bananas steeped in turpentine…

I’m not sure whether perfume reviewers are aware how fascinating their language is.

Maître Parfumeur et Gantier’s latest perfume, Ambre Doré, opens with the aromas of vibrant oud, saffron-scented leather and “green” (geranium?) styrax. Ambre Doré’s “character” is tougher than most amber perfumes, which is fine by me (I like my ambers rough and ‘scratchy’…if they’re too smooth and sleek I’m bored). As Ambre Doré’s opening burns off there’s a musky barnyard moment or two (we’re talking a dry-manure-in-the-distance aroma) followed by the scent of bananas steeped in turpentine. In Ambre Doré’s base, residual oud mixes with the more classic amber components: sandalwood, myrrh and vanillic elements (nothing too sweet); the oud dominates the amber, just, but oud and amber are in excellent imbalance, providing a welcome tweak that prevents an amber-as-usual fragrance.

More at Now Smell This.

steel stone age knife

“The implement is formed from one petal-shaped piece of steel, reminiscent of flint cutting utensils from the Stone Age.” More here.

I’m sure there’s a poem in there somewhere.

Susanna’s story

*snip*

poetry book sales survey: results

I’ve closed the informal, unscientific survey on poetry book sales after running it for a couple of days. I was pleased to get a total of 74 responses to its three questions, which were:
 
1. How big was the initial print run for your book or chapbook? (possible range presented was 50 to 2,000 copies. In hindsight: should have included a ‘print-on-demand’ option, and possibly a ‘more than 2,000′ option.)
 
2. How many print copies of your book or chapbook were sold? (range same as above, also included a ‘don’t know’ option)
 
3. Was your book or chapbook published in any other formats? (options were PDF download, website, e-book, audio or ‘no, only print’)
 
Click on graphics below to see larger versions.

Size of print run: a topic of interest to me since writing this post way back when. The numbers from the survey pretty much confirm the range discussed in that post and exclude the multi-thousand runs of real best-seller poets. According to this survey, nearly 80% of initial runs are less than 500 copies; close to 50% are less than 200 copies; and 35% are less than 100 copies. Our world is indeed a small one…
 

 
Number of copies sold: 74% of respondents reported selling less than 500 copies of their book; about 50% reported sales of less than 200 copies; and 27% less than 100 copies. These numbers are skewed, however, by the ‘don’t know’ category, which represented 15% of responses. In reality, each is probably a few percentage points higher.
 

 
Publication formats: This was the real surprise, although perhaps it should not have been. Almost 90% of respondents said their book had been published in print only. Five respondents (7%) reported PDF downloads as well; four respondents report e-book publication too; while two said their poems were published on a website, and one said it had also been published as audio.

I’ve gone on at length about the advantages of multi-format publishing in previous posts, and will do so again, now that this survey is done. Watch this space…
 

poetry book sales – please take this quick 3-question survey!

Am returning to questions raised in this post on poetry print runs, and still thinking about poetry publication generally. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of information out there on poetry book sale numbers and I thought a survey (anonymous, of course – no need for names of poets or publishers) might be helpful. It will literally take you 10 seconds, and as soon as you are done, you get to see the survey results as they are at the time you take the survey. Click here to take the survey (it’s at SurveyMonkey), and thanks in advance!

zombie fragrances

Trying to imagine who would buy these.

Zombie for Him ~ “Think forest floor. Zombie for Him is a combination of dried leaves, mushrooms, mildew, moss and earth.”

Zombie for Her ~ “A slightly lighter version of the Men’s fragrance with a touch of Dregs from the bottom of the wine barrel for that feminine touch.”

new videopoem – ‘Humming Bird’ by D.H. Lawrence

I get such a kick out of people putting their creations out there for free non-commercial use by others. This happened thanks to generous Vimeo user, Equiloud, who has a clips channel offering his amazing video creations for free download and Sound Cloud user Flute Ninja doing the same. The reading itself was already up at Pizzicati of Hosanna.

More videopoems on You Tube / Vimeo.

how is the faithful city become an harlot!

it was full of judgment
righteousness lodged in it
but now –
murderers!

the whole head is sick
and the whole heart faint
there is no soundness in it
but wounds and bruises
and putrifying sores

neither the burnt offerings of rams
nor the fat of fed beasts shall save it
neither shall the blood of bullocks

in vain shall the city promise
to beat its swords into plowshares
its spears into pruning hooks

instead of sweet smell, there shall be stink
instead of a girdle, a rent
instead of well-set hair, baldness

and burning
instead of beauty

(Sorry, couldn’t resist… Taken from Isaiah 1-3)

‘the odoriferous products of the garden and the forest’

Let me recommend The Art of Perfumery And Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants by George William Septimus Piesse (published 1857, free download at Project Gutenberg). Some delightful excerpts:

From the Preface: By universal consent, the physical faculties of man have been divided into five senses,—seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling. It is of matter pertaining to the faculty of Smelling that this book mainly treats. Of the five senses, that of smelling is the least valued, and, as a consequence, is the least tutored; but we must not conclude from this, our own act, that it is of insignificant importance to our welfare and happiness.

From the table of contents for Section I, Introduction & History: Perfumes in use from the Earliest Periods—Origin lost in the Depth of its Antiquity—Possibly derived from Religious Observances—Incense or Frankincense burned in Honor of the Divinities—Early Christians put to Death for refusing to offer Incense to Idols—Use of perfumes by the Greeks and Romans—Pliny and Seneca observe that some of the luxurious People scent themselves Three Times a Day—Use of Incense in the Romish Church—Scriptural Authority for the use of Perfume—Composition of the Holy Perfume—The Prophet’s Simile—St. Ephræm’s Will—Fragrant Tapers—Constantine provides fragrant Oil to burn at the Altars—Frangipanni—Trade in the East in Perfume Drugs—The Art of Perfumery of little Distinction in England—Solly’s admirable Remarks on Trade Secrets—British Horticulturists neglect to collect the Fragrance of the Flowers they cultivate—The South of France the principal Seat of the Art—England noted for Lavender—Some Plants yield more than one Perfume—Odor of Plants owing to a peculiar Principle known as Essential Oil or Otto.

Of ambergris: This substance is found in the sea, floating near the islands of Sumatra, Molucca, and Madagascar; also on the coasts of America, Brazil, China, Japan, and the Coromandel. The western coast of Ireland is often found to yield large pieces of this substance. The shores of the counties of Sligo, Mayo, Kerry, and the isles of Arran, are the principal places where it has been found.

Of civet: In its pure state, civet has, to nearly all persons, a most disgusting odor; but when diluted to an infinitesimal portion, its perfume is agreeable. It is difficult to ascertain the reason why the same substance, modified only by the quantity of matter presented to the nose, should produce an opposite effect on the olfactory nerve; but such is the case with nearly all odorous bodies, especially with ottos, which, if smelled at, are far from nice, and in some cases, positively nasty—such as otto of neroli, otto of thyme, otto of patchouly; but if diluted with a thousand times its volume of oil, spirit, &c., then their fragrance is delightful.

And so on..

a poem is like a perfume because…

In this post, Sandy Longhorn writes about writing a poem for an anthology based on perfumes. Reading her post reminded me of the fascinating perfume blog, Now Smell This, and the following extract from the blog’s Perfume FAQ, which I’ve blogged about before:

What are top notes, middle notes and base notes?

Top notes provide the first scent impression of a fragrance once it has been applied to the skin. They are usually lighter, more volatile aromas that evaporate readily. Their scent normally lingers for between five minutes and half an hour.

Middle notes, sometimes referred to as “heart notes”, make up the body of the blend. They may be evident from the start, but will usually take ten minutes to half an hour to fully develop on the skin. These are the notes that classify the fragrance family – green, floral, aldehydic, chypre, oriental, fougère or tobacco/leather.

Base notes are those with the greatest molecular weight. They last the longest, and are important as fixatives – they help slow down the evaporation rates of the lighter notes, giving the fragrance holding power. Common base notes include oakmoss, patchouli, woods, musk and vanilla.

And so, you imagine, the perfumer constructs the perfume, thinking top notes, fleeting notes – enticement, bewitchment; middle notes, middle notes - heart and body; base notes, long notes - grounding and remembrance… And you think that although the poet may not envision the construction of a poem in the same way, still, when a poem really works, we perceive that it has base notes, middle notes, and top notes, too.

poetry doesn’t sell because it isn’t performed well enough

Interesting reading from the folks at Commercial Poetry:

… poetry sales figures make it abundantly clear that no one buys poetry without performance of that poem, of that poet’s work or of poetry in general. Aside from the paltry numbers involved, the model of publishing a tome and then doing readings for a few dozen friends and fellow poets fails for two reasons:

- it must be a performance, not a reading; and,
- it is ass-backwards: live, film or theatrical production comes before any expectation of profitable text publication.

This was true even in poetry’s heyday. Shakespeare’s plays were not collected and published until well after he retired. How many copies would his scripts have sold without production? Just as you don’t buy MP3s of songs/artists you’ve never heard, interest in individual poets usually began with seeing their work performed, not necessarily by the poet*. If enough of that writer’s work caught your fancy you might buy the book or catch the author on tour. Contrast that to poetry’s status quo: to no one’s surprise, people who have never encountered a contemporary poem being performed competently are not enthused about reading any particular poem or poetry in general. How many Superbowl tickets are purchased by those who have never seen a football game?

I especially love the footnote corresponding to the asterisk above:

Footnote:
* The notion that anyone other than the author would want to perform a contemporary poem seems utterly foreign to today’s poets. As long as this is the case there is no hope for poetry’s reanimation.

Cross-posting at Voice Alpha (of course).

‘A poem is a state of perfection at which a poet has arrived by whatever means’

Love this, and not just because I’m an Yvor Winters fan:

A poem is a state of perfection at which a poet has arrived by whatever means. It is a stasis in a world of flux and indecision, a permanent gateway to waking oblivion, which is the only infinity and only rest. It has no responsibilities except to itself and its own perfection – neither to the man who may come to it with imperfect understanding nor to the mood from which it may originally have sprung.

from the Volta Blog, quoting a foreword by Yvor Winters.

‘as scars attach and ride the skin’

Yes. Strong. Bare-bones simple. Open-hearted. Wide-hearted. Highly recommended. I liked all of this collection, particularly a series at the end called a meditation on ten oxherding pictures. The images she refers to are here (in the far left column, the ones by Kuoan Shiyuan, 101 explication here).

I love how she interpreted these pictures, how her work is so quiet and understated, yet so forceful.

‘Home’ – Toni Morrison

Sadly, not the experience I had hoped for in this post. Here are two diametrically opposed online reviews of Toni Morrison’s Home: one is headlined ‘Home’: Toni Morrison’s Taut, Triumphant New Novel, and the other, Toni Morrison’s ‘Home’ finds her fumbling, and their titles say it all.

Although not fully as negative as the latter, I’m afraid my assessment is much closer to the latter than to the former.

The first half – the build-up to the central ‘rescue’ of the story – struck me as much richer, more seamless and more emotionally weighty, than the second half. I felt the second half – the denouement and the start of the healing process – was sketchier, thinner, and somewhat self-consciously constructed. If the whole were a quilt, in the second half you would be able to see the seams and traces of the design pencil, I thought. Nothing, nothing like the punch of Beloved and Song of Solomon, in my view.

Many memorable moments, though, including a wonderful description of a group of rural women who rally around to help with the healing – awesome ladies!!

‘the impertinence of being frightened for another soul’

This terrific quote from The Land of Spices by Kate O’Brien was just featured by Dawn Potter:

The years … instructed her, as she studied her father’s candid, intelligent face in the sunny parlour of Place des Ormes, that a soul should not take upon itself the impertinence of being frightened for another soul; that God is alone with each creature.

It comes on top of the Toni Morrison quote from A Mercy that Kristin Berkey-Abbott highlighted yesterday:

…to be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.

Sentiments that for me complement and complete each other, and come to me at just exactly the right moment – thank-you!

the novices practice forgiveness

*snip*

of caution in reading

Thanks to Kristin Berkey-Abott for this post on Toni Morrison. Kristin is right: Morrison’s work really is “difficult” on multiple levels and I, for one, have tended to shy away from her novels after being relatively traumatized by Beloved and Song of Solomon in times past. Now, am happy to find that Morrison has a healthy Kindle page and have just downloaded Home. Deep breath.

‘sistering the moon’ and ‘bars of rage’

I’m writing about these two collections together (Maya Angelou’s Complete Collected Poems and Lucille Clifton’s Mercy), although they couldn’t be more different from each other.

This is really the first time I’ve read work from either author in any concentrated way, beyond simply skimming the odd piece found in anthologies and in random places.

The Clifton gets a big thumbs up from me. Excellent tradecraft, and her spare, concentrated and understated style showcases the substance of her poems beautifully. This collection is divided into four parts: last words and stories are the first two and september song and the message from The Ones the last two. Unfortunately, the last two did not work so well for me – one is a series of poems about September 11 and its immediate aftermath, and the other seems to be a series of other-worldly communications (received by a psychic?) commenting on the human condition. I felt the themes in these two sections were too large for the poems, leading the latter to attempt too much and end up with too much abstraction and a loss of connection with the reader (or at least with this reader). On the other hand, the first two sections, which dealt with families, individuals, specific individual scenarios and events, packed some serious poetic punch and everyone should read them! One beautiful example online: dying.

As for Angelou’s poems, they did not work at all well on the page for me. The tradecraft was less noteworthy and I found her work lacked subtlety – was indeed often fairly raw, heavy-handed and sometimes even clunky. It’s easy to see where her considerable reputation comes from, though, if you do an internet search for her reciting her own work (see The Mask and Still I Rise, for example). She has a great, super-sensitive relationship with her words, a terrific voice and amazing delivery, which make her poems-as-voice much more formidable than her poems-as-text (as we might put it at Voice Alpha.)

Beyond those technical differences between the two, however (and this is why I decided to write about them together), is the big difference between the emotional places from which I felt each was writing. Angelou, it seems to me, writes from a tight, angry, bitter and sometimes rather triumphalist place. Her world feels divided into the good and the bad and in it, she robustly defends the side of the good and faces down the bad. ‘Committed’ poetry, in other words. Which has of course been important and necessary in every age, and always will be.

But, right now, other things, not these, resonate for me in poetry. Like Clifton’s more subtle, wider, and more ‘humane’ approach, with its signature underpinning of universal compassion. I like that in Clifton. Must go and find some more of her work…

‘a small irritating purple thing’

Well, call me a Philistine but I found Meadowlands by Louise Gluck disappointing. I liked the concept – weaving the story and characters of The Odyssey into the story of a deteriorated contemporary marriage – but never felt sucked in by the treatment.

The language is quiet and prose-y, and the whole has much the air of a meditation. Plenty of interesting insights and well-observed commentary, but it was the sort of stuff I found myself reading and appreciating with my head – not much about the language that hooked me emotionally or spiritually. There were some pieces I did enjoy though, including The Parable of the Gift (which I can’t find online) and Purple Bathing Suit.

Zen scandal

Sad on every level. Zen practitioner discussion here.