They Should Do Lunch

Even after the nail biting defeat and elimination of the ASU Sun Devils last night in a 10 inning 7-8 loss in the College World Series, the morning sky was strikingly resolute with a cherry blossom sunrise. Life goes on.

If you've read my blog very long, you have likely figured out that I am not impressed with John Barr's efforts to bring poetry to the masses. To be clear, I have nothing personally against Mr. Barr and in fact I applaud his desire to further the art of poetry. It is not his objective but rather the means to that end that I dislike, both from a practical point and an artistic point of view.

Poetry, like any of the arts, is a broad expression of many genres. Not every song, not every painting, not every photo and certainly not every poem strikes everyone the same way. The way to strengthen any art for is not to divide it's benefactors or practitioners. This is where I part with the John Barr's of this world. So when I read a commentary by Mike Burnside - Winning ways in the war of the words , I found myself whispering under my breath, "...yes, yes!"

Barnside suggests that Barr would do well to use a model more like that of Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. He argues that if there is any art that struggles more in public persona then poetry, it is perhaps opera. And opera, like poetry, can easily be divided into accessible and not so accessible groupings. Barnside give Peter Gelib high marks for promoting opera across these divides with great success and suggests Barr and Gelib do lunch. Not a bad idea!

Half...

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half." ~ Gore Vidal

Ten Reasons Rejection Letters Aren't All That Bad

1. They are much preferred over bills.
2. They are tangible confirmation in the existence of life forms elsewhere.
3. You can wallpaper your room with them.
4. In a pinch they can be used as backup for toilet paper.
5. They remind us to recycle our work elsewhere.
6. You can write new drafts on the back of them.
7. They can help demonstrate to the IRS that your writing was not profitable this year.
8. In large quantities, they may establish you as an authority on rejection, which gives you the basis for writing a profitable book on the subject.
9. Mementos for the grandchildren
10. They are like a losing lottery ticket they you didn't have to buy.

Father's Day

Couple of items from Father's Day.... A Waterman Phileas fountain pen -burgundy and black marbled ( picture doesn't do it justice) and my ASU ball cap complete with "Sparky" the Sun Devil. By the way, ASU won their opening round of the College World Series Saturday. They play again tonight.

The pen is from my lovely wife. It is gorgeous and way more pen then I would have bought myself. Writes as smooth as honey. It will certainly make both journaling and hand written poetry drafts much more enjoyable.

Speaking of Father's Day.... Enjoyed this piece about Donald Hall & the poems he wrote on the passing of his father. While he write about the experience right away, the poem took 17 years to complete.

Julia Keller, who is cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune suggests the proliferation of first-rate bloggers is evidence enough the world is filled writers who deserve a large audience. However, they easily become specks lost in the masses. If everyone's a poet, then nobody is.

Hasn't getting work noticed always been the problem? Keller makes a case for the problem. What is the solution?
~0~

Melissa Tuckey interviews the Iranian poetess Farideh Hassanzadeh for Foreign Policy In Focus. Very provocative ~ worth reading.
~0~

Looking forward to some baseball this afternoon. College World Series game between Arizona State University and UC Irvine. ASU is noted for a strong baseball program. My daughter is starting her studies there this year. We'll sit down to enjoy the game together this afternoon.

Defragmenting the brain

Sometimes I wonder where those thoughts come from in the middle of the night. But mostly I wonder what happened to them when I fail to write them down. Sure I get bursts of creativity at other times during the day but it seems some of the more innovative, riskier ones, they often seep into my cranium when not bombarded by multiple conversations, the phone ringing and knowing I am late with a project or to a meeting. It would seem the less cluttered mind that has the widest venue in which to work. So I suppose the object here would be to try to figure out how to clear the mind at will and then let what floods in take root and grow.

First Draft: Leonardo Likes Gulls: Running of the Poems - Or Why Seattle is a Great Place for Poets & Poetry

First Draft: Leonardo Likes Gulls: Running of the Poems - Or Why Seattle is a Great Place for Poets & Poetry

What a cleaver idea... thanks Kelli for sharing this story of the Running of the Poems by The Poetess at Green Lake. This is the kind of activity that I like to see to broaden the reach of poetry to society today. It's the integration into normal everyday life and common places. I am far more impressed by this sort of undertaking then the John Barr approach to gutting literary art to make something more palatable to spoon feed the public.

The Guerilla Poetics Project has blogged on Poetry Live & it is worth taking a look at quickly - Like before it goes away!!! It is a nicely put together site and merits the attention of the poetry community at large.

Here is a really cool site. If you enjoy awesome photos - check this out: street:haikuby an xiao. I'd love to do some collaborative writing with photos like these.

Only recently I've been turned on to Charles Simic. How he had slipped under my radar I cannot say. Here is one of his poems to enjoy: My Noiseless Entourage

Bokhara pays tribute to Anna Akhmatova

Bokhara pays tribute to Anna Akhmatova: “The themes of Akhmatova’s works were ‘love’ and ‘separation’ which can be seen as a philosophical expression of her surroundings during her life in the Soviet Union. Akhmatova’s poems were rooted in her personal bourgeoisie and romanticism which later turned into a type of social romanticism."

The Iraq War Experience

An Op-Ed piece in the L.A. Times by CHRISTOPHER J. FETTWEIS (assistant professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College) provides some interesting insight to the complexities within society of losing a war.

Fettweis writes in his piece titled Post-traumatic Iraq syndrome of the lasting impact the earlier Soviet war in Afghanistan had on the Soviet Union and societal effects of defeat linger to this day in our own country as a result of Vietnam.

While Fettweis talks of the finger pointing from politicians on all sides, he acknowledges that the American people as a whole see this war pretty much as it was.... "The American people seem to understand, however — and historians will certainly agree — that the war itself was a catastrophic mistake. It was a faulty grand strategy, not poor implementation. The Bush administration was operating under an international political illusion, one that is further discredited with every car bombing of a crowded Baghdad marketplace and every Iraqi doctor who packs up his family and flees his country." Did you catch that? Our troops did not fail us, the war itself was a mistake.

Like Vietnam, which clearly divided my own generation- Iraq syndrome will be no different.
Fettweis points out that while Vietnam was far more costly in American lives, in the end it was strategically irrelevant. While Saigon fell, there were no dominoes that followed, and in the years that followed, communism became less relevant to to the power structures of the world, not greater. He is correct to point out that the situation in Iraq perhaps could be more costly. Iraq could soon collapse into an uncontrollable, lawless, failed state that destabilizes the region.
So the cost of this mistake could be far worse than that of Vietnam.

In spit of this, Fettweis suggests there is an outcome which will not have made this all have been in vain. Read his Op-Ed piece and see for yourself [ Post-traumatic Iraq syndrome ]

Thought for the day....

"I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues." ~ Dr. Seuss

Okay peeps...

I've had no takers yet on a "Stick Poet Superhero" poem. Don't make me plead.... it's undignified. ;)

Monday Meanderings

Excellent editorial by George Wallace, former Suffolk poet laureate & my appreciation to Jilly - I have to give her credit as my source for finding it. By the way congratulations for her nomination for Thinking Blogger Award.

Few notes about some poetry I read this weekend [here]

VALPARAISO The spring/summer edition of the Valparaiso Poetry Review, Valparaiso University's online journal of contemporary poetry, is now available online

Powell Calls for Closure of Military Prison at Guantanamo

And finally, I find Sen. Joe Lieberman more than a little disturbing these days.

Disc Golf - What Fun!

It's not the greatest picture but this is one of the holes for the disc- golf course about a block from our home. I discovered it about a week ago. It actually was put in last year sometime with a grant from Sprint.

I've wanted to play disc golf for some time now. I've picked up some equipment at a local DG store. I think this is something my wife and I can do together outside. Fun!!!

It is actually become a really big thing over the years. There is a professional disc golf association and the 25th Annual Kansas City Wide Open tournament is coming up on June 22 - 24th. What fun!

What has any of this got to do with poetry? Not a damn thing. I just didn't want people to think I was one dimensional. ::grin::

Quote for the Day

"Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart and his friends can only read the title. " ~ Virginia Woolf

Minimalist

Overwhelming Loss

Torn from a page of grief
Overcome with tears
Words like sponges soaked
Into the margins of a life
Shackled to a story
Whose end is overlapped
With alternating
Twisted gray jabs
And flattened blunt trauma
To a child like psyche

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy

Months Later - Curtains Finally Go Up in Connecticut

A story about censorship reported here earlier this year has an upbeat ending. Wilton High School students were finally able to preform their play, "Voices in Conflict" at a nearby theater to a packed house. This following being forbidden by their School principal and District superintendent to do so. After receiving much attention over the matter, the school district’s lawyer ruled that the production could go forward as long as it was not presented as a school-sponsored event.

A standing-room-only audience of 225 people turned out for the 50 minute performance!

Broadcasters Win FCC Expletive Dispute - Forbes.com

Broadcasters Win FCC Expletive Dispute - Forbes.com: "An appeals court said a new federal policy against accidentally aired profanities on TV and radio was invalid, noting that vulgar language had become so common that even President Bush has been heard using expletives.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday in favor of a Fox Television-led challenge to the policy and returned the case to the Federal Communications Commission to let the agency try to explain how its policy was not 'arbitrary and capricious.' The court said it doubted the FCC could."

Tomorrow Night at the Writers Place

The Following I am passing along from the Writers Place here in Kansas City:

This will be a truly wonderful event. Please make be sure to join us as we celebrate the work of two of KC's finest poets: Tom Zwi & Jeanie Wilson.


Reading in the Round: Wilsons and Friends
June 8, 2007
8:00 p.m.
Riverfront Reading
at The Writers Place

The Writers Place - 3607 Pennsylvania Kansas City, MO 64111

Jeanie Wilson and Thomas Zvi Wilson will read from The Door into the Dream. Both poets have previous books to their credit. Thomas’ Deliberate and Accidental Acts came out in 1997; Jeanie’s Uncurling appeared in 2000. The Door into the Dream was listed in the KC Star’s 2006: The Year’s 100 Noteworthy Books. Jeanie currently serves as a board member for TWP, and Thomas formerly served as treasurer on the TWP board. Jeanie and Thomas host The Writers Place Poetry Reading Series held monthly at the Johnson County Central Resource Library.

Other poet colleagues reading from The Door into the Dream:

· Brian Daldorph
· Gregg Field
· Denise Low-Weso—Poet Laureate fro Kansas for 2007-2009; her latest book is Words of a Prairie Alchemist.
· Jo McDougall—an Arkansas native, has published most recently Dirt and Satisfied with Havoc. Jo was inducted into the Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame (2006)
· Robert Stewart—is author of Outside Language: Essays and editor of New Letters magazine.
· Maryfrances Wagner

Nassau Poetry Incident Still Smoldering

The Nassau poetry flap that gained national attention grew uglier when Paula Camacho, the chairwoman of the county's poet laureate committee blasted Stephen Cipot, the Republican appointee to the panel for sabotaging the panel's selection of Maxwell Corydon Wheat Jr. to be poet laureate. Camacho called Cipot a "sniveling, coward of a man" and accused him of helping legislative Republicans shoot down the poet laureate nomination.

Meanwhile, Minority Leader Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) called the hours spend debating Wheat's fate, "... time wasted."

Nassau County's Loss

When I first heard the news about the controversy over the Nassau County, New York poet laureate position on Monday, I have to say I was extraordinarily angry. The county was poised to name Maxwell Corydon Wheat Jr., it's first poet laureate. But Monday, a county legislative committee voted 6-1 against Wheat when they learned of his 2004 book titled, "Iraq and Other Killing Fields: Poetry for Peace."

Peter J. Schmitt, Republican legislator voiced is objection because he felt that Wheat's book condemned the troops fighting for America in Afghanistan and Iraq. Democrat Wayne Wink was the lone legislator who voted to uphold Wheat's nomination.

Since that time, families too have squared off over the issue. But there has been support for Wheat, even from families who have members serving in Iraq.

Linda Geremia, of South Setauket, NY who has a son serving believe the committee did the right thing.

Nicole Lundin, who lost a son recently however saw not contradiction between supporting the troops and opposing the war. Nor did Elaine Brower, who has a son who served there last year.
And Mary Ann Kochman, also with family in Iraq suspected politicians were more concerned with political cover than with poetic excellence.

I've grown a little less angry over this. The reality is that many people see it for what it is. Short sightedness and as Ms. Kochman put it running for political cover. I believe it was Plato who said,"Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history."

What is sad to me is that Wheat seemed to be an excellent choice. He has written for many years on the natural beauty of the Nassau County region. The people in there will truly miss an opportunity.

There are I suppose always going to be the likes of Peter J. Schmitt, (recipient of my thumbs down award for the day) who are hell bent on defending that which is indefensible. No one I know disrespects the troops and I know precious few people personally who believe this war was ever justified. These young men and women were called upon to serve and (aside from a small handful) have preformed in very difficult circumstances honorably. But they were not the architects of this mistake. The best support was as Americans can give them is to return them safely to their families as quickly as possible.





Sources for this post: here and here

long-haired sylvia looking for her ted....

What a gratifying way to start your Monday morning. You open you email and read:

"Thanks for submitting these. I'm happy to accept them. They will do nicely in the next issue... I hope these won't be the last I'll see from you"

I am so easily amused. I enjoy looking to see what kinds of searches bring people to this site. As I have reported in the past, there are some truly interesting things that pop up. Among the greats is this first timer that came up today:

• long-haired sylvia looking for her ted

followed by some others that often reoccur or at least come up in similar fashion...

• published superhero poem (multiple times)
• nude super heroes (multiple times)
• super hero poem
• i am a superhero quote
• superhero poems (multiple times)
• when life gets you down superhero quotes
• question of interview of super hero
• a superhero of kansas
• meaning of earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with god (don't ask me, I just report these)

So there are a few and I am sure you begin to realize as I have the common theme of superhero resurfacing over and over. In the past I've has some other interesting variations of Stick Poet. Thinks like beating poets with sticks, sticky poets, poet superheros, stick people poets... it goes on.

These searchers must be terribly disappointed not to find super hero poems here. I have never written one. Though I have been tempted, I have resisted. Perhaps feeling too close to the subject. So just for fun... ( remember I am easily amused) consider this a call for poems about a superhero. Not any superhero mind you, but "Stick Poet" superhero.

For the next week, e-mail me your best effort at a Stick Poet Superhero poem. I promise I'll post them all on here ( the good, the bad, and the ugly) and then you can all vote on the best one. In the end, those who keep coming here in search of super hero poems will at last feel there Google searches are not have been in vain.

Coffee, Journal and Me

Had to kill some time this morning, so I took my journal and coffee cup and stopped at Starbucks. There I sipped on my brew and wrote for roughly an hour. Without distraction I should add. It was a relatively prolific hour. Several ideas to expand on and rewrite.

I am following a story about a Boeing Subsidiary that is being Sued Over CIA Transfers of individuals to other countries for detention a practice known as "extraordinary rendition.""[VOA link] This is interesting because I seem to recall earlier stories that an airplane that was somehow connected to the Boston Red Sox franchise or owner was reportedly linked as well to one of these covert transfers.

It's nice to see Jilly back and up to speed over at Poetry Hut.

a draft

Scraper

Breaking ground in forced exposition
Hoisting aloft the engine of ingenuity
Panels fastidiously fastened to iron girders
Reflecting upon a day stars dream

Of colossal architectural spawning
From the mind’s envelope pushed past all others
Higher vision touching nothing but the wide open
Thinness of molecular indifference to volume

Confetti Flying

You know the spam you get that looks like you sent it to yourself? Well one of the main slime bags responsible had a bad day today. [story] Please excuse my jubilation!

Reading Material

Copy of the Pushcart Prize book for 2007 arrived at home yesterday. I've had a chance to skim through it and read a few poems. I think it will serve as a good companion for reading the next few days.

New Peace Index Ranks US Among Worst Nations

A new study ranks Norway as the most peaceful country in the world. The United States on the other hand did not fair so well ranking near the bottom - 96 out of 121 nations. Iran ranked 97 - the next worse spot on the list behind the U.S. The very worst country was Iraq.

Researches used 24 criteria to determine rankin, including

• the amount of money a country puts into military expenditure
• local corruption
• domestic crime

The Report stresses U.S. involvement in international conflicts, high levels of incarceration and homicide contributed to our low ranking.

Other nation scraping the bottom are listed as Russia, Israel and Sudan.

Too Tired to Post

My youngest daughter Meghan graduated from high school yesterday. Party for her tonight - home now, but need to get up at like 5AM to take her to airport. That's all I can pound out with this tired body. Except that her mother and I are so very proud of her.

Just wondering

I sit in the swing on the deck, damp with a rain that fell unnoticed during the night while I slept.

My eyes with that heavy sleep feeling, perhaps from the morning air against my tired eyes or maybe it is a mixture of the bowel of honey-nut-Cheerios and the diabetes that occupies my body.

The dogs romping in the back yard turn crazy at the sight of a jogger passing out front and tiny droplets pitter patter around me telling me the sky is not finished and maybe I should consider moving inside.

A crow in the distance and another bird chanting add voice to the quiet morning hum and seem to be saying, "stay here, stay here." It is relaxing and I am not ready to surrender my place to the rain. Such stillness in my life is rare. Here, the war seems remote and I wonder if such could ever be the case over there?

The grass is a lush green from an overabundance of rain these past few weeks. Are the blades of grass even casually aware of the carbon issue associated with greenhouse gasses?

Klaus sits waiting at the French door to the kitchen. A sign someone else is likely making something in the kitchen. He would never miss a food opp. Or maybe he has just had enough of the morning quiet. How can anyone get enough of this?

Are others in back yards this morning asking these same questions? Do fathers in Iraq ever sit in their back yards and wonder about global warming?

From my Journal - 5-22

(Time) A sort of invisible ink
Of the present- seen only
In light of the past

Wednesday Poet Series - Aleah Sato

For me at least, discovering new poets whose work I enjoy is like an epiphany each and every time. The thrill is always there again.

While I can’t guarantee that everyone is going to have the same tastes in poetry that I have, I’m certain there are others out there who will find a common value in many of the poets whom I enjoy.

I find there is often a common thread that runs between poets that links them, one to another in terms of style, voice, background or interests. This is not only true looking back at some of the greats that are no longer with us, but contemporary poets as well.

The poet featured in this Wednesday Poet Series has a kind of raw and earthy voice that I appreciate in poetry I read. Small wonder that I identify with some people she counts among her influences.

I discovered her by reading a submission for Rogue Poetry Review. She was represented in the Winter Issue with three outstanding poems.

She has two books, Badlands and No Peaceful Sleep.

Aleah Sato is a young (chronological) voice but certainly one with a growing maturity that resonates so well. She was kind enough to the following e-interview with me. I hope you will enjoy this bit of insight into the workings of this exciting poet.

Aleah Sato on Poetry / Exclusive Interview

for Stick Poet ~ May 2007

Michael: I want to start by thanking Aleah Sato for agreeing to do an e-interview and taking time out of her day to put up with inquisitive intrusion into her artistic life.

Aleah: My pleasure.

Michael: You grew up in southern Indiana, rural Indiana I believe. How did you get from a country girl environment in the U.S. to Canada? Do you maintain dual citizenship, or which do you claim?

Aleah: Although I was born in Indiana, my family moved a lot when I was quite young. As an adult, I have traveled extensively throughout North America – so moving around is natural for me. I moved up to Toronto in 2002 to be with my husband and I retain US citizenship and landed immigrant status in Canada.

Michael: How has a multi-national flavor impacted your writing?

Aleah: Honestly, the differences in Canadian and American culture are subtle, despite all of the stereotypes... and the differences have little impact on my writing. I suppose that’s because I choose to write about basic, visceral human needs and not so much about cultural quirks and idiosyncrasies.

Michael: What kind of formal art education if any have you had? Who have been you biggest influencers in the development of your writing?

Aleah: I spent a few years in university, but dropped out to travel. I have been influenced more by instinct and my love of reading than by any formal training.

Michael: I would say that your instincts and reading have served you well. Are there any authors or poets that from your reading you feel influenced you especially in your own work or contributed in some way to your broader view of poetry and literature?

Aleah: Yes, I was very influenced by Anne Sexton. I like the way she wrote about aspects of the self that are not so lovely - and the directness of her poems. I also love(d) Robert Frost, Ai, Wanda Coleman, Sylvia Plath, Stevie Smith, Dylan Thomas, Rilke, Audre Lorde, Poe, Sapphire and so many others. None have influenced me as much as Anne Sexton, though. I consider her to be one of the first women poets to write with real abandon about vulnerabilities of body, mind and spirit.

Michael: In numerous poems of yours that I have read there is a sense of fragility where it comes to families. I’m thinking of Nine Years or Family for instance. How much of your own life shapes your work?

Aleah: I personally believe that everything we do, be it a profession, a creation, an invention, etc is motivated by our need for answers to our existence. Obviously, when I write I am motivated by the questions I have about my experiences and those of my loved ones. However, there’s a fine line to walk. While my work may take a personal voice, it is a conglomerate of many stories, not just my own.

Michael: A very raw, edgy, earthiness is prevalent in your work. Especially in Badlands Something I am often drawn to, by the way, and I especially enjoyed The Longest Winter. Do you ever worry this pigeonholes you too much and wish for a different tone or broader range in your voice?

Aleah: I am always striving to improve my writing in both style and substance. (I am my own worst critic.)

So yes, I worry about being pigeonholed as being a “women’s issues writer” or the like, but at some point you have to embrace the criticism with the praise, and try to ignore the labels. Labels, like stereotypes, are rooted in some basic truths, but you can’t let yourself be limited by them and you can’t get too comfortable.

Michael: Your husband Rick is an artist. Tell me what it’s like for you, being in a relationship with another artist... do you talk shop? Is it complementary to both of your artistic endeavors as individuals or do you find interacting about each other’s work to be difficult?

Aleah: We became friends through this shared interest; however, Rick has gone on to be an artist AND a business owner. Right now, the demands of running a small business force him to nurture and favor the latter. I hope that will change at some point because I think he’s one of the most talented artists I know. I definitely like talking shop with him whenever possible.

Michael: How much should poets today be involved in political and social discourse? Have we gone too far off the beaten path of literature itself?

Aleah: I don’t think I’m required to enforce any particular political or social discourse in my writing simply because I am a creative person. Some poets build their work upon certain political or social messages because it is what compels them. I think that isn’t necessarily anchored to creativity.

I prefer to write about the basic truths of humanity: the life/death cycle, loneliness, the body, our life as animals and so on. Everything else seems to expand from these human conditions and needs (and how these needs are sometimes denied).

Michael: Your blog’s name is interesting. Jane Crow Journal. I’m guessing this is a feminist take off on Jim Craw, am I right? Tell us a little about it and how it came to be.

Aleah: That would be rather sophisticated of me, but I am afraid it is a little less thoughtful. It’s taken from the Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds song “Crow Jane,” which is also loosely inspired by the old blues tune. There’s something austere in the name Jane Crow that appeals to me.

Michael: Where do you see poetry fitting into society today? What is your strongest case for the relevance of poetry and the literary arts to people who are not drawn to it?

Aleah: I think the biggest block to poetry’s universal appeal is how it is being taught to our youth. While I feel the classic writers have a place in university courses, I think the language and subject matter of classic poets and writers simply gets lost in translation to modern youth culture. If more contemporary poets were allowed into classrooms, I believe more people would connect to poetry. The spoken word scene does this to some extent, but it sometimes seems to promote better entertainers than poets. I’d like to get back to poetry – where the written word also resonates.

Michael: Are there any special projects that you are working on currently that we may look forward to soon? What do you hope the future holds for you and your work, ten to fifteen years from now?

Aleah: I have a September show at the G+ Galleries in Toronto: Extinct, a collection of poems and photographs, with photographer Elizabeth Siegfried. More information can be found here: http://indexg.com/coming_ex.asp.

I also have a chapbook coming soon called Stillborn Wilderness (Pooka Press).

My plans don’t go beyond one week these days, but I’ll be around doing something. Ongoing stuff can be found here: http://www.aleahsato.com/.

Michael: Lastly, who are some of your favorite contemporaries in poetry and why?

Aleah: Christine Hamm, Carla Funk, Todd Swift, Nicole Blackman, AD Winans, Greg Orr, Wanda Phipps, Arlene Ang, Corey Mesler and so many more. Why? They are all skilled writers.

I’m always looking for new poems to devour and can’t imagine this list ever being finite.

Michael: Aleah, Thank you very much for allowing me to invade your privacy for the sake of art. It has been very interesting and enjoyable. Best wishes in the future, we will keep you on our radar and expect to see some more outstanding work.

Wednesday Poet Series Tomorrow!

Featured Poet ~ Aleah Sato

Catch my e-interview with Aleah tomorrow when Stickpoet once again features a Wednesday Poet.

Author of:

• Badlands
• No Peaceful Sleep

Don't Miss Tomorrow's Interview

Christine Hamm has been at it again! She's got another one.... Children Having Trouble with Meat. No, I haven't read this one yet, but when have I seen something of Christine's that I didn't Like?

Just about completed another Journal last night. Flipping through the pages here is a taste of journal niblits:

• doubt became his face / unable to hide / in the shadow /of five o'clock (March 18)
• when the night broke down / and the band packed / disappearing into the tangle / spilled on the streets (March 23)
• Deliberation that grew moss up the north side (April 1)
• She wore the naked moonlight / across breasts of a woman / unmasked of self-conscious (approx April 11)
• {note to self} authors hear voices - sure we do ::grin:: ( April 28th)
• yesterday my body ached /of rubber band mussels / wound tightly in corset knotted tissue (May 11)
• A poet's voice- that of a woman / of color- A slice of life on a wing ( May 19th)

This of course means that I will get to take out my new crisp journal and start scribbling.

I have a great treat for readers tomorrow. An interview with Aleah Sato!

13,000

It appears the K.C. Literary Festival was indeed a success. Estimates are 13,000 attended the event. It was worth attending and it would be worth returning on K.C on an annual basis.

If pigs could fly and Bush were irrelevant...

Responding to comments made Saturday by former President Jimmy Carter about the adverse impact on the nation around the world that the present (Bush) administration has had, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, “I think it’s unfortunate, and I think he (Carter) is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments.” Oh man, I could only wish Bush were irrelevant... just think where we would be today!

Barry is four!

Yesterday, I was out of the house almost all day long. Attended the Kansas City Literary Festival during the day. The weather here was awesome for the event. Lots of booths with exhibitors. Tons of give-a-ways. A poet's stage that was ongoing. While I can't speak for the organizers, from my vantage point this was a big success.

The evening was rounded out with a pig-roast we were invited to. I ate more than I wanted to... but I planned on eating light and overall I didn't do too badly. That pretty much killed the first half of the weekend. I have a few chores selected for today and already some are completed.

Was looking around at some of the blogs I read and found an interesting post on First Draft. A poetry writing exercise for pop culture poetry. Something I'll start working on after while and see how it goes.

Today is Barry's fourth birthday! There will be doggy celebrating later today!

Two Things....

I have mentioned this subject before but I just came from a myspace account that has a ton of poetry posted from various poets and I think one can conclude with relative certainty the author of the site has likely neither sought or been given consent to post the material from the copyright holder. There is a lot of material I'd like to share with others, but don't because I respect the individual intellectual rights that artists have. Excepting to quote from something, if I am going to post poem from another poet here, you can bet I've gotten permission first. It is highly disrespectful otherwise.... besides unlawful. Go ahead, call me an old fashioned if you wish.

And while on the subject of myspace... Am I the only artist in this hemisphere who is without a myspace site? I'm seeing more and more poets, musicians, photo artists, etc that have myspace sites. Geeze.... do I need to get one?

Yeah!!!!

I almost missed an e-mail that went to my spam folder yesterday, a portion of it follows:


"Good News! I am pleased greatly by your poem "Beautiful Music" and shall publish it... Unfortunately, "Playing Solitaire" and "Freedom Summer Redux" pleased me insufficiently, and will thusly need find homes elsewhere."

Rejections are much more palatable when they are accompanied with acceptances.

Kansas City Literary Festival

Saturday - May 19th

Country Club Plaza

Kansas City Literary Festival

Details

As If There Wasn't Enough Going On Tuesday Night

Two More Locals read May 15th (Tuesday Night)

The site of this reading is The Johnson County Central Resource Library at 87th & Farley in Overland Park. Starts at - 7pm.

The poets reading:

Patricia Cleary Miller, professor of English and chair of the Humanities Division at Rockhurst University. She has published three books and dozens of poems in various venues. Her poetry collection, Starting a Swan Dive (BkMk Press) won the Daniel S. Brenner Award for Scholarly Achievement. In 1986 she founded the Rockhurst Review: a fine arts journal, which she continues to serve as editor-in-chief. From Harvard University she received the Hiram Hunn Award and the Harvard Alumni Association Award for distinguished service, and a Bunting Fellowship in poetry for a post-doctoral sabbatical year.

Walter Bargen,who has published ten books and two chapbooks of poetry. The three most recent books are, The Body of Water, from Timberline Press (2003), The Feast, from BkMk Press-UMKC (2004), which was awarded the 2005 William Rockhill Nelson Award, and Remedies for Vertigo from WordTech Communications (2006). His poems have appeared in appear the Iowa Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Notre Dame Review, Poetry East, Seattle Review, and New Letters. He was the winner of the Chester H. Jones Foundation prize in 1997, a National Endowment for the Art Fellowship in 1991, and the William Rockhill Nelson Award in 2005.

My little Poetry Manifesto

I find taking a pen in hand and giving myself the freedom to resist a prescribed text can be a very cathartic experience. Allowing the pen to be taken, not on some planned outing but to follow instead the arbitrary journey of the mind in motion, as opposed to a set mental moment— this gives poetry a life of its own. Not so much any specific meaning, but the very essence of the poem’s existence, the point at which it becomes something unto itself. That is so liberating. It is the birth of a separate creation from one’s self. Once established, its meaning is no longer up to me.

Allowing Art to realize its purpose in us

"Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose through him." ~ Carl Jung

Yeah Friday is here!!!

I know this site has been around for a while but I really gave it a good look over yesterday and decided it is well worth a plug. So if you haven't already, go check out Poetry Thursday (here).

Had a positive experience with a new poem draft yesterday. I love it when that happens. I'll try to polish it up over the next few days.

Sent five poems out this week to a venue I had never tried before. I believe I have 13 submissions I am awaiting responses on.

I have what I believe will be an exciting interview coming up soon. Just to wet your appetite a bit. Not giving any details here, but I haven't done any interviews for a while and I am wanting to bring readers more of this in the near future. I am planning to bring back the Wednesday Poet Series at least one Wednesday a month and it will likely be to introduce a poet's work and provide readers an interview as well.

Blair bows out after 10 years | U.S. | Reuters

Blair bows out after 10 years U.S. Reuters


Hum... The Sun is setting on Bush's shadow.

Pretty Cool

Poetry downloads are available free from PennSound. Check it out!

Local Poet at Kansas City Event

Jazz Poetry: Stacey Tolbert, the "Brown Suga Poet"

Stacey Tolbert - Appearing at the American Jazz Museum Stacey is a member of Kansas City, MO’s Black Poets Collective, a freelance writer, painter, playwright, poet, DJ, and founder / facilitator of a clinic geared for the healing and bonding of women as well as a workshop specializing in teaching literacy and math under the umbrella of art.

Tuesday May 15th, 2007

7:00pm to 11:00pm

American Jazz Museum

1615 E 18th St. - Kansas City, MO 64108

Admission is $5.00

Rain, Rain Go Away...

The rain has been without relentless here in The Kansas City area and I feel like one soggy poet.

After a creative streak during the past week, I cooled off a bit over the weekend. Coincidentally I was the recipient of a rejection letter on Saturday, but that didn't dampen my already saturated spirits. I still have a few things out and I'm ready to recycle the poems that came back without a home.

18,000 Take it off for art

More than 18,000 people stripped down and bared it all in a Mexico City square Sunday for U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick's biggest nude shoot ever.

"I think all eyes are looking south from the United Sates to Mexico City to see how a country can be free and treat the naked body as art. Not as pornography or as a crime, but with happiness and caring." Tunick said at a press conference afterwards.

It's no piece of cake being a role model

So my youngest daughter has her Senior Prom last night. This morning she relates various events of the evening assuring us she had a marvelous time. Then at one point she recounts a story about how they are at a lull in the post dance partying and a bunch of them are all in a circle and they are sharing little one line tid-bits about themselves.

So one starts by proclaiming his father is an alcoholic and another says that his dad never talks to him. Of course the rest sympathize with them about how sad that is. The next tops the the first two by saying that's nothing, both her parents hate her. So it's my daughter's turn. She says, well, that's nothing, my dad writes poetry. Really! And they all groan and sigh because no one can top that and anoint her the winner.

Yes, my mind is a little unstructured at the moment

This will probably sound very off the wall but what the heck. There's been plenty of discourse on when poets write best, where they write best, their favorite tool or instrument for writing.... alas, I am wondering what is the favorite liquid refreshment of poets while writing. I want to reiterate the "while writing" part. So, if you like to go home and have a Bailey's or two or three over rocks, but then fall asleep in the lounge with "Everybody Loves Raymond" on, that don't count.

So are you a milk & cookies poet? Do you write better sipping on Chardonnay? Maybe you like day old coffee (gag) reheated in the microwave... or Diet Coke or green tea or a grande, double shot, skinny, Caffè Latte from Starbucks.

Wondering what wets your whistle while you write?

The Atlantic Shrinks

In a somewhat historic venture - British and American poetry will come together and converge in three cities. Poets Laureate Donald Hall and Andrew Motion will conduct a series of three joint readings. There has never been a joint reading of American and British Poets Laureate before.

When & Where:

• Monday, May 7, at 6 p.m., Fullerton Hall, Art Institute of Chicago
• Thursday, May 10, at 7 p.m., Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• Wednesday, June 6, at 6 p.m., St. Giles-in-the-Fields Church, London

All events are free and open to the public, but reservations are strongly encouraged; call (312) 787-7070.

Strange but true

Someone did NOT just come to my blog from a search for bush as superhero. OK, apparently they did.

That reminds me, this weekend my daughter and I were driving down the street and pulled up behind a car with a number of bumper stickers on the back, on gem read - FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME!

Sometimes poetry makes things happen

Robert Pinsky relates a resonant example of a poem that had consequences. [here]

Iraq Rebuild: Your Tax $ At Work (Not), American Investment in Iraq Reconstruction Projects At Risk, Inspector General Report Finds - CBS News

Iraq Rebuild: Your Tax $ At Work (Not), American Investment in Iraq Reconstruction Projects At Risk, Inspector General Report Finds - CBS News



An inspector general report on Iraqi reconstruction projects found that of 8 sampled projects declared successes and turned over to Iraqi control, 7 are no longer functioning properly, if at all.


Sites suffered from deterioration, poor or no maintenance, or were not even being used by the people for whom they were built, at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of approximately $150 million.

Restrained

The fantasy of grape stained rage
Died in the transistor radio
While playing the oldies

One more time than he cared
To snap his fingers or necks
Of chicken like

His hard mannered grandma
Would do behind
The raspy gray tool shed

Poet's obsessions

"If a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little - somebody who is obsessed by Making." ~ e. e. cummings

Worthwhile Workshop

I met an extremely brilliant and engrossing artist of varied talents at a writers workshop yesterday.

So, here I am setting in this room with a hand full of other writers and Debra Di Blasi, the instructor, begins her spiel, except that it's not just that, I am quickly realizing that this person thinks like a poet. Writing conferences that are not geared towards poetry can often be a mixed bag of goods and I always prepare myself by trying my hardest to keep an open mind about the usefulness and application of knowledge shared.

Di Blasi is in fact versed in so many areas that she would be a superb resource for any art discipline. Indeed, Debra interestingly asserts that where the literary arts are concerned the boundaries are collapsing.

I came away with some refreshing ideas and energy.

Making Room

"I'm alive today, therefore I'm just as much a part of our time as everybody else. The times will just have to enlarge themselves to make room for me, won't they, and for everybody else." ~ Stevie Smith

I Am

Back from a Writers Workshop
What did I buy – you ask
In a random sort of way
As if maybe you care and maybe not

I bought myself back from linoleum
And I am now vertical
The food was –
Well it was

But the sun hid for while
And time was what it always is
Approximation of something taught to us
But what if it isn’t at all

What if the war were to eclipse time
Would it matter if one fell face down dead in the dirt
Or if 32 hundred and change came home boxed in memory
To families that could not reset their watches and make it go away

Words coagulate to prove
The math backwards
And if I write – I am

Rogue Poetry Review

The Winter Issue of Rogue Poetry Review

is belatedly complete now and posted.

Enjoy!

Begin Every Line With Capital Letter

"A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose." ~ Samuel McChord Crothers

It's Friday, thank God! I have a headache this morning - a recurrence of one from last night in fact. I suspect is is sinus related and it's bad. It is not an attempt at sympathy but an affirmation to myself that today I need to not let things drag me down.

I have a Writers Conference tonight and tomorrow to look forward to. It appears that most of it is directed towards prose and not poetry though there is one session that is on poetry. That said, I chuckle at today's quote above.

Now some odds and ends...

• A big thumbs up for the House and Senate making a firm statement on the War in Iraq in spite of Bush's threat to veto the bill.
• Rudy Giuliani flip-flops on civil union laws. Geeze, is he running for President or something?
• Former CIA Director George J. Tenet accuses the White House of making him a scapegoat and of ignoring early CIA warnings that Iraq was sinking into chaos. Tenet also leveled criticism at Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that the two had destroyed his reputation by repeatedly using the "slam-dunk" line to pin blame on him for the decision to go to war.
• Franz Wright is a poet whose work I have admired. Here is an interesting interview of the son of poet James Wright. Both by the way are Pulitzer Prize winners. I love the story of the note from his father, I had heard it prior to reading this piece.
• So who is author Anne Lamott reading?
• Tombstone case may bury free speech.

Nothing ~ X.J. Kennedy

Toe after toe, a snowing flesh,
a gold of lemon, root and rind,
she sifts in sunlight down the stairs
with nothing on. Nor on her mind.
~ X. J. Kennedy from Nude Descending a Staircase

Congratulations Missi Rasmussen

Congratulations are in order for Missi Rasmussen who received the Nicholas Manchion English Scholarship Award at Park University Honors Convocation last night. Her submission of a poem she wrote titled, The Fine Art of Making Breakfast was judged to be the winning poem by the Park University English Department.

Missi is President of KC Metro Verse, a Kansas City Chapter of the Missouri State Poetry Society.

David Halberstam

David Halberstam on Poetry... "I came to it gradually as an adult when I found that people I respected — Bobby Kennedy, whom I covered as a young man — loved poetry. I mean, really. He quoted it naturally. He found comfort in poetry, and that was important to me."

Halberstam on President Bush... "Very simply, it's a national tragedy. It's not just a tragedy for him, that he will have gone down as such a failure. It's a great national tragedy to have at that moment somebody who has been so deeply, so much in over his head. It's so sad for us, as a country, for him. It's really dark out there. And we have a year and a half to go. This will be seen as a tragic moment in American life."

David Halberstam journalist, and author of scores of books died Monday at the age of 73. Halberstam, who a Pulitzer in 1964, for his reporting on the Vietnam War was the passenger in a car that was broadsided by another vehicle.

we decided to moan...

Look: no one ever promised for sure

that we would sing. We have decided

to moan. In a strange dance that

we don't understand till we do it, we

have to carry on.

~From An Introduction To Some Poems by William Stafford

Poet's Quote for Today

The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. ~ Walt Whitman

A Kiss

A stone can masquerade where no heart is
And virgins rise where lustful Venus lay:
Never try to trick me with a kiss.

~Sylvia Plath from Never Try to Trick Me With A Kiss

Robert Pinsky Gets the Best Gigs....

OH God this is funny. Kelli has a great post from the Cobert Report. Go to her blog and check it out.

Stopping to think....

"A verbal art like poetry is reflective; it stops to think. Music is immediate, it goes on to become." ~ W. H. Auden

And a few thoughts today:

• The Amnesia General had over 70 forgetful spells at his Senate Hearing Thursday and yet Dana Perin, White House spokesperson, said Bush called Gonzales after returning from a trip to Ohio on Thursday in a fresh show of support for his longtime Texas friend.
  Wow, the President really had no shame.
• Gov. Christine Gregoire this week marked National Poetry Month by signing legislation that creates the new post of poet laureate for the state of Washington. Forty other states currently have poet laureates. Yeah Washington!
• Poetry doubles as therapy for N.M. teenager. [story]
• War on Terror Reaches the Poet ~ A poetry professor in a small college in the Northeast decides to recycle old manuscripts and becomes an object of suspicion. [story]

"What is required is sight and insight -- then you might add one more: excite."

~ Robert Frost

A childs view of broken

"I have woven a parachute out of everything broken." ~ William Stafford

Broken is such an useful word. As a child, I most recall broken as something that was most often very final but I hoped otherwise. It mostly related to toys. There was at first the expectation that an parent (being a duly qualified grown-up) could fix or reverse this condition and restore it to something close to original form.

As we grow older, we discover that many more things can be broken. Bones, promises, relationships. We break laws and sometimes laws themselves are broken and need to be fixed. Language, spirits and even society as a whole can be broken.

Stafford in this quote, appears to have maintained a bit of the child's view; that even the broken can be made into something useful. Perhaps in our naivety, we have only hope and the cynic in us has not yet developed. A process that is more likely to come with the passage of time through experiences.

Keeping such hope, especially in light of inexplicable tragedy like we have experienced in the recent events at Virginia Tech, is a good thing. Believing we can still achieve something meaningful out of such loss is important to us all.

The poet William Stafford speaks of weaving a parachute out of everything broke. We need a parachute right now. Something to break our fall. Giving hope of something other than a broken spirit. We need Stafford's view of life.

Special Day

Happy Birthday to My Lovely Wife Cathy Today!

Universality of poetry

“Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.” ~ Aristotle

Today's bits and pieces:

• Poet Nikki Giovanni reciting poem at Virginia Tech Vigil
• In an interesting shift - the British have backed off the use of the phrase 'war on terror' citing the phrase strengthens terrorists by making them feel part of a bigger struggle. A member of Tony Blair's Cabinet brought into the open a quiet shift away from the U.S. view on combating extremist groups saying, "In the U.K., we do not use the phrase 'war on terror' because we can't win by military means alone, and because this isn't us against one organized enemy with a clear identity and a coherent set of objectives." What an interesting shift from on of President Bush's favorite phrases.
• A roundup of 5 poetry bestsellers.

Poets & Writers Exchange Contest for poetry

Congratulation to Andres Rodriguez who was the Missouri winner of the Poets & Writers Exchange Contest for poetry. Rodriguez was chosen from a pool of 112 entries. He lives in Kansas City and is the author of Book of the Heart -The Poetics, Letters and Life of John Keats

Patience

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

Patience and poetry always keep appearing together.

IN THE NEWS:

• Natasha Tretheway won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for "Native Guard," a collection about black Civil War soldiers who helped protect a fort on Ship Island, a few miles off the Mississippi coast. [story]
• Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe won a Pulitzer for his reporting how President Bush quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office. This is a compelling piece of journalistic reporting that should get more attention then it has. (click here)

Next they'll blame the weather on us....

The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather. ~Lionel Trilling

I really like this quote and I am not exactly sure why. As we start the week, a few other annotations....

• “I have nothing to hide." is one of those reassurances that is right up there with, "I am not a crook." Sorry Alberto, it isn't working for me.
• Very intriguing site to involve teens in poetry.
• Robert Peake discusses an interesting phenomena - Poetry 2.0?

Balance

Woke up this morning to my wife reminding me not to miss New Letters (a radio program produced locally and aired at 6am Sundays on our local NPR affiliate, KCUR FM) This weeks program was an interview with Naomi Shihab Nye that was taped last year when she was in Kansas City. Missourians have a bit of a claim on Nye as she was born in St. Louis. (an insignificant fact to my post, but my over functioning self will take over on occasion).

I think it was maybe three, perhaps four years ago that I first was introduced to her when she spoke was a featured speaker at a writers conference here in town. Even aside from her poetry, she is a dynamic personality. I believe her to be an individual who truly breathes the experience of poetry and this I contend makes it hard if not impossible to separate the person from the poet.

If I were looking for a diplomatic representative to a foreign country, any country, Naomi Shihab Nye would possess the necessary temperament to break through the toughest of barriers and actually be able to achieve meaningful dialogue.

What I like about Ney is her understanding of the total range of human emotion. She is not oblivious to pain and suffering but she always seems to be looking for a way past it. With her ancestral connection to the Middle East, this is a remarkable feat. The lines from here 1994 poem Jerusalem are a testament to this... "I'm not interested in / who suffered the most. / I'm interested in / people getting over it."

In reading an interview with Nye in Pedestal Magazine.com I caught the following line which reaffirms my belief that she indeed lives day-to-day in a poetry realm: "Balance is more important than anything. I am sure I lose my balance every day. Poetry—reading it, usually—is what helps us find it again." Could it be that this is the true value to each of us in National Poetry Month? A time for us to center ourselves, to find balance in life?

Wet & Cold - Thankfully no snow...

A cold Saturday after a night of rain that was expected to turn to an April snow. Fortunately, no snow.

I share this quote today....

"Art is anything people do with distinction." ~ Louis Dudek

The right state of mind....

I've heard so much from poets about what they write with, where they write or time time of day they prefer for their task. It seems there are any number of ways to approach writing poetry and no single formula is a guarantee success for everyone. But I have discovered a T.S. Eliot quote that suggests how one's mind is best equipped for the enterprise. Eilot says, “When a poet's mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experiences.”

What I am hearing from Eliot sounds like a process of ordering dissimilar experiences or closing them together in some sort of organized way. Melding them on a page. This of course could account for the difficulty many have with poetry, if such a thought process were to seem particularly foreign.

I recall an evening I was alone at home and set down with a pen and my journal and started to write - equating how still the night was and how it wrapped itself around the quite of the house and I felt almost a third wheel to this union. And soon I was writing how I wished you were home and I was the night...

This bit of writing came together in unusual ease. Looking back I can see the joining of dissimilar experiences and the way this developed into a short poem that I have been told by many that they especially like. Yet, it came together in very short order and without the customary multipal rewrites. Perhaps it worked so well because Eliot is on to something.

Write Now Writer's Conference

The writer’s conference,

Write Now!

In the Kansas City Area

Sponsored by WriterHouse and Park University

features published authors who talk about their writing process, how they got published, and provide other useful information to writers; one or more of these authors will read from his/her latest book or collection.

Participants also attend workshop sessions where they create new work or a live scene for on-going work.

The upcoming conference, Write Now!, will feature speakers, workshops, and resource people emphasizing getting writing on the page, identifying your market, and getting published ...everyone who attends will write!

Mark April 27-28 on your calendar! Write Now! Park University Campus.

Registration

A few searches that must have disappointed...

I noted from my stat service that the following searches brought people to my site:

• super hero sex
• super hero nude pose
• super hero other personality

I suppose these will not likely be repeat visitors.

My quote for today is from Emily Dickinson - "Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes."

Charles Bernstine takes a look at National Poetry Month. (here) Is it too one dimensional? As much as I believe NPM is a significant vehicle for promoting our art, I have to concur that it focuses on mainstream poetry and this reflects poorly on the art of poetry as a whole.

They're Here

My Poetry Month Broadsides have arrived.
100 of them are available while they last. If you would like one, email me with your name and address. Each one is numbered and signed.
The poem is one I wrote some time back titled, Give Me Some Everyday Religion and it has an epigraph from Anne Sexton.

Poetry is...

"Poetry too is a little incarnation, giving body to what had been before invisible and inaudible." ~ C.S. Lewis

I fell off the NaPoWriMo Wagon

"Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo." ~ Don Marquis


OK, I will fess up. I fell off the NaPoWriMo wagon this weekend. And now that I've said so, I feel way better. It is not that I haven't written, but rather that what I have written has been all over the map and is not even acceptable as a draft. But things will get better.

Grief, delight and rage...

“Verse is not written, it is bled; Out of the poet's abstract head. Words drip the poem on the page; Out of his grief, delight and rage.” ~ Paul Engle

That dangerous mind....

"Too many poets delude themselves by thinking that the mind is dangerous and must be left out. Well, the mind is dangerous and must be left in." ~ Robert Frost

Burrrrr..........

First Draft: It's Official...

Congratulations are in order to Kelli Russel Agodon. Atlantic Monthly even...

Another poetry quote for the day...

"Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words." ~ Paul Engle

I am patiently waiting the delivery of 100 broadsides from the printers for distribution for Poetry Month. OK, I'm not very patient, but I am waiting. That counts! Even if I don't have a choice. Hopefully they will arrive Monday in time for my KC Metro Verse meeting the following evening.

It's turned cold here. I mean the really cold, like the leaves on our bushes were young and green and healthy are bitten by the bitterness. Tulips which were in full bloom appear stripped and tortured with dry ice. This is not a good thing. Spring is under attack.

Believing

" A poet must never make a statement simply because it sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true." - W. H. Auden

~0~

My NaPoWriMo is moving along. Successfully producing one new poetry draft a day for each day of the month.

~0~

Poetry, Baseball, San Francisco.... does it get any better than this? (click here)

"One of the great things about baseball is it brings together imagination and reality," said Jeff Brain, a poet who participated in the event.

Thursday thoughts....

I'm not into reality shows. Why they have not caught my fancy I can't say. Perhaps it is due to the stark reality we live in day to day. I mean if we could vote Bush off the Island, I might start to get interested.

Are you aware that we are burning $9 billion a month on the Iraq war? That's $108 billion a year. Any thoughts as to how much longer this could go on? Who is going to pay for this war that was an expensive lie to the world? It is not in any fiscal budget. Our children will be paying for this for years to come. Not only financially, but in loss of credibility around the world. Our foreign policy has become a joke.

The war in Iraq has not made America any safer. If anything, it has fanned the already existing flames of hate among some in the Middle East. Bush is the best recruiter extremists could ever have.

The child that is or isn't in us....

"A child who does not play is not a child, but the man who doesn't play has lost forever the child who lived in him and who he will miss terribly." -- Pablo Neruda

Poetic Irony

"The people fancy they hate poetry, and they are all poets and mystics." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Reading Your Poetry In Public

"A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits. " ~Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, 1978

I simply could not help myself when I ran across this quote. I cracked up and decided I had to share it with others. Ok, so I am easily amused. It's not the worlds worst vice, but apparently reading you own poems in public may be close.

Play Ball!

The earth is not flat.... and today it revolves around a strange sphere with red stitches. Opening Days is evidence that life goes on.

National Poetry Month - day 2

"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things." ~ T. S. Eliot

NaPoWriMo first draft

At Last

“How did someone come at last to the word for patience
And know that it was the right word for patience”
~ W.S. Merwin

No subtle breach of taxation
Deliberation that grew moss up the north side
Persistence before we knew what

It isn’t without end though it may seem
At last it would be in short supply
At some point we all find ourselves

Hanging by that last red nerve
When you reach that point
You just know



* note:

I had intended to post all of my poems for NaPoWriMo on a separate blog linked here but have decided not to. Anything written and posted the dame day is likely a best a draft. Some of these may very well have promise and some not. Clearly it is unlikely any would become a full fledged poem in a single day. It has happened to me but it is rare.

I am posting these on a forum, but otherwise, I'll perhaps give you one every few days or some bits like I do from my journal. That seems to me to be the best course for me to take. As always, your comments are welcome...

National Poetry Month begins....

"A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself" ~ E. M. Forster

Here we are, the first of April...

This month brings us the beginning of Baseball season, National Poetry Month, the time cycle of eternal beginnings. There is so much I like about this month... the month T.S. Eliot referred to as the cruelest of months. Perhaps the fact that my taxes are done and the refund in the bank helps.

To celebrate poetry all month long, I am doing the following....

• participating in NaPoEriMo
• posting a poetry related quote each day of the month
• producing a limited edition broadside of one of my poems (100 in all) that I will distribute to anyone as long as they last.

I rather like Forster's quote above. I think people are often looking beyond poems to make something of them they are not. I say, let the poem be itself.

Digesting the morning

Saturday morning, post instant Maple & Brown Sugar Oatmeal. The dishwasher is churning in the kitchen and I sit in the great room holding court over Barry, Mo and Klaus (the boy's as we refer to them... dogs). They are all happy from the most part. Resting quietly, for which I am grateful. No doubt they are conserving energy for an afternoon romp.

Siting back and surveying the news and whatnot around the world, (who knows what fodder this may give me in the weeks ahead for NaPoWri Mo) a number of interesting things pop up.

For example, Barack Obama is in the news not for some major policy statement, but for poetry he wrote in his student years. [click here]

D. Thomas Jenkins in an op-ed piece asks a very simple but profound question about the future of the United States commitment to the war in Iraq. [click here]

When one of the nation's leading ethanol research and development companies too on the name- Poet, it sure seemed like a bunch of hot air to me. [click here]

My Sweet Lord [click here] a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday amid a choir of complaining Catholics that included Cardinal Edward Egan.
Ok, when I first heard this story yesterday before it was cancelled, I e-mailed the link to all of my immediate family asking if they felt this was distasteful art. Since we are all Catholic, I wondered if my family members looked at it the same way. I said nothing about my thoughts one way or the other not wanting to influence their responses. Not one of them was shocked or outraged. One said they don't know it they would chose to display an anatomically correct Christ in their home, but saw nothing per say wrong with someone using chocolate as a medium for the artwork or that it was nude. Another made a very good point, saying... " that people who get mad about this better also be mad about the American Flag on a magnetic sticker for cars or beach towels made to look like the flag."

Drama Students Students at Wilton High Commended by Music Theatre International

The saga of Wilton High School's "Voices of Courage" continues. A Broadway musical licensing agency that has been around since 1952, has created a special award to recognize Wilton High School drama students for writing a play on the Iraq war that school school official have blocked from production.

It is not uncommon for the company to give awards to school theater departments for singing, dancing, directing and stage design."However, we are aware that theater is not just about acting, singing, dancing and excelling in performance," says a letter to the students from the company."It is also about positive risk taking for students, working as a community and utilizing theater skills, to present points of view on the stage which comment on the world in which we live."

School principal Timothy H Canty and School Superintendent Gary Richards have censored the production, not only disallowing it on campus, but off campus as well.