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I’ll be back around May 1st (ish)

Hey

I’ll be back around May 1st. Since my Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome diagnosis :/ my body has been somewhat falling apart haha. I don’t know if it is some weird psychosomatic shock, or this is a slide into physical disability or this is a temporary musculoskeletal freakout or ?.

The geneticist offered to refer me to a pain clinic when I was diagnosed but I said nah when she asked, although I have changed my mind haha and am waiting for a referral.

I’m trying an anti-inflammatory diet, exercise, I’m learning reiki, going to the chiropractor, etc. I bet I start PT again too. Mostly I am still, like, WTF? and as the primary breadwinner of the family (i.e. I pay the mortgage, have the job with health insurance, etc.) I am fighting a tendency to play catch with various scenarios in my head, all of which involve wrack and ruin WRACK! AND! RUIN!, hahaha. Plus there is the underlying fear of “am I going to be in this much pain - or worse - for the rest of my life?” And I have a weirdly high pain tolerance. Not that I enjoy pain. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that haha.)

I’m lucky though, from what I have read, a lot of people with EDS go years or decades without a diagnosis (it’s a rare condition) and/or a diagnosis of “it is all in your head.” Evidently, somatoform disorder is the new “hysteria.”

If you are looking for a orthopedic doctor in Nashville, I can recommend Dr. William B. Kurtz at Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance. He’s the smarty pants who noticed the EDS symptoms. The Division of Medical Genetics at Vanderbilt confirmed it, during a very thorough 3+ hour office visit.

Anyway, this is the last time I’ll probably blog about this so much; this whole thing is a drag. I know that readers come here for poetry news. I’m going to blog EDS stuff at Bad Glue — there’s a placeholder there now.

I’ll be back in the beginning of May, I think.

Amazon & POD (Provoke On Demand)

I posted some links last week regarding Amazon.com’s attempt to force publishers to use Amazon’s BookSurge print-on-demand service. Or the book won’t be available for sale on Amazon. I think Amazon took some non-BookSurge POD book’s “buy” buttons off, too. Is that still the case? My friend Scott’s book is only available through the used book interface now.

Evidently, most (all?) print-on-demand services (other than BookSurge) use Lightning Source to actually print the book. Lightning Source is a subsidiary of Ingram Book Group, which is a local (to me) Nashville company. (The printing biz is big in Nashville.)

I find it strange that I haven’t seen any local media stories about this, since Ingram is such a large local company (and the family is so prominent in the community). Unless I missed any mainstream media articles about this, the only local attention this has gotten is from some well-respected local bloggers — Rex Hammock & Newscoma. I guess POD is small potatoes in the business world.

POD & the WWW are 2 of the main reasons that I think that, for American poetry, this is one of the most exciting periods of time, ever. OK, I understand that hardly anyone buys poetry books these days, but for those of us who do, whoo boy, is there a groaning table.

An overview of why this sucks so much for small publishers.

A more detailed analysis of how this would affect a small poetry publisher.

And in the “first they came for POD” department: Newspapers, magazines, press syndicates, not just e-book and POD publishers, should beware of Amazon’s lock-ins.

So what can you do about it? Here are some ideas:

There are contact addresses here, so you can tell Amazon to quit bogarting POD distribution.

Boycott them & quit generating revenue for Amazon.com via your websites.

The Authors Guild is seeking input that will help them move forward with legal plans because of Amazon’s possible violation of antitrust laws.

This article suggests that the California Attorney General would be most interested in Amazon’s business practices.

(I still plan on using Lulu.com to publish my poetry manuscript this year.)

Poetry News For March 24, 2008

Poetry News:

— Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen has arrived in Europe to begin a new life, reports say, after protests by Muslim groups forced her into hiding in India. —

— The Polish Immigrant, by Peter Skrzynecki —

— Despite T.S. Eliot’s doubts that the traditional sonnet could figure importantly in modern poetry, it thrives to this day —

— The Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts will host a reading by poet and translator Francisco Aragon —

— Dylan daughter on US poetry tour —

— A surprise for some will be a little known but incredibly talented poet named Charlotte Smith —

— In a fog of megalomania, Robert Frost undertook a grueling trek to Russia to negotiate with Nikita Khrushchev —

— Split This Rock’s Army of Poets Marches Into Town and Raises the Anti —

— For a while, Wright’s phone message was, “At the sound of the gunshot, leave a message,” which effectively terrified the casual caller into hanging up. —

link

Poetry News For March 12, 2008

Poetry News:

— Why this bevy of bards, this plethora of poetry, this Vesuvian eruption of verse? —

— MLB Poetry Preview: Chicago Cubs —

— My first reaction was, “What are you smoking?” —

— This week, the Academy of American Poets announced the launch of … a mobile poetry archive providing free access to a collection of more than 2,500 poems —

— Today, Sam Leith profiles the highly-influential poet of the English revolution, John Milton —

— With 16 books between them, four authors will take part in the first “Gathering of Tennessee Writers” at MTSU, on Thursday, March 20, 4:30 p.m. —

— All contemporary poetry when it is contemporary is initially baffling to its readers —

— Introducing seven of the greatest poets of the 20th century —

Nashville Poetry Alert

Women writers from lower and working class backgrounds will gather for the 2008 Vanderbilt Visiting Writers Series Spring Symposium to share their experiences and work with readers and each other.

Beyond Our Beginnings – Women Writers from Lower and Working Class Backgrounds will be held March 25-27 on the Vanderbilt campus. The discussions and readings are free and open to the public.

[more]

Nashville Poetry Alert

Tennessee State University Cultural Affairs Committee and Department of Languages, Literature, and Philosophy Present

The Ringing Ear National Book Tour

An evening of poetry showcasing readings from contributing authors

Earl S. Braggs
Stephanie Pruitt
Frank X. Walker
Treasure Williams

Thursday, February 28, 7 pm
Tennessee State University, Performing Arts Center
The event is free and open to the public

SPECIAL THANKS TO
Cave Canem Foundation
AND
Lovenoise

[email me if you plan to attend & I can help with parking etc.]

Poetry News For February 14, 2008

Poetry News:

— Austin poet and activist Raúl Salinas has died. —

— First-Ever Essence Literary Awards Celebrate African-American Writers —

— A provocative new edition of Faustus claims to solve a literary mystery and unite two of Romanticism’s greatest poets —

— “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader,” was how he put it in the same essay —

— To get comfortable with this second exercise, take any good field guide you have to hand and open it at random - allow chance to have its say on your choice —

— Poet Kay Ryan Discusses New Collection of Poems [MP3] —

— Love Poems for Valentine’s Day —

— Peter Cole is the Editor-in-Chief for Keyhole, a new literary magazine out of Nashville, TN which recently saw its inaugural publication this past fall —

I hope you have a delicious Valentine’s Day.

The Creepy Love Song Extravaganza

Well that was terrifying

During the 3rd time we were in the closet in the basement last night we heard a low rumble for a couple minutes — that got quieter as it passed by or whatever. I don’t know if it was just a lot of wind or a tornado or what. It did sound freight-train-like. And scared the crap out of us.

A tornado hit Fairview, Tennessee, during the 1st time we were hiding in the closet in the basement. Though we have a Kingston Springs TN address we are actually closer to Fairview. I’m waiting for the Emergency Management folks to give me my assignment for clean-up. Thanks to some intensive chiropractic sessions at Action Chiropractic my shoulder problem is better.

The local TV had weather stuff on it all night, (and rightly so) so I didn’t get my Super Tuesday political junkie fix.

Please say some prayers for the folks affected by this weird weather. They’re saying over 50 people died yesterday.

Right now I’m waiting for a tree-cuttting crew to finish so I can get out of my neighborhood.

It was 71 degrees last night at midnight. (That’s not normal mid-South USA weather for February.)

The wireless network works in the basement closet haha. Thanks to the folks at WKRN, for Internet streaming their live weather TV broadcast last night.

Please stand by

Going to hang out in the basement tonight - no news tomorrow until later (if there is electricity).

Poetry News For January 25, 2008

Poetry News:

— Tempe’s Arizona State University to Host Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference —

— What exactly are poems? And what are they good for? —

— Callous peddler ’steals’ from sick —

— Eureka! How the Brain has ‘Aha’ Moments —

— We talked to our first poet laureate about how he got the job, the sound of hoofbeats, and Mayor Tom Menino’s deep intellectual life —

— James Hoch, a New Jersey poet whose work has been compared to songwriters Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Smith, will read from his poetry at Vanderbilt University —

Nashville has a great funk band. You should buy their CD; it’s really good. If you got funk, you got style!

Nashville Poetry Alert

Tennessee State University
Distinguished Lecture Series Presentations

Nikki Giovanni
American Poet, Essayist & Lecturer

Thursday, April 3, 2008
1:00 pm
Kean Hall

Email me if you think you’ll be attending. I’ll help you get a temp parking permit/place to park.

Hey we have a half inch of snow so far.

Poetry News for November 19, 2007

Poetry News:

— A Genius Whom the War Made and Killed; Rupert Brooke’s Death at the Front Illustrates the Paradox of the Effect on Literature of War, Which Ended His Career and Made Him Immortal By Joyce Kilmer. —

— What do you think are the most important elements of writing poetry? —

— Four of the most prestigious poetry prizes went to African-American women this year —

— Movies based on poems —

— Self-confidence is a definite advantage in most areas, but wingless flight is not one of them —

— Penguin should be ashamed of itself —

— If a more cringe-making book exists than Boris Johnson’s debut volume of poetry, Stuart Jeffries has yet to read it —

— Mark Strand’s New Selected Poems includes an evocation of food’s deep meanings, appropriate to the holiday, though the dish is not turkey: —

— Reed Whittemore: Telling it slant —

— Website of the Week — Poetry Foundation —

— One manuscript that escaped the blaze — just barely — contained an untitled poem of more than 3,000 lines —

Rare Spanish Coin Found in Nashville Cemetery. I once found an Imperial German Army uniform button. It was on top of a mole hill in our yard in Nashville on the Cheatham County line. Weird.

Collin kindly nominated Poetry Hut Blog for The Shameless Lions Writing Circle Award. Thanks, that is kind.

These are 5 blogs, poetry and not, that I also nominate:

WhimsyLand: Jeffrey Bahr deserves some kind of award for The Futility Review.

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: just because it always cracks me up & I like Chaucer.

rotten peaches: makes me want to do memoir-comics. But mine would look a lot more like a John Callahan cartoon.

pitcherlady: for pretty pictures and not-so-pretty pictures that aren’t afraid to shine a light on community problems. If I ever publish a book I’ll ask Susan for a pic. (Yes I realize this award is for writing but…)