Fraley

We're so lucky to have Jason Fraley as a contributor at Pebble Lake Review. See his poem, "Retirement," from the current issue at today's Verse Daily.

Sibyl

I'm dancing a jig. I'm chanting "hell yeah." Why, you ask?

LIT just took my poem "Restoration of the Delphic Sibyl" for their Spring 2007 issue! I was rejected last year and wanted to get into that AMAZING journal from The New School so bad I could eat it. I read current issues, back issues, became a LIT stalker. OK, there is some hyperbole in what I'm saying, but you get the gist.

It's not just the publication that's a big deal to me. Several people who will remain nameless detest this poem because they don't get its implications. Bah. Yes, I write smart poems. No, I don't feel it important to clarify each innuendo with a paragraph-long epigraph. I like history, I like art, and I like a challenge. I'm glad LIT does, as well. Go LIT!

Here's the poem:

Restoration of the Delphic Sibyl
detail of the Sistine ceiling

Not so much sky as ceiling. I darken with candle
soot, palm print. My life is spent

this way: grit-pressed, obedient. Peel of my finger-

tips and heels. Hear the plotting: paint touch,
give her a new red mouth. Call me

fan dried, renewed. A chisel deep

inside my eyes. Stack of scaffolding, sand-
paper scrape. Ask nothing of me

while the plaster hardens my skin. Not

how I have seen the burn of a leather strap, how
a father could not save his son

from the thorn bloom, each spear strike.

How a tree split into a cross and I carried
his son’s face on my clothes.

I still wear that grief, its dark sweat. Brush
this from my throat, bury it.

Planets

Check out Becca Wadlinger's poem, "Later, People Took On Qualities That Planets Usually Have," from the Spring 2006 issue of Pebble Lake Review on today's Verse Daily.

*

Still working on getting my junk cleaned and put away from the trip. I've set up a flikr for my Bennington photos here.

*

PLR submissions a mile high. A Colorado trip in the works for Sept. for me & the hubby. A yellow cabin called "Hummingbird" by a stream and old-fashioned bungalow charm.

*

Rejection from The Seattle Review contest. Backwards City Review sent a "I'm very sorry that we had to pass on these -- you were very close [for the contest], and we especially enjoyed "Limbo for the Miscarry." Thanks for sharing your work, and Please send us more in the future." My two poems @ AGNI should be up soon. I'm on pins.

Back Home

and tired from a long flight (Albany-Cleveland-Houston) and lost luggage (which Continental Airlines delivered tonight to my house, thankfully). I'll post more as soon as I've eaten, slept, unpacked my bags, read submissions, mailed orders, etc. etc. In the meantime, I've uploaded some Bennington photos here.

*

Did you see Lacy Schutz's poem from Pebble Lake Review up on Verse Daily?

If you've submitted an order for PLR in the last 2 weeks, I'm getting to it this week. Sorry for the delay, being in Vermont and all.

So Much Fun

The workshop are going well -- we have a great group dynamic. I really like the community & fellowship of writers here at Bennington. Last night, we went to hear Major Jackson read (he was sitting beside me a minute ago here in the library and we chatted up a bit about the Houston CWP and Jericho Brown's work). He read at "the barn" and we then went to an open-mic reading for the students (where Timothy Liu snuck in with cake doughnuts). After, we went down past "the end of the world" (which is a long row of stone piles (I slipped & hurt my ankle, unfortunately) and a drop off into some kind of mountain valley). People had built a bonfire and my new friend Ben played his guitar and sang old country/folk songs. Then, Ben and I had some wine and read Lorca aloud.

A few days ago I went to a reading featuring Donald Hall -- he's simply amazing and had everyone in or near tears. I also danced to 80s music with Timothy Liu when my tube top slipped down & I accidentally exposed myself to about 6 people -- Timothy and several girls. I snapped photos of Tim & Major shaking it. Will post to my flickr account when I get back on Monday afternoon.

I read at Monday's open mic several poems from my manuscript in-progress. People are STILL coming up to me telling me how moved they are by the work and the themes addressed therein. I'm really honored by that -- especially since I'm addressing a topic that can be seen as taboo in modern poetry: religion. If you've been reading my poems on this blog for the last few months, you know what I'm talking about.

I miss everyone and look forward to coming home!

*

JERICHO: MAJOR JACKSON SAYS HI.

Bennington

I've been here at Bennington for 24 hours & it's great! I would highly recommend it to anyone pursuing an MFA in writing. The other students are great -- haven't seen the ego-headed monster in anyone, yet. The food is pretty good, but being from Texas, a "hearty" meal is hard to come by in this part of the woods -- mostly vegetarian dishes & the like. I had my first worksop today with Henri Cole & Amy Gerstler (who I will be working with this term). The workshop was more of a meet & greet type thing (lots of those!). Last night, had cocktail hour (which really invlved just a bottle of Rolling Rock) on the porch of the Commons. Tonight, I'm going to a reading by Linda Gregg and Amy Hempel and later, I have a mentor/mentee (with me being a mentee) reception in the Woolley living room (the house that I am staying in).

I'm taking lots of pictures and will post when I get back.

Absence Makes the Heart

grow drunker. I'm leaving tomorrow early a.m. for Bennington & my husband and I met up with some friends for some send-off drinks. I'm not a big drinker, so after a pint of Ace Pear Cider and a shot of something I can't remember, I was a little over the tipsy mark. I had a lot of fun, though, and am looking forward to meeting everyone & the interesting lectures @ B., not to mention working with Amy Gerstler. Cheers!

Easy to Carry,

inviting to read ~ Check out the new issue of 32 Poems, edited by John Poch and Deborah Ager. Why should 'ya? Because of Sandra Beasley, Sally Molini, Evan Beaty (my buddy from the Bucknell Seminar last year), Paula Bohince (soon-to-be in PLR), Steve Mueske, Kate Northrop, (and others), that's why.

Deborah, I'm buying a copy. Just so you know.

Want one? Get it here.

Stubbon

I'm reading Stubborn by Jean Gallagher, which was sent to us @ Pebble Lake Review by Oberlin Press, winner of the 2005 FIELD Poetry Prize. It's an amazing book and giving me considerable inspiration for my manuscript. Buy it here.

I've written a new poem:

Tricesimum
(Crowning of the Virgin)

This crown is wicker-weave
and burnt grass. From a distance

a child bends to kiss your stone
feet. How she wants to

believe you’ll save her
if she brings your field a basket

of paper peonies, yellow tissue
tulips. Her hobbled rose

will fit inside your palm. Let leaves
fall from your fingers,

let this be her sign. Ask nothing
of the child who offers you

enough garden, a letter
with a drawn sun, her smeared-

ink birds. Not birds
that nest and thread

your hair, but humming-
birds whose song is formed

from pollen and flower-
light, your body’s ring

inside the hyacinth’s floret bell.

*

Bennington in less than a week! I've made my reading list, written out my tentative packing list (and checked it twice). Thanks to all of you nice Bennington folk who have called, email (and in one case sent me a lovely card). I can't wait to meet you all next Thursday!

Again

I've started writing again. Finally. 40 poems in 3 months on my thesis completely wore me out. But now I'm back. I've been reading a lot, too -- bits from literary journals, selections and complete books. I have two stacks on my floor: New England Review, T.S. Eliot's Selected Poems, Crush by Richard Siken (reading for the 2nd time), The Paris Review, What Is This Thing Called Love by Kim Addonizio, Steal Away by C.D. Wright, The Animal Gospels by Brian Barker, etc. I've written/revised several new poems: "Water and Wine," "Eva Prima Pandora," "Gospel of the Unplanned Child," "Gulfport," "River Elegy," "The Bacon," and "Camel Cigarette Ad (Woman in Convertible)." Here's one:

Water and Wine

The bathers are done with their dirty flesh. Each jar
remains jar. The miracle-to-come is not without
suffering: it walks the tide and offers a basket
of fish. It hangs on the hill and the women
wear its face on their garments. Deny three times
the connection with water—its turn to blood
with séance and spell. How the half-empty,
the almost dry becomes enough to fill the goblets.
Ask of the water, what is holy? The wound
spilled into the cup, the hungry body? What is holy,
ask of the hanging man. The hands that restore
the cherry ferment? The flavor of fruit
and miracle— six stone jars sipping his finger-
light, his nailed palm before its release?

I have slowly starting submitting again (after about 5 or 6 months): spork, alice blue, Poet Lore, No Tell Motel, Perihelion, Born Magazine, and Post Road.

I received my packet of poems for my first workshops at Bennington (coming up VERY soon -- I leave June 15!), so I'm reading through those. I seem to have this ebb and flow of poetry: lots of reading and writing for a period of time, then little or nothing. I'm excited to see what B. will be like. From what I've heard and read, it seems a lot like Bucknell. Sigh. I miss Bucknell. I hope that I can make it up north to visit some of my friends before summer's end.