Just Wondering

Do you ever wonder what the worst writing of the best writers looks like? Those poems and scratching that never make it. Aborted poems.

A year ago or so there was a book published with some of Elizabeth Bishops unpublished work. "Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments," by Elizabeth Bishop a collection of her material which drew a lot of criticism because it is presumed she would not have wanted to see it in print. Anyway, when I’m having a bad day or string of them with writing, I wonder what a string of bad day writing might look like to a W.S. Merwin or Sharon Olds or maybe Mary Oliver.

 

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Thought for the day

The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. ~ Carl Jung

 

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Journal Bits

I haven’t done any journal bits for a while so here we go…  Just a glimpse of some of my journal writings. Some of these are from free writes, some from drafts, some simple observations an occasional quote that strikes my fancy.

• 10-12 Forty is still this side / of the curvature of the earth / I see it but I can’t touch it.
• 10-11 The ash tray is dormant. / It occupies space / on the end table / to grandma’s old lamp. / Its empty nest stopped begging / for attention it never gets / about seven years ago.
• 10-09 I saw the winter / slip and slide / nearly out from under you / and the plans you alone held to. / My hands were afraid. / They wanted only to hold / your hands tight / as physically possible
• 10-07 The price for this hunger / a layover of hollow thoughts
• 10-07 If there is a purpose for writing poetry, to me personally it is part personal discovery and part a feeling of some immortality.
• 10-04 When baseball ends  / for the year  and the night /  creeps into the morning hour / the dark will eat you.
• 10-02 “I am not alone / and never will be /  your absence is my company.”  Claribel Alegria – translated by Carolyn Forche’

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What I’ve been Up To This Weekend

 

Finished the off a poem draft – at least as far as I feel I can go today. At  that point when you’ve nothing more to add and can think of any more to cut, so it will sit a while and I’ll revisit it at another time.

Picked up a copy of The Complete Poems of anne sexton yesterday at Boarders. When you have a 40% off coupon it’s time to go buy a book.

I got an email telling me that Autumn Sky Poetry No 15 is out.  I always enjoy reading what the editor - Christine Klocek-Lim has selected for each issue, so of course I had to check it out.  This issue has some outstanding work in it.  A few if the poems that really impressed me:

• The Trouble with Hope  by Cheryl Snell
• Two Voices:  Frida’s Heart by Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda
• Prototype of a Dream Machine by Kristine Ong Muslim
• We Leave the Beaches for the Tourists by Ira Sukrungruang
• After the Tsunami by Katherine Riegel

 

Technorati Tags: Autumn Sky Poetry,Cheryl Snell,Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda,Kristine Ong Muslim,Ira Sukrungruang,Katherine Reigel

 

 

Don’t Pass This Up…. Two short minutes & 13 Sec.

 

I’m not glued to twitter.  I was a long time in coming around to it. There are a lot of things on twitter I don’t care about. Gretchen Rubin  I discovered by way of twitter. The 2 minute and 13 second video is what Gretchen Rubin is all about. Enjoy it. I did.

 

Technorati Tags: The Happiness Project,Gretchen Rubin

The Hunger of a Child

The price for this hunger

a layover of hollow thoughts;

a weakening distraction.

Eyes roll back

in unlevel sockets

to canvass the heavens

for some bright hope

that signals the stomach

to squelch the pangs.

What is your poetry supposed to do?

So you write poetry…  and you do this with what objective in mind?  I’m curious about what writers most hope to achieve when their poetry is read by someone. I know there are probably more then one answer for most writers, but I’m asking you to think about the majority of your poetry.

In considering my own I’ve realized sadly that I don’t often give this a lot of thought. There are times when I hope my poetry will inform. When writing something with a social of political flavor to it, informing can be a big part of it.  But sometimes there is no underlying message, just an attempt to provide a different way to view something. Stepping outside the box to show something outrageously different.  How a person might look to a catfish on their plate…

I read an interview of a poet recently and there was some discussion of poetry entertaining. Strange as it might seen,  I never really considered poetry to be about entertaining readers, though I suppose it is safe to say that I have myself felt entertained by poetry that I have read.

Do you set out to entertain when you write? What do you generally see as the best value of your finished poem?

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