Steve Kowit - In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet’s Portable Workshop

The author wishes to thank Deborah Harding, Lloyd Hill, Dorianne Laux, Victor Margolis, and Fred Moramarco for reading sections of this manuscript and making valuable suggestions, many of which found their way into the text. Mark Melnicoves close reading of the entire manuscript and his suggestions concerning both organization and content were of enormous use, and Mary Kowits keen editorial eye, which helped make this book considerably more straightforward and graceful, was as important as her constant support. My thanks to them for their generous assistance.

Translations and adaptations that are unacknowledged in the text are by Steve Kowit.

Future Work, from Selected Poems, by Fleur Adcock, Oxford University Press, 1983. 1983 by Fleur Adcock, reprinted by permission of Oxford University Press. Therapy, by Kim Addonizio, 1995 by Kim Addonizio. Excerpt from Night Feeding by Kim Addonizio, 1987 by Kim Addonizio and reprinted by permission of the author. Lots Wife, by Anna Akhmatova, translated by Richard Wilbur from Walking to Sleep: New Poems and Translations, 1969 by Richard Wilbur, reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. Passage by Matsuo Basho (You can learn about the pine... ), translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa. From Nobuyuki Yuasas introduction to The Year of My Life: A Translation of IssasOraga Haru. 1972 The Regents of the University of California and reprinted by permission of University of California Press. People Who Died, from So Going Around Cities, by Ted Berrigan, published by Blue Wind Press. 1980 and 1986 by Ted Berrigan. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Ted Berrigan. Phone Call to Rutherford, from The Selected Poems of Paul Blackburn, edited by Edith Jarolim. 1989 by Joan Blackburn. Reprinted by permission of Persea Books. White Cessna and seagull... by Will Boland. 1995 and printed by permission of the author. Emily Dickinson Attends A Writing Workshop, by Jayne Relaford Brown, 1995 by Jayne Relaford Brown and reprinted by permission of the author. Meeting of Mavericks, A Very Wet Leavetaking and A Sunday Morning After A Saturday Night from The View from the End of the Pier, by LoVerne Brown. 1983 by LoVerne Brown and reprinted by permission of the author. The Burning of the Books, from Selected Poems, by Bertolt Brecht, translated by H.R. Hays, 1947 by Bertolt Brecht and H.R. Hays and renewed 1975 by Stefan S. Brecht and H.R. Hays. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace & Company. Excerpt from The Man with the Beautiful Eyes, 1992 by Charles Bukowski. Reprinted from The Last Night of the Earth Poems, with the permission of Black Sparrow Press. Excerpt from Good Field, No Hit, from Get Some Fuses for the House, by Bobby Byrd, published by North Atlantic Books, 1987 by Bobby Byrd and reprinted by permission of the author. The Parrots, by Ernesto Cardenal, translated by Jonathan Cohen, 1986 by Jonathan Cohen and reprinted by permission of Jonathan Cohen. After-Glow, from A New Path to the Waterfall, by Raymond Carver, 1989 by the Estate of Raymond Carver and reprinted by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Excerpt from Notes on a Return to the Native Land, by Aim Csaire, translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy, from The Ngritude Poets, 1975 by Ellen Conroy Kennedy and reprinted by permission of Thunders Mouth Press. Line from Lu Chis Wen Fu translated by Sam Hamill from The Art of Writing, Milkweed Editions, 1991. 1991 by Sam Hamill. Reprinted by permission of Milkweed Editions and the author. My Wicked Wicked Ways, from My Wicked Wicked Ways, by Sandra Cisneros. Published by Third Woman Press, Berkeley, California. 1987 by Sandra Cisneros and reprinted by permission of Third Woman Press. Excerpt from The Inner Source, from Comrade Past & Mister Present, by Andrei Codrescu, Coffee House Press. 1986, and reprinted by permission of the author. In the Workshop After I Read My Poem Aloud, by Don Colburn, 1989 by Don Colburn. Originally appeared in The Iowa Review and is reprinted by permission of the author. Untitled, from African Sleeping Sickness, by Wanda Coleman. 1990 by Wanda Coleman and reprinted by permission of Black Sparrow Press. Memento Mori, from Questions About Angels, by Billy Collins. 1991 by Billy Collins and reprinted by permission of William Morrow & Company, Inc. Flames from The Apple that Astonished Paris, by Billy Collins, University of Arkansas Press, 1988 by Billy Collins and reprinted by permission of the author. OAS and Ars Poetica 1974, from Roque Daltons Poems, translated by Richard Schaaf, Curbstone Press, 1984. Translation 1984 by Richard Schaaf. Reprinted with permission of Curbstone Press. Distributed by InBook. A Bright Day, from The Complete Poems ofWH. Davies, 1963 by Jonathan Cape Ltd., Wesleyan University Press, by permission of the University Press of New England. There is a pain so utter... and My life has stooda loaded gun... from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, 1929, 1935 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi; renewed 1957, 1963, by Mary L. Hampson. By permission of Little, Brown and Company. Additional lines of these poems reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1951, 1955, 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Gift I Never Got, by Vincent B. Draper, 1995 by Vincent B. Draper and reprinted by permission of the author. One sentence from Myths, Dreams and Mysteries, by Mircea Eliade. 1957 by Librairie Gallimard. English translation 1960 by Harville Press. Copyright renewed. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. The farewell, 1992 by Edward Field. Reprinted from Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems 19631992, with the permission of Black Sparrow Press. Reunion, from The Country Between Us, by Carolyn Forch, 1978 by Carolyn Forch. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Quotation from Sigmund Freud, translated by Dr. A. A. Brill, is reprinted from The Interpretation of Dreams, by permission of Gioia Bernheim and Edmund Brill, owners of 1938 copyright. Copyright renewed 1965. At their raucous meeting..., by Malika Fusco, 1995 by Malika Fusco, and printed by permission of the author. Pulling tissues..., by Nina Garin, 1994 by Nina Garin and printed by permission of the author. New Hampshire Marble and Divorce from Monolithos, by Jack Gilbert, 1982 by Jack Gilbert, and Michiko Dead, from The Great Eires: Poems: 19821992, by Jack Gilbert, 1994 by Jack Gilbert and reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Excerpts from Howl and Kaddish and excerpt from Returning To The Country For A Brief Visit, (I do not know who is hoarding all this rare work) from Collected Poems 19471980, by Allen Ginsberg. 1973 by Allen Ginsberg. Reprinted by permission of Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc. I Like My Own Poems, reprinted from Trees, Coffee, and the Eyes of Deer, by Jack Grapes, Bombshelter Press. 1987, 1994 by Jack Grapes and reprinted by permission of the author. Praising Spring, from Alma, by Linda Gregg. 1985 by Linda Gregg, reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc. Power and excerpt from Annies House, from Underground, by Corrine Hales, published by Ahsahta Press, 1986 by Corrine Hales and reprinted by permission of the author. How I Knew Harold, Imagining Red, and Baseball in the Living Room, by Deborah Harding, 1995 by Deborah Harding and reprinted by permission of the author. Practical Concerns, from Hey Fella Would You Mind Holding This Piano a Moment,