NaPoWriMo

I'm going to try this...A "new" poem -- or partial new poem everyday of April. This game is led by Maureen Thorson and comes to my knowledge via Shanna Compton. This goes against every fiber of my existance. I hate self publishing. I hate sharing drafts. It takes me a good year to write a fine poem. But, I haven't been writing and if I don't start writing and stop doing the TIMES CROSSWORD my husband is going to stop feeding me!

from The Field Guide to Domesticity
for Mari and Liam

This landscape is left glowing.

Liam has left his wing splayed and broken
by the wayside.

He has forgotten himself
and followed the wild gypsy girls
down into the basketball court.

There is a constellation afixed to the sidewalk
where his fist pushed off.

What I am telling you is not mundane.

All the mothers call all the children,
the response gargled, random.

Four Years Old!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Iraq War!
Happy Birthday to you!

Let's all send the war a cake & gifts!

Today, the Times reviewed a Rae Armantrout book. Progress?

Today, I have been having the breakdown of the of not fitting in. I learned that an old aquaintance won the NEA. This person is someone who I always felt competitive with, for reasons other than poetic. This person was a GREAT short story writer and an average poet. This person won for poetry. What is it that makes a person win success in the art world? What is the criteria? Is it merely taste? Good looks? Being in the right place at the right time?

It is currently Lent -- two more weeks. I haven't given anything up, but I have begun to consider where I sin. My husband says that envy is my worse sin, and I know it's true. But how does one not feel so slighted by the world...how does one keep floating along. How does one focus on what one has.

http://www.karengunderson.com/

I'm exhausted today. Yesterday, Jim took the day off work and we went to galleries in Chelsea. We were blown away by the work of Karen Gunderson. Perhaps this was an "I love New York" moment.

Today, I had an "I HATE New York" moment. I was on the bus coming home from dropping off Jeff. There was a teenage girl next to me eating a bagel. After she was done, she threw the brown bag on the bus floor. She got off and stepped right over it. Meanwhile, I lady in nice heels went to get off the bus. Her heel got caught, she nearly tripped, and napkins and torn bag went everywhere making a bigger mess.

Oh -- the things that make me mad. Why do people have utter disregard? Where does this come from?

If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black!

What is it about poets that makes them love to fight? This seem to exist across the poetic landscape -- from the youngest to oldest, from the most successful to the least.

It is hardly surprising, then, that Dana Goodyear published an article in a recent New Yorker that was a somewhat harsh examination of the Ms. Money-Bags Poetry magazine, largely full of points that the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poets made 20 years ago (Hello!). But, what happened next was increasingly interesting.

In today's New York Times Book Review (which is actually TOMORROW'S book review -- but this is too long of a story to go into here) David Orr doesn't jump on the anti-Poetry Foundation bandwagon. Rather he takes the New Yorker to task. His primary thesis is that it is hypocritical for the New Yorker to criticize the Poetry Foundation because they, themselves, commit too many poetry sins. He points out that, "Poets may get frustrated with the Poetry Foundation; they may complain; they may disagree with certain projects. But the Poetry Foundation, however misguided or impolitic, hasn't given up on poetry. The question is: Has the New Yorker?

Hmmm....sound familiar? Doesn't the primary book review magazine in the United States have a similar responsibility to poetry?

I want pose some questions and PLEASE comment!

How many poetry books has the Times reviewed in the past year? How many of these poets were under forty years old? How many poets does it employ as reviewers? Three to my knowledge. How many times has a poets you love had books reviewed? How many poets do you know PERSONALLY who have had their book reviewed?

How often does the Times review, as Orr notes of the New Yorker, THEIR OWN friends employees, and associates?

Mr. Orr, you should read your own paper! There was a big article about this two months ago in the Public Editor!

How many times has the Book Review mentioned Nathaniel Tarn, Fanny Howe, Charles Bernstein, Anne Waldman, so on and so forth? Does the Book Review know these people are poets?

I remember one year ago, the Times published poetry reviews every week for about three months. We were all so in shock -- it was a major topic of conversation.

Orr criticizes Goodyear for quoting Billy Collins -- hey, wait a minute! -- doesn't the Times review ALL of Billy's books?

Damaged Human Form

Yesterday I went on a tour of the Closed Circuit show at the Metropolitan Museum which includes Jim Campbell's Motion and Rest #2. I was so excited about being the model for this piece and for it finally making it's way out of storage. I was, however, nervous about the tour guide and the museum's translation of the piece which is clearly about labored movement. The guide was wonderful. Without knowing about my presence in the audience, she called it "beautiful" and "something we all can relate to." The only thing that bothered me was the text on the wall, perhaps written by the curator, that called the figure in the piece (i.e. me) a "damaged human form." Of course, I was hysterical. Then it occured to me, aren't we all damaged human forms?

Good News For Jim!

Jim recently had his first science fiction story accepted to a major magazine!
Apex

I'm in the Metropolitian Museum of Art. No Joke!

Yep, that's me!