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BREATHLESS BETWEEN LANGUAGE & MYTH, a poem … and therein is your Wednesday writing prompt

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Here I am, suspended breathless
between language and myth.
Strands of undomesticated words
weave ladders to freedom, and

a dove in the stripy-barked birch
recites the works of Homer.
I found the rules of grammar
written on my tongue by the wind

and the alphabet strung like
seed-pearls around my willing neck.
Each day I take to the quarries,
hard mining for the sweetly lyrical,

blistered from digging in hot sands
and hard stone for parables.
The very walls that bound my heart
are fairly breached by the

gentle solace of poems spun
on a vision quest, on toiling
though the hill country of
my youthful and once indomitable

dreams: like dandelion fluff,
I blow them into history.
I write as though poetry is
the only real nourishment –
. . . . . .  .perhaps it is.

© 2016, poem, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved,  Photo ~ courtesy of morgueFile

WRITING PROMPT

Last month’s theme for The BeZine was: Rituals for Peace, Healing and Unity. Fittingly, Terri Stewart, our resident canoness, took the lead.

For some of us, our writing – whatever it may be – poetry, fiction, nonfiction, journaling – is our daily spiritual practice, a ritual of sorts, a way to heal and to connect with the best part of ourselves.

The inspiration for today’s writing prompt comes from my colleagues at the Zine:

Poet, essayist and vocalist, John Anstie, wrote “This poem represents the sentiment and spirit that is at the core of our mission here, Jamie, the Bardo/Beguine mission. ‘… as if poetry is the only real nourishment. Perhaps it is.’ Perhaps, at the same time, a call to the pen, rather than the sword, is also a source of nourishment that will yield, eventually, a harvest [of peace] for the world.”

Corina Ravenscraft, artist, poet, writer and activist, said “… poetry truly can be spiritual…”

Associate Pastor of Riverton United Methodist Church (Seattle, Washington), Rev. Terri Stewart, writer and founder of our sister site Beguine Again, wrote: “Digging for parables really echoes with what my experience is!”

How do you experience the practice of poetry or other art? Maybe you feel as our colleague – shamanic practitioner, psychotherapist, educator, and visual and theater artist – Michael Watson  does, that the “arts are the only real solace.”

In poem, story or creative nonfiction tell us about your personal creative rites and/or why you find consolation in them. Share your piece through Mister Linky … just click on the icon below and paste in the link to your piece so that I and other readers here might enjoy it.

Note: A link from one of my unrelated pieces might show up as the first post. It’s just left from another effort on a different site.  Tech challenged: I couldn’t remove it. Sigh! 😦

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LATE BREAKING NEWS: Rescue Press; Spoken Word, Open Mic (Southhampton, NY); Poetry, Music, Open Mic (Bayshore, NY)

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Today RESCUE PRESS announced its fall line-up of books. This “is an independent publisher of chaotic and investigative work, founded in the winter of 2009. We publish work by activists, artists, craftsmen, list-makers, philosophers, poets, scientists, writers, and creative thinkers of all kinds. We’re interested in collections of artwork, comics, essays, experiments, how-tos, interrogations, manifestos, notes, poetry, stories, and anything else that transforms us.”  Rescue press reads submissions twice a year: Their first reading period is coming up – January – for book-length prose submissions. So, time enough for you to polish those manuscripts.  The second reading period – June –  is when poetry submissions are accepted for the Block Box Poetry Prize.

HEADS-UP LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK 

*** SPOKEN WORD, SOUTHAMPTON ***
Friday, November 11 at 7 PM – 9 PM EST, Hampton Coffee Company Southampton Coffee Experience,
749 County Road 39A, Southampton, New York 11968

Maggie Bloomfield presents: An Evening of East End Poets and Sublime Caffeination with Fabulous Featured Poets:  L. B. Thompson, Brian Cudzilo, Susan Dingle,  Adrienne Unger, Russ Green, and Michelle Whittaker

Open mic to follow. Be there at 6:30 pm sign up to read.

***POETRY IN DOWNTOWN BAY SHORE!***
Saturday, November 12 at 7 PM – 9:30 PM EST – Cyrus: Chai & Coffee Company, 1 Railroad Plz, Bay Shore, New York 11706.

Join hosts Matt Pasca and Terri Muuss every second Saturday at Cyrus’ for the kind of poetry, coffee, treats and open mic experience you’ve been looking for!!! Our features will move and inspire you with their honesty and scintillating presence. Open mic follows features, so bring your ukulele, cello, double bass, guitar, sonnets, spoken word, villanelles and more!

NOEL QUINONES is a writer, performer, and educator raised in the Bronx. Quiñones’ writing explores the spirituality of languages, the meanings of diasporic identity, and the ancient and present art of verse. A CantoMundo, Brooklyn Poets, and Emerging Poets Fellow at Poets House, he was most recently a member of the 2016 Bowery Poetry Slam team. He has performed at historic locations such as Lincoln Center, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and Apples and Snakes – London. His work has appeared in The Acentos Review, Pilgrimage Press, Kweli Journal, and Asymptote. Follow him @NQNino322 http://www.elninoquinones.com/about.html

SARA MORGAN is a scenic carpenter, artist, and electrician by day and a poet by night, having been recently outted by her boss as a writer. She has performed her spoken word with InspiredWordNYC, Rimes of the Ancient Mariner, and ESTLastCall. She holds degrees in Anthropology, Linguistics, and African Studies from the University of Iowa and draws upon her love of and fascination with the culture, history, and tongues of the peoples of the world in her writing. Her writing is a mix of prose, poetry, and storytelling, and she hopes to use her newly discovered voice to affect social change. A native of Arkansas via Chicago, Iowa, and East Africa, Sara currently lives in Harlem.

 

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TECHNIQUE v. SPONTANEITY IN THE ARTS

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There is a dangerous half-truth that has always haunted the practice and the appreciation of the arts: too much technique will inhibit creativity. Despite constant evidence that too little technique will inhibit it worse, the idea never quite dies, because it is politically too attractive. Young women are usually less susceptible, but young men are often pleased to think their creative activities would flourish best if they could spend more time getting up late in the morning and taking a longer nap during the afternoon. Hence the continuing popularity of Blake’s emphasis on just letting art happen, without too much sweat.” Clive James, Poetry Notebook, Reflections on the Language of Intensity

My current read: a thoughtful book delivered with the characteristic taste, wit and insight of Clive James, Australian cultural critic, poet, lyricist, memoirist and essayist.  The book is a collection of essays and “interludes” on poetry, poets, practice and technique.

Included in Clive James’ impressive opus are books of poetry: Poem of the Year (verse diary) and a collection of four mock-heroic poems, The Fate of Feisty Fark in the Land of Media: a moral poem and other collections.

Time with Clive James is always time well spent.

RELATED:

Clive James.com

Bill Moyes talks with cultural critic, Clive James

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‘Twas All Hallows’ Eve, a poem

Thanks to my friend M. for the terrace decor.
Thanks to my friend M. for the terrace decor.

… after Clement Clarke Moore‘s “Twas the Night Before Christmas …

‘Twas All Hallows’ Eve, and all through the house
Every creature was stirring, even our pet mouse
Oh the pumpkins were carved with very great care
In the hope that trick-or-treaters soon would be there
The children were agitated, not one in her bed
As visions of sweet treats danced in their heads
Dad and I in our costumes and me with my cap
Had settled by the door listening for the first rap
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter
We sprang to our feet to check on the matter
We threw open our door to offer sweet stash
While witches flew by, all glitter and flash
And the moon on the rise and the dark ground below
Gave lustre and bluster to ghosts on the go
And then what to our startled eyes should appear,
But a miniature ballerina among goblins, one bear
Now, Alice! Now Ernie! Now Jimmy! Now Chris!
Come little Tony, big Brandy and Trish
To the top of the stairs, don’t any one fall …
Now dash away dash away dash away all

Happy Halloween to all who celebrate! xo

And that’s it for my contribution to Halloween this year! Wishing you many sweets and no cavities. 

©2010, poem and photograph, Jamie Dedes, All rights reserved