Poem About Spring

Dear One Absent This Long While

BY LISA OLSTEIN

It has been so wet stones glaze in moss;

everything blooms coldly.

I expect you. I thought one night it was you

at the base of the drive, you at the foot of the stairs,

you in a shiver of light, but each time

leaves in wind revealed themselves,

the retreating shadow of a fox, daybreak.

We expect you, cat and I, bluebirds and I, the stove.

In May we dreamed of wreaths burning on bonfires

over which young men and women leapt.

June efforts quietly.

I’ve planted vegetables along each garden wall

so even if spring continues to disappoint

we can say at least the lettuce loved the rain.

I have new gloves and a new hoe.

I practice eulogies. He was a hawk

with white feathered legs. She had the quiet ribs

of a salamander crossing the old pony post road.

Yours is the name the leaves chatter

at the edge of the unrabbited woods.

Acting and Playwriting

My wife and I will put on our acting hats as we participate in a short drama at church. It's my first foray into acting in awhile. When I recite poems the pauses and inflections seem to come naturally to me. 

Right now I'm mulling the idea of writing a play about an experience in my life; I have so many. Yesterday, I went to the library and briefly scoured through plays by ancient Roman and Greek dramatists. I read a little bit work by Sophocles, Menander, and Euripides. I've written a play in the past and have had an interest in play-writing for years. I also discovered that writing for films is different from writing plays. I haven't delved into it yet.

Chapbook Festival

The annual NYC/CUNY Chapbook Festival will take place next Thursday at the CUNY Graduate Center from 10 AM to 7 PM on the concourse level.

The Graduate Center/CUNY
365 Fifth Avenue @ 34th Street
New York, NY 10016

www.chapbookfestival.org

Words Of Wisdom

Yet,it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry.


~Virginia Woolf, Author (1882-1941)




Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks down walls.

~Mahmoud Darwish, Poet (1941-2008)

Robert Lowell

Recognized as one of twentieth century's greatest poets,Robert Lowell (1917-1977) was one of the originators of the 'confessional poets'. He influenced such writers as Sylvia Plath, W.D. Snodgrass, and Allen Ginsberg,  Lowell opened up a way for writers to write on subjects considered taboo in the 1950s with his collection of poems called Life Studies. Sex, infidelity, and mental illness were discussed in print.

Even through his struggles with marital difficulties and mental illness, Lowell wrote clear and lucid about his own struggles. In a sense, his and other work from the confessional poets are what writing is ultimately about. It may be uncomfortable for some but it's dealing real life experiences. I'm sure this book affected many lives back then and now.

Rilke

I first came in contact with Rilke (1875-1926) on a site I was researching. I read this quote from him "Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other". It didn't give me impetus to read his work but this quote remained in my subconscious. I'm reading this book and have discovered a poet trying to find himself and his own voice.  

Writing What Comes To Mind and PlayWriting

Yesterday, I attended a theater arts meeting at church. We learned about just writing without regard to punctuation, sentence structure etc. We just wrote what came into mind. Sometimes we writers can caught up in periods, commas, and such. That's the purpose of editing after we written our piece. 

Later, we did some play writing. I have written a couple of plays in the past. Today, the leader gave us a couple of plays to read. It was interesting the many moods the characters can illicit. Tone was stressed too, something I never considered before. I should have since I write poems and short stories. I attempted to write a play a few nights before. Now I have a better idea of what goes into a play.       

My takeaway from this is to write whatever comes to mind; just get it on paper before it's lost forever. That's why I carry a notebook and pen all the time.  I'm challenged to write a play. A friend suggested that I write about my life experiences. Now I have some information and ammunition to proceed ahead. 

Words Of Wisdom

Rap and spoken word have reawakened the country to poetry itself. Texting and Twitter encourage creative uses of casual language, in ways I have celebrated widely. But we have fallen behind on savoring the formal layer of our language.


~John McWhorter, Writer 

Like This Poem

I  read  this  poem  earlier today and liked it. Hope  you  do  also.

In cold spring air

Reginald Gibbons

In cold 
          spring air the
white wisp- 
          visible
breath of 
          a blackbird
singing— 
          we don’t know
to un- 
          wrap these blind-
folds we 
          keep thinking
we are  

seeing through 

Writing Plays

I was doing my wash at the laundromat when an an old friend recognized me. We hugged and exchange pleasantries. The conversation got to writing. We had met at a local bookstore over a year where he was the curator of an open mic series. My wife and I had read stories and poems there.

My friend is an actor who writes plays and stories. He asked if I was writing poems. I replied that I am along with short stories and commentaries. The subject got around to my life experiences and he suggested that I write about them. I never really thought about doing this. I wrote a play over a decade ago about the the days in between Jesus's crucifixion and his resurrection. 

Play writing is something I want to incorporate into my writing life. I am looking at some of my stories I've written and wonder if they can be turned into plays. I need to sit down and pour over my my life experiences and put them in play form.  I am a fan of Greek and Latin plays. I need to read plays by people like Sophicles and Aeschylus to get an idea of how to write a play.

Words Of Wisdom

Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.

~Paul Engle, Poet (1908-1991)

Today's Word

LECHER

A man who has a large or disgusting interest in sex.

Someone who constantly needs to have sex.

Poem

                                           Spring Defined



A respite between winter and summer

No more snowstorms

April showers

Never warm on Easter

Craving for jelly beans

Losing an hour of sleep

Shedding the winter coat

Allergies

Flowers in May

Summer is Coming!

Words Of Wisdom

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.


~Jean Cocteau, Director (1889-1963)

Taking A Second Look

I have a list of my favorite authors, which lists six. They are people who have had an influence on me as a writer. I also have a second list titled 'On My Radar'. Henry David Thoreau and Theodore Roethke are on this list. 

I have created a third list titled Must Take A Second Look'. Two people who make this list are Ronald Reagan and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Usually, I would say such a list is created because either I have misread the person or need to know more about how a person ticks. This list could mean putting preconceived notions about the person and having an open mind. Not easy, but needs to be done. 

With Reagan I always wondered why he appealed to a lot of Americans. I didn't vote for him yet people seems to feel at ease with him as a leader. In regards to Senator Moynihan, he was vilified in the black community for a statement he made in a 1965 speech about 'benign neglect'. It was about father abdicating their responsibilities as fathers and heads of the family. The welfare people was telling poor women that they could receive more money from the government as long as a man wasn't around. Senator Moynihan that this would become a major problem, and it has. 

I can't say that it will change my view of Mr. Reagan and Senator Moynihan but at least I'll have a idea of what they were about and why they did the things they did.