2011, eh?

great. good luck to us.

I took 2010 off from submitting, but I'm at it again. slowly at first, I think. we'll see how much I like it. the email/submishmash type thing is pretty good, better than all those years buying stamps and envelopes and making copies and etc., but also worse in that you lose the "effort" it takes, the dedication to the boring shit which goes along with writing/publishing. but after a while, publishing becomes a chore, so it's nice to be able to click it away into the ether. I'm sure oftentimes that ease creates a situation where folks send their stuff out so fast they've not even read it twice, but whatever; that's an editor's problem, I suppose.

there will be a new book soon, poems and artwork from the hardback edition of Sunlight by McCreesh and I, and at the first of 2012 a large collection of my poems spanning the last ten years along with a bunch of new work is scheduled to be released. more on both of these as they progress.

otherwise, we're digging out from a foot of snow and trying to keep our dogs from attacking and then eating us, purely out of boredom. the winter is quiet, and the snow is a fine crystal powder settled over dead grasses and the few remaining garden stalks are now hidden, waiting on the tractor in a few short months. the slate sky hangs motionless, clouds frozen in place, and the creek is nearly silenced with ice. it's a good time for art.

here's a recent one:

keeping our heads down

smoke
and dust
trail
thru the
flicker of
sunset
shadows

casting
stained glass patterns
upon the air.

someone coughs
in
another room.

a radio,
an honest-to-god
radio,
carries news
of
tragedy and crime,
of
seizures
and nationalistic triumph.

here,
where
we’re at:

just
smoke

dust

and a
bit

of light.