A raincloud, a crane on the wing

[sovay]

So a lot of today was dreadful. Here are the things that were not!

1. My poem "The Excavation of Troy" is now online at Apex Magazine #65. It was written on the train to New York in February; I finished it just as we passed New Rochelle. And so it was that Schliemann dug for twenty-two years at Hisarlık and never found the Iliad.

2. My poem "Something Different from Either" has been accepted by Ideomancer. It is a Fisher King poem, written in May when I was trying to write about trees. I think I may have written it during a PMRP meeting.

3. The anthology Mythic Delirium, otherwise known as the collected first year of the digital magazine, is now available from a host of usual suspects in both print and e-form. It contains my poem "Cuneiform Toast" and rest of it is nearly a roll call of the field. But not quite, which is why I can't wait for the next year's anthology. In the meantime: read this one!

4. A package came in the mail yesterday. When carefully unwrapped of its red paper and pendant stone heart, it proved to contain a set of small lacquered wooden dishes with an inlaid motif of cranes in mother-of-pearl. (Also one of those little red cellophane fish that curls in the palm of your hand in a supposedly oracular manner.) It was an early birthday present from yhlee. The design and the lacquer are beautiful. I have placed them painstakingly out of reach of the cats!

5. Happy birthday, shirei_shibolim!

I like all of those.

Comments

[yhlee]

The last line of your Troy poem is killer.

Also, thank you for getting the dotless-i in the Turkish. (There's a Turkish typo of that nature in one of Kelly Link's stories in Magic for Beginners and it's always bothered me.)

[sovay]

The last line of your Troy poem is killer.

Thank you.

Also, thank you for getting the dotless-i in the Turkish. (There's a Turkish typo of that nature in one of Kelly Link's stories in Magic for Beginners and it's always bothered me.)

Heh. Thank you! I try to be as accurate as possible with other alphabets!

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

*hugs* for all the dreadful stuff. Well done on the sale and publications*. Beautiful-sounding dishes.

*I got my copy of NOOU #52 yesterday. "Like Milkweed" still haunts the hell out of me (enough that I was spooked more than I should be at 5 am on finding a comma butterfly on the bathroom door). Always a pleasure to share a TOC with you.

[sovay]

Beautiful-sounding dishes.

I will try to take pictures. I need a real camera.

"Like Milkweed" still haunts the hell out of me (enough that I was spooked more than I should be at 5 am on finding a comma butterfly on the bathroom door).

That's a compliment!

Thank you. You are a fine TOC-mate likewise.

[gwynnega]

Those are some excellent non-dreadful things! Congratulations on the publications and the poetry sale.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the publications and the poetry sale.

Thank you!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

I really hope you will come see Trojan Women.

And I really hope that tomorrow is better.

[sovay]

I really hope you will come see Trojan Women.

I plan to. I've read it in Greek; I've never seen it staged. I've been looking forward since it was announced.

And I really hope that tomorrow is better.

Thank you. It was!

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Wow for the parts that were not dreadful!

The dreadful parts can fuck off.

*hugs*

[sovay]

Wow for the parts that were not dreadful!
The dreadful parts can fuck off.

Thank you on both counts.

*hugs*

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

I am sorry that other parts of today were dreadful.

[sovay]

I am sorry that other parts of today were dreadful.

Thank you. I figured I would try to pay attention to the parts that were not.

[selidor]

I love how the last line of the Apex poem just cuts like a knife. DAMN YOU SCHLIEMANN. "prospecting for myth with digammas and dynamite."!

And hurrah for poem acceptance, and other beautiful things! Good panacea for the day.

[sovay]

I love how the last line of the Apex poem just cuts like a knife. DAMN YOU SCHLIEMANN.

Hah. Thank you! Those may have been some of my feelings about Schliemann that somehow found their way into the poem.

And hurrah for poem acceptance, and other beautiful things! Good panacea for the day.

Definitely.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

That poems makes my day less dreadful. Many thanks.

Nine

[sovay]

That poems makes my day less dreadful. Many thanks.

You are very welcome.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Hooray, more poetry! Yay you!

[sovay]

Hooray, more poetry! Yay you!

Thank you!

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Love "The Excavation of Troy." The Schliemann story was one of my favourites when I was a kid, back when I was reading stuff like Lost Cities and Vanished Civilizations. I think I knew even then that it was at least half BS, but I loved the fact that it came with its own disclaimer, the inherent idea that he was never able to find "the" Troy he was looking for, because he couldn't reconcile his own image of ur-Troy with the actuality of real-Troy. So much can be explained by this disparity, in terms of basic human consciousness and impulse.

[sovay]

Love "The Excavation of Troy."

Thank you.

We had a children's biography of Schliemann in the house when I was growing up: The Walls of Windy Troy (1960), by Marjorie Braymer. I haven't picked it up in years; I suspect it romanticized him as much as he romanticized Troy. Which I understand: I understand falling in love with epic. It's the things like dynamite I have a bit more trouble with.

hat he was never able to find "the" Troy he was looking for, because he couldn't reconcile his own image of ur-Troy with the actuality of real-Troy. So much can be explained by this disparity, in terms of basic human consciousness and impulse.

Yes. Some people go through relationships that way; he went through archaeology.