Poetry Friday
March 25, 2011
The world of Other Responsibilities called this morning in the form of my freelance proofreading work (though, please, never expect my posts to be error-free!). The group I freelance with is wonderful, so no complaint there. Just feeling a bit like Schroeder over the keyboard at the moment, so will take a break and come back later to enjoy the Poetry Friday conversation.
Before I go, here’s a poem by Steve Kowit that feels appropriate, given the past several hours spent on patrol for typos, dangling modifiers, and (gasp!) stylistic inconsistencies and flagrant disregard for subject-verb agreement.
THE GRAMMAR LESSON by Steve Kowit
A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz”
of and with are prepositions. The’s
an article, a can’s a noun,
a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
Read the rest of the poem, included in the Poetry 180 project, here.
And a belated thanks to Sara Lewis Holmes, who posted from Poetry 180 one Friday a while back, which encouraged me to sign up to receive these wonderful poems. Not only are the poems inspiring, but how great it is to see mail from “Library of Congress” in my inbox.
This week’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading. Go on over and check it out!
Poetry Slam
March 24, 2011
Metrowest folks, this one looks like fun:
WHAT: Poetry Slam, presented by Morse Institute Library
WHEN: Wed., April 13, at 7 p.m.
WHERE: TCAN (Center for Arts in Natick)
Vermont’s poetry slam champion Geoff Hewitt will lead an evening of fast-paced, competitive poetry. Bring your own poetry to share, or be part of the voting audience. Hmmm … shall I take a chance and get up on that stage? Who wants to join me?? The slam is free and open to the public.
For more info, here you go. Also, here.
April is National Poetry Month.
I know you cannot go
Through life
Unless you are willing
For love or money
To make a fool
Of yourself
Where else does the ecstasy
lie
—From “Deal or No Deal” by Nikki Giovanni in BICYCLES: Love Poems (William Morrow, 2009)
[The poem is dedicated to one of Nikki Giovanni's classes, inspired by the time she told the students she'd like to go on Deal or No Deal. Their response: that she'd embarrass herself.]
Behind the Scenes
March 4, 2011
For the past few weeks, my daughter and I have been working on a video project celebrating poetry. I’m delighted to be involved with this project for her fifth-grade class at school. And it’s been fun both from the content side and the technical side–I had chance to play with an editing program on my computer that let us cut audio and video, and play with some ideas using simple effects. It’s definitely a homemade production, but it reminds me how poetry lends itself to the world of new media. Makes me want to keep playing! More soon …
Before You Know It
March 2, 2011
Yes, it’s been a long winter with all the snow and all, but honestly, March already? Though I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything since wordpress just required me to log in, which in turn, meant trying to remember my password, which I couldn’t. The good news is, when I reset it, I came up with a password that made me laugh. I’d share it here, but you know, it’s a password, so I can’t.
Instead, I’ve just asked the gang if anyone has a good joke to share. They’re doing some game where one of them stands in the bathroom downstairs and listens at the vent, while the other two speak into the floor vent upstairs. But nope. No jokes. I do hear some singing though …
And here it is almost 4:30 and, while I’ve wrapped work for the day, I still have several things needing to get done, not the least of which is raiding the kitchen of some onion and mustard pretzels, which a friend recently put us on to.
Suffice it to say, not much is coming out of this post. Oh, but in the midst of typing, another friend called and invited me to go see John Irving. A well-timed writing-related note! The event won’t be until late summer or early fall—but as we know, that’ll be here before you know it.
