This summer I worked as a PMT/ Positive, Teacher, Motivator, a title I found to be fancy for a camp counselor. Before the camp started, I thought I'd have a ton of time to be creative, to read, to write, to get back in touch with myself, to get in touch with my inner child. And now as the summer has ended, I've found, I was wrong about the writing and reading part, but right about the inner child, and the getting back in touch with myself. Working with 5-6 year old's is wonderfully exhausting, I give all of my kudos to year-round elementary school teachers. With less than a week left until classes begin, and until my regular teaching schedule resumes, I am trying to get back to writing, but not without feeling like an octopus with a few missing legs. Writing takes a rhythm, a dedication, an ability to shoot out ink at distractions, and I felt like I needed some advice. We can all use advice, even when we think we know the answers, it's good to gain/ re-gain perspective on the dance of it all. Here is what I found.(Sarah Monguso's advice from Fodder)
What Henry Miller had to say can apply to us all. "When you can't create, you can work..." This part reminds to keep editing and submitting in mind or to read others' work, edit others' work, be a part of a writing workshop. And to "forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing." And especially, "Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it."
Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers? Yes! This body language list is helpful. How often do we fall into how we imagine others to move vs. how others actually move? And there are so many basic patterns to the way people behave, react, etc. We're all unique, but so the same.
(Body Language)
Last reminder: revisit John Steinbeck's advice. It can apply across the genres. I particually like: "If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it."
Thanks to the lovely artist who made this. I found it on http://paintedstars.tumblr.com/.
It's a small literary world we live in. I am constantly thinking of collaborating with a visual artist to make a fun poetry comic... this has inspired me to think harder on the effort.
In May of 2010, I went on a field writing seminar to Louisiana. I have been thinking about the trip as of late because it's been almost exactly two years since I was there, and one of my co-worker's, Matt Decker, (check out his travel blog here: http://mattsdecker.blogspot.com/) is on a road trip with his father, and his posts reminded me of my time down south.
As part of the travel writing seminar, the group kept daily journals. I recently pulled mine off the shelf and found myself reflecting on notes that I took at A Studio in the Woods in New Orleans. Some of my notes from the trip made it into several essays and poems, but some of what I jotted down stayed just as is: notes in a journal.
I thought I'd share my notes/ journal scribblings from my day at Studio in the Woods here, not to allow them to take on another form, but simply to transcribe and to share my experience.
We were in a young forest that used to be a sugar cane plantation in the 1800's. Forests sometimes mature between 200-500 years. Our guide, David Baker, led us on a nature walk and he explained how the owners of Studio in the Woods were told they needed to eradicate the invasive plants, specifically the Chinese Privat Plant, the plant is like a shrub. Invasive species decrease growth rates of other plants... he explained how Hurricane Katrina, when removed from a sociological perspective will be good for nature as forests adapt to the category 3 (and above) storms in 20-25 years-- Katrina defoliated the canopy and broke it up.
(An Illustration from AD: New Orleans After the Deluge... a wonderful Graphic Novel by Josh Neufeld)
The Hurricane flooded the city, not man, because the winds broke the levee, not men. Though others argue that it was the builder's fault. By focusing on the sociological perspective of Katrina, we overlooked the ecological perspective of the importance of the storm.
When big trees go down in a storm, the canopy is removed and the trees are competitive. When the canopy is closed, the trees don't grow, they just hang out.
After our walk, we sat with Louisiana Poet Laurette, Darrell Bourque, and listened to him give a talk and a writing workshop. We listened to music by Dr. Michael White, a jazz musician and intellectual, who composed a song while at Studio in the Woods, he played music and the birds responded to the music, which helped him to compose "Dictation from God."
I couldn't find the song online, but here is a taste of Dr. Michael White's Music.
While sitting outdoors, surrounded by nature, Bourque asked us to consider Inscape---> What does it mean? What happens on the inside? Search for it in poetry, he said.
More notes from his talk:
Art & Science are related to one another: we are fated to be hardwired OR we are constantly in flux (ourselves, our cells, are telling us to be a bird or snake or something we are not).
(Picture by: Rosie Music)
Poems are between imagining and analyzing.
Locate a story and piece in the world you know (language that can be held onto)---> later it has to become more than language---> it has to live.
Always look for divergence in your written work, move from the experiential world into the intelligences--->find whether you fly or slither.
A meditation on death: How do you paint nothing?
Paint life.
I have just finished reading a batch of my students' argument in media papers that focused on the power of Internet and news, copyright laws, gaming, and all things electronic/ technological advancement, and after reading their words (funny I am reflecting here as this blog comes in the E-format), I got to thinking about writing on a typewriter, and how different their papers would be if we were focusing on media in the 70's, how much more would have gone into ignoring the backspace as much as possible (for fear of running out of correction tape). I also got to thinking about how much I love looking at typewriters: they remind me of animated creatures somehow. So after getting to thinking, I got to collecting (as I do) images of those now nostalgic mechanical devices, and I'd like to share them here, and my stories that go with them.
This Cake album is one that stands out to me. I remember when I first got the Comfort Eagle cd, my sister sang along to this song with me, in a rather loud way. My favorite line was, of course, the first line. (This album also has the "We Are Building a Religion" song that my mom thought was "too weird" and turned off in a polite manner one day when we were driving together.)
A few weekends ago, I went to a wedding, and since my boyfriend was a groomsman, I had some free time to wander in an antique store, I fell upon these beauties (but thought $50 something was too much... oh the Eastern Shore in Maryland). I bought some gifts there, however, and I couldn't hold them all, so I asked if I could stack them on the cash register while I continued to look, and the very eccentric cashier told me, "Please do. I like piles." YES. Thrift stores and antique stores really do rely upon piles, and there is an art to it, the same way words sound like they are piling when being typed.
And now some really great illustrations/photos (in no particular order)
The other day, my boyfriend and I were taking a walk through Blohm Park, as we made our way across a bridge, we saw the little lovely bit of graffiti above... what is poet illogic? I have so many ideas.
This poem relates to poet illogic... somehow: (From Hello Poetry)
I'll Robot Make
by: Francis Scudellari
...As my illogic breaks, I'll robot make/ to be this soul's chamber,/ robbing a piecemeal joy from misfit toys/
tossed out for fine tuning/ by toddlers cheery mad to gorge on fads./ I'll take their T-Rex head,/with droopy lids that wink as if to drink/the world's wide-shallow stares...
For the full version go HERE
My eyes are always open to poetry especially in April, but now that it's May, I'm sad as National Poetry Month is behind us, but I'm happy for found poetry, always, always. Check Out:
The Found Poetry Review. Thanks Andrea Beltran at Poet Tree for sharing. The Found Poetry Review is awesome in its mission and the things it does: as it defines and shares Found Poetry and all interpretations of such.
A literary tattoo project? Yes! Skin= Collected tattoos that tell stories. (Thanks for sharing Kim Brown!)
Yes, let's look for it: poetry is out there, everywhere: on our bodies, on trains, on the sidewalk. It makes our lives more fulfilling even when we don't realize.
In March of 2009, I went to Nico's Recovery Room, in an ambiguous location in Pittsburgh, with my friends/ grad school colleagues. We went in for a beer and found a bar filled with characters. One man that stands out in my memory was wearing a large American flag baseball cap; the hat sat somewhat crookedly on his head, and tufts of hair shot out. As we walked from the bar area to the area with booths, non-fiction editor, Amy Holwerda, swears she heard a drunk woman lean over to her husband and say, "Honey, she looks like a librarian..." as I passed by. I was flattered to be considered anything but a broke grad student. That evening turned night, we all,Amy, Sarah, and I, sat in a green ripped up booth, and decided we wanted to create a literary magazine. Amazingly three years have passed since then, and we've stuck together, and maintained the same passion we started out with -- our poetry editor, Athena Pappas, who later joined us, adds to that passion.
With the Spring 2012 issue, our roots, once created in a hole in the wall, remain. We do have a tree logo after all... making it hard for roots to change, yet we've grown, and we have reached out from our original mission of publishing work that explores the world of "the other side of the tracks" in a hypothetical sense to work that explores the other side of the world, the other side of love, the other side of strangers, the other side of language. This issue strikes me as an issue that has both international and national focuses. We've added a visual art component to the magazine, and our first featured artist is photographer, Mihai Coman, whose work explores a cross-cultural perspective. Poetry features Kimberly Brown, Alissa Fleck, Steven Good, Richard Peabody, John McKernan, and Maressa Whitehead. Fiction features Anne Fowler, Ellen Mcgrath Smith, Vincent Rendoni, and Alex Reisler. Non-fiction features Robert Isenberg. Fiction Editor and Designer, Sarah Grubb, has outdone herself on putting together this one, go ahead, see for yourself. READ IT!
I love Modcloth; it's a natural love: they have a hip J. Peterman-esqe take on marketing: telling narratives that go along with their clothing line-- exhibiting a wonderful method of fashion writing, and they have a vintage selection, and they are Pittsburgh-based. I truly do love all things Pittsburgh (well except for the pollution and winter parking scenario).
And what adds to my love for Modcloth is their focus on literature meets fashion with their online literary magazine: The Written Wardrobe. I've been to several parties they've hosted at the AWP conference, and these ladies throw a fun-loving and sexy soiree with literary fashion trivia, generous raffle prizes, and sincere warmth.
My poem, "Not all things asymmetric are cubism" is in the latest issue. Check it out here. The 2012 issue includes Poetry by: Moi, Valerie Loveland, Wendy E. Kaplan, Sharon Munson, and Laura Sloan Patterson; Fiction by: Kashana Cauley, Jeanne Althouse, and Wayne Cresser; and Non-Fiction by: Emma Torzs, Kayla Washko (Who I know from Pittsburgh!), Jenny Sadre-Orafai, D.W. Martin, Jen LiMarzi, and Katie Marks.
Sometimes I am bias-- when it comes to a choice between men and women, I can't help but favor women (in literature, in advertising, and in fashion, often times my philosophical preferences are female-centric too). When I lived in Pittsburgh, I had a male friend who would sometimes call me out on my preference... err... bias nature, and I appreciated it, yet every now and again, I would hush. I do believe in equality, of course, but know I am fallible of favoring women... no! Not fallible, but happy to celebrate women in all ways.
And so: three lady-centric things I like this week:
Young Heroins in Literature . This list made me think back to my Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables reading days. I had a friend who lived on something of a farm; her family had pastures behind their house, and they kept horses and other 4H animals. I remember pulling a red wagon through their yard and pretending it was a horse covered wagon.
And on a more adult note: Sexism in advertising-- well sex sells, BUT must super hot women always be linked with the Internet consumerism? In this article, I wanted for more examples of sexist advertisements, but I might have to make that an independent project.
I fell upon Kimbra through her duet with Gotye. Her voice is phenomenal. In fact she gives me chills, and this video just blows my mind for its commentary on gender identity and the messed-up-ness of it all. The burning dolls say something like this: girls and children in general are exposed to weird ideals (of love and the like) and childhood comes melting down. The contrast of Kimbra's baby doll face and the melting plastic strikes a bazillion chords.
(Hide Away by Ana Mouyis printed in Annalemma Issue 8: Creation.)
My friend, Kim, came to visit me in December, and she brought with her a copy of Annalemma Magazine. Last minute, before she left, she said she'd loan it to me, and I read it, which felt good because prior to reading it I was mainly reading textbooks, and my student's final papers. God. I coveted that journal. I took it with me on the train, kept it in my purse, pulled it out to read bits in between things. It was like I re-discovered reading literary work.
Blake Butler has an essay in my coveted literary magazine, "I Tried Really Hard to Play." I fell deep in love with the essay and with the accompanying drawings by Anastasia Mouyis. Butler's essay contains a strange kind of depth (nearly cabalistic). This particular issue of Annalemma has a theme of creation, and Butler explores ideas of creation through role playing games.
This semester I am teaching an intermediate level writing class, and after reading Butler's essay I decided to make the classes' focus arguments in the media. I assigned Butler's essay for homework on Wednesday night and bright and early this morning we had a discussion. What we came up with: Butler creates a layer of settings-- the beach, the condo, and the world of his imagination, and in these settings we can find common themes of fear, solitude, a need for discovery. The memories he gives us are much like the drawings he makes as a child: pieces of something incomplete, a way of discovery. Butler approaches big ideas here: it's hard to create when we are still trying to figure out reality. Coming of age is a strange process and it never really goes away.
One of my classes' essay options is to write about role playing games, and how they might affect a society, the world, an individual, and the problem solving skills related to them. I will encourage them to use Butler's essay as a source, and I am already looking forward to their responses.
(I also decided to use Butler's essay as a model for a narrative essay in EN 101 class, and while the focus of the discussion was different, the students had a lot to say about role playing games, solitude, and identity.)
Sooo thank you, Mr. Butler for writing good words. And thank you, Kim, for always putting good words and inspiration in my life!
Poetry and the body go together. Hand and hand. Brain and brain. Skin to skin.
And poetry is a body of imagined things. A doll. A strange doll. This is what I am pondering on before I hit the hay tonight: poetry is a stamp and a maker of history, as with all writing. The form poetic verse takes is more like that of a body than prose, however, as the lines are often defined and linked together by enjambment (bones or glue).
2011 was a year of many changes for me-- a rollover from 2010. Everything rolled on and on into a whole year: I worked in four different cities, lived in three different houses, picked things up, put things down, misplaced myself, and found myself again.
Not much stayed the same for me in 2011, and with things so rapidly changing, I didn't dedicate myself to many full length collections of poetry (or to reading full novels for that matter). My attention span fractured into many small pieces, but I did pick up literary goodness here and there, and where and when my brain would allow. However, making a best of list isn't something that I can rightfully do this year.
I feel guilty about that, but on the upside, I have some awesome friends in poetry who run an awesome vlog, and I'd like to share their best of videos here.
Jess was my neighbor in Pittsburgh, and we attended Chatham University's MFA program together. She is an amazing, hilarious woman, and soul sister in verse. I trust her taste in poetry more than I trust my own taste in shoes. I haven't read any of the books on her list, but I plan to, and so should everyone else out there who has a brain.
I also met Carolyne at Chatham. We attended a summer program together, and I will never forget how I immediately wanted to be her friend (she had on pink and leopard print). Her taste and love for Pittsburgh is impeccable, and I cannot wait to read her book! One of the books she mentions, "Border Theory," is also written by a Chatham alum, Stephanie Wielkopolan. I used Stephanie's thesis as a guideline for my own. What I know of her poetry: the words are of place and brash truth. I look forward to reading more of this book.
Thanks Jess and Carolyne for your voices, opinion, and being who you are!
This summer I worked as a PMT/ Positive, Teacher, Motivator, a title I found to be fancy for a camp counselor. Before the camp started, I thought I'd have a ton of time to be creative, to read, to write, to get back in touch with myself, to get in touch with my inner child. And now as the summer has ended, I've found, I was wrong about the writing and reading part, but right about the inner child, and the getting back in touch with myself. Working with 5-6 year old's is wonderfully exhausting, I give all of my kudos to year-round elementary school teachers. With less than a week left until classes begin, and until my regular teaching schedule resumes, I am trying to get back to writing, but not without feeling like an octopus with a few missing legs. Writing takes a rhythm, a dedication, an ability to shoot out ink at distractions, and I felt like I needed some advice. We can all use advice, even when we think we know the answers, it's good to gain/ re-gain perspective on the dance of it all. Here is what I found.(Sarah Monguso's advice from Fodder)
What Henry Miller had to say can apply to us all. "When you can't create, you can work..." This part reminds to keep editing and submitting in mind or to read others' work, edit others' work, be a part of a writing workshop. And to "forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing." And especially, "Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it."
Body Language Cheat Sheet for Writers? Yes! This body language list is helpful. How often do we fall into how we imagine others to move vs. how others actually move? And there are so many basic patterns to the way people behave, react, etc. We're all unique, but so the same.
(Body Language)
Last reminder: revisit John Steinbeck's advice. It can apply across the genres. I particually like: "If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it."
