Jeannine also has this on her blog. I love it! It's the Seattle WaMu Building jack o'lantern style.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
_____PM.JPG)
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Who Killed the Electric Car? -- Have you seen this movie?
You should. 
It makes me want to change the name of General Motors to General Monster.
It makes me want to change the name of General Motors to General Monster.
Monday, October 29, 2007
MoonPerfect
Here's a recent moon photo from a small beach town I live near in the Pacific Northwest.
I think it's the Hunter's Moon as the Harvest moon is usually in September.
I think it's the Hunter's Moon as the Harvest moon is usually in September.
What I Saw on my Autumn Vacation--
Moonlight in Carmel, California
Egret in Pebble Beach or Monterey
Fall Colors in Ashland, Oregon
Jellyfish at the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Hey, it's 5 a.m., let's retitle our manuscripts!
The Art of Titles--
This is earlier than I normally get up, but I woke up at 4 and after an hour of not being able to fall back asleep, I decided to go downstairs and work on my manuscript. (Did I tell you I'm changing titles again?) So for the last 88 minutes I've been looking at the notes I've written about this manuscript and what I'm trying to do. I have two possibilities for new titles, neither seeming too perfect this early in the morning. From my bed, I had it all figured out, but now from here, in the actual pages of my manuscript, what seemed like a solution ends up just being another question.
So I'm thinking about titles this morning.
Some of my favorite titles are from Tupelo Press--
Miracle Fruit by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Dancing in Odessa by Ilya Kaminsky
I love
Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen
and Jeannine Hall Gailey's Becoming the Villainess
Other favorite titles of mine?
The Cartographer's Tongue by Susan Rich
Albert Goldbarth's Budget Travel Through Space & Time
Richard Blanco's City of a Hundred Fires
and Nin Andrew's has created her own art form with titles:
The Book of Orgasms
Mid-Life Crisis with Dick & Jane
Sleeping With Houdini
So...somewhere out in the pages of the dictionary are the words to my title, I guess I just need to find them, one word at a time.
* * * *
This is earlier than I normally get up, but I woke up at 4 and after an hour of not being able to fall back asleep, I decided to go downstairs and work on my manuscript. (Did I tell you I'm changing titles again?) So for the last 88 minutes I've been looking at the notes I've written about this manuscript and what I'm trying to do. I have two possibilities for new titles, neither seeming too perfect this early in the morning. From my bed, I had it all figured out, but now from here, in the actual pages of my manuscript, what seemed like a solution ends up just being another question.
So I'm thinking about titles this morning.
Some of my favorite titles are from Tupelo Press--
Miracle Fruit by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Dancing in Odessa by Ilya Kaminsky
I love
Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen
and Jeannine Hall Gailey's Becoming the Villainess
Other favorite titles of mine?
The Cartographer's Tongue by Susan Rich
Albert Goldbarth's Budget Travel Through Space & Time
Richard Blanco's City of a Hundred Fires
and Nin Andrew's has created her own art form with titles:
The Book of Orgasms
Mid-Life Crisis with Dick & Jane
Sleeping With Houdini
So...somewhere out in the pages of the dictionary are the words to my title, I guess I just need to find them, one word at a time.
* * * *
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Where I've Been---
While you've been good writers blogging and writing poetry, we've been here, doing stuff like this--
Make sure to notice who has the highest score.
If you look closely you can see I'm actually reciting "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" as I knock out evil aliens. Actually, what can I say, sometimes you just need to sample the dessert tray of life and minus the fires around us, California and Oregon were fantastic. We are home safely and with many stories.
I've decided the best time to travel is in the off season when all the tourists are caught deep in their own lives. We had beaches, aquariums, missions, museums, galleries to ourselves. Wait until you see the photos of the jellyfish room from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We all need our own jellyfish room.
More to tell soon.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Great News!
***This a fantastic book if you haven't read it yet. I just received my copy and what wonderful work this is!
And here's the great news---
Announcement, Winners of THE GLOBAL FILIPINO LITERARY AWARD FOR POETRY
We are very pleased to announce that TRILL & MORDENT by Luisa Igloria shares
the Global Filipino Literary Award with PUTI / WHITE by Patria Rivera,
for Poetry published in 2005.
TRILL & MORDENT will be submitted to the Library of Congress
and will receive a special catalog number for inclusion in
the Global Filipino Literary Awards Collection
housed permanently in the Library's Asian Reading Room .
CONGRATS Luisa!
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Is she spinning Counterclockwise or Clockwise??
THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?
_________________________________
_________________________________
Here's a link to the full article (Also, the image of the dancer is better here than what I was able to upload to my blog.)
If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa.
Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.
LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic
detail oriented
facts rule
words and language
present and past
math and science
can comprehend
knowing
acknowledges
order/pattern perception
knows object name
reality based
forms strategies
practical
safe
RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses feeling
"big picture" oriented
imagination rules
symbols and images
present and future
philosophy & religion
can "get it" (i.e. meaning)
believes
appreciates
spatial perception
knows object function
fantasy based
presents possibilities
impetuous
risk taking
Monday, October 15, 2007
How to Introduce Your Children to Edgar Allen Poe
One of my favorite Halloween traditions is to watch this.
Who knew the Simpsons and Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven were such a good match?
Saturday, October 13, 2007
From Al Gore...
Yes, Al Gore sends me email. Yes, he sends a lot of people emails. But I thought I'd share this as I was impressed (but not surprised) that he donating the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection. There's a link below if you'd like to check out the organization.
*
Subject line: I am deeply honored.
I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis--a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.
Thank you,
Al Gore
*
Subject line: I am deeply honored.
I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis--a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.
Thank you,
Al Gore
Questions About Success
Joannie asked some good questions on her blog about writing and how to keep going when you are going through a dryspell or feeling a little down...
Here are my responses to her questions...
How do you find encouragement or validation?
***I return to the friends who are writers and know my previous successes and get a pep talk or even just to talk to them. Get out of my cave and realize that success goes up and down. Some days you're the prized pony, other days you're just pulling the cart.
When my friends aren't around or I don't feel like assigning anyone the role of "friend," I remind myself that I'd be doing this despite publication or awards. I honestly believe there is nothing more important than participating in the creative arts, no matter what they are (did you read Li-Young Lee's interview I posted, he said something similar, though a little more poetic).
If I'm going through a rejection phase or a lot of nothingness (which I am), I just tell myself that it's not my time right now and to keep trying. I just found out I didn't get an Artist Trust Fellowship. I was bummed. But talking with one of the winners I realized that it was her time for this success and not mine. I felt better after seeing how she will benefit more from the fellowship than I would.
How do you measure "success" (on your own, in your writing community)?
***I try not too. If I even find myself comparing myself to anyone, I pull back immediately. I think comparisons are one of the best inspiration killers. I have always measured success in my feeling of happiness, contentment, and fulfillment. Poetry helps fill those categories.
If I thought "Prize X" = success than I would lose track of what I'm doing. I'd be expecting others to validate me as opposed to validating myself by writing. I guess I've begun to care less and less about what others think and external success. My new mantra is "It's not my business what others think of me." Just as I can't let myself be down when I'm not receiving acceptances, awards, publication, I cannot allow them to create my happiness either. Both are subjective. Both require other people to validate me and call me "good." In the end, they are usually one person's opinion.
How do you keep in the top of your mind the real why you write poetry?
***the real *reason?* I write poetry.
For me it returns to that Berryman poem by WS Merwin. I don't know what any of this means, why I do it, or how it will turn out. But I feel I need to do it. I just try to stay focused on the poem and let the other thoughts slip past me.
How do you keep on keepin' on?
***Good question! I think a little faith help and a little desperation. Also, not having many other skills keeps me writing too. ;-)
I just remind myself-- if I had all the money in the world, how would I spend your time?
My answer is always writing (and traveling) so I know I'm doing what I love to do, so I keep doing it.
* * * *
I've posted this here before, but here it is again--
Berryman
I will tell you what he told me
in the years just after the war
as we then called
the second world war
don't lose your arrogance yet he said
you can do that when you're older
lose it too soon and you may
merely replace it with vanity
just one time he suggested
changing the usual order
of the same words in a line of verse
why point out a thing twice
he suggested I pray to the Muse
get down on my knees and pray
right there in the corner and he
said he meant it literally
it was in the days before the beard
and the drink but he was deep
in tides of his own through which he sailed
chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop
he was far older than the dates allowed for
much older than I was he was in his thirties
he snapped down his nose with an accent
I think he had affected in England
as for publishing he advised me
to paper my wall with rejection slips
his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled
with the vehemence of his views about poetry
he said the great presence
that permitted everything and transmuted it
in poetry was passion
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention
I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can't
you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write
WS Merwin
Here are my responses to her questions...
How do you find encouragement or validation?
***I return to the friends who are writers and know my previous successes and get a pep talk or even just to talk to them. Get out of my cave and realize that success goes up and down. Some days you're the prized pony, other days you're just pulling the cart.
When my friends aren't around or I don't feel like assigning anyone the role of "friend," I remind myself that I'd be doing this despite publication or awards. I honestly believe there is nothing more important than participating in the creative arts, no matter what they are (did you read Li-Young Lee's interview I posted, he said something similar, though a little more poetic).
If I'm going through a rejection phase or a lot of nothingness (which I am), I just tell myself that it's not my time right now and to keep trying. I just found out I didn't get an Artist Trust Fellowship. I was bummed. But talking with one of the winners I realized that it was her time for this success and not mine. I felt better after seeing how she will benefit more from the fellowship than I would.
How do you measure "success" (on your own, in your writing community)?
***I try not too. If I even find myself comparing myself to anyone, I pull back immediately. I think comparisons are one of the best inspiration killers. I have always measured success in my feeling of happiness, contentment, and fulfillment. Poetry helps fill those categories.
If I thought "Prize X" = success than I would lose track of what I'm doing. I'd be expecting others to validate me as opposed to validating myself by writing. I guess I've begun to care less and less about what others think and external success. My new mantra is "It's not my business what others think of me." Just as I can't let myself be down when I'm not receiving acceptances, awards, publication, I cannot allow them to create my happiness either. Both are subjective. Both require other people to validate me and call me "good." In the end, they are usually one person's opinion.
How do you keep in the top of your mind the real why you write poetry?
***the real *reason?* I write poetry.
For me it returns to that Berryman poem by WS Merwin. I don't know what any of this means, why I do it, or how it will turn out. But I feel I need to do it. I just try to stay focused on the poem and let the other thoughts slip past me.
How do you keep on keepin' on?
***Good question! I think a little faith help and a little desperation. Also, not having many other skills keeps me writing too. ;-)
I just remind myself-- if I had all the money in the world, how would I spend your time?
My answer is always writing (and traveling) so I know I'm doing what I love to do, so I keep doing it.
* * * *
I've posted this here before, but here it is again--
Berryman
I will tell you what he told me
in the years just after the war
as we then called
the second world war
don't lose your arrogance yet he said
you can do that when you're older
lose it too soon and you may
merely replace it with vanity
just one time he suggested
changing the usual order
of the same words in a line of verse
why point out a thing twice
he suggested I pray to the Muse
get down on my knees and pray
right there in the corner and he
said he meant it literally
it was in the days before the beard
and the drink but he was deep
in tides of his own through which he sailed
chin sideways and head tilted like a tacking sloop
he was far older than the dates allowed for
much older than I was he was in his thirties
he snapped down his nose with an accent
I think he had affected in England
as for publishing he advised me
to paper my wall with rejection slips
his lips and the bones of his long fingers trembled
with the vehemence of his views about poetry
he said the great presence
that permitted everything and transmuted it
in poetry was passion
passion was genius and he praised movement and invention
I had hardly begun to read
I asked how can you ever be sure
that what you write is really
any good at all and he said you can't
you can't you can never be sure
you die without knowing
whether anything you wrote was any good
if you have to be sure don't write
WS Merwin
Friday, October 12, 2007
The Futility Review
Looking at Jeff Bahr's publication rankings I was thrilled to see that while I did achieve a "9" publication with The Atlantic Monthly, I also achieved their only "10" ranking because I definitely saw my name on the back of The Futility Review for their Winter 2003 issue for my non-acceptance. Yes, I remember it well because that issue I was definitely not featured with Peter Pereira, Eduardo Corral, Sandra Beasley, Ivy Alvarez, and others. Wow, life is so great with all the things I didn't achieve with other poets I admire.
But the best part of the Futility Review is their merchandise: When your best just isn't good enough t-shirt. Nothing says "poet" more than this.
But the best part of the Futility Review is their merchandise: When your best just isn't good enough t-shirt. Nothing says "poet" more than this.
Ode to the Midwest by Kevin Young
Someone sent me this poem today. It's just too good not to share...
Ode to the Midwest
by Kevin Young
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest—Bob Dylan
I want to be doused
in cheese
& fried. I want
to wander
the aisles, my heart's
supermarket stocked high
as cholesterol. I want to die
wearing a sweatsuit—
I want to live
forever in a Christmas sweater,
a teddy bear nursing
off the front. I want to write
a check in the express lane.
I want to scrape
my driveway clean
myself, early, before
anyone's awake—
that'll put em to shame—
I want to see what the sun
sees before it tells
the snow to go. I want to be
the only black person I know.
I want to throw
out my back & not
complain about it.
I wanta drive
two blocks. Why walk—
I want love, n stuff—
I want to cut
my sutures myself.
I want to jog
down to the river
& make it my bed—
I want to walk
its muddy banks
& make me a withdrawal.
I tried jumping in,
found it frozen—
I'll go home, I guess,
to my rooms where the moon
changes & shines
like television.
Ode to the Midwest
by Kevin Young
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest—Bob Dylan
I want to be doused
in cheese
& fried. I want
to wander
the aisles, my heart's
supermarket stocked high
as cholesterol. I want to die
wearing a sweatsuit—
I want to live
forever in a Christmas sweater,
a teddy bear nursing
off the front. I want to write
a check in the express lane.
I want to scrape
my driveway clean
myself, early, before
anyone's awake—
that'll put em to shame—
I want to see what the sun
sees before it tells
the snow to go. I want to be
the only black person I know.
I want to throw
out my back & not
complain about it.
I wanta drive
two blocks. Why walk—
I want love, n stuff—
I want to cut
my sutures myself.
I want to jog
down to the river
& make it my bed—
I want to walk
its muddy banks
& make me a withdrawal.
I tried jumping in,
found it frozen—
I'll go home, I guess,
to my rooms where the moon
changes & shines
like television.
People Doing Good Things--
YEAH AL! Now can you be our president?
Al Gore & UN Panel wins Nobel Peace Prize
Former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming
Read about it here.
Oh there is a part of me that knows he wouldn't be receiving this honor right now if he were president. He would have been too busy with America's problems and not the world's, but there is a selfish part of me that wishes these last seven years weren't the Dingbat and Ratty show.
I still hope Al Gore will run for the 2008. So do many people here.
Anyway, good news in the world today. At least one superhero was recognized for his important work without trying to steal his cape and for once no one turned the camera to the WonderTwins coming out of rehab.
* * * *
Diet, Curse, Hate (the Suburban Mom version)--
I've started reading EAT, PRAY, LOVE. I'm probably the last woman in America reading this book. I think my copy has been in the hands of many others.
Right now, I'm enjoying it though I still want to know why their marriage broke up and she said in the book something like "it's too personal to write about here..." Did I miss something? Isn't this why I'm reading this book, for the personal? I can get the watered-down version of people's lives from the PTA Moms.
Still, I like it.
* * * * *
Li-Young Lee Groupies Unite--
I'm glad others enjoyed the Li-Young Lee interview. He's also a favorite of mine. And it looks as if his new book will be out in a few months... It's called BEHIND MY EYES and comes with an audio CD! Now how cool is that. This will knock him into rockstar status, well, rockstar for poets, which means none of our friends will know who he is, but plan on arriving early for any reading he does.
I'm surprised other poets haven't done the book/CD thing. I have Billy Collin's Best Cigarette and also a reading a friend gave me where Bill Murray introduces him. I had the Language of Life on cassette and I loved listening to that. Local poet Elizabeth Austen has a lovely CD of her poems.
Maybe this is what we should all move to, book and CD. Or maybe just save these for our poetry superstars.
Al Gore & UN Panel wins Nobel Peace Prize
Former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work to raise awareness about global warming
Read about it here.
Oh there is a part of me that knows he wouldn't be receiving this honor right now if he were president. He would have been too busy with America's problems and not the world's, but there is a selfish part of me that wishes these last seven years weren't the Dingbat and Ratty show.
I still hope Al Gore will run for the 2008. So do many people here.
Anyway, good news in the world today. At least one superhero was recognized for his important work without trying to steal his cape and for once no one turned the camera to the WonderTwins coming out of rehab.
* * * *
Diet, Curse, Hate (the Suburban Mom version)--
I've started reading EAT, PRAY, LOVE. I'm probably the last woman in America reading this book. I think my copy has been in the hands of many others.
Right now, I'm enjoying it though I still want to know why their marriage broke up and she said in the book something like "it's too personal to write about here..." Did I miss something? Isn't this why I'm reading this book, for the personal? I can get the watered-down version of people's lives from the PTA Moms.
Still, I like it.
* * * * *
Li-Young Lee Groupies Unite--
I'm glad others enjoyed the Li-Young Lee interview. He's also a favorite of mine. And it looks as if his new book will be out in a few months... It's called BEHIND MY EYES and comes with an audio CD! Now how cool is that. This will knock him into rockstar status, well, rockstar for poets, which means none of our friends will know who he is, but plan on arriving early for any reading he does.
I'm surprised other poets haven't done the book/CD thing. I have Billy Collin's Best Cigarette and also a reading a friend gave me where Bill Murray introduces him. I had the Language of Life on cassette and I loved listening to that. Local poet Elizabeth Austen has a lovely CD of her poems.
Maybe this is what we should all move to, book and CD. Or maybe just save these for our poetry superstars.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Li-Young Lee Interview 2007
Here's a bit from it--
I think that there's nothing more you can do than to make art. To write poems. And I came to the conclusion that aesthetic awareness—or aesthetic consciousness or aesthetic presence—is the only possible ethical presence we have. And so I went from thinking that the practice of aesthetics was a complete waste of time to thinking that aesthetic awareness is the most complete form of awareness we have.
Li-Young Lee
I think that there's nothing more you can do than to make art. To write poems. And I came to the conclusion that aesthetic awareness—or aesthetic consciousness or aesthetic presence—is the only possible ethical presence we have. And so I went from thinking that the practice of aesthetics was a complete waste of time to thinking that aesthetic awareness is the most complete form of awareness we have.
Li-Young Lee
Random Thoughts on a Thursday
Morning Headlines & Flashback to HS--
This headline made me smile this morning: Jimmy Carter calls Cheney a "disaster"
I like this new use of the word "disaster" and I've been seeing it a lot more in reference to people--Britney Spears, I think Donald Trump called Rosie O'Donnell a disaster--and it brings me back to high school Driver's Ed when Mark, my ridiculous driving partner panicked in the Sears parking lot and started swerving in and out of cars. All he could say while Mr. Stoddard tried to press down on the teacher's brake located on the passenger side of the car was "I'm a disaster. And I'm causing a disaster." As frightened as I was for my life, I was impressed with Ridiculous Mark's way of finding the right words.
*
What I've been Googling--
Sometimes I think I could write a poem from the phrases I've googled. Maybe this should be a challenge. I realized yesterday I googled "insects in space," "planet Yellowjacket," and "bee satellites." All would make intriguing titles to poems.
*
Sherman Alexie News--
FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES:
Sherman Alexie among National Book Award finalists
Seattle author, film director and essayist Sherman Alexie's young-adult novel based on his life,
"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," is a finalist for the National Book Award.
Alexie, 41, is one of five finalists in the young people's category. Reached Wednesday in Miami, where he's on a book tour, Alexie said, "I'm ecstatic. My editor woke me up with the news. I thought I was dreaming."
Alexie said the book, about a young Native American who survives a harrowing upbringing on his reservation and leaves to pursue his dreams, has touched a chord like none other of his works.
"The response from the road is larger than anything in my career," he said. "My wife and I are calling it the hug-and-run tour. People are coming up in tears, and hugging me and running. There is no jaded literary response among the audience. It's so validating."
Alexie said the "very, very autobiographical" nature of the book makes the attention even more gratifying. "It's scary to put a very close version of my story out in the world — there's a lot of emotional capital at stake. I keep thinking of my mom and dad years ago, who somehow had the bravery to let me go."
Read full story here.
This headline made me smile this morning: Jimmy Carter calls Cheney a "disaster"
I like this new use of the word "disaster" and I've been seeing it a lot more in reference to people--Britney Spears, I think Donald Trump called Rosie O'Donnell a disaster--and it brings me back to high school Driver's Ed when Mark, my ridiculous driving partner panicked in the Sears parking lot and started swerving in and out of cars. All he could say while Mr. Stoddard tried to press down on the teacher's brake located on the passenger side of the car was "I'm a disaster. And I'm causing a disaster." As frightened as I was for my life, I was impressed with Ridiculous Mark's way of finding the right words.
*
What I've been Googling--
Sometimes I think I could write a poem from the phrases I've googled. Maybe this should be a challenge. I realized yesterday I googled "insects in space," "planet Yellowjacket," and "bee satellites." All would make intriguing titles to poems.
*
Sherman Alexie News--
FROM THE SEATTLE TIMES:
Sherman Alexie among National Book Award finalists
Seattle author, film director and essayist Sherman Alexie's young-adult novel based on his life,
"The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," is a finalist for the National Book Award.
Alexie, 41, is one of five finalists in the young people's category. Reached Wednesday in Miami, where he's on a book tour, Alexie said, "I'm ecstatic. My editor woke me up with the news. I thought I was dreaming."
Alexie said the book, about a young Native American who survives a harrowing upbringing on his reservation and leaves to pursue his dreams, has touched a chord like none other of his works.
"The response from the road is larger than anything in my career," he said. "My wife and I are calling it the hug-and-run tour. People are coming up in tears, and hugging me and running. There is no jaded literary response among the audience. It's so validating."
Alexie said the "very, very autobiographical" nature of the book makes the attention even more gratifying. "It's scary to put a very close version of my story out in the world — there's a lot of emotional capital at stake. I keep thinking of my mom and dad years ago, who somehow had the bravery to let me go."
Read full story here.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
And Now You Know A Little More About My Brain...
| You Are 45% Left Brained, 55% Right Brained |
 The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports. |
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
The Gong Show
The Explorer Writes in Her Journal--
Well, yesterday was Columbus Day and I celebrated by trying to mail a letter and going to a closed library. A perfect way to commemorate a faux-holiday. My daughter has known the phrase "Euro-centric" in regards to Columbus Day since she was three. I think Chris Rock said it best regarding Columbus-- "The land he discovered had occupants on it. That's like discovering someone's back yard."
So yesterday stumbled upon a new shop in my town I've never seen and claimed it for my family. I also took ownership of a latte stand, an acre of blackberry bushes, and renamed Puget Sound, Puget Kelli. I feel good about what I accomplished in the new world and look forward to other discoveries I will make in my lifetime.
*
Not Poetry, but Dessert
We made Halloween funfetti cupcakes yesterday. Revised: My husband and daughter made funfetti cupcakes, I helped decorate them.
*
Poem With Attitude
I'm working on a poem right now that is trying to torture a confession out of me. I put the poem on a pedestal and it falls off. I hold the poem up to the light and I can see through it. The poem laughs off my revisions. I tell the poem to stop talking so loudly so I can work and it whistles the theme song to Mission Impossible. I tell the poem I can hear its sarcasm. The poem tells me to stop, relax, and come back later. I tell the poem no better time than the present. I tell the poem, now now now. The poem puts a bag over itself. The poem becomes the Unknown Comic. I tell the poem that I mean it no harm, but it can't hear me as I snap it with my pen. The poem reaches for the gong and I leave the stage.
Monday, October 08, 2007
How Rich Are You?
Here's a great website, especially good when you are feeling down about money (or lack of money).
See where you are on the Global Rich List...
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And this blurb is from The Smart Woman's Guide to a Simple Life:
You know that phrase, "The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer?" According to a new University of Michigan study, it's true: Over the last 20 years, the net worth of the top two percentile of American families nearly doubled, from $1,071,000 in 1984 to $2,100,500 in 2005. But the poorest quarter of American families lost ground over the same period, with their 2005 net worth below their 1984 net worth (the poorest ten percent actually had a negative net worth--more debt than assets).
Yet USA Today just reported this year, in a top 25 trends story, that luxury is now mainstream. "Enjoying fancy perks no longer takes Bill Gates' fortune. Average Joes enjoy $4 cups of Joe at Starbucks, guzzle bottled water, feast on Godiva chocolates, drag suitcases on wheels, sit on heated car seats and let GPS systems guide them."
So what's the deal here? A tiny fraction of people are rich, but we can all afford gourmet chocolates? The real wealth gap is between all of us in the U.S., rich and poor, and the vast majority of the world. If you were an individual living at or below the poverty line, defined in the U.S. in 2006 as $10,294, you'd still be in the top 13 percent of income levels around the world. If you've ever lived in or traveled in a poor country, you know firsthand how superfluous all of our things and luxuries back home seem when you're overseas staring in the face of a child who only gets one meal a day or a single mom living in a rattrap and supporting a family on less than $5 a day. Of course we have to consider cost of living and other socioeconomic factors, but it's still a good reminder every once in awhile that, even if we're not exactly raking in the millions, we're still comparatively pretty well off. No more complaining about the rich: we are the rich.
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****And always remember, money is just *one* thing to consider when determining how rich you are. Don't forget about health, good friends, happiness, arts.
Top 5 Things that Make Me Feel Rich (in no particular order)--
1) Hot hot showers
2) Being able to buy books
3) Having friends I can call
4) A warm house with family
5) The occasional Perrier with a lemon twist
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Sunday Thoughts...
In The House of Unfinished Projects--
This morning it was me against the hedge. I can't say the hedge won, but I didn't win either. Rematch on Tuesday with better tools. Note to nature lovers-- You may love nature, but if you want to privacy between you and your neighbors, build a fence. A fence doesn't try to eat your house.
This morning it was me against the hedge. I can't say the hedge won, but I didn't win either. Rematch on Tuesday with better tools. Note to nature lovers-- You may love nature, but if you want to privacy between you and your neighbors, build a fence. A fence doesn't try to eat your house.
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My Favorite People Get GAP Grants--
I just received my ArtSource magazine and was browsing through I saw photos of several friends who received GAP grants this year.
Washington State has the coolest organization -- ARTIST TRUST. They support all artists--writers, visual, media, performance, etc. Every year they give out Artist Trust GAP grants and this year, four writers I know all received one: Jeannine Hall Gailey, Ronda Broatch, Martha Silano, and Susan Rich. You can see their photos as well a brief description on what they are working on here.
Other impressive writer friends who have received GAP grants are: Annette Spaulding-Convy (also a Floating Bridge Chapbook winner) and Jenifer Lawrence whose first book just came out from Blue Begonia Press. As well as Jeannette Allée, Molly Tenenbaum, Erin Malone, Ted McMahon, Melanie Noel, Derek Sheffield, & Frances McCue. Artist Trust does a great job of supporting such important work.
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Shopping List--
Yogurt
Bananas
Decaf Coffee
Whipped Cream
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Touch of Autumn--
Last night we made caramel apples and I made another pan of Apple Brown Betty (I think I'm addicted). I've also been into the York Peppermint patties in the shape of bats. The inside of our house is decorated for Halloween with the old paper decorations that were around when I was little (witch face, cat with moveable legs, skeleton also moveable, scarecrow, pumpkin) as well as these cool paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling.
We have a creepy spider that walks and sings "Itsy Bitsy Spider" in a scary witchy voice. It's even creepier because its batteries are dying. It's also has a motion censor so every time we sit down at the table, it starts singing and walking. If you look closely you will see that its slightly burned from last year when my firefighter husband thought it would be extra spooky hanging from the light. I just remember my daughter saying, "Do you smell something burning?" and finding creepy spider melting onto the hot lightbulb. (I also have a melted mask from this same kind of tomfoolery...)
Sleeping with Houdini by Nin Andrews
I can't remember when I first discovered the work of Nin Andrews. I had read her poems in journals and then a friend suggested Nin's The Book of Orgasms to me. It was fantastic and ended up being one of the books I featured in my final critical paper where I explored women poets such as Nin Andrews, Denise Duhamel, Lucille Clifton, and Dorothy Barresi who use humor to deal with more serious subjects.
So, when I hear Nin had a new book out-- SLEEPING WITH HOUDINI (BOA Editions, 2007)-- I had to get my hands on it. Physically, the book is gorgeous. For book lovers, it's a reminder why ebooks just haven't caught on. The weight of the book, the colors in cover, the smell of the paper, just holding this book feels good.
But of course, poetry lovers need to also be taken by what's inside. And I was. The book is a series of prose poems, each one offering surprise and wit, intrigue and story. And while each poem balances off the other poems, they are uniquely different. Like "Aspirin," which begins, The day I ate two bottles of St. Joseph's baby aspirin, my mother was out of town. . .
And I think it's these moments in the book that capture me, these small daily incidents that Nin weaves into so much more. The characters in this book become not-so-much heroes in their own stories, but the people you want to listen to who aren't afraid to share the details, who are discovering things themselves as in "When a Woman Loves a Man--" I was eating scones and sipping espresso at the Cafe Arabica when I learned of my love affair with you...
And maybe that's the magic of the collection, I never knew what I was going to discover on each page. And while the rest of my world buzzed around me, I was in a poem ("Winging It") with Robert Bly and a girl was trying to kiss her elbow to turn herself into a boy. And it's too good to explain here, so you'll have to read it yourself to see how a poet instructed to a group to write a poem about a thing they worshipped (like an onion or stone) then add a sin to it or confess something.
But I need to leave you with something, so here's a favorite poem of mine called
MAKING THE SUN RISE
In those days the girl could make the sun rise. Each day it began as a tiny glow the size of an apple seed in the center of her forehead before expanding, stretching out like melted taffy across the hardwood floor, then crawling up the windowsill and out into the streets. She could feel its white heat beneath her skin as an electric current, leaving her thoughts and dreams as each fragile beam entered the world. She knew it was only a matter of time before others saw her brilliance. After long days of emitting light, she was reduced to cinders, slowly climbing the air. Her mother would appear in the doorway and not seeing her, call out, Are you in there Sweetheart? The girl never answered. Instead, she felt all the empty rooms inside her and someone hiding in every one.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Poetry to Bridge the Arab-Isreali Divide...
From Newsweek
Oct. 5, 2007 -
Peter Cole, a Jewish poet, translator and publisher, received a MacArthur “genius” award of $500,000 last week, and the timing couldn’t have been more apt. Cole is cofounder of Ibis Editions, a small Jerusalem press dedicated to translating Arabic, Hebrew and works in other Mideast languages in to English. (His MacArthur was announced as the same time that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was making headlines when he spoke in New York at Columbia University and the United Nations.) Cole’s latest volume of translations, “The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry From Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492," celebrates the Sephardic medieval culture in which Hebrew and Arabic influences intermingled. He spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Temma Ehrenfeld. Read the interview here.
Oct. 5, 2007 -
Peter Cole, a Jewish poet, translator and publisher, received a MacArthur “genius” award of $500,000 last week, and the timing couldn’t have been more apt. Cole is cofounder of Ibis Editions, a small Jerusalem press dedicated to translating Arabic, Hebrew and works in other Mideast languages in to English. (His MacArthur was announced as the same time that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was making headlines when he spoke in New York at Columbia University and the United Nations.) Cole’s latest volume of translations, “The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry From Muslim and Christian Spain 950-1492," celebrates the Sephardic medieval culture in which Hebrew and Arabic influences intermingled. He spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Temma Ehrenfeld. Read the interview here.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
The Blog of Unneccessary Quotation Marks
"OMG," this is the "funniest" thing. You won't "believe" how often "people" "misuse" quotation marks. Check out this "blog" to "see" "in a manner of speaking" how quotation marks can change the way you "read" signs. "Hilarious."
The "Blog" of "Unneccessary" Quoatation Marks
My Ring Bearers Grew Up...
Back on October 3rd, 1993 --I'll do the math, it's 14 years today--these were the ring bearers at my wedding (actually Eric got sick from nerves and only Todd made it.) Now they are soon to be 21 and incredibly talented. Here they are singing "I'll Be." Aren't they the cutest? (I guess I should probably change that to "handsome.") And yes, they're identical twins.
If you like their singing, there's another one of them doing Britney Spear's "Gimme More."
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Things My Sock Puppet Says...
I've had a bad cold, so I blame my last post on the vapors. I'm so Victorian era these days. Just ask my sock puppet.*
Best Online ZenHabit--
Here's a great article on 72 Things to Do to Simplify Your Life
Of course, if they were really in touch with simplification the article would be only 7 Things to Do to Simplify your life. I know I felt a little overwhelmed by the time I reached 26 (Create a simple mail & paperwork system). So ultimately to simplify my life, I had to stop reading the article for awhile. It's still a good article.
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Dream Journal--
Last night I met a librarian named "Anne Sexton" and when I said, "That's the same name as a famous poet" she said dryly, "I've never heard of her." I'm pretty sure I was talking to Anne Sexton.
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Here's my favorite quote I heard this week--
"If you're not happy with what you have, you probably won't be happy with what you want."
It just slightly beats my favorite quote from Caddyshack,
"You'll have nothing and like it."
or my favorite quote from my MFA program--
"There's no crying in grad school." Wait. I may have got that wrong...
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Mini Gratitude Journal--
1) 14 years: 10-3
2) all of us
3) boots
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Dear Tongue,
Please speak clearly this week.
Signed,
Brain
How Can I Say This?
Hi, my name is Illek and I talk through a sock puppet. Or this is how I'm feeling these days. Not here. In the virtual world, my words are chosen, edited, and revised. In the real world, I say one thing and a person hears another. Open mouth, insert sock puppet.
It's been an interesting week, drama has buzzed around me. Miscommunication. I said, "I'm sorry I must be leaving," but instead the card arrived "Join us." It seems what I say isn't heard or is it misheard? I'm interrupted or misinterpreted. Constructed or misconstrued? Miss Led. Miss Spoken. It makes me wonder from what drawer I'm chosing my words. The drawer of mismatched socks. The drawer of blunders.
It's been an interesting week, drama has buzzed around me. Miscommunication. I said, "I'm sorry I must be leaving," but instead the card arrived "Join us." It seems what I say isn't heard or is it misheard? I'm interrupted or misinterpreted. Constructed or misconstrued? Miss Led. Miss Spoken. It makes me wonder from what drawer I'm chosing my words. The drawer of mismatched socks. The drawer of blunders.
I've always been fascinated with communication/miscommunication. Ever since a professor said to me, "One cannot re-communicate something," I've been interested in the words we put into the world how we can't pull them back, we can never fully be rid of their shadows.
So this week, I'm majoring in miscommunication, which fits as my current manuscript is about how we communicate. Apparently, I still have a lot to learn. Apparently, I speak openly when I should be talking about the weather. Apparently, there is a reason I write. . .and revise.