loot for animoon

the church rummage sale gods were good to animoon today

maker: custom order

labradorite, smoky grey sea glass, and sterling silver necklace. custom order for animoon workshop.

arm candy

arm candy, a photo by feral godmother on Flickr.

santa clara

santa clara, a photo by womanimal. on Flickr.

waterborn

waterborn, a photo by womanimal. on Flickr.

#miniature

#miniature, a photo by womanimal. on Flickr.

Untitled, a photo by womanimal. on Flickr.

driftwood wreath

#drifteoodwrrath, a photo by womanimal. on Flickr.

peace wreath

peace wreath, a photo by womanimal. on Flickr.

scorpio dusk

scorpio dusk

half dead birthday lilies
twins on a stalk
half live petal spiral
on a live thigh
look up
and the crows fly away from sunset
silent

the live feed

Obsessively checking the live news feed of the shooting,
 i realize i am waiting for the update reporting 
that all the victims have come back to life.

shifting graves

a graveyard is a park
where the dead underground
are still named

(photos, november 1, 2011)

* summer poetry readings *

Come show off your summer vibe and your lit love and your fancy sandals at two upcoming readings. Both are organized by true heroes of our poetry community and include fellow writer's I'm excited to split mic time with. I hope to see you!

Thursday, June 21 | 7 pm | $0

Equanimity: The Peacemakers Poetry Series - Third Night: Gene Hirsch, Renée Alberts, Nikki Allen, & Ed Murray

The Big Idea Book Store | 4812 Liberty Ave | Pittsburgh 15224 (Bloomfield)

Part of a three-part pop-up June reading series, organized by poet Romella Kitchens.

For info on the readers and the sister event on June 14th (with Angele Ellis, Liane Norman, Jill Khoury and Roberta Hatcher), visit Romella's website White Gardenia Poetry Press.

Tuesday, July 24 | 8 pm | $0

Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series: Renée Alberts, Elizabeth Hoover, Marc Jampole, & Sankar Roy 

Hemingway's Cafe | 3911 Forbes Ave | Pittsburgh 15213 (Oakland)

Part of the weekly Hemingway's Summer Poetry Series, organized by poets Joan Bauer and Jimmy Cvetic.

For info on the series' other featured readers, visit the Pittsburgh Literary Calendar, where you can see Pittsburgh readings of all stripes (and add your own)!

Pittsburgh Literary Calendar

Pittsburgh Literary Calendar Facebook page

"Palm Sunday" on Black Saturday and upcoming readings

Today's Saturday Poem in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette features my seasonally-appropo "Palm Sunday." It's so exciting to be included in this column that has for years put poetry opposite the op-eds. I'm glad those inks are mixing.

Upcoming readings:
On April 15th, I read with my inksister Nikki Allen at the new, ferocious Strange Animals Reading Series.
Hambone's Pub | 7 pm | free

On April 19, we'll celebrate the release of The Doomy Poems by Jonathan Moody with readings from the poet, Kristofer Collins, and myself at Awesome Books Downtown--a fierce little bookshop that lives up to its its name.
8 - 9 pm | free

In the distant future, on July 24th, I read with Elizabeth Hoover, Marc Jampole, and Sankar Roy at the revered and adored Hemingway's Summer Reading Series.
Hemingway's Cafe | 8 pm | free

 For more on these and other Pittsburgh readings and lit happenings (and to list your own), visit the Pittsburgh Literary Calendar.

Detail a Day: The Collection

Last year, I undertook what I thought was a simple writing exercise: notice one thing every day. Instead, my task became a study of attention, presence and precision, syllable counting and storytelling. I learned more from the Detail a Day project than I expected, and was surprised by people's interest. Family and friends, some of whom I didn't even know read this blog, would ask when we were hanging out, "Is this going to be today's detail?"

Well, now a selection of the details are collected in print in as they fall, a Lilliput Broadside. A few of the  details are also featured in Lilliput Review #184.

Lilliput Review, who publishes the Broadsides, is a giant among litmags, collecting the tiniest of poems. If you haven't immersed yourself in its micromoments of surprise enlightenment, exquisite strangeness, and beauty, take a deep breath and prepare to bliss: http://lilliputreview.blogspot.com/

Want a copy of as they fall for your own hot little palms? $2 to mail, $1 if you can find me in the flesh. Comment or contact, and I'll pick one fresh of the tree for you. Happy Spring!

detail a day 365

the human microphone

(via)

detail a day 364

i look for god like i look for my glasses,
patting surfaces blindly, careful
not to snap the fragile frame

detail a day 363

lightning flicks its forked tongue

detail a day 362

caskets on a flatbed:
somewhere to be

detail a day 361

fog so thick, if we didn't
know these streets by heart
we'd be blind

detail a day 360

7 billion and counting
our umbilical an exhaust pipe,
nuchal




(via)

detail a day 358

illegible skywriting

detail a day 357

like the cat who, let out,
turns her face to the sun
to feel through her fur
the light on her skin

detail a day 356

it took years to learn how to read, and much longer
to interpret the space on the page

detail a day 355

they painted the smokestack white
but the cloud it spouts stayed grey

detail a day 354

the memory is grainy blown out hues

detail a day 353

Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds.

--Oppenheimer quoting the Bhagavad-Gita, after the Trinity test

detail a day 352

The light that shattered the predawn darkness was greater than that of 500 suns.


Aim is perfect. Deeds, not words.
Cloud moves to open ocean,
precise nature.

Although no one said so outright.

It is a team capable of destroying any city in the world,
a firecracker compared to today's monster.
Exactly as expected.

By the year 2000 they believe man
will be extracting fuel from common rocks
and food from wheat stalks, roots
and plantlife that today is discarded as worthless.

coral dust, Russia,
mammoth, radio, butter,
paving on Tuesday.

(found poem via The Altus Times-Democrat, Monday May 21, 1956)

detail a day 351

my father's ferlinghetti,
mom's jazz, her neruda

detail a day 350

to clear room for our new bed, we took 

apart the old headboard we'd rocked loose 

from the frame: more for the woodpile

to warm us later.