Happy opening day, nerds. My 2011 predictions:

AL East: Red Sox
AL Central: Twins
AL West: A's
Wildcard: Detroit
NL East: Phillies
NL Central: Brewers
NL West: Rockies
Wildcard: Braves

AL Champ: Twins
NL Champ: Braves

World Series Champ: Twins

Some of what my students will be reading as we write poems in my spring introductory workshop:

Triggering Town by Richard Hugo
The Art of Recklessness by Dean Young
Texture Notes by Sawako Nakayasu
A Mouth in California by Graham Foust
Black Life by Dorothea Lasky
Selected Poems by Mary Ruefle
The Grief Performance by Emily Kendal Frey
"Vespers" by Heather Christle
"The Bad Clown" by Michael Earl Craig
"Birches" by Robert Frost
"Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens
"The Waking" by Theodore Roethke
"One Art" and "Sonnet" by Elizabeth Bishop
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas
"Short Talk on Sleep Stones" and "Short Talk on Walking Backwards" by Anne Carson
"Dolphin" by Robert Lowell
"The Ache of Marriage" by Denise Levertov
"Homosexuality" by Frank O'Hara
"Swans of Local Waters" by Tony Tost
"Song for One Violin" by Julie Doxsee
"9 'Great citadels whereon the gold sun falls'" by John Berryman
"The Fall" by Russell Edson
"Oatmeal Deluxe" by Stephen Dobyns
"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg
"The Dance" by William Carlos Williams
"Traveling Through the Dark" by William Stafford
"Bavarian Gentians" by DH Lawrence
"Sea Rose" by HD
"Buffalo Bill's/defunct" by e.e. cummings
"Peggy in the Twilight" and "Distance from Loved Ones" by James Tate
"2 Narrative Poems" by Julie Carr
"Hot Ass Poem" by Jennifer Knox
"Wanting to Die" by Anne Sexton
"Invisible Scoring" by Paul Killebrew
"Patience" by Pierre Reverdy
"The Mystery is the Human Heart" by Matthew Dickman
"I Hail from the Bottom of the Sea, the Land of Eternal Darkness" by Matthew Rohrer
"I Go Back to May 1937" by Sharon Olds
"I  Have to Go Back to 1994 to Kill a Girl" by Karyna McGlynn
"Digging" by Seamus Heaney
"Cameroon is Great" by Ara Shirinyan
"Wild Nights--Wild Nights" and "I cannot live with You" by Emily Dickinson
from "New Exercises 08" by Franck Andre Jamme
"the state of world affairs from a 3rd floor window" by Charles Bukowski
"homage to my hips" by Lucille Clifton
"Breasts" by Charles Simic
...and many more...and
literary journals
online magazines
some small press chapbooks

I badly want this painting (top) by Ian Huebert, the artist who is currently working on the illustrations for my next book, Viking. I also badly want this painting (bottom) by my friend Jake Gillespie. My birthday might be coming up.

I had a pretty weak fantasy team last year, and came in 9th of 15. But for this year, what do you think of my chances?

C Joe Mauer (Twins)
1B Kevin Youkilis (Red Sox)
2B Chone Figgins (Mariners)
3B Aramis Ramirez (Cubs)
SS Hanley Ramirez (Marlins)
CI Adam LaRoche (Nationals)
MI Ben Zobrist (Rays)
LF Rajai Davis (Blue Jays)
CF Jayson Werth (Nationals)
RF Torii Hunter (Angels)
OF Jason Kubel (Twins)
Util Jim Thome (Twins)
Bench Justin Smoak (CI) (Mariners)
Bench Desmond Jennings (OF) (Rays)


SP Jared Weaver (Angels)
SP John Lackey (Red Sox)
SP Josh Beckett (Red Sox)
SP Jeremy Hellickson (Rays)
SP Scott Baker (Twins)
RP Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox)
RP Chris Perez (Indians)
RP Matt Capps (Twins)
RP Bobby Jenks (Red Sox)

Portland, look what we've lined up for you. Ok? See you there. High five.

Before I read a poem or two from Scary, No Scary at the Oregon Literary Arts event honoring the National Book Foundation on April 7,  I'm going to have a few things to say about my admiration of James Tate's Worshipful Company of Fletchers (1994 winner) and maybe a little bit about Alan Dugan's New and Complete (2001's winner), or Jean Valentine's Door in the Mountain (2004's winner).

Jason Polan is in town to set up his show at Work/Sound which is going to open this Friday, 3/11. This is his blog, which links to all his projects, one of which is the Taco Bell Drawing Club. I was part of the Taco Bell Drawing Club in Portland yesterday, and Jason made me an official member.

Today, I kinda feel like these two things added together again. 

I would like to claim that I was the first visitor to Jared White and Farrah Field's new poetry bookshop, Berl's, in the Brooklyn Flea Market. They are a quality carrier of Octopus Books, and a good friend of PressPressPress.

Dear Brooklyn, I am reading in you at the CROWD on Sunday. Dear Portland, I am reading in you at Small Doggies on Thursday. Dear Eugene, I am reading in you at the Windfall the following Tuesday.