I don’t think I’ve ever before had a poem accepted in less than a week from submittal, but Ed Byrne of Valpariso Poetry Review took “The Great Plains in Fog” in six days. The poem began as a chronicle of an Amtrack ride from Santa Fe (Lamy station) to Kansas City, or was from Kansas City to Lamy? Lost that detail in the fog.

The I-70 Review accepted two poems, “Departure” and “Outage,” for an upcoming issue. These will be the 5^th and 6^th poems of mine to be published by this 2,151 mile long journal, edited by Maryfrances Wagner, Greg Field, Gary Lechliter, and Jan Duncan-O’Neal. By the way, I hope to be in attendance at the annual I-70 Review release party Friday, September 29, 2017 at 7 PM at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri.

To coincide with my Shawnee Mission North high school reunion in September 2017, a number of appearances have been scheduled in Kansas and Missouri.

On Wednesday, September 20^th at 7:30 PM, I will be reading at Uptown Arts Bar, 3611 Broadway Blvd., Kansas City, MO. I’m excited to be reading from Coltrane’s God at the UAB, which is “dedicated to presenting original, unjuried, uncensored performance art every day of the week.” The building dates to 1925, and it hosts a number of community-benefit events in conjunction with its ongoing schedule of readings, mimes, music gigs, plays, comedy shows, belly dances…

Saturday, September 23^rd from 10:00 to 1:00 pm, I will return to Kansas City, Missouri to conduct a poetry craft workshop on the pantoum at the Writers Place, 3601 Pennsylvania. The Writers Place “is located in a distinctive, spacious old house in Kansas City’s historic Valentine district, and provides a space for workshops, book signings, art openings, and readings.” The pantoum seems to be the fixed poetic form that is sticking to me these days.

Thursday, September 28^th at 7 PM, I will be one of three readers in the Big Tent series at the Raven Bookstore, 6 East 7^th Street, Lawrence, Kansas. Founded by Denise Low, the Big Tent Series has been offering readings for a number years in my old strophe grounds. The host venue, Ravenbooks, is a Lawrence cultural landmark.

Saturday, September 30 at 7 PM, Joe Benevento and I will be featured readers at the Writers Place, 3601 Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Missouri. Our readings will follow the 100,000 Poets for Change reading, hosted by John Gallaher and Maryfrances Wagner.

The Summer 2017 Tor House Newsletter has appeared in print and online formats. This includes my prizewinning “The Notebook,” along with the honorable mention poems by Justin Hunt, Mary Pinnard, Cynthia C. Snow, and Chelsea Wagenaar.

The venerable Stand Magazine, published at Leeds University in Great Britain, accepted three poems for publication in 2018. One of the poems, “Showing Off His Wardrobe,” dedicated to Robert Bly, was inspired by an essay on Bly by Tony Hoagland in Twenty Poems that Could Save America, as well as by the Haydn Reiss-directed documentary film on Bly,  A Thousand Years of Joy.

The US’ oldest independent Roman Catholic journal of opinion and culture accepted two poems based on experiences with/of my mother.  The New York City-based Commonweal has previously accepted my poems going back to 1978, and I believe Rosemary Deen has been the poetry editor throughout all those years.  Maybe I should look her up next time I have a chance to go to their office on Riverside Drive in Manhattan.

The Tor House Foundation has posted on its web site the poems, photos, and brief biographies of the winners of the 2017 Robinson Jeffers Tor House prize. The Honorable Mentions include Justin Hunt, Mary Pinard, Cynthia C. Snow, and Chelsea Wagenaar.

Elliot Ruschowitz-Roberts from the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation called me today to inform me that my poem, “The Notebook,” was selected by Eavan Boland for this year’s Tor House Poetry Prize. This poem, which concerns the Hungarian poet Miklós Radnóti, was originally written for Lise Goett’s Generative Writing Workshop, and along the way I received helpful suggestions to improve it from Wayne Lee and Steve Bunch. The prize includes $1,000 and a trip to do a reading in Carmel.

My poem, “Terrorists,” Runner-Up for the Ruth Stone Prize, posted today on Hunger Mountain‘s web site.

“Drought” is a poem that I’ve been sending out and then revising when it comes back unaccepted for something like eight years, and now it is seeing the light through Midway Journal in an online edition.