Happy Thanksgiving! Garnished with Joys!

Winslow Homer's The New Novel

I'm currently reading Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs. What's your new novel?

Soundzine: Things I Should Have Said

Three of my poems are up at Soundzine for their "Things I Should Have Said" issue. Harvey read the third one, "Kingston," and he sounds fabulous. I hope you like the poems; I know you'll like the way Harvey reads.

Watch: "I won't swear that they do."

This is one amazing boy. I really like the affection between him and his father, too.

"Beauty is Truth," but what is True?

I've been thinking lately about old pulps, especially True and True Confessions, which one grandfather and one grandmother read obsessively. (Interestingly, they weren't married to each other. Their spouses had other interests: Mammaw loved poetry and "It Pays to Increase Your Vocabulary" from Reader's Digest. PawPaw loved comics and loved to draw them. He could have filled in for Dick Tracy's Chester Gould* on any given day).

These magazine covers are kitsch-lovely reminders of my childhood, when I'd winnow through decades of them; they're often unintentionally funny (gun as nipple above).

Does anyone else have memories of these magazines?

(PS Chester Gould's Moon Maid/selenic period doesn't seem any stranger to me than the fact that the moon has water!)

Poetry Daily: Alicia Ostriker

The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God's love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow

To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended
skirt

To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other dogs
can smell it

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Click on the link for a gorgeous photograph which reminds me of this poem.

I was fortunate enough to hear Ms. Ostriker read this poem during a panel discussion at AWP Chicago. I love it.

A Walk Through the Memory Palace

I'm up at read write poem. Go take a look...

This is the cover of my chapbook, which is the work of the fabulous artist Carrie Ann Baade.