Tuesday, May 6, 2014

May 29 Reading at Books & Brews!

Just dropped off five copies of my novel Rogue Elephants: A Novel of the Peace Corps at Books & Brews somewhere in the borderlands between Fishers and Indy, caddy corner to Home Depot.  A free copy of the ebook is available through the above link.




Had a great beer there. Will be reading an excerpt from my novel there on May 29, at 6:00 p.m. and might talk a little about my experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, West Africa. I might even show you some photos from that time in my life. YOU ARE ALL INVITED. And of course, if you are inclined to talk about Indy's art scene, the state of poetry today, or self publication, I can talk about those things too.

You might want to also check out my book of poems based on my Peace Corps experience entitled Soft Corps.



Here's a poem from that collection:
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Recitation

The angel reveals a new tongue to the prophet.
Scribes copy it down with sword-like strokes
and nomads strap the Korans to camels

they ride across the Sahara. Tanbu
rises at the sight of them and shouts,“Allahu Akbar”
The men beside him bow east to Mecca

as I write these verses in the village square.
No angel whispers in my ear.
A mosquito drones happily by, drunk on my blood. 

______________________________________________________________________________

I've also written a lot about the Indy art scene in the past five years for NUVO Newsweekly. Recent highlights include this month's preview of Susan Hodgin's painting exhibition at the Harrison Center entitled "A Sisterhood of Mother Artists" and my extensive interview with Robert Indiana. The link above contains just about my entire archive of NUVO publications.  And yes, I did write a blog for NUVO about the unfortunate destruction of the mural at La Bamba, the restaurant that my daughter and I love so much. The owners replaced this mural with staid, black and white pics of 19th century Mexican revolutionaries.




I've also written a first person piece, published in Punchnel's, about how I've been able to find peace in the world. On that note, adios... until the next post....