POETS ON ADOPTION (Inaugural Issue)

PRESS RELEASE & ANNOUNCEMENT: "POETS ON ADOPTION"
[Please feel free to forward]
For more info: GalateaTen@aol.com

POETS ON ADOPTION

Poetry: it inevitably relates to -- among others -- identity, history, culture, class, race, community, economics, politics, power, loss, health, desire, regret, language, form and genre disruption, love ... as well as the absences thereofs.

The same may be said about Adoption.

You are invited to visit POETS ON ADOPTION (http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com) to see how poets with adoption experiences mine the intersections of poetry and adoption. Their varied experiences, meditations and poems powerfully bring forth an urgent poetics in an educational context.

POETS ON ADOPTION will be updated over time as more poets send in their contributions. You are invited to peruse and spread the word about the blog's Call for Participation at http://poetsonadoption.blogspot.com/2011/03/call-for-participation.html .

The inaugural issue presents the following poets below on adoption. We hope this site engages you, and welcome your comments,

Eileen R. Tabios
Curator, Poets on Adoption

*****

POETS ON ADOPTION
as of March 31, 2011, features

Ned Balbo March 2011
(placed as a baby with his birth mother's sister and raised as her son)

Nick Carbo March 2011
(in the Philippines, was adopted as an infant. later, his parents adopted his biological younger sister)

Dana Collins March 2011
(was adopted as a baby from Korea by U.S.-American parents. sister to adopted brother)

Marcella Durand March 2011
(adopted an infant domestically within U.S.)

Lee Herrick March 2011
(was adopted as a baby from Korea by U.S.-American parents. brother to adopted sister. as a parent, adopted baby from China)

Natalie Knight March 2011
(was adopted as an infant domestically in U.S.    became sister at age five to adopted brother)

Michele Leavitt March 2011
(was adopted as an infant domestically in the U.S.)

Amanda Mason March 2011
(in process of adopting 11-year-old boy from Colombia)

Sharon Mesmer March 2011
(sister to adopted sibling)

Allison Moreno March 2011
(was adopted as a baby domestically in the U.S.    sister to two adopted brothers)

Christina Pacosz March 2011
(gave up infant daughter for adoption)

Judith Roitman March 2011
(was half-adopted. adopted two baby boys, of which the one survivor is now 30 years old. relatives also adopted)

Susan M. Schultz March 2011
(adopted 12-month-old boy (now 11 years old) from Cambodia and 3-year-old girl (now 9 years old) from Nepal. husband and a number of other relatives were adopted)

Michael D Snediker March 2011
(brother to a sister adopted as an infant from Korea. became close to someone who adopted a son from Vietnam)

Rosemary Starace March 2011
(was adopted as a baby domestically within the U.S.    three years later became sister to adopted brother)

Eileen R. Tabios March 2011
(adopted a 13-year-old boy (now 15) from Colombia. in process of new adoption process for a 12-year-old girl also from Colombia)

Craig Watson March 2011
(adopted 1-year-old girl from Ecuador)

MOI'S HIT THE MOTHER LODE...

Geeeeez. I have this site-in-progress up online that addresses poetry and adoption. I plan to inaugurate it in a few days. But for the last few weeks, word keeps seeping out and people have even commented on it already....even though I haven't finished setting it up.

I'm just AMAZED -- there seems to be such HUNGER in the exploration of adoption/poetry issues. It's one of those projects where its impact cuts through to and into the bone. I can't wait to announce it.

It's so powerful -- I've already released buckets of tears just from reading and re-reading because I've got to format it...

When I announce it, I'll also announce the formal Call to Participate ... so if any of you are poets with adoption experiences, await ... the Word!

WANNA COME TO THE ATTIC FOR MOI DORIANS?

Thank you, Buffalo New York! Just found out that the newly-released Yellow Field, Spring 2011 issue carries a nice mention of one of moi 2006 books, The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I. I'm charmed by it, and so replicate it below. Thanks to Yellow Field "collator" and reviewer here Edric Mesmer:

The Secret Lives of Punctuations, Vol. I
Eileen Tabios             (xPress(ed), 2006)

Ever slow to catch-up, new to me is Tabios's first volume of Punctuations. (Was there ever a second?) Rife with the stuff of Language Poetry, disseminated here in the investigatory practices of a secular grammarian, Tabios takes for her organizing principle the diacritically punctual gesture--thus a poem like "; No Music in His Voice" may begin "; when accomplishing a portrait ends the relationship". Too Dorian for you? Supporting such columnar effects rids us of the indices of affectation; serials, editorial drafts, and asides open and flex here in the full catalog of our representational enquiring. Epigraphix and a healthy amount of notes at back lead the reader to consider the functional afterthoughts of "?"; the parenthetical series may dilate the eye, but these queries are most bountiful when considering the colon and double-colon: "pauperism: owlish symptom / mulatto: wineglass emphysema / concrete: argue requisite / ulna: weary median". I'm awaiting Volume II.

Hah. Better get crackin' on that second volume indeed! Until then, do feel free to sink into the cover image (of a painting by Eve Aschheim) -- I post it below as I keep thinking Mesmer's words fit the painted disciplined vortex below (what do you think?):

A GRrrrrr IS IN PROGRESS

Amongst many other things, Moi am busily formatting the next issue of Galatea Resurrects, which is how I realize -- finally! -- we're going to throw BIG PUBLISHING a bone. Don't ask me why but we are. To wit, the forthcoming Issue No. 16 will present our first review of a poetry book published by Knopf.

Well good for you, Knopf. And bad on you, too. Because it took us having to do about 900 reviews before we can review a poetry book published by you. Which is to say, You, KNOPF, have got to do more for poetry!

I can't do it all on my own, you know....sheesh.

YET ANOTHER REASON WHY MOI IS A MORON

Poetry Economics--A Moronic Oxymoron. The posts I do on this topic are actually among my most popular. I guess most presses don't bother sharing how much they make -- or lose -- by publishing poetry. I, however, have a masochistic side. To wit, my 2010 Income Statement:

Since I've basically stopped doing much author events, most of my earnings and expenses as a poet relate to Meritage Press. So it's tax time and I just calculated my Income Statement. I am saddened -- though not surprised -- to share the results: I lost money as a poet!

2010
TOTAL REVENUES $6,287.86
TOTAL COSTS $7,805.85

NET LOSS ($1,520.99)

Woe is Moi. I had thought that 2010 would continue my recent profitability (I was profitable in years 2009 and 2008). But it looks like, as we celebrate Meritage Press' 10th anniversary year, that MP would have been profitable only two out of its first ten years. Again, you can see the effect of the Great Recession in my revenue stream:

2010 REVENUES $6,287.86
2009 REVENUES $2,754.42
2008 REVENUES $9,117.92
2007 REVENUES $7,721.88

You can see that I actually more than doubled my sales figures over the prior year, but it took more money to ... double those sales figures!

Another way to look at these numbers is that $1,520.99 is basically my personal subsidy to be a poetry publisher. That's because Meritage Press is a private press. If, however, MP had been a nonprofit -- which is the case for many (most?) poety publishers, I probably could have raised at least that much money from grants and donations to avoid going into the red.

That's really the next step for MP, to become nonprofit or do something else. Because I don't have time for the paper-bureaucracy that would come with such nonprofitness, I don't bother to take that step. We'll just have to hope that this post makes you all feel sorry for me such that you buy the books I publish or the books I write (as regards the latter, start with THIS ONE please, as the Great Britain took a chance on me).

FORTHCOMING: THE POWERFUL "POETS ON ADOPTION"!

Below is my latest account of poetry book-buying. And I actually purchased Judith Roitman's NO FACE (SELECTED & NEW POEMS) because of this excerpt that Susan Schultz used as epigraph in this wonderful blog post. The excerpt is

Just whose eyes did you think you would look out from anyway?

I happen to be in discussion with Judith (and many other lovely poets) on a new poetry project that will relate poetry to adoption and/or adoption to poetry (await more details on this forthcoming powerful POETS ON ADOPTION site!). And one of the worries I had over this project -- which I actually thought about for two years before I finally decided to inaugurate it -- was how not to be anthropologically reductive as one links poetry and adoption.

With Judith, she happened to mention the possibility that perhaps her poetry is so thoroughly infused with her adoption experience that she wouldn't be able to recognize it. If you look at the above excerpt, there's nothing there that relates adoption to those words. But I also can see how such could be so infused with the adoption experience.

(Identity poems is a subject I've had to deal with when I was more active as an advocate for Asian American/Filipino poetry; interestingly, while I consider my writings "thoroughly infused" with my Filipino background, my texts are not popular with courses on such, perhaps because it's not easy to do cultural anthropology on them. I'm not complaining, btw, just mentioning this as I feel there could be more progress in how teachers approach identity in poetry.)

Certainly, what I suspected and am discovering is how the adoption experience can also be a source for interesting and intriguing "identity poems", regardless of whether poets (consciously) intended such for their writings. Of course, identity poems are not the only result from this linkage of poetry and adoption...

Anyway, more later on adoption and its effects on poetry -- AND VICE VERSA. For now, here's my latest list of BOUGHT POETRY OR BOOKS BY POETS:

NO FACE (SELECTED & NEW POEMS) by Judith Roitman

BOUGH BREAKS by Tamiko Beyer

FREE CELL by Anselm Berrigan

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ICELAND: TRAVEL ESSAYS IN ART by Eileen Myles

LIKE THE RAINS COME: SELECTED POEMS 1987-2006 by Mercedes Roffé

IMMIGRANTS IN OUR LWN LAND AND SELECTED EARLY POEMS by Jimmy Santiago Baca

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS by William Allegrezza

UNION: POEMS by Don Share

THE LONG BIRTH by Jan VanStavern

TILLIE OLSEN: ONE WOMAN, MANY READERS by Panthea Reid (got curious about this due to Kevin Killian's Amazon review which, along with comments, is also worth reading)

SILK EGG: COLLECTED NOVELS (2009-2009) by Eileen R. Tabios (As this blog is about Moi, I non-apologetically suggest you buy it, too! GO HERE for the ordering links through various venues)

THE DIFFICULTY OF PASSION

After more meetings, the family has decided unanimously: Michael will attend Sonoma Academy! Yay.

We discussed what he should expect from high school. After a lot of discussion, I then gave him my "homework" -- not to get straight As or other logical things that one might say about school. I suggested that he should try to find a "passion" -- something he really wants to do rather than (as has been his life to date) something that he does because rules or other people tell him to do such.

As my example, I said I found poetry to be my passion. And I observed that having that passion makes all the difference in being happy or not -- that nothing can permanently get me down as long as I have poetry.

What I didn't tell him was that it look me until 35 years to find poetry. And that, yes, I was frequently unhappy in my pre-poetry life. Frequently. Unhappy. Without that passion to fall back to.

It's an old saw about how one parents a child based on lessons learned from being parented. Like, I wish my parents discussed the passionate avocation with me when I was growing up. But they, too, were focused mostly on our family surviving as immigrants.

Survival is a lousy way to determine one's life. Passion is what alchemizes existence into living. I don't see passion addressed as much in the parenting conversations I happen to stumble across -- but it shouldn't take poetry (though of course poetry can effect this) to make passion be part of a parent's goal for a child.

PREEEEEN

So now Michael has gotten accepted into the second of two high schools to which he'd applied: Sonoma Academy! Still have to decide where he'll go, but for now, we celebrate his progress yet again, as manifested by this to-be-bronzed Letter from the Admissions Director:

Dear Michael:

On behalf of the Sonoma Academy Admissions Committee, I am happy to tell you that you have been accepted to the Class of 2015.

Sonoma Academy seeks students who are creative, ethical, and committed to learning. Through our admissions process, we try to evaluate each student’s interest, desire, and motivation to achieve at a high level in our college preparatory program. Michael, you impressed me with your enthusiasm for learning and mastering various subjects, despite facing different challenges.

During your family interview, we discovered that you have a hunger for more education and want to pursue your interests in humanities and in other cultures—all of which you will be able to do at SA, and more. We believe you are capable of thriving in and adding to our vibrant learning community.

We have reserved a place for you in the 9th-grade class and look forward to welcoming you to Sonoma Academy.

In addition to taking high-level academic courses, at Sonoma Academy you will have opportunities to deepen or expand your skills in athletics, performing and visual arts. You will also have the chance to participate in our Intersession program. During Intersession, students have traveled to China, Honduras, Thailand, Russia, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, France, and to the Mojave Desert for a Vision Quest.

Thank you for the time and attention you invested in the application process. ...

I could go on but might just become obnoxious with preening -- something that you all know I'm always careful not to do....

Here's the subject of my preening!

ONLY 55 REVIEWS?

So far I've received 55 reviews for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects.

That is not enough.

Send more, Peeps. I am here with greedy eyes waiting for you to set Poetry afire!

Sumthin' like that.

But, anyway, yes keep sending me those reviews. This is Galatea Resurrects, not the Commercial Times. We always have room for someone's discussion of a poem.

Galatea Resurrects -- the most fun poetry review journal in the world! Yeah!

REVISITING WINE POETICS

Brilliant poet Sharon Mesmer asked me a question recently, and I know she speaks for many of you 9 billion Peeps, when she asked:

SM: I keep wanting to ask you this (and it's something I should know!): what is Galatea's Mountain??!!

Moi: I molt, I mean, I live on a mountain. I named the place Galatea after the Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea (made into movie "My Fair Lady") where sculptor Pygmalion sculpted an ivory statue of a lady so beautiful he fell in love with her. So he prayed to the gods to make her alive. The gods indeed turned the statue into a human. But the myth ends (I think) with the woman stepping off the pedestal with no info on whatever happened after she stepped down from the pedestal. So I "continued" the myth by positing that Galatea, as a human lady, became interested in nature, art, poetry and wine (stuff in which the household is interested). Interestingly, the house is named "Pygmalion" because the house now doesn't move (it's the "statue" today). Reason is that Pygmalion was a misogynist and one can assume that once the statue became human, he became disappointed too in Galatea's inevitable human failings. So I "froze" Pygmalion into a statue (house) where he is frozen forever in his love for Galatea (albeit the image of rather than human reality of Galatea)....so that on the mountain he is *fixed* as an embodiment of love rather than misogynism.

I believe I concocted all that when I was into moi wine cups...

SM: Well, goddess bless ton wine cups! I love your application of myth to life. I knew about the Galatea/"My Fair Lady" connection, but not the rest, and your re-framing of it, which is really brilliant. I teach a class at the New School called "The Muse Singing: Myth in Poetry From Antiquity to Today" and I am always wondering why contemporary (and peer) poets have seemingly abandoned myth. It's like they're embarrassed by it or something.

Interesting, ain't it? To quote RL (Hi to you, too!), and that's THE END.

TAKE A BOOK, GIVE A BOOK!

Traded a couple more books yesterday, which means 40 books so far have traded through MOI COMMUNITY BOOKSHELF! That's pretty good since the subject at hand is poetry books -- so difficult to move that a sales figure of, say, 25 books is enough to get you onto certain poetry bestseller lists! (Sorry, just amusing moiself here...) Anyway, why dontcha click on the link and see if we can ... trade!

HAPPY 30TH ANNIVERSARY, SHEARSMAN BOOKS!

Happy to help celebrate with the publisher who helped hatch moi SILK EGG! Ahoy New Yorkers -- you are invited to:

CELEBRATING SHEARSMAN BOOKS' 30TH ANNIVERSARY
Celebrating Shearsman Books' 30th Anniversary - Free Admission!

Featuring the works of
Jill Magi, Anne Gorrick, Michael Heller, Nancy Kuhl, Richard Deming, Shira Dentz, Deborah Meadows, Elena Rivera, Mercedes Roffé, Mark Weiss, Maryrose Larkin, George Economou, and Joseph Bradshaw.

2011 marks the 30th anniversary of Shearsman Books, one of the UK’s most significant poetry publishers and one of the first post-national presses. Producing some 60 books a year, with many titles by American poets and translations in English that give voice to poets writing in Spanish, German, French, Galician, Norwegian, Turkish and more, Shearsman is committed to creating a global audience, and is noted both in the U.S. and abroad for its large numbers of first-book and experimental American authors of exceptional quality. This event exemplifies the diversity and excellence of recent American titles in the publisher’s catalog.

@ Bowery Poetry Club 308 Bowery (between Houston & Bleecker), New York City, NY
Saturday March 19 6:00-7:30 PM
Info:212-614-0505
mail@bowerypoetry.com
http://www.bowerypoetry.com/?#March_19

MARSH HAWK REVIEW IS FRESH!

No author bios. No editor's introduction. No prefatory contexts. The focus? Only what's required: THE POEMS. To wit, here's an announcement from Marsh Hawk Press:


Marsh Hawk Press is pleased to announce the release of Marsh Hawk Review, Spring 2011, Edited by Eileen R. Tabios. The issue is available at http://marshhawkreview.blogspot.com/ and features the following poets:

Barry Schwabsky
Rebecca Loudon
Michael Leong
Anne Gorrick
Guillermo Parra
Susan M. Schultz
Bruce Covey
Lynn Behrendt
Mark Lamoreaux
Sheila Murphy
Jon Curley
Tamiko Beyer
Paul Pines
Jean Vengua
Mark Young
Aileen Ibardaloza
Daniel Morris
Anny Ballardini

Marsh Hawk Review is an online poetry journal sponsored by the Marsh Hawk Press collective. Marsh Hawk Review will appear twice a year, under the revolving editorship of collective members. Each issue will offer a selection of poems solicited by the editor, in addition to new work posted by poets in the collective.

More information about Marsh Hawk Press is available at http://marshhawkpress.org/ and http://www.mhpress.blogspot.com/

HAPPY CUMPLEANOS!

The weekend was all for Michael. We threw an early 15th Birthday Party for him, involving having over his 8th grade classmates. Here is El Guapo, before two ice cream cakes, one of which says "Happy Birthday' and the other "Feliz Cumpleanos". Smart idea, you say? Sure -- but it's only because I and the hubby couldn't get our act together to get a custom-ordered cake and the store-ready ones didn't suffice to serve 40 so I had to buy two before getting onto the smart idea to say the birthday wishes in his two languages. Yep -- genius, often forged in coincidence or just plain messing up (the latter being key to creating moiself, or not, as a "domestic goddess").



Anyway, here are my other recent relishes, or my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Nota Bene: if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects:

PUBLICATIONS
TO DELITE AND INSTRUCT, poems by Catherine Daly (at times romantic but always fun and intelligent -- I wish the peep who took Galatea Resurrects' review copy -- you know who you are! -- would return the review copy if he's not going to review it: it deserves to be reviewed!)

DEAR LIA, "prose event" by Eileen Myles

BODY OF WORDS: PERFORMANCE TEXTS, "prose event" by Alexamdra Beller, Lauren Nicole Nixon, Rosamond S. King, Sally Silvers

(A POEM-ESSAY, OR PRECURSON: NOTES: FOR A NOVEL: BAN EN BANLIEUES), "prose event" by Bhanu Kapil

UNTITLED #5, "prose event" by Vanessa Place

WORDS IN REVERSE, a "piece for a string ensemble" by Laurie Anderson (works as prose poetry to me -- and fabulous! Thanks McCrary!)

* STARTLING, poems by Andrea Selch (nicely done!)

DRAFT 43: GAP, poems by Rachel Blau DuPlessis

RUMOR, poems by Elizabeth Robinson

FROM : EAR SAY, poems by Barbara Cole

CHAPTER & VERSE: POEMS OF JEWISH IDENTITY by Dan Bellm, rose Black, Chana Bloch, Rafaella Del Bourgo, Margaret Kaufman, Jacqueline Kudler, Melanie Maier, Murray Silverstein, Susan Terris and Sim Warkov (the most effective project of "identity poems and poetics" that I've recently read--well done!)

* PRESENT TENSE, poems by Anna Rabinowitz

BLOOD HONEY, poems by Chana Bloch (wonderful!)

UNCENSORED SONGS A SAM ABRAMS TRIBUTE, poems, recollections and homages edited by John Roche

THE FOUR QUARTETS, poems by T.S. Eliot (ahem: that British-banker-turned-poet)

THE WHALEN POEM by William Corbett

I LOVE A BROAD MARGIN TO MY LIFE, autobiography in verse by Maxine Hong Kingston (ah well...)

WHAT I EAT: AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DIETS, study and photographs by Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio

STONE COLD, novel by David Baldacci

INNOCENT, novel by Scott Turow

TREACHERY IN DEATH, novel by J.D. Robb


WINES
2005 Sage Vneyards Veedercrest NV
2001 Henry's Drive Reserve cabernet Padthaway
2007 Teusner "Joshua" Barossa Valley
2009 Spotswoode sauvignon blanc
2006 Dutch Henry chardonnay

GALATEA RESURRECTS!

I wanna remind moi peeps that if you review for Galatea Resurrects, I am willing to post photos of your pets or other furry others on my blog as well as GR's. Hence, I am delighted to subject you to Jim McCrary's newest girlfriend, the kitty Fae who apparently lives with her brother Che in barrio San Juan on the east side of Todos Santos, Baja California Sur.



McCrary is just one of the many reviewers who are looking to make the forthcoming GR issue totally hot. HOT and FURRY! Deadline has been extended for the forthcoming issue, as well as set for the subsequent issue. CHECK HERE for information on how to join in the fun: engage Poetry!

ONE OF THE 9 BILLION PEEPS SPEAKS! WITH A POEM!

I received a poem -- a hay(na)ku! -- this week from someone I've never met but is a Peep who reads my blog. As far as I know, Amanda is one of those came across my blog for other reasons besides poetry, in this case, as an advocate for orphans and someone currently in the process of adopting a Colombian orphan. I'm going to share her hay(na)ku below, but before I do so --

receiving this hay(na)ku from Amanda Mason is so precious to me. For many reasons. One is my interest in making poetry part of the everyday lives of anybody and everybody (not just the lovely choirs already singing poetry's songs). I blog in part to add poetry content to the internet in the hopes that said content becomes relevant -- and thus Poetry become relevant -- to someone who just might e-stumble moi way. It's also why, though this is a "poetics blog," I don't separate out my other interests from this blog (and not just because my poetics is all-encompassing over my interests). So when Amanda's reading of my blog led her to use the hay(na)ku to renew her interest in poetry, I feel so blessed and grateful. I've always considered the hay(na)ku an inviting form, as well as a form of invitation to Poetry. How lovely to see it play out through the following --

Spanglish

Mamå
Tengo hungry
Feed me words

Thank you Amanda! How wonderful to speculate on this hay(na)ku tale's role in your adoption of Jhonatan! May that go well...!

...and Jhonathan would be one more chipped off that estimate of orphans worldwide: 147 Million.

HAY(NA)KU YOUR WAY OVER HERE!

Here's a call from Benjamin C. Krause, publisher of Diamond Point Press (nice name for that press!) for your short forms ... and India!

twenty20 Journal is now calling for submissions for three themed Summer 2011 issues of twenty20 Journal. For Summer 2011 Issue 1, we are solely looking for visual art--the rest is being solicited. Send 2+ pieces of minimalist visual art to submissions@twenty20journal.com. Read below for details on Issue 2 and Issue 3.

Summer 2011 Issue 2: Form
Summer 2011 Issue 2 is devoted to short formal poetry, all short formal poetry (except haiku), and nothing but short formal poetry. No fiction, freeverse poetry, or prose poetry is being considered for this issue. What we are considering are visual art, and poetry in forms like tanka, senryu, Fibs, hay(na)ku, quincouplets, cinquains, single closed heroic couplets, or even your own invented forms. For more information, go to http://twenty20journal.com/submit/summer-2011-issue-2-form/


Summer 2011 Issue 3: All-India
We are VERY proud to announce that Summer 2011 Issue 3 will be devoted to writers from India. By "writers from India" we mean writers with Indian citizenship, whether they currently live in India or abroad. We are even more proud to announce that it will be guest edited by Aju Mukhopadhyay, a renowned poet, critic, essayist, biographer, feature and fiction writer in Bengali and English. Submissions will be considered in any language as always as long as an English translation is provided. For more information, go to http://twenty20journal.com/submit/summer-2011-issue-3-india/

THE NEED FOR CONCEPTUAL ART

Am mired in high school preparations for Michael. With a change: application deadlines and interviews are past. What's going on now is that the hubby and I are the ones going to the two possible high school candidates and grilling having a conversation with them on what they will be able to offer a student like Michael.

During one of the grillings conversations which took place yesterday, the Admissions Director said something I made sure to repeat to Michael, then thought to share with you, e-world: "The two most important factors that ensure a student will be successful in high school are:

1) parents who care and are vigilant over monitoring their child's progress (check!)

and

2) if the student is a reader.

Got that? Good.

I will say, as regards No. 1, that I had this particular grilling conversation shortly after happening to read U.S. Education Secretary Whats-His-Name appropriately observe that class size is one of the least fruitful (and one of the most expensive) approaches that people are recommending when they're trying to suggest ways to improve the educational system. I agree. To paraphrase someone, perhaps Whats-His-Name again, I, too, would rather have my child in a class of 35 with an excellent teacher, than in a class of 20 with a mediocre teacher.

But let Moi, in such a brief blog post, not get mired in the politicized education controversy -- let me focus again on No. 2. Reading is not just about improving language or learning about literature. Reading is about helping the child conceptualize.

In a pressed-for-funds education world where the focus is on making sure the "basics" are taught, I don't see as much talk about this ability to conceptualize. That's too bad -- when we say education is the key to a (good) future, it's not about making sure one can add; it'd be about, say, the ability to protect a college or retirement fund from inflation or deflation. Relatedly, if we could get beyond being bogged down in how well a student reads, I suspect that there could be a larger role for Poetry in the classroom: honing conceptualization skills. One can certainly better understand the lack of fixity in (known) history, identity, politics, economics, culture and power by recognizing how language comes to be compromise(d).

THE VERY SHARP MARSH HAWK PRESS!

Moi beloved publisher Marsh Hawk Press has always had high standards (yo: they published four of my books, okay!). Well, now, their smart-ness has resulted in an Academy Award!

Okay, not an Oscar for Marsh Hawk, per se, but for artist/animator Shaun Tan's animated short The Long Thing. Check HERE for the Marsh Hawk Press connection! So good to be in such sharp company of less than six degrees.

THE SON SHINES!

Parenting expands a self! Which is a good thing -- before we adopted Michael, I was mostly focused on MeMeMe and might have believed the P.R. in the last post's reviews (grin)!

Well, speaking of parenting, this morning, we attended a student-to-parent presentation by Michael where he updated us on his schoolwork, as well as shared his goals for the future. I was very moved by the whole presentation -- he's struggled so hard in the past two years and puberty didn't help (ick). Anyway, here he is starting out the presentation with a book collating his progress -- please note his shirt: he'd initially come down for breakfast in shorts and t-shirt but then, just as we were about to leave the house, he decided to change to better clothes as he thought "this conference thing is important":



Then, here he is holding up a pamphlet that he and two other students had created in his science class. It was an introduction to solar power:



I asked which part of the pamphlet he produced, and he pointed to a page -- apparently, much of the graphics was done by the girl in their 3-student group. I jokingly-grumbled, "Hey, how come it's always the girls who have to do most of the work?" (you ladies know what I mean, right?). In response, Michael giggled. He's not giggling in this photo, though, because he felt self-conscious about my picture-taking. I calmly advised him, "Moms take pictures -- live with it, son."

In other news, we're going through prepping for high school. I'm happy to report that Michael got accepted to one of the two schools to which he'd applied. We're still waiting for the second school's decision, but meanwhile, Congratulations Michael! You've come so far -- in two years, you moved from from 2nd-to-4th grade, Spanish only orphanage schooling to 8th grade in a top-quality, English-only middle school. May you continue to fluourish! As the bio of you is entitled, SON SHINE!

SLAP! AND HUMPTY-DUMPTY FALLS OVER THE WALL...!

So what do Whitman and I have in common? Apparently, we've slapped peeps across their faces! Or so the latest review of SILK EGG posits -- thank you, Mr. Zvi Sesling! -- over HERE at the Boston Area Poetry Scene.

Please do go over to check out that review -- after all, it's complimentary to Moi. Did you know I apparently employed in SILK EGG (and please note I never challenge anyone's response to my work) a technique similar to but more "creative and unique" than Rainer Maria Rilke's Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke (The Story of the Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke)?

From Whitman to Rilke, People. Now. Please. Let this blog post result in just one -- JUST ONE, PEOPLE! -- sale of SILK EGG. Here's a hint: I discovered just the other day that SILK EGG's price on The Book Depository might be the lowest price available out there, in part because they ship free worldwide! That's right -- you Peeps in the Philippines or Finland or Vanuatu, Saint Pierre And Miquelon, or even Comoros: free shipping worldwide! Ye Americans, natch, can get with it, too!

Just one sale. For just one sale of a poet's book, I am cheerfully willing to be cheerfully shameless. Indeed, here are those who've engaged publicly to date with SILK EGG--don't you want to know why they go at times over the top, causing Moi to go over the top!!

Zvi A. Sesling, Boston Area Poetry Scene, March 2, 2011

Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews, Feb. 21, 2011

Jean Vengua, JEAN VENGUA, Jan. 30, 2011 and Feb. 6, 2011

Leny M. Strobel, Kathang Pinay, Feb. 1, 2011

Allen Bramhall, Tributary, Jan. 14, 2011

Now, someone: bite! Geezus, it's exhausting selling a poet's book. EXHAUSTING!

Kerplunk & Crash!

GALATEA RESURRECTS

It's March! And so I'm gently reminding y'all that the next review deadline for Galatea Resurrects is March 15. Please do send in your reviews -- based on the 30 reviews I've received so far for the upcoming GR #16 issue, your writings will be in great company!

If you need a few extra days to complete your review, just let Moi know at GalateaTen@aol.com

Meanwhile, please continue to check GR's list of available review copies. There's a lot of good stuff in there. And the next review deadline following March probably will be in November so you'll have plenty of time -- an entire summer vacation! -- to engage with a poetry book ... or two ... or more!

WHAT'S ON MOI DESK #2

It's a sign of the times that what's probably on one's computer desktop is way more interesting than what's physically on the non-virtual desk. If you go HERE, you can glean how crowded my computer desktop is, after I've cleaned it up! Well, anyhoo, have just posted second post of WHAT'S ON MOI DESK. Those who like gazing at my navel can go there...