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the "Nightstand Short List":
what the e-poets group members are reading these days

This past summer, we put this question to our Group members: "Everyone's personal short list or reading pile changes over time. But it would be interesting to see where everybody's reading interest takes them today. This isn't fishing for "cool points," either. Please don't post something just because you think it's cool to say you've got a particular book. (We all know that some books look so pretty at the store, or make you look smart over coffee with faculty, but become torture when you open them.) Rather, if you're really reading a book, and it is occupying your time in genuinely satisfying ways, let's hear about it regardless of its fashion. Anything new or old on the nightstand is valid as long as you've enjoyed it in the last year."

Below are some of the responses from e-poets group members:


"I have actually been doing quite a bit of poetry reading lately, including She (Saul Williams), Transbluesency (Amiri Baraka), Aloud (Nuyorican Poets), and Asphalt & Pagan Operatta (Carl Hancock Rux). A few poets here have also recently released books of poetry - Beneath the Surface (Myesha Jenkins) and Ribbon of Rhythm (Lebo Mashile). To be honest, most of this comes from a recent struggle to write. Outside of poetry, I also just finished Da Vinci Code and am re-reading White Boy Shuffle by Paul Beatty."

Kojo Baffoe, South Africa


"I posted this [short list] several months ago at the urging of a friend, also as a way of sharing my pleasure in what I've read. I'm afraid some of the entries are distinctly "uncool." Perhaps even more so is the last book I finished, the thing about that English kid at a boarding school for wizards. Yes, I was recently down at Borders at 12:01 am.

"If I could also take this opportunity to share my latest project, a book/cd entitled Invisible Jazz. I'm collaborating with a singer and a band to produce poems and songs which I describe as " melding ancient Alexandria, medieval Paris and the millennial Subway Series in a lyrical crucible fueled by love and war and the mystical vision."

Chris Shillock, Minnesota


"i have not had much time to read books in the last few months but these are the few books i have managed to read

"graphic novels: Maus - Art Spiegelman
Palestine - Joe Sacco
Faxes from Sarajevo - Joe Kubert
Fables - Bill Willingham

"mix Basics of Buddhism - Pat Allwright
Dogsheart - Mikhail Bulgakov
The Way of the Dreamweaver, spirit lessons with Robert Lax, poet, peacemaker, sage - S.T. Georgiou
Pieces of a Song - Diane di Prima
the culture of FEAR - Barry Glassner
Múlbandalagið - Ólafur Páll Sigurðsson
Soil and Soul, people versus corporate power - Alastair McIntosh
Healing Anger - Dalai Lama
Laufskálafuglinn - Margrét Lóa Jónsdóttir
Samkvæmisleikir - Bragi Ólafsson
and an ocean of poetry i get via email

Birgitta Jonsdottir, Reykjavik, Iceland


"It was easy to compile this partial list, as most of it comes from my Masters study."

Asselineau, Roger. /The Evolution of Walt Whitman/. Iowa City: U of Iowa Press, 1999.
Ballard, Arthur/ Watson, Greg. /Mythology of //Southern Puget Sound/. North Bend, Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum. 1999.
Berman, Morris. /The Re-Enchantment of the World. /Ithaca: Cornell, 1981.
Breslin, James. /Whitman and the Early Development of William Carlos Williams. /PMLA, 1967, Dec; 1982.
Breslin, James. /Williams and the Modern Revolt. /From /William Carlos Williams: An American Artist/ (pgs 25-49) New York: Oxford 1970.
Eckrom, J.A. /Remembered Drums: A History of the //Puget Sound// Indian War. /Walla Walla: Pioneer Press, 1989.
Flewelling, Stan. /Shirakawa: Stories from a //Pacific Northwest// Japanese American //Community. /Auburn: White River Valley Museum, 2002.
Gates, Rosemary. /Forging an American Poetry from Speech Rhythms. /Tel Aviv: Porter Institute for Poetics, 1987.
Hansard, Christopher. /The Tibetan Art of Living. /New York: Atria, 2001.
Lloyd, Margaret Glynne. /William Carlos Williams’s //Paterson//: A Critical Reappraisal. /Cranbery, NJ.: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1980.
Mariani, Paul. /William Carlos Williams: The Poet and His Critics. /Chicago: American Library Association, 1975.
Pearce, Roy Harvey. ed., /Whitman: A Collection of Critical Essays. /Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1962.
Shapiro & Associates. /The Mill Creek Drainage Basin: An Historical Overview of the //Lower Green River//.
/ Seattle: Submitted to Army Corps of Engineers, 1990.
Whitman, Walt. /Leaves of Grass. /1892 ed. New York: Bantam Classics, 1983.
Williams, William Carlos. /Paterson//./ 3^rd Ed. New York: New Directions, 1963.
Williams, William Carlos. /Pictures From Brueghel. /3^rd Ed., New York: New Directions, 1962.

"A couple of things not on the list are Charles Olson, /The Maximus Poems, /of which I am halfway done and /Charles Olson and Alfred North Whitehead, an essay on Poetry, /by Shahar Bram, translated by Batya Stein. How Olson consciously ushered in a new paradigm in writing through his process-orientation, as inspired by Whitehead. I think Ted Berrigan may have a better sense how to create a sense of the non-linearity of time through /The Sonnets /than Olson achieved with The Maximus Poems, but I am still chewing on that one. I'd welcome thoughts on this, especially from anyone who has studied Whitehead."

"There are more books in a stack by my bed, but this is enough for now."

Paul Nelson, Slaughter, Washington


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