Confession Tuesday - Give a Smile Edition

Dear Readers:                                                        

Another Tuesday has come and almost gone. It's been one week, two new poetry books, a trip to the Chiropractor and a shitload of snow since my last confession:

I've been mixing my reading and writing in the evenings with Winter Olympics. My wife and I have enjoyed watching many of the events together. I'm torn between enjoying the time together watching and writing and reading which I confess I have cut back on this week. I know I have no reason the feel guilty for appropriating family time and less to reading & writing. But of course that  makes be question if I am usually spending too much time on reading writing?  I try to keep a balance. This is one of the reasons that I pulled back from doing so many events away from the house. Something  I recently decided I may have gone overboard in my pull back.

Juggling has never been a talent that I excel at. I can get the balls in the air okay, I'm just not good at keeping them from falling  periodically. I confess that I play a good game, but all around me things are falling at my feet. I am zeroing in on a project that  I expect will require two to three month really focused work. I've decided I need to get organized about how I handle this and make sure to I break the project up into parts and identify the really critical parts and and tackle them in progression. I don't want things to get  scrunched up at the back end of the timeline where I am scrambling to get things together  or worse throw my arms in the air and surrender. I must keep telling myself surrender is not an option.

In recent times I've been trying to be more upbeat about things. I mean just  everyday things... work, writing, family stuff, finances, future, things that often beat me down but rally don't have to. I tried to be more interactive with people, often strangers in the building at work or in stores, etc. A smile here a hello there. I confess that this is not something that comes easy for me, but perhaps that is what makes doing it that much more rewarding.

Tackling  fears and putting myself out there on the line can be tiring...  I'm calling it a night!

Amen

MAG 206: A Day of Nothing Together

It's morning
you've got everything
I've got nothing

You've got work
chatter at the water cooler
lunch somewhere-    maybe
with someone.
a world awaits you

I've got sunshine
through the morning window
and my hat - only my hat on.

You've got world,
I've got window.

Look am me-
I am what you see
unencumbered by trappings-

I offer you a kiss-
blown without strings attached.

But  I remain here,
an offer to you-

come, let's have a day of nothing
together.



Michael Allyn Wells

Mag 206

Confession Tuesday - Snow White Snow Bright Edition

Dear Reader:

It's been on week of Crazy Winter since my last confession.

So here I am today - at home, all day.  I did not go to work today but alas I was not playing hooky, I received a call from my boss last night telling me not to come in unless I heard otherwise I was needed for an emergency.  Weather people on TV and  radio have been pleading with us since yesterday to stay home today of we can.

The picture on the right is what you immediately see when you open on of the French doors in our kitchen onto the deck.

I confess that I misspoke when I said I've been at home all day. I ventured out this morning with a care package for my daughter who is at KC Pet Project (a no kill shelter) and will very likely stay overnight so that it is assured that she can be there in the morning.

Even sitting in my writing studio much of the day I confess I feel as though I am suffering from snow blindness. A cursory look out my window from time to time keeps me feeling  abuzz with white glare.

I confess that I am fully expecting snow plows to do our street and push a mound of hard packed snow and ice in the mouth of my driveway making it difficult at best to get out tomorrow without significant work/effort. This and the temperatures are expected to drop way into dangerous levels for exposure. At the present time I'm anticipating that I will need to report to work tomorrow. That of course could change but presently I'm counting on the fact that I will need to go in so the ability get out of my driveway is a little more then just a pressing concern.

While at the shelter this morning a saw the cutest dog that was so timid. I wanted to bring him home but then I often see dogs there I want to bring home. More in the house right now is just not an option, but I confess I am a sucker of a dog that tugs at my heart strings.

The Winter Olympics start the week in case you haven't heard. I confess that I am a gigantic fan of the winter games. I love the anything on skies - especially ski jumping and the giant slalom. I love the hockey. Figure Skating, bobsled, curling, you get the picture. In recent years the TV coverage has sucked. I don't like seeing it on delayed basis. I want it all and I want it even if  it's 3:00 am my time.  So I confess the TV coverage will piss me off. I want to go back to the days of Sarajevo when the coverage rocked!

I confess that I am also pissed that a pest control company has been contracted to eradicate stray dogs around and about Sochi. Officials are tight lipped about how the dogs are being killed.

I confess that I am concerned about security for the games and the safety of individuals... athletes and public alike. They are all in my prayers.

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!