Nostalgia - baseball poems

Summer and baseball. I have two new poems in  Baseball Bard

One is  Hot Streak 

The other is

Red Bat

Red Bat prompted a discussion from my family. Fond memories indeed. Turns out the bat is fifty years old. My Pop-Pop Shutters bought it for me at the Q-Mart in Quakertown, PA. It was oversized plastic - bright red in color. My sister remembers it as faded pink by the time she got to play with it (she's ten years younger than me). Turns out my brother still has it and his kids (now 18 and 21) played with it.

David sent us this picture - it's bone white and doesn't seem as big or unwieldy as when I was four.

Here's what my brother had to say during out email discussion - Would someone like to be buried with the bat! I still have it. Faded totally and cracked at the top

Summertime memories - what's old and faded in your closet?

P: Pulitzer, Purple, Poetry, and Puff Adder

P: Pulitzer Prize - I was shocked, shocked that the Pulitzer board did not award a Fiction Prize this year. What? My Zoo World by Joanne Faries....c'mon, not a winner? not even nominated? What's this world coming to?

Purple - great color and what better book to read than Harold and the Purple Crayon? Now that's a classic.

Poetry - To have great poets, there must be great audiences, too - Walt Whitman

The best craftsmanship always leaves holes and gaps ... so that something that is not in the poem can creep, crawl, flash, or thunder in - Dylan Thomas

an original poem:
Tools to Trade

nefarious needle nose pliers
defy manipulation
like wielding chop sticks
clumsy hands contort

hammer never hits the nail
random finger mashed
polka dotted wall signals
unlevel level usage

left-handed skill set
never garnered praise
proof in writing
blue inked smear

Poison P -Puff adder. This venomous snake warns by inflating its body and hissing loudly. It will stand its ground and not flee. Rudyard Kipling books encountered the puff's cousin - the saw scaled viper in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

Waltz Wishes in Front Porch Review

So far, January's poetry month for me. I had Sidewalk Chalk in Curio Poetry last week. Now glide into Waltz Wishes in Front Porch Review

Photo taken at the Nasher Sculpture Center.

But I Want To

I read this sign and instantly wanted to scramble along the rocks and dangle my feet in the babbling brook. Normally I'm a rule follower, but there are times when contrariness kicks in, and I want to break the barriers.

Rules are often meant to be broken. Why not have pretty flowers growing out of a rock wall, precariously clinging to life and eager for sunshine or raindrops? I guess that's why as writers, we read books about general rules on plots, character, dialogue, and the hero's journey. We hear "you'll never sell a book about (fill in the blank) in this market." Then a writer breaks the rules and is declared genius. It can boggle the mind.

So, if you love azaleas and want to write about azaleas, then go for it. Maybe azaleas are "out" this year, but like fashion, sooner or later they'll be back "in". (Just pick the winning color.) Or vampires are old hat, wizards have been done, and zombies roamed Pride and Prejudice.

Blare your horn, reach to the skies with your words, and trust your instinct. Then again, I've found that to have poetry published in journals or on-line, you have to follow many rules - nothing trite and no rhyming. I recently had two pocket poems published in River Poets Journal. My father emailed me that he enjoyed it. "However, don't tell anyone, but I prefer rhyming." Gasp! My own father.

So I responded:

Stay shushed

I'm crushed

All other poems

I flushed

Gotta break the rules and have fun.

Woo with Words

Strolling the grounds of the Clark Gardens, Weatherford Texas, we watched this peacock strut. He sensed the white feathered female nearby but she ignored him, so he worked harder to get attention.

Whipped up the razzle dazzle. Still no luck. I think she yawned, if that's possible.

Finally, he unveiled the show. Spectacular color, massive plummage, he tapdanced his heart out. Alas, she scurried away.

If only he'd written her a poem, wooed her with words - well chosen words. Rid himself of unnecessary adjectives or adverbs, and honed in on action verbs. He thought about the video production, but didn't have the right script.

It's all about word choice.

Joanne