The Final Poem - by Andree Chedid

I selected a poem by Andree Chedid that I like to feature here today -  click on the link   The Final Poem

Flarf Collective goes public

This captured my attention today...

Just last week, the Flarf Collective made its long-exclusive listserv public, welcoming poets who use material from people's Facebook status, search histories and chat room discourse, techniques that have also become known as flarf. [Story here]

Retreat of sorts

Dog sitting for my son this weekend. It’s become a mini writing retreat of sorts.  I’ve stayed off TV – so I’ve not had that distraction. Also worked on some “office work” and in-between took our sick car to the shop for which the issue remains unresolved. 

In terms of writing, I’ve done some on my laptop and some in my journal. It helped to brake up things to give my eyes a change of focus. By late last night my eyes were pretty fuzzy and my head spinning. I did ultimately unwind listening to some music from Yusef Islam a.k.a. Cat Stevens. Some of his music is especially comforting like the denim jeans he sings of in Oh Very Young.

One of the neat things about writing this weekend is that I started with an epigraph from Anne Sexton and was able to write for a while and hit a wall.  I stopped for a while and read some of her work just to get my mind to move beyond where I was.  Later I was able to go back and successfully write more. Not from the original draft but with a new slant from the epigraph. Again I hit a wall, but I have parts of the two different drafts that have portions that show promise and will at some point I am confident prove useful. Then later this morning – another whole draft – this one the process has reached conclusion. It’s very workable and I already know some changes I will make; tighten it up and work on line breaks and toy with the stanzas trying to get the best flow from it and improve it lyrically. This one has a broadly political / philosophical tone and these are so hard to do without preaching. This will not be preachy.

That is my roundup for the weekend. I’m going to stop now and write a bit longer and head to bed. Morning comes soon.

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A Little Saturday Mischief

 

A Few Poetry Workshops You May Have Missed

• Feline Elegies - or nine chances to get it right.
• Potato Poetry - Mashed, fried, baked and other poetic devices.
• Would you, could you with Hamlet? Exploring similarities of Seuss and Shakespeare.

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Wright Markets Poetry For the Consumer Mind

 

Wright Markets Poetry For the Consumer Mind

Award-winning poet CD Wright visits Columbia to deliver a lecture on the place of poetry in the public discourse.

By Laura Oseland

Published Tuesday 10 November 2009 07:13pm EST.

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How does poetry keep on keeping on?

This is what award-winning poet CD Wright will discuss for the Creative Writing Lecture Series at the School of the Arts on Thursday. Her lecture, “Concerning Why Poetry Offers a Better Deal than the World’s Biggest Retailer,” explores the position of poetry within the public discourse, as an artistic force in the commercial and social environment in which we now live.

Wright Markets Poetry For the Consumer Mind

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What Does it Say About FOX News when Comedy Central is More A More Accurate Source for News?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Sean Hannity and Rep. Michele Bachmann(R-MN) two peas in a pod!

Technorati Tags: Jon Stewart,Michele,Sean Hannity,FOX News,anit-health care reform rally

Hold on I’m Not Unnerved by Women’s Poetry

I occasionally read the Books Blog at guardian.co.uk and today Jo Shapcott caught my attention with the title Do women write ‘female’ poetry? 

I suppose my interest was principally raised because I’ve given a fair amount of consideration to the realization that my list of poetry reading as well as my favorite poets to read is weighted significantly in favor of female poets. I’ve not quite figured out for sure why though the exploration of this will likely make for a later post.

I don’t think Sharpcott really ever quite adequately defines what makes female poetry. I think I expected more of the blog post but it did come away with a couple of interesting thoughts. Sharpcott comes to this conversation by way of a panel discussion at the Aldeburgh poetry festival. I was somewhat taken back by the fact that she reported  that the women on the panel decided  it was important not to let gender dominate their writing ( at least initially ) in order that the language can lead it in unanticipated directions, BUT it was pretty clear that such thoughts are not expected of men, their poetry is set as a kind of default mode. I have trouble seeing this “default mode” she speaks of.

The second thing that bugged me about this piece was the the statement that women are happy to devour anything that is good (I hate the subjectivism of good here) male readers are sometimes nervous of poetry books by women. I suppose I was put here to be the counterbalance among men and I tend not be be unnerved by poetry written by woman.

Technorati Tags: gender in poetry,female poetry

Mary Biddinger has Done It Again or Defibrillating Your Poem While You Can

First it was How to kill a poem (before it even starts) and now she gives us How to defibrillate a poem (before it's too late).  Biddinger is cracking me up. But seriously I’m glad to know that "Just Me Being a Shithead” constitutes a poetic device.

Technorati Tags: just for poetic fun

Journal bits….

A few lines from recent journal entries:

• the legacy that lives / in us all is the blue veins of fear / that rise up from the soles of our feet.
• the blue taste of fear-  this they will remember / because they know how it feels / to the touch, they know / how it tastes and they know / how it smells.
• Reading Anne Sexton today- her poems “In the Beach House” and “Song for a Lady" I like the lyrical quality of both of these, especially the first one.

Technorati Tags: journal bits,Anne Sexton

Are we listening?

My wife was visiting my daughters in Arizona this past week and I got this test from her and as I read it come across my phone I was nodding my head… “yes, yes!” I acknowledged her message and she said what she sent me she was a quote on a poster at ASU. She said she knew I would appreciate it. She knows me well.

What she sent me was a quote from Alberto Alvaro Rios – poet and professor of English at ASU [pictured here left] and it’s a poignant expressing of the task of writing.  What she texted me follows:

“The public job of a writer is to write. But the private and secret job of the writer is to listen. Writing itself is finally clerical but listening is a life’s work. By listening we must include the sweetwork of the eye the skin the tongue the nose. This then is the true  language of writers. The language of listening.” ~Alberto Alvaro Rios.

A life’s work… This is so very much related to what my conception of being a poet is about. Listening, observing, seeing things that you might otherwise miss. Seeing things in a variety of perspectives. Searching the natural world, your own soul and the history of the human experience. Putting this all together and recording it. This is to me what being a poet is all about.  Listening and letting what you hear inform what you write.

We all have heard the mantra, Read, write, re-write..  I believe listen needs to be a part of that cycle of process.

 

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Sparks!

I shot this picture recently with my trusty phone camera. Hence we are not talking the highest quality of photograph.  Still, I like it because I picture in it the  jumbled wires that crisscross the mind.  Receptors I suppose. I envision them as quiet here… I suppose because if they were busy at work thinking, I would suppose that they would have little sparking neurons racing around the receptors.

Why am I writing about this? Good question. I don’t really have an answer. Sometimes I just like to look at something and turn it into something else.  Looking at things differently is a great way to enrich one’s creative process. Hopefully my receptors are firing on all cylinders and racing around sparking new ideas, pulling from other data in my mind and creating new data.  One can hope.

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Low Battery

This week has been especially stressful and that has to a great extent impaired my writing. For the most part, I attribute this impact more to my energy level than anything else. Stress can be quite an energy drain.

I’ve had creative bursts of ideas, just not the energy to adequately deal with them. Nor have I the energy to keep up with my reading, the energy to write those few extra lines or a few extra minutes to get every out of my head and onto the page. I’m well aware of the dangers fleeting thoughts pose. The ones you never recover. That is usually one of the first casualties of this kind of energy drain.

I promise myself to do better tonight.

What the poem wants...

Earlier this morning, I roughed out onto paper a couple stanzas of something trying to become a poem. At lunch time I revisited it and decided I think I can build upon it and take the poem somewhere when it wants to be. Right now there are more pieces of it in my mind that it wishes to connect with on a page. Later, I hope to bring them together and see where it is they wish to go together.

kcur: : Poet Phil Miller Delves into Relationships in New Collection (2009-11-04)

Listening to KCUR on the morning drive... This interesting piece on a locallly connected poet, Phil Miller.


kcur: : Poet Phil Miller Delves into Relationships in New Collection (2009-11-04)

In the tumbleweeds of my mind

I'm way behind the curve in the horizon. Had internet problems over the weekend and they extended into the week and I was just too tired to mess with anything last night. Slowly I will get back up to speed. 

In the meantime - Mary Biddinger got my attention and brought a smile to my face with this...  How to kill a poem (before it even starts).  Really liked:  "Turn on several fans so that tumbleweeds of pet hair cartwheel across the floor." How did she even know?

My Internal Clock is BoNkERs!

This morning I’m really messed up. I already am messed up this time of year but the clock change last night simply has jerked me around more. As a result I’m this swirl wind rolling about and not sure where I’ll be when I land or more importantly what time it will be.

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Full day & Play Ball!

Settling to watch the World Series game tonight.  Looking for a good game tonight with the series tied 1 game apiece and the series moves to Philadelphia.  Pulling for the Phillies!

Today was busy. Brought some work home from the office for the weekend.  Did some of it today and saved some for tomorrow.

Send of poetry submissions.  Printed out hard copies of some of my work to sift through looking for manuscript material that I already have to assess what I still need to work on. Lots of stuff I intentionally didn’t print out. I messed around on some rewrites as well.

Made the dogs happy – taking them for a walk.

Chatted with one of my daughters for a good half-hour today.  She’s away at school and I’m missing her, so it was a real treat.

Made dinner tonight for my wife who spent day at the office.

If the game isn’t too late ending, I’ll probably read a bit before turning in. Not counting on a quick game though.

Happy Birthday Sylvia

Sigh….  I’m often tuned in enough to think this time of year that the 27th is Sylvia Plath’s birthday but I almost missed it this year. She remains a strong influence in my poetry tastes so I am often thinking about her on the anniversary of both her birth and death. Kudos to IVY for keeping the memory alive!
If you are headed soon to a Halloween party and want a costume idea with a literary theme go here.  What a fun bonus for those in Emily Dickinson costumes…. Hand out plastic flies while reciting the immortal line: "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died..."
Yesterday, Poet Kelli Russell Agodon opened up and shared a lot of information about the making of her latest book that will be out next fall.  Her blog post, The History of a Manuscript, details the path to publication of her manuscript titled Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room.  If you are thinking in terms of working towards publication of a manuscript, read this post. This recommendation is not meant to discourage anyone, but introduce a bit of reality to the process. As I’ve said here before, Kelli’s first book, Small Knots is among my favorite poetry books. Her work inspires me and her talents establish her as a poet whose advise I take seriously. 

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Journal Bits

It's that time again...

• the paper absorbed everything and said nothing
• the night is an unsettled dog
• Mary Oliver quote - “Do you think the wren ever dreams of a better house?"
• the exit signs determined in their request
• it's a casual uncaring / not rooted in any harsh disinterest / more maladaptive to the day at hand
• losing myself in the moments of a hair cut / or the making of a spare key / that light headed tingling that forgets everything / suspends all thought in mid air

You Don’t Say….

I think the most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.' ~ Garrison Keillor

Actually, I think this is a splendid quote.

 

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