GAS Featured Poet and Artist: Michael Rothenberg

photo by Bob Howard

Michael Rothenberg is the co-founder of 100 Thousand Poets for Change (www.100tpc.org), and co-founder of Poets In Need, a non-profit 501(c), assisting poets in crisis.

His most recent books of poetry include Sapodilla (Editions du Cygne-Swan World, Paris, France, 2016), Drawing The Shade (Dos Madres Press, 2016) , Wake Up and Dream (MadHat Press, 2017),The Pillars (Quaranzine Press, 2020) and I Murdered Elvis (Alien Buddha Press, 2020). A bi-lingual edition of Indefinite Detention: A Dog Story was published by Varasek Ediciones, in Madrid, Spain in 2017.  In 2020, Arwiqa Publishers, Cairo, Egypt published an Arabic edition of Indefinite Detention: A Dog Story, trans. by El Habib Louai.

His editorial work includes several volumes in the Penguin Poets series: Overtime by Philip Whalen, As Ever by Joanne Kyger, David’s Copy by David Meltzer, and Way More West by Edward Dorn. Rothenberg is also editor of The Collected Poems of Philip Whalen published by Wesleyan University Press (2007). 

Rothenberg currently lives on Lake Jackson in Tallahassee, Florida where he is Florida State University Libraries Poet in Residence. He frequently performs his poetry in the tradition of Jayne Cortez, Amiri Baraka, Michael McClure, and David Meltzer, with The Ecosound Ensemble, a group created by Rothenberg and composed of some of Tallahassee’s music legends. In 2020 Rothenberg and The Ecosound Ensemble released their first CD on TribalDisorder.com Records, featuring jazz and world music greats Longineu Parsons, Michael Bakan and Brian Hall.

City in Spain

PRO MUSLIM

 

She wants to know if I am pro Muslim

Why not pro Muslim?

Of course, I am pro Muslim!

Hugely pro Muslim

Pro Muslim like my life depends upon it

And while I am at it

I am pro Jew, pro Christian,

pro Buddhist, pro Fish, pro Swan,

pro Rose, pro Daffodil, pro Biotics,

pro Sun, pro Sky, pro Moon,

pro Trout, pro Limpkin

Pro Marmalade, pro Peanut Butter,

pro Volone, pro Cheddar

and pro Poetry!

Have you a got a problem with that?

Panic

OCTOBER BLUE

 

Airboats skim over lily pads

Zebra Longwing butterflies flutter 

in orange lantana

Pine cones bounce off the roof

Spanish moss just hangs there

 

                        Key Lime Pie,

               anecdote to the presidential election

            If you sprinkle toasted coconut on top of it

                        that's not bad either

 

Today, I will hold my nose and vote

One California friend says, 

         "Drink the Kool-Aid! Drink it!”

 

Another California friend tells me,

"Go make Florida blue!"

 

Blue skies

Blue oceans

Blue Herons

Blue Hydrangeas

Blue butterflies

Blue crabs

Blue runners

Blue Stripe Garter Snakes

Bluebells and blue plumbago

Blue!

 

Done!

Black and blue, I voted 

Who would not prefer nature over politics?

I prefer nature 

over politics 

any day.

 

Icicle Hill Totem

See an interview with Michael in GAS:  Poetry, Art and Music 10.

Watch an amazing video by Ian Edward Weir, using poetry by Michael.  Disneyland and The Cops was released as a video from his new CD, Dystopic Relapse from Tribaldisorder.com, the album features Longineu Parsons (trumpet, bass recorder, flugelhorn), Michael Bakan (drums and percussion) and Brian Hall (double bass).

Face and A Lizard