|
2006-01-18, 5:53 p.m.:
Things are a bit crazy. Trying to get into Elizabeth Robinson's workshop at CU. Wavering on whether to stay in 'Emergence of Modernist Poetry,' which I attended yesterday (amidst much baby-related and house-departing angst and rushing and faulty logistics and not enough sustenance to keep my flame lit through a 2 1/2-hour class). And then, to top it all off, the poems have been coming at me hard and fast. I have been starting and in some cases even finishing two or three new poems a day, mostly at night. My mind is so untethered that my body can't keep still. Can't sit on the couch, couch-potatoing and watching recorded eps of Law & Order. I keep standing up, shuffling around, walking from room to room, going out into the garage to smoke and leaf through books and printouts, to jot things down. I just discovered how great a drink Crown & ginger ale is. I have done it one better: Crown & ginger beer. You need the all-natural ginger beer - the spicy, spicy ginger kind - in the fake green wine bottle. This was a tangent. Somehow, in the class (the Modernism class), I could not keep a thought in my head. The reading aloud of Emerson's prose lulled me into a state that could be described as near-bliss if it hadn't happened in a classroom setting in which I was expected to voice at least moderately sensical ideas. I don't know. I love the Moderns, love 'em, crazy about 'em. But the class I really wanted to take was Colonialism. And after that, Poetics. But both filled up, and I am only a lowly nondegree student. I am also a shut-in, though, so I need to be really, really excited about the thing, the date with destiny, that gets me out of the house. I'm planning on taking up kendo again after this weekend, when the Broncos play in Denver and all bets are off. So next weekend will see me striking again with a big long stick at perfectly nice people. (They will have head and body armor on, no worries.) Ki-ai!!, I am happy. 0 comments
2006-01-18, 5:19 p.m.:
And my poem "Boyfriends" has gone up at the new Kennesaw Review. 0 comments
2006-01-14, 12:11 p.m.:
The new Half Drunk Muse is up. My poem "Diaries" is in there.
THE LIST OF FOUR MEME
Four jobs you�ve had in your life
1) Bavarian barmaid 2) Classroom assistant in a day facility for adults with developmental disabilites 3) Intensive-German teacher 4) "Conference assistant," AKA maid-of-all-work at conferences using simul booths (for interpretation)
Four movies you could watch over and over
1) The Royal Tenenbaums 2) Gosford Park 3) Raise the Red Lantern 4) Coal Miner's Daughter
Four places you�ve lived
1) Pacific Grove, CA 2) Asmara, Ethiopia 3) Reston, VA 4) Spreitenbach, Switzerland
Four TV shows you love to watch
1) Lost 2) Project Runway 3) The Amazing Race 4) Law & Order
Four places you�ve been on vacation
1) Portugal 2) The Outer Banks, NC 3) St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 4) Reading roadtrip 2000: Thomas Lux and Stan Plumly at Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C. (Molu and J.B. and I missed all but the last few breaths of this, having mistaken the hour, but still chatted amicably and had books signed - J.B. knowing both from Maryland) + New Yorker readings at Bryant Park: Kunitz, Boland, Levine, Kinnell, Pinsky, Glueck, Garrison, Ponsot, Simic, Strand, Ashberry. I had looked forward most to hearing and seeing Simic but came away most moved by Levine; it was the season of What Work Is. And Kunitz, oh Kunitz.
Four websites you visit daily
1) The New York Times 2) Backwards City Blog 3) MetaFilter 4) Diaryland
Four of your favorite foods
1) Ethiopian, especially the lentil dises with injera 2) Green curry tofu (Thai) 3) Crusty peasant bread with a smooth yet pungent raw-milk cheese 4) Chocolate mousse
Four places you�d rather be
1) The beach, nearly any beach 2) North Carolina when the hydrangeas are in bloom 3) Rome, even in the rain 4) Las Vegas in our high-luxury upgraded Mandalay Bay suite
Four albums you can�t live without
1) Elvis Costello �Imperial Bedroom� 2) Gram Parsons �Grevious Angel� 3) Loretta Lynn�s boxed set �Honky Tonk Girl� 4) Dwight Yoakum �Blame the Vain� or �Guitars, Cadillacs� 5) Del McCoury with Steve Earle �The Mountain� (Well, there had to be five though narrowing even to that is hard.)
Bonus four:
Last four books I read
1) The Makioka Sisters, by Junichiro Tanizaki 2)Janet Frame�s autobiography, including (second book) �An Angel at My Table� 3) Paul Guest�s The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World (amazing) 4) The Dazzle of Day, by Molly Gloss (which I�m reading right now) 0 comments
2006-01-11, 11:32 a.m.:
Poetry's money trail (via Backwards City Review) (I want to be part of the "poetry demimonde"! Or any demimonde, for that matter.) Wondering about Kooser's poetry column (mentioned in the article), which I have never seen. Is it trying to accomplish what Reich-Ranitzki has in Frankfurter Allgemeine all these years? But Reich-Ranitzki is Germany's foremost literary critical mind, while Kooser strikes me as just some guy people find unthreatening. But probably that's just what Americans need if they are to "befriend" poetry or anything vaguely highbrow: a down-home gatekeeper, someone who's "one of us" (and doesn't spout any of that highfalutin' literary hoo-ha). Yeah, I sort of worship Reich-Ranitzki even though I can take or leave (mostly leave) the majority of the "poem treatments" published in FAZ. I just like the experience of opening the newspaper and finding a poem there. 1 comments
< before this * after this >
|
