My top three favorite poetry blogs

I'm currently working on a topic requested via Twitter.  As I get that done, I think now's the perfect opportunity to share a few of my favorite blogs.  These people are either doing what I do better than I'm doing it, or they're doing more.

Without further ado:

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The French Exit

I think, really, the best way to describe this blog is that it's something akin to walking in on a smart dinner party where poetry or any other topic might happen to come up.  It's smart, funny, but not always about poetry.

And I'm cool with that.  Because if you're smart or funny enough, you can make me interested even in the topics I can't join in on (today's topic?  A review of smells.  My nose has three receptors.  Good.  Bad.  And Food).

Plus, from the background of the blog to the manner of discussion itself, things are about as unpretentious as it gets.  This is a great risk of dinner parties where poetry might come up.

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Yesterday's Poem

I love being around people who are always dreaming.  Dreaming is the wrong word.  Because for all the positive connotations it has, it also implies a sort of otherworldly, unachievable destination.  Vizionheiry isn't dreaming, she's setting things up, and planning.  And fostering community.

I actually think that her blog is in some ways ancillary to her Twitter account, because so much of the fun is happening there.  But Twitter is like riding in cars and waving at one another.  And a blog is a place to rest your feet, so here it is.

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The Storialist

A blog purely of poetry, The Storialist finds a photo every day, and writes inspired by that photo.  I don't know exactly what it is about this idea which I love, but every time I read in on what's new, I can't decide if I'd rather read the poem first, and guess at the photo, or look at the photo and see what has been done with it.

One thing I'd like to add is that I write a poem every single day.  I've been doing it for over a year now, and yeah, sometimes it sucks and you don't want to write anything. But what makes this even more impressive a venture is that Hannah isn't hiding anything (or if she is, she's showing more than she's hiding).

And of course, this wouldn't be anything more but a good idea if the writing didn't back it up.

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Does anyone out there have any blogs they check regularly because of how damn good they are?  Link me!  I apparently am underrepresented my own gender here, as well as the span of blogging platforms.

4 poems in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

I'm making more of an effort, from now on, of letting people know where they can read my poetry.  Four of my poems are in last month's issue of The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature:

http://www.deadmule.com/poetry/2010/04/keith-wilson-–-four-poems/

Cave Canem, and the Kaffir Lilly book release party.

So much to say.  First, I've been accepted into Cave Canem.  I'm ecstatic.  I tried not to think about it back when I applied, but some of my favorite poets are involved; on the faculty, or on board in some way.  Claudia Rankine comes to mind, especially.  And Walter Mosely.  You know what, I'm going to stop myself before I start rambling.  I'm this close to being a graduated fellow.  Well.  You know.  Minimum of three years, quite a bit of work, and some traveling and random expenses.  That close.

Tuesday was the Bianca Spriggs Kaffir Lily book release party, and it was tight.  Elizabeth Beck did the event planning, and it was held at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning in Lexington, KY.  Elizabeth did a great job.  It screamed of Bianca.  There were mermaids, and bling, and henna, and chocolate, and damn good poetry.  More on the poetry in a later post, but let me just say that if you have the money, stop wasting your time and just buy Kaffir Lilly.  Seriously.

Lastly, anyone who has a good memory or actively visits my blog or website will notice the changes.  I've made both easier on the eyes.  This blog now supports much bigger videos and pictures, which is good for everyone, and encourages me to post those things.  And finally, my website has an updated bio and list of some of my publication credits, which makes it really the only place you can currently go to see where I've been published.

Even more to come.  I'm always on some kinda grind.

Covington City Lights Poetry Slam and INKY Series in Louisville

I've had a busy week. And on top of it all, I'll be making a lot of changes to this blog. I'll be changing the physical layout a bit to make it easier to read, begin changing the format for similar reasons, and most importantly, I'll be updating, from now on, twice a week. On a regular schedule.

The beginning of this week, I attended the second Covington City Lights Poetry Slam event that my friend Samuel Phillips (BOK) runs. This year it was at Molly Malones, in Covington. Speaking of which, my old poetry stomping grounds, The BeanHaus in Covington, has been shut down. Damn this economy.

Anyway, the whole thing was pretty fun. I got knocked out the first round, but there were some good poets in the house. Black Falcon won the event, and the trophy, but there were some poets from the Greenwich who represented Cincinnati. Truth Be Told, I'm looking at you.  And let me just say how great it is to watch everyone grow.  Lisa Carbert, last year's winner, performed earlier last year at the Gypsy Poetry Slam in Lexington and her performances just keep getting better, and Sam's events are growing every day.

Afterwards, Lisa performed. And I got to see a performance which Lisa and my brother have been talking about since last year's CCL performance; Listener.  Which is one of my new favorite bands.  And the lead (singer?  rapper?  talker?) is hilarious, and an all around awesome guy.

On Thursday, I drove down to Louisville to read at the INKY series. Erin Keane hosted and really sort of complimented me by reading a bio she had researched herself. I don't know, bragging about myself always makes me feel awkward and self conscious, but having someone else do it, especially when you're not expecting it... It sort of made my day. Also, Erin is hilarious; I wish I lived closer to Louisville so I could come down all the time.

Steven D. Schroeder, editor of one of my favorite online journals ever (Anti-) read as well. I was excited as hell when I first found this out, and bought a copy of his book first chance I got.  And my badass sister-poet Bianca Spriggs came, and my editor and friend Katerina Stoykova-Klemer came, and Lynnell Edwards (I read with her at the Holler Poetry Series in Lexington) came. The house was full of some poets.

I had a blast, but I won't lie. I'm a little glad it's over. I can stop stressing.  I stress less than I used to.  But I still stress.

Oh, one last thing now that the long name drop session is over (I'm grateful, is all!). I ordered a Flip Camera with the money I made at INKY. So expect for some poetry in the near future.

National Poetry Month...is... killing me.

Not really, but close.

I love it, of course, but a sonnet a day? Plus a decision I made to read all of Shakespeare's sonnets within the month? Yeah, I have very little free time.

But I am learning a great deal about poetry by trying out form in this way. I'm going to have a lot to say about it when the time finally comes where I have free time again.

I was published in the latest edition of Hazard Community and Technical College's literary journal, Kudzu. And I was invited to read at a special poetry reading for those who were published within the journal. Plus, Bianca was their guest of honor, and a work shop leader at the Spring Writer's Conference the very next day (I attended last year's, where fellow Affrilachian Poet Mitch Douglas ran a workshop. And I got to attend my first, and thus far only, class with Gurney Poet, our poet laureate and my hero).

But let me tell you how this day went. I need it on record.

Hazard is about a three hour drive for me. So I leave at 2. Gives me an extra hour, right? Well, I go to Kroger, get some water, some strawberries and kiwis which have been pre-cut, and some dried fruit (which I eventually found out had sugar added. WTF) since it was my first day post fast. And lemme tell you, I enjoyed the hell out of that fruit.

But before I left, I decided I'd just write the address down. I've been stressing about the job interview the next day (more on that at a later date, I promise you) and the reading itself, and so on, so I just saved myself the trouble of clearing my interview clothes off my printer, and just wrote the address down, to enter into my GPS.

10 minutes, at Kroger: I realize that it doesn't have the address IN my GPS, but I've wasted a good amount of my extra time already, so I call Regan, ask her to enter it into mapquest, and tell her to read me the second to last direction. I'm essentially going to go as far as my GPS knows to get, and then turn onto the last road, which I'm hoping I can see as I'm driving up the SECOND to last road... Done and done.

2 hours: An accident on the part of 75 south of Lexington which becomes a two lane highway. A semi has crossed over into the opposite traffic and slammed into the hill to the right of us. 30 minute to 45 minute delay.

4.5 hours: That second to last road that Regan told me about? It's a gravel road that goes about 45 degrees uphill. I almost get stuck going up it, to find a trailer, and a dog. Not a college. I've figured out by now, there must be two roads with this name. I have no reception, so I drive around aimlessly until I do, stop in the middle of the road, and hurriedly try to explain to a sleeping Regan that I need new directions. Regan gives them to me (all the roads, and there are 6 of them, are numbers and not names. Argh), and I realize I am half an hour away. The event has started.

5 hours: No reception, phone is dying, but I've been somewhat in contact with Bianca. I am close, I tell her. Driving up and down one of the last roads, looking for a road that I can not find. I see a sign that says Hazard Technical. I am there, I tell her. I go to the visitor's center. Don't see a library. Talk to the people in the parking lot. They say this is the Technical campus. I want the other campus. They give me directions. Go down the road (to 65? I can't recall anymore) and keep going until you see the restaurants. You'll see a turn there.

5 hours, 15 minutes: The road they told me to get to? When I get to it, it splits. One way is directly forward, the other way is slightly to the left. I decide that, given that they didn't tell me about this, they meant for me to go straight. Straight is always the unsaid direction. No reception, so I just drive. And drive. And drive.

5 hours, 30 minutes: This must be the opposite way. I'll give it 5 more minutes, because I can't afford to turn around, then turn around again. Almost out of gas.

6 hours: I've turned around by now. And here is the college. I park immediately, run around campus until I see the library, and come inside, where Bianca is reading her poetry, near the end of the event. Bianca sees me, and in one of the most gracious acts I have ever experienced, finished her poem, pointed me out to the crowd as a poet who still needed to read, and asked if I could perform after her.

This is from the feature poet, a woman who has a new book, and deserves the final spotlight.

I go up to read two poems, and sit down, panting.

We went to a country club, afterwards, a bunch of us, faculty and poets from all over mid-to-central Kentucky. I got a very salty, but by this time, delicious salad, and I got to enjoy yet another awesome meal with fellow AP Bianca, and my second with Gurney.

I really want to express how thankful I am for Bianca (who, by the way, mentioned me in her book, and gave me an awesome signed copy) and the APs.

But for now, I have quite a lot of work to do, and quite a little time to do it.

It's national poetry month!

There is a kind of universal ritual that takes place this month among a lot of poets, which is the 30 poems in 30 days challenge. Oftentimes, we share many, if not all, of the poems we write during this oh-so-holy time for poetry.

Last year, I was unemployed during national poetry month, and partially because of this, and partially because I was feeling particularly inspired, I decided to write 2 poems every day. 60 poems in 30 days. It was one of my more ridiculous (and yet still, to me, good) ideas.

But I continued writing a poem a day from that point until today, and so I can't really participate in the 30 poems in 30 days challenge, and 2 poems a day seems almost pointless when I've written over 365 in the last year. So I decided to up the ante in a different manner this year.

That's right, I'm writing 30 form poems in 30 days. I'm thinking sonnets.

Additionally, a lot of the other Affrilachian Poets are participating in a juice fast for 21 days of the month. So I went out, bought a juicer and a bunch of fruit and veggies, and am participating in that as well. As a form of meditation. I have never meditated before. It's kind of distracting and painful, in an empty-stomach kind of way. Plus I have a headache that is un-fast related.

But my first fruit drink was delicious. 1 inch if ginger, 6 apples, and half a lemon. Had a kick to it, because I think I might be unable to tell the difference between 1 and 2 inches of ginger. And let me tell you, after a long day of work, knowing you have to write a sonnet afterwards, and being hungrier than hell, it is NOT fun having to go to Walmart, buy all the stuff you need to get nutrients, and then figure out how to use the damn thing.

But without further ado, my very first sonnet:

Sonnet 1

How I detested her food. My mother's

soft broccoli, lima beans. Liver and greens.

Encaged by hated vegetables. Others

ate quickly, were off, unshackled and free.

Hunger was master. I'd beg and then swill

tears from the yard concerning my next meal.

Metal cup banging badly for its fill,

I clasped her hands to drag her by her heals

Because unthankful as I was before,

I've dragged around that tinny busted cup.

With work, had little time or soup to pour.

Appeared, before, and expected her love.

Arrested—brimming now at kitchen floor,

I spill words, to her hands, when they serve more.

Know the tools of the poet's craft: Printer Edition

It goes without saying that any venture you're going to invest a considerable amount of money in deserves the same kind of special attention you give your car, or your home. But I never hear writers talk about these kinds of things; it's always about art, or the struggle, or even the business (that is, trying to land gigs or teaching jobs), but rarely the more technical side.

I'm talking about the things that can save us a ton of money, like management of resources on road trips, or filing for taxes as an artist, or in this case, getting a printer.

A while back, when I had some cash burning a hole in my pocket, I made the somewhat drastic decision to buy a new printer. Don't let this precursor dissuade you from doing the same, because it turned out to be an excellent decision, but I'm not going to act as if a ton of planning went into this; I had an old printer I hated, and I wanted a new one.

But my inability to look before I leaped is to your benefit. First things first.


Should I buy a new printer?

Good question, self. The answer to this depends entirely on what you plan on using your printer for. If you are only going to print black and white (or all text), I'd say yes, definitely. Even if you print photos or other color documents, if you are serious about printing out copies for submissions to literary journals, or copies of your novel or poetry for work shopping, I'd get a second printer just for that purpose.

See, I had a color ink jet printer. And for much the same reason that a lot of people get cell phone cameras; it was listed as a cool option, and I wanted that cool option without thinking for a second what I'd use it for.

What ended up happening was that in a 2 year period, I only needed about 2 color copies of anything. Ink jet ink dries out, so at about 45 dollars a pop for ink, those two copies cost me 90 dollars. I don't think I need a chart to explain why it's better for me to take my color documents to Kinkos, even if they DO charge far too much considering what it costs them.



What are my options?

Simply put, there are only about three options you're going to want to look into unless you have very specific (or unique) printing needs.


Ink Jet Printer

These are popular because they run so cheap. A quick Google shows me that Walmart is selling one right now for less than 30 dollars.

An ink jet printer essentially operates by spraying tiny droplets of ink on the paper, which allows for crisp and colorful options. If you're doing anything creative, this is the choice for you, because you can't do those printer-friendly iron on t-shirt transfers, color documents, or photo-quality pictures any other way.

But the downsides are many. Ink jet ink costs from 17-25 dollars, and you'll need both a black and a color if you want to take advantage of printing text for your writing, and the photo options.

What's more, ink jets dry out. If you have that color cartridge in your printer, and wait a few months before you print something in color, it is as good as dead, and it's off to the store to buy another 16 dollars worth of ink.

It literally may be cheaper just to buy a new printer every time you need to refill your ink, which is making mother earth cry as I type this, or to try to refill your cartridges (and void your warranty) yourself, which sounds like such a messy nightmare that I don't know why anyone would do it.


Laser

A laser printer operates by laying ink on a paper and using heat to burn the ink to the paper. A laser printer, which is more expensive than an ink jet uses an ink drum, which is usually more expensive than ink jet ink. But not by much. On Amazon.com, right now, I can buy ink for my printer, a Brother HL-2140, for 35 dollars.

So how long does it last?

Well, more on this later, but while I used to swap ink in my ink jet every 1 to 2 months (and this is before I REALLY began to print things out), I haven't had to change my drum since I bought my printer, and that was a year ago. If I'm conservative, and say that I ONLY changed my ink jet ink every two months, and that I also ONLY changed the black ink cartridge and not both, I save over 96 dollars a year in ink. Assuming that I run out of ink right this second.

And while I don't keep great track of how much paper I run through, I think it's safe to say that I run through around 20-50 sheets on an average month, and many more depending on what I am submitting or how much I'm work shopping. And for you environmentalists, I use both sides of the paper when I can. I wish our neighborhood offered recycling, and I'm not sure I actually help the environment by driving all the way down to the plant.


Multi-Function Printer

I will leave it to you, gentle reader, as to whether this is another feasible option for your needs.

A multi-function printer offers two or more services a 'normal' printer doesn't offer, such as a scanner/printer or scanner/fax/printer. This can save you money and room if you're in need of these gadgets, but on a personal level, I've always hated multi-function anythings. You know what happened when, back in the day, you bought a TV with a video cassette slot in it? When the VHS broke, you had to go out and buy a new VHS and sit it on top of your huge, ugly television set.

The same thing can happen with a multi-function printer. If the scanner breaks, you will either have to buy a completely new multi-function printer(and they're more expensive than any other kind of printer, as you might imagine), or buy a separate scanner and sit it next to your giant scanner printer which only prints.

And I know that times have changed, and the multi-function printers are actually sometimes smaller than other single-function printers. But I stand by my opinion that it's silly to have an item with extra, unworking parts for any reason. Plus, any engineer will tell you that the more moving parts a machine has, the more likely it is for something to go wrong.



So what next?

Next, familiarize yourself with the product, either before (suggested) or after you buy it. Google it, find out if people are having problems on Amazon's comment system. Really, spend about a day at this before you make an expensive investment.

When, after about 5 months, my printer said it was out of ink, I Googled it. It had lasted me more than twice as long as my old printer's ink, but I was curious about whether this was a normal period of time before replacement was necessary.

Turns out that the sensor for my brand of printer goes off way early. This is kind of shifty of Brother; I suspect that the company will claim it only wants the 'absolute best printing quality' and therefore tells you to change early. But there's not even an option to print anyway. It's flashing red light, and out to buy a new cartridge.

That is, unless you read up on it. Turns out, if I taped over the censor (which I promptly did), the printer would continue to print, oblivious to the fact that it was 'out of ink.' 7 months later, and I finally begin to see some wear and tear. The paper is splotchy with ink. So I open it up, study the parts some, and figure out what to clean, and voila. Good as new.

What's more, my printer offers a 'high-yield' ink. Whether or not this is worth the extra money, I don't know. But you can bet that when this ink finally runs out, I'll do my research.

Oh, and one last thing: both ink jets and laser printers often have an option to 'print quickly' or a 'low quality' option. This uses much less ink, and a lot of times, doesn't obviously detract from the quality of the print.