As I was asked multiple times for the five songs meme (I did answer on Deb Ager’s blog) I came up with some more songs, these a bit more off the beaten track, perhaps:
–“Dark Angel” by essence
–“Blue” by Angie Hart
–“I Think I Can” by j-pop band The Pillowz
–“Honey Don’t Think” by Grant Lee Buffalo
–“Innocent One” by Michael Penn

Check out Shanna Compton’s “best essay ever written on poetry blogs” up at the Poetry Foundation.

I am looking at the new 32 Poems, guest-edited by Carrie Jerrell. I really liked a lot of the work in this one, no real surprise there as I usually like 32 Poems. I saw a poem by an old friend from my MA workshop days at U of Cinci, Juliana Gray, who took on a pop culture theme with a twist in “Psycho.” In our workshops, Juliana had this great poem about Lois Lane hanging off a cliff that I’ve never forgotten. Anyway, check this one out – here are a few lines from the end of “Psycho:”
“…The nervous boy
lets for the breath he’s held and chews
another piece of the candy corn
he keeps in his pocket. Like a child,
our Norman: so dutiful, so sweet.”
Good stuff, right?
I also really enjoyed Dan Nester’s “Queries” and Stephen Priest’s “After Jacob.”

Also still need to blog about the 2007 Rhino and Jessica Smith’s Organic Furniture Cellar. Quickly, before everything I own disappears into boxes…