MAG 205 - O Beautiful Ache

Nails to ivory—
phalanges pushing
upward to balance
she stretches
her legs apart
teetering on freedoms wings.

Toes roll
across keys
some black
most white.

Tendons feel the strain
ligaments the refrain
muscles move to the sound
of pings—

not a song you’d recognize
but the impromptu
of happiness flowing—

stretched toes
move key to key
some black
most white.

Her feet have never
ached so beautifully
before.




Michael Allyn Wells


Mag 205

Red Paper Flower - wanting more...

Suzanne Frischkorn

Red Paper Flower by Suzanne Frischkorn offers the reader textured layers of life on page. From back breaking first crush on font porch steps to The Woman Skinner of Wisconsin there is a range dissonance here that keeps you moving through the pages uncertain of what's ahead in the road.

Frischkorn is not shy about subject matter nor timid about exploratory form.
The First Signs unfolds like flower bud opening in sweetness until you realize the it fully open.  Dick & Jane's Divorced Index is brilliant.

My personal favorites were Character Traits, The First Signs, and Bees.

Red Paper Flower

There is wit, sadness, and the still of speechlessness all hung out together in this chapbook. If I had a criticism of this book, it would be that there is too little of it and I was left wanting much more.

February Issue of Gravel is Out & Is Home For One Of My Poems

I love editors! Yes, even the ones that send me rejection letters. Editors like writers a generally in love with language and devote enormous amounts of time reading through hundreds, sometimes thousands of pages of copy and then balance it all (I'm sure sometimes with excruciating pain) to make selections that they believe will be the right fit.

A big thank you to the editors of Gravel Magazine for selecting my work I Do Not Lightly Let Go in their February Issue.

This piece explores the difficulty associated with attachment, material things and emotional meanings.

There were a couple of poems by others that I really liked in my first reads....

• The Day We Enter the War by Dale Patterson
• Hand-Me-Downs by Sarah Darvec

Check them out and the others too!

Apeiron Review - Issue 5 - Winter 2014

A big thank you to the editors of Apeiron Review who
selected two of my poems for inclusion in Issue #5 -Winter
2014 issue.

The issue can be viewed at  on their web site at Apeiron Review 
or  here on Scribed where it can be seen and or downloaded.

My two pieces are Appreciation 105 & In Bed 106. 

Lots of work in this issue, I've not had tome to digest everything yet but will be reading  this weekend!

Test Driving Other People's Poems or Becoming Someone Else's Noun

Last night I tried climbing into another poet's poems with the idea of taking them for a text drive. How do they Feel?

I kicked the tires to see if any lines fell off. I put myself in the place of the people or things [in the poems]. I became a number of different nouns. How did being a Birch tree make me feel in these circumstances? I need to do this exercise more often.*



*Journal post the morning of 1-30-14

Confession Tuesday - Juggling Edition

Dear Reader:

It's been a marathon of MLB video games, 3 more submissions, one rejection and one new book to poetry library since my last confession.

I confess that some of the submission platforms frustrate me. Not all, but some submission protocols  make it impossible to withdraw say two poems and leave a third for consideration. Or any combination for that matter. The only recourse is to withdraw everything sent to them at the same time. I do appreciate the places who have put enough forethought into the process to allow for individually withdrawing work from a batch that was sent.

I got out to a reading Friday night. I haven't been doing enough of that. There was a time when I had two to three evening poetry events on my calendar each week but I've gone through a period that I simply tried to not be away from home so much at night. I confess some of my pull back was due to the fact that I was just out there too much. A person can do that you know. I'm wanting to strike more of a balance this year.

I confess that I very much wanted to attend AWP this year in Seattle but it is just not to be. My wife has suggested I start saving  now to make sure I can make it to Minneapolis next year. There are so many awesome poets that grace the Northwest landscape that it would be nice to meet some of them in person. Sure some may be at AWP next year but  there are a number of people with new books that are being launched at the event this year. I confess I'm a little sad about this.

I've been juggling poems this past week. That's right, it's not enough that I'm a poet, now I want to be an entertainer too. Okay, not really. I'm not really tossing  poems or anything in the air and catching them, but I am trying  to organize work; make a poem fit  here and there with other work in a manuscript. At times it's enough to make me want to throw everything  into the air and stand back.

Hey, did you know that it's only 18 days till Giants Pitches & Catchers  report to camp? Just typing this here makes me smile.

I've finished reading Suzanne Frischkorn's book Red Paper Flower and I'll write a review of it in a few days when I can carve out some time to do it. I will say up front I loved it and I confess I must read more of here work.

So many books, not enough time or big enough budget. (sigh)

That's it for this week....

Not Writing Daily?

Not writing daily?  Even 15 - 25  minutes devoted each day is a prescription for growth in your writing. Besides, it establishes writing as a habit. Do more when you can, but give it at least 15 minutes each day.