Poem a Day (PAD) Day 2

Today's prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a bright and/or dark poem, and (2) write a poem about a lie or lies.  This double prompt took me in a slightly surreal direction, and I took a more general approach to the subject of "lies":

Bright Lies

Some bounce off the water or snow,

blinding us as we drive or sail.

Some burn our retinas

if we look directly at them.

Some hit the mist in the meadow

at just the right angle, a sharp white

sheet against the glade.

Some dazzle us with rhinestones

in the spotlight, then disappoint us

when the lights go out.

Some are mirrors, reflecting

what we want to see

and not what we are.

Some are whitened smiles

on faces purged of wrinkles,

lips puffed beyond the natural.

Some are collected by birds

because they are shiny,

and before the dumb things know it,

they have built a nest of lies. 

Happy NaPoWriMo! (Day 1, Belated)

Okay, I have been in a major creative funk since my last post.  I've written maybe five or six poems since my productive weekend at the Winter Getaway in January.  And I found myself trying to beg out of this year's National Poetry Writing Month Poem-a-Day Challenge, saying that I have way too much to do, like taxes, redecorating and re-organizing to get ready for a major party at my house, plus all the usual stuff.  But you know, my muse could use a good ass-kicking, so I'm going to try to write a poem a day anyway.  Hopefully I'll be able to stay with it, and they won't be all crap.  I'm also going to try what I did last April: combine the prompts from Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog with the ones from the NaPoWriMo blog.  So here are the prompts from Day 1: Write a poem about an arrival, and write a poem that uses the first line from another famous poem.  I picked one of the four examples suggested on the NaPoWriMo blog, from a poem by Walter de la Mare:

Moonchild

Slowly, silently, now the moon
slides on its arc from behind the trees,
huge at first, or so it seems
so close to the ground, but then
with evening’s deepening dome,
it climbs to its place amid the stars.
Higher and brighter, it tugs at us
with fullness and shadow-casting light.
Cycles reach their peak now –
tides pull closer to the shore,
our bodies respond with madness
and the flow of our own blood.
Each full moon pulls you closer, too,
first-born grandchild, moonchild,
growing ready to arrive at solstice,
the moon’s shortest night,
when all the forces of nature
will converge at once.

Winter Getaway 2013

Well, well, well.  It's been six weeks since my last blog entry.  Getting lazy again.

I survived a rather busy holiday season - lots of family and other company passing through the house.  Nothing really earth shaking to report except that my wife is retiring the end of this month. She's paid her dues and moved up the administrative ladder, and now it's time to say goodbye to it all and enjoy life.  I must admit I'm a little envious, but with any luck I'll be gone by next year myself.

In the poetry world, the biggest news is that I attended the 20th Annual Winter Poetry and Prose Getaway this past weekend at the Seaview Resort, a historic luxury hotel near the Jersey shore.  Part of the fun was having my adult son, a formidable poet in his own right, to join me.  He had a swell time and was somewhat embarrassed by all the praise lavished upon him for his writing.  I thoroughly enjoyed my workshops with Dorianne Laux, Michael Broek, and Karen Z. Duffy, and my tutorial with Emari DiGiorgio. And of course seeing so many of my poet friends and acquaintances is always a pleasure.  But the best part is that, thanks to Peter Murphy's devilishly inventive prompts and the constructive critique of my fellow poets, I came home with six new poems.

Music: I've been getting back into jazz lately, thanks to two box sets I gave myself for Christmas, so to speak.  One is the Dave Brubeck set that includes all his "time" albums from 1961-1966: Of course there's the immortal Time Out (featuring "Take Five"), but there's also Time Further Out, Countdown: Time Out in Space, Time Changes,and Time In.  I also got a collection of jazz music from Creed Taylor's CTI Records, and infulential label in the late 1960's and early- to mid-1970's.  You might say they were the start of the "smooth jazz" movement (for better or worse, depending on your opinion of that subgenre). Their stable of musicians included familiar names like Freddie Hubbard, Paul Desmond and Chet Baker, but also some young upstarts like George Benson, Grover Washington Jr. and Bob James, as well as Latin American artists like Astrud Gilberto, Airto and Deodato. The "box" is a facsimile of the old gatefold album cover, featuring a sampler of some of the artistic and vibrantly colorful covers that were a CTI standard.

As far as new music goes, I only have one favorite so far this year: Elements of Light by Pantha du Prince and the Bell Laboratory. My wife tipped me off to this German electronica artist after hearing samples of the album on NPR. (That's unusual in itself because I've been traditionally the music maven of the household.)  I listened to the NPR stream and was immediately hooked.  Imagine a five-movement, classically-constructed piece that starts with handbell choir, then gradually morphs into a section with carillon and chimes, then suddenly picks up a bass-heavy dance beat and electronic effects, and just propels you along with it.  It's organic and acoustic, electronic and funky, all at the same time, with echoes of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.  Great driving music too, by the way.

Poem:  Here's one I wrote at the Winter Getaway:

Success

The world seem to measure success

By how far we climb up the ladder,

How much stuff we acquire,

How our names are known to the world.

A few people know my name, but

My face will never be on a national magazine.

I have a lot of stuff, but it may not be

The right stuff – there’s a lot of junk mixed in.

And as for that ladder… well, I’m tired.

Can’t I just sit on this rung for a while?

Favorite Music: of the Year and of the Season

So here is a somewhat expanded version of my "Best of 2012" music list from the previous blog entry. 

Albums:

1. Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen

2. My Head is an Animal - Of Monsters and Men

3. Milk Famous - White Rabbits

4. A Thing Called Divine Fits - Divine Fits

5. Be the Void - Dr. Dog

6. Port of Morrow - The Shins

7. Slipstream - Bonnie Raitt

8. The Lumineers - The Lumineers

9. El Camino - The Black Keys

10. Babel - Mumford and Sons

11. Big Station - Alejandro Escovedo

12. Boys and Girls - Alabama Shakes

13. Bloom -  Beach House

14. Clear Heart, Full Eyes - Craig Finn

15. Fragrant World - Yeasayer

16. Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan - Various Artists

17. Little Broken Hearts -  Norah Jones

18. Anastasis - Dead Can Dance

19. Gossamer - Passion Pit

20. Algiers - Calexico

Songs:

1. Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men

2. Little Black Submarines - The Black Keys

3. Land of Hope and Dreams - Bruce Springsteen

4. Default - Django Django

5. I Will Wait - Mumford and Sons

6. Would That Not Be Nice - Divine Fits

7. Stubborn Love - The Lumineers

8. No Way Down - The Shins

9. Take a Walk - Passion Pit

10. Danny Come Inside - White Rabbits

11. Lonesome - Dr. Dog

12. Doom and Gloom - The Rolling Stones

13. Dirty Money - Antibalas

14. Used to Rule the World - Bonnie Raitt

15. Hold On - Alabama Shakes

16. Bottom of the World - Alejandro Escovedo

17. Bottom of the River - Delta Rae

18. 45 - The Gaslight Anthem

19. Reagan's Skeleton - Yeasayer

20. Happy Pills - Norah Jones

I should also put in a good word for Days by Real Estate, a fine alt-jangle pop band out of North Jersey whom I discovered this year, but they weren't eligible for the list since their album was released last October.

Also, if you'd like to score some good holiday music, check out Tracey Thorn's Tinsel and Lights. Tracey is formerly of the British group Everything But the Girl, and her album of self-described "secular carols" is a warm, mellow affair, with great covers of Joni Mitchell's "River" and Ron Sexsmith's "Maybe This Christmas", and her own gorgeous song, "Joy", among other fine tunes.  I've also heard bits and pieces of Sufjan Stevens' new Christmas EP collection Silver and Gold.  As with his previous collection Songs for Christmas, it's a mixed bag of religious and secular songs, veering from the reverent to the whimsical and silly. If you like Sufie (and I do), you won't be disappointed. 

The Holidays Have Begun!

...for better or worse.  I admit I have a love/hate relationship with the holiday season.  If I can get past the hustle-bustle of traffic and shopping, the constant barrage of seasonal ads, the exhaustion of trying to cram all the shopping, decorating, cleaning, wrapping, cooking, etc. into just a few weeks... it's always worth it in the end.  It started auspiciously enough with Thanksgiving dinner at my house - we had fourteen at the table, and it was a truly international affair, with four Korean guests (our current international student and her mom who is visiting this week, plus our former student - now in college at Penn State - and his friend) plus my son's partner, originally from India.

And of course I'm already playing Christmas music.  I just downloaded an album called Holidays Rule, a collection of alt-music artists doing familiar and not-so-familiar seasonal songs.  The highlights for me are Rufus Wainwright and Sharon van Otten doing a heartfelt version of "Baby, It's Cold Outside"; Paul McCartney's mellow "The Christmas Song"; R&B legend Irma Thomas doing "May Ev'ry Day Be Christmas"; The Civil Wars' goosebump-inducing "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"; and my absolute favorite, a gorgeous song by Calexico, "Green Grows the Holly".  Downside: an abrasive version by the band "fun." of "Sleigh Ride" and a clunky version by the Shins of McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime", which unfortunately are the first two songs on the album.

Poetry News:  I will have a poem published next year by the baseball-themed literary journal Spitball.  It's called "Nine Innings", and it's an autobiographical poem in the context of being a lifelong fan of the Phillies.  It borrows from a form used by poet Donald Hall: nine stanzas of nine lines, each with nine syllables.  These poems by Hall usually address a friend and have an allusion to baseball.  (Hall himself is a lifelong Red Sox fan.)  I'm excited to have something so personal in print, in addition to being the longest poem I've ever had published.

I also have signed up again for Peter Murphy's Winter Getaway Poetry and Prose conference, and I will attend Dorianne Laux's workshop.  It was a choice between that one and the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, which was very enticing with two of my favorites returning - Billy Collins and Jane Hirshfield.  (I took Jane's workshop there two years ago, and as those of you who know me can attest, I still can't stop talking about how great she is.)  But budget, time and distance were all considerations, so the Winter Getaway won out.  This will be my fourth time there, and I always enjoy it.

Music:  I'm rather disappointed that WXPN is not doing a countdown of the best albums of the year this year.  Back in the day, they used to play the top 50 albums (as voted by their listeners) in their entirety, but in recent years they have cut back on that programming, and this year they did away with it completely, going instead with a Top 200 Songs countdown. In a way, it's a sign of the times, as folks these days seem less interested in albums (much less CD's) and more interested in individual song downloads.  So in spite of all that, I've compiled a list of my favorite albums - and songs - of the year:

Albums:
1. Wrecking Ball - Bruce Springsteen
2. Slipstream - Bonnie Raitt
3. My Head is an Animal - Of Monsters and Men
4. A Thing Called Divine Fits - Divine Fits
5. Milk Famous - White Rabbits
6. Be the Void - Dr. Dog
7. The Lumineers - The Lumineers
8. Port of Morrow - The Shins
9. El Camino - The Black Keys
10. Bloom - Beach House

Honorable Mention:
Big Station - Alejandro Escovedo
Babel - Mumford and Sons
Clear Heart, Full Eyes - Craig Finn
Algiers - Calexico
Sunken Condos - Donald Fagen
Little Broken Hearts - Norah Jones
Handwritten - The Gaslight Anthem
Gossamer - Passion Pit
Anastasis - Dead Can Dance

Songs:
1. Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men
2. Little Black Submarines - Black Keys
3. Land of Hope and Dreams - Bruce Springsteen
4. I Will Wait - Mumford and Sons
5. Would That Not Be Nice - Divine Fits
6. Stubborn Love - The Lumineers
7. No Way Down - The Shins
8. Take a Walk - Passion Pit
9. Danny Come Inside - White Rabbits
10. Default - Django Django

Poem: I'm still doing a poem a day for November, and following Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides blog. This month he solicited writing prompt suggestions from participants, and he used mine on the 21st, which is:
Take a random list of song titles, from a shuffled iPod playlist, CD, the next five songs on your favorite radio station, etc., then use as many of those titles as you can in a poem.  Here's the one I wrote - note the last title in the random list was a real toughie:

Smitten

If you want me to make sense

it will have to be after you’re gone.

You’re the one I want
to lay down in the tall grass.
That face like Grace Kelly knocks me over,
a tree in your avalanche.

I’d do anything for you – shop on Black Friday,
eat chocolate-covered crickets,
say the alphabet backwards:…D,C,B,A.

25 horses couldn't keep me away.

[Playlist:

If You Want Me – Glen Hansard and Marketa Inglova
Lay Down in the Tall Grass – Timber Timbre
The Avalanche – Sufjan Stevens
Grace Kelly – The Whiffenpoofs
D.C.B.A. -25 – Jefferson Airplane]

Veteran's Day

I just wanted to wish any veterans out there who may be reading this, a happy Veterans Day.  Like many of my peers, I protested the Vietnam War in my youth, and one of the unfortunate by-products of those times was a disrespect, even a vilification, of many of the veterans who returned home.  My philosophy since then has become, "Love the soldier, hate the war."  My late father-in-law was a WWII vet, and I had the utmost respect and appreciation for him.  So best wishes to all the vets out there, like my poet friend Charles H. Johnson.  (Read his work if you haven't already done so.)

Today's poem-a-day challenge was to write a poem from the point of view of a veteran.  Never having been one myself, I tried to put myself in the shoes of a vet returning home from Afghanistan, still carrying some emotional scars.

Phantom

I have come back from a dry, rocky hell

feeling hollow, needing to be filled again.

I hold my family close. My dog licks my face,

and I take him with me to the woods,

down to the brook, where he chases squirrels,

while I sit on a stump and listen

to the birds, the gurgling water.

It all seems new again.

Moments like this, I am at peace,

and I feel safe within the walls of home,

although it's never far behind me,

that other fear, the bloody phantom

that comes leaping at me in my dreams.

[I should also mention that I combined this prompt with the "Wordle" word bank on the blog The Sunday Whirl.  I used all the words from the bank: dry, rocky, hollow, wood, brook, birds, new, walls, although, never, phantom, leaping.]

Extra: Post-Election Poetry

I'm doing Robert Brewer's Poem-a-Day Challenge again for November, and though I won't be posting daily as I did in April, I may share some of my prompted poems from time to time. This one I wanted to try to post because I'm not the most savvy person with HTML, and I wasn't sure how to post these "justified" poems anywhere else.  The prompt (from Day 6) was to write a "left poem" and a "right poem" - to be interpreted anyway the poet desired.  So in light of yesterday's election (the results of which I am quite satisfied with, just so you know), I thought I'd write a "right", a "left", and a "center" poem:

Red's Lament

The Left

is out in left field.

They've left behind

all reason, those bleeding hearts.

I will pay them no compliments,

not even a left-handed one.

I don't even trust southpaws.

You know "sinister" is Latin for

"left-handed", don't you?

When they're done with our country,

what will be left?

Blue's Ballyhoo

The Right

just aren't thinking right.

What gives them the right

to leave the poor behind?

They think everything's all right

as long as they've got theirs.

In Latin, "right-handed" is "dexter",

like the serial killer on TV.

You think they'll kill our country

with greed and selfishness?

You got that right.

Purple's Plea

We're in the middle

of all this fuss.

Let's get over ourselves,

find our center, and breathe.

Compromise is not a dirty word.

Here in the middle of the road

there are no ruts.

Red and blue together

make such a beautiful color.

If we're even-handed, we'll be great again,

the center of our universe.