Well, summer school starts for students and teacher--but how fun since I teach "Reading Poetry" to 16 brave souls.

I read on a gay blog that a respected editor had no reason to celebrate gay pride, that he was just gay--what's the pride in that?  He is obviously young and doesn't understand.  Pride parade is not the spectacle of the parade, but that feeling of not being alone.  That all the poisons fed you over the year--doubt about yourself, the oneliness, the danger (been attacked at least 3 times)--get leeched out.  Perhaps living in a big gay world like NYC or SF, it's hard to understand the isolation many of us feel. 

I've been proud since coming out in the early 1980's--proud of surving childhood violence, proud of surviving broken hearts by straight men, proud of reporting crimes against me, proud of losing jobs, proud that my father didn't talk to me for the last 25 years and died hating his oldest son--and instead of making me bitter, I feel sorry for my Father.  He was a good man who helped to give me a sense of dignity at being a Latino and lost a son.  Sir Editor, do avoid gay pride because it's trendy.  But don't mistake your simple world as a mirror to mine.  Sex to me is still more like jade than something jaded.

I select John Barrowman as a gay actor happy with himself--in a gay/bisexual role in the Dr. Who spin-off "Torchwood" (coming this fall to USA) and who married his male partner.  Yes, there was a risk, the risk of being unhappy.

NEW: I'm writing something exciting, a long and experimental poem with the working title "Too Pure."  Jesse Glass of Ahadada Press suggested I have a second online chapbook.  Help his press (and my numbers) by downloading "Don Quixote Goes To The Moon" for FREE.  Here is the site:  www.ahadadabooks.com.  My chapbook, again for free, ranks number 5 of all their chapbooks!  Not bad for a gay author among the avant.  Someone proud of being gay.  Go to the home page, click on the right side where it says downloads, and then the next page I'm in the top 5 listing--me or my work--same thing?  Anyone sharing their work?  Love music, visuals, art, art of any kind.

That new Enrique Iglesias song is addictive--like eating a wedding cake in 4 minutes!  Link:  http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=83364077