Mad Macedonian

Air Poetry 9: Health Issues in Houston - Pt. 3

Recording the poetry of randomly overheard snippets of conversation written down as they catch my attention.

As usual, the results can be quite interesting. (AP 1 was in 2011)

 

Appearances

I look lovely today!
Go see the post-op in 6.
I'll probably burn his ass.
A troubling location.
That's kind of the custom.

 

(Overheard on his travels by the Mad Houstonian)

Air Poetry 8: Health Issues in Houston - Pt. 2

Recording the poetry of randomly overheard snippets of conversation written down as they catch my attention.

As usual, the results can be quite interesting. (AP 1 was in 2011)

Coping

She's not happy with it.
I know, it's BIG.
You have to be ambidextrous.
My sentiment exactly!
You're alive!
It's a timeshare.

(Overheard on his travels by the Mad Houstonian)

Next up = Air Poetry 9: Health Issues in Houston - Pt. 3

Air Poetry 7: Health Issues in Houston

Recording the poetry of randomly overheard snippets of conversation written down as they catch my attention.

As usual, the results can be quite interesting. (AP 1 was in 2011)

 

This getting in shape stuff sucks.
Don't worry about it.
I'm in a hurry,
I just got out of jail.
All the females in my family are for,
All the males against, it.
McDonald's, Burger King, or Subway?

 

(Overheard on his travels by the Mad Houstonian)

Next up = Air Poetry 8: Health Issues in Houston - Pt. 2

Poetry, F E A R, That's How You Spell Poetry

Metrophobia? Having moved here to Houston and experienced 6 months of a transit system that is nothing at all like what I was used to in southern California, is it any wonder some folks might think the term related to issues of mass transit?

But, nope, that ain't it at all, as my fellow member of the Wordsmith Studio J. Lynn Sheridan, explains.

"If your heart is pounding against your favorite sweat-soggy writing t-shirt as you read a simple poetry post, you just may suffer with METROPHOBIA....

Just think, poets, some of our own treasured genre-writers are sweating droplets of vowels or paragraphs of declarative sentences fearing a frontal attack of poetic sentence fragments....

A quick Google search shows that poetry is the most hated and feared of all the writing arts. There are loads of sites that deal with the hatred of poetry and poetry phobia."

 

She has written a couple of fine essays on the subject of the fear of poetry and how to overcome it, with a 3rd on the way.

Do you have Metrophobia? = http://www.wordsmithstudio.org/2013/03/do-you-have-metrophobia/

Help for your poetic fears = http://www.wordsmithstudio.org/2013/04/help-for-your-poetic-fears/

With book titles like "Poemcrazy", "A Kick in the Head" and "The Poetry Home Repair Manual", is it any wonder some writers are scared to attempt poetry?
 
I first discovered an interest in reading poetry and in writing it in 2003.
 
I joined a writing group at a local Barnes n Noble and soon I had written my very first poem, that July.
 
The Dandyfosilthiselwig = http://www.madmacedonian.com/2008/01/the-dandyfosilt.html
 
I began buying books about poetry, writing, and writing prompts and while I've read a few, most have not been touched, a situation I, at last, plan to remedy.
 
As part of my Library of America subscription (temporarily suspended by me for a couple of years, now) books on the works of famous poets have found their way to my shelves.
 
I am not afraid to read, or write, poetry, but the interesting thing is that 90% of the original poetry I've written is inspired by the works of others.
 
I have written original cat poems, cycling poems and others, that are riffs on very familiar and popular poems and songs.
 
Prancin' in the Rain = http://www.madmacedonian.com/2013/01/prancin-in-the-rain.html
 
I want to learn how and be inspired to write more original pieces of my own, in a variety of poetic forms.
 
It's time I start reading more of those books of mine for inspiration. :-D

Air Poetry 6: Of Hickys and Shit, in Houston

It's been 3 months since I took pen to paper to record the poetry of overheard snippets of conversation written down as they caught my attention.

As usual, the results can be quite interesting. (AP 1 was in 2011) 

1. A Hicky

They told me that you wanted to talk to him.
Hello?
Yes?
He has a hicky on his neck.
Did I leave mine at your house?

 

2. The Same Ol’ Shit

It’s summer here 24/7.
Sorry, sir, it’s all we have, you know what I’m sayin’?
They have been doing’ this same shit for years!
You are 3 minutes late.

 

(Overheard on his travels by the Mad Houstonian)

 Next Up = Air Poetry 7: Health Issues in Houston

Chapbook Challenge 3: You Deserve a Break Today

To start the week the challenge was to just take a little break and go for a walk, sing a song, watch a movie, and take a nice long bath or shower, and imagine you are at the beach.

 

Chapbook Challenge 2: Choosing a Theme and 30 Poems

The 2nd task of the challenge was to choose the theme for your chapbook and 30 poems to include. By including haiku's, cinquain's and tanka's I was able to increase the number of poems in my chosen theme from 24 to 30.

The theme I chose sort of chose itself simply because it was the theme with the most poems in the list I made in part 1. For people with more than 30 poems in their chose theme they would have the task of figuring out which ones to leave out.

 

With all this done our next task was not to take the whole lot to bed with us, but to ignore them for a couple of days, to allow "your initial feelings toward your work to simmer and marinate." I know, doesn't sound at all sexy to me either, but the whole idea is to see if, after a day or two, you still want to take these 30 poems out on a chapbook date or not.

 It's also a chance to take a little stress off you by doing something relaxing, and different than the task at hand.

I celebrated the posting of my 2nd guest post and yesterday paid visits to the two Trader Joe's in Houston.

NEXT: Chapbook Challenge 3: You Deserve a Break Today

http://www.madmacedonian.com/2013/02/chapbook-challenge-3-you-deserve-a-break-today.html

Articles and websites referenced for this story:

My guest post - Remembering Mama's Kitchen http://www.goingveggie.com/remembering-mamas-kitchen/

Series start: Chapbook Challenge 1: Challenging Myself to Move Forward

http://www.madmacedonian.com/2013/02/chapbook-challenge-1-challenging-myself-to-move-forward.html

Khara House's blog - Our Lost Jungle:

1. “pulling strings”: organizing your work by common "threads" & themes

http://www.kharahouse.com/2013/02/pulling-strings-organizing-your-work-by.html

2. “stack it up to experience”: using theme stacks to develop your chapbook

http://www.kharahouse.com/2013/02/stack-it-up-to-experience-using-theme.html

3. “sleepover!”: why you should sleep on your chapbook collection

http://www.kharahouse.com/2013/02/sleepover-why-you-should-sleep-on-your.html

Chapbook Challenge 1: Challenging Myself to Move Forward

My inner cheerleader must be doing handstands and quadruple backflips right about now.

In June of last year I wrote a poem I called "Being my own Cheerleader", and part of it reads...

"God gave me talents
That He meant for no other,
I must find the strength, & determination, to utilize
My gifts or the world loses
Much the Great Creator meant for its enrichment.

My talent is an asset
Which should not be squandered in
A meaningless way.
Through my writing I have opportunity
To make a lasting impact on the world around me, and beyond."

A lot of things have been going on between when I wrote than in Santa Ana, Ca., and  as I write this here in Houston, TX.

Especially, recently, on the creative side of my life.

I am learning to challenge myself in new, and complex, ways, deciding to do new things, returning to doing things I used to do way back before I left my last job in 2010, then broke my ankle.

I am daring to believe that maybe I don’t have to settle for where I’m at, or for what is comfortable and familiar. I am daring to take steps toward the fresh new start that brought me here to Texas in the first place.

I have a lot on my plate, change is in the wind.

100 Word Musings 6: This Meeting is Called to Order

Downtown Long Beach, Ca., June 20, 2010, 345pm...

A typical scene along the concourse near the Transit Mall, as pigeons happily gorge themselves on bread crumbs, and other tasty morsels, tossed on the sidewalk.

One might think so, but you would be wrong...

 

Air Poetry 5: Houston, You Sure Are an Interesting Bunch!

...You just won't believe how you can turn it to your creative advantage.

There you are walking down Westheimer, through the Galleria, a museum, a  Fiesta supermarket, attending a Texans, or Rockets game, eating lunch at James Coney Island, attending Wednesday, Saturday, or Sunday go to meetin' at Lakewood Church, in a public restroom, on a Metro bus, actually just about anywhere where you are around other people...and can hear what they are saying...to their companion, to a clerk, a docent, a fellow parishner, on a cell phone, or yelling at a ball game, or in a bathroom where all the stalls are occupied, and someone is hopping up, and down, in desperate straits...

Have you ever thought to write down what you hear, and how those scraps of overheard conversations, when strung together, often have an interesting sort of poetry about the result?

Patty Mooney did. Of course, the notion came only after 40 years of writing poetry.

Hey, better late than never!

As she writes: "Now, suddenly, the skies have parted to reveal an unfathomably huge reservoir of poetry, a free-for-all of poems that are ripe for swiping out of the air with a virtual butterfly net.  Anyone can do it."

She first blogged about this new, fun, idea for poetry, on her personal blog, in July 2011, and it's an interesting essay.

Experimental, quirky, funny, long, short, nonsensical, thought-provoking? An air poem is all of the above, and more.

Visit Air Poetry & its facebook page as well.