Journal: Sep 09, 2010
Past Entries: April 2006
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
This is what I'm musing on today: the full-length build-out of my chapbook. Behind the cut, you'll find a list of poems I'm considering. I've already removed a bunch, so these guys made the first round. I'm also considering a new title. Ideas are welcome. I have to decide by the end of today. Tomorrow I print it and order it and it's out in the mail Friday or Saturday. If I took more time than this I would start second guessing myself.
I do have to make a choice between "O, Ruined Mouth" and "Harvest Moon Voice" as they both share some lines. "O, Ruined Mouth" has the publication credit. "Harvest Moon Voice" is more popular at the mic. But then I have only read "O, Ruined Mouth" in public once. And Vernell Bristow read part of "O, Ruined Mouth" at the mic as a sample from the chapbook.
Notes:
* means it was not in the chapbook
p means it was published in a journal somewhere sometime
Sections (denoted by parentheses) will not appear in the book, they are my intellectual organization tools. The final order will be determined when i lay them all out in a row. And I mean, print it out and lay them out in a row.[more]
Sunday, April 23, 2006
I'm in that mood again, itching for a fight. Or I'll get all self-deprecative. Or?
Anyway, this ought to be a "save the date" announcement. A week from Monday, May 1, I read at Larry's Bar at 7:00 pm with the other winners of the William Redding Prize. Andrea Scarpino was awarded first place and I was awarded second place and I have to find out about the 3rd place contestant.
Larry's is located at 2040 N. High Street (corner Woodruff), Columbus.
There's another local feature on the horizon. More to be announced later when I'm sure of the date. Teaser: It will be a good one not only because I'll be reading (ha, I guess I'll be itching for a fight not getting self-deprecative) but also because of the person who will be reading with me.
If I had more time I'd do a mini-poetry calendar. Mary Chi- Kim says I need to get out of Columbus now that I'm doing some features a second time. I always follow her advice; Mary Kim is someone who you also do what she says. But hmmm, how? Walk across some burning bridges?
Friday, April 21, 2006
I was listening to Jane Siberry during the time period in which I was stopping writing for 10 years, a.k.a., moving to Columbus. Richard Howard of the Paris Review and I had exchanged snippy remarks via snail mail which at the time was simply known as "mail." I'd just married and bridges were burning: Richard Howard, Susan Tichy, and another I don't want to mention because little beknownst to me he was doing the burning and I wouldn't find out to what extent till 2003. Clinton was newly elected president. I took temp jobs. I was about to discover a penchant for biking for 30 to 50 miles and going as fast as I could for as long as I could. Others on the bike trail called me...well, you wouldn't understand it as a compliment it is if you don't bike. Siberry got me through this time. It's too bad I forgot about her music before the big depression came.
The other day I saw the name Jane Siberry on Kim White's livejournal and I started to remember that time. Listening to Siberry's cd "When I Was a Boy" was like jacking an emotional endorphin rush into my brain stem. Sad, happy, extreme extreme extremes, "mmmm gimme, mmmm gimme." (mmm gimme is from Siberry's "Temple".)
It also reminds me of Vance Philip Hedderal, the best dancer at my wedding, one of the best people I knew at GMU, the best person to talk to at the time, and one of those people who made moving hard. While hanging out with him one evening during a visit to my parents, he got my keys out of my locked Plymouth Colt, and said he liked her music too. It reminds me of reading Ray Bradbury, Chaiam Potok, Kurt Vonnegut, and Eli Weisel at 3 in the morning each night after a train woke me up. It reminds me of spaghetti dinners by myself while James was off teaching. Kurt Cobain was about to pull the big stupid and kill himself in the same manner as a good friend of mine from college. From Siberry's Calling All Angels: "Walk me through this world, don't leave me lone." I made myself pretty lone then.
And now since September 2003, I'm writing again, and this time I will call "coming to my senses and not so lone."
I really just meant to praise Siberry. And here I spilled some guts. Clean up on aisle 3.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Mortal Kombat Poetry V has just elimanted 32 poets and it has moved on to the second round.
Go vote. It's quick, easy, fun and there are links in case you want to do a little research before picking a poet.
Monday, April 17, 2006
I've been insanely busy, at work and at home and in between naps. I'm missing my goal of a poem a day for April, aka National Poetry Month. I figure I can still make up the days I've missed. I can. I can do it. I have to double up for a while, a lunchtime and a nighttime poem. Who knows maybe I'll write a rare morning poem?
I think I've got a half hour of family friendly stuff for the big Arts Fest Feature. Today's poem however employed racial slurs and not the white ones I used in "Adopted People."
Here's what I've got to choose from on the family friendly front and in no particular order:
When I step Here (the haiku -- it's what I plan to start with -- feed people's stereotype of me)
The Ugly One
Let Me Go Through the Alphabet of Curses
Terri Schiavo's Heaven (maybe)
The Shore or an Island
After the Collapse of a Building
The Laurel Tree
David
12 Years
Anticipating My Father's Death
Adopted People (sans racial slurs)
How to Shock a Suburban Kindergartner
Church Games
Donating Blood
Kings
Hello Pen
Harvest Moon Voice
The Dark Side
Penelope to Her Loom (30 Years Later)
Helen to the Sea
Kettle Whistle
Wake Up Little Suzy
Audience of OneThere, I can get a half hour out of that line up easy.
Friday, April 14, 2006
I went to Grand Rapids with a couple other Columbus poets (Joanna Schroeder and Kim White) for a bout in the MidWest Poetry League. It was a very close bout, though we lost 10-8. But just for showing up we got second and thus a league point and so are most likely proceding to finals, which by partial design happens to be the same weekend and in the same place as the Rustbelt slam. Luckily it is also the weekend between the Spring and Summer quarters.
Shall I mention that one of the judges always voted for the home team? Perhaps this is one of the reasons why home teams are unable to earn league points.
O, that sounds as if the host wasn't good. On the contrary, Grand Rapids was a gracious host tolerating our very late arrival and providing gas money -- please note gas money from Columbus, OH to Grand Rapids, MI and back again isn't pocket change. The guy who runs it, Greg Bliss, was nice and funny and it seemed a good night / scene.
Thanks to my rocking teammates Joanna and Kim who performed really well and were excellent and fun on the road trip. Kim was a slam virgin before she was invited onto the team and won both of her rounds. Woo hoo!
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Monday, April 10, 2006
I felt as if I were barely qualified to be there yesterday at the Delaware County Library 100th anniversary celebration as a local author. I only have the one chapbook in addition to my individual poem publications and I don't live in Delaware County. I seemed to be welcomed in part because it was Fred Kirchner who invited me. (Hey, Fred, they love you in Delaware!) But, legitimate or not, I was invited and there were a couple of people who qualified about as much as I did.
Except for one conversation, it was a rewarding experience. Heck, that one conversation was rewarding too, if only because I got a good story out of it.
Two great things: First, I got to meet John Kneisley who used to be a big part of the Columbus/central Ohio scene. He is an extremely nice guy. And we seemed to hold some of the same opinions. He gave me a copy of one of his poems and the book of another poet's (John Unland).
The second great thing was during my reading. One of the two people who came -- yes, I said two -- hey, it was out of the way and I didn't bring anyone -- one of the two people who came was a woman who seemed enchanted with a pantoum I'd written about living in Pickerington (it's called "The Shore or an Island"). So I got to share the pantoum form with someone who appreciated it and I got to talk about the use of repetends and repeating patterns in poetry. I gave her a copy of that poem too. A lovely experience.
That poem, "The Shore or an Island" might end up being a really good hand-out poem. Nice and quiet, it's got strong imagery and absolutely nothing that could possibly be construed as un-family friendly. Ah, maybe a bit too tame, huh?
I read: "The Ugly One", "Penelope to Her Loom (30 Years Later)", "Harvest Moon Voice", and "The Shore or an Island".
Saturday, April 8, 2006
I just learned I took 2nd in the William Redding Poetry contest that's run through the Poetry Forum at Larry's.
Runner up in the Columbus Arts Festival...
Honorable mention at Perigee...
and now this!Hooray! I'm pretty happy especially since the two poems I think I sent in to this contest just got sent back totally rejected by a publisher -- no note even. Let this be a lesson. One editor's opinion is sometimes about as valid as the opinion of a judge at a poetry slam. You know, I think I'm destined to do well only in contests that don't actually publish the suckers that win.
(Still. Hooray!)
I am going to be a "local author" at the Delaware County District Library (84 E. Winter) tomorrow. The inimitable Fred Kirchner initially invited me. Here's the whole line up:
2:20 pm: Robert Flanagan
2:30 pm: John Kneisly
2:45 pm: Margo Bartlett
2:55 pm: Erin MacLellan
3:10 pm: Fred Kirchner
3:20 pm: Ann Bower
3:35 pm: Louise Robertson
3:45 pm: Juan Armando Rojas Joo
4:00 pm: Kathryn SchwartzWednesday, April 5, 2006
The Jazz Slam Last Friday
Shaun Barber and Dan Thress put on another rocking Jazz Slam last Saturday night right before Scott's 24-Hour feature.
I went to the Jazz Slam coming off being really sick with fever the night before and that morning. I even had to pull the car over once while doing errands with the kids. You know kids get scared and quiet when their mom has to pull over and it's not because they're fighting?
My idea was to do this sad poem based on the song "Wake Up Little Susie" but then I thought I would not try to perform and I would just pick up Shaun's digital video camera for Scott's 24-hour feature. But then I did sign up -- mistake number 1. Or rather, as things turned out, important lesson number one.
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Monday, April 3, 2006
While there are many things I'd like to comment on from the weekend and I'll probably be getting around to everything sometime this week, it was Scott's 24-Hour Feature that out-shone everything else. I arrived around 10:15 pm and stayed till 5:00 am the first night, showed up for the 3:00 pm hour during the day, and came back for the last four hours. And Scott was rocking the whole time.
I am beyond impressed by Scott. His 24-hour feature never let up. He was on from beginning to end. This is an amazing poet with amazing performance skills and he lent all of his talent -- all of it -- to everything he read.
Dan Thress said it was all about poetry, and I agree. I have lines from many of the poems still running through my head.
Without going into a blow by blow -- I'm hoping Scott will do that honor -- there's one more thing I'd like to say about this 24-hour feature: Scott, thank you.