the INLAID EAR

Followed up via email with laureate selection chairperson. I hope I get it. Other than than, taking some days off poetry to go to Vegas. Of course, that will surely generate the traditional Vegas poem that always comes out of these trips.

Started reading Alison Luterman's new manuscript. It's amazing as always. Her poetry seems easier to enter than mine. It embraces like a warm kitchen. Maybe my poetry, in general, is more like a gallery in a modern art museum: you have to go in with your own curiosity, and it's up to you to engage your attention and depth of vision. Hmm. Big news is I interviewed for the position of Richmond Poet Laureate. I think I have a good shot at it based on my energy and ideas and on my reading. The committee said they were impressed with all the candidates so far, and I was certainly glad to meet another candidate for it: Lincoln Bergman, a politically active, KPFA, organizer gentleman with rhythmic, rhyming materials about history and current events. He read a good poem draft about Maya Angelou, who passed away today. Talk of making the post a multi-person post, which would be nice. I'm thinking a youth laureate would be a good idea separate from the adult laureate. The off...

Submitted the poem from yesterday to Poetry . Ballsy, but why not? I'm pleased with it; though I also get frustrated and flustered with the gray area about what publication means to different venues. Poetry seems to feel that a poem appearing anywhere anyhow online or in print means they can't use it. So I deleted it from yesterday's post and changed the privacy settings on the post I put on Facebook to "only friends." It was the comments of friends on FB that made me feel that the poem was worth a try with Poetry Magazine . Anyway, fingers crossed... Conversed via Facebook with Laurie Kolp about her new book Upon the Blue Couch by Winter Goose Press , Sacramento. Read the first section of the book on the way in to work, so was fired up to talk with her about it. The press looks like it could be a good choice for me--nearby, open to submissions, approachable, and sounds like they are easy to work with. Made some small edits to "Plum Season," from...

If I could poem like this every day, oh my. I went to Kabuki Hot Springs and did three loops of sauna, steam, plunge and soak. During each loop, I wrote a stanza of a queron in my memory. I wrote the final couplet on the way back home. Not only a quietly meditated and meditative poem, but instantly memorized, too. [poem omitted for publishing requirements] A good soak, a good poem, and I'm satisfied. Also posted a new prompt over at my and Marna's blog, IMUNURI . Marna wrote the prompt. I just posted it.

Brought malted milk balls to writing jam, arriving home from the grocery trip just in time, though a few minutes late picking up Natasha Dennerstein from BART. Judith Scherr and Alan Phillips arrive for writing jam. We free write. We write bref double. We write Natasha's (Jungian) free association strings, then use that material to craft short poems or proses. I get some material to compost and quite enjoy myself. Natasha, Judith and Alan get good material out of the session. I enter my bref double in the bref double poetic forms challenge at Poetic Asides . Because why not? I will take Natasha's comments from jam to heart and choose to believe the poem has the right balance of subtle and overt. Except who but my Bay Area compatriots will understand the reference to the bakery Ariz Mendi? (luckily "the bakery" fits both the rhyme and syllable needs). "Long weekend to myself" I'm framing my apology for not checking every checkbox on the list ...

Scheduled writing jam for tomorrow. So, tomorrow I will have more to mention :) Danced hard. Played the game Dominion with its creator, Donald X. and Destry, using Donald's prototype deck with as-yet unreleased cards. Thought about a couple of poems, and wrote a couple of lines.

On BART, struggled to draft another poem for Like/Share II , a photography-inspiring-poetry art show and event I was invited to participate in by curator Ann Trinca. The event "happens" in June with readings/showings. (Will need to ping my list.) Walked up to Coit Tower after lunch and finished first draft of what's now called "Love poem or apology."   Submitted five poems (four from the book) to 32 poems . According to Duotrope , chances of acceptance are under 1%. So it's really going to boost my average when I get in :D Submitted three poems to Ancient Paths , though I'm unsure about the fit of my gnostic, deistic, Jewish poems with this "Christian" journal. On the other hand, if this is Christian the way my friend and poet/photographer Ed Aust is, the fit could be perfect. Submitted four poems to Zyzzyva , a local mag. About 2% acceptance. West Coast focus. Hand delivered it, because why not? I hand delivered a submission last ye...