US wiretap leak inquiry launched - Financial Times - MSNBC.com

US wiretap leak inquiry launched - Financial Times - MSNBC.com

The arrogance of power in this administration continues. There are serious constitutional questions about the authority the President has to undertake domestic spying and yet the Justice Department is looking for a whistleblowers?

Second Annual New Year's Day Readings

THE WRITERS PLACE will sponsor the Second Annual New Year's Day Reading with hostess SHARON EIKER on NEW YEAR'S DAY (not New Year's Eve) January 1, 2006.

Below is a partial schedule of what will happen throughout the day. If you're interested in reading, and have not been given a time to read please join us, as after 9pm the mic is open to all that would like to read their work (please limit your reading to a 3-5 minute duration.

Noon -1:00pm Social Hour
1:00 - 2:00pm TWP Board Members and Friends
2:00 - 2:45pm DJ Sweeney Trio
2:45 - 3:00pm Break
3:00 - 4:00pm KC Writer's Group hosted by Judith
4:00 - 5:00pm Collaborators hosted by Phyllis Becker
5:00 - 6:00pm KC Poetry Society hosted by Missy Rassmussen and MichaelWells
7:00 - 8:00pm Latino Writers Collective hosted by Angela Cervantes
8:00 - 9:00pm Open Mic Regulars including Music by Joe Schnebelen
9:00 - Mid-Night -- OPEN MIC anyone is welcome

Attendance cost is on a donation basis, suggested donations being $3 for members and $5 for non-members.

Chili supper on going. $5.00 for bowl that can be refilled.Soft drinks, Beer, Red and White Wine will be available for a donation of $1 to defray costs.

The Writers Place is located at 3607 Pennsylvania - Kansas City, MO 64111

Christmas Gift from Wife

For Christmas my wife Cathy, gave me a beautiful leather journal by Oberon Design of Santa Rosa, California. The one she selected was the forest pattern.

Cathy said one of the reasons she selected this one was that she liked the historical note on the significance of the forest:

Forest - The forest is a refuge. In this realm of green half light one cannot define distance, only the mystery of the moment, the discovery of what is near but hidden. In human history the forest has always represented the psyche, a place of unknown dangers or initiations. It is a safe and beautiful place for those at ease with solitude and quiet, the hermit or forest dwellers, friends of creatures great and small.

I too found this this interesting. Certainly writing poetry often is about discovery and finding the hidden inner voice. At any rate, it is indeed a gift I will get much use out of as well as treasure. The journal allows for inserts so once it is full, I can simply pull the old one and replace it with the new one. I have found in recent times I am starting more of my first drafts with pen and paper as opposed to on beginning them on the computer. This of course lends itself well to that practice.

This causes me to wonder how many poets still utilize pen and paper for early drafts as opposed to computer. What are some of of the favorite utensils of poets for creating their work?

On the Page

The fibers of the paper contain but a stain of my thought.

The afternoon of the night before Christmas

It's a quiet moment... well, nearly. Wife is on the tread mill behind me and hast the TV on the food channel, but I am relaxed and feel apart from the recent frenzy. Sipping my diet coke, the shopping done the rat race over. We'll go to my son's house this afternoon to celebrate the Christmas holiday with him.

There were Cardinals visiting the bird feeder this morning. It has been rainy here. It is like a stationary front just stopped over Kansas City. I guess that is what stationary fronts do. The sky looks like it could just hang here like it is for days. The rain is like big splotches of water. If this were to turn to snow, I believe we'd get tons of it.

I haven't written since Thursday, and that was just to journal. . But I'd like to. Just haven't had the time, so this is sort of my journal substitution today.

Read a couple of blogs today.... Ivy, Eileen, Christine. By the way - Christine's The Salt Daughter is out. You can buy it here. I've read it and if you enjoy Christine's unique voice, you'll love this book. It is so classically Christine!

In the news, more on the Bush Spy machine here where U.S. companies were helping cultivate data. A San Francisco Chronicle editorial is sharply critical of the Bush administration on the point of domestic spying.

Well that's it for the afternoon.

Here's wishing all the Stick Poet readers a very enjoyable and safe holiday!

Ah, but you can...

"You can't write poetry on the computer." ~Quentin Tarantino

True Poets

"The true poet is all the time a visionary and whether with friends or not, as much alone as a man on his death bed." ~W.B. Yeats