I'm officially done with classes and have a 29-day break until classes commence on Sept. 24. I finished my last anthro class on Thursday, after an in-class reading of the essay that I wrote on my mother.

I am completely out of sorts. To try and add some semblance of structure and regularity to my life, while trying to get back into a writing groove, I have been catching up on reading:

Lumakick 1 and 2 - a comic/experimental graphic narrative by Richard Hahn. Poetic, minimalist, referential to drawing, and philosophical with the dramatic tension interrupted by more comic sequences and scenarios.

Her Husband - Diane Middlebrook's biography of Ted Hughes. I haven't spent much time with Hughes' work at all, but having read this nonfiction work about the trajectory and development of his poetry, I definitely plan to now. Hughes work references animals, shamanism, myth and anthropology. I came across a reference to The White Goddess which was sort of a literary bible for Hughes. I had heard about Graves' book a couple years ago from a writer, who's tastes I cannot trust, recommended it to me when I mentioned that I'd been delving more deeply into anthro. But rediscovering it in Middlebrook's book, the concept of the white goddess begs further exploration.

Hard Travel to Sacred Places - travelogue of screenplay writer Rudy Wurlitzer who visits Cambodia, Burma, and Thailand in the wake of his son's death in a car accident. Cuts in and out of collaged dharma quotes from some of the teachers that Wurlitzer has studied with. The quotes seem a little too summative at times - might have been more interesting to see Wurlitzer write through more of his struggle with attachment, the body, arrival at realization, failure, etc., rather than relying on the buddhist canon for ground.

I Love Artists - a great intro to Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's work for anyone who hasn't already encountered her earlier projects. But really, the full books that are Empathy, Endocrinology and Nest are far, far more interesting and complex.

Poeta en SF - BJR opens with a prose poem called "State of Emergency." Echoes of Giorgio Agamben? You bet.

Currently skimming Nathaniel Tarn's The Embattled Lyric.

I have written a haiku nearly every other day in August. Much of the Haiku Not Bombs gang signed on for another year, along with some new people, like Ellis Avery.

I am experimenting with video letters. Goodbye to postcards and written letters for awhile. When I was a kid, I used to make audio cassette letters for my best friend Jessica Rollins. I've missed those days when we'd trade tapes like audio diaries. My friend Bridget and I are also trading a physical journal back and forth thru the mail. If you would like a video dispatch - send me a message - and specify your preferred topic, if you have one!