Plaxico Burress

Though I think Steve might have some anger issues, I didn't mean for anything to come to fruition in that post except for the fact that the list poem is mostly an easy excuse out of putting yourself, the human writer, behind the poem. Few writers have done that successfully in the past with the list poem. Few continue to do it now. And I'm sure anyone can throw stock things into a list, call it a poem, and get it published. You've seen many in journals if you read them. But thankfully it'll never be me.

Two recent writers I can mention are Jason Bredle and Blake Butler, who actually seem human behind their work when they're dealing with the "list poem," or a poem involving lists, or Blake's lists of 50 that he needs to get on the ball with and finish. Slice it any way you'd like.

That example by H.L. Hix really bugged me particularly because it's a bunch of stock headline tragedies, and because there are a few lines like "So many names fit" and "Every breath / matters." Seriously? Destination: Cymbal Crash City. Plus I have some pride in the fact that my first manuscript is attempting, in many poems, to actually explore tragedy, many specific and revealed, and not be comprised of stock phrases. Maybe I don't succeed and maybe people don't like them, and that's fine.

But any poem that my name would be on that could've been generated by a computer (ForGodot anyone? And I mean real poems written like that -- not the fake ForGodot poems, though many of them probably could've been real, which is an entirely different story) I never want to be a part of. If you're going to write, write with some balls, some honesty, some blood flow, and show me that a human is behind the words. Even if it's a hilarious poem, because not all honesty has to be built out of tragedy of course.

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On an entirely different note, Entourage is finally kicking ass again. Since the beginning of the season, there's been a lot of disparate story lines, a lot of them kind of uncharacteristic for where the show seemed like it was going. I won't reveal any spoilers, but I can't wait for the rest of the season.

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And in a few days another First Book Interview will be up. Received some from other poets in the last few days, and now I'm working on getting a bunch out to other poets in the next week.

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GO GIANTS

Victory

About a month or so ago, Jess and I were getting ready to go to dinner. It was a Saturday night, and we were headed to Mamma Zu, which we deem one of the best restaurants in Richmond. If you're ever coming through here, let me know, and I'll direct you.

It was really windy, but we didn't think it was windy enough to blow our pots anywhere (foreshadowing). We got the plastic ones -- maybe not plastic, but whatever they're made from that's akin to plastic -- with the basins on the bottom, and with the soil and the plants, they get fairly heavy. Or so we thought (again foreshadowing).

Well, a few minutes before we left, Jess went out to get them away from the ledges, or the corners of our balcony, and put them on the floor part of it. I'm walking toward the door to the balcony, and Jess says to me, "Uhh, where's our tomato plant?" (conflict?)

I don't have a green thumb -- though technically I can't say that because this is our first time growing plants and herbs -- but I thought we were both doing pretty well. At first I didn't care about them, especially the flowers. You can't eat flowers, after all (realization). Or at least not the ones we bought (true realization, real time).

But I got into it. There were days where it would go from 70 degrees to 90 degrees, where I'd forgot to water the plants and walk out there to find the leaves of the tomato plant practically tear-ridden, shriveled and weary. A ton of vigor and water, and soon enough the plant would perk up again, practically smiling (pathetic fallacy).

Then we found out some of the fruit had developed -- what I found after I googled "brown tomato spots" -- blossom end rot. Plump green tomatoes everywhere, and most of them rotting from the ends of their fruit. I was disconcerted, and annoyed. I thought it was my fault. And it probably was (guilt). So fruit by fruit we chucked most off the porch, though I was determined to save some (hope). This was our first try, after all (excuses). I read you could buy calcium to put in the water to prevent further rot, but already so many had been afflicted (laziness).

It all seemed to be taken care of when the jarring winds pushed our pot off the porch, leading the entire plant to a three-story, albeit hopefully quick, death (guilt).

But Jess, being the caring person she is, not to mention she's a Physician Assistant, was determined to save it (love). We had lost a good chunk of the plant to its snapping off on the brick below, but another part seemed to be intact. So even in the cracked pot, we watered, we broke off dead leaves, we left it at its side without re-potting or re-planting.

We were holding onto a shred of hope. And then I started to get determined to let the little guys hang on.

And today, I'm proud to report, we have a total of two smaller-than-we-had-hoped Roma Tomatoes turning beautifully red on their vines. With, of course, no rot (victory?).

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Around twenty poets so far for the First Book Interviews. I'm in the process of trying to get a website going via blog. Meaning a dot com so I can throw the blog on there.

To be a bit more professional.

And to hopefully continue it more than just a year or so. There are too many great and willing and extremely talented poets out there who I know I'm going to want to interview, so I hope to keep this going for a while.

I'm already grateful to be able to talk to so many sooner than later. If you're excited for it, you should be. And if you're not, you suck.

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The title of the post comes from the infamous Viking Quest catch phrase of Johnny Drama from Entourage. I don't know the exact date of Season 5, but September's what I hear.

Giants and Redskins September 4th also. (I purposely didn't add a link to the Redskins)

Plus my mom's birthday and my brother's birthday.

We may not repeat, I understand that. Shockey's gone. Strahan's gone.

But Kiwanuka's back. Our draft picks look sharp. Kevin Boss is going to be solid.

I'm excited.

And there will be much about the Giants on this blog come football season.

September's gonna be good I think.

Ra Ra Riot

The new Ra Ra Riot record leaked, and though I always say it and never do it, I hope to actually purchase it, because it's great. The most unfortunate thing that I have to get used to is the production, as the rawness from the EP seems to be absent, and "Each Year" doesn't have the beautiful string flourishes in the end like it used to.

Also, most of the tracks from the EP are on the record, so there aren't as many new cuts as I'd hoped.

Handsome is publishing my poem later in the year (or at the beginning of next year?) of the weird elegy I wrote for John Pike, their drummer who died last summer. I still find it weird that I had to see an article about his death on Pitchfork to find out about the band, which guilted me into writing the initial draft of the poem.

It's a solid record, though. I don't know if I'd quite call them chamber punk, since they don't shy away from melody, but the strings add so much that an extra guitar couldn't.

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Season 3 of Entourage is On Demand via Comcast, and I devoured most of the season last night (and have spent much time rewatching On Demand episodes from all the seasons). I can't wait for Season 5. I suck and read some spoilers, and if they're right, it's going to be a pretty wild season.

Thank God it's returning. Can you really leave Medillin to the one-dollar purchase of Harvey, while Drama's banging some Viking Quest obsessed fan on the beach?

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Since none of my students came to visit me in my office yesterday, I spent about three hours searching for more contests to send to. I made a good dent, and there are many I was unsure of, since I didn't recognize the names of winners or published books. But the list is growing. I'm ready for the fall and winter, and I started my 2009 list of contests already too.

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I already got in touch with some folks about the first book interviews, and it seems like they're down. I hope to talk to some people on their second or third books in addition to those who have only first books. I think it'd be interesting to gain some perspective on how things have changed at least over the last few years. More on this later.