not that i'm complaining but when i scan the shelves at a bookstore or the central library i have a hard time reading the print on the spines of books.  esp. when the light is low.  i mean, i have bifocals [don't laugh, you'll get old too and will need them!] but they ain't working too well.  so reading print is getting tougher for this old punk/poet.  i shouldn't complain but when i stopped in THE BOOK COLLECTOR, an indie shop a few blocks from my house, i looked over the poetry section.  this little bookstore usually has an excellent selection of small press stuff.  but the light was low and it was dark outside.  my eyeballs had a hell of a time adjusting.  but then i found a book speed of life [apogee press; 1999] by edward kleinschmidt mayes.  i don't know the poetry too well.  what i know of mayes is that he is a bay area poet who kinda straddles the line between mainstream and avant-garde poetries, and who married the writer frances mayes, author of the famous book under the tuscan sun [broadway books; 1997], which was made into a movie starring the lovely diane lane.  what i think is kool about edward mayes is the fact that he took his wife's name.  straight up awesome kool.  there's been enuf nonsense about how the woman must take the man's name.  how about the man taking the woman's name.  for reals!  i can dig that, really!  anyhow, i was thumbing thru speed of life this morning.  good stuff so far.  i'm getting too old to worry about whether what kind of poetry, or music, or movies, or what have you, fits where.  i don't care if mayes is doing the avant thing or not.  what i want is poetry that is full of life and makes me glad to be alive.  and so far mayes' book suits me just fine.