Jim Behrle, Zadie Smith, Sexy Robots, and the Chicago Poetry Tour

Jim Behrle (pictured above) has launched Baby Trotsky a Twitter literary magazine featuring, of course, 140 character poems and short (short!) stories.  Who knows if it will be as successful as Twitter's LOLcat haiku, or Anon Poetry (or even the PoFo's own Poetry News), but Mr. Behrle is nothing if not devoted to his projects, so we can all hope.  Send your submissions now, before it gets overrun by disgruntled canwehaveourballback rejects.

In other Zadie Smith news, Coudal Partners, a Chicago design firm, features a very cool "poetry meme" on their very cool website.

Though the phone number appears defunct now, for a while poetry-heads could call up and leave their favorite short poem as a voice mail message.  The editors culled the responses, and showcased the most interesting, tops being the aforementioned Ms. Smith reading Frank O'Hara's "Animals."

(Thanks, Fred)

But perhaps you are done with your phone and spend all your time listening to that sexy robot reading Poet's Market to you on your Kindle 2.0?  Was it worth it?  The  AP reports: maybe.  The $359 Amazon.com reading machine reportedly costs about $185 to make, compared to the function-diversified iPhone (retailing between $199-$699, contract-depending), which costs about $174.33 to build.  Poetry books remain about $15.

Lastly, anyone in Chicagoland should check out the Chicago Poetry Tour in podcast form, or, if you can't make it in town for the sweltering summer and pothole season, then in multimedia goody format (I particularly like the entry on the Danny's Reading Series).

Oh, and also there's this: The United Nations World Digital Library, featuring the book of psalms translated into verse.