Tuesday, February 27, 2007

30/30 and other news

Despite the stomach flu epidemic that hit our house last week (my visiting parents, myself and Dennis all had it), I managed to finish my 8th round of 30 poems in 30 days:

8.1 An Ancient Moche Woman Gets Another Fifteen Minutes of Fame
8.2 Spike and Buffy Spend Sunday Afternoon at the Crypt
8.3 Plasticine Psychosis
8.4 Dr. Zhoudou's Cabinet of Hypnosis and Broken Hearts
8.5 Istanbul
8.6 Monsters from the Id
8.7 The Rest Remain
8.8 Sugar Snap Peas, 1970
8.9 Beautiful Losers
8.10 A Different Drama
8.11 Homeward
8.12 Permeable
8.13 Centerfold
8.14 On the Nature of Auroras in a Modified Habitat
8.15 The Marx Brothers Hit a Snag in their Plan for World Domination
8.16 Darkling
8.17 Studying a Male Nude in an Anatomy Text
8.18 Fourteen Words of Love
8.19 Pantaphobia
8.20 I've Heard You Can't Say Love Face to Face (a 30/30 cento)
8.21 We Leave the Beaches for the Tourists, Mostly
8.22 Kid chants
8.23 Idiom
8.24 Bandelier, New Mexico, Day 9 of Our Two Week Vacation
8.25 stomach flu haiku
8.26 Report, with a toilet seat
8.27 Shall We Throw Away the Key?
8.28 To a Ray of Sun on a Winter Day
8.29 Girl Scout cookie haiku
8.30 Five Clouded Days in Ragtime

I've been kind of quiet on the blog front lately, posting only sporadically and commenting even less. But I've been reading a lot.

I've really enjoyed following Patry Francis on her journey with the publication of her debut novel The Liar's Diary. Lucky me, I even was in the right place at the right time to win a signed copy from her!

In case you missed it, The Canadian Writers Collective has featured a different post about love each day in February, with special guest writers like H.E. Eigler, Lisa Ling, Joseph Young, Ellen Meister, and many many others.

Beginning March 1, check out the Writer Profile Project by Kelly Spitzer. Kelly says: "Each profile will consist of approximately ten questions posed to writers at various stages in their careers. During the series, you will meet editors of literary magazines, novelists, poets, and a wide variety of up and coming authors in all genres. I expect the series to run through the end of the year, so check back often for new profiles." I'm looking forward to the interviews and to reading the work of all Kelly's featured writers. Look for my own profile (as Ann Walters) in a couple of months.

What have you been reading online lately?

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Stomach Flu Haiku

stomach flu hits hard
I am rubble strewn on bed
even my skin hurts

That's really all you need to know about this week at my house.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Birds & Bees

You can find my poems "Come" and "Dinner with Mr. Jones, Or, How I Taught Tom to Enjoy a Good Beaujolais" in the latest NC-17 edition of The Hiss Quarterly, which is devoted to all things lusty in honor of Valentine's Day.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The Calculus of Modern Life

Impose a grid onto the world.
Become accustomed to the wonted ways
of right angles, habitué of metered
streets and hearts.

Rule off hours, weeks, years.
Mark the incremental signs: milk teeth
of Spring giving way to
Winter’s stale and noisome breath.

Equate the columns of time, money, and love.
Take the mean of their sum
and wrap yourself with its silk blanket
in the house of someone else’s dreams.

Place the remainder – joy –
in the pocket of your blue jeans
to be drawn out like spare change
drabbled into a beggar’s cup.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Sock-A-Month Knitalong 3

I finished my first pair of socks for SAMKAL3 (Sock a Month Knitalong 3)!



Pattern: Dublin Bay Socks from Mossy Cottage Knits
Yarn: Socks That Rock, mediumweight
Colorway: Love in Idleness
Needles: US1

This was an easy, fairly quick knit. My husband picked the yarn to go with my Christmas present of a membership in the 2007 Rockin' Sock Club, and I cast on that very evening. The pattern is simple and the yarn is very luxurious. This was my first experience with STR mediumweight, and it is WARM. Great for wearing around the house on cold winter days!

Monday, February 05, 2007

story

MaryJane

MaryJane was a curious child. She liked to climb the bookcase in the back of the room, stand on top, and sing the ABC song backwards. She would spin the globe until it hummed so loudly that Patrick McOwl crawled under his desk because he thought it was a spaceship coming in for a landing. When Miss Rose turned to write on the blackboard, MaryJane pulled the turtle from the terrarium and painted its shell with nail polish she’d smuggled out of her older sister’s room.

Miss Rose was constantly calling her name. “MaryJane,” she’d say, “please stop swinging from the flag like that.” Or “MaryJane! Get out of the sink and put those fish back in their tank.” MaryJane giggled and dumped the water out of her ladybug rain boots. “MaryJane,” Miss Rose said in her sternest teacher voice, “now you know we mustn’t use markers to make our tongues purple, or sniff glitter up our noses.” When MaryJane sneezed it was like fireworks.

Mr. Snogwort was the principal of MaryJane’s school. He didn’t like to hear kids laughing in the hallway. He didn’t like to hear kids laughing in the gym. He didn’t like to hear kids laughing at all. He was crabby and his face crinkled up in the middle. When Mr. Snogwort walked to the cafeteria for lunch his shoes squelched on the linoleum. There was a cabbage smell in his office, or so the kids said. Nobody had ever actually been in Mr. Snogwort’s office as far as anyone knew. Just the threat of the principal’s name was enough to make the most unruly student sit up straight, be quiet, and pay attention. Until MaryJane, that is.

“MaryJane,” Miss Rose said for the 103rd time that day. She’d repeated that name so many times that she’d begun saying it in her sleep at night. “MaryJane, if you don’t stop this instant, you will have to go see Mr. Snogwort.” The class gave a collective shudder and fell silent. MaryJane tipped another chair onto the stack she was building and surveyed the results...

Afterward, it was rumored that the school nurse heard snickering from behind the principal’s closed door – and not just MaryJane’s voice, either. MaryJane never said a word but she was as curious as ever. Miss Rose still called MaryJane’s name all day long, and started collecting brochures from technical colleges in her desk drawer. And Mr. Snogwort? Well, Fred Griffith told Sally Meyer that Jason Murphy said Irma Winkle saw the principal smile, but nobody believes it. Except MaryJane.

Written in collaboration with Emma, age 6, and Kate, age 4, budding storytellers.

Saturday, February 03, 2007

With great power...


You are Spider-Man


You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.


Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Friday, February 02, 2007



Sorry for the lack of posts! I'm still here. I started a new round of 30 poems in 30 days last Saturday and it feels great to be writing again. Publication and knitting news coming soon, so stay tuned...