Bateau founder/editor James Grinwis managing editor Ashley Schaffer contributing editors Lynette Baker Kristin Bock Carrie Comer Corwin Ericson Elizabeth Hughey Daniel Mahoney Dave Roderick Karen Skolfield Andrew Varnon
BATEAU is published biannually. Submissions read year round. We consider poetry, flash fiction, playlets, mini creative reviews, comics/story art, and illustration. Manual and electronic submissions accepted - though we prefer electronic. Subscriptions
$10 single issue, individual $18 one year subscription, individual $28 one year subscription, institutions postage is additional - we ship worldwide
All inquiries: info@bateaupress.org Bateau Press POB 1584 Northampton, MA 01061 www.bateaupress.org Š 2010 Bateau Press All Rights Reserved Published in the United States by Bateau Press. Typeset in Arno Pro. The Bateau Press office is run on the renewable energies of hydro and wind power. BATEAU is printed on Mohawk Options, 100% PC White which is made from100% postconsumer waste fiber and is manufactured using windpower. BATEAU is printed with soy inks. Covers printed with soy ink using letterpress technology from a photopolymer plate. The cover paper is 100% recycled. Cover design by Shelter Bookworks. www.shelterbookworks.com Letterpress printing by Horton Tank Graphics. www.hortontankgraphics.com ISSN 1942-0188
Note from the Editors
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Tony Aarts The Mountain
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Eben A. Kling Conspiring Beneath the Godhead
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James Haug Chapter Two: Return of the Cliff People Eightball The Watchman at 4AM I Dont’ Mind
11 12 13 14
Margaret Bashaar Lightning Flowers
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Eben A. Kling Grim Mask
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Rob Carney Lost & Found
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Joanna Kurowska Near It
18 20
Guy Beining nuzzle 26. nuzzle 27.
22 23
L. K. Leu Her His
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Jacinta Kaplan Green Wine
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Peter Scacco Untitled
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27 28 29
Rae Gouirand Ice Plant Loose Glass Beach
30 31 32 33 34
Norman Lock Alphabet of the Moon Alphabet of Infusoria Alphabet of Revolt Alphabet of Desire (4) Alphabet of Birds (4)
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Eben A. Kling Cilium Structure
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38 39 40 41 42 43
Julie Lein Family Liturgy Recited by my Father and Grandparents on Road Trips (For Real) George Looney A Constellation to Easy to Ignore Our Sentence, it Seems, Release Patrick Donnelly & Stephen D. Miller On the Essence of The Medicine King Chapter On the Essence of the Metaphor “The Body Is Like the Moon in the Water” from the Ten Metaphors of the Yuima-Kyo “my ignorant heart!” On the Essence of the Passage “The Fire Rages On But Does Not Burn Forever”
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Eben A. Kling Fish Mask
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Sarah Magin The Cake Waster
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Daybert Linares Chasing Planes
Octavio Quintanilla Sonnet Holding a Knife Sonnet Left Behind in a Hotel Room
50 51
Peter Scacco Untitled
52
Kathleen McGookey Love Hurts
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Dan Rosenberg Mother Tongue What’s There
54 55
Amy Schrader Leaving Texas Sonnet #3 Our Search for Sasquatch (II)
56 57
Paul K. Tunis MĂźnchausen Children
58
Brennen Wysong Her Deep Heart
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Michael Vizsolyi [but the roads are bad my dear he said &] [did i ever tell you that when you] [we will never say anything once i]
61 62 63
Eben A. Kling Two No. 1
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Miranda Beeson Rock Paper Scissors
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Robert McNally Blimps
66
Werner Low 67 Too Late Too Early Peter Scacco 68 Untitled Joshua Ware 69 Indeterminate Line Catherine Ennis Sears 71 Endo Anne Pierson Wiese 73 The Green Light 74 The Path Seth Landman 75 Whales in Culture 76 contributors’ notes
Note from the editors Let’s get the hell out of here! Stop taking stock. Stop tinkering. Throw open the windows. Let the wind in. Go stand with it. Break out into a run. Feel the Spring! We here at Bateau are ready to go. Anywhere. Putting together this Volume 3, Issue 2, we started thinking about places and traveling and all the details. We decided to stop packing. We decided to go as we are. Transportation is everything. “Travel lit” is all lit. Geography is shelter. Weather is breath. Enjoy the ride.
—The Editors
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Rob Carney Lost & Found Aside from the politics, Spokane is all right. If I ever miss the ocean, I can drive there. But I don’t really miss it, or at least not often. Priest Lake is only a two-hour drive, and our cabin and ski boat are fine. I built the boat dock myself. I don’t think my dad was ever prouder. What I’m saying is it’s nice. It’s a helluva lot better than a lot of cabins. You should’ve seen this one I had up in Kodiak when I was working for Fish and Game. First job out of college: salary plus housing. Housing turned out to be this worn out A-frame not much bigger than a teepee. No foundation under it—you can’t do that on permafrost—so they had it propped up on concrete blocks, and any clothes I wasn’t wearing I’d spread on the floor, try to keep the wind from coming through the cracks. Had a stove like a broken-necked dragon. And an outhouse, of course—winters are too cold for plumbing. So compared to that, spending summers on the ships was good. That, and that’s where all the action is . . . Once—and this is a true story—we even picked up a grizzly. I’m serious. It was swimming out there in the Sound about a half a mile from shore. I don’t know why. Not everything’s got an explanation. Anyway, it took four of us reaching out with gaff hooks, but we got him, and he was too exhausted to be pissed. Plus, you know, the silvers were running, so we had tons aboard to feed him. Still, no one wants a grizzly on their boat, not for long. Now, Valdez was close, but they weren’t going to give up a full day’s fishing, so that meant coaxing him into my Zodiac and having me pilot him ashore . . . Sitting in a raft with a grizzly, that’s something. Even with one who’s got a reason to like you. . . I think about that bear sometimes, wonder what he’s up to . . . My friend, Jim, he kind of reminds me of him; that’s probably part of it: Jim doesn’t know what he’s searching for either . . . Falling in love again and having a son, that’s what I think would help him. My own turned five in May, and I know he helps me.
Carney
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Rae Gouirand Ice Plant All the transparence of the old world: grown green & zeroed by saline so glowing: for winter we are common as breath & tough as air lost in space: felt at edge as edge: so filled we cannot: but become the frost become the lines we become: at the coast succulent: the bluff on an empty day: a day a day spread: so spread there is nothing beyond but more line & the air to feel it: mass the same as space: the same as freezing as zero as red tips sparkling: too bright a belief holds the ground and watches dispassionate as we show: & take the cold spread in cold sand: we are neon when we come
Gouirand
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Dan Rosenberg Mother Tongue Her voice strikes the sky’s white comfort. Mice burrow through her bones. The flag of our country trips an alarm. Threads in the dirty laundry separate. My father leans against his horse, the flank, closes his eyes, breathes through his teeth. And the water rises, approaching his eyebrows, it wants something, maybe to see. It is getting too bright outside. She is surrounded by candles with black wicks. The roaches are afraid; their legs flutter in the air, slowly, slowly. The boats are on fire. She says my balloons are full of poison. W here is my blue towel? She says the telephone lines are noosing. W here is my collection of blue threads? Her fingers, thinning their way toward me. The curtains are bursting. My throat is emptying. She steps past me, I see her toes, I see her tail. My ears are pierced, my blood is silver, reaching out. The grass sharpens against itself.
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Rosenberg
contributors Tony Aarts is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of North CarolinaGreensboro. His poems have previously appeared in Fou and Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety. He lives and works in Minneapolis, MN. Margaret Bashaar’s chapbook, Barefoot and Listening, was published by Tilt Press in 2009. Her work has appeared in the journals Caketrain, The Pedestal Magazine, and Arsenic Lobster, and in the anthology Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her husband, son, and too many typewriters. Miranda Beeson’s poems appear all over, including The Southampton Review, Poetry After 9/11: An Anthology of New York Poets, Barrow Street, The Malahat Review, and Long Island Sounds Anthologies. A collection of poems, High Water Line is forthcoming in 2010. She lives in Greenport, Long Island and New York City. www.mirandabeeson.com In 2009, Guy Beining’s chapbook, The Centipede that Dances with Scrub Brushes, was issued by Unarmed Press. Forthcoming this winter are World Pig 1-34 via Alternating Current Press and Language Quantum 1-17 from Avantacular Press. Recently his work was included in the Color Matters Art Show at South Shore Art Center in Cohasset, MA. Rob Carney is the author of two books of poems: Weather Report (Somondoco Press, 2006) and Boasts, Toasts, and Ghosts (Pinyon Press, 2003). His work has appeared in Mid-American Review, Quarterly West, and many other journals, as well as Flash Fiction Forward (W.W. Norton, 2006). He lives in Salt Lake City. Patrick Donnelly, whose “sleeves were wet with tears” while visiting Sanjusangendo temple in Kyoto, is author of The Charge (Ausable Press, 2003, since 2009 part of Copper Canyon Press) and Nocturnes of the Brothel of Ruin, forthcoming from Four Way Books. He is an Associate Editor of the literary journal Poetry International. Rae Gouirand’s poems have appeared most recently in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Columbia, The Kenyon Review, Seneca Review, and the anthology Best New Poets 2009. A recent fellow at the Santa Fe Art Institute and the recipient of a 2009 award from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation for outstanding work by emerging poets, she lives in Davis, California, where she is busy starting One By One Press. James Haug’s most recent collections are Legend of the Recent Past (National Poetry Review Press, 2009) and A Plan of How to Catch Amanda (Factory Hollow, 2007). In 2010, Tarpaulin Sky Press will publish his chapbook, Scratch.
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Jacinta Kaplan has been deeply affected by a workshop this past summer on “duende” with Connie Voisine and many trips to Israel. She is now working with Ceclia Woloch who continues to mentor her writing. Many thanks to them both. “Green Wine” was previously published by Confrontations. Eben A. Kling is a native of New Haven, Connecticut. After recently graduating from Montserrat College of Art in the spring of 2009 with a BFA in Printmaking, he has shown at the Front Room Gallery (Cleveland,OH), Izzy’s Raw Art Gallery (Detroit, MI), The South Shore Art Center (Cohasset, MA), The Limner Gallery (Hudson, NY), The Boston University Art Gallery (Boston, MA) and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk, CT). Joanna Kurowska is a bilingual poet. Her two books of poetry appeared in Poland. She also published in journals, including Kultura (Paris). Her English poems have appeared in Christianity and Literature, Concise Delight, International Poetry Review, Oklahoma Review, and Penwood Review; and are forthcoming in New York Quarterly and Vineyard. Seth Landman lives in Denver, CO. His chapbook, Parker’s Band, is recently out from Laminated Cats, and he has poems appearing or forthcoming in Skein, Glitterpony, Notnostrums, Model Homes, the Boston Review, Jubilat, and other places. Julie Lein is completing her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Utah, where she also works as Poetry Co-Editor of Quarterly West. Work has appeared or is forthcoming in Colorado Review, The Laurel Review, Phoebe, and elsewhere. L. K. Leu is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry at the University of Arizona. Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Flint Hills Review, Fourteen Hills, and Columbia Poetry Review. And her chapbook, FIELDNOTES, will be available from Dancing Girl Press in 2010. Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Daybert Linares published his first story at the age of eighteen. In the two years that have followed, his works have appeared or are forthcoming in Skive, Silenced Press, Daily Flash, Cantaraville, The Stray Branch, and The Acentos Review. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida. Norman Lock’s recent novels are The King of Sweden and Shadowplay. He received the 1979 Aga Kahn Prize, given by The Paris Review, and fellowships in prose from the New Jersey and the Pennsylvania Councils on the Arts. He has also written extensively for stage and radio. More at normanlock.com.
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George Looney’s newest book is the novella Hymn of Ash (2008). Open Between Us, his fourth book of poetry, is due in 2010. He is chair of the BFA in Creative Writing Program at Penn State Erie, editor-in-chief of the international literary journal Lake Effect, translation editor of Mid-American Review, and co-director of the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival. Werner Low’s short stories have appeared in twenty different literary magazines including The Journal (of Ohio State University), Lily Literary Review, The Literary Review (of Trinity College, Hartford), The Pedestal Magazine, Slow Trains, The Square Table, Taj Mahal Review, and Void Magazine. A novel, The Prophet of Essaouira, is currently looking for a publisher. Sarah Elaine Magin is currently working towards her Ph.D. in English Literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Kathleen McGookey earned degrees from Hope College and Western Michigan University, and has taught at those institutions as well as at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Her poems, prose poems, and translations have appeared in over forty journals including Boston Review, Epoch, Field, The Laurel Review, The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Seneca Review, and Quarterly West. Her book is Whatever Shines and is published by White Pine Press. Her website is www.kathleenmcgookey.com Robert Aquinas McNally is the author or coauthor of nine books of nonfiction and the author of three poetry chapbooks. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals as well, and twice been nominated for the Pushcart prize. An Ohio native, he lives in Northern California. Stephen D. Miller is assistant professor of Japanese language and literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is editor of Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature (Gay Sunshine Press, 1996). He is currently working on a study of the Buddhist poetry in the Japanese imperial poetry anthologies. Octavio Quintanilla’s poems are forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Concho River Review, Georgetown Review, Eclipse, Fourth River, The Chaffey Review, SLAB, Sketch: Literary & Design Journal, and elsewhere. He is ABD at the University of North Texas. Dan Rosenberg’s chapbook, A Thread of Hands, is forthcoming from Tilt Press. His poems have appeared recently or are forthcoming in several journals, including Subtropics, Conduit, Thermos, and Third Coast. He teaches at Augustana College and lives in Iowa City with Alicia Rebecca Myers and their cat, Karaoke.
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A native of Cleveland, Ohio and graduate of Fordham University in New York, Peter L. Scacco has lived in Paris, Tokyo, Brussels and cities throughout the USA. Since 1995 Mr. Scacco has resided in Austin, Texas, surrounded by his books and his bonsai. His art can be seen at www.scaccowoodcuts.com. Amy Schrader earned her MFA from the University of Washington. Her poems have most recently appeared or are forthcoming in Snow Monkey, Fairy Tale Review, and Filter. She lives in Seattle with her husband and giant goldfish, not necessarily in that order. Cat Ennis Sears is the fiction editor at Redivider and a second-year student in the MFA program in fiction at Emerson College, where she also teaches freshman composition. Her work has appeared in the Chicago Quarterly Review and received honorable mention in a Glimmer Train short fiction contest. Paul K. Tunis recently received his MFA from Sarah Lawrence and is currently working on an illustrated novel titled Bumblebee Physics. His comics, writing and disgruntlings can be found on “Death by Orphans: A Blog for Velociraptor Enthusiasts.” He likes to google noodling. M.A. Vizsolyi lives in New York City, where he teaches ice skating in Central Park everyday. He has work appearing or forthcoming in 6x6, Lungfull!, and Margie, among others. Joshua Ware lives in Lincoln, NE where he is pursuing his PhD in poetry and poetics. He is the co-author of I,NE: Iterations of the Junco (Small Fires Press), as well as the author of A Series of Ad Hoc Permutations, or Ruby Love Songs (Scantily Clad Press) and the forthcoming Excavations (Further Adventures Press, 2009). His work has appeared or will appear in many journals, such as American Letters & Commentary, EOAGH, Laurel Review, New American Writing, and Quarterly West Anne Pierson Wiese’s Floating City (Louisiana State University Press, 2007), won the Academy of American Poets 2006 Walt Whitman Award. Other awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship and a “Discovery”/The Nation Poetry Prize. Recent work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Hudson Review, and Raritan. Brennen Wysong’s poems are forthcoming in The Corduroy Mtn., Word For/Word, and New CollAge Magazine. He’s published poems in 42opus, Copper Nickel, GlitterPony, Denver Quarterly, Fourteen Hills, Xantippe, and other journals. He lives in New York City with his wife, Debra, and infant son, Calder Birch.
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