Treehouse

from Chris Fox, author of Missed Connections:

1. A Season in Hell

2 oz habanero tequila
3 dashes Worcestershire sauce
3 dashes pepper
3 dashes celery salt
3 dashes Tabasco sauce
1 tsp horseradish
1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
Tomato juice

Build the ingredients in a highball glass over ice cubes. Top with tomato juice. Mix well by rolling back and forth from one glass to another. Garnish with pitchfork.

2. The Dice Cup

1 oz vodka
1 oz coffee liqueur
Cream or milk
Cola

Pour the vodka and coffee liqueur in an old-fashioned glass with 6 ice cubes, fill with equal amounts of cream and cola. Shake and roll.

3. Capital of Pain

1 bottle tequila

Serve straight.

4. Earthlight

3 oz Tonic water
3 oz Gin
Garnish with a wedge of lime

In a highball glass filled with ice cubes, add gin and tonic. Drink will glow in black light. Goes well with companion drink Claire de Lune (chilled vodka served over dry ice).

5. Jaundiced Loves

1 oz Limoncello (chilled)
4 oz sparkling wine (chilled)
5-6 fresh blackberries or raspberries
Crushed ice

Place a spoonful of crushed ice in an old-fashioned glass and top with fruit. Combine the sparkling wine and Limoncello in a mixing glass and stir lightly to mix, being careful not to destroy the bubbles. Pour over the berries and ice. Drink anywhere you think toads might gather.

from Fred MacVaugh, author of The Wake:

1. Anywhere with your father at least once. In my case, beneath summer-green trees beside Valley Forge National Historical Park’s airfield buzzing with nattering hobbyists and their radio-controlled model airplanes. You never know what your father might say, what memorable nonsense might pass between you as men twice his age pilot a red biplane and German Messerschmitt. Years later, on his birthday, you’ll remember his words, his last before you leave for college, before his sudden heart attack and death.
2. Down the aisle with the one who agrees to walk with you through life.
3. As far underground as you can go even when tight and dark spaces scare you to death. If you’re lucky, you’ll not be alone, and the ones with you in Spider Cave will come to your aid and persuade you to stay even as your heart jackhammers your sternum and all you can think of is clawing your way to the surface, to sunlight and soothing views of cloud-shadow crossing a panoramic desert more or less the same as when Mescalero Apache, Buffalo Soldiers, and nineteenth-century cattle drovers passed by an undiscovered beauty hidden within a Permian-aged sea-reef remnant.
4. Through the inside of your mind, the most mysterious place you’ll ever be.
5. Through the unforeseen icon, the Engine of Life, that giant, tunneled heart beating for decades at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute. You were five and terrified, scared to death even then, but your father egged you on, said he’d be there always, waiting for you to emerge.

from Nick D’Annunzio Jones, author of Aphorisms and Epigrams:

1. “Twenty Lines A Day” by Harry Mathews – Oulipian novelist and poet Harry Mathews, enamored of Stendahl’s personal dictum to write 20 lines a day in a notebook, does so for a year. The random entries make for surprisingly addictive reading — and a puzzling reply for when fans and students ask, “What’s your favorite book?”
2. “The Oxford English Dictionary” – I read reference books for pleasure; hey, I’m, primarily, a poet. They are also useful tools when looking for an obscure subject for a poem; I actually once published — and was paid $50! — a 22-word ditty on “zyxt”, the last word in the voluminous work. And forget the online version of the O.E.D. — too clumsy. Save up $2,000 or so for the full shelf-filling set. You’ll look like Malcom Muggeridge or Anthony Powell ensconced bookishly in your study. It’s tax-deductible, too. Rich? Get it in leather.
3. Text-Anz – I once wrote a 115,000-word comic novel, which no agent, much less a publisher, would touch. But, that’s another story. Anyway, in editing this failed novel, which now has the working title “A Piece of Shit”, I strove for Flaubertian meticulousness: I didn’t want to use the same word twice in any chapter, and special words, obscure words, I wanted to use only once in the entire 515 pages of typescript. The fastest way to check for duplicates in tome as massive as “A Piece of Shit” was with Text-Anz, an inexpensive download that zips through your text and notes how frequently every word or selected words appears. Unfortunately, the software only runs (adequately) on Windows.
4. “Tom & Viv”  – You probably didn’t see this moving starring Willem deFoe about T. S. Eliot’s disastrous first marriage. It is a gem, though, and deFoe is a credible twenty- and thirty-something Tom. If you think Eliot is a shit, for whatever reason,you probably will be pleased by this film. Women, in particular, might like it, as it is certainly sympathetic — perhaps unduly so — to the poet’s unpleasant wife Vivian.
5. My wife’s Lexus SUV – Yes, it is terribly suburban and bourgeois, but so I am. (I call it being post-cool.) Anyway, the Lexus is where I write when I am blocked. Nice and roomy, reclining seats, rich Corinthian leather, satellite radio, if I want it. Hey’s it’s a post-modern VW microbus – at least in my mind. It’s great for driving around with the dogs and dreaming up lines. (Keep a dictaphone app on your cell phone.) Every poet should have one. Or, more likely, a spouse who has one.

from Richard Baldasty, author of Book Club Primavera:

1. Winter Solstice
   Benjamin Moore Paints

   “Resembling early evening shadows on freshly fallen snow . . . inspires thoughts of slipping into a warm wool sweater on a chilly night.”

   Also known as Gray

2. Outerspace from the Midnight Mystery collection
   Sherwin-Williams Paints

   “We’ve got a secret. It’s our dark side, and we’re irresistibly drawn to exploring its murky depths and shadows. The colors are moody, the vibe is masculine and the aesthetic is both Victorian and futuristic. Visible mechanicals intrigue us, while theatrical effects, eerie collections and menswear-inspired fabrics like tweed and hound’s-tooth evoke Sherlock Holmes and the Prohibition era of secret doors and speakeasies.”

   Also known as Slate

3. Vintage Chandelier
   Dulux Paints UK

   “Spacious and carefree, this beautiful shade has taken its inspiration from vintage routes.”

   Also known as Beige

4. Meringue from the Mystical series
   Krylon Products Group

   “As we sense a void in our neutral lives we are searching to fill it with spirituality and balance. We look to the sea and sky with their ethereal hues that are grounded with rich, deep colors from the earth. There is a shimmery quality to the colors in this palette which can be achieved with a touch of pearlescence.”

   Also known as Pale Yellow

5. Dream I Can Fly
   Benjamin Moore Paints

   “Youthful and uncomplicated, this rich, saturated hue is clean and crisp. Evoking daydreams of magic carpet rides, it feels fun and carefree.”

   Also known as Aqua Blue

Quotes are all from company websites or product fact sheets.

from Jose Angel Araguz, author of The Devil on His Wedding Night:

1. Albus Dumbledore: The most intriguing character in the Harry Potter stories (the man behind Snape, mind you) his poetic potential comes not only from his own story but in his possession of the Pensieve – a device that lets you extract and objectively view memories at a distance, thus enabling to see what you may have missed. I view the Pensieve as a metaphor for the blank page.
2. Anne of Green Gables: Say what you will – when this orphan girl describes spending the night up in a tree as akin to being inside a great cathedral she had me. She drops little gems like this throughout the first book.
3. Oskar Schell: From Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, this little boy, with his “heavy boots” and father issues, is a very compelling Frank O’Hara in the making. Poets, do yourselves a favor: read the first page of the novel. That second paragraph about devices to hear people’s heartbeats on the street left me smiling with jealousy.
4. Mattie Ross: From the Charles Portis novel True Grit, this young lady out to avenge the wrongful death of her father won me over with her tough and straightforward way with narrative. She comes alive on the page, telling her story with a great sense of place.  People cite Huckleberry Finn as a counterpart. I believe Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird is more a kindred spirit. A sense of fairness in choosing words that I imagine Elizabeth Bishop possessed. Bishop in the Wild Wild West, yo.
5. Paloma/Renee: The two main characters from Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog. They tell their stories through haiku and flights of intellectual fancy that leave your head spinning. You feel like you need to go read more to better your soul after reading these two: kinda like how I felt after reading Czeslaw Milosz and Anne Carson.

from Tim Suermondt, author of Fearing for the Astronauts:

1. Have at least one poem in your packet that’s about poetry and/or the writing of poems. I know, they say they hate it, but they’re not being entirely truthful: what self-respecting editor doesn’t agree with James Dickey, who said: “Poetry is the greatest goddamn thing in the Universe.” Well, you get the point. Flaunt “poetry” a little—it will do you and the editor, and your readers, good.
2. Before you send in a poem about your grandmother or an angel, make them as sexy as you can. I realize it’s hard to do with a grandmother, but you’re a poet after all. Angels are much easier: look at them flying around in skimpy dress, sitting provocatively on a cloud. They’d love your erotic attention.
3. Include a poem dealing with a historical figure—it will give you some gravitas and show that you’re not just interested in writing about yourself to the exclusion of just about anything else. Robert Lowell, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln are good ones to choose. Hitler and the like not so good. Your historical figure can still be living, but avoid Lindsay Lohan. Maybe try the Pope instead.
4. One of your poems should complain about how horrible the world is, and one of your poems should celebrate how wonderful the world is. Remember Adam Zagajewski’s claim that every line of a poem holds both tragedy and joy.
5. Since, unlike Richard Wilbur, I’ve had poems rejected (unbelievable as it sounds), ignoring all of this is fine. But it won’t get you in any better with the editors. Trust me.

from Rachel Natale, author of Poetic Material:

1. Wrap it neatly in smooth brown paper and secure it with twine—the sandalwood scent will linger in your nose. Carry these bundles with you wherever you go, handing them out when they become too light in your backpack and you fear losing touch with the ground.
2. Gather it up in buckets from the ocean, deep blinking blue in the afternoon. If you cannot carry the weight of it inside, the water will evaporate and leave piles of coarse salt crystals behind.
3. Plant it in rich soil, almost black, and watch bright blooms appear. Pluck a bouquet and place it on the windowsill. When the flowers begin to wilt, hang them upside down to dry. Each time you look at them, you will see the lingering beauty of things that inevitably end.
4. Scribble it down wherever you can, then slip it between the pages of books, crumple it up in your pockets, and hide it at the back of your dresser drawers. In the middle of winter, you will rediscover it while rustling through your favorite poems late at night, digging for a pen on the bus, or searching for a missing wool sock. Surprised, you will smile.
5. Pluck it from the sky, long strands of golden light that fall from the sun and rest on your eyelashes. Bury it deep in your organs, your skin, your bones, pouring molten joy into the hollow curves at the center of you. When you excavate your insides, you will find empty spaces filled in with heat.