A commonplace book is your very own anthology of other people’s poems. Of course you can set one as a blog, and www.poets.org has a feature that allows members to create electronic notebooks for open viewing. I happen to have the handwritten kind. There is a longstanding belief among some poets that physically copying out a poem (nowadays either in pen/pencil or by typing it) teaches you about that poem, in a subliminal way at least. I think it’s like taking on the persona of that poet as s/he writes. Maybe it’s like the spirit of the poet enters you through the motions of your hands.
However, I think a commonplace book has a more obvious purpose: it shows you what you value in poems, which may or may not be what you say you value. For instance, I’ve said I prefer a more subtle voice in poems, but what has appeared in my commonplace book are rather declamatory. And, as an avowed agnostic, I find it peculiar the number of religious or spiritual poems I like. Or maybe not so strange.
In addition, a collection like this can inspire your own poems, as responses, or as jumping off points. Recently I wrote a poem that used the iambic pentamete from Gerard Manley Hopkins Pied Beauty, and another borrowed the rhythm from Spring and Fall.
My commonplace book is a striped composition notebook that right now is only 1/3 full. As you can tell, these poems came from undergraduate and high school English texts, literary journals, poetry collections - but two are from young ladies of my acquaintance:
1. Spring and Fall - Gerard Manley Hopkins
2. Pied Beauty - Gerard Manley Hopkins
3. The Kadava Kumbis Devise a Way to Marry for Love - Rita Dove
4. Japan - Billy Collins
5. And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou
6. From the Towers - Heather McHugh
7. The Red Portrait - Karl Kirchway
8. Metaphors - Sylvia Plath
9. Boy with His Hair Cut Short - Muriel Rukeyser
10. When You Are Old - W.B. Yeats
11. Ishi - Louis Simpson
12. Mr. and Mrs. Yeats - Louis Simpson
13. I Want to Work in a Hospital - Cortney Davis
14. A Pedantry - Lucia Perillo
15. On the Chehalis River - - Lucia Perillo
16. For Annie - Edgar Allen Poe
17. Nothing, but Everything - Alison Kennedy (my daughter’s best friend; a grade-school writing exercise)
18. A Man Meets a Woman on the Street - Randall Jarrell
19. Intention - Kay Ryan
20. Her Politeness - Kay Ryan
21. Polish and Balm - Kay Ryan
22. maggie and milly and molly and may - ee cummings
23. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
24 Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night - Dylan Thomas
25. To Become World - Sally Van Doren
26. Odalisque - Sally Van Doren
27. Easter - Sally Van Doren
28. Rosebud - Usha Rahn (my daughter, when she was 7 - she says)
—-Ujjvala
Father’s Day is coming up. How giving Dad a book (or 5) on science instead of electronics or ties (!!) or aftershave? We’ll send this around again next Mother’s Day. Since in the future we will offer are books on science, here are suggestions that I think are great:
Top 10 Books Science
Amazon Top 10 books on science
Best Science Books 2010
Best Science Books 2010 from science blog
Royal Society Prize for Science Books
http://royalsociety.org/awards/science-books/all-shortlisted/
Ujjvala’s List - Here’s a few that I would like to read or have read:
The Greatest Show on Earth - Richard Dawkins: Ok, he does slip in the occasional diatribe skipe against creationist and evolution-denying yahoos, but I skipped over it to brilliant, at times poetic explanations about thhe continually appearing scientific studies supporting evolution as a fact. Dense reading - like a rich chocolate cake, to this scientist and science enthusiast.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot - the next book after Dawkins is done. An important history about the poor black woman who unknowingly gave science the HeLa cells, which were used for much of the groundbreaking research in medicine.
The Ghost Map - Steven Berlin Johnson: Let me confess, I have a crush on this author. Not only is he handsome, he writes soooo well, for instance in this inspiring history of cholera in 18th century London and the birth of epidemiology. This book is a thriller and a treatise. How rare is that?
—-Ujjvala
Wow!
What a great time we had at MARCON this year. The Mason-Dixon Publishing table was a success! We sold enough books to more than cover our expenses in renting the table. Since renting a table as a Dealer means that you also get two memberships to the Con, we really came out ahead. It was very gratifying to be able to talk one on one with people who like to read short stories. Most of our customers actually read a story out of the book before buying it, so they knew they were getting a book that they would enjoy. I could also sense a growing respect from the other dealers as they saw that the people who read my book then wanted to buy it. I’ve talked before in this blog about the many times I’ve been persuaded to buy a book because the author selling it was very personable only to discover that it was truly horrible. I know my work is of a higher quality than that, but it was gratifying to see that confirmed over and over again.
The Con itself was up to the usual standards. This year the themes were steam punk and alternative realities. So, in addition to aliens, monsters, zombies, fairies, and space explorers of every variety, there were many people walking around in really beautiful Victorian outfits. The dealer across the aisle from me sold corsets, and was doing a brisk business. As a dealer, I didn’t get to go to as many events and lectures as I would have liked, but I did see the “Clockwork Horror Steampunk Show,” a satire of the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” done by the Confused Greenies out of Case Western University. The presentation could have used some more polish, but the premise was absolutely hilarious. Nikolai Tesla was put in the role of Dr. Frankenfurter and Edison was put in the part of Dr. Scott. There were many plays on the “AC” Vs “DC” idea.
One of the “hooks” I used to get people to come to the table was to offer free, personal poetry written just for them. One of the only frustrating experiences I had was that a very interesting woman came up and asked for a poem. We talked for a little while so that I could get enough information, then I told her I needed ten minutes. She never came back. I can only say “shame on her.” She claimed to be a writer, so she should know better than to commission a work and not come back to collect the finished product. So, since I don’t believe in letting any creative writing go to waste, I will include the poem in this blog.
“To a Nameless One”
Always searching, eyes open
searching for the words
to help others see
Can you see yourself
reflected in stormy seas?
(The stale smell of people sitting in rows
the same on planes, trains, or boat
all over the world)
If one is only really at home
on the printed page,
where is home?
Do the white snows of Antartica
reflect the home not yet found?
After the birth place has been left
far behind and your words have been reflected
in ten thousand minds,
then you can come home.
Copyright Joseph DeMare 2011
Not my best poem, but not bad for ten minutes.
Anyway, thanks to everyone who bought a book or stopped by our booth. Now we need to build on this momentum.
Our millionth copy sold just got a lot closer!
—-Joe 5/31/11
Do come by the Mason-Dixon table to talk to Joe about writing, publishing, science and science fiction, and poetry.
The Multiple Alternative Realities Convention, or MARCON is coming to the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, OH during Memorial Day Weekend. Mason-Dixon will be there!
Do check the MARCON site. As a sci-fi fan myself (hard science stuff, mainly), I wish I could go. Looks like a party weekend to me - costumes, lectures (well, ok, I think scifi lectures are fun), a dance, a movie night, gaming, and of course the dealer room.
Joe will be there, with his wife Carol and son Joey; MARCON is a Demare family tradition. Joe’s short story collection Venusification will be for sale. One of the stories, “The Old Astronaut”, won the MARCON 2004 Literary Competition.
Here are the dealer times, when you can find Mason-Dixon:
MARCON 46 Dealers Room
Friday: 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am – 6:00pm
Sunday: 11:00am – 3:00pm
Come peruse a copy and talk with Joe. And leave a note on our Facebook page about MARCON and the Mason-Dixon table.
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Mason-Dixon Publishing's first paperback book is finally here! These provocative short stories will challenge you and take you to exotic places and times.
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