Inside The Hearts' Walls

I attended the Cherry Blossom Picnic (Hanami) today. It was pretty neat. It was in the DAC from 11:30 to 1:30. It turns out that a hanami (or "flower viewing festival," I think) is essentially Japanese Easter: the spring celebration of life and rebirth that coincides with the blossoming of the cherry trees (which I imagine makes it kind of hard to schedule for ahead of time).

Anyway, I got to brag about my poetry a little bit to a Commuter reporter who was there, so I expect there will probably be an article about the event in next week's paper. Whether or not said article will feature any reference to me must, alas, remain to be seen.

click - click - click - clunk
then... nothing

It broke again.
An inventor peers in.
What went wrong this time?

tinkering - tinkering
adjusting - fixing
try again

click - clunk
then... nothing

An inventor peers in.
The theory is sound,
Right?

There are only so many times you can re-check the same math
and still officially be considered sane.

The theory is sound.
The flaw's in the execution.
Where is it?

tinkering - tinkering
replacing - tweaking
try again?

whirrrrr...

no smoke
no ozone
no unexpected snaps
it runs

An inventor looks on
in silent glee.

It will never again be as ugly as it is now
a hodge-podge of repurposed parts.
Rolling off assembly lines
it will be smaller
sleeker.

It will never again be as beautiful as it is now
taking its first step into the world
breathing its first whisper
pleased to finally work.
 
 
-Turtle Shell

First, I found the Commuter's website's article about the Words and Pictures reading:
words-and-pictures-fill-south-santiam-hall

Second, the Words and Pictures book is coming along much faster than I had originally expected. In fact there are tentative plans in the works to order a couple of dozen or so books and throw a book-signing party sometime before the end of the term. More on that as it gets worked out.

Third, the Cherry Blossom Picnic (Hanami) is this Friday.  I still don't know what that means. The poetry club has submitted at least a handful of haiku and tanka for the event (not that I know what they're going to be used for). As for the precise time and place, I don't know that either; though word on the street has it that it'll be in the courtyard around lunch-time-ish. (Failing that, check the DAC.)

Fourth, oh yeah, we have a new prompt too! It's not a specific phrase this time, though. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the meaning of your name in a poem. What does your name mean? And why should we care? Make us care. Or make us apathetic. Whatever, it's your poem (and your name), write it however you like.

Do I really hate to love?
Do I really love to hate?

- C. Upton
 
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I send the Commuter lovely poems.

I just got an email giving more detail regarding the deadline for the haiku we're writing. Megan Rivas, the organizer of the event (I think) says:

I would love for poetry to be submitted by Friday,
April 22nd to the DAC CC: Megan Rivas or electronically at this email
megan.rivas.8457@mail.linnbenton.edu
This submission is for US to print it. If poets would like to submit AFTER
this date, it will have to be printed on their own.

There have been a couple more Commuter articles about us lately. Last week they published a piece called You Could Be Next Year's Poet Laureate.  Which is a brief article about the current Poet Laureate and the Poetry Club.

This week's issue has an article about the Words and Pictures reading, but it doesn't appear to be online yet. Hopefully I'll remember to look for it again in a few days and post a link if I find it. If you're on campus (and not reading this from deep in the future) you could just grab a paper copy to see it for yourself.

For various reasons last week's two prompts have been extended for another week. I hear that the deadline for the Haiku/Tankas is April 29, which is when the event that they are being written for is going to occur. But since we'd all like to hear what you come up with in the club it'd be great if you have something to share on the 26th.

Going around in a circle, reading pages from Howl today was an interesting and amusingly awkward way to scare away potential new Poetry Club members (of which we had, like, five in attendance).

There's going to be a Cherry Blossom Picnic (Hanami) hosted by the DAC on April 29, 2011. I don't know what that means, but the LBCC Poetry Club has agreed to write Tanka and/or Haikus for the event. So our first prompt is to write one or more tanka and/or haiku, the subject being I guess: earthquake/tsunami/radiation/relief, or thereabouts.

Our second, more normal prompt is from a poem by Ted Kooser which follows.


The Early Bird

Still dark, and raining hard
on a cold May morning

and yet the early bird
is out there chirping,

chirping its sweet-sour
wooden-pulley notes,

pleased, it would seem,
to be given work,

hauling the heavy pucket of dawn

up from the darkness,
note over note,

and letting us drink.

--------------------

The prompt specifically is: "pleased, it would seem, to be given work".

By W

Blackberry brambles
Such uncomfortable places.
Prickly, stickled, webbing in wings
Not letting them out.

To be picked is just another
Way of saying chosen.
There remains in all hearts
A honey drunk awe of it.

You who hibernate coolness,
Your day shall come.
So still for it, wait for it
To rest is, after all, one of many ways to praise.

Someday—yes—
        It
              Will
                      Find
                            You.

That growing warmth of ripened grace
When you know in each wondering burst
Of your body that your time has come

At last.
 
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This poem is our submission to the Commuter this week.

by Turtle Shell

"Look at this, this brilliant kid
Made a masterwork, our genius did."
A perfect grade, brings pride galore.
You hunger now, you want some more.
An endless mission, bring home the A's
To hear you're smart, the greatest praise.

"But wait, what's this, did you get a B?
Sit down, let's talk, I want you to see
A B isn't terrible, this imperfect letter
I think we both know though, that you can do better."
So that's how it is, those words that now weighed
Only dullards could be content, with an imperfect grade.

Do or do not, there is no "try"
Become risk-averse, become failure-shy!
The easiest path, is the only one to take
Be careful, do it right, never risk a mistake!
A mistake's an indictment, a proof of stupidity
But you NEED to be smart, an ego's cupidity.

Studies have shown, that when praising a child
Praising mere talent, only leaves them beguiled.
Being proud of what they are, but not how they act
Encourages stagnation, is motivationally cracked.
"You're so smart" sounds nice, but it's such a dangerous phrase
One message to avoid, among the hundred ways to praise.

The prompt for next week is: "one of the hundred ways to praise".  Supposedly from something I don't currently have a copy of, written by Oregon's Poet Laureate, Paulann Peterson.

We also have a tentative preliminary prompt for the week after next (sorry Whitney, this is what happens when you're out sick).  We will be (celebrating? commemorating? evangelizing?) reading/performing on the subject of the free speech movement in the Hotshot at 3 as usual on April 19.  More focused attention may be given to the topics of: 1) the responsibility associated with the right of free speech, and 2) the importance of acting as well as speaking.

And lastly, save the date: April 22.  I forget why.

My forebears, they were tall.
So very tall were they all.
Picking fruit in the Fall.
Yet rarely playing basketball.

by Turtle Shell
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This was this week's submission to the Commuter, and was written to this week's "Ancestry" or "Who am I?" prompt.