I love it when I get mail that relates in some way to poetry. It always beats the electric bill or any other for that matter.
In the mail this week I received my Jan-Feb issue of Poets and Writers magazine. Yeah!!! I also received a Holiday / New Years post card of sorts from a poet friend.
No rejection letters this week but then no acceptances either.
I've already alluded in an earlier post to the fact that the latest issue of Poets &
Writers is awesome. If you don't subscribe to it, pick it up off the shelf.
Barnes & Noble.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Do Not Miss the Jan-Feb 2012 issue of Poets & Writers
I've had a peek a the Jan-Feb issue of Poets & Writers magazine and it looks like a wonderful issue. First of all it has the 7th Annual look at Debut Poets. I always love his feature and have sometimes in he past known one o two of the poets. Even so, it's always fun to see things like their age, experience, time spent both writing and then finding a home for their book, advice, etc.
There is a special section in this issue that is on inspiration. Several articles that deal with things like:
I was particularly interested in the author's citation of some of the material from Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. For example his 5 stages of creativity:
There is a special section in this issue that is on inspiration. Several articles that deal with things like:
- Clearing some of the stumbling blocks to creative thinking
- Opening your writers mind
- Inspired reading
- Inspired revision
I was particularly interested in the author's citation of some of the material from Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. For example his 5 stages of creativity:
- preparation
- incubation
- insight
- evaluation
- elaboration
- Psychic exhaustion
- easy distraction
- inability to protect/channel creative energy
- not knowing what to do with energy
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Confession Tuesday - one click mistake edition
It’s Tuesday but feels to me like it should be Friday. Come
with me to the confessional.
Dear reader:
When it’s Tuesday night and you feel like you’ve already
endured a whole work week this is not a good thing, but I digress. It’s been a week since my last confession. A
week of coughing each morning and thinking that tomorrow I’ll be better. I
confess that I thought I would be more on the mend by now.
I recently bought a poetry eBook by accident. I was on my
Blackberry and from my Kindle app I was trying to download the preview. If I
liked the preview I would likely buy the title as a real book. By accident I clicked the wrong link (they were next to
each other and on the phone app it’s hard to tell which is highlighted). I realized it immediately and contacted
Amazon. I never opened the download and it remained in my archive until they
did a refund. I decided with my Amazon account set on one click purchase I
needed to change this. You ask, “Why are you telling me this?” Ah yes, that would be my confession. I cannot
see me buying poetry in eBook format.
Maybe a novel, maybe non-fiction, but poetry, no!
I like my poetry in print on a page. If I look at a poetry
book and I like it, I’m probably going to read it over and over. Many of my
copies are ultimately autographed by the author. Do that on your eBook reader! So am I just a crazy old guy that refuses to
change? Don’t feel obligated to answer
that.
In spite of the week feeling like it should be over I
confess I have no idea how we got to the 13th of December already. I
think I’ve missed a lot of opportunity this year. I started out like gangbusters submitting
work but cooled off late summer to a crawl.
A lot of my writing plans went by the wayside this fall but I don’t
really want to lament – I’d prefer to think about next year since it will be
here lickity split. Besides, 2010 was a dry year for publication and this year
I did have successes. There is that to be thankful for.
What are you thankful for this year?
Monday, December 12, 2011
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Little Butt Crack Showing...
I couldn't resist this. A picture I shot a while back with cell phone mid-day as I stretched my legs over lunch hour. Some days I actually have a humorous streak.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Foxtrot - appearing in WestWard Quarterly Fall 2011
Earlier this fall my poem Foxtrot appeared in WestWard Quarterly. Since this is a print publication there is not link to it but now that a little time has passed since the publication I have included now on the published poems page - see tab above or click here.
Magpie 94 / Poem: LUNCH
Lunch
Clock ticking
1800 seconds and ticking
rows of busy heads
bobbing and chewing
throats likes snakes
swallowing a rabbit
whole-
chatter
to a minimum-
like they each have some place
to go-
they do
half an hour for lunch
the the rest of their eight hour day
it's robotic-
circuitous each day
the same each day
the same
Michael A. Wells
Magpie 94
* photo credit - Lunch, George Tooker, 1964, Columbus Museum of Art
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