List season

I got word yesterday that Birdfeast nominated my poem Lines written in a Japanese noodle shop watching a building being demolished for a Pushcart. Ok, everyone knows that of the thousand kajillion Pushcart nominations that deluge the writerly world every November, approximately 0.00013% result in winners. But that's not the point. It's simply gratifying to have a publication you admire tell you your work is worthwhile, which is all the payback poets ask for.

Otherwhere, list season is upon us. Kids are making Christmas lists. I'm augmenting my wish list at Amazon and Etsy, even though I'm the only soul to see it. With November approaching its close, soon I'll have a list of 30 poems I wrote this month. And best of all, everyone's book lists. Mine almost never includes a book written in the current year. I leave that to the professional reviewers who get paid to spend days reading new books sent to them for free. Well, this year Jessy Randall's wonderful Injecting Dreams into Cows (published 2012!) will be on my list, so I consider my new dues paid.