July's Already Flying

Thanks to Jay, Mary and the rest of the folks at Barn Owl Review for taking my poem, "Alternate Featurette, Keane." I worked on a kind of series of poems, what I call ekphrastic film (ekphracinema?) poems, a few months ago and beyond. I've seen poems about films in the past, and the questions in my mind was always, "If I haven't seen it, will this make sense?" I wasn't really worrying too much about my audience while writing these, though, as I didn't want to enter any kind of paralysis, so I just went for it. And I like how they turned out. And if you haven't seen Lodge Kerrigan's films, you should.

There are still some out there that I like that no one's taken, but I have faith in them, so they'll keep going out. The first issue of BOR had a ton of great contributors and an awesome cover. From the updated list of contributors it looks like I'm going to be in the company of many talented folks, and that's also my first acceptance for a 2009 publication.

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Just got my contributor copies of Fourteen Hills in the mail today. The cover's white with a ton of space on it, with a piece from the featured artist Vanessa Hampton overlapping the binding centered left. Lots of good stuff in here, with work by Lance Larsen, Matthew Zapruder, Daniel Coudriet, Onna Solomon, Randall Mann, Derek White, Rebecca Foust, and others. It's always a handsomely designed journal, and this one is no exception, so pick yourself up a copy.

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The VA Beach trip was a great time, minus the traffic there and back, what the folks in the know call the "tunnel traffic." But thankfully we were coming from and going back to Richmond, instead of Charlottesville or places beyond. There were also a lot of PA license plates and tons of families within many of the cars. I can imagine all the restless kids in mini-vans. Yikesville. Thanks to Tim and Stenia for hosting us. They have a great place about 12 blocks from the beach. We sat on the beach and watched the fireworks on the 4th, which is something I've never done. We ate hardshell Jimmies at a place by the water called Bubba's, got some beach time in, and drank a lot of beer. I was up till about 5 in the morning every night, mostly playing Wii Bowling. I don't take my vacations lightly. After the weekend before with Corey and Sarah visiting us, and last weekend visiting Tim and Stenia, I'm going to try my best to detox for two weeks, and also not eat out. I may stick to iceberg lettuce and water. I wish I could at least.

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Seth Abramson, in his always-meticulous way, breaks down, kind of, some percentages and such with smaller presses, first book contests, open reading periods, etc. on his blog. It's interesting stuff, and everyone should thank him for taking the time. But always with opinions and research, there's going to be some backlash, with some presses responding in his comments field. I understand contents and reading fees, so I have no problem there. I imagine it's hard for even the bigger publishing houses to make money to keep pressing poetry books. I didn't really learn anything I didn't know already, but again, it's interesting to see some of the breakdowns.

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About an hour ago when I was walking to school there was this mildly retarded guy walking toward me who stopped to ask me a question: "Do you know where the copy machine is?" I was immediately taken aback, as I thought it was possibly an existential inquiry. The copy machine in the sky? God, known as "the copy machine"? Was he on his way to some warehouse to try and get cloned? Then he said, "I'm sorry, not the copy machine, the copy shop on Main." I thought I knew what he was talking about, so I tried to lead him there. Then, as soon as I turned around and saw him walking, I didn't know where the hell I had led him. I'm horrendous with where I am in space. I hope he got to where he needed to go.

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A student just left my office, and I don't think I helped her at all. She closes her eyes and looks away when she's talking. And when I talk to her she just stares at me. I don't know if she has some kind of disability or what, but it's hard for me to help her. It's a situation I've never really been in before, this kind of interaction. At one point I was talking for five straight minutes. Then she said, "OK, thanks," and walked out of my office. I'm not sure what else I can do, and I hate those odd situations where I feel helpless and possibly useless.

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All this talk of Kate Greenstreet's first book interviews has gotten me wanting to continue the project. I emailed Kate a few days ago, but haven't heard a response from her. There are so many poets whose books are coming out that I want to buy, not to mention friends, that I'd love to talk to. I just think it's such a beneficial project in so many ways. I suppose if she doesn't want to continue it through her website (I asked her if I could do all the emailing and copy-editing and whatnot and she could just post the finish products), I'm going to start an additional blog with new interviews. The people want to know. And I want to give them that information.