mistake

not a suitable role model

"awake, arise..."

Apologies for the no-poem yesterday. Came down with something, and slept almost all day long. Seriously. I was awake for maybe 7 hours out of 24. And once again, the Amazing D read my mind and came up with today's delight. Is there such a thing as being known too well?

small packages

tribute to them all

transition

happy early anniversary

because sometimes, it's personal

late-night suggestion

postponed haiku

Here 'tis!

hmph

I wrote a poem -- a haiku, actually -- and took a photo of it and plugged my camera into my laptop. And then my camera battery completely died on me. And I'm too tired to stay up until whenever my battery finally recharges to download the stinkin' thing into my computer. Waited thirty minutes and that's not enough time.

So, sorry, but today's poem will be up tomorrow morning.

Sweet dreams all round instead.

the amazing D

Guest poem this morning. Hope you are all having a joyous day.

under the wire

Amazing how a deadline can concentrate the mind. This one took me literally about 5 minutes. I think that's a record.

turning the corner?

If I could turn back time...

I feel like Cher, although it's not former husbands I regret, thankfully. No, it's that dreadful thing I posted yesterday. Ugh. Forgive me, please, for a horribly off day. And here's the rest of my thoughts on the matter:

hatchling

This is either very deep or just nonsense. Ah, the joy of modern poetry.

back to the grimness

Maybe it's the unsettled weather that's causing me to write all these ...

April showers

more notes from the underground

It's absolutely gorgeous today. I'd better start using the other poetry kits, because I am sure on a grim roll.

tough guys

Last year I got a "hardboiled detective" poetry kit, and that's mostly what I've been using this year so far. Hence today's poem:

Fogginess

It's so foggy today it's like we're on a mountaintop in the middle of a cloud:




So here's a poem about a different type of fogginess -- or perhaps fuzziness is a better word.

seasonal rotation

April 1

And we're off! Forthwith, the second annual Refrigerator Poetry Writing Month.

I resisted the temptation to buy a new set of poetry magnets this year. I think it will be an interesting challenge to see how far I can get this year using the same ones. Already, today, I saw some word combinations that I recognized from last year. Of course, the magnets are still in their boxes, not spread out across the fridge yet. Hopefully things will change once the usual word chaos ensues.

And without further ado:

9 days and counting!

Happy spring, everybody. April is almost here, and the new season of refrigerator poetry. Time to clean off the fridge, dig out the poetry magnets, and start poetry-ing.

Have you read anything good this past year? Written anything exciting? Discovered new realms? Exotic plans for the forthcoming months? Tell me about it!

Blogosphere Poetry Slam

Today is the fourth annual
Brigid in the Blogosphere Poetry Slam, to celebrate the Feast of Brigid. Welcome! For your reading delight, I'm posting a poem by the Welsh writer Sheenagh Pugh, who perhaps has the best name ever, although that's not why I've chosen her.

One thing I've noticed about British poets is that they seem to use form -- rhyme, meter, and so forth -- much more readily than US poets do. Yes, I can think of some American poets who are comfortable using form to address the contemporary world (Kim Addonizio leaps to mind), but it seems much more prevalent in British poetry. Sheenagh Pugh has written a series of four "webcam sonnets," one of which I'm posting below (with the poet's permission). Who doesn't love a good webcam? (I'm hooked on this one, showing the pyramids at Gaza. How cool is that?) And using the sonnet structure, which is such a strict, traditional structure, to write about something so quintessentially modern really proves that structure is not hide-bound in and of itself -- it's what you do with it.

I would love to post all four webcam sonnets, but you'll just have to pick up a copy of Pugh's book
Long-Haul Travellers (I bought mine directly from her Welsh publisher, but I see it's about to be released in the US in April). Her poems are great, and well worth reading.

And without further ado:


2. Voyeur

When the cam refreshes, a warehouse window
has turned into a point of white light;

by the next thirty-second update
it's a blinding disc. You think explosion

and what can I do and nothing. Watch it happen.
The seconds count down; your gut tenses.

You breathe in at the change, see radiance
welling out over half the screen. Beautiful.

Not beautiful. There might be people:
if you keep looking, you might see them die.

But you keep looking. And when, blessedly,
the update shows, after all, sun dazzling

off glass, no worse, it doesn't leave you feeling
much better. You know what you would do.

welcome, 2009

So at the end of each year, I write down what I've done during the past year and ideas of things for the upcoming year. In 2008, I did this blog -- and RePoWriMo itself, of course -- got some poems published, got some rejected, and wrote the first draft of a historical novel during NaNoWriMo. Not too bad.

I also got some poems rejected that I'd sent out TWO YEARS AGO and had pretty much written off anyway. And I got a poem rejected from an online journal that had already published it about six months previously. I wrote back, pointing this out, and got a muttered e-mail about "different editors." Which is very true, and important to keep in mind if you're sending your work out -- rejection doesn't necessarily mean your poem is bad, sometimes it just means it's not what the editor wants just then, or they're in a rotten mood and don't like anything. A poet I took a workshop with said that he doesn't send his poems out until he's confident enough in them that a rejection won't have him second-guessing his work.

So, happy and productive writing in 2009! Hope to see you in April for a new year of refrigerator poetry madness.