Prom and Poetry Update

Our bathtub was amazing, on the 23rd floor looking out at Manhattan, thinking about the night on the town...we were at the Kimberly Hotel which is quite near the Buttercup Bakery...mmm, cupcakes in bed for breakfast!
Do we look old enough to be at the Prom?
the DRESS!!!!
another shot of the dress...hmm, i have more shots of the dress than jonathan...what does that say about our relationship???


POETRY

Today I just found out that one of my poems will be in the Outside Voices Anthology which comes out in 2008 I think. It's huge, like 475 poets. I'm always fascinated by how many people are writing and doing new things (so to speak) and how these communities of ours form. How much of it is by the so called evil networking, which I like to refer to as finding new friends, you know, like discovering new restaurants or something. I often wonder what brings us together. Obviously now the internet and wow, look what technology has done for the literary community. In general I think the internet is a great tool for literacy. So here's the site: http://poetry2008.blogspot.com/

Come, be my book fellow. But wow, look at what we are all doing. All of these dreams of doing meaningful things. That's how I feel about my anthology, (still deep in permissions) but planting the seeds and waiting for that thing to bloom.

The King and Queen of the Prom!!!

The royal blog of text will follow later on this week...

The Latest Burlesque Hype

Last Monday's Burlesque can be viewed here.

And check out May's issue of The Washingtonian. Turn to page 82 and you'll find a very pretty photo of Gina Myers reading at last month's Burlesque.

It was worth it

to wait in line for free Ben and Jerry's today. They have a new banana flavor. I'm surprised Ramona hasn't gone for ice cream yet. I really need to get back to her and back to the museum sequence. Over the weekend I went to the Hokusai exhibit and feel a poem coming on about a woman thrown in a well for breaking a favorite dish.

Spent the rest of the afternoon outside in the Circle reading my student's fiction. Reb sent me some job postings at the NEA but I like being able to play outside. Such is the life of a bartender. You really feel like you are getting away with something not working during the day. And yes, this is totally worth it. I feel like a kid sometimes and speaking of that, the big news is one of my friends is pregnant (with her second child). Wow, it seems like only yesterday we were running around the flats in tank tops in the winter and dancing up a storm. And I see my students and think am I really that much older? And I think of Suzy beginning her family and think of how far we've journeyed from there, though getting back together for Annie's bachlorette party will no doubt bring us around to the circle again reminding us that girls are girls no matter what loops they chose to follow. And I know that no matter which paths we take, we will circle round with each other.

On a Rainy Day looking for a cheap bathtub

A rainy Saturday morning has me inside. I'm still thinking about the aesthetics of the book. Not sure if I really want a Bonnard painting on the front or a photograph or just a blank cover. I'd publish it here but all the permissions and whatnot have got me scared of the red tape, but you can google Bonnard and bathtub and get an idea of what I'm considering. So I'm online looking for other possibilities as permissions are expensive. At any rate, the announcement is up so check it out: http://www.wwph.org/news.html#winners

I find it funny that as I'm struggling with this whole idea of presentation, I have assigned that to my students---to publish so to speak their final portfolio and make something. I think these decisions are important and now I really know as I'm going through this. However, I am lucky in the fact that I get to be a part of this process---many authors don't, so I know I should count my blessings even if they complicate things.

This week's Buzz

I can't really say that much has been going on, except that spring is here. I know that because people are out on the streets now and outside and not at the Rouge. The other day I watched the large bees (I forget what they're called) hover into the roof of the yoga studio. I really like the image of hovering and burrowing. Not sure how I will use it but something felt really good about it, like it was soft, like the bees. I wanted to see them closer. I don't think they sting.

My fancy knives came from Crate and Barrel and tonight I'll use them as I cook my haricot verts for Jonathan. We've been mispronoucing that all week. Leave it to Whole Foods to provoke a week long entertainment. They also have apricot ginger creamcheese which has now yuppified me. Yep, Ramona's got the fancy pants!

Also check out Burlesque on Monday and get your buzz on with these queen bees of poetry: Anna Ziegler, Amy King, and Lauren Bender. Click here for more information.

Connecting to Buddha

I'm currently connected to Buddha, which is what I named my Wireless Network. Yes, I'm serious. I think it will really be the only way that I will actually connect with Buddha on a daily basis. I'm also thinking about a cat, and I'm thinking of naming it something like Moshe, or after some poet that strikes me. Though cat won't come until I do more home stuff for me, like painting and hanging things as cats would complicate all of that.

Jonathan brought me flowers during my office hours and one of my students came by to chat about writing and life. Office hours were finally more than me just grading and surfing the net. I wore these really uncomfortable shoes and had to take a cab home which sucked b/c I walked to work in the rain and then rode home when it was sunny. Alas, I changed into better shoes and walked over to the J for the reading of Passover poems. This is the new breezy me, I realized my limitations and accepted my body for what it was and then figured out how to accomodate the posture. Yoga speak is good speak.

Though I teach with Jane Shore and Faye Moskowitz, I never really got to hear either one of them read and it made me appreciate both of them even more. Such tenderness and humor (I'm talking about their work as well as them as individuals. I loved Faye's story about eating Milky Ways on Passover and Jane's "Shit Soup" poem. And then Carolivia Herron and Josh Weiner---two writers living so close to me that I never read. It was a reading with such grace and spirit, reminded me of Wick readings in a way, when the people are as good as the work and the work is as good as the people and everyone is there for the right reasons.

And then my friend Sandra came and told me that someone very wonderful got the Pulitzer. And that reaffirmed everything for some reason and I felt good and I think she felt good and then she left and I took a bath and now I'm connecting to Buddha so I can write this stream of blog, when I have so much to say and none of it comes out exactly right. Perhaps that is the Buddha, just letting me ramble, trusting that it is good or that there is goodness. And my friend Anna is going to read for us in Burlesque and Harriet emailed me about the anthology that we had talked about over the summer in Philly (yes, a new project) and I'm realizing that there are so many connections that I'm making but not like networking in the evil sense when it's out for self promotion but when you really want to connect because you realize it's the connection that matters, not the outcome. Nameste to you and your wireless.

In My Shoes

Not having my internet at home has at first been causing much anguish but has also removed some stress and compulsive behavior on my part. Now I can't check email like 20 bazillion times and google myself and look for hot shoes online, or rather pictures of hot shoes that I bought so you all who don't live close by can get a glimpse of my tootsies, or rather what's on my tootsies. (By the way, today I'm wearing the new Mary Jane red Campers). I'm walking in the shoes of a girl no longer chained to incoming messages and enjoying the freedom from technology, It's funny, these advances, meant to enrich our lives also come with a cost--it's hard to imagine dealing without these things. Cell phones, email. Think about all the people who walk around on their phones all the time, think of all the things they miss while walking. I wonder if technology makes us more self absorbed? I like the way this fits, though email comes next tuesday--or perhaps, I'm still battling the evil Verizon monopoly and their bureaucracy but that's another rant, neither worth my time or yours. I'll leave that battle to my corporate lawyer boyfriend. He can fight the good fight for fair use of pole attachments and anti-corporate mergers and free cable lines and whatnot.

In class we're talking about perspectives, how something changes from first to third person, what details filter in and who gets to be the one with the voice in our stories. So often we only focus on our own and our needs. So I'm going to more yoga and trying to see the greater schema of life, and of not focusing on the smaller things like Verizon and my shoes (the latter being much more challenging). We're also talking about setting and how the places we encounter change us.
From a simple car or metro ride to a trip abroad, to room in our homes, or the local cafe all become part of our world, how our surroundings are a tapestry and if we pay attention to the things these places and these moments tell us, we begin to understand things that are universal, that transcend our locality, essentially what it means to be human. Sans email, sans cell phone. Try it and see what is there, the things you miss when you remove the protective guise of technology and become more in tune with what is.

Home Sweet Home

So, I just moved into my new apartment--has a washer/dryer and is more than one room! Tonight my good friend Janeil is coming over so I get to test my new oven out. The chicken is marinating in my new fridge and yesterday I stocked up on groceries so I get get back to feeding Ramona properly. I don't have internet hooked up so I apologize for my irregularity. Tonight's menu includes:

Rosemary balsamic chicken
bruchetta with heirloom tomatoes
salad of field greens

I'm so sick of pizza and eating out. The apartment is scented with fresh basil and hyacinth that Ramona stole from Whole Foods. We're still bad asses!

Last Night's Burlesque

For those of you not there, here's a peep show:

http://burlesquepoetryhour.blogspot.com/2006/03/dustin-shafer-henry-and-gina-take-it.html

Packing (also Unpacking)

I'm in the middle of these things, of unearthing these reminders of myself. The places I've been, the people who mattered to me then and now, old letters, old photographs, the treasures and the junk. Of sorting through what to take with me and what to throw out, what stays in the archive and what will be lost or what has already been lost.

Right now I'm listening to Kasey Chambers. I think Jillian was the one who got me into her. It was over a trip to Lancaster County visiting her family. I found those pictures too. "If I'm not here in the morning...I'll learn to live in a new town, but my heart is staying here..." a random lyric. This morning one of my former students emailed me---she was only in my class for a few weeks before getting sick and having to head back home--she's reading the class books and writing. I found Maj's letter, the one that says: "I don't know much about the big city. I decided long ago that I would stay in one place and make a garden, nothing big, no ambitions for expansion. I would come to know that ground as intimately as I could, never think of it as mine and serve the work." I think of all the moving and cultivating. All the gardens we tend and then pass on to the next gardeners. I like the idea of working and leaving. John is leaving me one of his plants that won't make the move with him. My new place has places to hang hanging plants outside my door. I'm really excited about that. The more I think about it, the more I like adjuncting and bartending. It's really good for now and maybe it will be enough for a while. All I can do is what I can do. We all can.

Last night Jonathan said something that made me think: humans are not meant for the state of the world as it is---how life is full of frenzy that it hasn't been before---with all the work and technology. The emphasis on the now. He's been spending a lot of time in the office and wondering the worth of that kind of life, of 12 hour work days. I don't know. Maybe it's always been this way, maybe all "modern" societies seem too modern and we all think of the past as utopia. I think back to Maj, that simple philosophy of not being overly ambitious, of tending a small plot and planting roots that are strong enough for others to carry the seeds of your labor and replant them in their far away soil. Maj closed his letter saying Shine Shine Carly. The afternoon light comes quietly through my blinds. It is glorious.

Now you get to smile pretty for the camera

For those of you attending Burlesque on Monday -- wear something pretty. A photographer from The Washingtonian will be there taking pictures for an upcoming article on the DC literary scene.

The Real P

I’m still not 100% happy with the pictures. Luckily I have an artist friend who has some free time to drive down from Youngstown and take some photos. Last night at dinner I got some great advice from fellow poets. It’s your book, you have to be happy with it. Don’t feel like you have to do anything any way but yours. The popular photo is the last one, but I’m not thrilled with it. I think I can do better. And since I will probably have a lot of books around, I want to make sure I’m stunning. As Reb says, you won’t always be hot. Act now. And it will mean more knowing that Billy took the pictures---he’s going to be a famous artist one day and I’ll be able to say I knew him when we were just kids who talked big in a loft that no longer exists in Youngstown.

Last night we (see the No Tell in Church post) all read sexy poems in church and said words that don’t usually get said in church. My word was pussy. And I know people are cringing now, just that I said it, wrote it, and used it in a poem. My mom said that wasn’t one of her favorites. My father would say it’s not what a professional poet would do. And while I agree most of the time that one should use tact and think of her reputation, I think about what would happen if we stopped writing what was real to us and if we always thought of the censor before the writing. What I learned from a panel of erotic and sexual writing at AWP was that sex is real and it should be talked about and written about. No, I’m not going to start writing sex poems or sex scenes and certainly not here---I am a nice Jewish girl after all, though one who feels comfortable saying the p word every once in a while. Though not too much. Notice the P and not the word here J. Some of my favorite lines from my students’ work are peppered with these words: when making love turns to fucking, I ask (blank) if she’s been S-L-U-Tin’ it up, (blank) drinks a 40 and (blank) writes a poem. It’s empowering to be able to say these things and it makes writing (and life) real.

After the reading, I was too hot and bothered to do work so I watched a whole bunch of #1 Single starring Lisa Loeb who everyone says I look like: she still rocks pigtails at 37 and so I know I can still get away with it. Today I’m going to wear them to yoga and the orthodontist. And I’m not going to care how old people think I am or if I’m acting my age. Today I’m keepin’ it real.

Why is This Night Different than Tuesday Night?

Virtual Haggadah: Poetry Workshop
Wednesday, March 22, 7:30-9:00 pm
$10, $7 Discounted Member Price
Instructor: Carly Sachs

Let the work of the artists exhibited in the Gallery spark your own creative writing! In a guided workshop, respond to the art in your own words. There will be an opportunity to share your poem at a reading in April (see below).

Carly Sachs is a creative writing professor at George Washington University.

Virtual Haggadah: Poetry Reading with Josh Weiner, Jane Shore, and Faye Moskowitz
Monday, April 17, 6:30 pm FREE
Hear original poetry based upon the artwork of the “Different Nights” exhibit echoing through the Gallery. Enjoy wine and cheese before the Screening Room.

for more info: http://dcjcc.org/arts/literature/

No Tell at Church

Yes, this is 100% Kosher!!!

Tuesday, March 21 at 7:30 p.m.
Grace Church Poetry Coffeehouse, 1041 Wisconsin Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC

Readers include:

Kim Roberts is the author of a book of poems, The Wishbone Galaxy, and editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly, an on-line journal and resource bank serving the greater Washington DC region (http://washingtonart.com/beltway.html). She has published poems in the US, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, and France, in journals beginning with every letter of the alphabet. She has been a writer in residence at ten artist colonies.

Remica L. Bingham, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. She has attended the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops and is a Cave Canem fellow. She recently completed her first book of poetry entitled Conversion. In addition to other journals, her work has been featured in 5 AM, PMS, Crab Orchard Review, Gulf Coast and is forthcoming in Essence. She is the recipient of the 2005 Hughes, Diop, Knight Poetry Award and was nominated for a 2006 Pushcart Prize. She is the Writing Competency Coordinator at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Maureen Thorson's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in The Hat, LIT, and Unpleasant Event Schedule. Her chapbook, Novelty Act, is available from Ugly Duckling Presse.

Christy J. Zink is an assistant professor of writing at The George Washington University. Her work has appeared in such publications as American Literary Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, and The Washington Post. She has received fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts.

Carly Sachs teaches creative writing at George Washington University. Her first book of poems, the steam sequence will be published by the Washington Writers Publishing House in Fall 2006. With Reb Livingston, she curates the Burlesque Poetry Hour at Bar Rouge in Washington, DC.

Ravi Shankar, founding editor of the international journal of the arts Drunken Boat and poet-in-residence at Central Connecticut State, has published a book of poems, Instrumentality (Cherry Grove), named a finalist for the 2005 Connecticut Book Awards. He has appeared as a commentator on NPR, written poems, reviews and essays for such publications as The Paris Review, Fulcrum and Poets & Writers, and read his work in many places, including the Asia Society and the National Arts Club. Along with Tina Chang and Nathalie Handal, he is currently editing an anthology of contemporary Arab and Asian poetry.

Reb Livingston is the co-editor of No Tell Motel and the anthology The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel. Her online chapbook, Pterodactyls Soar Again, is forthcoming from the Whole Coconut Chapbook Series. Her poems have recently appeared or will soon in Best American Poetry 2006, Coconut and MiPOesias.

I'm So Vain

Afterall, I was named after Carly Simon...so I was gone for 10 days and all I have are pictures of myself (book jacket photo). One of the reasons is that we took all the vacation pics on Jonathan's camera and that's sans present at the moment. Besides, do you really want to see cacti up close and personal? So friends and family, another plea to help me find the right look for the book:

Bye Bye Blog for 10 Days!!!

It's difficult being gracious. Last night I was able to get things back into perspective. Chris Abani read from his poetry and prose and I was shook---to the core. He read a poem about a jazz singer singing only to you and somehow last night, I kind of felt that, not that he was reading only to me, but he was reading to individuals, not a collective audience. There was an intimacy and a closeness. It was one of those eye opening readings in which you realize or re-realize why you write, why you have chosen this vocation. I seriously urge you all to google him and discover what I can't possibly convey here.

I guess what I mean about gracious is more being contented, of breathing in the moment, and those of you who know me well, know that I am a horrible Buddhist. I try and fail, frustrate and fluster until I gasp. Last night I listened to Jonathan breathe while asleep, my hand across his side. And I fell back asleep to that rhythm--I needed reminded that it is as simple as breath, one foot in front of the other, take in each moment. He is teaching me the joys of imperfection--of crumbs on the table, clothes haphazard on the floor, of not worrying about the unmades and undones. For the first time in a while I wrote a poem using the word I (meaning myself), and a poem in which he made an appearance. And just last week I had told my students that I hadn't written a love poem in a long time. It's far from perfect and probably a bit sappy, but it was necessary.

Today the apartment has been cleaned by my lovely cleaning lady and smells of oranges! I went to the Mustard Seed and came back with some new duds for Austin and Arizona (all gift certificates and selling back my vintage discards)! And now packing and yoga at 5:15! So this will be my last post before vacation. Make sure you check out the pics of the Alimentum reading from a while back. I'm posting the one of me reading b/c I'm quite a humble ham. Ramona likes the flowers in my hair and she's also looking forward to an adventure out west!

Betsey Johnson meets the Pleasure Place

So the same woman who sold me my fancy Betsey Johnson dress also sold me a garter made of candy at the Pleasure Place. Relax, It's for Reb's pajama party at AWP! I mean I have to do better than that tie thing from over the summer. This got me thinking to the duality of the human nature, those sweet contrasts and conflicts, the opposites and unexpecteds. From fancy formal to funky fettish. How do we make sense of these rhythms. Today in class we read Paul Celan's Death Fugue and Alice Fulton's Everyone Knows the World is Ending. I asked my students how we make sense of "black milk" of the human mind, of death, of the Holocaust. How repetition moves us through a narrative. The way when we encounter the same thing, how it has evolved and changed. How do we explain something beyond our comprehension? I'm still grappling with these questions---though I wonder if a mystery is sometimes better left unsolved.

Belated Belly B-Day

This picture is also posted on the Marrakesh site: Marrakesh.us. It's funnier there b/c everyone else has some destination---but us, we're the odd literati :). Also in case you wondered how to spell Raydiance...unless Iyviampe, is another code for something. I'm beginning to worry about this girl. Who now has 3 names I'm aware of. And yes, there were men at my party, but apparently Marrakesh believes only females make literature pleasant...don't you agree?

The Swoon, Morning After...

Do I look like I'm swooning?

I am...Burlesque poetry was a hit last night. Click on the Burlesque link for more pics of hot poets reading hot poems. And hot people listening to hot poets reading hot poems.