Although poetry is a highly individualized art form, it’s one that
easily lends itself to being grouped in larger collections. Literary magazines
are a well-established arena for finding new poetry, yet most of their
contributors are linked solely by an intangible quality. Even in issues linked
by a specific theme, what’s chronicled is often an editor’s snapshot of what
rises to the top.
When true poetry anthologies of linked pieces emerge, they’re often tied
together by a specific tether of time and place. Some scenes, the most obvious
being San Francisco in the Beat era, have some shared stylistic traits, while
others support a more diverse, disparate body of work. Some time-place
anthologies acheive a set definition of a scene; others merely gather the
nebulous clouds of a scene between two covers.
In the last three months, three Austin-based anthologies have been released,
and by the end of next month, two others will be out. There are marked
differences between the compiled works. Three are printed, while two are spoken
works on cassettes. Two of the works are funded through public monies, while
the other three are do-it-yourself affairs reliant on volunteer work and heavy
input from the local poetry community. And none, taken by themselves, fully
illustrates what’s happening among Austin’s poets today. But together, the
works chronicle many of the poets growing in and benefiting from Austin’s
literate populace, its large number of open mike readings, and the supportive
network of poetry writers and lovers.
The Poesia y Calle anthology, lovingly choreographed by local poet Sue
Littleton, came out in May, and is arguably the most multi-cultural and
attractive of the recent flurry of anthologies. Littleton brings an engaging
personal touch to the work, prefacing the pieces with respectful, informed, and
intimate introductions discussing each poet’s perspective and/or distincitive
qualities. Furthermore, Littleton made a special effort to include Austin
writers from different ethnic backgrounds, and the Poesia y Calle anthology is the only one of the five to include works in Spanish with English
translation.
The anthology is an outgrowth of the Poesia y Calle reading series at
downtown Austin’s Mexic-Arte Museum. Poet and then-St. Edward’s University
Spanish and Spanish Literature professor Nestor Lugones, who took over the
Mexic-Arte reading series in 1989, wanted a printed anthology to be part of the
reading series’ mission.
Littleton met Lugones, who now teaches at Southwest Texas State University,
through his classes at St. Edward’s in the late Eighties and early Nineties.
Lugones helped inspire Littleton to break a 10-year hiatus from writing poetry
and participating in readings. She’s been involved with Mexic-Arte ever since,
helping with the first anthology, released in 1993, and taking a major role in
editing and planning the second anthology.
This latest anthology, with its immaculate layout, eye-catching photos, and
book-grade cover and paper, looks expensive – and it was. Although it was
financed in part by a matching grant from the city, Littleton, who also works
as a legal secretary, financed much of the $3,000 project herself. There is a
third anthology in the planning stages, but because Mexic-Arte must provide a
higher percentage of its grant each year, Littleton thinks the next anthology
will be the last Mexic-Arte will be able to support.
The other recent, publicly funded anthology, the Word in the Haus cassette, is, in essence, a best-of collection from Brett Holloway-Reeves and
Tom Dowe’s weekly Coffeehaus poetry show on KVRX-FM. The show, started two
years ago by the station, has been an outlet for both established and emerging
local poets to read and be heard.
“There were two ideas behind the tape,” Holloway-Reeves said. “The first and
obvious thing was to put out a sample of Austin poetry. But also, it was a way
to promote the show. Every show we do is an anthology in a way. If you have an
open mike where 30 or 40 people show up, it’s a good turnout. We’re easily
reaching 200 to 400 with the show, even if they’re only tuning in for 15 or 20
minutes.”
The cassette, released in May, is a smart, well-flowing collection of works
from 12 poets, includes pieces taken directly from radio tapes, which allows
some of the flavor of the show to seep through. Holloway-Reeves often plays
songs with interesting lyrics to break up the row of voices; here, a song by
local band the Resonators is included. Some intros and banter between
Holloway-Reeves and the poets are left intact. Mike Henry explains the genesis
of his piece “How I Go” – a piece of graffiti in the Texas Showdown Saloon that
read “Religion won’t get you dates” – and Holloway-Reeves prefaces Marion
Winik’s superlative “On the Road and Off” by revealing she writes erotica under
a pen name for Penthouse magazine.
The money for the tape came through KVRX’s budget, which filters down from
Texas Student Publications at the University of Texas. A good percentage of the
tapes have been slated for giveaway to help promote the show. “It makes a big
difference that we don’t have to turn a profit,” Holloway-Reeves said. “If we
break even, we love you, and if not, fine.” Acknowledging probable cuts to the
National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, of which he speaks derisively,
Holloway-Reeves points out, “We don’t have any confidence that we could have
done this without community and financial support.”
Holloway-Reeves adds that with cassette compilations, special attention must
be paid to how pieces fit together. “With a book, you can go backwards and
forwards pretty easily,” he says, “whereas a tape is a line running through a
spool.”
The Austin International Poetry Festival compilation, released last month, was
arguably more of a challenge than the Coffehaus anthology. KOOP cultural arts
director James Welsh, in anthologizing the 90-minute cassette released last
month, sifted through
24 hours of performances he archived at Mexic-Arte
from this last spring’s festival.
“Basically, it was a struggle against poetry-saturation syndrome,” Welsh
laughs. “I would put tapes on and putt around the house, doing dishes, taking
baths, and making notes on what really caught my ear. I wanted to represent a
diverse cross section – not only with respect to ethnicity, religion and
gender, but also to tone, theme, and style. I also looked for things that
perked my ears up, in terms of hard-hitting or beautiful works.”
Because of Welsh’s own inclination toward marrying poetry and music – he has
played in local poetry/music groups Glosso Babel and Tammy Gomez con La Palabra
– a number of the selections that caught his ear are backed by music.
Technically, the Festival tape isn’t a strictly local collection. British poet
John Row is
featured three times, and a good number of the poets featured
hail from a number of other cities, as close as Houston and as far away as
Seattle and Cincinnati. The tape particularly benefits local performers like
Wammo who are more inclined toward performance poetry. The nuances of voice,
pacing, and intensity are sometimes hard to gain from the page, but with a
tape, there’s not so much room for ambiguity.
But Festival organizers are planning a printed archive as well as the tape.
Ma�ana editor Sonya Feher is assembling an anthology derived from
works that poets typed into an on-site computer at the Festival. The
collection, which will probably be released next month, will be laid out with
little, if any, editorial input – the work will be more like a scrapbook than a
literary magazine.
Another anthology due next month,Incongruous on Congress, will be even
more literally like a scrapbook. Editors Neil Meili and Thom the World Poet,
who are organizing the anthology around the reading series at Cafe Solaire, are
taking one-page poems laid out by each contributing poet and assembling them
into an 8 1/2″ x 11″, photocopied publication. In their call for
poems, they requested that the poem be accompanied by a bio and photo. Some of
the poets have employed fine graphics and high-powered desktop publishing
computer programs; others have opted for the more Spartan cut-and-paste
method.
Meili, an accomplished “cowboy poet” who has been involved in the Austin
poetry scene since 1992, got the idea for the title, and the anthology, while
reading at Solaire. “I was up there, in a cowboy hat, Birkenstocks, and cargo
shorts, reading Zen poetry, and thinking, `This is somewhat incongruous.'”
Thinking about how diverse the Solaire poets were, and how accepting the
Solaire community was of those differences, led Meili to propose the idea.
“I think doing it this way really honors the incongruities of Solaire,” Meili
said. “There’s a purity of the primitive the way we’re doing this. In selecting
the order of works, we’ll obviously put A before B, but we’re not going to edit
the work.”
Meili will pay for production costs out of his own pocket, with all profits
from sales going to next year’s Austin International Poetry Festival. “This is
something I want to do. I choose my charities. The Rainbow Warrior is a good
cause, and so is poetry in Austin.”
Most observers of Austin poetry will agree that there’s been progress made
over the last few years, both in the quantity of poets and the quality of their
work. Although the convergence of anthologies in the last few months is
somewhat coincidental, it also seems to be part of a community effort to seek
some sort of self-definition. There’s talk of other anthologies to follow these
five – Garland Thompson is working on a possible CD release of works from the
’95 Poetry Festival, and Mike Henry has been taping readings for a CD of Austin
poets, which may be released by a local record label next spring. Even those
observers who want to see the scene go farther recognize the importance of the
anthologies in forging an identity.
“This might get me in trouble,” Holloway-Reeves begins, “but I feel like
Austin’s poetry scene is in its adolescence right now. A lot of the work is
charming and energetic, and it’s exciting in the way adolescence is. But what’s
going to make the difference is a more complex way of expressing ourselves.”
“The historical markers we look at in poetry are those times where things have
been spoken in a new and definitive way,” Holloway-Reeves said. “I don’t think
any of us, including myself, has done that yet. I think we’re starting to
figure out ways of defining ourselves, and I really hope it’s going to happen.
Through the anthologies and hearing each other read, I think we are learning
from one another.”
Adolescence, after all, is a time for self-discovery and self-definition.
Through the anthologies, Austin poets have given themselves a sort of map – not
only showing them where they are right now, but where they can go from here. n
On Friday, August 11 at 7pm, Sue Littleton and three of the other recently
anthologized poets will read works by the late Chilean poet Pablo Neruda at
Book People.
This article appears in August 11 • 1995 and August 11 • 1995 (Cover).