Michael Allyn Wells

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Bush predicts victory at polls next month

President Bush Continues in a State of Denial

654,000 deaths tied to Iraq war

Johns Hopkins researchers now estimate that more than a half-million Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S.-led invasion and its bloody aftermath.

Tags: Iraq Bush War Republicans Republicans Congress

Wednesday Poet Series - No. 4

This week's poet is

Peter Conners. He is both a poet and fiction writer who's work has been featured in Mississippi Review, Salt Hill, Beloit Fiction Journal, Luna, Sentence, 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry, Paragraph, and, Quick Fiction, among other publications. Books include, The Names of Winter, While In The World , and he edited PP/FF: An Anthology

What work of Conners I have read seems intricate as to detail. Bite The Pomegranate would be a great example as to his predisposal to catching all that is about and pulling it into his images as he writes.

The Poet Washes Dishes is a favorite of mine. Here he gets a lot of mileage out of his detail.

"The soft downturn of the ladle handle soared and fell like the epic point guard's final jump shot..."

" Water turned from periods to semi-colons and, finally, ellipses."

Here are a few other poems by Peter Conners:

Snowbirds Made of Clay Endurance Poets with alarm clocks in their foreheads

Peter Conners official website - click here

Tags: Wednesday Poet Peter Conners Poetry

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Overdue for an appearance here

A few poets I have read over the past week....

Susan Hutton in October Poetry Magazine
Laura Kasischke in October Poetry Magazine*
John Ashberry in The New Yorker - Oct. 9th
Jorie Graham in Swarm
Frank Higgins in Rockhurst Review of Five Arts - Spring 2006 19th Edition.

* I was really excited to see Kasischke in Poetry Magazine. Reading her book, Gardening In the Dark, I was so impressed with her talent for imagery. I did feel her piece in PM was a bit more abstract and I liked that very much.

A few bits from this weeks Journal

In the villa of fantasy / The dancers wait, /And the passage of time / Slips through the waist / Of a rose colored hourglass / While the mind elicits / Thoughts to choreograph / In Burberry expressions / Of lust and indulgence //
We could sit in the faint light forever, though we would be pained by spinal failure and in the end become two puddles of red emollient
Why the diversion? Why the sudden interest in the hue of other lives.

Managed to recycle a submission to another venue this weekend and I have worked on some draft revisions.

On another note, Rogue Poetry Review should be ready by the weekend. I am excited!

Tags: Poets writing and poetry Laura Kasischke Jorie Graham John Ashberry Frank Higgins Susan Hutton Rogue Poetry Review

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Wednesday Poet Will Not Appear Today

Stick Poet's regular Wednesday Poet Series will not appear today - but will resume next Wednesday.
Thank You for stopping by...

~ Michael

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

OJ

We lost one of our cats yesterday. OJ was 17 years old.

He had an Iconic status within our home. By far the senior cat - a wise old sage. Fiercely independent, he established his own boundaries where the other cats were concerned. The dogs even respected him.

Sometime back - I'm thinking about 7 years ago, he had one eye surgically removed. I recall really feeling sad for him when he lost it, but it was feared his bad eye would rupture so there really was not a choice. He actually seemed to feel much better afterwards and adjusted very well.

He was a strong cat. He had been quite large at one time, but over the past couple of years lost much weight and although he sometimes appeared quite frail, if you wanted to pick him up, he could dig his claws into the carpet and it was coming up too.

At one time he had been prone to seizures. We had to administer Phenobarbital. He grew out of this for the most part, but it was always a possibility that existed. So in many ways, I perceived OJ to be resolute, a tough dude who had endured a lot in his life, but at the same time saw him as fragile.

He is missed!