Listen Up!! The "Oldies" Have Something to Say

I know you’ve heard the “uphill both ways in the freezing snow with no shoes on” stories more times than you can count, but please put that angst aside for just one day. There’s more to our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles than all that. At least that’s what NPR’s Story Corps is saying. I guess you never know until you ask, right? In celebration of today's National Day of Listening, NPR is encouraging people across the country to grab their tape recorders, ask some tough questions of their loved ones, and listen to the answers. Easy enough.

Pass on the Black Friday craziness and spend some time with the "oldies but goodies" in your family. This is the second year that they’re doing this and I think it will bring a lot of families closer together (or at least help us understand where we inherited our crazy neuroses from). Either way, there’s nothing like communication to show us that we’re a lot more similar than we want to think.

I’m planning on grilling my mom today (check out the two of us below). I plan to ask all the tough questions. Like...ALL the tough questions – Stay tuned:-)



Not totally sold, check out the USA Today article. If the media's covering it, it must be legit!!

National Day of Listening promotes oral history
BY Travis Loller, Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE — A national oral history project is trying to start a new tradition for Black Friday. Instead of hunting for bargains, StoryCorps suggests families sit down together and talk about their lives on a National Day of Listening.

Amanda Rigell, a 30-year-old middle school teacher from Johnson City, Tenn., interviewed her grandmother, who was 89 at the time, for the first National Day of Listening last year.

"She was reluctant at first," Rigell said. "She doesn't really talk about herself." But then she talked for more than two and a half hours.

"She talked about her early education. She went to a tiny little school, I think there was only one other person there for a while. And she talked about drinking fresh milk from a cow. I guess that shouldn't have surprised me, but it did," Rigell said.

StoryCorps is a nonprofit project that seeks to preserve the stories of ordinary people. Rigell first learned about it when she heard some of those stories broadcast on public radio during her morning commute. She had already interviewed two people at StoryCorps recording booths when she and her father decided to interview her grandmother at home.

"I'm really glad we did it last year because her health has been declining," she said. "There was a while last month when she couldn't speak."

Rigell said her grandmother, who lives in Campbell County near the Kentucky border, was around for all the "big events" of her childhood. Some of her fondest memories of her grandmother involve home cooked meals and "amazing" buttermilk biscuits. But there were a lot of things Rigell didn't know about her.

Rigell recorded the interview on her computer and plans to give copies as Christmas presents.

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Quote of the WEEK,

There is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims

A Slice of Humble Pie with my Turkey

Hello lovelies

After wiping away the stray bits of cranberry sauce and finally prying myself away from the desserts, I have finally emerged from my turkey-day food coma with a poem on my lips:-) This entire day of thanks has made me realize that I don't thank the big guy upstairs enough. In fact, I rarely give Him much attention when life is peachy. It's like I only come crying at his proverbial doorstep when its all crashing down around me...I guess, despite how far faith has brought me, I am still a work in progress. Let's remember to be thankful everyday...not just when the calendars and grocery stores command us to be.

Hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving. Happy Black-Friday!

When I Pray
BY Susan Baba

Only when I'm hungry
only when
enough
is not really enough
you see, only when I'm hurting
only when the world crushes all of my dreams
only then do I look for you
wait on answers before I move
seek you
like those books say I should

hands clutching tightly
as it all just slips by
it's at those times I need you
and want you by my side

but when its -
sun
joy
laughter
and parties to go to
warm smells of delicious
and music to dance to
people to kiss
lovers to hold on to
endless
endless
endless

another year set aside for singing
when its -
arms flung open wide for loving
when dreams are all revealed to me
and destinies all fulfilled through me
when I have
enough
more than enough even

plenty of all the right things
none of all the wrong things
when it's all here
like I'd hoped for
I forget that you're still in it

and you,
in silence
or in thunder, if needed
jealous lover, you call me back
reminding me that you've never left my side

For those Who Love Talib

Love his rap? well, you'll be happy to know that he can carry his own on the spoken word stage too! Really nice piece about religion.

I Like You Like Frat Boys and Pirates Like Booty!!

You know I couldn't go more than a few days without a love poem:-)

Mike McGee's Like is another one of those oldie but goodies that really embody the slam movement. Engaging, well-delivered and, with the exception of the Muppets fisting line, very thoughtful. Yeah. He actually said "Like Muppets like fisting." LOL. That line still makes me blush, even after hearing it so many times. Good stuff, though. An all around fabulous piece.

For you know who:-)

"I like you a whole bunch of a lot.
you're a pocket full of awesome.
I like you similar to the way that frat boys and pirates like booty."

::Hilarity::

New to Me: Oscar Wilde Poem

By now, you should know of my all around love for all things scandalous in the poetry world. So, it should come as no surprise that Oscar Wilde is one of my favorite authors of all time. Disciplined artist/ socialite/ political scapegoat. Sentenced to 2 years of hard labor after being accused of "homosexual acts" by his lovers father. Tragic death. ::sigh::

Mr. Wilde's life itself was a work of art.

My favorite line in this poem is "and ruin draws the curtains of my bed." Even in such sadness and despair, he took a moment to capture it with beautiful language. I probably would have just said, "Man, this sucks." :-)

If you want to read more of his stuff and learn about his life, read De Profundis. It's an absolutely gorgeous and delicate glimpse into heartache...if there is such a thing.

Enjoy!

My Voice
BY Oscar Wilde

Within this restless, hurried, modern world
We took our hearts' full pleasure - You and I,
And now the white sails of our ship are furled,
And spent the lading of our argosy.

Wherefore my cheeks before their time are wan,
For very weeping is my gladness fled,
Sorrow has paled my young mouth's vermilion,
And Ruin draws the curtains of my bed.

But all this crowded life has been to thee
No more than lyre, or lute, or subtle spell
Of viols, or the music of the sea
That sleeps, a mimic echo, in the shell.

Quote of the WEEK

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.
- Aboriginal activist, Lila Watson

Unfriend Beats out Sexting...and the Demise of the English Language

Before I start, I must say, I am not a language snob. Yes, I love fine language and thoughtful poetry, but I can throw out the slang as well as anyone else. There is a place for causal conversation and there are words that are useful in casual settings.

But to elevate those words to rock star status by naming them the top words of 2009? Shameful. That's exactly what the Oxford American Dictionary did this year with their list of top words. These included the words un-friend, sexting, hashtag, and intexticated. What the heck is intexticated? I have never heard anyone say that stupid, made up word...in life! And, last year's list wasn't any better. The top word of 2008 was....wait for it...“Hypermiling.” It's when you try to maximize your gas mileage. I mean, it's a useful word, but the top word of the year?

I
think
not.

What is HAPPENING to the English language?

All I know is that if I start to see these words cropping up on standardized tests and junk, I'm going to scream...for real!

::sigh::

Check out the Reuters piece below on the demise of the English language...I mean the top words of 2009.

Enjoy!

"Unfriend" named word of 2009
BY Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – "Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent.

Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site such as Facebook.

"It has both currency and potential longevity," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, in a statement.

"In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year."

Other words deemed finalists for 2009 by the dictionary's publisher, Britain's Oxford University Press, came from other technological trends, the economy, and political and current affairs.

In technology, there was "hashtag," which is the hash sign added to a word or phrase that lets Twitter users search for tweets similarly tagged; "intexticated" for when people are distracted by texting while driving, and "sexting," which is the sending of sexually explicit SMSes and pictures by cellphone.

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Confession Time

Ok friends...I must confess that, despite all of my excitement about NaNoWriMo, I just couldn't do it this year. If I had been writing diligently, like over achievers all over the world, I would have 25,000 words down by now. I would be half way to my very first novel. But, I chose to spend all of my free time prowling Facebook and reading other people's words (almost done with Unaccustomed Earth). Oops.

So, yeah. I was technically out of the race before it even got started, but I still get the most fabulous pep emails from the NaNoWriMo staff. Yay!! Decided to share one from the first week with you all today. This pep email literally made my day:-) Witty, informative, and motivational. What more could a gal ask for!!!?

In case I'm ever brave enough to actually attempt a novel, there are some great nuggets of awesome in this letter to keep my chugging through. If any of you out there actually took the challenge to heart and are not total and compete slackers like me, happy writing:-)

Enjoy!

Dear NaNoWriMo-ers,

I'm not even the tortoise of writing. I'm the slug. And you are more than hares, you're cheetahs — writing at seventy miles an hour. I have to fictionalize even to talk to you.

So it's October 31st. I’m back from trick or treating in a robot costume, worn to honor Isaac Asimov, who wrote or edited more than 500 books in his lifetime. After removing my tin head mask and my metallic gloves, I pig out on candy corn and think about today's accomplishments.

I dug a shallow grave in the backyard and buried my print thesaurus (starting tomorrow, the first word I think of is good enough, even if I use it seven times on every page), dictionary (who cares how ophthalmologist is spelled anyway?), usage books (I can figure out the difference between lie and lay later), encyclopedia, atlas, and my beloved books about writing. I taped blackout curtains over my windows. My techy friend spent hours tinkering with my computer. She's assured me that it will combust if I try to reestablish connections to the internet and email. The single thing I'm keeping is my cell phone in case I start to go into cardiac arrest, but the keys are smeared with battery acid, except the 9, the 1, and send. My family and friends and Meals-on-Wheels have sworn to deliver food to my door, which will be kept closed to protect the world from my intensifying body odor.

Now I tape my list of rules and advice (culled from friends, my mom, the buried writing books, and, mostly, my own hyped-up imagination) to the wall next to my desk.

Now I tape my list of rules and advice (culled from friends, my mom, the buried writing books, and, mostly, my own hyped-up imagination) to the wall next to my desk.

1. Sleep at least once a week.

2. Eat at least once a day, but not constantly. Don't forget the essential fatty acids (Mom).

3. If my fingers freeze from carpal tunnel syndrome, I have ten perfectly good toes, a nose, and quite a few teeth.

4. When I'm not happy with how things are going, turn off the screen and keep typing. Don't turn it back on until the crisis is over.

5. Don't check my word count more often than every fifteen minutes.

6. Dream sequences can eat up a lot of pages, and they shouldn't be logical.

7. Short words count just as much as long ones.

8. The perfect is the enemy of the fast. The good is the enemy of the fast. The halfway decent is the enemy of the fast.

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Text for Taylor

For those of you who prefer reading over listening, here's the text of yesterday's Taylor Mail piece. Literally, there are too many gems in here! Read carefully and enjoy!

:-)

How to Write a Political Poem
BY Taylor Mali

However it begins, it's gotta be loud
and then it's gotta get a little bit louder.
Because this is how you write a political poem
and how you deliver it with power.

Mix current events with platitudes of empowerment.
Wrap up in rhyme or rhyme it up in rap until it sounds true.

Glare until it sinks in.

Because somewhere in Florida, votes are still being counted.
I said somewhere in Florida, votes are still being counted!

See, that's the Hook, and you gotta' have a Hook.
More than the look, it's the hook that is the most important part.
The hook has to hit and the hook's gotta fit.
Hook's gotta hit hard in the heart.

Because somewhere in Florida, votes are still being counted.

And Dick Cheney is peeing all over himself in spasmodic delight.
Make fun of politicians, it's easy, especially with Republicans
like Rudy Giuliani, Colin Powell, and . . . Al Gore.
Create fatuous juxtapositions of personalities and political philosophies
as if communism were the opposite of democracy,
as if we needed Darth Vader, not Ralph Nader.

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How to Write a Political Poem - Oldie But Goodie

Taylor Mali has so many great poems, but this is my absolute favorite.

It's one of those "funny because it's true" pieces that truthfully and comedically tells it like it really is. It seems like there's almost an un-spoken formula on how to write and speak a political poem that performance poets learn at birth. I know that I've committed my fair share of the things he describes in this piece...especially the last bit. Ouch! Guilty as charged:-)

Because all you have to do to end a political poem is
close your eyes,
lower your voice, and end by saying:

the same line three times,
the same line three times,
the same line three times.

hilarity!!

Quote of the WEEK

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."

- Henry David Thoreau

You're Not a Real Poet...Are You?

There is a local poetry night that I absolutely love going to. It's inspiring to be around so many artistic and creative minds all at once. Sometimes, I even feel inspired to read some of my own work. A few weeks ago, after I had read a few new pieces, a young lady came up to me and said, "I really like your style. You're not a real performer. You're a poet." Her words struck me in the oddest way as I tried to determine if it was a disguised insult or a genuine compliment. I opted for the latter and smiled.

But, it got me thinking...what does it mean to be a "performance poet?" And what would our poetry greats think of all this? What would Langston Hughes think of the slam culture? What would Shakespeare or Robert Frost or E. E. Cummings think of the spoken word movement? These folks were poets in the most honorable and pure form. Yes, they sometimes read their work aloud, but their words stood alone on the page, unembellished by stage or intonation (except maybe Shakespeare and his plays). They focused on sentence structure and punctuation. They released anthologies and poetry books instead of performance cds, because they let the reader take from their words what they wanted.

This is not to bash performance poets. In fact, I love seeing people totally light the stage on fire with their words. I envy them for their skill and courage. But, for those of us who "only speak because the written word has all but gone out of style," it's an honor to be counted in the group of writers who wrote words that were fit to read - not just fit to speak.

Long story short, this inspired a poem about poetry...

Enjoy:-)

A Difference in Style
BY Susan Baba

I am not a spoken word artist
I am a poet
My words do not sit on display like plastic fruit
They are meant to be ingested
To roll around in your mouth until you’ve sucked all of the juice from them
To make you feel something in your stomach
Sometimes unsettling
But something
To shake through you
To rumble through you
until they're done

My words come to you naked
Peering from behind the ripped out pages
and scribbled out lines of my poetry notebook
With nothing to clothe them at all

I am not a spoken word artist
I am a poet
I am of the tribe of soothsayers
A dying line of women who can read a single book more than once
whose bookshelves and libraries are filled with
underlines
and highlighter marks
and smiley faces
beside words that have moved them
The weird chick who dares to laugh
or tear up
as she turns the pages of a well worn book
Only to watch the words she once fell in love with
unfold before her again

I am not a spoken word artist
I only speak because the written word has all but gone out of style
because you can only hear me if my words sound like hip-hop
or have a rhythm that makes you want to tap your feet
You can only feel me when the drama of my delivery
catches you by surprise
and snatches the chair right from under you
But I am not a spoken word artist
I stand before you
with nothing to guard my words but this small page

My Girrrrrl Michelle Rocks Out on the Street

When I watched Sesame Street as a kid, I couldn't have imagined ever seeing a Black president much less seeing our Black first lady on the freaking show!!

As if I needed another reason to love the Obamas, our beautiful first lady rocked it out on yesterday's Sesame Street and helped the show celebrate their 40th year!! ::sigh:: so many childhood memories.

Enjoy the article below from People magazine!

Michelle Obama Helps Sesame Street Mark the Big 4-0
By Stephen M. Silverman

Oscar the Grouch had better behave – and keep his political opinions to himself.

On Tuesday, to mark the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking children's program Sesame Street, some very special guests pay a visit, including First Lady Michelle Obama. According to previews circulating the Net, she meets Big Bird – who observes that the two of them are tall.

Mrs. Obama also delivers a message that may not entirely sit well with Cookie Monster. Appearing with three kids and the show's fuzzy, red resident Elmo, she encourages them to plant seeds in the ground, water them and then expect them to sprout tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and carrots.

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The Hardest Part of Breaking Up...Is Getting Back Your Stuff

To steal a line from MTV's fictional boy band 2Ge+her, "The hardest part of breaking up, is getting back your stuff"...and, I would add, your sanity. Breakups are crazy for so many reasons. When they happen, they totally turn your world upside down and leave you with sadness, questions, a meteor-sized hole where your partner used to be. Even if you're the one who ended it, it's most definitely no walk in the park.

If you are lucky enough to survive those first post breakup months, though, you find out that there are some perks to breaking up. For one, you get the freedom to focus on new things that you love (especially the things that your boyfriend or girlfriend hated). It's also fertile ground for a budding poet. My breakup was many months ago, but I've finally gotten enough distance from it to be able to write some pretty introspective pieces about our time together and my thoughts on our breakup. I've included one of these below and will share a few more breakup-related poems throughout the coming weeks. Let me know what you think.

ps...actual names have been replaced with singular pronouns, to protect the innocent (and not so innocent)

Sorry
BY Susan Baba

We communicate in I’m sorrys.
Sorry for taking so long to text you back,
I wasn’t sure how to say it.
Sorry for never calling you back,
I didn’t think you would want to hear my voice.
Even across a crowded club,
My eyes say I’m sorry as I flirt with another.
And as we get a feel for what this “friends” thing is supposed to be,
We’re filled with I’m sorrys
For all that we choose to leave unsaid.
As you might have guessed, we were lovers once
And there is so much to be sorry for
Much too much to be sorry for
But I don’t regret ever loving him.
I don’t.

Introducing my (Other) Cousin Chris

I've been trying to get better acquainted with my classic writers, so I decided to do a bit of digging on Christopher Marlowe this weekend. The only thing I knew about him when I started was that he was a character in "Shakespeare in Love" (lol...I'm sure he would be turning in his grave if he heard that), but after a quick google search, I found loads of gossip on his quite scandalous life. My kind of author:-)

He was born to a well-to-do shoemaker and a clergyman's daughter, yet was almost thrown in jail for religious blasphemy.
He lived a sort of double life - academically exemplary, while all the while acting as a government informant on the sly.
Even the authorship of his plays and poems has been called into question many times, but there are about six or seven plays and countless poems that historians have agreed he penned.

One of his early works Tamburlaine the Great is considered to be the first, popular play to be featured on London's public stage. Marlow was certainly more playwright than poet, but he left the world (well before his time, if you ask me) with the oh-so-famous lines from The Face of Helen -

"Was this the face that launched a thousand ships,
...And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss."

::SWOON::

According to Theatrehistory.com

"Many details of his life were a source of scandal to some of his contemporaries, and for us are still shrouded in mystery. In May, 1593, a manuscript was discovered in Kyd's possession which he declared to be Marlowe's left' with Kyd in 1591 when he was in the service of a noble lord for whose players Marlowe was writing. The document--merely a copy of part of a theological treatise already published--though unitarian in nature, was atheistic in the eyes of the orthodox. Testimony as to blasphemous conversations on Marlowe's part was also produced. Before the privy council took definite action about the charges, Marlowe was killed. Puritan disapproval of his connection with the stage and of his free-thinking perhaps influenced Meres' statement that he was stabbed "by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love." Records discovered by Hotson merely show that he was stabbed in a tavern in Deptford by Friser, one of three companions who also were, or had been, in the service of the government."

So, there you are. Not nearly comprehensive, but hopefully enough to wet your whistle:-) Wanna learn more? Wiki!!

Poem Hero And Leander
BY Christopher Marlowe

It lies not in our power to love or hate,
For will in us is over-rul’d by fate.
When two are stript long ere the course begin,
We wish that one should lose, the other win;
And one especially do we affect
Of two gold ingots, like in each respect:
The reason no man knows; let it suffice,
What we behold is censur’d by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight.

Maya on L-O-V-E

We all need a bit of Momma Angelou in our lives:-)

Senses of Insecurity
BY Maya Angelou

I couldn't tell fact from fiction
Or if my dream was true,
The only sure prediction
In this whole world was you.
I'd touched your features inchly,
Heard love and dared the cost.
The scented spiel reeled me unreal
And found my senses lost.

Feeling Sick and Tired

In honor of swine flu season, I'm posting Shihan's "Sick and Tired." We all need a comedic rant poem every once in a while, especially when the cold and flu ickies are going around. This poem made me lol...like...out loud...like for real:-) Loves it!!

The great lines are endless, but I've included a few of my absolute favs below.

I wanna smack people who don't even realize that Egypt is in Africa.
I'm tired of J-Lo having white parents in every movie she's in.
I'm sick of black features being attributed to everyone else except blacks, like having big lips is cool, but only after Angelina Joli had them.
I'm sick of Master P being allowed to speak on behalf of hip hip, when he represents nothing but everything wrong with it.
I'm sick of apathy and American Idol and the whole Survivor phenomenon.
I'm tired of poets doing poems for pu$$y.
I'm sick of Cuba Gooding crying in every movie he's in.

So much truth wrapped in so much funny. Enjoy the vid, good people.

::smooches::

What's Genocide? And Why I Love Poets!

I love poets. That's not a shocker. But there was one poet that originated this obsession - Carlos Andrés Gómez. 2006. ::Sigh:: He was my very first poet crush and was literally the man who opened the floodgates for the many crazy, sexy, cool relationships I've had since then.
This was the poem that did me in:-) Gotta love a man who can still look adorable while talking about neocolonialism and oppression. Not my favorite version of it (its way faster than he has it on the cd and cuts out some pretty epic lines) but you get the point.

And please don't be fooled by my school-girl-crush description above. This poem is serious!

Enjoy!


"What's genocide?
Maureene's mother gave her skin lightening cream the day before she started the sixth grade.
What's genocide?
She carved straight lines into her beautiful brown thighs so she could remember what it feels like to heal."

What's genocide?
BY Carlos Andrés Gómez

Quote of the WEEK

Let us throw off everything that hinders
and the sin that so easily entangles
and let us run with perseverance the race marked for us
- God (in Hebrews 12.1)

Did you know November was NaNoWriMo?

Yes!! NaNoWriMo:-)

Also known as National Novel Writing Month. This month-long write-a-thon is described on the homepage as a "fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. All you have to do is write a 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time." That's ONLY 1,667 words a day! Sounds impossible, but I believe in you!!

The main site has lots of tips on how to get started, how to fight the evil dragons of procrastination, and how to donate to the efforts when you're a poor, struggling artist. You can even buy all kinds of bibliophile swag like the oh-so-adorable "I Eat Novels For Breakfast" shirt. Simply beautiful. They'll be tracking the number of words written all over the world throughout the month, so check out the site to register. Thanks to Ida for getting me hip to this. Happy writing lovelies!!

And just in case you're still wondering why you should hop on the NaNoWriMo band wagon...

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: You can sign up anytime to add your name to the roster and browse the forums. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

How: Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.