This is Orange Lincoln. I thought you might like meet him.

One of Jojo's ears popped up yesterday. We took a picture of it. Immediately after this she peed on our comforter. I have a small washer, so laundering was no easy task. The lesson I learned here; standing ears has zero correlation with not peeing on comforters.

Hey! Do you like prose poems? Then check out this new (free) anthology of poets working in that medium. I'm one, and there are others. Hopefully, it will be here.

Also, Carl had this to say about my pamphlet. I still don't have too many details, so I'm looking forward to what it will be. Whatever that is, at least it won't just be a .doc on my computer any more...that will be real nice.

School start back up tomorrow and I'm kind of excited. With no vacation plans, spring break wound up being more work than school could ever be. I did write a review for Heather Christle's book, "The Difficult Farm." Someone actually asked me to do it, so it won't show up here, unless they reject my effort, than it may...if I'm not totally embarrassed by it. AND, I knocked 4 more books of my to-read list which was both fun and functional. But, yeah, school and its routine will be pretty sweet.

I heard once that Brandi Homan (who is also featured in the anthology) was reading this Thursday and UNI, but have not heard much in a while, so I can't say for certain if it is happening, but if it is, you should be there. I'll throw up more details as I discover them.

This is what it's like to be me today -laundry. Laundry is boring. I don't take pictures of boring things. That's not true, actually.

I wrote some poems with DG last night; 4 poems in just one pitcher of beer. None of them are all good. Most of them are a little good. One is pretty much all good. We have decided it's something. Something, like how Easter is something. It's because of Easter.

Baus book sales have slowed. Stopped, really. Fight the good fight here.

Remember how I said I was going to not buy more books until I'd read all unread, bought books? Yeah...

Yeah.

This is new puppy (along with old puppy, just to ease you in). Her name is Jojo. She likes sleeping, being super cute and the R&B group Jodeci, though, if you asked her today she'd tell you Salt n' Pepa.

This has nothing to do with puppies, which was nice after the last few days, but tonight I went and watched Joshua Marie Wilkinson and GC Waldrep. It was an outrageous entertainment. I bought GC's book, "Archicembalo." One thing you may not know about GC Waldrep is that he once had an aunt that lived in the town I grew up in. Also, I did not know her.

Have you ever read Max Jacob? He's French. He hung out with Picasso. He wrote funny poems that all have secrets...I didn't tell you, but the secret is that they break your heart. Here is one of them translated by Elisa Gabbert and Kathleen Rooney:

Poem of the Moon

There are on the night sky three mushrooms, which are the moon. As abruptly as sings the cuckoo from a clock, they rearrange themselves each month at midnight. There are in the garden some rare flowers which are little men at rest that wake up every morning. There is in my dark room a luminous shuttle that roves, then two … phosphorescent aerostats, they’re the reflections of a mirror. There is in my head a bee that talks.

There are also some of new translations of Raul Zurita up at the spankin' new Action Yes. It was at a Daniel Borzutzky reading that I first heard of Zurita. It was at a Daniel Borzutzky reading that I first heard Daniel Borzutzky read these translations. I was smitten during these firsts.

Have gotten the chance to see Zach Schomburg's poem films? They are amazing with a capital a. Get them here. Really.

It's March. I have a shit-ton of stuff on my plate. I got a new puppy. When you have a shit-ton of stuff on your plate, puppies are like gravy...it gets on everything, but you're always glad it's there. I once ate a gravy-topped omelet. It was pretty great.

Have you heard the Carolina Chocolate Drops? A heard them on the radio yesterday and when she came home we downloaded their new record (Genuine Negro Jig). I know it's almost a right of passage these days for folk bands to cover hip-hop tunes, but CCD's version of "Hit'em Up Style," is sick. Vocals-beatbox-and-violin-only sick...

I've been reading everything Oppen these days, it started as class assignments, but has since become something else...that truth is possible in Language, not necessarily in it's representations, but in that liminal space between speaker and receptor...plus, I'm pretty sure George Oppen would have been the greatest uncle ever.

Don't forget to order the brand-new and totally amazing Eric Baus chapbook, "Bee-Stung Aviary," here.

JMW is reading with GC Waldrep tomorrow night at Prairie Lights (7pm). Did you know Waldrep was Amish? I had no idea...how stoked to you suppose he was to be published in DIAGRAM...or Blackbird, for that matter.

I have 20+ books I must read before I'm allowing myself to buy any more books. Will it get done by AWP...stay tuned.