August Group Writing and Other Musings
Once again I'm writing everyday for a month. In my case, I'm going to take weekends off, but I'll also try to write an extra poem here and there to make up for my weekend breaks. I'm still working on the "Labyrinth" series, and I'm trying to get to 25 poems to see where I'm at. I'm also going to try to carve up some more "Dear Empire" and "Nocturne" poems.
Truth be told, I have no idea where these poems are going. I'm just writing them and they're coming to me rather quickly. I don't know how they work adjacent to one another, since I have yet to sort them out into a rough manuscript of sorts. A few folks have asked me for copies of the manuscript to read for manuscript exchanges and, frankly at this stage I think if I gave them this manuscript it would be an unfair exchange because there IS no shape to this manuscript and the poor reader would be doing far too much work. I'm having a difficult time conceptualizing what these entities are. I'm now certain that the "Camera" and "Labyrinth" poems are separate from the "Dear Empire" poems. There's just no way I can successfully transition from one voice/style to the other in a graceful and articulate manner. This is a good problem to have, but it is still a problem. Essentially, I'm dealing with two separate manuscripts. So as I rambled on above, it seems I'm trying to write myself through these sequences to find an arc.
The "Nocturnes," which I'll be dipping into once in awhile, are the verse pieces and I haven't written that many . . . maybe fifteen or so. I hope to have a few more to gauge where to go next. I plan on continuing the poem-a-day through the end of September, so I'll evaluate from there.
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I like the idea of carving a poem. There's a joke about the violin maker. The violin maker was asked how he creates a violin from a piece of wood. His response--it's easy. I just take out whatever isn't a violin.
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Currently reading Mei-mei Berseenbrugge's I Love Artists: New and Selected Poems. Years ago, I had the pleasure of introducing Mei-mei during the Asian American Writers' Workshop poetry festival. I had no idea who she was. So I did what any person would do and "Googled" her. I think I wasn't equipped to read her work back then, but I did write a good introduction. Now, however, she knocks my socks off. I love her introspection. So much of her work is about the artistic process--not just writing but painting, sculpting, dance. Wow.
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The work on the vegetable garden is stalled because the ground isn't level. I need to borrow my neighbor's Bobcat to scratch out a flatter plot. Here it is:
The plot actually goes back a ways. It just doesn't look as large here. In fact, the size of what's been plowed is actually much more than what Meredith or I envisioned for our garden. We may have to build a shed or something . . .
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Current Spin: