Today's 30/30 poem inspired by small town life, Snowden, and privacy

What a beautiful weekend! Today's poem is inspired by the small village I live in on the Eastern Shore of VA (pictured above). One of the other 30/30 poets, Rachel Kubie, who wrote about Manning and Snowden yesterday, and both were knocking around in my head when I wrote today. Of course I wanted to think about how does privacy matter to me, in my little world? And of course, there is none, or nearly so. On a nightly walk one can learn so much about their neighbors, way more than what you could learn from a facebook status update, or an email. The final line is both ironic and earnest, and funny at the same time, or as I read it. Lots of imagery of carnivals and small town fairs pop up at the end. A future edit would see a tightening up of the verse, and possible reworking of the food imagery. But I'm wiped. As my neighbors could tell you, I've been sneezing, and playing with kids at the Y all day.

FYI: I probably won't blog too much this week. Lots of things happening at the school level. But I will be writing every day. Please stop by.

Here is a snippet from today's poem:

Privacy in a Small Town

Ask someone who lives in a small town.

and they can tell you whose lawn is mowed

and why. It is the same knowledge a child

knows about a ball. Privacy? Perhaps high summer

and winter, when the windows are clapped shut

for air or heat, otherwise the frequency our rooms

are transmitted on the tide of air that flows and waves

from seaside to bayside and the channels between.

“Happiness was something I thought I could buy

in a store,” or “This is why we cannot own nice things,”

the stereo of two parents coming down on a son

everyone knows is cheating at school, and life.

His grandfather whored a heart to stone

and why should he be any different?

Read it here when it is posted.

Summer Poetry Reading in Rehoboth

If anyone's interested in a mid-summer run to Rehoboth's outlet malls, consider Tuesday, July 27th, and stop by the Rehoboth Beach Librar y for the summer poetry series. Besides moi, Denise Clemmons, poet and food critic for the Cape Gazette, and Sherry Chapplle, poet and professor. Excellent company. Books will be for sale afterwards. It's a quality series, and full of surprises. Garry Hanna has done a bang-up job organizing the summer series. Bring a few quarters to ward off the meter maid. Reading starts at 7:00 PM.

Out this week: Thirty Days: Best of the 30/30 Project. Featuring my poem "Love in Reverse"

Marie Gauthier of Tupelo Press selected one of my poems, "Love in Reverse" for Thirty Days : The best of the 30/30 Project Year One. It's one of a few anthologies to feature my work (cue haughty accent, spotlight, espresso, and French cigarettes). Hopefully you'll be hearing more from me over the next few months as projects near completion. Thanks for the support.

Vittorio Carli's work is punk rock #poetry

A Passion for Apathy: The Collected and Rejected Poems of Vittorio Carl i, a small press gem of punk rock poetry, carries poetic traditions in its teeth. Punk rock because of the in-your-face-anti-establishment irony and earnestness in Carli's presentation of his verse, traditional in the homage and muse tradition of poetry. He writes to and for those and that which enlarges his voice. Carli's work reads like a cross between cultural commentary/homage to persons as varied as Lawrence Welk to Woody Allen, to snapshots of socio-political unrest, which are flags of protest. My favorite is the “The Trouble with Librarians (for Andrea)” where Librarians are cast as the progenitors of closed information; they are “all closed books/with a couple of pages missing.” He's a poet, and I imagine him in some stacked room typing madly, or in transit, to and fro Chicago, scribbling on the back of brown paper bags. He works it. He's out there living poetry. Proof. My copy of t...

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