Before I left Truro August 31, 2009: I started reading this old novel on the bookshelf next to my bed, a hardback of the kind that is picked up in a thrift shop and left for summer tenants to bring to the beach. It is by the prolific R.V. Cassill, a former neighbor of mine in Truro, now dead. He was, I'm almost positive, though Wikipedia doesn't seem to know it, the founder of the [...] by Rebecca Wolff

New Moon August 30, 2009: New Moon So where do I begin? Particularly when rage makes direction difficult. Particularly when grief dislocates, is about extended dislocations. I was invited to participate as a Harriet blogger some time ago, and found it remarkably difficult to decide on the “voice” to cultivate. Even the title of this entry is already days old (the [...] by Tonya Foster

Brazil August 30, 2009: The only thing interfering with the timelessness of summer is the heat. I spent the summer of 1975 in New York having a really hard time making a living mainly putting up gallery posters in the windows of stores for three dollars and hour. Some waitressing which I was really bad at. Happily there was beer. I remember a friend coming over and [...] by Eileen Myles

how give any spice to our truths, to our errors? August 29, 2009: When autumn approaches -- or rather, when I start to long for its approach, knowing full well it's still far off -- I take my old frenemy E. M. Cioran down from the shelf and prepare to savor Persephone's desertion. The morsels below are from Anathemas and Admirations. The translation, by Richard Howard, was smartly reviewed by Edmund White [...] by Joel Brouwer

Paul Martínez Pompa, ‘My Kill Adore Him’ (University of Notre Dame Press, 2009) August 28, 2009: Chicago poet Paul Martínez Pompa kind of frightens me. I just tore through his first collection of poetry, My Kill Adore Him, which was selected by Martín Espada for the 2008 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize. This prize is administered by Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at University of Notre Dame. The two [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

AFTER THE READING August 27, 2009: I’m going to read at Bluestockings in about forty minutes and I haven’t figured out what to wear yet but I do know what I’m reading. I’m expecting there’ll be a nice audience and I have friends coming, and my girlfriend, and I’m looking forward to it which I usually do cause I love reading. It seems like the most athletic part of [...] by Eileen Myles

Haunani-Kay Trask, ‘Night is a Sharkskin Drum’ (University of Hawaii Press, 2002) August 26, 2009: Haunani-Kay Trask's Night is a Sharkskin Drum (University of Hawaii Press) is a book I picked up along with Lee A. Tonouchi's Da Word (Bamboo Ridge Press) and the first edition of his Living Pidgin (Tinfish Press) in a Borders Bookstore, of all places, in Lihue, Kauai. Having found these books, I was trippin' for two reasons. First, these [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

Journal, Day Five August 25, 2009: This week, five poets dispatch from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in Vermont. Bread Loaf, which has been meeting annually for 81 years, divides its participants into different categories—scholar, fellow, waiter, staff, and participant. Each day of the blog will feature a poet from a different category. *** Sarah Harwell, [...] by Bread Loaf Writers' Conference

The old mule delivers the goods August 25, 2009: It's municipal election day where I live. I went by the activity center at a Baptist church to vote on my way to work. Got there early and was first in line when the doors opened at 7:00, so I got to be the very first person to sign in. The poll workers were still drinking their coffee, still a little unclear on the procedures, still a little [...] by Joel Brouwer

Dispatch from Truro August 24, 2009: I've been in a beautiful place the past week or so. Every time I try to write something about where I am I think of all the possible misconstruals of it. Or that maybe from a certain perspective it could all be seen to be true. \\\\\\\\\ This last was typed by Myshka, who is with us on the Cape, otherwise known as Cape Cod--specifically in [...] by Rebecca Wolff