A film of mist clings to the storm windows
as the thunder gets pocketed and carried away
in the rain’s dark overcoat.  A good reading night—

car wheels amplified by the flooded street,
leaf-clogged gutters bailing steadily, constant
motion beyond my walls echoing

my body’s gyroscopic stillness.  Sonnevi says
Only if I touch do I dare let myself be touched,
and that familiar and somewhat terrifying curtain

of reading slips around me, pinning sound
to the room’s lost corners, pinning the room
to an emptying sky.  I’m in the glacial grooves

of Sonnevi’s words as he makes love
and listens to Mozart in a spare apartment,
now reawakens to her voice saying goodnight

so much that I couldn’t sleep I was elated
His world slips through the waterfall
of language and hovers here, on the other side,

in my apartment, where we listened to Monk
showering with the door open, soft-boiled eggs
by the pink light of the Chinese take-out,

made love against the footsteps of morning
commuters, smoked cigarettes on the fire escape
right up to the minute you left.  Here,

we are in this continuousness— our lives
dissolved in the channels of written lines—
every word I’ve read was in me before I read it.

They’re pulled from me like seconds
from the cistern of an unfinished life.  Love’s
endless weathering moves the body

of our words: we read to understand
we’re not alone in it— we carry one another,
assuredly—
though we do this alone.

~Wayne Miller

Following the events of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and his killing of the nefarious count’s vampiric wives, Professor Abraham Van Helsing commits himself to Dr. John Seward’s Purfleet Asylum, suffering from violent recurring fantasies, where he is diagnosed with melancholic lycanthropia.

Upon his discharge, seeking a relaxing holiday, Van Helsing volunteers to transport the remains and earthly effects of Quincey P. Morris back to the Morris family ranch in Sorefoot, Texas. But when he arrives, he finds Quincey’s brother Cole embroiled in escalating tensions with a neighboring outfit of Norwegian cattle ranchers led by the enigmatic Sig Skoll.

Men and animals start turning up dead and dismembered. Van Helsing suspects a preternatural culprit, but is a shapechanger really loose on the Texas plains, a murderous cult, or are the delusions of his previously disordered mind returning? He must decide soon, for the life of a woman may hang in the balance…

Here’s an excerpt -

From The Journal Of Professor Abraham Van Helsing(translated from the original Dutch)

5 July.

Thank God I am sane.

            Those were the last words I wrote concerning my previous expedition to the Carpathian Mountains. How much has happened since I wrote those words, and in such a short time! Eight whole months have passed. Where to begin?

I will tell of how I came to be diagnosed with lycanthropy.

Following the series of events which took me away from my teaching at the University in Amsterdam to London, and at last to the mountainous region of Wallachia, I deemed it necessary that I should submit myself to the observation and care of my old friend Dr. John Seward in his asylum in Purfleet. The particulars of my stay I will not here recount. If John has learned anything from his old mentor it is the value of copious notation, and thus it would be mundane to relate here what has probably been more thoroughly documented on his phonographic records.

I know now that the specific reasons behind my decision were conceived in certain deeds which I was forced to commit in my pursuit of Count Dracula. In particular, I believe that the seed of my instability was planted by his wives – those three beauteous ladies with whom I dealt so harshly whilst they lay in their ghastly repose. I do not know how much of my current mental state is the product of whatever preternatural bewitchment almost stayed my hand in their execution, and how much is the perfectly logical after-effect of prolonged mental stress and fatigue.

Whichever, not long after the funeral for our heroic Mr. Quincey Morris, I privately confided in John that I had begun to harbor some very unsettling, violent phantasies centering around our beloved Mrs.Mina Harker.

I was possessed of an unusually keen paranoia concerning her safety. I could not sleep for wont of assurance that she was at all times secure. I was at the Harkers’ nearly every day, and I am sorry to say I made quite a nuisance of myself. When at last Jonathan spoke frankly to me about my peculiar habit, I took to visiting the Harker home unannounced by night, watching from the silent shadows of the courtyard until the last lamps in the house were extinguished.

      I would find myself passing cemeteries, which were not on my usual route. A ghoulish compulsion began to grow within me, that I should inter the graves within and subject the innocent corpses to the same maschalimos treatments I had prescribed for the vampires. I took to carrying my implements with me—my mallet and stakes, vials of blessed water, and garlic cloves. I knew the bodies in those plots were not the creatures that my imagination was telling me they were, and yet I was overwhelmed with a desire to do them violence.

I also had terrible nightmares in which I would pry open the tomb of Miss Lucy Westenra-Holmwood, thinking to find Dracula’s favored bride there—the very lovely, dark haired one whose coffin had commanded such a special place in his ossuary. When I flung aside the sarcophagus however, it was always Miss Mina who would leap from the casket, slavering and hungry for my blood. Sometimes these terrors ended with my death. Quite a peculiar thing, for is it not speculated that those who die in dreams die in life? Other times, they ended with her’s—and if it was her’s, it was always a prolonged, bloody end, and my phantasmic alter ego would perform acts of lustful malice upon her too vile even to recount here.

In a moment of clarity I saw that it would not be long before I was apprehended in the midst of some atrocity that would bring myself and my loved ones much shame. It was with no small relief that I surrendered the care of my body and mind to my friend John.

I have been on extended leave from my teaching for far too long, but I am grateful to the understanding of my colleagues, who have written me with assurances that I can return whenever I am able. It is good to feel needed.

I also take comfort now that I am once again the man that I was, and am pursuing an active role in my emotional convalescence. I feel that my return to these notes, which are evolving into a kind of journal, is somehow a part of it. John tells me that there was a time when I would place this book within a circle of holy water and bury it in sprigs of fresh cut roses, and cower in the corner of my room, not daring to look at it, fearing the entries scrawled within. I have no memory of this, and it seems humorous to me now that I should have been so foolish. I hope that John will share his documentation of my case with his grateful patient one day, if only to amuse an old man.

  It was John who diagnosed me with melancholic lycanthropia. I was of course already familiar with the condition. It has been in the physician’s lexicon since the fifth century, though with the advent of modern medicine and the eradication of humoral theory, the melancholic has been mostly done away with, leaving the lycanthropy (the Greek lykos –‘wolf’ and anthropos–‘man’) alone intact.

In folklore of course, it is the name given to the werewolf—the man or woman who assumes the shape of a wolf, usually by night. The means by which this is achieved are numerous, and include everything from wolf-hide belts and imaginatively composed unguents, to the ubiquitous pact with Satan.

In psychiatric terms, lycanthropy refers to the belief of the patient that he or she assumes the form and characteristics of a wolf or other beast. This belief often translates itself into violent and in the extreme, even cannibalistic acts. While it was never in my mind (I do not think) that I should become a beast and eat the flesh of the living (or the dead), I do believe that the acts which I was contemplating were of a potentially bestial nature.

When John first brought his theory to me, I was reminded of the case of the soldier Bertrand, who in 1849 in France began his horrific career by strolling through cemeteries at night just as I had. Bertrand took to digging up and mutilating the bodies of young women and girls. It took a spring gun trap set into a freshly buried coffin to end his diabolical career at last. I did not want my ailment to progress so far as had Bertrand’s.

But these things are behind me now. The nightmares have ceased, and the barely controlled instincts have abated.

It is most ironic however, to have written this and now to have to tell that I am on a passenger steamer with only the remains of poor Quincey Morris for company.

But I must explain.

Having born the body of our dear Mr. Morris back to London after the end of our travails, it was mutually agreed that as our American friend had made no preparations for his sudden and regrettable departure from this earth, we should let Arthur Holmwood Lord Godalming, who was his eldest and closest friend, decide what should be done with him.

“He was a man at home in so many places, and yet…it seems to me that he should want to rest at home, in Texas. He spoke very fondly of his family’s ranch there. Yes. Texas, I should think.”

This was the proclamation I heard Lord Godalming give prior to my illness, and so far as I knew, it was carried out when I entered John’s care.

Yet when I emerged again, Mr. Morris was still in London, reposing in an urn on Lord Godalming’s mantle.

During my recuperation much had occurred in the life of Arthur Holmwood that did not allow sufficient time for a voyage to America. There were many decisions to be made regarding his late father’s estate. Not only were there a good deal of unforseen settlements to be arranged with his father’s creditors, but there was also the managing of the will and the mediation of rival inheritors who were not at all disposed in their shameful avarice to allot to the executor and chief heir time enough to mourn for both a fiancé and a best friend.  A miser’s patience is truly as short as his compassion.

With John’s encouragement (he seemed to see in the hiatus some therapeutic value), I offered and was then granted the task of bearing the remains and worldly remembrances of Quincey P. Morris home to his native land, which lay in the Callahan County of Texas, United States American.

–

And here’s the unexpurgated cover art from the very talented Wayne Miller, which I think deserves a look…

The following folks are identified in the scrapbook:

Bach, Willis
Biggerstaff, Warren
Brazcau, Bob
Butte, Jimmy
Collier, Martha
Converse, Hannah
Coon, Donald
Crossler, Bob
Crowley, Carlotta
Daugherty, Dorothy
Douglas, Estella
Englebart, Arthur
Fallin, Grace
Fry, Dan
Gibson, Janet
Goodman, Evelyn
Hawkins, Harriet
Hill, Shirley
Jaskoski, Philip
Johns, Betty
Johnson, John
King, Loraine
Kirk, Janet
Kohlepps, Loretta
Manoles, Betty
Manoles, Helen
McAllister, Donald
McAlpine, Margaret
McDonald, Ronnie
Miles, Frank
Miles, Rodney
Miles, Ward
Miller, Wayne
Minch, Marie
Peters, Karlton
Price, Neva
Reeves, Joyce
Rocque, Napoleon
Schneider, Patricia
Schramm, Susanna
Vicary, Jacqueline
Webber, Clarence
Willamson, Luanna
Wooton, Norma
Wright, Russel

“I like to do long trips cross-country,” said Miller, who was a councillor from 1980 to 1987 before becoming CAO in 1987.

After he puts away his Suzuki Boulevard touring motorcycle for the winter, don’t expect Miller to kick back and relax. He said he likes to keep busy and he’ll volunteer for a nonprofit organization, an interest he gave up because he’s been so busy managing the business of the town of 20,000.

The Essex native will stay in the community and his wife will continue to work as an accountant.  Miller said his wife told him he can’t expect to hang around the house getting in her way.

The 63-year-old started his political career when he served as a councillor for seven years, then became CAO in 1987. He spent his career mediating between parties, finding common ground, a task he says he’s well suited for because he’s laid back. The skill was especially handy during amalgamation in the late 1990s when Essex, Harrow, Colchester North Township and Colchester South Township merged. Miller worked behind the scenes to smooth the transition from four municipalities to one, said Coun. Morley Bowman, who look Miller’s council seat and has worked with the CAO for 25 years.

“He gets all the parties in a room to decide what direction to go,” Bowman said. “That’s his philosophy. Give people their job and let them do it.”

While Miller said he’ll miss his colleagues, his experience and guidance will be sorely missed by council especially new members, Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche said.

“With his experience, it’s nice to have a CAO to guide you,” Meloche said. “He’s not afraid to say he thinks we are making a mistake. He always has a good reason why. He has good sound advice. You have to take him serious when he speaks.”

In his years in government, Miller said he’s most proud of the restoration of the train station, the purchase of E.L.K. energy and amalgamation – which he called “hell.” E.L.K. will provide the town with a stable revenue source.

Essex’s future is bright, Miller said.

“We have our financial house in order and I think we are in great shape,” he said.

Miller’s retirement is effective  in April, which gives the town nine months to find his replacement. Meloche said he thinks council will hire a replacement by January so the new CAO can participate in drafting the budget.

mwolfson@windsorstar.com or 519-255-5709 or Twitter.com/WinStarMonica

Report: Student loan debt tops $1 trillion
WPEC
Student loan debt tops $1 trillion in the U.S. which means students are now having to delay big milestones like buying homes because they can’t afford it. Something financial experts say is a blow to the economy.

Gov. Scott undecided on signing or vetoing tuition bill
Gainesville Sun
Rick Scott said Friday that he would consider signing a bill allowing the University of Florida and Florida State University to make higher tuition increases, but only if they made the case that they’re providing a good return on the state investment …

FAMU still plagued by questionable bookkeeping
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Florida Board of Governors also is waiting for the completion of internal audits found last year to be deficient and not in compliance with industry and university standards. The revelation that FAMU’s Division of Audit and Compliance had presented …

Two People Injured in a Shooting Near FAMU’s Campus
WCTV
Early this morning (March 25, 2012) Tallahassee Police Department responded to a call about a shooting at 2024 Broad Street. Police learned that an argument broke out during a house party at this location and an unknown suspect retrieved a gun from …

FAMU BOT approves private meetings for hazing task force
WFSU
Under the new designation of a “fact-finding” mission, FAMU’s anti-hazing task force does not have to hold public meetings. University trustee Belinda Shannon says the change will allow the committee to meet as “expeditiously as possible.

FAU Owls stadium is ready to take off
Sun-Sentinel
Florida Atlantic University is gearing up to put the new football stadium on its Boca Raton campus to greater use, but needs city permission first. FAU is asking the city to increase the number of ticketed events allowed at the venue, from the 15 a year in the current agreement to 26. It also wants no limit on ticketed events involving fewer than 5,000 people, and to allow events any day of the week…

FIU students to design Seven Mile-area upgrades
KeysNet
A group of Florida International University students will attempt this summer to design a facelift for the old Seven Mile Bridge, Pigeon Key, Sunset Park and Knights Key in Marathon. The Monroe County Commission, …

2012 Business Plan Challenge attracts 200+ entries
MiamiHerald.com
The 14th annual contest, sponsored by Florida International University’s Eugenio Pino & Family Global Entrepreneurship Center, now enters the judging phase…

FSU campus, area robberies up
Tallahassee.com
The robbery count on or near the Florida State University campus is already more than half of what it was in 2010, and it’s only March. The total number of robberies — defined as the taking of property through threat or force — is up to nine for 2012 …

FSU students to march to Old Capitol for Trayvon Martin
WTXL ABC 27
Students at Florida State University are inviting members of the community to join them as the march to the Old Capitol Building to demand justice for Trayvon Martin. Members of the group “Tallahassee Demands Justice for Trayvon” say the march will …

Students Nationwide Protest Killing of Trayvon Martin
Inside Higher Ed
The protests and activities are by no means limited to historically black colleges. At the University of South Florida, black students organized a protest in which they sat with signs that demonstrated what Trayvon Martin had with him when he was shot.

State College System

Early to rise, early to learn: Colleges offer 6 am classes
MiamiHerald.com
For about a year, Miami Dade College has offered pre-dawn classes — a scheduling feature born of necessity that nevertheless suits some students just fine. One school administrator calls it “the early bird special.”…

Seminole State College of Florida Expels Gunman in Trayvon Martin …
Chronicle of Higher Education
George Zimmerman, the Florida man who last month fatally shot Trayvon Martin in an incident that has sparked a nationwide furor, was expelled on Thursday by Seminole State College of Florida, where he had been studying criminal justice, according to The Orlando Sentinel.

Obama gets personal over killing of black Florida teenager |
Reuters
A Florida college announced it had suspended Zimmerman’s enrollment. Zimmerman was working toward an associates degree in arts at Seminole State College in Sanford. He previously earned a vocational certificate in an insurance field, the school said.

Independent College and University System

Miami participants to take part in Trayvon Martin rallies
MiamiHerald.com
Florida Memorial University, a historically black college based in Miami Gardens, is taking 120 students and staff by bus to Sanford, where Trayvon was shot …

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Closes 2012 Southeastern University Forum
Bradenton Herald
Rarely do citizens have the opportunity to interact with some of the most influential and knowledgeable world leaders of the past half-century.But those who attended Southeastern University‘s National Leadership Forum got their chance Friday, as former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was on campus as the final speaker of the servant leadership focused event…

Rollins prof., student want to stop bear killings
Orlando Sentinel
A Rollins College professor and a UCF student are leading a charge to persuade the state to change its policy on euthanizing nuisance bears like the one that bit a Seminole County woman earlier this month…

South Florida college students finding more internship slots
MiamiHerald.com
The University of Miami’s Toppel Career Center saw a significant increase in internship postings on its Hire A Cane website, which lists potential internships for students. From 2008 to 2011, the number of postings went from 750 to 1668.

Fallout from data breach hits UT student
Tbo.com
Information about thousands of University of Tampa students was accessible by a Google search from July 2011 to March 13…

Fighting for life, soccer player get support
News Chief
It’s often difficult to find something good in tough situations. Yet friends and supporters of Bailee Kent have rallied to the aid of the Webber International University and former Winter Haven High soccer player who was fighting for her life after a staph infection led to bacterial myocarditis, an infection of the heart valve…

For-Profit and Career Colleges

Yip Yap: Noted and Quoted FLHE Voices From Around the State

Colleges seek transparency
Florida Times-Union
Florida’s strategic plan for its university system has been highlighted as a model. The State Higher Education Executive Officers focused on the Annual Accountability Report for 2010-11 on its website, reported the board of governors…

LETTER: Rock-solid data
The Northwest Florida Daily News
It was standing-room-only at Northwest Florida State College’s science building March 16. Dr. William Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY, was talking about mankind’s involvement in global climate change.

With education costs rising, less incentive to study in Fla.
Orlando Sentinel
Three years ago, I chose to attend the University of Florida. After a lot of applications and many competing financial-aid offers, I decided that UF was the most practical college for me to attend to get my bachelor’s degree…William Dylan Fay, 20, of Orlando, is studying English, history and classics at the University of Florida.

Bowden: Altier thinks big about tourism and UWF
Pensacola News Journal
And a Disneysque future jumps up in high-tech powerpoint, the ambitious vision of newcomer Matt Altier, University of West Florida Chief of Entrepreneurialism. He envisions Historic Pensacola on the US places-to-visit map with sweeping cultural and …

University Governance: Supreme Clarity Needed
The Ledger
The Florida Supreme Court has decided to weigh in on the issue of whether the Legislature or the State University Systems’ Board of Governors has the authority to set university fees and tuition. This is an encouraging sign…

Byron Dobson: Hazing panel deals with new mission
Tallahassee.com
In January, I wrote a column that expressed my change from skepticism to hope with the announcement that a blue-ribbon panel was being assembled by the Board of Trustees at Florida A&M University to examine the illegal practice of hazing and how best to address it…

Richard Murgo: STEM bill falls short of its goals
Tallahassee Democrat (blog)
In the just completed legislative session, one of many bills introduced and passed in the last few days was HB 7135, restructuring curriculum requirements for the Florida higher-education system…

Biden woos South Florida seniors with new attack on Republicans
Orlando Sentinel
The likelihood that they’re going to turn out and vote is high and you want to make sure that they’re going vote for you,” said Kevin Wagner, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University…

Health care case puts spotlight on Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme …
Tampabay.com
When Elizabeth Price Foley, a law professor at Florida International University, sat down to write a brief for the blockbuster health care case before the US Supreme Court this week, she focused her she focused her argument on only one of the nine justices, the man known as the decider…

Pope Benedict XVI Goes to Cuba; Thousands Wait
ABC News
This time it’s devotion to the Catholic Church versus hostility to the Cuban government,” Jose Gabilondo, a Cuban American law professor at Florida International University, said…

What Will the Trayvon Martin Grand Jury Likely Consider?
NBC 6 Miami
Florida International University College of Law Professor Phyllis Kotey says it is “very unusual when you have criminal charges, especially of this nature, where there has not been at least an initial arrest.”

Exclusive Sunday Preview | Ideas Does financial aid make college more expensive?
Boston Globe
Six days after NBER unveiled the paper, Vice President Joe Biden told an audience at Florida State University that “government subsidies have impacted upon rising tuition costs.”…

Social media aids angst over Trayvon Martin case
Boston.com
Jeanette Castillo, an assistant professor of digital media at Florida State University, studied the Occupy Wall Street from a social media perspective and is also tracking the Martin case on Twitter.

Lawyer chastised special prosecutor in Trayvon case: ‘civil rights…are at …
MiamiHerald.com (blog)
Gov. Rick Scott’s choice of special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin shooting case, Angela Corey, provoked a rare and deeply critical letter to the White House in 2009 from former Florida State University president and Law School dean Talbot “Sandy” D’Alemberte. ”There is, in my judgment, a very real danager of a melt down of the justice system in Duval County with the election of a new State Attorney and a Public Defender who has shown no enthusiasm for defending citizens,” D’Alemberte wrote in an Aug. 12, 2009 letter to Gregory B. Craig, White House Council for President Obama…

Dianne F. Harrison named president of Cal State Northridge
Los Angeles Times
She previously spent 30 years at Florida State University. She will succeed Jolene Koester, who retired from the San Fernando Valley campus in December. Dianne F. Harrison, a veteran educator in Florida and California, has been named the new president

Florida lawmakers get one perk for the road
MiamiHerald.com (blog)
John Thrasher, a Florida State University alumnus with one ticket on his state driving record. His Seminole plate, which says state senator 8, has helped him avoid a citation or two, he admits. ”But it doesn’t always work, I promise you that,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve gotten a couple of tickets with the license tags, believe it or not. I tend to probably drive too fast.”

Younger Southwest Florida workers face tough market
The News-Press
Molly Grubbs of Hodges University said she is seeing especially strong demand for graduates with accounting and business management degrees but recruitment …

Business briefs: Two Chase Bank locations completed by JL Wallace
The News-Press
Hodges University selected Fort Myers residents Wayne and Mavis Miller as its 2012 Luminaries of the Year award recipients…

Group: Without Middle Class, Community Colleges Will Be ‘Separate and Unequal’
U.S. News & World Report
If community colleges educate only the “have nots,” they’ll always be starved of funding, says Eduardo Padron, president of Miami-Dade College and co-chair of the task force. “With no political power, you get [fewer] resources, less of everything.

Geometer Tries a New Angle: Leading a College
Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)
New College of Florida, a liberal-arts-and-sciences honors college within the Florida state system, has selected a mathematician as its next president. Donal B. O’Shea, 59, has been the dean of faculty and vice president for academic …

After Trayvon Martin, hoodie goes from fashion statement to socio-political one
MiamiHerald.com
… hoodies as a way to be under the radar, to be ambiguous, but not because of any malicious intent, not because he was up to no good,” says Jason Campbell, an assistant professor of conflict resolution and philosophy at Nova Southeastern University.

Workers across the country slam Verizon for refusing to talk
People’s World
Other groups participating included community ally Organize Now! and the Student-Labor Action Project (SLAP) at the University of Central Florida. “We’re here to say as members of the working class: we’ve had enough,” said Curtis Hierro, of SLAP, …

Outrage unites people of all colors, but divide still exists
Orlando Sentinel
Katheryn Russell-Brown, director of the University of Florida’s Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, said it’s natural for people to view crime through the lens of their own race and identify with victims who look most like them…

Appeal court ruling in Collier case frees man accused of operating a grow house
Naples Daily News
George R. Dekle Jr., professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, agreed search and seizure issues are “heavily driven” by the facts of each case.

Sweet Sixteen coaches and March Madness bonuses
Washington Post (blog)
The University of Florida, which beat Marquette University, will pay Coach Billy Donovan $37500 for making it to the Sweet Sixteen and the Elite Eight, on top of his regular pay of more than $720000…

Q&A: Gator new Franklin Dean
Red and Black
[Alan T.] Dorsey, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida, will begin his new position July 1. The Red & Black asked Dorsey what he hopes to accomplish in his position and his thoughts on raising funds for the college.

Collier commission aides amassed two months worth of overtime in 2011
Naples Daily News
Joseph Little, a law professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, said the state follows the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for county employees. “Ordinarily, it requires time and one-half for overtime,” he wrote in an email…

US could bring hate charge in Fla. teen shooting
Boston.com
The mere presence of federal investigators could ensure a more thorough probe, said University of Florida law professor Michael Siegel…

Miami Catholics to See Pope in Cuba
NBC 6 Miami
University of Miami Cuba expert Andy Gomez disagreed with their removal and quoted Pope John Paul II…

Will living alone make you depressed?
CNN
John Newcomer, MD, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, says depression and feelings of isolation usually go hand in hand, and it’s not always clear which comes first.

Morris News Service
St. Augustine Record
Michael Hallett, chairman of the University of North Florida’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, said the Martin case provides an opportunity for Corey. “It’s an interesting contrast to Cristian Fernandez because it will provide the opportunity for Angela Corey to show concern for a black victim,” Hallet said.

UNF economic indicators show First Coast counties recovering from recession
Florida Times-Union (blog)
The number of new jobless claims fell by almost 1000 from January to February, according to University of North Florida economist Paul Mason. Inflation also remained virtually stable between January and February, according to the consumer price index …

Sen. JD Alexander Carries His Bruising Legislative Style Through to the End
The Ledger
In his last few months in office, he outraged supporters of the University of South Florida with a proposal to slash its budget by 58 percent — a move some interpreted to be retaliatory. And, barring a gubernatorial veto, Alexander seems to have …

Recession brings diversity to Sarasota
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
This secondary shift to more sedate locales like Sarasota is a nationwide phenomenon, says David Jacobson, a political sociologist at the University of South Florida who focuses on migration and citizenship issues…

Florida has much at stake as Supreme Court reviews health care mandate
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“The closing of the donut hole is one of the most beneficial things about the law,” says Jay Wolfson, a professor of public health and medicine at the University of South Florida…

Releases and Web Stories

Flagler College announces sabbaticals, awards
ReadMedia (press release)
AUGUSTINE, FL (03/23/2012)(readMedia)– Flagler College announced that Education professor Sandra Davis and James Wilson, Associate Professor of English, were awarded sabbaticals for the 2012-13 academic year. Davis will be on sabbatical in the Fall to …

Flagler College announces faculty promotions
ReadMedia (press release)
AUGUSTINE, FL (03/23/2012)(readMedia)– Flagler College announced the promotion of the following Flagler faculty members to the rank of Associate Professor, effective Fall 2012: Bettina Baker, Education; Tina Jaeckle, Sociology; Elizabeth Robbins, …

Fitch Rates University of Florida’s Series 2012A Dormitory Revs ‘AA’; Outlook …
MarketWatch (press release)
NEW YORK, Mar 23, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Fitch Ratings assigns an ‘AA’ rating to the $27.5 million of dormitory revenue bonds, series 2012A to be issued by the state of Florida Board of Governors on behalf of University of Florida (UF, …

Of course, that isn’t going to happen. After all, giving up the right to censor would allow those evil atheist students to have a voice. And places like Lenoir City High School in Tennessee wouldn’t want that:

In a recent editorial that Myers, 18, intended for the Lenoir City High School newspaper entitled “No Rights: The Life of an Atheist,” she questioned her treatment by the majority.

“Why does atheism have such a bad reputation? Why do we not have the same rights as Christians?” she wrote.

Myers’ editorial also accused school administrators, teachers and coaches of violating the constitution by promoting “pro-Christian” beliefs during school-sponsored events.

Lenoir City school authorities have denied Myers permission to publish her editorial in the Panther Press, the staff supervised student newspaper.

They also say their policies do not violate the constitutional rights of any students.

Schools Director Wayne Miller said it was the decision of the school authorities not to allow publication of Myers’ editorial because of the potential for disruption in the school.

“We do have the right to control the content of the school paper if we feel it is in the best interest of the students,” he said.

One has to wonder just how this benefits students. What interest does anyone have in not allowing Krystal Myers’ points? Aside from Christians and other religious zealots who are afraid that contrary views of the world are threats, I can’t think of one.

I’m having trouble in deciding what the worst part in all of this is. On the one hand, the school is suppressing unprotected but non-harmful speech. They have that right, unfortunately, but that right is purely a legal one. I do not believe they even come close to having a moral right. (I hope the government proceeds to one day extend full First Amendment protections to students, destroying the rights it created for administrators and the like.) On the other hand, however, they aren’t merely suppressing non-harmful speech that should be protected, but they are also suppressing a pretty good article. Myers’ didn’t write some anti-religious screed. She didn’t take any cheap shots. (Not that she couldn’t have done that and still had a great article.) She did criticize the school, something I know people who choose to spend their lives lording over teenagers just can’t stand, but she did it fairly. Any rational school would have been proud of one of their students putting out such quality of work. Any rational school would have welcomed the criticism – especially when that criticism exposed its illegal practice of promoting Christianity over and over. (I’m making the big assumption that schools prefer to be in line with the law.) Unfortunately, Lenoir City High School is not a rational school.

I wouldn’t normally post an entire article by someone else since it makes for a lengthy post, but I’m going to make an exception here. I hope everyone will give it a read:

No Rights: The Life of an Atheist

By Krystal Myers

The point of view expressed in this article does not necessarily reflect the point of view of the Panther Press, its staff, adviser, or school.

As a current student in Government, I have realized that I feel that my rights as an Atheist are severely limited and unjust when compared to other students who are Christians. Not only are there multiple clubs featuring the Christian faith, but youth ministers are also allowed to come onto school campus and hand candy and other food out to Christians and their friends. However, I feel like if an Atheist did that, people would not be happy about it. This may not be true, but due to pervasive negative feelings towards Atheists in the school, I feel that it would be the case. My question is, “Why? Why does Atheism have such a bad reputation?” And an even better question, “Why do Christians have special rights not allowed to non-believers?”

Before I even begin, I just want to clear up some misconceptions about Atheism. No, we do not worship the “devil.” We do not believe in God, so we also do not believe in Satan. And we may be “godless” but that does not mean that we are without morals. I know, personally, I strive to be the best person I can be, even without religion. In fact, I have been a better person since I have rejected religion. And perhaps the most important misconception is that we want to convert everyone into Atheists and that we hate Christians. For the most part, we just want to be respected for who we are and not be judged.

Now you should know exactly what an Atheist is. Dictionary.com says that an Atheist is, “a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.” However, this does not mean that Atheists do not believe in higher causes; we just do not believe in a higher being.

With that being said, I can move on to the real issue. Before I begin, I want you to think about your rights and how your perceived “rights” might be affecting the rights of others.

There are several instances where my rights as a non-believer, and the rights of anyone other than a Christian, have been violated. These instances inspired me to investigate the laws concerning the separation of church and state, and I learned some interesting things. However, first, I would like you to know specifically what my grievances are against the school. First and foremost is the sectarian prayer that occurs at graduation every year. Fortunately, I am not the first one to have thought that this was a problem. In the Supreme Court case, Lee v. Weisman, it was decided that allowing prayer at graduation is a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment that says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Special speakers can pray, but the school cannot endorse the prayer or plan for it to happen.

Public prayer also occurs at all of the home football games using the public address system. This has, again, been covered by the Supreme Court case Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe. The Court ruled that school-sponsored prayer is an unconstitutional violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. If a speaker prays, it is fine. However, as soon as the school provides sponsorship, it becomes illegal. Sponsorship can be almost anything, even something as simple as saying that the speaker can pray or choosing a speaker with a known propensity to pray or share his or her religious views.

However, it is not just the speakers who we have to fear at Lenoir City High School. We also have to fear some of the teachers and what they might say about their own religious beliefs. On at least two separate occasions, teachers have made their religious preferences known to basically the whole school.

One teacher has made her religious preferences known by wearing t-shirt depicting the crucifix while performing her duties as a public employee. Also, Kristi Brackett, a senior at Lenoir City High School, has said that the teacher, “strongly encouraged us to join [a religious club] and be on the group’s leadership team.” Yet again, this violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. When asked if this was true, the teacher replied, “As a teacher I would never use my power of influence to force my beliefs or the beliefs of [a religious club] on any student in the school.” Regardless, the religious t-shirts are still inappropriate in the school setting. Teachers are prohibited from making their religious preferences known; the Constitution requires them to be neutral when acting in their capacity as a public school teacher.

Not only are religious preferences shown through shirts, but also through a “Quote of the Day” that some teachers write on the boards in their classrooms. One teacher has Bible verses occasionally as the teacher’s “Quote of the Day” for students. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment has been violated, yet again with no regard for non-believers.

But perhaps I would have more hope in our school and the possibility of change on the horizon if our own school board did not open their meetings with prayer. A person who wished to remain anonymous that has been present at school board meetings says, “They do have prayers. They pray to ‘Our Heavenly Father’ and end with ‘In Jesus’ Name We Pray.’” Not only is this a violation of Supreme Court law, but also a violation of the board’s own policy that prohibits prayer at school-sponsored events. The whole foundation of how our school is conducted is established by obvious Christians. Somehow, this is unsurprising. If our School Board chooses to ignore the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the Supreme Court, then it is no surprise that teachers choose to do the same.

I know that I will keep trying to gain my rights as an Atheist and as an American citizen, but I also need your help in educating other people to realize the injustice done to all minority groups. The Christian faith cannot rule the United States. It is unconstitutional. Religion and government are supposed to be separate. If we let this slide, what other amendments to the Constitution will be ignored? I leave you to decide what you will or will not do, but just remember that non-believers are not what you originally thought we were; we are human beings just like you.

via Friendly Atheist.

This, as you’ve probably guessed, is a collection of modern poetry from European authors, collected together and grouped by nationality. Only the English translation, when this is needed, is published here, and still the book is one of the larger collections of poetry I have read. Every one is different, as every poet is different, and the range of voices can be very refreshing. Especially since each voice is from another place and often time. Some poems deal with the politics of their country, some with feeling, and some with just plain strangeness, but all are worth a look.
These poems are a very unique collection of voices that I found it a pleasure to go through. Even though I was instantly put off by the sheer size of the book, it didn’t stop me from picking it up and going through it when I had a spare moment. It was so enjoyable to experience the oddity of reading a good, though standard love poem on one page, to reading on about a hedgehog on the next. This, rather than putting me off, actually made me want to read more to see what other oddly themed poems lay ahead.
However, some of them can be a little daunting, set out like standard prose, and could put off those already unsure of poetry. And some of them are just hard to read and follow, especially those that have been translated. Sometimes it seems that something may have been lost along the way. Or were odd to begin with.
This collection of poems would be good for anyone studying, or just interested in poetry, and I doubt a wider selection of bizarre and normal poems could be found anywhere else.

Strangemindthinks x

New European Poets is an anthology which aims to highlight some of the lesser thought about nations, in terms of poetry, to a wider English-speaking audience. They say it is for an American audience but we’ll just ignore that. The anthology does this pretty well, all things considered. If I have any major issues with the construction of the anthology, it is that it seems to give a much longer time in the spotlight for the countries that maybe don’t need it as much as those that do. For instance France gets a page count of 22, whereas Luxembourg has but 2. As it says in the introduction however, it states clearly that some countries are more rich in their poetic output than others, while I understand this I still feel that they could have done more to highlight these places.

The anthology does give what feels like a very good representation of new European poetry. It refuses to focus on any specific styles, which can make it a bit of a bumpy read if you plan to consume it from cover to cover. It also does give some pages to some well deserving European poets such as Valzhyna Mort and Roger Wolfe.

Overall the anthology does give a good overview of the basic state of contemporary European poetry, but I just feel like it could have given a bit more.

Some choice picks:

Roger Wolfe – Spain – p.18
Anise Koltz – Luxembourg – p.43
Semezdin Mehmedinović – Bosnia and Herzegovina – p.141
The whole of Belarus (but especially Valzhyna Mort) – p.189
Elísabet Jökulsdóttir – Iceland – p.262

BUY IT HERE: http://www.amazon.com/New-European-Poets-Wayne-Miller/dp/1555974929

Grunts is military vernacular for United States Army or Marine foot soldiers, the mass of devoted men and women who make up the bulk of the armed services. Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the bombing at Pearl Harbor, Panopticon Gallery presents Grunts: The G.I. Experience curated by Jim Fitts.

Fitts met a number of grunts while living in Hawaii in the early 90′s, which piqued his interest in the subject. A boxing fan, he regularly attended matches at the Scofield Barracks at Fort Shafter where he befriended several Marines. It was then that he realized his impression of what their lives were like was rather different from reality.

“Over the years, I have rarely seen what I would consider an unfiltered, real life photographic portrayal of military personnel ”…scenes of everyday life, says Fitts. “This exhibition will come as close to the reality of the grunt experience as I have ever seen.”

And a memorable one, as the always-sharp Mark Feeney details in his Boston Globe review.

Consider it your patriotic duty to go see it.

These are in no particular order.  And I was going to have a list of at least ten, but here’s what I’ve got:

–The Avian Gospels by Adam Novy.  I reviewed this book earlier in the year for Cow Heavy, and the review will soon be on Lit Pub’s (wonderful, wonderful) site as well.  Wonderfully written, beautifully published, and worth rereading.

–Best European Fiction 2011, edited by Alexandar Hemon.  I’m working my way through the 2012 installment of this wonderful series (and that volume is sure to appear on next year’s best-of list), but the 2011 collection has astounding work, from a tale of artistic expression under the heel of political repression by Michal Ajvaz (honestly, more of his novels need to appear in translation),  to Frode Grytten’s beautifully portrayed dissolution of a marriage in “The Railway Station.”  It’s my hope that the inclusion of these authors in this anthology leads to more of their respective works to be translated into English for a wider readership.

–Normally Special by xTx. Appearances shall deceive.  Harrowing stuff for such a small book.  People on the bus will see you reading that brightly colored little thing and have no idea what you’re going through.  Get it get it.

–Poems for the Millennium, Vol. 1, Edited by Pierre Joris and Jerome Rothenberg.  This was my summer of avant-garde poetry, and at over 830 pages, this was a sizable chunk of that summer.  You’ll find important works here that you can find nowhere else in English, mainly because this is the first time they’ve been translated into English.  Representative work by important members of influential movements.

–Atomised, by Michele Houellebecq.  “…outside the strict confines of history, the ultimate ambition if this book is to salute the brave and unfortunate species which created us.  This vile, unhappy race, barely different from the apes, had such noble aspirations.  Tortured, contradictory, individualistic, quarrelsome, it was capable of extraordinary violence, but nonetheless never quite abandoned a belief in love.”  Houllebecq has been in the press quite a bit in the past year or so, and not only due to his mysterious disappearance.  I really was on the fence about putting this on the list, in that I didn’t like it.  This, however, seems a rather shallow determining factor, considering how much the book affected me after finishing it.  I thought about it for days.  Sure, it’s explicit.  Sure, it’s occasionally irrritating, but it’s unforgettable.

–The City, Our City by Wayne Miller.  A beautifully-unified collection of poems that explores the idea of City. My review of it appears in this month’s edition of The Sycamore Review, available now.

–The Book of Hours by Marianne Boruch.  This book is a departure of sorts for Boruch. The control, the intensity of her earlier work is here, applied to what could be seen as a book-length poem.  A series of untitled poems, in quatrains, that portray the events surrounding the death of her mother and the writer’s dialogue with herself on the dificulty of “how do I write this?  What do I do to get this to stick to paper?”  Beautifully written.

–The Songs and Stories of the Ghouls by Alice Notley.  I admit I’m a bit of a freak fan of Notley.  I don’t entirely understand what’s going on in all of her astonishingly-burgeoning oeuvre (her recent Reason and Other Women remains mostly opaque to me), but she’s interesting. Her classic Descent of Alette was the result of Notley wanting to write a feminine epic.  Such stories had been told only from the masculine point of view. This latest book grabs at women in mythology:  Dido, Medea.  “Nothing is changeable except for a myth.  Let’s change that.”  Power, even in the hands of women, was only there to give to men:  “No one really believes in her power, I assure you.  She is only allowed it as an adjunct to her passion.  She can’t just have it.  No woman is as yet allowed that.”

CHICAGO (CBS) — CHICAGO (CBS) – This afternoon, for the first time ever, the Emergency Alert System was tested simultaneously nationwide.

The man who oversaw the test in Illinois said he’s not surprised with the bizarre things that happened, and said it’s a good thing it wasn’t for real.

In most places the EAS tones sounded, as scheduled, at precisely 1 p.m. Central Time. Illinois Emergency Communications Committee Chairman Wayne Miller said that the originating radio station in the Chicago area heard a second or two of audio, then nothing. And that silence was repeated on WBBM Newsradio, CBS 2 and other stations taking the EAS feed.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Bob Roberts reports

Miller said some stations downstate didn’t even get the tones, and on still others, the tones morphed into feedback. Some who were tuned to DirecTV heard Lady Gaga. And, in many cases, Miller said the test lasted far longer than the promised 30 seconds.

Miller said the test gets a D — for “disaster.” But said he is not surprised,.

“This system has been in place since the CONELRAD days, back in the ’50s, and has never, ever been tested (nationwide),” Miller said. “Those of us who are involved in it, and have been for a number of years, have been wanting the government to test it because we suspected that something like this might occur.”

FEMA released a statement saying it is collecting data to determine what happened and will work with stakeholders “to improve this current technology.”

“Only through comprehensively testing, analyzing and improving these technologies can we ensure an effective and reliable national emergency alert and warning system,” said FEMA spokesperson Rachel Racusen in a prepared statement.

Miller said he believes that problem is at the federal level, not in Illinois, where a statewide test occurs monthly.

“Our system works,” he said.

EAS can trace its history back to 1951, when then-President Harry Truman authorized it to warn Americans about an impending nuclear attack. The name CONELRAD stood for “Control of Electromagnetic Radiation.”

CONELRAD’s successor was the Emergency Broadcast System. One of its tests went wrong in 1971 when an alert message, instead of the weekly Teletype test message, was inadvertently sent, although with expired passwords. The current EAS system has been in place since 1997.

Bottom line — Miller said you can expect another nationwide test next spring.

“our modern alchemy: / a finger tap floods the room”

Wayne Miller, poet, translator, and editor of Pleiades, shares here with poets, writers, and readers of PI his brand new book of poems The City, Our City (Milkweed, 2011), addressing his project, process and poetics for writers and readers of poetry. Important and powerfully written, the book’s poems and chorus of voices within them all contribute to the central entity of Our City that he conjures, historically and contemporarily throwing into relief ourselves, our communities, and the histories of which we are a part and that we continue to create.

Wayne, The City, Our City  (TCOC) is your third book of poems in five years.  What are some ways the experience of your first two books have informed the creation of your third?

I should start by saying that this is my third book of poems that’s been published in five years. I could never have written three poetry collections in that time. I finished my first book, Only the Senses Sleep, in 2003. I then spent the next 2+ years shopping it around while I was working on the poems in The Book of Props, which I finished around 2007. The oldest poem in The City, Our City I started in 2003, and I worked on the book up until about six or eight months before it came out (in Oct 2011). Thus, these three books were written over about a twelve-year period.

But, to get back to your question:  it’s a cliché to say, but it’s also true that it would have been impossible to write The City, Our City without having written the previous two books. A few poems in Only the Senses Sleep attempt to address some of the more “public” (to borrow Richard Hugo’s word), historical subject matter of The City, Our City—but I just hadn’t written long enough to fully realize what I might want to do with them. The Book of Props tried to expand my poems formally (particularly in the “Notes for a Film in Verse” sequence), but not necessarily in terms of subject matter; it’s mostly a “private” book about loneliness and love. Without those first two books I wouldn’t have had the poems under my belt—and, at the same time, the place cleared in front of me—to see, and then focus on, The City, Our City.

History, alluded to in familiar historical events and periodic vocabulary, plays a large role in the poems that develop this entity of Our City you create in TCOC.  What kind of research did you engage with, and how did you begin to gather and shape it?

In the wake of the 2004 election I became pretty obsessed with the notion that talking about “red states” and “blue states” missed the point. If you looked at an election map divided by counties, you saw urban counties voting almost exclusively for Kerry and rural counties almost entirely for Bush. (In 2008, even Salt Lake City and Dallas went for Obama.) This links current American politics to Europe’s long history or urban vs. rural conflict (e.g., in the French Revolution, Paris conquered the more conservative countryside; in the Spanish Civil War, the countryside one by one conquered the cities) and spoke to the things that cities tend to share: human proximity, diversity, left-of-center politics, a certain comfort level with collectivism, and, at the same time, the engines of economic and political power that have often driven nations toward war. Ironically, in 2003, those urban centers generally opposed the Iraq War, though if things had worked out according to the economic plans proffered by Rumsfeld and Co. those same cities would have benefited disproportionately. (Meanwhile, rural kids were overrepresented in fighting that war, though their generally dying towns would have seen very little economic benefit from its potential successes.)

With these things in mind, I started reading obsessively about cities—books on urban history and design, the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the plague—as well as books on the history of war. I was also reading Auden, and his poem “Memorial for the City” struck me particularly. In it, Auden sees Darmstadt devastated by allied bombing as a synecdoche for all European cities—those seats of Western culture ruined by the war (“The humor, the cuisine, the rites, the taste, / The pattern of the City, are erased”). It occurred to me that, despite Auden’s pessimism—and his accurate sense that after World War II Europe had ceased to be the center of the Western world—all those cities were rebuilt and today continue to be important economic and cultural centers. Wasn’t the period’s destruction and rebuilding merely a brief chapter in the larger history of “the City”?

In, I believe, 2005, I began writing a long, multi-sectioned “history of the City” poem that eventually divided into the roman numeraled sections of The City, Our City. When I looked at the other poems I’d been writing, I realized they, too, were obsessed with cities, human proximity, and violence. That’s when the shape of TCOC began to come into focus.

As for your particular process, how do you go about generating poems and moving toward the project of a book?  Did poems addressing the idea of “City” start to accumulate and point to the project, or did the idea or issue of “City” come first to direct the creation of poems?

Really, both: once I had the spine of the book in those roman numeraled poems, it became clear that many of the poems I’d been writing could fit in among them. From that point on, whenever I started a poem from some triggering image, phrase, situation, or imagined persona, I’d ask myself if the poem might occur somewhere inside “the City.” Not all the poems I wrote found their ways in, but “the City,” at least as I imagine it, is pretty big. Most poems I wrote in that period were able to find a corner of it in which to reside.

Since PI focuses on international literary and artistic consciousnesses, please tell us how the experience of translating Moikom Zeqo’s I Don’t Believe In Ghosts in 2007 enriched your poetics.

I began translating the poems in I Don’t Believe in Ghosts in collaboration with Zeqo and his daughter when I was a junior in college—when I was just starting to write poems with any seriousness. It would have been nearly impossible for Zeqo’s work not to leave a profound mark on my writing. Translation used to be a pretty standard way for a young poet to learn his craft, and my attention to Zeqo’s poetry since 1997 has greatly enhanced my understanding of syntax and my general sense of the elasticity of language. More directly, Zeqo is a master with metaphor, and I think my appreciation for metaphor as both a reader and a writer comes in part from the many hours I spent—and continue to spend, since I’m working on another of his books—with his poems.

How do you manage developing the project of a book like TCOC that demands vast exploration of many facets of a topic, and the many ideas that feed into it, without feeling like you might exhaust the idea?

I’ve been fascinated by cities since I was a kid. (I was a history major in college, and my first-year symposium was professor Geoffrey Blodgett’s “History of the American City Since 1835”—a class that left an indelible mark on me.) I’ve also lived in them (specifically Cincinnati Ohio; Rome, Italy; Anchorage, Alaska; New York City; Houston, Texas; Madrid, Spain; and Kansas City, Missouri) for nearly all my life. So the things that spark my poetic imagination tend to emerge from inside cities anyway.

I think the larger concern in writing this book wasn’t so much exhausting the idea of “the City” as maintaining a balanced perspective on “the City.” I didn’t want merely to condemn “the City” for its violence and economic rapacity, nor did I want to laud it blindly for its diversity and art. When I felt I’d been writing too many poems that were generated out of anger at our historical moment, I tried to turn my attention to those things I found beautiful about cities. When I felt “the City” becoming too idealized, I turned my focus to “the City’s” nastier history—its wars and colonialism, for instance.

As Editor of the journal Pleiades, how has your experience with the journal contributed to writing TCOC?

Editing Pleiades takes a lot of time and energy away from writing, but it also keeps me in touch with a broad swath of the poems that are being written right now, which I like to think keeps me on my toes. Plus, I’ve worked with extraordinary editors at Pleiades over the last decade, and our conversations about poetry, literature, history, etc., have been invaluable to my writing.

It’s also worth saying that the University of Central Missouri, where I teach and where Pleiades is housed, is the town of Warrensburg, 45 miles outside Kansas City (from which I commute). In addition to the University, the other major institution in the area is Whiteman Air Force Base, from which the stealth bomber missions during the Iraq War were flown. In retrospect, I feel deeply lucky to have been working in Warrensburg over the last ten years; without proximity to the base and contact with numerous students who work on the base, I might have had the luxury of a less complicated or conflicted perspective on the military—and I might have had a less immediate sense of the war’s presence. When you’re talking with your students about Voltaire and a stealth bomber swoops down outside the window—a stealth bomber that just a few hours ago was dropping ordinance in the Middle East—and when your students start disappearing from classes mid-semester because they’ve been deployed, it’s pretty hard to feel entirely sequestered in the abstractions of the Ivory Tower.

What advice would you have for PI’s writers and readers of poetry when addressing large, political and worldly topics in contemporary poetry, both as orchestrating writer and educated reader?

I hope The City, Our City doesn’t stink of polemic, and I guess not to do so would be at the heart of my advice. If a person’s goal is to have a political impact, then writing poems is surely not an effective means since poetry books sell at best a couple thousand copies (and these days almost entirely to a like-minded audience). But I do like Milosz’s idea  (in The Witness of Poetry) of the poet as witness to history, and I think the role of witness asks a poet to speak to the future about the present, rather than to speak to a contemporary audience also immured inside the political moment. The larger goal of historically engaged poetry, I think, it to try to articulate the complexities and paradoxes of the time—and, in the process, to be an individual voice speaking inside of history, which generally seeks to erase the individual from the earth.

Yes, I’ve been derelict in my blog duties, as you can see from the April date on the most recent post before this one. Work life got hectic, and I was having a crisis of my poetry conscience. Now, though, work has cooled off, so much so that I’m less-employed than I’d like to be. And my love for poetry endures as always, although the all-too-frequent sting of rejected manuscripts does as well.

In an attempt to catch up on what poetry has transpired since I took my leave:

I got an email recently from Wayne Miller, the editor of “Pleaides,” announcing the release of his new book of poems, “The City, Our City.” Miller attended the South Dakota Festival of Books in Deadwood in 2009. Then, he was reading from his last collection, “The Book of Props,” and I found his poetry to be engaging in the way he presents his ideas and fragile in the way he constructs them as poems.

South Dakota State University professor Christine Stewart-Nunez also released a new collection, “Keeping Them Alive.” She appeared at this year’s South Dakota Festival of the Book, which I sadly was not able to attend. I had hoped to meet her.

And last, Augustana College professor Patrick Hicks edited “A Harvest of Words: Contemporary South Dakota Poetry,” an anthology that includes some of the state’s best poets, including state poet laureate David Allan Evans, Jim Reese, Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and Linda Hasselstrom. Hicks also presented at the book festival this year.

All great reads, I’m sure, and I’ll review each of them here as I finish them. In the meantime, read my interviews with Miller, Stewart-Nunez and Hicks here, here and here, respectively.

Wayne Miller

A.D. Winans is a native San Francisco poet whose work has appeared internationally. In 2002, a song poem of his was performed at Alice Tully Hall. In 2005 he was awarded a PEN National Josephine Miles Award for excellence in literature. In 2009 he was presented with a PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award. His latest book, Drowning Like Li Po in a River of Red Wine was recently published by BOS Press.  www.bospress.net

.

The Interview:

 FCR:  You have written two collections of prose and numerous essays standing in  contrast to over fifty collections of poetry. Why are you a poet?

ADW: That’s like asking me why I breathe.  It’s in my blood!  Like the late William Wantling said, “I’d carry a lunchbox just like the rest of them, if only these strange voices would leave me alone.”   I write because I’m at the mercy of the demons inside me.  I’m just a caretaker for their voices.

FCR: For seventeen years you edited Second Coming Magazine. Can you highlight events and those published, is Second Coming Magazine archived?  

ADW:  I published well known poets alongside relatively unknown poets.  S.C. was not a Beat publication, although I published many Beat poets like Kaufman, Micheline, William Everson, Ferlinghetti, Harold Norse, Ruth Weiss, Charles Plymell, and countless others.  I began publishing in 1972, during the post-Beat seventies, and Charles Bukowski was a regular contributor to the magazine. I published many of the so called “Meat” poets, and poets of the post-beat era; poets like Wayne Miller, Kell Roberton, George Tsongas, Gene Ruggles, Kaye McDonough, Neeli Cherkovski, and Dan Propper. I also published a few academic poets like Philip Levine and Josephine Miles.  The only criteria I had was the poem had to make me feel something inside that made me want to publish it.

Some of the highlights included the special issue on Charles Bukowski, the 1976 California Bi-centennial Poets Anthology, and the 1980 Poets and Music Festival honoring poet Josephine Miles and the legendary blues musician John Lee Hooker.  The festival took in three Bay Area counties and lasted for seven days.

In 1987, two years before I ceased publishing, Brown University bought the Second Coming archives along with my own archives.

FCR: Bottle of Smoke Press recently released Drowning like Li Po in a River of Red Wine. This collection spans the years 1970 to 2010. How did the project come about? 

ADW:  I was the first poet Bill Roberts published.  Over the years he has published two additional chapbooks of mine, a booklet, and has included me in broadside projects.  In late 2009 he approached me about doing a book of my poems, which would include poems from all fifty-plus books and chapbooks of mine that I have published from 1970 to the present.   I agreed and the rest is history.  The hardback sold out before the book was officially released, but paperback copies are still available.  I deeply appreciate the loving care Bill Roberts put into this book, as he does with every book he publishes.

FCR: Some poets starting out seem enthralled with the history of The Beat Poets. Many shoot across the sky and burn out quickly; do you have any advice for new poets?

ADW:   I’m not much on giving out advice.  I’d say just be yourself and don’t be afraid of taking chances, and for Christ Sake, quit trying to imitate Bukowski.  Ezra Pound offered some good advise when he said, “CHOP.  CHOP.  CHOP.”  Some poets today just don’t know when to stop, just like some oral poets don’t know when to get off the stage.

FCR: What effect has the Internet had on poetry?

ADW:  It has made it much easier to get your work published, although I’m not sure that is always a good thing.  There seems to be thousands of literary web sites in existence, with a good number publishing their friends. However, there are also many very good ones; web Zines like Pedestal and Big Bridge, where being a friend won’t get you published.  I’d prefer print publications use the internet as a compliment to their print magazine, and not have web Zines replace print publications.

FCR: You will soon be seventy-five years old. You continue to create, what is your motivation?

ADW:  A driving need to write, nothing more or less.  If you expect to make a living out of poetry you’re panning for fool’s gold.   If you don’t have a gnawing hunger inside you then you’re better off working a nine-to-five job and stowing away some money in the bank.

FCR: Who was a major influence on you as a writer?

ADW:  Early on, I wanted to be a Novelist, and was moved by the writings of Jack London, Hemingway and Steinbeck.  And music has always been an influence on me.  My political poetry came about from listening to folk singers like Woody Guthrie and early Bob Dylan, and that one moving song on what this country has done to the American Indian, by Buffy Saint Marie.  Poetry wise, Jack Micheline, Bob Kaufman, William Wantling, and Bukowski were early influences on me.

FCR: You have been published in over 1,500 magazines. Does it mean anything?

ADW:  In retrospect, there are some magazines I wish I had never been published in.  I don’t know what if anything it means.  I mean if I had only been published in a handful of magazines, I’d still be writing.  I don’t write per-see for publication although my publication record might make this seem hard to believe.  A good number of my publications came as a result of an editor or publisher writing and asking me to send them work. This is particularly true of published books of mine.

FCR: If you had it to over again, would anything be different?

ADW:  I can’t imagine it would be. I sometimes reflect on what it would have been like to have a wife and children, but we all look back on life and wonder, what if?  I am satisfied with the direction my life took.

FCR: When it is all said and done, what will A.D. Winans be remembered for?

ADW: I suppose some people will remember me as an editor and publisher, others will remember me as a poet and writer, and still others will remember me for both. 

I’d like to be remembered as well for the literary and political battles I fought and as a poet of the people, a poet who cared for the downtrodden and dispossessed who get the shit end of the stick.  I’d like to be remembered as some one who never compromised or sold out.  I’d like to be remembered as a man who valued integrity over a lottery chance at fame.

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For all things A.D. Winans please visit: http://www.adwinans.mysite.com/

You can read the poetry of A.D. Winans in The Fox Chase Review at these links: 2009 WS; 2010 SU

This interview was conducted on December 28, 2010 via email by g emil reutter .

Blue police trousers have turned grey in the wash

One Greater Manchester officer said 6,000 uniforms supplied last year were ‘rubbish’, adding: ‘They are very dark blue, almost black, and loads of them are now more like a shade of grey. We’ve been told to stop washing them so often but when you are out dealing with crime, they get dirty.

‘If we turn up for duty in trousers covered in dirt, blood or whatever else you roll around in when catching criminals, then we get a good talking to from our sergeant for not looking presentable. We’re in a no-win situation.’

Another officer told Police Review magazine the force had gone for the ‘cheap option’, adding: ‘When our clothing stores were approached about this, they said we should be using a particular type of washing powder – which happens to be the most expensive.’

Supt Wayne Miller said the clothes were ‘the best we can get’ and ‘certainly not the cheapest’.

It is during sleep that the distinction between
good men and bad is least apparent.
—Aristotle

In the dream, we wandered farther

into our thoughts,
toward the waters at their edge,
the overhanging cliffs—

we forded rivers, sometimes

snow fell on the squat cactuses,
the taut canvas covers;
it slipped through the steam

bursting from the horses’ nostrils.

When our wheels broke,
we balanced on the thumbs
of our footprints,

dragged the children behind us

on palettes we’d gathered
from the City’s back alleys.
We attended to our huddling

voices, dark around the fire,

we tipped our heads back
to examine the stars, though
at that remove our words failed

to describe them. Their whispers

floated over us,
behind us, wrapped the horizon
we kept pushing toward.

When the thread of the idea

we tugged on as a guide
led us through the emberlit camps
of strangers,

we stabbed them in their sleep;

and when we circled the wagons
in the night, we made
of ourselves a city—

like an animal bristling its fur.

Then, slowly, we awoke:
we were back in our beds,
the lights of the City

in the windows, the bridge—

an idea threading the bay.
At breakfast, we sat quietly
for a long time, the paper

open before us, its letters

winding down the page.
Now where would we go,
what should be next? The day

was crisp, the light, polleny—

and up the street, that film
we’d wanted to see for years
was still showing.

by Wayne Miller
published in Conduit, Summer 2010

and also on Poetry Daily, June 2010