tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63309494926873889032024-02-07T22:16:07.191-08:00EuphoriaFrom the highest of heights to the lowest of woes. And everything in between.Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.comBlogger97125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-85596755793653620912017-11-18T12:07:00.002-08:002017-11-18T12:11:23.586-08:00Ghost Ship at The Ekphrastic ReviewAre some things real and imagined, alive and dead all at once? That's what this mystifying image by photographer Robert Dash made me start wondering. What can exist simultaneously?
nto the Mystic, photography by Robert Dash (USA). Contemporary. Click image for artist site.
Playing catchup with my poem publications. Am I simultaneously both late and on-time now?
Here's Ghost Ship, Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-84163188983346061352016-05-08T12:00:00.000-07:002016-05-09T12:18:19.927-07:00Here's to all the Mothers - past, present and future!Happy Mother's Day!
Panoply Magazine just published my poem "subterfuge" in which our heroine fiercely and subtly protects her privacy and dignity on a random weekday in high school.
If you are a nurturer of any kind, but especially the mothering kind, you are no doubt aware of the need to take care of yourself first. We learn this as we grow, regardless of sex, regardless of gender. But Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-56177394273561482822016-04-08T11:48:00.001-07:002016-04-08T12:16:08.126-07:00Day 8: I, of the Grain—a quatern published in The Rat's Ass Review #NaPoWriMo #NationalPoetryMonth
Demeter, Copyright 2013-2014 HoneyJadeCrab from DeviantArt
Happy to announce that on this Day 8 of National Poetry Month, my quatern about Demeter, goddess of the harvest, entitled I, of the Grain has been published in The Rat's Ass Review. Many thanks to Roderick Bates for selecting it. You can read it here!
Demeter is the food bringer, the law bearer, the mark of agriculture upon Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-72547450119358943602016-04-07T13:54:00.000-07:002016-04-08T13:54:54.989-07:00Day 7: Order Up! —#NaPoWriMo #30in30 #NationalPoetryMonth
Mr. Breakfast Face
There is some ridiculously delightful pancake art out there. So many faces! Some are intentional like this lovely Mr. Breakfast Face here. Others evidently are crafted to perfection through divine intervention, like when Jesus' face made an appearance on a California pancake (and also a piece of naan at a curry house in Essex. He gets around.)
This all got me thinkingAmy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-80990538334063617532016-04-06T23:00:00.000-07:002016-04-08T13:38:46.952-07:00Day 6: a diamante for my sister and her new baby—#NaPoWriMo #NationalPoetryMonth #30in30Day 6: I have a new nephew today! My sister gave birth to a healthy baby boy this evening and in honor of them both, here's a little diamante. Congratulations!
mother
kind compassionate
nurture grow attend
pain laughter pleasure adventure
explore attempt lie
selfish innocent
child
Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-80529665844446922112016-04-05T16:00:00.000-07:002016-04-08T13:29:06.671-07:00Day 5: spring haiku #NaPoWriMo #NationalPoetryMonth #30in30
Cherry blossoms at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon
Day 5 will be a simple haiku.
I know what you're thinking:
5—7—5
Anyone can write a haiku, right?
Yep. Right. Anyone can. But a good one?
Did you know that haiku are traditionally written in the present tense and play with associations between images. They also contain a pause at the end of the first or second line as Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-79147928456580911822016-04-04T14:08:00.004-07:002016-04-08T12:15:58.415-07:00Day 4: Fickle Tease—my thoughts on April #NaPoWriMo #NationalPoetryMonth
Salmon River Hike
In T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland," Eliot famously called April "the cruelest month." This might seem unfair to some, but I think it's spot-on. You can be cruel without knowing it. The NaPoWriMo Day 4 challenge is "to write a poem in which you explore what you think is the cruelest month, and why." I'm all too happy to explain it to you.
April can be gorgeous. Just look at Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-39255203384437121712016-04-03T15:35:00.001-07:002016-04-08T12:15:49.445-07:00Day 3: tell me how you really feel— a concrete poem #NaPoWriMo #NationalPoetryMonthToday, my inspiration comes from The Daily Poet, a calendar year's worth of writing prompts by Kelli Russell Agodon & Martha Silano. I highly recommend you pick up a copy if you're looking for a prepared daily bundle of fuel to ignite your imagination. Today's challenge? Write a concrete poem. Sometimes called pattern or visual poems, they are written and presented in the shape of the Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-64680408480966437072016-04-02T17:56:00.000-07:002016-04-08T12:15:39.040-07:00Day 2: Family Portraits— 2 cinquains #NaPoWriMo Day 2
My grandparents, before deployment, WWII
Look at this photo. The gorgeous knockout and that strapping young soldier are my grandparents.
Today's NaPoWriMo prompt challenges us to "write a poem that takes the form of a family portrait."
I wrote two. One for each of these people who are larger than life to me.
The thought of encapsulating all that they are and everything they mean to meAmy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-33947909483975387952016-04-01T16:00:00.000-07:002016-04-08T12:15:29.215-07:00Day 1: Two lunes - #NaPoWriMo #NationalPoetryMonth
Backyard cherry blossoms on this gorgeous April Fool's Day
It's April again–the month when this fool engages in public acts of exhibitionism. Beware! I like to skinny-dip in pools of words.
I'm daring myself to write at least one poem draft a day and am inspired by a private writing challenge and safe forum that poetess Jennifer Givhan has offered up. (I recommend you keep an eye out for her Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-20058796028731762202016-03-25T20:42:00.000-07:002016-03-28T20:54:53.084-07:00shed no drop of blood— published in NonBinary Review, The Zoetic Press Journal of Literature #BirdieSanders
#BirdieSanders
All leaders have known this for millennia: there is skill in battle. (Just ask millennials.) Subtle nuance can propel a cause and fuel a movement or sink a campaign. Just talk with Howard Dean about his scream. Or ask Mitt Romney, "Who let the dogs out?"
I was thinking of this when I wrote a poem inspired by Sun Tsu's The Art of War, recently published in NonBinary Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-52677044385158407992016-03-19T12:36:00.000-07:002016-04-08T11:52:35.081-07:00Temporary—Sein Und Werden
Evelyn evolving into a microscopic Amoeba image ~ Rick Hutchinson
Happy to report today that "Temporary," a poem I wrote about a piece of me gone missing, is featured in the current Spring 2016 issue of Sein Und Werden.
The theme of this issue is "Corpus: The body whole and the body dismembered, idolised and idealised. Replication... labour. The flesh of the fruit; the fruit of Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-39923674227035085172016-02-26T18:30:00.000-08:002016-03-18T19:32:01.753-07:00Nesting Dolls—featured at Mothers Always Write
The original matryoshka set by Zvyozdochkin and Malyutin, 1892
I'm grateful to Mothers Always Write for publishing my poem "Nesting Dolls" today. It's my reflection on all that parenthood contains as well as its outgrowths. Please check it out here and then explore the site. It's filled with meaningful accounts of what it is to be a mother from a talented assembly of writers.Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-61942175601136696012016-01-30T18:04:00.000-08:002016-03-18T19:32:25.155-07:00The Rib —a fractured fairytale
Adam and Eve Claude-Marie Dubufe, 1827
I always thought that Eve got a raw deal in the Judaeo-Christian creation myth. She makes one misstep and is punished unduly with menstrual cramps and the pain of childbirth. Sucks, right?
But in retrospect, someone else may have suffered unduly from the start. Before the snake and the apple make their way into the story, did Adam have agency in any of Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-22926552150053981412016-01-18T13:47:00.000-08:002016-03-16T14:09:11.435-07:00Runoff—a poem featured in The Gorge Literary Journal
Me and my son enjoying Hood River.
Time is slippery. We can't grasp it, will it to speed up, or force it to slow down. My son is now 6 feet tall and 14 years older than when this picture was taken. While I enjoyed that day and many others like it, I remember how slowly the hours crawled by when my children were in diapers. That the years have hauled ass in comparison makes no mathematical Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-61032321937529407022015-05-02T14:39:00.000-07:002016-03-18T19:33:52.631-07:00Drunken cinquain for the Kentucky Derby
Trigger warning: vegetarians, humor alert!
after
two mint juleps
American Pharaoh
would be downright yummy in a
burgoo
So strange that a gorgeous animal such as this would be sponsored by Yum! Corporation. V. Espinoza looks tasty, too. In a polka dot kind of way.Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-26943608880222935642015-05-01T17:28:00.000-07:002015-05-26T13:36:16.913-07:00Hikers
The view from my secret vantage point
What better way to usher in the month of May than to hike to hidden waterfalls with plein air painters? I shinnied up trees, scaled boulders, and shuffled up scree slides just so I could spy on my friends from above. I watched handfuls of hikers take in the view and they inevitably took pictures of the artists and their easels the minute they noticedAmy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-67450417030844221842015-04-30T13:26:00.001-07:002015-04-30T13:41:17.016-07:00The Reluctant Homeowner, 4Amys and two haiku—#NationalPoetryMonth Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day! (Yep, it's a "thing." Click on the link for more official details.) Judi Korpi Webb and I have some sweet little pocket-sized haikus just for you. Or if they're not your style, I suggest you write your own and carry them around in your pocket. Better yet, write a bunch of your own haiku on different scraps of paper and #poetrybomb the pants pockets of Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-86226028692444242362015-04-29T16:37:00.003-07:002015-04-29T16:37:56.908-07:00FLOTUS Shoulders World Opinion at Japan State Dinner—free verse #NationalPoetryMonthI've got all kinds of time for Michelle Obama. Her light is bright and only seems to grow more radiant the more she shares of herself. Whether she's helping service members, youth with education goals, or getting kids to move, she puts herself out there with passion and unharnessed joy. Most First Ladies have looked overly practiced, careful, guided and guarded, but not Michelle. Her hyper Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-15867444398843162202015-04-28T22:55:00.001-07:002016-01-20T13:23:51.469-08:00Blackout poem in the style of Austin Kleon #NationalPoetryMonth
I'm not sure when the author/artist Austin Kleon created his first poem by redacting words from random text. But I do know he published his first book of these poems in 2010, called "Newspaper Blackout" which I learned about after having purchased and read his creative manifestos "Steal Like an Artist!" and "Show Your Work!"
Yesterday, I stumbled upon an invitation to create my own Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-82761979817216807982015-04-27T12:57:00.000-07:002015-04-28T20:11:13.724-07:00Do you Clerihew? #NationalPoetryMonthYes, I watch The Voice. Silly as it is, I enjoy it and look forward to family commentary while cuddling on the couch eating popcorn. We make it an event, and I feel this event calls for a whimsical poem or two. How about some Clerihew?*
Blake Shelton
Made Sisaundra sing Elton.
He's never heard "America" by Simon and Garfunkel
So I guess he doesn't have all of the oldies in his arsenal.
Old Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-70351490176455567472015-04-26T22:26:00.002-07:002015-04-30T10:31:49.758-07:00Not Going Anywhere Soon and a reflection on Home—two Tyburns #NationalPoetryMonth
Bouquet Today by Jason Baskin
There's such a difference between people who are marking time and lively spirits who savor life each moment. When Jason brought this quick sketch home, I knew he captured a certain joie de vivre that the model must have exuded. I love the light and life in this piece. The woman is right there in her moment, enjoying the heck out of that bouquet of flowers. Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-34257671285846828432015-04-25T21:45:00.000-07:002015-04-26T21:54:00.610-07:00The Path— free verse #NationalPoetryMonthThe Path
The Path at Rood Bridge Park by Jason Baskin
They felt like sunlight on my shoulder
before I turned around.
They walked in my direction
two adults
father and son
holding hands.
The son had Downs
his hair was growing back from chemo.
Their enjoyment of the day
the moment
the walk
the togetherness
radiated outward
touched me
patted me on the shoulder
kissed me on the head
assured me Amy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6330949492687388903.post-54065892213462423022015-04-24T09:50:00.001-07:002015-04-24T09:50:12.640-07:00Cops: Watch. Look here. —a Fibonacci poem #NationalPoetryMonth
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"I Want You," the ballad of a creep, first debuted on this album.
Has anyone ever shown way too much interest in you? Has anyone ever treated you as an object rather than as a human? Without going into the particulars, I can tell you that one such hollow manchild wanted me for his trinket. On a campus of thousands, he invaded my real estate. He routinely followed me into the dining hallAmy-Baskin.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02456111597354561225noreply@blogger.com0