Translation

Dear God in Heaven, a certain professor has his students translating me into Spanish! Now THAT is disturbing.

Caption Contest #9

William Logan writes, at the Poetry Foundation website:

"I don't see that poetry blogs do any active harm, or that they do much active good. If I want to read about someone's life, I read Coleridge's letters or Byron's journals or Herzen's memoirs."

Strangely enough, it is very likely blogs will be like Coleridge's letters or Byron's to future generations. We don't write letters to folks the way Colerdige and Byron did. We write emails and blogs. This might well be how future generations learn about us. Just a thought, scary as that might be...


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And after such "serious" discussion, what better way to continue the week than with the Caption Contest. Yes, it is that time. As always, the rules are the same. Photo below requires a caption. Jacob will select what he deems the best caption for the photo and that person will be the winner. Shanna Compton came back to win Contest #8. So, who will win this time?






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I dreamt that Robert Pinsky was singing at a piano in a bar. He became annoyed with me because at first I didn't recognize him. This is odd because I have never met Pinsky and also because I cannot figure out how he would end up in a dream of mine. I have had no conversation recently with anyone about him or his work. Anyway, it was an odd dream, but it doesn't even come close to even the tamest of my Ashbery dreams.


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Clue: Cellophane


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Finally

Once again, praise the god of coffee! Despite getting a lot of rest this weekend, I am strangely tired this morning. But isn't that always the case? It is like when you have slept more the previous night than you have all week and then cannot fall asleep the next time you go to bed. Well, that is an awkward simile... Anyway, you know what I mean. I shouldn't be tired, but I am.


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William Logan is over at the Poetry Foundation website this week doing their weekly journal.


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PSA: Please VOTE!


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Well, I am finally getting my wish. Shortly, very shortly, NER will stop accepting simultaneous submissions for poetry. We used to take them because we didn't want a double standard for poetry vs. fiction, but the whole thing is getting out of hand. When our average turnaround time for poetry submissions is 8 weeks, we don't see a need for sim subs. They are causing us too much headache. We get withdrawals every single day. We got some the second week we were back open for business. We get them almost every single day. Well, those poets shouldn't be sending to us in the first place. We already get 40,000+ poems a year. And we only publish 65-80. So, best to send elsewhere so those sending to NER have a better shot of being published there. This is how I am starting to view it. I know many will disagree, but this has never been a consensus point anywhere. Before the end of this year, we will stop taking simultaneous submissions. We need to rework the guidelines.


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Clue: I'm seeing stars, I'm seeing stars...


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Back

Home. Tired. But it was a good weekend away. And we needed it. Tomorrow, back to the hospital.

Things Happen

Been away from home since Thursday. Sadly, not completely away from everything. I have been grading in between things. No rest for the wicked, I suppose.


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My mom has already voted. In Florida they have early voting. My parents both went to do early voting because they are worried about the mayhem they think will be at the polls on Election Day. So, if you have early voting, do it. Do anything to make sure you vote this time. I know I sound like a broken record, but things have to change in this government. Congress has to change!


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Dear God, I am apparently shirtless in a poem. Oh well. Things happen.


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I think Northern California might now be owned by Starbucks...


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Clue: Phantom


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Out of Here, for now

We are so out of here! Packing up our small suitcases and ready to go.


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If you aren't registered to vote and can still do so, please do so now. Please. You can do it online just by following this link/icon:




***************************


Had a great IM chat with one of my best friends this morning. Thank God for good friends.


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The new poem I am still tinkering with is all about lust! Yeah baby, LUST!


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Sauvignon Blanc is the new Chardonnay


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Clue: I'll take the World for $5, please...


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Victor #8

Well, Jacob has selected the winner. The victor is none other than Shanna Compton. I had joked I wanted her to come out of hiding and kick some caption contest boodie. Well, she did just that. Ms. Compton, who won the first three rounds of this contest, came back to pick up #8:






"No, guys, come on! That doesn't even spell anything. Once again from the top: Y-M-C-A . . . and you, Ken, just be an exclamation point or something."



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The runner-up this time was Reb Livingston with:

"I see London
I see France
I see Menudo's underpants"


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Thanks to everyone who played and who read the various captions for a chuckle.


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Stint

Yes, we must definitely head out of town on Thursday for a long weekend.


********************


I have to say I am thinking more and more about a two-week stint at a Colony sometime next year in order to work on putting together the third ms. I need to know and understand better what is there, what is not there.


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Still no winner to announce for the Caption Contest. Sorry. Jacob will not be rushed.


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Clue: The apprentice became the Master


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Top Three Google Searches That Led To This Blog

1. "C. Dale Young"
2. "Avoiding the Muse"
3. "bert ernie gay"

I am dead serious, people. I wish I were making this up. It is all because of a meme I did over a year ago about which television characters we were or something. I believe I got that meme from Dr. Pereira. Anyway, I came up as Bert and Ernie. Now, apparently, lots of people are obsessed with the Sesame Street Puppets. For God's sake, they are puppets! Why are so many people searching "bert ernie gay"? Is there some wacked out story (no pun intended) behind this?

Physics

I am hoping to get Jacob to name a winner today for the caption contest. As some of you know, he moves at his own pace, and that pace is definitely not my own.


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I was told by a teacher once that one should NEVER use the word cliche in a poem. So, I am sure you know where this is going. Yup, I used it in a poem TWICE. Not sure why I do this. I mean, I am not 20.


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I am sure it is just me, but I am really tired of reading about the Wave Books Poetry Bus Tour. Poetry Bus, great idea. Focusing on it as if nothing else happens in Poetry, bad idea. I mean, for God's sake, the Poetry Foundation has devoted three weeks of its journal to this bus tour. I am tuning out this week. I have attention deficit difficulties already. I can barely survive a movie longer than 2 hours.


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Upcoming Open Reading Periods for poetry manuscripts at various publishers (via Steve Schroeder)


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In college I hated Physics. In fact, I once told a classmate I thought it was stupid for pre-med to require Physics because I knew of no doctors who used Physics to practice medicine. I could almost laugh when I think of that statement because I went into one of the only fields of medicine in which one uses Physics every single day. Wouldn't you know it?


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Clue: Lust


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Work

I have been somewhat down on my own poetry for the past few days. Hard to explain really. I suppose for a good number of you reading this, I don't have to explain. Part of the odd mind for writing poems, creating any Art, really. Despite the new poem taking shape in my head, I just couldn't help but feel down about poetry stuff. I even threw a self-pity party for myself while writing to a former student of mine. Sad. Pathetic, really. But I had an odd conversation with a good friend of mine who is also a poet. Difficult to say what she said that made a hinge for me, but something swung around while talking to her. And then the silly line I often use to friends, students, others in general, came back to haunt me: "There is work to be done." And yes, in fact, there was work to be done.

The beautiful and clear, sunny day yesterday has yielded to fog. In my studio, I could see it sifting through the branches of the trees. And I thought "There is work to be done." I decided to cut the pity-party crap out and do what a poet does. I drafted the poem. It may not be the best poem written or even one of my best, but that is besides the point. I write poems because I cannot not write poems. In the end, it is that moment of creation, that moment when you are consumed with the poem, the drafting of it, that matters the most. It is exhilarating. It is like a drug. So, time to head off and run errands. We all have insecurities, but sometimes you just have to do the work. Sometimes, I just have to get out of my own head.

Casting

No word yet from Jacob as to the winner of Caption Contest #8. I guess that leaves more time for you to enter.


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I guess I didn't have the fortitude for Shostakovich last night. Maybe it was that Symphony Hall was warmer than usual. Maybe it was the 3-course dinner we had before. Maybe it was the bottle of Bruno Paillard Brut Rose Champagne. Whatever the reason, I couldn't focus, couldn't even stay awake! It was a giant snoozefest for me, which is kind of awful.


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My partner at work is away for family reasons, so the start of the week should be interesting in clinic. I will be glad to be off Thursday and Friday. We just might have to head out of town for a longish weekend.


***************************


More grading today. I will settle in for a few hours once we get back from errands. Yes, my Sundays are not very exciting.


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Clue: Eggs Benedict, breakfast potatoes, mimosas


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To Be Invisible

Because a few of you have asked: The photo this time is part of a D & G catalog from some time ago. It features actual members of an Italian Football Team. They aren't professional models.


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PHYSICS III: SUPER POWERS


A students tells me that he'd like to be invisible
and I tell him that he'd have to be blind
because if light passes through you,
then it can't stop in your retina, which is how
you see. He gives up on invisibility
(I think he mostly wanted to sneak into
women's locker rooms) and moves to flying
which is certainly more feasible since we already
have planes and my ignorance about the physics
of jetpacks (I suspect they would burn your legs)
helps the conversation. I ask him if he would rather have
bird wings or bat wings. He picks bird wings,
because they're more like angel wings.
I think he is a traitor. He'll have to give up his arms.


--Jason Schneiderman

(from Sublimation Point)


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I love the way Schneiderman captures the jaded teacher tone in that poem. It just kills me every time. Good poem from a very good book.


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Tonight, Saint-Saens' Second Piano Concerto and Shostakovich's 10th Symphony. It should be a fantastic concert. I haven't listened to Shostakovich for quite a while now. Tempted to go snag some from Jacob's studio. But I don't dare to do such a thing. Studios are, after all, sacred individual space.


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Thinking again today about Louise Gluck's poem, "Day Without Night." Trying to understand how one enters into a known story, a myth. Trying to figure out how one makes that myth real enough for him/herself to then make it real for others. Convoluted ideas. Body in motion eventually moves so quickly it is not noticed. Physics. The Schneiderman poem. I am trying to understand how the personal adds to the mythic and vice versa. What is the balancing line between Sylvia Plath and Brigit Pegeen Kelly, between making the personal into something mythic and making the mythic more personal? Physics is involved. Specifically, optics. We understood sleight of hand long before we understood the physics behind optics.


***************************


Clue: Heat, Fire, Lust...


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GOOGLE, Shiatsu, and Sucka-punches

Shareholders of GOOGLE are happy today!


*********************


Haven't entered the Caption Contest yet? What are you waiting for?


*********************


I am really excited to go to the Japanese Hot Springs tomorrow. I think I really need the quiet time. And there is something to be said for steam, soaks, and shiatsu.


*********************


I am up to about 15 lines now for this new poem I have in my head. I also think it may really be the last poem I write for the next book. Still a lot of work to be done: revising, ordering, etc. I have a vague idea already of how the thing might be structured.


*********************


Printed out the pdf of the full cover of the second book. It looked even more fantastic in physical form compared to the version on the computer screen. I am so excited to see the final book. March suddenly seems far away.


*********************


Clue: Hiya-bobs!


*********************

Caption Contest #8

Finished grading yesterday evening and then did the last pass through the book's galleys. Just after finishing the last look at the galleys, checked my email and saw the final proof of my cover. This time it was the entire cover, front, back, and spine. It looks gorgeous. The designers Four Way contracted for this have done an incredible job. And unlike Northwestern that effed up my author photo on the back cover (they washed it out and ruined the contrast of the photo), my new author photo looked very much true to the original copy I received from Marion Ettlinger. All in all, I was incredibly happy. Four Way Books has been a dream press for me. After Northwestern and Zoo, I really needed a press like Four Way. Every person at Four Way cares about Poetry. After Northwestern and Zoo, I really need that TLC.


***************************


And guess what folks. Yup, it is that time again. Time for the contest that flexes your mental muscle. That's right, time for Caption Contest #8. The rules are the same as always. Offer up a caption the photo below. Jacob is the judge, as usual. The caption he thinks is best will be named the winner. In the past, various folks including Shanna Compton, Anne Haines, Ginger Heatter, John Gallaher, and Aaron Smith have won. Ms. Compton actually won the first three contests in a row! But since then, she has been very quiet. I am hoping she comes out of hiding to whoop some caption ass! So, what are you waiting for? Show us what you got...




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What is up with the contestants on ANTM this year? Jeez, they seem so blase and dull. The one booted from the show last night deserved to go.


***************************


Clue: Red is the new black.


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Kansas?

Does no one study History anymore? Have we forgotten the reasons this Country was founded? I read this article from the LA Times in utter shock and disbelief. [Note: the LA Times article expired, so I am posting a link to the same article being run in the Contra Costa Times]. Are we in America? What century is this? Has Congress lost its mind? How can this be happening? Habeas corpus is one of those things I always thought was a basic principle on which our laws have stood for centuries. How can our legislators hand such a law to the President? This had better go to the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court better remember the tenets of law basic to the Constitution of the United States of America. If I was shocked and disgusted with the whole marriage thing yesterday, I am beyond that with this piece of news. The Justices of the Supreme Court had better strike this down. If they don't, then the rule of law established by the Constitution of this country is a farce.

What is Caesar's

Ah Wednesday. On the plate today, grading, grading, editing, proofing, buying coffee, batteries for smoke detectors, trying to start drafting the new poem now up to about 13 lines in my head.


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Father Confessor (aka Aaron) wants you to confess. So, stop by his virtual confessional and do it. Give it to him. Let it out. Do it already. Yeah, just do it. (Okay, I am getting a little carried away here. I need some cool water.)


***************************


I dreamt again that someone was flinging gold coins at me.


***************************


Clue: "I don't know who Julie is, but her wine sure is tasty...."


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WARNING: Rant Follows

This makes me so effing mad! THIS is exactly why I get so mad at straight "friends" who tell me marriage equality is all about symbolism and "language." It is not just about that. This is part of what it is about. The glaring inequity of this is disgusting. My love and family is no less important than anyone else's. And the fact that a convicted felon can still collect these benefits while a gay spouse cannot is even more disgusting!

Even Larger Than That

My day for early shift, so to speak. Have to head off to the hospital in a few.


***************************


Yup, I have to face the fact that the poem whirling around in my head is likely the last poem to be written toward a third book ms. Because I have become conscious of this fact, I am avoiding the poem. We'll see just how long I can avoid it. I am up to about 11 lines now, so I know I can't turn it back. But I can delay it, make the tension between it and me even greater. Hard to believe the first poem I wrote toward this ms. was written in 1999. Jesus H. my life was different then. I was so freakin' unhappy then. I cannot even believe I am the same person. I certainly had a very different life then. 1999 was the year I realized I was with someone I didn't love anymore. Same year I also realized I would never leave him, realized how my loyalty to people is effing pathologic. Same year I contemplated leaving Medicine but didn't (for same reasons noted in previous sentence, pathologic loyalty).

But good things happened that year as well. It was the summer of that year I came home to a voice mail from Susan Hahn on my answering machine asking me if my first book ms. was still available because she wanted to publish it. After 6 years of trying to get a book published, it felt really odd to hear that message. It was also the year I first went to Bread Loaf, my first official outing as a Poetry Editor. Yes, 1999 remains a weird year of good things and terrible things all mixed together. All years aren't that way. Some years seem positively dull in comparison, like hatch marks between the years where things happen, where things matter. I have no idea why I am so contemplative today. It must be because I know I have to get the hell out of here and get to the hospital post haste.


***************************


Okay, I admit it. Even after so many years, I am still crushing on Robert Hass's poetry. And even now, after so many years with that work, I still cannot explain exactly why I love it so. I find sustenance in his work. I find a mind as large as the Pacific, larger. I find a heart even larger than that.


***************************


Someone at work yesterday said: "It is too bad you don't write novels, because then I could give people your books as Christmas presents."


***************************


Clue: Serpent


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In My Brain Now

Recent Songs I Cannot Stop Singing/Humming:

Sunloverz "Shine On"

Bananarama "Look On the Floor"

David Guetta v. The Egg "Love Don't Let Me Go"

Gnarls Barkley "Crazy"


All very different songs, but I cannot get them out of my head. What are you singing/humming to yourself? What song is in your head now?

Robert Hass

There is a very cool feature up at the Poetry Foundation site on one of my favorite poets, Robert Hass. I found it funny to see one of the poets writing on Hass was his wife Brenda Hillman. They have to be one of the more adorable poet couples on earth. Not sure how they do it. I never want to be married to another poet ever again. I once dated a poet, and I have been married to a poet. Both ended disastrously. Anyway, check out the Hass thing at the Foundation's website. My friend, Pimone, selected the poem I would have selected.

Certain Rumors

We went last night to the new Lark Creek outpost here in San Francisco. The original Bay Area one is in Marin. Probably their most famous "outpost" is Restaurant Bradley Ogden in Vegas. The food was good. The wine was tasty. The service was the worst combination of over-eager server but underwhelming delivery. That server is so lucky I wasn't the one paying and deciding the gratuity.


***************************


I think I need a vacation.


***************************


I am not sure where certain rumors start or how they start, but I have not won any prizes or awards from the Academy of American Poets. If I have, no one has told me. Nor have I won a Whiting. Again, if I have, no one has told me. So sorry folks. I don't have such luck.


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Clue: Clinique is the devil...


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Victor #7

And the winner of Caption Contest #7 is Aaron Smith. Jacob announced the winner this morning.




"Mr. September from the Naughty Republicans Congressional Page Boys Calendar 2006"



Mr. Smith should contact me by email within the next 24 hours to claim his prize!


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The runner-up this week is Samuel Amadon for:

"Previously on BRAVO's 'Swiss Family Robinson'"


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Please, people. Please make sure you are registered to vote for the upcoming election. And please, please, please, actually go out and vote. And please, if you aren't going to be in town, get an absentee ballot. In California, the deadline to request an absentee ballot is October 31st at 5:00 pm.

This has been a Public Service Announcement.


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Grooving

Yesterday seems like a blur. Went to Japantown bright and early for shiatsu. Proofed my galleys. Donned a tuxedo. Entertained a few people. Went to a hospital benefit dinner. Came home. Went to bed. But it all seemed to have happened in 8 hours. Weird.


***************************


Jacob promises me the winner of the caption contest will be released today. Sometimes, he is like the Academy of American Poets in his delaying tactics for announcements.


***************************


I have a poem whirling around in my head. I have something like 7 lines of it already. I have had it in my head for the past two days. At first I thought it wasn't a poem because it seemed a little corny, but over the past two days other lines keep coming and the argument is starting to take shape. It might be the last poem I write for my third ms. Might be.


***************************


Coffee was invented by the gods!


***************************


Only in San Francisco do you stop at a light and the guy on your left has his windows down blasting music from the dance station. You notice you happen to be listening to the same station. Over on the left of the guy on your left is a guy-girl couple. They are grooving to the SAME station. The guy from the couple, who I would wager money in Vegas is straight, turns to the guy on your left, who is almost 100% gay, his flame is so bright, and says, "You go girl!" To which the guy on your left says, "You go boy!" All of this screamed at the top of their lungs. The light changes and you all drive off.


***************************


Clue: Fire


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Tuxedos and Charm

Friday the 13th!


********************


Jacob and I have a formal event this weekend. Time to drag out the tuxedos and the charm. Jeez.


********************


Peter Campion reviews Kenneth Koch.


********************


Caption Contest #7 is rolling along. I am hoping for a decision from Jacob tomorrow, so stay tuned. And if you haven't entered yet, there is still time. I mean, what better distraction than finding the perfect caption for this photo? Right?


********************


Clue: Voodoo Bamboo


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Nobel Prize, etc.

Well, the UK bookies knew something we didn't, because the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature is the bookie favorite: Orhan Pamuk.


********************


I have got to make time to proof my goddamned galleys for my book. I was supposed to do it yesterday but ended up losing the day to grading. This from the master of time management. Jeez. I am slipping with old age.


********************


Clue: "I hope y'all ready for me to make you some money!"


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2006 National Book Award Finalists in Poetry

The National Book Foundation announced the finalists today for the 2006 National Book Awards.


The poetry nominees are:

* Louise Glück, Averno.

* H.L. Hix, Chromatic.

* Ben Lerner, Angle of Yaw.

* Nathaniel Mackey, Splay Anthem.

* James McMichael, Capacity.

Caption Contest #7

Small planes are crashing into condos. Dennis Hastert is still Speaker of the House. Twiggy is still one of the judges on Top Model. Despite all of these horrendous things going on in the world, it is time once again for the Caption Contest. Why? Because here at The Muse, it is all about distraction. And since our reigning victor, John Gallaher, declined his prize, the prize is still up for grabs. So, who will take it... Who will walk away with the prize this time?

As always, the judge is Jacob. He reads the captions and chooses the one he thinks is best. Sorry folks, there is no committee involved, no prize panel. Jacob just calls it as he sees it. I don't even have a say in it! And what nifty picture needs a caption this time around. Well, this one, of course:

Exposed As Talcum

THE POET IS LIKE A GUERILLA


The poet is like a guerrilla in the last days of war unsure as to
what side is winning but he endures and continues to imagine the
dying breath.

Picture that breath as more than victory, more than burlap
uniforms under a tattered flag, more than an animal's manic
pulse, more than marrow floating in a river.

The poet sees past the wrinkled and atrophied down to the
resolve of bone, prays that his stories have found a home there
in the silver and starstuff columns of his memories.

But he is afraid that his words are just moss on a rock, tail
feathers floating to earth, that his testament will be caught
under boot heel and exposed as talcum.

There is a letter he has yet to write; an apology to his father,
a condolence to his sister, an explanation to brotherman, a final
chance to cry unashamed.

This letter does not rest in his bones. It exists where his joints
grind, where myths like truth and lies meet and melt into a
stillness that is liquid and inhale; no longer a rushed breath
trying to contain the fire in his ribs but more like the graceful
wind of this forest around him, protecting him as if he were its
only child.


--Oscar Bermeo


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Even though something tells me Barbara Jane Reyes can kick my ass, I couldn't resist posting the photo of Oscar along with his poem. Why? Because that photo is Hott!


***************************


I am waiting for someone to write "The Poet is Like a Gorilla."


***************************


My friend, Ron, wrote a poem in two versions, one for me and one for Jacob. It was brilliant. He had dashed it off before meeting us for Mexican food. The opening line was so good I wanted to kill him, have him for dinner over a plate of rice with mole sauce on the side!


***************************


Clue: Tralala dahling, you're singing to yourself.


***************************

Second Pass

Late evening business dinner last evening. Kind of groggy this morning.


***************************


I went back and checked to see when I last wrote more than 4 poems in a year. Twice before I have done so. Both times it was the year before I finished a book ms.


***************************


Thank God for espresso beans.


***************************


I saw a proof of the Four Way Books Fall Catalog yesterday. It looked fantastic. It was weird seeing my book listed, weirder to see my new author photo presiding above text about the book. Also exciting. Four Way has been a dream so far. They are so high-quality in every thing they do. I shudder to think how expensive it must be to publish a book with the care they give them. And came home last night to the second pass of my galleys.


***************************


Clue: The elfin goth


***************************

Taxonomy

Contrary to some people's (read: Eduardo) beliefs, I didn't have THAT much fun in the 80's.


********************


Jacob and I started watching "Lost" on DVD. We have only watched the two pilot episodes and we are already hooked. So sad. Now we have to add that to out ANTM and Battlestar Galactica weekly lineup of things to watch. For one who didn't watch any television in college, I am sure making up for lost time (no pun intended).


********************


Still trying to read Octavio Paz. Still in shock that I used to really like his work. I am struggling to get through the Collected. And I suspect I may give up on it shortly. Also re-reading Miroslav Holub's Vanishing Lung Syndrome. I find myself really liking this book of poems, which is funny because I don't remember being in love with it before. Taste changes. Makes me wonder how critics live with themselves.


********************


What exactly is a Poetry of Praise? I keep hearing that expression, but I don't have a good fix on what it means. I gather it is not religious or devotional verse, but I am not even sure of that. Some of these terms that get bandied about confuse me more than help me. Linnaeus would have had a field day with us. Taxonomies abound.


********************


The Whiting Foundation will be announcing its awardees for this year shortly. Always an interesting list of poets among their roster.


********************


Clue: Tag


********************

White Lie

My poem "Having Some Coke With You" is up at the RealPoetik website. Check it out when you have a chance.


**************************


Also ran into a wonderful section of a long poem today by Del Ray Cross. You should see this poem. Many wonderful sections.


**************************


Mmmmmm. Potato casserole.


**************************


Clue: Poison


**************************

Sunday Morning Twitter

The San Francisco Chronicle weighs in today with its own "take" on the Nobel.


**************************


It has been an unbelievably sunny weekend so far. It seems almost unreal. And warm, too. We didn't make it to the Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park yesterday. Hard to believe it was a year ago we saw Dolly Parton there with our friends Ron and Kevin. Now THAT was unreal.


**************************


I just realized that if it holds true that it takes me about 8 years to write a book, then I am supposed to be done with a third book next year! Thank God the first poem I wrote that is going toward the new book was actually written for the second book but held out because I felt it fit better with the newer work. That means the first real poem I wrote toward the third book was written in 2001. So, thankfully, I have until 2009 to finish. Well, if I stay on my usual track. If I have a year like this one next year, I may actually be done next year. But that is not predictable in any way shape or form.


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Please, people. Please make sure you are registered to vote for the upcoming election. And please, please, please, actually go out and vote. And please, if you aren't going to be in town, get an absentee ballot. In California, the deadline to request an absentee ballot is October 31st at 5:00 pm.

This has been a Public Service Announcement.


**************************

Victor #6

Jacob has finally named the winner of Caption Contest #6. And the winner is John Gallaher, for the following caption:




"Minutes later the front desk manager decided to be more specific in the future when notifying guests that there is a package waiting for them downstairs."



***************************


John Gallaher should contact me by email within the next 48 hours to claim his prize! Thanks to everyone for playing. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...


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Strangely Wicked Smile

I was told recently that I am NOT a "San Francisco poet." Okay. I have only lived here longer than any other place I have lived in my entire life. I suspect this has something, if not everything, with aesthetics. Jeez, now that is shocking. Yeah, I am not a Beat Poet, but it is doubtful many poets in San Francisco are nowadays. Whatever. I am a poet. All the categories, "San Franciscan" or otherwise, are distractions. The statement that I am not a "San Francisco" poet is more like a barb from my "friend" than anything else. It is meaningless unless seen in that grade school way of "You aren't really one of us." Well, I sure as hell aint no Boston Brahmin.


***************************


Still no Victor announcement for Caption Contest #6. We have decided there will be a prize. And so, Jacob is taking a little longer than usual. Many good captions to choose from this time.


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John Ashbery made a brief appearance again last night in a dream of mine. This time, he was wearing an apron and making oatmeal raisin pancakes. All the while he was speaking in tongues and pausing every so often to give me this strangely wicked smile.


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Clue: Manufacture!


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Mighty Aphrodite

I am hoping Jacob will select a winner for the 6th Caption Contest today. There have been a bunch of really good captions. I am curious to see what he selects. Quite a number of them are somewhat naughty.


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Had difficulty falling asleep last night. Actually, this has been true all week so far. I just cannot seem to get comfortable when I lie down.


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This is kind of unreal. (from Peter's blog)


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Is it my imagination, or has The Paris Review thrown out its poetry folios of 4-7 poems in favor of the more standard range of poems per poet?


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Clue: Venus


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A Day at the Races

Only in the UK! Yup, at one of their on-line wagering sites, they are taking bets on the Nobel Prize in Literature. As of right now, here are the contenders and their odds:

2006 Nobel Literature Prize

Orhan Pamuk           5/2  
Adonis                   5/1  
Ryszard Kapuscinski   5/1  
Joyce Carol Oates   6/1  
Philip Roth           10/1  
Haruki Murakami   12/1  
Inger Christensen   12/1  
Ko Un                   12/1  
Thomas Transtromer   12/1  
Amos Oz           14/1  
Claudio Magris           14/1  
Hugo Claus           14/1  
Antonio Tabucchi   20/1  
Milan Kundera           20/1  
Thomas Pynchon           20/1  
William H Gass           20/1  
Cees Nooteboom           25/1  
Chinua Achebe           33/1  
Gerald Murnane           33/1  
Jean Marie Gustav Le Clezio   33/1  
Mario Vargas Llosa   33/1  
Assia Djebar           40/1  
Gitta Sereny           40/1  
John Updike           40/1  
Willy Kyrklund           40/1  
Bob Dylan           50/1  
Cormac McCarthy   50/1  
Don DeLillo           50/1  
Eeva Kilpi           50/1  
Harry Mulisch           50/1  
Herta Muller           50/1  
Umberto Eco           50/1  
Adam Zagajewski   100/1  
Bei Dao           100/1  
Ian McEwan           100/1  
Janette Winterson   100/1  
Julian Barnes           100/1  
Mahmoud Darwish   100/1  
Margaret Atwood   100/1  
Olga Tokarczuk           100/1  
Patrick Modiano   100/1  
Paul Auster           100/1  

Interesting list, no?

Vortex

Evolution continues. The poem both evolves and returns to its roots as mechanism of sound!


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Like Father like Son! Jesus!


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Playing around with the last poem I drafted. I am a total sucker for sound and repetitions. I like cyclical things, small vortices of sound within a line, from line to line, predictable in location but surprising at the same time. I push to see how far I can take it, how much I can get away with. It will be the death of me as an artist.


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Thinking again about Robert Hass. I am strangely obsessed with his book, Praise, again. I have no idea why this should be the case. But I find myself dreaming some of those poems, daydreaming about them.


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You can now watch video recordings of poetry readings in the UC Berkeley Lunch Poems Series.


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Clue: Paris


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That T-Shirt

Excited to sit down and read for NER tomorrow. You know, it is funny. I remembered this morning while reading the email from my old high school friend that I was the editor of the high school literary magazine. And then I remembered I was the magazine editor for my grade school before that. I was the Editor of the literary magazine in college, too. Jesus, I have always been an editor. What the F! This must betray some sickness in me.


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As it stands at this moment, only two folks have entered the Caption Contest. What's up with that? Well, looks like a 50-50 chance of winning. And you never know until the last minute if the caption contest has a dandy prize attached. Oh well.


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I have now watched two episodes of this new show, "Heroes." I am just not sure about this one. Despite the hype, I am not very impressed so far. To be honest, there is an aspect of the show that I think is a rip-off of the whole X-men mutant superhero model.


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I saw someone wearing a Green Lantern t-shirt in Vegas. I was completely overcome with envy. I sooooooooo wanted that t-shirt. Talk about nerdy.


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Clue: Vulcan


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Calls for Reunions and Resignations

I got a total blast from the past email this morning. Someone I went to high school with emailed me out of the blue because apparently I was listed as "Lost." Oh, the power of words. Anyway, our twenty-year high school reunion is next year. This is kind of weird but also interesting. I suppose I was "lost" because I have yet to go to a single reunion since I graduated. It is difficult for me to believe it has been 20 years since I graduated high school, but it is also pretty easy to believe it, too. I think I am a better person today than I was then. I think.


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I am to have a poem in RealPoetik this coming weekend. The current poet up at the site is none other than Steve Mueske.


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The Washington Post calls for Hastert to resign over his negligence in acting on information regarding ex-Congressman Foley's apparent molestation of page boys. Good for the Post. This kind of thing is what the Republican Party claimed it was around for, to prevent assault to Family Values. Well, sexual molestation of children has never been a family value I am aware of. It is time for the Republican Party to own up to its negligence here.


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Clue: True, but not exact...


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Caption Contest #6

It is again that time. Yup, time for the Caption Contest. As always, Jacob will select the winner from those who provide captions for the following photo. The winner of the last contest was Ginger Heatter. The previous one went to Anne Haines. And prior to Anne, Shanna Compton won all three! Will Shanna come back to take the spoils of victory? Will some new challenger take the cake? Tune in to find out. So, here we go:

Something Called the World

The flight home last night was uneventful, which is a good thing if you know our bad traveling karma. Came home to a very nice acceptance letter from Sidney Wade accepting a poem of mine for Subtropics.


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I am having a difficult time with the fact it is now October. I feel like it was June yesterday.


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Craig Mello and Andrew Fire win the Nobel Prize in Medicine.


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Not sure why, but I remembered the story about John Berryman giving his workshop an assignment to write a sonnet blah blah blah. What I remembered is the fact Donald Justice turned this poem in as a response to that assignment:


THE WALL


The wall surrounding them they never saw;
The angels, often. Angels were as common
As birds or butterflies, but looked more human.
As longs as the wings were furled, they felt no awe.
Beasts, too, were friendly. They could find no flaw
In all of Eden: this was the first omen.
The second was the dream which woke the woman.
She dreamed she saw the lion sharpen his claw.
As for the fruit, it had no taste at all.
They had been warned of what was bound to happen.
They had been told of something called the world.
They had been told and told about the wall.
They saw it now; the gate was standing open.
As they advanced, the giant wings unfurled.


--Donald Justice


According to the story, Berryman was shocked and made a comment to the effect no one should turn in a draft of a sonnet like this. Philip Levine and others in that workshop know this story. I have heard variations of it from different people. All have Berryman stunned to receive such a good sonnet.


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Clue: Policy Payment


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Shifting Weathers

Still in Vegas. Heading home tonight. We saw Toni Braxton, and it was remarkably better than we expected. And we have seen the fountains what seems like a billion times. It is pretty dark and overcast outside right now. But the dessert has strange and shifting weathers all in one day.


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I know I should be setting up readings for Spring and Fall of next year. But I cannot motivate to do this. It isn't as if I can tons of readings anyway with my other jobs. Still wanting to go to Bora Bora and never return, but less so after this escape weekend.


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I have one sestina to my name, one villanelle, and one pantoum. I think I may also have one, maybe two, sonnets. I hope never to write in any of these forms again. Well, maybe the sonnet. Yeah, I could play in that form again. But the others? No way. A subject would have to demand one of those for me to even go there. Most sestinas, villanelles and pantoums are awful. They are not as easy to write as many would have you believe. At least they aren't easy for me. Writing them may be easy, but writing a meaningful one is practically impossible.


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Jacob is walking around our room listening to some kind of classical music. It may, in fact, be his own, but I am not sure. He said last night he dreamt music instead of Slot machine lights blinking everywhere. It is weird because last night I dreamt poems. Usually in Vegas, we dream slot lights blinking, no doubt from seeing them everywhere we go.


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Clue: Champagne...


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