Day 292 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and I have been reading The Clock of the Long Now because Marion Boyer is a poet I've admired over the years.  We took her poems at RHINO, when I was an editor there, and I reviewed her chapbook Green (Finishing Line Press, 2003) for RHINO Reads (then a review section of the journal, now a live reading series), and several of those poems appear again in The Clock of the Long Now (Mayapple Press, 2009), notably the "Jake" poems, in the voice of an interesting man.

And that's just the beginning of the coincidii:

I do hope to review Clock for an online journal (not happy with the lag time of print journals when it comes to reviews, still waiting for a review of This Must Be the Place, by Alice George, also from Mayapple, to appear in ACM, and, like Alice's book, Marion's is from 2009, so I'd like to get it out there!)  Meanwhile, Susan Slaviero has agreed to answer interview questions about Cyborgia, her book from Mayapple, out this year.  So you can look forward to what she has to say--here in this blog!--about her fascinating book of wild science fiction poetry!

I met Marion Boyer once (or twice?) at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, where poets get to read their work surrounded by art by...yes, women!  And, yes, these blue-note birds are more in the series by Pamela Callahan, a Woman Made artist, for which I keep giving thanks!

A blue-sounding* poem of mine, "A House in Carlock," appears as Broadside #20 currently in Blue Fifth Review, which will be moving to Wordpress in 2011, and transforming into Blue Five Notebook, where I have a poem forthcoming!  I am honored to appear in the last Blue Fifth and the first Blue Five issues of editor Sam Rasnake.  Many thanks for this!

*And you can hear it, as there's a link to Poetry Radio, WGLT!

I met Susan Slaviero once, too, when we both read for the RHINO Reads series in Evanston, IL.  It's always delightful to get to hear a poet read her own work, and I am tickled that she will tell us all more about her cyborg women.

And if you want to see some beautiful blue water, painted by Deborah Van Auten, and hear "the sea's blue music," sung by Freya Manfred, click here to be taken to Escape Into Life.

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Day 291 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and my mom is reading Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry, because she'd read about it and then passed by a nice paperback copy of it in a bookstore.  She loves the little story in the author's preface about starting this novel, floundering, writing two other novels instead, and then seeing an abandoned bus with "Lonesome Dove Baptist Church" painted on the side, and then going home to write the novel.

Yes, this is a another painting by Pamela Callahan of Otter Creek Arts and Woman Made Gallery.

Tim has just finished reading Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con that is Breaking America, by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone.  This is one to read along with All the Devils are Here to learn more about the crapsters behind the financial crisis.  Taibbi also ties in Ayn Rand.

If you feel any rage about the big con of the financial crisis, you might enjoy "Rage" (about all kinds of rage) by Freya Manfred, in the current poetry feature at Escape Into Life.  Or, if you want some relief from rage, you can swim with a turtle there, or consider your heart, and whether you live in it.

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Day 290 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and today I am thanking you all for stopping by my blog since I started this book project, and offering you my goofy State of the Blog Address!  And confessing that, yes, I have already started reading Other Voices, Other Rooms, by Truman Capote (a second printing of the first edition, with a little preface by him, and a copy discarded from a school library).

I also offer today one of the beautiful images by Pamela Callahan, a painter I met at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, who has given permission to share these paintings with you, for which I am so grateful!  You can see more at WMG or her website with her husband, Otter Creek Arts.

OK, the State of the Blog Address, a list of the blog entries that have received the most hits!  I have watched in amazement and laughter as any blog entry with sex or sports in the title advanced high in the stats!  And even more amazement as origami overtook them all.  (I think the Christmas shopping season may also be origami season.)

This would be a top ten list, but the monthly stats tell a slightly different story than the all time stats, so I include a few extras:

My Brain is Origami (my brain is origami)

Intercity Volleyball (spiked--heh heh--when we were all looking for scores and standings at state tournament time, but so not about volleyball I fear for the sanity of those who clicked it by mistake)

Of Boobies and Baseball (grand slam in summer, overtaken in fall by volleyball)

Book Burning & Book Banning

Loving Pillsbury (probably involves recipe searches more than architecture)

A Walk in the Cemetery

More Party Girls  (uh huh, you know why this is a top hit)

Redneck Yoga (part 2 of an interview with Tim Hunt)

Evening Primrose (just out on DVD, Stephen Sondheim!)

Fault Lines & Risk Taking (stats might be about earthquakes, but it was also added to ISU media site, as part 1 of interview with Tim Hunt)

Lucky Ducks (nobody eats rubber ducks for Thanksgiving)

Sexy Book of Sexy Sex (uh huh, and she knew when she titled her book that it might be popular)

What Would Epictetus Do? (ancient Stoic philosopher comes into his own)

Train Window (partly written "on the road")

Thank you for reading my blog, and feel free to reinforce or upset the statistics by clicking away at anything you like, or like better!

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