.ISM Quarterly
Autumn 2006

Earlier this week I got an email newsletter from .ISM Quarterly. If you are not familiar with .ISM it is self-described as “An artistic democracy created under the banner of free suggestion and national exposure for anyone with the talent, regardless of experience. ‘For the people, by the people’ comes close. ‘For the artist, by the artist” comes closer.'”

Anyway, last summer I submitted at least six poems and hadn’t heard from the editor in almost nine months; that is until this week. The email newsletter featured a block of names that included yours truly. The poem “Loneliness Visits” is published on page twenty-two and follows a story about Found Magazine. If you are in the Asheville area, run to Downtown Books & News and pick up a copy of the Autumn 2006 issue of .ISM Quarterly, or buy it online from the .ISM online store.

Those who missed Liquefaction: A Geek and Artist Mixer last night at The New French Bar Courtyard Cafe, sponsored by The Media Arts Project, missed a big event. The place packed in as much creative energy as the bar could hold. For the first 30 minutes I nibbled free food, drank draft ale and watched in amazement the many geeks and artists connecting. Much networking transpired and much craft discussed and much adult beverages consumed.

Now, back to work.

Lunch time update: I left Liquefaction with a handful of cards, brochures and flyers from the following places: Tolleson Design, Creative Inc., The Map, Bid Bridge Advertising and TopFloorStudio.

The Mountain Xpress blog (arts & entertainment, news and letters) joins the Asheville blogging community.

Mountain Xpress blog

Over a year ago, Steve Shanafelt wrote a feature story [that I blogged about here] about the Asheville blogging community. Now the Xpress wades into the blogosphere which Jon Elliston trumpets in his post Blogs to match our mountains.

[T]he Mountain Xpress news department plunges headlong into the blogosphere. Our News Blog is here to offer Xpress readers, writers and editors a forum for sharing up-to-the-minute news and views.
So welcome aboard! Y’all come see us in cyberspace, where our door is always open …

This week’s Write Stuff poem is based on a writing prompt–write from a child’s perspective: My Father’s Promise.

Comments so far:

As usual … you’ve said a lot in just a few words.
This shows absolute trust – I hope the father doesn’t let him down.
—Karen

This is loaded! I love it.
—Tammi

“He saught tautness, compactness, the hard image that both conveyed and … was the meaning the poet was after,” wrote critic Thomas Lask (Nov. 2, 1972) in his obituary of Ezra Pound (reprinted in Alan Levy’s book Ezra Pound: The voice of Silence). “Every word that was not functional in the line was eliminated.”

That is what I am striving toward–“tautness, compactness, the hard image.”

Crafting the poem My Father’s Promise took more than a week. It was a process of subtracting or distilling toward a dense yet simple five lines or eight words.

My wife and I debated the last word; “wait.” Initially, I used “waited” to fit a two-syllable line, but I changed it after much discussion to “wait.” She helped me turn the line with a voiceless alveolar fricative stop–word ending with a “t.” Using “waited” added voiced alveolar fricative stop which, when read aloud, sounded like I ran over a speed bump. When the last line is read aloud, the “t” in “wait” explodes of the alveolar ridge and ends the poem with gravity and urgency.

Tags: [writing, creative, writers, Write Stuff]