Celebrate World Poetry Day

I'm not a big poetry fan - I wish I appreciated it more. Because we were exposed to a lot of Scottish poets at school, I've a soft spot for Edwin Morgan, especially 'The Starlings of George Square' which reminds me of evenings spent in Glasgow as a child. I also like Edwin Muir. I'm also keen on the writing of our own local bard, Betty McKellar, who does brilliant poetry written in Scots. I hope to mount some of her stuff on my blog one day, if she'll let me!

There's some additional random poems I really like, including 'Break of Day in the Trenches' by Isaac Rosenberg (ulp! I hope I spelt that right!!). It's one of those rare things - an optimistic WWI poem. Okay, so the poor poet was one of those unfortunates who got wiped around Armistice Day, but the sentiments are all positive!!

I spent last weekend volunteering at the Women of the World Poetry Slam, hosted in Columbus, OH (rumor has it Columbus will be hosting again next year - I suspect since it draws from all over the country, and Ohio is relatively central). We've been to some amazing events over the past few years, but these women? Powerful, amazing...there's nothing like being surrounded by poets for a whole weekend! I know they were videotaping all weekend - I'm really hoping they make a DVD available, because the performance makes it real.

http://www.poetryslam.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=19&Itemid=40

As for me, I write poetry (and this weekend left me with tons of inspiration and bits of poems rattling around in my head...), though I usually focus on being "The Poet Handler" for my mate, the *real* slam poet (he's been to nationals on the Cleveland team twice, has been on the Dayton team since moving down here, and just did an audition for the Columbus Arts Fest yesterday). :)
My favorite piece of his: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFMnvh2IoWw
(Sorry...the lighting is kind of dark)

And here are a few of mine in relatively raw form (I need to go back and edit a few, though "Stare" is meant as a performance piece, it still could use some cleaning up), penned during April - poetry month - in 2008 when I was doing the Poem A Day challenge (which I may attempt this year):

http://mseuphrates.livejournal.com/547575.html#cutid1

I think you found a bit of my poetry already, today. *G*

Hmm... Kipling. Wilfred Owen. Dylan Thomas. The Bard (I'd say of course, except there are folks who don't like either/or the Bard or his poetry or poetry in general), and several who are known for single pieces. John McCrae. John Gillespie Magee, Jr. though he wrote many, is primarily known for High Flight.

I do write it, and was published into a few journals / magazines, and won a few comps with it while I was at university, I used my ability to score some extra High Distinctions for my overall grade, but I don't have a great deal to do with it anymore. I participate in poetry month, in April and otherwise that's about it these days.

I generally don't enjoy reading poetry, except, mostly, for tanka format. And it's *really* hard to find good tanka written by westerners, so I just don't look that often.

Poetry is my greatest love. I participated last year, for the first time, in NAPOWRIMO and I'll sign up for it again next month. And, as I told you, I'm planning to develop a crowdfunding project with my poetry. There are a few scattered poems on my Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heidi-Alfonzos-Writing-Homepage/263209749071?ref=ts

PS: I have a poll on my journal that will help me decide how to focus my project. You mind answering 3 questions? That would be fantastic. I appreciate it! :-)