The writings/musings of Scott Allen - husband, father, teacher, writer, board game addict
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
7th Follower Muw ha ha
Thanks goes out to Mary Biddinger for becoming a follower. I have been reading her blog the word cage for a while. I enjoy her ideas, perspective and photographs. Some sharp stuff going on there. Thanks for linking up my blog on your site as well.
Here is a poem for y'all
I'm not what you wanted
I’m
not what you wanted
No
Not me
Never me
I mean
I read/write poetry
for heaven’s sake
Not what you had planned
Not the athlete
throwing a pass
making a basket
But me
ended up with me
instead
Do I regret?
No
Not me
Never me
I’m
not what you wanted
And once again any comments would be helpful.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Womb and a couple other things
First - I am a huge comic book fan and my homepage is a site called Newsarama, which is essentially comic book news throughout the day. One of my favorite artists Ethan VanSciver has a weekly column entitled "Your time is now mine" and usually they are just strange musings and only mildly entertaining. Today's column was downright hilarious. Several times I found myself laughing out loud. It is on the subject of drawing and how we all begin drawing when we are young and some of us grow out of it and others do not. Anyway here is a link to it HERE
Second - I have been following Mary Biddinger's blog the word cage for a couple weeks. Earlier in December she posted an entry about taking our poetry inventory, or poetic accounting as I have been calling it - with myself. It's an interesting post check it out HERE. Anyway, last night I finally got around to taking my own poetry inventory. I divided my poems into three lists FINISHED POEMS, UNFINISHED POEMS, and SUBMITTED POEMS. I found that I have far more poems that are what I consider unfinished or still working on than I previously thought. With only 9 poems in my finished list and about 25 in my unfinished list. I guess some revision and work shopping of these poems is in order. It was good to take a minute to do some organization though. I now know where my poems stand and know where they are on my computer.
Third - the poem. And yes I have had several pregnant students. This has been a subject that has interested me time and again. I have three poems which are similar. This one I crafted most recently.
Womb
She barely squeezes
into her desk –
three rows in and four
back.
Her ripe belly
ready to burst
pomegranate red.
Soon a cry,
tears of joy.
I lecture –
ancient texts – classics:
Chaucer, Shakespeare,
Milton, Beowulf.
Expanded Canon:
Steinbeck, Salinger.
She doesn’t care.
Purple I-Pod to
her escape.
Eyes full of hate,
pain, sorrow.
But what of her child?
That swollen seed she bears.
Does this germ
of a student
now appreciate literature?
A grand violinist before
a London audience?
Brilliant scientists gazing
into a microscope?
Or the star quarterback
Throwing a game winning
Pass?
Like your bum of a father –
unwilling to acknowledge
your presence.
As with most of my poems - I am still drafting this one so comments are welcome.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Import of Drawing
William Michaelian - wonderful poet turned me on to the idea of drawing to force a poem. Well perhaps force is not the best word. I have been trying it - here and there and have thus added to my office several pieces of horrendous artwork and a couple of poems to work on. Here is my first attempt at drawing the poem and the poem that resulted. They have no connection, except for the act of drawing.
The Import of Drawing
I used
to draw in pencil.
Fearing my smudge.
Erasing mistakes,
misgivings.
Now I sketch with a
fine tipped plump
black
marker.
A new urgency
attends my scrawlings –
a desire to leave
a lasting mark.
Please comment as this poem is still being drafted
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Dreams of Flame
I dream,
bright, blue flames.
Which consume,
ignite,
and deliver sodden
birth.
As I dream,
I am lying on a bed
in a hospital
psychiatric ward.
The building burns around us.
How delicious - a charcoal death.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Welcome New Follower
I'm's blog is linked up in my blog section or you can check it out here
http://caughtinthedawning.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Two Poems Today
Winter Moon
O winter moon
if only warmth
issued from
your sinews
rather than
biting cold, darkness,
and death.
---------------------------
Untitled - suggestions for a title would be greatly appreciated
My son naps,
like a curled
feline,
in a three foot
by five and a half
section
of warmed carpet.
Super-heated by a
welcomed
winter sun.
Melting the
stabbing icicles
and providing
blanket heat
for my child.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
While Standing in Line at the Post Office
reading
selected
poetry in
holiday postal
traffic
a quick glance
from this marvelous
bit of personification
reveals
an old man rifled by
Lou Gehrig’s
disease
his tender
hands clutching
a pile
of Christmas correspondence
he looses hold
and the letters
sprinkle down
like a brief
holiday snow
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Library Books
I sincerely
apologize
for writing
in library books.
Not my property.
But at the time,
while my soul
knit tight
with the words,
and then all at once -
I connected with
the author,
editor,
my mother,
the president of the chess club,
and then
all of humanity.
It was so beautiful that I cried.
I just had to write the poem.
Please comment - this poem is still in drafting.
New Follower
Friday, December 12, 2008
Luljeta Lleshanaku's FRESCO
On Joe Hutchison's recommendation, I recently read and finished Fresco by Luljeta Lleshanaku. Joe's comments will be more insightful and thorough than mine will be. You can read them here.
Her poetry is beautiful, as is her story. Many of her poems have an almost childlike quality - her voice is so fresh and new, her eye for details and observations on the world are gorgeous.
I would have to say my favorite in the whole collection is "Self-Defense"
SELF-DEFENSE
by Luljeta Lleshanaku
"Confined
to a tent of soldiers
who will never return home.
If you try to leave
you will step on the bodies
sleeping beside you.
You have nowhere to go.
The stars
those witches' fingernails
stir your destiny through the fog.
In the corner
among ashes
you count the holes in your old blanket.
You breathe in bits of everyone's dreams.
Like an iceberg you ignore all borders.
While in your blodd
surprisingly enough
the leukocytes multiply."
Maybe I'm just morbid, but this is beautiful, almost tragic.
So check out Luljeta Lleshanaku
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Thank You
And a big shout to Joel Jacobson who began following the blog today. Check him out at
http://jejacobson.wordpress.com/
Once again thanks everybody.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Untitled
the slide of my shadow
settling
upon your peaceful,
asleep facade
the pain you feel
I know -
the heartache
I understand -
you break your front
seemingly startled awake
you smile at me
omniscient
your smirk
a handwritten personalized
invitation
Monday, December 8, 2008
To the spider by my bathtub drain
bathtub drain,
get out quick!
Don't you know
the deluge is coming?
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Crayon Nebulous
Circular loops
coming together in a crayon
epicenter
A new universe
in my notepad.
I wonder
at the genius
his tiny
hands have sired.
And I help him
sign and date
at the bottom.
I welcome any comments - still in the drafting phase on this one
Friday, December 5, 2008
Two Bit
Take a gander at this old bastard.
Tattooed – covering arm
back wrist.
Names of his children penned
into pink flesh.
His long gray matted beard
falls into steaming stew.
He curses and pulls the tips
out.
They cut the ends off – because he doesn’t care any,
this old bastard.
He wears a kilt (and a t-shirt
that says “Screw
You” in bold white on black lettering)
in the frigid Canadian
morning air.
And marches with his brothers
in honored Scottish
procession.
Ain’t he beautiful?
I play video games quite often - on the internet. And in the midst of my gaming I met a guy from Canada who uses the handle Twobit in game. He recently posted pictures from the Scottish festival he attended. It inspired me to write this poem.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Poem this morning
The snows have come again
and for a brief moment I am
starring at a blank canvas.
The vehicles parked out in
front
covered with a blanket
of powder.
Later,
the children will begin
their lazy trails - erecting
men of ice.
Nibbling on the snacks
that will become
emotion.
Listening to the drop/splash
of a melting orchestra
The couple below us
will push their two
into the cold.
The younger immediately will
join the frolic.
The elder
first-born son
will hug the brick -
watching the melt
of the icicles above.
Till one breaks
and falls
into a pillow down white
Un-shattered he
now owns a
crystal dagger - for a time.
I am not set on the title. And I do still want to play around with this - revise it. But I enjoy some of the images. Please Comment
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Poetry Magazine Dec. 08
This issue was in the middle. Some of the poems were really quite good - Todd Boss' "This Morning in a Morning Voice," and "Don't Be Flip,"; Nick Beer's "Prairie Octopus, Awake"; Michael Rutherglen's "Lives of the Watchmakers"; Roger Reeves' "Cymothoa Exiqua"; Caki Wilkinson's "Lares and Penates" and finally, Alison Stine's "School" and "After the Party." - And some were not good at all. Hard to understand.
I think my favorite poem from this issue was "School" by Alison Stine. I enjoyed the images and feelings expressed by it. The raw, lovesick, emotions conveyed by writing poems in school. The image of the girl sitting next to the speaker - picking her scabs - ahhh it is just beautiful and sick. Why does she have scabs? So much in so little.
I usually don't read the comment or letters to the editor sections of this publication, but I have been searching for non-fiction texts for my Juniors (as they prep for the ACT) and I started reading "Branches: A Notebook" by Fanny Howe. I haven't finished it, and I don't know if it will prove fruitful. But it is the first of the commentary - non poetic - pieces that Poetry publishes that I have begun reading.
Overall, I would say a good issue. Probably worth picking up - if you don't already have a subscription.
Monday, December 1, 2008
I took Poetry: The Voice Within this Fall semester at DU. The course was taught by the inspiring Joe Hutchinson and during the course I stumbled upon his blog and that of several other writers. I did some investigating and discovered that blogging has its merits. I had always thought of it as people who had either too much time on their hands or families that wanted to share pictures of junior.
In my case, both may be true.
This blog will be a mixture of a lot of different things. I would like to share my writing with others from this venue. But I would also like to discuss things that interest me. Video games, comic books and miniature war gaming will frequently fill my posts. Most of all I hope that this will be a nice springboard for my writing. If I can be dutiful and write here often, perhaps it will turn into an excercise before I get the really serious writing.