible and I relate to her on so many levels. When The Pawn was actually my gateway album and then I went back to Tidal after hearing that. I listened to both nonstop for most of my childhood and teen years and still listen to them all the time. She's just such a powerful singer and songwriter. I once heard one of the Crutchfield sisters (from PS Eliot) say something on Twitter like, "If you don't think Fiona Apple is punk rock, get away from me." It's so accurate. I get very intense on stage when we play live shows and I'm sure seeing her do the same at a young age gave me the freedom to show that intensity in my music and my performances.
How do you think Criminal video stands up against all the music videos out there today?
It holds up incredibly well. You look at a lot of the way we're advertising things now and so much of it looks like '70s porn.
What are some upcoming projects for your band?
I've been writing about 2-3 songs I was happy with per week since I was a kid, so I've always written them faster than any of my band members, past or present, could learn them. I have easily over 300 right now that I'd happily record in the studio/release tomorrow if I could. I'm really excited to make the second IWR album and keep making videos and touring and opening for bigger bands. All of it. I'm ready. [Follow them on Bandcamp, Facebook & iTunes]
What's coming up for you?
So many things. Maybe sleep eventually, but I doubt it.
PS: It Was Romance is playing Aug 17 @ Cake Shop in NYC and Sept. 30 @ Pianos in NYC.
Luo Yang
Poem By Kristin Chang
The first Chinese woman in America
lived inside a diorama. A little room
for a little lady, Four Inch Feet
Miss Ching-Chang King.
What Donald Trump Has In Common With Fifth Graders And The Book of Genesis
Linguists have had a field day with Donald Trump. His speeches are geared for a fourth-grade reading level, with very few four-syllable words. He doesn’t use any complex sentence structures. His vocabulary is notoriously poor and centers around a few repetitive words such as "tremendous" and "problem." Most insidious of all, he ends his rambling nonsense with words such as "problem," "liars," and "losers"--which is what most of his viewers eventually take away from his speeches. I never thought I’d see a presidential candidate make Dubya look like an eloquent orator, but here we are.
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Aëla Labbé
Poetry By Emily Corwin
you felt me, you left me—moaning open in a landslide. I harden like grease
and there’s glimmer. the saplings anxious for ripping, cleaved the way you
like it. let’s say: you’re the woodsman and I am a girl, slipping in a magician
box, my bra cups filling out—buttermilk, tiny bow in the middle. you wield
a saw, a tremor—sung like choirs, biting through.
Anders Eriksson
Poetry By Afshan Shafi
You're the dappled world, brilliant toxin. a choate reprieve. Hair, a triptych of flax and rippled sheaf at break of day. You bear your assiduousness cleanly, your sharpened jaw, your forehead, those enamel cliffs. A ruminant has strewed you thus, over the paper weirs, over the torn lip of the world, its heft of blood. sleet in-the-voice touch. My engrossment, a kitten in snow. beyond ode.
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Why I Left New York (And Returned)
Around this time, a friend mentioned that her son, his wife, and two children were considering moving to Brooklyn when they finished their teaching commitments in the Congo. I could see them easily fit into Park Slope or Carroll Gardens with their tow-headed darlings. I smiled and nodded, fighting back a scream of lament. Why was it so easy for some people to have beautiful children and move to a city I’d nearly turned into a distant idol, while both seemed impossible for us?
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A Review of Nathaniel Kressen's New Dark YA Novel 'Dahlia Cassandra'
After reading Nathaniel Kressen’s debut novel, "Concrete Fever" (2011, Second Skin Books), I was utterly entranced by his ability to skillfully weave together a compelling story. This is also why I was absolutely thrilled to find out Kressen’s second book “Dahlia Cassandra” was released this past June, also by Second Skin Books.
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Clothing Designer Samantha Pleet on Creativity: 'You Always Find Yourself in Unfamiliar, But Familiar Places'
On several occasions she described herself as feeling "echo[es] of some sort of memory" each coming from her two late grandfathers. On one occasion, just before hearing the news of her grandfather’s passing, she and her sister were "visited by a cat at a cafe…the cat was extremely comforting." Their grandfather loved cats, so Pleet believes that this was a consoling energy sent to her and her sister directly. She confided that she doesn’t "know why there would be horrible hauntings…I’m happily haunted…more cobwebs, please!" And More cobwebs are, indeed, coming this way, as Pleet hinted that the Fall 2016 collection will be partly inspired by Morticia Addams and her notorious lopped off rose heads. I’ll be casually refreshing the online shop until this collection is released!
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Angel Stalker, Fiction by J.A. Pak
He drops by on an irregular nightly schedule. Magnificent body with a huge span of wings. It’s the wings that are a bitch. Not easy fucking a guy with wings. Hands have to be strategic. Forget rolling over, me on top—his wings are way too sensitive. The novelty gone, I think of moths, insects, creepy crawlers—sci-fi nightmares. Near climax, the wings will unfold and flap in orgasmic fury. The air disturbance is unbelievable—like fucking a helicopter. And he’s so airy. More light than substance. I like a body with substance. Some mass inside and around me. Not that he understands. And I’ve tried explaining. Then moving. Several times, around town, to a new town, new country, subterranean. He’s a master stalker, more bird than man, his homing instinct supernatural, natural to me.
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via Lana Del Rey
American Longing Sagas: Lana Del Rey’s Atlantic City Show
LANA DEL REY is post-prison, LANA DEL REY is post-death signaling desire should equal euphoria even if created by extreme melancholy and desire should not be impounded by the confines of our world. Desire is an aggressor against age, weight, intact relationships, holding down employment, death, genetic attraction. Desire is a fantasy that is worth replacing life and must be attended to, through creating rituals to verify being within the bubble of desire is in fact living. Attending a Lana Del Rey concert is therefore the perfect pilgrimage for limerants needing outlets for their longing narratives and fans using Lana as a bridge to co-creating their sexual embodiment.
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Witchy World Roundup - July 2016
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (forthcoming 2016, ELJ Publications) & Xenos (forthcoming 2017, Agape Editions). She received her MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of her writing has appeared in Prelude, The Atlas Review, The Huffington Post, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. She has lead workshops at Brooklyn Poets.
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Devin Kelly on His New Book 'Blood on Blood' & Being Personal
BY JOANNA C. VALENTE
This is going to be a big year for Devin Kelly, because he has two books coming out in relative proximity. His book "Blood on Blood" is forthcoming from Unknown Press this year, while his other collection, "In This Quiet Church of Night, I Say Amen," is coming out from ELJ Publications in 2017.
"Blood on Blood" is a gorgeous tale of growing up in a house of silence--and how that affects personhood, adulthood, and brotherhood. Having heard Devin read his poems, I can say he has a uniquely perceptive voice.
I was thrilled to be able to speak with Devin about this forthcoming collection below:
JV: This collection is clearly very personal, as it details your relationship with your brother. Was it difficult to write about? Do you write personally in general?
DK: Most everything I write is personal in nature, often deeply. I’m grateful to be able to separate the act of writing work from the risks writing such work entails--you know, like how it will be perceived by loved ones. My brother and I were raised for the latter part of our childhood by just our father, and none of us really talked at all about anything. It didn’t seem out of the ordinary because that’s just the way it was, and I don’t think I realized until later the extent to which our silence could be made into something transcendent through language.
Our life was mundane, but language has the potential to heighten all of that, make the smallest piece-of-shit moments into something sorrowful, joyful, whatever. So no, it wasn’t difficult to access those memories--I think I’ve gone back into them so many times that the past has become a pliant thing, and it’s fun in a way to throw different kinds of light on it and see what happens – what shines in a new way, what dies out, what comes back.
In the end, there’s few things we know for certain. One is that time runs out. The other is that there are people with whom we share blood. No matter how much or little we talk, there’s no one I’ll ever feel closer to than my father and my brother. I can make myself well up when I think of them. I take our collective story very seriously because so much of what runs through me runs through them. I believe very firmly that our story is a debt and a reward we are each accountable for, and my hope is that such a feeling comes through.
How do you know when a poem is done?
Oy, I don’t know. Is it bad if I just say something like when it feels done? It’s hard to say. I very much do get a feeling. A heaviness. A deepening. This is such a subjective and interesting question, because I think we all perceive the act of writing differently. I know we do. For me, writing a poem is an act of accrual. I’m trying to write out a feeling, a story, through lines, and the hope is that it will allow a reader to move through my headspace, reach that same feeling. I think (and this is my personal take) that such a moment happens, like I mentioned, with accrual, a piling-on, however tangential. It’s why I love the word and. This and this and this and this. It’s fun.
Some poets prefer minimalism. Some poets prefer cutting excess. All of these approaches can exist. That’s the beauty of poetry, it’s a super generous art. I don’t like when people approach it with complete certainty, that this must be the way. When I finish a poem and look back at it, I know there’s stuff I could cut, but there’s also the thought that everything seems necessary, and I feel a need to honor that. That the roughage is part of the art. That if a poem is approximating some sort of feeling, then there needs to be a little bit of detritus, the stuff of headspace and doubt.
And I know people who’d disagree with that, and that’s cool. And it doesn’t mean I approach a poem lazily--for every ten lines that made this new book, there’s 10, 20, 30 lines that didn’t--poems I started that I knew weren’t honest, or poems I finished that didn’t work the way I wanted. For me, editing is starting anew with failure in mind.
What I love about poetry is that this process can exist alongside so many others. But in the end, the poem you’re trying to write can only be that--the poem you’re trying to write. It can’t be someone else’s. It has to be yours. But within that is the fodder of so much you’ve read, you’ve loved, you’ve hated.
What were you listening to and reading and watching while writing this?
Well, as far as listening, obviously Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska. Also Sharon Van Etten, Sufjan Stevens, Tallest Man on Earth, This Will Destroy You, Pinegrove, Modern Baseball, Advance Base. And a lot of the jazz my roommate puts on--Chet Baker and Thelonius Monk and Sonny Rollins especially.
Here are some books I read throughout the process: Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts, Ocean Vuong’s Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Janice Lee’s The Sky Isn’t Blue, Jamaal May’s The Big Book of Exit Strategies, a bunch of James Wright, a bunch of Larry Levis, a bunch of Yusef Komunyakaa, Jim Harrison’s Just Before Dark, essays by Eula Biss and Lia Purpura.
I don’t know the ways in which all of these books influenced me, but, you know, they did or didn’t but probably did.
Also, Terrence Malick’s Badlands. Great movie. My girlfriend and I watched "Zootopia." I sometimes need to watch "Seinfeld" to help me fall asleep. None of this is really relevant. So, yeah. Go figure.
How do you know when to break a line?
Some combination of intuition, purposeful mistake making, wordplay, more mistakes, and not knowing and never-being-able-to-know what the fuck I’m doing.
What part of you writes your poems? What are your obsessions?
I obsess about so much, really. I'm terribly self conscious, and I'm terrified about the ways in which we each view the world - how much such views differ, and if my worldview has any place here. Not too long ago, I thought I was right about everything, and that gave me permission to feel victimized by the world when things didn't go my way, or when other people didn't, either. But, I mean, most of life is not knowing. We are surrounded far more by what we do not know than what we do, and this is very much what draws me to a poem.
There's so much anxiety involved with being alive, and I believe in poetry as a kind of stilling. It's the only way I can really still myself. A poem is a place where binaries don't need to exist. Right versus wrong, love versus hate. A poem can get at the infinitely small gray space where those kinds of binaries meet. I think that's really cool. And, I mean, poetry or not, in the end my hope is that we all sort of dwell in the gray space, the nuance of things. Just a huddled mass of fear and anxiety and embarrassment trying to figure shit out.
That's what a poem is. It's rough. I've made a lot of mistakes in life. That's what a poem is. Never perfect. You live in it, you suffer for it, you keep trying. And that takes empathy. And empathy understands that you’re never going to be right all the time. And knowing that you’re never going to be right all the time but still wanting to live in this mess means you’re okay with listening. And listening involves sound and breath and stillness and language. And bam, there you go, poetry.
Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (forthcoming 2016, ELJ Publications) & Xenos (forthcoming 2017, Agape Editions). She received her MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College. She is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, as well as the managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine. Some of her writing has appeared in Prelude, The Atlas Review, The Huffington Post, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. She has lead workshops at Brooklyn Poets.
Devin Kelly earned his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and is a co-host of the Dead Rabbits Reading Series in Manhattan. His collaborative chapbook with Melissa Smyth, This Cup of Absence, is forthcoming from Anchor & Plume Press. His work has appeared in Drunken Boat, Gigantic Sequins, Lines & Stars, Post Road, The Millions, and more, and he's been nominated for both the Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes. He works a college advisor for high schoolers in Queens, teaches English at Bronx Community College, and lives in Harlem. You can find him on twitter @themoneyiowe.