MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO ...

Woot!  Another check mark checked on the To-Do List!  My Marsh Hawk Press in-house editor just finished reviewing my manuscript for SUN STIGMATA whose release is scheduled for later this year.  And I was so pleased when he said that reading my manuscript introduced him to some words new to him -- an effect that apparently happens, too, when he reads Wallace Stevens!  Great company!  

Anyway, what three words did I introduce viz SUN STIGMATA to my learned editor, poet-scholar-critic (and painter!) Thomas Fink?  These:

frigorific
datsan
haruspex

It's always interesting to learn new words, but also interesting to see what folks don't know.  Like, I'm surprised Tom didn't know the word "datsan".... And while I'd have been tickled if Tom found one word he didn't know in the manuscript, I'm really tickled he found more than one!

I remember that I had just learned the words "frigorific" and "haruspex" and such discoveries were the only reasons they made it into the  poems in which they appear.

Anyway, here's moi and Tom:

One of the greatest blessings in my life as as poet is to have had him as an editor.  Thank you, Thomas Fink -- there's a reason why SUN STIGMATA -- my 21st* print collection -- is dedicated to you!



* 21st is an estimate.  I've actually lost count of the number of my books ...