For Immediate Release

Is it healthy that I remain undaunted?

I do.

Or as G. Corso says, "Pie Glue"!

Cutbank Rejection

Received a rejection from Cutbank last week, I think Thursday, which was a response to a submission I sent on September 5, 2005. (I seem to remember not hearing from them at all about a submission sent aprox five years ago.) Should I do the math here? I guess 18 months isn't such a long time. Almost every poet I know has a story about a submission or two that didn't get responded to at all--even after a query. And of course, I bear Cutbank no malice. I suspect they're doing their best with what they have. Most of them are grad students as I recall. However, I do think an 18 month turnover time does lend some irony to both the phrase "current needs" and the phrase "in the future."

Funny, too, that I keep sending to them, no?

What Should Richard Cory Have Been Thinking?

He should have been thinking, "Well, at least I'm not Miniver Cheevy."

Miniver Cheevy

by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Miniver Cheevy, child of scorn,
Grew lean while he assailed the seasons;
He wept that he was ever born,
And he had reasons.

Miniver loved the days of old
When swords were bright and steeds were prancing;
The vision of a warrior bold
Would set him dancing.

Miniver sighed for what was not,
And dreamed, and rested from his labors;
He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot,
And Priam’s neighbors.

Miniver mourned the ripe renown
That made so many a name so fragrant;
He mourned Romance, now on the town,
And Art, a vagrant.

Miniver loved the Medici,
Albeit he had never seen one;
He would have sinned incessantly
Could he have been one.

Miniver cursed the commonplace
And eyed a khaki suit with loathing;
He missed the mediaeval grace
Of iron clothing.

Miniver scorned the gold he sought,
But sore annoyed was he without it;
Miniver thought, and thought, and thought,
And thought about it.

Miniver Cheevy, born too late,
Scratched his head and kept on thinking;
Miniver coughed, and called it fate,
And kept on drinking.

***

If only Robinson wd have thought to introduce these characters to one another.

Homework

Between now and the meeting, could you please jot down at least three big questions you are currently facing as a writer OR as a teacher of writing? Your responses need not be lengthy, but come prepared to discuss your ideas with one another.

I'd still like you to save the Poudre

Please

More fun

Found another poem that I don't remember writing. Something about Chapman's Homer. I didn't write it.

Another Kind of Fun

Found a poem today that I don't remember writing. It was a loosely connected collection of images titled "Work." Work is full of piccolos, anvils, freckles, spruce, cactus, tile, paper clips, and more. Clang.

Another rejection

What fun it is to be responded to.

A Nice Rejection

The Inclined Plane

I've decided that I prefer the inclined plane of transcendence to the other simple machines of transcendence.

Reason 1: I think it sounds most simple.
Reason 2: I could start at the top and roll to the bottom of each poem.
Reason 3: It reminds me of driving on the Great Plains.
Reason 4: If I wait at the bottom, poems may roll down to me.
Reason 5: Cartwheel banjo tub
Reason 6: My son watched Bambi and now he won't quit crying.
Reason 7: Fish trumpet
Reason 8: I have a little mountain inside me.
Reason 9: Open the trunk of the fast car where the wings are folded.
Reason 10: Butter on. Butter off.