Posted tagged ‘Manicddaily pencil drawing’
May 6, 2010
Suspect with Loaded Lawyer
I’ve always found the age-old male/Freudian question “what do women want?” irritating. I don’t particularly like the way it lumps women together. But what really annoys me is the undercurrent of exasperation–the idea that the answer to the question is just too irrational or illogical to be discoverable.
Even though I don’t care much for this formulation, but a variation seems appropriate for tonight’s post: what do Congressional Republicans want? What, especially, when it comes to reconciling issues of anti-terrorism and gun control? Here’s a place where the undertone of illogic and irrationality seems appropriate.
(Sorry, to any of you who thought this post was going to be about women. Or Freud. You’re stuck with Lindsay Graham.)
On the one hand, the Republicans in Congress, as exemplified by Graham, are very upset at the idea of offering suspected terrorists access to lawyers (as in Miranda rights); on the other, they are perfectly willing to grant such suspects access to automatic weapons of all types and calibers. As Gail Collins describes in a wonderful Op-Ed piece in the May 6 New York Times, “I think you’re going too far here,” said Graham, in opposition to a bill that would keep people on the F.B.I. terrorist watch list from buying guns and explosives.
Distrust of governmental intervention and power are a watchword with many congressional Republicans. Except when it comes to torture. Many urge the government to take on that power–as long as people who are water boarded have a right to purchase a handgun before submergence.
Part of the problem, of course, is limited imagination and memory. Many can’t seem to conceive of someone who may be labeled “right-wing” being arrested for terrorist activities; they don’t seem to remember names like McVeigh and Hutaree.
What they do seem certain of (whether rightly or wrongly) is the power of the NRA. Which, as Gail Collins notes, gives one answer to my question—what do Congressional Republicans want? To get a 100% score in the NRA grading system.
Call me naïve. Call me (those of you who know I’m an attorney) biased. Even call me a woman who knows at least some of what she wants. If I have to be confronted, I would rather face a terrorist armed with a lawyer, than an AK-47.
Categories: news, Uncategorized
Tags: anti-terrorism, Congressional Republicans, drawing of suspect with loaded lawyer (instead of rifle), Gail Collins, Gail Collins Article re Gun Control and Congress, Gail Collins Congress, gun control, gun control v. anti-terrorism, Lindsay Graham, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, Up in Arms, Waterboarding with handguns, what do women want
Comments: 1 Comment
May 3, 2010
Diamond Enough
After yesterday’s post concerning the relatively higher payback for posts about Robert Pattinson, I am returning to poetry. This is, in part, because the Academy of American Poets announced that it is extending its April program of daily emailed poems for the entire year. (I figure if the Academy of American Poets can post a poem a day for longer than a month, I can too.)
So here’s another draft poem (written on the morning subway). Any suggestions for improvement that you may send are seriously considered and greatly appreciated.
Good Enough
Why is it that they,
the amorphous they,
can never say
you’re good enough
well enough
for you to feel, in fact,
good (enough);
not perhaps like a
diamond in the rough,
much less a diamond buffed,
just not ‘not good enough’.
What can they say
to allay
that bay of inadequacy,
that convenient, if unsafe, harbor,
built-in, if empty, larder?
It sounds like a game,
but if words can tame pain,
rhyme act as anodyne,
it’s worth a shot,
would mean a lot,
maybe, for a short time, enough.
(PS – note that an earlier version of this post incorrectly named the Academy of American Poets. Sorry, Poets! Their emailed poems are a feature called “poem-a-day”. )
Categories: poetry, Uncategorized, writing exercises
Tags: Academy of American Poets, draft poem, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poem, ManicDDaily poetry, National Poetry Month, poem about insecurity, poetry, Poetry exercise, Stress, subway, writing exercise
Comments: 5 Comments
May 2, 2010
Comparative Hair - Billy Collins/Robert Pattinson
After a month of posting draft poems in honor of National Poetry Month, I have to say that there’s a certain payback to blogging about Robert Pattinson (the 23-or-4 year old star of the Twilight Saga movies).
The fact is that not that many people are interested in poetry, particularly the draft poems of an unknown blogger, while many many people are interested in Pattinson (as in gaga over, or contemptuous of). Sure, there are also a lot of people who are disinterested in Pattinson, but often disinterested in a way that borders on the self-righteously dismissive (e.g., a teeny teeny bit interested).
Lately, an important percentage of the fascination does not seem to be with Pattinson himself, as with the very interest he elicits (all those screaming girls.) He was recently named, for instance, one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
Curiously, the commentator justifying this designation did not cite any particular example Rob sets, or influence he levers, so much as the fact that any information about Pattinson–public sighting or comment–is the immediate subject of a zillion tweets and retweets.
And why are people so interested in Rob? Okay, the looks—Nureyev cheekbones, tortured eyes, hair—this blog has already discussed those at length. More importantly, however, Pattinson is identified with a character (Twilight’s Edward Cullen) who is an escapist ideal—the perfect…oops! nearly perfect…oops! not quite man. Here Pattinson plays into a double fantasy of male perfection and vampirism, with each element vying for the most incredible. (Sorry, guys!)
Poetry is tremendously down to earth in comparison. A good poem tends to bring the reader more fully into the moment, or, at least, some moment, rather than out of it. Even fantastical poems, such as those by Yeats or Keats or Robert Bly, deal in the real and human and very imperfect.
But people like perfect escapes. Which may be why poets, even those super popular poets, like Billy Collins, tend to earn much less than movie stars. That and the hair.
Categories: Blogging, poetry, Robert Pattinson, Uncategorized
Tags: Billy Collins and Robert Pattinson's hair, comparison between Robert Pattinson and Billy Collins, drawing of Pattinson's hair and Billy Collin's head, Edward Cullen, manicddaily, ManicDDaily blog, Manicddaily pencil drawing, Pattinson's Hair, Poetry and Pattinson, Robert Pattinson, Twilight
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April 29, 2010
Whitmanback, not Greenback (or, as it appears, Rasputinback)
April 29th–the 29th day of National Poetry Month–is not-so-traditionally “poem in your pocket” day, a day when everyone is supposed to carry a folded-up sheet of poetry on their person. (In my experience, the main people who celebrate the day are students with good English teachers.) Here’s a draft sonnet in honor of the day:
For Poem In Your Pocket Day
Amazing to think of a poem in
one’s pocket in place of all currency–
cash or gun—a bartered verse to phone in
to your broker, negotiable fluency;
“Song of Myself” read for a credit check,
“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”
serving for your OB. For a higher tech
purchase, try a quote from Stephen Hawking–
not quite a poem but close enough—and
for those moments one faces something raw,
when, as they say, the going gets tough, and
life itself seems stuck in maw and craw,
what a gift to unfold one’s own scanned lines
and read in them word of other times.
F0r more on sonnets, look here, and also check out the poetry category from the home page.
Categories: poetry, Uncategorized, writing exercises
Tags: 29th Day of National Poetry Month, dollarpoem, draft sonnet, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poetry, National Poetry Month, Poem In your Pocket Day, sonnet, sonnet on Poem In Your Pocket Day, Whitmanback instead of Greenback
Comments: 2 Comments
April 26, 2010
Closed Heart (Actually, Locked Heart In this Case.)
26th day of National Poetry Month; a busy, social day, in which it was very very hard to come up with a poem draft. (As followers of this blog know, I’m “celebrating” National Poetry Month, by writing a draft poem a day. I hope you too are trying some.)
Horizon of the Closed Heart
The horizon of the closed heart is very short.
It is not like sun on water, that orb of glisten
that swallows the sea, and then is swallowed by it.
It is not like snow on mountains,
amazingly there in May, a dust of lost white.
Not even like a tall building edging the sky,
a compass hand to point this way as downtown,
this way up.
It lurks in the belly, pelvis, thighs; darts
into the forehead; but what it mainly does
is bind the chest, a second set of ribs bruised
by all the bumping into, bouncing back,
those reflections of the self turned in on itself,
the self, the self, the self, and all that it wants,
all that it lacks, spread thinly upon a small, mean space.
Categories: poetry, Uncategorized, writing
Tags: 26th Day Of National Poetry Month, closed heart, drawing of locked heart, horizon of the closed heart, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poetry, padlocked heart, poem draft, snow on mountains/sun on sea
Comments: 5 Comments
April 21, 2010
Good Dog! (Not Your Body)
The 21st day of National Poetry Month, and I have a terrible, terrible cold. So far, I’ve managed to spare you the poem devoted to “rhinovirus,” but I found, in trying to write tonight’s draft poem, that I could not stay completely away from the subject of the fickleness of the body.
Note, in reading the draft poem, that pauses are only intended to be taken based on punctuation–commas, semi-colons, periods–and not at the ends of lines (unless punctuated.)
Here, Body
The body is not your good dog.
It may sit, lie down, roll over,
do tricks for food, and seem to love;
but there’s a limit to its Rover
aspect. It will get sick just when
you tell it not to. There’s no yanking
on that leash. It will decay
when you say stay; there’s no spanking
with a rolled-up newspaper,
not even the Times, which can train
it to heel, to keep
to the right side of that called sane.
It won’t obey you even when
it knows what you desperately want,
when its lesson has been learned
before, again; still, it will vaunt
its own fleshly, furry ways,
taking up all room upon your bed,
refusing to hush when hushed,
and, except when dancing, to be led.
Categories: dog, elephants, poetry, Uncategorized, writing exercises
Tags: 21st Day of National Poetry Month, drawing of dog and elephant, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poetry, National Poetry Month, poem about fickleness of body, poetry about dog and body, quatrains, rhyming poem
Comments: 2 Comments
April 19, 2010
Shoe
I got my shoes shined today for a special evening event (which delayed my posting till now). I don’t get my shoes shined very often, so it provided useful material for today’s poem draft (as well as a beautiful dark sheen.)
Shoeshine
He stiffens his finger with
a wrapped flap of plastic then, with the precision of
a surgeon, binds it with a worn swathe of
fabric. In a world in which all is disposable, his cloth
is ragged, frayed, stained, authentically used.
Like so, like so—he sprinkles a dose of something clear, then,
after rubbing my dark
rounded toes, delves his finger into the thin can which holds
the black, more tar than jet,
the color of spider bellies, widows’ skirts,
that shadow in the cheek of certain saints outlined by
El Greco, the eyebrow of Frieda Kahlo.
He is short, as they tend to be, born in mountains,
where height adds insult to
uphill climbs, a slight tilt a part of the landscape.
He strokes the sides of my shoes
as he paints them; I feel the strokes
in the sides of my feet,
the ribs of the arches, like a very
polite massage, the caress of the humble, and think of the feet
of certain statues, whose insteps have been worn
into silent tongues by those
seeking blessings, though I
feel blessed by him, his attentions, the worn, made new.
It is something of which we don’t speak.
Categories: poetry, Uncategorized, writing exercises
Tags: 19th Day of National Poetry Month, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poetry, National Poetry Month, poem about shoeshines, shoes
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April 17, 2010
On Plane (Forgot the Socks.)
A lot of traveling today and now I’m staying in a moldy, motel room. Agh. Sometimes when you are having trouble with inspiration, it’s best to turn to a traditional form like a sonnet. The form itself can help move you through the poem, getting you to something like completion. For more on the sonnet form, look in the poetry category from the ManicDDaily home page.
Flying
To be made love to in your head at thirty
thousand feet is a good way to relax,
at thirty thousand feet. Not truly flirty
or even dirty-minded; no attacks
on those around you, whose hands or chests or chins,
today, tend towards the pudgy in any case,
and, besides, are so pre-occupied with “in
flight entertainment” as to fully erase
your presence, as well as the close-up sky,
that dip of cloud and blue you’ve always loved, even so,
you don’t look either, but drift, as you fly,
through sinews, murmurs, even the after-glow
of a warmth that’s kindled only in your brain
(though you always wear wool socks upon a plane.)
Categories: poetry, writing exercises
Tags: 17th Day of National Poetry Month, elephant on plane, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poetry, National Poetry Month, sonnet, sonnet re fantasies on air plane, sonnet re sexual fantasies
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April 13, 2010
Hot Room in Air-Conditioned House
It’s the thirteenth day of National Poetry Month and I got up at 3:45 a.m. for a flight down to Florida. As a result, I’ve focused on short poems, haiku, for my drafts of the day. (For those of you who have not been following this blog, I am honoring National Poetry Month by writing a draft poem a day.)
A classic haiku is seventeen syllables – five in the first line; seven in the second line, and five again in the third line. Some people (who put content ahead of form) do not abide by these syllabic rules. Given that a haiku is traditionally written in Japanese, this could probably be justified. However, because I tend towards the formal more than the meaningful, I try to keep my haiku to the seventeen syllable format. (Note– title doesn’t count, so it’s a good way to slip in a few more syllables.)
So here are a few haiku, written both in New York, pre-dawn trip to Florida, and after. Please remember they are all drafts, and are intended to inspire you to your own efforts (which are bound to be as good.)
Killer Frost (in Fortune Cookie Style)
Premature blossoms
bear no fruit. Let buds knot wood
till truly their time.
Lack of Sleep As A Cure for Depression
I’m finding, of late,
the ebullience of no sleep.
Regret fades at two.
Florida
Porched concrete like the
forced march of Bermuda grass
fends off ant and file.
Symmetric
Two coconuts hang
like velour dice from a frond.
Is this all just luck?
Airless Room
The hot room in an
air-conditioned house: vacuum-
sealed, energy-proof.
Nap
Middle of the day
sleep, warm breath thick and soft as
flesh; some manage it.
Pre-blossom Branch
Categories: elephants, poetry, writing exercises
Tags: 13th Day of National Poetry Month, ant and file, Florida Haiku, haiku, haiku form explanation, haiku re sleeplessness as cure for depression, Haiku re warm nap, manicddaily, ManicDDaily haiku, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poetry, ManicDDaily watercolor, National Poetry Month, pencil drawing of resting elephant, poetry exercises, watercolor of spring branch
Comments: 5 Comments
April 12, 2010
Grrr....
I guess I’ve not been in the best mood lately. This 12th poem draft seems to be evidence of that. (Lesson of the day–writing can be a way to vent your feelings!)
Cheater
When someone cheats me, or worse,
cheats my friend, one for whom
I’ve stood in, stood up, I understand the mind
of the stalker.
I want to call the cheater, anonymously, at
whatever time he grins, and hiss
imprecations of punishment,
both divine and karmic. I want
to seek out his car and smear something
on the glass that will dry hard and
impenetrable—tomato paste,
shellac, maybe sardines–
spelling out some simple
characterization like “this guy
is a big fat cheat,” or
“smells like dead fish.”
I want to picture him
rattled, spilling large mugs of coffee
over a beige shag rug.
(A part of me wants to imagine him
stumbling with borscht, only anti-oxident,
wonderful beets are
just too good for the likes of him.)
Speaking of beets, I’d like to beat him, only not
in the flesh, but in the mind, in a re-make of
that money game we’ve just concluded (or he and
my “friend”), only this time I’d bargain him down
to a pinhead, a place from which he would truly beg, at which point,
I would gladly extend largess; I’d be absolutely
generous, a softie all over again, happy
to show him, at last, how these things should be done.
Categories: poetry, Uncategorized, writing exercises
Tags: angry poem, borscht poem, manicddaily, Manicddaily pencil drawing, ManicDDaily poem, poem about cheaters, poem about sardines on car, poem about stalking, poetry, writing exercise
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