A List, from Julianna Baggott’s Visit

Butler University, April 2013

How to be a successful writer:

·         There is no talent, just hard work.

·         Inspiration is a destructive construct.

Julianna professed to make every student of hers study the Anders Ericsson theory of Deliberate Practice. Interestingly, he is faculty at Florida State University, as well, where Baggott teaches in the Creative Writing Program. Basically, hard work pays of—and if you practice several hours a day, you will become an expert. She notes that constructs like: luck, visualization, and innate talent combine to create a cultural obsession with spontaneous success, success that requires no effort.

·         Be who you are, and be that well.

·         Know your stories.

·         Make storytelling a way of life.

·         Horde the details (document everything).

·         Use what you’ve been given.

·         Risk humiliation; always be writing just on the verge of humiliating yourself.

·         Accept criticism. It breaks the piece open.

·         Your craft will ask you to sacrifice. Be willing to sacrifice.

·         If you want the stuff, the life you can’t afford, you’ll ignore your craft. Don’t want the stuff, want the real thing.

·         Be not vaguely bitter, be specifically bitter.

·         Know exactly what you want.

·         Polish your jealousy, feed the chip on your shoulder.

·         More hours, more hours, more work.

How to live a resentment free life:

·         Have a secret self.

·         Be full with ambition.

·         Quit; know when to quit, be willing to work really hard, and have a backup plan.

·         Stand up for each other.

·         Suffer fools gladly.

·         Stop being prissy.

·         Failure is a narrative plot point, necessary to get you on to the thing you need to do.

·         Commit to the daily practice of empathy.

Special Sale from Cave Wall Literary Journal

A particular poetry and art journal I am a big fan of, Cave Wall, is doing a special sale in honor of National Poetry Month. There are just a couple days left to get a free back issue with a 2 year subscription. Good stuff here.

Poem A Day Challenge for National Poetry Month April 2012

I have been following a PAD Challenge this month. Thought I would share one of the poems I completed. Also linking it to Open Link Night at Dverse Poets. Hope you like it!

In the Forest

In the forest shadows coat the floor.
Heed her jugular.
In the forest trees pulse
root to leaf.
The bough shudders,
leaf flutter breaks time.
The sparrows are agape with gossip.

In comes the rake--
his stalk threatens
the musty pillow bed.
Her vein leaks juice,
sticky and finely scented
with a century of tree breath.
It trickles the path like a secret.

Tired of the melody
the birds break broken twigs to nest,
sleep, along the steep path
stony with roots that jut like bones,
out of sorts and gray.
The wood is dry today
and every breath rustles
the trees.

National Poetry Month: The Etheridge Knight Festival, "Evening with the Legends"

Last night was a whirlwind of poetry. Four poets of strong conviction, radical, and powerful, gave a reading at the Etheridge Knight Festival of the Arts at the Indiana Landmarks Center, Indianapolis. It was called "Evening with the Legends", honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, and featured readings by Amiri Baraka, Mari Evans, Haki Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez.
They filled up my ears, my head...with three and a half hours of intense poetry. The night ended late, and I went to bed with my head full of their words and images, with no time to process it. I woke in the middle of the night to disturbed dreams full of wreckage, and broken lines of poetry. Some unfamiliar rhythm beating through my brain.
Swimming and swirling in the dark belly of night--ribs cracked, eyes bruised. My chest burst from the energy of the run.
Their words and images fell on my dreams as a shadow: rage, deception, death, loss, grief, judgement...vampires, politicians, murderers...
And sometimes beauty. This morning, the love poem Mari Evans read last night, "Celebration", seemed to shine even brighter from the midst of all those dark words.

The evening ran long, and sometimes even the poets seemed tired  and strained, sitting on the stage, for hours. The acoustics were not great and at times I strained to hear their words. So much punch packed into one night.
Amiri Baraka was massive. Highlights were his reading of "Somebody Blew Up America" and his Low-kus.
Mari Evans was passionate. She shared several poems that highlighted her work with prisons.
Haki Madhubuti was bright and heady. He shared some poems from  Liberation Narratives, including one of the same title which was standout. He promoted writing good poetry by reading good poetry.
Sonia Sanchez was dizzying, and rythmic and ended the night with a litany of names, of writers, philosophers, friends, people who inspired her, called "A Poem of Praise".

The night opened with the reading of an Etheridge Knight poem, "The Idea of Ancestry", which had me captivated.

There were many calls to action--each of the poets emphasized the importance of activism, art, and encouraging our youth.

The taste of sorrow is an apple tree half juiced at the end of summer, when the air starts to smell boozy and the bees wind in and out of the near rotten fruits.