Ruminating Poet Press

In my new book, MACHINE LANGUAGE/BODY LANGUAGE, I use poetry to explore how our language and consciousness are rooted in our animal bodies, and question how we are related to "artificial intelligences," and what are our duties to our creations and to each other. I try to be serious, ask the right questions, explore the absurd, and sometimes even to find humor.

The cover painting is by Savannah artist Alejandro Giraldo and is titled "Finish Your Homework, Boy." And there we are, caught between our machines and our social expectations.

Come to the launch! I'll talk about the book a little, read a couple of poems, and we can talk about our AI fears and hopes. There will be snacks and lemonade, and the Bean's bar will be open.

Yesterday, August 13, I received shipment of 100 printed copies of my new book.

I will be working with BookLogix, a small woman-owned Georgia company that printed the book, to get the book available through Amazon and IngramSpark, but in the meantime, I am going to have fun personally selling copies.

In MACHINE LANGUAGE/BODY LANGUAGE, I use poetry to explore how our language and consciousness are rooted in our animal bodies, and question how we are related to "artificial intelligences," and what are our duties to our creations and to each other. I try to be serious, ask the right questions, explore the absurd, and sometimes even to find humor.

The poems contemplate who we are as humans, and how we do and may relate to the artificially intelligent creatures we imagine and create. How is the language we make from our bodies and bodily experience translated into a machine intelligence? Are artificial intelligences persons, simply simulacra of persons, or merely recombinations and presentations of computed texts? How are we related to these machine creatures, and what are our duties are to each other? May they become, inadvertently or by choice, our shadows and our avatars and our fate and our doom and our blessing and our karma or destruction? How we may change each other? 

AND THERE WILL BE A BOOK LAUNCH! 

On Saturday, August 29, we will be having a book launch, with the chance of buying signed copies of my new book and other books, at 7:00 pm at THE SENTIENT BEAN.

I'm back in Savannah, and will be back at the POETRY CO-OP OPEN MIC, which is every Monday at 7:00 pm at the WATER WITCH TIKI BAR.

And as long as it is not too hot or too wet (and yes, humidity counts), I plan to be in the Artists Market at Forsyth Park on Saturdays.

Back to the normal schedule of meeting every Monday.  

Every one gets five minutes. Don't be hateful.

Readers are welcome to read poems, fiction, memoir, diaries, letters, or any other prose. No music or standup.

MAY 13, 2026 AT 5:30 PM IN COFFEE/DELI AT HABERSHAM VILLAGE

Organized by Laine King, the author of Broke Rhymes and Other Grown Up Stories.

In addition to Laine, the local authors include Karen Dove Barr, Helen Pitts Bradley, Susan Earl, Lance Levens, Thuy Reed, and Marc Thomas.

I will be offering my newest book, In Time of War: More Poems of Resistance as well as all my earlier books.