Man like may like the spicer spin...

It appears to me that almost any man may like the spider spin from his own inwards his own airy citadel. ~ John Keats

BUSH - COVERING HIS ASS - THE BEST HE KNOWS HOW

Marketplace: Negroponte given power to waive SEC rules


In a most interesting report, a reporter with Marketplace heard on National Public Radio reports on unusual development, this quietly took place this month that could have some very large implications.

On May 5, President Bush has granted his intelligence czar the authority to exempt publicly traded companies from any and all reporting requirements of their financial dealings. That is the same day that Porter Goss stepped as director of the CIA, and six days before USA Today published its story that three major telephone companies had turned over massive amounts of customer calling records to the federal government. Information that the NSA was using to data-mine and look for patterns and, basically, spy on the American people.

What this rule means, is that AT&T and Bell South and Verizon, who have these government contracts — [as it's been reported in the papers ]to sell customer data to the government, they may never have to report that income or how the finances of that program worked. This is scheme that allows them to continue to deny any such activity - legally - unless of course the circumstances are challenged and overturned by the courts. I urge you all to go [here] to listen to the broadcast, or read the transcript [here] and see the documentation [here].

tags:Bush NSA Verizon AT&T domestic spying Bell South

Rough Draft of poem

A rough draft of a poem I'm working on....


Buildup [working title]

Awaken abortively
By a rain battered pre dawn-
The mind shuffles through
A whole deck of thoughts,
A troubling one
Catching a hangnail
On the gossamer network
Inside my head,
Where scar tissue
Has built up
Over the years.

tag: Writing and poetry

Being in the realm of the imagination.

I have seen several things that are attributed to John Keats that suggest to me that he not only had a very fortitudinous imagination; it was that creative state of mind that he seemed to truly reside in. As a poet, I often try to go there, but I truly do not live in that realm. I'm not sure that living there is particularly fitting in the world we live in today. Which of course raises the question of just how fitting it was in Keats's time? (1795-1821)

I suppose that if one were a poet and nothing else, such an existence could work. Even among many very gifted contemporary poets, I'm not sure that I identify any single instance of one who I think actually "lives" in that kind of state of mind. Thinking of poets like Robert Bly, WS Merwin, Naomi Shihab Nye, John Ashbury, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood or Mary Oliver... these are a few poets who I believe have very bold imaginative flashes within their work. Yet, them seem to have normal lives. I'm guessing they come back to reality everyday.

From two quotes that I will share today, I glean Keats strived if not found that realm.

"My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk." There is something that tells me that with Keats, this is not particularly a metaphorical pronouncement. I get a real powerful image of his mind in this statement and how he resides within it.

Then, Keats speaks of the truth of imagination. "I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination." His poetics here works well for me because I firmly believe we write from a basis of truth. That truth may not necessarily reflect with 100% accuracy, historical events, but it is based on our life experiences real or imagined. Therefore those things, which are born within the mind, are truth.

Tags: John Keats Writing and poetry

Rice faces silent protest in Boston�|�Reuters.com

Rice faces silent protest in Boston - Reuters.com


Rice's selection as commencement speaker had stirred controversy at the Jesuit school, where many oppose the war and say it contradicts Catholic teaching.


Tags: Iraq Rice Protest

You get Keats this week

mWeekend is gone, good ones I believe are all greased and travel through time way too quickly.

I was able to crank out a first draft of something early Sunday evening. Also read an interesting piece in The New Yorker by Peter J Boyer on the marketing "The Da Vinci Code" to Christians. (which was quite fascinating) Meanwhile the film' generated $77 million in box office sales in its first weekend (source) which is a good start for a film which Sony invested $125 million making it and another $62 million to market it.

Meanwhile, the Dixie Chicks are releasing a new album Taking The Long Way in which the Chicks seem to be gravitating to a harder line and much more personal poetics to their lyrics and moving somewhat away from the fun and good humor days of the past. They have no regrets about the harsh words about President Bush some three years ago and their music suggests they are ready to move on, but stand by their opinion of the President and the war in Iraq. [listen to single]

Ok, now you get my John Keats quote for today:

"Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works."

Tags: Da Vinci Code Dixie Chicks John Keats Writing and poetry Marketing Dan Brown Sony

Yesterday Barry was Three!

Pictured here is Barry, our long haired Dachshund
who turned three years big on Saturday. He is pictured here with his stuffed cigar in his mouth.

Last night my wife and youngest daughter went to a pig roast, weather here was absolutely beautiful in the evening.

Doing chores today for the most part, not writing as of yet, perhaps later.

Another couple of Amy Lowell quotes to share today and starting Monday, I'll select another poet to quote throughout the week.

Here is an Amy Lowell quote on art: "Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in." A very good starting place to describe what art is, I think.

Here she speaks of happiness: "Happiness: We rarely feel it. I would buy it, beg it, steal it, Pay in coins of dripping blood For this one transcendent good."

And lastly, perhaps a bit of good advise from this poet...

"Take everything easy and quit dreaming and brooding and you will be well guarded from a thousand evils."

• Poetry on the Internet: Some is quite good, but is it literature?
• Poetry in my bones

The Moon, McCain, War & Poetry

Hang lose with me, the fascination with Amy Lowell quotes will end soon enough and I'll move on to yet another poet. However, the quote I've picked for today is yet another exquisite joining of words... "Moon! Moon! I am prone before you. Pity me, and drench me in loneliness."

At the New School graduation in Madison Square Garden, Senator John McCain, keynote speaker was jeered, booed, and heckled by students who objected to his defense of the war in Iraq.

A student speaker, Jean Sara Rohe, 21, discarded her original remarks to talk about Mr. McCain. Stating that the Senator did not reflect the ideals upon which the university was founded. "I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong," she said.

At one point in his speech, the Senator defended the war saying, "I believe the benefits of success will justify the costs and risks." The protests grew louder and more frequent, some graduates walked out. Others laughed. When Mr. McCain returned to policy after briefly quoting Yeats, someone shouted, "More poetry!"

tags: Iraq War John McCain Poetry Amy Lowell

'101 Selected Poems' from a poet of 102

The Daily Star - Arts & Culture - '101 Selected Poems' from a poet of 102


Haidar has won international renown from a wide variety of patrons - from Pope John XXIII to the Arab League - which named him "Prince of Poets." The French awarded him the Medal la Croix de Grand Officier, and his work also won him Lebanon's Gold Medal of Merit and the Order of the Cedars. (read the fascinating story linked above)

Unrequited

Unrequited

A heart bled out
All but empty chambers
Ring hollow
As it continues pumping
Just the same.



tags: Poetry poem

Writers Place Events

Upcoming events at The Writers Place:

Open Mic: Monday, May 22, 8pm

An open mic reading / every fourth Monday of the month. At these open mic nights hosted by Sharon Eiker everyone reads!


Reading: Friday, May 26, 7pm

Ann Pai author of the memoir My Other Body: A Memoir of Love, Fat, Life and Death, will read at The Writers Place.

About the book: I wrote my book after I lost my older sister, Joyce, to the consequences of morbid obesity. I wrote it because I wanted my sister back - I wanted to make her visible again. To do this, I needed to show our sisterhood, her physical struggle, and the mental struggles of a woman dealing with weight and body image. However, since I couldn't speak for my sister's mental struggles, I wrote the story of my own. I hope you're interested in the book because I'd love to share the story with you.

Ann Pai has been writing for publication since 1996 in both technical and creative fields. Her poetry has been published by The MacGuffin Reader, in the online journal Friction Magazine (2001), in the Detroit-based indie publication Eat at Joes, and in the Pocket Poets chapbook series produced by Prospero's Bookstore in Kansas City. Her essay, “Appropriate Chewing,” was published in Byline magazine in 2003. For its 2005 edition, Sport Literate magazine printed Ann's essay, "Nolan Ryan's Last Pitch," about her sister’s death in the context of her sister’s love for baseball. Ann Pai has read poetry by invitation in writers’ series in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri, and has performed poetry for audiences in Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Brescia, Italy.An accomplished technical writer in private industry, she has designed and written more than one hundred software instruction manuals, searchable online references, and short instructional pieces.Ann Pai has lived and worked in Italy (as a live-in babysitter, translation proofreader, and English tutor) and in Russia (where, after receiving a master's degree in city planning, she assisted in planning the first Russian city to be designed on free-enterprise principles).


The Writers Place is at - Pennsylvania - Kansas City, MO 64111 Phone: 816-753-1090

American Poet honored in Iran - Poetry Northwest gets New Life

Yes, you get yet another Amy Lowell quote today.... "Sexual love is the most stupendous fact of the universe, and the most magical mystery our poor blind senses know. "

• Iran has honored Coleman Barks, a US national who spent 30 years translating the legendary 13th century Persian poet Rumi into English. [story]
• Poetry Northwest established an international reputation for publishing both stars and up-and-comers with its first issue in June 1959, but the publication folded in 2002. A Portlander, David Biespiel, 42, poet and teacher was unwilling to accept the magazine's demise He contacted the University of Washington, which owned rights to the publication. The university has agreed to let Biespiel restart Poetry Northwest from the offices of Attic Writers' Workshop, which he founded in 2000. [story]
• The UN Committee against Torture calls for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. International voices are increasingly being raised against the detention center there operated by the United States. [story]
• General Michael Hayden nominee for CIA director - defends the shameful record of domestic surveillance in confirmation hearings. [story]

tags: Poetry Iran UN Human Rights General Michael Hayden Domestic spying

Stick Poet Gear

Stick Poet Gear - go here!

tags: Stick Poet Poets caps

Galatea, Lowell, CIA, Et Al

• Eileen Tabios has announced that Galatea Resurrects Vol. 2 is up. You can read it [here]. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but if it is anything like the first edition, it will be worth the read!

• The Senate Intelligence Committee opens confirmation hearings today on General Michael Hayden's nomination to head the CIA. Members of the committee are listed here. Hayden's Ties to the Pentagon and his defense of the President's domestic surveillance program are reasons to be concerned abut his appointment to head the CIA. I urge you to contact these members and oppose his nomination. Especially if any of the members are from your home state.
  
  Pat Roberts, Kansas Chairman
  
  John D. Rockefeller IVWest Virginia, Vice Chairman
  
  Orrin G. Hatch, Utah
  
  Carl Levin, Michigan
  
  Mike Dewine, Ohio
  
  Dianne Feinstein, California
  
  Christopher S. Bond, Missouri
  
  Ron Wyden, Oregon
  
  Trent Lott, Mississippi
  
  Evan Bayh, Indiana
  
  Olympia J. Snowe, Maine
  
  Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland
  
  Chuck Hagel, Nebraska
  
  Russell D. Feingold, Wisconsin
  
  Saxby Chambliss, Georgia

• Dark Familiar, is a collection of poems by Aleda Shirley (Sarabande Books). It touches on the inevitable touchstones of loss and place from the perspective of life's mid-point. [here]

• The poetry of motherhood [here]

• And another quote from the poet AMY LOWELL:

"I am tired, beloved, of chafing my heart against the want of you; of squeezing it into little ink drops, and posting it. And I scald alone, here, under the fire of the great moon. "

tags: Writing and poetry Reviews CIA spying Eileen Tabios Amy Lowell Galatea Resurrects

I see a merger coming

I must give credit to auntialias for this Gem!

Happy Hump Day

Another Amy Lowell quote for today....

"Let us be of cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never come."



Poetry Contest - 2006 Autumn House :

Judged by award-winning poet Tim Seibles, the 2006 Autumn House Poetry Contest awards publication of a full-length manuscript and $2,500 to the winner. The postmark deadline for entries is June 30, 2006 - click here to get all the details.

Also of interest... THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, NO. 2: A SUBMISSIONS CALL [click here]

In the news:

AT&T has issued a statement saying, "it had an obligation to assist government agencies responsible for protecting the public welfare" in response to handing over phone records of millions of people to the NSA without any warrants or court orders. How refreshing to know that AT&T could not give a rats ass about their customers. At least they got it out in the open. Hell, if we take the six degrees of separation theory to heart, we are probably all linked to terrorists.


America Loses a Treasure: Stanley Kunitz / Audio - Melissa Block All Things Considered - NPR [here]


tags: Writing and poetry AT&T Privacy NSA

Tuesday Musings

This week, I'll share a few quotes from the poet Amy Lowell (1874-1925) another Massachusetts poet. I think the state mush have produced the highest per capita number of poets.

She was a part of the Imagist movement, and she maintain that "concentration is of the very essence of poetry" and strove to "produce poetry that is hard and clear, never blurred nor indefinite."

Amy Lowell had a lifelong love for the poet Keats, who she believed to be the forbearer of Imagism. She published a biography of Keats 1925.

Today's Amy Lowell Quote:


"Let the key guns be mounted, make a brave show of waging war, and pry off the lid of Pandora's Box once more."

*The local poet Bill Bauer will appear tonight at the Johnson County Central Resource Library, 987 W. 87th St. in Overland Park, Kansas where he will read. The event starts at 7 p.m.

*From my Journal:

"Stonewalling was just one of many ways she constructed obsticals."

The politics of fear and numbers

Polls show American's support for President Bush somewhere in the toilet. I realize first lady Laura Bush says she disbelieves the polls, and I don't blame her for standing behind her man, if that is what she is doing. Still, if Laura Bush really disbelieves how Americans feel about her husband then she ought to get out more often. By out, I mean in the real world as opposed to a rally where the tickets are given out to carefully screened individuals.

We have been hearing a lot about how "9-11 changed everything" and how we have to think differently. We are in a war on terrorism. Don't misunderstand me, I understand the threat of terrorists is real. It existed long before 9-11 for that matter.

When the President went on TV last night, he did so simply for the opportunity to soften up the negative numbers against him. Right now, Americans favor building a high wall around us and throwing the keys to the gate away.
Yes, some seventy percent of the American people want to close down the boarders. They want to close it down out of fear.

Some people are truly afraid of a terrorist walking across the boarder and it could happen. That is not how any of the 9-11 conspirators came in, but it is possible. There are a lot of other people who also want it closed out of fear, but that fear is not about terrorism but what they see as the assimilation of our American culture into large segments of diversified nationalities. They are fearful of the erosion of American job markets, and they are fearful of having to provide benefits and services to new people entering this country.

In fact, while the driving force in all of this is fear, it is really more the latter that the President is pandering to. Yes, I said pandering. Now, I'll tell you why. First of all, if the President was so all fire concerned abut the boarders, he would have ordered this done right away after 9-11. He has ordered wiretaps without court approval. He has ordered the collection of billions of people's phone records. None of those has he sought authority for, he just did it, in spite of existing laws that provide protections and oversight to such intrusions. He could have just signed an executive order and poof- put troops along the Mexican and Canadian boarders.

The only known terrorist entry attempt through the American boarders was the millennium bomber who used Canada, not Mexico for entry and was caught. But the President is focusing on the Mexican boarder not Canada. That is where people fear the greatest threat to American culture and jobs.

So the President now wants to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the Mexican boarder. I feel safer already! Don't you? Actually the Posse Comitatus Act would prevent these troops from making arrests of illegal aliens. They can only stand by and watch. Or call the actual boarder patrol and provide information to help them take the people into custody. So really this is not an addition of a big layer of added security. This is smoke and mirrors. The President has fallen on hard times with even his most conservative base. Plus, he wants to try and make his "guest worker" program for non-citizens more palatable with the conservative right. This is just the cod liver oil to help make it go down a little smoother.

tags: border Illegal immigration Bush Immigration national guard

Poet Stanley Kunitz Dies at 100 - Los Angeles Times

Poet Stanley Kunitz Dies at 100 - Los Angeles Times

Stanley Kunitz, the elegant centenarian of American poetry, whose musings about life, death, love and memory brought him a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and two terms as U.S. poet laureate, died Sunday at his home in New York City. He was 100.



tag: poet

Monday ugh!

Monday is not my favorite day of the week anyway, and it seemed this weekend went way to fast for my liking.

Saturday, my daughter Meghan and I did a bike ride. It was not a competitive one and I, unlike her, am not particularly experienced in any rides of great length. In fact, I have not really ridden in years.

This was a 16 mile ride and I bailed at 11 miles. Admittedly I was having problems with the lower gears on the bike, but still, I pushed myself to get to 11 miles. I don't think this is the end of riding for me, but the gear issue is going to have to be dealt with or switch out the bike for another one.

Sunday we celebrated mother's day. I think we all agreed that we ate too much, but otherwise had a good day. It was a long one for my wife, but I think she have a good day otherwise.

I did a wee bit of writing over the weekend, but really not enough make any fuss over here. Read a few poems, but again I was mostly busy with other stuff.

Since it was mother's day I actually spent a fair amount of time thinking about relationships with mothers. I think this was helped by reading the poem "Drowning" by Sharon Olds, in which she describes all of these grown daughters together discussing their fears for their children, all the while each has a mother (their own) bearing down on their neck as they are submerged.

I think mother-daughter relationships are most intricate. Perhaps I am coming from a skewed view - my own relationship with my father was non-existent so I suppose it is not fair for me to judge mother-daughter relationships as any more of less of anything by comparison to father-son. Still, I think they seem more complex than a mother-son relationship.

Kahil Gibran Quotations

Poet, philosopher, and artist, Kahil Gibran was born in Lebanon, though he made the United States his home for the last twenty years of his life. He has been highly read in both Arab speaking countries and the United States.

I came upon two quotes from him which I feel say so much about poets and their craft.

"A poet is a bird of unearthly excellence, who escapes from his celestial realm arrives in this world warbling. If we do not cherish him, he spreads his wings and flies back into his homeland."

It is true that I sometimes read the work of this poet or that and feel quite as though they are from some other, perhaps celestial realm. However, I'm sorry to say that I believe people as a whole do not often cherish them or their works. I suspect a lot of them must be making their way back home.

The second quote I absolutely love. "All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind." Yes! Our words are but a tiny fraction of all that goes on upstairs and yet in many respects, that is all we have to go one when assessing one another. It makes me realize how important each word is because put together with others they represent the visible sum of all our thoughts.

Tags: Poetry poets Writing words

What Is Your Phone Company Up To?

If you us one of these phone services:

AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc.

You should know that they have been voluntarily handing over the phone calling record of tens of millions of customers to the government as part of Bush's post 9-11 surveillance of phone calls. [source 1] [source 2] [source 3]

You should also know that President Bush's nominee for CIA director, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, was head of the NSA from 1999 to 2005, would have overseen the call-tracking program. [source]

This information has been collected with out probable cause, without warrant, and represents an illegal intrusion into the lives of private citizen.

I am calling my Senators and asking them to oppose Michael Hayden's nomination and to fully investigate this activity Bush has authorized. I suggest others do the same.

Birthplace of poetry and voice

" I grew up in this town, my poetry was born between the hill and the river, it took its voice from the rain, and like the timber, it steeped itself in the forests. " ~ Pablo Neruda

Where was my poetry born and from where did my voice originate? This is something I have not really openly explored. I don't believe the answer is an easy one to either question. I could easily dodge it, or dismiss it with a simple answer that fails to do the question justice. Still, I think Neruda asks that which every poet ought to consider within their own personal context.

As to the birth place of my poetry, I have lived my whole life in the same state. Most of it in an urban setting. I suppose that I could argue that my poetry was born in at the shadow of a downtown city that has over the years been in decay. Declining in prominence. I big city, with big city problem, but one in which the migration of it's citizens has been away from, at least until recently.

I have traveled to other cities and states, but this has been my home since a very small child. I have moved within the last few years to a more suburban setting, but one that is not far from all the commercial amenities you normally have being in a big city.

My poetry voice has come from several places. I don't really write so much of regional "place" - for example, Kansas City is known as the city of fountains. I don't recall ever going there with a poem. Nor poetry about the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. Rarely have I mentioned the might Missouri river which has a bend here in the KC area.

What I have found is that my poetry often has been a voice of despair like the urban core. The violence of war perhaps has come from the inner-city violence that never seemed very far away. Hopelessness and despair have often been a part of my work and that perhaps has had some origin in my job with deals daily with mental illness. My voice perhaps also has been drawn from my own personal life, growing up was not easy and although in many respects I had it so much better than some, it was at times painful none the less.

There is an under current of relationship impact upon my writing. Some of it from my family of origin. And I see and feel a tug of influence in relationship poems that are rooted in nearly 32 year of marriage. Love poetry is not something that comes easy for me. There is the ever present fear of writing stuff that is too sappy. But when I can, I do enjoy capturing that moment that says something about love.

The 32 years of marriage have not been without their share of problems and downhill runs, but they are in fact the most significant aspect of my life and for all the mistakes I have made along the way, it is in that relationship with my wife that I have the greatest value of life at all.

I do so often write from a dark perspective. Death is not particularly a fascination with me as perhaps it is of some, but rather a fact of our being and it is at the opposite end of the spectrum of life, I suppose that contrast and the desire to live as opposed to die that pulls me to the subject. It is something I cannot ignore.

So there you are. My poetry was born in a city that knows adversity. Gleaned its voice from everyday trials, from a fight for survival and a search for hope, all the while recognizing the pain and suffering of street people, victims of drive-by shootings, families that try to cling together in these difficult times and that one thing that is so precious that money cannot buy.

Non-Verbal Skills

My hand,
a secret decoder
felt her      silent message
up and down the length
of her body,        and
in translation,          found
we were saying the same thing.

Tag: poem

Mysterious fatigue illness that is costly to Britain - Health - Times Online

Mysterious fatigue illness that is costly to Britain - Health - Times Online

Related Poem in this story is written by Frieda Hughes, daughter of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.


tags: Health and wellness Poetry Frieda Hughes

Robert Browning Quote

"Grow old with me! The best is yet to be." ~ Robert Browning

Sunday Sampler

My fantasy baseball team is 15-14-1, in 5th place out of 12 teams. This is truly fantasy because there are no ties in baseball, oh, except in certain all-star games. Thank you Mr. Selig.

Another poet / blogger site to check out - Sarah at Poetry for a Hostile World. [here]

Thanks to Jilly I found this interesting story on high school censorship of poetry.

Good Advise

"Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure." ~A. E. Housman

On occasion I will read a poem that on the whole may not do a lot for me, but ah! That one line or one stanza will sometimes make it every bit worth the read.





Tag: Poetry

Bits From My Journal

The heart is painted with thick layers of desire.

*

Their carts filled with informalities at bargain prices.

*

The day opened wide as a book opened often, to a favorite page.

*

Willows hunch, creaking arthritically in gusty breeze.

*

The subterranean culture swallowed up the past; it is but fumes of sulfur- that residual stench of palpability.

*

The last day extends a hand, as if to offer some basis to anticipate comfort without suspicion.

Nobel Prize Laureate to Share Poetry

This Friday, May 5th - Seamus Heaney, Nobel Prize Laureate and featured speaker for the 2006 University of Kentucky Main Commencement Ceremony. Heaney will also read on campus from his work as well as his latest book of poems new book of poems, "District and Circle" which will be released by Farrar Straus & Giroux this month. [source]

)()()()(

If you have not heard LIVING WITH WAR by Neal Young [click here]

Tags: Poetry war lyrics Music

The Superhero Thing

It seems that one of the most frequent keyword searches that bring people to this site involves the words hero and poems. Actually most often it is "superhero poems". I'm sorry to say that such internet surfers are going to be disappointed because I have never written a poem about a superhero and I don't recall even one about a hero in specific terms. Perhaps, someday I will venture into that realm. When I do, of course the Superhero will likely be none other than "Stick Poet."

Events:

Kansas City Metro Area:

POETRY AND POETS: May 4 - Leawood City Hall, Maple Room, 4800 Town Center Drive, Leawood, Kansas Writers and listeners welcome. Free. (913-344-0255; 913-339-6700, Ext. 157)

Open Mic: Thursday, May 18, 7pm
KC Poetry Open Reading is a monthly series featuring open reading and special readers. Sign-up for open reading begins at 6:30 with actual reading from 7-9pm. Hosted by Will Leathem this event takes place at The Plaza library, 4801 Main Street - Kansas City, MO

Open Mic: Monday. May 22, 8pm
An open mic reading every fourth Monday of the month. At these open mic nights hosted by Sharon Eiker everyone reads! Writers Place is located at: 3607 Pennsylvania - Kansas City, MO 64111


Poet's Quote for today...

"A poet dares be just so clear and no clearer... He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring." ~ E. B. White

Ah, and what have you to say about that Ted Koozer? (sorry, I couldn't help myself)


tags: Ted Koozer Poetry Superheros

The clutter of blank stares

So National Poetry Month is past, but I still have a treasure trove of wonderful quotes from poets. Hence I will continue to spoon feed them to you but perhaps not on a daily basis.

The Poet's Quote for today:
"How frail the human heart must be - a mirrored pool of thought. " ~Sylvia Plath

And here is a snip-it from one of my older works:

The clutter of blank stares
In a multitude of fun house mirrors
Each one, my own washed-out
Version of despair.

Wow, nice acquisition for Princeton University:
Library acquires archives of prominent literary magazine

Tags: poem Princeton Sylvia Plath Poetry Literature

May Day

To plug another poet...
I haven't read it, but I might suggest that people check out Christine Hamm's book The Animal Husband. (you can get it here) In her own words - "It is funny and sad and a little bit pretty, just like me." frankly, I haven't read much of Christine's work that I didn't just adore.

I enjoyed reading the poem PLANET by Frances Brent in the May 1 edition of the New Yorker. I loved the line, When it slid out of her grasp, / she kept asking / "Didn't I keep my promise?"

You know when people say to you, "You really should get out more?" I think my version of that line to writers is, "Your really should read other people's stuff more."

It's May 1st and you older folks like me can probably remember all the May Day photos we used to see in the papers of the long parades in the Soviet Union where they would roll out all their military hardware down the streets for the world to see. I was thinking about that this morning and how that has all changed. I was also thinking about how across the nation hundreds of thousands of immigrants - some illegally in this country will take to the streets and demonstrate for immigration reform that is favorable to their plight. At the risk of using a metaphor that may sound demeaning to them, it is kind of like cockroaches coming out of the floor molding. Here are all these people that for the most part are a part of a subterranean culture that will today be quite visible. So today, my old image of May Day is being replaced with a more contemporary. Both of these have political implications. Somewhere in all this, I'm sure I have a poem brewing.

Oh, is anyone else finding it trifling the Senator Bill Frist wants to help us poor American drivers by giving us a $100 tax rebate because of the high gas prices? Surprise!!! The GOP plan also includes a controversial proposal to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration. (source)

tags: Immigration Poetry Writing and poetry gas environment

Journalism & Poetry - Poet's Quote of the day

"To separate journalism and poetry, therefore-history and poetry-to set them up at opposite ends of the world of discourse, is to separate seeing from the feel of seeing, emotion from the acting of emotion, knowledge from the realization of knowledge." ~ Archibald MacLeish


Tags: Poetry Journalism history

Fire & Ice

"You are ice and fire the touch of you burns my hands like snow." ~ Amy Lowell

I chose this quote for today simply because it is such a powerful phrase and quite precise in the image it presents to me personally. These are the kinds of lines that produce poetry that leaps from the page rather than just existing as ink in one dimensional form.

On another note, I'd like to suggest to readers that they might consider going to the Squeet box in the left column of this blog and sign up to receive the blog postings via e-mail. I previously used another service which seems not to be defunct of at least not working more that it is. In the short time I have been exposed to Squeet, I have been impressed. This will allow you to receive syndicated feeds of this blog in your e-mail and you can choose from live, daily or weekly feeds.

I have not written much in the past week. I need to integrate a little more time into the coming week for this. I have a number of home projects I am working on and they are coming along but I know there is an endless cycle of them. I had planned to do a more extensive blog post today on a topic but I am forgoing that for now.

Here's to what's left of the weekend!

Tags: Writing and poetry syndication Feeds

Accuracy & Clarity

"Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear." ~ Ezra Pound

This is a most interesting statement in that to me I want to split down the middle falling on both sides. On one hand I heartily agree. And if we are speaking literally of language itself, yes! But just as we should strive for efficiency and clarity in language usage, I don't believe that mean we have to be so ridged with our poetry as Ted Koozer would have us all be.

I myself like a little mysticism left between the lines. I like to have to read a poem over and over. That is where discovery comes. If I read a poem once and can say, "Oh, that was nice. I understand completely," then I quite often feel cheated. There is no stretching of the mind. No room for revelation or discovery. Sure concise language is important, but not everything has to be written as though it were for remedial consumption.

Yes, there are exceptions. There are poems that are straight forward that I like very much and some of my own have been written in a fashion the Koozer's of the world would feel much more comfortable with. But these poems must say something all the more exceptional.

tag:Writing and poetry

Gee Really?

You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways.And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery...Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever.You're already naturally a poet, even if you've never written a poem.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

I have to give credit to Cindy at Quotidian Light for this site. Admittedly I was fearful that it would tell me I should write obituaries or greeting cards.

A Poet's Moments

"I prefer to explore the most intimate moments, the smaller, crystallized details we all hinge our lives on." ~Rita Dove

Moments...

The concept of a moment I believe means so much to poetry. We often hold onto, whatever it is we capture, within the framework of some indefinite period of time, but it is generally considered to be a small segment.

A noun, I see a moment as both a place and a thing. As a place it is some point within a continuum. As a thing, it is an arbitrary period of time.

What I believe gives particular meaning to moment or moments within the context of poetry is that they are so often characterized by some quality.

If you consider a poem to be a snapshot (and I often feel it is) of sorts, then that very word picture that we strive to recreate is very often predicated on some moment. A loving touch, a dying breath, an intimate kiss, that first cry after coming into the world, the hawk in mid-flight, a moment of terror in the midst of a war.

I like to think that as poets what we are often doing is taking into account some moment and saying about it, "hold that thought!"




Tags: Writing and poetry Poetry

The World As We Know It

"When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other, and to fail to love it is not to exist at all." ~ Mark Van Doren

Last night, I took my daughter to hear Lois Lowry speak on The Life of A Writer.
Lowry wrote one of Meghan's favorite books, The Giver. (second only to To Kill A Mockingbird)

Lowry's story takes us through her life and brings us to the inspiration behind The Giver, a book which is highly acclaimed and at the same time has sparked controversy by many parents who I will assume are well meaning if not somewhat ignorant.

Lowry's personal story underscores her belief that those things in life (which we all have) that are sad or painful, do in fact serve a significant purpose, without which, the good, the happy and joyful times would soon become mundane and of lesser value without such tribulations to measure against.

I agree that this is an important aspect of our lives. One which is very often hard for us to keep in perspective. It certainly isn't going the make the sad or painful any easier to endure, but I think it can give greater legitimacy to the upside of life.

Mark Van Doren's quote above is an excellent example how poetry and poets themselves can server the greater good of man. People often ask, "Why do poets so often write of death, or war?" The answer is simple... because it is there. It is real and it is before us. The same is true of love, and so many other things. In a very real way, poets are historians, recording what we see and what we feel in such a way as to give it greater meaning to others and to other generations. While all poetry is not necessarily 100% factual, it will address truths that we see and feel. Sometimes I think of how awesome a snapshot can be and the whole "a picture is worth a thousand words" thing. But when a poet reaches deep within himself or herself, and pulls out what he or she feels and put them, not into lengthy prose, but in very precise words in a very special order to grasp what was internalized, how awesome is that?

tags: Writing and poetry Lois Lowry The Giver Poetry Literature Poems

Collecting Thoughts in Journal

I've decided today I will keep my journal close at hand and record bits and pieces of any variety of thoughts that come together in a semblance of phrase. Not wanting any particular issue, theme, agenda but merely allowing the collection of these random particles of thought. At the end of the day, or perhaps tomorrow I'll visit these and see what has substantive value. From this, I'll see what I can write.

The concept is of course not at all novel. I do write little bits of verbiage from time to time and some become the basis of later work. But I am going to try to be more prolific in that process throughout the day. This is where this process differs from my past experiences.

On another note, I picked up a couple of good books over the weekend. My wife has the uncanny ability to walk into a book store and find really good material on poetry. This would not be so surprising if she were more attune to the craft. She is highly creative and artistic, but poetry is not her thing. (though she is highly supportive of my poetry)



tag: Writing and poetry

Anne Bradstreet Quote

"Iron till it be thoroughly heated is incapable to be wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on his anvil into what frame he pleases." ~Anne Bradstreet

High Fives All-Around!

"Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly." ~ Anne Stevenson

I like this quote because it reminds me of the whole matter of word economy in poetry. I often need to remind myself the importance of this to poetry. It is not so much that I have a struggle with it as it is that it just needs to remain on the forefront of my mind.

It has occurred to me that this is a concept that really goes against the grain of my normal mode of communication. With ADD the tendency is to verbalize everything that is going through your mind. Hence, I will often give a person more information than needed in the course of a conversation. As I write this, I'm thinking my wife would likely ask me, "then how come I can write poems with less wordage and not do the same in our conversations?" It is a good question and I suspect the major factor is that we speak in conversations much faster than we write. Writing slows us and of course besides taking more time to choose the best words, we have the ability to re-write.

I do have some good news. Last week I was flipping through the mail and there is one of my self-addressed envelopes.

So I'm reading along... " We are pleased to inform you that your work has been accepted for publication in the 2006 issue..."
and all of a sudden, I realize this is not a rejection letter! I could get into the joy of receiving these much better than the other variety.

Free Speech & Poetry

"In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty."~ Muriel Rukeyser

April 18th Poet's Quote

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you till China and Africa meet and the river jumps over the mountain and the salmon sing in the street. ~ W. H. Auden


* Happy Birthday to my wife Cathy Jean

The Way You Carry Yourself

The Way You Carry Yourself
For Cathy Jean

You wear your flannelness
in that laid back way
that fits you pleasantly.

Conformity seems unimportant
and you prove it like you would
work a math problem backwards.

I swear, you give it utmost validity;
a blossoming art hung out of self-assurance
in an off the path gallery-

If two people find it appealing,
you are satisfied. An if no one sees it,
it's all just the same.

But I would hold you in any fabric,
just as you are, and I would press
your nakedness to mine

in nothing at all,
as the creator herself
has become a treasure of art.

A search for order

"For me, poetry is always a search for order." ~ Elizabeth Jennings

It seems that as we go through life, the very process of living is in itself a natural disordering process. We read the paper, it ends up with sections missing or A between E and D and the Movie section folded inside out. Or we get up in the morning and the bed covering is all out of kelter. And so life moves through the day being lived, being sort of misshapen if you will. We stop at various points to re-order our lives. But we know full well these are temporary shifts in the sand of life, and like the wheat in a Kansas field, it will again move with each breeze.

Elizabeth Jennings has touched upon a most human instinctive facet of poetry. Poetry often speaks to my own need to pause and get things right. To find and reorder life. To find that emotion that resides deep within. You know it is there and cannot begin tell or explain it, even to the one you are closest to in life, for want of words. For perfect description. Your mind and soul searches for that ordering and until you find it - until a poem speaks it to you and you have that ah-ha! realization - it remains locked deep within.

Sometimes it's through my own writing that these things come about. Still, at other times it is the words of another poet that provide a key to this ordering, this finding the right words or image to complete the emotional translation. And so it is that we become better aware and in that greater awareness, now have the ability to put our deepest fears or longing desires, or greater joys and utmost delights into the right words and best order to achieve most precise meaning.

tags: Writing and poetry Poetry

Poet's Quote - Wallace Stevens

"A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman." ~ Wallace Stevens

Poet's Quote ~ Bryant H. McGill

"Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty. " ~Bryant H. McGill

From a work in progress

One more morning sunrise
strained through a gauze wrapped sky-
One more day forcing itself into my squinting eyes.

Student can recite poem with profanity

Student can recite poem with profanity


U.S. District Court Judge Brian Sandoval gave the ok for a 14 year old student to recite a poem in competition with the words "hell" and "damn" in it. Stickpoet recently reported on this in an earlier blog.

A school official, Steven West, at Coral Academy of Science in Reno, NV told 14 year old Jacob Behymer-Smith, that he could not recite the poem in competition again after using W.H. Auden's "The More Loving One" and then reprimanded the student's English teacher. West said the Auden then work contained profanity.

It is sad that this matter had to rise to the level of taking up time on a federal court docket and the school's decision blows my mind. Of course you may go here and judge for yourself just how profane this poem about love is.

I have to say, based on the poor the judgment used by the school in this instance, I don't know that I would trust these people with greater issues of education for a child of mine.

This kid is a freshman in high school for Christ's sake. The academy's attorney said this was not about free speech (the court bagged to differ) but about the schools' ability to set educational standards. That is scary given the prominence of W. H. Auden in modern poetry and how benign the usage of the words in question.

Jacob intends to recite the poem on April 22 during Poetry Out Loud, a contest sponsored by the National Endowment of the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

Tags: Poetry Free Speech Jacob Behymer-Smith National Endowment of the Arts Steven West