The people I met and learned I like (PC, LB, ABB, JC, RM, CA, EF (my new best friend), JG, KG, EC, EG, CA, JM, EA, GM, KR, PAK, MW, CDW, etc. etc.). The people I really really like that I got to hang with that I had previously met (JS, BW, JD, MB, SF, NB, KR, MH, KH, CT, AT, BP, JT, KK, KM, GCW, JM, AB, SS, LG, DP, PC, LS, CAK, MH, JE, GCW, JAY, CMT, NP, MZ, MY, HBN, etc. etc.). The people that no matter how long I spend with them it would never ever be enough (AC, MS, AL, JP, NEG, JMW, etc. etc.) The bed to myself. Missing nearly every meal. The Pines. The panel discussion. The big crowd it attracted. The people that didn't leave but stayed and nodded their heads just a little while I said something into the microphone. Elevator competition. Song at the restaurant. Conversations with heroes. The bookfair and bookfair table. The selling of more than expected Octopus chapbooks. Buying books from small presses. Chips. Holding my first book and putting my first book in the hands of people I admire. The nice things people said/are saying about it. Reading from that book at the Apache Cafe on Saturday night to a healthy and giving crowd. The nice things people said about my reading. Introducing some of Octopus' finest (JD & LB) to that crowd. The friday night reading at Apache with about 7 poets in a row that just slayed me. MS reading his poems on Friday night, both delighting and hurting (emotionally) the crowd. Writing 5 collaborations on the plane with MS and listening to Envy and Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil, and Built to Spill and Otis Redding and various Elf Metal jams in his Saturn. Coming back and A.

I'm officially off to Atlanta for the AWP conference. If we can find some wi-fi, and if Mathias or someone lets me borrow a laptop, I'll give you some updates. Otherwise expect a full report when I get back, complete with pics. Hooooooorah!

The Octo-crew has gotten together and cranked out two new chapbooks for the AWP Bookfair: The Renaissance Sheet by Lily Brown (pictured above) and Book Reports by Jonah Winter (the limited edition hardcover versions). You should stop buy (see how I did that?).

After Atlanta, we'll be a bit more official about announcing these two books. We'll put a paypal button up then too.

I'm trying my darndest to get all my papers into tidy stacks, so to speak, before the big sail off to ATL for AWP. I'm more than excited though. It is going to be difficult to rest up--but that will be vital. I want to give you all the energy, all the positive qi I got. So if you want some of that qi to complete the flow, here are three ways you can find me: (A.) a retail merchant, (B.) a thoughtful and well-spoken online poetry editor, (C.) a reader of poetry:

A. Bookfair Table #125. The roster is Typo, H_NGM_N, Forklift, Ohio, and Octopus, and much much more. We have books that we want you to read. And swag. Endless infinite swag.

B. Panel. Friday, 2 March 07 @ 12:00 – 1:15 pm. Virtually Infinite: The Broad Reach and Vast Potential of the Online Literary Journal. Panelists: editors of La Petite Zine, Failbetter, Coconut, MiPOesias, Action, Yes, & Octopus.



C. Poetry Party and Reading. 100% Dynamite Blow Up. Saturday, Mar. 3. 7 pm. Apache Cafe. No Tell Books. Black Ocean Press. Pilot Books. Octopus Books. Please, do not bring cupcakes to this.

What are you doing this week? You should pull your recliner up to the computer because Fascicle just happened. It's heavy and here. Don't wuss out, wuss.

A and I took my 17 year old sister, K, to the Jon Mayer concert Sunday night in Omaha. It was fun. She had fun. We had fun. But it made me realize how my concert-going pace has slowed way too far down. Thinking about old concerts and whatnot, so I thought I'd list some of my favorite concert memories.

Note: All of these concerts took place between 1995 and 2001 and are not necessarily on the list because of their performance or my fandom.

The Urge in Springfield, MO (all 14-18 times) (usually opened with Fragile Porcelain Mice)
Frogs in Chicago
Run-DMC/Pavement/The Apples in Stereo in Columbia, MO
Toadies/Hum in Springfield, MO (first real concert)

Weezer in Columbia, MO

Promise Ring/Bad Religion in Cleveland

Pernice Brothers/Hayden in Lawrence, KS
Superchunk/GBV in Columbia, MO

They Might Be Giants in Cleveland
Rage Against the Machine/Wu-Tang Clan in St. Louis

Smashing Pumpkins in KC

Flaming Lips in Lincoln

The Make-Up in Chicago

GBV in Omaha

Lucinda Williams/Lawrence Ferlinghetti (not singing) in Hot Springs, AR

Songs:Ohia in Lincoln

Before my Russian language professor (who is a native Russian speaker) handed out our unit test today, and after briefly reviewing with us and realizing we are not prepared for the test, she says: You are all so much in a jungle of pain.

Я люблю my Russian professor. This is how I wish I could teach.

We printed up some new Octopus t-shirts. We're going to drop 'em on AWP in Atlanta so bring an extra 5 bucks and one less blouse.

AWP is 2 weeks away. I should start thinking about getting a haircut.

1. Shovel the driveway. Check.





2. Snuggle up with my advanced copies of these wonderful Wave titles (Rohrer is one of my poetry heroes). If you want to write a review of these or anything else, email Octopus.

After every Clean Part, I get this feeling that if each of these readers wouldn't go back to their homes in distant cities afterwards, I swear I'd pour all my energy into becoming their best friend. I swear it. I have that feeling again. Sommer, Julie, and Sandy are all very charming humans and their poems were A-list last night--it all went entirely too fast. M (who has better pics on his blog than I do) and I are lucky co-curators.


Sommer Browning (center stage behind the podium)


L to R: Neil's left arm, Julie Doxsee, Anthony Hawley, Sandy Florian's back and lovely scarf, Mathias Svalina, Ashley Payne's left hand.

Be there or be square is right.

The next The Clean Part is this Saturday, at the Sheldon, at 7pm. It has been so long since the last one. I bet you can't wait. Here's the lineup: Sandy Florian. Julie Doxsee. Sommer Browning. If you're hip, you should already be Florian/Doxsee/Browning scholars, but if you are not, go to the Clean Part site for links to some of their online poems. You're in for a real treat here. Brave the snow.

Ben made the posters. The info is in the snake's dialog box. It talks like this: zee cleeeeen paaaht. The lazer (laser?) coming from the snake's ruby eyes makes this sound: waowaowaowaowaowaowao and it does not kill things nor heat them, it enhances things, makes them more complex or larger.

Octopus chappies at Pegasus Books!

Octopus has an intern. Its first. And I agree with M's assessment of her, but apparently I have no choice.

Tonight, A and I will be going to a 39 year old's surprise 40th conception-day party. He won't be expecting it because his 40th birthday isn't for 9 months. So don't tell him. At the party, we will be eating eggs and weinies.

There's a new The Cupboard out. They have free print issues. You just have to print and fold the thing.

Octopus Books. Part One: The Sendout

Z: Now what are you going to do with them?
M: I'm going to put them in there (light chuckle)
Z: And then what happens?
M: Um, I think we put 'em in your car and you take 'em (unitelligible)...What do you think? Is that what happens?
Z: That's what happens. (M places outgoing package in the postal service bin)
M: (Sings Elvis Costello's "Hand in Hand")
(Z's left shoe) (A stain in the carpet)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

OCTOPUS #8

This issue is special. It is both online:



And in print:

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.

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.

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

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.

This is a diagram showing various cuts of beef.


This is Loverboy.

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.

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.

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).

Shoveled the roof today.

A and I got sleeping bags.