32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 31

I worked on the sestina for the workshop again, but I left my notebook at work.

*dang*

So instead of doing nothing, I started a second sestina. This one is simply for practice. It's going to be about Lord of the Flies because my eight grade class is currently reading it and it's on my mind.

Let me get back to it. I think I need some limeade to keep me going.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 30

I started working on my sestina homework for the next workshop. This is going to be a long process. Long process. Super.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 29

Okay, so I need to write something.

*thinking*

Oh yes, I went to the second session of the writing workshop I’m taking. We shared the poems we were assigned to complete. Like I’ve already said, I was unhappy with what I came up, it felt too forced. The prompt we were given or rather the subject wasn’t something I was interested in, so it made it harder than usual to write. Some of the concrete suggestions I got to improve the poem I won’t be able to use because of the poetry form. I wrote a bop poem because our subject was a jazz musician from the 1920s and bops are musical (to me)…and also because the ghazal that I started off writing didn’t work at all. They took issue with whether or not the poem flowed better without the song lyrics or if I should use them three times. I’d be interested to hear what someone familiar with the form would suggest.

Speaking of bops, I noticed that the Bop, Strut, Dance blog page is missing. I wonder why. I hope that doesn’t mean that the anthology isn’t going to happen.

Anyway, the next poetry homework requires us to write a sestina, a form I’ve never tried before. I’m familiar with them, however, but they’ve seemed like unnecessary hard work so I’ve kept my distance. I’m glad I have an assignment that pushes my poetry further. Better get started on it.

Side note: On the #52Poetry front, I’ve finished four poetry books for the month of January.

1. Lighthead by Terrance Hayes
2. A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson
3. Fortune’s Bones by Marilyn Nelson
4. Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies & Little Misses of Color by Marilyn Nelson & Elizabeth Alexander

Did I already mention that I’m becoming a huge Marilyn Nelson fan? I plan to read more of her work.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 28

Finished my bop tonight. I'm not happy with it. At all.

It's done though.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 27

Still struggling with the workshop poem. Small progress on the bop, but not enough. I wrote a tanka about Bix since it's Thursday.

* * * * * * *

Bix doesn’t want to
be put into a poem,
will not be written.
instead I compose the notes
but then he couldn’t play it.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 26

*singing*

Snow day, snow day
everyone loves a snow day.

At least I love a snow day when it's the catalyst of a snow delay - or better yet -a snow closing. It gives me time to sleep, read, and write, which I have managed to do. It's been a chill day and it couldn't have come at a better time because I felt bad last night and this morning. Feeling okay now, but I'm not 100%.

I've been working on this ghazal for my writing workshop on Saturday, but I haven't made any forward progress. I nixed the whole idea of doing a ghazal after taking a writing break to read Evie Shockley's a half-red sea. I read her poem "the last temptation: a 21st-century bop odyssey" and decided to try doing a bop myself. I have the first stanza and the refrain, a few lines of the second stanza, so I'm making better progress using this form instead.

Mmmm, I smell some food cooking. Gotta go!

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 25

This ghazal is harder than it appears. Not making much progress on it, but I stared at it for quite sometime. Made some structural sketches, wrote about it, listened to the music that's supposed to inspire it, but still nothing. Maybe tomorrow or maybe I'll have to change the form altogether. If all else fails, I will certainly whip out a triolet.

I also wrote a journal entry about some good news I received today...

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 24

I started writing a ghazal that I intend to use for the writing workshop this weekend. I've never written one before, so I already forgive myself if it's sophomoric. Hee-hee.

The Wench Winner . . .

is Arrianna!!!


Congratulations on winning the book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Encourage someone else to read it too. Also, if you ever want to discuss it, send me a tweet.

More contests to come.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 22

*Big grin*

The first meeting of my new poetry workshop met today and I'm excited. Being in a workshop makes me feel accountable to write. My students complain - without fail - any time I give them homework, but I was thrilled to receive some.

Today was the "get to know you" class, so it was mostly a discussion of the goals for the workshop, background on the instructor, and going around the table and introducing yourself. In addition, we had to bring one poem to read to everyone. I didn't make enough copies though because I didn't know how many people would be there. My nerves were a wreck, but I managed to get through it. Most people got a chance to share but because our group is larger than our instructor anticipated, a few didn't. I think there were about fourteen of us.

As people would read their poems, they'd pass out copies of the poems as well. Once they were finished, people generally passed the poems back. One woman wrote this poem I especially liked, so I kept it. Out of the eleven poems I passed out, four of them came back to me, one with a positive note on it. *smile* I don't know who wrote it, but thank you.

Critique comes next week.

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez: Book Giveaway

Are you on Dolen's email list? If you are, then you already know that the paperback version of Wench is coming out January 25th. The email reminded me that I have an extra copy of Wench on my bookshelf. I picked it up when she came out last year for Capital Bookfest. Would you like my copy? It's signed too, I forgot to mention. She also put some special Mawu-juju on it so that whoever read it would win the lottery. No, just kidding she didn't do that. I guess that joke won't make sense until after you read the book anyway.

All you have to do to win is leave a comment with your name and email address (so I can contact you if you win). Once I have ten people leave comments, I'll assign everyone a number and select a winner using a random number generator. Easy peasy.

Good luck!

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 21

I wrote with my students today during independent writing. It's always nice to be able to write with them and share.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 20

Dark sunshine
smiled at the clouds
sharing snow-
flakes softer
than pillows students sleep on
"School's out" spreads joy too.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 19

I wrote a journal entry and met my word count requirement. It was mostly about my excitement for my writing workshop coming up.

Glee.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 18

Snow day? An unexpected snow day? Can you say so very grateful? I got a lot of rest today. That’s pretty much all I did was rest. And read. I should have written a poem but I didn’t even try. My poetic energy went to revising a poem that I eventually submit to Linebreak. They are doing a project called Two Weeks where they will put together an online anthology quickly. It sounded cool and I subscribe to them; I’d love to be a part of it.

I did manage to get out of the house for a short period and hit up the bookstore. I ran across a literary journal that I’ve never seen before. It’s called Alimentum: The Literature of Food. Sounds tasty, right? I flipped through it and ran across a poem called “Water Log” that was written by Ruth Polleys. It made me want to submit poems there. I’m going to look for them online and learn more about them. Good looking journal.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 17

Remember yesterday when I said I was reading about Maria W. Stewart? Here is an ottava rima about her:

Reclaiming the Ancient

“Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God”
-Psalm 68:31

And Maria quote this rallying cry
And Maria joined the present and past
And Maria spoke up, willing to die
And Maria said that Blacks were miscast
And Maria said virtue: a white dye
And Maria speaks for what God asked
And Maria speaks to stoke the Black flame
And Maria hopes to connect, reclaim

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 16

Do, do, do. Oh, I’m supposed to be writing. Yes, yes. Let me get to that….so, I wrote a stanza for Joi. Yep, that’s what I did.

*crickets*

I had an idea to write a suite of poems about a historical figure. Marilyn Nelson’s books have inspired me to take this avenue because she does it so successfully. It’s probably best that I choose one that hasn’t been overdone. After doing mild research it’s clear that Phillis Wheatley has been done many times already, however, I’m not going to rule her out.

I looked at my bookshelf to see if I could find any gems there and ran across a book that I read for grad school about Maria W. Stewart. I’ll read a chapter of it and see what I can come up with. Perhaps the first poem would be about Boston in the 1820, or about David Walker who inspired her and lived nearby, or even her marriage to James W. Stewart in 1826.

Oh geez, I think Rita Dove also inspired this quest for a historical figure. I’m reading Sonata Mulattica which is a collection of poems about an actual person from history. Alrighty. Good night then.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 15

Oh it’s one of those days. Those "I don’t really have anything to write about" days. I’m writing anyway though.

I went to listen to Danielle Evans read from her collection of short stories on Friday. During the Q & A session – and I asked so many Q’s – Danielle made a comment about publishing that I found very interesting. She said something to the effect of how acceptances can be about luck; it depends on the person on the other end reading your work. Maybe that person’s experiences make them open to receive your writing, and if someone else grabbed it from the slush pile they might have thrown it straight in the trash can. That made me feel better and bad at the same time, but mostly better. So the lesson is to simply write as much as you can, send it out just as often, and hope for the best.

In other news, I signed up for a poetry writing workshop at The Writer’s Center. I’m looking forward to it. I hope it jumpstarts my writing. It would be great to get five strong poems out of the experience and meet some local writers that would be willing to continue workshopping after the class ends, or maybe even find that the instructor could potentially write a recommendation letter for me whenever I gather up enough guts to apply to an MFA program.

Well, time to read some poetry from an expert, namely, Rita Dove (Sonata Mulattica).

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 14

I wrote a journal entry.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 13

All this week my students have been taking the IOWA test. I've listened to some of the comments they've been making during the short breaks in between different sections and I wrote a tanka about it.

* * * * *

Standardized testing
is standardized boredom and
standardized bogus.
It's only good for one thing:
getting me out of math class.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 12

I wrote the letter for today's writing challenge. What letter? Click here.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 11

Write, write, it’s time to write. There’s snow that sticking to the ground outside, but it’s time to write. I need the snow to stick, so I can sleep in, but it’s time to write. Okay, enough with the stalling, it’s time to write.

I don’t have much to say…except, I think that Marilyn Nelson is going to unofficially be my poetry mentor. You know, like my mentor-in-my-head. I’ve haven’t told her and I don’t plan to, but I think she is doing what I would like to do. Let me explain. I received a copy of her book Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem. I haven’t even read it yet because I’m saving it for February, but I took a sneak peek at the author’s note and began to swoon. Along with that, I’ve already read two books of poetry by her and both times I said to myself, “I want to write like this.” Not only does she write historical poems that focus on Black history, but her intended audience is children (and young adults). Hellooo, ding, ding.

She may not officially be my mentor, but I am officially a fan of her work.

P.S. Snow, could you
please stick around?

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 10

I think I heart the pecha kucha form. What is a pecha kucha? It's a poetry form that I found in Terrance Hayes's Lighthead collection. Hayes says it's "a Japanese adaptation/loanword of the word picture." It's way longer than a poem I would normally write, but because it's broken up into four or five lined stanzas, I might be able to fool myself that it's doable. It's so cute. What? You didn't know a poetry form could be cute? Trust me, it can. The stanzas make me think of the fun-sized snickers bars they hand out during Halloween. I'm not even exactly sure how you would write one, but I plan to try it. I'm guessing you need to have twenty stanzas in order to make it complete, the fancy little brackets around each subtitle, and it must be "after" something.

Anywho, I think I found another book that I can read for #52poetry. I saw this video earlier and got all goo goo about it. It didn't even matter (at first) what she was talking about because it was directed so well. Poems and movies can work together nice like. Push play.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 9

I got my writing done painlessly today. Some of that is because I am procrastinating on writing my lesson plans and twisting my hair. Unfortunately, I can't share what I wrote online, but I will say that it was about Joi. Joi is a character who is in possession of a special journal that connects her to the future. This is the story that manifested itself during NaNoWriMo. It was great to reconnect with Joi.

I was told about a sci-fi writing class that is happening soon at The Writer's Center and I'm debating on taking it. Joi's story would qualify (I assume) for sci-fi, but speculative fiction might be a better title for it. The class is about sci-fiction, however, and not sci-fi poetry, so I'll probably end up using La'mia's story instead. La'mia is the story that was inspired by Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. The stories are nothing alike, but I want the vignette structure she has, plus the color of a mango has a specific significance through the story.

Time to stop procrastinating now.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 8

Time to write again. Don’t want to again. Going to write anyway, again.

In the mailbox today, I received a small envelope addressed to me in familiar handwriting. My own. You know what this means? It means that Cave Canem has received my application for the retreat that happens this summer. Now all there is to do is wait. And hope. And pray. And wish. And hope that I get an email that says, “You are uber fabulous and we want you.” Well, it probably won’t say that. Actually, I’m pretty sure it won’t say that, but it will feel that way. And it will feel the opposite if they…I won’t even say it. I’m staying positive about it.

What I should do is write a letter to God and put it in my letters-to-God box. My mom gave it to me a year ago when she came to visit me in Maryland. Wait, maybe that was two years ago. Anyway, she gave it to me and that’s a fact, but she calls it a treasure box. She said that if I write a letter to God, put it in the box, and check it a year later, what you ask for will manifest.

I know you’re skeptical. I was too. Still am, despite the fact that I wrote a letter in it asking for a better job, and I got it. I even asked specifically for a better commute because before it was about an hour. My commute is now twenty minutes, which is probably fifteen minutes for the average driver (but I drive slowly).

Yep. I better write that letter.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 7

It’s one of those days where I don’t feel like writing anything. I’m tired. It’s been a long week, but the week after a two week break always seems to go at a slower than a snail walking through salt. I promised myself that would at least write 150 words each day.

I might as well talk about Lighthead by Terrance Hayes. I’ve been reading and rereading it this week and discussing it on Twitter. I’m taking my time with this book because I want to see what type of poetry wins a National Book Award, but poetry is subjective, right?

Out of ten poems, I find five of them intriguing:
1. “The Golden Shovel”
2. “The Last Train to Africa”
3. “A Plate of Bones”
4. “Hide”
5. “For Brothers of the Dragon”

For all of them except for #3, one of the major things that drew me in was the form.  That’s not to say that the content didn’t grab me too, it is just the common denominator. “Hide” already inspired me to write a poem in a similar form. It’s a poem I’ve sent out a few times, but no one has loved it yet. The pecha kucha form is terribly interesting, because it reads like a prose poem, and kind of like a screenplay. If I had seen this form earlier, I would have revised my Cave Canem submission packet.

More later…probably.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 6

I’m bothered by the fact that I haven’t written any new poetry lately. Since today is Thursday, it's appropriate that I write a tanka. Several of the tankas I’ve written have been about grammar rules. I might as well continue the trend. Recently, I had my students create children’s books about the proper usage of semicolons and colons. I’ll use that assignment as my inspiration.
******
Ms. Semicolon
I’m afraid to use you in
my writing. Fancy
lady, won’t you slide between
two complete sentences please?

******
You look like a pair
Of periods, one floating
Precariously
Above the other, snuggled
before my list of items.

*******

In other news, I did manage to get that submission completed and sent in...and I received another rejection, plus I received an email telling me I needed to resubmit my poems correctly.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 5

I got in about forty minutes of writing. Half of it was during class, writing with my students and the other half was on my own. I also did a bit of revising on a few poems that I'm considering submitting. That would be two for January if I can get it in. Wouldn't that be super?

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 4

Yesterday, I did a written brainstorm on one of the novels-in-verse that floats perilously in my mind. This one I’ve called The Sun Journal and also The Snake Journal, but that could change, and probably will. This story crept in my mind first during my attempt to do NaNoWriMo last year. In case you didn’t know, I did not complete NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo defeated me; however it was kind enough to share this story idea with me.

Anyway, in this story that is waiting to be fully written, there is this character that is considered a bit unstable mentally. I figured since this character has gone through this experience that has shifted her mind, she should express herself in a poetic form that is a reflection of that chaos. The character is hiding something in her mind; she’s hiding the reason why she took this turn for the worse.

The poetry form that I came up with doesn’t have a name, but I’ve seen it a few times. The first time I saw it was in Salvador Plascentia’s The People of Paper. He did this thing where he would write several sentences and then he would black-out part of it, making it illegible. I guess you could call it a strikethrough. I’ve seen other poets do it also, as a matter of fact, one of the people who sent me a poetry postcard in August used that method and I told myself then I’d use it for something. I figured out that something.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 3

After several readings of “Lighthead’s Guide to the Galaxy” I have resolved that it is beyond my grasp of understanding. Perhaps it’s not totally out of my grasp; I snatched up bits and pieces.

Here’s what I’ve pieced together:

1. Lighthead has an issue with time; one minute, hour, day, is just the same as the next.
2. Lighthead is speaking to us from some alternative setting (because he’s able to communicate with ghosts). Poets frequently visit this setting, to figuratively drink. This drink helps Lighthead write.
3. A dog lives at the setting who takes issue with the folks that visit.

Now, after the dog enters the picture, Lighthead gives us some opinions about what poetry is to him. On a YouTube video, Hayes said this was Lighthead’s ars poetica.

According to Lighthead, poetry:
- is not what you see, but what you perceive
- is not the noise, but the rhythm
- 's only purpose might be to preserve the Self

My favorite line in this poem is “When I kiss my wife, /sometimes I taste her caution.”

Once Lighthead started talking about imaginary games he likes to play I got lost or checked out, but he does like words like somberness, so that makes Lighthead cool in my book.

If you’ve read this poem, what do you think it means? Do you agree with Lighthead’s view of poetry?

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 2

I’m participating in a reading challenge this year which I hope will have a positive effect on my writing. The challenge is to read 52 poetry books in 2011, an idea which came from @TheAmericanPoet on Twitter. Roughly, that’s 4 poetry books a month. I consider myself an avid reader, but reading 52 poetry books in a year is a stretch, like a serious stretch. If I get half the way through, I will feel accomplished.

I’ve already identified the first 4 poetry collections I plan to read.

1. Lighthead by Terrance Hayes
2. Sonata Mulattica by Rita Dove
3. Paper House by Jessie Carty
4. A Wreath for Emmett Till by Marilyn Nelson

Some folks say that it’s problematic for them to read the works of others while working on their own writing, but I hope that by reading so much poetry, I’ll be influenced by it. Who wouldn’t want to be influenced by a poet who has won the National Book Award, or was a former U.S. Poet Laureate? I wish somebody would read some of my writing and say, “Oh, your poem reminds me of one I read from Marylin Nelson.” Sounds like a complement to me.

If you think of any great poetry collections that I should read, leave me a comment.

32 Day Writing Challenge - Day 1

Today marks the start of the 32-day writing challenge. I participated in this writing challenge last year and it helped me create a habit of writing regularly. Writing regularly is a habit I’d like to keep. It’s the key to me reaching my writing goals.

My new writing goal for this year is to submit my work at least once a month, so at the end of the year I should have completed (at least) 12 submissions in total. This isn’t an entirely new goal, but I never gave myself a specific number to reach for, in order to feel successful.

Coincidentally, I have almost completed my first submission for the year: applying to the summer writing retreat at Cave Canem. The application consists of two parts. One part includes a cover letter where you explain what you hope to accomplish and why you’d like to attend, and a sample of your poetry. The second part is the reading fee. I only need to finish the second part.

Wish me luck.

* * * * *

If you'd like to join the challenge, click here.

Phoenix Rise Remix

1.
Flicking through her Twitter timeline, Beryl's attention rested on the third tweet from the bottom. It was from Chantay. Chantay's tweets were always about him, rhythm & blues’ musical gem...M.

2.
Beryl read the tweet several times before retweeting the details of the contest. Write the lyrics to Phoenix Rise and win a prize: dinner and a special remix sold on iTunes.

3.
Dancing around out of sheer happiness would have been appropriate, but Beryl didn't want to incur weird stares from the other patrons at the bookstore. She settled for an inward smile.

4.
Realizing her happiness at winning the contest was a bit premature, she scavenged through her handbag for her composition book, pencil, and iPhone, putting "Phoenix Rise" on repeat, reveling in sweet.

5.
Searching for the starting point where his voice would enter, Beryl decided to begin behind the snare’s call, twenty seconds in. “He likes to whisper”, she said, scribbling down suitable words.

6.
Writing a few lines, Beryl decided she had the refrain. She rewrote it several times, tweaking and revising, wondering would it sound better sung in staccato, slowing the tempo to adagio.

7.
Buzz about the contest was at beehive status, maybe two. Maxwell has so many fans, how would she shine in daylight? Doubt began to rest his arm across her slumped shoulders.

8.
Four weeks until the deadline to enter. Beryl didn’t have time to dally with Doubt. She shrugged him off and continued to listen to “Phoenix Rise” and researched lyrics from Blacksummers’night.

9.
Beryl stumbled through each word choice, writing and striking out words that sounded too heavy on her tongue. Finally sticking to her rough draft, she had to share, but whom with?

10.
Showing someone else submitting lyrics for the contest seemed stupid. Showing someone who was not a fan seemed silly. She could show her writer buddies, Beryl thought. Showing them made sense.

11.
Saturday mornings, her sisters in scribe met at Starbucks, sharing poem suites they planned to submit to literary journals. Beryl sat at a table for three and waited for the ladies.

12.
Jay showed up first, and Viz sauntered in shortly after. Smiles, small talk, and hot stuff, then they shifted to workshop mode. Beryl offered suggestions, saving her song sharing for last.

13.
The ladies thought Beryl’s lyrics didn’t match the grittiness of Black. The light might be appropriate for the climax of the album, but the last song should be surrounded by shadows.

14.
Beryl tried her best to revise the lyrics, but she struggled to strip the sweetness from the song. She listened to Sade in order to find the right amount of sadness.

15.
She couldn’t sink to the sea, so she became satisfied with the song, her song, that had cotton stitched on its edges. She sketched cupcakes in the margin to find serenity.

16.
She sticks a stamp on the envelope. Strange that the contest only accepts snail mail. Beryl went to the post office to get it certified; she wanted it to be safe.

17.
The minutes, days, and weeks slowly melted away. She waited, watched the Musze website for an announcement of the winners, but nothing new. Then it appeared on Wednesday during the winter.

18.
She didn’t win, but she knew the first place winner would enjoy dinner with Maxwell. Losing to Kim stung less, than losing to a stranger, and her remixes were always funny.

19.
Second place winner, still got a treat: front row tickets to the Summers’ Tour and backstage passes. She hoped Darlyn would YouTube her experience. The third place winner stopped her heart.

20.
There in letters bluer than the mineral her grandmother was fond of, was her name. She screamed. Her prize: an advanced deluxe copy of Summers’. The real prize she found later.

21.
The Fed-Ex box arrived with her prize inside. She peeled the paper as if it were an eggshell dream that ripping could raze. Inside the CD cover was a handwritten note.

22.
“To the poet: ya poem lingers like cymbals causin’ tears to sprinkle from a face blessed unwrinkled your water drops drip in perpetual ripples.” She knew the words sounded vaguely familiar.

23.
After Beryl watched the new DVD that accompanied the Summers’ five times in a row, and reading the note double that amount, she remembered those words. She evaporated in to joy.