Brain splat against the web

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

2012-01-27T13:38:00.001-05:00

Left for G-d
My ancestors' past
buried within the
cold graves of
anti-Semitism
huddled...
together,
and turned into
abandoned bodies;
abandoned souls...
strewn upon their
death...
dug with their own hands,
buried by their children...
prayed for by their fathers.
left for G-d
left as a memory
left as a reminder...
"surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of
the Lord
forever."

-Michael D. Sesling

In the Curve of Dreams

2011-11-22T13:53:00.001-05:00

dog-ear the page of the night's texture against your fingertips
touch the dreams that invade you
reach towards the horizon and caress beauty

fog in the distance looms
over the verdant landscape of memories once forgotten

changes against the grain of sunlight diminishing

as the day in dreams curves into afternoon grey
and a rain drop etches itself across your skin, lonely

you sip from your goblet of blue fire
and you wait for the alcohol's effect

stand inside a raindrop
and watch the world falling
metrically slow

hands like a mime

bite the apple
sip the wine
melt deeper into your dream-state

and wonder where the snake is hiding

a skeleton in the distance

Coltrane reverberates into non-existence
saxophone resonance
blue embers flicker disobedience

a bird scream echoes at dawn

--- Michael D. Sesling
Nov. 2011

Sunset

2011-10-06T18:05:00.000-04:00

sky curves
across the tree tops
blues and greens into sunlight
melting endless
metric drips into night
awaiting the

stars stitched to the corners of jagged dreams
against the grain of an unknown tomorrow

-Michael Sesling
(c) October 6, 2011

A short poem from Wednesday a.m. from vacationland...

2011-08-22T10:10:00.002-04:00

Morning
fog sits

Next move contemplating
On the lake
Nestled between mountains

In stop action moments
sun breaks through
into a glimmer off the surface

a speed boat with laughter
east to west like the sun

a kayak in the distance
wrestles against the curve
of the boat's wake

a pair of loons

beaks to water
breakfast fishing

and a yellow bird
sings in the distance
perched on a
branch

floating

(c) Michael Sesling August 2011

Sprinkle on Your Own Poetic Identity

2011-08-15T07:35:00.000-04:00

Think I feel like baking a poem
mixing in the metaphors

a teaspoon of the unknown
pre-heating the stanzas
cracking a similie
to help bind the thoughts
until it is time to
stir in the free verse with a wooden spoon

wait until all ingredients are combined
and ready to be put into the mind's oven

sprinkle on your own poetic identity

Michael Sesling
(c) August 14, 2011

Observations of Morning Commute VIII

2011-08-03T18:32:00.000-04:00

She reads from her prayer book

words across a page

her lips move in silence
I cannot read the
Arabic flowing from her lips

she wears blue jeans and sneakers
I can’t make-out the brand

riding the train on a Saturday
early morning
her lips don’t stop
as her eyes keep scrolling

Words across a page

Her head is wrapped in
her customs and her beliefs
brown cotton etched in white stripes
from the top of forehead
across the top of head
around her left shoulder
tucked under her chin
and over her right shoulder

Her words
these prayers
words I wonder and contemplate
but I cannot comprehend

These words begin to get louder
and suddenly
as the train descends into darkness
she stops reading

Abruptly
slides her prayer book into her purse

And looks at me
as my lips recite the words I write…

Michael Sesling
poeticmindset
(c) August 2011

I first wrote this piece a while back, and just came back to it recently with some edits. Let's see where it goes from here...

Holocaust Remembrance Day - Left for G-d

2011-05-02T21:06:00.000-04:00

My ancestors' past
buried within the
cold graves of
anti-Semitism
huddled...
together,
and turned into
abandoned bodies;
abandoned souls...
strewn upon their
death...
dug with their own hands,
buried by their children...
prayed for by their fathers.
left for G-d
left as a memory
left as a reminder...
"surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of
the Lord
forever."

-Michael D. Sesling

National Poetry Month - April 30, 2011 - Martin Espada Interview revisited

2011-04-30T19:34:00.000-04:00

National Poetry Month is not just a month to write poetry, but a time to read the poetry of others as well. To improve one's own poetics, one must read, and one must also listen to the words of other poets.

I interviewed Martín in the fall of 2010, and had a very candid conversation with him about his poetic roots, passions for family and his Latino roots, a deep love of baseball, and other little tidbits that found there way into our conversation.

Martín Espada is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and teaches poetry. His new book, The Trouble Ball (Norton, 2011) was just released this spring.

This is the first in what will be a series of interviews with poets about their poetic roots...

Michael Sesling.: Is there a place, I guess, for yourself, where you found poetry, or a beginning for you, in expressing yourself poetically?

Martín Espada.: Well, where did it begin? Well, I can tell you that for me, poetry began when I was 15 years old. And you know, I have to preface that also by saying that I was a really terrible student. I actually failed English in the eighth grade -- and now I'm a professor of English, which just tells you something about the twists and turns one life can take.

But I remember very clearly my first poem. I was 15 years old. And it was a poem that arose from an assignment in a classroom. A tenth grade English classroom, as a matter of fact. And I was asked, along with some other students in the class, to reproduce our own edition of the New Yorker magazine.

Of course, we had never seen the New Yorker magazine, and this was a very different New York. But indeed, we set about the task, and the magazine -- the New Yorker -- was passed from hand to hand, until it finally came to me, at the bottom of the food chain. And the only thing left, unclaimed, so to speak, at the back of the magazine, was the poem. And I was very disappointed. I thought, "Oh no, a poem." But I did not want to fail English again. My father was waiting at home with big hands -- and so, I elected to try a poem. I sat down in the corner by the window -- it was raining that day. So I wrote a poem about rain. I don’t, indeed, have the poem anymore. I did not know it would be momentous. And I remember only one thing about the poem. "Tiny silver hammers pounding the earth," as a phrase to describe rain. I didn't know it at the time, but I just created my first metaphor. When I told people what I had done, and they informed me in turn that I had created a metaphor, I went down the hallway pounding my chest and yelling, "I made a metaphor, I'm bad." But, you know, I learned something else that day. I learned that I love words. I learned that I love banging words into each other and watching them spin around the room, and then jump out the window.

And from the beginning, at the age of 15, I had something to say with those words. Because, from almost the beginning, I wrote about the things that still concern me today. The city, community, family. The island of Puerto Rico. And so on. So... that is indeed how it started.

M.S.: It's interesting how similar -- and by no means do I ever compare myself you to. But also, failure -- failed student of English. And I was actually living, after I graduated high school -- went and lived in Israel for a year, deciding I was not ready for a university. And found myself taking a journal. And one day looked down and said, "Oh, look at that. That looks like a poem. Huh." I think I was about 18 at the time.

And it blossomed from there. So you -- it sounds like you always kind of, immediately, with the written word, found that connection to your Puerto Rican roots.

M.E.: Well, it was a way of exploring those roots. It was always a way of exploring that heritage. And whenever I made some new discovery, it would find its way into the poetry. You know, in a way, the poetry and I grew up together.

M.S.: Have you found -- so, I mean, based on, you know, your books that I've read, and certainly, you've used the different places you've been in life to kind of carry that as a constant kind of -- I don't know, kind of autobiographical along the way?

M.E.: Well, I find myself coming back to the autobiographical in cycles. My previous collection of poems, called the Republic of Poetry, there was very little in the way of autobiographical material, even though there was a series of twelve poems about Chile, based in turn upon my visit to that country in July of 2004, for the Pablo Neruda centenary. And yet, as a protagonist, I was very little in evidence in that collection. I wasn't really there. In the forthcoming book, the next collection of poems, I'm very much, once again, writing in an autobiographical vein -- looking back at growing up in Brooklyn, looking back at early work experiences.
Some of the awful jobs I had. And other things. You know, and basically creating a collection that is still political, as I am prone to be. But also intimate, you know.

M.S.: ...Surely, there's a lot you publish, and surely there's a lot that you, you know, haven't published,
you've kept to yourself. Is there anything you find that you don't put out publicly to be published?

M.E.: Well, there are things that are still difficult for me to talk about. And if I don't talk about them, there's little chance I'm going to write about them. And if I do write about them, there's little chance that I'm actually going to publish them. In the new book there are two poems I would certainly identify as being very, very personal, and revealing things that perhaps have not been revealed in poetry before. You know, I don't ordinarily create these kinds of categories, of classifications. If a poem comes to me, I tend to write it down. And if it's good, I try to put it out in the world. But, you know, I'm like everybody else. I'm still processing certain kinds of issues, and not entirely there with some things yet.

M.S.: Do you find, with those poems, that there -- or, are there certain types of poems that require more of an editing process that you've been through?

M.E.: Well, of course. There's some poems that emerge almost complete, and require only minimal revision. And then there are others that simply won't leave me alone. And I have to come back to them and revise them -- even after I think they're finished. And even after they are in the process of being published, I will still be making changes. And it might come down to a word here or a comma there, and they're the sorts of things that drive poets crazy. But they should. I wouldn't have it any other way.

M.S.: ...do you find that your time out in Amherst has kind of changed your vision at all, or changed those roots, being now in kind of a different community, different than what you were raised in, and what you went through, you know, as a lawyer in Chelsea?

M.E.: Well, the roots are the same. And I have enough stories to tell. So that I'll never run out of them. I -- of course, it's a different environment. But that does provide some advantages. In that I now have the opportunity to recollect with a little more clarity, some of the events of my life. When I left, I can remember, you know, asking these questions of myself. When I left law, which was now 17 years ago, for teaching full-time at UMass Amherst. How that was going to affect me as a writer. In fact, if you look at what I've published since then, you can see that it hasn't defected me all that much.

You know... the first book that I published in the fall of 1993, which is when I began working here at UMass, is called "City of Coughing and Dead Radiators."

Consisted of, among other things, some lawyer poems. And many of those, of course, I had written during my days as a tenant lawyer. But the book that followed that is called "Imagine the Angels of Bread." And once again, you can see me drawing upon the experience of a lifetime. And oftentimes, we don't know when we have these experiences, that indeed, these experiences are the stuff of poetry. It might be something that wakes you up in the middle of the night. It might be something that you suddenly feel -- you know, at the back of your neck. You know, that's a poem, and you didn’t know it before. So, you know, I'm not worried about running out of material. I think I could write for the rest of my life and not run out of things to say. Which, of course, is a dilemma that other poets have to confront. It's -- my problem is not having things to say. My problem has always been finding the time and the energy and the space to sit down and get it written.

M.S.: ...do you have a certain time in the day that you find -- say, this is my writing time, or --

M.E.: No, my life is total chaos.

Total chaos. No, I have no routine, I have no pattern. I don't eat at the same time, I don't sleep at the same time, I don't work at the same time. I don't do anything at the same time, from day to day, week to week, or month to month. It's pandemonium. I look back -- and when I see a book coming out, I'm shocked. I don't
know how it happened. I don't know when I wrote those poems.

My new book, which is coming out from Norton in the Spring -- it's called "The Trouble Ball," it'll be out in April. And every single poem -- there's 24 poems in the collection -- they've all been published.

M.S.: Excellent. Where does the title stem from?

M.E.: The trouble ball, on one level, literally refers to the pitcher, Satchel Paige, and his change-up. That was his change-up, was the Trouble Ball. He named many of his pitches. So he had one called the Trouble Ball. Another one called the Bat Dodger. He had another one called the Sloe Gin Fizz, you know. All the thoughtful stuff. And you can find out lots of information such as this about Satchel Paige in a new biography by a fellow named Larry Tye. Anyway, the poem in question is not only about Satchel Paige, but about my father who loved baseball and grew up on the island of Puerto Rico in the 30s, not only watching his favorite island teams, but watching the barnstorming Negro League All Stars. And the players from the Negro Leagues who would play on Puerto Rican teams, like Satchel Paige, who pitched for a team called the Brujos
of Guayama. And my father remembered him very clearly because his father was a baseball fanatic, and made sure that they went to see the Negro League All Stars. And players like Satchel Paige, when they visited the island. Well, in 1941, my father went to his first big league ballgame in Brooklyn, at Ebbets Field. And --
keep in mind, this was six years before the advent of Jackie Robinson, so it was still segregated. Well, no one told my father. And so he sat there with his father, watching the game for a few innings. And suddenly it sort of dawned on him: "Uh oh. Where's Satchel Paige?" You know, he said, "Where are all the black players?" And his father had to break the bad news. And this devastated my father, because he not only would miss out on seeing his favorite players -- particularly, Satchel Paige -- but this also had ramifications for him as a person of color. You know, as he -- as I put it in the -- you know, in the poem -- the only brown boy at the ballgame. Or, the only -- I forget exactly what the phrase is now, because it's not in front of me. But, the point is that it becomes of what I would think of as kind of baseball biography, you know. Where you're -- it's a point of departure. To explore, you know, not only what happened to Satchel Paige, and what happened to the Dodgers, and so on. But what happened to my father. He returned to baseball. He was a pitcher. He emulated Satchel Paige. He injured his arm. He married my mother. They went -- he wooed her. He courted her at the ballpark, you know. It was still a very much segregated society, and they were a mixed couple, so there were conflicts around that. He grabbed a waiter one night and almost killed the guy. And, you know, on and on and on, you know. So it's -- there's a way in which, you know, that initial discovery that, you know -- it's, of course, an overused phrase, but that loss of innocence provides a kind of, you know, point of departure for all kinds of other losses to come. And a steeling of one's self against those losses so as to survive. And to continue playing the game, so to speak. And so that's -- and the funny thing is, with my father, who is turning 80 this year -- never said a word about this. Recently, about -- by recently, I mean maybe a year ago, he sent me a few e-mails out of the blue telling this whole story.

And then he filled in some details as I asked more questions. And that become a poem. And the funny -- well, funny is the wrong word. Fortuitous coincidence is, that I actually was able to track down a photograph of my father in a baseball uniform, rearing back to fire his fastball. No older than 16 or 17 in the photograph. And that's going to be the cover.

M.S.: Are you still a baseball fan?

M.E.: Yeah. I am. In fact, I'm going to -- when I get off the phone with you, I'm going to put on the Giants against the Phillies. Because my parents live in the Bay Area, and they are big Giants fans. So they're rooting for the Giants, even though I think the Giants are in deep trouble against the Phillies. I am hoping that
they'll pull it out. And then I'd like to see the Rangers beat the Yankees, because I hate the Yankees.

M.S.: Amen.

M.E.: As any good New Englander would.

M.S.: Now, did you grow up a Dodger fan?

M.E.: Well, the -- no, because, what happened was, the Dodgers left Brooklyn in 1957. Which is the same year I was born, so I have no direct memory of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Five years later, the Mets came along, and my parents decided that we had to be Met fans. And so we went every year to see the Mets -- first at the Polo Grounds, then Shea Stadium. And we always went to see the Giants and Willie Mays play against the Mets. And then later on in life -- I was a Met fan for any number of years as a result, which is, as most people know, very, very unrewarding. So I came to New England -- I moved to Boston to go to law school in 1982. And it wasn't long after that that I became a Red Sox fan. And -- of course, you know, I've been
here, what -- this is 2010, so God, you do the math. Been here a long time. So naturally, you know, I fell into becoming a Red Sox - - long before it was fashionable, you know. There was no such thing as Red Sox nation. And you know, I was part of that Greek chorus, you know, wailing and gnashing of teeth, you know, when it came to -- when it came to the Red Sox. And then, lo and behold, they won the World Series twice. And, you know, there it is. So yeah, I don't follow the game as closely as once I did. It's probably because I haven't got the time and the energy. And since the process of discovering that there are other things in life that
you need to tend to more urgently. But I never refuse tickets to the ballgame.

M.S.: ...where did you find your allegiance lying in '86, then?

M.E.: I actually -- that was the year I switched teams. I went from the Mets to the Red Sox, and my timing could not have been worse.

It was uncanny. I think in the middle of the year, I decided, "All right, I’m not a Mets fan anymore. I'm a Red Sox fan, dammit."

And sure enough, I followed them to their doom. And, yet, you know, when you think about the -- you know, the Sturm und Drang, and all of the angst around 1986, you know, the baseball gods can be strangely merciful. And it was -- 2004 made up for all of that in a way that we never could have imagined. Nobody could have envisioned, you know... And the only way that 1986 could be erased from the collective consciousness of Red Sox fans was what happened in 2004. It couldn't just be -- oh, yes, they finally won the
World Series. But the way they did it --

M.S.: Oh yeah, down three.

M.E.: Against the Yankees, down 0-3. And not only down 0-3. But down 0-3 and trailing in the ninth inning of game four. And there'll never be a comeback like that again.

M.S.: No.

M.E.: It's just statistically impossible. It's not going to happen.

M.S.: That -- both of those games were won, officially, on my 30th birthday.

M.E.: There you go.

M.S.: It's probably the best birthday present I ever received.

M.E.: Yeah. No, it's -- you know, and baseball at its best, has the capacity to do that. It's just -- you know, to do absolutely the most unpredictable -- you know, it is, you know -- obviously an extraordinary game. I know a lot of people go on about how beautiful it is, and so on and so forth. But for me, it's the utter unpredictability of a game that everyone constantly tries to control and predict. You know, we all -- we've now reached this point where, you know, of course, all the statisticians and sabermetricians have reduced it to a rather desiccated science. But you know, all the things we do, and all the experts do, and all the teams do to try to predict the outcome of this game. And the game won't cooperate. It won't cooperate. It is so unpredictable. You know. You know, now, having said all that, right -- what could still end up happening this year is that the Yankees will buy another World Series. Because in baseball, as in life, money trumps. You know -- but every now and then -- and in recent years, more often than not, something happens to the Yankees along the way, in spite of the fact that they're the richest team in baseball. And I take deep satisfaction in that.

M.S.: Do you think you'll ever find yourself doing a baseball poetry...Interesting. Listening to you, I -- I hear it in you.

M.E.: You know, the funny thing is, I've done a lot of baseball commentaries for the radio. There's a local station here, WMUA, where I've done a lot of baseball commentaries. And I've done some baseball commentaries online. And, you know, it's just sort of -- it's just a lark, really. I have also been tormenting a publisher friend who, for years, has been begging me for a baseball book. And for years, I've been telling him I was going to do it right after I finished the last book. And then I move on to the next book, and I never give him what he wants. I'm not sure I have a baseball book in me. That's a really big commitment. And it's so
hard to avoid saying what's already been said. It really is. There are more words spilled about baseball than almost any other subject. And yet -- you know, the thought just crossed my mind recently to sort of collect the various baseball poems I've written -- and there have been quite a few -- and put them in their own
volume, and maybe write an introductory essay, and flush it out with some illustrations, or whatever. And make a book. So that might be something I'm going to propose to my tormented publisher friend, and see if he goes for it. Because he really is a sweet guy, and he has been giving me one opportunity after another. And
he'll pay me -- you know, unlike other publishers, he'll put the money on the table. I just won't do it. It's something very stubborn and contrarian about it. But I really feel like, unless I have something completely new and unique to say about this, then maybe I shouldn't be saying it. I don't know.

M.S.: Maybe from the context of some of the things you've mentioned with the -- you know, connecting back to your roots, your father.

M.E.: Well, that is one way to approach it, is to write a kind of, you know, personal -- like I said, a baseball biography. And then, you know, another way, of course, is to say, well, what really is the history and the sociology and the poetry of Latinos in baseball. Which, I think is a book that has not been written. There have
been books written on Latinos in baseball, don't get me wrong. And some of them are pretty good. But I -- the definitive book on Latinos in baseball has not yet been written. And I'm sort of -- you know, thinking about that, a little bit. You know, Ken Burns took a shot at it, with The Tenth Inning -- it was his recent
follow-up documentary. You know, he finally -- finally admitted that there are Latinos, in baseball, you know.

M.S.: There are?

M.E.: Big sigh of relief. You know, so -- but in general, you know, that story has not been told. You know, not really.

M.S.: Sounds like there's a person here to tell it.

M.E.: Yeah, well, you know, a little free time. You know...

M.S.: Your copious free time.

M.E.: That's right, my copious free time, yeah. No, I mean, I do -- you know, I do have it on the back burner. And with a little breathing -- a little time to breathe, it just might happen.

M.S.: That's a book I certainly would love to read. And I think certainly, there, you cross a couple of spectrums with the lovers of baseball -- sports in general, and, of course, poetry.

M.E.: Yeah, well, I've got to make a little money.

M.S.: Don’t we all.

M.E.: Yeah. It's either that or a cookbook.

M.S.: Has there been a poetic cookbook?

M.E.: I'm sure there has.

M.S.: I was actually thinking about that a couple of weeks ago.

M.E.: I'm not the one to write it, unless it's microwave cookery.

M.S.: (laughs) Well, I greatly appreciate your time, Martin.

National Poetry Month - April 29, 2011 - The British Royal Wedding and Poetry

2011-04-29T18:30:00.007-04:00

By Amy Standring
Poetic Mindset

In the UK, our current poet laureate is the great Carol Ann Duffy. She has been labelled feminist, post-modernist, and lesbian-obsessed. These labels all imply a refusal by the current laureate to compose a poem for the newly-wed royal couple: William and Kate. However, defying expectations, Carol Ann Duffy has composed an emotive poem for the occasion. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8480795/Royal-wedding-poem-the-verdict.html

The poem is called 'Rings' and explores the relationship between love and poetry. Should Duffy have said no to writing a wedding-poem? The prolific poet Wendy Cope has criticised Duffy's choice stating, ''I would have respected her more if she had said no''. I find it perculiar that Cope bothers to condemn Duffy. The public are already aware that she feels the post of poet laureate should be discontinued. Why then, is Cope bothering to comment at all on the choices of a poet laureate? Surely, Cope would realise the public know she will provide negativity to any laureate-post: it is all rather predictable.

The past is full of poems written for royal occasions. John Betjeman wrote the poem read at the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. Andrew Motion was another poet laureate who composed many poems for royal events. The main problem with the title of 'poet laureate' is - how can one compose a poem for an event which one isn't passionate about? How can you be persuaded/ordered to write a poem which you have no inspiration to write? Isn't poetry about 'being in the moment'? It is a free artistic outlet, not one which you have limits and boundaries to comply with.

Of course, emotion is involved in weddings, and this one between William and Kate seems to be one of the most convincing of all. This may be one of the reasons why Duffy agreed to write a poem for the occasion - she saw the real love between the couple. Ted Hughes wrote for Princess Diana's funeral, it was an amazing poem. Maybe Wendy Cope should take a step back and realise that Duffy, like Hughes, has spotted real emotion in the royal family. Or maybe Cope is right - maybe poetry can only be strongest when under no pressure to be composed.

National Poetry Month - April 28, 2011 - Yehuda Amichai

2011-04-28T17:28:00.000-04:00

Yehuda Amichai was born in 1924 in Germany to an Orthodox Jewish family. By the age of 12 he had moved to Palestine, and at the age of 24, he fought in the Israeli War of Independence.

In his poetry, Amichai pulls together the rich history of the Jewish people, and questions so much about life. He uses biblical stories to tie together the historical references with delicate detail. Amichai uses his life experiences, and his observations of living in the Mid-East, to expound with simplicity on life. In his poem Jerusalem, he blends words with beautiful ease to illustrate the life and truth of living in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem

"On a roof in the Old City

Laundry hanging in the late

afternoon sunlight:
The white sheet of a woman

who is my enemy,
The towel of a man who is my enemy,
To wipe off the sweat of his brow.

In the sky of the Old City
A kite.
At the other end of the string,
A child
I can't see
Because of the wall.

We have put up many flags,
They have put up many flags.
To make us think that they're happy.
To make them think that we're happy."

By Yehuda Amichai
Translated by Irena Gordon

National Poetry Month - April 27, 2011 - Sylvia Plath's resting place

2011-04-27T18:56:00.007-04:00

by Amy Standring
Poetic Mindset

Today I visited the grave of Sylvia Plath. Her grave is only 40 minutes from my house and I can't quite believe I have never been there before. She is buried in a cemetery in the small village of Heptonstall, situated in West Yorkshire. Is it right Plath is buried here? Is it right she is buried in England at all? Many people believe she should have been buried in her birthplace - Massachusetts, America.

The headstone is regularly vandalized by the public, many feel that the surname 'Hughes' should be removed from the stone. Much controversy over whether her husband Ted Hughes pushed her to suicide is still current - but shouldn't the public put the controversy to one side and let her rest in peace? Or should her fans continue to fight for justice if they are in fact right, and Ted Hughes was a motivator in her death?

The grave is amidst many other non-famous graves, it resides in a messy area of the graveyard. I had to spend almost an hour reading gravestone names until I found it. The fact that the village of Heptonstall is not using the grave to attract tourists is strange but also respectful. It is made with simple stone and only a few lines of inscription. The line which Ted Hughes chose for Plath's epitaph is 'Even amidst fierce flames the Golden Lotus can be planted'. These words come from the poet Wu Ch'Eng-En, written in the 16th century.

She is resting near another poet, Asa Benveniste,who was also born in America (New York) but is buried in Heptonstall. The surroundings are also very poetic; wooded areas, sloping moors, and ruined 15th century churches all allow Plath's grave to have the poetic atmosphere it deserves.

The grave itself has red tulips planted and still growing - an obvious reference to her poem 'Tulip'. A tiny figurine of the angel Ariel also alludes to her poetry. The most poignant aspect of the grave though, is the mass of pens that have been left stuck in a plant-pot holder. Over one hundred pens stuck up at different angles, I planted one of my own pens there, and hoped that Plath would be using all these pens, wherever she is.

National Poetry Month - April 26, 2011 - Poetry, Music, and Social Action!

2011-04-26T22:05:00.000-04:00

Hi there! I'm Serena, and I am in a social action rock band called Truth On Earth. What is a social action rock band you might ask? To my fellow band members and I it means music with a message. Music where the words have a social meaning, so that meaning could be about a crisis we have in our world (such as starvation) or a lighter topic (such as being yourself).

As a musician who creates music, and creates lyrics to that music, I believe that poetry and music go hand in hand. Jim Morrison of The Doors is perhaps one of the most famous poets who put his words to music. "If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.", he said.

Poetry can be a way to express how you're feeling, what you're seeing, what you believe, or it can be something random and silly. That's why so many poets could potentially write words to music, and for many musicians it is helpful when they can put their thoughts in writing.

The songs that Truth On Earth writes are mostly serious subjects, so it's important for us to bring the whole social action message through. At the same time, we write the music so if somebody is listening to one of our songs for the first time, they might not realize that the song is actually about a social action issue. After a few listens, they will hopefully notice that our song has a message, and then enjoy listening to the song with a whole new understanding.

We are bringing these issues to the forefront with our music, because we believe that more people need to know about all of these different social action issues. We are one of the only "social action rock bands", but there are other bands around even today that have a social action song or two. The following is an excerpt from a song by Muse, and it is called Uprising.

"The paranoia is in bloom
The P.R. transmissions will resume
They'll try to push drugs, keep us all dumbed down
And hope that we will never see the truth around
Another promise, another scene, another
Packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed with all the
Green belts wrapped around our minds and endless
Red tape to the keep the truth confined."

Whether Muse was trying to make a statement or not, I think that's a perfect example of social action poetry used in music.

Almost everyone listens to music, and I think that's why it's so important for our music to have an added message. To really reach people and make them see that we need to work on things in our world, and what better way to do it than in song? The music is already being listened to, so hopefully by listening to our songs, people realize that we need to change things around here. Basically, it might inspire the person listening to do something in this world, and that would be just what Truth on Earth hopes to accomplish.

A guest post by Serena of Truth on Earth for PoeticMindset.com

National Poetry Month - April 25th, 2011 ~ The Crystal Blue Dream

2011-04-25T08:33:00.002-04:00

Poetry and art - One blooms from the other, but like the chicken and the egg, do we truly know which came first? Jem and Trace have been collaborating in their art and poetry, and were kind enough to offer this guest post for National Poetry Month. Below, The Crystal Blue Dream offers a look into their poetic artistry, a fantastic journey of love, hope and desire in their collaborative dreams.

A poemimage by Jemfyr and Trace ~

National Poetry Month - April 24, 2011 - a poem scribble typed...

2011-04-24T23:08:00.000-04:00

thoughts scribble typed
in my veritable fashion
my brain splatter
onto you(pull the covers up
protect yourself)
while you sleep somewhere
across the world
or right next to me
and I take a moment from
in the afternoon that's become dank
gray, a carpet of cotton balls
where did my morning sunshine
disappear to, and I wonder
if in your dream-state you
managed to pull the sun
out of my sky
and wrap yourself in its warmth
smiling, I imagine, somewhere
beneath your own moon
that protects you from the imagined

-Michael Sesling

National Poetry Month - April 23, 2011 - Echo Under the Bridge

2011-04-23T14:22:00.000-04:00

footsteps repeat
overhead in a syncopated rhythm
sounds emanate

a waterfall cascades in the distance

hidden crevices
an echo under the bridge
sounds of lovers
in shadows dancing

arched backs and cold shoulders

as the stream of their thoughts
flow beneath them

a boat passing

they wrap themselves
in the warmth of their own bodies

and the starry night
speckling across silent sky

-Michael D. Sesling
originally posted October 22, 2009

National Poetry Month - April 22, 2011 - Earth Day - "Salvation in Sacrifice"

2011-04-22T17:25:00.000-04:00

wounded
the animal whimpers
under sullen sky
over the flowers in bloom
and beneath the insolent sun
the children stand akimbo
trembling by the fence
before the plumes
of ash in the distance
the awaiting brick glows red
and the dampened earth
with fragrance of honeysuckle
like that imagined touch of the tongue to tongue
and from the sheath
the knife held to sky
to earth
to sky
with prayers in masked obedience
and salvation in sacrifice

-Michael D. Sesling
Originally posted here on November 9, 2009....

National Poetry Month - April 21, 2011 - Observation is more than visual

2011-04-21T15:50:00.000-04:00

Observations are not just visual, and today as I talked with a salesperson on the phone, I was hit with poetic inspiration (if you will) from her words.

The call's goal was for this person to be a lead generator to qualify me as a potential sale, and while chatting I discovered she was originally from Nigeria and now lives down south. I wouldn't have guessed either by a non-existent accent. We were talking about the rising cost of IT infrastructure, and she was going to help me learn how her firm would be able to help me save on my long term IT costs. She talked about the comparison of rising IT costs to the rising costs to build automobiles. She asked me how much my firm wanted to spend on IT costs in 2011 and beyond, and I told her $1.50. She politely laughed, and said, "you couldn't even build a car in my Nigerian homeland out of re-purposed corrugated tin roofs for $1.50." I laughed, and had to stop her so that I could write down those four words. Four words, that was it, I was hooked and they were spinning themselves into the brain's poetic infrastructure.

I have these four words to build from poetically, and am challenged to create a poem from her words.

So now that I have this poetic inspiration from this conversation, I throw this challenge out to you. Stop yourself and listen to the world passing you. Yes, eavesdrop while commuting. Close your eyes for a moment, and see what you hear. Spin the sounds poetically, and share them. In the end, I hope you find that you'll be amazed at what you might not have previously paid attention to.

-Michael Sesling
PoeticMindset

How can poetry classes at university be less stifling and more inspiring?

2011-04-20T17:48:00.001-04:00

Once again the lovely Amy Standring from the U.K. has taken to blogging today's post about poetry and University. I had such a mixed bag of poetic resources at University, a Whitman's Sampler of poetry professors if you will, that ranged from inspirational to disheartening. Inspirational was one Professor who I can still hear, reading William Carlos Williams, E.E. Cummings, and so many more. He read their words with passion, and then opened up an insightful dialogue about the poetry. In this fashion, his students found inspiration, creativity, passion, and a new found sense of poetics. On the disheartening side was another Professor who insulted me in front of the entire class, and for some time sucked out every bit of poetic thought that was within me. So enough about my personal experiences at University, and let's read what Amy has to say about her own experiences and thoughts from the U.K.

How can poetry classes at university be less stifling and more inspiring?
By Amy Standring (and a touch of Michael Sesling)

How is creative writing taught in university? Can it be 'taught'? Most academics agree that poetry cannot infact be taught, but talent and drive can be encouraged by a teacher. Many famous poets such as Sylvia Plath and T.S.Eliot admitted that when they began writing they simply imitated the style of previous poets. Another widespread tactic used by poets beginning to write is to use 'poetic' language instead of using their own voice (which is much more interesting) to convey their ideas. It seems that it is within this process of finding your own voice or style that teachers at university could be most beneficial. Therefore, rather than university teachers trying to push concrete 'teaching' onto a pupil, they should help pull the original voice of each student out of them.

Of course, technical skills are an important part of poetry which can be taught. Learning how to write in iambic pentameter, a villanelle, or sonnet are crucial to a student. A student may have their 'own style' but discovery of other styles works to solidify their own. Last month I was told by a poetry teacher that I was writing a particular kind of poem and did I know what it was called? I had no idea! She told me it was 'Ekphrastic Poetry'. So you can see that university also allows the student to understand and categorize their own poetry.

In my experience, the most useful thing a teacher can do is recite poetry - whether it is their own, ours, or that of a famous poet. Then they should open the poem up to the class discuss the inner workings of the poets writing - afterall, poetry is an active process. Only after this burst of inspiration and activity around a piece of poetry can a student go away and contemplate by themselves, leading to progression in their own work.

The prolific poet Wendy Cope has strong views on this topic. She states that 'the most important piece of advice that anyone can give you is that you have to read both recent poetry and the poetry of past centuries'. If we think about other art-forms such as painting or composing we can begin to see that Cope is onto something. A great painter will be an expert on other painters and have explored most of the galleries in the world. A composer does not just listen to their own music, they will listen to music from many different genres, and then piece together their own compositions.

It seems the most important way to develop your own poetry is to read, read, and read some more. Read poetry from different countries, poetry in translation, poetry meant for oral form (do not lose sight of the spoken word), even poetry which you think you hate! Read 'Beowulf' from the 8th century, read Friedrich Nietzsche from the 19th century, read Alice Notley who is one of the most experimental poets of our day.

Read them all, store a little gem from each, and then try writing in that poet's style. Really, you'll be amazed at how you can spin your own thoughts in someone's style, and will help to make your own writing shine in the long run.

National Poetry Month - April 19, 2011 - On Writing and Observation

2011-04-19T23:31:00.000-04:00

Take a moment to observe yourself in the day. Where are you? What are you doing? What's happening around you? Are you rolling over to turn off the alarm clock, or stepping onto the train heading into the office? Each day offers a unique view for you in your life, and each day offers a unique opportunity to observe as if you were a poetic anthropologist. Moments of the day against the grain as you squeeze yourself onto the train, and curse to your self about the person with the overstuffed backpack they refuse to put between their legs.

A puff of smoke dissipates into the air from a smoker on the street corner. A father at the park with his child. The wife and mother watching and smiling in the distance.

Take the moment, and write it. You'll enjoy what you find.

Michael Sesling
Poeticmindset

National Poetry Month - April 18, 2011 - The Battle of Jericho

2011-04-18T17:56:00.000-04:00

From the desert
I imagine they would
count the stars
at night against the grain of their skin
the Israelites
followed the moonbeam in silence
kissing the twilight
as they marched with Joshua into Canaan
around the walls of Jericho
once a day for six days
around the walls
awaiting the seventh day
when on the seventh time around
with ram's horns echoing into night
and the people's war-cry heard
the crumbling walls
allowed for the destruction
of every man
every woman
every child

with fire and brimstone
the destruction complete
and a curse to last
the ages
------------
As it is Passover tonight, I thought a poetic tale (though this biblical tale happens 40 years after the Israelites have escaped the Egyptians)...

-Michael Sesling

National Poetry Month - April 17, 2011 - Poetry is...

2011-04-17T23:55:00.001-04:00

poetry is...
passion

National Poetry Month - April 16, 2011 - Langston Hughes

2011-04-16T16:49:00.002-04:00

Langston Hughes started exploring poetics in his teenage years, and found his soul alive with rhythmic poetry. While a student at Columbia, he further developed this flare and found ways to incorporate his life as an African American into his writing. Hughes didn't want to just tell a story, but chose to share the difficulties of being an African American at a time when the Harlem Renaissance was at a peak. In his poem "Theme for English B" Hughes writes,

"But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That’s American.
Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.

Nor do I often want to be a part of you.

But we are, that’s true!

As I learn from you,

I guess you learn from me—

although you’re older—and white—

and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B."

-Langston Hughes

You will find yourself not just lost in his words, but also learning so much more about life at such a crucial juncture in history. For an extended read, pick up "The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes"

National Poetry Month - April 15 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

2011-04-15T15:33:00.000-04:00

The backbone of Ferlinghetti's poetic goals has always been to make sure poetry is accessible to the people. You can't get much more basic and beautiful!
He helped people like Allen Ginsberg publish their poetic brilliance, and had no concerns for offending those in the elite of academia, politics, etc. Hence, the beat generation! He writes against the grain of American thought. Ferlinghetti gets his readers to not just think about his poetry, but he gets the reader to interact with his poetic mindset! (I couldn't help that, really.)

(On a side note: It is truly an honor to know that his City Lights Bookstore sold my chapbook, "A Casual Metaphor," on consignment back in 1996! Thank you!)

National Poetry Month - April 14 - Why do so many poets suffer from mental illness?

2011-04-14T18:01:00.001-04:00

By Amy Standring
Poeticmindset

Creative endeavours in general attract mental health issues - Van Gogh the painter, Virginia Woolf the writer, Nijinsky the dancer. However, there is a particularly extensive history connecting poets with mental health problems. You only have to do a quick Google search to be presented with a list of 75 poets who are known to have committed suicide. Among the list are famous names such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Paolo Iashvili, and John Berryman. Poets who did not commit suicide but still suffered from 'The Sylvia Plath Effect' are also found in great numbers - Robert Lowell, John Clare, and Ivor Gurney etc.

Many have speculated on this link between poet and mental health. Is it the creative process which leads to the illness? Is the the illness which sparks off the creativity? Or do they both work hand in hand, in a cyclic manner? - In my view, most of the names mentioned above had mental health issues prior to becoming poets. Anne Sexton certainly used poetry in a cathartic manner, to try to remove the mental anguish from herself. However, the process of writing also meant her public career and private thoughts merged into one, leaving her with no distraction to turn to.
　
Bipolar Disorder is one particular illness which could be shown to spark the creativity of a poet. Bipolar Disorder involves having both depressive and manic phases - phases of extreme emotional feeling. These polar ends of emotion are so powerful they could potentially aid creativity. However, as the writer David Constantine states upon being interviewed by Clare Allen on the subject, 'severe mental illness [is] characterised by a lack of flexibility, a mental rigidity, quite the opposite of the ''chameleon self'' that poetry requires'. It seems therefore, that many forms of mental illnesses infact put a block on the creative process of writing poetry.

The poet Roddy Lumsden wrote 'a poet confessing to mental illness is like a weight lifter admitting to muscles'. I have to disagree to some extent with this statement: not all poets have a mental illness. The link between mental disorder and poetry will continue I am sure. However, I am also sure that the breath-taking poetry which comes from either heightened states of mentality or mental anguish will also continue.