Peace On A Presents: Sasha Steensen & Charles Valle*

Peace On A

presents

Sasha Steensen & Charles Valle

Tuesday, June 12th 2007 8PM
BYOB & recommended donation: $5

hosted by Thom Donovan at:

166 Avenue A, Apartment #2
New York, NY 10009

about the readers:

Sasha Steensen is the author of *A Magic Book* (Fence Books) and *correspondence* (with Gordon Hadfield, Handwritten Press). Her new manuscript, *The Method*, is forthcoming from Fence Books. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Aufgabe, Denver Quarterly, Shiny, Shearsman, and the anthology *Not For Mothers Only: Contemporary Poems on Child-Getting and Child-Rearing* (Fence Books). She is one of the poetry editors of Colorado Review and a co-editor of Bonfire Press. She teaches Creative Writing at Colorado State University.

THIS PLAIN PLACE

Nothing has happened in this place
and it happened forever
until recently.
It was forever happening
amid Method's fluctuating vision.
He heard rustling in the bushes,
the bandicoot poking around in its pouch,
to pull finally nothing
out.

He understood the animal's sorrow
to find plainly and without denial
emptiness where a relation ought to be
a deep and majestic blue
into which one carefully
places
a heart,
plainly
steps back,
places
a body around
a heart,
steps back
into a past place where
only the monks,
deathly afraid of nothing,
turn the deaf
away.


Charles Valle works in educational publishing. His works have appeared in various literary journals-- most recently,2ndavepoetry.com. He sleeps, spins records, and eats pupusas in Brooklyn.

SKEIN

She will read your arterial
curves pressed flat—gathered in a box,

she will imagine a language
for your seasons—she, who only

translates fall as the ending
of monsoons—she will create

your branch, your roots digging down…

What do you say to someone

who cannot name new worlds?

find the green one with five fingers on fire


Peace On A is an events series devoted to emergent work by writers, artists, performers and scholars. Past presenters at Peace on A include Alan Gilbert, E.Tracy Grinnell, Cathy Park Hong, Paolo Javier, Robert Kocik, Wayne Koestenbaum, Douglas Martin, Eléna Rivera, David Levi Strauss, Andrew Levy, Kyle Schlesinger, & Jonathan Skinner. Scroll down Wild Horses of Fire weblog(whof.blogspot.com) for back advertisements, introductions and reading selections.

“demonstrations are ‘the eyes of the mind’”
~ Gilles Deleuze quoting Baruch Spinoza

*the above image is of Anton Van Dalen's "Migratory Dwelling".