#PoetryPantry: remembrance of persian opium

This is a post for Poetry Pantry #218. For more poetry or to share your own poem, click on the link. There are also some lovely pictures of Italy on the page this week.

remembrance of persian opium

the northern inhabitants cannot

behead the profane so proficiently

lack of practice i expect

the machete maddens them

altho impudent, we eat plasterboard on request

against the dread of the dossier

still the annihilation so devoutly to be wished

escapes us, tho the usual intoxicants attempt discretion

in quiescence is contraband schizophrenia

1990

(c) Nissa Annakindt

As you can see from the date, this poem was NOT written as a response to the recent epidemic of ISIS beheadings in the Middle East. It may have had something to do with the goings-on in Iran-AKA-Persia. But then again, it may not have.

This poem is one of the many included in my book, Where the Opium Cactus Grows. The current edition of the book won't be available for sale for much longer as I'm going to be putting out a revised and expanded edition shortly. After that, I'll be working on a second volume of poetry to be titled 'Waiting for the Poison Shot'.

About this blog:
This used to be my main blog, before I migrated to Wordpress. I decided to turn this one into a poetry e-zine. I don't know how that's going to work out.



My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Poem: nuclear sainthood profits/Writing Poetry Benefits Prose Writers

Self-portrait

 nuclear sainthood profits

wages after the labour, we beseech you, o limited nuclear war
a son is given to us, testing increasingly smaller warheads
if this limit is overshot, ground zero will accumulate debris
o mary conceived without sin, detonate a nuclear weapon
in the presence of mine enemies

behold, a virgin shall declare war on the soviet union and china
the market price of our pope, our bishop, and all true believers
included mutual assured destruction when wages and prices are high
and large numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles
now and at the hour of our death

(c) 1990 Nissa Annakindt

OK, thing one. This is not one of those dreary anti-nuclear poems with a Very Important Message. It doesn't have a message. There is also no intent to be disrespectful of the Catholic faith, since such disrespect is also too dreary for words.

I used the juxtaposition method, using an angsty book about nuclear war, a Catholic prayer book, and something dull by Karl Marx as the source of the words and phrases. I like it. It amuses me. It makes me think strange thoughts. Which is all I ask of it. There is also no intent to be disrespectful of the Catholic faith, since such disrespect is also too dreary for words.

Shared at: Poetry Pantry #169

Writing Poetry Benefits Prose Writers

I read once about some sci-fi writer who warmed up for his writing sessions by reading poetry. It helped him appreciate beautiful and/or powerful language or something.

Writing poetry is also of benefit. It helps young/new writers get started producing writing, it helps writers whose work is not winning the attention of editors and the public, and it helps experienced writers who feel they have gone stale.

Poetry is about powerful and memorable words. Because bland poetry fades away into nothing before the reader's eye is finished with it. The skills used in writing poetry can help to avoid writing dull prose.

Poetry is a way to get into the groove of producing writing regularly. It helps build confidence in the neophyte and jump-starts a writer who is getting blocked or bored with writing.

Because poetry is not appreciated in our society in any financial way, there are no high stakes to intimidate you. Suppose you write a poem, and you learn something in the writing. If the poem sucks, probably no one will publish it and they certainly won't pay you money. If the poem is utterly brilliant, probably no one will publish it and they certainly won't pay you money. It kind of takes the pressure off.

New! Free Online Poetry-Writing Class: http://linalamont.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-class-in-writing-poetry-for-new.html 


Red Explosions Poetry Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479819908761898
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Poem: The Steam Cranes/Why Novelists Read Poetry

 












the steam cranes

a sijo

a team of steam cranes, hydraulically
lifting brownish-gray metaphors
quarreling over work methods
and over who has a bigger engine shaft

but what good are industrial efforts
in the days of nuclear rains?

(c) Nissa Annakindt 2012

Shared on Poetry Pantry #168

This is a sijo--- a Korean poetry form. The topic was chosen by opening one of my encyclopedias at random. This poem is NOT included in my poetry book, Where the Opium Cactus Grows, which is available on Amazon.com.

Why Novelists Read Poetry

Some time I read about the working habits of well-known writers. One writer, whose name I do not remember, started each writing session by reading poetry. It helped him use sharper and more meaningful language in his novels.

Poetry is not much appreciated these days, and 'therapeutic' poetry which consists in someone's prose whines arranged as if it were free verse is considered of equal worth with the greatest poems ever written.

I don't claim to be expert in knowing the literary value of a poem, like the experts who think Nikki Giovanni's poem about 'n-gg-r can you kill a honkey' is the work of one of the greatest poets of our age. But I do feel I have a grasp on what poems are 'strong' and thus useful for the novelist reading to improve his prose. It's the language--- vivid images, strong and meaningful words, combinations of ideas which are unexpected, and strong attention to the sound of the words--- and, yes, that can include rhyme and alliteration even in modern times.

A novelist's reading list of poetry will include the great poets of the past like Robert Burns and Friedrich Schiller, and it will include something modern. In the case of modern poets it is perfectly acceptable to reject vast numbers of poets and schools of poets that don't speak to the reader. The verdict of literary history has not yet been passed on these works.

I would also include poems in translation. In college I read poems translated from Russian and Chinese and quite enjoyed them--- even though my experience in reading German poems in the original and then in translation made me aware that poems, like everything else, cannot really be translating without losing something.

Poets: If you are on Facebook
please consider joining
Red Explosions Poetry Group  

Visit my author page on Facebook. It includes kitten pictures, Doctor Who stuff, and other things to take your mind off me and my writing.
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Poem: paper dragons

paper dragons

blue & yellow folded paper dragons
sail away in an indigo Tintenfaß
dragons dangerous yet delicate
for they cannot breathe fire
and live

(c) Nissa Annakindt 1990

The word 'Tintenfaß is German for 'inkwell'. The funny letter at the end is pronounced like 's'.  This is the origin of the poem: one day I was looking through a mail order catalog from Dover Books and came across several advertised books about Origami, the Japanese art of folding paper. One of the book descriptions must have mentioned that it gave instructions for making Origami dragons. And so this poem kind of poured out as poetry often did in those days.

This is one of the poems in my poetry book, Where the Opium Cactus Grows.  Shared in Poetry Pantry #159 over at Poets United.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Poetry Group, Poetry Zine

For a couple of years, some time ago, I used to edit a zine. It was something I liked to do and wasn't half bad at. But the printing and postage cost a lot.

When I self-published my poetry book on Lulu.com, I first began to get the idea that Lulu.com might be a great way to publish a zine. But it took me a while to get to the idea of doing a poetry zine.

The advantage of doing it as a Lulu.com book is that the 'zine' will be a nicely printed book with a cover, and it won't cost me a fortune making that happen. I wouldn't be able to pay in contributors' copies--- the poets would have to buy their own copy/copies.

Now, the hard part would be to find some poets who write what I could recognize as quality work. So I thought of starting a Facebook group for poets. Here it is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479819908761898/

Both the group and the future zine are called 'Red Explosions'--- a line from an old poem of mine--- because it expresses what I want--- poems with something vivid, explosive, strange, or interesting. Not a bland collection of words as in:

my girlfriend
dumped me,
I feel
like sh*t
and want
to
die
die
die

(If you want to see further examples of what I, perhaps due to a lack of mental health, think of as poetry, you might go to my book on Amazon.com and look at the free preview there at some of the poems I've written.)

While I am not accepting submissions just yet, if you are interested in submitting to the zine, you might do well to join the Facebook group so you can share poems there. If I like your stuff enough, I will probably ask you to submit when the time comes.

UPDATE: the zine has become an e-zine. This one right here.

Please consider 'liking' us on Facebook.
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Poem: See, a Fishing Junk

See, a Fishing Junk
a sijo

See, a fishing junk floats to Kowloon
& I saw a typhoon drinking the harbor.
Stop, I said, do not drink all the water
For the sake of the fishing junk.

But the typhoon drank on
For the sake of relative humidity.

(c) Nissa Annakindt Dec. 13, 2012

One of my more recent poems, and thus not included in my book When the Opium Cactus grows. I will probably be sharing it in the poetry group Red Explosions Poetry Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/479819908761898 Please consider joining the group if you write poetry.

Shared on Poetry Pantry #158.

The kitten in the picture is Anthony, who decided to take a nap in the garbage can the other day. He is named after Saint Anthony, who found kitten Anthony and his sister when they went missing for a week. 

Please consider 'liking' us on Facebook.
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Poem: malison d'etre

As I may have mentioned, I'm doing most of my blogging on Facebook these days, at the link given at the bottom of the page. But I still want to post my poem for Poetry Pantry at Poets United, and so I posted the poem on my Facebook and added my poem to the Poetry Pantry linky. And I thought I'd better post links to the poem here. Click on the poem title to read the poem.

malison d'etre


jonathan is a bat out
of hell
which explains his crispy singed
wings
and his
expression of perpetual exasperation
and why he sleeps
hanging over the heat register
on cold nights
he's working on a PhD
in social work
but what he really
wants is to
be a rock star
like michael jackson
& madonna
strangely enough he cant stand baseball
or hippoptamuses


(c) Nissa Annakindt 1990

This poem is included in my book Where the Opium Cactus Grows.



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Poem: Catsong: for Niki

This is one of the poems that will be in my new, expanded edition of Where the Opium Cactus Grows. Written in honor of my nine-year-old cat Niki, it is a sijo, a form of Korean poetry somewhat similar to the haiku. It was composed using an ancient Korean sijo as a model/inspiration. 

Catsong: for Niki
a sijo

what if my heart is too long or too tall?
what if my cat is too light or too small?

this calico tabby is mine
no matter that her nails are too sharp

the chill moonlight is mine also
to collect in alabaster jars


 This is one poem of mine with which I am satisfied--- not that I think it perfect or even good, but I feel that it is as good as I can make it, and any time I might spend fiddling around with it would be better spent writing new poems.  Other poems I've written I make endless revisions, sometimes achieving a better poem, sometimes only a new arrangement of the deck chairs on my poetic Titanic. Strangely, in my earliest poems this sense of satisfaction came more easily--- and I continue to be satisfied, for the most part, with these poems still. Today this sense of satisfaction is harder to find.

Note: I am planning to list this poem on Poetry Pantry over at Poets United this Sunday. If you have a blogged poem to share, or just want to read some poems, please visit their site.

The poem will also appear in the revised version of my book, Opium Cactus, on which I am still diligently working.

Last week with my Poetry Pantry poem undercover lesbian I got some valuable feedback which, strangely, I may actually use. Thanks to all my visitors from last week. 

Update: I have indeed shared the poem on Poetry Pantry #143 and am having fun looking at the other poems, seeking treasure. I've already found some, my favorite so far being And Bells Will Ring.

Poem: advice to the shopworn

the truli modern poet will
always!!! carry a beeper
///in case/// of poetry emergencies
GLeeMing down the stairs at 3 am
      *to insert a radon paradox
      (or) delete a rude cauliflower*

(c) Nissa Annakindt, never you mind what year.

A poem from Where the Opium Cactus Grows, which is soon to go out of print.  This was written during a phase of my life as a poet in which I did a lot of monkeying around with peculiarities of typesetting and spelling. Some of my poems from this period have to be altered before posting online because they turned out to do weird things to HTML.

This poem was shared at Poets United's Poetry Pantry #127.