Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Nice morning surprise. My Pillow Book has been selected as a Staff Pick by Wendy Chin-Tanner at Lantern Review . Thanks, Wendy and LR! Had a wonderfully relaxing time at Aires Ancient Baths yesterday afternoon. GH and I luxuriated in a series of pools of different temperatures. The 97 F warm pool was a gentle introduction. Going from the 102 F hot pool to the 61 F cold pool was supposed to improve one's blood circulation. The propeller jet bath prepared one for the massage, which we added to the bath package and were very glad that we did. My favorite tub was the salt water pool at 100 F, in which one surrendered oneself to the water and floated. There were a steam room too and a lounge to drink tea. The baths were patronized by straight young couples on the day that we were there. We had dinner afterwards at Thalassa , a Mediterranean and Greek restaurant, also on Franklin Street. The fish specials and on the menu were displayed in ice. I chose the Lavraki, which came ...

The significance of the number seven, the fragmented self, the gay transnational Asian poet, the Singapore poetry scene, self-publication and critical legitimacy, literary awards, and poetry free-for-all... ...in my interview in Lantern Review . The beautiful Wendy Chin-Tanner puts the move on me.

In the words of its brochure, "Living as Form" presented "over 100 artists and projects, 25 curators, and 9 new commissions highlighting 20 years of socially engaged art." On Sunday GH and I wandered through the mostly empty Essex Street Market building in which the exhibition was held. The projects were not readily comprehensible, their explanations in densely written booklets, their images played on looped videos. Mitch Corber was there to show the interviews and books of Poetry Thin Air Cable Network, as was Cindy Hochman. Cindy was kind to press on me a copy of her new chapbook The Carcinogenic Bride , but I insisted on paying a poet for her work. The poetry is lively. I particularly like the last poem "Under Anesthesia," in which the disoriented patient addresses the doctor like a lover in a swirl of weird imagery and knowing humor: Doctor, I am lying on your table with my compliant bones Doctor, soon you will be under my anonymous skin Doctor, y...

WCT invited me to join her at the party thrown by Electric Literature and Flavorpill, with special guest Harper Perennial. We had a bite at Standard Grill to soak up the anticipated alcohol, then made our way to Le Bain on the rooftop of Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District. The crowd was mostly younger folks, many dressed casually in jeans. I had on a suit jacket and tailored trousers. WCT looked smashing in pumpkin orange, with a matching orange-red crescent-shaped handbag. She introduced me to a Facebook friend, a poet who teaches at Marymount Community College, and is the colleague of S whom I got to know at AAAS and with whom I shared a cab from LaGuardia back home. WCT's friend had a male friend with her, a French guy who is writing a book on the paranoid style in the McCarthy era. WCT talked with one or two other people, but otherwise we made up our company that night. Conversation was stimulating and easy, just the way I like it. WCT has a fascinating family histo...

Eric Norris has just published his experimental short story, Terence , complete with advance praise by William Shakespeare, W. H. Auden, and The Daily Mail. Book description on Lulu: 'Terence' is a comic translation of A.E. Housman's book, 'A Shropshire Lad.' 'Terence' tells the story of one young man's enduring love for another, complicated by the untimely appearance of his Muse, a cow. Knowing Eric, I am sure the book is filled with literary high jinks and piercing moral insights. He talks with Wendy Chin-Tanner about the book and self-publishing at The Nervous Breakdown . The interview is opinionated and funny, and so makes a contribution to that often tiresome genre.