Rodrigo Toscano

                                        
                                         
is new to me, and I likely would not be bothering
with this post if I hadn't noticed ". . . Toscano    
is major. . . ." in a comment by Kent Johnson.  I
have been doing some searches, and found that he   
has an epc.buffalo.edu page.  Early this afternoon
I finished reading the Jacket 28 interview of him by 
Leonard Schwartz.  Because of the keenness of the   
questions, the appropriateness of the responses--
which include parts of poems by Toscano, and the  
sonic and intellectual flair of his poem-making, this  
interview is the best entry for anyone who is not
familiar with this NYC-based arbiter and author.   
Here is a direct link to the interview.
                                                
On his epc page are numerous links.              
                                                        
And here is a link to a post by Mark Scroggins.
                                                           
Do not know if this is a general consensus, but        
Toscano is a post-Langpo author according to at  
least one person.  From what I have read so far  
the performance quality in his poems is enticing.
Dialogue is a core device for him, and since I   
have used dialogue in several works, it is easy  
for me to relate to and enjoy that aspect of his
writing.                                          
                                                   
                                                     
                                                   
                                              
                                                    
                                                   
bl00339

Mikhail Bakhtin two links

           
                                               
                                           
heteroglossia
-                                                              
[ ... ]
                                                                         
                                                        
Humans are always naming things, 
if for no other reason than
the need to remember them.                  
                                              
Circa 1985 I wrote a poem which speaks to this.
It is entitled "A Cardinal of Consciousness".           
 
                                        
                                                   
                                              
bl00338                              
                                             

quik thoughts

         
                                         
                                           
Not that I haven't been ironic
both in my words and in my life
but I've grown tired of irony                     
                                     
and not that I haven't used allusions
but I have grown/ tired of allusions
and of being elusive and of illusions      
                                             
and not that I'm never contentious    
but I have grwon tired of          
contention and of being content i o u s.                 
                                            
-                                         
                                             
[ Note:  At K H is Stephen Burt Elliptical ]
                           
                                               
                                              
                                        
                                          
bl00337   

With winds gusting

                                         
                                       
through Sturdy Bush at noon, a butterfly that looked 
like a Monarch but seemed too small and so may have   
been a Viceroy was moving from one dandelion patch
to another.  Also caught a glimpse of a bee on this
now cloudy warm day.       
                                                      
-                                                   
                                                    
Have been following Bank of America this week.  A
slew of controversy surrounds its solvency and in  
particular its acquistion of Merrill Lynch.  BAC  
stock dropped to $7 briefly--I think it was early  
on Tuesday--but mostly has been between $8 and $9.  
                                                   
-                                                      
                                                    
Ron Silliman placed a challenging post up yesterday
which I may link to so I don't have to keep visiting  
it.  Henry Gould's comments are becoming more 
cogent, a fact that pleases me since I agree with     
most of his conclusions.                                          
                                                       
-                                                     
                                                    
Speaking of conclusions, Coversations With Myself   
has entered the contest for the title of my collected   
works.  Two others are Idiothead and Your Mother's
Dead, and She's Glad.                                  
                                                       
-                                                     
                                                      
PM 3:30 -- Mark Wallace's wallacethinksagain.blogspot.com  
is another site I've been visiting a lot of late.  Many 
of the discussions re American Hybrid radiate from there
and Mark nearly always states his thoughts in interesting
ways.                                                      
                                                          
-                                                        
                                                       
Reminder: If you don't have a link to a site I mention,
check to see if I do.                                 
                                                          
                                                       
                                                        
                                                     
bl00336       

Sam Hamill on Kenneth Rexroth

                                       
                                           
in Jacket 23.  Would prefer to provide a link    
to the article, but Jacket has a rather strict   
copyright policy.  So here's the URL:           
                                             
jacketmagazine.com/23/rex-hamill.html                
                                                 
One fact in Hamill's article has me wondering  
how many of the most significant poets had    
near perfect recall.                            
                                             
                                                
                                              
                                              
                                             
                                                
bl00335

Recently

                                                 
                                                   
a pair of warblers or finches                  
along with some zipping around  
swallows have been near Sturdy   
Bush.  Swallows do nest in the  
passageways, but I would like   
to know what kind of bird the  
other two are.  They may have   
been here past years too in a  
different location.                  
                                         
Recently I've been trying to eat a   
can of three bean salad.  It hasn't
been going well.  Too stringy and   
the kidney bean skins get stuck in  
my throat and other places, and the   
vinegar, well--it is vinegar.  Will be
eating the last of it tomorrow.   
                                       
Recently, though I haven't written any down yet,
I've been noting lines I like in the anthology of  
poems I got from the library, and have been  
attempting to ascertain why I like them.  Have
renewed the book and will probably do a post 
on some of Emily Dickinson's lines first.               
                                                   
Recently I've been trying to summon the energy  
to get back to posting the rest of Brian's Brain.
It's a large project that once was online at               
Tripod.  Six posts of it are done.  Am not sure
how many more posts will be needed, but the   
completed ones are in size 1 Verdana.  Those   
remaining, therefore, will also be in size 1
Verdana.                                                
                                                     
Recently in KH I posted the covers of 5 books,
each by a different author, along with 1 poem  
from each book.  A hazy theme connects the 5   
poems, so I didn't comment on them.  The five  
authors are William Michaelian, 
                    Tom Montag,                        
                       David Lunde,                      
                          Charles Behlen,              
and                       Gary B. Fitzgerald.             
                                                     
                                                    
                                                   
                                         
bl00334 
   

Susan Boyle Britain's Got Talent

            
                                    
                                     
If you don't already know,                 
do this search:                    
                                  
susan boyle britains got talent                     
                                                
-                                   
                                    
She is a singer.  Her story is              
both sad and amazing.                     
                                    
"I Dreamed a Dream" is the song she sings.     
                                                
In the Seattle Intelligencer is   
a post by Steven J. Patrick about life    
dreams, written because of                     
Susan Boyle's performance.                     
I came upon it as the result of this search:

susan boyle american idol                      
                                                
                                              
                                              
                                              
There are videos of her singing the song. *                                                 
                                                
bl00333               
                        

Easter

          
                                     
                                       
storm approaching; therefore, may this day,    
as best fits your persuasions, be holy.         
                                               
                                             
                                                 
bl00332

Literary canon information

           
                                        
                                     
I support.                              
It is a short introduction to a specific English course
from a faculty URL at Goucher College, Baltimore, MD.   
                                                       
I was going to post my views, but decided to search    
literary canon.  Glad I did.  What their introduction
covers/ are my views since I believe literary canons
from the strictest to the loosest are implicit in any   
anthology of literature and in any literary manifesto,
neither of which is likely to cease being while, for  
whatever reasons, humans interact with the artifacts   
they create, artifacts which someone contends are     
literary.                                               
                                                       
There is in all this the question of texts (in canons   
birthed and nurtured by institutions) devolving into    
ventriloquisms fit only for the scholars who autopsy 
them.  To me this question has merit, but only in a    
narrow political sense.  Yes, texts can be enhanced  
or demeaned by scholarly investigations; but, if I   
come upon an unfamiliar text, and interact with it,
my opinions of it at that time will be informed by   
the degree of my knowledge and persuasions at that  
time; and even if I were to seek further knowledge,
I would not have to be persuaded by it.  After its   
author is no longer able to revise it, a text is a  
text, and no amount of dissectioning or perverting
can alter the original text unless that original is  
mutilated or destroyed.                               
                                                       
                                                      
                                                     
                                                      
bl00331  

Stupid search engines

          
                                         
                                       
have angered me more than long enough; therefore,
I have devised a test.  I don't know what their 
problems are, but they consistently return results
that assign to me (Brian Salchert) statements     
made by someone else.  From now on/ whenever I   
comment (even on my own blogs), my comment will   
begin and end with the date and my initials.  If   
a comment doesn't begin and/or end with this info,
it is not my comment.  Admittedly, my test may fail.
If it does, I will end it.                 
                                                   
                                                   
                                                 
bl00330 

passed new rare events

           
                                    
                                       
Photo of Sturdy Bush          
as it was in March.               
                       | blossoms: click to enlarge
                                 
                                    
                                    
                                       
                                         
This month        
light-green leaves    
have taken over.                          
                              
This afternoon a rare event    
that was a daily one when I                  
was in Gainesville, Florida:  
a Mockingbird.  The female   
Cardinal was just ahead of   
it.  Apparently she'd been   
in its territory/ which is   
not on this property.  The/  
the Mockingbird was quiet  
though, even when it flew in  
to one of Sturdy Bush's    
branches, and then out to   
the recently cut grass, and   
then back to its somewhere 
out of sight.                 
                              
The things I see// through my   
bedroom's cracked window.   
                                
White/ wing bars!  Holy stars!                      
                                    
                                    
                                    
                                       
                                         
bl00329  

blog notes

           
                                         
                                       
Posted to all the blogs today.                
                                     
The post at Kyph Herm isn't complete but         
it's visible since I didn't leave it in draft.   
                                                
God bless my insanity.                       
                                                    
                                             
                                                 
                                                      
                                              
bl00328

change notes

           
                                        
                                          
Even if it does sound corny, and maybe because it 
does I will be staying with Baj's Lodges; but you can  
still use Rhodingeedaddee if you prefer it.                       
                                                           
Will be difficult, but plan to post money-related items
on Money Rho and not on the node blog.                      
                                                           
Joseph Hutchison's anthology post has rekindled my          
desire to build a list of contemporary American poets 
who though not unknown are either not known in blogland    
or are seen as inadequate.  Desire.  There are others    
who are doing what I want to do in the places they know, 
and organizations with rosters into the thousands; and 
I am physically disadvantaged.  So why should I even try?  
Besides, maybe those I list don't want to be so listed, 
or don't want to be listed by me.  Hype.                                  
                                                        
                                                          
bl00327