Hot Off the Press -I Am the Flame Poetry Chapbook Now on Amazon.com.

I Am the Flame can be purchased at Amazon.com.

amazon

Yes, my chapbook with poems that focus on my ancestors, mostly the women: aunts, grandmothers, great grandmothers, great aunts, is hot off the press from Finishing Line. Here is what I believe and why if you enjoy poetry, history, women's rights, are interested in immigration and inner peace or really loved your great Aunt Rose, you could find my chapbook a source of joyous remembrance, a reflection  on family and life cycles. We all have ancestors, some we know and see often, some we know and never want to see (eva) and others we never knew who lived long ago in places we never visited. We are connected to them all via DNA, learned behaviours, culture, hopes and dreams.The poems in I Am the Flame are universal. They show what  connection can mean. Perhaps after reading my poems you will write one of your own.

12/10/12 Grand Mal: Dennis Mahagin's Poetry Collection on Amazon. "Hip, eclectic poetry for lovers of smart literature" Time to Expand Your Minds and Read Poetry

"This review is from: Grand Mal (Paperback)

This briskly paced but well-thought-out book of poetry offers a twisty ride to clever, challenge-seeking readers willing to get aboard. No slight chapbook, "Grand Mal" is a full-length, 120-page softcover book that includes 50 hip, eclectic poems, many of them good-sized, and all of them packed with allusions and references to music, movies, TV, art, celebrities, writers, pop culture, newsmakers, history, places (notably Portland and Seattle)--and (seriously) a lot more.

It would be helpful to come to this book as a reader who has some knowledge about a lot of stuff--being a bit of a dilettante might, in this case, work for you--even still, there may be things you'll want to Google. (I, for example, had to look up the familiar-sounding name "Marcellus Wallace," and I found out--oh, yeah!--he's the gangster played by Ving Rhames in the movie Pulp Fiction.) Mahagin's pretty quick, he keeps you on your toes, and some of his zingers might get past you, but, after having read the whole book twice, and some parts of it more than that, I decided not "getting" all of it was OK. There's a line in the poem "Layers & Layers of Meaning": "Sometimes you don't have to know what someone is saying to understand everything."

  Read the rest.

http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Mal-Dennis-Mahagin/dp/1608640515

Bug Poems- Fall is a beautiful time of year. Along with trees changing colors, the animals and insects are getting ready for winter. Elderbox bugs invaded my space in fall last year and stayed the winter

Boxelder, Elderbox Bug Poems

**

Elderbox bugs invaded my space last year. This year there are fewer.  I feel bad for them. They are trying to keep warm, but hey, a person's gotta do what a person's gotta do.  I don't smuch bugs or spray them. I remove them peacefully from my space. Call me Ghandi. These poems were written when I was considering changing my name to Clint Eastwood. I won't post a picture of these little suckers.  They might think I like them and decide to stay around.

*I show them a pamphlet on insecticides
and the paper towel in my hand

Five elder box bugs are on the window
There is a blizzard on the other side
Their black red lined wings and long
thin muscle wasted legs crawl the glass
I don't understand what they are looking for
There is no heat
Why are you still here I ask them
as if they know English
I've been kind since fall
when they moved in with me
only taking out three of the multitudes
leaving the army of fast walking hibernators
alone watching them running from me
But today my warrior appears
This is my frozen kingdom
I tell them love doesn't live here anymore
hasta la vista baby

***

*The Invasion

Elder box bugs have invaded my space
There are groups of them
on the bathroom ceiling
on the phone receiver
in the shower.
When I turn on the lights.
I am in a movie about infestation
A.H.'s The Birds or 
I am  in the painting Edvard Munch’s

The Scream

Black and red bug bodies with wings
stay stationary until I poke them
I am not a swatter or smacker
They flutter fly do their kamikaze thing
I jump up
I am a yellow belly cat in a movie about infestation
A.H.'s The Birds or
I am  in the painting Edvard Munch's

The Scream

I call the maintenance men
They say Oh those bugs are everywhere 
Don’t worry honey be happy
They don’t bite or damage wood
They are not dangerous
There is nothing we can do
When it gets cold they will die or
You can kill them big squish
I am in a movie about infestation
A.H.'s The Birds or I am  in the painting
Edvard Munch's  
The Scream

I pray for the little flutterers to be gone
I hate flying and death
I  want  a real estate agent
to entice them to move
into a vacant condo streets away .

Tippi Hedren has nothing on me
except bloody
beak bites
blonde hair
a good job
a convertible
I am in a A.H. movie The Birds or in the painting

Edvard Munch's  
The Scream

from the poetry chapbook THE WONDER OF IT ALL by Elizabeth P. Glixman

http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#the_wonder_of_it_all 

* Poems copyrighted by E.P. Glixman.  Permission must be requested for usage in a commercial or educational venue
**
http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/2006/12/edvard-munch-scream-dance-of-life.html

 ***
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056869/
 

With Apologies to Mick Jagger, Other Gods, and All Women - A Collection of Poetry by Jane Rosenberg LaForge. Talented Poet- Intriguing Title

"Jane Rosenberg LaForge's poems read like a catalogue of the curious. She creates not one but many worlds with deft language , stark images and a wide, gaping eye. Nothing is off limits as these poems tackle Putin, ankles, youth, teeth, Jagger, old age, sisterhood and other delights and vagaries of the living and the dead. Part mythology and fable, part prayer and dirge , part telescopic and up close and personal, these magnificent poems resonate, throb, and fairly hum with the the fascinating details of the way lives are lived. ~ Michelle Reale" 

Read the rest

 http://www.amazon.com/With-Apologies-Jagger-Other-Women/dp/0615677002

 

 

   

One of Many of my Cat Poems - Mister Mister Simon

Mister Mister Simon

Poetry Chapbook Elizabeth P. Glixman- New Release - Finishing Line Press

Finishing Line Press

PO Box 1626

Georgetown, KY 40324

859-514-8966

Finishingbooks@aol.com

www.finishinglinepress.com

Finishing Line Press is proud to announce the publication of:

Publishing timeline.

Release date (books will be mailed):
Nov. 10, 2012

I Am the Flame is a new a collection of poetry by  
Elizabeth P. Glixman.

The poems in I Am the Flame are visual and poignant, holding moments of longing, tenderness, sadness, acceptance, humor and wonder. The poet revisits her female ancestral roots.

What Others Have Said About I Am the Flame

"In poems rich with evocative details and surprising turns, Elizabeth Glixman, through family stories, history, and an imagination brimming with wonder and wisdom, defines her place among her female ancestors. She solidifies her connection with them as she writes, "I am all these women / ... I am their flame." Later, she returns their "bones to the core of the earth / to the heat" where, with her flame of passion and new found understanding, they become a "new orchestra / of woman song."

Berwyn Moore, professor of English Gannon University and author of O Body Swayed and Dissolution of Ghosts

“I Am the Flame blazes a trail of poems that looks back upon one's roots. Through insightful vignettes, Glixman delves into the traditions and lives of her ancestors with the inquiring mind of "a child entering life shocked by light / remembering the womb from where we all came." A beautiful and riveting collection.” 

Arlene Ang, poetry editor The Pedestal Magazine, Press 1, author of Seeing Birds in Church is a Kind of Adieu

“With these poems, Glixman goes "to the outer edges of memory" to honor her ancestors. Even though "the people who know who they were to each other, what happened are gone," Glixman's songs "mix longing, imagination" to remember language, lives unspoken til now.”

Kimberly L. Becker, author Words Facing East, member of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers

Sample Poem

Did my Ancestors Travel

from China
to Mongolia to Russia to Eastern Europe
in time for the Holocaust?
Could a seed have escaped trauma
floated in the air before the annihilation
pollinate another ancestor?

Did a seed travel to India northern Africa Israel
to the Golden Age in Spain
flee the Spanish Inquisition to Europe
mingle on the way with pistils
stop to grow rice, live in a yurt, a Persian palace
hunt milk goats
do Sufi twirls
read Rumi
wail at the Wailing Wall
birth babies in beds made of hay?

There is a picture of my great grandmother
She is low and wide like a locomotive
I fill in the pieces
I see her in fields on horse back riding
carrying my Mongol brother
in her arms through the mountains
covered with blue skies

I see her criticize her husband
the one who is thin and angular
(in the picture where she is rotund)
for his weaknesses
his inability to do more than dream.
This is all make believe
The people who know who they were to each other
what happened are gone.

I mix longing, imagination, babushkas,
black hats with brims, long waistcoats and withered hands
wide almond eyes and yurts
prologue and epilogue
narrative and poetry- what I create are dreams.

Order Online at www.finishinglinepress.com

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?cPath=4&products_id=1108&osCsid=iploc1hn9p93ei544389guf3p1 

Order by Mail:
Send shipping address along with check or money order made payable to:

Finishing Line Press

Post Office Box 1626

Georgetown, KY 40324

Media Contact:

Leah Maines, Editor

Finishing Line Press

P.O. Box 1626

Georgetown, KY 40324

LeahMaines@aol.com

Finishingbooks@aol.com

www.finishinglinepress.com

Writer Joan Hanna Interviews Me about New Poems “Summer Kitchen” and “Fishes and Their Fathers”

Interview  

“Summer Kitchen” and “Fishes and Their Fathers” poems in the July/r.kv.ry

 by Joan Hanna

http://rkvry.com/poetry/379-elizabeth-p-glixman

http://rkvry.com/poetry/378-elizabeth-p-glixman

JH   Can you share a little about the inspiration for these poems?

Elizabeth P. Glixman: Inspiration for these poems started with images. Years ago I lived in an old farmhouse circa 1800s. There was no central heating or plumbing. And of course no air conditioning.  This farmhouse like many others of that time had a summer kitchen. Summer kitchens were in separate buildings away from the house or off the main kitchen. That way the whole house would not heat up from the cook stove. Through the windows of this particular summer kitchen in winter (the windows faced maybe a dozen apples trees) I could see the bare branches of the trees at dusk against a purple, deep blue and pink fading sky. There was snow on the ground as well as the deep forest of dark green behind the trees. It was a stunning image that never left me. That image floated around in my mind for years until I needed  it to express a feeling I was having about another experience. 

On page five In The Triggering Town, Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing the author poet/ teacher Richard Hugo writes: “I suspect that the true or valid triggering subject is one in which physical characteristics or details correspond to attitudes the poet has toward the world and himself.”

 On page fifteen he writes: “Your triggering subjects are those that ignite your need for words.”

The image of that apple orchard through the seasons and in winter in particular ignited my need for words. But I had no poem to write at that time. Thirty years later as I watched many of my older relatives pass away, I walked through their homes before they were sold. Many objects including a blue milk glass shoe, the lamp that was left on with a timer for as long as I could remember were taken from the house by strangers or other relatives. No one was home anymore. The sense of place I had known for years was gone only to live in memory. Just like the sky faded behind the apple trees I watched from the kitchen in the farmhouse so do life’s season and situations change. That image lying dormant in my mind woke up. 

There is more to the creation of the poem “The Summer Kitchen.”

The couple that owned the farmhouse with the summer kitchen  moved to a home with electricity and central plumbing long before I arrived. The physical challenges of the house with the summer kitchen were beyond them as they aged. I understood this years ago. But now after years more of living I gained a greater understanding of the emotional challenges, what it means to loose a home, a person, a dream, your youth and be left with memories. Images, experience and memories were like a perfect storm and became the poem, a larger poem then if I had written one about the branches of the apple trees years ago. 

The unique and wonderful thing about creating poetry, art or fiction is that everything that is stored in a poet, writer, or artist’s mind can be accessed at any moment when it is needed to explore something. This usually happens when a feeling or an experience is ready to be expressed. It ripens. Time doesn’t matter. I think it is this way for everyone. Even if they do not create works of art. Everyone has “ah ha” moments. Creative people are able to unite all the elements and create something concrete to show others.

 About “Fishes and Their Fathers”

The image of my vail tail beta fish Benny (he was an indigo blue) was the triggering moment for the poem “Fishes and Fathers.” That fish lived in a bowl for over two years. I religiously cleaned that bowl weekly. I felt protective of that small fish. I was his caretaker. Number one trigger: the image.

Number two trigger:

I'd seen many single mothers while working as a preschool teacher. I saw and heard about the hardships they faced raising children alone. I saw their protective instincts toward their kids and their frustrations.  Since many meaningful conversations with young children can happen when doing a task together, I  added an imagined conversation of a single mother and her daughter as they watched  the fish and cleaned the fish bowl to the poem.  I gave the mother  the burden of explaining to the child why her father was not coming home. I didn’t clearly state if the father had died or left. The poem is about loss, coping, adjustment so that aspect was not important to me. The reader can decide and bring their own experience or imagination to the poem. I wanted to show a woman alone (similar to the woman in the “Summer Kitchen” poem) adjusting to change in her life, a different season in her life. And, show the relationship of caring she had with her child.

JH: I love your repetition of images in “Fishes and Their Fathers" like the curve of the fishbowl linking to “the curve of my belly” and “the roundness of your face.” Can you elaborate a little on this technique?

EPG: Being a visual person I notice repeated patterns of line, shape and color in my environment. In this poem I tied together images of a bowl, a belly a face by their common denominator curves and roundness. These images are more like metaphors or similes: the bowl is like a belly, the cheek is like the bowl, the cheek ‘s curve, the belly’s roundness, the fish bowl are all like each other.

Then there are the associations. I put these images to good use in my work. I associated the curve or roundness of the bowl with a pregnant woman’s belly and the curve on the face with the touch of a hand on a cheek to the protective tender maternal instinct. Curves are inherently feminine or organic. The mother was protective of her child in the womb as she was now when her child asked her a difficult question. The fish bowl was also pregnant in another way, it was the catalyst for the child’s question. I hope this is not confusing.  Sometimes it is hard  for me to explain "clearly" the workings of my own poems.

JH: Please share links to your website, publications or book links.

EPG:  Finishing Line Press will publish my latest chapbook, I Am the Flame, about my female ancestors, in November.

Here is the pre-sales link. https://www.finishinglinepress.com/index.php?cPath=4&sort=2a&filter_id=962&osCsid=ncnfta7mq08q45kqbdq7hbe8c1

Here are links with comments and reviews about my other chapbooks

 A White Girl Lynching

http://www.fullofcrow.com/crowreviews/2009/06/a-white-girl-lynching/

 Cowboy Writes a Letter and Other Love Poems

http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2011/01/review-of-cowboy-writes-letter-other.html

The Wonder of It All

http://alt-current.blogspot.com/2012/06/wonder-of-it-all-blurbed-by-dennis.html

I Am the Flame book cover blurbs to let readers know the overall theme of the poems.

In poems rich with evocative details and surprising turns, Elizabeth
Glixman, through family stories, history, and an imagination brimming with
wonder and wisdom, defines her place among her female ancestors. She solidifies
her connection with them as she writes, "I am all these women / ... I am their flame."
Later, she returns their "bones to the core of the earth / to the heat" where, with her flame
of passion and newfound understanding, they become a "new orchestra / of
woman song. -Berwyn Moore

I Am the Flame blazes a trail of poems that looks back upon one's roots. Through insightful vignettes, Glixman delves into the traditions and lives of her ancestors with the inquiring mind of "a child entering life shocked by light / remembering the womb from where we all came." A beautiful and riveting collection.  -Arlene Ang

JH:  Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on poetry, links to other chapbooks and the lovely book blurbs for your upcoming chapbook, I Am The Flame. Just one final question, what does recovery mean to you?

EPG: For me recovery is the process of moving forward to a more balanced self or life when you have been traumatized or affected adversely by experiences. It  can be a big event or addiction but doesn’t have to be. It only needs to be a deeply felt experience or condition, one that has altered your life kept you stuck. I think most of us are in some form of recovery from something whether is a relationship that didn’t work, a death of a loved one or issues with weight, lack of motivation, job loss, insomnia and unfullfillment (life offers a lot of possibilities). The women in both poems have lost their husbands and have to move forward. They are in recovery imo. In both poems the natural cycle of nature is significant as it mirrors the changes in their and our lives.

     

Joan Hanna was born and raised in Philadelphia and now lives in New Jersey with her husband Craig and rescued Beagle Odessa. Joan holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Ashland University and has published poetry, nonfiction, fiction and book reviews in various online and print journals. Joan is an Adjunct English Instructor at GCC and also works as Managing Editor for Poets’ Quarterly, Assistant Managing Editor for River Teeth, A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative and Assistant Editor, Nonfiction/Poetry for r.kv.r.y. Quarterly Literary Journal. Follow Joan’s personal blog at www.WritingThroughQuicksand.blogspot.com.

The Wonder of It All Blurbed by Poet Dennis Mahagin Author of FARE

 

           Read the blurb poet Dennis Mahagin wrote about  my chapbook The Wonder of It All 

http://alt-current.blogspot.com/2012/06/wonder-of-it-all-blurbed-by-dennis.html

 Then click on the other links to read about Dennis and his work and his latest chapbook Fare.
 After I read Fare I'll write a post. Dennis is a talented unique poet.

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/author/dmahagin/

http://www.friedchickenandcoffee.com/manifesto/the-chapbooks/fare/

http://foggedclarity.com/2011/12/fence-fragment/

Poem "Roots" in Poetica Magazine. Poetica is Available on Kindle.

We all have roots. We all come from somewhere. Like many children and grandchildren of immigrants, I am drawn to explore my cultural identity. If you've watched the TV show Who Do You Think You  Are  you will see the journey famous people take to find their roots. I am not famous so no one invited me to go on this show. I reflect on my roots, my ancestors, how I am shaped by who came before me.  I reflect through pictures, letters, bits of information handed down by my parents and relatives. I think about (imagine)what my ancestors believed, where they lived and  ask do I believe these things.When I look at old photographs from the 1800s, I search for physical resemblances.

My poem  in Poetica Magazine is about a longing to return to the "source" of who I am. Once you know that source moving forward in life becomes easier. Parts of yourself all come together in an Ah Ha moment. That has been my experience.


 Take time to read my poem and all the other poems and stories in Poetica.

http://www.poeticamagazine.com/2012summeredition.htm

Sean Thomas Farragher- Poet, Writer, Artist, Teacher, Editor, Friend RIP

Sean Thomas Farragher passed away this week. He was a mentor to me and a friend. From him I learned poetry’s (and all forms of writing) ability to show truth when the poet/writer is honest, often brutally honest. For Sean a poet's life was an open book. What does a finely crafted  work convey to others if honesty is not there. Sean's work was always honest. 

Sean  knew poetry. He taught it as a poet in the schools. He wrote it for over 40 years. He was the poetry editor of http://www.friggmagazine.com/ I wish I could find the e-mails  he sent me about line breaks and the breath or about William Carlos Williams. They were inspirational. I am still searching for them in my paper piles.

Sean knew life.  His life was full of varied experiences both joyous and heartbreaking, one was being  a medic in Vietnam. His life was too short. Sixty odd years seems short for man with such gifts and exuberance.  But who am I or anyone to say when a life is too short. For even if a life is a week or an hour, there is a purpose to it. Everything that sees the light of day has meaning.

Your life was a blessing to many, Sean.  Rip, dear friend.

Sean leaves behind admirers of his work, friends and family.
Sean's spirit lives on in his work, in his children, grandchild and all those who hold memories of him close to their hearts. Here are several links to his work. There are links to his Selected Poems online at the Poem Directory at each link..

http://seanfarragher.org/selectedpoems/snowman.htm
http://seanfarragher.org/selectedpoems/vietnamelegy.htm

Poetry Lovers-New Pocket Size Poetry Chapbooks/ Propaganda Press/ Elizabeth P. Glixman, Kevin M. Hibshman, Howie Good, Cee, Adam Moorad and Others

Readers of this blog may be tired of my posts about my chapbook The Wonder of It All.  Or maybe not. I've posted several times about my latest chapbook because I think chapbooks, mine and others, need more exposure. I also like the poems in this chapbook.  Yes, I admit it. I like some of my own poems. That is not always the case. I've been writing poetry for over ten years and its hasn't been a picnic. The re-writes are often difficult, many poems never see the light of day. But I love writing poems more than I don't  so I continue.

A recent review
http://savvyverseandwit.com/2012/05/the-wonder-of-it-all-by-elizabeth-p-glixman.html
An older post about my chapbook.
http://elizabeth-inthemoment.blogspot.com/2012/02/21212-i-hope-you-enjoy-new-poetry.html

 I  also do repeat posts because the Internet is a jungle. It is often hard to maneuver its depths unless you know the intricacies of getting work visible. Often I feel like I have been dropped off by plane with only a backpack, a compass and enough water for a week and told to  find  my way out. It is a daunting task  to get out of the woods and back to civilization. So I keep posting  as I  metaphorically trudge through the jungle determined to find my way to a McDonalds and to connect to readers who enjoy  poetry.

 Today I am posting a link to my book(again) and the chapbooks of fellow poets published by Propaganda Press. I’ve read Howie Good's chapbook and Kevin Hibshman's. I enjoy both poet's poems although  they are totally different. Who says a person has to like only one style of poetry?


 For poetry lovers and those who are new to poetry, Propaganda Press  publishes a variety of themed  small chapbooks you can put in you pocket or purse and enjoy anywhere when you  have a moment.

 Check Out All the New Releases

 and

 Read a Poem Today.

 It May Do Your Heart Good.

http://alternating-current-weekly.blogspot.com/2012/03/new-releases-at-propaganda-press.html

Humorous Children's Poetry- April is Poetry Month

http://www.amazon.com/Random-House-Book-Poetry-Children/dp/0394850106

I enjoy the sounds of words, the way the consonants blend together, the long and short sounds of vowels. I enjoy rhymes, the simple kinds and the more sophisticated ones. I enjoy silliness and the absurd. Thinking about poets whose poems are exceptionally auditory and playful I think of the poets whose work is in  the poetry anthology  The Random House Book of Poetry for Children.  The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, Random House; First Edition edition (September 12, 1983) is a prized possession of mine.

The poems in the book were selected and introduced by Jack Prelutsky and illustrated by Arnold Lobel. The book is 248 pages of sheer visual and aural fun and silliness. It has an innocence that today's kids may find unappealing. Maybe not. On children's TV programs you hear rap and other contemporary ways to use letters and words to teach children ABCs and reading. Silliness and the absurd  can still  be found in these forms . It is over twenty years since this anthology was published. It is a classic in my opinion.

Poets include Jack Prelutsky, Eve Merriam, Judith Thurman, Lilian Moore, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mary O'Neill, Emily Dickinson, Myra Cohn Livingston, Ogden Nash, William Cole, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Shel Silverstein, Judith Viorst, Russell Hoban, and R.C. Scriven.

 About Jack Prelutsky

 http://www.readingrockets.org/books/interviews/prelutsky/
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jack-prelutsky

 Arnold Lobel Books

http://www.amazon.com/Arnold-Lobel/e/B000APNG74

These two poems are in the anthology.

Some Things Don't Make Any Sense at All

My mom says I'm her sugarplum.
My mom says I'm her lamb.
My mom says I'm completely perfect
Just the way I am.
My mom says I'm a super-special wonderful terrific little guy.
My mom just had another baby.
Why?

Judith Viorst

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/some-things-don-t-make-any-sense-at-all/

Cats Sleep Anywhere

Cats sleep anywhere, any table, any chair.
Top of piano, window-ledge, in the middle, on the edge.
Open drawer, empty shoe, anybody’s lap will do.
Fitted in a cardboard box, in the cupboard with your frocks.
Anywhere! They don’t care! Cats sleep anywhere.
(Eleanor Farjeon  – 1881-1965)

Freshness of Vison, Seeing the World Anew -Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard

I read Annie Dillard’s “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” years ago. What I loved then and still do love is her freshness of vision, and her great love of all that wiggles, crawls, and flies in nature. Re-reading the first chapter of this book recently added a conscious understanding of what freshness of vision really means.

I was mesmerized by Dillard’s description of the recently sighted people who Von Sender wrote about in “Space and Spirit." Some people were frightened by their new sighted world, some in awe of it, being able to see color patches those color patches infants see before seeing kicks in. Dillard says, “I live now in a world of shadows that shape and distance color, a world where space makes a kind of terrible sense.” She calls this world of colored patches “a world unraveled from reason."

These newly sighted people had sight as a pure sensation without being filtered by meaning. This is the world Annie Dillard seems to long for. To be able to see the familiar in a new way. She writes with envy in the positive sense of the experiences of the newly sighted. Some people had no sense of size or space. They couldn’t picture anything but what was in front of them and did not know that what they saw had substance. The language of the world upset some of the newly sighted people. The world was beyond their concept of what was touchable. One person was upset to the realize that he had been visible to people and this happened without his giving them his consent. As if we need permission to see each other physically. What was upsetting was that people could look and maybe he was unattractive. Some people when realizing this visibility groomed themselves differently.

This is an extraordinary idea; because the person had no concept of sight they assumed no visibility for themselves or others. They had no concept of visibility.In a sense this “normal vision” is what clouds our seeing and to Annie Dillard making the familiar unfamiliar is a full time job. In this unfamiliarity the grandeur of the universe is revealed, allowing wonder and gratitude to appear.

Annie Dillard's way of wanting to see in this book is like that of a child's I saw observing a worm. The child was lying in the dirt on his stomach. He was about three years old and he had his head about a half-inch from the worm. He looked up at me with sheer joy in his voice and on his face and said, “Want to see this worm wiggle?” This worm was the most fascinating creature on earth to this child. Since this child had no meaning for worm, he was like the unsighted or newly sighted person seeing the worm as a patch of color and looking very hard to see what it was all about.

Perhaps the gift of Dillard’s writing is to encourage us to see the old in a new extraordinary way. Time, observation, reflection and a new vision are the methods to re-see the natural world as a show where a magician is always taking something awesome out of his hat.

http://www.amazon.com/Pilgrim-Tinker-Creek-Annie-Dillard/dp/0060953020

Is Poetry Boring? Who Reads Poetry?

POETRY?

 POETRY?

Got Poetry?

 What? Poetry?

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040626.html

     Two times in the last year I gave my poetry chapbooks to friends who are fiction readers to get their opinions. When one friend returned  the book she said nothing, not even thank you. It was as if she didn't want to talk about the book. She seemed embarrassed like I had given her something illegal or so horrible she wanted to cover if up like a woman who hides her face not wanting to let a man she likes see her blush. Yes, some people still blush.
     I asked  the other friend what she thought. She was honest and said she didn't get many of  the poems and said it was her not me. I have heard that line its me not you before, not from a friend and not about poetry.

     Both friends love to read but not poetry. I had inflicted them with words in a form that had little meaning to them. And they had a hard time telling me. I became the poetry leper. If  you see her walking towards you with one of her little books, run is what I imagine one of my friends now says to the other.

     Sometimes I wonder if people who write poetry are from some kinder gentler world ruled by the planet Neptune. In astrology Neptune rules poetry.

"Neptune comprises those transcendent forces that tend to loosen and dissolve the artificial barriers of time, space, egos, and nations, and the traditions, conventions and laws (of man and nature) which appear unchangeable".

http://www.trans4mind.com/personal_development/astrology/LearningAstrology/planetsNeptune.htm

Read more.
http://www.librarising.com/astrology/misc/neptunepower.html

     Or maybe  poets live in an alternate universe ruled by the sounds and symbols of words and images that not everyone finds familiar or tangible. Many poets live in a world of incomplete sentences (when they write poetry) and metaphor among other experiences. 
     Whatever the reason poetry does not seem to capture the attention of the mainstream unless it rhymes, like in hip hop or advertising copy or song lyrics. Even then it can be a hard sell. I know people who would much rather read a Jackie Collin's novel, no offense to you Jackie, than read a poem that gets to the core of passion and  greed and ends happily in about 5 minutes. 

   There are genres for everyone.  Literature diversity is a good thing. But why is poetry a misunderstood form of writing to many, a mystery they cannot be bothered to decipher?

 Do You Like  Poetry?
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june00/poetryboxteachers.html


 Post a response if you'd like.

What Do Women Poets Write About?The Poetry of Dorianne Laux

 

Dorianne Laux's poems are lyrical, many filled with reflection on everything "female."  Reading  her poems, I feel good about the process of living, how everything unfolds. Laux can write about disturbing events or emotions and still I feel inspired by her direct intimate encounter with all she sees.

"About Laux's work, the poet Tony Hoagland has said, "Her poems are those of a grown American woman, one who looks clearly, passionately, and affectionately at rites of passage, motherhood, the life of work, sisterhood, and especially sexual love, in a celebratory fashion."

GIRL IN THE DOORWAY

She is twelve now, the door to her room
closed, telephone cord trailing the hallway
in tight curls. I stand at the dryer, listening
through the thin wall between us, her voice
rising and falling as she describes her new life.
Static flies in brief blue stars from her socks,
her hairbrush in the morning. Her silver braces
shine inside the velvet case of her mouth.
Her grades rise and fall, her friends call
or they don't, her dog chews her new shoes
to a canvas pulp. Some days she opens her door
and musk rises from the long crease in her bed,
fills the dim hall. She grabs a denim coat
and drags the floor. Dust swirls in gold eddies
behind her. She walks through the house, a goddess,
each window pulsing with summer. Outside,
the boys wait for her teeth to straighten.
They have a vibrant patience.
When she steps onto the front porch, sun shimmies
through the tips of her hair, the V of her legs,
fans out like wings under her arms
as she raises them and waves. Goodbye, Goodbye.
Then she turns to go, folds up
all that light in her arms like a blanket
and takes it with her.

 Read More

 http://www.webdelsol.com/LITARTS/laux/dl-part2.htm


Dorianne Laux's  Website

http://doriannelaux.com/

 Poems and Commentaryby Robert Pinksy and Others

http://doriannelaux.com/media.html

 Audio

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20560

2/12/12 Read Poems about Andy Rooney, Nancy Pelosi, Tuna Fish, Bugs, Worry, Medical Procedures and Fudge in THE WONDER OF IT ALL

 Propaganda Press

http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#the_wonder_of_it_all

Poem by Richard Schiffman in the The Cortland Review

 I like this poem. Listen to the audio.

http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/53/schiffman.php

 I also enjoyed Jessica Johnson's poem.

Winter Eclectica Magazine- Author Interviews -Allison Adelle Hedge Coke and Travis Hedge Coke, Saeed Jones and Paul Blezard

New Interviews


 Literature and  Peace-  An Interview with Paul Blezard,
"An author and broadcaster, Paul Blezard was the founder of the Chelsea Poets Society and his work has been published in the UK and abroad. Currently writing a new novel and chairing events at literary festivals around the world, he was the former Literary Editor of The Lady magazine and for ten years was the popular voice of Oneword Radio." Paul Blezard recently took part in the  Poetry Towards Peaceful Co-Existence forums in London and Dubai created by The Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Foundation.

http://www.eclectica.org/v16n1/glixman_blezard.html


Interview with poet Saaed Jones. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University. He is a new powerful relevant voice in contemporary poetry. He talks about  his recent book When the Only Light is Fire.

http://www.eclectica.org/v16n1/gadson.html

Interview with Allison Adelle Hedge Coke and Travis Hedge Coke. Both are amazing accomplished talents. Among Allsion's accomplishments is this "she is the editor of the recently published Sing (2011), a multilingual collection of Indigenous American poetry, from the University of Arizona Press."

 "Travis Hedge Coke is Allison's son. He is of mixed ethnicity and mixed feelings about admitting that in his biographies. His visual art has been showcased from Los Angeles to Kyoto, and he has read from New York City to Amman, Jordan (most recently, at Naropa's Summer Writing Program)."

http://www.eclectica.org/v16n1/becker.html

Enjoy these interviews as well as the fiction, poetry, book reviews, essays and op-ed pieces in this issue.

12/21/11 This Blog's Comment Function is Not Working - This Is Not the Title of A Poem

 Perhaps I need to write one to relieve my frustration at not knowing how to fix this. People told me they can't  post comments.

What to do?

Answer.

Go to the quiet place.
http://thequietplaceproject.com/

The Wonder of It All- New Chapbook

My new poetry chapbook The Wonder of It All will be out soon. I saw the proof this week. Alternating Currents in California is the publisher.
http://alt-current.com/index.html

This is one of two quotes on the cover page.
"After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say I want to see the manager."
This quote by William S. Burroughs might give you an idea of the contents.

If not here is more info.

Poems about Nancy Pelosi, The Home Shopping Channel, TSA, tuna fish, boxelder bugs, Alfred Hitchcock, fudge, pop icons on drugs, fish, long distance computer romance and many more contemporary topics are between the covers. Some people drink, get depressed, go camping, overeat, meditate, get involved in political movements or go on vacation (short list of give me a break from the madness things to do). I write poems when everything gets to be too much and even when it isn't.

The Million-Line Poem: Tupelo Press- Support Doctors without Borders

''The Million-Line Poem: Guidelines

From now until January 1, 2012, half of all Million-Line Poem entry fees will go to Doctors without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization working in nearly 70 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe.''

Read the rest

http://tupelopress.wordpress.com/the-million-line-poem-guidelines/

A BROKEN THING - POETS ON THE LINE

http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Thing-Poets-Line/dp/1609380541/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321986713&sr=1-1

Why does the poet stop the line (line break) when he or she does? It is not a simple decision since the 20th century arrived and poets began to experiment with more than traditional blank verse that consisted of repeated predictable patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Where does a line end or begin in a poem? Its intent, content and form is not the same as a line in prose. Reading A BROKEN THING- POETS ON THE LINE is like falling into an alternate universe where words, sounds, pacing, silence, page margins, enjambment, compression, wide open spaces all take on a powerful vibrant life of their own. Political views can even be seen in the construction of the line! A poem is not a static thing. The variation of structure are endless.

Think about this-

When a line ends there is often silence. What does that silence do? Is the empty space in a line soundless?

In this book of essays poets tell readers how they see the line and how they use it in their work and how others use it.


I particularly enjoyed these essays:

Who is Flying this Plane? The prose poem and the life of the line by Hadara Bar-Nadua.

Croon: A Brief on the Line by Tim Seibles

Three Takes on the Line by Catherine Barnett


This is an anthology you can read again and again.



Read more about blank verse (the traditional poetic form) here

http://www.uni.edu/~gotera/CraftOfPoetry/blankverse.html