Dan Raphael & Rodney Koeneke

[Note the change in venue!]

Spare Room presents

Dan Raphael
Rodney Koeneke

Sunday, November 18th, 7:30 pm

Concordia Coffee House
2909 NE Alberta

$5.00 suggested donation

---

Dan Raphael is known for the linguistic richness of his poetry and his
energetic performance of those words. Breath Test, his 16th book, was
published this May (nine muses books.); other books include Showing
Light a Good Time and When a Flying City Falls. Dan's poems have
appeared in such publications as Central Park, Caliban, UrVox, Shattered
Wig, and Tinfish, while current works appear in Otoliths, Skidrow
Penthouse, Broken Word II, 31, and Refined Savage. His monthly poetry
series at a downtown bookstore is in its 13th year; he previously edited
26 Books and NRG Magazine.

Rodney Koeneke is the author of the poetry collections Musee Mechanique
(BlazeVOX, 2006) and Rouge State (Pavement Saw, 2003). His new
manuscript is called Etruria. Hobbies include flarf and neo-benshi, both
of which will figure in this reading, where parts of a silent classic
film will be screened to the poet's script. Rodney feeds almost daily
content to his poetry blog, http://www.modampo.blogspot.com, and has
flash-reviewed 100 poetry books for his latest time sink, GoodReads.
Rodney lives in Portland with his wife, Lesley Poirier, and their
curly-headed son.

---

Rain Stomps down my Face like a Juice with Legs --

face-time i cant face the place walls shedding like tarantulas
while fundamentalists of the silly get their beaks in a satellite
twisting alleged memories to hitchhike on the back of the world
i thicken with delight with positive alignment of weather, attitude and altitude --
a 6 point compass with holographic predictions
rolling dice for every person in the world every second, voice talking bout
low pressure data fronts, information stagnation, record highs
til the dawn of two long muscular legs, hair like well-ironed raven wings

changing shape with the wind speed & dow jones to follow the mitochondria
back to 7 mothers changing the world with 7-fngered godlings,
as if 1 continent internalized in each of us looking from the inside out
our impermissible coast lines warped from birth by cloth and design.
like when i get somewhere ive never been that seems familiar,
as each coin remembers its mold -- the shape moms canal assumed --
such narrow connections between such large worlds
as if each notch in the coastline is a soul’s cycle, notches in the
lungs bark:

each april i wake up chewing til im solid again
like a glacier so deep in the back of my head i hear it echoing
where the forest hasn’t yet been cleared for memory

-- Dan Raphael (from Breath Test)

---

nocturne

Across the news, the moon
to feed the hungry?
or trace silver cantos
in dark collegiate forecourts.
Its deeds are so minimal
by map it's still night
rich and lustrous and poor enough
for America's urban and suburban areas to shine into,
a satellite for motto
phone number of the inventor of the lyric
possibly Ambrel's party photo pics
a rite of custom brings us each together
to prefer or be judged by non-applause.

-- Rodney Koeneke