Facing Out

Yes, that's Barak O'Bama's head peeking out from behind my book. I was so excited to see it (in front of his!) at Busboys in DC for the reading. I'm sure by now it's shoved in the stacks somewhere but for one day, to have your book facing you, I can't begin to say how cool it is. And to have this picture of that moment makes me giddy (thanks to my rad camera happy fella)! 

It's a weird thing being a poet---when asked at the bar, if I have books and then say two, my customers are like, whoa, what are they about?

But then when they ask if they'll see them in bookstores, you feel like the 3rd string quarterback, just throwing footballs in some bull pen, knowing not many will know your arm.  So I've been thinking, why do we do it?  

When I thumb through the why and later, I know why, because there are poems that need to be written, poems that spiral in the air knowing they will hit their mark. Even if it's just one person meeting herself on the page.