I'm presently reading a delicious book written by the Palestinian poet Shatha Abu Hnaish titled A Love That Hovers Like a Bedeviling  Mosquito, translated by Francesca Bell and Noor Asder Al A'bed. 

These poems are short and awash with a voice that is packed with image & emotion.  Translating these poems into English so that  more are touched by them is an enormous literary gift. 

After the first reading, this is a great night stand book for when you have five or ten minutes to read and meditate before lights out.    

Today in the mail I received Laura Kasischke's Where Now - New and Selected poems.  This is a beautiful hard bound book of like 360+ pages. The publisher is Copper Canyon Press and everything with their imprint is always crazy nice. 

I met Laura in Kansas City at a reading  numerous years ago and bought a copy of her poetry book Gardening in the Dark. I enjoyed it so much that  it catapulted Kasischke pretty high on my  list of remarkable poets. 

Frequently I have gone back to Gardening in the Dark when I have been looking for inspiration to get me through a writing funk. It will be joyous to take another journey through her work reading material I've not seen before.  

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My night stand becomes a catch all for things that I go to from time to time to read from, in addition to new titles that I am reading for the first time.
 
So what’s on my nightstand right now? 

• The Art of Recklessness -  Dean Young
• The Lost Neruda Poems
• Thrust - Heather Derr-Smith
• Good Bones - Maggie Smith
• The Journals of Sylvia Plath
• Calling A Wolf A Wolf - Kaveh Akbar
• Faithful and Virtuous Night - Louise Gluck

​Oh, and a copy of Poet's and Writers Magazine.

Arriving in today's mail, Bukowski in a Sundress by Kim Addonizio.
So, I will forsake watching the Republican Convention tonight in favor of reading this book. I mean I just don't think the RNC can top Melania Trump's Michelle Obama knock-off speech from last night, 

I almost always adore Addonizzo's poetry. The edginess, sometimes inappropriateness that you have to admit to yourself, if no one else, makes you cheer her a bit and keeps you coming back for more. 

​Anyway, this is my new read. I'll let you know how it goes.