SPRING FORWARD: It's spring in Atlanta...the trees are turning lovely colors, the sun is shining, the pollen count is off the scale and the temperatures have suddenly fallen to freezing levels again. Loverly. Luckily, there is poetry to keep us warm. I had the pleasure to share a table with spoken word legend Alice Lovelace on Sunday night at Java Monkey Speaks. Her reading was just enthralling. It was a fun evening all the way around, which was preceded by a day of workshoping with Cecilia Woloch on prosody (which is the technique of scanning a poem for form). I wrote my first (and maybe only) sonnet during the workshop and had lots of laughs. The day before I did a day-long workshop with Vijay Seshadri at Georgia Tech. It was intense and interesting. He liked my poem (I feel a Sally Field moment coming on...) and only suggested one change. Hooray! I must be getting better.

I am listening to Vanessa Daou's last album, Make You Love, which is one of the most brilliant records EVER. How this woman has slipped between the cracks amazes me. Her first album, Zipless, took many of Erica Jong's best poems and set them to music and the albums that came after have been briliant. Her albums aren't even available in America anymore; you have to get them from Europe, where she still has a following. If you've never heard Vanessa Daou, you are truly missing out. I went to her website, which is going to be relaunched "Summer 2004." I hope this means a new album is on the way.

I finally saw Pieces of April and Thirteen. Patricia Clarkson is so damn good in Pieces of April. I could give a shit about Katie Holmes' character. I just wanted more bitter, sad Patricia and that loony family of hers. Thirteen was disturbing as hell, mainly because it was so realistic. Holly Hunter fabulous as always as the mom. I recommend both of these.

The update of www.collinkelley.com will commence this week and go live on Monday...a day or so early. There's a number of events happening right at the end of the month and beginning of April that need to be posted. The promotion of Better To Travel rolls on.

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