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On Nov. 9, Hoffman LaChance is hosting a unique art invitational and silent auction organized by Poetry Scores. Poetry Scores is a local arts group dedicated to translating poetry into other media. This year, they have translated into music - i.e., scored - a long poem by Stefene Russell titled "Go South for Animal Index." On Nov. 9, they will release this poetry score CD, published within a handsome book printed by Firecracker Press. They also have invited an interesting group of local and national artists to translate the poem into visual art, with titles drawn from the poem. This work will be hung around the gallery, based on where in the poem the respective titles appear. The work will be on sale by silent auction. For more information about Poetry Scores, call 314-265-1435 or email brodog@hotmail.com. Chris Kingbrodog@hotmail.com

Scroll down for participating artists list and poem by Stefene Russell.


Jon Counoyer
Greg Edmondson
Jenna Bauer
Lyndsey Scott
Jason Triefenbach
Melanie Persch
Sue Hartman
Stan Chisholm
Robert Goetz
Brett Williams
Andy Tolch
Jamie Gartelos
Gena Bradey
Carmelita Nunez
Chris Dingwell
Mike Behle
Sandra Marchewa
Robert Van Dillen
Daniel Shown
Bryan Reckamp
Eric Woods
Diana Lucas
Alicia LaChance
William LaChance
Michael Hoffman

Go South For Animal Index
By Stefene Russell


For J.

For the world is from the beasts, and it is a beast.
Therefore he that is lost has been reckoned to the crafty one,
and that one is from the beasts that came forth.
No beast exists in the eternal realm

And desire is in the midst of the beautiful, appetizing trees.

There is a mountain, shaped like an Indian.
One day, they say, he'll wake, and conquer Leetso,
The yellow monster, who was supposed to keep
America floating here above the sea.
Monsters are supposed to live under the magma,
But we took it home to live with us.
Our hero will drink all the water in Shiprock,
he'll sew up that stained pond
with a tooth and his longest hair.
"You'd look to the west-and there would be pink."
Symbol: U
Atomic Number: 92

And the mouth opens in the seeding, deciduous trees.

Shinkolobwe: a wound is a doorway, this is a portal.
The old moon sleeps in the new moon's arms.
Bateke, auric in the trees, weebling through darkness
Blue like Gauls, but shining in the blackness,
There are no alchemists, only opportunists
And beneath them the debased cogs
Who bear wheelbarrows, packed full of lightning.
"Why a corpse as me would be afraid
of radiations of uranium?
Misery already killed us."
Symbol: Ra
Atomic Number: 88

And the trees failing in the beautiful, deciduous light

O Doctor Rontgen, thank you for this armature.
O Doctor Bequerel, thank you for this radiant salt.
O Pitchblende and Bismuth, here we go--
piles of rock squeezed to one glowing seed,
A zloty dusted in radium, a death confection,
Her black hats
Trussed up with astral flowers,
The beaker that started all of this,
Glowing on the white table.
Symbol: Po
Atomic Number: 84

And the snake continues to bite
Until it is only appetite
In the midst of the beautiful trees.

The new sparkly bark arfs Trinity!
And here is green glass-
Under that glow, astrocartography shows
Primary Transcendental Mercury,
Tertiary Transcendental Pluto
Fire tower, beautiful wire, burning rabbits,
"Batter my heart, three-personed God!"
Symbol: Es
Atomic Number: 99

And the oldest trees open their appetites
In the light that does not fail.

Little boys and fat men
Fall through glowing weather
Here are Polaroids
Of all you radon daughters
"A flash! A white flash sparkled!"
Symbol: Sr
Atomic Number: 38

and nausea burns in the grandparent trees
In the midst of the beautiful, absent appetites.

The black dog becomes black spots
Borne on the wind; and the name of
The star is wormwood.
Radiophobia, timed like a waltz
And all these hailstones, glowing
scorpions inside-black ice and
leave the house, leave it unlocked,
unusually deep pits,
tiny dangerous bodies and coffins
"These glasses no longer deceive us!--
These glasses show us more clearly."
Symbol: Pu
Atomic Number: 94

And together we are the perfect day,
And among us dwells the light which does not fail.

There are no beasts on Beast Island,
Only the dear chime of Greenwich mean time.
Atmospheric--Plumbob, Buster-Jangle, Hardtack, Dominic
And lambing sheds-shade of Atomic Cowboy yodels
"hoo hoo, damn good place to dump razor blades."
Uranium-bearing grapeshot, cobalt and copper
grapeshot carted in wheelbarrows,
and the blue-white asterisks--
"A is for Atom, B is for Bomb.
C is for Cancer, D is for Death"
Symbol: Uuu
Atomic Number: 111

Tell me-what is the power that will wash an entire generation?

Chart yourself south for the perfect day,
And the light that dwells among us
That does not fail.