Sunday, October 05, 2008
Palin's Campaign Continues Disturbing Aspects
The polls have widened and the days till the election are fleeting. This morning I noticed further indication in the desperation of the McCain campaign as they have seen Sarah Palin out to deliver messages of unsubstantiated fear. Fear is what people often turn to when things are not going well in a campaign. Fear and innuendo becomes the hallmark of political desperation.
According to Reuters news service, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin Palin told of supporters at a rally in Carson, California that, "There is a time when it's necessary to take the gloves off and that time is right now." Pain went on to a accuse Obama of "palling around with terrorists." The remarks were referencing a New York Times story referencing Bill Ayers, a former Vietnam War-era militant that served on a Charity Board along with Obama. The story went on to conclude that Ayers, now a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Obama were not close.
On the heels of the Katie Couric interview in which Palin was asked what she relied on to informs her she relayed that she read magazines and newspapers. When Couric inquired what publications, Palin offered not a single name. At the Carson rally she noted, "There has been a lot of interest in what I read, and what I read lately well, was reading my copy of today’s New York Times... OK, now I get to bring this up not to pick a fight, but it was there in the New York Times, so we're gonna talk about it."
It would appear that either Palin is intentionally misrepresenting the story, or she is skimming articles and has a comprehension issue. If it is the latter, I'm not attempting to suggest that Palin is a moron or anything, as I would expect her schedule these days is hectic and required a good deal of multi tasking. So if it the that latter, than she is perhaps not quite up to the riggers of the job. If in fact it is not the latter, it must be considered misrepresentation of this story to interject fear into the campaign in the final weeks. Saying there is a Friendship between Obama and Terrorists gets big headlines. The McCain campaign is wrong to suggest it. Be it lies or lack of competence. As evidenced by the stakes in this election this country can ill afford a President and Vice President of either stature.
Technorati Tags: Sarah Palin,Barack Obama,Campaign ethics,Sarah Palin's fitness to serve,McCain Campaign
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Letting Go (part two)
As a follow up to my initial "Letting Go" post, I've continued to contemplate the Andre Malraux quotation about what profound art requires. Revisiting the whole idea of abandonment of the control of certain powers (pertaining to art) when writing, I'm reminded of a common topic of discussion which often centers around poetry of the Beat era. There has been a school of through that many of the beat writers relied heavily upon their initial written inspiration. That a higher value seemed to be placed upon the minds first reflections and some writers were hesitant to mess much with original words committed to paper.
I cannot subscribe to the idea that such writing is never enhanced by revision, but I will agree that a mind that allows a truly uninhibited freedom to explore is a desirable foundation from which to begin any poetry.
The Spanish Poet Federico García Lora championed the idea that great art depended upon a vivid awareness of death, and an acknowledgment of the limitations of reason. Certainly one can draw distinct comparison between what Lora espoused and the later argument made by Andre Malraux and quoted in part one of this blog post.
I'm wanting to to find that unfettered awareness that sometimes can be hidden beneath the surface. I want to write without self censorship and then; I want to be able to work to shape this rough language into the best work while retaining the strength and power of what originally came to me.
Technorati Tags: Andre Malraux,Federico Garciaca
Friday, October 03, 2008
Victoria Chang Brings Her Poetry to Kansas City
In a reading before an appreciative crowd at the Central Branch of the Kansas City Public Library, Thursday night, California poet Victoria Chang shared poems from Her books, Circle and Salvinia Molesta.
Chang was the lead off guest of Park University's 2008-2009 Ethnic Voices Poetry Series. Her voice often on the dark side but not disparagingly so, offers a credible balance to a whole host of story lines including that of family history, the business world, relationships and more. While soft spoken, Victoria is quite accomplished with empowering words to their fullest.
It was another excellent Library Poetry Reading experience. The Central Branch Library has established quite a reputation now for poetry readings. The only downer for the night was the local bookseller Rainy Day Books which was advertised as being present was a no show. Instead a small handful of Victoria's book were swooped up right away and many wanting autographed copies were left in the cold.
And I still made it home in time for the debate. Wahoo!
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Visiting My Journal
Bumper Sticker seen tonight on car in Target parking lot: Spiritual people inspire me / Religious people scare me.
Few Journal Bits this week:
notes to self....
topics to inspire future poetry
- Grandma fishing at Muscle Fork
- the act of shaving
- peanut shells on the floor
- geese on the ball field
- pill routine
polite conversation drizzled us/two scoops of vanilla ice cream, side by side with chocolate syrup
flies behaving badly in a seedy joint
I should like to have been there./Been somewhere emotion ruled/even if to have been speechless/but in the body./To witness a pair of long exposed legs/and feel some kind of movement.//
the stakes in the garden lean from the westerly fall winds
Technorati Tags: journal bits. Michael Wells,life as a poet
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Decisions - Decisions
Victoria Chang
or
Tina Fey impersonator debates Joe Biden.
Victoria Chang is in town for a reading as part of 2008-2009 Park University Ethnic Voices Poetry Series. Going to be hard to pass on the Debate live, but I'll have to rush home and watch recording.
October 2, 2008
Kansas City Library
14 W. 10th Street -Kansas City, MO
Reception at 6:30pm
Presentation at 7:00 p.m.
Book signing follows
Chang's work has appeared in many literary journals, and she won a Ploughshares Cohen Award for best poem of the year. Her first book of poetry, Circle, won the Crab Orchard Review Award Series in Poetry and the Association of Asian American Book Studies Award and was also a finalist for the 2005 PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award. The University of Georgia has just published her second book, Salvinia Molesta, and she edited the anthology, Asian American Poetry: the Next Generation.
Technorati Tags: Victoria Chang
Banned Books Week
A reminder to everyone that this
is Banned Book Awareness week
“Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.”—Potter Stewart, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
The 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007
- And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
- The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
- Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
- The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
- The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
- TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
- It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
- The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
The reasons for the challenges varies. In some instances it's religious viewpoints, in others it may be language, sexuality, racism. Between 2000 and 2007 some frequently challenged titles have included:
- Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling
- Of Mice and Men - John Stinebeck
- Forever - Judy Blume
- The Giver - Lois Lowry
- We All Fall Down - Robert Cromier
- To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
- Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
- Brave New World - Aldous Huley
- One Flew Over The Cuck00's Nest -Ken Kesey
- Anastasia Again - Lois Lowry
- Are You There God? It's Me Margaret - Judy Blume
- Freaky Friday - Mary Rodgers
Be alert and aware of efforts in your own community to ban books in Schools, Libraries and Universities. Don't be silent!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Unconscious Mutterings Week 296
Unconscious Mutterings ~ link
Word & Thought Associations
Technorati Tags: Unconscious Mutterings
To MSPS Convention and Back
Returned last night from the Missouri State Poetry Society Convention in Springfield, MO. It was a whirlwind trip down and back with the president of our local chapter, Missi Rasmussen in the Poet Mobil. Missi drove her yellow PT Cruiser and while we were at one of the secessions a reference was made to another local poet who drove the car preferred by poets everywhere. Yep, the PT Cruiser. Who knew?
There were two exceptional guests who read their work. Thomas Lux pictured here and Michael Burns.
Lux was educated at Emerson College and the University of Iowa. He was the poet in residence at Emerson College, 1972-75. He was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in Poetry in addition to National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Fellowship.
Burns is a retired MSU Professor whose work has appeared in a number of top rate literary journals including Kenyon Review, Paris Review, and The Southern Review. In 1995 he won an NEA fellowship.
Burns did a group workshop an I found him to be a very down to earth instructor. I liked his teaching style. He is someone who really seems to enjoy helping others with their poetry and has a personality that is as genuine as it is rich with humor.
I knew I recognized Thomas Lux by name, but could not place him. That was until he began to read The Refrigerator, 1957. I didn't recognize it by name, but it didn't take long for me to realize this was the infamous Maraschino cherries poem. I first saw this poem maybe 5 or 6 years ago and loved it.
"...right of the middle of the middle door shelf, on fire, a lit-from-within red, heart red, sexual red, wet neon red, shining red in their liquid, exotic, aloof, slumming in such company: a jar of maraschino cherries. Three-quarters full, fiery globes, like strippers at a church social. Maraschino cherries, maraschino, the only foreign word I knew. Not once did I see these cherries employed: not in a drink, nor on top of a glob of ice cream,"
It all went by so fast, but it was a worthwhile trip and it's too bad more of our local people could nit make the trip down.
Technorati Tags: Missouri State Poetry Society Convention,Michael Burns,Thomas Lux,Missi Rasmussen,Michael Wells,Springfield,K.C. Metro Verse
Thursday, September 25, 2008
McCain Camp: Let's Push Back Biden-Palin Match-Up, Too
Yes folks, according to ABC News.... the headline above is theirs and relates to the following:
The McCain campaign told ABC News on Wednesday that John McCain wants to postpone Friday's presidential debate until Thursday, Oct. 2.
The Arizona senator would like the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, which is currently scheduled to take place on Thursday, Oct. 2 in St. Louis, Missouri, to be scheduled for a later unspecified date.
So I guess that gives them more time to work on Palin who's eyes looked like a frightened puppy when she took a whole four questions from the press today.
Unconscious Mutterings Week 295
Unconscious Mutterings ~ link
Word & Thought Associations
here's mine:
Heist :: Diamond
Hack :: Up
Dane :: Great
Stings :: Police
Monkey :: Madness
Junkie :: Dope
Pumped :: Up
Brass :: Knuckles
Fight! :: War
Vouch :: Acknowledge
evidently I was asleep at the switch for week 294
Word & Thought Associations
here's mine:
Heist :: Diamond
Hack :: Up
Dane :: Great
Stings :: Police
Monkey :: Madness
Junkie :: Dope
Pumped :: Up
Brass :: Knuckles
Fight! :: War
Vouch :: Acknowledge
evidently I was asleep at the switch for week 294
Monday, September 22, 2008
Letting Go - Part I
"All truly profound art requires its creator to abandon himself to certain powers which he invokes but cannot altogether control" ~ Andre Malraux, "Goya"
The word all leaves no room for question and requires is a strong verb. So when you think about the above statement it's about as weighty as you can get. Given this, I've been thinking a lot about it this evening. Assuming that this statement is a universal truth about art, it behooves us to learn just exactly what it takes to surrender ourselves to certain powers. And where do these powers come from?
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Back From A Weekend Run To St Louis
Back home after a whirlwind trip to St Louis to See Daughter #2. Haven't done a Journal bits post in a while.... A few things from this past ten days.
- 9-11-08 "I look at a picture on my desk of all four of our kids together and note their facial features and how much they look alike."
- 9-11-08 Quite from Rainer Maria Rilke ~ "If my devils are to leave me, I am afraid my angels will take flight as well."
- 9-13-08 evening... "There is in you what is beyond you" ~ Paul Valery
- 9-14-08 The blackened windows was unyielding./There is another side to this- I dispute,/the blank stare, dark and framed/in a plague of crippling lies./
- 9-15-08 "conscripted fantasy"
- 9-16-08 I am better suited for productivity this morning as I am not zoned out on carbs. Life is a balancing act to get enough but not too many.
- 9-16-08 The language that we cling to is a monument that testifies to the organized progress of man. It is so exciting to be linked to this feat, this act of human achievement by the very use of it on a daily basis.
- 9-19-08 I got my ass kicked good a the office today.
- 9-20-08 ...had dinner, tacos from Jack-in-the-Box.
- 9-21-08 "a box store full of false hope/discount prices and depressed wages
Friday, September 19, 2008
How I See Election Night Unfolding
Words to Stroll By
As a Capricorn, I like to think of myself as an earthy sort of person. It is true I like a safety net, the secure feeling. Still, I do like a good shakeup once and a while. A little something new can be a good thing under the right circumstances. Even to a Capricorn. So when I saw an article about a man in St. Paul, Minneapolis that was bringing poetry to the people in a new way, I sat up and took note.
It seems that poetry has taken up a rather permanent position around the city on sidewalks. The project was conceived by Marcus Young who was looking for a way to integrate art into the public view.
Working with twenty poets and the Department of Public Works in St. Paul, Young was able to orchestrate poems etched into the concrete where repairs were being made in public walkways. Presently there are about 50 poems completed in various parts of the city and another fifty to go.
I thought about during next poetry month doing poems in chalk on sidewalks but this is way more cool, and lasting.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Right Here In River City
Sunday I read at the Writers Place in Kansas City for the second CD release party sponsored by both the Writers Place and the Johnson County Library. The two events were an excellent opportunity for the public to hear and meet some of our many local poets and I especially appreciated the fact that the events spanned our Missouri - Kansas boarder. I don't recall ever reading in the Kansas side before, though I have attended a number of readings there. Anyway, the local poets featured in the CD project owe a big thanks to these two sponsors.
Speaking of events... there are a number of exciting happenings that are coming together locally in the months ahead. Two poets I first discovered via poetry blogland will be coming to read as part of an Ethnic Poetry Reading Series in conjunction with Park University. The first one is Victoria Chang who will be here October 2nd, 2008 and the other is Aimee Nezhukumatathil who will be in town on March 26th, 2009. I'll do another post on each closer to their event. Also in October - on Thursday the 23rd, Poet Laureate Charles Simic will be in town as part of the Midwest Poet Series. So there, everyone mark your calendar in advance. I promise to remind you of each event later.
Technorati Tags: Aimee Nezhukumatathil,Victoria Chang,Charles Simic,poet laureate,readings,Kansas City
What's That You Say?
A critic can only review the book he has read, not the one which the writer wrote. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
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