THESE POEMS NOT ORPHANED!

Pleased and honored to see excerpts from my ORPHANED ALGEBRA series in the new issue of Otoliths! Thanks to editor/publisher Mark Young! Here's his announcement!

Issue 18, the southern winter 2010 issue, of Otoliths has just gone live.

Let's get the obvious pun out of the way first. This is an august issue. It's packed with text in its many forms—as story, essay, review, or poem—as well as a wide range of visual media: collages, frottages, glyphs, postcards, paintings, notebook pages & some great new vispo.

Included in the issue are Emma Smith, Eileen R. Tabios, Mark Cunningham, Ed Baker, Piotr Gwiazda, Anne Gorrick, Ed Higgins, Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Manfred Weidhorn, Carlos Soto-Román, Sally Ann McIntyre, James Maughn, Mark Francis Johnson, Sheila E. Murphy, Amanda Earl, Orchid Tierney, Philip Byron Oakes, Raymond Farr, Joe Balaz, Randall Brock, Meaghan Lank, Jeff Harrison, Mary Kasimor, Bruno Neiva, Benjamin Winkler, M. V. Montgomery, Ric Carfagna, Jessica Breheny, Jal Nicholl, Alexander Jorgensen, Mark Stricker, Reed Altemus, Jenny Enochsson, Felino Soriano, Corey Wakeling, Grzegorz Wróblewski, Lars Palm, Thomas Fink, Dorothee Lang & Steve Wing, Larry Sawyer, Paul Siegell, Beth Boettcher, Charles Freeland, Jake David, Márton Koppány, Katrinka Moore, Aidan Semmens, Connor Stratman, Stephen Nelson & Mike Cannell, SJ Fowler, Cath Vidler, Cecelia Chapman, rob mclennan, Cherie Hunter Day, Neil Ellman, Geof Huth, R. Riekki, Tony Brinkley, sean burn, Scott Metz, Travis Macdonald, Stuart Barnes, Spencer Selby, Keith Higginbotham, Sam Langer, Tony Rickaby, Bob Heman, Andrew Topel, Andrew Taylor, John Martone, Brad Vogler, Bobbi Lurie, Michael Brandonisio, Yonah Korngold, J. D. Nelson, Tyler L. Gobble reviewing Adam Robinson's Say, Poem, Sheila E. Murphy reviewing Out of the Box: Contemporary Australian Gay and Lesbian Poets, Cassie Eddington, & Colleen Lookingbill.

Enough there, & of sufficient variety, to keep everybody happy.

I'm happy! Read Otoliths and you can be happy, too!

THE ALLEGREZZA GENEROSITY

Ever since Mark Young's fabulous The Allegrezza Ficcione (again--get this book: my prediction for the first 21st century literary classic), I chucklingly think of Bill Allegrezza's projects as "The Allegrezza something...", hence this post's title. Which is to say, I continue to be floored by Bill's immense expanse with his "The Daily Glance" project. And, recently, he mini-reviewed Aileen Ibardaloza's traje de boda. Bill's lovely glance at Aileen's is HERE.

MOI IS STIMULATING

and this economy needs all the stimulation it can get!

First, you're welcome, Dear State of California! I just sent you the most I've ever sent in sales taxes for Meritage Press as a bidness: $141.00. Don't sniff--the first time I sent you sales tax, I cut you a check for $2.00. Ah Poetry Sales -- gotta love ya with all of your lack...

Also stimulating by buying poetry books! Here's my latest Bought Poetry List:

FORCE FIELDS, text by Andrew Joron & art by Brian Lucas

TOXIC FLORA: POEMS by Kimiko Hahn

WHERE SHADOWS WILL: SELECTED POEMS 1998-2008 by Norma Cole

BECKMAN VARIATIONS & OTHER POEMS by Michael Heller

THE SECOND FOUR BOOKS OF POEMS: THE MOVING TARGET / THE LICE / THE CARRIER OF LADDERS / WRITINGS TO AN UNFINISHED ACCOMPANIMENT by W.S. Merwin (I'll admit to ordering this coz Ron Silliman had nice things to say about Merwin's THE LICE)

CHRISTMAS by Eileen R. Tabios (yes my books count! I'm a poet, ya know...)

POISON OAK by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

RAIN O'ER ME by Rachel Goetzkee

I really think we should support the economy and poetry economy by ordering from Dan Waber's latest publishing effort--the tiny series. It's two bucks a title! Isn't that timely for this slow-growth economy! Plus, the booklets are cutely intellectual and intellectually cute!

BOUNTIES!

I actually hosted a mini high school reunion this past weekend; here's Meredith, one of the participants (and that rare thing: a non-poet reviewer for Galatea Resurrects!) waxing enthusiasm over some weekend harvesting:



Michael of course got in the act with, literally, a baby zucchini!



I'm feeling more optimistic this year over this City Slicker's gardening attempts. Here's the rest of my latest “Relished W(h)ine List)”:

SPRING/SUMMER HARVEST:
1 stalk of "miner's weed"
103 stalks of green onion
97 strawberries
2 artichokes
2 cherries
9 zucchini
4 stalks of scallions
8 summer squash
6 cucumbers
115 tomatoes
1 fig
6 bell peppers
10 clumps of basil
3 cucumbers


PUBLICATIONS
GUSTAF SOBIN COLLECTED POEMS, Co-Eds. Andrew Joron & Andrew Zawacki (now that's what I call a COLLECTED! This is a breathtakingly wonderful testament to a poet's rich legacy)

THE INCOMPOSSIBLES, poems by Carrie Hunter (read in manuscript form as I'm providing a blurb for its forthcoming book form. Here's the unedited blurb:

Every poem in THE INCOMPOSSIBLES is "an utterly unique void." What seems consistent is a rhythm of certainty, even as the poems posit uncertainties; these are musics impossible to categorize. Read a line like "The indecipherable spoken aloud"* and you can't help but read again, then again. As you continue reading, you realize you're searching for something you might discover but will defy memory-zation if only because the context of a reading changes each time. I guess that's the (or, one, ) point of these poems--it encourages the search itself and the discovered beauties in the process make the uncertainties welcome. That's what fabulous poems can achieve: the suspension of belief into language for its own sake. Thus, do "obscurities hold hands..."


[* I first cited "The decapitated head of Lack" but apparently another blurber cited this wonderful line]

WHERE SHADOWS WILL: SELECTED POEMS 1988-2008 by Norma Cole

YINGLISH STROPHES, 1-19, poems by Thomas Fink (stellar and often spectacular!)

THE FRENCH EXIT, poems by Elisa Gabbert (such fragile-nesses are difficult to textually manifest-- a lovely achievement)

THE BEAUTY OF THE HUSBAND: A FICTIONAL ESSAY IN 29 TANGOS, poems by Anne Carson

THE PHILOSOPHER'S CLUB, poems by Kim Addonizio

NEW & SELECTED POEMS by Jennifer Clement

IATROGENIC: THEIR TESTIMONIES, poems by Danielle Pafunda

IN THIS ALONE IMPULSE, poems by Shya Scanlon

STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON, a meditation by Mark Doty (astonishingly and stunningly dazzling--a book I wish I wrote)

FROM ASHES TO AFRICA, memoir by Josh and Amy Bottomly

WHAT THE WORLD EATS, photos by Peter Menzel and text by Fairh D'Aluisio

ALL ABOUT CATS AS PETS by Marjorie Zaum

THE APPRENTICE, novel by Tess Gerritsen

THE PERSUADER, novel by Lee Child


WINES
2004 Dutch Henry cabernet
2006 Dutch Henry merlot Yountville
2007 Dutch Henry merlot Yountville (from barrel)
2009 Dutch Henry pinot noir Mt. Veeder (from barrel)
2009 Dutch Henry pinot noir Penngrove (from barrel)
2009 Dutch Henry sauvignon blanc Chafen Family Vineyards
2004 3Rings Shiraz Barossa Valley
2005 Saxum Broken Stones Paso Robles
2009 Zahtila chardonnay NV
2006 Zahtila Dry Creek zinfandel
2006 Zahtila Oat Hill Estate zinfandel
2006 Zahtila cabernet NV
2005 Zahtila Rutherford cabernet
2005 Zahtila "Laura's Theme" petite syrah
1997 Behrens & Hitchcock Petite Syrah Old Vine NV

BEDAZZLING MARK DOTY

I read many books that I enjoy, but it's rare when I respond to one with the wish:

I wish I'd written that book!

Well, I thought exactly that about Mark Doty's dazzling STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON. For the reader, this book (as the reviewer in link says) provides endless pleasure. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

WHY I LOVE MOI SNAILMAIL

The Hay(na)ku for Haiti Project is delighted to hear that one of the H for H booklets, REBIRTH by Cynthia Marie Phillips, will become part of an artist's gallery exhibition opening festivities by being available in a basket! What a great idea: the beauty of the H for H booklet's teensy scale is that they can be inserted into other artistic affairs! Do try it! And check out the other booklets in the series!

Meanwhile, here's a lovely "found hay(na)ku" just received from Cynthia:

FABULOUS FINLAND

continues to extend the hay(na)ku! Check out some Finish hay(na)ku by Heikki Lahnaoja. Don't know what they mean but I am sure they are all fabulous! For example

Villit
eläimet asuvat
tummassa tuhmassa metsässä.

Thanks Heikki!

MOI SON, THE PUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPHER!

The above is Michael's latest photograph of one of his bee-girlfriends. But remember the fantastic photograph he took in June which I thought was fabulous enough to be a cover image for the American Bee Journal?

Well, the short-sighted editors didn't put it on the cover, but they did publish his photograph in the latest issue of said American Bee Journal! Here's the inner content, which includes a photograph of Michael and a write-up of his beekeeping beginnings by the proud hubby:



Here's the cover which, if you see it on the newstand, you should pick up and peruse so you can read all about Michael and enjoy his lovely photograph!



His lovely photograph inside the magazine, that is. Because, again, look at Michael's photograph--isn't that way more compelling and attractive than the one chosen for the cover!? Buzzzzz: get your act together, editors!

So proud of Michael I have no problem being the insufferably boasting Mom!

MOI GOBLET OVERFLOWETHS...

So in between playing with the aminals (Artemis in above), Michael is going through language and math lessons. Recently, one of his recent assignments was to do internet research and write a paper on people he admires and/or are influential to him. His first choice was Barack Obama. Then he said (in perhaps an attempt to get more television time) that his second person to research will be ... Moi!

I initially reacted with a big mental flurry of Uh Oh! as I remembered all that false data I once inputted into the internet about moiself (all part of a big performance project way back when I had more vim and vigor to concoct silliness). But, I just reminded Michael not to believe anything in the internet and otherwise I let him have at it.

Well, he did his research (with no interference from Moi)...and his concluding paragraph is as follows (in all of its English-as-second-language glory):

What do I think of this Person
I think my mom's work is cool because she made poems with her imagination and she made art and books with her poems. I admire her because she had graduated from Barnard College and a business school and now she has a great career with poems. I think poems are cool and I liked them because poems are relative with art and I like art. Also, I think my mom is hard worker because she have the career with poets and also because she adopted me, so she have like two jobs dealing with me every day and working with her job. So that's why I admire her.

Awwwwwwwwww.....(okay: an extra hour of TV tonight!)

But that's not all! So Michael submits his paper to his language tutor and also future Humanities teacher and, guess what?! Said teacher --a fellow alum apparently of Morningside Heights, NYC -- asked me to volunteer work as a poet during the schoolyear, perhaps visit the class, perhaps help out in art where they're doing art/text projects, etc etc!

Great! I enthusiastically replied! I was open to being a parent-volunteer anyway, and it's sure much better to use Moi as a poet than as a, say, field trip driver when I can't back-end parallel park! Or cupcake provider when I can't culinarily attain! It's all ... good!

Here is boy and dog (Achilles):



Oh ye gorgeous Napa summer! And it sure cracks Moi up how Achilles looks over the edge of the pool like a ... human!

WHAT A RACQUET!

My most important "day job" of course is also a night job given that it's 24-7: Mommyhood. This summer is another busy one for Michael as we're full blown into more language and math tutoring to better prepare him for his new school this fall. But I do allow him a break--tennis camp for the next two weeks!





If you're a poet-tennis player, mayhaps you might know what I mean about how a great net game is that desired poetic zone...(that is, that prolonged net game versus the briefer serve-and-volley)...

SWERVE THIS WAY FOR A LOVELY CONVERSATION

over HERE between Barry Schwabsky and Joan Waltemath.

It's a reminder, too, to check out THIS and THIS!

But I must simply copynpaste this excerpt from Barry's and Joan Waltemath's conversation for The Brooklyn Rail--just lovely!

Rail: I want to backtrack slightly: at one point you were talking about underlying systems and questioning whether there was an underlying system to works of art. The notion of an underlying order is something that I’ve been working with for a long time. I’m aware of it all around me and I see that in the time of Bellini that they were able to create a specific and clear mathematical structure underlying their paintings. Does it reflect a social order that was simpler or more possible to idealize? Can that kind of parallel be made today, or have we reached a point where the layers of complexity can no longer be comprehended by individuals?

Schwabsky: Well, some people can apparently think that order, or at least they can think that they’re thinking it. Maybe you can. I had a friend, or better to say, an acquaintance, a friendly acquaintance, in London who passed away recently, a writer called John Michell. He was a kind of a Platonist, and he really believed there was an underlined geometrical order to the universe and everything in it, and I think that one of the things that fascinated me about him was that fact because I could never begin to believe such a thing, I don’t think that it’s in me to believe it.

Rail: Interesting. I came across his works when I was in my early twenties and then met him and knew some of the people around him, so I am familiar with his work. I could intuitively make sense of the geometry that he was talking about.

Schwabsky: What he saw as the underlying structure of things I saw as a highly specialized, rare, and fragile situation of things that was epiphenomenal.

Rail: So if you don’t see a kind of underlying structure, how do you go about making sense of the many different kinds of things that you look at as a critic? Do you have a system or set means to approach looking at work?

Schwabsky: No, I don’t have a system. I think I’m very involved with the random, not in a John Cage sense, but in some other sense. I think I’m much more—as a kind of basic way of looking at things—much more comfortable with the kind of Lucretian viewpoint which says that it’s just matter and there are just all these atoms, and he says they’re all falling and as they fall, sometimes, at some arbitrary point, they swerve, and as all these atoms kept falling and swerving, the swerving made them clump together and they start to form objects, and that’s where the world came from, and—

Rail: No attraction between certain ones that will cause them to swerve?

Schwabsky: Well, the swerve is the attraction somehow, it’s not that there’s the attraction and then there’s the swerve, and so yeah, I think that I have that swerve towards certain things and certain people and certain situations, and I try not to resist it, and I try to reason through the resulting meeting, if there is one. Sometimes there’s not a meeting, sometimes you bypass them. But the name of that swerve is Eros.

Rail: What you’re saying reminds me of your approach, or could we say non-approach, to the last line of a piece. As I read through a number of the pieces that I came in contact with I felt like each one of them had a different idea about it, each one of them was doing a different thing in terms of the writing, and that really fascinated me because it seems like you are responding to the particular circumstances of what you are creating. As somebody who’s really involved in systems, I find that fascinating.

Schwabsky: You know, I think it would be very useful to have a system, I’m not against a system, really, and I take seriously what William Blake said, “I have to have my own system or I’ll be the slave of someone else’s.”

Rail: What a beautiful line of Blake’s!

Schwabsky: But I’ve never really been able to have that system. I’ve only been able to think that at least I circumstantially evaded those of others, without being the slave of them, but still without making my own.

Rail: It’s a question I think Breton touched on in Nadja when he writes, “Perhaps I am doomed to retrace my steps under the illusion that I am exploring.”

Go HERE for whole thang! I love that notion of the swerve!

TO-DO LIST

Wow. It's really true: everything takes much much longer once one becomes a parent. I believed it intellectually but never really understood it until I became a parent myself. E.G., here's a literary to-do list below (which I blog to not forget to do) which, pre-parenting, I would have done a month ago in addition to have created a hundred new poetry manuscripts (grin):

--proof/print next Meritage Press anthology
--contact anthology participants for mailing logistics of contributor copies
--proof next Meritage Press poetry collection
--calculate and pay state taxes for Meritage Press
--revise chap manuscript
--write two book reviews
--write up a blurb for a forthcoming poetry book
--write a letter of recommendation for a poet
--update art blog

What doesn't fall behind as much, though, is the fitful reading this insomniac does. To wit, here's my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List.

SPRING/SUMMER HARVEST:
1 stalk of "miner's weed"
100 stalks of green onion
97 strawberries
2 artichokes
2 cherries
7 zucchini
4 stalks of scallions
3 summer squash
6 cucumbers
34 tomatoes
1 fig


PUBLICATIONS
EXHIBITS, poem by John Yau (mischievous delirium)

SALINE, poems by Kimberly Lyons (so many poems are wondrously delicate)

APPARITION POEMS by Adam Fieled (admirable. deceptively multi-layered)

THE APPLE TREES AT OLEMA: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Robert Hass (Dude decided to relax in his newer work...)

KING OF THE JUNGLE, poems by Zvi Sesling (unornamented and totally effective poems)

THE PRECARIOUS RHETORIC OF ANGELS, poems by George Looney

THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU PROJECT, curated by Ivy Alvarez, John Bloomberg-Rissman, Ernesto Priego & Eileen Tabios (yes it's out in book form! But it's a proof book, so it'll take a few more weeks to straighten out some last minute details...but all very exciting to see it!)

DEAR SANDY, HELLO: LETTERS FROM TED TO SANDY BERRIGAN, Eds. Sandy Berrigan and Ron Padgett (fascinating. compulsive reading--I meant to flip through the book when it first arrived and instead ended up reading it all in one sitting)

WALANG HIYA: LITERATURE TAKING RISKS TOWARD LIBERATORY PRACTICE, Eds. Lolan Buhain Sevilla and Roseli Ilano (nice to see younger generation of poet-editors come up)

MiPOesias, Summer 2010, literary/arts journal, Ed.Didi Menendez

THE ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW, Spring 2010, Eds. Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis and Gerard Maa (kewl. And, just accepted invite to serve on its Advisory Board)

HOUSE ORGAN, Summer 2010, literary review edited by Kenneth Warren

THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH: THE TRUE STORY OF A THIEF, A DETECTIVE, AND A WORLD OF LITERARY OBSESSION, journalism by Allison Hoovert Bartlett

WISDOM OF THE LAST FARMER, memoir by David Mas Masumoto

RESCUE INK: HOW TEN GUYS SAVED COUNTLESS DOGS AND CATS, TWELVE HORSES, FIVE PIGS, ONE DUCK AND A FEW TURTLES, memoir by Rescue Ink with Denise Flaim

SCENT OF THE MISSING: LOVE & PARTNERSHIP WITH A SEARCH-AND-RESCUE DOG, memoir by Susannah Charleson

NEVER LOOK AWAY, novel by Linwood Barclay

TOO CLOSE TO HOME, novel by Linwood Barclay

CREATION IN DEATH, novel by J.D. Robb

THE SHADOW OF YOUR SMILE, novel by Mary Higgins Clark


WINES
2006 Aubert chardonnay
Tra Vigne house chardonnay
2009 Dutch Henry sauvignon blanc Chafen Family Vineyards
2006 Dutch Henry merlot Yountville
1983 Graham's vintage port
2007 Rebellious Red NV
2005 Joh. Jos. Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spatlese

JEST ONE SUMMER DAY

In six hours I'm hosting 38 lawyers (summer internship corporate party thing that I do as part of my day job of being a "corporate spouse). Am I stressed because as I write this we're pouring concrete as part of moi other day job? (Have I told you how many "day jobs" Moi gots?) Nope. No stress: I am as zen as the dawgies...



...because Poetry can be a great teacher of (drum roll) multi-tasking! How else could one craft the diversities of the universe into one poem?

THE THIRD HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY

It's always lovely to see a manuscript in book form for the first time. Which is to say, for the first time I'm holding THE CHAINED HAY(NA)KU PROJECT in book form. Yay! It's a proof, though, so it'll take a few more weeks to straighten out some minor printing details before it's officially released. But, yes, this is most definitely a 2010 book!

Meanwhile for yet another housekeeping detail. We keep getting lovely review copies for Galatea Resurrects. Please do consider doing a review or engagement with one or more of these poetry books. Next review deadline is a while away at Nov. 1, so you have much time to cogitate. More details HERE.

BOY AND DOG ... AND BOOK!

Achilles had to give up his dog rug to Michael who brought over chocolate ice cream ... and a book! We are growing a reader, most def!



Or mebbe he was admiring the floor which, after Italy, he now understands to relate to Pompeii!

MOI DAY JOB

is like what I attempt in poetry. Building something that lasts so that it can be enjoyed by others.

CHRISTMAS IN JULY!

That's right! It's July and it's Christmas! How, Toi asks? Moi invites your gaze over HERE where, for a mere two bucks, you can get a copy of my latest novel entitled, you betcha,

Christmas

!! C'mon--for less than a Starbucks, you get a novel! No wonder it's Christmas!



Christmas' publication is made possible by Dan Waber's tiny series from chapbookpublisher.com. Am delighted to be part of the inaugural booklets which also include The Great American Novel by Michael Aro, Rain, O’er Me by Rachael Goetzke, Heat by Martha Deed, and Wool by Chris Tiefel. If you go to the tiny site, I think you'll agree that these tinys pack a HUGE impact, even on just one tiny page!

THE BUZZ

Yesterday was a Nature Day as the hubby and Michael did a check on what is thankfully our thriving beehive (painted of course in the colors of the Colombian Flag)!









So take that, CCD. At Galatea, all is local.

ECONOMIC BOOSTS

A possible double-dip for the economy? Not surprising. Here's my modest attempt to counter -- my latest Bought Poetry List:

EXHIBITS by John Yau

KING OF THE JUNGLE by Zvi A. Sesling

HINGE & SIGN by Heather McHugh

QUINTESSENCE OF THE MINOR: SYMBOLIST POETRY IN ENGLISH by Garrett Caples

NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Jennifer Clement

FAULTY MOTHERING by Elaine Randell

THE FIRST FOUR BOOKS OF POEMS (Firstborn, The House on Marshland, Descending Figure and The Triumph of Achilles) by Louise Gluck

THE SEVEN AGES by Louise Gluck

WISDOM OF THE LAST FARMER, memoir by poet David Mas Masumoto

A BLUE HAND: THE BEATS IN INDIA, biography by Deborah Baker

IN THE PRESENCE OF THE SUN: STORIES AND POEMS, 1961-1991 by N. Scott Momaday (does 20 cents for this hardback at a public library sale count? Such be the fate for many poetry books...sigh)


A better way to counter economic depression (pun intended) would be this following invite on behalf of Kundiman, a poetry organization that definitely deserves to thrive in even the worst economy!

Please forward to SF bay folks - Kundi love on a Sunday afternoon!

FB event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127824803917310

In Solidarity: West Coast Kundiman Poetry Reading, Part 3



Sunday July 11
3:00 PM
Eastwind Books of Berkeley
2066 University Avenue, between Milvia St and Shattuck Ave
Berkeley, CA

Poetry Read by:

Lee Herrick, author of "This Many Miles from Desire"
Fuifuilupe Niumeitolu, co-editor of "Usos On Freeways: An Anthology of Pacific IslanderWritersFrom/In the Continental United States"
Javier O. Huerta, author of "Some Clarifications y otros poemas"
Ching-In Chen, author of "The Heart's Traffic"
Jai Arun Ravine, author of "IS THIS JANUARY"

Performance by: Jezebel Delilah X

Emceed by: Jai Arun Ravine & Margaret Rhee

This reading is a fundraiser for Kundiman, a non-profit organization that fosters emerging Asian American poets with an annual poetry retreat. We are raising funds for a Kundiman West Coast Scholarship Fund, which would support one Kundiman fellow from the West Coast to attend the retreat for free, as well as a community activist/poet. So far, we have raised $90.00 and hope to raise the full $300.00 by the end of summer.
http://www.kundiman.org/
http://www.kundiman.org/fellows/

Eastwind Books of Berkeley has been serving the Asian American community since 1982 and welcomes people to attend this wonderful Kundiman event.
http://www.asiabookcenter.com/

& Special Book Raffle!
Books donated by poets, Joseph O. Legaspi, Oliver de la Paz, Ching-In Chen, Lee Herrick, & Truong Tran!!! Give from the Heart and Win Big!!!

UPDATE: The raffle also will include a copy of THE THORN ROSARY--check it out and you might get lucky!

HAVING SIPPED "TEARS OF CHRIST"...

Am back but horribly jet-lagged. Good to return to my publisher Marsh Hawk Press being hailed by Huffington Post (as a press who takes risks -- yadda: how many poetry presses publish bricks!) and MiPOesias kindly giving a venue to my novel, Pewter.

Meanwhile, here's my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List which, of course, is heavy on airport reading and Italian wine:

SPRING/SUMMER HARVEST:
1 stalk of "miner's weed"
100 stalks of green onion
77 strawberries
2 artichokes
2 cherries
7 zucchini
4 stalks of scallions
3 summer squash
6 cucumbers


PUBLICATIONS
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE HILLSIDE, 25th anniversary book celebration of Harlan Estate winery

SLEEPERS, autobiography by Lorenzo Carcaterra (gut-wrenching; a must-read for everybody)

WAR OF THE WORLDS, novel by H.G. Wells

FIRST BORN, novel by Lindsay McKenna

THE HAMMER OF EDEN, novel by Ken Follett

61 HOURS, novel by Lee Child

THE KILLING, novel by Robert Muchamore

CONTACT, novel by Susan Grant

DEAD WATCH, novel by John Sanford

AGAINST THE WIND, novel by J.F. Freedman

THE PIED PIPER, novel by Ridley Pearson

RAPTURE IN DEATH, novel by J.D. Robb

VISIONS IN DEATH, novel by J.D. Robb

MEMORY IN DEATH, novel by J.D. Robb

THE BODY FARM, novel by Patricia Cornwell

ILL WIND, novel by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason


WINES
1997 Sandrone La Vigna
2000 Bierzo "Corullon"
2008 Lacryma Christi del Vescorio Il Continiere (Tears of Christ, sipped right on Vesuvius -- a moment)
2005 Carfe Sant' Alda Amarone della Valpolicella
2006 Az. Le Ragose Valpolicella Classico Superiore "Le Sassine"
2009 Villa Rocca Soave
2009 Villa Rocca Valpolicella
2008 Brolio Toscana chardonnay
2008 Brolio Chianti Classico
2005 Brolio Casalferro Toscana
2004 Gaja Remaina
2006 Fattorie Parri Ribaldaccio Chianti
Ripalta San Giovese
Ripalta chardonnay Tuscan
Foscaro Prosecco
2008 Fattorie Melini Chianti San Lorenzo
2006 Arnaldo-Caprai Montefalco Rosso