--I'VE BEEN HOLDING ON SO TIGHT


…I've got a couple more little micros --"Hirsute," "Window," and "Mad up at Eunoia Review and also here under "Words in Print."

…I passed my 600th acceptance the other day. That's since I started submitting work in May of '09. If you read this blog, thanks for being there with me. Really. Writing is such a lonely gig. Even virtual support is meaningful.
So what does 600 mean? I don't know. I'm not sure. Certainly there's a small dose of validation in getting to that number. But numbers aren't everything. Roxane Gay recently reminded me that quality is paramount and more important than quantity. She named a few great books, classics, by different authors, thus making the point that some writers produce a great amount of work but no one recalls any of it, while the perfect book that resonates with the reader is remember for all time.
I get that. I do.
Not every one of my 600 pieces was remarkable, but most were pretty good. I think so anyway.
In any event, on Wednesday I go back to the novel I am halfway through. It'll be good to re-visit those characters. I've been missing them.

…I like these things to start the week off:


"I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still
I can do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do." Helen Keller

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious." Oscar Wilde

"The act of reaching for a lighter or a spoon is familiar routine, yet we hardly know what really goes on between hand and metal." Walter Benjamin

"There is always something within poetry that desires the invisible." Barbara Guest

"It was just that sometimes reality, the same little reality that served to anchor reality, seemed to fade around the edges, as if the passage of time had a porous effect on things, and blurred and made more insubstantial what was itself already, by its very nature, insubstantial and satisfactory and real." Roberto Bolaño

"They carried their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the slush of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels and walked point, and advanced under fire. They were frightened to be cowards." Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried"

--I'VE SEEN YOU BLEED, HAVE I SEEN YOU LOVE?

...I have some new micros up at Eunoia Review and here under "Words in Print."
They are:
Anniversary
Futurama
Newborn
Glitter
The Drummers

...Here are some things you might find interesting:


19,757 -- Number of IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) attacks in Afghanistan in 2010
20, 483 -- Number in 2011

31.9% -- Number of college students in 2005 reporting they spend 6 hours or more a week on homework
39.5% -- Number reporting the same in 2011

Birth rates per 1,000 teenagers ages 15-19 years old:
1990 -- 60
2000 -- 48
2010 -- 34

Number of miles driven in the US:
2000 -- 2,700 Billion
2008 -- 3,200 Billion
2010 -- 2,970 Billion

--According to New York's Downtown Alliance, lower Manhattan now has more than twice the number of residents, three times the number of hotels and 130 more businesses than it had on September 11, 2001

--At least 22 states reported budget surpluses in 2011

--Violent crime is at its lowest level in over 40 years

--Rates of teens giving birth have fallen to their lowest level in 70 years

--Drunk driving has fallen to its lowest level in 17 years

--State workers in Indiana were given bonus checks worth $1,000 because of the state's surplus of funds

--Men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women

--On average, Americans are 20 pounds heavier than they were in 1990

Elephant Facts:
--Elephants eat more than 450 pounds of food EACH day
--They're gregarious and need to be around other elephants
--Most are divas, demanding and pushy
--African and Asian elephants don't mix
--Only female elephants live in groups and ther's always a queen bee who's not a fan of the new elephant

--WHY IS THAT SO IMPORTANT TO YOU?


…Last night I went to "Cheap Wine and Poetry" at the Hugo House in Seattle.
The wine was mediocre but just $1.00 a glass.
The poetry was exceptional, as were the performances. I say performances, because there really is an art to reading one's work in a way that both captivates and engages the audience. I'm still learning about this.
Greg Bem, one of the featured poets, walked to the podium after his introduction, said only, "I have fifteen minutes," set his phone alarm, grabbed a candle and swept through the room the entire time, reading and sometimes shouting out some really fabulous beats.
Next up was Peter Pereia, Greg's opposite in content and outlandishness. He was soft spoken. His poems were stories. They were sweet and lovely. He was brilliant.
And then there was Amber Flame (real name?). She is a playwright, has won poetry slam contests, teaches drama to preschoolers, and sure knows how to own a room. She was swearing and gesturing, cracking jokes and many times reciting her poems from memory, emphatically, poignantly, venemously. She was outstanding.
So three different presentation styles, three completely different writing styles. It's a good reminder that one should just be oneself. No need for copy cats. Just do your thing--whatever it is--and do it to your very best.

…AWP sold out in record time. 9,300 people are attending. It seems a bitter irony that there are more writers than ever when readership is at an all time low.

…I spent two days writing a story. I never do that--put so much time into a single piece.
But this one was longer (appx. 3,000 words) and I plan on entering it in the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association contest. They get hundreds and hundreds of stories. They pick a winner and runner-up and name those at the conference here in Seattle this July.
You never know. Somebody has to win.
I like the story. I wish I could say I love it. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it an 8.5.

…I like these things today:


"He is the longed-for, and the one who long; he is
the arsonist--and he is the scorched." Ovid

"In the middle of the journey of our lives,
I found myself upon a dark path."
Dante

"...the hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that perseverance
will not gain the summit of at last." Charles Dickens

"The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you
lost all your money." Bernard Meltzer

--HERE, LET ME SHOW YOU SOMETHING

…I have a new poem, “A Recent Split” up at Orion Headless and here under words in print.

Also, yesterday I received the inaugural issue of Mad Rush with one of my poems in it:

The Fashion Model

You are no longer so beautiful.
A leper now,
Flakes fall from your lips when you speak or sip
Or try to skim a kiss.
Your skin is ruddy dandruff dust.
Your hair is wicked white nests.
Just this instant your bones are molding,
Your organs molting.
The smell is rancid yet familiar,
As unforgiving as damnation
And so I think I’ll stay here
Watching you smolder
Every patch of plastic melting
For all to see.

--LOVE IS HERE, LOVE IS NOW

...I have a new poem, "Archival" up at cur.ren.cy and also here under "Words in Print."

...Today, right at this very moment, the sun is shining. She looks pretty and proud, not at all lonesome up there in the sky all by herself.
The dirty dregs of snow are sliding off the road banks or pooling in the street like grainy oil. The town and land is no longer perfect and beautiful. Rather, now the purity has been stripped away, like a woman without makeup, like a man telling you his secrets and sins.
Both images are real, both are true, but we lean toward one and away from the other.
Maybe that's why the world adjusts itself at night.

...This is another piece that was published in an anthology edited by Lydia Davis at 6S. Each story has to be six sentences or less...

Moving Day

The box smells musty but after I shift some contents, it doesn’t. Maybe twenty-five years have passed since I’ve seen this; brittle now but still bearing the faintest sweet scent, still blushing berry hues in the bed of its pedals.
I carry it down the steps like a trophy, a gift, a caught butterfly, and I imagine time as things were when you held one side of your gowned chest to me, so clear-skinned and optimistic you were then, me pimpled and nervous that I’d stab you with the corsage pin.
I reenact it all, right down to the part where I hear your insistent voice say, “If we don’t get going pretty soon, we’ll never make it.”

--THANKS

...I'm at Starbucks this morning. Still having some residual issues with no TV or internet service following the storm.
There's the cutest little girl looking at me right now. She has a stuffed moose under her arm, lipstick pink shoes and sparkly, hoody sweatshirt.
I love kids and wish I would have had more than the two I did.
If you're thinking about having kids, I think 5 is a good number. At leat five.
I was feeling a little grumpy this morning until that little girl waved, smiled and said, "Hi." Now I'm feeling sort of happy.
And this morning I heard an accoustic version of the song, "Rainbow Connection." It's cute as a peach, that song. I'd only heard it before sung by Kermit the frog. Some british band sang this morning's version.

...I'm reading "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." A little late, I know. After seeing the movie, I have immense appreciation for the screenwriter of that film. The book is very bloated. I'm actually surprised it was so popular. All of the names and excessive details are boggling.

...I hope you're having a super Sunday.
Here are some things I like today:

"If you are patient in one moment of anger you will save a thousand
days of sorrow." Chinese Proverb

"Every writer should have a favorite bartender." Robert Hershon

"Don't get yourself trapped into thinking you have to publish. The only thing that is necessary is your nest poem. Your next story. You next song. Your next expression, whatever for it happens to take, of treading through the unusual, incalcuaable sad-splendor of life." Lucas Farrell

"The face you look out of
is never the face
your lover looks into." Peycho Kanev

"The role of the writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say." Anais Nin

"It's natural enough to have thoe moments of, 'Maybe it's just not meant to be.' The important thing is, What do you do after you have that thought." Brett Foster

"A friend is one before whom I may think aloud." Emerson

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Americans are still stupid people, by and large: they believe anything you tell them."
"The bigger the lie, the more they believe."
"You can go a long way killing black people in this country."

--IF I TOLD YOU, YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE ME


...I have a few recent things:
-"The Day the Universe Learned to Lean" at Matter Press
-"The Hater's Club" at Close to the Knuckle
-an interview at Crack the Spine
All are also here under "Words in Print"

...The power is back on at my house. I am not at my house.
I spent the night in Seattle with my son and three of his friends. I turned up the heat so high it was like sleeping in a blow torch, but after all those days of freezing, it felt delicious.
I laid on the bed and typed up some of the stories I wrote longhand to see if they'd hold up and they did.
Today we are supposed to have 70 MPH winds, so who knows what's going to happen to all those tree branches.

...I am standing up writing this. I'm in the lobby of the hotel. Actually this is an Inn. I'm not sure what makes a place an Inn as opposed to a hotel. Maybe you know.
I'm listening to the workers talk. There are four or five of them, all in crisp green shirts, most of them with really nice smiles. Everyone is speaking in Spanish.
Spanish is a good second language to know. For a while when we had a Hispanic nanny, I was very close to becoming fluent. Then I stopped practicing and out the door went my Spanish.

...There are many other things I want to say to you, share with you, but I have to skeddadle.
More to come.