Drew Myron's Blog, page 72
May 14, 2012
What's on your agenda?
To Do
Start here.
Show up.
Be present.
Be honest.
Work hard.
Work up.
Work out.
Stand tall.
Stand up.
Stand out.
Speak softly.
Seek love.
Seek help.
Help others.
Help yourself.
You are.
You can.
You wish.
You want.
Clear out.
Clear up.
Dry up.
Dry out.
Drive by.
Walk in.
Stroll through.
Get up.
Get lost.
Breathe deep.
Breathe hard.
Breathe in.
Know yourself.
Be yourself.
Begin again.
- In answer to the question, "What's on your agenda?"
by Drew Myron
May 10, 2012
Thankful Thursday: Steal
On this Thankful Thursday, I am thankful for permission to steal.
Today's steal sponsored by Poets & Writers, where this week's writing prompt calls for a cento.
Latin for patchwork, a cento is a poem composed entirely of fragments and lines taken from other poems and/or written sources. As a fan of collage, this prompt really perked me up — and gave me permission to wander through poetry books and borrow great lines. I discovered the process of collecting (or stealing) is as much fun as writing (or, in this case, arranging) the lines.
Here's my cento:
This season won’t last 1
There are times when
the mind knows no wholeness.2
This is the enclosure (flesh,
where innocence is a weapon) 3
where the air has a texture
of drying moss.4
Dearest. — I remember how 5
my mind carried the night, wailing. 6
You’re only as sick as your secrets. 7
There is unexpected sun today, 8
or something like that. 9
Sources:
1. Margot Lavoie - March madness
2. Laurie Sheck - Nocturne: Blue Waves
3. Amiri Baraka - An Agony. As Now.
4. Susan Stewart - The Forest
5. Frank Bidart - Ellen West
6. Drew Myron - Lessons, winter
7. Brenda Shaughnessy - Your One Good Dress
8. Elizabeth Alexander - The Venus Hottentot
9. Adrian C. Louis - Looking for Judas
All lines, except 1 and 6, culled from The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry.
It's Thankful Thursday! Gratitude. Appreciation. Praise. Please join me in a weekly pause to appreciate the people, places & things that bring joy. What are you thankful for today?
May 9, 2012
Start Now?
In this season of fresh starts, what are you creating?
A book, a poem, a painting, a home?
Are you jotting lists, stacking stones, making plans?
Does your head spin, heart race, hand shake?
Do you wonder, wander, worry?
Tell me, I'd really like to know, what stirs
your imagination, what stretches your mind?
May 6, 2012
On Sunday: Try This
Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
(for Kellie Jones, born 16 May 1959)
Lately, I've become accustomed to the way
The ground opens up and envelops me
Each time I go out to walk the dog.
Or the broad edged silly music the wind
Makes when I run for a bus . . .
Things have come to that.
And now, each night I count the stars,
And each night I get the same number.
And when they will not come to be counted,
I count the holes they leave.
Nobody sings anymore.
And then last night, I tiptoed up
To my daughter's room and heard her
Talking to someone, and when I opened
The door, there was no one there . . .
Only she on her knees, peeking into
Her own clasped hands.
- Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
For years, I've carried lines from this poem in my head: Nobody sings anymore . . . Things have come to that . . . I count the holes they leave. I love the title, how it suggests backstory to events deep and complex, and the way the poem offers everyday acts that, in their simplicity, turn reverent and illuminating.
This is the thing about poems: We can carry them in us, and draw our own (and changing) conclusions. We can pluck lines and make our own meaning.
Try this: Pick a line from this poem and use it as your own. Let it launch you into new work. Where will it take you? What words will you follow? If you like, share your fresh words here, by posting them in the comments sections below. Or, if you're feeling shy, email me --- dcm@drewmyron.com.
May 3, 2012
Tell me a (short) story
For readers and writers, will the fun never end?
Hot on the heels on National Poetry Month, we roll into May and National Short Story Month. Now in its sixth year, Short Story Month was initiated by the Emerging Writers Network, a site offering reviews and interviews.
Joining the festivities, Fiction Writers Review is hosting The Collection Giveaway Project, a community effort to champion great short story collections.
To celebrate, I'm revisiting some of my favorite short stories, and looking for new collections to add to the list.
[image error] Death is Not an Option
by Suzanne Rivecca
In her 2010 debut, Rivecca delivers piercing prose. "Most of Rivecca’s ruthlessly frank and lonely characters have left religion, and the saving they seek in this modest, engaging and disquieting collection is from the plague of isolation," explains the New York Times Book Review.
Music Through the Floor
by Eric Puchner
"The nine stories in his debut collection are executed with such fluency, constructed with such surprising plot twists and blessed with so many bright, memorable lines that they rise above the contemporary din," the New York Times Book Review says of this 2005 collection.
Birds of America
by Lorrie Moore
A New York Times Book of the Year that is "at once wise, punchy, funny and sad," writes Powell's Books. "With language that is clever and crisp, Moore deftly strips the disguises and barriers we spend our whole lives building and exposes us for the quirky, vulnerable and often confused individuals we are."
My Life in Heavy Metal
by Steve Almond
"The big thing in Almond's stories is that his characters really like to have sex," notes the The New York Times Book Review. "Almond writes well about the act itself, a pretty rare talent. But his stories take off when he . . . looks beyond the bedroom at the world around him."
Chilly Scenes of Winter
by Ann Beattie
I came to appreciate short stories in the 1990s with the discovery of Ann Beattie, a master in the art and ache of yearning. She takes what her publisher calls an "uncannily accurate look at the nostalgia suffered by people yearning for deeper feelings in a culture that turns feelings into cliches."
Do you read short stories? What are some of your favorite collections?
May 1, 2012
Big Poetry Winners
And the winners of the Big Poetry Giveaway are . . .
Diane Lockard
won Fuel by Naomi Shihab Nye
Tara Mae Mulroy
won Sweet Grief by Senitila McKinley and Drew Myron (that's me!)
This was great fun; thanks for playing.
April 29, 2012
Wind-down & win
April is winding down, and with that National Poetry Month comes to a close. After a rush of readings, writing and events, I'm exhausted, in that good, full-of-words kind of way.
But wait, there's more!
Let's finish on a high note — with the Big Poetry Giveaway. I'm giving away two great books; enter the drawing by midnight on Monday, April 30, 2012. I'll announce the winner on Tuesday, May 1st.
Go here to enter for the chance to win.
April 26, 2012
Thankful Thursday: Unofficial
photo by Jennie Marie Schell
Gratitude: An Unofficial, Unfinished List
breakthroughs
breaks for coffee
breakfast
meaning well
well wishes
wishing wells
well drinks (2 for 1)
daisies, wild
daisies, store-bought
friends, faraway
friends, near
work, paid
work, heart
work, out
patience
impatiens
It's Thankful Thursday! Gratitude. Appreciation. Praise. Please join me in a weekly pause to appreciate the people, places & things that bring joy. What are you thankful for today?
April 24, 2012
Clip, Carry, Share
Are you ready for Poem in Your Pocket Day?
Call me goofy, but I love this annual opportunity to share poems with abandon. As part of National Poetry Month, the Academy of American Poets celebrates Poem in Your Pocket Day on Thursday, April 26, 2012.
The idea is simple: select a poem you love, carry it with you, and share it with friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and more. I also like to share poetry with strangers, and sometimes leave poems on car windshields (instead of a ticket, a poem!), in mailboxes (instead of a bill, a poem!), and often pop a few in the mail to farwaway friends.
This year, I will carry the poem above. Need a poem? You can print this page and clip, carry and share it with others. Already picked your poem? Please, will you share it with us?
April 21, 2012
Sweet Grief
Sweet Grief, a collaboration of paintings and poems, opens tonight at the Windermere Gallery in Seal Rock, Oregon. Can't make it to the show? We've created a book featuring the 12 paintings paired with 12 poems.
From the Sweet Grief Introduction:
Sweet Grief: Paintings and Poems on Love and Loss
by Senitila McKinley and Drew Myron
Dying sucks.
A creative collaboration began with those two words.
The collaboration — 12 paintings paired with 12 poems — is the work of Senitila McKinley and Drew Myron, two women who met in 2005 and bonded over an appreciation for children and families in need. At Seashore Family Literacy, the nonprofit organization that Senitila created and runs, Drew serves as writing instructor.
Sweet Grief began in the summer of 2011 when Senitila’s husband of 33 years was diagnosed with cancer. David McKinley died just a few months later.
At what turned out to be his last visit with Drew, he was clear and direct. “Dying sucks,” he said. “I’m not gonna lie.”
Later, with her friend, Senitila was pragmatic: “Death is not a crisis,” she said firmly. “It’s a beautiful part of life.”
With that in mind, Senitila and Drew explored love and loss through their art. What was initially specific to David’s death became a larger meditation and appreciation for the weighty beauty of being with the ones you love to their very end.
“Grief is a beautiful thing,” says Senitila, “not something to be afraid of, but to enjoy because it is still a gift. We think that only mystical people have a meaningful understanding of death. But it’s not true. To look at death and grief as a gift is not reserved for those who have a defined spiritual journey, but for everyone that has known love.”
Special edition exhibition book - $10
