mid-perfection and oysters

This makes me sick. They should be jailed for being inconsiderate pricks! I just have to say that I will NEVER forgive these two assholes for "giggling" during this conversation. This is unforgiveable and disgusting.

A more thorough update on things later.... I need to recover after reading the above article.

Pumpkins!!!!!!!!

The new Ninth Letter, featuring three of my poems, is now out. It's a beautiful magazine, as usual. It's pretty and blue. It's Volume 4, Number 1. The website isn't updated yet, but it will be soon, and then you can buy it here! Other contributers include Andrew Grace, Sara Pennington, Thom Ward, and many others.

So I was tagged. Here it is.

Mary tagged me to name five songs that knock my socks off.

These are in no particular order. And as you can probably tell, I am definitely NOT a music snob. I likes what I likes. And it’s hard to narrow it down to just 5 songs.

1. Sister Christian – Night Ranger (the drums that intro the chorus!!… the rest is crap)
2. Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight (again, the drums toward the end)
3. Led Zeppelin – Moby Dick
4. Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
5. Tom Waits – Long Way Home

Please don’t judge me based on my awful taste in music…. I’m just eclectic is all. ;) I'm tagging Adam, Jeff, Justin, and John for this one.

Need to get to K-zoo soon to find a place to live next year.

Shot a 40 last week. A double-bogey and two bogeys, one on the first hole and one on the ninth hole. I drove the ball beautifully.

13 Poets and Partridge in a Pear Tree

Thanks for the tag, Jeff!

Say someone asked me, "I kind of like poetry, but I don't know anything about contemporary poetry. Who should I read?"

In no particular order:

(Not being able to list my mentors is hard!) (Most of these are very contemporary, and some not so much) (And these are not my favorite poets, per se, but ones that someone starting out would benefit from reading… in my humble opinion, of course) (And this list has changed throughout the day... it's rubbery, at best).

1. David Bottoms
2. Rosmarie Waldrop
3. Maurice Manning
4. Bob Hicok
5. Li-Young Lee
6. Marie Howe
7. Matthea Harvey
8. Gary Young
9. Peter Gizzi
10. Nick Flynn
11. Galway Kinnell
12. Tomaz Salamun
13. Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge

Extra Credit
14. Tom Andrews (he's dead, but was so young when he died)

And if I could pick mentors:

Larissa Szporluk
Amy Newman
Nancy Eimers
William Olsen


*****


In other news, M's grandfather passed away yesterday. She flew home last night. I'll be heading into town on Saturday. Funeral business will be Sunday and Monday, which means no Vegas trip. :( But we'll reschedule it... maybe even later this month. M's grandfather was suffering toward the end, so it's not a terrible thing that he passed away, but of course it's still always hard for the family. Hopefully the service(s) go off without a hitch so M's aunts, uncles, cousins, etc, can move on in a healthy way.

Handed back portfolios today which means I am officially done with BGSU.

Need to send some poems out.

Need to start cranking on new project. I am feeling lost in my work right now. The hangover post-ms is larger than I expected. Much larger.

Some new blogs I've discovered (some friends, some not):

A Skirt Around the Issue
Now Then
Sonnets at 4 A.M.
Sassy Madness

Played my second 9 holes of the season today. Shot a 41. Very respectable. I've been creaming the driver and knocking my pitch shots to within inches. It's a good game when it's going well.