WhimsyLand

I will be seeing my sweet Junie this weekend.  We're heading over to Door County, home of the Famous Fish Boil.  The Boil is a soup made of whitefish chunks, onions and potatoes, typically served with cole slaw and rye bread "and topped off with Door County cherry pie", as the ad says.  I've never been in Packer's Country before, but I've heard it's beautiful in the fall, so we'll see.  I'm hoping that a sweater and windbreaker are all that are necessary for the microclimate.

The 17th issue of Many Mountains Moving has gone to the printers, thanks to the help of Malinda Miller, Barbara Sorensen, and Junie — and the Herculean efforts of Jeffrey Lee.  Jeffrey edited the InDesign version, organized the artwork, and managed the entire effort of producing a 290 page journal.

I had a really busy day with work and will have to report back to you on this month's Poetry when I get back.   It's packed in there with the latest Le Carré, 5 sets of underwear, a USB keyboard, and a collection of Wallace Stevens that Tricia's party motivated me to re-read.

I once semi-famously said "Poetry is the last meritocracy".  I think that was in 2002, when I was submitting to good journals with no bio and no connections, and increasingly getting accepted.  I admit to being a great deal more jaded now, not that I have many more connections than I did then.  The life of the academic poet, which is to say anyone who tries to make a living in this end of literary arts,  is so fraught with financial strain and assaults on the ego that it's no wonder most of them resort to what I do every day:  work the network, try to land positions, schmooze at every occasion.   When I do it for my software company, it's business and "no poem was harmed in the production of this commercial endeavor".  The answer, of course, is for all of us to go back to being amateurs.  Considering that there's something like 300 MFA programs in literature now, I suspect that's not going to happen.

Belated Happy Birthday to Tony.

You all have a nice weekend.