Rewriting Ovid Lite

My feature tonight, Thurs., June 18

2009-06-18T21:23:02Z

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

8 pm
FREE

Columbus Arts Festival 2009

2009-03-19T15:52:14Z

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

Feature in Mt. Vernon Tomorrow

2008-11-24T16:13:42Z

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

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

.net

2008-10-04T13:22:36Z

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

Hello in Dayton? Lights on yet?

2008-09-18T14:44:39Z

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.

The Poem of the Day Is Gone

2008-07-25T18:16:37Z

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...

2008-07-16T14:12:10Z

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!

Dayton Date

2008-07-02T13:01:19Z

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.

Remember that Dayton Feature? It got postponed

2008-06-20T19:59:52Z

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.

Bounce Backs

2008-06-05T11:50:01Z

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

Louise Robertson's Summer Features

2008-05-22T14:47:19Z

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?)

First Draft Open Mic Does It Again

2008-04-19T13:42:44Z

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.

e.e. cummings

2008-04-18T14:28:30Z

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/

Elementary Sing Along

2008-04-12T15:43:58Z

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.

Lost

2008-04-10T16:44:29Z

This is the plot synopsis of Lost.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

WB

2008-04-10T03:18:58Z

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.

Mansfield

2008-04-06T18:05:38Z

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.

Road Trip: Mansfield

2008-03-31T17:16:26Z

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)

Earth Hour Smells Like a Gift Shop

2008-03-31T01:10:04Z

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.

Mt. Vernon Recap

2008-03-26T03:15:50Z

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.

A poem by Pat Boran

2008-03-25T19:40:13Z

Pat Boran is featured on the Poetry Daily site I frequent. Of the three of his posted today, this is the one that really got to me:

The Dead Man's Clothes

The dead man's clothes
were willed to the village orphans
so that, those long summer evenings,
he was everywhere,
moving through the fields
until the sun went down,
bloodily.

The villagers loved it, calling
Gretel, Hansel, Romulus,
and watching the old man's shoulder turn
or the big baggy arse
that was his alone come
to a sudden, billowing halt.

Except his wife. Unable
to decide whether this was flattery
or insult, she kept herself
to herself, shut up inside,

while the village orphans
came in from the fields, their hands
reddened from picking berries
and trailing mothballs in the street
like puffs of light.

-- Pat Boran

Plans

2008-03-25T14:04:42Z

* Tonight is the gig with Joanna Schroeder in Mt. Vernon (7:00 pm, 101 S. Main, 43050). I'll do my bit totally from memory -- and I won't repeat from the other two features there.
* Sat., March 29, I am part of a panel of judges for the 2008 Cols. Arts Fest poetry award
* Sat., April 26, I am giving a workshop at the Columbus State Writers' Conference. Time TBD.

Writers' Block Open Mic

2008-03-20T15:18:25Z

There was some hot poetry at the slow-starting WB night last night. "Cho" was one of the tops.

recordkeeping: I read "My Brother", "The 100 Times", and "The Language of Hate".

Mt. Vernon Feature with Joanna Schroeder

2008-03-18T15:09:58Z

Joanna Schroeder schroederjt and I have a feature poetry reading at Sip's Coffeehouse in Mt. Vernon, OH next Tuesday, March 25.

Sip's Coffeehouse
7:00 pm (and this is a serious start time)
Tues., March 25
101 S. Main St.
Mt. Vernon, Ohio 43050
Admission: Free

It's an all-female slate of readers including me, Joanna, and ... well isn't that enough?

Poets
Louise Robertson
Joanna Schroeder
Carolyn Dandalides
Susan Hendrickson

Musicians Kate Westfall and Sarah Goslee Reed round out the list of performers.

Open Mic to follow. MC is Mark Hersman.

See you there!

"A HOPE IN HELL"--Neil Gaiman, Sandman

2008-03-04T14:01:11Z

Courtesy of KP

I went to vote this morning and I opted for a Democrat voting card. In Fairfield County, where I live, there's a sheriff's race being decided today. However, there were no sheriff options on the ballot. Why, because as often happens both candidates were Republican. And so Democrats are even allowed to vote for a Republican. (Yeah, well, we don't like you either pssthhpt.) MEA CULPA UPDATE: Cripes, I'm an idiot. I thought the sheriff thing was real, but it's just a primary too. Of course when the primary is the only time you get to vote on who gets on the ballot, then the primary turns into the real election. Kind of like the Hillary/Obama primary feels like the de facto election.

Driving away I put a call into Jennifer Brunner's voting rights office, Capital Law School Alum and Ohio Secretary of State to mention this to them. I feel strange having voted and complained to a goverment office all before 8:00 am.