Poetry News:

1. — ‘Free Fall’, video and music by Mike Burakoff, collages by Nick Piombino, from the book of the same name. This is featured at The Continental Review “…a haven for original video readings, video poetry and hybrid poetic-imagistic objects….” —
2. — Brewer among the nominees for Utah Book Award —
3. — Andrew Topel, visual poet of commanding technique, is a rightful heir to lettrism —
4. — Joe Milford Hosts Scott Owens! - Sep 27,2008 from The Jane Crown Show —
5. — You should buy this book it is really really really really really good. Yay! —
6. — This week on The Infinite Mind: Telling Their Stories. We will take a look at the value of brin[g]ing personal narrative into medical care. [incl. Rafael Campo] —

I swear, I am “this close” to becoming an anarchist … if I didn’t think that a Constitutional Republic was the best way to ensure the maximum freedom. But law is becoming increasingly a moot point. Why did they pick such battle-hardened troops with tons of recent combat experience for this deployment? Pfff.

I feel too crappy right now to continue this blog, sorry. I’ll be back though.

Happy Autumn! My favorite season.

Poetry News:

1. — The Mainichi Newspapers is inviting participation in the 12th Annual Mainichi Haiku Contest —
2. — Punk rocker Exene explores a creative space in Missouri —
3. — DNA Analysis Exposes Fake Schiller Skull —
4. — “Sort of Gone,” a collection of poems by Sarah Freligh, follows the adventures and misadventures - mostly misadventures - of a ballplayer who makes a life in the game in part to show his worthless sot of a father that he can do it. —
5. — “I mask it. I make my poems seem simpler then they really are,” Snyder said. —
6. — Everyday world sizzles with alarm in his poetic vision —
7. — Stafford’s wartime poetry shows the power of his convictions —
8. — A web of associations connects a group of New England writers, including Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. —
9. — This is pretty cool - congrats —

A prediction that Google will end up buying Ingram Digital (and Booksurge). I’m sure those folks over in La Vergne, TN would be surprised to hear that.

All I can say is, I’m glad that I forgot to watch the Kentucky Derby this weekend.  Sometimes  I think there’s something wrong with me - I cannot cannot cannot stand to see an animal get hurt. I have a greater reaction to that than I do from seeing a human get hurt. Though in my defense, I don’t like to watch those stupid home video TV shows where people get hit in the balls and stuff, either.

The Kentucky Derby was always a big deal when I was growing up. My dad’s drive-in restaurant wasn’t too far from the Detroit Race Course (actually in Livonia) and a lot of the regular customers (my extended family) were bookies and gamblers. So on derby day my mom would make sure we’d pick the horse’s names out of a hat (a “to go” white paper bag, actually) and my dad would put the b&w TV with a coat hanger antenna up on the counter & we’d watch the race.

Poetry News:

1. — Usually when I think, “Here’s something a poem needs to be written about,” I get as far away from pen and paper as I possibly can —
2. — Here is a poem giving pi to 21 digits when you replace each word with the number of letters in that word —
3. — Small Press and Publishing Panel —
4. — I am Cathal’s publisher for 20 years and I don’t think his poems should be used in this film. I have asked for them to be removed…. —
5. — Forage a fierce achievement —
6. — Vanishing Point by Robert Thomas —
7. — Why you should be enraged by literary liars —
8. — the 100 best last lines from novels —

Someone arrived at this blog yesterday via a Google search for “poem, the shepherd to hip love” and that made me laugh. Hmm “S” and “P” are kinda far away on the keyboard.

Maybe that poem appears in an anthology alongside “Stopping By The Foods On A Snowy Evening.” Feel free to post, in the comments, what other titles appear in that anthology. That cracks me up. And I could use some levity.