Category: CupPL Poems

Poets Laureate Discuss and Laugh

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Even though there is so much to watch on TV these days, what with the Olympics and Downtown Abby, I am hoping you might have a moment to watch this segment of local Los Gatos (CA) TV. My friend Erica Goss, the current Los Gatos Poet Laureate, has a local show called “Word to Word” about poetry. For her first segment this year, she invited me to be her guest. I was nervous and in need of a better stylist (I had to borrow her lipstick, not having any of my own) but she was gentle and we had a good chat.

I’m on the first 14 minutes, and if you want to skip around you can find me discussing my work with California Poets in the Schools (from about 1:00) or mentioning my awesome Mom (4:39) or my plans for being Cupertino Poet Laureate (5:40). I read three of my poems, starting at around 9:06.

I hope you enjoy whatever portion of this you might watch — I find it very hard to watch myself, but my daughter says I have to get used to it if I’m going to be famous. Argh. Personally, I’d rather watch my 9-month old nephew waddle around the kitchen.

Please feel free to share the link in the interests of spreading poetry all over the place.

Million-Line Poem, Day 588

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This is an awesome project from Tupelo Press, and my couplet has been accepted into their Million-Line Poem (Day 588).

tupelopress's avatarTupelo Press

See the Million-Line Poem in progress here!

Today’s lines of inspiration:

The scurrying mound of skunk, found by swerving lights,
lent his peppery smell to the quick rain. It was a good night.

(Jennifer Swanton Brown, Cupertino, CA)

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If you’re just joining us now, you can read more about the Million-Line Poem and how to participate here

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Flat Stanley’s Poem

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Beach Dancing

— by Jennifer and Stanley

December beach
cold sunset and sand
kids jumping

Jostled but warm
inside your purple coat

Next to my heart
where no wind blows
still sandy

Safe from the bonfire
those marshmallows blackened
and burst so fast!

Smoke and clouds
dark against year’s end light

Pounding Pacific waves
wash my paper feet
clean

Stanley with his feet in the oceean!

Stanley puts his feet in the ocean!

Prompt #14 : Saturdays, Flat Stanley and Rengay

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Well, I’ve finally caved in to my (ridiculously busy) life and abandoned the “new poetry prompt on Thursday” problem. New prompts will still appear, but now they’ll appear on Saturdays. Here is the first prompt-on-Saturday. Today we are going to write rengay!

I’m not an experienced rengay poet. I love short forms (as you’ll recall from previous posts) but I’m not an expert. I have however used this form to teach before, as some kids find it wonderful to write together — it gives them a break for staring at the page alone. I hope today’s rengay prompt will get me writing something new as well as encourage you. Fortunately, there is a lot of information out there about this form, which we can all learn from.

Here’s what Michael Dylan Welch has to say: “The rengay is a collaborative six-verse linked thematic poem written by two or three poets using alternating three-line and two-line haiku or haiku-like stanzas in a regular pattern. The pattern for two people is A-3, B-2, A-3, B-3, A-2, B-3, with the letters representing the poets, and the numbers indicating the number of lines in each given verse. For three people the pattern is A-3, B-2, C-3, A-2, B-3, C-2. Unlike renku, […] a rengay stay[s] in one season and develop[s] a single theme. Since they are brief, rengay are also more easily remembered than renku, and more likely to be published in the various haiku journals. […] Rengay was first publicly introduced at the November 1, 1992 meeting of the Haiku Poets of Northern California in San Francisco.”

Rengay is a recently invented form, similar to renga, also a collaborative form of poetry from Japan. Rengay is also related to renku, a longer collaborative Japanese form.

Because rengay are long-ish, I won’t reproduce any here. Frongpond (the Journal of the Haiku Society of America) offers this sample.

I am planning to write a rengay today with my daughter. She’s agreed to collaborate with me. We are doing this in part to complete a visit of Flat Stanley to our house. I want to write a poem together with Stanley, but he’s mute on the idea. So, Stella will help and channel Stanley’s poetry onto the page.

(For anyone who’s unfamiliar with Flat Stanley, you can read more here and here and here.)

The resulting poem will also be posted on here and on Tumblr.

Have fun with your rengay and a friend. Please let me know how it goes.

Prompt #13: January 2, 2014

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Happy New Year!

Short on time while the holiday bells of family, friends and parties are still ringing, I have been writing snatches and snippets, but no real poems. Then! I stumbled upon a delightful little (and surprisingly powerful) form called the zip.

My friend Michael Dylan Welch, the current PL of Redmond, Washington, is a renowned poet, specializing in Japanese traditional forms. You can check out his work starting with his blog Graceguts. Michael shared the news earlier this week that the English poet, John Carley, passed away after a four-year battle with cancer. Michael challenged us, as a way to celebrate Carley’s life, to write a poem in the zip format he invented. Never having heard of a zip haiku, I was intrigued!

According to a 2001 article by Carley, a zip is “proposed as an analogue to the Japanese haiku, but uses a form more suited to the innate phonic and semantic qualities of English. The zip employs fifteen syllables, two weak pauses and one strong. The poem is centred on the caesura.”

What could be better. Short poems for the crazy holiday season, or those crazy days in my PAD project when I am stuck at work late, exhausted, grumpy, etc. And a “real” form. So, I took up the challenge. I’ve written two in the past two days, and whether they are good or not, only time will tell. I love them. The first is a moment remembered from my daughter’s beach party and the second is a reflection on my mother’s upcoming birthday in Maine.

Write your own!!!

#1

making faces     around the fire
beer bottles      marshmallow smoke

# 2

    January      glittering blue and white
the shape of     windows

Forsythia

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Many people post their own poetry to their blogs and websites. I am still unsure what I think about the practice, being hard-wired-wedded to the idea of peer review and publication hierarchies. However, today I will make an exception and post a poem, directly, without the safe “it’s still a draft” cover story I use in my poem-a-day project. Here is a poem I wrote for my daughter’s 21st birthday, which is today. (The title and first image are “found” from my friend Simon, who lives in North Carolina, not Georgia, but I altered the state for the meter.)

A poem written for a birthday doesn’t have a special name, but many poets do write for birthdays, their own and those of loved ones.

Forsythia

You are born
and the forsythia is confused again in Georgia
pushing out its yellow lips
against December-short days.

You are born
and the calla lilies rise in California
on green limbs
among the frost-stunted ferns,
white cups for sky.

You are born
and twenty-one years fly with their crows,
the hail storm of that night melting again
every morning
against your warm head.

Once, I held your spine in my hand,
straight beyond my making,
the spheres that had been buoyant in me
unfurled.

Now you are white and yellow
and waving with your own light,
daughter, at the lip
of an ocean
you will taste
in your own right.

for Stella
December 30, 2013

Prompt No. 8 for 11/28/13

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“Thanksgiving Mad Libs Poem”

This week’s prompt is coming a day early, rather than a day (or two) late. I hope you’ll write a poem this weekend, after eating, relaxing, enjoying family. But I may be the only one who will write one tomorrow. So here’s the prompt for Thursday 11/28/13. I’m calling this the “Thanksgiving Mad Libs Poem.” If you don’t remember what Mad Libs are (or never knew the pleasure of them as a kid) check out this site for an introduction/review. Apparently there are Mad Libs books for Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day — but none for Thanksgiving. I’ve used Mad Libs to teach poetry in the past; kids like them and their focus on words is a good warmup exercise for a stubborn class. But this time, I’m creating a poem using Mad Libs idea to create a prompt. Here’s how it works.

Fill in the blanks with words:
Favorite color ______________
Name a kitchen appliance ______________
Name a vegetable ______________
Name a state in the United States ______________
Name a transportation vehicle/mode of transportation ______________
Name a fruit ______________
Name a kind of monster ______________
Name a member of your family who is not coming for Thanksgiving ______________
Name something you like to do in November ______________
Name a type of ball ______________
Name something that smells really good ______________
Name something furry ______________
Name a sound that weather makes ______________
Name a different color ______________
Name an article of clothing ______________
What is your name? ______________

After you’ve done this, get a piece of paper and start writing “I am thankful for -” and then use the words from your list. The poem will work if you let your imagination hop around and if you really think why and how you might be thankful for the things you’ve listed.  If your list was written before you knew the poem would include being thankful for things, your words will be more interesting.

Here’s how I did it.

Favorite color green
Name a kitchen appliance refrigerator
Name a vegetable beets
Name a state in the United States Texas
Name a transportation vehicle/mode of transportation bicycle
Name a fruit persimmon
Name a kind of monster witch
Name a member of your family who is not coming for Thanksgiving my Mom 
Name something you like to do in November look at orange and yellow leaves
Name a type of ball ball of yarn
Name something that smells really good my husband making breakfast
Name something furry kittens 
Name a sound that weather makes wind banging against the house
Name a different color red
Name an article of clothing scarf
What is your name? Jennifer Brown

Now, here’s the “I’m thankful for” poem. It’s a long list poem, and I will probably continue to work on it. But for now, it’s a start and I hope an inspiration to you.

Falling for Persimmons and Yarn

I am thankful for green in the world. Green trees already here and green grass that we know comes with California rain.
I am thankful for refrigerators. The way they keep milk cold. The way they keep yogurt from getting moldy. They way my husband hides enchiladas in the small one and I find them.
I am thankful for beets. I wish we were eating some tomorrow. My dad loved them.
I am thankful for the people who live in Texas who might help that state to become less scary. I wonder if I’ll ever travel there again. I love the sound of the word “Texas” and hope that something wonderful will happen there soon.
I am thankful for bicycles. My yellow and black exercise bike is my new best friend.
I am thankful for persimmons. Oh my yum.
I am thankful for witches. I did not see this one coming and I even created the prompt. Witches have knowledge, wisdom, skinny legs and fabulous hats.
I am thankful for my mom. I wish she were coming to California to be with us now and will come again in the future. I am grateful that my entire family (except me) will be together in Massachusetts. I hope Mom has a good time and doesn’t end up doing all the dishes.
I am thankful for the wild colors of the trees where I live, especially ginkgoes.
I am thankful that balls of yarn exist in the world for kittens to play with and for me to knit with. I love yarn colors and textures.
I am thankful for the love of my husband and the way the house smells when he’s making breakfast for all of us, but especially if he’s teaching our son. Pancakes, French toast, sausage, bacon, eggs, waffles, banana bread, cinnamon rolls, you name it, it smells awesome. And even better when he’s making it with the love that lives in his heart.
I am thankful for our two furry kittens this year. I bet they will like turkey.
I am thankful for the wind that bangs against the house, even though it really scares me and I don’t like it. How to be thankful for something that’s necessary but frightening? An interesting predicament. How fun to get the word predicament into a poem.
I’m running out of steam so I’m going to be thankful now for scarves and for red at the same time: thankful for red scarves and hoping that my daughter will be wearing one when she gets off the plane tonight!
I am thankful for Jennifer Brown. For names that are common but unique in me. For names from my mother and father. For the self that is sometimes hard to love. Thanks.

David Denny Publishes in Rattle

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David Denny Publishes in Rattle

David Denny, Cupertino’s first Poet Laureate, has been getting his poems in publications on line and in print left, right and center these days! This link is to Rattle (Winter 2013) #42, which includes one of Dave’s poems, “Apocalyptic Charlton Heston.”