Ben Franklin's Conspiracy

Here's a link on Luc Ippersiel's post about Ben Franklin conspiring to make English American. He's the guy behind dropping the "u" from words such as "honor" and "flavor" (I like his way of tidying up).

Eleanor Lerman

There's a new lesbian poetry journal online called the Lavender Review and the first issue makes it look very promising, I'm relieved to say. Check out these poems by Eleanor Lerman, one of my favorite poets.

Louis MacNeice

I love Louis MacNeice. We're reading him in our project of reading the Norton Anthology of Poetry from the outside in (one old poem and one new poem each night, till we stop somewhere in the middle). If you haven't read "Bagpipe Music," you can read it here: http://www.artofeurope.com/macneice/mac6.htm.
Here's a quote from him that I like: "The writer today should be not so much the mouthpiece of a community...as its conscience, its critical faculty, its generous instinct." I particularly like the last part--so essential and so easily forgotten in our own work.

Technology and the Writer

I've just set up the new Mac Mini so I can upgrade my website. Boy, is it fancy!
Grandma is downstairs keeping the baby occupied, laundry is in the washer, I've taken my vitamins--it looks like a good day.

Auto Life Fire

My poem is up on the latest issue of Switched-on Gutenberg. This is the assemblage issue, with a lot of great poems--check it out.