New Week, New Smile

Heavy Dogwood waits—

a mother at full term gives

birth to pink tears

He Only Does Surgery On Wednesday

The dentist.

Today I am recording my jaw surgery through Haiku, so bare with me, My attention span is short and drug induced...

drugs took pain today
but left my mouth upside down
cheesesteak is desired.

My Town Friday Shoot Out- Sunburst

Was taken last year near an open mic I attend on Thursdays. We all had thought about doing a flash mob kind of performance, so I was checking out the spot to see if we could pull it off. It rained the day we were suppose to go out. A pretty area though. And I confess it was an accident, I have no idea why it turned out this way, but it works!

Now go check out the rest of the groups 'Sun burst' pics!

I'm Walking On Sunshine

I just received an email telling me I was accepted into the FAWC fellowship summer program,  in Provencetown, MA- starting in July. How cool is that. Being with writers for two months. Classes and working in the offices.

I also received an offer to publish a writer who is part of the Nipmuck tribe in MA, whom I met at AWP. I will help him get his book done, under Red Dashboard LLC.

Now if Finishing Line Press wants to send me a 'We are going to publish your manuscript' email, I would be ecstatic. Hubs barely can live with me as it is.

Peace everyone, my life is really busy, but I will try to come over and share when I can.

(photo- My sister Mary and I when she was here visiting two years ago)

A Day of Personal Mourning

I may have, maybe not, mentioned when meeting a man in Boston, Hal Sirowitz, he reminded me of my dad, my dad's illness- Parkinson's. I realized afterward, when arriving at the apartment exhausted from the bustling all day, I had never grieved for my parents. They died soon after Anelisa did, and I miss them. I don't miss the bull-honky that went with their habitual fighting, a result from his snarky and mean comments toward my mother, maybe because he stopped drinking and smoking all the years before.

So, I have been trying to mourn. Remember them, and honor them. The one problem I have is, as usual the daughter remembers her father in a more complimentary light. My mother was riddled with her own problems, and I guess not wanting to remember her in such a depressed state, as she was always in, I write more about Daddy.

I also found out today, a very good family friend is dying from ovarian cancer, she already battles an immune disease, and it will be a great loss to my husbands step mom, as it is her best friend.

I am taking a poetry class, and part of that class we have to read so many poems a day, analyze them, and then writer our own version or inspired versions of poetry. Send them to the teacher and work shop them as a class. So here is something I wrote today...

On The Water’s Edge

I.

Wriggling in the boat’s front seat

more than the container of bait worms

sitting in the hot sun in fake earth

or on the hook as my fingers guide.

We head into a group of bare trees;

jumping daddy long leg spiders run

in opposite directions, away from us.

Bending down into the floor I escape

the freakish encounter.

The boat still rocks back and forth

daddy is already anxious for a cigarette

to clean off the trout lines

his voice cracks telling me to sit still.

He took me over the other siblings,

I know this because he often bragged

about how quiet and like him his

second born is, and does so in whispers

so the others don’t hear.

Uncles tell me how I favor his mother

someone he misses greatly, and often

we swing by her house

for a surprise visit.

Looking over the boats edge,

my chin lodged over the side

near the clear fresh water, observing

big fish going after bugs, and smaller fish

I wish to follow them into the

cool depths— imagining

they speak in soft tones,

letting out bubble responses,

flipping at a moment’s notice,

turning, toward other rewards.

‘The Incredible Mr. Limpet’

swims by losing his derby

and in that Don Knott voice in my head

squeals out a funny joke toward me.

I laugh out loud, risking wrath.

My father has already started the engine

with a smile, because many fish

gave up life with little fight today

and he has bigger things to fry.

The Bigger Catch Got Away

II.

I long to feel that water’s edge

to see my father look from the shadows

into the sunlight, and recognize me.

His yellowing undershirt pops up

inches above his blue work shirts

embroidered with his middle name Glen.

On the birth certificate it is spelled

with two n’s, but he always thought

that was the Scottish version of

the female persuasion.

Something he likes best, over

fishing, beer, and a good barbeque

sandwich.

Standing over the grill on Sunday’s

you can smell a mix of flesh cooking;

either hamburgers, hot dogs, cheap steaks,

and often fresh fish he caught

the day before.

He’s there dressed in his Bermuda shorts

flexing his red neck tanned arms at

the female guests waiting and giggling

behind the mirrored patio door.

Smoke rises from the neighbor’s patio

as I float in my adult home swimming pool

next door, drowsy, but waking from a quick nap.

I feel the burn from the suns hot rays

on my shoulders, my straps pulled down

like when I was a teenage girl

trying to slip out of the house

in my hand-me-down bikini

with the padded bra.

Daddy caught me on the patio just

as the dogs began fighting next to me

and warned me not to wear it in public.

Closing my eyes again, my father quickly lets go

of anger; smiling back at me as he drifts off

in the green flat bottom boat. It is growing dark,

 and he is alone on the old lake.

I swim out to him, pulling on the side, I can

almost feel small fish nibble on my toes,

bull frogs are peeping up from the rocks, I shriek

and can swear he says ‘there will be other days’.

I also have a new poem up over at Elizabeth Akin Stelling, and this poem may or may not be removed, if it is published it will be in my own book, one to be published this year. - E

My Town Friday Shoot Out- Books

I apologize to my MTFSO group, I began a class on Monday and it is taking up my time. Homework and reading everyday. I am having fun though!

Books! You would think now that I am writing full time I would have plenty of these pictures. But sadly I do not, only this one of my clients daughter reading, well pretending, as she is only two and barely has begun to string sentences together.

Here is the book fair I attended. Lots of books!

Here is my friends publishing company's book table at the fair! I bought two books I did not own.

Did you know its is National Poetry Month? Many poetry writers are typing away making new drafts each day, as well as fiction and non-fiction writers. So far I have written one everyday and getting them work shopped via my instructor. I find it relaxing...


Please go check out the others My Town Friday Shoot Out posts! Most of them are a lot better photographer than I; you simply click on their names via Mr. Linky. If you want to join us you do the same by posting your name through link below names!

National Poetry Month 2013

I am just happy today. I have been writing up a storm, cooked a meal for my client Saturday that turned out perfect, and am taking a course on analyzing poetry and prose. I also woke up to an email for a poem acceptance. It will come out in June, and am hoping they do an anthology, because three of my other poems are in there from last year.

It is National Poetry Month. April always is. Have you been writing? Does the spring developments make you want to write? I also believe it is NaNoWriMo in April. Seems like I see everyone writing something.

Hope you are all at peace and have an extra skip in your walk like me!

(Photo above is my two kids- the wildflowers begin to bloom this time of the year and for a short window along the hill country, but just outside of Austin past San Anton they flourish. They grown many places, but this was a median we stopped. Ane does not look happy, and her brother Aaron is being goofy, not an unusual situation back then.)

New poem up- Elizabeth Akin Stelling