poetry

Let’s take a moment to break for poetry

beccakinla poem, poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Sorry for the sparse posts in recent weeks. Things have been a little crazy ’round here. I took a trip up to the Bay area to see my sister, came home and got a burn on my dominant hand that was serious enough to send me to the ER in the back of an ambulance (I hope to share a personal essay with my readers about that experience soon). Thank G-d, I’m now on the mend and in the midst of several deadlines.

But just to let y’all know I haven’t forgotten you, I’m going to share a piece of poetry I wrote while waiting for my sister to pick me up at the train station in San Jose. Continue reading →

Exploring other media to conquer writer’s block

beccakinla advice, art project, frustration, poem, poetry, writer, writing, writing implements, writing process Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

So, earlier this week, I had a case of the blahs. I suppose I didn’t technically have writer’s block–the problem was more that I didn’t want to do anything, not that I couldn’t write–but the results were the same.

My muddle

My best friend phoned. I told her my sad story. I didn’t want to write. I felt uncreative and just foggy in the head. She suggested I do something different, maybe go for a walk. Just don’t even try to write. Reboot.

The way out

For some reason, I’ve been getting back into art gradually over the last year. As a child and teen, I loved art, but like many people quit when I realized my mediocrity.

poem collage

My collage poem.

I’ve been taking a lot of photos lately, even framing them and displaying them in my home. I’ve done a bit of sketching, as well, although that tends to send me back to a place where all I see is my lack of skill instead of getting pleasure from exercising what skill I have.

Anyway, after my phone call, I was itching to make a collage. I didn’t give into the itch right away, but as my kids settled in for homework this evening, I grabbed a couple magazines and a pair of scissors.  Continue reading →

Need a little poetry this holiday season?

beccakinla chanukah, humor, Jewish writing, poem, poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Can’t get enough Thanksgivukkah craziness? Tablet just put out poetry inspired by the crazy Chanukah/Thanksgiving mashup. To check it out, click here.

Here’s my own contribution:

What shall we do with
Our brand-new menurkey
The other seven days?
 
 

Is poetry as we know it dead? Goldsmith speculates the “meme machine” has taken over.

beccakinla art, authors, literature, poem, poetry, publishing, self-publishing, words, writer, writing Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

This week, The New Yorker book blog published a post by Kenneth Goldsmith about the proliferation of rather un-poetic  “poetry” spreading across the internet. He writes:

[T]he Canadian media scholar Darren Wershler…has been making some unexpected connections between meme culture and contemporary poetry. “These artifacts,” Wershler claims, “aren’t conceived of as poems; they aren’t produced by people who identify as poets; they circulate promiscuously, sometimes under anonymous conditions; and they aren’t encountered by interpretive communities that identify them as literary.”

…It’s not uncommon to see blogs that recount someone’s every sneeze since 2007, or of a man who shoots exactly one second of video every day and strings the clips together in time-lapsed mashups. Continue reading →