Announcements

Shipman/Evans and Keats at Dogfish, (The Magazine #6)

Next Thursday, February 22, the eve of the anniversary of the death of John Keats, will mark the launch of Keats Is Not the Problem, a collaborative poem by Chris Shipman and Brett Evans, at the famous Dogfish Reading Series. Even if you have to fly in from New York or California or Uruguay, you should plan on attending this event, which promises to be as much a party as a reading, with refreshments to make “The Eve of St. Agnes” seem Wordsworthian by comparison. Rodger Kamenetz says of this book: “EvansShipman have merged to form a durable romantic monster with one big clear voice, scarifying at times as poetic monsters should be, but also amiable amidst the ruins of New Orleans.” Come merge with the monster and celebrate with us.

In honor of this auspicious event, we offer a little taste of the book below. You can also listen to EvansShipman reading from the book and talking to yours truly about it on The Writer’s Retreat at WRBH. 

If you can’t make it to the launch, pick up a copy of the book from our website for half price, today only.


Two from Keats Is Not the Problem


Aging in America (When the Music’s Not Quite Over)

It’s weird to think

    some people got 

     old and died

before the apocalypse hit

Who Killed the World?

on the celestial seasonings

 tea flap, beer bib

and what about geriatric

   roaches who just age out

of scurrying living

and flaming hot Funyons

 besting nuclear winters

 hearts on the fire

like terminal marshmallows.

psst— Spring is about youthiness

                            and bed springs

but once I read with the poet

 Stephen Rodefer

at the 13 Bar in New York,

   he among younger poets

  reading about sorrows of the flesh

even though we poets are supposed

    to be like opera singers time-

  wise, relative to peak.

Aging in America is one thing

Dying in Paris is another

so Andy, yeah—

being young 

   shucked smushed upright

    in a Pittsburgh flat just might 

be roundly where it’s at

or just flying a kite on a field

    before they invented

   all this shit that killed us


platform kids

huff glue

outside the movies

looney tunes glue

until shut-eye

pacifier rags

there are no pacifiers

atoms for peace

who made this place

this place?

wake up

wipe the glue crust

from corner mouth

start all over again

make the sale

be your own

runaway

in place

stuck

 

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