Taking a road trip to NE after work tonight, 11 in the pm. Looking forward to it. A long overnight drive through Montana and Wyoming is pretty romantic. No other cars, almost literally, and the sunrise. Got B to feed A and M. Got my fantasy baseball lineup set for the week. Got two books in my back pack Andrea Baker's Like Wind Loves a Window and Ryan Murphy's The Gales (TT do you have this?). Lots of biznass to take care of there, and lots when I return.

Anonymous comment Darcie asked about Bozeman and its community, artistic and otherwise (are you planning a move here, ACD?), so I will oblige. Bozeman is a terrific little nook in the mountains. Small and scenic. So very clean and I didn't realize how breathable and light the air is up here 5400-some feet until I visited the heavy wet air of my old home in Arkansas a few weeks back. There is a college here, Montana State. There is a symphony (unheard of for such a small population (30-40 K) and live theatre, two one screen movie theaters downtown, one that shows traveling indie films. But the community is really geared more toward the out of doors: the hiking, skiing, floating, hunting, fishing (oh, the world-famous fishing!), running, healthy vegetarian type crowd. Everybody has a backpack, a dog, a ponytail, nice calves, and a Subaru with a kayak strapped on top. There is NO poetry scene and NO music scene. A real zero on the scale. The college is a science and technobabble one--the MFAs are up in Missoula at the U of M. I've enjoyed my time and Bozeman has been so so good to A and I, but looks like we'll be moving away from it all here in a month. Going back to Lincoln, NE. To the scene (to concerts, to the readings!). Where the houses are affordable (Bozeman is a joke in terms of cost of living. You got to be rich coming in, because you're not going to catch up here). Here are the Lincoln houses I want from a aesthetic urge, not a practical one:

 

 

Some good books that have found themselves in my mailbox in the past few weeks.  

Some new issues you should visit: Pettycoat Relaxer, Electronic Poetry Review, Gutcult and Tarpaulin Sky. Typo 6 drops Friday, ya'll.

Counting down the days until Octopus #6 drops (40 is about right). In a tight race with Typo, but I'm thinking they'll have us beat. #6, though, ain't like any other we've put together. It's one of them special issues. The poetry will be at its very freshest from poets you ain't never NEVER seen before. And don't forget to start writing your poems now for our August submission period. We're not gonna take any of that old stale stuff you've been sitting on since Kwanzaa.

Tough tough day at work. Wow. Need to relax now. Al is at Crow. I got a beer and a bag of microwaveable kettle popcorn. Got an idea for a poem.

Today was a good mail day. Got the 2 following items: the first issue of The Tiny and Standard Schaefer's Water and Power (Agincourt).

I can't wait to tear right into these. I'll let you know what I think. Look for a review of Water and Power in Octopus 6.

Top 3 fav po-books I've read in the past 3 weeks:

6x7 by Dan Machlin
External Combustion Engine by Michael Ives
The Thorn by David Larsen


You should read them too.

Have the day off tomorrow. Working on finances. Working on special issue #6 (the things coming in are wow). Cubs v Marlins on in the afternoon--have a block of time reserved.

Earlier this week, I got a chance to visit A at her little cottage on the Crow Reservation (she is working there through the summer as part of her internship). It was quite an eye-opening experience. I had the frightening opportunity to be a minority for a few days. It felt like I was intruding, that I didn't belong and perhaps wasn't welcome. It probably didn't help that I was taking pictures of everything. And the two 12 year old boys (at the oldest) following me in the pickup truck at every turn didn't help put me at ease. Very very poor area. A 3rd world county. A is doing terrific work and I am proud of her. The land is absolutely beautiful--I could really feel a sense of sacredness while I was there. And the people are so proud.

We had the chance to spend an afternoon together also, and we drove down to the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand). That was super cool. That elementary History text book came alive after all these years!

Where A stays.  

Junkyard nearby. 

The house next door. 

I took all my showers here. Only $2! 

This is the actual hill--that famous hill (there really is an actual historical hill!)--where General Custer made his last stand. The exact point where he fell is marked by the black grave stone. This is where the Sioux and Cheyenne and others finally met up with Custer while Custer and his men were trying to capture the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors for leaving their reservations in the Black Hills and disobeying (and battling) the soldiers. The Crow actually took sides with Custer, mostly because Custer and his men promised protection from the Crow's enemy (Sioux and Cheyenne). Throughout this tour, and my walk through the museum nearby, I got the creepy sense that the Crow were honoring the many soliders that died here, and not the warriors, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull. I guess I wasn't exactly expecting that. I don't know exactly how I feel about all that.

Mass grave where a bunch of Custer's soldiers, and parts of Custer's soldiers were buried after the massacre.  

Mass grave from the west.  

South of the hill. It felt so good to stand out there, in the middle of absolutely nowhere, with that room-tempature light pre-storm breeze. 

Where two of Custer's men fell.

Jeffery Bahr put some Man Suit b-sides in his current issue of Melic Review.

Some Pines News:

Phil Cordelli and Brandon Shimoda will be reading from THE PINES at Freebird in Brooklyn, New York on Wedneday, June 15th, 7 pm. They will be accompanied by poet Quinn Latimer, Brooklyn-based band Flying, and other luminaries to be announced soon. Freebird is located at 123 Columbia Street (between Degraw/Kane) in Red Hook.

THE PINES VOLUME ONE: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - the first limited edition, letterpressed volume in The Pines' ongoing collaboration - is now available. Email thepines@ureach.com to receive a copy - for a mere $3!

You should really check the Pines out--there are some beautiful poems in there. Octopus will be doing a review of both Volumes 1 and 2 as soon as #2 comes out (did I just say #2 comes out?).

I'm back from Arkansas, the Tony Tost and Leigh Plunkett wedding (and from the Crow Indian Reservation which I'll post about tomorrow). Had a terrific time with so many people. I was hosted by Adam Clay and his lovely fiance, Kim Dennis. They are wonderful people. Adam picked me up late at night, and dropped me off early in the morning at an airport 2 hrs away. I owe him. We also at lunch at Mexican place together, gardened in Adam's backyard, played chess, talked po-biz and weddings and music in the living room, and visited the bookstore where Adam works. And Kim and I got our dance on through much of the reception. Also: great to see my buddies from College of the Ozarks (two or three of which I hadn't seen since the Clinton presidency): Will, Kate, Riley, Butch, Donnie and Shannon. I regret my time being too short there, though I suspect I'd feel like that regardless of the number of days I spend with these cats. They're life-long friends, and it is great to know there'll be other days. And, to boot, I got to meet a long list of interesting chums like Ken Rumble (who said Adam and I could come to NC for a reading sometime--we may take him up on that), Marc Cherry, Michael Heffernan, etc etc.

Here are some pics:

The ins of Adam's Dickson Books. There are hundreds, it seems, of hallways like this one. I bought Dobyns' Balthus Poems here. I only had 4 bucks on me, and it was the only one I found that I likey in the price range.  

Dickson Books. The bookstore where Adam works in Fayetteville. This bookstore is amazing. An overwhelming amount of books. There's no end to it all.  

Adam's house. To his immediate left is where he checks his mail 6 days a week for good po-biz news.  

Myself and Tony. Two married men loving each other. It's okay.  

Kim, tired from all the dancing with me. Adam, loving, loving.  

Good friend, Will. Always dancing. Great batteries, that guy. 

Riley and Butch (Tim Van Dyke - see Octopus #2).  

Watching the final rounds Scripps National Spelling Bee, live. Very exciting. I've been keeping a tally: Of the 24 words I've seen so far, I've only been able to spell 5 and correctly define 2 (serang and etoufee). I'm going for Rajiv. I'm not sure how I feel about Samir. He's pretty cocky/obnoxious. I can't quite determine if it is charm. He gives a definition to the judge and asks if it is correct, instead of just asking for the definition. He's damn good.

Soon, I'll be packing up to fly off to AR for Tony Tost and Leigh Plunkett's nuptials. Wee! I'm a groomsman. I'm staying with, and being picked up by, my new friend and killer poet Adam Clay, and his lovely fiance Kim. I still need to shave, clean the apt, write a nice note to A to tell her how much I will miss her, and other things. This should be fun. I'll see a healthy handful of friends I haven't seen since undergrad days. I'll bring my dancing shoes. And bring you an update with pics when I return.

Top Ten Favorite poetry selections from my new LIT #10.

1. The Andrea Baker
2. The Eric Baus
3. The Zachary Schomburg
4. The Lauren Ireland
5. The Anthony Hawley
6. The Ilya Kaminsky
7. The Joshua Corey
8. The Ryan Flaherty
9. The Landis Everson
10. The Bob Hicok

Honorable Mentions:
The Laura Cronk
The August Kleinzahler