My Creative Journal

Starting today I will be posting here more regularly on the topic of my creative efforts and my exploration of aspects of writing and stimulating creativity. My aim here is to keep a running journal of what works for me and what doesn't.  Also to document my thought process as I strive to reactivate my muse and search for ways to get back to the pleasure of imagining and creating new worlds, whether they be worlds of language or story. 

This week I am committed to spending a bit of time on nailing down my aspirations for 2023. My biggest hope is to improve at balancing my time and efforts.  I have a tendency to get single-minded about tasks, tenaciously spending an excessive number of hours on one thing to the detriment of everything else. Often that's either seminary or occupation related. I'm obsessively focused on being responsible. While it is good to be concentrated on important and purposeful things, I need to develop the disciple of setting aside other things in order to fit in things I aspire to do. 

My other weakness is succumbing to timewasters, especially scrolling through Facebook or looking up the latest news or gossip on Doctor Who, Marvel movies, or Star Trek.  My goal is to set aside those mind-numbing sessions of yielding to click-bait. Time is limited in this life, and there are so many other edifying options. 

If you know me and you happen to find this post, please say a prayer for me, and I also invite you to check-in and hold me accountable for my aspirations. Drop me a line and say something like, "Keith, did you write today?" Thanks in advance. 

Cigarettes, a spontaneous poem by Keith Badowski

Cigarettes

We don’t want to burn!
Cool as it looks, turning to ash
is something we’d love to postpone.
Just look at us snug in this pack,
our filters so white and clean,
in our orderly rows like cells.
From here we’re causing no harm,
all our poisons calmly inert.
We don’t want to cause cancer
or scar lungs or stain fingers.
Think of our white paper as a flag—
each of us has the skin of a pacifist.
Spare us the germy dampness
of your mouth and sweaty hands.
Pardon us, we beg, from incineration
in that holocaust of the ashtray.


Keith Badowski

Inspired by this prompt

Got a Shout-Out!

I got a shout-out from Jessica Handler on her blog:

http://www.jessicahandler.com/2010/09/hidden-literary-surprises.html

Wynne Huddleston mentions me as well:

http://wynne-huddleston.blogspot.com/2010/09/2010-chattahoochee-valley-writers.html

Keith Badowski Composing a Spontaneous Poem on Typewriter

Not the greatest camera angle, but this conveys the poetry stunt just fine. By the way, if you hang with the typing sequence, you'll actually hear me read the completed poem at the end.

The Country - Billy Collins Animated Poetry

Keith's Poetry Chapbook Is Now Available

My Wife Warned Me And I Did It Anyway is $6.95 per copy, free shipping and handling. (ONLY IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES.)

To purchase online, use the Buy Now button (below-to purchase through PayPal). Or send a check for $6.95, pay to the order of Keith Badowski to the following address:
Keith Badowski
341 Lee Road 553
Phenix City, AL 36867

Keith Badowski is a poet who loves a challenge. Having written poetry for over twenty years, Badowski sought a fresher, looser, and less inhibited mode of poetry writing. Over the last two years, Badowski has solicited poetry assignments from other poets, friends, and family members. Within 24 hours or less of receiving the prompt, he produced what he has dubbed a “spontaneous poem.” The resulting spontaneous poems have been enthusiastically received by the readers of Keith Badowski’s blog “There Goes the Top of My Head.”

Now these spontaneous poems have been collected together in a 40 page chapbook entitled, My Wife Warned Me And I Did It Anyway.







In addition to 25 poems, the volume includes a notes section that offers behind-the-scenes information on the creation process for many of these poems.

My Wife Warned Me And I Did It Anyway is $6.95 per copy, free shipping and handling. (ONLY IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES.)

Book Review: Paper Cathedrals (2001) by Morri Creech

Since my undergraduate college days, I’ve been enamored by intersections between art/literature and Christianity. It’s especially powerful when, whatever the medium, the artist/writer avoids being preachy or maudlin and succeeds in engaging Christian motifs in a strikingly thought provoking way. In Morri Creech’s poetry collection Paper Cathedrals, I discovered exactly that kind of stimulating engagement with biblical materials.

In “Honey and John the Baptist,” Creech imagines an internal monologue for John the Baptist. John has completed his preordained purpose of preparing the way for Lord and simply waits in a state of purposelessness:

. . . the crowds had gone,
what work was I left to do,
having set it all in motion, . . .

No longer the chosen . . .

Creech’s poems often probe those afterward and in-between moments of New Testament events, the Bible’s “deleted scenes.” These are shown to be moments of weakness, sorrow, and/or regrets.

In his impotency, John the Baptist reflects not only on his own coming death, but also on the temptations and coming death of Jesus:

And weren’t the long beams of the cross
already hewn from the tree,
Salome’s young thighs
ripening toward the dance
as I ate of the honey,
as I tasted the scald of bees
drowned in the chambered sweetness
of their own making?

Not all the poems here are biblically based. Several are responses to photographs and a few seem to be familial poems. However, the most stirring and even somewhat disturbing poems are those written from the point of view of Judas, the betrayer.

Creech’s poems give us a hugely sympathetic Judas, a disciple in love with his master, devoted, and intimately a part of the inner circle. Vividly the poems retell familiar scenes which are made new through showing them from Judas’ point of view alone. There’s an added dimension of pain when we know in advance that the speaker is headed toward betrayal and destruction.

Without a doubt, the most striking poem of the collection is one entitled, “The Room Reserved for Judas” where Creech imagines in acute detail the living quarters that were set aside for Judas in heaven but were never claimed.

There are no pictures arranged
on the mantelpiece, no flowers pressed
in the pages of the a family Bible. The door
remains numberless. . .

Yet even there, in the far corner of the kingdom,
one can still hear God’s loud voice
and the trumpets of mercy . . .

As the heavenly sounds penetrate this empty room, the poem conveys a haunting sadness of loss and disappointment. One of God’s children, chosen by Jesus to be his disciple has fallen away. He will never come into his inheritance. It’s a chilling poem.

Paper Cathedrals is an astounding collection.

Poem Publications

I’m excited to announce two recent publication acceptances. My “spontaneous” poem “Dream Theory,” prompted by some random words submitted by Todd Stiles, has been accepted at Birmingham Arts Journal and is slated for publication in the April 2009 issue. Another poem “Pursuit of the Sweet Spot” is currently available for your reading pleasure on the FutureCycle Poetry website. Later in the year (round about November) FutureCycle will produce a print anthology that will include this poem and all the other poems appearing on their website in the past year. My poem can be found at http://www.futurecycle.org/BadkowskiBio.aspx. Drop me a line and let me know what you think!

Denis Leary, Poetry Fan?

I've noticed that there are crossroads in various places between stand-up comedy and poetry. I've come across a number of poets who when they read their poems attempt to crack up their audience with their wit and delivery. Poets like Billy Collins and Thomas Lux weave humor into their poetry like it's the most natural thing in the world. My friend Ron Self, Columbus, GA attorney and poet, has this flare for comedy in his poems. Another friend of mine, stand-up comic, Joe Bronzi used to write brilliant poems; he still writes incredible dialogue in his scripts. As far as I can tell, poetry and stand-up comedy go well together. Both arts are language driven. Word choice, rhythm and style of diction have everything to do with it. You must love language to be good at either craft. So I wasn't too shocked to read in a recent interview published in the Chicago Tribune that, actor/comedian, Denis Leary is an avid poetry reader.

Q:So when you put your book on your bookshelf, what else is there?

Denis Leary:I've always been a fan of poetry. People may be surprised by that. Early in college [Emerson College in Boston], I had a huge crush on this poetry teacher ... that probably helped.

And also a plethora of sports books and history books, biographies. Any book about the Boston Red Sox, any baseball writing—it's the most prosaic thing in the world. I like Hemingway. But if there was a Hemingway book and the Robert Creamer book on Babe Ruth—I've read that book about three or four times—that's the one I'm going to pick up.

Q:What poetry's on your shelf?

Denis Leary:Tom Lux and [former U.S. Poet Laureate] Charles Simic and Bill Knott. Tom Lux and Bill Knott taught at Emerson College. I'm not really a classical guy because I grew up in the city. I actually don't get Shakespeare. I would never be able to perform Shakespeare. Scorsese's films "Taxi Driver" and "Mean Streets"—that's the first time I saw guys in the movies who I felt like I grew up with them. That's like my Shakespeare.

Q:As a college student, you had two poems published in the distinguished poetry magazine Ploughshares [published by Emerson College]. Does it help your comedy writing that you once wrote poetry?

Denis Leary:It's the rhythm of it. I just learned this whole thing about rhythm, listening to these teachers talk about it.

For the entire article http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-denis-leary-1208dec08,0,6606675.story

Audio Anthology: Poems read by Keith Badowski

These poems were not written by me. I only wish I had written them.

MP3 of the sound of Jealousy


MP3 of the sound of Aging


If you have Quick Time, the track will automatically play in it's entirety when you click on it.You can get Quick Time here.


Your other option is to right click on the link, select "Save Target As", and Browse to the location on your hard drive where you want to save the MP3 file.

In that case, you'll need to open the file in Windows Media Player or some other media program that handles MP3s.

Poetry Readings/Workshops in Atlanta, GA and Columbus, GA

COLUMBUS, GA OPENMIC & POETRY WORKSHOP

Meets the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Columbus Public Library, 3000 Macon Road. Poetry Workshop meets the third Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. at 513 Broadway. Call 706-649-3080 for information.

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

ALPHARETTA POETRY FORUM

Meets the third Tuesday of each month. We spend time reading and discussing poetry. For more information, contact Terry Hensel (tlhensel@comcast.net).

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

HARRIS COUNTY POETRY SOCIETY

Meets monthly at ArtWorks, a gallery/studio in Pine Mountain, GA. For information, contact Jeanne Koone at jlkoone@aol.com or by phone at 706-663-2671.

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

STONEPILE WRITERS

A group of writers and poets at North Georgia College and State University have created the StonepileWriters. For information about this new group, see http://stonepilewriters.edublogs.org/.

source: Georgia Poetry Society Newsletter

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Join us for an evening with celebrated Irish poet Bernard O’Donoghue

Dear Library Friends, we hope you can join us for this reading by Bernard O’Donoghue on 10.29.08 -- **no RSPV required**!

Look forward to seeing you, Lea

6:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Cox Hall Ballroom (third floor)
569 Asbury Circle, Emory University
Poet and literary critic Bernard O’Donoghue was born in Cullen, County Cork, Ireland
and now resides in Manchester, UK. O’Donoghue is author of Seamus Heaney and the
Language of Poetry (1995). His poetry collections include Poaching Rights (1987); The Weakness (1991); Gunpowder (1995); Here Nor There (1999); and Outlining (2003). In 1995 he received the Whitbread Poetry Award for Gunpowder. His most recent work consists of a verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2006) and Selected Poems (2008).

Reception and book signing will follow the poetry reading.
For directions: http://www.map.emory.edu/
Parking: In the Fishburne and Peavine parking decks
For more information: 404.727.0148

Lea McLees, Director of Communications
Emory University Libraries
540 Asbury Circle, Atlanta, GA 30332
TEL 404.727.0211 * FAX 404.727.0805
WWW http://web.library.emory.edu/

source: email announcement

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 8:00 PM

VOICES CARRY: AN EVENING OF POETRY & SPOKEN WORD
FEATURING ***THERESA DAVIS, JIM ELLEDGE, KODAC HARRISON, COLLIN KELLEY, LAUREL SNYDER & CECILIA WOLOCH***
WORDSMITHS BOOKS, DECATUR
Mark your calendars now for the fifth annual reading, which will be held this year at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur. A wine and cheese reception will be held, and poets will be signing their books. Visit www.wordsmithsbooks.com for directions and parking information.

source: http://www.poetryatlanta.blogspot.com/

Sunday, November 9 –

Poet Cecelia Woloch will give a reading of her work.2:00 PM, Smith-McCullers House, 1519 Stark Avenue.Woloch was named 2004’s Georgia Author of the Year in Poetry, and her work is included in Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems for Hard Times.

source: http://www.mccullerscenter.org/


Monday, November 10, 2008
is the deadline for requesting an application for GA Tech’s Poetry at Tech Community Poetry Workshops

Workshop with Travis Wayne Denton
Saturday, January 31, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

Workshop with Thomas Lux
Saturday, February 28, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

Workshop with Ginger Murchison
Saturday, March 28, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

Workshop with Katie Chaple
Saturday, April 11, 2009
10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
FREE
Room 10, Wesley New Media Center
in the Skiles Building on the Georgia Tech Campus

To request an application, e-mail travis.denton@lcc.gatech.edu or call Travis Denton at POETRY at TECH at 404-385-2760 with your name, address, zip code and phone number. If you leave a voice mail, please speak slowly and spell your name and street address. Include your zip code and a phone number. The deadline for requesting an application is November 10, 2008.

Applications will be sent by November 20, 2008 to the physical address requested or to the e-mail address on the online request. POETRY at TECH is not responsible for snail mail or e-mail that does not reach you. If you requested an application and do not have one by the end of November, e-mail again or call. There is no need to call before November 15.

All applications without exception must be returned by email and postmarked by MIDNIGHT DECEMBER 10, 2008. Applications will be considered IN THE ORDER THEY ARE RECEIVED.

Applications NOT IN OUR HANDS by DECEMBER 10, 2008 CANNOT BE CONSIDERED.

NOTE: Applicants will be given the opportunity to request a preferred workshop and a second choice on the application; however, if your first- and second-choice workshops are full, you will be notified BEFORE being placed in another workshop. Should you decline a place in a workshop with availability, that place will be offered to the next name on the list.

Applicants should submit ONE poem (30 lines or fewer --Please!) with the application. Late submissions or those submitted on the day of the workshop will not be accepted as instructors will have studied the poems ahead of time. An application without a poem will be taken as indication that the applicant wishes to attend without workshopping a poem.

Instructors assume that all who submit poems are ready for and, in fact, invite rigorous critique by the instructor and other workshop participants. At no time, however, will a participant or his work be treated with disrespect or harshness. Workshop size will be strictly limited to ensure a safe and intimate environment in which participants can confidently develop their poetics and aesthetic standards.

Participants may bring a lunch or order a box lunch that will be delivered to the classroom. Menus and order forms will be part of the application.

E-mail any questions to travis.denton@lcc.gatech.edu

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/workshops.html


Wednesday, November 12 –

Award-winning poet Michael Waters in two events: In the afternoon, a workshop at the Smith-McCullers House, 1519 Stark Avenue. In the evening, a formal reading. Exact times and locations to be announced. This is a Georgia Poetry Circuit event.

source: http://www.mccullerscenter.org/

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12; 8:15 pm

POETRY READING

Join two amazing poets Stephen Bluestone and Ginger Murchison as Callanwolde celebrates the art and performance of poetry with readings in the unique setting of the Callanwolde Conservatory. $5 General Admission, $3 Students/Seniors/Members. For more information call 404-872-5338.

Stephen Bluestone, a native New Yorker, has received numerous awards for his poetry, including the Greensboro Review Poetry Prize and the Thomas Merton Prize. Two of his volumes of poetry, The Laughing Monkeys of Gravity and The Flagrant Dead, were nominated for the National Book Award in Poetry. Holiness Everywhere, his free adaptation of a 12th-century work by Jehudah Halevi, set to music by Atlanta composer Curtis Bryant premiered in New York City in 2002. O City! a tribute to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy was performed by the Gregg Smith Singers in New York City in 2003, and more recently, a collaboration with composer David H. Johnson has resulted in a new work, Jerusalem Trilogy. Bluestone teaches English and film at Mercer University.

Ginger Murchison, is currently a candidate for an MFA in poetry at Warren Wilson College and editor of The Cortland Review. She assisted in the founding of Georgia Tech's poetry program, “POETRY at TECH”, while working there for 7 years. She is a two-time Pushcart nominee and her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, The Chattahoochee Review, Terminus Magazine and in Volumes II and III of Java Monkey Speaks: A Poetry Anthology. Her chapbook Out Here, was recently released by Jeanne Duval Editions

source: http://www.callanwolde.org/events/index.html

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2008

Seventh Annual
Bourne Poetry Reading
Featuring: ILYA KAMINSKY and DAVID ST. JOHN
The Clary Theatre
In the Bill Moore Student Success Center
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading
Parking across North Avenue
in the Burge Parking Deck.

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 7:00 PM

***SHARON OLDS***
THE LITERARY CENTER @ MARGARET MITCHELL HOUSE
Award-winning poet Sharon Olds will make a rare appearance at the The Literary Center. Details to be announced soon. www.gwtw.org.

source: http://www.poetryatlanta.blogspot.com/


SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6 , 2008

An Evening of Spoken Word
Featuring ROGER BONAIR AGARD, TAYLOR MALI, MARTY McCONNELL, and GYPSEE YO

The Clary Theatre
In the Bill Moore Student Success Center
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading
Parking across North Avenue
in the Burge Parking Deck.

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13th, 2008

Keith Badowski, featured reader

Johns Creek Poetry Writing Group meets monthly on a Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Northeast Spruill Oaks Regional Library, in the Johns Creek/Duluth area. On Dec. 13th, Keith Badowski will offer a 45 minute presentation of his poetry. Keith is incoming President of the Georgia Poetry Society. His poems have been published in Oxalis, Rambunctious Review, Monkey, and The Reach of Song. Johns Creek Poetry Writing Group also has a critiquing session, and a poetry book review presentation.

source: my own personal calendar


THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009


Seventh Annual
McEver Poetry Reading

Featuring KAREN HEAD, BRUCE MCEVER, CHELSEA RATHBURN, and JOHN SKOYLES
The Clary Theatre
In the Bill Moore Student Success Center
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading
Parking across North Avenue
in the Burge Parking Deck.

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2009

ED PAVLIC and
KEVIN YOUNG
The LeCraw Auditorium
in the College of Management in Technology Square, 800 West Peachtree St. (5th and West Peachtree)
7:00 p.m., FREE
Open to the Public
No Tickets or Reservations Required
Book Sale and Signing to Follow the Reading

source: http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/events.html

CAPS and Microsoft ® Word

At a recent “Poetry Workshop,” one of the topics of discussion was the traditional convention of capitalizing the first word of every line in a poem. Most of the poets assembled for this particular workshop were not devoted to the traditional forms or norms. Actually one admitted that the only reason for the capitalization all along the left side was that Microsoft ® Word automatically capitalized it.

I’m sure many poets have faced this annoying problem as well. Well, I’d like to help. Here are your instructions for turning off automatic capitalization in Microsoft ® Word.

Note: I’m using Microsoft ® Word 2002 for this instruction series, but it should be the same in most versions.

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Click on the menu option named “Tools” (located above the typing area).
3. Click on the drop-down men option named “AutoCorrect Options. . . ”


4. On the AutoCorrect tab, uncheck the option named “Capitalize first letter of sentences.”
5. Click OK.


6. Get back in the habit of hitting the Shift key to capitalize where you actually want capitalization.

Feeling Sad? Feeling Blue? Play this Video, It's For You!

Justin Blackburn, poet, mystic, voice in the wilderness, delivers a very important message. Don't miss it! It's for you.

Friday Spontaneous Poem

This week’s prompt comes from my friend Todd. (Apologetic note: Jean and Linda, please be patient. I’m sorry it’s been taking me awhile to get to your requests. I hope to attend to them this weekend. Todd’s request came earlier and was misplaced.)

I suppose Todd thought I was ignoring his request, thus the challenging tone of the re-request I got:

If you're not up to the challenge of incorporating:

(( greased pole climb ))

(( town square ))

(( courthouse clock ))

(( sunburn ))

...then I'll wrap that one up myself, since it's drawn from a pretty specific summer memory of mine when I was about ten years old. Your call; let me know either way.


Well, Todd. I’d sure like to see you write this poem also. But here’s my crack at it, buddy! And thanks for the positive feedback and encouragement too!

One last note: If you ever have difficulty reading the scans of these poems, you can enlarge the view by clicking on the poem. If that doesn't help enough, drop me a line. I'll fix the problem somehow.

Friday Spontaneous Poem

My friend Brad apparently wanted to make sure that his prompt was the first received this week, since he sent it on Monday. Honestly, I did not dwell on the prompt this week or have any extra time to think about it, since I was so busy with life in general. And, you may be interested to know that Brad's was the only prompt I received this week. (I still have a backlog of two prompts from last week though. So there might be a couple bonus Spontaneous Poems in store for this blog.)

Assignment‏
From: Brad Tree
Sent: Mon 5/26/08 9:38 PM
To: Keith Badowski

wind hair 20 years 30 pounds

Thanks,
Brad Tree



I must continuously remind myself of the purpose of this Spontaneous Poetry exercise. It is to keep loose, to starve my inner critic, and to practice generosity and freely giving. It is a battle though. Whenever I finish one of these, part me of feels on edge, knowing it should be revised before it goes out to the world. That inner critic is screaming, "It's not done! It's not good enough!" I must reply, "It's not ours! We disown it! We are giving it away!"

Glut Tuesday Spontaneous Poem

Last week, I recieved a few extra prompts for Spontaneous Poems.
Here's the results from one of those extras.


The prompt:
Keith,

In case you don't have one already, here's my prompt: found snakeskin

Maria

Friday Spontaneous Poem

Keith:
I just opened a letter from an insurance company. The first line began: "We are pleased to announce..." Try that for a spontaneous poem
Ron Self

Letter from Insurance Company

We are pleased to announce
you are able to read this letter
thus must have at least an ounce
of life left in your ugly leather.
Therefore we aim to advertize
the importance of insurance
which many Joes fail to realize
improves your body’s permanence.
See the quality of the box matters
as does the carving of the stone
and to afford makeup that flatters
you ought now pick up that phone.
Don’t try to claim you’re too feeble—
receivers barely outweigh paper
and we’re trained to know people
how to reap a chunk of their labor.
But we’re not in it for the cash—
you must believe that it’s true.
We're pleased to take out your trash
when your sack filling days are through.

Ever Heard of Tanka?

Nope, it's not a decaffeinated coffee!

Even if you have heard of “tanka,” you might not know that they are five line poems that are similar to haiku in that they conjure succinct moments with a bare minimum of words.

Those who are fond of rules might ask about the syllable count for such poems. In answer, I must first caution you that tanka is a Japanese form; so we’re talking quite a big language difference here between English and Japanese. For hardcore rule followers, let’s say 31 syllables per tanka with the lines divided into five syllabic units: 5-7-5-7-7. However, in English many writers of tanka use fewer than 31 syllables and don’t rigidly follow the line length pattern. In other words, don’t have a nervous breakdown if the syllable count doesn’t match the pattern described above. Simply put: chill out!

Recently I’ve been in love with a small anthology of tanka, entitled The Tanka Anthology edited by Michael McClintock, Pamela Miller Ness & Jim Kacain. The book is published by Red Moon Press.

As the introduction states, “In these poems, we may learn to pay attention in a different way, and receive our news of the world with unexpected delight.” For those who wish to delve deeper into the structure and craft of making tanka poems, the introduction offers a decent amount of detail. For me, the proof is in the poetry.

Here are few samples of some of my favorites:


my friends tell me
that they are breaking up
I stand at the sink
--rinse the cloudy rice over
and over again.

--Margaret Chula

this morning
the cold of your absence
a presence now
shall I dress it like scarecrows
standing in an empty field

--Marjorie Buettner

On the night train
through that foreign land
I waver once
glimpsing
a lit farm kitchen

--Marianne Bluger


Lit every night
the screened porch
remains unoccupied.
A stage prepared for actors.
The script in development.

--Keith Badowski

P.S. I’m not really included in the anthology, but I thought I’d slip in a tanka of my own just for the heck of it.

Special Saturday Spontaneous Poem

Here’s the extra spontaneous poem, followed by the assignment (for your inspection).




Your assignment, should you decide to accept it:

The dwarf slides home, safe!

Thanks,
Brad Tree

Friday Spontaneous Poem

Normally I will post the Friday Spontaneous Poem as a scan of my handwritten 1st draft. However, I am on the road today and have no scanner available, so you’ll just have to imagine the handwritten document. And trust me that I’ve not revised this poem.

Today’s assignment came from Linda Ames, who will be the featured poet in June at our Poetry Open Mic in Columbus, GA. Linda wrote:

hmmm… three words.
1. handicap
2. field
3. ancestor

Linda Ames
GPS Newsletter Editor (www.georgiapoetrysociety.org)
CVWC Publicity/Webmaster/Graphic Art (www.chattwriters.org)
www.authorsden.com/lindames
http://lindasphotoart.blogspot.com/

Eskimo Allergies

By the end of the shift, her sneeze was brutal;
   co-workers quit saying God-bless-you!
ignored here excessive mucus like any other
   handicap that might earn a parking badge.
She emerged from the bunker of cubicles at dawn,
   drips splashing on the tarmac of the parking lot
out beside the vibrant field of goldenrod.
   Scrambling in her pocket for a jumble of keys,
she casts her thoughts back before immigration
   when her ancestors chipped holes in ice to fish.
Back then her people were hardy
   in a climate free of pollen and dust-mites.
Driving away she remembers the square
   of frozen white fish in her freezer at home.
Ha-choo! She thinks polar. Ha-choo!
   She could emigrate to blubber, to fur-pelts
to a past when her people were hardy.



Note: I did receive one other assignment from my friend Brad Tree. I will write a spontaneous poem for him today and post in a special Saturday Spontaneous Poetry blog entry.