Tackling Poems You Think You Love

Often in my earlier writing I would find that I wrote something that had promise but on the whole was clumsy or lacking in any lyrical quality or maybe just pretencions. Very rookie mistakes for any poets. It became a common problem to really rework these pieces. Cosmetic shifts here and there but you become so married to a particular aspect of the poem that you find you simply cannot go beyond a certain point.

Last night I pulled out one such poem and began reworking it. I spent over an hour on it and the real victory was that I was willing to tackle it at all. This morning I'm thinking that while it is much improved, I'd like to really take it apart some more and see if I can take it some other direction altogether, and what that might look like.

Confession Tuesday - I voted edition

Dear Reader:

I confess I have returned from the polls where I cast my vote for candidates and propositions, amendments and and ballot initiatives.
It was a long ballet this year and I frankly am glad the election is over. I can tell you that I am not expecting to be pleased with many of the outcomes - unless I'm very surprised. 

I am not pleased with the tone of this election and it is very disheartening that we've seen the retread ideas of Carl Rove repackaged and propagated in advertising ad-nausea. This, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling earlier that will have long lasting repercussions.  But I don't want to spend my whole confession on the election. I have other things to confess today.

I confess that I believed in the San Francisco Giants down the stretch of the season when many thought it a half-baked idea that the ragtag team assembled this season could win the World Series.   And of course, the did!

I'd like 5 minutes to explain to Paul Siegfried why he should never be allowed to supervise anyone in a workplace. I must confess suddenly the McDonald's brand name leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.

One of the best finds on the Internet in October was Whale Sound. I confess that I am addicted to Nic Sebastian recordings of poems. She has a wonderful reading voice.

As we move into November I confess I have a anxiousness about the last two months of this year and my personal perception of my writing for the year. I have this feeling that I must salvage the year in these last two months. Pretty heavy load to be carrying - I'm aware, but I feel I need to finish strong and begin the next year with momentum. Sort of trying to find my mojo I guess.

Magpie Tales 38

Here and Now

Time raps on

in an inconspicuous loop

and maybe we’ve been there—

who is ever certain.

The cracks in the earth,

an undercurrent of hush;

there are those who believe

on the last day the ground will split open

uniting bodies with souls,

those who believe

we waste too much on foreign aid,

and some who believe

they’ll have another beer.

There is too much

emphasis on perfection

among the living

anyway. There will be time

enough in the next life

to be the model citizen;

the kind streets are named after.



2010 © Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved

Magpie Tales

Thoughts on words

Each word bears its weight, so you have to read my poems quite slowly.  ~ Anne Stevenson

Black and Orange October! Game 2 All San Francisco

Giants pitching shuts out Rangers - who give up 9 runs - 8 eight of which came in 7th inning and beyond.

2 -0 lead by the Giants in World Series

San Francisco up 1-0 in World Series

Giants Fans treated to an 11-7 win tonight in San Francisco over the Texas Rangers to take 1-0 lead in the World Series.  Congrats Giants!!!

Confession Tuesday

Dear Reader - just got home from a poetry group meeting at the Writers Place and I'm rushing to get my confession done, so lets get started.

It's been one week since my last confession and my friend I confess that I bombed out of the Twitter Poetry Party this weekend. That's right, I wasn't together enough to even virtually party.  Ah! What does that say about me?

Ok, I managed to get in one tweet and between my problem remembering the hashtag and other distractions I finally gave up.
And hashtag? Anything that combines an edible dish and an apparatus of commerce is bound to give off confusing vibes. Am I inept at twitter? I'm not a pro, I'm not a twitter addict, but I don't think I have a big "L" on my forehead.

I've seen the feed of the party [click here] and it really had some interesting points. I've decided that it would be much easier to participate in on the computer than my Blackberry. That is if I can remember the hashtag.
Anyway it is an interesting concept and next time I confess I'll be prepared. I may even bring a virtual bottle of wine to to my laptop... or maybe a real bottle. 

More Poetry - Enjoy!

Autumn Sky Poetry - No 19

A note today from Christine Klocek-Lim, Editor that the October issue is up.  I always seem to appreciate the poems selected.  This issue is an Arts Issue.

I saw this and was fascinated by Pasternak's message

I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies.   ~ Boris Pasternak

Orange October!

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Phillies 3-2 tonight to become the 2010 National League Champions.

This team of unlikelies is far from some of the power teams the Giants have put together in the past.  It won so many games by 1 and 2 run margins that many have called Giants baseball this season Torture Ball.

The team only remotely resembles the team that broke camp at the end of spring training. Players have been shifted around the field and others acquired as the season went on. Players like Pat Burrell who was cut from another team mid season and thought he would be watching the rest of the season from home, but the Giants were interested and he became a great fit and was one of many players that kept the team competitive down the stretch.

These players have played their hearts out to get to this point and it would be so incredible to see them win it all in the World Series. I've cheered the Giants through the 1989 Quake Series they lost to Oakland and the 2002 California Series vs Anaheim that they heartbreakingly lost in game 7.  I'm ready for a Giants World Series Championship team!

Journal Bits

I haven't done a Journal Bits post in some time so here are a few samplings:

AUG 22- I was seated next to a woman / who knew what I was thinking / she knew everything and she knew / nothing  of the way I fantasized / that she were a blot of lightening / and how she struck me / twice as improbable as / it was that I was / in electric convulsive / therapy for these things / that I think about/ when I have others / to indulge in my thoughts

AUG 27 - Writing last night was lackluster, but then I worked in an environment of distraction...

SEPT 2 - Today is the seventh anniversary of my blog

SEPT 6 - Any latitude given  / to these stories / of headaches and tides / pushing and pulling / against each other / are provincial

SEPT 7 - I'm on the verge of a couple of different poems but still sifting out the specifics.

SEPT 11 - I put Shannon on a plane this morning and this is the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks...

SEPT 13 - I'm tired tonight and I'll admit a bit grouchy...

SEPT 26 - Yesterday my copy of Letters From the Emily Dickinson Room arrived... read through it in one sitting.

OCT 6 - Not all falls are without grace...

OCT 8 - Vacation day.. double platelet donation... Meghan texted me,  she was donating platelets at the same time I was - this was cool!

OCT 12 - From here it's all academic / there is a darkness because there is / light -

OCT 16 - The Giants ended up winning 5 to 4. Yeah!

OCT 19- Giants win game 3 by a three to nothing score. gave up only three hits. Awesome game in San Francisco for the home fans. They lead the NLCS now 2 games to 1.

Magpie Tales 37

There is a history of going

and coming—

of pleasing and displeasing—

of knocking on wood

and crossing fingers

and Late Night

with and without David

Letterman.

There are vague memories

of Here’s Johnny and

nights turned away

and nights…

nights so hot we could not

stand to touch and

others so hot the sweat

was the conductor of electricity

the completed circuit

that rode between two bodies

too wrapped up in each

to hear the pitter patter

of little feet

that

may

or may not

have been outside

the door.

The walls know more

than the disarray can tell.

But walls are the great depositories

of secrets. They hold

on to things we never knew

and things too

we let go of.

©2010 – Michael A. Wells - All Rights Reserved

Magpie Tales 37
 

Shhh.... listen

Now all my teachers are dead except silence.

 - W. S. Merwin

Confession Tuesday

The night is fleeting and I've got confessing to do so let's get started.

Dear Reader:

I saw today on the Internet that we are supposed to have a spectacular stream of meteors, likely leftovers from Halley's Comet, streak across the night sky this week. I confess I am always interested in such phenomena but rarely get lucky enough to observe things like this in real life. I'm usually reduced to watching some video after the fact, but still find it interesting.  For years we lived in the city where surrounding environmental factors like buildings, trees, night lighting all worked against me. Moving to a more suburban area with open fields on two sides of our property give better opportunity, but I still seldom see such things.
I mentioned the showers to my wife a while ago and she said, "feel free to go out and watch them on your own."  I'm sure she hopes to be watching the back side of here eyelids.  I may go check things out after while but I don't see myself staying out very long. Morning comes early... or so it seems.  Maybe I'll get lucky... but I'm not counting on it.

The Giants returned to San Francisco and played their first home game of the NLCS this afternoon. They split the first two games on the road and won a great pitching game before the home fans - a 3 hitter shut out, 3-0.  I truly have post season fever.  The Giants bullpen has all grown beards down the stretch and the fans have a motto, "fear the beard" and I confess that in support of the team, I've started  growing a beard too.  I've had a beard in the late 1980's and 90's but ultimately grew tired of it and shaved it.  I don't see myself keeping this past the World Series (assuming the Giants advance) otherwise it will come off sooner.  The mustache however stays. I'm forbidden by my wife from shaving it. Seriously!  

Well, it's nearly 11:00 and I'm going to take my pop and go outside briefly and see what the sky is like. Wish me luck!

Thanks for listening. Have a great week!

My daughter found this for me…

 

Thanks Shannon – I love it!  Rally thong – Brian Wilson Beard!  Fear the Beard!  LOL

The Making of a Great Poem

Over the years I've come across a few people... some contemporaries, others from the past that own a collection of thoughts, of sayings that are so profound that I find myself amazingly nodding my head yes, yes! to the vast majority of their collected quotations. One such person is Anais Nin. I could do a lengthy post of such profound statements from her, and I have quoted her here several times over the years-  but today I have chosen one thing that she said that I believe embodies what I think should answer the question, What should a really great poem do?"

 

Nin says, "It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it." 

If in the end, a poem can achieve this... can take the familiar and cause us to look at it and see something different, or in a different light... that is art... that is poetry!


Who Speaks To You! What person/persons has/have many profound quotations that speak to your core thoughts and belief systems?

Off to Bed with a Book to Read

I've had a pretty productive day of writing capped off with watching   game one of the NLCS between San Francisco Giants and Philadelphia Phillies. Giants take the opening game on the road 5-4. Cody Ross again going yard tonight. Not once but twice!  At right he celebrates after the first with Giants pitcher.

Whale Sound - Another Voice

One of my older poems is featured on Whale Sound. If is always interesting to hear your work read in someone's voice other than your own. Some of my family members expressed that they liked the poem better hearing it in Nic Sebastian's voice.  I do love her reading voice- it brings a whole other level of artistry to any poem.

Here is Nic Sebastian reading my poem for Whale Sound:    The Cousin


Another of her readings - the poem by Terresa Wellborn  A Different Leaving.  Terresa's words and Nic's voice... I love what this collaboration results in.

Magpie Tales 36

Light is Reversible and I Wear It—

inside out

snug about me

a compression bandage

that heals the anxious pricking;

nervous needles of daylight—

people I don’t even know
that pass me
that press me
that push me to the brink.

Day is my hell—
my holy hell.
I am safest with it
under my surveillance
at a distance.

©2010 Michael A. Wells

Magpie Tales 36

Confession Tuesday

Sometimes I think that reaching Tuesday is like hitting another milestone on your odometer- you’re driving down the road and note that it just rolled past 55,000, and soon it’s 80,000. Next thing you know you reach 100,000 and everyone in the car is doing a foot dance to celebrate. Then, 150,000 and 175,000 and now you aren’t dancing but praying.

 

It’s confession time…

 

Dear reader-

 

It’s been another week and so many miles of life since my last confession.

 

Fall is an interesting time of year because it seems to be about slowing down. Darkness comes earlier and it seems that this draws the day out because you are up during a darker period of time longer than normal. Fall is also a perceived changing of the guard. Summer is dying off and you know the trees will soon be bare and their tentacles will rake the sky till the snow falls and the cold northwest winds choke off nature. In spite of all this doom and gloom, fall is not without grace and beauty and I keep trying to tell myself this— even as the baseball season vanishes and with most other forms of life.

 

This past weekend I confess I was depressed, even as my San Francisco Giants survived to reach the playoffs. My head felt like it was clogged with fog in all of its grayscale colorless form. Later, that gray would set like cement into the worst headache to carry around. I realize I’ve spent more time inside lately then out and I don’t suppose that has helped. Still, it is that time of the year that I battle this more than any other.

 

On Sunday there was an outside poetry / art event that I was thinking I would attend, but in the end I stayed home to watch the Giants game. I confess that my decision was based upon the fact that poetry events come and go, but it’s not every year your team makes the playoffs.

 

Any hope of this improving as we started a new week vanished yesterday as I learned that a coworker battling a terminal illness passed away over the weekend. While I suppose it was not that I never anticipated it, the last contact we had left no indication it would be so soon. I was stunned. Everyone was stunned.

 

Everyone have a great week and be safe!

N.J. organizers say Dodge Poetry Festival attendance as large as past, more diverse | NJ.com

 

NEWARK — Greg Gillett and his wife, Mary Jo, have traveled from Michigan to New Jersey many times to attend the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, but the event produced some pleasant surprises this year.

The festival moved to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark from Waterloo Village in Sussex County.

Despite the presence of four U.S. poets laureate, "there were fewer big names than other years," said Mary Jo Firth Gillett.

Yet the poetry teacher in the Detroit area said she found that a plus.

 

Full Story:  N.J. organizers say Dodge Poetry Festival attendance as large as past, more diverse | NJ.com

 

 

Technorati Tags: Dodge Poetry Festival

San Francisco Wins Series - Advance to NLCS! Celebrating!

Outfielder Cody Ross Homers in the game tonight.  The Giants win the series on the Road in Atlanta.

Imagine

• Imagine Hunger a thing of the past
• Imagine Forests rejuvenated
• Imagine Cancer cured
• Imagine Diabetes defeated
• Imagine Literacy an epidemic
• Imagine Wellness a way of life
• Imagine Knowledge universal
• Imagine a world Clear of Nuclear weapons
• Imagine Human Rights without a second thought
• Imagine A Song in Every Heart
• Imagine Living Life in Peace

John Lennon - 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"Last Letter"

The New Statesman publishes a previously unseen work by the late poet laureate Ted Hughes that shed some light on the final days of Sylvia Plath.  Above, Actor Jonathan Pryce reads the poem.

This is sure to start a whole new round of discussion and debate about the Hughes-Plath relationship.

Magpie Tales 35

The Fall

Not all
falls are without grace
it’s not all black and white

the lush green
slowly ages
to perfection
and one day

we wake like the frog
in the pan on the stove
who only notices
he is cooked

too late to realize
summer has crossed
the line

and we cheer
the cool afternoons
brushed with color
aplenty

we plan weekend excursions
around watercolor scapes—
drive deep into their belly
and breathe the discolored air
crisp and thick
with ripe

and over weeks
all this too
will pass

all will slowly
lose grip
in a
last
dying
act

and gently
on streams of air
fall effortlessly
without a sound
to the ground
below

©2010 – Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved

Magpie Tales

Poetry Daily - If I Ever Mistake You For a Poem

Congratulations to Kelli Russell Agodon - one of her poems from her new book - Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room was selected for Poetry Daily.   Check it out here!

Confession Tuesday - Pride Edition

It’s that time again…. Tuesday. Did you know that Tuesday is associated with the planet Mars and the Roman God of War? Anyway, it’s off the confessional. Are you coming?

Dear reader-

Yes, another week had come and gone since my last confession. I have number of things to offer in confession this week let me unload these sins now.

There is this sin called pride. This is one that I’ve often found confusing. Pride seems such a normal emotional experience related to what I generally regard as good things that happen. Your child brings home a good grade card – you feel really proud of your child. You get a poem accepted in a journal… you are beaming with pride. I felt a sense of pride in my favorite baseball team this weekend as they clinched the National League West championship.

The San Francisco Giants are not a team loaded with high payroll. They have a number of young players mixed with veterans most with little or no post season experience. They were not on most people’s radar for post season and at All- Star break they were barely above .500. Much of they year they were in second place, a position that alone raised many eyebrows. But they hung in and played good ball down the stretch. In August they had some tough times and their pitching staff went south. After a team meeting, September turned around and the pitching was among the best in baseball. Meanwhile, the Padres who spent something like 130-140 days in first place went into a tail spin, crashed and burned. The Giants took over first place, came off a road trip and swept the Diamondbacks three games at home and awaited the Padres to play the final three games of the season. On Friday, the fist of the three games the Giants needed just one win to clinch the Division. The Padres needed to sweep to tie and face a playoff. It took three games to put them away, but on the final game of the regular season, SF did just that and sent the Padres home with no post-season.

So I confess- yes, I’m proud of the Giants. I’m proud of my team. I know they are not the best team that San Francisco has ever assembled, and likely not the best team to reach post season, but they did, playing often above everyone else’s expectations. They many not win the NL pennant. If they do, the may not win the World Series, but I will be cheering them on as far as they can get and if they do, I will be crazy excited like a kid. Still, I confess I will remain proud of them whatever.

                                                                       ~0~

I have another sin to confess. I know all writers do this. They read something written by another writer and they say out loud, “Wow! I wanted to write that!” Of course, they can’t because now it has already been written. Ok, I guess they can and some do try it. It’s called plagiarizing. I think we all know that while it may not be in the Ten Commandments it is pretty much the single biggest Writer’s Commandment, “Thou Shall not Plagiarize” And though I have not, and will not plagiarize, I confess that upon reading Kelli Russell Agodon’s poem I Try to Plagiarize Moonlight, I did covet it.

                                                                      ~0~

Drumming. Yes, recently I have been guilty of the sin of drumming. While I played drums in band at school, I’ve been drumming a lot lately and not on drums, but on the top of my Quick Trip cup, the dash of the car at stop lights, etc. and this in annoying. So I’m told. I confess it really isn’t bothering me but apparently it is an annoyance to (some) others. I’m trying to do better.

Thanks for listening… everyone have a great week!

Happy-Happy-Joy-Joy!

The San Francisco Giants win the NL Western Division Championship!

There is "Life in Postseason!"

Magpie Tales 34

Blue Heat

"Crystal blue persuasion....."*

When you were introduced,

grandma had that eye—

that keen recognition

that she knew         you

were the chemistry;

a combustible wick

for a perfect flame

swirling          searing

         climbing

the tornado chimney

to overtake any room.

* From the from 1969 hit song Crystal Blue Persuasion..... written and performed by Tommy James and The Shondells

©2010 Michael A. Wells – all rights reserved

Magpie Tales 34

 

Banned Book Week - Thought for the day

What progress we are making.  In the Middle Ages they would have burned me.  Now they are content with burning my books.  ~Sigmund Freud, 1933

Confession Tuesday

I'm tired as I shuffle into the confessional tonight. 

Dear reader~

This seemed to be an exceedingly long day and I'm ready to get my confessions over with.

It's been one week since my last confession and it has been another week since I last submitted any work to the publishing world. Too many weeks I confess. So many that I am ashamed to offer a number so I won't.  It's not that I haven't been writing - just not submitting lately.

I also have to confess that I have become as scarce within the local poetry community as an ashtray in a hospital. Yes, I need to get out more often. I don't think I've read in public since April. Saying that sound worse. Ugh~

I've already mentioned in my blog this week that when I received my copy of Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room straight through without stopping when it arrived in the mail Saturday. I did not however mention just how rare this is for me. Because I have adult ADD I confess that it would be quite rare for me to do this because staying with a book that long without breaks can be quite frustrating at times.

I had Hamburger Helper Lasagna for dinner. I confess that I had been craving this for weeks. I don't think I've eaten it in years but I guess I had a bout of box dinner nostalgia.  I confess that it was "all that!"

Hope everyone has a great week. Till next Tuesday, I'm all confessed out.

Another Quote for Banned Book Week

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values.  For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.  ~John F. Kennedy


       

Monday Mentions

A few things in no particular order of importance...

• It's banned Book Week and in recognition thereof, the following quote by Justice Potter Stewart - Censorship reflects society's lack of confidence in itself.  It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. 
• I was delighted to get my copy of Letters From The Emily Dickinson Room in the mail Saturday. It was in the quiet of the afternoon that I read it through completely the first time. I will have more to say about it later this week, but I was so impressed by it I could not out it down.
• The Top Ten Ludicrous Reasons To Ban A Book
• The Ten Muses of Poetry
• I find the following both a disheartening and frightening aspect of the President's position on privacy.
• TAKE A POEM - LEAVE A POEM

Quiet Pleased - Letters From The Emily Dickinson Room came in the mail.

My copy of Letters From The Emily Dickinson Room arrived in the mail.

I cannot be disturbed!

Doggie Angst

After a day of behaving beautifully while men were trimming the maples in our back yard for about 4-1/2 hours, in early evening I left my journal on the bed and went out back with my wife for maybe 15 minutes. Upon return, Mo had decided to add a few non-verbal thoughts to my journal.  Fortunately he was kind to the leather and just worked on a couple of pages. I suppose he was expressing himself so how angry can I be. He just needs to have his own journal for the future. Mine is not meant to be a collaborative venture.

Magpie Tales 33



The Other Woman

I stare into the mirror

at the dressing table.

Another woman looks

back—

a young woman

amazingly foreign

to the ordinary geography

of my world;

black dress, string of pearls,

she draws her inner wrists
to her face, fair in the silver tone
background—

gently the essence of rose
regal and voluminous
laced in lilac and vanilla
rises as she fills her chest.

How different
from the aroma
of tomato sauce
crowed out by basil,
garlic and pepperoni
amid the musty smell
of dishes from the morning
mingling in the sink with those
the night before—

2010© Michael A. Wells - all rights reserved

Magpie Tales 33

Confession Tuesday - The simple and the complex edition

If you've come for the weekly confession, you're just in time. Come along...

Dear Reader,

It's been one week since my last confession and I have several things to confess this morning.

I confess that I remain in awe of the things in life that are simple and yet complex. A simple sunrise this morning (pictured here) greeted me. The layers of cloud cover with openings of sky soft pinks and orange and brilliant amber.

I confess that I am amazed that we (that I) can see with my own eyes things as spectacular as a sunrise like this. That these brown eyes of mine can take it all in and that somehow my mind processes all this and that I can in fact distinguish this as something of beauty.

I too confess that I am so impressed that we (people) can actually communicate such abstract things as beauty and hope and love and fear and desire and all these things that we take for granted as though they just happen and there is nothing complicated about the process of people coming to understand words that define such concepts.

Sure, I realize there are miraculous things that are happening every day in science.  But wow, you don't have to be looking through a microscope, a telescope, examining the contents of test tubes and petri dishes. There is awesomeness enough all around us if we just stop and take a deep breath and take it all in.

Magpie Tales 32

Time

A stingy creation of man
himself—

we are cursed
by its gritty currency
that will not be told
to sit still or held
but sifts through the fingers
and is lost in yesterday
and the days before
until reduced to memories
or specks of sand
one indistinguishable
moment from the other.


© 2010 Michael A. Wells

Magpie Tales 32

Everything is Nearly Right With The World This Morning

The Giants are in first place!  Wahoo!

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

Speak Out Against Hate

There is a part of me that hesitates to mention this because I'm reluctant to want to give theses people any more publicity than they have already garnered.  This reluctance however is overridden because of the insanity displayed by the actions of these few individuals and the degree to which their actions incite and foster misinformation and hatred in this country.  It would seem that we are not exactly in short supply of ignorance these days and I believe ignorance is a dangerous thing.

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. has called for a 'Burn the Koran Day.' It says the burnings will be held on church grounds "in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam.

It seems incredible that persons professing to be Christians would demonstrate such a hateful act considering:

• A fundamental precept of the Christian faith is to love not hate your neighbor.
• That there are 9-11 families that have openly asked that this day not be politicized.
• That there are Muslims that were also killed in 9-11. Both victims in the Twin Towers and first responders.
• They surely would not appreciate someone else hosting a massive Bible burning day.
• The the actions do not foster peace and understanding but rather hate and more ignorance and revenge.
• This is one more act that causes persons around the world to view Americans in a negative light.

I suspect the Church believes in what they are doing but there are perhaps other motives. They sell T-shirts at $20 a pop as wells as other items. The city of Gainsville has denied them a permit but they plan to go ahead.

These actions seeks to cloak all of the Islam religion in the actions of a few terrorists on 9-11.  This would be like saying all Catholics, Boy Scout leaders and Christians are child molesters because some of those connected with their organizations were.  Certainly the actions of  The Dove World Outreach Center have the potential to give others utilizing the same narrow view to think the same about all Christians or all Americans.

Americans of all faith and even non-believers need to speak up on this. Public Officials need to forcefully reject this notion that there is some righteous end in this kind of thinking and such actions.  To the extent we have already seen across this country violence and vandalism in isolated instances associated with this kind of behavior it is clear that there are those among us that can easily be persuaded to such actions, and the likes of Pastor Terry Jones are simply a can of gasoline looking for a fire.

Magpie Tales 30

[two writes this week]

One Bite

All alone
on the kitchen table
red, freckled
and blemished;
awaiting a suitor
who could appreciate
my inner beauty—

and you came,
took one bite
and left.





First Bite

A violent sound
a chunk of an iceberg
splitting off the core
and falling away—

a starburst of juice
cascades over and about
the gums; roll to the tongue
exploding in flavor.

This is no ordinary apple;
one in season,
ripe with intensity
to awaken.





© 2010 Michael A. Wells



Magpie Tales 30

Round The Net

I've struggled yesterday and today to write a post prompted by Magpie 30.  Right now I'm in from mowing our back yard and recouperating before I tackle the front. I thought I'd post a few poetry related links while I'm resting.

She delt with the uncertainty of fate of family and friends in Haiti after a massive earthquake with poetry.

The poet Diane Lockwood has provided a list of online Journals that she has given a thumbs up to. Credit to Kristin Berkey Abbott for her post that lead me there.

Banned Book Week is coming up.

At 26, I'm part of a generation raised on gadgets, but actual books are something I just refuse to give up story at SALON