It's Monday: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

I was instantly struck with James Tate’s new book, Ghost Soldiers. At the same time, I found Charles Simic’s new book, That Little Something, interesting, but not anything to go wild over. The funny thing is that I stopped reading The Ghost Soldiers after getting about halfway through, and I’ve now finished That Little Something. What does that say? I’m not sure.

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Here’s something of which I’m terribly jealous. At 10:15 pm Saturday night, in Rock Creek, Montana, an email went out from Lucas Farrell, Greg Hill Jr., and Brandon Shimoda. They were going to put together an instant poetry website called Left Facing Bird. In the space of six hours they were able to get 100 poets to send poems. The result is up:

leftfacingbird.com

What a great idea that was/is.

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Also this weekend, Amazon.com sent me an email telling me books I might be interested in purchasing. We all get these emails periodically, I imagine. What made this one funny to me is that Amazon suggested I purchase The Little Book of Guesses, by John Gallaher. I’m wondering if maybe I should. You know, support the cause and all. I could place it in the box of guesses I have by the back door.

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Jason Tandon, a contributor to The Laurel Review, has a new book out. Go here to see:

http://www.sunnyoutside.com/releases/027/weehour_o.html

Bookshelf:

There are a lot of new books coming out in 2008 (Cole Swensen!), but, as I’m short of money just now, I’m going back to some books from last year that I feel I rushed through. First up, Bin Ramke’s Tendril.

Soundtrack:

R.E.M.’s new album is better than their last one, but it still hasn’t gotten me very fired up. Much more interesting, I’m finding this, from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!":


Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!"