Dead Mule's Summer Sabbatical Issue is up, with three of my poems ("The Language of Waiting," "Fuel," and "Sonic Crochet Hook"). Don't miss the Southern Legitimacy Statements of the various contributors.

June Cotner has reprinted my "Prayer for Perspective" in her anthology Serenity Prayers: Prayers, Poems, and Prose to Soothe Your Soul. Haven't seen the book yet, but the check arrived last week, and it will pay for lunches with friends tomorrow and Friday. :-)

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Recent posts at Chrysanthemum (personal blog):

28: recent pleasures, including St. Ann Episcopal's 150th anniversary celebration (special guest Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop)
23: SERMON: Chocolate and Conscience
18: link to samhenderson on getting a job


At Vary the Line, I've just been linking to poetry in the news:
July 1 - Souter taking leave of the Supreme Court (quoting of Robert Frost on both sides)
June 23 - Murray Mound pantoum

At Vary the Line (the group poetry blog):

June 3: the net is lowest in the middle (tennis and poetry)

May 24: Mona Lisait = crack den

May 20: The Red Wheelbarrow

May 16: the poetry building (Rilke in Smichov)

And, during the last third of April, twelve more poems for assorted NaPoWriMo challenges.

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At Chrysanthemum (the personal blog):

April
21: Cavafy / new poems
24: call and consider
26: SERMON: Turtles
30: five things Stephen Colbert and I have in common

May
02: feeding the roses...
06: fifteen books
18: ad te omnis caro veniet
21: three notes from Paris
22: notes from Paris
24: et ses va et ses vient

June
06: starting the note before you sing it
09: A choice is only possible if there are genuine alternatives.
11: helplessly LMAO; words to ward off darkness
16: SERMON: The Red and White and Starry Blue

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General state of the Peg: Where the hell did the first half of June go??? (And how is it past 14h already?) Dealing with a pulled thigh muscle, warding off a sore throat, and trying not to sulk too hard about the whole daft writing compulsion at the moment. (Over the weekend, I wrote over 2000 words (in addition to 1 1/9's worth of sermonage) and was feeling pretty pumped about where things were headed. Then, yesterday, upon doing more research, I realized the whole thing was logistically hosed, which in some ways is a relief (that's 6000 words I now don't have to pursue) but in other ways, not so much (because I came across a phrase that would be <perfect as a title and theme for the gift-prompt that led to me wrestling with the trunked plotbunny in the first place...) And then there is the critique I owe, the poem-of-the-month I need to get into the mail, and last night's exceptionally frustrating nothing-to-show-yet-for-it session of musings on the Coupe de Mousquetaires...) On the plus side, there is a thunderstorm making a terrific racket outside, and our contractor brought by some fresh eggs I'm now going to go fry. And then it will be back to some pedal-to-the-metal PowerPoint wrangling...

mrgeddylee, I couldn't help but think of you earlier this morning: I passed by a bookshop window that displayed a title on metaphysics right next to a gun.

From europe 2009

17 April: I think the dog hates Verdi, and links to three new poems ("All I Want Is Not to Want," "So We Decided to Walk Down St. Claude," and "Flute White")

19 April: my weekend, Harper's index (and what I ate) version. (Detailed (aka chronic-grousing-about-writing) version and two finished poems("Practicing Jump Shots With William Shakespeare" and "Aftermath") at Vary the Line.

Posted a few minutes ago: Restless.

4 April: happy things

5 April: in memory of Bob Smartt

9 April: "Sometimes nothing is so solid to me as writing" (Robert Lowell quote + links to seven NaPoWriMo poems)

13 April: Easter weekend in New Orleans

16 April: links to the newest four NaPoWriMo poems

Posted at Chrysanthemum since 28 December:

3 Apr: oh, the drama! (or, the creative grind revisited, part nth + 26)

1 Apr: unexpected pleasures

28 Mar: "Knitting About Oracles" (poem)
26 Mar: Nine Things About Oracles (poem)
19 Mar: Sara Davis Buechner on Joseph Bloch
18 Mar: on Herod, Paris, and visual vocab
16 Mar: SERMON: Cults of Personality
16 Mar: Readings: Pomeroy and Wilder
09 Mar: happy birthday, Paula! (a musical setting of "Lo Alecha" + "Step by Step")
07 Mar: the complexity of silence

( February 2009 )

( January 2009 )

30 December 2008: notes from Christmas Country Dance School

At Vary the Line (poetry collective):

April 3: "The Problem With Easter" (poem + notes on process)

April 2: "An Asian American" (poem)

April 1: "Goose, Goose, Duck" (poem)

March 25: "notes on STAR*LINE and Plaths"

February 28: I admire Jennifer Atkinson's "Landscape with Mud Turtle"

February 13: reading Carolyn Miller on Ono Island

January 26: cinquains

January 16: happy birthday (in a few days), Edgar Allan Poe

At Vary the Line:

28 Dec: "some for the measure of a poet's song..."

17 Dec: And yet more harping on sonnets

At Chrysanthemum:

28 Dec: have sword, will dance
21 Dec: SERMON: Tidings of Light
20 Dec: navigating amplified times
17 Dec: That in course the flower may flourish...
16 Dec: affirming the margin of hope
15 Dec : clippings from the New York Times
12 Dec: quote of the day
09 Dec : where to donate surplus giftwrap?
08 Dec: auction, accessibility, etc.
07 Dec: Grant to your heart its hopeful promise

I know at least one of you would kill me if I didn't make sure you were aware that Katharine Kerr is offering several signed editions of her work (including the rare Polar City Nightmare) in the helpvera auction that's up until 20 December.

I also know that one of you would probably kill me if I purchased this cat-shooter for your partner. I'm still tempted, because seeing it made me laugh out loud, but there's also about twenty other things I could get for them, so I'll probably play it a bit safer. The list of people who want to throttle me is long enough as it is. ;-)

At JournalScape, I've posted about...

4 Dec: Peter Mayer to be playing at my church this Sunday, and other pleasures

3 Dec: in memory of Doug Shaw

2 Dec: the Winter issue of flashquake includes two of my poems, "The Sharpshooter Assembles A Relish Tray" and "A Stack of Cards."

30 Nov: Belfast

22 Nov: "Hi, I'm a boarding pass!"

21 Nov: Pete Morton sings sweet shepherd's songs

16 Nov: not quite in harmony with calm soul of all things

10 Nov: Alice Walker to Barack Obama, Amanda Shelton on John McCain, and other notes

8 Nov: lists

5 Nov: cool books I've recently copyedited

1 Nov: hymns I love and William Logan on Elizabeth Bishop/Robert Lowell

29 Oct: lots of carrot salad

26 Oct: a happy Sunday and the New Poetry Order