RePoWriMo

The Sound Collector coming soon!

2012-01-29T12:38:00.000-05:00

Well, this is exciting. At the end of February, I'll be releasing my first e-book, a novella called The Sound Collector. It will be available for all e-reader platforms, both in the U.S. and internationally, for just $1.99.

To whet your appetite even more, here's what the book's about:

For two decades, the Poet’s words have given order and meaning to Jay’s life as a quality control inspector in a match factory. Jay lives by the Poet as others may live by their favorite musician or band, memorizing every poem in each collection, and going to as many readings as he can manage. Instead of recording bootlegs, however, Jay collects the sound vibrations of the poems in small glass jars, capturing their essence. After a chance encounter with a stranger starts him yearning to connect with people, not just words, Jay’s life is revealed to him for the first time as terribly lonely. But is it too late to reinvent himself?

solo

2011-04-30T21:30:00.000-04:00

Well, it's the end of April and the end of RePoWriMo. Hope you had a good time and were entertained -- thanks for reading, commenting, and joining in!

See you next year . . . ?

mush

2011-04-29T19:39:00.000-04:00

Tell me I'm not the only one who woke up at 5 a.m. to watch the Royal Wedding? Here's wishing them a long and happy partnership.

One from me, one from the Amazing D. aww.

mmm, melon

2011-04-28T19:13:00.000-04:00

One from me, one from the Amazing D. Five words to write a poem around, randomly picked off the fridge: men, melon, chops, dog, and look:

and

(second line is "they eat like dogs")

three-fer

2011-04-27T18:25:00.000-04:00

Three poems today. First me:

and now Baseball R, a special guest post:

and finally, the Amazing D:

conciliatoriness

2011-04-25T21:09:00.000-04:00

Walking home tonight, the fog enveloped everything. It looked just like it did in this post, from 2 years ago.

And sorry about no-post yesterday! But you get two today, one from me and one from the Amazing D, plus a bonus picture. So great!

The Amazing D picked 5 words at random from the fridge for me to use in the poem: champagne, mother, see, chain, like. And here's the result:

and here's one that the Amazing D has perfected:

and here's my muse, hard at work!

ghosts

2011-04-23T18:02:00.001-04:00

I am not sure this is entirely legible. Here's a translation:

yesterday our ship found the haunting
no sky at the top of a swell
and no sun
but prisoners
slumped on the sea's wake
legs smeared green with old ocean
breathing work chants
coats rusty with salt spray
eyes red & mad angry & broken
our blood was ice
perhaps we are not yet them

thaw

2011-04-22T17:36:00.000-04:00

I wonder how different the subject matter of these poems would be if Poetry Month was in, say, August instead of April?

bittersweet symphony

2011-04-21T18:15:00.000-04:00

awww

2011-04-20T22:16:00.000-04:00

It's been a long couple of days. I promise to get back on the RePo train tomorrow! In the meantime, another guest post by the ever-Amazing D.

wander

2011-04-19T19:48:00.000-04:00

double trouble

2011-04-18T22:36:00.000-04:00

Not one, but two guest posts today: one from Robot J and one from the Amazing D. Lucky us!

First, Robot J:

And now, the Amazing D:

don't mess

2011-04-17T19:43:00.000-04:00

sevenling

2011-04-16T19:43:00.000-04:00

I came across a new poem form recently, the sevenling. Roddy Lumsen , a contemporary Scottish poet, invented it. As the name suggests, it's made up of seven lines: three stanzas, the first and second stanza with three lines, and the third stanza with only one. Stanzas 1 and 2 should each contain "an element of three" -- statements, descriptions, etc. -- and Stanzas 1 and 2 do not have to relate to each other. Stanza 3 comments on the rest of the poem.

This Wikipedia entry has a wonderful poem by the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova that apparently inspired Roddy to make it a set form.

I gave it shot. The last line's not right, but that's all I've got right now.

It's a fun exercise -- give it a try, and post yours in the comments!

unseasonable woe

2011-04-15T20:39:00.000-04:00

Another group project with the Amazing D and this time the French kit. Here's a translation of what it's supposed to mean:

I shiver in the rain
the wind still snows
my wet skin
sun is never with us
the raw wind has me crying
this stupid week!
if only it was warm
that's not okay
I need a bath by the fire
why autumn?

at least today is gorgeous

2011-04-14T20:18:00.000-04:00

"dark shower," a guest post by the Amazing D!

K.D.

2011-04-13T12:31:00.000-04:00

collaborative activity

2011-04-12T15:11:00.000-04:00

So the Amazing D and I wrote a poem together, each of us taking a turn writing a line. It was fun! We made heavy use of the detective kit.

The tiles are pretty tiny in the photo to get them all in, so here's a transliteration. Think it needs a part 2?

we got some blow from somebody with translucent yellow skin
nothing like a femme fatale near killed by smoke
his giggle created a shiver across my neck
perhaps a needle? he says all business devouring a pie
we are delirious to be in this alley
it smells like small time preachers shooting up
she whispered I want to get free of this repulsive hole
my gun blazed & red sprays on the street
no compromise for me and honey we go
I love our dirty life we are fast and loaded like poison
we make tracks away into the night we dance

virtual RePo, now available!

2011-04-11T19:24:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to Elizabeth, who discovered this and posted about it on her blog.

There are online refrigerator poetry magnet tiles that you can make poems with, here. How exciting! Now anyone can play!

Give a whirl and let us know how it went!

forsythia

2011-04-11T11:01:00.000-04:00

Kerouac in the tub

2011-04-10T12:49:00.000-04:00

and a bonus! Portrait of the artist, searching for the right word:

Haiku

2011-04-09T13:48:00.000-04:00

For Christmas, I got a set of Haikubes, which are word blocks you roll and create a haiku out of. You also roll for the theme of your poem. The haiku structure is 3 lines of 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables.

Refrigerator poetry is much easier! I don't do so well being directed, but it is interesting. Here's my fabulous creation:

Want to play? Same theme: "a vision for my future." Here are the blocks; I hope you can read them!

Have fun!

silver lining

2011-04-08T19:15:00.000-04:00

(The Amazing D thought the title should be "fool falls, I get a wad," also using the magnets, but I declined.)

company

2011-04-07T18:58:00.000-04:00

After the wonderful poem that is Cynthia Zarin's, we're back to the refrigerator magnet ones. Good thing some beings are nonjudgmental.

Late Poem

2011-04-07T17:50:00.001-04:00

Haven't done my poem yet today, so while you wait, here's a lovely one by Cynthia Zarin, courtesy of Knopf Poetry, which sends out a poem a day in April. Epigraph by Vladimir Nabokov's Ada, or Ardor.

Late Poem

" . . . a matter of changing a slide in a magic lantern."

I wish we were Indians and ate foie gras
and drove a gas-guzzler
and never wore seat belts

I'd have a baby, yours, cette fois,
and I'd smoke Parliaments
and we'd drink our way through the winter

in spring the baby would laugh at the moon
who is her father and her mother who is his pool
and we'd walk backwards and forwards

in lizard-skin cowboy boots
and read Gilgamesh and Tintin aloud
I'd wear only leather or feathers

plucked from endangered birds and silk
from exploited silkworms
we'd read The Economist

it would be before and after the internet
I'd send you letters by carrier pigeons
who would only fly from one window

to another in our drafty, gigantic house
with twenty-three uninsulated windows
and the dog would be always be

off his leash and always
find his way home as we will one day
and we'd feed small children

peanut butter and coffee in their milk
and I'd keep my hand glued under your belt
even while driving and cooking

and no one would have our number
except I would have yours where I've kept it
carved on the sole of my stiletto

which I would always wear when we walked
in the frozen and dusty wood
and we would keep warm by bickering

and falling into bed perpetually and
entirely unsafely as all the best things are
—your skin and my breath on it.

the thing with feathers

2011-04-06T18:01:00.000-04:00

Computer issues, grr, hence the late post today. I swear, the poem was done hours ago!

for the northerners among us

2011-04-05T16:13:00.002-04:00

say it ain't so, Joe

2011-04-04T12:40:00.000-04:00

appetites

2011-04-03T13:10:00.000-04:00

The Amazing D is on a roll, so here's another double post. Can you tell whose poem is whose?

CSI

2011-04-02T11:47:00.000-04:00

(the second word in that short line is "pursuit")

and on a lighter note, the Amazing D was inspired today as well:

ooh, breezy

2011-04-01T09:09:00.006-04:00

Happy Poetry Month! Here's to words for all, in various arrangements. If you don't have poetry magnets and want to play along, you could cut out words from magazines and stuff and still get the random chance, which is the fun part. We had to repaint our fridge because the magnets made it rust so badly.

And without further ado, here's the RePo for the day:

The Amazing D had no idea what this poem is about, unusually for him. Do you? Maybe I am out of practice. If you are baffled, ask in the comments and I will reveal all, so to speak.

spring is sprung

2011-03-21T16:00:00.003-04:00

... and, after a period of hibernation not unlike winter, so is this blog.

I'm back! Refrigerator poetry for all! Come April 1st -- dust off those magnets and clear off your fridge for another month of creating a poem a day. I'll be posting mine here; you can, too, or post them to your own blog and link.

And here's just a warm-up to get you in the mood:

mistake

2009-04-27T21:25:00.002-04:00

not a suitable role model

2009-04-25T22:15:00.001-04:00

"awake, arise..."

2009-04-23T13:06:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-21T23:30:00.002-04:00

tribute to them all

2009-04-19T23:52:00.001-04:00

transition

2009-04-18T22:28:00.002-04:00

happy early anniversary

2009-04-16T21:23:00.001-04:00

because sometimes, it's personal

2009-04-15T18:54:00.002-04:00

late-night suggestion

2009-04-14T23:39:00.004-04:00

postponed haiku

2009-04-14T08:38:00.002-04:00

Here 'tis!

hmph

2009-04-13T23:02:00.003-04:00

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

2009-04-12T11:35:00.002-04:00

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

under the wire

2009-04-11T23:36:00.003-04:00

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?

2009-04-10T15:09:00.002-04:00

If I could turn back time...

2009-04-10T00:52:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-08T14:56:00.002-04:00

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

back to the grimness

2009-04-07T17:58:00.001-04:00

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

April showers

2009-04-06T11:37:00.001-04:00

more notes from the underground

2009-04-05T10:47:00.001-04:00

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

tough guys

2009-04-04T11:21:00.002-04:00

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

2009-04-03T14:55:00.004-04:00

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

2009-04-02T17:58:00.002-04:00

April 1

2009-04-01T12:56:00.004-04:00

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!

2009-03-23T13:46:00.002-04:00

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

2009-02-02T08:58:00.005-05:00

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

2009-01-06T11:17:00.002-05:00

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.

final thoughts

2008-05-01T10:03:00.003-04:00

It's May! The end of RePoWriMo, for this year at least. I loved reading the poems people posted and everyone's comments. Right now I'm debating doing this again next year -- it would be even more fun if more people posted refrigerator poems. Maybe with advance notice this time . . .

What did I learn? Well, the following:

I can write a poem about flatulence. Not sure if that's a good thing, though.

I have just today figured out there's a "sharpness" editor for my digital camera, so all those fuzzy words actually could have been more readable. Oops.

It's by far much easier/faster to go with the poem the words want to make than to try to make a specific poem about a particular topic. And changing words to what is available can turn the poem in unexpected directions, which is always fun.

"Your" really needs to be included in one of these kits.

At the beginning of the month, I thought about listing all the words alphabetically on my fridge, but that seemed a little overly obsessive, so I didn't. But next year, this would be a good thing. With about 1,000 words (from 3 kits) randomly scattered about, searching for one, muttering, "I know I've seen this somewhere" gets old fast. I did put all the small words together (me, he, is, and...), which helped to some extent, but alphabetical is really the way to go for everything else.

Thank you so much for reading and/or participating! Overall, this has been fun and a great exercise. This blog will mostly be going dark for now, but I may post interesting poetry things over the year as they come up.

For now, I leave you with one last poem:

one last poem

2008-05-01T10:02:00.002-04:00

the aftermath

2008-05-01T10:01:00.002-04:00

magnum opus

2008-04-30T10:36:00.002-04:00

Both photos are one poem -- part 1 and part 2. I took a photo of the whole thing, but I'm not sure if it would be readable. Enjoy!

maternal instincts?

2008-04-29T14:29:00.001-04:00

cat of inspiration -- poem to come

2008-04-29T11:41:00.001-04:00

maybe an antidote to yesterday's, or maybe just because it's raining

2008-04-28T13:26:00.000-04:00

what produce produces

2008-04-27T14:21:00.002-04:00

the amazing D has something to say

2008-04-26T16:05:00.001-04:00

5 days left!

2008-04-25T10:26:00.000-04:00

perspectives

2008-04-24T10:32:00.000-04:00

CaffeiNation

2008-04-23T18:36:00.002-04:00

April 22 poem -- oops

2008-04-22T10:31:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I missed a day yesterday. Nobody's perfect, right? By the time I had the time to do this, it was 9pm, and I really didn't feel like turning on the computer at that point.

blossoming

2008-04-20T17:54:00.002-04:00

to quote U2: "it's a beautiful day!"

2008-04-19T13:10:00.000-04:00

one version of life in the Texas compound

2008-04-18T09:17:00.003-04:00

What's in your pocket?

2008-04-17T13:16:00.002-04:00

Today is the first annual Poem in Your Pocket Day (no, really), sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. I think they had a NYC-based one last year that I heard about after the fact. The idea is to share your favorite poem with friends, relatives, co-workers, and random strangers today. To find out more, you can go here.

Which brings up an interesting question. If you had only one poem to introduce poetry to someone with, what would you choose, and why? Would you choose a rhyming poem, because that's the easiest way to describe the concept of "poetry"? Would you choose a modern free-verse poem, because that better reflects contemporary poetry? I'm just tossing out questions here, I don't know what I would choose. One of my favorite poems is Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," and that's just not helpful at all.

Which brings up another interesting question. What were your formative poems? What poem or poems made you love poetry? For me, it was the dwarves' songs in Tolkein's The Hobbit, especially this one (I still remember where I was when I read that for the first time), along with Alfred Noyes' romantic "The Highwayman." Maybe I should accost people today and read them some old-fashioned rhymin' goodness.

April 17 poem

2008-04-17T12:12:00.000-04:00

animal passions

2008-04-16T14:38:00.004-04:00

Two poems today! The first is mine, and the second is a special cameo from the amazing D.

neither taxes nor death

2008-04-15T13:26:00.001-04:00

Thanks, Joyce, for telling me how I can lighten the photos! Better, don't you all think?

the thing with feathers

2008-04-14T15:08:00.003-04:00

two-fer

2008-04-13T12:29:00.006-04:00

And here's a half poem in French that I'm not going to translate because it sounds a lot better in the original!

April 12 poem

2008-04-12T10:34:00.000-04:00

DIY

2008-04-11T10:30:00.001-04:00

because it's still morning somewhere

2008-04-10T13:49:00.002-04:00

our new garden, soon to be

2008-04-09T08:45:00.003-04:00

special guest poet

2008-04-08T20:49:00.000-04:00

I have to be out of town most of the day on Wednesday, so we're having a special guest poet, the amazing D. Hurrah! Enjoy.

because sometimes art imitates life

2008-04-08T13:06:00.003-04:00

Before breakfast this morning, hubby and I moved 1.35 tons of stone, using buckets and a shovel. I am not what you would call a muscular woman. Now I'm taking a lunch break from moving 4 tons of topsoil and compost.

What have you done today?

April 7 poem

2008-04-07T10:42:00.000-04:00

April is the cruelest month, historically

2008-04-06T12:13:00.002-04:00

for that fresh-washed feeling

2008-04-05T11:29:00.001-04:00

haiku for M

2008-04-04T15:10:00.002-04:00

Late post today -- tough when there's something specific to say but literally not the words to say it!

2008-04-03T13:30:00.002-04:00

One of the challenging -- and frustrating -- things about using the magnetic poetry is that only specific words are available. I constantly have to rethink what I want to say, usually because the first words that spring to mind are not actually on the magnets. It makes me a little crazy, but I like this part of it, rephrasing and seeing how the poem re-creates itself according to what's available.

The other part is the spontaneous images caused by which words are juxtaposed on my fridge. Images or phrases that I wouldn't have thought of appear, and become a springboard. Of course, then see the above paragraph -- where I want to take it is not necessarily where the magnets will let me.

It will be interesting to see how this continues over the month. So far, creating each poem has been a challenge, although they do feel much more finished than the year I wrote a poem (from scratch) each day during April. That year, I felt like I had 30 unfinished drafts, many without promise. One or two turned into what I think are good poems. I wonder what the long-run result of these poems will be?

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

2008-04-03T10:49:00.002-04:00

April 2 poem

2008-04-02T10:41:00.003-04:00

These different sized magnets are aggravating. Not sure if you can read all the above (hmm, must do shorter poems?) and I'm not sure why it keeps coming out so dark. I will experiment. In the meantime, here's a transcription. I can't get the indent right for the last line, but you get the general idea.

you are calmer than a languid fish

as you linger in the sea

slow water surrounds you in salt

like a morning embrace from the moon

yesterday was a fever

all ferocious dazzle & worry

its need still haunts this ocean

cool ghost of blaze & boil

RePoWriMo #1

2008-04-01T10:39:00.003-04:00

I got several different boxes for this project, and as you can see, the words are larger in the supplementary boxes! Grr, as the haiku would say. So please ignore the unintentional emphasis created by the sizes. Not quite what I had in mind.

Anyway, here it is, poem number 1. What did you come up with? Post in the comments!

Fridge of Inspiration

2008-04-01T10:33:00.003-04:00

tabula rasa

2008-03-31T17:42:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow the excitement begins! RePoWriMo, here we come.

Help with Haiku?

2008-03-17T09:45:00.000-04:00

According to New Scientist magazine, a Japanese researcher has developed a computer program that can create haikus:

Naoko Tosa of Kyoto University in Japan has written a program that takes
two or three keywords entered by a user and creates a three-line poem
related to them in the haiku's structure of five, seven, and five syllables
per line.
To find related words, the software searches several databases,
including a thesaurus, a database that links words that relate to the same
season, and one that links onomatopoeic words.

How cool is that?

You can find the whole article here. Sadly, no links to the program itself, although I did come across a website called Computerized Haiku. Hit a button and voila! Your own randomly created haiku. This is what I got:

All blue in the fog,
I smell faint streams in the sun.
Grrr! The sun has sprung.

Love the "Grr!" Somehow, I never thought about putting that in a haiku before.

RePoWha?

2008-03-06T18:28:00.000-05:00

As I'm sure everyone knows, April is National Poetry Month, and November is National Novel Writing Month. Both are simply awesome.

So I am officially combining both ideas and announcing that April is herefore Refrigerator Poetry Writing Month.

What is that, you ask? Simple. Here are the rules.

1. Create a poem every day during April, using only refrigerator poetry magnets.

2. Multiple boxes of refrigerator poetry magnets about any and all themes and in multiple languages are perfectly acceptable.

3. No line limit. Go as short or as long as the muse requires.

4. All types of poetry and subject matter are acceptable: free verse, sonnets, pantoums, you name it.

5. All work MUST BE ORIGINAL. This is a biggie. If it didn't spring, Athena-like, from your very own brain, it does not count.

That's it! I will be doing this, and posting a photo every April day on this blog. I hope you will join me, and add your poems in the comments. (I don't think you can post photos in the comments, so you'l have to type them in. We'll take it as an article of faith that you are using refrigerator poetry magnets to create your work.)