Cry of Cicadas

Cry of Cicadas
cry of cicadas
cover the sounds of the knife
slayer in night fog

9/6/2014 – haiku
5-7-5, autumn season words (cicada, night fog)
(c) Nissa Annakindt


My book:
http://www.amazon.com/Where-The-Opium-Cactus-Grows/dp/0557939135

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

nuclear sainthood profits/Writing Poetry Benefits Prose Writers

Self-portrait

 nuclear sainthood profits

wages after the labour, we beseech you, o limited nuclear war
a son is given to us, testing increasingly smaller warheads
if this limit is overshot, ground zero will accumulate debris
o mary conceived without sin, detonate a nuclear weapon
in the presence of mine enemies

behold, a virgin shall declare war on the soviet union and china
the market price of our pope, our bishop, and all true believers
included mutual assured destruction when wages and prices are high
and large numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles
now and at the hour of our death

(c) 1990 Nissa Annakindt

OK, thing one. This is not one of those dreary anti-nuclear poems with a Very Important Message. It doesn't have a message. There is also no intent to be disrespectful of the Catholic faith, since such disrespect is also too dreary for words.

I used the juxtaposition method, using an angsty book about nuclear war, a Catholic prayer book, and something dull by Karl Marx as the source of the words and phrases. I like it. It amuses me. It makes me think strange thoughts. Which is all I ask of it. There is also no intent to be disrespectful of the Catholic faith, since such disrespect is also too dreary for words.

Shared at: Poetry Pantry #169

Writing Poetry Benefits Prose Writers

I read once about some sci-fi writer who warmed up for his writing sessions by reading poetry. It helped him appreciate beautiful and/or powerful language or something.

Writing poetry is also of benefit. It helps young/new writers get started producing writing, it helps writers whose work is not winning the attention of editors and the public, and it helps experienced writers who feel they have gone stale.

Poetry is about powerful and memorable words. Because bland poetry fades away into nothing before the reader's eye is finished with it. The skills used in writing poetry can help to avoid writing dull prose.

Poetry is a way to get into the groove of producing writing regularly. It helps build confidence in the neophyte and jump-starts a writer who is getting blocked or bored with writing.

Because poetry is not appreciated in our society in any financial way, there are no high stakes to intimidate you. Suppose you write a poem, and you learn something in the writing. If the poem sucks, probably no one will publish it and they certainly won't pay you money. If the poem is utterly brilliant, probably no one will publish it and they certainly won't pay you money. It kind of takes the pressure off.

New! Free Online Poetry-Writing Class: http://linalamont.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-class-in-writing-poetry-for-new.html 


Red Explosions Poetry Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479819908761898
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

A Class in Writing Poetry for New Fiction Writers

Cheney the Election Day cat

 I've decided to teach a class in poetry writing. Since there is not a lot of enthusiasm for poetry out there, I've decided to aim it at young/new fiction writers who want to learn the craft through writing poetry. I think poetry writing, done write, is a cure for the bland boring prose so many churn out at first. And writing poems is less of a time commitment than, say, writing epic novels.

It's going to be an odd class. You see, I never officially learned how to write poetry. I'm more of a mad, self-taught autistic savant poet which I think is a great qualification for teaching a poetry class. Better than being one of those English majors who knows all about how to dissect dead poems but nothing about how to make poems live.

The class will be free. That's what I know at this point. I'm not quite sure how other people do online classes--- do you know or have experience in this? Please tell me!

If you might be interested in the class, make a comment, here or on my Facebook page (link below). Do you have questions? Ask them.

Please consider 'liking' us on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Poetry Sunday: paper dragons, new poetry group, poetry zine

paper dragons

blue & yellow folded paper dragons
sail away in an indigo Tintenfaß
dragons dangerous yet delicate
for they cannot breathe fire
and live

(c) Nissa Annakindt 1990

The word 'Tintenfaß is German for 'inkwell'. The funny letter at the end is pronounced like 's'.  This is the origin of the poem: one day I was looking through a mail order catalog from Dover Books and came across several advertised books about Origami, the Japanese art of folding paper. One of the book descriptions must have mentioned that it gave instructions for making Origami dragons. And so this poem kind of poured out as poetry often did in those days.

This is one of the poems in my poetry book, Where the Opium Cactus Grows.  Shared in Poetry Pantry #159 over at Poets United.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetry Group, Poetry Zine

For a couple of years, some time ago, I used to edit a zine. It was something I liked to do and wasn't half bad at. But the printing and postage cost a lot.

When I self-published my poetry book on Lulu.com, I first began to get the idea that Lulu.com might be a great way to publish a zine. But it took me a while to get to the idea of doing a poetry zine.

The advantage of doing it as a Lulu.com book is that the 'zine' will be a nicely printed book with a cover, and it won't cost me a fortune making that happen. I wouldn't be able to pay in contributors' copies--- the poets would have to buy their own copy/copies.

Now, the hard part would be to find some poets who write what I could recognize as quality work. So I thought of starting a Facebook group for poets. Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479819908761898/

Both the group and the future zine are called 'Red Explosions'--- a line from an old poem of mine--- because it expresses what I want--- poems with something vivid, explosive, strange, or interesting. Not a bland collection of words as in:

my girlfriend
dumped me,
I feel
like sh*t
and want
to
die
die
die

(If you want to see further examples of what I, perhaps due to a lack of mental health, think of as poetry, you might go to my book on Amazon.com and look at the free preview there at some of the poems I've written.)

While I am not accepting submissions just yet, if you are interested in submitting to the zine, you might do well to join the Facebook group so you can share poems there. If I like your stuff enough, I will probably ask you to submit when the time comes.

Please consider 'liking' us on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Poetry Sunday: See, a Fishing Junk

See, a Fishing Junk
a sijo

See, a fishing junk floats to Kowloon
& I saw a typhoon drinking the harbor.
Stop, I said, do not drink all the water
For the sake of the fishing junk.

But the typhoon drank on
For the sake of relative humidity.

(c) Nissa Annakindt Dec. 13, 2012

One of my more recent poems, and thus not included in my book When the Opium Cactus grows. I will probably be sharing it in the poetry group Red Explosions Poetry Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479819908761898 Please consider joining the group if you write poetry.

Shared on Poetry Pantry #158.

The kitten in the picture is Anthony, who decided to take a nap in the garbage can the other day. He is named after Saint Anthony, who found kitten Anthony and his sister when they went missing for a week. 

Please consider 'liking' us on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Sunday Poem: malison d'etre

As I may have mentioned, I'm doing most of my blogging on Facebook these days, at the link given at the bottom of the page. But I still want to post my poem for Poetry Pantry at Poets United, and so I posted the poem on my Facebook and added my poem to the Poetry Pantry linky. And I thought I'd better post links to the poem here. Click on the poem title to read the poem.

malison d'etre


jonathan is a bat out
of hell
which explains his crispy singed
wings
and his
expression of perpetual exasperation
and why he sleeps
hanging over the heat register
on cold nights
he's working on a PhD
in social work
but what he really
wants is to
be a rock star
like michael jackson
& madonna
strangely enough he cant stand baseball
or hippoptamuses


(c) Nissa Annakindt 1990

This poem is included in my book Where the Opium Cactus Grows.



Please consider 'liking' us on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Catsong: for Niki

This is one of the poems that will be in my new, expanded edition of Where the Opium Cactus Grows. Written in honor of my nine-year-old cat Niki, it is a sijo, a form of Korean poetry somewhat similar to the haiku. It was composed using an ancient Korean sijo as a model/inspiration. 

Catsong: for Niki
a sijo

what if my heart is too long or too tall?
what if my cat is too light or too small?

this calico tabby is mine
no matter that her nails are too sharp

the chill moonlight is mine also
to collect in alabaster jars


 This is one poem of mine with which I am satisfied--- not that I think it perfect or even good, but I feel that it is as good as I can make it, and any time I might spend fiddling around with it would be better spent writing new poems.  Other poems I've written I make endless revisions, sometimes achieving a better poem, sometimes only a new arrangement of the deck chairs on my poetic Titanic. Strangely, in my earliest poems this sense of satisfaction came more easily--- and I continue to be satisfied, for the most part, with these poems still. Today this sense of satisfaction is harder to find.

Note: I am planning to list this poem on Poetry Pantry over at Poets United this Sunday. If you have a blogged poem to share, or just want to read some poems, please visit their site.

The poem will also appear in the revised version of my book, Opium Cactus, on which I am still diligently working.

Last week with my Poetry Pantry poem undercover lesbian I got some valuable feedback which, strangely, I may actually use. Thanks to all my visitors from last week. 

Update: I have indeed shared the poem on Poetry Pantry #143 and am having fun looking at the other poems, seeking treasure. I've already found some, my favorite so far being And Bells Will Ring.

Subtlety or Self-Censorship?

Currently I am engaged in producing a revised and expanded edition of my self-published poetry book, 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'. In the original 2010 edition, I sometimes dealt with some embarrassing words and phrases from my older poetry, written in my Youthful Marxist Phase, by frank self-censorship.

In the revised edition, I am generally restoring the original forms. But sometimes, the choice between an older version and a newer one is not so simple. Like in the poem currently called 'undercover'.  Here it is:

undercover

they cant really tell with my clothes on
i think
them nasty
jokes wouldnt keep on coming if
they knew
i think
if i told them they'd say
you dont really look it
i think
then they'd look very close
because they're sure you can tell
     its the eyebrows george says
     you can tell them by the eyebrows


This poem expresses the experience of a person who feels like an outcast, who wonders if others know the secret thing that makes her an outcast. We don't know, in this version, what kind of outcast the speaker feels herself to be, and so we can't really evaluate if it is something that others really could detect.

The original version, which will be given below, is not subtle at all. It tells what kind of difference we are talking about right in the title. And so, perhaps, persons who otherwise might sympathize with the speaker of this version of the poem might not with the speaker of the original version.

The newer version, thus, may have wider appeal. But is it because of self-censorship--- or, perhaps even cowardice? Am I afraid to speak out on what the poem is really about, and be rejected by people I respect because of it?  I will give you the original version, below a break (you will have to click on 'Read more' to see it.)


undercover lesbian

they cant really tell with my clothes on
i think
the faggot & dyke
jokes wouldnt keep on coming if
they knew
i think
if i told them they'd say
you dont really look it
i think
then they'd look very close
because they're sure you can tell
     its the eyebrows george says
     you can tell them by the eyebrows


There's a little personal story behind this poem. When I was in high school, and long before I began to seriously think about topics such as my own sexual orientation, if any, I had two persecutors who rode by on their bikes every day as I walked to school. They threw rocks at me and called me a lesbian--- the first time I had ever heard that word spoken out loud. When they boys were finally identified, I was called with them into the principal's office and had to sit there while he expressed some sympathy with the boys, who, in his opinion, were provoked by the 'strange' way I dressed. (I wore informal long dresses to school while most of the girls wore miniskirts and halter tops.)

When later I finally admitted to myself that my orientation was less than heterosexual, it made me wonder if somehow those boys long ago had actually known something about me that I hadn't then known myself. Which brings up fears--- what stuff do other people, even strangers, just know about me that I don't even know myself?

The original version of the poem is less subtle, less universal--- does that make it stronger or weaker? It's hard to tell, really. The specifics on the original poem mean that the reaction of readers will be all caught up in their feelings about gay people, and the current social requirement that one either accept gay marriage as a governmental sacrament or be cast into the outer darkness.

I think the poem is about more than that single issue. The character speaking in the poem would not be in the least reassured if people told her 'no, dear, we don't care that you are a lesbian, we despise you because you are Catholic, or Jewish, or have an autism spectrum disorder, or wear an overly modest dress, or speak Esperanto in public....'

So, with much trepidation, I am asking for input. Which version of the poem do you think is more compelling and why? If I get more than seven intelligent responses (excluding spam and hate comments, in other words), I will take them under consideration in deciding which version of the poem will be included in the new Opium Cactus.  (I also could use a little feedback on the book title: should I stick with 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows' or prune it to 'Opium Cactus'?)

This post has been shared on Poetry Pantry #142

Wanted: Writers with Writer's Block (and Asperger Syndrome or ADHD)

As research for a current writing project of mine*, I'd like to hear from writers who have experienced writer's block, writer's procrastination and similar issues. Since I have Asperger Syndrome myself, I'm particularly interested in hearing from blocked/formerly blocked writers who have Asperger's and other autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder, bipolar, obsessive/compulsive, Down Syndrome or any other difference/disorder. What do I want to know from you? Well, mostly what you feel free to share with a random internet stranger like me. I could do with some general info about you and the kind of writing you do (or try to do), your diagnosis, if you have one, and treatments for said diagnosis, if any are worth mentioning. Then: what does writer's block mean to you? How do you define it? What color and shape is it? What do you do about it? Are there any good methods that work for you? How long have you had it? Do you ever feel you were born with writer's block? What, in your opinion, cause your writer's block issues? One thing I am wondering about is if certain differences/disabilities make a person more prone to writer's block and similar issues. And perhaps if different fixes for the problem are in order, depending on the person's difference/disability. If you are willing to help, you can send me a private message on Facebook: I'm at http://www.facebook.com/nissa.amas.katoj The next best thing is to email me at linalamontfanclub@gmail.com, but I don't check my email there much. Doing it on Facebook is really better if you can. (You don't have to be my Facebook friend to send me a private message, I think. However, feel free to send me a friend request, just mention in your private message that you are doing it so I know who you are.) *my writing project is expanding my book of poetry that I self-published in 2010 by adding ten to twenty chapters on the subject of using poetry writing for dealing with writer's block. The current working title is: "Where the Opium Cactus Grows: Poetry Writing Self-Therapy for Writer's Block." (I'm working on making the title longer.) ;-) The poems which were once the point of the book are now mere illustrations.

advice to the shopworn

the truli modern poet will
always!!! carry a beeper
///in case/// of poetry emergencies
GLeeMing down the stairs at 3 am
      *to insert a radon paradox
      (or) delete a rude cauliflower*

(c) Nissa Annakindt, never you mind what year.

A poem from Where the Opium Cactus Grows, which is soon to go out of print.  This was written during a phase of my life as a poet in which I did a lot of monkeying around with peculiarities of typesetting and spelling. Some of my poems from this period have to be altered before posting online because they turned out to do weird things to HTML.

This poem was shared at Poets United's Poetry Pantry #127.

5 Poetry Prompts for Writing a Christian Poem this Lent

On my Opium Cactus poetry blog, I'm running a 'Write a Christian Poem for Lent' contest. And you don't have to like or read poetry to participate.

I personally was never a poetry geek. I never went around high school with poetry books clutched to my chest. The little poetry I read was what was forced on me in school.

Yet when I first started writing the first thing I did was write tons of poetry in a very modern/avant-garde/weird style. The best of these poems were collected years later in my book 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'.

How can the ordinary, average writer come up with a Lenten poem? Here are some suggestions:

1. Get a Christian book--- the Bible, a Mass book, a devotional book--- and one secular book--- an antique farming book, a history book, or something cute by Karl Marx. Open each book at random, point without looking to a sentence or phrase, and write it down. Do this several more times. The resulting word-salad can be the first draft of your poem. Or it can serve as a series of poetic prompts.

2. Get a Bible dictionary or other Christian reference book. Open it at random and point without looking. The major topic of the paragraph you pointed to is your first topic. (I used the book 'Catholicism for Dummies' and got 'Gospel of Life')
Then get a regular dictionary or other secular reference work. The word whose definition you are pointing at is the second topic. (I used an ordinary English dictionary and got 'ice'.) Use these two words as a poetic prompt.

3. Find a secular poem you like (or don't like.) Do a Christian parody. Here is an example of a parody of my poem 'soap opera hero':

crucifix hero

he gets nailed a lot
and
sometimes
he dies

but then
he rises

4. If you like rhymed/metered poetry but can't work out how to write it, find a folksong you like. Pick any topics you like. Make a poem whose words have the same rhythm as the original folksong lyrics, and that rhyme.

5. If you have some ideas for a poem but they sound too prosy to you, write them down. Then go to Babelfish.com. Type out the words you have written and translate them into an exotic language like Korean. Copy the result and paste it in, translating it from Korean back to English. The results may be exotic, memorable or incomprehensible. All of these are good things. Try your word-set on other languages. The best phrases that result can serve as the first draft of your poem, or can be your poetic prompts.

So--- you are hereby challenged! Write a poem this Lent. It doesn't have to be profound or wonderful or epic at first glance. It just has to be. And be entered in my poetry contest of course.

the lonely man goes to mass

for five years he has gone
to the same small church
each sunday
but no one greets him
or speaks to him
or wants to call him friend
and so he is
alone

so one spring sunday
he brings a chicken with him
to church
and an old woman said
dear brother, you are not permitted
to bring poultry in here

during the alleluia
the chicken laid her egg
not quietly
and an usher said
dear christian brother,
you must not bring
your livestock to church

going up for communion
the deacon advanced
your chicken may not be here
dear brother
you must know that

after mass the man went out
to shake pastor's hand
and for the first time
the pastor spoke
it is so good you are here
my dear brother in christ
but you must not bring a chicken
to the lord's house

the lonely man smiled
and said
i know that
but i did not know
how to be your brother
and now i know
bring a chicken

(c) Feb. 19, 2012 Nissa Annakindt

The story in this poem, in a chicken-free version, was told in a homily by Fr. Michael Ocran, our associate pastor who is from Africa. He was speaking on the importance of being friends to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I can identify with the man as I have a lifetime of being the one that no one speaks to. In a more outgoing Evangelical-type church, people may greet me superficially rather than not speak at all.

(If you are wondering why I don't hang out with non-religious people--- my experience in life has been this: non-religious people throw rocks at me, call me x-rated names, and otherwise show contempt. Christians at least tolerate my presence, and once in a great while will even say 'hello'.)

It's funny that Christian people know that there are people who are painfully shy, or have Asperger Syndrome, or for other reasons are not outgoing people who can easily make friends. But when they see a person who goes to their church time and again, but who does not go up to them to introduce themselves, they conclude that person is standoffish or stuck-up rather than understanding that the person desperately wants their love and friendship.

Perhaps this Lent some of you people with good social skills might 'adopt' some lonely person at your church--- not just greet them, but try to have conversations with them, perhaps invite them to lunch some time.

If the person, like me, has Asperger Syndrome, you may have to learn how to be friends with an aspie. You may need to always be the one who takes the initiative to talk to him or phone him. You may always be the one who suggests doing something like going to lunch together. You may get bored when he talks about one of his 'special interests' that you are not interested in, such as anime or Dark Shadows fandom or promoting American monarchism. But the Lord will bless you for it.

Write a Christian Poem for Lent

My other blog, Opium Cactus Poetry Immersion, is challenging all Christian writers out there to write a Christian poem for Lent, and submit it at: http://opiumcactus.blogspot.com/2012/02/write-christian-poem-for-lent-contest.html

The contest is NOT just for Catholics, but is open to Evangelicals, Protestants, Latter Day Saints, and other followers of Jesus Christ and the Holy Bible. And you don't have to be observing Lent to participate. (Please spread the word about the contest on your blog or Facebook page.)

Using Babelfish to write poetry

I have an unnatural obsession with machine translation. I have a great time using the various internet sites that provide computerized translation from one language to another, like Babelfish.

Since I am a person that actually knows about languages (during my Pagan days I translated a Pagan booklet from German into English) I know that computer translations usually suck. They are helpful if you already know the language you are translating into well enough to catch mistakes, but otherwise they can be trouble.

But while Babelfish and her sisters may not be able to solve the world language problem, they do have another use. They can write poetry.

You see, one day I was testing Babelfish to see how well it could translate into Korean. I know next to no Korean, so what I did was I wrote a test sentence: "My cat Claudius has a neurological disorder", translated it English-to-Korean with Babelfish, and then cut-and-pasted the resulting unknown Korean sentence into Babelfish and did a Korean-to-English translation.

This is what Babelfish spit out at me:

To my cat Claudius
there is a military force
at the nervous crane.

Who knew Babelfish could write a haiku? So, anyway, I slapped a title on it ('catpoem/claudius') and added it to my collection of poetry written. It is now included in Where the Opium Cactus Grows.

In this first case I liked what Babelfish did enough to keep it pretty much as it was, I just arranged it into three lines.

Most of the time Babelfish poetry is more work. You might have to run it through a couple of languages (Asian languages seem to work best), and pick-and-choose the best results and do a lot of rewrites. But it produces some pretty cool imagery and can help to fire up those creative juices on days when you just don't feel like writing anything.


Here is today's poetic rough draft:
1. (original sentence) The werewolf's girlfriend is now pregnant. When will the puppies be born?
2.(after translating into Korean & back) werewolf' s girl friends now are pregnancy. The pup when will be inherent?
3.(after translating 2 again into Korean & back) werewolf' s girl friends now are pregnancy. The pup of the case which will be characteristic?
4. (tranlation of 3 into Dutch and back) werewolf' s the little girl friends pregnancy now its. The young of the case which characterising will be?
5. (translated 4 into Japanese and back) werewolf' s now pregnancy of the friend of the girl. The young person when is the fact that it characterizes?
6. (translated 1 into Japanese and back) werewolf' The girl friend of s now becomes pregnant. Is the puppy when born?

1. (original sentence) How many puppies, how many? Only one, says the ultrasound machine. How odd, how very odd.
2. (1 translated to Korean and back) How many many pup, how many is many? 1 revealed the supersonic machine only. How many is odd, is quite odd and is how.
3. (1 translated to Chinese and back) How many puppies, how many? Only one, said the ultrasonic wave machine. How strange, how is strange.

These are the raw materials.

The werewolf's
little girl friend
now becomes pregnant.

The puppies of this case
when will they be inherent?
which will be the
characteristic?

How many many pup,
how many is many?
how many is odd
is quite odd
and is how.

the pregnant little girlfriend
and the wolf
will have one


Not really happy with that--- you don't get a military force at the nervous crane every day--- but will print it out and bury it in a file for awhile, then do some revision and reworking, add and subtract a bit.

How to Write a Juxtaposition Poem

When I write poetry I like to write what I call juxtaposition poetry. It's a little like found poetry, except that you 'find' the raw materials from three different sources--- books, newspapers and the like. It's not only interesting of itself, but is something that can get your writerly juices going when you have writer's block.

Your three sources need to be very different from one another--- in 'nuclear sainthood profits' from my book Where the Opium Cactus Grows I used a Catholic prayer book, a book about nuclear war, and something by Karl Marx.

What you do with your sources is 'point and click'. Open each one at random and point, without looking, at the text. Copy out words or phrases from that point. Do this one after another until you have enough material for the poem at hand.

A pure juxtaposition poem just uses this material as you found it. But the secret to writing a good juxtaposition poem is to cheat like hell. Fudge a bit when you are pointing to select your source material, and add, subtract and re-arrange the material to help it make more sense. Or less sense, depending on your writerly goals.

I might point out that my 'nuclear sainthood profits' is not an average example of my juxtaposition poems, but one I feel is one of my best efforts in that direction. Most juxtaposition poems are choppier and don't have unified themes (whatever themes are, I try to avoid them). 'nuclear sainthood profits' is what happens with juxtaposition poetry when your Muse is in the building.

Here is the complete text of 'nuclear sainthood profits' from 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'.

nuclear sainthood profits


wages after the labour, we beseech you, o limited nuclear war
a son is given to us, testing increasingly smaller warheads
if this limit is overshot, ground zero will accumulate debris
o mary conceived without sin, detonate a nuclear weapon
in the presence of mine enemies


behold, a virgin shall declare war on the soviet union and china
the market price of our pope, our bishop, and all true believers
includes mutual assured destruction when wages and prices are high
and large numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles
now and at the hour of our death

This poem was written 21 years ago--- wow, a poem that's old enough to drink! At the time I wrote it I was NOT a Catholic, and I WAS a Marxist. But I never meant it as in any was anti-Catholic. It was more like a nuclear-war-drives-us-all-to-pray thing. And of course there was the 'blame-capitalism' reish going on as well. (Did you know that capitalism is responsible for the lack of life on Mars?)

The sharpness of this poem is a result of using sources with high emotional impact. You don't have to do that all the time--- I've used a local newspaper as a source many times, both for juxtaposition poetry as I've described it here, and for single-source found poetry.

These blander sources are essential for school teachers using juxtaposition poetry in the classroom, since in a school setting one WANTS a bland result. In homeschooling, a wider variety of sources are possible, whatever the homeschooling mother thinks is acceptable.

In my experience, some juxtaposition poems are finished after the first day's work, and others need more work. In addition, any type of poem benefits from being 'aged' in a file for a few months and then being given a bit of polishing if needed--- or even a complete re-write.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: write a juxtaposition poem of your own. (If you post your poem on your blog, do post a link to it here in a comment.)

Related Post:
Blogging 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'

Featured Books:
The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets
Modern Korean Poetry
Where the Opium Cactus Grows





Seven Ways You Can Help The Lina Lamont Fan Club:
1. Pray for me and for the readers of my blog.
2. Share this post on FaceBook, using the button below.
3. Link to this post on your blog.
4. Comment on this post.
5. Buy a book from links on this blog or the Amazon.com search box.
6. Consider taking the Holly Lisle 'How to Think Sideways' course through the links on this blog.
7. Cuddle a cat for me. Any cat. Except maybe a surly tiger. They bite.

Having fun with my juvenilia

As I am working on the new poetry book, I'm having to go through some of my earliest poems--- my juvenilia (though I was already old enough to be tried as an adult when I wrote them).

We all like to think we are making progress in our writing, and so sometimes we are embarrassed enough by some of our early work that we are tempted to through it out. But resist that temptation. Because for one thing, old writing can help you measure your progress. And sometimes you will be surprised by something that you wrote years ago that turns out to be good enough to keep, or at least be worth the effort to re-write.

Total Word Count Guesstimate
I don't know how many words the poetry book is going to run. It's actually more a matter of the number of pages. Currently I am at page 38 which is nearly halfway to the minimum.

A Guessing Game
These are two of the poems of the new book. One was written in my first year of writing poetry (un)seriously. The other was written this year. Guess which one is which.  Note also that the titles of these two poems are in the running for being the book title, so if you like one or another say so.

running about on hens' legs
for baba yaga
trouble, trouble vicks and tea
break the corners of tv
hide the harp and bend the lid
do you know what marko did?
too late
too late
anticipate
simmer pansies vixen tee
build the carpet on the sea

ninth horseman

my heart's
frying in a cast iron skillet

the refrigerator watches sullenly
as the world melts

Editing an expanded poetry volume

My poetry chapbook on Lulu.com has done amazingly well--- it sold 1 copy, to my mother--- and so I'm doing a complete re-write and expansion into a full book which can be sold on Amazon.com. If I work really hard on it, maybe I can sell another copy to my mother.

The chapbook was called 'surly petunia' after the name of one of the poems. I figure the new book should have a different name, even though it's going to have all the poems from 'surly petunia' plus whatever other ones that I've written that don't now annoy me. I'm also NOT including the one which is an acrostic featuring the 'F' word, which was an even dumber idea than you'd think. Acrostics are HARD!

I've also changed my pen name from N. I. Annakindt to nissa_ami_kato, because I really like my new internet name. You can even sing it! You know that song 'Mr. Roboto'? The part that goes 'domo arigato, Mr. Roboto', you can sing 'nissa_ami_kato, Mr. Roboto'. At least, you can if you are as weird as me.

The possible titles for the new volume include 'jungle spiders', 'wired floor sculptures' and 'alien invasions & the love of lawn furniture'. and, well, any other poem titles from the poems in the book. I'm also willing to entertain suggestions from readers so long as those suggestions are NOT 'what a piece of sh---' (because I've already thought of that one myself, but decided against it since my mom might not buy it if there is a Bad Word in the title.

I also wouldn't mind some input on the poem I'm adding to the book right now, which goes like this:

paper dragons


blue & yellow folded paper dragons
sail away in an indigo Tintenfaß
dragons dangerous yet delicate
for they cannot breathe fire
and live

Well, I'm pretty much satisfied with this poem (which I wrote over 10 years ago). Yes, I'm way too easily satisfied. But the question I have is whether I should include a footnote to the poem explaining the word 
'Tintenfaß'.

Would explaining that the word is German for inkwell, or at least mentioning that the letter'ß' is pronounced like 'ss', be helpful, or would it spoil the whole thing? I mean, when it comes to my poetry, I kind of think trying to understand what it means is beside the point.

If you have an opinion on this, let me know. Or else you can always go over to Dan Lacey's blog and view his latest pictures of Obama naked on a unicorn. Because you can just never have too many pictures of Obama naked on a unicorn. (Don't worry, they don't show Obama's naughty bits.) Dan Lacey also likes to paint people, including saints, with pancakes on their heads.