This is Just to Say N+7

Using the N+7 Assistant and the "Alice" wordlist.

This is Just to Say

I have eaten
the questions
that were in
the insult

and which you
were probably
saving for
business

Forgive me
they were difficult
so tart and
so conclusive.


*

The Periodic Table of the Ailments

The Periodic Table of the Ailments

Hypochondrium, with a toxic weight of 1 and an emotional negativity of +1, is the lightest and least charged of all the ailments. It is believed to be the essential building block from which all the other ailments are created.

Following a row from left to right, emotional negativity increases: for example, from Borin', to Nitpickin', to Arguin'. Descending a column from top to bottom, toxic weight increases: for instance, as we move from Ouchygen to Suffer, or from Antimony to Seizium.

In the middle of the table is a large group of very similar ailments: the Heavy Mentals. These ailments are malleable yet durable, due to their Sea of Charged Emotions, and include the commonly seen Irony, Tension, and Stressium; also Halffullium, Rue & Ruthium, Hysterium, and Migrainium; as well as the more unusual Platitudinum, Valetudinum, and Tungstuckincheekium.

The Nobel Asses are so called because these ailments are so full of themselves they have become inert: Heelium, Begone, Agony, Crypticsighsium, Leavemealoneium, and Rageon.

Finally, the more recently discovered Rare Death Ailments consume a large part of the Periodic Table, as well as a large part of the National Health Budget. These include: Sneezium, Wheezium, Cough and Coldium; Wartium, Rashium, Painium, and Curemeum, as well as many other insidious and persistent - and sometimes explosive! - ailments.

Armed with the knowledge and study of The Periodic Table of the Ailments, physicians are now able to predict the appearance of new ailments, even before they have manifested. One such ailment, Internetaddictium, with a toxic weight of 125 and an emotional negativity of -4, has recently been proposed. Due to its probable extreme instability, research is already underway for isolation and preventive treatment

Toccata & Fugue

I am reviewing the final galleys for Toccata & Fugue, by Timothy Kelly, winner of the 2005 Floating Bridge Press Poetry Chapbook Award. It's a lovely collection of poems. Tim is a Physical Therapist in Olympia, WA, and his intimate familiarity with the human body, its traumas and healings, is so evident in these top-notch poems.

Here is the opening poem in the chapbook:


WAKING THE DOZERS

Wherever they are, tripping
and twitching on their morphine drips,
or laid out lax in a dayroom, I squeeze
their feet, sing out their names, fetch them,
Orpheus-like, back to the too-brilliant brim
of the world. There is,

of course, bewilderment. There are lines
and belts and their legs lifted twiglike
and swept out of bed. There are their knees
blocked by my knees, the calibrated
leaning back, and the length of them
levered up to some brief, provisional

perpendicular. Let me see your eyes
I say then, and most, hummingbird-hearted,
do. And we rock a minute
on the linoleum while they reacquaint
themselves with the sheared apart and
strangely wired-back-together world

they’ve been, for the last while,
out of. It’s not fixed yet, they say;
put me back to bed. And I say it is fixed,
really. Let’s try some steps.


Timothy Kelly will read from his newly released chapbook on Tuesday, June 28th, 2005, at 7pm, Richard Hugo House, 1634 -11th Avenue, in Seattle, along with the finalists Nancy Pagh, Bethany Reid, and Annette Spaulding-Convy. A reception and book-signing follows. Admission is free.


*

from According to the Joy


the making of a perfect mayonnaise is the Sunday job for Papa

to avoid anti-climax remember

the smooth, rich-looking glisten of hand beaten

don’t try if a thunderstorm is in progress, as it simply will not bind

outdoor enthusiasts do best when they stick to simple methods

separate the leaves and wash thoroughly

try some of the wild as well as the cultivated

place firm ripe bananas between halves

wet ones should be patted between towels

lie down until skilled help comes and keep quiet and warm

if someone is with you, let her remove any loose clothing . . . but do not let her touch



*

The Red Poppy


The great thing
is not having
a mind. Feelings:
oh, I have those; they
govern me. I have
a lord in heaven
called the sun, and open
for him, showing him
the fire of my own heart, fire
like his presence.
What could such glory be
if not a heart? Oh my brothers and sisters,
were you like me once, long ago,
before you were human? Did you
permit yourselves
to open once, who would never
open again? Because in truth
I am speaking now
the way you do. I speak
because I am shattered.


� Louise Gluck
from The Wild Iris

What Does Your Birthdate Mean?

Your Birthdate: The 26th

Your birth on the 26th day of the month (8 energy) modifies your life by increasing your capability to function and succeed in the business world. In this environment you have the skills to work very well with others thanks to the 2 and 6 energies combining in this date. There is a marked increase in organizational, managerial, and administrative abilities. You are efficient and handle money very well. You're ambitious and energetic, while generally remaining cooperative and adaptable. You are conscientious and not afraid of responsibility. Generally sociable and diplomatic, you tend to use persuasion rather than force. You have a wonderful combination of being good at both the broad strokes and the fine detail; good at starting and continuing. This birthday is practical and realistic, often seeking material satisfaction.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Now that you know, there is plenty of time left for shopping . . . hehehe

Anthem

Artist: Destiny's Child
Album: Survivor
Title: Survivor

. . .

Thought I couldn't breath without ya,
I'm inhalin'
You thought I couldn't see without ya,
perfect vision
You thought I couldn't last without ya,
but I'm lastin'
You thought that I would die without ya,
but I'm livin'
Thought that I would fail without ya,
but I'm on top
Thought that it would be over by now,
but it won't stop
Thought that I would self destruct,
but I'm still here
Even in my years to come,
I'm still gonna be here

. . .

for full lyric click here.

Which Famous Modern American Poet Are You?

You are Wallace Stevens. You love everything,
especially the sound of things. Too bad you
are so obscure that at times even you don't
understand what the hell you have written.


Which Famous Modern American Poet Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Taken With

I am so taken with John Marshall's new chapook, Taken With, a fine letterpress chapbook produced by Seattle's own Paul Hunter and Wood Works Press. Taken With is an amazing 26 part poem sequence, recounting the author's mother's stroke, time in a neighborhood nursing home, where he had many interesting visits with her, and her eventual passing. The poems are poignant and funny, and it was a delight to hear John read them in sequence in their entirety at Elliott Bay the other night.

Here is an exerpt from section 14:

. . .

I was set to leave.
Where are you going Mother asked.
I'm going home.

Take me with you she said
and laughed a kind of wreck.
The woman to the left

said take me too
then the six or seven of them all
took the sentence on

like hail taking on a garbage can.
Take me with you haw haw haw.
Take me with you laugh laugh laugh.

Like a headache made of starlings.
I can't I said I have a wife and dog.
A dog haw haw haw.

A wife laugh laugh laugh.
Take me with you take me with you.
Haw haw laugh laugh laugh.

I zippered my coat closed
with a ferocity that shut them up.
Unbalanced silence in the room. Mom

knocked it over saying
you should go.
Saying I've been where you're going.

Anyway go walk your dog.



. . . from Taken With, by J. W. Marshall, section 14

Blogging poem drafts

I was talking with a poetry friend the other day about blogging, and the posting of poem drafts. It has always been my assumption (perhaps naive) that posting a poem draft on my blog does not by any means constitute publication. That I am still free to send the poem (when it is finished) out to print journals, or online journals. I read through the fine print of Blogger and Blogspot the other day, and it states that I hold the copyright to anything I post on the blog.

Do others have opinions on this? Does posting a poem on a blog make it "published?" (I think, of course not!). I suppose if there were any question, I could just delete any poem drafts from my blog, and they would be gone, and any links to them would become dead links, but I like having them in the archives. What do you who post poem drafts think about this issue?

(PS: it so so funny that the spellcheck suggestion for "blogging" is "flogging.")

Stephen Crane - In the desert

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."


This is such an interesting, arresting little poem. Joyce Carol Oates, of course, used a fragment of it for a title of one of her books. It's very dreamlike and enigmatic. Most readers see it as a metaphor for the self-destructiveness or self-centeredness of depression or addiction. In fact, I wonder if this poem is where the expresssion "Eat your heart out" arises from?
When I read it to my partner, who is a psychotherapist (and a very good one!), he saw it as a metaphor for the process of therapy, where you sit with your pain, your bitterness, and try to understand it in a deep way ("eat of it"), as a way to know yourself, to heal.

Lovely Wedding/Late Fragment

Dean and I had a great time at the wedding. Lynn and Sam are a gorgeous couple: and they are both such caring and good-hearted and loving people. What a party! Cocktails and dinner and dancing into the late night. Woo-hoo! I was especially touched that Lynn's parents took the time to seek Dean and I out and thank us for being part of Lynn's life. That was so sweet.

One of the best parts of the wedding was the reading of Raymond Carver's "Late Fragment" by a friend of Sam and Lynn's. I just love this little poem, and that they included this and other poems in the ceremony:


Late Fragment

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.



*

June is for Wedding Bells

My friends Lynn and Sam are getting married today! I am so happy for them, and really looking forward to going to the ceremony and the reception after. It's an evening wedding, which is so much funner, I think. I was searching (in my books at home, and on-line) for a good epithalamion to post , and couldn't find one. Anybody have a suggestion?

Three Readings Three Nights

There are three readings in three nights I want to go to next week in Seattle:

John Marshall, reading from his new chapbook Taken With, Monday, June 6th, 7:30pm, at Elliott Bay Books.
Sam Hamill, reading from his new and selected, Almost Paradise, Tuesday, June 7th, 7:30pm, at Elliott Bay Books.
Richard Rapport, the Seattle neurosurgeon, reading from his new book, Nerve Endings: The Discovery of the Synapse, Wednesday, June 7th, 7:30pm, at Town Hall ($5 admission).

Why is everything always at 7:30? (rather than just 7 or 8?).
Wouldn't "The Discovery of the Synapse" make a great poem title?

How Normal Are You

You Are 65% Normal (Really Normal)

Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal You're like most people most of the time But you've got those quirks that make you endearing You're unique, yes... but not frighteningly so!

How Normal Are You?