The sky shifted its weight towards the horizon
and the masts of sailboats slipped under
the slouch.
I went to honey bloom
& I fed the wings to an imaginary star.
Could you meet me there? on the star?
In this after-life, I wear something other than my body:
a clear dress with all my organs
swimming where you can see.
We scraped away what was awful
and tried to cling to what was left
with our soft teeth and belligerent questions.
That type of dusk in the suburbs —
it hurts your chest, doesn’t it?
You need to walk home now, but it
is so far away. You should have figured
out the bus schedule. Can you let me know
if you see me in the future? Am I okay?
I feel confused about how to handle
the current weather. It comes down like the crux
of a lever. The insides of a pelican shudder
and love letters fall out. We gather them up
and hold them to our lips. They smell like sun
and roses. Remember? this is how beautiful
and simple our insides are? It’s, like, not even
that hard to make up.
published last May at enclave as part of #finalpoem series: http://enclave.entropymag.org/finalpoem-from-michelle-detorie/
Sunday, May 01, 2016
Monday, December 21, 2015
Solstice | 2015
Longest night of the year and I am grateful for these poetry encounters that have occurred since I last posted.
POEMS
REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS
IRL Encounters
The world is so fucked up and weird, but more and more it is easier to see. That gives me hope. and fire. and the love to stand up. Feral hope.
Tuesday, May 05, 2015
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
time
okay I'm going to blog for a minute like it is 2005.
my relationship to time feels very peculiar and this has always been true but somehow always feels new somehow as if it is different suddenly. as if at some point in the past I had a relationship with time that felt pedestrian and knowable. I do feel disappointed with myself for not having more discipline re: slowing down and noticing things, but also fuck that noise because there is plenty of guilt to go around already.
but I also feel full of despair and full of hope simultaneously. saying things directly and plainly takes some warming up, but saying them in poems feels better and closer. but now I'm just going to try and type a bunch of informative sentences that hopefully will not be too boring. because I want to remember things. especially things that make me feel good/less alone/happy.
I am very excited that Juliet Cook, whose poetics and general way of being a poet in the world I've admired for awhile, wrote this glitter-guts review of After-Cave. I met Juliet briefly in Minneapolis, and in person she is very sparkly and sweet.
& I'm really glad that I went to Minneapolis. I pretended I was a bit of plankton and just went where I went. I got to spend some QT with two of my BFFs -- Amanda Ackerman & Jessica Smith. Both Amanda and Jessica have new books out and they are amazing. I also finally got to meet Gillian Devereux IRL, and I immediately found her presence so warm and comforting, so as far as I'm concerned we are bonded for life. I also finally met Amish Trivedi whose dry wit & friendly charm made me feel relaxed and like maybe the world isn't so terrible. Amish also has a new book out and if you don't already have it you should because it is good.
I also did some readings in Minneapolis and that was fun. I still kinda feel like I go into a trancey place when I read, even if I'm nervous, but that nervousness definitely makes my reading faster. so there is time again. because up there reading it feels slow, but Amish took some video and watching it back I can see/hear/feel its speed. In some parts of the book, the speaker is speaking really fast. but in other places, it is more measured with lots of silences and breaks.
The best part of doing readings is meeting other poets and hearing them read. Or hearing people I love read again. Like I love Harold Abramowitz and Teresa Carmody and so it is always good to hear them read. Unfortunately I had to leave the Insert/Wonder/Les Figues reading before I could hear Matt Timmons and Amanda and all the other rad poets at that event read because that Ahsahta reading was the same night. Then at the Ahsahta reading I got to hear Mary Hickman, Susan Tichy, Aaron Apps, Cody-Rose Clevidence, and TC Tolbert read. I got all swoony for all of them. Also wonderful to meet Janet Holmes at last who I will love forever no matter what because I think it is like a biological rule that you imprint on whoever publishes your first book. Plus Janet is wonderful and so smart and spirited.
It was also fun to connect with the folks from Entropy. Janice Lee is a force of nature and has cultivated such a great community through Entropy and Enclave. She gave me an Entropy t-shirt which is black and that is important because that is the best color for collecting dog fur. & I always feel best when I'm wearing some dog fur.
also, I feel like I should say this somewhere; you have to read Jennifer Tamayo. Now. Go read her.
are you reading her yet?
& like the best thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life is that Bhanu called After-Cave the "best feral lyric" of 2014.
& so there have been a lot of things that have made me feel happy lately, but also things are still really fucked up. The deaths of Freddie Gray and Walter Scott -- these lynchings happening in broad daylight by the hands of the state -- confirm that there can really be no unslackening of attention to projects of resistance and intervention. Of all kinds. Sometimes making poems feels like the silliest thing, but other times it feels like coming up for air when everything else is poison.
my relationship to time feels very peculiar and this has always been true but somehow always feels new somehow as if it is different suddenly. as if at some point in the past I had a relationship with time that felt pedestrian and knowable. I do feel disappointed with myself for not having more discipline re: slowing down and noticing things, but also fuck that noise because there is plenty of guilt to go around already.
but I also feel full of despair and full of hope simultaneously. saying things directly and plainly takes some warming up, but saying them in poems feels better and closer. but now I'm just going to try and type a bunch of informative sentences that hopefully will not be too boring. because I want to remember things. especially things that make me feel good/less alone/happy.
I am very excited that Juliet Cook, whose poetics and general way of being a poet in the world I've admired for awhile, wrote this glitter-guts review of After-Cave. I met Juliet briefly in Minneapolis, and in person she is very sparkly and sweet.
& I'm really glad that I went to Minneapolis. I pretended I was a bit of plankton and just went where I went. I got to spend some QT with two of my BFFs -- Amanda Ackerman & Jessica Smith. Both Amanda and Jessica have new books out and they are amazing. I also finally got to meet Gillian Devereux IRL, and I immediately found her presence so warm and comforting, so as far as I'm concerned we are bonded for life. I also finally met Amish Trivedi whose dry wit & friendly charm made me feel relaxed and like maybe the world isn't so terrible. Amish also has a new book out and if you don't already have it you should because it is good.
I also did some readings in Minneapolis and that was fun. I still kinda feel like I go into a trancey place when I read, even if I'm nervous, but that nervousness definitely makes my reading faster. so there is time again. because up there reading it feels slow, but Amish took some video and watching it back I can see/hear/feel its speed. In some parts of the book, the speaker is speaking really fast. but in other places, it is more measured with lots of silences and breaks.
The best part of doing readings is meeting other poets and hearing them read. Or hearing people I love read again. Like I love Harold Abramowitz and Teresa Carmody and so it is always good to hear them read. Unfortunately I had to leave the Insert/Wonder/Les Figues reading before I could hear Matt Timmons and Amanda and all the other rad poets at that event read because that Ahsahta reading was the same night. Then at the Ahsahta reading I got to hear Mary Hickman, Susan Tichy, Aaron Apps, Cody-Rose Clevidence, and TC Tolbert read. I got all swoony for all of them. Also wonderful to meet Janet Holmes at last who I will love forever no matter what because I think it is like a biological rule that you imprint on whoever publishes your first book. Plus Janet is wonderful and so smart and spirited.
 |
| with Cody-Rose Clevidence at Ahsahta table. Photo by Janet Holmes. Have you read Beast Feast yet? so good. |
It was also fun to connect with the folks from Entropy. Janice Lee is a force of nature and has cultivated such a great community through Entropy and Enclave. She gave me an Entropy t-shirt which is black and that is important because that is the best color for collecting dog fur. & I always feel best when I'm wearing some dog fur.
also, I feel like I should say this somewhere; you have to read Jennifer Tamayo. Now. Go read her.
are you reading her yet?
& like the best thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life is that Bhanu called After-Cave the "best feral lyric" of 2014.
 |
| what I'm reading rn |
& so there have been a lot of things that have made me feel happy lately, but also things are still really fucked up. The deaths of Freddie Gray and Walter Scott -- these lynchings happening in broad daylight by the hands of the state -- confirm that there can really be no unslackening of attention to projects of resistance and intervention. Of all kinds. Sometimes making poems feels like the silliest thing, but other times it feels like coming up for air when everything else is poison.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
approaching the equinox
1. Talking about erasure w/ Gillian Devereux
The Women in Visual Poetry: the Bechdel Test
Curated by Jessica Smith; with Michelle Detorie, Gillian Devereux, Kathy Ernst, K. Lorraine Graham and Sheila Murphy & an afterword by Maureen Thorson
2. “The Meat World,” “Solstice,” and “Blink Witch” + “Other” (chapter from Sin in Wilderness) + vintage video
3. Reading at What's New in Poetry @ Real Pants
4. After-Cake
Curated by Jessica Smith; with Michelle Detorie, Gillian Devereux, Kathy Ernst, K. Lorraine Graham and Sheila Murphy & an afterword by Maureen Thorson
2. “The Meat World,” “Solstice,” and “Blink Witch” + “Other” (chapter from Sin in Wilderness) + vintage video
3. Reading at What's New in Poetry @ Real Pants
4. After-Cake
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Another review, New Poem, & After-Cave on December SPD Poetry Bestsellers list!
Rob McLennan wrote a thoughtful review of After-Cave
My poem "The River" (an erasure from the book-length erasure The Sin in Wilderness) is in the wonderful new issue of 17seconds
&
I'm so excited that After-Cave in on the December SPD Poetry Bestsellers list!
also, I'm *so* into this customer review of After-Cave posted on Amazon.
My poem "The River" (an erasure from the book-length erasure The Sin in Wilderness) is in the wonderful new issue of 17seconds
&
I'm so excited that After-Cave in on the December SPD Poetry Bestsellers list!
also, I'm *so* into this customer review of After-Cave posted on Amazon.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Two Reviews and an Interview
TWO new reviews in the latest issue of GALATEA RESURRECTS (#23)JOHN BLOOMBERG-RISSMAN ReviewsAfter-Cave by Michelle Detorie(Ahsahta Press, Boise, ID, 2014)&EILEEN TABIOS EngagesAFTER-CAVE by Michelle Detorie
AFTER CAVE by MICHELLE DETORIE (2)
Thursday, December 04, 2014
Fall Things
1. audio from my reading at Indian Springs School.
I was very inspired by my visit to ISS, and was especially heartened to encounter the vibrant and engaged curriculum developed by poets Jessica Smith and Douglas Ray. Also, Heidi Lynn Staples is awesome. So fun to read with her. Audio of her reading is here.
2. My poem "Pine Needles" is day two at the Delirious Hem Advent calendar.
3. Janice Lee included After-Cave in her list of "Best Books of 2014" at The Volta.
4. Speaking of Janice, I am now the poetry editor at the super-rad Entropy.
5. I did this interview over at Rob's blog.
6. I'll be joining CJ Martin, Julia Drescher, and Kurt Newman for a panel on "Paranoid Histories" at the Bay Area Public School on Saturday, January 10th.
7. I was "featured" at the TX State English department alumni page.
8. The entire first chapter of The Sin in Wilderness is included in the October 2014 issue of MiPOesias (edited by Emma Trelles).
9. I read at the Mission Poetry series in Santa Barbara, the Rhapsodomancy reading series in LA, and participated with Michalle Gould in one of the excellent #90for90 events hosted by DTLAB.
10. More readings TBA!
11. Copies of After-Cave may be purchased online at the Ahsahta Press website, Small Press Distribution, Powell's, & Amazon. If you are in Santa Barbara, you can purchase a copy at Chaucer's, Granada, or DNA design and art. If you are in Los Angeles, you may get one at Skylight Books. If you are in Brooklyn, you may get one at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop.
12. I also have a website now.
2. My poem "Pine Needles" is day two at the Delirious Hem Advent calendar.
3. Janice Lee included After-Cave in her list of "Best Books of 2014" at The Volta.
4. Speaking of Janice, I am now the poetry editor at the super-rad Entropy.
5. I did this interview over at Rob's blog.
6. I'll be joining CJ Martin, Julia Drescher, and Kurt Newman for a panel on "Paranoid Histories" at the Bay Area Public School on Saturday, January 10th.
7. I was "featured" at the TX State English department alumni page.
8. The entire first chapter of The Sin in Wilderness is included in the October 2014 issue of MiPOesias (edited by Emma Trelles).
9. I read at the Mission Poetry series in Santa Barbara, the Rhapsodomancy reading series in LA, and participated with Michalle Gould in one of the excellent #90for90 events hosted by DTLAB.
10. More readings TBA!
11. Copies of After-Cave may be purchased online at the Ahsahta Press website, Small Press Distribution, Powell's, & Amazon. If you are in Santa Barbara, you can purchase a copy at Chaucer's, Granada, or DNA design and art. If you are in Los Angeles, you may get one at Skylight Books. If you are in Brooklyn, you may get one at Berl's Brooklyn Poetry Shop.
12. I also have a website now.
Sunday, November 09, 2014
Sunday, November 02, 2014
After-Cave at SPD
After-Cave germinates in a space that is
desolate and dangerous. It invites the reader to nestle in the narrator’s skin
as a movement towards livability is recorded. The words collect on the
speaker’s dermis, galvanically; groggily we awake in the eyes of a girl,
fifteen, perhaps animal and perhaps human, maybe alive and possibly dead. A
hybrid text, After-Cave contains
poems and fragments, sentences and paragraphs, experiments in sound and syntax,
as well as visual poetry and cartographies. Language moves over the speaker
like weather systems and migratory birds, troubling notions of linear time and
traversing the spaces of human-made and "natural" disaster. More
pressing than hunger is the need to know what “cruelty” means and how one might
live in its absence, a series of torsions that displace us from a surface and
convey us to its underside, which is to say that After-Cave is a book about the impossible. How to make the impossible hospitable, and
thereby, in one’s way, to prepare oneself to meet one’s friends: human, animal,
the always alive and the already-dead. A feminist, feral-poetic odyssey,
purring and covered in mud. The words pace themselves on cave time. The better
to welcome an encounter that changes us as we wish to be changed.
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