Oranges And Sardines

Be sure to look for this on the web and for the print version at Amazon. I have the privilege of having a poem in the autobiographical issue just out and in the forthcoming issue. I put a link to my blogspot so I wanted to mention it here.

My other interesting news is that I am in the Jenny McKean Moore Community Workshop with poet Ed Skoog at GWU this fall. Kathi Wolfe is also in it so this makes it even more fun. I should be receiving Ed's first book "Mister Skylight" in the mail soon. This past Tuesday the class performed architectural maneuvers on a sonnet we'd written and were exposed to the concepts of chiasmus (a kind of doubling) and sidereal (the movement of the stars). I attended this workshop when it focused on fiction with Vikram Chandra in 1995. Next week: Still Life With Skull.

Poetic Voices Without Borders 2

This new Gival Press compilation edited by Robert Giron and with amazing cover art by Joel Traynor is now available from Gival Press and other sources.  It includes work by wonderful poets from around the world who identify the myriad ways we are connected.  I am honored to have a poem in this collection along with other Washington area poets Joseph Ross, Kim Roberts, Grace Cavalieri, Karren Alenier, Mel Belin, Donald Berger, Bernadette Geyer, Patricia Gray, Christopher Conlon, and others.  Giron asks the reader to take to the content like a fish to water and be surprised by who wrote the poem since the poems are arranged by title not by author.  Dive in and start swimming!

What are your resolutions for 2009?

Mine are:  1) to stop using plastic bags

    2) to have a party for my 55 first cousins

    3) to write a poem every week

                    4) to volunteer somewhere every week

                    5) to find a good man for canoodling

                    6) to have my first poetry book published

              

Celebrity for a Day

If you could pick someone to spend one day with, who would it be and why?

Being the Change: Obama/Biden

I want Obama and Biden  to win in November.  If you understand, you don't need to ask me why.  If you don't understand, I want to help you see why you should want this change.  Let's open a dialogue about how we can elect this new leadership for the United States of America in November.  Let's be the change.

Happiness

I am wondering what makes us happy.  I have been happy today because I wrote a poem to honor my daughter's wedding in three weeks.  Having had chemo last year, it has been hard for me to think much less write.  But after a great sickness, and then to have my health return, and to write a poem for Amy and Tim, whom I love so much, well this is truly happiness.