Here Are Seven Things about Monday

1.
Dear Jehovah's Witness person,

Please stop approaching me at the gas station. Really, I'm not interested. And by the way, nobody's impressed with your ability to swoop in, try to give your magazine to somebody, and leave before anybody there has a chance to have you trespassed from the premises. We see it as slick and manipulative, not skillful. (I mean slick as in slimy, not slick as in polished.)

And as long as we're having this conversation, please stop lying about the magazine that you're trying to hand me. It's really not about "safe driving tips" or "helping people deal with depression." I'm pretty sure the Bible says something about lying. Maybe instead of stopping by the gas station tomorrow, you should stay home and look that up.

2.
For the record, forty-four degrees and rainy is no way to spend your Saturday.

Yes, I know that this post is titled "Here Are Seven Things about Monday," and that I'm only on #2, and I'm already saying something about Saturday. But there are parts of me that are still cold after Saturday's track meet.

3.
After this weekend, I have an entirely new vocabulary for thinking about poetry.

4.
Michael Bible's chapbook Gorilla Math is now available from Greying Ghost Press. Ordering information is here and here; cover images are here.

5.
My copy of A Cake Appeared by Shane Jones is making its way to me as I write this.

6.
The ESL students in the classroom next door to mine have been listening to something today. For the life of me, I can't figure out what it is, other than loud, dramatic, and sometimes angry.

I've been teaching section six of "Song of Myself" today, so it's been a little tough at moments to explain what it means when Whitman writes,

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!

while there's this loud and sometimes angry recorded voice coming from the next room.

7.
Running plan for today's practice:

   1. Run away for half an hour.

   2. Now run back.