Yes, April is coming.

And I'm a bit trepid. My poetry muscles have not seen much use lately.

Neither have my email-answering muscles.

I'm just feeling a bit quiet. (Working on some nonwriting goals--so close!--and trying not to worry too much about a family matter that will hopefully turn out to be nothing.)

But I'm going to give it a shot.

Xantippe reviews My Zorba

Danielle Pafunda’s poems dissect the body and psyche, revealing equal parts sinew, organ, scientific experiment and theatrical play. At first read, I wasn't sure if the poems in My Zorba were hilarious or devastating; now I think they map the overlap between the two. These epistolary poems are necessarily fractured and they travel at the rapid speed of thought. A huge source of pleasure is that while Pafunda grounds us in the familiar terrain of the body she destabilizes that ground with absurdity, irony and objects out of context. [...] --Jesse Nissim

Read the rest here.

And then pick up a copy here or at any of these lovely retailers.

See also: Josh Corey on Anne Boyer's Romance of Happy Workers in the same issue, here.

The birds are back

That means it's nearly really finally spring.

Also, now's a good time to check Local Harvest to find a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) program in your area.

What's better than subscribing to a huge weekly box of delicious, nutritious, local, organic veggies? Only that they're also CHEAP. I've subscribed to a local farm for the last few years at about $14 a week for an Individual Share, which provides more than enough vegetables and Pick-Your-Own berries for the two of us. Since we're vegan, that's the bulk of our grocery bill from May to November! (Family shares generally feed 4 or more, and are priced accordingly.) We donate some of our share to a local food bank and women's shelter, and freeze/dehydrate/can the rest for less abundant months.

Even if you can't imagine a farm being anywhere near you, enter your zip code. In NYC for instance, NJ and upstate NY and LI farms deliver CSA shares into the city, including Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Long Island City, etc. You might be surprised!

Warsaw Bikini reviewed at Bookslut

Ranging from free verse lyrics to tender elegies, the poems create a frenzy, an avalanche of words that may bury the reader. For there is a certain violence at work here. We can prepare for the onslaught, but no one is safe. Not even the author.

Seemingly writing from a point of discomfort, Simonds fully captures that feeling in the poems, flipping the script on expectations[...]

(And thanks, Gina!)

Diseases of affluence

Snowday

OK, it was more like a snow half-hour. Freelance job waits for no weather, alas!

Portrait by Didi Menendez

(Flickr copyright settings won't let me display it here so click the title to see it there.)

More portraits at Didi's American Poets portrait blog here.

Thank you, Didi!