August Paper Boat
Ever since I moved away from academia where I had spent my entire life in some way (first my own schooling, college, grad school, then jobs in school and college libraries for over two decades) I always have a certain aimlessness in August, when normally I would be preparing for the onslaught of the semester. It is both strange and freeing these past three years when I have been left more to my own yearly rhythms, which still feel tied to that school calendar pattern. That approach of fall still feels like the cusp of something new, and with it new projects, new endeavors, and maybe some new habits. But now, the days are still a little long and winding and perfect for summery daytime dreaming and slowness. Fall has many things afoot, or potentially afoot. I’ve recently finished a big book project, the Iphigenia poems, and will be turning an eye toward making it into a book. I also have assorted treats and tricks planned for spooky season and #30DAYSOFHALLOWEEN , some luxuriously creepy Patreon offerings, and some other bits of fun I am trying to make happen.
So until September…
BOOKISH THINGS
You can still pick up a signed copy of my latest collection WILD(ISH) released in the spring and get some bonus postcards featuring the cover art and related images. Or, subscribe to PATREON to get all that and more in the form of monthly bundles mailed your way containing special editions, zines, copies of all full-length books, paper goods, mini prints, stickers, and more. September’s mailing will contain my Patreon exclusive hardcover edition of EXOTICA, which is a very limited edition only available to subscribers at the moment. You also get all the bonus digital content like new poems, peeks of things in progress, the 10 Minute Poet blogs, and video/audio exclusives.
NEWS & BITS
~Several new poems have been cropping up in journals of late including work from my prose project THE MIDNIGHT GARDEN in Burning House’s Art & Annihilation Issue. You can also find some bits from WINGED in the recent issues of The Fantastic Other and Collidescope, as well poems from a new sea-washed series in The Solitude Diaries’ Tide-Driven Issue.
~A new video poem just dropped on YouTube from the WINGED series.
~I recently put the finishing touches on CLOVEN, my next longer book that will be coming around the new year based on the Greek myth of Iphigenia, killed by her father in exchange for fair winds for battle. during the Trojan War. I’ve been offering peeks on socials and will be charting the road to publication on the blog from manuscript to finished book for those who might be interested in self-publishing their work (it may be esp. useful if you use images in your design as I am doing.)
ON THE BLOG
This past month has brought the new self-publishing series, a love letter to research and process when writing, as well as a revisit of some older zines like THE SCIENCE OF IMPOSSIBLE OBJECTS. If you subscribe to Patreon, you can also find some blogs there more geared toward poetry advice in the 10 Minute Poets series I am writing weekly.
WORK-IN-PROGRESS
from ALL ALONG THE BALLYHOO
The lions, after all, were harmless,
their bodies made of clay.
Their manes, shredded tissue paper.
They would no sooner bite you
than nuzzle your fingers.
Creep their way into your bed and sleep,
poster paint shedding from their fur.
What the audience thought was spectacle,
was, instead, the best we could do
with illusion. The bears we made
from newsprint and old fur coats.
The small mechanical dogs we kept in cages.
Get them wet and they’d just fall over.
If the crowds begged for more,
bring out the snake swallower.
The eel boy. The bearded bride.
Five pennies for a peek,
but for ten she’ll let you touch her.
Let you stroke the fur that lines her belly.
Let you bury your face between her breasts.
Three Things
(a miscellany of heres and theres that are influencing my work and thoughts this month…)
Weapons, an eerie and strangely funny film about missing children in a small town complete with lots of slow building dread, fractured p-o-v’s. and an undercurrent of humor from the same folks who brought you the brilliant Barbarian from a couple years back. We loved it so much we saw it twice in theaters.
Florence & The Machines new single “Everybody Scream” that feels like the kind of song you dance to in a spooky firelit clearing on a full-moon night.
This great article on the fashion and style of the classic Picnic at Hanging Rock in Vogue Australia.