Poetry sites

Below are recommended websites to browse the National Poetry Month:

Very Bad Poetry
http://www.verybadpoetry.com/
There's quite a list of contributors, including yours truly. I DO NOT recommend Robert Hawkins (unless you want to read about me being put in compromising situations...really creepy. I don't even know the guy.) Otherwise some funny stuff likely written on-the-fly.

The Writer's Almanac
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
Updated daily...Podcast, RSS feed, and you can even listen to Garrison Keillor's dreamy voice read the poem to you.

Poetry Foundation
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
"...an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture." -from the website.

Poetry Daily
http://poems.com/
An anthology of contemporary poetry from new books, magazines and journals.

Poetry 180
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/
A poem a day for high schools. The website says American high schools but I betcha you can use it elsewhere as well.

Poetry Online
http://www.poetry-online.org/
FAMOUS poetry (screw all those amateurs!) with a subject and author index to help you find that perfect FAMOUS poem.

TeenInk.com
http://www.teenink.com/Poetry/
Contains (teenage) reader submitted poetry and an opportunity to submit your own (if you're a teen).

Children's Poetry Archive (PoetryArchive.org)
http://www.poetryarchive.org/childrensarchive/home.do
Listen to poetry by modern poets. Search by poet, poem or theme.

Shel Silverstein.com
http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html
Quirky poems, quirky games and quirky animation that you'd expect from anything related to Mr. Silverstein.

Obviously there are millions of poetry websites online and these are just a few...but they're a GOOD few and promise to be great time wasters.

April is...

April is National Poetry Month. I will be posting a poem-a-day (not authored by myself, you lucky ducks!) honoring this month-long celebration.

Rubble-rubble

Jake

We went to see Jake Shimabukuro at the Atwood Concert Hall last night. I had high expectations and they were met, if not exceeded. Boyfriend-head had been feigning enthusiasm all week..."Great, I can't WAIT to go!" he would exclaim very loudly, almost sarcastically. This is a mannerism I've gotten used to and accepted. He's just trying to be funny. He's always like that. These were my excuses. It got annoying this last week, though, because I was genuinely excited.

Nevermind...I knew that, after seeing Jake perform, he would have his proverbial socks knocked off. I was right.

Not only was Jake on top of his game playing music from all different genres (from bluegrass to traditional Japanese, from classic rock to traditional Hawaiian) but his between-song-banter suggested that he was incredibly down-to-earth and generally grateful to be able to do what he does for a living.

I left incredibly inspired yet altogether ashamed to say that I play the ukulele. I also left hoping that everyone in the room was inspired to buy a ukulele and envisioned a scenario not unlike that described in the song "A Million Ukuleles"--music shops running out of stock, etc.

All-in-all I got to share some music with my loved ones--my friends Matthew and Peter also went--and my dear beloved? He loved it. He loved it more than he thought he would. That's the most satisfying thing.

Before my mom passed away, I asked her if I could have her camera.  It's big, got HUGE lenses, and is significantly more complicated than I can handle.  But I wanted it anyway.  She loved taking pictures, she loved the outdoors and I figured, living in Alaska, I had the best opportunity to take amazing pictures with a pretty cool camera.  I received the camera last week.  It still had pictures on it which was, well, good and bad.  Not only am I pleased that the last year of my mom's life is captured in the camera but, well, it's hard to look at a smiling face of a loved one that is no longer around to smile.

Here are some of the best pictures...mostly of family and friends: