more Bi-Winning than Charlie Sheen can shake a restraining order at

It makes me a little jealous when I get a poem published in some faraway publication and get the invite to the issue's launch party that will be taking place on the other side of the country. So I've appreciated having work in the past three issues of ASU West's newish literary journal, Canyon Voices. Since their campus is somewhat in the neighborhood, I get to attend their big launch parties to celebrate the new issues. There's always a great crowd and contributing writers get to read their pieces. There are also display prints of work from the Art section and they get raffled off throughout the night. My Son was thrilled to win this Jessie Jordan image (thanks to my friend Rob Fix, for taking this pic).

I read both of my pieces from the latest issue (you can find them by clicking right HERE).

One is called "Encountered During Midnight Walks" and it was inspired by the only time of day I can leave my house during the Arizona Summer without bursting into flames.

The other is a series of "iKu"
Short three line seventeen syllable outbursts that have nothing to do with seasons and everything to do with anything else. You can read the other thirteen at that above link, but here is an example:

failed intervention
mom addicted to Botox
raises no eyebrows

Speaking of winning: thanks to everyone who entered my Poetry Giveaway drawing.
Another thanks to everyone who participated on their own. It brought a lot of interesting blogs to my attention. I'll have to check in on several of them throughout the rest of the year.

I used one of those nifty online random number generators to select my two winners, so Laura E. Davis gets Matt Mason's Mistranslating Neruda and Sandy Longhorn gets the copy of the Merge anthology. I will get in touch with both of you for postal addresses, soon.

On a related note, Mason just posted today that he will have a poem in the next Pushcart anthology. I see so many poets that were "nominated for a pushcart prize, but I think this is the first time I've ever noticed anyone get in. So apparently it's not just an elaborate hoax.

Hope everyone else won something on other drawings or at least found some good new blogs to follow.

Until next year...