The Rush of Music

Wet fingers
curl under
pounding on the keys
of sticks and leaves-

the medley flows on
and on downstream
settling at last
in the depth of silence.

Quake Poetry

Many Chinese families have left remaining housing in recent days for fear of anticipated aftershock from the big quake that hit a week ago. They have pitched tents and bedded down for the nights away from structures in the event of more seismic activity. Still, another aftershock of the quake has been the influence upon poetry. Poets are finding ways to reflect upon what has happened in their writing. One such example was featured on NPR. Here you can see and hear 'Elegy' by He Xiaozhu. Even listening to He Xiaozhu in his native language without understanding the words, there is powerful poetry in the inflection and sounds.

The Poet Is In

Saturday, besides reading from the poetry stage at the Literary Festival, I helped staff the booth for our local chapter of the Missouri State Poetry Society. At one point, some ladies were passing by and a gentleman in the booth along side me said aloud, “Ask a poet, we have real poets here, ask anything you want to know of a poet.”

Now there are many ways I can go with this, but most of them are not good. There is for example, the notion that no one cares for the opinion of a poet on anything, much less his or her trade/avocation (the latter since we are getting real here). I was amused (the heat could have been a factor) and watched the ladies flow by.

It also occurs to me that it is not a good idea for lawyers, politicians and yes poets to solicit questions that could result in being unprepared for the consequences. I have for example, had individuals ask when certain events occurred in my life based on the presumption a given poem was autobiographical because it was written in first person and they assume poets all are narcissistic and think/write about nothing but ourselves. Of course that notion is silly. At least that is my story and I’m sticking by it.

In my mind I imagined this looking something like the Peanuts Psychiatric Booth with the sign, The Doctor Is In. Imagine my surprise when these ladies circled around, came back and stopped at the both. They picked up one of my poetry month broadsides, read it, and chatted among themselves. A few moments later, one offered that a certain member of their family had been interested in writing poetry and wondered if I could recommend any particular book that might be beneficial to someone getting started. Surprised at a reasonable question, and one that I could actually answer, I offered The Poet’s Companion by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux. The ladies seem grateful and of course I was relieved.

Pausing the pain

A short post before I call it a night. I've taken a few pain killers so I have the option of holding my head up with relatively little pain for the moment or as I plan shortly I will be able lay with my head on a pillow with less discomfort. It's just over the counter stuff, none of the rally good stuff. I won't last long till it wears off. But then, hopefully I'll be asleep.

I've decided tonight that I need to clean up my list on the sidebar of blogs I read. Some are no longer being updates and I need to remove them from the list. Additionally, there are a few I need to add. Hopefully I can get to this before the week is out. I do really hate it when there is a very well done blog that challenges you as you read it and you get into it and then one day it stops and is not updated for months on end. I always hope that the blogger is simply taking a break and will be back, but you never know unless they post their intentions.

I had not looked at my web page stats in a while but I did this afternoon and noticed that there were quite a few hits the past two days on the site. I am guessing that since most of these were local that it may have been the result of my reading at the Literary Festival yesterday as well as my broadsides that I gave out to many visitors.

Besides meeting a lot of new people, it was nice to see many people from the local art community that I know from various places. The Festival seems to be well grounded in these first two years, and likely to become a very permanent feature in Kansas City.

Read at the Literary Festival yesterday

The weather is beautiful... my wife and I had lunch out on the deck earlier. Saw a gorgeous Cardinal in the yard.

Doing much better except for the continual pain in my head behind the ear. It's relentless and I am so physically tired from it.

Yesterday, I read from the poets stage at the 2nd Annual Literary Festival here on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City. Normally I have no problem with public readings. I've had a lot of anxiety with this one due to the Bell's Palsy, but in the end, all went well.

Around the poetry world...

• I saw Jilly Dybka's book "Trouble And Honey" is out and you can go here to get your own copy.
• If you are as taken by quotes from poets as I am, check out this little gem...

That's it for now... Have some writing to do.

Major Improvement

In the last 48 hours there has been remarkable improvement in the paralyses in my face from the Bell's Palsy. I would estimate that there is perhaps an 80% recovery in the facial features so far. This is really good news to me and while I still have some pain in my dead behind the ear on the affected side, my spirits are much improved.

I'm feeling much better about reading in public on Saturday.

STOP THE PRESSES!

STOP THE PRESSES! McCain: U.S. can win Iraq war within 4 years

• And he assumes we believe this?
• And he assumes we are willing to drain another $500- 600 billion (of unbudgeted $) there?
• And he assumes we all feel safer because of this?
• And he assumes we have the military personnel to maintain that kind of presence?
• And are willing to lose another two to five Americas every day X 1460 days?

GREAT - FOUR MORE YEARS OF A MORON IN THE WHITE HOUSE!

DNA POETRY

I finally felt like I turned a corner yesterday with the stagnate writing. Turned out a draft that has some promise. This of course is helpful to my overall mood. Things otherwise are about the same.


There is something weird that must go on in Edinburgh because it seems to have quite a connection to poetry. I am always seeing it in the news in one way or the other with poetry. The latest is Gillian Ferguson. Gillian who had already authored two poetry books, received a Creative Scotland Award to fund her research into the subject of genetic science and shape her findings into poetry. Her fascination with the subject seems hardly containable. In a Sunday Times Online piece I found the following discourse to support this... “We have 99% genetic similarity with mice, which is fantastical,” she says. “Worms have the same muscle propulsion genes. We could make a tail if the gene wasn't switched off, or wings. Even people, there's a 0.01% difference in the genome of every person on earth.”

The results of her marriage of creative & scientific efforts can be found here: The Human Genome: Poems on the Book of Life

I will write today and I will be happy for it...

The wind was wickedly gusty when we left the house this morning to drive to Bob Evans for breakfast. A continuation of the overnight angry storm. It has quited a bit now to a plesant breese that moves the tree branches in little flutters and not the swaying prwer struggle between tree and the raw power of nature.

This weekend has been somewhat depressing in that I'm starting the second week with little change in the facial paralysis. I know it can take weeks and sometimes up to three months for the return to normal, it just gets difficult to put that into perspective when you get up each day and see no chsnge. It sort of challenges your ability to believe normal will ever look like it once did.

Working on some new poetry today. I'm planning to write a hour without distraction. I'll see after that.

The sound of the mandolin is a very curious sound because it's cheerful and
melancholy at the same time, and I think it comes from that shadow string, the
double strings. ~Rita Dove

Though for the Day

If language did not affect behavior, it could have no meaning. ~Kenneth L. Pike

Friday Midday - checking in

No posts for a few days now. I have to be honest, I've really felt drained of creativity at this point. I had a day off yesterday and I took our car to be detailed. Tried writing in the waiting area. Tried writing at home. I suppose the trying is worth something, but the results were uninspiring. I thought perhaps I just needed to focus on the visual and for a brief time last night I worked with charcoal on paper and wasn't happy there either.

Moving on, today is the birthday of Denise Low, poet laureate from neighboring Kansas. There was a nice interview on the local NPR station of Ms. Low this morning. Angela Elam with New Letters on the Air conducted it. You can Listen here.

That's about it for now... weekend can't get here too soon.

The power of reason

Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice,

because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.

~ Allan Bloom

Mr. Droopy's Update

I planned to go into the office today and go about business as close to normal as I could. I realized everyone who saw me would likely want to hear the story so I figured that would be a revolving door all day long unless I could just keep out of sight.

As luck would have it, my right eye had become painful... or I guess I should say more painful in the wee hours of the morning so work was scrapped and I went to the doctor's office today. The eye appears to have an infection, not surprising because I likely got something in it when it could not be closed. Anyway that's the assumption they are going on today. I have an antibiotic for it and tomorrow morning I will see an eyes specialist to make sure it's not scratched.

Talking with my younger daughter in Phoenix who has only seen a picture of me, she laughed at her older sister's comment about my mouth being crooked like Rachael Ray's. Meghan thinks I need to do some sample cooking videos and send around with the idea of landing my own cooking show. Cooking With Droopy.

Well, that's the latest. I can close my right eye now somewhat. The right side of my mouth hasn't changes- it sill droops from the paralysis. Actually I think my speech is slightly more slurred today, but I may be overacting.

Feeling a Little Droopy

Last night I was watching a movie with my wife, and my daughter and the latter asks what wrong with my mouth, I have that "Rachael Ray" look? She adds that by that, she was inferring that my mouth looked like it was crooked. I was tired and dismissed her comment thinking nothing more of it. This morning I got up and went to the computer room where my wife is at work and speak with her and all of a sudden my mouth feels different. I said nothing about it, but went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. As I moved my mouth, sure enough the movement was all on my left side, which is not a pretty sight when one speaks. Certain word sounds were not easily rolling from my mouth.

There was a moment where the word stroke entered my mind, but the rest of my right side appeared to function fine. No problems with my hand or feet. Then I realized that I could not fully close my right eye. As I related these things to my wife, she did a search on the Internet for Bells Palsy. Had my grandmother not been inflicted with it about 20 years ago, nether of us would have thought to consider it, but as we read, the symptoms were classics.

• comes on suddenly often after an illness epically viral
• often the victims are diabetics
• Causes drooping of one side of the mouth
• effects the eye on the dame side
• There is a partial loss of taste

My wife called our doctor and he recommended an emergency room visit just to rule out anything else but was relatively certain that is what it was. The conclusion after visiting the hospital was the same.

I have been under the weather for about 4 days. My sinuses have been bothering me but this was more than just that. Basically it is thought that somehow a nerve in the inflicted side of the face is impacted causing a paralysis to that side of the face.

I'm sure there are worse things that could have happened to be but this is frustrating and unnerving. It usually is not permanent. Paralysis can last for weeks to maybe three months. Usually there is full recovery, however there is a rare case where there may remain some residual paralysis or drooping in the face. Oh, it also affects my sinus drainage on the right side of my face and that along with the fact that my tear ducts in my right eye aren't working remain by two biggest physical annoyances. Eating seems a little more challenging and presently I am not really excited about being out in public. I am slated to do a poetry reading at a very public event middle of the month an that is weighing heavy on my mind.

Now I'm on steroids (I suppose I should use this time to my advantage on my video baseball game) and an anti-viral. Can this weekend get any more exciting? sigh

McCain one more way to Spell W

Wow, John McCain seems to have sold out his reputation of an independent maverick in favor of a clone of W. God, the thought of the George W. Bush legacy extended four more years.. what a downer.

Simic stepping aside as U.S. poet laureate

Charles Simic will be stepping aside as U.S. poet laureate at one term. He has asked not to be considered for a second term as he wishes to spend more time writing. Hard to argue with that.

I like Charles Simic as a poet and I believed his background made him a good choice for the post. An immigrant with a childhood that experienced war first hand. Simic had sensory talents that I suspect are enhanced by these experiences and has had a gift of ability with his writing that reach a level that many don't achieve.

As a poet laureate, I would have liked him to have been a little more out front. Perhaps this is not a part of his personality. Of course his departure means a search begins again for the next laureate. I have a list in my head of several men and women who I believe would be extraordinary candidates. I am hopeful that perhaps we will see a woman this next time.

Oh How True!

I was an accomplice in my own frustration. ~Peter Shaffer

**expletive deleted!**

I went in to work on Wednesday and left for the day at 10:00a.m. feeling sick. The days recuperation helped and I went back to work today. I managed to get through it but by the end of the day I was beat.

My Sinuses are driving me crazy tonight and I want to scream. It's hot ( checked the thermostat and it was on 79) ZAP!!! The a/c is on. I feel mildly insane at the moment, and all of the things that I planned to say over the past couple days that I have not blogged seemed to have left me or are less relevant that my current tantrum.

Wandered into the city last night

Last night I ventured into the city to read at the Writers Place. I used to live in the neighborhood where the Writers place was located, but having moved out to the edge of hell, it seemed more like a dear that had wandered into the city. Oh, it wasn't that I felt out of place at the WP, just thinking about the trip in and back home again. Perhaps it was more cerebral when considering the cost of gas.

Anyway, it was good to read there again. It's been a while. Relatively informal as readings go. Everything I read was new, and more recently I've stuck to things that are older and I've read many times. These were less polished pieces - but the open mic there is usually a good place to gauge work in progress.

Subs & Rejects

Submissions / Rejections Statistics

• Pending responses: 11
• Submissions sent last 12 months: 51
• Submissions sent this month: 3
• Acceptance ratio: 10.00 %

Picture shot inside local Bass Pro shop