In a Stroke of Fortune...

My new monitor for work has arrived. This is good because I was starting to feel a little gothic working in the dark so I could faintly see the screen.

Monday night is one of my TV nights. House & The Closer. Sill, I'll try and siphon off a little time this evening to write. Ah... just remembered Obama has a press conference tonight so the networks will likely be off time wise.

Last night I came across a D.H. Lawrence quote that struck me curiously. It goes like this... "Never trust the artist. Trust the Tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it."

So I thought about this for a while and I pictured some of my poems having to be rescued from me. So I'm thinking about some critic smugly determining the story line - assuming there is one, from a particular poem and then fending off the poet's ownership stake in the poem. The critic arguing, this isn't all about what you saw, it's about what I see. Then the two go round and round. Well I say phooey! It's about whatever the fuck you find in it. There. I'm through rolling in the gravel over it. Don't get me wrong, critics a a place in this world and I'm willing to listen to them just as much as the next guy.

Technorati Tags: A poets life,critics. D.H. Lawrence

NOTE TO SELF

C.D. Wright Reading March 10 7:00 PM UMKC Person Auditorium - be there!

C.D. Wright Symposium March 11 7:00PM KC Public Library / Central Branch - Helzberg Auditorium. Don't Miss!

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Journal Bits

Listening to: Bruce Springsteen - Last to Die

Mood: dragging

Feb 2 - My computer monitor at work came on completely today at your. Yeah! [it takes so little to amuse me]

"a mixture of fashions brighten/the party crown that lingered/to graze on finger food and spontaneity"

Feb 3- I heard the most interesting story today on NPR about the Mendelssohn Project...

Feb 4 - It was after midnight when I turned in last night but thankfully the taxes have been done [a tax hangover followed]

"I went to that place in my head/with my pen, that place you occupy"

Feb 6 - Right this moment I feel especially small...

Feb 7- "...you always think there is time/to do the prime numbers/but hope is faded denim/and its value of questionable character"

Quote by Henry Miller - "I believe everything you tell me, but I know it will all turn out differently."

Technorati Tags: Journal bits,Mendelssohn Project

New Laureate for Neighboring Kansas

 

Congratulations are in order for Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg of Lawrence, Kansas. Caryn was selected to serve as the new Kansas State Poet Laureate beginning July 1st. She has master’s and doctoral degrees from The University of Kansas. Already she has selected a poet laureate project which she calls Writing Across Kansas: Reading and Writing Our Way Home. Through this  Caryn hopes to strengthen the presence of poetry in Kansas, build literary communities statewide and enhance Kansans’ sense of place through poetry. She already sounds extremely organized.

Technorati Tags: Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg,Kansas Poet Laureate

Word Clouds from four of my poems selected at random

[click on image to view larger]

This was produced on Wordie. I found it via Christine Klocek-Lim's site. I put four of my poems selected at random and dropped them into the gadget for generating “word clouds” from text. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

Pretty cool.

Technorati Tags: Wordie,poems,text clouds

Azar Nafisi Postponed

If you were planning to attend the Azar Nafisi event at the Plaza Library tomorrow night, it has been postponed.  There should be information forthcoming soon about when it will be rescheduled.

Technorati Tags: Azar Nafiai,Kansas City,Plaza Library

Sunday Morning

Listening to Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 E Major

Mood: Awake

I'm up and ready for the day. I've made an unsuccessful trip to Target to see if their shipment of Skinny Cow Fudge Cones have come it. They haven't. This is like crack to my wife. Evidently to many others as well because they don't seem to ever run out of the other Skinny Cow items except this. When momma don't got no Skinny Cow Fudge, no one is happy.

Super Bowl Sunday is not quite as special to me as it may be many guys. I'll likely watch the game but with less enthusiasm than many. The biggest significance to me is that once it is over it clears the way for Spring Training and the real poetic sport.... Baseball.

There are a hand full of football teams I have some interest in, but not a lot for the sport in general. There have been past times that I've rooted for Pittsburgh, but I'm probably pulling for the Cardinals today. Regardless of how it turns out I won't lose any sleep over it.