2/27/09

review

my itty bitty review of Catherine Meng’s dusie kollektiv 3 poetry chapbook ‘LOST WORKBOOK W/LETTERS TO DEER’:

This dusie kollektiv 3 chapbook especially strikes my fancy from its unique design to its charming title to the quirky curios within. I can visualize these adorable little booklets spilling forth from misshapen baskets at craft fair tables, mixed with multicolored fabric poppies or battered pointe shoes. I can see them at bake sale tables accompanied by giant blonde brownies and tiny lime crèmes. I can see them snuck into public lavatories, placed slightly askew atop shiny silver dispensers for pink hand soap. I can see them at a Rasputina concert in a white wicker basket with Victorian hankies and vials of strange notions & potions.

The retro looking sewing instruction cover and ever so slightly crooked pages strike me as both endearing and well-crafted. I feel like I’m privy to a quaint personal art project. I feel like I’m holding precision ephemera. I hear the click of knitting needles and feel the silky wisp of vintage seam binding remnants.

The poems function based on their own peculiar logic and complement each other well. They seem both curiously amusing and quite significant in their own odd way.

This chapbook puts me in mind of pinking shears carefully cutting serrated edges.

2/25/09

poetry

More often than not, I only blog about my recent poetry publication credits if I actually have the magazine in my presence or can link to its online presence, but I just got an email that the first issue of zero ducats is ready to be mailed to me--and then I visited the zero ducats website and I thought it was so nifty that I feel compelled to share:

http://www.zeroducats.com/index.html

The author bios were fun to read and look at and I kind of wish I was at a party with all those people. Although most of them seem to be in Missouri and have MFAs, which kinda makes me feel like I'm invading some preordained enclave, but I'm a pretty delighted invader.

Also, while I was investigating that matter, I stumbled upon a photo of Nellie Oleson (not one of the authors) and had the idea to write a series of poems either ABOUT Nellie Oleson, TITLED Nellie Olesen but not about her, OR titled Nellie Olesen and the names of other secondary TV show characters.

Also, I am excited to read Rauan Klassnik's new e-chapbook plus some of the newer Scantily Clad Press chapbooks. I'm a little behind on my reading, but looking forward to catch up.

Also, I am formulating a few ideas about where to send/submit one of my unpublished chapbook manuscripts.

Also, thinking about death by owl...

2/24/09

party planning

I thought, 'And I'm tired of wearing this mouth brace. It's hurting my teeth.' I removed the contraption and its misshapen wires and placed it down on my old desk, then I laid my head down on my old desk and the tears started to ooze out of my eyes.

A girl from my past held my hand and murmured, 'Please don't cry', but it was too late.

I had made a mistake by returning to the office where all the girls were fawning over a douchebag.

In the midst of this misplaced giddiness, someone said, 'Emergency cake'.

I heard him on the phone with his wife, casually discussing which gourmet pasta to buy and this infuriated me.

I held it together until he left the room and that's when I dissolved. It was as if I had never even existed.