I hate to admit it, cranky as I am, as much as I did not want to like it, I have experienced a marvelous new contemporary space here in Chicago. A space that with an economy of means, employing the most modest of building materials, with a sense of purpose and an adherence to that purpose conflated in its vision, is simply dazzling. As you wander through the spacious produce section, or stop for a nosh at any one of the fabulous food islands,

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Jennifer Scappettone is the author of From Dame Quickly (Litmus Press, 2009), and of several chapbooks: Ode oggettuale, a bilingual poemetto translated into Italian with Marco Giovenale (La Camera Verde, 2008); Err-Residence (Bronze Skull, 2007); and Beauty [Is the New Absurdity] (dusi/e kollectiv, 2008). She is at work on a manuscript called Exit 43, an archaeology of the landfill and opera of pop-ups, for Atelos. She was guest editor of Aufgabe 7, devoted to contemporary Italian poetry of research. She is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.

Delection Even

I dredge alledgedly

to repair and upgrade the Port of Umm Qasr

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Allison Benis White is the author of Self-Portrait with Crayon, winner of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Prize. Her poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, Ploughshares, and Pleiades, among other journals. She is currently at work on a second manuscript, Small Porcelain Head, which received the 2008 James D. Phelan Award for a work-in-progress from The San Francisco Foundation. She teaches at the University of California, Irvine.

Waiting

I think of broken snow, but this is permanent. Two separate women on a bench—crossed at the wrists,

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Andrew Zawacki is the author of three books of poetry—Petals of Zero Petals of One (Talisman House, 2009), Anabranch (Wesleyan, 2004), and By Reason of Breakings (Georgia, 2001). A former fellow of the Slovenian Writers' Association, he edited Afterwards: Slovenian Writing 1945-1995 (White Pine) and edited and cotranslated Aleš Debeljak's new and selected poems, due next fall from Persea. His translation from the French of Sébastien Smirou, My Lorenzo, is forthcoming from Burning Deck. He teaches at the University of Georgia and is Coeditor of Verse and of The Verse Book of Interviews.

from "Storm, lustral: unevensong"

A tractor rasping its talon

along the dune

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Jessica Bozek received an MFA from the University of Georgia and an MA from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London. She is the author of cor·re·spond·ence (dusi/e-chap kollektiv), a collaboration with Eli Queen. She has lived in Russia, England, Spain, and Costa Rica but currently walks the dog in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Bodyfeel Lexicon was published by Switchback Books, 2009.

The Stationer's Transport

through panes and across sheets, perception yields

here, in the margins, my body-ghosts happen

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Elise Paschen is the author of Bestiary (Red Hen Press, 2009), as well as Infidelities, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, and Houses: Coasts. Her poems have been published in The New Republic, TriQuarterly and The Hudson Review, among other magazines, and in numerous anthologies. The editor of Poetry Speaks to Children and co-editor of Poetry Speaks and Poetry in Motion, Paschen teaches in the Writing Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Wí'-gi-e

          Anna Kyle Brown. Osage.
          1896-1921. Fairfax, Oklahoma.

Because she died where the ravine falls into water.

Because they dragged her down to the creek.

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You laugh! But you shouldn't! or, wouldn't, if, that dorsal fin was attached to, say me for instance, and you were climbing the stairway to the business end of carcharodon carcharias (the ultimate in evolutionary epicurean elegance ) rather than this embodiment of all that is ultimately dysfunctional when it comes to the Chicago art world.

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This interview with Robyn Schiff about her book Revolver was conducted during the week of May 18th, 2009 by eight poets: Christine Pacyk, Aaron Delee, Nicole Gallicchio, Andrew Galligan, Sarah Jenkins, Joshua Lobb, Lana Rakhman and Rose Woodson.

Q: When reading Revolver, I noticed that nearly every poem had something to do with an invention, including the envelope machine, the Singer Sewing machine, McCormick's Reaper, and even the revolver itself. Which poem was written first? Did you originally intend on writing a series? If so, how did this series evolve? How do you come choose the images of the antiques that you describe in your poetry?

Robyn Schiff: The first poem I worked on was "Colt Rapid Fire Revolver." I wrote it as the United States was gearing up toward the invasion of Iraq, and it set the tone and helped determine the content for the other poems in the collection. I was interested in invention and destruction, but also displays of power because this was the immediate post-9/11period, and there was all this chest-beating patriotism going on and solidarity expressed on bumper stickers.

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In James Elkins's great book Stories of Art, he discusses various personalized "visions" of art history. I would like to cite and highlight one important paragraph here.

Discussing widespread ahistoricism in internationalist, or what I would term "academicist," Postmodernism, Elkins writes:

"(The list of periods might look like this):

Art History
(No subdivisions)
The Present

Psychologically, such a radically collapsed sense of history is a great relief for people burdened by a nagging sense of the importance of history. Suddenly, all art is possible, and nothing needs to be studied. ... Some art historians who work exclusively on contemporary art feel the same exhilaration: they can apply any theories they want, interpret in any fashion they choose, and cite or ignore precedents at will. But as Milan Kundera might say, sooner or later the apparent lightness of art history reveals itself as an "unbearable lightness," and finally as an unbearable burden."

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Who needs art tomato fights when you can have the real thing in Spain?



In August each year, the small Spanish village of Bunol hosts the world's largest tomato fight, the Tomatina.

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The Slave Market..... Jean-Leon Gerome

You probably think judging from the title, (thank you Jed Perl) (and knowing what, an enlightened epicurean I happen to be,) I've written a culinary article having to do with my own what some would call, 'hedonistic' dining experience -WRONG! What I'm wanting to discuss, is the far more disturbing phenomenon known as the contemporary art fair, and in particular, the Chicago Art Fair!

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Art by Kim Ambriz

Little Visceral Carnival by Philip Jenks & Simone Muench

| saddle stitched chapbook | 5" x 5" | 23 poems + 2 linocut collaged lithographs | $8

To purchase, visit Cinematheque Press

Dear Godzilla—

The parade didn't become you. You are so over the top
but this is why I love you, my atomic lover, my glottal stop,

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