some days are bright and sunny and it seems so easy to feel happy and optimistic. & it seems a little bit amazing that feeling happy and optimistic can be easy -- that it persists. the word it makes me think of is resilience.

I've been thinking about desire and fantasy, and thinking that desire is like a drive, is like vim. Desire as a site of possibility and health -- that to be in touch with one's desire is to be healthy. Like, wanting is good. This is different than thinking about desire as a lack. To me, right now, desire feels full.

From the things that are good file

Poems! On dresses!!!

Check out Katrina Rodabaugh's Dresses/Objects project at her Flickr.

revolution grrrl style keeps on keeping on

Never before had I felt that feminism was something I could be so much a part of. It sounds like I'm talking about being part of the Riot Grrrl movement itself, but really, just the history of it, and the fact that it even existed, makes me very excited, and proud, to be a girl, and to be who I am.

Hex Presse has a mission

Hex Presse, the print companion to the online journal WOMB POETRY, is a feminist press dedicated to the publication and appreciation of writing by women. Hex Presse publications are multi-media and eclectic. In addition to publishing handbound limited-edition chapbooks by contemporary poets, Hex Presse also publishes games and visual/tactile/manipulative poetic materials. Hex Presse games and manipulatives are often based on, sourced from, or inspired by the work of women writers. The goal of these materials is to create alternative ways of engaging/reading/experiencing writing by women. Hex Presse is interested in presenting text as multi-dimensional, plastic, playful, concrete, mutable, improvised, cooperative, collaborative, and interactive.

My inspiration for Hex Presse publications comes from a variety of sources. I admire the tactile poetry of Jessica Smith and the tangible beauty in the design of her magazine FOURSQUARE. I am also thrilled by the curiosity, detail, and wonder of the minumentals crafted by Julia Drescher for Dos Press. Dusie's Wee Chaps and Big Game Books' Tinysides satisfy my craving for colorful poetry in miniature, and I am mesmerized by Jen Bervin's intriguing work with textiles and natural materials. I am continually surprised and delighted by Anne Boyer's visual poems, paintings, and videos, and I am intensely fond of the art and writing by the graff girls. The manipulatives used in Montessori classrooms appeal to my desire for sensorial encounters with language and text, and I am excited by the poetic strategies developed by the oulipians and surrealists. I feel an affinity with the feminist art movement, the arts and crafts movement, Wunderkammers, ancient and medieval methods of divination, and the book arts. Kiki Smith, Lorna Simpson, Eva Hesse, Yoko Ono, and Renee Stout are among my favorite artists. I maintain a fascination with dollhouse furniture, vintage children's books, kaleidoscopes, plastic animals, mirrors, wood, beads, plants and flowers, toys, games, relics, fossils, and machines. Other things I like are listed here.

More than anything, I am motivated to publish poetry by the brilliance and munificence of my peers, and by the writing and art by women who seek to create community and political change through radical critique, innovation, activism, generosity, and optimism.


* The very last one of the *six* Dickinson sets is posted at Etsy. Cleromancy # 2, curated by Jessica Smith, will go up tonight.