Day 30 - Poem-A-Day

April Adieu

So long National Poetry Month-
You were just thirty days out of a year.
You brought heaps of poems
to my email, so many that reading them all
will stretch well into May, when many others
have returned poetry to the back burner.

Gone too will be my open opportunity
to preach the virtues and love of poetry
to the poetically deprived.

Even during your own month, we risk
retribution from many who will not
allow us to share what joy we find
woven into the soul of your many stanzas.

But not all is melancholy today-
No, today too ends the Poem-A-Day
challenge I undertook at the onset.
To take a predetermined prompt
for which I have not control
and mold it into a single, artful, cohesive
poetic unit each day.

Even the love of poetry-
yes, even a driving passion for writing
cannot prevent such an undertaking
from taxing the mind and sometimes
in the late hours of the night,
the body as well.

So, goodbye poetry month. So long
for now. I shall not stop reading
what many great poetic minds created.
I will turn to you over and over
throughout the year. And probably
after a momentary pause,
I'll return to the page with ink
and write from that place deep
within the human spirit
where poetry is born.

Maybe, just maybe-
come next April, in a weak moment,
I may forget how difficult
the daily birthing process
of creating these poems was
and again accept the challenge
of a poem-a-day.

Poetry & Silence

"Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them." ~ Charles Simic

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They're here!

For the third year in a row I've produced a Poetry Month broadside featuring one of my poems that has been previously published elsewhere. They have finally arrived from the printers. I have 100 of them and they are available at your request as long as they last. If you would like one of these please drop me a note with your snail mail address at stickpoet@aol.com. It's just a little something I started doing to celebrate poetry.

Technorati Tags: poetry month broadsides

Poem-A-Day Challenge - six poem left

 Counting the poem for today (which I'm still working on) there are 6 remaining  in the April challenge.

I must say that a very badly want to do a free write, without a prompt, without a pre-determined

topic and the pressures that have come with this challenge. Yes, April is the cruelest month!

On another note, I was reading the comments on a post by Kelli and checked out Ouroboros Review  that received a thumbs up by Maya. It has a very professional on line presence. I was truly impressed. I also noticed Deb Scott has a couple of poems in the most recent issue.

Two other reviews I like have releases up...Right Hand Pointing  - issue 25 and  Autumn Sky Poetry - issue 13

Meanwhile, back to the poem I was working on.

Technorati Tags: Autumn Sky Poetry,Ouroboros Review,Right Hand Pointing

What if..

 I suppose one could argue that poetry has become a habitual aspect in my life. Without considering this in a negative connotation  that is often associated with the word habitual, I have up till now viewed this in the context of what I have considered a lifestyle. For several years, I have convinced myself that a poet (or any artist) would only enhance their level of creativity by developing a lifestyle that had a vigilant awareness to their surroundings that allowed them to constantly be open the the poetry in things.

What would follow or at least one would hope-  transforming theory to reality, is that by achieving this poetic point of view, it could only result in good things in connection with their work. If you hand not fully achieved a poetic lifestyle, to the extent you were striving to get there, again would be a positive thing, no?

Perhaps achieving such a state of mental awareness and focus has noting to do with improving the poet's work.  What if it is simply symptomatic of a neurosis?

Technorati Tags: the poetic lifestyle

Almost Forgot!

Ugh!  I almost forgot to mention that I'm reading tomorrow at the Westport Branch of the K.C Public Library.

118 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111I

4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Technorati Tags: Michael A. Wells,Kansas City Public Library,Poetry Reading

Still Writing

Yes, I've been silent a couple of days, but don't think that I'm not still going on the poem-a-day challenge!  I was sifting through some of them this evening and I can say there are four or five that could have some potential. Yes, there are some really bad ones, but truth is you've got to be willing to put a lot of bad ink on a page to get there.

In poetry news elsewhere, I was delighted to see W S Merwin win a Pulitzer for his book The Shadow of Sirius. I cannot say that I believe the book warrants the prize as I have not read it. But I am very fond of Merwin's work and have nothing but praise for Migration for which he won a National Book Award. I am anxious to read his new one.  You can find an interview for NPR by Terry Gross of Merwin here. Also, Ruth Stone was a runner up this year. I must remember to read some of her work, I haven't read her for a while.

Oh, and three cheers for Sandra Beasley  - 2009 BARNARD WOMEN POETS PRIZE AWARDED TO SANDRA BEASLEY

 

Technorati Tags: W S Merwin,The Shadow Of Sirius,Ruth Stone,Sandra Beasley,Poem-a-day Challenge

 

Food for thought

If poetry should address itself to the same needs and aspirations, the same hopes and fears, to which the Bible addresses itself, it might rival it in distribution.  ~Wallace Stevens

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The Poetics of Space Opens at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

 

KANSAS CITY, MO.- The exhibition The Poetics of Space is on view April 10, 2009–March 14, 2010, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Through photographs by William Christenberry, Lynn Davis, Walker Evans, Todd Hido, Anthony Lepore, and Mike Sinclair, among others, the exhibition reveals the mysterious and poetic worlds dwelling within domestic, urban, and natural spaces. The exhibition includes more than 20 photographs by 17 artists from the Kemper Museum’s permanent collection.

Artdaily.org - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

Technorati Tags: Kansas City Events,Art. Poetrics,Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art,Poetics of space

Poam-A-Day Challange day 17

All I want is a little Peace of Mind

I don't ask for much.
A late morning rainfall heard from my bed.
The mail man passing my house,
not a single bill delivered.
The sun setting gently, unshaken
and lifting a glass high in my honor.

No grimy hands pulling at my trouser leg,
no cold empty bottle of 2004 Sea Smoke Cellars
Chardonnay- languishing in the refrigerator.

A pristine moment alone
in my head, the visions of sugar plums silenced
by time out in the corner and the constant drumbeat
of a drummer, different from all others,
whose sticks mark time with untold stories and
misplaced swallows who for the first time
have not returned.



[yesterdays prompt was "all I want is (blank)"]

Poam-A-Day Challenge (day16)

Black

Black wants nothing more
than to challenge transparency-
to turn the lights out,
have dominion over the day.

Black lives for that hour when the curtain
draws back across the world stage
and will not weep for the fallen sun.

It's the onyx of stones,
the dark loam beneath
our feet, the grounds
in the bottom of our coffee

cup- and the hollow
gut wrench emptiness
that overcomes us
when all alone.

This too shall pass

                                          Today, for the second time this week, I received rejections on submissions.

I guess the positive side of this is I'm being rejected by better caliber journals.  Hey, you've got to look at the positive.

Back to the drawing board.

 

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Blogger Appreciation Day

Today is Blogger Appreciation Day. With that in mind I like first to express my sincere appreciation for those people who stop by Stickpoet from time to time and occasionally offer some comments. (Ok, I don't mean spammers, I've had a rash of them in the past ten days. Their posts are moderated and never see the light of day.)

Occasionally we do have some thought provoking exchanges here and other times I do my thing and people keep coming back. So thank you to all who visit this site and take the time to read.

There is another whole group of people out there for whom I am also appreciative. These would be the bloggers who write the blogs I go to on a regular basis. There are many that I read, but among the most regular are the following that I'd like to acknowledge:

• Joannie Stangeland at Poe Query
• Ivy Alvarez at Ivy is here
• Kelli Russell Agodon at The Book of Kells
• Sandra Beasley at Chicks Dig Poetry
• Christine Hamm at This is All Your Fault
• Mary Biddinger at The word cage

These are just a few that I follow, but they are pretty regular in posting and each offers something I especially like.

Joannie for instance is very eclectic. Her posts range from poems to pictures of various culinary endeavors she undertakes and I have especially found her how-to videos worthwhile. They generally are of technical nature related to computers and writing.

Ivy is like inspirational. I mean her dedication to her craft and how she goes about it is an excellent example for the rest of us.

Kelli is funny, I love Tuesday at the Confessional. She will from time to time post some of her work, but I especially have enjoyed her insight over the several years that I have followed her blog.

Sandra often features information about other poets and their book releases and occasionally provides an interesting commentary on a poetry related topic.

Christine is like dark and edgy. Ok, I mean her poetry not exactly her. This is a good thing- I mean it is writing I appreciate and enjoy. There is often a dark humor about it as well. Most of her posts are things she is working on, written but some interesting art as well.

Mary will pose exceptionally thoughtful questions or insights and always seems to generate a lot of feed back from her readers in the comments. Mary truly have succeeded in creating dialogue with her blog.

There, a little bit about why I enjoy each of these blogs and appreciate the work they do to post on a regular basis, fresh ideas or work. Thanks to all of you!

Technorati Tags: blogger appreciation day,Mary Biddinger,Christine Hamm,Joannie Stangeland,Sandra Beasley,Ivy Alvarez,Keli Russell Agodon

And the Good News is....

I can imagine that many people participating in NaPaWriMO / Poem-a-day challenge or whatever you want to call it will agree with me this is a taxing proposition. (Oh! there is that nasty “T” word on tax day) Don’t think that many would disagree with me that this is not exactly the best way to create quality poems, but that also doesn’t mean that can’t happen.

With all the financial ills, unemployment, pirates, nukes, war, drugs, etc. (I’m sure I’m missing someone’s favorite malady) it’s nice to hear something upbeat; that someone did good.

So for all those suffering poets out there a bit of joyous news for one poet and an inspiration for the rest of us to keep plugging along on the last half of the poem-a-day challenge. Congratulations are in order for Christine Klocek-Lim, who has won the Annual Ellen La Forge Poetry Prize for her 2008 entry of six astrology poems (get this next part) written from last year’s NaPoWriMo. The added bonus is that money actually comes along with the award, which of course defies any logic since the product involved was poetry.

Three cheers for Christine… everyone keep writing!

Enjoy!

Post Secret

40 %

So I've just finished posting today's poem on Poetry Asides written from the prompt for the day: So We Decided To (blank).  This is the earliest that I've finished one in a number of days. With today's poem, we are now 40% through the month of poems challenge. Even doing a basic draft a day is no piece of cake. It takes a lot out of you.

With my poem finished, and the Giants baseball game is already over for the day, I will retire to some reading in a few minutes.

Hope all of you had a joyous weekend. If you celebrate Easter, then a Happy Easter to you, if not, I bid you best wishes the same.

Technorati Tags: Poem-A-Day Challenge

Celebrating Poetry Month - Westport Branch Library - April 22 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.

The WESTPORT BRANCH of the KANSAS CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY will host a reading by a number of  local poets on April 22 between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. and the public is invited. I have agreed to read at the event. 

The library is located at 118 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111

For more information you may call the Westport branch at 816.701.3488.

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Poetry Reading,Westport Branch of the Kansas City Public Library

Kermit was honored!

The past few mornings the cable news shows have been buzzing with talk about the President giving commencement speeches at Notre Dame, and ASU.  The controversy over Notre Dame of course comes from the viewpoint expressed by some Catholics that Obama should not be invited to speak at a Catholic institution of higher learning because they believe his public policy on abortion is contrary to that of the Church's teachings.  Of course so was President Bush's public policy on the Death Penalty and Pope John Paul had adamantly opposed the war in Iraq as well, but that didn't keep President Bush from being invited.

The ASU controversy is a little different and actually quite amusing if you consider the past history of the University. Notre Dame is conferring an  honorary degree upon President Obama. Not an unusual exercise for a prominent speaker a University commencement.  But ASA earlier in the week said their would be no honorary degree for the President.  Sharon Keeler, a spokesperson for the University put it this way, "Because President Obama’s body of work is yet to come, it’s inappropriate to recognize him at this time." Following this news the chatter and editorial writers have taken on the ASU's position.

The East Valley Tribune from the Phoenix, Arizona area calls the oversight "an odd gap that besmirches the image of an excellent institution." And MSNBC's Contessa Brewer pointed out that in 1986, Kermit the Frog received an honorary degree from Long Island Southampton College and further expressed her disapproval of ASU's decision.

A list here provides some interesting names of past recipients from ASU. They include Barry Goldwater in 1961, three years before he received the Republican nomination for president and only eight years into his U.S. Senate career. There is George Romney in in 1962. He of course lost the GOP nomination for President.  Sandra Day O'Connor (first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court) in 1984, just three years into her 25 years on the Court. Rita Dove in 1995 - A Poet  U.S. Laureate.

Anyway, I'm thinking we haven't heard the last of this.

Technorati Tags: President Obama,ASU,Notre Dame,Sharon Keelor,honorary degrees

Bonus / not today's writing prompt

Your Back

I never saw your back so much.
The way it turned on me. The way
it's constantly growing smaller.

It's not something I thought about.
The way it's cold and impersonal.
Not at all like your smile.

I do remember your smile
but it's fading from my mind.
Smaller is good.

Poem-A-Day Challenge - day 10

POOF! The draft removed by me work work on for future submission.

* the prompt for this poem was to writ something about a Friday.

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Poem-A-Day Challenge - day 9

Poof! This draft removed by me to work on for future submissions

*the prompt was to write something dealing with memory or memories.

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Poem a day Challenge - day 8

Routine

If I didn't do it everyday,

a pile of work got in the way

and played up differences

enough to sway the karma

an altogether different direction-

and people stop to flirt with me

or promise me more, or disagree

and take my shine all away

stalling progress for the day.

If summer rain would run and hide

and leave me all alone to cry

so the parched earth would soak

it up, how the world would that all look?

And I'd be stalled in all I do

to finally make it up to you.

The things we've missed

and things all broken

what's left, just a token.

Technorati Tags: Poem-A-Day Challenge

Sun Bleached Bones / Day 7

The prompt for today was write about something that had to day with clean.

Sun Bleached Bones

 

Sun bleached the bones

already picked bare

by wind and water current.

Not distinguishable other than

some small vertebrae

perhaps a cat, a small dog

or something less domesticated

that inhabited the woods

next to the Missouri River bank.

 

Rib cage and spine largely intact.

The spine snaked into a tail.

The skull was not as evident

some of it washed away

the remainder embedded in the

rock and mud finger

that protruded

from the bank.

 

I shot a photo of the remains

as we found them. I would

occasionally go back

to the photo to peek

but was turn away quickly

from their clean white image.

 

Technorati Tags: Poem-A -Day Challenge

Off to Bed...

Quarter of 11 and I'm just now getting my poem for day six posted over on Poetry Asides. 

I'm excited that the baseball season is under way, I'm going to catch up on scores from some games today and then head to bed. My Giants play tomorrow opening at home against the Brewers in an afternoon game. Go Giants!

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Day Five of Poem-A-Day Challenge Taking A Toll

It's not like I'm about to crack or anything, but when you are in a funk and writing bad stuff it's a downer. Through several efforts today I concluded with another piece that I am unhappy with. The problem is they were not getting much better as the day went along.

I could of course claim this all sucks and chuck it.  That would be one way of dealing with it. But anytime one's writing turns south, as hard as it is, the best thing one can do is write through it. Walking away from it is usually not a formulary for success. So after day five, I have four that washes and one that could grow into something. I suppose I should not complain-  just keep writing.

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

Poem-a-day Challenge marches on - day four

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

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

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

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

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

Poetry Challenge - day 3

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

The Problem with Poetry

It wants to be.
Just be—

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

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

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

Do not argue with poetry.
Not out loud.

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

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

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

 

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

POETRY MONTH - DAY 2

Just about a half hour ago I completed my day two poem based upon a prompt of outsider.  And now that I'm done, I'm thinking about all the "outsiders" that are not getting anything out of national poetry month.

Of course, we poets and poetry enthusiasts may well be in the minority. I suppose who constitutes an outsider here is open to debate, but I really think that it has more to do with groups drawn by a common likeness. There is probably more likeness among those who cling to the love of poetry than those who don't.  Among those who don't there may be a wide range in the level of disinterest. For example those with little or no exposure to poetry may comprise a portion of the whole. Then those who were exposed to it and had a strong distaste for it. Then more casually disinterested people and so on.

It seems each year I ask myself what is the big deal that sends some people running from poetry?  I am again processing that question in my mind tonight. 

Technorati Tags: National Poetry Month,poetry challenge

We've Only Just Begun

Yes, I've got poetry. I successfully met my day one challenge. A poem off a prompt about the origin of something.

I must confess, it rhymed. I believe my penitence will be be 2 Our Fathers and 5 Hail Marys. Oh yeah, and go forth and rhyme no more.

For a bit of a treat, here Stephen Dunn reads Talk to God from his book, What Goes On—Selected and New Poems 1995-2009.  Check it out.

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

National Poetry Month

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

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

Risk

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.  ~T.S. Eliot

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Eskimo Pie

I want an Eskimo Pie.

I want it cold

and hard as marble.

 

I want to peel the chocolate layer off

in two                 halves.

 

First eat the vanilla inside.

Hold the chocolate clothing;

admire its sheen.

Afterwards consume it-

 

until we are one

and the rush of dopamine flashes

inside my arcade head

sending me round and round

in a ball of worked up heat

wanting more and more.

 

Technorati Tags: poem draft

Zealous and vibrant...

Thursday night I was fortunate enough to be in the audience at a Kansas City reading by Aimee Neshukumatathil.  Aimee read from her book Miracle Fruit, her latest book titled At the Drive-In Volcano and from a newer, yet to be published manuscript.

Aimee's writer voice is not the particularly powerful voice that I usually am drawn to. Nor did she quite seem to meet the template for an academic poet. She is perhaps more in the style of Naomi Nye… a gentle voice, a voice of knowledge, a voice that is zealous and vibrant, a layered mingling of her pedigree and contemporary American culture. Among my favorites from the reading, Corpse Flower, Swear Words, and Fishbone.

She’s a very relaxed reader who commands the audience attention with a balance of humor and casual storytelling in addition to her poetry. Her tone of voice when reading is a pleasant and reassuring one.

I enjoyed reading through Miracle Fruit last night and today. Her poetry is tight and neat and relies upon a wide range of knowledge of the plant and animal kingdom as well as ethnic and cultural insight.

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On a sad note...

As news of this has trickled out to the mainstream media slowly, I'm sure some of  have perhaps heard that Nicholas Hughes died on the 16th of this month at his own hands. Nicholas was of course the second of two children born to Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

He was in 46 and made his home in Fairbanks Alaska when he was a prominent fish biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Not surprisingly he inherited his fathers fondness for fishing and nature.

His passing might have only made the local papers, but the the word of his suicide made the news around the U.S. and across the Atlantic in Europe as well.  He was after all the son of Sylvia and Ted.  There is so much tragedy associated with the family already and this will only rekindle the debates about his mothers death.

Nicholas was less in the limelight than his sister Frieda who like her mother wrote poetry and and painted as a serious artist herself. In a statement by Frieda released as she departed for Fairbanks she noted that her brother had been battling depression for some time.

Already I've seen stories that have popped up talking about a "suicide gene." There is statistically a high percentage of suicides among individuals who have lost a family member to suicide, but so far not real scientific evidence that links the act directly to genetics. It is true that the conditions, both environmental and by some predisposition to depression may increase the tendency but that linkage is more indirect.

Technorati Tags: Nicholas Hughes,Ted Hughes,Frieda Hughes,Sylvia Plath

heartwarming story

I want to make note of a video my daughter Meghan passed along to me and some of you may well have seen it, but for those who haven't it's an uplifting story, the kind that toughs at the  heart.

 

Technorati Tags: Christian the Lion Reunion

collaborative poetry

I've not really had any experience with collaborative poetry in the context of shared writing. I always consider poetry to generally be a collaborative between the poet and the reader, but that's another whole matter.

I suppose it requires a special temperament for two artists, both poets, to work together to produce something that is a joint creation.  C.D. Wright in a symposium I attended earlier this month, spoke of collaborating with photographers on work. That seems to me to be a particularly beneficial arrangement given the tenets under which both art forms develop.

Mutating the Signature (great name by the way) is a relatively new blog of two poets who have been actually collaborating for a while now. The poets Dana Guthrie Martin and Nathan Moore have certainly put an interesting light upon such work.

Nathan for example has explained a part of the benefit of this shared creative process this way,'"Collaborative poetry offers a respite from the struggles of solitary work. My poor, overworked ego is given a break as process and product are shared, voices are melded. It’s a fantastic feeling to be partner to the creation of a voice that’s greater than your own.'" I think any of us who've written for a while are certainly aware just how solitary the work can become.

Dana seems to derive an energy from seeing the twists and turns that can develop when two are working to meld their voices. She is quoted on their site as explaining it like this... '"The surprise of the poems we’ve written. Oh, the unforeseen turns the writing takes. Going in and not knowing where you’ll come out, or when or how. The way we each respond to the words and phrases the other person contributes. How a piece that in one moment seems like it’s headed nowhere fast can, in a word or two, find its way somewhere startling, strange and gorgeous.'"

As I've stated, I've not really worked except in the simplest terms, like at a workshop of people joining to create a poem, and that was more for fun and hardly a serious collaborative venture.  I'm curious about the experiences of others, be they positive or negative. Any takers is this discussion? What's it like and perhaps you can share a bit about any rules or secrets of making it work that you'd like to share? 

Technorati Tags: Collaborative poetry,writing,Dana Guthrie Martin,Nathan Moore,Mutating the Signature

What clicks with me about Springtime

I made a Quick Trip run this morning for a diet coke.  I noticed all over the walk and even on top of the car all these little fragments that fall off the tree when the new growth begins each spring. On the lawn too I could see new blades of grass rising up from the ground and giving a shout out in praise of spring.

For those who live in areas that do not experience the changes in season I believe you miss something monumental. If there were not a demarcation between winter and spring, between fall and winter, even the changes that are perhaps more subtle between spring and summer I feel my year would seem endlessly depressing.

Spring is such a period of rejuvenation to me. A rebirth, a second chance, a new beginning. I apologize to those who do not appreciate the sports metaphor but it's like opening day in baseball. Everything seems fresh and it makes no difference where your team finished last, everything is  stars over.

Technorati Tags: springtime,seasons

Journal Bits & More

March 12 - [noted part of a line from a Boston Legal episode that I have a feeling will find its way into a poem at some later date] "its always orange for breakfast and apple for lunch"

March 12 - comfort is is an approximation/which has not arrived

March 13 - you have weathered the streets/know the names of its inhabitants/and carry a Godlike name

March 13 - The word is/side effects/are rare/and musical/most of the time /hardly irritable

March 16 - It's uncomfortably warm in the house tonight. For the longest time I was here alone tonight and the house felt closed in....

March 18 - From across the hall comes an airborne thought/I shall pocket it in hopes of making it my own

March 19- Two tea bags/bold is not exactly/a distinguishing landmark

On another note, I have a blog to recommend. Brian Brodeur's How a Poem Happens is an engrossing look into the creative process various poets subscribed to in the creation of specific poems. The most recent being Sandra Beasley author of Theories of Falling. Other poets featured Dorianne Laux, Stephen Dunn, Daisy Fried, and Dan Albergotti to name a few.  If you haven't been there, check it out!

I'm on a roll, sent out two batches of poems this past week to venues that I've not submitted to before. Fingers crossed!

Technorati Tags: journal bits,poetry,How a poem Happens,Sandra Beasley,Dan Albergotti,Stephen Dunn,Daisy Fried,Dorianne Laux Brian Brodeur

Aimee Nezhukumatathil in KC

 I'm excitedly awaiting the KC visit of Aimee who will read from her book At the Drive-In Volcano.  She's part of a ethnic poetry series that earlier brought Victoria Chang to KC.  These are two poets that I've followed via the Internet (good Lord, sounds like I'm a stalker) for a while now so getting to see them both read in person is a treat.

Park University and the Missouri Arts Council have made this series possible so they deserve some credit for promoting these poets here locally.

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The liberation of words...

Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition.  ~ Eli Khamaroy

Someone asked me if this was a good thing.... liberating words from rigid definition. What do you think? Any words out there you think need to be liberated?

 

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Beware the Ides of March

I feel there is a poem here. Oh, I forgot Shakespeare already did.

May your day safe and joyous!

No Clowning Around

So Saturday has arrived. Big sigh. Even though is was a short work week for me it seemed long.

Since I've been back, I've received a rejection letter. I've completed a journal and started yet another. I'm filling them up at a rate of about 1 every three months. I've received my copy of Mortal from Ivy, which I have enjoyed and will have more to say about in a later blog post. And this morning I've been sending out more work.

I'm trying to decide if I want to the the Annual Poetry Month broad side I've done for the past two years. I've got a couple poems in mind and I've had positive response from people the past two years, but these are different economic conditions and I'm awaiting a price figure from a different printer. If I'm going to do it, I really need to decide in the next 48 hours.

The picture above is to top of a beaded vase my wife did with a bouquet of clown noses in it. It was pretty cute.Below is another view if the lower part of the vase.

  It's not the sharpest picture (from camera phone with poor lighting) but you get the idea. Just thinking of the concept was creatively genius much less the execution of the idea itself. I'm not sure how she can do these things with no pattern to guide her.

Anyway, I'll tie this into my post today by saying that this year there will be no clowning around. I submissions last year were down from the previous year. I'm writing more, I just need to work harder on rewriting material and keep sending the stuff out that is publishable but has come back. Some of it just needs to find the right home.

Technorati Tags: C.J. Wells bead art,life as a poet,Mortal by Ivy Alvarez,Poetry Month

File Management for Writing

This is a great resource for creating a file management system for your working drafts. Not only is it an excellent organizational tool, but a way to simplify working on rewrites and keeping track of drafts.

Joannie Stangeland takes us through the process in this short video. All you need is Microsoft OneNote.

I had toyed with it a little before viewing this video. Now I have an even better appreciation for what it can do. Click here to view video.

Technorati Tags: Joannie Stangeland ,OneNotes,managing your writing,writing poetry

Sunday Evening - catching up on the week

Mood: exhausted

It's been a quiet evening and we stayed in, ate fried ravioli and played baseball on Playstation. Three games. I took the first two and Meghan beat me the last one. She played a really good first game and I came back in the bottom of the ninth to beat her by a run. The second came was a blowout and the third she won by a single run. I'm a tough competitor so while I won two of the three, she is getting better because two of those games were really competitive.

Things I have marveled at during this visit:

• Cathy Ann's grapefruit tree in her backyard. The fruit is awesomely sweet.
• Percy's size. (Percy is Meghan's dog) He's really grown since I last saw him.
• A life size Zen Garden on ASU campus. I didn't know there were anything but miniatures.
• How young many of the Giants players at Spring Training look this season.
• How nice the dog parks are here.
• How much I continue to hate daylight savings time in spite of the fact they don't have it here. In reality I lose that hour when I get back home just the same.
• People still drive like bats out of hell here.

We'll take in another Giants game tomorrow at Scottsdale. Sadly it will be the last time I see the team in person for a while.

Also planning to go to the Melting Pot after the game for dinner.

I've been able to get some writing in this week, and this morning did some sketching.

Some Journal bits from this week:

March 1

• What color ink do I spill upon/the pages that tell nothing/that scream the silence/to no end
• It's impossible to fold idle chat./I've tried to four square it and shove it/in my shirt pocket.

March 2

• sleep, the manna of horizontal incline/the presence of an absence of mind

March 5

• Quote "Every poetic image asks why there is something rather than nothing, as it renews our astonishment that things exist," - Charles Simic
• (thought) every war has veterans what about veterans of peace? We never give attention to those who dedicate themselves to the idea of peace becoming a reality. Note to self - this could be a future poem topic.
• a Kleenex box on the end table/extends it's hand

March 8

• Quote "It's the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silence around things." ~Mallarme

Technorati Tags: Vacation,journal bits,Things I have marveled at

From my journal tonight...

My pillow is a bed for tender thoughts. Speaking of which, it's way past my bed time.

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Theory ( draft)

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Theory

He’s a maniacal man of means

with no notion for nurturing.

Neither can he be summed up so easily

as to say that he fits into any fast track

prefabrication that is so often assigned

to many of his peers.

He cheers for one person

only, it is not clear who that person is.

There are factions that spend their spare time

in hasty debate over whom.

One theory is a brother

no one can recall ever meeting.

Some point to a woman of mystery

who has been woven in and out of his life

at various points.

There are good arguments made for each

in their own time. I however hold on

to my own theory—

He is his own best cheerleader.

Writer House on ASU Campus

 Spent some time yesterday at the Virginia Piper Writer House on the ASU Campus. What a tranquil setting.

The evening we were back on campus for the ASU / Holy Cross baseball game.   

ASU struck first with a run in the third and broke it open in the 5th with 4 more runs to make it 5-0.

ASU pitcher Mike Leach pitched 7 innings giving up only one hit and no runs. Brule Klye came in to relieve him in the 8th and gave up two hits but no runs and the ASU offense rolled on to a 15-0 win.

Besides the pitching, outstanding performances were turned in at 2B by Zack MacPhee who shined with his glove and Jordan Swagerty who homered in the 8th.

Today, Meghan and I catch the San Francisco Giants against the Angels in Tempe. Go Giants!

Technorati Tags: vacation,ASU,Writer House,Devil Rays Baseball,San Francisco Giants

 

 

I crashed and burned

After an uneventful flight last night (the best kind) I arrived in Phoenix and was met by my daughter Meghan, with dog in tow. Said dog has grown into a Moose since I last saw him.

We stopped at Jack-In-The-Box on the way in and had tacos. A treat since I love their tacos and only am able to get them when out here or St. Louis or in the Bay area.

This morning I was on ASU campus in the library working for a while. we came home for lunch and it was like I hit a brick wall. The only things I can attribute it to are the fact that I worked my ass off the past week to 10 days in the office, and just crashed from that this morning, and or, lack of diet coke. Probably both.

On campus there were two things amusing to me, (remember it takes little to amuse me) the home made chalk sign on the sidewalk with arrow point the way to the Vagina Monologues  and the other was where my daughter took to this place encircled by some administrative offices were there was this "secret garden". Back tracing our steps to the entrance, someone had painted on the sidewalk, Secret Garden but then had painted arrows pointing away from it. Hum, maybe the directions for the Vagina Monologues were wrong also.

Anyway, I scrapped plans to go back to the library to work this afternoon and crashed on the oh so comfortable bed. I'm up and feeling better now, but I still need that diet coke!

Technorati Tags: Vacation,ASU

 

Waiting game

 On the ground at KCI - not long till take off. The day has been a busy one in spite of being away from the office. 

I'm told our flight is maybe a third empty for seating options should be many.

I saw on the screen here that it's like 83 in Phoenix this afternoon, It's in the 40's here.

Received a text message from Meghan asking of Jack-In-The- Box was ok for dinner. I love their monster tacos and we haven't had any location in the KC area for man years now. They have one or two in St Louis, so I always make a pit stop there as well as when I'm in San Francisco where they are prolific. At least last time I was there.

We'll likely be boarding soon so I'm out of here for now...

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Leaving on a Jet Plane

The last minute collection of the various necessitates for my trip are underway and then I'm off.  Excited about seeing my two daughters, taking in the Giants Spring Training, watching the ASU Sun Devils play baseball, etc.

And writing. I do expect to get some writing done. I don't mean just blogging, though this blog will not be silent while I'm gone. Perhaps it will be even more active then it has been the past couple of weeks.  I actually been busy and not posting as much as I would normally do.

It's getting close to noon and I need to go through my final list of TTD.

Technorati Tags: Vacation

Fresh Cut Grass and Poetry

I'm convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile. ~Tom Clark

Spring Training games started on Wednesday and my beloved San Francisco Giants won their first game 10-7. I can smell the poetry and the fresh cut grass now.

Next week I head to Arizona to visit tow of my daughters and take in some Giants Spring Training games. I'm excited even if I am anxious about being away from the office for a week. It is rare that I take this much time off. Okay, more like extremely rare.

Besides Giants baseball, we'll catch an ASU baseball game. In spite of all this baseball excitement, I am equally excited about seeing my kids (who aren't really kids anymore) and I'll likely let that excitement spill over into my blogging while I'm gone. I guess you can all consider that fair warning.

Just a thought...

To live is so startling

it leaves little time for

anything else.  ~Emily Dickinson

 

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Who Knows the Great Poets of Today?

David Orr writing in the Feb 22 N.Y. Times piece titled "The Great(ness) Game" asks what we do when John Ashbery and his generation are gone?

The assumption made in the article is that there are no great poets living, outside of that generation and I don't know myself if there are or there aren't. This is precisely because I'm not privy to what constitutes greatness in a poet. Orr himself acknowledges the illusiveness of such a definitive yardstick. What is a great ice cream flavor? We all have opinions but can I sell Black Walnut to the public at large a the great ice cream Flavor?

We can look at an Emily Dickinson and perhaps agree on a designation of greatness, but how long did it take for that to become common knowledge. She was dead before it was ever widely accepted, and by quite a few years I believe. So really, we could have great poets among us and not yet be aware of the fact.

Orr asks if great poets are one and the same as "major" poets? What do you think on that point? I'm inclined to think you have to be a major poet to be a great one, but the reverse. Still that isn't releasing the secret ingredient in the recipe.

Digging deeper still, Orr looks at a 1983 essay by Donald Hall in which Hall said it seemed to him that contemporary American poetry was afflicted by modesty of ambition. Going further, the test according to Hall is to write words that live on. To aspire to be as good as Dante.

Donald Hall is among the living poets whose work I respect and with whom I connect with more often then not. Is he a great poet? I don't think all his work would meet the Dante test. So can a poet be great if hits that high mark on occasion or must he have to be consistent? Was Dante himself consistent?

Then I'm hung up on the lament that there isn't enough ambition going on. Are we really wanting hungry ambition from our poets. I know the monetary climate for poets certainly supports the hungry aspect, but ambition is such a sleazy word when it snuggles up next to an art. Maybe dedicated, focused, serious. Perhaps we are really splitting hairs.

David Orr's article is a critical look; not quite so much at the state of contemporary poetry as it is what we internally expect from poetry. What we are willing to settle for. No art is static an neither are its consumers.

Technorati Tags: great poets,Donald Hall,John Ashbery,Emily Dickinson,David Orr

Subliminal Mutterings - week 316

Subliminal Mutterings

[I've missed several weeks of this, sigh.  So spank me!]

You say.... I think:

Be mine :: valentine

Ecstatic :: hoppingly happy

Orderly :: quiet

Sebastian :: butler

Sore :: ouie

Don’t need :: unnecessary

Rockstar :: Springsteen

Tinfoil :: hat

Addiction :: habit

Where? :: there

 

Technorati Tags: subliminal mutterings,words

Journal bits for the past week

a few random items from my journal this week...

Feb 14 - At times like this Alice will sit at a small table/pouring Earl Grey as we sip from miniatures/and talk about what, I never recall.

Feb 15th -In talking with Meghan yesterday I can tell she is getting excited about my upcoming visit.

Feb 16 - Yesterdays rewrite of An American Whim  came after receiving critical comments (that I sought) from PB and AD. AD gave me the most critical (technical) view while PB spoke to things she liked about it. 

Books are scissor stacked/in piles, on end tables,/desktop, the thick of carpet/on the floor next to the easy chair

Feb 17- Where has this month gone to? Already a shortened month it appears to work against the benchmarks I've arbitrarily set...

Feb 18 - MR emails me, "you of all people have new stuff and old stuff." Feel like I've been busted.

The pretext for the afternoon / was as one sided as the face /of Mount Rushmore but not near/as stark....

It was not with the exchange/of currency or anything so mercantile/

Feb 19 - was so totally whipped out from work today...

Technorati Tags: journal bits,writing,life as a poet

 

Blue Moon Over Kansas City

A poet friend the other day was giving me feedback on one of my poetry drafts and in response to something I had written said, "You should read Wallace Stevens if you haven't lately. The crazy things that guy does with repetition and refrains." So, I went looking for a Wallace Stevens poem and read The Emperor of Ice-Cream which I found enjoyable. I then moved away from the poem and began to type. Keep in mind I often begin drafts in longhand. There were just two words that came to my mind and they were, "The pretext" and nothing more. Where they came from I couldn't say, but after typing them from the keyboard with just a momentary pause I began to type again and in relatively short order, maybe 20 minutes at the most I had a draft that I stopped working on. After moving away from the draft for some time, I went back and quite frankly felt that I could do nothing more to it. Not by addition or subtraction other than a change of title.

The number of times I've written something on the spot like this and could not improve on it are like never.  There is one occasion in which I came close to this, but still made some editing changes. It's not an occurrence that one has happen very often, if ever.

I may well wake in the morning and find room for improvement, but I don't expect it will likely change much. That's how good I feel about it. Better than some pieces I've worked on over a span of more than a year. It's moments like this that makes all the other eternal rewrites seem worth enduring through.

Thanks Amy for the advise. How the Emperor of Ice-Cream led me to the pretext and all that followed to write what I now call The Face of Mount Rushmore, I'll never figure out. They are nothing alike, but I'm sure that one lead to the other.

Technorati Tags: poetry,Wallace Stevens,The Emperor of Ice Cream,A poet's life,writing

I've Been Bad

Instead of writing tonight I watched three rerun episodes of Boston Legal. Does that make me a bad poet? I'm being rhetorical here, a response is not required.

Technorati Tags: a poet's life

Annie Finch's workshop on love poetry

Annie Finch has authored four books of poetry, Eve, Calendars, The Encyclopedia of Scotland, and the forthcoming Among the Goddesses. She is a Professor of English at the University of Southern Maine and Director of the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing.

Click here for her workshop on love poetry

Technorati Tags: Annie Finch,workshop,love poetry