[mandolin]

One of the few good things about this job which has kept me from writing or doing more than lurk here the last couple of months is that it pays well -- and I've been able to get Tim's The Deed of Gift, Alicia's Archaic Smile, Rhina's Where Horizon's Go, Bob Mezey's Collected Poems, Sam Gwynn's No Word of Farewell, a couple of Wendy Cope's books, and more -- none of which I would have known existed without this site, and I am grateful for the introduction to a world of poetry I hadn't known existed.

But I've been very frustrated that I've been unable to get a copy of Davis's Devices and Desires, especially since I'll be in his sonnet workshop at Westchester (another discovery care of this site) and Tim had so highly recommended I read it. Well, today, on a lark, I looked once again at Amazon for the book, and it was in stock (hardcover) and has been shipped to me! The only difficulty is that it may not arrive before next Wednesday, in which case I won't have had a chance to read it before meeting Davis. In a way, it's almost worse now.

BTW, I'm settled in the new house and our project at work has been cancelled, just 2 months before its scheduled announcement to the world, so I'll have more time soon, either because I won't have a job or because I'll be working in a much less visible project with many fewer time-constraints. So I'll see some of you at Westchester, and be participating here again with the rest of you.