Days 5-6: Survival Horror Inventory

In Buffalo today, attending to regular citizen things. Tomorrow I’ll put my car on ramps to change the oil and get it washed. I’ll also finish getting everything together I plan on putting in my car to get me through 30+ days on the road, 7,000 miles, and 23 more readings. Or maybe I just drive around with all this stuff, waiting for survival horror / environmental apocalypse scenarios to become real? Either way, I hope I’m good. Or am I missing something? I’m probably missing something.

Tent

Sleeping Bag

Flashlight

Sterno

Motor Oil (5 L)

Coolant

Oil Filter

Tire Iron

Power Jack (up to 5,000 lb)

Wrench

Folding Knife

Fork

Spoon

Bowl

Can Opener

Cans of Beans (10)

Cans of Fish (2)

Fish Jerky

Candy Bars for Adults (10)

Food Pouch / MRE things (5)

Granola (2 lbs)

One week of clothes

Ball cap

Sunglasses

Neck Pillow

Stimpack (5)

Beer (6)

Tigerbalm (3 oz)

GPS & Charger

Laptop & Charger

Phone & Charger

Poem Drafts (50)

Books, Poetry (20)

Books to Sell (200)

Car Keys

Wallet w/AAA Card

Family Charm

Pre-Water War Money (Some)

Accepted Suggestions

Duct-tape – from Alex Camerota. It’s like a swiss-army knife. Made of tape.

Candles (2) – from Rachel L.

Reading in Grand Rapids this Sunday with Carrie Olivia Adams

This is the first real tour stop I’m doing for The Devotional Poems.  I’ll be driving to a city I’ve never been to, meeting new people, and crashing on strange couches. The ice is melting in Buffalo, things are thinking about turning green, and it’s about time. I suck pretty hard at wrangling reviews of my poems so nothing feels better than just taking it to people via sounds coming out of my face.

Here’s the FB details in case you’re in Grand Rapids. And read Carrie Olivia Adams’ new book Forty-One Jane Doe’s O please do.

AWP COORDINATES

2 Readings, 1 Book Signing, 1 Panel: this is where I got to be in Boston. This won’t help you with your problems. It would be great to see you anyway.

THURSDAY – 1 Bar, 2 Readings

Looking forward to teaming up with Adam Robinson again and hearing everyone else. It’s a feast.

4 – 6 PM / THE ATLAS REVIEW / DEATH HUMS OFF-SITE READING

@ The Middle East
472-480 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139

w/JOE HALL, SAFIYA SINCLAIR, CHRISTOPHER DEWEESE, ADAM ROBINSON, ROB MACDONALD, ALEXIS POPE, TESS PATALANO

6 – 8 PM / NO THOUSANDS: an Indie Press Event

Aase Berg via Johannes Göransson (Black Ocean)
James Gendron (Octopus Books)
Lara Glenum (Action Books)
Joe Hall (Black Ocean)
Elaine Kahn (Poor Claudia)
Amy Lawless (Octopus Books)
Monica Mody (1913)
Diane Wald (1913)
Raul Zurita (Action Books)

@ The Middle East.

FRIDAY – 12 PM – 1 PM – BOOK SIGNING

@ The Black Ocean Table – AA7 and AA8

Allow me to gently hassle you into buying a copy of The Devotional Poems, my second solo book of poems. I will also write my name on stuff. Check out this catalog copy:

THE DEVOTIONAL POEMS is a prayer—a prayer by evangelical AM radio, oxycodone addiction, white pines, and the death of everything the body knows through sickness. A prayer written while walking along a state road and down into a ravine day after day. These poems ask to be your sustaining and poisonous vegetation. Pay your devotion here.

SATURDAY – PANEL PRESENTATION ON LOVE POEMS w/Alyse Knorr, Timothy Liu, Beth Ann Fennelly, Nate Pritts

12-1:15 p.m – Room 110, Plaza Level.

It’s called Courting the Love Poem: Challenges of Sincerity and Sentimentality. I plan on talking about sickness, Zizek, Phaedrus, death-bed body rubs, waste, wasting, and the absolute.

Here is the official write up: Who’s afraid of the big bad love poem? How does the contemporary love poem fit in today’s postmodern literary landscape? This panel discusses the poetics and politics of writing the love poem, including the challenges of evoking sincerity, avoiding sentimentality, and working with a theme as old as poetry itself. What are the current poetic modes of writing love poems, from the autobiographical narrative to intentional experimentalism? How do gender and sexual orientation influence poetics?