Last night's meeting

The meeting went well. I had to step out for a few minutes to set some chairs up in our meeting room and those in attendance worked on a couple of group poems.

Unititled #1

I read a book I didn't enjoy
so I went to the store and bought a toy
but on my way back I saw a boy...
and jumped for joy
and said, "my, you're a pretty boy, aren't you?"
but he was ugly, so it wasn't true
but, feeling kind, I smiled and said, "You look blue."
A delightful grin crossed his his lips and he spoke,
"Why yes, I believe I am...
and I'm feeling a little green, too."
"You're green because you're hungry," I said,
"would you like some soup?"
"No," he replied with a gleam in his eye,
"I'm hungy for you!"

The smile never fading from my lips, "Well then, here I am for you."

Untitled #2

Straightening pictures, reading stories
writing books, laughing out loud
punching girls, punching boys
I love writers club.

Dancing to tones, singing to songs
goofing off, always off subject
alliteration and digression.

Locking ourselves in cupboards,
cubboards of inspiration
questinable inspiration
but joyful nonetheless.

Ah, the joyful wonders of insanity
because everyone here is insane
(there's no excuse)
except Ed
(although we doubt that at times).

Meeting this week

This is the monthly reminder that our monthly meeting is right around the corner. Don't forget we are meeting this Thursday at 6 pm. That will be Thursday, September 28th at six pm. I'll be there...will you?

Reading reading reading

I've been reading a collection of Harry Turtledove short stories called "Counting up, Counting down" for the last few days. My favorite story by far has been one called "After the last elf is dead." It's set in a world much like Middle Earth and it's a "what if" story. As in, what if the Dark Lord wins? Good fun.

We haven't discussed that too much on here. Anyone doing any fun reading that's not school work?

Photography Contest

By the way, gang, there's a free online photography conest sponsored by a friend of a friend that gives away actual prizes. It's called The Everyman Photo Contest and it is what it says it is. It is open to anyone that is not a professional photographer. I recommend giving it a shot. It really is a lot of fun and it's free and you get your photographs posted on a professionally designed webpage.

Martha Gellhorn

Have any of you guys ever heard of this lady? There's a biography that came out recently that I am going to read some day. Fascinating lady. Here's an excerpt from an interview with the woman that edited a recently published book of Gellhorn's letters. "People thought of her that way a lot, and it made her very, very angry. If someone had the temerity or foolishness to bring it up, she would just get up and leave the room. She used to say, "I was with him for eight years, and married for four. I've lived a lot of other lives." I was telling someone recently I've written about Martha Gellhorn, and it seemed to draw a blank. I said, 'She was a writer and a war correspondent.' Then, with huge reluctance, I said, 'She was also married to Ernest Hemingway,' and the person said, 'Ah, of course.' And I could just see Martha sending a rope down from above."

Q: What is it about a mouse's brain and the universe?

A: They are strangely similar. I thought you guys might get a kick out of that. I would think that picture would appeal to the writers, drawers and math whizzes.

"New" Tolkien

According to this story Christopher Tolkien has finished a work by his father and it's going to come out soon. I'm not too crazy about projects like this. Except for the Silmarillion I have avoided all the posthumous releases of Tolkien. In general, I am not a big fan of any writer finishing another writer's work or writing new stories in another's universe. Although when the main character's in Robert Heinlein's "Number of the Beast" briefly stayed Lewis Carroll's Wonderland I thought is was wonderful. A double standard? No, I think not, more of a homage. Anyone have an opinion on this?

Just thinking

This is my week for my evaluation here at work and every year we have to come up with goals. I thought that maybe, just maybe we could start some kind of a literary website that we would be the editors of. Mind you, this is in the very early just-thinking-about-it stage but I wanted to see what you guys thought of it. This would be even something our long distance members could join in with us. Is it an old idea that has run its course online? Would it be too much work? Shoot me some early thoughts on this.

Flight Delayed
You stole my heart
With one innocent Grand Gesture
Before disappearing
Into an infinite plane.

I've never used so many math terms
Until I had to make you understand.
Even now I must look them up,
Though the connections are clear.

Pi equals Pie equals Poe equals Darkness
Equals Me plus You equals Love.
The equation is simple.
Do you care/dare/swear to solve it?

Your plane has doubled back
And deposited you at the beginning;
But now I myself have travelled off
Without ever moving on.

I shall return
(And hope you do the same)
When desperation and cold winds chill the heart
And only the Holly and the Ivy are green.

Never mind the presents
With bows and hearts hung high;
You're the real reason
I'm counting the days to Christmas.



The events in this poem are purely hypothetical, and should not be taken to represent obsessions the author may or may not have.

ETA: I just realised what the title could be taken as, considering the date. I did not mean it that way, but if it adds meaning for you, go for it.

Howdy

The October meeting has been moved up a week. We are going to meet on Thursday, October 19th instead of the 26th. The board of elections is holding their early voting the following week and we can't meet in the room because they will have voting machines locked in there and that is top secret stuff and we're not allowed near it. We are doing the same thing in November since Thanksgiving falls on the fourth week of that month. Our meeting date in November is the 16th. September is unchanged. We will be meeting on the fourth Thursday as usual and that date is the 28th.

Crikey

One thing you can say about the passing of the Crocodile Hunter is that at least he died doing what he loved: harassing animals in the wild.

Kipling

I came across this poem in an article about Rudyard Kipling and his son who died during World War War I, the first "war to end all wars." Kipling wrote an amazing poem about his dead son a year later. The
article is here and the poem is below and in the article.

My Boy Jack (1916)

Have you news of my boy Jack?'
Not this tide.
'When d'you think that he'll come back?'
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

'Has any one else had word of him?'
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

'Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?'
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind -
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

From Last Night

At last night's meeting we did a fun exercise where we played with Roger Zelazny's Rule of Three. This rule states that when describing a character all you need to do is mention three things about the character at a time. This is enough information to give the reader an idea as to the nature of your character and leaves enough unsaid to allow the reader to use his imagination. One of the types of characters we desribed last night was a dark lord and/or dark lady. Here's mine: "He carried a sword as long as a lightning bolt, his steed could eat whole villages and he used his sinus cavities as a prison for his most dangerous enemies."

Anyone else want to contribute some of what they came up with last night?

Ursula Le Guin quote

From the book about the craft of writing called Steering the Craft: "Somebody asked Willie Nelson where he got his songs, and he said, 'the air's full of melodies, you just reach out...' The worlds full of stories, you just reach out."

OK, more of a Willie quote but I like the idea of Willie and Ursula collobarating even on this tenuously.

Meeeting tomorrow

I done sent an email out. Don't forget we are meeting tomorrow at 6 pm. Be there or be even more square.

Feeling Tired

Because of the flooding last night I didn't get a lot of sleep. OK, I'm exhausted. I wrote this in a few short sessions.

Being Tired

What did you say?
No, I am listening. Really.

It stormed and the dog couldn't sleep
he whined and wanted to play
with the cats. The cats don't like him.
He moves too fast and wants to play
all the time. Cats only play
when they decide.

When I turn my head too fast
I almost lose my balance.
I've heard lack of sleep
can cause brain damage.
I know a guy (no it's not me)
that is in a lot of trouble in the future.
He spent his thirties half asleep at work.

Occasionally when I speak I sound
unsober and confused
A quick shake and I'm out back
and lucid until it happens again.

The air conditioner sounds like
an engine room.
Outside
everything is hazy and in soft focus
What was I just doing?
How long have I been sitting here?
If turtles walked upright would
they waddle like real fat people?

A long time ago I had a good night's sleep
and it was good.

Fairty Tale Generator

They didn't have one of these when I was a kid.

Harry Potter Lexicon

Since we are on a Harry Potter kick (that's never happened) here is a website I saw in a friend's email. Maybe you guys are familiar with it already, maybe it's no good. I'll let you Harry Potter readers decide.

Article on a Harry Potter convention

This post is for Maggi.

Trade your old books

I just read about this on Metafilter. Looks interesting.

100 Best

Penguin Classics picks the 100 best books by categories in honor of Penguin's 60th anniversary. I have to confess I haven't read a majority of the books on this list.

I Long for some Pie

My cravings inside
will sure not subside
until you break down
and serve me some pie.

Apple, Blueberry,
Lemon Meringue.
Sweet or chocolatey,
or one with some tang.

I would not even mind
if you haven't a fork,
I would eat with my face,
and looklike a dork.

Now I sit down,
Math homework I eye,
Could I please have
some pie with my pi?
---

(From the 7/28 meeting.)

Yes, two pie poems in one night. What are we, milkandcookies.com? (Okay, inside joke, sorry.)

I love the rythmic nature of the first two lines of the second stanza. Reminds me of how my piano teacher used to teach young students to play triplets with words like "blueberry".

Forgive the horrible math joke at the end. I had to slip one in somewhere, didn't I?

N+7: An Odor to Maggi's Teflon

Although she appears as an innocent pogo stick,
Confront her and you will find a horrible period.
Concealed behind here furtive liposuction
are threatening weasels poised to strike.
It is what keeps me awake at nine,
Beware of Maggi's Teflon.

Gnawing, gnashing, grinding, piercing,
Ripping, tearing, slashing, shredding,
Her sharp, pointed whiz
is like metal daiquiries gleaming bright.
It is what scares the chili dogs away.
Beware of Maggi's Teflon.

Under gothic drills and gleaming smock
lie feral ragtops and cunning guilt.
Do not irk her with lofty arses,
lest she consume you in bloody vipers.
It is what keeps us awake at nine,
Beware of Maggi's Teflon.
---

(From the 7/28 meeting)

For this poem, I took the original Ode to Maggi's Teeth, and replaced every significant noun with the noun in the dictionary seven nouns away (or the closest one to that which was reasonably understandable). The result was this quirky, Mad Libs-esque poem.

However, by fate, it worked out to be "threatening weasels poised to strike", I don't know. It's just perfect.

A poem that I have written. Please don't ask what inspired it, you won't get an answer. Just tell me if it's TOO confusing. I'm thinking of making a story with the people in this poem though, because they've been dancing around in my head for a while. For anyone who catches this before tomorrow's meeting, please critique!
------------------


Perfect contrast, perfect pair

One with brown, one with blonde hair.

They’ve always been the best of friends,

Always side by side, ‘til the end.

One’s the Earth, one’s the air,

Perfect contrast, perfect pair.

One needed saving, one’s the savior,

One takes away the horrors of a war.

One of dark chocolate, one of white,

Both so sweet, but only one in the light.

Like the most beautiful nightmare,

Perfect contrast, perfect pair.