Hard Ground - by Tom Waits - Poetry from the street

Tom Waits is an American singer-songwriter and composer.  I've not really been personally familiar with him but do recognize some of is material done by other big name artists - "Jersey Girl", performed by Bruce Springsteen and "Downtown Train", performed by Rod Stewart are examples. I understand that he has somewhat of a cult following  himself and those who know his songs frequently find them to be atmospheric portrayals of dark, often seedy characters and places. Maybe then it should not come a a surprise that Waits has announced the release of 'Hard Ground,' a collaborative book that combines his poetry with photographer Michael O'Brien's images of the homeless.

The idea of the book, is modeled after 1941's 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' -- a collaboration between poet James Agee and photographer Walker Evans, whose shots of Depression-era farmers were incorporated with the poetry.

This book is due out in March.

Gratitude Journal - Post Thanksgiving

I do suppose it is a good time to indulge in gratitude acknowledgement:

• Presently I'm thankful Barry is looking better (as in his head seems less tilted) 
• I'm thankful for occasional messages from Arizona daughter even if they come after midnight.
• I'm thankful for Turkey wings - and the wonderful person who salvaged the wing for me. **heart you**
• Thankful for time with son and KC daughter and wife on thanks giving day.
• Thankful for time with wife - even watching TV together late nights.
• Thankful gas prices came back down (even if temporally).
• For egg bagels.
• For Swiss cheese.
• For new slacks.
• For poems to read.
• For poems to listen to (Whale Sound).
• For poems in the mind and finding their way to the page.
• For the San Francisco Giants Winning the World Series (in my lifetime) and maybe it can happen yet again!
• For Eco-friendly light bulbs.
• For Klaus walking even if wobbly.
• Cool days - warm hearts.
• Journaling. 
• Friends.
• Laughter.
• Poets who help other poets.
• Work.

Magpie Tales 42



The Cup

Tell me again its history
the metal muscle – the fortitude
the way it survived
crossing the Atlantic
stayed within the family
through those early years
when famine forced much sacrifice
and trading value for sustenance.


Tell me how it was passed on
father to son to grandchildren
and when the male linage legged
it became the daughter
bringing it forward
and how it survived into marriage
and nurtured still at great cost.


How it paused briefly
in Independence, Missouri
and then journeyed
on west— surviving
Indian territory, hard times
again on the trail when other things
were set aside – at immense emotional price.

Show me the moth eaten velvet beg
that clung to it when you found it
packed among grandfather’s furnishings
where you plucked it free
before the estate sale.

And remind me when it is my turn
to treasure it—

in the time honored tradition








2010© Michael A. Wells




Magpie Tales

Being Made Captive

"Sometimes the briefest moments capture us, force us to take them in, and demand that we live the rest of our lives in reference to them."  — Lucy Grealy from Autobiography of a Face

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader... It's been a week since my last confession.  Come along and we'll get down to the crazy details.

• This past week I attended a Reading.  I usually try and shoot a picture or two at readings in order do a post on my blog.  I thought about shooting pictures at this one but they announced at the beginning that pictures were not to be taken. Not during the reading, not at the book signing or at the reception. I was shocked because I don't every recall this in the past.  I did in fact refrain from shooting pictures but I did think about it so dose that make me a sinner or a near sinner? The whole thing is strange because I've taken photos at this event in the past and there never seemed to be a problem.
• My efforts to settle into more of a regular routine for my writing too a back seat yesterday to a trip to the grocer for a turkey. Then delayed again while I spent time with my wife watching some of our favorite TV. Finally I settled in to write after she fell asleep and then my Arizona daughter - looking for some one to chat with texted me. It was very late and I don't get a lot of one on one time talking of texting with her so I again put my journal and pen aside.  When Meg was all texted out, I picked up my journal and got down to work. A very late session, but it turned out to be a very good one.

That's it for this week.  Everyone have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Recording poetic particals

It seems that each time I visit Terresa Wellborn's blog I am blown away by something she has written, some picture, some great quote or particle of truth or sometimes it's a combination of these. This morning was no exception.

Today it was a quote from the French novelist Gustave Flaubert - "There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it."

This quote tends to give credence to the value of notations in a journal of interesting things that come your way each day. It is from these particles that the gems, the precious molecules of poetic matter come. To let them pass without record surely means many are lost and never committed to use.

Anyway, thanks to Terresa I am reminded the value of notations of some life's small wonders.

Magpie Tales 41

Eleventh Hour

The eleventh hour

a repudiation of the one before.

Older, wiser, clutched the present

staking claim to so much more

then any earlier period of history.

Still this cannot be self contained.

Time is a currency that is devalued

with each passing moment.

The tarnished silver replaced and the

cycle continues. Each click of a second

the spin, an empty chamber of a gun.

–a misfire, misspoken pronouncement;

the anti-matter.



2010© Michael A. Wells

Magpie Tales

ONE IMPORTANT PHONE CALL YOU CAN MAKE

Sadly one Republican Senator is is again playing games with important legislation.  This time it is Senator Jon Kyl and he is holding up a vote on passage of the arms control treaty between the United States and Russia. 

The new START TREATY  is important and failing to act at this time to ratify the treaty could risk disrupting relations with Russia and the international coalition that opposes Iran’s nuclear program.

Call Senator Kyl's office and tell him you want the Senate to act on the Arms Control Treaty NOW!  Tell his office you are tired of one Republican Senator holding up important votes!

Senator Kyl's office numbers are listed below


Phoenix (602) 840-1891

Tucson (520) 575-8633

Washington (202) 224-4521

Confession Tuesday

Dear reader - it's Tuesday and time for me to head to the confessional.

I confess it's been too long since I posted anything.  I guess it was Thursday and that seems like an eternity ago.  As I'm pretty sure that I indicated earlier that I was sick last week - it was a very draining week for me and it was accompanied by the additional drama of car problems that resulted in a new starter.

I'm much better today. Not 100% but probably something above 75% which is way improved over just a couple days ago.

I've been reassessing my writing.  Thinking about the best times to write. Tinkering with things and trying to settle in on a process / routine that I will commit to at least for a while and assess how it fits.
I confess that last week my writing output was off but I did pull together one draft that I think has promise. I feel it understandable that I let my physical condition impact my work, but there seemed a lot of drama in my life during the week and I let a lot of frustration bottle up. I confess this is an enemy of mine and one I can do without.

Here's to a great week for everyone!

Signs Tell People Not to Drink from Toilet

Signs Tell People Not to Drink from Toilet

Chandler, Arizona City Hall has signs warning patrons not to drink from the toilets and urinals - what's wrong with this picture?

It's a new state of the art building with lots Eco emphasis. The new building and all its features will be dedicated on Monday before the first City Council meeting there. Free refreshments and entertainment from 5 to 7 p.m. will proceed the formal session. Presumably the refreshments will not come from the toilet.


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/2010/11/10/20101110chandler-city-hall-toilet-water-warning1112.html#ixzz1522XYqXW

Magpie Tales 40

The Medallion

The mystery may be better

than truth.     Her lips wore

the zig-zag stitches, secrets

untold. Wednesday nights

she took a eerie bronzen medallion

from a brushed velvet box

hung it about her neck and left

for a weekly women's social.

Butter and cucumber sandwiches,

crumpets, Egyptian Licorice Tea,

Moroccan Orange Spice,

and Redbush Chai.

Those Wednesday nights

belonged to her alone.

Dad never questioned

but we talked. We wondered

if they met to sharpen their knives

over shared husband stories

or maybe their bonds

were physical - touching on

what was then taboo to speak.

©2010 – Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved

        

Magpie 40

Save The Words!

If you are a lover of words... this post is for you!

My wife sent me this link to a NPR story about saving dying words.   An Intellectually Locupletative Promotion: A Site Trying To Save Dying Words    or go directly to  the site itself:  Save The Words.

Confession Tuesday A Day Late

Dear Reader - forgive me for I have sinned.


I confess that I am late and really don't want to be writing this. Monday night I became sick and yesterday was very non functional. I will spare you the gritty details but it was exhausting and I was not on my computer at all yesterday.

I went into the office this morning only because I had a client coming at 10AM and did not want them to have to reschedule. Besides, my illness was not something I was going to transmit to others. Appointment finished, I returned home.

I confess I am still pretty weak and disinterested in doing anything though I did force myself to do my writing session just before this post. Seeing as how I didn't meet my commitment yesterday.

My mind can't even seem to focus on much of the past week so I'm not really a very good historian of my possible failings. I'm sure they must exist. I plan to do better next week!

I've been thinking and then I saw this...

Writers sometimes give up what is most strange and wonderful about their writing - soften their roughest edges - to accommodate themselves toward a group response.  - Mary Oliver

Without trying to put words in Mary Oliver's mouth, I saw this quote and it resonated with some thoughts that have been running through my mind lately.

There is this thing about writing poetry in such a way that it resonates universally. Some feel the more universal the better the work.  But such accommodation of the masses seems to defy my most fundamental view of art. If it's so universal that everyone sees it without any exercising the limits of their creative thought, have we not created something so simple, so basic that it lacks uniqueness and could therefore be reproduced by any number of people?

And is not art initially about the image the artist sees? And if it is not so universal, then it challenges others to find their own view. 

With this, I'm off to bed.

My Bi-Annual Dig on DST

Mood:  I'm here aren't I
Listening to:  Forever by Kenny Loggins just ended Making Love out of Nothing at All by Air Supply just started.

Note to those who dislike Daylight Savings time as much as I do.... 

A proposed federal law calling for Russia to end its daylight saving practice has been brought to the State Duma and is now being discussed at a regional level. Daylight saving time (DST) may no longer be used in Russia in the future if this proposed law is approved.

Furthermore, the proposal’s summary raises the issue of people’s biorhythms being distorted because of DST, and that Russia had enough energy savings without needing DST. It was discussed that the elderly and children struggled with biological clock changes associated with DST.

Interesting information on health risks.

Good Lord - Russia is looking more progressive on this then we are.

Ok, enough on this...

Was up early this morning writing - I've been exploring my optimum writing times.
I'll talk more about this in the near future.

Lots left to do today. Need to shower and get started.

Crawling out of skin and other acts of strangeness.

Went for an exercise walk and ran across this snake skin left behind. I know there is a poem there somewhere.

Am I lame or what?  I could not get a block before I stumbled and fell. So now I feel invigorated but with sore knees. Geez!

Strangest thing... my great grandfather who died in 1968 has crept into two pieces I've written in less then 24 hours.  Very strange karma or something.

Magpie Tales 39

Making Time


A meager urge to procrastinate
rests below the surface-

I can look the other way
scratch in the gravel
and miss a good part of the day

if I'm lucky, no.
It's like a crime
that never pays.

My great grandfather
in his old age-
the hardening
of arteries years,
would move his pocket watch
backwards or forward
to suit himself.

He could make of time
what he wanted.

Few of us
have that luxury.




2010 © Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved




Magpie Tales 39

Kanas City area Poet is the Poetry Daily contibutor for Friday

Some Years in the History of Love Poetry by Michelle Boisseau

Was reading Poetry Daily tonight and there was Michelle Boisseau!  Congratulations!

• On another note - I'm dog sitting  / Plenty of books and writing material along for the weekend.
• 'Howl': How Do You Film a Poem? By Jesse Hicks 5 November 2010
• Amber Tamblyn Interview: Joining “House” and Performing Poetry
  

Poetry v. Prose

While I've had non-poetry work published, I don't devote much writing time to anything except poetry.  When I saw a post by Susan Rich titled Poetry v. Prose: Lovers or Fighters?  I was captivated by the following:

A poem that stays on my computer I can still love, has taught me something, can still be relevant to my writing life. However, an essay that stays on my computer waiting for her dance card to be filled feels entirely different.

Susan offers some interesting perspectives on what poetry means to her. I like reasoning.

Tackling Poems You Think You Love

Often in my earlier writing I would find that I wrote something that had promise but on the whole was clumsy or lacking in any lyrical quality or maybe just pretencions. Very rookie mistakes for any poets. It became a common problem to really rework these pieces. Cosmetic shifts here and there but you become so married to a particular aspect of the poem that you find you simply cannot go beyond a certain point.

Last night I pulled out one such poem and began reworking it. I spent over an hour on it and the real victory was that I was willing to tackle it at all. This morning I'm thinking that while it is much improved, I'd like to really take it apart some more and see if I can take it some other direction altogether, and what that might look like.

Confession Tuesday - I voted edition

Dear Reader:

I confess I have returned from the polls where I cast my vote for candidates and propositions, amendments and and ballot initiatives.
It was a long ballet this year and I frankly am glad the election is over. I can tell you that I am not expecting to be pleased with many of the outcomes - unless I'm very surprised. 

I am not pleased with the tone of this election and it is very disheartening that we've seen the retread ideas of Carl Rove repackaged and propagated in advertising ad-nausea. This, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling earlier that will have long lasting repercussions.  But I don't want to spend my whole confession on the election. I have other things to confess today.

I confess that I believed in the San Francisco Giants down the stretch of the season when many thought it a half-baked idea that the ragtag team assembled this season could win the World Series.   And of course, the did!

I'd like 5 minutes to explain to Paul Siegfried why he should never be allowed to supervise anyone in a workplace. I must confess suddenly the McDonald's brand name leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

One of the best finds on the Internet in October was Whale Sound. I confess that I am addicted to Nic Sebastian recordings of poems. She has a wonderful reading voice.

As we move into November I confess I have a anxiousness about the last two months of this year and my personal perception of my writing for the year. I have this feeling that I must salvage the year in these last two months. Pretty heavy load to be carrying - I'm aware, but I feel I need to finish strong and begin the next year with momentum. Sort of trying to find my mojo I guess.

Magpie Tales 38

Here and Now

Time raps on

in an inconspicuous loop

and maybe we’ve been there—

who is ever certain.

The cracks in the earth,

an undercurrent of hush;

there are those who believe

on the last day the ground will split open

uniting bodies with souls,

those who believe

we waste too much on foreign aid,

and some who believe

they’ll have another beer.

There is too much

emphasis on perfection

among the living

anyway. There will be time

enough in the next life

to be the model citizen;

the kind streets are named after.



2010 © Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved

Magpie Tales

Thoughts on words

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

Black and Orange October! Game 2 All San Francisco

Giants pitching shuts out Rangers - who give up 9 runs - 8 eight of which came in 7th inning and beyond.

2 -0 lead by the Giants in World Series

San Francisco up 1-0 in World Series

Giants Fans treated to an 11-7 win tonight in San Francisco over the Texas Rangers to take 1-0 lead in the World Series.  Congrats Giants!!!

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader - just got home from a poetry group meeting at the Writers Place and I'm rushing to get my confession done, so lets get started.

It's been one week since my last confession and my friend I confess that I bombed out of the Twitter Poetry Party this weekend. That's right, I wasn't together enough to even virtually party.  Ah! What does that say about me?

Ok, I managed to get in one tweet and between my problem remembering the hashtag and other distractions I finally gave up.
And hashtag? Anything that combines an edible dish and an apparatus of commerce is bound to give off confusing vibes. Am I inept at twitter? I'm not a pro, I'm not a twitter addict, but I don't think I have a big "L" on my forehead.

I've seen the feed of the party [click here] and it really had some interesting points. I've decided that it would be much easier to participate in on the computer than my Blackberry. That is if I can remember the hashtag.
Anyway it is an interesting concept and next time I confess I'll be prepared. I may even bring a virtual bottle of wine to to my laptop... or maybe a real bottle. 

More Poetry - Enjoy!

Autumn Sky Poetry - No 19

A note today from Christine Klocek-Lim, Editor that the October issue is up.  I always seem to appreciate the poems selected.  This issue is an Arts Issue.

I saw this and was fascinated by Pasternak's message

I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies.   ~ Boris Pasternak

Orange October!

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Phillies 3-2 tonight to become the 2010 National League Champions.

This team of unlikelies is far from some of the power teams the Giants have put together in the past.  It won so many games by 1 and 2 run margins that many have called Giants baseball this season Torture Ball.

The team only remotely resembles the team that broke camp at the end of spring training. Players have been shifted around the field and others acquired as the season went on. Players like Pat Burrell who was cut from another team mid season and thought he would be watching the rest of the season from home, but the Giants were interested and he became a great fit and was one of many players that kept the team competitive down the stretch.

These players have played their hearts out to get to this point and it would be so incredible to see them win it all in the World Series. I've cheered the Giants through the 1989 Quake Series they lost to Oakland and the 2002 California Series vs Anaheim that they heartbreakingly lost in game 7.  I'm ready for a Giants World Series Championship team!

Journal Bits

I haven't done a Journal Bits post in some time so here are a few samplings:

AUG 22- I was seated next to a woman / who knew what I was thinking / she knew everything and she knew / nothing  of the way I fantasized / that she were a blot of lightening / and how she struck me / twice as improbable as / it was that I was / in electric convulsive / therapy for these things / that I think about/ when I have others / to indulge in my thoughts

AUG 27 - Writing last night was lackluster, but then I worked in an environment of distraction...

SEPT 2 - Today is the seventh anniversary of my blog

SEPT 6 - Any latitude given  / to these stories / of headaches and tides / pushing and pulling / against each other / are provincial

SEPT 7 - I'm on the verge of a couple of different poems but still sifting out the specifics.

SEPT 11 - I put Shannon on a plane this morning and this is the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks...

SEPT 13 - I'm tired tonight and I'll admit a bit grouchy...

SEPT 26 - Yesterday my copy of Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room arrived... read through it in one sitting.

OCT 6 - Not all falls are without grace...

OCT 8 - Vacation day.. double platelet donation... Meghan texted me,  she was donating platelets at the same time I was - this was cool!

OCT 12 - From here it's all academic / there is a darkness because there is / light -

OCT 16 - The Giants ended up winning 5 to 4. Yeah!

OCT 19- Giants win game 3 by a three to nothing score. gave up only three hits. Awesome game in San Francisco for the home fans. They lead the NLCS now 2 games to 1.

Magpie Tales 37

There is a history of going

and coming—

of pleasing and displeasing—

of knocking on wood

and crossing fingers

and Late Night

with and without David

Letterman.

There are vague memories

of Here’s Johnny and

nights turned away

and nights…

nights so hot we could not

stand to touch and

others so hot the sweat

was the conductor of electricity

the completed circuit

that rode between two bodies

too wrapped up in each

to hear the pitter patter

of little feet

that

may

or may not

have been outside

the door.

The walls know more

than the disarray can tell.

But walls are the great depositories

of secrets. They hold

on to things we never knew

and things too

we let go of.

©2010 – Michael A. Wells - All Rights Reserved

Magpie Tales 37
 

Shhh.... listen

Now all my teachers are dead except silence.

 - W. S. Merwin

Confession Tuesday

The night is fleeting and I've got confessing to do so let's get started.

Dear Reader:

I saw today on the Internet that we are supposed to have a spectacular stream of meteors, likely leftovers from Halley's Comet, streak across the night sky this week. I confess I am always interested in such phenomena but rarely get lucky enough to observe things like this in real life. I'm usually reduced to watching some video after the fact, but still find it interesting.  For years we lived in the city where surrounding environmental factors like buildings, trees, night lighting all worked against me. Moving to a more suburban area with open fields on two sides of our property give better opportunity, but I still seldom see such things.
I mentioned the showers to my wife a while ago and she said, "feel free to go out and watch them on your own."  I'm sure she hopes to be watching the back side of here eyelids.  I may go check things out after while but I don't see myself staying out very long. Morning comes early... or so it seems.  Maybe I'll get lucky... but I'm not counting on it.

The Giants returned to San Francisco and played their first home game of the NLCS this afternoon. They split the first two games on the road and won a great pitching game before the home fans - a 3 hitter shut out, 3-0.  I truly have post season fever.  The Giants bullpen has all grown beards down the stretch and the fans have a motto, "fear the beard" and I confess that in support of the team, I've started  growing a beard too.  I've had a beard in the late 1980's and 90's but ultimately grew tired of it and shaved it.  I don't see myself keeping this past the World Series (assuming the Giants advance) otherwise it will come off sooner.  The mustache however stays. I'm forbidden by my wife from shaving it. Seriously!  

Well, it's nearly 11:00 and I'm going to take my pop and go outside briefly and see what the sky is like. Wish me luck!

Thanks for listening. Have a great week!

My daughter found this for me…

 

Thanks Shannon – I love it!  Rally thong – Brian Wilson Beard!  Fear the Beard!  LOL

The Making of a Great Poem

Over the years I've come across a few people... some contemporaries, others from the past that own a collection of thoughts, of sayings that are so profound that I find myself amazingly nodding my head yes, yes! to the vast majority of their collected quotations. One such person is Anais Nin. I could do a lengthy post of such profound statements from her, and I have quoted her here several times over the years-  but today I have chosen one thing that she said that I believe embodies what I think should answer the question, What should a really great poem do?"

 

Nin says, "It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it." 

If in the end, a poem can achieve this... can take the familiar and cause us to look at it and see something different, or in a different light... that is art... that is poetry!


Who Speaks To You! What person/persons has/have many profound quotations that speak to your core thoughts and belief systems?

Off to Bed with a Book to Read

I've had a pretty productive day of writing capped off with watching   game one of the NLCS between San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies. Giants take the opening game on the road 5-4. Cody Ross again going yard tonight. Not once but twice!  At right he celebrates after the first with Giants pitcher.

Whale Sound - Another Voice

One of my older poems is featured on Whale Sound. If is always interesting to hear your work read in someone's voice other than your own. Some of my family members expressed that they liked the poem better hearing it in Nic Sebastian's voice.  I do love her reading voice- it brings a whole other level of artistry to any poem.

Here is Nic Sebastian reading my poem for Whale Sound:    The Cousin


Another of her readings - the poem by Terresa Wellborn  A Different Leaving.  Terresa's words and Nic's voice... I love what this collaboration results in.

Magpie Tales 36

Light is Reversible and I Wear It—

inside out

snug about me

a compression bandage

that heals the anxious pricking;

nervous needles of daylight—

people I don’t even know
that pass me
that press me
that push me to the brink.

Day is my hell—
my holy hell.
I am safest with it
under my surveillance
at a distance.

©2010 Michael A. Wells

Magpie Tales 36

Confession Tuesday

Sometimes I think that reaching Tuesday is like hitting another milestone on your odometer- you’re driving down the road and note that it just rolled past 55,000, and soon it’s 80,000. Next thing you know you reach 100,000 and everyone in the car is doing a foot dance to celebrate. Then, 150,000 and 175,000 and now you aren’t dancing but praying.

 

It’s confession time…

 

Dear reader-

 

It’s been another week and so many miles of life since my last confession.

 

Fall is an interesting time of year because it seems to be about slowing down. Darkness comes earlier and it seems that this draws the day out because you are up during a darker period of time longer than normal. Fall is also a perceived changing of the guard. Summer is dying off and you know the trees will soon be bare and their tentacles will rake the sky till the snow falls and the cold northwest winds choke off nature. In spite of all this doom and gloom, fall is not without grace and beauty and I keep trying to tell myself this— even as the baseball season vanishes and with most other forms of life.

 

This past weekend I confess I was depressed, even as my San Francisco Giants survived to reach the playoffs. My head felt like it was clogged with fog in all of its grayscale colorless form. Later, that gray would set like cement into the worst headache to carry around. I realize I’ve spent more time inside lately then out and I don’t suppose that has helped. Still, it is that time of the year that I battle this more than any other.

 

On Sunday there was an outside poetry / art event that I was thinking I would attend, but in the end I stayed home to watch the Giants game. I confess that my decision was based upon the fact that poetry events come and go, but it’s not every year your team makes the playoffs.

 

Any hope of this improving as we started a new week vanished yesterday as I learned that a coworker battling a terminal illness passed away over the weekend. While I suppose it was not that I never anticipated it, the last contact we had left no indication it would be so soon. I was stunned. Everyone was stunned.

 

Everyone have a great week and be safe!

N.J. organizers say Dodge Poetry Festival attendance as large as past, more diverse | NJ.com

 

NEWARK — Greg Gillett and his wife, Mary Jo, have traveled from Michigan to New Jersey many times to attend the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, but the event produced some pleasant surprises this year.

The festival moved to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark from Waterloo Village in Sussex County.

Despite the presence of four U.S. poets laureate, "there were fewer big names than other years," said Mary Jo Firth Gillett.

Yet the poetry teacher in the Detroit area said she found that a plus.

 

Full Story:  N.J. organizers say Dodge Poetry Festival attendance as large as past, more diverse | NJ.com

 

 

Technorati Tags: Dodge Poetry Festival

San Francisco Wins Series - Advance to NLCS! Celebrating!

Outfielder Cody Ross Homers in the game tonight.  The Giants win the series on the Road in Atlanta.

Imagine

• Imagine Hunger a thing of the past
• Imagine Forests rejuvenated
• Imagine Cancer cured
• Imagine Diabetes defeated
• Imagine Literacy an epidemic
• Imagine Wellness a way of life
• Imagine Knowledge universal
• Imagine a world Clear of Nuclear weapons
• Imagine Human Rights without a second thought
• Imagine A Song in Every Heart
• Imagine Living Life in Peace

John Lennon - 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"Last Letter"

The New Statesman publishes a previously unseen work by the late poet laureate Ted Hughes that shed some light on the final days of Sylvia Plath.  Above, Actor Jonathan Pryce reads the poem.

This is sure to start a whole new round of discussion and debate about the Hughes-Plath relationship.

Magpie Tales 35

The Fall

Not all
falls are without grace
it’s not all black and white

the lush green
slowly ages
to perfection
and one day

we wake like the frog
in the pan on the stove
who only notices
he is cooked

too late to realize
summer has crossed
the line

and we cheer
the cool afternoons
brushed with color
aplenty

we plan weekend excursions
around watercolor scapes—
drive deep into their belly
and breathe the discolored air
crisp and thick
with ripe

and over weeks
all this too
will pass

all will slowly
lose grip
in a
last
dying
act

and gently
on streams of air
fall effortlessly
without a sound
to the ground
below

©2010 – Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved

Magpie Tales

Poetry Daily - If I Ever Mistake You For a Poem

Congratulations to Kelli Russell Agodon - one of her poems from her new book - Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room was selected for Poetry Daily.   Check it out here!

Confession Tuesday - Pride Edition

It’s that time again…. Tuesday. Did you know that Tuesday is associated with the planet Mars and the Roman God of War? Anyway, it’s off the confessional. Are you coming?

Dear reader-

Yes, another week had come and gone since my last confession. I have number of things to offer in confession this week let me unload these sins now.

There is this sin called pride. This is one that I’ve often found confusing. Pride seems such a normal emotional experience related to what I generally regard as good things that happen. Your child brings home a good grade card – you feel really proud of your child. You get a poem accepted in a journal… you are beaming with pride. I felt a sense of pride in my favorite baseball team this weekend as they clinched the National League West championship.

The San Francisco Giants are not a team loaded with high payroll. They have a number of young players mixed with veterans most with little or no post season experience. They were not on most people’s radar for post season and at All- Star break they were barely above .500. Much of they year they were in second place, a position that alone raised many eyebrows. But they hung in and played good ball down the stretch. In August they had some tough times and their pitching staff went south. After a team meeting, September turned around and the pitching was among the best in baseball. Meanwhile, the Padres who spent something like 130-140 days in first place went into a tail spin, crashed and burned. The Giants took over first place, came off a road trip and swept the Diamondbacks three games at home and awaited the Padres to play the final three games of the season. On Friday, the fist of the three games the Giants needed just one win to clinch the Division. The Padres needed to sweep to tie and face a playoff. It took three games to put them away, but on the final game of the regular season, SF did just that and sent the Padres home with no post-season.

So I confess- yes, I’m proud of the Giants. I’m proud of my team. I know they are not the best team that San Francisco has ever assembled, and likely not the best team to reach post season, but they did, playing often above everyone else’s expectations. They many not win the NL pennant. If they do, the may not win the World Series, but I will be cheering them on as far as they can get and if they do, I will be crazy excited like a kid. Still, I confess I will remain proud of them whatever.

                                                                       ~0~

I have another sin to confess. I know all writers do this. They read something written by another writer and they say out loud, “Wow! I wanted to write that!” Of course, they can’t because now it has already been written. Ok, I guess they can and some do try it. It’s called plagiarizing. I think we all know that while it may not be in the Ten Commandments it is pretty much the single biggest Writer’s Commandment, “Thou Shall not Plagiarize” And though I have not, and will not plagiarize, I confess that upon reading Kelli Russell Agodon’s poem I Try to Plagiarize Moonlight, I did covet it.

                                                                      ~0~

Drumming. Yes, recently I have been guilty of the sin of drumming. While I played drums in band at school, I’ve been drumming a lot lately and not on drums, but on the top of my Quick Trip cup, the dash of the car at stop lights, etc. and this in annoying. So I’m told. I confess it really isn’t bothering me but apparently it is an annoyance to (some) others. I’m trying to do better.

Thanks for listening… everyone have a great week!

Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy!

The San Francisco Giants win the NL Western Division Championship!

There is "Life in Postseason!"

Magpie Tales 34

Blue Heat

"Crystal blue persuasion....."*

When you were introduced,

grandma had that eye—

that keen recognition

that she knew         you

were the chemistry;

a combustible wick

for a perfect flame

swirling          searing

         climbing

the tornado chimney

to overtake any room.

* From the from 1969 hit song Crystal Blue Persuasion..... written and performed by Tommy James and The Shondells

©2010 Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved

Magpie Tales 34