I've been hunched over a keyboard somenights working on a new manny called Scary, No Scary. I think about it constantly, about how I am such a fan of it and how invigorating and powerful it is to have complete control over the creation of a book of poems that I admire as an outside reader. One of its poems is in Typo #8 and a handful more are will be in two new print journals you haven't heard of yet. In fact, they probably aren't ready to be mentioned. So: one is called Same Storm and the other is called Pilot.

Here's the cornjob Ipod playlist I've been rocking this week while digging in the dirt:

Band of Horses' Everything All the Time
Beirut's Gulag Orkestar
Bettie Serveert's Dust Bunnies
The Fall's 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins' Rabbit Fur Coat
Kleenex Girl Wonder's Ponyoak
The Strokes' First Impressions of Earth
Superdrag's Regrettfully Yours
Superchunk's Foolish
Tilly and the Wall's Wild Like Children

Friday night was for Skateboards. Watched the documentary Freedom of Space at the Ross then went to the Tugboat for the arted-up skateboard auction. I was outbid. It was a good night for skateboarding and for raising money for Lincoln's future Skate park. Also a good night for friends. I got to drink alcohol with D-Scmick, M-Cat, Ashville, and B-Rad.

Saturday was for M and J in Ames. Got to watch the Cubs lose again. Went out to eat. Then watched movies. Squid and Whale. Thumbs up to that. Thumbs up to M and J. Thumbs up to Ames.

Sunday was for Spaghetti. Ate it with sister in law. There was also a baby there. This baby is pictured above clinging to A's Octopus Magazine t-shirted torso.

Tomorrow is for Nebraska's Eugene Mahoney State Park.

A tree fell on our lawn that stormy night I was writing poems. They must've been really good poems. We're very lucky the thing didn't come crashing into our living room. Now I finally have a good reason to fire up the chainsaw. I love chainsaws.

Corn job was hard today. 8 hours of pulling up little unhealthy plants from the fields. My whole body is sore. But I'm excited because there is a terrific thunderstorm going on right now. Ideal nighttime weather for reading Kira Henehan's Seven Palms (thank you again Ryan Murphy) and writing pizzoems in the computer room/sunroom room.

Here is what I rocked on my Ipod for those 8 grueling hours. Each band was selected for pace and positive attitude, presented here in the order they were listened to:

Envelopes' Demon
Magnetic Fields' The Wayward Bus and Distant Plastic Trees
Mates of State's Our Constant Concern
Matt Pond PA's Nature of Maps,
Mendoza Line's We're All in this Alone
Jonathan Richman's Best of
The Rentals' The Return of the Rentals,
The Clean's Anthology (skipped around a bit),
Superchunk's On the Mouth
The Weakerthan's Reconstruction Site,
Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary
and Beulah's Handsome Western States.

A and I both terribly miss Montana and its mountains. Lincoln is very good to us, but the mountains infected us while we were there and now and I think we have the bug. So we've decided to drop what we're doing for a week in June and head back. We'll tent, bring the dog, hike, float, etc. You have no idea how excited we are for this road trip. Ahh. Here are some of the friends we'll get to breath in again:


This is the lake we'll eat some sandwiches at, high above the valley after a long hike.


These are the hot dogs we'll roast again.


This is the river we'll float. The Gallatin.


A will do this.




Z will do this.


and this.

New Yorkers, there will be dynamite poets reading tomorrow night at Pete's Candy Store. Two of my favs. Two of your favs. Mathias Svalina and Joshua Marie Wilkinson. Get out of your tiny studio apartments to hear them read. Then buy them a moderately priced beer. Hug them around the neck and kick up your feet. They each have strong backs and they can hold your weight.

A and I went to the farm last weekend. Ran around in the cornfield all day and kicked up some dirt. This is what I do to get away from my corn job. Ahh! Corn! Cornfields are even starting to creep their way into my new manuscript.

Here's a pic just for you.

A long day in the fields today. I came home and ran through my sprinklers for a while.

Mathias and I are happy hostesses. Clean Part #4 was awesome. Thank again to Hadara, Josh and Dora, Tugboat, Denny, Kuhl's Diner for the pie, the poetry-hungry crowd, my parents, your parents. Here are some pics:


The welcome table at Clean Part #4. From left to right: bottled water, bowl of peanuts, things to make coffee, raffle tickets for pie. Not pictured: bowl of Octopus and Clean Part buttons.


Hadara Bar-Nadav reading. The missing picture from Mathias' recap.


Jim Galvin came to town to see the reading y'all. That's right. Jim Galvin was at Clean Part not reading. Also: Dora Malech and Joshua Edwards post-reading. Hadara on the right, extending even another hand. All the readers were incredible. Thanks to them. My hand too extends.



D-Schmick and Joey Lynch. The top of the indie art-world food chain. D goes to work for the man tomorrow. Best of luck to him.


I had enough poetry for one night. It was time to get schnookered.


Your 2006 Juniper Prize winner, Michael Dumanis.


Ashley and Mathias. They were very happy all night except for this one millisecond that I happened to capture.

I want to give a shout out to my moms. Happy Mother's Day.

A and I are going up to the farm north of Columbus, NE, for Mother's Day festivities today. Eat real food. Play board games.

The 4th Clean Part went swimmingly. I'll have all the news for you, and pics of poets as soon as I get back.

If you're going to just sit around all day on Saturday, and not do squat, you might as well come to Clean Part at 7pm at Tugboat. Dora Malech. Joshua Edwards. A chance to win a pie.

There is a charming little write-up on Octopus over at the Cruelest Month (the blog of Harper Collins). It seems that PW article has brought our little space some attention, but with it comes some monster mispellings. Oh, Wony Wost, such great wimes we had.

Thanks for the heads up Reb.

Derby weekend was lovely. Didn't win a dime. But we did get to stay in a Settle Inn. Last night, M and I started into the mannies. There are many mannies. And nearly all that we read last night packed some amount of wallop. I can tell already, we will be saying no to some very worthy manuscripts.

Corn Job Day #1: planted and labeled reserve seeds all morning in the greenhouse. This job'll be something.

Ok. I'm off to the Kentucky Derby to bet on the ponies. Here's my preliminary pick for Saturday (I want to timestamp it and prove it in case it hits): 1. AP Warrior 2. Bob and John 3. Brother Derek

Best of luck with your own wagers.

It has been a terrrrrific day for getting good books. In my mailbox at school: a borrowed copy of Greg Kuzma's Harry's Things. It is so rare it hardly exists. And it is prime Kuzma: 1971. And Phil Cordelli sent me The Pines Volume 3: Knights of Columbus. These two things are going to be at my side this summer while I beef up this new mannie I've been working on. And Ugly Duckling sent me Peter Gizzi's A Panic that Can Still Come Upon Me and 6x6 #11. Oh, and last week Dalkey Archive Press sent me Jacques Roubaud's The Form of the City Changes Faster, Alas, Than the Human Heart translated by the Waldrops: Yes! Yes! Read read read.

Today is a good day. It is nice out. I just finished up my semester with a strong showing on my History of Modern Russia final exam (a collateral field in my PhD in poetry) and I finished a strong, I think, seminar paper in post-colonial poetics. I'm done for the summer being a student.

Things to come:

1. grading lots of essays.

2. A and I are going to Des Moines' Prairie Meadow race track to meet up with my pops and bet on the live ponies and the Kentucky Derby ponies this weekend.

3. Monday I start my corn job.

4. Mathias and I got a pretty impressive amount of chap mannies for Octopus #8. Very enthused/overwhelmed/anxious/eager. I'll spend a terrific chunk of my May evenings reading those gems after a long hot day toiling in the fields.

Other news (good):

1. I got a TA for next fall and spring. This lifts some significant burdens/stress.

2. Check me out in the new Typo.

3. Check me out in the new Summer 2006 international issue of the Washington Square Review. I'm sharing space with Darwish.