"A fast-paced, suspenseful dystopian picaresque, part Huck Finn and part bizarro-world Swiss Family Robinson..."
---Kirkus
Long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and finalist for the Crawford Award. Title short story listed for the 2000 O. Henry award.
Y!!!! Part of this is dwelling in novel-land…feeling like I have a permanent visa there. However, something more curious is going on that I’m interested in. Because I don’t really feel blocked at all. But the field in which the lines live remains uncentered. This could be considered the kinesis of the poem, what animates [...]
Fri, September 4 2009 » Poetry » No Comments
Throwing this out there-I have a very rough draft of an essay on Jack Spicer’s Holy Grail sequence. Is there anyone out there who would be able to take a gander at it and give me some constructive feedback? It’s been a looong time since I’ve written any poetry criticism. So if you’re familiar with [...]
Sun, March 1 2009 » Poetry » No Comments
This should be an interesting experiment. I’ve just set up a Twitter feed for my 165 page speculative poem The Stations (which is free and available as a PDF download, and has a pretty open Creative Commons license). It’s entirely possible that the poem might make more “sense” being tweeted, in passages, than a straight [...]
Sun, February 1 2009 » Poetry, Uncategorized » No Comments
There is some good thinkings going on in these posts: The issue isn’t with revolution or change itself. But moving beyond the “single angry male revolutionist” or the “small cadre of brave revolutionists” model — to realize that the whole field is always changing and swirling, inevitably by itself — that the field is itself [...]
Sat, January 31 2009 » Fiction, Poetry, Uncategorized » No Comments
This was in my comment spam queue for this blog. Coincidence? Or the colophon of the book of nightmares?!? (which will perhaps rear its head — um, pages — in 2012: *** Hello Id Like to bid you this barbarous apogee ! How relating to we try something a impecunious a handful this without linger [...]
Wed, December 3 2008 » ?!?!?, Poetry » No Comments
Spent. Almost devoid of speech. The “unbinding” itself must suffice. _______ HOCKEY MOMS OF DARFUR: THE UNBINDING Reaffirming, on the eve of Hockey Night in Darfur, the naming rights sold to the burning village Welcoming the janjaweed shooting free Slayer t-shirts into the crowd Commending genetically modified genocide Remaining deeply concerned by Canadian imperialism and [...]
Tue, October 14 2008 » Poetry, Polis, Uncategorized » 1 Comment
The transcriptions continue apace. I have hunkered down, tried to steel myself, but the deceptively simple revelations of this list still draw consternation. Have any of these namings been enacted? Meanwhile…I almsot hear the recitations of this wicked logos throughout the land now. The anger of the minions — the followers, if you will, of [...]
Fri, October 10 2008 » Poetry, Polis, Uncategorized » 1 Comment
I spent quite a bit of time transcribing this. I am torn-I am reluctant to bring the manuscript with me — who knows what unspeakable power it holds in the tidal forces of every day occurences? And yet I daren’t let it fall into the wrong hands at home, or for the dog to eat [...]
Sat, October 4 2008 » Poetry, Polis » 1 Comment
I debated where I should blog about this or not, but here goes. A couple of days ago I received a package from Juneau, Alaska — its ends taped over with duct tape several times over, my address written on a black magic marker, in a tight, clipped scrawl (without my name) and with no [...]
Wed, September 24 2008 » Poetry, Polis » 5 Comments
“Language is simply the cheapest tool for carving up space and time.” -Sheldon Pacotti (quoted here) “The paper ship dominates our age,” he notes. “It is the nature of the ship to float and tear and turn like a page. A certain formality obtains on these vessels. Once elaborated, they are able to anticipate the [...]
Wed, October 17 2007 » Fiction, Poetry » 1 Comment
The weekend in Milwaukee and its general metropolitan environs was outstanding this weekend. Two street festivals! (Of very different, city mouse/country mouse characters.) A fun reading With People I Didn’t Know in attendance (always a good thing). Wonderful hosts (thank you, Mary and Bill). A visit to Woodland Pattern, where my jaw hit the floor. [...]
Tue, September 18 2007 » Life Studies, Poetry, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead » 3 Comments
Maybe this is the epitome of a “soft launch.” But I’ve finally released into the wild my long (165 pp.) speculative poem The Stations. You can download it for free here. It has a pretty open-ended Creative Commons license, allowing people to sample from it and adapt it as long as there’s attribution. I’m trying [...]
Thu, August 9 2007 » Poetry » 2 Comments
One of the best ideas to come out of the poetry blogosphere, maybe ever: PressPressPress This really is where the action is, poetry-wise.
Thu, July 5 2007 » Poetry » 1 Comment
Got my latest issue of The Poker in the mail today. It’s one of the best poetry journals in the U.S. This is from an interview with Jennifer Moxley, one of my favorite poets. There are so many relevatory parts, but these are my favorites: * “[Jennifer] I’m also interested in the way that language [...]
Tue, May 15 2007 » Poetry » 3 Comments
Whirlwind. Landing in some miserable rain in Boston, driving through that rain, nearly accidentally sideswiping someone! Which was unnerving. Walking through Northampton after said rain running into Holly and then Kelly quite accidentally. At first reading of the night, ran into Kelli from my MFA program, who I hadn’t seen in 10+ years. Experienced readings [...]
Wed, May 2 2007 » Fiction, Poetry, Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead » 1 Comment
I have a section of The Stations appearing in the debut issue of Hot Metal Bridge. Check it out-lots of great stuff in there. I’m trying to figure out what to do with The Stations (clocking in at 165 pages) in terms of publishing. I’m reckoning this means that it will be “made public by [...]
Thu, April 5 2007 » Poetry » 3 Comments
From Fascicle, read “sky tremor” (1931), one of Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro’s master works: The lamp that keeps vigil is like a jellyfish with injured eyes. And they do not understand. In the open window the skeleton extends its fingers to attract birds irretrievably lost because of their migratory urges or magnetic forests. And they [...]
Tue, March 6 2007 » Poetry » No Comments
Fri, February 16 2007 » Fiction, Poetry » No Comments
Was devastated to read about kari edwards’ death earlier this month. kari was an exceptional, fearless poet with an uncommon ear for language and the powers that language can create. She has a poem forthcoming in my little speculative poetry project Red Giant-which will come out, I promise, when I can get the printing money [...]
Fri, December 15 2006 » Poetry » No Comments
I’ve been putting myself on an adverb fast with the new novel. I gave myself the limit of 10 adverbs for the entire novel. I have no idea whether I’ll stick to that or not, but it’s a good goal. When I do use an adverb, it feels like I’m inserting a quotation in French! [...]
Mon, December 4 2006 » Fiction, Poetry » No Comments
