All the Stars in the Sky are Mine

Irene Latham at Live. Love. Explore.
 is the Poetry Friday host. 

Appreciate the small things. 

Be nicer to people.

Spend a few minutes laying in the grass staring at the clouds. 

Music is good for you.”

--The Candlepark Stars

"All the Stars in the Sky Are Mine" The Candlepark Stars

There are a few glitches in that stream, but I hope you will listen. It makes me immensely happy when the simplest melody about a star rises up inside this song. If you like it, you can find more of their music on iLike. 

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The poem at the heart of The Freak Observer is "Stars at Tallapoosa" by Wallace Stevens. It is exactly the right poem for Loa...


The lines are straight and swift between the stars.
The night is not the cradle that they cry,
The criers, undulating the deep-oceaned phrase.
The lines are much too dark and much too sharp.

It was not, however, the poem I originally wrote into the book. (That was Silence and Metaphor by William Bronk.) But it was the best choice. Andrew Karre, The Freak Observer's editor was instrumental in bringing it into play. That is the sort of thing an editor does. Or, at least, that is the sort of thing a genius editor does. 


I'm traveling to San Diego this weekend to say thank you to the librarians who have been putting my book on the shelves. Before I go, I want to say thank you to Andrew and the other people who delivered exactly what I asked for in my contract negotiations when I set these terms:

     I accept the book as an artifact, well-enough made to be on the shelves of lending libraries. 

     I accept the book as digital, both ephemeral and in futurity, however that develops. 

     I accept you as editor, because your son, holding a yellow flower, proves all I need to know.

I actually did say those exact things. That's obviously very sentimental, but I can afford to be sentimental--all the stars in the sky are mine.