Wallace Stevens's Birthday: The New Hallowe'en

Note: As is evident from the most recent entries, the site's original month-long party-throwing purpose has been extended to other poets besides the original and beloved Wallace Stevens--in fact, a different poet for each month. October was dedicated to Wallace, November is being dedicated to Hart Crane, and December and January have yet to be announced. All of the guidelines set out in the post below are applicable--I'm still asking you guys to send me artistic interpretations of poems and pictures of yourselves dressed up as lines of poetry. Photoshop seems to be particularly well-loved among our contributors so far, but feel free to buck that trend if the spirit moves you in other directions. Email me with questions if you have them, and send any and all submissions to happybirthdaywallace at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

Hello, and welcome to Emperor of Ice-Cream Cakes*, an online birthday party for Wallace Stevens that will occur throughout the entire month of October. Fuck that birthday week business (more like birthday weak, AM I RIGHT?); a week is not good enough for Wallace Stevens, and if it were possible I would devote an entire year to celebrating his birthday—a Sidereal year, even, which is like six hours longer. Anyway, I want you to come; namely, I want you to send me pictures of yourself and your friends dressed as lines of Wallace Stevens’s poetry. For example, in perusing the first stanza of “The Comedian as the Letter C,” I see that I could choose to dress as a Socrates of snails, as a musician of pears, as a wig of things, or as a nincompated pedagogue. Any of these would make excellent costumes, but I encourage you to dig deep into his collected poems to discover more and better ideas. I also want you to suggest appropriate drinks, music, decorations, finger food, and erotic games. Beginning on the 2^nd, the day Wallace Stevens himself slipped from his mother’s slithers, I will post any and every contribution that I receive—starting with my own. Please send your contributions to happybirthdaywallace at yahoo dot com. Feel free to include your own blog address in your email, and let me know how you want me to refer to you: full name, first name, or nickname.

*It is a lame joke, as Wallace would have wanted.

General FAQ

Q. May I send more than one photograph or list of suggestions?

A. Of course you may. I am hoping to get as many contributions as possible.

Q. Can I send a comic, a drawing, or a photoshopped image instead of a photograph of myself?

A. Absolutely.

Q. Can my contribution be a giant picture of my dick wearing a porkpie hat and carrying a briefcase? Alternately, can my contribution be a giant picture of my vagina with a Dominion Wide Mouth jar stuffed inside of it?

A. I would love nothing more. Anything that Blogger allows me to post, I will post.

Q. Can I send a picture of my baby wearing a costume, perhaps dressed as a concupiscent curd?

A. Please. Please do.

Q. What if I want to have a real birthday party for Wallace Stevens, in my real home, with my real friends?

A. Feel free--if you are some kind of hopeless nerd or something--to celebrate Wallace’s birthday in real life. From what I hear he is a piggy for attention. If you do have a real life party, be sure to send me those pictures as well.

Q. Can I come to the party even if I don't like Wallace Stevens?

A. Of course you may, but please be warned that the lion of my love for him is likely to leap out from between the vegetations of my heart and divide your brains from your face with his vigorous chewing if you do.

Q. I don’t understand! How can you dress as a line of poetry?

A. My cat, who is currently dressed as a mute and maidenly greenhorn, does not understand either.

Q. Who are you?

A. My name is Tricia. More generally, however, I am a chick who wants to throw a birthday party for Wallace Stevens, with streamers, hired animals, spangly hos eating fire, and people in costumes.

Further questions may also be directed to happybirthdaywallace at yahoo dot com, and I’ll extend or amend this post as needed over the next week. See you in October!