Poetry. Latino/a Studies. CITY OF ANGELS is a long visionary poem of Los Angeles by the author, most recently, of SAINT JAMES and DEAD REQUIEM: NEW POETRY FROM CALIFORNIA (both with Jack Foley, from Pantograph). "C A L I F O R N I A D R E A M I N G/ sarcophagus midwinter deadline fails/ remote cont- abyss reports totem death/ entity at a loss to respond surf's/ skelter the what at risk a poet can/ and has will do for the sake of secrecy ..." Saddlestapled chapbbook.

City of Angels (Potes & Poets Press' New chapbook series , 19)

Literature & Fiction

Argüelles, Iván

Poetry

Potes & Poets Pr

Twenty poems by the inimitable Ivan Argelles, 1989 winner of the prestigious William Carlos Williams Prize.

The Tattooed Heart of the Drunken Sailor

History & Criticism

Ghost Pony Pr

Baudelaire's Brain

Sub Rosa Pr

Manicomio: Poems

Silverfish Review

Poetry. Photography. Poems by Ivan Argüelles and photographs by Craig Stockfleth.

Looking for Mary Lou: Illegal Syntax

Rock Steady Press

Poetry. "...one has to read this work with a new mind-set. Instead of looking for the neat moral conclusion, one has to allow oneself to be 'drowned' in the ocean of this stunning and protean work and be receptive to all the ambiguities and contradictions it contains. One should not look for an 'end' to it, for it is endless. You can never 'finish' reading it, but now you must 'start'!"--Dr. John M. Bennett.

Inferno

Beatitude Press

“she is walking the other world?” from Ars Poetica Ars Poetica is not a sonnet sequence—despite the resemblances—but a sequence of “soundings.” Each poem is carefully dated: it was precisely at this moment that these words occurred to me; it was at this moment that I breathed these words in (“inspiration”). Remembering Wordsworth, we might call these poems spots of time. Ivan Argüelles has produced a body of work rooted in his Mexican-American heritage, but it is unlike anything anyone in any ethnic group has produced. Initially grounded in the Spanish variety of Surrealism, his poetry swiftly began to transform itself into an instrument that communicates before it is fully—or sometimes even partially—understood. It is simultaneously “difficult”—restless, full of “references”—but also immediate, visceral. It cannot be “explicated.” Moving beyond Catholic Mexico/Catholic Spain into the even darker roots of Catholicism, Argüelles’ imagination explores the deeply pagan, deeply anarchic ground of an “other” tradition. Urban, sophisticated, learned in many languages (“tongues”), the poet creates a profane, stunningly transcendent, enormously erotic body of work that would probably have had him burned at the stake in the Middle Ages. Poet John M. Bennett insists that Argüelles’ work “is not really ‘literature’ as the term is commonly understood”: we must read it “with a new mind-set”; “one has to allow oneself to be ‘drowned’ in the ocean of this stunning and protean work and be receptive to all the ambiguities and contradictions it contains.” Argüelles’ own word for his work is “Enigma”; another way to describe it is to insist that it is a mystical consciousness which has removed itself from any known religion: San Juan de la Nada, poetry as that old black magic. Our critical categories fall by the wayside as we attempt to tell people what it is about this work that so moves us, that so “charms” us with its impossible, totally “inconsiderate” power and darkness: “my” inspiration, year 1624 where is verdant luster, where is emerald bay, not carbonized, distance is the symbol, smoking “that” famous cigarette, where sidewalk turns into heaven’s gate, a remark in passing, lowering head in gesture of shy naiad, are there waters so crystalline? distance is the signal, remote the utter language of the Soul, do the two recognize the Other? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I don’t remember what it is (“my inspiration”) We can call such passages “chaotic”—which they both are and are not. In its incredible swirl of sexuality, erudition, and massive longing, Argüelles’ poetry asks the reader again and again, “You think you have an ego? Try this.” But if we haven’t an ego, what do we “have”? What the entity Argüelles calls his “Muse” has given him: an amazing language that simultaneously attracts and betrays us at every possible moment: “a music emerges a riot.” From Introduction, by Jack Foley.

Ars Poetica: Poems 2006-2013

Poetry Hotel Press

Poetry. "If proof were needed that Surrealism is a spontaneous expression of the poetic mind, Ivan Arguelles would be the one to provide it. In the tradition of the madder, darker, and more mystical Surrealists like Rene Crevel and Antonin Artaud, Arguelles weaves his mad web of images out of an impossible depth. Unlike the more superficial image makers who lay claim to the Surrealist label out of sheer laziness or because 'it looks easy,' Arguelles is genuine" -Andrei Codrescu.

"That" Goddess

Pantograph Press

Poetry. "Ivan Argüelles's work has always affected me like fire pouring from some unmapped stellar helix. The existences he engenders seem to open up death, to pave the way for an unlocking, for an ascent, so that our minds can live in fearless play. Argüelles lives in Mayan ritual craters, speaking in green lunation cycles, growing suns and dates from the power of chimes. It is a world replete with ruses, temperatures, species, where the force of language takes over without judgement."—Will Alexander

Hapax Legomenon

New Poetry from California: Dead/Requiem

Foley, Jack

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