Good luck and happy writing peaches!

 Sommer’s book is full of intense imagery, she reflects on the irony of the world through her eyes. She rebels against what society accepts and deems as normal by merely laughing at it. She has a witty tone toward it in her poem “Breed”, as she comments on the pressures put on her to settle down and have children because she’s aging. She says, “Nothing will happen/we tell the sun,/if it does,/watch me catch it.” This sense of humor is a large theme within her book. In “When Christopher Died and I Didn’t Believe It”, she lists off the people in her life who have died and how they all relate. She draws connections that are inspiring as they come to a whole or a larger meaning (although this one I did not grasp). Sommer also does this as she moves from scenes of adolescence to adulthood and the effect that aging has on her. In her series of “House” poems, she connects her childhood and growing up to the house she did it all in. The house is a representation for the people within it who change; while it, like the world, remains the same. She deconstructs the symbol of the house with poems like “In a Bedroom” and “The Housesitter”.

 It seems as though Sommer is trying to accept the meagerness of the world as she creates her own celebration around it, making it a more exciting and beautiful place of existence for herself. She has this carefree attitude of “why complain, when you can just laugh at it?” which is inspiring to me as a poet because there are many risks involved in this perspective that she transfers into poetry successfully. I trust in the speaker because she is open with the reader and doesn’t shy from her perspectives; rather she brings these perspectives to life with her various images. Either Way I’m Celebrating is a heterogeneous mixture of things, including comic relief in her drawings, the seriousness and ambiguity in some of her content, the variety of forms, ironic one liners, and also more clear and simple poems that are riddled with images. Her connections of these things are very clear in each section, as she continues it much like a narrative. The book is a celebration in itself because it rejects normative behavior in poetry.

The Solitary Bench

A forlorn bench, putrid with age
sits amongst vibrant foliage like
a school boy waiting for his first love.

The coarse rustle of
ruling ‘Gulmohar’ flowers tries
to sway him in congenial talks.
His silence forces the air
to rub them off his body;
let him remain lonely
for the guest deserves to stick
to his mad wishes.

The figure that he is longing for
runs away from him
with each days dying in the
ever flowing tide of time.
Still, hope says no, wishes say yes
and the everyday falling flowers
quarrel with the dry leaves
riding upon withered braches,
to impress his soul and the day ends
with the bench shaking them off
with the passing air.

He sits for one and will not break
till she comes running and sits on him
just like the day decades ago,
when these woods used to a park
and the bench was the friend
of her everyday indolence.

*Published in the September issue of The Bruised Peach Press VOL. III

*Must be YOUR original, un-published work, and under 15 lines, include a title and your full name.

Most of our readers know, The Bruised Peach Press sponsors a free spoken word event, followed by a workshop, each week at The Edge Coffeehouse in Downtown Memphis. The event is hosted by Elizabeth Agans, Co Editor of the newsletter. Like the private gatherings of the second year SMC students, Elizabeth comes up with a prevalent topic for the readers. Although the SMC students have a more informal gathering, rather than work shopping their poems, both are great strives toward making the sharing of one another’s’ poetry more available.

I find that there are several issues being faced as a poet. One such issue, in regards to my blog, is the lack of venues or organizations gathering to share in each other’s knowledge of writing and poetry. There are some venues throughout the nation that host weekly readings, open mics, slam poetry nights, etc., but it is still hard for a poet to share their writing with anyone outside of school, and without paying.

Another issue I believe most writers face is finding someone to help them, edit their work, or even teach/mentor them. Mind me, a writer’s/teacher’s time is valuable, due to their under paid and unappreciated stature, but sometimes their knowledge is treated like a diamond in the ruff. Not necessarily even teachers, but some people with experience in writing harbor what they know instead of sharing it with others.

I read a blog from a woman named Susan Craine Bakos, who sometimes writes for The New York Post. She confessed her terrible habit of taking artists who admired her out to lunch and leaving them with a very expensive bill to pay. Besides the mental issues she claims to have, her reasoning for it was based on her low opinion of these artists. She denounces their talent and accuses them of “using” her to have her network i.e. her “banker, lawyer, publisher”, etc.; also, to siphon free knowledge out of her; and of course, for a free lunch.

Regardless of the cruelty she enacted upon them, her attitude toward these aspiring artists was so negative upon impact, it is as if she puts herself at such a high standing compared to them. She expected them to pay the bill and for them to pay her for advice on their careers.

Enough with the bantering. The point is, there are some artists (writers especially) that prefer not to share their knowledge with everyone without a fee. But, I encourage all artists, like Elizabeth and the second years at SMC, to give your fellow brethren a chance to share in your knowledge of the arts. Obviously, there are some quacks in this world that are difficult to avoid and will take advantage of your good graces, but don’t invite them to lunch.

Loose Sugar, exactly as it sounds; fragments of things that create the overall whole of life, or in Hillman’s case, the story of her life. Some fragments are loose and things fall apart; some are so tightly wound together, they mold the facets of happiness and love; other times, just simply letting go and leaving things in fragments makes it easier to forget things. These are fragments of memories, emotions, and expefrience.

Hillman’s book is divided into five parts: space/time, time/alchemy, alchemy/problem, problem/time, and time/space. The first three parts are very cohesive with strong imagery and focus on surroundings, people, and their emotions or desires. As the book goes on, things literally become fragmented; let me rephrase that, Hillman begins writing completely in fragments. Some pages have anywhere from one fragment to an entire poem of fragments, and other pages have footnotes of fragments below each poem. There is obviously a method to this madness and I understand the overall picture to be what I stated in the previous paragraph, but I feel like I need to pick Hilman’s brain for details on her partial narratives!

Loose Sugar has provided and interesting, unique, and entertaining read as Hillman is very experimental in form, narrative structure, and literary devices.

Here is a strong and detailed article about the book, provided by the Poetry Foundation: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/brenda-hillman

Every writer should carry a MOLESKINE around with them everywhere they go! There are books, small enough to fit in your back pocket; medium sized ones for the purse; and the full size notebooks for school or a large volume of writing. Composition books are great and all, but they tend to wear and tare more easily than the MOLESKINE books. Composition books are also not as thin and they both hold the same amount of pages.

The variety of paper styles is a large aspect of the MOLESKINE books that make them appealing. They have books with graph paper, lined paper, blank pages; some fold over like a detective’s notebook, some open like normal books; others have Velcro latching the book, or an elastic band. There are also day planners for the busy writer!

You can find MOLESKINE books at http://www.moleskineus.com/moleskine-books.html, amazon.com, or any local Barnes & Noble!

Matt Rotando received an MFA in poetry from the City University of New York (Brooklyn College) and a Fulbright Foundation grant. Next fall he will complete his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Arizona. Professor of English Literature and Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College, he is the author of a collection of poems entitled The Comeback’s Exoskeleton (UpSet Press, 2008). Read a poem by Matt here. Matt is teaching his popular class, Surrealist Writing on Mondays from June 13th to June 30th. Previous students have called this class “a bright shining light in an otherwise dim and boring week of diurnal life” and say that Matt “somehow makes wild creativity come easy.” There are still a few spots available in this class. You’ll find registration details here.”

from the Poetry Center email blast

• Laurel Corona reads from Finding Emilie

Laurel will read from her third historical fiction novel: Finding Emilie. She’s
also the author of The Four Seasons and Penelope’s Daughter, as well as numerous
YA  and nonfiction books. Laurel is a Professor of Humanities at San Diego City
College and was the prose editor for SDWI’s A Year In Ink, Vol. 4.
Friday, May 13
7-9pm

• BLAZING Laptops 2011Write-a-thon!

Have you signed up for Blazing Laptops yet? Don’t delay, it’s less than a month
away!
Sunday, June 5
9am – 6pm

San Diego Writers, Ink: www.sandiegowriters.org/

The Poetry Center is holding a 3 week long camp for 4th-12th graders this summer! Email guthrie@email.arizona.edu for more information!