Thought for the Week from Sexton

I saw where Cecilia Woloch celebrated the launch of her new collection of poetry titled Carpathia on Sunday.  I’ve read Woloch’s book Late which was outstanding and will be interested to read Carpathia at some point and see how it compares. If anyone gets an opportunity to read it soon, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Robert Pinsky is in town Thursday for the Mid-West Poet’s series at Rockhurst University. I’ve got his reading on my calendar and looking forward to it.
Thought for the week from Annie Sexton - “Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.”

Calling it a night – or whatever

Is the weekend coming to an end? Where did it go. I’m not rejuvenated yet.  As my wife would say, if I go to sleep morning will come and another day (workday)… sigh!

I did get a new rough draft of a poem together today. Read some Sexton… it (she) was speaking to me.

Submission -  yes I forced myself to get one out tonight. 

Squeezed in an Open Mic. I didn’t read tonight, just wanted to be a listener. A critical ear.

My daughter texted me yesterday to tell me she saw Where the Wild Things Are. I was so jealous.  Loved this book!  The movie looks really good.

The winner is...

I’m excited for Kelli Agodon - winner of the White Pine Poetry Book Prize! The judge for this year was Carl Dennis, poet who wrote Practical Gods, which won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2002.




Kelli’s winning manuscript Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room will be published in fall 2010.  Her book Small Knots, published 2004 is already among my favorite poetry books. I can't wait to read Letters. Congratulations Kelli!

Tides

There is a real tidal wave that has come over me and is pulling me back into the sea of writing. I feel I need to write to stay afloat.

Just Wondering

Do you ever wonder what the worst writing of the best writers looks like? Those poems and scratching that never make it. Aborted poems.

A year ago or so there was a book published with some of Elizabeth Bishops unpublished work. "Edgar Allan Poe & the Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts and Fragments," by Elizabeth Bishop a collection of her material which drew a lot of criticism because it is presumed she would not have wanted to see it in print. Anyway, when I’m having a bad day or string of them with writing, I wonder what a string of bad day writing might look like to a W.S. Merwin or Sharon Olds or maybe Mary Oliver.

 

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Thought for the day

The word "happiness" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. ~ Carl Jung

 

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Journal Bits

I haven’t done any journal bits for a while so here we go…  Just a glimpse of some of my journal writings. Some of these are from free writes, some from drafts, some simple observations an occasional quote that strikes my fancy.

• 10-12 Forty is still this side / of the curvature of the earth / I see it but I can’t touch it.
• 10-11 The ash tray is dormant. / It occupies space / on the end table / to grandma’s old lamp. / Its empty nest stopped begging / for attention it never gets / about seven years ago.
• 10-09 I saw the winter / slip and slide / nearly out from under you / and the plans you alone held to. / My hands were afraid. / They wanted only to hold / your hands tight / as physically possible
• 10-07 The price for this hunger / a layover of hollow thoughts
• 10-07 If there is a purpose for writing poetry, to me personally it is part personal discovery and part a feeling of some immortality.
• 10-04 When baseball ends  / for the year  and the night /  creeps into the morning hour / the dark will eat you.
• 10-02 “I am not alone / and never will be /  your absence is my company.”  Claribel Alegria – translated by Carolyn Forche’

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