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.

Technorati Tags: Poem-A-Day-Challenge

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.

Technorati Tags: Poem-A-Day Challenge

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!

Technorati Tags: Poem-a-day Challengs

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

Technorati Tags: T.S. Eliot,risk,quote

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