The Nobel Prize

in other news, I just found out that my e-chapbook Ringing has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "Peace." Yes, Peace.

I don't know what to say, really. I am humbled.

Here's an excerpt from the committee's email to me:

Ringing embodies all that's good and great about the human spirit. In fact it enacts it, inspiring and lavishing greatness and goodness in all who read it. We, in fact, chant it softly while standing in the line to use the bathroom at the local pub. I'd go so far as to say that Ringing is just as important an addition to the human race as brillo pads or extenze pills. One of our members reports that his genital warps disappeared immediately after reading Ringing. The next day this same member (previously bald) woke to find himself with a full head of hair. Apples fall from the sky. Labradors appear round every corner. The blossoms and their hillsides have invaded the evil cities. Hummingbirds lurch in every skull. The world is aflame. And afoot. We have drank, and we are potent. All and every. The rain does not rain on us. We are the rain. The river does not flow into us. We are the river's children. And the river's father. We lie down in his arms and she tickles us and we laugh like steroids. Albert Einstein is stippling down. All the Mammoths and Sabertooths are rising. We sing and we whistle. Flare and fart. The days are like beads we clench inside us. Like the birth of Venus. Or a baby rabbit. Or a weasel, licking his fingers. The toads have arrived. And we bathe them. The stranger's rites.

thank you, Rauan, thank you