follow me up the staircase to the spider vein impasto

little morsels from the weekend:

join me for a kiss at lake michigan in up the staircase’s 1 year anniversary issue. i’m *thrilled* over this poem getting accepted for a buncha reasons: 1) it’s one of the poems chicago gave me. 2) it’s about my and alex’s second night in chicago and the moon was HUGE and it was warm and it was lovely and i never hardly ever write husband poems and *sigh* and 3) i like just wrote it last month. then go up and down the stairs to read the likes of the marvelous j michael wahlgren, aka one of the best editors in the world (and he to whom i owe that i have more good news later), heather cadenhead, and some of the finest featured writers of their last year including nanette rayman rivera and rachel custer. *whew* if i weren’t all tired out from kissing in the city… i’d be tuckered from all this good poetry!

then, head out to the blood pudding press website to get your order in for this scrumptiousness: spider vein impasto. i mean, c’mon: you HAVE to order this. it’s got the BEST TITLE EVER! i can’t wait to see my fellow spiderbites:

see what juliet has to say:

I have completed the initial print run of SPIDER VEIN IMPASTO and it is now available for perusal and acquisition in the Blood Pudding Press etsy shop.

This is the first Blood Pudding Press multi-writer chapbook of 2009 with cover art by Dan Ruhrmanty and poetic innards by Adam Fieled, Andrew Lundwall, Aunia Kahn, Brooklyn Copeland, Candice Rice, Cheryl Townsend, Gina Abelkop, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, John Rocco, Juliet Cook, Letizia Merello, Melissa Culbertson, Nathan Logan, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Peg Duthie, Sharon Zetter, Susan Slaviero, & Suzanne Savickas.

Light slate blue coverstock, off white linen text paper, multi-hued ribbon bindery, and decorated with bakery labels. Baked fresh, sliced, and filled. Maybe oozing cherries. Maybe made with real whipped cream. Maybe all peachy. Maybe all lemony. Maybe all messy with buttercreme.

Almost definitely HOT! yeah, baby; like that.

feeling diagrammatic

the new diagram’s out and you can go here to check out my contribution: "15 conditions of the tourist at rest & in motion"
i’m in exceeding good company once again with the likes of ted burke, edmond caldwell, matthew cooperman & marius lehene–seriously, gaze upon the beauty that IS their collaboration–weston cuttter, lightsey darst–who i think has the BEST NAME EVER–ashley farmer, idris goodwin, b.j. hollars–whose work i’ve loved since the lily days–  & others : man, i got a lotta mileage outta that trip. *heh*

so, i’ve decided you should be celebrating *~*NAtioNAl PoETry MoNtH*~*
you can do that in myriad ways, of course, by starting with clicks above by which i mean you can go read moi:
check out the last woman in love at no tell–no telling what’s up her sleeve, or her petalseed, eh?
or, go above to read the tourist poemas.

okay. so, now that you’re bored with me, don’t fret, there’s still plenty other you can do:

check out my editrix’s new venture: slant which has a third batch of dysfunction all ripe & ready (yeah, so i am a little slow) go, read it. you know you wanna. and, for goodness send something. you know you wanna.

or, in pursuit of small press excellence (even tho small press month was last month and i don’t recall reading that much about it) you can head on over to tilt and pick up our latest (which, yeah, i am waaaay slow on too): hanna andrews’s a / long / division i met hanna at the awp and was all agiggle and twitter over the happy that is her chappy! she’s good po–go get it!

boycott the greed at the bigtime napomo conglom (worser than the bailout peeps, bankers & automakers, imho):
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/540 i’m not EVER giving them money. EVER! the nerve. i mean.

participate with the myriad pos who’re doing it to it all over the blogosphere:
http://cacklingjackal.blogspot.com/2009/03/napowrimo-participants.html#comments

or, for some real perspective, check out what the very wise sarahj says about napomo:
 http://theraininmypurse.blogspot.com/2009/04/get-out-your-apeshit.html

see, whatever your feelings about NaPOOMon you can still make the best of a bad situation: and, it’s only day 3!

my luck to each of you who’re doing it because i am tooooo!

the poem is out for you

i’ve checked in for some r&r this week at the no tell motel–go, click ye and let each day reveal a different "woman in love".
it’s like a poetic spa treatment, baby!

it’s also like a big lie if you read my "about the poems"–2 of my "cinquains" have 6 syllables in their last lines—oops–there’s me & numbers again! this is why i hate forms & have to inflict my own brand…

the dream part is real, tho.

my thanks to molly & reb for booking my stay!

it is an honor to be mentionable

just in from blood pudding press:

Blood Pudding Press chapbook contest results

winner (to be published in May)– Lisa Ciccarrello— ‘At night, the dead:’

winner (to be published in July)—Dana Guthrie Martin—‘the spare room’

*

1st runner up—Nicole Steinberg—‘Undressing’

2nd runner up—Donald Dunbar—‘No One Wants to Help You Forever’

3rd runner up—John Rocco—‘King Rat’

*

Honorable Mentions—

Josh Olsen—‘On a train back to Michigan’

Aimee Delong—‘Who Wants Me?’

Kara Dorris— ‘A phobia of dying if motion stops’

Nicole Cartwright Denison—‘Captivity’

Kristen Orser— ‘RIBBON TOOTH’

j/j hastain— ‘sultry rhapsodies of vigor’

Cathleen Richardson Bailey—‘The Noise Smiles Lack’

Kenneth Pobo— ‘TOXIC HEAVEN’

Ryan Bradley—‘The Webcam Starlet’

Jeff Kass— ‘How To Rock A Hooded Sweatshirt’

a HUGE CONGRATS to the winners! start saving up your po-dough to support these titles!

p.s.: means i have a mss ready for publication; who’s game for it?!

& to round out this part of the month

head out to the blogspot to check the latest flight formation:
juliet’s lovely poetic confectionary & aviary has taken me under its wing, again.
go, click. see "day 14 of captivity"

i’m in exceeding good company there-with the likes of nanette rayman rivera and laura hirneisen-scroll through all 13 poemas!
i am totally eat up with covet over cassandra key’s ink!
*swoon*

then, head over to six little things where you can find a new sort of prose-y work here:six little things is a lovely journal devoted to the prose poem with each issue based upon a theme from six bricks press this issue had the very ticklish and tricky theme entitled "glass rooster"– go here to see my contribution. my great thanks to bard cole and 6 little things! and, my eternal thanks to aragon for heads-upping this venue–only she could lead me to a crystal cock!

more poetry news next week wherein i check in at a certain motel and will be feeling quite diagrammatic at rest & in motion…

Press 1 (among other buttons)

you can check out 2 new poems at Press 1

also included in this issue:

poetry by: Lydia Cortes, Theresa Edwards, Rebecca Guyon, Lilla Lyon, Sally Molini & Don Riggs

fiction by: David Erlewine, Michelle Panik & Meg Pokrass

collages by: Mark Lowe

artwork by: Denise Scicluna (rawr!)

& column by: Robert Anthony Watts

the incredibles, aka arlene & valerie, asked for a lil sumsum from this old nugget.
i thank them profusely (& provocatively~wink~)
my gratitude also to phyllis & dennis–lovely editors all, with whom to work.
*bow*

be sure to Press the 1, too.

you never know what’ll happen!

and i always will

2009 publishing news

so far, i’ve gotten 4 acceptances for 2009:
*taiga, issue A
*the new blood pudding press project
*no tell motel
*press 1

i’m especially thrilled and humbled to be working with some of the finest female editors around.

i’m working through some new poems and trying to create a body to work with while trying to compile a full-length work. i’ve the titles for 2 collections and am trying to work towards finalizing them. what i’ll do after that, is god’s own mystery.

this is a way to hold a place

this is a new house. a new road.