Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thought for the Day
Monday, August 24, 2009
Turn Your Refrigerator Upside Down
I try to look at things differently. It’s something I’ve been doing for a while now and it isn’t always easy because I think people ten to see what they want to see.
I believe particularly successful artists of all stripes have been thinking outside the box long before Taco Bell popularized enlarging our way of thinking with it’s slogan, “Think outside the bun.”
I’m particularly fond of poets who are able to stretch our imaginations. I want to be especially adept at this and I think to get there it’s good to exercise one’s imagination even in the most common of things.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Quote for week ahead
As Sunday approaches midnight I’m headed to bed with the latest edition of Poets and Writers magazine.
My quote of the week ahead…. “Life's unfairness is not irrevocable; we can help balance the scales for others, if not always for ourselves.” Hubert H. Humphrey
Saturday, August 22, 2009
On Poetry: Ordinary objects can become beautiful through words - Norwich, CT - Norwich Bulletin
On Poetry: Ordinary objects can become beautiful through words - Norwich, CT - Norwich Bulletin
By A.S. Maulucci
For The Norwich Bulletin
Posted Aug 21, 2009 @ 09:19 PM
Most of us form attachments to simple, everyday objects such as a coffee mug, a pen, a Swiss army knife or a pair of scissors. Ordinary things we love to use on a daily basis can be very beautiful and give us a great deal of pleasure. I have a thick Lucite ruler with drawings by Matisse that is not very practical for measuring things, but which I love to hold and use as a weight to keep a book open when I’m taking notes. This ruler has been in my possession for 40 years and has accompanied me through several major relocations. It sits on my desk as I write this.
Another treasured object is a small piece of driftwood picked up on a beach in the Hamptons. It flows like the cresting of a wave and is lovely to look at. It serves no practical purpose, but I have become very attached to it, and it too is well traveled.
Many poets have written poems in celebration of the beauty of simple objects such as these. One of my favorites is a poem by Pablo Neruda called “Ode to My Socks.” FULL COLUMN
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Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Value in Darkness
There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. - Carl Jung
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thoughts about Modern Confessional
I’ve always been almost as interested in biographical information and interviews of poets as their work itself. My own twitter bio says, “The Poem Is My Bio.” This evening I read an interesting interview with Rachel Zucker by Publisher’s Weekly.
Zucker speaks of an awkward situation concerning her book The Bad Wife Handbook when her oldest son said to her sheepishly, “I couldn’t sleep last night and I went into the living room and I read your book.” Then he asked, “What does it mean to be a bad wife?” It had never occurred to her that her audience for the book would include her son.
Zucker makes an interesting point concerning writing so frankly about her family. “I have the choice about whether to publish these poems, but I don’t think I had the choice about whether to write them.”