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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Repetition

In both  Sea rose and Sea poppies, HD uses drift, flung and  sea repeat.
In lines and Between walls, William Carlos Williams repeats broken pieces of green glass.

In an interview Kay Rya talks about repetition.

In Rose Pogonias, Frost talks of the colored flowers as 'wings of color' and HD calls her sea poppy a 'flame on leaf'.

In ModPo course the Sea rose and Sea poppies were seen as templates of modern imagist poetry. But as Tim Kendall says it could be just about their favourite flowrs.





The book makes me think that this is the first I am reading on Frost, which it is not.

Polysyndeton

Reading

The secret lives of Bookmarks. Yes, where are they hiding? I know one is stuck in the office cubicle between the barrier and table. Difficult to retrieve. When you are a reader, bookmarks are a gift you are sure to get. Their whereabouts after that? A GPS on it could help.
Reading and eating

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Wars and Armours

A modern uncle made his
nephew dress as terrorist
Admiral Yi dressed his
nephew in his own armour
to see through to victory


How long does it take to forget a word?

Atmost 15 years of disuse.

I forgot the mole from chemistry class. The first mole we learn is of the identification marks to be filled in the application forms for any school. Then you meet the word in the chemistry class. Then in the culinary world. Then in the 24 TV show.

What is magic?

Magic carpet
Abracadabra
Something that performs something unobviously.

Friday, September 28, 2012

A super poem
that goes against
the grain

part of which
eludes the
reader its meant
for




The four states of matter

The reflection of a metal trellis and citrus leaves
from the lights of tennis courts onto the path
like a metallic shiny paper, starburst.

parents skate baby in stroller
man walks guitar upside down

Broken glass
Empty parking

Zangbeto*



Title and * from A world of curiosities



Blood on the wheel - A poem that stops you in your tracks

A dissolvable poem

dissolvable poem
like an absorbable
s
  t
    i
      t
       c
        h
that joins the tear
and breaks down
after the mission
is accomplished

that mixes in the water and froths up
b
        u
   b
               b
                       l
e
         s


that poolslikeoil

that soften downs
the colour of the sand

that buzzes like a
mosquito

Can this poem self destruct?



Full circle poetry

Bolivia has the most Bowler hats - A World of Curiosities, John Oldale

While bakers have their Morning glory muffins
Australians have their Morning Glory clouds
Emily D infers Autumn from Millinery of the clouds
We are a sad people without hats
We are sadder without clouds

What should the American Writers Museum include?

What should the American Writers Museum include?

How the writer got started.
first rejection letter
first publication
The books they liked to read
favorite places to write
Their ardent readers
Their unfinished titles

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Writing your own journal while reading another




Life experiences in third person distance the reader from the author. But it also facilitates the imagination of the reader to direct inward and think of his/her own experiences. Pedantic way of listing all the addresses he's ever stayed at makes the reader recall their addresses and incidents there of. Somehow you get the sense of cherishment of the nostalgic self, while if I were in the author's place, I would send away chunks of me that dont fit in little boats. Which brings us to the question of the person we want to be in selection and/or entirety.

ModPo class essay

I taste a liquor never brewed


A liquor never brewed’ refers to the instantaneous, nectar made by flowers which is not fermented or boiled. It is present naturally. This liquor is better than what is available by the Rhine.
‘Inebriate of Air’ – drawn to the fragrance of the flowers
‘Debauchee of Dew’ -  addicted to dew formed on the flowers overnight
Endless summer days – length of the day, and continuous ritual
When landlords – The caretakers, mothers?
When butterflies renounce drams – does this refer to the time the butterflies stop drinking – night.
Foxglove’s door – wiki says that there is a myth that fairies live in foxgloves. So when Dickinson next talks of till ‘Seraphs swing their snowy hats’, is this vision a result of hallucination caused by foxgloves. Could it also refer to the passage of time from summer to snow.
To see the little tippler lean against the sun – drink until morning.

The poem has the traditional bee: flower :: man: woman metaphor going on but while listening to Al about sonnet’s main use of proclaiming love and dead metaphor of love, even though it is against the grain of modernism to employ the silly bee, flower symbols, I believe the ‘alcohol’ refers to love. Love is potent in that once you taste it, you are addicted to it like the victims of ‘La Belle dame sans Merci’. No body or no time is going to restrain the narrator’s being in love which she expects to exalt her. She will continue to love day in and day out.

Like in the ‘I dwell in the house of Possibility’, the metaphor of lover seeking love/nectar in the form of bees, butterflies is repetitive if they are to mean the same. The narrator must be referring to some difference in the nature of bees and butterflies.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

poetry today

There's always a debate about what can be subject matter of poetry. When its simple things like Humidifier, beauty emerges. In India, mom opens the nasal passages of baby with Vicks VapoRub and warm touch.

Why the clouds make you stop and look? Its the biggest painting one can see.


Monday, September 17, 2012




There is only one way to read this book. Slow and steady.
The author is a child from the 70s.
"She(mom) told us that our gifts helped us to understand our purpose."

Sunday, September 16, 2012





The narrator of each poem is different.
places where God hasnt been.

Stories evolving from stories



In bones contest, pop and fly happened to be words to be used in the writing. In this book, I came across 'pop fly'. A baseball fan could make sense of it. A day or two ago, I watched kids play baseball at a local park. There were atleast 4 games going on in different fields.

When Nicholas found a folded letter addressed to his dad, he opened the letter and read it. Sailing, making a movie didn't fit with a dad who went to Africa as a doctor to help people. There must be another man with the same name as his father.
That's the logical conclusion he reaches. Later he comes upon the movie his father made. The Seaweed strangler. Was that for real?
Once he finds a friend in the town where his summer is to be spent in a house without a TV, the lake, its secrets send them in questions spirals. As they search and find things, there's more ground to be covered.
Like the crime investigation shows, theres replay of incidents from 2 decades ago. Something happened many summers ago, here where his father spent his summer with Uncle Nick. His father has been pointed as the miscreant. Nicholas has to clear his father's name.
All this while learning how to bike, sailing and finishing up what his dad left incomplete - a boat and a movie.
The end is a well thought litany of surprises for Nicholas's father. the second half gets very creative with the main crew acting their own version of the mini legend.
The twin sisters and their Broadway antics, British accents add much wanted comic relief to the suspense of finding out what happened so long ago.
The book seemed slightly long if targeted at preteens. The sailing jargon pulls the reader into the world of sailing.

A teenage life




The narrator calls a lady as stick insect. Today at Safeway I found a stick insect in their bug collection. The book reminded me a lot about 'The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime'. Especially the train.
Winalot.
Adrian seemed to complain a lot.
The dentures on the cover are that of an elderly person that Adrian takes care of. The book is certainly funny. For all the things that happen, he has an active life. He might not concede so.
Sometimes he shows his ignorance (confusing philanthrophy with philately) and innocence (making sense of what adults talk to each other)
I wonder what frog writer means?

Wednesday, September 12, 2012



Author: Joy Harjo

Her caricature on her website is reminiscent of Oscar Wilde's Salome.
In Why we read memoirs by musicians, the writer says its for the the devil that shows up at the beginning and sticks around.
The author's mother did Jitterbug with her as a child.
A little girl played with bees as characters in her stories until a neighbour stopped her by saying "You'll be stung!"

"I believe that if you do not answer the noise and urgency of your gifts, they will turn on you. Or drag you down with their immense sadness at being abandoned." - Joy Harjo

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

A poetry course

I am taking Modern poetry course offered by Coursera.
In Emily Dickinson's poem I dwell in possibility, when my head prompted the answer to 'a house fairer than prose' it was like a love connection with poetry. Another poet started his poem with I dwell ...
In her Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant poem, I actually wrote down the poem and tried to analyse the poem as the instructor did, word by word. I then got the part about parents explaining about the lightning with facts. I wouldnt have if I didnt know that in US parents use the 1001, 1002.. count to arm the child with science and dispel their fear.
9 contemporary poets read themselves through modernism.

When I told my friend, I am taking this course and reading ED. He asked me if it has symbolism. I didnt know the answer. Much less about anti-symbolism writing. That Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is against symbolism. Contrastingly, for criticJohn Leonarda symbol means itself and must be understood for itself.

Parataxis, makes me realise my poetry aesthetic.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Modern sleuth for ancient history



Author: Deron R Hicks


In the beginning come Monks and cathedrals and then kids pushing ipod buds into their ears. If you are relieved with this transition, you will also like the dapper way in which a tween saves her family business. That is not the only feather in her cap. She's almost certain to delve further into the deep mystery of the family treasure.
The book being a mystery about Shakespeare, even the character's name 'Colophon' is from a term in the publishing industry. Colophon is a brave girl with a desire to help her father save the family business. She suspects foul play. Her adventure as well as mystery solving spans continents. She ropes in her brother too to keep an eye on her father to save him from mischief from the `villains' in the family. Family is the cornerstone idea in the book. Sustaining the family business over centuries as a matter of pride rather than obligation.
Following the trail of clues in the family portrait with Internet search for finding clues, the characters search for clues in centuries old past.
The author explains terms like nave, transept, chancel.With interesting inclusions like that of tellurion, children will be pushed to use a dictionary, encyclopedia or a web search to be with the times.

Older than a what

One morning, Billy Collins found himself older than Cheerios.
The cheerios that I don't like for their texture, while in any other experience, I would appreciate texture.
The cheerios which will serve well as finger food for my daughter but that will leave the remains of the day grainy.
What would hate to be older than and love to be older than?

Sunday, September 9, 2012

When things don't work its not all broken

It is a writer's heaven to have access to sites other than Google. But to reach that fine conclusion, you have to go through the hump of frustration. I am reading Portable MFA Creative Writing. In the 'Personal essay' section, there are references to many essays, alas I cannot get to them. Wit the constraining of Google, at least I will go ahead with the book for which I am $1.50 overdue. Usually my library is good at fore-warnings, but I wonder why it didn't tell me this time that it is due on Sept 2?

Science behind the beauty

In elementary school we had a question about the difference between a Creeper and a Climber. It wasnt apparent then but now just from the words, I feel it must be the directions they take. I am about to learn the science behind the Tendril.

The form of a tendril
an organic spring, twirlie
curls
DNA helix and the scientists
also call it coils
always seen fully formed
How long does it take?

Unwinding the cucumber tendril mystery

As kids we are awed by beauty. After growing up, finding the science behind is the beauty of it.

Exercise : Pick words in the dictionary to find all things beautiful and find their history and science and see if there is a poem in it.

A soft boiled egg can hold finger prints on it.



Saturday, September 8, 2012

You go to court even if its your dog who ate your homeowrk



Author: Dan Zevin

Sometimes funny books dont translate to good stories to be retold. But this author is subjected to a case of canine impulse that brings him in touch with court and other victims snapped by the jaws of law for a moments lapse of law abidingness without breaking it.
A collection of essays.


Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Fashion on the Animal street



Author: Ponder Goembel


I havent heard of this famous 'Animal fair'. So I was curious to know the tale. This book has the traditional folk song and some more. The original song has 8 lines. This adaptation has many more with interesting characters like balloon pumping seals, kangaroos rattling spoons, toucans play the audience while chimps trapeze. If these are the main characters, there are the silent raccoon ballerina and the monk who is seen but not heard.
The illustrations are neat, no overcrowding. You can use the pictures to count animals of a kind. The girl, boy animals are amusing. The kids can easily make stories of their own inspired by the acessories on the animals.
The animals come with stylish hats. The climax involves a Tusker.
An Easter treat for those who find the eager bunnies.