Poetry Thought for the Day

"A joke is like an explosion - there's just this little smoke and it's gone. A poem is like a much. much richer joke." Adam Zagajewski, AGNI online, 2004

Confession Tuesday Broken Back Edition

Dear Reader:

It's been on week since my last confession.  One back breaking week.


I confess our garage needed cleaning out.  We have a two car garage but I don't believe we've ever parked two cars in it at the same time. We have packed one in on occasion but this has been rare. We don't have a formal basement as such. There is a lower level finished family room where some people might have a basement but for us the garage area has been used mostly for storage from day one. I would add that it has not been organized storage in any sense of the word.

This past week we have been cleaning  it out. It's been a back braking task and I confess that yesterday evening we had a chiropractic visit that we moved up from it's scheduled Wednesday night time slot because we were both so sore.

Things I've parted with - Not of course an inclusive list but some items include:

• various books
• two pipes-  I smoked a pipe years ago. In fact I smoked a pipe  late in my high school days. (I confess nothing more then traditional pipe tobacco)
• old material from previous political campaigns I was involved in
• some wall plaques
• VHS tapes & movies
• Misc. papers saved over the years
• fantasy baseball magazines
• old watch
• old yard signs
• broken fan
• old carpeting

I confess that we are not yet finished.

I confess that with lent over I have now had and enjoyed a diet coke.

Easter Break

Wishing all A Happy Easter!

I'm taking a break from cleaning in the garage. Made a last minute check to my fantasy team to see if any lineup changes are in order. Made a slight adjustment.Seeing as how it is noon could explain the fact that I'm hungry.
I can't sit here long want to get back to work. I hope not to work too late tonight want to be able to relax a bit and the write.

I've thrown out some interesting things from my past. Maybe I'll list some here this week.

Journal Bits

It's been a while since I've done a journal bits post but then I've not posted very much lately. The week I've been working in the garage - major spring cleaning and reading some in the evening and writing a bit each day.

From the pages of my journal - these following bits, quotes, thoughts....

Thursday, March 22, 2012:  A vacation day today, I've made a trip to the Midwest Gemological Society looking for information about my dad's grave. While I did not find it for certain, I did find a listing  date for an obituary. It was in 2005 and those archives are not available on line. I will need to contact the paper and order a micro-fish in order to see a copy of it. [Note: it appears he survived all his siblings and I am fearful that no prior arrangements for burial were mad and therefor he may not have a grave site but have been cremated.]

Saturday night, March 24, 2010: I've  spent time on Ancestry Dot Com tonight working on family history & found more things on my father including two collage photos [sophomore and senior years] also dis some searching about Cathy's family. It's easy to get lost [time wise] doing this.

In other news my poem "Sis" was accepted by Montucky Review.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012: Today was the last day of filing and I entered the Blue Sub 8 Democratic Committee race at the very last minute.

Thursday evening, March 29th, 2012:  It's approaching 9:00PM and I just ate almost a pint of Black Walnut ice-cream. I'm in a bit of a self-destructive mood...

Saturday evening March 31st, 2012: Again I'm dealing with negative crap from others.

"Someone told me you can't/like the simplicity of these two/words that should pair off at different corners/of the ring that don't /belong to any social circles together."

April 1st, 2012: "All the room was silent even/as words from your mouth/filled the air with pollen/my eyes and throat itchy from/the allergen words "you can't".

April 2nd, 2012: Quote by Fay Weldon BBC, January 2, 1992 -"A poem almost exists because of the pattern of space around it."  In thinking about Weldon's words - On the page, a pattern of ink and white page are the parameters that confirm the existence. [like a foot print] Every poem [written] has a presence upon the page and at the same time it has another whole dimension that occurs in the form of sound... If read in a room it can occupy the normal silence [briefly].

April 3rd, 2012:  "It's an everything bagel/what more does it need?"

April 4th, 2012:  "Someone said they saw a bit /of the arctic circle just off Manhattan/ and the infrastructure is unsettled/by rising water levels but just this morning/I heard a Senator talk of global warming /and Greek myths in the same/run on sentence..."

April 5th, 2012. "His and her closets say so much/about class, about possessions/about archetypes..."
"At first approach relationships/are shell games requiring/great attention span."

What I'm Reading...

Tonight I am settling in with a copy of FALL HIGHER by Dean Young.  After a little reading I'll tackle a new poem draft for day four of poetry month.

Poetry Month Thought #2

"Becoming a poet involves the end of a kind of innocence. It is about being critical, separate. Experience is no longer just experience. It becomes material." ~ Vicki Feaver, How Poets Work, 1996

Confession Tuesday - Lent on auto pilot edition

Dear Friend… it’s a week since my last confession; a whole frink’n week already. 

To the confessional…. 

It’s been a week of rain and sunshine. I confess that I can take no blame or credit for either.  

It’s been a trying week. I confess that it has been a week of anger and frustration and uncertainty; all of things that I don’t like.  I confess that it also is a week in which change has been on my mind a lot. Some perhaps good and some perhaps not so, but either way he thought of changes is always unsettling to me. 

I confess that I’m usually thinking about poetry month many weeks before it ever arrives but not this one. I confess too that I often wrangle internally with the pros and cons of setting out to write a poem-a-day during poetry month. The pressure to produce, the expectations, the thought of failure, all that kind of stuff that causes you lunch to spin heavy in your stomach like a cement mixer sloshing a load before it dumps It out.  All that said, I simply went about writing a draft of a poem each of the first two nights of the month and never put any pressure on myself o do so.  Both seem to be real workable drafts… Yeah! 

I confess that one day last week I was on auto pilot when I stopped on the way to work at the local Quick Trip, aced in and filled up a 44 oz. glass, paid and went to the car where I took a sip and realized I had gotten Diet Coke instead of iced tea from the fountain.  I pitched the drink and stopped down the road for a tea. Other than that mistaken sip, I have continued my sacrifice of Diet Coke for Lent.   

My wife and I saw the movie Mirror Mirror over the weekend. It’s a fascinating twist on the Snow White story. Julia Roberts was great in a most unconventional role for her.  I recommend it!  I confess he trip to the movies with Cathy was my high point of the week.