How exciting! A review I wrote of three excellent books of poetry has been published on Literary Mama. Here's a sample:

Well, that first reintroduction to this space didn't really happen, now did it? Since that last long-ago posting, the little one has been born and is growing by leaps and bounds. And I am starting to come out of the late-pregnancy/new motherhood haze. Here he is, two days old and grinning:… Read full post »

Gosh I've missed OS! Well, it was a long, hot, nauseated summer, but I'm finally back in the saddle again. The good news is that the nausea was caused by my second pregnancy, now in its sixth month. The bad news is it's still swelteringly hot here in New Orleans. Bleah.

Now… Read full post »

So my period was a day late, my boobs were a little sore, and I was feeling slightly nauseous. Time to take a pregnancy test!

I grabbed the kind that claim you can test up to five days before your period starts, but I made myself wait until my period was… Read full post »

It's spring, and there's a recession on, so it seems like everybody's getting it on. What else is so fun for so cheap?

 But there's always a downside. Bodies attach to mouths, which often disconnect from brains. For example, my hub and I have been trying to get pregnant. After… Read full post »

In New Orleans, anyone can get a gun. Scan the headlines, and you'll see that 14-year-old kids, angry boyfriends, vengeful mothers, paranoid shop owners, impoverished students, even folks who seem to own nothing else have, and use, guns.

It's weird to long for the days of fisticuffs and switchblades… Read full post »

Some photos from this year's Jazz Fest here in New Orleans:

We went on a Thursday, so it was not crowded--no lines for food, potties, crafts, nothin. There was even toilet paper in the porta-lets, a bonus when you're female and drinking lots of iced tea and beer.  Here's a second-line… Read full post »

I wanna play!

1. I have a big snake tattoo on my bicep.

2. I'm deathly afraid of needles.

3. I waited on Brad and Angelina but didn't even recognize them until after they had gone.

hee hee hee!

This may gross some of you out, but yesterday I found some free bread on the ground. Today I plan to make some New Orleans-style bread pudding.  Let me explain: my son's preschool is across the street from a giant bakery, one that makes po-boy bread for restaurants. (The air around… Read full post »

My three-year-old son had spring break from preschool this week. Unfortunately, my sister-in-law, who usually watches him for a few hours twice a week, was unable to do so one of the days, most of his buddies were on vacation and so unavailable for playdates, and his Daddy had to work… Read full post »

How exciting is this? An editor and blogger I met through Literary Mama, Jessica DeVoe Riley, interviewed me for her blog, All Rileyed Up,  as a part of her celebration of National Poetry Month. We talked about writing, editing, and publishing poetry, as well as the glories and problems of livin… Read full post »

 Easter is a celebration of spring, of abundance, of fertility, right? (Even the Resurrection is about rebirth, life after death, springtime concepts all.) The flowers and animals around us are gettin' it on (as far as you can call whatever flowers do "gettin' it on") and we celebrate by thinkin… Read full post »

Louis Armstrong, one of New Orleans' favorite sons, famously signed his letters "red beans & ricely yours" in tribute to one of his--and the rest of New Orleans'--most beloved hometown dishes.

Traditionally,  red beans and rice were made every Monday, which was also laundry day. The idea was… Read full post »

March in New Orleans is one of the most beautiful times of year. The azaleas explode all over town, my irises just keep bursting into purple, and the oak trees look dusted with teeny green leaf buds--amazing to see those hundred-year-old trees as fresh as a yearling. The weather,… Read full post »

I am a somewhat rare breed: a vegetarian in New Orleans, land of boudin balls, alligator sausage, and crawfish. (I'm not even a "New Orleans vegetarian," somebody who avoids meat but relishes seafood.) Though many people here gasp when I admit I've never had turtle soup or oysters, I find or… Read full post »

This poem--part homage, part primal scream--is my attempt to deal with the questions my friend Helen's death raised for me, and to honor the life she lived, including the powerful love she had for this city. I've debated whether to post this, concerned that I have already talked about it before… Read full post »

In response to FeatheredThing's open call for favorite poems, I found one that has always made me laugh even as it makes its own claims about the role of poets, the role of women, the role of women poets...

I have wanted… Read full post »

My friend’s boyfriend is flipping out about the Mardi Gras day shootings here in New Orleans. I want to scoff, really I do, but seven people were shot—including an 18-month-old baby—while they were watching parades, arms outstretched, catching beads, only a few blocks from where my… Read full post »

So-called because of the taste in my mouth? Somehow, yesterday I convinced myself that bloody marys count more as juice than as alcohol--and at 10am Mardi Gras morning, they seemed just right. And again after lunch, and of course walking around the Quarter catching beads from balconies, one needs so… Read full post »

May I offer a working-class Victorian poem by an (as far as I can find) anonymous author? Enjoy:

Would you be a Great Lord? Let me shew you the way;
Too proud to be honest, a debt never pay;
Your fame and your fortune on prostitutes… Read full post »