Opium Cactus Poetry Immersion

New Poem: cat poem for Chachamaru

2012-02-20T09:17:00.000-08:00

the ginger cat Chachamaru
kneads my sore leg with needle-like claws

tucked away in my lap, she feels the kittens
playing insider her - it must be spring

but outside the door the piles of snow
and roof-icicles tell a winter story.

(c) Feb 5, 2012 Nissa Annakindt

A sijo. Chachamaru is the cat on the cover of Where the Opium Cactus Grows. Besides posing for poetry book covers she enjoys chasing mice and fighting with other cats. The picture shows Chachamaru, her son Joel (the orange one) and her two stolen kittens.

Write a Christian Poem for Lent contest

2012-02-18T09:01:00.000-08:00

Lent is coming!

(Use up all the chocolate sauce NOW!)

Now is a great time for all writers and poets to express their Christian faith in a poem. And so Opium Cactus is holding the first Write a Christian Poem for Lent contest. Sadly, I can't stretch the definition of 'Christian' to include atheists or angry ex-Christians, but if this contest works out well, there will be another open to all--- perhaps one for sijo-poems, or one for poems about cats.

Definitions:

'Christian' means 'follower of Jesus Christ'. Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals and Mormons who are following Jesus Christ count as Christians. For purposes of the contest, it is expected that the Jesus Christ you are following is the one you read about in the God-inspired New Testament and not some other Jesus Christ, such as a theoretical Marxist/atheist one.

'Christian poem' means a poem written by a Christian poet which has some form of overt Christian content or Christian worldview. My poem 'saints' would count as a Christian poem, my poem 'running about on hens' legs' does not. There must also be an absence of blasphemy and cuss-words in the Christian poem. All styles of poem from traditional to avant-garde to haiku to Babelfish poetry are allowed.

Rules:

Only one poem entered per poet. If a blog has multiple authors, each may enter one of their poems.

Your poem must be published on a blog that is NOT password-protected. (This counts as a publication for many poetry magazines, so don't submit a poem you were planning to send out to such magazines.)

Please, on the blog entry containing your Christian poem, write a sentence or so about your faith, what Jesus is doing in your life, and such. Mentioning your denomination (or non-denomination) is a nice touch.

Add your name-plus-poem-name in the 'Name' slot in the Mr. Linky below: such as: Nissa Annakindt - saints. Add the URL of the post on your blog that contains the poem--- not your general blog address. After you have done this, write a comment, and read a few of the other entries. It would also be great if you would mention the contest on your blog.

When the contest ends (in 3 weeks?) three favorite poems of those submitted will be chosen by me (and perhaps one or two other judges if I can recruit them). Poems submitted by myself and the other judges will not be eligible to be favorites, but may be posted just for the heck of it.

And so, the Write a Christian Poem for Lent contest begins. Heaven help us!
Still need entries in the Write a Christian Poem for Lent contest.

William Blake: The Tyger

2012-02-17T16:05:00.000-08:00

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

William Blake (1757 – 1827)

William Blake's Tyger

4 Online Resources for Korean Sijo Poetry

2012-02-17T05:32:00.000-08:00

This blog is publishing a lot of sijo lately and so I thought I would share some sijo resources.

1. Sijo Poetry website A website by the Sejong Cultural Society, with pages on various sijo-topics. A good place to start looking.

2. 'Sijo' at Wikipedia, the Liberal Encyclopedia --- gives examples of classic sijo and also tells the history of English-language sijo.

3. Sijo at ahapoetry.com --- gives a great number of classic Korean sijo.

4. Sejong Cultural Society Sijo Competition for students below college level --- Gives examples and explanations about the sijo. Entry deadline for the contest is March 31st this year.

Song Sammun: A pine tree

2012-02-16T05:16:00.000-08:00

When you ask me what I'd wish to be
after my death,
I would answer, a pine tree, tall and hardy
on the highest peak of Mount Pongnae,
And to be green, alone, green
when snow fills heaven and earth.

Song Sammun (1418-1456)

A sijo written in Korean by one of the Six Martyred Ministers of Tanjong. I found it in The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry, edited by Peter H. Lee. It has a good section on sijo as well as on other Korean forms of poetry. The two poems of Song Sammun's I've blogged so far are rather death-y, but then he was executed and all (and perhaps he suspected his fate long enough before he died to write poems about it).

The sijo of this period were transmitted orally for some generations, and were sung/chanted. The book mentioned above tells a bit more about it.

New Poem: her suicide ride of 1963

2012-02-13T08:24:00.000-08:00

i thought it would
solve
all my problems
marilyn said &
*sighed*
took a drag on her smoke

it didn't
just added new ones
--like what?--

like falling falling
falling
down
into the dark/alone
hands/far above me
reaching down
kindly
i'm too far down
ten million miles
falling

no arms are that long
--what about His?--
oh yeah
said marilyn
& disappeared
upward

(c) Feb 2, 2012 Nissa Annakindt

A new poem. Not really sure how I feel about it yet. Will put it away to age and then see about revisions.

New Poem: saints

2012-02-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

saints are poets
because they can sing
when they are set on fire
and bricked up in cells
and shot through with arrows

saints still sing
when the world scoffs
and says 'those comical people!
they do not pass their children
through fire to Molech
like sensible scientific people do'

since i am on fire anyway
i may as well sing
and be a saint
amen

(c) 2012 Nissa Annakindt

I wrote this poem yesterday. The reference to passing children through fire to Molech is well-known to anyone who knows the Bible. The Molech cult, warned against often in the Old Testament, practiced the human sacrifice of infants by burning them alive before the Molech-idol. Sensible scientific moderns use different methods--- abortions and abortifacient contraceptives--- to achieve the same effect.

The last few lines were an afterthought but now I believe they are the heart of the poem. We humans go through trials and suffering even when we are NOT trying to live like saints. And so, we might as well.... you know.

Korean sijo poem: the house deep in the woods

2012-02-12T05:08:00.000-08:00

My house is so deep in the woods
That the cuckoo sings in the daytime.
Out here beyond valleys and peaks,
The brushwood gate is pulled shut.

Even the dog, who has forgotten how to bark,
Naps while flowers fall.

Anonymous

This is the poem that inspired my own sijo: the dog that forgets barking. The theme of pleasant rural isolation is a common one of the old Korean sijo poets.

Opium Cactus: jump-rope-song of the apocalypse (with audio)

2012-02-11T17:32:00.000-08:00

fallout's fallingout
allaround myhouse
nuclear missals
commonerthan thistles
radiation ratkiller
firestormthe stormcellar
radiation sickness
reallymakes adiff'rence
bodiesinthe driveway
peopledying allday
fallout's fallingout
allaround myhouse

(c) 1989-2010 Nissa Annakindt

Somehow I find global thermonuclear war highly inspirational, in a poetic sense, anyway. It wasn't meant as one of those dreary horrors-of-nukewar message poems. Just a fun little children's chant from hell.

Song Sammun: At the Execution Ground

2012-02-09T03:35:00.000-08:00

The beating drum presses for my life;
I turn and see the sun is about to set.
No inn is provided by the underworld;
At whose house will I sleep tonight?

Song Sammun (1418-1456)
This poem by a Korean poet was written in Chinese--- at the time government officials had to pass examinations in Chinese and therefore Koreans would write poetry in Chinese.

The poet was a Korean government minister who tried to restore a young monarch who had been forced to abdicate. He was executed because of this. So you can see why he might want to write a poem about an execution ground.

This poem is in the book 'The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Korean Poetry', edited by Peter H. Lee.

How to do an audio blog

2012-02-07T08:14:00.000-08:00

I never knew how to make audio files (mp3s) on my computer until I discovered a project to read the Esperanto language translation of the Holy Bible aloud at Ken Caviness's page.

Here are the steps to get started with audio blogging:

1. Get a good headphone with microphone that plugs into your computer. Mine cost less than $30 at Walmart. I had to ask a girl that worked there to help me find it.

2. Get the free software Audacity which is an audio editor and recorder from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

3. Play around with recording and playing back. It took me a while how to get it to 'read' the audio from my new microphone. Then I had to adjust it because it was recording my voice at very low volume, and when I raised the volume louder during playback, there was a hissing noise. But the adjustment was fairly easy.

4. Get an account at Ipernity. Ipernity provides a place to put up your audio files and pictures and such. When you upload a file, you will be able to get an embed code. You can put the embed code on your blog post, and the little audio player will appear on your post.

And that is how I audio blog. I think audio blogging is a natural for poets and writers. It's a way to give a reading to your fans/future fans from all over the world, not just in one location.

Preparing your audio blog

1. Write down the material you will be reading. (Print it out.)

2. Make sure the material is not too long. Something you can read in less than 5 minutes is great. Remember that people may not have long enough attention spans to listen to longer audio blogs. One poem (of less than epic length) or a short section from your novel is about right.

3. Practice reading it out loud several times. If there are phrases you always trip up on, repeat them over and over until you can get them smooth.

4. Record a practice run and play it back. Note any problems with the readings--- long pauses, putting the emphasis on the wrong word in a difficult phrase, speaking too fast--- and correct it in your next try.

5. After you have recorded, save it in an mp3 format. That means pressing 'export' and not 'save' in Audacity.

6. Upload your mp3 file to your ipernity page. Make sure the privacy setting is set to 'public'. Then you can use the embed code on your blog.

Have these instructions helped you? If so, be sure to put up a link to your first audioblog in this post's comment section!

A Prize Winning Sijo Poem by a High School Student

2012-02-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

"A single sole was lost today, deep in the river Yalu,
Thrashing, twisting, torn to shreds with color quickly fading.
On the bridge a small boy laughs, holding out his empty shoe."

(c)2009 Creasy Clauser (Crawfordsville, IN)
12th grade, Southmont High School
2009 Sijo Writing Competition winning entry

I found this on the web site Sijo Poetry. I like the image of the 'lost sole' very much. A very excellent example of a sijo which compares well to the classic Korean sijo in translation.

Audioblog: Buy! Bi! Buy! from Where the Opium Cactus Grows

2012-02-05T18:35:00.000-08:00

Buy! Bi! Bye!

at a dealer near you
the only leading brand
recommended by more doctors and
handpicked by juan valdez
for confidence that lasts
and whiter washes
anything else is just a
no sugar added
all natural
wimpywimpywimpy
brand x

(c) 2010 Nissa Annakindt
permission to share this poem, including audio, is granted provided a link-back to this blog is provided.

What do you think of the audioblog? I had to read the poem over many times for practice before I recorded it. I'm thinking of doing more audioblogged versions of poems from 'Where the Opium Cactus Grows'.

If you are a poet or writer, what do you think of doing an audioblog of a bit of your work? It's actually quite simple to record sound on your home computer, I may explain how in a future blog post. It's kind of like giving a reading to an audience only in cyberspace instead of the real world. It's also a kindness to folks that have visual impairments or dyslexia.

I think audioblogging might be a way for author bloggers and poet bloggers to stand out a little in the blog world. What do you think?

Opium Cactus: On the Creation of Found Poetry

2012-02-04T10:25:00.000-08:00

a sijo

In a dismal pile are found
stray words from many sources

thrown in a blender, tortured with forks
and aged six years in wooden casks

then inscribed by persian slave
calligraphers upon the floor

(c) Nissa Annakindt

Another day, another sijo--- this one from my book 'Opium Cactus'. The topic is a totally different form of poetry--- found poetry. In the simplest form of found poetry you simply take someone else's prose words and arrange them like a poem. There was one alleged poet who came out with a whole book of 'found poems' from the words of a government spokesman he didn't care for. This type of found poetry raises for me an issue--- is it really my poem if Bill Clinton composed the words and I just arranged them to spite him?

But there is also found poetry where the poet has the work of not only finding the words/phrases but putting them together from different sources, working with them to express the poet's vision. I find this kind of found poetry very satisfying. I also use the method of finding the words/phrases as if for a found poem, but using about an equal amount of words of my own to create the final effect.

As to why I used one poem form--- the sijo--- to describe another--- the found poem--- I'm just weird that way.

Poetic prompt: write a poem about a poetic form that you like--- or one that you hate.

A sijo by Hwang Jini, Korean poet and gisaeng (geisha)

2012-02-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

You, blue stream, flowing around mountains,
Do not be proud of moving so swiftly.
Once you get to the open sea,
You will never be able to return.

Why not stop for a moment while the bright moon
Gleams down on the world?

From the book 'Sunset in a Spider Web: Sijo Poetry of Ancient Korea' adapted by Virginia Olsen Baron.

Hwang Jini, also called Hwang Jin and Hwang Chini, was a poetess of ancient Korea. She was a gisaeng (kisaeng) by profession. A gisaeng was an entertainer and prostitute. Hwang Jini's gisaeng name was Myeongwol. She was the subject of a 16 part drama on the Korean television channel KBS. I watched the drama (with English subtitles) on the KBS America channel on Dish Network. If you are interested in watching the drama, you might be able to get it on Ebay--- make sure it specifically says it has English subtitles and that it is either all-region or playable on DVD players in your region (the USA is region 1).

New Poem: sijo:the dog who forgets barking

2012-02-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

what is wrong with that dog
who has forgotten how 2 bark?
in the deep woods there are
no visitors to warn

but surely the dog could bark
at rabbits or birds or moonlight

(c) 2012 Nissa Annakindt

NOTES: the sijo is a Korean form of poetry which has between 41-49 syllables. Traditionally this is divided into 3 lines, but in English each of those three is usually divided in 2. The first line usually states the theme, the second elaborates, and the third is a twist on the theme or a resolution.

I'm rather pleased with this poem--- one of two I wrote yesterday--- but as always I will put it into a file to 'age'. When I am more distant from the composition I can decide if it needs rewriting before publication.

Poetic Prompt: google 'sijo' in order to find and read at least 2 traditional sijo and 2 modern ones. Then try to write one yourself. Hint: don't count syllables while composing, just compose the lines and if you must, you can add/subtract syllables to conform to the form (though make sure the changes are improvements!)

Opium Cactus: catpoem/claudius (with audio)

2012-02-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

To my cat Claudius
there is a military force
at the nervous crane.

(c) Nissa Annakindt

NOTE: Poem from my book Opium Cactus.
If modern poetry is drawing words out of a hat, this is the high-tech equivalent--- a Babelfish poem. Babelfish poems are created by writing an ordinary sentence, translating it into an exotic language (Asian languages work best) using Babelfish. You then cut-and-paste the Babelfish translation back into the Babelfish window, and re-translate it back to English. Or some other language. You use the resulting word-salad as source material for your poem.

'catpoem/claudius' came to be when I wrote the sentence 'My cat Claudius has a neurological disorder' and translated into-out of Korean using Babelfish. The translation it spat back is exactly what you see here, I only had to arrange it into haiku form.

My cat Claudius, by the way, was the best cat ever invented. He had a neurological condition and walked crooked and stumbled a lot. The vet advised me to let him live in the house. When the house cat Cheney had kittens, Claudius managed to stumble into the kitten basket and became the official kitten-sitter. One of the kittens, Germanicus, became his best buddy for life. Both Claudius and Germanicus died, I believe from drinking some antifreeze from a bottle that was cracked.

Claudius as a kitten

Robert Burns: To a Mouse

2012-01-31T07:25:00.001-08:00

I just love poems about vermin, don't you? Ticks, lice, mice, plague rats, those little bathroom lizards they have in California, it's all good! (And note how I'm finally sharing a poem that isn't written by me!!!)

Wee, sleekit, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request:
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast,
An' weary Winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald.
To thole the Winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

Poetic prompt: write a poem about your favorite form of vermin. Zombies count.

Opium Cactus: running about on hens' legs

2012-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

for Baba Yaga

trouble, trouble vicks and tea
break the corners of tv
hide the harp and bend the lid
do you know what marko did?
too late
too late
anticipate
simmer pansies vixen tee
build the carpet on the sea

(c) Nissa Annakindt

from my poetry book Where the Opium Cactus Grows. NOTE: Baba Yaga is a legendary Russian witch whose house has hens' legs and can run around on them. This is a relatively recent poem.

Modern Poetry: Picking words out of a hat

2012-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

Today on the program 'Bookmarks' on the Catholic television channel EWTN, they lamented loss of things like rhyme and meter in today's poetry, which they compared to picking words out of a hat.

That is so exactly right! To be a modern poet you need to pick words out of a hat. To be a GOOD modern poet, you need to have the right words. And the right hat.

Opium Cactus: ideas for my suicide note

2011-12-23T08:06:00.000-08:00

1. remember to blame my mother

CATS--- leave food for

2. I am too desperately
sensitive
for this dreary mundain world
(mundane?)
(mondaine?)
(eff it--- just put dreary world)

life insurance
(get some)

(c) Nissa Annakindt

Poem #6 in Where the Opium Cactus Grows. This poem does not advocate or recommend the dreary mundane act of suicide, which can screw up your whole week. And Mom, this is a FICTIONAL poem by a FICTIONAL character, it's nothing about you. And if you're mad about the 'eff', hey it was worse in the first draft.

I gave my shrink a copy of my book at the start of our session yesterday, and I'm proud to report that I'm NOT blogging this from a rubber room. Most of the session was spent with the shrink reading my poems and asking about them. This is one of the poems he spent time on--- NOT that he thought I was suicidal. He actually got this poem--- perhaps in part because of the note printed at the bottom of the poem (reproduced above). The poem isn't really about suicide or even the writing of suicide notes. The character in the poem has only got to the point of jotting down a few ideas for a suicide note--- she's only contemplating suicide-note writing at this point. And if you haven't got the point about the 'life insurance/get some' thing, that's the huge hint I've thrown out that there is an optimistic ending to this poem. It's not about literal life insurance. More that the character has found a way to deal with her troubles--- preparing for a self-dramatizing suicide note that won't get written--- and therefore is not going to be in a situation where extreme acts such as suicide are even a remote possibility.

This is one of the older poems that I've written, during a rather upbeat phase of my writing life when I was writing poems every day, and quite a few of them came out of my head finished--- even after over a decade of living with the poems, I often didn't need to change a single word. (Still, I always put freshly-written poems in a file for a few months for later rewriting, if needed. Nowadays, they tend to need it.)

Opium Cactus: soap opera hero

2011-12-19T08:22:00.000-08:00

he gets shot a lot
and
sometimes
he dies

but not
for good

(c) Nissa Annakindt
Robert Scorpio

This rather lite poem was written about the character of Robert Scorpio on General Hospital. It's poem #5 in Where the Opium Cactus Grows.

Opium Cactus: paper dragons (with audio)

2011-12-19T08:01:00.000-08:00

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

Poem #4. The word 'Tintenfaß'--- German for inkwell--- is particularly fine, adding that needed note of strangeness. From Where the Opium Cactus Grows

Shared in Poetry Pantry #86

Origami instructions for making your own paper dragon:
Origami Dragon Folding Instructions

And here is an image of the origami dragon from that web site:

New Poem: Wings

2011-08-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

and then there is the
social problem of those
who have selfishly failed
to grow wings

and then they ask
for doors
and stairs
on the ground floor
which they do not in fact need.

all that they need
is
to grow wings.

(c) 2011 Nissa Annakindt

Aug. 17, 2011

I'm not sure what I think about this. It's kind of weak really, I'm going to let it age a few months and then tweak the words a little.

UPDATE: I like it better now Feb 4, 2012, than I did when I first wrote it. I don't think it is weak anymore, and don't think it needs much in the way of re-writing.

Opium Cactus: surly petunia

2011-08-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

lauralee lauralee lauralee
down! down! down! she goes
into a vat of melted
lawn furniture

anarchists blowing up
condom (mints)
on their heads//in bars//behind bars//monkey bars

((beware of underwear insurance salesmen
sneered the lamp knowingly))

fuzzy pink housewives in fuzzy pink robes
on strike

deathterrorkillviolencerape/rape/rape
cucumber
cucumber
cucumber

(c) Nissa Annakindt

Poem #3, a symphony composed of illogic rather than musical notes. One of my earliest poems but still satisfying. From Where the Opium Cactus Grows

Opium Cactus: malison d'etre

2011-08-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

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 hippopotamuses

(c) 1990 Nissa Annakindt

A character sketch poem. This one and the first poem seem to be linked. The poem seems to have been somewhat inspired by the character of Barnabas Collins, played by Jonathan Frid, from the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which ran for five years in the early sixties.

'Malison' means 'curse' and the rest of the title is from the phrase 'raison d'etre' which means 'reasons for existence'. So the title means something like 'the curse of existence', to the extent it means anything.

From Where the Opium Cactus Grows

Actor Jonathan Frid

Opium Cactus: jungle spiders

2011-08-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

she was raised among the cannibals
in borneo or was it new guinea--- no matter
her father was an avid anthropologist
right up to the day he was eaten
the cannibals don't kill you
of course but if you die
you shan't go to waste
he always joked &
he was quite right actually

she was raised among the cannibals
and the chief's chief wife doted on her
taught her all her best recipes
and the secrets of ruling a cannibal husband
she learned her lessons well
all her husbands said so

she was raised among the cannibals
and that could explain
quite a lot

(c) Nissa Annakindt

Poem #1, a character sketch poem. From Where the Opium Cactus Grows This is the first post in my project of blogging my poetry book, Where the Opium Cactus Grows. I am hoping over time to provide all of the poems in the collection, for the sake of those who are too poor to buy the book.

The poem was inspired by soap opera character Tracy Quartermaine, played by Jane Elliot. I've had a crush on Tracy since 1978, but since she is a fictional character, and in addition is now married to a mob guy, she probably doesn't like me back.

hier lebt niemand

2011-08-07T12:04:00.000-07:00

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