Links, Updates, and Selected Works of Jenne Kaivo

It is true that I know not what I do: I have no money, and no publicist. I hope to have some ratings, good and true and likes on instagram if I persist. However, when it comes to social things and of all social things, media most I act as bound by certain unseen strings I act as though I am, in fact, a ghost. I go back to it, every now and then to build my online presence and my brand. Ignore it and ignore again, again. At least I cannot say that I have been banned. Cruel market's unseen hand, harken to me: Send me sense, without pressing scrutiny.

Goodreads Book Giveaway Poems Mostly of the Sea by Jenne Kaivo Giveaway ends October 06, 2019. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway I've started a Kindle giveaway for 100 free copies of PMotS! The hardcopy giveaway ended yesterday, with 10 winners, but I forgot to post it here. 1,209 people signed up anyway, so that went pretty well.

Anglerfish From its very beginning life has been tenacious even where the sun that sustains is away. Death creates life and life is voracious. We should all take a note from the patience of anglerfish, with their teeth and their twinkling lights. There are soggy rock places without any lights where long pillars grow because the tenacious water drips down as unstopping as anglerfish. You can erode but you can't take away. A cave may be hidden but never forgotten: it will be revealed, because life is voracious and the river that eats through the rock is voracious like the empty-gut cores of the heavenly lights. Two atoms merge, burst in pain, are forgotten but not without purpose, because their tenacious deathsongs light worlds that are deathsongs away. In the distance, they look just like anglerfish. When I am asleep I have jaws like an anglerfish lined with spike fangs, and I'm dull and voracious, like my slimy-fish past which will not go away. ...

This was published in Arsenic Lobster, and is included in Poems Mostly of the Sea: Eyes Unastounding Who cried in the hall as I walked On the rug that looped tight as a noose? Who was it, and why Could not I have stopped? Long over, I’ve bypassed the door. Long gone, though the brakes on the hill Caterwaul and deprive me of sleep. I demand that I sleep. I demand as I still live, I do as I please. I demand if you kill me, You take me outside of the town. Do it far as can be from the center of town. Eyes overwhelming Stare down through the cracks in the Ceiling I’m under. I hope most of all I may sleep. Eyes unastounding Are fastened on me in the Street, I am freakish. That now matters little to me. Eyes in the mirror, The worst of them all, remind Me of eyes in the Ceiling I’m under. And these eyes deprive me of sleep.

My book, Poems Mostly of the Sea , is now available for purchase on Amazon! The Kindle edition bundles free with the paperback, if you want it to. There may be some minor changes made as I get the second proof and pick a few nits, but the benefit of this form of publishing is that I will absolutely be able to make them, with only a few days for review.

I've often been asked whether I have an archive of my work online. That's what this blog is supposed to be for, but one thing that's prevented me from posting often is the fact that almost all literary magazines require your submissions never to have been published before, even on a personal blog. Considering that most literary magazines pay nothing but exposure, and "exposure" can sometimes mean "we will spell your name wrong and delete the entire issue from our archives in six months", I have finally decided to start living in the future and use Amazon to publish the manuscript I've been sitting on for a couple of years. It's 2019, we're all supposed to be exposing ourselves! One major benefit of self-publishing through Amazon is that I will have complete creative control over my work. I've selected the cover from my own photography, laid each poem out in order according to my specific vision, and, if I realize something could be word...

Look at me, I created a bandcamp! So far, I've got six poems on there, with full text and free to listen/download. This number will grow if I remember to be competent.