Outrageous

overalls are rocking out country-style tonight.
That outrageous fiddle, the toe-tapping
outrageous lady singer and Brother Jeremiah with
his bass and jaunty
fresh-brimmed derby.
You are all outrageously dressed up like
Depression era folks tonight.
Except so much
cleaner.

Just for fun

Sam wanted to bob for apples on Halloween “just for fun.” Which was a relief, because I know there are some people who bob for apples competitively, and others who bob for apples professionally. And I’m just not ready for him to make either of those leaps.

Plug-ness: Poetry Reading, This Thursday

I’ll be reading a few poems this Thursday night at the West’s Oldest Independent Bookseller (aka, Books Inc, Alameda) at 7:30 pm along with Jannie Dresser, Julia Park Tracey, and some guy named Don. I’m not sure whether we’ll be reading in sequence or simultaneously, but that’s the drama, right? Bay Area folks, of course we’d love to see ya there.

A Whole New About-Creativity.com (Don’t You Dare Close Your Eyes)

I’m delighted to share the news that the “Conversations about Creativity” interviews on this site have moved over to their entirely new digs at about-creativity.com.
A post on the about-creativity.com blog gives a tour of the major changes we’ve made, but the quick version is: (1) interviews are now organized and presented in a way that should be much easier to browse through — content burbles up, I say, literally burbles up through vents and other hot spots! (2) We’ve created a couple of all-new areas where you can let folks know what you’re working on and share what works for you.
When you get a chance, please drop by the new site and chime in!
In related news, now that the site is up, new interviews will be following shortly, starting with a conversation with Chris Baty of NaNoWriMo (Nation Novel Writing Month), due to be posted next week.
-Cecil

The Novocaine

The Novocaine wearing off
felt suspiciously like morning fog as it burns away.
Made him wonder if Novocaine is in fact
constructed from morning fog.
Or perhaps that was just
the Novocaine talking?
Puffs of cool fog.

“Some nights,”

he said, shadows
dancing over their heads
like bones,
throwing another
pile of metal in the fireplace
to use later as
warmers,
pressing refresh
on the numbers page
of his mobile device,
“if you listen closely
you can literally
hear
the economy
slowing down.”