in no order
* rule: no Selected or Collected Poems volumes

John Ashbery THREE POEMS

James Tate ABSENCES

Bernadette Mayer STUDYING HUNGER

Arthur Rimbaud SEASON IN HELL / THE ILLUMINATIONS (trans. Enid Peschel)

James Schuyler THE MORNING OF THE POEM

John Wieners NERVES

Ted Berrigan THE SONNETS

Joyelle McSweeney TOXICON AND ARACHNE

Lyn Hejinian MY LIFE

Ron Koertge THE FATHER POEMS

Amy Gerstler INDEX OF WOMEN

Ron Padgett & David Shapiro, editors AN ANTHOLOGY OF NEW YORK POETS

Eileen Myles SCHOOL OF FISH

Ron Silliman TJANTING

Elaine Equi SURFACE TENSION

Ron Padgett TOUJOURS L’AMOUR

Charles Baudelaire PARIS SPLEEN (trans. Louise Varese)

Stephane Mallarme A BLOW OF THE DICE WILL NEVER ABOLISH CHANCE (trans. Holly Cundiff)

Frank O’Hara MEDITATIONS IN AN EMERGENCY

Joe Brainard NEW WORK

David Trinidad THE LATE SHOW

Francis Ponge SOAP (trans. Lane Dunlop)

Kevin Killian ACTION KYLIE

Pierre Reverdy HAUNTED HOUSE (trans. John Ashbery)

Tim Dlugos ENTRE NOUS

Kenward Elmslie MOVING RIGHT ALONG

Ai CRUELTY

Michael Horovitz, editor CHILDREN OF ALBION: POETRY OF THE ‘UNDERGROUND’ IN BRITAIN

Tom Clark NEIL YOUNG

Joseph Ceravolo SPRING IN THIS WORLD OF POOR MUTTS

Rae Armantrout THE PRETEXT

Alice Notley HOW SPRING COMES

Harry Northup THE RAGGED VERTICAL

Jack Skelley MONSTERS

Amiri Baraka PREFACE TO A TWENTY VOLUME SUICIDE NOTE

Jerome Sala LOOK SLIMMER INSTANTLY

Clark Coolidge OWN FACE

Bob Kaufman SOLITUDES CROWDED WITH LONELINESS

Bill Knott THE NAOMI POEMS: BOOK ONE: CORPSE AND BEANS

Jim Krusoe JUNGLE GIRL

Bob Perelman PRIMER

Rene Ricard 1979 – 1980

Jack Spicer BILLY THE KID

Bob Flanagan THE WEDDING OF EVERYTHING

Frederike Mayröcker SCARDANELLI (trans. Jonathan Larson)

Robert Creeley FOR LOVE

Tom Raworth MOVING

Judy Grahn A WOMAN IS TALKING TO DEATH

Charles North THE NEARNESS OF THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT

Piero Heliczer YOU COULD HEAR THE SNOW DRIPPING AND FALLING INTO THE DEER’S MOUTH

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. Someone here asked me recently if I would do a post featuring my favorite poetry books. There it is, although I’m sure I’m forgetting about books that would be in there. If any of you want to tell me some of your favorite poetry books in return, that would be great, but no pressure. ** Uday, Hi. When I was in high school, there was one boy who had quite long hair, and, for some reason, the school let him have it even though everybody else had to cut theirs so it didn’t hang below our earlobes. Maybe he was sleeping with the Principal or something. Cabins are okay, yeah, I agree. As long as they have WiFi. I’ve wanted to be immortal since I was a kid, and I still do. Life’s so exciting, and it just gets more and more exciting. But I guess I’d want the option to commit suicide if necessary. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Oh, uh, a gush of thanks back to you, ha ha. The person who’s the head of the division of Cannes that we’re submitting to is a filmmaker who I think knows my books, which could work in our favor or not since my books are hardly universally liked by those who know them. We did finish everything. Not that another day or two wouldn’t have let us make even more refinements, but it’s okay, yeah. Love was in a pretty pervy mood yesterday, interesting. Love publishing a book of his poems entitled ‘Ode to Dominik’s Dimensionality’, G. ** Daniel, Aw, thank you, maestro! Gorgeous! Everyone, Daniel is the sublimely gifted aesthetician/artist Daniel Portland, and he offered two adds to yesterday’s Sperm show, here and here. Those links lead to his blog and tumblr, and I highly recommend you bookmark both and keep your eyes peeled re: them. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. Yeah, I spaced on the Acconci piece, strange of me. Thanks for the explanation, makes total sense. Yes, as imperative as PT is, don’t neglect your wonderful writing, please. And as far as come/cum, I apologize on behalf of my birth culture. ** Mark, Hey. Unless After8 is swamped or something, I think they’d be into it. They’re the awesomeest people. I’ll put in my good word. And I saw your email, and I’ll open it when I’m done here. Where there’s a will there’s a way? ** Misanthrope, ‘For some reason’, ha ha ha. Haven’t you got enough of your own and other’s at the moment? I thought ‘Dune 1’ was a soulless, self-important snooze, so … but, hey, I hope you don’t. ** Steve, I’m not sure about Cannes’s response time. Like I said, I’m trying not to bite my nails. I’m pretty sure I would agree with you about ‘Dune 2’. I find all of his films totally empty. And his little relentless trick of having every shot last three seconds longer than it should does not make it artful to me. Everyone, Two Steve reviews for you today: Rose Glass’ LOVE LIES BLEEDING here, and his ‘March music roundup, featuring Judas Priest and Reyna Tropical’ here. p.s. The blog has a little surprise for you tomorrow. ** Darby 🤨😐😑, It’s a very good, inspiring doc. You’d like it, I think. Oh, cool, I’m glad you looked into Dambudzo. It’s an amazing novel. And you’re absolutely right: it was published in 1980. My brain must’ve frozen up there for a second. Medical coding … interesting, I’ll look into that. Thanks! Ha ha, maybe I’ll buy a bunch of fake crows and put them in my windows just to be sure those pigeons’ reflections don’t turn them on too much. They are pretty randy. ** Justin, Your blog is wunderbar. Where has it been all my life? I’m on it. My long haired Sade reading scout days were probably my peak twink moment, it’s true. Happy Friday. ** Charalampos, ‘Black Sunlight’ is his masterpiece. His other books are very good, but that one is just insanely inspired and on fire. Tell me when Tsiknopempti is over so I can stop holding my nose. As I’ve said before, I don’t remember my dreams. All I remember is that they’re always extremely stressful. Enjoy yours. ** Cori Diaz, Hi, Cori! Really good to meet you! Thank you a lot for coming in. Thanks for the kind words, and, yeah, Metro Pictures was amazing. I was really sad when it gave up the ghost. Welcome to LA from afar! What’s taken you out there? Your writing? I’d love to know more about your writing. Recommendations … I should ask my writer friends there for the current top goings on. I know the bookstore Stories & Co. and their readings in Silverlake are a real go-to. Poetic Research Bureau @ the great 2220 building is very good. Hm, I’ll need to think and inquire. Come back and I’ll let you know once I’ve filled my mental coffers with tips. What area do you live in? Thanks again! ** Girl, Oh, name change. Hi. Hm, weirdly I didn’t have any faves. I think they all needed each other. You? Ah, a switch. Could be trouble. I guess you need to find him a man. Or deprive him, which might be more yummy. The film will probably be totally finished in a couple of weeks, I hope. And then the wait to find out when and where it will be born. That’s the hard part. You have an ideal Friday in particular in mind? ** Kyler, Well, hey there, K. It’s true that I’m not hugely surprised by your revelation. Which I will keep under my hat. Genet is awesome, yes, happy you’ve made that discovery. My favorite is ‘Funeral Rites’, but they’re all stellar. The length of ‘The Shards’ is the reason I’ve dawdled since my brain has been locked into the film for forever. But maybe not for too much longer. Good to see you, pal. ** Right. Look at poetry books and think about them please. See you tomorrow.

_____________
Andreas Slominski Sperm, 2012
‘Andreas Slominski’s “Sperm” comprises the semen of humans and animals splashed on the walls and floors of the NYC gallery Metro Pictures.’

 

______________
Hany Armanious Ejaculate and Dick, 2013
Pigmented polyurethane resin

 

______________
Raymond Pettibon My First Orgasm, 1983
ink on paper

 

______________
Xiao Lu Sperm, 2006
‘Xiao Lu gained instant notoriety in early 1989 when she fired a gun into her artwork at the China/Avant-garde exhibition in Beijing. In 2006, aged 44 and desperate to have a child before it was too late, she asked fellow artists to donate sperm so that she could inseminate herself. This act of self-help was also a carefully planned conceptual artwork, to take place during the Long March Project, an event involving 30 contemporary artists at Yan’an, site of the mountain stronghold of Mao Zedong’s forces. Xiao prepared optimistically, bringing glass jars and a freezer to store semen samples. To her surprise, not one man would agree, and the work documents their refusal. Xiao Lu says, ‘I took the initiative … and all the men were struggling with this.’’

 

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Louise Bourgeois & Tracey Emin I Held your Sperm and Cried, 2009-2010
‘Bourgeois began their open-ended project by producing a series of gouache paintings of male and female torsos, pregnant women’s bellies, and erect phalluses. After months spent ruminating on Bourgeois’s watercolors, Emin added to them with text, as well as further images of fetuses and miniature female figures.’

 

________________
Nour Mobarak Reproductive Logistics, 2020
Apple-wood pellets, kraft paper, watercolor, hair, sperm, acrylic, resin

 

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Keith Haring King Sperm, 1988
sumi ink on paper

 

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Stahl Stenslie The Artgasm, 2014
‘Artgasm medically manipulates the male audience/participant to experience the maxi- mum of corporal pleasure, ie orgasm. The orgasms are involuntarily induced through a medical device and under the medical treatment of a doctor and nurse. By neural stimu- lation males will erect and ejaculate within two minutes.

‘Situation: each participant (3+) are put on a surgical table and covered in a white, med- ical cloth. Their penis can be exposed through a hole in the cloth. 10 minutes prior to performance the participant mus take a necessary heart medicine (betablocker) to avoid stress of the heart. Then the procedure of i: stimulus, ii: erection and iii: ejaculation is started. The betablocker is important since a physically induced corporal excitement without a mental stimulation is potentially dangerous. A team of on doctor and two nurs- es in the usual uniforms apply the apparatus until the erection/orgasm/ejaculation cycle is completed. Their behaviour is medical, technical and functional. They are professionals just doing their job of making men achieve ejaculation/orgasm. The sperm is collected in a medical container. This could be used for other purposes/use.’

 

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Cary Kwok Arrival (Jazz), 2017
Bronze, wax, chrome, resin, stainless steel and lamp wiring

 

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Saeborg Ultra Unreal, 2022
‘The Ultra Unreal exhibition sees the modern world of chaos, COVID and climate change and ups the ante with something even more unreal: latex landscapes of dung beetles devouring faeces (“Pooptopia,” it’s called) and farmers milking frozen sperm. And then there are the videos of alligators created with rice, and burial sites covered by green lasers.’

 

______________
Bjarne Melgaard Untitled (Sperm on the Grave of Paul Gaugin), 1998
Watercolor, mixed media and collage on paper

 

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Guillermo Kuitca Last of Sperm, 1995
Painting, 102 x 122 x 5 cm

 

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Rego Kim Luxury Orgasm, 2014
Painting, Ink on Canvas

 

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Mire Lee Carriers, 2022
‘In Mire Lee’s installations and sculptures, there are low-fi motor-driven pumps, concrete mixers, PVC tubing, and hand-grafted silicon abscesses, which merge into experimental assemblages. Her kinetic installations rely on circulatory systems that mimic the homeostatic process of organs. In an algorithmic world, where questions of pleasure and consumption habits are increasingly quantifiable and aligned into predictive patterns of regulated behavior. Her works leak into their environments; they squirt, drip, or amass with viscous liquids — a process where components of the artwork begin fluctuating between various states of arousal throughout the duration of the work’s display.’

 

______________
Tracey Emin Rat Black Sperm, 2009
Polymer gravure on 27 gsm Japanese Tonosawa paper

 

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Gilbert & George Various, 1982
Photographs, gelatin silver print on paper with dye on paper mounted onto board

Sperm Eaters

Hunger

Thirst

 

_______________
Jonty Hurwitz How enough sperm can make a strange human without a uterus, 2010
Digital Photography

 

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Kiki Smith Sperms, 1991
cast glass

 

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David McGee Sperm Rush, 1994
Oil and enamel on newsprint on canvas

 

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Eung Ho Park Sperm Spoons, 1995
found objects; metal; mixed media; spoons

 

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Terence Koh God (Cumming), 2012
photograph, sculpture, collage

 

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Alexander Zuleta A billion sperm and you were the first one, 2022
‘One millilitre of semen can contain more than 200 million sperm. What a coincidence! 21st century, year 2022, a time when we all seek singularity, the ability to be unique and differentiate ourselves from the rest. Zuleta makes us reflect on how the singular event from which a single sperm comes is nothing more than the consequence of a coincidence of mother nature where we are all part of a whole and where a trillionth part of a unit finds its singularity as a consequence of the collective effort of all.’

 

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Laek1yo Untitled, 2020
‘I’m planning to exhibit a jar of my own semen at an extremely high-end contemporary art gallery in Singapore. But it looks like I need to push the deadline back again. 300 wanks later and it’s not even half full!’

 

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Andy Warhol Cum Paintings, 1978
Semen and gesso on canvas, four panels

 

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Jonty Hurwitz Untitled, 2015
‘London-based artist Jonty Hurwitz has created the smallest known, human-shaped sculptures in the world that’s completely invisible to the human eye. The nano sculptures span about the same scale as a sperm, and can only be perceived on the screen of powerful scanning electron microscope.’

 

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Andres Serrano Semen and Blood I, II, III, 1990
Cibachrome prints

 

_____________
‘Canadian jeweler Amanda Booth went viral after posting her homemade jewelry made out of dehydrated cum. Booth has always created trinkets, but after a suggestion, her team couldn’t let her pass up an opportunity to make “jizzy jewelry.” From there, she decided to ask her husband for a “sample,” of his semen and got to work. Clearly, the formula not only works but she’s begun perfecting it. She sells each piece of jewellery for between $110 and $300 Canadian dollars and often offloads more than 40 items a week.’

 

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Gregor Schneider Sperm, 1997
Glass, water, silicone

 

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Rirkrit Tiravanija Untitled 2020 (a hurricane in a drop of cum), 1965
Hand tufted rug

 

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Takashi Murakami My Lonesome Cowboy, 1998
‘The value of Takashi Murakami’s artwork hit new heights in 2008 when his life-sized fibreglass sculpture ‘My Lonesome Cowboy’ – a wacky anime-inspired figure of a boy whose semen stream forms a gigantic lasso around his head – sold for an astonishing $15.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York.’

 

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Marcel Duchamp Faulty Landscape, 1946
‘Paysage fautif or Faulty Landscape was made in 1946 and dedicated to Maria Martins. Martins was a Brazilian sculptor whom Duchamp met in 1942 and became her lover. This is considered such an original and provocative piece because of the material he used to create it – his own sperm (although it was not discovered until 1989 that Duchamp’s seminal liquid was used).’

 

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Tala Madani Cum Shot #3, 2019
Oil on linen

 

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Juan Antonio Olivares Untitled (Cum), 2022
Graphite powder and acrylic on aluminum panel

 

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Gelitin Arc de Triomphe, 2017
‘A male figure depicted by Gelitin, “tall as an elephant”, creates a round-headed arch with an erect penis from which “cum” squirts harmoniously like a fountain, forming a loop and ending up in the figure’s mouth.’

 

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Richie Culver Roses Are Red, 2020
‘Culver’s work comes off as a wicked mix of Rodney Dangerfield’s self-deprecating humor, the adolescent distress of Mike Kelley and the copyright busting antics of Richard Prince. An artist whipping open his trench coat to reveal it all (to an extent perhaps he shouldn’t).’

 

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Sean Landers Monk in Orgasm, 1991
terracotta, wood, steel

 

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Aura Rosenberg Head Shots: Mike Kelley, 1993
‘Rosenberg had noted that in pornography, women’s pleasure was most often captured via their facial expressions—while for men, the proof was in the irrefutable “money shot.” And so began a prolonged project that would result in a series, and an accompanying book of 61 images, known as “Head Shots.” These closely cropped portraits see her male peers, friends, and friends-of-friends all caught in the moment of sexual release. Her subjects include more than a few boldface names, including the late Mike Kelley and John Baldessari. The experience, Kelley noted in a 1995 fax to Rosenberg, was “definitely the most pleasant photo shoot I have ever done. Now the so-called ‘little death’ is frozen into an eternal one—my longest orgasm to date.”‘

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Thanks, yeah, things are better nowadays. I have to really be careful not to get too excited about the Cannes thing. Our film is very good, I must say, but it’s a very, very competitive situation, and our film is definitely an oddball. It would take a lot of luck. I think love will be glad he read that particular book. Just a hunch. Love realising his neighborhood is at the very center of where all the big Olympics activities and celebrations will be happening and thinking, Uh oh, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I still haven’t started ‘The Shards’. I really have to do that before it becomes an antique. Yeah, PT sounded supersonic. So, are you continually buying/getting tracks for your show, or do you have a vast library/collection that constitutes a kind of endless supply? ** Misanthrope, Thanks again for the pix. Thumbs up! ‘Dune 2’ is definitely the live activity equivalent of the most Intagramable possible photo op of the day. Have fun, iow. Last I heard, Sammy Case went into a deep Tina hole for a quite a while, cleaned up, and I think was working at a zoo in Florida? ** Jack Skelley, Suave countdown, unimitateable. Yes, Wally Cox’s big D is supposedly no small reason why he was the great love of Marlon Brando’s life. So strange. You know they’re buried side by side. I’ll check the FOKA review. Enjoy the grok. One of these days you’ll be a post-New Years Rose Parade float like the rest of us, ha ha. We finished the sound mix/design yesterday! Now just VFX work to go, and we’ll be done! Lurve, Joey Heatherton. ** Bill, Thanks, Bill. Yeah, we finished it yesterday. Crazy. Thanks for the Zambreno book fill-in link. I haven’t seen that Terayama. Ooh. ** Guy, Well, thank you, sir. I’m good, yes, I think so, yes. Well, thank goodness for therapy then. And trumpets at the ready re: your summer of … love? Maybe not. Wait, your slave made you apply? Not very slavelike there. Watch out. Our slaves are prepping for the 31st. My mind is a little pooped from the film work, but only physically. It stills works okay, I think. Your big mind sounds perky. ** Justin, No, I like blog post requests. I sometimes feel like I’m completely out of ideas, especially with all my busyness and distraction at the current time. I clicked over to your Tumblr, and it looks suave as hell at first glance. I’ll pore over it in a bit. The haircut outcome does sound nice. I remember when I went from hippie to punk rocker in one fell swoop. It’s true, my head went totally viral for a few weeks. ** Mark, Hi. Oh, no, no Paris? That’s totally sad. But practical and understandable. Damn. After8 has been at every Paris Ass I’ve been to, so I’m pretty sure they’ll do it this year. Yeah, hit them up. I’ll pop in there and add my thumbs up to the idea. Or, yeah, surely you know folks over here who’d want to man such a table. It’s a pretty fun, ultra-social deal to be part of. I do remember the young Madonna carrying herself like she was a billion dollars, yeah. ** Charalampos, Hi. Uh, yeah, no Tsiknopempti for me, Jesus. I slept on a water bed a few times back in the day. They were miserable. No surprise they had a Pet Rock-like lifespan. Although I suppose someone must still sell them. A post? Hm, I don’t know. I will think about it. Oh, yeah, let me look back at the Kunstverein post and see if it’s worth salvaging. Thanks, buddy. Hi from pretty much never boring Paris. ** Darbyyy🤔🤨😑in thoughts, Nice. Oh, I do posts about musicians sometimes. I guess mostly the gig posts. I did a great post about the Mellotron, my favorite musical instrument. But not the moog yet, I don’t think. Have you seen the documentary ‘Sisters with Transistors’ about the early female electronic music pioneers? It’s great, you should check it out. Interesting sounding book there. And you sound jazzed about it, cool. I’ve not been reading much because of the film stuff eating me. I did recently reread Dambudzo Marechera’s incredible early 60s novel ‘Black Sunlight’. It’s amazing. My eyes are kind of fucked, but I didn’t see any grammar weirdness. But I love grammar weirdness, so I’m not the best judge. ** Uday, Hi. I was in the scouts, first Cub then Boy until I was kicked out for refusing to cut my long hair. Anyway, it wasn’t very exciting. I’m not a big fan of camping. Oh, for infinite time, yes, please. Zoom interviews can be pretty fun, believe it or not. Sometimes. Good morning. ** Okay. Well, the post’s title tells you everything you need to know. See you tomorrow.