quickly to note Stephanie Young's use of 1st person plural. I use it a lot as well. for me, it avoids that maelstrom of 'I'. 1st person singular tempts a certain dull storytelling urge. which is not to say many fine poems aren't writ in it, you just have to watch the potholes. furthermore, there's a warmth to 1st person plural that I aspire to. and Young has that warmth. mixed with the subtle skew of her imagination and humour, her poems reveal an intimacy that doesn't carry intimations of secretiveness.

we gave Erin a sample of the CLEP test for English and he didn't do well. CLEP = College Level Entrance Program and is a way for homeschoolers to get credits. Erin writes really well, naturally. I mean he has a distinctive, direct voice and ease. he complaiend that the test didn't make sense. Erin hasn't taken a lot of tests, and that can be telling. I decided t try the same test. the test was confusing. quite a few qustions offered 5 choices of which none seemed ossibly right. I missed 25 out of a 100 questions. I wonder about the whizbangs who create these tests. I don't pretend to be grammatical brilliant, tho most of my non-standard usage is intentional and I know what I am doing. but I take the matter of writing seriously, and have studied it and practiced it. I try to use English in an adventuresome way, as does Erin, as do many (not all) writers. such adventure seems antithetical to what CLEP's program is. yet CLEP doesn't seem to be aiming for clarity. poop on them.

we watched a show on Isaac Newton last week, made us want to get Principia. Erin's a bit more scientifically minded than Beth or me but we all three have interest in that direction. Barnes & Noble let us down concerning Principia (we didn't want to pay text book prices, yikes), and Opticks as well, so I tried Amazon. both books were available in their used book round up. I dunno what up with B&N regarding Newton, because it turns out that Principia is published by Dover in an inexpensive edition and I've gotten several books by the cheapo pub dom publisher that published Opticks. both copies were in new condition, too. anyway, I took advantage of this raid on Amazon to get Telling the Future Off by Stephanie Young (Tougher Disguises 2005). I'm pretty sure she's the real thing. I mean I've gotten away from excoriating what aint so real--let it moulder, sez I--but the urge to go ahem and point out a leaning towards tripe does build up at times. I trust Young, and I don't say that lightly or often. so I look forward to reading a full book by her. tra la.

The Difficulties, edited by Tom Beckett, was one of the best guerilla press pubs that I ran into in the 80s. Tom has issues of the David Bromige issue available which I heartily recommend. doesn't get old.