NEW YEAR'S EVE (ANTI-) POETICS

Woke up this morning to an email from last night's hostess -- that we forgot to pop the champagne to mark the New Year. That sort of sums up last night. We were in the dining room and the host obligingly went off to the living room to turn on the TV to mark when the ball would drop in Times Square. But we missed seeing it by five minutes, so that what we saw was some cheesy act in Las Vegas as that crowd still prepared to celebrate midnight, Vegas time.

I detest the whole New Year's Eve thing -- I've always thought one of the best things about moving from the East to the West Coast was the ability to mark the New Year at 9 p.m. (by citing New York Times Square time) and then going to bed promptly thereafter.

The poetics here is how a poem should surface organically and not through some paradigm (that includes poems initiated through rules as the final result still needs to have engendered its own logic).

Celebrate or write a poem because there's a reason to do so -- not because one's trying to abide by some rule.

This post makes me seem grumpy this morning. But it's not grumpiness -- just a certain restlessness. But [insert wiping away of the frown] which can only be to the later good! [Insert Grin.]

Besides, had a wonderful conversation last night with Tom who discussed how he read poetry to his daughter every bedtime. Isn't that a lovely idea for incorporating poetry in one's culture -- supplement bedtime reading with poems! Tom said he was currently reading Robert Frost. At one point, I mentioned Pablo Neruda as a good next poet to read to also raise the issue of other (non-U.S.) cultures' poetry.

In any event, our charming hosts were generous -- the champagne was not missed when one is served the last three wines on 2006's last list of relished Whines & Wines:

BOOKS:
THE GRACES, poem by Elizabeth Treadwell

MORTAL, poems by Ivy Alvarez

A READING, 18-20, poems by Beverly Dahlen

ROSE WINDOW (OR PROSETTES), poem by Wanda Phipps

GRINGOSTROIKA, poem by Jules Boykoff

A DAY IN SWITZERLAND, Picabian aphorisms by Tom Orange

LOTTO, poems by Kaia Sand

BLOOD AND SALSA, poems by Jonathan Penton

PAINTING RUST, poems by Jonathan Penton

WE TOOK TO THE WOODS, memoir by Louise Dickinson Rich

BLITHE TOMATO: AN INSIDER'S WRY LOOK AT FARMERS' MARKET SOCIETY, vignettes by Mike Madison

FIVE THOUSAND DAYS LIKE THIS ONE: AN AMERICAN FAMILY HISTORY by Jane Brox

THE STILLEST DAY, novel by Josephine Hart

SEASONS BY THE BAY, short stories by Oscar Penaranda

INVITATION TO PROVENCE, novel by Elizabeth Adler

WINES:
2003 Dutch Henry merlot
1995 Francois Raveneau Butteaux 1er Cru Chablis
2002 Rusden Black Guts Shiraz
1995 William Selyem Summa Vineyard pinot noir
2003 Blankiet merlot
2004 Longfellow Sonoma Coast pinot noir
2005 Eroica Dr. Loosen/Ch. St.e Michelle riesling, Washington
1999 William Selyem Russian River Valley Rochioli Riverblock Vineyard pinot noir
1995 Latour
Sparkling Mumm "Cuvee Napa" Blanc de Noir NV
2004 Melville pinot noir
2004 Louis Latour Merseault Blagny Ch. du Blagny
1996 Lynch Bages
1977 Fonseca