how I figure out to buy a book of poems or not

So you know how a book cover/title/display/what-have-you will catch your attention?  But then the side of your brain that believes in logic, even after you've been focusing on the existence of that book for a weighted moment, reminds you of how your bank account is a cliche punchline for some crappy joke about young, aspiring artists who work in the nonprofit world?  Well, here's how I decide if I am going to purchase that book anyway.

1. Briefly skim the front and back covers.  It's marketing, so I don't invest too much in it, but I do see if something pops out.  For example, one book was called "Driving and Drinking" and was put out by Copper Canyon Press, one of the biggest independent poetry publishers with a solid track record.  Then I read the back and saw that it is a long monologue in verse split into three parts.  That was more than enough to tell me I wanted to read it.  Throw down my $4 at the used book store, and now I'm a David Lee fan.  Two books of his later, he's been one of the more influential poets to me.  Another example was finding a book of poems, all in persona of different monstrous and godly mythical and historical speakers, by Frieda Hughes, the daughter of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.  Felt compelled to have it out of curiosity, but it was very well done.
2. Read three poems from different parts of the book.  So there's not enough on the cover to get me to throw down the relatively few bucks a book of poems costs.  I read the first poem, as it does a lot to set up the world of a well developed book.  If it's enough to keep me interested in what this book might have to offer, I open to a random poem around the middle to see the range of the poetry as well as to get an idea for the sustained quality of the writing.  Then, even if it's a bit disappointing, (some of my favorite books have poems I really didn't initially like) I find a poem near the end.  Not the last poem, as that may give away some of the initial suspense/allure of the book's arc, but this poem helps me decide.  If there's at least three good poems in the book, or two good poems and one that might come across stronger in the context of a full book, I purchase it.  If I'm uncertain, but there's enough things that interest me and the price isn't too bad, I probably purchase it anyway.

So that's roughly the approach.  To justify the money, I always think of the book as an investment, and remind myself of all the times I took books out of the library and spent half my time reading trying to resist the urge to write notes in them.  And then I look at my book shelf and know I still haven't read about a third of them.  But then I remember how many books I read years after purchasing, and how much they floored me, and how can I say no to bringing a worthy friend home?

Book On,
Jason

Why I would Suggest Reading Spiderman to Any Young Writer

After the late 90's, early 2000's movies, the term "with great power comes great responsibility" which is a pretty darn good code to help evolve editing.  However, another important theme of the series is Peter Parker doubting his life as Spiderman: a role that makes his schedule hectic, leads to falling through on plans, gets in the way of his sleep, is constantly making him see the world around him differently from friends and family... you get the picture.  Just like Shakespearean and Greek tragedies used larger than life characters (kings, gods, heroes, etc...) to create stories that would relate to many people, so does Spiderman.  And on a personal level, there is a sense of relief in knowing that he always finds a reason to continue what he feels compelled to do.

A Six Year Old Reads Me Dr. Seuss

A blabber and a more interesting anecdote:

So the whole past week I have been working 9 hour days (including program set up, clean up, and planning time out of it) plus spending at least two hours a day commuting via bike.  And while I kind of have used that as an excuse not to write new blogs (when I started this blog I had a week off from work and thus wrote tons of articles that I would edit the day of posting) I'm out of pre-written blogs.  Been wondering if the daily paragraph is reasonable.  (Have I mentioned a glorious teacher training that was my weekend?)

Here's one of those moments that makes me feel the type of work I do is a blessing to get to do.  This past Wednesday I had a lesson plan based on the Dr. Seuss classic "The Sneetches".  All the 6 -10 year olds who already heard it were excited.  Isn't it interesting how when we are young we know that good writing is worth reading over and over, yet as we get older often develop the habit that you just read a book once, if you even read books at all?  We discussed how ridiculous the Sneetches' imagined differences were and experienced being both the plain bellied and star bellied Sneetches first hand.  One little girl, who was especially excited for the story, began to finish a line with me.  First I thought the rhyme helped trigger her memory, but as we progressed and continued on she began reading to me.  Not quoting from memory.  Not finishing the rhymes.  Sounding it out and reading, even though she hadn't even started first grade.  An essay that accompanied the story was written by a children's book store owner.  Meeting Seuss he said "thank you for teaching me to read."  Seuss, without missing a beat, said "funny, I don't remember that.  Well, Mr. Seuss, thanks for getting a 6 year old to read to me.

Meeting Nikky Finney and Patricia Smith, or, Most Well Known Poets Aren't Scary

Two quick stories.  (And yes, I've basically given up on believing that this will blog will fit neatly into a paragraph a day.  Let's say that is still currently the goal for how long the average one will be, shall we?)

Back in May I was volunteering at the Mass Poetry fest, leaving a restaurant in a group of young writers when someone points out "isn't that Nikky Finney there?"  She was the 2011 National Book Award Winner and was a keynote poet for this fest, so of course we were all excited to see her.  After I walked two Salem blocks saying "Excuse me! Ms. Finney" till I had got her attention, she was so kind!  She signed my book, was happy to talk briefly on her way to the reading where she would be the night's headliner, and once everyone else was caught up with her and I, told us, and I paraphrase: "that's the way to do it.  Don't be afraid to talk to the poets you respect.  Be polite and most likely they'll listen and respond well."  That moment made me look cool.

A moment three years earlier that made me look like a total loser was at the Dodge Poetry Fest.  As I had grown up in New Jersey, senior year I had been one of twenty or so state winners of a poetry contest and part of the prize was getting to read/perform at the next Dodge Poetry Fest.  Uber excited to be in the green room on the first day and excited to hopefully meet some of the poets I admire, I noticed Patricia Smith, who had just put out her best book thus far, "Blood Dazzler," and was an integral part of creating the Boston Poetry Slam Scene.  Like some kind of excited puppy, I called her name out and while walking towards her stumbled over a chair and nearly face planted into the dirt.  Not as good of a first impression.

The point is, and one of the things I think I learned in between those three years, is poets are people.  Some amazing people and there are ones whose work I really admire and have grown from knowing, but poets are people.  Most of the world, even if they respect poetry as a concept, can probably not name five poets putting out work in the past thirty years or maybe any contemporaries at all.  There really is no such thing as "celebrity" in poetry.  There are poets who are better known, but to be able to write as well as they do most must be extra conscious of how human they are, so try and talk to the people you admire.  Worst comes to worse, they just ignore you, but if you are graceful and kind and treat them as fellow human beings, chances are they'll do the same for you.

Rambling on "style some more" - What is a Jason Poem?

This looks like a Job for Bullet Points!

But first, a memory that's stuck with me that I think finally has a place to go.  When I was under ten or so there was a show on Nickelodeon called "Oh Yeah Cartoons!*" In an ad disguised as a behind the scenes interview, the off screen speaker asks a creator (not really sure who it was or what their exact role was) "so what makes an Oh yeah Cartoon?" and the guy found it a bit weird to answer, especially in a way comprehensible to the target audience.  He listed something along the lines of "long thin arms, but also big heads, but also circle heads, but also yada, yada, yada... I dunno.  Watch the show and you tell me."

When I tell people I write, one of the common questions is what is my style like.  Well, I'll give a response along much the same lines.  Things I think characterize what make up "Jason poems" and are pushing me to finding out what the idea of a "Jason poem" could really mean often include, but are not limited to:

• A willingness to find humor or happiness in everything while working to avoid easy answers/romanticizing/short changing.
• Some real darkness.  For someone almost always smiling and joking, that does not happen nearly as much in my art, for better or for worse.  Though since becoming aware of this fact I have been noticing a shift.  Not to a simple "happy" but to find more awe in everything.
• An obsession with myth
• superheroes as being just a worthy myth as rural folklore or Greek mythology
• mythic topics/characters/concepts treated as everyday
• everyday treated as mythic topics/characters/concepts
• Work in different voices
• mine at different ages/awareness/emotions/forms of self
• persona as other humans, but more likely monsters or gods
• A sense that there is magic and awe everywhere.  I try to write (sometimes simultaneously) from both the child in me that is curious and finds amazingness in everything as well as the older than my age side in me that is able to examine things calmly, coolly, objectively, and as part of something bigger.

Maybe that's my answer?  Wonder what it will be next year or the year after.

Stylishly,
Jason

*interesting show to look at in retrospect considering how many now well known animators/cartoon writers got a start on this show: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/OhYeahCartoons?from=Main.OhYeahCartoons

A ramble and some favorite quotes on "style" On Approaching Style, or Diving into Your Favorite Rabbit Holes

"We all swipe when we start. We trace, we copy, we emulate. But the most important thing is to get to the place where you’re telling your own stories, painting your own pictures, doing the stuff that no-one else could have done but you...


As a writer, or as a storyteller, try to tell the stories that only you can tell. Try to tell the stories that you cannot help but tell, the stories you would be telling yourself if you had no audience to listen. The ones that reveal a little too much about you to the world...


Don’t worry about trying to develop a style. Style is what you can’t help doing. If you write enough, if you draw enough, you’ll have a style whether you want it or not. Don’t worry about whether you’re "commercial". Tell your own stories, draw your own pictures." - Neil Gaman from a blog post, found at: http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/05/what-you-cant-help-doing.html

So I definitely planned on just using that paragraph chunk but there was too much not to swipe post a bit more.  This is also something I've been thinking about as I've had the luck in the past two weeks to get out to multiple readings as well as talk with some of my friends and acquaintances who have been writing about twice as long as I've been living.  One poet, Martha Collins, whose book "White Papers" (buy it) I especially love, I saw give a reading a few weeks back.  When I mentioned especially liking her first and last poems in the book, ones that are the only two I have ever seen that follow their type of form, I asked her how those poems came to that style.  Her response was a very honest "I don't know.  When you've been writing as long as me, it just sort of happens."  Not the answer I had hoped for.  As being a follower of "don't try and imitate your favorite artists' finished works, imitate and explore how they developed it and what they were going for*" I was hoping she would give me something to play with on how she approached the poems.  She didn't, but she also did.  I had no direct link to the invention of that form, but what I can learn from her is what I had already begun wrestling with from that Gaiman article and different conversations and experiences since then.  Keep playing around, putting in work, and making the art you want the world to have.

 Stylish as ever,
Jason Four-Names


Tomorrow: Rambling on "style some more" - What is a Jason Poem?
The Day after Tomorrow: Meeting Nikky Finney and Patricia Smith, or, Most "Well Known" Poets Aren't Scary


* a sentiment well explored/discussed in two awesome books, both by young writers, on artistic process/legacy/possibility:
"Understanding Comics," by Scott McCloud, 1993
"Steal Like An Artist," by Austin Kleon, 2012"

Something I am always trying to work on

Concision.






Tomorrow: A ramble and some favorite quotes on style
The Day After Tomorrow: Rambling on style some more