6:30AM and i can't sleep. this has been happening for the last hour and a half. could have to do with the 6 pints of beer last night watching the yankee game; could be i just have too much to do and think about so my brain is overthinking.
anyhoo, coupla things. Get Sharon Olds' "Blood, Tin, Straw". i think she accomplishes in that collection with even more clarity and brilliance, what she accomplishes in "The Father", The Gold 'something or other' (i don't have the book with me here right now) and maybe even in "The Wellspring", which is also very very good. I like "Blood..." though, for the absolute bravery, the tightness of all her metaphors and the ability to make connections between events and make them seamless within the poem in a way that left me open-mouthed at the end of many of them.
I've been panicking because i haven't written anything new in over a month (except for this one ghazal i just got done for the VisionIntoArt show), but Olds' work has jogged a coupla new things. these days i'm doing a lot of reading (i also just re-read Li-Young Lee's "Book of My Nights") and i've decided that every morning before i work out i'll read one poem. So far, i've happened upon Yeats "The Second Coming" and Walcott's "The Saddhu of Couva" as my last two (i didn't read any yesterday becasue i didn't work out). today i'm going to pick something out of Mark Doty's new book which i haven't opened yet.
I'm also working on improvements for "Masquerade" on December 3. I've asked Mara Jebsen to be my special guest and she even said yes and that's spectacular because her work is so so so good and between her wonderfully eclectic songs and excellent poems, a whole bunch of my friends are going to hear some stuff they might never have heard otherwise.
Other than that i'm trying not to think about the elections. i'm trying not to think about the worst-case-scenario (y'all know what i mean - i don't want to mention it and conjure it like a spell; y'all shouldn't mention it either). i am intrigued though about what our policitcal consciousness will become (or un-become) when Kerry wins. will we get more involved becaue we see that action and involvement can work or will we become complacent again, and wait for the next Bush to show up before we understand how much we're under siege by the right-wing every day?
there'll be more tomorrow. i'm headed to the trinidad and tobago consulate today for an award ceremony for a trinidadian poet named pearl eintou springer who's known me since i was like... not drinking yet...
my friend roshnie, from south africa is also in town so it should be a good evening.
later
anyhoo, coupla things. Get Sharon Olds' "Blood, Tin, Straw". i think she accomplishes in that collection with even more clarity and brilliance, what she accomplishes in "The Father", The Gold 'something or other' (i don't have the book with me here right now) and maybe even in "The Wellspring", which is also very very good. I like "Blood..." though, for the absolute bravery, the tightness of all her metaphors and the ability to make connections between events and make them seamless within the poem in a way that left me open-mouthed at the end of many of them.
I've been panicking because i haven't written anything new in over a month (except for this one ghazal i just got done for the VisionIntoArt show), but Olds' work has jogged a coupla new things. these days i'm doing a lot of reading (i also just re-read Li-Young Lee's "Book of My Nights") and i've decided that every morning before i work out i'll read one poem. So far, i've happened upon Yeats "The Second Coming" and Walcott's "The Saddhu of Couva" as my last two (i didn't read any yesterday becasue i didn't work out). today i'm going to pick something out of Mark Doty's new book which i haven't opened yet.
I'm also working on improvements for "Masquerade" on December 3. I've asked Mara Jebsen to be my special guest and she even said yes and that's spectacular because her work is so so so good and between her wonderfully eclectic songs and excellent poems, a whole bunch of my friends are going to hear some stuff they might never have heard otherwise.
Other than that i'm trying not to think about the elections. i'm trying not to think about the worst-case-scenario (y'all know what i mean - i don't want to mention it and conjure it like a spell; y'all shouldn't mention it either). i am intrigued though about what our policitcal consciousness will become (or un-become) when Kerry wins. will we get more involved becaue we see that action and involvement can work or will we become complacent again, and wait for the next Bush to show up before we understand how much we're under siege by the right-wing every day?
there'll be more tomorrow. i'm headed to the trinidad and tobago consulate today for an award ceremony for a trinidadian poet named pearl eintou springer who's known me since i was like... not drinking yet...
my friend roshnie, from south africa is also in town so it should be a good evening.
later
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