Bring

I have a poem at Linebreak this week. It's the longest poem in the new manuscript (but only one of the few longer ones) and it's one of my favorites I've written at this point in my life.

Also got my contributor copy of Blue Mesa Review. Thanks again to the editors. The issue looks great. You can check out more information regarding the table of contents here.

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Sent out a bunch of submissions on September 15th. Already got three rejections. I'm actually happy that they came back so quickly. Hopefully more journals will make these quick decisions if they don't like the work. I have more respect for their process that way, quite honestly.

There are maybe four or five poems in the new manuscript that haven't been published, and those are the ones out in the world. I've been lucky with submissions over the last two years or so with these poems, so I figured I'd keep everything out there.

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Narrowed contests and open reading periods for the next year to around twenty places.

It's at 59 pages now, which I think is a good number.

I keep working on the poems and structure, of course, and have put a lot of time into it for... well, a long time now. I have more confidence in it now. So now it's time to see what happens, if anything.

The first wave of manuscript submissions is in about a week.

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Started reading Alice Sebold's Lucky yesterday, and I couldn't sleep last night.

The imagery in the first chapter made me physically sick to my stomach. Not the best before-bed reading. Yet she manages to write so simply about all of it, seemingly, as far as her sentences and word choices. But there are a few specific passages that I don't think will ever leave my thoughts.

Another reason why I couldn't sleep, however, is that I decided to look up the locations of her police report on Google Earth. It's frightening to see the bird's eye view of the real locations, and it adds a new depth to the term "imagination," especially when you can click on the blue squares to see actual photos of certain locations.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest, but I don't know how hard it's going to be to get through.

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Switching to something happy, The Giants look good.

Starting 2-0, within the division, is always a good thing. Getting healthy and stopping the run need to be priorities.

I have more confidence this season than I did last year, and not because the record's 2-0.

A lot of the season to go, though, so there's no point in all the speculation.

But how great was it to see Romo look awful in "Jerry World," or whatever they're calling that egregious and nonsensical eyesore these days? Beautiful, I say. Beautiful.

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Though I don't know the specific news, word 'round the campfire is that Bobby C. Rogers' first book of poetry is coming out.

I've mentioned him here before and here before.

He's a poet who blew me away when I saw his work in journals during my first weeks and months at VCU. I'd emailed him how much I liked his work, out of the blue, and he was very gracious when he emailed me back.

I've literally been confused like crazy about his book not being out in the world, so I'm saying an official congratulations right now, and I'll let you know the details when I know them. You need to get this book of poetry.

There's this meditative, usually long-lined, semi-religious without-sounding-didactic tone to much of his work, where pulling stumps from a lawn can turn into a meditation about God, and he's able to do this beautifully and seemingly effortlessly.

His work is something to be admired. I can't wait for the book.

Decisions

So there's a bit of an update with the Ph.D stuff I suppose. After talking to the Graduate Director at Binghamton, apparently I have a (seemingly much better than usual, at least from what I can gather, which is nice) stipend for four years, out-of-state tuition taken care of for the first year, and in-state tuition taken care of for years two through four as long as I'm a New York resident.

The only thing is I haven't received anything official yet in the mail, as I've just been trading emails with the Graduate Director. So before I think about making any decision, I certainly need to see that stuff, all the paperwork etc. Especially since Nebraska sent me a huge packet of materials while also saying, "We can't give you a TA because they've been offered to everyone, but we still want you to come."

So I've been weighing Binghamton versus Oklahoma State now. I've been in touch with a few folks from Binghamton as of late, and I'm trying to keep the ball rolling and contact more folks as the weeks go on before April 15th.

But let it be known (like you really care) that I'm really considering Binghamton at this point also, now that I know the deal.

I'll let everyone know (like you really care) my final decision once the papers are signed and we're ready to start thinking about what lies ahead in our future planning.

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I think Jess and I are both looking forward to getting out of Richmond and continuing our lives, not so much because of the city, which we both love, but because both of our jobs need to be over with at this point.

I've seen too many of my friends end up scratching together teaching jobs for peanuts and then becoming bartenders on the side. If folks can do that, more power to them. But I never want to succumb to that.

I got screwed this semester by VCU giving me only one class, and I'm still not sure why, since pretty much everyone else who I graduated with who became an adjunct got at least two. And yes, my evaluations were always stellar, quite honestly.

So I had to find another job, which has been alright at times, but it's also been soul-sucking, which regular jobs usually are, and I don't care what anyone says about that. I'm fine paying my dues, but I don't know what I would do if I had to do it for another year.

This is pretty much the perfect time to sew what we need to sew and get the hell out of here and on to bigger and better things.

We both said we could certainly see ourselves in Richmond again, because we did fall in love with the city. But for now, it's time to move on.

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On a maybe odd note about publication, I want to thank Kyle at Blue Mesa Review for letting me kind of overhaul a poem before its publication in the next issue.

Because I know we as submitters can be a pain in the ass with such inquiries, I told him if he wanted the poem in the form he accepted, that was fine. But he let me send him the revised version, and we both agreed it was better.

The poem was one that needed to be overhauled, one that I sent out probably a bit too early for consideration, and one that I thought—after about a month or so of it being out in the world—that no one would take.

I'm glad he did take it, though, since I brought new life into it and made it into something that I'm proud of.

But yes, as submitters, we need to respect the editors more often without all these questions and inquiries into changing the poems we sent originally. I think that's important to know when you send out to journals. After all, if it ever becomes a part of a larger project, you can always change things around then if you feel the need to do so.

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And again, speaking of publication, though I sent out to more journals about two weeks ago, I realized—after writing a few poems in the last two weeks and revising them like mad—that I should get together one big push of submissions before many journals stop reading for the spring and summer.

I'm also worried about the address change that will be happening in August, wherever we are. This way the rejections can get here faster so I can add those journals' names again to the future submissions list.

I like these poems a lot, though, which makes me nervous. Usually those are the batches where I strike out. We'll see.

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And I've decided to go full on with full-length manuscript number two. Even if I sent it out right now as a chapbook and it miraculously won something or a press wanted to publish it, I feel like it's completely unfinished, that it is truly halfway toward another full-length manuscript.

It seems like a Richmond manuscript, one I may madly try and finish by the time we move, or try to at least get 40-50 pages worth of poems that fit within the bookends.

I'm already seeing interesting threads and a kind of arc that I could be completely wrong about. But while I have no eyes on it at this point, and no true expectations, I figure why not dive in, write my ass off, and see what I have at the end of the summer.

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Have you seen the trailer for Where the Wild Things Are? It looks like one of those movies that has the potential to be mind-blowing. With Lance Acord lensing, the visuals already look incredible in just the span of the trailer. The imagination of Spike Jonze surely will add to it also. It'll depend on the script, but I have high hopes for it.

Not to mention The Limits of Control, the new Jim Jarmusch movie, which I have no doubt will be amazing. I had no idea he was doing a new one since Broken Flowers. Not sure how I didn't know, but now I do, and I'm pretty excited about this one too.

Processed Spirits

Today was kind of a bizarre day. I got a rejection letter from UGA in the mail, which, like Missouri, I expected. If these schools requiring certain scores on the General and Literature GRE are sticking to their guns, I'd be one of the first ones out of consideration. I cannot take standardized tests. I couldn't in high school, and I can't now. No matter what I over think things. I'm the test-taker who crosses off the first three wrong answers, and he's got a fifty-fifty chance with the last two. But unbeknownst to him, until later, one of the first three he crossed off was indeed the right answer.

But maybe they just didn't like my work. Either way, no biggie, and I'm glad I got to apply. They're both great programs.

The situation was rectified, however, when I got acceptances from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and SUNY Binghamton. I have no idea yet what UNL is going to offer me for funding, if anything. And Binghamton has a nice stipend, but apparently I would have to pay some of my tuition. And honestly, with the way the economy is, not to mention the degree is a PhD in Creative Writing and not a MBA, I don't think I can go somewhere without a guaranteed full tuition waver for the years I'm there. But we'll see what they say after answering my questions, since I just got a very brief email from the Graduate Director there.

Oklahoma State is still looking nearly impossible to say no to. Especially since there are so many people telling me they did indeed get offers from schools in the past that didn't offer them a guaranteed TA with a tuition waver. Or they had to pay half their tuition. Or the entire first year of tuition.

With two schools to hear from still, in addition to knowing the the specifics for UNL and Binghamton as far as financial packages, I've still yet to decide of course. I noticed a lot folks have heard in the last few days, and we're getting to the point where schools really need to let folks know, if they want them, so they didn't already take a previous offer.

We shall see.

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Also got a welcome email from Blue Mesa Review saying they want a poem. Another new-ish one. But I'm not sure how much I like it. It's one I ditched then revised. Then ditched again then revised. Then sent out and resurrected. Then thought about ditching again.

Then the acceptance.

And from this batch, originally sent out in September, my favorite poems still have all been rejected.

The editing and submission world continues to baffle me. But maybe I think all my decent poems are those that are actually horrendous.

Thankfully, the phrase "sometimes in earlier forms" is a great one, if the poem does indeed change in the future and / or ends up in some kind of project or collection.

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And it's not surprising that I'll say this again: another amazing new record will soon be blowing people away.

It's Phoenix's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Sure, they've taken a lot from the Strokes and countless other bands, but there are some amazing moments on this record. And they're starting to really solidify my idea that powerful works of art need to be like a gut-punch, and it should leave you wanting more. Maybe once I get older I'll get back into the sprawling nature of things, but this record has some great moments.

There's a simplicity that works so well with the pop and rock and roll structure, unlike the horrible bands like Vampire Weekend, who make me wonder how people are really listening to music in the first place.

Their last record, It's Never Been Like That, was good. But it's not something I kept in constant rotation, or thought about keeping in constant rotation, so it went away and drifted off. This one, though, I have a feeling I'll be listening to for a long time.

Just give a listen in a few months if you can't find a leak of it. But it's worth searching out now.