Physical

Yesterday I received the book proof of Ghost Lights. I was hoping all the hard work over the last four months or so with the proofs would pay off.

And it certainly has.

Yes, it's my book and it'd be tough to not be biased, but if there were some things I didn't like about it, I would certainly say them.

The cover design turned out better than I'd anticipated. The painting's gorgeous, the cover's bright, the font stands out, the blurbs are easy to read and go great with the gray background. The font choices and sizes were perfect for the inside.

I really couldn't be happier with it.

I'm going to do a last run through everything, line-by-line, over the next day or two, and tomorrow I'll confirm that it's good to go, and then hopefully everything should be ready for the May 15th release date.

I hope people out there like it.

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I also recently received my contributor copies of Barn Owl Review #3.

Thanks again to Mary and Jay for all their hard work on the issue. It looks great all around.

There are many new poems by many poets who already like, and I've gotten to discover a few more names that I'll now be looking out for in the future.

Embers

I have four poems in 42opus appearing, one every few days, from now until the 14th of September, I believe. If you're interested, please check them out. They're all currently embedded somewhere in the new manuscript.

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In the last three days, I've had six poems taken from three different journals. It's weird, because I'm suspect of these good-news onslaughts. Maybe because I'm naturally a pessimist? But I'm smiling.

Barn Owl Review was one of the three, but I'll wait until the contracts are here to name the other two. They're both print journals I really like, which is always nice when your words are appearing there.

Needless to say, I am thrilled and grateful, and I can't believe I've had some of the responses I've received when it comes to these poems in the second manuscript, which I'm constantly tweaking and working on and feeling better about as the days go on.

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Looks like the schedule's pretty much locked up for the semester at Binghamton University. It's kind of a mirror, in a way, of my first semester schedule five years ago at VCU, only now I'm a little older and a little wiser and won't be fluttering around like a legless grasshopper. I hope not at least.

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I think Paul Guest was the one who told me that a big move can sometimes foster the energy for getting a ton of stuff written. He probably put it more eloquently, but I think he's right. He's usually right about everything anyway.

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My beautiful wife got a great job about five miles away from our apartment. She'll be working at a Neurosurgical Practice. I'm very proud of her, and I admire the hell out of her for how smart she is, and how she'll be doing amazing things for people. This is going to be a four-year stretch of busting our asses, and I hope we're both ready for it.

I'm confident we are.

Football Season

Listened to the new Volcano Choir twice today, and I don't understand why the track they introduce to the public months before the record comes out is the one that isn't representative of the album as a whole in the least.

Some of the songs are a little over-the-top experimental to me, and the album's a little too dissonant almost from track-to-track.

I thought I'd love it, especially with the Pele and Collections of Colonies of Bees members, and though I like it, I was hoping for much more and got a little too excited initially.

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Inglourious Basterds was good. I need another viewing. QT's most tense movie to date. I'll be floored, like many, if Christoph Waltz doesn't get an Oscar nomination.

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Watched Scott Walker: 30 Century Man yesterday.

It's pretty incredible, and the dude's still an enigma, despite all the interviews. It's for everyone, though, not just music lovers. Fascinating stuff.

I can't wait to give more of his music another shot, since there's much to go through.

The Drift is more intense and horrifying than most Black or Death Metal records. I do know that.

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Got an acceptance from Barn Owl Review today. It'll be the first journal a poem of mine appears in back-to-back. It's also one of the newer journals that you should subscribe to if you're thinking about adding another one to your list. Issue #2 is great, which is the main reason I decided to send again.

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Nervous about The Giants, like every fan is, at this point.

Preseason doesn't tell us a lot. Look at The Lions being 4-0 last year.

And yesterday's game was better, but we'll see come September 13th.

Final roster cuts soon too. Will they keep Moss?

I'm sure that Tyree's going at this point. He was a factor in the SB win, but he can't stay healthy. Someone will pick him up, though.

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First day as a PhD Candidate in English Binghamton University tomorrow officially.

I'm ready for the semester to start and to get back into everything.

Finally.

Purgatorial

Got my copies of Barn Owl Review #2 the other day. I honestly was impressed with the quality of a lot of the writing (I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by that with the folks who are running it, but I say that because I can't say that about every journal I've been in, which happens when you're putting together what is essentially a compilation of writing every issue of every journal: the luck of the draw), and I think it's an issue I'll continue to pick up and read through as it eventually finds a spot on my shelf.

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Speaking of the aforementioned issue, my friend and former classmate at VCU, Anna Journey, has two poems in there too, both from her just-released first book, If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting. Many of the poems from the book I and others saw in workshop a few years ago, the last workshop many of us took before our time was taken up with our theses. The poems are wild and full of energy, and I have a feeling a lot of folks are doing to dig her book. It's nice to see that essentially some MFA theses (even though Anna's certainly evolved with new poems, cut poems, etc., like every book does) can become books that win great prizes, despite the thoughts of many when it comes first books.

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I got my rejection letter from Missouri the other day also. I was not surprised by this, especially since Gary got into seven out of eight schools two years ago (and I hope you don't mind me saying this, Gary), the only rejection being Missouri. So I had little faith in an acceptance on my end.

What impressed me about Missouri was the former and present students, and all that many of them have done while attending and beyond their degree.

That said, am I'm speaking quite frankly here, the faculty was the one reason I was least thrilled about applying. But the school's reputation, and the fact that I have faith in myself to do well wherever I go, was why I applied. And it's tough not to when so many great poets—the list could be lengthy—attend right now or have attended in the past.

So there are five schools I still need to hear from, and I think it's coming down to the point where either rejections or acceptances will be in the mail soon. Or via email. Or the phone.

Fat Angel, Skinny Ghost

Arizona and Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. As long as Philly's not in it, that works for me. It should be a good one. I'm glad not in western PA right now, as I'd have to listen to all the annoying Steelers fans, many fairweather and bandwagon also. If Cleveland had as many Super Bowl rings as Pittsburgh, you can bet there'd be more Cleveland fans in the area.

At any rate, I hope Kurt Warner gets his second ring. Gotta support the NFC (as long as it's not Philly or Dallas).

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Five out of the eight schools I applied to got back to me about my applications being complete. Another needs payment, which somehow I forgot, so hopefully in a week or so I'll have confirmation that now all I have to do is wait.

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Tusculum Review updated their site, and it looks good.

You can also pre-order the new Copper Nickel #11 and Barn Owl Review #2. They're both shaping up to be great issues methinks.

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I think I'm going to gear up and edit this chapbook and wing it out there to some contests. Any suggestions for who has contests I should send to? I'm not as up to date with chapbook contests as I am with full-length manuscript contests.

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A lot of first books I'm looking forward to in 2009. I've already been bugging some poets like crazy to do interviews. I saw work over the past years in journals from all of them, and I knew the books would soon follow. And they did.

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Order Blake Butler's EVER. I just got my copy the other day, and it looks amazing. Derek White and Calamari Press did a great job. The design is really stunning. Now I just need some time to get in those pages.

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.