I'm reading Words Facing East by Kimberly L. Becker. Ms. Becker'slove of nature, her investigation of her Indian heritage and the struggles of her ancestors and their descendants, her relationship with her son and other significant people in her life create passionate poems of loss, anger, longing, discovery, affirmation and healing.
Shaking the Snow , Come Back to the World and Letting Down The Stories are several poems that I especially enjoyed. The poems are accessible strong and clear. They are rooted in the earth and human emotion.
Praise for the Poems
“How perfectly titled Words Facing East is, for Kimberly L. Becker’s poems reflect the unconquered spirit and eloquence of Eastern Cherokee descendants. Kimberly L. Becker has taken personal Trails of Tears and with her poetry transformed them into Trails of Strong Light and Homecoming. Here is brave poetry that soars and speaks not just to Indian people but to any human being who is yearning for homeland.”—Susan Deer Cloud
Shin Yui Pai writes on her website" I am the author of seven books of poetry, as well as an oral historian, photographer, and editor. My work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan, The United Kingdom, and Canada."
I find her work inspiring.See the trailer for her latest poetry book (many poets are making trailers for their books. It's taken me sometime to get used to this). Trailers were for movies or fiction books, why not poetry collections.
Rain is a truly important book, not only in the development of this must-read poet, but because it engages with the rough and tumble of life in a way we recognise as true. Read it now, before it becomes famous.—Fiona Sampson, The Independent
I am not always a fan of what is considered well crafted traditional poems. Often they feel dry to me or too controlled. There is no "pop." I have to work to get the meaning and when I do I say, hmm. Paterson's poetry in RAIN has that subtle pop and is well crafted. The "pop" to me is the way the poem shows how life feels. The poems are a joy to read. Read The New Yorker review.
In “Rain,” what matters is children, friends, and work. What also matters, it turns out, is matter, matter driven by the uncompromising laws of matter. Friends die, work comes to nothing, a child’s pride is undone by “the flutter in his signature.” Imagining people, for Paterson, requires imagining with equal and competing sympathy the enormous latticework of impersonal, indifferent matter that surrounds them. Mentions Robert Frost. The heart of the book isn’t loss, exactly, but, rather, a crisis over how to think about loss.
All day and all night you keep
looking up at us. Why can't
you lie down? Panting and
staring, you stand on the rug
at the end of our bed. You are
our stubborn mountain dog
and in the past I've said stupid
dog right in front of you. But
now it's 2 a.m. and we can't
sleep with you standing there
and I say Let's go. Right now.
And this time we promise
you we'll fix it, whatever
it is. Stupid first vet. Clearly
not a tummy ache, and if
she doesn't know what it is
she should say so. It will be
two days, two nights, two
vets later, the long trip to
UC Davis, the diagnosis:
collapsed lungs. Why? There
will be the little room all fixed
up to look like a chapel, on
the walls photos of redwoods,
an orange sunset on the ocean.
They will wheel you in on
a metal table. Tubes in you,
a small bag of...something.
We will talk to you and rub
your ears. My hand on
your one white paw. Then
they will take you out. After
we cry, we will go home
and we will not sleep.
UPCOMING POETRY READINGS - 2011 Read more about Rose Black and read several of her latest poems. Also there is a picture of Pedro on the link and another poem about him written in a similiar style to a Christopher Smart poem. I think this is the poem.
Cowboy Writes a Letter & Other Love Poems
by Elizabeth P. Glixman
Pudding House Chapbook Series
ISBN 1-58998-932-5
36 pages
Publication November, 2010
About Chapbook How do I love thee? asked E.B. Browning.
My answer (to quote 50 Cents) is like a fat boy loves cake.
The poems in Cowboy Writes a Letter & Other Love Poems are about people who are unfaithful, adoring, contented, reconciled, deluded, infatuated and spiritually transcendent. They are the victims and creators of their confusing and exquisite experiences of love. Emotions that range from cynicism to bliss and back again appear in their voices. There are husbands and wives who keep secrets, there is the voice of the other woman, the voice of those whose affections are not returned, the voices of parent and child and there is a woman in love with an actual frog (ribbet, ribbet). New love, old love and all in-between can be found in lyrical, straight forward and the occasional humorus poem that reveals the power and magnetism of one of the oldest emotions known to man.
Cowboy Writes a Letter & Other Love Poems is part of the Ohio State University Library Special Collections,
SUNY/ Buffalo Lockwood Library Special Collections, Kent State
University Library Special Collections, Brown University Library, and
Poets House/NYC collection. Cowboy Writes a Letter & Other Love Poemsis listed in Bowker/Books in Print.
Husbands, Wives and Chocolate by Elizabeth P. Glixman
I met my husband the dentist at
A free dental clinic downtown.
He loved my poor bite and eroded bicuspids.
In the pre --nuptial I agreed to not eat candy-
To floss brush more
To get that whiter brighter Rembrandt smile.
In sickness and in health
I agreed that all that would
Be sweet in my life would be him.
He slid the ring on my finger
That was clean of the recent M& Ms
I had eaten in the church’s ladies room.
Today it is the week before Easter
I ate six ears of six hollow chocolate bunnies
I hid in the basement near the freezer
And his wall of books on orthodontics.
I can hear him say There is nothing I love more than straight white teeth.
My husband is a racist.
I am an addict on chocolate heroin
There is nothing I can do about defacing the bunnies.
I am not Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.
My husband’s teeth are all crowned.
He is on the city’s campaign
To put fluoride in the city water.
And ban candy bars machines in elementary schools.
If he knew about the bunnies would that be the end?
Would he be Silda Spitzer at my public confession speech
looking at me with ominous eyes?
The polls are out about
A husband, his wife and public humiliation
Concerning chocolate.
Shhh
by
Elizabeth P. Glixman
I smooth silence with my hand
Make it feel like a bed sheet dried in the sun
It is the blessing of relinquishment
After the kettle stops singing
I touch the trail of warmth
Where your hand was on mine
Like the sea and mountains in slow splashing union
I listen to the remnants
Hear the droplets of water fall
The room is white zen silence
I see the morning violet sun
Push stripes of light
Through the plastic blinds
Making a collage across the space
Where you slept
That is now full of song
Read my interview with poet Rick Lupert about his book I'd Like to Bake Your Goods(2006, Ain't Got No Press) and new fiction, poetry, non-fiction, book reviews, interviews and commentary.
all photos by E.P. Glixman cannot be used without permission
So far this year the fall foliage is not inspiring where I live. I think peak leaf season is here or about here. This poetry prompt is to see brilliance in things that don't appear brilliant. Even though the trees are not producing amazing leaf colors, there is a brilliance in the process, in the way of change. Write a poem with this in mind.
The world is how you see it.
What is it you see especially in moments where things have not worked out as you had hoped?
I enjoy in person poetry readings but I prefer reading a poem, savoring it, without any external embellishments the first time around. After I have read it I like to hear a poet read his or her work. I find that a person's voice often influences my reaction to a poem. I am influenced by sound, perhaps even prejudiced by it one way or the other. I want to get over my sound preferences when I hear a poet read a poem and my first reaction is no don't like it or wow fantastic. Hearing a poem and listening to a poem are two different things in my opinion. If you'd like to share your view, please post a comment.
A link about attitudes toward poetry readings.
The Peril of the Poetry Reading: The Page Versus the Performance- Poets.org
Write a poem about a noun that is black and or white. You can use adjectives that are also black and or white.
Black
White
With A little
gray
if you'd like.
Make it drab and or gloomy sorrowful desolate like a pounding rainstorm in the ocean you witness from a a sail boat that is taking in water and there is no land in sight and then
Add a spot
of
Pink . Could be another boat come to your rescue or a bottle with a message from a long lost loved one from another century that lands on the deck.
Last September I took this picture. I aimed my camera toward the trees wanting to capture the changing color of the leaves. After I took it I saw that the car was in the picture. Surprise. I didn't notice the car while photographing the leaves. You can call me spacey or oblivious or a bad photographer! I like to think I was so intent on capturing those orange yellow leaves that I didn't see the forest from the trees. Whatever, I missed seeing something right in front of me that was part of the landscape.
Today's prompt is to find a physical landscape (interior or exterior) and look twice, once at the overall image of what you see, and then scan the landscape again to look at a smaller detail you did not notice at first.
Write a poem that incorporates both the landscape and the detail.
I can't wait to read John Grisham's new novel The Confession. He talks about it on this video.
Book and Author Breakfast
May 27, 2010
BookExpo America
"From Book Expo America at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City, a panel of authors discussing their upcoming books. " Watch C-Span Book TV video
To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
photo copyrighted- Elizabeth P. Glixman
My Wise Warrior Feet
Blessings to my all knowing feet. They repeat mantras. Can you hear them?
"The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet."
Lao-tzu, The Way of Lao-tzuChinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC).
Prompt- Numero Deux
What "burns and sparkles with light " in your life? What or who do you love because of its primal light, its consciousness? Is it a bird or a plane or superman or is it your fork, perhaps your fingers or a favorite hat? Is it the whole of a "thing" or a part? Is it everywhere?
The Oscar winning movie “American Beauty” made its debut in 1999. It was written by Alan Ball who wrote “Six Feet Under,” the darkly comic HBO series. IMO Mr. Ball has found the secret (or maybe one of them) to living a life where you are not periodically contemplating jumping off the nearest bridge. I think mystics would love Alan Ball. Of course they would. They are mystics (they love everybody) but what I mean is they would embrace his belief. Mr. Ball writes
“Beauty is in the strangest places. A piece of garbage floating in the wind. And that beauty exists in America. It exists everywhere. You have to develop an eye for it and be able to see it.”
Who could dispute this idea? We all need to develop an eye for beauty, however we define it, (the beauty in us, other people and our environment) in this changing world unless we want to be perpetually miserable. Seeing this beauty does something to our souls. “American Beauty” is also a comment on how we as Americans live. I choose to focus on the “ big” idea in this movie of finding peace in life regardless of where you live.
My complete thoughts on"American Beauty" or what I call Lester Burnham’s Magical Mystery Tour.
We are all cartons of milk with expiration dates. Someday we will curdle and that will be the end. Are you thinking I’d rather not hear this? I’d rather watch American Idol or listen to Wayne Dyer on PBS or go get a drink or wash the dishes, fold the laundry, go bowling, call my mother, go to the gym. I don’t need an existential crisis today. My Prozac prescription ran out. Hey, listen, there is hope in the face of each of our eventual demises. I mean this sincerely. Take a deep breath.
When we are in our prime and we feel invincible, do we keep putting off the important things believing time will never end? Okay time may go on for infinity but as humans there is an end date. What happened to Lester Burnham the narrator of “American Beauty” a darkly comic film (winner of an Oscar in 1999) written by Alan Ball (he also was the writer for the HBO series “Six Feet Under”) snapped me out of my complacency about time and how I viewed what is important in my life. And I actually felt hopeful. See there is a silver lining at the end of that tunnel or behind the cloud.
As “American Beauty” begins and I eat popcorn swimming in butter, the camera pans across the suburban landscape where middle aged Lester Burnham, actor Kevin Spacey, the protagonist lives. We hear Lester talking. He is dead. It is a bit startling to hear a dead man talking. He tells the story of what happened in the few weeks that lead up to his death.
What happened? Lester’s mid-life crisis peaked like a tsunami. He quite his job of 14 years, blackmailed his boss, bought the car he always wanted, got a menial job at a fast food restaurant, smoked dope. He became infatuation with his teenage daughter’s seductive girlfriend and started to work out to attract her (she liked muscular men). He became everything a middle-aged man is not supposed to be according to the American Dream and he became happier than he had been in years.
As the movie continues we see the people in his life: his realtor wife Carolyn played by Annette Benning (she is obsessed with success and appearances and values her $4,000.00 silk sofa in the living room more than her husband; Lester’ daughter Jane (who hates her father) and develops a romantic relationship with Ricky Fitts, the highly sensitive young man next door who is a documentary filmmaker and drug dealer; Ricky’s emotionally rigid father an ex – Marine colonel who is homophobic, paranoid and obsessed with keeping his son drug free. Every 6 months, Ricky his to give his dad a urine sample. How embarrassing for Ricky.
Everyone in this film has their own version of reality, something that energizes them and gives meaning to their lives, but the characters’ real needs are often concealed and in conflict with each other. They are all leading lives of longing and despair. There is someone among these characters whose despair and torment gets out of control. He kills Lester for a secret Lester learns about him. After Lester is killed in a shocking and disturbing way and the movie comes to its end, we hear the voice of dead Lester again. He says,
“I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one-second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And. Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday.”
Just when Lester found happiness, his life was cut short by a senseless act.
Why was Lester Burhnam grateful for what he called “his stupid little life?” Because in the end his stupid little life taught him about beauty and love. I think Lester realized like mystics and rock and roll singers that
“You don’t always get what you want you get what you need.”
When I think about this often disturbing film, I come away feeling hope. I wasn’t lying. There is that proverbial light in the darkness. There is a great beauty, exquisite beauty to experience in this magical mystery tour, something so immense about the way things are, our connections to others and how it all works out. For Lester, the awareness of the meaning and grandeur of his life came as he was checking out. That doesn’t have to be our experience. Let Lester and this movie be a teacher. Experience what is important to you, what makes you feel full (besides popcorn, a message to myself) before you are taken off the shelf.
I watch you in my early morning class:
twitchy with boredom, the yearning
for the opiate of your I-pod written on your face;
I can almost feel your fingers’ itch
to text someone, anyone, on your waiting cell. This, while I yearn to have you understand
how even half a poem might knit a heart, explode
a head, memorialize the very hair of the dead,
of be the breaking news.
*************************************************
Read the rest of this winning poem, the other winning poems and honorable mentions. These poems and many others submitted to the contest will be published in a chapbook.
My poem " The Interior Decorator" received an honorable mention.
Not just a funny symbol with words following it. It is a legal symbol that states all my work is copyrighted. If you want to link a post go ahead but no using pictures outside this blog unless specifically requested.
I'd love to hear from you.
I write posts on this blog for two reasons. I want to promote my own work (what writer and artist doesn't), and I want to share my love of the written and visual arts. In the past nine years although I've written fiction and non-fiction, I've been focused mainly on poetry. I am interested in hearing from writers, artists and readers. I am actively seeking to expand my vision of what is possible as a poet/writer/artist through shared self expression. The effect of words and images on our psyches can be profound.
Search This Blog
CHAPBOOKS
I Am the Flame - Amazon.com. Clic on Cover.
Cowboy Writes a Letter &Other Love Poems
Pudding House Publications Chapbook. Click Cover.
A White Girl Lynching
Pudding House Publications Chapbook. Click Cover
The Wonder of It All
Contact Alternating Currents for info on this chapbook. https://altcurrentpress.com/
POETRY ANTHOLOGIES
Click Cover
Read my review at Amazon.com. Click cover.
Interviews With Other Writers and Poets (2003-present)
