But, I don't want to be Pope

Kim Calder's poems

Here is one stanza from "Sweet Land,"

We usurp and pay. In splinters, alongside the road,
are animals we'd wished to see alive. Sun moves through
a man-made waterfall, making it glitter well.

That's so true and simple-- part of our reaction to road kill is that we want to be able to see them alive.

Kim does an amazing job of moving through concrete images to abstract ideas and back. I look forward to a future collection.

Lithuania dates announced

I got an email yesterday with the dates for the Summer Literary Seminar in Vilnius. It will be July 31st-August 13th. Somehow I didn't realize that the program was two weeks. I thought it was only one, but I guess I just made that up.

So, wow! Two weeks in Lithuania. I think two weeks is a good amount of time to get a feel for a city. Back in 2000 I spent two weeks in Amsterdam and by the end of that trip, I felt connected to the city in a less touristy way. It's also great to not have to pick and choose which things you want to see, you can see them all.

I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited. I'll be staying in a hostel. I'm about to get online to see how much the flights are and how many layovers it will require. Maybe I can get to spend a day in London and see old friends.

Having the date makes it real now. And it makes me really have to buckle down and save money!

UNSAID ARRIVES!!

The editor, David McLendon, asked that every contributor take a picture holding the journal and post it to Facebook. This is the photo I took.

My piece, "Scouts," is between work by Anne Valente and Peter Markus. Wow. Wow.

Wow.

Talk about being grateful!

I can't wait to start, to read every page.

It's 4:30 in the morning and I have been awake all night....

nasty, nasty insomnia

my cat is stalking crickets
and eating them

the dogs and my hubbie are sleeping

I went on facebook for the first time in like, months.
I was going to do one of those quiz things, but then
it asked for access to all of my account info,
including email
and I decided it wasn't worth it
to find out
when the program says I would have
my first child.
I was interested in this quiz only to see the
questions that would determine such a thing.

A friend had it on his wall. It said he would be a father
at age 21. He is now 30, childless.

I am not thinking about children
I am thinking about questions.

I watched most of a movie, "Why Has Bodhi Dharma Left for the East?"
A Korean film, beautiful.

I am going to be no good at work
in a few hours.