All has been quiet on the poetry front...

... it's rather creepy. To fight the boredom of waiting, I submitted to 17 journals this month. Hah. Not really a record. I actually hit an all-time record of 23 subs last August. I know. I'm creepy. But I'm willing to bet that you people out there are creepier than I am. For one, I'm environmentally conscious enough to collect my nail clippings in the husband's ashtray instead of letting them loose around the house.

That's probably the reason why the authorities have granted me....


Italian citizenship:

Wheeee! I was so relieved when the letter from the government arrived yesterday. I applied almost two years ago... and come March they asked me to ring the immigration office and request a follow-up on my 'ship. Thing is I've lost the phone number of the person I was supposed to contact.

So, I'm doubly pleased since I don't have to call anyone anymore. Having an Italian passport would permit to go to many parts of the world without requesting a visa (and getting interrogated regarding my dubious intentions) every time. Incidentally, it'll be the second time I change my citizenship. I just found out last year that I was a Taiwanese citizen at birth. Gaaaak. Why am I always the last one to know about these things? It was around that same time last year when I found out Neil Young was still alive. Right. Whatever.

30:30 update:

I'm soooooooooo overjoyed that this round is over.
Taking a break! Wheeee! I'm so fizzled, I keep smelling my hair burn. Poems list to date —

21. My Real Intention Was To Steal The Bucket
22. At the Check Out
23. (fear) of being watched
24. (a fear) of rabbits
25. Laguna Palace, Mestre
26. A Night in the Suburbs
27. What My Elbows Say About The Afterlife
28. (a fear of) the man richard
29. On the 29th Day
30. This Much Is True

Teehee. There's a fear mania going on there. It's one of the things I love about 30:30... we tend to get rather obsessed over the same things. Really great interaction!

I've gone over the edge with the man Richard again. Must be a hang-up of some sort since Valerie and I never got to finish our story about him pinning tails on donkeys.

Amazon shopping:

Since "school" starts tomorrow at Steve's workshop, I bought some books we've been assigned to read plus other things I've been wanting to get for some time:

• Nine Gates by Jane Hirshfield
• The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche
• Proofs and Theories by Louise Gluck
• The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
• Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
• Skin: The Complete Guide to Digitally Lighting, Photographing, and Retouching Faces and Bodies by Lee Varis
• Selected and New Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) by Denise Duhamel
• Amnesia by Jonah Winter
• The Fever Almanac by Kristy Bowen

Online poetry workshop/class

Thought I'd share this tidbit — in case anyone's interested: Steve Mueske is holding a 4-week online poetry workshop at the Three Candles forum. More info can be found at his blog. He calls it "a creative exercise-driven adventure" — which is the reason I signed up. The classes start on February 1st... so if you'd like to join, hurry up!

Other news:

• Have finally updated and upgraded (to CSS layers) Valerie's website. Took me days to get a grasp of the —erm— situation, checking and rechecking with different browsers on both pc and mac... so if someone comes up to me and says it doesn't work on theirs, I think I'll go

• Well. Here's a rather big news. John asked and I said yes... which basically explains what I'm doing here. Because of this, my TPM schedule has been moved to the April issue (instead of the June one). I'll be reading subs between Feb 28 - April 14.

• TPM is presently looking for a reviewer who knows French. Or someone proficient in French who would like to review the translation. If you know anyone or are interested yourself, please e-mail me!

Thought for the Weekend:

Teehee. This is quite addictive —

My Fortune Cookie told me: Take time today to pay more attention to your imaginary friends. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Creepy. How'd it know? How'd it know? That's what I want to know.

Nothing much happening...

just work, work and work. Am banging my head on different kinds of keyboards to acquire enlightenment on CSS layers. The husband has finally gotten me a few programs that do them automatically. Yay and boo — because I've had to re-do all the hard work while he scratched his paunch in front of the tv.

Am involved in setting up a new 'zine (with possible chapbooks being published through it). It's very exciting! I do *love* getting my fingers into and all over everything. And no, dearies — I didn't mean any sexual innuendo there. Your minds are sooooo dirty!

30:30 update:

Day 20 finally came last night. Really struggling to get out a serious poem. I keep the gorilla suit for my bad muse days. Poems list to date —

11. Autumnal [sonnenizio on a line from Berryman]
12. Explosion
13. Fridge Note/First Secret Love Fib
14. Otherworld [sonnenizio on a line from Berryman]
15. body : water
16. air : lift
17. Backtracking To The Gorilla Suit
18. Heritage and the Gorilla Suit
19. A fear of falling
20. Anima Nera [sonnenizio on a line from Jean Cassou]

I'm Rather Ashamed of Myself:

Nicole's 100% bible savviness (shameful, isn't? I scored a more rational 82% — wheeeee!) awakened my blog quiz mania again.

Do You Have a Dirty Mind?
My Mind is PG-13 Rated

Your mind is definitely a little dirty. You're naughty, but not trashy.
You don't shy away from a dirty joke, and you're clearly not a prude.

Teehee. Unbelievable, isn't it? And this, aaaaaaaaargh guess, just sealed my driving days:

Are You a Good Driver?
I Failed My Driver's Test!

You only got 6/10 correct.
If you have a driver's license, it needs to be revoked!

And, jumping from Sharon's blog, I got this creepy note from my cookie:

My Fortune Cookie told me: Better start drinking now. Get a cookie from Miss Fortune

Boxcar, Siren and Unpleasant Event Schedule

Wheeeeee! Good things do come in threes —

• Issue 6 of Boxcar Poetry Review is now up with poetry by Aaron Anstett, Lana Hechtman Ayers, Brent Fisk, Ann Wood Fuller, Do Gentry, Jude Goodwin, Matthew Little, Marty McConnell, Heather Salus, Erin Elizabeth Smith, Florencia Varela and.... **mumblemumble**

They're holding a poetry contest between May and August — which really looks interesting — on the theme of Elegy and Loss. So, watch out for that.

• Issue 3 of Siren is also online, with poetry by Cait Rappel, Jason Fraley, Jehanne Dubrow, Kristy Bowen, Mark DeCarteret, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Sam Rasnake and.... **glugluglug**

Am tickled pinkish to see so many fellow bloggers in this issue. Congrats everyone!

• Lastly, I've become an Unpleasant Event — word-wise and camera-wise. This is one of my favorite 'zines, especially since the editor updates almost every week and there's a continuous flow of poetry. So... I know you'll understand why I just have to break into all-out belly-dancing (c/o www.HelloCrazy.com):



Bestest Lush Poem Ever:

So, This Is Drink by Sean Lovelace (Diagram 6.6)
My multiple selves have to bow out of respect... and also because they're too drunk to stand up on their own. Tsk.

Other Voices and ultimate driving update

Blah. I'm running so late! Apologies to everyone whose blog I haven't yet visited and/or e-mail I haven't yet answered. Photography lessons restarted this week and I had remedial yoga class... plus: student questions to answer (they're actually studying my stuff — what's the world coming to?!! ), CSS layers to unravel for a couple of websites, submission deadlines to meet and bottles of wine to guzzle. Actually I can do that last one in-between everything and everywhere.


Driving update:

Since Carl expressed a rather unhealthy interest in my driving, I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I've stopped. I had an awful-driving day sometime before Christmas when I almost ran over two pedestrians in less than 20 minutes. I also nearly drove off a bridge (while shifting gears) — the husband grabbed the wheel and lengthened our life span. Since it was the holidays I thought I'd give everyone a break. I've had at least three recurring nightmares about driving slowly and dangerously since then... which haven't helped my driving inferiority complex.

Recent publication:

I have 6 poems up in the 23rd volume of The Other Voices International Project:

• I'm quite certain this isn't Beaujolais
• Something tells me I'm dying
• This is not the poem
• Autumnal
• White Window
• Tossed

30:30 update:

Hit Day 10 last night. This is worse than a tooth extraction program. Poems list to date —

1. A Portrait of God as Table Wine
2. A Shot, In the Woods and Fraught with Barking Dogs
3. Horizon And The Bodies We Wear [sonnenizio on a line from Jean Cassou]
4. The Car Thief, In Dying, Touches His Face
5. Rain and Window-Gazing [sonnenizio on a line from Jean Cassou]
6. Study of an Object at Rest
7. The Gorilla Suit Showed Up For Its Close-Up Today
8. Plate VII: Black Ink on White
9. Airborne [sonnenizio on a line from Ros Barber]
10. Please Meet My Table

Incidentally, poems 1, 2 and 4 were for Blue Fifth Review's Winter 2007 issue devoted to film. Thanks go to Sam for the invitation — and inspiration!

Cautionary Tale and Staple

Thanks to Doro's call-for-food-subs tip, I have an old-ish sonnet, Finally Throwing the Sauce up at Cautionary Tale — as well as a pasta recipe.

Watched Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless yesterday. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to hit the guy there or laugh crazily when he said that women drivers were the epitome of cowardice because they never overtake other cars. I did get some vicious pleasure when he got slapped twice by his girlfriend for trying to look at her legs. Teehee. That was fun.

Here's my fave quote from the film — which, I think, speaks a lot about human nature... always wanting what it cannot have:

Patricia Franchini: What is your greatest ambition in life?
Parvulesco: To become immortal... and then die.

Recent acceptance:

staple, a UK-based print journal, sent a hand-written note accepting two poems, On Waking Up a Different Woman (written for Pris) and Drained for their next issue.

But what thrilled me out of my boots is the new editor: Wayne Burrows. Yesyesyes!! The author of Marginalia! I just idolize his poetry and am totally psyched that he finds my stuff publishable.

Let me drink a hefty cold glass of some good ol' Ramandolo to calm me down. Aaaaah. That feels better.

Here's the waiting period — probably made longer since I sent it to the old address:

     Postmarked date: 3 October 2006
     Reply received: 5 January 2006

The website info hasn't been updated yet. Submissions now go to:

Staple New Writing
c/o Wayne Burrows
114 - 116 St Stephen's Rd,
Sneinton,
Nottingham NG2 4FJ
U.K.

Happy New Year!

Wheee! Hope everyone had a great time during the holidays. I'm a day late as usual in my greetings... but I've been —erm— indisposed.

We spent Christmas at the future in-laws' of the husband's niece... where I was coerced by her future dad-in-law to drink the anima nera (black soul) — a strongish liqueur made of licorice, alcohol and sugar — and I hadn't been the same ever since... especially since he made me do sudoku puzzles in such a sorry state while he watched. Afterwards he sent me home with an electronic sudoku gadget. I'm totally drugged on sudoku!!

Which, of course, leads me to say that I dropped out of my 6th round in 30:30 on the 26th day. As in, really rolled off the wagon, giggling my pants off while I ploinked away through sudoku puzzles. Have picked up my carcass and gone back to square six today.

Watched Robert Bresson's The Diary of a Country Priest yesterday for a poetry project. I was rather tickled green when the priest drowned his bread in wine. His constant drinking reminded me, naturally, of my thirst. Poor guy. Everyone thought he was a lush. He reminded me of someone but I haven't been able to put my finger on who that is. Yet.

Recent publications:

• Have two poems in the Jan-Feb 2007 issue of Eclectica: Sonnenizio on a Line from Wendy Cope and Caregiver.

The wife has a poem here, too about... memememememe as the driving instructor's recurring nightmare. Isn't she the sweetest?!! I'm going to thank her with a bat, I think. Or is that a boot?

• The January 2007 issue of Vintage Poetry Journal is now online with poetry by Steve Bloom, Alan Britt, Clay Carpenter, Christine Ann Clatworthy, Cathy Delaleu, Howard Good, Maureen Hand, Beth Stolar Kehayes, Kristine Ong Muslim, Chris Never, Keith Nunes, Jared Wahlgren and the owner of this bog... I mean, log. Erm. Brogue. Whatever. As in, whatever it is I'll drink to it. Tee hee hic.