News Print Platform

News print poetry uses newspaper stories to create poems. This year, a lot of stories were about the 2012 election. That makes this blog a platform for me to advocate for my political views.

On this Election Day eve, I thought it would be interesting to link to the political poems I did this year. Even if you only read the titles, it’s the “year in review.” (Click on the titles to go to the webpage with the poem on it.

Monday November 5      Down to the Wire

Monday October 29      Souls to the Polls
Sunday October 28      America   
Saturday October 22    Insight
Wednesday October 17   Obama Up
Tuesday October 16     Malarky
Friday, October 12     War on Reality
Thursday October 4     Debate
Monday September 24    Switching to Dems
Wednesday September 19 Romney Controversy
Saturday September 15  GOP Lacks Blacks
Wednesday September 13 Libya, Obama, and Romney
Monday September 10    Do Little Congress  
Sunday September 9     Dueling Conventions
Friday September 7     Four More Years
Tuesday September 4    Two Peas in a Pod
Saturday September 1   The Empty Chair
Wednesday August 29    Nominee Romney
Thursday August 23     Legitimate Lunkheads
Sunday August 12       Romney’s VP Pick
Friday August 3        Obama Talks Taxes
Tuesday July 31        Romney Rouses Outrage
Friday July 13         Politicians Drone On
Saturday July 7        Obama on the Road
Tuesday June 26        #DontDoubleMyRate
Friday June 15         Stop the Voter Purge
Wednesday June 13      Republicans Don’t Especially Love Mitt Romney
Tuesday May 29         Obama Delivers for Veterans
Thursday May 10        Obama Endorses Gay Marriage
Saturday March 24      Obama on Trayvon
Monday February 20     Obama Will Win Florida
Sunday February 5      Obama Focused
Wednesday February 1   Florida Romp
Sunday January 22      Beating Obama
Tuesday January 24     Black Voter

PSA Poetry Today

It's been a long campaign.  I know Obama is favored to win, but there's no such thing as a sure thing.  So I'm reminding my readers to vote for Obama, especially if you live in Ohio and Florida.

Get Out the Vote

Obama’s campaign,

Romney’s campaign,
chasing every last vote
in the Sunshine State—
the precious votes. 

Regular voters

Occasional voters
New voters
Early voters
Election-day voters
Armies of volunteers

It’s going to come down

to who comes out.

A long campaign will come to an end on Tuesday.  Cast yur precious vote for Obama so this country can continue to move forward.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

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This picture is from

http://realismhargrave.com

Gridiron Girls

by Catherine Giordano

Someimes I write a news print poem that just begs to be rewritten without the restrictions of the form.  You can read the original Gridiron Girls and compare it to my rewrite.


Gridiron Girls

Girls are sugar and spice and everything nice?
Girls are all frilly and pink?
Girls are all dainty and sweet?
Forget the stereotypical image.
Meet the Gridiron Girls!

These girls don’t care what you think.

These girls love the punishing pursuit of football—
Tackle football.

These girls love blood-stained uniforms.
They love the dirt, the sweat, the spit,
the feel of their muscles, flexing, contracting, pulsating.

These girls give it their all.
These girls love it all.

These girls are women,
women who have the gall
to play the gridiron sport
in an all-women’s league
crossing the line of scrimmage.

Oh the horror; the unspeakable horror.

Why on earth would women want to play tackle football?
Why on earth would men want to play tackle football?

They enjoy it.

Let your little girls play tackle football,
and when they are women, they will be unbreakable.

© 2012 Catherine Giordano

The picture is meant as an ironic comment on the poem.

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Poetry in Motion

I feel like the personification of poetry in motion today.  I wrote two posts for my Premium Cable Reviews blog.  One for Showtime’s Homeland "New Car Smell"(#204) and one for Showtime’s Dexter "Run"(#704).  Two examples of my very best reviews, if you will excuse me for saying so myself.  I hope when you read them, you will leave a comment telling me whether or not you agree. 

Then I knocked out my news print poetry poem entitled “Gridiron Girls” for my NewsPrint Poetry 2012 blog.  And then, I took that poem and reworked it without the restrictions of news print poetry for my poetry class on Tuesday. The assignment was to write a protest poem. My protest is about telling little girls they have to be all “sugar and spice” instead of telling them to be whoever, whatever, they want to be. 

My thoughts –a blur of motion in my brain; my fingers—a blur of motion over the keyboard.  Later, I’m going to design and create some jewelry. 

It feels so good to be creative.

 

This picture is from http://www.larryponchobrown.com
 

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This is the correct link for the writing class: 

http://www.writers-village.org/writing-awards-tips.php

A New Milestone

It has been 300 days since I started my News Print Poetry 2012 blog project. I posted a poem every single day.

 

However I have written about 250 of these poems.  Some I put on this companion blog as bonus poems and some I just kept on file in my computer.

I have published two books,  News Print Poetry 2012 Volume 1 January to March and News Print Poetry Volume 2 April June.  News Print Poetry Volume 3 July to September will be sout soon.

I decided that each of those books should have 101 poems. It just seemed like the right number and it gave me the opportunity to use the poems that didn’t make it to the blog.

300 poems, but who’s counting? I am, for one. This is a major commitment.

I found this picture of callendar pages truneing at http://gunnip.com

Haiku Happiness

I’m getting a little carried away with news print haiku.  They are so quick and easy to do.

 

October 18, 2012

Scenic Cobbs Corner,

A slice of Old Florida,
The beauty at sunset

October 19, 2012

SeaWorld performers

Show off water-borne footwork,
Spectators gather

October 20, 2012

The little acorn

Grows into the mighty oak
By setting goals high

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© 2012 Catherine Giordano

This woodcut by Katsushika Hokusai known as the “The Great wave was done in circa 1829-32.

News Print Haiku

A friend wrote a great haiku the other day and that got me to thinking about whether I could do a news print haiku.

I decided I would use the traditional three line form with a “turn” after the second line. (The turn resolves the issue set up for the first two lines.)  Traditional haiku uses 5 syllables for the first line, 7 syllables for the second line, and five syllables for the concluding line.

Here’s what I came up with from a section of the newspaper on the editorial page entitled “The Needle.” It usually includes three very short political jokes.

The Ten Commandments

It’s over-regulation

Repeal five of them

I found this picture at http://biblecartoons.blogspot.com