The Trees The Trees is a book of poems

we will be leaving this place.

If you want to know about other things, go over to heatherchristle.tumblr.com. It is shiny and new.

Yesterday was a day of many librarians. The last call came from California. Thank you to everyone, to Jono and the lady with the cat and the man in the alley in Seattle and my mother and young writers in Iowa and young writers at Kenyon and Michael who asked for a poem I’d been neglecting and Zach and Ben and Molly and all of you Canadians.

Such weeks I have had!

and it’s a short one, just 10am to 1pm.

I wonder which will be the last poem.

“Half-Hedgehog Half-Man” was the first.

I wonder when the phantom rings will quiet.

and also there is a new review (by Molly Brodak) of the The Trees The Trees in The Faster Times. It is so carefully written as to be unexcerptable. I admire this.

Calls today answered from 10am to 6pm EST. Then for three hours tomorrow and then no more answering ever.

is the number of people I’ve talked to so far. Lines are closed for the day, but if you call tomorrow you will bring that number up to and beyond its limit.

Thanks to Nick Sturm, who wrote a review of The Trees The Trees for HTML Giant, which makes connections between the poems and two unlikely persons: Lil B and Macho Man Randy Savage.

Read today to a person who was driving, a person who was ill, a person on his birthday. And other people too.

just in from India:

“Christle is happy and excited. She loves it when people call her up taking a break from the work, or when they want to chat a little beyond the recitation. And she doesn’t mind even when the call comes while she is busy shopping.”
“And the callers? Are they happy with her recitation? Or do they think that she sounds like a big toad in the trumpet?”
 
“How could you say that, boss? No… let me tell you… the callers are happy and excited as well.”
“Good for them. What’s the name of the new collection?”
 
“The Trees The Trees.”
“What? Is it some environment thing? Trees, fruits and monkeys?”
 
“It is about emotions. And most of the poems are addressed to some ‘You’.”
“I told you, son… she’s chasing someone.”

was a man who performed the voices of Dr. Claw (from Inspector Gadget), Elroy Jetson (from The Jetsons), and the Cryptkeeper (from Tales from the Crypt). He told me his name but I was mid-thrift store with no pen. Now the name is lost to me.

Also someone called three times today without getting through! Dear persistent 319 number, I promise I will pick up next time, no matter what.

And then there were the friends, the marrying friend and the bathing friend.

Thank you all you people with your telephones and your lives.

for those of you who want to learn more about John Giorno’s Dial-a-Poem project, check out the ever-magnificent UbuWeb.

To read Frank O’Hara’s “Personism: A Manifesto,” try poets.org.

for press coverage. It’s over on the right.

Or you can call me yourself today, starting at 10am EST.

Thank you everyone for calling and for listening.

This was the strangest thing today, speaking with Julian Marshall from Newshour on the BBC World Service. (If you are looking for the segment, it’s the last one on the show.)

Lots of calls today from the UK. My (English) mother reminded me this afternoon that today was my (also English) grandfather’s birthday. So all these poems traveling across the Atlantic are for him.

The phone is off for now (as always in the evenings) but will be back on tomorrow morning, 10am EST. Sharp!

I hope you all have a good night. Thank you for your calls, for your listening, for your words.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/05/poet-buzz-reading-phone

is how I keep finding myself wandering through public spaces reading poems out loud.

And how so often that public space is a grocery store.

Perhaps today I should take myself to a more challenging environment.

What would that be?

In other news, some time between 3 and 4pm EST today I will be getting a call from the host of a radio show called “Slappy Pinchbottom’s Odd Preoccupation,” on KOOP, a community station in Austin, Texas. I will be reading a poem, just like always.

It’s exciting when groups of people call. I have talked to a couple from Toronto looking for a love poem, a class in Western Massachusetts, my sister and her vacation cohorts at Cape May, and two friends with one cat.

I want to read a poem to a swim team.

I want to be swimming right now.

who will answer when you call for a poem today, from 12pm-6pm EST.

Yesterday was magical. Thanks to all of these people for spreading the word.

And thanks to everyone who has called already. It was lovely to read to you!

Starting today!

Before you call (413.570.3077), you might want to pick a poem you would like to hear.

If you do not have a copy of the book, a list of the poems it contains is here.

If you want to hear a poem that refers to phones or phone calls, choose one with an asterisk.

If you don’t want to pick a poem, that’s okay. I can pick one for you.

Thank you for your patience.