30 poems in 30 days - Day 10

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 10
Today is Tuesday, so it's a Two for Tuesday prompt! Here are your two options:

1. Write a love poem.
2. Write an anti-love poem.
   

This is my second attempt at this. I tried a cleave poem initially, about "showing love" versus "telling love" but it just wasn't working. So here's another 5/4 poem. It is another school poem.

A LOVE POEM

I tell Brittany
Tenaira, Angelanne
that I love them.
That’s a lie,
they tell me. I know

I should own up to it,
the fact that I
tell the truth,
but I do not, tell them
that I exaggerrate

because they will
not believe
me, cannot believe
a teacher could love them,
since they do not

love themselves
or me. I tell them
that I care. Angelanne
smiles and believes
that I do.

She will still be late
tomorrow, or absent.
She will still fail
math this year
even with my love.

What do those 2009 elections really mean?

Looking at the 2009 elections, it really bugs me that the media is continually claiming that the election of Republican governors in Virginia and New Jersey shows a backlash against President Obama. It’s like the people reporting the news only know about “now” and have no concept of history. First, let's look at the history of gubernatorial elections in those two states.

Looking at that table, you have to go back as far as 1985 to find even ONE of those two states that has a governor that is the same party as the party controlling the White House. To me, that says that this was a typical election with typical results, not a groundbreaking election showing that Republicans are making headway.

Now, let’s look at every other special election held in 2009, i.e. since Obama was elected. These are Congressional elections count a lot more than gubernatorial elections since they will be voting directly on bills supported, or not supported, by the Obama Administration.

District	2009 Date	Democrat	Republican (or Other)
California 10th	Nov 3	John Garamendi 53% WINNER	David Harmer 43%
California 32nd	Jul 14	Democratic Judy Chu 62% WINNER	Betty Chu 33%
Illinois 5th	Apr 7	Michael Quigley, 69% WINNER	Rosanna Pulido, 24%
New York 20th	Mar 31	Scott Murphy, 51% WINNER	Jim Tedisco, 49%
New York 23rd	Nov 3	Bill Owens, 49% WINNER	Doug Hoffman (Conservative) 45%

Um. Doesn’t the fact that every single congressional race since Obama's election was won by a Democrat say as much as two gubernatorial elections that went the way every election there in the past 2.5 decades has gone? Why do the tv newscasters fail to mention this fact when they talk about those gubernatorial races?

30 poems in 30 days - Day 9

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 9
For today's prompt, I want you to write a slippery poem. The subject can be about something slippery (snake, soap, etc.), or the poem itself can deal with a slippery subject (I'm thinking big concepts like that have words ending in -ism might fit the definition of a slippery subject). If in doubt, just write.

I wasn't planning to do haiku/senryu for this. It's like cheating in my book. But I got a day behind because I was sick over the weekend, and this really did seem to work for the subject matter, and fell into my school theme also.

senryu

like soap down the drain
she quietly slips through cracks
of society

30 poems in 30 days - Day 8

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 8
For today's prompt, I want you to take the phrase "Should (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make that the title of your poem, and write your poem. Examples could be "Should I Buy This Outfit," "Should You Leave Before I Buy This Outfit," or "Should This Outfit Be in the Title? You Don't Even Know What This Outfit Looks Like Anyway." The Clash even wrote a song to this prompt (okay, they didn't write a song to this prompt, but their song fits this prompt) called, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

"Should" brought on two options again, which made me think again about cleave poems. I like to play with this form and this gave me a chance to do this. I was going to make this another school poem, but it was turning out too much like the other cleave poem, so I went after the other theme running through my latest poems - aging. It's not perfect, but that's what December is going to be for.

YOUTH CULTURE SUCKS

should I	-	age gracefully
dye my hair	-	go gray
like so many women	-	my age
cover my well worn	-	face
complexion	-	showing every year
with layers of makeup	-	not making up for time
pretending youth	-	that no longer exists
trying to ignore	-	the experiences of many years
the ravages ot time	-	making me who I am
should I idolize youth	-	be proud of all of those experiences
try to be what I am not, ignore things	-	that gave me this gray hair
that show my age	-	the lines on my face
or be the person I am	-	I wear my age proudly

30 poems in 30 days - Day 7

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 7
For today's prompt, I want you to pick a plant (any plant), make that the title of your poem, and write a poem. Pretty simple. (Or is it?) Most people, including myself, immediately think of plants as organic creatures, but, of course, "plants" can also be places of employment or spies or...as you can see, there's always room for breaking outside the lines.

Okay, I'm stretching it a bit for today, but I'm technically within the prompt, and since my purpose is to write a rough draft of poem a day and have 30 poems to work with over the next year, this qualifies even if I'm pushing it.

Since my friend Ann is the subject of the poem, and the "plant" in the poem that grows, she is also the title. See, pushing it, but not really breaking the prompt.

FOR ANN

The seed planted,
the first class. She returns.
Beginner,
Intermediate,
Advanced, three years.

Thousands of forms, repeat
seiku hyungs,
pyung ahns, nihanchis,
bassai, chil suns.
Umteen sparring matches;

sweat, bruises.
Hundreds of thousands
of stances, make
them lower, punch harder,
train, train, train

until the exam.
For hours and hours,
show what she's made of, pushed
to the edge,
pushed to her limit.

Bends on left knee
sheds her red belt, sheds tears,
she stands once
again, plants her feet,
a black belt blooms.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 6

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 6
For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem with (or about) someone (or something) covered. A person could be covered with a blanket or blanketed with darkness. Something could be covered by water or earth or anything you can think, I guess. Or you could write a poem about how you "have it covered," I suppose.

Couldn't get through the month without a pantoum. I initially thought this one wasn't going to happen. I've been trying all day. I tried "cover me with" -- kisses, blankets, a gun, and so one, but they were all trite and just didn't work. Then on the drive home, this idea came to me, and I knew it was right for a pantoum.

DRESS CODE

You're out of dress code, I tell the girl.
She slowly unrolls her sweatpants up
to cover six inches of bare flesh,
stares, sneers, gives me a look that could kill.

She slowly unrolls her sweatpants up
at least while she is still in my sight;
stares, sneers, gives me a look that could kill.
It is times like these I feel ancient,

at least while she is still in my sight.
Four decades ago that girl was me.
It is times like these I feel ancient.
I look like an old woman, although

four decades ago that girl was me
wearing a far too short miniskirt.
I look like an old woman although
she doesn't understand I was young,

wearing a far too short miniskirt,
didn't think it inappropriate.
She doesn't understand I was young
then. I have not just aged but grown up.

Didn't think it inappropriate
to flaunt female sexuality
then. I have not just aged but grown up,
want these girls, this girl, to not desire

to flaunt female sexuality,
not be me, told to lower my skirt;
want these girls, this girl, to not desire
bare sex, to want an education,

not be me, told to lower my skirt
to cover six inches of bare flesh,
bare sex, to want an education.
You're out of dress code, I tell the girl.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 5

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 5
For today's prompt, I want you to write a growth poem. This could be psychological or emotional growth, physical growth, or however you'd like to take it. Maybe your poem is about growing hair or growing hungry or growing impatient or...

GROWING GRAY

My hair grows.
I consider
cutting it, maybe
dying it, hide the gray
that creeps down,

overtaking
my auburn tresses,
marking my hairdresser
Sylvia's
retirement day.

She said chemicals
were destroying her lungs.
She had to
quit hairdressing
after 30 years.

I think about that day
every time
I see the line,
gray into auburn.
Sylvia in face mask,

chemicals
in the bottle
of auburn hair dye.
I leave my hair gray. It
grows longer.

30 poems in 30 days: Day 4

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 4
For today's prompt, I want you to take the phrase "Maybe (blank)," replace the (blank) with a word or phrase, and write a poem using that new phrase as your title. Some example titles: "Maybe we really did need a bigger boat," "Maybe next time you'll listen to me," "Maybe never," "Maybe baby," and so on.

MAYBE TOMORROW

Tomorrow morning
I will get up early,
do yoga,
eat nutritious
hot food for breakfast.

Tomorrow I will heed
speed limit
signs all the way
to school, still arrive
early, have time to plan.

But today
I need to rush
through my shower, grab
a granola bar on
my way out,

zoom backwards out
of my parking space
while trying to strap on
my seat belt
at the same time,

rip the granola
bar open, drive with one
hand, make it
school just in time.
Maybe tomorrow.

30 poems in 30 days - Day 3

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 3
Today is a Tuesday, which means it's a "Two for Tuesday" prompt day. You can choose your favorite prompt; you can write one poem for each prompt; and/or you can blend the two prompts together. Your choice.

Prompt #1: Write a positive poem. Like how great writing a poem a day through November is.

Prompt #2: Write a negative poem. Like how un-great technological hiccups in November are.

When I saw this prompt I immediately thought of cleave poetry. I haven't written a cleave poem since I was first experimenting with them a few months ago, so I took a stab at it. The way this works is that it is actually 3 poems in one. You read what is left of the "-"s as one poem (my negative poem), to the right is another (my positive poem), and then reading both together is a 3rd. Like the others, this is a rough draft.

teaching sucks	-	sometimes
you so rarely see	-	students do their best
those days when things go well	-	make you feel like you are really teaching
students talk back, talk on cell phones	-	while they do Geometry
excuses for homework	-	ask questions
ask why do we have to learn this	-	I tell them how logic helps their lives
teens live in an illogical world	-	make decisions that they
regret later not now	-	can live with
the dangers of adolescence	-	everywhere around them
are unknowns they really don’t think	-	they need math
want to blast into the future full force	-	on those days when they learn i
never want to stop	-	want to go back tomorrow

30 poems in 30 days - Day 2

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 2
For today’s prompt, I want you to write a poem in which you look at something from a different angle. For instance, a chef could go out to eat at a restaurant where he’s not the chef, or a short person can look at the world from the vantage point of a tall person (maybe with the help of stilts or a stool or something). The predator could become the prey. The photographer could become the photographed. And so on and so forth.

I cheated a bit today, but this is a total rewrite of a much longer poem (which is somewhere earlier in my Facebook notes), so it's ALMOST new, and it fits the topic perfectly. The poem is a 5/4 poem, a poetic form invented by my friend Tad Richards. There is a repeating pattern of 4 different line lengths: 3, 4, 5 and 6 syllables, but the stanzas are five lines long, giving the feeling that it's actually free verse. I love this form and will probably do more with it as the month goes on.

DEFENSIVE TACKLE

Mean Joe Green
turned 63.
When I was seventeen
he was 24,
defensive

tackle, Pittsburgh
jersey seventy-five,
numbers easier
to swallow
than images.

I look at vacation
pictures, ask, “Who’s that
old lady?”
I know that gray
hair, those wrinkles are mine.

I see the mirror,
where I age
gracefully, one
bit at a time, not caught
looking so old.

I wonder
if Mean Joe Green
looks old. Will he live to
seventy-five? Is
he still mean?

30 poems in 30 days - Day 1

First, I give up on Facebook for posting poetry. It won't let me center things and so far everything I've done for this project needs to be centered. So I'm going to repost my first two poems again, then my 3rd one and go on from here posting them on my blog. I guess my blog is still good for something.

The basic task overall is to dump out rough drafts and edit them next month. So these are for the most part, VERY rough drafts. All that said, here is the first one, already posted on Facebook but not formatted.

2009 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 1
For today’s prompt, I want you to write a poem in which you (or something) enters something new. Sound abstract? Some examples: Write a poem in which you travel somewhere new. Or try some new exercise. Or diet. Or hair stylist. Or, well, I think you get the idea. And remember: It doesn’t have to be about you. You could, I suppose, write a poem about an insect entering a new phase of development. Or a plant being introduced to a new environment. And so on.

THE HEIGHT OF FASHION

Rednecks wander the school
hallways - flannel shirts, hats
with earflaps lined in fur.
Seems it is the newest
in Gangsta fashion. Guess
I can haul the box from
my basement, be warm, cool.

Separation of Church and State

Seeing some polls and results on Facebook, and some forwards from other friends, I think it's time to get my thoughts and opinions on separation of church and state all in one place. My bottom line opinion is that I advocate it in all cases. I believe we should remove "under God" from the pledge and "in God we trust" from our currency.

First, we have to get one thing straight. America is not a Christian nation by definition. I think this is best expressed by James Madison's interpretation of the First Amendment:

"Congress should not establish a religion and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience, or that one sect might obtain a pre-eminence, or two combined together, and establish a religion to which they would compel others to conform" (1)

However, the vast majority of Americans, 78.4, in this nation are Christian, and over half of those are Protestant Christians. (2). Because of that, many Christians forget that our nation was founded on religious freedom, and part of that is the separation of church and state. At certain times in our history, not only did the Christians in this country forget that, the Christian legislators they elected forgot it also.

One of those times was when "under God" was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. Many people think the pledge has always been as it is, but the original, in 1892, read:

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands: one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

There have obviously been other changes, but the last, "under God", was made at the height of McCarthyism, and the witch hunts that tried to destroy many innocent lives. (3)

A second time legislators forgot this is not a Christian country was when "in God we trust" was added to the currency two years later, in 1956.

"The original National Motto was E Pluribus Unum (a Latin phrase translated as "from many, one"), created by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson in 1776. This is a wholly secular motto for the secular government they had helped establish and this phrase can still be found on the back of the one dollar bill." (4)

It was, in a very real way, the tyranny of the majority, making the minority views invalid, and those who held them, those who still hold them, anti-American. By doing so, they are trying to establish their religion, Christianity, as the official religion of the U.S.

"Not only is it unAmerican for the government to promote religion, it is rude." (5)

Let's remember though, that those were times of Senator McCarthy, and the communist witch hunts. Anyone who did not believe as they did was considered "unAmerican". Unfortunately, I am seeing much of that again these days and I think that this push to enforce Christianity on the country is part of that. This video is frightening in its comparisons:

To be honest, unless things are thrown in front of me, like the forwards and the facebook quizzes, I tend to be quiet about my views. I don't like taking on Christians, who seem to believe that everyone believes as they do. But since things are popping up, and people are being amazed that there are those of us who actually want to remove the "god"s from our pledge and our currency, I think it's time to me to stand my ground.

In conclusion, I think another quote sums things up perfectly.

"Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separated." - General Ulysses S. Grant. (6)

References:

• Separation of Church and State - One Nation Under God'
• Religion in the United States - Wikipedia
• In God We Trust - Trusting in God as a National Motto - About.com
• America is Not a Christian Nation - Freethoughtpedia.org
• Under God in the Pledge - Procon.org