Saturday, March 08, 2008

7 Going to Day 8

Only 21 more poems/days to go through.

I'd be having more fun in 30:30 if it weren't for the need to come up with a poem daily — which is getting more morbid by the hour. I've always had an unhealthy interest in death, but something tells me I'm way past that. Catching up on Pushing Daisies every day doesn't help either. It tickles really well though.

Anyway, the whole girl wagon is there: Annie, Brenda, Liz, Sarah, Sharon... and guess what the squid inked in: Mary-Nicole!! Depending on the kind of nuts you eat and/or the quality of your weed, we're either the Seven Virtues or the Seven Deadly Sins. Maybe 50/50 of the Seven-Year-Itch.

Recent and not-so-recent publications:

• My copy of Painted Bride Quarterly has arrived!! I'm a pirate! I'm a pirate! More on that in a while.

• Am so bunny-thrilled to announce that the ticklish story Valerie and I wrote ages ago, I have names for the ways they twitch their ears: The story of one man's flight from his wife's rabbits is now up in the March 2008 issue of Admit2.

This is actually a kind of continuation of our first published story in Edifice Wrecked, Nature Hates a Vacuum. Have gotten Richard-obsessed after that.

• Ooops, kept forgetting to note that I've got three poems in the January 2008 issue of SUB-LIT: So What If You Love Your Migraine Like a Second Coming, Eve and A Night in the Suburbs (a Richard poem).

Various links which might or might not be of interest:

• I was asked to help spread the word about KUDOS, a newsletter run by Carole Baldock (editor of Orbis) which publishes "current UK writing competitions plus an increasing number of Overseas contests. Also includes news items and information about markets, outlets and opportunities for all kinds of writing."

• If you're having trouble sticking to 30 poems for 30 days, APW Project may be your thing! The deal here is to write 100 poems within 365 days — you're allowed to play hooky for a few days. After that... I think it's in John's default setup to let you have it. Hee.

• If you like writing prompts, you might like to subscribe to the Red Morning Press newsletter. This free newsletter is bi-weekly and states — get this: "If this newsletter doesn't inspire you to become a better writer after twelve months, then I'll send you a free copy of any book from Red Morning Press' catalog."

• And a small note about Blueline forum — because that's where I've declared an all-out war against spammers. Registration is possible only by means of a code word requested from either me or HA. It's a really neat phpBB mod... and 100% spam proof. I'm feeling particularly smug about the secret handshake. Here's to me and HA not receiving any more fake user registrations.

Currently enjoying:

• Jonah Winter's Amnesia. First discovered his mind-blowing poetry in Tarpaulin Sky and just love it. Here's a favorite excerpt from his longish poem, Postcards from Paradise:
I remember being alone
like an ocean, each day
a wave, greenish-gray,
each night black with fish
and flotsam
                      from other people's lives.
• Jayne Pupek's Forms of Intercession. Have actually read this before it went to the press, but getting the real thing and re-reading it still gives me the thrills. It's a spanking good debut collection of poetry. There's a wonderful review by LouAnn Shepard Muhm at Jayne's blog.

• Andrea Barrett's Ship Fever. This is an amazing short story collection — I just love how she weaves science and history into her stories. It's pure magic.

A special thank-you-you-made-my-week goes out to Valerie for sending me this surprise package.

• Anne Carson's Decreation. I'm a huge fan of anything she writes and would probably kill termites for her fridge notes, so I'm heavily biased already. Here's one of the essays included in the book: How Women Like Sappho, Marguerite Porete, and Simone Weil Tell God.

Painted Bride Quarterly — the Print Annual 4 — is getting dirtier by the minute in my hands. The black-and-white photo cover is a riot... the front shows a classroom half-filled with bored-looking old geezers. I turned it around, and saw [gaaawk!] a totally naked woman at the back, apparently in the same room with them because it's got one old geezer there, too. It's a picture that simply babbles a million interpretations. Teehee.

Anyway, it's a HUGE book. Really thick. As in, if I throw it between the eyes of a burglar — ski-mask or none — it's the kind of book that kills on contact. That's the kind of book it is.

Here's a delicious excerpt from the Pirate issue (#78) — The Poem that Fell from Grace with the Sea by Donald Dunbar:
... the salt wind anchors
in my throat and the peach lights
above the sidewalks moan as we leave the bar,
hum, I mean, like the day janitor
tomorrow who'll mop the drinks
you've spilled; who'll nuzzle the lipstick
you've smeared all over the payphone.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

ARGH! aye, matey, it's good to be amongst the seven sirens, cisterns, & s(a)in(t)s. my brain is like a sieve, thomas dolby said so. and may i say you'd look fetching with a patch
yo
ho
ho
& several bottles

Valerie Loveland said...

I was resistant to Pushing Daisies at first, but since I gave it a chance, I really like it--it's adorable!

Sharon Hurlbut said...

Ah, I'm so glad you and all the other ladies joined in on 30/30, Arlene. It was getting lonely with just me and John (who seems to have vanished, btw). So much more fun with the sisterhood out in full force!

Congratulations on all the great poetry news! I'm itching to get some new books to read, and your recommendations are at the top of my list.

Sharon

Bebe Cook said...

Hey Sweet Pea,

Southerns can get away with terms of endearment like that,my poor daughter gets called pumpkin girl. I absolutely love being called either a Seven Deadly Sin or one of those Seven Sirens, I'm for throwing out the virtue option. Congratulations on your recent pubs and your poetry news. I am loving your poetry these days, and I once wrote a series of letters to a dead man in the 30:30.I am coming up for air, might even get caught up in posts this weekend, do some blog surfing, and perhaps even read something other than poetry, something with Escapism written all over it. I stocked up on my guilty pleasure, zinfadel and medevil romances. Sending you a little wine and a big hug.

:) bebe