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Alice Shapiro
Alice Shapiro
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3:42 m
Elena Karina Byrne is a visual artist, teacher, book reviewer, editor, Poetry Consultant and Moderator for The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, and former 12 year Regional Director of the Poetry Society of America. She is currently Literary Programs Director for The Ruskin Art Club. In addition, Elena is part of the West Hollywood Book Fair’s Planning Committee and works with Red Car studios editing several documentary film projects including, The Big Read, Muse of Fire and Why Shakespeare? Since 1991 Elena has organized readings for the Museum Of Contemporary Art’s Night Vision poetry programs, the University of Southern California’s Doheny Memorial Library, the Getty Research Institute at the J. Paul Getty Center, The Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Metro Art live Poetry in Motion annual readings, and the Chateau Marmont “Act of the Poet” series.
BERRYMAN, AGAINST THIS SILENCE
By Elena Karina Byrne
By Elena Karina Byrne
endlessly us undo
I have said what I have to say
against your silence-triumph
of the vanished on their uncanny errands
and up-lit, turned
and took a deep breath
for you,
whereby we ripen
to have it out
and pace on in peace,
if that’s what you call it, kind suffering,
our last bride
in letters and margin-omissions, to the pen falling asleep
in the hand of a friend
behind: me, wag. Here:
a bowl full of snow carried inside the house; one hundred
and fifty five thousand black umbrellas opened and no water;
the image of the dead on the fingernail
of the closed fist of the dead; my head full of silkworm cocoons
thrown against the wall,
a strangeness in the final note.
Copyright © 2008 by Elena Karina Byrne
This poem can be found in Byrne’s forthcoming book, Burnt Violin. It was originally published in Barrow Street, then the Pushcart. 2008: 33 of the Best Presses
Elena was the 2005 Poetry Co-Editor for The Los Angeles Review and one of three judges for the 2006 PEN USA Literary Award in Poetry. Her book reviews have appeared in Slope, Poetry International and The Journal, among others. An eleven-time Pushcart Prize nominee Elena's many recent publications, among others, include, 2009 Pushcart Prize XXXIII Best of the Small Presses, Best American Poetry 2005, The Yale Review, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, TriQuarterly, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Painted Bride Quarterly , Barrow Street, Volt, Antioch Review, Verse, The Journal, Hotel Amerika, Now Culture, Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, Breathe: 101 Contemporary Odes, Bear Flag Republic: Prose Poems and Poetics From California , Poetry Daily Anthology, and Spunk and Bite: A Writer's Guide to Punchier, More Engaging Language and Style. Books include: The Flammable Bird (Zoo Press/Tupelo Press 2002) and MASQUE, (Tupelo Press 2008); forthcoming works in progress include, Burnt Violin (poetry) , Voyeur Hour (poetry/ art) and Beautiful Insignificance (essays).