Walt goes metrical!

When I heard the learned astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Looked up in perfect silence at the stars.

Walt Whitman, born on this day in 1819.

I love the end of this poem. What iambs.

Take It to The Limit

When there's nothing to believe in
Still you're coming back, you're running back
You're coming back for more
Sabres in overtime!

Found Poem: Filched From Peter and AJ, & Straight into My Notebook

Apologia
(Snow White's Stepmother Speaks)

O, to be above it all, o to be
above appetite--yet no animal
could ever resist such luxury
the heart roasted this way is exquisite

FOR ANYONE WHO SAYS POETRY DOESN'T MATTER

Read this!

Memememememememememm

Dogs/Cats: Two cats--Loco and Shadow.

Essential Electronics: Computer, bedside reading lamp (bronze mouse)

Favorite Perfume: Fleur d'Interdit by Givenchy, although I wish I could find a perfume that smelled just like tomatoes.

Gold/Silver: Both, plus platinum and Bakelite!

Hometown: Birthplace was Denver, Colorado, but I'm a Kentuckian now

Insomnia: Yawn

Job Title: Medical Language Specialist

Kids: Two

Living Arrangements: Owned by a Queen Anne house; live with my husband, children, 2 cats, Hagrid the hermit crab, and the world's most feared pair of blue jays (even the mailman cringes)

Most admired trait: I can recite the alphabet backwards in less than 20 seconds.

Number of Sexual Partners: Z, Y, X, ...Do you think I'd really post this on the internet?

Overnight Hospital Stays: Yes, for childbirth, dehydration, tonsillectomy, miscarriages. Once, when our hospital was on lockdown, I had to stay on the job and transcribe.

Phobia: Riding lawnmowers--don't even ask.

Religion: I don't consider myself to be "religious" in a holier-than-thou sense. I'm a Christian, and that means I try to act like Jesus, not force others to be more like me. Jesus taught tolerance and only showed his anger towards those who use His church to their own ends. I think the GOP could learn a lesson from this.

Siblings: My only sister died of breast cancer last August.

Time I usually wake up: 3:45 a.m.

Unusual Talent: I can shake my eyeballs.

Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Cannot think of one.

Worst Habit: I ask too many questions. Do you think that's a bad habit? Really? Why? Are you sure?

X-Rays: Yes, and also ultrasound, nuclear medicine scans, and MRI. And I love the word "bitewing" as in dental x-rays.

Yummy Foods I Make: Pasta alla mara. Barbequed ribs marinated in beer. Spinach salad (mine is a killer). BGT sandwiches. Blue-cheese burgers. No-Bake Alaska. Mounds cake (that's why my husband married me).

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Born on May 25

Loafing--Raymond Carver

I looked into the room a moment ago,
and this is what I saw-
my chair in its place by the window,
the book turned facedown on the table.
And on the sill, the cigarette
left burning in its ashtray.
Malingerer! my uncle yelled at me
so long ago. He was right.
I've set aside time today,
same as every day,
for doing nothing at all.

______


Dolor--Theodore Roethke

I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils,
Neat in their boxes, dolor of pad and paper weight,
All the misery of manila folders and mucilage,
Desolation in immaculate public places,
Lonely reception room, lavatory, switchboard,
The unalterable pathos of basin and pitcher,
Ritual of multigraph, paper-clip, comma,
Endless duplication of lives and objects.
And I have seen dust from the walls of institutions,
Finer than flour, alive, more dangerous than silica,
Sift, almost invisible, through long afternoons of tedium,
Dropping a fine film on nails and delicate eyebrows,
Glazing the pale hair, the duplicate grey standard faces.

(is this Bartleby's dramatic monologue?)

_____

And the best Ralph Waldo Emerson quote I've found:

Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.

(I wonder what Munch would think about that?)

Keats and the Monk

"But to love another as a person we must begin by granting him his own autonomy and identity as a person. We have to love him for what he is in himself, and not for what he is to us. We have to love him for his own good, not for the good we get out of him. And this is impossible unless we are capable of a love which ‘transforms’ us, so to speak, into the other person, making us able to see things a he sees them, love what he loves, experience the deeper realities of his own life as if they were our own. Without sacrifice, such a transformation is utterly impossible. But unless we are capable of this kind of transformation ‘into the other’ while remaining ourselves, we are not yet capable of a fully human existence. “


From Disputed Questions by Thomas Merton

_____

Note to self: How is this like/unlike Negative Capability?

MFA: Here Endeth the First Semester

I survived--somehow. The second session of the MFA program is mid-July. We are up to THREE WOMEN this time. Hurray--that's up from lonely little moi last time. The fiction classes are growing apace--the program has added another teacher to cover the fiction load. There are two sections of fiction, one section of nonfiction (which is nearly large enough to split), and our small poetry section.

I'm satisfied with most of the work I did for the program this spring. I liked what I read, and I was thrilled to receive the mentoring critiques and suggestions, but sometimes I felt that many of my revisions were rote, and I didn't really stretch myself as much as I wanted. I was humbled by formalism. I've started on a long (chapbook length) series of poem for my fall project, and I'm hopeful that these poems will be stronger, less dissonant, than the ones I wrote this spring. There's a new mentor, and I'm nervous about that. Phil Stephens (spring mentor) will be presenting the genre seminar on the long narrative (in the nick of time for me and the project above, I might add), and I really wish he were staying for the entire semester. I like change...I like change...I like change...I keep telling myself that.

Here's the schedule of what we're doing in July:

Intense seminar in poetry--Brian Barker--reading Rose by Li-Young Lee and Judy Jordan's Carolina Ghost Woods.

Genre Seminar in the Long Poem: Robert Penn Warren, Andrew Hudgins, and "Four Good Things," James McMichael. (As a bonus, we are rereading Huck Finn ).

Fiction Genre Seminar--Southern Grotesque: Lewis Nordon's Sugar Among the Freaks , plus selections from these writers: Edgar Allen Poe(Harvey's distant cousin!); Augustus Baldwin Longstreet; Johnson Jones Hooper; Flannery O’Connor; Eudora Welty; Tony Earley; Randall Kenan; Lee Smith; Doris Betts.

There's also a creative nonfiction seminar on humor in nonfiction, but I don't think I'll have time for that, because I have a new project underway.

The readings are by: Andrew Hudgins, Erin McGraw, Kim Trevathan, Brian Barker, and Lynn Pruett.

I've been asked to teach an on-campus section of Intro to Creative Writing/Poetry at MSU. This is a sophomore-level class. I've been away from teaching composition/literature for over 15 years--so all this planning of syllabus, text selection, readings list--is exciting. (Let's see how I feel mid-October when it's mid term). Oh, yeah, they're paying me, too.

From an E-Mail--Children Writing about the Ocean

1) This is a picture of an octopus. It has eight testicles.
(Kelly, age 6)

2) Oysters' balls are called pearls. (James, age 6)

3) If you are surrounded by sea you are an Island. If you don't
have sea all round you, you are in continent. (Wayne, age 7)

4) Sharks are ugly and mean, and have big teeth, just like
Emily Richardson. She's not my friend no more. (Kylie, age 6)

5) A dolphin breaths through an asshole on the top of its
head. (Billy, age 8)

6) My uncle goes out in his boat with pots, and comes back with
crabs. (Millie, age 6)

7) When ships had sails, they used to use the trade winds to
cross the ocean. Sometimes, when the wind didn't blow, the
sailors would whistle to make the wind come. My brother said
they would be better off eating beans. (William, age 7)

8) I like mermaids. They are beautiful, and I like their shiny
tails. How do mermaids get pregnant? (Helen, age 6)

9) I'm not going to write about the sea. My baby brother is
always screaming and being sick, my Dad keeps shouting at my
Mom, and my big sister has just got pregnant, so I can't think
what to write. (Amy, age 6)

10) Some fish are dangerous. Jellyfish can sting. Electric
eels can give you a shock. They have to live in caves under
the sea where I think they have to plug themselves into
chargers. (Christopher, age 7)

11) When you go swimming in the sea, it is very cold, and it
makes my willy small. (Kevin,age 6)

12) Divers have to be safe when they go under the water. Two
divers can't go down alone, so they have to go down on each
other. (Becky, age 8)

13) On holiday my Mom went water skiing. She fell off when
she was going very fast. She says she won't do it again
because water shot up her fanny. (Julie, age 7)

14) My dad and uncles used to be Tennessee River Divers. They would dive for fresh water muscles. They didn't have very good luck, as you can tell at Christmas when they are all together. (my own Raleigh, age 7)

15. There are seahorses when the men are giving berth to all the babies. I think if men had to have the babies here, they would go back to the water real fast. (Raleigh, age 7).

A year later...and I'm still...

Which Tarot Card Are You?

You are the Devil card. The Devil is based on the figure Pan, Lord of the Dance. The earthy physicality of the devil breeds lust. The devil's call to return to primal instincts often creates conflict in a society in which many of these instincts must be kept under control. Challenges posed by our physical bodies can be overcome by strength in the mental, emotional, and spiritual realms. Pan is also a symbol of enjoyment and rules our material creativity. The devil knows physical pleasure and how to manipulate the physical world. Material creativity finds its output in such things as dance, pottery, gardening, and sex. The self-actualized person is able to accept the sensuality and usefulness of the devil's gifts while remaining in control of any darker urges. Image from The Stone Tarot deck. http://hometown.aol.com/newtarotdeck/
Take this quiz!








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Stanley Kunitz, 1905-2006

...The way I look
at it, I'm passing through a phase:
gradually I'm changing to a word.
Whatever you choose to claim
of me is always yours:
nothing is truly mine
except my name. I only
borrowed this dust.

Me, Too

I didn't know that I'd submitted here--it must have been during the fugue state following my MFA deadlines.

Speaking of submissions, the story (revised) was a no-go, but the rejection letter was so encouraging, I feel like they paid me anyway.

MFA (Me Freaking About)

100 page anthology--25 poets

Reading journal over 8 individual books plus Norton Anthology of Poetry (200 pages double-spaced)

25 new poems, 20 of them revised

6 new poetic exercises

45 pages of fiction (3 short stories and 1 flash fiction piece)

Critical analysis of Elizabeth Bishop: Elegy and Extravagance in "Crusoe in England"

Critical analysis of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" and Stevens "Anecdote of a Jar" As Ekphrastic Poetry

Selling a Short Story: Dennis Lehane's "Till Gwen"

Outline of summer chapbook (10 pages plus background notes)

______
Two jobs, two children, two family members in college besides me--two cars, two cats, two houses--and two hairs left on my head!


This is finally all finished and in the mail/turned in.

I am not going to read or write for a week. I need the rest.

After that I will post some good news about next semester.

"Desert Places"

Which Extremity of the World Are You?
From the towering colossi at Rum and Monkey.

Bah to those who say one cannot be hot at my senescent age!

More astounding revelations from the world of politics--Thank you, Jane Smiley

I love Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres, and this article makes me even prouder to be her fan. Shame on the press, indeed!

Actual ad posted in Funds for Writers

SHORT NOTICE

WRITER/EDITOR
http://tinyurl.com/rg8dz
---
Salary $44,856 - $100,554 depending upon experience. Location
Washington DC. Employer FBI. Prepares talking points, briefing
papers, PowerPoint presentations, audit responses, articles, or
other informational materials which express or explain Bureau
policies, programs, objectives or procedures to provide fuller
understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of such matters.
At highest level writes speeches, statements, Congressional
testimony, remarks, audit responses and reports, articles, or
other informational material which serve as definitive
expressions or explanations of Bureau policies, programs,
objectives or procedures.
---

???????????????
Should I apply now or wait till after I've taken a seminar in creative nonfiction?

Cardinals--Past and Present

Albert Pujols--I am in baseball heaven. He's going into the pantheon--Ozzie Smith, Joe Torre, and Bob Gibson. And honorable mention goes to the St. Louis player with the greatest name--Orlando Cepeda (Quick--is that a double dactyl?)

I remember 5th grade math, listening to the World Series via transistor radio in class, with the teacher's permission. It was a different world then--and maybe that's where I developed my headphone fetish.

You'll have to excuse the sports posts and spacetakers (did you know the eye makes 50 movements a second?). I've been in the throes of deep revision. A poem that had been dead for months had a battery jump. Maybe there's a chance it will work.

I cannot get Marianne Moore's poems out of my head:

"I too dislike it..."

Trounce, verb transitive

To thrash, to beat.

Synonyms: Crush, vanquish, overwhelm, clobber.

Illustration:



Sabres 7, Flyers 1

Tumbling Dice: You got to roll me...

Keith Richards has fallen from a palm tree and is concussed. This is just a few years after he fell from a library ladder while retrieving a book at his home in Britain.

Best wishes for a swift recovery, all 6's and 7's and 9's.