THE DUST OF STARS

, not to be confused with stardust, is visible tonight from Galatea's mountain. The air is so clear you can see the Milky Way, its "cloud" and then the stars shifting as a community across the night sky. When a poem works for me, I can sense -- hear through the eyes -- the same sound-image I see when the Milky Way becomes visible: the music of the spheres rumored to be spun off and sung by the dance of celestial bodies...

Meanwhile, here's the latest Relished W(h)ine List:

THE CITY SLICKER'S HARVEST (to date)
2 green figs
12 Santa Rosa plums
50 apricots
86 strawberries
1,451 basil leaves
327 purple basil leaves
267 mint leaves
505 pinches of parsley
3 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 orange squash
160 tomatoes
40 green figs
23 green onion stalks
205 green peppers
11 red peppers
8 Japanese eggplants
45 purple table grapes


PUBLICATIONS
HALLUCINATING CALIFORNIA, poems by Richard Lopez and Jonathan Hayes (moved me to review it for next Galatea Resurrects, though it wasn't sent as a review copy)

NOVALESS I-XXVI, poems by Nicholas Manning (lovely machine songs!!!!)

AFTER RIMBAUD'S ILLUMINATIONS , prose poetry by David Baptiste-Chirot (free .pdf HERE: prose so resonant it inspired a chained hay(na)ku sequence from me that appears in The Light....glad to see it come out in this format; I'd first read text as an emailed manuscript)

BUTCHER OF OXEN AND OTHER POEMS by Ed Baker (gorgeous lyrical stuff; I'd been trading hilarious emails back and forth with Ed, which is to say, I was stunned when I finally stopped reading his e-blather and went to his poems: they are just gaw-geous. Geez, Ed -- you rock! Okay, this note is good for 10,000 more emails)

FACE TURNED TO THE SOUTH / FACE TURNED TO THE WALL, poems by Ed Baker

WHAT'S A PHANTASY, poems by Ed Baker

240: 3 POEMS FOR DEAR FRIENDS ON THe OCCASION OF THEIR 80TH BIRTHDAY: RAYMOND FEDERMAN, ROBERT CREELEY AND JOHN ASHBERY by Geoffrey Gatza

STRING LIGHT, poems by C.D. Wright

RED, a poetics of red by Marilyn R. Rosenberg

E-X-C-H-A-N-G-E-V-A-L-U-E-S: THE FINAL XIV INTERVIEWS + ONE, Curated by Tom Beckett

HEART OF THE TRAIL: THE STORIES OF EIGHT WAGON TRAIN WOMEN by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien

DREAM, memoir by Harry Bernstein

PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK, essays by Annie Dillard

ONE SHOT, novel by Lee Child

NOTHING TO LOSE, novel by Lee Child

BAD LUCK AND TROUBLE, novel by Lee Child

THE ENEMY, novel by Lee Child

ECHO BURNING, novel by Lee Child

DEEP STORM, novel by Lincoln Child

THE WHOLE TRUTH, novel by David Baldacci

FEARLESS, novel by Diana Palmer

MENDING AT THE EDGE, novel by Jane Kirpatrick


WINES
1990 Cos D'Estournel (this year's birthday wine)
2004 Dutch Henry chardonnay
2003 Dutch Henry chardonnay
2006 Dutch Henry rose
2006 Hangtime pinot noir
Schramsberg sparkling wine
1996 Gevrey Chambertin
1993 Yalumba "Octavius"
1988 Ciacci Brunello Di Montalcino Vigna di Pianrosso