Michiko is dying in the house behind me,/ the long windows open so I can hear / the faint sound she will make when she wants / watermelon to suck or so I can take her / to a bucket in the corner of the high-ceilinged room / which is the best we can do for a chamber pot. / She will lean against my leg as she sits / so as not to fall over in her weakness. / How strange and fine to get so near to it. / The arches of her feet are like voices / of children calling in the grove of lemon trees, / where my heart is as helpless as crushed birds.                                                                                                                                                  from "Finding Something" —Jack Gilbert, 1925-2012

August

I am finally back in Tuscaloosa after 3.5 weeks of travel, golf, boats, olympics, bocce, etc. in the north and 1089 miles of driving over the past two days. It is too hot but it is almost always too hot. School starts tomorrow. Football starts in a week and a half. I am finishing my syllabus and wondering if I should get a second job and looking forward to a lot of kitchen experiments this semester. Looking forward to September 1st submissions as usual, though more focused on book submissions than individual poems these days.

I have a couple of poems in the fourth issue of ILK, which just came out and, as usual, has a lot of good stuff in it.

Skin Horse

                                                                             If you haven't read Olivia Cronk's book, Skin Horse, maybe I can convince you to with this review I did for Black Warrior Review.

                                                                                                 There is a new issue of the always good NANO Fiction out. I have a flash fiction thing in it, along with various others. It also has a really good cover.

Starting summer vacation in Wisconsin means sweatshirts and jeans.

It also means the rejections come pouring into your inbox from students at other schools who start summer vacation later than you do, and waited until the last minute to decide/notify.

Ocasionally there are acceptances sprinkled in with the rest.

Soon I will be back in the eternal greenhouse of Alabama, subsisting entirely on popsicles and salads and air conditioning.

Soon I will reread the Harry Potter series rather than write my thesis.

Soon I will be back in Wisconsin.

Coasties

There's a new issue of Gulf Coast in the world, and it has some nonfiction I wrote about not being able to fall asleep.

If you're poor or anti-physical matter, the editors have kindly made my piece electronic or digital or however you say it.

Lousy Smarch Weather

AWP Chicago was more "we're in a city let's go to museums & eat good food" than "we're at AWP let's go listen to people argue/read"

The city we were in was Chicago though, so it was cold, windy, and seven shades of grey.

But the bookfair was fun. Saw lots of poetry celebrities,talked with former teachers bought some books I'd usually have to order online and wait for.

Also next year I will travel in an airplane for 3 hours not a car for 13.

32

My birthday celebrations included George's Lebanese for lunch, a trip to Whole Foods, and three types of apple pie.

I'm treating the day after my birthday as submissions day - essays to magazines and my poetry manuscript to book contests (which seems like an ok way to spend birthday money)

If you'll be in Tuscaloosa this weekend, you should come to this.

The new issue of Typo features a poem Joshua Helms & I wrote together, along with other fine words by other fine writers.

I have two prose poems between the covers of the new issue of PANK.

Mutilation Questionnaire (True/False)

1. I could not remove the hook from a fish that was caught.
2. I would feel some revulsion looking at a preserved brain in a jar.
3. If a badly injured person appears on TV, I turn my head away.
4. I dislike looking at pictures of accidents or injuries in magazines.
5. I do not mind visiting a hospital and seeing ill or injured persons.
6. Medical odors make me tense and uncomfortable.
7. I would not want to go hunting because I could not stand the sight of a dead animal.
8. Watching a butcher at work would make me anxious.
9. A career as a doctor or nurse is very attractive to me.
10. I would feel faint if I saw someone with a wound in the eye.
11. Watching people use sharp power tools makes me nervous.
12. The prospect of getting an injection or seeing someone else get one bothers me quite a bit.
13. I feel sick or faint at the sight of blood.
14. I enjoy reading articles about modern medical techniques.
15. Injuries, accidents, blood, etc. bother me more than anything else.
16. Under no circumstances would I accept an invitation to watch a surgical operation.
17. When I see an accident I feel tense.
18. It would not bother me to see a bad cut as long as it had been cleaned and stitched.
19. Using very sharp knives makes me nervous.
20. Not only do cuts and wounds upset me, but also the sight of people with amputated limbs, large scars, or plastic surgery.
21. If instruments were available, it would be interesting to see the action of the internal organs in a living body.
22. I am frightened at the idea of someone drawing a blood sample from me.
23. I don’t believe anyone could help a person with a bloody wound without feeling at least a little upset.
24. I am terrified by the idea of having surgery.
25. I am frightened by the thought that I might some day have to help a person badly hurt in a car wreck.
26. I shudder when I think of accidently cutting myself.
27. The sight of dried blood is repulsive.
28. Blood and gore upset me no more than the average person.
29. The sight of an open wound nauseates me.
30. I could never swab out a wound.

I have a poem in the new Indiana Review, which showed up in my mailbox today.

Here is one of those lists people make in late Dec/early Jan.

I remember listening to these the most:

Wye Oak - Civilian
Destroyer - Kaputt
Jonsi - Go
Washed Out - Within & Without
Moonface - Organ Music Not Vibraphone Like You'd Hoped
Explosions In the Sky - Take Care Take Care Take Care
St Vincent - Strange Mercy
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light

I remember watching these the most:

Downton Abbey
HP7
Cedar Rapids
The American

I remember reading these the most:

Hunger Games
The Bodyfeel Lexicon
The Grief Performance
Creation Myth
Five Quarts
Bad Bad

I have a pretty bad memory. The tornado feels like it was years ago, so this list is pretty skewed towards fall & winter.