In Autumn, While You Lay Dying
This poem has been published in the Fall 2013 Issue of When Women Waken (Theme: Grief).
Tag Archives: Poems
November PAD Challenge, Day 4
Lessons in Commuting
Don’t make it easy to take your goods
Away. Keep everything you value
Double wrapped around wrists.
Touch knees and tuck elbows.
Become smaller, thinner,
Slimmer than a slip of paper.
Plug ears with music or worries
Or the friction squeals of steel
Against steel. Paste hollowed eyes
On blank faces reflected
in tunnel-made mirrors or cover
Them in words on your lap.
Always keep the third eye open.
~Pamela L. Taylor © 2013
November PAD Challenge, Day 3
Erzulie Dreams
Her heart sits below the waist
in an open drawer, boxed in
by nothing but air. Her useless
arms have fallen off–there’s no
curve in her hips, only bone.
With shut eyes and mouth, she dreams.
A coiled necklace quiets the screams.
~Pamela L. Taylor © 2013
~Inspired by a mixed media sculpture by Renée Stout in the Virginia Museum of Fine Art
November PAD Challenge: Day 2
To Be Abelia
Like the shrub I bloom best in full
or partial sun and ample rain, surrounded
by buzz and flutter. But loveless years
have pruned back hopes, cut fairy-tale
dreams to the ground. What will grow
from this stub of myself? How much
longer before flowers return?
~Pamela L. Taylor © 2013
Inspired by “You’re an Abelia,” on Story Shucker.
November PAD Challenge: Day 1
Once again, I’m writing a poem a day in support of all the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) writers in their challenge to produce 50,000 words in 30 days.
Tree in Abscise
From the window, I watch you become
inflamed as if shamed by the sudden
rush of your own beauty. Not long ago you idled
in the heat of summer’s yawn, camouflaged
in tender verdure. I thought this was your true
nature, but now I see the way you draw the dew
within, shed what won’t last through winter.
~ Pamela L. Taylor © 2013
Sunday in the Office with Poems
For three straight weeks, I’ve spent Sunday afternoons in a small office on the 4th floor of UNC Davis Library. I’m thankful for this space and for my generous German friend who keeps the key to his faculty study in a place where I can find it. This is why America should maintain the trust of our German allies.
Typically, I spend about 5 or 6 hours there revising some poems, writing blog posts, researching literary magazines and book publishers or a little bit of all of the above. Yesterday’s goal was to assemble the 10-36 pages of poems that could possibly become a chapbook. Last week’s session whittled down the bulk of my writing to 43 pages, which completely covered the limited desk space. Then coffee arrived and chatting ensued, leaving the poems to talk amongst themselves.
Poems need this time to get to know each other, figure out how to arrange themselves, and decide whether to be part of the group. Forty-three pages became 27, including the four that called out to be revised in the middle of the process for a literary journal submission. Some of the poems in the Group of Twenty-Seven may not make the final cut. I see two distinct themes and about eight poems that bridge these ideas but are not wedded to either camp. And so the process continues.
A September to Remember
As the government is shutting down, I am emerging from one of the busiest months for work and poetry. My last post gave a snapshot of my schedule for the first week of September and outlined all the events I had on the calendar. I had planned to take a break from tango classes and didn’t know whether work or poetry would fill that void. Now I know the answer—a little bit of both. Here are some of the highlights:
Blackberry Literary Magazine (Tuesday, September 1, 2013): This month’s issue diverged from the usual theme-related writing to display an eclectic mix of poems and fiction from African American female writers, including two of my Cave Canem poems and a work-related poem, “Sighting: Mother”, “There is a Graveyard in My Belly”, and “Tuesday Morning Rain.”
The VCFA alumni gathering (Friday, September 6, 2013): What a great turnout of prospective students, current students, and alumni at Nantucket Grill in Chapel Hill. It was good to connect and reconnect to VCFA alum and interact with other creatives. The only glitch: the name badges and promotional materials sent from Vermont to my work address didn’t arrive until Tuesday. Obviously, the US Postal Service doesn’t believe poetry and work should mix.
The Music-Shanks Wedding (Saturday, September 7, 2013): I was honored to be asked to write a poem for the occasion. The couple are filmmakers and the poem used The Wizard of Oz as an extended metaphor for finding love. “And by Good Glinda’s grace you stand today, with your brain, courage, and heart in tact, those ruby-red slippers ready to click.”
Poetry book club – ee cummings (Sunday, September 8, 2013): There were only two of us, but we spent the entire two hours reading and discussing selections from The Complete Poems of ee cummings, 1914-1962. We listened to cummings reading his work and winced because his voice was full of the Unitarian minister who raised him rather than the whimsical verse he wrote. This poem is my new favorite poem.
poetrySpark’s Spark After Dark Erotic Poetry and Burlesque show (Thursday, September 12, 2013): After a full week of writing a work report, I took the stage with 25 other poets and performers for the event that kicked off SparkCon. The standing-room-only crowd was an eager audience for “some dirty poetry”, and someone handed me a rose when I was done.
poetrySpark’s Poetry on Demand booth (Saturday, September 14, 2013): What do you get when you take 9 poets and sit them in a booth to write poems in 3 minutes for a dollar a piece for over 4 hours? $167 dollars, that’s what! Plus some of the craziest words—triskaidekaphobia, kookaburra, honorificabilitudinitatibus, coprophagia, apotheosis, and smook (invented word for whipped cream). Fortunately, my colleague gave me a normal word as a prompt. Note: the spelling errors are hers, not mine. 😉
Passion: A Salon of Music, Dance, Theater, and Cabaret (Friday, September 20, 2013): After another full week of writing a work report, I stood on different stage, this time for a three-minute “modern dance duet with a tango feel to it.” No one has posted pictures from the event, but we got a good pre-show write up in the Daily Tar Heel.
National Legislative Program Evaluation Society Fall Professional Development Seminar (Sunday, September 22 to Wednesday, September 25, 2013): Over 130 individuals representing over 20 states met in Austin, Texas for the annual meeting of legislative audit and program evaluation staff. And though we would like to believe that the sessions on retaining staff, using graphics, and tracking recommendation results were most memorable, what’s burned in our minds is the image of men kissing giraffes at the Texas Disposal System Exotic Game Ranch. Even better, I got to dance tango with the Austin community on Saturday and Tuesday and add to my ever-growing collection of college paraphernalia.
UNC Davis Library (Sunday, September 29, 2013): After a 60+ hour work week and the Living Poetry organizer’s meeting, I stopped by one of my favorite writing spaces in the Triangle (what I call the Poet’s Gym) to pick up three books by Rachel Wetzsteon, including her posthumous collection, Silver Roses.
Transit of Venus
Back in January I read my poem, “Transit of Venus,” as part of Poetry Scope, an event hosted by the NC Museum of Natural Sciences that featured science-related poems. I submitted this poem to the Carolina Woman Magazine‘s Mighty Pens writing contest and won second place! The poem is featured in the magazine’s June issue:
And here’s the second place prize, courtesy of Margo Froehlich of Brooke & Birdie Interior Design:
Poetry in Plain Sight
Winston-Salem Writers started a cool program this year where they put poetry on display in stores throughout the downtown area. My poem, “Something Missing,” was selected as one of four poems featured for the month of May. This poem has special significance to me because I wrote it on my birthday last year (April 12th) as part of the April Poem-a-Day Challenge and it is a poem about my father, a subject I have a hard time writing about. Here’s a link to the video of me reading this poem and two other poems, “Work Husband” and “Hold That Hot Potato.”
April Poem-a-Day Challenge, Day 30
I hope you’ve enjoyed these 30 days of poems!
Prompt (Two for Tuesday): Write a finished/never finished poem
Unfinished
I am an open parenthesis,
holding space for your run-on
stories and secrets as silent
as the e in hope.
I fall for your non sequiturs
time after time, hold my breath
with every comma, ride
the endless wave of ampersands.
Don’t leave me dangling
on the participle of our future.
End this complex sentence full stop
or with an exclamation of your love.
~Pamela L. Taylor © 2013
A Poet's Double Life 