I Did It Again!

Woohoo! I made it! I managed to write 30 poems in 30 days for the National Poetry Month's "Poem-a-Day Challenge". I wrapped it up with a sonnet about "endings" - the theme was from Robert Lee Brewer's blog on the Writer's Digest website. As I said before, his daily prompts have really kept me going each day. The toughest assignment was on the 28th when he asked everyone participating to write a sestina. There's been quite a poetry community that has sprung up over there as a result of this month of exercises. It's also great to have over 30 new poems to work with and revise - maybe a few are good enough to publish. It's been work, but it's been fun too. And today Mr. Brewer featured my poem "ROBOT INSULTS" as one of the best (and funniest, in his opinion) from April 15th.

I survived birthday #57 intact on Sunday. My wife made a delicious brunch, and we had a few friends and family over. In the afternoon we met a couple of other friends to see stage play The Odd Couple. Last night my good friends from Quick and Dirty Poets celebrated my birthday too. I'm the "old man" of the group - our next oldest member is 50 next month, and three of our members (and one unofficial member) are 30 and under. I told them last night that hanging with them makes me feel 29 again. We're planning our annual summer reading series, which we call "Hot & Sticky" - we'll be featuring poets Kathy Graber, Tammy Paolino, and Gina Larkin. (If you're local to me, the readings are at the Daily Grind coffee house in Mt. Holly, NJ, and the first two are scheduled for Friday June 13, and Friday July 11, at 7:00.)We will also resurrect our lit mag, Up and Under: The QND Review this fall, when we will begin to accept submissions.

Music: Two of my sons treated me to a concert Saturday night for my birthday - Poi Dog Pondering was at the TLA. Great band, but I thought the sound system was jacked up too high, to the point that it distorted and muddied the music. Before the concert I stopped at Repo Records on South Street and got two used CD's: Wee Tam by Incredible String Band (a hard-to-find 1968 album from the British psychedelic-mystic-folk band. I also got The Clash's London Calling, which, believe it or not, I never owned on record or CD. It took me 28 years to realize what a great album it was.

Poem of the Week: The writing prompt for the 13th was to write a poem about a song or based on a song, and use a line from the song as an epigraph.

The First Time I Heard "Tomorrow Never Knows"

Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream…
- The Beatles

And I did that,
as I lay on my bedroom floor
between ersatz headphones,
the boxy speakers of my portable stereo.

I slipped downstream
as sped-up tape loops keened
like fantastic creatures,
and otherworldly flora sprang up on the banks.

John’s voice, the psychedelic gondolier,
poled me through this riverworld,
unprecedented to my 15-year-old ears,
and when the closing strains swirled away,

I got up, opened the door,
and walked in.

Poem-a-Day: Right on Track!

I'm still doing great on the poem-a-day challenge, 23 for 23 plus a couple of "bonus" poems, largely thanks to Robert Lee Brewer's daily writing prompts on his blog. (See prior post for the link.) I haven't missed a day since I joined his blog on the 7th. He gets over 100 entries for each of his prompts, and he has started to post his ten or so favorites from each day's assignment. He's up to Day 11 now, and he's just featured two poems I wrote: "Record Store" (Day 10) and "Paper Clip" (Day 11). There have been some really good poems submitted (and of course, some not-so-good ones), and certain poets seem to stand out day after day. You should check out the site at least to read them, and it's not too late to join in on the writing assignments.

I got word that my poem, "Mosquito Truck", has been accepted for the next issue of Edison Literary Review. They also feature one of my poems, "52 Pickup", as a sample on their website.

I wish I could get to all the poetry events going on this month. Tonight I missed an event at one of the local libraries, hosted by my friend Therese Halscheid, an excellent poet from South Jersey. Next week is a poetry reading that is part of my home town's (Cherry Hill's) week-long "Arts Bloom" festival, but I will have to miss that too. Still, I'm lucky to be in an area where there's so much going on poetically, and not just during National Poetry Month.

Music: My local favorite music station, 88.5 WXPN, has a daily feature called "Top 5 @ 5", hosting by the afternoon DJ, Jim McGuinn. He plays five (sometimes more) songs on a related theme, so in honor of National Poetry Month, I thought I'd suggest a theme of "songs about poetry" : songs that mention famous poets by name, or set a famous poem to music, or even have a poet's participation, or just mention poetry or poets in general. There are a lot more than you might think. Here's the list I sent him:

1. Walt Whitman's Niece - Billy Bragg and Wilco
2. Sylvia Plath - Ryan Adams
3. Bukowski - Modest Mouse
4. Richard Cory - Simon and Garfunkel (the Edwin Arlington Robinson poem set to music)
5. The Dangling Conversation - Simon and Garfunkel (mentions Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost)
6. The Stolen Child - The Waterboys (the Yeats poem set to music)
7. My Ride's Here - Warren Zevon (co-written with his friend, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon -also name-checks a bunch of poets)
8. Poetry Man - Phoebe Snow
9. Cemetery Gates - The Smiths (mentions Keats, Yeats and Wilde)
10. Poets - The Tragically Hip
11. Poet - Sly and the Family Stone
12. Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
("Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century....")

Jim used my theme today and played #1, 9, 10 and 12 on my list, along with:

Afternoons and Coffeespoons - Crash Test Dummies (mentions T.S. Eliot)
Ghetto Defendant - The Clash (contains Allen Ginsburg reading his poetry)

He and traffic reporter Lauren Valle also composed a couple of haiku for each other on the air. Very cute. I'm glad they had fun with the theme.

Some other "poetry" songs:
Desolation Row - Bob Dylan ("Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot/Fighting in the captain's tower...")
The Highwayman - Loreena McKennitt (lyrics from the Alfred Noyes poem)

Other music news: Check out Heavenly Harmonies, a collection of early vocal music by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, performed by Stile Antico, on Harmonia Mundi Records. It is sublime - some of the most breathtakingly beautiful music - and performances - ever.
I got two CD's from the Amazon Vine program. One is the new album by Paddy Casey, Addicted to Company. I wasn't impressed - you can read my full review on Amazon.com. The other is Oracular Spectacular by MGMT. I haven't heard it yet, but it's been getting some good buzz. More on that later....

Poem of the Week: Here's another one I've written for the poem-a-day challenge. The writing prompt was to title a poem, "How ______ Behaves" and to fill in the blank with anything you like, then write about the subject. Since it was Monday the 14th, I wrote the following:

How Monday Behaves

Like a sidewinder, a varmint behind the rocks,
ready to spook your horse.

Like a mad scientist, his piecemeal human
writhing as he screams, “It’s alive!”

Like a despotic king in ancient Asia Minor,
demanding your first-born child.

Like Angelo Rossetti in fifth grade,
who used to like to trip you with his foot
every time you walked up the aisle.

Like you have the worst hangover of your life,
and it’s your mother, pulling up the shades.

Like the road that you hate with ten traffic lights
that are always synchronized against you.

Like it wants to dance to every song
ever written about it:
“Monday, Monday”; “Stormy Monday”,
“Blue Monday”, “I Don’t Like Mondays” –
and it wants you to be its partner,
and it has two left feet.

Like it wants to be Monday with a capital “M” –
no wait, it always has a capital “M” –
like it wants to be all in caps and scream in your ear:
MONDAY!

Three Cheers for NaPoMo!

Thank goodness for National Poetry Month! It’s always a good excuse for this poet to “goose the muse”. In my neck of the woods (the Philadelphia/South Jersey area) there’s something going on just about every day this month. I can’t possibly do all the events I’d like to attend, so I have to pick judiciously.

I did attend the Rutgers Spring Writer’s Conference in Camden on Saturday the 12^th. It’s a free, one-day conference featuring workshops on all types of writing, and an evening reading open to the public, This year’s featured guests were Joyce Carol Oates and Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, both of whom teach at Princeton. I have seen them both before, and actually have met Muldoon (I took a workshop he gave at College of New Jersey a few years ago, right after he won his Pulitzer), but I had to skip the evening program. Regardless, all three workshops I attended were quite good. The poetry workshops were led by Gregory Pardloe and Rachel Hadas. I submitted work to Hadas’ workshop, and it was well-received by both her and the other attendees – of course I got constructive criticism, too. I also attended an excellent and informative workshop on memoir led by David Matthews. The afternoon readings were by Rachel Hadas, Richard McCann and Jane Bernstein. All were very good – Hadas read her poetry, McCann read a thought-provoking except from a memoir about his liver transplant, and Bernstein read an affecting essay about her adult retarded daughter. Of course, I saw several of my poetry buddies there, too.

I’m still going strong in the Poem-a-Day Challenge – 13 for 13 up to today (14 for 13 if you count the “bonus” haiku I wrote yesterday). I’ve latched onto a fun blog on the Writers Digest website by Robert Lee Brewer (find it here) which gives daily poetry prompts and invites participants to post the results. There’s quite a variety of poetry, needless to say.

Music: Not much new stuff to report, except I did get R.E.M.’s new CD Accelerate. I think it’s the best album they’ve done in quite a while, and definitely the rockingest album since Monster. I’d rate it four stars on a scale of five.

Poem of the Week: How about one of the poems I’ve cranked out in my Poem-a-day Challenge? It’s nothing substantial, but it was a lot of fun to write. (Poetic license: not all these bands are really on my iPod.)

What’s in My iPod

Arcade Fire, AC/DC,
Beatles, Beastie Boys, Black Keys.

Crash Test Dummies, Cream, Cousteau,
Dead Can Dance, The Doors, Devo.

Elbow, ELO, Eve 6,
Fine Young Cannibals, The Fixx.

Gentle Giant, Go-Betweens,
Hüsker Dü, Heaven 17.

Indigo Girls, Innocence Mission,
Jefferson Airplane, Joy Division.

Kings of Leon, Kinks, King Crimson
Lovin’ Spoonful, Luscious Jackson.

Magic Numbers, The Motels,
No Doubt, Neutral Milk Hotel.

Over the Rhine, Ozomatli,
Pink Floyd, Pet Shop Boys, The Pixies.

Quicksilver, Queens of the Stone Age, Queen,
Roches, Rage Against the Machine.

Son Volt, Smithereens, Spoon, The Shins,
Tom Tom Club, Tool, Thompson Twins.

Uriah Heep, The Undertones,
The Verve, The Vines, The Velvetones.

Wilco, Wedding Present, Who
X and XTC (just two).

Youngbloods, Yo La Tengo, Yes,
Zero 7 – that’s it, I guess!

Hello, Blog!

It's been way too long! I almost abandoned you because it seemed nobody cared. But a few comments kept me from giving up on you altogether. So for my own peace of mind, and the handful of folks that actually read you, it's time for an update.

Poetry: It's National Poetry Month again, which means, at least in my general vicinity, there is something poetry-related going on just about every day of the month. It's enough to give me new energy to write again. My month really started in March, with the "Poetry Ink 100 Poets" event at Robin's Bookstore in Philadelphia on March 30. It was quite a "happening", as we used to say back in the day, with one hundred poets scheduled to read. There were some fairly well-known poets there, at least on a regional basis, like Lamont Steptoe, J.C. Todd, Leonard Gontarek, Tree Riesener, Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, and a host of others including several poet friends of mine. There was a commemorative chapbook for sale featuring over half of the readers that afternoon. We were each allotted two minutes (of course some poets decided to extend that time limit to their own ends). And when I left after four and a half hours, it was still going on. But it was a very positive vibe, despite the varying quality of the poetry. I also was able to put a few copies of my chapbook up for sale on consignment.

This past Sunday my "Quick and Dirty" pals Anna and Rachel and I journeyed to Princeton to participate in the US1 Worksheets publication party - Issue #53, their 35th anniversary issue. We all had poems in this issue and read them along with a few dozen other poets who were included. I also read a poem from the journal by NJ poet B.J. Ward. We generally agreed that the overall quality of the poetry in this issue may not have been up to their usual standards. But again, it was a generally positive experience, and I get out so rarely any more for poetry events that I' m not complaining. Other events I have lined up are the Rutgers Writers Conference on April 12, and hopefully a reading in Haddonfield on April 23. Anna Evans is also a featured reader on the 17th for the Burlington County Poets - I will try to make that one too. Then in June once again, it's the Philadelphia Writers Conference! Anna is attending the West Chester Conference, which I'd like to do some year, but it overlaps this year with the PWC. Richard Wilbur will be there, and Anna herself has been asked to be a panelist for a poetry symposium.

Finally, I'm taking up the "Poem-a-Day Challenge" for National Poetry Month. I thought it would again be a good way to goose the ol' muse. And since I actually wrote a poem on April 1st, I considered that a sign that I should take up the challenge. So far I've cranked out six poems for six days - I still need to do one today. More on this later....

Personal Note: My father passed away in March, after a long bout with strokes and a broken hip. He chose not to continue treatment - he was 78. We weren't as close as some fathers and sons are, emotionally or geographically, but it was saddening, especially since he was the last surviving parent of my wife and me. She lost both her parents in the winter of 2007, and my mother died about four years ago. I've been trying to write a poem about him, or at least how I felt about his death. One of the results can be found below.

Music: It's been a slow year so far, although traditionally the music business, like the movie business, tends to pick up later in the year. So far, some of the standout CD's for me are:

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
R.E.M. - Accelerate
Bell X1 - Flock
Nick Lowe - Jesus of Cool (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
Ryan Bingham - Mescalito (actually a late 2007 release)
Melody Gardot - Worrisome Heart

Poem of the Month (maybe next time I'll have a Poem of the Week):

Passage

Unmoored, the last of the boats

drifts into the current,

prow pulled out toward the sea

by incessant undertow.

We stand at the banks on the dock

watching the vessel disappear

in a glint of ripples on the river

lit by evening sun.

We are the elders now

and our children are building our boats.

I Know, I Know...

Only one post the whole month of December, and none in January till now. I guess I was a little disheartened by the apparent lack of interest in this site. Of course, everybody has a blog these days. Who has time to read them all? I can't seem to shake these writing doldrums, either - still hardly any poetry production. I have been, however, writing reviews for Amazon, spurred on by my membership in their "Vine" club, where I get a couple of free products a month in exchange for my reviews. My favorite products so far (four stars out of five) are the CD's Moo, You Bloody Choir by Augie March, and Mockingbird by Allison Moorer; and the DVD's A Christmas Carol (Alistair Sim version, with bonus features) and the Japanese film Hula Girls.

The holidays and some minor health concerns, along with everyday obligations, have eaten away at free time to write, but even when I do have time, I don't seem to have much motivation. I think time on the internet and with the boob tube have eroded my creative spark as well. Time for some self-discipline! I need to keep a journal again, or set aside scheduled blocks of time with just reading and/or writing poetry ( a TV- and internet-free zone, preferably). My poetry group, a great bunch of folks, have started a monthly writing assignment, which should help me get off my duff. The results of this month's assignment appear below. The task was to write a title of nine words or more, which contained at least one adjective, a food, and a current cultural reference. Mine turned out to be a somewhat snarky, prosy affair, but it got a few laughs at the meeting, so I'll offer it here.

In other poetry news, my poem "More Than Halfway Home" appears in a new e-zine called Still Crazy, which is for poets over 50, or poems about over-50 subjects. The first issue is a rather spartan design, but it does contain some pretty good poetry and prose.
I'm looking forward to this year's poetry events, too:
(1) The Rutgers Writers Conference in April will feature Paul Muldoon and Joyce Carol Oates.
(2) The Philadelphia Writers Conference (where I've won first prize for poetry the last two years) will be in June - as a past winner, I get to go for free, and I've informally offered to judge one of the poetry contests - not sure if they'll take me up on it.
(3) The West Chester Poetry Conference in Pennsylvania is in June also. My friend Anna (the new MFA) wants to go, so maybe we'll carpool. If I read their site correctly, Richard Wilbur will be there this year.
(4) And, as an even-numbered year, that means it's Dodge Festival time again!

Music:
The year 2007 was an awesome year for music, considering the sheer volume of excellent album releases. Maybe it's partly because I bought/downloaded so many, but I can't remember a year when I had so much trouble just narrowing my favorites down to a top 20. So here instead is my top 40 - an expanded version of my previous list that I presented in November:

1. The Shepherd's Dog - Iron and Wine
2. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
3. Wincing the Night Away - The Shins
4. The Remider - Feist
5. Two Shoes - The Cat Empire
6. Challengers - New Pornographers
7. Magic - Bruce Springsteen
8. Moo, You Bloody Choir - Augie March
9. Sweet Warrior - Richard Thompson
10. Once: Motion Picture Soundtrack - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
11. Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird
12. Writer's Block - Peter, Bjorn and John
13. We All Belong - Dr. Dog
14. Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
15. Neon Bible - The Arcade Fire
16. Grand National - John Butler Trio
17. The Search - Son Volt
18. The Flying Cup Club - Beirut
19. In Rainbows - Radiohead
20. Boxer - The National
21. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse
22. Shine - Joni Mitchell
23. Versatile Heart - Linda Thompson
24. Sound of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
25. This Is Ryan Shaw - Ryan Shaw
26. The Stage Names - Okkervil River
27. One Man Band - James Taylor
28. An Ancient Muse - Loreena McKennitt
29. I'm Not There - Various Artists (Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Various Artists
30. Hoots and Hellmouth - Hoots and Hellmouth
31. Raising Sand - Robert Plant and Alison Krause
32. Person Pitch - Panda Bear
33. Andorra - Caribou
34. Release the Stars - Rufus Wainwright
35. Not Too Late - Norah Jones
36. Easy Tiger - Ryan Adams
37. Beauty and Crime - Suzanne Vega
38. Alright, Still - Lily Allen
39. Costello Music - The Fratellis
40. Meet the Smithereens - The Smithereens

That's a real mish-mosh of old favorites and upstart newcomers, and the ranking changes from week to week depending on how I feel about certain CD's at the time. But all of these have something to recommend them.

Poem of the... er, Month:

10 Reasons Why Britney Spears Reminds Me of Chunky Peanut Butter
by Bruce W Niedt

Because there’s more than a little nut in her.

Because she has spread herself way too thin.

Because there’s nothing smooth about her, or her very public life.

Because she’s been insanely popular but not necessarily good for you.

Because the press makes sure she sticks to the roof of our consciousness.

Because the flashy label sometimes doesn’t give you an idea how thick and sticky the stuff is inside.

Because she used to make “white bread” look pretty good, but like too much of anything else, you get tired of her day after day.

Because she’s had as many partners as peanut butter has had on sandwiches (jelly, bananas, Marshmallow Fluff, Kevin Federline, etc.)

Because kids like her – or at least they used to. Now they’re into Mega-Lunchables and Hannah Montana.

Because she always seems to land the way a piece of bread with peanut butter does: face down.

Happy Holidays!

Still in the doldrums - I can count the number of poems I've written in the past two months on one hand. Nothing seems to inspire these days. Even a writing assignment my Q&D buddies came up with hasn't sparked me yet. And tonight I missed our reading at The Daily Grind - Kathy got caught in a horrendous traffic jam, a combination of Friday rush hour and mall Christmas shoppers, and came home 45 minutes late, which obliged me to stay home with my youngest. On top of that, I've had this miserable sinus infection for almost two weeks. My ears are so clogged it's affecting my hearing. So poetry reading just wasn't in the cards tonight. At least I made it to our monthly critique session/Christmas party earlier in the week.

I did also get out to Media, PA earlier this month for the Mad Poets Review launch party. (A shout-out to editor Eileen d'Angelo, the sweetest workaholic I know.) They published my poem "March" (Q&D pals Anna and Rachel were in the issue too) and it's always a fine little soiree - got to see some poetry friends I haven't run into for a while, like Dan Maguire, Therese Halscheid, and Diane Guarnieri.

And back to my Q&D pals: Rachel Bunting has a new book coming out from Finishing Line Press called Ripe Again. And Anna Evans is about to finish her MFA at Bennington College. Way to go, ladies!

Music:
Despite the crowds and the hype, I do like this time of year. It's a bit of a downer this year, being the first without my late in-laws (my wife is particularly despondent), but I do get some joy out of the music of the season. Yeah, some of it is hackneyed and played to death, but some of it is quite lovely or fun. I try to find stuff that's a little off the mainstream. Here are some of my most recent discoveries, most of them new releases:

1. The Smithereens - Christmas with the Smithereens: The rockin'est Christmas album I've heard this year. They do some originals, but also cover the Ramones, the Who ("Christmas" from Tommy), the Beach Boys, and the Beatles (their rare fan-club song "Christmas Time Is Here Again").

2. Mindy Smith - My Christmas: she comes off as a barely-disguised Christian artist, but she has a lovely voice, sort of a cross between Emmylou Harris and Norah Jones. Very mellow alt-country fare, a fine mix of originals and standards.

3. Over the Rhine - Snow Angels: Another mellow winter-season album, not ostensibly "Christmas" but the all-original songs, sung by Karen Bergquist, definitely set the mood for a Yule log and some egg nog.

4. Steeleye Span - Winter: one of my favorite folk-rock bands of the 70's is still around, and Maddy Prior has returned to the fold. This may not rank with their best albums ever, but it has enough classic Span (rock guitar, fiddle, some lovely a cappella four-part harmony) to satisfy long-time fans like me, and folk-rock enthusiasts in general.

If you want to see my current Top 30 favorite Christmas CD's of all time, click here.


Poem of the... Month?

Yeah, it's been that long. How about something seasonal (recently workshopped and revised - thanks, Q&D's):

Solstice Fires

When we touch match to wick,
we light a long line, receding to the horizon,
past the Seven Principles, the birth of Jesus,
the perseverance of the Macabees,
through a haze of ages, brightened
by flames of tallow and oil, illuminating December
before it even had a name,

back to a primordial fire, wild and crackling,
that sent red stars into the black.
Our ancestors huddled close to stay warm
and keep the beasts away,
as they murmured incantations
into the darkness on this,
the longest night of the year.

Creative Doldrums/Year-End Music Review

It's been a while, but after Ireland everything seems anti-climactic, and there hasn't been a whole lot to say. I've been very lazy poetically lately, having written maybe four poems in the past month - inspiration is at a premium these days. Not much happening in the publishing world either, although Mad Poets Review has accepted "March" for publication in their issue due out in December. Still no word from Poetry magazine. Not too much of note in my poetry groups, either. The one group that meets at Barnes and Noble monthly is just about dead - the other night I went and the only attendees were the host and me. Pretty pathetic - I'm starting to wonder if poetry groups are becoming as passe as country line dancing. Oh well - I'm not going to stop writing just because poetry no longer seems as "hot" as it used to be.

Music: WXPN has started the voting period for the best-of-2007 list - this year they're doing not only the top 50 albums of the year, but the top 50 songs as well. Here are the top 10 I submitted for each category:

ALBUMS
1. Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog (a creative departure but the best yet from this "band")
2. The Shins - Wincin' the Night Away (catchy, catchy pop)
3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (they just keep getting better - excellent power-pop not afraid to take chances)
4. Feist - The Reminder (several of the best pop tunes of the year in this album)
5. The Cat Empire - Two Shoes (mix of ska, rock, r&b, lots of fun - great live band)
6. New Pornographers - Challengers (maybe not their best album, but still really fine)
7. Bruce Springsteen - Magic (the E Street Band is back, and Bruce fans are rejoicing!)
8. Augie March - Moo, You Bloody Choir (excellent Australian band in the Coldplay vein)
9. Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior (his best in several years, probably since Mock Tudor)
10. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - Once: Motion Picture Soundtrack
(fine duets from Frames leader and friend, from the endearing Irish indie film)

Honorable Mention:
Peter Bjorn and John – Writer’s Block
John Butler Trio – Grand National
Son Volt – The Search
Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
Beirut – The Flying Club Cup
Joni Mitchell - Shine
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Ryan Shaw – This Is Ryan Shaw

SONGS
1. "Dad's Gonna Kill Me" - Richard Thompson
2. "Boy with a Coin" - Iron and Wine
3. "Phamtom Limb" - The Shins
4. "My Moon My Man" - Feist
5. "No Cars Go" - The Arcade FIre
6. "Girls in Their Summer Clothes" - Bruce Springsteen
7. "Australia" - The Shins
8. "Sly" - The Cat Empire
9. "Frank and Ava" - Suzanne Vega
10. "When Your Mind's Made Up" - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Honorable Mention:
"Night of the Iguana" - Joni Mitchell
"Don’t You Evah" – Spoon
"My Rights vs. Yours" - New Pornographers
"One Crowded Hour" - Augie March
"This Hand is a Mighty Hand" - Hoots and Hellmouth
"Don’t Make Me a Target" – Spoon
"Falling Slowly" – Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
"It Makes No Difference" - My Morning Jacket
"Gone Gone Gone" - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss
"The Picture" - Son Volt

Overrated album of the year: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand (not nearly the classic that many rave that it is - nice vocal pairing but little musical energy)

Most annoying song of the year: "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn and John (I really like the album, but for some reason this song got under my skin. Maybe it's the whistling, or the "twee" vocals, or maybe it's just that it was so overplayed.)

Poem of the Week:

Fat November

Today feels like a holiday –
the air, apple-crisp,
just chill enough for vigor,
under a blue superdome sky,

and trees in costume,
feathered like the Wild Tchoupitoulas –
brilliant reds, yellows, oranges.

It’s the Mardi Gras of Autumn,
a seasonal send-off,
Nature’s last indulgence,
with a bontemps of color.

Soon this parade will turn the corner
to white, brown and gray,
and Winter’s long, ascetic Lent.