Confession Tuesday - So Many Books To Read

Dear Reader:

It's been 2,259 frequent flyer miles, one published poem, a ton of new books and literary reviews to read, one reading in Portland, an introduction to yoga and one month since my last confession.

It's National Poetry Month. Take a poetry pill for your anxiety. It's good for you and will do you no harm.

It's been a busy month since my last confession with AWP at the end of March,. I confess that seeing Portland for the first time was interesting. The scenery and topography were surprising to me. I must confess I  had visited Oregon numerous times in the past on the Oregon trail, but I don't think Portland as such existed back then. I was usually running low on supplies and had lost other people in my party to dysteria.  That's what I remember most about it.

I did not get a lot of sightseeing done. What I did see was from the apartment complex where we were staying and the view was hilly and rustic in the distance. Also, riding the Max into the city took me mostly through what seemed like older portions of the city. I could tell the city itself was pretty densely populated.

One of the nice aspects of the conference was seeing IRL some people that  I have been acquainted with from social media. Some for quite a few years but in all instances, it was exciting to meet them just the same.

Kelli Russell Agodon had been over the years one of my very favorite poets. I confess that after meeting her I worried that I had babbled on, but oh well.  Jennine Hall Gailey was another first time to meet. Michael Schmeltzer, a first. I have books by all three of these people.

Marianne Mersereau AKA Wild Honey from Seattle was there Friday and Saturday. We hung out together at an off-site reading Friday Night. We have corresponded for a number of years and I have one of her poetry books as well. We had a great time - it was an awesome reading. On Saturday, she came and supported me at my reading, on-site, for which I was very appreciative.

I got to meet Katie Manning for the first time. I already had her latest book but was able to pick up an earlier one titled "Tasty Other" which she signed.

The more you go to AWP, the more you realize just how impossible it is to meet everyone you want to. I confess that  I disappointed to miss Carolyn Forche last year in Tampa, but was able to pick up her new memoir that I am currently reading and get her to sign it.

There are always disappointments. I had hoped to meet Francesca Bell. I did get her new book but  I rushed as fast as I could from my reading Saturday to her table and evidently just missed her.

It was nice to see Martha Silano again. Always enjoy seeing Mary Biddinger. She always has book recommendations and her record for picking out books I end up liking is like about 95% - but then Akron Press always publishes really good poets.

I missed seeing  Shaindel Beers, Rachel Mennies (who was not at the event) and Jessica Smith (who did not attend also), Kaveh Akbar and Maggie Smith. So you can see, many time we are all like ships passing in the night.

Overall, Portland was a great conference. I Confess that  I loved the presence that Writer-To-Writer had.  We were all over the place. Our Director Diane Zina Pettyjohn worked very hard with her staff to get W2W the exposure it so deserves.

That's it for now. I'm sure I left out people,  This is a confession. Hopefully, I will be forgiven.

Now if you will excuse me, I have so many new books to read.

Be safe~

Still Appropriate this April

30 Days Has April

And I successfully have 30 new poem drafts! 

National Poetry Month Drawing

For the second year I am participating in the Big Poetry Month Giveaway.  This event started 6 years ago by poet & writer  Kelli Russell Agodon. There are a list of participants at the at the link above so there are many opportunities to win. But as the say, "You can't win if you don't play."


I will be giving away two books - one to each of two lucky winners. The poetry books are:


BOOK ONE - Alter Ego of the Universe- by Amy Leigh Davis

Amy is a local poet in my community that I have know for a number of years and this is her first published work, a chapbook from 2011.

More about Amy and the book can be seen here in an interview I did with Amy soon after publication.










BOOK TWO -. The Country Between Us - by Carolyn Forche

In my mind Carolyn Forche is one of the premier poets of witness poetry living and writing today. This was her second book of poetry published
but brought her international notoriety. If you have never read this book it is a must read for those especially interested in writing from the vantage point of sharing the complexities of social strife.

These are the two books I am giving away. If you are new to this blog site here s a little  about myself.


My name is Michael Allyn Wells. I live with my wife and three dogs in a suburban community of  . Kansas City, Missouri. (That's the big city. Surprisingly many visiting the city for the first time think they are in Kansas. Our smaller sister city is on that side of the of the state line).

I've been writing poetry ad reading locally for more years than I care to count. You can find publication credits at my web site michaelawells.com

I'm an avid baseball fan  and to be more specifically a San Francisco Giants fan for nearly 40 years which made for an interesting situation during last year's World Series when the Giants met the Kansas City Royals.

I love reading and writing, sipping an occasion glass of wine. I prefer my wine white and my coffee black.

If you would judge me on the basis of my musical preferences you would think I was stuck in the 60's-80's. I loved music by Chicago, Crosby Stills & Nash, Bread, Three Dog Night, Air Supply, etc. I love the saxophone and I'm a big fan of Kenny G (much to the dismay of my grown children).

Some of my favorite desserts are German Chocolate Cake, Cheese Cake (no Raspberry sauce please) and Black Walnut Ice Cream.

Thanks for stopping by and God Luck!

_______________________________________________

If you've gotten this far then surely you want to enter the drawing. It’s simple too. All you have to do is just leave your name and email in the comment section of this post. This drawing is open to everyone through ALL OF APRIL 2015, National Poetry Month!

If you'd like to be entered, please leave your name and email address by midnight (Hawaii time), APRIL 30th, 2015 below in the comment section of this post and I'll be randomly choosing all lucky winners the week of May 1st, 2015.

You can find a list of all the participating  blogs here. 

Check it out and fully enjoy National Poetry Month 

POEM-A-DAY FOUR 30 DAYS

April is coming  and there is no stopping it!  With it will come Baseball, tax deadline and poetry.  Hopefully you dread the tax deadline more than you dread poetry. I would imagine those reading this are likely fall into that category.

Some years I have taken the 30 day 30 poem challenge and some not. I plan on jumping into the month with both feet firmly on the ground and running with the poem-a-day challenge.

Robert Lee Brewer with Writers Digest has a slew of outstanding poets to serve as guest judges of work  for their annual 30 Day Challenge that they promote each year.

You can fine the specifics for the Writers Digest 30 Day Challenge by clicking  [HERE]

Even it you are not inclined to participate directly in the challenge, there is no reason you cannot  take the challenge. Or  try to write at least  something towards a completed poem each day of the month of April.

There are a lot of other exciting things lined up around the country related to National Poetry Month.

There are a whole series of blogs that are participating in the Poetry Month Free Book Giveaway  that  Kelli Agodon organized several years ago and continues to grow.   [CLICK HERE]

I'll have more Poetry Month Information in a couple of days.

Celebrating Poetry

While National Poetry Month is relatively new I will share a like to The Academy of American Poets web site where they feature a list of 30 WAYS TO CELEBRATE. I'm sure everyone can find as couple of ideas on now to make this month one of enrichment for themselves and others.

Meanwhile I've completed poem #3 on the third day of NaPoWriMo so I've not fallen off the wagon yet. (fingers crossed)

Recalling Dana Gioia's book of essays, "Can Poetry Matter?" I give you the following link to a Chicago Tribune story on Maj.General John Borling who writes poetry of survival.

Have you written or shared a poem today?

WALL TO WALL POETRY - NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

It's National Poetry Month and NaPoWriMo month as well. I typically struggle about committing to NaPoWriMo as I have a sort of love/hate relationship with it.  I don't really care for the pressure to create because I feel that it conflicts with the best physical and mental dynamic for good writing. I have no problem writing daily and I strongly believe in it. But saying I'm writing a poem every day of the month is a lot of pressure.

There are days it comes easy. There are days & nights that it's tough to birth a poem no matter how hard you try. I consider these all poem drafts because rarely do I ever write a poem in a single setting. I generally try to get something that shows enough promise to be a keeper - something that can be improved over time. But for the sake of NaPaWriMo, these are poems in the most primitive context.

If after 30 days I have 30 poems and 6 or 8 are real keepers, then that's an outstanding month. That is the bar I'm setting this year.

I am posting my daily work on a private poetry forum. This gives me some accountability and allows for some feedback but at the same time is is off the beaten path of the Internet so that the work is not truly published and I am free to work on these pieces for possible submissions down the road.

Are you participating?  How do you approach it.?

I intend to be very active on my blog this month.  Tomorrow is my normal day for Confession Tuesday. It's been almost a year since I did my last Poet Crush List. I'll be updating that list as part of my Confession.

national-poetry-month-perfect-time-to-rhyme

National Poetry Month perfect time to rhyme
Classic artists like Silverstein, Carroll ideal antidotes for late-semester stress

By
Published: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Updated: Wednesday, April 21, 2010

April is National Poetry Month, and what better time to spend on meter? It’s diverting to compose those limericks about studying till dawn or a rhyming couplet about how frustrated you are at your grades. The poetry world offers a wide of variety of subjects ranging from serious to silly to help cope with the end-of-semester crunch. Full Story

Poetry / Around and about:

Kelli Russell Agodon

leads discussion on the topic "What constitutes a good poem?" in a Field's End Writers' Roundtable event at 7 p.m. April 20 at the Bainbridge Island branch of Kitsap Regional Library, 1270 Madison Ave. N. The event is free and open to writers of all levels and interests. Information: (206) 842-4162, fieldsend.org.

                                                                 ~0~
And this:

Q&A with poet Susan Rich


As I'm sure you all know, it's National Poetry Month, and I was happy to catch up with a very busy Susan Rich to ask her about her newly released book, The Alchemist's Kitchen (White Pine 2010). Also the author of Cures Include Travel and The Cartographer's Tongue ~ Poems of the World, Susan has received awards from PEN USA, The Times Literary Supplement, and Peace Corps Writers. Recent poems have appeared in the Antioch Review, Harvard Review, Poetry International and TriQuarterly

                                                               ~0~

                                                                           

Poetry magazine finds home at EvCC:

Everett can now claim a spot on the literary map. Everett Community College is the new home of Poetry Northwest, a national poetry magazine started 51 years ago by writers who became literary giants.




The magazine has a Web site, http://www.poetrynw.org/, and an independent staff, most based in Seattle.

                                                             ~0~

Adopt a Poet for National Poetry Month:



I bring it up because April is National Poetry Month, which was started by the Academy in 1996 with the hopes of turning April into a month “when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture.”

The program has grown over the years and is now celebrated with readings and programs in schools and even an app.

Well, if you’re looking for a way to mark the occasion — I have an idea: adopt a poet.  Not literally, of course.

In an age where Glenn Beck is making some $13 million a year from books, maybe it’s time we did something to help those who are certainly as deserving.

So, what do I mean by adopting a poet?   Find out - Entire story here!







 

National Poetry Month Has Arrived

Crazy Time!  Crank out those poems. One-A-Day!

Yes, I'm doing the poem-a-day challenge again this year. I'm still debating if I will post the drafts here or not. Stay tuned for my decision, but at a minimum, I will report the daily exploits in this journey.  You can count on that.

Last year I completed the challenge and had maybe five decent poems that survived drafts that I had written during the 30 day period. I won't lie to you, this gets to be painful about 20 days in. I think it's more to aspect of writing to a set prompt then the writing part itself. Some days you just want to tell the prompt  where it can go. But for now, the challenge is met with fresh enthueasam.

Poem-a-day Challenge marches on - day four

I've completed my poem for day four - the prompt was to write about an animal.  For some reason I was not enamored with this prompt, but I charged ahead. It is not a poem that will appear here, but I did post it on the Poetic Asides blog as required as part of the daily challenge. I'm hopeful the Sunday prompt is more agreeable with me.

This morning I attended an Undergraduate English Symposium that was held at the Diastole in Kansas City.  A poet friend Amy Davis was one of the presenters and I attended both to support her work and to learn what I could from the presentation. The Diastole is a magnificent facility both inside and out. It has a tremendous collection of artwork in various media and the tranquility that exudes from this place is beyond belief.

The name itself is quite interesting. Diastole, pronounced (dy-AS-tuh-lee), is a medical term for the interim between heartbeats, when the heart muscle relaxes. Systole is when the heart beats and delivers life's blood downstream. The heart rests following each systole, and fills with the blood of the next pulse. This period, the heart at rest, is Diastole.

Amy's work is consistently fresh and very tight.  She is somewhat of a master of reduction to the lowest necessary denominator when it comes to words. I especially enjoyed hearing the changed directions that some of these poems took in rewrites. It was well worth the time, besides being enjoyable.

Technorati Tags: National Poetry Month,Poem-a-day challenge,Diastole - UMKC,Amy Davis

Poetry Challenge - day 3

The prompt was:  The Problem with (fill in blank)

The Problem with Poetry

It wants to be.
Just be—

that’s all. To exist
apart from the shivering
cold of rainy spring afternoons
and melancholy silence
that hangs thick as molasses
in the air.

Poetry wants to be held tight
and listened to. To be seen
not just heard.

To lie spread-eagle
on the page; bare,
and hear only the gasp
at its raw form.

Do not argue with poetry.
Not out loud.

Any disagreement should come
as a sweet discourse
within the mind.

Judge not what is said
in those lines before you.
They are for their own part
playing out what  latitude
you have allowed them—

and in the end, it is the mind
that is at fault, not the poem.

 

Technorati Tags: National Poetry Month,Poem-A-Day Challenge

National Poetry Month

I'm participating in the poem- a- day challenge for the month of April. I've not decided if I will post them here, but at this time I'm leaning against it. Writing a poem-a-day is really the exercise of creating a new draft each day. Rarely do I ever complete a poem in one day so these have to be considered in the context of a very rough draft. Some may go on to become poems while others simply will not survive the process or may become part of an entirely different poem. Still, the exercise is a good one for any writer to undertake, and I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing, and maybe share a line or two now and then.

There will be other poetry month stuff posted here over the next 30 days as well.

We Missed - Broadside

My Second Annual Poetry Month broadside is still available.... email me with name and address to receive a copy.

Poetry news bits...

The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Michael Dirda who writes for the Washington Post on books, literature and the likes, talks about staying power of Contemporary Poetry.

Louisiana Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque travels the state making a tough sell to young people.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Hass sheds new light on a world of relationships.

I'm still sending out my Poetry Month broadsides on request. Received the following kind note this week from a recipient:

Your broadside arrived safely. It's absolutely lovely! Your graceful poem
and the image of the coffee cup stain marry perfectly. Thank you so
much!

Poetry Month Broadside

My second annual limited poetry broadside has arrived today and is available (as mentioned earlier) as long as they last. To request one, email me with name and address.

Happy Poetry Month!

Some cool links

Day two of National Poetry Month / NaPoWriMo ~ thought I'd share a couple of good resources I've seen from blogs I read.

First off, there are some excellent poetry writing prompts furnished by Kelli at First Draft.

Then Ivy has some cool things and Poetry.org has 30 ideas to celebrate Poetry Month.

And a poetry thought offered in this quote: It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things. ~Stephen Mallarme

Happy reading and writing!

National Poetry Month

It's here! Now you have a legitimate reason to torture your friends and family with poetry for a whole month.

A couple of housekeeping notes to start the month off with....

• As previously acknowledged - I will be participating in NaPoWriMo (writing a poem a day all month long) and you will be able to see these here with each one added as the month progresses. Do understand these are one day wonders or perhaps blunders as the case may be and are not polished works.
• I will not be doing the annual poetry quotation email that I have offered for several years now.
• I will however for the second year be offering a Poetry Month broadside of one of my previously published poems that is on nice card stock and suitable for framing. These are available in a limited quantity for to those who request them, until they are all gone. There are only 100 printed. If you would like one, email me.

That's all for now. May everyone's month be touched in some positive way by poetry.

Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement. ~Christopher Fry

For Poetry Month - Why not take A Daily Dose of Poetry

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie. ~Jean Cocteau

Poetry Month Is Nearly Here!

Yes, I realize most of us who are poetry aficionados have a circle of friends and family who simply do not share the same sensual pleasures we derive from the act of writing and or reading of poetry. To those poor souls, poetry month seems like an eternity in hell. But isn't that the point of it all? Was poetry month not created with their discomfort in mind?

If poetry month is all about us... the ones for whom a line from Dickinson will bring a twinkle to their eyes, who do not cringe at metaphor or run from personification, and actually get an uplifted feeling reading Plath; then what pray tell is the point? Is that not preaching to the choir?

No, Poetry Month is for the unenlightened. Therefore, it is our responsibility to make the most of the 30 days of April to bring poetry to the masses. Look at it like you have some communicable decease you are just dying to share with the world. You must expose everyone!

Ideas for poetry month!

1. Insert short poems in note cards and stick them in your child's lunch box/bag before sending them off to school.
2. Change your voicemail greeting to a short poem.
3. Write a love poem to your spouse on the bathroom mirror with lipstick.... of if you are not that bold, tape it there on a sheet of paper.
4. Keep a number of short poems on cards in your pocket and hand them to friends you run into throughout the day.
5. Leave a poetry book in some public place to be read.
6. Get drunk and call old friends at 3:00 a.m. and read them poems. ( Just kidding, I couldn't resist adding this)
7. Insert poems on note cards with your bills before mailing them off.
8. In the memo on your check suggest a good poem to read. ( example: Read "If You Forget Me" by Pablo Neruda.
9. Add a short poem to your tag line or signature on your e-mail so everyone you communicate with gets that poem all month long.
10. Write a poem on your sidewalk with chalk.
11. Leave poems on note cards in books you return to the library.
12. Read a poem aloud at dinner time.
13. Post a favorite poem on the office bulletin board.
14. Send a poem on a postcard to someone you owe a letter to. (remember snail mail?)

Once poetry month is over, it is just possible that you may have started a pandemic. Probably not, but at least you tried.