Robert Polito and David Trinidad

Polito on his recent ??Hollywood & God??, which stands astride American spirituality and celebrity culture, with Trinidad, who wrote ??The Late Show?? under the sway of movies, cosmetics, and the NY School. true

2009-05-12T13:07:49-04:00

!!33054!!   h3. Robert Polito   h3. Confidential She wears the Sacred Heart on her sleeve for Christ’s sake, who would have pegged her as a blackmailer? There is a photograph I use to live inside, many have taken it one time or another— By the end she would only step out with her cute boy reporters, the ones who wrote she was pretty, sad, & misunderstood— Love came over us, everyone said, like destiny, to give it up would be like giving up God— But listen, this is confidential— We are at the Formosa. It is no year I can think of, but in rapid succession I’m Frank Sinatra/ Barbara Stanwyck/Gloria Graham/Orson Welles. You’d think this would be fun. They’re all cool, Right? Plus all the sex, the love, even? The yearning in those faces yearning towards me. But it’s not— and not just because I have no control Over who I become—Orson/Barbara/Gloria/Frank . . . would it matter? But instead I’m always too old— or too young. Someone’s just walked out on me, or I’ve just left him or her. I’m not discovered yet, or no one wants me except for who I used to be. I’m too drunk or too fat or too crazy. I’m in someone’s office, unzipping his fly. I’m shouting—don’t you know who I am? And that’s the problem, I always do. I know exactly who I am. !!33048!!   h3. David Trinidad   h3. The Late Show _(circa 1970)_ Natalie Wood, in the middle of reciting a Wordsworth poem, bursts into tears and runs out of the classroom. Carroll Baker gasps in an oxygen tent, her platinum Harlow hair damp and flat. Kim Stanley throws a champagne glass at her mother’s taxi, screaming “There is no god! There is no god!” In a chiffon cocktail dress and ankle-straps, Joan Crawford staggers down the beach, convinced her lover, Jeff Chandler, is out to murder her. Lana Turner learns that she and her daughter, Sandra Dee, are in love with the same man. Jilted and demented, Suzy Parker crouches in an alleyway in a soiled trench coat, sifting through Louis Jourdan’s trash. To avoid forging the signature of her twin sister, whom she’s killed, Bette Davis grabs the red-hot end of a fire iron with her writing hand. Doris Day, in a black lace peignoir, sobs into the telephone: “Who are you? Why are you doing this to me?” Julie Harris hears Hill House beckoning, beckoning. Geraldine Page begs Paul Newman for a fix. Simone Signoret wipes her finger- prints off the glass as James Caan collapses, dead at her feet. Lee Remick pours herself another drink. Trembling, Ingrid Berg- man watches the gaslights dim. Shirley MacLaine breaks down, admits her attraction to Audrey Hepburn. Barbara Stanwyck tries to keep Capucine. Elizabeth Taylor scrawls, with lipstick, “No Sale” across a mirror. Deborah Kerr smolders. Shelley Winters shrieks. Kim Novak screams and backs out of the bell tower, into thin air. 24

2009-05-06T12:27:35-04:00

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Polito, Robert and Trinidad, David

!!33060!!   h2. Poets In Hollywood h3. Robert Polito & David Trinidad In Conversation *Listen to their readings and conversation* p(inline-movie#polito-trinidad). "polito-trinidad":/web-content/audio_files/PIHPolitoTrin_1-2.flv?400x0 _Recorded live on April 9th, 2009, from Columbia College’s Film Row Cinema in Chicago._ _Co-sponsored by Columbia College Chicago’s English Department, Creative Writing–Poetry Program._ *You can download a podcast of this conversation from our "(external)blog":http://bombsite.powweb.com/?p=2446&preview=true.* Robert Polito’s most recent books are the poetry collection ??Hollywood & God?? and ??The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber?? (forthcoming August 2009). His other books include ??Doubles, A Reader’s Guide to James Merrill’s The Changing Light at Sandover??, and ??Savage Art: A Biography of Jim Thompson??, which received the National Book Critics Circle award in biography. He is the founder and Director of the New School Graduate Writing Program, and is completing a new book, ??Detours: Seven Noir Lives??. David Trinidad’s most recent book, ??The Late Show??, was published by Turtle Point Press in 2007. With Jeffery Conway and Lynn Crosbie, he co-wrote ??Phoebe 2002: An Essay in Verse?? (Turtle Point, 2003), a mock-epic based on the 1950 film All About Eve. His other books include ??Answer Song?? (High Risk Books, 1994), ??Hand Over Heart: Poems 1981-1988?? (Amethyst Press, 1991), ??Pavane?? (Sherwood Press, 1981), and ??Plasticville?? (Turtle Point, 2000), a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets. With Denise Duhamel and Maureen Seaton, he edited ??Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry?? (Soft Skull Press, 2007). Trinidad teaches poetry at Columbia College Chicago, where he co-edits the journal ??Court Green??.

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2010-03-09T15:02:19-05:00

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