my uncle, published author

i'm not the only writer in my family.

my uncle dicky (otherwise known as author richard chaffer) has written several books over the past 15 years. last year, he met a publisher at a local book festival who was really interested in his work. since then, he's been working with them, and they've decided to publish not one...but three of his books!

his fiction focuses on a subject close to him that most people aren't brave enough to talk about -- schizophrenia. his first book, walkabout, runabout, is an honest account of his experience living with the disorder.

more than 24 million people in the world have schizophrenia. so, it's likely you know someone who has it, too. if you'd like to know what your friend or family member is going through, then walkabout, runabout might really help. it's now available on amazon.com.

needless to say, i'm really proud of him for his tenacity through this whole process. though i worked for years in the publishing industry (and am sort of a book geek besides), i've learned a lot from talking to him about the publishing process and seeing him work through revision after revision with his editor.

congratulations, uncle dicky!

there is room for you

there is room for you
filled now with sun's rays and sighs,
no doors to stop them.

our lives are big, our things are small,
there is room for you.
we sit only in small chairs, eat from small plates --

we're hungry, but waiting chokes the air.
it is big but you would be small.
you would fit, there is room for you.

our home is small,
even your small body
would roll quickly across it

through the open space.
you would be the biggest thing here,
except our smiles.

there is room for you,
and a life that fits
whoever you are, and will be.

about this poem:
ray and i are trying to become parents, and having setbacks. today is the day of a big test, so just a little poem of love and positivity. enjoy, and thanks for all of your good wishes!

the 21st century poet

i spend a lot of time reading poetry books, and almost the same amount of time researching online, trying to learn about the poetry world. i feel like i have a lot of catching up to do!

the world is changing, and poetry right along there with it.

*the growing trend in writing twitter poems. take a peek at the poems submitted by four famous poets in honor of world poetry day. i think it's pretty great that poets made up a new form (one of many!) to mirror the latest way to communicate. it's the new haiku, i guess?

*a student at bryn mawr wrote her student thesis about poet marianne moore (who graduated from the college in the early 1900s). the interesting thing her project is available online, and it shows the original poem next to the student's interpretation, plus other relevant historical info about the poem. it's so super nerdy, but i love that the academic world is sharing with the rest of us.

look for some new poetry in next monday's post. 

be well,

b*

do a little dance. it's world poetry day

hello there, 

if it's been a better monday than usual, then it must be because it's world poetry day!

according to the UNESCO site, world poetry day's "main objective is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities...to support poetry, return to the oral tradition of poetry recitals, promote teaching poetry, restore a dialogue between poetry and the other arts.. support small publishers and create an attractive image of poetry in the media so that the art of poetry will no longer be considered an outdated form of art but one." 

OK. so if you're confused about that last sentence, it is actually incomplete on their website.

yes, even their own copywriter couldn't get past the thought that poetry is an outdated form of art. either that, or they fell asleep while writing.  (oh dearest UNESCO copywriter, i know how you feel. i've been there, i really have.)

enjoy this fine holiday. i know i'm going to...

b*

new poem + a schedule

i've missed you! i've been on the road, and unfortunately out of touch.

i'm so new to blogging, but this already seems to be my pattern. i know no one likes being left hanging, so i'll ask for your forgiveness, and finally set some rules for myself.

look for posts every monday and wednesday from now on. if there's some change to my schedule, i'll be sure to let you know!

i've been working on new pieces. give this one a read, and let me know what you think...

[cavities, potholes]
our self-restraint
wears away the roads,
day's beginning and end
form cavities, potholes.

without work, then what?
if not this way, then how?
axed the inside animal,
made reality felt by remote.

a world wild without impulse,
arranged in its vase every gory pulse,
our vague strains a crime
against ourselves or the world.

what are we?
we may risk knowing by feel
those first seconds in the dark closet,
with so few defenses.

routine is unity, or war for space.
to fit together without violence
in cars, on trains, in lines
on freeways fast to our trance.

about this poem:
only recently, i stopped working a commercial-type writing job and started writing poetry full time. my first few months without routine were really difficult, and i had to work to find a comfortable definition of what a productive day outside the office could be. watching commuters driving home one day, i expanded on the feeling and tried to answer the question, "what does a routine do for us, or how does it fail us?"

clip it

the poet robert hass (a bay area poet and professor at uc berkeley) uses the term "clippings" when referring to his shorter poems. i'm going to lift the term, and hope he finds it flattering :)

i've just started to notice a very casual creative cycle every month.

most of the month i spend my time writing writing writing. if i'm lucky, at the end of every month i find myself with lots of  things to edit, polish and send away to contests and literary journals.

most pieces need more work, and aren't shown to anyone at all. i work on them when i can handle the disappointment of looking at them and working through the kinks. sometimes, the way to fix those kinks in a poem comes out of nowhere, and sometimes it feels calculated (using the thesaurus, referring to other poems).

then there are clippings like these, which i will use as jumping-off points to make a longer poem some day.

without further ado, here are three of february's clippings!
b*

[the enjoyer]
let me know something like joy,
to be anonymously joined,
to be seen by you,
my thoughts like your prize!

about this clipping: my reaction to the comment sections of many websites.
***************************
[the town square]
seniors from school and of life may
take this town yet, the square
it's full of their blue, their neon pink hair.

about this clipping: come to castro valley, and see for yourself.
****************************
[super natural]
ducks bobbing in the full tub of sharp glitter
connect me to the horizon of houses there.

about this clipping: written at the beach in alameda, on the same day i wrote the poem [membrane or mechanism].

typos and tidepools

last week, me and ray turned 36.

we were born 6 days apart so sometimes we celebrate with a little getaway. this year, we went to the tide pools in cambria, near san luis obispo. it's a beautiful area, one i've never really explored, and we enjoyed it pretty completely without accomplishing much more than eating and walking.

one day, we went to lunch and sat down right next to ray's cousin and her husband (and their friends), who are from sonoma county. quelle coincidence!

they were vacationing too, so we walked around downtown SLO together, revisiting a few favorite haunts from their college days, including a wall decorated with gum. so much old, grey gum! it was totally great. we were just in time to see a group of kids and their teachers chew some and add it to the wall as they passed through.

between a wall and a sticky place

every morning we walked around the tidepools near our hotel. one day it was windy and freezing, the next it was warm and summery. here's a poem about the windy day -- just a quick little ditty:

[a wilderness of waves on the long horizon]

a wilderness of waves on the long horizon,
endless agitation stirs endless agitation,
nature's spells spun together
form disorder's worn face --

all lunar perversion,
all wind and coercion,
erosion an echo
digging depths for the wind,

tissue my body at the edge of the world.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

i could not navigate the tidepools gracefully. i was so awkward at it that the snoozing sea lions 20 feet away didn't seem threatened at all by my presence. ray of course was stealth and at one with nature, didn't wake them for obvious reasons. at least i was wearing a big grey coat, so i probably just looked like one of them. i guess, just another way to be at one with nature?

witness the similarity:

me on rocks (vertical) ...

sea lions on rocks (horizontal)

a top 10 list made me question, then answer

one of sfgate's city brights writers, dean radar, has gotten a significant amount of press for his "top 10 poet project," essentially a spin-off of another list by the nytimes.

i'm usually not interested in top 10 lists, but i was impressed by the number of responses radar got by just asking folks to rank their favorite poets. his blog got hundreds of passionate responses, which made me realize that poetry still really matters to people who are not poets.

as a writer returning to poetry, this was a revelation. and made me wonder more:
>where does poetry fit into people's lives today?
>and, what will make poetry more accessible to people?

i've posed these questions in surveys for you, before you answer them, an embarrassing confession: i've never read as much poetry as i do today. and this is even counting my years as an undergrad studying creative writing!

my obstacles to reading more poetry:
> i was turned off by poets that i'd read in school*
> i've found very few enjoyable, interesting, contemporary poetry books at the library or local bookstores
> i've found poetry readings for contemporary poets to be tedious, self-congratulatory or underwhelming
> and, last but not least: reading poetry after a day at work was too intimate and soul-searching -- hard to do when you're living a life you dislike.

it's taken a lot of involvement -- researching, reading, rejecting, more reading -- to really discover poetry that gets me inspired and that can relate to. so i'd like to refer you to a few poets that inspire me, and a sample stanza of a poem. often the poem is not my favorite, but a strong poem, that will give you a sense of their style.

enjoy them.
b*

Brian Teare

Agorophobia: A Reply

from The Room Where I Was Born

Not yet. Frost hasn't hit. Gripping the branches, only
crabapples last, balled infants' fists, toughest parts turned
inward. No not depressed. Just sick inside all week.
Cars slur by; the windows itch in their panes, crawl
the opposite wall. I watch into drift, liquid fever-shift.
Mother, inside me the room busies your hands.

finish reading this poem 

Chase Twitchell

To the Reader: Twilight

Whenever I look
out at the snowy mountains at this hour 

and speak directly into the ear of the sky, 

it's you I'm thinking of.
finish reading this poem

Reetika Vazirani
The Lover
from World Hotel

I took the train from Patiala,

left the girls with Ayah, and lied, 

I'm with Faye and Daisy.
Had to say what he'd approve of. 

Go then, Kiran said, crushing large rupees in my hand.
finish reading this poem

Seamus Heaney
The Door Was Open and the House was Dark
from Human Chain

The door was open and the house was dark
Wherefore I called his name, although I knew
The answer this time would be silence

e.e.cummings
somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond
from 100 Selected Poems

somewhere i have never traveled, gladly 

beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence: 

in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, 

or which i cannot touch because they are too near

finish reading this poem

*obviously with the exception of e.e.cummings, seamus heaney and a few others...