Jenny Browne

14 lines X 2

Jenny — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 02:48:55 +0000

I sent a pre-election sonnet of sorts to my friend Matt Hart. He then did a most excellent Ted Berrigan on it. So here you have it, before and after. Yay America! Obamanos!

It Was Cold in the Country I Remember

November 3, 2008

The children imagine a fire in the yard.

They’re not yet old enough to read or remember.

More stones and twigs on stones and twigs.

Ears redden in early November

winds of this could be. We’re drinking

beer beneath pecan trees repeating

what we heard on NPR, non-sequitur being

the new sequitur. Like a train a coming.

Like Mahalia saying tell them

they don’t need their hats or coats

about the dream, Martin. Tell them…

this could be. Even the air votes

yes we can feel it from here, the fire

lit in minds. On our skin. To the sky.

The Country Was Amazing, I Remember

November 5, 2008

In the backyard, the children pretend to build a fire,

started in the minds. On our skin. To the sky.

piling twigs and stones atop more twigs and stones.

we can feel it from here, the fire

They are not yet old enough to read or remember.

They don’t need their coats. Say yes

Ears redden in the early November winds of this could be

about the dream, Martin. Tell them…

only proof that survival is moving.

Mahalia standing up, saying Tell them

Grown-ups drink beer beneath pecan trees

or was that beer I hear a train a coming I hear

and repeat what we last heard on NPR, non-sequitur

being the new sequitur, a new day rising…

El Dia De Los Muertos

Jenny — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:12:37 +0000

Long time, no news. Actually, there’s been lots of news but also lots of sadness. That, and obsessive political blog reading. So for now, here’s a picture of our Day of the Dead altar and an elegy to one of my favorite poets, in memory.

Elegy on Toy Piano

By Dean Young

For Kenneth Koch

You don’t need a pony

to connect you to the unseeable

or an airplane to connect you to the sky.

Necessary it is to love to live

and there are many manuals

but in all important ways

one is on one’s own.

You need not cut off your hand.

No need to eat a bouquet.

Your head becomes a peach pit.

Your tongue a honeycomb.

Necessary it is to live to love,

to charge into the burning tower

then charge back out

and necessary it is to die.

Even for the trees, even for the pony

connecting you to what can’t be grasped.

The injured gazelle falls behind the

herd. One last wild enjambment.

Because of the sores in his mouth,

the great poet struggles with a dumpling.

His work has enlarged the world

but the world is about to stop including him.

He is the tower the world runs out of.

When something becomes ash,

there’s nothing you can do to turn it back.

About this, even diamonds do not lie.

Words and Wine - Local Flavor

Jenny — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:34:47 +0000

So much fun to be back with old Evansville friends and fellow Michener Center fellows to read and drink wine at Patchwork Central. Great local cheese and vegetables too. Here are few articles about the event, one from the arts columnist and one from the (a-hem) social column of the Evansville Courier and Press. (Scroll down to read our bit).

Liz Mandrell, Justin Helfrich and me before the reading.

Two New Reviews!

Jenny — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:19:32 +0000

Big thanks to Steve Burt and Dale Smith for their thoughtful reading of and generous words about my book in The Believer and Bookslut. Wow.

Blanton Poetry Project Webpage

Jenny — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:47:16 +0000

Much thanks to Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art for featuring my poem The First Ship on their website If These Walls Could Speak. There is a short interview about the making of the poem and, if you enlarge the painting, a recording of me reading it. A big shout out to Kurt Heinzelman and D’Arcy Randall for all of their work to make this project about art that inspires art a reality.

Second Friday Reading at Gemini Ink

Jenny — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:46:54 +0000

The end of the semester and the hangover from National Poetry Month have me feeling all William Carlos Williamsish,

”Lifeless in appearance, sluggish

dazed spring approaches—”

And heck, since spring last all of three day around here, I should probably revise this to say something about the fist of summer on the horizon.

All that said, I am still very excited about the last reading of this busy season. I’ll be reading with my Trinity University colleague, Andrew Porter, and with the memoirist, poet and critic Paul Christensen. Details below.

Friday, May 9 @ Gemini Ink, 513 S. Presa, 6:30 pm

Please come!

AGNI

Jenny — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:34:05 +0000

New poem up at AGNI.

Reading in Houston

Jenny — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:32:46 +0000

Please come see Kent Shaw and yours truly read from our new books, Calenture and The Second Reason this Friday at 6pm.

Brazos Bookstore
Friday, April 18, 6:00 pm
2421 Bissonnet
Houston Texas 77005
www.brazosbookstore.com

New review of The Second Reason

Jenny — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:55:45 +0000

Thanks to Roberto Bonazzi for this generous review in Sunday’s San Antonio Express News.

National Poetry Month

Jenny — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 16:03:08 +0000

San Antonio is hopping with poetry this month! The Office of Cultural Affairs has a complete calendar of events. Poems about birds, poems and vegetarian food, haiku hikes and free copies of The Wasteland. What’s not to love? Check it out.

And, if you are in Austin this weekend, also check out The Blanton Museum’s Poetry Project.

The kickoff event is Sunday from 1-4.

I’ll be reading a new poem about this painting.