Poetry Matters: The Introduction to The Best American Poetry 2014

The Best American Poetry 2014, Guest Editor, Terrance Hayes, Series Editor David Lehman

One of my semi-weekly rituals is to roam around the Barnes & Nobel at the corner of E St. and 12 St. NW. Typically, I'll head right to the newsstand and grab the latest issue of Monocle before heading upstairs to peruse best sellers, hit business books and the extensive games section. Recently, I find myself lingering in front of the shelves that make up the "Poetry" section of the bookstore. About six weeks ago The Best American Poetry 2013 catches my eye and I purchase it on a whim. I thoroughly enjoy the process of reading these poems and when I find myself standing in front of that same "Poetry" shelf last week, I'm delighted to see that the 2014 edition of the anthology is already out.

I'm further delighted to see that this year's edition is guest edited by MacArthur Fellow Terrance Hayes. I first encounter Mr. Hayes at the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series where he joins a host of accomplished poets to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Poet Lore. He reads How To Be Drawn To Trouble and it's obvious to see to why he's a genius grant recipient.

Mr. Hayes' introduction to The Best American Poetry 2014 is unlike any introduction to the "Best American" anything I've ever read. The set up for the introduction is that Mr. Hayes sends a draft of the introduction to Dr. Charles Kinbote who is stunned to receive a 182-page treatise. In lieu of publishing the unwieldy introduction, Dr. Kinbote suggests that Mr. Hayes include the transcript of a wine soaked interview the two of them have.

The interview is great but after reading it I'm itching to get my hands of the full introduction. I scour the internet but I can't find any trace of the document. Finally, having no other option, I reach out directly to Mr. Hayes.

Here's what I write:

Will the 182 page version of the introduction ever be made available to the reading public?

And here's Mr. Hayes' incredible response:

Thanks for the inquiry, Aaron. The BAP 2014 Intro interview is really just me and a character from Vladimir Nabokov's novel, Pale Fire. There's no other introduction. I was imagining how long an intro would need to be to cover all I had to say about contemporary poetry. About as long as the anthology, I figure.

Best

Terrance

Note to self, before sending a note to a genius, do your homework. And a note to everyone else, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The Best American Poetry 2014.

Entertainment Matters: Poetry Matters: On Missing the 12:05 - Original

For many years the following quote has been pinned above my desk:

Let us remember…that in the end we go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both. - Christian Wiman, Editor, Poetry

Recently, I've picked up to the tools of poetry to build my own houses in places I want to more fully inhabit. Typically these poems are written for an audience of one, usually the muse who inspired the song. I will offer them here in the pages of Entertainment Matters and I hope you find a resting place within each verse.

On Missing the 12:05

My watch says that I am on time

But as I reach the platform 

I hear the train doors chime

Chaste calm turns to storm

When we lock eyes 

An oblivious crew

Leaves with

You

Music Matters: Stars: "No One is Lost"

Stars - No One is Lost
Add to your "New Music" Spotify Playlist: "No One is Lost"

When pressed to answer the OK Cupid question, "What is your favorite band?" I usually say Stars, the indie-ish rock-ish band out of Toronto and other points Canadian. I first encountered Stars in December 2006 at the 9:30 Club. They opened up for Death Cab for Cutie and I was immediately stuck by how free they seemed on stage. They carried an air of grown-up playfulness that made them an absolute thrill to watch. When co-lead Torquil Campbell pulled out a trumpet and started wailing on it, I was hooked.

Two years later, the band headlined 9:30 while touring their anti-war opus "In Our Bedroom After the War."  This was just a few weeks before the 2008 presidential election and the feeling in the room was electric. Anticipation reverberated through the room and the band radiated flower power (and actual flowers which the they threw out into the audience) and the corresponding hopefulness. At one point during the show I was so overwhelmed that tears began streaming down my face. To this day, it was one of the most powerful shows I've ever been to.

On a fairly consistant candence, the band drops a new record and their latest come out on Tuesday. In classic Stars fashion, "No One is Lost," the title track, is an anthem for depressed extroverted outcasts who, no doubt, gleefully complie with the song's stark refrain: "Put your hands up, 'cause everybody dies/ put your hands up 'casue everybody dies (No on is lost)." Far from nihilistly hopeless, this refrain is driven home with a dance groove that permits this listener to revel in the glorious now.

For a selection of my favorite Stars tracks, check out my "Essential Stars" playlist of Spotifiy.  

Movie Matters: Intersteller Trailer

It's movie season!

Newspaper Matters: The New York Review of Books Classifieds

Craigslist.org has replaced the newspaper classifieds as the go to place to seek and find private transactions but The New York Review of Books (NYRB) still provides their readers a forum to connect with their fellow readers. Here's a sample of what you'll find if you stumble upon the NYRB personals: 

VERY PRETTY, smart and accomplished and much more too: gracious, warm and slender with lots of heart, quick laugh and easygoing adventurous streak. E-Commerce CEO reinvented as public speaker, mentor to young entrepreneurs. Passion for travel (Paris/Provence, Italy, NY theatre, hiking Yosemite), music, learning, art, Giants especially when they’re winning, Pilates. Healthy dash of irreverence, considered very easy on the eyes. Featured in HBS case studies but never takes herself too seriously. As likely to be flying to London for meetings as stumbling through tango class here in San Francisco or walking along the Bay. Seeks accomplished, nice-looking, kind and thoughtful man 56-70—curious mind, enthusiastic about life. (415) 819-4324.Camille7711@yahoo.com. (Note: This particular ad is no longer on the live classifieds page)

Right off the bat you'll notice a few things that you'll rarely find on Craigslist, i.e,, loads and loads of personally identifiable information. Not only is there a phone number and personal email address, there are details that any decent googler could use to find out exactly who this person is, what she looks like and where she lives. How many e-commerce CEOs turned public-speakers are there that are featured in the Harvard Business Review, spell theater with an "re," are VERY PRETTY and live in San Francisco? Maybe three (extra points to the reader who finds out)? The point here is that this woman has an extremely high-level of confidence (robust personal security detail?) that she will not be trolled by low-lifes.

Secondly, this women paid between $4.60 to $5.85 per word (an email address is two words) or between $510.30 and $649.35 to run this ad. To put that in perspective, Match.com is $203.88 a year and eHarmony Premium is about $500 a year. So there must be a perception that one ad in NYRB is far more effective than being matched in 23 personality dimensions.

Finally, she's rather cliched about the sort of man she's looking for, except for the age range. There is no doubt that this sort of message, delivered in a print publication as erudite as NYRB, should mostly reach men who are squarely in this demographic. The question is, do these men still flip to the back pages of newspapers to find love or are they swiping right on Tinder?

Music Matters: Introducting C O M M A N D

C O M M A N D - Watermouth, Unique Bias Records
Download Now - "I Wonder"

I usually post this sort of thing on my Tumblr, My Family Album, because it pertains to the work of one my talented family members, in this case, my ultra cool younger brother, Joesph Mosby. But not every Entertainment Matters' reader has been introduced to that site and that's no reason to deprive you of this heart-breaking work of staggering genius.

You may remember Joesph as Jacobi Red or as a founding member of the Electives. Through these personae Joesph has transformed from a precocious teenager to a self-assured young man who's tasted the bitter pill of heartbreak and the tedious grid of higher education. In his new skin, C O M M A N D, he displays -- just that-- on every level in his debut album, Watermouth. From the bold scintillating album art to the genre-bending undulations of each track, one can detect a mastery that is shocking given the fact that he's only 22. In "I Wonder," the orchestration is a hyppnotic mix of live instruments and electonica elements that creates a sort of dreamscape that maps perfectly to lyrical exploration a relationship that can't survive a geographical separation. C O M M A N D infuses elements of rap, dream pop, electronica, classic R & B in songs of love, loss and remembrance that will leave you salivating for more. 

Music Matters: The William and Mary Choir

The back rubs.

Movie Matters: Aladdin: More Othello than Hamlet

"This is no ordinary lamp," our narrator exclaims, "It once changed the course of a young man's life. A young man, who, like this lamp, was more than what he seemed. A diamond in the rough."

This opening suggests that this is a story about Aladdin. There are many great arguments for that particular reading of the film. After all, we meet Aladdin, we follow him through his trials, tribulations, reconciliations and we revel in his joy and wish fulfillment. But there are parts of the Aladdin character that are not fully formed. The crux of his character arc is that he starts off as a thief with a heart of gold. Then, through magic, he becomes a prince. During the second act of the film, he struggles with reconciling his new found royalty with his humble past. While this is somewhat compelling, Aladdin's realization that he should just be the great guy that he's always been, is a somewhat hollow epiphany.

What makes Aladdin such a great film is the Jafar story. Jafar is always the smartest guy in the room. He's ambitious and cunning. He is much more than your average cartoon villain painted merely to accentuate the purity of the hero.

The Sultanate of Agrabah is in shambles. Orphans go hungry and often resort to crime in order to live, yet the Sultan spends his days playing with toys. The future of the kingdom rests in the hands of the man who can win the heart of a spoiled princess who feels trapped in her palace fantasy land and doesn't like princes who've come calling. In context, Jafar's choice to take the throne, by means suited to his understanding of the dark arts, seems somewhat rational. He is a man of great intellect and motivation. He defiantly has the stuff of an effective leader. And as the clip above shows, he is wittier and more ruthless than his foes.

We can quibble over the cruelty Jafar inflicts on the Sultan and Jasmain, but suffice to say, and the end of the movie proves, given a similar option, the "good guys" treat him the same way (as Queen Cersei Lannister would say, "In the game of thrones, you either win or you die."). Where Jafar does fail, is in his pride that he, alone, should weld ultimate power. Blind to any danger in gaining more, he is goaded by Aladdin to wish to become a genie. He ascends to that zenith of power but fails to realize a simple and universal truth said rather eloquently by Jesus in the gospel of Mark, "If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all." 

Poetry Matters: On the Occasion of the 125th Anniversary of Poet Lore

O.B. Hardison Poetry Series 
Poet Lore Celebrates 125 Years of Literary Discovery 
September 15, 2014 
Folger Elizabethan Theatre

On the Occasion of the 125th Anniversary of Poet Lore

Our pens rest quietly atop shuddered Moleskins

As Jody Bolz encounters kindred spirits in ancient volumes 

And Ethelbert Miller extols the nourishment of editing

And Traci Brimhall conjures a forgotten heteronym

And Terrance Hayes dances with James Brown

And Cornelius Eady guards a soggy couch

And Linda Pastan charts a safe path towards death

I should be taking notes 

But the syncopation and the staccato 

Of the music floating from the podium

Eludes notation 

There, a quotation I want to remember

There, a stanza I want to ponder

There, an anecdote I want to re-render

But like a hummingbird hovering at petal's edge 

Each phrase arrests movement

And the surfeited fairy escapes uncaptured