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The "next' poem is always THE thing, the question, the fear. ~ Anne Sexton, Feb. 1, 1959

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Confession Tuesday

      As you can see in the picture at the at the left, the sky here looked somewhat ominous as I was leaving the office tonight. It didn’t wait for me to get home for the sky to open up in torrential downpour. I confess this means I will not get the lawn mowed tonight. It’s confession Tuesday again…

     Cathy has expressed the opinion that I always look half dead after mowing the lawn in the heat of the summer. I confess that I’m not one to argue this.  But in my own defense I will point out that I prefer to look at it as looking half alive. This is a good thing isn’t it?

~0~

I’m so totally addicted to diet Coke. Not  diet Pepsi- no way.  I confess that if I’m at a dining establishment that only serves Pepsi, it’s probably going to be Ice water or Tea for me.  My family believes the perfect job for me is quality control for Coke.  Trust me… I know when it’s just perfect… it has to have that cool burning sensation as you swallow it. It seems to be getting harder to find a good quality fountain Diet Coke.  Quick Trips used to have among the best, but even they seem diluted these days.

I confess today was a really rare day as I didn’t have ANY diet Coke. 

I confess I am having a glass of Chardonnay  at this moment though.

 

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Did You Know?

A few bits of interesting facts you may not know about the next Poet Laureate, W.S. Merwin-

I've actually been enjoying Merwin as a poet for quite a while now.  I own three of his books, one being Migration which is a quite lengthily manuscript so I've read a lot of his work. As such, I've learned a bit about him over the last couple of years, but recently, a few more facts and I believe he is as interesting a person as he is a part of the American poetry landscape.

Here are a few of the more interesting bits of information.   How many of these did you already know?

1. Merwin is a two time Pulitzer Prize winner and was a winner of the National Book Award (for Migration).
2. During the1960s Merwin decided to stop using punctuation in his poems. He said that he had "come to feel that punctuation stapled the poems to the page ...  Se said, “I wanted instead the movement and lightness of the spoken word.”
3.  He and an earlier wife, Dido figured prominently in a period of time when Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes were in Europe.
4. Merwin was the son of a Presbyterian minister.
5. Merwin and his present wife reside on an old Pineapple plantation on Maui that had been restored to a more natural state. He's cultivated more than 700 endangered species of indigenous plants including the Hyophorbe indica, a palm tree he helped save from extinction
6. The 18 year old Merwin  sought out the advice of  poet Ezra Pound, who told him to write 75 lines every day.
7. He claims to never have composed a poem on any sort of mechanical or electronic device, preferring a small spiral notebook or even a paper napkin.
8. He does not have e-mail, further says he doesn't want it.
9. He was first awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1971, and used the occasion to speak out passionately against the war in Vietnam, donating his prize money to the anti-war effort.
10. He has began studying  Zen Buddhism in the 1970's.
11. Merwin, a pacifist, was incarcerated in a naval mental hospital near the end of the second world war for his pacifism.
12. He has translated materials from from French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, among other languages.

So how many of these things did you know?  What if anything surprised you?


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In Search of Lasting Poetry

"Peace goes into the making of a poem as flour goes into the making of bread." ~ Pablo Neruda

Each gentle word is brought forth
its cheek gently stroked
its hue noted against the shadows
of nearby words-

Stand here! No,
over here-  ah... perhaps another
time for you dear one.

Some are ground more coarsely
and some must be sifted twice at least.

Work together-
harmony everyone- harmony.

And if I anger-
it is for want of more harmony.
If I MUST get loud
If terse is called for,
it will be in defense of
unity... it will be
to build a better loaf.


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Week in Review

 

• I haven’t written nearly enough this week. ::frown::  [for which no one is to blame but myself]
• I read an amazing poem this week by Terresa Wellborn titled POEM: In Praise of Schizophrenia
• I received a signed copy of Susan Rich’s book The Alchemist’s Kitchen the mail [books in the mailbox always trump bills]  I’m reading it and very much enjoying it.
• Got a little excited about the  new Poet Laureate news.
• Read from works by Mary Oliver and Victoria Chang
• I’ve been pondering a poem idea of my wife’s (which I will take to paper this weekend and see what I can do with it)
• Did Snoopy dances around the house when the National League won the All-Star Game.
• Checked out the new Prospero’s Bookstore in Blue Springs
• Of course there was the regular 9-5 (those hours are metaphorically speaking)
• The 4:30a.m. trip to the airport
• The dogs… always the dogs.

and so on…

Oh Really...

 

I write like
Ursula K. Le Guin

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

 

 

By the way....

using other poems I've written I had various other results including:

• JAMES JOYCE
• J.K. ROWLING
• DAN BROWN
• DAVID FOSTER WALLACE
• VLADIMIR NABOKOV

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Three Cheers!!!

How Exciting!

W.S. Merwin is among my favorite poets and I am ecstatic at the news he is to serve as the next U.S. Poet Laureate.




W.S. Merwin  Poet Laureate

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