Poetry Books and Jelly Bellies

Tools of the trade at a poetry gathering.

Confession Tuesday

Tuesday again...  I'm off to the confessional... hurry along.

Dear Reader-

It's been a week since my last confession and I'm here before you with much to lay out on the table.

Last night Monday Night Football came to Kansas City. It's another sign that the baseball season is on the way out.  I've never been a big football fan. It's baseball that has my heart. A number of years ago I was into the 49ers Football when Montana was quarterback and before that Minnesota when Tarkington was QB but never have I felt about football the way I do baseball. I confess that I often get cranky about it encroaching on the last weeks of baseball.  And while I am feeling that way right this moment, my son texted me a few weeks ago and told me to keep the date open of the Chiefs-49ers game because he had tickets for us. Ok, I have to confess right here in front of the Gods  of the the ball diamond I'm excited about a 49ers game with my son.  I'm still thinking football has no business sharing the limelight with baseball as the season climaxes in the fall classic. I confess this leaves me feeling schizophrenic.

Tonight I attended a poetry group meeting of some friends. I was pretty taxed after work and a part of me just wanted to skip it but I confess it was nice reading poems and doing some writing from a prompt.
I shared a poem each by Marie Howe and Susan Rich. Also some of my own writing.

One of my writing friends named Pat has a book that has a page to read a day. She finds it especially uplifting and each day writes her own thoughts and observations in the margins, and these sometimes turn into poems. Do any of us write in margins she inquired? I confess to marginal writing on occasion.

Well, I'd like to confess to something that raised a few eyebrows  or started some gossip but alas, you just got all the juice for the week. Until next time, thanks for listening.

Love this quote

Ink on paper is as beautiful to me as flowers on the mountains; God composes, why shouldn't we? ~Terri Guillemets

Magpie Tales 31

I Saw


Framed within
weathered window panes
in the late afternoon
when shadows and light
toy with us—

filtered through a grotto
of trees reflected in glass;
I saw a veiled mother
awash in Kodachrome
as I imagined she might
appear to three children.

 
 
 
© 2010 Michael A. Wells
 
Magpie Tales 31

Examining the Fear Factor

Reading Susan Rick's recent post with excerpt from her interview struck me because of her wealth of  personal experience and  her own cultural background. What she says on this subject is profoundly significant.

HUMANITIES WASHINGTON: There's Nothing to Be Afraid Of

Confession Tuesday - Troubled by posts edition

My calendar says today is Tuesday but my body thinks it is Monday. I suppose this should be a good thing because it means the next weekend is a day closer but in reality it probably means that come Thursday or Friday it will seem like the week is in s-l-o-w  m-o-t-i-o-n. Since it is none the less Tuesday, let’s head to the confessional.


Dear reader-

I have a confession to make. Even as this blog passes its seven year anniversary, and the main theme of it is poetry, I have difficulty posting poetry on it. I know that sounds crazy but let me explain.

Sometimes I’ve posted snippets from my journal and occasionally they are a line or two that I really like (feel comfortable with) but I don’t often post poems that I believe are my best work. So I confess that readers are often short changed (hanging my head in shame) because the better stuff that I write is held back to be sent off as submissions to this journal and that journal. Maybe in reading some of my writing here you’ve already thought, “boy, is this the best he can do?” Anyway, aside from things already published elsewhere first, I’ve probably been pretty selective in what I’ve posted. This makes me feel disingenuous, and every once and a while it really bothers me that I am feeling such.

I suspect there are others who do the same, but I have no way of knowing this for sure. Of is they do, that they too are troubled by this.

I suppose I should be putting my best foot forward in everything I write and post. I should take the position that if I would not submit this poem to a journal it should not go on this blog post. But of course what would that leave me to sending out very little or I’d have to be a lot more prolific with dazzling material. You see the dilemma.

The Magpie posts that I have started doing may be a way of feeling better about this. I say that because if I write something from a Magpie Tales prompt then I already have decided it goes on the blog. These pieces are not ever planned to become submittable material but in creating them I always hope to hit upon something that would work – should work and hopefully does work well. I don’t know for sure if over time these will appear to me to ease what I described as above and that I will feel more straightforward about my writing I expose on the blog, but I can hope.

Thanks for listening.

Thought for the week ahead...

It is perfectly okay to write garbage--as long as you edit brilliantly.  - C. J. Cherryh