Quantcast

Guest Post: Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem by Tabatha Yeatts

April 30, 2014 by

It has been a very busy April with a variety of poetry.  I am so happy for all the participants this year, spreading their wings into new territory.

I hope that you’ve all found something new to read for the rest of the year and that it is a new poet or collection.  Click the icon at the left to see the whole tour and more!

Thanks to everyone for joining in the blog tour as a poster, blogger, or commenter.  I appreciate all of your enthusiasm.  See everyone again in 2015.

Without further ado, I bring the National Poetry Month Blog tour to a close with a guest post from Tabatha Yeatts, and a collaborative poem.  Please give her a warm welcome.

Poet and author Irene Latham introduced the idea for the Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem in 2012 and it has become an annual National Poetry Month event.

Each day in April, a different kidlitosphere blogger provides the next line in the poem. No plans for themes or rhyme schemes are worked out ahead of time — everyone is just working on the fly. If you’ve never tried to write collaboratively, you might want to give a project like this a go. It’s a very interesting process, both to participate in and to watch unfold.

Here’s this year’s poem:

Three Blue Eggs

Sitting on a rock, airing out my feelings to the universe
Acting like a peacock, only making matters that much worse;

Should I trumpet like an elephant emoting to the moon
Or just ignore the warnings written in the rune?

Those stars can’t seal my future; it’s not inscribed in stone.
The possibilities are endless! Who could have known?

Gathering courage, spiral like an eagle after prey,
Then gird my wings for whirlwind gales in realms far, far away.

But, hold it! Let’s get practical! What’s needed before I go?
Time to be tactical—I’ll ask my friends what I should stow.

And in one breath, a honeyed word whispered low—dreams—
Whose voice? I turned to see. I was shocked. Irene’s!

“Each voyage starts with tattered maps; your dreams dance on this page.
Determine these dreams—then breathe them! Engage your inner sage.”

The merry hen said, “Take my sapphire eggs to charm your host.”
I tuck them close—still warm—then take my first step toward the coast.

This journey will not make me rich, and yet I long to be
Like luminescent jellyfish, awash in mystery.

I turn and whisper, “Won’t you come?” to all the beasts and birds
And listen while they scamper, their answers winging words:

“Take these steps alone to start; each journey is an art.
You are your own best company. Now it’s time to depart!”

I blow a kiss. I hike for days, blue eggs pressed to my chest.
One evening’s rest, campfire low, shifting shadows brought a guest.

A boy, with hair in wild waves and eyes blue as the sea,
Says, “You’ve traveled far. What did you find—your best discovery?”

“I found a bird, I found a song, I found a word,” I say.
The hidden eggs, I make them known. “I’ve brought these on the way.”

We share an omelet and some talk; is my quest at an end?

Check out the last line, here.

1 Charles at Poetry Time

2 Joy at Joy Acey

3 Donna at Mainely Write

4 Anastasia at Poet! Poet!

5 Carrie at Story Patch

6 Sheila at Sheila Renfro

7 Pat at Writer on a Horse

8 Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

9 Diane at Random Noodling

10 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

11 Linda at Write Time

12 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

13 Janet at Live Your Poem

14 Deborah at Show–Not Tell

15 Tamera at The Writer’s Whimsy

16 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

17 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche

18 Irene at Live Your Poem

19 Julie at The Drift Record

20 Buffy at Buffy Silverman

21 Renee at No Water River

22 Laura at Author Amok

23 Amy at The Poem Farm

24 Linda at TeacherDance

25 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty

26 Lisa at Lisa Schroeder Books

27 Kate at Live Your Poem

28 Caroline at Caroline Starr Rose

29 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town

30 Tara at A Teaching Life

Also, here’s the link to my collection of poems about imaginary places. It also mentions the Summer Poem Swap I’ll be holding. People are welcome to email me with questions about it or with requests to join.

Thanks, Tabatha!

Filed Under: Events, guest post, national poetry month Tagged With:

Emma Eden Ramos Interviews Poet Brooke Elise Axtell

April 27, 2014 by

Emma Eden Ramos is a poet, middle-grade, and young adult novelist, and I’ve featured her a few times on the blog.  We’re Internet buddies who have a “poking” war from time to time, and we talk poetry and books all the time.  Check out my reviews of Still, At Your Door, The Realm of the Lost, and Three Women: A Poetic Triptych and Selected Poems.  Check out the interviews, and her guest interview.

BRK2Emma will be interviewing poet Brooke Elise Axtell, and we’ll share one of her poems.  Please give them a warm welcome.

be careful with a woman like me 
by Brooke Elise Axtell

be careful with a woman like me
who lives like a drunkard 
for the grey honey of the sea
who sends her singing voice to distant coves
like a hurricane trapped in a green bottle just to see 
if shrouds can be ripped & the dead raised.

be careful with a woman like me
who sharpens her heart like an ivory dagger
& howls her monsoon music to the moon
who wraps her secrets in silver cloths
to hide beneath deck & makes no promises
who is a cloud no hammer can nail to the bed
who will keep you restless & well fed on blackberries.

be careful with a woman like me
who dances in with a brass band
then slips away like a line in the sand
when the slightest wind moves.
it is not that i can't be true.
it is not that you are a red lacquered door
to open & quickly pass through.

but what appears to be 
a delicate locket hanging
from a gold chain at my neck
holds a private tempest & the shipwreck
of every storm-torn night my skin eats.

be careful of a woman like me.
i am true the way rain is true.
i am pure & vanishing. 
when the thirst of brittle leaves is quenched
when the land is a screaming emerald
it is clear. i am no longer here.

i am as restless as a sloop at bay, 
swaying with the seducing wave & her dark granite gaze.

i secretly flunked the school of manners
though i held my spoon at such a graceful angle.
i disguised my dissent behind the careful lifting 
of the teacup & memorized the map of their make believe.

i breathed heavy in the bed of my enemy
so i could overturn the twist of the sordid fist. 
i oiled the gears of my mind like a pleasing machine.
you should be careful with a woman like me.

all the while i trained in guerilla warfare 
chewed rabbit stew, sank my teeth 
into the neck of a god who does not topple 
at the earthquake of the shrine.

i crossed seven purple mountains on my knees.
i sucked on stones until they turned to bread.
i gave my heart to a hungry harlot to eat for breakfast

& you will find only the grey honey of the sea 
rocking, rocking 
in a woman like me.

Emma: The ability to write isn’t always all inclusive. Someone who composes beautiful prose may find that they’re completely hopeless when it comes to writing verse. You, however, are an award winning poet and short story writer. What, for you, is the link that makes both mediums accessible?

Brooke: I start with an initial instinct, a visceral energy that inevitably gives way to a particular form. When I begin writing I know that there is an underlying architecture that will reveal itself, but the line between verse and story in not absolute. Hybrid forms fascinate me. The intersection of text, song, performance and story yields such a rich alchemy. Lately, I’ve been intrigued by journalism as a site of beautiful protest.When you watch the boundaries between genres breed and dissolve, you begin to feel that every form is open to you.

Emma: You are also a very well-established singer/songwriter. You’ve worked with artists such as Terry Bozzio (of Missing Persons and Frank Zappa), Charlie Sexton (guitarist for Bob Dylan), Mitch Watkins (guitarist for Leonard Cohen), and a number of other great musicians. How do you find the collaborative process?

Brooke: It is an incredible honor to collaborate with such powerful musicians. I grew up dancing with a professional ballet company, so I approach the songwriting process as both a poet and a dancer. Music connects language and movement in a way that is completely transformative for me.

Emma: Which do you prefer, collaborating with other artists on a project or creating on your own?

Brooke: I appreciate both modalities. I crave solitude and connection. I am most alive as an artist when I create space for each side of the process. Collaboration challenges me to expand and grow. Solitude renews me and helps me reconnect with my courage. In a media-saturated climate I am vulnerable to distraction. I need to set aside moments to honor the interior life as well as cultivate authentic community.

Emma: Some time back, you won first place in the Young Texas Writer’s Awards for your short story “Maya’s Mirror.” Have you been writing since you were a young girl?

Brooke: Yes. As soon as I could write I started inventing stories about aliens, ghosts and unknown planets. I also wrote mystical poems about nature with themes of isolation. In retrospect, I see that I was working with creative codes to process the trauma I experienced.

Emma: Are there a few poets, fiction writers or lyricists who have deeply influenced you?

Brooke: I am nourished by many sources. As far as poets, I am reading the work of Akilah Oliver, Alice Notley, Bhanu Kapil and countless others. As far as songwriting, I am drawn to the work of Tori Amos, Bjork, Ani Di Franco, PJ Harvey, Billy Holiday and Sarah Vaughan. Fierce, imaginative women who tap into multiple states of consciousness. I am also grateful for the rich legacy of feminist writer/activists such as Audre Lorde and Adrienne Rich.

Emma: What would you say is your greatest inspiration?

Brooke: Mending the aftershocks of violence, honoring the body, healing ruptures through creative alchemy, a fierce hunger for social justice, my love of women, blues and jazz.

Emma: Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

Brooke: Set aside time to write consistently. It has to become your way of life. This is a core decision, a sacred space you create, a ritual. You write because it is who you are and silence feels like a form of erasure.

I keep a hand-written journal to collect all the fragments: streams of consciousness, postcards of films, research, drawings, poetry. Recently, I found a gorgeous photograph of an anatomical heart and taped it inside. It is important to have private places as a writer, where there is no pressure to perform.

Immerse yourself in writers who speak to you. Join some form of creative community with writers who are more experienced than you. Ultimately, trust the value of you own voice, honor your instincts and stay open to wise counsel.

If you do not connect to someone else’s work they may not be an ideal mentor for you. Teachers and professors can be helpful, but take a look at their body of work before you invest too much in their critiques.

Going to open mics and public readings is a powerful way to come into your voice. For my poetry collections, I engage with performance as part of the editing process. I listen to what resonates and what feels like excess. It brings me back to the original energy of a piece.

Keep writing and refining your process. You deserve to be heard.

Thanks to both Emma and Brooke for this great interview today, as we wind down the April National Poetry Month celebration.

Description from GoodReads:

Brooke Axtell’s mesmerizing poetry explores the thirst for solace in desolate spaces. It is a thirst for cleansing, healing and rejuvenation. In her third collection of poems, she plunges the body of pain, the “remembering body,” into the renewing element of water. With fierce elegance, she reveals the core thirst of life: to experience all as sacred. Her gift of striking imagery and stunning, musical language has the power to haunt and heal. She transmutes pain into incantation. This is the alchemy of the artist.Just as Kore of Greek myth was forced into the underworld and initiated into a cycle of ascension, Axtell investigates a realm of ruin and rises to share a new vision of life. Her poems confront the ravages of violence with the relentless hope of the creative process. She explores the archetype of the wild woman, the sacred marriage of the soul, the cost of injustice, the modern sex industry, the Divine Feminine and the gift of intimacy that honors the emergence of the true untamed nature. Here is the map of one woman’s spiritual journey. You will find solace in these waters, “the healing waterfall behind the ancient wall.”

For today’s 2014 National Poetry Month: Reach for the Horizon tour stop, click the image below:

Filed Under: Events, guest post, Interviews, national poetry month Tagged With: , ,

Guest Poet: Beth Kephart

April 26, 2014 by

National Poetry Month is the perfect month for an author like Beth Kephart to launch her next book.  Her poetic prose reads like poetry, with each carefully selected word pregnant with meaning.  Readers of Kephart know that her writing is deep and meaningful, and that they must read her words with reverence.  This month, Beth Kephart and Chronicle Books launched Going Over, a young adult novel about 1983 Berlin and two families separated by the Berlin Wall, about taking risks, about love, and about inner strength.  Feel free to check out my review.

Today, Beth Kephart has come to celebrate National Poetry Month with us, and she’s going to share with us a never before seen or published poem about writing.

Portrait Gallery

My mind off its leash, I wander
The streets at night, after a storm.
Riffling scenes from ambered windows,
Incidents you could name paintings by:
Old Man in Plaid
Cat on Sill
Woman Loosening Auburn Braids
Boy Lit Blue by Fluorescence
And somewhere a catastrophe with a trash can
And a dog dragging its chain,
A guzzle in the drains,
While overhead the squirrels humiliate themselves
Among greasy limbs and leaves.  Save me
From my thoughts, I think.
Keep me innocent as a thief in the dark
Part of these washed-up streets.
Where it’s only the deer and the squirrels
And me, a dog dragging its chain.
You’re a little whacky, he’d said,
And I might have been exuberant
With the praise, might have stressed,
Myself to myself, that in the game
Of being me, I’d won, but who
Are we to measure our sanity by,
And who walks the streets in the dark
After a storm, looking for life
Through the lit-up glass
Of other people’s stories?

I want to thank Beth for sharing this poem with everyone this month, and I’d love to hear from you about what you think about the poem and what it means to you?

Filed Under: Events, guest post, national poetry month Tagged With: , , ,

Guest Post: The Magic of Poetry by Sweta Srivastava Vikram

April 24, 2014 by

Sweta Srivastava Vikram is a poet and novelist, and dare I say an activist?! Her poetry books have been reviewed on Savvy Verse & Wit, and she’s even visited for a Q&A and a guest post about creativity in the past. I’ve known her for what seems like forever, and after meeting her in person more than once and chatting with her on social media and email, I can say that we are kindred spirits, poets, and friends.  Check out my reviews of No Ocean Here, Because All Is Not Lost, Beyond the Scent of Sorrow, and Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors.  Here are her interview and previous creativity guest post.

Today, she’s going to share the magic of poetry for National Poetry Month!

J.D. Salinger once said, “Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They’re always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions.” He’s probably right.

In the first week of April, I got caught in the rain three days in a row. I love the rains and call myself a pluviophile (aside from urban dictionary, is pluviophile even officially considered a word?) While the lover of rain inside me was happy to wash away the unmentionables in the downpour, it wasn’t that simple. The wind mutilated my umbrella. The cold seeped inside my bones. My body collapsed with the onslaught.

For two weeks, I was on bed rest, fighting 103F fever and sinusitis. I had no taste in my mouth. To top it all, the strong antibiotics reacted and I had to be put on a counter dosage. Life came to an un-poetic standstill.

The only thing that soothed me at this time was a stray star that I would spot outside my bedroom window every night. I live in New York City—this was definitely an unusual and poetic occurrence. True to J.D. Salinger’s words, I started to attach a meaning to this mystical happening and wondered about the pleasant surprise.

Right about this time, my sister-in-law (husband’s sister) who lives in Singapore told me that our five and a half-year-old niece, Noyonika, had written a poem in school. It was about a star.

How To Catch A Star (By Noyonika)

I will sit on a broom
And fly to the moon
And catch my star

It is very dark when I fly to the moon
I am scared, it is so dark!

But I am brave and I carry on
To catch my star
Then I see something
Yippee, Yippee!

It’s my star!
It’s golden, pink and purple
It’s beautiful, it’s colossal
And it glows in the dark!

I reach my hand out
And catch my star
And I tell the broom:
‘Take me back to my room.”

Was that Noyonika’s star that I saw outside my window? Yes, you could say my fever-induced delirium made me imagine that. Or was it pure poetry? My niece, thousands of miles away, and I bonding over a remote incandescent body in the sky via the path of verses. The way I look at it, poetry paves way for imagination with a touch of human connection. With all due respect, in this sometimes cold, unpredictable, and impersonal world, attaching emotions in oddest of places is what keeps us sane, Mr. Salinger.

Thanks, Sweta, for sharing the magic of poetry with us and the world.

About the Poet:sweta

Sweta Srivastava Vikram, featured by Asian Fusion as “One of the most influential Asians of our time,” is an award-winning writer, Amazon bestselling author, novelist, poet, essayist, columnist, and educator. She is the author of five chapbooks of poetry, two collaborative collections of poetry, a novel, and a nonfiction book. Her work has also appeared in several publications across three continents. Sweta has won three Pushcart Prize nominations, an International Poetry Award, Best of the Net Nomination, Nomination for Asian American Members’ Choice Awards 2011, and writing fellowships. A graduate of Columbia University, she lives in New York City with her husband and teaches creative writing and gives talks on gender studies while managing a career in digital marketing. You can follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Filed Under: Events, guest post, national poetry month Tagged With: ,

Guest Post: A Driven Poet by Erica Goss

April 22, 2014 by

Erica Goss is the Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, CA, and the host of Word to Word, a show about poetry. She is the author of Wild Place (Finishing Line Press 2012) and Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets (PushPen Press 2014). Her poems, reviews, and articles appear widely, both on-line and in print. She won the 2011 Many Mountains Moving Poetry Contest and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010 and 2013. Please visit her at Website.

We’ve been following her 12 Moons project with Atticus Books for some time and we’ve seen Snow Moon, Wolf Moon, Worm Moon, and Planters Moon.  Check out all 12 Moons.

Today’s she’s here to talk about her latest poetry project, Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets. Please give her a warm welcome.

When my book, Vibrant Words: Ideas and Inspirations for Poets came out in late March, I decided that in order to promote it, I would attend events within a two-hour drive of my home in Los Gatos, California. I’ve already put plenty of miles on my Honda Fit, traveling to book-signings and poetry readings all over the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve driven two hundred miles in one day to read for twenty minutes, but that’s not even close to California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera. He once drove from Fresno to San Jose, a round trip of three hundred miles, to read two poems at a book release party.

In spite of my general annoyance at the amount of time I must drive, I get some of my best ideas while driving. This is not always a good thing. Once on a drive between San Jose and Sacramento (about one hundred and twenty miles) an entire poem came to me, fully formed. Not in a place where I could pull over and write, I chanted the poem to myself over and over for the next half-hour while trying to concentrate on driving the speed limit. I even imagined what I would tell the officer, should I get pulled over: “I’ll show you my driver’s license as soon as I write this poem down.”

More often, as I enter my long-distance driving trance, bits of conversation, things I’ve read, and phrases from songs I’m listening to on the radio come and go in my thoughts. Part of my brain has to stay alert to drive safely, but the other part can roam, examining signs and counting the number of red cars vs. blue cars. I like finishing the terse sentences I read on highway signs: “Expect delays” becomes “Yes, I always expect delays” and “Gas Food Lodging” is kind of hilarious on its own. “Bump” is one of my favorite signs; our roads are plenty bumpy, but it takes a really spectacular bump to warrant a sign.

Traffic often grinds to a halt (like the sign says, “expect delays.”) I’ll pull out my Moleskine notebook and make a few notes: “sleep bone,” “I carry a purse and talk to strangers,” “recipe for lasagna,” “if marriage was a cookbook,” and “crows are so American” are all from recent traffic stops.

Since the release of Vibrant Words, I’ve driven from the Pacific Ocean to the Central Valley, and I’m just starting out. I hope to bring my book to places farther and farther from home, but if it gets too far, I think I’ll fly. Plus, I need new tires.

Erica is truly a driven poet. Thanks so much for sharing your travels and your inspiration with us.

Save

Filed Under: Events, guest post, national poetry month Tagged With: , ,

Guest Post: An Introduction to Poetry Friday by Tabatha Yeatts

April 4, 2014 by

National Poetry Month is a big month for the Poetry Friday crowd. What is Poetry Friday? I turned to Poetry Friday regulars to help me explain.

WHAT IS POETRY FRIDAY?

In an article for the Poetry Foundation, Susan Thomsen explains Poetry Friday this way: “Readers, writers, teachers, parents, librarians, homeschoolers, illustrators, and editors share favorite poems for children and adults, link to cool poetry sites, describe readings they’ve been to, and recommend great books about poetry.”

If you think you might be interested but need a little enticement, let me tell you about the variety of things Poetry Friday has to offer:

FOR WRITERS:

It’s where we meet to learn, to teach, to hold each other up on this challenging, not-always-graceful journey to a poem. –April Halprin Wayland

Thanks to this group, I have written all sorts of poems I never could have imagined before. Lots of inspiration! –Irene Latham

I didn’t write poetry for over twenty years, and PF helped me find my voice again. –Renée LaTulippe

There are “friends” out there that I’ve never met, friends who share my enthusiasm for a good poem or who ask interesting questions about writing, art, life, whatever. I don’t care if their friendship comes to me online – that’s fine. Writing can be isolating – and I’m comfortable with my friends arriving via different modes of delivery. I like the connective tissue that gets formed no matter how we meet. –Julie Larios

FOR TEACHERS:

One of the greatest gifts I have received is a community that honors each other. We are full of kindness and acceptance and there isn’t enough of that in the world. Some of us are teachers facing the daily challenges of Common Core and state testing and closed minds. I feel safe in this place we call Poetry Friday. I also feel celebrated. When I post about my students’ work, you always praise me and compliment their work. I can’t tell you what that does to fuel me. I have finally found a group of people as nuts about poetry as I am. –Margaret Simon

It’s where I met ‘my people’ to exchange original poems, poems from mentors and share student poetry. –Jone Rush MacCulloch

One thing I can add since I feel I’m one of the newest Poetry Friday people is how welcoming the community has been to me. I love poetry, and…I was thrilled to find company who were both passionate and knowledgeable. –Linda Baie

I love PF because it allows me share poems I love, find new poems to express my thoughts and feelings, and discover new poets through our PF community. And, I love that the format allows me to write and incorporate visual elements and music. –Tara Smith

FOR READERS/ PEOPLE WHO ARE INTERESTED IN BEING PART OF A POETIC COMMUNITY:

If you are human with a pulse and a heart, there is a poem for you. Poetry Friday might help you find that poem or inspire you to write your own. 🙂 –Jama Rattigan

I’d also say that the fun of Poetry Friday for me is really in that sense of community – there are others who want to celebrate poetry, and thanks to the web, we can find each other and connect. The weekly tradition – the ritual, almost – helps me think of poetry even when I don’t blog on a Friday, and that’s nice, too. –Greg Pincus

When I first began reading the posts and participating, I had a good base knowledge of children’s poetry and a true interest. But in the last year, I have learned so much more and my interest has grown tremendously! I’ve also “met” so many wonderful, intelligent, talented writers that I am now thrilled to call friends. It is truly a special community! –Becky Shillington

Don’t be afraid to jump right in! It’s such a welcoming, supportive community. I haven’t encountered a warmer or more passionate group of poetry-lovers anywhere on the web or otherwise. It’s the highlight of my blogging week. –Irene Latham

As I’m getting back into posting and visiting at least SOME of the many wonderful posters each week, it feels like coming home… Thank you, all of you, for *being* Poetry Friday! –Laura Purdie Salas

For someone new, I say, “Welcome!” If you like poetry – even a little – join us. If you are afraid of poetry, join us. If you love poetry, join us. –Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH COMMENTING?

When I started posting on Poetry Friday a few years ago, I learned it takes a little while to attract regular commenters, and it’s worth the effort to get to know this generous community. Leaving a heartfelt sentence or two in response to other blog posts is a great way to get and stay involved. –Robyn Hood Black

I comment from the heart – whatever my response may be. I love reading comments to discover other thoughts, interpretations, reactions – these are so much fun, for they make you look at the poem in a completely different way. –Tara Smith

Comment on what strikes you, and if you do not have a blog, consider beginning one for your own poetry findings and explorations. –Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

WHAT ARE POETRY FRIDAY POSTS LIKE?

There’s a huge range of what you can do. You can share a poem, a song, a poetry book. You can put as much or as little effort into it as you can spare. Here’s a small selection so you can see a bit of the variety. Also, feel free to make the rounds of this week’s round-up!

Joy begins a poem and invites commenters to add to it

Laura at Author Amok wraps up a month of color poems

Colette discusses students memorizing Invictus

Charles (Father Goose) shares an illustrated original poem

A tea party with poems at Jama’s

A vacation and poetry from Dori

Heidi shares a poem from a non-poetry-centered magazine

Matt talks about revising poems

An original poem by Steven with background info

Ruth talks about Poetry Fridayers at the International Reading Convention
Favorite poems for fictional characters at my blog

HOW DID IT START?

Poetry Friday began in 2006 as the brainchild of Kelly Herold. Blogs who win the longevity award for being a part of Poetry Friday from the start include Check It Out, GottaBook, MotherReader, Poetry for Children, A Wrung Sponge, and A Year of Reading.

WHO CAN DO ROUND-UPS?

Anyone who is willing to gather the links in some way, shape or form. Read more about it at A Year of Reading.

Filed Under: Events, guest post, national poetry month Tagged With: ,

Guest Post: Why I Love Poetry by Beth Hoffman

April 1, 2014 by

The number one reason why poetry has become a valuable part of my life is simple: it helps me be a better writer. I’m a novelist, and by reminding me to hone extraneous words from my sentences, poetry is my most respected and formidable teacher. Whenever I feel uninspired or stale or lazy, I’ll turn to poetry for inspiration and guidance. Sometimes that inspiration comes in the form of a slap in the face. A friendly slap, but a slap just the same.

Poetry wakes me up.

No other literary genre has the power to evoke imagery and emotions in so few words. And ditto for urging the reader to slow down and ponder those things that, at first blush, seem imponderable.

Be it with a touch as light as morning’s breath, or the shattering blow of a hammer, poetry speaks to the deepest, most vulnerable parts of ourselves, if only we can slow down enough to listen. And think.

This short video clip from the film DEAD POETS SOCIETY sums it up far better than I … What will your verse be?

This is part of the 2014 National Poetry Month: Reach for the Horizon Blog Tour, click the button for more poetry:

Filed Under: Events, guest post, national poetry month Tagged With:

Guest Post & Giveaway: Mulling Over It – Writing Platform 21 by T. R. Patrick

December 17, 2013 by

Platform 21 by T.R. Patrick is the first book in the Beyond the Veil science fiction series.  Today, T.R. Patrick, who received the “Best Debut Author of 2013” award from the Bookworm Best Awards, will share a little bit about the creation of his book.  And there’s a giveaway.

Here’s a little bit about the book:

Luke’s life is about to take a dangerous turn. But first he has to die.

In the year 2052, high school sophomore Luke Gibson considers himself an average teenager in a world on the brink of monumental change. Joining his parents and sister, Laura, at the first World Energy Initiative Conference, he is among thousands gathered in a Denver arena to celebrate free renewable energy when a massive earthquake strikes killing everyone in the stadium. The last thing Luke sees before his death is a girl reaching out to him—a stranger whose face he remembers from his dreams.

The end, however, is not the end. Suddenly, inexplicably, Luke is back home in Ohio and everything is different. His sister is gone, the victim in an unsolved homicide years before. Angela, his mysterious dream girl, is here also, and the only person besides Luke who recalls the previous reality. And now their determination to uncover the truth about Laura’s murder and their transformed world is making them targets—forced to flee for their lives from a nameless shadow organization and a government seeking vengeance for an unthinkable act of terror—as they stand on the threshold of a dark conspiracy that threatens all humankind.

Please give Patrick a warm welcome:

Have you ever been so frustrated about something, you needed to find a creative outlet to just get it all out? Writing Platform 21 was a bit like that for me. There are so many things going on in the world, it’s often easier to put it in the back of our minds and just focus on the little things. For whatever reason, I couldn’t do that. There is so much wrong with the world, I wanted to do something – anything to inject a voice a reason into the discussion.

Platform 21 was born from that frustration. The original concept of the book was something so simple, I almost feel a little embarrassed when I think about it. But when I started writing it, things just wouldn’t line up. I knew I was writing one thing, but the story wanted me to write something different. For the first time as a writer, I decided I was going to let the story tell itself. I would simply become the dude lucky enough to be able to write it down. That once embarrassing concept is nothing but a distant memory. It was an idea I’m glad never truly raised to the surface. Instead, I found a world in the shadow of an inexplicable veil that separates humankind from the truth.

If there is one thing constant about each and every one of us, it is the desire for the truth. We’ve seen throughout history how those in power distort and twist the truth. There is a constant struggle for it and humanity has grappled with it since the beginning of time. I believe every one of us desires to do good. We want to see our neighbors succeed as well. Every time a terrible event inflicts harm upon us and our neighbors, there are always good people willing to rise from the ashes and make things right. However, when it comes to the big picture – people just don’t know where the fire is. Some of us feel the fire is simply too big to put out.

So, I set off to write a book about this struggle. Set in a world where every conspiracy theory is real, Luke Gibson and Angela Morgan set off on a journey to discover the truth about Luke’s slain sister. This search for justice is much like our search for the reason why terrible things happen in this world. Luke and Angela’s search for the truth makes them targets of some very powerful enemies. Amidst all the conspiracy, and the lies, they discover anyone could be an enemy. Learning that even people who desire good could work against them, they begin to realize how misled the world has become.

This theme follows Luke throughout his adventure. I’m writing ‘The Vorago Initiative’ (The Sequel to Platform 21) right now, and I find myself thinking about all of those who think they are fighting for truth, or for what’s right – only to discover they’ve been misled all along. How can you discern the truth if you’ve been lied to since the day you were born? What if you don’t like the truth? Is it worth pulling back the veil if it means revealing a world that is nothing like what you once thought? Some would even end up fighting to protect the veil, to continue living the lie because they’ve become comfortable with it. Those who are willing to fight for the truth have their own demons to deal with. Just how much is an individual willing to sacrifice for it? How much would you sacrifice?

It’s difficult to discuss these things without demonstrating what is truly at stake when a person gets close to the truth in a world filled with conspiracy. The general themes of Platform 21 are quite dark, and a very gritty picture is painted. I didn’t want to hide the truth, or pull my punches as an author. It’s simply not fair to the reader when an author hides just how wicked the world can be at times. I stayed hauntingly close to the historical events discussed in the book, all while showing the reader two characters who would stop at nothing to overcome the adversity they faced.

Writing about these themes is tough. I had to write more than my fair share of difficult imagery and depressing moments. There were times I spent many hours staring at a blank screen, afraid to start writing because I knew where it would take me. This is the obstacle I’ve set out to challenge, and with Platform 21, I think I managed to show the brutal truth about our past, present, and potential future.

But you know what? The world ain’t all that bad. The love story in Platform 21 was one of the most enjoyable parts of the writing. Some of my self-proclaimed ‘crowning achievements’ in the book weren’t the fast paced action scenes, or the twists. To me, the book shined because of the characters and how they interacted with each other. There were some extremely tricky topics discussed in Platform 21. I had to imagine how a person would react in the face of one of the most despicable and deplorable acts a person could commit. How would that event change the character, and the existing relationships he or she already had? These were some very tough questions and it isn’t easy, or in my opinion even possible, to just outline this kind of complicated character development. This was the hardest part of the writing, but it was also the most rewarding.

Writing Platform 21 was a challenge. It was the hardest book I ever set out to write. It was also the best book I’ve ever written, which is why I decided to publish it. Having penned two other books, I know what it’s like to write something and realize it isn’t your best. With Platform 21, it just came to me. There isn’t any other way of putting it. I’m the luckiest guy ever! Why this story chose me to share it with the world, I’m not sure. It has been a wonderful joy, and I can’t wait to see where the series takes me next.

About the Author:

Author Timothy R. Patrick, born in 1985, started writing when he was only nine, delivering his first short story to his Mom for her birthday. Since then, writing has been an incredible passion. Every chance he could write, he took it. He even scratched out a few stories in Naval Boot Camp at Great Lakes, Illinois.

Tim spent four years in the Navy achieving the rank of Petty Officer 2nd class. He served three years aboard USS Chosin and was deployed twice in support of the Global War on Terror, and Iraqi Freedom. However, he would always be remembered as the guy who sat in the corner of the mess decks writing a book he would never release. He said it wasn’t good enough.

After his time in the Navy, Tim became a Test Engineer working for companies like Scientific Research Corporation and Hewlett Packard. During this phase of his life he moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he bought a home and tried to settle into the American Dream. But Tim wasn’t content with that, he wanted to do something more than work the 9 to 5. So, he tried his hand at politics and ran for Dorchester County Council as an Independent. They said he was too young and verbose. After losing the election, he decided to try his hand at writing instead.

Today, Timothy Patrick is the author of, Platform 21 – the first installment of the “Beyond the Veil” series. Platform 21 is a novel set in the near future which follows a young man on a journey to solve his sister’s murder in the midst of global conspiracy. His current project is, The Vorago Initiative – which picks up right where Platform 21 left off.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY BELOW:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: giveaway, guest post Tagged With: ,

Guest Post: On Writing The Intangibles by Monte Dutton

December 11, 2013 by

The Intangibles by Monte Dutton is set in the late 1960s in a small South Carolina town just as the public schools are being integrated.  Black students from Mossy Springs High School are now going to attend the all-white Fairmont High, further ramping up tensions.  Reese Knighton is hired to coach the team and find common ground with Willie Spurgeon, the former successful coach from Mossy Springs.  The high school football team must put aside their differences at a time when the world seems to be unraveling.

Today, Dutton is going to provide some insight on his inspiration and journey in writing the book.  Please give him a warm welcome.  Also, there’s a giveaway!

Years ago, when writing about baseball was part of my job, I used to say that there is only one way to keep score, and that is the way that works for you. I’ve come to believe that it applies to writing fiction.

I taught myself to play guitar, and I taught myself to write fiction. Many sports fans have asked me how they could become a writer over the years. My answer – “The best way to learn how to write is to read” – often seems to disappoint them. Everyone wants a gimmick.

Here’s how I wrote The Intangibles. I started out with a vague idea of what I wanted to write. I then wrote a vague outline and conjured up general attributes to ascribe to the main characters. I’m sort of a seat-of-the-pants guy. I started writing – working my way toward the ending – and at the end of each chapter, I added layers of detail to the outline, as much as a reference tool – I didn’t want a green Buick in Chapter Five to morph into a yellow Mercury in Chapter Eleven – as a means of evaluating how it was all moving along. This haphazard method of mine involves a good bit of time between chapters to think about where I just went and am next going. This is my “mulling time,” which I consider at least as important as the writing time.

The second draft is basically one of economizing, where I discover that the manuscript has plenty of material that, while entertaining, doesn’t happen to move the story along. This was a lesson that The Audacity of Dope imparted, but, suffice it to say, it’s hard.

The third draft is where the story is set but the writing needs polishing. I try to turn a few phrases I left straight before.

The challenge of The Intangibles was to go from a simple story – all the characters revolve around the adventures of Riley Mansfield and Melissa Franklin in Audacity – to a complex one. The Intangibles has what motion-picture fans would refer to as an ensemble cast. It was a new challenge for me.

The Intangibles was also more personal. I’m not sure if there really is a central character, but if it’s Frankie Hoskins, it’s one created out of my own childhood experiences. Frankie’s not I, but he’s a lot like me. I was thinking about lots of real people when I wrote the book, but it’s a long way from being just a story where the names were changed to protect the innocent. Many characters are entirely made up in that I didn’t actually know anyone like them growing up.

One amusing aspect of The Audacity of Dope was hearing from readers who were just sure Riley, or Melissa, was based on them, when, in fact, their mention marked the first time it occurred to me. I thought about lots of real people in The Intangibles, but none of the characters was drawn fully on that basis.

About the Author:

Monte Dutton lives in Clinton, South Carolina. In high school, he played football for a state championship team, then attended Furman University, Greenville, S.C., graduating in 1980, B.A., cum laude, political science/history.

He spent 20 years (1993-2012)wriing about NASCAR for several publications. He was named Writer of the Year by the Eastern Motorsports Press Association (Frank Blunk Award) in 2003 and Writer of the Year by the National Motorsports Press Association (George Cunningham Award) in 2008. His NASCAR writing was syndicated by King Feature Syndicate in the form of a weekly page, “NASCAR This Week” for 17 years.

Monte Dutton is also the author of Pride of Clinton, a history of high school football in his hometown, 1986; At Speed, 2000 (Potomac Books); Rebel with a Cause: A Season with NASCAR’s Tony Stewart, 2001 (Potomac Books); Jeff Gordon: The Racer, 2001 (Thomas Nelson); Postcards from Pit Road, 2003 (Potomac Books); Haul A** and Turn Left, 2005 (Warner Books), True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed, 2006. (Bison Books); and is an Editor/Contributor of Taking Stock: Life in NASCAR’s Fast Lane, 2004 (Potomac Books).

The Audacity of Dope, 2011 (Neverland Publishing) was his first novel, and Neverland recently published his second, The Intangibles. Another, Crazy by Natural Causes, is in the works.

Visit the author’s website, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY
U.S. entrants only, please.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: giveaway, guest post Tagged With: ,

Guest Post: Visions of the Moon by Erica Goss

December 10, 2013 by

Erica Goss, the poet who wrote Wild Place, continues to keep us up to date on her 12 Moons project with vocal talents of Nic S. and the musical talents of Kathy McTavish. We’ll be sure to keep everyone in the look on this collaborative project. Check out the first guest post, her Writing Down the Moon guest post, her Voice of the Moon guest post, and the Music of the Moon guest post.

Please gave Erica a warm welcome.

complex flavors:
bark mulch, oyster shell,
lime, charcoal,
stone releasing
the sun’s warmth
at night.

        from “Strawberry Moon” by Erica Goss

As I wrote in the first blog post for 12 Moons, the video artist Swoon envisioned this project, put the artistic team together, and created the twelve videos using my poems, Nic S.’s voice, and Kathy McTavish’s music. Swoon is a video-quilter, turning poetry, voice, music and images into haunting and beautiful experiences. From the tentative beginnings of this project, which began with two poems I sent him in a “what do you think” email, he imagined a series of twelve videos based on those and ten more poems, each one titled after a traditional name for the full moon.

Swoon’s video poems have been described as dream-like, full of flickering images, color, and sound. They don’t tell stories chronologically; like dreams, they deliver an experience that’s difficult to describe. As Swoon himself says, “Videos should not just show what’s going on in the poem – as in, the poem mentions a leaf falling and sure enough, you see a leaf falling. I want something that takes more imagination.” (You can read an interview with Swoon in my column at Connotation Press.

I asked Swoon about his inspiration for what became 12 Moons.

“You sent me those two poems, ‘Strawberry Moon’ and ‘Snow Moon,’ and mentioned it was going to be a series. I had just done Circle and was looking for another bigger project. I immediately saw a ‘calendar of video poems.’”

Each of the videos is both separate and linked. How did you find the common thread that connects them?

“For me the common thread is your voice in those poems. So when you read them or hear them read out loud by Nic, they all connect by the choice of words, their rhythm…all different but all from the same source. When you watch and listen to the videos, that connection is made stronger because of Kathy’s sounds. I also made visual links between them, small blips from one video appear in the next one.”

12 Moons is a linked work, like your film Circle. Do you anticipate making longer films in the future?

“I would love to. I have this idea for a more ‘regular’ short film, with a regular storyline and characters, but with all of the dialog coming from poetry. It’s going to take time and money to make that, and as we speak, I don’t have enough of both to do so now.”

Can you describe why certain poems attract you as a filmmaker?

“No. I just follow my gut. It can be the poem as a whole, a certain phrase, a word, the rhythm and music of the poem … the title even. When I read (or rather listen, because I prefer to hear poetry) and I get images, it takes me places. It’s a good poem for me. The overall ‘music of the poem’ must appeal. It’s hard to put a finger on – it’s a gut feeling.”

When I watch your videos, I often feel that you make the unseen visible. Is that a deliberate decision you make?

“Yes and no. I look for underlying thoughts in a poem (very often my own thoughts, I guess – my projections) and try to give the video visual hints of that. Not even visualize those thoughts literally, but more of a hint, an atmosphere. I try and combine that with the actual lines or words of the poem.”

Your work respects the poetry. It never uses a poem as a vehicle for visual expression. How do you achieve the balance of image, sound and word?

“Trial and error. I begin, create, mix and hope for the best. Sometimes it works, very often it doesn’t and I try again. But even when it doesn’t, it might still be a good video for another reason, or for something else. It’s like a John Cage quote I recently read: ‘Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.’ I think I like to work by those lines.”

Here is the trailer for 12 Moons:

12 Moons (teaser) from Marc Neys (aka Swoon) on Vimeo.

12 Moons is an artwork combining poetry, voice, music and video. Twelve poems written by Erica Goss form the narrative. The poems move through a year of full moons, reflecting the hidden influence of the moon on one person’s life. Kathy McTavish’s original music adds complexity to Nic S.’s intense and compelling narration, framed by Swoon’s precise editing of sound and image, which creates a miniature universe for each poem within the context of the project.

12 Moons will appear beginning January 2014 at Atticus Review.

Here are links to the artists involved in 12 Moons:

  • Swoon’s website
  • Kathy McTavish’s website
  • Erica Goss’s website
  • Erica Goss’s column on video poetry.

How excited are you to get your hands on this project?

Save

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: ,

Guest Post: Music of the Moon by Erica Goss

November 21, 2013 by

Erica Goss, the poet who wrote Wild Place, continues to keep us up to date on her 12 Moons project with vocal talents of Nic S. and the musical talents of Kathy McTavish. We’ll be sure to keep everyone in the look on this collaborative project.  Check out the first guest post, her second guest post, and her third guest post.

Please gave Erica a warm welcome.

In the city I love, I stand
next to strangers who talk
of Mumbai or Beijing
while we wait for fish tacos,
reading enigmas in spray-paint,
solemn obedient children
gathered beneath the fall moon,
resplendent with energy
filched from the sun.

             from “Trapper’s Moon” by Erica Goss

As a child I practiced Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on my family’s battered Wurlitzer. The music seemed to start and end at the same place, reflecting the waxing and waning of the moon. I can still hear my piano teacher reminding me to “slow down, don’t rush the music,” and the tones I coaxed from that old piano.

I recently learned that Beethoven did not name his piece “Moonlight Sonata.” That name came from German music critic (and poet) Ludwig Rellstab, who compared the first movement of “Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor” to the moonlight reflected on the water of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. Regardless, the name stuck, and certainly influenced my experience of the music.

Cellist, composer and multi media artist Kathy McTavish makes soundscapes that evoke moonlight on water. In 12 Moons, many of the poems incorporate the idea that the moon influences our lives in unseen ways, tugging at us with gravity and forcing us into cycles like ocean tides. Kathy’s music explores that mysterious, liminal place. In her artist’s statement, she writes “My cross-sensory, blurred vision of the world impacts my visual language. I am inspired by emergent, organic forms, beat poets and abstract expressionist art.” Kathy’s soundscapes anchor the mood of 12 Moons, linking image and voice.

I asked Kathy about how she creates soundscapes, and what she thinks makes a good video poem.

“I try to work with poetry in a way that’s somewhat ambiguous. In poetry there’s a sense of the submerged, of hidden things. I want to preserve that strangeness with my soundscapes. You have to be a good listener to capture those qualities, and remember that the poem is a separate thing, apart from even the poet. I feel that video poems work best when they are non-literal, and non-illustrative, since the poet lives in a visual world already. I like images that have a fleeting quality, like seeing people on a train for just a split second.

In an effective video poem, the viewer can’t really follow one element more than any other. There are three things going on: the poem, the sound and the images. Your attention shifts between them, and that gives you a floaty feeling. My favorites have a looseness to them. The images are part of the soundscape, because images are already coming from the poem.”

What’s your process for working with Swoon (Swoon is the video artist for 12 Moons)?

“I started by releasing sound fabrics and textures to Swoon. I wanted a certain quality, almost an iciness to the sound. Swoon took my sounds and morphed them further. I created sound samples, weaving in certain sounds I liked because they were edgy and strange. The last three (Moon) poems I did all of the sound for, keeping it minimal. I looked into the poems, trying to find where they unwound. I have always trusted Swoon’s vision as an artist, so when he asks me to participate in a video poetry project, I’m happy to do it. I know I’ll get to read really good poems – never any bad ones! Our collaborations work and I always learn something.”

How does it feel to play the cello?

“It’s been said that the cello expresses the grief of the world. It’s close to the human voice in pitch and register. You have to be loose to play the cello. You have to let go. The cello rests against the breastbone, and there’s a physical connection between you and the instrument. I was classically trained, but now I do abstract soundscapes, more of a sound art thing, and video installations. In an installation, a space can become like a book. I compose from the cello, and when I play, I visualize. Synesthetic fusions happen for me.”

Do you have anything else to share about this project?

“I love that it’s mapped into a life – a year. Like the moon, it’s luminous and textured. There is an awareness of cycles, of the moon’s influence on our human cycles, and of death.”

12 Moons will appear beginning January 2014 at Atticus Review.

The last post about the process of making 12 Moons appears next month. Here are links to the artists involved in 12 Moons:

  • Swoon’s website
  • Kathy McTavish’s website
  • Erica Goss’s website
  • Erica Goss’s column on video poetry.

I loved that Kathy wants to bring life to the hidden elements in the poems through her soundscapes. 

What are your thoughts so far on this project coming to us in January?

Save

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: ,

Guest Post: Voice of the Moon by Erica Goss

October 23, 2013 by

Erica Goss, the poet who wrote Wild Place, continues to keep us up to date on her 12 Moons project with vocal talents of Nic S. and the musical talents of Kathy McTavish. We’ll be sure to keep everyone in the look on this collaborative project.  Check out the first guest post and her second guest post.

Please give Erica a warm welcome:

The desire that woke you
full and constant,
flickers like antennae.

            from “Corn Moon” by Erica Goss

If the moon had a voice, what would it sound like? As “12 Moons” took shape, I began to hear a narrator in my head, a speaker with distinct qualities. The voice of the moon, I decided, must be a woman’s, full of emotional depth and mystery. I was delighted when Nic S. agreed to be the narrator of “12 Moons.”

I was already familiar with Nic’s work as a narrator, poet and video artist (read my interview with Nic at Connotation Press. Nic’s talents extend into alternative and creative paths to increasing the audience for poetry, which include the nanopress. (The nanopress delivers poetry to readers, listeners and viewers via a variety of media: website, PDF download, e-book, print version and CD. Read the details here.)

The choice of a narrator for a recorded poem is vitally important. Recordings of poetry often disappoint; they serve as documentation of a reader’s voice, perhaps, but don’t do much for the poem. This is sadly true of many recordings of poets reading their own work. I never considered using my own voice for this project, although I’ve made recordings before, nor did I contemplate using multiple voices. I wanted one distinct narrator to form a consistent link between all twelve poems. Nic is that link: her interpretation of each poem creates an individual experience while enabling the connection to the next poem.

I wrote most of the poems in “12 Moons” in either the first or second person. This facilitates intimacy between the narrator and the listener, perhaps even a brief relationship that exists within the context of the project. With that expectation, the vocal qualities of the narrator had to be those of someone whose voice is subtle, distinctive, and able to impart the overtones of a story told in poetry.

I asked Nic how it felt to be the reader of these poems. What was it like to interpret these words?

“Creating a recording of someone else’s work is always exploration, always adventure. I feel it as a beautiful way of both honoring and connecting with others. For me, voice is more than just a transmittal mechanism, more than just simple emission. As I always say, it’s an instrument of active investigation, and brings me information to process in the same way my eyes and ears and nose do. So that engaging only visually and intellectually with someone’s poems on the page is a qualitatively different (and poorer) experience for me than engaging with the same poems through the voicing, recording and editing process.

I will usually make two or three recordings of the same poem, then listen to them in sequence. As this process unfolds, it is often accompanied by little bursts of new understanding, new illuminations and new insights. It’s rare that I will use any single version for the final product – usually there is splicing between the versions, as I gain a better understanding of what the poem is saying to me. With Erica’s poem series, each poem was for me a little universe, a short trip into Erica’s mind, and the series itself was a larger universe, a longer trip, made up of her themes, her images, her metaphors and her word choices. I enjoyed Erica’s rather spare and unadorned diction and loved the imaginative way it engaged with the exotic moon theme in this series.”

As the reader of many poems that other people have written, is there a technique to making the words your own? Are there poems you haven’t wanted to read, or felt uncomfortable with? Why?

“Yes, in the past there were poems I felt I could not read. But a big part of that was an early conviction I had that the poem-on-the-page (the visual artifact) was necessarily tightly and irrevocably married to the poem-as-voice (the aural artifact). Here is a dialogue I had in 2010 with poet David Tomaloff, which convinced me that insisting on such tight linkage impoverished the poem’s potential, and that in fact each type of artefact (visual and aural) has a legitimate stand-alone artistic existence. Now, as long as the basic tradecraft in a poem is good, I am not sure I would say there are any poems I would not read. Any poem represents a dimension of human experience and, as such, no poem can at root be really alien to any of us.”

When did you realize that your voice was something special, a gift perhaps?

“I don’t know just when I realized that I had this ability to enter into poems using my voice and to reproduce them in ways that many poets have appreciated, but it was fairly recently – in the last five years or so. I have been both humbled by and grateful for the gift. I think as a community we fail to pay attention to the art of reading poetry for an audience (see discussion at this post and see Voice Alpha) and for the most part, when we do read for an audience, we unfortunately focus on reading our own poems.

I believe we are the worst readers of our poems, because we bring our entire universe into the reading of the poem and can therefore convey little new to ourselves or others in our reading. The revelations tend to come when you hear others reading your work, when you hear what they have made of your universe. I think the most frequent comment I heard when I was reading at Whale Sound was to the effect that the reading showed them aspects of and connections within the poem of which they had been unaware. It gives me great happiness to contribute in this small way to the poetry community.”

12 Moons will appear beginning January 2014 at Atticus Review.

More about the process of making 12 Moons in the next post. Here are links to the artists involved in 12 Moons:

  • Swoon’s website
  • Kathy McTavish’s website
  • Erica Goss’s website
  • Erica Goss’s column on video poetry.

I really enjoyed what Nic had to say about the universes that came alive for her when reading Goss’ poems.  I also love what she says about poets being the worst readers of their own poems. 

What are your thoughts so far on this project coming to us in January?

Save

Filed Under: guest post Tagged With: ,