2021 was not the best of year’s for many of us with covid still rampant as well as for many of us still stuck working from home. But for me there were a few bright spots. Jai & I were able to create many new books for Poets & Authors at DeadMansPressInk & create a brand new open mic at The Fuzebox. One of the best moments for me was an interview with Jim Gilbert & Nippertown about my latest book ” We Rise Like Smoke Poems Psalms & Incantations Published by DeadMansPressInk. Dedicated to our girl, our cat Cordelia we lost in April. Life isn’t the same without her.
Best to you & yours in the coming New Year.
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An interview with Jim Gilbert of Nippertown with poet R.M. Engelhardt about the Upstate New York Poetry Scene and about his new book ” We Rise Like Smoke Poems Psalms & Incantations” Published by DeadMansPressInk Now Available on Amazon 2021.
Telegraphic missives from the bleak future of now taking in spirit machine and blood . A faint hope beyond hopelessness still guiding the words .
~ Steve Kilbey (The Church)
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R.M. Engelhardt is one of the finest poets currently drawing breath and this book is one hell of a ride. I’ve lost track of whether or not there is any such thing as “truth” left in the world, but these poems convey another quality almost as rare: genuine honesty about things that matter. Dark, rich, nuanced, emotionally risky, and crafted by an artist of the first rank, Darklands is a collection to keep you reading and rereading, and thinking long after. Highly recommended.
~ Jeff Weddle
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As always R.M. provides us with powerful and succinct snapshots of our world. He has taken the path of the “Shaman”, assimilating the cultural’raw material’ and through his unigue lens trans-substantiated, the dross into lessons and observations that we are now, all the better, for hearing. Cheers to the Outsider Gentleman!
One of the most insidious ways the ego strengthens itself is in criticizing others. Whether it be their appearance, their beliefs, their politics, or any other criticism we level at others – whether out loud or just in our own minds – what we are truly doing is giving ourselves a reason to feel superior. We are getting a little burst of pleasure from seeing ourselves as superior in some way to person we are criticizing. It could be intellectual superiority, moral superiority, spiritual superiority, financial superiority, or superior in some other way. It all comes down to the same thing….our ego congratulating itself on being better, greater than, or more than someone else’s ego. This sense of superiority is what allows us to create a greater sense of boundary between “me” and “not me.” The ego grows more dense through the practice of showing where others are wrong, and it is right.
Part of the Great Work is understanding the mechanics of ego and mind, so that we are no longer ruled by them.
For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…
There exists a black kingdom which the eyes of man avoid because its landscape fails signally to flatter them. This darkness, which he imagines he can dispense with in describing the light, is error with its unknown characteristics. Error i…s certainty’s constant companion. Error is the corollary of evidence. And anything said about truth may equally well be said about error: the delusion will be no greater.~ Louis Aragon
__________________________ Louis Aragon (born Oct. 3, 1897, Paris, Fr. — died Dec. 24, 1982, Paris) French poet, novelist, and essayist. He was introduced by André Breton into avant-garde circles, and the two cofounded the Surrealist review Littérature in 1919. From 1927 he was increasingly a political activist and spokesman for communism, which resulted in a break with the Surrealists. Among his works are the novel tetralogy Le Monde réel, 4 vol. (1933 – 44), describing the class struggle of the proletariat; the huge novel Les Communistes, 6 vol. (1949 – 51); novels of veiled autobiography; and volumes of poems expressing patriotism and love for his wife. He was editor of the communist weekly of arts and literature, Les Lettres françaises, 1953 – 72. ______________________ L’amoureuse Elle est debout sur mes paupièresEt ses cheveux sont dans les miens,Elle a la forme de mes mains,Elle a la couleur de mes yeux,Elle s’engloutit dans mon ombreComme une pierre sur le ciel.Elle a toujours les yeux ouvertsEt ne me laisse pas dormir.Ses rêves en pleine lumièreFont s’évaporer les soleils,Me font rire, pleurer et rire, Parler sans avoir rien à dire
In English: The Beloved She is standing on my eyelidsAnd her hair is wound in mine,She has the form of my hands,She has the colour of my eyes,She is swallowed by my shadowLike a stone against the sky.Her eyes are always openAnd will not let me sleep.Her dreams in broad daylightMake the suns evaporateMake me laugh, cry and laugh, Speak with nothing to say.
<All wisdom is profoundly trivial> Love is gravitation
My “Derangement” dwells in absence – as – under circumstances existing – normally – it should be present. It maintains in circumstance – There I leave it. My being in senses right is normal height. It being uncommon – presents strange – as genius does – uncompanioned. Victim of circumstance I am not – as I am no dweller in For me – to be touched – touchably – by circumstance – normal To vacuous spectres of substance past – should so be abnormal – as to cause revulsion degree – Provoking instant insanity – whence I am protected by radius of spiritual emanation
To circumstance I am immaterial – as is circumstance to me. Diametricaly opposed – alone we leave each other – charmed aloft Lone I – enhanced shrouded earth – by own atmosphere mine self’s own self – out-of circumstance cosmic star – volve revolve – evolve -I do – by starshaped pride stygmatized outcast from circumstanced press – presssure – I am.
Social insanity – cosmic sanity – visible flesh – I am not present. Cosmic resident . That means : Responsibility sublime Capacity to measure. Bliss – damnation – alternating until equilibrium attainment Sway Balance Scalefix.
Solution perfect of two in one. 2: 1. Two in one is nil. 2 : 1 = . Urstate sublimatedly Lifted sublime by blood sacrificial power flux : Radiance suffusion. Light equals light: Motion – rise Impulse. Motion – Top sun – it Scalefix.
Matter at ever higher level put Until cristal state – Graded circle: One and all is circle 1 + = All in one is nil. : 1 = Nil is allsum = Allsum is in nil = : Life conquered – emotion solved Measureless limitless urfigure Assembled. Circle Navel Nil. Betwixt : Swing – Wheel Scale Until: Shot Middle Spot Hit - : Radiance Adash.
Blinder than oak-trees in the wind Endlessly weaving sighs into a poem To sight, He sits, the light of one pale purple lantern Seeping into his dream-hollowed face, Like floating, transparent words Pale with unuttered meanings. He mends a flute and sighs as though Its shadow leaned heavily upon his heart And told him things his dead eyes could not grasp.
To One Dead
I walked upon a hill And the wind, made solemnly drunk with your presence, Reeled against me. I stooped to question a flower, And you floated between my fingers and the petals, Tying them together. I severed a leaf from its tree And a water-drop in the green flagon Cupped a hunted bit of your smile. All things about me were steeped in your remembrance And shivering as they tried to tell me of it
Novelist and Poet. Once considered a leading modernist author of the early 20th Century, he is credited with introducing the spirit of French Naturalism into American Literature. His novel “Replenishing Jessica” (1925), a brutally frank tale about a young woman’s sexual liberation among seedy bohemians, was the subject of a famous obscenity trial that helped loosen censorship restrictions in the United States. When the court ruled in Bodenheim’s favor, New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker concurred with the quip, “No girl has ever been seduced by a book.” Bodenheim was born in Hermanville, Mississippi, and moved to Chicago with his family in 1900. There he became the center of a literary clique that included his good friend (and later enemy) Ben Hecht. His first book of poetry, “Minna and Myself” (1918), was praised by Carl Sandburg, William Carlos Williams, and Conrad Aiken. In 1920 Bodenheim settled in Greenwich Village, New York, and lived there the rest of his life. During the Jazz Age he was called America’s “King of the Literary Bohemians” and was notorious for his drinking, feuding, and womanizing. He was said to have resembled a young Kirk Douglas or Pat Riley, and women apparently found him irresistible. In one frenetic year, 1928, two women killed themselves after he dumped them, and two more attempted suicide. (A fifth ex-girlfriend died in a subway crash, her pockets stuffed with Bodenheim’s love letters). Despite all this dissipation he was a fairly prolific writer, producing 13 novels, 10 volumes of poems, and the memoir “My Life and Loves in Greenwich Village” (1950). His other works include the poetry collections “Introducing Irony” (1922), “The Sardonic Arm” (1923), and “Against This Age” (1925), and the novels “Blackguard” (1923), “Naked on Roller Skates” (1930), and “New York Madness” (1933). Bodenheim’s reputation declined after the Great Depression and by the early 1950s he was a homeless derelict, selling poems for drinks and panhandling. During the freezing New York winters he made his much younger third wife, alcoholic former journalist Ruth Fagin, prostitute herself in exchange for shelter. This activity cost both their lives. On February 7, 1954, the couple were found murdered in a dingy, heatless room; Bodenheim had been shot twice, Fagin stabbed to death. The confessed killer, Harold Weinburg, was judged incompetent to stand trial and served six years in a mental institution. The crime made Bodenheim news one last time, after which he receded from history. Today his books are out of print and he is unjustly remembered only for his dissolute life and lurid demise. (bio by: Robert Edwards)
Burial: Cedar Park Cemetery Emerson Bergen County New Jersey, USA