poetree | Join us under the Poet's Tree for our Sunday Picnic

alee_grrl posting in

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

alee_grrl

So my contribution this week is only slightly poetry related. A couple of weeks ago I wrote this untitled etheree. The poem was inspired by all the work that myself and the rest of my law school's LGBT group was doing to put together our yearly drag show fundraiser. The Stonewall Gayla has been a Vermont Law School event for a little while now (though no one is exactly sure how long it's been going). Every year we try to make it a little better and get more school wide participation, including staff and faculty. Last year we had several faculty members participate, which was amazing. This year we nearly doubled the amount of professor participation. Quite a few faculty and staff also came to support the event even if they weren't actively participating with a stage act. I love my school for a lot of reasons (the faculty is top notch and the classes are excellent for the most part, and there is a sense of community and friendship among the students that is a rare thing to find in law schools), but seeing 3 of the Deans and several other top faculty perform in drag to help raise money for a local LGBT charity just made my heart sing. Also seeing cadets from Norwich Academy, one of the oldest military academies in the United States, there and having a great time (after successfully celebrating the first ever Pride Week at a military academy in the United States) brought me great joy. It may have been a long and difficult week, but this night made things better.

Edited (To fix a grammatical error) Date: 2012-04-08 04:00 am (UTC)

From:

snowynight

It's great!

From:

untonuggan

That is awesome! \o/ I love drag shows.

From:

alee_grrl

It was so much fun. Hopefully next year I'll be well enough to try my own hand at performing. :D

From:

bookblather

Hurray for drag balls and participating faculty! That sounds like it must have been so much fun. Congratulations on pulling it off.

From:

alee_grrl

Thanks! It was a massive amount of fun. Will be hard to top next year, but we'll find a way to make it even more spectacular next year.

From:

zirconium

Hello, everyone! Two things from my virtual backpack:

* A friend pointed me toward Nan Cohen's A Newborn Girl at Passover, which I really liked.

* Currently on my To Do list: finishing my assigned reviews for the upcoming issue of Galatea Resurrects. I mention this because there are heaps of books waiting to be reviewed that might be of interest to some of you, and Eileen (the editor in chief) is always interested in fresh blood for future issues. Payment is in copies of books from Meritage Press (which Eileen runs) or Eileen's own titles.

From:

jjhunter

I'd love to re: the latter, but I'm very, very busy until April 16th and it sounds like April 15th is the deadline for the current issue. Are there similar opportunities for latter on in the year?

From:

zirconium

Yes -- she has to mail the review copies to you anyway, so any requests now would definitely be for a later issue (I don't know whether that would be August or November, though). Sorry about not explaining that clearly!

Edited (yet more clarification) Date: 2012-04-08 11:57 am (UTC)

From:

jjhunter

Ah--thank you for the clarification! I'll bookmark this and come back to it after this week's busyness is over. By and by, did you see the notice several threads down about the call for more people to sign up as weekly Poetry Hosts? Is that something that might be of interest to you? We also have slots for single-day Hosting available for the upcoming multi-Hosted week April 23rd on teaching poetry/poetry critique & analysis. If you've been doing a fair amount of poetry reviewing, maybe a post or two on the subject might come easily...

From:

zirconium

It does sound interesting! I need to wait until summer to sign up, but I'll put it on my list of "things to consider after the smoke clears."

From:

jjhunter

p.s. that final line of the poem you shared gives me wonderful shivers

The taste of apricots is in store for her.

Yes, oh yes beautiful yes.

Are you familiar at all with the poetry of Rabbi Rachel Barenblat? She's one of our past Poetry Hosts (and those posts are well worth reading & commenting on!), and she's been posting some very interesting stuff over at her Velveteen Rabbi blog, including this mini-series about toddlers and various Jewish traditions. This poem reminds me of her work very much.

From:

zirconium

Rachel and I are friends. (Among other things, she's responsible for telling me about Tmol Shilshom, a book-themed cafe in Jerusalem.) I'm so glad that you enjoy her work!

From:

jjhunter

Following up on the cowboy poetry vein, this review by past Poetry Host Dave Bonta of 'The Capable Heart' by Ann E. Michael has some lovely excerpts of horse poetry; from the review,

This quietly powerful collection made me care about horses — and not merely because the title derives from a translation of a passage in my favorite work of philosophy, Zhuangzi. Though I have some friends who are into horses, the horse-riding culture has always been pretty alien to me, and on rare close encounters with the beasts I’ve felt a bit intimidated, to be honest. But the narrator, too, was a stranger to horses, as she explains in “Ways We Are Alike”:

From:

bookblather

Oh, wow, that sounds like the most beautiful book. As soon as I have money I'll be picking it up.

From:

jjhunter

If you have personal posts or general poetry news to share from this past week (4/2 - 4/8), please respond to this comment or PM me by 8:00pm EST today.

From:

alee_grrl

I wrote a mirrored set of etherees this week. They may be found here and here. Concrit is appreciated.

From:

jjhunter

If you've ever been even slightly interested in Hosting, or if you've Hosted before and would consider doing so again, please head over to the current signup post and leave a comment indicating your interest. I haven't had time to do much in the way of recruiting lately, and there's no one signed up to Host after myself this upcoming week.

From:

lilmoka

Oh, what the hell, I'm giving it a try!

From:

jjhunter

Hip hip hooray!

From:

lilmoka

Hee :D

I'm still wondering what I'm going to write, but I'm sure I'll come up with something ;)

From:

jjhunter

Manda & I are here to help if you want a person or two to brainstorm with. It looks like your turn will likely come in May, so you have a few weeks to think about it.

From:

lilmoka

Aww, thank you! Actually, I already have a rough draft of the intro post planned. Apparently, as soon as I wrote 'I don't know what to write bwaaa' my brain decided to dump a gazillion ideas on me... *shifty eyes*

I think I'm going to do something about multilingual poems and maybe translation, too *ponders*

From:

alee_grrl

I think I'm going to do something about multilingual poems and maybe translation, too *ponders*

Sounds fun. :) JJ's right, she and I are happy to bounce ideas around for anyone who wishes to host.

From:

lilmoka

Thank you, you're both so sweet! You're the best mods ever *snuggles both of you*

From:

alee_grrl

Awww! Thanks. Snuggles are always nice. :)

From:

jjhunter

I'm looking for three to four community members to act as single day Hosts for the upcoming themed week on teaching poetry / poetry analysis & critique. (Description may be refined in the upcoming weeks.) Ever covered a poem in the classroom as a student or a teacher? Ever had a poem workshopped or done a formal or semi-formal analysis or review of a poem? Even if none of these apply to you, if you have thoughts on the subject please do consider leaving a comment here on this thread indicating your interest. (And if one or more does apply to you...what are you waiting for? ;o) )

Edited (changed icon to be more clear that am speaking with my !admin hat on) Date: 2012-04-08 11:34 am (UTC)

From:

untonuggan

Sure, I'll do a day! I have an interesting critiquing experience to share about! ^_^

From:

ysabetwordsmith

I could take Thursday, April 26 on leading a discussion of poetry. Let me know if this works for you.

From:

jjhunter

The day is yours; thank you for signing up for it!

From:

jjhunter

The collaborative April Haikai fest is still ongoing. Today's offering (Pattern-Seeking) wants continuance at the original post...

stars are not enough
we must have constellations
stories to explain

From:

lnhammer

I spent this week reading gobs of poetry from all over, for a side project I hope to clear off my table Real Soon Now. Two especially interesting discoveries:

On an Unsociable Family

Wild Peaches

(That last was written in Washington, DC, where I grew up, so an escape to the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake makes perfect sense to me.)

---L.