San Diego Poetry Annual call for submissions!

Passing this along to those who are eligible to submit. Came in my e-mail from Cecilia Woloch

The San Diego Poetry Annual will be published in February, 2008. It will include poems written in 2007 by poets who live, study, work or who were born or raised in San Diego County.

If selected, your poems will be published alongside celebrated poets, including:
Anne Wilson, Sam Hamod, Brandon Cesmat, Megan Webster, Trish "The Dish" Dugger and Ellen Bass!

There is NO entry fee!!! Poets send up to two (2) poems of any length.Send poems in body of email to: sdpasubmissions@gmail.com by: November 1, 2007.Special Idyllwild section! We are pleased to include an Idyllwildsection in our upcoming edition. Poets that went to any of the Summer Poetry in Idyllwild 2007 events or were featured readers at these events, please submit up to 2 poems to sdpasubmissions@gmail.com with the word "Idyllwild" included in the subject line of the email. The deadline is November 1st, 2007.

We look forward to your submissions! For more info, visit sandiegopoetryannual.com

San Jose Mercury News - Beat poet Ferlinghetti's art gets yanked from S.F. building lobby

San Jose Mercury News - Beat poet Ferlinghetti's art gets yanked from S.F. building lobby:

"Beat poet Ferlinghetti's art gets yanked from S.F. building lobby"

Oh My God.... who complained... is John Ashcroft a tenant there? Shorenstein Properties LLC, must have some pretty lame tenants.

Friday Bits...

Oh my, here's what happens when a watchdog gets a little too close for comfort when investigating a spy agency. ~0~ An Oscar an Emmy and a Nobel Peace Prize for Guess Who?

5 Questions With Poet Margaret Gibson who has five Pulitzer Prize nominations, two Shortbread awards, and short-list consideration for the National Book Award. [story]

Remember Sam Hamill? - Poet remains unbowed against Iraq war [story] and Sam's latest book Measured By Stone

Poet Harassed by China Government

Reporters without boarders reports on the harassment by Chinese police of human rights poet Tao Jun after interview for US newspaper. China is increasing its repressive attitude to individuals and reporting of information. This is a sad commentary given the insistence that China is becoming more open and free, something they would have the west believe in advance of the 2008 Olympics.

This blog for example will not pass the scrutiny of the Chinese government censors. Will yours? Find out by using this test site: click

Bush Presses Congress on New Eavesdropping Law - New York Times

Bush Presses Congress on New Eavesdropping Law - New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 — President Bush prodded Congress on the issue of eavesdropping today, warning that he will not sign a new law unless it confers immunity on the telecommunications utilities that helped the National Security Agency eavesdrop without warrants."

Why should a telecommunication company that gave private information about millions of U.S. Citizens to the government without a court order be given immunity from civil action? I'm sorry Mr. President, but even YOU are not above the law!

Giving them immunity says to everyone that it's ok in the future to violate people's civil liberties because if the President wants it, he'll just cover your ass.

Big Surprise

You Are 35% Left Brained, 65% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Humpday - Riding Gravity To The Weekend

Thumps Up:

• Guy Holliday and his box of poetry - [story]
• Gene Racz did it for the sake of art, beloved children, for the sake of art [story]
• Members of the K.C. Metro Verse who showed up last night with poetry to read, listen and workshop.
• Poetry to build a climate of hope and resistance [story]

Thumbs down:

• Burma Police State - [story]
• Supreme Court declines suit over U.S. rendition - [story]

The Second Language of Poetry

Reading Donald Hall's essay Goatfoot, Milktounge, Twinbird - infantile origins of poetic form is loaded with interesting insights that I feel are truisms and while I could not have articulated them as well, I believe in some strange way I've known these things all along. Perhaps they have simply been lost among too much other mind clutter and by reading this, it allowed me to skim some of it off the top of that murky pool.

Discovery & Recovery - That is what poetry is about. It is the poet pulling from within and getting it on paper which allows a reader to process it. Hall says it is one inside talking to another inside. For the reader, it is a process of recovery.

I have long held that poetry is really a collaborative between reader and writer. What Hall describes here confirms this. What the writer and the reader have is something in common, but different (usually). The writer relates something that the reader identifies with from their own life experiences. Since each of us has different life experiences their discovery and recall may be similar, but not identical. This constitutes the second language of poetry. Speaking through the second language of poetry, can be clearly different from a more obvious message or story line of a poem. When such a connection (second language) is made, this becomes the sensual body of the poem or where some connection between reader and writer occurs.

There is more to this essay, but I will tackle that another day.

Spencer Tunick and the Art of Nothing at all

Hundreds of people took their clothes off in the name of art in South Beach Florida yesterday. Monday. Spencer Tunick, a photographer and artist of the human form, last month let it be known he needed 600 volunteers to be part of his upcoming art installation at South Beach's Sagamore Hotel. Tunick has had no problem attracting participants and the 600 number for this event is actually rather small by his standards. Last year 18,000 took part in a Mexico shoot.

Tunick will unveil his work during Miami Beach's annual Art Basel festivities in December.

Here's my question. Tunick is coming to your community and need volunteers for his next photo shoot. Do you bare it all for art? See poll on sidebar to left.

The results were:

8 or 80% said you would take it off for art.
2 or 10% said No Way... Not in Public.

Thanks to all who voted.

Where's the Beef?

Wow.... That's some big beef jerky!

Weekend is over. I succeeded in sending out more submissions as I had planed.

This morning, I was pleased to learn that a submission of a poem I wrote earlier this year but had never sent out till now has found a home! So there's the beef!

I'm reading Breakfast Served Any Time All Day- Essays on Poetry New and Selected by Donald Hall. There is some wonderful stuff in here. There are things in it that you feel as you read them you must have known because deep down they seem like truisms... yet at the same time they are new to you. I'll have more to say on some of these things later.

I have enjoyed the Indians / Yankees series. Some really exciting baseball. I have to say I'm pulling for the Indians in this series. Go Tribe!

The go-between - Frieda Hughes - TimesOnline

Frieda Hughes commentary on The Flea by John Donne

from the Times Online

7th Annual A. Poulin, Jr Poetry Prize

Passing along this information I received from Cecilia Woloch.



BOA EDITIONS, LTD.

SEVENTH ANNUAL A. POULIN, JR. POETRY PRIZE

Judge: Jean Valentine


The A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize is awarded to honor a poet's first book, while also honoring the late founder of BOA Editions, Ltd., a not-for-profit publishing house of
poetry and poetry in translation.

WINNER RECEIVES:
A $1,500 Honorarium, paid in March 2008, and book publication by BOA Editions, Ltd. in March, 2009, in The A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series.

ELIGIBILITY:
* Entrants must be a citizen or legal resident of the United States.
* Poets, who are at least 18 years of age, who have yet to publish a full-length-book collection of poetry.
* Translations are not eligible.
* Individual poems from the manuscript may have been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, chapbooks of 32 pages or less, or self-published books of 46 pages or less, but must be submitted in manuscript form. Published books in other genres do not disqualify contestants from entering this contest.
* Employees, volunteers and board members of BOA Editions, Ltd., or their partners or spouses, or their immediate families, or immediate family of the judge are not eligible.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES REQUIREMENTS:
Send one copy of the manuscript, our entry form, and the $25 entry fee, to BOA Editions, Ltd., between August 1, and November 30, 2007, at the address listed below. Make check or money orders payable to BOA Editions. Do not pay by cash or credit card.

MANUSCRIPT FORMAT:
* Minimum of 48 pages, maximum of 100 pages of poetry.
* At least 11pt. font.
* Name address and telephone number must appear on the title or cover page of the manuscript.
* Do not send artwork or photographs.
* Typed or word-processed on standard white paper, on one side of the page only.
* Paginated consecutively with a table of contents.
* Bound with a spring clip (no paperclips, please).
* Attach publications acknowledgments if any.
* Include a stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt of manuscript.
* Do not send by FedEx or UPS.
* Electronic and fax submissions will not be accepted.
* Neither late nor early manuscripts will be accepted.
* Contestants may submit the manuscript elsewhere simultaneously, but must notify BOA Editions immediately, by mail in an envelope (not by postcard or e-mail) if a manuscript is accepted by another publisher.
* Once submitted, manuscripts cannot be altered. Winner will be given the opportunity to revise before publication.
* Contestants may submit more than one manuscript, but a separate entry fee and entry form must accompany each manuscript.
* Manuscripts mailed from foreign countries risk not being received before final selections have been made.


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES SUGGESTED:
* Send manuscript in a plain or padded envelope. Please no boxes.
* For notification of competition results, include a business-size SASE.
* Keep a copy of your manuscript, as manuscripts will not be returned.
* We advise that you send your manuscript by first class or priority mail.

ANSWERS TO FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
* The winner will be announced by March 1, 2008.
* Honorarium will be awarded within two weeks of a signed contract between the winner and BOA Editions.
* Winning manuscript will be published in March, 2009, in an original paperback edition in the A. Poulin, Jr. New Poets of America Series.
* The winner will retain full copyright of his or her work.
* The paper from all manuscripts will be recycled after the winner is announced.

BOA Editions assumes no responsibility for loss of manuscripts.

Send manuscripts, postmarked between August 1, and November 30, 2007, with entry fee, to:

BOA Editions, Ltd.
PO Box 40490
Rochester, NY 14604

Picked up three interesting books at the Library yesterday. They are:

• Breakfast Served Any Time of Day - by Donald Hall


• Your Own Sylvia - by Stephanie Hemphill


• Otherwise - New and Selected Poems - by Jane Kenyon

Another writer / poet friend of mine has started a blog - Scot Isom - you can check it out here.

Wow... Poet season baseball has been really incredible so far. Even without my Giants, I have been enjoying some exciting games. The Indians / Yankees series has been super! Go Tribe! What a nail bitter last night!

Journal Jottings This Week

From my journal this week:

• As if coded in some way the birds / converse clearly aware of the time / to the exact minute in spite of / the human element of relativity.
• One cannot pluck notion / from the tangled presence / of central air against the popular / theory of tidal pull.
• Free admission flourishes / where depressed economics / wrapped itself around disinterest.
• World hunger beware, her dimpled / diplomacy will restore world peace / to its proper priority.

Mind Policing in America

In spite of the Constitutionally protected freedom of speech, mind policing in America has been going on for a long time. This week, we celebrate Banned Books week. Each year libraries remind us that even today there are those who are vigilant in exercising their discretionary view of what you and I should be able to read.

Who are these mind police? Often they are simply mothers and other busybodies who for the most part are afraid of what might happen if one of their children, or God forbid, you or I happen to read something they disapprove of. Some of the books they target for reasons that seem quite silly on the surface. Still, their assault on this protected liberty (freedom of expression) is not silly at all. Here is a statical overview between 2000 - 2005.

• Most Challenged Books of 21st Century (2000-2005)
• Initiator of challenges 2000-2005
• Types of Challenges 2000-2005

In another stroke of irony, it's the 50th anniversary of the legal action surrounding poet Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." The publisher of Ginsberg's poet was put on trial contending the work contained obscene language, but a San Francisco Municipal Court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg's Beat-era poem was not obscene. Still, half a century later, a New York listener-supported radio station WBAI decided not to air the poem because program director Bernard White fears that the FCC will fine the station $325,000 for every one of Ginsberg's dirty-word bombs. This concern was based upon recent actions by the FCC in numerous other imposition of fines to broadcast outlets. Instead, WBAI will include a reading of the poem in a special online-only program called "Howl Against Censorship." It will be posted on www.pacifica.org, the Internet home of the Berkeley-based Pacifica Foundation, because online sites do not fall under the FCC's purview.

Half a century later and the battle over such censorship continues in America. In fact, in many ways the issue is even greater today and the Government has sought library records of individuals under the Patriots Act to see what we are reading, so they can make subjective decisions if we might be terrorists or who knows whatever else they may fear we are?

Queen Latifah Tunes into 'Trav'lin' Light'

From NPR / "My mom played 'Poetry Man' a lot when I was a kid in the house. I mean, she played that album endlessly," says Latifah, whose real name is Dana Owens.

Around the time Queen Latifah was choosing songs she would record for her new album, she happened to hear "Poetry Man" on the radio and thought she might like to try it.
"But since I knew this was one of my mom's favorite songs, I had to go ask her" what she thought about her daughter covering "Poetry Man," Latifah says.

Owens says she told her daughter: "You know Dana, that's not an easy song to do. And you have to do Phoebe Snow justice. If you're going to take on a legend's song, then you have to really step to the plate."

"She recently heard it and she really likes it," Latifah says. "She felt like I kind of followed the template but sort of made it my own."

full story

Trav'lin' Light' is Queen Latifah's second album of popular jazz and R&B songs.

14th Annual Juried Reading / Poetry Center of Chicago

14th Annual Juried Reading

Literary activist and award-winning poet E. Ethelbert Miller will be the final judge for The Poetry Center of Chicago's 14th Annual Juried Reading Competition. First prize winner will receive $1,500; second prize, $500; third prize, $250; five finalists will receive $50. Poetry by the eight finalists will be published in a chapbook by Dancing Girl Press, and all eight poets will be invited to read at an award ceremony in the spring of 2008.

The Juried Reading is open to all poets residing in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Poets may be unpublished or have published no more than one full-length book of poetry, not including self-published books. All submissions are blind; the jury and the judge will have no access to identifying information about the submitting poets.
Click here for more information and full competition guidelines

On the Lighter Side

This is too funny.... "We Want The Funk"

"In working on a poem, I love to revise. Lots of younger poets don't enjoy this, but in the process of revision I discover things." ~ Rita Dove

I heard Charles Simic talking about the great thing in writing poetry is discovering things about yourself. How true!

Poetry Revision Part 2

I am revisiting the "revision" subject of my earlier post with a few thoughts.

For my own part, I have been hanging on to my own work longer lately. I think there is value in revisiting work after a bit of a break from it. I read where the Roman poet Horace believed one should wait nine years. I'm not sure you can call any specific period of time extreme in the context of a single piece of work, but I'm not planning any such length as a matter of personal procedure. I do believe that we create a distance from the work when we put it away and bring it back out later. That distance can improve our perception of what we are saying.

In an article written by Nina Shengold, titled Perennial Voyager - John Ashbery at Home, Ashbery speaks of endless revisions in his younger days. Today, he days, " If I'm not pleased with something, I tend to discard it rather than reworking it to death." I'm a huge Ashbery fan, but I don't see myself trashing a lot of stuff... or do I?

If one looks though my journals, there are quite a few instances where I have something with a squiggly sort of strike through the text. I suppose these are throw-aways, though I haven't thought much about them in that context. There are certainly many other things I've started that are not completed poems yet, I have not given them the disapproving strike through. These I will on occasion go back to and rework. I did one this weekend, which I started last May. There are however, times when I will indeed abandon a piece of writing that I believe has failed the very basic level of having viability. Then I have tons of material that are like little unborns already on life support... while I've thinking of a cure.

I would of course like to believe that I could create successfully without revision. I won't however kid myself on this point. Few of us are John Ashbery's. Still, in a way, what he is doing is revision by elimination. With the number of successfully completed books he has, I'm sure he is not concerned with the quantity of work he is producing, even at his age.

Write, patience, reading, rewriting, patience, writing, reading..... it is all a part of the process.

Leo Tolstoy said.... "Music is the shorthand of emotion."

I think then, Poetry is the DNA of the soul.

Recommended Reading

Couple of works that appeared in Autumn Sky Poetry Volume 7 that I particularly liked...

• June Snow Dance by William Doreski
• Falling Star by Kimberly L. Becker's

The whole volume is worth reading... but I especially liked these two.

Autumn Sky Poetry

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The Public Has Spoken

The Results are in click here. My sentiments exactly!

Another Poem published...

Autumn Sky Poetry edited by Christine Klocek-Lim has published one of my poems. The current Volume 7 can be seen here. My poem, We Missed can be seen directly here.

Do check out the other poetry in this edition. Christine has done an excellent job putting it together!


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Separating the Art from the Artist... or can we?

A New York Times article [Poetry Prize Sets Off Resignations at Society] details a controversy that has grown within the Poetry Society of America, but it seems to me it has raised even larger questions for the world of arts and literature, questions which I have not formulated a view as of yet.

The issue within the PSA centers around an award, the Frost Medal, which has been awarded to the poet John Hollander. The worthiness of Hollander's poetry itself is not in question, but a statement made by Hollander referring to referred to West African, Mexican and Central American as “cultures without literatures," and an interviewer on NPR who had paraphrased him as saying, “there isn’t much quality work coming from nonwhite poets today.”

Should such remarks be taken into consideration by the PSA or any organization seeking to honor a poet, writer or artist of any kind? Or, should the artistic work they produce be the soul basis for such recognition? The Hollander incident is of course not an isolated incident of controversy among poets. Ezra Pound for example is widely know for his anti-Semitism. Should that fact detract from the literary appreciation of his work? Can we appreciate great works of art and literature without bestowing accolades and honors upon the artists themselves?

No, I still don't have and answer to these questions, and I am sure this is not likely to be the last time this issue arises.

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But do Presidents?

Reuters News Service reports that President Bush, today told a group of New York school children, "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." The gaff was part of remarks the President made while urging the extension of his education program, No Child Left Behind.

And yesterday, when the President was at the U.N. to deliver a major address, a draft of President Bush's speech to the U.N. General Assembly was posted online with phonetic spellings and other markings that weren't supposed to be seen by anyone outside the administration. [source]

Books On Trial

Last night I attended a event at the Kansas City Public Library in with authors Shirley & Wayne Wiegand presented a factual account of a historic 1940 incident in which Oklahoma County officials confiscated the entire contents of a local bookstore then put the proprietors and patrons of the store on trial not for anything they did, but for the contents of the books on their store shelves.

The story of their arrest, conviction and the battle for some three years to get their convictions overturned is an interesting and chilling one. The implications of this care are far reaching when considered against some of our government's actions today. Not only were these individuals victims of the governments fear of communists, but the basic fundamental rights of our constitution were victims as well.

I was especially surprised how significant racial overtones were in the prosecution of this case. I know Oklahoma is a southern state, but not the deep south, and none of the defendants were black. It was their association with civil rights issues that were paraded before the jury.

Over the next three years, the public outcry as news of this case spread throughout the U.S. ultimately sent this matter to a appellate court and the convictions were overturned. Libraries and Universities throughout the country cited that they were likely equally guilty based on the fact that many of the books the prosecution cited in their case were on their shelves as well. No evidence of any subversive or violent actions by the defendants to overthrow the government were ever presented. It was all purely based on the contents of the bookstore and the inflammatory suggestions that these individuals would dare suggest that blacks and whites have equal rights.

It is a story worth reading. The book: Books on Trial - Red Scare in the Heartland - authors Shirley & Wayne Wiegand

OMG!!!!

I missed Stick Poets 4th year anniversary! Sept 2, 2003 was the first post on this blog. Imagine that.


By the way, while you've been able to subscribe to e-mail feeds of Stick Poet Superhero for a long time, the new service I'm using now is so much better. It actually works! Over the past couple of years I've used two different services that ultimately had issues. The sad thing is that in giving them up, especially the oldest one, I lost a lot of subscribers. But of course they were no longer receiving their posts due to the problems which drove me to change.

I noticed the other day a bit of a spike in the number of people subscribing to Stick Poet posts and that's been encouraging. Slowly they are coming back.... and some new ones I hope!

If you haven't and would like to - it's easy, just add your e-mail to the subscribe box on the left sidebar and click. You will get an email that requires you to confirm and then after that, once a day you'll get all the posts for that day in one e-mail.

Poets will bare their souls, and everything else, tonight

Poets will bare their souls, and everything else, tonight: "The Poetry in the Raw event is a fundraiser to help several of the poets travel to Halifax, where they will compete against eight other teams in the National Slam Competition. It takes place next week at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. 'The readers will be disrobed and unfettered tonight,' promised shayne avec i grec, a former member of the team, who now acts as coach. He said the idea of stripping came from two previous events in which he decided to read in the buff -- and garnered a surprisingly keen audience." [full story]

ei: Arab poetry's sometimes subversive answer to "American Idol"

ei: Arab poetry's sometimes subversive answer to "American Idol":

"Perhaps the only thing that is as hard as translating Arab poetry to other languages is trying to explain to non-Arabs the extent of poetry's popularity, importance and Arabs' strong attachment to it. Whereas poetry in America has been largely reduced to a ceremonial eccentricity that survives thanks to grants and subsidies from fanatics who care about it too much, in the Arab world it remains amongst the most popular forms of both literature and entertainment. Whereas America's top poets may struggle to fill a small Barnes & Noble store for a reading, Palestine's Mahmoud Darwish has filled football stadiums with thousands of fans eager to hear his unique recital of his powerful poems. And while in America a good poetry collection can expect to sell some 2,000 copies, in the Arab world the poems of pre-Islamic era poets are still widely read today in their original words, as are those from the different Islamic eras leading to the present." [Full Story]

Bits from my Journal...

• It (curling) is far more physical than one might imagine.
• If boiled with water / The broth ascribes / to thinly veiled life / The taste of which fall flat
• The presence of that hauntingly empty feeling with the close of baseball season, is setting in.
• It is pretty much an established fact that I was small at birth... and that at some point when she (mom) was holding me I slid into the pocket of her robe.
• ...A bronze vagina / commemorating all that is, / but purely ornamental
• Like concrete in a sinus passage / my head is filled with reflective guilt

Zoom in before decide what it is

The more I look at people I believe that individually we are quite unique. However, by lumping us all together that uniqueness is replaced by a murky mass.

I think it really helps to bring things in tight and take a look before you zoom back out and look at the big picture. True in life as well as poetry.

Weekend Recap...

I was excited to learn that Kim Addonizio will be coming to town in November for a reading. How cool is that?!

Meanwhile, I've been working on drafts of a new poem this weekend.

This, in addition to visiting my mother, taking my wife's computer work station apart and moving it upstairs and reassembling it and running shopping errands.

Earlier this evening I did some reading and editing as well. Oh, I'm also bemoaning to fact that the baseball season is coming to an end. [sigh]

Oh, I tried a blog exercise of randomly clicking on one of the blogs in my sidebar, then doing the same on that blog, and on and on till I went six deep. Sort of a six degrees of separation. Kind of interesting to see where it leads.

Savoring California's poetry scene

And so they sat, occasionally scribbling in their ever-present notebooks, as Robert Hass considered California's shaping fires, Victoria Chang channeled downbeat women and Diem Jones spoke in a hypnotic cadence punctuated by an accompanying guitar and the crowd's appreciative "Hmmmmms." - San Jose Mercury News [story]

Saturday afternoon....

"Tears roll silently down the hill in neutral."

Why your mind should not meander when driving

You ever wake up and have a crazy notion about something? Okay, mine actually came during the drive into work. For some ungodly reason I thought, I should write a memoir. What has possessed me to think this I don’t really know. In fact, possessed might be a good way to view it.

I have had an interest in doing sort of a biographical poem at some point and have actually made some stabs at it, but they have all been drafts that have gone nowhere. My vision of the poem was much more abstract in nature (surprise!) and it's likely that unless someone knew me extremely well, they would perhaps not even recognize me in the poem.

Getting back to the memoir, it’s not that I lead a life that people are just dying to read about; in fact my contemplation of this is largely for personal reflection. The only way it would be remotely interesting to others was if it were written by David Sedaris.

Muldoon to edit New Yorker poetry | News | Guardian Unlimited Books

Muldoon to edit New Yorker poetry News Guardian Unlimited Books: "Paul Muldoon has been appointed the poetry editor of the New Yorker. He is due to take over from Alice Quinn, poetry editor at the weekly magazine for 20 years, in November."

I am a bit surprised by this, though I suppose there is no particular reason to be. Another example of globalization and in poetry I believe that is a positive evolution. Muldoon is rather somber about this business of poetry and that should fit well with The New Yorker. Will it greatly change the substantive nature of poetry in the magazine? Only time can tell.

2 < 33

When tragedy strikes, there are often words that follow. Words of sorrow, of anger, frustration or guilt. There also comes a silence or at least the ineptitude to adequately verbalize.

Kelli yesterday posted a link to an article from the Roanoke Times about a poem by Bob Hicok, poet, and Virginia Tech English professor. In the poem, Hicok writes about shooter Seung-Hui Cho and the professor's feelings of guilt for not doing something to stop his former student who on April 16 took 33 lives including his own at Virginia Tech. Hicok was of several professors in the department to voice concerns about Cho after reading a play the student wrote in Spring 2006 about a student who plans a mass school shooting. Nothing came of their expressed concerns.

This and other incidents and in some cases non-incidents have sparked a debate about where one crosses the line in writing literature between artistic expression and cause for concern.

Paradoxically I see this in Hicok's own poem with a painful examination. In a most powerful twist, these words ring out of his poem titled "So I Know"

Maybe we exist as language and when someone dies
they are unworded. Maybe I should have shot the kid
and then myself given the math. 2 < 33
I was good at math. Numbers are polite, carefree
if you ask the random number generators.
Mom, I don't mean the killing above.
It's something I write like "I put my arms
around the moon."

There is something to be said for putting our arms around the moon.

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How to fill the gap

I read something yesterday that suggested that there was a gap between what the traditional publishing world is doing and the kind of content that people get excited about. The statement not surprisingly came from an article on self-publishing.

Of course, we would all like to believe that we are that writer yet to be noticed by mainstream publishers and are certain as the night follows day that there we are just one of many worthy writers that have been overlooked, and perhaps hang to the belief that one day this fact will be history and that both of us (the right publisher who realizes this error and of course our self) will ultimately be rewarded.

Do publishers really not know what they are doing? To be certain, publishers in their vetting process do pick many books that go nowhere. However, the bottom line is these publishers do operate as a business enterprise and they do make money or they cease to exist. They are clearly also picking winners. The person exploring this topic suggested that the rise in Internet usage will actually force even traditional publishers to find ways to enter into non-traditional publishing. In doing so, will this bring greater respectability to both the Internet and self-publishing?

There are to be sure, problems with using an Internet model for traditional publishers and keeping profitability a part of the picture. I am not implying those problems are insurmountable, but how many people actually pay to read something on the Internet? Such a model would likely have to include advertising.

Some mainline publishers are however entering the print-on-demand markets, and those are likely more promising. I believe most avid readers of literature and poetry still want something in their hand as they read and don't want to scroll down a computer screen. Such print-on-demand would still carry a brand name that is equated with some degree of professionalism. Hence, there would continue to be a gap between what such a company offers and what you or I create ourselves privately in a POD format.

If there is a big gap between what traditional publishers are putting into the market place and what the public really wants, how do writers reach those people to fill that gap? This is the challenge for private publishing.

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Curling with Cathy

Sunday was a very refreshing day. My wife and I tried something different. We took a Curling lesson. There is far more athleticism involved than you might imagine by watching it. It was fun trying something totally different.

We also went out to eat at Hash House A Go Go located at Legends. We walked around and checked out shops. It's a pretty cool place. Basically spent the entire day together which was the best part.

Weather has been so nice these past few days. Cooler and we actually had a few showers... just the right amount and it didn't get muggy or anything.

Poetry Revision Part 1

Rewrites, revisions, whatever you want to call them require a writer to examine something already committed to a page. Early on, I probably viewed revisions in more a negative light than a positive one. Not overtly, because I don't recall it as such and I don't recall thinking about it much at all. I am sure now, thinking back this was a subconscious thing.


For the young writer I think there is an urgency to create work. There were times I knew a rewrite was necessary and I did them. There were no doubt times I didn't, yet should not be satisfied. I suppose it is a part of maturing as a writer that we learn not to be in such a rush. Awkward as it may be, I am learning this. This is an especially difficult lesson for one to learn when they did not start writing till later years and feel their life rushing along before their very eyes.


I did a survey of readers on my blog as to how many times on the average they would rewrite a poem. The results are of course not representative of a scientifically controlled survey, and the response was not near as many as I would have liked, so we are dealing with a very small universe.

The Question was this: On the average, how many revisions do you do of poems you write?
The results are as follows:

• 3 or less 14%
• 4-10 57%
• 11-25 14%
• 26-50 14%
• more than 50 0%

I suppose it should not surprise me that the biggest response came in the 4-10 range. At first thought I would have placed myself in that category based on nothing more than a perhaps less than educated guess. But as I pulled out a few drafts of things I've written more recently, I decided that I really am more likely in the 11-25 range on an average, but closer to 11 then the higher end of the range. I've had a few like one titled Night Wishes that came almost spontaneously and as I recall tweaked I think two words in it from the original draft. Things like this however are rare.

I know people who firmly believe the first thought on paper is the best and don't like to make changes because of the belief that something subliminal has lead them to write a great truth. I find subliminal influence on writing very interesting but I don't subscribe to any notion that there is something sacred about the first thoughts to reach the page.

I have marveled at the assertion by Donald Hall that he has rewritten poems hundreds of times. The poem White Apples about his father's death took him 17 years to write.

I think there is a comfort level that must come only with maturity in writing that allows you to slow yourself down a bit and really look for the right words in the right places in your poems. One of the benefits of getting work accepted in various venues and waiting for them to come out is that it has allowed me not to be in such a hurry to get something new to send out. In fact of my last four accepted poems, two have been older ones that have hung around a while.

More rewrites are not always going to make a better poem but I think some level of rethinking is always critical. In fact I now like to put a poem that I feel is finished back and revisit again a week later. Sometimes what sounded good a week ago leaves you thinking what you might have been drinking when you stopped and put it aside. I have taken the rewrite process to an extreme and found that I was getting further from what I wanted, not closer. There is obviously nothing magical about the number of drafts but I think a willingness to try new language or approach is critical to growing as a poet. Sometimes shaking up the poem by reversing the beginning and the end, or rewriting a first person into another viewpoint.

If I am having trouble getting started with new stuff, I find that it is sometimes go back to old journals and pull out something unfinished, or really rough and work on it from a new perspective.

I've got more to say on the topic but I don't want to unload it all tonight. Besides, I'm interested in other perspectives on the value of revision and the process others use.

Thought for Today

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross." ~ Sinclair Lewis

Poetry In The News

A few News items of interest:

• A walk in the woods with poet Sebastian Matthews [here]
• Bill Moyers talks with Poet Robert Bly [interview here]
• On Political Poetry [here]

Have You Been To The Stick Poet Store?

Stick Poet Gear Here

The Tour of Missouri

The first stage of The Tour of Missouri kicked off today in KC and I was able to catch it twice as it left the city mid day and again on the return through downtown later in the afternoon. It was pretty exciting.

Monday night I stood in line for hours the get 8 autographs from Team Discovery for my youngest daughter ( cycling fanatic) who is at ASU.

This is the first year for the race and it is ranked the third top race in North America. It attracted an impressive field of riders. Five more stages to go!

Hazzah!

Another acceptance today, a poem that is at least a year and a half old. For some reason I've been hitting the mark with some of my older work lately. Perhaps I am just getting better at picking the right venue. Who knows?

Klaus had a birthday yesterday....

The birthday boy and his brothers enjoyed a home cooked meal for a change. K gets so freek'n excited when we sing happy birthday to him. The shot at the right was taken last night at the dog park where they romped and attempted to prove their dominance over the world. All except Barry... he just hangs and and tries his best to stay out of the fray.

Yesterday I started putting on paper some of my thoughts about revisions. The formation of a post is coming along. I've been thinking a lot about many aspects of this.

Yesterday I read Jilly's blog. Our Internet had been down and I was kind of behind on things. Se had several really interesting things worth noting. All of these links I owe to her:

• Poetry as Right-Hemispheric Language
• Poet recounts Polish couple's heroism in WWII
• In the line of fire

Couple of Quotes on Writing

If the doctor told me I had six minutes to live, I'd type a little faster.

Isaac Asimov

~0~

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.

Ray Bradbury

supersized sigh

I am mulling over in my mind a number of questions relating to poem revisions. I am not sure if I will be finished with this and ready to post over the weekend or not, but just to alert you, I hope that when I do, it will be something that will create further discussion.

Is is Friday isn't it.... yep! [supersized-sigh]

I looked at the Fred Thompson campaign site yesterday. Very nicely put together and very void of specifics on issues. I guess he believes people will just like his down home style and to hell with where he would take us. Do I sound cynical yet?

This is good news: Judge Rejects Parts Of New Patriot Act
The government investigators must have court's approval to order businesses such as internet service providers and telephone companies to turn over records without telling customers.

The court found that government orders must be subject to meaningful judicial review and that the recently rewritten Patriot Act "offends the fundamental constitutional principles of checks and balances and separation of powers."

For John Ashbery fans: check out-> Perennial Voyager

Review of the Dana Goodyear Event

Last night I joined a full house in the Helzberg auditorium in the Central branch of the Kansas City Public Library to hear Dana Goodyear, poet, staff writer and senior editor at The New Yorker.

My previous exposure to Goodyear was limited to a handful of poems and an essay or two. The poems tended toward the edgy side and often melancholy, something I am often drawn to.

She read from her first book, Honey and Junk as well as a couple of newer poems and to my delight, what she shared proved my earlier samplings of her work did not deceive me, she is a poet of immense depth and talent. Her voice commands a sense of frankness and is not without the capacity for wit.

If there was any surprise in what I saw, it was a young woman that was quite capable of an exuberance that transcends the more staid side often seen in her poetry.

She took questions after reading and her responses revealed much about her approach to poetry as well as her career as an editor. An enjoyable evening overall. Oh, did I mention the wine and cheese?

Should We Laugh Or Cry?

Loose Nukes: Warheads in the Sky: story

You Can Tell It's Matel, It's Leaded: story

Bukowski's Poetry & more

• Interesting take on the prolific Bukowski - Don't blame Bukowski for bad poetry.
• Collection of previously unknown poems by a young WH Auden found - Auden: The lost poems .

Quote for the day....

"It is not easy to see how the more extreme forms of nationalism can long survive when men have seen the Earth in its true perspective as a single small globe against the stars." ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Tuesday & the times they are a changing...

• At the center of each poem is a mystery - Mark Strand on poetry [here]
• Poet's Choice - Robert Strand examines a James Hoch poem [here]
• Poems analysed in search of clues to suicide [here]
• Poets on Prozac: Mental Illness Treatment and the Creative Process - [here]
• Songwriter and protest icon embraced and taught in British schools as poetry - [here]
  
  

Submissions

I managed to get four poems off this weekend looking for new homes.

On another look...

Last Thursday night, I picked up Donald Hall’s The Painted Bed when I couldn’t sleep. I shuffle through various poetry books on my night stand, even after reading them, going back to them again and again usually proves to be worthwhile.

I read three poems that night at random. All poems I have read multiple times before. That night there were things that resonated in two of these poems that simply did not do the same for me in earlier reads.

In Wool Squares where the voice talks about going through a “muddled heap of women’s work and finding wool squares she used to knit while he sat opposite. And this is one of those poems that one assumes Hall is writing from his own persona. Jane has succumbed finally to leukemia and he does a most interesting thing. He evokes Young Caitlin, wife of Dylan Thomas. It is so odd that this did not strike me as particularly profound in earlier readings. Hall finds himself in Caitlin here the widow with the “leftover life to kill.” His final stanza…

“At seventy I taste / In solitude / Starvation’s food, / As the land goes to waste / Where her death overthrew / A government of two.”

My recollection is that in earlier reads I focused on the wool squares themselves and the visual of the two of them sitting in the same room, he recalling her work on them. I also connected with his solitude. It is hard not to read Halls late work especially and not feel the grayness. But in this last read I was struck by his metaphorical view as the two of them a unique government that was overthrow by her death. These are not profound discoveries in this poem, but they provided a more salient view for me then before.

The other poem was Ardor. Hall unleashes all the accompanying feelings; the outrage, the desire. The inability to work, to love or die. “Each day lapses as I recite my complaints / Lust is grief that has turned over in bed / to look the other way.” A very strong final line in the last stanza. The magnitude of it seems so real in my latest read.

People will often say that Hall is a downer to read. Certainly, isolated to an individual poem or two, one can easily reach this conclusion. But even in Hall’s later work, the underlying motive is love. There few contemporary poets that have the command of love either in abundance or loss that he has.

What Makes a Successful Writer?

#links

What budding writer is going to pass up a headline like that? I couldn't. Besides the fact that I've often found the source (Kelli) to be an informative and positive reinforcement, it is just one of those lines I gravitate to no matter how any times I see it. I suppose it is the perfect pickup line for writers.

What is often the case when we read something like this, is it's really something we already know deep down inside. It is also quite often something that in spite of such knowledge, we need to keep hearing it and seeing it because it is something that is so simple in concept, that we make it hard to conform to.

I've come to the conclusion for instance, that forcing yourself to write through blocks is good, even at the expense of writing poorly, I've also fount that it is good to read some poetry every night before retiring, and often at least five minutes or so before writing, read a poem or two. Such exercises help me to see the magic of others in their words. I have several specific poets that I like to use in this capacity because of their particular talent as wordsmiths.

Playing with words, reading, these are certainly very basic and fundamentally easy things that writers can do. That so many believe in their link to successful writing is reason to take them seriously and make sure that they are integrated into the day-to day efforts of anyone who is wishing to improve his or her writing for whatever reason they write.

Last Day of Survey On Rewrites

Today is the last opportunity to participate in the survey of poets on their revision practices. See the left sidebar and take the survey if you have not already. There are about 12 hours left till it closes. Thanks!

Dana Goodyear - Kansas City - September 5th

Dana Goodyear - Poet & senior editor and staff writer at the New Yorker will appear at the Kansas City Public Library in the Halzberg Auditorium - 14 W.10th St. - Kansas City, Missouri on Wednesday - September 5th. Reception is at 6:00 PM and program begins at 6:30PM.

Goodyear will discuss her debut book of poetry, Honey and Junk. Goodyear first hit my radar screen when she became one of the 18 debut poets of 2005 that were featured in Poets & Writers.

I've read a few of her poems and she is remarkably impressionable with creating an undercurrent to her often melancholy voice.

I beseech you, don't make me beg...

I’m scaling down this weeks summit and being careful, but not particularly graceful in my descent. Monday and Tuesday were relatively speaking manageable days. Wednesday was on the other hand, one of those days where it all falls apart and topples down on you. So today, I continue down the incline, but with concern as not to create an avalanche behind me.

There are but two days left for people to respond to my survey on the sidebar about rewrites. I want to blog some next week on revisions and while such a survey is of course not scientifically representative of the poet population as a whole, it will give me some idea as to what readers here might consider their norm. So please, don’t make be beg, (I look so undignified) if you haven’t done so already, take a moment to respond.

Couple of bits from my journal this week:

• The lady up the street powered up her nose / in a mammoth snub / I flashed an Indian corm smile / like I wanted her approving curtsy
• Afternoon slumps / Holding its hands in its pockets
• I would watch her sleep / Sometimes in silent fog
• You popped my bubble wrap / In italicized arrogance / I popped yours in return

Poet's Pulpit

So you wake up one morning and "poof" you're the poet laureate. Okay, it didn't quite happen that way. First you get a call from out of the blue and you mull the offer around in your crowded head, bounce the idea off family and finally call back and say, "yes, I'll do it."

Then comes that fateful morning when you realize "you are it!" This has come and passed for Charles Simic. So what's going on with him?

For all the fan fair and hoop-la about raising the interest in poetry in this country by recent past laureates, Simic is not as passionately optimistic. He views Americans as a people who are not particularly proud of our literature and he is not inclined to believe you can force the issue. Oh, I'll admit that a part of me wants to be more idealistic about the picture than that, but perhaps Simic is more reality grounded here. At any point, we all really do know that the evangelism of poetry is not going to bring everyone the their knees in verse.

If I were asked to do a state of the union on poetry, I believe first of all, not a lot of people would tune in. There is a large segment of society who really could care less. Still, for a good many people poetry remains a valued commodity. And like the American economy, the leading indicators here are truly mixed.

It seems fewer presses are turning out poetry. Yet we are seeing poetry all over the Internet. There are few economic success stories among contemporary poets, yet MFA programs are everywhere. To be sure, there are a significant number of people who do in fact turn to poetry, but it is also true that this is a representatively low percentage of the American public. Simic is right, as a nation we do not proud of our literature, poetry or otherwise. Our interests are splintered and divided among so many possibilities it is like vying a piece of the Nielsen ratings.

Of course I want to see poetry promoted. And I am already pleased to know from things Simic has said that he is not about to set out to define what poetry is or should be to readers or poets. To create "ramps for poetically handicapped people" (borrowing a phrase from Billy Collins) is not going to bring America to some profound awakening about poetry. The best we can do is to support the art, gain exposure for it, and let it reach those who are receptive to it.

Simic is in his own right a very talented poet. I believe he can be a outstanding ambassador for the art. Like everyone else, we'll have to set back and give him time to develop his methodology.

Right Hand Pointing - # 16 With 2 Of My Poems

Right Hand Pointing 16: "the paradox of going on" here

• Animal Instinct here
• The Cousin here

The Challenge - So you think you know Stickpoet...

Create your own Friend Quiz here

Monday Blues...

It's Monday and and of course I wish it wasn't. Of course next week I have Labor Day to look forward to. But that is then and this is now. I hate that it's Monday. (sigh)

• This month, another poetic voice was lost with the passing of poet and short-story writer Grace Paley. The 84 year old Paley was also a prominent political voice in the '60s and '70's in pro-peace and anti-nuclear rallies.

• Poetry Hut turned 4 years old this past weekend.

• News this morning.... Alberto Gonzalez is resigning. Nice start. He still needs to be prosecuted along with a host of others in the Bush administration.

Bush hails freedom, but can he handle a lousy T-shirt?

President Bush's speech at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on Independence Day in 2004, invoked the nation's highest ideals: "On this Fourth of July, we confirm our love of freedom, the freedom for people to speak their minds. ... Free thought, free expression, that's what we believe," Bush told the crowd.

Ringing words. Unfortunately, the White House advance team didn't get the memo. Or the message. But the taxpayer got a bill for $80,000. Click here to here about the $80,000.

Online NewsHour: Essay | Poet's Work Honors Native Spirit | August 23, 2007 | PBS

Online NewsHour: Essay Poet's Work Honors Native Spirit August 23, 2007 PBS: "Joy Harjo Reflects on the 'Spirit of Poetry' Born into the Muscogee Creek Nation in Oklahoma, Joy Harjo's poetry, song and saxophone music honor the Native American spirit."

Workspaces...

A worthwhile slide show called Workspaces: Donald Hall - - A Slide Show can been seen here. Thanks to Cindy for the link.

Couple of other items....

Thanks to those who have responded to the rewrite / revision survey in the side bar. It's still open so please respond if you haven't.

I still have a few of my broadsides, Give Me Some Everyday Religion a poem of my own with an Anne Sexton epigram on it. If you'd like one. just e-mail me with your address.

Revisions...

I want to talk about revisions of poetry in the near future. In the meantime, if you've been writing poetry, please take the survey in the sidebar on the revisions. Think in terms of the average number of times you are likely to revisit a poem to consider making changes. Getting a better idea how others approach this could make this discussion more informative.

I will not complete any of those sentences

I was ecstatic at the news the Charles Simic was to become the new poet laureate because I had only recently discovered his poetry and found him to be an excellent read. This week however, I read a piece in the Boston Globe that only accentuated my excitement.

David Mehegan of the globe staff wrote a piece in Simic on August 18 that provided a little more insight into Simic the laureate. Mehegan reports that Simic doesn't yet have a plan for his term but says, "All those sentences that begin with, 'Poetry must...,' 'The purpose of poetry is to... , 'Readers of poetry should...' -- 'I will not complete any of those sentences." I can't say enough about what a delight it is to hear these words.

Even after Donald Hall's tenure as poet laureate, the handcuffs that Ted Kooser slipped around poetry still leave marks on its wrists. Simic is insightful enough to see the divisiveness trying to mold and shape what poetry is or should be has brought to the art. Enough!

Presidential Candidates say the stupidest things...

If you are my age, you may remember Art Linkletter and his program and later book, Kids Say The Darnedest Things. A recent AP wire story about Presidential candidates and their gaffes, has the makings of a first class reality TV show.



A few gems:

• Republican candidate Mitt Romney - Defending the decision by his five sons for not enlisting in military service by uttering the following, "...one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping me get elected." Romney later tried to clear the air and said he didn't mean to compare their campaign work to military service. Yeah, well duh.
• Republican Mike Huckabee has referred to Arkansas as a "banana republic" as well as jokingly attributed his 110-pound weight loss to spending time in a concentration camp. Way to go Mike!
• Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.,demonstrated fuzzy math skills when he drastically overstated the death toll from a Kansas tornado, saying "ten thousand people died." The real number was 12. As in one and two with no zeros following.
• Good old Republican Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York City during the Sept. 11 attacks, claims he was at ground zero "as often, if not more, than most of the workers" and was exposed to the same health risks. Ok, I don't think his photo opps were the same as digging through the rubble and I suspect there is a wee bit of exaggeration on the time as well.

Back home....

It's good to be back at home. I was so delighted to see Cathy (wife) at the airport last night. Plus, I had a great night of sleep. Best in a long time. What is not good, is this morning I see little things around the house that belong to Meghan and it's sad because I miss her terribly already.

Talked to her on the phone late last night when we got in. She had made a new friend on campus (which delighted me) and I know she is going to do so well there. I am quite proud of her.

I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow. I imagine my plate will be quite full. It is normally, so this is only going to to set me back. (sigh) But I have decided to keep a smile on my face and roll up my sleeves.

Good News!!! I had a card in the mail when I got home that Dana Goodyear is going to be in town in September. I have greatly enjoyed her own poetry as well as some of her commentary I've read. I am looking forward to meeting her and hearing her read!

Arts diary: Revealed: Sylvia Plath's unseen art, discovered in the attic | Art & Architecture | Guardian Unlimited Arts

Arts diary: Revealed: Sylvia Plath's unseen art, discovered in the attic Art & Architecture Guardian Unlimited Arts: "Paintings and drawings by Sylvia Plath, many of which have never been seen before, are to be published in October to mark the 75th anniversary of the birth of the American poet and novelist."

The Rug

Horizontal stripes thrown down
Bar the floor from leaving.
We watch all day
It never moves from prison.

You and I are visitors
Neither saying much
And the floor isn't talking.

Perhaps it has spoken things to others,
Later used against it.
Dirty truths that were never intended
Beyond its horizontal plane.

Hastert Blames Americans' Impatience For '06 GOP Losses

I read with amazement this article about the retirement of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. After all this time he blames the GOP losses in the midterm election on American impatience.

I won't even bother to discuss the numerous scandals among GOP House members which he denied lead to the Republican electoral demise. But I will take issue with the insistence that the American people are impatient where the war is concerned.

Patience, or lack thereof is only a small part of the electoral revolt where the war in Iraq is concerned. It is far more than impatience. He ignores the fact that the vast majority of America realizes that they were mislead in the first place. There was no compelling reason for the US to make an unprovoked strike on Iraq. Information about possible nuclear concerns were grossly exaggerated and information at the time suggested so. We had UN inspectors in the country again surveying the situation.

It is true that the existing government in Iraq was wrought with human rights abuses, but so is the Sudan, so is China, Sri Lanka, Labia, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Colombia, Turkey and the list of places with major human rights abuses goes on. Where is the U.S. response in these places? The fact is that our government and in particular the Bush administration found it politically expedient to go to war with Iraq, and they believed it would be a short campaign and there would be minimal causalities. They shifted resources from Afghanistan (a real stronghold for anti-American extremists) to Iraq.

For all the bad you could say about the Saddam Hussein, he did after all rise in power with behind the scenes help from the United States government. Further there existed a stable government environment that was not susceptible to outside interference in the region.

What Representative Hastert ignores of fails to understand is that we know the truth about Iraq and it is an ugly scar in the history of the U.S.

At last count, we've lost at least 3,699 U.S. servicemen and women in the ear in Iraq. At least 25,000 Americans have been wounded. This Mr. Hastert is a pretty heavy price to pay for what amounts to a lie. Your President was bound and determined to go to war in Iraq to the extent that he would present less than honest assessments of facts. That is a polite way of saying he lied.

On the other side, the price has been worse. By other side I am speaking of Iraqi citizens. Bush's war has created a vacuum in leadership in country where there is no consensus among the Iraqi people themselves. There are deep divisions between neighboring people. To the point of bloody civil strife on a daily basis. The death toll in one day alone in a northern Kurdish province that was previously one of the quieter spots is now at least 400.

We've destroyed so much of the countries infrastructure, in the capital alone they are lucky to have an hour or two electricity a day. One seriously has to ask the question, are they better off today than under Saddam?

Efforts to create a democratic government in Iraq have had only partial success. While the structure of a legislative body now exists, the divisions between the Iraqi people themselves are so deep that this brave body of men and women that rick their own lives daily are in worse gridlock than anything we've ever witnessed here in America.

Given this, and the fact that this whole mess has in fact lead to greater disdain for America Islamic people worldwide, how exactly has this made us safer?

In all this it is amazing how prophetic Dick Cheney was in 1994. The question is what lead to his mental lapse?

Congressman Hastert needs to understand that the American people are not simply an impatient bunch. No, we realize that George Bush pulled a Gulf of Tonkin on us (see here, here, and especially here) and are angered and the loss of lives on both sides, the loss of American prestige, the monetary cost of over $450 billion of non-budgeted tax money and counting , and creating a cause celeb for recruiting anti-American terrorists. If THIS is not a crime against the American people and humanity as a whole, I don't know what is.

Weary and wilted

In the course of my visit, I have now misplaced a shirt and shorts. Considering I came with extremely limited clothes this trip, and they seem to be disappearing at the rate of one item a day for the past two days, I could have difficulty being able to dress for the flight home by Saturday.

The trip is truly a mixture. I have greatly enjoyed being able to see my oldest daughter. That's been a blessing. I am however homesick- missing my wife tremendously, and beginning to feel a bit emotional already about the fact that when I leave, my youngest will be staying behind. So the emotions for the trip are a bit like taking a jar and putting the good and the bad together and shaking them up. What you get is pretty messy emotionally.

Writing has been difficult. Still a sampling of my journal from the last few days:

• These are not afterthoughts / That spill over the levee / But plateaus of articulation
• Things I wanted to say in deep cobalt blue
• Raining syllabic utterances
• His skin circumcised by a combination / Of sun and shifty motivations
• We saw in him all the signs / Of a man able to straddle / the Continental divide

In the News

• UA Poetry Center moves into new home (here) : According to Gail Browne, Executive Director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center, they will begin moving to a new facility on Wednesday. With more than 60,000 items it is one of the largest such centers in the country. I'd like to browse through this when they are finished.
• Classified evidence debated / Court likely to allow suit against AT&T (here) Wednesday, a federal appeals court in San Francisco - hearing arguments about President Bush's clandestine eavesdropping program, appeared inclined to keep alive a lawsuit accusing AT&T of illegally letting the government intercept millions of Americans' phone calls and e-mails.
• Acclaimed poet Pavel Chichikov debuts on Catholic Radio International (here)

Screw the Dry Heat Argument

My oldest daughter who lives in Phoenix argues that with no humidity it's a dry heat and that isn't as uncomfortable. Of course she has been here long enough that the remaining uncooked braincells may still believe this. My last visit was during the Spring Training period of the year several years back. It was hot then, but nothing like it is now.

I saw the ASU campus yesterday with youngest daughter. Heat aside it's a pretty nice place. Tomorrow I should see even more of it.

Last night we watched "A Night's Tale" which I really enjoyed. The pop-culture aspect of it was pretty entertaining.

My writing the past few days hasn't been entertaining. It's been pathetic. Heat, change of environment? Who knows.

Child Soldiers [draft)

A slumping night
Wept for those pressed into duty battle
By grown men with archaic presence of mind
To plunder the natural order- peace-

It is all remedial arithmetic.
More soldiers equals more tokens in their hands.
More chips they can gamble away
With low maintenance child warriors.

No enlistment paperwork or die-cast metal tags
To string around their necks.
No toe tags for the dead.

No one knows where they come from
Or cares where they go;
No duty to notify families or messy emotions.
Just a simple war-
With child labor.

Arizona Sunset

Arrived late last night in Phoenix on a mission to safely deliver youngest daughter to Arizona for her next phase of education at ASU. The picture here is taken from the car window in Flagstaff.

Slept so-so last night. Awoke this morning and checked into the office to deal with a couple of matters.

Having a diet coke and trying to orientate myself to the day. Staying with my oldest daughter who I haven't seen in gee, I guess about three years.

Evidently I upset Storm's (the cat) apple cart. Sitting in his place on the couch. Taking over the bedroom where he's been hanging out lately. He had already made it know that I was an encroachment. But when bedroom was readied for me he was totally pissed of. You would not have believed the mean-mugging stare!

Of course I had to stop in Winslow, Arizona of Eagles fame in the song Take It Easy . First time I ever came out here we made a road stop there at a little shit & get place and as we were getting in the car I kept saying Winslow, Arizona over and over to myself and as we were driving away it hit me why it was familiar. Duh!

I'd like to say that the scenery was so inspiring that I stayed up last night writing great material. In the alternative, I'd like to say I slept well. Unfortunately neather would be accurate.

I think it's time to do breakfast...

Stickpoet will be dark for a few days

I will be tied up (nothing kinky) for a few days and if I post at all,
it will likely be very sporadic. Everyone have a good weekend and week ahead.

Insignificance is but one view

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."

~Walt Whitman

at&t altering content & collecting personal data around the globe

AT&T moves from carrier to censor (story here)

I'm In Poor Mojo's Almanic(k) Issue # 342

One of my poems accepted earlier this year is finally up at Poor Mojo's Almanic(k).

The direct link Beautiful Music.