Balanced On the Edge

Camino de Santiago

Launch of Conquering Venus a Huge Success

Last night I attended the launch of Collin Kelley’s novel, Conquering Venus. (Vanilla Heart Press, 2009). The event took place at Outwrite Books in Atlanta, a perfect setting for the reading because of the intimate arrangement of the seating, the streamer and balloon art installation, and the store crammed with books. Collin read the prologue and the first chapter, keeping us entranced the entire time. He reads with a lot of expression, undoubtedly because of his long experience as a poet. It was a treat to hear his interpretation of the characters – the dialogue is snappy, witty, and irreverent, especially the exchanged between Martin, the protagonist, and Diane, his middle-aged friend.

Afterwards Collin answered questions about how much of the novel is true, what his writing habits are, whether or not there will be more poems in the sequels he is currently writing, and if writing the novel has interfered with his poetry writing. If you’re curious about the answers to these questions, go to one of his many scheduled readings. There will also be a virtual tour in September for those of you who live outside the US.

To read more about Collin Kelley’s novel, visit the blog for Conquering Venus. There’s a video trailer and a preview selection from the novel.

On a personal note, at the reading I saw several poets and writers I’ve met through Collin Kelley: Karen Head, Rupert Fike, Cleo Creech, Megan Volpert, and others. I also had the chance to meet in person the lovely Lisa Allender, whom I had known only through facebook and her blog, Lisa Allender Writes.

Lisa and I spoke with Karen Head about her experience on The Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. We were both impressed with her poise under fire, and her direction of the event. Stay tuned for an article in Time about Karen’s international twitter poetry writing.

It was gratifying to be in a room of writers and readers who so obviously adored the reading. Through his art and his charm, Collin Kelley has the gift of gathering like-minded people together.

August 20, 2009

Collin Kelley, Conquering Venus
Detail of a Collage

I ended up skipping a yoga class to make a collage and write a poem.

The collage centers around Emily Dickinson, but the poem is more about my desire for a return to innocence. In a way, Emily Dickinson represents for me a kind of purity, both artistically as well as spiritually, a kind of purity or innocence I’ve lost.

Sent from my iPhone

August 15, 2009
Leonora Carrington México City

http://www.youtube.com/v/4bayIkHz70Q&hl=en&fs=1

via youtube.com

Women surrealist painters of the twentieth century: alchemy, dreams, magic, fairy tales, symbols, archetypes.

August 15, 2009
View From My High Wire

Trying to learn all my new responsibilities at the university feels like wobbling on a tightrope. My mantra for today, in between pangs of anxiety, is ‘one moment at a time. Breath by breath.’

Sent from my iPhone

August 13, 2009
Diana Ong – by Golden Pixels LLC

via dianaong.com

Yesterday I received a beautiful postcard poem with a print of an abstract painting by Diana Ong on the front (not this one pictured here). The poem had such wonderful images that I thought, yes, that’s exactly what I wish I had said, yes, I understand this meaning entirely. I love it when I read a poem and I get that ‘aha’ moment, like when I understand a dream.

Last night I dreamed of flying, like superwoman. Always exhilarating. If only I could keep the feeling while I’m awake!

August 11, 2009
Collin Kelley's Conquering Venus

Can you hear it? It’s the satisfying pop of champagne corks around the world as readers find their pre-ordered copies of Conquering Venus (Vanilla Heart Publishing, 2009) on their doorsteps. It’s the fabulous debut novel from award winning poet and playwright Collin Kelley.

Stay tuned for his virtual book tour, which will be making a stop at Balanced on the Edge. Congratulations to Collin Kelley for this stunning new work of art.

August 10, 2009

Collin Kelley, Conquering Venus, Vaniila Heart Publishing
Margo's Famous Food, Las Vegas, Nevada 1960's

via flickr.com

While doing some research for a poem I came across this photo. Do you think this couple just met each other? From here they’re off to get married….. Don’t you love speculating on their lives?

Her outfit is the star of this pic. She was ahead of her time with the spandex leggings. The Keds are cute.

The guy in the background looks like he just got off the night shift, and now he’s heading home for a stiff drink.

August 9, 2009
Postcard poem update

I’ve been so busy writing a syllabus and planning my English Composition course that I didn’t have much time yesterday to write a poem. It was one of those days when I wrote the poem in my mind. At the post office I stood at a table, quickly sketched out a draft, and then copied it onto the postcard. Signed, sealed and delivered in ten minutes.

My desk, with today’s card and my journal on top of my laptop.

August 5, 2009
Woman in Evening Dress and Crows

via flickr.com

Today is day six (for me) of the Poetry Postcard Project. I wrote in response to a poem by Lucia Perillo titled ‘The Crows Start Demanding Royalties,’ from her collection Luck is Luck. The poem was sent to me by my Poetry Swap partner, a pen-pal activity Dustin Brookshire has created. Thanks to my new friend from the great state of Washington for sharing such an amazing poem! Lucia Perillo is the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, and it shows. Her poems are witty, insightful, and way beyond my meager capabilities. But I keep trying, because writing poems is fun. Especially poems about crows.

Why the evening gown? My postcard shows a fashion model wearing a long gown, running across a city street. It’s sort of about crows, sort of about women and what they wear.

This Crow is not a Fashion Model
in response to Lucia Perillo

This crow doesn’t traipse across Manhattan streets wearing a strapless taffeta gown designed by Vera Wang, nor does she wear Manolo Blahnik stilettos. This crow sports wooden shoes painted blood red, black jeans and a sooty vest. This crow stains her feathers the color of shoe-polish and cakes it with bee’s wax to spike it in a Mohawk. This crow dances the Merengue in a circle with the others from her murder. They flap their wings in a herky-jerky manner and step on each others’ toes when they hop step to the left or the right. Such lack of grace prompts piercing screeches from the murder. This crow does not eat salads.

August 3, 2009

anthropomorphizing, crows, Dustin Brookshire, Lucia Perillo
One & Other, Karen Head and The Fourth Plinth Project

via oneandother.co.uk

Poet and writer Karen Head, known as poetphd on twitter, will make history today as she engages in a poetry project on top of The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square at 5:00 pm London time. She will be writing lines of poetry into twitter, which will be continued by various twitter poets who signed up for the event. She sent a message on facebook to invite poets to join her, and then she coordinated the rest of the details via email. Time Magazine will be covering the event. Check out the live web cam to watch Karen Head make poetry history.

Update:

Collin Kelley has some great still shots of Karen Head reading from The Fourth Plinth. He also has a list of the poets whose work Karen read aloud at 5:00 in the afternoon in London. I missed a few minutes of the whole whirlwind because fellow poet and blogger, Rethabile Masilo, called me from Boston to say he would be coming down South in a few days. At first, when he said ‘this is Rethabile from Paris,’ I thought it was someone connected to Karen’s project, and I was totally befuddled (which happens to me quite frequently).

I had three windows open on my laptop, plus I had my phone ready. It was a frenzy of going back and forth from my twitter page to Karen’s, to the web cam that showed Karen up on The Fourth Plinth. There was a net to catch the performers, and it was high enough that they were lifted atop by a sort of electric fork lift. The day was bright and breezy, and it looked kind of chilly by the way everyone had on scarves and sweaters. Karen seemed to be squinting, and she later twittered us to say she couldn’t see her laptop screen very well.

But she had a smile on her face the whole time, and interacted with grace and happiness with the crowd. Using the Exquisite Corpse method, we all wrote a poem together under Karen’s direction, and she included lines from people in the crowd. The lag time on Twitter made it a little tense, but Karen accomplished her mission in the end: she read one of her own poems, poems from several participants (including one of mine!), and also read our completed poem, titled ‘Monumental,” with an epigram by Walt Whitman, ‘I contain multitudes.’ Very fitting, don’t you think?

July 31, 2009