I'm alive! hold it, let me double-check

I ache all over from helping my brother, Mark, move for two days...I'm getting old (Maggie says that's not true, and I respect her opinion, because she is an attractive female...but the clock doesn't lie). But aging is not cause for sorrow, it is pretty good, compared to the alternative, which too many people I have known and loved have already accomplished. I don't fear death, just the loss of opportunity to help others...yeah, this had lead me into great codependence in the past, but I'd rather be used than a user.

I was in bed last night when I realized that I had not done an audio post, so I dialed in via my cell and did an impromptu reading of "Gobins In My Attic", which is included in INVOCATO...a nice, short, meaningful poem about the creative impulse. I love teaching it to audiences and having them do it along with me.

Got word of the annual Morgantown High School Class of 1973 Reunion for this year. It's a couple of weeks earlier than I would've liked it to be, but what can you do, eh? It falls midway between the release of "The Morgantown Suite Poems" on June 9th (my daughter's birthday) and the release of the AEI's "Art&Soul" on June 13th. Do the math.

Was so delighted with the cover I designed for "The Compleat Panther Cycles" that I dropped even the notion of working with a model (especially since the one in New York who had seemed so gung-ho about the whole idea seems to have dropped contact. A shame, as she would've been perfect for it...but in all obstacles there are opportunities, and out of this came the new cover, which the advisory board seems to be thrilled by. As the Panther herself would've said: Fab!)

Also, being the nutcase that I am, the more aspects of the product that I do, the happier I am (if I were ever in the film industry, I'd be one of those annoying "slashes" - you know, "actor/director/writer/producer/caterer/fluffer" - do they use male fluffers for actresses or does it only work the other way (despite having met some people in the amusingly euphemistic "adult film industry" when I was in LA, I am pretty ignorant about how it all works, and I really don't care to learn.)