The Pedestal Magazine

15/01/2024

There's a liveliness here, an engaged energy. The journals and reviews radiate a kind of improvisational energy. Fun to read these pieces alongside his poems. Too bad Berrigan died so young.

14/01/2024

Responding to a friend’s post, I got a little clearer on a writing dynamic: Poems involve a seemingly endless playing with words, basically living in incompleteness, while reviewing offers an immediate and accessible satisfaction, a sense of being finished. There’s a grosser high with prose and ideas, whereas the hyper-aesthetics of poetry and emotionally/obliquely driven work yield a more sober inner response. I enjoy being in the bardo of a poem, it simply requires a realignment, there’s a more delayed sense of gratification, if there’s gratification at all, as poems feel like mandalas whereas prose feels like it’s hammered into a solid surface (though, yes, both, like everything, are ultimately scattered in the wind).

02/01/2024

Many best wishes for 2024!

27/12/2023

Saw Maestro & thought it well done. The film is primarily about the couple’s relationship, what worked & didn’t (what worked until it didn’t). It made clear that the qualities one can be charmed by in a romance’s early days often become more challenging to navigate once a few years have passed. It’s an interesting time for such a movie: a soft treatise on patriarchal narcissism, maybe (as well as the enduring nature of love). Its analog, Tár, inevitably comes to mind, which underscored that it’s a significant step politically and sociologically when a marginalized group’s de facto rep (Lydia Tár played by Cate Blanchett) is shown to be just as capable as a majoritarian of behaving in despicable ways. Maestro’s performances were certainly notable; I could see Carey Mulligan (& possibly Bradley Cooper) being up for an Oscar. But the film’s vision didn’t land with me; or more precisely, I’m not sure what it is. That said, I understand the importance of neutrality in a film such as Maestro. The audience needs to wrestle with “the facts” in whatever way they feel inclined (it tends to be a problem generally when art adopts a clear perspective or bias, thereby descending into propagandism). I’ll add that Cooper’s portrayal of Bernstein, mostly compelling, tilts toward one-dimensionality. I know very little about Bernstein the human & assume that Cooper studied every clip he could find & consulted with all the major players (maybe Bernstein was an Enneagram Type 7/Sexual subtype, that’s certainly how Cooper plays him). Again, solid film, but I’m not sure what my takeaway is. & maybe I don’t need one.

26/12/2023

Saw Poor Things last night. Performances, part. Emma Stone's, were stellar. Striking color palettes & otherworldly Victorian/steampunk/utopian/dystopian settings reminded me of Wes Anderson, if he'd spent a year watching sci-fi films. Very intrigued by the numerous classical references: innocence vs. experience, emotion & rationality, the notion of purity vs. conditioning, suffering & how the individual can/can't address it. Wonderful blend of John Locke, Hobbes, the Brontes, Candide, and obviously Mary Shelley. Stone's performance could have easily collapsed into slapstick or on the other hand pretentiousness, but remained natural, compelling, even mesmerizing throughout. I saw less films this year than in previous years, but this is prob my 2023 fav.

21/12/2023

PEDESTAL MAGAZINE 93 is now online, including POEMS by Kim Addonizio, John Bradley, Alicia Elkort, Molly Fisk, Lee Jacobus, Lynne Knight, Danusha Laméris, Xiaoly Li, Carolyn Miller, Madelyn Parker, Laurel Szymkowiak, Amber Flora Thomas, Jeanne Wagner, and Chad Weeden
Sean Thomas Dougherty’s Death Prefers the Minor Keys, REVIEWED by Shawn Pavey
Lola Haskins’ Homelight, reviewed by Lee Rossi
Andrea Hollander’s And Now, Nowhere But Here, reviewed by Erica Goss
Neil Shepard’s The Book of Failures, reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Mary Makofske’s No Angels, reviewed by Ann Wehrman
Alan Britt’s The Tavern of Lost Souls, reviewed by David E. Poston
ART by Sarah Walko

15/12/2023

Any poets in the Princeton, NJ area want to join in a spring 2024 reading (May 12/Mother's Day, 2024)?

03/12/2023

Last day to submit to Pedestal Magazine (for Dec 23 issue). Subs close at 11:59 EST.

01/12/2023

3 more days to submit to Pedestal Magazine!

21/11/2023

Pedestal Magazine will be receiving submissions of poetry through December 3.

06/11/2023

Pedestal Magazine is now open for submissions (Nov 6 - Dec 3)

19/10/2023

For friends in the Charlotte, NC area: there are a few slots open and the registration period will close soon.
John Amen will facilitate this course as part of the NC Writers' Network (Nov 4, 2:30-4pm).
Poetry and Its Paradoxes with John Amen
Poetry is often moving for the way in which it embeds paradoxes – cohesion and dissolution, concreteness and mysteriousness, narrative and non-linearity. How do we tighten our poems, on one hand, while giving them space, on the other? In this workshop, we’ll explore ways to broaden our atmospheres, prompted by unknowing as much as knowing. We’ll experiment with shifts in perspective, with word choices, with perception and its relationship to art. The session will include time for writing, discussion, and processing in small groups or dyads.
For more info &/or to register, please visit
https://www.ncwriters.org/programs/conferences/fall-conference-2023/course-descriptions/?fbclid=IwAR0xMRkMXMeESAweKRUEfBPfbKQMrjBOAAOlBKtR2CLFSzoINr1mM8332fg

Friday, November 3 12:00 pm: Pre-Conference Tailgate (Sponsored by the Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities and the Charlotte Art League) Ekphrastic Is Not a Dirty Word: Join poets […]

28/09/2023

John Amen will be facilitating this course as part of the NC Writers' Network (11/4, 2:30-4pm).
Poetry and Its Paradoxes with John Amen
Poetry is often moving for the way in which it embeds paradoxes – cohesion and dissolution, concreteness and mysteriousness, narrative and nonlinearity. How do we tighten our poems, on one hand, while giving them space, on the other? In this workshop, we’ll explore ways to broaden our atmospheres, prompted by unknowing as much as knowing. We’ll experiment with shifts in perspective, with word choices, with perception and its relationship to art. The session will include time for writing, discussion, and processing in small groups or dyads.
For more info &/or to register, please visit
https://www.ncwriters.org/programs/conferences/fall-conference-2023/?fbclid=IwAR0KpFF4Bbc-xld77rIH7unGW0QUNcdvfrfySuN7_4fW-i-yP3e0GLvOQHo

The NCWN offers Mary Belle Campbell Scholarships to allow poets who teach to attend the annual Fall Conference, the Network’s signature event.

21/09/2023

PEDESTAL 92.5 is now online, including poems by Jan Beatty (new), Bruce Bond (new), Amanda Bradley (new), Mary Buchinger (new), Nianxi Chen, Mark Christopherson, Patricia Clark, Grant Clauser, Morrow Dowdle, George Drew, Molly Fisk, Rebecca Foust, Ellen Goldsmith, Luke Johnson, Dorothy Johnson-Laird, Abbie Kiefer, Catherine Klatzker, Kaecey McCormick, Frank Paino (new), Heidi Seaborn (new), Martin Settle (new), Angela Sucich, Amber Flora Thomas, Ann Weil, Zachariah Claypole White (new), and James K. Zimmerman (Eds. melissa christine goodrum, Stefan Lovasik, Michael Spring, Susan Terris, John Amen).
New reviews: Vivian Wagner reviews Francesca Bell's What Small Sound; Brian Fanelli reviews Alexis Rhone Fancher's Brazen; Shawn Pavey reviews Richard Vargas's Leaving a Tip at the Blue Moon Motel; Erica Goss reviews Cynthia Manick's No Sweet Without Brine; Lee Rossi reviews Arthur Kayzakian's The Book of Redacted Paintings; Karen Herceg reviews Preeti Kaur Rajpal's membery.
+
Connie Post’s Between Twilight, reviewed by Ann Wehrman; Emily Stoddard’s Divination with Human Heart Attached, reviewed by Lee Rossi; Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong’s The Quenching, reviewed by Vivian Wagner; Tara Betts’s Refuse to Disappear, reviewed by Erica Goss; George Franklin’s Remote Cities, reviewed by Shawn Pavey; Beat Not Beat, reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Art by Chad Weeden

29/08/2023

For Pedestal 92+ (new content added in September 2023), editors will be accepting submissions of poetry. No restrictions on theme, style, length, or genre. Please submit up to 5 poems and include all work in a single file. Please note that our alternate submission periods (March and September) are typically 5-day windows as opposed to our month-long windows in May and November.
Open for submissions: September 4 - 8.
See our guidelines page for further information.

02/08/2023

A little advance notice -
For Pedestal 92+, editors will be accepting submissions of poetry. No restrictions on theme, style, length, or genre. Please submit up to 5 poems and include all work in a single file.
Open for submissions: September 4 – 8.
See our guidelines for further info.

25/07/2023

John Amen's "The 80s", included in ONE ART's Best of the Net nominations. Please take a look at the poem, if inclined, and spend some time on this inspiring site!
https://oneartpoetry.com/2023/02/08/the-80s-by-john-amen/?fbclid=IwAR0JNg6EwgiJramfNLB2vGSnfAy14ldV-TCkB66p-snxni8MWjmxAKersF0

The 80s At first, the beast had no name. Then we whispered that acronym, as if by speaking the unspeakable we might explode in our shoes. My friend’s sister died in her aunt’s guest room, skin bruised, eyes like a newborn’s, an ancient child with a shrinking memory. New wave sparked in the eas...

14/07/2023

John Amen's review for BPM - "My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross ... shows Anohni pivoting between stunningly direct and entrancingly oblique manifestos. A listener is left voyeuristically spellbound, striving to reconcile what they’ve encountered with the life they’re currently living."

Music News, Reviews, Interviews, Videos and MP3s

13/07/2023

John Amen's "Conjugal", now included in Cultural Daily. Please visit.
https://culturaldaily.com/john-amen-conjugal/?fbclid=IwAR0HV2pxm2fzUm4ixnXO_XnLJC4DjbDRBGGHw8Ko9H6FXf8jP0QsDu8VNms

John Amen: "Next day, you heard mad wings / fluttering on the other side of the house. / Is that you? you said, tossing the sheets..."

23/06/2023

PEDESTAL 92 is now online, including poems by Nianxi Chen, Mark Christopherson, Patricia Clark, Grant Clauser, Morrow Dowdle, George Drew, Molly Fisk, Rebecca Foust, Ellen Goldsmith, Luke Johnson, Dorothy Johnson-Laird, Abbie Kiefer, Catherine Klatzker, Kaecey McCormick, Angela Sucich, Amber Flora Thomas, Ann Weil, and James K. Zimmerman (Eds. melissa christine goodrum, Michael Spring, Susan Terris, John Amen)
Connie Post’s Between Twilight, reviewed by Ann Wehrman
Emily Stoddard’s Divination with Human Heart Attached, reviewed by Lee Rossi
Bonnie Wai-Lee Kwong’s The Quenching, reviewed by Vivian Wagner
Tara Betts’s Refuse to Disappear, reviewed by Erica Goss
George Franklin’s Remote Cities, reviewed by Shawn Pavey
Beat Not Beat, reviewed by Brian Fanelli
Art by Chad Weeden

01/06/2023

Latest John Amen review for ND
Recalling such late-career milestones as Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker, David Bowie’s Black Star, and Lucinda Williams’ recent run, including The Ghosts of Highway 20, Such Ferocious Beauty shows Cowboy Junkies fully embracing “the hero’s journey” — descending into the underworld, returning wounded yet uninhibited, emboldened by a newfound vision. The Timmins siblings plus Alan Anton may be 38 years into their career as a band, but with their latest album, they sound as if they’re starting all over.

"Such Ferocious Beauty" shows Cowboy Junkies fully embracing “the hero’s journey” — descending into the underworld, returning wounded yet uninhibited, emboldened by a newfound vision.

21/05/2023

John Amen's latest review for BPM -
Life is as fragile as ever, and Mandy, Indiana employ an array of beats, accents, tempos, and textures to demonstrate that yes, the end of the world is still coming. And yet, until that final moment arrives, we’re compelled by our genetic history and psychic DNA to celebrate the human spirit, the urge for communion, transcendence… While i’ve seen a way naturally suggests an atheistic vision, it also ironically reaches for something eternal that exists beyond the horrific tortuosities of sociopolitical evolution. Life, God, Spirit, The Way… Mandy, Indiana never lose sight of their aesthetic and existential north star, despite how convincingly they navigate despair.

Music News, Reviews, Interviews, Videos and MP3s

04/05/2023

John Amen's latest review for BPB -
All of This Will End can be regarded as a riveting bildungsroman, the 25-year-old De Souza reflecting on archetypal initiations and processing essential insights, all the while reveling in diverse instrumentation and a seemingly endless supply of hooks.
https://beatsperminute.com/album-review-indigo-de-souza-all-of-this-will-end/?fbclid=IwAR3G_BNDBqHTHmNZZrUSNw5-foeVjHwOb6qIEiBu8DtcjEtEPTvZgvmNhVI

Music News, Reviews, Interviews, Videos and MP3s