serene: mailbox (Default)
serene ([personal profile] serene) wrote in [community profile] poetree2012-06-19 10:04 am

Host intro post: Serene

Hi, there! I'm Serene, and I'll be your [community profile] poetree host this week.



I'm a big old weirdo, and I like it. I am bi, poly, and an atheist. I raised someone else's kids. And weirdest of all? I like poetry in clear English. ;-)

I live in Oakland, California. I work at UC Berkeley, doing work that often involves my editorial side, and I'm a Creative Writing major (two quarters left to go!) at Cal State University, East Bay (in Hayward, CA). I'm a published poet and journalist, and I publish the small-press literary magazine called "42" -- if you'd like to submit work for our September issue, please do -- and I do that for love, because it certainly doesn't make me any money. I also blog both here at Dreamwidth, and at my food blog, The Mom Food Project.

Lately, I've also been writing fiction, and starting to get the hang of it. I hope some day to make my living writing, though I may never leave my awesome job, which I tend to call The Best Job Ever.





My first poetry teacher, Steve Kowit, edited a book of what he called "Maverick Poetry," which is poetry that's deep and wonderful, but not impenetrable and so dense you can't understand it. I fell in love with that style of poetry, and I have little patience for stuff that I can't suss out.

I'll be sharing some of my poetry, but also some other poems that meet my criteria: Poems in clear, understandable English that are nevertheless deep, meaningful, and beautiful.



And now it's your turn. I'm relatively new here, so tell me about you! I'm especially interested in links to your poetry and other writing.
lnhammer: the Chinese character for poetry, red on white background (Default)

[personal profile] lnhammer 2012-06-19 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi, and welcome.

I'm some guy named Larry, and I write narrative poetry and translate Japanese. I identify as a member of the Well-Versed Skiffy movement, which has the motto "good storytelling, good meter, good speculative fiction." So, yes, on the accessibility, as a entrance into the deeper currents.

Links to some of my stuff available online, including a collection of translations, is here and my running index of my current translation project is here. Oh, and I'm in the final stages of revising a year-long cycle of nature poetry, which I think of as a narrative in small slices.

Oh, and I'm hosting this week in [community profile] poetry.

---L.
alee_grrl: A kitty peeking out from between a stack of books and a cup of coffee. (Default)

[personal profile] alee_grrl 2012-06-19 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I noticed you were hosting this week over on [community profile] poetry. Very cool. :D
alee_grrl: A kitty peeking out from between a stack of books and a cup of coffee. (kitty)

[personal profile] alee_grrl 2012-06-19 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Welcome!

I'm Manda. I love using words as my paint brush (in addition to actually using a paint brush as a paint brush--though admittedly I do more writing than drawing/painting these days). I like to write things that present a clear image, and that are evocative on some level. You can find my poetry here. I also have a strange and somewhat twisted sense of humor, most clearly exhibited in this poem.
primeideal: Multicolored sideways eight (infinity sign) (Default)

[personal profile] primeideal 2012-06-19 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm primeideal, or Ember. I like writing with constraints, such as in sonnet form or omitting a specific letter--you can see some of my writing here. http://lipogramscorecard.wordpress.com/ Mostly sports-focused, some parodies though. I'm also getting into "metro poetry," composing in my head between train stops and then writing a few lines at a time at stops.
ashestosnow: (reading in the rain)

[personal profile] ashestosnow 2012-06-20 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
Hello and welcome!

I'm Celes, I'm 34, and in one of those transitional phases of life where I'm spending a lot of time working out who I am and where I want to be. For me, this involves a lot of breaking down of my past, and that's something that comes through occasionally in my poetry (though not, I hope, in too maudlin a way!)

I'm rather a fan of challenges, which is one of the main reasons I joined this community, and I tend to enjoy playing within the constraints of particular rhymes and rhythms, though I've also written some free verse. I freely admit to being in love with my thesaurus; I enjoy the diversity of words, and the odd and forgotten nuances of older or less commonly used words.

Most of what I've written is under access lock, but you can see a few of my unlocked poems on my journal.