Poetry Challenge - day 3

The prompt was:  The Problem with (fill in blank)

The Problem with Poetry

It wants to be.
Just be—

that’s all. To exist
apart from the shivering
cold of rainy spring afternoons
and melancholy silence
that hangs thick as molasses
in the air.

Poetry wants to be held tight
and listened to. To be seen
not just heard.

To lie spread-eagle
on the page; bare,
and hear only the gasp
at its raw form.

Do not argue with poetry.
Not out loud.

Any disagreement should come
as a sweet discourse
within the mind.

Judge not what is said
in those lines before you.
They are for their own part
playing out what  latitude
you have allowed them—

and in the end, it is the mind
that is at fault, not the poem.

 

Technorati Tags: National Poetry Month,Poem-A-Day Challenge

POETRY MONTH - DAY 2

Just about a half hour ago I completed my day two poem based upon a prompt of outsider.  And now that I'm done, I'm thinking about all the "outsiders" that are not getting anything out of national poetry month.

Of course, we poets and poetry enthusiasts may well be in the minority. I suppose who constitutes an outsider here is open to debate, but I really think that it has more to do with groups drawn by a common likeness. There is probably more likeness among those who cling to the love of poetry than those who don't.  Among those who don't there may be a wide range in the level of disinterest. For example those with little or no exposure to poetry may comprise a portion of the whole. Then those who were exposed to it and had a strong distaste for it. Then more casually disinterested people and so on.

It seems each year I ask myself what is the big deal that sends some people running from poetry?  I am again processing that question in my mind tonight. 

Technorati Tags: National Poetry Month,poetry challenge

We've Only Just Begun

Yes, I've got poetry. I successfully met my day one challenge. A poem off a prompt about the origin of something.

I must confess, it rhymed. I believe my penitence will be be 2 Our Fathers and 5 Hail Marys. Oh yeah, and go forth and rhyme no more.

For a bit of a treat, here Stephen Dunn reads Talk to God from his book, What Goes On—Selected and New Poems 1995-2009.  Check it out.

Technorati Tags: National Poetry Month Challenge,Poem-A-Day,Stephen Dunn

National Poetry Month

I'm participating in the poem- a- day challenge for the month of April. I've not decided if I will post them here, but at this time I'm leaning against it. Writing a poem-a-day is really the exercise of creating a new draft each day. Rarely do I ever complete a poem in one day so these have to be considered in the context of a very rough draft. Some may go on to become poems while others simply will not survive the process or may become part of an entirely different poem. Still, the exercise is a good one for any writer to undertake, and I'll keep you updated on how I'm doing, and maybe share a line or two now and then.

There will be other poetry month stuff posted here over the next 30 days as well.

Risk

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.  ~T.S. Eliot

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Eskimo Pie

I want an Eskimo Pie.

I want it cold

and hard as marble.

 

I want to peel the chocolate layer off

in two                 halves.

 

First eat the vanilla inside.

Hold the chocolate clothing;

admire its sheen.

Afterwards consume it-

 

until we are one

and the rush of dopamine flashes

inside my arcade head

sending me round and round

in a ball of worked up heat

wanting more and more.

 

Technorati Tags: poem draft

Zealous and vibrant...

Thursday night I was fortunate enough to be in the audience at a Kansas City reading by Aimee Neshukumatathil.  Aimee read from her book Miracle Fruit, her latest book titled At the Drive-In Volcano and from a newer, yet to be published manuscript.

Aimee's writer voice is not the particularly powerful voice that I usually am drawn to. Nor did she quite seem to meet the template for an academic poet. She is perhaps more in the style of Naomi Nye… a gentle voice, a voice of knowledge, a voice that is zealous and vibrant, a layered mingling of her pedigree and contemporary American culture. Among my favorites from the reading, Corpse Flower, Swear Words, and Fishbone.

She’s a very relaxed reader who commands the audience attention with a balance of humor and casual storytelling in addition to her poetry. Her tone of voice when reading is a pleasant and reassuring one.

I enjoyed reading through Miracle Fruit last night and today. Her poetry is tight and neat and relies upon a wide range of knowledge of the plant and animal kingdom as well as ethnic and cultural insight.

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