Birthday Book

 Arriving in the mail today.... Edgar Allen Poe and the Juke-Box - Uncollected Poems, Drafts, Fragments. I've been interested in this book for some time. It's a collection of previously unpublished works of Elizabeth Bishop. I've never read a lot of Bishop but I was interested in this when it first came out. Elizabeth Bishop had a reputation for being a real stickler about her work. Many have theorized that she would not have been happy to see this material in print, but I'm a sucker for things about poets that shed more insight into who they are and what impacts their work. Hence I've taken an interest in to books like Plath's Letters Home, Plath's Journals, Ted Hughes's letters, Anne Sexton's letters, to name a few. Anyway, this was a birthday present that arrived today and I'm anxious to start reading it.


On another note, tonight I saw Gretchen Rubin at the Plaza Library where she talked about The Happiness Project. An overflow crowd. Fascinating woman and story. More on this in the near future.


The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Poetic Vacuum

I’m in London, or so it would seem. The fog here has settled in this past week like an occupying army. It was cool at first, but the bullet gray is growing old and is quite depressing.

Yesterday I was certain I was coming down with something. Motivation was gone after work last night. Felt better this morning but not exactly great.

It was also yesterday that I felt there was no poetic dialogue going on. I don’t just mean that I felt a lack of connection with any other poets – but I felt there was no internal poetry dialogue with myself. I don’t especially like it when I feel there is a poetic vacuum. Do you know what I mean? Anyone else ever feel this way?

Where's the humanity?

I feel a deafening poetic silence about me this morning.

Recent Journal Bits

• 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.

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

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

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?

Gretchen Rubin: The Happiness Project

I've previously mentioned The Happiness Project here but I've learned this weekend that Gretchen Rubin - formerly of Kansas City and the author of four books will be speaking at the Plaza Branch Library here in Kansas City on Wednesday, January 20th at 6:30.  I'm putting this on my Calendar right now!




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]

Quote for the week

Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen. Like friends, too, we should return to them again and again for, like true friends, they will never fail us - never cease to instruct - never cloy.  ~ Charles Caleb Colton

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

Coffee Break - Announcements

Taking a short break from writing today to have a salad and post a few notes here.

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

Brrrr...

Single digit temperatures and -0 wind chill, this was my view leaving work yesterday. Each day we seem to be redefining cold here in the Midwest. Tonight is supposed to be a new low. Given how things look, this weekend should/could be a great weekend for writing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

Maya Lin - Unchopping a Tree from What is Missing? Foundation on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: Maya Lin,W.S. Merwin,Unchopping A Tree

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:

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