Rodrigo Toscano
Poeta. Estados Unidos América, 1964.
El libro de poesía más reciente de Rodrigo Toscano (EUA, 1964) es Deck of Deeds. Su colección anterior, Collapsible Poetics Theater, es una selección de la Serie Nacional de Poesía 2007. El próximo, será publicado por Fence Books en 2016. Toscano fue beneficiario de una beca en poesía del Estado de Nueva York. Su poesía ha aparecido en numerosas antologías, incluyendo Against Expression, Diasporic Avant Gardes, Poetic Voices Without Borders, Angels of the Americlypse, and Best American Poetry. Su obra ha sido traducida al francés, holandés, italiano, alemán, portugués, noruego y catalán. Toscano trabaja para el Instituto del Trabajo en conjunto con el sindicato United Steelworkers, National Institute for Environmental Health Science, y National Day Laborers Network. Actualmente vive en el municipio de Greenpoint, en Brooklyn.
OBRA:
Partisans (O Books, 1999)
The Disparities (Green Integer, 2002)
Platform (Atelos Press, 2003)
To Leveling Swerve (Krupskaya, 2004)
Collapsible Poetics Theater
(Fence Books, 2007: a National Poetry Series winner)
Deck of Deeds (Counterpath Press, 2012)
Inaguración
atmosférica
organo
retro-moog
pelucas
como si fuera lo que fuera!
*
el “atmo”
no feral
ni lejanamente salvaje
sino domestico
íntimo
Super-Trans-Civilizador
peluca
*
aqui
aqui andan por alla
los votos
y alla
andan por aca
las botas
ciao a la peluca!
ciao!
*
arri…nómonos…
arri…nénomos…
arri…mónomos…
arrimé-
monos
inquémonos
a la confusíon
de cuartel a cuartel
buscando el prisionero
hiper-elastico
de tanta tortura
hiper-ausente
de tanta censura
se cae
de rodillas
(me cae
que se cae)
como la estatua
aniversario año facha 2005
se cae
verticalmente
en su pozo
tras
*
la poesia
se ha encerrado
en su jaula
tambien
—tras!
o se supone que
*
en suelo
estilo
edad media
roca gris
superficie verde moho
inquemonos
efecto tras efecto
sobrevivientes
vocabularificados
(fíjense
burros
en lo que
sigue)
*
petro-váron
petro-hembra
petrosexualizacíones
_
petroinstante
petroentusiasmo
petrodesilucíon
_
peto-petrificado (“hi, you’ve reached…)
petro-arranque
_
hecho!
petro-postulacíon (filosófica)
hecho!
petro-no-enseñen-el-cobre-señores
limpiense la trompa
desgraciados
inagurados
King & Queen
l i t e r a r i o s
Nueva York, 20 Enero, 2004
MUY BORRACHOS CON RETÓRICA ANTI-INMIGRANTE PREFABRICADA:
THE LITTLE WORD
Tu corazonada era correcta. La palabra, Libertad, no fue exactamente a visitar a un viejo amigo de la Revolución Francesa el mes pasado. Tiene una aventura—con dos MP canosos de los Países Bajos. Los conoció en un tren durante su viaje alrededor de Europa el año pasado. Se pusieron muy borrachos con retórica anti-inmigrante prefabricada, y fueron a dar a la estación de Frankfurt en Alemania. Los tres fueron probando monopolios mediáticos, y terminaron amnesiando (o amnesicándose)—en un estruendoso club de techno. Los tres despertaron enredados en sus matrices léxicas en la taza de un escusado. Y ahora, aquí está Libertad, en la taza de otro escusado, en Manhattan, a punto de anunciar la candidatura de su candidato, mientras su candidato canda su candidatura en su candidatura como candidato.
THE BABY
Los tres candidatos presidenciales tienen amplios lóbulos temporales de basalto granito, incluso el bebé. Sus lóbulos son especialmente “quebradizos”—se cuartean incluso a 10 MHz. Su consejero más cercano, el idioma Inglés, le lacera los lóbulos con listas de bestsellers hasta que casi se desmaya. Ha aprendido a necesitarlo, requerirlo, amarlo—brutalmente –al menos una vez al mes. Él se somete al menos a un bestseller tres semanas antes de irse de gira a campo traviesa, cosa de que el fracturamiento tenga tiempo de sanar, ya que tiene nominado a un vicepresidente blandengue que desaprueba ese look crepitoso. A veces esta violencia asusta al bebé, pero se siente muy tranquilo y al mando después de todo.
THE PROF
Cinco cosas que sus estudiantes no saben sobre él:
Se deja los pelos púbicos crecer cuando está en sabático.
Con frecuencia utiliza ayuda para dar conferencias: carisoprodol, glutetimida, ácido gamma-hidroxibutírico.
Tiene una jefa de departamento que disfruta de “prestárselo” a docentes visitantes (él disfruta que ella goce).
Él deja que cualquier poeta “experimental” con al menos tres publicaciones postee sus twitters en todos sus portales.
Mantiene un suministro confiable de tetraciclina en el cajón de la oficina.
Traducción Mara Pastor.
LA PALABRITA
Your gut feeling was right. The word, Liberty, didn’t actually go visit an old friend from the French Revolution last month. It’s having a fling—with two silver-haired MP’s from the Netherlands. It met them on a train during its trip through Europe last year. They got really drunk on ready-made anti-immigrant rhetoric, and stumbled into Frankfurt station in Germany. The three went monopoly media hopping, and ended up amnesiating (or amnesiacking) out—in a booming techno club. The three woke up tangled in each other’s lexical matrices in a toilet bowl. And now, here’s Liberty, in another toilet bowl, in Manhattan, about to announce its candidate’s candidacy while its candidate clamps its candidacy in its candidate’s candidacy.
EL BEBÉ
All three presidential candidates have ample, basalt granite temporal lobes, including the baby. His lobes are especially “crackly”—they flake at even 10 MHz. His closest advisor, the English language, lasers his lobes with bestseller lists until he almost passes out. He’s learned to need it, require it, love it—brutally so—at least once a month. He submits to at least one bestseller three weeks before leaving on cross-country tours so that the fracturing has time to heal, as he has a Squishy Head VP nominee who disapproves of that crackled look. Sometimes this violence scares the baby, but he feels very calm and in command afterward.
EL PROFE
Five things his students don’t know about him:
He lets his pubes grow out while on sabbatical.
He frequently employs aides for lecturing: carisoprodol, glutethimide, gamma-hydroxybutyrate.
He has a department head who enjoys “loaning him” to visiting fellowships (he enjoys her enjoyment).
He lets any “experimental” poet with at least three publications post their twitters in all his portals.
He keeps a trusty supply of Tetracyline in his office drawer.
Rodrigo Toscano
"La palabrita”, “El bebé”, “El profe” en Deck of Deeds (2012).
Seven
by Rodrigo Toscano
La Imagen
Neither she nor anyone else has yet thought of a truly compelling storyline to go with this image of herself scrunched into a corner of a boutique in the Chelsea District after closing hours wearing a royal blue Hazmat suit and black gas mask reading a 1971 yellow OSHA standards catalogue – backwards.
Who is she? Is she merely someone’s (doctored, distorted) “weirdly gorgeous” poetic offspring, or is she something more than that?
Alright, if she is “something much more than that”, then why is regarding her as “someone’s (doctored, distorted) ‘weirdly gorgeous’ poetic offspring” the thing that really kicks your “media intelligence” into high gear?
Whether you’re a “global leader in the embroidery industry” or a “local enforcer of dangerous workplace practices,” or just a pooped out liberal littérateur in New York City who imagines both of those, when viewing this image (royal blue – black – yellow) the idea of re-pixellating images one upon the other for twelve hours a day in a sparsely decorated cubicle alongside three hundred others in Mumbai, is something that might not get your attention.
To actually feel yourself turned into re-pixellated portions of an anonymous force’s self-image, switch-packeting you onto the internet just as you’re about to declare a lyrically lush “love of humanity in general” - is something that could grab your attention, but also make for a pretty damn good “(doctored, distorted) ‘weirdly gorgeous’, poetic offspring” in need of a storyline.
El Grupito
Meal for history
Estimated time of underground syndicate’s existence: 1 year, 3 months
Number of full-blown, media-diffracting actions: 38
Human faculties sharpened/perfected: oculatory, olfactory, gustatory, somatosensory
Amount of doublethink: zero
Los Bardos
The edge of death
The seconds right before the cessation of all sensation. Biologic systems breaking down, a narrowing of the Life Force, heading towards some kind of conclusion, a “conclusion” whose conditions remain utterly unknown to the living.
Death - is not “a black void in eternity.”
To begin with, the word “black” requires a monosyllabic utterance; it is formed by the lips, tongue, and throat of the living.
First, a soft-labial explosive is formed by the lips; it is then followed by a soft flicking of the tongue at the roof of the mouth; that, in turn, is followed by an opening of the glottis (the tongue is passive at that moment, the lips are passive at that moment); the word ends with a rapid compression of the tonsils into a final crisp, clicking sound, “k”.
All that’s not death - is a sure candidate for being “life”
“Two people read a sonically virtuosic dialogue, eagerly devouring & variating each other’s rhythm’s for the first time.”
RADIANCE OF ONE ENTITY TRANSPORTING ANOTHER ENTITY INTO ANOTHER REALM
El Psicologo
Ditching a whole week of classes in the middle of his first semester at Oberlin to spend it in Belarus with his dorm building’s maintenance man is a dicey proposition to be sure. Telling his new girlfriend he’s going to his grandmother’s funeral in “nowhere Pennsylvania” while at the same time asking his parents for $1, 000 for a “social activism retreat in the state of Washington” - is even more dicey.
But those things pale in comparison to him accepting $10, 000 to transport eight packets of T4 explosives in his intestines “to be deposited” in the privacy of a hotel room next to Newark International Airport.
It’s his third time, and like the other two times, everything went as smooth as glass.
The following weekend after he got back, he took a bus to New York City to spend some “alone time.” In the Meat Packing District (where the Hollywood set flies in to shop) he bought a black, sharkskin pair of pants with a sparkly silver trimmed belt for $2000.
In the cellar of his dorm room, the oil-burning heater makes a deep whirring sound just loud enough to drown out the latest round of tactical arguments led by the maintenance man’s storm of demonic words. After the kid’s “collegiate-global opinion” has withstood a solid forty-minute pounding, he respectfully slips out of the cellar, and changes into the black sharkskin jeans and sparkly silver trimmed belt for a “night out on campus” (poorly lit).
Next morning, in the cafeteria, he greets his girlfriend with an easy smile. They stroll out onto a large grass lawn in the warm sun to study for their psychology final, “multiple personalities diagnosis.” He announces to her that he’s decided to specialize in that very area. She slowly clasps his hand and gives him a little peck on the lips.
Los Resignados
“Oh my god, I was - for a flash of a moment - so jealous when I looked across the room and saw you getting pre-published by that weird guy with the black gloves, but I have to admit, ever since that evening, I can’t get the image of your hummingbird-like flightiness and form-fibrillating social graces out of my mind.
We’ve been ‘scenester & scenestress’ for 42.731 yearsnow, but I think it’s time we give into this new reality. I know you crave new hokey poetic trends – donkey-eared ones, short rhino-tailed ones, toucan-hooking crooked ones, one’s with huge swollen gizzards a-flapping for all to see.
When that up-and-comer ‘oral tradition’ specialist from the South Bronx introduced his Poesia Auténtica Revolucionaria de Nuestras Americas perspective into your well-worn repertoire and yanked off your remaining ‘urban hair piece’ while you screamed ‘de-wig me! Then him scattering your ceramic craftworks onto the floor, pruning your prize-winning tulips at will - clip clip clip clip, then class-roasting your boating friends as we were about all board – eyebrows nearly seared off – eyes glazed as the sun set – and you, squeezing your wine glass stem till it snapped - at that point, right there, I knew you weren’t the same ‘scenetress’ I ran with 42.731 yearsago.
I can’t wait to hear your true feelings about all this under the cover of a dense, thick layer of CO2 cloud cover in Poughkeepsie, NY.
With Love,
Yr. Corporate, lightly-literary, handy husband”
Las Conveniencias
“There…mmm …that should settle me down for a few weeks…ouch…mmm…oof! I really needed that…I really need this kind of stuff!…so much…I’m glad tech commodities just blend into reality itself when they’re initial wow-moment is finished – bastards!…they so…get me going…what they do to me…I don’t think I’m able to…pay much attention to anything…just now…even if I tried (ha!)…god, it works! this app…I fucking love it…I love it I love it I love it…
Tomorrow I’ll:
- Rotate my egalitarian value-system to align with connect-me-first residues smeared onto my heart’s dresser mirror
- Clean out the old political refrigerator
- Re-write my resume
- Update my profile on meetahotnewephemeralproduct.com
- Write a poem - I haven’t penned one in over a year!
- Apply some high quality skin lotion to my sizzling, sweet, touchpad index finger flesh”
Los Entusiastas
This has gone pretty far, and it’s likely to go further. Quite literally nothing else does it for them anymore - they have to feel fully airborne and free falling to the ground - to feel anything at all.
How did this deep-seated understanding of body mass vs. gravity evolve?
When their Corporate Assets Chief finally let them control the main console a few nights at the Federal Aviation Center’s Jet Lander Simulator last year, these barristers were absolutely smitten with aerospace near-miss disasters. They suddenly felt internally chaotically frisky, suddenly more the captains of their primal instincts.
They wore mostly twill and tight button-down long sleeves as they depressed & released literally hundreds of buttons per session. One night, unbeknownst to them as to why, they decided to wear fireman pants, but sheared-off, in the form of a kilt, cut just above the knees. As they pre-sequenced what seemed like just another routine flight from La Guardia to Ronald Reagan International, they suddenly sensed an intense heavy gaze fall onto their faces from across the hangar. No sooner than they looked up to see who it was, than they sensed a huge stream of piss dropping onto their “pants.” They immediately (electro-mechanically) deployed a towel from under the consoles and began to frantically wipe themselves off. As the wiping came to a close, they raised their heads only to find the man with the deep-set eyes and oddly angular Hollywood plastic-looking dark hair carving out their skulls with his gaze. They felt an additional drops sprinkle onto their mixed up attire. The rest is history.
They’ve grown to love the combination of charred, “preferred guest” lawyerly aroma coupled with the light, sprizzy scent of liquid nitrogen foam and polyethylene anti-incendiary tarps. They all play hard at “trap the union health & safety department into a genie bottle.”
Also, they’ve since switched from twill & graph paper pattern wear to modest platinum leopard pants and chunky-monkey muscle tees at headquarters. They’re not “casualties,” they’re casualty makers and shakers.
.