October 4, 2014

Tim Shaner & Kyle Schlesinger


Sunday, November 16
2:00 pm

please note earlier starting time

Glyph Café and Art Space
804 NW Couch (North Park Blocks)
503-719-5481

$5 suggested donation


Tim Shaner's first book of poems, Picture X, is recently out from Airlie Press. He has a PhD from SUNY Buffalo's Poetics program; while in Buffalo, he co-curated the Rust Talks series. He was an editor of Wig, a magazine on writing work, and from 2008-14 he curated the A-New reading series in Eugene, Oregon, where he lives and teaches writing at Lane Community College.

Kyle Schlesinger is the author of Parts of Speech (Chax Press, 2014), The Do How (with James Yeary; Great Fainting Spells, 2014), and other works. He is the proprietor of Cuneiform Press and an Associate Professor of Publishing at University of Houston-Victoria.


from "Shelldwellers"

How do you stop a word from popping up like a cookie? You
Start out with invention and end up on convention, which is a lower
Score. What's a song without a melody? you ask. A song that makes
Melody of the cracks. Got that? It's like you're nowhere more present

Precisely as you're shifting. Jobs should stay put, though. I want one
That's tedious but short. A job I can dream on, so I can get back to 
Work. This scenery stinks of economics. Dish out a few particulars and 
You've got a full meal (the kind that makes you famished in a short hour), or

Can I go now? You want extra sauce just so it tastes like anything, or
A debriefing system. Here's a list and a pencil for marking off, a residual form 
Of labor, shoveled under like so much, if I may, raw sewage. Brings us back
To the same spot of time, or back to the future. Is the brain a taser? Can 
Spring cleaning cleanse? Coffee and the news do not make a mise-
En-scène . What is found there? Hit the space bar to get a clue

Tim Shaner


OFF THE HOOK
   for CW

You wouldn't believe it
If I told you
That I was where
You thought you were
When we heard the news
Come over the wire
Seems like yesterday
Only yesterday
Seems like an eternity
And tomorrow's
Just around the corner
And every movement

There's a feeling
Of routine and possibility
That keeps me on my toes
Okay, since you asked
A little about me
Let's see, guilty pleasures?
For starters:
I love a new toothbrush
(especially orange)
And black t-shirts
Medium, 3-packs w/
A pocket on the breast

But I'm not picky
I mean I am
But not really
After you get to know me
But enough about me
How about you?
Yeah, me too...
Oh totally...
Wouldn't be caught dead, etc.
Yeah, I see what you...
Those pricks...
Say, now there's an idea!

Phone's ringing off the hook
Outside it's dark and it's
Already been noon
For an hour, maybe two
Where does the time go?
And it's still dark outside
It looks like rain, and boy,
We could sure use it!
And I know you're coming
Over on your bike
In an hour or two
What will we do?

I'm a sincere person
(really mean that)
But I can't take life
Too seriously
And that sums it up
Pretty good
I think, I think
I take the phone
Off the hook
Look up at the sky
Close my eyes --
Now it's all coming back to me

Kyle Schlesinger