Almost Forgot!

Ugh!  I almost forgot to mention that I'm reading tomorrow at the Westport Branch of the K.C Public Library.

118 Westport Road, Kansas City, MO 64111I

4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Technorati Tags: Michael A. Wells,Kansas City Public Library,Poetry Reading

Still Writing

Yes, I've been silent a couple of days, but don't think that I'm not still going on the poem-a-day challenge!  I was sifting through some of them this evening and I can say there are four or five that could have some potential. Yes, there are some really bad ones, but truth is you've got to be willing to put a lot of bad ink on a page to get there.

In poetry news elsewhere, I was delighted to see W S Merwin win a Pulitzer for his book The Shadow of Sirius. I cannot say that I believe the book warrants the prize as I have not read it. But I am very fond of Merwin's work and have nothing but praise for Migration for which he won a National Book Award. I am anxious to read his new one.  You can find an interview for NPR by Terry Gross of Merwin here. Also, Ruth Stone was a runner up this year. I must remember to read some of her work, I haven't read her for a while.

Oh, and three cheers for Sandra Beasley  - 2009 BARNARD WOMEN POETS PRIZE AWARDED TO SANDRA BEASLEY

 

Technorati Tags: W S Merwin,The Shadow Of Sirius,Ruth Stone,Sandra Beasley,Poem-a-day Challenge

 

Food for thought

If poetry should address itself to the same needs and aspirations, the same hopes and fears, to which the Bible addresses itself, it might rival it in distribution.  ~Wallace Stevens

Technorati Tags: distribution of poetry,Wallace Stevens quote

The Poetics of Space Opens at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

 

KANSAS CITY, MO.- The exhibition The Poetics of Space is on view April 10, 2009–March 14, 2010, at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Through photographs by William Christenberry, Lynn Davis, Walker Evans, Todd Hido, Anthony Lepore, and Mike Sinclair, among others, the exhibition reveals the mysterious and poetic worlds dwelling within domestic, urban, and natural spaces. The exhibition includes more than 20 photographs by 17 artists from the Kemper Museum’s permanent collection.

Artdaily.org - The First Art Newspaper on the Net

Technorati Tags: Kansas City Events,Art. Poetrics,Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art,Poetics of space

Poam-A-Day Challange day 17

All I want is a little Peace of Mind

I don't ask for much.
A late morning rainfall heard from my bed.
The mail man passing my house,
not a single bill delivered.
The sun setting gently, unshaken
and lifting a glass high in my honor.

No grimy hands pulling at my trouser leg,
no cold empty bottle of 2004 Sea Smoke Cellars
Chardonnay- languishing in the refrigerator.

A pristine moment alone
in my head, the visions of sugar plums silenced
by time out in the corner and the constant drumbeat
of a drummer, different from all others,
whose sticks mark time with untold stories and
misplaced swallows who for the first time
have not returned.



[yesterdays prompt was "all I want is (blank)"]

Poam-A-Day Challenge (day16)

Black

Black wants nothing more
than to challenge transparency-
to turn the lights out,
have dominion over the day.

Black lives for that hour when the curtain
draws back across the world stage
and will not weep for the fallen sun.

It's the onyx of stones,
the dark loam beneath
our feet, the grounds
in the bottom of our coffee

cup- and the hollow
gut wrench emptiness
that overcomes us
when all alone.

This too shall pass

                                          Today, for the second time this week, I received rejections on submissions.

I guess the positive side of this is I'm being rejected by better caliber journals.  Hey, you've got to look at the positive.

Back to the drawing board.

 

Technorati Tags: rejected submissions