Monthly Archives: April 2009

20 out of 30.

Considering Thursday is the last day of the month…and the items on my list to do before I leave town Friday morning for the weekend…it appears I will only be successful in completing 20 poems in 30 days. Not an unimpressive number, but not 30. Ahh, well, I did better with this challenge than I have done with National Novel Writing Month.

I also know commenting is still broken. If you have a comment, feel free to email me. Hopefully I will resolve the technical issues soon.

NaPoWriMo Poem #20

Four Questions

Will I find the answer I seek
on a roll of microfilm
in the back of a cabinet
at the local library
or perhaps written
on the back of a photograph
buried in a box
in the attic?

Can I trust research
conducted by a stranger
posted on the internet
without any sources cited
any more or less
than the uncited research
of a 19th century distant kin
published in a book?

Why do some cousins
respond excitedly to my letters
while others are silent?
Is it me, my cousins, or the letters?

How many roads must a man pursue
before a brick wall comes down?
I’d ask Bob Dylan,
but I know the answer he’ll give me,
and I want something more.

NaPoWriMo Poem #19

Amazon Fail
(Title suggested by Dallas)

Orange tongues
lick the sky,
and consume the rainforest.

The greenhouse gasses
create a warmer climate,
reduce the rainfall,
and increase the fires.

Positive feedback,
the scientists call it,
without any sense of irony.

[Note…I am aware of the current technical issues with the blog. I hope to get them resolved soon.]

NaPoWriMo Poem #18

Yep. I’m falling a little behind with this. I hope to catch up this weekend.

earth day 2009

the headline asks:
how can you reduce
your impact on the planet?

i wonder:
don’t i want
to increase my impact?

if i’m not going to make a difference
why should i plant a tree
drive an electric car
or recycle my aluminum?

NaPoWriMo Poem #17

Portrait of an Old Man

Portrait
of an old man
taken with camera
twenty years after
he drew a portrait
of a lady, with words
on paper, serialized
in a magazine.

Portrait unseen
by most students
of his creation,
they know him
by his description,
of Isabel,
not by his beard,
his glasses,
or the shape of his head.

henryjames1900.jpg
[Henry James, taken in 1900, from LIFE magazine photo archive]

on MTV’s The Phone and promotional photography

This is the Promotional Image I included in a blog post a couple years ago when my cousin, Ben Newmark, starred in the Short Film, West Bank Story

Here is a Promotional Image for the upcoming Reality TV show, The Phone (premiering Tuesday April 21). My cousin, Dan Newmark, is on the right.

thephone2.jpg

I know West Bank Story won an Oscar and everything, but Ben really needs to talk to his younger brother, because the picture of Ben and the Camel never made it on to my Desktop, and the picture of the cast from The Phone was my wallpaper within seconds after I saw it.

Her name is Julia Voth.

Since reality television focuses on the contestants, and not on the ‘cast’, I suspect the roles of “Agent 1” and “Agent 2” will be relatively small. And if MTV caters to their likely target audience, “Agent 1” will have more camera time than “Agent 2.” (as possibly confirmed by the numbering.) But it appears my cousin should at least be in the credits for each episode.

NaPoWriMo: Poem #14

Tekka Ju and Rancher’s Wife
(Title contributed by Christy)

She with the red hair
and eyes
the color of a whirlpool
placed the paperback in front of me
and said
“read it, or you’ll never see me again.”

Having an eclectic bibliophile history,
normally I wouldn’t hesitate,
especially for a woman
of her caliber (325
winchester short magnum).
However, a harlequin
is still a harlequin.

I set my laptop on a mix
of Sinatra and Ellington,
and placed some tekka ju
from the corner takeout
on a paper plate.

Mood set, I began to read.

Name Your Poem

Here’s an interesting link that was forewarded to me: Name Your Tale

Three writers are offering to write 100-word micro fiction tales based on titles submitted by others. (Note: I’m almost positive the authors retain all rights to what they write and can market the stories they write without any permission from or royalties to the submitters of the titles. It’s almost cliche that you can’t copyright titles.)

So…I’m going to do the same thing. At least on a very limited scale. Because I could use some inspiration to finish the NaPoWriMo challenge.

I will write five poems.
With five titles
The titles will be submitted to me in the comments to this post.
Anyone can submit a title.
One title limit to individual.
(I’d like to make five readers happy)

And I will state what isn’t stated on “Name Your Tale”: When you submit a title you aren’t claiming any rights to the resulting poem.