[saveagrey]
[saveagrey]
I’ve spent a lot of hours lately rocking the little dude in the middle of the night. It’s a peaceful, quiet time and since I’m on summer vacation, it’s not like I have to get up and be anywhere for a few weeks, so I rather like sitting in the semi-dark with the baby asleep on my shoulder while I read poems on my iphone. I like to just sit and look at him but at night, I need to make sure I don’t fall asleep while I’m holding him so I read. The computer and books are too cumbersome for one-handed reading, but the old phone has really come into its own. Anyway, here are ten poems I’ve read and liked lately. I hope you’ll follow the links and check them out.
“Summer Nocturne ii: Hudson River Fireworks” by Joseph Harker. What a wonder it is to walk around New York City, the main thing I ever want to do when I’m there.
“Curating the Dead” by Dave Bonta. One I really liked from Dave’s series of Highgate Cemetery poems.
“Like Green Eggs, Summer” by Briarcat. Summer heat has its moments.
“Feels Like 108 Degrees” by Jessica Fox-Wilson. Meditation on heat, surrendering to it just a little.
“Broken” by Angie Werren… “fingers clumsy with a memory”
“Blank Stare Escape” by Mark Stratton. What happens when you call yourself a poet?
“A Stone in a River, 11” by Deb Scott. The hard necessity of fire.
“A Theology of an Autistic Body” by Nicole Nicholson. Another stellar entry in qarrtsiluni‘s ongoing imprisonment issue.
“There Are Howling Wolves” by NS from her latest collection Dark and Like a Web.
July 2011: A River of Stones. Not a poem, but a repository for all the micro-poems people are writing for the July River of Stones.
I’ve been trying to find a way to share links to blogging poets whose poems I’ve found and liked online, but I’ve struggled to find a way to do it consistently, so I’ll try this. I don’t know if I’ll do it when I find ten poems or if I’ll try posting links like this weekly whether or not there are ten. I guess we shall see.
My poem “Sentences and Corrections” is up over at qarrtsiluni as part of the Imprisonment issue. It’s a powerful issue and well worth following. As always, it’s an honor to have something in qarrtsiluni.
Every summer, it takes a little more time to get used to the heat, but this summer it’s come on so fast and blinding, I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it. Late last month (where did that month go?), when I walked down to the pond after work on Friday, it was 102 degrees out. I joked that I was going out to look at the vulture and grackle and that’s mainly what I saw, although down by the pond, I did see a pair of black-bellied whistling ducks. It’s only the second time I’ve seen whistling ducks in the neighborhood, the first being May 27, 2009. Two years to the day. I couldn’t help but wonder if it’s the same two ducks. What do they make of the heat? Maybe this is just a stopover for them on the way to somewhere cooler.
The paper says that in the next century Austin’s climate will come to resemble that of San Angelo as the Chihuahua Desert continues it’s slow eastward creep. I like deserts, and don’t care much for Austin’s humidity, but damn, I’d hate to see this town turn into a desert town and I shudder to think what the effects might be on the golden-cheeked warblers and black-capped vireos not to mention all the other less-endangered wildlife.
That’s a lot of heat to get used to, but I usually do get used to it. It’s not uncommon to go cycling when the temperatures are in triple digits, though that gets harder with each passing year. I like to think that’s because the heat is just more brutal, and I think I’ll keep telling myself that.
I don’t know how often I’ll be posting in the near future. Between the writing and the posting of this we had a baby. We’ll call him Fox Mercury around here, though I doubt I’ll write about him much on the open web. Still, I’m a father now and already that awesome responsibility and awe is settling into me and so it’ll likely inform my writing and it’s already impacting how I think about and see the world. It’s odd… we’ve known he was coming for months and yet everything changed in an instant.
Here at the beginning of this new adventure, it seems appropriate to be looking at these pictures of the neighborhood trails I can’t wait to show him. But first, lots of sleeplessness and tired wonder. It may be quiet around here in the coming weeks, but I’m still writing (but behind on posting) my daily stones at a gnarled oak, but that’s not about the blogging.
Texas Thistle (Cirsium texanum), where the goldfinches go.
During April, I only blogged poetry in my weekdays-only NaPoWriMo effort and during May, I took an unintentional vow of blogging silence (here anyway) and posted pictures of the local wildflowers. Now it’s June and there are many things I meant to link to and write about so here’s a dump of sorts since I’m a little short of time right now.
I’ve read a lot of good poems lately. Some have really stuck with me. Check out “Wake” by Angie Werren, “Running Water Ghazal” by Joseph Harker, and “Doors” by Dick Jones.
NaPoWriMo ended and, alas, so did Big Tent Poetry just a year after Read Write Poem closed. Is there something about NaPoWriMo that burns out prompt sites? It’s sad to see the Big Tent fold, but thanks (many many thanks) to Deb, Carolee and Jill for running the site and providing so many wonderful prompts that led me to writing a number of poems that I still like. Now, after giving so much to the poetry community Deb, Carolee and Jill are blogging together at A Fine Kettle of Fish where they’re taking well-deserved time to focus on their own poetry. Go check it out.
NS published her collection Forever Will on Thursday. It’s a fine read, deserving of a longer review here at some future time. I’ve read it online and intend to order the book because I’m a paper kind of guy. One thing that’s unique about her publishing process is her philosophy of delivering poetry in multiple formats, several of them free, which means you can read Forever Will End on Thursday as an e-book, pdf, paper book, website or listen to her read it online as a download or on a CD. I really admire this approach and may emulate it when I get around to publishing my short collection.
Speaking of fine reads deserving of their own posts (perhaps later when I have time), Mark Stratton’s collection Tender Mercies is out now. Mark asked me to give some feedback on the manuscript, and then he kindly sent me a copy of the finished book, which I enjoyed even more in final form. Many of the poems first appeared on his blog, Aggaspletch, and they combine nicely into this debut collection. I’m especially fond of “Tender Mercy 12F,” which you can read on Mark’s blog.
Yesterday, I got my copy of The Book of Ystwyth: Six Poets on the Work of Clive Hicks-Jenkins. I haven’t read it yet, but good lord, it’s one of the most beautiful books I own. It’s full of excellent reproductions of Hicks-Jenkins’s paintings alongside the poems they inspired. I’d read Dave Bonta’s “The Temptations of Solitude” series on his blog, and it’s great to see his work alongside the images that inspired it. Also, a joy to discover five other poets whose work is new to me. Actually, I have read one poem in the book, “Pegasus” by Catriona Urquhart. I flipped it open and that’s the one I came to. It floored me and I wanted let it settle before diving in. Hell, I might read the whole book just by flipping through. That’s how I often do my first read of a poetry collection.
The blogosphere is changing as more and more links are shared through Twitter and Facebook, and it seems that the venerated blog carnival I and the Bird has run its course. I contributed off-and-on since 2006 and even had the privilege of hosting it once (in ghazal form). The final installment was over at Twin Cities Naturalist. It’s sad to see it go, but there’s still loads of great bird blogging to be found.
My video of Howie Good’s “Fable” took 3rd place in the Moving Poems video contest. Do check out the various entries. It’s interesting to see how different videomakers interpret the same poem. Thanks, Howie & Dave!
Qarrtsiluni‘s latest issue, “Imprisonment,” is off to a powerful start. Make sure you check out “My Cellies.” I’m honored to say that I’ve got a poem that will be appearing later in this issue. Also, while we’re on qarrtsiluni, the chapbook contest deadline is June 15.
We’ve been in triple digits most days lately. Too hot to do anything, even walk down to the neighborhood pool. Seems almost too hot to write so here’s a rerun from 2006:
Chlorine bubbles
Teenage lifeguards
Lap lanes
Sun
He can’t hold his breath that long
She swims, swims, swims
Swim
She can’t hold her breath for him
Holding hands
Holding breath
Chlorine water bubbles
Break like glass
Smiling faces break the mirror
Sun
Swim
Summer
Ten more laps
Five
One
Holding breath
Holding sun
They hold each other
Swimming
Only Labor Day
(so far away)
Dispels the dream
Of swimming, sun and
Water love
Chlorine swim
Sun five
Breath one
He will hold his breath for her,
Offering it like sunshine gold
From wrinkled hand
Swimming, she accepts
Breathes the breath
Of summer sun