Showing posts with label Aram Saroyan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aram Saroyan. Show all posts

Monday, September 19, 2022

POETRY INTERNATIONAL - 25th Anniversary Edition



We are thrilled to share that the issue is out, containing a portfolio of contemporary Armenian poets from around the world.

We would love to encourage PI by asking that you purchase copies of this 25th anniversary issue for yourself and your family/Friends, the link is:
https://www.poetryinternationalonline.com/25th-anniversary-issue-table-of-contents/?fbclid=IwAR1thUOYvb0IZopy2Xzu0i5RDgHlBT-6pU4dfAhRBBvhkW80oXbLNOSLac8


Contemporary Poets of the Armenian Diaspora,
edited by ARTHUR KAYZAKIAN & LOLA KOUNDAKJIAN

VAHÉ GODEL, The Law of Numbers/La Loi Des Nombres
SONA VAN, Before the Magi Had Even Reached Bethlehem/ԵՐԲ ՄՈԳԵՐԸ ԴԵՌ ՉԷԻՆ ՀԱՍԵԼ ԲԵԹՂԵՀԵՄ
ANA ARZOUMANIAN, No Lyricism/Nada de Lirismo
ARAM SAROYAN, Saroyan & Minasian
GREGORY DJANIKIAN, Even for the Briefest Moment
ARMEN DAVOUDIAN, Exodus
NORA BAROUDJIAN, On Stage/ԲԵՄԻ ՎՐԱՅ
PETER BALAKIAN, What’s Up
NORA NADJARIAN, Carousel


Many thanks, 

Lola and Arthur (guest editors)

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Aram Saroyan: LIFE IS A DREAM

Life is a dream.
Boulders on the beach assume the form
Of animals. No man is certain. Death
Speaks in the wings, coaching, prompting

Emotion, the love of wood
Burning, the child's face waiting, laughing.
The sun comes up so many times, lighting
The life that is there to be seen.

We have been traveling through this tunnel
In eternity. Rocks persistently speak
To us, saying something so pure it is only
Feeling. This and that, this and that.

The buildings of the mind shut down
Before the advance of this truth.
We are here for good. There is no one
To be us instead. We are alive and dead.


This poem appeared in the September 1974 issue of Poetry Magazine

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Aram Saroyan: Film Noir

Aram Saroyan's Film Noir was selected as POEM FOR THE DAY by the Poetry Foundation. Click on the link to hear the audio segment read by the author.

Film Noir
BY ARAM SAROYAN B. 1943

He was too excited to fall asleep.
The little dog wouldn’t stop barking.
He took out his gun.
He took out his handkerchief.
He took out his notebook.
He drank his coffee and left a dime.
He walked into the room.
He took her in his arms.
She let him in and walked out of the room.
He ran down the escalator.

He left the motor running.
He waited in the rain.
He needed something to tell the police.
He went down unconscious.
The blood drained from his face.
His eyes melted into a smile.
He dialed and waited, looking around.
He took off his hat in the elevator.
He rang the doorbell and waited.
He poured the cereal and added milk.

He opened the refrigerator and looked in.
He turned the page and continued reading.
He shut the door and switched the light on.
He looked up at a plane in the sky.
He put three pennies one on top of another.
He squeezed onto the elevator.
He took out his key.
He helped her into her coat.
He crossed the room and picked up the phone.
He drove on through the heavy rain.

He whistled for a cab.
He turned the corner and bumped into her.
She gradually surrendered to his kiss.
He drove past the wrought-iron gates.
He lit a cigarette and waited.
He lied to the police.
He threw the dice and won.
He folded the newspaper and crossed his legs.
He sat down in the lobby.
He tied his shoes and stood up.

He put on his hat but didn’t get up.
He thought about her until he fell asleep.
He said “Goodbye” and hung up.
He threw the dice and lost.
He dialed and waited for her to answer.
He left some money for her.
He looked for her door number.
The police arrived late.
He walked into her building.
He let her do the explaining.

He gave up hope and begged.
He locked his car and walked.
She gave him that look of hers.
He put a finger to his lips.
He wiped his mouth and left.
He slapped her across the face hard.
He lit a cigarette in the dark.
The police wouldn’t understand.
Her little dog slept.
Her voice had an edge to it.

Her hands were wonderful when she touched him.
His mind might be playing tricks on him.
The low hills reminded him of her.
There was no way to cut his losses.
He needed a shave and a haircut.
The coffee did nothing for him.
She was somewhere else when he called.
Pain stabbed him as he reached toward the glove compartment.
He needed a little time in the desert.
He decided to head for the beach and then thought better.

He needed about $5,000.
He ran out of Luckies and crumpled the pack.
He left his hat on in the car.
Maybe he was ready to die.
He checked his wallet pocket.
All of his friends had disappeared.
He remembered her naked body.
He had almost no savings.
He was at least ten pounds overweight.
He realized he was in love with her.

Source: Poetry (March 2015).

Friday, April 17, 2015

Aram Saroyan: Paradise

Paradise
BY ARAM SAROYAN B. 1943

Look
the moon.

Nuts look like wood
but taste good.


Source: Poetry (March 2015).

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Aram Saroyan: The Clock in Literature

The Clock in Literature
BY ARAM SAROYAN B. 1943

“Would you mind
If I headed up early?”
Says the husband
To his young wife.
“Follow when you like.”

Later that evening
The beautiful face
And exquisite limbs
Will rise from the table
Of the Southern inn
Having been spied
By the antihero
Across the room
Reading an indifferent book.

Oh, quick — 
Let a storm kill the light!

But you might as well say it
To a wall.
We can’t change
A single
Silver setting, or
Even by one day
Reduce
The bright full moon.

The clock in literature
Holds that moon.

“I know I can’t say
A single thing to stop you,”
Says the old man at table
To the suddenly risen girl.
“But sleep on it, will you?”
Not now — 
Not ever.

The clock in literature
Holds the ancient rune.

“I wonder if I might
Have a word with you,”
Says the antihero
To the lissome
Dark-eyed angel.


Source: Poetry (March 2015).

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Aram Saroyan: THE PICKPOCKET



delicately lifts a
wallet
from somebody’s in-
side
coat pocket.

The beat-up door to his
room half-
closed
in sunlight:
Money changes
hands one thief
to another
so the
first thief
can’t be
apprehended.

Visited
by a beautiful
woman,
he’s
oblivious,
preoccupied.
The idiot!

Stealing a woman’s
purse, he
puts a rolled-up
newspaper
under
her arm
to replicate
the push
of her purse.

                                                                   After Bresson

Friday, December 23, 2011

Aram Saroyan at Columbia Colleage Chicago

ARAM SAROYAN: MY JOURNEY AS A WRITER (PUBLIC LECTURE)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 6PM
STAGE TWO, 618 S. MICHIGAN AVE.
STAGED READING: FOUR MONOLOGUES
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 7PM
POETRY FOUNDATION, 61 W. SUPERIOR ST.
ARAM SAROYAN is an internationally known poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright. His poetry has been widely anthologized and appears in many textbooks. Among the collections of his poetry are Aram Saroyan and Pages (both Random House). His largest collection, Day and Night: Bolinas Poems, was published by Black Sparrow Press in 1999. Saroyan's prose books include Genesis Angels: The Saga of Lew Welch and the Beat Generation; Last Rites, a book about the death of his father, the playwright and short story writer William Saroyan; Trio: Portrait of an Intimate Friendship; The Romantic, a novel that was a Los Angeles Times Book Review Critics' Choice selection; a memoir, Friends in the World: The Education of a Writer; and the true crime Literary Guild selection Rancho Mirage: An American Tragedy of Manners, Madness and Murder. Selected essays, Starting Out in the Sixties, appeared in 2001, and Artists in Trouble: New Stories in early 2002. His play At the Beach House, starring Orson Bean and Alana Ubach, was produced in the fall of 2005 in Los Angeles. The recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts poetry awards (one of them for his controversial one-word poem "lighght"), Saroyan is a past president of PEN USA West and a current faculty member of the Masters of Professional Writing Program at USC.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Aram Saroyan wins prestigious poetry award


The William Carlos Williams Award is given out by the Poetry Society of America for a poetry book published by a small press, non-profit, or university press.

The 2008 awardee is Aram Saroyan for Complete Minimal Poems, published by Ugly Duckling Presse. The award ceremony took place on April 21st, at the National Arts Club, in New York City.

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Aram Saroyan: Two Poems


A PENNY 1¢
A PENNY 1¢
A PENNY 1¢
A PENNY 1¢
A PENNY +
A NICKEL 5¢

A NICKEL 5¢
A NICKEL +
A DIME 10¢

A DIME 10¢
A DIME 10¢
A NICKEL +
A QUARTER 25¢

A QUARTER 25¢
A QUARTER + 25¢
FIFTY CENTS 50¢

FIFTY CENTS 50¢
FIFTY CENTS + 50¢
ONE DOLLAR 100¢ = $1

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Aram Saroyan: selection d

a leaf
left
by the
cat
I guess






From Aram Saroyan: Complete Minimal Poems
Edited by Aram Saroyan and James Hoff
Ugly Duckling Presse (2007)
www.uglyducklingpresse.org

Friday, January 25, 2008

Aram Saroyan: selection c

wind  oil to
blows out sea






From Aram Saroyan: Complete Minimal Poems
Edited by Aram Saroyan and James Hoff
Ugly Duckling Presse (2007)
www.uglyducklingpresse.org

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Aram Saroyan: selection b

a car roars over a
conversation




From Aram Saroyan: Complete Minimal Poems
Edited by Aram Saroyan and James Hoff
Ugly Duckling Presse (2007)
www.uglyducklingpresse.org

Monday, January 21, 2008

Aram Saroyan: selection a

Later


the atelier


ate her.




From Aram Saroyan: Complete Minimal Poems
Edited by Aram Saroyan and James Hoff
Ugly Duckling Presse (2007)
www.uglyducklingpresse.org

Monday, December 10, 2007

Interview with Aram Saroyan

Here's my article in the December 8, 2007 issue of the Armenian Reporter.