at the AWP in denver, colorado

some things i realized while i was there:

1. more is not always better when it comes to books.

2. more is often better when it comes to rainbows.

3. i have drinking limits

4. language is only and even a material

5. the letter "u" can be really dirty

6. i will probably always be a starbucks yuppy

7. alone-time is underrated

8. expensive hotels can be really nice

9. there are a lot of things i'm not sure about

10. there is something to be said about fake plastic dripping blood

11. books are much heavier than clothes

12. language is everywhere

13. language is everywhere

14. people are very similar in many ways

Poem as magnetic field

he hates the feel of work
her father
growing money in the garden
all wrapped up in paper and canary gold
foil and pretty looks in the pictures
she'd wake up on the driveway eating
radishes in red teeth
her mother drove
death like wind carrying pearls like
they do in high fashion
magazines
like girls wear pinecones
inside their hair and talk to each other
in opposites
she thanked death's
sway and taught people to feed camels
the sea foamed at night
when she traced water onto scratch-paper
absorbing expression and the
grass fleeing when it got too wet
now she freezes midway among
ornaments hanging in the attic
she waits for the sea
like her camels coming home.

Poem as Gentle Riot

1

Strictly speaking, there is a narrow definition: the fauna communicate in automatic modes of speech through an understanding that there are certain conversations to be avoided, not speaking of the ones they never had nor would they completely draw a person they’ve never met, but the practicality is heavy without taking its place; you, sitting across the street near a phone booth, regret not approaching such icicles of speech, but hey—throwing paper airplanes in a churchyard can be pleasing and a little wish.

2

Keep that hot head away from your daughters, because years later it will all feel the same, strictly speaking. The boring words slack on the page and the big houses live on water; the antelopes are glistening in their finely tuned hammocks. You’ve finally made it and you’re playing footsies with money to entertain your wanderlust. Question: how can you turn a squid into a mustache? Answer: design a new way to feed the rich.

3

It’s like those kids on a football field stealing the football, and then they cut it in half and flip it upside down, and they turn it into a boat and some of them are pouring out everyone's Gatorade and making a gigantic lake, and then they sail the football from one side of the lake to the other, and all the football players and coaches and cheerleaders are confused and freezing, and the football in two parts is now two sailboats and everyone is thirsty and extremely careful, you could call it a gentle riot.

like Silverstein, but different

I'm on an anagram binge as part of an exercise to get me thinking differently.

I Won't Hatch!

by Shel Silverstein

Oh I am a chickie who lives in an egg,
But I will not hatch, I will not hatch.
The hens they all cackle, the roosters all beg,
But I will not hatch, I will not hatch.
For I hear all the talk of pollution and war
As the people all shout and the airplanes roar,
So I'm staying in here where it's safe and it's warm,
And I Will Not Hatch!

****

Oh, a Twitch

(by me)

I tell her as I watch a streetcar go by,
I watch at smoke dripping by,
I tell a small troll holla
until the troll can't see the walk
or the phallic innuendo
or the hollowing out.
He clinches her shawl and pieces a
vanilla whatnot on the habitat;
wait for the ash thing which is normal,
of low finite kind: a nail, a hue, a hiss.

arrgh!

never a bad time for a good pirate reference.

question:

are new versions meant to replace the old ones, or is it possible for all varieties to exist peacefully together?  do "rough drafts" somehow weaken the point of the finished product?  or is it some sort of humble/helpful reminder for anyone to see where anyone else has come from?

when we replace things, is it ever possible for us to not be hiding something?

re~place \ri-'plas\ transitive verb substitute a person or thing for another that is broken, inefficient, lost, no longer working, or no longer yielding what is expected; switch seemingly equivalent items.

----------

i am learning to end things sooner, as in now.

words at their best

definition of the day: poignant \'poi-nyent\ adjective
sharp-pointed, keen, incisive, penetrating, neat, eloquent, applicable, relevant; evoking strong mental sensation, to the point of distress.

renaissance cats

my cats are the epitome of cool.  while boots stays up to date on all the technological advances...

...he also knows how to appreciate a good old-fashioned book.

and maika, well, he's got his own agenda...

 

xmas break reading list - in case you were wondering...

and the final count is

1. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
2. John Steinbeck - The Chrysanthemums and Cannery Row
3. Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
4. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
5. The Dream Songs - John Berryman
6. Roald Dahl's Skin and other Stories
7. something magical = L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

not bad, eh?  #6 is on my bookshelf as we speak, waiting anxiously to be read, while i admit a slight amount of defeat in that i never even looked for #'s 4 or 5.  perhaps my spring break reading list will reign in completed triumph...

mindtrip of the day

"Think long thoughts in short sentences."

27 grand things i did in 2009

1. participated in a worldwide race.

2. watched It's a Wonderful Life in color.

3. discovered that i really love to dress up.

4. helped teach a parakeet to be fearless.

5. started taking classes at a real university.

6. got a new tattoo.

7. started scanning my own film.

8. rescued a cat.

9. went to a poetry reading that changed things.

10. spent an evening being a pirate...for the second time.

11. discovered the value of list-making.

12. got rid of a bunch of things.

13. saw my favorite comedian, my favorite violinist, and one of my favorite bands live.

14. started drawing again.

15. completed a "happy 10th" one year project.

16. watched a movie in theaters and cried the entire time.

17. had photos published in an online magazine and their 2010 calendar.

18. bought tickets to see one of my favorite authors this spring.

19. moved myself and my boyfriend into a better space.

20. listened to Hedwig's Theme performed by an orchestra and got chills.

21. finally went on a portland road trip with my friends.

22. became intimately acquainted with a photobooth.

23. received a crazy big amount of love from a couple of cats.

24. made and fully completed a winter break goal.

25. danced in public.

26. inspired a painting by a lovely artist.

27. stalked a poet through a dark alley in the rain.

denotations

today's word: suave \'swav\ adjective smoothly agreeable.

from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman

Backward I see in my own days where I sweated through fog with
       linguists and contenders,
I have no mockings or arguments, I witness and wait.

an end in the form of a beginning

today i have officially completed the goal i set just over a month ago.  i posted to this blog everyday - at least once - since the first day of winter break from school.  now, tomorrow i return for a new term where poetry and photography and soy chai latte breaks will surely be plentiful.  in the meantime, i am ready for whatever 2010 has in store for me and my blog.

good times will always be remembered.  wa-hoo!

p.s. rest in peace petunia chan, part of our home from june of 2008 until january of 2010.

homemade fonts

10-24

the new gallery is up.  i am pleased to be a part of it.

resolutions for the new year

it is 2010 now.  these are the things i am hoping to accomplish:

 take it easy.

step outside the boundaries of what i'm comfortable with in photography.

save enough money to go to korea in may.  or japan.

ride my bike more.

find this window and photograph it again.

give a little bit more love.

eat more fruits and veggies.

find some nice flowers.

happy new year!