Planting Tyme

Hello,

a short note - meredith and i are repotting our arugula, our habaneros, and our basil. do you guys want some? or, for the purposes of this blog:

a short
note--

meredith and i are
repotting our
arugula, our habaneros,
our basil.

do you guys
want some?

or,
for the purposes
of this blog,

the note repeats
with line breaks.

oh, just a good excuse to keep the old blog going.

j
ared

go kid go

boy, my kids are really kicking ass at kamp! every single one of them has written something substantial, and a few of them have written utterly publishable work. it's damn near breathtaking that these young ones are so young and so good. i think i'll make a collage poem of my favorite moments from each of their works - that might be really great.

The Embarrassment

Stephen and I had a good conversation at lunch today that was initially about the heidi lynn staples book i just bought (guess can gallop) and then drifted toward this somewhat nebulous idea i had about 'embarrassing speech' - i suppose it comes out of my love for duncan's effusions, but i really have a soft spot (let's call it a sugar spot, since the closest metaphor i can come up with for the effect is an overripe banana, and the question of greenness to yellowness to yellow and blackness -ie, hawkeyeness-) for occasionally bad writing, sentiment, awkwardness, failures of tone, that kind of thing. this staples character, while more directly conscious of what she's always doing, uses some of the most horrible puns i've ever seen - it's so fun and bad that i can't resist it. steve was, i think, unconvinced because of the problem of opacity that the book presented, and at any rate, i'm a bit faded on the actual content of the conversation and should probably let him speak ... i think we agreed that her book was a bit too calculated, but, that there is room for 'badness' in poetry - i can't really remember much right now though, b/c my blood sugar is low and my workshop is about to start.

anyway, i'm going to do a wittle weading for the kiddies, and a q&a and will read from the chappy booky - really, i'm such an ego(t)ist that this will probably be my favorite part of the evening.

wo ist einen kau?

untitled

yes, how are we all? we just saw jared in berkeley - we also saw some outstanding strawberries and plums at close range, and a confused pteradactyl-pelican that perched right beside us in the marin headlands. and a hawk standing in the air, then that hawk catching a mouse! in davis (where we were for the wedding we were attending) we stayed at the house of a geologist and a gardener/public servant (an extremely nice couple, family friends of the parents of our friend). they had a huge garden with a giant fig tree, peaches, plums, tomatoes, etc., and artichokes growing - lots of scrub jays hopping around and yelling at me from the top of the fig tree as i raided the as-yet unpecked figs. they were super-generous to us...i feel like we've gone to many weddings at the end of our rope this year and been treated very kindly - we cooked our hosts dinner and when we left they gave us a geological tie and a geological silk scarf with cute fanfare.

our friends, michael and sheri, who got married, are both biologists and there were many scientists and profs around - i was frightened in my world-incompetence and piqued in my curiosity. i've jumped into a couple of natural history books since our return. i hope to go hiking with them sometime.

been working a bit on flaming t. reading some 'desert music' and tearing through an m.f.k. fisher reader that i was given by mike and sheri as a 'best man' present. have y'all read her? it's pretty incredible writing to me. catherine, i feel that you would particularly enjoy it.

i had some convos with jared that made me feel determined to get over myself and work a bit every day. and read at least one poem a day. a resolution to let myself actually sit in the spot i've been hanging onto.

glad that you wrote a poem, jared! maybe you're writing one now?

catherine, steve, how are you? we're thinking of you all over here. tony and i leave for new orleans tomorrow - i'll be there for two weeks. i keep houston as a blur on my eyelids.

Hello and Nerves

Are we still here? I'm in town with two of you tonight....tonight tonight....i wish i was writing a poem right now so i think i'll go jogging. i wrote one today, and so my life is my life. i'm gonna do an interview with graham. i am gonna make your disguise tough for you. i love love love love....i wrote, in a recent poem, "i can make george washington into a mushroom cloud. oh kay, of to jog.

j