Reports from a reading:

Went to the reading on Oct 1 to celebrate Cranky’s new issue in the middle of a raging lightning/hailstorm (very unusual for Seattle,) which featured Matthew Zapruder and Olena Kalytiak Davis (one of my fave up and coming writers,) and many local writers, including Martha Silano, who was wonderful, although I missed the promised reading by Rebecca Loudon, who couldn’t make it. Matthew Zapruder was all shambling, self-deprecating charm (I liked his poetry much better when he read it than I had liked it previously on the page) and humor, and Olena…well, let’s just say afterwards I wanted to give her a hug, feed her some chocolate chip cookies and tell her life just wasn’t all that bad. She talked a lot about trangression, read poems about oral sex, said the f-word a lot, and was a little incoherent in general. I couldn’t tell if the incoherent part was due to nerves or whether she was always like that.

Reports from finishing up the first MS – Becoming the Villainess

Got another acceptance yesterday of a poem in the book, so had to update the ack pages, and had to (eek!) write an author’s note, and I could think of nothing charming or witty to write about myself, just the same old boring stuff. And I got a first draft of part of the cover art, which looked really cool. I finally finished the dedication/thank you notes/ end notes on poems, which I am still struggling with (end notes for poems share a certain something with author notes. Hey, I like to write poems, not notes!) It’s so weird that I’m still changing stuff this far along. Everything (blurbs, art, the works) must be in by November 7th. The clock is ticking away.
Meanwhile, I’m working on MS #2, still untitled, 40 pages as of now, which is vastly different, much more personal, and I’m worried about the subject matter being toooo personal, too autobiographical, which I pretty much shied away from in the first MS. I just sent a copy to a friend to read, I’ll be interested to hear her reactions. I haven’t “workshopped” many of the poems, or even shown them to anyone else.

Some non-health related poetry news:
Check out Kelli’s poem up on Verse Daily today. Hooray for Kels! Also, hooray for American Poety Journal, who seems to have some magic, Verse-Daily-attracting energy going for them, besides the fact that I love them.
Before I got all sickly, I got to see Kim Addonizio read from her new novel, Little Beauties. A surprisingly touching, well-written novel. And Kim just is the definition of “poet I want to be like when I grow up.”
And, during all this bedrest of the past couple of weeks, I finally managed to acquire a copy of the new BAP 2005. And, besides the fact that there are like 5 dead poets in it (Bukowski? I mean, I like the dead poets themselves, and don’t mean to be a drag, but BAP should focus on the living!) I think this is my favorite BAP in years. A lot of the poems are fun, fun, fun to read. Victoria Chang’s poem is one of my favorites from her book, Circle, and I love the poems by Beth Ann Fennelly, Mary Ruefle, and Brigit Pegeen Kelly. I also liked Lehman’s discussion of populism versus elitism in poetry, and I’ve pretty much been a fan of Muldoon’s for a while, especially Hay. Anyway, very happy with my new purchase. Am also researching C.K. Williams and the influence of mythology on his writing.
Also, heard from my illustrator – a draft version of the cover art should be ready in a week or two. I’m holding my breath!

Cranky. At the ER last night, had a 102 fever, allergic reaction to an antibiotic and a kidney infection. Though they were giving me big doses of narcotic painkillers, and I was in huge pain and so out of it I was hallucinating, I stopped the nurse three times from giving me doses of medicine in my IV that I had stated when I first came in that I was allergic to. The resident came in and apologized an hour later, oh sorry, I should have known. Yes, you should have. Note: go to the ER with someone who knows your drug allergies and have them watch the nurses doing the IV drips like a freakin’ hawk.

Update: Whine deleted. Wonderful husband fixed car. Stayed in because (re: deleted whine) sick, and as a result, finished several assignments and read Anne Carson’s The Beauty of The Husband, which I liked but not as much as I liked Autobiography of Red. Wrote three poems. All in all, blessings and more blessings, many things to be grateful for.
Also, scheduled first official book reading for my and Martha Silano’s books debuting from Steel Toe Books next year: June 22 at Open Books in Seattle. Afterwards, some kind of party will be planned. Possibly with free cupcakes.

But onto people with real problems. Southeast Review and Southern Review are both asking people to send checks for Katrina victims in exchange for issues of their magazines.

This just in: Poetry News Headlines

Just wanted to let any Haiku fans in the audience know about this:
Haiku North America – a weekend conference – Sept 21-25 at Centrum Center for the Arts, Port Townsend, WA. Register and find out more at http://www.centrum.org/index.php?page=Haiku-North-America-Conference

Also, Wendy Wisner’s Epicenter is subversively dark around the edges, elegant and spare in a way that reminds me of Louise Gluck, and definitely worth a second and third reading. Brava Wendy!

My friend Ronda Broatch is launching her new chapbook from Finishing Line Press tonight. Congrats!

And congrats to Deborah and Suzanne and thier fabulous new babies!

Not poetry-related, but hilarious: When my hematologist brought in a diagnostic pathologist to meet me this week and talk about all my weird health anomalies, I made a side-joke as she expressed her surprise at my many low-probability genetic-mutation-related anamolies – “Yes, any day now I expect to be getting my superpowers.” And she said? “Like the X-Men?” Finally, a doctor who gets my comic book references! Plus, she was tall and looked like Famke Janssen. If I was a guy and not happily married, I would have asked her out right there.