Welcome to America Ivy!

I'm sure there must be a poem lurking in that immigration guy... hee he.

A Few inquisitive Contemplations

How and what others do to elicit the optimum success with writing always interests me. I suppose we all probably have a bit of that child quality that makes us wonder about others and if we are like most people of if we are some sort of oddity in the writing kingdom.

One that I often think about is the time of day that most people find conducive to best results. How may can simply set aside any time morning of afternoon or night and find little difference in results? I suspect few. I think most seem to have an internal clock that tells us the best time from our own personal experiences. I'm interested in hearing from others that have identified a best time, or persons that have found relatively little difference altogether.

The other thing I'm curious about is what approach people take to writing. How do you kick start yourself when writing a new poem? Start with a concrete idea? Let something drift into being? What external stimuli best helps facilitate this process? Music? Quiet? The woods? A coffee shop? Busy city street? Come one folks... talk to me here! Help feed my curiosity.

MSNBC - Jan. 24 called worst day of the year

MSNBC - Jan. 24 called worst day of the year: "- Is the midwinter weather wearing you down? Are you sinking in debt after the holidays? Angry with yourself for already breaking your New Year's resolutions? Wish you could crawl back under the covers and not have to face another day of rain, sleet, snow and paperwork? Probably. After all, it's Jan. 24, the �most depressing day of the year,� according to a U.K. psychologist."


Very interesting piece in which Dr. Cliff Arnall, who specializes in seasonal disorders at the University of Cardiff, Wales, created a formula that takes into account numerous feelings to devise peoples' lowest point.

The model is: [W + (D-d)] x TQ
M x NA

The equation is broken down into seven variables: (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action.

According to his calculations that misery peaks today.

Frigid

Chill would have frozen the air
were it still and not the haughty
bitch that blasts with repeated
thrashing against all things vertical.

The sun sits there deceptive
giving daylight, no warmth-
No consolation, not even a ray of hope
this frore day will offer any infinitesimal
relief from the bitterness.

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