Re: a comment on Come off with me Carly back into the city by zodiac	28-Jan-04/8:58 AM
It was "sits beside me, smiling mellow" until about 15 minutes ago, when I had stared at it too long to know better.
Re: a comment on Ghost by lastobelus	28-Jan-04/8:49 AM
What do you mean?
Re: a comment on Camera Obscura by Fear of Garbage	28-Jan-04/8:44 AM
The story (which is of course unconfirmed,) is that the book was under consideration for Oprah's Book Club, which would have been a tremendous boon to the already fabulously wealth Proud-Stocking estate, until progress was brought to a near-complete halt by the powerful American Shepherders and Wooldarners Lobby, which believed it portrayed Jodhpurs in an unflattering light as merely the toys of the (as aforementioned) fabulously wealthy.
Re: a comment on Ghost by lastobelus	28-Jan-04/8:17 AM
That said: Ghosts are very interesting, though overused. I think the huge ghost-related entertainment output of America misses some interesting questions about ghosts - such as, why do ghosts always have to appear in some scary or at least startling manner, even if they're friendly ghosts just trying to right some wrong, or appearing to their former loved ones? Even more important, why do ghosts always want to right wrongs and get revenge anyway? You'd think being dead already would put a little perspective on the whole I-must-avenge thing and they'd just, I don't know, hang out instead. My wife and I have a plan, should one of us die, to appear to each other in the least startling way possible. It involves a bright sunny day and a very non-cryptic telephone call well in advance. I think Jefferson and Hamilton had a similar plan, sans telephone.
Re: a comment on Ghost by lastobelus	28-Jan-04/8:09 AM
To elaborate: there is no unity of imagery or tone, except inasmuch as it's predictable eternal vibrations and stuff. Even worse, there's no gimmick. Poems NEED NEED NEED a gimmick - they're like country songs in that respect; the rest can be trash, as long as there's that memorable line or turn of phrase. That's callow and unpoetically hawk-eyed, true, but it works (ie, all your best poems have gimmicks.) The 'feeling the rain' part is close, but a little short of the proverbial cigar. If you had to try to pull it off, I'd at least introduce rain a little earlier in the poem - which you know already. And if I write any more, I'm afraid I'll be taking longer commenting than you took writing this poem. One more thing: while trying to think of another expression for hawk-eyed, I became fascinated by the term 'pie-eyed' for 'drunk.' I currently think it's amazing and beautiful.
Re: Ghost by lastobelus	28-Jan-04/7:59 AM
Pimple. I'm surprised at you. Don't worry, my last was an utter flop.
Re: a comment on Camera Obscura by Fear of Garbage	28-Jan-04/7:10 AM
I've met him once on his speaking tour right after Cold Mountain, but if he still teaches in NC it's not here. I remember being more impressed by his person than by the book, which I found a trifle dull the last time I read it. Incidentally, I can see the actual mountain from my front porch. It looks a lot like the movie (which is surprisingly good, by the way.)
Re: a comment on Camera Obscura by Fear of Garbage	28-Jan-04/7:03 AM
I don't know anything about recent sci-fi. What's he like? I'm reading all his reviews on Amazon and getting intrigued.
Re: a comment on Are You O.K.? by sonawrote	28-Jan-04/6:56 AM
Good point. It should also be said that good content often excuses poetically licensed form; but weird form almost never makes up for lack of content.
Re: a comment on Camera Obscura by Fear of Garbage	27-Jan-04/8:47 PM
You might also consider the new _Compleat Annotated Jodhpur Manuscripts_ (in folio with -=darkangel=-'s original marginal notations and squiggle-pen doodlings: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/jodhpur.html) with a fascinating forward by Sir Hilary Wainscotting of the Cumberland Gazette Enquirer and Sunday Book Supplement entitled "The Mistress' Jodhpurs: Proto-feminism and Authorship Issues in the Manuscripts" in which the author argues (cogently, I believe,) that the near-complete absence of women (ie, Lady Proud-Stocking) in the so-called 'Proud-Stocking Canon' belies a nascent proto-feminist sympathy (ie, the Lady has indeed been 'liberated' from the text itself.) He goes on to suggest (compellingly) that Lord Proud-Stocking (who notoriously denengrated his estranged wife) did not possess the degree of sophistication which is evident in the careful layering of imagery and allusion in the Manuscripts, concluding that the 14th Duke of Northumberland, Percy Cackering (who notoriously shagged Proud-Stocking's wife,) is the most likely real author. This is, you should know, considered heresy by many Judhpur scholars. Wainscotting supports his argument (assiduously, I should add,) with a fascinating reading of the Jodhpur Sequence in light of Northumberland's own close studies of the early hymns of Caedmon, in which he reads the old English 'Geæfpðhr' (ie, husk,) as 'Jodhpur'. The rest of the essay is more difficult to decipher, consisting mainly of (seemingly) drunken tirades against the aforementioned Jodhpur scholars and random speculations on the possibility of wearing husks instead of woolens. The editors also provide an extensive concordance, none of whose entries (which are all distinctly scatalogical, I should add,) lead to real pages. I hope this helps you on your search.
Re: a comment on So Much**coment this sucks. I want to make it better by Freethinker1602	27-Jan-04/7:35 PM
Also, I feel like I've come across recently as the giant flamer and jerk of the ranker, which is not what I intend. But when someone responds to an honest criticism like a sulking child, it makes me think they never intended to have their poetry critiqued (ie, ranked) in the first place - and sometimes I respond in kind. That's all. And I like a lot of the stuff here. I don't think that shows.
Re: a comment on So Much**coment this sucks. I want to make it better by Freethinker1602	27-Jan-04/7:17 PM
Agreed. All I'm saying is express your individualism, not someone else's.
Re: a comment on Camera Obscura by Fear of Garbage	27-Jan-04/7:12 PM
It's different everywhere and every day. Most 'poets of note' get in the New Yorker at some point, I know that. But really the whole field's fragmented to the point of being meaningless. Everybody likes to flaunt their current local poets, who are generally little known outside of their region (Okay, Fred Chappell may be an exception from these parts, but Katherine Stripling Byer, anyone? Yet she's in the new Norton Modern Poetry) What it comes down to is we're more or less as famous as the latest North Atlantic all-star - that is, we get our poems read by maybe 20 people each. And we get fun comments, which they don't. As far as fiction, I read a lot of Carol Shields (whom you probably know,) and think she's one of the best writers of the last ten years. I recently read Bel Canto and thought it was good, and Francisco Goldman's two weird novels.
Re: a comment on Are You O.K.? by sonawrote	27-Jan-04/7:04 PM
No. Poetic license is when writers who are already immensely famous (usually for no particular reason) do annoying things that people who don't know better have to respect. We, the drudges in the black coal-mines of poetry, are not entitled to it. When we try, they tell us we're just amateurish.
Re: a comment on My happy warm faith poem by Jeremi B. Handrinos	27-Jan-04/5:37 PM
Yes, I think it is.
Re: Are You O.K.? by sonawrote	27-Jan-04/5:34 PM
This is a mess. Is your .-button stuck? Are you ok? Do you know what consumption is?
Re: a comment on I smell coffee by Princess_Snowflake	27-Jan-04/5:31 PM
I don't think she's old enough for, um, coffee, you sicko.
Re: a comment on Camera Obscura by Fear of Garbage	27-Jan-04/5:29 PM
God if the sages read this I'm doomed.
Re: Bloom Inside by hatedestruction	27-Jan-04/5:28 PM
Good bleach-era Nirvana lyrics. I always thought that album was underrecognized.
Re: a comment on Camera Obscura by Fear of Garbage	27-Jan-04/5:21 PM
The mix isn't so bad - about half and half, maybe. Better than I expected when I came here. <<<Secret-hopefully-run-off-the-top-twenty-by-tomorrow personal revelation: You know I teach poetry to college undergrads. That doesn't mean much, except I have to read it all the time and write endless papers on it. Some of this stuff is better than what's getting real woodpulp out there. Yes, it was worth embarassing myself as a stuckup prick to be able to say that to some of you. Buck up - it's just woodpulp.>>>