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HANK LAZER

Hank Lazer has published 15 books of poetry, most recently Portions (Lavender Ink, 2009), The New Spirit (Singing Horse, 2005), Elegies & Vacations (Salt, 2004), and Days (Lavender Ink, 2002). He edits the Modern and Contemporary Poetics Series for the University of Alabama Press. His poems and essays appear in American Poetry Review, Boston Review and Virginia Quarterly Review (which awarded him the Balch Prize in poetry).

The New Spirit was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; Elegies & Vacations was nominated for the Forward Prize. Lazer has given readings and talks throughout the US and in China, the Canary Islands, Spain, Canada, Mexico, and France. Audio and video recordings-- including readings from Portions and an interview for Art International Radio – can be found at Lazer’s PennSound website here.

For the past four years, he has been working on a handwritten shape-writing project called the Notebooks (of Being & Time). Lazer has collaborated with jazz musicians Tom Wolfe and Chris Kozak on some jazz and poetry improvisations, with outsider artist Pak on a series of poem-paintings, and with animation artist Janeann Dill on a poetry-video installation project. Currently, Lazer is working with book-artist Steve Miller and several Cuban book artists on a fine press bilingual selection from his Notebooks project.

Lazer is Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and the Executive Director of the Creative Campus initiative at the University of Alabama.

BLANK

—for Arakawa & Madeline Gins

the words begin

as proper designations

to leave me

when to cleave

means to cling

to or cut

through as they

had conjectured i

am become quite

blank am built

& feel it

happen upon a

blank event place

image engendered upon

a blank of

& prior to

of we will

use this fact

HANDS

from where to

where on morning

air light simple

prayer consecutive with

consent to see

sit with hands

open palms upward

small invisible flame

in each sorrowing

call of stellar

jay child before

a mirror tries

on baggy coat

our language red

tail hawk wheels

upward see into

i say riding

gesture of hands

PASSAGE

i am after

passage plain &

simple across which

then from there

took off decidedly

somewhat different case

of self differing

i am after

passage out as

they before me

borders & borderguards

i am passage

destination unfamiliar self

differing by landing

sites sensed the

odd patterns of

light i am

after passage out

PUT

put me in

mind of landing

site permeable to

sudden change schooled

meaning milled or

sculpted become something

of interest put

me in mind

of whoever says

so from blank

to labyrinth which

is itself essentially

blank put me

in mind of

then norman had

us get up

(in mind of)

& walk around

BUSINESS

john dark angel

can it be

you the only

one i know

has this astringent

candor serious utterly

serious about business

of moving exactly

around a few

words john i

read where you

wrote where you

salute another as

“dark captain of

the fiery hunt

which i have

abandoned” what then

will you do?

THOUGHT

it is not

at all a

bad thing

that thought has

taken over being

one of several

circuitous ways home

odd time among

tall cement structures

not easy when

young to be

yourself that structure

exactly uncertain light

them & say

a blessing it

is blessèd to

stretch & breathe

with resolute care