Denver: Two One Act Plays

1.

Setting: Daytime on the street where i live. I am walking my dog & a man on a cellphone is approaching.


Man: [Indiscernible speaking]

Me: Go potty, D'Count.

Man: [Closer indiscernible speaking]

Me: C'mon. Go potty.

Man: [loudly] You lost half your money for the boobjob? Jesus Christ!

Me:

Man: [Fading indiscernible, but agitated speaking]



2.

Setting: With friends at Gabors

Friend 1: How big is it?

Friend 2: It’s the biggest thing in the universe.

Friend 1: Wow.

Friend 2: Yeah, it’s pretty big.

This Thursday: The Predator Descends upon Boulder

New Mission

I will write a book for this to be the cover to.

Read Another Blog, Get Wetbutt

Wait. Don't read this yet. Go read Julia's discussion of Sara Veglahn's chapbook Another Random Heart, which is awesome. Both the discussion & the chapbook.








I took my American Lit class outside today because our room was unbearably hot & stuffy. However, I forget that Denver grass exists entirely due to the graciousness of sprinklers, as this would be a browner landscape without the human aesthetics of what seems natural.

About ten minutes into class I could feel the evening's sprinkler-water seeping through my pants. My students started to be squirmy. No one mentioned it, but everyone was aware of it.

By the end of class I sent them all on their way with (hopefully) a greater depth of thinking about the writing of Frederick Douglass & the existential crisis of writing from & to a violently racist culture & the use of detail as weaponry in his cause & the concept of a constructed self & with soaking wet butts to their pants.

Me, A Featured Artist

The Tusculum Review has featured a long-ish poem of mine on their website here.

It is the title poem of a manuscript I'm working on about art & stuff.

Elisabeth was here yesterday. That made me very happy.

I suspect it is going to rain soon & look a bit like this:


I'm undecided about that Lisa o Piu album. I think if it were from the 70s I would adore it.

An Unnerving Thing to Overhear While in Office Hours

For the last ten minutes I've been overhearing a woman out in the hallway making a series of more & more desperate phone calls.

The first call was, I presume, from her son's elementary school. She assured them that she had dropped her son off & watched him walk inside the school. They apparently were telling her that they have no idea where he is & have no record of him arrive to class.

The second was to, I believe, a husband. This call was both tearful & defensive.

The third to a friend or sibling, asking them to go to the school immediately, as the friend or sibling lives right next to the school, whereas she is on the other side of town. This call was extremely tearful

She's been gone for a bit now. I assume to head to the school herself.

Hearing her cry made me remember this painting by Remedios Varo.

Some Stuff & A Weird Question

1. All around good-person & one of my favorite poets Allison Titus is on/in/is the most recent installment of Apostrophe Cast.

2. Currently do not have wifi at home, but I am constantly amused by two of the locked networks we can pick up: teamfingerbang & Tom's Dick Hair. The latter is particularly constant, so I believe it might originate from our building.

3. Started classes. Always fun. Tomorrow we're discussing Yeats & Whitman.

4. You've already seen it, but this made my morning:



5. Here's the weird question: Does anyone know of some sort of clearinghouse for documents such as transcriptions of forced confessions & confessions made under torture?

6. I'm working on a manuscript with a 105-word long title. All the poems have the same title.

7. I'm also working on a manuscript with a 5-word long title. It is a business memoir.

8. I'm also working on a manuscript with a 3-word title. It is "creative non-fiction."

9. There are many things to like in the latest issue of Dusie. I like this poem by Cara Bensen:





And this poem by Karen Weiser:




10. In an awesome moment of worlds coming together, Katie Henriksen has a piece on UUVVWWZ in Venus.

10 Observations about Denver

1. Denver is highly racially segregated.
2. In my neighborhood 1/2 of the people on the sidewalks have dogs.
3. Denver drivers enjoy yelling obscenities at Denver bikers.
4. At least once a day I am surprised by the foothills on the horizon.
5. People enjoy talking about the sun in Denver.
6. There are no private parties in Denver.
7. Denver had a breech birth.
8. In lieu of hydrogen peroxide, native Denverans will often use organic cottage cheese. *
9. Denver is 8X12X20.
10. I was born in Denver on April 14, 1994.










* I have yet to meet a native Denveran outside of the classroom, so I cannot confirm this.

Catching Up With Things I Want You To Look At, Music, Photos of Creepy Furry Entertainers & Paintings of Naked Obama & Unicorns Edition

1. Music



















2. Photos of Creepy Furry Entertainers



3. Paintings of Naked Obama & Unicorns

Tuesday & Counting

Catching Up With Things I Want You To Look At, Poetry Edition

1. Some Things You Should Consider Giving a New Home to, Via Capitalism



So I heard about Matchbook magazine a few years back. 05? And ordered a copy & got it & read it & loved it & for me it was the first time that I’d really thought deeply about the production of contemporary poetry – the desire for the idiosyncratic object as opposed to the monotony of the standard-sized book & the digital ubiquity of online journals. Matchbook & editor Friedrich Kerkseick’s work with Small Fires Press is a constant source of inspiration to me about what a book can do beyond the words. Now, years later, the second issue of Matchbook is out. Get it while you can.





Chris Tonelli’s fantastic No Theater poems are available now from Brave Men Press. I’ve enjoyed Chris’ work for a a few years, but I think he’s doing some next level shit with these poems. Despite not having a copy of this in my hands yet, it is in the running for my favorite chapbook of 09. My favorite tea of 09 is still pinhead gunpowder.





Patrick Morrisey’s first chapbook, Transparency, is available now from Cannibal Books. You’ve probably read some of his writing in Harp & Altar. I’m really looking forward to reading this. Cannibal, of course, if one of the truly fantastic outlets for poetry right now.






New works by Kate Schapira and Nathaniel Siegel from the equally-fantastic-to-Cannibal-&-for-completely-different-aesthetic-reasons Portable Press at YoYo Labs. Get them here.






The new issue/chapbook of The Cupboard is out: Caia Hagel’s Acts of Kindness and Excellence in Times Tables. I’ve read half of it so far & it’s pretty great. You can read what co-editor Dave Madden says about it on his site here.



Props to Ben Mirov for winning the Diagram Prize. Too bad all the chapbooks that win that prize suck. All of them except for Marc McKee’s & Stepahnie Anderson’s & Rachel Moritz's & all the other ones not written by me.





2. Self-Promotion Makes You Look Like an Asshole

Speaking of things written by me, you can find a portion of a book-length poem of mine at H_ngm_n.

Collaborative work of Julia’s & mine can be found at Cue, which is now online & boasting a wonderful new issue, which was
guest-edited by the handsome & talented Mark Horosky (& by the way, you should check out his chapbook Let It Be Nearby from Cue Editions, which is a wild romp of a seven inch record).

Jules & I also have a few pieces from a different chapbook (& a very different style, in my opinion) at Dear Camera. They are from a chapbook called Force, Proximity, Repulsion, which Cinematique Press is putting out this Fall.





3. Journals

Lots of new issues of journals that I'm still digesting. So far I'm liking this collection of South African poetry & prose in the new issue of Big Bridge. I haven’t read this entire batch, edited by Gary Cummiskey, but what I have read I’ve found intriguing.

And Natalie Knight’s poems in the new issue of Moria

More to come. Along with, hopefully, pictures of a new doggy from the shelter!

Tourism: San Miguel de Allende