In the me me meantime: two things about me and one about my friend

While I wait to hear back from the library in Kansas, I'm going to use this blog for its usual purpose: to call attention to what I'm up to. I have two pieces of me-news:

1)  dancing girl press is putting out my chapbook of fake eulogies, Little Eva, the Insomniac from Mars. Go here to order it! There's a sample poem on the shopping page if you want the flavor.

2) I'm reading at the Brown Bookstore (244 Thayer St., Providence, RI) on Wednesday, October 3rd, at 5:30 p.m. I'll be reading work from The Soft Place as well as some newer poems. Providence-area people, I'd love to see you there.

I also have one piece of friend-news: the book of my very dear friend Michael Tod Edgerton is coming out, and his publisher, Lavender Ink, has an Indiegogo campaign up. Have a look! You'll want to buy this book anyway, so ...

More library news soon.

Thank you for the INCREDIBLE DELUGE!

Since yesterday morning, when I posted the call and first rain dance for the Oxford Lane Library, I've been inundated (yes, yes, the pun is on purpose, it's just not funny) with donations in the loveliest possible way. Including my "seed" contributions, $465 came in yesterday!

Rather than fund one library twice as much as all the others, I'd like to divide that incredible amount between the Oxford Lane Library and a sixth library. I've written to one in Kansas and am waiting to hear back; I'll post an update soon. In the meantime, for all of you who donated (special thanks for whopping donations from John Brett and Robin Dahlberg), donated for a second time, and let people know about this project:

DANCE OF THANKSGIVING


Thanks for the liquid.
The digging. The piercing
of crusts. Thanks for buying
it that there might be
a wet day, later, when
people are reading inside
the gray windows. Thanks
for thumbing open,
for retelling, for pealing
like a wet animal on a wet wire,
thanks for imagining or
remembering thirst, for
being the record,
for now, thanks for making
an offering to later. 

Make it Rain for Butler County, OH!

Our fifth and last library is the Oxford Lane Library in Oxford, OH (Butler County). If you haven't donated yet, and you can now, I and they would really appreciate it. If you can't donate right now or have donated already, please let people know about this last series of rain dances.

FIRST RAIN DANCE FOR OXFORD, OH

The woman from Ohio says
she loves the fall. Says it makes her
feel peaceful and alive at the same
time. Those of us feeling neither couldn't help
but smell your promise, rain, coming to knock
more smells out of her leaves and her air.
Say you will. Then do. It was night not day,
we were over here, not in Ohio, but don't
be led astray by fracas. Say you will
fall in love with impact, tiny drops of you clicking
teeth with lights the size of drops of you. Then do.

As before, I'll seed the cloud with $50.00. Please donate to bring it up to $200.00 for the Oxford Lane Library.

The total for the White Hall Township Library is $210.00 and the check will go out today.

Money for Greene County!

We've raised $210.00 for Greene County! Thanks so much to all who donated.

I wasn't super happy with yesterday's rain dance, poetically speaking, so I'm going to do one more for the White Hall Township Library. If anyone wants to top up the funds with another donation, that would of course be lovely. The check will go out tomorrow, when I'll also announce our final library.


TENTH RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL

Rain, bowl over all
the days I assured I knew
what would fetch you.
How what I thought was a cowl
looked like harness. More
or enough. I see through
you like stair-rails,
that is, perpendicularly.
Rain, take a notion. Form
enough acute angles, you'll be in
relation to everything,
lie flat on nothing. If I
can bring you I can fail
to bring you. If I contract,
still I may fail you.

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 9

Still at $195.00! Who has $5.00 for the White Hall Township Library?

NINTH RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL

The water plant is charged
with the duty of supplying the city with fresh and safe drinking
water. Rain, strange in your armor, any child
can learn about you, what you've got
to lose to the river bottom.
Color flushes. Seminary sediment.
Rain, can you fathom down
instead of up, can your longlines draw out
whatever's happening down there, mud and record
the trawl of our follies? You can, I know. All the town
ordinances conserve you. Please swerve. Show us
your mark on the surface.

Only $5.00 more to bring us up to $200.00!

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 8

So close! $195.00 donated, only $5.00 to go! If you were putting it off, do it now, and I can send the White Hall Township Library what we've gathered for them.

EIGHTH RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL


Rain, I could be forgiven
for thinking the dishwasher sound
was the sound of you
but not for long.
The water I water to be
caught up in you, I offer
first to the air. A sliver.
Rain, re-enter the story.
Be a wedge. Smudge
from horizon to margin,
from center to center.
You're practically there.
Your sweep to their sill,
your heft to their roof,
your weft to their hall.
Rain, be their already.


Only $5.00 more to bring us up to $200.00!

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 7

$190.00 donated -- just $10.00 to go. Make a second donation of $5 and get a present! Or donate for the first time and be the one to bring the total up to $200.00 for the White Hall Township Library.

SEVENTH RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL

Someone should tell me
you're not listening
to me. That my nib's a dry seed.
A scorched hoof. I should bethink
myself of how little
we know and can do
in the meantime, time we
could spend trying to find
out, not to dampen.
Someone should take
a toll on me where I live,
see how I like it.
I might like it. You never know
about people, rain, or is it
that they never know
about you till you're brawling,
silver, down their collar?
Well, tell us. Inform us. Infuse us.

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 6

It is still daylight where I am, so it counts. A generous THIRD donation from Joel and Diane Schapira has brought us up to $190.00 for the White Hall Township Library -- we need just $10.00 more and then I can send a check!

This seems like a good time to note that one possible gift for people who donate multiple times is a scarf, knitted by me, in colors and materials of your choice. The other possible gift I'm still finding out about.

SIXTH RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL


Rain, wake the people of White Hall the way
you woke me last night: with your sound and the reminder
that your presence makes complications.
I'm not complaining. I just want to share. When someone
in the mystery I'm reading says, "I just lost
my eye," it means they can't judge. Can't survey. Coincidence
rains its way into the name of the town,
the marble, the roll of the ground, so rain your way
into coincidence, the easy misfile, homophone error of falling.
I can't judge. Can't survey. The fill of the sill,
the fall of the land, its use, the the failure to rise.


Just $10.00 to go. Please donate!

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 5

Still at $160.00 -- please donate! Those $5s add up.

FIFTH RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL


Rust turns to powder after
most of a summer hiding
its lamprey mouth.
You, rain, you can renew it.
We know the risk we run
in asking, gutter run, clump
where a page meets a page.
Gravity would take you
there. Rain, you don't live
anywhere. Kids run
away to meet you.
Hope is for roots you
have met. Drenched metal.
I look at the water along
the wall and think, I 
should get a barrel. 
I should waste nothing
of you. Rain, they'll drop
what they're doing and blow
out after you; they'll tire.
Tear a strip off us, rain.
We are supine. Spit in our eye.


$40.00 is all we need to be able to send $200.00 to the White Hall Township Library!

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 4

We're still at $160.00. Please do donate -- $5.00 would be helpful.


FOURTH RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL

Rain, teeming with character, open your eyes.
Press to our chalk the slick balls of your eyes.
Curl up in our hollows the cygnets of your eyes.
Crack on the ground the apples of your eyes.
Hatch not a moment too soon the frog-eggs of your eyes.
Let's fall together on the greenswards of your eyes.
My mind got onto your physics.
The shape of your changes in falling in particular.
Rain, open your eyes like wheels.
Roll your momentum all over.

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 3

Still at $160.00 -- please help the White Hall Township Library by donating below!


THIRD RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL


Rain, records show settlers
near White Hall as early
as 1820. It looks like the Illini
or Illinois or Illiniwek people lived
there before the U.S. Government
forced them out to Oklahoma. Rain,
it's no longer early. Every
chain with you at the end seems so
long, a stream disappearing
upwards to where you could be,
where it lies with you to make
the air a well. Will you write
the next page or what? Will it show
settlers there as late as later?
Rain, write back in water.


Please donate to the White Hall Township Library -- we're very close to $200.00!

Make it Rain for Greene County: Day 2

Thanks to an extremely generous donation from Charlie and Angie Keil, we've already raised $160.00 for the White Hall Township Library -- only $40.00 to go!


SECOND RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL

Let the pod swell
and the ground sog.
Let the season be old.
Blink and you'll miss it, we
humans say of our small
towns, our crossroads,
our intersections.
Then we blink furiously.
Blink up a storm. Our
eyelashes form a cough
in the wind, our eyelids
swell like pods. Rain, keep
yours open. Lower to us
where we meet, well
up like a footprint.

Please help us bring our donation to the White Hall Township Library up to $200.00!

Make it Rain for Greene County, IL!

Today we begin raising money for the White Hall Township Library in Greene County, IL. Please help us give them at least $200.00!

FIRST RAIN DANCE FOR WHITE HALL, IL

Rain, the first fed is the last faded.
Fall between us and the red planet.
Wash our walls. Think of the echoing
halls in the leaf. Think of the curved
hulls emptying, husks outed, covers
of books with no words between them.
Nothing to say to the next. Rain,
I'm at the place where your feet
would be, 39° 26′ 22″ N, 90° 23′ 57″ W.
I can't be measured from the air
but you can be incorporated.
You can flow down the channels
of information etched in the seed,
we can be the canals Schiaparelli thought
he saw, did see, got misread by,
you can be impossible and real.

As before, I'll seed the cloud with $50.00; please help me bring it up to $200.00.

Taylor County Public Library funded!

Thanks to your generosity, we've raised $205.00 for the Taylor County Public Library.

The next dances will be for the White Hall Township Library in White Hall, IL. Look for the first one tomorrow, and another "making of" post later today.

Make it Rain for Taylor County: Day 6

Up to $120.00! $80.00 to go for the Taylor County Public Library.


SIXTH RAIN DANCE FOR CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY


Now I'm learning
to put my mouth
where the water is not.
What it is, a taste
of it at the spout
of a leaf-wrinkle like
an old lip. Rain
can't want me to lick
the ground only
because it can't want.
It can't be that I asked
the wrong question.
It must be the wrong
answer that I've been
giving for years,
or the wrong one to ask,
it might be too late
to ask when every surface
of need is holed like
a dream-skin for the ink
of rain, the time of asking.
Rain, please prove me wrong.




Help me send $200.00 to the Taylor County Public Library!

Make it Rain for Taylor County: Day 5

Still at $105.00. Please donate and help us bring it to $200.00 for the Taylor County Public Library.


FIFTH RAIN DANCE FOR CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY


And you, rain, who
do you call on,
what do you pull for?
Just as I was falling
asleep I thought
of the perfect invocation. Of
course I forgot it. Is
that what you'd pay
for, rain, the visit
of utter forgetfulness?
Like wine in a folk tale
where hope is the moral.
Not hope exactly.
Luck. As you were falling
I thought: a visit
is something you pay.

Make it Rain for Taylor County: Day 4

$105.00 raised; $95.00 to go. Please donate!


FOURTH RAIN DANCE FOR CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY

Rain, I remember
reading that you're
the universal solvent.
That would be you in
your mode of relation,
I guess, bringing one
thing to another.
Just bring yourself,
as the good host says. Be
brought. Let down.
The tight-packed molecules of
Coakley Street and Wilcox Street will offer
all the challenges for solution
you could require.
Skin-tight and rubber-deep,
severer, messenger.

Make it Rain for Taylor County: Day 3

I'll be putting $245.00 for the Bedford Public Library in the mail today.

We've gathered $95.00 for the Taylor County Public Library; $105.00 to go!


THIRD RAIN DANCE FOR CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY


Sky like a socket,
rain like a bridge.
Seasons like hinges
weary to fold out:
rain, quicken.
Rain, freshen. Seasons
are changing. We may
not know them when we
get old -- you've seen
this happen, no
doubt, through the window.
Your drops. Lots
of windows. Steady
yourself again, rain, settle
in, cheek by glass. Lean.
Be companion even
in division. Sit
with us even in waiting.

Please help us bring this donation up to $200.00!

The Making of Make it Rain: Part 1

My sister thought people might like to know how I found these libraries. Here's what I did:

1) I looked at the New York Times's drought map to find the hardest-hit regions.

2) I correlated it with county maps of affected states to see which counties were in those regions. I also looked up declarations of drought emergency by state, as a cross-check.*

3) I Googled "public library [county name] [state name]" to find the library or libraries that serve that county.

4) I looked up the libraries' towns on City-Data.com/ , looking for two things: the population of the town, and the median income. I wanted to send aid to libraries that might be particularly vulnerable to a drop in local income.

5) I went back to the library's website, if they had one, to look for a contact email address (preferably the director's or head librarian's address). Libraries without websites, or without email contacts, I ended up slighting because I didn't feel I could explain the project clearly and convincingly over the phone.

6) I emailed directors/head librarians, explaining the project and asking if they could accept this kind of donation. Those who replied are the ones we're funding.

The next "Making of" will be about the rain dance poems. Also, there's going to be some sort of extra surprise** gift for people who donate twice, as one amazing person has already done.


*After the first three libraries, I got smart and did a further cross-check with state agricultural boards, since farming-dependent communities are particularly vulnerable.

** "Surprise" because I haven't thought of it yet.

Make it Rain for Taylor County: Day 2

SECOND RAIN DANCE FOR CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY


Dust on the leaves
lies real as light. Look
into it, rain, carve
your sign into it.
Yes, rain, the evenness
of tobacco, that's how
we love you. Quench
the hornworm thirst. Let's hear
you stumble home at night,
flushed with the skyline.
Slick the knowledge
of the roads. I'm trying
to make you sound.
To leave a scent
trail like you'd like
to call it out. You would.
You would like to call it out.




We've raised $55.00 for the Taylor County Public Library so far. $145.00 to go.

Make it Rain for Taylor County, KY!

Our next library is the Taylor County Public Library in Campbellsville, KY.

FIRST RAIN DANCE FOR CAMPBELLSVILLE, KY

Wanted in Campbellsville: rain. Utility trailer.
Infant bicycle trailer. Your old broke down
vehicle. Rain. Cast iron wood
stove. Well casing. Tobacco help.
Adult care in exchange for free
lodging, utilities, etc. Rain. Iphone. Someone
to do drywall. Vegetables (corn,
tomatoes & green beans). Parts
for a 1999 Hyundai Sonata. *Old* road
bicycle. Rain. Price: you tell me.

As before, I'll seed the cloud with $50.00. Please help me bring donations for the Taylor County Public Library up to at least $200.00.

Money for the Bedford Public Library!

Thanks to your donations, we've raised $245.00 for the Bedford Public Library in Bedford, IN. I continue to be so amazed by everyone's generosity.

The next library I'm dancing for is the Taylor County Public Library in Campbellsville, KY. Look for that rain dance later today, spread the word, and consider donating if you haven't already. Thanks again so much to all those who've publicized and donated to the project so far.

Make it Rain for Lawrence County, IN: Day 3

We've got $180.00 now for the Bedford Public Library -- just $20.00 to go!

Thanks to the Harriet blog for the mention and the link -- and to all others who've given the project a mention!

THIRD RAIN DANCE FOR BEDFORD, IN


There's been some suggestion that the rain
in Providence comes from my failure to provide
the rain with enough place names. You want rain?
it says. Here you go! So here goes: rain, rain
on Bluespring Caverns and the Devil's Backbone
and the Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom Memorial.
Refill the pools at the hatchery.
                                                These suggestions
make rain sound a hick. Kind of foolish,
a knee-jerk reactor, but eager. Rain so dear,
I do not believe it of you.
I believe in the science of blame.
"Gus" Grissom was an astronaut, one
of the Mercury Seven. He flew in space twice.
His hair in the photo is high
and tight as the clouds. Rain, come
down off your horse.



$20.00 to go for the Bedford Public Library! Please donate if you can.

Make it Rain for Lawrence County, IN: Day 2

So far we've raised $125.00 for the Bedford Public Library! Thanks to all who donated.


SECOND RAIN DANCE FOR BEDFORD, IN


Dear blame,
rain greatly.
Come home.
All is forborn.
Make the green run.
Chute the chute, rain,
think of the air
as a slope. We
love the soddenness
you bring our
cabbage heads,
our stubborn mess,
the tea you brew of
dirt and leaves when
you arrive, dear
frail rain, whatever
we've done. Rain, trail
your suddenness.

$75.00 to go for the Bedford Public Library! Please donate if you can.

Make it Rain Project: Lawrence County, IN

Thanks once again to all who donated to the McDonald County Library System.

The next set of rain dances will be for the Bedford Public Library in Bedford, IN. If you weren't able to donate in the first round, consider donating now.

FIRST RAIN DANCE FOR BEDFORD, IN

Rain me a hallway.
Make me an oaf, a roofer.
Drive me inside
like a nail. Galvanize
the lightning rods
of root hairs.

Appearance on the rail:
a row of lights slewed low
because of you, rain who
will be ruthless and
a result, wherever
you go -- each sand heart
droplet, each swig,
each wind, each year.

*

As before, I will seed the cloud with $50.00. Please help me bring the donations for the Bedford Public Library up to at least $200.

Money for McDonald County!

We did it! $235 raised for the McDonald County Library System. Thanks so much to all who donated.

The next rain dances will be for the Bedford Public Library in Lawrence County, IN. Look for the first one later today.

Make it Rain Project, McDonald County, MO: Day 2

 Raised so far for the McDonald County Library System: $140.00! Thanks to all who donated so far.

SECOND RAIN DANCE FOR McDONALD COUNTY


Maybe I should send my sister
over for a visit. She
said the weather's so nice, we
really need more rain but this just
feels so good, then
downpour. Maybe I
could clone her and ship
one of her over to Rocky
Comfort or maybe the real her would have
to go live there for it
to work. Or maybe science
refutes everything but the actual
leer of the water.
Rain, go into town
to buy something. Rain, there's something
you need on the ground here.
Rain of need, differ. Enter
books of water back
into the predictable.

*

$60.00 to go!

Make it Rain Project: McDonald County, MO

The Make it Rain Project, a poetic effort to gather funds for public libraries in regions hit hard by this summer's drought, begins today!  At least five libraries will benefit. I'll post a Rain Dance poem and the funding total every day for each library until I reach or surpass my funding goal of $200 for that library. Please make a small donation and spread the word.

The first library to receive a Rain Dance is the McDonald County Library System, whose central library is in Pineville, MO.

FIRST RAIN DANCE FOR McDONALD COUNTY

Rain, come crack
the napes of fruit flies
and the backs of ticks.
Sog shoes. Suit gutters.
Come into the leaf by
way of the thick vein on
the underside. Go
where the road goes and
swell the node of
the two creeks with the river.
By load, by flail,
by shower, haul
yourself up and over.
Lay down a shine
on the topography. Be
wet. Be ample. From the corners,
suck your drops together.
Be vapor. Befall.
Love gravity. Cozy
up to the hairy surfaces
of dogs, rain,
make a drum sound.
Make nest shapes in paper.
Wet the census
like a whistle.

Donors will receive a chapbook containing all the rain dances -- PayPal, when you donate, should ask you for a shipping address, but if it doesn't, please email me at my gmail address, publiclycomplex, to let me know where I should send your book. (Email me there if you have questions, too.) I will seed the cloud with $50.00. Please help to bring it up to at least $200.

Donate to the McDonald County Library System!

at Open Letters Monthly, a review of Butcher's Tree

My review of Butcher's Tree by Feng Sun Chen is in the September issue of Open Letters Monthly.

Butcher's Tree is a complex and volatile collection and I was glad of the chance to interact with it in this additional way.