ABQ Pics

things i want to do/accomplish by 2015

complete and publish a second book of poems
visit europe
learn a third language
become poetry editor for a journal (online or print)
live in nyc for at least six months
read with rita dove

my new hang out! (pardon the blurry pic)

does this residency make me look fat?

i'm in new mexico. albuquerque, new mexico.
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i arrived yesterday.
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why am i here? i was lucky enough to get a month-long residency at the national hispanic cultural center.
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i don't know many people in this city. do you live albuquerque? let's have coffee!
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my office walls are bare. need to fix that. smurf poster?
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yesterday i was surrounded by hunks. i noticed a few studs hanging around my gate at the airport. then i noticed another group of hunks. then another group! my first thought: the rapture did come and i'm now in heaven. second thought: does my hair look good? anyway, 20 or so hunks were milling around. they all were dressed in slacks and nice shirts. each one made my heart skip. maybe they're all business men going to a conference: i said to myself. then i overhead one hunk talking to another and found out the truth. they were tripe A baseball players. they played for the skysox. i was in heaven after all! i love baseball players. hell, it's the only reason i watch baseball games.
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i still haven't found a good coffee shop.
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ristas

Brian Teare Interview

One of the things no one tells you about the early days of mourning is that you might still physically desire the one who has died. And it is an odd thing to be erotically attached to the dead, a new kind of impossibility for desire, which is already full of impossibilities.

2 reviews

Laurie Ann Guerrero on J. Michael Martinez

Rigoberto González on Martín Espada

from Poets & Writers: A Winner's Advice: Traci Brimhall

It's definitely surprised me that not everyone is happy for other people's good news. My good news has changed some friendships and even ruined one.

old mole: red cedar: martin puryear: 1985

martin puryear

book bits

last night i spent six hours fretting over an adjective in a couplet. six hours, people! in the end: i kept the adjective.

can i tell you something? i'm sweating all the details. indefinite articles, semi-colons, adjectives, commas, verbs...

can i tell you something? i'm thrilled to be doing this kind of crazy work.

i have to july 1st to finalize the collection. too much time for a poet like me.

i think i have the title down. some of my friends love it; some hate it. who cares! i think it works. yes, it does work for the collection.

sometimes i get a little emotional.

i worked on these poems for over eight years. i gave up a lot for these poems. no joke. i gave up: good jobs, lovers and friendships.

i don't know if it was worth it. i can't change the past.

i'm proud of these poems. wow. did i just type that? yes, i did. fuck it.

i keep having dreams in which i'm opening a box of books but i always wake up right before i get to see the cover.

oh the cover! i might freak out the day i finally see it. no joke. i might pass out. i might scream at the top of my lungs: IT'S BEAUTIFUL, IT'S BEAUTIFUL!

basho: avoid adjectives of scale, you will love the world more and desire it less.

sometimes i get a little emotional.

these past few weeks i've cried a lot in my room. don't worry, people, these are happy tears! i just can't believe i'm going to have a book out in the world.

a book. in the world. full of poems. i wrote.

thank you.

first book interviews: elyse fenton

I think it’s easy to feel overshadowed by The First Book. As if you’ll never write another poem worthy of publication again. To combat that potentially paralyzing fear, I just try to write as much and as often as I can—which is really a pitiably amount at the moment-- and to banish thoughts of future submission periods. Of course, that’s easier said than done...

Ron Slate on Katherine Larson

Katherine Larson’s first book of poems, Radial Symmetry, is an experiment in tracking down experience. It purports to sort out components in order to indicate their relations – but its strange, discomfiting pleasures arise from the frustrating limitations of language either to describe a totality or its pulsing parts.

Hottie of the Week: Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Felix Gonzalez-Torres

bits

i'm at starbucks. where are the cute guys?
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i'm reworking my CV. man, i should've kept track of all my readings and lectures. i've forgotten about half of my previous engagements!
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bought some new shoes yesterday. thrilling news, no?
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i need to finish tweaking my teaching statement.
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wait! a cute cop just walked into starbucks. shaved head, long holster.
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i have my own ISBN. swoon!

bits

i've started a new poem! i've had the first line for months, but the other day another line came to me and i knew instantly that a poem was beginning to emerge.
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book update: still no title. i've reordered the first and the third sections. the ms now has 31 poems, which translates into 57 pages.
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saw the thor movie on friday. am i the only gay guy in america who isn't turned on by the lead actor?
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last night i dreamt i was opening a small box. the box was full of books. i woke before i could read the title and the name of the author!
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chickens.

bad blogger bits

long time no blog.
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hi

sean singer wants to buy you a coke!

I know I hold the minority view, but I don’t value community; I left Facebook and I find most poetry readings too long, too proscribed, and too dull.

congrats, traci!!

Barnard College announced today that Our Lady of the Ruins by Traci Brimhall has received the 2011 Barnard Women Poets Prize for the best second collection of poems by an American woman poet. The biennial Prize, awarded jointly by Women Poets at Barnard and the publisher W.W. Norton & Company, includes publication of the work and a free public reading at Barnard. Our Lady of the Ruins will be published by W. W. Norton in 2012.