"MY NAKED BRAIN" BY LEOPOLDO MARIA PANERO

"I have not forgotten the confused feelings of fascination and revulsion that Panero's poetry--at once violent and vile, beautiful and lyrical, insane and cogent--produced in me. I felt not a little disturbed by the fact that I could be drawn so powerfully by his starkly brutal imagery and raving expressions of tortured misery.

"I knew almost immediately that I had to translate him into English."

--Arturo Mantecon, from the Translator's Note.

"OTHER SUNS" BY PATRICIA KILLELEA

Jim DenBoer is the managing editor at Swan Scythe Press, a fine poet, and a friend of mine. We've had lots of fun figuring out how to make short videos using a Flip camera and iMovie software to promote books of poems newly-released from Swan Scythe. We've managed to create yet another one (our first featured poet was Burlee Vang and his book The Dead I Know).

This video features Patricia Killelea reading from her book, Other Suns, and introduces original music by my friend Clemon Charles. This is my second collaboration with Clemon, an extremely talented singer, songwriter, and acoustic guitarist.

To celebrate the release of my new chapbook of poems last fall, Clemon and I put together a set of songs, poems and acoustical transitions that we performed at the Urban Hive in Midtown Sacramento. It was an absolute delight to collaborate and perform with Clemon. Out of that collaboration came many original, musical phrasings. One of which we tapped for use as the theme music for our poetry videos.

Enjoy.

A NEW YEAR FILLED WITH WONDERS