Blogastic Surgery?

I'm thinking about a blog facelift.

Unlike plastic surgery, blogastic surgery is free and does not require medication or being shot with rat poison. But, like plastic surgery, I have to consider how much I want the blog to look like its old self.

What has me hankering for a new look? Last week, I had a conversation with poet Barbara Morrison. We were discussing CityLit Project (my publisher) and the experience of putting together a poetry chapbook. The interview is going to be on JMWW Journal's website soon.

Barbara said she didn't get the whole "Author Amok" vibe. The name, the frenzied tag -- they don't fit my work.

I'd like to tackle the name issue first, then work on the visuals.




So, word surgeons, give me your best consultation. Comment on the ideas I've come up with, or post an original title for the toned and tightened blog. I'll send two of you (chosen at random) a copy of my award-winning chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone.

Here are my "namelift" ideas, with some points to consider:

1) 13 Ways of Looking

This one suits the variety of work I do as a poet and teacher. But, much as I like "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," I'm not a Stevens nut. It's also the name of an artist's website.

2) This Is Just to Say
3) The Red Wheelbarrow

I love & adore WCW -- who is a fellow New Jerseyan -- but I don't write like him. "The Red Wheelbarrow" feels kid-lit friendly. There is a blog called "Is Just to Say" and a Red Wheelbarrow bookstore, but no blog.


4) Eat a Peach

Love the poem and this particular line's call to creative action. Still, I don't write like Eliot.

5) In Uffish Thought
I admit, this one makes me sound like an Alice-geek. Which I am. But is it too much of an in-joke? Surprisingly not, as there are quite a few blogs with this name.

6) Mrs. Poems
I was given the nickname by an elementary student with Aspergers who couldn't remember "Mrs. Shovan." Is it too cute for anyone but primary graders and their teachers?

I'm going away for a week, so let's make July 31 the deadline for comments/contest.

Help me, Jedi Poets... you're my only hope!

Please insert new blog-face below.

Poetry Friday: 50 State Tour Visits Washington

Welcome back to our protracted tour of the 50 states' poets laureates. I wish I had better news from the west coast...

Washington State was 42nd to join the union. It was also a latecomer to poets laureate. The position was signed into law in 2007. Governor Chris Gregoire named poet Sam Green to a two year term.

Unfortunately, the position is now "temporarily suspended."

From what I could gather online, people argued that poetry is a luxury. Who wants to pay a poet's travel expenses and stipend when there's a recession going on? With money tight, sparing cash for a poet to visit schools and community centers is a tough sell.

Today, I'm sharing a poem by Sam Green about the act of writing poetry.

If it was hard, physical (dare I say taxing?) work, would you still do it?

If You Had to

If you had to make the quill

pen in the old way, stripping

the feathers, cutting the well,

splitting & shearing the tip

off clean; if you had to grind

the ink, holding the cake

straight against the stone,

circling until your wrist ached

to get the proper tone of black;

Read the rest of the poem (and some others you should check out) here.

In the age of instant cut and paste, Green seems to ask, do we still honor our poems with effort? And, in light of his PL position being in limbo, how do we convince the general public that funding our art form is worth the effort?


You might also like Green's poem "Night Dive" at the Poetry Foundation-- it reminds me of after-dark lake swims in the summer.

I'm off to the ocean tomorrow. Dip into more Poetry Friday posts at Language, Literacy, Love. Breanne is hosting the round-up this week.