Field Recordings

It's 250 plus days into the quotidian project. I rather enjoy it; the freedom of throwing absolute care out the window and writing a poem based on a day's rhythms and images, or not. Character poems. Personae. Dramatis Personae. I like a good lyric. Short, compact, musical. I enjoy iams, and rhyme. I've had fun letting the throat rag itself out a bit. There's plenty of bad poems, and mis-fires. Those looking for a little Schadenfreude will find much to chuckle about. Still, lots of drafts and lots of potential. For those fascinated with the Accomack county serial arsonists there are several poems set in the emotional landscape of the county during the height of the arsons. Broadkill Press will issue Black Narrows (potential cover art above*), a collection of poems centered in a fictionalized marshpunk black market community. Death is a prominent feature, as is loss, generational poverty, the marsh, steampunk motiffs, and moments that I hope transcend marshlif...

My daily time with words varies during the week. This week I had to double post because the hour grew too late for me to post the work on Figment and   Wattpad , which is to be expected on busy school days. Lately the urge to forgo punctuation or at least play with standards and expectations of punctuations are common, often throwing capitalization and lately, commas, out the proverbial window. Marshpunk is the newest trend, as a narrative touchstone, or setting helps me get into the groove after teaching, coaching, and then working with my own children before writing. Black Narrows, a marsh city of shacks and black market traders. Throw some wild engineers in the mix, the ever present watermen, and the Narrows boils with seediness. Deadwood on the marsh perhaps. As far as writing on an ipad is concerned, unless you work with google drive’s/tumblr/html editor, there is no great word processor. Google drive, however, dependent on the internet connectivity speed, is a hassle ...

My old friend Nate McFadden recorded the poem, “Dinner at Henri's ”, from News from the Front (my latest chapbook, published by the Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, here ) for his podcast. He performs a smashing reading, nailing the tone. The poem, inspired by the French Resistance, and a life long love of radio, is one of my personal favs; it reads well with audiences, more than others. It's nice to hear someone besides me read it, like most of you I do not like the way I sound to others. Actively, I try to squeeze some kind of poem, or poetic work out every day. It keeps me sane, healthy, and engaged with language. During the busy school year I can least give myself a twenty minute period of time when I can be in my own voice, so to speak, and work my talent. I'm documenting the quotidian over at Figmen t and Wattpad , two social media sites that deal with writing. Granted, most of the work on the site is written solely so the author can post a cool, h...

  Currently reading Black birds: Blue horse by Natalie Peeterse (Gold Line Press). Juggling several poetry anthologies for daily reading and meditation, and spending at least thirty minutes playing with language over at Figment in an on-line reboot of my quotidian project.* Summer family book fun: Hunger Games trilogy, Lego Ninjago, The Children's Book of Myth & Legends, Vampires, Zombies & Werewolves, and The Wonders Inside the Human Body. Currently strumming: Boil that Cabbage Down Boating: seaside, Folly Creek and backpaddles Academic reading: Myers 7th edition, Intro to Psychology, Berman 8th edition of Psychology. Current feeling 'bout the Sox: brighter days are ahead. Go Ortiz!  Current feeling 'bout the Nats: freakin hey! So much fun to watch this young intense team mix it up every night.  Tunes: new Fiona (*****), new Lionel Ritchie country duets mash-up (****), Dead Download series (****) * a daily poem, often rushed, harried, ...

Ridley Scott's Prometheus delivers a thrill ride and offers up an armchair philosopher’s worth of provocative questions. It's gorgeous, the high def cinematography is vibrant, crisp. The creases in Charlize Theron's Meredith Vickers suits are so fine and precise they cut the air. Heck, I'd even say that her suit and David's suit function as architecture, they're so straight and even. The performances are equally sharp, and purposeful, and are means to an end: to hold up the popcorn confection philosophy of sci-fi creationism. Combine it with the smarts of the script and the mysteries they probe and you've got a fine slice of sci-fi, speculative fiction.   It's scary, beautiful, and possible. Many critics and movie-goers were baffled by the quasi-prequelness of much of the hype--it’s not a direct prequel, the film takes place a hundred years or so earlier than the events that destroyed Ripley’s Nostromo , but instead of "wtf" they should hav...

The US has a new Poet Laurette, Natasha Tretheway ,  whom I'm not overly familiar with. Not yet anyway. However, the world of words is a vast multi verse, and it takes one helluva dedicated reader to be up to date with everyone. The intoxication of the art form, the ease of which one can publish, in print or electronic, has helped explode poetry; a second big bang if you will, fueled by the gases of spoken word, slam, and protean clouds of workshops all over the world. A multi verse that Tretheway finds herself at the center, ready to pull everyone into poetry’s orbit. Poetry is immense and ever expanding. Students of poetry know this. Professors of poetry might know this, slam artists, street poets, and visionaries know this, but the general public probably doesn't know this. The world of poetry is inaccessible to the un-initiated, Natasha Tretheway's appointment to the office of Poet Laureate, is bound to have most of the world...shrugging. “Who?” or “...

Military service is a grand tradition, one that honors the ideals this country was founded on: freedom, hard work, faith, and helping others. It is a tradition that many young men and women in today's world ignore for greater aspirations. Those that give their life to their country, for one year or twenty, metaphorically and literally, deserve our thanks, for they help keep these ideals alive.  Service to others is a principle not practiced by many, but is one that we should all practice. What better way to make the world a better place. Go out and help someone. Poetically, Siegfried Sassoon's Dreamers, summed up the life of the military at war, when those that serve are in the greatest service.... I like the music, the mundane life they miss. Dreamers BY  SIEGFRIED SASSOON   Soldiers are citizens of death's grey land, Drawing no dividend from time's to-morrows.    In the great hour of destiny they stand, Each with his feuds, and j...