New Milestones

Today is a new milestone.  This completes six months of doing a news print poem EVERY SINGLE DAY! Can I hang in there for another six months?

Today is also a milestone of another kind.  Today, for the first time, I took massive liberties with the poem.  I did a lot of reordering.  I had to.  There was no other suitable story, and I just couldn't make the poem work without changing the order of the words.  Besides, it was an important story and I try to do a poem for all important stories.

Also, I think I added the word "three."

Other than that I followed my rules.  Most of the time, I took whole phrases from the story.

Saving My Title for Another Day

Today's poem about the Supreme Court ruling that the AFA, aka ObamaCare, is consitutional is a big f***ing deal.  It was a pleasure to do today's poem.  OK, the poem is not great poetry, per se, but the sentiment, the content, is so great that it makes up for any other shortcomings.

I almost entitled the  poem "Obama Wins", but then I realized I want to save that title for another day, the day after the November election.  So I chose different words from the headline of the story that was the basis of the poem.  Today's poem is entitled "Health Law Upheld."

Now with Pictures

I just spent a few hours adding pictures to my poems.  I think they add a lot.  The pictures sometimes merely illustrate the poem, but sometimes they add an extra message--ironic, satirical, reinforcing.

I did it because I started a pinnterest board  called News Print Poetry that will feature the picture each day with a link back to the post on the blog.  It promotes the blog and the blog promotes my books and my public speaking career which in turn promotes the blog and so on.  At least that's the theory. 

The Funnies

Today I went to the funny pages to find my poem.  I took the title from "Mutts" and the words of the poems by following the strips from left to right from the top of the page down--"Garfield," "Blondie," "Luann," "Hi & Lois," "Hagar the Horrible," "Beatle Bailey," "Zits," "Sally Forth,", "Family Circus,", and "Pearls Before Swine."

As of today, I think I have now done at least one poem from every single part of the newspaper. The comics page was the only section that I have not previously used.

Although, it has nothing to do with the poem, I thought I'd mention that my favorite strips are "Rose is Rose" and "Pearls before Swine.".  I also like "Zits" a lot--the teenager in the strip reminds me of my son as a teenager, and even now, as a young man in his twenties.

Cooking, Eating, and Drinking

Not for the first time, the "Cooking and Eating" section of Wednesday's newspaper comes to the rescue.  The writing is often so filled with sensuality, and sensual imagery makes for a good poem. 

It also makes me hungry and thirsty.  I'd love a sprightly, chilled, red wine in an oversized snifter right now.

Making a List, Doing it Twice

Lists are often a good place to begin writing a poem.  There can ba a lot of emotion connected to a list.

Sunday's list was a list of the war dead, just a few of the soldiers who died last week in Afghanistan. Sometimes the poems bring tears to my eyes, like this one did.

Monday's poem was a list of another type--it detailed the travails of the lives of fictional characters of soap operas on TV. 

The two lists make a nice contrast, don't you think.  Do they get you thinking?

Here's what I'm thinking.  We are each caught up in the trivia of our lives, while soldiers, usually young people who have barely begun theri lives,  are fighting and dying in Afghanistan.  This war must end.

Looking for Poems in All the Strange Places

On Memorial Day, I created a poem out of a list of events scheduled for the day.  I've gone to some unlikely places in the newspaper for the poems--horoscopes, classified ads, letters to the editor, headlines, and now a list of events.  I think the only place I haven't tried is the comics.  I'm sure I'll find a poem there soon.