Archive for July, 2008
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
Rattle Roundup
Ricardo Pau-Llosa, who had a poem in Rattle #22, appeared on PBS’s NewsHour last week. Click here to view the segment with Jim Lehrer, and a reading of some of Ricardo’s poems.
I didn’t realize how many features of poets NewsHour has done in the last year and a half. Check out all these videos.
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I [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in random riff-raff by Tim
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
No Revising Once You Submit
This always seemed like an obvious courtesy to me, but maybe I’ve been sitting behind the editor’s desk too long. I had to add a note to the submission guidelines today. Far too many people have been submitting poems by email, then sending another note the next day asking if we can delete a line [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in rattle rubbish by Tim
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Back to the Future
I just noticed again that the opening poem to my book, “The Body,” contains the phrase, “back east,” which I remember struck me as odd, even as I typed it out on the page. The poem was written in 2003, a full year before I would unexpectedly move from New York to California to [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in american fractal, pseudo-intellectual bs by Tim
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Stocks, Bonds, and Homophobia
Kay Ryan is an okay writer, but there is nothing spiritual about her homosexuality.
This is from an email I received Friday afternoon, from a stranger who had entered the Rattle Poetry Prize competition. He goes on to explain that Ryan doesn’t believe in a conscious universe, and that she has “an uncontrolled influence on any [...]
No Comments » - Posted in random riff-raff by Tim
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Folly to Be Wise
The initiation into knowledge will infect the learner with the virus of self-consciousness.
–Tony Hoagland
The dog ate my homework, but I don’t have a dog, and all work is homework when you like what you do. Though I’m only finding the time to post right now because I couldn’t fall asleep, I have been reading [...]
No Comments » - Posted in pro-on-po reading by Tim
Friday, July 18th, 2008
Sundry Strings
I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed this week (a hundred emails and bucket of envelopes every day will do that to you), so while there are plenty of things I’ve wanted to post about — including our new Poet Laureate, who I love even though I think it’s about damn time for Marvin Bell to [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in random riff-raff by Tim
Friday, July 11th, 2008
VCP Reading at the Cobalt Cafe - Tueday 7/15
What are you doing next Tuesday? Well, if you’re somewhere in Los Angeles County you’re driving up to the valley to hear me read a couple poems along with the rest of the contributors of the Valley Contemporary Poets anthology. And if you’re not in LA you’re chartering a plane to the Van [...]
No Comments » - Posted in random riff-raff by Tim
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Tadpoles
I think tapping off a quick post before hitting the sack is starting to become a habit. Maybe a good one.
Anyway, since I’ve been so dedicated to upgrading and maintaining the Rattle website for the last two years — and maybe because I just like stats — I’ve become obsessed with monitoring referral data. [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in random riff-raff by Tim
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Maken Thy Rymes Seken Undeedlyness
The half-life of irregular verbs is proportional to the square root of their frequency.
–Erez Lieberman
There’s a whole sect of poets who write in pursuit of immortality. This has always struck me as unrealistic — a touchingly human attempt at postponing the inevitable — but still, many proudly proclaim this as their goal. They [...]
No Comments » - Posted in poetic mumbo-jumbo by Tim
Monday, July 7th, 2008
The New Rattle.com
If you’ve visited Rattle.com in the last few days, you’ve noticed a big change. Inspired partially by the ease with which I set up my own website, I’ve shifted Rattle to a blog format as well. The blog format is ideal for a literary journal — especially as a supplement to our already [...]
