Dog Days for Phillies, Good Days for Poetry

I can't believe we're into the last full month of summer already! Normally, right now I'd be eagerly following the Phillies in their pennant race, but it was not meant to be this year.  Instead, I sadly watch as their "fire sale" goes on - already Victorino, Pence and Blanton are gone, and there are rumblings that Cliff Lee won't be here next year either.  At least Hamels is sticking around.  Oh well, I guess I can root for them to get out of last place in their division.  Anyone want to make a bet on the date they'll break their string of consecutive sellouts?


I'm home alone tonight blogging away - wife is at a baby shower and son is attending his first rock concert ever with his big brother and friends (Mighty Mighty Bosstones).  Last weekend my wife celebrated her 60th  a little early with a high tea with her lady friends. I don't think I ever worked so hard on a party to which I wasn't invited, but at least I reaped the benefit of leftovers - lots of yummy finger sandwiches and desserts.


In poetry news, my poem "A Day in July" has just been accepted for next year's issue of US 1 Worksheets.  It's their 40th anniversary issue - amazing! Check their link and you will also find my poem from the most recent issue, "Postcard to the Ex". Also, my poem "Careful in the Fog" has just appeared in the new issue of Tilt-a-Whirl.


I've been participating in the Washington Post blog "Style Invitational", moderated by Pat Myers.  She runs a weekly humor contest that's a lot of fun, with nutty prizes for the cleverest entries.  I finally got an Honorable Mention for my entry in the "Ploy to Annoy" contest, where you had to enter a suggestion for a new way to tick people off.  My entry:


"Carry a box of apostrophes with you, so you can insert them around town in correctly punctuated signs. "


Music:  WXPN-FM is soliciting entries in their annual music countdown.  This year's theme is "885 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time".  Just try to come up with only ten favorites - I dare you.  It's a lot harder than it sounds.  I also have been grappling with how to define "rock" here: Should I include rock-n-roll like Chuck Berry?  Folk-rock like Fairport Convention?  Pop-rock like the Beatles?  And how much should I balance the "classics" with more contemporary songs that I love that may not yet be considered classics?  It's a tough list, and i have a tentative top 10, but it changes every time I look at it again.  I'll have something final by next blog.


Poem: Here's one that won 3rd place in the "Nonet Challenge" on Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog last week.  If you don't know, a nonet is a very simple poetic form: nine syllables in the first line, eight in the second, etc., till the last line of just one syllable.  I took the shape such a poem creates and made a concrete poem of sorts:

Geometry

Pythagoras gave us  all the rules:

the formula works every time.

A squared + B squared =

C squared.  Hypotenuse,

the long sloping side,

connects it all.

One angle

makes it

right.