Ran into Cyrus Console in student union coffee place. Gave him some pointers on Spanish versification. And that was right after I told him to stop calling me professor Mayhew! I was right back in professorial mode. I gave him the AWP scoop too.

I was wondering why the English Department was not showing up to Poetics Seminar en masse. Well, it turns out that for some people, actually having ideas about poetry and meeting to discuss them is threatening to their idea of "poetry." We do have Cyrus himself, and Ken Irby, Joe Harrington, as regulars. That should be enough for me [sigh]. Two of my regulars from Spanish and French are chairs of their department--in one case a new mother as well--so they cannot come very much.

Got my copy of The Tiny today. Nice collage by David on the cover, and the first poem is by him too. "Hapax Legomen."
Which means, I think, a word which only appears once in a particular language or corpus of texts. It seems to be contradictory to the very idea of language, to have a word that appears only once. There cannot be a unique word.

Have you bought your plane ticket yet, David Shapiro?



The one subject that is dullest to non-poets, but most fascinating to poets themselves? (Except those who find it dull anyway.)