NOTHING BUT NET! -- A POETICS OF INTIMACY!

A few years ago, a poet confidently told me that "being good" doesn't have anything to do with being a poet. That's certainly a popular view (and in the same sense, 'being bad" has nothing to do with being a poet either). But perverse Moi that I am, I cho(o)se to disagree -- in my interview in EXCHANGE VALUES, I offered my "faith that being a good person is relevant to writing good poems -- there is much proof that the poetic process need not work this way but I’ve decided that, consciously anyway, I would like to minimize psychic dysfunctional tendencies between my psyche and poetry."

Which is all to say, I am pleased to conduct this fruitful AUCTION involving the hay(na)ku! To wit, I first note that Ivy Alvarez's collection, 1 DOZEN POISON HAY(NA)KU, (Big Game Books, Washington D.C., 2007) was sold out within hours -- what, 48? 24? hours -- of its release. Well, I am now auctioning Ivy's "Tinyside" to raise enough funds for an anti-poison Mosquito Net. Surely that quickly-sold-out-Tinyside will be worth BIG BUCKS on Ebay someday. And as a bonus, I'm also tossing in a copy of that soon-to-be-out of print (38 copies left) The First Hay(na)ku Anthology (retail value $14.95!).

The auction is part of my participation in NOTHING BUT NETS which seeks to combat malaria, the leading killer of children in Africa. Bed nets can prevent malaria transmission by 50% and the nets work in two ways. They stop mosquitoes from biting during the night and spreading the disease, and the insecticide on the net kills the mosquitoes when they land on it. This program is organized by Sports Illustrated, the United Nations, AOL Black Voices, NBA Cares, the Mark J. Gordon Foundation and the United Methodist Church.

Here are the AUCTION DETAILS:

Minimum Bid: $7.50
Auction will be open through July 27, 2007
Procedure: Email bids to GalateaTen@aol.com. I'll keep posting UPDATES on this blog on Auction Bids; you can top each bid by a minimum of a 25 cents per bid.

All it takes is $10 and we'll have raised enough for one mosquito net!

UPDATE: The current bid is now at $75.00! Next?!

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All this for $10 bucks as the goal? Yes, to reflect a Poetics of Intimacy.

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Speaking of the hay(na)ku, don't forget about your invitation to THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU. I'm hearing such lovely things going on in collaborations out there. I've already received two sets of submissions: the first a set of images from three stellar visual poetry makers, and the second a hay(na)ku sequence from a group of poets from the WRITING-L Listserve (thanks to mIEKAL AND for coordinating). So so kewl!

The hay(na)ku just loves to get intimate with you!