Verse that is Free

Montmartre by John Althouse Cohen via Flickr

While reading A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver, the following lines from the chapter "Verse that is Free" about the evolution of free verse poetry really struck me:

"Now a line was needed that would sound and feel not like formal speech but like conversation. What was needed was a line which, when read, would feel as spontaneous, as true to the moment, as talk in the street, or talk between friends in one's own house."

Oliver concludes this section by saying, "The poem was no longer a lecture, it was time spent with a friend."

I then picked up the new issue of American Poet and read "Night Madness Poem" by Sandra Cisneros:

There's a poem in my head

like too many cups of coffee.

A pea under twenty eiderdowns.

A sadness in my heart like stone.

I'm good at making friends, and they're good at finding me. Time with a good poem is a treasure.

What do you think about free verse? Do you agree or disagree with Oliver?

Poetry Pairing: The "&"

Ampersand by roseandsigil via Flickr

While reading Kingdom Animalia by Aracelis Girmay, I was struck by the use of the & in place of "and" and even more struck when I came upon her poem employing it as its title. I've searched for this poem online to no avail and wish I could share the whole poem with you here, but hopefully this snippet will satisfy:

but even more
giving, you remind us
of the heart & how
the heart would
rather die thank keep
its two dark arms
all to himself;
his life, like our lives,
depends on what is at his side.

In an interview with The Rumpus, Girmay is asked about her use of ampersands in her writing and responds:

"I love the muscle of the "&"-- a muscular shape, a mustache, too. Kind of infinity. But not. A highway...
(read more by clicking on the interview above)

All this led me back to a story that intrigued me a few months back: Poets & Ampersands in Poets&Writers' January/February 2012 issue.


This has evolved from a pairing but I think it makes for an interesting subject! Do you use the "&" in your writing? Why or why not? And what are your thoughts on its use?

And please, feel free to add your own pairing to this!

Eating Poetry This Month

Mark Strand - Eating Poetry by poetic touch

Happy National Poetry Month! Not only are flowers revealing themselves and trees beginning to bid with new life, but poetry is blooming too! I hope you'll be eating poetry with me this month as well.

A few ideas for celebrating:

The Found Poetry Review started The Found Poetry Project and made poetry kits for distribution this month. You can either try to find some in your city or you can make your own and get them out into your community! Five of them are going out in El Paso!

Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-A-Day challenge kicked off yesterday. I participated in this last year and found his writing prompts really helped to get the creativity flowing. My advice: Just write, write, write. Use May to go back and revise. Just get the thoughts down on paper (or into the computer)!

Maureen Thorson's NaPoWriMo site with daily prompts is another great challenge as well. I am still trying to decide between the two and don't want to overwhelm myself with both. A friend of mine made a good suggestion: choose one prompt a day from either challenge and write all the prompts down for later.

30 Ways to Celebrate via Poets.org

Randall Weiss shares his 10 National Poetry Month Activity suggestions. My favorite is #11.

There are also lots of people holding contests on their blogs for poetry book giveaways this month. Jessie Carty is one you should definitely check out. I've read two of her chapbooks now and really enjoy her work.

It's never too late to give away a book yourself either!

I'm going to do a poetry pairing each Thursday on the blog for April. Stay tuned. I'm excited.

Enjoy April! Andrea

P.S. If you have any other ideas for National Poetry Month, please share with us!

Break Time

I know it's hardly been a week but I've decided I need to take a small break from blogging. I will continue to read all the blogs I love, but I've been experiencing an overwhelming feeling to listen to to world instead of talk to it. I'm going to do that for a while. I also have a writing retreat coming up in May I need to prepare for!

See you soon! Andrea

Almost Invisible and Other Good Finds

Image by TrailSource.com via Flickr

Mark Strand has a new book out! I need to order Almost Invisible. It's on my wish list for now because I have too many books in the pile, but I may just have to skip over a few and come back to them! My poem for the week is Strand's "Harmony in the Boudoir" from this new collection.

A few other good finds from this past week:

Another book I can't wait to get my hands and eyes on: Jack Gilbert's Collected Poems 

"How to write a letter to a fan" by Roald Dahl

I love this flash fiction story by Tawnysha Greene in Dogplotz: "Woman Things"


What's going on in your world? What are your good finds of the week?

I'll conclude this post with a tweet that made me stop and reflect on my writing life (I need to listen more!) from Poets House:

We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.
                      -Li Po

Notes from a Workshop with Ralph Angel

Ralph Angel reads a handful of poems

Going through some old journals this weekend, I found a sheet titled "Workshop Notes - Ralph Angel!! 4/21/07." The excitement I felt at finding these notes is similar to what I felt walking into that workshop with a writer I adored. I was so nervous, I can't remember half of the workshop, so thank goodness for these notes:

Anytime you can, use the pure noun and verb.

Vagueness never conveys vagueness.

If you have a heavy-handed subject, you cannot treat it heavy-handedly. (See Cesar Vallejo's "Weary Rings)

Poetry: language for a language that cannot be articulated. Art exists because it cannot be said.

--

What do you think about Angel's explanation of why art exists? 

Tomatoes and Other Good Finds

Tomato 1 by sfxeric via Flickr

Sorry I'm a day late with this post. My husband built me a small garden to plant in and we took advantage of the sunny Sunday we received. All in all, we've four tomato plants, two jalapeño, two cilantro, two basil, one rosemary, two strawberry, and one zucchini.

Because I'm still floating on new gardener air, I wanted to find a poem on gardening, or more specifically, tomatoes, and though this poem for the week isn't specifically on gardens or growing tomatoes, it does mention tomatoes in a dark yet touching sense: "Early Cascade" by Lucia Perillo.

Some other good finds:

How to be left alone to read while traveling (I got a good chuckle out of this write-up! I almost felt as if I was reading my own writing)

New video version of Taylor Mali's poem "What Teachers Make" via Jessie Carty

A favorite blogger of mine, Natalia Sylvester, on The Importance of Fictional Truths

Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud via The New York Times - Do you read aloud anymore?


How was your week? Any good finds to share?

Happy Monday! Andrea

First Moment of Existence

March is National Women's History Month. Whom do you celebrate?

"For a long time I believe my first moment of existence is when I jump over a broom. I remember a house. I remember sunlight through a window..." - from Caramelo by Sanda Cisneros

For me, this window is my Grandma's small kitchen window, a weeping willow peeking in from it's left corner while we are kneading dough for flour tortillas in our hands, her hands twice the size of mine. She walks over to a drawer and pulls out a miniature rolling pin, the first gift I can remember her giving me. This moment one of the greatest.

Grandma in my kitchen many years later doing what she loves to do and cooking my favorite Thanksgiving meal!

Three generations in the kitchen: Grandma, Mom, and Me

One With Others Pairing

I've been fortunate enough to join a poetry group via a few friends on Twitter. In two short months, I've read poetry collections that have buried themselves in my soul. C. D. Wright's One With Others is a what the writer herself defines as a "hybrid form." Wright artfully and gracefully weaves news reports, interviews, stories, and personal experience into a collection that breathes the history of her mentor, V, and the Civil Rights movement in Arkansas. I don't know that I will ever read a book that will move me more than this one. In the video below she talks a little about One With Others and reads a few of my favorite passages:

In arriving at the section in the book detailing the students walking to the all-white school and bravely linking arms together while singing "Like A Tree Planted by the Water," I stopped to google the song because I couldn't recall ever hearing it. After listening to the video below, I sat in silence with an aching yet hopeful heart. There are so many things we never learn in history class, and I am forever grateful for C. D. Wright and her poetry that articulates "the cruel radiance of what is."




What is the most important book you feel you've read in your life and why did it touch you as it did?

Mailbox Candy

 More works of art from Karen Gielen! The top one is my favorite! Such a delicate image.

 Two more! Look at the detail in the top one. And I have a slight obsession with bird images, so the second one is just my cup of tea. The poem accompanying it is perfect.

And last but not least, I received the postcard "Tea" by Henry Matisse from my sweet friend Kristin who's in Virginia with a few notes about Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse and daydream of us having a fancy tea in a garden years from now. I cannot wait. It's been too long since I've seen her.

The lovely postcard with the oranges is from my new pen-pal Caren and carries a touching note about picking oranges from her grandmother's trees growing up. I look forward to more stories such as these!

This month of letters has touched my soul. There is much kindness and beauty in the world!

What's delighted your heart and eyes recently?

Tip Jar for Writers

Via 21TonGiant on Flickr

I came across this post via Random House's Twitter yesterday: 105 Writing Tips from Professional Writers. It's brimming with advice for the beginning writer, the writer facing "writer's block," fiction writing and poetry, and even lifelong learning.

A new favorite tip of mine is one from Margaret Atwood: "A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason."

Do you have a new favorite from this list? What about a tip to add to it?

Circling...

The poem I've selected for the week is Ed Roberson's "As at the Far Edge of Circling." I'm reading a book of Roberson's poems this month and while his work is quite different from the poetry I normally read, I am enjoying this little reprieve from the usual, and I find some of his poems take me into a dream-like state...

I'm going to be away from the blogosphere this week, but I'm sending positive thoughts for a lovely week to all! I look forward to seeing everyone and reading your blogs soon.

What does this week hold for you? What writing is speaking to you most right now?

Smile, Andrea

Fill Your Paper...

"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart" - William Wordsworth

This is exactly what Karen Gielen has done...Just see the incredible creations she's been sending through the mail to me during this month of letters. I'm in awe of her! And I'm so happy to have her as my pen pal!

I'm going to drink a mug of her "Creativi-tea" every day! Which one speaks to you the most? Have you received anything that inspires you through the mail during this month of letters?

The Portable Poetry Workshop: Connecting Content - Thematic Shapes of Poems

Pen and Paper by mlpdesign via Flickr

I know poems have shapes. I've even seen a poem about a rabbit crafted in the shape of a carrot in forum for an online class I was taking. People can get creative with their forms, certainly, but I've never thought about a poem being organized in a thematic shape.

While I don't think a lot of poems are crafted with this in mind, I find it interesting to observe poems with a possible thematic shape in mind. Jack states that in some poems, "the poet's aesthetic sense and the perceptions stemming from the topic create the organizing principle that composes the poem's thematic shape."

The end of the chapter offers writing exercises according to both argumentative and natural shapes. I've shared one from each below along with the example Jack offers:

Argumentative Shapes - Centripetal 
Holding the thesis of your poem in mind, associate images, scenes, and tropes located outside the immediate situation but whose connotations move the material inward toward the unstated central thesis.
An example of this shape is Louis Simpson's "The Silent Piano."

Natural Shapes - Circular
In your closure, return to the same idea that your opining lines suggest, but do so as an "enriched restatement." An example of this shape is one of my favorite poems, Mark Strand's "Keeping Things Whole."

--

And now, because it is Valentine's Day, a centrifugal thematic shaped poem (I think): The Meaning of Zero: A Love Poem by Amy Uyematsu.

Do you have a favorite Valentine's or Anti-Valentine's Day poem or story?

So Emotional

I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Whitney Houston is gone. Every time I turn on the television and see the news, I can't help but think it isn't real. I'm stunned.

One of the first songs I remember falling in love with is "So Emotional." Whenever one of my good friends and I heard this song come on the radio while hanging out at her grandmother's pool on a hot afternoon, we immediately began screaming out the song with our squeaky little voices trying to compete with Whitney's. No one can compete with her. Music won't be the same without her.

The poem I've selected for this week is in tribute to Whitney: "The Role of Elegy" by Mary Jo Bang.

May her soul rest in peace and her family and loved ones find healing and peace in their hearts after their tragic loss.

What memories does Whitney Houston evoke for you? What was your favorite song of hers?

---

Some other links I thought I'd share:

An inspiring article on working toward success by Dan Blank: "Being a Success, Without Being a Bestseller"

Many of us can relate with this question: "Can there be a day to celebrate failure?"Read an excerpt from Paige Taggart's poem "Get Your Slip On" via The The Poetry

Are you as crazy about Pinterest? (It has become a bad, bad habit for me!) Check out these boards for book-lovers! And if you have any others you follow and would like to share, please let me know!

Super Bowl Observations

The Giants were victorious against the Patriots this past Saturday! Super Bowl XLVI drew a record-breaking 111.3 million viewers. Some people don't care for football, some people shed tears at the end of the season. I'm not going to go all sports-fanatic-crazy on you, I just want to share three things from my Super Bowl experience this year:

1. I've written in the past about football and writing. I think athletes are similar to writers in many ways. Eli Manning is the perfect example. He's long been in the shadow of his older brother and is largely ignored by sports media. Does it look like it bothers him one bit? No. He's just there to play the game he loves. He works to perfect his game, ignoring the naysayers. He's never given up, no matter the pressure. He's at every practice and every game, no matter the weather or other obstacles he may face. He is like the writer. Doing something he or she loves. Dedicated, no matter what anyone says, no matter the lack of recognition for your talents, you know the drill. The underdog didn't give up. Neither should the writer. Eli received the MVP award for this Super Bowl. There's an MVP award waiting for the writer who doesn't accept defeat.

2. I wasn't all to impressed by the commercials this year. A handful made me chuckle. The Ferris Bueller tease made me wish there were a sequel coming up in the near future. I was disappointed by every other commercial portraying the woman as merely a sex object, and I lost count of how many women in bikinis or underwear I saw. But then there was the Clint Eastwood Chrysler commercial that set everything right. And for that, I am thanking a poet.

3. And we can't overlook Madonna's halftime show. Madge looks like she hasn't aged one bit since the early 90's. My grandmother couldn't help but comment on her appearance either, and it made for the quote of the night: "She sure is pretty, but I bet you she can't cook like we can." As soon as she said this, she gave my grandfather, then my husband, a good stare down. There's always hoping, Grandma! ;)

Did you watch the Superbowl? Why or why not? Anything you did instead?

You Are Not Connected to the Internet. ?

Below is the screen I stare at this morning (because the Blogger app doesn't want to allow me to insert it above.) After months of battling with my Internet provider over poor service, I changed providers. My appointment for new installation was yesterday and we all know how this usually goes, unfortunately.

Because I work from home, I am at the mercy of said Internet providers and sometimes I feel as if they're conspiring against me. Rather than let negativity and piling papers plague my day, I'm seeing the light at the end of this tunnel, even if it's just a fleck.

What does this mean? Tackling some much procrastinated about revisions and working on an idea for a poem that hatched yesterday.

Not being connected to the Internet is keeping me from all the usual distractions to my writing. Today I'm grateful for this screen.

Do you shut down the computer to allow yourself more time to work on what you love? Do you feel the lure of the Internet takes away from or contributes to your productivity?

Consider the Hands that Write This Letter and Other Good Finds Sunday

The poem for this week is Aracelis Girmay's "Consider the Hands that Write This Letter." I find it pairs well with this past week's welcoming of the Month of Letters. Above are two postcards from the incredibly talented Karen Gielen. She's sending me inspiration through the mail!

A few other good finds this week:

If you're in need of a good writing subject, this just might trigger some inspiration: Rare Albino Hummingbird Spotted in Virginia.

Speaking about inspiration, I know it's silly, but somehow Ryan Gosling is now a Literary Agent on Twitter and he's fantastic at romancing the writer to write (and daydream a little)!

A different way to revise one's writing certainly caught my attention while reading an interview with Anne McGovern posted in flashquake's "Five Question Friday" blog feature.

The world may have lost Wislawa Szymborska but her wise writing will forever live on. Case in point, her poem "The Joy of Writing." May she rest in peace.

And lastly, if you are participating in the Month of Letters, Spotify created a playlist for your letter writing.

How has your week been? Any good reading or writing? And who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl if you're watching, or perhaps being forced to watch? For me, it's Eli Manning and The Giants all the way!

Best wishes for a beautiful Sunday, Andrea

Time For Yourself, Postcards, and More Postcards

Just a few postcards today...

Some observations for today, and I guess we can call them lunch observations since I did all this during my lunch break:

1. It's important to schedule time or yourself, even if you don't feel you're in need of any. I work from home and only interact with people via phone or email so it can get a little glum in my office now and then. So, I took myself to lunch today and decided I'm going to do it once a week. Even if it's just for my tried-and-true tuna sandwich smothered in green chiles and avocado.

2. Who knew postcards could become an obsession? Yikes. I'm participating in the Month of Letters and putting a little poetry spin on it. Short poems on postcards. I'm enjoying picking out poems to go with the image on them. So far, I've sent out "Green Striped Melons" by Jane Hirshfield and "Michiko Nogami (1946-1982)" by Jack Gilbert. I can't wait for the weekend!

3. In my search for postcards, it seems no one really carries them anymore. I got lucky that one of the Barnes & Noble stores in my city still has a few on the rack, but they're not stocking them anymore. (Too late I found this out after driving to the other store across town in hopes of a more plentiful rack.) I went to another small bookstore with no luck, then even made my way to Hallmark, but they've discontinued them as well. Why? These perfect little cards say so much with just one image. Are postcards dead? Am I going to have to start making my own?

4. The mark of a productive day is a chocolate smudge from a York peppermint patty on your keyboard, at least it is for me today.

How has your day been? What does the mark of a productive day look like to you? And if you know of a good place to buy postcards besides Amazon, will you let me know? Please and thank you!

Smile, Andrea

The Portable Poetry Workshop: Connecting Content - Triggering Words

"Spring" by Dani via Flickr

Triggering words open up new opportunities for content and direction in our writing. As Jack Myers says, these words can act as "a semantic springboard that uncoils enough upward lift to give the poem new momentum." Such words can elevate theme, create or extend a metaphor's matrix, or even determine and/or lift a plot point.

The many different elements of just one word have the power to transform a poem. Have you ever had a word or series of words act as a spring for your writing? What it the sonic or the connotative quality of the word that set your pen on the page to either write a new piece or revise and old one, or was it something else?

Let's work on one of these exercises today:

From Jack's conclusion of this section for revision: Triggering riff - Choose a detail, image, or action in your poem, and then improvise a series of associated images, details, or actions.

Triggering word - chose a word that appeals to you in your reading today and write down other images, actions, and situations that you can associate with this word. Weave a poem from what you've written and allow the poem to end with the word you've selected.

I've been attracted to the words "safety pin" and "pencil" lately. What about you?