Claudia Serea

Interview for Author Feast

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 13:10:00 -0400

Here is a fun interview I did recently for Author Feast. Many thanks to Luke Abaffy, the nicest guy I know!

http://www.authorfeast.com/

Thorns

Tue, 28 May 2013 15:23:00 -0400

Yes, I have plenty of room for thorns, answered the rosebush.
In spring, I’ll grow long arms from the ground. I’ll grab the trellis
and climb, and I’ll bloom on top, but only for bees and birds,
not hands. I’ll swing in the breeze, my body adorned with thorns
and with the sharp pain of your wounds.

This is a fragment from a poem from Angels & Beasts. The original poem appeared on the blog Respuestas: The Neruda Project with this lovely image. You can still find Angels & Beasts here.

visual-poetry: »so so« billboard by anatol knotek exhibited at...

Sat, 25 May 2013 16:09:07 -0400

visual-poetry:

»so so« billboard by anatol knotek

exhibited at the international billboard festival »art moves«

austinkleon: “Internal Revenue,” a newspaper blackout by...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:35:54 -0400

austinkleon:

“Internal Revenue,” a newspaper blackout by Austin Kleon

Currently reading Studs Terkel’s Working, and it made me want to post this piece from the #NewspaperBlackout show in Denton.

Love this.

wavepoetry: Well this was a delightful surprise this...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:32:42 -0400

wavepoetry:

Well this was a delightful surprise this morning!

How was your morning?

Poems for my father

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:54:00 -0400

Here are the poems from the series My father’s quiet friends in prison, part of the chapbook The System published recently. You can listen to the first poem here: http://www.bluestemmagazine.com/?p=2206

My father’s quiet friends 1958-1962

Craiova, Gherla, Giurgiu, Salcia, Periprava

1. The gruel

I’m lumpy, lukewarm, and gray,

and you could use me for glue,

mortar, or clay.

Inside your cupped hands,

I breathe my steam,

soft as a prayer.

Dip your tin spoon

inside me.

Lift me

to your hungry lips.

You don’t have to like me.

2. The blanket

I can’t protect you from nightmares,

or from the hands that grab you in the dark

and push you back

into the beating room.

Forgive me.

I’m so thin,

worn to threads by the bodies

I covered before you,

I can’t even protect you

from the cold.

But I can offer you my checkered field

where you can move the armies

made of bread,

molded with saliva

and hardened

into soldiers,

horses, bishops, towers,

and queens.

At last, this battle is yours to win.

3. The piece of glass

You guard me with your life.

You spit on me

and smear me

with shavings of soap,

and sprinkle lime dust

from the walls

until I have a new,

smooth skin.

Now I’ve become a surface

for poems

and equations

with multiple unknowns.

Today’s lesson is French,

taught in whispers.

Write down the words

with a sharp twig

and repeat them.

No one can wipe them

off your mind:

Je suis,

tu es,

il est.

I am.

You are.

He is.

We are.

4. The small stone

All you need

is a stumble

even if earns

you a boot

in the ribs.

And you pick me up,

hide me

under your tongue,

and carry me inside.

I’m your phone,

your postcard,

your smoke signal,

the only one who can talk

through ceilings and walls

and send a coded message

to the man released today:

Ring the bell

to my mother’s house

and tell her

I’m alive.

5. The moon

I come to look at you at night

to see if you’re still

curled on your cot.

Thousands of years,

I witnessed

the butchering of men

called history.

I can’t help anyone.

I rise,

stir the howls in wolfs,

and swell the tides,

but I can’t pull you out

from your brother’s

murderous arms.

I can only hold

your hope

coins

in a tin cup

in the sky.

National Translation Month was a success!

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 15:29:00 -0500

Dear friends, the National translation Month on the PCCC blog was a big success! I can’t wait to do it again next year. We got on average 200 hits per post, with some posts as high as 500 views. Here are the posts from the second half of the month:

Mircea Cartarescu

Akram Alkatreb

The Vanishing Point That Whistles

Three Bulgarian poets translated by Katerina Stoykova Klemer

Four translations from Russian by Alex Cigale

Many thanks to all who contributed to this project and to Loren Kleinman for initiating and hosting it. I hope everyone will read, write, and share their favorite translations throughout the year. I certainly will.

National Translation Month

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:37:00 -0500

Welcome to the National Translation Month!

This is a new project initiated by Loren Kleinman who asked me to guest-edit a month-long celebration of translation for the PCCC blog. I hope it will catch on and become a regular feature, much in the same way that National Poetry Month in April has become. During the month of February, I will post essays about the craft of translation and poetry translations from various languages requested specifically for this project from fellow translator contributors.

Here are the first 2 installments: Adina Dabija and Hafez. Enjoy!

And remember, in February and beyond: read, write, and share your favorite translated poems.

The System

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:51:00 -0500

The System, a new chapbook just published by Cold Hub Press, New Zealand. You can order it here: http://www.coldhubpress.co.nz/coldhubpress.co.nz_/The_System_~_Claudia_Serea.html

The System

The small

toothed wheel

turns,

bites

and makes

another steel

wheel spin.

They hum,

lock,

and click

inside

the machine

that crushes,

mills,

makes paste,

shapes,

packs,

and delivers

the new man.

—Where’re you going, lamb?

— Nowhere, Ma’am.

—What do you remember, lamb?

—Nothing, Ma’am.

—Lamb, who slaughters you?

Who skins and sells you?

—The masters, Ma’am.

— Lamb, who buys you?

Who roasts your ribs into a crown

and eats you?

—Everyone else, Ma’am.

The whole world, Ma’am.

Rumors travel

from mouth to mouth.

I hear there are fields

where I can lie in the grass,

press my ear

to the mouth of the earth,

against its clay lips,

and listen

to the thousands of voices

murmur and pray

in the wind.

Cornelia Street Cafe, Dec 10 2012

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 14:54:00 -0500

Cornelia Street Cafe, Dec 10 2012

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 14:54:00 -0500

Cornelia Street Cafe, Dec 10 2012

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 14:54:00 -0500

Cornelia Street Cafe, Dec 10 2012

Here are some videos from the poetry reading at Cornelia Street...

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 14:48:00 -0500

Here are some videos from the poetry reading at Cornelia Street Café on December 10, 2012. Many thanks again to the amazing poets George Held and Maria Terrone who made it all possible and to Daniela Petrova for recording them.

The System

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:09:47 -0500

It’s been an incredible year! I am very happy to announce the publishing of my new chapbook The System. The publisher is Cold Hub Press from New Zealand. This 40-pages collection means a lot to me because it’s inspired by my father’s experience as a political prisoner in Communist Romania and it speaks out against repression systems everywhere.

My chapbook is now available on the publisher’s web site:

http://www.coldhubpress.co.nz/coldhubpress.co.nz_/The_System_~_Claudia_Serea.html

There are sample poems on the site so you can take a peek inside.

Here are what other poets are saying about the collection:

The only true way to honor the victims of state-sponsored oppression is to tell their stories with clear-eyed honesty. The System presents a panoramic view of a nation and a people stripped of everything but the basic will to survive. It’s a stark, beautiful, important work.
—Matthew Guerruckey, Editor, Drunk Monkeys

Beautiful, moving and brave; Claudia Serea’s poems tell a story of fear and repression, but also one of hope. This strong collection speaks out against systems of repression all over the world, with a message that is vital and a powerful voice.
—Victoria Hooper, Editor, Polluto

The reading at JujoMukti Tea Lounge

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 06:01:00 -0500

Here are some videos from my reading with Adina Dabija at JujoMukti Tea Lounge. Many thanks to Mike Markham who made them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsZ45Cgmg6g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bz1I9Mfr8k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYNWgEpk42c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PtatwxJGY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgIIUSdSdwQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-c2d0qppIU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeWPhOdn7K0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-y1ofLYiN0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfux93T6-jg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnaW7PA2yOw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAk48Eq9RXo

Beautybeast

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:25:00 -0400

It’s the season of the beasts!

I am very happy to announce the publication of my friend Adina Dabija’s Beautybeast. This new poetry collection is my first solo translation effort and Adina’s first book in English. The publisher is Northshore Press from Alaska — many thanks to Anne Carson.

Adina Dabija’s poems have the freshness of a wind gust that steals the unsuspecting reader’s hat. Lighthearted, irreverent, and playful, this self - exploratory collection combines a strong discourse with startlingly original ideas for a dazzling result. One of the most acclaimed poets of the Romanian new generation, Adina Dabija brings new energy to the American literary landscape.

Here is what other poets are saying about her poems:

My disposition and appetite for poetry were immediately aroused by these poems, like a bear’s nose awakened by the scent of honey in August. They are beautiful, fresh, naughty, full of life, and quite intelligent.
—Andrei Codrescu

Populating Adina Dabija’s singular mythopoetic realm are sexy miners with boobs as big as their salaries, cherries sweetened by lovers’ ears, men strewn on a string across a kitchen, and a dress made of the sound of breaking surf. All of us, together, are “ the torrent that bursts open into rain and clouds.” Her imagination ranges freely, not just from subject to subject but from form to form: her prose poem series, “The Barbie Poem,” reads like the best of Russell Edson, or Kafka’s parables and dream stories. Like Rilke, she has in her soul both terror and beauty, and I believe her when she says that she has “experienced a fear so beautiful/ I can write a book about it.” This is that book.
—Sharon Mesmer

Adina Dabija was born in Aiud, Romania. A poet and playwright, she now lives in New York where she practices oriental medicine. Her first book, poezia-papusa, was awarded the Bucharest Writers’ Association Guild Prize for Debut in 1998. Her second book, Stare nediferentiata, won the 2007 Tomis Award.

We are going to read together a few times this fall. The first reading is coming up on October 25th at 6:30 p.m. at JujoMukti Tea Lounge, 211 E 4th Street (between Ave B and Ave A), New York. I hope to see you there!

This photo by Gregory Colbert is the perfect illustration for a...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:34:00 -0400

This photo by Gregory Colbert is the perfect illustration for a prose poem I wrote a while ago. You can find the poem in my collection Angels & Beasts www.phoeniciapublishing.com/angels—beasts.html

Since their white and black feathers look the same at night,
it’s hard to tell the difference between the guardian angel and the angel of death. I make my way through the crowd with both of them perched on my shoulders, muttering Excuse me, Pardon me, cursing under my breath how heavy they are, and how soon I’ll need both.

AUTUMN POETRY & MUSIC, ANGELS & BEASTS

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:18:00 -0400

COME ONE, COME ALL! I will be the featured poet at the Red Wheelbarrow Poets’ monthly reading tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 28. An open mic with generous reading times will follow at the event, which starts at 7 PM at GainVille Café, 17 Ames Ave., Rutherford NJ.

I will read from my new book of prose poems, ANGELS & BEASTS. This 102-pages collection of surreal prose poems is inspired by dreams, nightmares, growing up in Communist Romania and the immigrant’s life in New York City.

http://www.phoeniciapublishing.com/angels—beasts.html

There will be music, poetry, books to buy and sign, a wonderful friendly atmosphere, and plenty of time to read your own poems at the open mic! $6 cover includes coffee/tea and dessert.

Ring the doorbell at your own risk

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 16:22:00 -0400

Another sneak peek into my collection Angels & Beasts: my poem I rang the doorbell at the top floor apartment just published by The Missing Slate.

http://themissingslate.com/2012/09/12/i-rang-the-doorbell-at-the-top-floor-apartment/

Coming up soon, another prose poem in 2 Bridges Review. Stay tuned!

Video from The Red Wheelbarrow reading last Wednesday. Video by...

Sat, 08 Sep 2012 18:00:11 -0400

Video from The Red Wheelbarrow reading last Wednesday. Video by Dana Serea, 8 years old, who was struggling to get a better angle.