Happy Friday

Happy Friday world!
Lunch with my lady, the First Friday on the town (and if I get my act together, on the water, too)!

National Poetry Month 30 Poems in 30 Days Challenge, Poem #3

The way we walked

Sunrise rolled on the brick sidewalks, and it cantered
beside us through the thick spun river fog. We walked arm-in-arm
toward the scent of Sunday coffee, crossword aromas.
The convergence of robin's hops on the path
marked the moment when lead tinted morning fed
hungry mouths, you looked away
clenched, the beak wrenched victory from the dirt
and the head snapped back. The hill still
crests and descends, where we etched stones with our heels
measured our lives, tallied the times we walked
the distance home from the coffee shop until
we couldn't anymore.

More on Blankets

I thought, having written my review, I'd be done thinking about Blankets (at least for a little while), so I could write some of the other reviews I have pending.

But I'm not done because when I sent my review out via Twitter last week, Top Shelf Productions retweeted my review, which led me to their website, which led me to this interview they recently did with Craig Thompson, where Thompson talks about how he fictionalized parts of Blankets (ostensibly a memoir/ autobiography) to streamline the plot and draw out the themes he saw developing.

Reading and Community, the Next e-Book Revolution

I don't have an e-reader yet, though my wife loves her Kindle. I spend a fair portion of my day staring at computer screens, and so when I come home at night it's often a relief to settle in with text that doesn't have an ambient glow. I also think it's worth waiting on the e-reader until some more of the bugs get worked out.

But then I read something like this Book Riot article on the future for e-books, and I think... maybe I'll get that iPad soon.

An isolated reader can’t possibly have all of the answers or see the full range of meaning in what they’re reading. As a member of a social reading community, I can learn from other members and share and be recognized for my own ideas and knowledge.

I think about my favorite books, and they're sprawling, complex labyrinths I would never try to review: Ulysses, Endgame, Bluebeard, Against the Day, Lolita, Good Morning Midnight. I love them because even having read them, I know there's more to them I'm missing. I could read them again and again and again (and in some cases, I have).

Imagine embedding the last half centuries' literary analysis and criticism in the text. I've re-read parts of Don Quixote along with Nabokov's lectures and found the experience enlightening. Could an e-book really let me do that?

Just as importantly, built in marginalia could help suck the terror out of some of the books I've shied away from. I'm looking at you, Remembrance of Things Past. An enhanced e-book could link readers the way that sites like LibraryThing and Goodreads already try to.

Alright, publishers, let's make it happen. Who do we talk to? How do we start?

National Poetry Month 30 Poems in 30 Days Challenge, Poem #2

From here

Jennifer Was Recognized for Twenty-Five Years of Service With a Plaque Although She Has No Office Wall to Hang It On

She's the sound of her own hard thumped steps falling
  heavy as blackbannistered stairs
  varicosed by yesterday's labor
  and inflamed with tomorrows,
  but she's climbing three flights

Because it's morning again
  she climbs three flights with her head thrown back
  lifts each arm with its scent of anti-sceptic
  one wide treaded boot follows the other like dawns
  and she's climbing again toward the skylight

Her mouth half opens inhaling dust
  the thick stuff that clings despite
  tangy bleach swirled in the rust stained sinks,
  while her hair loses color running away from her scalp
  until it hangs in gray gnarls against her sweat damp collar

She is the shafts of dawn cut
  through the dust she's stirred up
  and the bannister creaks where her left hand depends on it
  clumping the good and the bad legs up the stairs in turn
  while through the skylight morning withers weakens recedes.

National Poetry Month 30 Poems in 30 Days Challenge

borrowed from here

Warm Ups

Atrophy comes to mind
  slow degeneration
  the paralyzation of self-confidence
  spell paralyzation azation ization isation?
wait Warm Ups Warm-ups Warm-Ups
  which?

Blank spaces terrify me
  the open sea
  the empty page
  that spot on the road ahead as you run towards it
    where it rises and reveals a point that reflects no sunlight,
    so instead it looks slick and wet,
    ominously empty

Try not to think about 30 writing days
  like 26.1 miles, clump it chunk it divide
  just try to keep your lunch down

So stretch like gym class
  hope the girls won't look
  hope the boys don't look, either
  judgements from every angle

Copy your neighbors, even though it's unsatisfying:

  the really cool thing about little kids: They don't know enough yet to be cynical or overprotective

  let’s try to find a project as urgent and sublime 

  become fascinated by the colloquial names of wildflowers and weeds

  And am I the only one doing this?
  Might that mean I'm doing it wrong?
  Wonder how much work should a warm-up be?

Tweaking the Layout

You'll see some changes happening to ...and a little wine... in the next few days. See the links floating up there in the header? I've been reading other blogs with a more critical eye on layout in the last few weeks, and I'm adjusting my own approach accordingly.

I've moved and revised some of the "about" me information, as well as added some info about my willingness to review books for publishers and authors (that layout was largely stolen from other book bloggers I admire, like Rebecca Joines Schinsky and Word Lily, so I hope I haven't violated any best practice-esque netiquette).

I'm still in search of a good "Related Posts" widget. I've got a text-based one that would work fine, but I'd really like to find one that functions with thumbnails. I have faith that Google will provide. I'm also in the market for a Blogger compatible email submission form, and a Ways to Follow widget. I think I've got the chops to code my own Ways to Follow- I may work on that this afternoon.

Thanks for reading, and for hanging with me through the renovation.