“Can’t I’m Booked” is among today’s offerings of the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project (9 poets have agreed to write 30 poems apiece in 30 days, to raise funds for Tupelo Press, a non-profit literary publisher). I am grateful to Joanna Drake, who sponsored and dedicated this poem “to Cecille Marcato whose love for poetry and tango with words and form is a beautiful sight to behold.”
Can’t I’m Booked
Is an ever-shifting phrase in my lexicon, appearing most often
after can’t, I’m bongo-ing, which hurls my imagination to two
separate continents – a house in affluent west Austin occupied
by a dazed and possibly confused drumming nude actor, then…
Click here to see the rest of the poem.
Tomorrow’s poem, “Waiting for the Windshield on the Freeway” was sponsored by Leigh Ward-Smith, whose generosity and good nature never ceases to amaze me.
THERE ARE STILL OPENINGS FOR SEPTEMBER’S 30/30 CHALLENGE! If you’ve considered participating but have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. There are rewards beyond producing thirty poems a day…
The sponsored poems have been a blast to write; the titles and 3-words have led me to poems I’d not otherwise have conceived. Thank you all for helping make this such an enjoyable month.
If you still want to donate, other opportunities remain:
For a $15 donation, I’ll send you a signed copy of one of my 30-30 poems. Your choice!
If you need something to read, Think Dink! A $30 donation will get you my 2015 chapbook If Your Matter Could Reform, Barton Smock’s Infant Cinema, Jamie Hunyor’s A New Sea, and Tim Kahl’s full length work, The String of Islands, thanks to the generosity of Dink Press founder and editor Kristopher Taylor! I hear that Kristopher Taylor is providing a little something extra with the collection. You can read about it here, thanks to Ken at RIVRVLOGR.
For information on sponsorships (and my other incentives), click here.
Thank you for supporting poetry! Only 2 poems to go!
I think most of us have been there, at some time.
I won’t say moving 900 miles has given me the perfect excuse, but it seems to have worked out that way.
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I’m a hermit by nature, but I do enjoy getting together with friends, even though I sometimes must be dragged out of the house.
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You can do that in NYC too…just move to a neighborhood that’s not a destination.
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Ha! I’m an outskirts kind of guy. No one comes to my neighborhood without good reason…
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They came once, to see it. But since then…
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An unintended visitor once accidentally drove up our lengthy rural driveway at our hill country hovel. I’d been cutting brush, etc., and was filthy, unshaven, and yes, a little bloody in places (even The Lovely Wife has declared me frightening to look upon at such times), and when the trespasser arrived, was sipping a beer, playing mandolin, and kicking a ball for the cattle dog. Ever the multi-tasker. I broke into a rousing rendition of “Dueling Banjos,” and limped over to her car. She rolled down her window about two inches, said “I think I’m in the wrong place,” and tore down the crushed limestone driveway before I could start reciting Shelley and playing Bach. Or Bill Monroe. And I might have offered a tulip of good cava with some camembert and grapes…
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I hope you’ve memorialized that with a poem!
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Maybe someday. 🙂
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And still be surrounded by millions of people.
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That would be difficult to accept.
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I actually like that. And I’ve never owned a car, I can walk or take public transportation wherever I want to go.
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I could take that in small doses. The idea of being able to walk to places of interest, or to take public transportation, appeals to me, too.
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I’m a city person.
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I moved about 100 km out of Melbourne and have never had more guests in my life- everyone seems to decide to take a drive out to the country and drop in…
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You must emphasize snakes, spiders, scorpions and reduced services. Works like a charm.
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Ah but they can’t resist my charm, a great meal and the kangaroos 🙂 We went for a walk with guests once and saw a brown snake. Those guests haven’t returned haha.
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Aha! I’m a good cook, but am devoid of charm. Come to my house at your own risk. Actually, if your family came to my house, I might attempt to be charming. 🙂
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There is a certain charm in the hermit poet who has a way with words. If all else fails, we can just eat silently and leave once we’re done haha. I take this as an open invitation if we are even in Texas 🙂
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Most definitely an open invitation, Mek. I will certainly grunt, or may even deign to utter a few (very few) words in honor of such an occasion. But be warned: if you annoy me, I will break out the banjo and sing. This seems to drive away even the most persistent guests. Even scorpions find it difficult to withstand.
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Thanks Bob, that’s an honour! The visit wouldn’t be complete then if I didn’t annoy you! Haha.
You’re most welcome to drop by if you are ever in Australia or even within a sniff of gum trees somewhere in the Asia Pacific area.
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One never knows where the hermit poet will alight. I was last in Australia in 1982…
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I only arrived here in 1982 so might have missed you. Even so, I was only 6 and my grasp of English was minimal.
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I was a sailor in the U.S. Navy, and spent most of my time in Perth in bookstores and bars.
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Ok we were worlds away in many ways. I was reading then, but only amharic and it was slowly getting lost to me as English slowly became my main language. As for bars- just the milk bar in our neighbour hood where it was possible to get an assortment of lollies for under 10 cents.
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I lost my childhood languages in the 60s (French and a little Japanese). Now I’m the typical monolingual American…
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I like to think it’s still there just waiting for the right time for it to come flooding back. Oui…
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If we could only access them!
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I actually might get more visitors if I had a country house I think.
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Ours is rustic, to say the least. But we have running water (except when we don’t).
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We have no running water!
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Well not town water anyway- running water via pumps on rainwater tank
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We have a well, but when the pump died a few years ago, it took four months to get it replaced. So we set up a “sun shower,” using stored rainwater. I much prefer the convenience of suburban Austin.
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Ah, so you live between 2 places?
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These days we spend most of our time in suburban Austin. For years we spent as much time as possible at the rural property, but I’ve grown tired of the constant manual labor required to keep the place going, and would rather sit in the backyard shack and write.
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Right so I’ll plan a holiday for texas and then somewhere in country NY (fo you call that ‘upstate’?) 😊
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I call it far, far, away.
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Yes upstate. Although a lot of people I know have country houses in Connecticut. (I can’t believe I know people with country houses…but I do)
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I know lots of people with country houses- but I guess that’s cause they’re my neighbours- mind you I mean people who live full time in them, except for 1 neighbour.
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These are people with city apartments as their main residence. It’s another world! But I get to intersect with it sometimes.
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Well, after you’ve moved to the country that is…
Perfect excuse to drive on route 66 (have been watching A LOT of Disney’s ‘Cars’ lately…)
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Of course I don’t drive, so that makes it a bit difficult for me.
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Yeah, need a car to make it practical. I’d still busit in NYC though! 😊
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I can’t imagine driving in NYC.
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I’m not ashamed to say my deflection kung fu is strong. 🙂
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Mine functions pretty well on autopilot.
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And I’d always thought that strategically scheduling medical procedures to dodge social overtures was my shtick…
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Any port in a storm. So so speak…
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Indeed.
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🙂
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I’d love to accompany you, but I’m suffering from extreme nausea, so might need your help cleaning up the outpouring mush of my last meal every now and then haha…
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Sounds like a fair trade!
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I hate when an excuse backfires…
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You need The Book of Excuses!
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Haha I just wrote another one on my word count post- but I swear- it’s all true- really!!!
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I’ll pass on the colonoscopy
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A good move, Derrick!
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