Sunday Picnic By an Exaltation of Birches

[poetree_admin]

jjhunter

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

Comments

weekly roundup thread - member associated posts

[poetree_admin]

Have a poetry-related post or posts this week from your own journal/space that you'd like to share with the community? Comment on this thread with the link(s) and a brief description of you're linking to.

weekly roundup thread - general poetry news

[poetree_admin]

This is the thread for non-personal, i.e. 'general' poetry news. Submission deadlines for poetry-related 'zines, news re: poets from outside the comm, and so on.

Feedback For This Week's Poetry Host

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If you have general feedback for kaberett and/or the admins on how this past week went, please leave it here by responding to this thread. We're always interested in figuring out what particular themes, formats, contents, etc. work well for people, and which need more tweaking to work better.

Upcoming Member Events

[poetree_admin]

Are you a member of poetree? If you plan on hosting an online poetry event of some kind this week, feel free to let the admins know by PM or commenting on this thread, and we will post a short advertisement on your behalf to the comm when the event goes live.

Comm Announcements

[poetree_admin]

Congrats to the winners of our most recent set of comm challenges! alexseanchai won challenge #37 with an original poem inspired by Sappho's 'Hymn to Aphrodite'

O golden-throned one, Aphrodite, please,
enchanting daughter of the skies, I ask,
unlock these shackles with your shining keys [...]

cirque submitting the winning poem for challenge #38, Mrs Midas by Carol Ann Duffy. As our volunteer judge for this challenge (elisabethhewer) wrote,

The two I felt most drawn towards were definitely Mrs Midas and The Golden Fleece. I did adore the other three too, but I feel like these are the two that best reflect the theme of drawing on/responding to Classical concepts/themes. I loved the Laertes one especially, but it’s more just a kind of retelling of the original (in the original time period, too) rather than updating it?

So then between those two, I have literally agonised for hours. In the end I just went with my gut feeling, which pushed me towards Mrs Midas by Carol Ann Duffy. The Golden Fleece I absolutely adore, and that’s definitely going on my list of favourite poems ever. However, I feel like it more uses the framework of the myth of Jason than it tackles the themes? Whereas Mrs Midas modernises the tale and also takes a look at the feelings underneath - the resentment, the helplessness and despair of Midas, the fear and annoyance of his wife. It updated the story whilst keeping it very true to the original and giving it a wholly new perspective, and my reaction to it was strong and instant. [...] I think Mrs Midas best fits the criteria for the challenge.

You can read the other poems submitted for challenge #38 in the comments at the challenges 37 and 38 post.

Re: weekly roundup thread - member associated posts

[cirque]

I wrote a poem! I've been thinking a lot about life, generally and specifically, and the way I react differently at different times, so I wrote three stanzas on the opposing facets of ~life.

The Volcano, The Insect, The Star.

I dream I am an insect
Alive for just a day
I look up at vertebrate beings; I think them monsters.
My life is dirt and fruit and webby sinews of earth, six uneven feet
and the fibrous rub of wing on wing.
When I die, I will curl into the earth and welcome it home.

Re: weekly roundup thread - general poetry news

[jjhunter]

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, who has hosted here at the comm previously, posted a wonderful guest post at the 'Best American Poetry' blog this past week on Collaboration and remix.

I think something interesting happens when we see ourselves and our work as part of an interconnected matrix of creativity. Instead of "The Poet" on her pedestal and the adoring readers clustered at her feet (ha!), the new paradigm -- it's a bit web 2.0, or a bit fannish, honestly; everyone is a creator, not just a consumer -- gives us the possibility of one person making art, and another person responding in kind. How many of us are taking opportunity of how the internet facilitates collaboration, remix, cross-genre sparking of new creative possibilities across continents and time zones -- even between artists who may not know one another in person at all?

Re: weekly roundup thread - member associated posts

[jjhunter]

Lovely. I especially like the start of stanza two

I dream I am a volcano
Old and grumbly with a belly full of char.

-such an evocative image!

Re: weekly roundup thread - member associated posts

[cirque]

Thank you! That was the part I actually wrote first, and I think it was the stanza that came most organically to me..

Re: weekly roundup thread - member associated posts

[raze]

I'm a day late to the party, but I wrote a poem this week titled I No Longer Hunt for Rabbits. Opening verse below, and you can read on at the link above.

I asked you once which animal
you thought yourself most like
and you said,
a rabbit.

Re: weekly roundup thread - member associated posts

[raze]

Ooh, loved this.