Update: Thanks to Ivy for finding this cool Villainess name-finder!

Got a copy of Black Warrior Review with Aimee Nez’ chapbook – experimental-looking poems, prose poems, more challenging work. The whole issue was a lot of fun, but of course Aimee’s work was my favorite. I’m going to have to add this journal to my list of faves.
The new Writer’s Chronicle has an absolutely delightful interview with Alicia Ostriker, including questions from other celebrity poets, like Gerald Stern’s “Who is your biggest Male influence?” and Eleanor Wilner asking about Language Poetry. Read it! I have another person on my list of favorite cranky feminist poet list!
OK, I don’t like those blog question taggy things, but I was tagged by Kelli, so this time I’ll do it 😉

1. The first poem I remember reading/hearing/reacting to was….When my mother read to me from her college poetry class book, XJ Kennedy’s Introduction to Poetry. I especially liked the ballads and the funny stuff (“Life, Friends, is Boring” and “Tomb to the Unknown Citizen.”

2. I was forced to memorize (name of poem) in school and… I went to a school that had poetry recitation contests in the 5th and 6th grade. And I won two years in a row! Boo-ya! Take that, 6th graders! LOL. The poems were e.e. cummings’ “Anyone Lives in a Pretty How Town” and Louis Simpson’s “My Father in the Night Commanding No.” I still love both poems.

3. I read poetry because…. I like to think. I like to be entertained. I like to consider other points of view. I like hearing voices.

4. A poem I’m likely to think about when asked about a favorite poem is …….Louise Gluck’s “Circe” and “Siren.” Eliot’s Prufrock. HD’s Fragment 68.

5. I write poetry, but… I love television, baby! That’s right. None of that, “I threw out my television so I could meditate on nature a la Walden Pond” crap for me!

6. My experience with reading poetry differs from my experience with reading other types of literature…..It’s condensed, exciting, exhilarating. The closest thing to junior high slow-dancing excitement you’ll find in book form.

7. I find poetry…… In Art and Artifacts. In People rather than Place. Not many poems about sunsets, but a lot of poems inspired by paintings, video installations, animé.

8. The last time I heard poetry…. Was on the radio. And the time before that was on a stage in Poulsbo, Washington.

9. I think poetry is like…A lot of things. Licking the candy wrapper. Kissing a stranger. Randomly walking into movies in a theater. Playing the “telephone” game.