THANK YOU FOR THAT S.O.B. aka "THE LIGHT...!"

Well, Fedex screwed up. My author copies of new book (!) The Light Sang As If Left Your Eyes, was supposed to have arrived by now. Hopefully, Friday!

Eager to see it, I'd emailed publisher Marsh Hawk Press to see if they'd gotten their copies. Yep, sez MHP Managing Editor Sandy McIntosh.

Well, he didn't exactly say "Yep." He more said, "Looks good but heavy. We're calling it Son of a Brick."

He refers, of course, to my prior MHP book nicknamed the "Brick."

But as I cheerfully riposted, "Well, that be better than Sonafa...."

Speaking of The Light...., I'm with Gabe Gudding on poets using their blogs to reprint THANKS to those who helped birth poetry books. I'm reprinting mine below -- and the best part is that if you or your journal are mentioned, you get a comp copy (send me your snailmail addy to be sure, if you want, at GalateaTen@aol.com):

From The Light's acknowledgment sections:

For their support of this project, Agyamanac Unay to David Baptiste-Chirot, Michelle Bautista, Nick Carbo, Claudia Carlson,Thomas Fink, Paolo Javier, Karri Kokko, Rebeka Lembo, Andrew Lundwall, Paolo Manalo, Cody McCafferty, Sandy McIntosh, Lory M. Medina, Chris Murray, Ernesto Priego, Bino A. Realuyo, Leny M. Strobel, Jean Vengua, Mark Young, Alfred Yuson, as well as the Flips (organized by Vince Gotera and Nick Carbo) and Pagbabalikloob Listserves. I am also grateful to my husband Thomas Pollock, as well as the "Ten Billion Peeps" who have read and responded to my blogs.

Thanks to The Monterey Fund and Oenophiles For Poetry for grants that provided publication support for this project.

"April in Los Angeles," "April, I am Eye-ing You Down" and "The After-Death History of my Father" were drafted on the author's blog, THE CHATELAINE'S POETICS. My gratitude to blogland for your support, input, encouragement and love.

Thanks to the following publications for first publishing [or accepting] some of the poems (some in earlier versions): Ars Poetica (Ed. Dan Waber); BAMBOO RIDGE (Eds. Darrell Lum and Eric Chock); Asia and Pacific Writers Network (Guest Ed. Ivy Alvarez); DISASTER3 (Ed. Marcus Civin); Dis*Orient (Eds. Thorsten Lee and David Maruyama); Dragonfire (Ed. Henry Israeli); Five Fingers Review (Ed. Jaime Robles); Galatea Resurrects (quoted in a review by John Bloomberg-Rissman); Ink Lake Inks (Ed. Mike Gullikson); Listen Light (Ed. Jesse Crockett); Litter Magazine (Ed. Alan Baker); MiPOesias (Ed. Didi Menendez and Guest Ed. Nick Carbo); Munting Nayon (Netherlands); Otoliths (Ed. Mark Young); OurOwnVoice (Eds. Reme Grefalda and Aileen Ibardaloza); Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry (Ed. Cati Porter); Sentence: A Journal of Prose Poetics (Ed. Brian Clements); Rogue Poetry (Ed. Michael Wells); Sugar Mule (Ed. Marc Weber and Guest Ed. Sheila Murphy); The Duplications (Ed. Jonathan Mayhew); The Onion Union (Ed. Marcus McCann); *~W_O_M_B~*~ (Ed. Michelle Detorie); and Zafusy: Contemporary Poetry Journal (Ed. Jody Porter).

"SCUMBLE-D", "The Mushroom Chapter," "The Bread of Florence," "Mont Blanc," "WIND FALLS", "MAGANDA BEGINS" (previously titled "Athena Begins") and "Athena" were first published in the author's poetry collection DREDGING FOR ATLANTIS (Otoliths, Rockhampton, Australia, 2006).

"It's Curtains" was first published as a limited edition chap by Dusie (Ed. Susana Gardner, Switzerland, 2006).

"List(ing) Poem: Towards the New Filipino Society" was featured as a broadside by FOURSQUARE (Ed. Jessica Smith). It was also presented as a visual poetry/installation in "CHROMATEXT RELOADED," an exhibit of poem-paintings sponsored by the Philippine Literary Arts Council and held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (Manila), 2007 (Curators: Sid Hildawa, Jean Marie Syjuco & Alfred A. Yuson). The poem and the Artist Statement also were first published by OurOwnVoice (Ed. Reme Grefalda).

"Ifugao Red" was published in Saints of Hysteria: A Half Century of Collaborative Poetry (Eds. Denise Duhamel, Maureen Seaton, and David Trinidad, Brooklyn, Soft Skull Press, 2007). "Brown-ing Moon" and "Skim the Sheen" were published in Sugar Mule Anthology of Collaborations (Guest Ed. Sheila E. Murphy & Ed. Marc Weber, Colorado Springs, CO, 2007). "Sentences," "Ifugao Red," "Maganda Begins" and "Athena" were published in E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S: the first XI interviews (Ed. Tom Beckett, Otoliths, Rockhampton, Australia, 2007).

"SCUMBLE-D" was presented as a broadside for my reading with Ron Silliman in the Inverse Poetry Reading Series, curated by Scott Glassman, in Philadelphia (September 2006).

"The First Face Transplant" was interpreted into visual art by Sandra Simonds through Wildlife Poetry Magazine (2006).

"From The Tibetan Hallway of Transition" was published as a broadside by Second Avenue Press (Ed. Paolo Javier, New York, 2000).

Rebeka Lembo's Spanish and Italian translations, Ernesto Priego's Spanish translations, and Paolo Manalo's Tagalog translations are published with the translators' permissions.

The poems in Appendix I first appeared in the author's poetry collection Menage A Trois With the 21st Century (xPress(ed), Espoo, 2004). Thanks to editor-publisher Jukka-Pekka Kervinen for this opportunity.

Nick Carbo's poem "Any Tunay na Lalaki at the Shark Bar" was first published in Secret Asian Man (Chicago, Tia Chucha Press, 2000) and is published with the author's permission.

Cody McCafferty's poem "On That Note" was featured on Chris Murray's Texfiles Blog and is published with the author's permission.

Ernesto Priego's hay(na)ku poem "Someone/ you love/ sleeping with your" is published with the author's permission.

Jean Vengua's untitled prose poem is published with the author's permission.

*****

Tell ya what. If you've read this far and don't see your name -- be among the first five to email me at GalateaTen@aol.com and you can get a comp copy of The Light...! Poetry -- it is always and ever a Gift.