Interesting News from the Literary World

A few months ago, I submitted a couple of my poems to a well-paying, well-established magazine and they were rejected in one of the nicest tones I've seen used in that type of situation. I accepted it without much hurt- except maybe for the nice check I would have received- and moved on as only my kind can.
So, imagine my surprise when I saw a letter from them today as I opened my mail box. The envelop was heavy, bulging from its contents, and my heart began to emulate it. They say in moments of anticipation, blindness sometimes sets in, and I had been skeptical until today. I blinked to coax my sight back and to calm the alarmingly-high heart rate. I tore the damn envelope and damn near cursed myself to that despised of all kingdoms come...the one with fire and brimstone, not the gold and harps.
The contents, I found out, were marketing materials asking me to purchase a subscription for the upcoming year, with elegant material on the history and the forecast future of the magazine. My first- and only- thought was, why send to people who have been rejected??? We are the ones least likely to purchase because, a) resentment for being rejected, and, b) no money, since we weren't paid.
I would stick to advertising to those who were accepted since they are the ones more likely to sign up. However, I understand if they think the rejects are the ones in most need of seeing what type of poems are accepted, and, thereby, improve their craft along those same structures. Well, that might be well and all, but, once again, as my favorite Calypsonian famously proclaimed, "NO MONEY, NO LOVE."

Poems

As I pointed out previously, I will be posting some rough drafts of poems I'm working on and see what people think.

Time to Catch Up

It has been a while since I wrote on here due to several unlinked factors, but which all conspired to keep me off here. My mom has now been here for almost three weeks and we are all enjoying the company of my cousins (who have been here for nearly a week), my uncle (who came to visit for a day from Canada), and our great neighbors.
I have received many family heirlooms from her and I now feel a stronger connection to her side of the family...now I have to brush up on my Russian and gear up for my visit up there in the summer.
I also received, as a gift from my mom, a new Canon Rebel 500D (Rebel T1i) camera with the 18-55mm IS and 55-250mm IS lenses, but my goal is to take and sell a few pics to buy myself a quality "L" lens. I'll keep you folks updated on that.
I keep repeating that I consider myself to be an artist, rather than just a writer or a poet or playwright, so the camera will give me a chance to utilize my artistic skills through a different medium.
I think I said this before, but I am planning to release an e-book of about 50 of my poems through a collection titled "Visions of a Homeland: Poems in Exile" at the end of March. I want this collection of poems to showcase a small piece of my culture. Our people’s history extends from one end of time to the other; a period as indescribable as it is enjoyable.
I will be posting updates often. I hope you are enjoying the start to this new year.

Poem: Ode to the New Year

Ode to the New Year

Here’s to the sound of popping bottles

And loud intoxication.

Here’s to kisses and laughter

And tears and wailing.

Here’s a toast to all that can be hoped,

And to naïve blindness.

Here’s to the fathers and mothers

Whose prayers a stork might answer.

Here’s to the unlovable,

May your heart be nurtured.

Here’s to the sinner,

A clean slate to flout.

Here’s to the hops and barley

And all the other good things.

Here’s to you and me,

May we be more than we are slated to become.

"SAKABAKA"

New Poem: Grateful Profession

I wrote this poem a few days ago and it's dedicated to my former co-workers at the International Community School in Decatur, Georgia. I had lots of fun there and I miss it greatly. Here's to those brave souls that give so much of themselves so the future is a little brighter for some child.

 Grateful Profession

Sing a hmyn to joy,
Let its course weave through
Lips as airy an autumn breath.
Hail the brave
And their work
As shining souls skimp, elated
Through halls devoid of character
but filled with grateful shrills.
Leave the hive
and prepare honey
for them that seek the journey forward
with hopes of setting hearts free
in a world criminally discriminant.
My hat I tip
For unabashed love
of years of nurture bearing meager wealth
but great personal reward
to them that make children laugh in life.


This is the first draft, I will edit it and figure out what to do with it later, but I wanted to include it here for reasons listed above. The title "Grateful Profession" does not match, but that's all I can come up with at the moment.
Enjoy and visit the school website for more info here.

A Poem::: A Reign of Joy

I started Exile Calling in hopes of eliminating posting my work on this site or on Facebook, but I have so much material now that if I keep releasing one poem of mine in the monthly Exile Calling, I would go years before I would run out. The good news, however, is that I'm compiling a list of poems chronicling my journey in exile. So far, I have selected 32 of which I'm very confident and have edited a few time already- at least for most of them.
In the meantime, here's one I came up with and hope you like. It will not make it into this particular compilation, but I will need to edit it a few times before I can think of doing anything with it.

A Reign of Joy

From the wispiest breath

Is born the gayest of laughter

When the brightest light

Of an ebony sky is borne

By a dejected firefly.

A lover’s caress bears

To fruition the skipping of a heart

Tender and longing for a return

On its investment of kind.

The laughter and light;

The breath and the fiery fly;

The lovers and the night: All

Join in harmony as joy

Reigns for a moment in time.

Almost Done:::Poetry Project

I didn't want to spend days posting on the progress of the rhyming project, so I decided to go through it a few times and post something close to the finished product. I just remembered reading, years ago, about the process and progress of Beethoven writing his famous Symphony No. 9; how the finished work was noticeably different from the first draft. I am not saying I'm in the same class as Beethoven, but I think the process for all artists is the same.
Anyways, back to me and my attempt to rhyme my poem. I will post my thought process, then put up an image to show what I did.

Step 1 (not really step 1, but we have to start somewhere)

I decided to rewrite the poem from a different angle, but I decided against it as this is just a project poem and I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. It would have set us back to square 1.
I thought it was necessary for me to outline what I want to show through the poem: Me, the brook, its story, me not understanding the story, and ending on hope for understanding it in the future. 

 

Step 2

I try to rewrite it using the sequence I had established in the previous step. However, I switched and wrote from the point of view of me understanding its story and the underlying message that comes with it. I want to show that all things are one, from the lofty heights of the mountains, to the valleys, to the oceans

Step 3

That radical change brought a lot of confusion from me, but, as often is the case, through that tangling of nerves and words, burst through what I wanted to do with the poem - like the sun's rays breaking through overcast heavens. I moved towards the idea of me "seeing" the path of its travels from the mountains to the ocean, while still unable to comprehend the story. So I was able to see it without understanding it and hoping that I will with the next trickle of the feeble sike. 

Step 4

This is the last step for today's post, but the project is not done yet; I will post the last one tomorrow.
Here, everything came together and I was able to see the poem a little more polished in terms of rhyming. I ditched the ABAB structure and moved towards ABACDC (I have it marked at the end of the lines).
The top part of the page is the raw writing, and the bottom is the easier to read handwriting with a little sketch I did about the scene.

I hope you were able to read the chicken handwriting (my apologies to the chickens worldwide) and understand the processes I went through. I will post the last version tomorrow, and, remember, this is a project poem and poetry is my weakness, so go easy on me...Thanks for your time and keep writing...

Poetry Project

I started to try and put some rhyming to this poem and I decided on an ABAB rhyming structure. Then, I have to confess it didn't take me that long, I realized the poem needed a major face-lift, but I had warned about this in the previous post. So, for today, I have just trimmed it up some and posted it on here without bothering to rhyme it, as I might still edit it again tomorrow. However, I don't intend to do more than a couple of more posts on the poem, so I will keep the editing to a minimum and move on to the cool, rhyme part.
Here it is, have fun and I hope you can read my scribbling
.

Poetry

I love poetry; writing it, reading it, others', mine, short, long, etc. I love experiencing a stimulation which leads me to a few verses, which in turn lead to a few more. I, especially, love epics and I'm hoping to write a book length one soon based on some subject or other which has not blessed my cranium with its presence yet. By and by, however, I shall be stimulated and the result, God-willing, shall be worth the wait.
When I write, however, I find that I'm not focused on rhyming and structure. I tend to focus, rather, on the way it flows; on a rhythm in my head. Now, I have attempted to fix a poem and make it rhyme. I started by writing it in my regular way (I haven't edited it either, not sure whether to do it now) and then going over it and arranging or substituting words to make it rhyme.
Here's a scan of it, I will upload the edits as I go finish them. This is very raw, and it will be radically different when it's done. Click on it to expand and read it better.