reverie

Well since we're all catching everyone up then. I just found that I got into Seminary in lovely Berkeley, California.

Am currently weighing the pro's and con's of going. A Professor just gave me a bit of advice. She said something like, you choose your Undergraduate school to open as many doors as possible, but you choose your Grad School to figure out where/how you want to live the rest of your life. Got to love advice from Academia huh? Still, I kind of get what she's saying. If I do get into the one IVY school that I have applied for, it could open lots and lots of doors for me. Still, I'll be 30 next month and do I really need another set of doors to walk through just for the sake of what amounts impressing others with the accomplishment?

Maybe it's best to settle on a firmer path now (and 3 to 4 times less expensive) and let this one play through for a while. It's really all about the community I'm heading towards and the Berkeley area school beats out the other two school I'm considering on that score, plus it's much much warmer than Cambridge or Chicago. Wish I had done this like seven years ago, but seven years ago I never would have dreamed that I would making this decision.

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likewise congrats. I've wondered if the web2.0 phenomenon isn't part of it either. Facebook, youtube etc Message boards, just ain't what they used to be. That's life I guess.

rev...

thanks, all the apps were finished a few weeks back. I actually had to resubmit question 5:

5. Name five writings, films, or artistic works that have influenced you and explain how they have helped shape your life. Name two historical events, either in your lifetime or before you were born, that have been pivotal in your decision to pursue religious leadership – and describe their importance to you.

Because the school felt I didn't spend enough time on the historic events. Really annoying to tell the truth. I did a phone interview with a Minister in Nevada a few weeks ago and it went pretty well. He's also a poet, turns out, so that gave me a few extra points. The admissions board should be meeting now actually, so I should find out in a week or so whether or not I got in. This school is in California and I consider it my safety school. The one I really really really want to get into is in Massachusetts (no interview required!) and I should find about from them by Mid March. My second safety school is in Chicago and am actually planning a trip up there next month for an interview and to tour the campus.

So if there are any Pennites between Chicago and North Carolina by way of Indiana, I'll be coming your way the week of the 10th of March.

cheers,

rev...

*Still a little too prosy, even for my tastes. Will work on boiling it down some more sometime.

2/10/2008

Fourth of July with my Father

You learn to sleep deep

in a guitar player’s house.

Particularly when at least

one son feels a similar

pull towards the blues.

Even more so when you are

the other son and all you

want to do is sleep.

Fourth of July I had overslept

and woke to what I thought

was an empty house. Couches

were over-turned, coffee table

smashed, but no holes were

punched in the wall, so that

was one less thing to fix.

Then, I smelled the burnt plastic.

This was new.

I walked around the lesser debris

of the living room—scattered magazines,

upturned plates and broken glass—and

into the kitchen to find that someone had

burned a black scar into a few squares

of the linoleum floor. The back door

was open. Outside I discovered a small

fire built from a stack of fireworks, still

in their package. I kept a safe

distance and walking around the fire, until

I found at my feet a small packet

of black-cats, little explosive noise

makers tied in series. I tried to picked

them up, when a low voice barked,

“Give me that,” then the dark version of

my father took them from me and started

throwing the little firecrackers onto the

pile. He did not look at me as he did it,

so I back away into the house.

I made my way around the scar in the

kitchen down a short hallway past the

washer and dryer and into the converted

garage that also doubled as my father’s

music room and I found my mother

on the sofa sitting there quiet

with a piece of paper in her hands.

I sat next to her and she showed me

what was left of a Peach Tree

Road Race number. The essential entry

token into the annual street race, the men

of my family have suffered through mile

by humid mile consecutively for the last

twenty years. She explained it had

gotten lost in the space between the

drawers of their night stand.

Hours earlier, my father had torn

through the house in vain for it.

And as the race started on TV, he, in a fit of rage

gathered all his t-shirts from the previous

races and set them on fire in pile in the

kitchen floor. At one point,

she explained some reason seeped back

into his head and he scooped up

his tantrum between two pans, and threw

it outside, where I had found him.

Where’s Eric, I asked? “I sent him over

to a friend’s house,” she said, “You were sleeping.”

Reminds me some of Whitman in first portion of Leaves of Grass.

Song of Myself

by Walt Whitman

1

I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their

parents the same,

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,

I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,

Nature without check with original energy.

2

Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with

perfumes,

I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,

The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the

distillation, it is odorless,

It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,

I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,

I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

The smoke of my own breath,

Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and

vine,

My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing

of blood and air through my lungs,

The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and

dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,

The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of

the wind,

A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,

The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,

The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields

and hill-sides,

The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising

from bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the

earth much?

Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?

Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of

all poems,

You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions

of suns left,)

You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look

through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in

books,

You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,

You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

[and goes on for a few dozen pages or so]

neat,

rev...

thank you.

I may write more on these events in other poems now that I've gained some years from them. Time will tell.

rev...

Thanks for the feedback. Hmm, the first stanza didn't tip you off that the speaker was related to the "friend" that died? I thought talk of "Dad" would have been enough. Maybe another line then.

True story, that's how my brother died. It one of reasons (of many) why I hate Atlanta. I only took poetic license with one fact and only slightly. I'll see how the indentions play in workshop and get back to you on them.

Man that killed my brother four years ago has recently been granted an appeal trial. So it sort of weighs heavy on my mind at the moment.

rev...

Warning Explicit Language and Images

*Indentions are a little off*

2/04/2008

I Am Selfish

Pointing the ‘44 to the back of Arty’s Head,

The man who will murder you says,

“Crash this car, your friend dies.”

That’s what Arty tells Dad as I sit stoic

on the deck waiting for a lie, a misspoken clue

of why your friend was not found bludgeoned to death

by the misfired gun like you.

He wanted cash, ten-thousand on the card.

Idiot, Asshole Mother Fucker, you’ve been in jail

so long you don’t even know what a card can give:

the banks are closed, the money isn’t his, and

No! he will not take you to his fiancée’s house,

“You’ll kill her too.”

Arty abandoned you as you sat

gun to the back of your head in a Kroger parking lot,

instead of walking to the ATM, he ran and ran

and ran into the store screaming for a cop.

And the policeman at the back of the store

ran too, knocking over displays just in time

to see your car’s taillights swerving out

into the night.

They found you in the daylight,

face broken, body sprawled out

over and across the front seat

Like your murderer and your friend,

I too am selfish. I wish you were.

Am studying the Life and Work of Louisa May Alcott for class and have recently finished "Little Women." As a side bar, it appears that in a class of 15 that I am the only guy. Four others have come, but have never lasted more than one day.

So it appears that I am the only guy secure enough in his gender to read "Little Women" and like it. Go me.

Anyway, I find it an outstanding and compelling read and was only bored by the last chapter because the author intentionally dashed her readers' expectations (I gleamed this through reading correspondence with her fans and editors between the publishing's of the first and second part). I think everyone should read this book, it's like manual for how to live a rewarding and happy life (for girls granted) in the 19th century.

Since this is an American Studies class, I have to study more than just the text: such as films, other contemporary novels, and critic's reviews of the time, Alcott's letters etc. While reading through the Critical Reviews I found it interesting that some reviewers such as the "Zion's Herald" did not recommend "Little Women" for Sunday Schools, while on other hand the "The Ladies' Repository" enthusiastically recommended it for it's Sabbath Schools in December of 1868 while only a month earlier the same publication stated, "It is not a good book for the Sunday school library (65)."

***

The Ladies? Repository [Cincinnati] 2.5 (November 1868): 472.

"This is a very readable juvenile book. It is beautifully printed and bound, and well illustrated. The story of four lively girls is vivaciously told. But it is not a Christian

book. It is religion without spirituality,

and salvation without Christ. It is not a good book for the Sunday school library (65)"

***

The Ladies' Repository

[boston] 40.[6] (December

1868): 472.

"Capital! The little folks, and the children

of larger growth like it. Our Sabbath

Schools will all want it (66)."

***

Zion's Herald 45.43

(22 October 1868): 509: 3.

"Little Women, by Miss Alcott, (Roberts

Bros.), is a vivacious story of four girls and

their hardly older mother, judging from the

picture. What she should know of poverty

is hard to conceive. We dislike the disspiritualizing

in it of Bunyon's [bunyan's] great Allegory [Pilgrim's Progress]. No child should be taught any less evangelism than that. The fight with Apollyon is reduced to a conflict with an evil temper, and the Palace Beautiful

and Vanity Fair are made to be only ordinary

virtues or temptations. We cannot commend the book as its quality merits. It is without Christ, and hence perilous in proportion to its assimilation to Christian

forms. Don't put in the Sunday School library (63-64)."

***

This conflict of spiritual appropriateness perplexed me particularly the contradicting statements between the two "The Ladies' Repository" Reviews. (Though in hindsight it appears that the TLR reviews are from different cities, so that might explain it in part.)

So, I did a few google searchers and it appears "The Ladies' Repository" had some support from the Universalist Church, and it turns out that the Universalist also call their Sunday Schools: Sabbath Schools. Which is of interest to me because the Universalist were kissing cousins to the Unitarians (both united as the Unitarian-Universalist Association in 1960s) and pre-transcendental Emerson was a Unitarian Minister, which had to have some measure of influence on Louisa growing up. Ralph W. Emerson was best friend's with Alcott's Father and Henry D. Thoreau lived down the lane from her.

I wonder if given Alcott's general background and education she received from her Father, if she wrote her work conscious of the reception it might receive from mainstream Sunday Schools sects of the day?

hmm... Might turn this into a paper.

And whoever said a poem had to rhyme?

I like it, diction here and there could use some brushing up, but then again so could everyones.

Example:

I see all their smiles in the picture,

And all I can remember is bitterness:

the sorrowful present.

last two lines of this could be condensed into one, but I'll leave it to you to ponder on the how.

Otherwise think you're good up into the second to last stanza, which could possibly use another image of some sort to strengthen the philosophic abstraction. I do this all the time: go for the big idea in a detached thought. It's hard to pull off, and I think I've only manage to do so successfully two or three times, so I can relate.

all and all good stuff on painful subject.

1/28/2008

Until

I once wrote to a friend who feared no one

would ever love him:

Walk long enough, and eventually you will pass

someone wanting company along the way,

but you must walk a bit before

you can find that someone worth slowing down for.

He replied simply,

How long?

* few tweaks, went back to the old title, and changed the ending*

1/28/2008

Sacred Space

There is a nuclear waste site

buried deep within a mountain range some

would consider sacred.

I wonder if millennia from now

when the denizens of a fresh America

unearth it like my culture dug into

the mounds of the Amerindians,

will this range once again become sacred?

Either for the knowledge of the civilization

lost beneath, or for the site's mysterious power

to sicken those who linger too long on its crags and steeps.

Perhaps, they would think it our god.

for some reason it reminds me of Ge, Officer Krupke from West Side Story.

rev...

Out West

A friend once told me about a nuclear waste site

buried deep within a mountain range

some would consider sacred.

I wonder if millennia from now

when people study my nation

like I study the Egyptians, will this range

once again become sacred?

Either for the knowledge of the civilization

lost beneath its warning signs, or for its mysterious power

to sicken those who linger too long on its crags and steeps.

Perhaps, the latter would think it a god.

cool shape poem too.

Sorry, I was speaking in general as far research (on alliteration goes) for future writings and not specifically this poem. It was directed at the discussion of alliteration by way of informing others of my opinion of the subject. I'll try to be more clear next time. I'm a free verse poet through and through, but any exploration helps (as is usual in my case) at least indirectly in informing a person's creative tool box. Ditto on the Kennings too.

Again, alliteration pairs are really no big deal, in the grand tool box of poetic devices they're really nothing special, and I agree that there's no need to stress alliteration, particularly in this poem as you stated. Just notes from a prosy poet.

take it easy,

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New Revision Currently submitted to 4 publications / awards for consideration, so am deleting temporary in order to comply with contest rules.

Small note on alliteration. Um, when it's only a pairing of two words, I wouldn't bother trying emphasize it or replicate it unless you are just doing so naturally. I mean to say, don't force it. Alliteration pairs come up so much in normal speech that it's really no big deal. Now when you start combining chains of three or more then people will take notice since it is such an usual thing in normal speech. If you really interested in using it often though for effect, then I would bone up on some old english examples and see why and how alliteration was used in the first place. That might start you off on using kenning though, which is a headache.

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Characterization of the voice in quotes doesn't seem consistent.

"Oh baby, don't fight it."

"Oh sweetie, you can't win!"

vs.

"Your life is mine evermore."

vs.

your framing lines around each quote.

You can have your character be "off" what your frame dialect / language wise, but I believe you need to stay "off" then if you're going to do that. Otherwise, you'll need to detail more of why the speaker's speech is inconsistent, such a progressive corruption of his/her soul or something else taking control etc.

just some thoughts,

rev...

Pretty, though a little on the lofty side.

Tell me about it. I've been writing in spades, but for other things. This will give you an idea what I've been up to. This is the complete body of the application for one of the Seminaries that I am applying to, which also requires five recommendations, the usual transcripts and an interview. These questions are straight up insane. Not even Harvard Divinity asks for such detail! Okay a few are fairly straight forward, but taken together it's a soul searching nightmare. Only directions are to write in 12 pt type and be succinct.

1. What is your concept of religious leadership? How do you understand this in term of your call?

2. Starr King’s educational philosophy requires self-direction and emphasizes academic inquiry and experiential learning. How would you assess your capability for and interest in these educational values?

3. Starr King’s purpose is to educate progressive religious leaders, especially for the Unitarian Universalist ministry. Assess your abilities and gifts for the work of religious leadership, noting both your strengths and weaknesses for this work.

4. Describe your religious background and religious practices. In what churches and/or religious communities have you been involved? What leadership responsibilities have you assumed? Please give dates.

5. Name five writings, films, or artistic works that have influenced you and explain how they have helped shape your life. Name two historical events, either in your lifetime or before you were born, that have been pivotal in your decision to pursue religious leadership – and describe their importance to you.

6. Describe you cross-cultural experiences and your ability in languages other than your first language.

7. Describe your involvement in community service, arts and social activism.

8. Starr King embodies a curricular commitment to education to counter oppressions and create just and sustainable communities. How have these commitments shown up in your life? How will they manifest in your religious leadership.

9. How do you discern and attend to personal growth issues?

10. Do you have any concerns, whether physical, psychological or education, that you would like us to know about? Is there anything else you would like to tell us?

11. Autobiography: Please describe your development as a person. Indicate how the events and relationships you mention are important.

My answers were over 15 pages long, single spaced. Completely unheard of for the getting to know you portion of a grad application, which turns out to be the 90% of the application, also unheard of...well for me at least. Crazy.

rev...

Oh yeah, been back from Gulf Coast for a while, just been taking break and doing up my grad school applications (finally finished!, just need to fill out those pesky financial aid forms)

Eh, it was an idea, I got while talking to friends on the New Orleans Relief trip. Might develop it more with different sections for different time lines and speakers for each or not. Have considered switching Rome for Egypt and then using the Nuclear Warning in several languages and picture grams as a sort of Rossetta Stone for figuring out all kinds of things, but that's a little ambitious and I've come pretty near to burning myself out writing wise. Need to take a year off honestly--too many workshops back to back--might try writing so prose. Who knows?

Probably will keep the "friend" line. I'm still hammering out the structure of my thesis and am thinking of putting a philosophical /inspiration friends section. I've already have another fully fleshed out poem going in that general direction, so might as well run with it. My current prof will probably hate it. He thinks my work has been philosophically even theologically abstract lately, but I really don't care what he thinks anymore.

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1/16/2008

Sacred Space

Recently, a friend told me

about a nuclear waste site

buried deep within a range

of mountains some considered sacred.

I wonder if millennia

from now when people

study my nation like I

studied the Romans,

will they consider

this range still sacred?

Either for the secrets of

the lost civilization buried deep

within or for it’s mysterious

power to sicken and kill those

that linger too long on its crags

and steeps. Perhaps, they will

think it a god.

1/16/2008

Until

Do we rush through life because

we are looking for someone worth

slowing down for? -- I once

wrote to a friend who feared

no one would ever love him --

Walk a path, any path, long enough,

and eventually you will pass someone

wanting company along the way,

and when you do pass

remember to slow so they can

catch up with you.

He replied simply,

How long?

taking a break during my winter break, going to do some more volunteer work on the gulf coast and work on finishing those pesky grad school applications. Be back in a month or two.

rev...