MERGE: An Exhibition of Convergent Ideas

One of the upcoming projects that I am excited to be involved with is the Merge Phoenix Poetry Retrospective. Merge was a poetry journal that was published by Rosemarie Dombrowski, who also hosts a monthly reading series, which I was proud to feature at in December.

The journal has been on hiatus, so she decided to re-launch with a new issue filled with poets who featured at her readings during 2010. She also enlisted the help of Phoenix photographer Sean Deckert to design the cover and create images for about twenty of the poems inside.

Deckert also arranged for the launch party to be a gallery show during September's First Friday Artwalk:

Merge Poetry Retrospective

Merge Phoenix Poetry Retrospective

September 2nd-30th, 2011

opening reception: September 2nd, 6-10pm

closing reception: September 16th, 6-9pm

Artlink Heritage Square Gallery

623 East Adams Street

Phoenix, AZ 85003

This exhibition is a collection of hand written poetry combined with photographs made from an intuitive response to selected poems. The installation of the original art will create an interactive environment where viewers are enticed to have a more involved physical connection with the poetry and retrospective/current Merge community. Viewers are invited to remove poems and photographs from the gallery wall to read leisurely during the exhibition. There will be a poetry reading that will showcase the poem through the voice of the author. Limited edition copies of the journal will be for sale.

I'm not sure which other poets will be with me at the opening reception, but some of the poets who have work in the journal, include Jack Evans, David Chorlton, Josh Rathkamp, Cat Klotsche, Jed Allen, Mark Haunschild, Eric Wertheimer, Susan Vespoli, Cathy Cappozoli, Nadine Lockhart, Jefferson Carter, and Cynthia Hogue.

On The Brevity Of Titles and a poem in the new issue of Sakura Review

One of my earlier poems that would usually get a very positive response, after readings
but could never make its way into publication, had a heavy-handed title like "On The Absence
Of Racism In Ancient Greece." In fact, it had a title exactly like "On The Absence Of Racism In Ancient Greece."
Recently, I reined the title in a little bit to "Beyond Translation" and coincidentally
it was just published in the latest issue of Sakura Review.

I received my contributor's copies the other day and was happy to see that I am in the same issue with great poems from J. P. Dancing Bear (because I loved his 2002 chapbook from Slipstream Press, "What Language") and Jeffrey C. Alfier (who included one of my poems in the debut issue of a journal he edits called San Pedro River Review).

Some of the poems from new-to-me poets that caught my attention on the first pass through, include a couple of short ones from E. Ethelbert Miller, an interesting cut-up from Jenn Monroe, and one by Eleanor Paynter.


In December, I was scheduled to read with Bakeem Lloyd at the monthly Phoenix Poetry Series. We decided to "cover" one of each others' poems somewhere during our own set and he chose Beyond Translation. I have a really shaky bootleg video of him reading it. Yes, it looks like it may have been poorly dubbed from another language, like in old karate movies...but here it is:




I read two short ones from him. I don't have any video of it, but this is one of the ones I chose to read. He wasn't sure it would sound right, coming from me. But I thought that's what would make it even more interesting... although I am no Tony Hoagland.

movie extra in a bad relationship

our relationship

has always had the earmarks

of a bad horror movie

and I for one am so tired

of playing

the white girl

running through the forest

in high heel shoes


---Bakeem Lloyd