• January 6 - note: I'm still having trouble writing this year correctly.
• January 6 - "what I know of you / fits well in my cupped hand / it's all there is."
• January 7 - " Januarys grace is the slowly rising plum of smoke from the fireplace / chimney against the dark blue sky of a children's picture book."
• January 9 - "What do you suppose / the dead take with them / memories caramelized by years / of turning, sautéed in the juices / thank make up life?"
• January 10 - "Venation Blinds have great dexterity... they align themselves so well / precise as the feet of a marching brand / white spats going up and down / in perfect cadence.
• January 10 - quote: "The late poems are the ones / I turn too first now ... they are made of words that have come the whole way" W.S. Merwin - Worn Words from The shadow of Sirus.
• January 16 - add the word pellucid to my word list - admitting the passage of light, transparent or translucent . Transparently clear in style or meaning.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Unconscious Mutterings Week 364
You say and I think....
1.Weak :: knees
2.Flashy :: bling
3.Sack :: sad sack
4.Business :: listing
5.Purple :: heart
6.Fan :: baseball
7.Airline :: ticket
8.Guide :: TV
9.Lunch :: box
10.Exercise :: aerobic
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings
1.Weak :: knees
2.Flashy :: bling
3.Sack :: sad sack
4.Business :: listing
5.Purple :: heart
6.Fan :: baseball
7.Airline :: ticket
8.Guide :: TV
9.Lunch :: box
10.Exercise :: aerobic
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Some cheery news
After a two year absence from New York busses and subway, Poetry in Motion is returning. Poetry in Motion had been in opperation for 15 years and became a model for other such programs in other cities.
For a glimpse of what commuters will see in 2010 - some Emily Dickinson, a 10th century Japanese poem, a 9th century Aztec poem and a "cheeky, chiding poem" by Stevie Smith called Deathbed of a Financier among other works.
Source
For a glimpse of what commuters will see in 2010 - some Emily Dickinson, a 10th century Japanese poem, a 9th century Aztec poem and a "cheeky, chiding poem" by Stevie Smith called Deathbed of a Financier among other works.
Source
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Your three words for 2010?
Last night I did something I’ve been intending to do for some time now. I got comfortable on the bed and pulled out a file folder with some of my poems and began separating them into stacks based on how I thought they might work into a manuscript idea that I have. I found some that I believe will work as they are. Another group that I believe could work but I feel require anything from some minor tweaking to more involved rewrites; however I can still see working. Then there are the rest of them.
I would like to have had more that I thought would be a good fit, but I still have some material that was not printed out in that folder. I have material in a couple of other places, like our desktop that I don’t use for writing any longer and just some hard copies of work that I’m not quite sure where the original files are. Fortunately I’ve gotten better about how I retain my work, but there are things that fall into the hole of historically I’ve not always been so good about it.
I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty details of what my goal is here, but I did set some general timelines back in September about a manuscript and I am working to stay focused on this project.
Contrary to my norm, I did make some new years resolutions and I am happy to say that at this tinder age of 2010, I’ve stuck to them.
This has nothing to do with my specific resolutions, but I was trying to think if I could select a three year mantra for 2010, what it might be. There were several things that came to my mind, but in the final analysis, I chose these: “Read, write, more.”
What three words define what you wish for in 2010?
I would like to have had more that I thought would be a good fit, but I still have some material that was not printed out in that folder. I have material in a couple of other places, like our desktop that I don’t use for writing any longer and just some hard copies of work that I’m not quite sure where the original files are. Fortunately I’ve gotten better about how I retain my work, but there are things that fall into the hole of historically I’ve not always been so good about it.
I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty details of what my goal is here, but I did set some general timelines back in September about a manuscript and I am working to stay focused on this project.
Contrary to my norm, I did make some new years resolutions and I am happy to say that at this tinder age of 2010, I’ve stuck to them.
This has nothing to do with my specific resolutions, but I was trying to think if I could select a three year mantra for 2010, what it might be. There were several things that came to my mind, but in the final analysis, I chose these: “Read, write, more.”
What three words define what you wish for in 2010?
Monday, January 11, 2010
Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project
Power Money Fame Sex: A User's Guide
Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: A Brief Account of a Long Life
Forty Ways to Look at JFK
A Missourian by birth...
Tree Swenson, Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets, announced today that Naomi Shihab Nye and Marie Ponsot have been elected to the Board of Chancellors, the Academy's advisory board of distinguished poets. Nye is a Missourian by birth having been born in born in St. Louis in 1952. She makes her home in Texas now but has been described as a a citizen of the world. Her poetry often crosses borders and fosters understanding. I know little of Marie Ponsot but Nye is truly a wonderful ambassador for poetry everywhere.
In My E-mail This Morning
- A rejection letter for 3 poems. :(
- Word of the day - dysgraphia. Bad news nearly always follows when dys- begins a word, and so it does here: dysgraphia is an inability to write coherently, either as a learning disorder or a result of brain damage or disease. The Greek roots mean "difficult writing."
- $30 Amazon.com birthday gift certificate. :) Yeah!
- Urgent Attention, I am here on off-shore banks inspection exercise. Based on the report on your abandoned transaction file, only $2M have been approved to your family from the will. [Oh Darn, I was hopeful it would be at least $5M]
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Quote for the week
Unconscious Mutterings - Week 363
Subliminal word associations. You say.... I think:
1.Resolutions :: New Year
2.Page :: turm
3.Narrow :: ruled
4.Refuse :: decline
5.Fountain :: pen
6.Grunt :: strain
7.Construct :: build
8.Nightmare :: dream
9.Inch :: worm
10.Instant :: message
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings
1.Resolutions :: New Year
2.Page :: turm
3.Narrow :: ruled
4.Refuse :: decline
5.Fountain :: pen
6.Grunt :: strain
7.Construct :: build
8.Nightmare :: dream
9.Inch :: worm
10.Instant :: message
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Coffee Break - Announcements
Here's an announcement for those in our neighboring state of Kansas.
Kansas Voices writing contested, sponsored by the Winfield Arts & Humanities Council, is back for its 21st year. Authors are urged to submit short stories, prose or poetry. Details here.
Issue 30 of Right Hand Pointing is up.
TWP POETRY READING SERIES @ THE JOHNSON COUNTY LIBRARY
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 7:00 pm - Johnson County Public Library, 9875 W. 87th, Overland Park, KS
Featuring Jo McDougall and Steve Paul
TWP SALON - Monday, January 25, 2010 - 7:00 pm - Open Mic opportunity hosted by Sharon Eiker
3607 Pennsylvania - Kansas City, Missouri
Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Tails Of The City : National children's pet poetry contest deadline extended
The American Pet Products Association (APPA) will be accepting poems for its 2nd Annual APPA National Children's Pet Poetry Contest through February 15, 2010 at 5 p.m. EST.
Third, fourth and fifth grade students are invited to pen a unique poem about their pets and then post it to petsaddlife.org or mail it to: Pets Add Life, 45 Winter Street, Reno, NV 89503.
Two students from each grade level (six total) will win a $250 gift certificate for pet products, and a by-line in a nationally circulated publication. In addition, the six winning students' classrooms will each receive a $1,000 scholarship to spend on pet-related education.
Posted By: Amelia Glynn (Email, Facebook) | January 08 2010 at 11:40 AM
Tails Of The City : National children's pet poetry contest deadline extended
Technorati Tags: childrens pet poetry
Friday, January 08, 2010
Brrrr...
I've drug out my copy of The Artist's Way again and decided it's time to re-examine what I'm doing for the sake of creativity. Especially since I feel like I'm in a somewhat conflicted state at the moment. I'm trying to look at it positive and a growing place but frustration isn't affording me any particular comfort. Basically I'm trying to project a different style of writing but I'm less satisfied with the results (more often then not) and it wants to pull me back to a more abstract approach. I'm thinking what I really needs is to be someplace between the two. I'm feeling as I move away from the abstract my voice becomes bland. There are other poets I admire who can do this well- I know it can be done.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Attention Metrophobics
"Does the thought of poetry make you nauseous? Does it trigger a dry mouth and clammy hands? Does your heart feel like it’s going to pound right out of your chest? Do your legs turn to rubber bands?" If so, help is on the way. For only $147 you can get a Home Study program of CDs and a Work Book or if you prefer, for the paltry sum of $2497 you can get one-on-one Private Sessions with Board-Certified Specialist to help you eliminate your underlying fear. This according an internet site that can be found here.
I’m so glad there is hope for people suffering from metrophobia. It seems there are so many metrophobics out there. Some of my own family may be metrophobic. This of course causes me to wonder why or how I escaped the condition? Is there a genetic predisposition towards this condition? If so, perhaps we can isolate the gene that controls our poetic responses and tweak it a bit to make poetry a little more palatable. Of course, if such therapy became possible, poetic gene therapy could put the previously mentioned site out of business.
I’m so glad there is hope for people suffering from metrophobia. It seems there are so many metrophobics out there. Some of my own family may be metrophobic. This of course causes me to wonder why or how I escaped the condition? Is there a genetic predisposition towards this condition? If so, perhaps we can isolate the gene that controls our poetic responses and tweak it a bit to make poetry a little more palatable. Of course, if such therapy became possible, poetic gene therapy could put the previously mentioned site out of business.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
A bit overdue for Journal Bits
A few journal bits from recent writings-Dec. 15th “and now I / Foam to wheat, glitter of seas / The child’s cry [from Ariel by Sylvia Plath]
Dec. 15th when your room is a town / and the hallways a thoroughfare / to climb into your own bed is trespassing
Dec. 16th What is it that keeps us focused and what are the things that derail us?
Dec. 22nd Trying to expose the soul is like catching carp with bare hands. If a soul wanted to be seen and recognized for all that it is it would show a little leg.
Dec. 24th Silence is the reversible side.
Dec. 24th. Guilt creeps through superficial cracks…
Dec. 26th I failed miserably.
Dec. 26th I don’t choose them; they find me (morning thoughts)
Dec 27th What does one have to do to get a glass of plain water?
Dec. 27th “The poet’s only hope is to be infinitely sensitive to what his gift is, and this itself seems to be another gift that few poets possess.” [Ted Hughes – London Magazine Vol. 1 NO. 2 1962]
Dec. 29th “pulp non-fiction / outdated upon arrival”
Jan 1st “I see the pox / on the old man’s face”
Jan 4th We’ve evolved into a voodoo age… Our current socio-political climate is so amerced in a high voltage hate that most Americans are of a mindset that they whish harm to come to those who are of a different (and usually believed inferior) view then themselves.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Unchopping A Tree
Artist and architect Maya Lin has produced a video which is inspired by a W.S. Merwin poem of the same name and focuses on how we would feel if deforestation came to the city parks that we love the most. It’s a quietly powerful piece that I hope many people have an opportunity to see.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
A Thought for the week
The concept that an artist would be revered by popular culture is an immediate dismissal of his relevance as an artist. ~Thomas Kinkade
Unconscious Mutterings - Week 362
You say - I think:
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings
1. 365 :: days
2. Tombstone :: pizza
3. Dumb :: luck
4. Intrusive :: government
5. Fat :: cat
6. Axe :: Lizzy Borden
7. Planned :: vacation
8. Spike :: Lee
9. Bleach :: stain
10. Shopkeeper :: Clerk
get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings
There are Consequences
Feline steps are deliberate
cautious intermittent pauses-
to allow for adjustments.
No one expects life
to be without recalculations
or changes.
It is our prerogative
to make u turns
even if the law doesn't allow
for it, the road itself will
not hinder us
or the police that follow.
cautious intermittent pauses-
to allow for adjustments.
No one expects life
to be without recalculations
or changes.
It is our prerogative
to make u turns
even if the law doesn't allow
for it, the road itself will
not hinder us
or the police that follow.
Boring? Think Again
For those who might think all things poetry equals boring, think again. We who chose our words with great thought are quite capable of sparking sharp discourse. There are a couple of excellent examples of this going on right now in full public view.
On the national scene there is the ongoing and seemingly unending friction over a $200 million gift to Poetry Magazine by Ruth Lilly, the 94 year old reclusive philanthropist and drug heiress who died this past week. The basic story is old news to most poets, but the death of Ms. Lilly seems to have drawn media attention back to it by as evidenced by a series of new articles that have appeared in print these last few days.
For an art form often marginalized, such a gift was both shockingly exciting and on some level a bit difficult to rationalize. The Poetry Foundation which publishes Poetry Magazine is operated by a staff of four. It has a circulation of 12,000 and an annual operating budget of about $700.000 which makes such a gift seem a bit like overkill. But for many, it’s not so much the gift as it is the administration of the Foundation that has been the focus of discussion. Some, including a former trustee have been critical of the foundation’s expenditure of $25 million to build a “Home for Poetry” in Chicago. John Barr , the director has also been criticized for giving his wife a job at the Foundation. Complaints have reached the Illinois Attorney General who is looking into "questionable governance and management practices."
Back in my home state, the selection of a second Poet Laureate have has brought some criticism of the Governor’s office who has posted an application for the position that looks more like they are searching for a CEO of a fortune 500 Company than an ambassador for an art. It asks for instance to: “Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, which could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the Governor” and “Is there anything in your or your spouse’s background that might become an embarrassment to you if it were to become public? Please consider carefully any letters to the editor, blog posts, etc., which you or your spouse may have authored, even anonymously.” It also asks about associations with other individuals which might be a source of embarrassment. I’ve not personally seen applications used in other states, but according to a January 2nd Columbia Tribune article, “Application forms for poets laureate in other states do not ask similar questions.” The same article notes several individuals have expressed disappointment about such approach to the search and at least on poet with national accolades that said he was not interested in applying with these terms.
The outgoing Poet Laureate Walter Bargen, said he was not asked to fill out an application but he and his wife did agree to a State Highway Patrol background check. He was asked if there was anything they should know about. Bergen to them, “I grew up in the ‘60s,” and that he once used the world “nipple” in a poem.
On the national scene there is the ongoing and seemingly unending friction over a $200 million gift to Poetry Magazine by Ruth Lilly, the 94 year old reclusive philanthropist and drug heiress who died this past week. The basic story is old news to most poets, but the death of Ms. Lilly seems to have drawn media attention back to it by as evidenced by a series of new articles that have appeared in print these last few days.
For an art form often marginalized, such a gift was both shockingly exciting and on some level a bit difficult to rationalize. The Poetry Foundation which publishes Poetry Magazine is operated by a staff of four. It has a circulation of 12,000 and an annual operating budget of about $700.000 which makes such a gift seem a bit like overkill. But for many, it’s not so much the gift as it is the administration of the Foundation that has been the focus of discussion. Some, including a former trustee have been critical of the foundation’s expenditure of $25 million to build a “Home for Poetry” in Chicago. John Barr , the director has also been criticized for giving his wife a job at the Foundation. Complaints have reached the Illinois Attorney General who is looking into "questionable governance and management practices."
Back in my home state, the selection of a second Poet Laureate have has brought some criticism of the Governor’s office who has posted an application for the position that looks more like they are searching for a CEO of a fortune 500 Company than an ambassador for an art. It asks for instance to: “Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, which could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the Governor” and “Is there anything in your or your spouse’s background that might become an embarrassment to you if it were to become public? Please consider carefully any letters to the editor, blog posts, etc., which you or your spouse may have authored, even anonymously.” It also asks about associations with other individuals which might be a source of embarrassment. I’ve not personally seen applications used in other states, but according to a January 2nd Columbia Tribune article, “Application forms for poets laureate in other states do not ask similar questions.” The same article notes several individuals have expressed disappointment about such approach to the search and at least on poet with national accolades that said he was not interested in applying with these terms.
The outgoing Poet Laureate Walter Bargen, said he was not asked to fill out an application but he and his wife did agree to a State Highway Patrol background check. He was asked if there was anything they should know about. Bergen to them, “I grew up in the ‘60s,” and that he once used the world “nipple” in a poem.
Friday, January 01, 2010
VISITOR # 50,000
It seems a nice way to kick off the new year is to make it with this site having been visited by its 50,000th unique visitor. Yeah! An thank you to all 50,000 peeps.
A new year and a new book in my reading stack. I’m not only working through Winter Pollen - (writings and essays by Ted Hughes) but I picked up a copy The Shadow of Sirius by W.S. Merwin today. This book was published by Copper Canyon Press and I’m always impressed with the quality of their books. I’m anxious to share my thoughts on this book once I’ve read it. Merwin is among my favorite poets.
I kind of like that I’m kicking the year off with a male poet as I tend to be drawn disproportionately to the work of female poets. This isn’t a complaint, just an observation.
Who’s on your reading table at the moment?
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