MAYDAY Magazine: Issue 1 Spring 2009

April 1, 2009 Contributed By: Abdellatif Laâbi, Christophe Casamassima, Chuck Richardson, Dan Beachy-Quick, David Dasher, David Gibbs, David R. Slavitt, David-Baptiste Chirot, Gordon Hadfield, Jared Schickling, Jerrod Bohn, Jillian Weise, Katie Atkinson, Kyle Minor, M. C. Armstrong, Mark Spitzer, Nancy Hadfield, Okla Elliott, Paula Carter, Raul Clement, Sean Karns, Steve Davenport

FEATURED ARTIST	David-Baptiste Chirot	NECESSITY IS THE MOTHERFUCKER OF INVENTION thoughts on the delete button
		THE NEW EXTREME EXPERIMENTAL AMERICAN POETRY a gallery featuring the visual works of poet, artist, and human rights activist David-Baptiste Chirot
	Jared Schickling, David-Baptiste Chirot	FINDING THE ROOOT an interview conducted by Jared Schickling with David-Baptiste Chirot that will make you remember and forget and remember
REVIEWS AND COMMENTARY	Raul Clement	THE UNBEARABLE TIGHTNESS OF JEANS: THE ‘SCENE’ AS SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONSTRUCT an investigation by Raul Clement into what makes the Portland music scene so indie-pendent
	Okla Elliott	ON THE STREET OF CROCODILES an interview with Ralph Nader’s extremely well-read 2008 vice presidential candidate, Matt Gonzalez, conducted by Okla Elliott
		SOME DARKER BOUQUETS a roundtable on the state of contemporary poetry criticism responding to an open letter by Kent Johnson, including responses by David Orr, Maureen McLane, Don Share, Eric Lorberer, Ange Mlinko, and roughly two dozen others
	Jared Schickling	THE AVOIDANCE CANON RECENTLY RELEASED documents conceived by Jared Schickling wherein fiction turns the critique more skjh ec tn xx and critique turns the fiction more skjh ec tx as well as hilarious
TRANSLATIONS	Abdellatif Laâbi, translated by Gordon Hadfield and Nancy Hadfield	THE JACKAL’S BAPTISM drama by Abdellatif Laâbi, translated by Gordon Hadfield and Nancy Hadfield
	Boccaccio, translated by David R. Slavitt	THE DARK VALLEY from Boccaccio’s Eclogues, translated by David R. Slavitt
PROSE	lyrical entries from Dan Beachy-Quick’s marvelous investigation of Melville and metaphysics, A Whaler’s Dictionary	TIME TZIMTZUM WOUND ZENO’S PARADOX
	three more lovely microfictions, by Paula Carter	MOORING STONES THE BIG HALE-BOPP OCTOBER
	three insistent microfictions by Steve Davenport	SLOWEST, FATTEST CURVE BALL IN HISTORY THE LATEST BUDDY TEAM NUMBERS MEAN SOMETHING
	a fictional letter written to Kyle Minor with three mathematical equations	BRONWYN STEELE TALKS LUNCH MONEY
	two more prosies, or did I dream that, by Chuck Richardson	LOVE IS A BLACK HOLE QUARK’S ATTIC
	a frequently-impolite excerpt from the forthcoming novel by Mark Spitzer	CHODE!
POETRY	poetry by M. C. Armstrong	THE HADITHA DAM
	poetry by Katie Atkinson	LA SIRENA
	poems for a bacchanal by Jerrod Bohn	GOATSPEAK SIGHING DAMNS THE WORLD
	an excerpt from Ore, the third book of Christophe Casamassima’s Proteus Cycle	ORE
	poems by David Dasher	ADAM’S LETTER TO LILITH SUPPORT GROUP: MENTAL ILLNESS WHAT JENNY TRIED TO SAY
	poetry by David Gibbs	VISITING THE MODERN ART MUSEUM
	poems by Sean Karns	MY FATHER’S POTATO DEATH SUNDAY MORNING
	a poem written in the world’s southernmost town by a poet named Jillian Weise	MARCEL ADDRESSES KATE (AS HE WOULD IF HE COULD)

CONTRIBUTOR BIOS

This Body I Have Tried to Write
by Ja’net Danielo

Who among us hasn’t wanted to kill the sweetest thing?

Incarnation by Katherine L. Wiegele

Milk. The American couldn’t remember the Tagalog word for milk. Latte, the damned Italian word, swarmed in front of her face like a distracting fly as she searched for the local word. She was standing, literally, in the middle of M.H. del Pilar Street, rooted like seaweed swaying in the pushy chaotic waves of Malate’s traffic. […]

Three Poems by Argyris Stavropoulos
translated from the Greek by Gigi Papoulias

“At last moving day has arrived.
From today, another house, indeed more spacious and airy
drenched in nonnegotiable sunlight, will accommodate me
and all the things the movers are struggling to carry…”