Thursday - I pinched myself. I'm still among the living!

Ivy talks about the application process for a residency at the The MacDowell Colony - worth reading for those interested in such an experience.

Eileen is posting on her blog now in such a way that makes clicking on the links more challenging if you are drunk or not.

V-lo's charm is again available for your viewing over at ~gila-monster~

Cassie Lewis has been silent close to two months now... Perhaps a snow shoveling expedition is in order.

James admits to getting lost in Kansas City, Kansas.

Why did I just do an around-the-poetry-world blog post? I'm speechless!

Last Night at Writers Place

Open Mic at Writers Place last night.... Scot Isom was the featured reader. Scot was great. I've never seen Scot as into it as he was last night. I thought I was listening to Mr. Silk.

I did three pieces... One was a Diane Ackerman poem - Omens of Winter. The other two were my own... Whirlygirl and Tiananmen Mother.

Ackerman crawls below the surface of the skin to get at those prickly feelings and this is the kind of stuff I eat up in poetry.

Woodbine Writing

Interesting experiences this weekend at the writing workshop. Some good. Some not.

I did experience converting and existing work to a play format. It was actually a poem that I used, and worked very well. I picked up some really good material on shifting points of view.

In addition to that, I found myself trying to force poetry, which is never a good thing and it only resulted in creating frustration. Since frustration is not my idea of creative success, I announced to all at one point, "I'm going home." Of course I didn't.

More on the workshop as I have time. Too much to do to report more now.

Headed for the land of golden corn...

Stick Poet will likely be silent the rest of today, tomorrow and Sunday as I am off to a writing workshop in Iowa. I suppose there is an outside chance I may do an audible post from my cell phone, but otherwise I don't anticipate having PC access to post. Nor likely the time.

With this, I'll close withsome words about words by David Lehman:

"Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they
can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one
owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used."

Everyone have a great weekend!

I have the "Brick"

Yes, all 504 pages of it! Wait... actually it is a never ending book.

I'm referring to I Take Thee, English, for My Beloved by Eileen R. Tabios and published by March Hawk Press.

I am hardly qualified to tell you much about it yet as I have only skimmed through it. But I can tell you that Tabios in this book appears to remain the every consummate poet. Resourcefully creating pliant work intending the reader to participate in the experience. She is so straight forward about that. That I find refreshing.

I will pack this for night time reading this weekend while at an Iowa writing retreat. I think it will make an excellent bedside companion.

When I feel I am able to discuss the book in more detail, you may expect much more in depth commentary on it.

Lois Ames, Friend and Confidant of Anne Sexton to Host a Wilderness House Literary Lunch

Lois Ames, Friend and Confidant of Anne Sexton to Host a Wilderness House Literary Lunch

Ames is a poet, biographer and psychotherapist who graduated from Smith College. She has published biographical essays on Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. She has received numerous awards and citations, including a gold medal from The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration Alumni Association, "For Outstanding Achievements in Education & Human Welfare" and has been a Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Recommendation

I have been reading some of Diane Ackerman's work from her book Origami Bridges. Diane has captured a lot of very strong images and introspective feelings in this book. Her poems were written during a period in which she underwent intense psychotherapy. Of course one cannot be certain but the presumption is that the therapy added a dimension to her personal reflections that are exposed in her poetry.

A couple of the individual poems that I belief were really vivid and enjoyable to me, were Weathering Depression, Omens of Winter and Holding Radium.

I would recommend this book to others who have perhaps not had an opportunity to see her work for themselves.

Diane Ackerman's web site

Poetry