[Blogging & E-mail Holiday]

Announcements (5/19):

I decided posting this didn't count as blogging.

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Jon Lester, who is battling cancer, just pitched a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals at Fenway.

Barack Obama's chances of winning the Presidency are, as the media is continually telling us, very much on the wane. I mean, how could a guy like Obama defeat a giant like McCain? These 65,000 people in Oregon (photo: 5/19/08) clearly agree with that assessment (15,000 others had to be kept out of the venue by police). In fact, nearly all of these rally attendees are mere bystanders--they just happened to be in the area when Obama, who was randomly walking by, decided to say a few words. Damn rubber-neckers! Let the man's candidacy die a dignified death, won't you?

In poetry news: my three poems in the May issue of Poetry, all of which are from my second manuscript, Final Boy--presently seeking a publisher--can be found on the Poetry website (here). "Provincetown Fourth" was recently featured by Poetry Daily, (here). You can also hear Don Share read "Provincetown Fourth" as part of the May Poetry podcast (I absolutely recommend the whole podcast, but will mention that the reading of the poem begins three minutes and forty-five seconds into the fifteen-minute broadcast).

Finally--on a related note--I recently received a request from a Mexican poet, asking me to allow him to translate "Provincetown Fourth" into Spanish for one of the literary journals down in Mexico City(!) Very cool indeed, especially as I speak some Spanish, and absolutely love the language--even if I'm not quite sure how one would accurately translate "thunderbolt-boas"!

Original Post (4/24):

So, I've hit another one of those stretches where I've simply taken too much on, and time is flying by, even as it seems I'm getting nothing done with respect to my primary reason for being here in Iowa: writing and reading poetry (not necessarily in that order). Too many hours spent watching back-episodes of The Wire and Battlestar Galactica? Perhaps, but the blogging and MFA-related extracurriculars are also taking their toll. And as I've just finished the last DVD-available season of The Wire, the last DVD-available season of Battlestar Galactica, and sent my forty-page essay on MFA programs along to the publishers via the book's primary author/editor, it's time: time for more writing, time for more reading, time for more manuscript-editing, time for attending more poetry-related events--and yes, hell, more time spent smelling the damn roses, too. Iowa City is wonderful in the spring, I'm finding. Yesterday it was eighty degrees but so breezy and humidity-free I didn't even sweat (despite, per usual, wearing jeans).

While I've been loving the blog these past few months--and feel I've been blogging in a much more productive way than previously--it nevertheless is just taking up too much of my time, as is answering e-mails regarding MFA programs from readers of the blog (I think I've worn the Yahoo! e-mail-flagging system down to the nub; at any one time I seem to have seven or eight e-mails flagged that require a response, and that's with me being reasonably prompt about answering queries, too). It's no wonder that just reading seven David Berman poems yesterday immediately resulted in four new poems of my own; when I read, I write, and when I don't, I don't.

Folks I know should feel free to continue e-mailing me as they always have, but if we haven't met in person or already engaged one another substantially on-line I'm afraid I'm going to have to turn down (and saying "no" is one of the hardest things for me to do!) any additional requests for assistance re: MFA programs, at least for the moment. I expect the blog will come off its prolonged vacation sometime in the fall (and yes, part of this decision is me trying to keep myself from blogging about politics all summer), but for the moment I need to focus on my writing, and with all the projects I've taken on recently--most of which, friends have pointed out to me, involve me doing for others--I just haven't been getting much done myself, as already noted. I should emphasize that all outstanding e-mails and requests will be answered, and happily so--I wouldn't dream of falling short on commitments I've made, and am only too happy to close out this academic year finishing up projects that are already on my plate. But I've promised myself now: no new projects.

Best wishes to all, and "see" you all again in the fall. If any important announcements need to be made, I'll make them at the top of this post.

[Music]

No way in hell am I going to provide an introduction for this song. Does not need one.



Requires even less. I mean, do you introduce the Beatles?

[Poetry]

Four poems! Four fucking poems! I wrote today, I mean. Was very inspired after reading the first one-third of David Berman's Actual Air, as well as a smattering of Zachary Schomburg's excellent The Man Suit. Sure, it was probably derivative, quasi-narrative, post-confessionalist, textureless, largely metaphor-free toxic waste--but hell, I'm a student, so expectations are deservedly low, and four poems would be a miracle for me even if they were haiku. So--I'm more and more at peace with the long haul. In poetry. Coming to terms with life being one too, as opposed to the episodic little docudrama I've ghost-written it as. Received proofs today for my poem "How I Became An Asshole," forthcoming in LIT. For those of you who'd naturally presume that poem to be autobiographical, it's worth checking out. Chock full of secrets on how to screw up a perfectly good sense of self. Incredible, too: third manuscript seems to be slowly coming together as a three-sectioned struture charting three psyches (who are we kidding: three facets of mine). Would love to title it Will, but am certain some publisher down the line would ask me why I was so dead-set on making the manuscript effectively Google-proof. Good point. But Three Wills is lame. 3 Wills, though. Hmm. Fortunately I have all the time in the world to stew on this, as I've got to get The Suburban Ecstasies to my publisher by June 1st and make sure that Final Boy doesn't become some sort of perennial bridesmaid. But I'm not an idiot, either: these are good problems to have, I know. "How I Became An Asshole," in a store near you next month. A true story. Who am I kidding? I need to post some more videos.

What's Good for Obama Is Not, Apparently, Good for the Gander

Radical Republican Fred Barnes wrote the following today:

The key was how [Clinton] won in Pennsylvania. She clobbered him among the voting blocs that are critical to a Democratic victory: union households, women, Catholics, working class and downscale voters, and those who didn't attend college.

The Democratic nominee who doesn't win a solid majority of these voting groups is all but certain to lose in November.

Note the words Barnes has left out.

This should read, "the Democratic nominee who doesn't win a solid majority of these voting groups in November is all but certain to lose [the general election]." Instead, we're left with the implication that Obama must win these groups now to win them later. That's hogwash.

Entirely forgotten in Barnes' analysis--Barnes being a huge McCain supporter--is that McCain couldn't win a key G.O.P. demographic in a red-state primary if the Pope declared him the Second Coming tomorrow. Yet somehow, what's good for Obama (the theory that not winning key demographics in an all-Democratic primary means you can't win in November) isn't good for McCain. In fact, doesn't apply to McCain in the slightest. And I'm running out of reasons for that double standard, and frankly I keep coming back to race: Hillary's argument is a coded appeal to white voters, which, transcribed, says, "the American electorate isn't ready to give a black man power over the direction of the country."

If race weren't the issue, we'd have the same discussion this year that we've had every other election cycle: namely, that swing states are swing states not because of their core Democratic and G.O.P. constituencies, but because of their large and/or powerful blocs of independent voters. In past years, if I wanted to know whether Obama could win Ohio, I'd look at his standing among registered Independents. And of course, he kills Hillary there--precisely the argument, incidentally, that McCain supporters have made (and that the media has bought, wholesale) that his red-state ass-kickings say nothing about his national viability.

But Hillary Rules don't apply to anyone else, and the only victim of Hillary Rules (which, again, turn all conventional wisdom about how party demographics work in American elections on its head) is a black man. And that's starting to make me uneasy, particularly when Hillary's top surrogate, her husband, is saying on a Philadelphia radio station the day before the Pennsylvania primary that Obama played "the race card" on him. [Clinton was blaming Obama for Clinton's own racist comments in South Carolina, in which Clinton essentially said Obama was the same kind of "blacks-only" candidate Jesse Jackson had been in the 1980s].

Look: everyone in the Democratic Party, including the Clinton folks, knows that when the Democratic Party coalesces around a candidate all of its core constituencies will fall into line, just as the Republicans' core constituencies will. It's easy to forget that Obama has decimated Clinton in union endorsements, that he's beaten Clinton in the states with the highest percentages of white, working-class voters and gun-owners (Montana, anyone?), and that national polls show him having no more difficulty than Clinton--in fact, far less--beating McCain. Not to mention that nearly 50% of Americans have said they'll never vote for Clinton, under any circumstances, whereas that number for Obama is significantly lower. But somehow none of this matters, because the media (and the Clinton campaign) are applying Hillary Rules, and the end result is that the only legitimate progressive party in America is giving a black man the shaft for the ten thousandth time in this nation's checkered history of race relations.

[Politics]

A Little Piece of Research the Obama People Should E-Mail Out to the Media Immediately

Question: Prior to Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee dropping out of the G.O.P. primary race more than a month ago, how many "red" State primaries had John McCain won during the 2008 election cycle, other than his home state?

Answer: 3.

To wit (link): Texas (by 13%), Oklahoma (by just 4%), and South Carolina (by just 3%).*

It's interesting, isn't it, that no one in the media is saying that "John McCain can't win the states Republicans need to win in November," despite the fact that McCain won four times as many "blue" states (12) as "red" states (3)?

Maybe the reason no one brings this up is because conventional wisdom is that the candidate for the Democrats will win all the strong "blue" states, and the G.O.P. candidate all the strong "red" states, no matter who the individual parties put up?

Kinda puts a hole in Hillary's "Obama can't win California" premise, doesn't it? And isn't that her only argument to the super-delegates? And yet, can you imagine a media story coming out tomorrow--anywhere in America or the world--saying that John McCain is doomed, because he won't be able to hold the states Huckabee won (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, West Virginia) and those that Romney won (Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming)?

That's right: Huckabee and Romney, combined, won twelve "red" state primaries to McCain's three, and each of them separately won more than McCain did (Huckabee more than twice as many--seven--and Romney, with five, nearly twice as many). Not to mention Huckabee's swing-state win in Iowa, and Romney's swing-state wins in Colorado and Nevada.

Another fun fact: Romney won his home state (Utah) by 85% (yes, you read that right) over his next-closest opponent. Huckabee won his home state (Arkansas) by 40% over McCain. And McCain? Well, the sitting Arizona Senator won Arizona over Romney, of course--but by only thirteen points.

By way of comparison, Obama beat Hillary in Illinois--Barack's home state--by 32%, in Hawaii (where he went to high school) by 52%, and Kansas (yet another state Obama's called home) by 48%.

* McCain won several "swing" states by narrow margins: Florida (by 5%); Missouri (by 1%); New Hampshire (by 5%); and Virginia (by 9%). After Huckabee exited the race, McCain won red-state Mississippi and swing-states Ohio and Pennsylvania by sizeable margins--but he was only competing with Ron Paul at that point. And lest anyone claim that Hillary's stronger point--this New York/California nonsense aside--is that she can win swing-states and Obama can't, don't forget that Obama's won four swing-states: Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, and Virginia. Which, incidentally, is only two less than Clinton: Nevada (a 6% win); New Hampshire (3%); New Mexico (1%); Ohio (10%); and Pennsylvania (10%). And there are many folks who'd add Wisconsin to Obama's swing-state wins (a 17% landslide for the Illinois Senator).

Prediction: Cubs to Win World Series This Year

Mark your calendars! I'd like to be one of the first, um, poets (at least) to make this prediction.

The Cubbies lineup isn't just better than the Yankees lineup. It's better than the Tigers lineup.

Assuming everyone's healthy offensively, when opposing pitchers prepare to take the mound they're looking at the following lineup card:

1. Reed Johnson, CF
2. Ryan Theriot, SS
3. Alfonso Soriano, LF
4. Derrek Lee, 1B
5. Aramis Ramirez, 3B
6. Kosuke Fukudome, RF
7. Mark DeRosa, 2B
8. Geovany Soto, C
9. Carlos Zambrano, SP

[And lest you knock Johnson, remember he's got a .400+ OBP presently, and that's no fluke: he's hit .320 over a full season before].

Hell, even Zambrano can hit. The NL hasn't seen a lineup this good since I don't know when. With their three runs today, the Cubbies are currently the highest-scoring team in Major League Baseball, and they've done most of that without Soriano (and now, presently, without Theriot). If Felix Pie ever comes around--and I expect he will--they've actually got a bench, too, with Pie, Daryle Ward, Matt Murton, Henry Blanco, and Ronny Cedeno available as subs (while he's no Rex Hudler, Cedeno is at least serviceable as a middle-infield utilityman, anyway).

If their pitching holds together, this is the Cubs' year.

[NB: For those non-baseball fans wondering why anyone would care if the Cubs won the World Series, or why it would be/is in any way an interesting or bold prediction to say they'll win it this year: the Cubs haven't won the World Series since before World War I, and are now--by far--owners of the longest World Series-win drought in Major League Baseball history (and perhaps the longest top-finish drought in the history of American sport) despite being one of this nation's most storied professional athletic franchises. So, it'd be a historic victory, and an end to generations of suffering for the folks of Chicagoland].

Baracky: The Movie

[Comedy]

[NB: Of course, being Steven Wright, it's all about the delivery, but anyway...]


[from] Steven Wright, When the Leaves Blow Away (2006)

"When I was a little kid I wished that the first word I'd ever said was 'quote,' so right before I died I could say 'unquote.'"

"What did Jesus ever do for Santa Claus on his birthday?"

"I met this woman and I really liked her the second I met her, and all I could think of was whether there's something the opposite of a restraining order."

"[Speaking of a girlfriend who moved away] She wrote me this beautiful letter and I read it and at the bottom of it I crossed her name off and wrote my own name and I sent it back to her. And I never heard from her ever again. Apparently she didn't like what she wrote."

"My problem is that I was reincarnated without ever having been alive the first time."

"I live in Massachusetts, I didn't shovel my driveway once this winter since I bought the flamethrower."

"You know, the Earth is bipolar."

"My dog has a website. All it is is naked cats."

"I'm driving around and I'm wondering what my life would have been like if I'd been born one day earlier. And then I thought, maybe it wouldn't have been different, except I would have asked that question yesterday."

"So I go in the store and no one's behind the register, and I'm thinking I should go behind the register so when people come in they can ask me questions and I can say, 'What, do I look like I work here?'"

"I took the milk and I went up to the register and said, 'Hi, how are you?' And she said, 'Will that be all?', and I said 'No, I want to buy this.'"

"I asked the cashier, 'Do you like baseball?' and she said, 'What?', and I said, 'Do you sell lighter fluid by the case?'"

"Next week I'm going to have an MRI to find out whether or not I have claustrophobia."

"In school they told me 'practice makes perfect,' and then they said 'nobody's perfect.' So I stopped practicing."

"I bought a new camera, it's very advanced, you don't even need it."

"I bought a new phone, the first thing I did was hit re-dial. The phone started having a nervous breakdown."

"They say you're not supposed to put metal in a microwave oven....they're right."

"I'm addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn't matter."

"I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography."

"Twenty-four hour banking? I don't have time for that."

"I asked my girlfriend if she'd ever had sex with a woman and she said 'No.' I said, 'You should try it, it's fun.' And she did, now she's gone."

"I bought a new dog, he's a paranoid retriever. He brings back everything, 'cause he's not sure what I threw him."

"My first time in love I learned a lot. Before that I never even thought about killing myself."

"I said, 'Lucinda, will you always love me?' And she said, 'I doubt it, I don't even love you now.'"

"My grandfather had a rocking chair that rocked forward instead of backwards, so he could fake interest in any conversation."

"One time I told my grandfather about a dream I'd had and I asked him, 'What do you think it means?' And he said, 'It means you were sleeping.'"

"I tried to hang myself with a bungee cord. I kept almost dying."

"I have a paper-cut from writing my suicide note ... It's a start."

"Last time I was at the grocery store I caused quite a commotion. I tried to buy that thing that separates your food from the other guy's. I told him 'I need this--you don't know what it's like where I live.'"

"My coasters are marking up my tables."

"When I was younger my grandmother said to me, 'Come over here,' and I said, 'What do you mean?' And she said, 'You know what I mean, you're over there, now come over here.' ... She said, 'Here's five dollars, and don't tell your mother I gave it to you.' And I said, 'It'll cost you more than that.'"

"[Sitting down with a guitar] This next song doesn't go something like this, it goes exactly like this."

"Like my dad used to say, 'if worse comes to worse, we're screwed.'"

"Do you think maybe I'm crazy--on a scale of 1 to 10, 6 being the highest?"

[History]

[NB: Video and audio take twenty seconds to reach full resolution].



Danica Patrick becomes the first woman ever to win an IndyCar race.

[Music]

The sound here is reminiscent of any one of a number of mid- to late-60s blues-rock bands, but it's done well enough here to deserve some kudos--and reminds us what a smoky dive in the 1960s would have smelled and tasted like. In fact, I was just listening to "East River Lovers" by Culver Street Playground (1964) and the idea seems about the same here as there. A more recent analog would be Gomez; if you like the one, you'll probably like the other (at least as to early Gomez). The psychedelic and bluegrass touches are nice, though.

The Black Keys, "Psychotic Girl" (2008)

[Notes]

1. I was asked recently to participate in a career panel on campus (for undergraduates) with two fellow writers (one a journalism professor, one a graduate of the Writers' Workshop in fiction). [NB: And no, I didn't simply shout, "Don't do what I did! Really!" and storm out of the room, however satisfying that cathartic moment would have been]. One question I was asked was what work I'm most proud of as a poet. I hadn't really thought about that before, yet somehow the answer seems obvious: I told the questioner that while there are many people who can evoke Beauty in poetry--who, as I put it, can craft an excellent metaphor--there are far fewer who can evoke that other construct so frequently associated with Art, Truth. I told the student that it seemed to me the ability to bring Beauty to bear in poetry is due primarily either to skill (which can be learned) or innate talent (which can't be) or a certain way of viewing the world (which both can and can't be), but that the only reliable road to experiencing/perceiving any measure of Truth is simply living. [NB: And more and more, when I look back on the things I've done and experienced in my life, I realize I've done a whole lot more of that than I thought]. I advised the students (only because this question of living-to-work or working-to-live was already in the air) to live as well as to write, or else risk a poetry capable of Beauty but not Truth, and said that if I'd ever achieved a poem which contained any essence of Truth to it/in it, it was that poem--that moment--which would be my proudest as a writer. I couldn't imagine trying to point to a particular poem or body of poems, as I was momentarily (the second the question was asked) tempted to do, because I wanted to provide an answer which included something I could be justifiably proud of, not merely proud of in my conception or as a product of hubris, and I realized that the only way to imagine a truly justifiable and incontrovertible pride when you're a poet is to hypothesize that you've achieved something, at some time, with some poem, that, in fact, the vagaries of being a poet never allow you to feel quite certain you ever really have achieved.

2. Kudos to Ron Silliman, a stand-up guy whose very public recitation of how he went about judging this year's William Carlos Williams Award should be a model for contest judges anywhere. Those corrupt judges of the early 2000s (their stories have been told by those with a quicker tongue than me, so I needn't rehash them) who claim that it was impossible for them to know how to act ethically--as who could possibly understand the mystical forms and prerequisites of ethical behavior?--are revealed, through Silliman's uprightness and integrity, as the moral babes-in-woods they are. I find it laughable that grown adults can claim to be stumped by basic principles of ethics; I find it laudable that Silliman has managed to, so effortlessly, embody just about every single one of them. May the coming years bring us more contest judges with Silliman's commitment to poetry and ethics, and less with judges committed only to themselves and their hangers-on. I'd like to give a shout-out, too, along this same vein, to the Best New Poets anthology. Again, it's a simple premise that folks working at certain other anthologies can only (at best) pretend not to understand: to produce a credible anthology committed to Art (not the Self), have journals, programs, and individuals nominate poems; judge them blindly; judge the poems purely on merit; focus only on poets "new" enough to benefit from the exposure, rather than rehashing the careers of poets currently working on their 32nd book of poetry; exclude from consideration any relatives or students (or former students) of all the readers and judges.

3. The Obama/Clinton "race" has become laughable, with Clinton now clearly unable to win--by any permutation of events--and the media trying daily to convince us Obama has destroyed his campaign with wholly irrelevant/minor gaffes, even as his poll numbers in every single state in America rise. The media doesn't seem to understand (nor does the political blogosphere) that folks aren't following all these tempests-in-a-teapot (the latest and most hilarious, as well as the most improbable, was the allegation that Obama had flipped Clinton the bird whilst scratching his nose during a speech; oh, I'm sure...! You watch the video, I promise you you'll see a man scratching his nose in the same way some well-to-do/effete folks do, with his longest finger; it's a habit, not a schoolyard taunt). The latest improbable state that Obama beats McCain in? Colorado. Every single day Obama takes the lead in another traditionally-red state, and every single day the media ignores these polls to focus on Clinton's last-ditch, mud-slinging attempt to forever ruin her reputation in the Democratic Party. Sorry, I mean to become President.

4. I've found myself too angry to write about any of the recent Supreme Court cases (or arguments) surrounding the death penalty. I have a Scalia rant that's been sitting in the pipeline for weeks now, largely centering around the fact that the man's pretty clearly said already that he thinks the Eighth Amendment means whatever the state/federal government says it does--in other words, nothing (Scalia here, as elsewhere, completely abrogates his duties as a Justice to the Executive Branch)--so it's ridiculous that reporters continue to cover his views on torture and the death penalty. One might as well seek a quote from the Pope every single time a town in Nevada tries to legalize prostitution. The bottom line is, there are active participants in a debate and doctrinaires; if you're a journalist, a real journalist, you don't cite Scalia's views on the Eighth Amendment because it's an open secret that he doesn't have any. Meanwhile, the most thoughtless and intellectually lazy Justice ever nominated to the Supreme Court--Clarence Thomas, who's become something of a running joke amongst the law school set--recently upheld faulty lethal injection practices by saying that only death-penalty practices which intentionally cause pain are unconstitutional. Mind you, compared to Scalia's outlook that holding is akin to the French Revolution; in reality, though, it merely brings Thomas into the mid-20th century jurisprudentially. Welcome to 1950s legal culture, Clarence--apparently you, as attorneys and judges practicing then eventually came to, now oppose firing squads. Bravo.

5. Oni Buchanan's new poetry project is novel, I'll say that much. As to saying more, you'll have to decide on your own.

6. I sometimes wonder if British poets are as embarrassed by nonsense like this as their American counterparts are. Some of the literary debates that go on across the Pond strike me as little different than Thomas on the DP: about sixty years behind. I mean, it's official: my non-English major undergraduate students now know more about the nature of poetry than the Queen's English Society. At least we've read Lerner, Wenderoth, Tate, et. al., and had a coherent series of in-class converations about the ongoing poetry-or-prose "debate" being most properly argued in terms of a spectrum rather than against/upon some sort of binary framework. [NB: A recent American take on a similar theme can be found here. And Pinsky is one of our more conservative critics of poetry (as, of course, is the Queen's English Society in England, but I think the trend there is much broader than just that extreme example)].

7. Apparently I am an "immigration expert" [Link]. I mean, in some sense I guess I always knew I was an expert on immigration, and I...um...er...

8. I continue to be amazed by Iowa City's poetry-reading offerings. Having been on the Boston list-serv for years (the one that announces poetry readings in Boston), I can honestly say Iowa City's lineup rivals or exceeds it. We have about four significant readings a week here (and a host of minor ones, too), and the difference between here and Boston is that I can walk to any one of them in about five minutes or less. Likewise, the fourth-best bookstore in town has a better, larger, and more diverse poetry section than the best one I ever saw in Boston. Someone recently said to me that there are only three Great Places left to be a writer in America: San Francisco, Iowa City, and New York City. While that might be a bit of an exaggeration (I'm very impressed with the burgeoning poetry scene in Chicago, the environment in Los Angeles is underrated, and D.C. is making some headway too), there's no question in my mind that if you're a poet and you'd like to live somewhere (for just a few years) about 33% as expensive as New York City or San Francisco, but with the most vibrant artistic community you could ever ask for, Iowa City's the place to be. This is the sort of place where the guy who makes change for you at the gas station at three in the morning is probably also a published poet or a talented memoirist.

[Music]

Haven't heard Pinback before? We can help you.

Pinback, "Fortress" (2004)

[News]

My thanks to Leon Stokesbury for giving my poem "Cash at Folsom" the best reading it's ever going to get. I mean, wow. I'd like to give major credit to Linebreak here for a fantastic job presenting this poem, both visually and via audio. And frankly the whole damn journal is just awesome, come to think of it (check out the archives while you're there).

You can hear Leon Stokesbury's reading of "Cash at Folsom" here.

The poem is taken from my forthcoming first book, The Suburban Ecstasies. [NB: It appears there in a slightly different form, actually].

[Music]

[NB: Probably the best music/video combo I've ever posted].

Melpo Mene, "I Adore You" (Album Forthcoming August 2008)

[Poetry]

A friend of mine (and a fine poet), Shana Youngdahl, has just released her first chapbook, an account of the Donner Party entitled Donner: A Passing (Finishing Line Press, 2008). You can purchase it here--and you should.

But don't take my word for it:

"The poet's cool, tough eye moves the poem beyond the usual moral maneuvering and gives us, instead, a compressed, intelligent, and compassionate account..."

-- Tom Sleigh

"This is work that teaches us to listen."

-- Ray Gonzalez

"Build[s] its story...in fine progression..."

-- Lola Haskins

[Music]

Spirit of '67, baby!

Caribou, "Melody Day" (2007)

[Poetry]

I was astonished to learn, earlier today, that the Pulitzer Board had bucked all CW and given a Pulitzer (or one of them, anyway) to Robert Hass. I mean, Robert Hass! Who in the world saw that coming?

In other news, I went to a Rachel Zucker reading tonight, and I'm not lying when I say--apropos of the post directly beneath this one--that Rachel used Gaius Baltar (of Battlestar Galactica fame), in-poem, to illustrate the yearning of the self to discover (or re-discover) the self (in Baltar's case, that eternal question--"Am I a Cyclon?"--which is second only in prominence to an even more eternal question, "Should we toss Gaius out the air-lock on general principle?").

While admittedly I still have some questions/concerns surrounding Zucker's "project"--as much as I hate to use that term--I always enjoy her poems, found her reading absolutely hilarious (though I felt like I was the only one in the room who considered it so!), and am happy to note that she reads her own work extremely well.