EJ on the viral memoir

Hmmph, make a mess, indeed.

Considering the phenomenal response to "Kisses for Karma" I would like to, at this time, take the credit for the idea and execution, but I can't. Once in a while he gets things right on his own.

Same for the cover for Dan McTaggart's book...he did that on his own.

The viral memoir? I found out about it about the same time the rest of the world did. I have read it, however, and I would suggest that there are several people in the world who should be including him nightly in their prayers or who should make plans to commit ritual suicide within two months of his death, just to avoid having to deal with the fallout. Most diarists are constrained by the need to excuse their own actions...he isn't...he explains himself, but admits his sins, and that liberates him to be brutally, starkly honest. I am sure there are some secrets he will take to the grave, but for the life of me I can't imagine what he doesn't confess to.

And, despite his protestations that an honest man can not be the hero of his own memoir, he is the hero of this massive and detailed confession. If for no other reason than he actually is willing to take the heat of his own honesty, to offer up his own legacy to sacrifice. I'm just glad I didn't have to wait for him to die to read it.

Besides, deep down inside, I can't imagine anything that can kill him.

In the course of my reading, my opinions of several peole who have been in his life changed greatly. Major movers? The Panther, the Leopard, Brigit, amongst his muses. Who knew that his and the Panther's song was Alanis Morisette's "Head Over Feet"? Or that he could never get the Mad Gypsy to say "I love you"? Or that one ex lover made him promise to take all the blame for her actions, including the fallout from some of her infidelities, so that she could get a "fresh start"? His documentation is astounding, if not air tight, but he takes so much on himself, it is hard to imagine him lying to save face...he admits to so much as it is.

Try to live long enough to read it. Funny, painful, darkly erotic and full of insights he could never seem to apply to his own life (the "magic glove" effect, he is so fond of citing, is from John Irving's character TS Garp, whom the poet so strongly identifies with). Which reminds me, DeVault does cite Irving as his favorite modern novelist.

Enough of my pre-book review. I better get going, it is just nice to know I have an open stage for the next few days. I do, however, need to do some nips and tucks for his readings later this month at Barnes and Noble, and do some edits for "Theocricide".

Happy National Poets Month!

While he's off being just "Dad" he left me with several memos on what I need to keep doing. Bleah. Maybe I don't want to research some obscure works of his, or check his mail archives for poems he composed to lady loves a decade ago (he wrote some incrdibly hot stuff a few years back, between marriages, to Brigit and the Angel and the Mad Gypsy - I mean "melts in your pants, not in your mind" sort of stuff).