Yesterday Barry was Three!

Pictured here is Barry, our long haired Dachshund
who turned three years big on Saturday. He is pictured here with his stuffed cigar in his mouth.

Last night my wife and youngest daughter went to a pig roast, weather here was absolutely beautiful in the evening.

Doing chores today for the most part, not writing as of yet, perhaps later.

Another couple of Amy Lowell quotes to share today and starting Monday, I'll select another poet to quote throughout the week.

Here is an Amy Lowell quote on art: "Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in." A very good starting place to describe what art is, I think.

Here she speaks of happiness: "Happiness: We rarely feel it. I would buy it, beg it, steal it, Pay in coins of dripping blood For this one transcendent good."

And lastly, perhaps a bit of good advise from this poet...

"Take everything easy and quit dreaming and brooding and you will be well guarded from a thousand evils."

• Poetry on the Internet: Some is quite good, but is it literature?
• Poetry in my bones

The Moon, McCain, War & Poetry

Hang lose with me, the fascination with Amy Lowell quotes will end soon enough and I'll move on to yet another poet. However, the quote I've picked for today is yet another exquisite joining of words... "Moon! Moon! I am prone before you. Pity me, and drench me in loneliness."

At the New School graduation in Madison Square Garden, Senator John McCain, keynote speaker was jeered, booed, and heckled by students who objected to his defense of the war in Iraq.

A student speaker, Jean Sara Rohe, 21, discarded her original remarks to talk about Mr. McCain. Stating that the Senator did not reflect the ideals upon which the university was founded. "I am young, and although I don't profess to possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous and wrong," she said.

At one point in his speech, the Senator defended the war saying, "I believe the benefits of success will justify the costs and risks." The protests grew louder and more frequent, some graduates walked out. Others laughed. When Mr. McCain returned to policy after briefly quoting Yeats, someone shouted, "More poetry!"

tags: Iraq War John McCain Poetry Amy Lowell

'101 Selected Poems' from a poet of 102

The Daily Star - Arts & Culture - '101 Selected Poems' from a poet of 102


Haidar has won international renown from a wide variety of patrons - from Pope John XXIII to the Arab League - which named him "Prince of Poets." The French awarded him the Medal la Croix de Grand Officier, and his work also won him Lebanon's Gold Medal of Merit and the Order of the Cedars. (read the fascinating story linked above)

Unrequited

Unrequited

A heart bled out
All but empty chambers
Ring hollow
As it continues pumping
Just the same.



tags: Poetry poem

Writers Place Events

Upcoming events at The Writers Place:

Open Mic: Monday, May 22, 8pm

An open mic reading / every fourth Monday of the month. At these open mic nights hosted by Sharon Eiker everyone reads!


Reading: Friday, May 26, 7pm

Ann Pai author of the memoir My Other Body: A Memoir of Love, Fat, Life and Death, will read at The Writers Place.

About the book: I wrote my book after I lost my older sister, Joyce, to the consequences of morbid obesity. I wrote it because I wanted my sister back - I wanted to make her visible again. To do this, I needed to show our sisterhood, her physical struggle, and the mental struggles of a woman dealing with weight and body image. However, since I couldn't speak for my sister's mental struggles, I wrote the story of my own. I hope you're interested in the book because I'd love to share the story with you.

Ann Pai has been writing for publication since 1996 in both technical and creative fields. Her poetry has been published by The MacGuffin Reader, in the online journal Friction Magazine (2001), in the Detroit-based indie publication Eat at Joes, and in the Pocket Poets chapbook series produced by Prospero's Bookstore in Kansas City. Her essay, “Appropriate Chewing,” was published in Byline magazine in 2003. For its 2005 edition, Sport Literate magazine printed Ann's essay, "Nolan Ryan's Last Pitch," about her sister’s death in the context of her sister’s love for baseball. Ann Pai has read poetry by invitation in writers’ series in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri, and has performed poetry for audiences in Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Brescia, Italy.An accomplished technical writer in private industry, she has designed and written more than one hundred software instruction manuals, searchable online references, and short instructional pieces.Ann Pai has lived and worked in Italy (as a live-in babysitter, translation proofreader, and English tutor) and in Russia (where, after receiving a master's degree in city planning, she assisted in planning the first Russian city to be designed on free-enterprise principles).


The Writers Place is at - Pennsylvania - Kansas City, MO 64111 Phone: 816-753-1090

American Poet honored in Iran - Poetry Northwest gets New Life

Yes, you get yet another Amy Lowell quote today.... "Sexual love is the most stupendous fact of the universe, and the most magical mystery our poor blind senses know. "

• Iran has honored Coleman Barks, a US national who spent 30 years translating the legendary 13th century Persian poet Rumi into English. [story]
• Poetry Northwest established an international reputation for publishing both stars and up-and-comers with its first issue in June 1959, but the publication folded in 2002. A Portlander, David Biespiel, 42, poet and teacher was unwilling to accept the magazine's demise He contacted the University of Washington, which owned rights to the publication. The university has agreed to let Biespiel restart Poetry Northwest from the offices of Attic Writers' Workshop, which he founded in 2000. [story]
• The UN Committee against Torture calls for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. International voices are increasingly being raised against the detention center there operated by the United States. [story]
• General Michael Hayden nominee for CIA director - defends the shameful record of domestic surveillance in confirmation hearings. [story]

tags: Poetry Iran UN Human Rights General Michael Hayden Domestic spying

Stick Poet Gear

Stick Poet Gear - go here!

tags: Stick Poet Poets caps