eggplant flower

road trip

Driving 14-15 hours to Michigan tonight after work. I'm already tired. Send me your energies.

I had the best hot chocolate last night.

this morning's soundtrack

This guy was diagnosed with cancer at the end of last season and is back pitching in the majors within a year.

I did a google image search for poetry. This was probably the most accurate image I came across in terms of my experience with poetry. What would your image look like?

Canoed down the Connecticut yesterday with a couple of good friends. Neck and nose are scorched. Nose giving the impression that I have a gin tan, hiccup, but in actuality it is a farmer's tan. I hadn't been swimming in the river for years. The current was strong and the little islands were mostly submerged. I forgot the feeling of standing in the water and having the tiny fishes nibble on your legs. We also caught a cat nap on a granite outgrowth across from "moron" beach.

Also managed to plant my fall basil and brassica. & harvested my first round of green beans, blueberries, jalapeno peppers, and more sungolds. There is an asian eggplant that'll be ready this week.

Again photos forthcoming.

23 1/3

Cases of Petit Syrah were bottled on Saturday afternoon and night. & my back is killing me.

Photos forthcoming.

octogenarian rocks

Julia's g-ma on Property Line. How cool is that?

         out of
internal
         dark:
forebodings -
         what
is the blood -
         framing
within me?
         what
is in the dark
         cavities
we want nothing
         but our
paint-free
         selves
to be
         loved
at all times.

Richard Caddel from "Nocturnall"

Francis Bacon

"Actually, I'm the most ordinary person possible. Its just that I like throwing myself in the gutter. Every artist wants to throw himself into the gutter. Its part of his life, its a necessity. You might say that I lead a gilded gutter life, I drift from bar to bar, from gambling place to gambling place, and when I don't do those things, I go home and paint some pictures. I am completely amoral. If I hadn't painted I would have been a criminal....I have always known life was absurb. Life is nothing but a series of sensations.......Life is so meaningless we might as well try to make ourselves extraordinary...I think of life as meaningless and yet it excites me. I always think that something marvellous is about to happen. How can I trap this transient thing?"

Mathias gives Counting On Planet Zero some love. Thanks Mathias!

TRANSMIGRATION SOLO

See the black bird
in that tree
trying out the branches, puzzled.
I am up there with you
puzzled against the rain
blinking my eyes.

Joseph Ceravolo

click.

Julia on February

Julia Cohen gives Aaron Tieger's February attention. Very cool, thanks Julia!

Whalen Collected

Via Sam Ward.

garden update, etc.

Friday evening when I went to the garden it was a bit despairing to see how the weeds had not only gained the upper hand, but were threatening to completely overwhelm the plants. Last week with press production, the heat, and the rain, I was unable to devote necessary attention to the plants. So this weekend I spent many hours in the garden attempting to play catch up. The garden was a lawn last year, so the weeds are essentially dense grass, which is often the most difficult to remove because you can't simply hoe it out, you have to get down on hands and knees and yank them out without removing too much of the soil or the plants themselves. A painstaking process, imagine mowing your lawn by hand...perhaps that's a bit hyperbolic, but you get the idea. After I weeded like this for hours I find that when I close my eyes I see the weeds in my mind. This kind of visualization is actually very pleasant.

What else?

Fixed the garden fence.

Planted several varieties of morning glories along the fence.

Transplanted basil.

Removed first round of peas.

Staked and tied several tomato plants.

Read Caddel's Writing in the Dark. I highly recommend this book. It was written after he had been diagnosed with leukemia. Beautiful poems, playful and heart breaking. I'll post some more of them, but Crystallographer from a previous post is one of them. There is one particular at the end of the book, written to/for his wife that is breath taking in its vulnerability and execution.

Finished designing the cover for Andy Mister's chapbook.

Did the layout for Asterisk 3.

Wrote some.

Revised some.

Various errands.

Attended a cook out/dinner party of friends.

Kevin Killian on A BOOK OF PROPHECIES.

This is unbelievable.

look out peeps

Lugo's crossed the Mendoza line.

Looks like rain.

What a thunderbanger earlier in the week. Cathartic.

My kingdom for more than 5 hours sleep.

Hey look, the American League won the All Star game. I'm shocked.

honesty the measure
of a drab sad

said forward nothing

adds up a spy in

the house squares

to move meaning
freedom from my erred

choice rain spots the
road my unglued when

lied to remains open
immutable hoola

hoop ringed in apple
tree of attrition

Might have the best friends in the world. Many shining stars. So fortunate. Props for the lads and lassies.

Hope I can sleep tonight. These restless nights. I'm guessing it is part the humidity. It isn't so bad, these mornings where you hear the birds before the light.

A second round of pesto.

Rewatched Lost in Translation.

Did not watch the All Star Game.

Sported my F&F t-shirt tonight. "What is F&F?" How do you answer that?

Recent rain and steamy heat have the garden overgrown with weeds. & something, presumably a porcupine, continues to mow its way through the brassica. I had hopes for a banner brassica crop, but it looks like there'll be little. The porcupine has begun to eat the brussel sprouts I had covertly hidden amongst the peas. I'm all for coexistence, but if you have an available shotgun, let me know. Last evening in the brutal heat and humidity I decided to attempt to fix my fence in order to thwart, or at least make the porcupine work harder for his bounty. I had to dig a hole to re-affix a post. It was so humid that sweat began pouring out of me and my glasses slid off my face onto the ground. I was drenched within minutes. The despair of feeling the garden out of hand, and the disappearing crops, was replaced by being saturated. I quickly gave up and decided it would be wiser to work on press projects. I grabbed Langston and headed indoors. Once inside I shed my sopping clothing. Langston continued on through the house and out the front door. Normally I might let Langston wander, but his penchant for compost has cost me thousands of dollars, literally, and he had a leash trailing which could lead to disastrous results if he was to get hung up on something. I quickly followed him out into the yard. Upon seeing the first biker, I realized I hadn't a stitch of clothes on. I returned to the house and threw on a pair of shorts and went back for Langston. I realized I couldn't see anything because I didn't have my glasses. I went back to the house, found my glasses, and quickly spotted Langston far down the road, head sniffing at the air. Luckily I was quick enough to scoop him up and return home. I'm wondering what the biker thought when he saw me come racing out of the house hellbent and frantic, buck naked? Oh hello, don't mind me, I'm just looking for my dog.

Coolidge special editions are on their way. Thanks for patience.

"I don't feel tardy."

maple’s colonnade
branches twined
overlap

clusters of last
leaves spangle
an almost

color wrung

sky

Crystallographer

Sky at night, who can fathom it?
We all can. A chinese
smile takes me out of myself, these
downers lifted by shining

my teeth, jumping in planetary
time. If you love me
you love its sound, this faint breeze
and its eternal traffic noise

vibrating. No need for gods, we
breathing this age daily
and after all this time
the shapes we sense are new.

Richard Caddel

I'll be editing the second issue of The Can. If you are interested in writing something for it, let me know. Deadline for submissions will be September 1.

now now

The office is now the reading room. The bedroom is now the office. The blue room is now the bedroom. Now I need more lamps.

See the scintillating things you learn reading this blog?

new Wieners

No, not another hot dog post, much much better, look. If you don't buy a copy of this, I've got nothing to say to you.

Counting On Planet Zero special edition orders

Will ship on Monday. Apologies for delays.

Joseph Ceravolo from Fits of Dawn

There was some thing an old
no presumed by really growing;
under travel perhaps.
I wait sickly that come
come how, own that
we could all face makes
day think approaches.
Harm notions steering touched yet
tepid hunch bring at
could none feet gloom hedge. Save!
How? the sun microphones;
strike and somed giving done must
yet nod danger fu-
pressed out
Motioning more nevered wind may lull
stretted koob-reville sprang.
When has I now wowed?

what's grosser than gross

This.

mix

"Periodical" Brenda Iijima

"ONE DAY" Robert Creeley

"Rock Poems" Karin Lessing

"Unemployment" Catherine Meng

"AGAIN" Clark Coolidge

"Old Typewriter" Sean Cole

be beep

Go here and watch the clip of Ellsbury scoring from second base on a wild pitch.

What is it about cottage cheese that seems so disgusting?

Listened to this song about 20 times this morning.

asia argento

Sexy or tramp? Or both?

Been up since 5 this morning. Weeded half the garden, finished mowing the lawn, walked the pooch, watered the garden, picked peas, hacked out a rose bush, then drove to work for 10. I think it may be high time for a beer. What beer should I have? I had a Lagunitas Sirius Ale or two over the weekend. Highly recommended. It is a cream ale.

Looking forward to visitors tomorrow night. Visitors from outer state.

Past Simple 3.

"That's a pretty nice hair cut."

Does your mom forward you dirty jokes? If not, sign up in the comments box and I'll forward my mom's.

Sheesh.