Poetry Quote for Monday

"After a certain age, a poet's main rival is the poet he used to be." - William Logan Paranus 27, nos. 1 & 2

Poetry Quote of the Day

"A good erotic poem will express desire, incite desire" - Smita Agarwal, Poetry Review, Winter 2000-2001

Poetry Quote of the Day

"Trying to write a good poem is like running off a cliff to see if you can fly. Most of the time you can't, but every once and a while something happens." ~Marvin Bell - The American Poetry Review, January-February 2003

Knife Edge...

"A poem that does its work must stand on the knife edge of yes and no. The last line of a poem should have both the yes and the no in it, that's what makes it complex." Dorianne Laux - The Kansas City Star - January 28, 2001


Reading these words from Dorianne Laux spoke to my partiality for poetry that encompasses dissonance; that grand internal conflict. To me, this is the richest poetry of all.

Poet's Mailbag

This week the mail man brought several writing related items...  My recollection is a subscription advertisement for the Writer's Chronicle and a flyer with upcoming classes at the Writers Place.  Seems there may have been something else.

Yesterday, I received the first rejection letter of the year. It was electronic but contained a personal note that read," Dear Michael, I just wanted you to know that your poems made it to the final round of consideration. Sorry to say no this time. Do try us again during our fall reading period..."   If you are going to get a rejection letter there is a certain comfort in knowing your work stayed alive in the consideration for a while. Seriously - it helps to look at your submission and think what if anything you might have done different or consider perhaps a different journal as a better fit. In this particular case I did feel good about this particular submission. You know how sometimes you send something out and for days later you have regrets...  this one never was that way.

Anyway, may the postman and e-mail bring good news in the week ahead!

Confession Tuesday - Birthday Edition...

Dear Reader:  If it's Tuesday, this muse be my confession.

Yes, my friends, I confess this is my birthday.  I will not however confess my age.  But for the record, I sometimes feel older then our nation. Sometimes when the knees get cranky I feel older then dirt!  But today, not so. Today, I'm embracing the philosophy that I'm as young as I feel and I refuse to be my age.

I confess that I was pretty overwhelmed this morning that an attorney on our staff baked a birthday cake for me and brought it into the office. Our staff works damn hard during the day and the thought that one of them would go home after a long hard day and take the time to do this was incredible to me.

My wife and I stopped on the way home from work and had BBQ at Benny's.  It was just the two of us and it was nice and relaxing. Then home and took in a couple of TV programs we like and peeked off and on at the NH primary returns.

I confess that by this time last year I had sent out something like 8 submission packets and this year I've not sent out a single one during the new year. I need to because the number of outstanding submissions has dwindled down to single digits. Still, in spite of the fact I hope to send out more this year then last, I am not stressing. No, I am perfectly calm. I've got some places in mind and in relative short order I intend to start kicking them out. If I haven't by next Tuesday, then I might start stressing.

So there you have it. A year older but staying cool!  I'm feeling comfortable in my Capricorn digs!

Magpie Tales - poem: Untitled

Utilitarian art

boxes in Duffy square.

Girders and panels rise

poking the Troposphere.

Windows offer a glimpse

of ground life—

crisscross traffic,

news barkers,

theater goers,

Father Duffy at attention;

Yul Brenner glares—

have you bought your tickets?



Michael A. Wells

Magpie99