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LiveJournal for the Tattooed Quaker.
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| Thursday, November 12th, 2009 |
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According to my Forms professor (& most of the class) I have an expansive temperament to my work, which I take to mean I'm not very inward-looking. While this might not have always been true (esp. in my early slam days) I think this is a dead-on comment. It will be hard to break out of that, even periodically, but when I do it will only benefit the work. We've played with a lot of forms in this class, most recently the English sonnet (& mine came out swimmingly, if I do say so,) but the 2 that have stuck with me are the Ode (Horatian, specifically) & Terza Rima. The other forms we've played with all have a prescribed end (14 lines, 19 lines, 4 lines, etc.) & it bangs us against my desire to either say things "short & spacey" or "let it roll". Often I get an idea & just run with it (a method I think many of us practice) then go back & revise as is appropriate (i.e. where it sucks.) I almost always run into problems, imagery that needs reconciling or logical breaks (or straightness,) slippage into dumb tendencies or holes I can't get out of. If I don't have to wrap it up at a certain arrival, then I can sometimes write my way out of it & push the poem & reader mightily. & if I'm able to complete a piece it has the best light-of-day chance, not because I'm inattentive but because I'm always crazy busy (which could amount to the same thing.) I've had to work some different methods in Forms, & sometimes it feels like a prison & sometimes a parking lot. We started with syllabic & accentual verse, & I was stuffing ideas into prescribed forms, & it was painful but oh so rewarding when I actually created a smart little poem engine. That method began to interfere with composition, much like "writing for the slam" will but I would sometimes come up with amazing results (I've written My Best Poem So Far in this class) so I stuck with it. A few things have pointed me in wonderful ways. Chris brought a quote which I will paraphrase badly: "Rhyme frees the poet from what he or she wants to say." On this note, though certainly not an analysis, reading Emily Dickinson esp. but a few others twisted me into realizing that to an extent I can let the mechanism dictate the content, & that the best poems do. Working through stumps by letting go (& it is a physical process I can actually feel it in the chest & shoulders) & allowing the rhyme/line scheme to suggest diction can make you feel like you & the art are right there conversing. Right now what is working for me: 1. Get an idea or title suggestion. Write it down immediately (unless sex.) 2. Write it out all the way no device or censorship 3. Review. Decide on form 4. STUFF THAT FUCKER INTO THE FORM 5. Allow for openings, & surprises. If it winds up being this easy, I can say I told you so after my first poetry million. Stay tuned "] |
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| Sunday, November 8th, 2009 |
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The new place is so wonderful, such a better situation. We've got more space & I'm closer to campus. We've got a washer & dryer, like, OUR OWN, which eliminates the back-breaking chore of laundry-without-a-car that I've been doing for the past 7 months. We can open our windows & let air in & out. We have an orange tree. WE HAVE CHICKENS & we don't have to take care of them. The bathroom has a window that is fully operational, has higher ceilings, is large enough that visitors can use it without walking on the bathmat, & IS NOT ATTACHED TO THE KITCHEN. Yeah, it's been like that roun here for the last year & a half. That shit had to go. Our work room has east windows, our common room south & our bedroom west. Think about it. Things are still difficult, I'm in waaaaaay over my head on a final graduate semester & I've got poems that I mangle upon entry but SHIT I'm feeling so much more relaxed. I've even been sleeping through the night, like it's a revolution over here. One more month & my MFA. Of course I'm going through the full range of emotions in like 5 something-shorts. Having an actual haven-like aspect to the home life is a blessing for which I give eternal thanks. |
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| Monday, October 19th, 2009 |
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Barring crimes against humanity, I could hardly be angrier with a group of people than I am with the MFA candidates here. This weekend I & my chronically-ill girlfriend asked for help moving to a new house. One person from the program lent a truck, & one showed up to help us move. Out of almost 40 people. That's at about a 5% help ratio. My suggestion: if you blow off helping someone, don't spend the day posting videos of puppies to your facebook. Or at least put that shit under a filter to avoid adding the insult to the injury. It's a tight-knit group. Everyone goes everywhere together, & everyone helps everyone. Except Rainy & I, I guess. It's hard not to take it personal. Sure I have a strong personality, & not always agreeable. Probably everyone just had to much shit to do to even acknowledge that we were moving; I only got a wall post or a message from 2 others. It's just so stunning how few of them showed up to help. I mean, could you imagine putting a request out to the slam fam & not having 200 people show up to help? I go to the MFA reading almost every time & offer them helpful advice on their pieces. That's because I'm actually listening to their work & not fucking around, wrapped up in my own shit, or flirting with people who aren't my significant other. I have helped 2 of them move. No more of that shit. |
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| Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 |
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| GO FLYERS!!! Richards scores a hat trick & Briere punches it in during overtime! Flyers win we are 3-0! | ||
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| Sunday, September 13th, 2009 |
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| The Time of the Doves by Merce Rodoreda is one of the most amazing books I have read in a long time. | ||||
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| Monday, September 7th, 2009 |
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The Pro Football season begins this week & I'm very excited. It's not that I think my team is going to win it all, & my team may have only added to the usual circus-mistakes-high-expectation-low-hop & baseball has been kinda fun this year, since my squad won it all last year & has played decently (though not recently) this season. But baseball just kinda bores me. When there's action it's spectacular fun, there just ain't enough action in it. There's a lot of dudes just standin' around spittin', talkin' about statistics & dumb anecdotes & preparin' for the next non-play. But by this time of the year I am always sports-bored out of my mind, & this year is no exception. I don't even know when was the last time I saw someone hit someone. In football at least somebody is hitting somebody on every play (spoken like a true Quaker I know.) You might not see it, or the end result still might not be all that amazing, but something is happening. Admittedly, there still is quite a bit of standing around doing "nothing" however. Not so in hockey, & I can't wait till the season gets started. Constant flow & constant contact. Sure that happens in basketball too, but a lot of times it's just guys with their hands on each other. & basketball has constant, short bursts of inactivity while the clock moves, coupled with long bursts of inactivity at the end of the game as coaches manage the clock. Yawn. Soccer has constant flow & contact too, but the field is so large lots of times you're looking at empty space dotted by inactive players. In hockey every one is in constant & rapid motion. Because of this people are hitting people all the time. I'm a lifelong fan & I really only try to watch the puck when everyone gets around the goal. Otherwise I'm watching the fluid grace of the game punctuated by frequent crashes. Hot damn it gets me going. & I DO entertain high hopes for my squad this year. The Flyers made some great moves in the offseason, bolstered their blue line, made a wholesale switch/upgrade at goalie, retained a lot of their high-scoring weapons & have one of the most dynamic & talented captains in the NHL, Mike Richards. Sure he hasn't led us to the Cup (yet,) but in his short career he's already broken a record by scoring 3(!) short-handed goals when his team was 2 men short. He did this in 4 years. The great Mario Lemieux (shiver) only did it once in his entire career. Come October I am going to be draped in Orange & Black. I am going to be bleeding it from my pores. GO FLYERS |
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| Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 |
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| Wow. | ||
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| Friday, August 14th, 2009 |
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I am very conflicted about the signing of Michael Vick by my favorite football team. On the one hand, I like the idea that he could arrive at a place where he truly understands & regrets his choices in the affair & that a true psychic debt might be paid. On the other hand, bankrolling a dogfighting operation & executing dogs isn't just a one-time mistake, it's a choice, & repeatedly. However, in the discussion I am amazed when people choose to dismiss the entire city of Philadelphia as an inferior & terrible place in the process. If you can so readily cast judgment on over a million human beings without knowing even 1% of them how can I trust your judgment of any one single individual? It also should be said that it is tough to navigate the conflicting attitudes of this society. It seems marginally ok to consume as entertainment something like the Manson murders, yet cheering for a football team who employs a convicted dogfighting participator is viewed as a profane act. |
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| Sunday, August 2nd, 2009 |
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| I am one of the more vocal critics of the slam (not slammers) but of course I hope everyone has safe fun travels this year & a very satisfying & poetic time at NPS 2009 is had by all. | ||||
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| Monday, July 27th, 2009 |
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W O W which is MOM spelled upside down I wanted to write a Thanks- giving poem about my mother how did she get in here and drunk too always on holidays how will I go about getting her out. Of myself? Where she lodges se- curely in the loins destroying my life i.e. babies Oh well she will go on getting drunk in the cellar and being carried upstairs to bed where I will undress her in my dreams. -John Wieners |
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| Monday, July 13th, 2009 |
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Privacy I hope all the Jacksons live to old age. I hope in old age they all get together--- in Indonesia, let's say--- to have a picture taken. Michael, La Toya, Janet, Jermaine, and all the rest, in whatever's left of their fineries, smiling, remembering nothing so much as the ridiculous hope of the opened shutter. -Joe Wenderoth, published 2007 |
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| Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 |
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 SpellBinder changed P-O-V-E-R-T-Y to P-O-E-T-R-Y! Don't change it back! |
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| Saturday, July 4th, 2009 |
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| I tried to be great on birthdays & I sucked so I decided to give up on even remembering birthdays & well that's just dumb. Happy Birthday lj_flavorpacket. You're tops | ||
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| Happy Walden Day! | ||
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| Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 |
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Been reading Huck Finn, & my eyes must have crossed the word "ni%$#r" a thousand times. Of course we may understand why this is, but for me here in the 21st it is a heady book. There ain't a way it's used that ain't horrific, but some are just downright deep. I'll spare you if you haven't read it. Is it racist? Of course it's racist. People were & still are; we just have an interest in hiding it nowadays that didn't exist back in the 19th. So it ain't shocking in that it depicts something I haven't seen with my own eyes, or with my own hands. I'm merely blown at the constant up front of it. I'm white after all. But Mark Twain is a fine fine writer. I take in about a book of his every two years, & it has enriched my life. |
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| Sunday, June 21st, 2009 |
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| Happy Father's Day to the guy who usually says yes if Mom says no. You know who you are | ||
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Yesterday I practiced my 13th hour of yoga this month. This is significant because it was also my 50th hour this year, which completes my New Year's Resolution before half the year is over. I will be doing many many more hours of yoga this year but not counting. Every hour that I practice from now until at least the end of August will be dedicated to Sheila & her strength, light, endurance & love. |
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| Thursday, June 18th, 2009 |
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Song There's a house on the tip of a branch. It sways in the Summer breeze. The great tree won't let it fall Even when the wind comes to shake it. Its only door is a beak. It opens To steal the starlight. Inside You can see the ribs. It's a house so tiny It can fit in the dark of my eye. When I close that eye, I can hear the sea in the other. It bears the house through the night. With my tongue I touch its prow from within, With my breath I blow The candles in the captain's cabin. When sleep overtakes me, I say good-by to the house. I lower onto my heart All that it cannot ferry on. -Charles Simic |
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| Monday, June 8th, 2009 |
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I dislike surrealism, & I loathe surrealists in general, but damn do I love me a good game of Surrealist Telephone! 6 or more people sit around a table & take turns choosing a painting from a book. That person writes down a sentence of at least 17 syllables in length describing the painting. The person whispers the sentence into the ear of the person on their left. Each participant then tries to repeat the sentence faithfully in the ear of the person on their left, but the sentence always gets so butchered that it comes back to the creator almost completely different. We played Saturday night & I haven't laughed that hard in ages. |
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| Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 |
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Once I'm rich, my schedule should look like this: Morning -business, financial matters -light chores, personal hygiene matters -scheduling -something involving fruit spreads Afternoon -reading, writing -research in the home library -correspondence, idea development -revisiting morning activities Evening -talking, socializing -dance moves (music not required) -mood elevators -rest, sleep |
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LiveJournal for the Tattooed Quaker.
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