August is the busiest month for Rattle, but the weeks of September and March 15th are the busiest times for me.  We used to pay a graphic designer several thousand dollars a year to do half of what I’m doing this week — in addition to typesetting and laying out the winter issue, I’m also putting together this fall’s e-issue, and sending hand-crafted mass-merged emails to tens of thousands of people.  It’s fun work, but it’s tiring.  Already I’ve spent one night at the office until 2am, and I’ll probably do it again.

But I hate having a whole week go by without a post on here, so I’ll give a quick update about what’s going on in po-po land:

1) You have to check out Megan’s chapbook, if you haven’t already.  Yes, I’m pimping my wife.  As I’ve said before, The Beaded Curtain is one of the best collections I’ve ever read — my only complaint is that it’s not book-length, and so will never have the kind of legacy it deserves, unless she adds it to her first full-length collection, which it doesn’t seem like she want to do.  So what are you gonna do?  But it’s finally available from Spire Press, and you can buy signed copies at the bottom of Rattle‘s purchase page.  Read a couple sample poems plus blurbs here.

2) If you missed it (could you have possibly missed it?), we announced our fourth Rattle Poetry Prize winner on Tuesday, Lynne Knight. Of course we read the poems blind, having no idea who had written what, but I was happy to see Lynne’s name when I looked up our pick, entry #1074.  We’ve published three of her poems in the past — two in issue #26, and “The Lesson” last summer, which was already the third-most-read poem in Rattle.com history.  I’ve never met Lynne in person, but she’s always been warm and friendly over email — and she’s one of those poets who hasn’t seemed to have yet gotten the attention she deserves.  For more on Lynne, check out her website.

3. G. Tod Slone is at it again, but this time I have nothing but praise.  He and P. Maudit teamed up to produce another cartoon, which I assume they don’t mind my posting, because they didn’t mind that I posted the last one.  Click the picture to see a larger version, click here to read Slone’s blog.  When he emailed it to me, I burst out laughing, on a day I could really use a laugh.  The watercolor cartoon depicts Megan and I caged in an “Established-Order Zone,” while Maudit and our friend Mather Schneider lurk in the open as trolls.  Well-designed and legitimately funny, it makes a valid point — moderation is always a cage that holds the censor in, to an even greater extent than it keeps the censored out.  In my opinion, the cartoon would more accurately reflect my new comment policy if there was a door bell on the cell, and a sign that read, “Ring for entry.”  For the record, I’m not moderating out contrary opinions, only the rude behavior that I’m tired of dealing with.  Feel free to criticize me all you want, just do it civilly — as this cartoon does, which is why I like it.  And I love the Johnny Cash look — wish I could pull it off.  But I can’t figure out why Megan is wearing a blue mumu.  Is that a judge’s robe?

4.  Speaking of Mather Schneider, he has a poem in the winter issue that I just type-set, about illegal immigration, of all things.  If we’re  censors, I have to say, we’re pretty bad censors.

5.  But the poem I’m excited about most in the winter issue is Patricia Smith’s “Motown Crown.”  It’s a full heroic crown of sonnets, meaning 15 sonnets on a theme, where the last line of each becomes the first line of the next, and each repeated line then forms the final sonnet #15.  It’s probably the most challenging traditional form in the English language, and the only other true heroic crown I’m familiar with is Marylin Nelson’s “A Wreath for Emmett Till.”  You can read a bit about the history of sonnet crowns on Wikipedia.  I heard Patricia read “Motown Crown” at a breathtaking performance at the AWP-Chicago this spring, and though I never solicit poems from anyone, I’ve been begging her for this sequence ever since.  So I guess I can’t say I never solicit poems anymore — but this is worth switch to the word “rarely,” trust me.

6.  That makes a clean 30 sonnets that will appear in Rattle #32, and we’ve got every style imaginable: Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets (duh), a backwards sonnet, free verse sonnets, blank verse sonnets, clean sonnets, dirty sonnets, invented sonnets, sonnets that praise sonnets, sonnets that mock sonnets, a sonnet that uses only one rhyme-word 14 times…  Rattle has a reputation for not liking form, but I love form.  I can’t wait.