Poetry Portal: Arteroids

Poetry can take you into whole new dimensions. Here's positive proof.

(Link gleefully borrowed from Traveller in an Antique Land.)

Friday Quote: On Books

"A man loses contact with reality if he is not surrounded by his
books."

--François Mitterand

Procrastination Aids: The Right Pet

Every good wife should give her husband the opportunity to make a catty remark once in awhile.

Your Ideal Pet is a Cat

You're both aloof, introverted, and moody. And your friends secretly wish that you were declawed!

What's Your Ideal Pet?

Procrastination Aids: How Multiple Are You?

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 19 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Unabashedly filtched from Carter's Little Pill.

Publication: Rogue Poetry Review

Rogue Poetry Review's premier issue is now online.

Before you check it out, I'd like to ask a couple of favors, especially from those of you who don't read Quotidian Light because of its poetry connection.

1. Please read the poems aloud or at least under your breath. Not just mine-- all the poems you read. Poetry is as much sound play and taken in by the ear as it is a visual experience of words across a page. If you can't "hear" a poem, you're missing at least half of it, and perhaps more than half, since poetry is fully incarnate only in one's body, a physical creation, spoken into complete being through breath and flesh.

2. (For those of my readers who have never read my work.) I am a Christian. I am a poet. This does not mean that my poetry resembles Helen Steiner Rice's or ever will or ever should. (Thank you, Lord!) If either of my two poems at RPR offend you, feel free to email me or pray for me, if it will make you feel better; I will not be offended. (My email is accessible through my blogger profile.) If you are vociferously affronted, I'll probably pray for you, too.

3. Comment, comment, comment! Not just on my poems there, but on the other poets' work, as well, and please do read the other poems that are up at RPR. Tell the poets what you like and what you think. Rogue Poetry Review's editor, Michael Wells, has set RPR up in a blog format that allows for such comments on each poet's work; please use that. We will love you forever.

Blog Break

I am taking a month off from church. I am lying low here at home, seeing only my immediate family and, when I take the girls to school and then go by her house, my grandmother. Occasionally I will talk to my siblings or parents on the phone, but for the most part, I'm scaling back all people activity. This time of year seems to take a lot out of me, so much this time around that I'm needing to pull back from my blogging activity as well. Needing to pull back from a lot of things, although I'm not able to entirely.

In a few days I do expect to be able to post a link to an online journal that will be publishing two of my poems. The first issue isn't up yet, but I'll link it when it is.

I will be reading emails, although I expect not to be blog reading for a bit. Feel free.

Top Ten Literary Crushes

I stumbled across this post over at Chelsea's blog and knew at once I would have to pilfer the idea. Below you will find, in no particular order, ten of my worst literary crushes.

1. Legolas from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Long before Orlando Bloom ever stepped into leggings or glued on his rubber elf-ears, I was smitten. Badly.

2. Thomas the Disciple from the New Testament. He who by pragmatism guarded his heart as best he could against a hope so great it would crush him were it to prove hopeless, after all.

3. Fritti Tailchaser from Tailchaser's Song. For bravery and humility, Fritti has most of his human hero-counterparts beaten by a far shot. The best cat in literature, save, perhaps for Christopher Smart's Geoffery.

4. Coren from The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. Persistent in love and loving, even in the face of his own confusion. Kind, even in anger.

5. Morgan of Hed from The Riddle-Master of Hed trilogy. A man who knows the worth of riddles, of myths and legends and how they surface unexpectedly in the lives of even the most unsuspecting people. A man who pushes hard after understanding and full knowledge of deep things.

6. Pwyll Twiceborn from The Fionavar Tapesty books. Self-sacrificing (literally), gentle, wise, solid.

7. Winnie-the-Pooh. C'mon. Who hasn't been in love with Pooh since you were old enough to say his name?

8. Professor Lupin from the Harry Potter books. My guilty secret. (Oh, alright! I admit Neville Longbottom is right up there, too.)

9. Mr. Knightly from Emma. The perfect big-brother, close friend turned true love and husband. I swoon. Of course, Jane Austin is excellent at penning perfect men, those creatures of excellence with perhaps just one flaw tiny enough to render them not only human, but more perfect than they'd be if they were...well...perfect. Mr. Darcy, for example.

10. Professor Bhaer from Little Women. Yes, I was unhappy when Jo turned Laurie down, but when Professor Bhaer rescued Jo in the rain, I knew he was a man of quality.

Bonus: Young Matt from The Shepherd of the Hills. Who wouldn't be at least a little twitterpated at a guy who would take on a mountain lion bare-handed and risk his life to save his city-boy rival who is there to whisk away his true love?

[Note: Below you will find other Top Ten Literary Crush confessions.]

Julie Carter at Carter's Little Pill

Fatherly Advice

Tonight my dad sent me an email with a link to important information he thought I should know.

This is one of many reasons he's the best dad in the world.