If I knew how to add a links section, I would link to Salwa Jabado's page.
salwajabado.com

Hiring Tom

We tried to ignore him until he sent
his resume with a picture of Sean Connery.

Tom wanted to have a big party
with kegs of beer and fire trucks -

During his interview he was asked to pick
three people, living or dead, that he'd like

to have lunch with. "If I could do a buffet
thing," he said, "I'd have to g owith Jesus -

I'd love to pick his brain and ask
what three people he'd like to meet."

Tom leaned back in his chair and also
mentioned Bernadette Peters, winking.

"Third, there's this guy I met in the service.
Not that I'd like to do brunch with him, but

he'd get such a kick out of Bernadette
and Jesus, how could I not bring him?"

Here is my poem from Mid-American Review, Vol. XXV, Number 2

What Do We Know?

That the water has been here
longer than I have, if only
by just minutes and miles.

Some words, when spelled
correctly, still look wrong
and I sweat thinking of them.

She has no intention of leaving
me here, nor I her, yet I still
love the smell of dusty pages.

The needle will hurt, no
matter how small the pinch
or large the obvious need.

I can’t change her answers,
I don’t want to change them,
but it would be nice if she did.

The pages really need to line
up, otherwise they take on the
appearance of broken teeth.

I have broken four teeth, one
of them twice, but the second
time it wasn’t a real tooth.

I broke my arm once, but
both bones in many different
places, so that may count twice.

Thinking About Tattooing My Wrists

you were wearing a scarf
I was noticing your legs
this is how it always was

the trip was accidental
but you never were and I
decided to stand, corrected

My next poetry reading is taking place
Saturday, October 21st 2006
The Ear Inn
3:00 pm
326 Spring Street (west of Greenwich Street)
New York City
FREE

Subway: C/E to Spring Street; 1/9 to Canal Street; N/R to Prince Street

I will be reading some new stuff as well as the poems you've come to know and love from my manuscript "This Table Seats Just Two" and my thrilling chapbook "Still The Water Recedes." I also may possibly be drinking imported beer. I may or may not wear something shiny. There will be medication involved.
Remember:
He waxes brave, but nevertheless obeys; most careful bravery that!
-Melville

I don't think I want to be on MySpace anymore...it seemed like a good idea at the time, but now maybe not so. Anyway, I found an excellent poem that I wrote a long time ago titled "Hiring Tom." Perhaps I will put it up here later. Here is a pic of my puppy.

Goodbye Uncle Ray.

You know the way you can put a photo in a drawer and know it will always be there and never alter? Well, I opened my drawer and the photos have all changed.

I was at my desk at my old job when I heard about Nina Simone's death. I had been listening to her a lot, mostly her album "The Blues." A nice bunch of mid-60s blues such as "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "My Man's Gone Now." Yesterday I found an old notebook with the fragment of a poem that I had started to write as an elegy for Nina. I never finished it and honestly the only good part was where I said something about her voice and the smell of leaves in the Fall. But better than that. I'm not sure I can write about someone who is still with me, within my sphere of knowledge.

Yesterday I re-read Haruki Murakami's After The Quake. The style is very, well, Japanese: very clean, almost refreshing. It reminds me a great deal of pre-Mao Chinese modernists, although they might take offense. Murakami manages to take the smallest thread of plot and turn it into something cold and interesting. Not cold as in "emotionless," but rather as in the way I would describe Terje Rypdal's (especially Lux Aeterna) or Iro Haarla's music. Smooth as a sheet of ice. No cracks. And once you step onto it all you can do is slide.

Hell's Kitchen is the best show on tv, hands down. This weekend I read a bunch of John Clare's poems, listened to Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" and was bitten by my dog. She has very sharp puppy teeth. The book you should be reading right now, though, is American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. It is an absolutely fantastic book. That's what I have to say about that.