S.F. & Portland with Oatmeal Johnson

F.O.G.

Space Grill Landing

Stair Surfing

Blow Gun Trials

Lonley Frisco Nights

Brisk Window

Fortunate Son

Oatmeal Johnson in the neighborhood

Folsom Street Dick Whipping Festival

Large Marge

Nightmare Horse Monster

The Night

Lobby View

Ashland, OR

Illegal Sandwich

Valentines' Bartender gets a free breakfast

Mustard Jail

Powell's

Nickel Arcade

Blacklight Disc

The Goodbye Convention

"No."

Old New York

Money Shot

Old Brooklyn Bridge

Hoodwinked

Oatmeal in Negative Snow

Wooden Appetite

Eight Years

Four Armed Canadian

"Now Go."

Bees

Thank You Portland and San Francisco

More than anything, I recommend finding the new issue of Tin House and spending some serious time with it. It hits all the perfect notes that fall between poetry and politics right now. There are excerpts from Jose Saramango's new novel, Death With Interruptions, a fantastic discussion between Win McCormack and Thomas Frank, Slavoj Zizek on shame and Michelle Houellebecq, essays by Brian Evanson, Lydia Davis, George Saunders and poetry by Kevin Young. An essay by Win McCormack is available for your online eyes.


The superlative Matthew Rohrer has a new chapbook out. It is 43 page long poem. Get it here before its gone.



Typo 12 is up. So is a new Action Yes.


I have a new poem forthcoming in Spooky Boyfriend, which is a cool journal that has already had some interesting authors. It premieres on Halloween.


Emily and I just adopted this thing. The thing is a cat. His name is Christopher Sousa, named after my friend Christopher Sousa.





I've read a lot of great books lately. Indignation was the first Roth I ever truly enjoyed. I initially picked it up for the cover. I'm particularly enamored with Polish poet Adam Zagajewski. Maybe its the newly chilled weather, but I can't get enough of the Poles. I like Zagajewski for his clean, direct language. Already I can tell this is a collection I will come back to, over and over. I've got my Herbert and Milosz, but who else should I look for.

I Have a Lot of Interests Including Decorative Plates

Don't Let Me Die Nervous

Some words about a poem I wrote mentioned in the latest New Pages review of Prick of the Spindle.

There is a shortage of chapbooks at Greying Ghost. Carl has this to say -

"As far as greying ghost news goes, books have been a moving. all orders have either been shipped or have been packed and will be shipped out later this afternoon. this is exciting news for me as i've been behind and am no legally caught up. legally. i have 5 copies of Shane Jones' I Will Unfold You With my Hairy Hands. i have 2 copies of Peter Berghoef's News of The Haircut. i have 6 copies of Christopher Rizzo's Naturalistless. and i have 12 copies of Allen Bramhall's Walden Book. i have 6 copies of Brian Foley's The Tornado Is Not A Surrealist. if you are a last minute type, you should visit the Airforce Joyride site pronto while you legally still can. i like throwing the word "legally" legally into sentences. "

Greying Ghost has really picked up it's business lately. This makes me feel self conscious. Chapbooks are forthcoming from Zach Schomburg, Brooklyn Copeland, Kathryn Regina, Brandon Scott Gorell, and a lot more. Mathias Svalina and Julia Cohen now have another collaborative chapbook coming from GG as well.



This book made me want to go fishing and talk in circles. I nice end of summer the read. It made stop thinking about politics for a while, which all you can really ask. I think about politics and read about politics too often these days. I don't trust my opinions, so I read more. That's how it is for most things though, I don't trust my opinions, so i read more.

This weekend I am in New Hampshire. At the end of the month I will be in San Francisco, then in Portland for a week. I've never been to Portland.

There don't seem to be many poetry readings happening in Boston this fall. I can change this, but am not wild about hosting them in my store. It is a bit "uptight". I would like to read again. From my work. I would stick myself on a bill, but that would be obnoxious. I enjoy readings - by others, or for myself. Like an oil man or newspaper man, I am a reading man. That is what I do. Once I am through with my position at the store, I will probably start my own reading series. I would start one now, but don't have the time.
.

Boston

There are some pretty good poets in Boston. Almost enough for half a football team. Boston is where I live, more or less. That is how you talk about Boston when you talk about Boston, you say "more or less."

There is of course Chad Reynolds who authored the classy, Victor in the New World. Then there is John Cotter, Jon Woodward, Peter Shippy, Ben Mazer, Bill Knott, & Carl Annarummo. I'm going to still count Chris Tonelli. He doesn't live here anymore but his blog says he does.

Elisa Gabbert doesn't have a blog but she has a book (which is better than a blog) co- scribed with Kathleen Rooney called The Tiny Insane Voluptuousness.

Kathleen Rooney is a poet who used to live in Boston. There are a lot of people who "used to live in Boston." Its that kind of place. It sounds good in the past tense.

There are a many more but I am starting to bore myself. Who have I forgotten? I would like to make a bigger list.

Visitors, who have you seen or heard around your town? New York, save it.

The MiPOesias story is up. The turnaround was quick. View it here, or if you are my mom, buy a copy here.



I am massively impressed with Jesse Ball's new collection. Between his last novel and his first collection of poetry, this is the best thing he has done. Over 75 pages of prose parables in a gorgeously designed little book. It is easily one of the best collections I've read in a long time, and something I will come back to again and again. Buy it here.

Made the final cut of the new issue of MiPOesias. It is the NO POEM issue, so I guess that makes it a story. It is a story of 103 words, called Keep.

I'm glad I have something to write about.

This person named Ally wrote some nice criticism's about The Tornado is Not a Surrealist on her blog, found here & here. Basically I think her assertions about the need for more space are correct. She does not understand, however, I live in a very small room. I still like "afloat" too. Its mine to abuse.


This is what surprise looks like. Imagine if this is how someone reacted every time they walked into a room.

Wandering Army has posted a story of mine called, A Sudden Island.

Chad has a new blog. He is giving his work away for free. Go visit and make fun of his mustache.

A real fine poem by Matthew Zapruder was posted recently at Poetry Daily. This is some of the good stuff I was talking about back in June.

Plain Clear Language

From David Berman

If you restricted all your writing to the 1,000 most popular words in the English language, there's a way to do that where, wow, what a feat that would be, to bring a lot of meaning. You have to look at the words "what is not but could be if" and "we could be looking for the same thing" and look for a word that isn't in the list of the top 1,000 words. They're all in there. They're not in that sense unique as objects. It's not post-modern, at all. It's pre-modern.

Where Do You Work?

Tell me - where do you work?

Ghoti has published my piece Cous Cous. It fell into the poetry section again. It's not very poetic. This is more poetic and worth your time.



Noah Falck is an important American writer worth time. Your time, my time. He saw the things you didn't and he wrote the memory down in a way to seem like you'd never forgotten. That seems obtuse, but it's not. A really great book here. Follow this link to go get it. Only $7.00 and signed. I can't recommend any other poet more right now than this guy.





I've spent this summer reading books by Frederick Barthelme. I now like him more than his brother Don. His books are like furniture. You feel something for the chair that makes you feel comfortable, but don't know how to name the feeling. You prefer the piece of furniture over others pieces of furniture and like to sit there often. You could die in that piece of furniture, and that'd be okay, there are worst place to die, like a swamp, picked at by crabs, but you probably wouldn't run into your burning house to save the piece of furniture.

I have spent this summer watching The Wire. If you watched The Wire and didn't enjoy The Wire I don't think we'd enjoy talking to each other.

I had a reading in Providence with William Walsh. William got his due recently in The Providence Phoenix. One of the audience members, Lilah, wrote about our reading here. Everyone wins.

This Saturday at 7pm I am reading at a bookstore, Ada Books, with Sir William Walsh, author of Without Wax.

Ada books is in Providence, RI; specifically at 330 Dean Street where it crosses Westminster.

Please come.

I have a new story up at Hobart called The Hook. It's a terrible title, I know, but an homage to Claudia Smith. I wrote for MiPo's "Hooker" issue, but forgot to send it.

I have stopped writing. Maybe you've noticed.

A big apology to all SIR! contributors for not getting the issue up when I said I would. Things have piled up into a wall. And the heat doesn't help. But hold tight. I will make it worth the wait.

If you go to We Heart Four Things, you can read an interview with me. Blake Butler, Kathryn Regina, and Zach Schomburg are also interviewed.

Attached to each interview is some new work by each author. Two new poems of mine, called Teenage Sorcery & Hobby Horse are included.

I have an admiration that is real for all three other authors. I also have an admiration for Shane Jones who included me and did the interviewing. He did a splendid job. The interviews are short and personable and nice. The work is stellar. Thanks Shane.


Thank you to everyone who has bought my book. That was very kind of you. Thank you to everyone who wrote about or mentioned it. And thank you for all the nice comments and support posted here. I had to delete my mom's comment for her extreme use of the word "dickwad."

We can't have that kind of language in here.



If you haven't yet got a copy of The Tornado is not a Surrealist, there are still some available here.