why i love poetry workshops

i don't know what the protocol is for posting other people's poetry on the internet... this is by someone in my poetry workshop. and i've just fallen in love with it. i can't get it out of my head. i memorized it, i read it so many times. and i have to share it. it's by a woman named susan riddle-mojica, titled "My love"

He brings me
Roses

Each bloom precisely
Removed

And a card
That reads:

I cannot love you
With my soft, pink heart

I love you with my bones.

make use of all those poetry books on your shelf

well since i begged you all for help, the least i could do is offer my own writing prompt. so here it is: take a poem written by someone else. (not sure if it would be better to use one you know very well or one you hardly know at all...) type or write it out skipping a line between each of the poem's lines. then go back and read each line, continuing it with your own writing on all the blank lines in between. finally, take out the original poem and play with what you wrote, revising it into a complete poem without the prompt poem. i've only tried this once, but what i turned out with was nothing like the prompt poem i used! (and it turned out pretty well too!)

It's a good thing my friends are reliable poets

Ok, so I haven't posted a thing--until now. I'll admit I've been right alongside of those of you who feel stuck, without much inspiration to write a poem at all, let alone a good one. I'm doing my best these days to get myself back on the creative bandwagon. In the meantime, a prompt for KTB (and all the rest):

Take an event or process or memory and write a poem about it working backwards. Make it as basic as the hour you spent baking a batch of cookies last week, or as complicated as the process of transferring schools 3 times in your undergraduate career (call me on that one if you need any help:) ). Play your life in rewind for a few minutes and see what you can make of it.

!gnitirw yppah

a plea for help!

alright poets, from the little bits of personal conversation i've had with many of you i'm guessing we're all struggling with the same thing: we don't know what to write about.

and i know, jack always told us to stop worrying what to write "about", not to write "about" anything... but it doesn't change the fact that summer has come and gone and we have little more than half a poem each to show for it (if we're lucky).

so my proposition. about once a month i'll post a plea for help. everyone comment on this post with a writing prompt. whatever sort of prompt you'd like. a first line, a topic, a set of words to use, a feeling, whatever. i figure, if we each put up one prompt that gives us all a whole bunch to choose from!

and of course, make good use of the prompts and when you come up with a poem you feel is worth working on, post it for the rest of us to enjoy and help with and see what wonderful things you did with our ideas. good plan? well prompt away my drunken friends! this will only work if we all contribute!

"If it's in another country, it doesn't count."

At least that's what my friend/housemate said about it. In Africa, I had a bit of a romantic fling with this guy who was sweet and amazing to talk to about life, love and all those mysteries. He was more honest with me than most people in his situation would have been to someone they'd known for a mere 3 weeks, about his family, his dreams, his tragic flaws, etc. It continued a few precious weeks after returning to Holland, but things just weren't the same. He went away for the summer, I went home, and now it's akward. We run into each other sometimes, and it's like nothing ever happened. I've heard through the grapevine that he is an ass (and "sketchy," as Sarah says) and feel like a romantic fool. (Hey, we did walk the white sand beaches of Zanzibar and see 15+ shooting stars AND 2 meteors in 1 hour! Give me a break!) Anyway, this is my funny/sarcastic poem to this guy... who I heard from a friend said I was a big pain in his ass. We had a real connection, then it disappeared. Is it so wrong to at least try for a friendship? Tell me what you think.

I want you to know how
stupid you are for letting
me slip by. You're missing thousands
of smiles, glances, touches, my
fingers on your skin. And kisses.
How could you pass up
my kisses like you do turkey
sandwiches in the afternoon? What
makes you forget my lips, your
lips, four lips -- tulips all around--
the way we pressed gently and sucked
juices from each other's mouths? How
dare you forget the stars, the same
stars you told me to remember always like
you were romantic or something.
I could have shown you what love
really is.
Don't look at me with excuses.
I've got ears, man.

why does it seem the oyez office is the only room with no a/c?

imagine my excitement on a sticky tuesday afternoon sitting at the oyez review desk, sun streaming in through the open windows, el screaming by every 5-7 minutes... when i flipped through the submissions log book to see what i should be reading next and found... a fiction submission from our very own phil waalkes! yay! :) and this just makes me wonder... where are the rest of you?! come on poets! we have found only a handful of good pieces in the 90+ submissions read thus far, and the mail bins are empty, only bits of mail rolling in each day. you've got two weeks... get those poems in the mail!! :)

submission guidelines:
http://drunkpoets.blogspot.com/2004/09/hear-ye-hear-ye-submit-to-oyez.html

Back Label Poetry

You are all so kind. I love you all. So I'll share another fund Red Hat bit: the back label.

In creating back labels (which I must submit for approval very soon) this is the final text for our retail wines. Let me know what you think. I know these are not poems, but I hope they come close.

Red Hat Wine is a table wine but is equally welcome on sofas, boats, and beaches. The wine is reminiscent of autumn leaves, the sounds of skates on backyard ponds, and long days at the swimming pool. When uncorked at home it can release tension caused by rush hour traffic and long days at work. Fine to drink alone, but is complimented nicely by friends, family, fireplaces, patios, and porches.


And my door is open when every you all want to come and drink wine with me!

Free Wine For All Drunk Poets Society Members *

Yesterday, my dad and I officially became Federally licensed winemakers. In celebration I offer everyone here free wine, BUT *you have to drive to St. Clair Shores MI. I have moved into an apartment one mile down the street, and one of the the most comfy futons in the world with a (somewhat) beautiful view of the lake; so you have free lodging in addition to wine. Not to mention if you need poetic inspiration, I have a few sites for y'all to see. Make a day or a week of it, there is plenty for poets. ;)

Peace, Poems, and Pinot Noir,
Hadji "The Grape Stomper" Nickel

ps. the website is http://www.redhatwine.com

David Swanger: What the Wing Says

i just read an article for my lit mag class on poetry that included this poem, and i love it. and the whole class agreed it is a fabulous poem, and i just wanted to share it with you fabulous people. (p.s. class on the 6th floor of a very hot chicago loop building with the el flying by out the window every 5 minutes is great... but it's no dungeon)

What the Wing Says

The wing says, "I am the space behind you,
a dent in the fender, hands you remember
for the way they touched you. You can look
back and song will still throb. I am air
moving ahead, the outermost edge of desire,
the ripple of departure and arrival. But

I will speak more plainly: you think you are
the middle of your life, your own fulcrum,
your years poised like reckonings in the balance.
This is not so: dismiss the grocer of your soul.
Nothing important can be weighed, which is why
I am the silver river of your mornings and
the silver lake curled around your dark dreams.
I am not wax nor tricks stolen from birds.

I know you despair at noon, when sky overflows
with the present tense, and at night as you lie
among those you have wronged; I know you have failed
in what matters most, and use your groin to forget.
Does the future move in only one direction?
Think how roots find their way, how hair spreads
on the pillow, how watercolors give birth to light.
Think how dangerous I am, because of what I offer you."

A Very Rare and Special Gift

My dear Hope College friends. I have a rare and special treat to offer all of you for free. It is a reproduction of an amazing work of art that was found in the crevase between Jack Ridl's desk and bookshelf on the third floor of lubbers. Truth be told, it is even old, from the early seventies that is.

It has Jesus and Mary Magdeline (my interpretation) but others I found the possibility of other biblical stories to apply it to. This fabulous piece of poster art will be sent to you FREE of charge if you email me your address. This is a ONE time offer (yeah right I found about 40 of them in my closet and need to get rid of some).

At the moment I know of 8 people who have a copy (because I made copies for Jack and them) and the rest never picked theirs up. You will gaze longingly for insperation into this fine art department creation will your poetic genius wells up and bursts all over the page.

Send all inqueries to matthewnickel@hotmail.com

Please no po boxes, we do not accept CODs, credit cards, or any form of currency other than poetry. Sorry, all purchases are FINAL.

hear ye, hear ye! submit to oyez!

the oyez review is published by roosevelt university, where i am a grad student taking the lit mag class. (oyez means "hear ye!" and is pronounced oy-yay). we accept submissions from all over, whoever, however old, young, published, unpublished. last semester's magazine has works from recent college grads and from the poet laureate of colorado.

you should all submit! no joke, i'd be real excited to be putting in my time outside of class logging in submissions and to run across some familiar names.

deadline: october 1st (short notice, i know, but you can do it!)
typed and double spaced. no strict length restrictions, but try to stay under 15-20 pgs of prose. fiction and creative nonfiction accepted. 3-5 poems may be submitted, not to exceed 10 pgs total. for art, send slides, high resolution jpg images on cd, or other reproductions (no original work please). art will be printed in black and white only. include SASE, simultaneous submissions discouraged, previously published work will not be considered. no email submissions. send to:

oyez review
editors
school of liberal studies
roosevelt university
430 s. michigan ave
chicago, il 60605