My monkey, I mean my youngest son, recently left a comment asking shouldn’t I be writing poems, “you know, the Poet part of Dad Poet?” Good point, and I admit that although I have been working on a few new pieces, I once again find myself back into editing and submission mode. I am sending things out hither and yon, and looking forward to those rejection emails. Sigh. To be fair though, often when I am editing and revising, it is just late stage creation. For instance there was a poem whose original draft made it to paper almost seven years ago–I just finally decided it was finished two days ago. Um, yes, thank the muses that they don’t all take that long, but sometimes one has to put a good idea aside because it’s become bored with you. Then often when you come back, you find that what you started to create really did miss you, and is dying to tell you the rest of its story.
Now we are back to my mystical explanations of some of my writing processes, but really, I doubt there is anything truly mystical about it, more just the mysterious workings of a scattered brain. So, Micah, while I am working on some new things, here is one that’s really only been out of the box for a short time. I think I stopped fiddling with this one over a year ago. Since I sent it out in submission to a literary journal, I’ll not print the words here (I don’t want them to consider it already published).
Before I post the video clip from last night though, I should tell you that I did recently update the Poet Page with a better, more thorough listings of my original poems that you can find online, but now I’ll have to add this video as well. This reading is the first time this poem has seen the light of day, or at least been read to by anyone other than maybe Brian. It seemed to get a great reaction, which is heartening. Sometimes I get to feeling, ‘This is all in my head. Nobody else is going to laugh or think this is interesting.’ But then I get surprised by people in the crowd like last night. They were making eye contact, smiling, even nodding and chuckling in all the right places. For me, live readings are just one more way that this odd practice of poetry I’ve taken up is really a journey of discovery.
This was a reading at the travelling exhibit for the photography contest winners of Landscapes and Treasured Towns for the Susquehanna Greenway Project. I was impressed with their presentation, and their use of the arts to reach people with the message of preserving our great river valleys here in Pennsylvania. There was a cute duet on Ukelale and Guitar that was FricknAdorable. No, seriously, it was, that was their name: FricknAdorable. Maybe I can include a bit of their music next video.
EDIT: I noticed I am missing almost a whole line! Yikes. Right after I say, ‘You might consider a scope/ for those hawk-ish specks soaring far.” The next line should read, “The tripod should be sturdy; it’s windy/ on the ridge. Again, the shaking, the blur.”
How they thought it made sense without the tripod line, I don’t know. But it was a fun reading!
Related articles
- One River, Three Poets: River Fest 2012 (dadpoet.wordpress.com)
- Submission (mmendus.wordpress.com)
- River and Moon, Two Poems by Me from River Fest 2012 (dadpoet.wordpress.com)
- And Other Poems (poethead.wordpress.com)
- News Flash: School Bus Breakdown by the River (dadpoet.wordpress.com)
- Source of Lit – Literary Journals (emergingwriters.typepad.com)
- What the Poetry Is Going On Around Here – Dad Poet Readings and News (dadpoet.wordpress.com)
- INTRODUCING: pilaf literary journal (pilafliteraryjournal.wordpress.com)
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