Birthday Book

 Arriving in the mail today.... Edgar Allen Poe and the Juke-Box - Uncollected Poems, Drafts, Fragments. I've been interested in this book for some time. It's a collection of previously unpublished works of Elizabeth Bishop. I've never read a lot of Bishop but I was interested in this when it first came out. Elizabeth Bishop had a reputation for being a real stickler about her work. Many have theorized that she would not have been happy to see this material in print, but I'm a sucker for things about poets that shed more insight into who they are and what impacts their work. Hence I've taken an interest in to books like Plath's Letters Home, Plath's Journals, Ted Hughes's letters, Anne Sexton's letters, to name a few. Anyway, this was a birthday present that arrived today and I'm anxious to start reading it.


On another note, tonight I saw Gretchen Rubin at the Plaza Library where she talked about The Happiness Project. An overflow crowd. Fascinating woman and story. More on this in the near future.


The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Poetic Vacuum

I’m in London, or so it would seem. The fog here has settled in this past week like an occupying army. It was cool at first, but the bullet gray is growing old and is quite depressing.

Yesterday I was certain I was coming down with something. Motivation was gone after work last night. Felt better this morning but not exactly great.

It was also yesterday that I felt there was no poetic dialogue going on. I don’t just mean that I felt a lack of connection with any other poets – but I felt there was no internal poetry dialogue with myself. I don’t especially like it when I feel there is a poetic vacuum. Do you know what I mean? Anyone else ever feel this way?

Where's the humanity?

I feel a deafening poetic silence about me this morning.

Recent Journal Bits

• January 6 - note: I'm still having trouble writing this year correctly.


• January 6 - "what I know of you / fits well in my cupped hand / it's all there is."

• January 7 - " Januarys grace is the slowly rising plum of smoke from the fireplace / chimney against the dark blue sky of a children's picture book."

• January 9 - "What do you suppose / the dead take with them / memories caramelized by years  / of turning, sautéed in the juices  / thank make up life?"

• January 10 - "Venation Blinds have great dexterity...  they align themselves so well / precise as the feet of a marching brand / white spats going up and down / in perfect cadence.

• January 10 - quote: "The late poems are the ones / I turn too first now ... they are made of words that have come the whole way" W.S. Merwin - Worn Words from The shadow of Sirus.

• January 16 - add the word pellucid to my word list - admitting the passage of light, transparent or translucent . Transparently clear in style or meaning.

Unconscious Mutterings Week 364

You say and I think....


1.Weak :: knees

2.Flashy :: bling

3.Sack ::  sad sack

4.Business :: listing

5.Purple :: heart

6.Fan :: baseball

7.Airline :: ticket

8.Guide :: TV

9.Lunch :: box

10.Exercise :: aerobic



get your own list at Unconscious Mutterings

Some cheery news

After a two year absence from New York busses and subway, Poetry in Motion is returning. Poetry in Motion had been in opperation for 15 years and became a  model for other such programs in other cities.

For a glimpse of what commuters will see in 2010 - some Emily Dickinson, a 10th century Japanese poem, a 9th century Aztec poem and a "cheeky, chiding poem" by Stevie Smith called Deathbed of a Financier among other works.

Source

Your three words for 2010?

Last night I did something I’ve been intending to do for some time now. I got comfortable on the bed and pulled out a file folder with some of my poems and began separating them into stacks based on how I thought they might work into a manuscript idea that I have. I found some that I believe will work as they are. Another group that I believe could work but I feel require anything from some minor tweaking to more involved rewrites; however I can still see working. Then there are the rest of them.


I would like to have had more that I thought would be a good fit, but I still have some material that was not printed out in that folder. I have material in a couple of other places, like our desktop that I don’t use for writing any longer and just some hard copies of work that I’m not quite sure where the original files are. Fortunately I’ve gotten better about how I retain my work, but there are things that fall into the hole of historically I’ve not always been so good about it.


I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty details of what my goal is here, but I did set some general timelines back in September about a manuscript and I am working to stay focused on this project.


Contrary to my norm, I did make some new years resolutions and I am happy to say that at this tinder age of 2010, I’ve stuck to them.


This has nothing to do with my specific resolutions, but I was trying to think if I could select a three year mantra for 2010, what it might be. There were several things that came to my mind, but in the final analysis, I chose these: “Read, write, more.”



What three words define what you wish for in 2010?