April 4, 2007
Corinne Fitzpatrick & Geneva Chao
Wednesday, April 4th
7:30 pm
Concordia Coffee House
2909 NE Alberta
www.concordiacoffeehouse.com
$5 suggested donation
Corrine Fitzpatrick is the author of the chapbook On Melody Dispatch (Goodbye Better, 2007) and the forthcoming Zamboagueña (sona books, 2007). Other poems appear in or on The Brooklyn Rail, EOAGH, Cock Now and sonaweb. She is the Program Assistant and Friday Late Night Series Coordinator for the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in NYC and she lives in Brooklyn.
Geneva Chao is the former editor of flux, and has published work in Boxkite, Can We Have Our Ball Back?, Word for Word, Diagram, and others. She has contributed translations to Roof Books' anthology of the late Christophe Tarkos's work, Ma Langue est Poétique and to the DoubleChange collective's Paris reading series. She has a chapbook forthcoming from Taxt Press in Oakland.
On Melody Dispatch (excerpt)O, cigarette
I smoke you
from bo blow
perch
this side of
the actionfail to tender consequence
fail to fight
the fight
monetary might
sooth rectify
my rumpan ass you are
our precedent— Corinne Fitzpatrick
april in parisa frame within which the limitations of promiscuity devolve. an unnumbered classroom outside of which you find the book you lost in eighth grade. une invitation á la valse. a host of mythological figures who await you with towels and lozenges. the libraries of perpetuity. the crookedness of sunlit mornings. the thought that the sun will not hurt you in this place. the innocence of discrete porcelain measurements. a proposition based upon the idea that life is as it is in novels. a proposition based upon the novel. an endearment of forwardness. the hope for a better tomorrow. the shockingness of the idea of a tomorrow. an accumulation of greed augmented by habit. a velvety white paper en dépit de tout ça. the dulcet tones of stereolab on the rue du faubourg st-antoine. the efforts of a full stop. the best w.c. this side of tokyo. a fascination with the fastidious and with the vertiginous sandwich. a voluptuousness of wheelbarrows full of orange fruit. a reconfiguration of the fork as ornament. a reamplification of the potential for violence. an embarassment of red blazers and conventions of deference. the recurrence of clémentines as a variation on a theme by nietzsche. the willingness to spell 'nietzsche' in foreign alphabets. the disorder of spring showers. the disapparition of nationality. a warning against tooth decay. the insistance of a man who speaks in tongues. the insistence on the significance of tongues. an importunate assortment of tourists forming a chateau-fort around the bathroom. a vase of sangria with two straws. the inevitability of coffee. an association of hairstyle with national origin. a disavowal of national origin. the effusion of unrestrained gesture. the tightening of a circle. a tightening of knuckles. the insistence on kissing as many cheeks as possible. the omission of the 'r.' a threat of horreurs variés en sirop by south asian spies. the concept of the spy novel refigured to include linen heists and clandestine appliances. a man with a face like a newborn ostrich. a man with a face like the love of your life. a disappointment of proustian proportions. a disgust with all notions of proportion. an embarassment of resemblance. a velvety midnight aux éclats de noisettes. the proposal that we mix words and pictures. the proposal that we mix cells and fronts. the proposal that we cross-pollinate. an abnegation of proposals. the tendency to remain untouched by human hands. a standing offer of contact sports. the formation of an organisation to make all of this possible. a frame within which the limitations of possibility dissolve.
— Geneva Chao