Neptune's not an arrowhead, it's a bombpop

News Flash, Stephen Foster:

Grampa's forever a pirate, and Stephin Merritt
could be the Gordon Lish of modern music if

Bobbing for apples

Last Friday's blackout ordered:

Partial List of People to Bleach, by Gary Lutz
Scary, No Scary, by Zachary Schomburg
The Collected Stories, by Amy Hempel

All arrived today. A gift not remembered to myself.

Better than raspberry chocolate-chip in a chocolate coconut waffle cone.

Tourmaline, Tourmaline

I have an interview with the lovely Jennifer Davis over here.

NEW FRIENDS

Poppunk in a previous heart, life is why I love you

Pinprick, deer tick, Blueberry Lake

Reading I Is To Vorticism is like opening the door and finding a dozen seal pups limned in foxfire. "I'm Ben Mirov," they belch, before melting into snakes, then scarves, then little phosphorescent puddles. The puddles hiccup into crows, burst into night. A girl appears with horsemint, currants, and a garibaldi in a mason jar. "Drink," she says. You do. Night crumbles down to crows, and the crows collapse into puddles. In your right hand is an eyeball. In your left hand is a snowstorm. The eyeball is staring at you. "I'm Ben Mirov," it barks.

Hark! All Ye Young Malingerers!

D'ya know about slingshot litareview? Cast your hooded gaze East, my dears, into the briny daggers of the awful sun! For barracudas will bury thy spleen beneath the gourd, and slurp thy carp for supper.

burpy, blurby, and lazy, I am

Are You There God? It's Me, Whitney Houston, by Brad Liening

"Armed with a telephone and a purse full of Kierkegaard, Whitney Houston lurks Brad Liening like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man blasted on amobarbital. W/ Bobby Brown as King Lear." --Austin Pye

Mason jar for water bear

Unemployment has its benefits, namely, opportunities to enter contests such as this.

Meatloaf, mayonnaise, and onions, of course, though memory coddles the first:

Orange roughy. My parents crammed that shit into my mouth as if they had some kind of bet between the two of them.

But it paid off, because in exchange for a lifelong revulsion toward fish, I receive a copy of Molly Gaudry's We Take Me Apart.

Many thanks to Brad Green, htmlgiant, and the kind folks at Mud Luscious Press. Find them here, here, and here.

Brian Evenson will melt your face

And so will Fortunato Salazar.

Thanks, Mike

Going Wrong

By Jack Gilbert

The fish are dreadful. They are brought up

the mountain in the dawn most days, beautiful

and alien and cold from night under the sea,

the grand rooms fading from their flat eyes.

Soft machinery of the dark, the man thinks,

washing them. "What can you know of my machinery!"

demands the Lord. Sure, the man says quietly

and cuts into them, laying back the dozen struts,

getting to the muck of something terrible.

The Lord insists: "You are the one who chooses

to live this way. I build cities where things

are human. I make Tuscany and you go to live

with rocks and silence." The man washes away

the blood and arranges the fish on a big plate.

Starts the onions in the hot olive oil and puts

in peppers. "You have lived all year without women."

He takes out everything and puts in the fish.

"No one knows where you are. People forget you.

You are vain and stubborn." The man slices

tomatoes and lemons. Takes out the fish

and scrambles eggs. I am not stubborn, he thinks,

laying all of it on the table in the courtyard

full of early sun, shadows of swallows flying

on the food. Not stubborn, just greedy.

Lanterns, lungs, etc.

"Nick Demske is a Quetzalcoatl Berryman." --Austin Pye

Best Books of 2009

1. Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood

2. Dobby Gibson, Skirmish

3. Brian Evenson, Fugue State

2009: A Year of Reading

Paul Gruchow, Grass Roots

Bolano, Savage Detectives

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

Borges, Labyrinths

Borges, Dream Tigers

Wendell Berry, Farming: A Handbook

Denis Johnson, Jesus' Son

Denis Johnson, Angels

Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road

Katie Ford, Colosseum

Larry Watson, Montana 1948

Ted Kooser, Delights and Shadows

Bill Holm, Eccentric Islands

Alex Lemon, Hallelujah Blackout

Henry Miller, Black Spring

Kenneth Patchen, Aflame and Afun of Walking Faces

E.E. Cummings, 95 Poems

Charles Simic, The World Doesn't End

Tobias Wolff, Midnight in the Garden of the North American Martyrs

William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems

Charles Simic, Night Picnic

John Darnielle, Master of Reality

Cervantes, Don Quixote

Stephen Elliott, My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up

James Joyce, Ulysses

William Gay, Provinces of Night

Barry Hannah, Ray

Breece D'J Pancake, The Collected Stories of Breece D'J Pancake

Larry Brown, Father and Son

David Treuer, The Hiawatha

David Treuer, The Translation of Dr Appelles

Laurie Foos, Portrait of the Walrus as a Young Artist

Charles Simic, Walking the Black Dog

Franz Wright, The Beforelife

Henri Cole, Blackbird and Wolf

Denis Johnson, Incognito Lounge

Denis Johnson, The Veil

Matthea Harvey, Pity the Bathtub its Forced Embrace of the Human Form

Larry Brown, Dirty Work

Larry Brown, Facing the Music

James Armstrong, Blue Lash

Joe Wenderoth, No Real Light

Tolstoy, War and Peace

Alison Hagy, Graveyard of the Atlantic

Frank O'Hara, The Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara

Claudia Rankin, Don't Let Me Be Lonely

Elain Equi, Ripple Effect

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

Daniel Handler, Adverbs

Matthea Harvey, Sad Little Breathing Machine

Tess Gallagher, Instructions to the Double

Matthew Eck, The Farther Shore

Paul Gruchow, Boundary Waters

Will Weaver, Sweet Land

Eamon Grennan, As If It Matters

Ethan Canin, Emperor of the Air

Edward Abbey, Postcards from Ed

Edward Abbey, A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

Jane Kenyon, Otherwise

Tim Tharp, Falling Dark

Jordan Ellenberg, The Grasshopper King

Paul Gruchow, The Necessity of Empty Places

Matthea Harvey, Modern Times

Percival Everett, Glyph

Linda Gregg, Sacraments of Desire

Jeffrey Yang, An Aquarium

Tony Hoagland, Donkey Gospel

W.P. Kinsella, The Alligator Report

Russel Edson, The Song of Percival Peacock

Elizabeth Alexander, Body of Life

Gilbert Sorrentino, Lunar Follies

Percival Everett, Big Picture

Per Patterson, Out Stealing Horses

Gary Amdahl, Visigoth: Stories

Seth Kantner, Ordinary Wolves

Eleizabeth Alexander, The Venus Hottentot

Eamon Grennan, So It Goes

George Rabasa, Glass Houses

Jason Shinder, Among Women

Dana Giola, Can Poetry Matter?

Seth Kantner, Ordinary Wolves

Tomas Transtromer and Roberty Bly, The Half-Finished Heaven

Nick Flynn, Some Ether

Mike Melman, The Quiet Hours

Bill Holm, The Heart Can Be Filled Anywhere On Earth

Cris Mazza, How to Leave a Country

Nick Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

David Rivard, Wise Poison

Samuel Charters, Elvis Presley Calls His Mother After the Ed Sullivan Show

Katie Ford, Deposition

D.A. Powell, Chronic

Richard Yates, The Easter Parade

Ted Kooser, Valentines

Weldon Kees, Collected Poems

Albert Goldbarth, To Be Read in 500 Years

Albert Goldbarth, Budget Travel Through Space and Time

Pamela Ditchoff, The Mirror of Monsters and Prodigies

Frank Manley, The Cockfighter

Ray Gonzalez, Consideration of the Guitar

Gilbert Sorrentino, Little Casino

Ai, Sin

Ai, Dread

Paul Gruchow, Journal of a Prairie Year

Bill Holm, The Music of Failure

Bill Holm, Coming Home Crazy

Lorca, Songs and Ballads

Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector

D.A. Powell, Lunch

Ted Kooser, The Blizzard Voices

David Carr, The Night of the Gun

Eirann Lorsung, Music for Landing Planes By

Stephen Dixon, Sleep

Carl Phillips, Pastoral

Carl Phillips, Cortege

B. Traven, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Eleni Sikelianos, Body Clock

Franz Wright, Walking to Martha's Vineyard

Nancy Lord, The Man Who Swam with Beavers

Richard Yates, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness

Salvatore Scibona, The End

Edward Hoagland, Red Wolves and Black Bears

Don Paterson, Landing Light

Samuel Beckett, Molloy

Samuel Beckett, Malone Dies

Samuel Beckett, The Unnameable

Nelson Algren, A Walk on the Wild Side

Bill Holm, Boxelder Variations

Jim Moore, Lightning at Dinner

Samuel Beckett, More Pricks than Kicks

Fanny Howe, Eggs

Tony Hoagland, What Narcissism Means to Me

Rick Moody, The Black Veil

Cid Corman, And the Word

Leslie Adrienne Miller, Eat Quite Everything You See

Ron Padgett, Great Balls of Fire

Michael Scholnick, Clinch

Tory Dent, HIV, Mon Amour

Jim Moore, The Freedom of History

Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Song

Brigit Pegeen Kelly, The Orchard

Vijay Seshadri, The Long Meadow

Nabokov, Ada

Brenda Hillman, White Dress

George Saunders, Civilwarland in Bad Decline

Peter Hauri and Shirley Linde, No More Sleepless Nights

Stephen Elliott, Happy Baby

Zadie Smith, White Teeth

Chekhov, Stories

Daniel Slager, Fiction on a Stick

Tracy K. Smith, The Body's Question

Rick Bass, The Hermit's Story

Ted Kooser, The Poetry Home Repair Manual

Aleksandar Hemon, Nowhere Man

Christine Schutt, Nightwork

Christine Schutt, A Day, A Night, Another Day, Summer

Jack Marshall, Sesame

Saskia Hamilton, As For Dream

Leslie Adrienne Miller, The Resurrection Trade

Brian Culhane, The King's Question

Jane Kenyon, The Boat of Quiet Hours

Michael Coffey, 87 North

John Caddy, Morning Earth

Jim Moore, The Long Experience of Love

Fred Marchant, Full Moon Boat

Sophie Cabot Black, The Misunderstanding of Nature

Harold Peterson, The Last of the Mountain Men

Catie Rosemurgy, My Favorite Apocalypse

Stephen Elliott, The Adderall Diaries

Donald Hall, Without

Stephen Elliott, A Life Without Consequences

Tracy K. Smith, Duende

Nick Flynn, Blind Huber

Donald Hall, Kicking the Leaves

Donald Hall, The Happy Man

Bill Kushner, In the Hairy Arms of Whitman

Percival Everett, Suder

Javier Marias, All Souls

Wayne Miller, Only the Senses Sleep

Wayne Miller, The Book of Props

Donald Hall, The Painted Bed

Joyce Peseroff, The Ploughshares Poetry Reader

Charles Jackson, The Lost Weekend

Antler, Factory

David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System

Larissa Szporluk, Dark Sky Question

Mary Jo Bang, Elegy

Aleksandar Hemon, The Question of Bruno

Dan Chaon, Fitting Ends

John Ashberry, Some Trees

Linda Pastan, AM/PM

Rebecca Curtis, Twenty Grand

Tomas Transtromer, The Great Enigma

Charles Wright, Appalachia

Charles Wright, Black Zodiac

Ken Kalfus, Thirst

Donald Hall, The One Day

Walter Van Tillburg Clark, The Ox-Bow Incident

E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime

Alex Lemon, Mosquito

Richard Siken, Crush

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, A Coney Island of the Mind

Lydia Davis, Almost No Memory

Dan Chaon, Among the Missing

Maurice Manning, Lawrence Booth's Book of Visions

Lisel Mueller, Private Life

Benjamin Percy, Refresh, Refresh

J.C. Hallman, The Hospital for Bad Poets

Carl Phillips, From the Devotions

Lydia Davis, Break it Down

Craig Arnold, Shells

Landis Everson, Everything Preserved

Cormac McCarthy, Child of God

Bill Holm, The Windows of Brimnes

Stuart Dybek, The Coast of Chicago

Nabokov, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight

Jay Hopler, Green Squall

Hayden Carruth, Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey

Maxine Kumin, Nurture

Maurice Manning, A Companion for Owls

The New Young American Poets

Brian Evenson, The Open Curtain

Greil Marcus, Like A Rolling Stone

Mike Young, Mc Oroville's Answering Machine

Ben Lerner, Lichtenberg Figures

Katy Lederer, The Heaven-Sent Leaf

Seth Kantner, Shopping for Porcupine

Charles Simic, The Book of Gods and Devils

Rebecca Wolff, Figment

Padgett Powell, Edisto Revisited

Robert Bly, Morning Poems

The Best American Short Stories 2008

Sam Savage, Firmin

Charles Simic, Hotel Insomnia

Marjorie Welish, Word Group

Martha Ronk, Vertigo

Billy Collins, Nine Horses

Patricia Smith, Blood Dazzler

Arthur Sze, Archipelago

Arthur Sze, The Gingko Light

JT Leroy, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things

Nabokov, Bend Sinister

Lorrie Moore, Self-Help

Alex Lemon, Tremolo

A.M. Homes, Music for Torching

Ted Berrigan, The Sonnets

Ariana Reines, The Cow

Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine

Nicholson Baker, A Box of Matches

Nicholson Baker, U and I

Chris Martin, American Music

Lorrie Moore, Birds of America

Best American Poetry 2004

James White, The Salt Ecstasies

Cate Marvin, The World's Tallest Disaster

Mark Doty, Source

Cynthia Cruz, Ruin

Matt Donovan, Vellum

Ben Lerner, Angle of Yaw

Troy Jollimore, Tom Thomson in Purgatory

Dobby Gibson, Polar

Dobby Gibson, Skirmish

Best American Poetry 2006

Bob Hicok, Insomnia Diary

A.M. Homes, Things You Should Know

Nabokov, Despair

Ange Mlinko, Matinees

Lisa Olstein, Lost Alphabet

Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project

Davis McCombs, Ultima Thule

Brian Evenson, Fugue State

Ben Marcus, Notable American Women

George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone

Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood

Obviously, I didn't drink enough.