another bookstore review

Lisa Romeo, a participant in the Stonecoast writing program, has just given us a nice mention on her blog http://lisaromeo.blogspot.com
"Last month I discovered Gulf of Maine, which gets my award for cramming in the largest number of really good books and aggressively supporting the local writing community and publishing economy"

Our new poet laureate

Charles Simic has become the new poet laureate for the United States.
Here is a poem of his from a recent issue of the New Yorker:

Driving Home

Minister of our coming doom, preaching
on the car radio, how right
your hell and damnation sound to me
as I travel these small, bleak roads
thinking of the mailman's son
the Army sent back in a sealed coffin.

His house is around the next turn.
A forlorn mutt sits in the yard
waiting for someone to come home.
I can see the tv is on in the living room,
canned laughter in the empty house
like the sound of beer cans tied to a hearse.