Desert City Poetry Series

[Ken Rumble <rumblek AT bellsouth.net>]

Please spread far and wide....

Who:  John Taggart, author of _Pastorelles_, _Loop_, _When the Saints_, 
_Standing Wave_, and many others; two time NEA literature fellow; scholar of the 
paintings of Edward Hopper; can dance a jig on the point of a pin.

Who:  Randall Williams, poet, anti-war activist, freelance journalist; author of 
_40 Days_; dwells in a cabin in Hillsborough; ate five cans of Spam one night 
and woke up in possession of a silver '74 Corvette.

What:  Desert City Poetry Series, second of two October readings, double play: 
the fall classic.

When:  This Saturday, October 22nd, 8pm, 2005.

Where:  Internationalist Books, 405 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, here, 
there, and everywhere.

How much:  $2 donation requested to support the series & the readers.

Why:  "The subject was roses the problem is memory / in the end the problem is a 
song / the problem a problema a problem to find / to find as in to extract from" 
"I decided to sing to the dead fox."

See you there...

Upcoming readings:

November 12th, 8pm:  Sarah Manguso & Julian Semilian

January 21st, 8pm:  Ed Roberson & TBA

*Internationalist Books:
http://www.internationalistbooks.org

*Desert City Poetry Series:
http://desertcity.blogspot.com

*John Taggart:
http://www.flashpointmag.com/tagintro.htm

*Randall Williams:
http://www.octopusmagazine.com/issue06/html/poets/randall_williams.html

Contact the DCPS:  Ken Rumble, director
rumblek at bellsouth dot net

The Desert City is supported by grants from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, the 
North Carolina Arts Council, and the Orange County Arts Commission.

from "Inside Out"
by John Taggart

1
You have to hear the sound before you play the sound.
You have to hear you have to you have to hear to
hear you have to give you have to give ear you
who have you who have ears you who have ears to
hear you have to give ear to hear the traveller you
have to you have to you have to give ear you who have
ears to hear the traveller who is a bird to
hear the traveller who is a bird who so sings.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound is there.
You have to hear the sound before you play before
you move before you move the hands before you move
with the hands you have to hear the sound before you
move before you clap before you clap with the hands.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound is there.

You have to hear you have to you have to hear to
hear you have to give you have to give ear you
who have ears you who have ears to hear
you have to give ear to hear the traveller to
hear the traveller who is a bird who is a bird who
so sings who is not visible who cannot be
handed about who is a bird who sings who is
a bird who is invisible who cannot be handed about.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound Is there.
Before you move before you move the hands before
you move with the hands you have to hear the sound before
you move before you move with before you clap with the
hands before you clap with the hands for joy.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound is there.

You have to hear you have to you have to hear to
hear you have to give ear you who have
ears to hear you have to give ear to hear
the traveller to hear the traveller who
is a bird who is a bird who so sings who is
not visible who cannot be handed about who cannot
be broken who is a bird who is invisible
who cannot be handed about who cannot be broken.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound is there.
Before you move before you move the hands before
you move with the hands you have to hear the sound before
you clap before you clap with the hands for joy
before you move with the vibration in the air.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound is there.

You have to hear you have to you have to hear to
hear you have to give you who have
ears to hear you have to give ear to hear
the traveller who is a bird who is a bird who
sings who is not visible who cannot be handed
about who cannot be broken who is a bird who
is invisible who cannot be handed about
who cannot be broken who cannot be reassembled.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound is there.
Before you move before you move the hands before
you move with the hands you have to hear the sound before
you clap before you clap the hands for joy
before you move within the vibration in the air.
If you call out to the bird and if you call out
to the bird and wait on the bird: the sound is there.

"Beautiful Duchess"
by Randall Williams

Beautiful duchess, you are memorabilia and a pair of crow eyes. Red and black 
flecks cover my tilted leaves. Two black squares joke a rain of sorcery and 
wood. I have disassembled the tanning bed, the silver hamper and put them into a 
box. Two blue Recycling bins mediate my view of the Republicans across the 
street. My viewfinder yields sound: a river of needles, an ocean of birds, I-40 
outside Amarillo. Meager, meager, North Carolina, our hands are what we have. 
Awkward temples, coasts in migration, verbs bellowing in sentiment and sediment. 
Can we be fed by the familiar? Can we chart below the temporary? Invisible 
closings, stationary and snaking, encircle me like crushed jacks. Young 
Southerners are not smiling, but gritting their teeth. And yet. My sleeping 
turns the rooster’s crow into a guitar riff. Airwaves fearlessly stretch into 
silence and obliterate logjams of sonicity. Beautiful duchess, entry without 
aftermath, I throw woven bottomless baskets into the street before your house.