ALMOST THERE

Conjuration List Poem

St. Helena
San Francisco
Stanford
Los Angeles
Atlanta
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Manila
Santo Tomas
Vigan
Galimuyod
Vigan
Santo Tomas
Manila
San Francisco
St. Helena
Calistoga
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
Napa City
St. Helena
New York
San Francisco
Internet for "20 Hour Course"
St. Helena
Manila
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Napa City
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Los Angeles
SOUTH AMERICA
Los Angeles
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
New York
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
New York
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Los Angeles
[SOUTH AMERICA]
Los Angeles
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
San Francisco
FORTHCOMING: SOUTH AMERICA

THIS ISN'T A WARNING; IT'S A PROMISE

My trip to South America is off for now. Someday, when I finally get to rule the universe, a lot of people are going to be sorry.

Hopefully, I go early next year to finish up some VERY. IMPORTANT. BUSINESS.

But even so, when I finally don my diamond-dripping crown and raise my diamond-studded sword and flap my diamond-dotted wings as Empress of the Universe, A. LOT. OF. PEOPLE. ARE. GOING. TO. BE. SORRY.

VERY. SORRY.

Meanwhile, I replaced my eyeglasses with contacts yesterday. My eye prescription is over five years old because, on certain matters, I'm just lazy. So, who'da thunk? I don't know whether it's the new prescription or the switch to contacts, but with my new contacts, the world is larger. That is, everything is larger than I'd been seeing them through my old glasses.

Which is to say, I was SHOCKED when I got up this morning and turned to preen at my reflection in the mirror. I AM HUGE!!! I am getting as big as the mountain! My wrist is a *)(*&)(*& tree trunk. (Fortunately, as I frequently tell "That One" with whom I just celebrated the 22nd, "What do I care what I look like? I'm married.")

Galatea is (also) a mountain and in moi poetic myth I am living out Galatea but did I have to actually grow in scale like a ... mountain?! That's the downside of wine: calories. But, no -- don't think I'm going on a diet. If Poetry as a Way of Life means Moi has to be a Mountain, too, well, I happily (okay, dourly, but still committedly) sacrifice Moi for Poetry.

And, Oh. Moi. Gawd. The dawgs are HUGE! HUGE! Did you peeps think my dogs were big from the pictures I occasionally post? Coz I'ma tellin' ya, I knew intellectually they're German Shepherds but moi babies always seemed like chihuahuas in terms of scale. Now, I realize: my dogs are HUGE! No wonder the sofas slump when they get on my lap....!

Well and still, it's all good. I think the world should respond to Moi the way I respond to my dogs:

                  It's okay--that only means there's MORE to love!

Besides, we all-ways knew Moi is Bigger Than Life.

SWAMPED IN THE SWAMP!

Dealing right now with ramifications of having to leave the country soon for approximately six weeks.

So if I'm ignoring you, it ain't personal.

More deets later.

MANURE POETICS

Until this summer, I and the hubby lived as bachelors, e.g. our fridge usually contained hordes of Diet Cokes or Pellegrino water. This summer, we had kids on the mountain for five weeks and I was responsible for feeding them. Gawd, what a challenge, especially since they don't like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which, needless to say, are quite convenient for plumping up a belly. So, fine, Moi took a deep breath and plunged into actually using the kitchen accouterments I'd previously considered to be "sculptures." And now I can, with some pride, say that I can list what apparently are my "kitchen staples" if I am to actually cook, to wit:

olive oil
soy sauce
pinon nuts
rice
tortillas
pasta
pinto beans
salt
garlic
tomatos
frozen peas
frozen pizza dough
vanilla ice cream
chicken (already roasted of course and from the local deli; I mean, Mom taught me how to roast a chicken complete with garlic between skin and flesh but it takes two hours and four different temperatures and Moi's not got the time nor temperament....)
Marie Callenders frozen dinners (the hubby and I once did a taste test of frozen meals; Marie Callenders is the best....)

As you can glean, I have quite a while to go before I topple Martha Stewart offa her pastel plaid throne. And, yes, no doubt pinon nuts would be an unexpected staple for Moi, but I've got basil growing out the gazoo and pesto is easy! And speaking of harvests, you can see some fertilizer in the books section of Moi lates Relished W(h)ine List below -- and I do hope to harvest the bounty from that shi....I mean, preparation, soon.

Which also leads to a relished wine list that doesn't seem to ever shorten. Because fertilizing and harvesting makes me drink.

THE CITY SLICKER'S HARVEST (to date)
12 Santa Rosa plums
50 apricots
68 strawberries
1,312 basil leaves
327 purple basil leaves
267 mint leaves
393 pinches of parsley
3 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 orange squash
56 tomatoes
40 green figs
2 green onion stalks
15 green peppers
8 Japanese eggplants


PUBLICATIONS
THEORIES OF FALLING, poems by Sandra Beasley

THE SELECTED POEMS OF HAMSTER by Carlos Blackburn

THE ROUTE, poetry/correspondences by Patrick Durgin and Jen Hofer

ACOUSTIC EXPERIENCE, poems by Noah Eli Gordon

SAVAGE MACHINERY, poems by Karen Rigby

TOURMALINE, poems by Dorothea Lasky

AWAKE, poems by Dorianne Laux

LETTERS TO YESENIN, poetry by Jim Harrison

AFTER THE POISON, poems by Colin Kelley

SUBSISTENCE EQUIPMENT, poems by Brenda Iijima

MENTAL COMMITMENT ROBOTS, poems by Sueyeun Juliette Lee and collages by Brenda Iijima

BODY CLOCK, poems by Eleni Sikelianos

THE HEAVEN-SENT LEAF, poems by Katy Lederer

WOMEN POETS ON MENTORSHIP: EFFORTS &AFFECTIONS, Edited by Arielle Greenberg & Rachel Zucker

HARD TIMES IN PARADISE: AN AMERICAN FAMILY'S STRUGGLE TO CARVE OUT A HOMESTEAD IN CALIFORNIA'S REDWOOD MOUNTAINS, memoir by David and Micki Colfax

SLUMMY MUMMY, novel by Fiona Neill

SCREAMFREE PARENTING: THE REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO RAISING YOUR KIDS BY KEEPING YOUR COOL by Hal Edward Renkel (sp)

PARENTING WITH LOVE AND LOGIC: TEACHING CHILDREN RESPONSIBILITY by Foster Cline, M.D. and Jim Fay

ATTACHING IN ADOPTION by Deborah D. Gray

RAISING A SON by Don Elium &Jeanne Elium

WELCOME HOME! AN INTERNATIONAL AND NONTRADITIONAL ADOPTION READER, Eds. by Litz Linzer Schwartz and Florence W. Kaslow

TWO LITTLE GIRLS: A MEMOIR OF ADOPTION by Theresa Reid

IN THEIR OWN VOICES: TRANSRACIAL ADOPTEES TELL THEIR STORIES, Eds. Rita J. Simon and Rhonda M. Roorda

FAMILY WANTED: STORIES OF ADOPTION by Sam Holloway

A LOVE LIKE NO OTHER: STORIES FROM ADOPTIVE PARENTS, Eds. Pamela Kruger and Jill Smolowe

FOREVER LILY: AN UNEXPECTED MOTHER'S JOURNEY TO ADOPTION IN CHINA by Beth Nonte Russell

THE ADOPTION SOURCEBOOK: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE COMPLEX LEGAL, FINANCIAL AND EMOTIONAL MAZE OF ADOPTION by Cheryl Jones

ADOPTING THE OLDER CHILD by Claudia L. Jewett

PARENTING THE HURT CHILD: HELPING ADOPTIVE FAMILIES HEAL AND GROW by Gregory C. Keck and Regina M. Kupecky

OUR OWN: ADOPTING AND PARENTING THE OLDER CHILD by Trish Maskew

FOREVER PARENTS: ADOPTING OLDER CHILDREN by James E. Kloeppel and Darlene A. Kloeppel

YOUR CHILD'S SELF ESTEEM by Dorothy Corkille Briggs


WINES
2001 Turley Paso Robles zinfandel
2005 Luigi Bosca Reserva Malbec
2001 Jones Family Cabernet NV
2005 Kistler chardonnay Sonoma Valley
2005 Donnhoff Niederhauser Hermannshohle riesling auslese
2001 Etienne Sauzet Montrachet
1990 Val Sotillo Gran Reserva
2006 D.R. Stephens chardonnay
2004 Dutch Henry Argos NV
2004 Dutch Henry chardonnay Los Carneros
2000 Dutch Henry Reserve Zinfandel "Galatea Bottling" (a Jerobaum)
1999 Torbreck Barossa Valley "The Steading"
2006 Dutch Henry rose NV
2000 Judds Hill cabernet
2005 JJ Prum Wehlenuhr Sonnenuhr Auslese
1994 Henschke Mount Edelstone Keyneton Vineyard shiraz 

THE BLIND CHATELAINE'S KEYS: HER BIOGRAPHY THROUGH YOUR POETICS

[Hay, naku! New Poetic Form Alert!]

Something I picked up from certain visual artists -- you can either maximize your number of exhibitions or make sure that each individual exhibition is different from each other. Moi, of course, wants it both ways. One way to facilitate obscurity in the poetry world is to serve up books that make a poet difficult to categorize. Once fame is acknowledged (acknowledged in a nano-second) as irrelevant in poetry, I just put out those books as quickly as I can as long as each book hits my own publish-able threshold. I mention "fame" here as some poet has "helpfully" suggested that I'd be more famous if I didn't publish so many books and so gave time to poetry's (presumed) limited audience to take in my output. Well, F*(&)(*&k That Shite!, the Chatelaine thinks even as she smiles sweetly at that censoring peep.

So, anyway, my one-of-three forthcoming books, THE BLIND CHATELAINE'S KEYS: Her Biography Through Your Poetics, hits several of my markers for publication, not just for expanding the notion of narrative arc to disrupt the form of biography; it also introduces a new poetic form: the haybun. Ye hay(na)ku lovers should get it -- it's like Basho's "haibun" except it utilizes the hay(na)ku instead of haiku. And, significantly, the haybun is more flexible/open, insofar as the hay(na)ku is less formally strict than the haiku.

Last but not least, while the book can be considered a poet's poetry project for its direct address of form, the book's social concern is not, one hopes, egocentric (heh: not egocentric though it's a biography) or, ahem, fame-centered. This collection addresses a matter close to my heart and my veins: the plight of orphans worldwide, estimated as high as 200 million. I hope that when it comes out from BlazeVox Books, you will be interested in going through its pages. A book description (for once, I care about "blurbs", per this one blurb in it) is featured below:

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Blind Chatelaine’s Keys takes its impetus from three impossibilities: (i) biography (and autobiography)—something is always left out, (ii) artistic criticism—the critic’s subjectivity inevitably comes to play, and (iii) pure persona in poems—the poet’s self remains a presence no matter how much a poet may wish to disrupt the “I”.

Eileen R. Tabios, known as “Chatelaine” in poetry blogland, uses others’ criticisms and engagements of her writings to create a narrative arc that serves as a biography. Since the biography is based (mostly) on her poems, it conceptually pushes the idea summed up by Ted Berrigan: “there is a self inside almost all of the poems”.

The Blind Chatelaine’s Keys is also a poetics, but laid out by others based on Tabios’ poems. Not only is this ideal as one doesn’t want to apply proscriptive paradigms on art, but, according to Tabios, it reflects the way of “Kapwa”—a Filipino cultural concept of interconnectedness whereby other people are not “others” but part of what one is. The featured critical engagements were also chosen for what the reviews say about their authors. The results address the Chatelaine’s core poetics: while Rimbaud says, “I is Another,” the Chatelaine cheerfully notes, “Moi is all about Toi.”

When Tabios finally speaks for herself—it is to inaugurate a new poetic form: the “haybun.” While this form is inspired by the “haibun” associated with Basho, the “haybun” relies on the “hay(na)ku”. The “hay(na)ku” is an earlier invention by Tabios which has become a popular 21st century form, undertaken by numerous poets worldwide. Through the haybun, Tabios offers a memoir of a failed adoption attempt, “Looking for M.”, has been praised by adoption professionals, including:

“‘Looking for M.’ is not just deeply moving but also educational about one of the most complicated difficulties in adoption attempts: reactive attachment disorder. Eileen Tabios also reveals her psychic wounds to educate the public about the potentially dire consequences of orphanhood. M.’s story is the story of so many orphans whose interior lives are often invisible. Ms. Tabios gives them a voice through poems I read over and over, saddened that the emotions I feel become physical.”
—Sherrell J. Goolsby, Executive Director of World Child International

GARDENING POETICS, THE MOI WAY

I'm actually attempting a major, as in MAJOR, harvest as we speak (we speakin'?) related to ye olde Conjuration...Hopefully, someday, Moi can discuss in public...but meanwhile:

Groan. Do you know how many weeks -- months! -- it would take for this City Slicker to come up with Cornshake's Bounty HERE?! Plus my strawberries are mostly the size of the tips of my littler fingers' fingernails! Well, one just goes ONWARD! as Creeley once sez: to wit, here's my latest Relished W(h)ines List:

THE CITY SLICKER'S HARVEST (to date)
12 Santa Rosa plums (twelve?! pathetic; to date, the birds have gotten about 40...)
26 apricots
54 strawberries
813 basil leaves
327 purple basil leaves
267 mint leaves
300 pinches of parsley
2 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 orange squash
6 tomatoes


PUBLICATIONS
THE STRAITS, poems by Kristin Palm

NO PAROLE TODAY, poems and memoir by Laura Tohe

UNBECOMING BEHAVIOR by Kate Colby

THE DRUG OF ART: IVAN BLATNY'S SELECTED POEMS, Edited by Veronika Tuckerova

ONE OF A KIND, poetry by Jack Micheline

THE SENSORY CABINET by Mark DuCharme

WITHOUT PEACE, poems by Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal

KEEPERS OF SILENCE, poems by Luis Cuahtemoc Berriozabal

ROUNDING THE HUMAN CORNERS, poems by Linda Hogan

ITERATURE, poems by Eugene Ostashevsky

IN COMPANY: AN ANTHOLOGY OF NEW MEXICO POETS AFTER 1960, Edited by Lee Bartlett, V.B. Price and Dianne Edenfield Edwards

FOURSQUARE, Jan. 2008, Edited by Jessica Smith featuring Jennifer Chang, Ada Limon, Evie Shockley and Kate Middleton

FOURSQUARE, April 2008, Edited by Jessica Smith featuring Laura Elrick, Katie Kemple, Nicole Zdeb and Cathy Eisenhower

AFTER-IMAGES: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES by W.D. Snodgrass

HOPE'S EDGE: THE NEXT DIET FOR A SMALL PLANET by Frances Moore Lappe and Anna Lappe

FOR BEA: THE STORY OF THE BEAGLE WHO CHANGED MY LIFE, memoir by Kristin Von Kreisler

WALKING TRACTORS AND OTHER COUNTRY TALES, essays by Bruce Patterson

LA BELLE SAISON; LIVING OFF THE LAND IN RURAL FRANCE, memoir by Patricia Atkinson


WINES
2005 Pizzeria Travigne house chardonnay
Blankiet rose (no year mentioned; only privately distributed)
1996 Jones Family Vineyard cabernet
2004 Dancing Hares Vineyard
2002 Spring Mountain NV Estate red wine
King Brut Grande Cuvee Champagne
2005 Peter Michael Cuvee Indigene
2002 Jean Boillot Puligny-Montrachet Clos de la Mouchere
1983 Margaux
1978 Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill
1988 Ch. Filhot Creme de Tete
1977 Graham's Port
2005 Telegrame White Chateuneuf de Pape
2005 Les Monts Damnes Francoi Cotat Sancerre
2002 Vosne Romanee Aux Brulees ler Cru Domaine Michel Gros
2006 Revers marie Pinot Noir Summa Vineyard Sonoma Coast
2005 Marsannay Les Longeroies Vielles Vignes Regis Bouvee (sp)
1993 Yalumba Octavius
2000 Kistler Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
1996 Dalla Valle cabernet NV

HASTA LA VISTA (NUMERO DOS)

Still twirling about, unable to stay yet on po-blogland...as the Conjuration is still on-going (a stop-over in Hell is not just irritating but delaying). But in this brief touchdown, let me say thank you for

THIS (thanks Anny -- love being characterized as "could entice a critic into a labyrinth without escape")

and

THIS (high terror aesthetics, indeed!)

and

THIS (thanks for the hay(na)ku paintings, Tom!)

Let Moi also remind you please to consider joining the party over at Galatea Resurrects. Even as I'm a-whirl, I'm positioned to send out review copies which may interest you...and we've had some lovely additions recently to the list -- do check HERE for more info.

Until then, a catch-up on Relished W(h)ines:

PUBLICATIONS
FIELD OF MIRRORS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF PHILIPPINE AMERICAN WRITERS, Ed. by Edwin Lozada

LANGUAGE FOR A NEW CENTURY: CONTEMPORARY POETRY FROM THE MIDDLE EAST, ASIA AND BEYOND, Eds. by Tina Chang, Nathalie Handal and Ravi Shankar

LIKE THE RAINS COME: SELECTED POEMS (1987-2006) by Mercedes Roffe, Trans. by Janet Greenberg

THEORY OF COLORS, poems by Mercedes Roffe, Trans. by Margaret Carson

& PERSONA, poems by Mackenzie Carignan and photographs by Felicia Ohnmacht

ANON, poems by Chris Pusateri

THE DONNER PARTY, history in verse by George Keithley

IN GLAD THANKSGIVING: NEW POEMS by John Masefield

MIDNIGHTS, poems by Jane Miller and drawings by Beverly Pepper

POETRY FORUM: A PLAY POEM: A PL'EM by Judith Hall and David Lehman

BE THAT EMPTY: APOLOGIA FOR AIR, poems by Alice B. Fogel

2 POEMS FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL by Logan Ryan Smith

RED SHOES, poems by Honor Moore

A TEENY TINY BOOK OF WAR, poems by Sandra Simonds

GOLDEN LIGHTS, poems by Amanda Laughtland

THE MARVELOUS BONES OF TIME, poetry by Brenda Coultas

AN ARCHITECTURE, poems by Chad Sweeney

THE HEART THAT LIES OUTSIDE THE BODY, poems by Stephanie Lenox

EITHER SHE WAS, poems by Karin Randolph

GLAD STONE CHILDREN, poems by Edmund Berrigan

CLEAR ALL THE REST OF THE WAY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1987-2007 by Warren Woessner

SHINY No. 14, Edited by Michael Friedman

MIPOESIAS, MARCH 2008 -- AMERICAN CUBAN ISSUE, Guest Ed. Emma Trelles

PAPER TRAIL, essays by Michael Dorris

DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR: THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF MARGARET WERNER, THE ONLY AMERICAN WOMAN TO SURVIVE STALIN'S GULAG by Karl Tobien

THE PRACTICE OF HOME: BIOGRAPHY OF A HOUSE by Charles Goodrich (hope you're enjoying it, Jean!)

RIVER FOR MY SIDEWALK, memoir by Gilean Douglas

THE GRASS WIDOW AND HER COW: AN ENCHANTING ACCOUNT OF COUNTRY LIFE IN WARTIME BRITAIN by Barbara Paynter

NORTHERN FARM: A GLORIOUS YEAR ON A SMALL MAINE FARM, memoir by Henry Beston

AN AMERICAN FAMILY, memoir by Jon and Michael Gallucio with David Groff

THE BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS: TRUE STORIES OF GINNY, THE DOG WHO RESCUES CATS by Philip Gonzalez and Leonore Fleischer

ANNIE DUNNE, novel by Sebastian Barry

THE RACE, novel by Richard North Patterson

BABY CRIMES, novel by Randall Hicks

FRONTERA STREET, novel by Tanya Maria Barrientos

THE DARKEST EVENING OF THE YEAR, novel by Dean Koontz

THE UNDERTAKER'S WIDOW, novel by Philip Margolin

TERMINAL, novel by Andrew Vacchs

WHERE TRUTH LIES, novel by Christiane Heggan

KILLER WEEKEND, novel by Ridley Pearson

THE LETTER OF THE LAW, novel by Tim Green


WINES:
1998 Finca Dofi Priorat
1996 Clos Clare shiraz
2004 Dutch Henry Los Carneros chardonnay
2004 Dutch Henry Napa Valley Argos
1993 St. Francis zinfandel Sonoma Valley
1994 Araujo cabernet Eisele Vineyard
1996 Araujo cabernet Eisele Vineyard
1997 Araujo cabernet Eisele Vineyard
2006 Araujo Viognier
2005 Peter Michael L'Apres-Midi
1998 Napa Reserve
1996 Greenock Acre cabernet
2005 Casseda syrah Sonoma Valley

BABIES--HASTA LA VISTA!

So I'm flying south for the, uh, spring! Should be back in blogland in mid-April or so, when this blog will present a new face. Until then, the grinning mugs of your Chatelaine Plus Dawg from their early days in blogland:



Love,
Eileen and Achilles

WHAT IS A MIRACLE

is that for part of my South American trip, Moi own Gura Michelle will accompany me....I couldn't have anticipated that! There are certain people in this life whose presence just makes the living flow easier. For Moi, that'd be Michelle. I can't think of a better bodyguard. She may be lovely but she wields a BIG STICK.

Plus she can take down three men with one hand (what do you do with the other hand as you take down three baddies, Michelle? Sip tea? With pinkie delicately pointing to the sky?)

Do I need a bodyguard where I'm going? Probably. I anticipate pissing off a lot of people when I call each and every one of them "Goat." Never will mistranslations be so dangerous...

*****

UPDATE: So, I'd wondered what Michelle does with the other hand as one hand takes down three baddies with the other hand. She answer my question HERE; but check out this excerpt:

It's always that hand that you're not paying attention to, that makes everything happen. In this school we concern ourselves with the masculine and feminine sides. In this case my dominant hand the right one, is the masculine energy, where I hold the weapon, my power hand as it were. The left hand is the feminine hand, the ones that guides, directs, manipulates and counter balances the right hand.

But in this particular instance, the knife, what we consider a feminine weapon at least in the way we use it, is in my right hand. The Female Knife, what we call what I'm doing, isn't the Psycho-movie slashing or jabbing that you see in movies which is more masculine. The Female Knife is hidden. And in this case, it is hidden and protected by the left hand.

And here's the part that I think will be the most fascinating aspect...Tuhan described these hands once not has male and female, but as mother and son. The Son being the knife hand is being fed and protected by the Mother, the empty hand. If you watch closely, it's this open hand that makes contact and feeds the baddie to the knife hand. You see this when my hands are relatively close together when engaging the baddie. The Mother feeds her Son. While not engaged with the baddie, the Mother protects the Son by hiding him. So you see the knife disappear behind my left arm often. Then at times, the Mother allows the Son to venture off on his own but always nearby. You can see this when my knife hand shoots to the baddie's throat and my other hand is left behind clearing the baddie's punching hand. The Mother still tries to ensure the Son's safety even when she allows him to venture off. After all, can't have a cloistered Son, especially when baddies are around. The Knife must do what the Knife was meant to do and the open hand must encourage and allow that for it to be effective.

The Knife Must Do What The Knife Was Meant To Do ... Uh hunh. Boy do I feel safe...

*****

Relatedly, I've just cancelled my May 1 reading in Sacramento. Sorry to those who've backchanneled Moi about it...but though I should be back in the U.S. by then, a transition period covering that time will prevent me then from traveling much beyond Galatea's mountain as a result of Moi Latin Passion...

LAST HEAD'S UP

I leave for South America this Saturday morning (yes dear goats and peeps, there's a reason why I can't identify which country). I'll probably be out of the country for a month. Perhaps some sporadic email access, but no guarantee.

So those of you with business with me while I'm on U.S. terroir -- including perhaps requesting review copies for the next issue of Galatea Resurrects -- email me while I can still do a mailing through Friday!

This is the last head's up.....when I return, this blog will have a NEW FACE -- even more shiny than it is now! -- to reflect The Most Important Thing I'll Ever Do ....and which required Moi hightailing it across oceans into and across three countries for nearly a year. I'm such a tease...but for now, a list poem:

Conjuration List Poem

St. Helena
San Francisco
Stanford
Los Angeles
Atlanta
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Manila
Santo Tomas
Vigan
Galimuyod
Vigan
Santo Tomas
Manila
San Francisco
St. Helena
Calistoga
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
Napa City
St. Helena
New York
San Francisco
Internet for "20 Hour Course"
St. Helena
Manila
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Napa City
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Los Angeles
SOUTH AMERICA
Los Angeles
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
New York
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
New York
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Los Angeles
===> March 15 departure to SOUTH AMERICA

HEADS UP #5

Okay -- looks like I'll leave for South America on about March 15, and will stay there for about a month. So, before my departure, the goals (insofar as goals relevant to blogworld) are to put out the next issue of Galatea Resurrects, finalize production on The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Vol. II, among other things. And if you have bidness with Moi, contact me now or soon before I go away to spotty internet access.

This is all part of making this Conjuration come true, which entails this in-progress list-as-autobiography poem:

Conjuration List Poem

St. Helena
San Francisco
Stanford
Los Angeles
Atlanta
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Manila
Santo Tomas
Vigan
Galimuyod
Vigan
Santo Tomas
Manila
San Francisco
St. Helena
Calistoga
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
Napa City
St. Helena
New York
San Francisco
Internet for "20 Hour Course"
St. Helena
Manila
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Napa City
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Los Angeles
SOUTH AMERICA
Los Angeles
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
===> March departure

Yep--this relates to the most important thing I'll ever do in my life.

"DOG IS MOI CO-PILOT"

I submitted to bird dog, edited by wonderful poet Sarah Mangold, in part because its title references ... dog, which made the pups Achilles and Gabriela hound me until I submitted. Well, I got Issue Nine today and, wow, what a lovely fabulous magazine with contributors such as John Olson (love his work!), Matthias Svalina (author of one of my favorite recent reads, the chap CREATION MYTHS), Michelle Detorie, Stephanie Strickland, Brian Henry, Judith Roitman, among others. So happy to be in it, and glad I listened to the dawgs.

Do check out bird dog, which is also currently open to submissions.

And now, off to Latin South for a week. Of course, I was seen off by ...

HEADS UP (#4)

Okay. Rather than go to South America for a month or so right away, it looks like I'll first go for a week, and then return there later for the longer stay. Don't know when the latter will occur, but I now have plans to meet with our Latin brethren from Feb. 9-16.

So those of you with bidness with Moi, talk to me through all of next week. Then I'm away/offline for a week. Then I return back to Bay Area to continue being on pins-and-needles for the longer trip that'll seal the deal down South.

Geezus I'm tired...

HEADS UP (#3)

I'm sort of in a one-week standby mode to leave for South America. But it doesn't look like I'd leave earlier than Feb. 9. Still here. And blathering. But WAITING. Impatient about it.

This is all part of making this CONJURATION come true. In any event, catch Moi here whilst I am still e-here...

ME A CULPA, AWP

I've cancelled my attendance at AWP, as I will be somewhere outside the borders of the U.S.A. instead, continuing this CONJURATION....which is currently on very tricky transnational terrain...

But, hey, y'all have a good time at AWP. And be sure to stop by the Marsh Hawk Press Book Table where you can wave at my books instead of Moi. Yes, wave at them. And if you want to buck the odds, you might even buy them.

CONJURATION, WHOOSH!

Was in San Francisco today as part of this ongoing Conjuration for what will be the most important thing I'll ever do in my life. And at one point I got into a conversation with the cab driver, and I revealed I'm a poet. See, I often like cab drivers -- they're game for conversation (I guess an occupational requirement if not hazard). For many people, to hear I'm a poet is a conversation-stopper. This cab driver excavated his memory for something regarding poetry, then mentioned that he'd appreciated the few poems he once read by a poet -- "name starts with R."

"Rumi?' I replied.

"Yeah, that's him...." he said with a grin. I naturally was pleased I guessed correctly right away. What does it mean that Rumi has penetrated households with otherwise not much interest in poetry? Oh, I think it means a lot ... but you all are smart peeps so you be the ones to tell Moi what it means.

Then, the in-progress Conjuration List Poem:

St. Helena
San Francisco
Stanford
Los Angeles
Atlanta
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Manila
Santo Tomas
Vigan
Galimuyod
Vigan
Santo Tomas
Manila
San Francisco
St. Helena
Calistoga
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
Napa City
St. Helena
New York
San Francisco
Internet for "20 Hour Course"
St. Helena
Manila
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
Santa Rosa
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena
San Francisco
Napa City
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
Sacramento
St. Helena
San Francisco
St. Helena

Make it so, Angels. I've done what you've demanded. It's your turn. Make it so, Angels. Make it so...!

CONJURATION POETICS

Once, I stepped
into a
story

I thought belonged
to me.
--from "Bailar o Morir"

No, nosy peeps. I don't actually have a "beach house." But what I do have is a desire for one. Combine that with a 1,000% batting average for poetic conjuration and ... I poeticize the beach house so that, someday, I will have one.

Oh, I know I will have one...

Poetry, like flamenco, is always about truth:

Flamenco contains Ten
Commandments. First,
Dame

la verdad.

This is writing one's reality: "...Poetry // as a way / of flesh-and-blood / living."