Raw excerpt for today:
She tells me this
as if I remember such things
and know such people. But,
after sixteen years on the road,
I understand her world as much
as she understands mine:
in fragments and generalizations.
Month / June 2016
June PoWriMo Day 23 and 24
Raw excerpt for day 23:
…because I like things that mean nothing
and things that match, even if
it only matches in Chinese,
because I know in English it wouldn’t
make much sense anyway.
Raw excerpt for day 24:
On a Korean Air flight to Incheon.
For eight hours, I felt Kamchatka
was home. I was a dot in the Bering Sea,
a meteor orbiting the peninsula,
never touching the landmass,
just looping around it, past Japan before
crashing onto the Korean peninsula.
June PoWriMo Prompts #23 & #24
Prompts for the 23rd and 24th.
#23 Pick a language. Doesn’t matter which one.Just don’t use English. Pick a word from that language. Why did you pick that word? What does it mean? Try using it in a narrative, but not one of its native origin. (For instance, from French “chaine.” A word often used in dance, this word means to turn rapidly in a straight line. Do not use it in this context, but in a different way.)
#24 This is a take on the erasure poem. Grab a news article off the internet. Copy and paste it into Word (or another word processor). Randomly throughout the article, select a word or phrase that interests you. Select about 10, then erase everything around these selected words. What do you have left? Scramble them. What can you make out of these words? What do these words inspire?
June PoWriMo Day 22
Raw excerpt for today:
A mere spectator in her final repose/ her whisper guided him along the banks/ of the river/where rocks cut through/her feet as she pulled the lines in/taking her catch to her papa
June PoWriMo Prompt #22
Today’s prompt is inspired by the summer drink. A poem I had just gotten accepted was about drinking hot Kool-Aid. Yes, you read that right. And, yes, I lived to tell about it. You will have to wait until Sunday to find out more about this drink, in the poem Korean Cherry Tea.
Of course, I thought about all the COLD Kool-Aid I had consume in my younger days. That, and how nice, refreshing and comforting such drink is during an unbearable heat wave (OK, so that is a stretch in Alaska).
Think about your favorite cool drink. Think about summer. Write about it. And, if you want, you can even contemplate hot Kool-Aid, if you want. I won’t judge.
5 Poems: Five 2 One Magazine’s #thesideshow
I am pleased to announce that Five 2 One Magazine has accepted 5 of my poems for its #thesideshow project. These poems include: Korean Cherry Tea, October, Shinjang Hills, The Debate and When I Did Sleep. They go live the 26th. I’m so excited. I will post when they go up! Check them out! http://five2onemagazine.com/
June PoWriMo Day 21
Raw excerpt today. I will admit, this one is a bit more disturbing than most…
[She] wanted me to commit murder
almost every night I picked her
up from the plastics factory at
which she worked. She singled
out a victim or two, commanding me,
“run over that one,” as one of her
foreman would amble in front of the
car after a 12 hour shift.
June PoWriMo Prompt #21
Still thinking of the excerpt I posted yesterday. Namely, the words “victor” and “sacrifice.” Both are very loaded words in English.
Prompt for today. Use both of these words. They can be used separately or together. What images do both bring to mind? Can you have a victor without a sacrifice? How about a sacrifice without a victor?
Poem @ Yellow Chair Review
My poem “Urban Snack” is live in issue #7 @ Yellow Chair Review. Check it out (and others!) at Yellow Chair Review.
http://www.yellowchairreview.com/#!Urban-Snack/q4ysq/576819340cf21d10aa69a727
June PoWriMo Day #20
Raw excerpt for today:
…but I left and said
nothing to either of them–
for I was the victor:
I won all in his sacrifice
and I hid it from view
the whole time.
J.L. Smith 