Collage No. 3

Collage No. 2

Collage No. 1

My Favorite Poetry of 2011

Chronologically speaking, and a couple more than 2010.

1. One With Others: [A little book of her days] - C.D. Wright
2. Broken World - Joseph Lease
3. People are Tiny in Paintings of China - Cynthia Arrieu-King
4. Human Rights: Poems - Joseph Lease
5. Before and After: Poems - Charlie Smith
6. The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems - Sherman Alexie
7. One Stick Song - Sherman Alexie
8. World Comix: Poems - Charlie Smith
9. Lighthead - Terrance Hayes
10. American Prodigal - Liam Rector
11. Don't Explain - Betsy Sholl
12. Ordinary Sun - Matthew Henriksen
13. Destroyer of Man: Selected Poems - Dominic Owen Mallary
14. In The Surgical Theatre - Dana Levin
15. The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems - Robert Hass
16. Excuse me while I wring this long swim out of my hair - S. Jane Sloat
17. Ruby for Grief - Michael Burkard
18. Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry - Jim Daniels
19. Our List of Solutions - Carrie Oeding
20. Oh Dear Deer, - Linda Dove
21. In the Next Galaxy - Ruth Stone
22. Polaroid Parade - Paige Taggart
23. On Happier Lawns - Justin Marks
24. You: Poems - Frank Stanford

Sleeping In

Happer & Jo

Today's the day I've been waiting for. Tonight, actually. Gene and I will drive up to Michigan and collect our Jo. She's been riding the train since Monday, viewing the great northern tier of America, from Vancouver, Washington to Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, to Chicago, and then, finally, the little town of Niles. 50-some-odd hours on the Amtrak, something she's always wanted to do. She texted in the night to say she and her partner were kicking butt at euchre. Kindred spirits. I'm dying to hear her tales. It's been six months since we've seen her, a year since she's been home. There is a new dog waiting to greet her, a rescue mutt that I brought home Monday. We think he is somewhere between one and two years old. He's a loving fellow recovering from a nasty case of mange. His fur is a little patchy. We're calling him Happer.

The Hearth Readers and Writers Series

The poets and writers will be doing their thing today, Dec. 18th, at Fiddler's Hearth. What exactly is "their thing"? Hell if I know. It's an engima wrapped in a mystery. Come see.

2:30 Neil Kelly
2:35 Chad Forbegd
2:40 Charmi Keranen
2:45 Roger Chrastil
2:50 McKenzie Tozan
2:55 Sue Barnard
3:00 BREAK
3:05 Jeff Tatay
3:10 Kristin LaFollette
3:15 Jordan Eash
3:20 Becky Pelky

3:30 - featured reader Steve Henn

Hospital Approved Poetry

(If only we knew which one.)

The N95 respirator needs to have a proper fit to be effective. It has to have a tight face fit. And then we do what we call a fit test, which is the employee dons the mask, presses the seal tightly all the way around their nose and mouth. Then we put the large -- we. The employee health nurse is who does this. They put a large plastic hood on top of the employee's head. There's a small hole and there are squirt bottles, if you will, that aerosolize a saccharin solution in different concentrations. And they squirt that saccharin solution and aerosolize it into the hood while the employee is reading a poem. And the words in that poem mimic different facial movements. So the premise is that if they can taste that saccharin at all during that test, they don't have a proper seal.

The Christmas Card

It's Christmas card season. Do you do that thing? We do, usually late, but nevertheless... If it was me, I'd completely shirk the duty. But Gene always comes through and gets them out. He has a good sense of tradition and community. Later this week he'll take this photo and have it made into a card. I'm thinking about the text to go with our faces. It's tricky. We all have that one friend who is completely over the top. But that's okay. Each year we wait anxiously for that letter, dying to see how this year can possibly top last. That letter came last week at our house. It was a little disappointing. I've come to expect too much, I suppose. I was primed for the announcement of a Pulitzer or the like. Alas. There's always next year. None of that has helped me write my tastefully understated lines, however. Maybe something along the lines of "The Happy Couple Tours A Distilllery. And many happy returns."

A Contest

And it's better than Publishers Clearinghouse. Truly.

Big Wonderful Press is offering one free copy of The Afterlife is a Dry County over at Goodreads. But you gotta go now to enter and maybe win. I mean now. Today. Get over there.

And Another Thing

Hot Metal Bridge is up! It looks pretty spiffy.

From A Window

Boredom was not
the reason.

The body reels.

Catches.

A mind floats

down.

The Many Paths To Enlightenment

Too much? Nah...

If you are so inclined to purchase a copy of The Afterlife is a Dry County, you can pick your method of madness:

Support the small press: Big Wonderful Press. After all, they've made this all possible!

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