5 for Friday

A Billy Collins trail "5 for Friday" featuring

1 - Word Lovers Unite!

If you are a word lover, you are in the right place. Think of this blog as a virtual bulletin board for words that surprise, inspire, connect, and resonate.

2 - A lesson learned

I am a first year teacher at an "alternative school" for at-risk students in Santa Cruz CA. I am examining and reflecting on my practice and my life around it.

3 - Constant Growing Amazement

Amazed LDS wife, mother to 5, grandmother to a growing herd. Loves life. If it is creative, I love to do it!

4 - The Borrowed Poem

Be patient that I address you in a poem. There is no other fit medium.

5 - MPL's Blog where the top read posts in the last couple of days were:

• More Like "Lame Monster"
• The Biggest and Baddest Bear Ever
• Required Reading Before Seeing Pirates of Caribbean 3
• Big Bad Texas Gator
• 8 Ways Pirates of Carribean steals from Return of the Jedi

Enjoy!

Me~Tronome

Continuing the Billy Collins trail, we find ourselves in the Windy City with Larry Sawyer:

Poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in publications such as the Chicago Tribune, Court Green, Vanitas, MiPOesias, The Prague Literary Review, Coconut, Exquisite Corpse, Ygdrasil, the Miami Sun Post, and Ocho. Poetry was recently anthologized in The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century (Cracked Slab Books, 2007). Larry Sawyer curates the Myopic Poetry Reading Series in Wicker Park, Chicago and edits the online literary magazine www.milkmag.org.

Enjoy!

Weber State - Weekly Poem Project

Not sure what this is other than a good poem published once a week.

Maybe a center point for a class discussion?

What do you think?

Optimistic Voices

Susan, another find along the Billy Collins trail, writes about herself:

I'm a committed-to-aging-well, unable-to-do-anything-in-25 words-or-less, ruby-slipper-wearing eternal optimist, attempting to figure out the circuitous journey I call my life: where I've been, where I am, where I'm going and who will be my traveling companions, continued or new. In my 5+ decades on this planet, I've realized that change is not necessarily worse, just different; I've learned that saying "I don't know" has become incredibly liberating; I've intuited that there is no such thing as perfection (whether it's another person or a seashell); I have become less demanding and more forgiving/flexible by the relaxation of my guidelines; and I've figured out that, even though I'll always be an Instant Gratification Leo, sometimes delaying the reward can heighten the pleasure, too. I am more discerning to minimize the negative influences in my daily dealings (while still understanding the importance of moral obligations), and attempt to surround myself with people, activities and things that bring me joy - I want to make every glorious moment count... and I'm committed to making this world a better place, one day at a time...

Recent posts are listed as

• Am I Too Blue? (Lucinda Williams)
• My Friends (Dar Williams)
• What Do You Love More Than Love (Dar Williams)
• The Last Fare of the Day (Richard Shindell)
• Seasons of Love (from the musical Rent)
• My Way (Paul Anka... sung by Frank Sinatra)
• Nightswimming (R.E.M.)
• If I Only Had a Brain (The Scarecrow)

Consider adding Optimistic Voices to your RSS Reader of choice

The Collective Blog of Stephen and Erin

a double hit today, another on the Thursday 13 meme that happened also happened to be found on the Billy Collins trail.

They have a published schedule:

• SUNDAY - HymnSunday (stephen)
• MONDAY - Favorite Poems (erin)
• TUESDAY - Weekly Poll (stephen/erin)
• WEDNESDAY - What We've Been Hearing/Watching/Reading (stephen/erin)
• THURSDAY - Thursday 13 (erin)
• FRIDAY - Pic o' the Week-o (stephen/erin)

So you can add this site to your RSS Reader and check in on your favorite day!

One Thing I Know

“One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see." - John 9:25b

This blog is what I would call the Compleat One Thing I Know. It contains the contents of my old Wordpress blog "One Thing I Know," as well as the contents of my other blogs "Proclamation," "Word and Table," and "Will's World in Pictures."

Father writes:

I have been an United Methodist pastor for 20 years, am blessed with a beautiful thirteen year old daughter, and try (as best I can) to follow Jesus. More than any other factors, these three things define who I am. This blog contains my thoughts on matters important (or not).

Recent posts:

• The New Terror Threat: Zombies
• Posters, Postcards
• Video of the Week - Part Two: Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
• This Week’s Video - Part One: Star Trek meets Monty Python
• Collapsing Bridges, Repentance, Judgment, and God as the Divine Punisher
• This Week’s Quote: Karl Barth

and one of these indicates how we found this blog on the Billy Collins trail. Stop here and rest a while, plenty to read and think about.

Moondoggy's Pad

Moondoggy's Pad is a

Blog on poetry, literature, pop culture, and life as a Canadian expatriate in the USA

Greg Santos was born in Montreal. His work has appeared in print and online publications. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut and studies in New York.

It was found on the Billy Collins trail and worth a peek or two!

5 for Friday

Friday and time for five in honor of the 5th day of the week.

1 - We'll send you to visit with a new contributor to the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog, April Groves. April is a realtor, mother of four down in Georgia, and writer of two blogs: Making Life Work for You and My Beautiful Chaos.

2 - On the Billy Collins trail, we find Amy King currently teaching and writing in NY. Her blog can be found here. A link to four of her published poems can be found here.

3 - Also on the Billy Collins trail, we find Grub Street's Penny Dreadful blog:

grub street is a non-profit writing center dedicated to nurturing writers and connecting readers with the wealth of writing talent in the Boston area. We have two vital roles. We support writers at every stage of their development by offering writing classes, fellowships, employment, and networking opportunities, and by promoting the work of local authors. Equally important, we enrich the lives of Boston-area residents by introducing them to a community of fellow readers and writers through author-hosted book clubs, informal discussions, movie screenings and more. grub street builds on Boston's proud literary tradition by making the city more welcoming for writers, and more inspiring and culturally alive for all of us.

4 - Continuing the Billy Collins trail, we end up traveling from East coast to West coast to find C Dale Young in San Francisco writing at Avoiding the Muse:

I currently practice medicine full-time, serve as poetry editor of the New England Review, and teach in the Warren Wilson MFA Program . My books of poetry are The Day Underneath the Day (Northwestern 2001) and The Second Person (Four Way Books, Spring 2007).

5 - Finally, going to the southern coast we find Katie Kidder writing at The Poet's Lounge in New Orleans.

A venue for poetry, literature, and all things of entertainment and interest.

Katie wrote a poem about her muse:

Oh, it's so bad
to get stuck with a muse you don't want.
Why couldn't I have been assigned Bobby Frost's muse,
or someone with something like grace?


Mine belches and scratches her ass in the hall.
She has the sickly sweet smell of children
and stale Nilla Wafers, as though she was sprung
from the foam of the sofa.


She grabs at my smokes during the two-point conversion,
and she swims in my wine like a gnat.
I trip over her, by the bed, reading Plath on the floor
at six in the morning when I get up for tea.


My muse is nothing like me.
She waxes perverse in the thighs of thin blondes
when we've a perfectly good blonde at home.
And that bitch burns my old lovers' letters
and makes up her face with the ashes.


Kissing my muse, I imagine,
is like swallowing a mouthful of honey and rust,
and twisting your legs in her legs in the cold comfort of dark
is like spooning, in the sea, on the rag, with a shark.


My muse works with the mercy of bullets, falling.



Enjoy!

WhimseyLand

From August 2004:

I've been following the Best American Poetry series for 7 years. I have a complete set, something that's harder to acquire than you would think. I've also entered all the poets and contributing literary publications in a database, to make some sense of what poems get selected, and by whom, and why. I made a study of the results a couple of years ago, which, in retrospect, was both naive and accurate. I have a different view of BAP nowadays. I still believe that it's a snapshot of America's more interesting/noted/trendy poets, and not the American poetry per se. Having had a large fraction of a decade to digest the series, I'm beginning to come around to the notion that BAP does a good job of circumscribing the Big Tent. If you read five or six in a row, of course, which irons out the idiosyncracies of individual guest editors (e.g., the adored or despised BAP 2002).

I've just begun reading BAP 2004 seriously. Lyn Hejinian is this year's guest editor, which would lead some to believe that we were in for another round of Creeley's excesses. Not so, really. This year's model is an intriguing mix of the Same Old White Guys (e.g., Pinsky), the Rebel Contingent (e.g., O.K. Davis), the PoPoMo Crowd (e.g., Alice Notley), the Big Press Run Poets (e.g., Jane Hirshfield), the Deep Poets (e.g., Carl Phillips and Anne Carson), the Poets Who Refuse To Capitilize (e.g, kari edwards), and the Poets Whose Name Is Just Short Of Believable (e.g., Heidi Peppermint). And that's not all. There's Wagoner, Silliman, Stern, Addonizio, Koch, Dinh, and Burkard. For God's sake, there's even BC. Extra points to Ms. Hejinian for inserting Mary Jo Bang between Ashbery and Bernheimer. You have to hand it her for throwing together perhaps the most eclectic volume in the series' history.

And then three years later Whimsey still is speaking!

Just scrolling through the first couple of posts I find some hidden gems. Little links going to great places with little notice of where you are going, except that you are enticed to go there.

Enjoy!

Sublimation

On the Billy Collins trail, I find this opening statement:

My about statement was here just a second ago. I don’t know where it could have wandered off to. It’s too big to hide under my header. I’m pretty sure it’s not curled up taking a nap somewhere in the archives.

No worries. I’m sure it will turn up.

Let’s just keep our eyes peeled, shall we?

For now let’s just say I’ve written lots of poems. Though publishing isn’t my focus, I have managed to publish some of them — a couple in fancy cool places but most in regional journals you wouldn’t have heard of. I’ve published less than some of you and more than some of you, neither of which matters.

I am going to start working on a big fat graduate degree in poetry this summer. Will it make my writing better? That remains to be seen. Does my pedigree really matter? Not really. Because it’s the writing that counts. It all comes back to that, doesn’t it.

Let’s also touch on this: Why I am not more serious here. Why I don’t have a buttoned up, straight-laced blog polished to a high sheen that illustrates what a level-headed and well-versed (pun intended) poet I am. The answer is simple: I don’t want a blog like that.

And her attempt at a paradelle

So go read more at Sublimation

The Borique Lens

Continuing along the Billy Collins trail, we stop in the suburbs of friendly Philadelphia.

She writes:

Hello from the sunny 'burbs of Phila-del-phia. I've been getting back into the swing of poetry these days after a too long hiatus from composing original work. In 2001, I had the privilege of being invited to a writer's retreat in Washington State and there I finally had the courage to come out as a writer and poet.

Read the full posting here.

A sample of other recent postings:

• A Queen Just Needs a Hero
• What do we want? Free and low-cost Healthcare!
• Latinos Will Not Be Televised...
• Call For Submissions

Check out the Borique Lens!

Daily Dickinson

Along the "Billy Collins" trail, I have come across the Daily Dickinson a few times so I can not leave it unmentioned here.

All things Emily!

From the "About" page we find:

What to expect…

from me

Every day, until I run out of poems, pictures, or patience, I’ll post an Emily Dickinson poem. The text will be from the Project Gutenberg Dickinson, checked against a print copy of the Complete Poems where appropriate. A photograph in that poem’s spirit will come along for the ride.

Some commentary may be included as well, if the poem warrants it. Don’t expect close readings or fanciful deconstructions or elucidations of the signified and the signifier; I’ve lost those brain cells to Guinness and Diafine and XML. I hope to offer thoughts that won’t detract from the poems, that clarify some obscurities (if they need clarification), or that offer a personal reaction.

No, I won’t help you with your term paper.

from you

Visit when you can, enjoy the pictures and the poems, leave a note. If you’re moved to buy a card or a book, then thank you very much! But if not, that’s fine; this sort of project is a cheap enough hobby, and clearly not a revenue stream.

If you like what you see, leave a comment or drop a line. Constructive criticism and hosannas are both gladly accepted here.

Thanks for visiting!

Michael Hartford

5 for Friday

Cruising the poetry world online, I have five for you this Friday!

The haiku poet

The sundial girl

The newer metaphysicals

Kristine Jackson

Reality writes


Enjoy!

Molasses Poetry

Yes, continuing the Technorati "Billy Collins" trail we come upon Wendy who writes:

Welcome to Molasses Poetry.

I’m Wendy, and my love of words and poetry began in rural northern New Jersey where I grew up. On the grassy bank of a pond, a granite outcropping on a hillside, or in the shade of the black walnut tree in our front yard, I’d dig a stubby pencil and small, bent spiral notebook out of my pocket and jot down short poems about nature. Thankfully, school nurtured my appreciation for poetry rather than stifling it. A few years after my family relocated to Virginia, one particular English and creative writing teacher intensified my poetry enthusiasm through her inventive and inviting lessons. She also piqued my interest in teaching.

Inspired by my teacher-mentor, I taught English and creative writing for four years before becoming a librarian, a profession that allows me to combine my love of teaching and literature with my fascination for science, technology, and a multitude of other subjects. I journal and read poetry regularly, write poetry occasionally, and revel in opportunities to immerse myself in poetry during celebrations like the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

I believe that poetry is not just something you read or write, but something you live - by paying attention - to your environment, your fellow human beings, and yourself.

Live poetically!

Wendy's vision:

Too often I find myself caught up in the rush and rumble of pursuing what’s next and forget to stop, breathe, and be present in my life. Molasses Poetry is my way of encouraging readers to join me in slowing down to savor poetry and reflect on words, ideas, and images that may inspire poetry or journaling. I hope it may also spark lesson ideas for teachers of poetry, literature, or creative writing.

Web sites on the link menu connect readers with poems in many forms, formats, and voices, and are featured because they provide quality, organized content from a variety of poets, are from identifiable, authoritative sources, and either have permission to share the poets’ work or have compiled works in the public domain. You can find additional poetry resources by scrolling through my poetry links on del.icio.us.

When poem links, excerpts, or quotes in posts are accompanied by my musings, these are offered as a starting point for discussion rather than “the” interpretation.

Thank you for taking a moment to slow down with me. Please join the discussion by posting comments, or subscribe to Molasses Poetry by clicking on “entries” at the bottom of the main page and adding Molasses Poetry to your favorite feed reader.

I'll come back often, there are good links in her side bars.

Caferati

The Billy Collins trail takes us to India where we find:

Caferati is a collaboration between a motley group of writers who meet online at a message board on Ryze, and offline wherever the coffee is good, plentiful and cheap. We talk about getting published, books, writing, getting published, poetry, getting published, prose, theatre, and just about anything connected with the word, including getting published. We're Indian, most of us write in English and some of us are published in the dead-tree sense or earn a living from writing in some way - but none of those are preconditions for membership. You can find out a lot more about us by visiting our website, www.caferati.com.

One post starts:

Poetry, life full of surprises for Billy Collins (an interview with Richard Anderson) Excerpt:

All children, I think, write something that, for lack of a better word, is poetry … It’s really impossible to get out of the emotional turmoil of high school without, for better or worse, recording something that, again, by default if for no other reason, you might call a poem. … Someone said you don’t need to have an uphappy childhood to be a writer, you just need to have gone through adolescence … . But most people stop, just as most people stop drawing and stop playing music and stop dancing and doing a lot of things that they did as children. I think poets are just people who never wanted to stop playing with language.

For more of this, please visit Caferati

Always More Beyond - Kianseng Ng

I decided to create a Technorati search for Billy Collins. The web sites of folks and poets who are posting Billy's poetry are plentiful. The trail here will wind amongst the words of some of them from time to time.

Today we stop in Malaysia to find Kianseng Ng. Kianseng write in his profile page:

Kianseng Ng is a physician and Presbyterian Elder. He writes poetry, prose & he dabbles in Paper Batik Paintings, Photographic Montages, ATC (Artists Trading Cards) & Cut & Paste Collages. As a Physician specialising in Internal Medicine, he believes he is called "To Heal Some, To Comfort Many, To Love All". His work as an Elder is that of Dream-Making, Image-Shaping, Vision-Casting. Poetry is his forte, he writes believing that writing poetry is using the Creativity that God has put in him to Celebrate the Creation that God has put around him. His writings have been featured in 44 different journals in Malaysia, Singapore, India, New Zealand, Australia, USA.Many of his devotional poems have been translated into Mandarin. He was one of the prize winners in the prestigious New Straits Times & Shell Poetry Competition, Malaysia, 1995. (No competition was organised after that year.) He is the author of three volumes of Poetry, White Magic, Post-Cards From Kluang and Familiar Strange Country. He is presently working on his fourth volume of Poetry, tentatively entitled "A Different Kind Of Magic".

He writes:

STILL A SMALL VOICE

“Kneeling”

“Moments of great calm,

Kneeling before an altar

Of wood in a stone church

In summer, waiting for God

To speak…………………

…………Prompt me, God,

But not yet. When I speak,

Though it be you who speak

Through me, something is lost.

The meaning is in the waiting.”

R.S. Thomas

What is this I hear above

The drone of to-day’s weather

Forecast? Is it not the beginning

Word of the breaking news

Coming from the frequency of my heart

Beats? Is it not the still

Small voice that Elijah heard?

I know it is not

A tinnitus because the ringing

Does not stop even when my ears

Are unstopped. I’m sure it is not

The sound of God taking a rib

From the side of my thoughts

And making it a metaphor more beautiful

Than Eve. I believe it is not

The hiss of the serpent

In the tree of my mind offering

The apple of the full sentence

In place of the seed

Of the singular Word.

Perhaps it is a clever trick

Of throwing the voice. The speaker

Is light years away, yet I hear

His words like the fevered throbbing

Of the arteries of my temple.

And like the dumbstruck doll

In the lap of the ventriloquist

I catch the thrown and make

It my own. Yes, my own, still

A small voice that belies

The clarity with which it largely

Stills the questions, “Am I loudspeaker

Or am I speaking aloud?

Am I prophet or am I full

Of new wine?”

For more please visit, Always More Beyond