Confession Tuesday

It was when I reached the upper level yesterday at the ballpark, after hoofing it from my car parked on the edge of hell… my seat not yet even in sight, that I realized I seriously need to start going to the track again ore something… otherwise next season’s opening day they are going to have to roll me to my seat in a wheel chair. It is with this stark reality that I’m off to the confessional.

Dear reader, it has been a week. Yes seven days and it seems like only yesterday I was doing this. Where it is that time goes? I confess that sometimes I feel there is a hole somewhere that I am losing time out of. A hole in a pocket, a crack in an hour glass… it just keeps flowing like a sieve – sometimes I think I feel it trickle down my pant leg and leave this trail behind me.

I confess that time is my enemy. Or so I convinced myself many years ago. Time = life. I believe that, and yet I am not the best appropriator of time. There is absolutely no logic to it, but if life and time are interchangeable, I should value time all the more, but I seem to fear it. ~0~

I confess to enjoying the ball game yesterday. I confess I would have enjoyed it better if my wife were there. I confess too I am well aware she would not have enjoyed it very much. After the game, I came home and spent time sharing about the afternoon with her and hope that she was not bored by the talk. ~0~

I confess that Easter Sunday I ate too much before church. I not only ate too much but ate way too many carbs. I was hard to stay awake for Mass, in fact I physically felt horrible well into the afternoon. ~0~
I’ve been writing each day keeping up with NaPWriMo but I’ve not been especially happy with the draft/poems I’ve written. I can admit this, but I confess I am not particularly bothered by it. Normally this would bug me to no end. I’ve so far managed to not allow myself to beat myself up over them; figuring time will solve this problem. I confess I’m pretty happy keeping a positive spin on it. ~0~ 

This seems a good place to stop… on an upbeat note. 

Thanks for indulging me.

I'm Reading - 3:00 PM Tomorrow as the Longest Poetry Reading Continues

I will be reading as part of the history making LONGEST POETRY READING tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.




Prospero's Books
1800 West 39th Street - Kansas City, MO 64111-4402


if you can't be there...  you can watch on the live internet feed at


                      http://www.ustream.tv/channel/metaphormedia

Opening Day Crazy

[prompt is a TMI poem. Too Much Information]




So much to do,
to remember,
the winter months
away from the game
numb the mind--



The peanut bag, in shells of course,
ball cap; more then ascetics, got to
protect the face from sun--
score pad… and number two pencil.
Two in fact, check for sharpness
those tiny boxes require thin points
to surgically deliver the precision markings
that can be read when referenced
come September.



Cash, $10 for parking, $5 for program,
three draft bears $21 round up to $25 for tips,
hit dogs $7 for two- that's $47 - from the ATM
make it $50.



Game starts at 3:05,
it's 1:30-- a stop at the bank
and parking… should have left
10 minutes ago.

 Oh… the tickets!

11 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month With The New York Times

The New York Times has a great piece titled 11 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month.  Lots of interesting resources . A lot of things that would be suitable for school teachers, but not exclusively teacher orientated If interested, check it out here.

A Brief History Poetic Conception

A parasite in the mind-
sucking off our memory
and replacing it
with the scary
the romantic
the perverted
the beauty of
hallucinogenic
mushrooms
growing in the
bowels of a dirty
mind.


This tequila worm
wiggles its way
into our day or night
or fermenting
over several days
squirming
worming
churning
and learning to be
a figment
a filament
a fantasia
uncontainable

groping for paper
to postulate upon

Easter Mo & Journal Bits

Here is Mo in the annual back yard Easter Egg Hunt. Here he is still a little tentative about his find. Mo is just so huggable.

The brisk breeze this afternoon is a nice feeling. I'm concerned about tomorrow though as I have the baseball opener in the afternoon. We may have morning showers... long as they are out of here by noon time, I'm cool with that.

Now for some Journal bits for the past week... March 29 - April 3

• March 29 - (rough notes from a podcast A Conversation with Andrew Mitchell - at Stanford University on poetic language / Martin Heidegger philosophies) Paraphrasing - Describes poetic language as ambiguous ambiguity - language that is not frozen. The origin of the work of art does not  exhaust itself. Poetry as a way to expose unknowns... we become mortals through our encounters with poetry -Language is relationally defined by poets. Poetry gives name to the gods. 
• March 31 - I'm thinking about the fact that I'm sweating and its the last day of March. It's hot and I'm in a shitty mood tonight.  
• April 1 - National Poetry Month begins today and with it, my poem-a day- challenge. This is where it gets all crazy.
• April 3 - "Under the crush of an August sun / in the baptism of sultry shifting about / I opened my shirt for air-- / the two sides hung / like dead flags on polls / and there was no relief in this."
• "they walked the path to the creek abreast / as the woods crowed them, he took the lead, / his hand lingering behind in hers." 
• "If Kipling were here / I'd offer him a piece of mind. / Myopic, crumpled one--" 
• March 4 - quote by Martin Heidegger "Every man is born as many men and dies as a single one."

Partly Naked

His flesh is flush
with innuendo
a part clothed
a part exposed
leaving onlookers
stripped of what
to know

Prospero’s Books stages a 120-hour poetry marathon - KansasCity.com

Prospero’s Books stages a 120-hour poetry marathon - KansasCity.com: "Prospero’s Books stages a 120-hour poetry marathon
By TIM ENGLE ~ The Kansas City Star

GARVEY SCOTT (photo credit)
“Sometimes for poetry to be noticed, it has to be noticed in a big way,” said Connie Dover, who helped launch a marathon reading."



Five straight days and nights of poetry reading sounds like a colossal undertaking, but it all started Friday morning with one little boy and an even littler poem.

“Day by day the ghosts go past,” recited almost-5-year-old Riley Werner-Leathem, hoisted up to the microphone by his dad, Prospero’s Books co-owner Will Leathem. Riley dressed up for the occasion, wearing a paisley tie over his Prospero’s T-shirt.
Minutes earlier it wasn’t ghosts but an ill-tempered thunderstorm that passed by. Former Kansas poet laureate Denise Low of Lawrence acknowledged it with her work “The Bear Emerges,” part of which goes:

In bed we hear the rumble,
distant, as we find again
under blankets and skins,
the deep-set thud of heartbeats.

All through the hard winter
we forgot about rain and lightning.
Prospero’s, 1800 W. 39th St., is spending all weekend and part of next week celebrating National Poetry Month — and trying to beat a record for longest poetry reading. The round-the-clock marathon will feature 200-plus regional and national poets, most reading in 20-minute chunks and most performing their own work.

It got under way at 10 a.m. Friday with about two dozen spectators and will wrap up at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The actual record-breaking moment, however, should occur around 7 p.m. Sunday — that’d be the 57-hour mark. Organizers are hoping to wallop a record set in Cincinnati in 1978, when a poetry marathon lasted 56 hours, 25 minutes.

If all goes well, the local effort will rack up 120 continuous hours of poetry, more than double what those disco-era dudes did.

Complete Story





Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/02/1853420/prosperos-books-stages-a-120-hour.html#ixzz0k4a3uMVP

Water

Presumably frozen
upon the moon
filling the depths
of the blue lagoon

Controversy
upon a board
flat lined across the floor
rolling like mercury
under a door
waving to those
upon the shore

Technorati Tags: NaPoWriMo

Shades of Blue

The prompt for day one is to write a lonely poem. The narrator could be lonely. Someone or something in the poem could be lonely. Or the poem itself could try to evoke a feeling of loneliness for the reader


Will anyone care to read me…
I mean really hear
what I’m saying?
Place their ear to the page
and listen for the sighs
or the tone in my voice
with its highs and lows.


Will they think
I’m just another
silly poem—
or figure
I’m too complicated;
too much like their last
relationship…

the one no one gets.
The one coded
with meaning
they never understood
and would not wish
upon another—
like I would want you
to feel my pain.


Like you could
know the quiet
that squeezes me
till I’m suffocating
and my biggest fear
is no one is there
to see—


and anyone
that would will not
until the Powder
turn Periwinkle
turn Maya
turn Iris
then Indigo.
Until it is just
too late.

National Poetry Month Has Arrived

Crazy Time!  Crank out those poems. One-A-Day!

Yes, I'm doing the poem-a-day challenge again this year. I'm still debating if I will post the drafts here or not. Stay tuned for my decision, but at a minimum, I will report the daily exploits in this journey.  You can count on that.

Last year I completed the challenge and had maybe five decent poems that survived drafts that I had written during the 30 day period. I won't lie to you, this gets to be painful about 20 days in. I think it's more to aspect of writing to a set prompt then the writing part itself. Some days you just want to tell the prompt  where it can go. But for now, the challenge is met with fresh enthueasam.

120 hours of non-stop poetry!

The Pit at Prospero's [photo credit Prospero's]

The poetry filibuster, 120 hours of non-stop poetry is coming to Kansas City starting Friday April 2nd at 10:00 a.m. The longest poetry reading ever is planned for the Pit at Prospero's Books. The event is sponsored by Prospero’s, Write the Future and Spartan Press.

In celebration of National Poetry month, over 200 regional and national poets will gather in Kansas City to establish a world’s record for the longest poetry reading. The previously established record in 1978 as reported by the Associated Press and NPR’s All Things Considered, was in Cincinnati, Ohio where 50 poets performed 56 hours and 25 minutes of poetry.

The Kansas City event will be vidio taped and a live internet feed of the event is planned.

Some highlighted participants

Friday-

• Ron Jaffe: world renowned jazz-poet 
• Connie Dover: winner of the Loft’s Speakeasy prize for poetry
• Denise Low: imediate past Poet Laureate of Kansas
• Jo McDougall: Pulitzer nominated poet and memoirist
• William Trowbridge: former editor of The Laurel Review, author of 5 books of poetry including the The Book of Kong and the Complete Book of Kong. 
•  Maryfrances Wagner: past President of Kansas City’s The Writers Place and author of 5 books of poetry.  
•  Wayne Miller: award-winning poet of 2 collections of poetry and editor of Pleiades: A   Journal of New Writing.  
•  Jason Ryberg 
•  Jeanette Powers 
•  Marion S. Taylor 
• David Morrissey
• Patrick Lamb
• Annie Rasmussen
• James Kneece Joseph Davis
•  Valorie Engholm
•  Eve Brackenbury
• Oshome
• Trudie Homan
• Trish Reeves  
• Steven Proski
• Tony Plocido
• Greg Field

Saturday-

•  Marc Smith: host of the Green Mill poetry series in Chicago, Ill.. PBS identified Marc as the founder of slam poetry in America. Smith will come off sabbatical to perform for the longest poetry reading record attempt.
• Mark Tom Hennessy: former front man for the Lawrence, KS grunge and PAW.
• Marc Zorn
• Mike Bannen + 7year old
• Carl Bettis
• Noon Jan Kroll
• Stan Banks
• Janet Banks
• Alarie Tennille
• John Peterson
• Stacey Donovan
• Lindsey Martin Bowen
• Carl Rowden
• Robert Stewart
• Michelle Boisseau
• Jeanie Wilson
• Pat Danneman
• Phyllis Becker
• Pat Lawson
• William Peck
• TJ Jude
• Marc Smith
• Ed Tato
• Mark Hennessy
• Jason Ryberg
• Margueritte Rappold
• Iris Appelquist
• Aaron Fuhr
• Thad Havercamp
• Ron Worley
• Jason Harding
• Vic Swan
• Joshua Upsha
• Creed Shepherd
• Michelle Nimmo
• Tommy Mason
• Jacob Johansen
• Steve Goldberg
• John Dorsey
• Brent Kinder
• Holly Stewart

Sunday-

• The Recipe: founding members of the Black Poets Collective, Pries and 337 define the word “LIVE” in poetry performance.
• David Smith: author of White Time joins us from Las Angeles, CA.
• Dennis Weiser
• Kale Baldock
• Kathy Hughes
• Gary Lechtliter
• Sean Erixon
• Dean Fessenden
• Thomas Fessenden
• Kevin Rabas
• Josh Barker
• Jeff Tigchelaar
• Aaron Froelich
• Alyson Fuller
• Saira Jehangir Khan
• Faith Bemiss
• Britt Whitehead
• Blair Johnson
• Mickey Cesar
• Laura Kitzmiller
• Katie Longofono
• Jas Abromowitz
• Jeremy O'eal
• Lance & Rachel Asbury
• David Smith
• John Dorsey
• Abigail Beaudell
• Jacob Johansen
• Katie Kaboom
• Steve Goldberg (Jacob)
• Gretta Wilkinson
• Becky Barrera
• Lola Nation
• Duke Smith
• Diane Mora
• TJ Jude
• Janie Harris
• Evanne Miller
• James Canty
• Chris Beard
• Steve Bridgens

Monday-

• Connie Dover: winner of the Loft’s coveted Speakeasy Prize for Poetry.
• Nairba Sirrah: Book II of Paradise Lost: Satan Breaks Out Of Hell – 9 characters; 1005 lines; 59 minutes word for word memorized recital.
• Eric Gandara
• Megan Louise
• Larry Welling
• Mel Neet
• Paul Goldman
• Eve Brackenburry
• Lee Eliot
• Ken Buch
• Maggie Ammerman
• Dennis Weiser
• Dez
• Marion Dean McIrvin
• Kevin Hiatt
• Patrick Sumner
• Norma Marshall
• Jeremey Colson
• Patrick Dobson
• Stephen Karuska
• Connie dover
• Brian Harris
• Silvia Kofler
• Jose Faus
• Maria Vasquez Boyd
• Brandon Whitehead
• Steve Wolfe
• Megan Louise
• Mikal Shapiro
• Tracy Rockwell
• Jon Bidwell
• Arrika Brazil
• Duke Smith
• Rhiannon Ross
• Abigail Henderson
• Kara Werner
• Robert Moore
• Janie Harris
• Jon Bidwell
• Bob Chrisman
• Brent Kinder
• Lon Swearingen

Tuesday-

• Philip Miller: the godfather of Kansas City poetry, founder of the Riverfront Readings series and author of 6 books of verse, joins us from Mount Union, PA.
•  Dr. Patricia Cleary Miller: Rockhurst University Humanities Chair, four-term poet laureate of the Harvard Alumni Association.
• John Mark Eberhart
• Paul Goldman 
• Susan Peters
• Jim Fox
• Maril Crabtree
• Jan Duncan-O'Neal
• Karin Frank
• Anne Baber
• Bob Chrisman
• Joseph Davis
• Missi Rassmussen
• Michael Wells
• David Morrissey
• Shawn Pavey
• Timothy Pettet
• Tom Wayne
• Philip Miller
• Patricia Miller
• David Arnold Hughes
• Jason Vaughn
• Steve Brisindine
• Sara glass
• Duke Smith
• Rhiannon Ross
• Tom Wayne
• Will Leathem
• Jason Ryberg

Wednesday-

•  Victor Smith Memorial Reading: One of KC’s great ‘street’ voices, a poet’s poet, Smith published 5 chapbooks of poetry. A selection of poets  will read Victor’s poems in honor of his untimely passing.
•  7-9pm VICTORY PARTY at The Conspiracy (at the Uptown Theatre). Live Music and much back slapping. $3 cover for the Kansas City literary arts nonprofit: Write the Future

Poetry Reviews: What's The Point?

 

Publishers Weekly:

But in almost any conversation on the topic of poetry reviews, one question comes up: what's the point? This question isn't always asked with the flippant air that actually means "who cares?" Often, people really want to know: what is accomplished by poetry reviews? Do they help sell books? Do they keep the art form in line? Do they spur writers into creating better poetry or kick bad writers out of the halls of Parnassus? Do poetry reviews help readers?

Read the whole story: Publishers Weekly

Poetry Reviews: What's The Point?

 

 

Technorati Tags: the point of poetry reviews

Confession Tuesday

Tuesday again. I’m like a kid out of breath, only mostly out of thought. My mind is gasping for contemplation and I don’t even realize the weight on my knees against the kneeler. It’s been a week without much clarity.

What to I have to confess this week? [Long pause]

My mind is in a cloud. I confess that there are many times this week that this has occurred. They usually are times when I’m feeling like I’m in a vacuum. No, not the Hoover, but more like when you have an experiment and you put something in a sealed jar and then you suck the air out of it. Only my mind is the jar and my thoughts have been suffocated. So here I am trying to assess my week in review and my mind is blank.

Oh, there is my self doubt. Yes, I recall having self doubt that creped into my writing during this past week... It was there like a lead weight in my wrist when I lifted my pen. In my fingers as I typed. It was the weight of the low pressure zone preventing the clouds in my head from moving on eastward. Do you ever have these irrational periods of doubt? They didn’t seem irrational at the time, but I know they are because there was something external that triggered a clearing of the doubts from my head. ~0~

I had a number of objectives going into last weekend and I confess I perhaps put too much emphasis on what I hoped to achieve. So much so, that I felt early on that I was not going to have a good weekend. In the end, I confess that I turned that around and used it too my advantage. Deciding not to throw in the towel, but try to salvage as much as I could. I didn’t get as much accomplished as I planned, but surprisingly more than I feared I would, and I still was able to take in a movie with my family. I confess that sometimes I surprise myself and things turn out better. ~0~

I confess that I surprise myself sometimes that in spite of liking language, I can be a pretty visual person. I enjoy seeing and taking pictures. Maybe that is why poetry in particular is the way I like my language; because of the emphasis of imagery. The relational connection between one thing and another and how that all fits together. Yes, when you peel back the layers of me, I confess that image and emotion comprise a good deal of what I am about. ~0~

When people call me and leave me a message to call them back, I confess I do not understand why they think I want to listen to 2 to 3 minutes of music on their voice mail.  I’m not with a record company; I’m not going to discover them or anyone they are featuring. It is ALMOST always the most hideous (and I use the term loosely) music. ~0~

Wow-  I can't believe I flushed all that out.   :) 

The Pit Live on the Internet - from Kansas City

"William PeckMarch 28, 2010 at 3:40pm
Subject: The Pit live on the Internet
We are now broadcasting live. Check out Kansas City's poets here:

Journal Bits March 22 – March 28

March 22 -  read Barefoot by Anne Sexton…  this poem is on the erotic side, pretty interesting given the period in which it was written.

March 24 - “the front never advances / no land changes hands / no prisoners are captured / death keeps percolating / hot black death.”

March 25 – “Corduroy slacks don’t hold / creases well, in fact they turn / cheap quickly— warn down / like a smooth bald head.”

March 28 - “A Sunday afternoon cocoon / the time held tightly / a pattern of jealous squeaks in the hallway floor / my hunger to be refreshed / warm within the pit / I hear the ticking of the clock not / in the present latitude / not in the passage from light into dark / or even back again.”

“Molten sweet sonnet / sings my eyes into shadows / of the present.”

Quote by Elizabeth Jennings….”For me, poetry is always a search for order.” I so agree!

Technorati Tags: Journal Bits,a search for order

j 

Unconscious Mutterings Week 374

You Say, I think....

• Bow out :: withdraw
• Relationships :: personal
• Facebook :: slow
• Items :: sundry
• Ours :: communal
• Sting :: bee
• Hangover :: wasted
• Contacts :: eyes
• Lonely :: forlorn
• Seven days :: week

Get you own list here

~ Book of Kells: NaPoWriMo: 30 New Poetry Prompts for National Poetry Month

~ Book of Kells: NaPoWriMo: 30 New Poetry Prompts for National Poetry Month

Getting ready for NaPoWriMo????

Or if you are just looking for a poetry prompt or two to get you started on a new poem here is a great list.

Kelli constantly has helpful insights to writing and publishing poetry so her blog is an excellent read anyway. Check it out.

You Go Chester Stranczek!

There are so many funny signs to choose from, but you've got to love this one.  I for one am always opposed to villages making excetions.

Under Construction

Please excuse my construction zone, I'm toying with changes to my template...  I'm not likely finished yet... still trying things and mulling them over.