ARTICHOKE POETICS

Ach: all of the careful pruning of sharp edges...all of the barely-there nibbling for something edible...all of the mounting trash pile exponentially larger than its largesse....until, finally, you get to the HEART of the artichoke...

I wrote a gardening poem. That's a historic event to check out HERE, featured as part of the Fieralingue Summer issue curated by the summery Anny Ballardini! Meanwhile, here's the latest Relished W(h)ine List:


CITY SLICKER'S SPRING/SUMMER GARDEN HARVEST (to date)
an artichoke
four scallions
a strawberry (yes: one strawberry. Just. one. strawberry. NOW pipe down ye peepsqueaks -- I hear you with your editorializing comments....)


PUBLICATIONS
TAU BY PHILIP LAMANTIA AND JOURNEY TO THE END BY JOHN HOFFMAN, Ed. by Garrett Caples (book explains why, when I once asked Philip to write in my journal, he drew a bird. As for the poetry -- Philip is one of its most pure manifestations of ecstasy...and Hoffman's, as Philip puts it, "swings"! as in: "A piece of the sky thru the hole in my side // wanted to breathe a purer air"...)

MAGDALENE & THE MERMAIDS, poems by Elizabeth Kate Switaj (a lovely swoon)

OPEN NIGHT, poems by Aaron Lowinger (dude was in some zone when he wrote these wonderful poems)

DISCLOSURE, conceptual poetry by Dana Teen Lomax (smart stuff!)

NEGATIVE INVENTORY, poems by Shannon Smith (lovely. makes me look forward to future works by this young, promising poet!)

THE BIG NECESSITY: THE UNMENTIONABLE WORLD OF HUMAN WASTE AND WHY IT MATTERS, investigative journalism by Rose George

THIS ORGANIC LIFE: CONFESSIONS OF A SUBURBAN HOMESTEADER, memoir/analysis by Joan Dye Gussow

LOOK AGAIN, novel by Lisa Scottoline

FIRST FAMILY, novel by David Baldacci

HIDE, novel by Lisa Gardner

HEART OF THE WORLD, novel by Linda Barnes

DEEP POCKETS, novel by Linda Barnes


WINES
1994 Tasca D'Almerita cabernet
2006 August Briggs charbono "Frediani" NV
1997 Behrens & Hitchcock merlot NV
2___ Trefethen riesling NV
2005 JJ Prum Grancher Himmelreich Auslese
1959 Castillo Ygay Gran Reserva Especiale Rioja
2000 Majella The Mallea
2003 Ch Rauzan Despagne
2003 Sequum Kidd Ranch Zinfandel
1986 Cos d'Estournel