tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-204605572024-03-07T19:10:49.617-05:00Saint NobodyMusings on writing, parenting, and other saintly pursuits. <br><br>
<i>"How dreary – to be – Somebody!<br>
How public – like a Frog – <br>
To tell one's name – the livelong June – <br>
To an admiring Bog!"</i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.comBlogger369125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-89097506296407217182017-08-24T09:45:00.003-04:002017-08-24T09:50:18.000-04:00Writing Is My Drink and My 26-Minute MemoirThis summer I had a few precious weeks of more open-ended time that I could spend writing. It was quite terrifying and I felt the pressure to produce after long stretches of go-go-go work and home life. I knew I had to find a way to avoid the self-sabotage of frittering away that all-too-rare time.<br />
<br />
In moments like these I cling to my collection of "writer's self-help" resources. One of my go-to books has been <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Writing-My-Drink-Writers-Finding/dp/1451665091" target="_blank">Writing Is My Drink</a></i> by Theo Pauline Nestor. I was particularly inspired (once again) by her description of breaking through a terrible block writing her graduate thesis after reading Virginia Valian’s essay “Learning to Work” from <i>Working It Out: 23 Women Writers, Artists, Scientists, and Scholars Talk About Their Lives and Work. </i>I discovered this long out-of-print book in FIT's library while developing my Creative Imagination honors course over a decade ago. I am so happy that Theo has provided <a href="https://writingismydrink.com/learning-to-work/" target="_blank">a PDF of Valian's piece</a> on her site.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SUYfF3j7G-QjHDPNtN5pQSMPoLSMPZYe-ijjx2S6pLDwsKpHdae3yJv50xQTiO98UDBqsTFv6e8cE9R5hrl6iSChzz0-I92Sbe0VKPmXcBNH3u9B3AW_btho55bjR5vNji2m/s1600/writing+is+my+drink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="298" data-original-width="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7SUYfF3j7G-QjHDPNtN5pQSMPoLSMPZYe-ijjx2S6pLDwsKpHdae3yJv50xQTiO98UDBqsTFv6e8cE9R5hrl6iSChzz0-I92Sbe0VKPmXcBNH3u9B3AW_btho55bjR5vNji2m/s1600/writing+is+my+drink.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
At the end of one of the chapters Theo gives a prompt for a "<a href="https://writingismydrink.com/26-minutes/" target="_blank">26-Minute Memoir</a>" and directs readers to <a href="https://writingismydrink.com/" target="_blank">her website </a>for more information. I did the exercise and decided to email Theo my piece, even though she hadn't published any new ones since 2015.<br />
<br />
Lo and behold, a few weeks later, Theo wrote back and said she had been thinking of posting them again, and wanted to start with mine!<br />
<br />
This morning, on the brink of the Fall 2017 semester, as I prepare to lead my department and teach my students (and support my son, who is now taking classes there), I got an email from Theo with<a href="https://writingismydrink.com/2017/08/23/amy-lemmons-26-minute-memoir/" target="_blank"> a link to my piece on her website</a>. I am even more terrified--of what it reveals about me as a person, and of what it means to me as a writer. Now I really have no excuse not to do the work. I am learning, thanks to Theo, Virginia, and many others who have done it before me, and to my students who will just be starting this adventure next week.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-91767321865071374652017-04-10T23:38:00.002-04:002017-04-10T23:38:56.100-04:00NaPoWriMo 2017, Day 10 (skipped some)<b>Passacaglia</b><br />
<br />
I still make inside jokes with you<br />
even though you don't get them<br />
strings wavering<br />
<br />
The moon is a bright tired thing<br />
everybody thinks they own<br />
night buzzes along<br />
<br />
Salt water was your favorite<br />
so cleansing, the passages<br />
crisp folds marked<br />
<br />
Hold the bow lightly<br />
technique finally perfected<br />
doors fly open<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-90827675811264533062017-04-04T22:25:00.000-04:002017-04-04T22:27:12.118-04:00NaPoWriMo 2017, Day 4<b>Message in a Bottle</b><br />
<br />
Rescue me from the tyranny of water<br />
Rescue me from water all around<br />
Rescue me from calculus, both kinds<br />
Rescue me before this island sinks<br />
Rescue me until you're rescued too<br />
Rescue me when you think I'm okay<br />
Rescue me from fear--I'm trapped and grounded<br />
Rescue me above the time - the time<br />
Rescue me from this time and this place<br />
Rescue me from a blank bulletin board<br />
Rescue me from solitary hashmarks<br />
Rescue me in case of flood or fire<br />
Rescue me break glass but remain clam<br />
Rescue me and I meant "clam" not "calm"<br />
Rescue me - tornadoes in my dreams<br />
Rescue me - in quicksand ever sinking<br />
Rescue me - running always running<br />
Rescue me - the water heats to steam<br />
<br />
<i>Written with students and colleagues <a href="http://www.fitnyc.edu/">@ FIT</a> in <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzZPtgj-ZfTjZTFWZWNlUzBaOW8" target="_blank">Traveling Through Language</a> presentation and workshop with <a href="http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-anca-cristofovici-interview" target="_blank">Anca Cristofovici</a></i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-14671295288664105592017-04-04T00:07:00.002-04:002017-04-04T00:08:17.778-04:00NaPoWriMo 2017, Day 3<b>The Ultimate Confessional Poem, Take One</b><br />
<br />
“Grief is a world you walk through skinned, unshelled”<br />
--Ariel Levy<br />
<br />
I hear the noise of my own voice:<br />
<div>
Prince, you’re a prince. A dog a man</div>
<div>
in the commonplaces of the asylum. </div>
All’s misalliance.<br />
<br />
Far-fetched, tenacious, captious: fan<br />
in that narrow diary of my mind,<br />
The ultimate American,<br />
A cleft in your chin instead of your foot<br />
<br />
Yet why not say what happened?<br />
<div>
There is enough here to please a nation. </div>
As sure as God made Granny Smith.<br />
The trees have more than I to spare.<br />
<br />
Strange, not to wish one's wishes onward. Strange,<br />
and fasten a new skin around it.<br />
<div>
Let me study the cardiovascular tissue, </div>
Ich, ich, ich, ich<br />
<br />
My dear, it was a moment<br />
<div>
I have to nudge myself to stare. </div>
<div>
The garden's garter snake</div>
<div>
<div>
who loves people and valiant art, which bores me. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Outside of us the village cars followed</div>
</div>
<div>
Then told my parents, analyst, </div>
<div>
If it's been good, be glad it's been.</div>
<div>
Neither you there, nor coming. Heavy change!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<i>collage/crowdsourced from John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ann Sexton, W.D. Snodgrass, and George Starbuck</i><br />
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<i><br /></i></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-77080134020465642542017-04-02T22:40:00.000-04:002017-04-02T22:40:19.026-04:00NaPoWriMo 2017 Day 2<b>The Duration</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The East River looks frozen, choked<br />
eddies pulling in oppositions.<br />
Cumulocirrus skies leak blue in spots.<br />
<br />
You are not waiting at home<br />
as you were so long, long ago,<br />
solid point 'round which my currents churned.<br />
<br />
Picking my way through stepped-on<br />
frozen slush, I push my heart rate,<br />
building stamina for the long haul.<br />
<br />
How much longer?<br />
How many more miles without a you<br />
or any other you?<br />
<br />
Families pass on the promenade. The men<br />
have all married younger wives.<br />
The women are plush and beautiful,<br />
their lips open delicately when kissed.<br />
<br />
I have not forgotten how I had<br />
to teach you softness, the relaxed tongue,<br />
the release that made you squirm.<br />
<br />
Spring is so late this year<br />
we may never thaw again. Hard<br />
to believe, harder to bend not break.<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-81134461103834236492017-04-01T14:56:00.000-04:002017-04-01T15:27:13.433-04:00NaPoWriMo 2017 Day 1I'm doing this! It's <a href="https://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/home" target="_blank">National Poetry Month</a>, and that means another round of <a href="http://www.napowrimo.net/" target="_blank">NaPoWriMo</a>. I will be writing a poem a day all of April. This year I'm part of the crew posting on the <a href="http://news.bloofbooks.com/" target="_blank">Bloof Books Blog</a> (thank you, <a href="http://blog.shannacompton.com/" target="_blank">Shanna Compton</a>!). Here we go!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Daily Wonders</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The weather had us, umbrellas charged<br />
and ready. Another Nor'easter swipes<br />
the city. We pour out of the theater,<br />
headed for dinner to be photographed<br />
on our phones.<br />
<br />
Our pens have forgotten how to write,<br />
so stiffened our writing arms from texting.<br />
It's not the pain so much as the wind<br />
that buffets human invention.<br />
<br />
We cross the street mid-block to skirt<br />
the lake drowning the gutters at the corner.<br />
Dinner is better with a little truffle oil,<br />
so we all have the orzo mac and cheese.<br />
<br />
South of here, a mess of PVC ignited<br />
to wreck a bridge, sink a highway.<br />
We were not in traffic at the time,<br />
we were not texting while driving,<br />
we were nowhere near the overpass.<br />
<br />
Why press these sticky notes to the page?<br />
The organ bellows, the wine mellows,<br />
the crowd goes wild. It's been too long<br />
since we touched a piano. Touch this.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-31631605069564767512016-12-14T09:00:00.000-05:002016-12-14T09:00:01.651-05:00Another Saturday NightHere's a poem I drafted with my Tuesday morning Poetry Writing class after the September 17 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/nyregion/after-explosion-chelseas-23rd-street-slowly-comes-back-to-life.html?_r=0" target="_blank">explosion on 23rd Street</a> (and unexploded device found on 27th Street). <a href="http://www.danshefelman.com/" target="_blank">Dan Shefelman</a> heard me read it at FIT's Academic Open Mic, and we ended up having some of our words included in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChalkFITNYC/" target="_blank">ChalkFIT</a> exhibit.<br />
<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Another Saturday Night</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and I got nobody never</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">never no how no way</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">no day do I wake up </span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">in the green of a Sunday</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">next to a body that is not me.</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">No, sirree, I'm F-R-E-E</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and blowin' in the wind</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">no sin no ramifications</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">of our stepping out, stepping in</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">with someone who may or may not</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">have our best interests at heart</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">no tart horning in, no spin</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">no twisting to look thin</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">no morning-breath grin</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and gee-willikers it's been</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">a mighty long time since</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the lane was clear for me to pass,</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">keep sass, and break the fast</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">in the L-A-S-T gasp of a blast--</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Ahem. That was it, the time we had</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">no alternative but had to walk past</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the site, the fright of shrapnel, and we might</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">glaze over it's been so long</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">since we felt safe—</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">we are never safe, never safe </span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">never safe wind up for the throw</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and place your javelin dart,</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">arrow, expert archery will</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">get you nowhere, whether or no</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and I solemnly swear I will<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">I will<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will care</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">every time I see another news</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">report of the dead, stripping us bare</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and elemental it’s elementary</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">welcome to the Twenty-First</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Century where everything happens twice—</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">in real time and online and over</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and over and over and over</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">it rhymes these men<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>these men</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and boys these guns used like toys</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">these cries not tears of joy and when was</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the last time you heard a politician</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">who was not a ploy? The brazen brazier</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">of the plain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">plaisir</i>
another Saturday night</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and the ladies are feeling right, </span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the car gave us an awful fright,</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the first responders are outta sight </span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">and that is what and where and when we</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">must begin and end </span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">the ever-loving better-living fight.</span><span lang="UZ-CYR" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-ansi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: UZ-CYR; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language: UZ-CYR;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-24050491819073566512016-06-08T09:00:00.002-04:002016-06-08T09:53:23.447-04:00Poetry Jump-Starts (for my classes and whoever else needs them)It's Wednesday, which means that <a href="http://twitter.com/marybid" target="_blank">Mary Biddinger</a> is tweeting a new Summer Poetry Prompt, as she is doing every Wednesday this summer. I thought I would post the prompts I give to my <a href="http://fitnyc.edu/" target="_blank">FIT</a> students here, too.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLESMgZCH4ILTQidE__U8tdhDzSs0Vf_oNzjYhdKbD95tM2CkJqxxT05H_MQ-SqJefGyu2D0aLO8LB2FnZ6JzhGctbeqVPBvXrK2Kr6uBalzQQe805MGLAh6WZK-qWJfDxuL71g/s1600/pen-and-notebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnLESMgZCH4ILTQidE__U8tdhDzSs0Vf_oNzjYhdKbD95tM2CkJqxxT05H_MQ-SqJefGyu2D0aLO8LB2FnZ6JzhGctbeqVPBvXrK2Kr6uBalzQQe805MGLAh6WZK-qWJfDxuL71g/s320/pen-and-notebook.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Poetry Jump-Starts<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Here are some prompts to get you started on a poem! <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Write a poem in the voice of another person, a creature,
or an object, using first person (<i>dramatic monologue)</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Write a letter in verse form to a famous person.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Write a verse letter to someone you know very well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Is there a piece of art or music that you admire, or even
dislike?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Write about it—describe it, but
try to say something beyond the mere description.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Look out your window at the scene you see every day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Observe it for some length of time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try to imagine you’re seeing it for the first
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you see anything new?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Use your imagination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then write.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Go somewhere you’ve never been before, and write about what
you see there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Write about an image from a dream. Describe it as specifically
as possible, just as you remember it, without interpreting or explaining it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Write about a specific, detailed memory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using sensory detail and/or figurative language,
try to “show” the significance of that memory to your reader, rather than “telling”
it. (Try to use all five senses—sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Tms Rmn";">Take two lines from poems by someone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Write one at the top of the page, and one at the bottom. </span>Write your way from the first line
to the last.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-7865680665182366452016-04-28T17:18:00.002-04:002016-04-28T17:18:40.476-04:00NaPoWriMo: Lost My MojoThis year for the first time I thought I'd try <a href="http://www.napowrimo.net/" target="_blank">NaPoWriMo</a>--National Poetry Writing Month, writing a poem a day and posting on my blog. That lasted until the 15th, at which time I took the weekend off (busy with kids and such) and then never got back to it. Maybe I went to too many poetry readings--this National Poetry Month was a killer! I focused too much on the online class I'm teaching now (yes, while on sabbatical) and the 3 I'll be teaching during the summer session (argh). Bobby needed attention, Stella's IEP meeting happened, and life intervened. In short, one thing led to another, I got out of the habit of lowering my standards and steeling myself to draft and post a poem every day. I kind of started to forget what it felt like.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0195/9848/files/Typewriter_medium.jpg?15291356995963128548" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0195/9848/files/Typewriter_medium.jpg?15291356995963128548" /></a></div>
<br />
On the plus side, I'm happy with having drafted 15 poems so far, and I think I'll try to eke out a couple more before May is upon us. Anything that gets me stringing words together is a good thing. Stay tuned, folks!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-55213975044455164942016-04-13T23:02:00.003-04:002016-04-13T23:19:34.350-04:00NaPoWriMo Day 13<b></b><br />
<b>Ohio Steel</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<i> Floyd O. Lemmon 1912-1982</i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
He didn't need college to be a success,</div>
<div>
started in the foundry, moved up to foreman<br />
and then got into sales, traveling with a suit and tie<br />
a smart hat and an expense account<br />
a crystal paperweight a medal a retirement prize<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
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<br />
Started in wartime<br />
fires kept burning<br />
dehumidify the ore<br />
hollow casting<br />
war again<br />
wartime contracts<br />
cold war defense<br />
mosaic of parts<br />
and fabrications<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
<br />
He roamed the property<br />
in search of arrowheads<br />
protean bones and stones<br />
fields with feed corn seed corn<br />
straw and hay fodder for the cows<br />
creekbed always moving<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
<br />
When the company was sold<br />
they moved his job to Pennsylvania<br />
but he stayed on his land<br />
traveling man<br />
restaurants and homey motels<br />
amateur shutterbug<br />
photos and photos<br />
a slideshow every weekend<br />
<br />
* * * <br />
<br />
Foundry Craft Grillery historic Lebanon Steel Foundry<br />
sounds of metal on metal heat of fire dedicated workers<br />
successful player industries simplicity <br />
old world grilleries and butcheries<br />
fire forged the iron and steel past eight foot custom wood-fired grill<br />
leaders and laborers private dining space founded City 1750s<br />
<br />
* * *<br />
<br />
<div>
Steel the company that kept him</div>
<div>
Steel the blade that cut the lawn </div>
<div>
and chopped down weeds in the meadow<br />
Steel the wheel that ground the meat for Gran's ham salad<br />
Steel with copper bottoms the pots and pans where supper cooked<br />
the lid rattling beef and noodles<br />
All those dinners she had to eat alone<br />
after he was gone<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
Amy Lemmon</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
April 13, 2016</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-53069090079324298852016-04-11T23:56:00.003-04:002016-04-11T23:57:02.572-04:00NaPoWriMo Day 11<b>Signs for C. S. Lewis</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
It's just not that simple, Jack,<br />
you can't pop in and out of large<br />
furniture and expect to be transformed.<br />
You know the grubby hub of life<br />
(though perhaps I'm mixing you up<br />
with Wystan) and you've known grief,<br />
God knows, but really your life is too contained,<br />
sequestered, for your insights to mean much<br />
to me now. Caught as I am in this city,<br />
rubbing hips and elbows with a variety<br />
of my fellow humans, hustling in the bustle<br />
grist ground in this public transport mill<br />
the rapture surely will be televised<br />
or at least YouTubed. Stand clear of the closing<br />
doors, we won't be spirited away to Heaven<br />
on holiday. Hoping that Hell has all the fire<br />
of a defunct pizza oven. You got right<br />
that any good intentions go to light,<br />
any bad to dark. The problem of pain<br />
is the fear of it, merely wise, merely human,<br />
merely seeking the everlasting truth.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
Amy Lemmon</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
April 11, 2016</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-22670354520667596682016-04-06T23:37:00.004-04:002016-04-06T23:38:13.478-04:00NaPoWriMo Day 6<b>Ablutions</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
The nights I wash my face are the good nights<br />
when I feel pure and virtuous and calm<br />
the children both in bed, the dishes draining<br />
no sleeping on the couch, the teevee blaring<br />
after an endless binge-watch marathon.<br />
Even if I've downed a glass or two of pinot<br />
or snuck a half-pint of Haagen-Dazs<br />
the cleansing ritual somehow unstains me<br />
enough like saying prayers in bed, the call<br />
of pillows, flannel sheets and layered blankets<br />
the lure of dreams that could bring some relief<br />
or close encounters with my movie idol--<br />
it's all fair game before the old alarm<br />
wakes me, alone again, yet clean at least.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
Amy Lemmon</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
April 6, 2016</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-24368324618698129862016-04-01T12:00:00.001-04:002016-04-01T12:03:17.659-04:00We Don't String Popcorn Necklaces, but We Do Have Creativity Resources!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha82ogvgF8l8r0HJ3_Y2hZomvDW4ML-STPHiO_7TNVlg2h09feGifkoBb6fDxk5yV8w8a2tILcqTPjLuo_5kyGlHqgd_xCXvg8ahyphenhyphenT0dXdEw56uZPIYVP26_ZQnVPh8PG0vENNmA/s1600/popcorn.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha82ogvgF8l8r0HJ3_Y2hZomvDW4ML-STPHiO_7TNVlg2h09feGifkoBb6fDxk5yV8w8a2tILcqTPjLuo_5kyGlHqgd_xCXvg8ahyphenhyphenT0dXdEw56uZPIYVP26_ZQnVPh8PG0vENNmA/s1600/popcorn.jpeg" /></a></div>
On Saturday, April 2nd, at 9am, I'll be presenting on a panel at the <a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/" target="_blank">Association of Writers and Writing Programs</a> (AWP) <a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/overview" target="_blank">conference</a>, "<a href="https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/event_detail/6938" target="_blank">We Don’t String Popcorn Necklaces Here: Brain Science and Assessment Beyond Craft." </a><br />
<br />
The panel moderator, <a href="http://lauravaleri.com/" target="_blank">Laura Valeri</a>, has created a Google doc with a list of resources about creativity, brain science, and more, gathered by Laura, <a href="http://www.brendanconstantine.com/" target="_blank">Brendan Constantine</a>, and me. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e1zhGv5dscE8bnbk7a8Jx9FF5TcXqh-X1IAOzgbDFLM/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Go here </a>to view the document!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-35599235575855940732016-04-01T11:28:00.002-04:002016-04-01T12:01:35.195-04:00It's National Poetry Month--and NaPoWriMo Starts Today!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCxbPl_dJveuNwQZlOjwoNROuoafswtXJpeeZ7HZdz2yYTPvvj7Zluj8_9Dyye7K5boHnv24BCG2YE3pJkppVgtzP7E9kP9WAvovWL39zs4rL9kcuJMfoorHbfOtRcOqTRkYYPg/s1600/national_poetry_month2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCxbPl_dJveuNwQZlOjwoNROuoafswtXJpeeZ7HZdz2yYTPvvj7Zluj8_9Dyye7K5boHnv24BCG2YE3pJkppVgtzP7E9kP9WAvovWL39zs4rL9kcuJMfoorHbfOtRcOqTRkYYPg/s320/national_poetry_month2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from http://www.wildviolet.net/</td></tr>
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Today for the first time I'm participating in <a href="http://www.napowrimo.net/" target="_blank">NaPoWriMo</a>, a month-long challenge for poets to write a poem every day for the month of April (National Poetry Month). I'll be posting my daily poem here, then probably deleting it, so keep checking back if you want to see what I'm up to!<br />
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Also check out the <a href="http://news.bloofbooks.com/" target="_blank">Bloof Books blog,</a> where Shanna Compton is posting a selection of NaPoWriMo work.<br />
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Join me, and wish me luck!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-68178852082054681682016-03-15T11:49:00.001-04:002017-07-20T15:58:36.094-04:00The Cave of Making and Making the Most of TimeI haven't been much of a blogger for a very long while, so when <i><a href="http://superstitionreview.asu.edu/" target="_blank">Superstition Review</a></i> asked me to write a <a href="https://blog.superstitionreview.asu.edu/2016/03/12/guest-post-amy-lemmon-discussion-of-awp-panel-we-dont-string-popcorn-necklaces-here-brain-science-and-assessment-beyond-craft/" target="_blank">guest post on their blog </a>leading up to the <a href="http://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/" target="_blank">AWP Conference in Los Angeles</a>, I jumped at the chance to force myself to write prose. And force myself I did, pushing past all levels of procrastination and distraction to send the post to the editor, only a few days after I had originally promised.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0IJ5t3QDKvUF5v0PSojufEukrTGpCpmiRJHBA-QXvQ2v5RKosNZQ9JmrqdmTrPj3nwL3o_Ay388LwojTGyPfhO80dJrpK1cdSrVmlq8oiohJiwjh9H2X2pmifwby6bezUZQJQGA/s1600/Cave+of+Making+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0IJ5t3QDKvUF5v0PSojufEukrTGpCpmiRJHBA-QXvQ2v5RKosNZQ9JmrqdmTrPj3nwL3o_Ay388LwojTGyPfhO80dJrpK1cdSrVmlq8oiohJiwjh9H2X2pmifwby6bezUZQJQGA/s320/Cave+of+Making+image.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cueva de las Manos, Argentina</td></tr>
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The title comes from the phrase that started rolling around in my head while I was working on poems, and poems were working on/in me. I ended up talking a bit about my writing process and the image of the cave for creativity (borrowed, I discovered, from dear <a href="http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/w-h-auden" target="_blank">Uncle Wystan</a>--I am on sabbatical, so I am actually writing for the first time in a very long time--and also about the panel I'm on with <a href="http://lauravaleri.com/">Laura Valeri</a>, <a href="http://www.brendanconstantine.com/">Brendan Constantine</a>, <a href="http://d.virb.com/">D. Gilson,</a> and <a href="http://zohrasaed.com/">Zohra Saed</a>.<br />
Go <a href="http://blog.superstitionreview.asu.edu/2016/03/12/guest-post-amy-lemmon-discussion-of-awp-panel-we-dont-string-popcorn-necklaces-here-brain-science-and-assessment-beyond-craft/" target="_blank">here</a> to read it!<br />
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I love the image at left, which I found by Googling "cave" and "creativity." According to <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-women-artists-may-be-responsible-for-most-cave-art-1094929/" target="_blank">this article in the </a><i><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-women-artists-may-be-responsible-for-most-cave-art-1094929/" target="_blank">Smithsonian</a>,</i> experts now believe that most cave art was made by women, based on the measurements of the handprints and stencils like these.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-75463179649601200382015-09-15T10:14:00.001-04:002015-09-15T10:50:59.080-04:00#NeverForget: My 9/11 PoemA few days late, I know, but I feel like sharing. On 9/11/01 I was 8 months pregnant and teaching a 9am English Composition class at the <a href="http://fitnyc.edu/" target="_blank">Fashion Institute of Technology</a>. Before class, my students and I could see the towers from a hallway window--black smoke coming from one of them. We'd heard a plane had crashed into it--pictured a small plane, an accident. Numbly, I gathered the students in for class. On our break an hour later, one young man went outside and ran back in: "They're GONE!" The classroom next door had the TV tuned to CNN with the diptych of the WTC site and the Pentagon. We were told to go to the main lobby of campus. First, I went to my office, called my husband, sent emails to my family.<br />
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I've written more about that morning <a href="http://saint-nobody.blogspot.com/2007/09/remembering-2001.html" target="_blank">here</a>. What I think about now is my students, all of them freshmen, most of them new to FIT and NYC. I think of the young man whose cousin "went missing in the towers," according to an email. He disappeared and dropped out of class. A couple others, from my honors writing class, left FIT and went home at their parents' insistence. The city seemed suddenly too dangerous for them.<br />
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A few years later, I drafted this poem based on a prompt given by <a href="http://www.georgebilgere.com/" target="_blank">George Bilgere</a> at the <a href="http://www.antiochwritersworkshop.com/" target="_blank">Antioch Writers' Workshop</a>. I worked on it from time to time, and recently it was selected by <a href="http://www.kathleenossip.com/" target="_blank">Kathleen Ossip </a> for the "Child" issue of <a href="http://www.feministpress.org/wsq" target="_blank"><i>WSQ.</i> </a> Never forget.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJn5h5cMETaFV3hrmOSJikLNnV27iPUIhDS9j3PTNAy51iXoxnvPBU9IQjVcn9Od5wOCSrtelzlaVRS2fI79gPMqeWv0Qvfqwwsu6PgaMrprPE7b3R8EkK1fFr1_8Q1LAnRGvnfw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2015-09-11+at+1.07.26+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJn5h5cMETaFV3hrmOSJikLNnV27iPUIhDS9j3PTNAy51iXoxnvPBU9IQjVcn9Od5wOCSrtelzlaVRS2fI79gPMqeWv0Qvfqwwsu6PgaMrprPE7b3R8EkK1fFr1_8Q1LAnRGvnfw/s640/Screen+Shot+2015-09-11+at+1.07.26+PM.png" width="442" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-44733885356790312932014-12-07T19:05:00.002-05:002014-12-07T19:06:48.741-05:00Flashback to 2009: An Interview from Southeast Review<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="line-height: 19.1666679382324px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Five years ago, Samuel Lloyd, then a B.A. candidate in English/Creative Writing at Florida State University, interviewed me for <i>The Southeast Review. </i>The page has since been deleted from their archives (WAH!), so I thought I would reprint it again here. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndO4yTn_5KfUFs-daH0F4VOkXRmINa5wdUKIxcVIBevgKqAXmCB1eKeTZVa9ESTHfvvZ-h_2SMFUamt1iibufSYlfTjXcFJT2dTMU3pW9FMzDc6l1CQQotP1rnu8-gN8oasraGA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-12-07+at+7.03.03+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndO4yTn_5KfUFs-daH0F4VOkXRmINa5wdUKIxcVIBevgKqAXmCB1eKeTZVa9ESTHfvvZ-h_2SMFUamt1iibufSYlfTjXcFJT2dTMU3pW9FMzDc6l1CQQotP1rnu8-gN8oasraGA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-12-07+at+7.03.03+PM.png" height="257" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What happened when I tried to follow the link. Bummer.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="line-height: 19.1666679382324px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since then, it appears that young Samuel has completed a master's degree in English education and is pursuing a second one, in Instructional Systems. He currently works at FSU as a Senior College Life Coach, which sounds like a really cool way of saying "career counselor," but perhaps means much more.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="line-height: 19.1666679382324px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I'm still jealous of <a href="http://www.brendanconstantine.com/" target="_blank">Brendan Constantine,</a> but for different reasons. :-)</span></span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Where do you like to be when you write?</span></i></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a single working mother with a very hectic schedule I’ve had to learn to write wherever and whenever I can. Nowadays, that is usually either on the subway while I’m commuting (when I can get a seat) or in class, during a journal exercise with my students. My all-time favorite place to write was a “workspace for writers” in Manhattan called Paragraph. During a sabbatical in the fall of 2007 I became a member and was able to take advantage of their “quiet space,” which has a variety of relatively private carrels for members to use. There was something about writing in a space where others are also working that I found especially motivating and inspiring. Other favorite spots are a rock in Central Park (I have several I go to when I can), my gym (they have a table and chairs in one area, but a bench in the locker room will do in a pinch), and my bed (propped up by pillows).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>2) How do you usually begin/end a piece you're working on?</i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most pieces, prose and poetry, start in one of my notebooks—either the rambling “morning pages” cheap spiral-bound, or if I’m feeling ambitious, the hardbacked composition books I use for drafting. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Very</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> occasionally, a poem or prose piece will start out as a blog entry. At some point I will type it up then usually I print it out and make markings on the page. Ending? I’m not sure if you mean the process—which is really never over, even when a piece is published—or an individual piece. Endings can take awhile, in either case, and it has sometimes taken me years to feel that final “snap” and know something is finished, or close enough.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) If you like to listen to music while you write (by the way, I saw the Decemberists reference on your blog , isn't "The Crane Wife" great?) what kind of music helps the most?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span></i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I have </span><a href="http://www.angelfire.com/zine/bluefifth/Broadsides/Lemmon13.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">written elsewhere</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, music is my life. I was equally interested in music and literature all the way through graduate school—I played violin in a contra dance band and for a community production of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Carousel</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> while getting my degrees in creative writing. And I usually have music on while I’m working—when I need to concentrate, Glenn Gould’s recordings of Bach do the trick—but for writing poems I don’t usually listen to anything in particular, unless the poem itself is connected to a musical piece (such as </span><a href="http://www.angelfire.com/zine/bluefifth/Broadsides/Lemmon13.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). But I can be inspired by a piece to write—either in the moment or later. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The following can be answered in a word, a phrase, a sentence . . .</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1) Name a writer who is currently making you jealous.</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Brendan Constantine. I’ve been reading his collection </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Letters to Guns</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and have been ranting about it to everyone who will listen. What he does with voice, with humor, with pathos, with the sheer music and drama of the poem, is flabbergasting. And the way he reads his work—well, it’s just not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fair.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>2) What kind of child were you?</i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sensitive. Tough. Silly. Serious. Lazy. Ambitious. Sheltered. Curious. Wise. Foolish. Scared. Relentless.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3) What is your relationship with rejection like?</span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Probably as bumpy as anyone else’s. Who likes rejection of any kind? And is it really possible to become so thick-skinned that you really don’t mind all those fat envelopes (or standardized emails) returning one after another? It helps, sometimes, to hear well-known writers like Kim Addonizio talk about their rejections—in her book </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ordinary Genius</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> she actually reprints some of the rejection letters she has received from the finest publications in North America. There was a point at which I stopped sending blind submissions and only submitted work to places where I had some sort of “connection,” however tangential. For years I spent so much time, energy, and money sending out my book and chapbook manuscripts that I just couldn’t send to magazines. As a result, I went into submission frenzy when the manuscripts were accepted, trying to get the previously unpublished poems out there before the chapbook or book came out! I did manage to place a couple more, but I wish I had been more diligent earlier on.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>4) What book did you suffer for the most, and why?</i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well, since </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Saint Nobody</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is my first full-length collection, this is a no-brainer. I like to tell everyone that this has been eighteen years in the making (dating back to 1990, when I started graduate school), it really has taken my whole life up to this point. There is a quote attributed to Elvis Costello (and several other rock musicians), something like, “You get your whole life to make your first record, and two weeks to make your second.” I’m taking a little longer than that for the next one, but it does feel strange to be generating new work for a developing collection, rather than continually winnowing out and using most new pieces to fill an existing one.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>5) What was the greatest surprise for you in your most recent writing?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wrote a poem in two days for the blog </span><a href="http://100dayspoems.blogspot.com/" style="line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Starting Today</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> co-edited by Rachel Zucker and Arielle Greenberg, which resulted in </span><a href="http://www.uiowapress.org/books/2010-spring/zucstato.htm" style="line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a book published by University of Iowa Press</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. One hundred poets were each assigned a day to write a poem, one for each of the first hundred days of the Obama administration. Mine was day 61, March 21</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 9px; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">st</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and I had conveniently forgotten that I would be traveling to Ohio that weekend for my sister’s wedding. Between work, taking care of my kids, packing, picking up the rental car, driving, etc….I knew that the only way I could accomplish this was to give myself a sort of exercise. I came up with the idea of an acrostic, using the phrase “HOPING FOR CHANGE.” I called it </span><a href="http://saint-nobody.blogspot.com/2009/03/100-days-of-audacity.html" style="line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Audacious: An Acrostic,</span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” and I literally finished it an hour before I had to send it to Rachel, on the computer in my dad’s office, which doubles as a guest room. My niece Mary was reading one of Kipling’s </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just-So Stories</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to my daughter and her cousin. The phrase “Best beloved” ended up in the last line of my poem.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>6) What writerly habit would you most like to break?</i></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Procrastination, procrastination, procrastination. Although is it really procrastination when you literally have no time? Hm. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><i><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lastly . . . (one random fact to top it off)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">7) What did you have for lunch today?</span></i></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.1500000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today was Sunday, and not only did I go to church but it was my confirmation. (I recently became a member of a wonderful liberal Episcopalian church, St. Bart’s on Park Avenue.) They had a little reception for us after the service, and I had two pieces of this delicious lemon cake with yellow candy butterflies. Then I got a falafel pita and a diet Boylan’s root beer and headed to my office to look over my creative writing students’ manuscripts! So much for a day of rest.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-82448949196119690142014-07-22T12:41:00.001-04:002014-07-22T13:02:18.013-04:00"I CAN'T!" Notes on resistance in life and writing...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiI8H5_92nLUyvvCEXdz4sNjUQmXUSWHAA0t2Gzva7-3Z0ehso1f1BFTiVRqhI8ePConuVoTu0kQ7VUiwdAj0SbIaCZnsLO-1yPMug78zRgSJTWOXg0d8AbYGWYbeXYQ6ZzTx0w/s1600/I+CANT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLiI8H5_92nLUyvvCEXdz4sNjUQmXUSWHAA0t2Gzva7-3Z0ehso1f1BFTiVRqhI8ePConuVoTu0kQ7VUiwdAj0SbIaCZnsLO-1yPMug78zRgSJTWOXg0d8AbYGWYbeXYQ6ZzTx0w/s1600/I+CANT.jpg" height="320" width="240"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Resisting the paparazzi. July 4, 2014</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My darling daughter, Stella, is twelve and a half now, prone to the vagaries of tween moods and whims, with a little extra spice from the "typical" stubbornness commonly exhibited by people (especially adolescents) with Down syndrome. When she is asked to do something and doesn't want to, which happens with alarming frequency, she has taken to protesting, "I CAN'T!" in a voice harsh with impatience.<br>
<br>
I know how Stella feels. There are so many things I "should" do--or even "want" to do--that provoke serious resistance in me. Whether it's exercise, or eating right, or the proverbial cleaning my room, I feel like I'm twelve and a half and find myself having to be my own parent--or, worse, just giving in to the "can'ts" and not doing anything.<br>
<br>
Writing, unfortunately, is one of these things. Although I identify as a "writer" and a "teacher of writing," and there is nothing like the feeling of being lost in language and in the flow of creation, I admit that I do not always see putting words on the page as a fun and exciting activity.<br>
<a href="http://saint-nobody.blogspot.com/2014/07/i-cant-notes-on-resistance-in-life-and.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-51846874136164553162014-07-21T20:31:00.003-04:002014-07-22T13:00:11.233-04:00Ah, Summer! Taking the Virtual Blog Tour...<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Summer is half over already (or something like that), and all of the "real work" I was gonna do has yet to be done. Instead, I have been teaching (2 online classes in June), parenting (more on that later), and plunging into a healthy new lifestyle of plant-based food and regular exercise. Oh, and recovering from one heck of an academic year, both for myself and my kids. As I have learned many times over the years, I really need a deadline, and a metaphorical cattle prod, to get words down on the page and out in the world.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br></span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So I was delighted to be invited by a dear and long-time friend, <a href="http://aprillindnerwrites.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>April Lindner</b></a>, to participate in a "virtual blog tour," aimed at giving more exposure to blogs that readers may not have seen before. It's been quite awhile since I've posted (yikes!), so I figured this would be a perfect opportunity to get Saint Nobody up and running again--in hopes of revving up my own writing. This is the first in a series on various subjects I've saved up since my last post--time to put it out there.</span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br></span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzu07qLdSo6oEwR994za-OQouihNbRSTdMB2E9TKxdkeyv-KX3YCnM_1IQQhinMSZ6dQ7FI8Txdl8ehAMwou_JyYDqFNff4f6m4Be3YsV_JyvOtEA2PZWLF7frk2jqRxNEhksAg/s1600/aprillindner-photo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzu07qLdSo6oEwR994za-OQouihNbRSTdMB2E9TKxdkeyv-KX3YCnM_1IQQhinMSZ6dQ7FI8Txdl8ehAMwou_JyYDqFNff4f6m4Be3YsV_JyvOtEA2PZWLF7frk2jqRxNEhksAg/s1600/aprillindner-photo2.jpg" height="212" width="320"></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, meet <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b><a href="http://aprillindnerwrites.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">April</a><u>,</u></b> the author of two poetry
collections, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">This Bed Our Bodies Shaped</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> from Able Muse Press
and </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Skin</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> from Texas Tech University Press. She also has
written three young adult novels—</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Jane</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Catherine</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, and the
forthcoming </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Love, Lucy</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, all published by Poppy. With R. S. Gwynn,
she co-edited </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Contemporary American Poetry</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, in Longman’s Penguin
Academics series. A professor of English at Saint Joseph’s University,
she lives in Havertown, Pennsylvania.</span></span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">April and I were classmates in the <a href="http://www.artsci.uc.edu/departments/creative_writing.html" target="_blank">PhD program in Creative Writing at the University of Cincinnat</a>i many moons ago. We read drafts of each others' poems in workshops, were roomies at my first-ever <a href="https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/overview" target="_blank">AWP Conference</a> (Pittsburgh '95), and walked together for our doctoral hooding ceremony in 1998. It's been wonderful to see April from time to time at AWP and the <a href="http://wcupoetrycenter.com/poetry-conference" target="_blank">West Chester Poetry Conference </a>near her home in the Philly area. I've been a fan of her poetry for years, and have watched her career as a YA novelist with admiration ever since my niece, Mary, devoured the signed copy of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jane-April-Lindner/dp/0316084190/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405990528&sr=1-2" target="_blank">Jane</a></i> I gave her in 2012. I'll be posting a poem of April's, which I've used often in my classes, later in the week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br></span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The next component of the blog tour meme is a quick "self-interview." Because this post is already fairly long, I will answer briefly here, and elaborate a bit in future posts.<br><i><b><br></b></i></span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>1. What am I currently working on?</b></i></span></div>
<div style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b></b></i></span><br>
</div><a href="http://saint-nobody.blogspot.com/2014/07/ah-summer-taking-virtual-blog-tour.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-46609340208664127412013-09-01T00:58:00.000-04:002014-07-21T20:51:00.377-04:00I Take Your T-Shirt to Bed Again<div class="MsoNormal">
And by now it has almost lost its scent—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your</i> scent, as
when you were here and turned <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
towards the wall while I pressed my body<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
into your body and sighed, “You smell like candy”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
into your t-shirted back. Yes, the smell is yours <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the shirt warmed by your lean torso, tufted<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
and delicious. I’ve washed my clothes in your soap,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but that wasn’t it—there must be something sweet your pores <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
pour forth. In three days you will be here and we will drink
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
from and with each other, sleep in close quarters, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
naked, awake to heat and singing cells and slickness. But
now,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>too tired even to
please myself, I breathe the shirt that covers <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
my pillow and dream—our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yes</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yes</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yes</i> opening and opening—</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/.a/6a00e54fe4158b883301901ec08250970b-320wi" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/.a/6a00e54fe4158b883301901ec08250970b-320wi" height="200" width="131" /></a>----Amy Lemmon<o:p></o:p></div>
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Published in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-American-Poetry-2013/dp/1476708134" target="_blank">The Best American Poetry 2013</a> </i>(Scribner, 2013)</div>
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Originally published in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://vitrine-aprintedmuseum.com/" target="_blank">Vitrine:a printed museum</a></i> <o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-44247045728542587282013-02-18T19:31:00.002-05:002013-02-21T22:59:19.207-05:00best american poetry....and best of the net!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q+Hu2UzpL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q+Hu2UzpL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" /></a></div>
I'm getting some great poetry news so far in 2013. My poem "I take your T-shirt to bed again..." was selected for <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-American-Poetry-2013/dp/1476708134/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361233637&sr=8-1&keywords=the+best+american+poetry+2013" target="_blank">The Best American Poetry 2013,</a> </i>which will be published by Scribner in September. I've written for the <a href="http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/the_best_american_poetry/2009/03/sticks-and-stones.html" target="_blank">Best American Poetry blog</a> several times, but this is the first time my work will actually appear in that estimable annual collection.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, <a href="http://gerrylafemina.net/" target="_blank">Gerry LaFemina</a>'s poem <a href="http://www.ducts.org/content/four-poems-5/" target="_blank">"Bright Windows,"</a> which I selected for the Summer 2012 issue of <a href="http://www.ducts.org/content/" target="_blank">Ducts.org,</a> was chosen for the 2012<a href="http://www.sundresspublications.com/bestof/" target="_blank"> Best of the Net Anthology</a>! That should be online later this month, I hear. I'll post again when it's out.<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-87775576182169220212013-01-13T15:13:00.002-05:002014-07-21T20:51:27.480-04:00Rilke is my litany<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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The place we rip open again and again<o:p></o:p></div>
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that always heals—that’s God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We are all sharp-edged from our need<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to know; He is spread out, serene.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Even the pure and blessed libations<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He takes into His world in just<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
one way: by staying motionless,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
never controlling the way things turn out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Only the dead drink<o:p></o:p></div>
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from that spring that we can <i>hear,</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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when the god signals to them, silently.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Just the noise of it reaches us. <o:p></o:p></div>
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And the lamb begs for its bell<o:p></o:p></div>
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out of its quieter instinct.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p> <i>Sonnets to Orpheus,</i> Part II, #16</o:p></div>
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<o:p><a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/295" target="_blank">Rainer Maria Rilke</a></o:p></div>
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<o:p>Trans. <a href="http://www.davidyoungpoet.com/" target="_blank">David Young</a></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-43192260805528058962012-06-18T12:03:00.000-04:002013-05-18T13:45:35.265-04:00bOB always rememberedBob's birthday is today. He would be 47, or as he always put it (to his younger siblings), "entering his 48th year." In some ways, it's good that his birthday is near <a href="http://saint-nobody.blogspot.com/2011/06/remembering-bob.html" target="_blank">Father's Day</a>--we sort of "get it over with," feel all the heaviness and hardness around the same time. Which is not to say it doesn't pop up on a regular basis at other times, but this has been a tough week. Fortunately, Bobby, Stella, and I are surrounded with love.<br />
<br />
Photos from 2010: Bob and Bobby on Memorial Day Weekend at one of Bob's favorite places, the <a href="http://www.pompanuck.org/" target="_blank">Pompanuck Farm Institute.</a> And with Stella in Chicago, spring break, reflected in a mirrored sculpture.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbkxt5EX_22RUYi4l1HqtgAwZvilH68GQGslzgY2VVf1K7kNT5lC5rHu42ZizBw4FIn9t7GWQkpDv7bV02_5QLwQDEI1LgUNzlJ4mu2Xxhvew0hW8R1ky6GMVAMbsbnPyUnkEAg/s1600/Bob+Stella+Chi+2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUbkxt5EX_22RUYi4l1HqtgAwZvilH68GQGslzgY2VVf1K7kNT5lC5rHu42ZizBw4FIn9t7GWQkpDv7bV02_5QLwQDEI1LgUNzlJ4mu2Xxhvew0hW8R1ky6GMVAMbsbnPyUnkEAg/s320/Bob+Stella+Chi+2010.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-29797723427666728132012-04-15T10:02:00.001-04:002012-04-16T17:25:43.488-04:00happy spring!For the first time in years (and the first time ever for the kids), we spent Easter in Ohio. I had forgotten how beautiful our family home on the Pike is in springtime--the new green leaves and grass, the bird sounds, the flowering dogwood outside my bedroom window. And the sun shone every day, for at least part of the time.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFzrDzzDaZno_G6EBu6Bw-VJVEBb4kIGKxZNmECSqNYZFTn_0-czPuaAhsR3gOyKJvvrHVYgei7bBEgmk_UQ7ZyQYLk1zhyxtwOrzQ9Ei18TSgagbnwdyaN2lyvxWRhz7l7UEEg/s1600/Bobby+and+Stella+Easter+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiFzrDzzDaZno_G6EBu6Bw-VJVEBb4kIGKxZNmECSqNYZFTn_0-czPuaAhsR3gOyKJvvrHVYgei7bBEgmk_UQ7ZyQYLk1zhyxtwOrzQ9Ei18TSgagbnwdyaN2lyvxWRhz7l7UEEg/s320/Bobby+and+Stella+Easter+2012.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>It is truly a time of renewal after the long dark winter. Wishing joy and new life to all!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20460557.post-90328566301340557352012-03-17T09:16:00.001-04:002012-03-17T09:16:50.610-04:00with a little help from my friends...<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpd7bzYl0MS2kyfg14ElWISz2UnPgbnba7v3_3xAVNRwVoPgJ9DvKl-tWcYkHXzY8zfw5C7oRdRlYueibL6X4foaVWfslXu6AXkFx9P72rCs5HAkXe70mCHOGXUuqEHt52h1ts3g/s320/Bruce+and+Amy+3-14-12.JPG" width="320" /></div>Poetry, like life in general, has its solitary moments, but it is also a very collaborative art. Sometimes, when the going gets tough, the only way I can get going is with a dear and capable friend holding my hand. Case in point: the poems I have had the privilege to write with the amazing<a href="http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/33" target="_blank"> Denise Duhamel,</a> some of which have been published in <a href="http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/abba-the-poems/6551243" target="_blank"><i>ABBA: The Poems</i> </a>by Coconut Books. Our publisher, <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/bruce-covey" target="_blank">Bruce Covey</a>, was in town from Atlanta this past week to read his hilarious and devastating poems, including his latest book <a href="http://www.notellmotel.org/poem_single.php?id=310_0_1_0" target="_blank"><i>Reveal</i> </a>(which was composed with the help of Google "I feel lucky" searches). He gave a fantastic reading (with the prodigious<a href="http://www.amyking.org/" target="_blank"> Amy King</a>) and I got to "reveal" to him that Denise and I are collaborating on some new poems. Stay tuned....Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14227880272394874647noreply@blogger.com0