late summer notes

already middle of august!  just a couple more weeks of 'unofficial' summer to go.  of course, the hot weather will stick around until october but this summer has been one of the mildest in recent memories.  we've had a few triple digit [fahreneit] days here & there.  like last weekend.  but overall, it's been fairly chilly that i almost need to wear a sweater!  

anyhow, i don't keep a dream diary.  dreams are mostly boring.  especially when someone tells you about their dream.  because those little movies made in our heads are made for each dreaming individual.  so strange are dreams that we can't even call them surrealistic.  rather, dreams make narrative sense only in the act of dreaming.  but when we wake up these dreams collapse from their stories & often disappear from memory.  be that as it may, i did have a dream about the poet james schuyler.  a friend was giving a lecture about schuyler's poetry.  i thought my friend's lecture was brilliant.  but the students didn't.  the students were rude, loud & ignored the lecture.  i got up from my seat & angrily denounced the students's conduct.  i said my own piece about the brilliance & cool cat vibes of schuyler.  then i picked up my backpack, said 'fuck y'all', & walked out.

interesting dream?  probably not.  but i have been rereading schuyler, especially his wonderful diary published by black sparrow in 1996 & edited by nathan kernan.  that diary helped me thru my own mental precarity when it was published.  ever since then, schuyler has been a lodestar poet.  perhaps that is why i remember this dream.

at any rate, summer is nearly over.  so please consider participating in eileen tabios' summer postcard project.  we have a couple/few weeks of summer still & this is a fun project of poetry & mail art.  click the link below for project participants & details to participate.

POSTCARDS IN SEARCH OF

in other poetry news kiwi poet richard taylor, along with his son, victor taylor, have new books of poetry out.  richard is a long-time friend & brilliant dude.  you can find his ongoing poetry/art project blog in the links to the right.  you can read reviews of the taylors' books & interviews of the poets by jack ross by clicking the link below.

The Imaginary Museum: 'Everyone should be noted': Richard & Victor Taylor

all of these poets & projects are life-giving things.  which i need a lot more of in these very strange days.  you might need them too.  

to quote another poet who also lived during a turbulent time in america, & the world, & i quote this line because this is the only world we know & we are lucky to be born at all.

grace to be born & live as variously as possible

--frank o'hara

making it fucking count! 

raise my glass to all of you, brothers & sisters & non-binaries, in these late summer days & nights

peace!