The Art of the Blurb?

Glad to be heading back to SF today. WeHo is fun, but San Francisco is home.


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Excited to work on my next story. I already know the first sentence. Dying to find out where the story goes.


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A lot of folks have been talking about blurbs lately. What I want to know is do any of you buy a book because of the blurb? I was always under the impression blurbs were window dressing. Maybe I am wrong. I know I have never bought a book because of a blurb or because the blurb was written by X poet, but I may be in the minority here. Seriously, do you ever get swayed to buy a book because of a blurb? Take the poll below.


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Blurbs?

Do you buy books based on blurbs?

I pay attention to blurbs and have bought books based on them
I notice blurbs, esp. who wrote them
I rarely ever read blurbs
Blurbs for poetry books are pointless
Blurb? What is a blurb?

View Results

Create your own myspace poll



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Clue: Mojito


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WeHo

Still in LA. Off to meet up with some friends at The Abbey and then catch some dinner. West Hollywood is an interesting place. Glad to be heading back to SF tomorrow.


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


Clue: 2000 Veuve Cliquot Brut Rose Champagne


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Lambda Literary Award

Congratulations to Henri Cole, winner of this year's Lambda Literary Award in Poetry for his collection Blackbird and Wolf.


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

Bound for the City of Angels

Well, looks like that Virgin America flight from JFK to San Francisco might be seeing an increase in passengers. New York now to honor marriages in Canada, CA, and MA.


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


The polls continue. The LA Times poll found majority of Californians opposed same-sex marriage, but now the Field poll finds the opposite. This is why I hate polls.


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We are off to LA this morning. We have engagements tonight and tomorrow afternoon and then fly back mid-day Saturday.


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


Virgin America just announced that flights on Wednesdays are "mixer" flights so they will be serving free cocktails throughout the flight on Wednesdays. That is sooooo Virgin.


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Clue: Of course I am nervous...


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Checklists

2 new consults done and dictated check
all chart work updated check
check out list made for my practice partner check
radiation treatment plans reviewed check
upcoming radiation setups reviewed and notes left check
radiation e-prescriptions checked and verified check
charts checked check
July work and call schedules for practice set up check
Practice expenses reviewed and paid check


Okay, I guess I am ready to head home, pack, and head to Los Angeles. It has been a very busy day, and yesterday was no picnic either.

Smoking Gunn

Wow. I actually got a few emails asking me about the Mapplethorpe photo of Gunn. This tells me these folks have not read his Collected. Shame on you people. You need to read yourselves some Gunn! Anyhoo, here is the photo I am referring to (on the cover of his Collected):

Good Strong Coffee

PAINTING BY VUILLARD


Two dumpy women with buns were drinking coffee
In a narrow kitchen—at least I think a kitchen
And I think it was whitewashed, in spite of all the shade.
They were flat brown, they were as brown as coffee.
Wearing brown muslin? I really could not tell.
How I loved this painting, they had grown so old
That everything had got less complicated,
Brown clothes and shade in a sunken whitewashed kitchen.

But it’s not like that for me: age is not simpler
Or less enjoyable, not dark, not whitewashed.
The people sitting on the marble steps
Of the national gallery, people in the sunlight,
A party of handsome children eating lunch
And drinking chocolate milk, and a young woman
Whose t-shirt bears the defiant word WHATEVER,
And wrinkled folk with visored hats and cameras
Are vivid, they are not browned, not in the least,
But if they do not look like coffee they look
As pungent and startling as good strong coffee tastes,
Possibly mixed with chicory. And no cream.


--Thom Gunn


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I have a special place inside me for this poem by Gunn. It has a conversational aspect to it that cannot help but remind me of O'Hara. Even the way in which Art and Life seem inseparable remind me of O'Hara. But there is a different kind of tone to the poem, a subtlety of difference between the playfulness of O'Hara and the odd melancholy buried inside this chatty poem about a painting.


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


I love that photo of Gunn in 1971. It isn't the iconic photo by Robert Mapplethorpe that graces the Collected Poems, the one most people think of when they think Gunn. I love the scruffy Thom Gunn. This image of him seems the closest to me to match his actual personality. He was a teddy bear of a man. His attractiveness could not be overlooked, nor could you ignore it. But it was his kindness and his smile and his slow way of moving through the City that I remember best now. He was a really warm-hearted man. The Mapplethorpe photo is beautiful, but this is my Thom Gunn, the one that most closely matches inside to outside.


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Clue: Avoidance, It's not just for breakfast anymore...


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Now I Need to Go to Rehab...

And what famous poet did third-year English students have to write their exams on at Cambridge? Yup, none other than Amy Winehouse. I am not kidding. I am so not kidding!


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Short short week this week. Today and tomorrow in clinic and then Jacob and I head off to Los Angeles.


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More later.


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Clue: God help me...


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Please Spend a Dime

The office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is polling reaction to the California Supreme Court decision overturning the ban on gay marriage.

Most of the response they are getting is in OPPOSITION to the court action.

To vote IN SUPPORT of the Supreme Court's decision on marriage equality:

1. call 1-916-445-2841
2. press 1, 5, 1, 1 (these really are the prompts to push).

After you've done this, please send it on to all supporters you know.


(via Kate)

The Last Painting

--C. Dale Young, Triptych, acrylic in gel media with silver metal, 3 panels, each 24" x 36", 1993


This is the last painting I did, done in my living room, of all places, in 1993 during my first month of medical school. I had saved money during college to buy silver metal to do a large piece; I bought the silver and ground it but never did the painting. I am not sure why, at that moment in medical school, I decided I had to paint this triptych, but it felt, in many ways, like a statement to myself. I suspect I was afraid medical school would change me, erase the artist in me. In some ways, my suspicions were apt. Not in a studio, not with the right light, not even with an easel: I covered my living room floor with sheets and painted with the canvases flat on the floor. I was so wound up that I did the entire thing, all three panels, in about 4 hours. I didn't stop to take a break. I didn't drink water or move from the living room. That moment remains for me now the pivotal ecstatic creative moment in my life. I wish the camera I had were better at capturing this piece, but without flash it looks too dark. And with flash, the middle panel glows in a way much differently than the lateral panels. In real life, they each take and give roughly the same amount of light. And even now, the silver is as radiant as I had imagined, as radiant as the day I set it to the canvas.


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The Sons of Tantalus

Some of you may remember V.S. Naipaul publicly criticizing Derek Walcott some time back for his poetry. Although the Guardian no longer allows access to the article, Geoffrey Philp, a noted Caribbean writer, has a good summary of the dustup. Well, Walcott has something to say about this criticism, and he does so in verse. Kwame Dawes interviewed Walcott at Calabash and Walcott had much to say on a number of subjects. But one subject seemed to capture the minds and set the tongues wagging. Apparently, Walcott has written a poem about Naipaul, and it was the talk of Calabash, so much so it made the country's main paper. The article is titled "Walcott broadsides Naipaul."


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Theodore Roethke turns 100.


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Busy today reading submissions. I am actually kind of happy the season comes to a close within a few days.


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Clue: Cell


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"In the Ruins of Confession"

"Miguel Murphy's poem "Love Like Auto-Sodomy" flirts with taboo in its title, which also sets us up for a love poem. But instead, the poem praises the opposite: "You have to hate// until you hurt no more. You have to be somewhere else./ You have to close your eyes to even bear me at all." The form that we expect (boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy drowns his sorrows at a martini bar where he meets a far more beautiful boy) is refuted."

(James Allen Hall on Miguel Murphy and several others)


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& McGoo

"For a man who turned 50 last year, Michael Hofmann looks absurdly young, even with facial hair that recalls the final stanza of "My Father at Fifty": "Your beard – the friend of the writer who doesn't smoke – is shot with white." But Hofmann smokes roll-ups, and there is no white in his beard."

(Stephen Knight on Michael Hofmann in The Independent)


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"Many poets try to sound tough, or masculine, or self-conscious about manhood, and fail miserably: what qualities let Kleinzahler succeed?"

(Stephen Burt on August Kleinzahler in the NYT)


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I am halfway through the story I started writing yesterday. It is kind of funny, but I am enjoying writing these stories, even though they are very effed up stories. I have no investment in fiction the way I do in Poetry. With poems, I wait a very long time to start drafting the poem, wait a long time before I start putting down lines. With poems, I almost always know the last line first and then start collecting lines and things in my head. The discovery for me is always how the poem gets to that line, what on earth must happen to reach there. With fiction, I never know how the story ends until I get there. I usually have the first sentence, and even that surprises me. The entire act is one of discovery because I cannot really even define where the story comes from or where the story is going. Characters show up. Characters disappear. I have no idea why I am writing stories, but it is very obvious to me that none of the stories I have written could I have written as poems. Despite that, two of the stories are related to poems of mine, very specific poems.


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I cannot decide if this is awesome or just plain weird.


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Clue: "I'm a producer and you just a piano man..."


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Angels and Devils

Jacob comes home today. Yay!


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


Dinner with two poets is always a hoot, especially if there is drinking involved. I haven't laughed so hard in a while.


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


A patient of mine apparently donated money to the hospital foundation and named me his Guardian Angel. I am, to be honest, stunned out of my mind. I am to be honored in mid-June sometime. The hospital foundation does great things for our department, and this donation will help us to continue to provide things to our patients free of charge. This gift was so unexpected that when I got the invitation to the event I called to ask what this was all about.


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Roger Federer as poet? Well, I have to admit that he is, like Michael Jordan, poetry in motion. Or, as in this Disney ad, the poet as King.


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


I suppose I should tell you whether or not I really prefer one ice cream over another...


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


Foggy and overcast outside. Contemplative weather.


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Clue: "Have your car call my cell."


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Ghosts, Nuns, and the Man Underground

I have another story going in my head, a minimal outline and a character. My stories are so unlike my poems. They are really out there. I have no idea why I keep writing these stories. I have no real training in fiction. And I wouldn't dare show these to people, though some folks have asked me to send them the stories to consider them for publication. I am still trying to get used to the fact my voice in fiction is wildly different from my voice in poetry. The story I want to work on this weekend is #5.


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


Memorial Day weekend has arrived, and I don't know why I always forget to plan anything for this weekend. Jacob comes home tomorrow. Dinner with one of my best friends tonight. Nothing planned. Will read some submissions this weekend. What are you doing for this long weekend?


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


Clue: Winding Down...


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

The Emperor

Are you a Haagen-Dazs person or a Ben & Jerry's person? I have been told that people are either one or the other, that you cannot possibly really like both. You know, even if you think you like both you really like one more than the other. Or so I have been told. Is it really that simple? I take ice cream seriously. I mean I love ice cream. So, why then is it odd for me to like both? If you think I have lost my mind with this post, you may be right. But I don't think I have lost my mind.


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

Drunken Hatred

Even here in the Bay Area, right in Redwood City...


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

Everyday Reading

"Chasar's dissertation, "Everyday Reading: U.S. Poetry and Popular Culture, 1880-1945," received the award, which is the top national honor that a dissertation can earn.

The project looks at how the public used poetry in the period before the advent of mass media and mass consumer culture. Now an art form that may come across as written and consumed by intellectuals, in years past, poetry was a popular medium written and collected by ordinary people, Chasar said."

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


Still trying to catch up on the sleep lost on Monday night. I really don't know how I used to work on so little sleep all the time when I was an Intern. But I was younger then, I guess. I got 9 hours last night, so I am slowly recovering.


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


I guess it had to happen sooner or later. An entire batch of submissions forwarded to me from Middlebury has been floating around in the ether for 2 months and just showed up yesterday! 20 submissions just out there. We were just about to write each of the submitters to ask them to resubmit (thank God for databases). And then after we had lost hope, the box of submissions arrived. In 13+ years of doing this, we have rarely ever had a loss of submissions (though I remember a batch of fiction in my early years caught fire in the trunk of an editor's car!).


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


Why on God's earth do people make donuts at the top of Pike's Peak?


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


Clue: Surpass!


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

Pastiche

More about the desire for a woman to be Poet Laureate of Great Britain (this time with actual statements about frontrunner among women).


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


Reginald Lockett has passed away.


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


Rough day, but I made it through. Will be happy for the long weekend coming up. As usual, I totally forgot about Memorial Day and have nothing planned. Alas.


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"Boy, the Pulitzer sure isn't what it used to be. Not only does Mary Oliver beat out this year's winner Robert Hass for the top spot, she also takes 6 of the top 10 spots."

(the Poetry Foundation updates the Poetry Bestseller list)


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


The Final Round of Poetry Idol is taking place as we speak. Who will get YOUR vote?


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


Clue: Avert your eyes!


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Poets, Blood, and Conclusions

The graduation went well. Oddly enough, the Commencement Speaker turned out to be Billy Collins. I kid you not. Another small world thing is that two writer friends of mine turned up there because they had kids graduating as well. It was kind of odd to run into these folks because I had no idea they had kids at Jacob's brother's school.


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


The day took a sour turn when at the graduation party afterwards a dog bit into the face of a two-year old, lacerating the bridge of his nose and almost detaching it. Blood was everywhere. Although I got the bleeding controlled quickly, called the ER to alert them to the child coming, etc. I was totally freaked out by the whole thing. I was reminded why I didn't like Urgent Care things and why I stayed away from Pediatrics.


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


After all was dealt with, etc. I got barely an hour of sleep before getting an automated call from United Airlines telling me they cancelled my flight! After an hour and a half and 4 different phone calls, I still had no flight back to SF. So, we ended up leaving for the Denver airport at 5:15 instead of 6:00 AM. I did get a flight (via Orange County in southern CA). The entire day yesterday was painful because I had only gotten an hour of sleep the night before. I went to bed at 7:00pm last night. I didn't wake up once until the alarm went off this morning. I hate United.


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


I am reminded of how a fellow classmate of mine in med school had decided to go into a specialty because that is what his Dad did. I always thought that was stupid. And now I am more convinced of this. People need to do what they love, do what they are suited to doing. I don't think one should just do something because that is what is expected of them. That classmate of mine dropped out of his field 3 years in and started a whole new residency. He ended up in the field we all expected him to, the one that seemed to suit him. He went from Emergency medicine to Anesthesiology.


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


I wish I were more energetic. I would find you all some newsy links. But later maybe. I am off to a full day in clinic and a meeting afterward.


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


Clue: Hearts


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Quick Notes from Cascade

Well, today is Jacob's brother's graduation. So far, it has been a weekend of family and celebration. I head back to SF tomorrow.


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


It would be about time...


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


Congratulations to Phillis Levin!


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Clue: Egg McMuffin


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Listerine

At some point today, this blog will have its 350,000th visitor. That kind of blows my mind. Thank you to all who visit this place. I never imagined I would still be here.


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


Over at another hospital covering today. Off to Colorado tonight.


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


More later.


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


Clue: Gallileo


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

The Polling Begins

The polls have already begun. Here is the first I have found, from the SF Chronicle.


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OMG! I cannot believe this!

The California Supreme Court has ruled on same-sex marriage.


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Irrational

Jacob and I had dinner last night with a poet-friend of ours at a French Vietnamese place downtown. This poet-friend is a teacher and at one point, though I cannot remember why, the fact there has been a huge increase in people wanting to study creative writing came up. Our friend is convinced that the Romantic appeal of being a writer is fueling this and that many of the students wanting to study creative writing actually don't read or even care about Literature. Fascinating conversation. It made me feel incredibly fortunate that all of the students I have ever had actually loved Poetry.


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


Difficult to believe that tomorrow night we are flying to Denver and then getting up the next day and driving to Colorado Springs.


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


I didn't even watch American Idol this week, neither the performance or the results show. Why? because this is the dullest season of that show ever. I haven't picked up the phone once this entire season to vote. Not even once. And even without watching, I could tell you weeks ago that the final two would be the Davids. I am not even sure I will watch the finale. Overall, the show is Dead To Me!


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


The California Supreme Court rules on marriage this morning. I am trying not to be hopeful because I don't want to be let down. But I cannot help but feel hopeful. Yes, I know, such hope is irrational. I know.


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


Clue: Syllabi


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

Fingers Crossed

The Supreme Court of California rules on marriage tomorrow morning.

Mid Week

"As for my character, I am portrayed as a slovenly, obnoxious rival music journalist trying to steal his scoop on the female poet. Why would a friend portray me as an obtuse villain? The answer is simple: Andrew Altschul is a raving douchebag. He can’t help himself. Also, one time I stole his Kid A CD out of the jewel case and replaced it with Toto, so this was payback, I think."

(Edwin Decker on having encountered a character with his name in Andrew Altschul's new novel)


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One thing "Arab American" means to many outsiders is an improvisation on the character assault of all things Arab, as Charara explains in the book's introduction. "Whether in literature, art, television, film, scholarship, or journalism, Arabs and Arab culture are depicted mostly as violent, intolerant, backward, and misogynistic," he writes. "Indeed, it should not come as a surprise that analysis nearly 30 years old still holds true, for today even highly educated persons draw conclusions about things 'Arab' that are nearly indistinguishable from remarks made several hundred years ago."

(Menachem Wecker in Arab American News)


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"Too many times, a gay man has been unable to comfort his partner, a transgender person has been ridiculed instead of treated or a lesbian mom has been barred from seeing her child at the hospital..."


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


Admin work, errands, etc. today. Typical Wednesday.


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


Don't you just miss Project Runway? This is one of my favorite scenes of all time from that over-the-top show:





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Clue: Highland


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Random Observation

I am surprised no one has yet titled a book of poems SERVICE. I mean such a title is filled with various meanings. I like it as a verb, in all its smutty glory.

Which po-blogger could pull off such a title (not including me)? I bet Reb Livingston could!


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Quan Barry

Quan Barry has a beautiful poem up at Linebreak. Check it out when you have a chance.


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Quickspace

Cardinal, robin, who cares? It's by Mary Oliver. Red Bird looks to be building a nest at number 1.

From his seat high up atop the Guggenheim Foundation, Ed Hirsch issues some Special Orders: go out and buy my book! It marches up to number 4.

(The Poetry Foundation releases its latest (not so) weekly bestseller list)


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Long day ahead of me. And a difficult day at that. Not much else to say.


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Clue: Hot mess


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

We Are All Minor

I really don't think a lot of people realize how little doctors have to do with things like bills and insurance coverage. I mean, I do not set the fee for an MRI scan. Nor do I decide how much a patient has to pay out of pocket for one. Every insurance company is different, and most seem to do everything they can not to pay for things. I hate insurance companies!


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Someone IM'd me this morning asking what I was doing up so early. Um, I am up that early every single day I work at the hospital. I get up at 5:10AM.


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"I’m more likely to purchase the books of people I don’t like, my enemies who don’t even know I exist. I’ll pre-order their book on Amazon.com and when it comes, I’ll wait to open the package until I’m home on a Friday night. I’ll invite a friend over, another minor poet. Then the ceremony begins: we’ll open up a cheap bottle of wine and read the prize-winner’s words aloud, laughing at the dumb ideas, the obvious flaws. We pour ourselves another glass when we are reminded that the judge was the one who we at one time so eagerly dreamed would choose our book."

(Steve Fellner on selling 138 copies of his book)


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Oh, I so want to say something bad right now. But I am going to keep my mouth shut. Oh, I just am dying over here. Mischief is my middle name.


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


Clue: Pasternak


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Your Rosary of Yew-Berries

This is going to be a quick and interesting week with the two of us leaving on Friday night for Colorado. Jacob's brothers are graduating college and we are heading to Colorado Springs for ceremonies and celebrations. But before then, many things to do here. My week is actually overflowing with things that need to be done.


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ODE ON MELANCHOLY


No, no! go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kissed
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.

But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

She dwells with Beauty -- Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips;
Ay, in the very temple of delight
Veiled Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
His soul shall taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.


--John Keats



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How is that for Romantic? I decided to go old school on you all today.


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


Clue: Steel


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Another Death

Poetry's death has been greatly exaggerated...


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

Restocking the Wine Cellar

"The only just judge, the only just literary critic, is Christ."


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"Helen Vendler is one of the most powerful poetry critics of our time, and her relationship with her art is as simple as it is peculiar: she’s a steward. If contemporary poetry were a great manor house, Vendler would be its long-serving and unshakable manager, monitoring the stable hands, restocking the wine cellar, preventing the chambermaids from swiping the jewelry and, above all, keeping immaculate the high chambers to which the lords and ladies retire at nightfall. It’s an unusual position — unlike Vendler, most poetry critics are poets themselves — and it comes with its own curious set of virtues and vices. On one hand, Vendler is an astonishingly thorough and patient reader whose devotion has influenced the way we read Herbert, Shakespeare, Stevens and many others. On the other hand, her work occasionally demonstrates the flaws that come from feeling that one is obligated to ensure the Right Poets are read the Right Way."

(David Orr on Helen Vendler's new book on Yeats from the NYT)


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Yeah, some may think of Yeats as an old Master wandering the Irish Countryside and composing a few lines while sitting by a window. But this is the Yeats I know. Dark, sultry, and totally HAWT:




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


Jynne Dilling Martin is featured at Poetry Daily.


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


Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. I know I make fun of my mom sometimes, but I am indebted to her in so many ways I cannot list here. She drives me nuts at times, but she is still the best. Thanks Mom.


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And even though this has nothing to do with Mother's Day, here is a poem by Carl Phillips from NER.


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


Clue: 4th Story


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

The Gay Gene

I so don't want to like this song, but I cannot seem to stop myself from liking it, which is a total travesty.

Notes

asphalt---> construction

flower, flour, four/floor

             junta

Walkman, not iPod        Christian
       martyrdom--->Saint    Hephaestus

klondike bar
fudgsicle

lamp/veritas/lux

to canulate  :  the vein  / the vain--->vanitas

         barn owl

final movement of Mahler's Fourth

junk
junkshop

barnyard

lengua  ---> tongue // language

      pressure / press sure

DIRT

Frank O'Hara on a Friday Night. Love it!

A heartfelt thanks to Aaron who found this amazing clip of Frank O'Hara reading "Having a Coke With You"


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The Venom

Sometimes, venom is good.... Really. It is so, sometimes.


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

Public Service Announcement

People, people, people! Please invest in a hands-free device for your cell phones. I mean, both hands on the wheel. BOTH HANDS ON THE WHEEL. Jesus. There seriously needs to be a law passed. Some crazy cell-phone talking woman almost ran me off 280 today.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.


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

Corpus

Cecily Parks has a poem up today at Poetry Daily


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


"Out of one dead language, another one rose easily..."


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


Don't forget that Mother's Day is THIS Sunday.


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


Late for clinic. More later.


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


Clue: Swingline & Thesis


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

New Tag Lines?

I am weighing new tag lines for this blog. The one above: "In other words, this is all about distraction" is getting old. I am contemplating:

1. Faster than Poets & Writers

2. Poetry news (with homo tendencies)

3. GAY GAY GAY news with a little bit o poetry on the side

4. Are you on this bus, or not?

5. AOL-lite

6. The Ice Bitch cometh...

7. Rants, Buried

8. Sink it!

9. To everyone else in the world this is normal, but to some of you this is pop culture studies

10. Content Provided


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

Walt Whitman Winner Announced

New York, May 8—The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that Jonathan Thirkield has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Walt Whitman Award. The Walt Whitman Award, given by the Academy of American Poets, is one of the most prestigious first book prizes in the country; it brings book publication to an American poet who has never before published a book of poetry and distributes the book to members of the Academy. The Whitman Award also carries a $5,000 cash prize and a one-month residency at the Vermont Studio Center.

Jonathan Thirkield received the award for his book-length collection of poems The Waker's Corridor, which will be published in the spring of 2009 by Louisiana State University Press. The winning manuscript was chosen by the poet Linda Bierds from over 1,000 entries.


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

Partial Post

I have no idea why this would surprise anyone...


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


More later. I promise.


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

Victor #28

Our Judge, Jacob, has selected Nate McClain as the winner of Caption Contest #28.




"Because 'fivesome' isn't a word, that's why..."


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


Congratulations, Nate! You win bragging rights and entry into the Year End Caption Contest Throw Down!


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


Runner-Up: Shanna Compton for "'Dear Lord,' whispered Sister Agatha,'I said deliver me *from* temptation, not deliver me *some* temptation! Damn this lisp.'"


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


As always, Jacob and I thank all who entered. It was a hoot.


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

... Without Representation

My heart goes out to all of the gay/lesbian families in Michigan for whom this will affect. For many of these families, it will mean having to leave Michigan out of sheer economic reasons. Health insurance is one of the most costly things a family needs. This is a terrible blow. I hope all of the people in Michigan who voted to place discrimination into their State Constitution feel mighty proud of themselves. The gays are, after all, just a scourge, and now they will flee your state.


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


Oh, I feel a rant coming on. I better go cool off for a bit. The Latin anger is welling up, and I am old enough to know I had better just keep my mouth shut right now.


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

And the Race Continues

Today is the day. Jacob should select a winner late today, so if you want to take a try on the Caption Contest, now might be the time to do so. I know which caption I would select, but I never know what Jacob will select.


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


George Stephanopoulos has a few words to share about the Dems:




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But even though George has that to say, this is still America, so we also have this!




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Errand day, which is what I call my admin day. That is today. Checklist is out. Schedule is set. I am a paper-pushing, link-toting machine...


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Clue: newsletter


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RIP Mildred Loving

Mildred Loving passed away on May 2nd. Here is her obit in the NYT.

Her final statement about the right to love and marry the person of one's choosing comes from her statement last year commemorating the Supreme Court Decision in Loving v. Virginia:

"My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about."

--Mildred Loving

One Kiss Hides Another

"A kind of healthy loathing sets in for me as soon as the poems are published."

(Bernard Chapin interviews David Yezzi)


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Once at George Town Police Station, Mr. Chandler was made to wait to speak to an inspector. The inspector never came, but the original officer came back and gave him a stern talking to, telling him he didn’t care what he did in private, but that he could not kiss his partner in a public place. He attempted to make Mr. Chandler promise not to kiss his partner in public again and then released him.


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Have you entered the Caption Contest yet? Not a lot of entries so far. It is a challenging photo this time...


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Today is a another dinner meeting after work, so a long day ahead of me. Dinner meetings are never great. It isn't as if you ever really enjoy the dinner.


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Mom: I cannot find your third book on my bookshelves.
Me: That is because I haven't published a third book yet.
Mom: Oh, I thought you had.
Me: Nope.
Mom: So, when will you have it published?
Me: What?
Mom: The third book.
Me: It is only a draft right now.
Mom: Well, it sounds like somebody has some work to do.
Me: Yeah. Sounds like it.
Mom: I bet you don't have to work hard to make sure you pick up wine in Sonoma.
Me: What?
Mom: Just saying.


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Clue: Hatful of Hollow


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Caption Contest # 28

New month. And a new photo. You knew it was coming. You knew it! Yes, it is that time again. The Caption Contest returns. As always, the rules are the same. Post captions in the comments box below. Jacob shall select the winning caption. He is the Judge extraordinaire. The winner gets bragging rights and may or may not receive a monetary prize (usually a $25 gift certificate with winner getting choice of type so as not to offend any Amazon boycotters). The award of a monetary prize is decided before the contest opens. You know, another level of surprise.

Winners this year so far, include:

#24 : Leslie

#25 : Adam Deutsch

#26 : Shann Palmer

#27 : Christopher Hennessy

Which of you will join these four in the Year End Caption Contest Throwdown? Or will one of the four winners this year come back to take another win? And the photo? It is none other than this one:





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Let the Games begin...


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The Polls Get Stranger

"Poetry readers tend to lead active lives, listen to music, read a lot, use the Internet and volunteer at significantly higher rates than non-poetry readers, according to a study looking at U.S. involvement with poetry."

(from the Washington Post)


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I still cannot believe I didn't play an April Fool's joke on all of you back on April 1st.


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Re-reading some Brazilian poetry. I am having a hard time, over the past few weeks, reading contemporary american poetry (outside of submissions).


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Clue: "Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before..."


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Anti

“I am against being against things. I am FOR things. I realize that this is Anti-, but I'd rather say that I am for ice cream, fountain pens, surprise presents, long walks on the beach... (Wait, did I just write that?) Okay, I am against everything. EVERYTHING.”

(I take on Anti-. Okay, Anti- takes me on!)


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High School Is Even Worse Now

"THESE days, as I watch Robert Mugabe tighten his 28-year-old stranglehold on Zimbabwe while the forces of opposition try to pry away his fingers, I can’t help thinking back to a conversation he and I once tried to have about T. S. Eliot, poetry and the month of April."

(from the NYT)


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D.A. Powell joins the crew blogging at Harriet.


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"In a letter sent Tuesday, April 29, 2008 to Memphis City Schools, the ACLU says the principal's actions violated the students' constitutional rights to equal protection, freedom of expression and association, due process and privacy."

(Memphis Principal accused of outing gay students)


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Running to the post office, then gassing the car, then over the Golden gate Bridge we go... Back tonight to watch Battlestar Galactica saved for us on TiVo. A fracking fantastic day!


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Clue: Small Berry Mouvedre


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Whores

Some time this weekend, we are running up to Sonoma to pick up wine. We might stop in Sausalito on the way up and eat French Toast. And on the way back, we might stop and eat some banana spring rolls. So many possibilities. And you already know we are whores for food and wine. What are you doing this weekend?

Will you?

"Rich’s diminutive frame belies a formidable character. In 2003, out of opposition to the war in Iraq, she declined to attend a White House symposium on poetry. In 1997, she refused the National Medal of the Arts, writing in a letter to Jane Alexander, then chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts, which oversaw the award, that she couldn’t accept the honor “because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration."

(from the Harvard University Gazette)


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"As a teenager, Pinsky aspired to become a jazz saxophonist before he found his calling as a poet. Moses, who grew up in the same apartment building as the great bebop drummer Max Roach, was perhaps destined to be a jazz percussionist. Pinsky first publicly read his poetry to jazz accompaniment earlier this year in Manhattan. Moses last accompanied a poet in the early 1960s..."

(from the Boston Globe)


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I have another story in my head, a new story. This is my third in a week. I am hoping to save some time this weekend to get it down. The wiring in my head is messed up right now. I have no explanation at all.


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Clue: Cline


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What the...! (part 2)

Well, the folks at Swiggler have done their now infamous survey once again. According to this survey administered to straight men (supposedly), here is the list of famous folk straight men would be "willing to bone". Obviously, I can't verify this since I am not a straight man, but I seriously would love to know how this survey was conducted.


Top Ten Male Celebrities Straight Men Would Be Willing to Bone

1. Brady Quinn
2. Brad Pitt
3. Daniel Craig
4. Orlando Bloom
5. Ashton Kutcher
6. Jude Law
7. Justin Timberlake
8. Ryan Phillipe
9. Rob Thomas
10. Lenny Kravitz


Poor Brad Pitt has fallen to number 2. 16 months ago, he was Numero Uno.


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Wanna Be On Top?

Stop being all dirty-minded! That is the phrase from the opening of America's Next Top Model. And Forbes, that institution that makes money by tracking money, has just released their list of the biggest money makers in modeling.



Yup, you guessed it. Gisele Bundchen is on top! In fact, she earned more than twice what the number 2 model on the list made.

1. Gisele Bundchen 35 million
2. Heidi Klum 14 million
3. Kate Moss 7.5 million
4. Adriana Lima 7 million
5. Doutzen Kroes 6 million
6. Karolina Kurkova 5 million
7. Natalia Vodranova 4.8 million
8. Carolyn Murphy 4.5 million
9. Daria Werbowy 3.8 million
10. Miranda Kerr 3.5 million

Notice anything? A certain top model is not on the list. Nor is she in the 11 through 15 slots. To read about the entire list of fifteen, check out Forbes.


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Monument

Because we should not forget, despite some people wanting us to do so...


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TGIM

Steve Fellner and Daniel Hall are the co-winners of this year's Thom Gunn Award. What is up with all these ties this year?


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I drafted another story yesterday. Two short stories in one week. Both are just over 2100 words. Both are weird. I think something has gone wrong with the wiring in my head. I have gone all wonky. Stories? I mean, WTF? All I know is that the stories are completely surprising to me. It is almost a little creepy.


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May is here. Yay! So glad April is over. I hate April.


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"Three islanders from Lesbos -- home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women -- have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name."

I swear to God people always find ways to sue people.


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I wish today were Friday, but alas...


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Clue: Sonoma


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