Still on the Road

Sam Shepard on Bob Dylan and myth

"Myth is a powerful medium because it talks to the emotions and not the head. It moves us into an area of mystery. Some myths are poisonous to believe in, but others have the capacity for changing something inside us, even if it's just for a minute or two. Dylan creates a mythic atmosphere out of the land around us. The land we walk on every day and never see it until someone shows it to us."

Sam Shepard, Rolling Thunder Logbook, Penguin, 1978. 

They Fish

Last Man Standing ... Al Hinkle: an interview by Stephen D. Edington

Published by Beat Scene Press in the UK, Last Man Standing... is a fascinating interview with Al Hinkle, on whom the character of Ed Dunkel in Jack Kerouac's On The Road was based. Recalling his friendship with Neal Cassady from 1946 until up to Cassady's death in 1968, this interview offers testimony from yet another "minor character" in the beat saga.
Visit http://www.beatscene.net/ for order details.

CBLQ R80

100 Thousand Poets for Change Organises Largest Poetry Event in History

Number of Participants Worldwide Growing Daily

650 events in 450 cities and 95 countries will take place on September 24 to promote environmental, social, and political change. Poets, writers, artists will create, perform and demonstrate in their communities, and decide their own specific area of focus for change within the framework of peace and sustainability, which founder Michael Rothenberg stated, “…is a major concern worldwide and the guiding principle for this global event.”

Bob Holman and Margery Snyder, in a recent article on About.com said, “the beauty of the concept of 100 Thousand Poets for Change is that it is completely decentralized and completely inclusive.” All those involved
are hoping, through their actions and events, to seize and redirect the political and social dialogue of the day and turn the narrative of civilization towards peace and sustainability.

Poetry demonstrations are being organized in political hotspots such as Madison, Wisconsin and Cairo, Egypt. Poetry and peace gatherings are planned in strife-torn Kabul and Jalalabad.

In Mexico there are over 30 events, with 18 poetic actions in Mexico City, where poets as well as environmental and political activists are hoping to encourage reflection and creative responses against systemic violence through the written and the spoken word with day long street events, readings and workshops. More than a third of these events are organized by collectives actively working towards a non-violent approach to solve the country's most pressing problems.

To date there are over 260 events in the United States. There are 20 events statewide in North Carolina where teacher/poets have mobilized to protest cuts in education funding. And along the Platte River near Omaha, Nebraska, poets will be demonstrating against TransCanada’s planned Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. More examples of events can be found at the 100 Thousand Poets for Change www.100TPC.org. Each event organizer has an Event Location blog page on the website for posting, poetry, artwork, photos, and video to document this global mega-event across national borders.

Immediately following September 24th all documentation on the 100TPC.org website will be preserved by Stanford University in California, which has recognised 100 Thousand Poets for Change as an historical event, the largest poetry reading in history. They will archive the complete contents of the website, 100TPC.org, as part of their digital archiving program LOCKSS.

Founder Michael Rothenberg is a widely known poet, editor of the online literary magazine Bigbridge.org and an environmental activist based in Northern California.

For information contact: http://www.100TPC.org
Contact: walterblue@bigbridge.org
Phone: 305-753-4569

Ons Klyntji, August 2011

The latest issue of alternative culture journal Ons Klyntji has been published and contains poetry, prose, interviews and artwork from a wide variety of names including Allan Kolski Horwitz, Aryan Kaganof, Diane Awerbuck, Koos Kombuis, Kai Lossgott, Stacy Hardy, Kleinboer and notably - from my point of view - Fred de Vries's piece on Sinclair Beiles, 'The First Man in Space was a South African'.

Contact Toast Coetzer at info@toastcoetzer.com for details.

In Flight

Apollinaire/Apple in Air - a collage by Bruno Sourdin

Original collage received from French artist and poet Bruno Sourdin

Gail Dendy: dancing in verse

Gail Dendy is the author of seven poetry collections, the latest being Closer Than That, published by Dye Hard Press. She was first published by Harold Pinter in 1993, with her subsequent collections appearing in SA, the UK and the US. Her poetry and, more recently, short stories, are regularly published in journals and anthologies. An internationally trained dancer, she helped pioneer Contemporary Dance in SA between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Other passions are environmental- and animal-rights issues. She lives in Johannesburg with her husband, pets, a law library, and a huge rock ’n roll collection.... Read more at The Dye Hard Interviews

Tornado Alley by William S Burroughs

Illustrations by S Clay Wilson, published by Cherry Valley Editions, 1989.

Little Prajna

Watercolour of a cat by Henry Denander

Henry Denander is a Swedish poet and artist. He is the author of, among others, The Poetry of Mr Blue and The Loulaki Bar and other poems from Hydra.

Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis by DT Suzuki, Erich Fromm and Richard De Martino

"...the average person, while he thinks he is awake, is actually half asleep. By 'half asleep' I mean that his contact with reality is a very partial one; most of what he believes to be reality (outside or inside of himself) is a set of fictions which his mind constructs. He is aware of reality only to the degree to which his social functioning makes it necessary. He is aware of his fellowmen  inasmuch as he needs to cooperate with them; he is aware of  material and social reality inasmuch as he needs to be aware of it in order to manipulate it. He is aware of reality to the extent to which the goal of survival makes such awareness necessary.... The average person's consciousness is 'false consciousness', consisting of fictions and illusion, while precisely what he is not aware of is reality. .." Erich Fromm

Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, by DT Suzuki, Erich Fromm and Richard De Martino, Grove Press, 1960.
 

Hangin' On

New publication from Dye Hard Press: Closer Than That by Gail Dendy

ISBN: 978-0-9869982-0-1

Gail Dendy is one of South Africa’s most unmistakable and unique literary voices. The singing quality of her poetry soars and swoops, transporting the reader into a world of glittering magical realism. In this book a moon ripens in the window ‘whole and lemony once more’, mothers express longing and love, the sun and moon argue, there are gypsy women, and a fantasy piece with Shakespearean characters. This book is truly alive, presented in language that ‘rings like a gong from here to the far end of the world’.

Gail Dendy has grown in stature as a poet … Her poems are intriguing and at times playful, and she is in complete control of her subtle lyrical gift and delicate technique. Gus Ferguson

Gail Dendy moves across the landscape of a remembered past, and fictionalises into imagined other lives … An important voice in South African poetry, Dendy’s words are delicately polished jewels. Arja Salafranca

Gail Dendy’s seventh collection is elegant, sensuous, intelligent and sensitive. Michelle McGrane

I was delighted to publish your poems … Harold Pinter

 

Perfect bound, 72 pages.

 

Soon to be available in bookstores countrywide, estimated retail price R105, or available directly from the publisher at R85, including postage.