NaPoWriMo Now Has a Website

Maureen Thorson has just announced she has created a specific Website for National Poetry Writing Month.

NaPoWriMo.net

Don't worry, it's still a couple of months away. But you can go ahead and register your blog/Website where you will be posting your poems.

Two for Two

I'm not getting all proud or anything, but I am now 2 for 2 in my commitment to write 30 poems in 30 days.

If even one or two are any good, I'll be happy.

I'm back to mentally composing lines while coloring with Frida.

Some days it's hard to hold even one line in your head for very long.

Bragalicious

Diane Lockward has a great post over at her blog, Blogalicious, regarding her likes and dislikes about contributors' notes. Which got me to thinking about what I like/dislike in a bio.

I, too, am put off by contributors' notes that list more than three or four previous journal credits or which list the names of people that the writer "studied with". As if glory-by-association were possible.

Or is it?

Is anyone actually impressed when a poet lists that they received their "X degree from Y University where he/she was mentored by So-and-so Famous Poet"?

I would add to her list my own peeve about bios longer than 2-3 sentences. I cringe when I read a bio that sounds like the outline of the writer's autobiography.

Now I want to go back to my early journal publications and read my bios to see how many peeves I was guilty of!

And I will agree that if space permits, I appreciate links to an author's web site where I can look up additional information about them. Of course, I can always Google them...

Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods, by Paula Bohince

I had the pleasure of seeing Paula Bohince read from her poetry collection Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods last year at the Fall for the Book Festival on George Mason University's campus. And my daughter (who I brought along with me) behaved herself so well, I was able to pay attention to the whole reading!

I've finally had a chance to read the collection and wanted to post a note for you other procrastinators -- if you haven't yet read this, get it now!

Bohince moves from the meditative to the explosive and back as her poems address rural farm life from a point of view that is both insider and outsider at the same time. While the book is touted as a "mystery," the buildup to the title event is not prolonged. Bohince's poems are more of a whirlpool around the incident rather than a linear cataloging from point A to point B.

I was thrilled also to see the smattering of Acrostic poems that prove how successful the form can be in the hands of someone willing to seek their fullest potential.

Poems from the collection and an interview with Bohince can be found at From the Fishouse: an audio archive of emerging poets.

Need Less Postings

For the past several months, I've been trying in earnest to get rid of things we don't need or don't use anymore, in an effort to "Need Less". The more we have, the more we have to take care of, and the more space we need to store it. Ugh. I'm paring down.

Of course I'm keeping things that may not be absolutely necessary, but typically only if they also bring joy to my life. I'm a lover of both beauty and function.

So, these occassional "Need Less Postings" will document some of the clutter I'm jettisoning from my life.

This week:

* A baby gate that was stored in my cellar and not used for about 2 years.
* Parts for a canvas storage wardrobe that we haven't used in about 6 years. Really. We didn't even realize it still had all the parts.
* About 50 wire hangers from dry cleaning services. I'm taking them back from whence they came. Most dry cleaners will actually take back their hangers if you ask them. The closets are much roomier now.
* An old leather trench coat I've been trying to get rid of for months on Craigslist. The price will drop yet another $5 in my effort to at least get a little something from it.

I hope these "Need Less Postings" will inspire you to also clear some of the clutter out of your lives.

CFS - Ekphrastic Poetry Issue of Crab Creek Review

Thanks to Kelli Russell Agodon for posting this Call for Submissions!

Crab Creek Review is putting together a section of ekphrastic poems -- poems inspired by art -- for an upcoming issue. Check out the guidelines on her blog. The deadline is May 31, 2010.

Motherhood and Writing Poetry

Thanks to cornshake for pointing to this essay by Sarah Vap, published in Blackbird, on the subject of writing poetry as a mother. This is a fabulous piece, filled with so many moments where I shouted (in my mind) -- YES!!!

An excerpt:

I could tell my husband that I don’t write anymore, that I don’t think anymore, and that my mind is ruined for poetry. I could say that I can’t hold anything inside of my mind except for him and our sons. I could tell him that I don’t even care because our family—he, Oskar, this new baby boy inside of me—these are all that can matter. These are all that I can attend to. All I’d ever want to attend to again.

But what I actually believe is that I have, truly and simply, lost my mind.

But what I actually believe is that I have acquired and lost minds, like set after set of baby teeth, many times throughout my life. I believe all of my minds still exist, resonant palimpsests, within and out of my body.

What I actually believe is my new mind has a different holding quality. A different releasing quality. A different relationship with Time, who hangs my own childhood next to my son’s—our minds and memories are dozens of sheer sheets buffeting and curling in the wind—and we look through them all as we live.

What I actually believe is that I have a brand-new mind, born around the time Oskar was born.