Don't Call it a Comeback...

word is born.

yes, it's been that long true believers. Hope all in cyberland are well. Columbia Poetry Review #19 is out & the launch reading is today. At long last glory. Looking forward very much to seeing Bertram & hearing her read, welcoming B. Love back to CCC for the reading. Should be good times. Mi madre is even coming to the city for this little shindig. All's I know is I get to introduce Ed Roberson to kick off the reading. What's Wayne & Garth say? Oh, that's right: "We're not worthy!" My sentiments exactly.

But nothing sentimental today. Brief updates:

1. For anyone who doesn't know, I am no longer playing shakes suburban rock with Lifelike (& my apologies if you still get email from them. Write them & tell them to remove you from the list. Unless you don't want to). I am now a member (with B. Love) of Sharks. You can visit us here. Hopefully soon we'll have a couple tracks from a live recording we did uploaded, but for now it is what it 'tis.

2. I landed my first national print publication. I'm hesitant to say too much now, but suffice to say it's on the level & more details will be posted as they arrive.

3. No, I am not dead, nor was I ever dead. As Riley said on The Boondocks, "first of all, I'm a live forever." Not really, but I am, as far as I can tell, very much alive.

4. Woody is finishing his MFA at NYU, at let me be the first to extend to him public congratulations. We will miss him at the launch reading today, but shall toast him repeatedly once it's finished. & will also be the first to declare the Save Woody's Blog! Campaign; he's too busy to do it all himself, but we miss him so, don't we? With any luck, true believers, perhaps we can persuade him to occasionally visit my little nook of the Inferno & grace us with his verbiage. WOOD-Y! WOOD-Y!

5. Game 6 tonite in Chicago. Gotta have it. GO BULLS!!!!!!

6. Chloe turned 7 years old this past Sunday & we had a beautiful party down in Carbondale. The rain broke just long enough for her. & yes, she is getting big.

Anyway, time to run, but I promise to not be so neglectful in my duties this summer. Oh yeah, if anyone out there can help with getting Radiohead tix for June 19 & 20 in Chicago, PLEASE let me know. To close, here's a bit of interesting wire service. All love & best, my dearies...

R Collins


ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema sent Zacarias Moussaoui to prison for life Thursday, to "die with a whimper," for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The convicted terrorist declared: "God save Osama bin Laden — you will never get him."

Brinkema and the unrepentant Moussaoui capped the two-month trial with an intense exchange that will mark the defendant's last public words before his incarceration in a maximum security prison in Colorado.

A day earlier, a jury rejected the government's case to have Moussaoui executed, deciding instead to should spend life in prison with no chance of parole. Not all jurors were convinced that Moussaoui, who was in jail on immigration charges Sept. 11, had a significant part in the attacks, despite his boastful claims that he did.

Brinkema firmly refused to be interrupted by the 37-year-old defendant as she disputed his declaration from a day earlier: "America, you lost. ... I won."

"Mr. Moussaoui, when this proceeding is over, everyone else in this room will leave to see the sun ... hear the birds ... and they can associate with whomever they want," she said.

She went on: "You will spend the rest of your life in a supermax prison. It's absolutely clear who won."

And she said it was proper he will be kept away from outsiders, unable to speak publicly again.
"Mr. Moussaoui, you came here to be a martyr in a great big bang of glory," she said, "but to paraphrase the poet T.S. Eliot, instead you will die with a whimper."

At that point, Moussaoui tried again to interrupt her, but she raised her voice and spoke over him.

"You will never get a chance to speak again and that's an appropriate ending."