Attention Span 2009 – Elizabeth Treadwell

Jennifer Firestone & Dana Teen Lomax, eds. | Letters to Poets | Saturnalia | 2008

“I for one don’t care about George Bush, we shouldn’t be disturbed by dogs, or low caste people and the power they have, they are average minds with a lot of power and attention, but for me they are just farts who don’t know the true history of how cultures and science weave. They are always into themselves, they cannot perceive other people or the pain that they are causing them. Obviously you can’t reach them with language.”—Victor Hernandez Cruz, to Brenda Coultas

“Female history is always destabilized by whatever guy is now watching the line of women parading by. It’s maddening but those guys will never change. We have to think differently. ….I think females need to write new fictions to hold their truths….. We have to set each other up better all the time and the terms of the world are always inadequate to women’s true accomplishments…..The feminine line means that above all women mustn’t be contemptuous of themselves. Just when the last thing going on is one’s purported femininity, it erupts like a big bow. We’re just so many things. I distrust my own jargon, my abandoning of the feminine for the female. I guess I was preferring sex over gender, but later thinking how arrogant to pretend not to be feminine. For anyone really. Why is the feminine the thing to hate. Something men, or mothers made to control girls. Surely it can free us too, then in some homeopathic way. I often forget words, that’s why I like holes. All this quiet diving through the dictionary and a bird comes up tweeting.”—Eileen Myles, to Jennifer Firestone

Reid Gomez | K’e/For Future Reference | http://reidgomez.blogspot.com | ongoing

“Food, dolls, stories, baskets, beadwork, silverwork, weavings, hand drums, flutes, songs and dances tell us who we are and teach us how to care for ourselves and our relations. Farmers, artists, wise men and women, weavers, dancers and singers invest their time and money living tradition, making a place for us in the here and now. They invest their resources in us and our future, creating and forging relationships that support us as individuals and as people. When we support them we support ourselves. When we purchase objects or services based in hate and exploitation we are funding hate and exploitation.”

Ann Vickery | Leaving Lines of Gender: A Feminist Genealogy of Language Writing | Wesleyan | 2000

Such dear close history, a little surprised I’m just reading it now.

Nate Dorward, ed. | Antiphonies: Essays on Women’s Experimental Poetries in Canada | The Gig | 2008

The Johanson on Annharte and O’Leary on Wolsak were of particular interest to me.

Trevor Joyce | Courts of Air & Earth | Shearsman | 2008

The gorgeous Irish. Love it. Trans from the trad, intro’d by Fanny Howe.

Tim Atkins | Folklore | Salt | 2008

“Milks. Stitched into history.”

A curious pleasure to read this in conjunction with the above.

Andrew Rippeon | Priest | 2008

This little chap just appeared in my box, beautiful work.

Cathy Park Hong, Evie Shockley, &c, eds. | jubilat

Never a dull issue. I especially enjoyed the interview with CB I Hate Perfume in #15.

David Brazil & Sara Larsen, eds. | Try

Again with the never a dull issue, plus highly lovable production values.

Sappho, trans. Willis Barnstone | Poems | Green Integer |1999

Keeping this close of late.

More Elizabeth Treadwell here.