F. Daniel Rzicznek

An incredible and insightful review of my good friend's first collection, Neck of the World, here, by Djelloul Marbrook.

Check it out, yo!

NaPoWriMo

So I'm going to attempt NaPoWriMo at least in part. April, aside from December, is the busiest month of the year for me, but this will be a good exercise in many ways, even if I only get 10-15 poems in the next 30 days, that's 10-15 more poems than I'd normally write in April. And it'll propel me to really finish this project I'm working on by the end of the summer months.

Check me out over at from Viewings.

And be sure to check out and support all the other crazy, dedicated poets participating in this annual tradition of National Poetry Month, too.

Good luck, everyone!

I predict a penultimate (second-to-last?) finish...

Young Teeth (my 2009 Fantasy Baseball team)

C -- Mike Napoli (LAA)
1B -- Ryan Howard (PHI)
2B -- Jose Lopez (SEA)
SS -- Michael Young (TEX)
3B -- Aramis Ramirez (CHC)
OF -- Manny Ramirez (LAD)
OF -- Ryan Ludwick (STL)
OF -- Adam Dunn (WAS)
UTIL -- Milton Bradley (CHC)
UTIL -- Jim Thome (CWS)
BN -- Mark Reynolds (ARI)
BN -- Jose Guillen (KC)
BN -- Jack Cust (OAK)
BN -- Ty Wigginton (BAL)

SP -- Carlos Zambrano (CHC)
SP -- Ryan Dempster (CHC)
SP -- Ben Sheets (MIL)
RP -- Kerry Wood (CLE)
RP -- Billy Wagner (NYM)
P -- Derek Lowe (LAD)
P -- Erik Bedard (SEA)
P -- Jered Weaver (LAA)
BN -- Kevin Gregg (CHC)
BN -- John Smoltz (BOS)

Good news...

Some good news came across the wire today: a poem from my first manuscript (poem title: "A Miscarriage Scare at Bronson Methodist") is forthcoming in an issue of Boxcar Poetry Review.

Also, BOOM.

More on that later.

Oh Jean

I love this song ("Oh Jean"). I love this band (The Proclaimers). I'm not ashamed. This isn't the best recording/video of the song, but it's all I could find. Below are the lyrics (without repetition, etc). Hope everyone's well out there.


Oh Jean

I'd never been lucky with girls I confess
Don't know who to blame for my lack of success
Cause even with ones up the back of a bus
There was always the risk of a slap in the puss

But Jean, Oh Jean You let me got lucky with you

The first time I met you it did cross my mind
The next time I saw you there wasn't the time
The third time I saw you I thought that I could
The fourth time I met you I knew that I would

But Jean, you get let me get lucky with you

I love her

I want you forever I want you for good
So I'm gonna treat you the way that I should
For your soul and body my heart'ss gonna pound
Even after the day that I'm laid in the ground

Cause Jean, Oh Jean you let me get lucky with you

Love her I love her.

I'm way behind here...

F. Daniel Rzicznek reading at Columbia College at AWP 2009, Chicago.

These four photos (though the top two are the same piece) are from the Art Institute of Chicago from my trip to AWP last month. They are, in order, by and titled: "A Vision," 1925, oil on canvas, by Joseph Stella; "Red and Pink Rocks and Teeth," 1938, oil on canvas, by Georgia O'Keeffe; "Woman (Elevation)," 1927, bronze, by Gaston Lachaise.

I'm currently, as we speak, writing a triptych that involves these pieces. Word. More later, I hope.

from Howard Nemerov's essay, "On Poetry and Painting, with a Thought on Music"

"Both poet and painter want to reach the silence behind the language, the silence within the language. Both painter and poet want their work to shine not only in daylight but (by whatever illusionist magic) from within; maybe even more from within than by daylight, for many of their works in times now past had not the object of being viewed in daylight but went to do their magic in caves, in tombs, among the dead, and maybe as a substitute for daylight."

Oh holy shit that's beautiful.