THE TOOLS OF POETRY

1. A goatskin notebook for writing down dreams

2. Mont Blanc fountain pen (extra credit if it belonged to Mme Blavatsky)

3. A Chinese coin or a stone in your pocket for rubbing

4. Frequenting places where you can overhear things

5. Tiny recorders, spyglasses, microscopic listening devices

6. A little man at the back of your head

7. The Ghost-Companion

8. Susceptibility to hypnosis

9. Large sheets of homemade paper, a stack a foot thick

10. A subscription to cable TV

(from The Poetry Lesson, Andrei Codrescu)

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Additions to the Eileen Myles section of the bookshelf

• Not Me
• Skies

(Maxfield Parrish seems to be delayed for some reason)

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That general sense of dissatisfaction at not having written anything this week. And then I think that I have been writing - working with students' creative texts (editing, suggesting, tinkering, enthusing). Nevertheless it's not the same. Dilutes ... depletes ... drains ... . Plus the daily talking oneself out blah blah blah blah ... .

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Out this morning to the art shop. It would be easy to spend the entire day browsing the shelves of exquisite Japanese papers. I select one only to find it's 11 euros the sheet - flecks of gold leaf within the weave. I ask if they have any papers with tea leaves in them (I think they think I'm joking - I'm not).

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The remaining copies of The Library are stitched together. Now the problem of who to send them to.

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sthealth

(pwoermd for the slow onset of this cold?)

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moules & frites

(tonight's menu)

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encyclipidea

(title for another fullcrumb volume?)

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"You're so above average, Frank"

(Hotlips to Major Burns)