hlr 13 is available with work from these fine folks:

mIEKAL aND, Billy Cancel, Jenna Cardinale, J. Jeen Teed & Sarah Cook, Sandra Doller, Jenny Drai, Brian S. Hart, Jeremy Hoevenaar, Mary Kasimor, Matthew Klane, Paula Koneazny, Sam Lohmann, Rachel Mindell, Gregg Murray, Randy Prunty, Elizabeth Robinson, Cindy St. John, S.M. Stone, Andrew Terhune, Mara Vahratian, and Jessalyn Wakefield & Farren Stanley. Cover art by Tamra Harrison Kirschnick.

mount galbraith park

went to kc for tg. ate gates. saw fam. watched chiefs. thought about frontier life.

"and what are poems but weather reports? is there a difference between a poem and a letter? a poem and a cloud? i used to think yes, yes,  but now, as i age, i think that there is less and less of a difference--it has to do with attention, i think, a little setting aside of time to pay attention to one particular thing . . ."

--mary ruefle interview by bradley harrison in the new dq

guess what is available for your viewing pleasure.

i am very excited.

this weekend i listened to poems, had a slumber party, put mud on my face, saw superheros in roller skates, made chili, thought about animals, figured out what some of the buildings around my house (one is a tortilla factory) are, and listened to the new raveonettes record six times in a row (this and this).

i don't have a phone now because i ran out of money. it's meant i have to talk to everyone in the computer, which is nice.

j comes back tomorrow!

more from maine. i fell deeply in love with boats and islands. i touched a hull. i didn't think i would like islands because i like the ocean to be just the ocean for a long ways and nothing else but it turns out i do like islands. i like harbor masters, too, but didn't see any. i'm writing a harbor master story.

we got back late saturday night and had to find a place to live. we found one on sunday. it's in this part of denver called rino (river north (30th and lawrence)--denver is always doing weird things with neighborhood names). it's kind of at an intersection of five points/curtis park/and river north. it's great here (a lot of art spaces, coffee shops, boarded up buildings). our house is the size of a closet. i've been walking around.

we are in maine now. before maine, we saw these alpacas. they are the gentle cousins of llamas. we fed them alpaca treats from this machine. they were just at this store we stopped for a cold drink because the drive from portland to denver was very hot and smoky again. in maine we have been looking at boats some and eating a lot. we are on chebeague island.

s and i found all of this free stuff by a sidewalk

this is the best thing

i made jc get these incredible shoes

i'm going to fly to los angeles now.

in august two of my dreams came true: i went to ireland and i became a singing telegram artist. remember when i was telling you about how i wanted to be one? then i just was one. i didn't even have to do anything to become one. randi just called me the other day and then i was one. we went to a doctor's house and wore a lot of zany fabric and sang sunrise sunset from fiddler on the roof and i had to sing dave matthews a little, which i messed up bc i don't know it that well. and i had to wear bright red lipstick. randi said this was the most important tool. here is what i look like as a singing telegram artist. don't laugh. i'm trying to look cool. i've never worn red lipstick before.

so. s and i got back from ireland and we've been exhausted. we keep sleeping weird and waking up at 3am and having frightening dreams. last night i dreamed that susan sarandon was floating through a brick wall.

we were, as you know, supposed to go to kiev. the travel agent sent us an updated itinerary before we left and it was fine. so. on monday morning we go to the airport at 4am to get on the plane and we can't find the airline so we ask this man and he says, "malev? they went bust in february." we didn't know what to say about that and went to a counter and the people said the airline didn't exist anymore. so then we were stuck in dublin but our flight back to denver was out of kiev. and it was 10pm in denver so we couldn't contact the travel agent.

but. we made it home. she got us tickets back.

ireland was magical. the music is the best thing about it. people play music until early in the morning. we listened to a lot of traditional music (trad, as they call it). my favorite song. it's scottish.

the food is very delicious. we ate many bowls of soup (carrot/corriander, vegetable, curried potato, etc)  and had curry/apricot and irish brown and sundried tomato breads. i had one of the best things i've ever eaten: an appetizer in a pub--a beet/onion/goat cheese souffle. also goat cheese spring rolls on a bed of caramelized onions and vegetable baps. i never hear about irish food. i don't know why.

we saw:

1.tall sea cliffs
2. cows in the street
3. a cave where two white trout haunt the waters
4. billy joel videos

we met a man who traveled across the world to tell his ex-girlfriend that he cheated on her. he had never cheated on a girl before. he wanted her to know because he loved her. when he told her, she smashed him in the face. they've been together ever since (12 years) and are very happy.

we got the island feeling.

we saw a famine graveyard.

we went to a place where a miracle occurred and s filled up bottles with holy water.

i put my heart on a ferry rail.