I live with one man and three cats. Wait—we have many plants here too. I am thinking about winter and the annuals that won’t be returning. My parents, in their 80s, live walking distance from us. My family is present. Family: I’m sinking—but some people, plants, and animals prevent drowning.

Some neighbors may not see us as a family. We can’t get married in Pennsylvania, the keystone state—the key into stone. If we could, we might choose not to get married. Despite legal whims, we will be a family. No judge will call any of our cats to testify. Fair trials aren’t in style when it comes to gay people.

Been told this—families are about procreation. You fuck. A child pops out. A school appears. The kid leaves home. Christmas cards and texting. This is a family? It sounds like a launching pad into a schedule, a do-list. Jack Blanchard and Misty Morgan had a country music hit in 1971 called “There Must Be More To Life (Than Growing Old). Maybe they are right. Family is more to life. But families grow old too. Stan. Three cats. Coneflowers and a passion flower vine.

I am the enemy. Families “have to” be hetero. Like a title that is handed down from a king to a prince. The have to died in a fire. I am. The enemy. But not I am. We are. My family is the enemy. Stan’s nephew said he hates his English class—English is “so gay.” It is. At its best. He sits on a chair on our porch, talks, and never sees us. We are too gay to be seen.

I live with three cats. One man. Did I forget to mention that my responsibility is to change the litter boxes? Did I mention that Stan’s is to update our computers? Un/traditional families. Us? How untraditional can you be when watching George Burns and Gracie Allen is an ideal evening? There must be. More to life. Than growing. Old. Maybe there isn’t more. But along the way, a sweet pat on the head, a meow to get back in from the porch. The allemandan’s yellow illuminating a window. Family. I should mention that we have over 100 blossoms right now on our toad lilies. They advocate for us better than I can.

Ken's poetry appeared in Issue 1. His poem "While the Roofer" is among the best of the work we've published.

In October, we're bringing back our Contributor Feature. We've asked our contributors to send us their thoughts on Nontraditional Families and will be posting their essays on the subject throughout the month. To even further increase the dialogue on this subject, we're inviting YOU to send us a poem of 50 lines or fewer on the topic. Send your poem in the body of an email to editor@theexternalist.com, along with the phrase:

I do hereby grant The Externalist permission to post this poem on The Externalist blog. I recognize and agree that there shall be no payment other than my byline.

Be sure to include "Blog Feature: Nontraditional Families" in the subject header and we may choose to publish your poem this month alongside our authors!

We are proud to announce our nominations for Best of the Net 2009!

Congratulations and good luck to all of our nominees!

It has always been my opinion that "Externalism" was very not-new, and that most of the best poets in history have been Externalists according to our definition. It was only in the last, unfortunate century that poets got away from the engagement with the real world we are trying to rescue through Externalism. To prove my point, and also to show that there are Externalists everywhere on all sides, I recommend The Selected Poems of Yehuda Amichai, translated by Chana Block and Stephen Mitchell. Amichai, 1924-2000, was the most celebrated Israeli poet of the 20th century, and for my money, one of the greatest poets who ever lived. As might be expected of an Israeli poet, he frequently grapples with such solid Externalist topics as war and cultural conflict, while simulaneously showing the effect of the same on human life and love. From the incredible "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children":

God has pity on kindergarten children.
He has less pity on school children.
And on grownups he has no pity at all,
he leaves them alone,

From "Seven Laments for the War-Dead":

Mr. Beringer, whose son
fell at the Canal that strangers dug
so ships could cross the desert,
crosses my path at Jaffa Gate.

He has grown very thin, has lost
the weight of his son.

In the hands of these experienced translators and poets Amichai's poems come into English with something like the muscular power and sensual beauty they have in Hebrew. They aren't fancy, but they will nail you to the wall.

The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai
Edited and Translated by Chana Block and Stephen Mitchell
University of California Press, 1996
ISBN-13: 978-0520205383

We're past due for a poetry recommendation. Leonard Schwartz's A Message Back and Other Furors will appease both your externalist side and your experimental side; the side of you that admires the structure of language and the side that wants to rebel against it. This is a book of poetry that you will read again and again--not because the text requires it to be understood, but because the text requires you to want to understand.

Thoughtful reading,
L.

Write about the role of the State in parenting. This article can serve as a starting point: http://tinyurl.com/lylecx.

In the Wisconsin town of West Bend, a large group of citizens is attempting to get young adult books with homosexual content moved to the adult section of the library and a second group from Milwaukie has called for one of the books to be publicly burned. The Externalist adamantly opposes book censorship in any form. As such, this week we are recommending one of the top GLBT books out there, Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman. You can purchase this and other GLBT titles, such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and baby be-bop by Francesca Lia Block at Powells.

Why our fascination with sex scandals & politics? http://tinyurl.com/pecl2v Explore an alternative commonality between the two major political parties in the U.S.

Over the next week, we will continue to add content to the new site with a special focus on completing our Contributor Directory. After that, we'll begin work on the Contributor's Books page to make it easier for you to find books to buy (please don't ask us to add an Amazon links to these books--we won't). Then we'll be able to begin the migration process from the old blog to this new one. In the interim, I'll try to remember post all of our contributor announcements and such in both places.

We're very excited about the changes coming to The Externalist and hope you are, too. But if you have any suggestions, please drop us a line. We love to hear from our readers!

Thoughtful reading,
L.