Too

Too many poets.
Too little rhyme.

time —

a snapshot seen by eyes &mdash what?
a tree, a carpet, a sleeve, a hairline, a beach —


subsumes all past and future

What Does a Poet Do?

1. Writes creative titles
   
   – Writes titles that hint about the poem; chooses words for a special reason
   


2. Says things in unusual ways
   
   – Might leave out, make up, or repeat words just for the fun of itand to make us think
   


3. Uses powerful vocabulary
   
   – Chooses words carefully
   
   – Uses Wow! words to catch our attention
   


4. Uses punctuation in special ways
   
   – Uses punctuation for a special purpose and to help the reader
   


5. Arranges words in different and unusual ways
   
   – Helps us see and hear all the different lines in the poem as we read
   


6. Makes comparisons
   
   – Looks for unusual things to compare
   
   – Uses comparisons to make us think
   


7. Shares feelings
   
   – Sets a mood; might make us feel sad,happy,cheerful,silly, amazed,or concerned


8. Paints mental pictures
   
   – Describes using colors,sounds, sights,smells,feelings,actions, and thoughts as tools
   


9. Shares messages and ideas
   
   – Chooses words and phrases carefully to share the message, to help us think,and to help us enjoy the poem
   


10. Plays with words
    
    – Mixes the order of words, tries new endings,and looks carefully at every word to see where it fits best
    

© 2008 Sopris West Educational Services.
Specific Writing Assignments
Step Up to Writing • Primary

My crispy sheets white linen bed

Crisp sheets air-cooled in darkness lie
Pillows — like clouds my head surround —
Floating above the sheets I fly.
Oh my! — What sleep — what dream — profound.

My life asleep reposed from wake
Lives in a fiction prose I read;
But what is real is when I make
My crispy sheets white linen bed.

He took a hike not on a trail

He^* took a hike not on a trail
Condemning all his own law fail,
His Man & Woman one accord,
He meets his due from his Book's tale —
He never understood his Lord —
Of those who live by their own sword.



You can go
a long way waving
the Confederate battle
flag and the Holy Bible
in South Carolina,
even with a Latina lover
in Buenos Aires'
and New York City's
dens of inituities.
And the white-nationalist party
tea parties
will be held to remember you
in their prayers.



        * the Confederate governor of South Carolina

Wizardly wishes

The stray black-haired cat,
Stellar blue-eyes, sat
On the steps to my home,
His mouth purring, "Come."

My hand outstretched,
His whiskers fetched.
The wish, I advanced:
My heart be lanced

By a stunning apparition
Of sudden transmutation.
I shook as I stood
And then understood

What the cat-form became:
"Merlin's my name."




posted to Read Write Poem prompt #80:
what i could never tell my mother

"Corso – The Last Beat” — now playing in Taormina

The World Premiere of “Corso – The Last Beat” will be hosted by the Taormina Film Festival (Sicily) (June 13 – 20). As an official entry at Taormina, “Corso…” will compete in the “Beyond the Mediterranean” section, among 8 films chosen by Taormina’s Artistic Director Deborah Young. “It is just right Festival to launch ‘Corso…’ To have an Italian debut for the U. S.’s most significant Italian-American poet would thrill Gregory Corso. I’m delighted myself” commented director, Gustave Reininger. “80% of “Corso…” was shot in Italy, France and Greece, which are major contributors to Taormina.”

World Premiere at Taormina Film Festival (Siciliy)

Hopefully — this is a good sign the movie is on its way to a US Fall general release.

A hotel Bible-thumber

I'm thumbing through a Holy Bible by
A hotel suite crisp-white bed pillows laid
There, side by side with textured truth and lie,
A spread of golden sun and sham of jade.

Who was that god — that fiend — who killed the kids
Within the walls of Jericho? Who then
Spouts off a hateful book of laws, and rids
The land of all therein who do not bend?

But then — a contradicting text appears,
Which says "The old said that, but I say this."
Where now the one with wealth and power fears:
Make peace, not war, its lecturing insists.

I close the book that says that no one can
Be born again but still Republican.

Genesis 1

Thus	our physics' once perfect symmetry
spontaneously,	ubiquitously
shattered and fragmented	relentlessly,
once balanced squarely,	tumbled unfairly,
whence all — our stars',	our selves' — reality.

Note: Without the haphazard — 'spontaneous' — breaking of the 'no-thing-ness' of symmetry there would only be a universe with no masses, no bodies, no anything:
Discovery Of 'Broken Symmetry' At Subatomic Level Earns 2008 Nobel Prize In Physics ScienceDaily Oct. 7, 2008

HiDef

(the transition to DTV+HDTV)

Pixelated petals pouting about
Once-smooth faces' new pores,

Sharpened — grass blades
Cutting into cleated feet pouring

Over every detail — hyperreal
Imaging dulling imagining.