The Book of Scissors

This arrived in the mail today:

"Plop Around the Clock," a chapbook published by Ryan Bird as it says in the colophon "in a limited-demand edition of 1 copy for Gary Barwin, October 29th, 2006...These poems were shamelessly ripped off from the book frogments from the frag pool by Gary Barwin and derek beaulieu. They created the book of scissors, & Ryan Bird merely ran with it."

How completely cool. Also flattering of course. But really part of writing is to interact in some way with readers. Having a book of responses is exhilarating. And it's part of why derek and I wrote our book -- to respond to Basho and to other Basho responders.

The book is a series of haiku bouncing off derek and my book. Here's a couplefew:

Basho, Lettuce & Tomato

(bun) sky
(meat) frog (meat)
pond (bun)

Day 3 (from 7 Days at Basho Park)

mud plumes
separate new frogs
from old sounds


Day 6
boy fart
old pond sound
funny bubbles


Ryan is publishing up a storm these days through his fantastic mag Twaddle and through his Um, Yeah Press. He has an inventive, off-kilter wit (like that line about running with the book of scissors up there.) He's one to watch fer sure.

So, thanks Ryan. I'm totally delighted. Now I'm gonna make me a cereal fort just like you. Aint never gonna come out til the milk stops fallin'.