9-1-1 EXHIBIT AT LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

I'm honored to be part of a “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display now on view in the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room, located in Room L J 150 of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C. The exhibition runs from August 30 through September 15, 2011, with the hours of the Library of Congress’ Asian Division Reading Room being 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Actor and photographer Lia Chang posts a write-up on the exhibit at BACKSTAGE PASS. (Thanks much for highlighting my 9-1-1 poem...)

Anyway, here are some photos of my the exhibit and my contribution -- thanks to Curator Reme Grefalda:







It's always a challenge, IMHO, to exhibit a poem. Not a visual poem but a text-poem. I think it's great how Reme spliced up individual sections of the poem and then pasted them on a backdrop, evoking the collage technique that went into the writing of the poem...

A PAINTING

Though Moi hermits on a mountain, I am lucky enough to be welcomed by various smaller communities within po-world. From the publisher of Greetings Magazine, Jeffrey Joe Nelson, comes their latest issue and a small painting! It's got a huge impact far transcending its scale that fits within a mailing envelope:



Muchas Gracias por the aptly-titled "Quick Painting #30 'Narrows of Varrenzano: Bt/w the sea & sky'"!

R.I.P., EDITH TIEMPO

You lived a great life.

MOI NEXT RESURRECTION

It's been a year-and-a-half since I last did a poetry reading (funny: it's felt longer) as moi attention wandered elsewhere. Looks like my next one will be a bit of a biggie: October 24 at the Library of Congress...more details soon. But pencil in the date, why dontcha, you East Coasters or Those-in-Washington D.C.-on-Oct. 24!

SILK EGG MISCHIEF

Well, chuckle. I didn't think of that! To wit, the book description is longer than the novel! That's a nota bene rob mclennan raises in his review of moi SILK EGG!

That SILK EGG is mischievous. And, huh, wonder what it says about moi blather that peeps respond well when said blather goes minimal...?! Maybe you should read SILK EGG, too (hah) and see what all these smart people are talking about in their revoos--they present a rather pleasing, mega-diverse landscape of how one reads differently the same words!

rob mclennan, rob mclennan's blog, Aug. 22, 2011

Alan Baker, Litterbug, July 11, 2011

Stephen Hong Sohn, Asian American Lit Fans, June 19, 2011

Michael Leong, BIG OTHER, June 10, 2011

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

The hubby wants chickens. Not enthused about creating more coyote fodder. But I'm thinking about it more ... those eggs ...

ON ALTERING THAT SILENCE...!

I'm so grateful to be part of a new anthology which offers my first appearance in Chile: La Alteración del Silencio: Poesía Norteamericana Reciente, co-edited by William Allegrezza and Galo Ghigliotto (Editorial Cuneta, 2011). English translation of that title is The Alteration of Silence: Recent North American Poetry, and I'm delighted to be with so many poets I admire -- I understand Chile's main newspaper has already reviewed it favorably!

But I'm really mostly grateful because appearing in Chile allowed me to mention to Michael how another Spanish-speaking country has welcomed his mom as a poet. This intrigued him enough to drop the teenagish grunts to have a real conversation. It began when he quirked his brows at me and said, "I'm not sure how poetry and publishing works ....?" (Heh: join the crowd, son.) Anyway, 'twas a great conversation as I've long thought the kids were confused as to what exactly I do with moi time ... laugh...

Poets in the anthology are

Paul Hoover, Rae Armantrout, Charles Bernstein, Maxine Chernoff, Deborah Meadows, Tyrone Williams, Geof Huth, Camille Martin, Sheila E. Murphy, Peter Gizzi, Jennifer Moxley, Garin Cycholl, Roberto Harrison, Eileen Tabios, William Allegrezza, Catherine Daly, Noah Eli Gordon, Jennifer Scappettone, Linh Dinh, Gabriel Gudding, Anselm Berrigan, Simone Muench, Sawako Nakayasu, Tao Lin, Katie Degentesh

My poems were taken from my books Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole, I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved and THE THORN ROSARY. Muchas gracias!

HOLD THE TOMATOES!

Well now. Delighted to announce another jump in my Blog Peep Count: it's now up to 9.5 billion peeps (thanks, Mike, for the nudge over that latest "top"). No doubt, it's because of my Martha Stewart nature, for instance:



Yep, everything in above bowl was grown by Moi. Well, I suppose except the mozzarella cheese coz the buffalo got away. And except the olive oil because my initial harvest from last year rotted away. And except for the vinegar because I couldn't figure out how they grow on trees. And except for the salt because the ocean ain't local. And except for the pepper because the pepper bush erupted in flames. That is, Moi grew the tomatoes and basil. Which leads this City Slicker Farmer to post a new update to her Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Note that if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects (and we have just added some new faboo books to the review copy list). And I'm looking looking looking for reviewers to get books offa moi floors and to hit 100 new reviews for the next issue! Yeah! More info on that HERE.


CITY SLICKER SUMMER HARVEST
77 cherry tomatoes
11 regular tomatoes
28 red onions
2 strawberries
15 zucchini
43 summer squash
51 squash flowers
44 green beans
1 lemon squash
1 pumpkin (mistakenly and prematurely harvested upon being mistaken for an oversized yellow squash)
20 clumps of basil
5 clumps of sage
1 green cucumber
4 lemon cucumbers


PUBLICATIONS
THE GRAPE CRIES OUT! AN ANTHOLOGY OF WINE POEMS edited by David Alvarez (read it in manuscript. it's brilliant and fabulous -- and not just coz Moi is in it (really); it's a very fresh take on a somewhat traveled subject)

* FROM IDYLLS & RUSHES, poems by Susana Gardner

* LITTLE RICHARD THE SECOND, poems by Gregg Biglieri

* DEAR FAILURES, poems by Trey Sager (amusing)

* TRANSFER, poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

* THE HANDS OF STRANGERS: POEMS FROM THE NURSING HOME by Janice N. Harrington

* KINGDOM ANIMALIA, poems by Aracelis Girmay

THE ADOPTION PAPERS, poems by Jackie Kay

GORGEOUS CHAOS: NEW + SELECTED POEMS 1965-2001 by Jack Marshall

THE ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY: ESSAYS FROM THE OTHER WORLD by Kenneth Rexroth

CARLOS VILLA AND THE INTEGRITY OF SPACES, Edited by Theodore S. Gonzalves (this long-overdue art monograph with essays and other contributions by Margo Machida, Mark Johnson, Moira Roth, Bill Berkson, and David Goldberg will be Meritage Press' next release)

THE EYES OF GRAY WOLF, children's book by Jonathan London, illustrated by Jon Van Zyle

LITTLE PRINCES: ONE MAN'S PROMISE TO BRING HOME THE LOST CHILDREN OF NEPAL, memoir by Conor Grennan

I BEAT THE ODDS: FROM HOMELESSNESS TO THE BLIND SIDE AND BEYOND, memoir by Michael Oher with Don Yaeger

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION, novel by Marcia Clark (yep -- it's that O.J. Simpson Prosecutor-turned-Novelist. Ain't bad for the genre!)

FEAR NOTHING, novel by Dean Koontz

PRETTY LITTLE THINGS, novel by Jilliane Hoffman

A HEARTBEAT AWAY, novel by Michael Palmer

THE BEST REVENGE, novel by Stephen White

ONE GOOD DOG, novel by Susan Wilson

TO SAVE THIS CHILD, novel by Darlene Graham

SATORI, novel by Don Winslow


WINES
2008 Fog Dog pinot noir Sonoma Coast
2010 Sylvaner, Domaine Ostertag, Vieilles Vignes Alsace
2006 Muscat Lunel, Groff Degenfeld, Tokaji
2009 Muller Thurgau, Erste + Neue, Alto Adige
1997 Torbreck "The Steading"
2007 Peter Michael chardonnay "La Carriere"
2007 Ch. Paradis Terra des Anges
2010 Honig vineyards Sauvignon blanc
2008 MacMurray Ranch pinot noir Sonoma Coast
2004 Schweiger Family Cabernet Spring Mountain District
2009 Emmolo sauvignon blanc

YOU'RE INVITED TO PEEP AT THE SECOND PUBLICATION FROM 147 MILLION ORPHANS!

I'm grateful to Lynn Behrendt and Anne Gorrick for asking me to participate in their latest "Peep Show" issue #4 with the theme "ABOUT WOMEN 2"! Said theme is timely given the VIDA reminder of how counting occurs to note who counts, note the curators.

Anyway, I'm delighted to have in such a venue some excerpts from my ongoing project, "147 MILLION ORPHANS: A HAYBUN". Do go HERE to peep at what I'm currently exploring through poetry. Other excerpts from the same project are available at The Brooklyn Rail. I am loving this project because it's very close-to-heart, per the project's "Notes":

"147 million" is a common estimate for the number of orphans worldwide. A “haybun” is a combination of hay(na)ku and other text. The hay(na)ku is a 21st century diasporic poetic form whose core is a tercet-based stanza with the first line being one word, the second line being two words, and the third line being three words. Each word forming a hay(na)ku in “147 MILLION ORPHANS” is listed chronologically from an 8th grade project by the poet’s adopted son, Michael, to learn English by studying 25 new words a week.

LANTERN ILLUMINATES

Monica Mody offers a lovely review of Tamiko Beyer's bough breaks over at Lantern Review. Check it out--it's an interesting read, e.g.

These language-pastures seem to have once in the past(oral) contained the narrator until this instinct, to be a mother, escapes—pretty much like a protuberance—and causes a being-body to leak through. Queer desire is already a transgression, “chaotic.” By challenging the narrative that queer sexualities are non-reproductive, the maternal instinct turns the queer body excessive over and above its already-excess.

bough breaks seeks to interrogate this protuberance, this leaking, and its limits. It is fuelled by yearning: “will there be / between us a darling?” Yearning pushes through the body of the poem in the form of white space. Forms are invented to strike off authorized definitions of conception (biological as well as artistic), to prefigure the politics of a queer couple raising a child so as to question gender (“we would …. open mother to repetitions”), to consider how options for child-getting are often embedded in contexts of violence and capitalistic greed (and is there really a choice), to destabilize both the “natural” and the “not natural” in “queer” and “motherhood” (and sneaky iterations of everything in between), to circulate even more questions around adoption and embryo adoption (check out that play with “play” and “pay” on page 24!).

BACK IN THE RED

So, my prior car was aging and I had to get a new car today as befits moi new status as Future Carpooler and Chairman/ CEO of Two Big Dogs, Two Human Teens, One Hubby and One Abuelita y the occasional dos gatos. As it turns out, my new car is of (almost) the same color as from moi bachelor days. So here is a BEFORE-AND-AFTER comparison for ye 9 billion Peeps who track the telenovela of The Chatty Life:

BEFORE MOI BECAME MOM



AFTER MOI BECAME MOM



One could say Moi is boxed in, judging by above ... but the Poetry came through: it is colored RED, after all...!