Episode 0102 Transcript

 [Intro music] (“We know what happened to those who chanced to meet the Great God Pan, and those who are wise know that all symbols are symbols of something, not of nothing.”)

HWAET! Theydies and Gentlethems, you’re listening to the second episode of Pan Left For Poetry, celebrating the Dionysus in us. I’m G.M. Palmer & as always, the jams are provided by the faculty of funk: Professor Doom and Doctor Subtlefish. Hang out for the next half hour and get drunk on poetry! Poetry news, poetry jams, and poetry books! If you like what you hear, support me at ko-fi, cashapp ($gmpwrites), venmo (@GM-Palmer), and threadless. Links on twitter @panleftpoetry and PanLeftForPoetry.com

[Music]

Each week I’ll share what’s going on in the poetry world. In this week’s poetry news:

Pushcarts are out this week. Congrats if you got one! 

AWPhilly (that’s what I’m calling AWP 22, you can’t stop me) AWPhilly event proposals opened this week and they’re due by June 8th if you’re into that sort of thing. I am!  

Bacopa Literary Review, from the Writers Alliance of Gainesville, online at writersalliance.org, is accepting submissions through May 31st for its 2021 edition. 

Ars Poetica, online and on insta at arspoetica.us has an open call out for disabled poets to submit poems to be published on their blog and Instagram, with a $100 honorarium for each poet. Submit your work to lamarks@arspoetica.us to be considered.

Crystal Stone on twitter at justlikeastone8, our featured poet for last week has TWO books coming out this year. That makes three books for 2021 which has got to be some kind of poetic record. They’re called Gym Bras and Civic Duty. Gym Bras is coming out from Really Serious LIterature and Civic Duty is coming out from Vegetarian Alcoholic. 

Dan O’Brien, poet, playwright, and all around cool guy, on twitter at danobrienwriter has a book coming out in September from Acre Books called Our Cancers which is a poetic history of his and his wife, Jessica St. Clair’s experiences with cancer. 

Jenn Koiter, on twitter at jenn (with two ns) koiter, is reading on zoom on May 22nd as a finalist with the 2021 DC Poet Project. Check out all the readers’ bios at dayeight.org. Join the zoom link and give Jenn your support. Eventbrite information at panleftforpoetry.com.

That’s what I’ve got for this week’s poetry news. You can always at me at PanLeftPoetry on Twitter with your poetry news to keep listeners in the loop. I need news you need to know!

[Music]

If you’ve listened so far, you’re a wonderful human so be sure to show how great you are by picking up your SAPPHO and DIONYSUS shirts at sapphosupreme.threadless.com to support the show and be fuckin rad. That’s sapphosupreme.threadless.com.

[Music]

Each week’s show includes a couple of poetry jams. The right channel is the music and the left channel is the poetry. Music plus poetry equals poetry jam! The music is provided by the faculty of funk: Professor Doom and Doctor Subtlefish. Words by me. Our first poetry jam this week is How Naked We Are Here from my first book With Rough Gods from Jagged Door Press. Poetry jams sound best on headphones and remember, Pan Left For Poetry!

(Poetry Jam)

That was How Naked We Are Here from my first book With Rough Gods from Jagged Door Press. Now it’s time for I’ve Been Drinking!

[Music]

This segment is called “I’ve been drinking” and it’s where I talk a bit about a book of poetry I’ve just been having a wonderful time with. Getting drunk on its rhythm and words. Imbibing its vibing. This week I’ve been drinking Daughters of Bone by Jessical Temple, from Madville Publishing. I first want to say that this is the second book by Temple I’ve owned but the first I’ve gotten to read. I bought a copy of her chapbook a while back when I was at Sewanee. Let me be clear, though, I was not attending Sewanee. They’re very good at rejecting me. I was crashing because I’m a dork and love poetry and poets.

Anyway, I met Jessica Temple there and got a copy of her chapbook. Then it got rained on and completely ruined and so when I saw Daughters of Bone was going to be published I snatched it right up.

And let me tell y’all, it’s just amazing. Growing up, at least part time, in rural Florida these poems of rural Alabama made me go hooooweee. I’m going to read a couple of the poems from the book and I hope you’ll go to madvillepublishing.com and grab your copy.

The first poem I want to read is called Twisted. It’s a survey of the aftermath of a tornado, which we don’t get so many of in Florida--but we do get hurricanes, so the disaster of the poem feels right. I’ll read it:

(reads poem)

See it’s that little twister at the end that really gets me. Temple’s poems recall a lot of events and people that maybe invite criticism, that ask to be chastised. But the poems don’t do it, they don’t moralize. They report. They transform. They invite us to do the work of classifying these sins the poems only catalogue.

It’s a deeply southern book in that way. We’ve got so many sins in the south we learn early on not to moralize. It is one thing to comment on the existence of an error and quite another to provide commentary on its existence. I don’t know if that makes much sense if you’ve not lived here, but what I’m trying to say is that Temple’s book is southern as divinity.

The second poem I’m going to read is My Sister’s Scar. It took me back to when I was living by myself in high school and patching up wounds with rags and hope and also just reminded me of how my own daughters play and care and heal.

(reads poem)

If you’ve got familial memories of playing on farm equipment or burning the chicken grease, Jessica Temple’s Daughters of Bone from Madville Publishing is the book for you. Take yourself to madvillepublishing.com and get a copy today. There will be a link provided @PanLeftPoetry as well as on panleftforpoetry.com.

[Music]

Our second and final poetry jam this week is The Walls Are All Mirrors, originally published by Chelsea. Poetry jams sound best on headphones and remember, Pan Left For Poetry!

(poetry jam)

That was The Walls Are All Mirrors, originally published by Chelsea.

[Music]

That does it for this week’s show and our SECOND EPISODE! Thanks everyone for listening. All our poetry jams can be listened to at Soundcloud, PanLeftForPoetry.com and your favorite streaming service. You can always find a transcript of this week’s show and every show along with links for donations and to purchase books and shirts and other merch at (PanLeftForPoetry).

Poetry jams are by me, GM Palmer on vocals, Professor Doom on strings, and Dr. Subtlefish on drums and programming. Production and engineering by Genevieve. See you next week and remember, Pan Left for Poetry!

[Outro Music]