Comments on: Wherefore Art Thou, Poet?

By: Barbara Morin

Barbara Morin — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 00:39:54 +0000

Chris Gilbert, who won the Walt Whitman Award for ACROSS THE MUTUAL LANDSCAPE, died on July 5, 2007. Although many of his poems appeared in anthologies and journals subsequent to his 1983 book, his second manuscript was not published prior to his death.

By: unreliable narrator

unreliable narrator — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:15:27 +0000

And what happened to the once-prolific Jon Davis? His prose poems are some of the finest I’ve ever read…no book in a long time.

By: NKOTB

NKOTB — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:41:14 +0000

I believe Denis Johnson has a new poem in the latest issue of McSweeney’s; one new, one old. Can’t be sure, but I think so. A good one.

By: Pete Miller

Pete Miller — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:25:42 +0000

While he’s remained in the limelight as a novelist, Denis Johnson hasn’t published any new poems for a very long time (as far as I know), much to my disappointment.

By: Oliver.delapaz@wwu.edu

Oliver.delapaz@wwu.edu — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 02:59:10 +0000

I’m glad you mentioned Laura Jensen. I love BAD BOATS, but I’m also fond of MEMORY. She’s been seen at a few Pacific Northwest poetry events here and there, but I don’t think she’s written a book since MEMORY in 1982.
I’m also wondering about Christopher Gilbert who wrote ACROSS THE MUTUAL LANDSCAPE, winner of the 1983 Walt Whitman Award. Has he written another book since?

By: Barbara Jane

Barbara Jane — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:47:43 +0000

I recently saw Jeff Tagami read in San Francisco, for an International Hotel event. He read from OCTOBER LIGHT, and I don’t know that he’s written much more poetry recently. As far as I know, he’s been an educator in Watsonville, CA for many years in the community college system. Watsonville is one of the central locales along the Pajaro River in OCTOBER LIGHT.

By: Francisco Aragon

Francisco Aragon — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 20:54:36 +0000

In 1987, Kearny Street Workshop Press published a beautiful book that included black and white photographs called OCTOBER LIGHT. The author was Jeff Tagami, who I had the pleasure of hearing read in Berkeley when I was a college student there. It was around the time I was reading a lot of Gary Soto and and I think Tagami’s work, which also focused on the California’s Central Valley, I believe, shared a kinship with Soto’s. I liked Tagami’s work so much that I asked him to contribute work to the Berkeley Poetry Review, which he generously did. We published it and little did I know–to the best of my knowledge–that he wouldn’t publish another book. In my conversations with various Filipino/a poets over the years, including Barbara Jane Reyes more recently, the sense I get is that OCTOBER LIGHT is a revered book—not unlike, I would venture to say, that AT THE RAINBOW is by a younger generation of Chicano/Latino poets.
Does anyone have any idea what became of Jeff Tagami?