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In the Mood for Dragons?

I almost bought a shimmery little stuffed dragon in a shop yesterday while Christmas shopping. But I refrained.
Here are two haibun about dragons from Poemeleon’s Prose Poem issue:
http://www.poemeleon.org/table-of-contents2/
They also encourage you to click on the link to their author bookstore. After all, tis the season…

Thanks for all your comments on Michaela’s lovely Snow Queen broadside. I’ll post something here when it’s available – it’s snowy! and evil! but in a holiday-themed way! (PS Not suitable for those who wear Christmas sweaters.)

At December 05, 2007
By Jeannine Gailey
In broadside, evil snow queens are good holiday symbols
12

Michaela Eaves (my book cover’s artist) has created my first ever broadside…
http://corvida.livejournal.com/252559.html#cutid1

Narrative Poetry for the iPod Generation, Comic Book Plots for Poems: or, Is Poetic Narrative Dead?

Ron Silliman’s blog has a long post about how Ron is tolerant of narrative in film but intolerant of it in poetry. I made a short comment about how narrative should still be celebrated, but it could be that the narrative type transforms every generation – so, for the generation growing up right now, texting each other and downloading scenes of television on iPods, reading manga – how will they define narrative? What kind of narrative structure will they need or want? But in the end, people are hungry for communication, for structure and story, for emotional and intellectual connection – perhaps it may look different, but at its heart, that is why we turn to poetry.

I just got finished writing an article about how pop culture may become more dominant for the new generation of poets…because it is the new universal language, because this generation have been taught to be constant consumers of media…for a lot of reasons. I have been thinking about Matthea Harvey’s Modern Life a lot, maybe because it represents a way of talking about serious subjects in pop culture language, avoiding the personal narrative for a surreal type of narrative, making ridiculous leaps and at the same time, keeping the reader emotionally invested.

I don’t believe, myself, that narrative will ever be dead, any more than poetry will ever be dead – it will be continually reborn in new ways, with new voices, in new modes.

Thoughts? Arguments?

At December 03, 2007
By Jeannine Gailey
In and cars underwater, brimstone, Floods, rain, windstorms
3

5-Alarm Weather

Yes, we are safe, though the apocalyptic weather continues here in the Northwest. 15 inches of rain in something like 24 hours and high winds have caused quite the ruckus. Today, we didn’t really think about the weather, until, running errands, my 6-foot-4 200+ pound husband suddenly found it hard to walk in the wind – a few minutes later, trying to drive to Target, we drove past a huge downed tree leaning heavily against a power line, and then we had to turn around in the middle of the road where it was washed out and a car in the street was up to its windows in flood water. It turned out that if Glenn had been trying to get home from his work to our old apartment today, instead of working from home, he wouldn’t have been able to – the entire highway system back to our old place was blocked by mudslides and floods, the streets were parking lots or flooded, and the bottom of our old street – we lived on the top of the hill – is currently underwater. The little condo we rented for a couple of years – right on the banks of the flooding Sammamish river – and the Chateau St. Michelle wineries – also lowland on the banks of the same river – are both being threatened by rising water. And it hasn’t even rained for 40 days and 40 nights! Just a couple of days of heavy snow followed by heavy rain.
I’m thinking good thoughts for my friends in Seattle, especially North Seattle, Kent, Kirkland, and Woodinville, tonight. The street above beautiful Golden Gardens park has completely collapsed into sinkhole and mud. The highway I-5 to Portland is impassable by train or car because of mud and flooding. Many families had to be rescued by airlift and raft from their homes. Turns out the ocean is, in this case, safer than the rivers.
We’re grateful we have power on and that our house is dry.

At December 02, 2007
By Jeannine Gailey
In artists, blizzards, Centrum, windstorms
0

Blizzard! And the arts!

Had a great time meeting and getting to know my fellow Centrum Young Artists Project art faculty (a couple of drama folks, visual artists, videographers and dancers) but did not so much love this afternoon’s activity – trudging around the Centrum Fort Ward buildings for an hour in 20+mile an hour winds and blizzard-levels of snow with freezing hard rain – they wanted to acquaint us with the spaces which I had already seen, and of course, as a writing teacher, don’t really need like the drama or dance teachers might. I have asthma and I had to sneak into the different buildings and take an inhaler twice (so embarrassing having asthma attacks!) and tonight I am coughing and hacking. Stupid lungs! Also the wind broke my umbrella that has survived over five years of Seattle weather.

It was really fun to sit around and talk about art with all these people who have sacrificed and worked so hard to practive their various art work, committed and dedicated and intelligent folks who all care about sharing their excitement about art with kids.

If you live in the Seattle area, and you have children in middle school or high school that you think might enjoy a spring-break or summer week of arts studies in creative writing, music, drama, and visual arts, check out this link: http://www.centrum.org/youth/yap-workshops.html They have scholarships for kids who need them. I think the middle-school kids might need to sign up through their school. It’s a pretty incredible program. And I’m teaching a class called “Superheroes, Mythology and You – Creative Writing” for two weeks in March and a week in June. Most of the time, Centrum’s campus is postcard beautiful and they have very nice, mild weahter. Not mostly blizzards.

Even more weather news – we are expected to have 70 plus mile an hour winds and storms tomorrow…maybe I’ll stay in with a nice hot gallon of ginger tea…