the scream

it couldn't have been the banshee, as i'm still living and this ain't ireland. well then just the same, last night a woman was screaming she was being attacked. our house was loud with nicholas clambering, hugo the hound barking, the tv cranked to 11, and i couldn't tell what the hell that screaming was. i stuck my head out the door to find a woman in the street crying in terror, a man running away from her at full-speed, and me going what the fuck?

turns out it was a domestic abuse situation. cops were called and they caught the guy. me and several neighbors tried to comfort the woman as the cops took her statement, took mine as i also called 911, then took the guy to the city jail.

i was exhausted after a long, arduous tour of duty putting new book cases together. after the scream i was wide awake. and feeling thankful that i live in a neighborhood of urbanites who know each other reasonably well and will come out of their homes and help should the occasion for help arises.

another what the fuck moment came when i was at the movies a couple nights ago. the sound and the projection at the arthouse kinda sucked. picture was too dark and murky and the sound was way too low. all the trailers for coming attractions had in bold and in nearly every frame some line of acclaim from some critic shouting how this new movie is the greatest masterpiece. break me for giving a shit. i'm on this side of giving a rat's ass. i don't need some lines of text in a trailer detailing all the critics' darlings.

and it's not that i'm anti-commercial or anything. i came of age when the hollywood blockbuster became the norm for summer viewing and product placement, from star wars bedsheets to spiderman underoos, is no stranger to me. but i think i heard the ghost of the good grey poet yelp in surprise and disgust when he heard his poem 'pioneers! o pioneers!' used in this levi's commercial that played even before the trailers.



oh what the hell. i've been trying for years to sell-out too but i can find no buyers. perhaps it is a good that the levi's sales machine is doing because it is using after all a poem and not just some earworm jingle.

blogs tip of the week: bill knott's prose re poetry and his poetry blog. knott claims to have given up conventional book and magazine publishing. whether he has or hasn't given up conventional publishing knott's blogs are addicting reading. they are brilliant, erudite, and cantankerous from a poet who deeply loves poetry and are ample demonstrations of the diy ethos for the 21st century.