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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Whose planet is it?

Recently having read in ‘A Planet of Viruses’, that viruses help in photosynthesis, I was curious if ‘The Man who planted trees’ book by Jim Robbins would have anything on it. It does mention the role of viruses in generating new diseases. Reading ‘Sex on six legs’, where it is all about the intelligent and good things that insects do, this book looks at the other side to see what harm insects do to the trees. Even this book like the six legs book quantizes the good done by its subject in terms of money.

And the subject is ‘Trees’ although it is on ‘The Man who planted Trees’. That man’s mission was to safeguard trees by saving genetics of the oldest trees to store it for future study when better tools are available and by cloning the trees. I realize that this review is partial to the trees.

Fader, zoonotic, wind training, dimensional stability, edge effect, forest migration. There are many terms like these about trees which are unknown to the general public. The author uses his skill of science writing and explains the terms and concepts thereby holding the readers attention and giving them a learners high to keep on going. He is comfortable in donning the hat of explaining science of how insects go about destroying trees, how trees work at cleaning up the air, creating clouds as well as portrayal of David Milarch who came up with the Champion project. I have not heard of this project before. So there you see, why there needs to be a book like this.

It is two books one that serves as a natural history of all major trees and another of the Big Tree project which is a brainchild of David Milarch who was inspired to do this project from a Near Death Experience. Milarch’s project’s course, tribulations and successes are documented. Instead of lamenting about global warming and how we are clueless as to what to do, here’s a ‘done it’ and the author’s ‘Bioplan’ calling for steps that have all been reached at with research in the past few years.

Each tree’s characteristics and their benefit to humans are well described. The author brings across the point about how human actions detrimental to the trees, disable the trees from taking caring of us and the planet by the ways available to it. For example human induced drought kills the trees and deforestation causes floods. A direct relation has been found between trees and their ability to cause rain with the help of a microorganism that can help form clouds. Trees provide home to a wide variety of species. A delicate balance is being tampered with human actions.

The book is based on research done in the last decade. The research as well as the cases mentioned spans the globe. By admitting that there is still so much unknown to the scientists regarding trees functioning but phrasing the unknowns will pique the interest of budding ecoscientists.

The author has managed to keep the readers in the magic of science with not just enhancing our current knowledge about trees but also explaining wherever possible why something is done the way it is done. I found many interesting facts in the book (too many to list). How some trees are hard to date by the ring counting method, when the growth is not from the main stump, how the aerosols emitted by the trees are helpful in preventing and treating cancer and many other medical conditions, how Phytoplanktons that generate 90% of the oxygen need trees to filter polluted water, how the wind event in Canada caused a large population of beetles to move to another forest causing more destruction but that is supposed to be good too in fertilizing the soil.

Few eye opening quotes:
Less diversity means less opportunities for adaptation – Reed Noss.
When the Europeans landed, the forests were so thick its often been said that a squirrel could travel from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi river without touching the ground.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Hiking with your kid



Looking at the cover picture of 'Up: A mother and daughter's peakbagging adventure', I formed an idea of the author hiking into the real wild. After reading the book I realize that it is as much about the young kid who hiked as much as of the mother who was in all the situations, terrible and exhilarating that you find yourselves on two feet in the mountains with as little or as much comfort that you can carry with you.

I like the motivation of the author Patricia Ellis Herr to provide an environment for her children where they can be immersed in nature. What better than hiking mountains? Hiking, strenuous as it can be, is bound to give you the high of achievement too. Alex, the kid draws the mountain, not content with scaling it. When we see the same person twice on the same hiking route, we wonder and ask if he/she is training for something. So if a hiker sees a kid then there will be some questions and encouragement. I know a kid age 6 who can hike 6 miles. I heard of a kid who was out to visit as many national parks as she can.

When the author realized that her daughter could hike peaks, a flyer about peak bagging the forty eight 4000fters in the Whites got her started on with the goal of attaining it. Their experience hiking together with unexpected events and outcomes is an engaging read. Hiking on the trails is no less of an adventure, especially when you have a kid along. With hiking, starting from losing way, to not having enough supplies, to fickle weather, anything can happen and that’s what makes it interesting in going from point A and returning back to it. Added to this in the nature’s bounty, you get close to clouds and happiness. Then there are the denizens of nature who can stop you on the trail. But you have to go on to the peak or home. As I kept reading of the hikes, I was reminded of the profiles of the mountains that I have hiked and points where we had encounters with animals. The last peak bagging event was interesting to imagine with all the community support shown to Alex.

There will be a comparison with Tiger Mom book. In this book, we get to know the child who is on a mission. The author balanced her presence with her daughter’s persona in the book. The author’s non-hindering parenting style includes the child’s wishes too. I recognized the father Hugh Herr from ‘The Sorcerers and their apprentices’. His story of how he came to have prostheses is illuminating of how an adventure can end on a wrong note.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Action in cigarette pack

I came across Still Life with woodpecker book. I had read Skinny legs and all. I remember this book as having a sppon and other inanimate things as characters. When the back of the book said 'pack of Camels' I couldnt brace myself for it.
Jim Robbins
Bark beetle and climate change
Champion tree

bacteria in plants that helps in rain.

A wind event shifted beetle population.

Storms of my grandchildren

Arboretum America
Dame Miriam Rothschild

Shinrin yoku

Redwood cloning


In this book, prostaglandins are said to be triggered when body is fighting fever, their production is inhibited by using acetylsalicyclic acid of aspirin. Moms recognise the prostaglandin from what-triggers-the-contractions

Thoracentesis
Twilight brigade - inspired from an NDE
Trish and Alex

Personal locator beacon

Greatkids Outdoors. Now I want to read that Before they are gone.
Children and Nature
Nature rocks

Friday, March 23, 2012

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Essays

Pulphead
As said in this review, The final comeback of Axl Rose essay is very well written. Makes Axl interesting for those who know an dont know him. His At a Shelter (After Katrina)
deposits you in the place ravished by nature. His Michael essay makes Jackson human and liberates the artist of any judgement. Unnamed Caves essay and the pictures of Mud Glyph Cave.
Cumberland plateau

Mysterious insects

Sex on six legs

I have heard of Dung beetles on NPR. Just snippets here and there, so I didnt catch the part about the great good they do cleaning up the planet. There are numbers to show the benefit in terms of money. This metric is use di this book for many other activities of insects.

Last night I slept reading of Pestival's homage to Michael Jackson with a moon walker Vegetable Wasp. Sure enough I dreamt of being on a tram where Michael Jackson was doing an exclusive song-dance and we were all about to crash.

As kids we were told that cockroaches were resilient. They could survive the deserts and the freezing Antartica. Just when the roach was getting the 'Super insect' award, an Emerald wasp hypnotised it off-stage.

Zombie Caterpillars. Wow now dont we pity the caterpillar a natural death by another insect.


Delhi Sands flower-loving fly

Evidence of counting in insects
Training bees to recognise faces

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Lingual Journal

Recently we had a hailstorm. The papers referred to it as winter storm.
And an unpredicted rainbow too.

Hailstones the size of blue berries filled the little patch of garden like it has been sp(r)ayed with fertilisers.

I was thinking of how it is easy for us to subtract something and still make sense but harder to think of addition of something to bring out another meaning.

I was thinking like if there's an opposite. Epenthesis is the linguist's answer.

A while ago I was thinking how will I teach my child of Sandhi where two words add and at the juncture a different letter comes in. Epenthesis seems to retain all the letters in most cases instead of gobbling up some letters as 'service fee'.

My mom was telling that padava thargathi (tenth class) is now being referred to as pado thargathi ((still) tenth class). Spoken is taking the matter in its hands from the written.

I am worrying about teaching difficult concepts in Telugu, my mother tongue to my child but I am far losing touch with it. Few years ago, my uncle said that it was my accent, I am holding onto each sound. But now I know it even in the construction, I am filling in a lot of letters to communicate what I like to say but it all come sout in words that do not belong to the language except for the main verb. Makes for a good laugh. But what will the child learn from my garbled utterances? And Hindi, it is so taking the back bench in the brain. I am putting in English while speaking Hindi afraid to take the liberty of modifying it like I do to Telugu. I have learnt written Telugu only till 5th grade. I learnt written Hindi from 6th to 10th grade. I learnt spoken Hindi as a kid but forgot it by the time I came to high school. When I relearnt it, I didnt do learn it alright(Elision!).

Monday, March 19, 2012

Still describe

Two visual inspirations.
Blue Antelope and Orange Elephant got me started for the theme 'lush'.
The orange colour of the elephant reminded me of Hanuman

When I thought of the theme of lush, I couldnt think of anything but green, but now I think from what has struck me luscious in these pictures, any single colour in abundance has the same effect of submerging us in its hue.
Green lush is of nature, artists have defined lush in their own terms by the lusciousness of their imagination.

Monochromal flourishes

1. Blue antelope
With a buoyant
Web of blue
Antlers

Antlers poking
in different directions
Like birds of paradise

An artist settles
a white bird on
the head
two on the back

2. Orange elephant in the room
with gold floral patterns
matches the wallpaper
orange like
the statue of Hanuman
smeared with the sticky paste


While revising it, I stopped at the 'like' and was reminded of the shadows game. I then removed the description of the white birds and replaced it with

like fingers held in
the dark to cast
shadows
thumb and forefinger
join to form the head
and the rest antlers

Writing Exercise:
When I saw the elephant picture yesterday I couldnt explain why I was taken with it. Today I looked at the blue antelope, a thing like that stays with you for a while. So I just described them. After that when I came to the like
, it was like stopping at a log in your way to look around more for something
the like was my passport to many other lines.
A like in a poem is the starting point of infinte things to be said. Massage the like which has a hold on half of the poetry world.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Describe

In The ransom of red chief 0.Henry talks about a town called Summit.

It contained inhabitants of as undeleterious and self-satisfied a class ofpeasantry as ever clustered around a Maypole.

Describe humorously by changing the subject to an object reflecting the culture of the subject.

Welterweight
500 acres and no place to hide

When things go viral

World of viruses
The loom
Naica caves. Heard of Belum caves just now.

The discovery of virus by Beijernick is a goose chase story.

How do viruses move DNA between species and generate new genetic material?

The author's Emeral wasp works has been quoted in another book sex on six legs, unfortunately the subject of viruses lacks that charm.

Rev the food writing

Missionstreetfood

Zhaliang


Decision-making is more important to cooking than exact amounts, temperatures or times - Anthony Myint.

Anthony Myint's articles on food are creative. for example, the one reviewing NOMA.
Sex on six legs

Earwig

Friday, March 16, 2012

Readers of past

A room size
library
I have chosen
few books

The issuer is here
Have you read your
Bhaktin and Chekov

I adjust my answer
from Yes to
No (since its been a while)

The book without front cover
has philosophy on it

But philosophy is in between definitions

I show my choice of two
Reviews - literary magazines
Men of our time

The border is what joins us

- Border lines, Alberto Alvaro Rios

The fence conjoins us
Cosmos contains us

Brave mom

When you drive, you dont get to peek much at others sharing the road. But in the passenger seat you are a witness to all kinds of things. I saw a mom driving a happy kid. The kid was having an icecream in the car.

A good poetry book site

Alberto Alvaro Rios

In A man then suddenly stops moving, is not afraid to make a leap right in the first para, from a literal act of chewing a fruit to a long term act of mulling.

In A small motor, why does the poet say that there is an animal in him and that animal has hunger, why does he distance the desire by two levels? Also in the previous line it is a mechanical motor and then it becomes animalistic and then human.

Every pencil is filled with a book

- Alberto Alvaro Rios

Every brush is filled with a scene
Every sword/gun a blood bank
injection a florentine of wellness

Indiana review

Larissa Szporluk
William Dickey
Albert Goldbarth
Sharon Cumberland
Joshua Mckinney
Diane Seuss Bakerman
Peter Cooley
Angela Shaw
Malinda Markham
Matthew Lippman
John Surowiecki
Julia Kasdorf
David Rivard
Devolution of the nude

Indiana Review


A necklace of shells coiled her throat in Lynda Hull's poem

Corey Marks Interview

Belle Waring and a joint blog

On Fever, Mood and crows on pg 43 of Dark Blonde. In Crow Planet, crows have lifted another writer from depression.

Rebecca Seiferle

Alberto Alvaro Rios on poets.org, on ASU. In 'What abides' poem he draws on the 'walk' and extends it pliantly. In 'Aunt Matilde's story of the big Day', he starts writing about a remmebered day trying to be remembered on a day when nothing else is to be remembered and then extends it to years. In 'My Chili', Chili is so many things at once. Reading his poetry can give you many ideas on how to write.
An incomplete life

A person who knows her work to be done. But what if the available time does not let her finish the job along with others that need to be done.

A way to balance will and responsibility.

Utility & futility

When we think about a thing, if we were to write of it, we first think what it does.

A good ad

At the mail box, was a sheet with things on sale, probably by a person moving. It was in a row column format of pictures of inline roller skates, gas cooker, blinds, printer, vacuum cleaner and others, mentioning their condition and price. When I went in the evening, I think it wasn’t there.

Former poet

While reading Indiana Review Volume 18, Number 1 (Spirituality & American writing), I came across Neal Bower’s ‘Faith at the turn of the century’. I didn’t get the poem but was interested in reading other poems of his. A look at his profile revealed that he calls himself a former poet.
Neal Bowers
what happens to a former poet when he next sees his muse again?

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Boxed letters

1. Write a poem from the words in a crossword

2. Write a poem from the letters on a scrabble board

3. Write clues for words in a crossword or a scrabble game

Joy of poetry in everyday life

Most of Jane Shore's poems in That said appeal with their non-jarring shock value of their novelty in terms of subject matter.
Her three line stanza, short line poems almost never work.
In `The Russian doll' title lent to cover photo poem, we see amorphous thoughts put into words snug just like doll inside a doll.
In `Tender acre', by using the word `bargello' for the patterns on a snake, she is the poet whose eternal task is to get the right word for a thing.
There are vague references to fairy tales and folk tales in some of her poems.But fairy tales make a direct reference in a poem where the poet plays out all the stories with her daughter. I like the series of poems in which she writes about her daughter. Especially in `the sound of sense', recognizing her daughter's learning to read as the sounding of various meter elements again shows her poet eye/ear.
From here on, the poems star her family members. Within the everydayness of the poems are experiences which the readers can relate to in different stages of life. Sometimes the endings - like one of her toy going mute while she grows up finding her voice - offer boomerang twists to the poem.
There are many things a beginner poet can learn from these poems. Her expression of a feeling in an anti-feeling holds the tension of the conflict on the page. In 'sh-t soup' poem the metaphors are not just limited to linking two words but the whole poem - recipe of a dish to that of a life.
when she writes 'A voice called out "This is your room.This is your bed"' in 'dream city' poem, I feel pushed to find out the voice of every inanimate thing, not an inanimate voice but lively with inflection.
In one of the poems she describes fortune cookies as lips with the white paper as a tongue. This reminded of the 'oracle'. Such coincidental extensions leave the readers with possibilities of extending every metaphor they meet.
The Manual of painting and calligraphy

Jose Saramago's interview

I chose something else over Lower River. This TNY excerpt should give me an idea if I did right.
Interesting book site and another

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Writing discipline

Adair Lara writes that David Lehman wrote a poem a day and Khaled Hosseini of 'The Kite Runner' wrote everyday at 5 in the morning while finding time to be a physician.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Simpler than OJ

Unbinding the heart

In the book, the author explains the difference between a maze and a labyrinth. Her life and her search for self and meaning traces the path of a labyrinth with the center being her home. If you are the kind of reader who likes stories where the characters meet dead ends and still find the way out of a maze, then this book is not for you. Its not the adversity that fuels the author but the tenets of life passed on to her by her mother.

OR

In the preface of 'Unbinding the Heart', author Agapi Stassinopoulos uses the word 'synchronicity' many times. You begin to wonder about the meaning. Once you are informed of the originator of the term - Carl Jung and its relation with 'meaning', you can see the importance of meaning and its search in the author's life.
The book is written in independent chapters. Thats good as well as bad when some major events are repeated more than thrice (even if just a mention). Write to me if the age at which her parents got seperated doesnt get tattooed in your brain.
I picked the book for 'fearless living' in the description of the book. I want to know what other futures can we dream of if we dont limit ourselves even if that contains a huge monster from mars chasing us.
The book is very simple. There is no huge concept or sequence of things to be done. As I kept reading I wondered if its the same person all through. There's this image you have of the autor for whom things are falling in place even if after a great amount of persistence and then there's the ascetic side of forwarding her spirituality. But it is in this duality that she made her life path happen.
The author's mother has been a big influence on her philosophy of life. With that foundation, she was confident to find her own path. The author's wisdom lies in being a part of her friends experiences and learning from them.
Most books start with why they were written but this book ends with the moment the author found her reason. To share that 'our true home is inside ourselves'.
When spring came, the enormous old weeping cherry outside my dorm bloomed as though it had invented the word. - Frances Mayes, The Discovery of poetry

When writers write about their feelings, some can hook the reader like a magnet.

Jelly greeting and a poem

Happy Birthday jelly in You're

Monday, March 12, 2012

Bird Tree

A bird with
its feathers
as leaves

feeding her
young

on the
stump of a
tree

Ted kooser on metaphor

an interview

Scented pencil box

Reading of Baby Scentsations in parenting magazine, I am reminded of a green pencil box which was scented. I got it as a gift for an essay on United nations.

Poetic exercises

Write a syllabic poem. This is from Ted Kooser's 'The Poetry Home Repair Manual'. ted Kooser writes that Frost's Stopping by woods on a snowy evening is written in a form. In the article Mark Richardson defines 'what a poem describes—its content; what it has in mind—its theme; and how it holds together—its form.'

Another:
Write a paragraph about a poem you have written, to an editor. In the explanation I have found a good ending to an incomplete poem.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Weather

We see 28C on
the thermometer magnet
Dad says its cooler
than that
Maybe its not working
We check later
Its 15C

Its working

Its funny that its
on the refrigerator
whose insides are lot lower
than the room temperature
that the magnet shows.

Exercise: Write a poem on any instrument that fascinated you as a child - stethescope, weighing machine, compass, windvane, any others? On your coveted posession.

Tot poetry on the rise

poetry for kids
More

A dream visit to the pediatrecian



There are a few
experiments on the wall
written here and there

There are many people
around like its a
fast food joint
-hard to find all the
to -dos

You jot down the baby's
reactions from each of
the exercises

when its your turn
the doctor interprets
the results

Why is it so
complicated?

**********************

Must have been the result of a disney theme memory book uptil five year age for the baby, which had a column for baby's reaction to each of the vaccinations.

Android voice

In jane shore's Dream City poem on pg 45,

A voice called out "This is your room.This is your bed"

Frances Mayes in 'the Discovery of Poetry' says that she tacked Loveliest of trees poem on a cherry tree. people stopped by and read it. Imagine such a tag on everything you see. Write your lines on it. When you revisit, feel free to revise and update it.

Exercise: Write from a thing's point of view not in their inanimate sense but in a way that reflects them through their voice.

Metaphor at poem level

Jane shore's Shit soup poem.

She begins with a recipe but extends the poem to other events in life.
The pot gets extended to the grave ditch. The food to one's lived life.

In pg 84 with the example of 'The Envoy' poem, Ted kooser calls such a thing as 'lifting the eyes' in words of Chinese poets.

Detoured from the poem

Jane Shore in 'Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium' poem describing the ongoings at the place, writes of
'.. a grumpy
French-Candian family with three wired kids
detoured from the Cabot Creamery,
...'


I would have thought that kids love to go zoos and planetariums but the expression that they have been detoured from a place they like lets another poem going on not only of what one likes or does but of another of what one doesnt like or doesnt.

Exercise: Write a poem where you did something but in terms of what you didnt.

Friday, March 9, 2012

New shoes

In Jane shore's 'My mother's space shoes' poem there is a Xray fitter.

When we were kids
and my dad
on his way to office
put a paper on
the floor
'Put your foot on it'
He then outlined the
foot with a pen

It all meant
only one thing

Imagine

Yesterday while watching TV, I came across a snapshot of Statue of Liberty, and thought how would Buddha's hand look on her head.
I liked these lines of Ted Kooser. In that same page he writes 'If the light that falls upon what lies beyond is very bright, you see the scene in vivd colors and there is only the faintest hint of your reflection in the glass. if the light beyond the window is faint, as at dusk, the speaker's reflection in the glass is much more prominent. The speaker notices both his or her reflection and the scene beyond.'

Recently:
The dark shadow of my head on kitchen window is hollow in the middle with the leaves and stems of the bush outside. Feel like invisible man.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Extending the metaphor

In Happy family poem, Jane shore writes
Between the sealed lips of each fortune cookie,
a white scrap of tongue poked out


Its through oracles that the future is spoken.

In pg 62 with Jane Kenyon's 'In the Nursing home' Ted Kooser explains extended simile.

What was the first metaphor?


Exercise: Extend each metaphor that you meet.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Novelty of an old book

I'm rereading this book I like. some of the excerpts in the book are something I can relate to now. What Boonie calls leg trap is what I call being snowed in.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Kim Addonizio's line in 'Ordinary Genius'

Life is a constant, unending construction and destruction ...





Cigarettes
Gin
Thom Gunn - The Butcher's son
Elizabeth Bishop - First Death in Nova Scotia
People of the future
Look to the future
Animals are passing from our lives
Common Dreams
Counter punch
The nation
CrooksandLiars

Better second half

When I picked Jamie Oliver: Turning up the heat, I didnt know anything about Jamie Oliver. That part would have been satisfied by reading the first half of the book on Jamie's rise as a great chef with successful TV shows. That could have easily been 'all the story' and then we go home.

But what follows next is 'Oliver's twist'(taking on the already punned) and this is where it gets more interesting. Jamie's bringing about awareness amongst the general public regarding good food change needed in schools by his 'feed me better' campaign, his 'fifteen foundation' for providing resources to talented youngsters are all great things to know.

'He represents the power of the individual, even in a global age when everything is dominted by mega corporations'- Gill Hudson.

'Its a Fame kind of movie,the coach who comes and whips the no-hope baseball team into shape, and changes more than the kids- thats what attracted me to the story.'- Michael Kuhn.

The message and the story are all in the story, only it could have been better told. With too many people quoted in the first half, it was difficult to maintain clarity.I feel that the story would have more life, if it was an autobiography.

3/5. 5.29.2009

Friday, March 2, 2012

A baby

can wheedle
milk
out of grandma's green bangles
out of mama's shin in black tracks

Dreaming proof

In a dream
you are two days ahead
A snack from home is
at the foot of the bed
Eating it I believe
you are home
My parents are changing
the furniture
bringing the bed
to living room
the kitchen is
now where the porch was

I think its a dream
I wake up to find you there
My brothers there too
still a kid
I ask him why he is so
says hes always been so
He came along with his BIL
and 40 other kids on an
express trip here

There are relatives
carrying food for them
I believe you are here
ignoring me

I want to walk away too
but cant too far

with the baby
getting hinged between
the bed her aunt is on
and the wall

with the baby
on a high swing
(who put her there?)
falling down
before I pull a chair
to get her down
she falls onto her
blanket

I wake up
You are still not here

Danger

I hold the baby down
to diaper
A black menacing cat
another mottled one
ready to pounce on
the baby
A dog too around
Strangely even in
their usual size
I seemed to hold
the baby
at their level

For a while
I mistook an older
baby for mine
leaving mine uncared
for and mangled

********
A baby book says consider the undiapered baby armed and dangerous

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Summer game

The game of Jackstraws by Jane Shore.
This game is similar to pick up sticks game which we played in summer holidays. Our landlord's grandson who was a summer bird, an ace at carrom board had this game with him.

Shofar

At first
Reuse

Somewhere
down
the
line
Tuskers are chased
Antlers are staged

Expectations

we dont know them
until unmet

of a person with
broken throat
to not rest
and scream his love

A long shoe string



My mom asks if it is mine
I say its too long to be a
shoestring

She takes it to her room
to see if it goes into
any of her clothes

Nope

It lies in the laundry
basket
waiting to be claimed

Can you create something
out of nothing?

With laundry I have only
seen things lost
except for the one time
I saw money fall out of the
washer

To get there its lost somewhere
which I happily never find out

Like when I put on an oxygen mask
somewhere I'm off of CO2 mask

It figures
it always does
its drawstring of my track pants

the ones I'm using as a
lean against the cold wall

Writing

The Russian doll by Jane Shore. I wonder if it is after a specific poem by Elder Olson.

The Russian dolls that I know are standalone. Inflated. Much like dibble toys. The biggest is as much as a kid. The dolls were stood outside the general store. So much of the internal conversation of Jane shore's poem is missed in these dolls still they could still hold onto whatever conversations they can carry looking at each other all the time.

I used to think that if you had too much time then you wouldnt have too many things to write. Now I see that as you write, associations lead you to so much more, that mere writing down what you want to write about might not capture all of it. Those amorphous thoughts which jane shore put into words very well in her poem.

phone poetry

Poets and writers and many other magazines have epistolary poems and postcard poems as prompts for writing poetry.

All the right things to say

Congratulations
On your motherhood
You must be waiting for your husband
She must be missing her father

In phone poetry, who do the words belong to? The one who said it or the one who they are meant for. Now I get what all those writers mean by once your work is out there in the world, its no longer yours anymore.
I think we can read all poems as a one side phone conversation and write up replies to complete it. Much like a response to the poem that another Poets & writer exercise calls for but in the same medium. Like a response to each line instead of the whole poem at once.
For our digital times, text poetry and twitter poetry are welcome. Twitter poetry seems like the 'Roger .. Over' kinds.