(POOF!)
The poem writing extravaganza is over. Thanks to all those poets who joined in. Having peers really helped the process along, especially on the tough days.
I'll be sending out some of these drafts during the fall. Hopefully they'll find homes. I'll definitely fiddle with them before that, though.
To you blog readers, thanks for your patience and for reading along.
***
Today, cookout.
2 hours ago
27 comments:
Beautiful--and I really love that you're posting them on the blog, too.
I missed it . . . loved the opening.
Thanks you guys! Tore it down to tinker with the middle bits. New poem forthcoming later today . . . Right now, I'm in my sweltering office, getting ready to pick up student portfolios.
I love your whole "poof" and "this poem will self destruct in 12hours".
I enjoyed this, Oliver. Nice.
Thanks Nate. I enjoyed yours as well, and I'm glad you're posting them on your blog.
Great draft, especially loved:
And if there were no compass,
I’d steer by shadow. I’d light a kerosene soaked arrow
and fire into the sky.
--I'm reading your poetry collection, "Names Above Houses," and I really enjoy it. It has inspired me to do something completely different with this one poem that I have been wrestling for almost two years.
Hey Jenni,
Thanks! So kind of you, and I'm glad I sparked something.
This one (Children Playing...) is one of my favorite so far. Especially the progression in stanzas 6, 7, 8. Just great.
Thanks, Sandra. And, weirdly, it's the poem draft that's taken the least time . . . I mean I literally dashed it off to the blog and the e-mail after finishing my coffee. The others . . . sheesh. . . hours.
"All of them//are laughing now, on the beach. They’re/taking off their skins. They’re coming this way."
nice!
Thank you, Peter. Say, have you recently run into Laura Jensen? I'm wondering how she's doing . . .
Yay for poems! Enjoyed reading these. Some fav snippets:
Shut up,
said the radio. Dance, said the automobile.
The neat house curved like a draining sink.
Hot cars shined outside. Their engines
snapped like a chamois.
Farewell to the desert,
zen, and to ballet. All I want is a coin
for my tongue, a tomb for my body,
a mirror for my breath, and a shovel
for my memory.
Love these lines!!
Cheers, Jenni!
You're writing a horse book... i'm really enjoying these, O. It's got a different feel than your past work.
Gads! Don't say that, Sue!
I can't help it. On the way up to our house we pass two horse ranches and several pastures. I'll told, I realistically see about 15-20 horses a day.
At least it's not another bird book.
o-- call me; i lost your new digits, and wanted to finally call you back. you dont have to post this, btw. miss you!
I'm enjoying reading these Oliver.
No, haven't seen LJ since a reading for the Long Journey anthology.
Thanks Peter. I want to say that I'm enjoying writing them, but really, some days are better than others. At any rate, I've learned a lot about the way I write . . .
Have faith that the days "less better than others" are part of the process. One of the distressing things, for me, about getting behind a day (or two or four) is that the more poems I need to write, the paradoxically greater pressure I put on each one to be capital-G Good. You have to shake that off. The quickie, mediocre poems aren't roadblocks--they're stepping stones. I really believe that. = )
See . . . I really like the pressure. I've always worked well under these conditions. And I know I'm going to write crap some days. I'm okay with it as a draft, but I'm impatient with my drafts. Always have been. It's just hard to prevent myself from tinkering with the poems the day I post 'em. I'll edit a poem to death . . . now give me 31 poems and, oh my god. My wiring shorts.
I'm definitely diggin' today's draft, Oliver. You've been producing really fine work over the course of this process... great to read you!
Hey Nate, thanks a bunch! Likewise, I'm really enjoying your poems and sharing in the process. Couldn't ask for a more pleasant and talented group of co-conspirators!
love the line about the mountain and how you close this--poem aug 27th. lol. they keep changing!
Heh, Jenni . . . the change is the idea . . . but man! It's been tough! Thanks for readin'!
O, I like "The hive bodies are a thousand hollow rooms"... You're great with a couplet, and some would say to stick with what you're good at, but I wonder if you are tired of them, or if you want to try something else.
Sue,
It's easier for me to draft in a couplet. If I attempted something like tercets or quatrains, or even a long, multi-lined stanza, I wouldn't be able to "hear" the language. Later, after I've fiddled a bit, I may experiment with different stanzaic lengths, but otherwise longer stanzas feel too cluttered and closed for me to touch.
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