Read my latest flash, Venison, at 52|250.

One of my goals for this summer, along with all the travel, is to finish compiling my New York poems. I’ve got the ones that don’t go in other themed projects divided into three sets: “Brooklyn Myths”, “MTA”, and “Other”. I still have to decide on the order within each set and whether the three sets belong in one collection or more. (Then, of course, I have to revise them as a set or sets.)

I also have four projects in the writing stage. One, “Gifts of the Tarot” is being written in conjunction with my daily tarot card pull. When appropriate, the poems have the same number of lines as items that appear on the card (so the poems for the aces each consist of one line). The second consists of ekphrastic poems and may or may not end up as a single manuscript.

The third is one I started on the solstice. It’s one year in the life of a coven, told through all thirteen voices of its members (though you only hear all thirteen in a single poem on the solstices and equinoxes). Each person has her own font, and I’m using < > to indicate actions they take, while italics suggest ritual language. I also have a small notebook to track information about each character. I’m not going to get too into the beliefs of the coven (as it varies by individual), but one very important feature is that it consists of a high priestess and sisters 1-12. Around each winter solstice, the high priestess determines whether it is time for everyone to “move up”. If everyone seems ready, she will leave the coven, and the first sister will become high priestess (of course, this requires finding a new member). Whether it’s time to change or not, each woman gives a brief counseling session to the sister below her around Yule. (It lasts twelve days. Heh.) I probably will not be using the sessions as the “end”, as I want to emphasize the cyclical nature of their observances.

Finally, I have the project I’d thought of as my book of “China poems”. I’ve been frustrated with it for a while, but I finally realized that what I need to be making isn’t poetry about China but work rooted in the Yellow River Valley– and there’s a rich history there. I want to make this more of a hybrid collection, including photographs, visual poems, and possibly some prose (fiction).

Finally, if anyone wants to participate in the Chained Hay(na)ku Project, feel free to pass this one around:

Dust
Red sun
This isn’t fog

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