Blackbirds, I guess...

Very grey and austere this week. I'm all Martha Wainwright and Wallace Stevens. Brown rice and endless rain. I am not too adept at making poems right now, but I feel like a masterful slasher. I've weeded a lot of unforgivable lines from the new drafts. And that's progress.

There's one of those murders of crows that consists of several hundred birds spending time in my periphery. They were blackening the graveyard I pass on my way to grocery shop. They make a slow parade overhead on many of my walks. This probably sounds like a metaphor in conjunction with the proceeding paragraph, but it's not. It's literal. And awe inspiring.

Lush: an anthology and cocktail guide

Got my contributor's copy of Lush in the mail; what an excellent surprise! Well worth the wait!

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

Here is the culmination of my Queen video mania, reserved for my brother Michael's birthday, as it has always been my secret theme song for him. Though, no it is not biographically accurate.

On another note, yesterday was almost a Rockwellian Sunday. In between papers and prepping I baked pumpkin spice muffins and P and I went for a walk around Lake of the Isles. (For non-locals, that is the lake Mary Tyler Moore walks by as her theme song plays)
There is just a thin layer of ice formed across the top of the lake, and if you slide a stone across the top of it (as if you were skipping it), this crazy acoustic phenomenon happens! I swear it sounded like photon torpedoes and echoed all around the shore! Even when a silver dollar size stone was sixty feet or so off shore there continued this loud ringing sound! I was endlessly entertained and after my thirtieth or so stone toss, had to be led away by the arm.

Then the sun set all pastel pinks and blues for the remainder of our walk. Sigh.

Fun

Tuesday night A and I saw the New York Dolls at First Avenue.

Friday night P and I went to hear Charles Simic read. In a church, no less. We sat in pews and listened to Charles Simic from behind a pulpit. And there were probably over 200 people there which in itself is heartening to see.

What an amazing week for my groupie fanship! Perhaps next week T. Rex and Emily Dickinson could blow through town.

Queen-We Are The Champion

There was once a time when I had a relationship with Queen music! This was everyone's elementary softball victory song. In fourth grade we had orange jerseys and were Orange Crush, and in fifth grade we had blue jerseys and were the Bluejays, which name I picked, foreshadowing my bird fetish.

I would like to dedicate this video to my great grad school pal Elvis, Gbanabom Hallowell, in celebration of another new book for him.

Somebody to Love - Queen

Here's another Queen video to celebrate the launch of Pilot Magazine and books, which contains many fine poets for you to love. I, personally, am always fond of my fellow Black Ocean poet, Zachary Schomburg and am also seriously digging Cynthia Arrieu-King at the moment.

poetry and voting

Boy was the reading swell last night! Do you all have Terri Ford's first book? Well, you better hurry on up because I learned her second will be out next spring!

And Eric did a really interesting brand spanking new experimental piece that included a voice loop. So very cool.

And a good number of my students came. For some, yesterday was their first poetry reading AND first time voting. I was so happy for them!

P was playing in the band at the Democratic shindig, so my pal J and I hoofed over after the reading to check it out. It was moving, actually, being in the room as MN's first woman senator and first African-American Muslim congressman made their victory speeches. But truly, J and I spent a goodly portion of the evening pondering how we could get on this man's dance card. Alas, it was not to be.

I Want To Break Free - Queen

Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

When I was a kid I was way too disillusioned (whatever that means at sixteen) and punk to listen to any stadium type rock, and so my fanship for Queen has been delayed until now. I cannot get enough.

If, after you break free to get out and vote this evening, you are looking to do something more before heading back home, I have the honor of reading with the supersensational Eric Lorberer and Terri Ford tonight! We'll be at the Black Dog Cafe, kitty corner from the St. Paul Farmers' Market, at 7:00 p.m.

The Cafe Review

Just got my fall issue of The Cafe Review for which I would like to send out a big thanks to the editors for taking one of my new states poems and to Karen Douglass for a kind and positive review of Upon Arrival.

As soon as I can stop rereading the Andrei Codrescu poem "Visitors," I look forward to getting knocked out by even more work in the mag.