Yes, It's True

First off, I’m not normally this much of an exhibitionist.

I don’t believe this project is doomed from the start, but I’ve been wrong before. The last time B and I collaborated on a poem, we made it to about line three. Not necessarily a good omen. But with the nudging of a few e-poets, I convinced her that this public experiment would be fun. And, according to Dr. Phil, it would enrich our marriage. (Okay, I made that last part up, but maybe I’ll get brownie points for name dropping.)

I’m sure we’ll traverse quite the topical landscape. Since my B & I’s aesthetics are almost impossibly different in many areas, it should make for an interesting conglomeration of viewpoints. For example, I show her the contemporary poetry that I enjoy, and she gets nauseous. Then mention I enjoy Steinbeck, and she projectile vomits. (For a frame of reference, she prefers Keats and Shelley).

But, no need to unveil everything at once. I do plan to concentrate many posts on all things poetic, whether it’s acceptance / rejection info, where my poetry is at online / in print, books I have received, general rants about the po-biz, and poems / sites you can’t live without. Since I plan on using critique boards less and less, I hope to maintain contact with several e-poets whose work I enjoy and admire.

When surfing other blogs, I always enjoy discovering what other people are reading. I’ll attempt to reciprocate by listing what non-poetry books / journals I’m reading. Why not poetry? I’m pretty idiosyncratic about my reading: I often skip around in new poetry books for awhile before reading it straight through, I almost always skip the fiction in lit journals, etc. So I’ll just list what po books / journals I’ve received, and you can assume that I’ll eventually make it through them.

Currently reading: Amsterdam, Ian McEwan

Have read so far this year:

The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
Pure Immanence: Essays on a Life, Gilles Deleuze
Paper Machine, Jacques Derrida
The Illusion of the End, Jean Baudrillard

Po items received this year (or maybe the tail end of last year):

Contributor copies of Caketrain 4 and Cranky 8
Forklift, Ohio 15
Big Crisis, Nate Pritts
New issues of Denver Quarterly, 14 Hills, and No: A Journal of the Arts
Angle of Yaw, Ben Lerner

I plan to post a list of two of links when I get time this weekend to good blogs, po websites, etc. this weekend.

I hope you enjoy the grab-bag of inanity to follow.

-j