--WHAT DO YOU SAY WE MAKE THIS A BEAUTIFUL DAY?

…I have some new things:
"Losing Your Little Girl" at Apocrypha and Abstractions
"The Spaces In Between" at Fwriction
"Big Jelly" at Unicorn Knife Fight (isn't that a great title for a lit mag?)
"Suspicious," a poem, at Guerilla Pamphlets
They are all here under "Words In Print."

…I can't get enough of The Cave Singers. I'm obsessed. I have no idea what some of their lyrics even mean, but damn they're good.

…I'm reading, "A Reliable Wife" by Robert Goolrick. When I went the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference this novel was cited as having one of the best beginnings for a novel. Quite frankly, the book rocks. It screams. It races from one sentence to the next. I'm in love with it. He writes in short, dynamic sentences. I'm trying to learn a few tricks. I wish I could meet this guy. I have some questions.

…I started the novel! I like it. Poor Iris. Poor Alex. This is going to be tragic, yet it will end well, er, after some catastrophic events, it will.

…Sentences, fragments keep popping into my brain and I keep saying, "No, no, go away!" If I take them and run I'll end up writing poetry or stories and I have this novel, this baby that needs to gesticulate (is that the write word?).

…Fuck

…"Be Well"

I am running to you
in the rain
a deluge of blue frozen stain,
a scratched-off signature or promissory note of the pain
I have caused you,
irrevocable, yes,
to be sure,
no different than trampled on trust,
a violation of every promise I ever made.
Over night now,
I feel like a villain
because the truth is
I am.

But you,
you should lift your head high
toward the sun.
It loves you so much.
It has its arms encircling your waist,
its fingers in your hair.
It is breathing bright light
across your cheeks at this very moment.

Be well
my loveliest…

I just wrote that straight through, no editing. It was two minutes. Maybe one and a half minutes. Lord help me.

…I do wish more people liked poetry. I think the world would be a happier place if everyone bought a book of poetry every month. That would hardly be anything. What an investment!

…Do you know who's a good poet? Lisa Marie Basile. Holy holy crap. I just read "Diorama," her poetry collection with Alyssa Morhardt-Goldstein (who's very brilliant also.) It's really sharp writing that makes you want-to/have-to read it again and again, as I did thrice. It's mainly, have-to because there is so much sustenance and silky silt oozing from every line, each word even. It slips away in reading and then after it's dripped free, you want to revisit certain pieces. It's like putting a favorite song on repeat (which I do all the time) and playing it ad naseum. You don't want to leave that place you've landed because it feels so good being there. If you want a good book of poetry, get "Diorama."

…Today there's a party at my house. Around one o'clock teenagers will begin arriving. They will be wearing swimsuits. They will be loud and rambunctious. I will take them out on the lake in a boat I do not like driving and I will flip them off of an tube tied to the back of the boat I do not like driving. They will have a blast and that will make me happy. As my daughter once said, "Your drug is other people's happiness."

…For this Friday, I like these things:

--"Anyone who wants to find out about me--as an artist, which is all that's of interest--should look attentively at my pictures." Gustav Klimt

--"Be not dishearten'd--Affection shall solve the problems
of Freedom yet;
Those who love each other shall become invincible." Walt Whitman, "Over the Carnage Rose a Prophetic Voice"

--"Vague ideas must be confronted by clear images." Jean-Luc Godard

"If you really let art enter you, it will change you." Rilke

--"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." Picasso

--"…without hope we live on in desire…" Dante

--"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes, it is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow". Anon