It's spring break at SMU. Thank goodness.

Taking some time to catch up on reading and applications. A student of mine lent me "Night without Armor II", Beau Sia's spoof on Jewel's book by the same name. I'd heard about this book for a long time and was pleasantly surprised and delighted by the silliness of this collection. Reflections on childhood in Oklahoma, the swim team, fat girls, sex, and ex-lovers, and a few humourous pieces on Goth girls (Sia's sister was apparently one of these). There was also one very tender poem slipped into the series contemplating the life of Sia's parents before he was born. Real or made up, a very different resonance than the other pieces in this collection. Beau's been making his way into film, and has had very small parts in 2 movies that I've seen recently, "Hitch" and "The Manchurian Candidate".

Also received from Mark, the catalog for the Infinity poetry show in Boston. My favorite works in this show are Denise Duhamel's 3D hamster wheel "Working Stiff Cylinder" and the endwar collective's "Reiteration" mobius strip poem. Jeffrey Encke also has a nice piece constructed out of a deck of playing cards, and nice to see Michael Peters' work again who's work I'd seen previously in Michael and Dottie's American Weddings.

Currently reading up on the NZ poetry scene. I am looking for a host...

Next term I will be using a different anthology for my course at the college. The book I have been using has gone out of print which means I'll have to go with a different title... currently contemplating FROM TOTEMS TO HIP-HOP, Ishmael Reed's multi-cultural anthology which has poets ranging from Tupac to Levertov. If anyone has any other suggestions, please backchannel me.

Reading tonite with contemplative slam poet Jason Carney at 7 p.m. at Paperbacks Plus in Lakewood. Free and sponsored by WordSpace.