New Poem: OLD MAN POETRY

if I was a tenured professor 

previously published

by universities and prestigious

small presses, plus literary journals,

I could be very lazy indeed

writing with feeling only about my youth

while sticking out my elevated tongue 

at the foibles of much younger people—

secure in the knowledge 

that my esteemed poet friends

will look the other way,

continuing to lay carpets

over every place I walk

to keep me from stepping on splinters—

gilded and otherwise 

Revised poem: Somewhere There's A Someone

somewhere there's a someone

playing quiet electric guitar

on the patio of his Costa Mesa townhouse

with ROCKY II playing on TV in the den

he remembers his one year of local fame

as part of a cover band

playing Top 40 radio rock

such as Rick Springfield,

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band,

John Cougar Mellencamp and Bryan Adams

then he plays the opening bars of

Springsteen's THE RIVER

and pauses to recall the line

about whether a dream is a lie

if it doesn't come true

or if it’s something worse

The Ugly Mug reading and lingering emotions.

So a poet I respect (have known him since 1998) wrote something like this on the Two Idiots Peddling Poetry Ugly Mug reading last night:
Cool reading!  I enjoyed myself.

And I was tempted to write this on his Facebook wall, but, instead, am posting it here:
It's a cool reading if you're allowed in. After 12 years of being barred, perhaps I should be able to read posts like this without feeling any emotions whatsoever. But I have the mark of Cain still upon me and people will still go and enjoy and think of their own enjoyment and not pay attention to anything I write.

In theory, I shouldn't care one way or another about this--and should have stopped thinking about the ban after it happened in 2004.

But it's still a reminder of the days when I got along and went along with the majority of poets in the community.

Also, it shows the essential fragility of poet-to-poet relationships. You can make one mistake. But if that mistake is a Big Public Error, then goodwill instantly stops--and it's as though you never knew the other person at all and no support/nothing good you've done for him in the past counts for anything.

Over the years, I've thought out loud on this incident here. Sometimes with anger. Other times, I've asked for forgiveness.

At this point, I'm resigned to knowing it's somewhere I'm eternally not allowed into.

And aware that people I like continue to go to the reading and are entertained by it/receive approval from the audience of poets/Chapman students.

Also, doubly aware that the people I like who attend the reading probably share this sentiment:
YOUR BAN IS YOUR PROBLEM, NOT OURS! GET OVER IT!

Therefore, I need to learn to be completely desensitized when people post laudatory messages and photos on Facebook of their moments of glory in a coffeehouse in the city of Orange CA.

A list of books which, together, give a more complete picture of SoCal poetry.

In no specific order, these books can be found for sale online or in certain bookstores.

1. WIDE AWAKE
2. DON'T BLAME THE UGLY MUG
3. LUMMOX (issues 1-3)
4. LITERARY ANGLES: THE SECOND YEAR OF POETIC DIVERSITY
5. THE LONG WAY HOME: THE BEST OF THE LITTLE RED BOOK SERIES
6. THE OUTLAW BIBLE OF AMERICAN POETRY
7. SO LUMINOUS THE WILDFLOWERS
8. STAND-UP POETRY
9. Small press volumes including Red Hen Press, Punk Hostage, Lummox Press, Sacred Beverage and Sybaritic Press.
10. RATTLE--various issues

David Ulin, Suzanne Lummis, WIDE AWAKE and me.

Reposting this from Facebook, where, but for a handful of exceptions, it was not commented on:

Read David Ulin's remarks about WIDE AWAKE in his 10-Best [books] article in LA TIMES. Became enormously depressed, but nothing I can do about Ulin reducing the collective value of a large (and quite diverse at times) group of poets to one person's choices. And this isn't intended as a slight towards Suzanne and the work she did compiling it (I [bought] a copy)--just Ulin's insistence that the only poets worth remembering in perpetuity are the ones intersecting with [Suzanne] to varying degrees.

From the Poetry.LA YouTube Ben Trigg transcript.

As transcribed by YouTube without any changes.

,,,have you seen any

3:14

major change from the beginning when you started we in the market today in the in

3:20

the budget production of the boys are in contact with the one thing I think the

3:25

Tappan disaster evening went on and gained a reputation 

3:30

bring in a

3:33

a new level of featured readers and I feel like part of what has led to the

3:40

the level of our readers in the improvements i've seen over the course

3:47

of years is the examples we pride so you know when you can bring in some really

3:53

amazing people that people are hearing what works and even unconsciously try to

4:02

emulate that I think it just sort of elevates everything and i felt like we

4:08

have there's a almost unspoken expectation at the ugly mug like people

4:18

figure out if they're gonna read there they need to either run you know improve

4:23

as they can you know we don't have some sort of awake if you want this could go

4:27

but but we want everybody doesn't matter how good you are or if you're ok if

4:33

you're amazing we want everyone to get better and and they're sort of like

4:39

understanding of no work

4:43

grow on growth exactly grow or eventually people move on to something else...

Ben Trigg explains today's poetry scene for you.

Recently, veteran Orange County poetry host Ben Trigg did an interview with Mariano Zaro for the Poetry.LA site.  From 3:16 to 4:50 in the video, Trigg discusses the evolution in the Two Idiots Peddling Poetry reading (co-hosted with Steve Ramirez) from relative populism (i.e.showcasing a variety of levels of talent) to a more elevated status in terms of poetry and the reading's reputation (applying to both features and open readers).

Here's a link to the entire video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-gchpRhaps

A rebuttal to the Ryan Boudinot MFA article.

There are over 100 comments about Ryan Boudinot's article on THE STRANGER site--which I excerpted for my last blog post.

Here's one from "emmaz" and I've highlighted a certain passage that perfectly summarizes what I've been trying to say for years about "the poetry community."

The irony of this article is that Boudinot seems to genuinely think that he's courageously speaking a truth that no one wants to hear, when he's actually just spouting the dominant ideology that has held sway for a few hundred years now about the arts. That old saw that creativity is best left to a few genius artists who are "born that way," and if most of the celebrated voices are white and male, then that is just an indication of how God distributes talent. That's a western enlightenment attitude that supports the ruling class and the hegemonic status quo. I personally think that the more people who engage in the arts, in any capacity, the better the arts will be and the more interesting and just our culture will be. Why would we ever want to encourage less participation, if not to police who gets to speak?

Another 99-cent e-book: THE USE YOUR DELUSION POETRY SAMPLER.

Years ago, I wrote a couple of chapbooks about the Southern California poetry scene as I experienced it (and witnessing its effect on other poets).

THE USE YOUR DELUSION POETRY SAMPLER: NEW AND USED POEMS ABOUT POETRY WORLD is a compilation of the best poems from the two USE YOUR DELUSION chapbooks.

For the next three months, it will be on-sale exclusively from Amazon.

It costs only 99 cents.

Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/USE-YOUR-DELUSION-POETRY-SAMPLER-ebook/dp/B00O8KPW9M/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1412668547&sr=1-1&keywords=Terry+McCarty

When poets use friendship with other poets as excuse to punish poets.

In a way, my ongoing Ugly Mug banishment (and my various--sometimes pleas for forgiveness, sometimes open irritation at the situation stretching out for years) could be compared to the principal's office scene in John Hughes' THE BREAKFAST CLUB where principal Paul Gleason and student Judd Nelson keep at each other, ensuring that the web of anger and recrimination becomes as hard as iron.

Given the two-dimensional definition of me (by the Two Idiots Peddling Poetry and certain friends of theirs as a highly unpleasant person who doesn't write "good" poetry), there are times when I don't care whether I ever return to Orange CA--except to, perhaps, go window shopping in the old-neighborhood downtown area.

On some level, the hosts and the owner probably know that I learned my lesson from the unfortunate outburst of almost a decade ago and wouldn't misbehave and/or be disrespectful at the venue.

But, as has been made clear to me by one of the hosts in recent years, it's less about what I mentioned in the previous paragraph and more to do with what I write on this blog (before that, on certain listserves).  And, apparently, beyond the wish that I don't write anything critical of the reading or the hosts, lays the edict that I can never enter the Ugly Mug again because I have caused offense to friends of theirs.  This offense has been due to written words of mine (some of which I would never write again; others, I would restate in a more thoughtful, considerate--but still dissenting--way).

Ideally, even someone like me should be able to attend any kind of poetry reading as long as I'm not verbally or physically threatening to anyone--and quiet and respectful to the hosts, features and open-mike poets while they are on the podium.

It's understandable that people get hurt and have reflexive reactions if they feel their friends are being regarded unfairly.  But, as long as the disputed conduct exists far away from the venue, no poet should have a reason to feel wary of even outcast poets.

In the SoCal poetry community, banishment should not be used as a tool to silence unpopular speech that happens in other areas than poetry venues.

Most local poets will stand up for causes national and worldwide.  Just not (alas) how the power given to poetry hosts by reading attendance (and money given to features and venue owners) can be sometimes wielded in a less than poetic fashion.

New poem: THE WINNER GOES TO DINNER

THE WINNER GOES TO DINNER
(title inspired by the 1981 film TRUE CONFESSIONS)

the ballots were counted


and the tribe spoke


my torch was silenced
...

I was escorted across

the rope bridge

before the medals

were given out

>

and I realized that

I put on my running shorts

plus the thin sleeveless undershirt

and ran for what seemed like years

but no one felt any desire to add me

to the race's official list

>

Gallants can also be Goofuses

(as I know too well)

Goofuses can also be Gallants

(as I know quite well),

but perceived Goofuses tend

to show their best traits

when Important people aren't looking

>

an example being Gregory Peck

in THE BIG COUNTRY

who was worthy and brave

mostly when other people weren't watching

>

you don't win races that way

instead you make sure you're seen

doing the right things

by, to and with the right people

>

being unseen almost everywhere

keeping your unblown horn

in its case

not rushing to people

with a chair and a footstool

when you think they need

extrasuperspecial application

of thick, perhaps-sincere social butter

>

that's when you lose the race

and get buried

in the Potter's Field of Poetry

with the rest of the Goofuses

Saying goodbye to The Rapp Saloon reading that used to be.

Santa Monica CA's Rapp Saloon poetry reading began in 2000 at the International Youth Hostel (where it remains to this day).  I was fortunate enough to be one of its hosts; today, it was announced that the reading will be cut back in May from every Friday to the first and third Fridays of each month.  It now serves a less artistically diverse, more attuned to high-culture audience than it used to (when most factions of the LA/OC poetry communities commingled).  And perhaps The Rapp will maintain its current following for years to come.  But I mourn the now-official death of what it once was.

Two views of a one-time SoCal Poetry Icon.

Someone who I won't mention by name here (don't like the person, but sometimes appreciate his columns/essays) wrote the following about someone else who used to be a Very Big Deal in Southern California poetry during the first four to five years I was involved with The Scene.  Name and certain details redacted:
[Poet] was in rare form, and the crowd ate him up. What I like about [poet] is that you can drop him in front of just about any room, and he's fine ... even that night, when a heavy metal band upstairs was drowning out half of everything. (Not sure was up with that. [venue] doesn't usually book bands upstairs on Mondays. Odd.)

Anyway, it was good to see [poet], and great to see him having a blast on that stage. Like I said, the crowd there adored him, and he was just letting loose and flying, climbing furniture and shouting (although, as I said, that was partly out of necessity.) Not sure I would have reprised the poem [signature poem title omitted] in the 2nd half, but eh. Whatever. The crowd was buying what he was selling, and I have to say, I hadn't realized how much I'd missed him till he turned up. I get that a lot, actually.

My view of [poet] during the time I was on the outer edge of his orbit:
[Poet] once described himself and his craft as like "folk music" in a world where slam could be compared to rock and roll.  And I'll agree with the above writer that [poet] when he was "on" was an enthusiastic venue host expert at working a room.  The poetry of [poet] leaned towards storytelling for the most part (in my opinion, where it best played to his strengths), though it became more consciously "artistic" when he began courting the favors of the Artistic Leaders in the SoCal Community around the years 2001-2002.

This will sound small to some people who know and still unconditionally love [poet], and I don't care if it does.  [Poet] never thought I was good enough to feature at his-and-hosting-partner's venues (when it seemed like to do so was akin to a 70s/80s-era stand-up comic being asked by Johnny Carson to sit in the honored Guest's Chair) in those early years, although other places in LA/OC had no problem giving me featured bookings--which, in retrospect, made up for being slighted (especially since there were more opportunites and venues back then).  Perhaps it hurt me that I wasn't writing enough progressive-tinged poems, instead doing humorous pieces about office workers and--gasp!--poems about Hollywood.

And, to be honest, I witnessed (plus hearing stories of) [poet] being really small and mean and petty to some members of the community who were outcasts (for one reason or another) not liked by the Scene in general.  The seminal moment I became disenchanted with [poet] was a night in late 2000 at a Latin-American restaurant in a Hollywood-adjacent area.  [Poet] was forced by restaurant owner to cut the reading short; [poet] didn't explain this to audience, but promised rainchecks for the remaining open readers the following week.  Unfortunately, an Outcast Poet picked that moment to chastise [poet] for cutting the reading short.  [Poet] handled it in a bad way--screaming at Outcast Poet until an acolyte of [poet] came to hustle Outcast Poet away.

Perhaps the darker, jerkier, sanctimonious side of [poet] is why I've spoken my mind over the past decade (sometimes unwisely, at other times ready to risk misunderstanding/hatred for not being passive and careerist when I see prominent poets abusing their prominence/Brand Names at the expense of others they can afford to trample on).

In any event, I'm glad [poet] is on one coast and I'm on the other.

Poet Julia Stein gets Murrayed.

"If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."--Elmore Leonard

But in the world of poetry, some people (particularly reviewers who wish to culturally shape their communities) prefer writing that sounds like writing.

Here are two excerpts from G. Murray Thomas' review of Julia Stein's book WHAT WERE THEY LIKE?

But too often the poems acquire their power through flat statements, rather than poetic language. This is especially true in the final lines with which she closes many of her poems. Too often they end with a line which punches the gut without engaging the imagination. “A cruise missile left her/ paralyzed on half of her body.” (“I Wanted to Believe”); “I ask Congress to stop the destruction of this city.” (“Do I look like a Sumerian goddess”); “she wants to send money to stop the war” (“My Mama Remembers”).

What Were They Like? delivers a powerful anti-war message. Stein succeeds in her goal of showing the lives of average people swept up in the horror of war. But I’m sad to say it rarely rises to the level of great poetry in the process. Regular readers of my reviews know I like my poetry open-ended. I like to discover meaning in the poems I read, not be slapped in the face with it. Poetry is such a perfect format for expressing ambiguity that, to be honest, I feel cheated when a poet does less with it.

The full review can be read at http://www.poetix.net

Plugging myself: HOLLYWOOD POETRY 2001-2013 - Terry McCarty : Xlibris

HOLLYWOOD POETRY 2001-2013 - Terry McCarty : Xlibris

Available in both paperback and e-book formats for your reading pleasure.

What appears to be a SoCal poetry community in-joke.

Actual quote from a description of a link to a SoCal poetry listserve, written by the listserve's creator:

"Subscribe or unsubscribe to the Cobalt Poets e-mail list. Also sort through the message archive or join in the un-moderated fun by posting anything you want about anything at any time for any reason."

To the above quote, I can only say:
A lot of people are comfortable with/unquestioning of the "my site, my rules" policies of websites that allow comments after posts--or listserves where, in theory, a member can post on a topic of his/her choosing.
Perhaps this is an oblique way of stating this rather than writing something boring and technical
i.e. "if you post anything that isn't a reading announcement and you criticize the community (or someone in it), even if it doesn't descend into blatant insults/profanity, then I will moderate content and possibly ban you."

So now, as the late commentator Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story.

UPDATE: The proprietor of the Cobalt Poets list, via Facebook, posted an answer to this post.  And, in the interest of equal time, here it is:
Thanks for bringing this to my attention Terry. That was written when the Cobalt Poets email list was created, when, as a naive poetry host I thought having an unmoderated list was possible and before, as you know, so many people, yourself included, used it as a bully pulpit. I'll be editing the description to remove the 'anything goes' implication of the text. More good work sir!

My reply to the proprietor's statement: Always glad to advocate truth in advertising.

Revised old poem POET IN BLACK

Tale of an evening that most featured poets have at one time or another.

From an e-mail I sent recently, with certain details redacted [partially to ensure universality of the underlying message of this post]:
[Featured reading at poetry venue] went poorly.... The worst part of the night for me was when one of the regulars came from [nearby reading] where [venue host] read as one of three winners; this regular mentioned that [Famous California Poet] had arranged for the poets to be paid $50 each since poets shouldn't have to read for free. But I read for free at [poetry venue] since no one wanted to buy my $3 chapbook.... I did what I could and the audience mostly didn't react.

Underlying message: We who are blessed to be chosen as poetry features have bad nights as well as good ones.  And my post is not intended as ingratitude--since the venue host and the substitutes that evening were courteous to me by e-mail and in-person; I feel as if I let them down because of the underenthusiasm of most of the audience. 

Analyzing the corpse of the evening: Either I didn't magnetize the room the way a Brendan Constantine or Jaimes Palacio often do, or that the poems I read (outside of an opening poem by Stephen Dunn) weren't considered "good enough" by most of the audience (and unworthy of a $3 souvenir chapbook).

An ironic and rather sad coincidence was what happened to the 10-minute spotlight feature after the break; he's a regular at the venue and offered books for free.

From what I could observe, no one accepted his generosity after the reading ended.

Here's what's really in the SoCal Poetry Pond (revised and edited).

Let's start this post with a haiku.  I didn't write it, but someone who posts the TERRY McCARTY'S WAR AGAINST HUMANITY blog did:
bitter man banned from

club. LOBs yawns when his output

makes hyenas sleep

My first response is this: if I were truly bitter and envious (presumably from wanting to be "let back in"--something I gave up on about a year ago in terms of making peace with certain intersecting SoCal poetry circles that want me forever banished), I wouldn't be posting occasional critiques/observations on how certain poets choose to use the power much of the community gives them.

I've never truly absorbed the lesson that if you ask select

"craft-conscious poets" beyond your station in the poetry community to sit down with you and/or answer certain questions, the poet(s) refuse(s) and you're a gigantic Figure of Snarky Fun behind other people's backs.

My previous post--putting up the Rick Lupert/Brendan Constantine "What's In The Pond" video--seems to have triggered the haiku outburst above.  I thought the video might be instructive to poets and nonpoets alike to see something with the musky odor of clubbiness and two talented practitioners of writing/working a crowd wasting five minutes doing stupid, lazy crap they were assured to get away with because of their Name Value in the community.  If two newcomers had read something like "What's In The Pond", it's highly doubtful that they would have gathered the laughter and applause rolling in appreciative waves towards the Brand Names at the mike.

 

Some positivity concerning local poets and their poetry.

Here are links for ordering books by four local poets who are decent, generous class acts:
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Barefoot-Glassblowers-Museum-Ellyn/dp/0916397807/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247696498&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Country-Sight-Neil-Aitken/dp/1934695068/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247696588&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Guns-Brendan-Constantine/dp/1597091383/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247696648&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/White-Bride-Sarah-Maclay/dp/1597320420/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247696714&sr=1-1