so then, what is local writing, or writers? i don't mean writing in local slangs or vernaculars, nor do i mean writers who chief concerns or local in flavor. when i was a kid i was fucking spellbound by faulkner's yoknapatawpha county, local sure, but also a cosmos, metaphysical even, an every where in the particulars.

so does the internet provide for my own cosmos. not a utopian ideal, by any means. and surely poetry, and poets, are not public icons, at least not in the sense of celebrity as it is known in the early 21st century. even the most well-know writer, in the u.s. at least, is a stranger to others as he/she shops at the grocery store, drive down the highway, etc. etc. and poets, as we all know, even the most famous among us are unknowns to the madding crowd.

so what. i'm addicted to the verse, and can't help but huff a few poems every day, whether by writing them and/or reading them, tho mostly it is reading them. i write this in sacramento, california, a state famous for hollywood and disneyland, tho i'm pretty far, geographically speaking, from both. and yet, many of my best poet-friends live half a world away, half a continent away. we are connected thru the ether. is it no less a connection for it?

and as for local writing, a good poet-friend recently wrote me an email telling me, when i asked for his ideas about local writing, that he loved his home in grand rapids, michigan. that the upper penninsula of michigan, where he has a cabin, is glorias, and a station from the chaos we call modern living. but for his poems, shit, he could probably write them on mars.

so then, perhaps the internet is a kind of homelessness for writers, at the very least to me as a poet. but to paraphrase the poet richard hugo, to be homeless means that you can be home every where.

i'll end this ramble on a bid of shameless self-promotion i have a review of donna kuhn's book typical girl in galatea resurrects #2. click on the link and find terrific reviews by some very gifted poets there. if i had time i'd list them all, but now heading for the fridge for another beer: sierra nevada bottom fermented summerfest.