Valerie Loveland

Delusions, Etc. by John Berryman

2012-01-11T10:36:00.000-08:00

John Berryman is one of my favorite poets. The Dream Songs is one of my favorite books. I didn't like his early work very much, although I think it is technically good, I think it is way too dry.

The Dream Songs, Berryman opens up and the poems are unique, gorgeous, emotional, and very funny.

I was worried about [book:Delusions, Etc.|1402046] because I wasn't sure if it was going to be like the Dream Songs or the older style. Luckily, the poems were like the Dream Songs (mostly). The poems were in 5 sections. I didn't like the first section that much. There was a section of poems to famous people, like Emily Dickinson and George Washington that section was great.

There were even a couple Henry (the main character in the Dream Songs)poems in the book, which I was happy to see, just a few, just enough for a nice visit with Henry.

Berryman, as usual was very structured and I had to read each poem many times before it became clear, but he is worth the time. I wish there were more poems. I think I've read all of his books.

My favorite poems in the book:

Your Birthday in Wisconsin You Are 140 (at the bottom of the page)

Henry by Night

Washington in Love

No

Slow Down!

2012-01-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

My reading goal is kind of taking over my life. I set the goal to read 100 books this year and I am obsessed with it. I was waiting around at midnight on January 1 for Goodreads to open the 2012 book reading challenge goal so I could set my goal. The most I read in a year was 71. Poetry books are much shorter than fiction, so I didn't think it would be an issue to finish 100.

I am ahead of schedule, but I am doing nothing else lately, and I always have a feeling that I have to "catch up." Part of the anxiety is I organized the current books I have here at my house and put all the titles on Goodreads. I was shocked at my ratio of read vs. unread books.

So many closing bookstores, and great library book sales made it really easy for me to accumulate a huge amount of unread books. I didn't have a lot of books in the house before I could drive/get my own library card, so every book I had I read over and over, and there weren't enough books go on a shelf. Books are the only extra thing I spend money on, and it going to bookstores is one of my favorite things to do (another is going to libraries). Everyone who sees my house asks if I thought about getting an e-reader.

I haven't finished writing any poems yet this month. I feel like I might need to scale back my reading goals. I bet if I set my goal lower, I would still read the same or almost the same amount of books, but without stressing out about it.

As I was putting my reading list together, my first instinct was to pick the shortest books in my library so I could read more books this year/help out my read vs. unread ratio.

Very often, I will have an obsessive feeling about something and writing about it helps me sort of dissipate the obsessiveness. I am hoping this blogpost helps.

Miss America by Catherine Wagner

2011-11-26T13:15:00.000-08:00

Catherine Wagner's poems are not the most understandable, but I liked them a lot. Her phrases are funny. She mixes types of speech and tones in a pleasing way. I want to find more of her books, and also get my own copy of this one because I borrowed this copy from the library. I also feel like I need to spend more time with these poems to understand them.

The line and stanza breaks were not orderly, which suited the tone and construction of the poems. The titles were often poems in a series (magazine titles, or a title with a number after it).

My favorites in the book (I couldn't find any of these online! I found a lot of her poems, which are worth checking out.):

White Man Poems
A Poem for Sears Roebuck
This Land is Your Land
A Poem for Poets & Writers

I read two books about extinct animals over the weekend

2011-11-21T11:45:00.000-08:00

Swift as a Shadow by Rosamond Wolff Purcell

This is a good introduction to extinct animals. I wish there was more information on each animal, but this book is more about the photographs.

Rosamond Purcell photographed stuffed animals, some times in groups or in their storage/specimen boxes. The photos are so sad and beautiful, they are the perfect tone for the subject.

I want to pick up a copy--it is almost a reference book.

A Gap in Nature by Tim Flannery, Peter Schouten

I read this around the same time I read Swift as a Shadow. Both books are about extinct animals including photos or drawings of the animals and short descriptions of the animals and why they went extinct.

The descriptions of the animals were a little more extensive, but I still wanted more information on each animal. I think I am going to have to find an individual book on each animal to be satisfied with the amount of information I want.

I liked the paintings in this book, but I preferred the photographs in Swift as a Shadow because it gave me a better idea of what the animals looked like.

I think both books go together very well.

HalfLife by Meghan O'Rourke

2011-10-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

I've read complaints about how Meghan O'Rourke doesn't deserve all the success she has had in the poetry world, and I don't understand it. After reading [book:Halflife|3419397], I am a fan of her poetry. I think it's great! The book was an enjoyable read.

Her poems are polished and tight, the images were surprising.

I love the tone of the book, it feels menacing and uneasy like a dream before it turns into a nightmare. As I read the poems, I kept thinking that they were all true, even when it would be pretty unlikely. She is a credible narrator and I love when a writer can make me believe something that is not real.

I think her titles could be better. They are all either one word titles ("Spectacular," "Halflife"), or simple phrases ("Lost Sister," "Peep Show"). The line and stanza breaks are mostly not orderly, but some have regular line and stanza breaks.

When it came time to find O'Rourke's poems online, I had no trouble at all, her poems are reposted by fans on their blogs and on tumblr. I feel like her poems are some of the most "available" when I had to search for specific poems online.

My favorites in the book:

Inventing a Horse (Sorry about the ridiculous background on the website)

Sandy Hook

Checklist

Descent

Mornings Like This by Annie Dillard

2011-09-26T08:45:00.000-07:00

I was excited when I picked up this book a couple years ago, so I posted my purchase to my blog. My friend Rebecca said that she liked the book, but thought it was cheating to take something very poetic (like Van Gogh's letters) and make them into poetry. I didn't really think about that at the time, but after reading this book, I can understand exactly what she is talking about.

I really like the idea of found poetry. I also like when a found poem is an unaltered piece of writing that a poet took from another person and recognized the poetry in it that the original author didn't see.

I have a personal issue with a poet removing certain words from the original author's work because it is very distracting to me while I am reading it. I can't see the poet's hand in this type of poetry, and I spend the entire time I am reading wondering what the poet did and what the original author did. Did the original author write something completely un-poetic and the poet had to do a lot of word-removing, or did they break into lines something that was poetic to begin with? The ones I liked the best were from medical reports or manuals, because I knew those weren't very poetic, and Dillard made them that way. I guess it is just a hang up I have, which is too bad, because these poems were beautiful and I bet a lot of work was put into them. Maybe if I read the poems more times, I can see them as their own poetry.

This type of found poetry is such a vibrant form, I am going to try and train myself to just enjoy it and stop trying to analyze the whole thing.

My favorites in the book:

A Visit to the Mayo Clinic
The Graduate Student: Apects of the Tongue (I could only find the original source which is a medical book from 1828)
Building a Treehouse
Signals at Sea

Everything is Every Thing by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

2011-09-12T07:36:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine lent me this book. He thought I would enjoy it because the poet and I have common interests: trivia, weird history, presidential history, weird presidential history. I did enjoy the book. She is a slam poet, and is known for her dramatic performances. I do think I am missing something by just reading some of the poems, but overall, the poems stand on their own. I keep a mental list of poetry books to give a person who is interested in poetry but isn't sure where to start. This is on my list because Aptowicz is not hard to understand, isn't stuffy (don't get me wrong, I also like stuffy poetry!), and isn't prose broken into stanzas. I don't have the book in front of me because I had to return it, so I can't talk about the line and stanza breaks. I do remember her titles were usually very long. Probably too long (something I am guilty of myself). My favorites in the book: Every Winter, Everyone Thinks My Boyfriend is Elvis Costello (second to last one on the page) Insults That Only Work if You Are a Presidential History Buff (Last one on the page) Choke

Cloud of Ink by L.S. Klatt

2011-08-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed this book, but I feel like the poems didn't resonate. They were clever and elegant, there was a musicality to the work, but after I read them, I felt like I couldn't remember what the poem was trying to tell me, even after re-reads. It is hard to tell sometimes if this is me or the poet, but I just didn't connect with them, although I did appreciate the crafting. I felt like they were well written, but a bit cold.

About half the poems have one word titles, and the other half have great, complex titles (like "Semiconductors in the Breadbasket"). The poet uses a variety of line and stanza breaks.

This book took way longer than it should have to read because I wasn't that into it.

My favorites in the book:

Ovation
More Splendid
Liquification
Andrew Wyeth, Painter, Dies at 91

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2011-07-23T08:14:00.001-07:00

I'm so glad I finally read this. I noticed it was on a lot of lists of "best books" or "books everyone should read." I've been meaning to read it but my copy had a ripped cover, so I'd been putting it off. I didn't have to put up with the ripped cover for long, because the book was a very quick read.

The only good thing about my cat being sick, and me having to give her hour-long tube feedings is I have a lot of time every day where I am just sitting around and can't do much but read. I am trying to take advantage of this and read as much as I can.

The book is great, just like everyone says. I thought the main characters were complete in a way that makes me understand why people say the characters had to be based on people that Lee actually knew. I want to read more about Lee's life, and I was delighted to find out that the character Dill is supposed to be based on Truman Capote. Lee's writing style is friendly and engaging.

I do think this is still an important book to read, and when it came out in 1960 it must have been revolutionary.

The sad part is that Lee only wrote one book. I would love to see how her writing evolved over the years.

I am looking forward to seeing the movie now, which I have heard was really good.

Abigail Adams: An American Woman by Charles Akers

2011-07-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

Before reading this book, I knew almost nothing about Abigail Adams. I bought this at a library book sale because I wanted to learn more about the First Ladies. I was a little worried about my First Ladies project because I didn't know what to expect. I know a lot of first ladies accomplished a lot, but I wasn't sure how many sacrificed too much for their husband's careers, or just served only as support for the president.

I am so glad I started with Adams's biography. She and John Adams were equals in their marriage, and she argued how important it was for girls to be educated. She had her own opinions and was her husband's most important sounding board. I was surprised how much the couple was physically separated during their marriage, but it seemed like they were very happy together, overall. She was an avid reader and letter writer. The book included a lot of quotes from letters by Adams.

I saw one or two episodes of the series John Adams before reading this. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of it. I would also like to find a more extensive biography of Adams, because I feel like there is probably a lot missing from this book.

Some Ether by Nick Flynn

2011-07-14T07:19:00.001-07:00

I loved Flynn's poetry book about bees: Blind Huber. It was gorgeous, and didn't exhaust the subject, which often happens with poetry books that have just one topic.

Some Ether is also fantastic. I read some of the poems from this book when it first came out because some of them were on Poetry Daily. I don't think they featured the best poems. I think the best poems in this book are the darker ones.

Most of the poems in this book are about life with his mother, who committed suicide when he was young, and there are also some about his father, who was homeless. None of the poems were about who took care of Flynn and his brother after the suicide, which gives this book even more anxiety. I feel like Flynn brings me, easily, so deep into his feelings. So many people write about losing someone, but he wrote something new--I haven't heard these poems before. I feel so emotionally invested in these poems, I want to do research to make sure the poet is doing okay.

The titles are mostly one word or a short phrase. There are a lot of poems with "fragments" in the title throughout all the sections and subjects. The stanza and line breaks are not regular, which contributes to feeling off balance. There are gorgeous images, and good endings in the poems.

My favorites from the book:

You moved me through each room

Fragment (found inside my mother)

Visible Woman

Twenty-Pound Stone (This poem was posted as the answer when someone asked "What are some good contemporary poets or poems")

Moonwalking with Einstein

2011-07-09T18:35:00.003-07:00

I am very interested in memory. My memory is better than average, and it used to be a lot better than it is now. Ever since I learned there are memory championships, I thought it might be fun to do some memory training, but didn't really know where to start.

This was a great book to read because it gives just enough practical information so I could understand the processes of memorization, but most of the book looked at memory in scientific, historic, and social points of view.

I like hearing about the ins and outs of a group of people who all are interested (or obsessed!) with a certain subject, and this book brought me inside the group.

I also enjoyed Foer's writing style, it was fun and easy to read. He is good at explaining things, and making potentially boring subject matter seem lively.

Because the author did a lot of research on memory to write the book, he mentioned pretty much every book on the subject. Now I have list of more books I can read.

Moonwalking with Einstein

2011-07-09T18:35:00.001-07:00

Mount Clutter by Sarah Lindsay

2011-07-06T14:27:00.001-07:00

I didn't want this book to end! The poems were about some of my favorite subjects: extinct animals, history, explorers the North and South Poles, science. What I liked even more is the whimsy the poet uses to write about the subjects.

Almost all her titles were words or places I didn't know or understand but I could either look in her notes in the back of the book, or the poem taught me what the title means. I feel like the writer is good at explaining new things to the reader without a lot of explanation.

The poems are dense, and I had to read them a few times to fully understand them. They didn't feel hard to read--it was enjoyable to read each one a few times. The poems are full of surprises: striking images, unusual links and conclusions.

Most of the poems have long lines and stanzas. There are many styles of stanza breaks: some even, some not. Most of the lines broke on the half or the end of the sentence.

I like the first two part of the book more than the third, although they were all great. The first part has a historic feel to it, the second involves islands that the poet made up, called the Bufo Islands, and the third seemed like the poems were less linked to each other. I think of the last section as miscellaneous.

My favorite poems in the book:

Hasselblad Meteorite

Mount Clutter

Escape by Garbage, 1903

Mawson's Pie

Aram Saroyan's Complete Minimalist Poems

2011-07-04T14:03:00.001-07:00

The only poem of Aram Saroyan I read before this book is his famous poem, eyeye. I think concrete poems are fun, so I was happy to pick up this book at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival this year. Saroyan is kind of the representative for concrete poetry, or at least the most famous. I would like to look into the genre more and see if I can find modern poets doing this.

I zipped through the book quickly since there were just one or two words on most of the pages. I don't think all the poems were even in quality or creativity. The most charming poems really stick with me more than I thought such short poetry would.

My favorite poems in the book: (I am just writing the poems since they are only one or a few words; each poem is on its own line)

Typewriter Kittens

Shakespeare!

eyeye

nnausea

My Favorite Yard Sale

2011-06-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

There is a woman in her 80's who lives near our house that has a yard sale every weekend all summer.

She had been collecting things for years, and planned to open an antiques/collectibles shop with her husband. He was hit by a car and died while crossing the street 10 years ago, so they never opened the shop.

Every weekend she sells off the stock that was supposed to go into her store. Her stuff is way better than a normal yardsale, and she is fun to talk to and has a cute cat with double wide paws. Last year, we got a bunch of great books, old magazines, and the Eva Gabor Wig.

She opened up last weekend. I'm excited she is doing this again this year!

Cherimoya, my delicious new friend

2011-06-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

Kris and I have a project: if we see a fruit at the supermarket that we've never tried before, we have to buy it and try it out. As someone who didn't eat a lot of fruit for most of my life, I had a lot of fruit-catching up to do.

My most successful/exciting fruit discovery is the cherimoya. It has a green skin that looks kind of like a weird artichoke, and great big seeds throughout the flesh. The fruit itself tastes kind of like a banana, but better. After thinking about it awhile, I figured out that they kind of taste like banana candy, like banana Runts. However, it doesn't have the artificial candy taste, and is good for you--it's perfect!

I looked the cherimoya up on Wikipedia, just like I do with every new thing I become obsessed with. It says Mark Twain called the cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men." I can't disagree!

Running outside

2011-05-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Kris and I ran outside yesterday at the local track. I loved it and wish I could run outside all year!

The last time we ran outdoors was when we visited New Jersey last July and ran the route my friend Ryan usually trains on. He runs outside all year. I used to run on the limestone hills near my apartment in Austin, and I really miss it.

I ran pretty slow, but I didn't stop to walk at all during my two mile run. I think I could have kept going.

I like everything about it except I can't really tell what speed I am running, and the bugs. I didn't notice bugs at all while I was running, but once I started walking for my cooldown lap, they were suddenly everywhere.

Sometimes running is hard on a treadmill because I see the seconds ticking of how long I have left in my workout. I don't think I am ready for outdoor winter running, so I am not a total convert to training outside, but I am going to try to jog outdoors as much as I can this Spring/Summer/Fall.

Homage to the Lame Wolf by Vasko Popa

2011-05-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

I finally finished this book! I read a lot of it right before Poetry Month, and then I was so busy I didn't get to read anything in April. I finished reading it right away after I was done writing my last poem of the month.

Everyone from bloggers, to the person who works at the bookstore seems to love Vasko Popa. I can understand why--now I love him too! At first, when I started reading Homage to the Lame Wolf, I thought everyone was wrong, and Popa was getting too much credit. The first few poems weren't that great, but the weird thing about Popa is the poems seem to be great as a whole, the more poems you read, the more they build on each other. Popa writes all his poems in a series. There are usually around 7 poems in each series, and they are all very closely linked. Sometimes they are parts to a poem, sometimes they are individual poems.

Some of the series I like better than others, but I thought the book was very enjoyable, and even though this book was twice as long as an average poetry book, I wished there was more to read at the end.

I can't think of anyone who writes like Popa. Between the strange subjects, his style of writing, and his habit of writing in a series, Popa is unique.

The titles aren't great, but I overlook that because I like it so much.

My favorites in the book: (I am thrilled that when the poems are published online, the whole series is included. I think that is the only way these poems should be read.)

The Little Box series

Give Me Back My Rags

St. Sava's Spring

Raw Flesh

The DiMartino Method

2011-02-14T08:20:00.001-08:00

For years, I've admired my friend Joanie's systems for keeping track of which books she's read on her bookshelf. She takes gold foil star stickers (the types teachers use) and sticks them on the spines of the books that she read.

I decided to finally do it. I bought the stickers and put them on all the books I read. I was expecting lots of gold on my bookshelves, but once I put stickers on the books, I realized I've hardly read anything on my shelves! I have to get to work!

My poem about turducken is up at Snakeskin's food issue!

2011-02-14T07:58:00.000-08:00

Mine is in the "Main Dishes Section."

Jeopardy!

2011-02-09T11:23:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else excited to see Watson play Jeopardy next week? The computer is playing against Ken Jennings, who won 74 Jeopardy games in a row, and Brad Rutter, who won the most money on Jeopardy ($3 million dollars). I would be excited just to see Ken Jennings back on Jeopardy, or just to see Watson on Jeopardy, but both of them on the show is extra wonderful! (I don't know anything about Brad Rutter so I don't have any feelings about him).

Since Kris and I found out Watson would be playing last month, we've been taping and watching Jeopardy every day. Jeopardy is something I like when it is on, but would never go out of my way to watch. I'm glad we decided to record it every day because it is so fun to watch and guess the questions, and Alex Trebeck is a great, charming host.

Four poems up at the Scrambler

2011-01-18T07:46:00.001-08:00

Here's the Link!

I'm not joking

2011-01-09T09:48:00.001-08:00

I just found out that the local high school is is performing a musical called Urinetown.

A New Low

2010-11-14T18:20:00.000-08:00

I had to leave the room at a friend's house while they were watching Toy Story 3 because it was making me too emotional.

Kids these days

2010-11-07T17:10:00.001-08:00

Last week at work, a man in his 90's talked to me about his "lazy, no-good son" who he had been having trouble with lately.

He said he didn't understand kids from his son's generation. His son is 63.

My ratio is getting better

2010-11-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

I brought back 4 books to the library and brought home 3.

The issue was published last week and I'm still thinking about it

2010-10-24T13:20:00.001-07:00

The New Yorker cover last week by Roz Chast is killing me! We get the magazine at work.

The cover illustration is a man reading in a chair with an laptop in his library. All the bookcases are behind him, and all of the books look sad and upset that he is on his laptop instead of reading them. (Yes, I have empathy for objects.)

A lot of my friends have been debating e books lately. I like the idea of them. My main issue is reading on a back-lit screen really bothers my eyes. The Kindle took care of this but the iPad is just like reading off a computer. Another issue for me is I worry poetry will be one of the last genres that gets brought over to digital format. I might be wrong about this since there are a lot of poetry magazines that are published online.

I really do think a lot of people will be reading this way once the e reader prices are lower. I think it could be good for poetry, and good for reading in general.

I don't think anything will save books from people going on the internet instead. (Where I am right now!)

Here is the cover. I can hardly bear to look at all those poor, sad books. Aw, books, I'm sorry!

I was wrong!

2010-10-24T13:19:00.001-07:00

Kris and I were talking about Annie's hair after the movie, and I didn't think the actress was wearing a wig! I must have been in denial, because the internet is telling me over and over that it was a wig.

Another hair conspiracy: I suspect that they did something crazy to Sandy's hair in the movie. His coat looks like it was teased or permed.

My favorite part: when Rooster rips off his mustache and reveals he was in disguise

2010-10-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

I saw Annie for the first time in 25 years last night at Allison’s and Phil’s house. I loved it super much as a kid. When I saw Allison put the dvd on, I thought would want to make fun of the movie and my 8 year old self.

I absolutely, sincerely still love it! It’s great. There are extra bonuses to watching it as an adult: I didn’t fully appreciate the 1930’s fashions and sets before. I also didn’t understand all the jokes when I was young.

I even teared up at the end. What a surprise!

I’ve been humming the songs all day today.

You know where this is going

2010-10-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

My favorite used bookstore is Rodney's. I only found out it existed because a friend told me about a great bookstore that was going out of business and was having a half price sale to get rid of their inventory. The used books were already half off, and then they took another half off that, so everything was a quarter of the list price. Kris and I went every time we were in Cambridge (pretty often). I couldn't understand how the store was going out of business because it was always full of shoppers. We had to get another full-sized bookshelf because of this bookstore!

The store is two floors, has a great poetry section. I was pretty sad that I only found out about it after it was closing.

I went to Rodney's last week, and there was a sign up that they aren't closing anymore! So many people bought books during the sale, they paid off their debts, and can afford to stay open. The sale is going on for another month. I wonder how crowded it will be after the sale is over.

I'm excited! We're going to have to buy another another bookcase!

Double sleep

2010-10-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

I must have been super tired when I went to sleep last night because I dreamed that I was sleeping.

The Boston Central Branch may be the largest library I've ever been in

2010-10-19T19:41:00.001-07:00

I have a poetry workshop at the Boston Central Library once a month, and every time I go wild and get too many books. I wanted to borrow one specific book, and ended up with six books! I was looking for a seventh when I had to leave because they were closing.

Something cool: anyone with a Massachusetts library card can borrow books at the Boston Library!

Poetry magazine has esp

2010-10-19T19:34:00.001-07:00

I am currently reading Harriet Monroe and the Poetry Renaissance, which is about first ten years of Poetry Magazine (It is a pretty interesting read) and I got an offer for a discount subscription from Poetry Magazine. How did they know I was thinking about renewing?

Of Course I put on the Eva Gabor wig

2010-10-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

Cold

2010-10-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

Today marks the first day of wear fleece pajamas all the time I'm at home season!

My jerky cats broke into the cabinet and then the foodbag

2010-10-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

I caught them when I heard loud crunching on food. (I usually feed them canned and had this bag as a back up.)

Yard sale haul

2010-10-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

An old woman near my house who used to sell collectibles and books has a yard sale every weekend because she has too much stuff. This weekend was the last sale of the season.

Eva Gabor wig, new in box:

Star Magazine from 1975:

He should share his Pulizer with Elizabeth Hardwick

2010-10-13T20:38:00.001-07:00

I really like Robert Lowell's collection, The Dolphin, but it is kind of sad that my favorite poems in the book are the ones where Lowell took direct quotes from his ex-wife's (Elizabeth Hardwick)letters and turned them into poems.

I found my long lost ring!

2010-10-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

My first Christmas during college, my mother bought me a black and white pearl ring. I loved it and wore it all the time for years.

In 2005 one of the pearls fell out and I planned to get it repaired, but I was in the middle of a move from California to Texas, so I put it in a bag where I thought it would be safe. When I got to Texas, I couldn't find it. I looked through all my bags and boxes, and it was gone. I tore up my house about once a month looking for it for the next year.

I checked ebay periodically to see if I could find another one like it or a ring I would like to wear all the time, but never found anything.

Last week, 5 years after I lost it, I found one exactly the same except for the size. My heart started beating fast when I saw it.

The ring is smaller, but I can still wear it if I put it on my ring finger instead of my middle. I am not sure if I want to get it sized so it will be exactly the same as the missing ring. Even if I end up sizing it, I want to wear it for awhile. I missed it.

This first photo I took in about 2001. I was showing someone the scratches on my hand, and the ring just happened to be in the photo.

This photo is the ebay picture that went along with the auction.

Super Optician

2010-10-11T19:33:00.001-07:00

My hairdresser needed a glasses adjustment. Her frame was plastic and the temples needed to be bent. We used her hairdryer to heat them so I was able to bend them into the right shape.

Dinah attacked the poem I was working on

2010-10-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

Look at this cute picture we got at a yard sale

2010-10-10T18:17:00.000-07:00

I like how she has to hold her hat.

We still use paper charts at work

2010-10-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, when I am daydreaming while filing patients' charts, I'll start looking for words that have nothing to do with the name on the chart, like "poetry."

Recently, I was looking for a chart named "coelacanth."

Thom Yorke's The Eraser

2010-10-07T19:33:00.001-07:00

The doctor I work for is at a conference this week so I get to play the same album over and over!

I had to look it up. I had no idea which was correct.

2010-10-06T15:02:00.001-07:00

The editor of a magazine where my poem is going to be printed (Yay!) emailed me asking if the word in my poem was supposed to be "makeouts" or "make outs."

The history of poets lamenting the publishing industry

2010-10-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

I just started reading a book called "Harriet Monroe and the Poetry Renaissance- The First Ten Years of Poetry." It is interesting to see Harriet Monroe's complaints about poetry in the early 1900's. (She had a lot of trouble finding places to publish her work then.)

Here is Harriet Monroe's list:

"First. Leading publisher of England and America have told me that they "almost never" publish a book of verse unless the expense of publication is paid by the author when the book is issued.

Second. Editors of our most literary magazines state, in writing, that they can publish a poem of more than twenty or thirty lines, "no matter how meritorious," "more than once in a long time." Some of them say never, under any circumstances. And most editors are forced to accept verse from the standpoint of popularity rather than excellence.

Third. Prices paid for the few poems accepted are less than one-tenth, sometimes scarcely one-hundredth, what a painter or sculptor would receive for an equally successful work requiring an equal amount of ability and time.

Fourth. The poet who makes $200 a year through his art is fortunate. Thus he is forced to use up time and spirit in more remunerative occupations.

Fifth. If he or his friends raise money to publish a book of verse few buy it, the critics hardly notice it, and he rarely gets his money back.

Sixth. In short, the vast English-speaking world says to its poets: Silence."

The mystery of why it was written in Pitman Shorthand was never solved

2010-10-04T16:48:00.000-07:00

Kris and I went to the library book sale over the weekend and got so many great books. The most fun book was The Return of Sherlock Holmes written in Pitman shorthand.

I've been wanting to learn shorthand, and now I have a reason!

PS In the background on the wall is a mom cat doll carrying her baby cat by the scruff, and to the right of that is a Jean-Luc Picard doll, both were presents from my mom.

My secret life as a Star Trek podcaster

2010-10-03T13:23:00.001-07:00

I am part of a weekly Star Trek: Deep Space Nine podcast, and it is Deep Space Nine week over at the website, Secure Immaturity.

Will, who runs the site, asked me if I would write a poem about DS9, and I am always looking for an excuse to write about my favorite DS9 villain, Rao Vantika. Here is the poem!

Is is just me?

2010-10-02T16:39:00.000-07:00

Next in my reading queue is Robert Lowell's book "The Dolphin."

Does anyone else think it's weird that Robert Lowell's pet name for his wife Caroline Blackwood was "Dolphin?"

P.S. Haha, when I first wrote this, I wrote that his "Dolphin" wife's name was Elizabeth Blackwell. Her name was actually Caroline Blackwood, the wife before that was Elizabeth Hardwick, and the one before that was Jean Stafford. I can't keep track of the wives! Is it also just me that I can't keep the names of his wives straight?

This probably means I should make some time for poetry submissions

2010-10-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

In my dream I was at a truck stop parking lot, and all my index cards that I keep track of my poetry submissions fell out of their container without me noticing and were scattered by the wind. Strangers kept picking them up, reading the titles out loud, and saying "What is this weird thing?" with a sneer before I grumpily snatched the card out of their hand.

Here are the fake smile photos!

2010-08-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, my friend Betsy has software on her camera that can add a smile to an unsmiling person in a photograph. It does it on the camera.

Here is us, making sure not to smile.

Then here is the software at work!

The software even changed the shape of my glasses!

Creep Cam

2010-08-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has software on her camera that can put a smile onto a non-smiling face. We were messing around with it yesterday and it is so strange and creepy (and Joker-ish). I will try and get her to send me the photos she took so I can post them!

It reminds me of the Magical Realism Cameras from Achewood. (Watch out, Achewood is kind of pornographic in this particular comic.)

What are the rules for this?

2010-08-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

I just filled out a map of the states I have been in the US. I counted the places that I drove through, but didn't count the places that I had a layover but didn't leave the airport. Is this how every does it? Am I cheating?

This is a great quote about being a writer living in New England

2010-08-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

"Even my dog as we walk in the woods gives me the impression that he is familiar with the writings of Henry David Thoreau and is curious to know how I feel about certain of his ideas."

Charles Simic, on living in New England, in an interview with the Paris Review

Not many come with leaves

2010-08-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

I've been eating a lot of cherries lately.

I wish I could remember the poem I was dream writing

2010-07-19T09:16:00.001-07:00

Kris said I was talking in my sleep last night. I said, "I am writing a poem, and I don't know if it is real or I'm dreaming."

Seeing your own name in a title

2010-07-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

My friend Chad Parenteau wrote a poem about "me."

The cats wish they could turn on the air conditioner

2010-07-06T18:04:00.001-07:00

The cats have been lounging, very spread out with the hot temperatures lately. I got a flexible ice pack from the freezer and put it on them. At first, they acted like they were going to get up and run away, but then realized it was cold and sat there with it for awhile. Eventually it got too cold for them, and they ran away from it, but I think they like it. I am going to try again later.

Fireworks

2010-07-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

On Saturday at Nara Park in Acton, I saw the best fireworks display I’ve ever seen. It lasted a full 35 minutes. It was my first time watching fireworks in an affluent area. They must have spent a lot of money on their show.

Last year I was on a train on my way to New Jersey and Kris and I got to see a bunch of fireworks displays as we rode by a bunch of towns. That was pretty cool too.

The last fireworks display I watched was the Summer after I graduated from high school. After the show we walked to our cars and my sister started walking toward a flare in the road. Every person in the group (there were about 8 of us) warned her individually to watch out but she wasn’t paying attention and stepped right on the flare. It went inside her clog shoe (I also loved wearing clogs then). She yelped and flung her clog off her foot, along with the flare inside. She was okay but still has a scar.

Her ring finger is empty

2010-07-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

We call our cat Dinah, Miss Girls, or if I am feeling feminist, Ms. Girls.

Kris has messed up a couple times and called her Mrs. Girls. I love imagining Dinah having a secret wedding or running off to Las Vegas between snoozes and messing around with the fish tank.

I was the Jukebox by Sandra Beasley

2010-06-29T19:10:00.001-07:00

I group Sandra Beasley's poems together with Julianna Baggott and Aimee Nezhukumatathil--they write accessible poems that I really like to read. They are poems I would give to someone who wasn't into poetry, or someone just starting to read poems. They are straightforward, easy to understand, but still really good. I think these poets are great for poetry.

Beasley said in her book that a lot of the poems were written during NaPoWriMo. I saw a lot of them posted to her blog every day as she was writing them. I was so impressed by her poems, I tried NaPoWriMo myself the next year (I do it every year now. I love the weird poems that happen when I am forced to write a poem every day). In some ways you can tell that they were done during NaPoWriMo: there are a lot of poems with similar titles (The Piano Speaks, The Sand Speaks, The Platypus Speaks, etc.) There are also a lot of repeating lines in the poems. I am sensitive about repetition, and I don't think it was overused in these poems.

All the poems in the book are either one stanza, or are broken into stanzas of the same length. I think there is one or two that breaks this rule, but will have another orderly method of breaking lines (three line stanza followed by a two line stanza throughout the poem).

My favorites from this book:

Unit of Measure

The Piano Speaks

You Were You

Proposal

No air conditioning

2010-06-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

When it is hot, the cats voluntarily hang out in their carriers.

Becoming the Villainess by Jeannine Hall Gailey

2010-06-27T20:11:00.001-07:00

I read Red Becomes the Wolf on Verse Daily awhile ago, and I liked it so much I picked up Becoming the Villainess. I was really looking forward to reading it because I love villains, and I had heard that all the characters in the poems were women. I really enjoyed Gailey's askew fairy tales. All the poems were about various women or girl characters in fairy tales or archetypes.

I have seen these characters redone before but I like Gailey's versions--they have an edge. They talk like believable people. I liked how much variety there was in the poems' subject matter, yet somehow it was all tied together. I was a relief to hear all these characters who were always at the mercy of villains, or hoping to be saved by men have strong voices in this book. The women in this book are how I wish all those characters were written in their original stories.

The language in the poetry is tight and strong. There is not any fat to trim. The stanza breaks were pretty orderly, and almost always had stanzas that were the same amount of lines. The lines were broken at the ends of sentences or the middles, usually ending with a strong word.

When Red Becomes the Wolf

Spy Girls

Alice in Darkness (one up from the bottom of the page)

In the Faces of Lichtenstein's Women

Hard Reds by Brandi Homan

2010-06-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

After reading Homan’s current work published online, I didn’t expect these poems to be personal (or seem personal), and I expected to see a lot more prose poems.

These poems are friendly and straightforward. Each poem tells you a story. Judging by the poems, I assume Homan comes from a similar background to me and it feels like I am visiting home. The poems are comforting.

I didn’t like the series of poems about red dresses called The Red Dress Centos. I think they could have been combined into one poem.

I liked her titles and they usually added something to enhance the poems.

The book is in sections, and I like the second section (Two Kinds of Arson) best. I know Homan has a chabook of the same name. I have the chapbook and plan on reading it soon. I also have to pick up Bobcat Country--I would love to see what Homan is writing now.

My favorites in the book:

Self Portrait in Blueshift (Bottom of page)

Ode to the Barycenter of a Binary Star (last poem)

Labrador

Put Your Hands on the Plow and Hold on

Black Life by Dorothea Lasky

2010-06-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

I bought Black Life soon after it was published in April. I was looking forward to it since I am a fan of Awe.

I liked Black Life even better. It is even more cute and charming. All the poems in the new book are at the level of the best ones in the first book. These are more complex, and the subjects change more in this book.

I like how Lasky isn’t afraid to sound sincere. I saw one of the poems in the book in The New Yorker, and I was happily surprised. Her poems have a cuteness to them that you don’t see a lot it serious poetry. It is one of the main reasons I like the poems--they are really good at being themselves.

There is more than one poem in the book about being attracted to weirdos (A favorite subject of mine), and the poet also mentions a lot of specific names of people. I haven’t looked any of them up (I wrote this part of the review offline), but I am going to look them up when I can go back online.

Her poetry is unique. You can identify a Lasky poem without seeing the byline. They are vivacious and seem simple on the surface.

Her titles are just there. I don't feel like they do a lot to enhance the poems.

Her poems are all single stanza poems.

The book has huge print, which I like because tiny letters strain my eyes. I also think the large print suits the poems. It reminds me of Lasky’s reading style, which is loud and seems “large.”

My favorites in the book:

Tornado

Me and the Otters

That One Was The Oddest One (more than half way down the page)

Fat

My Zorba by Danielle Pafunda

2010-06-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

I never answered the question: Who is Zorba? Sometimes Pafunda writes Zorba as a he, sometimes as a she. It is interesting but I feel like I should know the answer by the end.

The language in My Zorba is lush and creative.

She has a series of poems in the book that are letters to people and things: "Dear Grandmother," "Dear Debacler," "Dear classroom, no windows, two slider projectors, humming." I liked these, and they almost always included Zorba somehow. There are very few poems that don't include Zorba at all, and I miss him/her when he isn't in the poems.

I really like the mystery of the book, but I wish I could have decided who Zorba was by the end. I think I may be wrong trying to figure out who Zorba is. It might be one of those universals that poets use, that morphs as the poems require their subjects to. However, it seems like Zorba is so close, so specific in the poems, I want to know everything.

There were a few pop culture references in the poems, but there were not enough of them, so when a poem had a pop culture reference, it seemed to stick out a little too much.

The poems were broken into lines, but they looked like prose poems. Sometimes the stanzas were broken across pages. I thought this was a fun idea, but there were times I wasn't sure which stanzas belonged together. There is no table of contents, so I couldn't confirm.

Even though I felt like I was at a loss defining Zorba, the poems were beautiful, and I cared what was happening. I really liked them. I am going to keep reading it, and maybe I'll figure it out, or maybe I'll get over wanting Zorba to be someone specific.

My favorite poems in the book

My Sea Legs

Dear Pearce & Pearce Inc.

A Second Opinion is Sought (At the bottom)

A Parsimonious Holiday (Second from bottom)

I only go there a couple times a week

2010-06-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

The cashier at Trader Joes said that he sees me there more than anyone else.

The most!

Looking at cards at the convenience store while waiting in line

2010-06-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Cards for Father's Day

A large footprint in the sand next to a small footprint in the sand
An adult Golden Retriever and a puppy peeing on the same tree
A baby turtle riding on the back of a big turtle

Cards For Graduations

A kitten wearing glasses
A kitten wearing a graduation cap
A puppy wearing a graduation cap
A puppy wearing glasses
An owl wearing graduation cap
A cat with glasses and a graduation cap

If There is Something to Desire by Vera Pavlova

2010-06-16T11:03:00.001-07:00

I first found out about Vera Pavlova's poetry because I went to a poetry event in Cambridge and didn't know anything about the poet. She recited her poems in Russian and her husband translated the poems into English for the audience. It was so nice to hear her read them in the poems' native language, and the two of them had great chemistry and it was a great reading.

Pavlova's poems are short. I read the whole book of 100 poems in one sitting. Sometimes they are simple, but they are always thought-provoking, and moving. The poems are vivacious. I do feel like I am missing something by reading them without Pavlova here, but it isn't because the poems are not complete, it is just because hearing her read added so much to them.

This is the only book that was translated to English. I hope the book does well so they will translate more of them. I'd love to read more. I also look forward to her reading in the area again--I will definitely go see her.

Almost none of Pavlova's poems have titles. Her poems are so short, a title may be as long as some of the poems. I feel like a poet misses something important when they leave off a title.

My parents were virgins

I broke your heart. It is at the top of the page, just one line, after it says "translated by Steven Seymour".

Only she who has breast fed

Multiplying in a column M by F

The Haunted House by Marisa Crawford

2010-06-16T07:22:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to this book since I read some of Crawford's poetry in Action Yes (one of my favorite online magazines). Her book didn't disappoint. The poems were somewhat different than the types of poems that are being published by Crawford right now, because the poems in The Haunted House are all focused to the same subject: being a preteen/young teen. Because of the subject matter, it is hard not to compare The Haunted House with Karyna McGlynn's I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl: Poems (which is one of my favorite books, period). They both write about their (and my) teen years, but the main difference is Crawford has mostly the lighter side and McGlynn writes about the pitch black side. Both books are great.

Crawford's poems are almost all prose poems, which I think suit her subject matter and writing style. I like the prose poems better than the few poems that she wrote with line breaks.

I like Crawford's titles, just reading them makes me feel nostalgic ("And I Will Always Love You" and "The Cute Beatle"), or made me laugh ("Riding in Cars with Monsters" and "Yum, Poison Apple").

She uses a lot of specific names when she writes, and I feel like these are real stories and real people. Every reader wants to feel like they are watching something real. She has a lot of poems about Emily Dickinson (she is her descendant and also went to school in Amhearst) and talks about her as if she is a friend at school or a cousin around the same age as she is in these poems.

My favorites in this book:

Me Without Makeup

Valentine's Day

Riding in Cars with Monsters

Under the Evergreens

Difficult Farm by Heather Christle

2010-06-12T16:06:00.001-07:00

I liked the poems by Christle that I've read online, and her book was as good as the online poems. They are charming, funny. I wish she had another book so I could read another by her. She wrote about some topics that I was also interested in.

She has two longer poems in the book, made up of 5 or more parts. I often feel like long poems could be reduced or condensed into smaller poems, but I didn't feel like that about these long poems. Christle writes strong first lines and endings to her poems, and also interesting titles.

I have been thinking about stanza breaks lately, so I am going to try and mention them in my reviews. Christle's poems are all one stanza, with just a few that have 2 line stanzas. There is only one poem with irregular stanzas lengths.

My favorite poems in this book:

It's not a Good Shortcut if Everyone Dies

The Handsome Man

Acorn Duly Crushed

Onward and Onward

Torched Verse Ends by Steven D. Schroeder

2010-06-09T19:36:00.001-07:00

Torched Verse Ends is a fun book. I got Schroeder's book because I liked his poems that I would see online. His style of writing is unique--there is more wordplay than usual, and the subjects are about things that I don't usually see in poetry (video games, bars, pool). I like seeing something different sometimes. I also like when a poet has a style that is unique enough that I can tell who wrote a poem without reading the author's name. The poems are packed tight, without making you feel exhausted afterward, and are smart without making you feel stupid. They are friendly.

Another thing I really liked about the collection are Schroeder's titles. I think they are some of the best titles I've read.

My favorites from the book

Without Glasses (last one on the page)

These 3 are from his online chapbook, 90% of Everything

Fifteen Ways to Finish Fish (page 10)

Bad Nature Lover (page 6)

52 Pickup Lines (page 15)

Update on Brushing my Cat's Teeth

2010-06-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

My cats have eaten dry food all their lives, and have also been overweight. My vet recommended wet food and I tried it and finally (finally!) their weight is under control. The problem is their teeth aren't doing as well. The vet wants me to start brushing their teeth.

The directions for brushing a cat's teeth say

week 1: Lift the cat's lip and rub your finger on their teeth.

week 2: Put toothpaste on your finger and brush their teeth with your finger.

week 3: Brush their teeth with the toothbrush.

I couldn't lift the cats' lips until weeks after I first started, but now I think I am finally ready to move on to week 2. I am going to try and brush their teeth with my finger on Saturday or Sunday! I'll let you know how it goes.

The only reason I am making progress at all is because the cats are eating proper portions, and not hogging out like they wish they could. They are food crazy. I touch their mouths right before I give them a treat, and because they know the treat is coming, they put up with it. I've also been putting the seafood flavored toothpaste (Ew!) on the treat to get them ready for the brushing that is coming soon!

The Terrible Stories by Lucille Clifton

2010-06-04T07:58:00.001-07:00

I read a lot of these poems before, and I am happy to have an excuse to read them again.

Clifton was one of the first poets that I read that showed me that poetry was modern and alive. I read some of her Superman/Clark Kent poems. I was surprised to see pop culture references. She was a great discovery for me.

I also wanted to read one of her books because she recently died, and I feel like I am going to miss her.

The Terrible Stories is a fantastic book. I should have read it earlier. It is a great example of what makes Clifton a joy to read. Her poems are funny, surprising, and they are full of emotion. This book has everything that I love about poetry.

The book is divided into sections, and I like some more than others. (Her section, "From the Book of David," I didn't understand some of the references.) My favorite was "A Dream of Foxes." I read about half of the fox poems before, and was glad to read the rest of them.

My favorite poems in the book:

leaving fox The link sends you to a wonderful site of her poems, and this is the section with the fox poems.

scar (half way down the page)

lorena

entering the south

New Smoke Anthology

2010-06-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

I moved New Smoke: An Anthology of Poetry Inspired by Neo Rauch up on my reading list because I am going to a poetry reading for this anthology next week.

I know a couple people in this anthology and have heard some of the poems read before. I had also talked to some of the poets about the artist Neo Rauch before reading the anthology.

Neo Rauch is my kind of artist. His paintings are fun, and surreal. I am a fan of his work. I never would have heard of him if it wasn't for this anthology. Here is a google image search for him if you want to see some images of some his paintings.

All the poems in this book have the similarity of having a lot of images that normally wouldn't go together, and it feels like some of the poems have images stacking on top of each other, just like Rauch's paintings. The poems and the art compliment each other.

Rauch is a good subject for an anthology because the poets can each write a couple poems about his paintings, and the poems fit well with the artwork without being repetitive. All the poets were different enough from each other so I could identify which poet wrote which poem.

I hear the press, Off the Park Press, is planning other ekphrastic poetry anthologies. I am looking forward to reading more of their work.

My favorite poems in the anthology:

Marian Brown St. Onge's "In This Hunter's Room"

Catherine Shainberg's "Postcard"

Gale Batchelder's "Martin Luther Revises his Thesis"

Judson Evan's "Fog Mirror"

The Old Man and the Sea

2010-05-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Allison said that she would rather have her eyes poked out than read this book. I recently picked it up so I figured I would read it and see what I thought of it.

I didn't like it either. It wasn't bad enough to make me poke my eyes out, but I don't like fishing, baseball. I didn't like the way the narrator talked to himself, I didn't like the way he and the boy talked. It seemed like they weren't actually talking to each other, they were explaining to the reader what their relationship was, and their history. The style really annoyed me.

I usually like Hemingway's writing, but I just couldn't connect with this book. He is usually much better.

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery

2010-05-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror is the first Ashbery book I've read. I heard audio recordings of a couple of his poems, but never read any of his books.

Ashbery has a reputation for being hard. I see why! The first time I read through the book, I didn't start understanding the poems at all until about half way through the book, yet still liked them. When I read the book again, I understood it a lot more (but not totally) and really liked the poems. It is a weird feeling, liking poems while they didn't really make sense.

One of his poems "In the Tomb of Stuart Merrill" includes a quote: "I have become attracted to your style. You seem to possess within your work an air of total freedom of expression and imagery, somewhat interesting and puzzling. After I read one of your poems, I'm always tempted to read and reread it. It seems that my inexperience holds me back from understanding your meanings." And continues: "I really would like to know what it is you do to 'magnetize' your poetry, where the curious reader, always a bit puzzled, comes back for a clearer insight." I want to know the answer to this question too! I am looking forward to reading more Ashbery books to find out!

My favorite poems in this book (While I was looking for poems online, I found out that you can get Ashbery ringtones!):

City Afternoon

Fear of Death

Forties Flick (half way down the page)

Mixed Feelings

I Am Not the Star of This Video

2010-05-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of me at a reading. At about the two minute mark, the gallery dog sniffs the camera.

Factory of Tears

2010-05-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

I moved Mort's book Factory of Tears to the top of my reading list because I heard Mort reading on the Poetry Magazine podcast. I was impressed by both her reading and her writing.

I am still impressed after reading her book. Her images are very often surprising and she seems to write simply, but the poems are somehow heavy and they stick to you. They are gorgeous, even when their subjects aren't.

This book was translated from Belarusian, but Mort has started to write in English. I only heard one of her English poems, but if all of her future Enlish poems are as good as the one I heard/read on Poetry Magazine. (The poem is Jean-Paul Belmondo), I can't wait for her next book. I missed the chance to see her read in Massachusetts last month. Even though the drive would have been an hour and a half away, I am mad I didn't go.

My favorite poems in the book:

New York

Grandmother (4th poem from the top)

White Apples

On a Steamer

I didn't even notice the wings

2010-05-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

I had this book for a long time and just recently realized that the cover isn't a beehive, it is a bee abdomen.

Blind Huber by Nick Flynn

2010-05-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

When I started reading Blind Huber: Poems this week, I met at beekeeper at work, a friend on mine sent me a poem that she wrote that included bees--bees were everywhere.

I am so glad I picked this book for the 20th I've read so far this year. It was wonderful. It didn't feel like this whole book about bees was repetitive, or gimmicky.

In addition to bees, there were poems about a specific bee researcher, Francois Huber (yeah, he was blind), and his assistant, Francois Burnens. I love how the poems are from the first person's perspective, either from Huber, Burnens or each type of bee. It sounds cheesy, but it isn't at all.

I read a lot of Flynn's poems online when Some Ether: Poems came out, and I really liked them, but I think these are even better. It feels like he ascends himself.

My favorites in this book:

Hive (Third poem down. It also has 4 other poems from the book)

Queen (failed)

Twinned

Queen (It is on page 3 of this document. It is the poem that made me buy the book)

I still have a nagging feeling that I have a poem I need to write today

2010-05-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

I did NaPoWriMo again this year. This was the first time I posted the poems as I was writing them. I was on a private facebook group with a local group of poets. I didn't want to post them to the blog because some magazines consider them published if they are on a blog.

Because I was showing them to other people every day, my standards went up, and instead of spending my usual hour writing a poetry draft, I spent 2 hours every day writing my drafts so they would be good enough to post to the group.

It was great, I never pushed myself this hard during poetry month, and like more of the poems than I usually do.

Near the end of the month, whenever I saw anyone from the group we all looked the same: exhausted. I was having trouble sleeping (I ended up writing some poems about sleep disorders) and as I was writing the last (short) poem, every single line was a struggle. I was squeezing a completely dry sponge.

This weekend, I went on a bike ride (to the ice cream stand, ha), watched Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog with friends. (I've seen it before, but Kris hasn't so I arranged a viewing with Kris, Phil and Allison).

Immortal Sofa by Maura Stanton

2010-05-01T16:43:00.001-07:00

Immortal Sofa is another book by Maura Stanton that I am disappointed by. It is better than Life Among the Trolls but is not as good as Snow on Snow or Cries of Swimmers. There were some good poems in the book, but there were a lot of poems that I didn't like that much. I don't like Stanton's formal poetry. It seems like I am always seeing Stanton's prose poems (which are great) published in literary magazines, but I haven't seen any of them published in any of her books that I've read (I think I read four out of six of her poetry books). Stanton also had some tributes to her cats, and although very sweet, they did not reach the quality of her other poems. I hate to say it, because I love cats, but pets and kids are one of those subjects that the poem has to be extraordinary to overcome the subject matter.

I think I just have appreciate that her first two books are wonderful, and to stop comparing them to her other books. I own her two other poetry books and will probably be reading them soon, just in case they end up being as great as her first two. I can't wait to find out.

My favorites from this book:

Stare-e-o Vision Postcards

Nineteenth Century Animals

Pride and Prejudice: the Game

Ode to Pokeweed

Geography III by Elizabeth Bishop

2010-04-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

As part of my Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell reading preparation, I wanted to read some Elizabeth Bishop. I hadn't read very much of her writing. I finished [book:Geography III: Poems|125219] very quickly. There were only ten poems in the whole book. It was 50 pages, but the print was huge.

All of these poems were new to me. I have only read "The Fish" before.

I liked her imagery, and it seemed to me like the poems were written slowly and quietly. None of the writing is intense, or action packed, but it is enjoyable to read in a calming sort of way. There was a lot packed into the poems. I still haven't read that much of Bishop's poetry, but it feels like I read more than ten poems.

My favorites in the book:

Objects & Apparitions (This is for Joseph Cornell. I read a quote saying all poets have a thing for Cornell, and I think he might be right.)

Night City

In the Waiting Room

Crusoe in England

Life Studies by Robert Lowell

2010-04-18T11:28:00.000-07:00

I read Life Studies because I recently picked up Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, and I wanted to read some of both writer's poetry before I read their correspondence. I also read a lot of biographies about writers like Dream Song: The Life of John Berryman and The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston from Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath which mentioned a lot about Lowell, even if they weren't primarily about him. There is also Anne Sexton's poem about taking classes with Lowell as he was having a bout of mental illness. I felt like I already knew so much about him before reading one of his books.

It was really nice seeing where confessional got its start. My favorite poems were in parts 3 and 4 of the book, and I liked part 4 (the most confessional) best of all. The poems in the beginning were kind of cold, and the I felt like the other poems at the end invited me closer. I liked reading about Lowell's family, especially his grandparents and mother. Their portraits are vivid.

My favorite poems in this book:

For Sale (The "Words,Words,Words" at the top of this web page made me laugh)

Waking in the Blue

Skunk Hour (You can listen to the audio at this site)

To Delmore Schwartz

Homage to Mistress Bradstreet and Other Poems by John Berryman

2010-04-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

John Berryman's The Dream Songs is one of my favorite books. I was excited to read Homage to Mistress Bradstreet and Other Poems because Berryman is mostly known for his Dream Songs, and I wanted to see what else he wrote.

The book was not as good as the Dream Songs. I liked the Mistress Bradstreet poem (especially living in Massachusetts now). I really enjoyed the writer's unconventional relationship with his subject. I was impressed with his description of childbirth. Berryman also included notes on the poem at the end, and some of those were just as entertaining as the poem.

I really didn't like the poems included in the "Early Poems" section of the book. I didn't like his strict rhyming in these poems, the form really sticks out in an awkward way. I think his later looser forms worked better. He was also pretty traditional with the subject matter in the early poems, and it was a relief to see his style heading toward the unusual. They are also lacking his twisted sense of humor, like Berryman is trying to be super serious.

I liked some of the other poems, but they were mostly the "Nervous Songs" which seemed like a prototype for the Dream Songs, without Henry or Mister Bones, unfortunately.

My favorite poems in the book:

Homage to Mistress Bradstreet (I can't believe Poetry's website includes the whole poem)

The Captain's Song

Young Woman's Song

Song of the Demented Priest

(I am reading extra slow lately because I am doing NaPoWriMo.)

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy by Tao Lin

2010-03-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to like Tao Lin's "Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy," but he won me over. At first the poems seemed too casual or random, but I kept laughing at certain lines and didn't want to stop reading. He has a habit of using quotes around phrases in his poems like 'intense eyebrows' or 'you will never do enough for the people you love,' or 'i won the pulizer prize bitch' I didn't see why they were in quotes, but later, I thought some of the things he would put quotes around made funny lines even funnier. Half the poems didn't have titles, so it was hard for me to tell if each page was a new poem, or was continuing the previous page.

There is a ton of repetition in this book, but it is more like recurring characters instead of repeated lines. Half the poems are about Hamsters. Other recurring characters are Richard Yates, Bruce Lee, a specific obese person, a specific ugly fish. There is a series of poems of certain people/animals soliciting or not soliciting his poetry, there are so many of these characters headbutting each other. I thought it was funny that several of Lin's poems end with "I'll be right back."

The weird thing is, if I had to compare him to anyone, I would say his style is slightly like Aase Berg, one of my favorites.

I also have one of his other books "you are a little bit happier than i am" which I can't find, but when I find it, I will probably read it right away.

Here are some of my favorites from the book. I wish I could have found links to some of the poems about hamsters. Some of these links are from Tao Lin's own blog about the book, which includes the first 7 pages of the book, which I think is a great idea. I think giving people a taste of his poetry is a great way to get people to buy his books.

i know at all times that in four hours i will feel completely different

room night (second poem on the page)

eleven-page poem, page two

eleven-page poem, page four

Tristemania by Mary Ruefle

2010-03-25T17:01:00.001-07:00

I loved Ruefle's Indeed I Was Pleased With the World and Tristimania was great too, maybe better!

There were a lot poems that used repetition in the collection. Usually I don't like repetitive poems, but I really enjoyed all but one of them. The poem I didn't like was sort of double repetitive: each line was something like: I might____, I might not ___. It was probably the one poem I didn't love in the whole book.

Her images, and the ideas in her poems just strike a chord with me. Even when the topic isn't something I especially care about, I feel like she makes me feel like it is a very dear subject to me. Ruefle is letting me know all the secrets of a thing, I am always surprised when I read her. She is also a great reader: Here are audio/video files of her reading in Berkley in 2002.

There was a cute poem at the end of the book that is titled "A Poem by Mary Ruefle" which was written by Dean Young. Even though I think he was trying to write like her, it was obvious that it was someone just trying to imitate. Ruefle also has a poem in one of Young's books, titled, of course: "A Poem by Dean Young." I will have to track it down.

My favorite poems in the book (It is times like these that I wish I didn't have my rule of only listing 4 of my favorites from the book):

Why I am not a Good Kisser

Female Ruin (Down at the middle of the page, after some photos)

Where Letters Go

The World as I Left It (This is about half way down the page, right before the youtube embedded movie)

A new format for a poetry magazine

2010-03-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Has anyone heard of cellpoems.org? It is a literary magazine that sends short poems (less than 140 characters) via text message twice a week. It's fun getting poetry text messages! Even though the format is constraining, I like the unusual poems that can happen when poets put restrictions on their work.

Vera Pavlova

2010-03-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, Kris and I went to a poetry reading. On the way to poetry readings, Kris usually asks about the poet we're going to see and I tell him what I know about them and their work. This time, Kris asked about the poet, and I knew almost nothing. "Why are we going if we don't know anything about the poet or her poetry?" I try to do research before I go to readings, but sometimes I just go because if there is poetry somewhere, then that's where I want to be.

I'm so glad we went! Pavlova was great. She is Russian, and so is her poetry. Her husband, Steven Seymour translated her work for her book, and also for the reading. At the reading, Pavlova recited her poem, and then Steven read it in English. It was charming and they worked really well together. I loved hearing the work in the native Russian in the poet's voice. In addition to liking the reading style, I also really liked the poems. Here are a couple of them that were published in the New Yorker. I purchased her book and will be posting about it in the future.

There were a lot of Russian speakers in the audience, and I was thinking how rare it must be for them to hear poems in Russian, since they live in the United States.

What Work Is by Philip Levine

2010-03-18T17:11:00.001-07:00

Everyone knows the title poem in this collection. It's a great poem. I decided to read this after hearing this poem read by Levine on Poetry Magazine's website. It reminded me that I should read some more of his poems.

It is hard to write a review of someone as prominent and well-liked as Levine, especially when it is the old work that made them famous, and especially when you think that he's great too. We pretty much all agree: he's wonderful. He sculpted Contemporary American Poetry.

The only things I can say otherwise is I should have read this book when I was feeling a little less tired/run down. It made me feel more beat-down by the world. I also kind of missed having some stanza breaks in the poems. Levine hardly has any, which I think suits the poems' tiring subject matter. The book was exhausting.

My favorite poems in the book:

What Work Is (of course!)

M. Degas Teaches Art And Science At Durfee Intermediate School

My Grave (Try to ignore the person's notes. I couldn't find it elsewhere online. Sorry!)

Facts (at the end of their blog post)

Won't stop raining

2010-03-15T14:48:00.001-07:00

All the rivers and lakes around here are brimming, creeping close to overflowing. When I first saw all of them a year ago, I could picture clearly how they would all spill over and flood.

It was a creepy coincidence that my most common dream right before I moved to Massachusetts was driving off bridges into lakes, or roads flooding with water that I had to drive through.

Mice Live Among Us

2010-03-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

On the drive home from seeing Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, a mouse hopped out from under the car hood and ran around on the bottom of our windshield, then jumped back under the hood. It happened twice while we were driving. When we stopped and checked, we couldn't find the mouse.

It didn't feel as strange as it normally would because we just saw a movie with a couple of talking mice.

Given by Arielle Greenberg

2010-03-09T19:11:00.001-08:00

I felt like reading this book was hard work, and I had to stay very focused. The book had a lot of poems that I didn't understand at first, then read them over and over until I liked them. There were a few I could never figure out. I think this is one of those books that will have something for me every time I visit it. I liked Greenberg's connections, and images. I liked the way almost all of her poems looked on the page.

I liked Greenberg's use of blanks (as in, fill in the blanks) in some of her poems. It was fun to fill in the blanks myself. She also used very long dashes at times, in a similar way. I really didn't like how she used a scissor icon over and over in one of her poems. I felt like it was just a gimmick and didn't really add to the poem.

My favorite poems in this book: (I couldn't find any of these online! I found a lot of Greenberg's poems online, but not from this book)

Sea Legs
Foot and Mouth
The Apple-Headed Doll
The Alexander Technique

Vacationland by Ander Monson

2010-03-02T10:16:00.001-08:00

There is a lot of repetition in Vacationland, but I don't mind, overall. There are three poems titled Vacationland, one in each section of the book. The subjects of the poems and certain lines and concepts are repeated in different poems too. Monson's favorite subjects seem to be snow, scantron tests, axes, trucks, blood, streetlamps, ash.

There are so many elegies in this book. Most are serious for dead friends, and the others are for more general subjects, like luggage, or are love poems disguised as elegies, like "Elegy for the End of Weather."

I love Monson's titles, although it sometimes feels like they don't exactly match the poems. One type of poem he does that I dislike is a poem with bullets down the left edge of the page. Those don't work for me (I think there are only 2 of them in the book).

In poetry, I am used to snow being delicate, but Monson shows us the roughness of living someplace that is cold all the time. I like seeing this side of snow, especially since this is only my second winter here in Massachusetts, and it feels like snow will be on the ground forever.

Monson has some unusual linebreaks, and images. I like them. He is a lot of fun to read. I like seeing elegies done a different way.

My favorites from the book:
Outline Towards and Antidote: III
Synonym
What is Less Than Fire is Less Than X

Still Life With Half of Walter Mitty

Here are some sites with more of his poems:
Web Del Sol has links to his poems at the bottom.
Konundrum Literary Review published three poems from Vacationland.

Kris took the shower curtain down so he could paint the bathroom pink

2010-02-21T19:35:00.000-08:00

Mosquito by Alex Lemon

2010-02-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed Alex Lemon's Mosquito. His book deals a lot with illness, whether it is his own or his grandfather's. Even the love poems in this book have a bit of sickness in them. The poems feel like they are more alive in a way because the speaker in the poems doesn't take life for granted.

I think this book is something everyone can relate to because we all have or will have to deal with serious illness. It is authentic in the way it portrays a life trying to be normal and day to day while having something scary and serious always looming.

I don't mind that Lemon doesn't spell everything out in his poems. He leads the reader through the poetry with beautiful wordplay and lovely phrases that almost reveal what is going on.

My favorites from the book:
MRI

Ashtray

Portrait My Mother Painted from My Mugshot

Kinematics (the second poem after the interview, which is an interesting interview, btw)

Oh no!

2010-02-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

The problem with having a cat food can cover shaped like a cat face is you feel awful when you accidentally tear off an ear.

(After this photo was taken, I accidentally tore off the other ear! The purple cat doesn't have any ears now!)

blessing the boats by Lucille Clifton

2010-02-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

(at St. Mary's)

may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that