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.

Day 2: Drove to Rochester with AVW.  She killed it. I am realizing that I need to not be disappointed when poems with distended genitals and mutating deities are not someone’s cup of tea. Thanks to all the kind people who brought both readings together.

Days 3 & 4: With C. Drove from homebase to a park with a lot of gorges and mf-ing rainbows. We’ll be apart for almost four weeks while I do the rest of this thing. Was good to be far and away with ourselves & no internet. She’s what I’ll miss most.

Finished Cassandra Troyan’s amazing Throne Of Blood on the deck this morning.

Here are some dumb notes:

“Fuck poems with birds, I’m the one who gets to fly”

Troyan has got a sledge hammer and just keeps swinging. Not for the faint of heart.

“Go home after school and eat your cat / …. / I am post food.”

This somehow alchemizes buckets of blood, the visqueux/slimy, social media age throw away bon-motism, and all other kinds of stuff.

“When plasma scabs against brackish skin and skull / the sodium channel will only allow up to 3 minutes of paralysis.”

It also wraps up desire, violation, vulnerability, and aggression and how these things all whip each other.

“If you could see your mass ballooning. / If you could imagine terror / …. / There is always urgency since life / has no exteriority”

& hooray for the maximalist book design. Glad CT and I got to trade stuff. This is the first AWP book I’ve actually read. Hope this is a sign of what’s to come over the course of the summer.

NEXT: Got to gear myself up for the loneliness on the road. & will freak myself out by writing a survival horror inventory of all the things I’ll be bringing on the biggest leg of the book tour.

I figure I should per-emptively ruin my stomach before I really hit the road.

AKRON

Here is what the organizers say. I’ve linked the names to poems:

IT’S THE MONTHLY MESS!

COMING AT YOU ON FRIDAY, MAY 10 W/ READINGS BY COREY ZELLER, JOE HALL, JEFF ALESSANDRELLI, JUSTIN CARTER, & JAMES BIGLEY.

THAT’S A LOT OF MEN FOR ONE BASEMENT TO HOLD.

LISTEN TO WORDS / WIN GARBAGE / DRINK SUDS

            Annabell’s Bar & Lounge – Basement

            782 West Market Street

            TIME: 6 – 9 PM

            Facebook Link

Maybe I’ll try to plumb the less dudely registers of my collection.

Rochester – The Deep Fried Reading Series

            The Yards

50-52 Public Market

TIME: 7 PM

Facebook Event Page

w/Cori Winrock & Angela Veronica Wong

Check out this metal severed head poem from Cori.

& you know AVW probably but if not, here she is consoling Elsa on HTML Giant.

The care taker, Sewannee Jim just installed a buoy to make it safe.

Noah & Sheri put up signs so people would know that this was it.

There was beer.

And Megan’s klezmer band.

And flowers exploded from some guy’s head.

Thanks again to Noah (and Cheryl and Emily and Veronica and Amanda and Alison and Jon and Sheri and everyone who came and helped). This was the best way for the tour for my little book to really begin.

I’ve added some readings. And shed a few too. People reach out and say hey come here. People leave town mysteriously forever. Probably to scavenge a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Here is where I’ll be. As you can see, I don’t even know where I’ll be sometimes. That is what makes this a live event. I’ll try to repost this with addresses and etc soonish.

May 10 – Akron, OH – The Big Big Mess Reading Series – w/Corey Zeller, Jeff Alessandrelli, Justin Carter, & James Bigley / Annabell’s Bar & Lounge – Basement / 782 West Market Street / TIME: 6 – 9 PM / Facebook Link

May 11 – Rochester, NY – The Deep Fried Reading Series – w/Cori Winrock & Angela Veronica Wong / The Yards / 50-52 Public Market / TIME: 7 PM / Facebook Event Page

May 15 – Northampton, MA – A BIG MYSTERY

May 16- New York, NY – Earshot! – w/Carrie O. Adams / Lolita Bar / 266 Broome Street (b/w Allen & Orchard) / TIME: 7:30 PM

May 17 – New York, NY – Multifarious Array – w/Carrie O. Adams & Jessica Flynn / Pete’s Candy Store / 709 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211 / TIME: 7:00 PM

May 18 – Boston, MA – SOMETHING OR OTHER – w/Carrie O. Adams & Sixth Finch

May 19 – Portsmouth, NH – Rye House Presents – w/Carrie O. Adams / The Red Door / 107 State St / TIME: 7:00 PM

May 25 – Chattanooga, TN – Fusebox – w/Kyle McCord / Details TBA

May 26 – Fayetteville, AK – The Burning Chair Readings – w/Kyle McCord / Night Bird Books / 205 West Dickson Street  / TIME: 7:30 PM

May 28 – Denton, TX – The Kraken Reading Series / Paschall / 122 N Locust St / TIME: 6 PM\

May 29 – Marfa, TX – Marfa Book Company/ 105 South Highland Marfa, Texas / TIME: 6 PM

May 30 – Tucson, AZ – Trickhouse – w/Annie Guthrie & Eric Jordan / 228 North 4th Avenue / TIME: 8 PM

June 1 – San Diego, CA – TBA

June 2 – LA, CA – Rhapsodomancy – w/Megan McCord, Elizabeth J. Colen, & Dawna Kemper / The Good Luck Bar / 1514 Hillhurst Ave. / TIME: 7 PM

June 5 – Irvine, CA – The Hill Author Series – w/Jennifer Elise Foerster / UCI Student Center / Corner of West Peltason Dr. and Pereira Dr. / TIME: 5 PM / Web

June 7 – San Francisco, CA – 851 Haight St / Details TBA

June 9 – San Francisco, CA – SOMETHING ELSE – w/Tessa Micaela

June 11 – Portland, OR – ifnotforkidnap – w/John Beer / Location TBA / TIME: 7:30 PM

June 14 – Eugene, OR – A New Poetry Series – w/Laton Carter / DIVA Center / 280 West Broadway / TIME: 7:30 PM

June 19 – Seattle, WA – The Breadline Performance Series / Vermillion (Gallery) / 1508 11th Avenue / TIME: 7 PM

June 20 – Boise, ID – Ghosts and Projectors / GUESS WE’LL FIND OUT

June 22 or 23 – Denver, CO – SOMETHING OR OTHER – w/Mike Flatt

June 24 – NEBRASKA SOMEWHERE – w/Mike Flatt

June 25 – Minneapolis, MN – ON THE WAY – w/Mike Flatt

June 26 – Chicago, IL – The Danny’s Reading Series / 1951 W. Dickens / TIME: 7:30 PM

June 27 – Buffalo, NY – Rust Belt Books – w/Cheryl Quimba & James Belflower / 202 Allen St  / TIME: TBA

July 13 – Baltimore, MD – Say It With Writing – w/Matt Cook / 1818 E Lafayette Avenue / TIME: TBA

July 14 – Washington, DC – An M. Cugini/Frank Black of DC Production / I GUESS WE’LL FIND OUT