Poeta en deserto: Anne Waldman

It seems that there is a trend emerging---how to entertain visiting poets? Hmmm. I know, we’ll drag them into the desert! So far it’s worked pretty well (see "Desert Lease" below).

Jacqueline and I, along with or faithful poet-loving canine companion Macchia ventured into the Valley of Fire with uber-poet-goddess Anne Waldman. It was a gorgeous day, hovering in the low 80s and of course sunny sunny sunny and without a trace of spleen.



Valley of Fire is a hidden gem here near Vegas. It’s about 50 minutes away via highway and feels like another planet. Jacqueline and I have camped there---the car sites are swell---and have much enjoyed ourselves.

The night before our hike, Anne gave a great talk about how she uses her work to battle those in power and then gave an exuberant reading. One of my favorites (aside from some oldies but goodies like “Stereo”) was a poem in progress called “Manatee/Humanity”---an ecological treatise/homage to dear Ms. Stein.

And of course, Anne is very photogenic and knows how to work it!

Macchia knows how to work it too!

From my luke-warm, half-asleep fingers...

A sweet poet that I was talking to expressed concern about the motif and promotion of handguns and related armaments on this site, and I felt that I should respond to this. I, too, am concerned about pervasive violence, the absurd war in the Middle East, youth violence, etc. That is why from now on I am instituting this policy on my blog: I call it the "If you don't fucking like it, don't fucking read it" policy. It should solve all of the world's seemingly endless and unsolvable problems.

Since I've been scolded innumerable times...

I figured I'd better write a new goddamn post. I've been busy. So shoot me. Not for real---just pretend-like with your finger.

So here it is---what's new: I'm still working on the fun with vanity plates, so quit buggin me about it. The new Interim is out. Buy the damn thing. It's really frickin' good. There's a link to the right.

My new book, In the archives, is out, but not officially. You'll be able to order it by regular means (i.e. your local independent book store [if it's still in business, that is] or Amazon.com, etc) on April Fool's Day---nah, I'll leave that one alone; it's way too easy. So buy it---I read it and rather enjoyed it. It tickled me in a naughty why, i.e. with a long black feather of spleen.

I'll be posting Anne Waldman in the desert with me, Jacqueline, and Macchia the Poet-licking Dog.

I'm still working on a fun with handguns section. I'm considering shooting the Ally Sheedy book. Plenty of photos. If anyone has any other (legal) suggestions of what to shoot, let me know.

Also, I finally got my Skin certificate. Those of you who don't know about the project, visit Shelley Jackson's super-swell site:http://www.ineradicablestain.com/skindex.html. This is one of those, "I wish I had thought of that!" sorta projects (except with a poem instead, because, well, poetry's just better than short fiction. But I must admit, Shelley's top-notch yo).

Big hugs blog friends and enemies.