SUNDAY BLOG READ is your glimpse into the working minds and hearts of Utah’s literary writers. Each month, 15 Bytes offers works-in-progress and / or recently published work by some of the state’s most celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary non-fiction and memoir.
Today, 15 Bytes features Orem-based Alex Caldiero, performance poet and “sonosopher,” a practitioner of a unique hybrid of sound, poetry, and philosophy. Caldiero recalls in verse his emerging passion for performance and for the sensual liturgical marriage of physical space—the church or temple proper—with bodily space. In our selection today, we’ve included a sampling of works recently published in his volume Some Love (Signature Books).
Sunday Blog Read continues to accrue a distinguished group of established and emerging Utah writers for your review and enjoyment.
So curl up with your favorite cup of joe and enjoy the work of Alex!
*
Between wishful thinking and clear perception
there is a gulf
that resembles the mouth of all the women
you will never kiss.
9:16 a.m., 29 Aug 94
*
If (and only if) there is such a thing as
communication at a distance thru the
intervention of no medium save thought
itself by the mind fixed on its projection
toward its object by no rational or obvious
or known method other than the force that
impels or propels it as it were out across
and thru or translates it to the air, borne as
if on wind or wing to its destination by no
other means or conductor than the desire of
the projector who is both feeler and means
for it to spell the message of my heart to the
inner ear of she who is far both in thought
and place and by now out of mind except
for some chance recollection randomized
among life’s various objects to take heed
and let enter as thought and yearning.
3:11 a.m., 27 Apr 95
*
for the nipple told me everything
I ever wanted to know.
7 Nov 96
*
I bring my
hand up
and across
and caress
your face.
I’ve traversed
an ocean,
traveled from
one planet to another.
All the while
beside you,
an impossible
arm’s length
away.
2 May 97
*
This/That/Everything
If she calls within the hour
it means she will leave me.
If she comes to hear me
it means she still cares.
If she wears the black dress
it means she will make love with me.
If she strokes her hair
it means she has changed her mind.
I work out elaborate systems
of signs and significations
to explain her behaviors
toward me.
It’s the only way I can
make sense of this relationship
to sustain me for those times
that it doesnt make sense.
I look for these signs
because at times they makes sense.
22 June 97
*
Dont make a martyr of your
self for the sake of having people
stop and stare at your stigmata.
Even tho it’s only paint, they
come up real close to poke
their fingers in the wounds.
7 Oct 97
#
All poems used with permission of Signature Books.
Alex Caldiero is Poet in Residence at Utah Valley University in Orem. One of his students described him as “a weird cat, but someone who loves what he teaches.” He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Utah Performing Arts Tour and awards from the Association for Mormon Letters and Salt Lake City mayor’s office. You can watch Caldiero perform here.
Past featured writers in 15 Bytes’ Sunday Blog Read:Katharine Coles, Michael McLane, Darrell Spencer, Larry Menlove, Christopher Bigelow, Shanan Ballam, Steve Proskauer, April Wilder, Calvin Haul, Lance Larsen, Joel Long,Lynn Kilpatrick, Phyllis Barber, David Hawkins, Nancy Takacs,Mike Dorrell, Susan Elizabeth Howe, Star Coulbrooke, Brad Roghaar, Jerry Vanleperen, Maximilian Werner, Markay Brown, Natalie Young, Michael Sowder, and Danielle Beazer Dubrasky , Kevin Holdsworth, Jacqueline Osherow, and Stephen Carter.
Join us on the first Sunday of every month for works-in-progress or recently published work by some of Utah’s most celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction and memoir. Click “Subscribe” at the top of our page to join our email list.
Categories: Daily Bytes | Literary Arts | READ LOCAL First
