ClickPress | EPIPHANIES OF THE SOUL: EMPOWER YOURSELF WITH THERAPEUTIC POETRY by Rena Johnson

ClickPress EPIPHANIES OF THE SOUL: EMPOWER YOURSELF WITH THERAPEUTIC POETRY by Rena Johnson


Tag: Poetry

Progress

"What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books." ~Sigmund Freud, 1933

This is almost funny. However, I don't suppose we've come much further since 1933.

Midwest Poet Series Review

On Thursday, I attended a reading at Rockhurst University by Laura Kasichke. This was one of the Midwest Poets Series readings that have over the years attracted the likes of Billy Collins, W.S. Merwin, C.D. Wright, Sharon Olds, Li-Young Lee, among others.

I read a short novel last fall written by Kasischke when I was unable to turn up one of her poetry books at the Library. The remarkable thing about the book was not so much the plot as it was the language she used. He writing was so vivid with imagery that I know that her poetry just had to be awesome. I was not disappointed.

Kasischke has published six books of poetry in addition to three novels. She is a Pushcart Prize winner as well as the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award for Emerging Writers, the Alice Fay DiCastagnola Award, and has earned fellowships by the Ragdale Foundation, McDowell Colony, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Presently she teaches at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

What draws me to her poetry is the manner in which she transforms the common everydayness of events and things into mystical imagery to tell a story. Her words, even in the throngs of commonality are strong enough to pry your attention away from your own everyday life.

All of my selves tend to agree...

"Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia." ~E.L. Doctorow

The Council finance director resorts to poetry to reject a parking fine appeal

News & Star

You got to love this...

Last night...

Poetry Society meeting (KC Metro Verse) went well last night in spite of my last minute planning. I did some handouts and we discussed David Groff's essay The Peril of the Poetry Reading: The Page Versus the Performance which made for a lively discussion. Groff presents some excellent food for though both favorable and unfavorable to poetry readings.
We also did read-arounds. Some personal work as well as poems by others. When all was said and done, no one suggested impeaching me. Not openly anyway.

Speaking of impeachment, I caught the President's State of the Union address on the drive home last night. Amazing to say the least. At one point, he said:

"So to prevent another attack -- based on authority given to me by the
Constitution [I have yet to hear which specific article references this authority] and by statute [again, what statute?] -- I have authorized a terrorist surveillance
program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected Al
Qaida operatives and affiliates to and from America.

Previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority [Really? Because I really am only aware of Nixon using wiretaps that were illegal ]I have and federal courts [Which court? This is really funny because what he is doing is
circumventing the very court (FISA) which was established to deal with warrants
for the very activity he is undertaking without warrants] have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress [Interesting in that many including members of his own party have expressed concern when this became public knowledge] have been kept informed.

The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist
attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people
inside our country who are talking with Al Qaida, we want to know about it,
because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again."

*red type and brackets are my comments

Ok, he keeps framing this issue like Al Qaida picks up the phone or types an e-mail to someone in the U.S. or vice versa and we know they are doing it, so we listen in or intercept their e-mail. He is suggesting no one else is impacted, no one else but the "bad guys" are being spied on. How damn stupid is the President thinking the American people are? You can't automatically know who's phone calls and e-mail to intercept - this is broader than that and THAT is the reason he isn't going to FISA is because FISA is not going to grant an open season of spying on the American people just to see what we can find.

Bush can travel from city to city and give this speech a million times. He may even be beginning to believe himself that he has the legal authority to do this, just as he convinced himself of the WMDs, but he is wrong on his executive authority and he is breaking the law.

I recommend reading Palace Revolt if you happen to think what I have just said is nothing but liberal bullshit because there are plenty of conservatives who understand what the President is doing is wrong and some of them worked for the President and tried to convince him otherwise.

Enough of that...

Any Adreienne Rich fans out there? I was reading some of her poems this week. She is an interesting read.

What to do...

I learned late yesterday that I would be responsible for the program tonight at KC Metro Verse. This because our chapter president (who had this whole big thing on Dickinson planned) cannot be there. So being the person in charge of "Vice" - it falls upon me to conduct the meeting.

Ok, it is true I had last night to pull something together. But as it was, I had planned doing our taxes (which I did) and then I was too drained to think about it. I joined my wife (already in bed) past the point of meaningful dialogue, (meaningful being defined as anything she could be held accountable for recalling later) so I grabbed the book I am currently reading (Bitter Fame - A life of Sylvia Plath by Anne Stevenson) and read till I could finally fall asleep.

So here I am... still with what to do.

Now it is common that whatever the plan for the evening is - we will do a read around. Our own work or that of another poet... sometimes both. So we can do that. But on my lunch hour today, I still have to decide what direction to take the meeting tonight in terms of discussion or program. Being in Vice President can be such a bitch at times.