Website of Interest

Someone sent me a link to poetryvlog. Once there you will find a selection of poets reading their work, 5 poems each, on video with audio. Nice for when you need a reading but can't get out to one. There's a link that provides you with instructions on how to submit your own video. Little annoyance: my AOL browser instructed me to download QuickTime which I did. Then I was asked to download a Netscape plug-in, but when I attempted to do so, I received an apology from AOL that they haven't yet found a plug-in for Macs. I was able to view the video using Safari and Firefox, but why isn't AOL providing a plug-in?

Good News Department: Ed Byrne just let me know that he's nominated my poem, "Temptation by Water," for the 2007 Best of the Net anthology from Sundress Publications. The poem appears in the current issue of Valparaiso Poetry Review. Other nominees will be posted this weekend at Ed's blog.

Is It Hot in Here, or Is It Just Me?

Here's a poem I love by Lisel Mueller:

Magnolia

This year spring and summer decided
to make it quick, roll themselves into one
season of three days
and steam right out of winter.
In the front yard the reluctant
magnolia buds lost control
and suddenly stood wide open.
Two days later their pale pink silks
heaped up around the trunk
like cast-off petticoats.

Remember how long spring used to take?
And how long from the first locking of fingers
to the first real kiss? And after that
the other eternity, endless motion
toward the undoing of a button?


Some of what I admire: the speed with which she gets right down to it, the elegance of the simile that ends stanza 1, the feeling of direct address, and the turn as she enters stanza 2. What an odd leap from the compression of the seasons to the speed with which lovers these days hop into bed before a real courtship. Surprising, yet utterly credible and prepared for. I love her implication that today something is missed, i.e., the exquisiteness of desire that takes its time. Notice, too, that the second stanza consists of just three questions, no statements. For me, that raises the temperature several degrees. This poem grows in intensity with repeated readings.

This Is Just to Say

. . . that I've finally decided to join the world of blogging. I resisted in the past, thinking blogging was perhaps a waste of time and perhaps a bit self-indulgent. Maybe it is. But I've also realized lately that a blog is a good way of joining the larger community of poets. And it seems that in spite of the many miles separating bloggers from each other, a feeling of friendship emerges. I've been reading a number of poetry blogs and finding the conversation interesting and often useful with lots of good tips and links. So while I'm feeling a bit like a child about to enter a new school, here I am. I hope to contribute something to the conversation and not to whine too much. But don't get me started on the new postal rates!