And if you’d like to become a member of the Poetry Book Club–we’re talking about Rowan Ricardo Phillips’s collection The Ground right now–click here.

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Some people angry at the outcome of last night’s election have started a petition to ask the Democratic National Committee to move their nominating convention out of Charlotte as a result. I don’t expect it will happen, given the incredible amount of money it would cost to do so, and the logistical challenge it would pose, but I do expect that the effort by some state Democratic party chairs to have marriage equality as part of the platform will get some more support than it might have otherwise.

Something I think is important to remember about the current state of marriage equality is that even the fact that this vote took place–horrid as this may sound–is a sign of progress. Forty years ago, the idea that a majority of people would support same-sex marriage (the way they do today) would have been a pipe-dream. These votes are happening because opponents of LGBT rights and marriage equality know that they’re going to lose in the long run, so they’re throwing up as many barriers as they can to stop progress. They didn’t happen before because no one imagined it could ever happen. But anti-marriage-equality people are scared now, and they know they’re on the wrong side of history.

Who would have imagined even ten years ago that a sitting president up for re-election would come out in favor of same-sex marriage, as President Obama has just done? Maybe a lame duck president, or one who’s out of office (as former President Bill Clinton did a while back), but a sitting president in the middle of a campaign? That’s a sign of how far we’ve come.

We still have a long way to go, though, and pointing fingers or mocking or saying stupid things like “we should have let the South go when they wanted to go” isn’t the way to do it. After all, there are 31 states (including mostly progressive California) which have done just what North Carolina did. If marriage equality means a lot to you, then work hard to make sure that you elect people who support it. Change peoples’ minds and get them to support those candidates as well. Vote, but don’t just do that. Voting is the bare minimum you have to do to be a citizen. Do more than the minimum.

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A petition is circulating which demands that UC Davis drop all charges, and if I hear about any other plans to pressure the UC Davis administration, I’ll update this post to reflect them.

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This is not about the May pole or a spring festival. No, this update is about the “arise, ye workers from your slumber” May Day, the international labor day. And this year, there are a number of protests taking place around the world.

Voice of America has a slideshow of rallies. Al Jazeera has more coverage.

Occupy Wall Street has rallies planned throughout New York City today and they’re streaming some of them live.

There’s concern among some in the Occupy movement that new groups will try to turn the movement into a wing of the Democratic party.

And no surprise, The Guardian is doing terrific work covering the protests.

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Library Journal says of it “Evocative, intriguing, and complex, this novel is as smooth as the underbelly of a deadly, furtive reptile. Mandel’s substantial fan base will rejoice; word of mouth will bring new fans on board.”

IndieBound, which put last month’s book, Cheryl Strayed’s Wild on its Indie Next List, will put The Lola Quartet atop its May list.

Publisher’s Weekly interviewed Mandel here and reviewed it here, saying it “excels as a character study that considers the slow degradation of hopes, dreams, and expectations of people who are only in their late 20s but already feel ancient.”

And from last May, Emily St. John Mandel writes about bad reviews over at The Millions.

May’s book is about to go out too–it’s Cures for Hunger, a memoir by Deni Y. Béchard. If you’d like to join the Rumpus Book Club, click here.

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The Story Gets Away From Him

Billy Collins
is dining with friends.

As the hors d’oeuvres arrive,
he begins recalling the best meal
he ever ate,
the night he went to his favorite restaurant
and it was simply
perfect.

He begins by telling them
how the flavors did not overwhelm –
he believes there was a loaf of bread
and vinaigrette, the finest pears
he has ever touched, a manicured cut
of perfect, perfect steak – oh,
the way it mixed together, he sighs.

He tells them of the white wine,
not chilly but just properly chilled,
about putting down the flute
and watching it sink into the table.

He does not mean to say this.

He pauses, tells it again, and this time
the glass is barbed
and he must drop it to the floor.

Looking at these friends,
he sees a woman he has known for years
holding one of the pears –
It has sprouted wings.
She just wants to eat it,
but it begins flapping maniacally.

The perfect loaf of bread
becomes a dozen baseball-sized dinner rolls
spilling across the table,
one, in his mother’s mouth,
begins filling her like a balloon
and she is clawing at her lips,
trying to make her jaws wider

but Billy Collins cannot help her.

He is tending to his steak
that has begun to bleed;
it is bleeding impossibly much,
filling the plate, pouring over,
staining everything, blood on the table
and he is trying to remember the taste instead,
to remember something
that is not the swell
of screaming diners around him,
but the carpet is bleeding, too,
and Billy Collins is pulling the cloths
from nearby tables, but they never,
never it seems, are able to dry the room,
and there is running, there
is fleeing, Billy Collins’ dinner
is killing everyone, his mother’s jaw
has burst from her, has collided
with the far wall.

Billy Collins
recalls the best meal
he has ever had:

There is screaming, and he
is trying to call for help,
but he can only chew.

He cannot get past
the bursting, brilliant flavors
to swallow them.

He can only chew
and chew
and chew.

-Lewis Mundt

If you like what the Rumpus is doing for National Poetry Month, you’ll probably like this multimedia anthology of original poems we’ve run at The Rumpus over the last three years. Available only for iPad. Check it out!

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I met DiPiero when I was his student at Stanford from 2003-5, and I consider him a friend. I was incredibly pleased when he allowed us to publish some of his work to kick off our 2010 National Poetry Month project. I think I might have to drive up to Chicago to see the ceremony.

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We’d like to point out that The Rumpus Poetry Book Club had an idea of just how awesome this book was even before it officially came out. Not that we’re bragging or anything. (You can join the Rumpus Poetry Book Club by clicking here.)

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Semi-Aubade

When I wake in the morning,
my mind is black.

Having arrived
under grander skies, I find

I’m not happier, but more in awe
of suffering. And this

is shift enough. As usual,
meaning trumps happiness.

For “meaning,” read:
“a sense of meaning;

meaningness.” I refer back
because I have to,

because the past is implicit in—
in anything. Listen:

I’m attempting to feel
two contradictory feelings.

A long breeze; the status quo.
An early snow

breaks all the trees,
which are still bright green.

-Elisa Gabbert

If you like what the Rumpus is doing for National Poetry Month, you’ll probably like this multimedia anthology of original poems we’ve run at The Rumpus over the last three years. Check it out!

Related Posts:

• National Poetry Month Day 37: “Two Lyrics from ‘Rondo’” by Janet Holmes
• National Poetry Month Day 36: “The Lover’s Field Guide to Lesser Coinage” by Sandra Beasley
• National Poetry Month 2012 Lineup
• National Poetry Month Day 35: “A Double Sestina on Happiness” by Cathy Park Hong
• National Poetry Month Day 34: “Death is a Hysterical Dynasty” by Steve Kistulentz

Another important thing to remember about this case: a charge is a long way from a conviction, and there’s a good chance Zimmerman could be acquitted, based on what little public evidence is available.

Part of the problem with this case has to do with the Stand Your Ground law on the books in Florida.

Ta-Nehisi Coates (who has done wonderful work on this story for weeks now) focuses on the shoddy job police initially did on the investigation.

Charles Pierce reports that US Attorney General Eric Holder has the US Justice Department looking into potential civil rights violations. Pierce also predicts the “precis of poo that will be flung in response.”

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