What I'm Reading...

Tonight I am settling in with a copy of FALL HIGHER by Dean Young.  After a little reading I'll tackle a new poem draft for day four of poetry month.

Poetry Month Thought #2

"Becoming a poet involves the end of a kind of innocence. It is about being critical, separate. Experience is no longer just experience. It becomes material." ~ Vicki Feaver, How Poets Work, 1996

Confession Tuesday - Lent on auto pilot edition

Dear Friend… it’s a week since my last confession; a whole frink’n week already. 

To the confessional…. 

It’s been a week of rain and sunshine. I confess that I can take no blame or credit for either.  

It’s been a trying week. I confess that it has been a week of anger and frustration and uncertainty; all of things that I don’t like.  I confess that it also is a week in which change has been on my mind a lot. Some perhaps good and some perhaps not so, but either way he thought of changes is always unsettling to me. 

I confess that I’m usually thinking about poetry month many weeks before it ever arrives but not this one. I confess too that I often wrangle internally with the pros and cons of setting out to write a poem-a-day during poetry month. The pressure to produce, the expectations, the thought of failure, all that kind of stuff that causes you lunch to spin heavy in your stomach like a cement mixer sloshing a load before it dumps It out.  All that said, I simply went about writing a draft of a poem each of the first two nights of the month and never put any pressure on myself o do so.  Both seem to be real workable drafts… Yeah! 

I confess that one day last week I was on auto pilot when I stopped on the way to work at the local Quick Trip, aced in and filled up a 44 oz. glass, paid and went to the car where I took a sip and realized I had gotten Diet Coke instead of iced tea from the fountain.  I pitched the drink and stopped down the road for a tea. Other than that mistaken sip, I have continued my sacrifice of Diet Coke for Lent.   

My wife and I saw the movie Mirror Mirror over the weekend. It’s a fascinating twist on the Snow White story. Julia Roberts was great in a most unconventional role for her.  I recommend it!  I confess he trip to the movies with Cathy was my high point of the week.

Poetry Month Thought #1

"A poem almost exists because of the pattern of space around it." ~ Fay Weldon, BBC January 2, 1992

A Giant Among Poets

 

ADRIENNA RICH 1929-2012

It's exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful. ~ Adrienne Rich

Confession Tuesday

Confession time again...

Dear Reader:

It's been another week since my last confession and here I am. What can I tell you about a week that on the surface seem pretty typical?

I can tell you that I'm I'm annoyed about a certain level of drama within a poetry group that I've been associated with over the years. I use the term associated with as opposed to belong to because  over he last several years I just felt  along with many of the good vibes here was some negative ones and I'm mostly interested in good Kama where my art is concerned. I confess that it's hard to want to belong to something that brings people down.

Having another poem accepted last week was an emotional boost. I cannot deny that it always feels good. But then I have to withdraw it from all he other venues that it's still pending in... I confess  (I shouldn' complain) this is always a part of writing that I dislike. The administrative stuff.  Submitting, withdrawing, tracking, etc. Yes I sound whiny~

It seems like we've all but missed spring. Things are so green already and we've had some relatively warm days. I confess it feels like baseball should be about a month and a half down the road instead of just starting.

As If We Need A Reason to Eat More Chocolate!

From Huffington Post Healthy Living - Chocolate Eating Linked To Lower BMI