exhausting day. back at work after a 2-month leave to care for Nicholas. he went to daycare, Anna and I went to our day jobs, and by all accounts Nicholas handled the change in routine and people with aplomb, unlike his mommy and daddy. well, okay, he is one cool kid.

I liked being a househusband. I think I got good at it, and was in the process of perfecting my techniques, ya know, such as cleaning the house, making dinner, playing all day with Nicholas. shit, now I'se gots to go back to the job. fuck.

and but so I get home to a couple of packages waiting for me to lift my spirits. received from Gina Myers the tiny, and from Lawrence, KS poet Jim McCrary the Lawrence, KS issue of Steve Tills' Black Spring. both journals brim with the good stuff. dipped into both tonight but gonna have to read them from cover-to-cover. from Black Spring I want to single out tonight's reading were brilliant essays from editor Steve Tills on Jim McCrary (the journal contains several essays on the brilliant poet from the Midwest) and Dale Smith's review of the Selected Poems by John Moritz. the back cover sports one cool motherfucking photo taken in 1970 of McCrary and First Intensity editor and publisher Lee Chapman. look closely and you'll see a sign for selling cigarettes at 38 cents a pack!, and another giving away Free Poetry, like Ed Dorn broadsides.

and from the tiny, jam-packed with the good stuff, I read the poems of Mike Sikkema, and Steve Caratzas whose work reminds me a bit of a latter Meat Poet, such as d.a. levy and early Douglas Blazek and whose blog is becoming an addicting daily read for me. also, Hazel McClure got the goods here and genius --yes genius-- visual poet Geof Huth writes an essay about vispo along with a few examples of his art.

makes me ecstatic, these do. I also want to thank Skip Fox for sending along a sound poetry/jazz cd of his vocal group, and Robert VanderMolen for his poem "Molly" recently published in Driftwood: A Review of Michigan Writing. as Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery would say, Yeah Baby! makes going back to work so much easier.