DUH Poems in Abraham Lincoln #6

Hi friends,

Some of my poems are in the new issue of Abraham Lincoln. Hooray! And they are in such good company. Here are the details:



ABRAHAM LINCOLN
issue the sixth
winter 2011
50 pp.
$5 + $1.50 s&h

Later, awkwarder, stickier, and number-sixier than ever before, the new issue of Abraham Lincoln wants desperately to be held tight to your heaving thoraxes (thoraces?) as you get so excited by the poems it contains that you gnaw the staples out WITH YOUR TEETH and commence slobbering at the moon. Can you afford NOT to throw away your hard-earned shekels on this splendid rag?

featuring work by

Sandra Simonds
Catherine Wagner
Marie Buck
Ish Klein
Lacey Hunter
Estee Schwartz
David Brazil
Sam or Samantha Yams
Ton Van 't Hof
Uyen Hua
Lindsey Boldt
Brian Ang
Micah Freeman
Anna Vitale
Thomas Lovell Beddoes
Adam Katz
Nicole Taylor

I feel...

I feel depressed about tomorrow's class, meaning I feel discouraged. I do not feel excited. I am not looking forward to it. I wish I could take a shit and type at the same time, but I don't think that would go well. Now I am thinking that I should put this on my blog because the part about taking a shit while typing is funny.

I feel depressed about tomorrow's class, meaning I don't really have anything planned and I have little to no interest in thinking of something. Now I am thinking that I should not post this on my blog because my employers might find it and think that I am not dutiful. I am dutiful. I just don't want to teach tomorrow. It's probably not going to go well. It will be my 2nd to last class there and that affects the way I feel about it. I feel confused. I don't know how to feel.

I feel sad. I feel relieved. I feel worried. I feel conflicted. It feels good to use short declarative sentences to describe the way I feel. Now I am thinking that I should put this on my blog because it is funny and insightful. I think I will put this on my blog.

This should be helping me come up with an idea for tomorrow's class, but instead it is making me want to post this on my blog. I should be processing my thoughts and feelings about teaching so that I can make use of them. I had hoped that I might think of a way to connect with my students visa vis my confusion and bewilderment about the upcoming end of our meeting together. It just feels confusing. Maybe this is the real heart of the problem I have been facing whilst teaching: I would rather be writing and thinking than thinking about how to teach writing or how to get my students to think about writing or just get my students to think. I shouldn't try to get anyone to do anything. I should encourage them. That is a better use of language, I think. I should encourage. Still, I would rather encourage myself, because I have things that I want to accomplish. I am pretty sure that makes me selfish. I think my employers would think that I am unfit for their organization were they to read this. I am fit. I am just also fit for myself and my projects. I have something to say, I think.

It is my job to care a lot and I do. I care a lot. Still, I cannot think of a way to have these last two classes. It feels strange. It feels awkward. How can it feel awkward in advance? It does. I feel akward sitting here, writing (typing) with no ideas springing forth like brain geysers. What can I do? I want to do the right thing. Now I am worried that the readers of my blog where I will most likely post this will not be interested. I have veered in the particulars. They are not interested in the particulars. However, it is necessary to get into the particulars if I am to discover anything.

I still have to take a shit. I may also take a shower. I feel afraid that these actions will result in my feeling sleepy and a desire to skip the whole lesson planning thing and just, yunno, wing it. I like to think that I am smarter than that. I also know that I have a strong and deep seated desire to avoid struggle and discomfort. It causes me discomfort to attempt to find a solution to this problem. I want you, readers of this future blog post, to know that I have not always been so remiss in my work. I have most Tuesday nights, worked diligently to prepare an interesting and well crafted lesson for my students. Tonight is different. Tonight feels useless.

Now I worry that I have completely lost my audience. Each time I feel that I am nearing a breakthrough, I am interrupted by the thought that my writing about such a breakthrough or the writing leading up to the breakthrough will not be interesting to my readership. What am I to do? I will leave this forum and proceed elsewhere.

I will go to the bathroom. I will perhaps post this on my blog. I will consider my class.

Thank you and goodnight,

Lindsey Boldt
1/25/11
9:26 pm

Poets, Sound Familiar?

The Olympia Riot Grrl scene in contrast to the more outwardly political Washington DC scene:

...Everybody in Olympia's tight-knit punk scene knew who these girls were. And in the political isolation of the Pacific Northwest, it was easy to be satisfied with that instead of immediately trying to push a broader political agenda. "There was a possibility that I could change punk, 'cause I belonged there," Michelle said. "It didn't feel possible to change the rest of the world--because I didn't feel part of the rest of the world." If your scene was your whole existence, then the politics of that scene became supercharged with significance; changing the world could be as simple or as elusive as changing the scene. Similarly, if the revolution was a group of friends, then living the revolution could be as simple or as elusive as making friends with the most intimidating girls you'd ever seen.

--from Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus

Summer BF Press

Steve updated the Summer BF Press blog with photos from the recent book release party for Dodie Bellamy's "Whistle While You Dixie". It looks very handsome, I think. That was such a fun night. Dodie brought great snacks and fizzy water. All of these great friends showed up. Bruce Boone who was wearing this incredible multi-colored knit sweater fell asleep on my bed, or at least closed his eyes for a while, and my cat, Miette, curled up next to him. Neil LeDoux, the artist who drew the cover image for "Whistle" hung drawings in my hallway, and there are a few nice shots of that. Dodie read from the second half of the chapbook, about hitchhiking from Georgia to Indiana, which I hadn't heard her read before. Lucky me, lucky everyone. Dodie gave another great reading last night at the Condensary Reading Series in Oakland. Everyone was in such a good mood. Anyway, let's all plan for more of these kinds of occasions to come.

The Disinhibitor: My favorites of 2010

I wrote about some of my favorite things of 2010 on Michael Cross' The Disinhibitor blog.

I really wanted to add the name Steve Orth to the list and write an embarrassingly long explanation of why I loved that particular item so much in 2010, but I had to hold myself back. No one wants to know about how in love you are, at least not on a year-end favorites list. Still, everyone should know that Steve Orth, whether you're in love with him or not, and I wouldn't blame you if you were though I might feel a little weird about it, is really REALLY worth your time. He's writing all of these great poems and prose pieces too and you should know about it. So that is the most concise way I can manage of telling the internet that I love Steve Orth. He was my favorite thing about 2010. What the heck.

Happy 2011 Everyone! It's going to be a good one, don't you think? I'm excited.