Philip Whalen's Collected Forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press

The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen, edited by Michael Rothenberg of Big Bridge Press with a forward by Gary Snyder and introduction by Leslie Scalapino is due out in November 2007.

Review Forthcoming.

Forthcoming Poetry Readings by Jacqueline Gens

Jacqueline Gens will read in Amherst, MA on November 2, 2007 for The Hampshire County Partnership to Improve end of Life Care program along with poets, Barbara Paparazzo and Christie Svane at:

How We Remember: A Day of the Dead Celebration
Friday, November 2, 2007 beginning at 7:30 pm
Nacul Center
592 Main StAmherst, MA

The festivities include
• an art show with the theme of remembering,
• A mariachi band to add to the celebration,
• Food and beverage (of course!)
• a program consisting of readings, dance and other
entertainment with the theme of remembering.

5:30 – 7:30 pm open art exhibit, live music
7:30 - 9:30 pm poetry program

The Partnership is a nonprofit organization with the mission of educating the community to make informed choices about end of life care. Because the Partnership recognizes that dying is a part of living, our goal in having the Day of the Dead weekend is to invite our community to take part in activities to help raise awareness of the issues surrounding death in our culture.

***

Putney, VT Library Series, December 6, 2007, Jacqueline Gens and John Rose of Landmark College will read. Further details TBA

Jacqueline Gens is co-director and a founder of of the MFA Program in Poetry at New England College. For many years, she worked for the late poet, Allen Ginsberg and is a long time practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. Her manuscript, Primo Pensiero, with a foreword by Anne Waldman, is forthcoming from Shivastan Publications in the winter of 2008.

Backstory

My poem in honor of the Dalai Lama receiving the Congressional medal of honor on November 17, 2007.

Backstory

Above the din of Amy’s café
in the backroom overlooking the river
loud words drift over to our table,
Did the Dalai Lama ever have a job
like shinning shoes? The old Vermonter
leans towards his wife who's eating a croissant
looking away from him.

I want to reach across the room
and tell him “yes” about my dream
of the Dalai Lama in a glass airport tower
directing traffic on the runway
of life and death and that his question
isn’t so ridiculous as his wife’s response suggests.

I want to tell him that the monk once held my left hand
at a reception while he massaged my palm
looking into my eyes talking of nothing much
as he rearranged my subtle energies,
my right hand gripping
the glass of white wine until I jumped
in recognition of what was happening.
So strange, so intimate, so wonderous--
the shock of his kind gesture in passing,
as loud as the man’s words in the café.

10/17/07
by Jacqueline Gens