Friday, May 09, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
good poems from a 30-something poet
Aimee Nezhukumatathil - she has a great knack for titles!
And a new website I found: From the Fishhouse
And a new website I found: From the Fishhouse
sweater poetry
Feel the desire,
sea shell seeker.
You are the route to my feelings.
* * *
This is the funniest thing I've read on NPR in a long time since -- well, at least since the "This American Life" episode about testosterone.
Monday, February 18, 2008
teaching 4th graders
Today, I'm preparing my lesson plans, gathering books and samples of my journals through the years and various litmags, organizing poems and thinking about the elements of poetry that come together to create images, linguistic magic and meaning.
And tomorrow afternoon, I will meet the 4th graders at a local elementary school -- leading them in poetry workshops, each class one hour a week, until sometime in May near the end of the school year.
As I was going through my files, here's something that a very wise and important teacher and poet, Tom Brush, gave me long ago when I was in his poetry workshop class in high school.
Poetry Workshop - with Mr. Brush
SOME THINGS THAT WILL HELP
February is cold stones and ice.
February is wind. February is
Brass tacks.
1. Calling things by exact names helps cut hints of sentimentality.
2. Don't be vague. Be subtle instead.
3. A poet: someone who is never satisfied with saying one thing at a time.
4. Poetry: a sense of the doubleness of life.
5. Poetry is an act of mischief.
6. Show the future with poems, indulge every poetic fancy...anything that provides release...
7. Are the words predictable? (Better they aren't.)
8. Long line: Sings, has more speed and grace. May also be used for long rushes of angry sentences where words tumble over each other. Lyric.
9. Be content with as many selves as you can as a poet. Never restrain yourself to one voice.
10. Short lines: Slows the reader down, more weight to the words, more tension to end stops. Short line is terse, breathless. Makes the reader pay more attention to individual words. Double check line lengths as suitable.
11. Poem: one more triumph over chaos.
12. The basis of poetry is sensation.
13. You need spins, the shifts, the rants, the howls.
14. Faith. Writing is an act of faith in the creative capacity of all of us. (I want...I want...)
15. Fill in the blanks, open other end, take a chance, use it all!
16. Write about what you know about. Your place on the back lawn, your father's face, the car that was left by the side of the road, rain against the windows you look out, the party that turned out badly, limes and signs, dos and don'ts.
17. Write about what you don't know about. What you didn't know you knew.
Poetry is warmth and sunlight.
Poetry is kind. Poetry is
All right.
***
Here's a new blog I found today by poet Joseph Duemer, who went to the same high school as me, although years apart. He, too, adores Tom Brush.
And tomorrow afternoon, I will meet the 4th graders at a local elementary school -- leading them in poetry workshops, each class one hour a week, until sometime in May near the end of the school year.
As I was going through my files, here's something that a very wise and important teacher and poet, Tom Brush, gave me long ago when I was in his poetry workshop class in high school.
Poetry Workshop - with Mr. Brush
SOME THINGS THAT WILL HELP
February is cold stones and ice.
February is wind. February is
Brass tacks.
1. Calling things by exact names helps cut hints of sentimentality.
2. Don't be vague. Be subtle instead.
3. A poet: someone who is never satisfied with saying one thing at a time.
4. Poetry: a sense of the doubleness of life.
5. Poetry is an act of mischief.
6. Show the future with poems, indulge every poetic fancy...anything that provides release...
7. Are the words predictable? (Better they aren't.)
8. Long line: Sings, has more speed and grace. May also be used for long rushes of angry sentences where words tumble over each other. Lyric.
9. Be content with as many selves as you can as a poet. Never restrain yourself to one voice.
10. Short lines: Slows the reader down, more weight to the words, more tension to end stops. Short line is terse, breathless. Makes the reader pay more attention to individual words. Double check line lengths as suitable.
11. Poem: one more triumph over chaos.
12. The basis of poetry is sensation.
13. You need spins, the shifts, the rants, the howls.
14. Faith. Writing is an act of faith in the creative capacity of all of us. (I want...I want...)
15. Fill in the blanks, open other end, take a chance, use it all!
16. Write about what you know about. Your place on the back lawn, your father's face, the car that was left by the side of the road, rain against the windows you look out, the party that turned out badly, limes and signs, dos and don'ts.
17. Write about what you don't know about. What you didn't know you knew.
Poetry is warmth and sunlight.
Poetry is kind. Poetry is
All right.
***
Here's a new blog I found today by poet Joseph Duemer, who went to the same high school as me, although years apart. He, too, adores Tom Brush.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
emissions free
the water bike
pedaling to work across the Sound
passing the sea gulls
breathing the sky
filling his lungs with saltwater air and joy
pedaling to work across the Sound
passing the sea gulls
breathing the sky
filling his lungs with saltwater air and joy
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Emerson's bliss
too heavy for the kennel roof
16" before last night's storm
the trail from the patio to the backyard
our backyard deck
Monday, January 28, 2008
a writer's endorsement
Novelist Toni Morrison endorses Barack Obama. According to an AP article, "Writing with the touch of a poet in a letter to the Illinois senator, Morrison explained why she chose Obama over Hillary Rodham Clinton for her first public presidential endorsement."
Here's an excerpt of her letter to Obama, according to the AP:
"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace — that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom."
Here's an excerpt of her letter to Obama, according to the AP:
"In addition to keen intelligence, integrity and a rare authenticity, you exhibit something that has nothing to do with age, experience, race or gender and something I don't see in other candidates. That something is a creative imagination which coupled with brilliance equals wisdom. It is too bad if we associate it only with gray hair and old age. Or if we call searing vision naivete. Or if we believe cunning is insight. Or if we settle for finessing cures tailored for each ravaged tree in the forest while ignoring the poisonous landscape that feeds and surrounds it. Wisdom is a gift; you can't train for it, inherit it, learn it in a class, or earn it in the workplace — that access can foster the acquisition of knowledge, but not wisdom."
Monday, January 21, 2008
surfing for ideas
Sometimes writing ideas come in unlikely places like this or this.
Or the smell of ribs slow cooking in barbecue sauce in the crock pot on my kitchen counter.
The "Disney green" walls of my home office. A soy candle (smells like hot apple cider) burning on top of the bookcase to my right. A stack of New Yorkers on the floor to my left. And on the floor to my right, my dog dreaming in his sleep -- small whimpers, twitching paws, sometimes a whispered bark. He must be chasing a squirrel, or worse -- a neighborhood cat.
Emerson's been following me around from room to room today -- except the bedroom (big no-no). But the "Green Room" is his new cave of comfort. When it's time to go outside at night to sleep in his kennel, he sometimes dashes away to the Green Room -- to sprawl on the carpet or lie down under the square table-desk -- as if to say, "Can't I stay here? Not in the living room, but here? Where all the books are? Where Amy will be eventually come back?"
Or the smell of ribs slow cooking in barbecue sauce in the crock pot on my kitchen counter.
The "Disney green" walls of my home office. A soy candle (smells like hot apple cider) burning on top of the bookcase to my right. A stack of New Yorkers on the floor to my left. And on the floor to my right, my dog dreaming in his sleep -- small whimpers, twitching paws, sometimes a whispered bark. He must be chasing a squirrel, or worse -- a neighborhood cat.
Emerson's been following me around from room to room today -- except the bedroom (big no-no). But the "Green Room" is his new cave of comfort. When it's time to go outside at night to sleep in his kennel, he sometimes dashes away to the Green Room -- to sprawl on the carpet or lie down under the square table-desk -- as if to say, "Can't I stay here? Not in the living room, but here? Where all the books are? Where Amy will be eventually come back?"
favorite new website
According to its creator (another EWU MFA alumni), "LitList is a dynamic list of literary journals, independent book publishers, and e-magazines. It also gives small publishers new ways to interact with readers and writers. Built on the idea that updating information about small publishers online is often a tedious task, LitList gives publishers the power to update their own information, including contest deadlines and contact information.But that's not all. LitList is also a social center for news and articles surrounding the small publishing market and industry. Allowing users and publishers to comment on articles, blog posts, and publisher profiles, ideas about publishing are being expressed in real time."
Saturday, January 05, 2008
is that a poem I see?
Idea Weather captures the spirit of Emerson, the real huskypoet,before reading good poems
at Rockwood Bakery -- literally.
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