My Weekend

My family hosted a lovely graduation party for me on Sunday, complete with BBQ, beer, and a giant cake. That's me with 4 of my sisters (I have 5):

I got news today that a poem of mine (from my collection in-progress) will appear in 32 Poems! Very happy.

On another note, how do you pack light for 10 days in the mountains?

I'm full of parties

and not enough writing. I hosted a graduation party for myself and my friends Todd and Gerald this past weekend. I have another graduation party this weekend and then soon, I'm off to Bennington!

I've been reading a bit. I just finished (the disappointing) Our Lady of the Forest and am now reading (the amazing) The Liar's Club. I have several poems in the works, many ekphrastic. I'm on a kick, apparently. My friend Brooke was kind enough to give me a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card for my graduation and I got Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, How to Breathe Underwater: stories by Julie Orringer, A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel, and a bargain book, Best New American Voices 2004. Then I treated myself to an iced tea and a slice of cherry chocolate-chip cheesecake. Yum.

My chapbook, Light Under Skin, is now available for you to order one of your very own. It's $12 from Finishing Lines Press. Get one and tell me how you like it.

In other news, I have a new website. See it here.

AGNI

How excited am I? I got a letter in the mail today from Sven Birkerts stating they liked two of my poems (my thesis/manuscript poems) and wanted to publish them at AGNI Online. Sven signed his note with Can you cheer us on and let us know? Of course AGNI can have my poems!

Story of the Raccoon

The raccoon crosses the roof:

The raccoon climbs down the tree:

The raccon meets the cats and barely misses a fight:

Shop Pebble Lake Review

Pebble Lake Review now has a shop. Check it out!

Books for Review

Pebble Lake Review is looking for reviewers for Part of the Bargain by Scott Hightower (Copper Canyon Press, 2005) and Chopin's Piano by Charles Ades Fishman (Time Being Books, 2006).

If you are interested in reviewing one of these poetry collections, please email us at PLR. Include your name, brief bio, and mailing address. If we select you to review, we will send you the copy of the book. You must return your review to us no later than July 1, 2006. Reviews will be included in the Summer 2006 or Fall/Winter 2006 issue of PLR.

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If you have an idea for a review of a book not listed here and would like it to be considered for PLR, please see our website for guidelines.

Joyful Mystery

The Spring 2006 issue Pebble Lake Review is now online. If you're a contributor, the print issue will be mailed next week.

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New poem:

Third joyful mystery

THE BIRTH

I’ve become the barnyard. I’ve ridden
donkey-back to the stable, nested hay

under my hips, spread each leg. The child
enters with an O-mouth

at his new world, considers the horses,
my sweat-stink, the north

star cracked through the wood-beams.

I watch a filly half-kneel in a stall, how
her lips green and foam as her foal

struggles through her body. We wash
ourselves from our children—blood

and birth inside eyelashes, fingernails.

I consider what my son will remember me by—

I’ve given him my cheekbones, my cleft chin.

I’ve given him thirty-three years, his death
on a hill. I cradle him, tighten the swaddle.

The horses turn to sniff the slow-burning myrrh.

The foal falls and stands and falls again.

Already they begin the separation—
he pushes free of her nuzzle.

Her milk sours then spills.

Publication News

The Spring 2006 issue of Pebble Lake Review (our first-ever double issue) will be in your mailbox very soon! Who's in it? Try Aaron Anstett, Jeffrey Bean, Rob Cook, Nicole Cooley, Paul Dickey, Alice George, Ilya Kaminsky, Clay Matthews, Andrew McCarron, Sally Molini, Jason Ott, Michael Robins, Jeff D. Simpson, D. Antwan Stewart, and many more. Plus, reviews of Circle by Victoria Chang, Wind in a Box by Terrance Hayes, and others.


Got an acceptance letter from Lullwater Review today. Yipee!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Dzvinia Orlowsky, whose poem "Nude Descending" (Pebble Lake Review, Summer 2005) was selected to be included in this year's Pushcart Prize Anthology. We are very thrilled for her.

This year's anthology will be released in paperback and hardcover in November. Pick one up!

New Poem

Gospel of the Drowned Twin

for C.V.A.

Dear brother, how many times have you wanted
to return to the plate glass
window, to open the door for the delivery,

let our mother continue with my bath?

I remember the knock, the bell,
Mother wiping her hands

on her blue dress. How you whined

a siren, an engine with your toy
trucks and trains, knocked their metal
bodies into a circle of wooden blocks. Listen—

the pipes continue to hum though the house
has been razed to dirt. Each time
you unwrap your Ivory or Safeguard,

our mother is filling the tub again,

scrubs my rounded back. I have not learned
the words to make you understand—I am still
a child, still poking a bubble of soap,

still slipping further below the water ring.

When Mother returned to the bath, and you
heard the crash of shampoo bottles,

and the tub flowed into the hall,
did you believe

you dreamed me dead?

That the summer you nearly drowned
at the pool, it was me that split

from your side and sank to the bottom

grate and you that crashed through
the light, gasping, breathing?

Kittens!

Here are the cute kittens (9 of them) from 2 different cats that had their babies in our yard:

Is there anything cuter than baby kittens?

Weekend

On Sunday, Jeff and I woke to five new kittens in the enclave next to our front door (photo to come). That afternoon, we went to his niece's 13th birthday party, where his nephew graced us with the presence of his pet snake. Jeff was less than enthused:

Me and Jeff:

After about a week-long break, I'm back to working (which I love). I've started the Summer issue of PLR and have created a very extensive readling list for myself. I'm working on some poems and curling up with Our Lady of the Forest and The Animal Gospels. Jeff and I saw United 93 on Friday (which was well-done, have you seen it?).

I leave for Bennington in about five weeks! Any books of ekphrastic poetry to recommend?