• About
  • Cats Dig Hemingway
  • Guest Bookings
  • John King’s Publications
  • Literary Memes
  • Podcast Episode Guide
  • Store!
  • The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
  • Videos
  • Writing Craft Discussions

The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Tag Archives: Poetry

Buzzed Books #37: Application for Release from the Dream

09 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Buzzed Books

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Amy Watkins, Application for Release from the Dream, Buzzed Books, Poetry, Tony Hoagland

Buzzed Books #37 by Amy Watkins

Tony Hoagland’s Application for Release from the Dream

Application for Release from the Dream

I enjoyed the second half of Tony Hoagland’s fifth poetry collection, Application for Release from the Dream (Graywolf Press, 2015), so much that I almost felt guilty for how critical I was of the first half.

Many of the poems in the first half of the book have a thematic counterpart in the second half. For example, one of the poems in the first section is “Special Problems in Vocabulary,” a poem about the limitations of language. It begins:

There is no single particular noun
for the way a friendship,
stretched over time, grows thin,
then one day snaps with a popping sound.

Those lines could almost be an early draft of one of the last poems in the book, “There Is No Word”:

…we have reached the end of a pretense
–though to tell the truth,
what I already am thinking

is that language deserves the credit–
how it will stretch just so much and no further;
how there are some holes it will not cover up…

The book contains several of these pairs–two poems about language, two poems about his father, two poems about divorce. I’m not certain whether the later poems are meant to be further reflections on the themes or answers to the earlier poems. I’m not sure if I would respond differently to the early poems upon a second reading, but in all these pairs, I prefer the second poem.

Both halves of the book contain plenty of Hoagland’s signature humor. He gives the business to corporate tools, uptight academics, clueless suburbanites, his father, his ex-wife, and the fool who blasts his radio at 2 in the morning. In the second half of the book, he turns his wit on himself. “Summer Dusk,” for example, is as close to a pastoral as you’re likely to get from Hoagland. It begins, “I put in my goddamn hearing aid / to listen to a bird…” The poems in the second half in particular are funny, a little melancholy, sometimes a little mean, but they work because they “aim up” or, better yet, aim in.

In “The Story of the Mexican Housekeeper,” his father recalls “family friends” who “hired a woman from across the border, // then kept her hostage for seven years.” The poet/speaker is disgusted that his father apparently finds the story amusing, but when the exploited woman appears near the end of the poem, he imagines her anger directed at him, not his father or even her captors: “she’s mad as hell / not at my dad, but me–yelling // that she doesn’t want to be in this poem for one more minute.” Does using the story in the poem make him complicit in her exploitation? The poem doesn’t answer that question, but it is full of a powerful tension worth exploring.

Like much of Hoagland’s work, these poems “balance on the fence / between irony and hope.” It’s a difficult position to maintain gracefully. When he does, the poems are wry, challenging, and emotionally complex.

Pair with: a Princeton, a pre-Prohibition drink of Old Tom gin layered over chilled port. It’s pretty. It’s classy. Its two flavors don’t totally mix.

_______

Amy Watkins

Amy Watkins (Episode 124, 161, 164) grew up in the Central Florida scrub, surrounded by armadillos and palmetto brush and a big, loud, oddly religious family, a situation that’s produced generations of Southern writers. She married her high school sweetheart, had a baby girl and earned her MFA in poetry from Spalding University. Her chapbook, Milk & Water, was published in 2014 by Yellow Flag Press.

Episode 191: Erin Belieu!

06 Saturday Feb 2016

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Carl Phillips, Erin Belieu, Kevin Young, Miami Book Fair International, Poetry, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Slant Six

Episode 191 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I interview poet Erin Belieu,

Erin Belieu

plus I share the Miami Book Fair International reading she participated in with Carl Phillips, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, and Kevin Young.

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Slant SixReconnaissance Carl PhillipsHeaven PoemsBook of Hours

NOTES

  • Check out my first interview with Erin Belieu back on episode 44, when we talked about VIDA and the count.
  • On Superbowl Sunday, February 7, 7 P.M., The Drunken Odyssey will be Super Balling at Writer’s Atelier. More info is here.

Litlando-Poster

Get tickets for Litlando here.


 

Episode 191 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing, literature, and drinking, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 165: Brian Spears!

08 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

A Witness in Exile, Brian Spears, Eugenio Negro, Poetry, The Satanic Verses

Episode 165 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.


Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here.


In this week’s episode, I talk to the poet Brian Spears,

Brian Spearsplus Eugenio Negro writes about the adventure of reading Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.

Eugenio NegroBOOKS DISCUSSED

A Witness in Exile

the satanic verses

NOTES

On Tuesday, August 11, at 7:00 P.M. at The Gallery at Avalon Island in downtown Orlando, Jared Silvia, Stephanie Rizzo, Teege Braune, Genevieve Anna Tyrell, and I will read original fan fiction for that month’s installment of J. Bradley’s prose reading series, There Will be Words.

Check out Meg Sefton’s upcoming workshop on the fundamentals of flash fiction here.

An Albuquerque school adds 13,000 books to library and will not be using the Dewey Decimal system.

Check out the great perks for The Drunken Odyssey’s fundraiser here.


Episode 165 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 134: Stuart Dybek and Denise Duhamel!

10 Saturday Jan 2015

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Blow Out, Denise Duhamel, Ecstatic Cahoots, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Moss Hart, Moss Hart's Act One, Opera, Paper Lantern, Poetry, Stuart Dybeck, Tosca

Episode 134 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In this week’s episode, I share another Miami BookFair International interview, this one with fiction writer and poet Stuart Dybek,

Stuart Dybekand I also talk to the poet Denise Duhamel,

Denise Duhamelplus Jim Ross writes about how Moss Hart’s Act One changed his life.

Jim RossTEXTS DISCUSSED

Ecstatic CahootsPaper LanternBlow OutAct OneNOTES

In Orlando, come hear me, Kimberly Lojewski, Robert Metcalf, and Tiffany Razzano read prose at There Will Be Words on January 13th.

On Tuesday, January 20th, 7 P.M., Leslie Salas will lead a workshop on imagery at the Orlando Public Library, Herndon Branch

On Saturday, January 24th, 11 A.M., J. Bradley will host a love poem workshop at the Orlando Public Library.

On Saturday, January 24th, 7 P.M., come hear Boris Fishman read from his novel, A Replacement Life, and me read poetry at the Gallery at Avalon Island.

Read veteran Joe Sacco on his view of the role of satirical comics in response to the Charlie Hedbo story.

Read Matt Taibbi on the way the news media has covered the Charlie Hedbo story.

Here is the Frederick News-Post‘s editorial about Kirby Delauter’s threat of legal action against using his name in an unauthorized way in reporting on county commission meetings.

_______

Episode 134 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

In Boozo Veritas # 64: Adventures in Halloweening, Part 3

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Horror, In Boozo Veritas

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Francis Ford Coppola, Poetry, There Will Be Words

In Boozo Veritas # 64 by Teege Braune

Adventures in Halloweening: Part 3

Horror Movie Poetry Night Teege Braun Howls

This week I broke my finger. Or jammed it; I’m not really sure. If it isn’t better by the time this blog goes live, I’m going to have it looked at. I finally bought a splint, and now it’s starting to look a little more normal and regain some movement. Earlier in the week, not taking my injury all that seriously, I was working, typing, and using it as well as I could, but the swelling, bruising, and discoloration were actually getting worse instead of better. My finger had turned the bloody purple, grave green, and putrid yellow of a decaying, bloated corpse. It actually looked a lot like this grub.

Grub

Read “Taxidermist in the Underworld” by Maria Dahvana Headley in Clarkesworld Magazine. The story’s protagonist Louis is kidnapped by the Devil and taken to Hell for the purpose of mounting and preserving Satan’s exceptional ghost collection. Though Louis protests, the Devil calmly explains that he is the best taxidermist in both worlds and won’t be returning to the surface until he finishes. The descriptions of Hell (Satan travels around using pneumatic tubes) and struggles Louis has with the ghosts (“One must pet the ghost and pose it, and one must not disregard the ghost’s opinions, or one will risk ghost venom dribbled from tentacles, as well as luminous toxins, barbs, and boneless slither,”) are both inventive and humorous, but when Louis’s lover Carl arrives from Earth to help him complete his task some truly bizarre twists and turns occur until the unexpected ending, which while not exactly scary, on the contrary, comes at the reader like a joyous benediction.

I participated in two incredible readings at the Gallery at Avalon Island this week.

Gallery At Avalon Island

I was not originally scheduled to read at There Will Be Words, but blackmailed Ryan Rivas into giving me his spot. As per our agreement, I obviously cannot tell you what information I used to blackmail Ryan, so please don’t ask, but I will say that I’m glad I did because I have never before been to a reading that was so consistently spooky, creepy, and unnerving from beginning to end. You can listen to the entire thing right here at The Drunken Odyssey.

Afterwards, we went to Burton’s where we drank multiple pitchers of beer. Amped up by the spirit of Samhain we got into an altercation when some toughs claimed that Valentine’s Day is a better holiday than Halloween. Well, I may have broken my finger, but we ripped out their beards and stomped them into the pavement of Washington Street.

Horror Movie Poetry Night

Later in the week, the illustrious host of the world’s greatest literary podcast (you know the one) gathered us back at Avalon for a horror movie themed poetry reading that brought together some of Orlando’s best prose writers stepping out their comfort zones and demonstrating their versatility alongside some of Orlando’s best poets just so us prose writers could see how the craft is really meant to be done.

Watched Hell Baby, written and directed by Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, the guys who created Reno 911 and were founding members of The State long before that.

Hellbaby

Like other screwball horror spoofs, some of which I actually enjoy, Hell Baby exploits the tropes of scary movies, but transcends the genre by not merely relying on cliches for laughs. Starring the always funny Rob Corddry, this time as the straight-man, and Leslie Bibb as a couple who has recently moved into an old house with a sordid past. Is the house possessed? Or is the wife Vanessa simply carrying the devil’s child? Well, you find out the answers to these questions, but the plot is really less important than the characters’ enthusiasm over po’ boys, their puke-fest at photos of mutilated therapist Dr. Marshall (Michael Ian Black), and the comings and goings of the intruding neighbor F’resnel (Keegan-Michael Key). The movie has as many groans as laughs, but it is, nevertheless, worth throwing in the middle of your Halloween marathon, maybe late at night after everybody’s already had a few drinks or made a couple passes with the pipe.

Jenn and I went to Horror Business Theater’s performance of Children in Heat Vs. The Teenagers From Mars, a musical that tied various Misfits songs together with a science-fiction/horror storyline about a small group of criminal gutter-punks locked in interplanetary battle against a team of extra-terrestrial jocks who are attempting to conquer Earth by impregnating teenage girls with their alien seed and killing everyone else. While the micro-production had no real set to speak of and felt like little more than an excuse to sing Misfits standards, there’s really nothing wrong with that. The costumes were fun, the songs executed fantastically, and the leading man, billed as Rodney Attitude, sounded preternaturally like Glenn Danzig himself. Furthermore, the constant barrage of beer cans and profanity slung at the cast throughout the duration of the performance, created a damned lively atmosphere. It was also the first play I’ve ever been to that had a mosh pit. Jenn and I stood (there was no seating) near the back with some other older members of the audience, but sang along to each number with the same enthusiasm as everyone else. At one point I looked over at the guy next to me, and he was the same creepy, ugly zombie I had seen at Zombietoberfest a couple weeks ago still lurking under that hat and trench coat.

“Getting as much use out of that fancy makeup as you can this Halloween season, huh, man?” I asked him snidely.

As usual a slight nod was his only response. I planned on talking to him after the show to tell him I really did admire his disgusting makeup and find out if I actually knew him under all that face paint, but he slipped out at some point near the end of the performance. I asked the people I was with if any of them knew who he was, but no one else had even noticed him.

Yesterday, to celebrate our sixth anniversary, Jenn and I went to the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. Making multiple loops around the pavilion sampling just about every pescetarian-friendly dish available and sipping numerous, though modestly-sized glasses of wine, beer, and various cocktails, taking breaks in between to ride Spaceship Earth and watch Captain Eo, does not necessarily qualify as a Halloween adventure, but it was a blast all the same.

Captain Eo

After we got home, to get us back in the spirit, we put on another Francis Ford Coppola film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a movie I watch every Halloween, but never get tired of.

Dracula

Brimming over with gothic decadence, its balance of sex and decay perfectly poised, even the intentional anachronisms contribute to a film that feels almost dangerous in its indulgent delights. Gary Oldman remains the greatest Dracula in the history of cinema and leads a fantastic ensemble with one glaring exception but is made up for by including Tom Waits, no less.

Renfield

I know I’ll get hate mail for this, but I think the movie is even better than Bram Stoker’s Victorian classic.

Tune in next week for this year’s exciting final installment of Adventures in Halloweening.

_______

teegenteege Teege Braune (episode 72, episode 75, episode 77, episode 90, episode 102, episode 122) is a writer of literary fiction, horror, essays, and poetry. Recently he has discovered the joys of drinking responsibly. He may or may not be a werewolf.

Episode 113: Sarah Grieve!

17 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Elizabeth Bishop, Honey My Tongue, Palooka, Poetry, Rose Tran, Sarah Grieve, Sherman Alexie

Episode 113 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Sarah Grieve,

Sarah Grieve

plus Rose Tran writes about what Sherman Alexie taught her about humor.

Rose Tran

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Honey my Tongue

Dearest Creature

_______

Episode 113 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 101: Erica Dawson!

01 Sunday Jun 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Big-Eyed Afraid, Dump Amazon, Erica Dawson, Nicole Callihan, Poetry, The Small Blades Hurt

Episode 101 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Erica Dawson,

Erica Dawson

Plus Nicole Callihan reads her memoir essay, “The Week in News.”

Nicole Callihan

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Small Blades Hurt

Big-Eyed Afraid

The Venetian Vespers

Nicole Callihan’s “The Week in News” originally appeared on The Well and Often Press.

Superloop

Nicole Callihan’s poetry collection, Superloop.

NOTES

Jeremy Greenfield, in an article for The Atlantic, has explored the continuing struggle between Amazon.com and the Hachette publishing group.

The Peyton James Freeman Prize for nonfiction essays is now accepting submissions. There is no reading fee, and the contest is being judged by Cheryl Strayed.

Horoscopes penned by my signature character Guy Psycho are now available online at The Newer York‘s site.

On this show, I eulogized Bunny Yeager and Maya Angelou.

_______

Episode 101 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature, is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 82: Susan Lilley!

25 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Anthony Jacobson, Carlton Melton, Irvine Welsh, Jimi Hendrix, Literature of Florida, Marabou Stork Nightmares, Night Windows, Photos of Photos, Poetry, Satellite Beach, Smoke Drip, Susan Lilley, teaching, Trainspotting

Episode 82 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Susan Lilley,

Susan Lilley

Plus Anthony Jacobson writes about how the books of Irvine Welsh changed his life.

Anthony Jacobson

Irvine Welsh is on the left, Tony on the right.

NOTES

Quentin Tarantino vows to shelve his upcoming film project, The Hateful Eight, after the screenplay’s first draft was leaked (according to Deadline).

The Florida Writers’ Conference goes from February 13th-15th, ending with the Florida premiere of Terry Giliam’s new film, written by Pat Rushin, The Zero Theorem. Click here to learn how to register for the conference.

zero theorem

Carlton Melton‘s “Smoke Drip,” from their album Photos of Photos, accompanied Anthony Jacobson’s “Hang-Up at the Gorgie Venture Hostel for Exceptional Young Men.”

Photos Of Photos

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Satellite Beach

Night Windows

Trainspotting

Maribou Stork Nightmares

Episode 82 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 74: Nikki Giovanni!

28 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Carlton Melton, Chasing Utopia, cormac mccarthy, Miami Book Fair International, Nikki Giovanni, Peter Biello, Poetry, The Road

Episode 74 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I interview the legend Nikki Giovanni,

Nikki Giovanni

plus Peter Biello writes about reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Peter Bielo by Oliver Parini

TEXTS DISCUSSED

The Road

 Carlton Melton Country Ways

NOTES

Peter Biello’s essay on The Road featured “Found Children” from Carlton Melton’s Pass it On.

Repeal Day Poster.jpg

The Heaven of Animals, the forthcoming collection from friend-of-the-show David James Poissant, is available for pre-order. Please support the launch of his book, which is wonderful reading.

The Heaven of Animals

Episode 74 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

Episode 63: Tim J. Myers!

25 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Poetry, The Bible

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Dan Lauer, Poetry, Rhyme, Spalding Gray, Swimming to Cambodia, Tim J. Myers, Walt Whitman

Episode 63 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

On this week’s show, I talk to the poet Tim J. Myers,

Tim Myers

Plus Dan Lauer explains the impact Spalding Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia had on him.

Dan Lauer

TEXTS DISCUSSED

Dear Beast Loveliness

Swimming to Cambodia

Impossible Vacation

The Heaven of Animals

NOTES

Walter Pater: “All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music” (From The School of Giogione).

Think about helping Beating Windward Press fund new art for its Doc Voodoo pulp fiction series. The swag is considerable, like this t-shirt.

DocVoodooT

Episode 63 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on iTunes, or right click here to download.

← Older posts

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • The Drunken Odyssey
    • Join 3,115 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • The Drunken Odyssey
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...