Three Poems Online in NAP

Three of my poems utilizing bits of text from books on backcountry hiking/camping just went online in NAP, a lit mag edited by Chad Redden. Thanks, Chad! I need to return to working on this series, I think, especially with hiking/camping season upon us.

Collage with a Piece of a Poem

This collage doesn't quite have a poem in it, or maybe it's just a micro-poem made of a single couplet. I haven't had much luck in directly combining poetry and collage, but now and then the intersections seem more direct as in this piece.

From a Thrift Score

I found a fun children's nonfiction book at the thrift store recently, an illustrated paperback from the 1970s with explanations about different everyday things like foods, metals, modes of transportation, etc. The book is supposedly about "How Things Are Made," but the little essays on different topics give all sorts of facts about their subjects. I'm not sure yet if these essays will inspire a whole series of found poems, but I've been working on a couple of poems so far, and here's one...

Untarnished

Carbon plus iron plus chromium
and maybe some nickel?

Stainless steel. It takes
a high polish and can resist

rust and acid. Kitchen knives,
door knobs, golf club heads

and fishing gear? Stainless steel.
We also use it for mirrors

when glass is too fragile.

Science-Inspired Art

Stacey Printz, a choreographer who has created work inspired by honeybees, directed me to this article from the San Francisco Chronicle which discusses her bee-related piece as well as some other pieces inspired by scientific topics (like string theory). I sent Stacey an email last week, and she sent a friendly reply and said she'd be glad to answer some questions.

I think the best idea might be to think of writing some bee essays in the size/format of my Teeny Tiny zine as this seems like the most low-key and fun way for me to go about a project.

A Long-Neglected Task, and Some Research

I've been meaning to add a page to my website with links to published nonfiction clips, and I finally did this last night. It's a pretty simple page, but hey, I'm pretty simplistic in my web-design skills.

This morning, I sent a query to a publication I haven't written for before, and we'll see how that goes. But if you never send a query, nothing new ever happens. I haven't sent a query in ages. The gig with EDGE fell into my lap via a craigslist ad; I didn't have to query--I only had to answer the ad.

I'm looking at different ideas for writing about bees and conceptualizing these ideas as article-sized pieces, so I'm also trying to think of possible markets for these articles. A weird thing about nonfiction contrasted with poetry is that with nonfiction you can actually conceive of a market for your work whereas with poetry it's more that you write the poem and see if maybe later it seems like it might be a fit for a certain magazine where maybe a couple other poets and maybe a couple of friends of yours might read it.

I did more research regarding Jonathon Keats and his Honeybee Ballet, and I also found an item on a choreographer who created a dance piece inspired by the dance of bees. And did you know there was a Nobel lecture in the 1970s on decoding the bees' movements?

It's interesting to me that we use the word "dance" in describing the movements that bees use to communicate; it kind of seems anthropomorphic of us, but at the same time, what other words are there to label communication through movement? I thought about sign language, but does "language" fit what the bees are doing when they move their bodies to indicate to other bees where, for example, to find a nice cache of pollen? The Nobel lecturer does use the word "language," so maybe both this word and "dance" are useful.

New and Improved?

Since I started this blog, I've only posted poems, but lately I've been writing a little nonfiction again, and I thought I'd expand the scope of the content that I post here. I used to write and publish nonfiction articles and reviews pretty regularly, and I've been getting into that again as I've written four reviews for an online publication called EDGE, most recently this review of Don Quixote at Pacific Northwest Ballet.

I also have an idea for a larger nonfiction project about honeybees, which would combine personal experience with research and interviews, and maybe a road trip or two for good measure (gotta get out and visit some of the honeybees of the western states). In talking about the project with my friend Mimi, she suggested I consider looking at the ways that bees have inspired art projects, and this morning I happened upon a project someone wrote about a few years ago called the Honeybee Ballet. Well, I think there could be an article or two to write about bees in art, and thank you, Mimi, for that train of thought.

Treading Lightly on the Earth

I had a burst of writing a few weeks ago but then haven't written a poem now for about a month. Well, here's something brand-new.

Treading Lightly

Bright fabrics of varying degrees
of stiffness are drying on wooden racks

in your spare room, in the sun
between yellow-orange curtains

chosen by your housemate. I remember
you love me when you leave me

a clean towel on the doorknob,
soft cotton from the electric dryer.

A little poem about keys

Familiar

Easy to grow attached to the feel
of their curves and notches,

every day their same weight
in our fingers. How long

can we last without changing
the locks? Shall we wear

ourselves smooth as house keys
held for years in front pockets?

Another Hay(na)ku

Made this little hay(na)ku card the other night with images and text from a Better Homes & Gardens book on flower arranging.

Often Replaced

Often Replaced
Originally uploaded by Mandy L.

Of the collage/poetry pieces I've done lately, I like this one the best. The image is from a magazine ad I painted over with some cream-colored paint. This is collaged onto a piece of a cereal box, around 4x4 inches in size.

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Another Poem and Collage

More text from an old Family Circle and image from a book of photos of Washington. I like this image of the road so much that I really didn't want to alter it in any way, so it seemed like a good idea just to shape a tiny poem for it.

A Collage and a Poem

Two tiny stanzas of hay(na)ku, collaged onto a trading-card-sized piece of recycled paperboard. The text is from a 1941 issue of The Family Circle, and the images are from a book of pictures of Washington state and a magazine that I painted over.

Poem for Daylight Savings Time

This one's untitled. By "fire horse," I mean the Chinese zodiac element and animal. I know a few fire horses, but I'm thinking of one in particular here. :)

Your fiery nature
might burn
low,

oh,
but never
burns out, dearest

fire horse, pedaling
your bicycle
uphill

out
of winter,
into spring again.

On Depression

I don't write a whole lot about depression, but now and then I do...

Unipolar

My brain is a director who prefers
film noir, sets me up

with femme fatales and says
action. Play of shadows

and harsh light, setting
of dark alleys and street corners

where taxis won’t pull over.
Neon signs keep blinking

from shorts in the wiring.

A Little Morning Poem from Last Weekend

Good Morning

I talked so loudly she said
she tried shushing my discussions

from her dream, waking
to realize the noise all came

from me, two sides of an argument,
two parts of me she’d never seen.

I hope next time she’ll wake me.

Dear Blog, I Haven't Forgotten You

So I've been writing some new poems, but I haven't posted one here since August. Figured it was about time to post one then. This is brand-new, wrote it the other day and revised it this morning...

Unlimited Nights and Weekends

You could be anywhere. You’re calling
from a parking lot, not
someplace you meant to be
but the eye of, before and after

your real Sunday, your errands
and obligations with strangers
to me. Most evenings after nine
you call from bed, and I crawl

into mine, where I try
to resist talking your tired ear off
but fail miserably. I can accept
the consolation prize: your voice

for another five minutes,
scolding me for another too-late night.

Something from High School

OK, my favorite favorite favorite Pet Shop Boys song is the duet they did with Dusty Springfield, "What Have I Done to Deserve This" (if you want a treat, go and watch that video on YouTube; it always makes me feel good), but I have a bit of a soft spot for their remake of "Always on My Mind," hence the title of this poem... So yeah, here's a nostalgic poem.

Always on My Mind

Chorus after chorus, layers
of indistinguishable beats. I couldn’t tell

the Pet Shop Boys were gay
even when they played

love songs to each other.
I didn’t know gay people except

two math teachers with very short hair
but they weren’t for sure.

Culled from My Notebook

I started drafting this in April and forgot about it but found it in my notebook last night and tried to tighten it up. Sorry for the lack of posts; this reflects a lack of writing.

No Original Thoughts

Just my old ones
and several of yours

remixed and repetitive
as extended dance versions

which ruin pop songs.

Recycled Beauties: Poem from Collage

I made a 12-page collaged booklet using (among other things) images and text from a book of pin-ups. The poem below is a reconfiguring of the text which makes up the booklet: each page in the booklet has a few lines on it, and here I've condensed and changed a bit.

Recycled Beauties

Not movie stars, much more than
sleek limbs followed by
countless others, these girls

who are now elderly women,
girls of a specific time,
a specific war, still promise

a wonderful postwar world.
Things are peaceful where
they wear sheer dressing gowns

or nothing at all.

Attempting a Ramage

Earlier this week, I happened upon a used copy of a tiny book called Turkish Pears in August by Robert Bly, and in it, he uses a form he developed called the "ramage" in which you have 8 lines of roughly 10 syllables each, and each line is also supposed to contain a repeated sound/syllable. OK, so below I am trying to repeat a sound like "air." I like trying to repeat a sound without using end rhyme; I try to do this anyway but not so specifically as trying to do it in every line. I may experiment more with this form, as an exercise to get myself writing if nothing else!

Cheers

Mortgaged as everywhere, our suburb
is sometimes carefree. For example, take me—
I bake brownies and bid for rare knick-knacks
on eBay, in a pair of plaid pajamas
until two or three. I do laundry when I dare
let it air-dry on warm afternoons
as I sit in my plastic chair. I sip
tap water or beer—come on by, and I’ll share.

Grapho Analysis

I've been working on some poems inspired by Uncensored, a pretty trashy mag from the 1960s. The issues I have (thank you, eBay) are from 1961, but this link will show you some ads from an issue from the late 1960s. I realized I haven't shared any of these poems on the blog yet, so here's one:

Please Reply in Your Normal Hand

Friends, I’ve advised thousands
like yourselves who want

to learn my kind of expert work
as a full-time job or dignified means

of extra income. I want
to send you, without charge,

a window to your personality
to acquaint you with this

science, an analysis of character
revealed through handwriting.

Ode to Belinda Carlisle

Next to The Bangles, I think I loved Belinda Carlisle and The Go-Gos the best--OK, well, I still do...

Dear Belinda Carlisle

For as many weeks as you are
on Dancing with the Stars
I’ll give all my votes to you

though I’ll forever think of you
all in black, maybe a pair
of gold hoop earrings, nothing

like the spangles and colors
the producers will make you wear
as you dance with a gentleman

instead of the women I remember.

An Ode to Grrrls

I don't suppose I was ever exactly a "grrrl" because I was busy watching old movies when others were going to concerts and making zines and stuff. But I'm hoping this new poem will fit into a series I've been working on for some time now that involves different first-person perspectives...

When We Were Grrrls

Ears ringing, all smiles
in the mosh pit, the opposite

of violence, sweltering
in the crush of strangers’ bodies

in our pact that nothing
but silence can scare us

that it’s best to shout
all we have into the static

of voices that shout back at us.

Finally, Another Tiny Poem

I've been reading about this winter's weather troubles, and here's a very tiny poem on the subject.

After

Swans gather on lakes
formed in the flood. Horses
step from their trailers.
Pruning blueberries, we ignore
our strawberries gone under.

A New Tiny Poem

Impossible

If mirrors would cease
reflecting—a relief

not knowing if my hair
is askew or graying, only

proof of me existing
in heaps of worn jeans

and clean underwear,
warm sheets where

I must have been sleeping.

A New Poem for Everyone's Neighborhood

Foreclosure

Next door is the property
of pests. It used to be
a family’s we never met
but waved at. Nobody’s home

but rats, black widows,
brown recluses, poisonous plants,
an unmown lawn of allergens,
irritants to skin. We call

the bank, the city, the county.
No luck reaching anybody.

Thanks to Ali Smith and Edith Hamilton

I just read (and totally recommend!) Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith, a retelling of the myth of Iphis. I dug out my copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology to look up Iphis; she doesn't retell Ovid's myth, alas, but I've always had a soft spot for Hamilton's book, so I've been reading bits of it. And the bits from Hamilton gave me an idea to work on a poem, which is good because I haven't had many ideas in that department at all.

Our Neighborhood

At pick-up games, Apollo
shows off the same
arms, legs, chest of the athlete

he used to be, maintained
with twenty minutes a day
on his Bowflex machine

as Hermes lugs boxes
up and down the street
for UPS, and artists who watch

from windows don’t know
they’re sketching the gods
in our image, everyone’s

weekend one tableau
of overtime and basketball.

How Colorful

I haven't been posting because I haven't been writing poems. Enough said. But I did work on this poem earlier this week.

Brown

Corduroy, seared surface
of well-done beef, skins

of russet potatoes, upholstery
of old sofas and cars,

nutshells, chocolate bars,
certain parts of darting bodies

of flickers and chickadees,
fifteen feet of tree trunk,

patchwork of dirt and dry grass,
slats of our privacy fence.

Poem from the Patio

I was sitting on the patio and noticed some ants, and so it goes... I was glad to work on a poem as I've felt kind of stalled out, probably because of being super-busy with teaching lately.

Weeds, Anthills

Did they crack our patio
or did cracks come before
in one or more earthquakes

before we lived here?
No one cares. It’s an old slab
of cement with no one

to repair it. Only I can
see it with spring filling out
the neighbor’s hydrangea

and our mock orange.

Spring Cleaning

I haven't been posting because I haven't been writing much, just a few notes here and there, hopefully toward a project that will ultimately come together in a more satisfying way, but too early to tell. I finally wrote a little poem that I felt I could post, so here goes.

Tidy

Goodbye, flickering lamp,
mismatched towels, threadbare

sweaters and jeans. The van
for donations comes today.

Mom calls it Tobacco Road
if we store boxes on the porch

even temporarily. Goodbye,
sturdy boxes from the liquor store.

Two Tiny Poems

Dear Blog-Friends, I haven't forgotten you, but I haven't been writing much poetry because of needing to write assignment sheets instead and also because of grading papers. Here are two very tiny poems, which, you never know, could become part of something bigger about "road trips" as I'm always wanting to write more about road trips since I do try and write in my notebook whenever we drive somewhere and stay in a motel...

And speaking of tiny poems, I'm collecting short poems for a mini-anthology called Poems for Your Pocket, with a submissions deadline of March 28. I plan to hand out the anthologies for free at the college on Poem In Your Pocket Day, so send me tiny poems if you want to participate.

After Mountains

An ancient restaurant
perched over a river--
let’s stop for root beer.

**

Interstate 5

My fingers hurt
from the cold and damp
and from driving.

The Little Road Over the Dam

I don't know if it's still like this, but it used to be you could drive over the top of the dam on Baker Lake. I don't usually write about being a kid, but I got this idea after reading the following prompt in In the Palm of Your Hand by Steve Kowit: "Recall something that happened many years ago near a body of water."

Baker Lake

Dad takes the narrow road
over the top of the dam.
In the back seat, we study the lake

like cats regard what’s behind
a shower curtain. We hear
each pebble under the tires

of the Malibu, watch
waves lap the dam, through
the residue of window decals

Dad tried to remove.

Poem in the Dark

It's still so dark in the morning. I usually sleep in, but sometimes I wake up early. I guess the events of this poem actually took place at like 5 in the morning, but it felt like the middle of the night.

Is it a shame that my poems don't have more "original" titles? I don't like to push it.

Well, I like that this poem fits in with my "weather" series. Also, I really like looking at the snow.

Middle of the Night

Woke up a little shook up
from dreams I couldn’t remember,

took my pills, looked out
between the blinds. Snow

had piled up while I slept,
everyone’s yards blurred together

under an unseen moon.

A List of Literature

I started this blog to nudge myself to write more, and over the past week or so, I've been reading a lot but writing very little. But then I was like, "Remember the blog!" and worked on this poem, which also owes something to the assignment I'm writing up for my poetry class for next week on using listing and/or repetition in poems.

Literature

All over our floor—
paperbacks from thrift stores,
hardbacks from libraries.

Debit card receipts,
coupons for medium pizzas.
A plea to save polar bears

with canvas grocery sacks.
I’ll write them a check.

Park at the Park at Your Own Risk

I may do a whole series of poems comprised of things I've seen through the windshield of my car... (Or maybe I won't. Who knows?)

Warning: High Car Prowl Area

By the lake in the city park
watch for suspicious activity,
low clouds, gray skies,

gray everywhere, more accurately,
because of the parking lot
and how the lake reflects

weather, pavement, feathers
of the bodies of migrating geese.

Rainy Day at Green Lake

Here's a poem from some notes I made earlier in the week while I sat in the car beside Green Lake, having an apple and cheese and watching some all-weather exercisers. The last line I'd say is kind of a tip of the hat to my grandma.

Joggers

Their raingear reflects headlights
and wicks moisture away

from their bodies. They follow
yellow arrows to miss bikes

and rollerblades, but nobody’s
on wheels today but babies,

strollers covered in plastic
like hairdos of careful ladies.

If I'd Thrown a Holiday Party

Well, I didn't throw a party, but I reflected on parties past. I did, however, need to solve the mystery expressed in the last two lines; luckily I was able to solve it quickly!

Party’s Over

Napkins, crumbs, toothpicks,
plastic wrap, coffee cups,

dessert forks, and more,
unfortunately, than a few

tiny flies, from the amaryllis
or maybe the oranges.

On the Flooded Highway

This is one of the poems I've been working on regarding the bad weather and flooding from early December 2007.

Macramé

Thick threads of headlights
in the north- and southbound lanes

can’t stop the river pulling loose—
a million knots give way,

dirt, branches, leaves
and water all over the place.

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my new blog! I'm hopeful that this will be a little easier and more versatile. I'm planning to use this blog (as I used the old one) to post brand-new poems as I'm working on them. I've found that posting regularly can keep me going when I'm struggling to write, which is kind of happening lately.

I'm working on poems about two things just now: the weather and home (my home and other people's homes). If you've been reading my work for a while, you're probably saying, "This is nothing new." If there is anything "new" in my current work, it's that I'm writing a little bit about the flooding and awful weather that hit Washington state in early December; it wasn't too bad where I live, but there's been all sorts of trouble not too far south of here.

OK, to get the blog started, here's a new poem I worked on yesterday:

Not Ours

The privacy hedge half-hides
our backyard, not much

of our neighbors’, not the stoop
where their little terrier

barks at cats on our lawn
who come from who-knows-where.