Monday, April 27, 2015

New piece submitted to Canadian Anti-War Poetry site

Fly in A Glass Bowl

The fly  arrived in the lunch box
carried by the navigator.
It pulsed and buzzed
probing  for a way out
of the Plexiglas bowl.

The spider tracked the Colonel
as he adjusted the bomb sight.
Squinting through cross-hairs made of spider's webbing,
weighing the moment the bomb
was to be released
in order to place the  bomb inside a 100-foot circle
from four miles in the sky.

Crouched in the Plexiglas nose of the plane
breathing pure oxygen,
the Colonel wore silk gloves
to keep his skin from freezing
to the metal on the sight.
The fly buzzed around The Colonel’s head
as he released the bomb.

A cousin to the spider that spun the web
used in the cross hair in the bomb sight,
the spider focused on the fly
encouraging it to land
close enough to be trapped and devoured.

Making its sinister move  just as the bomb burst above the Japanese city,
the spider was blinded by the flash of the intense light
not seeing the gloved hand
of The Colonel
as it came down on its body,

still clutching the fly in its dark legs.

-tp, 4-27

Finding the Right Words: Revising to Make Your Writing Precise

Finding the Right Words: Revising to Make Your Writing Precise

Friday, April 24, 2015

Haiku

    

April 24 -- Fourth Friday Readings


Mark the date!  Arrive at 6:00 p.m. to get a good seat for an evening of Peninsula writers sharing their prose and poetry.

Featured writer from Port Townsend is Peter Quinn, followed by 5-minute Open Mic Readings. Bring a friend and enjoy a lively evening of fiction, memoir and poetry readings.






Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Synonyms for the 96 most commonly used words in English - StumbleUpon

Synonyms for the 96 most commonly used words in English - StumbleUpon

New Poem: "Untitled" April, 2015

I know you can really stink up a poem
by making it too long,
or dirty,
or you administer a little jesus,
too many metaphors
or descriptions of  your yard party
where millionaires
shoot songbirds in the garden.

You can stink up a poem good
if you talk about how
you wrote it,
where you were, how many drugs you had
in your system, 
or how dirty your fingernails
or your sheets were.

A poem has to jell.  It has to steep
before you let it out into the world.  
If it’s too cold
to go out by itself,
Let it stew
and simmer
before you take up the mic or send it off
to some rag
run by a clique
of English students
or a trio of retired teachers putting it together
on card tables in the den
or the room over the garage.

The last time I read this poem
I watched it slink off the podium,
skitter round the counter
and slip out the door to the parking lot
head down
and eyes on the ground.

I saw it perched on a low bush
as I walked home. Its eyes burning
with shame, looking away as I hurried by.
                               -tp

~

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Poetry Walks sponsored by NOLS and Olympic National Park


POETRY WALKS:    http://www.nols.org/events/poetry-walks.html

POETRY WORKSHOP at Port Angeles Library:

Afternoon With An Author: Poetry Workshop with Jeanine Walker

Tuesday, April 14, 3:30pm. Free

Discover the joy of poetry with Seattle's Jeanine Walker! Participants will be treated to a reading of Walker's poems, use one or two as models for writing a first draft of their own, and have the opportunity to share their work and receive feedback. All ages and skill levels are welcome to participate in the workshop.

Space is limited. Pre-registration is recommended. Register here.
For more information, contact Jennifer Lu'Becke at 360.417.8500 or jlubecke@nols.org.

About Jeanine Walker

A writer whose poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including the Cimarron Review, Cream City Review, Narrative, PageBoy, and Web Conjunctions, Jeanine Walker is currently the director of Seattle Arts & Lectures' Writers in the Schools program, and holds a Ph.D. in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. In addition to writing, Jeanine sings and plays trumpet for Seattle country band The Drop Shadows, is the host of Mixed Bag, a live webcast variety show filmed in a Seattle garage, and is the emcee of the award-winning reading series Cheap Wine & Poetry at the Richard Hugo House.  






4 Quick Ways to Write & Publish Books on the Web

4 Quick Ways to Write & Publish Books on the Web