pine cone wedged
in a rotten sleeper,
on derelict tracks,
may become a tree
and made into sleepers.
Tree Hell [Tanka]
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BOOK: “New Comic Limericks” ed. by Ivanette Dennis
New Comic Limericks by Ivanette DennisMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This anthology consists of 63 pages of whimsical limericks with amusing cartoon illustrations by Louis Marak. There aren’t laugh-out-loud yucks to be had here, but the wordplay of these poems is clever and the limericks are more well-crafted than most. It should be pointed out that there is nothing risqué in the collection either. The most best-known limerick writers included are Ogden Nash, Edward Lear, Gelett Burgess, and Charles Barsotti. [Incidentally, the most famous writers included are Rudyard Kipling, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and Robert Louis Stevenson.]
The pieces take a wide variety playful approaches to the limerick from eye rhymes, slant rhymes and the shape poetry of Charles Barsotti.
If you’re interested in limericks and wordplay, there is a lot to learn from the examples presented in this anthology.
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Dandelion [Limerick]
“Spring has lined all roads with dandelions.”
At this a young girl started cryin’
You see, to her ear,
‘Twas rational fear,
For she was afraid of Dandy Lions.
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DAILY PHOTO: Amboseli Cranes
PROMPT: Underrated
Alfred Krupa, Bernard Sadow, and Robert Plath, men whose inventions over thirty-three years during the late twentieth-century ushered in a new epoch in human history — the era of the wheeled suitcase.
Now, the fact that we didn’t figure out putting wheels on a suitcase until the late 20th century (and that when we did it took several long-fought permutations before wheeled suitcases were worth a damn) is a chilling testimony to how quickly General Artificial Intelligence will leave our species in the dust.
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BOOK: “Lonesome Cities” by Rod McKuen
LONESOME CITIES LTD EDIT by Rod McKuenMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Google Books Page
Rod McKuen is the posterchild for poets who were loathed and brutalized by critics, yet who had massive popular followings. He is the Minecraft Movie of poets. McKuen was also a songwriter and recording artist. Poet and lyricist seem almost identical career fields (one makes money for being a simplified version of the other [the poor] one,) but I suspect in their differences one finds a big chunk of the resolution to the aforementioned disparity. At the end of this collection is a chapter entitled “13 Songs” that contains a baker’s dozen of poems that are pop lyric-esque. Until I got to these, I thought McKuen may have been getting an unfair wrap for being schmaltzy and pedestrian, but when I got to them, I could see the truth in the criticism.
This is not to say McKuen would have been as harshly judged today as he was in 1968 when this book came out. He was a bisexual man who is most famous for writing “Seasons in the Sun” (an unambiguously schmaltzy song made popular by Terry Jacks in a much more up-tempo version,) and in an era in which academics were “total squares.”
At any rate, this collection, which is largely organized by city, is a fun read.
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PROMPT: Minimalist
You own few things and nothing owns you.
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Prickly Pear [Haiku]
prickly pears bloom:
yellow offering bowls —
bees give & take.
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DAILY PHOTO: Valley, Boz-Salkyn
BOOK: “The Writing Life” by Annie Dillard
The Writing Life by Annie DillardMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher site – Harper
This essay lays out what it takes to write through discussion of Dillard’s first-hand experience writing. Issues discussed include the ability to not only hack away at one’s work but sometimes to wholly abandon it to restart from a blank page, the time it takes, and the need for a space of one’s own and solitude. The final chapter takes a twist, telling the story of a stunt pilot who lived in the same area as Dillard, a story that I took as an allegory for the writing life.
I’d highly recommend this book for writers, but also for those who like to read well-crafted writing.
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Tiger Riding for Beginners 