GAZE AT MOI A THOUSAND TIMES

Over at Zeitgeist Spam, the project continues on creating ONE THOUSAND views of my poem "The Secret Life of an Angel" written after Jose Garcia Villa's "Girl Singing". Though a bit flattered, I'm mostly bemused by how such a project has blossomed from a poem that I kinda thought wasn't that hot in the first place (Villa's poem is hot, mine less so). I mean, I think my poem, as a song, really grates in places. Still, look at the participants to date -- AND I do thank you all for improving on my modest effort:

Geof Huth
Rebeka Lembo
³Lolabola²
Mark Young
Ernesto Priego
Sam Bloomberg-Rissman
Robert Rissman
Sheila E Murphy
Jukka-Pekka Kervinen
Rebekah May
Jean Vengua
Lucy Morris/Ernesto Priego
Alan Baker
Franek Wygoda
harry k stammer
Kuei Chiu
Claire Rissman-Sherr
Rupert M Loydell
Ivy Alvarez
Ed Baker
Giles Goodland
Jared Schickling
Mike Cannell
Yichen Chiu
Steve Mitchell
John Bloomberg-Rissman
Cecilia Sophia Ibardaloza
Rolly delos Santos
Tim Gaze (we're looking for you)

Well, I'm grateful and looking forward to the book project that will come out of this (the notes on translation methodologies alone is worth perusing the project). To mitigate my embarassment, I'm just glad the editor/publisher are allowing me to write an "Afterword" where I rewrite (I mean, translate) my own original poem into something less, um, tone-deaf.

Meanwhile, I keep wondering, if a project like this can grow from one of my bad poems, just think of what can grow from a ... good poem! It's not like I've not written a few others pow-ems....

But maybe it's like dating? Does the bad boy vs the good boy still get more girls (so to speak; haven't dated in decades)? And the thing about Poetry is that maturity is not a prerequisite....

John Bloomberg-Rissman is open to more of your translations, mature or otherwise. Email him at J@johnbr.com

AND THANK YOU, JOHN DEAR.