Thanks, Grinnellians! ... Leviathan

Friends at Grinnell College . . . thanks for hosting me for a poetry reading in the Writers@Grinnell series there this evening. Honestly, you were the best audience I've had in quite a long time. I felt very welcomed. And I felt a synergy among us that really enlivened my performance. So thanks! From the bottom of my heart. I know that's a cliché but my gratitude is certainly heartfelt. Gratitude and props to Dr. Carolyn Jacobson for coordinating the evening, providing great publicity, and giving such a generous introduction. And many thanks also to Dr. Shuchi Kapila, English department head, for your hospitality. And thanks also to my daughter Amanda for a truly lovely visit. It was a genuine treat for your old man to give a reading at your school. I love you, hon! Congratulations on your last semester at Grinnell. Here's the new, one-day-old poem I read tonight. (Terza rima in pentameter, if you're into such esoterica.) Leviathan My friend Janine has a tiny terra cotta serpent made of arches, loops of red fire-hardened clay. When you set up the curves in a row, a line on an obsid- ian table-top, let's say, or any other shiny surface, water-like, what you get is an illusion, mirage, fantasy — a dotted stitch sewn by your eyes: four small arcs, at one end (rising) the head of a velociraptor, at the other (diving) the tail of a rattlesnake. On this coffee table of dark stone, a mirror clouded by years of creosote mist, Loch Ness breached by mesozoic shimmer, coils of a beast that should have been long dead. St. George, England's patron . . . it was him or this monster, devil-vermilion-scaled ophid- ian champion. Chalk one up for good Sir George. Or is this Quetzalcoatl? Feathered god dipping in and out of clouds, a large pterodactyl-winged, emerald-eyed messiah. Or Poseidon’s messenger, the huge sea-snake sent to devour Andromeda, killed by Perseus, conquistador of the Gorgon. Whose hair was made of small snakes, dread- locks each exactly like these curls of auburn. The sea-dwelling Orc the hippogriff-riding Ruggiero bested to save Angelica. The Kraken. The Basilisk. The Wyrm. Treasure-heaping Wyvern: Grendel’s cousin, Beowulf’s fate. Geryon, snake with scorpion tail, winging Dante downward into abyss. Bahamut. The Giant Anaconda. Ouroboros. Dragon, dragon, dragon. But no, it’s not like that. It’s just a little hocus-pocus, a parlor trick. Just a sea serpent of brick-red, kiln-fired curlicues. And yet, she must also be a Titan somehow. Somewhere inside the terra cotta smoulders a small flame of a Leviathan. — Vince Gotera         Parking Lot Border Florida State University   Quetzalcoatl (www.ravenmedium.com) Constellation diagram, Cetus the Sea Snake (sent by Poseidon to eat the maiden Andromeda). From Chandra Observatory. Ruggiero saving Angelica from the Orc sea serpent (Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto [1516], art by Gustave Doré, from Wikipedia.) I wrote this poem as a response to Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-Day Challenge for National Poetry Month, in his Poetic Asides blog sponsored by Writer's Digest. During the month of April, Robert issued a prompt each day, accompanied by a sample poem he had written from that prompt. This poem was inspired by a prompt to write an animal poem. In "Leviathan," I have ranged freely, pretty loose and easy, with a coterie of legendary or literary animals that fall within the general herd of sea serpent/dragon/reptile/amphibian/dinosaur/snake. While the topic may be loosey-goosey, the craft is tight: roughed-up pentameter with terza rima (aba bcb cdc . . .), often slant rhymed, sometimes distantly. Pentameter: the BAS- | il-ISK | the WYRM | TREAS-ure | HEAP-ing  (line 28) /   WY-vern | GREN-del's | COUS-in | BE-o- | wulf's FATE  (line 29). Terza Rima (starting at line 8): arcs / rattlesnake / Loch //  mirror / shimmer / him or //  dead / ophid- / god //  etc. Then the middle rhyme word cotta in the last stanza is grouped with the a rhyme at the top: cotta and set up. Fun, eh? In any case, back to the reading at Grinnell College: here are a couple of photos, courtesy of Molly McArdle. Thanks again for a magical evening, everyone!       Vince Gotera's poetry reading Writers@Grinnell reading series Grinnell College, 30 April 2009 Photos by Molly McArdle Oh, also, a couple of students bought Ghost Wars but didn't ask for them to be signed. Yes, they were already pre-signed, but if you like I can sign them more personally. Just tell Amanda. Quite easy to arrange. Added 1 April 2012:  I just found out that "Leviathan" was published by the University of Iowa's arts and writing website, The Daily Palette. Quite fitting I found that out today because I'm now taking up again Robert Lee Brewer's poem-a-day challenge, as part of National Poetry Month, 2012. Hope I end up again this time with a poem as lovely and lucky as "Leviathan." Take care, everyone.

Pause for the Cause (6.0) ... Bertram's Blog, Grinnell College, and eBay

I have the honor today of being a guest blogger at Bertram's Blog, novelist Pat Bertram's helpful compendium of advice and how-to's for writers. Thanks for the opportunity, Pat. My article today on Bertram's Blog is titled "Submitting to Literary Magazines 101: Professionalism." It is the first of a set of articles I will be writing for Pat Bertram based on my experience as a poetry editor at the North American Review as well as at other magazines. The purpose of these articles is to help make it easier for you to get your poems (and other writing) published. The basic question of these articles: how might you be hurting your chances of getting published by not knowing the "unwritten rules" of submitting your work? Sometime in the next couple of days, I will host an article by Pat Bertram on promoting one's books. I'm looking forward to that. It's the first time I will have a guest blogger on The Man with the Blue Guitar. Tomorrow (Thursday, 4/30), I will be visiting Grinnell College to give a poetry reading as part of the "Writers@Grinnell" reading series. For more on that event, check out the college's website, which has my blue smurfy mug gracing it today. This reading is truly a treat for me because my oldest daughter Amanda is a student at Grinnell College. She is in her senior year and will be graduating from Grinnell in the next few weeks. I am truly glad to have the distinction of giving a reading at Grinnell College while she is still a student there. Also, do you remember that hilarious eBay auction selling Michael Martone's leftover water that I featured on April 4? The entire text of that auction listing is now available in that post. All eBay auctions expire after 90 days . . . meaning they disappear from the eBay site. But, with the permission of Martone-water seller madcabre, The Man with the Blue Guitar has the honor of hosting that auction text forevermore, so that it will be available to Michael Martone's fans from now till Judgement Day. Why don't you take a look at that auction text now? The clever and fun questions and answers alone are more than worth the price of admission! Okay, friends, that's all for today's "Pause for the Cause." I hope you are having a great "hump day." Don't forget to watch the 100th episode of the TV show Lost later tonight. The most intelligent TV show ever!