A and I will be taking in the mountains one last time, one last hurrah before we go back to flat ground. Tomorrow we'll leave for Glacier National Park in Northwestern Montana--poke around in there for a few days--then journey up to Banff National Park outside Calgary. It should be a good time. We want to remember the reason we moved out here in the first place just a few days before we leave it. We'll be back on next Wednesday to start packing up the UHaul for Lincoln. I won't have computer access until August 20-something, so this blog will be asleep until then. Though, watch out, when I get back I'll have an assload to say.

For now though:

1. We have had a lovely response to the new issue so far. These new poets are promising, and there is a lot of pressure in giving them the proper curtain. It feels though that the pressure has been lifted a bit. People seem to be eating it up. Up until this point, Octopus #3 has been the fan favorite, but the reaction to #6 may give it a run.

2. Ryan Murphy (get his chapbook, The Gales--seriously good) just recently told me that Anthony Hawley (a poet I'm very fond of (see my reaction to Canary #4)) would be teaching at U of Nebraska--Lincoln. I've had some anxiety about going back to Lincoln for the PhD because I was afraid there wouldn't be a big enough push for the kind of poetry I read and write. Ted Kooser is king there. Not the biggest Kooser fan. It is nice to know I'll have a kindred spirit in Hawley.

3. I am not your 2005 National Poetry Series winner. Bridesmaid, again. Didn't want it anyway. They can have it.

4. While I'm gone, throw your poems on the Octopus submission pile. This your one chance for the year. Don't blow it with your B poems.

See you when I get back. Have a great time, Zach. Ok. Tell A I said hi. Alright. Good luck on the move. Ok. Gotta go. Bye.