Birthday News: A Poemoscope: Jim Cohn (2018)

Imagine yourself entering a building called the Center for Lost, Forgotten, Missing and Unborn Persons. You climb up the steps and go in through the door. You don’t know who’s lost or forgotten all the people and the things they did or may do, but you rummage around looking to see if any of these people and the things they created belong to you. As you proceed through this chance operation, you wonder, “How many other people’s memories, desires, loves, knowledge, productions in time do I have to look through before I can find my own?” And when you find out you cannot simply request memories by name, memories belonging to other specific persons, most of us just give up the search. But we also remain curious about other people’s memories. After all, it’s in ego’s nature to wonder how we ourselves may crop up in the memories of others. You take a cursory look down the aisles, on the shelves, covering the walls, ceiling and floor. “This is not someone I’ve lost or forgotten,” you say to yourself. “This is not mine either.” But any glimpse that allows for a space in which to see the richness of our interconnectivity with one another––living, dead and yet-to-be born––is the poemoscopic effect that I discovered in looking back at the day, month and year of my birth. New, signed by author. 6" x 9" paperback, 88 pp. $25.00

The Ongoing Saga I Told My Daughter: Expanded Edition: Jim Cohn (2016)

The Ongoing Saga I Told My Daughter: Expanded Edition (2016) has a special place in the Jim Cohn constellation of books and recordings. After publishing the original edition in 2009, Jim found that the "saga" wasn't over. Based on a forgotten memory of crazy adventures told as serial tales by a camp counselor when he was a boy, Jim now presents the original Saga as Book 1 of this new 3-books-in-one expanded edition. The idea behind this new work remains true to the original; these 147 exquisitely sketched cinematic prose poems would be bedtime stories a father told his daughter. Each individual piece evokes a possible life story or future path. The characters that inhabit these "fem action" poems luminously portray a Pippy Longstockingesque strength and confidence. They operate in various dimensions, times, and universes and reveal Cohn's uncanny sense of feminine energy, which remains the book's central exploration. Underlying it all is a father's love for and belief in his daughter and his hopes and dreams for her as she grows into adulthood. Not a children's book. New, signed by author. 6" x 9" paperback, 180 pp. $30.00

The Groundless Ground: Jim Cohn (2014)

The Groundless Ground is a collection of poems written by poet Jim Cohn between 2010 and 2014. The underlying theme of this work is the celebration of passion for creation and right action as its own reward. The poet Andy Clausen, author of 40th Century Man: Selected Verse 1996-1966 and Home of the Blues: More Selected Poems described this work as "innovative heart felt and often unpredictable." Lesléa Newman, author of October Mourning: A Song For Matthew Shepard wrote "The true test of a poetry book is "Am I a better person for having read this book?" In the case of The Groundless Ground, the answer is a resounding YES [...] I imagine Jim Cohn's former teacher Allen Ginsberg smiling up in Heaven like a proud papa, utterly delighted by these miraculous poems, born through "the cervix of dreams." S.A. Griffin, author of Dreams Gone Mad With Hope and co-editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry characterized this work as "an epic post-beat meditation swirling with Buddhist thought, pop culture, the thousand-thousand unblinking eyes of Big Brother and the 21st Century geopolitical landscape as it unfolds with digital ears and liberty spikes for all." Nancy Mercado, author of It Concerns the Madness wrote "Jim Cohn takes you through a [...] poetically charted journey on what it is to be human in relationships, in the death of loved ones, in the struggle for justice, at the movies; an esoteric, mystical and real trip you have to take." New, signed by author. 6" x 9" paperback, 144 pp. $30.00

Venerable Madtown Hall: Jim Cohn (2013)

Venerable Madtown Hall (MusEx Records, 2013) is a double CD/DVD package by poet Jim Cohn in spoken word collaboration with keyboardist Bob Schlesinger and featuring bassist Chris Engleman. VMH contains the 10-track CD and a poetry-noir b/w film by Katrina Miller entitled The Making of Venerable Madtown Hall (Blackat Productions, 2013). The VMH sessions took place at Airshow Mastering, in Boulder, Colorado on January 10 and 11, 2013. Sound engineer Tony Crank tracked and mixed the record. David Glasser mastered the record. The ten tracks on both the CD and the DVD come in the same order: "Extraterrestial Girl," "Privacy Bedlam," “’Inscrutable Variation’," "Medicine Verbs," "Amsterdam & Levette," "Oriole," "Celestially Promiscuous," "Not Holding On," and "When Hard Times Take Everything." This collection comes in cardboard wallet with CD in left sleeve, DVD in right. Shrinkwrapped. All Jim Cohn’s recordings, with lyrics from his entire catalog, are at Jim's home page. $25.00

Commune: Jim Cohn (2013)

Commune consists of nine new Cohn poems created in live and improvised collaboration with Dan Groves, a Boulder guitarist and bassist. The record was conceived as an artifact of the acid rock era. The spoken word-electric guitar sound of the minimalistic 1993 Tim/Kerr Records recording by William S. Burroughs and Kurt Cobain called The “Priest” They Called Him was used as a model. In the years since he first heard that record, Jim knew some day he’d be making Commune. Groves’ guitar work conveys an emotional spaciousness appropriate for Cohn’s poems. Commune features these nine tracks: “Jayne Cortez,” “Changed Everything,” “Dark Horse Cloaking Device,” “They Say You Can’t Wage Peace,” “Symbol Of Repeat,” “Every Once In A While,” “My Double,” “One Black Hole, Straight Up,” and “You Of Very Subtle Mind.” $25.00

Sutras & Bardos: Jim Cohn (2011)

Sutras & Bardos: Essays & Interviews on Allen Ginsberg, The Kerouac School, Anne Waldman, Postbeat Poets & The New Demotics (Museum of American Poetics Publications, 2011) completes a prose trilogy on poetry by Jim Cohn. An eclectic selection of writings and conversation, part historical, part futuristic, Cohn lays out a present vision of where poetry has gone in his own lifetime and in so doing, suggests a few of the crossroads that brought together the poets of the Postbeat era. A review of this work by Beat Studies scholar Jonah Raskin suggested “perhaps no one in the United States today understands and appreciates the poetic durability and the cultural elasticity of the Beats better than Jim Cohn.” First edition paperback, signed. $40.00

Mantra Winds: Poems 2004 - 2010: Jim Cohn (2010)

Sam Abrams, author of The Neglected Walt Whitman, wrote of Mantra Winds: "As Ginsberg was the truest son of Whitman for his time, so Jim Cohn is the truest son of Ginsberg for these times." Anne Waldman wrote of the book's epicenter, the long poem "When Skeletons Make Love" that it is "an amazing tantri poem, incredibly sustained, powerful, visceral - I love the particulars..." Published by the Museum of American Poetics Publications, 2010. $30.00

Impermanence: Jim Cohn (2008)

Compilation double CD spanning over a decade of Jim Cohn recordings. Impermanence showcases Cohn's "First Take, Best Take" jazz approach to recording. The results make for breathtaking spoken word and musical performances. Disc 1 features "Padre Trail," "Where The Road Disappears," "Ghost Dance," "Trashtalking Country," "Dragon Tracks," and "Slips Away." Disc 2 contains two longer improvisational pieces, "When Skeletons Make Love" and the epic "Treasures for Heaven." MusEx Records, 2008. $25.00

homage: Jim Cohn (2007)

As his mother Lois lay dying of cancer in the summer of 2006, Jim Cohn began tracking sessions as if to create a space in which he could deal with her loss. Taking heart from her exemplary life in pieces such as "Green Dress, White Shoes," "Higher Power," "Down Here," "Lois," and "Slips Away," homage reflects on family, the generations, and our place in the tree of life. Two-years in the making, with strong rhythym and blues influences, homage gives voice to faith and remembrance in the face of loss and emptiness. MusEx Records, 2007. CD. $25.00

Trashtalking Country: Jim Cohn (2006)

Trashtalking Country was envisioned as a exploration of spoken word poetry and improvised American Roots Music. Featuring the late Grand Ole' Oprey journeyman Rusty Estes, who at 14 years-old began touring with the legendary Carter Family, Trashtalking Country includes the country blues-based "Roadrunner" and "Beat Up Limo," as well as the title track. The bare naked sound and message of "If Every God," makes this song the centerpiece of the disc. MusEx Records, 2006. CD. $25.00

Quien Sabe Mountain: Poems 1998-2004: Jim Cohn (2004)

Quien Sabe Mountain offers a vision of poetry's continued relevance wherever men and women experience the unbridled fury of dictators, ghosts, and planet killers closing in upon them. Five or 6 books rolled into one, "Who Knows Mountain" gives witness to a multiplicity of Americas, its US coyote politics pre/post 911, global religious god army crusades, world family grace & grief. Major works found in this collection include the three long poems "Treasures for Heaven," "The Route of the Dead Man," as well as Cohn's futurist "Notes To A Young P-borg" on the shape of poetry to come. Author Signed Copy, first edition. Museum of American Poetics, 2004. $35.00

The Golden Body: Jim Cohn (2003)

An alternative classic in the field of Disability Studies, The Golden Body: Meditations On The Essence Of Disability is a book to be read and re-read for its gentle and poetic humanity and for its eloquent affirmation of the centrality of disability to the human experience. Reading it, wrote David Braddock, is a "transformative literary journey." Jim Cohn's great talent, wrote Douglas Baynton, "is to bring into conversation discourses that are rarely seen in one another's company." Museum of American Poetics Publications, 2003. $40.00

Emergency Juke Joint: Jim Cohn (2002)

Recorded in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Emergency Juke Joint includes Cohn's tribute to the events of that day in "Ghost Dance," accompanied by indigenous spiritual leader David Young doing a traditional Native American Ghost Dance chant. A juke joint collection of 8 new songs, Emergency Juke Joint includes "Skyology," "The Dharma Club," "Fancy Ray, and the redemption tune "Begin Anew." MusEx Records, 2002. CD. $25.00

Antenna: Jim Cohn (2000)

In the tradition of Jack Kerouac's improvised spoken word recordings, Antenna documents Jim Cohn's foray into the diversity of American Jazz. Antenna includes four pieces: "Revolution," "Extra-Strength Karma," the forty-minute first-take "Treasures for Heaven" (a tip of the hat to Jim Morrison and The Doors' 1960s musical opus "The End") and "Heyoka." MusEx Records, 2000. CD. $25.00

Sign Mind: Studies in American Sign Language Poetics: Jim Cohn (1999)

"Sign Mind: Studies in American Sign Language Poetics," wrote Deaf poet Robert Panara, "is a breakthrough monograph. By drawing analogies of ASL Poetry with the imagist quality of Chinese ideography, along with the work of some leading modernists - Whitman, Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Ginsberg - Cohn aptly describes that 'sense of sudden liberation, and freedom' from the old poetics to the new, as expressed by both the deaf and hearing poets." A collection of eight essays written between 1981-1999, Sign Mind follows the author's enculturation into the world of Deaf Poetry. Published by the Museum of American Poetics Publications, 1999. First edition. New. $40.00

The Dance Of Yellow Lightning Over The Ridge: Jim Cohn (1998)

Author Signed Copy, First Edition, Rare. Titled after a line by Jack Kerouac. Jim Cohn's fourth collection of poems "continues the various strands of his work," wrote David Cope, "including the 'world grief' group framing the book, a group of 'beat generation/fathers' poems, a group that marks this book as a personal coming to terms with the past and struggling to define the present, the wilderness landscape & 'Asian echo' poems, the developing rabbi/Jewish poem series, and finally, the quirky humor poems." The Dance Of Yellow Lightning Over The Ridge: Poems 1993-1997 was published by Writers & Books Publications, Rochester, 1998. $30.00

Unspoken Words: Jim Cohn (1998)

Unspoken Words marked Jim Cohn's first solo spoken word music recording. An eclectic mix of folk ("Rewrote The Book," Kootenai Ferry," "Militiaman," and "Palm Reader"), rock ("Odessa," "Unspoken Words"), and free-form jazz ("When Robots Cry," "Meditation At A Stoplight In The Rain," and "Prajna For the Dark Age"), Unspoken Words contains the last recording by Allen Ginsberg - a collaborative remake of his "Lay Down Yr Mountain," written on tour with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review Tour, and features guest vocal appearances by Postbeat poets Anne Waldman and Andy Clausen. MusEx Records, 1998. Limited. CD. $30.00

Grasslands: Jim Cohn (1994)

Author Signed Copy, First Edtion. Of Grasslands, Allen Ginsberg wrote "Jim Cohn has good imagination and direct perception, facts, details, Whitmanic ambition; his poems are inventive, profuse, concise, improvisational, playful with "hearts as tender as the inside of red roses."
Robert Creeley described this collection of poems as follows: "Again and again these poems make clear the possibility of a common world. They feel often a complex anger at the wastes we insist upon as our need. But they are primarily a compassionate and preceptive recognition that we live here, here and now, and that all are included." Writers & Books Publications, Rochester, 1994. $30.00