Gene Tanta’s XPMK: An Illuminated Chapbook
Gene Tanta January 26, 2012
X
X marked the spot on the blackboard where
xenophobia poured in
xenial as a bullwhip spine or xanthate
printed xylographs in the X rated moonlight
xirself perched on a xenolith
xebec cuts the fleecy waves aft as we approach in xenon traces to
xerox someone else’s wrought iron dreams on Xmas
Formerly Excerpt from Pastoral Emergency.
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Gene Tanta was born in Timisoara, Romania and lived there until 1984, when his family immigrated to the United States. Since then, he has lived in DeKalb, Iowa City, New York, Oaxaca City, Iasi, Milwaukee, and Chicago. He is a poet, visual artist, and translator of contemporary Romanian poetry. His first poetry book is called Unusual Woods (BlazeVOX, 2010). Pastoral Emergency is his second full-length poetry book, which has generated several chapbook offshoots. Tanta completed his MFA in Poetry at the Writers' Workshop in 2000 and his PhD in English at the University of Wisconsin in 2009 with literary specialization in twentieth-century American poetry, first-generation American poets, and the European Avant-garde. His journal publications include: Ploughshares, EPOCH, Circumference Magazine, Exquisite Corpse, Watchword, Columbia Poetry Review, The Laurel Review, and Drunken Boat. Presently, he is editing two anthologies of poetry, having recently returned from conducting research and teaching in the American Studies Program at the University of Bucharest in Romania as a Senior American Fulbright Scholar.
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