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Alan Ziegler
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Pequod was Mark Rudman's magazine; as I recall, none of my poems made the voyage. Penumbra was edited by Charles Haseloff; I had a poem in the Life After Death issue.
Squibs 446-452 [by Alan Ziegler]
446: Cabondating: Determining when a move or TV show was recorded by the fare on the taxi door. 447: Some places my poems visited in the 70s and 80s: Ironwood, Mulberry, Granite, Syncline, Stepping Stone. 448: Erin is playing Molly Bloom in Ulysses adapted for dance and music. She tells me...
Squibs 446-452 [by Alan Ziegler]
446: Cabondating: Determining when a move or TV show was recorded by the fare on the taxi door. 447: Some places my poems visited in the 70s and 80s: Ironwood, Mulberry, Granite, Syncline, Stepping Stone. 448: Erin is playing Molly Bloom in Ulysses adapted for dance and music. She tells me there’s physicality between Molly and Blazes but nothing I’ll find upsetting. She comes home excited after the dress rehearsal: “The New York Times was there.” A picture runs with the review: Erin is on her knees in bed with Blazes, wearing a negligee riding up her thigh, as is Blazes’ hand. The critic calls her “luscious and devilish,” and adds, “The two lie so alone together in bed with Molly’s sensuous cry of readiness echoing in the audience’s ears.” I snap. “You didn't tell me it would be like this!” What really haunts me is what might have happened during, or after, all those rehearsals. I rip the page out of the newspaper and throw it limply in her direction. As I slam the door on my way out to nowhere, I hear her stricken plea, “What did I do wrong?” I steel myself to be professional when I go to the performance. I'm accompanied by our friend Helen, a dance teacher who has performed in, directed, and attended hundreds of productions. I sit tensely as, offstage, Molly emits her “sensuous cry of readiness.” I fight to keep my eyes open when Molly and Blazes slide under the covers. During the curtain call I turn to Helen for vindication. She laughs and says, “Oh, that’s nothing.” 449: Some places my poems visited in the 70s and 80s: Star Web Paper, Skywriting, Sun, Penumbra. 450: We gave it plenty of time but didn’t put enough leaves in the pot so now we are weak and bitter. 451: I dream my mother is alive, reading a romance novel in her living room chair after doing the dishes. I tell her she is dead, and she reminds me I have to learn how to relax.I dream my father is dead, and I try to convince him he is alive sitting at the kitchen table watching the tiny television because he no longer watches the big TV in the living room unless other people are with him. But he is stubborn as usual, and tells me I am wrong. Awake, I imagine they pass each other along the hallway and exchange ditto marks with their fingers, but I have not been able to dream this. 452: Some places my poems visited in the 70s and 80s: Pequod, Kayak, Small Pond, Ark River, Three Rivers. Continue reading
Posted 4 days ago at The Best American Poetry
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3
Sacha Baron Cohen Double-Bill Rerun [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Oct 22, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squib 445: Envisioning the Web [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Aug 14, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Lally on Winch
Posted Jul 14, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Yes, that was the month!--each revelation makes it more seminal. I'm sending the PDF by email if you want to post. --az
Michael Lally: Pick of the Week [ed. by Terence Winch]
Michael Lally, ca. 2008 The Night John Lennon Died ___________________________________ One warm night, when I was a kid, we were all playing ringalario in the high school field at the bottom of my street when Mrs. Murphy, known mostly for the time her hair t...
Wonderful poem! All the more special because this afternoon I came across--and reread--Michael Lally's terrific piece on Terence Winch in the June 1977 issue of The Poetry Project Newsletter (edited by Ted Greenwald). (I could make a PDF if anyone is interested).--Alan
Michael Lally: Pick of the Week [ed. by Terence Winch]
Michael Lally, ca. 2008 The Night John Lennon Died ___________________________________ One warm night, when I was a kid, we were all playing ringalario in the high school field at the bottom of my street when Mrs. Murphy, known mostly for the time her hair t...
Squibs 423-444: My Activism Lustrum [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Jul 7, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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You got the better of the deal. The only good moment of Son of Sam was when the News (or Post) ran the first police sketch on the front page, and a stand-up comedian opened his act by holding up the newspaper next to his remarkably similar face. And just stood there. Your trip sounds exquisite, and I've reread your comment many times, savoring each vicarious pleasure. Did you stop at Amboise? It was the first place we had real French chèvre--the waiter was skeptical when we ordered it, saying it might not be for our American taste. I quoted Hunter Thompson: "We're not like the others."
Squib 422: What a Swell Party it Was [by Alan Ziegler]
Any survey of the Top Parties of the 20th Century is bound to include Truman Capote's Black & White Ball ('66), Rothschild's Surrealist Ball ('72), Bianca Jagger's 30th Birthday at Studio 54 ('77), and Malcolm Forbes's 70th Birthday in Morocco ('89). But there was another event, on June 15, 1977...
Squib 422: What a Swell Party it Was [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Jun 20, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squibs 419-421 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted May 11, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squibs 416-418 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted May 4, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squibs 412-415 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Apr 27, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squibs 409-411 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Apr 21, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Social Distancing as Modeled by Baseball Players [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Apr 11, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squibs 404-408 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Mar 28, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Wow--what a group to be touring together. We have seen and will see. Thank you!
Squibs 397-403 [by Alan Ziegler]
397: When I was a kid, sometimes I’d look down as I walked and imagine I was flying. Everything on the ground became magnified in its smallness—rivulets of rain water in the gutter became mighty rivers abutting cliffs, grass a golf course, dirt a desert. I thought about this today as I came acro...
Squibs 397-403 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Mar 25, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squib 396 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Mar 15, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Squib 395 [by Alan Ziegler]
395. The voice on the radio is hysterical. We turn it louder until we can’t make out the words, drowning out the phones and sirens. We shut the windows and harmonize in a hymn. Your hands throw scary shadow figures onto the wall. My fist shadows pummel them. Continue reading
Posted Mar 13, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Tara, Thank you! Your comment led me to your website and now I am a huge fan of your work and will keep checking in--Alan
Squibs 388-394 [by Alan Ziegler]
388: In my small writer-in-residence cabin at Interlochen, I live as if I have several rooms, working wherever I wind up: curling up in corners, prone by the fireplace, perching by the window, or sometimes even at my desk. There are times when I am desperate for a paper clip—a modicum of or...
Thank you so much Kent! My agent will be shopping it around before too long (I'm going to send her your comment). Hopefully someone will pick it up. --With gratitude, Alan
Squibs 388-394 [by Alan Ziegler]
388: In my small writer-in-residence cabin at Interlochen, I live as if I have several rooms, working wherever I wind up: curling up in corners, prone by the fireplace, perching by the window, or sometimes even at my desk. There are times when I am desperate for a paper clip—a modicum of or...
Squibs 388-394 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Mar 5, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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4
Squibs 381-387 [by Alan Ziegler]
Posted Feb 24, 2020 at The Best American Poetry
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Excessive toughness for #380 duly noted! I have added an alternative. AZ
Squibs 373-380 [by Alan Ziegler]
373: Would you prefer to: a) be a mule b) be a pig c) be a fish d) swing on a star and be better off than you are e) none of the above 374: Mr. Plant, my senior year high school history teacher, “confided” in us that the government and our textbooks don’t tell the whole tru...
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