Cooking Oil - January and the Sounds of Silence

January is moving along slick as canola. It's the 21st already and I'm thinking what's happening?

I have written several new pieces. Since the first of the month, perhaps eight maybe ten. I've done two readings. One on the first at the Writers Place and one Wednesday night at Barnes & Noble @ Zona Rosa. I was one of three that read that night.

I've got some stuff floating out there (you know that place where submissions go to languish) I'll call poets purgatory, but I've sent noting new out yet this month. That's the rub. It's twenty-one freek'n days into the year and no new submissions.

I was listening to some old Simon and Garfunkel songs this week. So much of their lyrics are majorly poetic. I do find that even some of their sad stuff as an uplifting artistic effect. If nothing else, it generates a mental state that is conducive to writing.

Turn Your Back On Bush

James at Love During Wartime quotes the philosopher Emile Chartier, "Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have." This saying, strikes me as most appropriate and befitting the day of Inauguration of George W. Bush for his second term. You may read from that what you will.

Eileen Tabios is offering her new book, I Take Thee, English, For My Beloved
as part of a special fund raising event for Tsunami victims relief. Details here.

Protests Planned Too in Washington and throughout the United States:

Washington DC Events Protesters Turn Backs!

My hat is off to Senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry for voting in committee against confirming Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state. While Rice is sure to be confirmed by the full Senate, like many in the Bush administration, they must be asked to account for the past four years.


Rebecca Harding Davis:

Our young people have come to look upon war as a kind of beneficent deity, which not only adds to the national honor but uplifts a nation and develops patriotism and courage. That is all true. But it is only fair, too, to let them know that the garments of the deity are filthy and that some of her influences debase and befoul a people.

Who Cares?

"It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others." - Virginia Woolf

what's wrong

Nothing! Now that I have my copy. Yesterday, I got my copy of what's wrong by ivy alvarez.

what's wrong is a small chapbook - only ten poems, but enough to wet your whistle and want to read more of Ivy's work. It's good stuff! Right down to the "dogs swallowing echos of their barks."

Thanks Ivy! Enjoyed!

Unattainable by Michael Wells

Bringing Poetry Home

Last night, eight people in love with poetry met to organize a new chapter of the Missouri Poetry Society in the greater Kansas City area. The organizer, Missi Rasmussen, a poetess colleague, provided a very well themed outline for the chapter. I already belong to a state chapter from a Kansas City suburb, but I believe it is important for a community the size of Kansas City to have a chapter identified with it specifically.

Missi is all about bringing poetry to the community as much as enriching the poetry experience of each of it's members. I find this refreshing.

When I started writing this blog and selected the name Stick Poet Superhero, I wanted to be a voice in defense of the value of poetry to us all. Yes, the name is perhaps corny, but I was and am serious about defending the role and value of poetry in society today.

As a poet, it is always my hope that when I write a new poem, the voice of that poem speaks to someone out there in such a way as to give validation to what they feel. I believe this is one very important thing that poetry can do for us.

I am less concerned about which school of poetry is best. I have my preferences, but I'll allow that debate to happen elsewhere. I may wade into the water once and a while to talk about the values of one or the other, but we all come from different perspectives in life and whatever style speaks to us is less important than the fact that something actually happens when that one particular verse connects and we touch all-the-bases!

Poetry can capture the moment and freeze it for the future. It can record the ugly so that mankind will not forget where it has come from. It can recreate the exhilarating joys and triumphs of life and can speak to us about the most mundane day-to-day experiences. Poetry is relevant. It is more real then any reality TV show. It is good stuff, and it offers something for everyone.

Thanks for the Birthday wishes....

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

I had BBQ Ribs last night in celebration. My Son called. That was cool.

Tonight I'm meeting with some other poets to form a new chapter of the Missouri State Poetry Society in the Kansas City area.