PAUSE ON THE LANDING, a reading series
sponsored by the Paris literary journal
UPSTAIRS AT DUROC
invites you to an all-prose reading
Come hear new work by
DAVID BARNES
JOY ANNA BECVARIK
BOB LEVY
followed by an informal discussion
Where: BERKELEY BOOKS OF PARIS, 8 rue Casimir Delavigne,
75006 Paris, Metro Odéon
When: Wednesday 18 May, 2011, 7 PM.
by Alberto
It’s May in Paris and apparently all around the world.
Benjamin Perriello told us the story of Bahram Gur, King of Persia and ruler of the world, as narrated by the poet Nizami long long long time ago (in the 12th century) (old school, man, nothing’s like the old school). Kyle plays this kind of songs:
http://www.myspace.com/kyleavallone
Suzanne Allen reads three poems: “Our Love is Like a Paradelle with Enjambment and Homonyms” , “Last Train”, and the third, unnamed, but formerly known as “Impending Freedom.”
Claire Trevien announcing her forthcoming translation poetry workshop:
http://poetrytranslationworkshop.eventbrite.com/
Moe Seager:
“Jazz is a Gypsy on a wagon stoop, strumming new found sounds in his finger tips,
Jazz does a duo with Mozart and Bach, a spoon in tune with Cafe Vienna,
and Jazz is a niche on a back-street in Paris, rendezvous lovers, loners and Poets.”
Khronos is Major Tom and Rimbaud, both lost in space, KellyJoy gives just “five minutes to taste me!” Gnam.
Round II: Benjamin Perriello’s the story of Bahram Gur part II, Taylor,
Anthony Allan Poe introducing Variètè Anglaise: http://varieteanglaise.blogspot.com/
Then Lucas Corcoran:
“All of a sudden there are no more secrets left
because now I know your bellybutton is an octagon
and somehow the only angles more acute
are the slight panics that still make each day a surprise
I think I would have loved you more if I had never met you
no matter now”
Patrick and his song for a girl, then James about a guy whose name I forgot,
Hal read “Party” his short story published on the current issue of Malahat Review:
http://malahatreview.ca/issues/current.html
Georgina’s “diving off your eyelashes”, then Alberto’s second attempt to explain in 5 minutes what the heck Aristothelian Ethic is about.
Round 3 – Amanda writes from the Quai: “this smell of pee is making me sick …these memories are splish-splashing in a bottle.” The Maxx went romantic with two love poems “the Kiss” and “Done”.
Welela met a guy in Chicago, sharing a taxi during a snowstorm, and the result is this poem from her book “Salt.” Read it and buy it if you like it, here you can even have a preview:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1338518
Zachary: “There was blood everywhere” , Tyler, Fanny’s “Time will heal this restless heart of mine”, Jeremy’s “shit happens to me”: how he and big Ben fought the Hell’s Angels in Reno.
Moe’s now “I wanna make Jazz to you”, Loona and then I called Jeremy back on stage thinking his story wasn’t over, but I was wrong. Spoken Word was over, in accordance with our new Cinderella rule, as it was midnight.
Wine decks the most sordid shack
In gaudy luxury,
Conjures more than one fabulous portal
In the gold of its red vapour,
Like a sun setting in a nebulous sky
That which has no limits, with opium is yet more vast,
It reels out the infinite longer still,
Sinks depths of time and sensual delight.
Opium pours in doleful pleasures
That fill the soul beyond its capacity
So much for all that, it is not worth the poison
Contained in your eyes, your green eyes,
They are lakes where my soul shivers and sees itself overturned.
My dreams crowd in
To quench these bitter gulfs
So much for all that, it cannot surpass the terrible wonder
Of your saliva that bites,
It plunges my remorseless soul into oblivion
And rolls in like waves of vertigo,
Faltering, on the shores of death
Le Poison by Baudelaire
Le vin sait revêtir le plus sordide bouge
D’un luxe miraculeux,
Et fait surgir plus d’un portique fabuleux
Dans l’or de sa vapeur rouge,
Comme un soleil couchant dans un ciel nébuleux.
L’opium agrandit ce qui n’a pas de bornes,
Allonge l’illimité,
Approfondit le temps, creuse la volupté,
Et de plaisirs noirs et mornes
Remplit l’âme au delà de sa capacité.
Tout cela ne vaut pas le poison qui découle
De tes yeux, de tes yeux verts,
Lacs où mon âme tremble et se voit à l’envers…
Mes songes viennent en foule
Pour se désaltérer à ces gouffres amers.
Tout cela ne vaut pas le terrible prodige
De ta salive qui mord,
Qui plonge dans l’oubli mon âme sans remord
s,
Et charriant le vertige,
La roule défaillante aux rives de la mort!
Adèle’s characters looked up from the pages saying ”Give us life, give us life!” Roxy Azari was our featured poet:
An Iranian American slam-winning poet from NYC, with electrifying passion, on a kind of slam workshop world tour. 
Georgina: When a squid ejaculates in your face it’ll give you a lazy eye that won’t ever get off the couch. Patrick sang ”Please don’t go!” as Hal delivered pizza in his mum’s old mini van. Myself & Emmanuelle poisoned ourselves with Baudelaire. Marie and Antoine leaked light everywhere, drowning. 
But as he said, ”All us boys do is piss white and feel tired.”
The night came to an end as Fanny’s shoes filled up with stones. As Hannah noticed, ”everyone seems spun together by the end of the night.” Troy raged against the dying of the light. ”But look,” said Preeti, ”here come the fish people.”Hear here. Recording from 12th April 2011.
Sunburnt cheeks. Spoken Word’s monday after easter, nobody goes in holidays and everyone comes to the Culture Rapide, producing a particularly charming poetry night, celebrating our founder’s fortieth birthday. Marie Claire Calmus opened as d’habitude, followed by Elisabeth Devlin’s marvellous music, come and taste it if you don’t believe me:
Benjamin Perriello brought us back to the time when Croesus asked to Solon: “Who’s the happiest man alive?” “First Tellus, Second Kleobis and Third Biton. (Trivial Pursuit)
If you want another version of this legend look for Tolstoy’s short story “Croesus and Fate”.
The program moves on with Jo, Troy, Trelys Duprè, Kyle Avallone. David Barnes turning 40, deciding to toast with “Let me die a youngman’s death” by Roger McGough. From that moment on, several SWorders answered to his plea, inviting him for shots.
Part II sees Welela’s opening, The Marvellous Duo Marie & James, Gabriel Gorman’s Bland:
“…because the hard it comes, the smarter my lung,
can push air out over my tongue,
and come to conclusions about the re-use of futile verbal music
played through every scene un-amused by abused emotive fusion,
it seems true that collusions with the muse become allusions to empty amusement,
but I refuse that solution on terms of self-improvement,
and so sometimes i feel bland.”
Claire on metro line 14, Patrick Hipp on acoustic guitar, the New Newens’s production starring Lady Ashley and Benjamin P., Hal, Zachary, Peter Brown trying to lay a student Down, and Moe Seager.
Round 3 welcomes Bubu, Roy, Georgina dedicating “Instantes” by Jorge Luis Borges to her 85 years old uncle and maybe to David Barnes:
“Por si no lo saben, de eso está hecha la vida,
sólo de momentos; no te pierdas el ahora.”
(If you don’t know, that’s what life is made of,
moments only, don’t miss this one, now.)
Just the time for Troy to stick his “Tender Buttfinger” in, then Tyler D. Magyar:
“The Seine was meant to have feet dangled over it,
so awake as most of the city’s fast asleep
and these sheets are meant to be tangled up inside,
while we’re awake and the neighbors dream.
These streets are meant to get lost within
And we are awake but they are so asleep
Beautiful agony, beautiful agony,
everything tastes of gold
I’m so awake and I need to sleep”
Hannah, Rigettini’s “Fuck the Panda if he doesn’t wanna fuck” and other enviromental issues, Betty with and without the Box, Suzanne Allen who read one poem for D.B.’s birthday, but not her new one (the bell tinkled), published by Nerve Cowboy (and not Texas Cowboy as someone wrongly said!)(But it is a Texas Literary Magazine!)(Shut up!) Kale Robin about cats, Moe again, and we closed with a lullaby by Zach. Later on David Barnes almost embodied his line 8: “May I be mown down at dawn by a red bright sports car on my way home from an allnight party” but he will b
e, as usual, under the top hat, next monday at Culture Rapide for a new episode of the saga. Ciao.
by Alberto. Thanks to Adèle Giraud for the photos.
So many, so spoken, so what, so word:
Jennifer, Julien Field, Yara and Stefanos, Moe Seager, Peter Young,
Then Liz Childress performed “B” by Sarah Kay:
“This life will hit you hard, in the face, wait for you to get back up, and kick you in the stomach;
but getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.”
Here is the original version from TED:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3cBk8Qn-Rk
Plus Ylva, and our featured poet Yazmin M. Watkins.
A sample of her poetry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya5M_AKM54M
Round II
Eric De Jesus was back, see the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtsxFBWKUQw&feature=player_embedded
ROUND III
Yazmin’s part II featuring B.B. King, Kyle, Troy Yorke, Kronos, Moe, The Maxx, Bubu, Naushon, Georgina, Zachary, Simona, Susan, Julian, Bubu again, Bastian & Leander. The last metro was gone, forever.
Photos taken by myself & Maxx
SpokenWord Paris 