Thursday, June 13, 2002 04:50 p.m.
Used books is going well. At the end of the day, a had a 30 book poetry buy. That's pretty rare.

Read a play by Samuel Beckett yesterday called Krapp's Last Tape. It's about an old lonely man finding a box of reel to reel tapes from his 39th birthday, and the pain and beauty that can be locked into memories. Also how they become intertwined so it is immpossible to think of one without the other. The pleasure in the past, with the pain and loss and anger.

Also started the advanced reader of Paul Auster's Book of Illusions. Amazing. Auster can really pull you into the question of a book. And you never get the conclusion you've labored to come up with. He has something else in mind for the characters, something you never could have thought of, but somehow makes perfect sense in the end.

Friday, June 7, 2002 09:01 a.m.
Ahh...two days to relax. Work has been okay, but kind of circus-y lately. Used books have started and that really helps me be happy. I just love used books so much more than new ones. The ones that are so shiny and gleaming on the outside, but cheaply bound and printed on cheap thin paper on the inside. It seems that there really isn't much difference now a days between a galley or paperback release, except the front cover. And a local author that just got her book release in paper from soho told me that all they did was rip the covers off the hardcovers and glue the paper ones on. Strange.

If it's nice tonight, Katie and I are going to take her neice, Katerina, to the drive-in. She just turned Seven and has never been before. I remember going to see Star Wars at the drive in on the Old Bath road in Brunswick, and we got out on the hood of the car with our pillows and blankets and were in awe at the space spectacle so big before our young eyes.

That drive in is gone now, there is a Walmart there instead.

The priorities have changed, even in the small towns, in this country.

It's more important for a big conglomerate to move in, for the deals of middle america, then a new small store to open up downtown in the old vacant heart of the town.

This is what I would fear if I opened my own Bookstore. The fact that it would be hard to penetrate through that mentality of new and cheaply made.

But it has been this way for a while now, I guess...

Thursday, May 30, 2002 12:26 a.m.
okay,
I have been working on putting up these wedding pictures for way too long...so here they are.

Thanks to Elizabeth, for letting me steal her code and explaining thumbnails to me!

Tuesday, May 21, 2002 06:13 p.m.
I had a good morning. We went to Deering Oaks and Katie found 6 four leaf clovers! I brought my Ukelele and sat in the grass playing a new tune I wrote that sounds alot like a lullaby, while Katie swang. Then I had to go to work...

Monday, May 20, 2002 04:15 p.m.
Thanks Elizabethfor the congrats, it is true...

I am a married man!!!!...

...and very happy;)

pictures of the wedding to follow soon!

We had a wonderful, very small affair at Fort Williams in cape elizabeth and went to a cabin right on a lake in Brigton for a few days following.

We're going get married again in Sept. with everyone there, so if you feel like you were left out, you weren't.

It was so great to be away from Portland for a few days, and away from phones and work and all.

The water was too cold to go swimming, but we went out in the Canoe and I spent a lot of time skipping rocks(a favorite pasttime since childhood I had forgotten about) and playing guitar and reading and ...

I wrote some poems...
and just being happy!

We even went to the drive-in and saw Spiderman!

I could see myself living in a remote area and being very happy.

Wednesday, May 15, 2002 11:09 a.m.
Today is the day...

which makes me very happy...

and I keep thinking of that William Carlos William poem,
El Hombre

It's a strange courage
you give me ancient star:

Shine alone in the sunrise
toward which you lend no part!

...

Sunday, May 5, 2002 10:15 a.m.
I had a fabulous couple of days off. Started reading Chris Offutt's SAME RIVER TWICE. It's a great memoir of his early days wandering from Kentucy to NYC, as well as his later struggles with fatherhood. The book flip-flops back and forth between each time in his life. I also a couple of Raymond Carver stories again. I think my favorite is WHY DON'T YOU DANCE.

I also got outside for some exercise Yesterday. Took a walk through Deering Oaks and then on around the Back Bay loop. I had never walked the 3 1/2 mile path before and it was so nice out. Then went back home for a nap and finished the day by watching the sunset from the west end.

The darkness
comes from behind.

The stillness
comes from within.

Red mix
with yellow,

together orange .

In other news, I got a poem accepted in a magazine. It's called Poetry Motel and comes out of Duluth Minnesotta.