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Showing posts from October, 2025

The Stafford Challenge Month 7 and 9: 14 Lines or Longer

This one [...] Going from 10 words or less to fourteen lines or longer was a challenge I wanted to give myself.  I thought it's the perfect length because I could surely write two sonnets a day.   Nope. I love a good form poem, especially a sonnet, but it's not my strong suit in two a day challenges.  Instead, I just let the thought extend further to see where it took me.  Two things helped in this challenge. 1.  During this time, the Remarkable Paper Pro Move came out.  It's an e-writing tablet that can fit in my pocket.  I take this everywhere, and I'm able to write in places like restaurants, in my car at the beach, at work.  It's definitely made it possible to jot down whatever thought that crosses my mind. 2. On October 4th, I was invited by Rachelle Escamilla to come down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium at night from 7:00-11:00 to see her read.  I've been to the Aquarium many times in the day.  It was when I was there three years...

The Stafford Challenge Month 6 and 8: 10 Words or Less/Fewer

  I stopped writing in July and August.  I am grateful for the time with the VONA's Writer Workshop this past end of June, and am honored to be and learn with such great poets.   To write at that high level, I gave it everything I had -- put a lot of thought with each word, mine and theirs.  I was just exhausted afterwards.  I haven't really fully recovered yet.  I have to write an equivalent of two poems a day for two months -- hence the title of month 6 and 8.  I'll be caught up by 10/17.  I have to write two poems today. So the choice for writing two poems a day for a month is the short form. I studied a lot of short form: a love of haiku, cinquains, Li Bai, Issa, Basho, Williams, Bly, Knott, and Armantrout.  It's hard. Yes the shortness of the poem can keep attention spans, but every word and spacing is delicate. Shifts meaning and breath.  The poem has to make you think longer than you read it. Ex. Tell Don’t Show Just tell me...

The Stafford Challenge: Month 5 Games (Revised)

  A Revised Version About Month 5   During that time period, I got a steam deck.  I use it all the time to unwind and think things through.  I don't commit to long rpg's anymore, and am sticking with rogue-lite/likes or simulation games where I just own a card shop or a farm.   I'm having a hard time with the concept of stories along with video games now these days.  Sometimes, things just happen and happen.   Anyways, here's an example of the poem I wrote this month: Radical Dreamers For tonight, let’s forget about meaning. Give in to hyperbole enough to amplify litotes: the hitched breath upon my hand grazing the side of your body, the way your back tries to slide further into me to feel the most of my chest. Don’t hear my iambs. Please. Let’s just continue to where I’m in control on how I construct my lines. Enjambment feeling out of place; we can’t differentiate space as minutes or hours.