I’m back from Gualala and the cats were happy to see us last night even if we weren’t so happy to be back from vacation. I read the wonderful opening “Combray” section of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time and also Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man and Ruth Rendell’s A Sight for Sore Eyes, and also managed a few walks along the bluffs overlooking the ocean. I was surprised that so many wildflowers were still in bloom! It made me think of the sometimes strained relationship between poetry and nature—maybe more on that later.
Meanwhile, my poem “Complaint of the Muse: Take This Job and Shove It” is featured on Slate today. They accepted it way back in February 2003, so I’m pretty excited to finally see it.
Also, big congratulations to C. Dale on having his new book accepted by Four Way Books, and congrats to us all that we’ll finally be able to read it!
This Just In …
Conjugated Visits is now available from Dream Horse Press, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Powell's. Or send me your address (dianekmartin [at] sbcglobal [dot] net) and $15 to get a signed copy.
:: Upcoming Events ::
Reading: September 11, 2011
Booksmith
Time: 4:00 pm
Location: 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
Reading with 13 Ways poetry group
Reading: October 2, 2011
Corte Madera
Time: 4:00 pm
Group reading
Reading: November 9
Sunset Poetry by the Bay
333 Caledonia Street, Sausalito
Time: 7:00–9:00 pm
Reading with Robert Thomas and Susan Kolodny
Blogs I Read
7 comments:
Great poem, Robert. You're so good at The Great Image—humor, imagination, gorgeous language all together. Thanks for posting a link to the poem.
Speaking of C. Dale, I tried to post on his blog and it won't let me as a non-blogger. He couldn't tell us at Napa who his new publisher is, but now that I know, I'd really like to send congratulations. Working with him in Napa was a treat--lots of fun and so many good ideas he has.
Ah, I love that poem, Robert. Congrats on getting it finally posted on Slate. Though lord knows, the eejits who post there in the Fray don't deserve it.
And thanks for getting back. I was tired of seeing my post up there.
Beverly, you can create an identity as a Blogger and post a comment. You don't actually have to do anything with it--and you can choose to have the profile not show, I think, if you want.
Robert, Thanks. You are brave man to publish at SLATE. I will never do it again. They have a ridiculous thing where people just rip the poems apart only then to post their moronic poems, which they then all praise as if it were "The Idea of Order at Key West." The people there are downright ridiculous. And their criticism even more ridiculous. If they could criticize things wothout sounding as if they had never read a poem, then it would be fine. Never again. Someone there ragged on my voice in the stupid recording. It was like being in grade school again.
Robert: Nice poem. Thanks.
I was just re-reading the poem this morning, pleasantly surprised considering most of Pinsky's recent offerings ... Then I realized, hey, it's yours! Super congratulations.
Thanks, everyone. Yes, there are some snarky comments about the poem on Slate, but I think that's the nature of the Internet. There are also some very good comments.
I sometimes wonder if snarky criticism does more harm to the critic than the poet. It's easy to find stuff to laugh it in every poet from Whitman on down, so if you're afraid of being laughed at, you're going to write those risk-free poems we've all come to hate.
The poem on Slateis staggeringly good. Congratulations.
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