Not the Cover I'd Choose for a Book of Mine

The book that is bound to horrify: 160-year-old poetry volume is covered in skin of hanged murderer


Details

Enough Suspense Already....

On Monday I reported that I had some exciting news from over the weekend without offering specifics. Some have asked me if this news involves a book and while the answer to this is unfortunately no, I can however tell you that it is none the less the most exciting news I've had for quite some time.
 
Sunday, I learned that two of my poems were selected to inspire work by Jennifer Rivera, a talented abstract painter who is preparing for a poetry themed gallery showing at the Apex Art Space in the Crossroads District in Kansas City. For those not local, the Crossroads District has become the premier hub for art in the metropolitan area. "Synesthesia" will run for two months. My poems will appear along with the final paintings. She has selected work from a number of poets, some local and some from other parts of the country.
 
Jennifer has some awesome paintings! You can see a portfolio of her art and learn more about her at her web site. This is so exciting because I love abstract art in all forms. Having seen pictures of her work I am thrilled at the prospect of what she will produce in response to my poems.
 
Closer to the event I'll provide details about the dates and times of the showing. Of course it would be exciting to see a lot of my friends on the opening night, but for two months people will get an opportunity to see all of the poetry inspired work of Jennifer's.



* photo insert Jennifer Rivera

Confession Tuesday

I'm tired and I still want to read before turning in for the night but I want to fulfill my Tuesday duty so please come along to the confessional.


Dear Reader:

Today was a day that I was crazy busy but alas I confess few of my priority tasks were checked off my to do list. I have days like that because my work can be so crisis driven that the best of planning sometimes just will not work. Grrr!

It's not a new thing and I've had to learn to live with it. Sometimes it's frustrating enough to want to cast planning to the wind but I don't. Here's to more check offs tomorrow.

~

I was thinking this morning how strange it is to think as spring training is underway that the Giants will be starting the season as defending World Series champions and how different that is from the perception many had of the team's chances going into last the start of the season last year.  Many sports commentators thought the Giants were maybe like perhaps a third place team in their division.  First spring training game is this Friday against the D-Backs. I confess it feels like a heavy weight for the team going onto this season and being the defending champion. I will try to be the good fan and keep an optimistic outlook.

~

Sometimes I feel like pushing my creativity in different directions. A couple years ago I tried doing some charcoal sketching.  I confess that I'm not really very talented at this but I enjoyed trying to see various things and people through sketch.  I thought I would allow my to observe things from a different perspective. I still think this is a good idea, but admittedly I haven't done any for a while.  I think I'd like to be able to do sketches of people. I also love photographs of people taken as when they are doing things and appear totally unaware of the shot being taken. Little moments where they seem self absorbed in something.

~

I confess I'd like to have a pint of black walnut ice cream right now. Ok, I confess I'd really like more than a pint. ;)

~

Until next time, I hope you have some sweetness to your week!

I'm SO Excited!

Hail to the Chief!  President's Day off~

I've written, hobbled around on a sore knee, alternated heat and ice on it, and otherwise had a quiet day off.  At some point I need to do laundry and will probably try a relaxing bath. But while I've had a quiet day, I remain very excited about some news that came my way yesterday. I will not go into detail just yet, but I can tell you it's good news and it has to do with poetry. I did get a rejection letter over the weekend from Rattle but trust me, this makes up for it and then some.  Stay tuned for the details!

Magpie Tales 53 Poem: SHAKER

SHAKER



Sculpted by subtraction
precise patterns
sliced in the ice
of class Czech glass
cubed mathematically
and crowned with sterling
to set upon a table
to the distraction
of surroundings


2011 © Michael A. Wells



Magpie Tales 53

Your Attention Please - Is the ability to focus overrated?

I was reading a Wall Street Journal article in their Life and Culture section about attention and distractibality.  The article presented infomation from several studies that support there are perhaps benefits to be associated with distractability.

So all those times I was caught daydreaming in class... was that really such a bad thing?

...scientists have begun to outline the surprising benefits of not paying attention. Sometimes, too much focus can backfire; all that caffeine gets in the way. For instance, researchers have found a surprising link between daydreaming and creativity—people who daydream more are also better at generating new ideas. Other studies have found that employees are more productive when they're allowed to engage in "Internet leisure browsing" and that people unable to concentrate due to severe brain damage actually score above average on various problem-solving tasks.

The aeticle points out that the studies (and there were several mentioned) all involve college students and while they are revealing, they do not taken into account the challenges children facing ADHD experiance in school or the impact upon those who fail to graduate from high school.


Does distraction provide positive opportunities and lead to greater open-mindedness? What do you think?

What's Going On...

Two days in a row - here to blog. I've been lax / busy, call it what you will lately and haven done good to average 2-3 posts a week in recent months. So I guess this is what we'd call a streak!


Yesterday I had a rejection letter for four poems I had sent out.  This morning, three more went out in submission.  Another submission will likely go out later today. I'm trying to (and succeeding) maintain a much more aggressive submission schedule this year.


Poetic Happenings around the Internet:


Saturn's may have hidden seas by Christine Klocek-Lim appears in Astropoetica


A new trend in the internal civil unrest in the Middle East is Arab on Arab violence. Nobel Peace Prize winner Hanan Ashrawi’s poetry paints a picture  of the contemporary unrest.


This poetry is not an ornament to the uprising — it is its soundtrack and also composes a significant part of the action itself...