Poetry is...

"Poetry too is a little incarnation, giving body to what had been before invisible and inaudible." ~ C.S. Lewis

I fell off the NaPoWriMo Wagon

"Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo." ~ Don Marquis


OK, I will fess up. I fell off the NaPoWriMo wagon this weekend. And now that I've said so, I feel way better. It is not that I haven't written, but rather that what I have written has been all over the map and is not even acceptable as a draft. But things will get better.

Grief, delight and rage...

“Verse is not written, it is bled; Out of the poet's abstract head. Words drip the poem on the page; Out of his grief, delight and rage.” ~ Paul Engle

That dangerous mind....

"Too many poets delude themselves by thinking that the mind is dangerous and must be left out. Well, the mind is dangerous and must be left in." ~ Robert Frost

Burrrrr..........

First Draft: It's Official...

Congratulations are in order to Kelli Russel Agodon. Atlantic Monthly even...

Another poetry quote for the day...

"Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words." ~ Paul Engle

I am patiently waiting the delivery of 100 broadsides from the printers for distribution for Poetry Month. OK, I'm not very patient, but I am waiting. That counts! Even if I don't have a choice. Hopefully they will arrive Monday in time for my KC Metro Verse meeting the following evening.

It's turned cold here. I mean the really cold, like the leaves on our bushes were young and green and healthy are bitten by the bitterness. Tulips which were in full bloom appear stripped and tortured with dry ice. This is not a good thing. Spring is under attack.

Believing

" A poet must never make a statement simply because it sounds poetically exciting; he must also believe it to be true." - W. H. Auden

~0~

My NaPoWriMo is moving along. Successfully producing one new poetry draft a day for each day of the month.

~0~

Poetry, Baseball, San Francisco.... does it get any better than this? (click here)

"One of the great things about baseball is it brings together imagination and reality," said Jeff Brain, a poet who participated in the event.

Thursday thoughts....

I'm not into reality shows. Why they have not caught my fancy I can't say. Perhaps it is due to the stark reality we live in day to day. I mean if we could vote Bush off the Island, I might start to get interested.

Are you aware that we are burning $9 billion a month on the Iraq war? That's $108 billion a year. Any thoughts as to how much longer this could go on? Who is going to pay for this war that was an expensive lie to the world? It is not in any fiscal budget. Our children will be paying for this for years to come. Not only financially, but in loss of credibility around the world. Our foreign policy has become a joke.

The war in Iraq has not made America any safer. If anything, it has fanned the already existing flames of hate among some in the Middle East. Bush is the best recruiter extremists could ever have.