Various Sundries

Massive reading and homework day. I finished Jane Hirshfield's Ink Dark Moon, the first section of Pound's letters covering 1914-1916, and am working my way through Bidart's In the Western Night. Tomorrow I have to finish reading my Greeks. I need to work in a couple of essays, but so far I feel like I'm on top of things for this packet. This is good, because I've got a little over a week to finish my stuff up and get it sent off.

I'm still writing a lot of poems, a lot of throat clearing but once that stuff's out of the way, the follow-ups are pretty fun. I've reached a point where I don't give a real shit. I'm tossing it all out there. That seems to me the real luxury of graduate study--you read a lot and you write a lot and try everything you possibly can. I can't say that the reading so far has had much impact on what I think aesthetically--but it's opened me up to options and rethinking what my idea of poetry is and might be.

And given that my reading list is a continuum running from Archilochos and Sappho to Bob Hicok, how can I complain?

~*~

Evie has proven herself to be a tough little dog. When I took her out today, someone's three plott hounds were hanging around our yard. She went ballistic and ran all of them off. I kept see-sawing back between being scared for her and amused.

~*~

I got my galleys of OCHO #22. It's a fantastic issue. I sat last night and scrolled through it instead of doing homework. It's a real mix of established and new poets and a diverse survey of current queer poetry. More pimping once I know the issue is available.

Aaaand Another

And Another

A Sort of Preview

Knockout 2

Knockout 2 is available for order here.

The second issue features:

Nathan Whiting	Michael J. Rosen	Erin M. Bertram
Willis Barnstone	Molli Rocket	Louis Jenkins
Rika Lesser	Joe Wilkins	William Baer
Reginald Shepherd	Blas Falconer	Nance Van Winckel
Tim Nolan	Elizabeth Bradfield	Robert Wrigley
Ruth Williams	Todd Boss	Maya Jewell Zeller
Kristine Ong Muslim	RJ Gibson	Denver Butson
Jessica Moll	Denise Duhamel	Jessica Halliday
Melissa Kwasny Stacey Waite	Kathryn Nuernberger Christopher Howell	Theodore Enslin J. P. Dancing Bear	translations of Luis Cremades Rainer Maria Rilke Elisabeth Rynell Göran Sonnevi

Knockout is donating 5% of our proceeds to The Trevor Project, which operates the only nationwide, around-the-clock crisis and suicide prevention helpline for LGBTQ youth. For more information, visit thetrevorproject.org

OOF

The reintegration back into work has not been good the last couple of days. There are problems all over the place--long-standing problems that caught us by surprise. Soooo I've been fielding phone calls, poring over reports and trying to get a fast mastery of paperwork and operations that I barely knew existed two months ago. I'm mentally exhausted. I hope to god we get this straightened out by the end of the week or I'm going to be crazy.

~*~

The work front crazy dovetails not so nicely into getting my first packet of assignments finished up and ready to be sent to my supervisor by the end of the week. I knew it was going to be tough getting a substantial amount of work done in 9 days when we usually have three weeks--but I thought I had programmed in enough time--but the work thing has blown up. I'll have it done...it's just going to be a long couple of nights.

~*~

I got an acceptance email last night for three poems. Thank god for that. I needed it this week. Not to mention that I've effectively tripled my 2008 acceptance rate already. More deets once it's all finalized.

Snapshot 1

I'm going to get around to something a little more developed about Warren Wilson (I promise)--but I have a quick like bunny turn around time for my first set of poems/revisions/assignments so I'm going to just hit a few highlights in some short posts:

*Discussing ways of dispatching chickens from this mortal coil with another poet.

*Eleanor Wilner. If you ever have the chance to see her read or lecture or anything--do it. She is fantastic.

*Having someone exclaim "HEY! You're that guy from C. Dale's blog!"

*C. Dale's reading. Really some fantastic poems.

*The post-graduation dance. It's kind of a blast seeing people who spend so much time in their heads be embodied.

Back to Bedlam

I'm going to try and get in some posts about Warren Wilson--it was an amazing time. Excepting the cold I picked up on Friday.

~*~

Back to work today and I am overwhlemed.

Our long-planned remodeling project is underway, so there's cacophony and debris everywhere. I have to work new employees into the schedule and learn how to do some accounting stuff for the hotel and restaurant while the accountant is in Costa Rica. I feel fuzzy-headed and stupid.

In Which I Through Down w/a Sandwich Technician

Hello from North Carolina. The drive wasn't bad at all. Woke this morning to a pretty decent snow and had a minor freak out. Luckily it had stopped by 11 and by the time I was on the road at noon it was starting to melt.

All was, however, not perfect. I stopped on the way to grab a sandwich and stretch my legs about halfway. As I was waiting for my order I noticed a sign on the register that said "Ask for Additional Condiments." Soooo I asked for some mustard.

"We ain't got no mustard. But we got may-o-naize. "
"But the sign says condiments."
"We got may-o-naize. You want some may-o-naize?"

For Aaron

I'm sure he missed this last night... Kathy Grffin & Anderson Cooper on CNN.

The plan(s) for 2009:

• Write more
  
• Submit more packets & poems
• Travel more
• Go back to the gym...that last 15 lbs ain't gonna melt.
  

Double 0 9--It's Almost Like Clockwork