Well – surprise – surprise – a pantoum I wrote is going to appear in the 2013 Poet’s Market! That was a pleasant surprise and a reminder to have other readers because I was about to give up on that poem.

That – and squeezing in some time in a busy week – helped prompt me to submit one packet of poems although I only drafted on this week – which is below.

The Usual

She knew that my usual was a cheeseburger and fries. The burger topped with ketchup, pickles, mustard and tiny diced onions – how did she chop them that fine? On the side – a cup of pickles. A small cup. The can-I just-have-water-yes-it-is10-cents-a-cup cup which was to keep the teenagers playing video games next door from getting free soda. It was a clear cup. Even Sprite – with its carbonated bubbles – was obvious in this cup. My pickles – stacked up like steps shaped out of a hillside – created to ease the climb – to collect the salt of exertion or after school fingers licked clean before homework.

My consuming of things (well besides food!) has been limited this week although I did (over several days) finish a really sweet coming of age movie from Canada called Dear Lemon Lima. It reminded me of “Rushmore”  but with a female protagonist.  

My composition classes focused on rhetorical situations this week. I asked them to think, write, and discuss the interplay of author, audience, and text. I always say I don’t write for an audience, but what if I am writing for myself. That is at least one audience whose expectations I – usually – know.

In British Lit we did a refresher about research as we prepare to discuss “Beowulf” next week and my online creative writing 2 class is gearing up to help with “Referential” while they start to work on their own writing.

Feel free to talk about what you have been up to this week and to share your writing. As always, I will take down anything posted in comments (well any creative writing – not the general comments) this time next week, including my own work in progress.

Let’s chat

I picked this book up because I heard rave reviews about it on a few different blogs. I will admit there are laugh out loud moments and bittersweet moments which the author weaves together quite well, but I can’t rave about it quite as much as some of the other reviewers. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it; that isn’t to say I wouldn’t recommend it, but I hate to go in saying – THIS WAS THE FUNNIEST BOOK I EVER READ – because it wasn’t. It was, however, worth a read. There are moments where Ferris’ writing is more like a prose poem and I appreciate her easy to read writing style that is filled with honesty – no matter how painful that can be sometimes.

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• Here is a terrific interview with the poet (and memoir writer) Sandra Beasley
• I have a poem in the new issue of Barely South the online journal from ODU
• There is some publicity out for the Couplet Literary Festival I’ll be presenting at in Wilmington on Feb 4th (SO EXCITED!)
• If you are looking for some things to watch I found P Star Rising, 6 Days to Air and How Beer Saved the World (and I’m not a beer fan, but neat to see how they shaped history/facts to fit their narrative) all pretty interesting on Netflix for very different reasons (warning on 6 days – it is about the makers of SouthPark so you know the language you are gonna be getting!)
• Today was a good week of classes, albeit a short week which meant condensing and unusual prep times. My composition classes were working on critical reading/critical thinking skills and vocabulary fun (via modified Scattegories) while my British Lit students practiced their literary analysis skills using Fairy Tales and my online students were asked to sign up for Submishmash, Worpdress and to look into print and online literary magazines because they will be thinking on the world of publishing this semester.
• I also managed to draft at least one poem this week and I sent out one submission package with some acceptances coming in so not bad on that front. I keep trying to move forward, including the word that Sibling Rivalry Press will publish my 2nd full length poetry collection in the Fall of 2013!

So how do I get to the so what portion of this post? Well, it is this poem below. I believe I may have posted an earlier draft of it here actually. My issue with it – what causes me pause – is the very question: so what? Maybe the poem isn’t terrible, per se, but what is it doing? Why would I bother including it in my submission packets and/or next collection (of course I’m working on what’ll be a 3rd collection or a 5th chapbook – 5? really? whew!). When do you decide the poem was fun to play with, but isn’t something to send out? Let’s discuss!

–by the way – I did decide to retire the poem. It didn’t have enough going for it. Sometimes you have to write stuff that you don’t keep

Looking forward to seeing your work in progress and/or to hear your thoughts on mine. It is time to discuss whatever writing items you want to discuss.

And now I’ll be back to grading

Todd Boss first came to my attention several years back when he was making video poems. At the time, I was editing “Shape of a Box: The First YouTube Literary Magazine.” I never had a chance to feature Todd’s work in my magazine, but his rhythmic style of writing really suited itself well to performance venues such as video. What, therefore, would I think of his work in printed form?

I can now answer that question after reading his newest collection of poems titled “Pitch.” Pitch is a word with many denotations and connotations which (except for baseball) Boss makes good use of throughout this book where there are literal instruments (primarily piano) addressed, but where Boss also tries out different tones, textures within the poems themselves.

Reading this collection made me think of buying my first cassette tape (I know I am dating myself a bit with that reference). I often picked up an album because of one particular song. There were always other tracks on the album that weren’t quite what I was looking for, but I still enjoyed having the collection together as a whole. This is how I felt reading “Pitch.” Not ever poem is one I found myself going back to re-read because maybe they did use a bit too much word play (slant rhymes, repetitions etc) but there were a wealth of poems that kept me coming back for how much fun they had with the sounds of words within a free verse writing style.

One of my favorites is “Blind” where Boss throws out some dark humor as he writes, “One day the doctor tells you that you’re blind / to the truth. . . . Truth is a wave-/ length in the spectrum you’re unable to detect.”

That’s just a taste, or perhaps I should say, a note. You should find a few more samples (chords) and then pick up a copy for yourself to see which track becomes your favorite.

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I really loved the opening of this book and overall its approach to teaching the 4 genre in one semester scenario of early creative writing. I, however, was a bit dismayed when I came to the example poems in the poetry section. The actual essays about literary terms and “how to’s” on poetry were better – to me – than the actual selections.

This made me pause and I almost didn’t finish reading the book. But, I decided to give the other genres a try. I’m glad I did. The examples in the short fiction, non-fiction and play section are really good! Since the other sections are quite good, and since poetry is my main area of focus I could just supplement with other poems right?

Finding one textbook to use, especially go cover this many genres, is not an easy task, but this is one of the most complete (especially given its slim and un-intimidating size). I think I would teach it out of order though and start with non-fiction. I’d also weave in some discussion of graphic novels to the stage/screen section.

So would I use this book for a class? It would be high on my list. There is another book I really like, but it is almost a bit too advanced for the level of class I would be teaching (100, very entry level). Neither book is the perfect solution, but this one comes very, very close. Is there ever a perfect textbook?

I’d also suggest this one for anyone who just wants a good resource for literary terms and basic reminders on formatting your work.

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I had written a quite lovely review of this book, but the internet ate it . . . Tiger internet? Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed this read. It is beautifully written, but a bit slow for the first 100 pages. Still, I recommend it : )

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a full little read! I want to say it would be a fun book to read to your child before bed, but some of it is a bit scary . . . so . . . maybe not. Depends on your child. Speaking of that, this would be a great one to read with your kids, even just sharing the experience to discuss the different types of classic ghostly characters that appear, but the modern ways that they are woven into the story.

Read this one on my Kindle Fire so I also enjoyed that they included the black and white sketch art (just a few images) in the Fire edition. Recommend this one

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finally jumped on the bandwagon to read “The Hunger Games.” I have read quite a few post-apocalyptic books over the years, especially in the YA genre, and while Collins has a unique setting for her book, I still found myself for the first 100 pages of the book or so going – um, saw that coming.

The main character is interesting enough, but she did little that I wouldn’t expect her to do: the strong girl who lost a father who protects/provides for her family while not realizing how beautiful and amazing she is. That being said, the story did become a page turner and I found myself wanting to finish. I wanted to see the end of the Games. I’m also interested enough in the world Collins has created that I have added the second book to my to read list. Not enough that I’ll download it (I did read it on my Kindle Fire) immediately, but enough that I do hope to get to it someday.

Definitely worth a read and I can see why teachers love it as well because there is a lot for you to talk about with war, loss etc…

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