JAMES MAUGHN lives in Santa Cruz, CA, where he coordinates A New Cadence Poetry Series out of the Felix Kulpa Gallery in downtown Santa Cruz. His most recent collection, These Peripheries was published with Otoliths in 2012; The Arakaki Permutations was published with Black Radish Books in 2011; Kata, was published by BlazeVOX Books in 2008.
Black Radish Books will be publishing Maughn’s next collection, Playing the Form in March 2017. Purchase copies of Playing the Form here.
Advance Praise for Playing the Form
“Intriguing, playful, and illuminating, Playing the Form comes out of the dual daily practice of writing and marital arts. With a steady intensity, the poems explore how we navigate and are shaped by external forces —time and gravity but also architecture, habitat destruction and the free market. In dialogic structures, serial forms, and witty word play, this collection creates a wonderfully expansive approach to poetics and is a joy to read.” -Judy Halebsky, author of Sky=Empty and Tree Line (New Issues Press)
That settles it. You lift, and the room
lifts with you. Lock the song
in without a key:
The barest hour a day can spare,
and notes bespeak
a continuous gap to gather in.
So mark now a moving
target. Taut in secret, leave a
quiver in strictest confidence, arrow.
Praise for The Arakaki Permutations
“In THE ARAKAKI PERMUTATIONS, James Maughn continues his uncompromising engagement with the catechisms of martial kata and their intersection with the forms of writing. Delving deeper into the heart of his own poems, he engages the particularities of technical application—of timing and distance—that comprise his own poetic waza, or practice. By disclosing the textures and subtleties of language, even to the level of the syllable, Maughn illuminates the architecture of meaning. The result is a collection of remarkable poems that discover a boundless freedom within the structure of form. Through self imitation he has subjugated self-consciousness and achieved that most difficult of artistic feats: the revelation of a true self”—Joshua McKinney.
The Arakaki Permutations is available through SPD.
