Catfish McDaris

AND HER EYES MADE LOVE TO HIM

They ran barefoot through the yucca,
prickly pear, goat head stickers, and
mesquite like a monster was after them

Sniper told her he loved her, his heart
was destroyed, limping away, she shot
him the finger, he wondered if it was

His intelligence quotient or hers, she
was pissed, earlier they’d been shopping
for new panties for her and an umbrella

A six year old boy was with his attractive
mother, they walked by a well endowed
mannequin in an aquatic avocado bikini

He jerked the bottom of the suit to the
floor, Sniper cracked up laughing and
blurted out, “Way to go, little man.”

He grabbed the half-dressed dummy and
sprinted from the store, a fat security
guard gave chase, Valentina and Sniper

Lost their sandals, he circled back for
their El Camino, the cops were waiting
with steel bracelets, he hoped it would

Be for a short visit and his lady would
have pity and go his bail, and let him
pay for and keep his newest amiga.


Catfish reads "And Her Eyes Made Love to Him":



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Catfish confesses: "I was inspired to write the poem from a boy stripping the bikini bottom off a lady mannequin. The southwest slant is from my New Mexican heritage. I drew the image and I was ready for a NYC street reading with Jimmy (“the ghost of Hendrix”) Spencer near Times Square."

CATFISH MCDARIS is from Albuquerque and Milwaukee. He was just nominated for the Pulitzer and his seventeenth Pushcart. He’s working in a dangerous neighborhood selling wigs in Milwaukee.

Catfish McDaris

LEFT HOOK TONY

For Tony Szolwinski -- gone, but never forgotten.

Tony was 93, he used to box
all through World War 2, he
punched & fought, fists & guns

As he got older, he liked wood
working, building bird houses,
carving fishing lures & ducks

He taught me to find mushrooms,
how to use certain tools, & how
to throw a punch & dodge one

Tony called me & said he had a
problem, he needed my help with,
I came immediately, there were
2 knocked out cold black guys

Bleeding on his kitchen floor, he
said he’d been working in his shop
in the basement & these 2 bastards
were eating his oxtail soup

They’d told Tony, to hit the road
before they whipped his ass,
Tony hit them with a deluge

He wanted me to help drag them
outside & clean up their blood,
before his wife got home from bingo

I called the cops, Lorraine, Tony's
wife got home from church & took
one look & hit the ceiling, I tried to

Slip out & make a clean get away,
that's when I was told I was a bad
influence, the cops looked at Tony
& I & we all cracked up laughing.


Steve Peacock reads "Left Hook Tony":



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Catfish confesses: "Tony Szolwinski was my neighbor for 15 years. He was a tough old bird, that died in March 2014. Tony had three sons that all hated each other, each of them had names that started with R. I asked him what if he would've had a fourth son. Tony said he'd name him Rumplestiltskin. I miss my friend."

CATFISH MCDARIS has been published widely, in The Louisiana Review, George Mason University Press, and New Coin from Rhodes University in South Africa. He's recently been translated into French, Polish, Swedish, Arabic, Bengali, Tagalog, and Esperanto. His twenty-five years of published material is in the Special Archives Collection at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Sunday Special

• Guest editor Annabelle Edwards has chosen "Girls' Night Out" by Kayla Wheeler as the June 23 Poem of the Week.
• An interview with me , conducted by Five-Two alum Catfish McDaris, has been posted to the lit site Ppigpenn.

Midnight Lane Gallery's Midnight on the Stroll Poetry Contest

Midnight Lane Gallery's Midnight on the Stroll poetry contest is seeking poetry inspired by the theme of street life, the site's digital art, or its music. I'm pleased to have had work accepted with Five-Two alums Doug Draime, Catfish McDaris, and other favorite poets.

As a bonus, the site artist, "Yours Truly" (No, not I), used a frame from one of my poetry videos to create a very Spenser-ish digital image:

On Erasure Poetry

As I blogged Sunday, Silver Birch Press's NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology is now available. In this post, I'll describe the feel of erasure poetry, and of many poems in this particular anthology.

One reason I'm drawn to poetry is its independence from narrative. Yes, narrative helps clarity, and erasure poetry can feel disjointed—"experimental"—diverging from an existing narrative. However, poetry's purpose is often to get at sensations that don't fit neatly into stories. Several poets in this anthology used Hammett and Chandler as source material, but each poem feels new and uniquely the poet's.

I don't consider Robert B. Parker a noir author, but I used the first page of his first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript, for the phrase "Victorian whorehouse". Parker used it figuratively, to describe a university president's office; I used literally, as the setting of my noir poem.

The NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology also features 5-2 contributors Rosemarie Keenan, Catfish McDaris, and David S. Pointer. If you'd like to see it your local independent mystery bookshop, contact me, and I'll pass the details on to publisher Melanie Villines.

And let me mention another Silver Birch Press erasure poetry anthology, accepting submissions until December 31. Poets are asked to create Valentine's Day-themed poems from page 214 of the book of their choice. I chose Active Server Pages Bible by Eric Smith.

Silver Birch Press's NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology Available Now

• 
  Back in July, 5-2 alum Catfish McDaris alerted me to a submissions call for poems made by redacting passages from existing noir and hardboiled novels. The first sentence of Robert B. Parker's The Godwulf Manuscript sprung to mind. Lovable literate thug Spenser makes his debut likening a university president's office to "the front parlor of a successful Victorian whorehouse." My poem pays homage to that stinging simile, and to the late Parker, whose eloquence hooked me on hardboiled fiction.
  
  For our help bringing contributors to the anthology, publisher Melanie Villines listed Catfish and me as contributing editors. The 122-page, digest-sized book is on sale now at Amazon.com.


• Also of interest to noir aficionados, Melanie tipped me to L.A. historian Kim Cooper's upcoming first noir novel, The Kept Girl:
  
  

  

  Kim Cooper's The Kept Girl is inspired by a sensational real-life Los Angeles cult murder spree which exploded into the public consciousness when fraud charges were filed against the cult's leaders in 1929.
  
  The victim was the nephew of oil company president Joseph Dabney, Raymond Chandler's boss. In the novel, Chandler, still several years away from publishing his first short story, is one of three amateur detectives who uncover the ghastly truth about the Great Eleven cult over one frenetic week.
  
  Informed by the author's extensive research into the literary, spiritual, criminal and architectural history of Southern California, The Kept Girl is a terrifying noir love story, set against the backdrop of a glittering pre-crash metropolis.

  
  Through December 25, you can help publish The Kept Girl by subscribing to a special edition for $65 (which includes additional perks).


• Looking ahead to Valentine's Day, Silver Birch Press is calling for Valentine's Day erasure poems made by redacting page 214 of the book of your choice. If enough submissions are accepted by December 31, they will be published in an anthology.

Silver Birch Press NOIR Erasure Poetry Anthology - Deadline: September 15

5-2 alum Catfish McDaris tells me of an upcoming anthology of poems made by blacking out passages from noir and hardboiled novels. Here are the guidelines.

Catfish McDaris

I HOPE THAT'S PEPPERONI

Tony the boxer told me
about an Italian joint in
the neighborhood

Back in the '30s, the
owner killed his wife &
chopped her into tiny
bite sized pieces

I made the mistake of
telling my wife & daughter,
now every time we drive by,
my daughter makes stabbing

Motions in the air & squeals
like a dying mouse, to
accompany her invisible knife

Deciding this annoying habit
needed a remedy, I hid a bag
of catsup in my mouth

When we drove by, I bit the
catsup squirting it all over the
windshield, my wife & daughter
& blinded myself

We crashed through their
plate glass window & ordered
a pizza, while waiting on the cops.


Gerald So reads "I Hope That's Pepperoni":



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Catfish confesses: This poem is about my 92-year old neighbor, it's true. Tony never drove a car in his life. The story about the pizza joint is true. I took poetic license with the catsup part. (in other words I lied my ass off).


CATFISH MCDARIS just finished a 30 year gig at the post office in Milwaukee.He's been published widely for 20 years. His most infamous chap is Prying with Jack Micheline & Bukowski. He has a joint hardcover with Ben John Smith at Lulu.com called Dancing Naked On Bukowski's Grave.

Bleed Me a River: A Domestic Violence Anthology

Edited by Lineup contributor David S. Pointer, Bleed Me a River is a 128-page trade paperback featuring work by Antler, Gary Beck, Kimberly L. Becker, John D. Berry, Jolee Blackbear, Jennifer Hollie Bowles, Shirley Brazzo, Patricia Carragon, Alan Catlin, Dave Church, Cassandra Dallet, Sarah Daugherty, Doug Draime, Charles Firmage, Molly Gaudry, Cynthia M. Gregg, S.A. Griffin, Kenneth P. Gurney, Jessica Harman, Pamela Hirst, Stephanie Hiteshew, Karla Huston, Evie Ivy, Justin Jackley, Sharmagne Leland-St. John, Elleraine Lockie, Linda Parsons Marion, Catfish McDaris, Mike Meraz, Todd Moore, Wilda Morris, David Pointer, Rhonda C. Poynter, Charles Ries, Kimberly Roppollo, Cindy Rosmus, Kristen Rueden, Jennifer Rybolt, Georgia Santa-Maria, Rebecca Schumeda, Gerald So, Joe Speer, Lela Norcross Wakely, Klyd Watkins, Kelly Jean White, J.T. Whitehead, Elaine Whitman, and Neal Whitman.

The book sells for $10 + s & h with all proceeds benefiting domestic violence shelters.

From Catfish McDaris

Care of contributor David S. Pointer, McDaris—the popular veteran small press poet and editor—gave a straight-shooting review of The Lineup 3. I've reprinted it below, omitting, with McDaris's permission, the odd comment best understood only after reading the poems:

THE LINEUP Poems On Crime Issue 03 / 2010

Reviewed by Catfish McDaris

The Lineup is a fine collection of [nineteen] punch you in the gut poets. They come at you from so many angles, it takes a second and third reading to catch all the hard lines. The four editors—Gerald So, Sarah Cortez, R. Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone—work together well, choosing crime from every walk of life. The first poem by Sarah Cortez, a Texas cop, hooked and scared me. It was titled "Ride-along", about a young girl doing a beginner’s ride with a seasoned cop. Things go wrong and get violent. My young Latina daughter is doing ride-alongs now in the Latino areas in Milwaukee. This poem disturbed me. The makings of any good read are the amount of emotion evoked.

There’s a whiff of serial killer in The Lineup, but after all the movies and television it, doesn’t seem as gruesome as it should be. Since I now live in the home [state] of Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein, cannibals are like corn candy. Larry D. Thomas’ poems are great...

James W. Hall’s "Decomposing Women" was an episode of C.S.I. Maybe it's me watching too much television and my wife solving all the crimes before me? Michael A. Flanagan’s words were stupendous. Henry Chang's "Takeout (as we roll)" was Chinatown steel right to the heart. [His] "Chasing the dragon," I could relate to, unfortunately. James M. McGowan’s "Running for Home" and "Teenage Sniper" reminded me of what good storytellers Irishmen usually are.

David S. Pointer’s "Certain Methods" brought me back in time to my military service. These words jumped off the page with Semper Fidelis adrenalin[...]Kristine Ong Muslim’s prose poem is sheer terror and bloody frightening.

Anne Frasier’s "Home" is a bit Jack London & Poeish. Amy MacLennan's "A Life of Vice" I could smell the dirt and itch. Wallace Stroby's "Independence Day, 1976" shared a sad dream of reverie.

This a super collection of words about crime. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 9. This is my opinion and you know what they say about opinions.


Catfish McDaris
McDar3 AT aol DOT com
http://catfishgringoriver.blogspot.com

[I'd like to comment that James W. Hall's "Decomposing Women" was reprinted with permission and acknowledgment from his collection The Lady from the Dark Green Hills, published in 1976—pre-dating the C.S.I. phenomenon. —Gerald]

Sarah Cortez Interview on La Bloga

Manuel Ramos interviewed Sarah Cortez about The Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, but they also got to talking about crime poetry and The Lineup:

Manuel Ramos: Your poetry was featured in the first issue of The Lineup, a magazine devoted to crime poetry. What is crime poetry and how is it different from other kinds of poetry?

Sarah Cortez: I’m glad you asked about The Lineup, the chapbook series so wonderfully edited by Gerald So, with Patrick Shawn Bagley, R. Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone. The poetry featured deals with some aspect of criminal behavior whether from the victim’s, criminal’s, or another’s perspective. In trying to define what is different about crime poetry from other poetry, I would say that the subject matter focuses the poet’s eye very particularly. So that in trying to accomplish that “great” poetic task we talked about above – putting the inexplicable into words – the poet must unflinchingly hone in on physicality, whether the physicality of the crime scene, the victim, the suspect, and so on. What I see when I read poems from Lineup is the unremitting eye of each poet beginning in the sensory world of the crime’s occurrence. And, of course, the higher the emotional content of an event, the harder it becomes to write about it with elegance. Writers, especially fiction writers, joke about how hard it is to write love/sex scenes and have them turn out well. That’s because of the high emotional content and the enormous number of hackneyed clichés surrounding love/sex scenes. Well, crime scenes carry a lot of those same burdens for the writer/poet. The poets chosen for Lineup do a fantastic job.

Manuel Ramos: I think The Lineup is an innovation with much potential power to dramatically change the poetry/crime fiction scene. I hope more readers find it. I'm delighted to note that I have a poem in the upcoming second issue, due later this summer.