Poetry books. Photo by Mike Romanos 2009.
April is Poetry Month and in celebration Poets House has mounted the 17th annual showcase of poetry books and poetry-related texts. Whether you’re looking to browse a copy of Infinity Blues, by indie rocker Ryan Adams, the recently reprinted cult classic Letters to a Stranger by Thomas James, or the works of poet C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933), you’ll find it at the Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library in Greenwich Village from now through Saturday.
At the showcase you’ll rub elbows with poets of every ilk, as you flip through the more than 2000 newly-published poetry books, chapbooks, little magazines, CDs and DVDs.
“It’s really The Year in Poetry--the only annual roundup of American poetry publications,” says Lee Briccetti, executive director of Poets House, who established the showcase in 1992, to toot poetry’s horn and update the world about what’s happening in American poetry’s many scenes. “Poets may work in solitude, but once a year all these people come together to get the work out there,” Briccetti adds.
Poets House is a national poetry library and literary center that was founded in 1986 by poet Stanley Kunitz and arts administrator Elizabeth Kray. Their idea was to create a home for everyone who reads or writes poetry—a library space but also a place for poetry readings, panels and discussions.
Until 2007, that home was a loft at 72 Spring Street in SoHo. But, as New York City rents spiraled upward, the not-for-profit organization was forced to look for something more affordable. When the Battery Park City Authority offered them a raw space of 11,000 square feet that will be rent-free through the year 2069, of course they jumped. After a five-year capital campaign to raise money to construct its interior, Poets House is scheduled to move into its new home at Ten River Terrace later this year. Meanwhile, their annual poetry publications showcase is being hosted by the Jefferson Market branch library.
“Holding it at the Jefferson Market this year is a way of building community,” says Briccetti, who’s always one to look at the human side of thing. Many of the books at the showcase are community endeavors too.
“The Dusie Press chapbooks are an example of the creative work you'll find,” says Briccetti. “Poets in the Dusie collective actually made books of each other’s poetry. There are twenty or thirty of them, some as small as a pack of matches.”
Usually, there are so many wonderful and quirky publications at the showcase, it’s hard to know where to focus first. But, for those looking for a heads up, here are a few suggestions. Check out the limited edition books from the Ugly Duckling Presse in Brooklyn—The Book of Nature by Regan Good, for instance, is letter-pressed, bound with string and includes art on translucent tracing paper. From the Hawaiian TinFish Press, comes Charlotte’s Way, a fine arts, accordion-style poetry book by Norman Fischer, as well as poetry chapbooks written in Hawai`i Creole English.
“I just love the names of these small presses,” says Michael Romanos, the showcase coordinator. “There’s Baseball Gods Productions, the Flying Guillotine Press and the Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs!”
And then there are intriguing books of mysterious or disputed authorship—Rebel with a Pen: The Poetry of James Dean, for instance, whose “co-author” is listed as Carlton Hayes. If you never knew that James Dean wrote poetry, don’t feel too out-of-it. Neither did most of us.
“This is a work of fiction,” announces the publisher, Cohort Press, about the “first and only publication of the newly discovered poems of James Dean, written in the 5 years preceding his tragic death.” How, when and where were these poems discovered, and by whom? “The original poems are in the possession of Carlton Hayes,” claims the publisher’s statement, “and were directly obtained and channeled through him from James Dean.”
Before you call the Poetry Police, consider that Hayes is hardly the first poetic channeler. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) said much of his mystical work, “A Vision,” was channeled via his wife Georgie Hyde-Lees, who claimed she'd heard spirits speaking.
Were Yeats still kicking today and publishing in the USA, you can be sure his latest book would be displayed at the Poets House Showcase. And the folks perusing the Showcase's shelves and tables would be among the first to read it.
The 17th Annual Poets House Showcase – now until Saturday, April 11, 2009
NYPL Jefferson Market Branch – 425 6th Ave. at West 10th Street – 212-243-4334
Admission is free - Showcase is during regular library hours
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