--ALL MY FRIENDS ARE TALKING ABOUT LEAVING

…The flight to NY was bumpy as all hell. All the way it was. Bumpy. To New York. My soda sloshed up and over the rim of my plastic glass and splashed the bland lady next to me.
But the five hour flight went fast. I finished two books. I wrote so much poetry. And it was really good! Really, it was some fine poetry. Some of my best, I think. I often write shitty poems but these had a lot of illicit alliteration and used and used repetition quite a bit quite a bit to create a juxtaposed staccato fluidity.

…The Patasola Press/Amperand Reading night in Brooklyn was fabulous. Took place at The Weigh Station. Shya Scanlon and Rae Bryant read. It was so much fun. Lisa Marie Basille was there, her boyfriend Lee, Julie Innis, Sara Lippman, Sarah Gerard and others.

…I read last night at The Cell Theater along with Beth Miller and Greg Leelick. The Cell Theater is a wonderful space in Chelsea. The Tandem Reading Series takes place there once a month, hosted by Karen Hueler. Karen does a terrific job. I was a tad nervous, this being only my second time reading, but I think it went well. I might go back in late fall/winter.

…Have you ever eaten too much of a certain kind of food--when you were young, say--got sick, threw up and felt totally nasty, then never eaten that type of food again?
I have.
I did it with cantaloupe in sixth grade. Seeds came up like slot machine tokens. It was sick. I was sick. Momentarily anyway.
Another time I remember babysitting and eating an entire pan of marshmallow Rice Krispy Treats while watching one of the awful "Planet of the Ape" sequels. I spewed badly then, too, and have never had a gooey, crispy square since.
Once bitten, twice shy? I guess so.

…I like these things on a Monday:

"Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going--
Two simple happenings
That got entangled." Kozan Ichikyo

"I always felt like a bird blown through the world.
I never felt like a tree." May Swenson

"Goddamn it, you've got to be kind to each other." Kurt Vonnegut

Even if it's a little thing, do something for those who need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it.-- Albert Schweitzer

"Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." Carrie Fisher