Sunday, March 15, 2009

NEO Poet Field Guide

Full name: Theresa Marie Göttl

Age: 27

Habitat: Brunswick

Range: Insights (Brunswick); Borders (Strongsville); Muggswigz (Canton); 2nd April Galerie (Canton); Musica (Akron); Northside (Akron); The Lit Café; Columbus Poetry Forum; Collingwood Arts Center (Toledo); expanding migratory patterns have been known to reach as far as Sandusky, Mansfield, Bellville, and Orrville; unconfirmed sightings reported as far south as Louisville, KY and Nashville, TN.

Diet: Czeslaw Milosz; Seamus Heaney; Rita Dove; U2; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Dostoevsky; Tchaikovsky; Jack London; J.R.R. Tolkein; C.S. Lewis; Ayn Rand; Neil Gaiman; Kurt Vonnegut; “Lost”; local musicians Zach and David Ullman.

Distinguishing Markings: Stretching the Window; 91.3 WAPS & 89.7 WOSU; The Poet’s Haven; Deep Cleveland; Opium Press; Wayne College Regional Writing Award.

Predators: small children; caffeine; meat; high gas prices; sleeplessness; the color Brown; auto repairs; closed-minded people.

Prey: road trips; veggie/vegan restaurants; live music; places to hang out that are open after midnight; book stores; tea; anything related to Alaska or Iceland; mountains (the ever-elusive prey); enlightenment and true love (also ever-elusive).

Call:

Indigo Freight Train


Listen to the howl of the June bug sock hop,
calling down the sparrows from their limousine stare.

Somewhere in the cemetery, bulldog freight trains
are crushing every adolescent ego in the way.

Purple ladies rocking in their back porch gasoline,
shooting at the kingfisher-perforated skies,

baking paper brownies in a supernova microwave,
sipping at their dragon’s blood and kicking over kings.

Indigo! Indigo! Weeping for the bluesmen.
Indigo! Indigo! Melting paper dolls.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Theresa rocks! I love her poetry -- it is so joyous and poignant. So musical and meaningful!

And I am delighted to find we share some common tastes -- Neil Gaiman, Zora Neale Hurston (after whom I named the heroine of my current novel project), Rita Dove, in addition to the obvious ones like Tolkein.

Geoffrey A. Landis said...

Say, it's cool to see Theresa as the NEO featured poet!

It's also worth mentioning that she's a great reader, and if you get a chance, you really should find an opportunity to see her perform. (She usually shows up at the deep cleveland poetry hour. Although if you weren't there Friday, you already missed it this month, I notice that she's one of featured readers at the Lix and Kix reading coming up in Lakewood this Tuesday.)

Charles Gramlich said...

Very powerful piece there. I really like this one.

J.E. Stanley said...

T.M. Gottl is phenomenal. More info on her book "Stretching the Window" can be found here:
http://www.buffalozef.net/artists/tmgottl/writings.html
Mark S. Kuhar writes "T.M. Göttl's poems arrive in vivid clusters, filled with wild energy and unexpected twists. These are poems from the human volcano, erupting with emotion, and balanced by stark realizations and personal truths."

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone above. T.M. is a gem! I love her poetry and highly recommend her Stretching the Window collection. Thank you, Geoff, for mentioning her St. Pat's Day Lix and Kix feature and providing a link to our site. T.M. will be accompanied musically by Zach (see her diet) - and Gina Tabasso will also be a featured poet that evening (Tuesday 17 March, 7 p.m., at Bela Dubby Art Gallery and Beer Cafe, 13321 Madison Avenue). Looking forward to it!...

Theresa Göttl Brightman said...

Thanks for the kind comments, all! I'm VERY much looking forward to Tuesday night, and I hope to see everyone at Bela Dubby!

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