Wednesday, January 31, 2007


And Ana has a lovely pic of them too. If you take a picture of yours (and you blog about it or send it to me), I swear I'll post it. I swear.

Monday, January 29, 2007


Jake has snapped the most beautiful photo of the Octopus #8 chappies to date (and wrote some kind words about them as well) which may give you a better idea of what could be in your mailbox next week.


And here is a pic of Alisa working on our next little project in the Office Octopus. I'm not really going to tell you anything about it right now. But it'll be ready by AWP.


Sunday, January 28, 2007

Yesterday was a grrreat day for books. I got copies of the following--all ripe for review for the next issue of Octopus (which will be exclusively devoted to reviews and Recovery Projects). So, keep that under your hat and get back to us.














Slip by Christopher Stackhouse was already reviewed in Octopus, so check that out here if you're not too busy.
I also picked up the new Swink, which has my fifth favorite poet in it.

Friday, January 26, 2007

If you would like to know what I will be doing this weekend, I will tell you. I will be reading every poem in Typo 9, out loud, pretending I was the one who wrote it. And watching this repeatedly until something snaps in my mind causing me to pour out the best poem I've ever written. I will also be going to Russ's supermarket at some point.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Clayton Banes' post about a ZS afternoon made me very happy--made me blush. It is all in the box opening. That is what it is all about and I'm so excited that his box opening was a good one, and that, at least in that moment, Octopus trumped Thomas Hardy.

Also: I hear the thunder of Typo 9 and Fascicle 3. We need more rain on this flood: this has been online mag launch week. No doubt.

This is what ALDS would look like to you if you were about 500% your normal size, probably.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

OCTOPUS #8

This issue is special. It is both online:



And in print:

Thursday, January 18, 2007


My copies of ALDS have arrived! This may give you a better idea of what the thing looks like. It is quite lovely. A double cover: the first, the heavy red curtain from the poem with doves and crayfish and whatnot in the folds. Nice.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007


My chapbook of poems, Abraham Lincoln's Death Scene, is now available from horse less press. Hoorah!


Go buy it here. It will cost you $5 (aha, $5. Coincidence? Yes).


You should get this if you like/don't like Abraham Lincoln and/or death scenes (bloody + fiery). The above is not the cover image, but I will try to post the cover image as soon as I can snap a picture of it. There is no cover image on the horse less press site either--I'm told it is too incredible to be photographable (I have not yet actually seen it). I guess you'll have to buy it: whoa ho ho yesssss.



Monday, January 15, 2007



This puts it in perspective for me. I worked all day on this holiday preparing Octopus #8 for the world. It wasn't enough.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Joel Tomfohr and I are reading to a tiny little audience tomorrow at Sur Tango. I'm going to break them off some of the new stuff, and the new stuff only. If no one shows up at all, not even Joel, I probably won't read the new stuff, or anything at all. I'll just sit there in the Sur Tango with a beer, maybe shirtless.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007



This is a diagram showing various cuts of beef.


This is Loverboy.

Monday, January 08, 2007

I am excited about three things.


1. Last night, while taking G for a walk, I found a pair of skeleton hand gloves in the middle of the street. They were in perfect condition. I took them and now I can't stop wearing them. Also, they glow-in-the-dark.

2. I had a dream in which I was a chosen to be a crop duster, but I had never before flown a plane. And not just any crop duster: I was the crop duster for all the corn in North and South America.

3. Apparently, I, along with M and J, am excited about starting the spring semester.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

JMW has an image of his book's cover for the Octopus #8 chapbooks. Consider this a timely tease. They're almost out of the oven. We'll update the Octopus Books site, complete with paypal buttons, sometime soon (as well as the Octopus Magazine site with an online counterpart issue). I'm pretty anxious to spread these things out around the country--hope you dig 'em.

Simon wrote a review of Erica Fiedler's poem in Octopus #7. I'm glad he dug it. It was one of my favs from the issue.

School starts back up tomorrow. I'm not sure I'm ready. I need one more week--just one more.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Been trying to stay up late this past week before school starts back up and pen some good poems. Ideally, I want them to read a little like the sound you would get by combining these five records:













I'm wondering if I'll ever write something I'll love as much as these (for example):







Danielle tagged me. Wants me to tell secrets, but not-too-secret secrets. Trying to decide if I'll comply. She does happen to be the first person in the universe to call me a tovarish (that I am aware of).

Wednesday, January 03, 2007


Shoveled the roof today.


A and I got sleeping bags.