gotBREAST?

gotBREAST? is a feature-length documentary exploring how women feel about their breasts.

The documentary includes a diverse cross section of women...single, married and divorced, straight, gay and bisexual women. Ages 2 to 62 with broad ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds.



The film addresses a variety of aspects:

• breast implants and body image
• to sexuality and relationships
• breastfeeding
• breast cancer.

The purpose is to inspire open and honest dialog among men, women, and teens.

The documentary helps debunk myths and challenges audiences to examine societal and personal definitions of female sexuality, beauty, motherhood, and breasts’ relation to physiological and emotional health.

The filmmakers, Stacey Tolbert and Annie Walsh will take questions following the screening. Friday 8-8-08 @ 8:00 p.m.

Saturday 8-9-08 @ 2:00 p.m.

hosted by the YWCA's girls and health program directors. Mothers and daughter are encouraged to attend this screening together, as well as Youth organizations. Large groups are encouraged to reserve seats.
Donations accepted at the door.For more information, contact Patrick Alexander at palexander@ywca-kck.org.

YWCA of Greater Kansas City 1017 North 6th Street Kansas City, KS 66101

* Note: I met Stacey at a local poetry workshop over a year ago. She is a talented poet and writer. I also heard her on a local radio program discussing this production when they were working on it.

Where do Stick Poet Readers Come From?

I haven't done this is an while and it's always kind of fun to see where the readers are coming from. so, here is a breakdown of the geographical areas the last 62 site visitors came from.

• 8 Dallas TexasUnited States
• 7 New York New York United States
• 3 Philadelphia Pennsylvania United States
• 3 Tampa Florida United States
• 3 Charlotte North Carolina United States
• 2 Los Angeles California United States
• 2 Rancho Cucamonga California United States
• 2 San Antonio Texas United States
• 2 Washington District Of Columbia United States
• 2 Kansas City Missouri United States
• 1 Grand Rapids Michigan United States
• 1 Norfolk Nebraska United States
• 1 Bronx New York United States
• 1 Clovis California United States
• 1 Nice Provence-alpes-cote D'azur France
• 1 Gardena California United States
• 1 London England United Kingdom
• 1 Overland Park Kansas United States
• 1 Garnett Kansas United States
• 1 Lynnwood Washington United States
• 1 Koeln Nordrhein-westfalen Germany
• 1 Wenatchee Washington United States
• 1 Toronto Ontario Canada
• 1 San Mateo California United States
• 1 Raleigh North Carolina United States
• 1 Providence Rhode Island United States
• 1 Short Hills New Jersey United States
• 1 Antioch California United States
• 1 Reston Virginia United States
• 1 Chicago Illinois United States
• 1 Mt. Laurel New Jersey United States
• 1 Tallahassee Florida United States
• 1 Baltimore Maryland United States
• 1 Denver Colorado United States
• 1 New Hyde Park New York United States
• 1 Cambridge Massachusetts United States
• 1 San Francisco California United States
• 1 West Chester Pennsylvania United States

Who's the Bimbo Now John McCain?

Paris Hilton Responds to John McCain

She's been to the Mountain Top

Wisdom seems to be tied to experience or at least exposure. We often say it comes with age, but there are plenty of aging people that just don't get it. And too, people who ought to have the experience sufficient to acquire the wisdom but don't.

Reading a recent post on THE BLIND CHATELAINE'S KEYS by Eileen Tabios (AKA Moi), I am taken by how clearly she seems to see the poetry publishing model as it has evolved, as well as her vision of what could be the optimum working model. Let me reiterate I'm speaking about how she sees the way it has evolved. We all know that from both perspective of the poet and the consumer, it's broken.

I don't know if it is the air Tabios is breathing atop the mountain but perhaps more publishers should get out of their offices and trek up that mountain to get a different view of the landscape.

Poetry in The News 8-5-08

A few Poetry news items...

• Robert Bly: The best poetry is always religious [story]
• Using poetry to laugh at the President’s playlist [story]
• Phoebe Snow Is On the Comeback Trail [story]

Today's Thought...

All My Life and it has not come to any more than this: beauty and terror.

~Mary Oliver

Tax Free Weekend

This post is coming to you via my new Toshiba laptop.

The 17 inch screen is especially nice. It's audio and video capacities will come in handy for some future podcasting I'd like to do.

Getting used to Vista- I am normally on Windows XP at the office, so this is a bit new to me. Missouri has a Tax free weekend each year before school starts which makes it nice making a purchase of this size. I was looking at a Dell on line but that would have been my second pick.

Now I need to get busy organizing my files on here and working on a number of drafts that I've accumulated. I am hoping that I can be more systematic about my writing. I do like writing in my journal, but once I have something roughed out, I think taking it to a page where I can see the layout and toy with it more like it would be on a printed page allows for an aspect of development of the piece that is otherwise cumbersome in handwriting.

Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border - washingtonpost.com

Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border - washingtonpost.com

Planning to travel abroad? When you re-enter the U.S. the Department of Homeland Security has disclosed that Federal agents may take your laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing. These officials may share copies of the lap top's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons.

The policies cover any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form:

• including hard drives
• flash drives
• cellphones
• pagers
• ipods
• video and audio tapes
  

They also cover:

• all papers and other written documentation
• including books
• pamphlets
• pocket trash
• pocket litter

Yes that would miscellaneous paper scraps in your pocket.

With all the talk about abuses in the civil liberties of people by the Chinese government, I'd say that under the Bush administration we are well down that slippery slide. More information on protecting privacy issues can be found here

You May Be A Closet Poet If...

Be careful those of you besmirching poets... some of you may be closet poets yourself.

You could be a closet poet:

• If you use a circle to dot your i
• If when sitting erect your head lobs slightly to it's right
• If you suddenly stop your sentences before the end of a line and continue on the line below
• If you personify your ball glove or other objects you hold near and dear to you
• If things that befuddle others makes perfect sense to you
• If the absence of punctuation can be found at times in what you write
• If you write words or sentences in disjointed cursive letters
• If you've ever found yourself sitting in a dark closet alone and enjoyed it
• If you secretly wish to be called by the name Wadsworth, Emily, ee, Sylvia or Pablo

Michael A. Wells © 2008

Journal Bits This Week

• a quotation from the poet Stanley Kunitz - "I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and see the world."
• ...monster winds rebuke her for safety disregarded.
• -still, fashion statements speak up/unpretentiously. These are long firm legs and sleek/institutional distractions.
• I want rain to be plain/I want rain that stays the same/No horizontal riding of wind/No golf ball sized hail on or off/the green.
• "Your whole age sits between what you hear/and what you write." - W.S. Merwin from "Sibyl"
• A lavish history locked away in a graying point of view.

Obama HQ Opens in KC

On my lunch hour today I stopped by the new Obama HQ in Kansas City for their open house. As you can see the crowd was very respectable for a week day lunch time event. In the first photo above, Jackson County Executive Michael Sanders is addressing the crowd.

The headquarters is on the NW corner of Gillham Rd and 31st Street - there is good parking available for volunteer workers. It should be a great location. There are other officers open and yet to open in Missouri including more in the K.C. metro area

Poetry In the News 7-29-08

• Robert Redford Fights Global Warming With Poetry [NPR]
• He dismisses university writing programs as "multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes" in which Volvo-driving poet-professors are too fearful of risking prizes or promotions to make waves. [story]

Weak 287 Unconscious Mutterings

Unconscious Mutterings ~ link
Word & Thought Associations

here's mine:

1. Memory :: card
2. Original :: Kentucky Fried
3. Exclusively :: yours
4. Listings :: Real Estate
5. Bucket :: seats
6. Knight :: Sir Lancelot
7. Dusty :: Baker
8. Choice :: Pro
9. Sunglight :: *I'm going to take a wild assed guess that they mean "sunlight" and say:: bright
10. Change of plans :: life

Words of Interest

This weekend I came across a couple of words I'm intrigued with...

1. biduous - (pronounced bid-u-us) N. lasting two days.

2. dilogy - (pronounced dil-eji) N. intentional ambiguity; emphatic repetition of words, etc.

Poetry in the News

• Semic - pleased to be back at his writing desk - "Washington is very much in my mind and will undoubtedly be the subject of many poems." [Story]
• Before the Mississippi Department of Education pats itself on the back for raising educational standards, it needs to take a long look at what those standards are. [Editorial]
• Is poetry's future as bright as its past? [Editorial]
• 1,000,000,000,000 Web pages! Somebody who doesn't have at least one Web page in cyberspace should feel totally insignificant. [Op-Ed]

Around the Bend of Time

Something pulls me
around the stretch
of unseen time
layed out-

before I ever got here
someone saw this
continuum

they put down
a dream they had-
someplace they were going
but I can't see

the end they had in mind
is not mine-

for a while I'll share their thought-
at least till I arrive at my own conclusion.




photo credit: FreeFoto.com

Roan

Roan is an anagram for Nora who came into their life three years ago. Brad Buchanan and wife Kate Washington not only conceived a child, but an idea for a small literary publishing house in Sacramento, California.

Brad is college professor teaching British lit, creative writing and an introduction to poetry. Kate is a free-lance writer and restaurant critic for a local paper in Sacramento. Their first book was "Swimming the Mirror: Poems for My Daughter," poems written by Brad himself. They plan to turn out one or two books a year, with an emphasis on poetry, memoirs, essays and fiction. Their next project, due out in 2009 has already been selected and they are looking to the future. They have an Internet presence established at www.roanpress.com.


source: sacbee.com

Sharon Olds - A Private Poet

'I've tried to make sense of my life ... make a small embodiment of ordinary life, from a daughter's, wife's, mother's point of view'

Sharon Olds is a poet whose work is particularly direct and can be painfully raw at times with its physicality in relationships. Among the plain spoken and direct poets, Olds has become one of my personal favorites. But she has detractors as well. Helen Vendler, a leading American critic of poetry(1) describe her work as self- indulgent, sensationalist, and even pornographic. (2) I take great issue with her assessment.

One thing is indisputable about Olds. For all the exposure of her work; at least ten published collections of poetry, the inclusions in over a hundred anthologies and translation of her work into seven different languages; Olds remains a relatively private person. She has given few interviews over the years and when one takes place, it's newsworthy.

Marianne Macdonald of the Guardian interviewed Sharon Olds for an article that appeared this month in the Guardian and their online version as well. Check it out... it's worth reading.

source (1) (2)

The Invented Person

The poet Stephen Dunn speaks of the invented person in the notebook he keeps, as sited in The Poet's Notebook. Of course fiction writers invent persons all the time but where do people in poems come from?

Dunn's invented person(s) are made up, "from everything I am, or could be. For many years I was more desire than fact. When I stop becoming, that's when I worry."

I recall talking with someone a while back who said they never liked writing poetry in first person. They did not elaborate on why, but I could think of reasons, though they might not be what caused them to dislike first person.

I know all too well that people tend to see first person poems as all about the poet. To some degree that person could reflect certain attributes or desires of the poet, even if not autobiographical. But I think fiction writers have to get inside the heads of their characters too and there is I believe little difference then between the two trades and the nature of the inventiveness necessary to carry off a good piece of writing.

I take it that Dunn's invented person is always changing. Sometimes I find that aspect of the inventiveness the most difficult to control. It is not uncommon for my "first Person" in one poem to seem very much like one in the next. That is a challenge that requires me much more energy as well as courage to free myself from self imposed limits. You can create this shell of a person, but you have to be willing to step into that shell with the persona that is the right fit. If I'm an axe murderer, it's going to take a lot of tweaking of my personality to imagine what that must be like.

Dunn says these people are "borrowed from the real- abstracted... the person we finally know."

*photo credit - FreeFoto.com

WEEK 286 - Unconscious Mutterings

Unconscious Mutterings ~ link
Word & Thought Associations
here's mine:

1. Flicker :: Picker
2. Styling :: Hair
3. Episode :: TV
4. Sexier :: Hot
5. Studious :: Grad
6. Mushroom :: Toad Stool
7. 8 minutes :: Mile
8. Bald :: Shine
9. Immunity :: AT&T
10. Sectioned :: Ortange

Rag Reading Review

Last nights Main Street Rag poetry reading - held at the Writers Place featured Amy Davis ( left) and Missi Rasmussen (right) followed by an open mic.

Amy's poems were an ecliptic journey through some of her earlier work to the present. While some of these poems I've had an opportunity to hear before, there were several I had not. Her delivery was casual and with commentary that included interesting insight into some of the work. Not filler; but things that really enhanced the experience.

Missi's read was smooth and deliberate. Again, some material I was familiar with but lots of poems I had not heard before. There was a great deal of maturity in both the material and the poise with which she delivered it. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of new pieces of work she presented

During the opem mic period - Pat Berge read her poem One Good Day. A moving piece that you could have heard a pen drop as it was read.

Shawn Pavey gets high marks for the selection of these two young women as featured readers for the event. The Main Street Rag is a quarterly literary magazine based in Charlotte, NC and is co-sponsor of the monthly reading series. Pavey is co-founder.

Journal bits this week...

• conversations through cheese cloth/ripple the dialogue
• The last thing echoes its name/off the monument to a culture/unable to establish roots here
• I had a dream in the pitch dark. As disturbing as it was, it remains a shapeless void.
• Rain falling - acoustically pleasing. A single roll of thunder breaks through; then a second one. A lazy Saturday morning has broken out. [7-12]

What the Blogosphere is Saying About The New Poet Laureate

What others are saying about the new poet laureate - Kay Ryan...

• The New Modernest - Edward Lifson.com / "Me, I'm a minimalist. I like lots of it. That's a joke. But I've always liked the spare poetry of Kay Ryan."
• Bibliolatry / "Ever the modern gal, I like that her poems are short and deceptively easy to read."
• Books, Inq.: The Epilogue / "She's a hell of a poet, and a great person to boot."
• Little Fury / "Kay Ryan’s appointment to the post has potential, people, so I’m hopeful. By her own admission, Ryan is “an outsider,” though I suppose I dare you to name a poet who doesn't believe he or she is, in some fundamental human way, an outsider. Dana Gioia, maybe. Billy Collins. Yeah, ok, so give me a list of ten. At the very least, I find Ryan’s work to be magnificently energetic. "
• Notes on the Writing Life / "Ryan is skillful, accomplished, and more than deserving of this honor, but I don't much care for her poetry, which tends to be simple, spare, and playful. Just a matter of taste, really. Simic is a hard act to follow and is a personal favorite. I'm happy to see a woman have the honor again after so long a string of men, but I had hoped to see Jorie Graham named. Like Billy Collins and Ted Kooser, Kay Ryan writes poetry that is very accessible. Even a caveman could read it. Sometimes that simplicity appeals to people who don't read more complex or surreal poetry, so perhaps Ryan will draw a wider audience. And that will surely be a good thing for poetry."

Well, I was Surprised

Kay Ryan would not have been on my short list. Hell, she would not have even made my long list. I'm not referring to prospective Veeps, I'm talking about the next U.S. Poet Laureate. This is not to be critical of Kay Ryan, it has to do with the fact that she is a poet who has been completely off my radar. As such, I am quite frankly at a loss to assess my view of the news of her selection other than to express some feeling of relief that a woman was selected as it has been quite a drought for their gender.





What I do know about Kay is the following:

• She was born in California
• Educated at UCLA - both bachelor's and master's degree
• She's received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Guggenheim fellowship, an Ingram Merrill Award, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Union League Poetry Prize, the Maurice English Poetry Award, and three Pushcart Prizes.
• She has published six collections of poetry.

Others on Kay Ryan:

Dana Gioia: "Ryan’s poems characteristically take the shape of an observation or idea in the process of clarifying itself. Although the poems are brightly sensual and imagistic, there is often a strongly didactic sense at work."

J.D. McClatchy: "She is an anomaly in today's literary culture: as intense and elliptical as Dickinson, as buoyant and rueful as Frost.”

In the days ahead I'll be checking out her work and will likely be able to formulate a better view of this latest selection by the Library of Congress.

Poetry in the News

• As much as his left-brain produces equations, formulas and theories, his right-brain gushes sentiment, passion and feelings. Retired scientist Leonard "Barry" Barrington has written a poem a day for thirty years.
• Readers solve 'lost' poet mystery.
• Napa Valley Writers' Conference presents public lecture series July 28-31 / On Thursday, July 31, at 9 a.m., Brenda Hillman will speak on “Reportorial Poetry: Bringing Poetic, Spiritual, and Political Activism Together.” More on the conference.

Sonata

The third movement was less
obvious—

its sound rooted in the quietude
that often passes as peace, but is really
just a pause in fighting.

"Mamma Mia, here I go again/ My, my, how can I resist you?"

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm one of those

people addicted to the music of the pop group ABBA. So, when I saw the link on Jilly's blog today... well, I was very interested it what it had to say.

Can science explain why ABBA is so catchy? [ABBA story on Boston.com]

Sarah Rodman writes, "ABBA's songs continue to endure as what scientists have dubbed "earworms" 35 years after the band's first album was released. Like those little bugs, the tunes burrow into our brains and keep hitting the repeat button." I've always maintained that ABBA's female vocalists have one of the sweetest harmonies around. They are just about as perfect as humanly possible. And their harmony may in fact have something to do with this.

According to Daniel Levitin, author of "This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession," The ABBA model of the multiple voices is closer to "the chemical reactions we have to events in the world, for tens of thousands of years when we as a species heard music we heard groups singing it, not an individual and not an individual standing on a stage." Sorry Frank Sinatra and Miley Cyrus.

Levitin says their upbeat songs like "Money, Money, Money" have simple lyrics that makes them easy to sing along to. That he adds, gives listeners "an even more powerful hit of happy juice in the brain from dopamine."

But what about the sad and more contemplative songs? "The Winner Takes It All," for example.Here, brains produce an opposite but equally enjoyable reaction. "You get the comfort hormone of prolactin when you hear sad music," Levitin explains. That's the same hormone that's released when mothers nurse their babies. It's soothing.

The article points to a number of others individuals with the credential to speak on the subject of musicality and the brain... they all find reason to count the music of ABBA as infectious. A fascinating article and somewhat reassuring that I am not alone.

Now, I can't wait for the premiere of Mamma Mia. ...here I go again... My my, how can I resist you...

Unconscious Mutterings Week 245

Unconscious Mutterings ~ link

Word & Thought Associations

here's mine:

1. Intimidated :: Bully
2. Brush :: Fuller
3. Masquerade :: Party
4. Procedure :: Surgical
5. Tattoos :: Heart
6. Square :: Root
7. Tuck :: Away
8. Boyfriend :: Lover
9. Badass:: Dog
10. Thousand :: Island

Timing is Everything

Timing can be so important. It mystifies me how a particular moment is simply the right moment for specific poem to come together. I've had a few encounters with this sort of thing. And as thought I almost lack gratitude from the ones that have occurred this way, I'd add too damn few.

Some of the best poems can be viewed in the same way as a snapshot. They capture a moment in time and frame it in words. A yardstick to measure the success of such work could well be if the reader can put him/herself into that frame and automatically be in the moment. I think William Carlos Williams' poem that begins... so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain is a classic example of what I mean. This poem came to him on the spot and indeed captures a moment in time like that of a photographer. Wickpedia notes "The pictorial style in which the poem is written owes much to the photographs of Alfred Stieglitz and the precisionist style of Charles Sheeler."

I'm trying to think about the few times I have had such an experience with writing a poem and it seems clear to me that there was little if anything I did consciously to assure the success of the poem written. I cannot think of any. In fact, these instances were more like becoming aware that there was nothing to do but sit down and write the poems. The conditions and the creation of the poem in these instances had more control over me than I over them. Because of this it is not something I can say, "ah, do this, and a great poem is bound to happen." Randall Jarrell ruefully defined a poet as someone who, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, manages to get hit by lightning seven or eight times.[The Atlantic.com] Perhaps these are lightening experiences.

Obligatory Communication

"One of the obligations of the writer is to say or sing all that he or she can, to deal with as much of the world as becomes possible to him or her in language." ~ Denise Levertov

So, you thought you'd just write the great American novel or win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Then, maybe travel a bit. Speak hear and there about what it's like now that you are a successful writer. Poet Denise Levertov seems to see it differently. She wants us to dig deep down in our own humanity and and communicate who and what we are within the language of our work. I don't know about you but that seems a pretty heavy responsibility.

Maybe what Levertov is saying is that whatever you write, don't do it half assed. If you are going to write, you owe it to your reader to put your total self into it. Make the language you speak be totally from yourself and make it the best representation of who you are that you can. I suppose anything short of that cheats both the reader and our self. I hate to say it, but it kind of reminds me of the Army advertisement... "Be all that you can be."

K. C. Poetry Reading Event ~ Mark Your Calendars

AMY LEIGH DAVIS & MISSI RASMUSSEN

Sunday July 20th

at 7:00 PM

THE WRITERS PLACE

3707 Pennsylvania in KCMO

Amy Davis and Missi Rasmussen - two local poets will be featured readers with an open mic immediately following. I've had an opportunity to know both of these poets for several years now. They have distinctively unique voices.

Amy was awarded the 2008 Crystal Field Scholarship in Poetry and is attending UMKC. Her poetry has appeared in the in various venues including Park University Scribe and The Rogue Poetry Review. She is a member of the K.C. Metro Verse.

Missi was awarded the Nicholas Manchion English Scholarship Award at Park University. She is presently enrolled in graduate school. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals in print and online. She is the founder & president of KC Metro Verse.

Word Joy

"Three cheers for a poet who handles words with the intent joy of a little kid playing with blocks." ~ X.J. Kennedy

IMMUNITY FIGHT A VICTORY FOR GOVERNMENT LAWLESSNESS

When the Bush Administration tapped private phone lines with the aid of phone companies but without any court order authorizing the wiretaps, it set into motion a series of challenges for violating the privacy rights of millions of Americans. That battle ended today when the Senate voted in favor of the new FISA bill today by a 69-28. Barack Obama joined every Senate Republican by voting in favor of it. Sadly my own Democratic Senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill also sold out to Bush and the phone companies voting for the final bill with immunity for phone companies that have already provided private information from American citizens to the Bush administration without court order. Sen. Hillary Clinton had the courage to voted against it.

Earlier amendment to pass the bill without immunity failed - Obama supporting that effort while McCaskill again voted the Bush & phone company line.

Poetry To A Beat

List night I attended an event at the Kansas City Public Library featuring poet John Mark Eberhart, author of two collections of poetry, Night Watch (2005) and Broken Time (2008). The event turned out to be a family affair with brother Ken Eberhart who is a talented percussionist, brother-in-law Nick Drimmel, who preformed on keyboard. Sherri Eberhart, John Mark's wife performed as well.

John Mark's poetry resonates well with a music theme. So much of his work seems to be about place, be it geography or a place in time or life.

Sherri read from a snippet of the couple's upcoming project, Blood of Eden. She has a background in theater and it is really fun to see such a range of creativity pulled together in one event.

A full house was on hand. Kudos to the K.C. Public Library for yet another great display of the arts in Kansas City.

Prose vs Poetry

Perhaps one aspect if poetry that rubs present day norms the wrong way is it generally requires us to exercise some degree of imagination. There was a day when that was common place. We listened to radio and thought nothing about it as we exercised our mind to create what we could not see. We’ve become more of a prose society. Like TV we want it all right there spelled out for us in living color.

Week 284 Unconscious Mutterings

Unconscious Mutterings ~ link
Word & Thought Associations
here's mine:

• Notification :: Registered mail
• Cheat :: sheet
• Top Ten:: songs
• Draft :: dodger
• Unbelievable :: fucking
• Cheap :: seats
• Spontaneous :: combustion
• Harass :: neighbor
• Lipstick :: pink
• Transpire :: [nothing comes to my mind]

The word on a word...

The word immunity is such a conflicting word. It has an almost godlike quality about it. Immunity gives and Immunity takes.

For instance… immunity or lack thereof can be the difference between sickness or health.

If you've done something wrong, immunity can relieve you of undesirable consequences. Here it adds by subtraction.

I picture Immunity (capitalized out of respect) as the horizontal bar on the scales of justice weighing one thing against another. It’s a pretty heady word.

A Question For You....

The Russian composer Igor Stravinsky listed himself on his passport as, "Inventer of sounds." What them, would you call yourself?

Exploring the revision before you write anything down

While reading yesterday I discovered an interesting sentence attributed to the poet William Stafford from his journal writings. The entry in question reads: “I must explore the revision that happens before you write anything down.” Disappointingly, there weren't any added lines of his exploration on this subject.

What Stafford is alluding to can be considered in two different categories. One is the process of selecting exactly what you want to say and choosing the best words at that moment (certainly subject to change) before you actually write the complete thought upon a page. But there is another aspect that touches upon something I have blogged upon in the past that continues to confound me. It is what I refer to as “self censorship” and while it can be very controlled and directed by the writer, I wonder about the less obvious possibilities as they might relate to the revision that takes place in the mind before reaching the page.

When driving and approaching an intersection with traffic signal, the mind makes decisions that are split second and we don’t seem to be totally cognizant of the process. We know for example what the color signals of the light mean, but coming upon a yellow light there is something that happens quickly to inform us of our decision ahead of applying the breaks or perhaps more gas. It all happens so quickly there seems not the internal banter going on in the brain that you might experience in writing a first line upon a page, where there may be significant forethought that is very transparent. Afterwards, you may be able to recount to another, “I chose this word over that because…” The process of reaching your decision seems retraceable.

Going through the yellow signal or not is likely tied to some internal understanding if fear. Fear of what might or might not happen. I assume there is an assessment of perceived risk, but it happens so quickly we don’t seem to be aware of the data-in and the data-out that makes up the final decision.

I think all writers have safe zones and danger zones to their writing. It may be subjects or it may be images we don’t feel comfortable putting into words. Staying within our comfort zones is of course very limiting. We may find our subject matter tends to repeat. Our choice of vocabulary could become so common that all our work starts to fall into the same tone.

If we perceive danger and make split second decisions on the road, do we do the same with word or subject choices before we commit those thoughts to the page based upon our own preconceived notions as what is safe to write and what is not safe? Do we self censor without real cognitive choice?

Writing reveals us to readers in ways that become exceedingly personal. There is some degree of risk associated with everything we write. The risk we'll look silly. The rick we'll me misunderstood. The risk that everything we write suggests that we've experienced what we've written or that what we write is how we feel about something. Keep in mind that we are the first readers of our own work. Sometimes we may be startled by our own writing. I have no idea if any of this occurred to William Stafford in pondering the mental revision before we commit to page but it is a discussion I would love to have had with him.

We are what we are

"Poets are jails. Works are the convects who escape."

~ Cocteau, diary

July 4th

A shrill followed by a cornless pop!
Dogs retort like a report’s echo
and I’m so glad to be and American
but I forgot my flag pin

you will forgive me, yes?
There’s a beer in the cooler—
made in America (a foreign corporation
wants to by) I’ll have one too.

A rocket’s red glare lights the sky
over my neighbor’s roof
but he’s been doing peach gigglers
since late afternoon

and “oh shit, hope their house is okay”
is all he can say…

The Boss is blaring on speakers.
Makes you almost want to cry

out loud the way some people sing off key
but are the only ones who don’t know it.

Giggler guy just ran by in his wife's thong
as the sky lights him up
like-a-strobe-light.

Coffee...

Last night as I stood on our deck you just knew it was coming. Hand noting to do with my joints or aches, but rather the speed and magnitude of the clouds and how they were accessorized in gray.
Indeed, a thunderstorm followed.

This morning, the eastern sky is ablaze in sun.
I have an eye exam this morning. If they dilate my eyes I'll be blinded in this sun.

The first time I went to this eye doctor there were these two little gray haired ladies raving about how the office has the best coffee. Damn if they weren't right. It makes me look forward to going. If only dental offices served coffee like this.

Mary Oliver has such a way with words...
"About poems that don't work - Who wants to see a bird almost fly?"

A Voice of Our Own

Evidently Earth has a voice in space. According to astronomers, Earth emits an ear-piercing series of chirps and whistles that can be head in a recording here.

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"Today I am altogether without ambition. Where did I get such wisdom?" ~ Mary Oliver

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Unconscious Mutterings ~ link

Word & Thought Associations

here's mine:

Loneliness :: Empty
Traffic :: Cop
Chaos :: Fire drill
Burp :: Baby
500 :: Indy 500
Movie :: Karma
Coma :: Sleep
Bark :: Dog
Stare :: Down
Angelina :: Jolie

Therapy on the page

What do Latinos, poetry and therapists all have in common? They are all a part of Daniel Cubias' latest blog post on The Huffington Post. It's pretty funny.

It's said that one can observe Rumi poetry in many of Elham Moaidnia's paintings. Here is an article about her exhibition in Dubai as well as a look at the work of this Iranian born artist at her own web site.


"Poetry tries to bridge abyss lying between the name and the thing. That language is a problem is no news to poets." ~ Charles Semic

I'll tell you a secret.... I have a hang-up about poetry.

I sit here with my mind somewhere else... I'm thinking, can I be certain the lawn doesn't shrill in anguish at the sound of a mower? Okay, seriously I'm really thinking about the existence of words without sound. They don't require sound do they? Of course not... I'm plotting them out here on the computer and there is no sound, save for the clicking of the keys and you can't distinguish the sound I made for and from you.

When I was in high school our Latin teacher referred to Latin as a written language as opposed to a spoken language. I'm imagining if today English were strictly a written language how different communication would be. Certainly less spontaneous.

Poetry readings would take on a whole new meaning. Imagine a poet walking into a room of eager poetry consumers. Theater style seating. The poet passes out sheets of paper to the some 25 to 30 people who showed up. Then he stands back and watches the non-verbal reactions to what is read, and imagines what parts the people are reacting to and just what those reactions mean.

I don't suppose any of you are buying this scene. You probably are even questioning that we got more than two dozen people to any kind of poetry reading. Why am I even talking about this idea? Well, as much as I do enjoy doing readings (where I read aloud my own poetry) I am convinced that spoken word poetry still lacks something critical to language. That is to see the poem on a printed page. To see the words - the spaces between. The black and the white. The image and the lack of image and the whole visual that creates both. I guess simply put, I want all poetry to be viewed as concrete poetry. It's just a little hang-up I have.

Do you know how depressing it is...

to get to Starbucks with your journal and discover you got off without your favorite fountain pen that you always write with?

Poetry News in the Blogosphere

Shirley Dent expounds upon the place of poetry in China and contemplates a time down the road, when we're not just sitting up and "taking notice of China's economic dynamism but of its poetic and political vibrancy as well."

Janyne Pupek has two poems up at The Dirty Napkin. Yeah Jayne!

Two Seattlelites doing the unthinkable - Making a living from poetry.

Cindy has Thirteen Marriage Tips for Bibliophiles.

Joannie - Pull over and write a poem or What driving while talking on a cell phone has to do with poetry?

Blogging - is it worth it? Part two

Following my earlier post on Tuesday I've had additional time to reflect on this subject. In fact I was talking with a peer at a meeting on Wednesday night about this. This person, who is not a blogger, but reads my blog in her e-mail by way of a feed she subscribes to, acknowledged she agrees about the exposure to others people's work. It dawned on me during this conversation that there are many poets who develop close peer relationships for example, with people who go through an MFA program together, and find themselves connected to one another and their work for years after completing the program. For these people, the Internet becomes an extension of the peer contact from the MFA program itself. In spite of distance, it remains relatively easy to follow the work of others through this medium. Their network may start there and expand well beyond.

I've not had the benefit of the MFA experience. Certainly none of it, but for the sake of this conversation, the peer network that can develop as a result of it. I have a limited number of individuals, with varying degrees of writing experience, with whom I have face-to-face contact with locally. Clearly these people are important. Still, if left to these contacts alone, there is much I would miss in terms of my exposure to the poetry of today.

There are far more people with whom I've had contact than listed in the previous post. But six of those seven people have published work which I have copies of. The other one has a book (nudging myself) I still need need to acquire. Now in each of these cases it is not likely I would have just walked into store and bought their book. Not without other contact. Not without coming to know something about their work, their style, their voice.

Through blogging, I've met other poets from beyond the local community. I've learned more about some through interviews. Expanded my knowledge of contemporary and experimental work. Benefited from a variety of poetic voices. Increased my knowledge of available poetry markets, received exposure and yes, feedback on some of my own work. And last but not least, shared in triumphs and rejections. Writing, especially when it comes to poetry is very solitary. It often relies upon withdrawing deep into one's own self which can seem lonely and even dark at times. It's ameliorating when you are exposed to and can learn from other poets who know well that place and the process.

Blogging - is it worth it?

I've been exploring this morning the impact blogging has had on my life as a poet. Which has brought me to a realization that it is difficult to imagine it otherwise. For the sake of this post, I want to acknowledge that my reference to blogging includes not only my own, but the blogs of others that I read.

I could certainly write poetry without blogs. I have in the past. Certainly people were writing poetry before the advent of blogs. It seems to me that there are several areas that I could touch upon where blogs have had an impact on poetry for me personally.

There is exposure to other poets. This is a critical point for two reasons. There are other poets I may well never have made contact with were it not for blogging. Among contemporary poets, there are many extraordinary individuals writing today that I would likely not have been exposed to simply through libraries, local readings, or bookstores. This is not simply a matter of personal enjoyment of the works of others, but in some instances it includes email communication with others writing that have allowed me to network in a much broader circle then otherwise possible. And beyond enjoying the reading of poems by some of these individuals, I firmly believe that those who write MUST read.

Poetry bloggers provide fresh material on an almost daily basis. It is no substitute for reading the works of well established poets who are published, but by the same token, if I were limited to the pool of such poetry, I'd be missing a lot of very good material and in many cases newer subject matter or experimental work that I'd never find in a bookstore.

Through my own blogging, I've had people come my way just as I have been exposed to others. It is definitely a two way street with respect to networking. People have given me feedback that has been helpful.

There was a time when I was participating in two poetry groups and two additional writing groups. That was very time consuming. I've cut back in that area and have done so without sacrificing my exposure to others or their exposure to me by way of the Internet and my blogging.

Just to name a few individuals that blogging has brought me into contact with- whose work I might not have otherwise easily connected with:

• Ivy Alvarez
• Eileen Tobios
• Kelly Russell Agodon
• Jayne Pupek
• Christine Hamm
• Aleah Sato
• Jilly Dybka

Those are just a few that quickly come to my mind. I don't know that any one of those I would likely have come into contact with if it weren't for blogging. Perhaps Tobios, but probably not. Still, exposure to each of these individuals and their work has been invaluable to me and the progression of my poetry writing. Clearly if someone would ask, I'd have to say the blogging experience has been worthwhile.

Celebrate Books & Anniversary

Yesterday was our 34th wedding anniversary and among other things my wife and I did book store outing. Hey, it's like having your cake and eating it too! We always enjoy book stores. While it may not be reality based, Cathy and I are of the philosophy that books are a commodity that everyone should have available to them and that you should just have a no-limit card that can be used for books only. What a deal!

This morning I had a time set aside for a recording of four of my own poems. One or more of them will be part of a CD that is being made of some local poets. Then they will be available in September at two different events in the area. One at a library sponsored event and the other at The Writer's Place here in Kansas City. I felt like the recordings went well. I'll post more about the events soon.

The San Francisco Giants were in town for a four game series this weekend. We went to Friday nights game, a 9-4 win by the Giants. It was a great evening at the ballpark! Of course I'm an avid Giants fan so this was like heaven. Plus there was an awesome fireworks display afterwords. I shot some game pictures - when I gent then downloaded I'll post a couple.

Dodge Poetry Festival this September

The poets lineup for the 2008 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival is a full and varied sampling of poetic voices. CD Wright, Brenda Hillman, Coral Bracho, Robert Hass, Martín Espada,Franz Wright, Linda Pastan, Maxine Kumin, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, Taha Muhammad Ali, Ted Kooser, Mark Doty, Edward Hirsch, Chris Abani, Charles Simic, Joy Harjo, Lucille Clifton, Sharon Olds, and last but not least Billy Collins.

As many as 20,000 are expected in the historic Waterloo Village in Stanhope, New Jersey for the 12th biennial event which will run from Thursday, September 25 through Sunday, September 28, 2008.

Event tickets and other items are available at the online Festival Shop

Journal bits this past week

Poet at table

• A swatch of scalp lay silent/a plug of zoysiagrass/encroaching upon our sensibilities




• It was the summer of gas lines/so hot the legs of ants curled under




• ...How we stood/on the hill and cradled/our paranoia, keeping/to ourselves...