Reb, do you believe in reincarnation, and even if you don't, what would you like to come back as anyway?

I definitely believe in reincarnation. It's the only thing that makes sense.  When my newborn son sleeps, he makes the same purring sounds my recently deceased cat made.  This concerns me because if he is Clyde reborn that means he's probably a very young soul and young souls are always trouble.

I hope in my next life I'm woman, just like I am in this one. Except I hope that I'm taller with smaller hips.

I've been on a comic book kick for a while and wonder what sort of super power I would like to have. It would  be a cross between having super strength and changing myself into different people and things. But I would prefer to have the power over people's minds. Make them do what I want. What sort of super ability would you like to have, Reb?

Those are all admirable super powers although the power over people's minds sounds especially dangerous. I would like the power to make people love me and also have the ability to turn that love off when I tire of them.

What's the strangest thing you've ever done?

I have never done anything strange.  I am 100% normal. The only sane person on this planet, I believe. It's a lonely existence.

The strangest writer you've ever read and why he or she is so strange.

Probably Whitman.  His poems have an excitability, energy and exuberance that often feels alien to me.

The strangest poem you have ever read.

I suppose in the traditional sense of "strange" the first thing that comes to mind would be many of the poems from Joe Wenderoth's "Letters to Wendys".  Or perhaps my initial impression as an undergraduate of Gertrude Stein's "As A Wife Has A Cow:  A Love Story." I'm drawn to pretty much anything strange, cause opposites attract (I'm normal).

So since this is a strange issue, name five strange things that has happened to you?

• Getting into a fight at a high school basketball game and my opponent's mother stepping in and hurling me against a trophy case.

• Being mistaken for a prostitute by a panhandler when I was 19.

• Falling in love with Tom Brokaw while he rubbed my back as we stood on the White House lawn.

• Falling in love with Russell Crowe while watching Gladiator only to have my heart broken afterwards when Lucy Grealy informed me that her friend slept with him and he had a really small penis.

• Falling in love.

So how did the idea of "No Tell Motel" come about for you and what are your thoughts on the e-zines you run head to head with? What do you prefer, ezine or magazine?

I prefer online magazine or journal.  My definition of "zine" is what some of us did in college—make fun, but silly, little pamphlets on a photocopier and pass them out to friends. Perhaps that's an outdated definition.

For years I wanted to edit a poetry journal, but didn't have the balls to start my own (what if it sucked and they all laughed?).  I was chatting with my friend and writer, P.F. Potvin, about how much I wanted to do it but did we really need *another* poetry journal?  P.F. responded, "Can there ever be too many poetry journals?" and it struck me that I was being defeatist and dopey and I should stop talking and start doing. I was fortunate enough to get Molly Arden to agree to assist with the editorial direction.  We probably only agree on 60-80% of the submissions, which I think is a good thing. I find her opinion invaluable. As for the whole "naughty housewife" theme, we decided to embrace who we are—we're both mischievous married mothers living in the suburbs. We're not hip or urban and while we both have MFAs, we're hardly ivory tower types.  We drink, we swear, we do arts and craft-like stuff, we're cruel to our doting husbands and suffer from the occasional nervous breakdown.  We own lots of pairs of shoes. I believe the poems we publish reflect this.

There are a lot of online journals that I admire, a few that come to mind are SOFTBLOW, DUCKY, 42Opus, Drunken Boat, Tarpaulin Sky, Octopus, TYPO and of course, MiPO.  What I don't quite understand is why many editors publish their online journals as if they were print journals—meaning publishing issues. Why not take advantage of the best feature of the medium—the ease of updating and publishing?  When fleshing out the No Tell concept, I used Daniel Nester's Unpleasant Event Schedule as a loose example to follow.  While UES doesn't publish daily like No Tell does, it publishes on a regular basis and doesn't bother with issues.  I also liked how it features a single poet a time and that's something we also incorporated.  We don't pay our contributors so we try to do everything possible to appropriately honor their work.  We make them Queen for a Week.

If you could call anyone right now, who would it be?

Typically I'm not much of a telephone chatter. But if I could talk to *anyone* it would probably be a dead person assuming they could talk back and it wouldn't just be me carrying on a one-sided conversation. I already do enough of that. Maybe one of my grandparents or friends who, as they say, left us way too soon.

Who or what would you be willing to wait in line for?

I've waited in a lot of lines and rarely has it been worth the wait. The longest line I ever saw was for Wheel of Fortune tryouts. I didn't bother jumping in that one. There are lots of people who pay a lot of money for doctors to mutilate them into something beautiful. You don't see me getting in line for that. On the other hand, I am nursing. Ask me again at summer's end. Maybe I'll get in line for a breast lift.

What sorts of poems would you like to read?

Poems that make me tingle and giggle. Poems that make my eyes roll. Poems that make me yell "That's what YOU think, motherfucker!" Poems that don't make me itch or constrict my breathing.

What would people be surprised to know about Reb Livingston?

I'm Jeff Goldblum's and Edna St. Vincent Millay's love child.

What bugs the hell out of you?

People who throw trash out their car windows. People who forward me urban legend e-mails as if these were facts without ever checking. Ex-boyfriends who won't return my diary.

What is your favorite piece of furniture in your home?

My bed. I recently got a new mattress. I don't get to spend enough time in bed anymore. But I do think about it. A lot.