64. the five love languages of locusts

"In the eighties I helped organize a translation conference in New Orleans, for which Merwin was our major speaker. He and Paula were still unmarried, but I remember well how in love they seemed to be. I was a graduate student, 7 months pregnant, and went with my major professor to pick Merwin up. We took him to a lovely New Orleans restaurant. I was so excited: here was my favorite poet in the world and I was getting to show him around my birth city! That evening we went to check him in at a hotel on St. Charles. It turned out Clint Eastwood was staying there with his entourage, filming, I think, Tightrope. He had overstayed and now had the room Merwin was supposed to have. Our major speaker for the conference had no room. I saw Eastwood in the bar and went to talk to him, stupidly thinking he might be able to have two of his people double up so Merwin could have his room. After a probably too long appeal to him, he looked down at me and said, 'Who is W.S. Merwin?' Appalled, I explained who he was, at which point Eastwood said 'Get the f*** out of my face.' I went back to the lobby where the conference organizers were trying to obtain a room at another hotel for Merwin, who was sitting on a sofa with Paula looking all zen. He said I seemed sad, and asked me what was the matter. I explained the conversation with Eastwood, and when I had finished, he looked at me with quiet amazement and said, 'Who is Clint Eastwood?' " --Sheryl St Germain on Fb

Bad news about Baxter.

icebergmasked scirocco
carry to this room
crackle in the wires

ev'ry other car has
smoke of how to handle
is all we see

dead branches spied
through tinted glass
on a carpet stairwell

pyramid innermost room

"Though it was explicitly fiction and Oliver claimed he channeled the book from an entity named Phylos, the novel laid the groundwork for many of the legends still surrounding Mount Shasta."