The Princess and the Pea

Read a poem of mine up at the Blue Hour. It's about playing dress up.

Well, it looks like the year is closing out. 2012 is about to give way to 2013. Who knows what the year will have in store for me? There are some publications lined up. I have that to look forward to at least. There will be substitution jobs. Real jobs? I don't think they make those for people like me any more.

Talk about the Look of Robot Pity in the Year of the Tiger

Three poems of mine are present in the Barefoot Review. One of them goes all the way back to my senior year poetry class at NYU. We had to take one another's lines and assemble them into a new work. You can probably tell which one of the poems was constructed that way. Look at me Professor Fitterman! I'm making good!

How to Be a Communist...

At this church they preach turning the other cheek to your enemies, giving all your wealth away, and paying taxes without complaining. You'd never hear that nonsense at Our Lady of Perpetual Motion!   

...and other poems of mine are up at Pyrokinection. There are three to be exact. The first one is a cut up formed out of lines taken from here.

The Fireworks Go Out

Read the poem at Randomly Accessed Poetics that commenter bzniditch writes the following about:

"A Commodity culture’s language forcibly commensurate with Ben Nardolilli’s poem in layered pattern of a brandished verse finely cast with a poet’s castaway feel for intonation and wrought in an international need for language."

Title and Deed

This is pretty much how I dress when I 'm a substitute

A new poem of mine is up at the Fat City Review. So you better get yourself over there and have a looksy. Another anthem of exhaustion because variations on a theme are what we all live for.

The Evening Mysteries

This morning I have a new poem to link to and therefore a new poem for everyone to read. It is up at the Rainbow Rose. Read away! It is one of the only places online you will find the phrases "I feel down by the carport" and "beneath all craft." History is being made my dear readers!

Not to Be Confused with a Pushkin Art Nomination

Because really, Vasily Tropinin would win the prize anyway

Proving I'm still good for something, I've been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry by the swell folks at the Conium Review. Here is the issue my work was in and for proof, read this announcement. Tumblr never lies.

Celebrate the Close of November

...with a poem on decline, the theme of themes to ponder as December approaches. Read "A Promised Mutiny" in the Entroper.

Notes from the South Jersey Underground

SIX NEW POEMS of mine are available for you to read in the latest issue of the South Jersey Underground. My stuff starts on page 28. There are also some pretty pictures to look at along the way as you flip and Sweet Jane by the Velvet Underground may or not be playing in the background.

Poetry from Austria, Fiction from the Future

Here are some links to follow for your consideration. There are various publications out there you can see me in though I think they both require a fee. However I'm not the only one featured, so maybe you'll see someone else you like or know alongside me.

I have a poem in this issue of Poetry Salzburg. As the title suggests, it's from Austria.

Here at the Speculative Edge, you can find a short story of mine. It's Dickish, that is, Philip K. Dickish.  Also you can vote for it as the best of the issue.

I Wish I Had Something Wonderful to Tell You

But I don't. Nothing enough to vote for at least. You can watch this disturbing clip instead.

Make Your Own Attack Ad and Read Some Poems

He was also called hermaphroditical 

If you want to make an ad either attacking or promoting yourself for a hypothetical candidacy, you can do so here. Make sure you have plenty of embarrassing Facebook pictures and statuses on hand.

Another poem of mine is up at Misfits' Miscellany

And here is one you can read over at Bard Is Bong.

An American Diplomat in Franco Spain: A Book Review

An American Diplomat in Franco Spain by Michael Aaron Rockland (paperback, 178 pages, Hansen) is a memoir from a former member of the Foreign Service who was stationed in Spain during the late 1960s, a period of time when the country was still under the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The work is a quick read and filled with many amusing anecdotes along with comparisons between the American and Spanish ways of life. Several famous figures make an appearance within its pages as well as a first-hand account of a military disaster that threatened to become Spain's version of Chernobyl. However, Rockland's work has a tendency to digress into observations about the present as well as his life back in the States after serving in Spain. Both of these make the book seem padded for length. In addition, even though the term "Franco" and "Spain" are in the title, the memoir itself deals little with the everyday reality of life under the Caudillo. 

At the heart of the memoir is the story of a young diplomat's struggle to put his personal politics and beliefs aside to serve his country abroad. When Rockland arrives in Spain, he is overjoyed to be in a land whose language and culture he admires, but he is dismayed having to work with a fascist regime his parents raised him to oppose. Making matters worse, Rockland often encounters ex-Nazis the government is sheltering at routine diplomatic functions. Rockland does try to resist as best he can without becoming a persona non grata.  In one scene for instance, the author manages to sneak out of having to shake Franco's hand when the dictator comes to an event and the other diplomats have to stand in a line to greet him. As his time at the embassy goes on, Rockland's idealism wears away and when he is transferred from Madrid to Saigon, he decides to leave the Foreign Service for good.   

But he makes the most of his time in Spain and treats the reader to a series of amusing anecdotes and encounters.  As an aspiring writer, Rockland visits the haunts of Ernest Hemingway and meets a female bullfighter who has a secret theory that explains why the famed author killed himself.  Meanwhile, he engages in a battle of wills and wits with his neighbor's dog, whose owners he suspects of being Nazis exiled from Romania.  He also learns to adapt to his position as a Jew in Spain, which means clarifying numerous misconceptions among the Spanish, such as Jews having horns. For his part, he learns not to take offense at such things as the costumes of the Semana Santa despite their resemblance to those worn by certain groups back home. In a particularly fascinating turn of events, Rockland's son auditions for and wins a role in the movie Dr. Zhivago, which was filmed in Spain. 

Through his position at the embassy, Rockland gets to meet some of the important people of the era. One of these is Martin Luther King Jr. The author acts as an unofficial interpreter and assistant to the civil rights leader while he stops in Spain for a brief visit as part of a tour of Europe. In their time together, Rockland gives King a lesson in geography and helps him get over a bout of diarrhea.  King makes Rockland realize his own prejudices, particularly against the South, and that Black Southerners are as much a part of the region and its culture as are its Whites. A little while later, the diplomat meets Ted Kennedy and largely performs the same role for him, except that he also gets to serve as the senator's social companion. This comes with the downside of having to pick up the Senator's bar tab, which serves as another reality check for Rockland because it was his idolization of JFK which lead him into the Foreign Service in the first place.  He is also involved with the diplomatic response to the Palomares incident when a B-52s collided with a Stratotanker over Spain during a refueling mission. The collision caused the bomber to inadvertently drop several hydrogen bombs which had to be retrieved without setting off mass panic. In the end, Rockland went for a swim off the coast with Ambassador Angier Biddle Duke to assuage concerns about radioactivity   

Despite these picaresque incidents and others, they are not enough to justify a book-length treatment for Rockland's years in Spain. All too often, the chapters are bulked up with gratuitous asides which take the reader out of Franco's Spain (or Francoist Spain, why "Franco Spain" was chosen for the title is a mystery) and into the present with only the flimsiest link to the author's experiences in late sixties Madrid. Sometimes the asides can be interesting, such as his observations on bullfighting and tipping, but they still digress, along with his idea to have special personal ads for garlic eaters. All too often, Rockland tackles topics such as Columbus, cosmopolitanism in America, the Protestant work ethic, and our changing terms for Black Americans, instead of discussing the nature of the dictatorship he had to work with.  

An American Diplomat in Franco Spain starts out strong but finishes weak. Perhaps Rockland could have made his memoir about the sixties in general instead of his time in Spain since he often references what he was doing during the decade before and after his tenure in Madrid. He mentions the Kennedys, hearing Bob Dylan for the first time, working in South Vietnam, and dealing with campus strife, all subjects which could be elaborated upon to form a more perfect memoir. It would certainly give Rockland an opportunity to dig through his personal archives to find more interesting pictures. The photographs supplied for the book mainly feature him in a variety of seated poses, either by himself at a desk, or next to older men proudly crossing their legs to show off bit of calf.  

F. Scott Fitzgerald Fights Back!

Lovely, lovely Rockville

In honor of my birthday, here's a letter by F. Scott Fitzgerald responding to someone who wrote to him complaining about the morality of the characters in This Side of Paradise.

Also, here is another poem to read at Ol' Chanty. Just search for my name and scroll down.

A Penny for Your Thoughts, a Nickel for Your Steak

Some poems for everybody to read. Here is one that mentions Marcel Proust. It is on the same site that has this poem as well. It makes reference to not-so-current-anymore-events.

Now let's get onto the main course since we've already devoured our Madeleines. At Nickel Steak I have two poems for consumption.

Buon Appetito!