Calabrian Villa Under Snow

Anyway You Slice Them!

------------------------------------------------------------------Carlos Clarens


My first brush with horror was via "American Gothic" literature. Whether it was: Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The House of Seven Gables " & "Rappaccini's Daughter"; Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger ; Edith Wharton: "Ethan Frome"; Herman Melville: "Moby-Dick" ; or inevitably E.A. Poe's, "The Fall of The House of Usher", my "yearning for the fantastic, for the darkly mysterious" was piqued and of course made the leap from the written word to the visual. My interest in "film noire" of course could not exclude certain horror classics. Listed below are several of the latter:


Early Classic Horror Films:


F. W. Murnau's feature-length Nosferatu, A Symphony of Terror (1922),









The Phantom of the Opera (1925)









Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)








The Wolf Man (1941)








Frankenstein (1931)









Dracula (1931)









The Mummy (1932)









King Kong (1933)









Cat People (1942)









Freaks (1932)









Other More Modern Classics:



Psycho (1960)








Alien (1979)










The Shining (1980)










Rosemary's Baby (1968)










The Birds (1963)









A Clockwork Orange (1971)










The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)









The Silence of the Lambs (1991)










Night of the Living Dead (1968)










The Exorcist (1973)











Happy Halloween!

The Undiscovered Country ...

Had a Good Time!

Slightly unshaven and hung over....!



"Yesterday it was my birthday
I hung one more year on the line
I should be depressed
My life's a mess
But i'm having a good time"


----------------------------------------------------

Paul Simon - from the album: Still Crazy After All These Years

Linda Pastan

ANOMALY


No one has a heart like yours
the doctor tells me, studying
the CT angiogram with barely
concealed excitement --

an explorer in white
discovering a tropical island --
exotic foliage instead of
the body's usual geography.

And he shows me the picture
of my heart proudly, one artery
instead of two snaking from the aorta,
dividing only later

into tributaries that nourish
this aging body: white cells
and red cells paddling madly
towards the organs on shore.

Oh unchartered rivers of blood!
Why am I heartsick, heartsore,
heavy hearted? Haven't I always known
my heart was different?



-------------------------------------------------------
From: Shenandoah - Volume 55 Number 2 (Fall 2005)

Julie Speed: Woman With Dogs (oil on linen) circa 2003-2004

Julie Speed's art is featured in Julie Speed: "Paintings, Constructions and Works on Paper "(Texas, 2004), which includes comments by the painter and essays on her work by art historians. She is represented by Gerald Peters Gallery in New York and Dallas and lives in Austin. A selection of her work will appear in the winter, 2005 issue of Shenandoah.

I received my contributor copy of Shenandoah 55/2 Fall 2005 in the mail this morning. Among the contributors are: Alice Friman, Steve Gehrke, Rodney Jones, Linda Pastan, David Wagoner & Ronald Wallace. Lisa Russ Spaar reviews Ted Kooser's "Delights & Shadows". All in all a fine issue if I say so myself. My poem "The 30 Hz Hypothesis" also appears in this issue.

The Unforgiven.

Doorways to One Place or Another.

"A Working Class Hero is Something to be."

When I Paint My Masterpiece
by Bob Dylan


Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble,
Ancient footprints are everywhere.
You can almost think that you're seein' double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs.
Got to hurry on back to my hotel room,
Where I've got me a date with Botticelli's niece.
She promised that she'd be right there with me
When I paint my masterpiece.

Oh, the hours I've spent inside the Coliseum,
Dodging lions and wastin' time.
Oh, those mighty kings of the jungle,
I could hardly stand to see 'em,
Yes, it sure has been a long, hard climb.
Train wheels runnin' through the back of my memory,
When I ran on the hilltop following a pack of wild geese.
Someday, everything is gonna be smooth like a rhapsody
When I paint my masterpiece.

Sailin' 'round the world in a dirty gondola.
Oh, to be back in the land of Coca-Cola!
I left Rome and landed in Brussels,
On a plane ride so bumpy that I almost cried.
Clergymen in uniform and young girls pullin' muscles,
Everyone was there to greet me when I stepped inside.
Newspapermen eating candy
Had to be held down by big police.
Someday, everything is gonna be diff'rent
When I paint my masterpiece.



Copyright © 1971 Big Sky Music

Snippet here: http://bobdylan.com/audio/albumtracks/WindowsMedia/56/masterpiece_gh2.asx

Around the World in 80 Clicks!

Nicolas Ruel is a photographer extraordinaire who's got an equally impressive site. Check out the web site of this Montreal photographer. Here's a sample of his work:

The Bushisms Quiz: 15 Questions to Test Your Bushspeak IQ.

1 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their ___ with women all across this country."

a-religion
b-guitars
c-love
d-pick-up lines
e-witchcraft


2 - Q: President Bush made four of the following statements. Which one was made by Dan Quayle?

a-"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."
b-"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."
c-"More and more of our imports come from overseas."
d-"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
e-"Rarely is the questioned asked: Is our children learning?"


3 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "I couldn't imagine somebody like Osama bin Laden understanding the ___."

a-joy of freedom
b-joy of sex
c-joy of cooking
d-joy of world domination
e-joy of Hannukah


4 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ___ and ____ will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport."

a-ticket counters and airplanes
b-seat backs and tray tables
c-pigs and monkeys
d-groped and shoeless passengers


5 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, '___.'"

a-"I think, therefore I is."
b-"People who live in glass stones shouldn't throw houses."
c-"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
d-"A bird in the hand is worth two in the — uh, two in the — uh…"


6 - Q: True or false: When asked in the 2000 presidential debates to sum up the reason for his candidacy, Bush said, "Strategery."

a-True
b-False


7 - Q: Four of the following statements were made by President George W. Bush. Which statement was made by President George H. W. Bush in 1990?

a-"I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here."
b-"I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe — I believe what I believe is right."
c-"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."
d-"I just am not one who – who flamboyantly believes in throwing a lot of words around."
e-"I'm the master of low expectations."


8 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "I know the ___ and ____ can coexist peacefully."

a-Israelians and Palestinicians
b-Christians and Islamiacs
c-donkey and elephant
d-human being and fish



9 - Q: True or false: When asked by a child in Britain to describe the White House, Bush replied, "It is white."

a-True
b-False



10 - Q: President Bush made three of the following statements. Which one was made by Dan Quayle?

a-"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."
b-"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."
c-"I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."
d-"How many Palestinians were on those airplanes on Sept. 9? None."



11 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "I want to thank the astronauts who are with us, the courageous ____ who set such a wonderful example for the young of our country."

a-spacial entrepreneurs
b-spacious exploranators
c-space rangers
d-intergalactic colonizers
e-moon dudes



12 - Q: True or false: Speaking at a right-to-life rally, President Bush said, "We must always remember that all human beings begin life as a feces. A feces is a living being in the eyes of God, who has endowed that feces with all of the rights and God-given blessings of any other human being."

a-True
b-False



13 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to ____ himself."

a-torture
b-terrorize
c-taunt
d-trick
e-touch



14 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "You teach a child to read, and ___ will be able to pass a literacy test."

a-him or he
b-he or her
c-she or it
d-we



15 - Q: Complete the following Bush quote. "A ___ would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."

a-constitutional monarchy
b-theocracy
c-fascist police state
d-dictatorship
e-global empire




-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWERS: 1) c; 2) d; 3) e; 4) a; 5) c; 6) false; 7) d; 8) d; 9) true; 10) d; 11) a; 12) false; 13) b; 14) b; 15) d



If you answered (0 – 2) items out of 15 correctly.

Your knowledge is sorely lacking. You might try taking the test again. As President Bush once said, "Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."


If you answered (3 – 5) items out of 15 correctly.

Your knowledge is highly underwhelming. As President Bush might have said, you ought to make the pie higher.


If you answered (6 – 8) items out of 15 correctly.

Your knowledge is underwhelming. As President Bush once said, "Expectations rise above that which is expected."


If you answered (9 – 11) items out of 15 correctly.

Your knowledge is slightly above average. As George W. Bush might have said, they misunderestimated you.


If you answered (12 – 15) items out of 15 correctly.

Excellent strategery. As President Bush might have said, it's people like you where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.



From Daniel Kurtzman (writer, editor, journalist and political satirist)

THE WAY OF ALL FLESH

“...[W]ith blogging becoming more popular, there's less need, I think for the critique message-board workshop in general.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------RJ McCaffery

I was saddened the other day to receive an e-mail notifying me that the on-line workshop “Haven” (run by R.J McCaffery) was closing down. I met, read and was read by some fine poets there. Chelle Miko (whose absence is missed), Frank Matagrano, Steve Mueske, Steven Schroeder, Hannah Craig, Amy Unsworth (?) and of course R.J. himself - come to mind offhand. I’m sure that I have missed others. Notwithstanding this saddening news, the gist of R.J’s comment on the diminishing need for on-line poetry workshops was both astute and thought-provoking. If indeed the “message-board workshop” had seen its day and has been by and large supplanted by “blogging” then a question came to mind. I.e.: Do blogging and work-shopping actually meet the same needs of a poet? On the face of it one would think not. I mean workshops allow the poet to hone their poetic skills. But they also serve as a backdrop as a sort of community to poets and those interested in poetics. The “Blogosphere” obviously also serves as a community i.e.:

What characterizes a community is sharing and interaction in any number of ways. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs and a multitude of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the degree of adhesion within the mixture, but the definitive driver of community is that all individual subjects in the mix have something in common.

This condition exists in both environments (the blogosphere and on-line workshop). However, the blogosphere is less of an adhesive whole than the on-line workshop. The workshop atmosphere more closely resembles any social environment, where while being open to outsiders, it generally plays itself out dramaturgically, within its social confines, with the same core set of personae on a day in and day out basis. This inevitably leads (as in any social group) to hierachical distinctions and assignations. (There’s a pecking order in them there hills!)

The balance between self-interest and shared-interests within and among members of a group is the crucial factor in community formation. When enough participants in a group develop an attitude of caring for the well-being of the whole, or the common good, the prospect of community is present.

The relationships between bloggers in general are more losely forged (there does not appear to be a definitive demarcation as to who and who does not belong) and thus appears to be less constricted by social role and status. Players are free to choose when, where and even if they want to comment and read without losing their general sense of status as it does not rely on the extent/level of their participation. It also seems that there is less of an interest in the "self" and more of an attitude of “caring for the well-being of the whole or the common good” in the blogosphere than in the on-line workshop. This might in fact explain why some of the best on-line workshops are attracting on-line poets with lesser and lesser frequency. This may not spell the end of the on-line workshop; but it does not, in my opinion, bode well for their long-term viability.

A-Blogging They Will Go!

Days 24 to 27 & Counting:

24. Theresa Davis' s: Sista Seuss Highlighted here.
25. Mark Young's: Pelican Dreaming Highlighted here.
26. Lorna Dee Cervantes Highlighted here.
27. Bill Allegrezza's: p-ramblings Highlighted here.

Oh!...What I Wouldn't Do!

For the Sake of the Poem

by LINDA PASTAN


For the sake of the poem

the bed remains disheveled all day,



the dishes loll in the sink

like adolescents. For the sake



of the poem a forest is cut down

to appease my appetite for paper.



A lover is betrayed in print;

hot tea and desire must



cool their heels,

for the sake of the poem.



I am an addict who needs

her daily fix of language.



Children are left uncombed;

unwatered, plants languish.



For the sake of the poem

old age is put on hold.



Oh, what wouldn’t I do

for the sake of the poem?


-------------------------------------------------------------------
from "Margie" Volume 4, 2005

Something to do on a Rainy Day!

http://thegalleriesatmoore.org/activities/goo/bush.shtml

The Lesser Known Stooge

Singular Twist of Fate

I got an SASE back today in the mail. It was from the Indiana Review; postdated September 30, 2005. So I figure...This is Guinness World Record material for a rejection from a print journal. I mean I sent the sucker out on September 26, 2005 and I receive the SASE on October 4th of the same year nonetheless. What did they use the pony express? Then I thought: Gee.... I didn't think my sub was that bad. So I open the sucker up and I read the rejection slip.




Now let me get this straight. I sent my sub on September 26, figuring that it'll take about 4 to 10 days to get there just in time for October 1st . Instead by some freak occurrence they get it within a couple of days maybe and they're whipping it back at me by September 30th. But I mean October 1st is like the next day. Do you get the impression (like me) that they never even took a look at the sucker and that right about now my poetry, printed on Xerox Ultra White 20 lb standard weight paper, is being abused and tortured into admitting that it's vapid and meaningless drivel by some intern? Something tells me I shouldn't waste my time and money sending them another sub. But then I figure what the hell...even interns have to have some fun.

100 Blogging Poets In 100 Days

Billy Jones is profiling 100 poets who blog on his site at BloggingPoets. Here is a partial list of poets (as today is day 23). The list is in no particular order as is clear from the sequence of Blogs highlighted below. Heck, I don't even belong on a list of poets such as: Collin Kelly, Ron Silliman, Peter Pereira, Laurel Snyder et al. I look forward to seeing who else is profiled.


1. Talking To Myself
2. Alivianate El Coco Highlighted here.
3. Poetry Hut Highlighted here.
4. Ginger Rivers Highlighted here.
5. Tread On Dreams Highlighted here.
6. Stick Poet Super Hero Highlighted here.
7. Poetic Acceptance Highlighted here.
8. They Shoot Poets Highlighted here.
9. Ron Silliman Highlighted here.
10. Blog Poetry Club Highlighted here.
11. Million Poems Highlighted here.
12. JewishyIrishy Highlighted here.
13. The Virtual World Highlighted here.
14. Never Neutral Highlighted here.
15. Night Jar Highlighted here.
16. Stranger Ken Highlighted here.
17. Te Quiero Highlighted here.
18. Glittering Muse Highlighted here.
19. A Poem A Day Highlighted here
20. Watermark Highlighted here.
21. Yemenja Highlighted here.
22. Collin Kelly Highlighted here.
23. Blue Tattoo Highlighted here.

Chilling Read

Re-creating the Scene
by Yusef Komunyakaa


The metal door groans
& folds shut like an ancient turtle
that won't let go
of a finger till it thunders.
The Confederate flag
flaps from a radio antenna,
& the woman's clothes
come apart in their hands.
Their mouths find hers
in the titanic darkness
of the steel grotto,
as she counts the names of dead
ancestors, shielding a baby
in her arms. The three men
ride her breath, grunting
over lovers back in Mississippi.
She floats on their rage
like a torn water flower,
defining night inside a machine
where men are gods.
The season quietly sweats.
They hold her down
with their eyes,
taking turns, piling stones
on her father's grave.
The APC rolls with curves of the land,
up hills & down into gullies,
crushing trees & grass,
droning like a constellation
of locusts eating through bamboo,
creating the motion for their bodies.
She rises from the dust
& pulls the torn garment
around her, staring after the APC
till it's small enough
to fit like a toy tank in her hands.
She turns in a circle,
pounding the samarium dust
with her feet where the steel
tracks have plowed. The sun
fizzes like a pill in a glass
of water, & for a moment
the world's future tense:
She approaches the MPs
at the gate; a captain from G-5
accosts her with candy kisses;
I inform The Overseas Weekly;
flashbulbs refract her face
in a room of polished brass
& spit-shined boots;
on the trial's second day
she turns into mist--
someone says money
changed hands,
& someone else swears
she's buried at LZ Gator.
But for now, the baby
makes a fist & grabs at the air,
searching for a breast.

----------------------------------------------------------------
From: Dien Cai Dau - Wesleyan University Press: (1988)

In Memoriam

After reading all the articles and epitaphs in various publications recounting Don Adams' life and career, what he will inevitably be remembered for is his depiction of Maxwell Smart. I could not help but fondly remember what drew me to this TV spoof of the "secret agent" genre (ie. popularized at the time by Ian Fleming's creation). It was not the fact that it was written and conceived by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, or that it won seven Emmys and two Golden Globe awards. What did draw me ( even as a child) back to this show time after time was the on-going gags and quips. Some of the most memorable:

• Max: (After causing yet another disaster for the Chief) "Sorry about that, Chief."
  
• Chief: "Now listen carefully ... [long list of directions to a secret rendezvous or some such] ... did you get that?" Max: "Not all of it." Chief: "Which part didn't you get?" Max: "The part after 'Now listen carefully'."
  
• Max: (Used when his enemies call his bluffs and he ineffectually resorts to more desperate ones) "Would you believe..."
  
• Max: "Missed it by that much."
  
• Max: "Don't tell me [he made yet another mistake and when his compatriot confirms it, he responds...] I asked you not to tell me that."
  
• Max: "The old...[complicated explanation]...trick" (often followed by "that's the second time this month")
  
• Chief/99/somebody else: "Max, you'll be in extreme danger every minute!" Max: "...and loving it!"
  
• Max: "That's the second biggest ...(whatever)... I've ever seen."
  
• Siegfried: (usually to silence his sidekick, Shtarker who is doing something silly) "Shtarker! Zis is KAOS, Ve don't... [whatever it was he was doing]... here!"
  
• Max: "Good thinking, 99." [Used by Max to congratulate 99 on a statement of the obvious as if she was learning deduction and logic from him. The implication was that she was just catching up to his thought processes, when in fact the expression on his face showed that he was embarrassed that he hadn't worked it out himself already.]
• "Hymie, kill the lights": Hymie the Robot (Dick Gauthier), a powerful android who tended to take orders too literally.

Nevermind!!!

Why aid was slow in getting to New Orleans!

Gee! I Wonder if Anybody Will Read This?

Is Reading Dead? (Excerpt From - National CrossTalk (Winter 2005)

University-affiliated literary journals struggle to maintain funding as they compete for a shrinking audience
By Robert A. JonesLexington, Virginia

...The literary landscape has grown more perilous since the 1950s, a period that some regard as the golden era of literary magazines. During those post-World War Two years, a half dozen magazines-the Paris, Kenyon, Hudson and Southern reviews, among others-dominated the scene and garnered unto themselves most of the literary attention and financial support.

"At the time, those magazines could provide recognition and prestige to an author just by publishing a short story," said Rubin. "People would open their copies of the Southern Review or the Paris Review to see who had been anointed, so to speak. That's not true today. Literary magazines don't play that role."

They don't, in part, because reading itself plays a lesser role than it did in the '50s. A recent NEA study found that literary reading has undergone dramatic decline in the country, with less than half of American adults now reading any form of literature. That study led the Virginia Quarterly Review, published at the University of Virginia, to display on its website the drawing of a young woman, her head hung in despair and a manuscript dangling from her hand, with the caption, "Reading is Dead."

"In the 1950s we had an emerging middle class that saw literature and reading as one of the hallmarks of the educated person," said one editor. "That's not true today. Reading has lost its power to bestow status on the masses, and instead has become a cottage industry."

Perhaps so, but within that cottage industry another phenomenon is having a powerful effect on the world of literary magazines. Namely, the sheer number of literary journals is exploding even as readership has declined. Rather than the half dozen dominant journals of the '50s, about 20 major journals are now published around the country, all competing for attention and readers.

But those numbers are dwarfed by the proliferation of secondary journals that have popped up in cities and hamlets across the land. The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses estimates that the total number of literary journals in the country has hit 1,000, the highest number in history. Some exist solely online; others are published cheaply with desktop technology and may last only for one or two issues. But even as one journal dies, two others take its place.

In fact, it could be argued that the present time, and not the '50s, represents the real golden era for literary magazines. Bellevue Hospital in New York, for example, now publishes the Bellevue Literary Review. In Rochester, New York, a publication called Hazmat Review deals with poetry rather than noxious chemicals. Some journals publish only gay and lesbian literature; others accept only extra-long short stories; still others specialize in literature from certain neighborhoods in a given city.

What explains this burgeoning supply of literature in the midst of shrinking demand? Some veterans of the literary world believe the answer lies in the mushrooming culture of creative writing retreats and workshops that now churn out would-be writers by the thousands. The boom is occurring both inside universities and outside at institutions such as Breadloaf in Vermont.

"If you browse through Poets and Writers (the trade journal of creative writing) you will be amazed at the number of ads for these workshops," said Shannon Ravenel, editor and co-founder of Algonquin Books. "They're everywhere. And when you create writers, you also create readers of a particular sort. I'm talking about a crowd that wants to be published in a literary journal, and a crowd that is interested in what other writers are doing."

Another veteran sees the phenomenon more cynically. "Every writer needs an outlet," he said. "So you get tens of thousands of attendees at creative writing workshops looking for a journal to publish their one-and-only short story. If they can't find one, sometimes they simply create one to immortalize their work and their friends' work. In cases like this, the division between authors and readers is lost. Both sides are composed of the same people." ...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Complete Article: http://www.highereducation.org/crosstalk/ct0105/news0105-reading.shtml

Goodbye Chief!: 'Agent 86' Don Adams dies

Actor and comedian Don Adams, best known for his role as clumsy secret agent Maxwell Smart in the 1960s television comedy Get Smart, has died. Aged 82, he died of a lung infection.





















"Hymie, kill the lights"

Deja Vu All Over Again!

A PILGRIMAGE TO L'ORIGNAL

That he that is not busy being born
is busy dying.
------------------------------Bob Dylan


The last station to cross is the dirt road
that hits harder when the long drive
comes to a halt. You hate yourself
for begrudging her even this inconvenience.

The ranch house looks lost on the five-acres
of lawn that disappears into the undergrowth
and the bifocal eyes between the slats
of a shuttered window. "So you've come,"

a voice squeaks through the screen door
which reveals curator and medicus. She leads
you to a room with closed blinds; leaves
you with the changeling on the bed. You
could never have prepared for this.

The light tumbles into the room as you pull
up the blinds; turn to examine the face
of a homeless mind - translucent
and flaccid, blackened by pain.

She opens one good eye - greyer
than the clouds that spilt forgiveness
on you - and you are lost.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally published in Thunder Sandwich 07/01/2003

Never Knew Thing Was a Poet: Morticia and Gomez, You Must be Very Proud!

Photography and the Fine Art of Swimming

Arno Rafael Minkkinen

In a League of His Own

La Dolce Vita

The Water-Closet Poet

Right now as I write this, I am sitting on my commode, holed up in my salle de bain. Outside the door, my daughters, impersonating the children from the “Lord of the Flies” are trying the knob with nutella-smeared fingers. The knob turns about like something out of a horror “B” flick: slowly and deliberately first counter-clockwise and then even more gingerly in the opposite direction. Then my gaolers speak - sotto voce, “Daddy are you in there?” A pause ensues and then the catch phrase, “We just want to wash our hands.” And I think to myself, ‘Awwww...no! I’m not gonna fall for that one again.’

The worst part of this scenario is that after the knob-turning stops, the scratching at the door ends, the wrapping with knuckles subsides and the voices desist I feel guilty… big time. I mean what kinda father am I anyway? (Rhetorical question - please do not answer.) My girls only want the attention of their father and as far as I know (unless the DNA tests I’ve ordered prove otherwise) that means me. Still I fight tooth and nail for “poetry breaks” and for some semblance of a writer’s studio in my study when my “Complete Works of Emily Dickinson” is not being used as a footrest when my eldest daughter is practicing her guitar.

I put my hands over my ears and keep repeating to myself in mantra-like fashion: “Poetry does not suck!” as a rebuttal to my youngest daughter’s assertions that who reads poetry and who writes this stuff anyway. I am a closet poet. Maybe that should be a new school in contemporary poetry. Certainly many of my poetic acquaintances do not freely admit that they read or “God forbid” write the stuff.

Then there’s my wife. “Dear,” I coo, “I’ve gotten an acceptance by a well known literary print magazine.”
“Oh, really.” she responds, “Is this a paying gig.”
“Well, yea! Sort of.” I counter.
“What do you mean sort of?” she queries.
“They pay me in copies of the issue of the journal and a one year subscription.”
“I see.... So that means we’ll have more poetry books in your study.”

At this point I retire to the WC again.

Losing My Religion a la James Tate

A Knock On The Door

They ask me if I've ever thought
about the end of the world,
and I say, "Come in, come in,
let me give you some lunch, for God's sake."
After a few bites it's the afterlife
they want to talk about. "Ouch," I say,
"did you see that grape leaf skeletonizer?"
Then they're talking about redemption
and the chosen few sitting right by His side.
"Doing what?" I ask. "Just sitting?"
I am surrounded by burned up zombies.
"Let's have some lemon chiffon pie
I bought yesterday at the 3 Dog Bakery."
But they want to talk about my soul.
I'm getting drowsy and see butterflies
everywhere. "Would you gentlemen
like to take a nap, I know I would."
They stand and back away from me,
out the door, walking toward my neighbors,
a black cloud over their heads
and they see nothing without end.


From "Shroud of the Gnome" by James Tate © 1997

Well-Read.

"The reader", © 2002. - Maggie Taylor

Somebody Shut That Window!

"Poet's House" © 1999 - Maggie Taylor

Literary Quotes and Quotables For $1000

What is:

Most people ignore most poetry
because
most poetry ignores most people.

Adrian Mitchell

Who Needs Sleep?

Rereading Moore

Poetry
Marianne Moore

I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond
-------all this fiddle.
---Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one
-------discovers in
--- it after all, a place for the genuine.
-------Hands that can grasp, eyes
-------that can dilate, hair that can rise
---------- if it must, these things are important not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because
-------they are
--- useful. When they become so derivative as to become
-------unintelligible,
--- the same thing may be said for all of us, that we
------- do not admire what
------- we cannot understand: the bat
-----------holding on upside down or in quest of something to

eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless
--------wolf under
--- a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse
--------that feels a flea, the base-
---ball fan, the statistician--
--------nor is it valid
------------to discriminate against "business documents and

school-books"; all these phenomena are important. One must make
-------a distinction
---however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the
-------result is not poetry,
--- nor till the poets among us can be
-------"literalists of
-------the imagination"--above
------------insolence and triviality and can present

for inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them,"
--------shall we have
---it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand,
---the raw material of poetry in
--------all its rawness and
--------that which is on the other hand
------------genuine, you are interested in poetry.