Rewriting Ovid Lite

Cliterati
Charis Books & More
1123 Euclid Ave.
Atlanta, GA

8 pm
FREE

The 2009 Columbus Arts Festival has awarded me first place in their poetry competition of which there is a submission process and an audition process.

Congratulations everyone who gained a slot in the 2009 Columbus Arts Festival. I know the organizers insist that every slot be earned.

The poets who tied for second are great poets -- talented and hard-working. They are Mikelle Hickman-Romaine and Ed Plunkett. Ed especially has upped his game.

And let me point out that at the top it was close, very close. I walked away from the auditions as I did in 2007 thinking, "O I hope they let me in. I will be glad and lucky to get to be a part of this."

And for a little shameless self-promotion, here is a recap of my Columbus Arts Festival participation:

2006 - 3rd Place
2007 - 1st Place
2008 - Served as one of the judges
2009 - 1st Place

Joanna Schroeder, Dave Noble, and I will be featuring here:

Tomorrow, Tues., Nov. 25
SIPS Coffeehouse
101 South Main Street
Mount Vernon, Ohio

RewritingOvid.Com is now RewritingOvid.Net.

When the email to renew my domain name arrived, I tried to go through the online process but that process always hung up on the fact that it said the credit card I had wasn't the right credit card. I was then supposed to submit a photocopy my driver's license to prove I was the rightful owner. Now the domain is in this name:

Shajeem Othayoth
33/686, Paroppady,
Calicut, N/A 673012
India

So instead of trying to buy the .com -- which would entail a fee on top of a fee and a probable price of over $1000 -- I went ahead and got the .net version of the name and hooked that up to the content -- which is all safe and sound. Result: I have a little more hate in my heart for my hosting company (Total Choice Hosting), because it is through them I originally got the domain. Really, I'll use just about any excuse to hate my hosting company a little more.

http://www.rewritingovid.net

I'm reading as the feature at Echoes Dayton tonight:

South Park Tavern
1301 Wayne Ave.
Dayton Ohio
Workshop at 8-ish
Open mic and feature at 9-ish
I think it's $1 at the door.

Yesterday was the last poem of the day that I am posting. The many reasons and strong feelings I have for it faded.

It's funny: I am scared. It was my touchstone. It was my routine. It was my daily workout. But now after nearly 5 years, it is over in its online incarnation*.

I love you and good night.

PS This doesn't mean I am not writing. It just means I'm not giving it away anymore.

*I put them on my rewritingovid.com website before moving to livejournal.

This is for people in or near enough to Atlanta especially Mary Chi Kim, Colin Kelly, & Steve Clipp, but not Carolyn Bowen (this time).

Ganked from nerak_g's myspace promo
ART AMOK SATURDAY!
We'll
feature Dave Noble & Louise Robertson from Columbus OHIO (and maybe another poet or two from their scene).

!!!!
Mocha Match Coffee Bar
627 East College Ave.
Suite F
Decatur, GA 30030

7.30 door and sign up with show to follow.
$5 for our venue & the features!

The new date for my Echoes Dayton feature is Thurs., September 18. It's going to be great!

Thurs., Sept 18
@ The South Park Tavern
1301 Wayne Avenue, Dayton, Ohio 45410
Cost : $1 / $5

But first... Art Amok July 19. nerak_g: I can't wait.

I thought I'd note that the Dayton reading, Echoes, who were going to feature me Sunday, June 29, have re-organized at a different venue on a different night. They are going to Thursdays! I'll have to wait until I have a date to do some self-promotion.

Is there anyone else getting bounce backs when sending to my yahoo email account?

Sun., June 29
Echos Dayton
http://www.myspace.com/echosdayton
7:30 pm - 10:30 pm
Location: One Eyed Jacks
Street: 2638 Col. Glenn Hwy, Dayton
7:30 pm workshop; 8:30 pm open mic; 9:00 pm features

Sat., July 19
Art Amok! Atlanta
with Dave Noble
http://www.myspace.com/artamokslamteam
UPDATED address:
Mocha Match Coffee Bar,
East Coellge Station
627 E College Ave, Suite F
Decatur GA 30030

(Karen, check the Art Amok info -- is that right?)

Bev ... Joanna... Joanna... Bev... I had to see this First Draft Feature.

Bev (brags2bitches): THAT was a fantastic set of poetry you did. Thank you for bring it all the to Columbus from my second home state, Delaware*.

And thank you Joanna for bringing her here.

She gave out free chapbooks! Carrie picked one up for us. Wow! Cool.

I had the kids so I ducked out early, but thank you.

*I spent a 5+ summers in Delaware.

I encountered people who were trying to be like e.e. cummings before I encountered e.e. cummings. I thought it was usually pretty flimsey and sometimes pretencious. Then I read e.e. cummings. Oooooooooo. Yeah. I see what they were trying to do. And I have done my own experiments in that line, I confess.

This is all to preface what I want to say about today's poem of the day from Poets.org -- which I dig, I really dig poems of the day, as you can tell.

Here's the poem with "adventurous formatting:"

http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20091?utm_source=poemaday_041808&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=content_link&utm_term=conent_mainpoemlink

My response: "Still not e.e. cummings"

With e.e. cummings you end up wanting to read the damn thing. You wonder if you could say it and do it justice. His work wasn't just brief enough not to give you a headache, but it was also charming -- and we all like a little charm? Right? So don't read the Poets.org poem today. Here an e.e. cummings' poem that's relevant in this, an election year.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/next-to-of-course-god-america-i/

Last week I attended an elementary school sing-along. One minute the little 2nd graders (of whom my child is one of the shyest and most beautiful) are singing about patriotism and God, the next about anatomy and astronomy. It seems a strange mix resulting from trying to indoctrinate the tykes AND have them learn the useful and fascinating discoveries of science. It hurt my brain. What must it do to the youngens? Maybe it lays out what we expect them to choose between or maybe it goes some way to having them inculcate these things simultaneously in their seven and eight year old psyches.

This is the plot synopsis of Lost.

Great slam tonight. This is just recordkeeping:

I read: Spoken Word Poet's Ex Girlfriend and Sesquipedalian. No points. I wanted to test drive Sesquipedalian.

I forgot to document the Mansfield multi-feature with Joanna and some others. I went third fourth and Joanna fifth and Ray McNiece took over the open mic portion.

I read:

Nothing
Asparagus
Windows
Fuck Unhappy Endings
Sesquipedalian

That set was going to look even more like the Mt. Vernon set but I became more and more interested in doing different poems from that. Plus it was running long.

schroderjt and I were so hot in Mt. Vernon last Tuesday we've been asked to go up and do it all over again in Mansfield on Friday.

Buddy Ray McNeice will be there too, I hear.

Details:
Twisted Fig Tea Room
105 N Main St
Mansfield, OH 44902
(419) 525-2868
Music starts at 5:30 pm
Free (I think)

Joanna came over¹ for a couple hours on Saturday evening to help me and the kids celebrate Earth Hour. All the lights were out. The computer was off and unplugged, the cell phone powered down.

And today it's like a gift shop around here. Turns out most candles these days are the scented kind. Eucalyptus is especially pungent. I've had to wrap that one up and put it away. Whew. I recommend Bath & Body Works "Chai Tea" scent -- whatever the hell that's supposed to be, it's a little cinnamon-y, even though the green color of the wax wouldn't suggest that.

I missed many of the festivities (Pet UFO, birthdays, etc.) but it turns out a little Uno and spooky stories around the scented candles is fun too. Carrie, it turns out, can weave a 40 minute story including an odyssey requiring the hero to combine wisdom, kindness, and power.

¹Ok, I know it's a little ironic to ask a friend drive all the way out here to "save" energy. But it was a good thing to do with the kids and maybe in the balance we came out ahead.

Now that is a nice reading -- 4th Tuesdays at Sips Coffeehouse in Mt. Vernon run by Mark Hersman. Tonight was a nearly perfect night for that venue, as far as I am concerned. Mark kept it very tight -- that's because he had four poets, two musicians, and an open mic. All this in a venue that hadn't cleared out the rotary club in time for him to set up. Still, impromptu set up was nicely done.

Four women poets read. First half: Carolyn Dandilides and me. Second half: Susan Hendrickson and Joanna Schroeder.

I read these poems -- none of which had been read in my two previous sets there:

100 Times
The Beauty of Being Adopted
Your Poem
Last Thought
Fuck Unhappy Endings
Sesquipedalian

I kind of messed up Sesquipedalian, but saved it -- I think. After I read, there was a break during which I sold out in no time flat. Love that reading. Such a positive place.

Susan Hendrickson brought out some good craft. I really liked a couple of hers.

Joanna rocked her set. I had heard all her poems before (and she mine), but it was like I was hearing them anew.

And now it is late enough for a bath and bed. My throat is scratchy, and me with no strawberry milkshakes on hand.