Galatea, Lowell, CIA, Et Al

• Eileen Tabios has announced that Galatea Resurrects Vol. 2 is up. You can read it [here]. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but if it is anything like the first edition, it will be worth the read!

• The Senate Intelligence Committee opens confirmation hearings today on General Michael Hayden's nomination to head the CIA. Members of the committee are listed here. Hayden's Ties to the Pentagon and his defense of the President's domestic surveillance program are reasons to be concerned abut his appointment to head the CIA. I urge you to contact these members and oppose his nomination. Especially if any of the members are from your home state.
  
  Pat Roberts, Kansas Chairman
  
  John D. Rockefeller IVWest Virginia, Vice Chairman
  
  Orrin G. Hatch, Utah
  
  Carl Levin, Michigan
  
  Mike Dewine, Ohio
  
  Dianne Feinstein, California
  
  Christopher S. Bond, Missouri
  
  Ron Wyden, Oregon
  
  Trent Lott, Mississippi
  
  Evan Bayh, Indiana
  
  Olympia J. Snowe, Maine
  
  Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland
  
  Chuck Hagel, Nebraska
  
  Russell D. Feingold, Wisconsin
  
  Saxby Chambliss, Georgia

• Dark Familiar, is a collection of poems by Aleda Shirley (Sarabande Books). It touches on the inevitable touchstones of loss and place from the perspective of life's mid-point. [here]

• The poetry of motherhood [here]

• And another quote from the poet AMY LOWELL:

"I am tired, beloved, of chafing my heart against the want of you; of squeezing it into little ink drops, and posting it. And I scald alone, here, under the fire of the great moon. "

tags: Writing and poetry Reviews CIA spying Eileen Tabios Amy Lowell Galatea Resurrects

I see a merger coming

I must give credit to auntialias for this Gem!

Happy Hump Day

Another Amy Lowell quote for today....

"Let us be of cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come."



Poetry Contest - 2006 Autumn House :

Judged by award-winning poet Tim Seibles, the 2006 Autumn House Poetry Contest awards publication of a full-length manuscript and $2,500 to the winner. The postmark deadline for entries is June 30, 2006 - click here to get all the details.

Also of interest... THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, NO. 2: A SUBMISSIONS CALL [click here]

In the news:

AT&T has issued a statement saying, "it had an obligation to assist government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare" in response to handing over phone records of millions of people to the NSA without any warrants or court orders. How refreshing to know that AT&T could not give a rats ass about their customers. At least they got it out in the open. Hell, if we take the six degrees of separation theory to heart, we are probably all linked to terrorists.


America Loses a Treasure: Stanley Kunitz / Audio - Melissa Block All Things Considered - NPR [here]


tags: Writing and poetry AT&T Privacy NSA

Tuesday Musings

This week, I'll share a few quotes from the poet Amy Lowell (1874-1925) another Massachusetts poet. I think the state mush have produced the highest per capita number of poets.

She was a part of the Imagist movement, and she maintain that "concentration is of the very essence of poetry" and strove to "produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite."

Amy Lowell had a lifelong love for the poet Keats, who she believed to be the forbearer of Imagism. She published a biography of Keats 1925.

Today's Amy Lowell Quote:


"Let the key guns be mounted, make a brave show of waging war, and pry off the lid of Pandora's Box once more."

*The local poet Bill Bauer will appear tonight at the Johnson County Central Resource Library, 987 W. 87th St. in Overland Park, Kansas where he will read. The event starts at 7 p.m.

*From my Journal:

"Stonewalling was just one of many ways she constructed obsticals."

The politics of fear and numbers

Polls show American's support for President Bush somewhere in the toilet. I realize first lady Laura Bush says she disbelieves the polls, and I don't blame her for standing behind her man, if that is what she is doing. Still, if Laura Bush really disbelieves how Americans feel about her husband then she ought to get out more often. By out, I mean in the real world as opposed to a rally where the tickets are given out to carefully screened individuals.

We have been hearing a lot about how "9-11 changed everything" and how we have to think differently. We are in a war on terrorism. Don't misunderstand me, I understand the threat of terrorists is real. It existed long before 9-11 for that matter.

When the President went on TV last night, he did so simply for the opportunity to soften up the negative numbers against him. Right now, Americans favor building a high wall around us and throwing the keys to the gate away.
Yes, some seventy percent of the American people want to close down the boarders. They want to close it down out of fear.

Some people are truly afraid of a terrorist walking across the boarder and it could happen. That is not how any of the 9-11 conspirators came in, but it is possible. There are a lot of other people who also want it closed out of fear, but that fear is not about terrorism but what they see as the assimilation of our American culture into large segments of diversified nationalities. They are fearful of the erosion of American job markets, and they are fearful of having to provide benefits and services to new people entering this country.

In fact, while the driving force in all of this is fear, it is really more the latter that the President is pandering to. Yes, I said pandering. Now, I'll tell you why. First of all, if the President was so all fire concerned abut the boarders, he would have ordered this done right away after 9-11. He has ordered wiretaps without court approval. He has ordered the collection of billions of people's phone records. None of those has he sought authority for, he just did it, in spite of existing laws that provide protections and oversight to such intrusions. He could have just signed an executive order and poof- put troops along the Mexican and Canadian boarders.

The only known terrorist entry attempt through the American boarders was the millennium bomber who used Canada, not Mexico for entry and was caught. But the President is focusing on the Mexican boarder not Canada. That is where people fear the greatest threat to American culture and jobs.

So the President now wants to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican boarder. I feel safer already! Don't you? Actually the Posse Comitatus Act would prevent these troops from making arrests of illegal aliens. They can only stand by and watch. Or call the actual boarder patrol and provide information to help them take the people into custody. So really this is not an addition of a big layer of added security. This is smoke and mirrors. The President has fallen on hard times with even his most conservative base. Plus, he wants to try and make his "guest worker" program for non-citizens more palatable with the conservative right. This is just the cod liver oil to help make it go down a little smoother.

tags: border Illegal immigration Bush Immigration national guard

Poet Stanley Kunitz Dies at 100 - Los Angeles Times

Poet Stanley Kunitz Dies at 100 - Los Angeles Times

Stanley Kunitz, the elegant centenarian of American poetry, whose musings about life, death, love and memory brought him a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and two terms as U.S. poet laureate, died Sunday at his home in New York City. He was 100.



tag: poet

Monday ugh!

Monday is not my favorite day of the week anyway, and it seemed this weekend went way to fast for my liking.

Saturday, my daughter Meghan and I did a bike ride. It was not a competitive one and I, unlike her, am not particularly experienced in any rides of great length. In fact, I have not really ridden in years.

This was a 16 mile ride and I bailed at 11 miles. Admittedly I was having problems with the lower gears on the bike, but still, I pushed myself to get to 11 miles. I don't think this is the end of riding for me, but the gear issue is going to have to be dealt with or switch out the bike for another one.

Sunday we celebrated mother's day. I think we all agreed that we ate too much, but otherwise had a good day. It was a long one for my wife, but I think she have a good day otherwise.

I did a wee bit of writing over the weekend, but really not enough make any fuss over here. Read a few poems, but again I was mostly busy with other stuff.

Since it was mother's day I actually spent a fair amount of time thinking about relationships with mothers. I think this was helped by reading the poem "Drowning" by Sharon Olds, in which she describes all of these grown daughters together discussing their fears for their children, all the while each has a mother (their own) bearing down on their neck as they are submerged.

I think mother-daughter relationships are most intricate. Perhaps I am coming from a skewed view - my own relationship with my father was non-existent so I suppose it is not fair for me to judge mother-daughter relationships as any more of less of anything by comparison to father-son. Still, I think they seem more complex than a mother-son relationship.

Kahil Gibran Quotations

Poet, philosopher, and artist, Kahil Gibran was born in Lebanon, though he made the United States his home for the last twenty years of his life. He has been highly read in both Arab speaking countries and the United States.

I came upon two quotes from him which I feel say so much about poets and their craft.

"A poet is a bird of unearthly excellence, who escapes from his celestial realm arrives in this world warbling. If we do not cherish him, he spreads his wings and flies back into his homeland."

It is true that I sometimes read the work of this poet or that and feel quite as though they are from some other, perhaps celestial realm. However, I'm sorry to say that I believe people as a whole do not often cherish them or their works. I suspect a lot of them must be making their way back home.

The second quote I absolutely love. "All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind." Yes! Our words are but a tiny fraction of all that goes on upstairs and yet in many respects, that is all we have to go one when assessing one another. It makes me realize how important each word is because put together with others they represent the visible sum of all our thoughts.

Tags: Poetry poets Writing words

What Is Your Phone Company Up To?

If you us one of these phone services:

AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.

You should know that they have been voluntarily handing over the phone calling record of tens of millions of customers to the government as part of Bush's post 9-11 surveillance of phone calls. [source 1] [source 2] [source 3]

You should also know that President Bush's nominee for CIA director, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, was head of the NSA from 1999 to 2005, would have overseen the call-tracking program. [source]

This information has been collected with out probable cause, without warrant, and represents an illegal intrusion into the lives of private citizen.

I am calling my Senators and asking them to oppose Michael Hayden's nomination and to fully investigate this activity Bush has authorized. I suggest others do the same.

Birthplace of poetry and voice

" I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests. " ~ Pablo Neruda

Where was my poetry born and from where did my voice originate? This is something I have not really openly explored. I don't believe the answer is an easy one to either question. I could easily dodge it, or dismiss it with a simple answer that fails to do the question justice. Still, I think Neruda asks that which every poet ought to consider within their own personal context.

As to the birth place of my poetry, I have lived my whole life in the same state. Most of it in an urban setting. I suppose that I could argue that my poetry was born in at the shadow of a downtown city that has over the years been in decay. Declining in prominence. I big city, with big city problem, but one in which the migration of it's citizens has been away from, at least until recently.

I have traveled to other cities and states, but this has been my home since a very small child. I have moved within the last few years to a more suburban setting, but one that is not far from all the commercial amenities you normally have being in a big city.

My poetry voice has come from several places. I don't really write so much of regional "place" - for example, Kansas City is known as the city of fountains. I don't recall ever going there with a poem. Nor poetry about the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. Rarely have I mentioned the might Missouri river which has a bend here in the KC area.

What I have found is that my poetry often has been a voice of despair like the urban core. The violence of war perhaps has come from the inner-city violence that never seemed very far away. Hopelessness and despair have often been a part of my work and that perhaps has had some origin in my job with deals daily with mental illness. My voice perhaps also has been drawn from my own personal life, growing up was not easy and although in many respects I had it so much better than some, it was at times painful none the less.

There is an under current of relationship impact upon my writing. Some of it from my family of origin. And I see and feel a tug of influence in relationship poems that are rooted in nearly 32 year of marriage. Love poetry is not something that comes easy for me. There is the ever present fear of writing stuff that is too sappy. But when I can, I do enjoy capturing that moment that says something about love.

The 32 years of marriage have not been without their share of problems and downhill runs, but they are in fact the most significant aspect of my life and for all the mistakes I have made along the way, it is in that relationship with my wife that I have the greatest value of life at all.

I do so often write from a dark perspective. Death is not particularly a fascination with me as perhaps it is of some, but rather a fact of our being and it is at the opposite end of the spectrum of life, I suppose that contrast and the desire to live as opposed to die that pulls me to the subject. It is something I cannot ignore.

So there you are. My poetry was born in a city that knows adversity. Gleaned its voice from everyday trials, from a fight for survival and a search for hope, all the while recognizing the pain and suffering of street people, victims of drive-by shootings, families that try to cling together in these difficult times and that one thing that is so precious that money cannot buy.

Non-Verbal Skills

My hand,
a secret decoder
felt her      silent message
up and down the length
of her body,        and
in translation,          found
we were saying the same thing.

Tag: poem

Mysterious fatigue illness that is costly to Britain - Health - Times Online

Mysterious fatigue illness that is costly to Britain - Health - Times Online

Related Poem in this story is written by Frieda Hughes, daughter of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.


tags: Health and wellness Poetry Frieda Hughes

Robert Browning Quote

"Grow old with me! The best is yet to be." ~ Robert Browning

Sunday Sampler

My fantasy baseball team is 15-14-1, in 5th place out of 12 teams. This is truly fantasy because there are no ties in baseball, oh, except in certain all-star games. Thank you Mr. Selig.

Another poet / blogger site to check out - Sarah at Poetry for a Hostile World. [here]

Thanks to Jilly I found this interesting story on high school censorship of poetry.

Good Advise

"Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure." ~A. E. Housman

On occasion I will read a poem that on the whole may not do a lot for me, but ah! That one line or one stanza will sometimes make it every bit worth the read.





Tag: Poetry

Bits From My Journal

The heart is painted with thick layers of desire.

*

Their carts filled with informalities at bargain prices.

*

The day opened wide as a book opened often, to a favorite page.

*

Willows hunch, creaking arthritically in gusty breeze.

*

The subterranean culture swallowed up the past; it is but fumes of sulfur- that residual stench of palpability.

*

The last day extends a hand, as if to offer some basis to anticipate comfort without suspicion.

Nobel Prize Laureate to Share Poetry

This Friday, May 5th - Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize Laureate and featured speaker for the 2006 University of Kentucky Main Commencement Ceremony. Heaney will also read on campus from his work as well as his latest book of poems new book of poems, "District and Circle" which will be released by Farrar Straus & Giroux this month. [source]

)()()()(

If you have not heard LIVING WITH WAR by Neal Young [click here]

Tags: Poetry war lyrics Music

The Superhero Thing

It seems that one of the most frequent keyword searches that bring people to this site involves the words hero and poems. Actually most often it is "superhero poems". I'm sorry to say that such internet surfers are going to be disappointed because I have never written a poem about a superhero and I don't recall even one about a hero in specific terms. Perhaps, someday I will venture into that realm. When I do, of course the Superhero will likely be none other than "Stick Poet."

Events:

Kansas City Metro Area:

POETRY AND POETS: May 4 - Leawood City Hall, Maple Room, 4800 Town Center Drive, Leawood, Kansas Writers and listeners welcome. Free. (913-344-0255; 913-339-6700, Ext. 157)

Open Mic: Thursday, May 18, 7pm
KC Poetry Open Reading is a monthly series featuring open reading and special readers. Sign-up for open reading begins at 6:30 with actual reading from 7-9pm. Hosted by Will Leathem this event takes place at The Plaza library, 4801 Main Street - Kansas City, MO

Open Mic: Monday. May 22, 8pm
An open mic reading every fourth Monday of the month. At these open mic nights hosted by Sharon Eiker everyone reads! Writers Place is located at: 3607 Pennsylvania - Kansas City, MO 64111


Poet's Quote for today...

"A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer... He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring." ~ E. B. White

Ah, and what have you to say about that Ted Koozer? (sorry, I couldn't help myself)


tags: Ted Koozer Poetry Superheros

The clutter of blank stares

So National Poetry Month is past, but I still have a treasure trove of wonderful quotes from poets. Hence I will continue to spoon feed them to you but perhaps not on a daily basis.

The Poet's Quote for today:
"How frail the human heart must be - a mirrored pool of thought. " ~Sylvia Plath

And here is a snip-it from one of my older works:

The clutter of blank stares
In a multitude of fun house mirrors
Each one, my own washed-out
Version of despair.

Wow, nice acquisition for Princeton University:
Library acquires archives of prominent literary magazine

Tags: poem Princeton Sylvia Plath Poetry Literature

May Day

To plug another poet...
I haven't read it, but I might suggest that people check out Christine Hamm's book The Animal Husband. (you can get it here) In her own words - "It is funny and sad and a little bit pretty, just like me." frankly, I haven't read much of Christine's work that I didn't just adore.

I enjoyed reading the poem PLANET by Frances Brent in the May 1 edition of the New Yorker. I loved the line, When it slid out of her grasp, / she kept asking / "Didn't I keep my promise?"

You know when people say to you, "You really should get out more?" I think my version of that line to writers is, "Your really should read other people's stuff more."

It's May 1st and you older folks like me can probably remember all the May Day photos we used to see in the papers of the long parades in the Soviet Union where they would roll out all their military hardware down the streets for the world to see. I was thinking about that this morning and how that has all changed. I was also thinking about how across the nation hundreds of thousands of immigrants - some illegally in this country will take to the streets and demonstrate for immigration reform that is favorable to their plight. At the risk of using a metaphor that may sound demeaning to them, it is kind of like cockroaches coming out of the floor molding. Here are all these people that for the most part are a part of a subterranean culture that will today be quite visible. So today, my old image of May Day is being replaced with a more contemporary. Both of these have political implications. Somewhere in all this, I'm sure I have a poem brewing.

Oh, is anyone else finding it trifling the Senator Bill Frist wants to help us poor American drivers by giving us a $100 tax rebate because of the high gas prices? Surprise!!! The GOP plan also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration. (source)

tags: Immigration Poetry Writing and poetry gas environment

Journalism & Poetry - Poet's Quote of the day

"To separate journalism and poetry, therefore-history and poetry-to set them up at opposite ends of the world of discourse, is to separate seeing from the feel of seeing, emotion from the acting of emotion, knowledge from the realization of knowledge." ~ Archibald MacLeish


Tags: Poetry Journalism history

Fire & Ice

"You are ice and fire the touch of you burns my hands like snow." ~ Amy Lowell

I chose this quote for today simply because it is such a powerful phrase and quite precise in the image it presents to me personally. These are the kinds of lines that produce poetry that leaps from the page rather than just existing as ink in one dimensional form.

On another note, I'd like to suggest to readers that they might consider going to the Squeet box in the left column of this blog and sign up to receive the blog postings via e-mail. I previously used another service which seems not to be defunct of at least not working more that it is. In the short time I have been exposed to Squeet, I have been impressed. This will allow you to receive syndicated feeds of this blog in your e-mail and you can choose from live, daily or weekly feeds.

I have not written much in the past week. I need to integrate a little more time into the coming week for this. I have a number of home projects I am working on and they are coming along but I know there is an endless cycle of them. I had planned to do a more extensive blog post today on a topic but I am forgoing that for now.

Here's to what's left of the weekend!

Tags: Writing and poetry syndication Feeds

Accuracy & Clarity

"Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear." ~ Ezra Pound

This is a most interesting statement in that to me I want to split down the middle falling on both sides. On one hand I heartily agree. And if we are speaking literally of language itself, yes! But just as we should strive for efficiency and clarity in language usage, I don't believe that mean we have to be so ridged with our poetry as Ted Koozer would have us all be.

I myself like a little mysticism left between the lines. I like to have to read a poem over and over. That is where discovery comes. If I read a poem once and can say, "Oh, that was nice. I understand completely," then I quite often feel cheated. There is no stretching of the mind. No room for revelation or discovery. Sure concise language is important, but not everything has to be written as though it were for remedial consumption.

Yes, there are exceptions. There are poems that are straight forward that I like very much and some of my own have been written in a fashion the Koozer's of the world would feel much more comfortable with. But these poems must say something all the more exceptional.

tag:Writing and poetry

Gee Really?

You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways.And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery...Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever.You're already naturally a poet, even if you've never written a poem.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

I have to give credit to Cindy at Quotidian Light for this site. Admittedly I was fearful that it would tell me I should write obituaries or greeting cards.

A Poet's Moments

"I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on." ~Rita Dove

Moments...

The concept of a moment I believe means so much to poetry. We often hold onto, whatever it is we capture, within the framework of some indefinite period of time, but it is generally considered to be a small segment.

A noun, I see a moment as both a place and a thing. As a place it is some point within a continuum. As a thing, it is an arbitrary period of time.

What I believe gives particular meaning to moment or moments within the context of poetry is that they are so often characterized by some quality.

If you consider a poem to be a snapshot (and I often feel it is) of sorts, then that very word picture that we strive to recreate is very often predicated on some moment. A loving touch, a dying breath, an intimate kiss, that first cry after coming into the world, the hawk in mid-flight, a moment of terror in the midst of a war.

I like to think that as poets what we are often doing is taking into account some moment and saying about it, "hold that thought!"




Tags: Writing and poetry Poetry

The World As We Know It

"When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other, and to fail to love it is not to exist at all." ~ Mark Van Doren

Last night, I took my daughter to hear Lois Lowry speak on The Life of A Writer.
Lowry wrote one of Meghan's favorite books, The Giver. (second only to To Kill A Mockingbird)

Lowry's story takes us through her life and brings us to the inspiration behind The Giver, a book which is highly acclaimed and at the same time has sparked controversy by many parents who I will assume are well meaning if not somewhat ignorant.

Lowry's personal story underscores her belief that those things in life (which we all have) that are sad or painful, do in fact serve a significant purpose, without which, the good, the happy and joyful times would soon become mundane and of lesser value without such tribulations to measure against.

I agree that this is an important aspect of our lives. One which is very often hard for us to keep in perspective. It certainly isn't going the make the sad or painful any easier to endure, but I think it can give greater legitimacy to the upside of life.

Mark Van Doren's quote above is an excellent example how poetry and poets themselves can server the greater good of man. People often ask, "Why do poets so often write of death, or war?" The answer is simple... because it is there. It is real and it is before us. The same is true of love, and so many other things. In a very real way, poets are historians, recording what we see and what we feel in such a way as to give it greater meaning to others and to other generations. While all poetry is not necessarily 100% factual, it will address truths that we see and feel. Sometimes I think of how awesome a snapshot can be and the whole "a picture is worth a thousand words" thing. But when a poet reaches deep within himself or herself, and pulls out what he or she feels and put them, not into lengthy prose, but in very precise words in a very special order to grasp what was internalized, how awesome is that?

tags: Writing and poetry Lois Lowry The Giver Poetry Literature Poems

Collecting Thoughts in Journal

I've decided today I will keep my journal close at hand and record bits and pieces of any variety of thoughts that come together in a semblance of phrase. Not wanting any particular issue, theme, agenda but merely allowing the collection of these random particles of thought. At the end of the day, or perhaps tomorrow I'll visit these and see what has substantive value. From this, I'll see what I can write.

The concept is of course not at all novel. I do write little bits of verbiage from time to time and some become the basis of later work. But I am going to try to be more prolific in that process throughout the day. This is where this process differs from my past experiences.

On another note, I picked up a couple of good books over the weekend. My wife has the uncanny ability to walk into a book store and find really good material on poetry. This would not be so surprising if she were more attune to the craft. She is highly creative and artistic, but poetry is not her thing. (though she is highly supportive of my poetry)



tag: Writing and poetry

Anne Bradstreet Quote

"Iron till it be thoroughly heated is incapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on his anvil into what frame he pleases." ~Anne Bradstreet

High Fives All-Around!

"Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly." ~ Anne Stevenson

I like this quote because it reminds me of the whole matter of word economy in poetry. I often need to remind myself the importance of this to poetry. It is not so much that I have a struggle with it as it is that it just needs to remain on the forefront of my mind.

It has occurred to me that this is a concept that really goes against the grain of my normal mode of communication. With ADD the tendency is to verbalize everything that is going through your mind. Hence, I will often give a person more information than needed in the course of a conversation. As I write this, I'm thinking my wife would likely ask me, "then how come I can write poems with less wordage and not do the same in our conversations?" It is a good question and I suspect the major factor is that we speak in conversations much faster than we write. Writing slows us and of course besides taking more time to choose the best words, we have the ability to re-write.

I do have some good news. Last week I was flipping through the mail and there is one of my self-addressed envelopes.

So I'm reading along... " We are pleased to inform you that your work has been accepted for publication in the 2006 issue..."
and all of a sudden, I realize this is not a rejection letter! I could get into the joy of receiving these much better than the other variety.

Free Speech & Poetry

"In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty."~ Muriel Rukeyser

April 18th Poet's Quote

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street. ~ W. H. Auden


* Happy Birthday to my wife Cathy Jean

The Way You Carry Yourself

The Way You Carry Yourself
For Cathy Jean

You wear your flannelness
in that laid back way
that fits you pleasantly.

Conformity seems unimportant
and you prove it like you would
work a math problem backwards.

I swear, you give it utmost validity;
a blossoming art hung out of self-assurance
in an off the path gallery-

If two people find it appealing,
you are satisfied. An if no one sees it,
it's all just the same.

But I would hold you in any fabric,
just as you are, and I would press
your nakedness to mine

in nothing at all,
as the creator herself
has become a treasure of art.

A search for order

"For me, poetry is always a search for order." ~ Elizabeth Jennings

It seems that as we go through life, the very process of living is in itself a natural disordering process. We read the paper, it ends up with sections missing or A between E and D and the Movie section folded inside out. Or we get up in the morning and the bed covering is all out of kelter. And so life moves through the day being lived, being sort of misshapen if you will. We stop at various points to re-order our lives. But we know full well these are temporary shifts in the sand of life, and like the wheat in a Kansas field, it will again move with each breeze.

Elizabeth Jennings has touched upon a most human instinctive facet of poetry. Poetry often speaks to my own need to pause and get things right. To find and reorder life. To find that emotion that resides deep within. You know it is there and cannot begin tell or explain it, even to the one you are closest to in life, for want of words. For perfect description. Your mind and soul searches for that ordering and until you find it - until a poem speaks it to you and you have that ah-ha! realization - it remains locked deep within.

Sometimes it's through my own writing that these things come about. Still, at other times it is the words of another poet that provide a key to this ordering, this finding the right words or image to complete the emotional translation. And so it is that we become better aware and in that greater awareness, now have the ability to put our deepest fears or longing desires, or greater joys and utmost delights into the right words and best order to achieve most precise meaning.

tags: Writing and poetry Poetry

Poet's Quote - Wallace Stevens

"A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman." ~ Wallace Stevens

Poet's Quote ~ Bryant H. McGill

"Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty. " ~Bryant H. McGill

From a work in progress

One more morning sunrise
strained through a gauze wrapped sky-
One more day forcing itself into my squinting eyes.

Student can recite poem with profanity

Student can recite poem with profanity


U.S. District Court Judge Brian Sandoval gave the ok for a 14 year old student to recite a poem in competition with the words "hell" and "damn" in it. Stickpoet recently reported on this in an earlier blog.

A school official, Steven West, at Coral Academy of Science in Reno, NV told 14 year old Jacob Behymer-Smith, that he could not recite the poem in competition again after using W.H. Auden's "The More Loving One" and then reprimanded the student's English teacher. West said the Auden then work contained profanity.

It is sad that this matter had to rise to the level of taking up time on a federal court docket and the school's decision blows my mind. Of course you may go here and judge for yourself just how profane this poem about love is.

I have to say, based on the poor the judgment used by the school in this instance, I don't know that I would trust these people with greater issues of education for a child of mine.

This kid is a freshman in high school for Christ's sake. The academy's attorney said this was not about free speech (the court bagged to differ) but about the schools' ability to set educational standards. That is scary given the prominence of W. H. Auden in modern poetry and how benign the usage of the words in question.

Jacob intends to recite the poem on April 22 during Poetry Out Loud, a contest sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Tags: Poetry Free Speech Jacob Behymer-Smith National Endowment of the Arts Steven West

New frost place director wants to put poetry in motion

New frost place director wants to put poetry in motion


He is on just about everybody's short list of best known poets. New director of The Frost Place, a museum and arts center, talks about his plans.

Chicago Tribune | Just the thought of poetry

Chicago Tribune Just the thought of poetry


All this fuss about poetry this month... Diane Cameron asks what's it all about?

Poet's Quote - Sharon Olds

"This creature of the poem may assemble itself into a being with its own centrifugal force." ~ Sharon Olds

Tags: Writing and poetry Poetry

WAG THE CAMEL

A phrase that has raised from the ink and is making quite a splash throughout the blogisphere is MAUREEN DOWD's catch phrase from her Op-ed piece yesterday titled: WAG THE CAMEL. Dowd writes in a New York Times Op-ed piece: "Iran was whipping up real uranium while America was whipped up by fake uranium." [source]

I think this pretty much says it all.

Tags: Wag the Camel Bush War Iraq Iran Nuclear

Thursday Mix

The moon was luminous last night and hung in the sky like one of those globes at a dance that reflect lights. The drive into to work was pleasant, with remarkably little traffic and I noticed the greening that is occurring all about us. It felt safe and comforting.

On the west cost, the San Francisco Giants, my absolute favorite baseball team suffered consecutive days of rainouts for only the second time since the team moved to San Fran in 1958. Tell me there isn't something screwy going on with the weather. Tuesday's series opener was already rescheduled as a split doubleheader for Thursday.

Tuesday night, the KC Metro Verse met at the Writer House. I filled in for our President who was ill. The meeting was mostly read-arounds. We were short several other members.

I see Christine over at This is All Your Fault has been experimenting with e.e. cummings - I kind of like it, but it seems so different from what we usually see from her. I guess that is where the experimental part comes in. Anyway I liked it! Note: her book The Salt Daughter is now available on Amazon.com.

The past few days - I seem to have lost track how many now, I have been following Eileen Tabios' posts on her blog - she have captured the last days with her father. Her words have been painfully beautiful.

I finished reading Bitter Fame - A Life of Sylvia Plath this week. I've read numerous biographical books on Plath. This on is worth the read. I'll tell you more about why I feel this way in a later post.

Tags: Sylvia Plath Books San Francisco Giants Eileen Tabios Christine Hamm

Poet's Quote - Robert Bly

"The beginning of love is a horror of emptiness." ~ Robert Bly

Channel 4 KRNV.com: Local News and Weather for Reno-Tahoe Region: Reno student threatening lawsuit over poetry censorship

Channel 4 KRNV.com: Local News and Weather for Reno-Tahoe Region: Reno student threatening lawsuit over poetry censorship


This is a case of some seriously lame School Administrators at the Coral Academy of Science in Reno, NV. More power to the student - Jacob Beyhmer-Smith.

Tags: Coral Academy of Science censorship Free Speech Poetry

Poet's Quote - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My Point

I have something to say
and I want your attention-
Your focus to the point these lines
ride the whiteness of this page.

I want you to read me and taste
the acidic black words,
question what this all means.

Bore yourself, in search
of some higher purpose,
that these have
some vaulted meaning
that springs forth.

Look between these lines
or beneath the page in hope
of more clarity. Some special
clue to my agenda
in all these words.

Take me apart,
line by line
with a paring knife.
There has to be an agenda.
Right?

Add these to your vocab

My wife sent me the following yesterday in an e-mail and I must admit it cracked me up. I believe my favorites are numbers 3, 7 and 18.


The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. .....Here are this year's winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

4 . Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
And the pick of the literature:

18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an arsehole.

Poet's Quote - Richard Wilbur

"It is true that the poet does not directly address his neighbors; but he does address a great congress of persons who dwell at the back of his mind, a congress of all those who have taught him and whom he has admired; they constitute his ideal audience and his better self." ~ Richard Wilbur

Yes, who is the poet's audience? Sometimes, I write with absolutely no audience in mind. I have been known to think more about audience in rewrites, but I'll admit, sometimes I believe it is my own soul that is the audience. I think perhaps this is the very audience Wilbur is addressing.

NPR : Caroline Kennedy: 'My Favorite Poetry for Children'

NPR : Caroline Kennedy: 'My Favorite Poetry for Children'


I featured a piece on this in one of my blog posts in the past but I thought since NPR did a segment on morning edition, it was worth mentioning it during National Poetry Month.


Tags: National Poetry Month Poetry Caroline Kennedy

Mondays Can Be Such A Bitch

So today is Monday. It is also my oldest daughters birthday. What a contrast. I recall Cathy Ann's birth like it was yesterday, though sadly, it was eons ago. Yet, today is Monday and I'd like to forget it already. The day started with the realization that all out CD's were stolen from the car. Then, my wife's very favorite winter hat was damaged. To add insult to injury, she locked herself out of work this morning, on my account. Monday is not normally a kind day anyway, but today especially.

So back to my oldest daughter. She lives out of the area, so we rarely see her. I am quite proud of her, as I am all our kids, but she is the only one who has moved out of the city and her mother and I miss her very much!

I did not write much this weekend but, for what time I attempted, I was back to trying to force a round peg into a square hole. Of course the results were not worthy of salvage. So much in contrast to last week when stuff just rolled out of the pen to the page.

I suppose it is time to shake this Monday thing and try to get things moving. My body seems to be moving at the speed of a slug and that is just not going to help me get through this day. I guess I need to get a little more positive passion about the day.

Here is the poet's quote for the day:

"The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history." ~ Czeslaw Milosz

Poet's Quote for Sunday April 9

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul." ~ Franz Kafka

Poet's Quote - Sautuday April 8th

"Yet there are times when a deeper need enters, when we want the poem to be not only pleasurably right but compellingly wise, not only a surprising variation played upon the world, but a re-tuning of the world itself." ~ Seamus Heaney

Hearing again the life-altering, haunting words of poet Sexton

Hearing again the life-altering, haunting words of poet Sexton - baltimoresun.com


On October 1st, 1974, Anne Sexton appeared at Goucher College and gave her last lecture. With her usual props - a glass of water, a sheaf of papers, a pack of cigarettes, she delivered a bracing, spirited 90 minute performance that ended with a prolonged standing ovation. Looking back at this address, were there signs of what was to come?

Tags: Poetry Anne Sexton

Friday Smiles!

My selected Poet Quote of the day is great advice. It comes from Christina Rossetti

"Better by far you should forget and smile that you should remember and be sad."

~*~

Art in Words

I was reading an article about Laura McCullough and her book The Dancing Bear. For her, writing poetry is about discovery and she says that her poetry helps her explore her obsessions. [source] I have thought about this in the context of the confessional school but even as I write more and more stream of conscinence material to begin first drafts, I believe there is a lot of discover to be had even in more abstract work. Sometimes this produces the most surprising imagry in this art. We are not intentionally driving a piece in a certain direction trying to hammer some specific idea, meaning or image into the poem. To me, this, perhaps more than anything else, is justification for the free verse form.

~

Select lines from Robert Lowell's Epilogue:

I hear the noise of my own voice: / The painter's vision is not
a lens, / it trembles to caress the light. / But sometimes everything I write
with the threadbare art of my eyes / seems a snapshot, /

~

Poet's Quote of the Day:

"The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become." ~ May Sarton

Ted Hughes project given boost

Local News - Yorkshire Post Today: News, Sport, Jobs, Property, Cars, Entertainments & More: LB6

Story generated from local news source in Yorkshire on state of the Ted Hughes Project by locals.

Upcoming Events

The new Busch Stadium in St. Louis - View of the home plate side.

Poet Quote for today....


"Baseball will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us." ~ Walt Whitman

Poetry Events:

John Ashbery Festival

• From April 6 - April 8 the New School in New York City will sponsor a festival honoring John Ashbery, the author of more than twenty books of poetry and the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and fellowships from the MacArthur and Guggenheim foundations.

Readers at the festival will include: Mark Bibbins, Billy Collins, Daniel Halpern, Bob Holman, Ann Lauterbach, Ron Padgett, James Tate, Susan Wheeler, and, Ashbery himself. Click here for more information.

Kansas City, Missouri at The Writers Place:

Friday, April 7, 7:30pm- Michelle Boisseau and Michael Waters will read from their poetry. (click here)

Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania - Kansas City, MO 64111

tags: Poetry John Ashbery Baseball

Poetry is about discovering, not dissecting

The Herald-Mail ONLINE: "Poetry is about discovering, not dissecting"


Nice piece written by Lydia Hadfield - great for poetry month. I could not have said it better.

More is More

I've been fairly free wheeling with my poetry drafts these past few days. I'm not sure that I've
produced much that I am happy with, but I have been spilling the ink quite well. In the long run, this is a good thing. It means for instance, that I am gravitating away from trying to force something to happen. I am not suffering delusions that I have kicked that habit, only that for the time being, I've moved beyond that.

I'm looking forward to being able to cull some material from what has been flowing on the page. It just hasn't hit me yet, but with greater volume comes greater opportunity. This is kind of a weird thought in some respects because most of us are accustomed to challenging the assumption that somehow, more is better. In this case, I think it has the greater potential, but in terms of raw material, it is not in itself necessarily better. The reality is that more is simply more to cull from. If I go fishing in a lake with 200 fish in it, I am not going to always catch more than down the road where there are only 100 fish in the lake, but the possibilities are better. I view this the same as creating material for poems. It is good to initially spill out your treasure troff of musings. Then see where that leads.

Poet Quote for Today

"If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die." ~ Maya Angelou

The ordinary

Morning view of Arch from our hotel room

I was in St Louis this weekend - weather was nice. Saw the new Busch Stadium which is nearing completion for the Cardinals home opener. It certainly felt like spring time was itching to get underway.

I had a bit of an epiphany about what we see in life. An too, perhaps what we miss and I found a wonderful link between that and my view of poetry. It seems that sometimes when you look with a great deal of focus you can find the most unique and beautiful things among the ordinary.

I saw for example, in downtown St. Louis, an area richly green with ivy spread across the ground and amid it was planted the bright red on/off valve on a stem. Here was a man made flower so to speak in the midst of natures lush foliage. Some would perhaps discount this as an intrusion into nature and it could be viewed that way. I chose to look beyond that.

While waiting for my wife who was in the city on business, I happened upon a bead shop. I can't tell you how excited I was about this. I don't bead, but I have been in enough shops with my wife to know that she would have found this one exciting. Unfortunately they were closing before she was to be finished with her meetings, but I picked up a very small item for her there and she seemed delighted by it.

It has occurred to me that sometimes the ordinary is only ordinary if we allow it it be. Yes, there are many extraordinary things in this world that we can marvel at, but it is important to not overlook the beauty around us in the ordinary course of life.

I found a poet's quote for today that sort of fit into what I am saying...

"For sure I once thought of myself as the poet who would save the ordinary from oblivion." ~ Philip Levine

When I saw this quote, I thought that perhaps Levine was on to something. I have always found poetry about the simplest things to be so enjoyable. If we can find ourselves within the ordinary, certainly the objective of saving the ordinary from oblivion is a noble cause for any poet to take on.

tags: Poetry St. Louis Busch Stadium St Louis Arch Creativity

Poet's Quote for April 2nd

"I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them." ~ John Ashbery

Don't Forget to move your clocks forward an hour. It may be later than you think. ;)

April 1st - Out of the poet's mouth

"I've read some of your modern free verse and wonder who set it free." ~ John Barrymore

Poetry Month

Last year Stickpoet offered a poetry-quote-day via e-mail during Poetry Month. This year, I am not doing the e-mail quote, however I will be posting a quote from a poet each day. If fact, due to my weekend schedule I will be posting April 1st Quote early.


Wishing you all a great poetry month.

PoetryFoundation.org Celebrates National Poetry Month With Daily Poetry Podcasts

PoetryFoundation.org Celebrates National Poetry Month With Daily Poetry Podcasts


THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON FOR NATIONAL POETRY MONTH....

CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE ABOUT THE POETRY FOUNDATIONS ACTIVITIES & VISIT THEIR WEB SITE.


tag: Poetry

Child poetry plagiarist a bad Oomen

Child poetry plagiarist a bad Oomen



Tag: Poetry

Tread softly...

"But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." ~ William Butler Yeats

Yeats was truly masterful at transforming words to mood. His writing so lyrical. He is one of those few people who I believe can make you fall in love with the words themselves.

Night Wishes

So quiet this house,
the night.

The two entwined,
inseparable.

I, on the other hand,
sit, like an extra.

An uninvited witness
to their cozy bond,
wishing she were home,
and I the night.

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement - The Boston Globe

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement - The Boston Globe

Bush shows the utmost arrogance - placing himself above the law and accountability to the American People. While not the first time he has done so, this is perhaps the boldest example yet.

She's the "Real Deal"

My wife was out shopping yesterday with my daughter while I was at home changing out the insides of a toilet tank. When she came home, she had bought me a magazine with some terrific stuff on poetry in. What a sweetie!!!

The New Criterion - What Auden believed

The New Criterion - What Auden believed

I'll give credit to Jilly for finding this interesting piece on W. H. Auden.



Tog: poets

Back to the Hughes Quote

I've thought about this. I've even posed the question to my wife and one of my daughters. The question being that of my personalities- assuming I have more than one, what are they? The consensus from the family was that yes I have more than one. It was pointed out to me that I would likely act one way around say "x" but another if I was not in there presence. I certainly see their point, and I suspect we all have similar situations we could point to, but is that a different personality altogether or simply make up a part of our overall personality? I don't have the answer to that question as of yet.

This morning, it occurred to me that personality testing could give me some outside quantitative basis for examining my specific personality. So I went back to the last time I took such a test That would be July of last year. I blogged briefly on it here.

So accordingly, I find myself based upon this too be a EIFP. That designation would make me am extroverted Intuition person with Introverted Feelings. So perhaps this is a clue to what I am exploring. I present extroverted, but deep down inside I am really an emotionally introverted kind of guy? This, I suppose could account for two different personality types.

Hughes talks about writers of verse ideally finding a style that is inclusive of all our personalities.
I'm thinking that unless we are trying to force into words what we are writing, this would seem a natural occurrence of the act of writing itself. Am I mistaken? I would really be interested in the thoughts of others on this topic.

My Several Personalities

"Most writers of verse have several different personalities. The ideal is to find a style or a method that includes them all." ~Ted Hughes

I'm going to have to think about this "several personalizes" thing a bit. Yes, I've written from a variety of personas, but that is not what Hughes is saying here. This may require outside counsel in order to arrive at objectivity. Hence, I need a day or two or three on this one. But I will be back!

the substratum of our beings...

Todays quote from the mouth of a poet comes from T. S. Eliot ~

"Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves. "

Yesterday's mailbag ~ My 2006 National Poetry Month Poster arrived. You can see it pictured here to the right - really cool this year!

Contest - Eileen Tabios plugs Marsh Hawk Press contest [here]

Tag: Poetry

"This is what a poet does..."

It strikes me humorously how radical Allen Ginsberg was thought, by many people back when he was alive and writing poetry. The times themselves, or the churning and turning that was taking place in the American culture at that time I suppose seemed radical to most. Ginsberg I suppose only embodied a part of what was happening behind the everyday America that was sort of like in this giant vat being slowly mixed and turned into something that would one day resemble a quite different America. But Ginsberg verbalized what was happening slowly.

For a long time, we had been moving away from a stricter model of poetry subject matter. The romanticism that so often we equate with poetry was not the only relevant voice and in fact, to many, its relevance even seemed questionable. Perhaps it is the awakening of America that was truly more radical then the singular notion. There are things that quietly occupied the minds of people that turned into reality were quite radical, but they stayed there, quietly, kept to themselves.

Ginsberg was not alone. He was not a sole practitioner in radical thought. Indeed, it was a transformation that preceded him altogether. I think he simply realized what a powerful vehicle we each had at our disposal if we simply unleashed it. And the timing was right. There were others- people who were transforming the world with words. Ginsberg became a very powerful public personification of the thought process of a whole generation of Americans.
He said,

"Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in
bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's
what the poet does."

This is what Allen Ginsberg showed us, and I believe it has dramatically changed us as people.

Out of a poets mouth ~ Today's quote

Bitterness is like cancer.

It eats upon the host.

But anger is like fire.

It burns it all clean.

~Maya Angelou

WebWatch : World Poetry Day

pembrokeshiretv.com - News, Sport, Information and Entertainment

Believed to have its origins in the 1930s, World Poetry Day honours poets and their craft. It was specifically declared as such by UNESCO in 1999, in order to "give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements". The aim is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world.

Missouri & the Arts

Snowed overnight, but the results were not that bad. For the most part roads were good this morning about town. At least the ones I drove on.

~

I saw an article from the K.C. Star on Sunday in the arts section that painted a really dismal picture of Missouri and support for the arts. It seems that the Missouri Arts Council is the second oldest state arts council in the nation. In the 1990's the state legislature routinely budgeted between $4.5 million and $5.6 million annually. Now, the state gives it less than $500,000 a year.

I was appalled to see that the state now ranks 49th for spending in the nation for arts. A paltry 8 cents per person. Even the territory of Guam spends more on art. This is a big turnaround from being a state that at the outset was an innovative driving force in support of the arts.

I am well aware that the state has faced major cuts in critical programs but it seems to me less than a half a million a year is appalling. If the legislature cannot budget more from state funds, they could lend their efforts to working for funds from the private sector. There is a lot Missouri has to offer the arts. Our history is rich with poets and writers. Paint artists, musicians, and so on.

Four Seasons in Verse

Yes, it is the first day of spring. Tell that to the weather man. Meghan can be seen here pre-race Saturday getting her gear on. The cold came to visit again and it seems to be handing around. Fortunately last night it stayed just above freezing as rain and sleet moved into the area. We are told a motherload of snow is in store for us next. So much for spring fever.

So there are four seasons to a year - admittedly some geography seems to ignite this fact, but that is another whole blog topic and I am not going there.

What I am pondering is which season has been the subject of more poems?
Of course I don't have the answer, but it is an interesting thought to ponder on a day that could turn ugly chasing us inside to begin the process of "winter cabin-fever" even if it is spring.

Redlands Daily Facts - Living

Redlands Daily Facts - Living

Poet Sholeh Wolpe has work included in the forthcoming anthology "The Other Side of Sorrow," to be published by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Patricia Frisella, editor, says the idea for the book began when Sam Hamill called on like-minded poets to host community readings to address the impending war against Iraq.

Tags: Iraq Poetry War Sam Hamill

The Clearest Voice

She holds on to something
In defiance of form

It isn't easy to keep a firm grip
On something you can't distinguish:

Still, she must.
The clearest words
From deep within
Her nuclear core
Tell her

She must.

Can I pause the weekend?

"The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them. " --Raymond Chandler

Interesting statement. I find room of agreement and disagreement with it. With poetry, I think it is most applicable to first drafts.

~

Yesterday was another cycling event for my daughter in Lawrence, Kansas. Cold, and the wind was outrageous. Weather forecasts are talking about all kinds of scary amounts of snow for us in the Kansas City area yet this weekend and tomorrow. While the sky looks bad out, I am having trouble being a believer. Perhaps it is simply I am in denial.

~

I need to be sending some stuff today or tomorrow. <---- note to self.

~

I really don't want the weekend to end. Of course I never do anymore but I really don't want Monday to arrive this week. I need more time. ::sigh::

Feeling Green....

A VERY HAPPY AND SAFE ST PATRICK'S DAY TO ALL

Social & Political Commentary Moving To New Blog

I have decided to post social / political commentary for the most part away from this blog. My reasons are really pretty simple, it is more a housekeeping matter than anything else. You can read more on this in the first post at Social Commentary by Stickpoet

Editorial: Fighting terrorism by cheating justice

Editorial: Fighting terrorism by cheating justice

I recommend reading this editorial.

Stickpoet

A Sorry Example of Sociology

A blister, given rise
Plump with anticipation
And between events.
A beginning and an end
That really is not,
But explanation reeks.

We copy to paper
With no thought given
But a man’s DNA,

That's another splinter
Inflamed in redness,
Taut, and mimicking
An ear on a cold day.

Go ahead, Cry foul.
Cry wolf.
Cry at the drop
Of a Stetson.
Cry in vain.
Cry out
With no remorse.

Tears beat a path to your door
And you let them in. Why?
A sorry example of sociology

At best. Another way
To pound the dent out
Of love wrecked
On the corner of indifference.

A time when I called
And the voice of reply was mine,
The explanation reeks too
And we won't talk about it.
Just like the DNA
We fear the complexity
Reaches beyond linear travel
Or comfort.

Thursday Briefs

• Kudos to Eileen Tabios, Editor and the other contributors to the first issue of Galatea Resurrects! [click here]
• Happy Birthday to Ivy !