I drank, and am currently still drinking, too much coffee this morning. You know how I know? My stomach is making sleepy cow noises...or horny cow noises, maybe. I don't know much about cows. But I did draw this picture of a cow. I know a lot about cow meat. When I was younger, and my parents made the grand claim as to having bought half a cow, I started wondering about halving cows. I came to the conclusion that the only fair way to halve a cow is to go right down the middle. I found out later that the halving of cows is not that exact of a science; it's not like splitting a soda. It turns out it's more like splitting a Popsicle...

So, I live in Chicago...proper. I've been downtown only once in the last 6 weeks. Is this weird? I mean, I can see downtown from my house, but then, I guess you can see downtown from Indiana, so I guess that doesn't hold water... Anyway, I think the combination of being both poor and lazy has made downtown a bit of a hassle. Do you live in Chicago? Do you go downtown much?

I watched Jodi Foster's "Home for the Holidays" last night. I think that might be the greatest holiday movie ever. It represents, perfectly, that mix of dread and excitement we all have about going home... It's like when you screw up at work and then spend the next few days praying nobody notices; it's only good when it isn't bad.

I've been reading, rereading in some cases, the poetics anthology, "20th Century American Poetics." It was the last book I "previewed" when I was still teaching. If I ever teach again I think I'm going to use this book. It's range is broad, covering the Modernists, Post-Modernists, and people in between and after, but it's focus is direct. Here's a secret: I love modernists. My favorites in this collection are Williams, Pound and Moore. Stevens, I think, comes across as a little dry. Too dry. Jack Spicer's bit on performance is great, and I would have loved to have seen him screaming his poetry in a bar.

Speaking of Spicer. Have I ever told you about the letters to James Alexander of his in jubilat 5? They are amazing. I'm on my 3rd copy of that magazine. I keep giving it away. Well, lending it out and never getting it back. I wonder if these letters will be in his collected. Do you know? Will they? I hope so... These letters taught me the importance (for me and my poetry) of content over form, and how to write love poems in a non-Romantic world.

My new bio: B.J. Love makes spreadsheets. He also manipulates them. He shares this relationship with many other things as well; facts, sandwiches and poems. His poems are often good, though more frequently, not good enough. As a child he stole candy. As an adult he pleads the 5th.