Since August, I’ve been consistently posting here on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because of my teaching schedule. I became so comfortable with my routine that I must admit I’m a bit lost without it. My husband, who teaches at the high school level and therefore has a few more days to go, was confounded when I announced my plan to start the day at my usual time and not sleep in (today being the first day I might have done so). Still, I’m happy to be up and about and at the desk. However, beware, dear & kind readers, I cannot predict with what irregularity you will find me here, or perchance with what verboseness, it could go either way.

Today, there is much to say, all culled from the wonderful blogs I follow. You’ll see my blogroll to the left. If you have favorites not listed there, please recommend.

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This short, memoiresque post from Saeed Jones’ for southern boys who consider poetry reminded me that a well crafted piece of writing, no matter how brief, creates a satisfaction that is felt almost bodily upon completing the read.

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For all fans of the place where poetry and James Bond intersect, Linebreak features a poem “James Bond Suite” by Amit Majmudar read by Amy Watkins. There’s playfulness here and yet a real commitment to poetics as well, which can sometimes be lost to pop culture, I think.

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Thanks as well to Johnathon Williams of Linebreak for the link to this article in The Huffington Post. I’m coming into this conversation midstream, but the article is by John Oaks, co-publisher of OR Books, a new publisher that seeks to eliminate the middleman in publishing. Oaks and his fellow founder of the press, Colin Robinson, plan to print-on-demand and sell only direct to the consumer via their website. This eliminates wholesalers and bookstores. I could care less about the wholesalers, but the elimination of my local, independent bookstore is a thing I fear. On the other hand, the OR Books publishing model would be a great leap forward for environmental concerns…no massive number of books stored in large warehouse spaces (think of the savings on paper and energy to heat/cool/humidity control the warehouses). Print-on-demand requires intense marketing because it eliminates the ability to browse, of course. There are lots of issues here, but something to ponder, definitely.

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With glee, I announce that I won a free copy of Nate Pritts’ book Sensational Spectacular from Goodreads. 200 people registered, and only 5 were chosen…lucky me!

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With glee & glee & glee, here is a list of the three books that I ordered through Inter-Library Loan at school and that came in yesterday, just in time for the break:

Ruin by Cynthia Cruz, Alice James Books, 2006
A Brief History of Time by Shaindel Beers, Salt Publishing, 2009
Lie Awake Lake by Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Oberlin College Press, 2005

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On a totally non-poetry related note, I’m going to have something daring, for me, done with my hair today at my hairdresser’s. I need some new luck in 2010 and thought this might spur it on. If I’m brave, I’ll post a picture.

Someday, perhaps, someone will invent a personal weather machine that allows the operator to choose his/her weather of the day. After all, sometimes one wants a gray day to bury oneself in a book under the covers in front of a fire and sometimes one wants the sun to spark some hidden fire long dormant. Today, it is the latter for me and the former for the sky. We are mismatched.

Friday, I had the good fortune to share lunch with a fellow writer-teacher and talk shop. We shared some laughs and came up with a few ideas for the next semester. I am the type of person who figures that the people I admire (as I do this friend) have mastered the art of being; I am always stunned to realize that we share some of the same uncertainties and many questions. It’s good to be reminded. Thanks, H.

After lunch, the husband and I left town for the night to visit close friends in Hot Springs. As I look at my time off for the holiday break, I tend to get a bit possessive and guarded. I’m glad now that I didn’t put off our friends’ request to visit. Enjoying good food and good conversation goes a long way to recharging the batteries.

Sunday saw some solid revision work on several newish poems. What startled me most was the really deep revision I accomplished on a poem that’s been bothering me for several months. When I was able to step back and allow a major part of the poem to shift its place on the page and another wimpish part to vanish altogether, I made what seems to be a better poem. Time will tell.

No new drafts today, but the idea of drafting…

Many, many thanks to Justin Evan’s for posting this review of Blood Almanac on his blog today. His words brought on a serious blushing fit, here at the home of the Kangaroo. Justin won a free copy of the book during my blog-birthday give-away. So glad it landed in his hands!

Justin also edits a great online journal, Hobble Creek Review. Hope you’ll send him some poems if you are place-minded (location, location, location!)

No new drafts in a few weeks. The end of the semester grading has me distracted. Even though I have time in the morning to write, I find myself looking over at the stack of papers waiting to be graded. I just can’t focus with them sitting there. Happy news, I should be done grading by Tuesday afternoon if I keep up the pace. Woo Hoo! My writing goal for December is to complete 3 new drafts before New Year’s.

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Given my current inability to concentrate, I’ve been blog surfing for over an hour and found the following tidbits.

***Friend and fellow U of Arkansas alum, Bill Notter, has a poem up on Verse Daily from his just published book Holding Everything Down. Hope you take the time to check it out.

***Thanks to Rus Bowden (via Facebook) for the link to this great poem “What the Elephant Sings” by Lois Marie Harrod in Canary. I’m unfamiliar with Harrod’s work, but I’ll be looking into it.

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In other news Timothy Green, the editor of Rattle, sent out a call for audio files of poems from back issues. Check out the Rattle blog. Each day features a poem from a back issue (currently the Summer 09 issue…older issues will begin in the spring) sometimes with audio. This spurred me to learn how to record an mp3 of my own work. I’m happy to say that my poem “Self-Portrait: November” from Rattle 19 will appear on April 6, 2010, and you’ll be able to hear my reading of it on the blog as well. Many thanks to Tim for promoting work from back issues and working to create a great poetry community at Rattle.com.

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The papers are starting to tear up b/c I’ve left them alone too long this morning. Poor, sad papers. I must away, then, with my purple pen and begin again to whittle away the stacks.

Sharing a little love today for Josh Poteat’s poem “Illustrating the construction of railroads” up on Poetry Daily today. I blogged about it here.

Yesterday, while sending out announcements about the new issue of Blackbird, I was overcome by a spate of self-doubt about the line between promoting my work and bragging. The digital world is amazing for sharing news quickly, but I am unsure of how much is too much. A kind and good friend pointed out the fact that if I didn’t make such announcements, very few people would know where to find my work. She asked something along the lines of this: How is getting the word out about a new poem bragging?

Here is my reply:
Bragging? Remember, I’m a puritan/protestant/Midwestern closed-mouth. We keep these things to ourselves, darn it, lest we alert the universe to our success and the universe sends a tornado, a drought, or a plague of locusts to wipe us out!

So, I go about my life always watchful for the dreaded “fall.”

Today, little danger of too-much pride, since I’m about to tackle the tower of final papers waiting in the corner for their grades.

This morning I woke up to an email announcing the publication of Blackbird 8.2. I wasn’t sure in which issue my poem would be appearing, so I clicked on the link to check and see. Yep, I was there…right after…gasp…Larry Levis…I had to do a double-take. My little poem was sitting right there in the shadow of one of the giants of my poetry world. I never got to meet Levis, but I know people who studied with him and were changed by him, and his work has influenced me in ways I can’t even count.

After I caught my breath, I read the list of poets appearing in the issue more carefully and almost came undone again. There are too many to list here, but I’ll give you the highlights with annotations.

Sherman Alexie–one of the first writers whose work inspired me after my undergrad years when I began reading on my own
Larry Levis–see above
Alison Pelegrin–fellow Arkansas MFA, in fact one of the first people I met in Fayetteville, she welcomed me with all her Southern grace and charm, her poems make me wish I were truly southern
R.T. Smith–who published the second poem I ever had accepted at a national journal in Shenandoah
Gerald Stern–uhm, enough said
Katrina Vandenberg–also an Arkansas alum, but graduated before me, always delighted when our paths cross at conferences, and a huge admirer of her work
Jake Adam York–well, I’ve written before about how much I like Jake’s work, and in this issue he packs a wallop, also one of the great editors of Copper Nickel, my newest favorite journal

That is just a hint of the issue, and I haven’t even looked at the prose yet.

I am so humbled to be included with these amazing writers. Thank you to the editors for plucking my poem from the submission pile and finding value in it.

If you have the time and the inclination, please check it out.

Given all the listing of books from 2009 going on around the blog world, I started thinking, inevitably, about what I would list. I decided to list the first three books that stuck with me, books that easily came to mind when I paused to ask “what did I read this year that I absolutely loved?” There are still several weeks left in the year and several books still on the shelf…but there’s always 2010. (Listing is a fickle thing, at best.)

Here’s a list of the three:

Illustrating the Machine that Makes the World by Joshua Poteat
If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting by Anna Journey
Mistaken for Song by Tara Bray (disclaimer…Tara and I are close friends)

Today, several blogs caught my eye, and I feel compelled to tell you, gentle readers, about them.

Check out Delirious Hem’s super-cool adventskalendar 2009. Each day of December from the 1st to the 24th features a new poem. Click on the number “1” to hear a poem by Marianne Morris. It doesn’t seem like “2” is active yet today, but I’ll be checking back.

Rachel Dacus over at Rocket Kids has a fun post about the ever changing technology of publishing, which also features a link to T.R. Hummer’s post on the same subject. Dacus is new to me, and I’m glad I discovered her blog, if only for the line “Please just embed my digital media under my fingernails now and give me the virtual visor.”

Read on!