Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . A friend and fellow poet, Miriam Stanley, attended Sunday's march against antisemitism in NYC. Afterwards, she posted on Facebook what she saw of some marchers' harassment of a man holding a sign calling Trump "racist in the White House." According to Miriam, "People were screaming at him. They cursed him. They physically invaded his space trying to scare him." When she tried to protect him, she was cursed at and physically harassed too. One woman said, "why don't you join the Moslems?" On the march, a man joined Miriam in protecting the anti-Trump protester, but other marchers continued their harassment. Miriam: "Some asked why he was holding the sign. He explained about Charlottesville and Trump saying there were good people on "both sides". The man explained how the shooter of the Pittsburg shul was a white supremacist. I also said the same things to the m...

Read on Sunday night with Ocean Vuong at JujoMukti Tea Lounge in the East Village, at a reading series curated by David Lawton. We read a poem each in turns, and the poems played off each other wonderfully. An electrifying moment happened when Ocean read his self-portrait as Jeffrey Dahmer, and then I read my self-portrait after Frida Kahlo. The body broken and eaten becomes the body put back together and giving nourishment. A number of friends came for the reading, Linda Lerner, Miriam Stanley, Jackie Sheeler, and Brant Lyon. GH was there too. Rachael Briggs also came, and read two witty poems written during NaPoWriMo. She, GH and I had dinner afterwards at the Polish diner, Odessa. I sold two books at the reading and traded with Ocean.

from George Spencer, the indefatigable host and producer of the Poetry Thin Air Cable Show: Brooklyn Poets & Others; Hopefully we are up and going with B-CAT. We will be on at 5:30 PM every Wednesday thanks to the hard work of Iris Berman, our Brooklyn Producer and Doer of Magic in organizing this. This Wednesday is Jee Leong Koh and Miriam Stanley. They're on 35, 42, 68 and 83. If you want to watch it via the internet stream go to www.brooklynx.org/bcat/ aboutcat.asp or 1. DOWNLOAD THE VLC PLAYER http://vlc-media-player.en. softonic.com / 2. THEN GO TO BCAT online http://www.briconline.org/ bcat/ 3. Now that you're on BCAT, LAUNCH BCAT 2 PLAYER 4. If it asks you to choose an application, check the VLC you just downloaded 5. The VLC player will pop up but the show won't play until you press the forward arrow. Stay Tuned George

A message from George Spencer, who hosts the Poetry Thin Air Cable Show. I'm on it on July 22. Poets, Friends of Poetry Thin Air, Tune in to our Poetry Thin Air Cable Show early Wednesday 12:30am to 1:00am (eastern time) for great interviews with George Spencer and guest poets, plus sharp video work by Mitch Corber. This July 22, we feature Miriam Stanley and Jee Leong Koh. The show will be aired on MNN/Manhattan Neighborhood Network's Channel 67. Note: if you live outside Manhattan, or do but can't get MNN Ch 67, get the live internet stream of the show by following the instructions below. PC USERS (2 steps)...... 1. Download Windows Media Player here http://www.windowsmedia.com/download 2. Click on your channel 67 stream, here http://www.mnn.org/sites/mnn.org/files/streams/ch67.asx MAC USERS (4 steps)...... 1. Download Windows Media Player here http://www.windowsmedia.com/download 2. Download Flip4Mac Player for QuickTime viewing http://www.microsoft.com/windows/wind...

Get Over It Poetry by Miriam Stanley 84 pages. Rogue Scholars Press. 2009. ISBN: 0-977-1550-6-4 ISBN13: 978-0-977-1550-6-4 The subjects in Miriam Stanley’s second book of poems are depressing—mental illness, divorce, man’s inhumanity to man—but their effect is not. These poems, burning with anger, hurt and despair, give a light that does not dazzle nor flicker, but stares steadily at the world that meets its eyes. The book is organized according to three broad topics. The first group of poems describes Stanley’s work with mentally ill patients. The second deals with familial relationships, including a grandmother’s Alzheimer’s, and a marital break-up. In the final group of poems, the poet extends her vision to take in historical and current political conflicts, in particular, the Israeli-Palestinian situation in the Middle East. What unites these disparate strands of experience is the perspective of a Jewish woman, a troubled feminist; what lenses these different scenes into a cohesive...