Return of the daily short poem! And new book out.

I have some new products (poetry) to tell you about, but first a few poems, to get us started again (after which, most days, I'll send just one).

The shifting frowns of people on a bus:
Life goes on pleasing and displeasing us
as if that were its purpose.
_____

When you die, you want to think
something is ending, but everything
goes on. It's like leaving a party:
Most people there are waiting
for something interesting to happen,
but they wait so noisily,
that those who leave always feel
they're leaving in the middle of everything.
______

Why can't we keep things nice!
Look here! Someone keeps leaving
messy finger marks in the nice even
coat of dust on this tabletop.
______

I saw a butterfly stitch the sky,
but could not find the seam.
______

The parking lot is full. Damned car!
I can't take you anywhere!
______

Love, I would write poems to you
were you not, wherever I am,
the space wherein I write.
___________________

I mentioned that we (Pam and I) have some new products. They are:

A 2009 calendar that Pam created, using 12 of her paintings (seasonally appropriate).

A coloring book Pam created out of a long poem I wrote for children, called "The Doll's Journey." It's actually a poem for children and adults--at least has been enjoyed by a fair sampling of both.

The first volume of what will be a 6-volume set of the complete DEANOTATIONS. The first volume is Deanotations issues 1 thru 20 plus some additional poetry related to one of the issues plus a new introduction by me and some notes on the poems. The poems are in their original format with all of Pam's drawings, as originally printed in Deanotatons. The volume is perfect-bound, about 130 pages (which is a lot of poetry, since the pages are 2-column. Background: From 1984 through 2004 -- 20 years -- I published my poetry letter, DEANOTATIONS, just my poems and Pam's drawings. These poetry letters went out to hundreds of subscribers (and, for a time, to thousands). Now the first 20 (of 110) issues is available in book form, with the others to follow later this year.

Many of the poems I've been sending out as daily poems were originally in Deanotations. (Not that I don't have more recent work. I'm moving forward chronologically as an easy way of keeping track of what I've sent out.)

To order any of these new products, you can either go to www.lulu.com and search on "Blehert" (which brings up all of them) or email me. There are two advantages to getting them from me directly: 1) Autograph(s). 2) Lulu apparently mails orders Priority. I can mail them media mail, saving you a few dollars. On the other hand, ordering them on the web from Lulu is quick and convenient.

By the way, if you're already a Deanotations fan, please write a review on Lulu.com.

If you're curious to see what an issue of Deanotations looks like, there are samples on our web site at www.blehert.com/poems/deanot.html

For years (approx. Aug., 2001, through Feb., 2006) I sent out a daily short poem to hundreds of people (sometimes as many as 3,000).

In Feb., 2006, I got very busy and for much of the next two years had almost no time for e-mail. When I did have time for e-mail, I spent it handling huge e-mail backlogs (still a few thousand to handle! I may owe some of you answers. However, in the past 10 months I've caught up on most of my backlog.

Now I'm going to resume my mailing of a daily short poem (by me, though I'll consider the work of anyone else named Dean Blehert).

Besides this blog (for short poems), I also publish longer poems and/or essays on
Dearreader08@blogspot.com. I hope you'll check it out.

If you'd like to look over the previous short poems I've sent out, you'll find them, as well as a great deal more of my poetry and essays (and my wife, Pam's, paintings and poetry) on www.blehert.com. You can also hear us read our poems from this site.

All the poetry on the site can be reached from www.blehert.com/poems/poetry.html.

The short poems emailed earlier can be found at www.blehert.com/poems/poem-a-day-2001.htm for 2001. For the other years, just change 2001 to 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 or 2006.

To listen to me reading some of my poems, try www.blehert.com/audio/deanaudio/dean_audiopoems.html.

If you feel like sending a poem I send you to others, please do so. Just include my name and contact info. If you feel others would enjoy my daily mailings, please let me know, and I'll send an introductory message and add that person(s) to my list.

Of course, I'm giving away all the poetry you can eat faster than you can swallow, so why buy a book of my poems? To have on a shelf? As a gift for others? For more convenient reading while at the dinner table or in the bathroom, for taking on the road, for use as a door-stop... Also, in case you hate the poems, it's far more satisfying to have a nice, solid book you can tear apart and burn, than simply to ask off a mailing list.

So go, now, Dear Readers, and spend your days reading my daily poems, my website, my books, my blogs...I'm sure you have nothing else important to do. (This is the My-Generation. My Oh My!)