Poetry Cabaret Collective’s Annual Asheville Party

I’ve been working in collaboration with the Poetry Cabaret Collective to produce an annual party for Asheville. The show mixes live poetry, music, burlesque performances and other art forms to celebrate creativity and sexuality while also starting conversations about social justice, gender equality, racial empathy, and spiritual diversity. Versions of the show have been performed on the Asheville Fringe Arts Festival, and a special Buckminster Fuller edition will be performed at the Reviewing Black Mountain College 8 conference on September 24 of this year. Please “like” Poetry Cabaret Collective on Facebook for more updates and to find out how we can bring Poetry Cabaret to a venue near you. 

New Work from Caleb Beissert

This winter has seen the publication of eight of my poems in Arsenic Lobster and pioneertown along with the release of the new issue of Redheaded Stepchild, which I co-edited.

Check out the poems here:

Four poems by Caleb Beissert in ARSENIC LOBSTER

Four Poems by Caleb Beissert in PIONEERTOWN

Winter 2015 issue of REDHEADED STEPCHILD

 

Swinging Like Incense – The August 2014 Poetry Sessions

On the 17th and 18th of August 2014, a theory of poets and musicians gathered at a recording studio in Asheville, North Carolina, to experiment with the fusion of art forms and the chance brilliance of improvisation to create landscapes painted on wheels of dream. Time seemed suspended or somewhere else for these sessions, and water flowed through the instruments, words, and air.

The magic includes:
Caleb Beissert (poetry)
Aaron Price (piano)
Charlie Rauh (fern)
Sean Smith (trumpet)

Listen, hear.

“Elapse” by Caleb Beissert

 

Elapse

On the blue pinnacle
in an early frost
the bumblebees are freezing
on the blueberry bushes.
As the clouds metamorphose
the sun shines through
reanimating the freshly frozen
bees. Their wings slowly
beginning to beat
and buzz again. All the bees
are freezing on that blue pinnacle,
the tail of another summer,
berries overripe and big
with juice. Bees in slow
motion in rays of light
moving through mist.

 

 

 

–first published in Animal Poems (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014)

Poetry Cabaret 2

Check out this cool happening in Asheville, NC, on August 19. Poetry Cabaret II brings together a true variety of spoken word artists and musicians with dance, comedy, and much more. The fine bartenders at the Crow and Quill (106 N. Lexington Ave.) will be serving up special poetry-themed cocktails. One hot night only. No open mic.

designed by Michael Coyle

“Atomic Color-cinemascope”

 

Atomic Color-cinemascope

after Bob Kaufman

 

We were in Libya
staying in a house on stilts.
I didn’t understand my father.

The two dogs had to be let out.

We hid from the bombings.

The last one caused a wave that broke
a sewer pipe.
That made us sick.

We had to make sure the doors were locked.
She asked the bartender if she wanted to make out

in a few minutes. The bartender didn’t hear her.
I let the dogs walk in the back bushes.

We were always waiting while doing things.
Necessary things.
To kill the time.

Until we wanted it slow,
slow.

—first published in Mad Hatters’ Review, 2014

Reading at AWP

On February 27, in Seattle, Washington, I will be giving a reading with a host of fine poets at the Tap House on Sixth Avenue. This is an off-site event at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs 2014 Conference. Cheers.

Images of Spain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photographs were taken by Caleb Beissert during travels in Andalucía, España, in summer of 2013. Please use with permission.

 

 

 

 

 

The Dalry Session

On August 22, in an apartment just off of Dalry Road in Edinburgh, poets James McKay, Keith Jarrett, and Caleb Beissert gathered together for a recording session, after a long week of performances at the Fringe. Each poem was recorded in one take, aside from a few start overs due to outside noise. Rosie Fitzmaurice was the recording engineer. Listen to the session here.

Readings at The Banshee Labyrinth

Words continue to float like dreams in the invisible city of Edinburgh, where time seems forgotten. Today I’m giving readings in a medieval dungeon turned metal bar–as if this trip hasn’t been surreal enough. And a fine spot for poetry it is. Earlier: brilliant poet from London Keith Jarrett read the Spanish of my English translations. Later: returning star James McKay and I will attempt a seance of Walt Whitman, 5:30 PM in the dungeon.

Still more to come during this last week of this jam-packed fest. The PBH Free Fringe is the epicenter for poetry on the planet these few weeks and for artists “on the fringe.”