In Bartholomew and the Oobleck, 'Having never made Oobleck before, the magicians do not know what Oobleck does or even what Oobleck looks like.'

Such was the case when I made 'Spiced honey Biscuits' from A feast of Ice and Fire. havng never made biscuits, I did not know how it should look when done. The cookies in the picture make me wonder if I should have added more honey. I overbaked them when I found them gooey. It was fun mixing the cold butter into the flour. I didnt believe that it needs 1 tbsp baking powder. 

The Sneetches story reminded me of Dunya Mikhail's poem.

The tail of a mouse

Cast Iron Mouse Decorative Door Stop | Door Wedge | Unique, Antique Design (Rustic Blue)

Li Young Lee writes that 'The real subject (of poetry) is silence. Looking him up I found The Childrens Hour. HWL says there is such a thing as The Childrens hour and refers to Bishop of Bingen and Mouse Tower. The Bishop is claimed to have said 'Hear the mice squeak' referring to the cries of the hungry he locked in the barn and set fire to'.
In Baby mouse series mentioned in

Baby mouse asks her brother 'want to play squeak?'

The world will have its full harvest of poems - Jane Hirshfield.

Oryoki - Zen and Jane
Zen is not about belief. It’s more about what happens when belief is unfastened - Jane Hirshfield

Doubt and seeking - Rachel Corrie, Layla Al Attar.

Jean Valentine and silence. She quotes Emily Dickinson's The difference between despair
While Li young lee with his attachment to silence quotes EDs they worship an eclipse.
Burning bush

A writing as well as thought exercise - Filling in the gaps in myths.
If you have thought a flower could have more metaphors, try this an up-ended skirt.

In Alicia Ostriker's essay 'god the Mother' the last lines are a saying in Talmud: "It is not incumbent on you to finish the task. neither are you free to give it up". I am reminded of quote on karma from bhagavad gita.

With poetry, I feel I am in love. With prose, I feel I am in a marriage - Dunya Mikhail
So I discover poetry is am amoeba

When I wrote the blessing, I began, as any memoirist must, to move from anecdote to an unfolding narrative in time. - Gregory Orr in 'The Given' essay.

Open your mouth. ha ha ha
Food and packaging

All things metaphor

Have you seen Fountain Hills, fountain? A friend's dad compared the canvas of the foam caused by the fountain, wind to a boat. Its the sail that triggered this comparision. Do you look at our impulse to run and compare what we see with what we already know.
Treasure trove of metaphor articles
Recently I meant to read an article about metaphor and poetry. Have to find that.
In December an essay on Modern poetry is due.

Walking the amazon

Writing

Roll a boulder up a hill everyday
First of all, being creative is not summoning stuff ex nihilo. It's work, plain and simple -- adding something to some other thing or transforming something.

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

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.

Staying poet in the busy world

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

A 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

poetry comics

Bianca stone. Joe Brainard has a hand in poetry comics too.

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.

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.

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."

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?

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

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 Leonard, a symbol means itself and must be understood for itself.

Parataxis, makes me realise my poetry aesthetic.

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?

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.

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.

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.

How Ganesha wrote the epic

Authors site

In high school, our Telugu teacher regaled us with stories of Mahabharata. The stories are rife with references to others. when I read on the book cover that 'Ganesha wrote Mahabharata' I made up mind to write to the author that it is wrong. what did I know? Just one story about how Ganesha was scoffed at by the moon, when his belly was overflowing with sweets. I didnt know that Ganesha wrote down the story while Vyasa dictated it.
Now what did he write the story with? What story that made sweet lover Ganesha forget about sweets?
The illustrations are novel. Simplification of line with geometrical patterns. Repetition of the patterns.
Kids can easily be inspired to make their own creations of characters they like.
Modern techniques are used to solve problems of a different age.
Why would Ganesha need a stapler? To know more, read this amalgam of myth turning mod.

To resuscitate or not

Reading an excerpt of Fragile beginnings, I learnt something of umbilical arteries that arent normally used are needed for monitoring premature babies. The ending of the excerpt has antonyms coexisting.

The article itself has some history on how the research on saving premature babies evolved. All those mothers who cant wait for their baby to emerge, be patient.

Fast forward to the time where I have my hands on the book.

The author provides us with the background of a research scientist who found his passion for helping babies. A brother of a suffering patient is motivated to find the cure for his sibling. Showing these personal connections as the need to push the curing science forward, the author explains the technical aspects of Cerebral hemorrhage. Being an ob intern himself at the time of premature birth of his third baby, he delves more into the literature and asks for his rights to take his baby home. Talking of rights, there is a clear history of Baby Doe Law which was tightened and then released a bit. The courts insistence on life despite not-on-par future normal life. 

The author refers to many studies about life going forward for those suffering with ICH. To resuscitate or not seems to be hanging in the balance in a Neonatal intensive care unit. As if the inherent odds is not enough, studies use lottery analogy to understand the choices of parents.
Neuroplasticity and brain plasticity studies.
With Constraint induced movement therapy, the author's daughter ends up learning to use her right hand whose movement was restricted due to the ICH in her brain. The premature baby goes beyond her diagnosis and bikes.
CIMT was introduced by Dr. Taub, who worked at University of Alabama, Birmingham. All the experts in medicine are all in the backyard of the author converging the research experiments and the improvements with their applications into a closer area.

Guess how much I love you story in Fragile Beginnings.

At the border of real and unreal

Eduardo Corral interview

This is the kind of cover that can be used in therapy for those who hate snakes.
Junot Diaz calls this the book that made him cry.
The book cover says 'seamlessly braiding English and Spanish' writing, but that is so for someone who knows both languages. But for someone who doesnt know Spanish, it is like broken maze.
"Kahlo glaring at a self portait
as if her gaze were responsible for holding it to the wall."
The writing has power to stick with you. There's just enough surrealism to not scare the reader away.
Websters Spanish-English dictionary wont tell me what pachangas means.

But, what they found, it turned out, meant more to them than what they had come to find

- Robert kanigel

To know the story in life, first you have to write it.

On regional news, I learnt that lanka means an island. hence Sri Lanka. The news was about the difficulties faced in islands of Andhra Pradesh when they get flooded and isolated from the rest of the state. This spurred my interest in this ' On an Irish island'.

I wonder how courgettoli will fly with eaters, but the science of it at molecular level is interesting to learn. The author turns these molecular, impersonal interactions into our everyday terms so we understand who is the mediator in mayonnaise connecting the water and oil. 

Syneresis

Thixotropy

Story of Charles Dickens as writer

A while ago, Portico library asked for works related to Charles Dickens. Then I saw a book of letters by Dickens. Archive wise, they are a great treasure. But before you have the key, the context, you cant invest yourself in it. The prologue of 'Becoming Dickens' is engaging. 

How to rev your writing?

Let the words find you

Annie Lopez's work was exhibited as part of  Family Matters exhibition at Tempe Center of Arts Gallery. She conducted a writing workshop too.


Art Workshop: What's Your Story?
GalleryNoon-4 p.m., Aug. 25
Exhibiting artist Annie Lopez will lead a workshop about art making and writing. Visitors of all ages can bring their own copies of family photographs or use miscellaneous photocopies provided by the artist. First, participants will write short stories, poems or statements about the images and then color and decorate the work to tell a family story. Free

I was apprehensive about the story part. Still I went. Few years ago I had gone for a painter's workshop where the artist made the portrait of a live model's face. 
When I walked in, a granddaughter - granddaughter pair was working on their story. The artist had a couple of pre-made tiny journals tied with colourful strings. She had some family photographs scanned onto white sheets with sample stories on them. That was on her table.
On the participants table were many paper cuttings of texts and pictures.
I took a couple of family pictures with me. One was with my family marking the time when the whole family started to live under one roof. Another was at my cousin's ceremony similar to Quinceanera. I was set to write about how my cousin's father picked us from the hostel to join the ceremony. From the paper clippings a blue butterfly caught my eye. And there I had the concept of morphing into an adult. I kept turning the tiny pieces of paper to find the text underneath. That aimless text guided my story to what I had not planned to reveal. I see the power of words lying on the table like this for braiding the story. Fixed words of Magnetic poetry might not yield good poetry if you stick to using just those words but with a budding story in mind it can add fuel to the fire.
Keep cutting those words out of the paper into your story.

Laugh now

Author: Suzanne Weber

Wow. A kid who chalks off nipple confusion to preformed preferences. The baby cant count but sure can talk you out of all the parenting rules. couple of revenge poems from babies.
When the baby has the say, the poem doesnt have to start with the title. It can be in the middle of the poem.
When the gig gets old, the later poems lose their poetic appeal.

Ailurophobe

eyas

A word a line

Author: Maureen N Mclane

An interview

Hecuba

When sentences are moved word by word onto the next line, the space adds weight to each word. When the word is connected to the next then it is encountering a subset and a superset world without going through big hoops.

In Its not that, 'favelas blasted'. favelas moved for world cup and olympics.

Poetry is like tinted glasses

The being pain is being is you

In A good father, 'bile going to the brain' made me wonder if its a possibility or a poetic leap. This is how.

In 'Mr pain speaks for himself', the metaphor of pain as pervading as a loyal mom and the image/simile of the pained running away 'like a watermelon on stilts' make you forget that it is pain that we are talking of.
Winter Drought and its balladic origins

Michael Ryan's other collection

One word. Language.

Author: Lucia Perillo
nytimes eview

A series of poems on Eve, apple and ribs. 

On the destruction of the mir - This poems reminds me of an article in NatGeo - Hiking 5 ecosystems in  a day.

Reading of gray gum in Nathan's reminded me of Subgum that I read in Oriental Jade menu.
Life pinned me on its thorn and 'let the dirty dishes click like castanets!'