The Lion Sleeps

For the third round of voting i went into it with what i would consider one winner and one loser. Aaron Belz being the winner. This is essentially what i found of him:

Born in 1971 Aaron Belz a native of Iowa now lives in St. Louis, Missouri where he is the host of the Observable Reading Serious. His poems have appeared in journals such as, The Boston Review, Fine Madness, Court Green and Jacket. He’s sick wit’ it.
Quote by Belz
“I am against the sing-songy way a lot of poets read their poems. You know, with a lilting inflection at the end of each line. Blah! But if I had the power to change one thing it would be the fact that a lot of poets don't use complete sentences in their poems. They seem to be thinking, 'Ah, this is art, my readers will get it.' We don't! The emperor has no clothes!”

Excerpt from The Bird Hoverer

Scarecrow

Scarecrow, scarecrow, what have you heard?

I”ve heard about the blackbird and nothing more.

What of the moon, shinning bright on this night?

I haven’t heard of that. Like I said, just the blackbird.

Blackbird

Blackbird, good friend, what do you know?

I know of the scarecrow and nothing else.

What of the corn in its thousands of rows?

Dude, just the scarecrow. Are you deaf?

Conclusio

The scarecrow was marginally nicer than the blackbird.

Both were somewhat flippant, but the blackbird

Was really kind of a jerkoff. He needs treatment.

They both need treatment, but the blackbird needs it more.

He's sweet. I like him cuz he has this dark sort of humor behind most of his poems.

The loser Brett Lott i picked merely because i was running out of options and i read a few of his short stories. they weren't that good but they weren't that bad either. Turns out both were losers in the end though because Belz already read at tcnj last year and Lott, well Lott just didn't make the cut.

I heard a story from the sailors of the santa maria

A Note: Kind of going back to the whole Joshua Beckman thing, No one in life, wants to be edited. People want to do what they want to do simply. It is harder to stand corrected than to lay on the ground as a blind fool to our errors. As a writer and a person i would like to make an concerted effort to remember this and by being mindful of it be more open the opinions and suggestions of others. I think more people should be open to suggestion because none of us are perfect. It is difficult to change, but instead of running from change we should embrace it because it gets us closer to being complete.

A New Friend

Not Dwight Garner

We had to go to NYC last weds. for this class to see things that had to do with this class somehow. My AM group went to the seldom-ever seen by human eyes New York Times Book Review where we got to meet what some say is one of their most distinguished book reviewer. The place unto itself was interesting. They had these real-time news tickers that I really can't drescribe but they were random and sweet. The security guard wouldn't allow me to rest my bones on their "very clean" floor. Perhaps they thought i would dirty it. When we met the previously mentioned legend himself, dwight garner he was a realitivly unimpressive man to look at physically but you could tell her was no doubt a master at his craft. His desk and work space was literally littered with books like Ted Nugents autobiography "Ted, White and Blue" and various other cook book types. He talked. We asked Questions. He had a meeting. We left after roughly 45 minutes. I learned that i wouldn't want to be a book reviewer. the job is just too awesome for me. Afterwards we ate at a bad irsh pub. On the train ride home i lost my ticket and saw two guys fight. I still owe duncan 12 dollars.

This will be the day that i die

One of these is me


I wonder sometimes about this whole voting process. We are supposed to judge an artist based on a small presentation that is centered around an 8x10 sheet of paper that features a mere blurb of the authors work. It's hard to truly encapsulate and author in such a limited sample and so short a time. Half the time it seems like people (myself included) are voting for whoever has the best picture. Do I like Ava Limon? No, but i'd like to watch her read some poetry in front of me in a skirt. The process is certainly flawed and great writers are surely slipping through the cracks based on looking like a dad or having a less than impressive sales pitch by one of my class mates. but i suppose this is the only feasible way short of assigning people to read an entire collection their work.