I Am Just Happy to See You

But I also have a poem in my pocket, courtesy of the kind folks at literary magazine Ninth Letter, who sent me a tiny envelope to celebrate today: Poem in Your Pocket Day. And obeying the instructions, I did not open it until April 17th. It was like Christmas morning. And like the best gifts, it seems as if the giver knew me because I received a prose poem. Here it is:

from PRIMER: AN ABECEDARIAN
by Sara Pennington

You watch your mother through the barn's KNOT HOLE.

She sharpens anything that she can use for killing, polishes and cleans her own dead daddy's Confederate gun, his knife folded quietly in the homespun pocket of her skirt. The pitchfork gleams like a fox's hungry chops, the scythe fleer its grimace, the sickle its overwrought smirk. Between weapons, her fingers turn to kippers, writhing, those pale-bodied worms eaten up with death. And now, you know why she keeps moving: she must. To rest would be to give thought to the maggots, to the fine-haired fungus, to the earwigs and earthworms; idleness serves only the graveyard's nibbling legions. She will not feed her anger like slop to the swine. Vengeance is mine, saith the widow, for each stillness, each silence is a dark-mouthed

KEYHOLE through which grief slithers like a honey-voiced snake.

from Ninth Letter vol. 4, no. 1

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day, everyone!

NatPoMo Update

That cutting edge literary magazine Ninth Letter sent me a surprise today. It's for "Poem in Your Pocket Day," which is April 17th, 2008. It's part of NatPoMo. The poem for my poet is sealed in this portable tiny envelop and warns me "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL APRIL 17 PIYP DAY." What can be inside? I hope it's money. I like money. But I suspect it's a poem. What is the poem in my pocket? Find out on April 17th! Live! (Is a blog live?)

P.S. Please resist any jokes that day that begin: is that a poem in your pocket or....

Escape from New York

I'm back from the AWP conference in New York City. And though I'd love to yammer on about the writerly goodness of it all and the cool city fun, I'm exhausted so I'll just list what I'm returning with:

1. A signed copy of Money by Martin Amis (He said he knew a "Craig"--I presume that means he doesn't want to know another one)

2. An unsigned copy of Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners (She was sick most of the conference, but I met Gavin J. Grant at the Small Beer Press table, and he was a great guy...though he kept raising the prices of his books when knew I was interested).

3. A copy of The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (Grant said everything on the table was half price until I picked that up and then it was everything except the anthology)

4. A copy of the awe-inspiringly designed Ninth Letter magazine (My friend Eric Vrooman has a brilliant piece of satire in this issue in the form of a water bill)

5. A copy of roger, an art & literary magazine (I'll be in the issue coming out in May...I think).

Those are the goodies, kiddies. Now if only I didn't have to teach and could just read my head off...