Poetry Super Highway: Poet of the Week

I'm about to head off to Killin (Loch Tay) for a short holiday, so won't be able to link to Poetry Super Highway on the first day of my tenure!

I have been selected to be Poet of the Week at Poetry Super Highway for the week of June 15 - June 21, 2009. VERY EXCITING!

The editor has selected At Thanksgiving, Packing, Hart, and Elephants.

My poems will be initially posted on the Poet of the Week page, and after this week, they'll be moved to the Past Poets Archive.

Please check them out!

Also, a note: I first discovered Poetry Super Highway, doing a search for Gabrielle Mittelbach, my old boss! I didn't know she was a poet, and was very pleasantly surprised to see she was the 2007 winner of the PSH Poetry Contest, and has a few amazing poems up on the website as well. I got to reading some of the other poets in the archives and found tons of great and up-and-coming poets listed there. I'm pleased to be in their ranks.

In Favor of Weeds

My poem, In Favor of Weeds, is published in The Glasgow Review!
Definitely go check out the rest of the writing available at TGR if you have a chance.


In Favor of Weeds

Great nations rally behind the goldenrod, the thistle.
Let us never disregard the dandelion clock,
spraying spumes of white seed into the wind
like a hapless ruffian atop a thin stalk.

You say buttercups grow on their own.
No one plants them. They just come.
You love the wild life. Careless invasion, chaos.

Cushag, Cankerwort, Mare's Fart,
Dog Standard, Stammerwort, Stinking Ninny-
How can anyone hate the helpless ragweed?
Your sheep sick, and make a fairy's field
of mini golden tansies come spring.

I tell you about the widow's weed: not a weed at all,
but a cloth worn in times of mourning.
A symbol, a memorial, a warning.

In the backyard, she lets her weeds
grow for years. She wants him to pull them,
her favorite son. She tends the weeds 'til his return;
meanwhile they choke the plumeria.

Yellow starthistle, America hates you,
the way your golden body taints her soil.
But your kin are the icon of Scotland.
And prickly burdock, your slender root
is a delicacy in Japan, pickled or stewed.

Let me remind you of daisy chains - girls
sat in circles in the school yard, gossiping,
making bracelets and necklaces
from linked weeds. The first jewelry.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Every place has its own weeds.

---------------
In Favor of Weeds, first in The Glasgow Review, Spring 2009, 06/05/2009.

Dash: When You Are Gone

Just got my contributor copy of DASH vol. 2 in the mail today! It looks TERRIFIC!

DASH is the literary journal produced by Cal State Fullerton's creative writing club and English department. They've really put together a lovely book -- it even has full-color pictures in the middle, and lots of cool art interspersed throughout. I'm very proud. Go grab yourself a copy if you're around Fullerton!

My poem When You Are Gone was accepted for this issue. It's an older poem, but has a bit more of a Los Angeles vibe to it, which I thought would appeal to Dash. Hooray!

DUO collaboration project, THE BOOK!

In all my haste these past few days, I forgot to mention the publication of the DUO Collaboration Book!
It is on sale here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/653665

...a bit outside my price range, but I've seen a copy and it looks fantastic! Full-color glossy, comes in hard or paperback. Totally want... *starts counting her pennies*

I should explain this better. DUO was/is the collaboration this year between University of Edinburgh's Creative Writing masters students (that's me!) and the Edinburgh College of Art's Illustration students. One artist was paired to one writer, and we exchanged work, and each produced new pieces based on the other's original work. The best of these have been assembled by Robert Alan Jamieson, Dilys Rose and Harvey Dingwall into this lovely final product!


I've posted my poem, Pigeons here already -- it was the one selected to appear in the final book.
I also exchanged and produced Umi-Uma (Seahorse) and In The Reference Library via this collaboration with my partner Lucy Roscoe. [Lucy is brilliant by the way, check her website!] All of these poems (and Lucy's accompanying art) are posted on this site, but they're only a taster of what is printed in the book, honestly!

Anyhow, just wanted to post a link to the book sale website -- hopefully there will be a few takers out there!

Links to my collaboration poems, on this site:
Pigeons
Umi-Uma (Seahorse)
In the Reference Library