Suzzette Dawes's Blog, page 5

Inauguration Day -5

Everytime I see that statement, I cringe. I want to ask was it ever there? When did it leave?

ElegancePageant ready on a plagiarized platform.Rosy cheeks that you kiss when you greetOn pale skin -- pure like the driven snow.The driven snow? So now I knowElegance, like melatonin, is something innate,socially acceptable and can infatuateThe populace with just a smile.
That perfect smile and long, wavy hairreminiscing with his mail-order brideUnhinged by his impeding, lessening rightsMade great again with the right candidateProtecting and dictating women's reproductive rights. 

Inauguration Day -12

As we edge closer to that day, I picture what I would say if I was the Inaugural Poet.


     Great Again!We can be shallow. We can be deep.Even a dense fog or murky riverDoesn't reveal what's beneath -- the anti-heroowns honesty and tells how it should be,Never buckling to political correctness' pressureto tolerate differences and welcome strangers.Let us forget about Japanese-American internmentin World War II lest a pattern of history will repeat!Knowing the definition of insanity can't deterenemies within us contributing to the snafu -how we look to the world. If only we were in a vacuum,isolated from others. Ridicule is our new backdropmaking us low so we can rise to be great again!

Inauguration day -18

I thought I had an original idea that I would dedicate the next several days writing a poem that would be suitable for the inauguration. To my dismay, several poets already have poems since December on 2017inauguralpoem.blogspot.com/2016/12/welcome.html
These poets are very passionate. Tell me how do I compare?This poem is similar to the "I am" poem but I use "I want"
I want to...I want to party like when I was youngI want to rejoice and sing the songs that was sung.I want to orate and hear the crowd applauseI want to tantalize, oh just because...I want to explain my poor behavior.I want to set the record and be an anchor.I want to thank the one percenters with less tax.I want to tax to the max the middle class.I want to revoke all health subsidies to the working poor.I want to umbellate my ideals to the world.I want to marry and divorce as I please,I want to preserve family values!

Accomplishments & Goals

In that mode to reflect on accomplishments of 2016 and goals for 2017 and beyond. I stopped talking about resolutions and decided to do goals. Resolutions has a negative connotation thanks to the gym's ads which is all so true for many people who make a resolution to exercise and go heavy at it January and then fall off after February. So I don't want a resolution. I want a goal that may take a week to accomplish or 2 years to accomplish. If it is a 2 year goal like finishing a course of study then I can set mini-goals per semester that brings me closer to my main goal.

Going forward what are your main goals? Take some time to think about it and make a list (yes, that sounds very resolution-like). Then based on your resources, make a timeline. Well, if I wanted to bake and decorate a cake for someone in January, then my timeline would end on the exact date in January. Baking a decorating a cake may not seem like a difficult thing but what if you wanted to use the new technique not yet learned. Then that would make you learn the technique to apply the technique.

Also, once timelines are added in, some list items may need to be changed to another date, postponed for when it can be added back into the list or sacrificed. Therefore, having a goal, setting timelines to accomplish the goal and seeing how goal fits in with other goals provides a more dynamic list. Further, if the unexpected occur, you can modify the goals.

For example, this 2016 year, I decided to enroll in studies which was my main goal so my writing (including my blog writing) became more sporadic so I modified my prior goal of daily to weekly to at least once a month and I sacrificed cake decorating in August. I also limited my social media presence.

For 2017 year, I plan to make some changes although the studies will still be my main goal but I really want to write weekly, exercise daily (sounding like a resolution, here) and maintain my limited social media presence. Note that the studies were a 2016 goal with a timeline of 2 years; the writing more frequently was a goal that I started back in 2013; exercise, not fooling anyone, used to be a yearly resolution but I have a new approach: just 15 minutes daily of walking, cycling, gliding and check it off on my calendar which sounds more doable than hours at the gym.

What are your goals or resolution for 2017?

In the meantime, check our BardsofBroward.com. This actually started as one of the projects for my studies but I have removed some pages from the project and added in some other pages to make this site. What is your opinion?

One Last Time for 2016

One last time for 2016
Let the voices be heard
in the halls, in the aisles
and especially in the courtyard!

for one last time in 2016...

Fear

I might as well confess
although I do profess
to see the positive side of things
negative things keep happening

which makes me have to rethink!
Then there is the pity party
I tend to wallow in for a while
As if, it can fix anything!

Too many times, too many tears
all for naught but for my fears
Fear of tomorrow, fear of future sorrows
fear, fear, fear, fear, fear, and more fear!

So by now you're probably wondering
What's wrong with this chick?
Would you stop being a dick
and let my mind do its wandering!

A Poetry Prompt: The Ekphrastic Experience

Have you every walked through a gallery and an artwork hypnotized you where you can't help but look and it leaves you will certain feelings? Well, these poets have captured these feelings and placed them into poems. 
I like reading other's experience or vision about an oil painting, photography or film especially when different poets write a poem on the same artwork.  Breughel’s Icarus has inspired poets like W.H. Auden and William Carlos Williams. It is always interesting to read the poem produced from the impact that the artwork had on them.

 I like seeing how the poem relates. Then again, it may not even relate as the artwork could evoke a feeling that the poet explores. This is one of the reason that I like encouraging poets to write Ekphrastic poems. It is a different form of a prompt. Prompts are great as starter fuel for the mind and many websites offer writing prompts such as 

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-b...

These sites were the first three results of my Google search for terms "Poetry Prompt"  so I have another poetry prompt for you. 

Register by November 23, 2016 - form and more details at http://www.browardartguild.org/docs/BAG-Call-For-Poets-Small-Works.pdfView art work between Nov. 23rd and Dec. 3rd during regular business hours to select an artwork as your inspiration.  (Gallery will be closed Thursday Nov. 24th & Friday Nov. 25th for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Gallery closed Sun., Mon., Tue.) Email your poem to info@BrowardArtGuild.org by December 7th @ 7pm.

This kind of poetry prompt has produced many poems including some of the poems in the anthology "Bards of Broward: The Courtyard Chronicles" 

"The Last Inhabitants" by yours truly inspired after viewing an acrylic painting "Lizards in Space" by Cynthia Inkleburger.
"Abuelita En Havana" by Shawn Jackson inspired by painting of same name by Lourdes DeWick
"OH Shucks" by Shawn Jackson inspired by photograph "Aw Shucks" by Ken Harrison.
"In Black and White" by Meryl Stratford based on a black and white photograph of a foot in a ballet slipper.

I like when art and poetry share a space and I hope you like it too!In the meantime, here is my own artwork with its poem :

Bringing Poets Together

In the article "Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize is a vindication of popular poetry,"  some points I agreed with but had some contention with orders.

I agree with the author that "poetry bifurcated" sometimes in the 20th century. Whereas he splits them into academia and popular poetry, I feel the division is slightly different but there are a handful of poets who are academia and also popular (Billy Collins come to mind).

Not sure how to process when the author says:

In the universities, poets ceased to write for the general reader, instead writing for their peers in poetry and academia. Their poems, espousing the abstract and the obscure, grew steadily out of touch with public taste.

But I do agree that popular poetry tend to have some rhyme scheme making them more memorable.

I felt like the article meant to defend Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize for poetry but read like it was bashing academia (elitist) poets.

...poets ceased to write for the general reader, instead writing for their peers in poetry and academia. Their poems, espousing the abstract and the obscure, grew steadily out of touch with public taste.

Yes, there is some infighting among poets about who is a poet and who is not but let's not create a crater from a crack. I feel that all poets can work together and have created an anthology that showcases many styles from poets of different training (Bards of Broward:The Courtyard Chronicles  ISBN:978-1537135137).

What poetry is and isn't will always be a contentious point among poets. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder then poetry is for the ear.



Reference:
Pratt, David. "Bob Dylan’s Nobel prize is a vindication of popular poetry." Daily News:Lifestyle.

Picture Poems

Have you ever had a theme grab you? I did when I saw Broward Art Guild's "Out To Sea." An idea immediately hit me. Eventually, I created an oil painting and included a poem.

Then after submitting my entry and after poetry reading, I shared a picture of my art work. It reminded Meryl of a poet whose book stood on her bookshelf and whose name she couldn't recall at the time. Then she emailed me and informed of the poet's name: Kenneth Patchen. I had to look him up and was really impressed. Just google (or Bing) "Kenneth Patchen picture poems" and it might blow you away like it did me.

By the here's my entry "Scurvy Dreams":

What do you think? Can I join his league?

Find the Bards of Broward

I hope you enjoyed that crossword last week and here are some clues to assist if you are still working on it:

Well I got another treat for you. Can you find the Bards of Broward?
The anthology Bards of Broward: The Courtyard Chronicles is coming....