Wow. An Internet Connection.

Howdy to anyone who still reads my blog (or tries to)!

First: I'm thankful you keep trying. Second: an explanation of my recent absence. I mean, not that I've ever been prolific on this thing. But currently, I've had a bitch of a time finding a reliable internet connection that wasn't at work--and I do my best to get the hell out of work as quickly as I can these days. There it is. Nothing much I can do about that until I get my own place, I think.

Do you want to hear about the coolest things that have happened in my absence? Of course you do.


1. I saw PJ Harvey at the Beacon Theater touring for her latest (totally uncharacteristically melancholy) record White Chalk, which is totally awesome. (Dude, the guys from Dirty Three are guesting on this album.) She played the entire show solo, jumping between instruments. On one song, she even used a metronome for percussion. How HOT is that? She did her rock-out songs from other albums with just a guitar or just a guitar and drum machine. She looked so AWESOME wearing that crazy puffy-sleeved Victorian dress and playing guitar so fiercely. Damn, it was amazing. This album is so contemplative, so creepy, so GOOD. Buy it, buy it! (Do you know she is also a sculptor? I love her.)

2. I'm applying to MFA poetry programs and my former professor John Biguenet is writing me a recommendation--and his play Rising Water, about a couple during Katrina, has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize! SO cool.

3. I've gone crazy over the Elvis Costello song "Blame It on Cain" from the My Aim Is True record from 1977. I will make you a mix CD if you ask me. I'm itching to do that for someone.

4. Also, I'm having a bit of an affair with the latest Interpol record, Our Love to Admire. There's a rumor that they've moved to Jersey City. I plan to stalk them and force them to talk to me about literature and James Bond movies. And drink Scotch. Another obsession right now. Or Tullamore Dew.

5. I've gained an appreciation of tattoos--heretofore unappreciated. I never thought so before, but yeah, they're kind of hot.

Published!

(The Old Beehive Living Quarters, Paulus Hook, Jersey City)

Look under poetry, here: www.burrowmag.com.

It's a new magazine out of sweet-ass Brooklyn. If you look back, those haiku had origins right here on this sweet-ass blog. And all right, I know, the plural form of haiku is haiku, not haikus. Forgive me.

Hallelujah. I've broken my publication fast. Stay tuned, more to come.

Reading: Richard Wright's Haiku. Delectable accidental find in the Mid-Manhattan stacks. Libraries = love.

Dispatches from the Front

(Lebanon Junction, Kentucky. Thanksgiving 2006. Near my birthplace, Fort Knox)

I've been thinking about how a cover letter to a literary magazine should be like an artists' statement. Maybe I should try stating what my goals are with the stuff I'm writing. All of my poems, more or less, I am seeing as emotional journalism--dispatches from my heart, me out here on the front lines, dodging bullets, lobbing grenades, all in matters of my heart and soul.

So that's my new goal: briefly stated when I send anything out. Perhaps it'll help with acceptance. I don't my letters so far have really helped any editors or readers get to know me. I've always preferred to let the work speak for itself. But hey, who doesn't need a little help whereever they can get it? Why not turn on the charm when it comes to presenting myself on the page? I am better on paper--I just need to find a way to smile on paper and shake a hand on paper. Yeah, I think it will help.

And I'll post some of my emotional reportage soon; the likes of which have been rejected by such magazines as Black Warrior Review and Crazyhorse. Still so many more to hit up. Why does the submission process take so damn long? I'll just keep my post, watching the field for enemy fire, and blast out a few more shots of my own to let them know I'm still alive.