THINKING BLOGGER AWARD

RJ Eskow is a friend and brilliant blogger, who often contributes to The Huffington Post, and whose own blog, nightlight, is on my short list of favorites that I check pretty much every day.

Beside his intelligent and perceptive writing, he has many other talents, including being a fine and knowledgeable musician, which is why his posts on music are always informative and entertaining.

Anyway, he nominated me on his blog for something called THE THINKING BLOGGERS AWARD, for which I am highly grateful and humbled, since RJ is one of the finest bloggers on the net in my, and many other reader’s, opinion.

The idea is to nominate five blogs that make you think, and I was in great company (I suggest you check the others out), which included a blog I wasn’t aware of by my old friend Peter Case. I just added his to the list of blogs I recommend on the right, which I try to limit to blogs I actually read, most of them by friends whose thinking I admire and respect.

But now, in order to keep this thing going, which I guess is the polite and grateful thing to do, I’m supposed to nominate five of my own favorite blogs, ones that I find provocative and engaging, that cause me to think, or rethink.

So here goes:

1. Jimsonweed—is the first blog I check every day I go online. It’s the blog of a friend and L. A. poet, who started it as a place to display his photos, and occasional thoughts on them and other things, in his quest to “photograph all of L. A.” I lived in L. A. for seventeen years and since moving back East haven’t missed it once (just my friends there). But I would miss this blog if it ever went away.
2. Nickpiombino—a recent addition to my recommended blogs, Nick is a New York poet I’ve known since the 1970s, whose voice is unique and whose perspective is generous but thought provoking.
3. Coolbirth—was started by my friend “Alameda Tom” in response to my starting this blog. He did it so he could help me with any technical problems I might encounter, so that he could figure them out on his blog and then advise me for mine. The generosity of his taking the time to do that is a reflection of his big heart, as is his blog, which bounces between the personal, the technically useful, and the discovery of “cool” things out there in the universe to be aware of.
4. Eethelbertmiller—a DC poet and friend for decades, e’s blog keeps me up to date on not only the DC scene but on aspects of the poetry world I might otherwise be unaware of, as well as his own perspective on politics, both literary and “real world.”
5. Erictrules—another old friend, whose travel e-notes on his web site is like a blog, but whose actual blog, though he only occasional posts on it, offers a perspective different from my own, though at many points they do converge. He reminds me of things I’ve forgotten, and makes me aware of things I didn’t know. Much more world traveled than me, a bit younger, but also a poet and performer, he was best known in the early years of our friendship as a New York professional clown (I think called Cumezee Bozo, if I remember correctly) who ran for mayor there back in the 1970s. Not the only clown to do so, but the only professional clown, as opposed to professional politician, to do so.

So, there’s my five. I could have added a few more, like English poet Tom Raworth’s blog which is one of the most unique and engaging I know of, consisting mostly of musical links and altered art and photographs to make political statements, along with personal and poetry world photos and short videos.

Or “language poet” Ron Silliman’s blog, which I check most days, not only for his perspective on events in the poetry world, but to keep up to date on that world as Ron often posts lists of links to poetry related articles etc. Or RJ Eskow’s nightlight itself, which would have been my first nominee, if he hadn’t been the one who nominated me and that would have defeated the purpose of passing these nominations along.

Once again, I’d like to thank him for including me among his distinguished nominees for this “award,” and hope you all find me, as well as my nominees, worthy.