you tacky thing

I don’t have much to say right now. In lieu of a blog post, please accept some of my poetry.

Late Summer Sestina

A warm autumn’s rising again,
it seems. The sheen of summer
still lingers on my September skin
and the afternoon sky is hazy (though blue),
like you. The phone rings: a call
for you: a voice, sugar-smooth:

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“Dead Butterfly,” by Ellen Bass, recommended by Ted Kooser.

Top ten reasons not to discuss literary criticism with me:

10. I am smarter than you. No, really. See that? On the wall? That’s my motherfucking bachelor’s degree. In literature. That means I know everything there is to know about books and poems and such. What’s that? You’re four years along on a Ph.D. in English? Psshhh, whatever. I read the Norton Anthologies for fun.

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I am once again attempting NaNoWriMo, mostly because some online friends are doing it and I’m a lemming. Last year didn’t pan out; I got maybe 5,000 words, most of which were half-decent, and then lost my motivation and energy. Same thing might happen this year, but any writing is good writing, even if it’s crap.

Also, NaNo is a great way to put writing in the spotlight for a while, and to gain insights that benefit more structured efforts. For instance, today, the following delightful little essay went out to all NaNoWriMo participants. I provide it in full because it’s just that awesome. (more…)

This pissed me off enough to break my blog-intertia:

“Howl” too hot to hear: 50 years after poem ruled not obscene, radio fears to air it

Fifty years ago today, a San Francisco Municipal Court judge ruled that Allen Ginsberg’s Beat-era poem “Howl” was not obscene. Yet today, a New York public broadcasting station decided not to air the poem, fearing that the Federal Communications Commission will find it indecent and crush the network with crippling fines.

…

WBAI program director Bernard White fears that the FCC will fine the station $325,000 for every one of Ginsberg’s dirty-word bombs. If each Pacifica station that aired the poem - and possibly repeated it - were to be fined for airing “Howl,” it could mean millions of dollars in fines.

The potential impact of such penalties is daunting to a commercial-free station with a $4 million annual budget whose financial state White described as “in the black, but we’re surrounded by a lot of red ink. A fine like that might crush us.”

This is the society we live in: Our government stifles art out of “concern” for the tender ears of children. (more…)