Quote for the week

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.  ~    Stephen Sondheim

Checking in with the world

The weekend has felt like such a waste. I basically spent Saturday and a good part of today on bed.  I have not felt good for three or four days now but have been in denial of being sick.  I'm feeling better this evening. Not sneezing any longer. My sinuses better and my head doesn't feel like it has the weight of cinder blocks in it. I still feel achy and a cross between tired and being tired of being tired.


Of course this sort of conditions leads to the mind going off in left field and conjuring up the strangest things. For example, I was thinking about what if we could construct a transcript of our thoughts without interruption for a whole day. What would it look like?  How would we segway from say uncomfortable thoughts into something else?
 
On a positive note, I woke up this morning in time to listen to New Letters on the Air.  Angelia Elam was interviewing Aimee Nezhukumatathil during her trip into Kansas City last spring to read as part of an ethnic poetry series by Park University and the Kansas City Public Library. This must be Aimee week or something because she was also featured on How A Poem Happens. Love in the interview her thoughts on the Villanelle.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil - How A Poem Happens

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is featured on How A Poem Happens today. Check it out here!

Aimee is the author of Miracle Fruit and At the Drive-In Volcano.  I've read Miracle Fruit and I’ve witnessed one of her readings in person. Aimee is brilliantly funny and her work commands attention when read aloud or to yourself from a page. What she does with food in words could challenge an Iron Chef.


At the Drive-In Volcano

Miracle Fruit

Fishbone

Birthday Book

 Arriving in the mail today.... Edgar Allen Poe and the Juke-Box - Uncollected Poems, Drafts, Fragments. I've been interested in this book for some time. It's a collection of previously unpublished works of Elizabeth Bishop. I've never read a lot of Bishop but I was interested in this when it first came out. Elizabeth Bishop had a reputation for being a real stickler about her work. Many have theorized that she would not have been happy to see this material in print, but I'm a sucker for things about poets that shed more insight into who they are and what impacts their work. Hence I've taken an interest in to books like Plath's Letters Home, Plath's Journals, Ted Hughes's letters, Anne Sexton's letters, to name a few. Anyway, this was a birthday present that arrived today and I'm anxious to start reading it.


On another note, tonight I saw Gretchen Rubin at the Plaza Library where she talked about The Happiness Project. An overflow crowd. Fascinating woman and story. More on this in the near future.


The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Poetic Vacuum

I’m in London, or so it would seem. The fog here has settled in this past week like an occupying army. It was cool at first, but the bullet gray is growing old and is quite depressing.

Yesterday I was certain I was coming down with something. Motivation was gone after work last night. Felt better this morning but not exactly great.

It was also yesterday that I felt there was no poetic dialogue going on. I don’t just mean that I felt a lack of connection with any other poets – but I felt there was no internal poetry dialogue with myself. I don’t especially like it when I feel there is a poetic vacuum. Do you know what I mean? Anyone else ever feel this way?

Where's the humanity?

I feel a deafening poetic silence about me this morning.

Recent Journal Bits

• January 6 - note: I'm still having trouble writing this year correctly.


• January 6 - "what I know of you / fits well in my cupped hand / it's all there is."

• January 7 - " Januarys grace is the slowly rising plum of smoke from the fireplace / chimney against the dark blue sky of a children's picture book."

• January 9 - "What do you suppose / the dead take with them / memories caramelized by years  / of turning, sautéed in the juices  / thank make up life?"

• January 10 - "Venation Blinds have great dexterity...  they align themselves so well / precise as the feet of a marching brand / white spats going up and down / in perfect cadence.

• January 10 - quote: "The late poems are the ones / I turn too first now ... they are made of words that have come the whole way" W.S. Merwin - Worn Words from The shadow of Sirus.

• January 16 - add the word pellucid to my word list - admitting the passage of light, transparent or translucent . Transparently clear in style or meaning.

Unconscious Mutterings Week 364

You say and I think....


1.Weak :: knees

2.Flashy :: bling

3.Sack ::  sad sack

4.Business :: listing

5.Purple :: heart

6.Fan :: baseball

7.Airline :: ticket

8.Guide :: TV

9.Lunch :: box

10.Exercise :: aerobic



get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

Some cheery news

After a two year absence from New York busses and subway, Poetry in Motion is returning. Poetry in Motion had been in opperation for 15 years and became a  model for other such programs in other cities.

For a glimpse of what commuters will see in 2010 - some Emily Dickinson, a 10th century Japanese poem, a 9th century Aztec poem and a "cheeky, chiding poem" by Stevie Smith called Deathbed of a Financier among other works.

Source

Your three words for 2010?

Last night I did something I’ve been intending to do for some time now. I got comfortable on the bed and pulled out a file folder with some of my poems and began separating them into stacks based on how I thought they might work into a manuscript idea that I have. I found some that I believe will work as they are. Another group that I believe could work but I feel require anything from some minor tweaking to more involved rewrites; however I can still see working. Then there are the rest of them.


I would like to have had more that I thought would be a good fit, but I still have some material that was not printed out in that folder. I have material in a couple of other places, like our desktop that I don’t use for writing any longer and just some hard copies of work that I’m not quite sure where the original files are. Fortunately I’ve gotten better about how I retain my work, but there are things that fall into the hole of historically I’ve not always been so good about it.


I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty details of what my goal is here, but I did set some general timelines back in September about a manuscript and I am working to stay focused on this project.


Contrary to my norm, I did make some new years resolutions and I am happy to say that at this tinder age of 2010, I’ve stuck to them.


This has nothing to do with my specific resolutions, but I was trying to think if I could select a three year mantra for 2010, what it might be. There were several things that came to my mind, but in the final analysis, I chose these: “Read, write, more.”



What three words define what you wish for in 2010?

Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project

I've previously mentioned The Happiness Project here but I've learned this weekend that Gretchen Rubin - formerly of Kansas City and the author of four books will be speaking at the Plaza Branch Library here in Kansas City on Wednesday, January 20th at 6:30.  I'm putting this on my Calendar right now!




Power Money Fame Sex: A User's Guide

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: A Brief Account of a Long Life


Forty Ways to Look at JFK

A Missourian by birth...

 Tree Swenson, Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets, announced  today that Naomi Shihab Nye and Marie Ponsot have been elected to the Board of Chancellors, the Academy's advisory board of distinguished poets. Nye is a Missourian by birth having been born in born in St. Louis in 1952. She makes her home in Texas now but has been described as a a citizen of the world.  Her poetry often crosses borders and fosters understanding.  I know little of Marie Ponsot but Nye is truly a wonderful ambassador for poetry everywhere.

In My E-mail This Morning

• A rejection letter for 3 poems.   :(
• Word of the day - dysgraphia. Bad news nearly always follows when dys- begins a word, and so it does here: dysgraphia is an inability to write coherently, either as a learning disorder or a result of brain damage or disease. The Greek roots mean "difficult writing."
• $30 Amazon.com birthday gift certificate.   :) Yeah!
• Urgent Attention, I am here on off-shore banks inspection exercise. Based on the report on your abandoned transaction file, only $2M have been approved to your family from the will.  [Oh Darn, I was hopeful it would be at least $5M]

Quote for the week

Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us - never cease to instruct - never cloy.  ~ Charles Caleb Colton

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 363

Subliminal word associations. You say.... I think:

1.Resolutions :: New Year

2.Page :: turm

3.Narrow :: ruled

4.Refuse :: decline

5.Fountain ::  pen

6.Grunt :: strain

7.Construct :: build

8.Nightmare :: dream

9.Inch :: worm

10.Instant :: message

get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

Coffee Break - Announcements

Taking a short break from writing today to have a salad and post a few notes here.

Here's an announcement for those in our neighboring state of Kansas.
Kansas Voices writing contested, sponsored by the Winfield Arts & Humanities Council, is back for its 21st year. Authors are urged to submit short stories, prose or poetry.  Details here.

Issue 30 of Right Hand Pointing is up.

TWP POETRY READING SERIES @ THE JOHNSON COUNTY LIBRARY

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 7:00 pm  - Johnson County Public Library, 9875 W. 87th, Overland Park, KS

Featuring Jo McDougall and Steve Paul

TWP SALON  - Monday, January 25, 2010 - 7:00 pm - Open Mic opportunity hosted by Sharon Eiker
3607 Pennsylvania  - Kansas City, Missouri


Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Tails Of The City : National children's pet poetry contest deadline extended

The American Pet Products Association (APPA) will be accepting poems for its 2nd Annual APPA National Children's Pet Poetry Contest through February 15, 2010 at 5 p.m. EST.

Third, fourth and fifth grade students are invited to pen a unique poem about their pets and then post it to petsaddlife.org or mail it to: Pets Add Life, 45 Winter Street, Reno, NV 89503.

Two students from each grade level (six total) will win a $250 gift certificate for pet products, and a by-line in a nationally circulated publication. In addition, the six winning students' classrooms will each receive a $1,000 scholarship to spend on pet-related education.

Posted By: Amelia Glynn (Email, Facebook) | January 08 2010 at 11:40 AM

Tails Of The City : National children's pet poetry contest deadline extended

 

Technorati Tags: childrens pet poetry

Brrrr...

Single digit temperatures and -0 wind chill, this was my view leaving work yesterday. Each day we seem to be redefining cold here in the Midwest. Tonight is supposed to be a new low. Given how things look, this weekend should/could be a great weekend for writing.

I've drug out my copy of The Artist's Way again and decided it's time to re-examine what I'm doing for the sake of creativity.  Especially since I feel like I'm in a somewhat conflicted state at the moment. I'm trying to look at it positive and a growing place but frustration isn't affording me any particular comfort. Basically I'm trying to project a different style of writing but I'm less satisfied with the results (more often then not) and it wants to pull me back to a more abstract approach. I'm thinking what I really needs is to be someplace between the two. I'm feeling as I move away from the abstract my voice becomes bland. There are other poets I admire who can do this well- I know it can be done.

Attention Metrophobics

"Does the thought of poetry make you nauseous? Does it trigger a dry mouth and clammy hands? Does your heart feel like it’s going to pound right out of your chest? Do your legs turn to rubber bands?" If so, help is on the way. For only $147 you can get a Home Study program of CDs and a Work Book or if you prefer, for the paltry sum of $2497 you can get one-on-one Private Sessions with Board-Certified Specialist to help you eliminate your underlying fear. This according an internet site that can be found here.


I’m so glad there is hope for people suffering from metrophobia. It seems there are so many metrophobics out there. Some of my own family may be metrophobic. This of course causes me to wonder why or how I escaped the condition? Is there a genetic predisposition towards this condition? If so, perhaps we can isolate the gene that controls our poetic responses and tweak it a bit to make poetry a little more palatable. Of course, if such therapy became possible, poetic gene therapy could put the previously mentioned site out of business.

A bit overdue for Journal Bits

A few journal bits from recent writings-

Dec. 15th “and now I / Foam to wheat, glitter of seas / The child’s cry [from Ariel by Sylvia Plath]

Dec. 15th when your room is a town / and the hallways a thoroughfare / to climb into your own bed is trespassing

Dec. 16th What is it that keeps us focused and what are the things that derail us?

Dec. 22nd Trying to expose the soul is like catching carp with bare hands. If a soul wanted to be seen and recognized for all that it is it would show a little leg.

Dec. 24th Silence is the reversible side.

Dec. 24th. Guilt creeps through superficial cracks…

Dec. 26th I failed miserably.

Dec. 26th I don’t choose them; they find me (morning thoughts)


Dec 27th What does one have to do to get a glass of plain water?

Dec. 27th “The poet’s only hope is to be infinitely sensitive to what his gift is, and this itself seems to be another gift that few poets possess.” [Ted Hughes – London Magazine Vol. 1 NO. 2 1962]

Dec. 29th “pulp non-fiction / outdated upon arrival”

Jan 1st “I see the pox / on the old man’s face”

Jan 4th We’ve evolved into a voodoo age… Our current socio-political climate is so amerced in a high voltage hate that most Americans are of a mindset that they whish harm to come to those who are of a different (and usually believed inferior) view then themselves.

Unchopping A Tree

Artist and architect Maya Lin has produced a video which is inspired by a W.S. Merwin poem of the same name and focuses on how we would feel if deforestation came to the city parks that we love the most. It’s a quietly powerful piece that I hope many people have an opportunity to see.

 

Maya Lin - Unchopping a Tree from What is Missing? Foundation on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: Maya Lin,W.S. Merwin,Unchopping A Tree

A Thought for the week

The concept that an artist would be revered by popular culture is an immediate dismissal of his relevance as an artist. ~Thomas Kinkade

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 362

You say - I think:

1. 365 :: days

2. Tombstone :: pizza

3. Dumb :: luck

4. Intrusive :: government

5. Fat :: cat

6. Axe :: Lizzy Borden

7. Planned :: vacation

8. Spike :: Lee

9. Bleach :: stain

10. Shopkeeper :: Clerk

get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

There are Consequences

Feline steps are deliberate
cautious intermittent pauses-
to allow for adjustments.

No one expects life
to be without recalculations
or changes.

It is our prerogative
to make u turns
even if the law doesn't allow

for it, the road itself will
not hinder us
or the police that follow.

Boring? Think Again

For those who might think all things poetry equals boring, think again. We who chose our words with great thought are quite capable of sparking sharp discourse. There are a couple of excellent examples of this going on right now in full public view.


On the national scene there is the ongoing and seemingly unending friction over a $200 million gift to Poetry Magazine by Ruth Lilly, the 94 year old reclusive philanthropist and drug heiress who died this past week. The basic story is old news to most poets, but the death of Ms. Lilly seems to have drawn media attention back to it by as evidenced by a series of new articles that have appeared in print these last few days.


For an art form often marginalized, such a gift was both shockingly exciting and on some level a bit difficult to rationalize. The Poetry Foundation which publishes Poetry Magazine is operated by a staff of four. It has a circulation of 12,000 and an annual operating budget of about $700.000 which makes such a gift seem a bit like overkill. But for many, it’s not so much the gift as it is the administration of the Foundation that has been the focus of discussion. Some, including a former trustee have been critical of the foundation’s expenditure of $25 million to build a “Home for Poetry” in Chicago. John Barr , the director has also been criticized for giving his wife a job at the Foundation. Complaints have reached the Illinois Attorney General who is looking into "questionable governance and management practices."


Back in my home state, the selection of a second Poet Laureate have has brought some criticism of the Governor’s office who has posted an application for the position that looks more like they are searching for a CEO of a fortune 500 Company than an ambassador for an art. It asks for instance to: “Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, which could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the Governor” and “Is there anything in your or your spouse’s background that might become an embarrassment to you if it were to become public? Please consider carefully any letters to the editor, blog posts, etc., which you or your spouse may have authored, even anonymously.” It also asks about associations with other individuals which might be a source of embarrassment. I’ve not personally seen applications used in other states, but according to a January 2nd Columbia Tribune article, “Application forms for poets laureate in other states do not ask similar questions.” The same article notes several individuals have expressed disappointment about such approach to the search and at least on poet with national accolades that said he was not interested in applying with these terms.


The outgoing Poet Laureate Walter Bargen, said he was not asked to fill out an application but he and his wife did agree to a State Highway Patrol background check. He was asked if there was anything they should know about. Bergen to them, “I grew up in the ‘60s,” and that he once used the world “nipple” in a poem.

VISITOR # 50,000

It seems a nice way to kick off the new year is to make it with this site having been visited by its 50,000th unique visitor. Yeah! An thank you to all 50,000 peeps.

A new year and a new book in my reading stack. I’m not only working through Winter Pollen - (writings and essays by Ted Hughes) but I picked up a copy The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin today. This book was published by Copper Canyon Press and I’m always impressed with the quality of their books. I’m anxious to share my thoughts on this book once I’ve read it. Merwin is among my favorite poets.

I kind of like that I’m kicking the year off with a male poet as I tend to be drawn disproportionately to the work of female poets. This isn’t a complaint, just an observation.

Who’s on your reading table at the moment?

Technorati Tags: W.S. Merwin,Ted Hughes Letters,50,000th visitor,The Shadow Of Sirius,Winter Pollen

Happy New Years!

The final hours of the decade are slipping by… I made a run to Taco Bell on the spur of the moment and then stopped off for a bottle of Chardonnay. The traffic was frantic. I sensed many are anxious to get this decade over, as if they could grease it and slip out of it a bit ahead of time.

So many are writing about the decade past or future expectations. Lots of New Years Resolutions. I’ve made some, though I normally take a dim view of the practice, something has driven me to do so this year. I’ve committed them to a page in my journal and I’m not going into them here, not now. There are a litany of bad things to say about the past ten years. I could repeat many I’m sure you’ve heard or can recount all to well from personal experiences. That is not what I want to do here. Instead I want to point out a positive story I read this evening. It even relates to poetry!

Christine Klocek-Lim blogs at November Sky Poetry and she writes poetry. I’ve followed her blog for a while now as well as read her on-line journal Autumn Sky Poetry. Still, I learned more about Christine in post from today then I ever knew about her. She writes about her metamorphous as a poet over the past ten years and it’s a story of challenges and successes. It’s a positive story and I think it’s a good way to pass out of this decade and into the next. Read and enjoy Christine’s story – Ten years of internet poetry (is poetry dead?) It’s a good note to end the year on.

Have a safe, a prosperous and a joyous new year!

Technorati Tags: Christine Klocek-Lim,November Sky Poetry

The Scavenger : GPS locates water, offers poetry for illegal immigrants crossing desert

 

I ran across this story tonight and had to share it. 

Here's how the tool works. The phone, loaded with free GPS software, displays a digital compass that locates water stations installed by John Hunter, founder of the Water Stations project. Stations that are too far will not be displayed. The phone pinpoints "safety sites" -- such as Border Patrol station, a clinic or a church -- and includes poetry written by Amy Carroll to "welcome you to the U.S," said Dominguez. Encrypted to avoid detection by authorities, phones are $30 and should be available by summer.

CLICK BELOW TO READ THE FULL STORY

The Scavenger : GPS locates water, offers poetry for illegal immigrants crossing desert

 

Technorati Tags: poetry for illegal immigrants,The Scavenger,Amy Carroll

Saving our forests is in / Tiger Woods is out

You know how you see something out of the corner of your eye and you think it says something but on closer look, it says something else.  I saw this link Couple Following GPS Get Stranded for 3 Days but on first glance I would have sworn it read, Couple Following GOP Get Stranded for 3 Days. I mean I can see how they could have gotten lost.
This has been a crazy year for politics at home and around the world. The Republicans eating their own, so to speak; Democrats finding even with a majority it is difficult to rule. In Iran, the people decry a what they believe a stolen election and the ruling government finds an enemy not from the west, but right there at home.


As is often the case with a year passing we see things some things that follow it out the door and new things or at least different things become vogue.  My in and out list:

• Phone applications are in / Land lines are out
• Hybrid Vehicles are in / The Hummer is a bummer (out)
• Collaboration is in / Competition is out
• Staycation is in / Vacation is out
• More tasks on the job is in / Bonuses to executives is out
• Saving our forests is in / Tiger Woods is out
• Staying put is in / Moving is out
• Main Street is in / Wall Street is out
• Saving is in / Investing is out
• Paying online is in / mailing the bills is out
• Sarah Palin is in / Governor Palin is out
• Keith Olbermann is in / Sean Hannity is out
• Reading is in / Jay Leno is out
• Project Runway is in / Dancing with the Stars is out
• Starbucks Coffee is back in / McDonalds Coffee is out
• News online is in / Newspapers are out
• Screaming at your Congressman is in / Writing your Congressman is out
• Afghanistan is in / Iraq is out
• Twitter is in  / IM is out
• Texting is in  / Calling is out
• Value is in / Price is out

I suppose I could go on but I have to stop somewhere so for now, this is my list.  I’m not saying all these changes are for the good, but some are. At any rate, another year from now many of the newly In items will be on the way out anyway.

Technorati Tags: In & Out List for 2009

An American Sentence 4

I’m compelled ask the question are we safer today from ourselves?

Search for Missouri's Next Poet Laureate

Governor Jay Nixon has signed an executive order establishing the procedure for selecting  Missouri’s second poet laureate. The new laureate, who will replace Walter Bargen is to be named in January.

Nixon has an advisory committee that includes three representatives from the Missouri Center for the Book and two individuals named by the Governor. This committee of five is charged with soliciting, publicizing and encouraging nominations for the post. They will develop additional selection criteria, [minimal criteria established by the executive order: resident of state, a published poet, active in the poetry community, be willing and able to promote poetry in the state throughout the two-year term], reviewing and evaluating the nominations, and recommending candidates for appointment to the Governor.

The committee is comprised of: Thomas F. Dillingham, Associate Professor of English at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Missouri; Kris Kleindienst, co-owner of an independently owned bookstore in St. Louis; Carl Phillips, Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis; Kevin Prufer, author of a number of books of poetry and winner of three Pushcart prizes as well as an National Endowment of the Arts fellowship, from Warrensburg, Missouri; and Cheryl D.S. Walker, poet, lawyer and native of St. Louis.

I’m delighted to see the Governors approach to this appointment. Given this is nearly the end of December I would have hoped the committee would have had a little more time to give to the process. Those named to the panel appear to be reasonable choices for the search; I am however disappointed that the five member panel has a heavy St Louis tilt.

It would be nice to see at least one Kansas City area person on that panel.

A copy of the application for for consideration can be found here.

What I'm Reading

I started a new book today.  Winter Pollen - Occasional Prose edited by William Scammell.  The book is  a collection of reviews, essays and articles by Ted Hughes, much of which originally appeared in newspapers, magazines and journals. I'll let you know what I think of it once I get a little deeper into it.

Is tomorrow Monday again? [heavy sigh]

Unconscious Mutterings week 361

You say... I think:

1. Classified :: ads

2. Praised :: child

3. Censored ::  book

4. 2010 :: decade

5. Lamp :: shade

6. Alternate :: lifestyle

7. Script :: post

8. Handsome :: man

9. Eager :: beaver

10. Meeting :: business
 
 
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

Take a deep thought...

Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn. ~Thomas Gray

Christmas has passed, the snow hasn’t

Snow came to visit us for Christmas but I understand it was pretty much making the rounds all over the Mid-west.

Thankfully our travel yesterday was safe. It was all local but the highways were still challenging. Visited my son & had a Christmas meal with him at his house. Cathy cooked a scrumptious lunch.

So we saw a son and on of our daughters. The other two daughters were out of the area but at least they were able to see each other.

It’s so quiet quiet here today I can hear myself thinking. Ok, maybe an exaggeration but not much. Actually I was thinking about some of the books I read this year. There were some  impressive poetry collections published.

By far most of the books I read this year were in fact poetry books. Otherwise biographies and some political non-fiction and baseball non-fiction. I’m wondering if I would best be described as a narrowly focused reader or a poets dream come true?

An American Sentence 3

Silence is the white space around all the chatter we see on a page.

It’s the Season of Red… get in the spirit, give blood

I took time today to do a double platelet donation at our local blood bank.  I’ve never done platelet donations before but have been donating whole blood for many years now. Today I passed the 5 gallon mark.

Platelet donation takes longer but they are critical for patients with blood disorders, such as leukemia and aplastic anemia. They help stop bleeding. Fresh frozen plasma increases the level of clotting factors to help control bleeding.Red blood cell transfusions are critical for many patients who have suffered a traumatic injury,have anemia or have undergone surgery.

The need for blood donations is ongoing. Shelf life is limited and maintaining an adequate supply is a constant challenge. If you are able to donate blood I would urge you to look into it. It’s a gift that saves lives.

Technorati Tags: Blood donation,Whole blood,Platelets

An American Sentence 2

Winter comes to slap us in the face and say wake-up you are mortal.

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 360

You say... I think:

• Interest :: loan
• Chase :: pursue
• Itch :: seven year
• Soothe :: unruffle
• Lamp :: street
• Tutor :: English
• Nicole :: Smith
• Sloth :: lazy
• Burn :: unit
• Bug :: flu

get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

An American Sentence

A blank page is always pleading to make something magical happen.

Crab Creek Review Summer 09

                                                                                                          
Reading CCR this weekend – I just wanted to draw attention to a few poems that stood out to me.

• Gail White’s -  How I Spent My Time Since You Died
• Marjorie Manwaring  - Refusal
• Kimberly L. Becker -  Washing the Blankets
• Jill Crammond Wickham – Even with Clorox, June Cleaver Has a Tough Time Cleaning The Skeletons From Her Closet
• January Gill O’Neil – Tether
• Paul David Adkins – The Mouse in Iraq
• Maya Ganesan – Undefined
• Joannie Kervran Stangeland – A Crow Means Everything
• Buzz Mauro – Einsteinian Physics in Plain English

This is the first copy of CCR I’ve seen. I haven’t finished reading it, I usually like to read poems multiple times.  I was impressed with what I’ve seen,  My favorites so far are bolded in blue above.

Technorati Tags: Crab Creek Review

Religious Right & Wrong

What is it about the Religious Right element within the Republican Party that feels compelled to seethe such meanness of spirit?   The rhetoric from such people seems quite in contrast to Judo-Christian  spirit.
A classic example was a sad display Sunday afternoon, just nine hours before the scheduled  1 a.m. vote  critical to the Senate’s Health Care Reform bill, Republican Senator Tom Coburn (Okla.) went to the Senate floor and  proposed a prayer. "What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. That's what they ought to pray."

Do we really need leaders that mix the darkest sides of human nature with religion and then insert it into how we govern ourselves as a nation? I find this kind of thing sickening.

Technorati Tags: Tom Coburn,Religious Right & Wrong,Republican,Senate

Homeless Awareness

Today is National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day

A few facts about homelessness...

• Research indicates that 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces, as compared to 34% of the general adult population.
• Persons with severe mental illness represented about 26 percent of all sheltered homeless persons.
• 35% of the homeless people who are members of households with children are male while 65% of these people are females.
• 25% of homeless were ages 25 to 34; the same study found percentages of homeless persons aged 55 to 64 at 6%.
• Children under the age of 18 accounted for 39% of the homeless population; 42% of these children were under the age of five (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2004). This same study found that unaccompanied minors comprised 5% of the urban homeless population.

Learn more here

Poetry breaks silence - NashuaTelegraph.com

Poetry breaks silence - NashuaTelegraph.com:

“Out of Silence” by Pamela Harrison; David Roberts Books; 87 pages; paperback; $18.

"What I look for in poetry may not be what you look for in poetry. I want the poet to tell me a story. Because the form requires the poet to keep the story short, I want the words to be precise. The poet should help me see by using concrete images. Sound is important. Even while reading a poem silently, I want to hear its music."  Story here.

An artist’s genius seen in pictures of ‘poetry’ - BostonHerald.com

An artist’s genius seen in pictures of ‘poetry’ - BostonHerald.com:


"In the late 1930s, Detroit native Harry Callahan was working as a shipping clerk at Chrysler Corp. He picked up a camera and taught himself how to use it.

Inspired by a workshop with Ansel Adams he took in 1941, within a decade Callahan became an influential figure in American photography." Story here

Set for the weekend

Earlier this week my Poets & Writers arrived and today the Summer 2009 Crab Creek Review I ordered was in the mail box. I’m set for reading for the weekend.

 

There’s a great interview of British poet Andrew Motion linked on the Huffington Post.  Christopher Lydon says "Harrowing clarity" is Motion’s stated goal. He laughs with us about trying to write poetry that looks like water and bites like gin. Click here!

 

Technorati Tags: Poets & Writers,Crab Creek Review,Andrew Motion

Project Poetry

Stephen Burt of the Poetry Foundation writes that “Project Runway," a popular cable TV show, holds lessons for poetry critics. Burt is not alone. Ron Silliman who has been writing on poetry for years thinks the show does a better job of showing creative people “being creative” than any television show ever. While such a view is subjective, there are few people who follow the creative cultural influences around us more closely than Silliman. Read his blog for a few months and you will see he isn’t missing much that goes on.

So on a morning drive into the city, my wife and daughter in tow, the subject turns to the idea of a poetry version of the popular show. I’m doing my best impersonation of Tim Gunn, the advisor who periodically checks in with the designers to offer kudos or a bit of cautionary advice as the case may be. “Ah, what have we got going on here, a Sestina; nice job. The envoi really works!” Shannon is not exactly feeling the excitement. “What, we are going to watch, segments of people hunched over paper with a pen?” Cathy joins in the discussion, “What would they be working towards, a chap-book?” I counter, “No, it has to be better than that, a book contract with someone like Faber & Faber or Farrar Straus & Giroux. I explain the cameras can follow the poets out into the world on outings… a gallery, a music performance, a scenic stroll or urban bustle and the poet would be talking about what they are seeing and feeling – then back to their journals and laptops for rewrite after rewrite. I think they are starting to see this and Cathy says, “Oh the best part would be the emotional drama when one poet is cut from the show.” Shannon counters, “No, no… the enormous joy and relief of the family getting rid of… err, I mean seeing the poet off to compete!” I quietly think, they are so not getting this.”

A little wisdom for today...

People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that's a mistake.   One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.  
    ~ Lucille Clifton

Blind Date

Yesterday I can across a poem by a poet I’d never read before and was particularly impressed with what I read on several levels to the point I want to find out more / read more of her work. The poem by Michelle Chan Brown appears in the Missouri Review and is titled "Blind Date With My Father, 1976".

One of the things I liked about it was how rich the language seemed. It was ripe with cultural intrigue. It embodied cold war era images. She referenced literary and political people and used language that while familiar was unique… like cigarillo, spray-tan and candelabra.

The title itself is catchy and suggests a sort of creepiness that makes you want to read it although on another level you feel repelled. This is the kind of stuff that makes for good poetry. There is nothing overtly sexual here – more the tease of something off limits.

In some respects this is a period piece. It helps to have been alive and aware of the world in the seventies. Someone born in say 1979 would not likely appreciate it as much. But the poem was well written – keeps interest alive and closes with a great ending line. Read it for yourself here.

I don't doubt-

At the age of 18 all young poets are sure they will be dead at 21 - of old age. ~Marguerite Young

Space Sculpture

The Play-dough of space

swooped together in outstretched arms

and pulled from the deep black,

the whole of holes

to become

the sum of something.

 
 
 
*photo credit- Hubble Telescope  
 
About the Object Object Name: NGC 346
Object Description: Cluster and Nebulosity in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Position (J2000): R.A. 00h 59m 18s.0
Dec. -72° 10' 48"
Constellation: Tucana
Distance: 210,000 light-years away (64,000 parsecs)
Dimensions: This image is 4.7 arcminutes (280 light-years or 87 parsecs).

Here's a Surprise

I guess the inaugural poetry gig didn’t hurt too much, Elizabeth Alexander’s Praise Song For The Day: A Poem For Barack Obama's Presidential Inauguration – special chapbook edition, tops the 2009 list of poetry book sales. The entire top ten list can be found here.  

It's interesting that John Updike's Endpoint and Other Poems - Updikes last book of poetry finished just months before his death, also made the list.

Unconscious Mutterings - Week 359

I haven't done subliminal word associations for a while, so here goes.

You say... I think:

1.Up :: stairs
2.Scram! :: scat!
3.Smell :: odor
4.Belong :: join
5.Doug :: cartoon
6.Collar :: dog
7.Squirrel :: nut
8.Chinese :: checkers
9.Tracker :: SUV
10.Apartment :: rental

get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

Poems By Heart

 

This evening I stumbled onto a relatively new poetry site that is predicated on a novel idea. Ok, I guess it’s really a poetic idea.   Poet Frank Giampietro has created a web site with recordings of poems that are recited by heart. While Giampietro would like to have more celebrity poets recorded on the site, he encourages any writers to submit mp3 file of  a favorite poem and a little bit about what it is about the poem that is special to them.

Memorizing poems has become almost a lost art and Giampietro’s site is a wonderful way to promote memorization and at the same time expose this poems to a wider audience.  Check out the site for yourself.  I recall Claudia Emerson and Robert Pinsky  as being among those already on the site.  Enough babble about it – go check out POEMS BY HEART for yourself!

Technorati Tags: poems by heart,recorded poems

Local: In Marin : Marin Focus: poetry and metal inspires jeweler Kate Ellen

 

"The trained hand does not forget its skill, nor can we lay the precision and speed aside: strength we have, and courage in the acetylene will."

The diminutive, dark-haired Marin jeweler Kate Ellen recites the line from poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, from memory.

"Metal itself is inspiring, adds the twenty seven-year-old jewelry designer, "It is a really weird property--it is really strong and it's also malleable. If worst comes to worst, and I blow something, I can melt it down and then it becomes a raw material again."

The dichotomy of fine poetry and hard-edged metal, is the inspiration for this artisan's totally hand-crafted and completely unique jewelry designs.  FULL STORY

Technorati Tags: jewelry,poetry,Kate Ellen

da ja vue all over again

As Friday morning arrives, I sigh. A good portion of this week would seem like I was running laps around the block. The scenery changes but it doesn’t. Oh look, there is the blue house with gray shutters again; and Tiger again with some woman, oh, there he is again with another one, again, and the Sakahi’s, again, again, again ad nauseam. I’d like a weekend free of Tiger, et al. I don’t want to hear about party crashers.




Lines seem blurred this week. We learn that Blackwater is like CIA lite. But this concept is not totally new. Wasn’t AT&T like NSA lite? Don’t you feel when we purposely blur the lines it’s usually because we are up to no good?

Best Poetry Blogs: A Baker's Dozen: Poetry Blogs Help Poets Expand the Horizons of Their Art | Suite101.com

 

Best Poetry Blogs: A Baker's Dozen

Poetry Blogs Help Poets Expand the Horizons of Their Art

Dec 9, 2009 Joseph Hutchison

Can't afford $30,000-plus for a poetry MFA program? Engaging with poetry blogs can advance your education in the art of poetry-free of charge.

 

The Web offers terrific resources for poets, and among the most useful are poetry blogs. They address a need all that poets have for a circle of like-minded people devoted to sharing their knowledge and passion about poetry. This is especially important for poets whose local communities don’t offer poetry groups and for poets who can’t afford the hefty cost of an MFA program. Poetry blogs help readers keep up on new publications, issues of craft, poetic trends, and strategies for dealing with more pragmatic aspects of the writing life.   

Full Story Here

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Poetry education,blogs

 

Morning drive time...

This morning I was driving I-70 into the city - Cathy is working crosswords and comes upon a clue:  Versifier.  She cracks up when she realizes the answer is poet. She proclaims, "Mike the versifier!"  Sometimes I suppose humor is like a metaphor that not everyone understands.

An Evening of Harold Pinter's Poetry - benefit for the Homeless in LA

This Wednesday, Julian Sands will channel a spirit. The British actor, known for his performances in “Warlock,” “Room With a View” and “24,” presents an evening of Harold Pinter’s poetry on Dec. 9 at the Odyssey Theatre. The reading will benefit the homeless of L.A.

It’s a role Sands couldn’t refuse. In 2007, Pinter himself was planning to read the poems at a women’s shelter in London, but illness had weakened his speaking voice. He asked Sands to take over—and then proceeded to coach the actor on every line and pause.

“He was feeling his mortality very keenly and wanted these poems to reveal his interior,” remembers Sands.

Full Story Here

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy uses Christmas verse to attack British society - Times Online

Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy uses Christmas verse to attack British society - Times Online


ON the first day of Christmas there is no partridge or pear tree but just a buzzard on a branch watching a British soldier far from home.

This is the ode to Christmas in Britain from our new poet laureate. Carol Ann Duffy uses her festive offering as a stinging commentary on much that is wrong in the country and the world today.


Full Story Here

Sunday slipping away

I'm ready to call it a night and settle in with a book to read for a short while. Ah, if I could just pull a nice bottle of Chardonnay of the shelf and pour a small glass. Instead, I'll just sip on the last of my warming cup of coffee.

I watched an episode of Modern Family on ABC tonight and it cracked me up. I've never seen it before and it was pretty funny.


I've thought about some new years resolutions today. I'm not big on new years resolutions but I've got a couple of things on my mind that I'll blog about later in the week.

I did crank out another set of poetry submissions today... a task that is not on my list of fun things to do, but I've resolved this fall to get better about it. Going back to a time when I was persistent, the results were truly positive.

Sadly, I feel the weekend like sand in an hour glass down to a final trickle of granules.

Heard a good metaphor lately?

I’ve been thinking a lot about metaphors.  So what, you say… that’s what poets do. But metaphors, which so often gets a bad rap from people who don’t particularly care for poetry, are pretty common within our everyday language.  In the movie As Good as it Gets, Jack Nicholson utters this line, “People who speak in metaphors should shampoo my crotch.”  Yes, the irony makes for a good laugh. So the question I have is do we tend to overuse metaphor in everyday communications? Do people really recognize metaphor in use outside of poetic device?  Let’s go a step further and just say for instance that it has become  overused in everyday language, would that diminish its value in poetry?

Technorati Tags: overused metaphor,language

Poetry book by ‘Bostonian’ Poe sets auction record - BostonHerald.com

Poetry book by ‘Bostonian’ Poe sets auction record - BostonHerald.com:

"NEW YORK — A rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s first book has sold for $662,500, smashing the previous record price for American literature.
The copy of 'Tamerlane and Other Poems' had been estimated to sell Friday for between $500,000 and $700,000 at Christie’s auction house in New York City.
The previous record is believed to be $250,000 for a copy of the same book sold nearly two decades ago."

Your Brain on Poetry

 

 Travis Nichols, the Editor at the Poetry Foundation has a really intriguing piece in the Huffington Post this week about poetry and the brain.  Pictured on the left is Henry Molaison who affectionately was known to many involved in his life as just H.M. 

 

Late last year Molaison passed away.  Molaison’s claim to fame relates to his memory capacity, or lack thereof.  I won’t go into the entire history, but he underwent brain surgery in the 1950’s and as a result had the inability to form new memories.  During his post surgery years, he was studied profusely in search for clues to our memory process. Even in death, medical science has turned to his brain for more answers to the mystery of how and where memories are created as well as retrieved.  Scientists hope to be able to map the memory process by observing slices of M.H.’s brain.

 

Nichols claims that what Dr. Jacopo Annese, who is doing the slicing is exploring the greatest poetic mystery of all time. Nichols talks about some poetry that is less about telling stories and more about using poetry that engages a readers brain while he/she is reading, that utilizes sound patterns or other techniques to create Cognitive Poetics.

 

Nichols uses the example of an poet not just saying, “When I made out with so-and-so, I did the happy dance!” Instead, that poet would use language that would allow a particularly attentive reader go beyond by just reading, but come to experience their mind doing the happy dance, thus creating a memory associated with it.

 

Nichols sees this kind of writing as experimental, which he notes is not unlike the path Dr. Annese is pursuing.

 

Read Nichols’ story here. 

Technorati Tags: Henry Molaison,Travis Nichols. This is Your Brain on Poetry,Dr Jacopo Annese,Huffington Post

"an excellent piece of disappointment worthy of gathering dust on any coffee table"

That is not my blurb, but remarks from Stéfan Orzech's review of B is for Bad Poetry, Pamela August Russell's new collection of intentionally bad and humorous poetry.  read review here

Another day – another rejection.

 

Amazingly this week seems to be moving along swiftly. I thought after the 4 day holiday this week would be a tough one. 

 

Rejection letter today on four pieces I sent out little over two months ago.  Serves as a reminder that I need to get a few more submissions out this week end. 

 

I also remembered I need to take my floating holiday yet this month or lose it.  I feel a full day of writing  coming on.

 

I received another e-mail tonight from Poet Christine Klocek-Lim.  Her new chapbook, How to photograph the heart is available here. I understand there are a limited number of autographed copies available from the publisher.

 

Oh… and this is different….  Publishing the Unpublishable

 

Technorati Tags: Christine Klocek-Lim,How to photograph the heart

But did you know...

The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is known for many things: he was a career diplomat, an avid Communist, and of course, the Nobel Prize-winning author of erotically charged love poems, memoirs and surrealist verse.




But a seashell collector?  Full story: Neruda: poet, Communist... and seashell collector   by Anita Brooks

The rise of poetry in advertising | Television & radio | The Guardian

 

The rise of poetry in advertising

More companies, including McDonald's, are being moved to verse to advertise their products. Is this a welcome development?  

full story: The rise of poetry in advertising | Television & radio | The Guardian

Technorati Tags: poetry in advertising

Scanning the Net

 

I made a swing through the blog neighborhoods that I hang out in and these things caught my eye.

If you are a poet, you no doubt have friends that simply don’t understand the “poet” in you. I saw something that cracks me up -thanks to Jilly that came from the blog of Don Share is Senior Editor of Poetry magazine. HOW TO DEAL WITH POETS

Rachel Dacus has an interesting rant at ROCKET KIDS about paper & the digital times.

Christine Hamm has new material published in The Loch Raven Review and The Holly Rose Review,

 

Technorati Tags: Jilly,Don Share,How to deal with poets,Rachel Dacus,Christine Hamm

It's Not What You Think...

If I appear distracted, disengaged, unfocused today, it is only because I am hyper-vigilant in search for poetic moments.

The Hughes Legacy

 

Ted Hughes has been dead about eleven years now and legacy as a poet is again in public view as some have taken up the cause of him being honored by inclusion in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner - poetry's holiest of holies.  Those enshrined there include Chaucer, William Shakespeare, TS Eliot, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, William Blake and Sir John Betjeman the last admitted in 1984.

 

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney is one of several who have called called for Ted Hughes to be honored in the Poets’ Corner. Others include Andrew Motion, who took over from Hughes as poet laureate, Lord Melvyn Bragg. 

 

“In proclaiming and embodying in his work a holistic sense of life on earth, he became one of the vital presences in 20th Century poetry.” ~ Seamus Heaney

 

The final decision on admitting Hughes to this honor belongs to the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall.

 

Outside of his homeland, Hughes is perhaps best known as the husband of Silvia Plath. The whole Plath / Hughes relationship would likely overshadow such talk in this country where the nearly myth like lore perhaps surpasses real critical view of his own poetry.

 

Technorati Tags: Ted Hughes Letters,Sylvia Plath,Poet's Corner,Seamus Heaney