KUSP's Poetry Show

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The June 16, 2013 Poetry Show on KUSP was devoted to catching up on recent issues of some very fine literary periodicals. Host Dennis Morton sampled from a trio of favorites, including Poetry, The Dark Horse and Poetry International. Here are self-descriptions from the publishers’ websites.

Poetry , founded in Chicago in 1912, is the oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world. It is published by the Poetry Foundation, and is a regular source of outstanding poetry read on the Poetry Show. From the website:

“The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.“

The Dark Horse has become another favorite on the Poetry Show. As noted on its website:

“The Dark Horse was founded in 1995 by the Scottish poet Gerry Cambridge. It is an international literary magazine committed to British, Irish and American poetry, and is published from Scotland.”

Poetry International is an annual publication from San Diego State University Press. The current volume (18-19) is a double-issue, containing over 700 pages. Past Poetry Show guest Ilya Kaminsky is the new editor.

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On June 9, 2013, the KUSP Poetry Show welcomed three poets traveling and reading in support of new poetry collections published by Copper Canyon Press. Host Dennis Morton adopted a novel format for this week’s show, letting each poet in turn ask one of the others to read a poem and talk a bit about the choices. Having shared the stage at several readings now, the three have had an unusual condensed opportunity  to hear and appreciate each others’ work.

James Arthur, Natalie Diaz and Tomas Q.  Morin seemingly have little in common apart from their shared love of language and poetry. Coming from disparate backgrounds and widely separated parts of the country,  the poetic trio united just recently for the current reading tour.

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Sources for the June 2, 2013 Poetry Show on KUSP are divided into two halves. The first half of the show comprises selections, by host Dennis Morton, from an audio CD accompanying a book titled The 100 Best African-American Poems (2010), edited by Nikki Giovanni. Selections played include poems by:

• Sonia Sanchez (in her own voice)
• Tupac Shakur (read by Novella Nelson)
• Marilyn Nelson (in her own voice)
• Nikki Giovanni (in her own voice)
• Elizabeth Alexander (in her own voice)
• Mari Evans (read by Carolyn H. Dixon)
• Margaret Walker (read by Val Gray Ward)
• Robert Hayden (two renditions: one read by Carolyn Rood, another in the poet’s own voice)

In the second half of the show, Dennis reads poems from Poetry Magazine (May 2013 issue), and from the book All Alcoholics Are Charmers by Martina Evans.

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Guest host Sarah Cruse sits in for Dennis Morton on the KUSP Poetry Show for May 26, 2013. Sarah’s special guest is Kevin Devaney, a poet who arrived in Santa Cruz about six months ago and is rapidly making a place for himself in the local poetry scene.

A native of Massachussets, Kevin received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, and now lives and works at Tannery Arts Center.

Every Monday, Kevin  hosts a weekly poetry open-mike at Rebecca’s Cafe at the Tannery. Among the many styles and genres of modern poetry, Kevin is especially attracted to spoken-word performance poetry, as manifested in “Slam” Poetry.

Part of Kevin’s regular routine is as a poet-on-the-street, usually on Pacific Avenue. Accompanied by his faithful companion, a “poetry cart” nicknamed Ankle-biter, he composes poetry live and to order. Main feature of the poetry cart is a vintage manual typewriter, on which poems are tapped out on themes selected by customers (no corrections!).

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Cover of Catamaran Literary Reader, Issue 2

The KUSP Poetry Show (May 19, 2013) welcomed two special guests to the studio to join host Dennis Morton. One was Catherine Segurson, founding editor of Catamaran Literary Reader, an impressive new local literary magazine. Catamaran is working on its third issue (Volume 1, Issue 3), for summer 2013. Catherine gives some historical and editorial background on Catamaran and reads several poems from a digital preview version of the newest issue.

Catherine was a guest on the Poetry Show last fall, along with contributing poet Brynn Saito, to celebrate the launching of Catamaran Literary Reader.

The second special guest on this week’s Poetry Show was Killarney Clary, a transplant to Santa Cruz from southern California (as so many of us are). Clary was one of the poets featured in Issue 2 of Catamaran. She is the author of three poetry collections:

• Who Whispered Near Me (1989 – long out of print but now re-issued)
• By Common Salt (1996)
• Potential Stranger (2003)

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The KUSP Poetry Show welcomed poet Steve Kowit as a special in-studio guest for the broadcast on May 12, 2013. Steve and host Dennis Morton read and discussed poems mostly found in Steve’s latest book, Crossing Borders, an art/poetry collaboration with the painter Lenny Silverberg.

Previous books by Steve Kowit include:

• Lurid Confessions
• The First Noble Truth
• The Dumbbell Nebula
• The Gods of Rapture (poems based on the amatory poetry of India)
• The Maverick Poets (anthology editor)
• Incitement to Nixonicide and Praise for the Chilean Revolution (translation of Pablo Neruda)

Steve Kowit now lives in southern California, and was in town to give a reading at Bookshop Santa Cruz, sponsored by Poetry Santa Cruz. Also featured at that reading was last week’s Poetry Show guest, Frances Hatfield.

Past episodes of the Poetry Show have often included readings of poems by Steve Kowit in the past, including the show two weeks ago.

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Local poet Frances Hatfield was the special guest on the KUSP Poetry Show broadcast for May 5, 2013. Frances joined host Dennis Morton to discuss and read from her first published book of collected poems, titled Rudiments of Flight, published by WingsPress.

Although Rudiments of Flight is her first book, Frances has been a guest before on the Poetry Show. On February 24, she was part of this year’s special preview show prior to the In Celebration of the Muse reading.

In addition to her life as a poet, Frances is about to be certified as a Jungian analyst (a variety of depth psychotherapist). She studies at the C. G. Jung Institute in San Francisco, which publishes Undivided: the Online Journal of Nonduality and Psychology.

You can read more poetry by Frances Hatfield online at Numinous Magazine, and in this week’s Good Times.

Frances will read at Bookshop Santa Cruz on Tuesday, May 14, along with next week’s Poetry Show guest Steve Kowit, as part of the regular Tuesday reading series sponsored by Poetry Santa Cruz.

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The first half of the KUSP Poetry Show for April 28, 2013, is devoted to selected readings of recently-published poetry. Host Dennis Morton first reads several poems by Steve Kowit, from books including The First Noble Truth.

Steve Kowit will soon be in town for a Poetry Santa Cruz reading at Bookshop Santa Cruz, on May 14, and will be a guest on the Poetry Show in two weeks.

Next up are two new books from Saturnalia Books; Lullaby (with Exit Sign) by Hadara Bar Nadav, and No Object by Natalie Shapero.  Rounding out the first half, Dennis reads selections from the Spring 2013 issue of Ploughshares, this latest quarterly edition edited by Major Jackson.

The second half of the show is given over to a reading by Billy Collins, recorded in 2005 and recently released. The recording begins with an introduction by comedian Bill Murray.

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This week on the KUSP Poetry Show features recorded selections from the second half of the Adrienne Rich memorial reading staged on December 2, 2012.

Adrienne Rich was Santa Cruz’ best known poet, and the memorial reading at the Santa Cruz High School auditorium featured many of her fellow poets and friends. The event was sponsored by Bookshop Santa Cruz and Poetry Santa Cruz, along with members of Adrienne Rich’s family. Audio recording used by permission, courtesy of Vernon Legakis of Bookshop Santa Cruz and VA Films.

Featured readers in this second installment are:

• Michael Warr
• Doren Robbins
• Pablo Conrad (one of Adrienne’s sons)
• Eavon Boland

Featured readers from the first half of the event, featured on the March 17 Poetry Show,  were:

• Robert Hass (introduced by Gary Young)
• Bettina Aptheker
• Brenda Hillman
• Michelle Cliff

Host Dennis Morton augments these readings with recordings of Adrienne Rich reading two of her own poems: Diving Into the Wreck and Integrity.

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This week’s Poetry Show is a memorial to composer and musician Roberto Haven, who died recently. We hear a recording of a Poetry Show episode from about four years ago,  when Roberto and fellow musician  Dylan Morgan were guests on the show to preview their collaborative production, composed and performed to accompany readings from the poetry of Miklós Radnóti.

Roberto and Dylan played multiple instruments live in the studio, accompanying their readings of Radnóti’s poems. The haunting original music was all composed by Haven and Morgan. Solomon Reno contributed new translations from the original Hungarian.

Roberto Haven was an ordained priest, and served as music minister at the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox church in San Francisco. In this YouTube video (the image above is a screen shot), Roberto plays saxophone with an ensemble at the church.

Radnóti (1909-1944) was a Hungarian-Jewish poet, assigned to a labor battalion during WWII and executed by Hungarian militiamen during a forced march returning from Serbia to Hungary. During that final march, Radnóti continued to write poetry, which he wrote down in a small notebook. Eighteen months after he was shot and buried in a mass grave, his body was exhumed and the notebook was found in his pocket.