Follow me. . .

. . .for the foreseeable future at www.poetlaureateblog.org, where I am in the midst of posting the favorite poems of residents of Silicon Valley where, until April 1, 2013, I am the current Santa Clara County Poet Laureate.

I'm posting all my events on the "Laureate Schedule" page in the header, any comments from time to time can be searched in the Archives under the "Laureate's News" category, and you can definitely find my posts for Best American Poetry made from my time in Portugal in this manner should your interest have been hanging for the past months.

Sorry to have left the 3 of you hanging. (hi Susannah!)

Pass it on.

Work with me in Portugal!

Work with me in Portugal next summer in Dzanc Book’s new international literary program. I’ll be leading a poetry workshop. Check out the website and contact me for registration details. It’s a terrific program and opportunity.

those and this

A wonderful review of Some Odd Afternoon posted at Rattle online.

The Black Telephone Rings...

Five Fast Questions

Bullwinkle is a....

Sorry! Wrong cartoon.

"Sally Ashton is a hoot." That's the best 4 letter word I've ever been called! Check out the Bay Area Poets Seasonal Review online review of my latest book, Some Odd Afternoon, for the rest of the story.

If you're a subscriber to the print version, the full text of the interview also appears in the Spring/Summer 2010 issue.

Fourth of Juanita

Juanita is July. Of course she is. Heat and unrideable breeze. The burn begins when you swing your legs out of bed, walk barefoot across wooden floor to the open window. A smell of fresh tar and creosote. Flags fail to flap. She is a memory to fondle, a token in my pocket, a ring on a chain around my neck. Or did I only imagine? Do I? Apt. Each firework always bigger than the last, louder, choreographed to music and passion’s swell. Incendiary spray of purple, green, the surprise of golden meteors pause, drop like molten wax, cool to cinder you flick from your arm. You wait for the next explosion. The mind’s eye widens in recollection: a night to remember, one like no other. Such spectacles can’t be trusted. However they are all I have. Like a donkey I follow in the tracks worn before me. What has been traveled, what will be traveled again and again. July the exception. Fireflies, firework grand finale, every constellation undiminished wavers some promise overhead.

from Her Name Is Juanita, Kore Press, 2009

DMQ Review Spring Release!

Check it out!
Cover art by Charles Farrell.