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HIATUS.

I’ll be back when I am.

In the video below, Edward Hirsch–poet and President of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation–speaks on the affect of poetry MFA programs and gives advice to young poets:

See previous Figuratively posts in this series: [1] [2]

This week, I:

• sent out my resumés–one stylized, one ‘normal’–to family, etc.
• contacted one past poetry professor.  [1 of 2] (Waiting on response.)
• got one rejection.  (I now have seven poems still in consideration.)
• wrote two new poems: “Line Stroke Like Fermata” and “What to do With the Necks You Break” (I’ll be revising these this week.)
• settled on the title and theme for my chapbook.
• edited/revised/otherwise mulled over the first five poems I’ve selected for the chapbook.
• came up with an idea for a second chapbook that makes use of my old performance poems.
• read all of Anna Journey’s National Poetry Series award-winning poetry collection If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting.
• came up with a new design concept for my site/blog.  I’m drawing it out (literally…on paper) this week and hope to have it up by mid-March.

To read more about the Journey to… concept, click here to visit ThoseGirlsAreWild.com.

…for “wishes for sons” and “homage to my hips,” and most importantly, this:

won’t you celebrate with me

won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.

…for writing about our bodies. for being sassy and honest. for your authenticity.

I thank you.

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)

Here’s the work I’ve been up to this week:

• Submitted two poems to an anthology – 2/10/2010 – now 11 poems in consideration in four places
• Created a stylized version of my writer’s resume – 2/12/2010 – sending it out to family, friends, former colleagues, etc. (2/13-15/2010) – putting it up here (TBD)
• Read a book – The Alchemist – 2/12/2010
• Edited multiple client/patron essays and resumes (all month long)

To read more about the Journey to… concept, click here to visit ThoseGirlsAreWild.com.

The dictionary.com word of the day was so cute-sounding, I decided to use it.

tarradiddle

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n. 1. A petty falsehood; a fib. 2. Pretentious nonsense.

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In a sentence: When trying to explain the situation to her husband, the wife spewed a tarradiddle a minute.

ThoseGirlsAreWild.com is doing a 2010 Journey to… in which they–Shannon and Andrea–alongside those in the TGAW community set major goals and work to accomplish them this year.  Shannon intends to get on the Tyra Show to discuss her book Laid and sex ed, and Andrea is releasing a new CD.  Click here to check out the progress – week 3.

My Journey To goal is to advance in the literary–specifically, poetry–world.  In 2010, I hope to publish in several more lit journals and to publish one or two chapbooks through presses.  I began working toward all this by choosing an overarching theme for the chap (that I’ll disclose at a later date).  Now I’m working on poems specifically for it.  For the chap, I’ll need 15-20 pages worth.  So far, I have five fitting first drafts; I’m revising those.  And I have several in progress.

The first chapbook competition deadline I have marked down is nine days away.  I work well in crunch time, but I want to be thorough with this.  I’ll probably skip out on this particular contest.

As for working toward other publication celebration, I still have nine poems in consideration at three literary journals/presses.  I’m sending out more starting Monday.

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Here are snippets of two poems I’m working on:

Her life had to have surgery
to have the f taken out

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Forming itself in the inked text of my one-night stand’s tattoo on his right bicep. *

* sans actual line breaks

I went that-damn-senior-year-of-high-school-creative-writing-class “old school” for my poetry yesterday; I sought out a prompt to get me writing.  I don’t do this.  It’s just that I’ve been having trouble finding ‘matches‘ lately.  But I desperately needed (always need) to be writing.

The source of choice was ReadWritePoem.  (I’m not a part of the community there, but maybe I’ll join some time soon.)  I selected the most recent prompt which was on transliteration.  This is a writing activity I’d never engaged in but figured I could try since I had no other ideas competing for the page.

The prompt’s concept is to take a poem that is in a language you don’t speak and then do a faux translation of it.  You could also take an English-language poem and drop it into a translator to get you started.

That’s what I did.

I’m currently devouring the National Poetry Series-winning collection, If Birds Gather Your Hair for Nesting, by Anna Journey.  I chose “Letter to the City Bayou by Its Sign: Beware Alligators” and had it translated into French:

Marquer au Bayou de Ville par Son Signe : Prendre garde des Alligators

Faire le maquereau › le s-chapeau ombres dans la paume de date plumeuse. Tout, je pense, à cet illégal

L’heure dans le parc public a une démarche demi-bu. Cher ralentit, l’eau sombre, pourquoi hésiter

[...]

Again, the idea is to choose a language you don’t speak, so I have no idea if that is an accurate translation.

My next step was to read it for sounds.  I created a list of words (and associations) that began with “marker I’ll buy you they will parson signet.”  Then I started to write a poem that was, as it turned out, not at all a “faux translation” of Journey’s poem (because as you can see, that would have been nonsensical) but writing that was based on the sound sense of “Letter to the City Bayou….”

If it weren’t for the prompt, I’d probably still be sitting here today staring at a blank page in Word instead of a first draft that begins like this:

Bittersweet mutant itinerary, how do you intend to divide….

invidious

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adj. 1. Tending to cause animosity or resentment.  2.  Containing or implying a slight: discriminatory.  3.  Obs. Envious

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In a sentence: “The hiring manager’s invidious comment suggested a racial prejudice against the candidate.”

Note: I intended to include pronunciation keys in these WotW posts, but as it turns out Wordpress doesn’t do well with characters and symbols.  (The pronunciation key for this one came up as [?n-v?d??-?s ].)  Working on a different method.